Seven Days in Women’s Wrestling – January 7 to 13, 2024

The women were certainly doing it again this week, so let’s take a look at what they were doing!

This week, TNA returned with some new content and their old name! AEW had a big in-ring debut and an extra hour of content! WWE kept building towards the Royal Rumble weekend!

The Thursday episode of Impact was again a clip show, so it isn’t graded below.

Monday – WWE Monday Night Raw

Tonight’s Card: Only one of six matches tonight included women for approximately 10:00 of in-ring time. Four women saw in-ring action compared to ten men.

Katana Chance & Kayden Carter defeated Chelsea Green & Piper Niven in a WWE Women’s Tag Titles match in 9:50. A good match that establishes Katana and Kayden. I don’t think Chelsea and Piper are completely out of the picture.

Other Developments: Becky Lynch announces that she’s entering the Rumble and not finished with Nia Jax. Nia has an in-ring interview interrupted by Rhea Ripley, setting up a battle between them.

Final Score: ESPECIALLY since none of the other women were used for the Main Event taping, a poor showing this week. Simply inexcusable to have one women’s match in a three hour show, even if it was a good match. They’ve had really great weeks lately where the entire division has been showcased in or out of the ring throughout the show but this was not one of those weeks. A “D” for me.

Tuesday – WWE NXT

Tonight’s Card: Two of eight matches involved women this week for approximately 9:30 of in-ring time. Four women saw matches compared to seventeen men.

Blair Davenport defeated Nikkita Lyons in 5:25. A little surprised Lyons took the loss here.

Cora Jade defeated Gigi Dolin in 4:05. Cora rolls on with a renewed push since her return. Really I think they’re missing the boat with Gigi lately and maybe a trip to a different roster would revitalize her.

Other Developments: Throughout the show we see Tiffany Stratton, as decked out in pink as ever, working on Fallon Henley’s farm. A good showcase for Tiff’s acting abilities. Lyra Valkyria sets up a 20-woman battle next week, with the final four having a match to earn a title shot. Lola Vice and Elektra Lopez threaten, which brings out Tatum Paxley to run defense. Jacy Jayne has a plan for the female Chase U students to save the school. Jaida Parker meets up with OTM and wants to talk about being their female counterpart for the Family’s Riz.

Final Score: While the women here aren’t getting the in-ring time I’d like either (and they probably won’t until the Dusty tournament ends), they are doing many other things throughout the show. Numerous things were set up throughout the show and yes, high score next week with at least twenty women in action. It’s a B.

Wednesday – AEW Dynamite (Homecoming)

Tonight’s Card: One of six matches involved women for approximately 9:00 of action. Eight women saw action in comparison to eighteen men.

Anna Jay, Kris Statlander, Willow Nightingale & Thunder Rosa defeated Ruby Soho, Saraya, Skye Blue & Julia Hart in 9:03. A good little match to show off numerous women in the division on the big Homecoming show. Not mad at it.

Other Developments: Toni Storm worries about Wendi Richter and tells Mariah May she didn’t watch her debut match but wants to meet Deonna Purrazzo. Elsewhere, Deonna announces she’ll have her first match on Collision, a match accepted by Red Velvet.

Final Score: Fun fact! I was supposed to go to this show, but then I had an MRI scheduled an hour in the other direction and didn’t go. And then the MRI was postponed. I think it was a scheme to make me miss seeing Willow in person. Anyway, they had eight women in action and several others appeared. At the same time, this was the 100th consecutive Dynamite with only one women’s match. Surely at some point they’ll have two, right? It’s a C. More effort than usual.

Thursday – ROH on HonorClub

Tonight’s Card: Three out of thirteen matches included women for approximately 7:30 combined. Ten women saw action compared to 28 men.

Queen Aminata defeated Trish Adora, Lady Frost and Diamente in a Four Corner Survival Match in 3:24. Some would see this as a battle of potential TV Title contenders, others would see this as a match with women with mostly losing records thus far in ROH. You can’t do much with four women in 3:24. And this was the LONGEST of the three women’s matches tonight.

Taya Valkyrie defeated Robyn Renegade in 1:46. Taya also spoke earlier about her interest in the TV Title. She busted out a move called the Shania Pain so she’s okay in my book. Again, not much to work with.

Leyla Hirsch & Rachael Ellering defeated Brittany Jade & Emily Hale in 2:10. Just a spotlight for Leyla and Rachael. Abadon appears after as yet another person interested in the TV Title.

Other Developments: In a segment you should seek out, Athena is training possible Minions at a wrestling school when Nyla Rose attacks her and all the MITs. Great segment that made Nyla look fantastic. Elsewhere, Billie and Lexy enjoy a day without Athena around.

Final Score: Ooof. The Nyla/Athena stuff was A+. However, it’s a D- for the rest. Ten women crammed into seven minutes worth of three matches is rough. Not one of them seemed important in that little time. There’s a TV Title coming at some point, but the women can’t get time on the TV show with no actual time restraints (and room for ten men’s matches). I was optimistic the week the title was announced but… this was rough.

Thursday – WWE Main Event

Tonight’s Card: Neither of the two matches tonight included women. Zero women were represented compared to two men.

Final Score: F. With only one women’s match on Raw, there were plenty of available women for this show.

Friday – AEW Rampage (Homecoming)

Tonight’s Card: One of four matches included women for approximately 9:00 of in-ring time. Two women saw action in comparison to ten men.

Hikaru Shida defeated Queen Aminata in 8:50. Aminata continues to be the workhorse of women’s wrestling this year, with four matches in two weeks. This was a good match, but both are running in place on the AEW treadmill at the moment.

Other Developments: Saraya is toxic (runs in her relationship) and shows Ruby Soho a video of Angelo Parker kissing Harley Cameron, which is revealed after Ruby leaves to have Angelo pushing Harley away.

Final Score: The women had some time, so I’m not mad at it. The Saraya stuff is death and I’d love to move on from the Outcasts being a thing. Still a B-

Friday: WWE NXT Level Up

Tonight’s Card: One of three matches tonight involves women for approximately 5:30 of in-ring action. Two women competed compared to four men.

Jaida Parker defeated Amari Miller in 5:27. Jaida gets some shine and Amari looks good in defeat. Your usual from Level Up.

Final Score: The 100th episode of Level Up provides the usual and that’s fine. B.

Friday – WWE Friday Night SmackDown

Tonight’s Card: One of four matches involved women for approximately 16:30 of in-ring action. Two women saw action in comparison to eleven men.

Bianca Belair defeated Bayley in 16:17. The women had the longest match on the show. Bianca and Bayley are very good together, which isn’t a shock. The story advancing, naturally, is Damage CTRL not making any efforts to help Bayley.

Other Developments: Damage CTRL show disappointment with Bayley backstage, with Dakota Kai telling her that she has to win the Rumble on her own. We take another look at the Final Testament, which involves Scarlett and also some dudes.

Final Score: The women had sixteen minutes on SmackDown, a show hard to get time on due to strict timing and network ad breaks. They had a great match and they’re continuing to tell a story. My one minor complaint is that we could’ve used a backstage segment with Michin to follow up last week. Either way, it’s an A-.

Saturday – AEW Battle of the Belts IX

Tonight’s Card: One of three matches involved women for approximately 10:30 of in-ring action. Two women saw action compared to six men.

Julia Hart defeated Anna Jay in an AEW TBS Title match in 10:18. A title hasn’t changed on BOTB since the second edition, not that I was expecting Anna to win. She too is on that AEW treadmill of running in place. This wasn’t a bad match, but it was a foregone conclusion.

Final Score: I’m not mad at getting an extra women’s match on a Saturday, even though much like most of Battle of the Belts it didn’t feel important. B.

Saturday – AEW Collision

Tonight’s Card: One of seven matches involved women for approximately 6:30 of in-ring time. Two women competed in comparison to twenty men in the usual large Collision differential. Saturday night’s alright for dude fighting!

Deonna Purrazzo defeated Red Velvet in 6:13. A good win in a good match for Deonna, though I question putting it on here instead of Dynamite.

Final Score: Welcome to most Collisions, where there are tons of guys crammed into matches and also a women’s match. At least it was made to feel like an important match this week. C-.

Saturday – TNA Hard to Kill (and Countdown to Hard to Kill)

Tonight’s Card: Including the preshow, three of twelve matches included women for approximately 33 minutes of in-ring action.

Gisele Shaw defeated Alisha Edwards, Dani Luna, Jody Threat, Tasha Steelz and Xia Brookside in a #1 Contendership Ultimate X Match in 12:04. The women absolutely brought it to open the show. Gisele was the right choice to me, though Tasha would also have worked. Worth a rewatch.

Decay defeated MK-Ultra in a TNA Knockouts Tag Team Title match in 6:17. A sad day for the lesbians when Killer Kelly and Masha Slamovich lose their belts in a surprise match, trust me. It was good to see Decay (Havok & Rosemary) and, if anything, I hope this is the start of the tag division getting time again. Despite winning the belts in July, MK-Ultra only had five televised defenses before this surprise match.

Jordynne Grace defeated Trinity in a TNA Knockouts World Title match in 14:32. This was Jordynne using her “Call Your Shot” title shot and I really enjoyed it. This is likely the end of the line for Trinity if the news reports are true, though I could see a quick rematch being taped. She had a good run and elevated herself and the division in her time with the company.

Other Developments: A mystery woman arrived! Ash by Elegance, the former Dana Brooke, had a front-row seat.

Final Score: TNA is back! TNA represented its women well tonight, though advertising the tag match would have been nice. Both titles changed and we have a new #1 contender. Keep this momentum. I’m giving it an A.

Week Totals:

Including NXT, WWE presented five women’s matches over approximately 8.5 hours of TV time. All together, the women saw approximately 41:30 of in-ring time. Twelve different women had matches.

Including ROH, AEW presented seven women’s matches over approximately eight hours of TV time. All together, the women saw 42 minutes of TV time. 27 different women saw in-ring time. Queen Aminata, Julia Hart, and Anna Jay all had two matches this week.

TNA presented three women’s matches over approximately four hours of TV time. All together, the women saw approximately 33 minutes of in-ring time. Twelve women had marches this week.