Repackaged Lacey Evans Set For WWE Comeback
Lacey Evans is going back to the basics.
A vignette aired on the 12/2 "WWE SmackDown" showing Evans undergoing a rigorous training session with her fellow United States Marine Corps, with a voice in the background suggesting that Evans got "lost in the crowd with the whiners and the weak" but was now ready to revert back to her roots. The vignette ended with several Marines urging Evans to get back on her feet after she fell on the floor during a training drill. "Something had to change," the narrator said towards the end of the vignette. "A mustang gets a tune-up, a boxer goes to training camp, a marine goes back to basics."
THE MISSION BEGINS
📺 @FS1 | @LaceyEvansWWE #SmackDown pic.twitter.com/Cu5Rdpsfbq
— WWE on FOX (@WWEonFOX) December 3, 2022
WWE has yet to announce the date for Evans' return to in-ring action.
Evans had teased a character change after the 11/11 episode of the blue brand show, where she lost a six-pack challenge to determine the #1 contender to Ronda Rousey's "SmackDown" Women's Championship. Following her loss, a dismayed Evans told Cathy Kelley in a backstage interview that she was "done trying to please everybody" and vowed to no longer be "comfortable" in the "glitz, glamour and the lifestyle" that comes with being a WWE superstar.
Earlier this year, Evans returned to WWE programming after giving birth to her second child, introducing a new heel persona that saw her belittling fans for not being able to relate to her experiences as a United States Marine, triumphs and childhood tragedies. However, she would once again revert to a babyface character during a Money in the Bank ladder match qualifier against Xia Li on the June 10 episode of "WWE SmackDown." In July, Evans turned heel again by attacking her tag team partner Aliyah. As such, Evans has switched back-and-forth between heel and babyface on multiple occasions this year.