5 Ways WWE Could Improve Evolution 

Since WWE’s inception, female wrestlers have fought to prove themselves as more than just ‘Divas’ and to leave behind a legacy to make something like WWE Evolution possible.

From Alundra Blayze in the New Generation Era to Trish Stratus and Lita in the Attitude Era, AJ Lee in the PG-Era and the Four Horsewomen in the ‘New’ Era; these are just a handful of women that have contributed to proving that female wrestlers can hold their own pay-per-view.

This Sunday will mark a historic night, with all the women championships available in WWE being defended, and other exciting matches like the Mae Young Classic final and WWE’s first ever Last Woman Standing match. \

However, whilst the WWE Universe has a lot to look forward on the all-women’s wrestling pay-per-view this weekend, there are still a few ways that WWE can improve on the event and turn it not just into a historical pay-per-view but also an unforgettable one.

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#5 Holding a Gauntlet match instead of a women’s battle royal

The battle royale will under-utilise a lot of these quality wrestlers.

If history has taught us anything, it is that battle royales are generally quick and underwhelming. At WrestleMania 25, twenty-three women (and Santino Marella) competed for a total combined time of just under 8 minutes together.

Even in this year’s WrestleMania, a twenty woman battle royale didn’t even get ten minutes of airtime. WWE Evolution is supposed to stand for how far women’s wrestling has come and having an over the top battle royal, where most wrestlers don’t get a chance to showcase any of their abilities is in many ways, is counterproductive.

An alternative to this would be to have a Gauntlet match instead - albeit with slightly fewer wrestlers competing. It could have started with qualifying matches in the run-up to Evolution (like the WWE World Cup) with competitors ‘running the gauntlet’ until there’s a winner. This gives the WWE Universe the more desirable option of ten women competing effectively rather than twenty women who don’t have the opportunity to show off their talents and remind us how far female wrestling has come.

It’s proven to work in the past, as Sasha Banks won a gauntlet on Raw back in June to clinch the last spot in the Money in the Bank ladder match, so there’s every opportunity for them to do it again.

#4 Introducing a Women’s Tag Team Championship

The IIconics are just one of many tag teams that would fit nicely into this category.

Although it could be argued that the WWE is saturated with championship titles at the moment, adding a Women’s Tag Team Championship is simply a no-brainer.

It is very common to see women’s tag matches on a weekly basis on Raw and Smackdown, and with the likes of The Boss ‘N’ Hug Connection, The IIconics, The Riott Squad to name a few, you can see why WWE invests a lot of time in women’s tag team matches.

At the moment, most of these matches are usually a lead into a new feud or the fuel for a new title contender storyline. However, with the tag teams that are currently in place and new teams forming on a constant basis, the women’s tag team division has more than enough talent and introducing a new women’s title on an all-women’s pay-per-view would make an ideal setting.

#3 Making the Raw’s Championship into a no disqualification or triple threat match

There is really only one victor for this match.

If there is one thing that the WWE Universe know is that Ronda Rousey is superhuman. As she stated on the 15th October episode of Raw, she has been knocking down doors everywhere she has set her eyes on, not least of which includes being the UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion for just under three years.

In the WWE alone, she has already claimed a woman’s championship within a year of signing with the company, made two women tap out simultaneously at WWE Super Show Down, and currently holds the record of taking out the most security guards this year.

With the greatest of respect to Nikki Bella, it could be easy to see this as something of a mismatch for Evolution. If there is any belief that Brie Bella at ringside may swing the favour of Nikki Bella causing one of the biggest upsets in recent memory, there shouldn’t be. Alexa Bliss recently had both Alicia Fox and Mickie James at ringside at Hell in a Cell, and that still didn’t stop Ronda from winning.

The only way that fans won’t be certain about who will walk away with the gold on the night is introducing Brie Bella into the mix either in a one-on-two handicap, a triple threat match or by making the match a no disqualification match. This is because, on the 8th October episode of Raw when the Bellas turned on Ronda, they still showed they just about had the upper hand on a 2-on-1 confrontation. Having Brie as a participant rather than a valet or changing the stipulation on the night could swing the scale either way.

#2 Creating a brand warfare match with an incentive

Brand Warfare shouldn't only be exclusive to Survivor Series

In the last few years ‘brand warfare’ has almost exclusively been used in the Survivor Series pay-per-view, but it’s not necessarily a hard and fast rule that it can only be done at Survivor Series. In addition to this, many of the pay-per-views following the brand split (Survivor Series 2003-2010) didn’t even have brand warfare as the central component, with many of the traditional 5-on-5 elimination matches being fought inside the same brand.

Evolution is the perfect way of introducing brand warfare into the women’s division, as well as giving a new and exciting reason to bring even more classic matches to this pay-per-view.

As stated earlier, a 20 woman battle royal was a very bad idea, but instead of having too many women in one match, splitting them up in half to create this match would be a far better alternative. It could consist of legends and wrestlers of both brands with a strong incentive for the victors, such as acquiring any female wrestler from NXT, or they get to each have a request granted from the general manager, rather than the bragging rights that no-one cares about or really mentions once the event is over.

#1 Giving the six-woman tag match an incentive

A match with no real purpose for the victors.

In many ways, this statement could have easily been ‘Sasha Banks or Bayley confirming fighting each other on the event’ considering they are the only two female wrestlers to win Pro Wrestling Illustrated Match of the year in its 46-year history, but that ship has sailed many months ago. Even if the WWE did decide to finally bring this feud to a head, it’s been such an off-again-on-again rivalry that the WWE Universe will have probably stopped caring about what happens.

The problem that’s caused this match to even happen in the first place is that none of these women was confirmed to appear on the pay-per-view until the go-home show of Raw before Evolution.

Whilst the Riott Squad are still building their careers, Natalya, Bayley and Sasha Banks have all been key wrestlers in the women’s revolution and should have been confirmed to appear much earlier. Instead, they’ve been thrown together into a feud that doesn’t really exist with the victors gaining nothing from the win.

Even though the same can probably be said for Trish and Lita against Alexa Bliss and Mickie James, the key difference is that one tag-team were retired prior to returning in the ring at the Royal Rumble this year making this match a ‘once in a lifetime’ type match. In comparison, these six women regularly wrestle each other in singles, tag team and six-woman tag matches on a weekly basis. The fact there is no incentive for the victors makes this match no different to what we see every week on Raw.

The only way to make this match different to what the WWE Universe has been seeing for much of this year is by introducing a bizarre incentive into this match, such as ‘Loser Leaves Raw’ or the ‘Losing Team must disband’.