After months of hype and build, the first all-women’s PPV is in our sights, but WWE also had a lot going on this week.

On RAW, the future of the Shield takes a heartbreaking and shocking turn. Ronda Rousey and Nikki Bella sign their contract for Evolution. The women of RAW all look to gain momentum heading into their dates with history and the men prepare for the WWE World Cup.

On SmackDown, the issues between AJ Styles and Daniel Bryan continue to grow. New Day finds out that the Bar’s big new buddy means business. The women of SmackDown look to gain some momentum heading into Evolution while Charlotte and Becky’s war of words gets physical.

On 205, Hideo Itami and Mustafa Ali look to end their heated feud once and for all and Lince Dorado looks for revenge against Mike Kanellis.

On NXT, the Aleister Black mystery has a shocking solution that changes everything. Mia Yim makes her NXT debut. Undisputed Era’s feeling of invincibility crashes to the ground, and Tommaso Ciampa finds he’s got quite a few people nipping at his heels.

So, how did WWE do? Let’s find out!

 

RAW

 

Shield vs Dogs of War: Monday was one of those nights where reality rudely intruded on the kayfabe world of wrestling. Leati Joseph Anoa’i, aka, Roman Reigns came out in his street clothes and dropped a heartbreaking bombshell: When he was 22, he was diagnosed with leukemia and 11 years later, the leukemia is back. As such, Anoa’i relinquished the Universal Title he fought so hard to win. His brothers in arms, Jonathan Good and Colby Lopez, aka, Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins, came out to wish him good luck in the biggest fight of his life, and the three did their signature pose one more time.

We did find out that Ziggler and McIntyre would be facing Ambrose and Rollins later in the evening. The match was pretty good, from what I saw of it and Rollins and Ambrose emerged as the NEW RAW Tag Team Champions and then all hell broke loose. Dean Ambrose seemed to turn on his tag partner, beating the snot out of Seth before storming off. It’s not totally clear if this was the actual long-teased heel turn for Ambrose, or just Ambrose lashing out over what was happening to his long-time best friend, Roman Reigns, that will have to wait until next week.

As for the Dogs of War, they seemed to have fractured for good. Braun Strowman, who is now in a one-on-one match with Brock Lesnar for the vacant Universal Title, was attacked from behind by Drew McIntyre. Strowman with a Claymore kick. Strowman would return the favor by attacking McIntyre during the tag team championship match while the ref was out, leaving Ziggler alone with a determined Ambrose and Rollins.

RAW Women’s Division: Sasha Banks made a surprising return last week on RAW, having Natalya’s back against the Riott Squad. This week, in anticipation of the six woman tag match at Evolution, she took on Ruby Riott in singles action.

The match was really good, but the Riott Squad’s team spirit ended up being the deciding factor. Logan did a run in which caused enough of a distraction in the form of a brawl between Logan, Morgan, Nattie, and Bayley to give Riott a chance to nail the Riott Kick for the pinfall.

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Michael Cole had the interesting task of presiding over the contract signing for the RAW Women’s Championship match between Ronda Rousey and Nikki Bella.

Nikki, with Brie by her side, came out first, but bailed out as soon as Rousey got to the ring.

Both sides want to sign the contract, rather than give away the match for free. Rousey vowed to beat Nikki and keep a promise to her mother by not attacking Nikki now, and claimed that she never breaks a promise, especially to her mother.

Really? Nikki finds that very interesting because, in her estimation, Ronda has broken a lot of promises to her mother.  Ronda certainly didn’t stay undefeated in UFC. How awful for her poor mother, and how much more embarrassing will it be when a mere ‘Diva’ beats Ronda at Evolution? Nikki then signed the contract and SLAPPED Rousey, which is either incredibly gutsy, or criminally stupid.

Rousey, surprisingly, didn’t rise to the bait. She signed the contract and promised to end Nikki. We’ll have to wait until Sunday to see if Ronda will keep her promise or if the Bellas will pull one over on the Baddest Woman on the Planet.

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Nia Jax, Ember Moon, Dana Brooke, and Tamina had a Fatal Four way match, though what the match was for is a little lost on me. The match was quick with Ember getting the pinfall on Tamina after an Eclipse.

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Team Hall of Fame Besties were in the house on Monday. Trish and Lita gave an interview to Charly Caruso about their match against Alexa Bliss. Neither of them seemed particularly bothered by Bliss and James’ jokes about them, in fact, they seem to welcome it because it means Bliss and James aren’t taking them seriously, which makes beating them easier. They pointed out that any time they were in the ring against each other, they took each other to the limit, Bliss and James will be no different.

At this point, Trish and Lita were ambushed by Mickie James and Alicia Fox, but the Hall of Famers battled back, KOing Fox and whipping James into a pillar. Stratus and Lita reminded their ambushers that that’s how things were done in the Attitude Era.

Bobby Lashley (with Lio Rush) vs Finn Balor: Balor and Lashley had a run-in last week after Balor beat Jinder Mahal in embarrassing fashion.

The match was pretty good. Lashley was dominant, but Balor’s a tough dude and despite everything, including Lio Rush’s obnoxious cheerleading, Balor managed to steal one from the Rocky Mountain Wrecking Ball. It’s not clear who was more shocked, Balor, Rush, or Lashley. However, coming directly after the Reigns heartbreaking bombshell, the crowd loved it, which is all that really matters.

DX vs Brothers of Destruction: RAW showed the Brothers of Destruction’s video from last week. DX came out to a moderate pop, which gives an idea of the crowd’s mood.

Triple H dismissed Taker and Kane’s assertions that he and Shawn were afraid of them. Trips said that Taker and Kane were going to have to do better than doing a GoPro video from the Knoxville City Hall boiler room to scare them (ouch). The word DX would rather throw around is nostalgia and for them, nostalgia means sentimentality for most people, but for DX, nostalgia means ‘old’, but then again, nostalgia sold out the McG in Melbourne, so maybe nostalgia means ‘better’.

At this point, DX seemed to have forgotten that they’re both either close to fifty or over fifty. They say that the X in DX means better, as does another X, which the crowd took to mean NXT. They then vowed to kick the ass of the Brothers of Destruction at Crown Jewel. And then the lights went out.

Taker and Kane did NOT grace us with their presence, but we did get another video of them in their favorite place, the cemetery. The Demons of WWE reminded DX that pride goes before destruction and arrogance precedes a fall. The Brothers of Destruction vow to annihilate DX at Crown Jewel in retribution for DX’s pride and arrogance at Super Show Down and vow to make DX ‘Rest in Peace’.

WWE Crown Jewel: Given the Reigns situation, it was announced that Brock Lesnar and Braun Strowman will meet one-on-one for the now vacant Universal Title.

Paul Heyman came out to hype the new match, but first discussed the Reigns situation. For context, Paul Heyman has known Reigns for most of Reigns’ life, he managed Roman’s father, Sika, and several other members of Roman’s family. He praised Reigns’ courage and sacrifice, saying that he (Paul) would go home and explain this situation to his own children.

He then turned his attention to the Crown Jewel title match, stating that until Reigns’ devastating announcement, that RAW had the best champion in WWE, but with Reigns absent, it comes down to Braun Strowman or Brock Lesnar and Strowman isn’t in Lesnar’s league. Heyman promised that Lesnar would walk out as the only two-time Universal Champion.

Elias: Last week, Elias’ concert was interrupted by Apollo Crews, who seems to have developed something of an edge after the breakup of Titus Worldwide. This week, Elias and Crews went one on one.

The match was okay, if not exactly a barnburner. Elias would dispatch Crews with a Drift Away for the win.

With that done, Elias tried to restart his concert, but was interrupted by Baron Corbin, who told him he had to vacate the stage because the contract signing for Bella/Rousey was about to start. Elias tried stay on stage, but Corbin finally forced him to leave. While Corbin was gloating, Elias came up behind him and broke his guitar over Corbin’s back.

 

SMACKDOWN

WWE Championship: Last week, AJ Styles and Daniel Bryan’s attempt to be a tag team hit a couple of snags against the Usos. This week, Phenomenal Goats gave it another shot. This match went slightly better than last week, but a timely duck from a Pele kick and a Samoan Splash gave the Usos a second win.

In a post-interview, Bryan expressed his doubt that Styles accidentally kicked him. Styles said it was an accident, just like last week, but Bryan didn’t believe him and referred to him as ‘Pinocchio’ but throws up the Too Sweet.

SmackDown Women’s Division: The feud between Becky Lynch and Charlotte has only gotten nastier over the past few months. Over the weekend, the former best friends got into a physical altercation while at the Performance Center in Tampa, Florida.

Charlotte addressed the incident, saying what Becky did was unforgiveable because she disrespected the foundation that they were built on. She then vowed to beat Becky once and for all at Evolution and promised that there was no going back for either of them.

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Naomi and Asuka were supposed to take on Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville, but that match turned into an impromptu battle royal when the rest of the women who were scheduled for the #1 Contender’s Battle Royal at Evolution. The fracas started with Zelina Vega interrupting Carmella’s dance break.

The match came down to Asuka and Vega, with Vega believing she’d won the match, but that was quickly dispelled when she was eliminated by Asuka. We’ll see who comes out on top on Sunday.

SmackDown Tag Team Division: A very petulant New Day kicked off RAW this week. Last week, they were defeated by the Bar after the Bar got a big assist from Big Show. It was revealed that they will invoke their rematch clause at Crown Jewel.

Showbar came out, though Show was not wearing a kilt, sad to say, for a match that ended up being Big Show vs Kofi Kingston. Safe to say, Kofi was in danger of becoming a big splat on the mat when New Day ran in, causing the ref to throw out the match. Showbar then beat the tar out of New Day and we left standing in the ring.

Rusev vs Aiden English: After enduring slanders against his wife and getting screwed out of the WWE World Cup. Rusev took on his former buddy, Aiden English. Rusev put away his former friend after English got distracted by yelling at Lana, who threw one of her shoes at him. Rusev slapped on the Accolade and that was that.

WWE World Cup: This week, WWE got a jump start on the World Cup matches or tried to hype up the increasingly unpopular Crown Jewel show.

1. Miz vs Rey Mysterio: This started off with an episode of MizTV and Miz’s guest was the returning Rey Mysterio. Mysterio seemed a little confused since he thought he was going to be on TruthTV, which irritated Miz greatly.

As usual, Miz did most of the talking, and insulting his guest, but Mysterio was able to get in some zingers, including calling MizTV a ‘dusty old talk show’. Mysterio also asserted that he was there to compete and since Miz was, conveniently, in his ring gear, let’s have a preview of Crown Jewel now!

The match was great, Mysterio and Miz work really well together and put on a barn burner match. Mysterio would pull out the win with his tried and true 619 and Droppin’ Tha Dime combination.

2. Jeff Hardy vs Randy Orton: One of the quirks of how the World Cup was booked was that it reignited this feud. It was a good match, but not very different from their previous encounters. Orton’s gross fascination with Hardy’s earring hole was on display. It took a missed Swanton and an RKO for Orton to put Hardy away, giving him some momentum going into Crown Jewel, if it takes place.

 

NXT UK

NXT UK Championship: Pete Dunne wasn’t in action this week, but that didn’t stop Zach Gibson, who failed to capture the UK Championship from Dunne back in August on NXT, was in the building. Gibson claimed that he planned to be the NXT UK #1 Contender. The crowd in Cambridge didn’t agree, they thought Gibson sucked. Gibson didn’t care and kept talking. He beat Flash Morgan Webster, Jack Gallagher, and Travis Banks and still took Pete Dunne to the limit. Gibson blames the crowd in Royal Albert Hall for his loss because they took their shoes off and waved them at him. Now, unless the collective odor was so bad, it rendered Gibson unconscious, I’m not sure that’s a valid excuse. Anyway, Gibson felt that he was owed a rematch, instead, Noam Dar got the title match instead.

As for Dar, Gibson didn’t hold back on his opinion of the Scottish Supernova. He called him an embarrassment to the Cruiserweight division after his performance in the Cruiserweight Classic back in 2016, in 205, and in his performance on the NXT UK premiere last week, and declares himself the real future of NXT UK, instead of Dar and his stupid poses.

Well, them’s fightin’ words! Dar comes out, but before we can have any fun, GM Johnny Saint comes out and puts the kibosh on the fight. Instead, he makes both men go to his office for a chat. Hopefully we’ll get a match and not corporal punishment.

NXT UK Women’s Division: Since her performance at the inaugural Mae Young Classic, Dakota Kai has been hanging her boots at the Performance Center and NXT in Florida. However, since NXT UK has opened its doors, she seemed to be looking for a new place to kick heads off. This week, she took on Killer Kelly, who was a first round elimination in the 2018 Mae Young Classic.

The match was fantastic. Kai and Kelly worked really well together and their styles of wrestling meshed well. Kelly certainly gave Kai a run for her money, but Kai’s patented flipping backbreaker was the deciding factor in the match.

After her win, Kai gave an in-ring interview. She said that she’s been honored to be allowed to perform all over the planet, but nothing’s better than the UK crowd. The yet to be unveiled NXT UK Women’s Championship was mentioned and Kai said that it didn’t matter to her if the title was in the US or the UK, if it’s a women’s title, she wants to hold it. So the first entry to the NXT UK Women’s Championship discussion has been officially put in. Who will be next.

Ligero vs Mike Hitchman: The Leeds Luchador took on the Wildman from Wales. The match was amazing. I love watching luchadors take on brawlers because it can be such a great match, though how Ligero sees anything with that mask of his is a mystery to me.

It looked like Hitchman had this match in the bag, but Ligero was able to pull out the win with a tornado DDT when Hitchman’s temper got the better of him. Ligero got the best of Hitchman this time, but it’s not clear whether Hitchman will let it go.

Ashton Smith vs Tucker: Birmingham and Belfast, two of the toughest places in the UK, collided with these two. This match was rough and wild, but very enjoyable. Smith would pull out the victory with a ripcord DDT, putting Tucker away. The line of men putting their name in for a UK Championship Title shot is getting long.

Tyler Bate vs Wolfgang: The first UK Champion and Wolfie, collided in the main event of this week’s NXT UK.

One half of Moustache Mountain and the Last King put on a hell of a match that wasn’t as lopsided as it sounds on paper. Wolfie was the fan favorite and dominated the match for the most part, though Bate was hardly a pushover. He managed to finally turn the tide with a rolling kick-double underhook-Tyler Driver 97 combo that was a thing of beauty. Pet Dunne might want to clear his calendar for the foreseeable future, he’s got a lot of appointments with people wanting a title shot.

205 LIVE

WWE Cruiserweight Championship: Drake Maverick announced that for the 101^st episode of 205 Live, the top two performers on 205 will meet in a Number 1 Contender’s Match. Champ Buddy Murphy wants his pal, Tony Nese to be in the match, because that’s not a conflict of interest.

Maverick agreed that Nese had been on a role lately but refused to commit to putting him in the match. It wasn’t until the end of the show that Maverick announced that Nese and Ali would face off next week to determine the new #1 Contender. No word on when former champ, Cedric Alexander, would get his rematch.

Mike Kanellis vs Lince Dorado: After his cowardly attack on Dorado a couple of weeks ago, Mike Kanellis faced a reckoning from the Golden Lynx.

The match was okay. Kanellis was Dorado’s punching bag until Maria got on the ring apron to keep Dorado from hitting a suicide dive, which gave Kanellis the opening to turn the tide. Kanellis would eventually pull out the victory with a nasty DDT for the win. Guess the power of love works for now.

Brian Kendrick vs Party of Gulak: Kendrick cut a promo on his former running buddies, Jack Gallagher and Drew Gulak. He mocked their attempts to get rid of them, pointing out that better people have tried and failed. He then vowed to show Gallagher no mercy on the 101^st episode of 205 Live.

Lio Rush: Last week, Cedric Alexander nearly pinned Rush in the Fatal Five way, but the Man of the Hour refuses to accept that Alexander might have his number, Alexander just got lucky. However, Rush offers a one on one contest next week for Alexander.

Falls Count Anywhere Match – Mustafa Ali vs Hideo Itami: The feud between Mustafa Ali and Hideo Itami has been brutal and has taken both men to the limit. Wednesday night looked to be the final chapter, at least for now, of this relentless feud.

The match was amazing, if not groundbreaking. Itami and Ali took each other to the limit, while not making too much of a mess since 205 is now taped before Smackdown, so no ripping the ring apart to use the ring ropes to choke out your opponent like John Cena did to Umaga. Still, for the time and craziness limits set on them, Ali and Itami easily had the match of the week with amazing spots like Ali’s tornado DDT off some displaced stairs. Ali would finally pull off the win after an INSANE diving 450 splash through a table. Afterwards, Ali asserted that he’d always respected Itami, but it remains to be seen if Itami will accept this.

NXT

NXT Championship: All William Regal wanted to do was announce some matches for TakeOver: War Games. Instead, he just got non-stop interruptions.

First was NXT Champion Tommaso Ciampa, who tells Regal to wipe the smug look off of his face and to stop staring at the title. Never mind that 1. Regal always has that look on his face, and 2. If Regal really wanted that title, he’d have it.

Anyway.

Regal tries again to give the announcement when Velveteen Dream came out. According to Dream, no one wanted hear a lot of complaining, even though no one had started complaining, what everyone wanted was the Experience. The best way to get the Experience? Put Velveteen Dream in the title match with Ciampa.

Then Lars Sullivan came out. The Leviathan seemed to think that he should be the one getting a title shot and seemed content to attack anyone who said otherwise, or made a crack about him wearing his wrestling trunks, as Dream discovered the hard way.

Regal never did get to make his announcement because Nikki Cross ran out, warning everyone that Aleister Black was on his way and he had his own demands for Mr. Regal.

NXT North American Championship/Tag Team Championship: Fresh off their victory over the War Raiders last week and now complete with the return of Bobby Fish, Undisputed Era was feeling invincible. Seeming to forget that the ONLY reason they beat the War Raiders was because they had numbers on their side, Undisputed claimed that they’d destroyed the Raiders and used them as a warning to the rest of the roster.

Cole also claimed that, despite Ricochet winning the Triple Threat match a few weeks ago, Ricochet had Cole’s property, namely the North American Championship. Cole said he was still owed a rematch because Ricochet pinned Dunne, not him. Not because Cole wasn’t in the ring, no, because Ricochet can’t beat him.

EC3 came out at this point and said that Cole didn’t deserve a rematch. Unphased by the 4-1 numbers advantage, 3 pointed out that Cole didn’t win the Triple Threat match, so he didn’t deserve another shot.

Cole was incensed and demanded a match, so a ref came out and we got started.

The match was really great. EC3 needed a big match to regain his momentum have the beatdowns he suffered at the hands of Lars Sullivan. He was also the fan favorite of the match. Cole threw everything he could at 3, but the One Percenter wanted the win more and 3 pulled out the win with a roll up after Cole missed the Last Shot.

Now even angrier than before, Undisputed Era attacked 3 in a nasty beatdown that was only stopped when Cole stopped Fish from attacking 3’s legs with a steel chair.

Later on, Undisputed Era interrupted Regal’s meeting with Bianca Belair, complaining about what had happened. Regal is unmoved by their complaints and tells them that he saw what they did to War Raiders and because of that, Adam Cole and Bobby Fish will face the War Raiders next week. Cole vows that Regal will regret that decision, but Regal wasn’t impressed.

NXT Women’s Division: Nikki Cross spent her evening warning anyone who would listen about the return of Aleister Black and it’s a shame that few listened because it would’ve saved the security guards some trouble.

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Mia Yim, who had been one of the standouts of the Mae Young Classic, made her NXT debut against Aliyah. The match was great. I thought Mia would squash Aliyah, but that did not happen. Both ladies looked fantastic. Mia would pull out the victory with some Sole Food for the win.

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Despite her inability to beat Nikki Cross, Bianca Belair still considered herself undefeated and wants a title shot. Regal didn’t seem to be inclined to give her one, or at least a chance she was willing to accept before they were interrupted by the very angry Undisputed Era.

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The Lady of NXT, Lacey Evans, also thought she should be in line for a title shot. She vowed to be a role model champion when she becomes NXT Women’s champion.

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Speaking of the NXT Women’s Championship, Champion Kairi Sane is SUPER excited to be a part of Evolution. Big Bad Baszler may have gotten the title first, but Sane is the champ now and she will be champion at the end of Evolution, whether Baszler likes it or not.

Aleister Black Mystery: After months of speculation and investigation, we finally seemed to have discovered who attacked Aleister Black. Last week, Nikki Cross, who has been the only real witness to the attack, told Aleister Black who had attacked him.

General Manager Regal, who presumably didn’t get a hold of Nikki after last week’s revelation, tried to be prepared, by having security at the door with instructions to have Black come to see him as soon as he arrived. Unfortunately, Black wasn’t in the mood to talk when he got to Full Sail University. He basically beat up the security guards and made his way to the ring, where he interrupted William Regal’s announcement for TakeOver: War Games. As Black was demanding to know where ‘He’ was, he was attacked from behind and his attacker was revealed to be…Johnny Gargano!

The audience is shocked, Regal, who saw Gargano come into the ring, is not, but he’s seems very disappointed, perhaps he didn’t want his suspicions to be confirmed. As the audience let Gargano know what they think of him, Gargano looks at Black and grabs a mic, telling the former champion ‘I’m right here!’.

Kassius Ohno vs Justin Xavier: For months, Kassius Ohno has been complaining about his spot on the NXT roster, and for months, Regal has been ignoring the complaints. Frustrated and fed up, Ohno made himself into the gatekeeper of NXT, vowing to break every new toy Regal brought in until he got what he wanted.

Wednesday’s victim was Justin Xavier from Chicago. The match was pretty good for a slightly longer than normal squash match. Ohno basically beat the tar out of poor Xavier, though Xavier did get in some offense before being knocked out before being hit with the Dream Crusher. Time will tell if his reign of terror will bring the desired results.

Evolution:

RAW Women’s Championship Match – Ronda Rousey vs Nikki Bella (with Brie Bella): Our main event was a grudge match between Ronda Rousey and Nikki Bella. Of the three title matches being defended at Evolution, this one had the shortest build, but got the most mainstream attention.

The match was really good. Nikki doesn’t get a lot of credit for being a great performer, but she is a legit great athlete and was able to hang with an Olympic level athlete.

Rousey would put Nikki away, which is a shame, in my opinion, but there you go, but Nikki gave Rousey a better fight than most of her other opponents. After the match, the entire locker room came out to celebrate the success of Evolution. Congrats ladies, you all deserve it!

Last Woman Standing Match For the SmackDown Women’s Championship – Becky Lynch vs Charlotte Flair: This feud has been the talk of the wrestling world since SummerSlam, now with history on the line in the first Main Roster Last Woman Standing match, it was time for Charlotte and Becky to shine.

Short of drawing actual blood, this was a match to make Paul Heyman proud. Charlotte and Becky held nothing back, including tossing every metal chair they could find into the ring, then the tables came out!

I can’t put into words how great this match was. Becky and Charlotte absolutely tore it down. They wanted this to be a match to remember and if this doesn’t make SOMEONE’s Match of the Year, the wrestling world is truly screwed.

It looked like Charlotte was finally going to have her revenge after a senton from the top rope through a table, but Becky Balboa didn’t come this far to lose at her date with history. Not even a Figure 8 around a ladder (yes, SERIOUSLY) could stop the RelentLass. It would take a table spot for Becky to finally be the Last Woman standing and walk out of Evolution as the champion.

Hold your heads high, ladies, they’ll be talking about this one for years.

Trish Stratus and Lita vs Alicia Fox and Micki James: The big tag match kicked off Evolution and it was fantastic. It was clear that all five women were determined to steal the show and they set the bar pretty high. Despite Alicia, Mickie, and Alexa’s best efforts, Team Bestie would pull out the win with Trish pinning Mickie, maybe igniting their old feud.

NXT Women’s Championship Match – Kairi Sane vs Shayna Baszler: This nasty, year-long feud between the Queen of Spades and the Pirate Princess came to a head at Evolution. The two rivals tore each other and the Nassau Colisseum down.

Unfortunately for Sane, Baszler’s UFC friends were in the house and help Shayna recapture the NXT Women’s Championship. I have a feeling Mr. Regal is going to have a lot to say about this.

Mae Young Classic Finals – Toni Storm vs Io Shirai: It’s come down to this, Toni Storm vs Io Shirai. This highly anticipated match lived up to all the hype. Storm actually played a believable underdog here, whereas she had to struggle in her other Mae Young matches to pull it off.

Storm would pull out the win after countering Shirai’s patented moonsault and hitting Storm Zero. Shirai was devastated and Storm elated, the true joy of victory and agony of defeat. Storm and Shirai hugged in the ring in wonderful display of sportsmanship. Congrats to both ladies for showing what’s been so wonderful about the Mae Young Classic.

#1 Contender’s Battle Royal: This match is hard to keep up with, but this was a really great match. The IIconics were the first to be eliminated due to badmouthing the Legends, which the current roster didn’t appreciate. We also saw signs of a rift between Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville after Mandy eliminated Sonya.

One highlight was Tamina and Nia paying tribute to Roman Reigns before eliminating Lana.

It looked like Zelina Vega was going to steal a win, but she forgot to make sure that Nia was eliminated. I don’t need to go into detail about who won that fight. Same for Ember Moon trying to steal one. Congrats, Nia!

Six Woman Tag Match – Natalya, Sasha Banks, and Bayley vs Riott Squad:  This was one of the featured matches of Evolution and again, it didn’t disappoint. Every woman went out there to make a statement and they did.

Bayley tried to save Sasha by covering her and paid for it with Riott hitting her leg drop on both of them, but it didn’t matter. Sasha was done losing history making matches.

Sasha would FINALLY win a history making match at a history making PPV when she pinned Liv Morgan after hitting the Frog Splash.

TIFFANY’S TAKEAWAYS

RAW: My thoughts and prayers are with Roman Reigns and his family. Kick leukemia’s ass, Uce. The WWE Universe is behind you.

It’s not a good crowd situation when DX doesn’t get a huge pop.

Not happy about the Universal Title Match. I think they should scrap it and make the World Cup for the Universal Title.

Elias trying to put on his damn concert while Corbin’s trying to get him off the stage was fun, as was the El Kabong moment.

The timing of the Ambrose turn was perfect. We got a big, feel good moment and then it all went to hell in a handbasket. The teenage girl who grew up watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer recognizes this storytelling very well.

SmackDown:  I’m loving the team of Big Show and the Bar. This has the makings of a really great feud.

The build for Styles/Bryan at Crown Jewel is a little bogus, but very fun.

The ‘fight’ between Charlotte and Becky was clearly staged, but it served a purpose.

Rey Mysterio seems to have become more aggressive in the years that have passed since his departure from WWE. The match with Miz was a lot of fun.

I was hoping to get more out of the Rusev/English match than that quick match.

NXT UK: I like that NXT UK has very little talking. It’s all matches with a few promo segments. Granted, with only an hour to work with, they don’t have a choice, but it’s still very enjoyable.

Dakota Kai’s kick scares me, hopefully Killer Kelly’s okay after that finishing sequence.  

205 Live: Mike Kanellis looked very out of his element against Dorado.

Ali vs Itami was fantastic!

Glad Ali is getting another chance to be in a championship match.

Alexander still hasn’t gotten his rematch and it’s starting to irritate me.

NXT: I loved the focus on the ladies this week, tying into Evolution. I have a feeling some NXT ladies will be part of the battle royal.

The revelation about Gargano being the attacker didn’t surprise me. I’d been saying all along that he was probably the guilty party. However, where NXT takes this storyline will be interesting.

I’m not into Velveteen Dream. I’ve tried, but he doesn’t wow me.

I wish they would push Aliyah. She’s legit talented and I’d like to see her get more screen time.

Mae Young Classic: I’ll admit, Toni Storm has not impressed me that much this year, not like she did last year. That changed with the Satomura match. She finally seemed like the Toni from last year.

Rhea Ripley is going to be a major heel on the main roster in a couple of years.

Evolution: Love the house show-esque lighting WWE used. Made things feel more intimate.

I loved the women talking about what the Women’s Revolution and Evolution meant to them.

 

Props to WWE for giving each woman an entrance for the Battle Royal.

 

Love that the current Women’s roster didn’t appreciate the Legends eliminating the IIconics.

 

Carmella and Ivory were hilarious!

 

Love that Nia and Tamina gave a tribute to Roman Reigns.

 

So happy for Nia! I love her as a face.

 

Congrats to Toni Storm for winning the second annual Mae Young Classic!

 

Loved the six-woman tag. Everyone shined and Sasha broke her history making match curse.

 

Sane/Baszler was great but Baszler gives me the weirds, which hampers my enjoyment.

 

Flair/Lynch was AMAZING! Easily the match of the night, if not the year.

 

Rousey/Bella had a tough act to follow after Flair/Lynch, but they did a pretty good job. They weren’t going to top it without killing themselves and they knew it.

 

The commentary team was fantastic. Cole was clearly having fun and Renee and Beth Phoenix held their own under a lot of pressure. Congrats to all three of them!

 

Rousey and Lynch clinking their titles together was fantastic, as was the moment with all the women on the stage celebrating.

 

Evolution Review: I know a lot of people were not hyped about this PPV. Many were unhappy with the build, others weren’t happy that Evolution was taking place right before Crown Jewel and that the build was getting mixed in with the build for Crown Jewel. There were a minority of people that didn’t like the idea of women getting their own PPV when the men didn’t have one, despite the fact that every WWE PPV has been dominated by the guys and that there will be no females wrestling at Crown Jewel.

 

With all this, Evolution had a lot to live up to and overcome and it did that wonderfully. Every match felt important and every woman in the ring went out to prove that they’d earned this PPV. I hope that this will become an annual event for WWE and not just a one off.

 

TIFF’S TANTRUMS

 

Anyone saying that the Reigns cancer diagnosis is a work to get him over has a serious issue with reality and needs to be smacked.

 

I hated that people are using Nikki Bella’s ‘win at the Olympics’ comments to paint her as a bimbo, while ignoring the fact that last week Rousey cut a promo that made her sound like she didn’t know the difference between ‘eradicate’ and ‘eviscerate’.

 

The RUMOR is that Ronda Rousey gave Alexa Bliss a concussion over the weekend at a house show, yet no one is giving her even a quarter of the amount of grief Brie Bella endured for Liv Morgan’s concussion. It seems like people want to hate the Bellas and give everyone else a pass.

 

Dave Meltzer’s attempt to debunk Reigns’ previous leukemia diagnosis is the ultimate shitty, low-class act. Especially when there’s an article from 2015 that backs Reigns’ story.

 

I realize that a lot of fans who maybe aren’t Reigns fans are trying to find a silver lining in the whole awful situation but talking about how Reigns’ absence makes room for your favorite to be The Guy is tasteless and awful.