We are less than a week away from WrestleMania 42 as it will take place next weekend, April 18 and 19.
Since 2020, WrestleMania has been held over two nights. While it seems logical that splitting the event would be advantageous for all, the company has become resistant to scheduling more than six or seven matches each night or including any matches during a three-hour pre-show.
It’s fair to say we are fortunate to have seven matches on Night One and six matches on Night Two. Why is that? Because many premium live events nowadays feature no more than four matches. It’s a tough reality to accept given the abundance of talent that deserves to be displayed. And the women have only main evented one time since the double night was introduced. It isn’t like the women’s Royal Rumble winner should main event one night, right?
Currently out of the 13 matches confirmed, only four are for the women. An original report mentioned that there would be five maybe six matches. Apparently, a wrench was thrown into one of the matches based off of an injury to Nikki Bella. This leads us to a huge problem in WWE, no Plan B.
The current card has three singles titles plus the tag team titles to be defended. For the tag team title match, we are on the fence if Nikki can participate as The Bella Twins are planned to be a part of the Fatal 4-way bout. For some reason, this has halted a very much anticipated singles match between Asuka vs. IYO SKY.
The rumor has been that Asuka and Kairi Sane may replace the Bella Twins if need be. Why? When it isn’t needed is a crazy booking decision. This would leave SKY off of Mania and would take away another women’s match opportunity. We also have Tiffany Stratton has also been left off of the card when she was feuding with the WWE Women’s United States Champion, Giulia. A title that has existed for about a year and a half and hasn’t seen the light of day to a premium live event. IYO SKY and Tiffany Stratton, both walked into WrestleMania 41 as champions, walked out as champions, left off of the WrestleMania 42 card. What are we doing?
We aren’t even promoting the matches that are scheduled. We’re just two shows away from the year’s biggest event—one episode of Raw and one episode of SmackDown. The Raw preview from General Manager Adam Pearce features no women at all. There’s no mention of Becky Lynch, AJ Lee, Stephanie Vaquer, or Liv Morgan—nothing is being highlighted for the female competitors.
However, we will get to see Roman Reigns, CM Punk, Brock Lesnar, Gunther, and Seth Rollins. The comments under Pearce’s social media post asking where the women are is very telling. As a women’s wrestling fan, a fan of what has been putting WWE even on the map for many years now, what’s in it to even watch the overall show? Night Two has one women’s match…one. What is this? 1999? Sable did defeat Tori that year. In the 5 minutes the women got back then.
WWE needs to start learning how to have logical and beneficial Plan B’s. There is no reason why Tiffany vs. Giulia, IYO SKY vs. Asuka, and another team (if Nikki Bella isn’t cleared) could be added to the tag team bout. Or here’s an idea, leave it as a Triple Threat? The minds are not there in the heads of those in charge. Book the women more, book the women better, and give them a main event each year.
