I wrote back in March that WWE should host an all-women’s pay-per-view. Seven months later, and boom – WWE Evolution graces our television screens. Or, in my case, my Macbook screen. Regardless, yes – you’re understanding my insinuation correctly. I am taking credit for being the catalyst that made Evolution a reality. Anyway, some of you who keep up with the site more regularly may have noticed that I didn’t do my typical results and match ratings column on the show.
That’s because I’m a bit OOO (out of office for those of you who aren’t entrenched in corporate America from 9-5 Monday-Friday). I’m on holiday visiting family, and only have one foot in SoBros, one foot in day job land, and a third foot in rest and relaxation. My math seems a little weird there but you get the point.
Point is, I missed the first two matches of Evolution.
So, instead of faking my way through a full recap piece, I’ll just offer you guys my general thoughts on the show as a whole. In short, it was awesome.
This was a groundbreaking event. It’s something a whole hell of a lot of people would never happen. I come from the era of wrestling fans who grew up with pudding matches and ‘bra and panties’ matches. To think that the WWE would run a full-length pay-per-view and it wouldn’t practically be soft core porn back then would’ve been laughable. So, make no mistake, this was a monumental occasion. But, that’s not all it was.
They celebrated the moment, but didn’t go overboard with the pageantry. The vignettes were nice, and allowed the magnitude and emotion of the night to sink in. Just seeing how much this event meant to the women involved was moving. But, when the lights came on, it was all about the professional fucking wrestling.
They kept things simple. This was an event to showcase the state of women’s wrestling, the greatest era in women’s wrestling history mind you, and that’s just what it did. The show featured two excellent main event championship matches – if the Last Woman Standing match between Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch isn’t on every “best of 2018” match list this year, it’ll be a travesty. The physicality of that match was unlike anything we’ve seen before. But, the real surprise of the night may have been the Raw Women’s Championship match between Nikki Bella and Ronda Rousey.
The angle was played perfectly – with all of the advancements in the women’s wrestling realm, Bella still throwing around the term ‘diva’ was just obnoxious. But, no one expected the match to be as good as it was, myself included. Both ladies delivered.
But, we also got a pretty solid undercard as well. When you throw six ladies like Sasha Banks, Bayley, Natalya, and The Riott Squad in a ring, you’re going to get quality. If anyone “stole the show,” though, it was Shayna Baszler and Kairi Sane in the NXT Women’s Championship match. But, the Mae Young Classic finale between Toni Storm and Io Shirai was a thing of beauty as well.
The show had a certain old school vibe to it – it almost felt the same way that a TakeOver feels…where wrestling is the central focus and the shenanigans come second.
The most important thing they did was make this show anything but a gimmick. It could’ve easily become a sideshow of its own, but they kept the focus on the ring. The emotion was real, but the action was raw, gritty, and everything you could ask for in a wrestling show.
I would recommend going out of your way to set aside the time to watch this show….err…..at least the matches I watched…
Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD and #BeBetter. “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, Alabama Crimson Tide football, the WWE, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley
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