Last October, the women of WWE made history by participating in Evolution, the company’s first-ever all-women’s pay-per-view. The event drew no shortage of praise, but that may not be enough for WWE to reboot the show again in 2019. And according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, all of that depends on Ronda Rousey.
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Per the Observer’s scoop, WWE is not willing to commit to Evolution 2 without the presence of Rousey. At this moment Rousey’s WWE future is hard to read. Rumors have her leaving WWE after WrestleMania, but her pending hiatus has not been confirmed. It’s worth noting that TMZ did learn that she’s under WWE contract until 2021, so even if she takes a break she’ll be back — it just may not be in time for Evolution
In early March, Stephanie McMahon gave The National an ambiguous answer when it came to the second edition of Evolution.
“We haven’t announced any plans yet for Evolution but we have a lot of things in the works right now,” she said. “One thing that is important to note with Evolution that it was our first ever all-women’s streaming special pay per view is that it trended No 1 world wide for two and a half hours during the last game of the World Series and during NFL Sunday Night Football. Both huge audiences in the United States but it was WWE Evolution that was trending No 1.”
When rumors of Rousey’s upcoming departure hit the internet, the Raw Women’s Champion spoke with ESPNW and slammed the speculative reports for their intrusive nature.
“I honestly don’t know why [anyone] feels like [they’re] an authority to speak on the plans for my uterus,” she said. “If I responded every single time the world speculated what I was doing with my womb I would not have a free moment in the day,” she said.
However, she did admit that plans to start a family are a priority.
“I’ve not kept it a secret that I would definitely want to start a family,” Rousey said. “But how do you go about doing that? I love this way more than I thought that I would. So do you just keep going until you just happen to get pregnant? Or should you stop and go try and get pregnant? Or is going and trying to get pregnant putting yourself on the spot and then you’re less likely to get pregnant? I’ve never had a baby before, I don’t know these kinds of things,” she said.
For now, it sounds like Evolution is a coin toss for 2019. While last year’s event was met with applause, no one is quite sure how profitable it was for WWE. And with the company relying on Rousey to boost the show, it sounds like Evolution’s future is highly conditional.
