AEW’s Women’s Division has the potential to be the best in the world, so why isn’t it hitting the heights of what was promised? At the moment, both WWE and Impact Wrestling have much better Women’s Divisions in terms of match quality and just being on TV. Last weeks RAW (10/08/2020), had 4 women’s matches alone. The current SmackDown feud between Bray Wyatt and Braun Strowman has put Alexa Bliss in the miss, and NXT continues to build their feuds with the Robert Stone brand. Impact Wrestling also continued with their Wrestle House storyline, which had 2 women’s matches developing story and intriguing match up’s.
AEW has had a great year and is trying to find its feet within the more established brands of the world. Whilst they are building the main event scene and doing a great job of it, there are other things the company needs to work on. One of the main things people wanted from AEW was a strong and intriguing Women’s Division, and at the moment they don’t have that. AEW has a stacked women’s roster with the likes of Nyla Rose, Hikaru Shida, Big Swole, the fantastic Britt Baker, Penelope Ford and many more. But on last week’s AEW Dynamite (12/08/2020), they only had 1 women’s match which consisted of the current champion Hikaru Shida in a 5-minute squash match.
Britt Baker has been the most intriguing part of the division so far, and whilst the pandemic has had a massive impact on the talent, AEW needs to realise it’s women’s division needs more focus. A lot of AEW’s women’s division appears to live in areas of Canada and other parts of the country which travel is currently hard to achieve. This doesn’t explain the talent that surrounds the ring every Wednesday night with no story to follow. One of the reasons the fans aren’t taking to the division appears to be Brandi Rhodes.
Brandi Rhodes has an up and down relationship with the fans. From feuds which don’t really make sense, to being part of multiple storylines with no clear direction. At the start of AEW, Brandi was pushing as a heel however she’d come down as a face with Cody. Now she’s a manager of the Nightmare Collective but again, this doesn’t seem to be sticking. Brandi has now left Twitter due to some of the unwarranted abuse she’s received. Whilst her character is not hitting with the fans, this is not a reason to attack anyone personally.
Another thing we need to focus on is the Women’s Championship. This needs updating as soon as possible. The title is small with no personality behind it. The title is meant to be the target, to hold that and have everyone look at it in awe; this isn’t the case, unfortunately. It is more of an accessory than a goal at the moment. It needs updating to something more defined, and hopefully, AEW management is looking into this.
So what can AEW do to make things better? They need to do what WWE did when the Diva’s Division was coming to an end.
- Establish personal feuds: Whilst Britt Baker was looking to start this with her feud with Big Swole, it has lost its fire recently due to no consistency. We need a reason to watch and whilst it is good to see unknown champions, a lot of people don’t know about Hikaru Shida’s background. AEW need to use this to get people to watch.
- Create factions that matter: A good start to this is bringing in Vickie Guerrero to join with Nyla Rose, however, why not develop this further. Bring in more talent and make it a faction to dominate the division.
- Women’s Tag Titles: AEW missed a trick not having Women’s Tag Titles the moment the brand was created. The Elite stated they wanted nothing but focus on the women, however, it appears they’ve missed this due to the main event being the focus and the pandemic.
- Change the Women’s Championship: As stated above, the women’s title does not scream prestige for me. It appears to be an accessory rather than the goal. This needs changing.
- Decent Scripted Matches: The matches at the moment appear random with no reason to have them one way or another. There is no pre-story build or even after the match is over. The division feels more like a filler or to tick a box than the focus it should be.
The women’s division in AEW has the potential to be the best in the world. Whilst the ratings of all wrestling appear to be dropping, there is no attempt for change. The women could be the reason for the change. There is such a loyal fanbase in the wrestling world which is desperate for the women to show what they’re capable of. I firmly believed that AEW would become the company to put a light on the talent in the world, however, it appears that WWE is currently streets ahead.
Whilst this pandemic continues around the world, each company needs to look at new ways of entertaining in a crowd-less world. With things starting to slowly improve and a vaccine on the cusp of creation, AEW should be looking at the women in their roster to pull focus back onto the company. I hope Tony Khan and the Elite are thinking this, as it is a truly missed opportunity.
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