Women in Wrestling Weekly Roundup – December 17 to 23, 2023

Happy holidays, friends! It’s another week in the world of wrestling which means it’s time to track what the women were up to last week.

WWE is gearing up for the holidays, AEW has title action going on and Impact… well, eventually they’ll have new shows again.

Let’s dive in!

Monday – WWE Monday Night Raw

Key stories going in: Rhea is preparing for new challengers, Becky and Nia are ready for a showdown, and the tag division is growing quickly.

Tonight’s Card: One of six matches tonight included women, with four women competing for approximately 9:30. In comparison, twelve men competed in a total of five matches.

Katana Chance & Kayden Carter defeated Chelsea Green & Piper Niven to win the WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles in 9:36. I’m really excited for this one, because Katana & Kayden have been bringing it for a while and could be a good team to spotlight to bring fans into the division. I’d recommend this one.

Other Developments: Becky Lynch and Nia Jax have an in-ring segment to set up their match at Day One in two weeks. Rhea Ripley and Ivy Nile set up a match for the same show. Numerous teams tell Katana & Kayden they want a shot. Look at this division!

Final Score: Yes, one match in three hours is bad. I’m absolutely going to bitch about that. With that, we did have a ten minute tag title match with several follow-ups in sight as well as two big matches for Day One. I’m giving it a C-.

Tuesday – NXT

Key stories going in: Basically the entire roster have given champion Lyra Valkyria notice that they want her belt. Blair Davenport has a match set at New Year’s Evil and Tatum Paxley has her eye set on Lyra for perhaps other reasons.

Tonight’s Card: Three of eight matches tonight involved women for approximately 12:30. Eight women competed in comparison to thirteen men.

Fallon Henley defeated Tiffany Stratton in 3:56. Kind of a shock here really and I don’t know if Tiffany should be losing to anyone in four minutes. Tiffany attacks her post match and later goes on to imply that Fallon is below her and should be her servant.

Izzi Dame & Kiana James defeated Jacy Jayne & Thea Hail in 4:52. Izzi and Kiana are continuing to gel as a team. Thea meanwhile continues to be distracted by newer Chase U recruit Riley Osborne.

Nikkita Lyons defeated Tatum Paxley in 3:18. Again not sure about the result here with Tatum in a key spot with Lyra, but we’re also establishing the returning Nikkita.

Other Developments: Roxanne Perez slaps Arianna Grace (rude) after a backstage argument with Kiana and Izzi. Cora Jade takes over Karmen Petrovic’s locker.

Final Score: I appreciate the three matches but I miss the ladies getting more than fifteen minutes in a show. Still, there are numerous stories going for probably a dozen people and that’s pretty great. I’m calling it a B-.

Wednesday – AEW Dynamite

Key stories going in (covering all three AEW programs): Both women’s titles have stories going on at the same time, which is not always a thing for AEW. Riho and Saraya are lined up as the next possible challenge for Toni Storm, who is battling a bad case of gout and has the enamored Mariah May at her side. Julia Hart, who has a long-developing kinship with fellow spooky girl Skye Blue, has simmering issues with Abadon. Abadon was saved from the duo by Thunder Rosa last week, returning from a long time out injured.

Tonight’s Card: It must be Dynamite, because one of five matches involved women for approximately 8 minutes. Two women competed in comparison to eight men.

Riho defeated Saraya in a #1 Contendership Match in 7:41. I’m always puzzled by the way AEW decides to pick #1 contender matches, with Saraya not really being in the scope of the title since losing it and Riho returning mere weeks ago. Riho gets this and Toni on commentary again steals the show. Toni stares down Riho after the match and comes up short, but Mariah saves her.

Other Developments: None.

Final Score: As it has, the Continental Classic gets the majority of the time and attention, making sure nothing else happening really gets time. I’m glad they’re moving along this story towards World’s End, but as usual the women get very little on Dynamite. C-.

Thursday – Impact Wrestling

Tonight’s episode was a clip show, focusing on the Best of 2023. With no new content, I’m not giving it a grade. That said, four women’s matches were featured – Mickie vs Jordynne, Jordynne vs Deonna, Trinity vs Deonna and the ten-woman tag from Impact 1000. It was a good episode to remind how great the Knockouts Division is for Impact.

Thursday – ROH on HonorClub

Key stories going in: Athena successfully defended her title against Billie Starkz and they have reunited in partnership. Maria Kanellis has a stable and Rachael Ellering and Layla Hirsch might or might not be in it, depending on the segment of the show.

Tonight’s Card: Three of ten matches included women for approximately 17:30 of in-ring time. Six women had matches in comparison to 34 men.

Athena defeated Maya World in a Proving Ground match in 5:19. It’s good to see Maya, but we’re back to Athena in Proving Ground matches where the challengers are random and never win. No challenger has won a Proving Ground match for any title in Ring of Honor’s return, and especially against Final Boss Athena it’s the foregone conclusion match.

Taya Valkyrie defeated Vertvixen in 5:47. Taya is coming off a Final Battle preshow win while Vertvixen was squished by Nyla Rose in a last minute match on the main show. Not a bad match and I hope they continue to be focal points and not disappear after 3-4 consecutive shows as women often do in AEW/ROH.

Rachael Ellering defeated Charlette Renegade in 6:27. Charlette, along with her fellow Renegade Robyn, have the two worst women’s records in 2023 ROH so there is that. The Maria story continues to circle as it has been, this week with Maria grabbing Rachael’s leg. I like Maria but this story – whatever this endless story is supposed to be – has been death.

Other Developments: There is a big one, as ROH Owner Tony Khan announces the ROH Women’s TV Title as Athena is Roman Reigns and the other women need something to do. We’ll see where it goes.

Final Score: It’s the first episode after Final Battle and a lot of us were hoping it would be a reset for the company. Outside of the new women’s title, it certainly was not. Large amounts of multi-man matches (34 men over seven matches!), the non-Athena champions MIA… welcome to ROH on HonorClub. I’m trying to be positive about the new title, so a B for effort and in-ring time.

Thursday – WWE Main Event

Tonight’s Card: One of two matches included women for approximately 4:30. Two women and two men competed.

Indi Hartwell defeated Elektra Lopez in 4:30. This is the third week in a row for Elektra, which is cool. There wasn’t too much to this one.

Final Score: The women had half the time the men had this week, which isn’t common for Main Event. A “C.”

Friday – AEW Rampage

Tonight’s Card: One of four matches involved women for approximately four minutes of in-ring action. Two women competed in comparison to eight men.

Skye Blue defeated Queen Aminata in 3:44. This was Aminata’s first match anywhere due to injury since February 26, when she lost to Skye on AEW Dark in 6:11. We’ll say Skye’s powers have doubled since then. Just a squash.

Other Developments: Stokely Hathaway tries to recruit Kris Statlander, which is probably going to end up with him getting smacked in the back of the head again. Angelo Parker invites Ruby Soho out for a drink, with Saraya talking behind their back.

Final Score: The men get the majority of the time this week and it’s just a squash for the ladies. Skye is getting built up as champ which is great, but we need more. D.

Friday – NXT Level Up

Tonight’s Card: One of three matches involved women for approximately five minutes. Two women competed compared to four men.

Roxanne Perez defeated Brinley Reece in 4:53. Roxy, what are you doing on this show? An inoffensive match but man, Roxy needs something to do.

Final Score: It’s your usual Level Up. Let’s give it a B-.

Friday – WWE Friday Night SmackDown

Key stories going in: Champion Iyo Sky and Damage Ctrl seem to be on the same page and are targeting the Women’s Tag Titles with the Kabuki Warriors. Bayley says she’s winning the Rumble and going for Rhea’s title. Bianca Belair is trying to get a title shot against Iyo, while Zelina and Michin have been seconding against Damage Ctrl.

Tonight’s Card: One of five matches involved women for approximately 13 minutes. Eight women competed in comparison to eight men.

Bianca Belair, Shotzi, Michin and Zelina Vega defeated Bayley, Kairi Sane, Iyo Sky and Asuka in a Holiday Havoc match in 12:44. It’s our annual holiday brawl match and this year the ladies get it. I rather enjoyed this once, as something was always happening. Isla Dawn and Alba Fyre returned from the land of disappearances to pop out at Asuka and Kairi, setting up another team in the quickly growing tag division. Michin gets the win with a pin over Iyo, which sets up a title shot for her at the upcoming New Year’s Revolution edition of SmackDown.

Other Developments: None.

Final Score: As our final “live” main roster show of the year, this set up the women in numerous ways for the new year and made all eight of them – and two at ringside – shine. They had time, had the spotlight holiday match, and the crowd dug them. Not mad at it. I’m giving it a B.

Saturday – AEW Collision

Tonight’s Card: One of six matches involved women for approximately nine minutes of action. Four women competed compared to fourteen men.

Abadon and Thunder Rosa defeated Julia Hart and Skye Blue in 9:02. This was set up last week and is Rosa’s first match back from injury since September 2022 when she teamed with Shida and Pre-Timeless Toni Storm on AEW Dark Elevation.

This was an enjoyable tag match and a good return for Rosa and also officially sets up Hart versus Abadon at World’s End.

Other Developments: Toni Storm isn’t entirely sure who Mariah May is. Mariah says she has her wrestling license.

Final Score: Well, it wasn’t last week when we had multiple women’s matches, but the women had a good segment and I’m not complaining too much. Again, the tournament takes up the show. I’m giving it a B-

Week Totals:

Over six hours of WWE-branded programming, 3 of the 13 matches involved women for approximately 27:30 in total match time. Fourteen different women saw in-ring time.

Over 2.5 hours of NXT-branded programming, 4 of the 11 matches involved women for approximately 17:30. Ten different women saw in-ring action.

Over five hours of AEW-branded programming, 3 of the 15 matches involved women for approximately 20 minutes. Seven different women saw in-ring time with Skye Blue competing twice.

Over two hours of ROH-branded programming, 3 of the 10 matches involved women for approximately 17:30 of in-ring time. Six different women saw in-ring time.

Impact did not present any new in-ring action this week.