Take one look at WWE’s women division. Take a look at established stars like Becky Lynch, IYO SKY, and Rhea Ripley. Take a look at rising stars like Tiffany Stratton, Stephanie Vaquer, and Blake Monroe. Take one look at how strong WWE’s division is now, in the big ’25. Now, keep that image in your brain, and look back to WWE’s women’s division in 2022. It is insane how much of a difference three years can make.

Clash at the Castle 2022 had some incredible moments, from Roman Reigns’ show-down with hometown hero Drew McIntyre to Dominik Mysterio’s heel turn against Edge and Rey Mysterio, or the debut of Solo Sikoa. GUNTHER and Sheamus also made their mark with a technical masterclass. However, despite having some of the best wrestlers — male or female — in their division, WWE’s women failed to make as big of an impact at Clash 2022.

Now, I’m not saying that these matches were bad. Bianca Belair, Alexa Bliss, and Asuka’s match against the forces of Damage CTRL’s Bayley, SKY, and Dakota Kai was fun to watch (although any match with performers like Belair, Bayley, Asuka, and SKY is guaranteed to be a good match). Liv Morgan’s match against Shayna Baszler was an experiment: an attempt to get the scrappy underdog Morgan over by putting her against an opponent known for her ruthless in-ring mastery. However, when you compare these matches to the rest of the card, they quickly blend into the background. To be honest, I forgot that Morgan and Baszler even competed for Morgan’s “WWE SmackDown” Women’s Championship.

Unfortunately, WWE’s women occupied the lower end of Clash at the Castle 2022’s quality spectrum, and not for any fault of their own. Despite the quantity of storyline heading into the match — Belair’s feud with Bayley features some of both women’s best work, and Morgan’s match-up with Ronda Rousey associate Baszler made sense — it just failed to have the gripping quality the rest of the card had. There wasn’t enough meat on the bones of these matches for us to sink our teeth into. Belair’s team-up with Bliss and Asuka was cute, but there was nothing really there to up the stakes; it was simply a number’s game, at the end of the day. It was simply a vehicle to get more Belair and Bayley content, and what would have been a better singles match was clouded by the extra moving parts of Bliss, Asuka, SKY, and Kai. It wasn’t bad, it just could have been distilled further. Morgan’s feud with Baszler was half-baked at best, and it was clear it was just to tide her over until she could face Rousey again. The matches themselves weren’t bad, but again, there was just no stakes with them: nothing to make me care about the match other than seeing my faves win.

Did these shallow women’s matches suck in the moment? Yeah. However, looking on it retrospectively, we can appreciate just how far this women’s division has come.

Written by Angeline Phu