WWE Evolution 2018 review: What we learned, takeaways, future projections

NXT Women’s Championship Match

Kairi Sane (c) vs. Shayna Baszler

What we learned: If you don’t watch NXT, you learned that Kairi Sane and Shayna Baszler are absolutely amazing competitors. Otherwise, we learned that the MMA version of the Four Horsewomen is coming sooner than we thought and that we have a new NXT Women’s Champion.

I thought this match might get a little more time than it did, but in the time Sane and Baszler did get, they took full advantage of it. This has been a very physical rivalry since the first time these two met in the finals of the inaugural Mae Young Classic last year and this match was no different. With a mix of hard-hitting strikes in and out of the ring, aerial attacks and submission maneuvers, each woman was put to the test in this bout, but in the end, it was a numbers game that would cost Kairi Sane her title.

As the match progressed, Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir, who along with Baszler and Ronda Rousey comprise that group of former MMA fighters now working for WWE, would both get involved on the challenger’s behalf, and it proved to be too much for Kairi Sane to handle. The finale saw Baszler slap on her version of the sleeper to become the first-ever two-time NXT Women’s Champion. Again, I would have liked to see this match get some more time but this was another fun match.

What’s next: With an automatic rematch coming, Kairi Sane certainly isn’t done with Shayna Baszler and her pals. A title match at WarGames is likely in the cards. As for the Horsewomen as a stable, it will be interesting to see how that develops. For one, three are down in NXT with Rousey obviously up on the main roster. They’re also heels and Ronda is the biggest face in the division right now, so it will be entertaining to see how that plays out. Who knows when it will be, but these four will inevitably battle Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch, Sasha Banks and Bayley at some point.