Women’s wrestling has certainly raised the bar in the year of 2021.
It’s also had its share of highs and lows this year, so let’s take a look back at some of this year’s highlights from the world of women’s wrestling.
On the latest edition of Women’s Wrestling Focus, Ella Jay runs down the the year in Women’s Wrestling, including WWE, AEW, Impact, ROH, NWA and independents.
WWE
WWE began the year with their 2021 Royal Rumble, where Bianca Belair stood tall, eliminating Rhea Ripley to claim the victory. Belair would embark on a three month journey, before meeting Sasha Banks in the night one main event of WrestleMania. Competing in arguably match of the year, Banks and Belair delivered an emotional and high action bout. Belair prevailed to become the new Smackdown Women’s Champion.
In the absence of Sasha Banks following WrestleMania, Bianca Belair would pursue feuds with Bayley and Carmella. She would achieve a series of successful title defenses before Banks’ eventual return ahead of SummerSlam. The two were set to collide at the summer’s biggest event, but Banks was left unable to compete. So Belair was met with a new opponent, in the form of a returning Becky Lynch. “The Man” would stun the audience in a twenty six second victory over Belair, winning the Smackdown Women’s Championship.
In the weeks following, Lynch and Belair would trade blows and intense words, before the return of Sasha Banks. The WWE Draft would seperate this trio of superstars, but before the selections were officially put into place, they would meet at WWE Crown Jewel. All three competitors would display strong resilience, but Becky Lynch emerged victorious, and retained her Smackdown Women’s Championship.
Sasha Banks would stay on Smackdown, while Belair and Lynch would travel to the red brand on RAW. Becky Lynch would be forced to trade women’s championships with the reigning RAW Women’s Champion, Charlotte Flair. Therefore, Lynch became the RAW Women’s Champion, while Flair would become Smackdown Women’s Champion, as Flair was now assigned to Smackdown following the draft.
Let’s back up a bit here though.
Following her impressive performance in the Royal Rumble, Rhea Ripley disappeared from WWE programming. Resurfacing on Monday Night RAW, she challenged RAW Women’s Champion, Asuka, to a title match at night two of WrestleMania. Ripley would emerge victorious, defeating Asuka to become the new RAW Women’s Champion before entering a feud with Charlotte Flair.
Flair and Ripley would go back and forth for months, before meeting at Money In The Bank in July. Flair would outlast her competition, forcing Ripley to tap out, becoming the new RAW Women’s Champion. The same night, Nikki A.S.H. outlasted seven other competitors to win the Women’s Money in the Bank ladder match, earning herself a future title opportunity.
A.S.H. wasted little time, cashing in on a stunned Flair the next evening on RAW to become RAW Women’s Champion for the first time in her career. A.S.H. found herself in the middle of three way feud with herself, Flair and Ripley, as each competitor collided the next month in a triple threat match at SummerSlam. Charlotte Flair would regain the RAW Women’s Championship, ending A.S.H’s reign. The next month, she defeated Alexa Bliss at Extreme Rules.
Nikki A.S.H. and Rhea Ripley would form a tag team shortly after, and captured the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships, before eventually following to Carmella and the 2021 Queen Crown winner, Zelina Vega. Vega defeated Doudrop (fka Piper Niven) in the finals of the inagural tournament to become the first ever Queen’s Crown in WWE.
Meanwhile, Charlotte Flair is drafted to Smackdown following the annual draft, and is forced to swap titles with Becky Lynch, as previously stated. The two former friends now turned foes met at Survivor Series in a grueling back and forth battle, in which Lynch utilized rope leverage to defeat Flair.
Also at Survivor Series, Team Raw outlasted Team Smackdown to earn the victory in the battle for brand supremacy. Bianca Belair found herself down 4-1, but overcame her competition to secure the win for the red brand. This win marked an impressive third win this year for Belair within WWE’s “big four” pay-per-views.
In the weeks following Survivor Series, Flair has been met with a new challenger: Toni Storm. Storm made her Smackdown debut earlier this year, and now founds herself in the hunt for the Smackdown Women’s Championship.
On RAW, Becky Lynch has pursued a program with crowd favorite, Liv Morgan. Morgan would fall short in her shot for the RAW Women’s Championship, but a rematch has been quickly lined up for WWE’s Day 1 show, coming up on January 1st.
NXT
NXT began the year with a huge announcement of the Women’s Dusty Rhodes Classic, where the winners would receive a championship opportunity against the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships. Raquel Gonzalez and Dakota Kai would go on to win the tournament, but fall short to Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler in their pursuit of tag team gold. Shortly after, however, NXT unveiled their NXT Women’s Tag Team Championship and awarded them to Kai and Gonzalez, winners of the Women’s Dusty Rhodes Classic. This reign would last merely one hour, as Kai and Gonzalez lost their titles on the same night to the team of Ember Moon and Shotzi Blackheart.
Raquel Gonzalez would assume a feud with Io Shirai, heading into NXT Takeover: Stand & Deliver, where she would defeat Shirai, ending her 300+ day reign. Gonzalez would go on to dominate the women’s division, picking up victories over Franky Monet, Xia Lee, and former friend, Dakota Kai. This reign would last six months, until Mandy Rose defeated Gonzalez with the aid of Dakota Kai, who wielded a shovel against Gonzalez at Halloween Havok.
Mandy Rose returned to NXT earlier this year, aligning herself with Gigi Dolin and Jacy Jayne to form the stable known as Toxic Attraction. This trio would dominate the NXT women’s division, winning not only the NXT Women’s Championship, but the NXT Women’s Tag Team Championships as well. Rose defeated Gonzalez for singles gold, while Dolin and Jayne dethroned Io Shirai and Zoey Stark at Halloween Havok to capture the tag team titles.
Most recently, Toxic Attraction teamed with Dakota Kai to take on Io Shirai, Raquel Gonzalez, Kay Lee Ray and Cora Jade at NXT WarGames. The two teams would collide in an all out brawl, before Jade secured the pin on Jacy Jayne. Cora Jade now aims her sight on NXT Women’s Champion, Mandy Rose, as we head into 2022.
AEW
All Elite Wrestling rang in the new year with Hikaru Shida at their Women’s World Champion before announcing and Eliminator Tournament, featuring eight superstars from Japan and eight competitors from the USA.
Nyla Rose would plow through the USA bracket, while Ryo Mizunami picked up victories in the Japan bracket to advance to the finals. On the March 3rd edition of Dynamite, Mizunami defeated Rose via pinfall to earn herself an AEW Women’s World Championship title opportunity against Shida.
Maki Itoh also marked as a notable standout from the AEW Women’s World Championship Eliminator Tournament with her high energy, charimsa, and exceptional singing ability. She teamed with Britt Baker at Revolution to defeat Riho and Thunder Rosa.
Following the tournament, AEW Women’s Champion Hikaru Shida would later retain against the winner of the tournament, Ryo Mizunami, before entering a feud with Dr. Britt Baker.
After being eliminated from the tournament, Britt Baker would engage in an epic Lights Out match against Thunder Rosa in the main event of the March 17th edition of Dynamite. Rosa would emerge victorious, after Baker dawned a bloody crimson mask.
Britt Baker would get her retribution a few months later at ADouble or Nothing pay-per-view in May, defeating Hikaru Shida for the AEW Women’s World Championship, to much applause.
From there, Baker dominated in her reign as champion, defeating the likes of Nyla Rose, Red Velvet, and Kris Statlander. However, she found herself with a new ally following her successful title defense against Velvet in August. Jamie Hayter was now All Elite, joining forces with Rebel and the DMD Britt Baker. Together, the three would form a seemingly unstoppable trio.
Baker would later compete in the main event of Grand Slam against a recently debuted, Ruby Soho. Soho made her shocking debut to All Elite Wrestling at All Out, in the women’s Casino Battle Royale as the joker. Soho reigned victorious after eliminating Thunder Rosa, earning herself that future title shot against reigning champion, Britt Baker.
Baker proved herself as the victor of the matchup, again successfully defending her championship. Baker would move on the face Tay Conti at Full Gear in November, further establishing her dominance as the women’s champion, and arguably a pillar of AEW. She heads into 2022 with Hayter and Rebel by her side, although some tension has been brewing amidst the trio.
Meanwhile, All Elite Wrestling also introduced another women’s title in the form of the TBS Championship. Ahead of their move from TNT to TBS early next year, AEW unveiled a second championship for their women’s division a few months ago. Amongst the tournament to crown the inaugural champion, included twelve competitors, with four of them earning first round byes.
At the time of this writing, AEW is down to the final four in the tournament. Crowd favorite Thunder Rosa itches to take on the dominant Jade Cargill in the semi-finals. Meanwhile, Ruby Soho must take on former AEW Women’s World Champion, Nyla Rose.
Thunder Rosa signed with All Elite Wrestling earlier this year after leaving the NWA, and brings a plethora of experience.
Jade Cargill has remained undefeated since entering AEW just over a year ago, notably feuding with Red Velvet this year.
Ruby Soho entered AEW with a hot start, winning the Casino Battle Royale, and looks to gain even more steam.
Nyla Rose aligned herself with Vickie Guerrero earlier this year, and hopes to be the first to hold both women’s championships in AEW.
The first ever TBS Champion will be crowned on the January 5th edition of AEW Dynamite.
IMPACT Wrestling
Deonna Purrazzo slayed her competition this year during her second run as the IMPACT Knockouts Champion. Starting the year defeating the likes of Taya Valkyrie, and ODB, Purrazzo gained confidence heading into her Career vs Title match against wrestling legend, Jazz. Consequently, Purrazzo would retire JAZZ from IMPACT Wrestling following her victory at Hardcore Justice.
In the months following, Purrazzo would steam roll her competition with victories over Tenille Dashwood, Thunder Rosa, Melina Perez, and more, before she finally met her match in the form of “Hardcore Country”, Mickie James.
James would reemerge into IMPACT Wrestling at Slammiversary, following Purrazzo’s win over Thunder Rosa. Mickie would extend an invitation for Purrazzo to be a part of NWA’s first ever all-women’s pay-per-view, Empowerrr, which Deonna initially declined. However, after some persuasion from James and IMPACT producer, Gail Kim, Deonna Purrazzo eventually accepted the offer and was set to face Melina Perez with the Knockouts Championship on the line.
After defeating Perez at Empowerrr, Purrazzo shocked the audience the following night at NWA 73 by attacking Mickie James, following her victory against Kylie Rae. From there, the two would make waves on IMPACT, notably engaging in a brutal barnyard brawl at James’ home in Nashville. Purrazzo and James would meet at IMPACT’s Bound For Glory event with the Knockouts Championship on the line. Mickie James would end Purrazzo’s impressive reign, becoming a four-time Knockouts Champion.
James then defeated Madison Rayne and Mercedes Martinez in the successful title defenses, before Purrazzo returned with vengeance. In a invoke of her rematch clause, Purrazzo is now slated to face James at Hard to Kill on January 8th.
Outside of the Knockouts Championship, IMPACT also re-introduced the Knockouts Tag Team Championships earlier this year. Kiera Hogan and Tasha Steelz were the first to capture them this year, before falling to Jordynne Grace and the debuting Rachael Ellering. Fire N Flava (Hogan & Steelz) would win the championships back a few weeks later, before engaging in competition against the team of Decay. Fire N Flava would lose the titles to Decay, resulting in an ultimate split of the duo. Steelz would introduce Savannah Evans, would ultimately took out Hogan from IMPACT programming, before signing with All Elite Wrestling.
Decay headed into Bound For Glory as the Knockouts Tag Team Champions, after previously succeeded in their title defense against Madison Rayne and Tenille Dashwood at Knockouts Knockdown.
Following the return of the all-Knockouts event, it was announced that The IInspiration (formerly the IIconics in WWE) would be joining IMPACT.
The IInspiration defeated Decay at Bound For Glory in October to claim the Knockouts Tag Team Championships before now pursuing programs with The Influence, Madison Rayne and Tenille Dashwood.
2021 also introduced the Digital Media Championship at Bound For Glory, won by Jordynne Grace. Grace now becomes the first ever Triple Crown Knockout in IMPACT Wrestling history.
IMPACT also saw the return of Taylor Wilde, and ended the year with the notable signings of Masha Slamovich and Lady Frost following their impressive performances at Knockouts Knockdown.
