This Evolution main event had everything: a thermonuclear rivalry, a compelling story, a world title on the line, a total barn burner of a match, and then the unadulterated shock value of Naomi cashing in the Money in the Bank contract to steal the moment. 

Naomi had been at the losing end of her bout with the Queen of the Ring, Jade Cargill, earlier on in the night, an extra bitter moment for her as special guest referee Bianca Belair made the count. But for the same reason that loss didn’t matter to her in the grand scheme of things, she was back out to the shock of everyone to close the show with the Women’s World Championship. She might have lost the grudge match with her arch-rival, but she made sure to have the last laugh by winning the world title before she could, and that could certainly make things interesting for the one with an incumbent opportunity at SummerSlam. 

Now for the match that led to the moment, the pursuit of that elusive first win over Sky for Ripley, the attempt at righting the wrong of her title loss earlier this year. It was almost like the perfect record served as a double edged sword; Ripley needed to finally catch her white whale, and Sky was under pressure to keep that hold over her. Neither would be denied, but at the same time neither would allow one another to get the upper hand. When Ripley had finally kept her opponent down for the three-count, there was no referee – Jessika Carr took a gnarly bump, props to her – to make the decision official. But that just allowed her to get more creative with her offense, taking her opponent for a brawl through the crowd and trying to launch her from the production equipment. 

Sky managed to escape near-certain doom as questions over the status of the match continued to arise, landing a flying crossbody from several feet up to wipe out Ripley on the floor. Eventually the action made its way back to the ringside area, with Sky crashing into the announcer’s desk before powerbombing Ripley to the floor, landing an Over The Moonsault at the referee came back to for the closest near-fall of the bout. 

The beginning of the end of their match, and also the beginning of Naomi’s moment, came at the tail-end of a flush Spanish Fly from Ripley to Sky from the top rope; that saw both of them downed, and thus the optimal opportunity for a beaten-up Naomi to run down to the ring and make her cash in. There was a moment that threatened to be the time for someone to stuff the cash-in, but the bell rung to made things official and she quickly slammed the briefcase against Ripley’s head, following up with a Split-Legged Moonsault to steal the Women’s World title from Sky. Ripley was denied her victory over Sky, she was denied her Women’s Championship, and she was understandably far from happy. Could that mean a heel turn? Potentially, hopefully. But without getting ahead of what happened, this was excellent from start-to-finish and the perfect main event for a show like Evolution. Viva La Women’s Wrestling.

Written by Max Everett