Sasha Banks is the only horsewoman booked at WrestleMania 37

Earlier today, WWE went a long way towards rounding out the WrestleMania weekend lineup when they announced two matches for the special Apr. 9 “WrestleMania” edition of SmackDown on FOX. By adding the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal and a fatal four way tag team match to that night, WWE found a way to use 30 wrestlers who were previously not booked for that weekend.

So who exactly is still left out of the plans for WrestleMania? The women’s division is squarely in the spotlight; there are only two women’s matches booked for the event as of this writing. Those are both singles matches, which means only four women wrestlers (and Alexa Bliss) are currently booked for WrestleMania weekend.

Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch, Sasha Banks, and Bayley have dominated WWE as the four horsewomen for the last 5+ years, but Banks is the only horsewoman booked for the WrestleMania card right now. This was hard to see coming one year ago at this time.

Becky Lynch has missed the last year due to pregnancy and motherhood. Charlotte Flair’s story is all over the place; her absence from WrestleMania comes at the same time as Andrade’s release from the promotion, as well as her COVID diagnosis. And Bayley is...well, I don’t know what to tell you about Bayley. Her current absence from the card is a reflection of how hard it is for women to get booked on WWE pay-per-view events when they are not in a championship storyline. Bayley hasn’t even wrestled since February.

Lynch was never going to be available for this card, and it appears increasingly unlikely that Flair will be booked. That leaves Bayley as the biggest superstar who WWE currently has no plans for at WrestleMania. It’s not obvious that she will be a part of the rumored Women’s tag team title plans that will apparently play out on both night one (Apr. 10) and night two (Apr. 11). The most likely scenarios right now appear to be that Bayley will either team up with Carmella for those tag title plans, or Bayley will host her talk show and get beat up by a returning star. Maybe Lynch will show up and kick her ass.

It sounds like many of the remaining women wrestlers will compete in a multi-team match on night one for a chance to challenge Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler for the tag titles on night two. Some of these teams fighting on night one in this scenario could include Natalya & Tamina, Dana Brooke & Mandy Rose, Naomi & Lana, and The Riott Squad.

What about the men’s side? If we are generous enough to count the Apr. 9 SmackDown as part of WrestleMania, then Jeff Hardy stands out as a former big star who is not currently booked for that weekend. After him there’s R-Truth, but I’d bet we see a 24/7 title change or three throughout the weekend. Keith Lee is really the only other person missing from the card. His situation has largely been a mystery since January, and at this point there’s no reason to expect that he will be there. Oh there’s also Aleister Black, Bo Dallas, and Mojo Rawley, but WWE forgot about those guys a long time ago.

What this means is that the WrestleMania 37 card is basically wrapped up once WWE makes the Women’s tag title plans official. It looks like we’ll get seven matches per night (assuming a women’s tag match is added to each night). As of now, the main wrestlers missing from the card are Jeff Hardy and whichever women are left out of the tag title scene (possibly including Bayley, Nikki Cross, Carmella, Peyton Royce, Billie Kay, Mickie James, and RECKONING).

What do you think WWE will come up with for Bayley, Jeff Hardy, and anyone else who is not currently booked for WrestleMania weekend?