WWE Evolution: Star Ratings For All 7 Matches
The best WWE pay-per-view of 2018.
The build to Evolution completely underwhelmed, but who cares?
Stephanie McMahon graced the women with the opportunity to wrestle on the first-ever all-women's pay-per-view. This, for too bloody long, felt like the point: Stephanie McMahon is a magnanimous revolutionary, and Evolution was a result of - and incidental to - her brilliance.
The cynicism intensified as the hype fizzled out. Everything about the show felt like a contrivance, a lie: the show wasn't the first-ever all-women's pay-per-view, and existed only to obscure WWE's subsequent Saudi Arabia propaganda drive which, given the events surrounding Crown Jewel, only exacerbated the ill will extended towards the show. This, combined with the slut-shaming promos, relegation of Asuka, Bayley and Sasha Banks, and the first and second acts of the Charlotte Flair Vs. Becky Lynch programme, threatened to engulf Evolution.
On the night itself, something genuinely magical happened.
Throughout a show demonstrably produced by Triple H, the cynicism faded away. Several performers put in the shift of their lives. Filler became fantastic. WWE restored the art of the show - so many WWE events are overlong cards now - once more with Evolution's perfect sequencing.
And Stephanie McMahon didn't even put herself over!
7. Trish Stratus & Lita Vs. Alicia Fox & Mickie James
That crowd was something to behold. High on nostalgia, they provided a fabulous atmosphere for a match that never really aimed for a star rating.
Lita looked ropy - there's no disguising that - but, in stark contrast to certain other part-time performers we've suffered through recently, never veered into embarrassment territory. Her work didn't look smooth, but it did receive a booming reaction, and made for a heartwarming moment. Lita's initial WWE exit was absolutely rancid stuff, regressive even by the dire standards of the time. She doesn't still have "it", but she has retained the respect of the crowd.
Trish Stratus, however, is evergreen. Her sequence with famous rival Mickie James was stirring stuff, and the dexterity required to pull off the Frankensteiner spot was deeply impressive irrespective of age. Stratus is lionised in WWE canon, and with good reason, on this evidence. She didn't just receive respectful "You've still got it" chants; in dialling up the heat with a stern exchange of words, teasing dangerous bumps, unloading forearms, and assaulting Mickie with her athletic arsenal, she elicited anxiety and euphoria to bring the noise.
More nice than fire, this opener sung, nonetheless.
Star Rating: **3/4