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WWE's women's PPV has been unfortunately suffering from an overcrowded schedule of events, and is not getting the kind of build-up that an event of such an historic nature deserves. I've also been less than thrilled with a couple of the announced and rumored matches. So, of course, that means it's time for fantasy booking!

Here is how I would run the show.

A couple of notes: I'm assuming that current roster injuries are minor enough that those superstars will be available for the show. I'm trying to do that without calling in any extremely unlikely surprises (so no AJ Lee or Gail Kim or Kharma), and sticking to returning legends that appeared either at the Royal Rumble or in the Mae Young Classic (so no Alundra Blayze). I also have not read any Mae Young Classic spoilers, so my predictions there could be way off. Obviously, there are a lot of potential finalists still in the field.

Matches are presented in the order they would appear on the show.

WWE Women's Tag Team Championship Tournament Semifinals
The Bella Twins vs. Bayley and Sasha Banks

Setup: Eight teams entered a single-elimination tourney for the newly established WWE Womens Tag Team Championship. The first-round matches were held the previous week on Raw and Smackdown. This match comes from the Raw side of things. The Bellas defeated the Riott Squad to get here, while Bayley and Sasha managed a hard-fought win of the team of Nia Jax and Ember Moon.

Result: In spite of the Bellas flaunting their advantage in "being on the same page" over the sometimes-frenemies, it's Bayley and Sasha who are able to take Nikki out of the equation while Sasha taps Brie out to the Banks Statement.

NXT UK Women's Championship Match
Rhea Ripley (champion) vs. Killer Kelly

Setup: Honestly, I put this together basically because Killer Kelly has impressed me in the two matches I've seen her in. She's got a great look/attitude, and this should be a solid bout to put over the newly-crowned NXT UK champion.

Result: After a hard-fought match, Rhea hits Riptide on Killer Kelly for the win.

WWE Women's Tag Team Championship Tournament Semifinals
The Iiconics vs. Trish Stratus and Lita

Setup: Obviously, this is one of the places I differ with WWE on use of some of the talent. As much as Trish vs. Bliss will hopefully be a great match, I feel like there is more nostalgic fun to be had teaming Trish and Lita up in a run for the new tag team belts. They were a surprise entry on the Smackdown side of things and scored a decisive win over the team of Sonya DeVille and Mandy Rose. Peyton Royce and Billie Kaye arrived here with a surprise victory over Naomi and Asuka (this is currently scheduled for Super Showdown; it could still happen there, just in my booking it would be a tournament match).

Result: Twist of Fate. Chick Kick. Litasault.

Nia Jax vs. Beth Phoenix

Setup: Given the reception these two had for just a staredown and a brief exchange at the Royal Rumble, I'm shocked that this match isn't already booked for Evolution.

Result: Back-and-forth contest that ends with Beth putting Nia over via the Samoan Drop.

NXT Women's Championship Match
Kairi Sane (champion) vs. Shayna Baszler

Setup: The one match where I wouldn't change the setup a bit.

Result: Similar to their previous matches, Shayna is dominant to start, leading to a comeback by a fired-up Kairi. Kairi has locked in her Anchor submission when Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir hit the ring and attack Kairi causing the DQ. Baszler, Duke, and Shafir beat Kairi down viciously, resulting in her being taken out on a stretcher.

Asuka vs. Meiko Satomura

Setup: Asuka, having lost in the first round of the tag tournament, demands competition. Paige, channeling her best William Regal, assures Asuka that she has searched the world for a suitable opponent for Asuka at Evolution, revealing "The Final Boss", Meiko Satomura.

Result: In a potentially show-stealing match, Asuka gets the victory with the Asukalock, and is propelled back into title contention.

30-Woman Past vs. Present vs. Future Battle Royale
(Winner receives the #30 entry into the 2019 Women's Royal Rumble)

Participants:

Raw: Ruby Riott, Liv Morgan, Sarah Logan, Natalya, Alicia Foxx
Smackdown: Lana, Carmella, Sonya DeVille, Mandy Rose, Naomi
NXT: Lacy Evans, Nikki Cross, Bianca Belair, Candice LeRae, Deonna Purrazo
NXT UK: Dakota Kai, Isla Dawn, Xia Brookside, Jinny, Kavita Devi
Mae Young Classic: Mia Yim, Kacy Catanzaro, Mercedes Martinez, Kaitlyn, Lacy Lane
Legends: Molly Holly, Kelly Kelly, Michelle McCool, Jaquelyn, Layla

Setup: With the promise of over 50 women participating in this PPV, it was obvious that we were getting a battle royale., So let's make it mean something. With no title to put on the line, the #30 Royal Rumble entry makes for a nice prize. I set this up with five women from each active WWE division (I put Kavita Devi into the NXT UK division simply because I haven't seen all of the currently active NXT UK women compete and she seems like a good fit for NXT UK), plus five retired superstars (four of whom were in the 2018 Royal Rumble), and five other 2018 Mae Young Classic participants.

Result: Final four are Riott, Belair, Molly Holly, and Nikki Cross. Belair and Riott team up to eliminate Holly. Cross tosses Riott, but gets caught and powered over the top when she goes for a top-rope splash on Belair. Bianca Belair is your winner and a serious threat to win the Royal Rumble entering from the #30 spot.

Mae Young Classic Finals
Toni Storm vs. Io Shirai

Setup: This looked like the most likely result I could predict from the brackets so far.

Results: Shirai misses with her moonsault and Storm hits Storm-Zero for the win and the trophy, and a future NXT Women's Championship opportunity.

WWE Raw Women's Championship Triple-Threat Match
Ronda Rousey (Champion) vs. Alexa Bliss vs. Ember Moon

Setup: Adding Ember Moon to the mix freshens up the Rousey/Bliss rivalry. Bliss has Mickey James in her corner (sorry, Mickey, this was the best spot I could find for you on the card).

Result: Moon hits the Eclipse on Rousey, but Bliss breaks up the pin. Bliss throws Moon out of the ring and goes for Twisted Bliss, but Rousey catches her in the armbar for the submission victory. Rousey isn't losing her title any time soon, but this sets up a one-on-one rivalry with Moon that will serve nicely to continue Ronda's championship run.

WWE Women's Tag Team Championship Tournament Finals
Bayley and Sasha Banks vs. Trish Stratus and Lita

Setup: See previous semifinal matches.

Result: Lita is going up top for the Litasault when Sasha shakes the ropes, causing her to stumble enough for Bayley to get up for a top-rope Bayley-To-Belly for the victory. Much hugging ensues.

WWE Smackdown Womens Championship 30-Minute Ironman Match
Becky Lynch (Champion) vs. Charlotte Flair

Setup: WWE's philosophy seems to be to go with star power (Nikki Bella and Ronda Rousey). Mine is to put the best rivalry in the women's division, not to mention two of the best wrestlers, in the main-event spotlight. Sticking an ironman match as the eleventh match on the card might be a problem in terms of time, but if that were the case, you could always move the two tag tourney semifinal matches to the pre-show (which would immediately make it one of the best pre-shows in WWE history).

Results: Each wrestler earns a submission with her move of choice, and the match remains knotted at 1-1 as it goes into its final minutes with both wrestlers hitting their opponent with everything they have. In the final seconds, Charlotte has the upper hand, but when she hesitates moment to "Whoo!" to the crowd before locking in the Figure-Eight, Becky rolls her up for the final and deciding fall. Like before, Charlotte offers her hand in sportsmanship and Becky snubs her to head up the ramp with her title.

That's when Shayna Baszler, Marina Shafir, and Jessamyn Duke run in out of the crowd to attack Flair. Bayley and Sasha Banks run down the ramp to help Charlotte, but with Charlotte already beaten down the heels still have the upper hand. Becky watches, conflicted from the ramp, then finally sprints down to join the fight, turning the tide and helping Charlotte, Bayley and Sasha to clear the ring.

Ronda Rousey's music hits, and she comes out to stand alongside her crew as the show ends with the Horsewomen vs. Horsewomen staredown to set up Survivor Series.
 

Got some organizational work done on the postapocalyptic werewolf novel that I am co-writing.

Small steps.

We've been back in Shanghai for more than a month now, and I've been neglecting the blogs as I get back into the swing at work and catch up on posting summer photos on Flickr and Instagram.

The summer was lovely. We spent the first few weeks at my mother-in-law's house in Merrimack NH. The Kiddo and I did our annual Father-Son Road Trip early in our summer vacation. We headed north to Bar Harbor ME to explore Acadia National Park, and then did a stop in Old Orchard Beach ME to revisit some of my child summer memories like Hills Beach, Rapid Ray's and Palace Playland.

Also early in the summer, I attended Port Con Maine to get in a bit of geeky time.

We had the annual July 4th cookout at my mother-in-law's place, and I got to be chef, and we watched the Independence Day Parade in Merrimack. Some other highlights of our time in NH included NH Fisher Cats baseball, picnics, and an searching for Little Free Libraries.

I joined Bookcrossing, and had some fun catching and releasing books in the wild.

The Kiddo played in his first solo Magic tournament.

I visited my friends at the Plot Bunnies writers group and got to share a bit of my writing.

We attended WWE Monday Night Raw at the Boston Garden.

For the second half of our vacation, we were at my brother's summer place on Cape Cod. We got to see lots of friends and family. I did my annual visit to family graves, and we checked up on Ogremoot and deposited and retrieved items from our storage unit.

We got to go out to Martha's Vineyard on my brother's boat, and we reconnected with friends in Boston and Cambridge. We attended Boston's Figment Arts Festival.

It's always a bit frantic trying to fit everything in, and we headed back to China talking about maybe doing it differently next summer.

We'll see what happens. That's a long way off, and we're still editing and posting all the photos from a summer full of fun.
 

Happy International Labor Day! Blessed Beltane! May the Fourth be with you! Happy Cinco de Mayo! Lots of interesting celebrations happening this past week.

We watched Greatest Royal Rumble last weekend, but no Infinity War. We've still got another week until it opens in China.

No new reviews this week either. We had a relaxing long weekend for International Labor Day, and then things at the day job got busy as we are really moving toward the finish of the school year now.

Supporting

I'm supporting artist George Burnett, who is raising funds for relocation expenses.

Looking Ahead

WWE Backlash on Monday. Avengers: Infinity War finally arrives in China next Friday.

Five more weeks in the school year, with lots of school events coming up: Concerts, community service field trips, International Day, exams, prom, graduation. It's an exciting time of the year for my students.

Another busy couple of weeks.

Kiddo had about five days of birthday festivities, starting with a classroom party celebrating all of the March/April birthdays in his grade, then a movie night with me (Pacific Rim 2: it delivered an acceptable level of giant robot/giant monster mayhem), a party with some friends at Global Harbor Mall, and finally dinner out with parents and birthday presents at home on his actual birthday.

Spring break started at the end of that week, and we were soon on our way to the Kiddo's hometown, Wuxi. We had a nice whirlwind of sightseeing in Wuxi and Suzhou, enjoying lovely hotel buffet breakfasts the whole time.

This week has been back to work, and getting caught up on various small projects. I've been behind on a lot of my "daily goal" kinds of things (including this blog). I did manage to watch pretty much all of the Wrestlemania weekend events, and it looks like I'll be joining a D&D campaign here.

An I had time to do a couple of new reviews: