Women in Wrestling Weekly Roundup – November 12 to 18, 2023

Can you believe it’s my sixth week tracking the week in women’s wrestling? This week, the big three threw a lot at us. AEW held Full Gear, their first PPV (or non-Ring of Honor) show with more than one women’s match on it since May. Truly exciting times!

As requested, I’m continuing to evolve the formula here. Before diving into the shows, I’m going to dive into where the stories have been going with each company (and breaking WWE down into Raw, SmackDown and NXT and AEW down to AEW and ROH since there are particular stories there). This will give you a little more insight into, for example, why you should care that Xia Li is threatening Becky Lynch if you’re joining in for the first time.

Coming Into This Week

Raw: Rhea Ripley has been dominant champion since WrestleMania with few challengers with prospects of actually beating her. She’s done this while being intertwined into the Judgment Day, loving Dom Dom, and just being everywhere. Zoey Stark won a battle royal to earn a title shot against her at Survivor Series. Piper Niven and Chelsea Green are Women’s Tag Team Champions, but haven’t been very strong. Natalya seems to be chasing them. Even after losing the NXT Women’s Title, Becky Lynch has faced the chance of Xia Li who has been knocking people out and threatening to face Becky “on her own time.” Nikki Cross is spaced out for reasons unknown. Ivy Nile has joined the brand with the Creed Brothers and has started to interact with Maxxine and Alpha Academy.

NXT: Lyra Valkaria is our champ, also being chased by Xia Li as well as others wanting a shot. Iron Survivor Challenge qualifying matches for Deadline are happening, with Tiffany Stratton being the first in. Lola Vice won the Breakout Tournament and is showing attitude with Elektra Lopez. Chase U is in trouble and Jacy Jayne knows more than the rest of us.

SmackDown: Iyo Sky of Damage Ctrl is champion, and Damage Ctrl are strong as Asuka and the returning Kairi Sane have joined forces with the group. Bianca Blair, Charlotte and Shotzi have been their targets which is awfully convenient with War Games coming around. Zelina Vega has been facing the problems in the LWO. Isla Dawn and Alba Fyre have shown interest in a Women’s Tag Title shot.

AEW: Kris Statlander continues to hold the TBS Title and has, for quite a while, been trying to figure out friendship with the duo of Skye Blue and Willow Nightingale. Both were sprayed by Julia Hart’s mist, which turned Skye spooky and Willow seems to have turned out okay though with the side effects of having to appear on Ring of Honor. Julia won a qualifier for a triple threat match at Full Gear with Kris. Red Velvet has returned from injury and is making a case for a title shot as well after winning one match. Shida is our Women’s World Champion and has not been able to shake Timeless Toni Storm, who continues to try to throw shoes at her and threaten her in black and white. They’re set for a match at Full Gear. Mariah May has appeared as a huge Toni fan. Ruby Soho is getting flowers from a secret admirer. CJ Perry has been attempting to find talent to manage.

Ring of Honor: Athena is our forever Women’s Champion, continuing to defeat women in Eliminator matches. Her Minion-in-Training Billie Starkz has finally shown the edge Athena wanted and has been promoted to Minion, while Lexy Nair has been demoted. Maria Kanellis-Bennett is attempting to add Rachel Ellering and Leyla Hirsch to her roster. We seem to be setting up that duo versus the Renegade Twins as well.

And that’s what you missed on Glee!

Monday – WWE Raw

Matches:

Tegan Knox defeats Piper Niven in 4:48. Chelsea and Natalya are here as well, so you see where we’re going. Tegan looked good and I’m hoping they stay behind her and she stays healthy.

Xia Li defeats Indi Hartwell in 2:38. Li wins via referee stoppage due to another of her knockout kicks as we continue to build towards Becky. Becky tries for the save after, Xi runs and they’re set for a match next week.

Other Developments:

In an in-ring segment with Adam Pearce, Rhea Ripley throws a fit about the male side of Judgment Day being in trouble. Zoey Stark interrupts, Rhea does a master promo as usual nowadays, and they tussle a bit. We get a Tegan promo video. Shayna Baszler and Raquel Rodriguez praise Zoey’s skills, only to be interrupted by Nia Jax who Raquel challenges. Ivy Nile and Maxxine Dupri hit it off and realize they’re not so different, talking about title shots. Rhea is the closing image of the show, shaking hands with Drew McIntyre as she has found a new War Games partner for her boys.

Stats Breakdown:

Two of seven matches were women’s matches for a combined 7:15, which is pretty ugly on a three hour show. Four women competed compared to fourteen men.

The Final Score:

Matches 4/10

Other Developments 6/10

Stats Breakdown 2/10

Final Score 4/10

Tuesday – WWE NXT

Matches:

Lash Legend defeats Roxanne Perez in an Iron Survivor Challenge qualifying match in 5:05. A surprising result but one I welcome, it is good to see the Meta-Four women doing things. Kiana James interferes to help Lash win, which means she and Roxanne are continuing their issue.

Gigi Dolan defeats Arianna Grace in 3:47. Not much to it, but Gigi needs something to do and they have plans for Arianna.

Other Developments:

Meta-Four take part in the Supernova Sessions interview with Alpha Academy, which includes Otis showing his interest in Lash Legend. Xia Li holds a Warrior Tea Ceremony and is joined by Lyra Valkyria, which leads to them having a match next week as well. Kiana James tells the locker room how impressive she is.

Stats Breakdown:

Two of six matches involved women for a combined 8:52. We’re really sinking down from those glory Becky times weeks ago and it’s not great. Remember when we had 4-5 women’s matches for 45 minutes or so? Four women wrestled compared to twelve men.

The Final Score:

Matches 4/10

Other Developments 6/10

Stats Breakdown 2/10

Final Score 4/10

Wednesday – AEW Dynamite

Match:

Skye Blue defeated Red Velvet in a TBS Title Eliminator Match in 10:34. That’s right, Red Velvet earned a chance at being in a title match after returning to win one match, compared to the others who have been winning matches and didn’t get the same. She has been impressive in her return, and these two had a serviceable match here. Blue was the obvious winner as she has been in the story with Kris Statlander and Julia Hart for months.

Other Developments:

Thanks to RJ City, Mariah May finally gets to meet her idol Toni Storm in her black and white dressing room. Toni is largely unimpressed and asks Luther to request a warm-up match for her on Collision.

Stats Breakdown:

One of six matches involved women for 10:34. There were two women’s dark matches with Anna Jay and Nyla Rose who I’d love to see on TV again. The comparison is, as usual, rough: two women competing compared to 22 men.

The Final Score:

Matches 3/10

Other Developments 4/10

Stats Breakdown 3/10

Overall 3.3 out of 10

Thursday – Impact Wrestling

Matches:

Jordynne Grace & Bully Ray defeated KiLynn King & Steve Maclin in 6:49. I’d love to stop writing about Bully Ray in this column but he just keeps appearing. We’re establishing that Bully Ray respects Grace for winning the Call Your Shot match.

Trinity defeats Sonny Kiss in 8:02. I really enjoyed this, but I’m a big fan of both competitors and seeing Sonny get one of her dream matches is cool. They worked well together and you know Trinity wanted to make it look good. The result was never in doubt but it was fun.

To answer any questions about the inclusion of Sonny who is genderfluid. She prefers she/her pronouns and in this case is going after a predominantly female title. That’s all I need. In this column and real life, I’m inclusive.

Other Developments:

We get a very, uh, hot promo video package from MK Ultra which spoke directly to ME. Lawd. No other developments. I’d like to see Impact build up a few more stories here.

Stats Breakdown:

We had two matches involving women out of six for a combined 15 minutes. Four women were represented versus sixteen men.

The Final Score:

Matches 5/10

Other Developments 3/10

Stats Breakdown 4/10

Overall 4 out of 10

Thursday – ROH on HonorClub

Matches:

Emi Sakura defeated Kei in 2:13. Rebel Kei outside of the AEW/ROH scope, she typically wrestles for DEFY and DOA. Just a quick match for Emi.

Athena & Billie Starkz defeat Brooke Havoc & Johnnie Robbie in 2:18. Havoc and Robbie are both fairly new to the business and have been working independents. Much like the first match, this was just to show the cohesion Athena and Billie are developing.

Leyla Hirsch & Rachael Ellering defeat The Renegades in 7:24. As brought on by last week. Some back and forth action and the team Maria had interest in lost, which is not great for her.

Marina Shafir defeats Amira in 2:11. Amira has no Cagematch history. Just a Marina showcase. At least we know she definitely won’t show up with anyone next week that could wreck the entire Ring of Honor timeline!

Other Developments:

Athena sees no challenge on the horizon for Final Battle. She tells Billie she is proud of her. Yep, that’s all that’s brewing.

Stats Breakdown:

Four of the nine matches aired involved women which isn’t bad, though they combined for a huge 14 minutes. As usual, ROH women’s matches have largely developed into one big one and the others being two minute squashes. Ten women competed versus sixteen men.

The Final Score

Matches 6/10

Other Developments 2/10

Stats Breakdown 7/10

Overall 5 out of 10

Thursday – WWE Main Event

Match:

Katana Chance defeats Tatum Paxley in 4:49. It’s your usual Main Event match! Good to see Tatum get a main roster match. Would’ve liked to see them get a few more minutes, but then we couldn’t fit in all the Raw recaps.

Other Developments:

Ha, on Main Event? We get the Tegan video package again as well as highlights of the week in Damage Ctrl.

Stats Breakdown:

The usual for Main Event. One of two matches involved women, two of the four competitors were women.

The Final Score:

Matches 5/10

Other Developments 2/10

Stats Breakdown 8/10

Overall 5/10

Friday – AEW Collision

Match:

Hikaru Shida & Kris Statlander defeat Ruby Soho & Saraya in 10:34. It’s a Friday edition of Collision due to Full Gear being on Saturday, but we’ve got our usual ten minutes allotted for the women on a two hour show. This really was more about Angelo Parker trying to win Ruby’s heart than either champion. It was just okay, dawg.

Other Developments:

CJ Perry has gotten Andrade into the tournament. The three women in the Full Gear triple threat deliver backstage thoughts.

Stat Breakdown:

One of seven matches involved women, though it was the main event, for 10:34. Four women competed versus sixteen men which is bad but somehow not as bad as it usually is for Collision.

The Final Score:

Matches 4/10

Other Developments 2/10

Stat Breakdown 4/10

Overall 3.3 out of 10

Friday – AEW Rampage

Match:

Toni Storm defeats Emi Sakura in 8:22. Toni’s requested warmup. She’s absolutely rocking this character and having the time of her life. Emi does get some offense and really I’m shocked it went as long as it did.

Other Developments:

None.

Stat Breakdown:

One of three matches involved women for 8:22. Two women and four men competed which was not a bad mix at all for AEW.

The Final Score:

Matches 5/10

Other Developments 0/10

Stat Breakdown 7/10

Overall 4 out of 10

Friday – WWE SmackDown

Matches:

None.

Other Developments: The Damage Ctrl story runs the show. We open with the group welcoming Asuka in as well as the War Games challenge to Charlotte, Bianca and Shotzi. Throughout the show Damage Ctrl take out the various women of the SmackDown roster who could take the team spot, leaving Charlotte to have to make a call. We end the show with an in-ring showdown and Becky Lynch appearing to fill the team. The lack of actual match sucked, but a home run as far as “not in a match” story developing happening all showing. The other two categories are going to wreck this show’s grade, but it still had a LOT of importance.

Stat Breakdown

Zero out of four matches involved women. Zero women competed versus twelve men.

The Final Score:

Matches 0/10

Other Developments 10/10

Stat Breakdown 0/10

Overall 3.33 out of 10

Friday – NXT Level Up

Match:

Tatum Paxley defeated Dani Palmer in 5:29. For the second week in a row, Level Up has a match with a little story, as these two teamed up with Paxley turning on Palmer. It’s a basic Level Up match, that said.

Other Developments:

Never, it’s Level Up.

Stat Breakdown:

One of two matches involves women, with two women and two men competing.

The Final Score:

Matches 5/10

Other Developments 0/10

Stat Breakdown 7/10

Overall 4 out of 10

Saturday – AEW Full Gear

Matches:

Toni Storm defeated AEW Women’s World Champion Hikaru Shida to win the title in 10:25. They worked well together and again, Toni is nailing it. The result, of course, came from Toni’s foul play. Mariah May was also around to swoon.

Julia Hart defeated AEW TBS Champion Kris Statlander and Skye Blue in a three way match to win the title in 11:22. A really good match actually and they probably could’ve gone longer. Julia has definitely earned this shot.

Other Developments:

None.

Stat Breakdown:

Two of eight matches involved women for a combined 22 minutes (three additional men’s matches were on the Zero Hour which are excluded from the scoring). For AEW, it’s decent. They were still the two shortest matches on the show and three other matches were each longer than these two matches combined. Baby steps for sure. Five women competed on the main show versus 24 men (seven additional men worked the preshow plus a second match for MJF).

The Final Score:

Matches: 6/10

Other Developments 0/10

Stat Breakdown 3/10

Overall 3.33 out of 10

The Overall Week Numbers:

Over 8.5 hours of programming including NXT, WWE aired only six women’s matches for a combined 26 minutes of in-ring time (three were on NXT programming). Ugly. Eleven different women had matches this week with Tatum Paxley having two.

Over 12 hours of programming including ROH, AEW aired only nine women’s matches for a combined 65:34. Twenty different women had matches this week with Toni Storm, Kris Statlander, Skye Blue, Hikaru Shida, and Emi Sakura all wrestling twice.

Over two hours of programming, Impact aired two matches with women for a combined fifteen minutes. Four women competed this week.

Overall, 35 women wrestled on TV for the big three this week for 91 minutes of their 22.5 hours of TV time.