Can SummerSlam save WWE's dreadful handling of its women's division?

It feels a bit churlish to be raining on WWE’s parade just two days before its second-biggest show of the year. But honestly, the question needs to be asked: Just what on earth is going on with the women’s division right now?

Let’s recap what we’ve seen in the three months since WrestleMania. Over on “Raw,” we’ve had the mad situation of Liv Morgan managing to chalk up 102 days without a single title defense. That’s after Morgan picked up the gold in an abbreviated six-minute match at WrestleMania. Since then, she’s spent zero minutes defending that prize, even exceeding the record set by Jade Cargill last year.

Just like Cargill, Morgan wasn’t injured or unfit. In fact, she’s had four separate matches, three of them in the Queen of the Ring tournament; just none of them with her title on the line. When she wasn’t wrestling, she was still on television — usually by playing a supporting role in the comedy segments between the Judgment Day and Danhausen. At least you couldn’t say that with Cargill.

Now the champ heads into SummerSlam set to defend her title against Iyo Sky. On the face of it, that’s not a match anyone is going to complain about. But it also happens to be the exact match we had at WWE’s very last PLE, except then it was for Queen of the Ring and this time it’s for the Women’s World Title — which just about makes sense, if you take five minutes to explain the background.

<

Liv Morgan has yet to defend her WWE title since winning it in April at WrestleMania.

(Incidentally, this whole Morgan situation is one of the reasons why I’ve been quite skeptical over these persistent rumors that WWE is relying on AI to do some of its booking these days. If nothing else, I just can’t imagine ChatGPT coming out with something as confusing or illogical as having the champion and No. 1 contender in the same Queen of the Ring final. But I digress.)

Things haven’t been much better on “SmackDown,” where we’ve had the inexplicable introduction of an “interim” women’s title to get around the problem of Rhea Ripley being injured. Why not just take the belt off her like they’ve done in the past? Presumably, WWE wants to make sure its big star has a nice prop to hold when she makes appearances at Zuffa Boxing or elsewhere.

Ripley isn’t the only one out of action right now. This time last year, Stephanie Vaquer was being pushed to the moon. Now she’s been off television for three months. Becky Lynch hasn’t been seen in nearly two months, ducking questions about her disappearance on a podcast earlier this week. Jordynne Grace, once touted as a star signing from TNA, has been on an extended vacation.

Who knows, maybe things might get better. On the Uncrowned Wrestling Show, Jason Solomon floated the possibility that Sky winning the belt on Saturday would be the perfect layup to do Ripley vs. Sky at Crown Jewel — though that assumes Ripley will be fit for that to happen, and that Crown Jewel actually happens.

It doesn’t help that WWE has shown far more caution in pushing new women talents than it has on the men’s roster. The old “curse of the NXT call-up” hasn’t exactly gone away over on the women’s side of things.

Take Jacy Jayne, for example, who received one of the loudest reactions for a debuting star on “SmackDown” since god knows when. At one point, there were whispers of her going straight into a feud with Ripley. Instead, she’s stuck with the nostalgia acts of Paige and the Bella Twins. She didn’t even qualify for the interim title match this weekend.

It’s a similar story with Roxanne Perez, who was given the mother of all rookie pushes in last year’s Royal Rumble. Now she’s stuck playing third fiddle to Morgan in the Judgment Day, with the long-anticipated tensions in the group failing to materialize. Unless something big happens before SummerSlam, she’ll miss her fifth PLE in a row this weekend.

It’s ironic to think that only a year has passed since WWE revived Evolution, billed as a celebration of women’s wrestling. That show culminated in one of the best matches of 2025 — the Ripley vs. Sky showdown, capped off by Naomi’s shocking cash-in. Oh, how things have slowed down since then. Did you know that June was the third month this year where neither women’s world title was defended?

It’s doubly ironic when you think about some of the exceptional women’s wrestling that’s been happening in Tony Khan’s promotion. Not only did Mercedes Moné and Maya World get a standing ovation at AEW Forbidden Door last month, we’ve since had the crowd-pleasing spectacle of Willow Nightingale getting her flowers as AEW Women’s Champion.

Knowing Triple H’s ruthless competitive streak, perhaps that will be the impetus to finally get the creatives to pull their fingers out. Because right now, this women’s division feels weaker than it has for several years. That would be a problem at any time. But to have that situation just ahead of your second-most important show is an even bigger headache.