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Stephanie McMahon Explains Why There Was No Evolution PPV This Year, Says Company Focus Was Getting Women’s Match In Saudi Arabia

November 3, 2019

In a new interview with Bleacher Report, WWE Chief Brand Officer Stephanie McMahon explained why the company did not run an-women’s Evolution pay per view as they had the year before, claiming that their main focus was on getting the women on a card for one of the Saudi Arabia shows.

We did consider it. A lot of our focus has been on having this particular match as a part of this PPV in Saudi Arabia. More to come on Evolution but it’s most likely not going to happen in 2019.

The “match” she’s referring to is Lacey Evans versus Natalya Neidhart, which did indeed take place at Thursday’s Crown Jewel event from Saudi Arabia. (This interview took place before the event aired.) Natalya would pick up the win after applying the sharpshooter, but both women embraced afterwards and celebrated the historic moment with fans in the first row.

McMahon was also asked about Ronda Rousey’s effect on the women’s division, and whether her star power brought more eyes to the women’s wrestling movement.

I think Ronda was certainly a part of that, for sure. You can look at Serena and Venus [Williams]. You can look at any number of female athletes who have been making such significant strides in their respective industries, Ronda being absolutely a huge part of that,” stated Stephanie. “When you consider the history of what we call the Women’s Evolution, starting with that hashtag that trended for three days worldwide in 2015, called #GiveDivasAChance, which was specifically calling for better character development, better storylines, more athleticism from our women which ultimately led to us rebranding the Divas division to the women’s division.

It led to unveiling a new championship belt more akin to the men’s but still feminine, announcing that our women would now be called superstars same as the men, which then led to our signing Ronda, our women headlining and maineventing PPVs, including for the first time ever this past April Ronda Rousey, Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch being the first ever women’s main event of Wrestlemania at MetLife Stadium in front of over 80,000 people and breaking entertainment revenue records.

Check out the full interview here.