WWE Evolution was a women's professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event and WWE Network event, produced by WWE for their Raw, SmackDown, and NXT brands. It took place on October 28, 2018, at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, in Uniondale, New York. It was the first WWE pay-per-view to consist solely of women's matches.
Results:
Dark Match: NXT UK Women's Champion Rhea Ripley (c) def. Dakota Kai to retain
Since this match wasn't advertised for airing on the actual PPV, I'm guessing that WWE will show this on the Network exclusively at some point down the road once the NXT UK show catches up as they crowned Rhea Ripley as champion a while ago. The problem on the hold up was fishing for networks for this show before they settled on airing it on the WWE Network.
I have to tip my hat at Rhea Ripley heeling it up on her tweets and banter with Tegan Nox since her injury in the Mae Young Classic. That's how you keep kayfabe alive, folks.
Team Bestie (Trish Stratus & Lita) def. Alicia Fox & Mickie James w/ Alexa Bliss
The live crowd was eating this up as the opener as I felt like we were watching a match from 2006-2008ish with the four women involved. I thought some people had the nostalgia goggles on pretty heavy and fogged up as a lot of this match came off really sloppy at particular spots, yet the crowd continued to chant "YOU STILL GOT IT" during the duration of this match. I dunno about all that...Even more surprising was that Bliss came in to shove Lita off the top rope during one of her initial Moonsault attempts. I thought WWE doctors won't even clear you to do even that much when they say you're suffering from a possible concussion? That just came off really weird. Still, the right team won here as the first feel-good moment of the evening. I did enjoy the combination of moves from Lita and Trish that picked them up the win.
If Lita and Trish are planning on sticking around for that
Nia Jax wins 20-Woman Battle Royal for a Future Women's Championship Match
I can't speak for anyone else but from how the women here were given short entrances here and not really given much time to show the significance of the Legends and former women coming back to be a part of this match, I felt like I was watching the Miss WrestleMania Battle Royal from a few years ago that Santina Marella won as a complete joke to shit on the entire Divas division as a literal slap to the face at the time too.
The IIconics went out first and they were asking for it too after dragging on and on with their belittling of their competition. I swear those girls' voices sound like nails on a chalkboard. Molly Holly and Alundra Blayze went out not too long afterwards. We didn't even have time to even see a Molly Go Round (like at the Royal Rumble earlier this year) or a German Suplex from either. Talk about a damn waste...
Ivory joined Carmella for a 7 second dance break as how her and R-Truth have been doing on SmackDown! Live lately, only to get tossed out shortly afterwards. I will admit that all of the returning Legends and former Divas looked stunning here tonight, especially Torrie Wilson, Ivory, Michelle McCool, Molly Holly, Alundra Blayze, and Kelly Kelly.
Seeing McCool wreck some of the girls for a moment gave me deja vu to back when she had her own "Reign of Terror" on SmackDown! as the head of LayCool. It just tossed more salt into the open wound when the cameras panned back to Maryse watching at ringside with her husband, Miz Mizanin. If Maria Kanellis could have been in this thing for a few minutes then Maryse could've came in too for a hot minute too.
I want to know what is up with these teases for Tamina Snuka and Nia Jax squaring off in these battle royals/Rumble matches? It seemed like they were teasing a potential alliance but that came crumbling down the second it came down to the final moments of this bout. Speaking of alliances, I thought it was funny that the last fraction of Absolution (Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville) came crumbling down when Mandy eliminated her own "bestie". I hope they don't split them up as it's the only thing that those two have going right now. Besides the fact, remember if WWE does green light this whole Women's Tag Team titles thing, they are going to need a lot of tag teams for it.
I had Ember Moon pegged to win this match and boy did I almost get trolled with Zelina Vega sneaking in and tossing both Nia and Ember over the top rope towards the end. That moment resulted in the death and destruction both Tamina and Zelina as Nia military pressed that poor girl out of the ring and into an unsuspecting Tamina at the bottom of the entrance ramp. I would be bloody surprised if Tamina doesn't have a concussion from that as she literally caught Zelina with her face during that spot.
Ember tried to bring it to Nia, but ultimately it wasn't enough as Nia tossed her over the top rope to pick up the win. From how much praise Nia gets outside of WWE in the media, I shouldn't be surprised with this decision. At the same time, I have remotely NO interest in another Ronda vs Nia match.
Toni Storm def. Io Shirai in the Mae Young Classic Finals to become the 2019 Mae Young Classic Tournament winner, winning a future NXT UK Women's Championship Match
I saw people raving about this match left and right on social media live last night, but I thought it was OK. These two women are no strangers to facing each other, having faced each other back in the STARDOM promotion in less than a year or so. In that regard, I felt that what we saw here was underwhelming in comparison. It's that same feeling of disappointment that I had when all of that hype and anticipation for AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura at WrestleMania was going to recreate their Wrestle Kingdom classic in a WWE ring, only to perform under WWE standards to lackluster results.
Don't get me wrong. I appreciate the effort here by both ladies, but I was just expecting a little more. At the same time, the finish on who was walking away as the winner was rather predictable too as Toni Storm was the only one who already had established entrance music and a custom Titantron made while Io Shirai was still using the generic stuff provided from the tournament. Not to forget that Toni Storm is already signed to NXT UK brand and this win is the most logical decision to put more eyes on that show.
Shayna Baszler def. Kairi Sane (c) to win the NXT Women's Championship for the second time
This match was good, but I didn't think it was as good as their previous outings. This is starting to become the female equivalent of the Gargano/Ciampa feud. NXT has to be careful here with Kairi and Shayna hogging the spotlight or crowds are going to start turning on them if they continue to beat a dead horse with this feud. It's time for someone else to get a shot.
I guessed it earlier that day that Jessamyn Duke and Marina Safir were going to debut and help Shayna regain the title. That being said, Kairi might not need much help as she was fighting off the Horsewomen on her own for the most part. I could easily see this leading into Shayna having her own female Undisputed Era from how this plays out going into the next TakeOver special. I just hope this doesn't lead into a female War Games match. No need to rush that now and save it for next year.
Natalya, Sasha Banks, and Bayley def. Riott Squad (Ruby Riott, Liv Morgan, and Sarah Logan)
I went out for gas and a fast food snack at this point, but was continuing to watch on my phone's WWE Network app. Say what you want, but this was Liv Morgan's coming out party. Boy, did that girl turn a lot of heads with her performance in this match. That was miles above and beyond from her lackluster performances on both NXT and the main roster.
At the end of the day, the right team won though as Nattie, Sasha, and Bayley picked up the win. Now can we give all of these excessive Sasha and Bayley vs. Riott Squad matches a break? I don't even watch RAW and SmackDown! regularly anymore and I'm sick of hearing about it when I peak at the results every week.
Last Woman Standing Match - SmackDown! Women's Champion Becky Lynch (c) def. Charlotte Flair to retain
Easily the best thing on this card all night. If anyone tell you otherwise, they need to get their head examined. I don't know if it's the best main roster match in WWE history in relation to women's wrestling, but it's definitely up there in some fashion. This was the most compelling feud/angle going into this show and the ladies definitely delivered in what seemed like the definitive finale for this feud. Becky Lynch beat Charlotte Flair clean - it's time for both women to move on to something else and keep them apart from each other for a while.
RAW Women's Champion Ronda Rousey (c) def. Nikki Bella (w/ Brie Bella) to retain
I don't even see why this was even the main event. I understand that WWE considers Ronda to be their golden goose to lay them the golden eggs to keep WWE's women's divisions up on the radar in mainstream media, but there was no way that this match was going to top the one before it. Plus whatever happened to allowing the match with the hottest build go last?
I honestly was rolling my eyes at the bulk of this. I won't complain about Ronda selling for the Bella Twins here as she sold for Alexa Bliss at Summerslam for what felt like an eternity before she won that match, so I wasn't going into this match expecting a complete squash. In all honesty, it should have been one with Ronda Rousey going over as the definitive de facto woman to beat if she beat Nikki Bella in the same manner and as quickly as how Brock Lesnar did to John Cena at Summerslam 2014. Just hit her with a few moves and go home.
I get it... WWE wanted to paint the narrative that Nikki Bella was fighting as one of the last remnants of the Divas Era against this wave of current generation, legit ass-kickers who have been taking WWE's women's divisions by storm as of late.
Closing Thoughts
As of this writing (1/2/18), WWE already announced on Monday Night RAW that Ronda Rousey's next opponent will be Becky Lynch in a non-title match for the upcoming Survivor Series PPV. I honestly don't know how I feel about that as I can't see anyone benefiting from that match outside of maybe Rousey. It seems like WWE is doing anything they can to get Becky Lynch to be seen as a heel in their "universe" when the fans have universally accepted her as their new fan favorite. I don't see why they have to fight against this. Just go with it and profit off of it. It was bad enough that they were piping in boos during the PPV during her entrance when that entire Nassau crowd were collectively behind her during her match at the PPV. They need another strong female figure to build storylines and feuds around, so why not go with someone else that isn't named Charlotte Flair for once? The last thing they need is another disaster like how they mishandled Bayley, Sasha Banks, and ultimately Asuka over the past year. Oh how the mighty have fallen. I could go on about those missteps, but that would justify an entire separate post to cover that mess properly.
The biggest question coming out of this event is whether or not WWE are going to continue taking their women seriously following this event. Otherwise, it's just going to look like an "apology payday" for the women while they continue with the "No Girls Allowed" Saudi Arabia show AKA Crown Jewel (or Sweet Saudi Money 2: Electric Boogaloo as how Solomonster refers to it on his podcast...) that got a chorus of boos during this event. WWE has fine crop of women - spanning generations of talent from past to present that showed up in numbers for this event. That's something to be proud of, no matter how you felt about the individual talents. The women of WWE came out and represented in force and it was a solid show. I honestly wouldn't go as far as people were saying on social media that this was the best WWE show all year, but I'll say it was worth the time and effort. Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair killed it in their match while everything else on this show ranged from OK to passable. I just hope that WWE considers this a one and done and don't feature the women as prominently as they did with this platform, despite the fact I was rolling my eyes at how hard they were patting themselves on the back about this event that I could've sworn I could hear Vince McMahon burping in gorilla.
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