EVOLVE Reveals What Happened With Impact Pulling LAX From Matches With WWE NXT Team, Future Bookings
The latest edition of the WWN Live e-mail alerts included a statement on Impact Wrestling officials pulling The LAX's Santana & Ortiz from the upcoming EVOLVE events in December.
As we've noted, The LAX were set to work two EVOLVE events against WWE NXT Superstars Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins, The Street Profits, who also are the current EVOLVE Tag Team Champions.
LAX vs. AR Fox & Leon Ruff vs. The Street Profits in a Triple Threat for the titles was scheduled for the EVOLVE event on December 15 in Queens. LAX & Austin Theory vs. Ford, Dawkins and Darby Allin in a six-man match was scheduled for the next night in Long Island. Shortly after the match was announced a few days ago, EVOLVE's Gabe Sapolsky announced that Impact officials had pulled The LAX from both events.
EVOLVE announced today that they will no longer book Impact contracted talents because of this. They also stated that the two matches were booked "in order to avoid any political issues" and to give fans of both teams what they wanted, "while protecting all parties politically."
You can read the full statement from EVOLVE below:
"We are sorry to inform you that Impact Wrestling has pulled LAX off the upcoming EVOLVE dates. EVOLVE officials were contacted by LAX and informed that they were needed for something else that weekend. No other explanation was given. Impact Wrestling didn't contact EVOLVE officials and left it up to LAX. There is no heat on LAX as WWN understands the situation they were put in. EVOLVE officials had told LAX that the plan was to have matches with EVOLVE Tag Team Champions The Street Profits of Montez Ford & Angelo Dawkins that weekend. EVOLVE was informed that LAX would not be able to lose in those matches. In order to avoid any political issues, EVOLVE made one night a triple threat match and the other night a six man tag. This would give the fans the LAX vs. Street Profits matches they wanted, while protecting all parties politically. Unfortunately, Impact Wrestling waited until the matches were announced and then pulled the talent the next day. This all could have easily been avoided by not allowing LAX to take the dates in the first place. EVOLVE will no longer consider booking Impact Wrestling contracted talent moving forward. EVOLVE officials are currently working on a replacement and will have news early next week. We apologize for the lineup change, but assure you that EVOLVE will produce something special on for EVOLVE 117 December 15th in Queens, NY and EVOLVE 118 on December 16th in Deer Park, NY. Thank you for your support."
For those who missed it, Santana took to Twitter yesterday and issued the following comments on being pulled from the shows by Impact:
In a perfect world.
It would've definitely been cool, especially for the fans. But wrestling has proven to us once again that there's still much more work that needs to be done, in order for all of us us to truly enjoy the endless possibilities. https://t.co/3YQUUfSzT0
— Santana?????? (@SantanaLAX) November 29, 2018