So about last night... WWE Evolution PPV
Last night was the first ALL-WOMEN’S PPV from Uniondale, New York City and featured 3 championship matches, a tournament final and a 20-woman Battle Royale!
Let’s break it down segment by segment and see what I thought about it.
It should be said, anything past this line is spoilers!
OPENING & TAG TEAM MATCH
First things we noticed was that there was a different stage. Yes, this location is smaller than normal stadiums that RAW, SmackDown and other shows are held, but it was nice seeing a different set for once.
The night opened up with rock song being played by Lzzy Hale and Nita Strauss, which you don’t see happening these days. The song was pretty good and got the hot New York crowd going.
First bout of the night was Trish Stratus & Lita vs Mickie James & Alicia Fox (w/ Alexa Bliss on the outside). I honestly think that Lita got the bigger pop from the crowd than Trish did, but each of them got a pop which was important! They all got their moves in and there was the classic heel work from Alexa that seen her break up a couple of pinfalls so she wasn’t completely worthless being there.
Match was supposed to be finished with a count of two but it would seem that Alicia Fox was late for her cue as the ref could have easily counted to 5 before Fox has interfered. Twist of Fate into a Litasault then Trish follows it up with a TrishKick for the 1,2,3.
Lita & Trish Stratus win!
BATTLE ROYALE
Next match was the 20-woman Battle Royale.
Participants in the match were:
- Noami
- Michelle McCool.
- Sonya Deville
- Alundra Blayze
- Carmella
- Zelina Vega
- Kelly Kelly
- Tamina
- Ember Moon
- Lana
- Maria Kanellis
- Mandy Rose
- Molly Holly
- Dana Brooke
- Nia Jax
- Ivory
- Asuka
- Torrie Wilson
- The IIConics
It was the new surrounding the old before a brawl erupted inside the squared circle with bodies flying out of the ring. It ended up with just Nia Jax and Ember Moon inside the ring. With a great back and forth, it was Nia Jax who picked up the victory and now has a title match down the line.
2018 MAE YOUNG CLASSIC TOURNAMENT
It’s time for the final in the 2018 Mae Young Classic Tournament between Io Shirai and Toni Storm.
This was a fantastic match from bell-to-bell with each woman getting their offence in and really showed what they can do.
There was a nice pinfall attempt by Storm with her Storm Zero move which tried to pin Shirai but she kicked out at the last second before being greeted with a 619 from Io Shirai. The finish came when Shirai went for the moonsault off the top rope by Storm got her legs up and into the Storm Zero for the victory. She was awarded with the Mae Young Classic Tournament trophy (Presented by Triple H) and a bunch of flowers (Presented by Stephanie McMahon)
Fantastic match. One to watch!
6-WOMAN TAG MATCH:
It’s the 6-woman tag match, Sasha Banks, Bayley & Natalya vs The Riott Squad.
The Squad were looking hot going into this feud against the former women’s champions. While there was some back and forths, I did notice a lot of timing issues in this match (especially from the Riott Squad) where there were either in the incorrect location or too late for their spot.
The finish came when Bayley hit a elbow drop followed by Sasha Banks’ frog splash from the top rope. Banks, Bayley & Natalya win!
And it’s the first of 3 Championship matches.
NXT WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH
Kairi Sane (C) vs Shayna Baszler for the NXT Women’s Championship!
This was a really exciting match as we knew that we going to get some NXT treatment at WWE Evolution. A fantastic match from bell to bell. Each woman got their offensive moves in and at one point, you could say that Kairi was going to retain and that Shayna looked a bit ‘weak’, but we were swerved when Shayna locked in the headlock and Kairi faded out and in the end Shayna Baszler is the new NXT Women’s Champion!
SMACKDOWN WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH
Which should have been the main event of the night, Becky Lynch (C) vs Charlotte Flair in the first ever Last Woman Standing match for the SmackDown Women’s Championship.
This. Was. Epic. Becky made sure to hit Charlotte with the kendo sticks and the chair as much as she could in this match. The Leg drop through the annoucne table was a thing of beauty. In the words of Jim Ross, it was a slobberknocker and I could have watched these two fight all night. Finish came when Charlotte layed Becky out on a table and was ready to do a moonsault to her on the table but she ended up getting powerbombed through said table by Becky and the ref counted to 10.
Becky Lynch retains the SmackDown Women’s Championship!
Becky is still a great heel champion and I would love to see her defend that title against a new opponent after this event…Perhaps, Asuka would be up for that challenge.
RAW WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH
And the main event is Ronda Rousey vs Nikki Bella for the RAW Women’s Championship.
I was deflated at this point in the card as I was not looking forward to this match what so ever. Yes, Nikki performed well inside the ring and got her offence in but it clearly wasn’t enough and I knew that putting the title on Nikki Bella would kill Ronda’s character, so it was good that it didn’t change hands.
The finish of this match was the classic arm-bar to Bella for the submission and there is nothing more to say about this match. Yeah, Nikki got the Rack Attack 2.0 on Ronda but she followed it up with a harder hitting move every time.
Ronda Rousey retains the RAW Women’s Championship.
And that was it from the first ever All-Women’s PPV from WWE. It was a exciting night and would love to see more shows like this in the future!
What did you think about it? Let us know in the comments below!