WWE Evolution 2 takes place tonight (Sun., July 13) from State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia.
The event begins at 5 pm ET with the free Countdown show, which runs for two hours on YouTube, WWE.com, and various other social media outlets. That leads right on into the main card at 7 pm ET, which you can stream from a number of devices if you have a subscription to Peacock in the United States or Netflix internationally.
Rhea Ripley gets to do something she’s never done before in WWE
It seems that WWE is trying to fatigue wrestling fans with an oversaturation of content, and the build to tonight’s all-women’s Evolution 2 event suffered as a result. The rushed nature of this build is a real shame considering that WWE waited nearly seven long years to run this sequel to the first Evolution event from 2018.
One of the consequences of WWE’s haphazard approach is that the top two title matches on tonight’s show were put together with an angle where the champions simply handpicked their challengers. In the case of Women’s World Champion IYO SKY, she chose Rhea Ripley as her opponent. Ripley lucked out here considering she recently failed to win the women’s Money in the Bank contract as well as the Queen of the Ring tournament.
SKY is a fighting babyface champion who chose Rhea because she wants to test herself against the best. Many people would indeed say that Rhea is the top women’s star in WWE today. She’s already done just about everything there is to do in WWE. Her long list of accomplishments includes winning championship matches at WrestleMania, winning the Royal Rumble, main eventing a PLE in Australia, winning WarGames, and so forth. However, one thing she’s never done is beat IYO SKY. Ripley has the chance to cross that item off the list when she main events another WWE PLE tonight at Evolution 2.
Up to this point, IYO’s title reign hasn’t been a booking priority for WWE; she shockingly won the belt from Rhea over four months ago on Raw, but has only defended it twice since then, with one of those matches ending without a winner. Her last title defense was a triple threat that happened nearly three months ago at WrestleMania 41. It was the best match at that event, and Rhea came up short there too.
Can Rhea turn her luck around and finally beat IYO SKY now that they are going one-on-one again? Tune into Evolution 2 to find out.
The rest of the card
Here are the remaining six segments that are currently advertised for Evolution 2:
Tiffany Stratton (c) vs. Trish Stratus for the WWE women’s championship
Tiffany Stratton handpicked Hall of Famer Trish Stratus to challenge her tonight at Evolution 2. Tiffany and Trish are both babyfaces who get along just fine, and even teamed up together the last time we saw Trish wrestle back in March. Even so, Tiffany’s got jokes about watching Trish on VHS, leaning into this match being a battle of two different generations of WWE stars. It would be surprising if Trish pulls off the win.
Is this a one-off for Stratus, or will there be some kind of post-match angle that keeps her in the mix through SummerSlam and/or Clash in Paris in August?
Judgment Day (c) vs. Kabuki Warriors vs. Alexa Bliss & Charlotte Flair vs. Sol Ruca & Zaria for the WWE women’s tag team championship
Roxanne Perez is the newest member of The Judgment Day and is now also one half of the WWE women’s tag team champions after replacing the injured Liv Morgan. In order to prove she is worthy of being champion, GMs Nick Aldis and Adam Pearce put together this 4-way match with challengers from Raw, SmackDown, and NXT.
Asuka and Kairi Sane reunited as the Kabuki Warriors on Raw as part of that process, while Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss have become Allies of Convenience who are not friends on SmackDown. Then there’s Sol Ruca and Zaria from NXT, who actually lost their most recent tag match before they were added to this bout.
Jade Cargill vs. Naomi in a No Holds Barred match
Just like at WrestleMania 41, Cargill and Naomi have the best women’s story heading into Evolution. Naomi couldn’t let it go when Jade beat her at that event, and things have escalated to the point where it can only be settled with No Holds Barred. Naomi has been carrying around dangerous weapons and other disturbing items inside her Money in the Bank briefcase, so it will be interesting to see what she pulls out of there during this bout now that anything is allowed.
Cargill is the Queen of the Ring and is looking to tie up this loose end with Naomi before challenging for the WWE women’s championship at SummerSlam. The extra wrinkle here is that Bianca Belair was just added as the special guest referee. That doesn’t bode well for Naomi after their friendship fell apart during the course of this feud.
Becky Lynch (c) vs. Lyra Valkyria vs. Bayley for the women’s Intercontinental championship
Bayley missed out on WrestleMania 41 thanks to an attack by Lynch, and she recently returned looking for revenge. Bayley seemingly had Becky beat in a title match on Raw last month, but former champ Valkyria couldn’t help herself and ruined the ending by attacking Lynch. Bayley and Lyra are now brawling over who gets to beat The Man, and they’ll both have the chance to do so tonight at Evolution.
Evolution Battle Royal
Just like the first Evolution, this event features a Battle Royal to get everyone else on the card. The winner earns a title match at Clash in Paris at the end of August. This is where Nikki Bella landed on the card after her program with Liv Morgan was canceled due to Liv’s injury.
The other 19 women who were featured in the graphic for this Battle Royal include Maxxine Dupri, Izzi Dame, Alba Fyre, Jaida Parker, Ivy Nile, B-FAB, Kelani Jordan, Zelina Vega, Michin, Candice LeRae, Piper Niven, Stephanie Vaquer, Lola Vice, Chelsea Green, Lash Legend, Natalya, Tatum Paxley, Nia Jax, and Giulia.
Jacy Jayne (c) vs. Jordynne Grace for the NXT women’s championship
Jayne took out Stephanie Vaquer to win the belt and has the numbers advantage of Fatal Influence on her side. Grace earned this title match by winning the Evolution Eliminator Tournament. Blake Monroe helped Grace defeat Fatal Influence in a tag match yesterday at The Great American Bash. Can Grace trust Monroe to have her back tonight at Evolution?
Summary
WWE rushed the build to Evolution 2, in part because they are flooding the zone with too many shows. Liv Morgan’s injury also threw a wrench in WWE’s original plans for this event. Even so, this is a special night for every woman in WWE, and you know they are going to work their asses off to put on a great show. I’m sure WWE will also have some surprises in store for Evolution 2 that will add to the night’s excitement.
What will you be looking for at Evolution 2?
Source link
