8 Things AEW Need To Do To Reach The Next Level

5. Storylines For The Women

Carrying on directly from the previous entry, even the women’s action we have been given has generally been devoid of in depth stories.

Riho vs. Emi Sakura had the potential to be played up as this intriguing teacher vs. student dynamic, but the pair did not even get a single segment dedicated to their feud. Language issues may have been stood as a hindrance for any promo time, but that is something AEW should have foreseen and found ways of furthering the angle without the need for too much verbiage. The fact it got absolutely no development on TV, only served to undermine the division.

Aside from this, there’s been barely anything worth mentioning in terms of plots tying the women together. Britt Baker and Bea Priestley’s rivalry has been stop-start and only got one TV spot before being relegated to Dark until their match on the pay-per-view pre-show. Nyla Rose has had nothing to do despite the monster billing. The only storyline they appear committed to is Brandi Rhodes and Awesome Kong treating other people’s hair like Pokémon and embarking on a quest to catch 'em all.

If they want their women’s division to be on par with the WWE main roster, or NXT, or in fact Impact, which has an excellent knockouts division, AEW has to start telling more stories around these talented performers.