Everyone wants to have a WrestleMania moment, but it’s looking like several women might be left off the card this year unless there is a spontaneous announcement of a WrestleMania Women’s Battle Royal—which isn’t looking likely.
The Uh Oh Moment
This dawned on me after Liv Morgan and Rhea Ripley suddenly became a tag team, beat the champions and earned a spot in the tag team title match on Monday Night Raw.
Obviously, if you’ve been a fan of WWE long enough, you can see how transparent this is. WWE has never really cared about the tag team division outside of sporadic times where one team catches Vince’s attention. The women’s tag team division means even less and has NEVER been a priority. Two random singles stars perpetually get put together because that’s all WWE seems willing to focus on. Even that’s asking too much most of the time.
Clearly, WWE had nothing else in mind for Sasha Banks and Naomi, so they put them in a tag team. “There. Fight for the tag belts. Good enough.” The same goes for Morgan and Ripley. What’s the easiest way to say you’re justified in challenging for the titles? Beat the champions. It’s the laziest, simplest way WWE cuts to the chase and it happens multiple times a month across the brands for all titles.
But while there are already six women involved in this match, a good number are still left with nothing to do.
Who are the Leftovers?
As it stands, the following women have nothing announced for WrestleMania:
- Alexa Bliss
- Aliyah
- Dana Brooke
- Doudrop
- Natalya
- Nikki A.S.H.
- Shayna Baszler
- Shotzi
- Sonya Deville
- Tamina
- Xia Li
Technically speaking, you can also throw Asuka, Bayley and Lacey Evans in there, as they’re on the main roster. However, all three are on the inactive list, so their absences are understandable. We don’t know if they would be back in time to compete in the first place.
I think 11 women is okay for a battle royal, don’t you? Even if it is 10 without Sonya Deville, if you add any of the potential returns, some possible legends (Lita? Melina? Kelly Kelly? Michelle McCool?) and some women from NXT (Cora Jade? Raquel Gonzalez? Io Shirai? Kay Lee Ray?) you can have yourself more than enough for a quick match. The previous ones were 10 minutes a piece, so if you eliminate one person every minute, you’re good to go.
Why It Might Not Happen
While there have been battle royals at WrestleMania, there have only been two “WrestleMania Women’s Battle Royal” matches. Naomi won at 34 and Carmella won at 35. Things were crazy at WrestleMania 36, so neither this, nor the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal took place.
Last year, the Andre was moved to SmackDown and there was no women’s battle royal. Instead, multiple tag teams were thrown together on WrestleMania Saturday to act as this functionality.
If it isn’t on WWE’s mind, it’s often forgotten about. Since WWE is heavily booking this year’s WrestleMania as “good enough” just for existing and having some big names on the marquee at all (ie, Logan Paul’s here. Who cares if he’s up against The Mysterios? He’s a known celebrity. Shut up and cheer, or you’re a bad fan.) I have zero faith anyone is saying backstage that they need to make sure someone like Doudrop or Nikki A.S.H. has a spot on the card.
Shayna hasn’t been seen much in weeks. Shotzi has some injuries. Brooke and Tamina are saddled with a storyline about random love interests and the 24/7 title. These women aren’t prioritized right now. Not even Alexa Bliss has any established feud.
The only one with something halfway decent is Natalya, who is feuding with Xia Li by proxy of Aliyah. However, I’m more thinking WWE would do Nattie against Li as a relatively throwaway kickoff match than to put them in a battle royal.
On top of this, the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal hasn’t been announced. All signs point to Omos likely being the person to initiate that, but the clock is ticking. That may not happen at all, or it could be put on Raw or SmackDown again.
There won’t be a dedicated women’s battle royal if there isn’t an ATGMBR. If there at least is that, there’s a chance the opposite night (at this point, WrestleMania Sunday, it seems) would include a spot for all these women, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Unless several more random pairings just pop up and get added to the tag team title match, I think we all need to be prepared to see these 11 women off the card this year, eating up time on the television week and being told that’s “just as good” as competing at AT&T Stadium.
If It Does Happen, Who Should Win?
Theoretically, let’s say WWE decides to do this match with these women. Who should be the winner?
From my perspective, the best case scenario would actually be to bring up Raquel Gonzalez and have her win. She can establish her dominance through this match and it would give her a boost in momentum. However, if we’re limited to just those 11 women, my vote would go to Xia Li last eliminating Doudrop. I’d like to see a legitimate push for Li and it always makes sense for the biggest person in this type of match to last long, so while Natalya would make sense and it would be nice to see Baszler regain some mojo, my vote goes for Li.
What do you hope these women will do for WrestleMania 38? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!
