The two fought a couple of weeks ago when Rodriguez answered the champ’s open challenge. She wasn’t able to take down Rousey in their first go-around. At this time there are no women (or men) from SmackDown currently scheduled for the upcoming Hell in a Cell event on June 4.
Hopefully, we will see some of the other women on the show tonight.
As always, feel free to discuss tonight’s show in the comment section below.
Masha Slamovich continues to prove why she is a rising star in the IMPACT Knockouts Division.
Thus far, Slamovich has defeated nine opponents before taking on any members of the Knockouts locker room. She made her tenth victim Havok in a shockingly quick victory over the former Knockouts World Tag Team Champion.
Heading into the match, Slamovich was undefeated while Havok was on a bit of a losing streak. The Influence got into the head of Havok last week telling her that if she and Rosemary wanted a shot at the tag team gold she had to prove she could win a match. Havok stepped up to Slamovich and the ending wasn’t in her favor.
Slamovich picked up the win after delivering the Snowplow. After the match, the male members of Decay joined Havok and Rosemary in the ring showing their disbelief. Masha walked up the ramp and to the backstage area with a smile on her face.
Also on this week’s show, Jordynne Grace took on Chelsea Green. The two had a relatively lengthy match with the storyline revolving around both of them being participants in the upcoming first-ever Queen of the Mountain match. At Slammiversary, Grace and Green will join Mia Yim, Deonna Purrazzo, and the Knockouts World Champion Tasha Steelz with the title on the line.
The final moments of the match had Green planting Grace face-first into the corner turnbuckle. Grace starts gaining steam on the offense as she delivers a spine buster. Green counters with a muscle buster and a flatliner to get a near fall. Grace finally connects with a Grace Driver to get the victory.
In a backstage segment, Deonna Purrazzo was being interviewed. Even without any gold on her shoulders, a sight rarely seen for The Virtuosa, she is still the face of the division. Much like many who enter into IMPACT, they go after her first and Mia Yim has been no different.
The Knockouts World Champion Tasha Steelz along with Savannah Evans interrupted. Evans will be taking on Yim next week and Steelz has invited Purrazzo to sit ringside with her.
The two met on the May 13 episode when Rodriguez was the one to answer Rousey’s open challenge for the championship. The match set for tonight states that it is a Championship Contenders match so the title will not be on the line, however, if Rodriguez can defeat Rousey she would earn a title opportunity.
Rodriguez’s answer to Rousey’s challenge two weeks ago sparked a few interests from the likes of Shotzi, Aliyah, and others in the locker room. Shotzi confronted Rodriguez last week and the two had a match but Shotzi ended up on the losing end.
Currently, there is no women’s match set for Hell in a Cell on June 4 from the SmackDown brand. Could Rodriguez pull out a win against Rousey to get a title shot for the event?
Check back in with Diva Dirt for the SmackDown discussion post during the broadcast.
There has been one woman notably missing from Monday Night Raw and that has been Queen Zelina.
It is being reported by PWInsider that Queen Zelina is out of action due to an in-ring injury. She was last seen in action on the April 11 episode of Raw where she faced Bianca Belair one-on-one.
Later on, in the month of April, she was seemingly put back with Carmella and seen backstage in a segment with Sonya Deville. Over the past couple of weeks, Carmella has been seen starting a rivalry with Dana Brooke without Zelina by her side.
The report states as follows:
“For those who have asked about WWE’s Queen Zelina Vega disappearing off television, we’ve confirmed Vega has been out of the ring following an in-ring injury that required surgery.
The belief among those we’ve spoken to is that she’ll likely be out of action another 6-8 weeks, which means she’d be available to return around Summerslam. There has been talk about her receiving a push upon her return as sources have noted her willingness to do what was requested of her and her hard work has been noticed behind the scenes.”
Zelina nor WWE have confirmed her injury at this time.
Check back in with Diva Dirt for any further news on the women of the Raw brand.
Taking it back to Hell in a Cell in 2013, the Divas Championship was on the line as the champion Aj Lee battled Brie Bella.
Both women didn’t come alone to the ring as Brie had her sister Nikki Bella and Lee had Tamina in her corner. Both would have involvement at the end of the match which led to the result.
Brie had a series of championship matches during this feud with Lee just as the reality show Total Divas kicked off its first season. This was also right after the Bellas returned after leaving WWE from their first run. First, Brie would participate in a Fatal 4-way at Night of Champions which Lee retained that also included Natalya and Naomi. She faced off against Lee once again at Battleground weeks before this match at Hell in a Cell. Lee continued to retain.
The final moments of this match had Brie come near victory after avoiding the Black Widow submission attempt from Lee and locking her into a half crab. Tamina would jump up on the apron to cause a distraction but Nikki pulled her down. While this was occurring, Lee was pulling herself to the rope to try and break the submission hold. Lee made it to the rope to force the break.
Brie went for a running knee but knocked into Nikki on the apron instead. Lee locks in the Black Widow and eventually Brie would tap out causing the champion to retain.
This was during the first reign of Lee as Divas Champion. She would hold the title for 296-days before losing to Paige in the latter’s memorable first night on Raw after WrestleMania in April 2014.
What are your favorite moments from this time in Divas history? Join the discussion below.
The invasion of NXT 2.0 into NXT UK continued on this week’s episode of NXT UK.
Lash Legend and Ivy Nile have emerged in NXT UK over the past couple of weeks. Nile defeated Nina Samuels in her debut match for the brand two weeks ago and this week Lash Legend had her victory.
Legend took on Emilia McKenzie, the protege of the NXT UK Women’s Champion Meiko Satomura. The size advantage continued to benefit Legend but McKenzie would get her fair shots in including a series of uppercuts and a swinging neck breaker late into the match. In the end, McKenzie was unable to get the victory after a massive pump kick was delivered out of nowhere from Legend to get the pin.
Following this match, it was confirmed that Nile will be getting her championship match in two weeks time. She is currently undefeated in singles action heading into this bout. Satomura is nearing a full year as champion. She currently sits at 350 days and counting. When her match with Nile airs on June 9, she will be just one day shy from 365-days.
During her reign, Satomura has defeated six different women and was challenged twice by Blair Davenport and Isla Dawn.
Bianca Belair would love to return to NXT at some point and see what the women of NXT 2.0 are made of.
She has had many successes since debuting on WWE’s main roster in 2020. She is a former SmackDown Women’s Champion, won the Royal Rumble, and has a win over Bayley in Hell in a Cell. Despite being the current Raw Women’s Champion which she achieved in back-to-back WrestleMania wins, there is one title she never was able to grab ahold of. The NXT Women’s Title.
Recently speaking with Lucas Charpiot of VL Media, Belair commented on the current product in NXT 2.0 and how the brand will always be her home. She gives praise to the impressive Amari Miller and says she has been enjoying the rivalry between Nikkita Lyons and Lash Legend.
“I have never won the NXT Women’s Championship. It was quite a complicated thing to do at the time. I saw that Natalya was currently there. Natalya is a legend in this medium. It’s great to see her wrestle in NXT 2.0 with these young wrestlers. This isn’t the first time she’s wrestled in NXT. As far as I’m concerned, NXT is where I learned it all. I didn’t know anything about wrestling when I arrived. I started at 27 years old with no experience in the ring. NXT is my home. It would be nice to be able to come back there to face these young wrestlers. I’ve always loved Io (Shirai) and had the chance to wrestle her when I was in NXT. I’m seeing Amari (Miller). I love her to death. She’s so passionate. I don’t know if I’ve ever met someone with as much passion as her. I also really appreciate the rivalry between Nikkita Lyons and Lash Legend, they have a cool and fresh thing going on,” said Bianca.
Prior to coming to the main roster, Belair battled Rhea Ripley for the NXT Women’s Title in a losing effort at TakeOver: Portland.
In the same interview, she praised Becky Lynch for their lengthy storyline. More on that can be read here.
Ruby Soho is just one match away from making it to the finals of the Owen Hart Foundation Tournament. She has one woman left standing in her way and that is Kris Statlander. The two will do battle in the last semi-finals round this Friday on the May 27 episode of Rampage.
If Soho does make it to the finals, she will be facing Dr. Britt Baker who won over Toni Storm on this week’s Dynamite. They would collide this weekend on May 29 at the Double or Nothing pay-per-view event.
Speaking with WrestleZone, Soho talks about her upcoming match with Statlander and the two already have a bit of history together in AEW. They met during the TBS Championship Tournament where Soho came out with the win. Statlander wasn’t originally planned for the tournament as it was Hikaru Shida that qualified. She replaced Shida after it was said that she was injured.
“I am so excited. I know that this is going to be both a mentally, emotionally and physically taxing week going forward. I know that Kris Statlander is a friend of mine and I have faced her in a tournament match prior to this and it was a match that really pushed me to my limit. Kris is absolutely one of the most talented women I’ve ever stepped into the ring with. That being said, I feel like I’m facing a very different version than I faced in the TBS Tournament. Kris is, one, in the absolute best shape of her entire life since I’ve known her. Two, she’s into this mentality of being more than a woman. She’s a warrior at this point, she’s a lot more relentless and a lot more ruthless. I have to take that into consideration going into this match with her, although I do consider her a friend.” [via – Fightful].
She continues, “So, I know that even in that match in the TBS tournament, that [match] could have gone either way. I feel like I was able to get the win by the skin of my teeth, so I do know that I am facing one of the best women, not only just [on] our roster, but in this industry in general. If I’m able to secure that win, I will know that I have earned my place into the finals. So I’m very much looking forward to that and as much as I am dead set on being a part of the finals at Double or Nothing, I cannot, by any means, look past Kris Statlander.”
Soho defeated Riho in the first round whereas Statlander took out her former ally Red Velvet.
Check back in with Diva Dirt for more news and results from the women of AEW.
The tag team gold has always been a topic of discussion on the validity of the belts since its inception in 2019. At the time there were some legitimate tag teams, although not a plethora. As time has gone on, WWE started the trend of breaking up teams and putting teams together just to save face of the non-existent division.
Eventually, everything has come to this point where the titles are vacant for the first time in their existence with the last champions, Sasha Banks and Naomi, suspended indefinitely.WWE announced a tournament will be coming up to crown new champions without a division to fight for the gold.
Paquette, who was with WWE when the titles were created, had the following to say about the history and current status of the championships.
“The women’s tag titles have only existed in WWE for a couple of years and as soon as they were brought into the fold, they were important for about 30 seconds, and then nobody cared. There was no true women’s tag teams and they just, they lost their luster really quickly. The best case is that they finally let these women do what they want to do and start really working on the tag division.”
"Whichever way you want to look at this, [Sasha Banks] is somebody who is really standing up for what she believes in."@ReneePaquette & @MieshaTate discuss the latest on Sasha Banks and Naomi.
“Naomi has been around for a long time. I mean, she is hands down one of those fan favorites. One of the best athletes on the entire roster male or female.”
She adds in regards to Sasha specifically on if she sees a future outside of WWE for The Boss if it comes to that –
“You know, the women’s roster in AEW is great but they could always use some more stars. I wouldn’t be surprised but, I also think Sasha’s somebody who also loves Japanese wrestling. When she left, she took a hiatus however long ago a couple of years ago she was in Japan, wrestling with Meiko Satomura. She loves professional wrestling it is something that she lives and breathes so I wouldn’t be surprised to see her make a move.”
There has been no official word on the futures of Banks or Naomi at this time or further information for the tournament coming for the tag belts. It has been rumored that teams from NXT 2.0 will have to be used for the tournament but there is no guarantee they would officially be called up to the main roster afterward.
What are your thoughts on what Renee had to say? Join the discussion below.
This weekend on May 29, Baker will make up one-half of the finals of the Owen Hart Foundation Tournament. She will be facing the winner of Ruby Soho vs. Kris Statlander which takes place on Rampage this Friday, May 27.
Baker advanced over a Toni Storm in a highly anticipated semi-finals match. Storm defeated Jamie Hayter in round one and had her eyes set on defeating Baker to advance to the finals. Things didn’t pan out for Storm thanks to the stolen win by the Doctor.
The final moments of the match had Storm in control after taking Baker out at ringside. Once she got Baker back in the ring, Hayter jumped up on the ring apron to cause a distraction as Storm knocked her down with a forearm. Baker went for a superkick to the midsection of Storm but was blocked.
Storm went for Storm Zero but Baker was thinking of going for the Air Raid before dropping to the mat. With Storm’s shoulders down and the referee counting, Baker grabbed ahold of the ring ropes to secure her victory.
Also on this week’s episode was a promo by Thunder Rosa in regards to her match this weekend as she will defend the AEW Women’s Title against Serena Deeb.
A backstage segment with Red Velvet and Ruby Soho took place. Velvet lost her quarter-finals match against Kris Statlander but gave Soho a book of notes to help her beat Statlander in the semi-finals. Soho felt she doesn’t need the notes, however, she does know Statlander isn’t the same as who she used to be when Soho narrowly defeated her in the TBS Title Tournament.
Lastly, you can view a promo below in regards to the TBS Championship that will be defended at Double or Nothing. Jade Cargill will defend the gold for a second time against Anna Jay.
Things are heating up! #TBS Champion @Jade_Cargill defends her Title for the 2nd time against @annajay___ at #AEWDoN (Double Or Nothing) LIVE on PPV from Las Vegas, NV on Sunday May 29!
It was announced on NXT 2.0 on May 24 that Nikkita Lyons was injured. As a result, she was removed from the Women’s Breakout Tournament in which she made it to the semi-finals. She was replaced by Tiffany Stratton who would defeat Fallon Henley to advance to the finals.
At the time of the announcement by NXT, the nature of the injury was not confirmed.
Lyons took to her social media today to confirm that she is indeed injured and has a partial tear on her MCL, “just a sprain, it could have been worse.” She says she does not require surgery and she has already started rehabbing. She states it was a freak accident. Her last match was in the quarter-finals of the Breakout Tournament against Arianna Grace.
She says her goal is to come back better than before. Lyons was on a winning streak. She had only lost her debut match in December but has won her last seven matches, six being singles matches.
Check back in with Diva Dirt for further news and results from the women of NXT 2.0.
Dr. Britt Baker has built herself up as one of the biggest names in AEW. She is a former AEW Women’s World Champion who held the gold for 290-days until Thunder Rosa defeated her in March.
She is sitting pretty in the current Owen Hart Foundation Tournament in the semi-finals but she has Toni Storm in her path towards the finals. Ahead of her battle with Storm on tonight’s Dynamite, she spoke with Forbes on many topics.
Talking about Storm, Baker says, “Toni Storm is a star. We really got lucky that she fell into our hands. She is arguably one of the best female wrestlers in the world. She looks like a rock star. She is a rock star.”
One of the most common questions that wrestlers get is who would they want to face in a dream match. All this talk of a dream match led to Baker naming Sasha Banks as her answer. She refers to The Boss as one of the top draws in WWE.
“Since it’s a pretty hot topic right now, I’m going to say Sasha Banks.…I think she is one of the top draws in all of WWE. She’s such a superstar, she’s such a good wrestler,” Baker said. “She’s definitely somebody that I would love to wrestle.”
Baker also touches on the internet trolls, cyberbullying, and the toxic environment it creates.
“I think people just go on to Twitter just to be heard in a negative way. They just want to say something nasty and hateful and mean, so they will go on to Twitter for literally no [other] reason and they just say it and make sure they tag you in it, too.”
She continues, “We’ve had people in the industry kill themselves over cyberbullying, and you’d think that that would be enough for people to wake up. Keep your mean thoughts to yourself,” Baker elaborated. “You know, the body-shaming and telling me I should go kill myself because I beat so and so in a match, it’s just really, really horrible and toxic.”
Check back in with Diva Dirt for more news from the women of AEW.
The AEW Women’s World Champion Thunder Rosa will be on tonight’s episode of Dynamite ahead of Double or Nothing which takes place this weekend on May 29. The promotion is also celebrating its three-year anniversary.
At Double or Nothing, Rosa will be putting her championship on the line against Serena Deeb. Deeb sits firmly at the top of the women’s rankings and thus was granted the title opportunity.
Last week, Rosa was attacked by Deeb after the champion came rushing to the ring to defend Dustin Rhodes.
Also, tonight will be the first of the semi-final matches for the Owen Hart Foundation Tournament. Toni Storm will be taking on Dr. Britt Baker. The winner will head to the finals at Double or Nothing. The second semi-final match will take place this Friday on Rampage as Ruby Soho takes on Kris Statlander.
After the events that took place on the May 24 episode of NXT 2.0, a Women’s Championship Summit is confirmed for next week.
All three members of Toxic Attraction have their challengers pretty much set for the upcoming In Your House event that takes place on June 4. In a brawl that took place backstage, Kayden Carter & Katana Chance have had enough and want to become champions as they jumped Toxic Attraction.
The NXT Women’s Champion Mandy Rose had a match against Indi Hartwell on this week’s show. The two put on a solid match with Rose coming out on top. The final moments of the match would see Carter/Chance come out to ringside to continue the brawl with Toxic Attraction. With Jayne in the ring tossing out Chance, Hartwell was distracted and took out Jayne. Rose took advantage of the distraction with a running kick to get the three count.
Post-match, Rose was soaking up her win on the ramp when Wendy Choo attacked her from behind with her pillow case filled with balls. Choo held up the championship gold to end the segment.
Later in the night, it was confirmed that the six women will meet next week for a Women’s Championship Summit ahead of In Your House.
Also on this week’s show, Alba Fyre went one-on-one with Elektra Lopez. The repackage and the new name for Fyre all continue to work well as she picks up her second victory in a row after hitting Phoenix for the pin.
During the match, Cora Jade was eating popcorn in the crowd taunting Lopez. The two meet next week.
Other women who appeared on this episode were Ivy Nile, Sofia Cromwell, and Jakara Jackson was seen in a segment involving those in the NXT North American Title picture. Another promo aired for Thea Hail who is graduating high school. She will be on NXT next week.
Roxanne Perez and Tiffany Stratton advanced to the finals of the NXT Women’s Breakout Tournament. They defeated Lash Legend and Fallon Henley respectively. You can read more on this by clicking here and checking out their digital exclusives below.
We are down to two. The finals for the NXT Women’s Breakout Tournament is officially Roxanne Perez vs. Tiffany Stratton.
If you have been following the tournament over the past few weeks you may be questioning why Stratton is in the finals when she wasn’t in the tournament to begin with. She was substituted into the tournament for Nikkita Lyons. It was reported that Lyons is out with an injury.
Perez would advance first to the finals after defeating Lash Legend.
Legend advanced to the semi-finals after defeating Tatum Paxley while Perez took out Kiana James in round one. Perez would win the match with Pop Rox. She expressed her concern prior to the match due to the size advantage for Legend, but Perez pulled out the underdog win.
The other semi-finals match had Fallon Henley trying to make it to the finals with an unexpected opponent, Tiffany Stratton. The two exchanged words backstage prior to the match when Henley found out she wouldn’t be facing Nikkita Lyons.
Even though she had minimal time to prepare, Stratton was able to put Henley away with her corkscrew splash finisher to advance. The final moments of the match saw Henley nurse a hurt knee which buckled underneath her before Stratton took advantage to achieve the victory.
An official date for the finals has not been confirmed at the time of this writing.
Check back in with Diva Dirt for more news and results from the women of NXT 2.0.
There are several women’s matches scheduled for tonight’s NXT 2.0.
The first will be Elektra Lopez will take on Alba Fyre. The artist formerly known as Kay Lee Ray, Fyre has emerged with a strong presence since adopting her new name and gimmick. She defeated Amari Miller a couple weeks ago and most likely will look to take down Lopez this week.
Next we have Indi Hartwell facing the NXT Women’s Champion Mandy Rose in a non-title bout. Hartwell is alone for the first time in her career and getting a win here could really boost her confidence after Rose tried to tear her down. Could an upset win from Hartwell here put her in place to challenge Rose for the gold?
We are down to four women for the Breakout Tournament and the semi-final matches are sitting with Roxanne Perez vs. Lash Legend and Fallon Henley vs. Nikkita Lyons. Who makes it to the finals?
Mia Yim is back in IMPACT! and she is being welcomed with open arms. The former Knockouts Champion made her return to the company in early May at the Under Siege event. She returned to make the save for Taya Valkyrie after a post-match attack by Deonna Purrazzo.
Yim sat down with Denise Salcedo to discuss her return to the company. She attributed Gail Kim as the reason for her return and she spoke about her decision to return to wrestling even though she was questioning it.
She was asked by Salcedo how it felt to be back with IMPACT and the changes that have taken place since she was there over five years ago.
“Freedom. Not that we weren’t free before, but the minute I signed my contract, I got a text like, ‘hey, what do you want to do for your character? What do you want to do for your tron?’ I’m like, ‘these are just suggestions, you don’t have to go for it,’ but I’ve been sitting on these ideas for the past two years, so I tossed it to them and they were like, ‘Great, we’ll set everything up.’ ‘This is so cool.’ It was different. You’re used to pitching ideas, but then nothing ever happens. ‘This is an idea I pitched, but nothing happened.’ In my mind, I was like, ‘th fact that they straight up asked me what I want to do says a lot,’ and then the fact that they went about and did it, I want to retire at IMPACT. This is where I want to stay forever, at this point. It was definitely a different feeling, but I felt like I was being heard and listened to and they took my ideas, and even little tweaks, they would ask, ‘How do you feel about this?’ ‘You’re really asking me?’ It’s nice to feel like I’m respected as a human,” she stated. [h/t – Fighftul]
She added –
“It’s an amazing and incredible feeling. Just to know that I know a majority of these people from the last time I was there, to meeting new people where I felt like I’ve known then forever. It’s a cool feeling to walk through those doors and be welcomed by, old, new, everybody. Not jut talent, but production and office. I’ve never worked with Scott (D’Amore) before, but man is he cool. He’s cool to sit back and talk with. It’s nice. It’s a really nice feeling.”
Yim further discussed her actual decision to step foot back into the ring. Prior to going back to IMPACT she had only two matches since December 2020 and her subsequent release from WWE. She faced Athena and then Janai Kai on indie shows.
“A lot was going on in my mind. It’s hard to pinpoint one or two specific things. me and Keith got released the same day, so it was a lot of trying to figure out of, I’ve done everything I’ve wanted in my career. Everything I set a goal for myself, I’ve done it all. Do I even want to wrestle anymore, just with the toxicity of social media and with what I did last, I was a joke, ‘Do I even bother?’ We got married, moved two weeks after and bought a house, a lot of real life stuff was happening and Keith, right after the wedding, he went to work. I was like, ‘Let me take a couple of months to hold down the fort and get things together with real life so he doesn’t have to worry about anything and everything will be taken care of at home.’ I took a couple of months off to do things in my real life, but also figure out if this is what I wanted to continue to do. It was a lot. I’m close friends with Gail (Kim) and have been talking with her ever since I left IMPACT the first time.”
She continues, “We had been talking and, I originally didn’t want to sign anywhere or do TV. I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but Gail was putting over the company, the talent, Scott, everything. With Gail being in a position in IMPACT as the head of the women’s division, I had no question or second guesses or hesitation that, if I were to go to IMPACT, under Gail’s leadership, everything was going to be fine. There is no drama. I didn’t want to deal with drama, politics, I just wanted to, if I was going to wrestle, I just wanted to wrestle and hang out with my friends. In that place, I have a lot of friends and know I would have a lot of wrestling opportunities. It was a no-brainer for me to be like, ‘Okay, I’m going to give it one more try.’ I don’t want people to remember me as what I’ve done the past year or two. I want people to remember me as Mia Yim and I have a decade worth of work under my belt before I had the whole thing happen and I want people to remember that. I’m not just a manager for a group. I can ‘go’ too. Once I decided, ‘I’m going to give wrestling a try,’ it was, ‘Count me in Gail.’ I know that in IMPACT, I’m going to be okay.”
When asked about her goals moving forward, Yim did confirm that she would like to retire with IMPACT!
A time frame was not discussed but she mentioned the following :
“I don’t know if I said this earlier but I want to retire at IMPACT. IMPACT has treated me so well thus far, they always have back in the day. I’ve done everything I wanted to when I first started wrestling that now I just want to come back and see people that I helped with their trial matches are now part of IMPACT. Like Chelsea and Alisha. I want to continue to help the younger generations come up and teach them how it goes. I just want to help the younger generation and be an inspiration to others.”
Yim is currently booked for the first-ever Queen of the Mountain Match for the Knockouts World Title. It will take place at Slammiversary on June 19 and in that match includes all prior champions. Joining Yim will be Jordynne Grace, Chelsea Green, Deonna Purrazzo, and the current Knockouts World Champion Tasha Steelz.
5 Knockouts will compete in a Queen of the Mountain match as @RealTSteelz defends her title in one of the most unique match types in professional wrestling!
The first Hell in a Cell event took place in 2009 and the first-ever Divas match to take place at the event was for the Divas Championship.
Mickie James was the champion heading in and she was challenged by Alicia Fox. Fox had earned this championship opportunity by defeating Gail Kim several weeks beforehand. She also held a victory over James when she pinned her in a tag team bout. This was also Fox’s first singles match on a pay-per-view.
The final moments of the match did give Fox a near fall with a Northern Lights Suplex out of the corner but it would be James that planted her DDT to get the victory and retain. Fox would later challenge Melina for the title in November of the same year and wasn’t able to win the title once again.
The gold would eventually go around the waist of Fox in June 2010 when she pinned Maryse in a Fatal 4-Way that also involved Gail Kim and then-champion Eve Torres.
Check back in with Diva Dirt for more news and results from the women of WWE.
Becky Lynch received another chance to get into the Raw Women’s Championship Match at Hell in a Cell. She faced Asuka in the main event on this week’s Raw and if she defeated her she would be added to the match – making it a Triple Threat.
Lynch would do just that.
The final moments of the match had Lynch going for the Disarmher but Asuka counters with a kick which causes Lynch to go out of the ring. With the champion Bianca Belair sitting at ringside, Asuka would inadvertently kick her which sent the champ crashing down to the floor. As the two competitors get back in the ring, Lynch quickly caught Asuka off guard and pinned her for the victory.
There is no word at this time if the match will take place inside the Hell in a Cell.
The mixed-tag team match was a numbers advantage as Edge was at ringside but Finn Balor was not. Prior to the match, The Judgment Day spoke about more talent joining them. The result came down to Ripley and Morgan. Morgan went for ObLIVion but Edge was there to catch her in the ropes. Ripley stacked her up to get the victory.
Post-match, all three members continued the attack on both Morgan and Styles.
Former Women’s Tag Team Champions and partners went head to head as Alexa Bliss went against Nikki A.S.H. With Doudrop at ringside, she tried to get Nikki’s head in the game to get a win. Despite getting in a fair amount of offense, Nikki continued on her losing streak as Bliss hit Twisted Bliss to pick up her third win in a row since returning.
Prior to the match, Bliss spoke backstage stating that Sonya Deville could possibly use some therapy. Bliss defeated Deville two weeks in a row.
The 24/7 Champion Dana Brooke was shown during the show asking Adam Pearce for a match against Carmella.
As for the Women’s Tag Team Championships, it was mentioned once again that Sasha Banks and Naomi were suspended and that new champions will be crowned from a tournament. Nothing further has been confirmed.
Check back in with Diva Dirt for more news and results from the women of the Raw brand.
Now officially a member of the Raw women’s roster, it has been confirmed that Evans will have her first match back from her hiatus on the next episode of Raw. She has been out of action since February 2021 prior to announcing her pregnancy.
After weeks of vignettes aired on SmackDown about her troubled childhood and how she has overcome several challenges in her life, she was moved to the Raw brand. She made one appearance to the crowd of SmackDown before the move took place.
There is no opponent for Evans listed at this time.
Next week will be the go-home episode before Hell in a Cell takes place on June 5. Asuka vs. the Raw Women’s Champion Bianca Belair is scheduled. Becky Lynch won the main event against Asuka on the May 23 episode of Raw making the Raw Women’s Title match at Hell in a Cell a Triple Threat.
Stacy “The Kat” Carter is a former WWF Women’s Champion and worked for the WWF/E from the late 1990s to the early 2000s. During her tenure, one of her most memorable moments was her partnership with Chyna. The two were friends prior to being in WWF together and it was Chyna’s idea for them to pair up.
Carter recently spoke on many topics with Ring the Belle’s DS Shin.
On her friendship with Chyna, Carter tells Shin –
“It was awesome [her relationship with Chyna]. She and I were really good friends. Back before I signed with them [WWF/E], Jerry [Lawler] was there already and so, I would go to the shows. Like if we went to Florida, if we went to Dallas, we went to New York or any of those places, I would go so I already knew everyone before I signed and so, she and I would hang out backstage and in the locker room, she’d invite me to come and hang out in the locker room and stuff like that and so, once the whole Jeff [Jarrett] thing went down, you know, she wrestled Jeff for the Intercontinental Title and all that and then he was one day past his contract.
So he held everyone up and so we didn’t have a clue what we were gonna do. Like she and I, the storyline’s gotta end right now. I don’t know what’s happening and so Jeff finally shows up at the end of the day and we went over a match really fast and then we didn’t know what she and I were gonna do. There was nothing left for me so, she came up with the idea of whenever I leave and I walk back up the ramp to leave, she said, ‘You just follow me and you turn around and kind of like give him the thing’ and everybody loved it. So, that’s how our little mini-me thing came to fruition. I know, it was so much fun.”
Just before Carter’s abrupt end with the company, she was in a storyline with the Right to Censor faction. She believes that it was leading to her turning heel. When discussing her release from the company she says she doesn’t have an answer, only Vince McMahon can truly answer that.
“That was gonna be fun [her involvement in the Right to Censor storyline]. You have to ask Vince McMahon. We got to the building that day, one o’clock in the afternoon, you get there at one and they tell you what you’re gonna do when they come out of their writers meeting. They tell you what you’re gonna do and I had like five or six different things going on that day. Like, ‘You’re gonna do this vignette here, you’re gonna do this and you’re gonna do that’ and then Jerry [Lawler] took off and went shopping which he always does. I was getting ready and then Jerry came and knocked on the door and said, ‘We gotta go’ and I go, ‘Why?’ He goes, ‘Get your stuff’ and I was like, ‘No! I gotta get ready. I got all this stuff to do.’ Your guess is as good as mine. To this day, I don’t have an answer [as to why I was let go]. Some people think they know the answer but Vince McMahon’s the only one that can answer that.”
Carter spoke on her moment at the 1999 Armageddon event where she ended up flashing the whole crowd instead of just a portion based on where the camera was supposed to be angled.
“Do you know that I am responsible for the ‘N’ for nudity on every pay-per-view since that night? [when she flashed the crowd at Armageddon 1999]… Let’s go back. So we’re at the very back of the building in the arena back by the stage where the ramp where everybody goes down, away from the ring. So, what was supposed to happen was I was supposed to turn around and where I did it — but the camera was supposed to be to my back and so I would be like this to all the fans and then I would do this and only people way up in the top would see me, and then Sarge was supposed to come in with a towel and when I ran back and he grabbed me and he put the towel around me, I said, ‘Sarge, did that just happen?’ He goes, ‘Yes it did Kitty.’”
She also talked about the progression of women’s wrestling and her time as WWF Women’s Champion. She maintains throughout the interview that she wasn’t a wrestler despite winning the gold during a swimming pool match. She spoke highly of Ivory who was the type who wanted to be in the ring and wanted the big matches.
“Well, it’s good on both ends [the growth of women’s wrestling]. I feel like tough women, women who wanna wrestle, who want to be in there, people like Ivory back then — those are my references — should be able to do that. That should be good because people wanna see that but people still also wanna see the slapstick stuff, the fun stuff, like the girls pulling each other’s hair and stuff like that.
I think there’s room for a character like that [in WWE today]. Yeah, but just, you won’t go to that extreme.”
On the official schedule for tonight’s Raw, Becky Lynch will be confronting Asuka. Asuka defeated Lynch last week to become the number one contender to Bianca Belair‘s Raw Women’s Championship. Those two will face at Hell in a Cell.
Edge continues to tease more members of The Judgment Day stable. Will Rhea Ripley no longer be the only woman with the group? And with that Liv Morgan has joined forces with Finn Balor and AJ Styles to even the numbers.
Bianca Belair has given praise to Becky Lynch for carrying their storyline from SummerSlam 2021 to WrestleMania 38 earlier this year.
Lynch made her return from maternity last August at SummerSlam but her return went from joy to sour quickly for many fans when she was booked to defeat Bianca Belair in 26-seconds. The two would see their paths split a bit despite both being drafted to Raw during the last WWE Draft.
Lynch went on to feud with Liv Morgan and then Lita while Belair had her series of matches against Doudrop. Eventually, the two would come back together for WrestleMania 38 where Belair would seek out and obtain her revenge by defeating Lynch to become the Raw Women’s Champion.
While speaking with Lucas Charpiot of VL Media, Belair spoke on the storyline that she has had with Lynch.
“Working with Becky Lynch is fantastic. She is a formidable competitor. In the ring, she is one of the best storytellers in the promotion. When you rewatch the WrestleMania match and dwell on his facial expressions, you can really feel his emotions. She carried this storyline on her shoulders from August until WrestleMania. Most of the time, I feel like women don’t have those long-lasting storylines that lead to a purpose. We had the chance to tell that and keep the interest of the fans. At SummerSlam, people thought Becky Lynch killed my momentum. It was a hard pill to swallow, even for me. But in the end, working with Becky Lynch allowed me to grow tremendously as a talent at WWE. I learned a lot from her in the ring, but also outside the ring. She is a huge advocate for women’s wrestling so that it stays at the top of the map. I’m grateful to have had the chance, not only to face her, but also to have been able to tell this long story that concluded at WrestleMania,” she said. [h/t – Fightful]
Currently, Belair will be facing Asuka at the upcoming Hell in a Cell event. Asuka defeated Lynch in a number one contenders match on last week’s Raw in order to earn this title opportunity.
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Currently, there are three women’s matches set for AEW’s upcoming Double or Nothing event that is set to air this weekend on May 29. A mixed-tag team match may be added to the card.
According to the Wrestling Observer, a tag team bout between Tay Conti & Sammy Guevara vs. Paige VanZant & either Scorpio Sky OR Ethan Page is “internally listed.” Although not officially confirmed it has been said to be “tentatively scheduled.”
“I was outright told over the weekend that it was ‘listed’. Until it’s announced it’s not announced, they could do it a different way,” Dave Meltzer continued. “But, I was actually outright told that that match is tentatively scheduled for the pay-per-view and that is probably where they would do it.”
If this match were to take place, it would be VanZant’s debut match. She was officially signed with AEW in March. VanZant has recently shown her training on social media.
Straight off a plane from Philadelphia #AEW@paigevanzant put some work in , In the ring @CCWFL before she hit boxing training, definitely a hard worker and Dedicated to learning to craft pro wrestling! pic.twitter.com/DbeBs3QHFA
Kyoko Kimura (Hana’s mother) came out of retirement to participate in the event. Her last match took place in 2017. She lost in a match against Jungle Kyona.
Kyoko Kimura retired in January of 2017, and has come out of retirement in 2022 for a special exhibition match against Jungle Kyona ???#???????pic.twitter.com/S6viRTlGC5
Prior to the show starting, Kyoko came out to address the crowd. KAIRI was on commentary and the crowd gave a moment of silence. A tribute video for Hana was also aired.
Take a look back to Hell in a Cell in 2016 where Bayley and Dana Brooke went one-on-one. This was Dana’s first (and so far only) singles match on a pay-per-view and Bayley’s first. 2016 was also the year both women officially debuted on the main roster.
This match came about as Dana and Bayley started their own feud. Brooke originally debuted with Emma but the latter suffered an injury which led to Brooke being placed as Charlotte Flair’s protege. Brooke and Flair were originally in a feud with Sasha Banks before turning their attention to Bayley.
Brooke received a win against Bayley on the Oct. 17 episode of Raw. At Hell in a Cell, however, Bayley was able to take down Brooke with a Bayley to Belly to get her first singles victory on a main roster pay-per-view. Her first tag team main roster victory came beforehand as she teamed with Sasha Banks to defeat Flair & Brooke at Battleground that same year.
This year’s Hell in a Cell will take place on June 5 and at the time of this writing has one women’s match listed on the card. It will be Asuka challenging Bianca Belair for the Raw Women’s Championship.
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