Some seven years after the first installment, Evolution returned as a WWE Premium Live Event in July 2025. Despite coming almost out of nowhere in terms of its lead time, this was a bumper card consisting of seven matches and incorporating the NXT roster into proceedings as well.
The show itself was captivating with great variety and flow throughout. And we’ll get to the matches, but this also feels like a good moment to consider Evolution in context and ask where we are now in terms of gender equality in WWE.
I spoke to prominent wrestling influencer Alex Lajas to get her perspective. Lajas has been an outspoken advocate for women’s wrestling since 2018, covering both North American and Japanese pro wrestling.
A regular at post-PLE press conferences, Lajas wasn’t at all surprised by the show’s quality. “The women always show out – they clocked in, went to work, and shined like they do every week”, she said. “The only difference is that with Evolution they were given this massive platform to do it”.
Where she was critical, however, was with how the show was promoted. On TV especially, Evolution had little fanfare in its build and only a minority of its matches were rooted in ongoing storylines. “I would have liked to have seen more care taken with the production”, said Lajas, who also observed that the previous night’s Saturday Night’s Main Event had featured the men’s division exclusively.
While we’re on the division splits, some numbers: in the Netflix Era (eg. since the start of 2025), the women’s division has been featured in 12 PLE matches, compared to 26 for the men’s division. I dunno, I think that’s a bit dodgy, mate…
Women’s Intercontinental Championship – Becky Lynch (c) def. Bayley and Lyra Valkyria: As I’d speculated at the conclusion of the last Lynch / Valkyria meeting, this next installment in their feud did give us something very different with the inclusion of Bayley in the mix. Like the previous matches, this was another brilliant, no-notes presentation.
With a lively energy throughout, this bout really benefitted from its 16-minute runtime. Lynch and Bayley are seasoned pros when it comes to pacing and timing, Bayley especially so in the context of multi-woman matches – and everything just flowed throughout.
Per triple threat rules, this was anyone’s game. Big moves and near falls galore. But picking up on threads from previous Lynch / Valkyria installments, the real story here was that everyone was looking for a big, decisive win – but only Lynch was mercenary enough to snatch a win via rollup.
What’s especially cool with this one is that Lynch didn’t cheat to win, she was just pragmatic enough to grab the pin when the opportunity arose. And given her current (kayfabe) ego-tripping antics, it’s poetic irony that Valkyria and Bayley were the ones desperate to win via signature moves while Lynch was chill enough to just take the win, whatever it looked like. Again, no notes. Artists, all!
NXT Women’s Championship – Jacy Jayne (c) def. Jordynne Grace: Clocking in at ten minutes, this was a solid NXT showcase. Jayne’s heel work was excellent, carried with a real confidence. And while Jordynne Grace doesn’t seem like a wrestler who needs to be asking for help (she is very strong), character nuance is always welcome! Her betrayal by Blake Monroe felt impossibly obvious – but perhaps engineered in the hopes of viewers following them back to NXT for the payoff. Still, here’s hoping Grace is on her way to the main roster soon.
Women’s Tag Team Championship – Raquel Rodriguez & Roxanne Perez (c) def. Charlotte Flair & Alexa Bliss, Sol Ruca & Zaria, and Asuka & Kairi Sane: This four-way tag match might’ve been the most effective match of the night in terms of what it achieved.
Bringing variety to the show and with a consistent chaotic energy, this bout cemented Rodriguez and Perez as tag champs and the new definitive Judgement Day pairing. This was also a fantastic showcase for NXT’s Zaria and especially Sol Ruca, whose Sol Snatcher is a surefire moment maker for the future.
And perhaps best of all, the Flair-Bliss partnership has launched both stars into a character-driven story arc. Their antagonistic-playful dynamic is captivating and bolstered by both performers’ capacities to weave together larger and quieter storytelling gestures. The emotional crux of the match was Flair saving Bliss from Zaria’s spear, and the two clinging to one another after the bell despite losing. We’ve never seen anything like this from Flair (the character), and it’s great.
It was also wonderful to see Flair receive so much love from the live crowd following her recent Players’ Tribune essay. Writing as herself, Ashley Fliehr shared personal experiences with an inspiring vulnerability while also speaking to systemic issues in the industry – in particular, she highlighted the intersection of age and gender in pro wrestling. “The next big step”, she wrote, “is the same amount of years as men”. With the degree of storytelling sophistication she and her cohort (Lynch, Bayley, Bliss for example) are bringing to the table, let’s hope they’re given the chance to keep performing at the level they belong at.
WWE Women’s Championship – Tiffany Stratton (c) def. Trish Stratton: Of all the short builds for this show, this match might have been the most “no build” of them all. If Stratton and Stratus had at least teased some tension when they teamed together back at Elimination Chamber, this might have had more feeling, but instead it was just a case of the champion picking a last-minute challenger for a high profile show.
The match itself was really good nevertheless, with Stratus continuing to expand her game this deep into her career. There was an unexpected stiffness to the proceedings (backbreaker! spinebuster!) that gave this one its story.
The rub here for Stratton is substantial. She beat Charlotte Flair in a gritty clash at WrestleMania and here she’s defeated a true fan favourite superhero in Stratus. Her next programme really needs to let her get stuck into more story and character work though.
With Nikki Bella’s possible singles match scuppered by Liv Morgan’s recent injury, Stratus was the only legend featured in a singles spot at Evolution. And although her performance here was excellent, with the way they curate their own history, “WWE often gives the impression that the only women’s wrestler that ever mattered was Trish Stratus”, as Lajas says. It does seem to always be Stratus that they call on despite other legends making it clear they’d have been keen to lace up their boots.
No Holds Barred – Jade Cargill def. Naomi: With an assortment of fun weapons-based spots, this entertaining match further broadened Evolution’s variety. In terms of story though, this was effectively just a WrestleMania re-run. Cargill gets a win and some different match experience under her belt, but I think the main success here was throwing us off the scent for the festivities yet to come later in the evening…
Battle Royal – winner, Stephanie Vaquer: Like a shorter, mini version of the Royal Rumble match, this was well booked, kept the card fresh, featured an array of current and upcoming talent, and best of all, had clear stakes. Outlasting nineteen others, Vaquer now has a title shot lined up for Clash In Paris.
There’s never been a poor quality women’s Rumble to date, and this was no exception. These matches are always produced and performed with an attention to detail and a clutch of multiple smaller stories that support the eventual outcome. Everyone looked good here and this was a great vehicle to get Vaquer to her first main roster marquee match.
Women’s World Championship, Triple Threat Match – Naomi def. Iyo Sky (c), and Rhea Ripley: Working over John Cena vs. CM Punk last month, I stumbled into the insight that in order for shenanigans to really work, they have to come into play with a match that has already captured the live crowd’s imagination.
The original match here, a championship singles match between Ripley and the defending Sky, dialled this formula upto 11 with one of the most electric matches of the year. With the question of whether Ripley could finally defeat Sky for the first time framing the match, both performers delivered an astonishing back-and-forth dynamic with some fantastic lesser-seen moves and spots. From Ripley’s absolute YEET of a Razor’s Edge to Sky’s poison ‘rana and balcony dive, this was mesmerising. Truly a “fight forever” feel. So with the crowd utterly, edge-of-their-seats invested in this singles match, Naomi’s cash-in caused the place to completely erupt.
And this was a perfect cash-in. Not only did it pay off Naomi’s heel turn, she gets over as a smart heel who picked the right unexpected moment (having taken a hefty loss earlier in the night) – and, she gets heat for breaking up the probable match of the year between two fan favourites. Exquisite tidings, these.
It’s also worth reflecting on Naomi’s crowning moment here, I feel. “Naomi is someone who has truly weathered the storm” as Lajas put it, when it comes to the booking of women’s wrestling in WWE. She debuted in 2012 with a dancing gimmick (a classic stereotype WWE loves to employ for Black performers), navigated the oppressively short matches of the Divas era, was largely overlooked when the four horsewomen changed the landscape, walked away and returned on her own terms – and here she is, finally closing out a PLE as champion and delivering the finest character work of her career. Absolutely love this for her. Take a bow, Trinity Fatu!!
Curtain Call: With its success here, Evolution ironically serves as a reminder of how far there is to go. The women’s division can not only carry a three-hour PLE, but make it one of the out-and-out strongest in recent memory. So why are we still getting fewer women’s matches per PLE?
WWE loves to employ the language of progress without context. In the opening preamble with Joe Tessitore, Stephanie McMahon talked about feeling the need to “prove that we belong” – but I want to know, prove it to whom? The “women’s evolution” is discussed as though it’s a conversation about social and political change in a wider societal context, rather than the context of one organization with a small group of decision makers who have historically chosen to institute and uphold gender inequality, rather than simply.. not doing that.
When the women’s mid-card titles were introduced earlier this year, the commentary teams went out of their way to emphasise how much the women’s division had earned the introduction of these belts. But why are women wrestlers having to “earn” what the men’s division just simply have? The idea of earning equality is rubbish. And as Alex Lajas rightly says, “it’s a slap in the face to imply these things are only just being earned now”. Previous generations should have had these opportunities, too.
Asked what she hopes to see next for the women’s division in WWE, Lajas highlighted the importance of the fans feeling like they’re being heard. “There are so many passionate fans of this division and they proved it here”, referring to Evolution’s live crowd who brought energy and attentiveness throughout this PLE’s longer runtime.
As well as the imbalances when it comes to screentime and PLE matches, Lajas also spoke to concrete differences in how programmes are booked. “I want to see the full blueprint of the men’s division applied equally – longer term storylines, and higher positions of value for women’s segments and promos on TV. Overall, it’s the same answer I’ve had since seven years ago – give the women a chance”.
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