The ROH Women’s World Champion Athena is set to defend her gold against Hikaru Shida at Supercard of Honor. The match takes place at the event on April 5, but first we have to do a contract signing. This will air on ROH’s weekly show on April 4.
Also on this week’s ROH, Nyla Rose will be in action and Anna Jay will take on Nikita.
Thunder Rosa is heading to AEW Dynasty.
The April 3 episode of AEW Dynamite featured Rosa vs. Mariah May in a number one contender’s bout for the AEW Women’s World Championship. “Timeless” Toni Storm joined commentary to watch.
Rosa controlled the pace early on, but May turned things around with a hip attack. The action spilled to the outside when Rosa hit a hurricanrana to the floor followed by a crossbody.
Back inside, Rosa connected with a release German suplex, to which May responded with one of her own. In the end, Rosa landed a backstabber followed by a driving slam into the mat for the three-count.
After, Rosa yelled at Storm that she wants her now instead of waiting for her title shot at Dynasty on April 21.
Earlier in the night, Renee Paquette interviewed Willow Nightingale ahead of her TBS title match at Dynasty.
She was eventually interrupted by Mercedes Moné, who declared that she “has next” for the TBS Championship at Double or Nothing in May.
What did you think of this week’s Dynamite? Sound off below!
*Please note that this article contains a possible spoiler*
NXT’s Stand & Deliver takes place this Saturday.
There are two women’s matches on the card, but there may just be a big free agent at the show. Former STARDOM World of Stardom Champion Giulia is reportedly set to appear at the event. This could simply mean she would be in the crowd, but Rossy Ogawa (STARDOM’s co-founder) would be accompanying her.
This was confirmed by Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful.
Giulia wasted no time to show up after leaving Stardom at the end of March. On April 1 she appeared at the Tokyo based promotion Pro Wrestling NOVA. She will have a match there in May.
It has been rumored for the past couple of months that Giulia would help out with Ogawa’s new promotion that is coming and then will show up in WWE at the end of the year.
Tokyo Sports also confirms that Giulia will be in America for WrestleMania weekend.
Tonight’s AEW Dynamite has number one contender implications. The number one and number two ranked women Thunder Rosa and Mariah May will have a match where the winner will face the AEW Women’s World Champion Toni Storm.
We are also going to hear from Willow Nightingale who will be facing Julia Hart for the TBS Championship at the upcoming Dynasty event.
Roxanne Perez isn’t the only one showing a different side of herself as the NXT Women’s Champion Lyra Valkyria is showing a more ruthless side.
Ahead of their title match this Saturday at Stand & Deliver, Perez and Valkyria met on the Supernova Sessions and it was fireworks the moment both women stepped into the ring.
Perez continues to say she will take back the title she never lost. Valkyria put a stop to that nonsense as she reminded Perez that Indi Hartwell won the championship last year in a ladder match that Perez was a part of. Perez just couldn’t climb the ladder fast enough so she blames Hartwell. Then at Vengeance Day, Lola Vice cashed in her break out contract on the championship match between Perez and Valkyria making in a Triple Threat. Perez then blamed Vice.
Perez responds by saying that she is going to knock Valkyria off her high horse. She adds that it takes one to be a champion AFTER they have lost it. Perez says that she is a whole new Roxanne and that she couldn’t have snapped Valkyria’s arm at Vengeance Day as she did a few weeks ago. She didn’t have it in her then, but now she does.
Valkyria gets heated after Perez cause the championship her title. She says that Perez didn’t call it that when Tiffany or Becky held it. The champion continues and says while all she does is win, all Perez does is bitch. And after Stand & Deliver, Perez is going to have a whole lot to bitch about.
The two come face-to-face and Perez says she has a years worth of rage built up inside of her and on Saturday she’s going to let it all out. Perez then slaps Valkyria who responds with a roundhouse kick before setting her up for an AA and plants her through the tiny table set up in the ring.
This week’s NXT had a total of four women’s matches.
First, Jacy Jayne defeated Fallon Henley. More on that here.
Next, we got Karmen Petrovic with Natalya taking on Lola Vice. Natalya answered Vice’s open challenge last week and earned a victory. This week, Petrovic wanted to see a similar result but unfortunately for her, Vice pulled out the win. Vice won with Natalya’s Sharpshooter submission. Vice stared right through Natalya as she had it locked in.
A match between Arianna Grace and Wren Sinclair came about after Sinclair had objections on how Grace is trying to change Gigi Dolin. The final moments of their match had Grace roll up Sinclair in the corner into a bridge as she grabbed ahold of the bottom ropes for leverage to get the win.
Lastly, we had Sol Ruca seeking some revenger against Blair Davenport. Davenport is who attacked Ruca when she was the mystery attacker taking out Ruca for nearly a year.
Davenport focused heavily on that surgically repaired knee of Ruca’s throughout the match. But that didn’t stop Ruca as she executed many moves with just one leg including a springboard DDT. Ruca went for the Sol Snatcher to end Davenport but was countered. Davenport attempted to put her opponent away but Ruca then reversed it into a roll up for the win.
Don’t forget that Stand & Deliver is this Saturday starting at Noon ET. Diva Dirt will provide Discussion Posts for this event as well as both nights of WrestleMania XL.
So please join us!
*Update*
Since the original posting of this article, Drew Gulak has responded to the accusation.
Ronda Rousey recently appeared on News Nation where she was asked about the misconduct allegations on Vince McMahon. She shared that she didn’t have any wrong doings from McMahon to her, but she spoke about the culture and how red flags were prevalent in plain sight.
Rousey brings up an alleged incident with current NXT talent Drew Gulak.
“Not Vince personally, towards me, but the company culture, definitely. One time I was waiting to go talk to Triple H in the writer’s room. I was standing there with Bruce Prichard and another one of the writers. This guy grabs the string of my sweatpants and no one reacts as if this is abnormal. He grabs it and starts going down the hall and I’m like, ‘What the fuck was that? Why are you grabbing the string of my sweatpants? If my husband was standing here next to me, would you feel comfortable walking up to me and grabbing the string of my sweatpants?’ Nobody around me acted as if it was abnormal. All the guys around me were just like it’s part of the day. I’m like, if this guy is coming up to me and doing this kind of stuff to me where there are other people around, what’s happening to these other girls when it’s not in a hallway. That really put me on edge to where not only is this behavior prevalent, but it’s so prevalent that people don’t even realize it’s a problem anymore,” she said.
Asked who it was, Rousey replied, “I know exactly what he looks like and I’m blanking on his name. Is this part of my concussion test?”
A moment later she said, “Drew Gulak. Drew Gulak, that’s who it was. I confronted him later and I was like, ‘If I ever hear about you putting your hands on any other woman like this or doing anything like this to me ever again, we’re going to have a problem.’ He was like, ‘No, no, no. I’m glad you said something to me.’ He really backpedaled, but it put a sour taste in my mouth about the culture there and what’s considered acceptable on how to touch and treat the women in the hallways, and anywhere.” (Fightful)
Rousey’s new memoir Our Fight is out now.
After what has transpired over the past two weeks, we have a second women’s match on the Stand & Deliver card. A six woman match will take place between Thea Hail, Kelani Jordan, and Fallon Henley vs. Jacy Jayne, Kiana James, and Izzi Dame.
On the April 2 episode of NXT, Jayne took on Henley in singles action. Both women had their respective sides at ringside with them. Jazmyn Nyx was also on the side of Jayne but had her arm in a sling. Likely selling the arm attack by Hail last week.
The women on the outside started to brawl which led to Henley going out to knock down James and Dame and think about adding further pain to Nyx. Henley gets back into the ring but is met with a running knee by Jayne who wins the match.
Moments later, backstage, Jayne is addressing to the camera how she was never friends with Hail. She saved Chase U and did the calendar only to get the spotlight back on her.
Ava, who was at gorilla, told Jayne to move along as it was a live show. Hail, Henley, and Jordan enter and start commotion on their side. Ava stops them and announces the match for this Saturday.
Stand & Deliver will air this Saturday on day one of WrestleMania XL at Noon ET.
We have reached the go-home NXT episode before Stand & Deliver this weekend. That show airs ay Noon ET on Saturday which is also WrestleMania XL Day One.
For tonight we have Roxanne Perez and NXT Women’s Champion Lyra Valkyria on Noam Dar’s Supernova Sessions.
Sol Ruca will be facing Blair Davenport
Fallon Henley is taking on Jacy Jayne
Karmen Petrovic w/Natalya is set to go one-on-one with Lola Vice
A women’s heavy NXT tonight!
Roxanne Perez gets a chance to become a two-time NXT Women’s Champion as she challenges Lyra Valkyria this Saturday at Stand & Deliver.
If Perez is unable to capture the title, where does she stand in NXT? Will she be called up?
There has also been the speculation that Perez was placed in this position because of Cora Jade’s injury. It appeared that Jade was in line to fave Valkyria when she returned earlier this year.
Per Fightful Select:
Roxanne Perez is once again in the NXT Women’s Championship title picture with a new attitude and will challenge for the title at NXT Stand And Deliver this Friday when she takes on Lyra Valkyria.
Fightful Select’s Corey Brennan has learned several details on Roxanne’s future in WWE. Many fans have clamoured for Perez to be brought up to the main roster, with several appearances already, most notably in back to back Royal Rumble matches in 2023 and 2024. Brennan is told that Perez has impressed major officials in each of her main roster appearances and her callup was described as “only a matter of time.”
That being said, some in NXT would like to see Perez stick around on the brand for the time being to allow her to continue developing her new heel character, which is said to have blown away officials, with some pushing for a Perez title win at Saturday’s Premium Live Event.
Some fans have speculated that Perez has filled a role that was meant for former tag team partner and rival Cora Jade, who suffered a torn ACL that she underwent surgery for in January. NXT sources tell Fightful Select that this is not completely true, as Jade and Perez were provisionally planned to reunite as heels prior to Jade’s injury.
Perez is someone who has been described as “professional beyond her years” by one source in NXT, while another noted that the ‘sky is the limit’ for the 22 year old.
Damage CTRL bounced back from the attack from Jade Cargill on SmackDown as Cargill made the save for Naomi and Bianca Belair.
On the go-home WrestleMania XL episode of Raw, Damage CTRL (Dakota Kai, Kairi Sane, and Asuka) took on the unique team of Tegan Nox, Shayna Baszler, and Zoey Stark. Despite Damage CTRL pulling off a win here, the opposite team looked good in defeat, especially Stark who worked this match really well.
In the end, Damage CTRL isolated Nox and set her up for the InSane Elbow which gave Sane the win for the team. Despite it being an odd choice to pair Nox up with Stark and Baszler when she has her own tag team partner Natalya, it was nice to see Nox and Kai share a ring again.
Elsewhere on Raw we received a rematch and the advertised match between Maxxine Dupri & Ivy Nile vs. Candice LeRae & Indi Hartwell. Dupri was seeking out some revenge from how LeRE has been treating her. Thankfully the match lasted longer than the two minute debacle from last week.
The match came down to LeRae knocking off Nile from the top turnbuckle when the referee was distracted. However, Hartwell continues to not want to be sneaky to win, so in her confused state, Dupri tagged in and pinned her for the win.
LeRae was absolutely fuming with Hartwell and told her she should be embarrassed to lose to Dupri.
Lastly, we had one last brawl between the Women’s World Champion Rhea Ripley and her WrestleMania challenger Becky Lynch. Lynch came down to the ring first and did not mince her words and instead wanted Ripley to come right out to fight. General Manager Adam Pearce tried to stop it with security but the fight eventually moved to the backstage area before Pearce could get some control.
Stephanie Vaquer will be defending the NJPW STRONG Women’s Championship at the upcoming NJPW event Windy City Riot. She will be defending against former two-time STARDOM High Speed Champion, AZM. The event takes place on April 12. Vaquer won the STRONG Women’s Title off of Giulia just weeks ago.
Also set on the pre-show will be Mina Shirakawa & Viva Van vs. Trish Adora & Alex Windsor.
It is being reported by Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful that Dasha Kuret (Gonzalez) has been released by AEW. Kuret was working as Spanish commentator for the promotion.
Kuret had one match in AEW where she teamed with Rachael Ellering back in 2020. They lost to Ivelisse and Diamante. She worked for WWE prior to signing with AEW in 2019. She was a ring announcer and backstage interview with the last name Fuentes.
Diva Dirt wishes the best for Dasha in her future.
Tonight is the final Raw before WrestleMania.
The only matched confirmed at this time is a tag team match between Candice LeRae/Indi Hartwell vs. Maxxine Dupri/Ivy Nile.
Of course it is to be expected that at least Becky Lynch and Rhea Ripley will be on the show as well.
Rhea Ripley has made it to 365 days as Women’s World Champion as of yesterday. Due to the leap year she currently sits at 366 days. She defeated Charlotte Flair on this day one year ago at WrestleMania 39 on April 1.
Since winning the gold which was named the SmackDown Women’s Title, Ripley has successfully defended the gold on nine different occasions. Most recently it was against Nia Jax at Elimination Chamber in February. Other victories included against Ivy Nile, Zelina Vega, Natalya, Raquel Rodriguez, Shayna Baszler, and Zoey Stark.
Ripley will be putting her championship on the line this coming weekend at WrestleMania XL where she faces Becky Lynch.
Since CM Punk’s return to WWE, there has been more hope by fans that we may see a return of former Divas Champion AJ Lee. Unless this is an April Fools joke, Punk is now stating that will likely not happen.
In a new interview that is on-going at the time of this writing, Punk is speaking with Ariel Helwani of the MMA Hour. Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful is providing updates of the interview on his social media. One in particular was Punk giving the statement regarding Lee.
Speaking of Lee, on March 30 marked nine years since she retired from in-ring competition. Her last match was a six diva tag team match where she teamed up with Naomi and Paige to defeat Natalya and The Bella Twins.
A younger Becky Lynch had hopes to become a TNA Knockout.
We know Lynch as one of, if not the most popular women’s wrestler currently active in any promotion. But, what if her path to stardom started differently?
While speaking on the MMA Hour, Lynch discusses how a younger 19 year old Rebecca Quin saw promise in joining TNA.
“I was about to move over to America to do a personal training diploma in Orlando, and my goal was, ‘Maybe I can get into TNA,'” Lynch said. “The way that they were treating women there was so much better than the way that they were treating women in WWE. So it’s like, ‘I can make a splash there.'”
For the full interview you can watch below.
Bayley has been ready to take gold into her own hands ever since she was declared the winner of the 2024 Royal Rumble back in January. She had a decision to make by either facing Rhea Ripley or IYO SKY. But when SKY and Damage CTRL turned on her, her decision became a lot easier
While speaking with NFL All Access, Bayley had the following to say:
“WrestleMania is always so exciting. It’s the most special time of the year. That’s our Super Bowl. It’s always to me felt like it’s on another planet, even since I was a kid,” she said. “This WrestleMania in particular, WrestleMania 40, this is the hottest WWE has ever been. We have The Rock coming back, we have everybody. To be a part of this gigantic show, WrestleMania 40, that’s been going on for four decades, is insane. So the fact that I have a marquee match for a championship in a very personal, emotional story that I kind of created with the beginning of Damage CTRL with IYO SKY, it’s a huge honor, I don’t take it lightly, and I can’t wait to walk out as WWE Women’s Champion because this is history right here.” (Fightful)
Giulia wasted no time after her STARDOM contract was up at the end of March to appear elsewhere. On April 1, Giulia appeared at Pro Wrestling NOAH in Tokyo at its Monday Magic show.
“I’m Giulia, unemployed from today, I quit Stardom yesterday. I came here because I was called. The fact that I’m here means that the wrestling world will become more and more interesting, so please look forward to the future Giulia. Arrivederci, see you soon!”
Giulia will now appear for the promotion in a match on May 4. An opponent’s name has not been confirmed at the time of this writing.
Timeless Toni Storm is liking what she sees! And what she sees is Mariah May potentially becoming the number one contender for Storm’s AEW Women’s World Title.
On Collision, Renee Paquette broke the news to Storm that her next opponent will be determined by the top two women in the rankings. This means, that Thunder Rosa and…Mariah May will do battle next week. Instead of getting angry that May will be a possible number one contender, Storm laid a big kiss on May and called her a magnificent bastard and a genius. Thinking this was May’s plan all along.
This is all because Storm is convinced May will defeat Rosa (or as she calls her Lightning Daffodil) and this way Rosa will never get to smell the leather of the championship belt ever again.
As for Rosa, she continues to be undefeated since her return as she took out Lady Frost.
Olympic Gold Medalist, Tamyra Mensah-Stock made her official WWE debut at an NXT house show on Saturday in Melbourne, Florida. She defeated Breanna Covington in singles action. Mensah-Stock signed with WWE last May. She is the first ever female gold medal olympian to sign with the promotion.
Full results from March 30 are:
Results from March 29 NXT live show in Ft. Pierce, Florida:
Battle Royal To Determine The #1 Contender For The WWE NXT Women’s Championship
Winner: Arianna Grace
Brinley Reece & Sol Ruca def. Stevie Turner & Blair Davenport
Karmen Petrovic def. Lola Vice
NXT Women’s Title Match – Lyra Valkyria (c) def. Arianna Grace
Queen Aminata has been dominating her spot in ROH since her debut. She is currently sitting in the finals to determine the inaugural ROH Women’s TV Champion as she will face Billie Starkz on April 5.
In a new episode of the podcast AEW Unrestricted, Aminata shares how much this opportunity means to her. She is the first African born woman to ever sign a contract with a major wrestling promotion.
“Coming from Guinea, I wouldn’t say there’s nothing special about it but there’s so much more because people from here don’t know Guinea. They know Africa, but it’s like, Africa, you know what I mean? I just wanted to give them something that they don’t know, tell them a story without talking to them that is showing them, hey this is where I’m from, but this is what you get. Especially with being signed, this is a bigger company that has a major platform for me, so what a better way for me to just express myself and show people my culture, my accent, and how proud I am to walk in there with my cape. It’s funny sometimes because some fans will be like, ‘Oh my god, that’s just a fake accent, are you really from Africa?’ I’m like, ‘Yes honey, I was born and raised in Africa. I still go back.’ I just had bigger dreams than I could realize in Africa, so I just took a chance on me and I gave it my all. I feel like I have two homes now, I have the USA and I have Africa. I’m happy to be here, at the same time I miss home. I’m so thankful for everything I’m building here and I know there is many more to come.” (Fightful)
Aminata defeated J-Rod, Taya Valkyria, and lastly Red Velvet to make it to the finals.
Thunder Rosa and Lady Frost will go one-on-one on the March 30 episode of AEW Collision.
Rosa will continue her momentum looking for another win as she has been undefeated since returning from injury. So undefeated, that she pinned the AEW Women’s World Champion Ton Storm in a tag team match.
Speaking of the Timeless one, she made an announcement on the March 29 episode of Rampage. She states she tore her hamstring and she won’t tell us how. However, this put Mariah May in place to face Nikita in a winning match.
Also Deonna Purrazzo was in action and defeated Rose.
Things have gotten heated between Ruby Soho and Angelo Parker. In a backstage interview with Harley Cameron and Zak Knight, Knight responded to Parker’s loose words that he is a coward. Knight says he knows he is in Parker’s head. Parker appears and the two brawl before Knight escapes. Soho appears and tells Parker she asked him to do one thing, and that is not to go looking for a fight. She kisses him and tells him that she can’t be here for this.
A rematch has been confirmed for the April 1 episode of Raw as Candice LeRae and Indi Hartwell will be taking on Maxxine Dupri and Ivy Nile.
As LeRae continues to do everything she can to continue to win matches, it has been Dupri and now Nile being caught in the massive change to LeRae’s character. But what about Hartwell?
After LeRae defeated Nile last week by faking an injury, she has told Hartwell she is either with how she is behaving or she can find another partner.
Per WWE.com:
Weeks of vicious barbs from Candice LeRae toward Maxxine Dupri come to a head when Ivy Nile teams with Dupri to take on LeRae and Indi Hartwell.
The Poison Pixie snapped on The Alpha Academy Superstar a few weeks ago on Raw, berating her in the ring and telling her that she doesn’t belong.
After she doubled down on her remarks in front of a surprised Hartwell, Nile attacked LeRae, forcing the need for a tag team match between all four Superstars.
As a result of what took place on the March 29 episode of SmackDown, we have ourselves a six-woman tag team match added to WrestleMania XL. In a post show announcement, SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis has stated that Dakota Kai and The Kabuki Warriors will take on Naomi, Bianca Belair, and Jade Cargill!
Cargill made her official SmackDown debut on this week’s show. After signing the contract earlier in the night, she made the save for Belair and Naomi after the main event where Belair defeated Kai.
You can read more on SmackDown results by clicking here.
Friday Night SmackDown emanated tonight from the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut and was quite the female-heavy show.
To start things off, WWE Women’s Champion IYO SKY was featured in a vignette. From the get go, SKY paints a negative picture of her WrestleMania opponent, Bayley: only starting Damage CTRL because she was lost, lacking in relevance, and wanting to stay in the spotlight. The champ also takes offense to the perhaps fickle behavior of the WWE Universe for choosing to cheer Bayley on in spite of her prior antagonism over the women’s division during the past two years.
Although she once saw Bayley as a friend, that was a decision she says she will always regret, and hopes to never see her again following this year’s Show of Shows. She may have spoken a bit too soon though, as Bayley crashed the vignette as soon as filming had finished, resulting in an on-set tussle that will only fuel the flames between the two, a flame that may only be extinguished in 8 days’ time at WrestleMania XL.
The show then immediately switched gears as the storm has finally arrived to the blue brand! Once entering the ring, Jade Cargill made sure to put the women of Team Blue on notice in a short but sweet promo as she officially signed her contract.
A brief backstage appearance by The Unholy Union of Isla Dawn and Alba Fyre seemed to do nothing to convince general manager Nick Aldis to bring them out of catering. They’re witches! Just curse him already.
The mayhem between Bobby Lashley and The Street Profits against The Final Testament continues. B-Fab, on the side of Lashley and the Profits, hyped the team of Angelo and Montez before their match against Grayson Waller and Austin Theory, but the match would end just as it was discovered that Bobby and B-Fab had been laid out by Karrion Kross and Scarlett.
Wherever Legado del Fantasma goes, Elektra Lopez follows. Ms. Lopez was in tow as Dominik Mysterio cemented his alliance with LDF leader Santos Escobar. This of course brought out the LWO and Zelina Vega, with the announcement that Rey Mysterio and new group member Dragon Lee would be facing Dominik and Santos Escobar at WrestleMania.
With both feuding factions now evenly matched, Zelina being called a “puny little troll” by Elektra triggered a huge scuffle between both groups, with the LWO coming out on top at the end. It remains to be seen what kind of role these two will play at the Grandest Stage of Them All. To throw hands or not to throw hands? That is the question.
WWE Women’s World Champion and Raw Superstar Rhea Ripley made an appearance, emphasizing the importance of communicating among The Judgment Day as they head into the Show of Shows. It appears that they’re not exactly on the same page.
SmackDown had some time for Tiffy Time as we saw a vignette for Tiffany Stratton. The “Buff Barbie” is quite the multi-faceted talent: doing some modeling one second, gymnastics the next, and addressing the WWE Universe the second after that. Anyways, she mentions how hard it is to carry the burden of perfection when she’s a main event-level talent. For her adoring fans, she vows to always look hot. According to her, it’s the lip filler that’s not so hot.
Bianca Belair took on Dakota Kai in the main event. Bianca won after a KOD but it wasn’t long before Dakota, Asuka, and Kairi Sane would gang up on her, leading to an unsuccessful save from Naomi, who was also beat up by the trio. As it turns out, bad weather was headed the way of Damage CTRL as Jade Cargill made her way to the ring and wiped out all three members before standing tall with Bianca and Naomi.
Here’s what’s set up for next week’s SmackDown:
Tonight’s SmackDown means we are just over one week away from WrestleMania.
We are going to have Jade Cargill make her official SmackDown debut.
Bianca Belair will also be taking on Dakota Kai.
