Seven Days in Women’s Wrestling – June 23 to 29, 2024

This week in women’s wrestling, we’ve walked towards the Forbidden Door, qualified for Money in the Bank and so much more. Let’s take our dive into the week.

First though, I’m playing with the format this week. Instead of going Sunday through Saturday, I’m grouping everything by brand – WWE including NXT, AEW including ROH, and TNA. With the ROH titles (well, the men’s titles) and its talent persistently on AEW programming, I figure it is time to combine it with AEW’s numbers. At the same time, WWE often views NXT as a third show and it has a new TV deal coming up, so it’s all going together.

I’m also breaking from giving letter grades. Just like with giving star ratings, it’s very subjective. I’m not always comfortable putting a rating on things, especially the smaller shows. Don’t worry, you still get all the opinion. And you’re welcome to form your own, even if you’re wrong (looking at you, “I don’t see why Liv Morgan is in the spot she’s in” crew.)

I’ve also been asked by I list TNA Xplosion on Fridays when it appears on YouTube on Tuesdays. It appears first on TNA+ on Fridays, and that’s what I go with.

AEW

Totals for the week: 8 matches / approx. 48:30 combined time / 20 competitors)

Dynamite (1 match approx. 7:00 / 6 competitors)

Match: Mariah May and her two loves, Toni Storm and Mina Shirakawa, get a big six-woman win against Anna Jay, Saraya and Harley Cameron (6:58). Mariah did an entrance with each partner and is quickly becoming the best person on any of the shows. The trio tease a lot of tension during the match and really the story is being perfectly played. Post-match, Mariah goes for a champagne toast with both, with Mina accidentally hitting Mariah over the head with the bottle and Toni exploding at her.

Stories: Mercedes Mone appeared to question why Stephanie Vacquer hadn’t, and noting Vacquer would be competing on Collision and she’d be there to watch.

The love triangle continues to be a compelling, eyeball-drawing program for AEW and the three women in it are doing a great job with it. Meanwhile, the hype for Mercedes/Stephanie is harder with Stephanie not appearing on AEW program until the day before her match.

ROH on HonorClub (3 matches / approx. 13:00 combined time / 6 competitors)

Matches: We’re back up to three matches this week, which is an improvement. Marina Shafir defeated Erica Leigh (2:06) in a squash. We last saw Erica losing in the same manner to Nyla Rose in January. Taya Valkyrie defeated Trish Adora (6:31) in a match that was fine but makes me wonder, as always, why Trish Adora isn’t given a shot to win even on ROH. She has three wins in two years on the program. Maddening. Women’s TV Champion Billie Starks pinned Angelica Risk (4:23) in a Proving Ground match, my favorite match type to complain about. Did you know only three women on the ROH roster have had a Proving Ground match since HonorClub show started in 2023? Angelica is a regular for OVW, most recently appearing here in a Collision loss to Mariah May in February.

Stories: The big one, opening the show, is that Athena appeared announce that her in-ring return is now 8-12 months out due to the attack last week. I’m torn between wondering if she’s going to magically appear earlier as a surprise to her opponents or if we’re just in misery here. Leyla Hirsch and Diamente set up a future street fight as well.

ROH is always a mixed bag, and the squash matches with competitors not on the roster always outweigh the women actually signed to the company. The possible loss of Athena continues to hang over everything, but there isn’t much being done to build up challengers. Even with Billie squashing randoms in Proving Ground matches, nobody on the roster outside of Aminata & Red Velvet feel built up enough to be a challenger.

Rampage (1 match / approx. 10:00 / 2 competitors)

Match: Queen Aminata defeated Skye Blue (9:46). This is Aminata’s first match on AEW-branded TV since February and Skye’s first since her loss to Mercedes last month. Now you might question why they qualify to be the main event of this show and you’d be right. Here they are though! They did a good match, and Aminata winning is the right answer though you’ve gotta wonder when they plan on starting to rebuild Skye.

Stories: Deonna Purrazzo has some thoughts about her match tomorrow on Collision in the Owen Tournament against Hikaru Shida. Saraya has no concerns about her Owen Tournament opponent Mariah May, who she’ll be facing on Sunday’s Zero Hour.

Collision (3 matches / approx. 18:30 / 6 competitors)

Matches: This is a first for AEW, with three women’s matches on a non-ROH weekly show. It can be done, friends! The biggest was probably Stephanie Vacquer, finally making her AEW debut, defeating Lady Frost (7:57). We’re at the perpetual spot where Frost is good enough to go exactly eight minutes with opponents but never quite good enough to win on AEW TV, though in reality she is and could be built up better. The spotlight here is on Vacquer though, who looked good in victory and finally had a chance to show AEW viewers what Mercedes could be in for the next night. Mone appeared after for a staredown but was attacked by Vacquer’s partner Zeuxis. Serena Deeb scored a quick win over Kelly Madan (1:15) and then issued a challenge, answered by Riho who we haven’t seen since losing to Willow Nightingale on the Big Business edition of Dynamite in March. Madan last appeared in a two-minute ROH loss to Skye Blue in April 2023. In another Owen Tournament match, Hikaru Shida defeated Deonna Purrazzo (9:08). It’s good to see Shida back and I hope they actually keep using her after the tournament, because she’s good in the ring and has that aura to her. Poor Deonna, meanwhile, just keeps bouncing up and down with the wins. Deonna jumped Shida after the match but Thunder Rosa made the save, because Deonna-Rosa may never end.

Stories: Nothing that didn’t happen in-ring.

This was certainly an improvement for Collision, which is usually stacked with a few dozen more men than women, and AEW TV in general. With this and then four matches on Forbidden Door and Zero Hour the next night (which we will cover in next week’s edition), there is certainly a focus we haven’t had before. Can they maintain it? That’s the true test. A good week should turn into two weeks, then months.

TNA

Totals for the week: 2 matches / approx. 10:30 combined time / 4 competitors

Impact (1 match / approx. 5:30 / 2 competitors)

Match: Masha Slamovich beat Xia Brookside (5:22). Following a staredown with Jordynne Grace, Masha had a pretty quick win with the distraction help of Alisha Edwards.

Stories: Jordynne Grace opened the show. She announced Ash by Elegance finally gets her title shot, but Ash’s concierge says it’ll have to be at Slammiversary.

Yeah, the women continue to fight for much of anything on Impact. The Knockouts division needs a reboot badly, and not at the fault of the women it has who are doing a good job.

Xplosion (1 match / approx. 5:00 / 2 competitors)

Match: Gisele Shaw defeated Laynie Luck (4:46). It was good to see GIsele get a win and really she should be more in the picture on Impact. Laynie has appeared recently for another company, taking a loss to Taya Valkyrie on ROH.

WWE

Totals for the week: 7 matches / approx. 47:00 combined time / 19 competitors)

Monday Night Raw (2 matches / appox. 14:30 combined time / 7 competitors)

Matches: Money in the Bank qualifying continued with Lyra Valkyria defeating Kairi Sane and Shayna Baszler (8:26). Really entertaining match, which is what you should expect with these three. Alba Fyre & Isla Dawn defeated Katana Chance & Kayden Carter (5:52) in a non-title tag match, which was good but as usual not long enough for the tag division. Damage CTRL came out afterwards and took down the champs.

Stories: Liv Morgan’s Revenge Tour continued, this time with Olivia buying Dom Dom all the chicken nuggets he could need (but no dip, so minus ten points) and WWE 2K24. Later in-ring, she called out Dom but ended up with Zelina Vega instead. Zelina cut a good promo against her and it set up a title match next week. Dom did appear to get booed and then confronted by Zelina’s buddy Rey Mysterio, setting up a match for them next week as well. The JD/Finn portion of Judgment Day had a tag title shot, with Liv hitting poor R-Truth and causing a title change. In the Alpha Academy portion of the show, Chad Gable begged Otis and Maxxine for a reunion, being denied but Maxxine being very sympathetic. Nikki Cross appeared in the creepy music vibe and delivered a VHS tape to Michael Cole.

Liv continues to carry her weight as one of the overall anchors of the show, with her story being intertwined between several in-ring and backstage segments from the start to the end of the show. The reckoning when Rhea Ripley returns is going to be something. Zelina did well in her moment, and there’s a lot of talent in the tag division if they’ll give them more than 3-5 minutes on a Raw. The Wyatt Sick6 story is still simmering, but we’ll see what Nikki and friends get to do after we get through the introductory period.

NXT (2 matches / approx. 8:00 combined time / 4 competitors)

Matches: After a backstage segment, NXT Women’s Champion Roxanne Perez defeated Karmen Petrovic (3:44) in what was basically a squash. Lola Vice was on commentary and knocked out Perez after the match, continuing to set up their Heatwave title match. In a match to determine the #1 contender to Kelani Jordan’s Women’s North American Title match, Sol Ruca defeated Arianna Grace (4:15). The right result, as Sol is more “ready” and Ari is still growing into her role. Kelani/Sol is set for Heatwave as well.

Stories: Stevie Turner flirted with Mr. Stone, setting her up as his second I guess. Ava granted Carlee Bright a match for next week against the spooky Wendy Choo. Jaida Parker and Michin’s match next week is made into a street fight, which will probably be my favorite match all week.

Things felt a little lighter than usual on the women’s side, but there is still a lot going on. Both title matches are set for Heatwave and Lola is at the point where she could realistically take the belt. Jaida/Michin has become a hot feud and looks to cap off next week, while several other characters are building up. A shoutout to GM Ava as well, who has grown into her role and is showing more confidence week after week.

Friday Night SmackDown (2 matches / approx. 19:30 / 6 competitors)

Matches: It’s all about qualifying for Money in the Bank this week with six women competing for a shot. In the first match of the show, Tiffany Stratton beat Jade Cargill and Candice LeRae (9:21) in a qualifying match. Nia Jax, Indi Hartwell and Bianca Belair all appeared to run interference for their friends, Indi most notably knocked Jade into the ringpost and took her out of the match. Stratton hit the moonsault and took the win. In the second qualifying match, Naomi defeated Blair Davenport and Indi Hartwell (10:08). The result of this one was less in doubt, and Jade knocked Indi for revenge on earlier.

Stories: Bayley and Naomi gossip about what may happen between them if Naomi wins Money in the Bank. Blair Davenport continued to appear and harass Bayley.

The women are getting most of their time in-ring on SmackDown lately as the Bloodline story dominates again, but they’re making the most of it. Despite the lowered promo time, the women still have numerous stories going on and one of the stronger women’s divisions.

Level Up (1 match / approx. 5 min / 2 competitors)

Match: Jasmyne Nyx defeated Kendal Gray (4:42). Not much story to go with here, but they had a good little five minute Level Up match.

No women’s action or stories this week:

Speed

Main Event

Final Thoughts: Both WWE and AEW scored big this week in areas, but I have to give AEW credit where credit is due. Besides having three matches on Collision, the love triangle story has been the constant and most consistent story on Dynamite for months and the crowd is eating it up. They also lined up for matches for Forbidden Door and its preshow, which will put ten women on the card for the first time since 2021 when they had a Casino Battle Royale with 21 women.

Meanwhile in WWE, the triple threat nature of the Money in the Bank qualifying matches has multiple women on both main shows and the title pictures on NXT are thriving.

And there’s also TNA!

Next week will be a big one, as the week starts with Forbidden Door and ends with Money in the Bank.