WWE News: Lacey Evans Announces She Is Pregnant (She Really Is), Changes to WWE Elimination Chamber Lineup
There was an announcement on WWE Raw last night, but not the kind of announcement we are used to hearing on a weekly basis. The announcement came from Raw superstar Lacey Evans, who let the world know that she is pregnant.
Lacey dropped the news during her tag team match with Peyton Royce (they were joined by Lacey’s “manager” Ric Flair) against the team of Asuka and Charlotte Flair. The story was that Charlotte Flair wanted to get her hands on Lacey, but Lacey refused to tag in. When Peyton did tag Lacey in, Lacey left the ring and made her announcement.
Lacey told Charlotte: “You’re not putting your hands on me. Charlotte, I’m pregnant.” Evans nodded at Ric, who did some strutting and shouted “WOO” repeatedly. Ric said “call me daddy” too. That’s the same Ric Flair that is 71 years old and turns 72 on February 25.
Here’s what we know. Lacey is legitimately pregnant. That was confirmed by WrestlingInc along with PWInsider and others. She likely found out within the last week because Lacey was in a match with Charlotte Flair last week on Raw. If they knew she was pregnant at that point then she wasn’t going to be in a match. A pregnant woman should not be wrestling. We all know that. Obviously, it’s early in the process. This also means that Lacey is not going to get a match at Elimination Chamber against Asuka for the Raw Women’s Title this Sunday.
Evans is 30 years old, she’s married to a husband that has been at many WWE shows in the past and they have a daughter named Summer together. We wish Lacey and her family all the best with the arrival of their baby later this year.
What does this mean for the storyline with Ric Flair? I don’t know. It’s possible that WWE keeps Evans on TV while pregnant the way they did when Maria Kanellis was pregnant with her second child and actually won the 24/7 Title while pregnant. The Ric/Lacey story saw Ric do promos about how he was training her to be a better wrestler, but they never said they were having sex together although that was kind of the “wink, wink” aspect of the story. The clip below is from Raw Talk earlier in the month and then Ric did a similar promo on Raw last week.
TJR Thoughts: I really hope they don’t try to tell us that Ric Flair is the father of this baby. Just move on from this storyline that was never good in the first place. Lacey can be with her family, she’ll have this baby and who knows when she can return to the ring in 2022 at some point. That’s up to her. As I wrote above, I think WWE was only away that Lacey was really pregnant either yesterday or a couple of days before that.
I think Ric reacting to the promo the way he did might mean that they will keep the storyline on TV. I think it would be awful, though. This is Ric Flair, man. He shouldn’t be taking part in these kinds of stupid angles. Without Lacey wrestling, what would the payoff be for Charlotte? It isn’t helping her at all. If Ric really wants to be a manager on the show then put him with a male wrestler or a tag team and move on from this lame storyline.
ELIMINATION CHAMBER LINEUP
Looking ahead to Elimination Chamber this Sunday, there is no Raw Women’s Title match on the show now that Asuka vs. Lacey Evans is off. That means there are only four official matches. We could find out more matches for the Raw brand later in the week or perhaps just a few Smackdown matches will be added. Here’s what we know so far.
WWE Championship Elimination Chamber Match: Drew McIntyre (c) vs. Jeff Hardy vs. Randy Orton vs. AJ Styles vs. Sheamus (#6) vs. Kofi Kingston
Smackdown Elimination Chamber Match: Kevin Owens vs. Jey Uso vs. Sami Zayn vs. King Corbin vs. Cesaro vs. Daniel Bryan
Universal Championship Match: Roman Reigns (c) vs. Smackdown Elimination Chamber Match Winner
United States Championship: Bobby Lashley (c) (w/MVP) vs. Keith Lee vs. Riddle
Don’t miss all the action of WWE Elimination Chamber, streaming live on the award-winning WWE Network on Sunday, Feb. 21, at 7 ET/4 PT!