WWE Raw Women’s division has become unwatchable
The RAW women’s division has become unwatchable is not a sentence I delight in typing. That doesn’t make it any less true.
For months, the RAW women’s division has steadily declined. I’ve been timing matches since late October and watched as the time they’ve been given has dwindled. Sure, there were longer matches here and there, but overall it’s been abysmal. We’ve definitely reverted to the #GiveDivasAChance era.
Monday Night Misogyny
Monday night’s episode was the bottom of the barrel. It seemed like it was starting off on a high note when Charlotte Flair came out to deliver a promo. On the April 12 episode of RAW, she had an excellent promo about missing out on WrestleMania (which was due to a WWE doctor saying she was pregnant when she wasn’t). It quickly went into the “all women are fake and secretly hate each other” trope.
Things got even worse when Asuka came to the ring and Charlotte started speaking slowly to her. “The Opportunity” began to say that she doesn’t even understand her when Asuka interrupted her to say something she could clearly understand: “Charlotte, I’ll beat you, b—h!” Blonde white woman talking at a Japanese woman instead of to her is a horrible look, especially when it was her former tag team partner. Not to mention, Flair’s real life fiancé is Mexican.
In the first women’s match of the night, it was interrupted by lame shenanigans. Tag team champions, Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler were facing Lana and Naomi. About 90 seconds into the match, Dana Brooke & Mandy Rose came out to the ramp to distract Nia. They showed clips of the champs repeatedly watching a clip of Mandy slipping on a wet ramp at WrestleMania. Next, they showed clips of Mandy slapping Nia. This led to Nia abandoning her partner, which subsequently led to the “Queen of Spades” getting pinned.
Keep in mind that Nia wouldn’t stop mocking Mandy’s fall last week that instead of attempting to win the match, they left. Literally left the ring.
You might ask how could this episode get worse. An inanimate doll (well, to Alexa she’s real) doesn’t like women either. Alexa explained that Lilly is her childhood friend and they dealt with bullies. Alexa blamed Lilly for pushing her bully of a swing. She referred to the women on RAW roster as “little girls” before warning them that “Lilly didn’t like him and she doesn’t like any of you.”
How the RAW Women’s division got here
Less match time means less time to tell stories. Less time to develop characters. Not that the stories that they tell are all that great. Before her real-life pregnancy, Lacey Evans was involved in a storyline that involved her in a relationship with Ric Flair. In fact, when she announced her pregnancy, it was implied that the septuagenarian might be the dad.
There was also 10 consecutive weeks of Lana being put through a table by Nia Jax. The “payoff” was at Survivor Series when Lana won because she was the last one standing…outside the ring on the steps because her teammates didn’t want her in the ring. Obviously, the stories are not great.
Asuka had a terrible title run through no fault of her own. She did exactly what she was asked. No matter how awfully they booked her, Asuka was one of the MVPs of the No Fans Era. She was highly entertaining and put on great matches. She barely defended her title and even less so when she & Flair won the Tag Team Championships. There were times where she would defend that title on pay-per-views, but not the RAW Women’s title. She was criminally misused her entire title reign.
Where does the RAW Women’s division go?
Monday night’s RAW dripped in misogyny from Flair’s words about catty women to the way she spoke down to Asuka to Bliss’s imaginary friend.
At the very least, WWE has to hire more diverse writers. Not should, but they must. Women writers must be added. Their voices are desperately needed. Writers of color, particularly women, also need to be hired. Not only hired, but allowed to contribute in a meaningful way. It is obvious that men are in control of the women’s division and it’s dated and out-of-touch.
The women need more time to tell their stories and develop their characters and personalities. They need meaningful stories too, not “is she sleeping with my dad?” and “all women hate me because they ain’t me.” Depicting a woman as “crazy” is not a character.
The women’s tag team division is a mess and needs serious work. I also would like to point out that SmackDown is not without its issues in the women’s division. Bayley helped carry the company in the No Fans Era as well, but is relegated to her talk show and wasn’t even in the plans for WrestleMania.
dark. Next. Io Shirai was a dominant force in the NXT Women's division
Monday Night RAW itself has been struggling for a very long time. Despite occasional bright spots, it’s regularly dismal. The most recent episode was called unwatchable by quite a few people on social media. The RAW women’s division is unwatchable as it’s currently being presented. WWE doesn’t get the benefit of the doubt and the opportunity to just “let it play out”. They’re long past that, so it’s time for real change.