Seven Days in Women’s Wrestling: March 24 to 30, 2024

Hey, you might’ve heard the women have had a rough week getting TV time this week. You were not told wrong!

There have been some highlights though, and some of them are monumental moments. Let’s check out what WWE, AEW, and TNA had in store this week.

Monday – WWE Monday Night Raw

Matches: 1 women / 5 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 2:00 min women / 42:50 men

Representation: 2 women / 12 men

Candice LeRae d. Ivy Nile (1:50)

Yes, I’m starting exactly where you’d expect. Under two minutes of women’s action in a three hour program is absolutely unacceptable. I do realize it is WrestleMania season where ring time drops and stories rise, but if you can find 42 minutes for the men, you can find more than two for the women.

As far as that big two minutes, we’re advancing that Candice is a big ol’ meanie pants as she tries to get Indi to cheat, but Indi wouldn’t so Candice gets the on herself.

The women do get one big head-to-head segment to really bring home the store of Rhea Ripley and Becky Lynch and both women hit a home run with it. Becky also hit a home run with her punching of poor Dom Dom. This elevated the upcoming Mania match a lot, something it needed.

I’m still giving a grade of a F because, well, two minutes in three hours. As we advance towards Mania with only two of this show’s women represented in a match, unfortunately all the others are taking a back seat to the sea of men’s matches.

Tuesday – WWE NXT

Matches: 2 women / 4 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 12:00 min women / 39 men

Representation: 4 women / 10 men

Thea Hail d. Jazmyn Nyx (3:36)

Natalya d. Lola Vice (8:36)

Roxanne Perez watched old footage of her smiley self and is disgusted, showing her new edge is what she needs. Lyra Valkyria has words about the changes of Roxanne as well as we march towards their Stand & Deliver showdown.

In-ring, Thea gets the win despite the attempts of Jacy Jayne, ringside with Jazmyn. We’re shuffling towards a showdown between the two former Chase U students which should be fun. Kiana James, Izzi Dame, Fallon Henley and Kelani Jordan all make their presence felt post-match, which feels like a six-woman match coming.

Lola’s open challenge was answered by Natalya, who defeated her. I love Nattie, I do, but we’re at the point where there are so many more interesting open challenge faces.

In other rivalries, Sol Ruca and Blair Davenport have words about each other in advance of their match next week. Arianna Grace has found a dress for Gigi Dolin, or Georgina as Ari calls her, in her ongoing makeover.

This is more like it. Where Raw has kind of shut most of the women out until after Mania, NXT continues to develop stories beyond the match announced for Stand & Deliver. It’s a solid B- for me.

Wednesday – AEW Dynamite

Matches: 1 women / 4 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 10:00 min women / 63:00 men

Representation: 4 women / 10 men

Willow Nightingale d. Anna Jay, Kris Skylander and Skye Blue in a #1 Contender’s Match (9:49)

I don’t want you to be shocked, but AEW crammed most of their women’s content into a neat, orderly ten minute segment while the men had over an hour just to wrestle.

The women had a nice four-way (with a commercial break) with Mercedes Mone on commentary. Mercedes is finding herself on the mic again, though she’s in a new world where things are certainly not as produced as maybe she’s used to. Willow was attacked after the match by Julia Hart, as we continue setting up possible Mercedes things with Willow and Julia.

We also get a short segment with Toni Storm visiting the legendary Ben Mankiewicz at the TCM Studios, which is fine because Ben is great.

A few weeks post-Mercedes arrival, not much has changed as far as the time the women are getting. While we’re getting four in a match with an actual focused goal (which is an improvement), we’re still cramming into the same ten minutes or so. There are more women to be setting stories up for but you wouldn’t know that from watching AEW’s flagship show. A C-.

Thursday – ROH on HonorClub

Matches: 2 women / 6 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 11:30 min women / 34:50 men

Representation: 4 women / 20 men

Athena d. Nikita in a ROH World Women’s Title Proving Ground match (2:57)

Kiera Hogan d. Diamente (8:32)

Even ROH is struggling with the representation side this week, even if both matches are at least storyline based. Athena of course gets a quick win before her title match against Shida next week. Nobody has lost a Proving Ground match since ROH returned so there was zero doubt about what was going to happen. Shida saved Nikita from a post-match attack.

Now, let me complain about Proving Ground some more. Nikita has a previous ROH match: losing to Athena in a Proving Ground match in July 2023 in 0:53. What has she done since losing in under a minute to earn another Proving Ground match, you ask? She’s gone 2-8 on the indies, thanks for asking. This is not necessarily against Nikita, but when do Proving Ground matches start to matter?

Real-life couple Kiera and Diamente had a fun match that was a rematch of their meeting in the TV Title tournament. I’d recommend it and watching them in general.

Otherwise, we get a video look at Queen Aminata and Billie Starkz, our TV Title tournament combatants next week as well as the announcement of a six-woman match featuring STARDOM talents at SuperCard of Honor.

It’s a lot less women’s action than we have been getting from ROH since the TV Title tournament started, but it’s also a step over what ROH was giving us before that. Let’s go with a C.

Thursday – TNA Impact

Matches: 1 women / 4 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 8:30 min women / 39:30 men

Representation: 8 women / 9 men

Steph De Lander d. Alisha Edwards, Dani Luna, Havok, Jody Threat, Masha Slamovich, Rosemary and Xia Brookside in a Knockouts World Title #1 Contender’s 8-4-1 match (8:12).

This was my first time experiencing an 8-4-1 match. For those new like me, that means it starts with two four-women teams in a match, and once one wins a fall, it becomes a four-way between those four women. Learning that, I thought we were going to have a nice twenty minute stretch of action… and I was wrong.

De Lander was a nice surprise, filling in for Ash by Elegance who had a toothache. I did enjoy the match, it just seemed rushed. Steph is a good challenger for Jordynne Grace.

We also get some Pro Wrestling Illustrated promotion as Mustafa Ali is on the cover of the new issue. You know who else is in the new issue? Her name rhymes with Beapockery and she stubbornly writes a women’s column on a site also mentioned in said magazine.

So the representation was great this week, but I wish they weren’t all just crammed in the first ten minutes of the show. C.

Thursday – WWE Main Event

Matches: 1 women / 1 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 5:30 min women / 7 men

Representation: 2 women / 4 men

Shayna Baszler d. Katana Chance (5:14).

I’m never really going to complain about Main Event unless the women aren’t there. Of course, they should’ve been on Raw this week but you know. It was a good match between two of the women mired in the tag division. B.

Friday – AEW Rampage

Matches: 2 women / 2 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 11:00 min women / 24:00 men

Representation: 4 women / 4 men

Deonna Purrazzo d. Rose (3:47)

Mariah May d. Nikita (7:09)

You may have choked seeing two matches on AEW and I get it, but they were two squash matches… well, kinda.

It took Mariah May seven minutes to defeat Nikita, fresh off getting destroyed in minutes by Athena on ROH. No, it should not take Mariah that long to defeat a woman who has lost two ROH matches to Athena in a combined 3:58. Make it make sense.

The Deonna squash was more of a squash as she is kind of in a holding pattern. Guess where we’ve seen Rose before? In December, she lost a ROH Proving Ground match to Athena in 33 seconds.

Backstage – which as Thomas pointed out in his column is where this entire angle has happened – Harley Cameron does some stuff with Zak Knight and Ruby Soho eventually appears to kiss Angelo Parker. I beg for storytelling and continuity out of AEW and they give it to me, but only with this storyline that will never, ever end. It’ll still be happening when all of the Blog of Doom writers have been replaced by AI. Rumor has it that it’s actually an AI version of Scott already and it would break if it tried to watch 2024 Raw.

This show happened! I’m glad to see the women get some time, even if the time doesn’t logically make sense. B.

Friday – NXT Level Up

Matches: 1 women / 2 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 6:30 min women / 11:30 men

Representation: 2 women / 6 men

Meta-Four d. Carlee Bright & Kendal Grey (6:35)

It’s Level Up! Good to see the Meta-Four ladies. B.

Friday – TNA Xplosion

Matches: 1 women / 0 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 7:30 min women / 0:00 men

Representation: 2 women / 0 men

Tasha Steelz d. Ava Everett (7:23)

For another week, it’s an all-women’s action version of Xplosion. This is the first time we’ve seen Ava in the “big three” since a Dark Elevation loss to Kris Statlander, though she’s a regular in wXw (a former champion and can be seen on Peacock/WWE Network).

I enjoyed this match. I’m glad they got the time and they made the most of it. A.

Friday – WWE Friday Night SmackDown

Matches: 1 women / 4 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 10:00 min women / 21:00 men

Representation: 2 women / 12 men

Bianca Belair d. Dakota Kai (9:39).

SmackDown seems to be the show that, every so often, makes me explain how the representation and time numbers can be so off from my final grade. This show saw two monumental moments in the women’s division that puts it right at an A- for me.

Jade Cargill made her first official appearance as a member of the SmackDown roster and her aura was immediately felt. She looked, as she does, like a million dollars and had a perfectly crafted entrance. This presentation was perfect.

We get a sit-down interview with IYO Sky, hyping her upcoming Mania match with Bayley… and with Bayley attacking her. We also get Naomi backstage wishing Bianca Belair luck against Dakota Kai and saying she has B’s back against the other members of Damage CTRL.

Our main event of the show is the Bianca/Dakota match and it’s pretty great. It’s especially great to see Dakota back at the level she is. Naturally we get the Damage CTRL beat down at the end, with the odds outnumbering Bianca even with Naomi coming to save her.

Who saves them? Jade. Jade makes the most confident walk to the ring and takes out all three members as we end the show with these three strong black women making the point to the WrestleMania sign. It’s one of the most iconic images the women’s division has ever had. And of course, shortly after the show the six-woman match was announced for Mania.

We also get a too-brief moment with Isla Dawn and Alba Fyre backstage, which I can only hope leads to SOMETHING for them after Mania.

The storytelling, as it often is with the SmackDown women’s division, was rocking this week and the ending of the show was very, very important.

Saturday – AEW Collision

Matches: 1 women / 5 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 9:00 min women / 55:30 men

Representation: 2 women / 18 men

Thunder Rosa d. Lady Frost (8:49)

Here we are again with a two-hour AEW show with the women being squeezed into ten minutes while the men get almost an hour of in-ring time alone.

I’m not complaining about the match at all – it was good and the two women are two of AEW’s better hands. Rosa shouts out Toni after the match, demanding her match.

We go backstage after that to meet dear Toni and Mariah, learning that next week Rosa and Mariah wrestle for the title shot against Toni at Dynasty. Toni commends what she thinks was Mariah’s plan all along, giving her a kiss. There should be more kissing in wrestling.

I’ll lament the big difference in representation and time here, though both are normal for Collision, but I’m also cheering that we have a story with a match that actually means something next week. C-.

Final Tallies:

WWE/NXT – Six matches, 36 minutes approximately combined, fourteen different women in action

AEW/ROH – Six matches, 41:30 minutes approximately combined, thirteen different women in action (Nikita wrestled twice)

TNA – Two matches, 16 minutes approximately combined, ten different women in action