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The Women's Evolution has been one of the biggest commercial successes for WWE in recent years, so it was a shock when the company seemingly took a step backwards by not featuring any women on the show.
Of course, Charly Caruso, Lana and Zelina Vega were part of RAW in Cleveland, Ohio, since they were needed in their usual roles, but no female storylines were being continued since Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair were not actually in attendance.
The build of last night's show was pointed towards Crown Jewel next week and focused on the fact that The Street Profits were making their debut on the main roster, besides being the first show following the climax of the WWE Draft.
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That being said, here are four reasons why Vince McMahon and Paul Heyman could have made the decision to feature only male Superstars on RAW last night.
#4 Crown Jewel won't feature women
As noted above, it's obvious that this week's show was focusing on the buildup to WWE Crown Jewel 2019, a show that the women are not allowed to be part of. WWE has tried to get this law lifted on their previous three visits, but to no avail. This means that the women's storyline will now be heading into Survivor Series and WWE isn't ready for that until after Crown Jewel.
Tom Colohue revealed that this could be one of the main reasons behind the lack of women Superstars on last night's show, since right now, there is no pay-per-view for them to build towards and the company is busy focusing on Crown Jewel.
The women will likely be back next week since Survivor Series has featured a five-on-five women's match over the past few years and there needs to be a decent amount of build towards this.
#3 WWE wanted to be controversial
Vince McMahon is a smart man, he knows that the WWE Universe voice off on social media much more if they're angry than if they get everything they want from WWE. The ending to this year's Hell in a Cell proved that McMahon knows how to ensure that his product is talked about, and whether that's in good or bad terms, it means that Raw will still be a trending topic.
There's a reason why WWE has been at the top of the wrestling ladder for so long, and even though there were women like Asuka, Kairi Sane, Billie Kay and Peyton Royce who could all have been featured on Raw last night, there weren't called into action which means that the company obviously wanted the show to go on without the women.
Controversy gets the WWE Universe talking and considering how hard the company once pushed the Women's Division, it's surprising that they were able to put together an entire show without the women. But they somehow managed it and are now obviously reaping the rewards since social media is full of comments about WWE overlooking the women.
#2 Post-draft WWE wanted to focus on other stars
There was once a time when WWE decided that the Women's Division should be the main focus since the Women's Evolution has been huge for the company and has allowed them to open so many doors for the women who work for the company at present.
This means that the company can decide to focus on something else if they decide its a much bigger story. The Raw following Hell in a Cell didn't include Bray Wyatt or Seth Rollins because of the controversy that was caused by their finish inside the structure, which shows that sometimes WWE can decide not to feature certain individuals.
WWE has so many stars on their roster right now that it's easy for them to switch and change their stars to the point where some can now book the week off.
The women were obviously the ones who were chosen to be overlooked this week with Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair out on promotional duty, but this doesn't mean that the Women's Evolution isn't still a focus for WWE.
#1 Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair weren't available
Last week's episode of Raw opened with Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch battling it out to decide which brand would gain the coveted first draft pick. Of course, the Raw Women's Champion was the one who came out on top and Seth Rollins was the one who was drafted to Raw as the first pick.
Lynch had already been drafted over to Raw as the first draft pick over on Friday Night SmackDown a few days before, but she was later joined by Charlotte Flair when Raw decided they would acquire The Queen.
This week both Charlotte and Becky Lynch were unavailable for Raw since both women were out on promotional duty with Lynch busy representing WWE and the ESPNW: Women + Sport summit and Charlotte Flair Tweeted to tell the WWE Universe that she was in Australia taking part in meet and greets with her fans.
This seems to be one of the biggest reasons why there was no women's match this week. But the fact that there were many more women including Natalya and even Liv Morgan waiting in the wings for a match means that WWE could still have gone ahead with at least one women's match.
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