Evolve champ, Mae Young Classic veteran headline new WWE signing class

Not a ton of surprises in the new Performance Center class WWE announced a short time ago.

Partially that’s because the free agent talent pool isn’t incredibly deep given the demand now that All Elite’s arrived on the scene and required everyone to start locking up their talent long-term. But it’s also because one of the two most well known names was at TakeOver: Toronto last Saturday and the other’s been all over the rumor mill since last night (and has a bunch of WWE Network appearances on her resume already).

Here’s the class:

• Austin White (aka Austin Theory) - 22 years old, current Evolve & WWN champ
• Santana Garrett - independent wrestler who’s worked in the 2017 Mae Young Classic & NXT
• Tehuti Miles - Division I college football player, military veteran, indie wrestler
• EJ Nduka - former football player & bodybuilder with combat sports training
• Aleksandar Jaksic - 24 year old German semi-pro basketball player who’s trained with Santino Marella & Alex Wright
• Briana Brandy - an “aspiring hip-hop artist” and Crossfit & ninjutsu(!)
• Rita Reis - 24 year old Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and judo champion
• Marcos Gomes - Brazilian with lots of combats sports experience
• Catalina Garcia (aka Jessy “La Diva del Ring”) - a Chilean pro wrestler

If you’ve seen Theory in the Gabe Sapolosky-booked NXT feeder promotions, or watched his promo from Toronto, you see the attraction. Our Evolve expert Claire Elizabeth sees a lot of talent in the young man, but says he was “pushed way too hard way too fast, and for too long, too.” We’ll see what Triple H & team can do with his potential.

Personally, I like Garrett quite a bit, but she has plenty of detractors online. She’s not Io Shirai in the ring (or even close), but she’s a solid hand with a good look, and WWE needs those at all levels in their women’s ranks. If they can get her an interesting character, she might surprise some folks.

Don’t really know much more about the others than what you read above.

You can read WWE.com’s write-ups for each member of the class in the official announcement here. And let us know what you think of the latest group in the comments below, Cagesiders!