WWE recently confirmed that Bayley, Sasha Banks, and Natalya would be teaming up to face The Riott Squad at their upcoming all women’s pay-per-view WWE Evolution, and that means that eight matches have been made official for the historical event. After looking up and down the WWE Evolution card, I came away with one major feeling: a lot of indifference. This should be a thrilling event filled with firsts, and instead there are only a few matches that I’m actually excited for.
Let’s work from the bottom up, and make our way through the WWE Evolution card. As far as the six-woman tag goes, it seems more like a match that would be on a random episode of RAW, not a marquee card. There has been next to no build for it, and it’s a shame that a veteran like Natalya, and two of the most talented women in the company in Bayley and Sasha Banks are relegated to a heatless event when they were at the forefront of the women’s revolution headlining events in NXT. Banks should honestly be headlining the card, not put in a meaningless match.
Some have heavily criticized the 20-woman battle royal, but that’s not exactly a match I have much of an issue with. WWE has always put on battle royals on what they deem major events to get more talent on the card, and I’m glad that so many faces from the past (such as Ivory and Alundra Blayze) will get to participate due to it.
WWE Evolution Card: Dream Match and Championships
The tag team match between Trish Stratus and Lita against Alexa Bliss and Mickie James should be fun, but the past couple weeks of build have actually made me less interested in seeing it. The promos have not been good, and switching the two solo matches for a tag has only dampened my enthusiasm. I feel like both storylines (one of two old foes going at it and a generational dream match) have both been muddied by combining them.
As far as the 2018 Mae Young Classic final goes, it’s nice to see someone as talented as Io Shirai get the spotlight against Toni Storm (another great talent). That said, I would have much preferred it if the winner of the MYC was challenging the NXT Women’s Champion on this card. I really don’t have much interest in seeing Kairi Sane vs. Shayna Baszler yet again, and having so much of the card being filled by NXT talent seems like a waste.
The lone match that I’m baffled by the inclusion of is the NXT UK Women’s Championship defense. Most fans of WWE don’t even know the belt exists right now, and even fewer are invested in seeing Rhea Ripley defend her title on the card. Ripley is very talented, but it’s not as if they built to a hot feud here. WWE hasn’t announced who she is facing officially, but it isn’t a particularly thrilling bout for 99% of the viewing audience.
WWE Evolution Card: The Main Matches
If there is one match that I’m truly excited for it’s Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair. I’m excited to see the two compete in the Last Woman Standing match, and I’m hoping that this will wind up being the final part of this feud (which has been entertaining every week, but I really want to see a heel Lynch against a babyface people will actually cheer for). The two should put on a fantastic match, and I’m thrilled they have such a high profile event to do it at.
As far as the main event goes, I understand financially why Ronday Rousey and Nikki Bella are headlining. The build has been pretty abysmal though, and I have no interest in it. It doesn’t help that I haven’t been able to get invested into Rousey’s WWE run at all so far this year. Maybe seeing her get brutally knocked out too many times made her “badass” aura disappear. It should be a fine match, as both can put together technically sound matches, but unless there’s a surprising angle during the match I can’t imagine caring all that much.
Overall, I just see a lot of misused talent. Asuka was the hottest women’s performer coming into WrestleMania this year and now she’s just another entrant in the battle royal. That is completely ridiculous and it shows how WWE has dropped the ball. With all due respect, there’s absolutely no reason that talent like Asuka and Sasha Banks shouldn’t be getting a singles match over Rhea Ripley.
