Seven Days in Women’s Wrestling – April 14 to 20, 2024

We’re in the stretch after WrestleMania and the final sell before Dynasty. Let’s see what the women had in store this week.

Monday – WWE Monday Night Raw

Matches: 2 women / 5 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 6:00 min women / 52:30 men

Representation: 8 women / 14 men

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

Chelsea Green & Piper Niven d. Kayden Carter & Katana Chance (2:20)

The big story this week revolved around Mami. Following last week’s attack by Liv Morgan, Rhea Ripley is in a sling. She came out, understandably upset, and said that she’s learned she’s going to have to miss a good chunk of time and give up her title. Liv interrupted after and infuriated her even more. In a later segment, we see her saying goodbye for now for her Judgment Day family.

Later in the show, Liv calls the injury karma aned says this is just the first stop in her revenge tour while it’s announced that a new champion will be crowned next week in a battle royal.

The women’s tag division have some matches and, as usual, get their 2-3 minutes. Who needs WWE Speed when you have the women’s tag division on Raw? Candice & Indi cheat to win, while the power of Piper helps her team win. Now if we can only get those women’s tag belts to cross over more often to the show with all the women’s tag teams.

It wasn’t a particularly exciting or productive week for the Raw women’s division. The Rhea stuff hurts obviously, but as usual the women’s tag division is mired in three minute matches while the titles are over on the other show. Pretty bad representation week this week. The women deserve more than five minutes. D.

Tuesday – WWE NXT

Matches: 2 women / 6 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 7:30 min women / 42:30 men

Representation: 4 women / 14 men

Lola Vice d. Sol Ruca (4:16)

Tatum Paxley d. Thea Hail (3:07)

The spotlight for me this week is Tatum Paxley. We get a stellar video package on her, showing off all her personality notes. It was the kind of promo that if shown on Raw would’ve made me one of the brand’s top stars immediately. Tatum wins a match against Thea as well, which serves as moving Thea forward in her feud with the mean girls as both Jazmyn Nyx and Jacy Jayne interfere. Lyra Valkyria attacks Tatum after the match, which GM/Mayor Ava announces that Roxanne Perez will defend her title against Tatum and Lyla at NXT Spring Breakin’.

Lola Vice gets a win over Sol Ruca due to Blair Davenport distracting Sol. Natalya appears after, as she does, to challenge Lola to a NXT Underground match at Spring Breakin’. Karmen Petrovic offers to be in Natalya’s corner while Lola says she has a surprise of her own. We also learn Sol vs Blair happens next week.

Arianna Grace and Gigi Dolin have a series of amazing segments where Arianna is finally getting to give Gigi that makeover. They were pretty great, actually, and it made me want to see Arianna in a Disney Channel movie. I’d love for them to lean in on them being the wacky tag team that doesn’t like each other until they suddenly do.

So this is where NXT and Raw are different. They both had pretty rough match times this week. However, two different stories were told and advanced in each match and numerous other stories blossomed throughout the show. NXT is always the show where the women matter the most. C.

Wednesday – AEW Dynamite

Matches: 2 women / 3 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 17:00 min women / 35:00 men

Representation: 4 women / 12 men

Julia Hart & Brody King d. Willow Nightingale & Adam Copeland (8:53)

Deonna Purrazzo d. Mariah May (8:00)

This is a rare week when we have two matches with women on Dynamite, though this one squeaks through barely as two. We start with a mixed tag match, but Willow has been mysteriously attacked in the match so it starts as 2-on-1. I just wish this company had a history of having backstage security footage so we could figure out who is attacking these women! It’s basically Brody vs Adam until the last minute, when Willow runs out. It’s largely assumed that Julia is actually injured, hence the small arount of involvement. Mercedes Mone runs in after to run Julia off.

Mariah vs Deonna is good, ending with Toni Storm mad at Mariah for losing again. Thunder Rosa comes out to even the odds post-match.

I appreciate that they at least tried to squeeze a little development for Willow/Julia in, even if the whole Willow/Julia/Mercedes story is two-thirds the walking wounded at the moment. Otherwise, it’s the usual ten minutes or less women’s match. Still, better than usual. C.

Wednesday – WWE Speed

Matches: 0 women / 2 men

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

Representation: 0 women / 2 men

Speed continues to be the quick men’s show and will be for the foreseeable future as they determine the Speed champion. I do enjoy it so I’d recommend watching it (it’s literally three minutes or less a week, you’re not losing anything) but for the women, it’s a continued F.

Thursday – ROH on HonorClub

Matches: 3 women / 7 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 15:30 min women / 42:00 men

Representation: 10 women / 22 men

Abadon d. Allysin Kay (2:19)

Kiera Hogan, Leyla Hirsch & Trish Adora d. Diamente, Leila Gray & Taya Valkyrie (7:51)

Lady Frost d. Marti Belle (5:34)

Ah, Ring of Honor. This felt like one of those shows for the women we were having before the TV Title tournament – random six-woman tag and a few squash matches. I’m not sure that’s a good feeling.

Both members of The Hex, Allysin Kay and Marti Belle, make appearances to take losses. Abandon demolished Kay in two minutes while Belle loses to Frost in 5:34.

That’s about all that happened with the women this week. The World and TV Champions had just been on AEW Battle of the Belts, so I guess we can’t have them here this week. Lots of women which is good but it felt like ROH from months ago which is bad. C.

Thursday – TNA Impact

Matches: 1 women / 4 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 7:30 min women / 34:30 men

Representation: 2 women / 14 men

Rosemary d. Jody Threat (7:36)

Our A-story is setting up Rebellion’s Knockouts World Title match. Ash by Elegance promises to be ringside, we take a look at Steph De Lander and Jordynne Grace promises victory. This is all in a quick little segment.

Rosemary’s defeat of Jody Threat sets up a tag title shot, which tends to be how they figure out every women’s tag title match in TNA. The Knockouts tag division NEEDS some love.

This wasn’t a particularly enthralling show for the ladies, but I’m not sure the “night before a special show” ever is. C-.

Thursday – WWE Main Event

Matches: 1 women / 1 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 4:30 min women / 6:00 men

Representation: 2 women / 2 men

This is your typical Main Event, with a match a piece. This week is notable as being Xia Li’s last WWE TV match, as she would be released from the company the next day. I liked Xia and I think she’ll be a good asset wherever she goes next. As far as Main Event, the usual B.

Friday – NXT Level Up

Matches: 1 women / 2 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 5:00 min women / 13:00 men

Representation: 2 women / 6 men

Karmen Petrovic d. Wren Sinclair (4:58)

Two men’s matches and one women’s in the middle is the formula for Level Up. It works. B.

Friday – TNA Xplosion

Matches: 0 women / 2 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 0:00 min women / 5:30 men

Representation: 0 women / 2 men

Yep, this is Xplosion alright. F.

Friday – WWE Friday Night SmackDown

Matches: 1 women / 3 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 11:30 min women / 36:00 men

Representation: 2 women / 12 men

Bayley vs Naomi for the WWE Women’s Title was a no contest (11:23)

The story throughout the show tonight was the build to the Women’s Title main event. Naomi tells us their friendship isn’t getting in her way. Bayley has nerves after seeing how Rhea lost her title. Damage CTRL are in a sky box to watch but are confronted by Jade Cargill and Bianca Belair.

The title match itself takes the show’s main event spot and is pretty great. It’s easily Naomi’s best match since her return. The no contest comes with Tiffany Stratton appears to attack, probably setting up a triple threat. That’s not a bad thing. B-.

Saturday – AEW Collision

Matches: 1 women / 5 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 5:00 min women / 62:00 men

Representation: 2 women / 22 men

Skye Blue d. Leyla Hirsch (5:06)

Collision is often the worst example of the two divisions in AEW. Twenty more men than women! Almost an hour more action than the women! It’s a two hour show!

There isn’t too much to the actual match, but it’s good to see Skye back in the win column. We get some words backstage towards her tag partner from Willow Nightingale and Kris Statlander as they prepare for Willow/Julia at Dynasty.

We also get some words from Toni Storm and Thunder Rosa to promote their Dynasty match. Toni is in color to show what Thunder did to her.

I’m giving it a D. The representation hurts.

Saturday – AEW Rampage

Matches: 1 women / 2 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 9:30 min women / 24:30 men

Representation: 2 women / 10 men

Yuka Sakazaki d. Emi Sakura (9:31)

We’re in a three hour block this week with Collision, which hurts the quick flow of this show feeling like an hour. Gotta say, the shows being moved around all the time for sports kinda hurts AEW for me.

This is the first time we’ve seen Emi since she lost to Julia Hart back in December on Dynamite. It’s good to have her back, it’d be better to see her on a regular basis. This was kind of all over the place chaos, but I also liked it for that.

We get some words from Ruby Soho as well, as she tells Angelo Parker she is pregnant (for real). Good for her! It ends with the “Ruby Soho” music, so maybe she’s finally escaping the Outcasts story.

The match we got was good if inconsequential for anything going on. B-.

Saturday – TNA Rebellion (and Countdown to Rebellion)

Matches: 2 women / 9 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 23:30 min women / 108:00 men

Representation: 2 women / 16 men

Spitfire d. Decay in a TNA Knockouts World Tag Title Match (10:38)

Jordynne Grace d. Steph De Lander in a TNA Knockouts World Title Match (12:34)

It’s big show time and we get two women’s matches, with the Knockouts Tag Titles stranded on the Countdown show. The teams have a good math but man the women’s tag title scene needs some new blood. Hey, how about The Hex? They could be doing more interesting things that being squashed on ROH.

Jordynne and SDL also have a fun match on the main show for the Knockouts World Title. There’s a lot of insanity at the end with numerous men that it didn’t really need. I’d like to see these two get a straight match. At the same time, there wasn’t much expectation that SDL would win seeing as how she doesn’t w0rk there.

Overall, the women got time and it was mostly enjoyable. B.

Week Totals:

WWE – 4 matches for a combined 22 minutes, 12 different women wrestled

NXT – 3 matches for a combined 12:30 minutes, 6 different women wrestled

AEW – 4 matches for a combined 31:30 minutes, 8 different women wrestled

ROH – 3 matches for a combined 15:30 minutes, 10 different women wrestled (Leyla Hirsch wrestled twice this week, once on AEW and once on ROH)

TNA – 3 matches for a combined 31:00 minutes, six different women wrestled (Rosemary and Jody Threat wrestled twice this week)