Thursday 25 October 2018 11:45, UK
After another packed week in WWE, we take stock of the winners and losers ahead of Evolution.
Evolution takes place this weekend and the women of WWE will take centre stage, but this week's wrestling world has been dominated by the news that Roman Reigns will be forced to step down as Universal Champion because he has a real-life battle with leukemia to contest.
Good Week
Finn Balor (RAW)
Finn Balor has been pushed down the ranks on Raw over the past few months, but he could be one of the stars who is brought back into the main event picture in the absence of Roman Reigns, and if this week was anything to go by, Balor is prepared for the challenge. The former Universal Champion managed to defeat Bobby Lashley with a shock roll-up which definitely halted The Dominator's recent push on WWE TV.
Balor and Bayley are also doing well in the Mixed Match Challenge and the star has been tipped by many of his peers in recent months to be able to reclaim the Championship that he was forced to relinquish back in 2016 in the not-so-distant future.
Randy Orton (SmackDown)
Randy Orton has already qualified for the WWE World Cup at Crown Jewel, but the former World Champion faced Jeff Hardy in the main event of SmackDown Live for the first time since the two men collided inside Hell in a Cell last month. Orton needed momentum ahead of Crown Jewel and he definitely picked this up when he hit the RKO and recorded another win over The Charismatic Enigma.
Orton has now become one of the favourites for the tournament and in the absence of John Cena, he has also become one of the most recognisable and respectable veterans in the company.
Mia Yim (NXT)
It could be argued that the NXT Women's Division is the most competitive in the company and this week Mia Yim made her debut in a match against Aliyah, where she proved that she is definitely going to be a force to be reckoned with. Aliyah showed signs of improvement in the ring but was still defeated by the debutant, who had already made quite the impact in the second Mae Young Classic.
Yim joins a number of women on the developmental brand who are hungry for a shot at the NXT Women's Championship and her arrival will only add to the competitive edge with many of the women of NXT set to be featured at Evolution on Sunday night.
Bad Week
Seth Rollins (RAW)
It was a rough week for Seth Rollins. First, he was handed the body blow that he would be without his longtime friend Roman Reigns for the foreseeable future and then Dean Ambrose turned his back on him as well. Rollins had two men as back-up when this week's episode of Raw began and he walked out of Rhode Island on his own.
Rollins did make history as the first man to become a dual champion with every Grand Slam title when he won the Tag Team Championships with Ambrose, but this is just a small notch on his belt at this point since he now has to look over his shoulder for a man that he thought was his friend. Rollins brought Ambrose back to the company ahead of SummerSlam in August to help him overcome the odds in a match against Dolph Ziggler and now Ambrose has become the enemy that he needs to call back-up in for, but the issue now is that Rollins has no other friends on the brand.
Charlotte (SmackDown)
Charlotte Flair is one of the most decorated female wrestlers in WWE history but she has had no response to the actions of her former friend Becky Lynch over the past few weeks. Lynch continued her poaching of the former Champion this week on SmackDown Live when she attacked Charlotte while she was giving a talk to the new recruits at the Performance Center and once again Charlotte was unprepared and caught completely off guard by Lynch's actions.
The two women meet this weekend in a Last Woman Standing match and right now it appears that Lynch has Charlotte's number and could well be the one who walks out still holding her Championship on Sunday night.
EC3 (NXT)
EC3 showed that he is braver than many men in that locker room when he stepped up to The Undisputed Era and was able to defeat Adam Cole in one-on-one competition despite interference from many members of the group. EC3's biggest mistake was that he didn't run from the ring the minute his win was announced since he was then the victim of a four-on-one assault.
Bobby Fish landed the fatal blow on his knee with a chair that could sideline EC3 for an undisclosed amount of time, which is definitely not what The Top One Percent needs with NXT Takeover: War Games on the horizon.
