Wrestling Wednesday: More Female Headliners, Commentators, Please

I finally had an opportunity to rewatch the first ever all-female AEW Dynamite main event between Thunder Rosa and Dr. Britt Baker, DMD, in an unsanctioned “Lights Out” match held two weeks ago today. While I haven’t seen many wrestling matches, I think this one is my favorite match ever. The Internet seems to agree, and it wasn’t even a pay-per-view.

#AEWExclusive footage from the historic St. Patrick's Day Slam edition of #AEWDynamite following #MOTY Contender @RealBrittBaker vs @thunderrosa22 in a first ever for Dynamite, Unsanctioned Lights Out Match!

Watch #AEWDynamite every Wednesday at 8/7c on @TNTdrama pic.twitter.com/k3AG8MNP6N

— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) March 18, 2021

This match had everything: broken tables, ladders, and chairs…and blood, lots of blood. A crutch was used as a weapon multiple times. Thunder Rosa was suplexed off the top rope onto a pile of metal chairs. Later she executed a Death Valley Driver, sending Dr. Britt Baker off the top rope and onto a ladder, supporting all of Baker’s weight on one leg at one point. There came a time when Dr. Britt Baker had so many thumb tacks in her back it looked like she was wearing a bedazzled shirt. Speaking of shirts, a shot of her smiling maniacally into the camera with her entire face covered in blood became a bestselling t-shirt overnight.

Throughout the week, it seems I’ve been watching more women’s sports than men’s. That’s not especially unexpected given what Minnesota sports have to offer. Women’s sports are the only thing we do well out here, although the Wild are coming around. I preferred the performances in the women’s NCAA basketball tournament to the men’s NCAA tournament this week. The quality of basketball the women played was simply better, and the games were closer.

I also preferred watching the NWHL Isobel Cup over the NCAA Frozen Four men’s hockey tournament, although the woman doing play-by-play commentary for ESPN’s Frozen Four coverage is fantastic. I believe her name is Leah Hextall, and she’s the first woman to call a Division I men’s hockey tournament game. Well if there are others as good as her, we need more women in the booth for hockey games.

The women doing NBCSN’s coverage of the NWHL Isobel Cup Final were far from fantastic, but speed-skating hockey player Allie Thunstrom was two-for-five on breakaway chances in the Minnesota Whitecaps’ win in the semifinal against the Connecticut Whale. When I interviewed the Whitecaps about playing professional hockey while holding down day jobs, many players told me Thunstrom was the fastest skater on the team. This wasn’t long after teammate Kendall Coyne Schofield impressed NHL players in the All-Star Skills Challenge for fastest skater.

The business of sports needs more women in it. As a former sports editor for multiple newspapers, I am especially aware of the lacking coverage of girls’ and women’s sports relative to their male counterparts. Football tends to be front-page material, and when it comes to basketball, the boys tend to get the first side of the page, and the girls get the backside. I just put the better performers up front, but not all sports journalists are quite so woke. There’s a severe lack of female sports journalists, especially in rural America, which is most of America. That’s why men are surprised or turned off by a woman calling a men’s hockey game or men’s pro wrestling match. They never thought of a world where women could cover a men’s sport as well or better than a man. Well, they can.

Leah Hextall’s play-by-play commentary of the NCAA men’s Division I hockey tournament was some of the best play-by-play I’ve heard. She was carrying the guy with whom she was working. I think I like her as much as I did Doc Emrick, and I think I’d like more professional wrestling commentary from women. I imagine Leyla Hirsch’s background in amateur wrestling would make her a great guest commentator, although I’ve hardly heard her speak. Leva Bates was a guest commentator on AEW Dark yesterday, and while she was funny, she didn’t offer much in terms of actual wrestling insight. However, I do agree with her that what Madi Wrenkowski was wearing was indeed ridiculous.

Given the rave reviews for AEW Dynamite’s first all-female main event, we obviously need more females headlining and on commentary. We need to change the way women are commented upon as wrestlers and athletes rather than beautiful bodies to objectify. The best way to start is to get more female guest commentators in the boys’ club booth to check the men’s commentary and provide insights on more than just the wardrobes of wrestlers.