The problem with the Raw women’s division

While WWE loves to preach about the evolution of women within the company, taking every bit of credit for leading the charge toward equality, there are still issues. It’s easy to hide those issues when they’re promoting a historic Royal Rumble main event match and debuting a former UFC star with (at least some) mainstream value, but there are issues nonetheless.

Case in point: While rushing to continue making history, Stephanie McMahon announced Alexa Bliss would defend the Raw women’s championship in the first ever women’s Elimination Chamber match. She did so while telling Asuka to wait on the winner to determine who she will challenge at WrestleMania 34, the right afforded to her for winning the Royal Rumble.

The issue with this? The size of the Raw women’s division.

Bliss will defend her title against five other wrestlers and because WWE doesn’t actually promote the women equal to the men, the roster is small enough that almost everyone currently on it will be in the match by default.

Here’s the current Raw women’s division:

• Alexa Bliss
• Alicia Fox
• Asuka
• Bayley
• Dana Brooke
• Mandy Rose
• Maryse
• Mickie James
• Nia Jax
• Paige
• Sasha Banks
• Sonya Deville

After taking out the injured and/or pregnant and/or waiting for the winner to decide who she’ll challenge at WrestleMania 34, here’s who is left:

• Alexa Bliss
• Bayley
• Dana Brooke
• Mandy Rose
• Mickie James
• Nia Jax
• Sasha Banks
• Sonya Deville

That’s 8 wrestlers to fill 6 slots, and only two of them were on Raw this week (one who lost their match, and one who was acting in a managerial capacity). Bliss is already in, of course, as she’ll be defending her title. The issue, then, is that WWE has no way of making any of the other five women actually earn entry into the match. That means whoever is chosen will simply be given a title shot after losing in the Royal Rumble match, where they were competing for a title shot.

Actual equality means signing more wrestlers to the roster and giving them more television time. On the men’s side, they have enough wrestlers to book qualifying matches for their Elimination Chamber match and the winner of that match will earn a title shot at WrestleMania. That’s how this should work.

It can’t, though, because WWE still has a long way to go booking its women.

Let’s hope the progress they’re making continues past the point that they can take obvious credit for “making history” and to the point that logic doesn’t have to be dismissed because they’re just not there yet.

Time will tell.