Image: WWE
Apparently, no one proceeded with caution.
The main event of Sunday’s WWE Evolution was capped off with a surprise, at least to those in the arena. Naomi, who had lost to Jade Cargill earlier in the show, arrived at the end of an excellent main event between Rhea Ripley and IYO SKY. She quickly cashed in and pinned SKY to win the Women’s World title.
SKY and Ripley had an incredible main event, probably in the top three or four matches of the weekend including the ROH and AEW main events. They put on a clinic and the crowd, which was hot all night for everyone and everything, reacted big to all the nearfalls and big spots, including SKY leaping off a giant platform to the floor during what ended up being a very, very long referee bump.
On the one hand, I can understand people being upset about a match this good ending without a decisive finish. On the other hand, the crowd reacted big to the win and at the very least, something happened at the end of the show. I was expecting Ripley to go over here as I think she’s due for another run as World Champion, but Naomi winning pretty much ensures we’ll be getting a three-way match at SummerSlam. Which is fine, as if it’s anything near what I saw on Saturday it’ll be the highlight of that weekend.
Evolution was a fun show where nothing was bad and the opening and closing matches delivered. The crowd made the show better than it was on paper and it helped that everyone worked hard. Triple H in the post-show press conference seemed coy about making this a yearly event, but considering WWE is doing everything in its power to counterprogram AEW, something tells me a lot of shows will be greenlit, and that will almost certainly mean another Evolution.
The rest of the show:
- The triple threat for the Women’s Intercontinental title that opened Evolution was excellent, exactly how a three-way match should be. It had your typical three-person finish where Bayley had Lyra Valkyria pinned only for Lynch to swoop in at the last minute. That finish is used a little too much now, but this was fine. I still feel the feud between these three isn’t done yet and with two SummerSlam shows to book in a few weeks, we will likely see another variation of this match.
- Jacy Jayne kept the NXT Women’s Championship, pinning Jordynne Grace after Blake Monroe did the turn. I felt that Monroe wasn’t long as a face and would eventually lay out Grace, but I wasn’t expecting it on this show until Monroe agreed to be in Grace’s corner during a pre-show angle. I thought Grace was winning here as a title match between her and Monroe makes sense, but I guess they’re doing it without the title. Don’t feel anything about Jayne being the champion currently.
- The Women’s Tag Team title match was also helped by the crowd. I don’t know why but people desperately wanted to like Charlotte here and hyped up everything that she did, it was kind of amazing. She didn’t win, but hey, at least she got cheered. Raquel Rodriguez and Roxanne Perez retained the titles and will likely be champions for a while as they continue to build their relationship until the inevitable Liv Morgan return.
- Tiffany Stratton and Trish Stratus felt like a match rushed for time. This was good, but felt too short compared to other matches on the card. Stratus is still very good and looked better than Stratton here. The thing with Stratton is that she got really over as a heel in NXT, but once she turned face, or whatever this is, she just seems off and as champion isn’t really feeling like the standard bearer for her brand.
- Jade Cargill emerged victorious in the falls count anywhere match between herself and Naomi. Standard weapons match. Not sure why Bianca Belair was here as she really didn’t get involved at all. This was another match where Naomi was in control for most of the match, only for Cargill to win the win at the last minute. I guess they had to keep Naomi strong as she was going to end the show winning, but weird to book Cargill in that manner heading into a big match at SummerSlam.
- Stephanie Vaquer is going to Paris, last eliminating Lash Legend to win the number one contender’s battle royal to earn a future title match. It was a well-booked, no frills battle royal with nothing in terms of surprises, which I thought was a surprise within itself. They pushed Legend really strong here, to the point where its obvious whhen she gets called up she’ll be pushed as a big star. She’s way better than she was when she started TV but I feel needs a run as champion before being called up. With the Paris show not taking place until the end of August, there’s plenty of time to build around Vaquer, who already seems super over with the crowd.
Source link
