10 Things That Absolutely SUCK About Wrestling Today
8. The Absolute State Of Women's Wrestling In The United States Mainstream
Enough is enough. The state of women's wrestling in the US mainstream is a joke.
AEW continues to promote just one women's match per TV show. The way in which the women have been marginalised has been a disgrace for a long time, and almost four years in, the old excuses - many of the women are green, the pandemic ruined the original plans to showcase joshi talent - can no longer be justified. Tony Khan has assembled a strong core roster of experienced talent, and yet the roster continues to be an afterthought. His telling a storyline involving more than two of them isn't progress; it's the bare minimum, and AEW is playing to the gallery with the Outcasts' "each and every one of you" promos. The division is awesome at its peak - Jamie Hayter Vs. Hikaru Shida, Riho Vs. Emi Sakura - which makes everything else seem worse. There is an opportunity that Khan is missing.
Khan can't book women's wrestling, It is as clear as day at this point. One US-based booker - outside of Triple H eight long years ago - has proven themselves capable of this. Khan should hire SHIMMER co-founder Allison Danger and, for starters, allocate her 35-40 minutes of Dynamite after allowing her a month to draft a plan. It would solve the issue of the women's division in and of itself and lessen his increasingly stacked workload.
WWE is only better on the level of representation. Certainly, at time of writing, the action peaks lower.
Triple H is diminished the star auras of Becky Lynch, Bianca Belair and Ronda Rousey and seems incompetent in general at presenting any women's wrestler as a star. The action is regulation imposed first gear sh*t on television, and the storylines reek. Nothing is plotted with any loving attention: it's just turn-taking brawls and the same plot points volleyed across an invisible wall over and over again. Damage CTRL in particular is promotional malpractice of a very tedious stripe.