The Hits and Misses from WrestleMania 42's Women's Action

World Wrestling Entertainment's 42nd WrestleMania event is in the books, and it was quite the spectacle. For the seventh straight year, WrestleMania was a two-night event, and it was Vegas' Allegiant Stadium that hosted the event for the second straight year. We saw quite a bit take place: two massive and uproarious main events, John Cena returned to host the extravaganza, Danhausen made our sides split with laughter, and Oba Femi told the whole world that he had arrived.

Of course, my focus was where it usually is: the Women's Division. As a women's wrestling fan and enthusiast, I have to give my thoughts about everything involving the women of WWE at this event, so here goes:

I had read the story over the weekend, I pretty much knew why this would happen, yet when that familiar music hit, and Paige made her return, I was in tears. The last time Paige was at WrestleMania, you have to go all the way back to 2016, and she was part of a 10-woman match that promoted Total Divas. Paige's return was a bit of a TD reunion, but due to unfortunate reasons. The four-way Women's Tag Team Championship contest was set to feature the Bella Twins as one of three challenging teams, but Nikki Bella's ankle injury was too severe. She brought Paige out, revealing that she would be Brie Bella's replacement partner.

The emotion from me was for many reasons. Again, Paige and the Bellas were part of Total Divas--a show I enjoyed watching, and a show that I enjoyed on days that I needed some comfort. Also, I still remember Paige being part of WWE's Women's Revolution back in 2015, and seeing Paige and Charlotte Flair share an awesome moment brought back memories of when they were two-thirds of the "PCB" trio with Becky Lynch. The reasons are many, but it was awesome seeing Paige back, and regarding the match, Paige and Brie did win the tag titles, which I expected because I think the original plan was for the Bellas to win together.

Speaking of Becky Lynch, while Paige's return made me happy, this didn't. Many fans expected AJ Lee to retain the Women's Intercontinental Championship at the event, and we could have seen Becky get her hands on Jessika Carr at Backlash. Instead, Becky wins the title, and not cleanly. Here's the thing: the Women's Intercontinental Championship has been in WWE for barely over a year, yet Becky Lynch has now held the title three times. That is the complete antithesis of what that title is supposed to do.

You know why were rallied for the Women's United States and Intercontinental Championships? Because we wanted women who would be stuck in catering to get a chance at something. Those belts are for women like Lyra Valkyria, Ivy Nile, Maxxine Dupri, Zelina Vega, Chelsea Green, B-Fab, Michin, Kiana James, Giulia, you name it. They are not for Grand Slam Champions like Becky Lynch. I'll be blunt and honest; Becky shouldn't have had one reign as champion, let alone three. When she won the title from Lyra, I went, "OK, she doesn't need the title, but it's just one reign. She won't get another one." She got two more. Makes no sense.

Also at Night 1, Bianca Belair made a surprise appearance at WrestleMania and made quite a beautiful announcement: she's pregnant! When I saw Bianca appear, I figured it would be for one of two reasons: either she's close to returning, or she's pregnant, and it was the latter. This will be Bianca's first child with her husband, Montez Ford (one half of the Street Profits), and there's no word on how far along she is. Many, many congratulations to Montez and Bianca on their upcoming "baby EST"!

To the surprise of absolutely no one, Liv Morgan and Rhea Ripley won big at WrestleMania. Night 1 saw Liv defeat Stephanie Vaquer to capture the Women's World Championship in a move we all saw coming. Liv never lost that title; she had to relinquish the belt due to injury. Vaquer won the vacant title at Wrestlepalooza, and held it for seven months, a good and long run. Regarding Rhea, I was so happy that she won her title, because Jade Cargill's championship run absolutely sucked. However, there's a glaring issue I have to point out. Well, actually two glaring issues.

I did some math recently; I added up the lengths of each of the four women's matches that took place at the two-day event. The grand total: 33 minutes and 47 seconds. That's it. That's six seconds shorter than the overtime in Game Two between the Ottawa Senators and the Carolina Hurricanes, and it's nine seconds shorter than the overall main event between CM Punk and Roman Reigns. Even worse, the Women's World Championship contest was the shortest of the four matches, lasting less than seven minutes. This is a classic case of "one step forward, two steps back." On a two-night WrestleMania, the women barely crack over 30 minutes total? Seriously?

Another issue: remember that whole claim about WWE wanting "six women's matches at WrestleMania"? Yeah, that was a load of crap. Take the Women's United States Championship. A year and a half of existence, yet it's still to be featured at WrestleMania. How in the hell did Giulia not have a match on a two-night WrestleMania?! Another thing that was pointed out: last year, Tiffany Stratton and Iyo Sky were both top champions at WM. This year? No matches. Iyo did appear to help Rhea against Jade and her new baddies, but that's it. We were also supposed to get the awaited Asuka vs Kairi Sane blow-up, but get this: WWE actually considered putting them together to replace the Bellas. That would have made absolutely no sense at all.

The shot of Liv and Rhea is actually from Raw, the famous post-WM Raw where anything can happen. Prior to that encounter, Rhea and Iyo bested Asuka and Kairi Sane, and after that, we saw Sol Ruca make her anticipated main roster debut, and she got right in Liv's face and interrupted her celebration. This led to an impromptu match that Sol was possibly on the verge of winning, but as we all expected, Zaria crashed in and went after Sol. The two former friends will go at it on NXT Revenge in a Last Woman Standing Match, and that's going to be Sol's NXT swan song.

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So that's what took place for the women at WrestleMania and at post-WM Raw. Rhea's off to SmackDown due to the fact that she's holding their title, it looks like Sol will be officially on the Raw roster, and who knows when we'll finally get that Asuka/Kairi implosion. I'm also curious regarding what's next for Vaquer, it looks like she's getting a rematch against Liv. Part of me wants Vaquer to dethrone Becky, but agan, who knows what could happen. It's going to be quite interesting for WWE's Women's Division now that WrestleMania is in the books!