3 Women's title changes!? And a HUGE surprise return? There's a lot to cover here, so let's dive in.

Starting with the Fatal 4-Way for the Women's Tag Team Championships.

I actually gasped when I saw both Alexa and Charlotte's outfits. The Moth and Butterfly dichotomy was a beautiful visual, (and maybe hinted at future heel turn on the horizon for Lexi?).

Bayley and Lyra came out looking united with matching gear and matching energy, while entering to only Lyra's theme.

I've come to love these two as a duo. Even though they suffer loss after loss, they look happy doing what they do, and, since they're both being booked consistently, it seems like what they're doing is working well for them for the time being.

Next out is the champions, which surprised me since I expected them to enter last. I suspect the masks they wore are a reference to something I didn't get? Either way, these two had great chemistry.

Next came the Bellas, with Nikki sporting a boot and crutch. Now, here I thought they would announce a surprise replacement by the Kabuki Warriors, but what we got was crazy. Instead of Nikki’s injury forcing Brie to sit this Mania out, she announces a surprise old friend to take her place.

Paige’s music hits and I lose it. I’ll admit to being extremely disappointed that it’s looking like Iyo, Asuka and Kairi will all somehow not be at Mania this year, but in this moment, I was totally ecstatic. Looking absolutely fantastic in her flame gear, Paige comes out like she never left.

This was the moment that I should have known exactly how this match would end, but I’m a pretty short-sighted and forgetful person, ok?

On to the match itself. This one was high energy the entire time. There were a lot of instances where it was only two women in the ring facing each other at a time, but plenty of chaos to offset it. There was a good mix of all 8 women participating, with the exception of Paige, who we were rightly made to wait for.

I thought everyone looked fantastic in this match. No major botches, except for a missed kick from Charlotte to Lash, and I guess the camera man who fell down at one point. It felt like everyone was stepping up to make Brie look a bit better than she is, but male legends are propped up all the time regardless of their in-ring ability, so I’m happy to overlook it.

If I have one criticism, I thought Paige might’ve looked too dominant, but it’s a bit understandable for a return as major as hers. The way she handled Lash stood out as a misstep to me, just because of the size difference, and how dominantly Lash has been booked recently.

To finish the match, Paige hits Alexa with Rampaige after Lexi gets distracted by Nikki attacking Charlotte with her crutch on the outside. Paige pins Lexi for the win. Charlotte looked disappointed with Alexa, so maybe the story between the two of them will go somewhere in the coming weeks.

On to Becky Lynch versus AJ Lee for the Women’s Intercontinental Championship. Becky comes out in an outfit that’s pretty standard for her, but her entrance theme is a live performance by The Wonder Years, which felt like a great moment for her. She gets to the ring and quickly starts arguing with Referee, Jessica Carr. Whoever decided she would be officiating this match must be having a good laugh.

AJ enters next, accompanied by a bunch of adorable little girls dressed exactly like her, and they all skip to the ring to her entrance theme, which got a big ol smile and an ‘awwwww’ out of me, so that’s a thumbs up.

I was skeptical going into this match, mostly because I thought it was odd to be running back AJ versus Becky so soon after their last title match, without any added wrinkles. I thought this match could use a stipulation, a big surprise, or anything, really, to differentiate it from their last bout in Chicago.

Truth be told, I did find this one to be a much better watch. AJ seems to have stepped up her game a bit, in no small part thanks to Becky, who really pulled out all the stops here.

All of her moves felt hard-hitting from the get-go, and AJ taking them like a champ (no pun intended), made me genuinely feel hyped up rooting for her. A devastating fallaway slam into the barricade by Becky to AJ early on really set the tone for the rest of this matchup.

This also felt sensible to me from a story perspective, since AJ has been taking jabs at Becky, bringing up her daughter for weeks now, and Becky hasn’t done anything about it. I figured for all of their recent promos to feel like they mattered, we would really need to see some viciousness from Becky in this match, and I felt like she brought that.

Becky getting into it with Jessica had me thinking it would end with her getting disqualified. At one point, Becky actually shoves Jess, and Jess pushes her back (still holding out for a feud between these two. Only half joking). This added some much-needed drama, and really showed off how unhinged Becky’s become in recent weeks.

I also liked the conclusion of this match, with Becky pulling Jessica to use her as a shield against a splash in the corner from AJ. While Jessica recovers, Becky slams AJ’s face into a turnbuckle she exposed earlier on, and hits Manhandle Slam for the win.

I pointed out how Becky was harder-hitting in this match, and that did make AJ look like a star, but I also felt like AJ showed a lot of improvement. The match felt much faster and more refined than their face-off in Chicago, and AJ sold the hell out of every move she took, especially that Manhandle Slam for the finish. All in all, this one was really enjoyable, and Becky is back to defining the Intercontinental title, which honestly feels close to the prestige of the Women’s World Championship these days.

And speaking of, let’s get on to our Main Event. Liv Morgan versus Stephanie Vaquer for the Women’s World Championship!

First to enter is Liv, to her new theme song by…herself! I like the song, though I’m sad to see her old music go. The entrance is a small production that mirrors the music video that premiered on Raw this week. The sexy dancers tearing off her cover clothes to reveal her nude-tone ring gear was a very Liv Morgan touch.

I had to rewatch this match because of poor streaming quality during the live event, and I was surprised on the second go-through to see that she had done her makeup to accentuate the bruising on her forehead and eyes from the hard face-bump she took in the surprise attack from Stephanie backstage.

Next in is the Champ. I’m still not a fan of the new entrance music they gave Stephanie. It feels very anti-climactic. I honestly felt like I could barely hear it, and even right now I can’t call to mind what it sounds like. Just awful, especially since her old music was so much better.

Her presence is incredible as always, though. Her horns were huge and ornate, and she wore a beautiful long train. I think Steph has been especially misused since her callup, but she honestly seems too good to fail, in terms of her in-ring ability and incredible look and charisma.

She enters the ring looking like the queen of Hell, and the match starts off hot from the first ring of the bell.

This is the best Stephanie match we’ve had since she faced Iyo, and is by far her best title defense. I liked how she and Liv played off of each other, both bringing a lot of personality to the bout.

The Judgment Day predictably gets involved, with Roxanne distracting the ref while Raquel pulls Steph off the top rope to go face-first into the turnbuckle, stopping her from hitting Inferno. Steph kicks out of the Oblivion that follows, shocking Morgan.

The conclusion of this match felt a bit rushed to me. Stephanie hits a beautiful springboard crossbody to the outside, taking out the Judgment Day. Liv avoids it, throwing Steph into the steps, before rolling her into the ring and hitting Code Breaker from the second rope, followed by a second Oblivion for the win.

My only real problem with this match was the duration; bell to bell, it was a seven-minute bout. Compare to the men’s main event which lasted nearly 30 minutes from the start of the action. This is just more confirmation of how the WWE sees the Women’s division.

This is something that honestly has me wondering all the time why I keep watching. If five of the top women in WWE left for another company, I would probably stop watching. Their short matches and precious few segments that never last more than a couple of minutes are the reason why I’m a fan. Maybe that’s not the case for other viewers? I can’t speak for how other people watch wrestling.

I always say, when it comes to wrestling, I like everything. I never created this website to be another hyper-critical, un-pleaseable member of the IWC. I think Wrestlemania season, in particular is just a showcase of all of the WWE’s worst problems.

Focusing on what we got versus what we were deprived of, I was pleased with all of these women’s matches. Despite the lack of build, despite the continued lack of faith by the company in these ladies as performers, they continue to bring it. They continue to give it their all, for the love of the game, and for the betterment of the future of Women’s Wrestling. I think that as long as their passion is there, we can look forward to a better future.

And we can look forward to tomorrow (I suppose today, looking at when I’m typing this), for our one and only Women’s match of Wrestlemania Sunday! Rhea Ripley vs Jade Cargill for the WWE Women’s Championship! This build has been downright painful to watch, but if Mami’s on TV, I’m a happy woman. So good luck to both Challenger and Champ, and congratulations to the four new champions who walked out of Wrestlemania today!