WWE: Evolution and its impact on the women's revolution

The women of WWE changed the game one year ago this week with the inaugural Evolution pay-per-view, an event that played a pivotal role in the growth of the company’s women’s revolution and deserves a sequel.

In years past, an all women’s pay-per-view in WWE would have been a pipe dream, yet it finally came to fruition in the form of Evolution one year ago this week.

The historic happening was announced by Stephanie McMahon on the July 23, 2018 edition of Raw and was met with plenty of fanfare from fans and talent alike. Unfortunately, the company did very little to get viewers excited for the event in the months that followed and solely relied on its initial buzz to build anticipation.

It can be argued that Evolution was WWE’s way of making it up to fans for not featuring the women on their two Saudi Arabia shows in 2018 (including one days later). Regardless of the reason why Evolution was held, it ended up exceeding expectations and being their best pay-per-view all year.

Not only did the matches deliver, but the atmosphere was also electric all night long. It received similar production to an NXT TakeOver special, and even with a slightly smaller crowd than usual, everyone in the audience was rowdy for virtually everything on the card.

The commentary team of Michael Cole, Beth Phoenix and Renee Young didn’t feel nearly as forced or as scripted as they normally do on WWE’s main shows. Young has obviously since moved on to hosting WWE Backstage, but Phoenix has done exceptionally well in the announcer role on NXT this year.

In fact, it’s fascinating to look back at where everyone was at the time of Evolution and compare it to where they are today, in addition to analyzing the impact the entire event had on WWE’s burgeoning “Women’s Revolution.”

Evolution opened with a tag team affair pitting returning legends Trish Stratus and Lita against the dynamic duo of Mickie James and Alicia Fox. Alexa Bliss was originally supposed to be involved as well but was replaced by Fox when it was discovered that she wouldn’t be cleared to compete due to injury.

Truth be told, the bout had no right being as entertaining as it was. Although James and Fox largely meant nothing at that point, they worked wonderfully with Trish and Lita and gave them the perfect comeback match.

Better yet, the crowd went wild for Trish and Mickie rekindling their unforgettable feud after so many years and rejoiced when the WWE Hall of Famers scored the hard-fought victory. Trish went on to wrestle one final time against Charlotte Flair at SummerSlam in August while James and Fox disappeared from WWE programming soon after.

While the 20-woman Battle Royal was easily the weakest match on the show, it still had its fair share of fun moments. Alundra Blayze, Molly Holly, Ivory, Kelly Kelly, and Torrie Wilson all came out of retirement to take part and interact with today’s gifted crop of competitors.

Ultimately, it was Nia Jax who reigned supreme after eliminating Ember Moon. Following that up was the finals of the 2018 Mae Young Classic, which saw Toni Storm and Io Shirai battle it out for a future shot at a championship of their choosing.

While not everyone was familiar with who they were, that didn’t stop the two from going all out and contesting an excellent outing. Storm became only the second-ever NXT UK Women’s champion a few months later and Shirai cemented her spot as a top heel in NXT’s women’s division the subsequent summer.

Sasha Banks, Bayley, and Natalya colliding with The Riott Squad in six-woman tag team action didn’t appear to be anything special on paper. However, they brought a ton of intensity to the bout and kept the crowd engaged throughout.

The Riott Squad were split up in the 2019 Superstar Shake-Up, though Banks and Bayley remain a unit one year later on SmackDown (albeit as heels). It was this match that helped lay the groundwork for the women’s tag team division that came to be early on in 2019.

The ramifications of the NXT Women’s Championship clash between Kairi Sane and Shayna Baszler are also felt to this day. Thanks to the debuting duo of Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir, The Queen of Spades was able to regain the gold and kick off a record-breaking reign that has yet to reach its end.

Evolution’s top two matches were more important than any other that evening: Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair in a Last Woman Standing Match for the SmackDown Women’s Championship and Ronda Rousey vs. Nikki Bella for the Raw Women’s Championship. Each was entertaining in their own way, but there can be little doubt that Lynch vs. Flair stole the show.

In what was the blow-off to their fantastic feud that fall, the fellow Four Horsewomen battered each other with everything in sight. From chairs to ladders to kendo sticks to tables, nothing was off-limits with the violence making for an amazing spectacle.

As soon as it wrapped up, fans were already debating its place among the greatest women’s matches in the company’s history. The Man’s rise to superstardom since then has been well documented, specifically with her and Flair headlining WrestleMania 35 in April.

To top off the epic event, Nikki and Rousey proved their naysayers wrong by putting together a strong match. Brie Bella also played her role remarkably well at ringside and interfered only when necessary without serving as too much of a distraction.

Nikki may have scored slightly more offense than she should have, but other than that, you would have never known she was working hurt and was on the verge of retirement. It was a marvelous way for the Bellas to bow out, combined with the unforgettable visual of all the women of WWE’s past and present embracing each other as Evolution went off the air.

No pay-per-view WWE has produced since then, including WrestleMania 35, has come close to matching the emotion and energy Evolution had, making the lack of a second installment that much weirder.

Truth be told, an all women’s event shouldn’t be anything out of the ordinary, anyway. With women’s wrestling more popular than it’s ever been, shows such as Evolution should be commonplace on the pay-per-view schedule.

WWE: Evolution and its impact on the women’s revolution

By Graham GSM Matthews | Nov 2, 2019

The women of WWE changed the game one year ago this week with the inaugural Evolution pay-per-view, an event that played a pivotal role in the growth of the company’s women’s revolution and deserves a sequel.