The rise of Evolution as a faction allowed four future Hall of Fame wrestlers to work together in a meaningful way. Triple H was the top heel and needed something new for his character when Ric Flair became his manager and mentor. The group would round out when Randy Orton and Batista joined as rising young stars learning from the best.
RELATED: The History Of Evolution, Explained
Evolution wisely represented the past, present, and future greatness of wrestling. The concept was brilliant, but the execution was what put them over the top. Not everything about successful acts end up providing the strongest logic in the long run. Find out what was responsible for some confusion with the all-time great faction. The following things made no sense about the Evolution faction.
10 Recruiting Kane To Join Them
One of the biggest accomplishments from the Evolution faction came when Triple H was responsible for Kane having to unmask for the first time. Evolution recruited Kane to the group for weeks before having the big singles match against Triple H on Raw.
RELATED: 5 Wrestlers Evolution Put Over (& 5 They Buried)
Even though he never joined, there was no obvious place for Kane since the faction represented the past, present, and future. Evolution just wanted Kane involved as muscle for them, but it made no sense in the overall storyline of their group’s premise. Triple H was forced to face Kane and defeated him with the mask on the line.
9 One Night Reunion Without Orton
There was a forgotten Evolution reunion in 2007 when Triple H, Batista, and Ric Flair all teamed up during an episode of Raw. The history of Evolution was mentioned when Randy Orton interrupted to show contempt for them all.
All three faces joked about not liking Orton and excluding him from the fun moments. Orton teamed with Edge and Umaga to face the one-night team of the remaining Evolution members. The segment was fun, but the wasted use of Evolution’s history being used for a throwaway match made no sense.
8 Ric Flair & Batista's Tag Team Run
WWE wanted to move forward with the idea of Evolution holding all the gold as the only reason for Batista and Ric Flair teaming together. Triple H was the dominant World Champion and Randy Orton was thriving as the Intercontinental Champion.
Flair and Batista had little in common regarding their wrestling styles, but they were booked to win the World Tag Team Championship. WWE benefited from having Evolution look strong, but a makeshift tag team with little in-ring chemistry just hurt the tag division.
7 Feuding With Eugene
Eugene became a thorn in the side of Evolution when he gained some power as the nephew of Eric Bischoff. Triple H talked the group into superfan Eugene hanging out with them as a way to manipulate his way into using that power.
The eventual payoff was Eugene making a mistake to cost Triple H the World Championship and getting betrayed by Evolution. Mostly everything involving Eugene is bad looking back, but Evolution feuding with a comedic mid-carder was a bad look.
6 Batista Believing Triple H's Lies At First
WWE did a great job having Batista select to challenge Triple H for the World Championship at WrestleMania 21 as the end of Evolution. However, the storyline dragged out with Triple H obviously lying to trick Batista into challenging JBL on SmackDown instead.
Batista was following Triple H’s line of thinking until hearing Triple H and Ric Flair bad mouth him backstage. The assumption was that Batista would have gone to SmackDown if he didn’t overhear it. Batista’s character was too smart to buy into such lies especially with how things turned out.
5 Ric Flair Siding With The Shield Against Them
Evolution reunited in 2014 when Triple H, Batista, and Randy Orton all were attacked by The Shield. WWE fans were all in on Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, and Dean Ambrose when the trio dominated WWE going from heels to faces due to fan support.
RELATED: Evolution: 10 Backstage Stories About The Faction That We Can't Believe
There was a strange segment with Ric Flair joining them, but he was not vouching for his closest allies. Flair warned them that he picked The Shield to get the better of them. WWE tried to keep Flair face during this time, but he would never have gone against Triple H and the others.
4 Triple H Not Getting Involved In The Orton Vs Foley Feud
The rivalry between Mick Foley and Randy Orton helped Orton become a top Superstar moving into the main event picture. Foley came out of retirement to work the program with Orton that culminated in a violent street fight.
One missed opportunity that could have added to the program was Triple H’s history with Foley. Triple H was the wrestler to retire Foley years earlier and was mentoring Orton around this time. There should have been some ties to Triple H’s involvement in helping Orton get the better of Foley.
3 Batista Leaving Group During Injury
There was a strange chapter of Batista’s career when he suffered an injury in early 2003. Batista was actually helping Triple H and Ric Flair before the group was official. Randy Orton joining was what sparked the name of Evolution.
Unfortunately for Batista, he was removed from the equation after suffering an injury. WWE filmed vignettes with Mark Jindrak when considering him as the fourth man, but Triple H wanted Batista when he was ready to return. Batista admitted in WWE’s series about the Ruthless Aggression Era that he was upset when WWE tried to erase his time with the group by almost replacing him with Jindrak.
2 WWE Reuniting Them On SmackDown
WWE booked a huge segment of Evolution reuniting for the 1000th episode of SmackDown. Many top legends were appearing on the show with Batista, Ric Flair, and Triple H making rare appearances, reuniting with full-timer Randy Orton.
The big moment of Evolution getting together again made no sense on SmackDown since the group had their entire run together on Raw. WWE just wanted a big spotlight to test out the fan interest in a Triple H vs Batista match when Batista made a joke at Triple H’s expense.
1 Randy Orton Losing His Title To Triple H So Fast
Randy Orton was the first member of the four Evolution stalwarts to leave when Triple H kicked him out. The World Championship win for Orton over Chris Benoit enraged a jealous Triple H who felt he should hold the top spot.
Orton feuding against the rest of Evolution was a great idea on paper, but it turned out to be a huge disaster. Triple H defeated Orton in their first major match to end his world title reign early. Orton was viewed as struggling without Evolution at his side despite being pushed as a top face.
NEXT: 5 Times Triple H Was The Best Member Of The Evolution (& 5 Times He Was The Worst)
