WWE Evolution

20-Woman Battle Royal

Ember Moon's booking in this was really good, but other than that, this was quite the sloppy mess until the final 5 or so. Ember really brought it up a notch w/ her stellar performance. **

Io Shirai vs. Toni Storm

Twas a great showcase for Io & a very good match. Was great seeing the crowd get more & more into it as it went on. Very fun, high impact sprint w/ very good pacing. Io is so, so smooth with everything she does. ***1/2

Bayley, Natalya & Sasha Banks vs. The Riott Squad

Some damn solid trios match psychology in this one - Sasha rocked her FIP segment, and the Riott Squad were absolutely awesome doing some brutal work over her. The finishing stretch was real good as well. ***1/4

Kairi Sane vs. Shayna Baszler

The dynamic of the emotional, high impact offense, babyface Kairi going against the torturous limb destruction of Shayna just WORKS. On par with their Takeover title match & the best match of the night. ***1/2

Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair

Boring pace, "epic" "big" spots, melodramatic "STAY DOWN! " yells, kendo sticks + chairs & a 1 hour runtime. Also known as every WWE Last (Wo)Man Standing match ever. You either like them or don't, and unfortunately, for most of the time I don't, (there are exceptions though - most recently AJ & Nakamura had a very good one even with those usual tropes that I mentioned + Asuka & Nikki Cross had one of the best ones in history last year) and here I just couldn't get into this. A couple of minor positives: the start with Becky & Charlotte trying to outswag each other was cool and the leg drop through the announce table was actually a really good spot. **1/2

Ronda Rousey vs. Nikki Bella

Nikki wasn't any interesting in control, but at least they gave the control to her in the match in the best way possible, which was via Brie's interruptions. Really dug Ronda's bully antics, and she was a blast on the offense, as usual. Pretty good match. **3/4