Seven Days in Women’s Wrestling: December 31, 2023 to January 6, 2024

Happy Tuesday to you! It’s time to look at another week in wrestling, in this case for the ladies.

After the holiday week and several shows being off, we came roaring back this week with special edition shows full of wrestling. Well, except Impact which was another clip show. One day we’ll get new content again. They are again not graded this week as they did not create new in-ring content.

Let’s see what the big companies had for us this week!

Monday – WWE Raw (Day 1)

Tonight’s Card: On tonight’s Day 1 edition of Raw, three of six matches involved women for approximately 30:30 of in-ring action. Eight women saw action in comparison to ten men.

Nia Jax defeated Becky Lynch in 11:53. In what might’ve been Nia’s best WWE match ever, Becky made her look like a million bucks. Some would call this match a banger. A lot of us did on Twitter!

Rhea Ripley defeated Ivy Nile in a WWE Women’s World Title match in 13:01. I’m biased, but I also enjoyed this one. Ivy looked good in defeat and it was a good first longform match for those that don’t know her.

Shayna Baszler & Zoey Stark defeated Natalya & Tegan Nox in 5:35. This has to follow the Rock’s latest return segment, which is certainly a spot to be in. It wasn’t anything amazing, but I’m still glad the growing tag division is getting time.

Other Developments: Tag Team Champions Kayden Carter and Katana Chance are partying in the club. It’s what they do! They get interrupted by Chelsea Green and Piper Niven, finishing with water in their faces and a tag title challenge accepted.

Final Score: The women had a good Day 1 spotlight with the first match of the year and two matches that were longer than ten minutes. The champion had a good match against a relative newcomer, the long-standing face of the division had a good match with the division’s destroyer, and the tag division rolled on. I’m content! An A from me.

Tuesday – WWE NXT (New Year’s Evil)

Tonight’s Card: Three of the six matches included women for approximately 22:30 of in-ring action. Six women had time in-ring compared to ten men.

Lyra Valkyria defeated Blair Davenport in a NXT Women’s Title match in 8:26. A decent showing for Blair but this was about moving Lyra on in her reign. Lola Vice made a post-match attempt at using her title shot (with Elektra Lopez) but was thwarted by Tatum Paxley.

Arianna Grace defeated Roxanne Perez in 5:09. The match was good, but the story is what happened post match. With Arianna further frustrating Roxanne, Roxy puts her in a submission and won’t let go, causing the referee to reverse the decision.

Fallon Henley defeated Tiffany Stratton in 9:04. The loser is the other’s servant. I’m still not sure Tiffany should be losing this much, but I’m sure the vignettes of her being a farmhand will be good. Crazy to think that Tiffany has only had 68 matches!

Other Developments: Blair brawls with Nikkita Lyons backstage. Cora Jade and Gigi Dolin have issues as well. Kiana James and Izzi Dame continue being friends. Tatum tells Lyra how happy she is that she’s still champ in a way that made some of us (me) feel seen.

Final Score: The women got the time, stories are advancing, and the title picture continues to spin. I’m not mad at any of it. Let’s give it a B.

Wednesday – AEW Dynamite

Tonight’s Card: It wouldn’t be Dynamite without one women’s match. One out of five matches involved women for approximately 6:30 of TV time. Two women competed in comparison to ten men.

Mariah May defeated Queen Aminata in 6:39. This was Mariah’s in-ring debut for AEW. This was actually just as much of a spotlight for the Queen, which was surprising. Post-match, Deonna Purrazzo makes her return to interrupt Mariah’s celebration.

Other Developments: Toni Storm decides to skip Mariah’s debut because it’s off-Broadway. I get that. Ruby Soho and Harley Cameron continue to try to bond.

Final Score: A tale of two Dynamites here. There is the big thing: one star’s debut match and another star’s return to the company. But then there’s everything else, which was nothing really. As happy as I am to see the division grow, it can only grow so much if it’s mostly limited to one segment. You can only cram so many women into a certain amount of time. Next week would be the 100th Dynamite in a row with one women’s match. It’s a C.

Thursday – ROH on HonorClub

Tonight’s Card: Three of nine matches included women for approximately 14:30 combined. Eight women saw action in comparison to twenty men.

Queen Aminata defeated Maya World in 4:01. Mostly an Aminata showcase and that’s not a bad thing. The biggest divide AEW faces is probably having someone be successful on ROH and then lose in short order on AEW, so if they can fix that we might be onto something.

Red Velvet defeated Alex Gracia in 3:17. Not a lot to it, but Alex got a bit of a spotlight.

Diamente & Mercedes Martinez defeated Leyla Hirsch & Rachael Ellering in 7:11. No Maria, so that story arc is thankfully done for Leyla & Rachael hopefully. An enjoyable tag match as we built to the TV Title tournament that’ll happen one day.

Other Developments: None.

Final Score: When Athena isn’t there, everybody else is just kinda trading wins and losses. The TV Title promises some hopeful direction, but right now we are doing what ROH does best – go in circles. A fair amount of action, but of course less than the multi-man men’s action. Let’s give it a C.

Thursday – WWE Main Event

Tonight’s Card: Two matches tonight, neither with a woman.

Final Score: Numerous women didn’t compete on Raw, so it’s fairly inexcusable to not throw a few on Main Event. It’s a F for me.

Friday – AEW Rampage

Tonight’s Card: Two of four matches involved women tonight for approximately 12 minutes combined. Six women saw action compared to eight men.

Kris Statlander & Willow Nightingale defeated Kennedi Hardcastle & Notorious Mimi in 2:35. This was all Kris & Willow. The highlight was Stokely Hathaway’s introduction of the pair as we continue developing his story with the pair but mostly Stat.

Hikaru Shida defeated Anna Jay in 9:10. Back and forth action and enjoyable for sure, but Shida is the one building up here. I’d love them to find some direction for Anna.

Other Developments: Anna attempts to go it alone without the former Jericho Appreciation, which is for the best, but Harley Cameron has some thoughts for her.

Final Score: AEW gave us multiple women’s matches in their one hour show. If I said anything but an A, I’d be going against every complaint since I started this thing. Still room for improvement, but it was a good show.

Friday – WWE Friday Night SmackDown (New Year’s Revolution)

Tonight’s Card: One of four matches included women for approximately 10:30 of in-ring time. Two women saw action in comparison to nine men.

Iyo Sky defeated Michin in a WWE Women’s Title Match in 10:20. I was excited about Mia getting a chance to show off and was hoping she’d get the time. She did! My favorite match of the week.

Other Developments: Damage CTRL celebrate Iyo’s win and plan for the Rumble, only for Bianca Belair to interrupt and announce her plans to win the Rumble. Scarlett has a new hair color and new running buddies with the addition of AOP and Paul Ellering to her duo with Karrion Kross.

Final Score: A hot spotlight title match adds a lot of weight to the score. I could’ve used a little more of the division’s other women. Still a respectable B.

Friday – WWE NXT Level Up

Tonight’s Card: One of three matches involved women for approximately 5:30 of in-ring time. Four women competed in comparison to four men.

Izzi Dame & Kiana James defeated Brinley Reece & Kiyah Saint in 5:17. A Level Up five minute special! Nothing wrong with it though and it solidifies the Izzi/Kiana team.

Final Score: Even competitor numbers. I don’t ask for much with Level Up. It’s an A.

Saturday – AEW Collision

Tonight’s Card: One of seven matches involved women for approximately nine minutes. Two women competed in comparison to eighteen men.

Skye Blue defeated Kiera Hogan in 8:52. If Tony is going to do anything with last minute announcements, it’s announcing Skye Blue is having a match. A good back and forth match!

Other Developments: We’re reminded that Serena Deeb is returning. Kris and Willow decline to talk about Stokely. Julia Hart does a little spooky bell ringing to end a men’s match.

Final Score: The problem I’ll always have is that Collision is two hours and they can barely find ten minutes for the women, often with a match announced right before the show with random participants. What we got was pretty good, but there’s so much room to do better. C.

Weekly Stats:

37 different women saw in-ring action in the “big three” for the week.

WWE, including NXT, gave matches to 20 different women for a total of approximately 69 minutes.

AEW, including ROH, gave matches to 17 different women for a total of approximately 42 minutes. One woman, Queen Aminata, had two matches during the week (one AEW, one ROH).

TNA did not present new content.