Jamal

I was initially excited for the prospect of Evolution 2 but it felt so haphazardly put together and like an afterthought that some of my excitement started to fade. But this ended up being a really good and fun show. Matches of the night had to be the Intercontinental opener and the main but there wasn't a bad match in the batch. Kudos to everyone and nice to see the surprise Cash In on what looked like a night light on surprises (other than the Blake turn which was overdue. As she proved in AEW, she is a far better heel than face). Will be interesting to see who ends up with first crack at the new champ. And can I say, I adored that crowd. They were so in it.

Seriously.

Things start off with a confrontation between Sweet Heat and the tag champs, leading to the eventual rematch. I wish we would get more stuff like this to help beef up the feud. Fury vs Cruz: Cruz is going to be a solid addition to WOW. Decent start against Fury here. McLane would be crazy to not get more of these PC releases. The Alliance vs Sugar and Spice and Holidead: Had to be the strongest Sugar and Spice have looked yet. Liked some of the double team stuff they did with Holidead. They certainly gave the Alliance more fight than I expected in a fun competitive match. Collins vs Phoenix: It was nice for what we got. I expected a Phoenix win but not so quickly. She has to be in line for a title match soon. Fatal 4 Way: I honestly had no idea how this would go as a case could be made for any of the four involved. The plus side of the previous match going so short is that we will likely get some time with this which should be good. And I was right. A really good match to close the show. Everyone looked good.

Tormenta vs Sanchez: Nice match between the two. Good to see Tormenta with some momentum. Brat Pack vs Kalaki and Tiki: Strange to see the Pack rolling solo. I half expected them to lose as a result but I should have known better. lol But I will say that the Island Girls looked good even in defeat. Fury vs Sandy: Sandy's probably the strongest wrestler in Spring Break so I figured that she would give Fury a bit of a fight before she put her down. And I was right lol Another solid match. While all three matches were perfectly fine, they felt like souped up squashes and there was not really a surprise on any of the sets of winners. But this episode is really all about the main event anyway. Sweet Heat vs Pink/Swag: Liked the package for this match. Really played up everything leading to this moment. I love how commentary played up a conflicted Lana all episode only to have her come out firmly Team Swag/Pink lol Glad to see the match end as it did as I feel there is still some juice to be drawn from this feud

Nice moment for Naomi and it actually makes the most sense for her to win as none of the others really needed it. It benefits her new character far more. I dug Becky/Lyra. I like that Becky had to cheat to win and that all of her arrogance ended up getting her taken out post match. Would love to see this program continue but, with the way Becky was going after Naomi during the post match press interviews, I'm wondering.

Genesis vs Aussie: Solid opener from these two as expected. Curious to see whatever that top rope Genesis went for would have been if it had connected. Both pulled out some good stuff, including the Dragon Suplex from Aussie, and liked that they were so even that the win pretty much had to come with a little help. Animal Instinct vs Chantilly/Roxxy: Another good match. Neither faction has been super dominant lately so I wasn't sure who was gonna win. I was leaning AI so I was pleasantly surprised. Xena vs VVV: Xena has been pretty good in-ring wise and VVV seems to have a handle on the character stuff. So, figured this would be fine. Did you know Xena was from Albania? LOL Pretty much a glorified squash for the white hot Phoenix. Face Sweet Heat are kinda blowing my mind a bit lol But looking forward to the main event at the next show with Penelope and Holly. Reina vs Santana: Fun main, with all the Brat Pack cheating, that looks to continue to set Santana up for her eventual world title rematch.

Decent opener with Big Rigs and Bourbon taking down the Brat Pack. Surprised to see the Brats take the win and the former champs take out Reina. Maybe there's more down the line. Really liked Scout vs Genesis. Surprised that they didn't play up the former Exile connection more during the match. Scout is so underrated. She's almost always solid. The ending kind of came out of nowhere but good stuff for what we got. The hoopla over Twin vs Twin is so WOW. Solid stuff from the Twins. Cool that they were allowed some time but, to me, there felt like very little real heat so it was good to see the swerve. It was crazy to end in a no contest though when they technically used the weapons on the outside crew and not each other. But eh. The post match promo was cool but I'm not sure how I feel about Sweet Heat being faces again as they were such great heels. But they were due some sort of reset.

So Scout Parker finally bought herself a win, huh? lol Really liked that the main event got some time to play out. I actually expected an Aussie/Tormenta win for a minute there. Instead, we get more heat for what looks like a Fab 4 implosion. I can dig it.

Was really looking forward to the main and it didn't disappoint. I was hoping that Hayter would pick up the win because I felt like she needed it more than Stat and the Owen Tournament has done a great job in rebuilding her. So, I was pleased to see her take this. Mone doesn't mind a death by Hoss so she and Hayter should be fun.

I would have been perfectly fine with Night Two beginning and ending with Iyo/Bianca/Rhea. Hell, that match could have just been Wrestlemania itself.

Would have liked Naomi/Jade to get a little more time but I'm wondering if the shorter time was for Jade's benefit. Seems like the majority of her singles matches haven't gone too far past the 10-11 minute mark. I felt like Naomi needed this win more since she's establishing a new heel character and Jade is pretty much made. But it is what it is. They got to pull out some decent spots although that last power bomb looked scary from the initial angle. Charlotte/Tiffany was a match. I felt like everyone involved was trying so hard to make this feel like something that it wasn't that I was over it all by the time of the actual match. I'm one of the apparently few people that doesn't hate Charlotte Flair lol And I still think she adds something to the product (love the mention of her as grumpy vet as that is a perfect shift for her) And I think Tiffany is a perfectly fine wrestler although I'm still not sold on her face persona (although they really had no choice but to turn her at this point) But this match was just...eh. I'm actually glad that it's finally done and that they both hopefully move on to something else. For a Mania, I've been pretty underwhelmed overall. I've been more excited about the Indy shows during Mania week than actual Mania.

"Like, girl, all I really did was push you." Naomi is unhinged https://youtu.be/Er0AMKgWvjM?si=-hV0ctGF5in52QZn

Athena/Mercedes was everything I needed expected. Great work from both women. Match could have gone either way so I was legit surprised. And the Toni tease was great. I'm really hoping Hayter ends up winning this as her character is probably the one that would benefit most.

The Alliance vs Holidead/Chantilly/Kalaki: Good opener and the winning team surprised me. I'm digging the chemistry between Holidead, Chantilly, and the Island Girl. Chainsaw vs Roxxy: Roxxy continues to be one of my favorites. She's just done a great job of taking to wrestling. Sucks to lose out to Chainsaw but she and Daisy are on a roll. I keep wondering if these Angelica Dante mentions are leading to something or just a case of WOW being WOW. Trios Title Match: With all of the issues between these teams, I thought this match would get a little more focus. But I guess they decided to put the attention on the World Title match later despite this match having more heat and build. When Ashley came out on crutches again, I was wondering if we were due more shenanigans lol So, we end up with a tag match instead, which works to keep the beef going. Paola vs Classmaster: The double cheating from managers, while the ref watched, was a choice. lol I was wondering why the match continued after Paola very obviously attacked the referee so it was cool that ended up playing into her downfall. I'm assuming a rematch is on the way.

It felt like Ladies' Night on Collision and I was here for it. The opener was really good with Jamie and Billie outdoing themselves. Good to see Jamie get the win but Billie looked very strong in defeat. Athena/Harley was fine. Harley's still putting it all together and awkward in some spots but I think it fits her character. Athena/Mercedes should be fun. Megan needs to win the women's title sooner rather than later.