With a massive wrestling weekend ahead of us, including the Bill Goldberg/Gunther world title match at Saturday Night’s Main event, and The AEW All In Texas pay-per-view, the second women’s Evolution PPV is unintentionally an afterthought. That’s not to mention the Great American Bash premium live event that will be held Saturday afternoon to go head-to-head with the AEW event. I don’t think it’s that management was trying to minimize the spotlight on the female division, especially because of the way that the women on the roster were given a much more notable platform within the past few years, but rather a mere matter of logistics.
Just two weeks after the Saudi Arabia pay-per-view and three weeks before the two-night Summer Slam weekend, The Evolution event finds itself stuck in between two signature shows so there just wasn’t realistically enough time to build it up in a way that you’d expect for a proper pay-per-view. Furthermore, the office can’t necessarily book each marquee match in the division that might theoretically be on the table since they have to save some notable contests for Summer Slam weekend.
The result is that the matches were still being finalized this week on WWE television, including on the Raw and NXT programs. While it makes sense to include the women from the NXT brand to maximize the number of female performers that can get a chance to showcase their talent, it also created a disjointed promotional push for the PPV, mostly because the developmental show has roughly half of the viewership of the main roster brands.
It’s not meant as a knock on the developmental crew, just a matter of fact based on the numbers, there’s a portion of the WWE audience that’s simply not familiar with the NXT grapplers. As trivial as it might sound, that aspect itself could curb the amount of interest for the event, at least for live event tickets.
In some ways, the “selling point” of pay-per-view in terms of a broadcast is an antiquated concept, as a subscription fee for Peacock is $7.99, which includes the extensive WWE library so the shows don’t have to be nearly as stacked as they were during a prior generation because modern PPV doesn’t have to justify the traditional $40 price tag.
That being said, WrestleTix reported that just over 4,500 tickets are sold for a set up of just over 6.500 at the State Farm Arena. That’s not a terrible draw by any means, but the company has regularly touted sellouts for TV tapings in bigger venues. Again, I don’t think this is an indication of the female talent not being a draw, but rather how the lack of an overall build and a proper amount of time for a promotional push affected the perception of this show. Somehow, the second all-women’s pay-per-view was scheduled just a few weeks before the first two-night Summer Slam event, which is very important for the company, as they will have to add a lot of fuel to the WWE machine to prove that a weekend event is worthwhile. Granted, I don’t think even Wrestlemania should be two nights, but from a corporate perspective, the success of Summer Slam this year could establish it as a regular weekend presentation each year, which means cities will theoretically pay more money in site fees for the right to host the event.
It might sound dramatic, but there are millions of dollars in future revenue possibly at stake based on the success of Summer Slam this year to become a two-night event going forward. Keep in mind, the economic impact of signature WWE events brought to each city is measured in millions, and it’s such an important part of the business and tax revenue of those locations that Las Vegas outbid New Orleans for Wrestlemania next year. The bottom line is, a two-night Summer Slam is a bigger selling point for the TKO corporation when they look for cities to bid on the rights to host the shows. Two nights of Summer Slam, very similar to the concept behind the expansion of Wrestlemania, is a second show for more hotel rooms booked, more plane tickets sold, and more restaurants occupied in those cities that fans travel to for the pay-per-views.
So, from strictly a numbers perspective, it’s easy to see why Summer Slam must get the top matches in the women’s division, but I must say that I think the way that the Evolution pay-per-view was promoted, or the lack thereof is a shame because it doesn’t do near enough justice to the depth of the division.
I’ve said it before and I will say it again, the women’s division is probably the most consistent quality aspect of WWE programming.
More than anything, the thrown together nature of this PPV makes it seem like a B-show even when the talent involved are top notch. Jacy Jayne vs. Jordynne Grace for the NXT Women’s title is an example of a bout that will only have minimal interest because of the difference in viewership between the developmental and main roster brands mentioned earlier. Iyo Sky vs. Rhea Ripley is a match I’m looking forward to and it could steal the show in terms of performance, but it was booked to give this show some fuel, not because of an established rivalry between the two competitors. The reason that matters is that it was probably just put on the line-up to give Iyo, who hasn’t defended her belt too often since she won it, a challenger for the championship. If this isn’t a one-off contest, the Evolution match will be used to set something up for Summer Slam, which makes this show a bridge to a bigger event, not a featured pay-per-view.
The four-way tag match for the tag titles was nothing more than a way to shoehorn as many wrestlers on the card as possible. That’s fine, but the match itself is superficial rather than anything that is must-see, despite the tremendous amount of talent involved. The battle royal is merely cannon fodder. Trish Stratus vs. Tiffany Stratton is a bout that could provide some substance to a show that has very little, and it creates a level of intrigue since Trish might actually win the title if she has another short run planned as opposed to a cameo. It will be interesting to see if the result of this match leads to a heel turn at some point, especially prior to Summer Slam. Much of the same can be said for Naomi vs. Jade Cargill, as there’s still a lot of unfinished business between the two from when it was revealed that Naomi was the attacker that sidelined Jade. The story seemed incomplete with more to be revealed, and perhaps, this will be a way to reignite the feud before there’s a concrete resolution to the storyline.
Becky Lynch vs. Lyra Valkyria is a feud that has been benifical to both athletes, as it allowed for a new chapter for Becky with something fresh to do as a heel, and Valkyria has been elevated in the process. That said, while Bayley is one of the absolute best female performers in the history of the company, adding her to the main event for a triple threat match seems like another case of adding more wrestlers to a match just to get them on the card. Sure, Bayley probably should have more important things to do this year, but given her popularity and how solid her skills are, it’s not a hindrance to her star power if she wasn’t booked for this show.
If this seems like a criticism of the all-women’s pay-per-view, it’s quite the opposite. There are three WWE events this weekend, and if nothing else, that doesn’t help the live gate of the PPV, considering that the ticket prices are outrageous right now. Goldberg’s retirement match is tough competiton for any event, and it might be a matter of fans deciding what event to attend because of how expensive tickets are. Most importantly, the talent in the women’s division is at such a top level that it shouldn’t be relegated to the B-show before Summer Slam. Ripley, Iyo, Bayley, Bianca, Asuka, Beckly, and the others deserve a bigger platform for this type of event.
What do you think? Share your thoughts, opinions, feedback, and anything else that was raised on Twitter @PWMania and Facebook.com/PWMania.
Until next week
-Jim LaMotta
Email [email protected] | You can follow me on Instagram, Facebook, & Threads @jimlamotta89
