Anthony Greene Talks WWE Purchasing EVOLVE, What It Means For Indie Wrestling

“Retro AG” is the newest WWE signing, and Fightful had a chance to speak with him ahead of the announcement.

Anthony Greene has made his presence felt in EVOLVE over the course of 2019 and 2020, but with WWE purchasing the company, he’ll be heading that way as well. He’s still not sure what the future holds for the EVOLVE brand, though.

“The biggest thing coming out of this COVID is that I decided I wanted to get in the best possible shape I can. ‘Cause I don’t know what my next opportunity’s going to be. Whether it’s just a big indy show, whether EVOLVE comes back under like a WWE brand, or whatever the case may be. I truly don’t know. What I do think is cool, though is, I’m guessing, there’s rumors that WWE is going to add an independent wrestling tier. You’re gonna see the ICWs, the Progress, WXWs, and you’re going to see EVOLVE on the WWE Network,” Greene told Fightful. “So, I was there for the good part of a year. If anything you’re going to see a lot of Anthony Greene footage on there. Which I think is pretty cool looking back ‘cause, as of right now, you get one thing of me and it’s from the EVOLVE special from July of last year. Which, I was the first ever indie match to ever stream live on the WWE Network, which is a pretty rad accomplishment. No one else has that under their belt except me.”

At the beginning of 2019, All Elite Wrestling came along and took dozens of independent wrestlers off the scene. This led to the likes of IMPACT and ROH needing to replenish as well. This led to Anthony Greene, and many others getting more opportunities, and he’s all for it.

“I think that’s great for the industry overall. ‘Cause if it’s me, if it’s not me, that’s just gonna be another spot opening up if they grab a guy like [AR] Fox or if they end up grabbing a guy like Eddie Kingston. Those are some guys that are really high up on the independent tier in the food chain. So, if they’re gone, that gives me a spot. Or if this person’s gone, everyone’s just going to move up in the world. It’s always been a revolving door in professional wrestling where one guy gets grabbed by the claw machine like in Toy Story, when they go up and beyond, there’s going to be another toy that gets thrown into the fold,” Greene said.

The EVOLVE sale will lead to many wrestlers making their way into WWE, with Leon Ruff and Greene being two of the first revealed. Still, he isn’t quite sure what the future may hold.

“For me, I don’t know. I see Leon Ruff and I think there’s a lot of reasons why he was hired. Whether it’s hard work, location, he’s nailed every single performance he’s done there, he’s made every single guy in there look good. Even if it’s a matter of EVOLVE guys getting flown down to the Performance Center to do enhancement matches like him just to get a look. I think it’s only good for us to get that kind of exposure now. So, if nothing comes of it, and we’re all just back on the independent wrestling scene, maybe another major company will be interested based on what they saw on there,”

You can check out our full interview with Anthony Greene above, follow him on Twitter, and check out his t-shirt store over at Pro Wrestling Tees!