Seven Days in Women’s Wrestling: February 26 to March 3, 2024

With Revolution looming and the road to WrestleMania being paved, there’s a lot going on in wrestling. Last week the three companies had more women’s wrestling than any week since I started writing this.

Certainly the trend will continue, right?

Monday – WWE Monday Night Raw

Tonight’s Card: Three of the six matches tonight included women for approximately thirteen minutes of in-ring action. Eight women saw action compared to eight men.

Raquel Rodriguez defeated Chelsea Green in 1:19. This was just for the superb comedic stylings of Chelsea.

Shayna Baszler & Zoey Stark defeated Candice LeRae & Indi Hartwell in 2:48. A dominant performance for Shayna and Zoey that further cements them as upcoming challengers.

Nia Jax defeated Liv Morgan in 8:06. A good match ended by the interference of Becky Lynch as we set up the big Nia/Becky rematch next week.

Other Developments: We kick off the show with Becky and Rhea (and Dom Dom) talking in the ring, which ends with Nia attacking Becky.

Final Score: I’m never going to say thirteen minutes of action in a three hour show is good. Continued props for several stories going on at once and women throughout the show, but we can do better! D

Tuesday – WWE NXT

Tonight’s Card: Three of the seven matches tonight included women for approximately seventeen minutes of in-ring time. Six women competed in comparison to ten men.

Kiana James defeated Kelani Parker in 8:15. Izzi Dame is with Kiana. If you’ve seen their previous matches, this was similar. They work well together.

Roxanne Perez defeated Jakara Jackson in 4:11. Not a huge fan of Jakara taking the loss when there are plenty of faces for Rox to beat. I do like the continued edge they’re adding to Rox though.

Jaida Parker defeated Gigi Dolin in 4:40. Arianna Grace causes a distraction to Gigi while Jaida continues to look like a star. Really not sure what they’re doing with Gigi at this point besides a bunch of nothing.

Other Developments: Thea Hail continues being sad about her date and Jacy Jayne continues to not really care. Lyla Valkyria wishes Shotzi well and gives Tatum Paxley a gift… they’re getting a tag title shot against the Kabuki Warriors next week! We get a vignette with “see you soon” written in the sand at the beach, which sure seems Sol Ruca-ish.

Final Score: A lot of the backstage stuff led into matches this week as we continue to develop an entire division of women. B-.

Wednesday – AEW Dynamite

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

Skye Blue defeated Kris Statlander in 9:40. You could, of course, predict this match would be ten minutes or less including a commercial. Thanks for two matches last week! Back to the norm. This WAS a good match though as they have good chemistry and it moved us closer to Willow likely being Julia Hart’s next challenger.

Other Developments: None.

Final Score: Here we are again, back in the world of one match Dynamites with the “but things are going to change” hope. At least it was a match with story, which isn’t always a promise. C-.

Thursday – ROH on HonorClub

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

Queen Aminata defeated Taya Valkyrie in a ROH World Women’s TV Title Tournament Quarterfinal match in 8:52. The Queen’s rise in ROH continues and that’s not a bad thing. A good match.

Other Developments: Athena calls an emergency Minion meeting, showing support for Billie Starkz in the tournament.

Final Score: This was a different ROH, squeezing only five matches and ten or so people onto a show instead of the usual two hours, 15 matches and 40 people. That’s a plus. Of course, after a few weeks straight of five women’s matches going an hour, it’s a different feel. I’m not mad if this is the new show format. We’ve gotta find Athena some direction though. B.

Thursday – TNA Impact

Tonight’s Card: One of five matches tonight involved the women for approximately 5:30. Two women competed compared to fourteen men.

Tasha Steelz and Xia Brookside went to a double countout in 5:16. They brawl to an end as their rubber match goes nowhere. Jordynne Grace was watching and post-match says she’ll face them both at Sacrifice.

Other Developments: Ash by Elegance announces her second match next week. Decay wants their belts back.

Final Score: The typical Impact nowadays, which isn’t fantastic for the women. Short match, a few backstage things and that’s it. D.

Thursday – WWE Main Event

Tonight’s Card: One of two matches tonight involved women for approximately 6:30. Two women and two men competed.

Ivy Nile defeated Xia Li in 6:16. Hi, Xia! I enjoyed this one and thought they meshed pretty well.

Final Score: B as usual.

Friday – AEW Rampage

Tonight’s Card: One of four matches tonight included women for approximately seven minutes. Two women competed compared to ten men.

Riho defeated Trish Adora in 7:01. I enjoyed this one and its two women who we should care about more. Riho is great but goes MIA for long periods (as do a lot of women here) and Trish is a fantastic wrestler but gets stuck in ROH jobbing purgatory. They both deserve more AEW shine.

Other Developments: Ruby Soho and Angelo Parker are about to go on their date but get jumped by the Outcasts and Zak Knight because this story will never end.

Final Score: Rampage is the show where nothing important happens for the women as the champs appear on the other shows and we get thrown together matches and the Ruby/Outcasts saga that has been going on since Columbus sailed the ocean blue. C-.

Friday – NXT Level Up

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

Lola Vice defeated Wren Sinclair in 4:45. The rise of Lola continues as she looked great here as did Wren as the up-and-coming newcomer.

Final Score: B-.

Friday – TNA Xplosion

Tonight’s Card: One of two matches tonight included women for approximately 7:30. Two women and two men competed.

Jody Threat defeated Killer Kelly in 7:27. We finally get women on this show and it’s Killer Kelly being beaten? This feels personal. Hey, at least it’s a match with a storyline on the other show.

Final Score: The first passing grade for this show since its return, B.

Friday – WWE Friday Night SmackDown

Tonight’s Card: Two of the five matches tonight involved women for approximately fourteen minutes. Six women competed compared to six men.

Tiffany Stratton defeated Naomi in 8:59. It’s actually impressive they still had nine minutes despite Dwayne’s endless segment. Tifffy continues to be a superstar and Naomi looked good in defeat.

Bayley & Dakota Kai vs Kabuki Warriors went to a no contest in 5:00. We all saw it coming, but it still hurt. Dakota jumps off the apron to miss Bayley’s tag attempt and the Damage Ctrl beat down commences. Poor Bayley.

Other Developments: Damage CTRL encounters a passing Jade Cargill backstage, which could be interesting.

Final Score: Well, despite the Bloodline promo taking half the show, we still had a LOT of women’s in-ring time and story development. I was worried we wouldn’t. They proved me wrong. B.

Saturday – AEW Collision

Tonight’s Card: Two of the six matches tonight included women for approximately five minutes combined. Four women saw action compared to 21 men.

Mariah May defeated Angelica Risk in 2:53. Angelica primarily has been in OVW in the past. Just a squash for Mariah, which is what she needs.

Thunder Rosa defeated Cassandra Golden in 2:18. Cassandra has a 2020 Dynamite match against Dr. Baker to her credit as well as several Dark matches. A squash as well for Rosa as it has been since her return.

Other Developments: Toni Storm and Deonna Purrazzo have a final face-off (and Toni kisses Deonna on the cheek) before their match Sunday. It also played into the story of Mariah being Toni’s lackey. Stokely apologizes to Willow and Kris, but Willow promises that they’ll be kicking the (mouthed curse word) of Julia Hart & Skye Blue at Revolution. Serena Deeb says she wants competition and calls herself the final boss, which might or might not be alluding to a particular former Boss.

Weekly Tallies:

WWE/NXT presented a total of ten matches involving women this week across 8.5 hours of television for approximately 50.5 minutes of in-ring action.

AEW/ROH presented a total five matches involving women this week across six hours of television for approximately 31 minutes of in-ring action.

TNA presented a total of two matches involving women this week across 2.5 hours of television for approximately 13 minutes of in-ring action.