Rumors on SummerSlam Plans for RAW Women's Championship

It looks like the streak of big WWE pay-per-views stacking women wrestlers into one big match will continue.

In the latest episode of Wrestling Observer Radio, WWE insider Dave Meltzer stated its likely that the RAW Women's Championship will be defended in a Fatal Four Way match at SummerSlam.

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Both the RAW and SmackDown Women's Championships were both featured as multi-person matches at WrestleMania 33. Again at least year's SummerSlam, there was a 6-Woman Tag Match. For WrestleMania 32, we got a Triple Threat match for the Women's Championship. And most recently, Shane McMahon announced on SmackDown that there would be a Fatal 5 Way to decide the number one contender for Naomi's Championship at Battleground. That makes for an undeniable trend.

Oddly enough, this affinity for jamming talent into one big match is also occurring more in the men's division. At this moment Summerslam is rumored to have another Fatal 4 Way, this time for the Universal Championship.

Why is WWE doing so many of these group matches? Meltzer has a thoughtful answer:

"Well, you know, that's what they're doing a lot of right now. The thing with multi-person matches is you can always gimmick the finishes so nobody has to lose and it's easier for the bookers when you do that and plus when you have multiple person matches, inherently you're not going to do strong personal story-lines, so you don't have to worry about writing good stories because you know, you can do a little heat where they're all mad at each other, but that's all you can do in a multiple person matches."

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So what gives? Is WWE intentionally burying the women's division by not giving them singles matches at big PPVs? That would be unfair to accuse them of having archaic, sexist intention. But the answer is this. Somehow, with 5 hours of live television, WWE still does not have time to develop one-on-one feuds for every wrestler. IT wasn't too long ago where women were getting matches that lasted 2 minutes. Now, they've closed RAW, had Hell in a Cell Match, and find themselves pushing their way into WWE's limelight.

Yes, it is a little frustrating that WWE's fix is to throw all the women into one match, but they've come too far to let a poorly developed PPV storyline slow them down. Hopefully, WWE's women are looking at their matches as opportunities, not unfair relegations.