Evolution Results and Recap: You Deserve It

LaToya Ferguson
source: WWE
WWE Evolution – October 28, 2018

Let me get this out of the way right now: I try not to editorialize too much with these results/recaps, but Evolution honestly ended up being the best WWE pay-per-view of the year. While expectations were certainly high—given the fact that all of these women had to deliver because of the important context of this show—the execution was truly on a whole other level.

I can confidently say that, from top-to-bottom, there literally wasn’t a bad or weak match on the card, and the entire live crowd in the Nassau Coliseum seemed to agree on that end. Each and every woman on this card should be proud of what they accomplished, win or lose. (And they know it too.)


The above praise also goes out to Nita Strauss and Lzzy Hale for their opening Evolution number.


Trish Stratus & Lita def. Alicia Fox & Mickie James (RAW)

As Evolution is all about the past, the present, and the future of WWE women’s wrestling, the show kicks things off with the past, in the form of WWE Hall of Famers Trish Stratus and Lita. Fun fact: This show actually means even more to Trish than expected, as she made her WWF debut in the Nassau Coliseum. Alexa Bliss isn’t able to compete tonight, but she introduces and hypes up her buddies, letting Trish and Lita know that Alicia Fox and Mickie James are the true pioneers of the Women’s Evolution.

The Long Island crowd is hyped from the jump, as they let the Hall of Famers know they’ve still got it. (And to be fair, they do.) But they especially go insane when Trish and Mickie face off in the ring.

Eventually, Alexa Bliss decides to help her friends, convincing Alicia and Mickie to just leave this match—it’s not like it’s for a title, after all—but she’s also quick to act like she doesn’t know either of them when Trish and Lita come to bring them back into the ring. Trish hits a Stratusfaction on Mickie and goes for a pin that Alicia (allegedly) breaks up, but the combination of Lita hitting the Twist of Fate and a Lita-sault (on both Alicia and Mickie)—as well as a Chick Kick to Mick(ie)—gets the more-established veterans the win.


Back on the red carpet, The Bella Twins chat with Kayla Braxton, who asks if they felt they crossed the line when they brought up Ronda Rousey’s mom. As the Lio Rush of The Bella Twins, Brie Bella takes the opportunity to answer this and point out that Rousey brought up their love lives first. (This is true… but they actually, physically attacked her before that. Let she who is without wrestling sin cast the first fall.) But if they didn’t cross the line before, they certainly do when Nikki—who calls herself a “Do Something Bella”—decides to dedicate her match to Rousey’s mom… for overcoming adversity “every time her daughter breaks her word.” They even decide to make her “an honorary member of the Bella Army.” Y’all.


Nia Jax won the Women’s Battle Royal (for a Future RAW Women’s Championship Opportunity)

With this battle royal, all the women make their entrance before the match officially starts. So, last—but certainly not least—The IIconics make their entrance. They also make sure all the WWE women’s legends know that they’re gonna send them “back to obscurity.” If you’ve ever watched a big WWE battle royal, you know how this goes: IMMEDIATELY ELIMINATED. And, of course, it’s from the legends they insulted in the first place. (This includes Maria Kanellis, returning from maternity leave. And she looks great, both physically and in terms of in-ring performance.)

The surprising story in the early part of this match is how Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville just take over: They eliminate Molly Holly, Kelly Kelly, and Torrie Wilson. But in poor battle royal strategy, Mandy’s eyes get too big for her belly, and she decides to eliminate Sonya. No one ever seems to realize the best strategy in a battle royal is actually to keep your friends closer, that way you make it to the end. So while it’s surprising Mandy eliminates her best friend, it’s not surprising she doesn’t win the whole thing.

What’s more surprising is how Tamina and Nia Jax eventually wreck shop—together—in this match, in honor of Roman Reigns (check the in-sync “OOH-AHH”). The bloodline is strong, but not strong enough to stop Tamina from taking out extended family member Naomi in the process.

But in the end, Tamina doesn’t last: Ember Moon eliminates her after eliminating Asuka (in an emotionally-charged callback to their NXT days). The crowd is all in on Ember Moon winning, but out comes Zelina Vega (who spends the match biding her time like The Miz would), who ends up thinking she’s eliminated both Ember Moon and Nia Jax. (She did not and does not.) In the actual end, Nia Jax comes out on top, eliminating Ember Moon and guaranteeing herself a title match against whoever comes out on top in the main event. Nia wishes both Ronda Rousey and Nikki Bella luck at the end of the night, but she promises the championship will be hers soon.


Toni Storm def. Io Shirai, in the Finals of the Mae Young Classic II (Mae Young Classic)

Here we go, the Finals of the Mae Young Classic. This is probably the first time a lot of the crowd has seen either Toni Storm or Io Shirai wrestle, so you can imagine both women want to pull out all the stops. Actually, that might not be so true—the part about the crowd—as the folks in the Nassau Coliseum seem to love Toni Storm. Almost as much as Io loves dismantling her.

It’s actually quite interesting: Not everyone can still look like a good sport when they take such delight in beating their opponents, but Io Shirai has unlocked the secret.

But it’s not like Toni Storm is just a helpless victim to “The Genius of the Sky.” Sure, Io hits Toni with a beautiful moonsault to the outside, but Toni hits Io with a killer suplex on the ring apron (the hardest part of the ring). Both women are truly tough competitors. Io ends up kicking out of Toni’s finisher, the Storm Zero, but Toni’s able to get the knees up on Io’s finisher (the moonsault), before hitting another Storm Zero for the win. As much as they tried to destroy each other in the match—Toni tried to suplex the hell out of Io, honestly—once the match is over, the two are hugging, with tears in their eyes.


Natalya, Sasha Banks, & Bayley def. The Riott Squad (Ruby Riott, Liv Morgan, & Sarah Logan) (RAW)

Going into this match, it was clear that The Riott Squad had an advantage in terms of genuine teamwork. And during this match, the same is true, as The Riott Squad proves throughout most of it that they are one unit. In fact, for the most part, this match is a three-on-one handicap match against Bayley. and you can see these women are the female version of The Revival. Just look at their frequent (somewhat stealth) tags and their ability to cut the ring in half.

Eventually—and that’s a big eventually—Bayley is able to tag Sasha Banks in. The backstabber into the Bayley-to-Belly double team move is amazing, but Liv Morgan prevents it from being the finish. (Again, The Riott Squad is everywhere at all times.) The Riott Squad even try to incapacitate Sasha by ramming her into the metal barricade. But while The Riott Squad is perhaps the better team, Sasha, Bayley, and Natalya are willing to do anything for each other—which is what happens when Bayley (who never fully recovers from the three-on-one of the match) covers Sasha and takes the worst of a top rope senton from Ruby Riott. Eventually, resilience wins out, and Sasha Banks gets the win for her team with a frog splash to Liv Morgan.


Shayna Baszler def. Kairi Sane (c), for the NXT Women’s Championship (NXT)

Now, these two know each other so well, to the point that Shayna’s able to catch Kairi for a submission multiple times early on… only for Kairi to maneuver on out of the predicament.

Kairi’s quickness is key, but Shayna knows how to go after a body part, and Kairi’s arm ends up being the sacrifice. At the very least, Kairi remembers she has another arm, but that doesn’t matter all that much when she doesn’t have time to avoid Shayna’s onslaught of offense. So she doesn’t avoid it; instead, she gives back to Shayna just as good as she gets. And she has a weapon of her own, in the In-Sane Elbow, which Shayna repeatedly avoids. One of these avoidances leads to Shayna suffering the most beautiful crossbody from Kairi on the outside.

And once on the outside, everything changes. Kairi is able to throw Shayna over the metal barricade… and into her fellow Four Horsewomen, Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir. With that, the complexion of the match changes, as Jessamyn decides to strike Kairi as a result, and then Marina even jumps the barricade (and gets on the apron) to distract the NXT Women’s Champion. At one point, it looks like Kairi is going to retain the championship the same way she won it from Shayna, but a reversal stops that… and a shocking kick from Jessamyn (who also jumped the barricade) ends up putting Kairi right into the Kirifuda Clutch. The referee doesn’t see any of this interference, but it honestly looks like Shayna also sees none of it as well. So as she puts Kairi Sane to sleep and wins the NXT Women’s Championship—making her the first-ever two-time NXT Women’s Champion—she can say it’s not the “tainted victory” the announce team tries to call it.

Although, the way she picks up her fallen buddies and walks to the back with them after the match suggests she might know they had something to do with the win…


Becky Lynch (c) def. Charlotte Flair, in a Last Woman Standing match for the SmackDown Women’s Championship (SmackDown)

As usual, this is a predominantly pro-Becky crowd, even before she makes her entrance. Once the match starts, it’s no surprise both women keep reversing each other’s moves—they know each other so well. It’s a little surprising Becky does a chop first, but Charlotte just Flair struts in retaliation. Becky soon mocks the strut before she hits an elbow drop, because, well, civility has flown right out the window.

Becky’s also the first one to bring out a weapon, as she starts giving it to Charlotte good with a kendo stick. But it’s really not so much about the violence as it is the one-upmanship, and all of a sudden, both women are throwing chairs into the ring. Becky throws in a chair, so Charlotte throws in a chair. Charlotte throws in a chair, so Becky throws in a chair. While there’s a lot of bad blood in this match, this is really the type of thing that shows you just how immaturely both women are being in this situation; because they’re so concerned with proving they’re better than each other that it even extends to who throws a chair last. Charlotte seemingly wins though, since she ends with getting a table to top it all off. But she also ends up getting chair shots from Becky, so “winning” is relative in this case.

The ring of chairs actually does end up having more of a purpose than the showboating one though, as Charlotte is able to back suplex Becky into a stack of chairs. (Ouch.) In terms of the actual match gimmick, that takes Becky down for a count of 8t. But it’s not like Charlotte is much better off, as this is one of the many times in the match she has to roll out of the ring to even get back onto her feet. Charlotte then tries to moonsault Becky through a table to get her down for 10, and again—ouch. The table doesn’t break and Becky somehow survives, so Charlotte decides to do a somersault from the top rope onto a table-prone Becky. That definitely breaks the table—and gets a “THIS IS AWESOME” chant—but both women are up at 9. (And again, Charlotte has to roll out to get up.)

This all escalates into Charlotte busting out a ladder, and Becky somehow managing to hit Charlotte with a Bexploder onto the ladder. It’s insane. But then Charlotte is able to use the ladder as leverage during a Figure Eight and making the champion tap… and tapping means nothing here. Yet, somehow, Becky is able to get up again before 10. She’s on jelly legs—running on instinct—but she’s definitely on her legs. Neither woman is happy whenever the other gets up; Becky is ultimately horrified whenever Charlotte is able to stand, and Charlotte eventually ends up ranting about how she is, in fact, “The Man” when Becky gets up. Becky is able to go through Charlotte—by jumping off a ladder, onto the announce table—get up, and then bury Charlotte under chairs and half a table… and still, Charlotte gets up. Charlotte is able to hit Becky with a kendo stick and spear her on the outside… and still, Becky gets up.

What does the trick here is Charlotte setting up another table. She tries to put Becky through it, but instead, Becky is able to powerbomb her through it. After that, Charlotte is so close to getting up at 9, but nope, not this time. And the WWE Universe stands up to applaud this match, as they should. Now, Charlotte has to accept that Becky is the better woman, and Becky has to figure out a way to walk out of Evolution on her own two feet. (Both are a struggle.)

Like so much about this pay-per-view, this match is what professional wrestling/sports entertainment/whatever you want to call it is all about. Do whatever you can to go out of your way to watch this match. Do the same for this entire card. Because this is what it’s all about.


source: WWE

Ronda Rousey (c) def. Nikki Bella, for RAW Women’s Championship (RAW)

You can read more about Rousey’s successful title defense—and decision to make good on her promise to end Nikki Bell—here.


And you can watch the Evolution pay-per-view on the WWE Network.

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