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

It’s been another packed week of wrestling this week. We started with the second half of WrestleMania and ended with the Battle of the Belts (equally important, right?).

If you would like to look back at the previous week, including WrestleMania Saturday, here’s your chance.

Sunday – WWE WrestleMania Sunday

Matches: 1 women / 6 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 14:30 min women / 84:00 men

Representation: 2 women / 16 men

Bayley d. IYO Sky in a WWE Women’s Title match (14:22)

The women only had one match on night two of WrestleMania, but it was a big one. Royal Rumble winner Bayley finally had her first one-on-one Mania match, complete with special entrance. Bayley and IYO put on a great match – my favorite of the weekend – that saw Bayley come out on top as champ. The fans were loud the entire match which was fantastic.

Otherwise for the ladies, we saw Scarlett and B-Fab take a big table bump during the Pride-Final Testament match. We also saw our queen Brandi Rhodes!

I would’ve liked to see one more women’s match, and I think the continual lack of representation of the women’s tag titles on PPV is a problem.

The MVP for me of the show – both nights – however sat at ringside. Samantha Irvin threw so much emotion into her announcements and really made some moments, getting praise from everyone from Triple H to Michael Buffer. I’m biased because we’ve become friends over the years, but she’s just great.

I enjoyed the show overall and if it was based on that it would be an A. On the women’s side, I’m saying a B-.

Monday – WWE Monday Night Raw

Matches: 2 women / 4 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 3:00 min women / 46:30 men

Representation: 4 women / 16 men

Roxanne Perez d. Indi Hartwell (2:44)

Jade Cargill d. Chelsea Green (0:32)

See, you’re expecting me to complain. I’m not going to as much as you’d think. I get it: it’s the Raw after Mania. It’s a show that’s a celebration of the weekend, full of promos and special appearances. Rock and Cody alone took up a third of the show. I’m not as mad as usual, and this gets the same curve as the SmackDown before Mania.

My one real complaint is that Rhea Ripley didn’t get a little more celebratory time, but we did get a backstage segment with Liv Morgan throwing a chair at her head and attacking her. This sets up some good stuff probably next Monday and beyond.

Roxanne Perez, fresh off her NXT Women’s Title win at Stand & Deliver, made a surprise appearance to make quick work of Indi Hartwell. Candice LeRae’s failed interference hinders Indi as we continue the slow build to their breakup. Too slow really. We get it. Break up. Roxanne teases a match backstage with Natalya, who has been making her home in NXT for the last few weeks.

Jade Cargill also answered Chelsea Green’s call for an opponent. The usual Jade critics complained, but it was what it needs to be – a quick squash with an opponent who will sell it perfectly. Goldberg wouldn’t have worked if his matches were twelve minutes.

It wasn’t the showcase of twenty women like a lot of Raws can be, but considering the week I can grade on a curve. It’s a C. Now if we get the same amount next week…

Tuesday – WWE NXT

Matches: 3 women / 3 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 26:30 min women / 30:30 men

Representation: 8 women / 10 men

Izzi Dame & Kiana James d. Fallon Henley & Kelani Jordan (6:58)

Roxanne Perez d. Natalya in a NXT Women’s Title match (11:27)

Jaida Parker d. Brinley Reece (7:51)

Now we’re talking. Look at all of those numbers. That equality! NXT as usual is the standard bearer.

As brought on by Raw, we get Nattie’s title shot against Roxanne Perez. This is preceded by a show-opening promo by Rox. Lyra Valyria, arm in sling, interrupts and asks for a shot tonight. Tatum Paxley throws her into the steps to stop that and continue the turns of their love story.

The actual match is good and has Lola Vice interfering against Nattie to continue their issues. Nattie attacks her backstage afterwards.

Jordan and Henley are given honorary degrees from Chase U. We learn that Chase U went into debt because Andre bet on Thea Hail winning at Great American Bash. Henley and Jordan lose their tag match but both teams look good.

Jaida Parker keeps looking like a star in her match against Reece. Arianna Grace promises her reveal of Gigi Dolin, who she is making over, is coming soon.

NXT delivers for the ladies. They usually do. There’s a lot going on for a lot of women with a lot more being set up. It’s an A.

Wednesday – AEW Dynamite

Matches: 1 women / 4 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 8:30 min women / 40:00 men

Representation: 2 women / 12 men

Mariah May d. Anna Jay

Ah, Dynamite. I don’t think we’ve talked about a thing that’s happened on this episode! Weird.

The women did have some things happening, which was nice. Adam Copeland is attacked after his match by Brody King and Julia Hart, which brings out Willow Nightingale for the save. This sets up a mixed tag match next week.

Despite not being advertised for whatever reason the marketing geniuses of AEW decided, we get a sit-down interview with Mercedes Mone. She talks about her injury and her upcoming match at Double or Nothing. Then the lights go out and she’s attacked. If only this was a company where you could find security footage of what happened outside of the room! Nah, they probably don’t even keep security footage here.

Toni Storm and Thunder Rosa have their champagne toast, which naturally involves Toni attacking Rosa. Deonna Purrazzo makes the save, which leads to Mariah May having a (decent) match with Anna Jay.

Post-match, Jay attacks Mariah who is saved by her STARDOM partner Mina Shirakawa. Mina serves the confused Mariah some champagne via an actual champagne kiss. Well *I* enjoyed it, thank you. It made less sense to a lot who don’t know their past, but Mariah and Mina have always had this thing going on.

Everything on the show took a backseat to the footage of the guy that wrestles on the other show, especially everything that happened after it aired. That sucks because the women’s stuff was pretty good. I’d even go with a B for the week, even if they will get cooties if they do two women’s matches again on Dynamite. There are numerous stories for the women and that’s more than we can usually say.

Wednesday – WWE Speed

Matches: 0 women / 1 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 0:00 min women / 2:30 men

Representation: 0 women / 2 men

We are in week two of the men’s tournament for the Speed Championship, so we’ve got another four weeks minimum for the women not being on this show.

However, you can find women’s matches shorter than the match presented on Speed on this week’s Raw.

F.

Thursday – ROH on HonorClub

Matches: 2 women / 6 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 5:30 min women / 29:30 men

Representation: 4 women / 16 men

Nyla Rose d. Kat Von Heez (3:11)

Anna Jay d. LMK (2:26)

Oooof. After a women-filled SuperCard of Honor, we follow up with two quick servings of squash.

Nyla’s back and squashes Von Heez. This is the first “big three” TV appearance for Kat (fantastic name, 10/10) who has been making her name in RCW. Elsewhere in Squashland, Anna Jay avenged her Dynamite win against LMK. LMK has had a few AEW/ROH matches, including a tag loss against Toni & Mariah weeks back.

Elsewhere, Billie Starkz tries to celebrate her ROH TV Title win with her mom, who is disappointed with how she won. So she celebrates with Athena instead.

We also get a segment with Mina saluting Mariah for her SuperCard of Honor Zero Hour win, celebrating with a kiss and champagne. This story is for me. Y’all can keep arguing about your menfolk and let me have this.

An off week for ROH which has done the women a lot better lately. There’s no word on the show of Athena getting to be on Battle of the Belts, which seems like something you’d promote on ROH. A D this week for me.

Thursday – TNA Impact

Matches: 0 women / 5 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 0:00 min women / 42:00 men

Representation: 0 women / 12 men

In a galaxy not too far away, we were once saluting Impact for being the show that treated its women’s division as the top-tier division.

This week, they had zero matches on either of TNA’s shows. Cool!

We did get a big women’s segment as we had the contract signing between Jordynne Grace and Steph De Lander. You’ve seen a contract signing so you know how it ended, but both women came off really well here. We also get a backstage segment with Ash by Elegance, upset she isn’t get the title match.

Elsewhere, The System bother Masha Slamovich and ask her about teaming with Alicia Edwards again, getting a response in Russian. We also set up Decay getting their Knockouts Tag Titles rematch.

While the contract signing was good, the show is called Impact Wrestling and we didn’t get any of that. Sad. D-.

Thursday – WWE Main Event

Matches: 1 women / 1 men

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

Representation: 4 women / 2 men

Shayna Baszler & Zoey Stark d. Katana Chance & Kayden Carter (4:47)

The Main Event way is one women’s match and one men’s match and that didn’t change this week. A good tag team match this week between two teams that should be doing title stuff more on the main show. B.

Friday – AEW Rampage

Matches: 1 women / 3 men

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

Representation: 2 women / 6 men

Julia Hart d. Leyla Hirsch in a TBS Title match in 3:14

Our women’s match of the night has the TBS Title on the line and ended pretty quickly. It looked like Leyla might have been hurt.

Elsewhere, Anna Jay – she’s everywhere! – demands seriousness. AZM of STARDOM appears to complain about Toni Storm.

That’s about it. Not a banner show. D.

Friday – NXT Level Up

Matches: 1 women / 2 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 6:30 min women / 10:00 men

Representation: 4 women / 4 men

Blair Davenport & Stevie Turner d. Carlee Bright & Kendal Grey (6:15)

Level Up provides the same consistency every week and that’s not a bad time. B.

Friday – TNA Xplosion

Matches: 0 women / 1 men

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

Representation: 0 women / 2 men

Welp. F.

Friday – WWE Friday Night SmackDown

Matches: 2 women / 3 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 10:30 min women / 20:30 men

Representation: 6 women / 8 men

Naomi d. Tiffany Stratton in a #1 Contender’s Match (9:18)

Jade Cargill & Bianca Belair d. Chelsea Green & Piper Niven (1:24)

It’s was Bayleybration this week as we celebrated the WrestleMania title win of Bayley. Bayley gets the “you deserve it” chants and we get a lot of classic Bayley (in the best ways) as she invites a new challenger.

Tiffany answers and Bayley says she wasn’t what she had in mind as Naomi interrupts. Naomi says she is going to beat Tiffy for the shot and then does in a good TV match.

Chelsea is trying to topple Jade again, this time with their respective partners. Piper is back after being out for a few months. This doesn’t end well for Chelsea as Jade & Bianca get another quick win.

This was a good reset episode for the show, plus it’ll be interesting to see where Damage CTRL reappear when they do. B-.

Saturday – AEW Battle of the Belts X

Matches: 1 women / 2 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 13:00 min women / 22:00 men

Representation: 2 women / 4 men

Athena d. Red Velvet in a ROH World Women’s Title match (12:43)

Ah, Battle of the Belts. The special where the last belt changed hands nine specials ago. Unfortunately BOTB feels like “what can we do with another hour that’s safe” instead of “let’s make something special.”

The women’s side does get something special as we get Athena on AEW. The last time we saw her on AEW was the WrestleDream Zero Hour in a 5:42 mixed tag match. In a crazier stat, this is the first time the ROH World Women’s Title has been defended on AEW TV since Athena defeated Marina Shafir on Dark in January 2023. Yes, before the first episode of ROH on HonorClub happened.

They did cook here and had a fantastic match. Hmm, seems like this Athena would be pretty good on this AEW show! Post match, Billie Starkz and Queen Aminata even up the sides for each woman and we end with Athena and Aminata starting each other down. This’ll probably set up a title match over on ROH.

We also get a brief moment with Serena Deeb who has an interest in facing Yuka Sakazaki.

The women main evented and we even got to see the ROH Women’s Title, so I’m not bad here. A-.

Saturday – AEW Collision

Matches: 1 women / 4 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 10:00 min women / 57:00 men

Representation: 2 women / 14 men

Toni Storm d. AZM in an AEW Women’s World Title Eliminator match (9:39)

As set up elsewhere, AZM gets her match against Toni. This is AZM’s only match on “AEW” TV, with her overall company debut on last week’s ROH special. Prematch, Toni promises to give AZM a beating so intense it’ll be featured in “the back of a fetish periodical.” Much like ads for fetish periodicals in old PWIs, you can find me in the back section of the new PWI with Mustafa Ali on the cover.

There’s a lot going on with this match and the Toni Storm Cinematic Universe in general. Their ringside seconds, Mariah and Anna Jay, brawl to the back. After Toni’s win, Mariah returns and we have another celebration (just with a face lick this time).

Storm’s challenger Thunder Rosa appears later in the show and gives a pretty great promo. They should let her do that more. Deonna Purrazzo promises to deal with the other Storm – Mariah – next week.

We also get promo videos on Athena and Red Velvet as this episode is the lead into Battle of the Belts.

What we got from the women was very good, though you know I’ll always bitch about one women’s match in two hours. C.

Week Totals:

WWE/NXT – 10 matches for approximately 66:00 combined in-ring action. 25 different women saw action, with Chelsea Green, Roxanne Perez, and Jade Cargill all competing twice.

AEW/ROH – 6 matches for approximately 40:30 combined in-ring time. Eleven different women saw in-ring time, with Anna Jay competing twice.

TNA – 0 matches for 0:00 in-ring time.