WWE Announces More Names for Battle Royal at Evolution Including Two Hall of Famers
The women’s only Evolution pay-per-view takes place in eight days on Sunday, October 28 at the Nassau Coliseum in Long Island, New York. One of the matches taking place is a battle royal where the winner will earn a championship opportunity.
On Friday, WWE announced that five former WWE superstars (or divas as some of them were known) will be taking part in the match including Molly Holly, Michelle McCool, Kelly Kelly and Hall of Famers Alundra Blayze (aka Madusa) and Ivory. Maria Kanellis, who is on the current roster, is also going to be in the battle royal.
You can see the photo of the women in the battle royal at the top of the post, but here’s a listing too:
1. Asuka
2. Nia Jax
3. Ember Moon
4. Naomi
5. Ivory
6. Carmella
7. Dana Brooke
8. Alicia Fox
9. Kelly Kelly
10. Lana
11. Mandy Rose
12. Sonya Deville
13. Michelle McCool
14. Molly Holly
15. Tamina Snuka
16. Billie Kay
17. Peyton Royce
18. Alundra Blayze
19. Maria Kanellis
20. Torrie Wilson
There will probably be more names added to the match, but that hasn’t been announced yet. The case can be made that 20 is a good number, but there are several NXT women that could be added since the only NXT match right now is Kairi Sane defending her title against former champion Shayna Baszler.
Ivory will be the oldest woman in the match at 56 years of age, but as we saw at the Hall of Fame, she’s in great shape.
Alundra Blayze is 54 years old and hasn’t wrestled since her WCW days around 2000 or so. A break for 18 years is a long time although she was a great wrestler and I’m sure she’ll be ready or else she likely would have said no. She really was a trailblazer for women’s wrestling. I know she had a knee replacement surgery in December 2017. It’s a long road back, but again if she wasn’t ready I doubt they would put her in the match.
In just TWO WEEKS at #WWEEvolution, @trishstratuscom & @AmyDumas will team together again when they take on @AlexaBliss_WWE & @MickieJames! #RAWpic.twitter.com/aJGxCHYioe
— WWE (@WWE) October 16, 2018
Here’s the lineup:
Raw Women’s Championship: Ronda Rousey (c) vs. Nikki Bella
Smackdown Women’s Championship Last Woman Standing: Becky Lynch (c) vs. Charlotte Flair – That’s the main event to me, but WWE may put the Rousey match on last.
Trish Stratus and Lita vs. Mickie James and Alexa Bliss
NXT Women’s Championship: Kairi Sane vs. Shayna Baszler
Battle Royal for a future Championship match – Names include: Nia Jax, Dana Brooke, Alicia Fox, Ember Moon, Peyton Royce, Billie Kay, Tamina, Asuka, Mandy Rose, Carmella, Lana, Sonya Deville, Naomi, Torrie Wilson, Alundra Blayze, Ivory, Michelle McCool, Molly Holly, Kelly Kelly and Maria Kanellis.
Mae Young Classic Tournament Final – I won’t list the names because that’s a spoiler.
NXT UK Championship Match – I won’t list a spoiler here either.
I assume Sasha Banks, Bayley and Natalya vs. The Riott Squad will be added as well.
To get you ready for Evolution, WWE is also airing a special documentary about the PPV on USA Network on Monday after Raw, which we covered here on Friday.