WWE Evolution 2025: Biggest Winners And Losers

The long, long weekend of wrestling has come to an end, and the women of WWE brought things to a close with the wildly entertaining Evolution PLE.

The show was a mix of highs and lows, goods and bads, winners and losers, and since we’ve already broken down what happened on the show over on the results page, and we’ve also gone over what we loved and hated, so it’s time to talk winners and losers. Some winners were actual winners, some losers were winners, some winners were losers, and some losers were just plain losers. It’s been a long weekend, so I won’t waste your time with a long introduction.

Let’s break down the Winners and Losers from WWE Evolution 2025.

WWE f***ing loves Stephanie Vaquer. She’s barely been on the roster for a year, and she’s already held the NXT Women’s and Women’s North American Title, she’s been thrust onto the main roster, and now she’s won a massive battle royal to earn a shot at a main roster world title at Clash In Paris. Whether she wins or loses the upcoming title match, and momentum says she’s more likely to win than not, it’s clear that Vaquer is already thought of as a star by WWE management.

The mix of the Evolution battle royal tilted heavily in favor of up-and-coming women’s wrestlers. While there were legends like Nikki Bella and former champions like Nia Jax, the lineup was mainly a who’s who of the last few years of the NXT Women’s Division, and standing at the top of that mountain is Vaquer. Whether she challenges Naomi or Tiffany Stratton, Vaquer already feels like a threat. She has had a rocket strapped to her since the very start, and Sunday’s win doesn’t lead me to believe she’s running out of rocket fuel anytime soon. 

By all accounts, it seemed like Evolution was going to be a major return for Nikki Bella. She was likely going to take part in a headlining tag match against Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez, and then Liv Morgan got hurt, throwing plans into disarray. While WWE’s lack of overall plan for Evolution gave plenty of people a chance to step up in Liv’s absence, it led to Nikki being absorbed into a multi-woman battle royal, and while she came down to the last few competitors, it felt like she’d receded into the background by the time the bell rang. Nikki will get a consolation match tonight on “Raw” against Chelsea Green, but it doesn’t feel like Nikki can get back what would’ve likely been a very important show and press cycle.

I’m not sure why WWE wasn’t able to come up with any other plans for Nikki, other than the battle royal, but it is on their heads that the WWE Hall of Famer was so woefully downgraded. Even if Liv Morgan had been healthy, Evolution should not have relied on one match as much as it apparently did. A celebration of WWE’s women’s division should’ve been a much bigger deal in creative than the sweaty shuffling that followed Liv’s injury suggests.

It is a tired saying in wrestling, but a rising tide really does lift all ships. Nowhere is that more apparent than Evolution.

WWE PLEs have been sparse affairs as of late, often including no more than 5 matches, spaced out over a long show. Evolution had seven matches crammed into an economical, concise package, and the women’s division looks like a million dollars because of it. The show went at a brisk clip for any show, but by the standards of WWE in 2025, it was an action-packed spectacle. The women showed up prepared to impress, and WWE gave them ample opportunity throughout the card.

From the opening triple threat to the show closing match (that technically became a triple threat thanks to Naomi cashing in), the women outdid the men by every metric. The previous night’s Saturday Night’s Main Event looked sluggish, and AEW All In 2025 looked like a bloated affair, but Evolution 2025 was just right. Essentially, a Goldilocks show. The kind that made wrestling fans sing the Jim O’Rourke tune, “Women of the world take over because if you don’t the world will come to an end, and it won’t take long.”

I’m conflicted because I desperately hope that WWE doesn’t wait 7 years to do another one of these shows, but I also think that holding everyone back like a coiled spring for almost a decade led to some truly inspired performances.

Paul “Triple H” Levesque has been championing less-is-more storytelling for the entirety of his WWE booking career, and Evolution proved that the company still knows how to put on a solid, entertaining show that isn’t 40% ads for gambling and vodka. In short, Triple H is f***ed.

It’s going to be very hard for WWE fans to go back to 5-match shows, with endless waiting between matches. WWE has taken its “media conglomerate” identity to its logical extreme, presenting as much media as possible, and only as little wrestling as is necessary. Now they are headed into a two-night SummerSlam, with fans’ memories fresh with a show that seemed to be mostly gas and very few brakes. It’s going to be like speeding on the highway, speed limits be damned, only to pull off to a small town, where even driving 30mph is going to feel like crawling.

Anyway, that’s not my problem, that’s Paul “Do You Like The Show? Are You Watching?” Levesque’s problem, and I hope he’s got more planned for The Biggest Party of the Summer than just Cena, Rhodes, hype moments, and aura. People are going to want action.