Seven Days in Women’s Wrestling – May 12 to 18, 2024

I know, the year is flying by so quickly but it’s been yet another Seven Days in Women’s Wrestling. Let’s check out what happened in the WWE, AEW and TNA worlds.

Monday – WWE Monday Night Raw

Matches: 3 women / 5 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 29:00 min women / 37:00 men

Representation: 6 women / 16 men

Queen of the Ring Quarterfinal: Iyo Sky d. Shayna Baszler (9:58)

Queen of the Ring Quarterfinal: Lyra Valkyria d. Zoey Stark (9:00)

Becky Lynch vs Dakota Kai – no contest (10:00)

The Queen of the Ring tournament continues bringing the women to the forefront of Raw with two more good ten minute or so matches. Iyo vs Shayna was close to, if not on par with their previous battles. Lyra’s rise continues with a hard-fought win over Shayna’s partner Zoey.

Lyra talks to Becky Lynch backstage, which eventually ends with Becky punching Liv Morgan.

Becky has a good ten-minute match with Dakota Kai that ends with Damage CTRL interrupting. Dakota has really showed out since her return. Lyra runs in for the save after, only for Liv to sneak in and attack Becky.

Legends introduce legends as Samantha Irvin introduces special guest Lilian Garcia, who unofficially passes the torch to Samantha and gives us a Kofi Kingston introduction for old times sake. A really cool moment.

Kiana James makes a brief backstage appearance with Adam Pearce, which is the extent of her main roster experience thus far. Maxxine Dupri is yelled at by Chad Gable, who tells Ivy Nile to stay away from her.

Another enjoyable Raw on the women’s side this week. QOTR has continued to provide quality matches and the road to Becky and Liv and beyond continues being paved, with Lyra and Damage CTRL floating around as contenders. B-.

Tuesday – WWE NXT

Matches: 3 women / 4 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 12:30 min women / 38:00 men

Representation: 6 women / 12 men

North American Title Qualifier: Sol Ruca d. Izzi Dame (5:38)

North American Title Qualifier: Lash Legend d. Ivy Nile (3:54)

Lola Vice d. Carlee Bright (3:11)

The qualifiers for the North American Title ladder match are the focus right now on NXT, and we have two women advancing tonight. Sol Ruca continues doing crazy things in her win, while Lash stomps Ivy pretty quickly to advance.

Shayna Baszler says she wants the Women’s Title, but Natalya and Karmen Petrovic attack instead.

Carlee Bright, who we’ve seen on Level Up before, asks for and gets Lola Vice in a match. Lola wins but Carlee is another in the long, long line of NXT women with potential. Karmen and Natalya attack post-match, setting up a tag match with Lola and Shayna next week.

A mysterious alarm clock goes off after some snoring. That’s right’s she’s coming back… or if you pretend like Level Up exists in the same world as NXT (they don’t tonight), she came back Friday.

One other notable thing about NXT: there were women visable for every men’s match as well. Jaida Parker, Brinley Reece, Jakara Jackson, Thea Hail and Ariana Rizzo all appeared as seconds for matches. Exposure.

I rarely complain about NXT and there’s not much room for it this week. I’d love more in-ring time, but there is no doubt there are women ALL over the show. A-

Wednesday – AEW Dynamite

Matches: 1 women / 5 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 7:08 min women / 54:00 men

Representation: 2 women / 14 men

Toni Storm d. Harley Cameron (7:08)

It must be Wednesday because there is one women’s match on AEW TV! To be fair, that could also be Friday or Saturday when we aren’t in sportsball season.

Toni have a decent little match. Harley isn’t at Toni’s level, but she’s got a little something. There’s a lot of room for growth with more in-ring time, but we all know there is only so much of that around these parts.

Willow Nightingale and Mercedes Mone have a contract signing for their upcoming Double or Nothing match. Your mileage may vary, but personally I think it was each woman’s best AEW promo. Mercedes is leaning more and more into that heel edge that she’s been teasing since that very first appearance. She also gets out through a table here.

As always, there is room for two women’s matches on a two hour show, especially one that can find almost an hour for the guys to wrestle. You can only spotlight so many women in three matches a week, especially when you’re cycling certain ones into regular matches while cycling others out of the spotlight as AEW does. C.

Wednesday – WWE Speed

Matches: 0 women / 1 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 0:00 min women / 3:00 men

Representation: 0 women / 2 men

The men continue to cycle through tournaments. A F for the women’s side.

Thursday – ROH on HonorClub

Matches: 3 women / 4 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 15:30 min women / 33:00 men

Representation: 6 women / 14 men

Anna Jay d. Tara Zep (2:12)

Skye Blue d. Rachael Ellering 6:23)

Proving Ground: Athena d. Nicole Matthews 7:05)

ROH was made to stab at those of us who write about it this week, putting THREE Proving Ground matches on one show. One of those went to the women, with Athena winning yet another as there seems to be nobody who can defeat her. Queen Aminata saves Nicole from Athena further pounding her post-match.

It was Nicole’s first “big three” appearance since losing a TBS Title match against Jade Cargill on a March 2023 Dynamite (her only AEW match, and she didn’t even have to win a Proving Ground for that title shot). Prior to that, she defeated Isla Dawn and lost to Tegan Nox in the 2018 Mae Young Classic.

Elsewhere in the world of women, Anna Jay and Skye Blue have both been pushed down to ROH for reasons. Skye had a run here a while back before she became a focal point of AEW TV.

Anna faced Tara Zep in a quick win. It was Tara’s first “big three” TV appearance as she’s 32 matches into her career.

It was certainly another week in ROH. C.

Thursday – TNA Impact

Matches: 1.5 women / 2.5 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 25:30 min women / 37:30 men

Representation: 8 women / 14 men

Ash by Elegance d. Xia Brookside (4:02)

Champions Challenge: Dani Luna, Jody Threat, Steph De Lander, Eric Young, Joe Hendry, Sami Callihan, Matt Hardy & Ryan Nemeth d. Jordynne Grace, Masha Slamovich, Alicia Edwards, Laredo Kid, Mustafa Ali, Brian Myers, Eddie Edwards & Moose (21:28)

What if we put all eight champions in a match against eight challengers? That’s the question TNA asked themselves, and then they did it. It was certainly an interesting and never dull match. This is also why the match counts have .5.

Earlier in the show, Ash by Elegance continues her issues with Xia Brookside. Ash has been bailing this character.

Rosemary is upset that Havok is gone but says she is ready for anything.

An interesting show this week, and I really enjoyed the Champion’s Challenge. It made me want to see another company try it. B.

Thursday – WWE Main Event

Matches: 2 women / 0 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 12:30 min women / 0:00 men

Representation: 4 women / 0 men

Kiana James d. Ivy Nile (5:27)

Natalya d. Alba Fyre (7:08)

Women’s Main Event is back! Kiana James gets her first match since being drafted, defeating poor Ivy who can’t seem to win.

Natalya vs Alba is a match worth seeking out. Natalya has been on a tear lately and this is Alba’s best main roster match thus far.

A+.

Friday – NXT Level Up

Matches: 1 women / 1 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 4:00 min women / 5:30 men

Representation: 4 women / 2 men

Brinley Reece & Layla Diggs d. Carlee Bright & Kendal Grey (3:56)

Women’s tag action on Level Up this week, with Carlee getting her second match of the week. Layla is a new face for us, making her television debut. This was her eighth match ever, her first as Layla as she was formerly Breanna Covington. B.

Friday – TNA Xplosion

Matches: 0 women / 1 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 0:00 min women / 6:30 men

Representation: 0 women / 2 men

Nothing for the women this week. F.

Friday – WWE Friday Night SmackDown

Matches: 2 women / 3 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 16:00 min women / 28:00 men

Representation: 4 women / 8 men

Queen of the Ring Quarterfinal: Bianca Belair d. Tiffany Stratton (13:28)

Queen of the Ring Quarterfinal: Nia Jax d. Jade Cargill (2:38)

The possible Queens continue battling on SmackDown with two different matches. Bianca and Tiffany is a battle of two stars, two that very well could be the featured story of a WrestleMania one day. They have an excellent match here, which seems like an obvious result. Worth watching.

Nia vs Jade is a story. It’s the story of Jade’s first WWE loss, but with a valid reason. Nia tells Jade’s daughter in the crowd to shut up, which leads to her getting smacked with a chair to cause the DQ. It’s an easy way to stop the future threat of “how do we end Jade’s undefeated streak” and Jade picking up Nia again in time will be an impressive visual. B-.

Saturday – AEW Collision

Matches: 1 women / 7 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 8:30 min women / 53:00 men

Representation: 2 women / 18 men

Serena Deeb d. Anna Jay (8:33)

Anna gets her second match of the week as well, losing by submission to Serena. Anna just can’t find a direction.

Postmatch, Toni Storm strips behind Serena’s flag before making it into a dress. Toni is so far ahead of almost every woman in this company and many in other companies. The problem is that nobody is being built up to her level.

And that’s all we get on this two hour show besides a video recap of Mercedes/Willow, because doing more with the women on Collision would be crazy. C.

Saturday – AEW Rampage

Matches: 1 women / 3 men

Approx. In-Ring Time: 7:30 min women / 22:00 men

Representation: 2 women / 6 men

Deonna Purrazzo d. Robyn Renegade (7:16)

Robyn is fairly fresh out of the ROH TV Title tournament, though as usual she was not on the winning side. She is, however, able to wrestle up Deonna for seven minutes here. The win was never in doubt, however. Thunder Rosa saves Robyn from further attack after the match.

C.

Final Tallies:

WWE – 7 matches over approximately 57:30, 14 different women in action

NXT – 4 matches over approximately 12:30, 9 different women in action (Carlee Bright competed twice)

AEW – 3 matches over approximately 23:00, 6 different women in action

ROH – 3 matches over approximately 15:30, 6 different women in action (Anna Jay competed twice across AEW/ROH)

TNA – 2 matches over approximately 25:30, 8 different women in action