WWE Evolution 2025 Review
- Linus O'Howell
- Jul 14
- 5 min read
Women’s Intercontinental Championship: Becky Lynch VS Bayley VS Lyra Valkyria
WWE Evolution 2 properly kicked off with Becky Lynch, Bayley, and Lyra Valkyria all colliding with the Women’s Intercontinental Championship on the line! This was a great way to start the show, this was a really good match between three very talented competitors! Bayley was the star here, having her start this show was perfect, I thought she was absolutely superb! Having said that, Lyra Valkyria was also great, she continues to show out, and Becky also looked strong, too! There were plenty of moments for all three women to win here, but their pins kept getting broken up! Towards the end of the match, Bayley nailed Lyra with a Rose Plant, but this is when Lynch brilliantly rolled up The Role Model to steal away “and still”! Very strong start!
Grade: B+
NXT Women’s Championship: Jacy Jayne VS Jordynne Grace
It was then time for NXT to make its mark as Jacy Jayne put her NXT Women’s Championship on the line against Jordynne Grace! I was concerned how the crowd was going to react to this, “Main Roster” audiences aren’t always the best when it comes to reacting well to NXT Superstars, but they were actually alright here! It helped that Jordynne Grace was in this match, she’s a big name, and it was cool to see Jacy Jayne as the NXT Women’s Champion at Evolution, like that’s crazy, but in the best possible way! As always, Fatal Influence did their best to try and get involved, with both Fallon Henley and Jazmyn Nyx jumping onto the apron, and this opened the door for Blake Monroe (who was supposed to be in Jordynne’s corner) to smash Grace with the NXT Women’s Title, opening the door for Jayne to hit the Rolling Encore to retain! I’m actually glad The Rockstar retained here!
Grade: B-
WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships: The Judgment Day VS ZaRuca VS The Kabuki Warriors VS Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair
Roxanne Perez and Raquel Rodriguez’s first match as a Tag Team saw them have to defend their WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships against Raw’s Kabuki Warriors, SmackDown’s Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair, and NXT’s ZaRuca! This was another fun match, it flowed well, Roxanne was very good here, as always, and the teamwork between Alexa and Charlotte was also really strong! I would’ve liked to have seen more of Sol Ruca, that was my biggest criticism of this match, but to be fair, Ruca did deliver a Sol Snatcher onto Flair (which is pretty damn cool)! Towards the end of the match, Charlotte pulled Bliss out of the way of a Zaria Spear, with Zaria wiping out her partner, but this just led to Raquel Rodriguez going on a tear as she eventually dropped the NXT Women’s North American Champion with a Tejada Bomb to keep all the Gold remaining in The Judgment Day!
Grade: B-
WWE Women’s Championship: Tiffany Stratton VS Trish Stratus
The next match was all about the New Gen VS the Old Gen as Tiffany Stratton faced Trish Stratus with the WWE Women’s Championship on the line! There are a lot of similarities between Tiffany and Trish, that’s literally why they teamed up at Elimination Chamber back in March, and I thought the video package was really good, it was really well done! However, the match was just kind of there; there were some good bits, but it was lacking compared to other contests on this show. I really like Tiffany, I think she has been arguably the best woman of the last 3 years, at least for me anyway, but this match with Stratus was slightly weaker than her previous Title defences! Ultimately, Stratton was able to secure the win with the Prettiest Moonsault Ever, and I would assume we’ll see Trish again at some point this year!
Grade: C+
Naomi VS Jade Cargill: No Holds Barred
Bianca Belair was back to act as the Special Guest Referee as Naomi and Jade Cargill went at it in No Holds Barred! Naomi has done very well since she turned Heel, her character work has drastically improved, but in-ring-wise, she’s still not the best. Then there’s Jade Cargill, who just simply isn’t that good, and the outcome is always going to be the same. In fairness, the stipulation meant this was a better match than their contest at WrestleMania, but it was also really annoying because of Bianca Belair! Like, there’s no rules, so she didn’t need to be the referee, and also, did Nick Aldis forget what happened last time Belair refereed, she was horrendous! Also, Jade Cargill won, again!
Grade: C
Evolution Battle Royal
The penultimate match of the night was the Evolution Battle Royal, with the winner earning an opportunity to fight for a World Championship at Clash in Paris! What I loved here was just like the first Evolution Battle Royal back in 2018, everyone got an entrance, I think that’s really cool! What wasn’t cool was Tatum Paxley was eliminated first; there was no need for that! In fact, Izzi Dame went straight after, and Jaida Parker was eliminated by Michin and B-Fab for crying out loud (at least Miss Parker managed to eliminate Natalya, though)! Zelina Vega eliminated Giulia, that was an interesting choice, and we got a moment between Nikki Bella and Lola Vice (which is actually quite cool when you think about it)! After Chelsea Green was eliminated, the final 4 came down to Nia Jax, Nikki Bella, Stephanie Vaquer, and NXT’s Lash Legend! Amazingly, Lash was able to eliminate Nikki before she picked up Nia, eventually eliminating Jax with the help of Stephanie! This meant that it came down to a battle between Legend and Vaquer, and despite the hometown favourites’ best efforts, La Primera was eventually able to do enough to book her ticket to Paris! I always enjoy Battle Royals, they’re fun, and this was no exception (minus Tatum getting eliminated first)!
Grade: B
Women’s World Championship: Iyo Sky VS Rhea Ripley
And in the Main Event of WWE Evolution 2, Iyo Sky and Rhea Ripley went at it for the Women’s World Championship! Whilst you can (and I will) make arguments for Liv Morgan, Nia Jax, Roxanne Perez, and Tiffany Stratton to be seen as the best female wrestlers of the past 12-to-18 months, you cannot say that Iyo and Rhea aren’t in there too, and it’s totally valid for this to be pushed as a battle between the two best women in all of Professional Wrestling! The match itself, delivered really, really hard, this was superb! They got 26 minutes in total, 26 minutes, and it was a proper battle between two incredible performers! The crowd loved it, some of the moves that Rhea pulled out were absolutely insane, and Iyo followed it up with a crazy dive in the crowd after she wiped out referee Jessika Carr! The best part of this match came when Ripley kicked out of Sky’s Over the Moonsault, that was a terrific near fall! And then, out of absolutely nowhere, Naomi’s music hit, she limped down to the ring, cashed-in her Money in the Bank contract, wacked Iyo with the Briefcase, through MAMI into the ring post, and delivered her finishing move onto The Genius of the Sky to leave the show as the WWE Women’s Champion! That’s right, Naomi cashed in here, on Iyo Sky, not at Summerslam on Jade Cargill, and she ended Evolution 2 on top, crazy! In fact, if I’m being honest, the cash in itself wasn’t the best; it could’ve been done better, but overall, this was a heck of a Main Event!
Comments