WWE Evolution was a women's professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE. It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw, SmackDown, NXT, and NXT UK brand divisions. The event took place on October 28, 2018, at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, New York. It was the first and currently only WWE PPV to consist solely of women's matches. The main card consisted of seven matches. Three of WWE's then-four women's championships were defended on the main card; the fourth was defended in a dark match before the show. It also featured the final of the 2018 Mae Young Classic tournament. In the main event, Ronda Rousey defeated Nikki Bella by submission to retain the Raw Women's Championship. In the penultimate match, Becky Lynch defeated Charlotte Flair in a Last Woman Standing match to retain the SmackDown Women's Championship. In other prominent matches, Toni Storm defeated Io Shirai to win the 2018 Mae Young Classic, and Shayna Baszler defeated Kairi Sane to become the first two-time NXT Women's Champion. Production Background On the July 23, 2018, episode of Monday Night Raw, WWE executive Stephanie McMahon announced that for the first time, WWE would hold an all-women's pay-per-view (PPV) and WWE Network event, which was titled Evolution. It was scheduled to take place on October 28, 2018, at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, New York, replacing the previously planned Clash of Champions. WWE Hall of Famers Lita, Trish Stratus, and Beth Phoenix were advertised as taking part in the event. It was also announced that the event would host the final of the 2018 Mae Young Classic and that all four of WWE's women's championships at the time would be defended; however, the NXT UK Women's Championship match was later removed from the main card and occurred as a dark match before the show. WWE's executive vice president of talent, live events and creative Triple H explained that WWE's female performers "deserve[d] the opportunity" for a prominent showcase, and that it "was simply the right time for this to happen." He denied that the event was intended to be as a counterpoint for Crown Jewel—a subsequent pay-per-view days later in Saudi Arabia that, per the country's women's rights policies, would not include WWE's female performers at the time. Storylines The card consisted of seven matches that resulted from scripted storylines, where wrestlers portrayed villains,