Women in Wrestling Weekly Roundup – October 8-14, 2023
By Kat Bourne on 16th October 2023
Hello and welcome to the first of hopefully many columns looking at the state of women’s wrestling. Scott has graciously given me the opportunity to write here and, as a long time fan of both wrestling and Scott’s work, I’m honored to be here. I’m starting with these but hope to throw some show recaps and other content at the wall as well as time allows. You might recognize me from the comments where I usually complain about women’s wrestling and/or mention that Rhea Ripley is hot. You might also know me from Twitter, where I do the same but with added Samantha Irvin appreciation.
The goal of this column is to take a more in-depth look at what often gets the least attention on shows – the women. We’ve never had a more talented group of women throughout the rosters, yet often times it is a fight to get them on shows. A lot of people miss how marketable the women can be or blame it on “well, they don’t draw.” They do in fact draw when given the build, but sometimes you have got to start a build to make people care. If Sami Zayn was never on TV or stuck on Main Event, I’m not sure he’d be where he is. In a world where women haven’t gotten more than one match on the two-hour Dynamite in 2023 and one match on the latest WWE PLE, there is room for improvement. Representation is important, yes, but I just feel like there’s so much missed money being left on the table by the companies.
My goal is to break it down by day and by show for three companies – WWE, AEW and Impact. I’m just going with the three main companies because those are the most accessible and the ones I watch. I’m including NXT in with WWE and Ring of Honor with AEW as, many times, those shows are intertwined with the main company shows. I’m going to take it day by day, break down each show, and dig in a little bit. My goal is to hopefully make people care a little more about the women’s action here but also to bring attention to it. I think there are some talented performers being missed as well, and I plan to draw your attention to them.