One of the many intriguing fronts in the Wednesday Night War is women’s wrestling.
All Elite trumpeted it as a cornerstone of their promotion from launch, but has taken a lot of criticism for not giving much focus to women on their events or on the weekly Dynamite show. Even when matches deliver, they feature characters the audience hasn’t had much of a chance to get to know or form attachments to.
NXT, on the other hand, moved to live television amidst complaints that Shayna Baszler’s long runs as champion had stagnated their women’s scene. The person at the top hasn’t changed, but the increase in weekly airtime (and the need to build to the first ever women’s WarGames match) allowed Triple H & company to give more of the spotlight to their deep line-up of female talent. The dominant performance by the black-and-gold brand’s women at Survivor Series was just the capstone to an amazing couple months.
Which brings us to Weds., Dec. 4. Coming off two straight weeks where NXT outdrew Dynamite in total viewership, the rivals are promoting matches featuring the top challengers for their Women’s championships - performers the companies clearly hope will be big stars in the months and years to come.
Last night, AEW announced that tensions which flaired up last Wednesday between tag partners Hikaru Shida & Kris Statlander led to a match between the #1 ranked challenger for Riho’s title & the Galaxy’s Greatest Alien:
Just signed for THIS WEEK’s #AEWDynamite at the @StateFarmCenter in Champaign@shidahikaru vs @callmekrisstat
— All Elite Wrestling (@AEWrestling) December 2, 2019
Get your tickets now at https://t.co/UN1cNj1kQq and join us THIS Wednesday, December 4th or watch LIVE 8/7c on @tntdrama pic.twitter.com/Sx8tqLjpw8
That match joins Jon Moxley vs. Joey Janela, Trent? vs. Fenix, and Santana, Ortiz & Sammy Guevara against The Young Bucks & Dustin Rhodes on the card from Champaign, Illinois.
Meanwhile, just this afternoon, NXT announced that Rhea Ripley will wrestle one of the two people she confronted last Wednesday - the woman who betrayed her team at TakeOver: WarGames, Dakota Kai:
#TheNightmare @RheaRipley_WWE looks for payback against @DakotaKai_WWE TOMORROW NIGHT on #WWENXT!https://t.co/BV9cW2WCYU
— WWE NXT (@WWENXT) December 3, 2019
Ripley/Kai is the biggest match announced for tomorrow’s show on USA Network. Not that Killian Dain vs. Damian Priest won’t be a slobberknocker, but considering how Rhea’s been pushed... the women are a bigger deal.
See how AEW and NXT’s entire rosters handle a big night on Dec. 4, right here at Cageside Seats.