Evolution 2 is Finally Happening!

We've been begging for it. Pleading to for it. Praying for it to happen! Now, at long last, it's finally officially official: Evolution is back, baby!

Here's a bit of a history lesson. Seven years ago, WWE went to Saudi Arabia for the first of many, many times with the Greatest Royal Rumble event in April of 2018. This drew a lot of backlash from fans and even some talent in WWE. WWE knows that a vast majority of their fanbase are women's wrestling fans. Yet they went to a country that definitely does not respect women at all. Knowing this, WWE decided to announce, just days after Greatest Royal Rumble, that an all-women's event would take place: the aforementioned Evolution.

Now, we all knew good and well that this was a PR move. This was WWE saying to those of us who called them out for going to Saudi Arabia, "Here's your appeasement, now shut up." Even so, we focused on the positive attributes here. An all-women's event in WWE. 2018 was a big year for WWE's Women's Division, as that was the year that the very first Women's Royal Rumble took place, and the first Women's Elimination Chamber match also took place. And the culmination of the Women's Evolution, which started three years prior to that point, was the Evolution event.

The first Evolution event took place on October 28, 2018, and featured seven televised matches, and one dark match. At the time, WWE only had four championships for the women, and they were all defended. The now-defunct NXT UK Women's Championship was defended in the dark match, but the Raw, SmackDown, and NXT Women's Championships were defended on the main show. A #1 Contender's Battle Royal took place, and the final match of that year's Mae Young Classic (which also needs to return) saw Toni Storm defeat Io Shirai (now known as Iyo Sky).

I myself enjoyed the event, and was hoping for another Evolution. So a year passed. Then two. Then three. Then four. Oh boy.

A lot of fans wanted a second Evolution event. However, instead of getting anything close to that, all we got were excuses. One lie that we were told for years was, "Well, Evolution wasn't a good event because women's wrestling doesn't sell." Fuck off. A vast majority of wrestling fans are women's wrestling fans. How many of us begged for things to improve for the women in WWE? Remember "Give Divas a Chance"? The outcries to change the title? We wanted a Women's Rumble Match! We wanted women to be in the Elimination Chamber! We wanted women to main event WrestleMania! But sure, keep telling that lie.

Another tale we were told was, "We can't do it without Ronda Rousey." Ronda main evented Evolution against Nikki Bella, and while my respect for Ronda has since decreased faster than the Colorado Rockies' win percentage for this season, I will acknowledge that Ronda did say that WWE did not need her for a second Evolution. Which then leads to Excuse #3: the pandemic. I've heard some higher-ups blame the pandemic during 2020 and 2021 for this. The National Wrestling Alliance had an all-women's event known as NWA EmPowerrr. It took place on August 28, 2021--during the height of the pandemic! I consider between March 2020 and around mid-2022 to be the true rough heights of the pandemic, yet NWA had an all women's show during that stretch.

WWE was out of excuses. As more time passed, it became more and more clear that Evolution was a PR move. Hell, they went back to Saudi Arabia less than a week after Evolution! Even so, I hadn't given up on a second Evolution. The rumblings started at around the beginning of this year, and for months, it was said that Evolution 2 would happen, but the date was tentative... until it wasn't!

On the latest edition of Saturday Night's Main Event, which featured Zelina Vega's successful first defense of the Women's United States Championship against Chelsea Green, it was officially announced that Evolution 2 will happen as part of a huge weekend of wrestling in July. On July 12, the next SNME will take place, and on the following day, July 13, is when Evolution 2 will happen! A lot has changed in the near seven years since the last event. There are many more titles for WWE's women now! The main roster has the Women's World Championship, the WWE Women's Championship, the Women's Intercontinental Championship, the Women's United States Championship, and the Women's Tag Team Championship. NXT has the NXT Women's Championship and the NXT Women's North American Championship. On WWE Evolve, the process of crowning the first ever Women's Evolve Champion is ongoing. So that's eight titles for the women. Yeah, they owe us at least another Evolution.

So yes, Evolution 2 is happening on July 13. But what matches will take place at the event? Honestly, I want to save any theories regarding the card for another story. For now, I'll just drink this in. This is long overdue. We are finally getting another Evolution event. If they have anything resembling a brain in WWE, Evolution should be a perennial event, but this is a huge start.