Wins and losses truly don’t matter in the Raw women’s division

A couple weeks ago, after WWE announced the first ever women’s Elimination Chamber match, I made mention of the issue it exposed with the current roster. The long and short of it is there simply aren’t enough women to make the actual wrestling they do truly meaningful. Five women are getting a shot at the championship not because they earned it but because there aren’t any other options.

Here, then, we can expand on that by better illustrating the point.

Following this week’s episode of Monday Night Raw, here are the 2018 TV and PPV win/loss records of the five women challenging Alexa Bliss for her Raw women’s title at Elimination Chamber on Feb. 25, 2018, in Paradise, Nevada (stats via Cagematch.net):

• Bayley - 4-2 (includes win on Main Event)
• Sasha Banks - 2-4 (does not include win on Mixed Match Challenge)
• Sonya Deville - 2-5 (includes loss on Main Event)
• Mandy Rose - 1-3 (does not include loss on Mixed Match Challenge)
• Mickie James - 2-3 (includes loss on Main Event)

That just doesn’t feel right, and would seem to defeat the central purpose of having matches at all. Then it’s just spectacle, in which case, why even have a title?

Then again:

• Alexa Bliss - 0-2 (does not include win on Mixed Match Challenge)

The champion is the only wrestler who doesn’t have a television victory so far this year.

This is especially noteworthy because they are simultaneously pushing Asuka on the basis of her undefeated record. Even ignoring the fact that she’s not actually undefeated, they’re sending mixed messages here. How valuable is it that she has yet to lose — she is 6-0 on TV so far this year, not including Mixed Match Challenge, but she won there too — if all the wrestlers she is beating are getting a shot at the title anyway and the actual champion has yet to win a match?

This will continue to be a problem until WWE expands its women’s division to include enough wrestlers to book them appropriately. Wins and losses don’t matter right now because they can’t matter with the current limitations. It’s great that WWE is “making history” with the first ever women’s Elimination Chamber match, but wouldn’t it be a whole lot better if it was booked in such a way that it actually made sense for the women to be in it in the first place?