Seven Days in Women’s Wrestling – March 31 to April 6, 2024

It’s a big week this week! Ring of Honor has a special! NXT is Standing & Delivering! WWE has a new show!

Oh, also something called *checks notes* WrestleMania? Because this runs Sunday-Saturday, you get night one this week and night two next week.

Before we jump into the many, many shows below… did you know the WWE held the Slammy Awards this weekend? They did! I recapped it. Check it out!

Monday – WWE Monday Night Raw

Matches: 2 women / 4 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 12:30 min women / 37:30 men

Representation: 10 women / 14 men

Maxxine Dupri & Ivy Nile d. Candice LeRae & Indi Hartwell (3:35)

Asuka, Kairi Sane & Dakota Kai d. Shayna Baszler, Zoey Stark & Tegan Nox (9:00)

After last week’s disaster of representation, the ship has been somewhat righted (at least as much as it can for the Raw before Mania). Our big story is Rhea/Becky. Becky interrupted Rhea during a radio/podcast interview earlier in the day. Becky demands Rhea in-ring and we get our last big brawl before Mania.

Damage CTRL make a Raw appearance in a warm-up for their six-woman match at Mania, beating Shayna, Tegan and Zoe. No Iyo or Bayley appearances.

We also continue the “Candice is a meanie head” story, as Indi refuses to cheat, something Ivy and Maxxine use to win. And we learn that Lia Maivia will be joining the Hall of Fame, giving us two female members this year (not counting any legacy additions).

It was a better effort this week while also not putting anyone on the Mania card in danger. B-.

Tuesday – WWE NXT

Matches: 4 women / 3 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 21:30 min women / 21 men

Representation: 8 women / 10 men

Jacy Jayne d. Fallon Henley (3:58)

Lola Vice d. Karmen Petrovic (3:47)

Arianna Grace d. Wren Sinclair (3:57)

Sol Ruca d. Blair Davenport 9:17)

Ah, NXT. It’s always nice to be able to count on you. Look at those numbers.

Much like Raw, the biggest deal was setting up the women’s title match at this weekend’s show. In this case, that means Lyra Valkyria and Roxanne Perez being guests on Meta-Four’s Supernova Sessions. Lyra puts Rox through a table to end it because of course.

In the ring, we set up a six-woman match for Stand & Deliver. Fallon has Thea Hail and Kelani Jordan ringside with her while Jayne has Izzi Dame and Kiana James. You can guess how the match ends, right?

Natalya escorts Petrovic to the ring after defeating Lola last week. Lola hits a pitch-perfect Sharpshooter to win. Nattie can be the “of course” option to work with, but it’s good for Lola.

Arianna gets a good heel win but it’s time to get this Gigi Dolin transformation going. And Sol beats Blair to hopefully end that feud.

Even with all that’s going on with the men, there is just as much if not more with the women. An easy A. The division is on fire. Now if only it had a mid-card title…

Wednesday – AEW Dynamite

Matches: 1 women / 4 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 9:00 min women / 53:30 men

Representation: 2 women / 10 men

Thunder Rosa d. Mariah May (8:42)

Picture it: it’s about a month after the big debut that people said would change the respect the women’s division gets. Tonight it took about an hour and fifteen minutes for any woman not named Renee to be seen on screen. The women’s match and women’s interview segment fit neatly into a twelve minute box, which is about the same time they’ve been squeezed into for a good year. Don’t worry though, Billy Gunn got a match as long as the entire amount of women’s content!

Following Daddy Ass, we get an in-arena interview with Willow Nightingale, Kris Statlander and Stokely Hathaway. It’s well done with the (actual cheering) crowd shot behind them. Willow is celebrating her upcoming TBS Title shot against Julia Hart but is interrupted by Mercedes Mone, who says she wants the winner at Double or Nothing.

Our match does include the women, with Mariah and Rosa facing off for the next title shot at Toni Storm. Rosa wins which is probably the right choice, as now we continue the weird tension between Mariah and Toni.

Dynamite continues to be a weird place. There are more women on the show doing more important things, but they’re still getting as much time as they were when it was Queen Aminata in a random last-minute match a few weeks ago. I’m glad they can do a lot in a little time, but what if we gave them more time? C-.

Wednesday – WWE Speed

Matches: 0 women / 4 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 0:00 min women / 5:00 men

Representation: 0 women / 4 men

New and exclusive to Twitter, X features two matches a week where you have to win in under three minutes or less. At least for this first run, it’s all guys competing for the new Speed Championship. Sorry ladies, YOUR three minute matches are on Raw. F.

Thursday – ROH on HonorClub

Matches: 2 women / 4 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 3:30 min women / 33:00 men

Representation: 4 women / 14 men

Anna Jay d. Nikita (2:19)

Nyla Rose d. Alexia Nicole (1:16)

Yes, we’re following a theme this week: set up the weekend’s big show! With SuperCard of Honor tomorrow, we’re doing a contract signing for the big Athena/Shida match. Billie Starkz and Lexy Nair wonder if Billie will be the Minion Overlord if she wins the TV Title and Athena loses hers. Queen Aminata comes out with Shida, so we get setups for both matches which is cool. Athena goes through the table to end this signing.

Otherwise, the women are in squash city in their little bit of action this week. Anna Jay is here again for, uh, reasons and defeats Nikita. Nikita is on her Aminata in AEW January-February run of being on everything. Nyla Rose destroys Alexia Nicole, which is the right answer.

The signing felt important and got both title matches over, so it’s a win here with the curve changed this week. C.

Thursday – TNA Impact

Matches: 1 women / 5 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 8:30 min women / 45:30 men

Representation: 2 women / 10 men

Ash by Elegance d. Xia Brookside (8:28)

Ash continues to grow this week and is making the most of getting to show who she is, already far beyond Dana Brooke.

Elsewhere, Masha Slamovich is confronted by Alisha Edwards. Alisha reminds Masha that Killer Kelly is “gone” and they both want the Knockouts Tag Titles. Steph De Lander tells us she’s winning the Knockouts World Title.

There’s not an incredibly lot happening for the women this week, but we did just have a special event and have another around the corner. They got some ring time and we’re setting up title shots for both titles. B-.

Thursday – WWE Main Event

Matches: 1 women / 0 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 5:00 min women / 7:00 men

Representation: 2 women / 2 men

Chelsea Green d. Natalya (5:07)

The rise of Main Event Chelsea continues, this week defeating Natalya. It’s a serviceable match on a serviceable Main Event. B.

Friday – AEW Rampage

Matches: 1 women / 4 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 10:00 min women / 32:30 men

Representation: 2 women / 8 men

Serena Deeb d. Trish Adora (9:56)

Rampage had a normal show competing against the WWE Hall of Fame, and normal includes that one women’s match for ten minutes.

I’m not mad at it though! It was a good match and I’m glad Adora is getting to shine, though with yet another loss, on AEW. She’s a star. Serena seems to have slipped down a few spots on the depth chart, as we thought she was coming back as a title contender and she’s stuck in random Collision and Dynamite matches.

Leyla Hirsch issues a challenge to Julia Hart, who accepts. The Outcasts saga rolls on, much to my chagrin, with Saraya saying she’s sick of Ruby Soho. Cody finished his story before the Outcasts finished theirs.

An average Rampage, which isn’t bad. B-.

Friday – ROH SuperCard of Honor (and Zero Hour)

Matches: 12 women / 8 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 59:30 min women / 118:00 men

Representation: 8 women / 28 men

Mariah May d. Momo Kohgo

Maika, Mina Shirakawa & Mei Seira d. AZM, Saya Kamitani & Tam Nakano (14:27)

Billie Starkz d. Queen Aminata in the ROH World TV Title Tournament finals (17:42)

Athena d. Hikaru Shida in a ROH World Women’s Title match (22:31)

Well, there certainly are women on this show. My one complaint: Zero Hour. They made one tweet during the entire Zero Hour from the ROH account. Why aren’t you using this hour to promote your event you’re trying to sell us on as well as the paid app we need for it? They do this for AEW too – radio silence on social media during the Zero Hour. Madness.

Anyway, we got Mariah May making her first ROH appearance in the Kickoff against STARDOM’s Momo Kohgo. It was immediately Mariah’s best AEW match because she got to be more of herself, which worked for her in STARDOM. More of this please. Let Mariah shine.

The STARDOM six-woman showcase match was exactly that, a showcase. I’m all for seeing a lot more of the STARDOM ladies.

In the result we expected when the tournament was announced, Big Billie won the TV Title in a great match against Queen Aminata. My hope is they continue to push Queen now and she doesn’t just fall back into the rut she was before this tournament.

Athena/Shida delivered. Of course it did. Seek this one out. The question grows more and more every day of who will ever unseat Athena.

A great showcase for the women here. A.

Friday – NXT Level Up

Matches: 1 women / 3 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 4:30 min women / 12:20 men

Representation: 2 women / 8 men

Tatum Paxley d. Brinley Reece (4:23)

A normal week on Level Up. Tatum and Brinley had a fun little sprint. B.

Friday – TNA Xplosion

Matches: 0 women / 3 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 0:00 min women / 8:00 men

Representation: 0 women / 3 men

An off-week for the women this week, at least as far as in-ring. That’ll be a F.

Friday – WWE Friday Night SmackDown: WrestleMania SmackDown

Matches: 1 women / 4 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 3:00 min women / 24:00 men

Representation: 2 women / 30 men

Elektra Lopez d. Zelina Vega (2:34)

Speaking of grading on a curve, let’s talk about this show. It’s the last show before Mania. It’s the last hype show AND the “don’t get hurt” show. In-ring action is minimal (even the guys only had 24 minutes). Much like Raw after Mania, I’m not judging much on the in-ring content.

Our one women’s match is Lopez vs Vega, which is a backdrop to the LWO/Legado Mania match.

We get a segment with Naomi and Bianca Belair, who bring out Jade Cargill and talk about Damage CTRL.

We get the Bayley/IYO hype video set to Hayley Williams’ “Simmer” which is pretty great.

There wasn’t a lot of steak to go with the sizzle, but there never is on this show. It did what it needed to do though. On the curve, I give it a C.

Saturday – AEW Collision

Matches: 1 women / 6 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 8:30 min women / 55:00 men

Representation: 2 women / 20 men

Yuka Sakazawi d. Trish Adora (8:24)

Thanks to basketball and also probably WrestleMania, Collision didn’t air until 11:30 pm (technically 3/4ths of this show could count for next week’s column). They could’ve and probably should’ve just taken the week off, but instead we had a late night show that was just kinda there.

Our women’s match – there’s only room for one on a two-hour throwaway show! – features Yuka in her first match for the company since last year’s SuperCard of Honor where she lost to – you guessed it! – Athena. This was also a good match and another good showing for Trish. Serena Deeb appears post-match to sarcastically clap.

Julia Hart has thoughts! Mostly that Willow should give up because she’s already lost and Mercedes should focus on her.

For a show nobody was watching, it was okay. There was certainly room for the women to have more than one match, but what we got was entertaining. C-.

Saturday – NXT Stand & Deliver (and Countdown to)

Matches: 2 women / 5 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 28:00 min women / 57:30 men

Representation: 8 women / 13 men

Fallon Henley, Kelani Jordan & Thea Hail d. Izzi Dame, Jacy Jayne & Kiana James (11:41)

Roxanne Perez d. Lyra Valkyria in a NXT Women’s Title match (16:20)

On the other end of the time spectrum is Stand & Deliver, giving us a Saturday lunch treat as it fights for its life in the WrestleMania schedule. I’m not complaining, because clearly it is working. The place was packed.

Before the matches, we had two pretty huge happenings. One is NXT Mayor Ava announcing the NXT Women’s North American Title. That’s a huge deal on a show with the biggest, most diverse, most active women’s division.

Elsewhere, we flashed back to old TakeOvers as we see international sensation Giulia sitting in the crowd. That’s a BIG ONE.

Meta-Four host the show, which means we get to see them do many outfit changes and keep the show moving. They do a great job with it.

The big women’s title match sees Roxy win the big one. I really dug it and I’m excited to see where they go. The six-woman match flowed pretty well and moved along numerous stories.

A big win for the women. A.

Saturday – WWE WrestleMania XL (Saturday)

Matches: 2 women / 5 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 25:30 min women / 100:30 men

Representation: 8 women / 24 men

Rhea Ripley d. Becky Lynch in a WWE Women’s World Title match (17:09)

Jade Cargill, Bianca Belair & Naomi d. Asuka, Kairi Sane & Dakota Kai (8:03)

It’s the biggest show(s) of the year and we have two big women’s matches on this night.

Rhea/Becky opening is a pretty big deal. It’s noted that Rhea faced anxiety attacks while Becky was battling strep throat and a 102 degree fever leading into this. Rhea gets the punk rock Motionless in White live performance intro while Becky gets an intro modeled after her book (and her gear featured the book, which was cool).

The match itself was great, and had a certain other title match not happened the next night it would’ve been my favorite of the weekend. Rhea wins and she’s a lot like Athena in that I don’t know who in the world can dethrone her at this point.

The ladies of Damage CTRL faced off with what we are calling The Three, who had an entrance fitting of how epic they are. I enjoyed it and it was a showcase for the Three, which isn’t a bad thing. Despite what many commenters here will tell you, Jade looked good and every spot she hit was good. I enjoyed it.

Zelina and Elektra went for each other during the big Legado/LWO match which was expected.

Other notables: Coco Jones rocked the National Anthem. Samantha Irvin was the sole ring announcer for both nights of the event and I couldn’t be prouder of the job she did.

The women had a good night and while the time is off a bit due to the main event needing (?) 45 minutes, it felt pretty even. A solid B.

That’s it, right? No more wrestling shows for the calendar week? Thank you sweet baby Jesus.

Final Tallies:

WWE/NXT: 13 matches for approximately 99:30 of in-ring action. 35 different women saw in-ring action. Asuka, Kairi Sane, Dakota Kai, Fallon Henley, and Jacy Jayne all wrestled twice this week.

AEW/ROH: 9 matches for approximately 118:30 of in-ring action. 20 different women saw in-ring action. Mariah May and Trish Adora wrestled twice this week.

TNA: 1 match for approximately 8:30 of in-ring time. Two different women saw action this week.