Tiffany Stratton chooses legend for Evolution

The build to Evolution 2 has been ridiculously subpar and has almost seemed like an afterthought to WWE, and I have to first say that I really disliked both champions just choosing their challengers. Tonight, it was revealed that WWE Women's Champion Tiffany Stratton chose WWE Hall of Famer Trish Stratus, for seemingly no other reason than Stratton just liked teaming with her at Elimination Chamber back in March. Their segment tonight, and the backstage segment that followed, was just oddly clunky, as well.

While my little Attitude Era heart loves Stratus to no end, I'm really not excited to see her challenge for a title in 2025. I think she would have worked well as a nostalgia pop in the battle royal. However, when I went to peruse the "SmackDown" women's roster to see who Stratton could have called out, there weren't many, if any, options that made sense. While there are plenty of talented women on the blue brand, nobody but maybe Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss, who are already tied up for Evolution, make sense for the world title picture. Chelsea Green, of course, but that could be a legitimate feud if WWE puts some fire under Green and gives her some victories. But, that's a rant for another time.

When Stratus mentioned possibly becoming an eight-time women's champion, Stratton also got kind of nasty with her. She told her it wouldn't be easy, "because it's not the Attitude Era anymore." Okay, Tiffy, but you were the one who said you really wanted to challenge Stratton? It just didn't make sense she was being pretty s*** to her after being the one to bring the legend back. And of course, there's only one more episode of "SmackDown" before Evolution next Sunday, so there's absolutely no time for a build to play off of Stratton's nastiness. The women likely have words next week, possibly a brawl, but that doesn't seem too likely, so there will be nothing really exciting or anything of substance ahead of the premium live event, which is meant to be historic once again, but is really falling flat for me. I'm not looking forward to this match, as its outcome is super predictable.

My other problem with this segment was Queen of the Ring Jade Cargill. While I love her as well and think her QotR victory made all the sense in the world, I'm confused as to why she was out there and upset that Stratton wasn't challenging her. Cargill gets a title shot at SummerSlam no matter what, so it was unclear why she was out there at all. It seemed like she also forgot she was there when it came to the following backstage segment, as after all three women were in the ring together. Cargill awkwardly told Stratus, "I see you have a title shot." Um, yeah. You were there when it happened? It was just a bit cringe and I wasn't a fan of Cargill looking silly like that.