The 2025 Evolution was a women's professional wrestling premium live event (PLE) produced by WWE, held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw, SmackDown, and NXT brand divisions. It was the second Evolution event and took place on July 13, 2025, at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia. This was the first Evolution and the first all-women's professional wrestling event to broadcast on both Netflix and Peacock, and the first Evolution since the inaugural 2018 event seven years prior. This was subsequently the first Evolution to be branded as a "premium live event", a term the company introduced at the start of 2022 to refer to its events airing on traditional pay-per-view and via WWE's livestreaming platforms.
Seven matches were contested at the event. In the main event, Naomi defeated Rhea Ripley and defending champion Iyo Sky to win Raw's Women's World Championship; this originally started as a singles match between Sky and Ripley, however, Naomi cashed in her Money in the Bank contract during the match, making it a triple threat match. Earlier on the card, Naomi had lost a No Holds Barred match to Jade Cargill, which featured Bianca Belair as special guest referee. In other prominent matches, Tiffany Stratton defeated WWE Hall of Famer Trish Stratus to retain SmackDown's WWE Women's Championship, Becky Lynch successfully defended Raw's WWE Women's Intercontinental Championship against Lyra Valkyria and Bayley in a triple threat match, Jacy Jayne successfully retained the NXT Women's Championship against Jordynne Grace, and Raw's Stephanie Vaquer won the Evolution Battle Royal to earn a women's championship match, originally slated to take place at Clash in Paris, however, it was rescheduled for Wrestlepalooza due to Naomi vacating the belt after going on maternity leave.
Production Background
In October 2018, the American professional wrestling promotion WWE held an all-women's professional wrestling event called Evolution. This was WWE's first pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event to consist solely of women's matches and featured women from all of WWE's brand divisions at the time: Raw, SmackDown, NXT, and NXT UK, the latter of which was dissolved in 2022. Over the next few years, there had been various comments from people within WWE on a potential second Evolution event, with support from a number of WWE female performers.
Before wrestler Mickie James's release from WWE in April 2021, she had pushed for the company to produce another all-female event as well as an all-female brand, but said she was "cut off at every opportunity". She claimed an unnamed WWE official told her that "women's wrestling doesn't make money" and that Evolution was the company's "lowest-rated pay-per-view ever in the history of WWE pay-per-views". In June 2021, former WWE wrestler Maria Kanellis also stated that former Head of WWE Talent Relations, Mark Carano, informed her that there would not be another all-female event, although in a conference call that same month, Paul "Triple H" Levesque said that a second Evolution was possible, "but it's not a must-have at the moment".
After another few years, a report emerged on March 6, 2025, that WWE were in fact planning to hold a second Evolution event. Bodyslam.net stated that the company were aiming to hold the event on July 5, 2025, at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, but noted that while the event was in the works, the schedule was tentative. On May 12, 2025, a new report from PWInsider stated that the company was now looking to hold the event a week later from Atlanta, Georgia during the same weekend as Saturday Night's Main Event XL. WWE then confirmed this with an announcement during Saturday Night's Main Event XXXIX on May 24, with the second all-women's Evolution event scheduled for Sunday, July 13 at Atlanta's State Farm Arena; Saturday Night's Main Event XL was held the day before at the same venue, while NXT held The Great American Bash on the afternoon of Saturday Night's Main Event at the nearby Center Stage. Evolution was held on the same night as the third part of Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter Tour, emanating from the nearby Mercedes-Benz Stadium, which had caused concerns on attendance and viewership. This was subsequently the first Evolution to be branded as a "premium live event" (PLE), a term the company introduced on January 1, 2022, to refer to its events that are available on PPV and via livestreaming.
Broadcast outlets The PLE was broadcast on traditional PPV outlets worldwide. It was also available to livestream on Peacock in the United States, Netflix in most international markets, and the WWE Network in any remaining countries that had not transferred to Netflix due to pre-existing contracts. This marked the first Evolution, and the first all-women's professional wrestling event, to livestream on Peacock and Netflix following the WWE Network's merger under the services in March 2021 in the United States and in January 2025 in the aforementioned international markets, respectively.
Storylines The event included seven matches that resulted from scripted storylines. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw, SmackDown, and NXT brands, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw, Friday Night SmackDown, and NXT.
After Jacy Jayne successfully defended the NXT Women's Championship on the June 10 episode of NXT, NXT General Manager Ava announced that on the following episode, the NXT Women's Championship Evolution Eliminator would begin. This consisted of four matches, with each winner advancing to a fatal four-way match on the June 24 episode, where the winner of that match would face Jayne for the championship at Evolution. The fatal four-way was won by Jordynne Grace.
On the March 3 episode of Raw, Iyo Sky defeated Rhea Ripley to win the Women's World Championship. Ripley was then inserted into a triple threat match for the title on Night 2 of WrestleMania 41, where Sky retained. Over the next few months, Ripley set her sights on getting a rematch. After her victory at Night of Champions, Ripley opened the following episode of Raw, where she was confronted by Sky, who said that Raw General Manager Adam Pearce allowed her to defend her title at Evolution against an opponent of her choosing, with Sky subsequently choosing to defend the title against Ripley at the event.
On the June 16 episode of Raw, WWE Women's Tag Team Champion Liv Morgan suffered a legitimate dislocated shoulder during a match against Kairi Sane, which required surgery, ruling Morgan out of action for several months. Around this time, Roxanne Perez began inserting herself into Morgan's faction, The Judgment Day. On the June 30 episode of Raw, Judgment Day members Finn Bálor and JD McDonagh proposed to Raw General Manager Adam Pearce and SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis to have Perez replace Morgan so that she and Raquel Rodriguez could defend the title. Pearce and Aldis agreed on one condition: Rodriguez and Perez had to defend the Women's Tag Team Championship at Evolution against one team from each brand in a fatal four-way tag team match. Bálor and McDonagh agreed and the match was made official. On the July 4 episode of SmackDown, Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair defeated Michin and B-Fab and The Secret Hervice (Alba Fyre and Piper Niven) to earn SmackDown's spot. On Raw the next week, NXT's team was announced as Sol Ruca and Zaria while on that same episode, Sane defeated Perez in a singles match, followed by a beatdown from Rodriguez and Perez. Asuka came to Sane's aid, reuniting The Kabuki Warriors. They were subsequently added to the match representing Raw.
At the original Evolution in 2018, a battle royal was held where the winner received a future women's world championship match. On the June 30 episode of Raw, Raw and SmackDown's General Managers, Adam Pearce and Nick Aldis, announced that the 2025 Evolution would also have a battle royal with the winner earning a title match at Clash in Paris.
During the July 4 episode of SmackDown, WWE Women's Champion Tiffany Stratton addressed her scheduled title defense at SummerSlam against Queen of the Ring winner Jade Cargill. Stratton then revealed she would also defend her title at Evolution, and that she was allowed to choose her opponent. After Cargill interrupted, Stratton stated that she had a surprise, prompting WWE Hall of Famer Trish Stratus to come out, who Stratton had previously teamed with and was victorious with at Elimination Chamber in March. Stratton said that she wanted to defend her title against Stratus at Evolution, which Stratus accepted.
On the November 22, 2024, episode of SmackDown, Jade Cargill was found attacked backstage by an unknown assailant, ruling her out of action indefinitely. During Cargill's absence, Naomi volunteered to replace Cargill as one-half of the WWE Women's Tag Team Champions alongside Bianca Belair. Naomi and Belair assumed that Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez, whom they were feuding with at the time, were responsible for the attack as they launched their own investigation. This led to a title match between the two teams on the February 24, 2025, episode of Raw, where Naomi and Belair lost the title. Shortly after, both Naomi and Belair qualified for the women's Elimination Chamber match at the namesake event. Before the match began, Cargill made a surprise return and attacked Naomi, who was rendered medically unable to compete in the match. On the following episode of SmackDown, Naomi revealed herself as Cargill's attacker and said she regretted not attacking her sooner, turning heel for the first time since 2016. This led to a match between Cargill and Naomi on Night 1 of WrestleMania 41, which Cargill won. Their rivalry continued after the event, with Cargill defeating Naomi in a tag team match, and Naomi defeating Cargill in a triple threat qualifying match for a spot in the Money in the Bank ladder match, which Naomi subsequently won. After Naomi attacked Cargill on the July 4 episode of SmackDown with her Money in the Bank briefcase, a No Holds Barred match between the two was scheduled for Evolution. After a brawl between the two during Saturday Night's Main Event XL, SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis announced that Belair would be the special guest referee for the match.
On Night 2 of WrestleMania 41, Bayley was scheduled to team with Lyra Valkyria to challenge for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship; however, on Night 1, Bayley was attacked backstage by an unknown assailant. Valkyria had to choose a new partner, who was revealed to be a returning Becky Lynch and they won the title only to lose it the next night on Raw. This infuriated Lynch, who turned on and attacked Valkyria, subsequently revealing that she had attacked Bayley. This led to a match at Backlash for Valkyria's WWE Women's Intercontinental Championship where she retained, but in a rematch at Money in the Bank, Lynch defeated her in a Last Chance match to win the title. Their feud would continue over the next few weeks which saw Bayley return and attack Lynch and also set her sights on the Women's Intercontinental Championship, much to Valkyria's dismay, who was also upset with Bayley for not speaking to her since Lynch's attack. Things got worse on the June 23 episode of Raw, where Bayley faced Lynch for the title. Valkyria tried to help Bayley, but after being attacked by Lynch, Valkyria retaliated, inadvertently causing Lynch to win by disqualification, thus retaining the title. Bayley and Valkyria then faced each other the following week to determine who would challenge Lynch for the title, but the match ended in a double pinfall, leading to a brawl between the two. On July 6, Raw General Manager Adam Pearce announced that Lynch would defend the title against Bayley and Valkyria in a triple threat match at Evolution.
Cancelled match