10 Growing Pains AEW Is Already Having

7. Wrestlers In Spots They're Not Ready For

Allie Brandi Rhodes
AEW

Nobody can sit in their La-Z-Boy and claim with any accuracy that Brandi Rhodes is a slouch. She's worked hard on her body, comes across as intelligent and is a credit to AEW behind the scenes. The cold, hard fact is this though: she's not one of the top female wrestlers around, and she can't hang for 11 minutes with someone like Allie.

On Saturday in Jacksonville, Allie carried things so well she could've been forgiven for having a back massage after the match. This poses a problem, one that needs fixed. Putting wrestlers in there to run before they can walk is not going to work, and that's true even if AEW's crowds are more forgiving and positive than WWE's audiences.

Brandi, talented though she is, isn't ready to become AEW's top female heel in-ring. She's good on the mic and has presence, but the hesitations in her ring work were obvious against Allie. At times, things threatened to reach 'Diva' match levels of scripting, and no-one wants that.

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Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.