Seven Days in Women’s Wrestling – January 21 to 27, 2024

Hello and welcome to another seven days in the world of women’s wrestling.

What a week. To say the least, it’s been a rough one. We found out some disgusting, demented things and a lot of just wanted to tune out. I think a lot of us questioned our fandom. I certainly did. It’s made me question rewatching a large chunk of my childhood which featured one of them as the voice on commentary. It’s also made me question the Total Divas recaps, largely because one of them plays a larger role as the series goes on (I’m probably not recapping Total Bellas for said reason).

I hope this all opens all the spotlights to all the mistreatment that has happened or is happening. I hope it helps make wrestling a safe space for women.

This weekly post has always been a tribute to the women of wrestling. When a lot of things took me out of my fandom, the women brought me back in. Sasha and Bayley, to be exact. The amazing women that do what they do mean the world to a lot of us. They inspire us and it means the world to see them excelling.

More than ever, they are excelling… but still fighting for the spotlight. And I’m going to keep on spotlighting these amazing women. Let’s see what they did last week.

Monday – WWE Monday Night Raw

Tonight’s Card: Two of six matches included women for approximately nine minutes combined. Six women saw action compared to ten men.

Ivy Nile defeated Valhalla in 2:47. This happened! They didn’t get time to do much. Nikki Cross was unacknowledged but near the entrance as we resume “Where’s Nikki.”

Shayna Baszler & Zoey Stark defeated Candice LeRae & Indi Hartwell in 6:35. The mid-match commercial break didn’t help, but Shayna & Zoey have built up a nice little win streak this year and there are worse options than letting them tear people apart. They were confronted post-match by Katana Chance and Kayden Carter, who were then ambushed by their upcoming SmackDown challengers the Kabuki Warriors.

Other Developments: Rhea Ripley and Damien Priest argue over Judgment Day things as well as her cover of WWE 2K24. Maxxine Dupri gets a small backstage chat. Nia Jax and Becky Lynch chat in-ring about who is winning the Rumble, both interrupted by Bayley. Damage CTRL argue backstage with Tegan Nox & Natalya.

Final Score: It’s the tale of two shows here. On one hand, there’s a lot going on with the women throughout the show. On the other hand, it certainly isn’t in-ring as they had under ten minutes including a mid-match commercial break. Unacceptable as always on a three hour show. C-.

Tuesday – WWE NXT

Tonight’s Card: Two of six matches involved the ladies for approximately 6:15 combined. Four women saw action in comparison to ten men.

Lash Legend defeated Wren Sinclair in 2:59. We met Wren last week during the battle royal. The former Madi Wrenkowski, she competed largely in NWA but also has matches against Willow Nightingale on ROH on HonorClub and Athena on Dark Elevation. This was a Lash spotlight, however, with the setup of Meta-Four against Wren and Fallon Henley.

Blair Davenport defeated Karmen Petrovic in 3:13. Not much time for these two tonight, but Davenport getting the win is probably the direction to go for now.

Other developments: Most importantly, the main event segment was the Vengeance Day contract signing between Lyra Valkyria and Roxanne Perez. They are respectful, however Tatum Paxley attacks Roxy after and gets Lyra mad at her. Ava is named new GM of NXT and gets time with William Regal. Jaida Parker attacks Riz at the D’Angelo Family’s restaurant. Arianna Grace gives another inspirational speech. Lola Vice is the guest on Supernova Sessions, which ends with a confrontation and match next week with Elektra Lopez. Brinley Reece tries to motivate Enofe & Blade after their loss in the Dusty Classic.

Final Score: This one gets graded on more of a curve than Raw despite six minutes of action. Remember how I said the women were spread through Raw? Raw has nothing on just how spread through the show the women and their many, many storylines are. Oh, and there’s a female GM and the women had the main event segment. B-.

Wednesday – AEW Dynamite

Tonight’s Card: One of six matches on tonight’s show involved women for a total of approximately seven minutes. Two women saw action compared to fourteen men.

Thunder Rosa defeated Red Velvet in 7:10. As usual, half the match was lost to commercial which left us with about 3:30 of women’s action on the show. They both looked good here and Rosa appears on the road to title shots.

Other Developments: Toni Storm and Deonna Purrazzo had a face-to-face interview, which I thought did a pretty good job of highlighting their past. Backstage, Taya Valkyrie requests a match against Deonna next week.

Final Score: For the 102nd week in a row, we had one women’s match on Dynamite and this week lost half of it to a commercial break. The Toni/Deonna segment was good, but in a company that prides itself on being action focused, the women need a shot to compete on its biggest show. C-.

Thursday – ROH on HonorClub

Tonight’s Card: Five of fifteen matches involved women for approximately nineteen minutes of in-ring action. Fourteen women saw action compared to 34 men.

Nyla Rose defeated Laynie Luck in 2:00. This was Laynie’s first ROH match since September, where she lost to Layla Hirsch in a minute. She didn’t do much better here as Nyla dominated.

Diamente, Leila Grey & Taya Valykrie defeated Kiera Hogan, Lady Frost & Trish Adora in 6:58. A good match for the six, though I hate to see Kiera, Frost and Trish take L’s again as we meander towards the TV Title eventually.

Red Velvet defeated Heather Reckless in 2:22. Heather’s previous ROH appearance was also losing to Layla Hirsch but in one second more than this squash.

Billie Starkz defeated Tootie Lynn in 3:05. We last saw Tootie in AEW/ROH last March, losing a Proving Ground match to Athena (as one does) in a minute on Dark Elevation. Billie does as her leader Athena did.

Abadon defeated Robyn Renegade in 3:58. Robyn goes 0-3 on the year.

Other Developments: Leyla Hirsch and Rachael Ellering do thinks like joining a book club to work on chemistry. Nyla Rose wrecks some of Athena’s things and makes her buddy Lexy Nair hold the camera as she powerbombs the cameraman through a table.

Final Thoughts: Look, I’m not mad at five matches. However, fifteen minutes is a LOT and four of the women’s were squashes. ROH is often the show where EVERYONE is crammed on the show and it needs an editor. Or make it ROH and ROH Dark. It needs something. I dig the Nyla development but I’d love any development at all towards this TV Title tournament. C.

Thursday – TNA Impact (Snake Eyes)

Tonight’s Card: Two of six matches involved women for approximately fifteen minutes combined. Six women saw action compared to fourteen men.

Jordynne Grace defeated Trinity in a TNA Knockouts World Title match in 11:45. A very fun match that lived up to their match a few weeks ago. I’m sure it’ll be the last time they meet this week! Gisele Shaw, Savannah Evans and Jai Vidal attack both ladies post match and leave them lying.

MK-Ultra defeated Dani Luna & Jody Threat in 3:34. A good little match that re-establishes MK-Ultra as title contenders after their surprise title loss a few weeks ago.

Other Developments: Decay say some generally creepy things in a backstage bit.

Final Score: Not a lot to complain about here. A big title rematch plus a good tag team division match. I’m not mad at it. B.

Thursday – WWE Main Event

Tonight’s Card: One of two matches involved women for approximately five minutes of in-ring action. Two women competed just as two men did.

Chelsea Green defeated Gigi Dolin in 5:10. Most importantly, THIS is actually where Samantha Irvin returned to doing the superior Chelsea Green introduction. I enjoyed this one.

Final Score: Most Main Events give us two matches, one with the ladies. This one did. B.

Friday – AEW Rampage

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

Anna Jay defeated Ruby Soho in 6:57. We lost half the match to commercial breaks. I’d love to think this will give Anna some forward momentum, but we will see.

Other Developments: Not much!

Final Score: Another solid four minutes of in-ring action aired on TV! Lets give it a C.

Friday – NXT Level Up

Tonight’s Card: One of three matches involved women for approximately five minutes of in-ring time. Four women and four men competed.

Izzi Dame & Kiana James defeated Brinley Reece & Kelani Jordan in 5:07. Actual storyline movement on Level Up. A good five minute sprint.

Final Score: The typical for Level Up, which is fine.

Friday – TNA Xplosion

Tonight’s Card: Hey, Xplosion’s back! Women were not invited, as both matches involved men. Four men saw matches compared to zero men.

Final Score: Welp. F.

Friday – WWE Friday Night SmackDown

Tonight’s Card: One of four matches involved women for approximately nine minutes of in-ring time. Four women saw in-ring action compared to six men.

The Kabuki Warriors defeated Katana Chance & Kayden Carter in a WWE Women’s Tag Team Title match in 9:02. As I often complain about the other shows, we lost a chunk of the match to commercial breaks. It was a very good match though, and it’ll be interesting to see how the Warriors’ title run goes. I hope Katana and Kayden continue to get time too and don’t get pushed back to Main Event.

Other Developments: NXT GM Ava joins for Royal Rumble number drawings as we have NXT entrants. Bayley and Bianca Belair draw their numbers, with Bayley also getting a video package.

Final Score: Someone asked me on Twitter the other day how I can complain about Dynamite having one women’s match while SmackDown also typically does. The difference is often that SmackDown places more importance on their matches and women are strewn throughout the show. SmackDown has also been very women-heavy over the last few months, as it’s either the Damage CTRL show or the Bloodline show depending on if Roman is around. SD typically only has four matches as well, while Dynamite will throw seven at you and give the women the shortest. That’s typically why I don’t pick at SD as much.

That said, an important match tonight. Still a bit of a backseat to the men, but it’s also the eve of the Rumble. B-.

Saturday – AEW Collision

Tonight’s Card: Two of seven matches tonight involved women for approximately ten minutes of in-ring action. Four women saw action compared to sixteen men.

Mariah May defeated Lady Frost in 6:56. Commercial break match! Both women came out of this looking good. Mariah is in a holding pattern while Toni fights Deonna, and I’m not sure she shouldn’t be winning in a faster manner. I enjoyed it.

Serena Deeb defeated Robyn Renegade in 2:58. This was Serena’s return after about a year and a half on the shelf and the result was never in doubt. Serena gets a little post-match mic time and says she’s here to wrestle.

Other Developments: Toni has thoughts on Deonna in her usual hilarious manner.

Final Score: The women had two matches which was nice, even if they combined to the normal length one match would usually get. Both are developing things and not just random, which was nice. C.

Saturday – WWE Royal Rumble

Tonight’s Card: One of four matches tonight involved women for approximately 65 minutes of in-ring action. 30 women saw action in comparison to 36 men.

Bayley won the Royal Rumble in 65:03. Other participants: Alba Fyre, Asuka, Becky Lynch, Bianca Belair, Candice LeRae, Chelsea Green, Indi Hartwell, Ivy Nile, Jade Cargill, Jordynne Grace, Kairi Sane, Katana Chance, Kayden Carter, Liv Morgan, Maxxine Dupri, Michin, Naomi, Natalya, Nia Jax, Piper Niven, Roxanne Perez, Shayna Baszler, Shotzi, Tegan Nox, Tiffany Stratton, Valhalla, Xia Li, Zelina Vega and Zoey Stark.

I quite enjoyed this and liked it better than the men’s Rumble, but your mileage may vary. Naomi made her WWE return, two days after appearing as Trinity on Impact, and set the endurance record until Bayley broke it shortly after. Just as cool, her Impact opponent and TNA Knockouts Champion Jordynne Grace competed and looked like a million bucks.

Jade Cargill had her big debut, eliminating Nia Jax (most eliminations of the night), lasting until the final three, and immediately looking like the money she is. Liv Morgan was #30 and the other to make it to the final three.

Tiffany Stratton was a surprise entrant and also looked very good. The big story though is the winner Bayley, who moves onto Mania and a title shot.

Other Developments: Rhea Ripley and Iyo Sky watched.

Final Score: I’ll never complain about the women getting an hour in a hot opener. I would’ve like to see one of the two women’s singles titles on the line, but there’s only so much you can do on a two-Rumble card. A.

This Week’s Tallies:

First, one I never get to use. Two women competed on shows for two companies this week, and not just in a “WWE and NXT” or “AEW and ROH” way but two actual different companies. Naomi/Trinity and Jordynne Grace competed in two matches this week, one for WWE and one for TNA. In a cool footnote, they were against each other in both shows.

WWE/NXT: Over approximately 11.5 hours of shows this week, the women had a combined 99 minutes of in-ring time approximately. 39 different women saw matches this week. Ivy Nile, Valhalla, Zoey Stark, Shayna Baszler, Piper Niven, Chelsea Green, Indi Hartwell, Candice LeRae, Asuka, Kairi Sane, Kayden Carter and Katana Chance all wrestled twice.

AEW/ROH: Over approximately seven hours of shows this week, the women had a combined 45 minutes of in-ring action. 21 different women saw action, with Lady Frost wrestling twice.

TNA: Over approximately 2.5 hours of shows this week, the women had a combined fifteen minutes of in-ring time. Six different women saw action.