6 Ups & 5 Downs For WWE Raw (7 July - Results & Review)

4. Way To ‘Earn’ A Title Match

Evolution has faced criticism for feeling like it has been an afterthought, a thrown-together show that exists more as counter-programming against AEW’s All In than a celebration of WWE’s women’s division.

Those wanting to criticize it have to look no further than how they booked Raw’s portion of the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship four-way match on Monday night. First, they announced that NXT’s contribution to the match would be Sol Ruca and Zaria, a team that lost their last match two weeks ago and haven’t won a televised tag match since March.

Backstage, Raw GM Adam Pearce informed an animated Kairi Sane and Asuka that he was inserting them into the tag title bout at Evolution as Raw’s representatives, despite the duo having not wrestled together since May 2024 (and hadn’t won a tag match since March 2024). There was no attempt to have them qualify or even compete together once. Sane pulled out a victory against Roxanne Perez in singles action, and that apparently was enough.

When you combine this with both women’s world champions choosing their opponents and the Women’s Intercontinental Championship contenders being determined via a double pin, you have all the makings of a lazy PLE.

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Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.