5 Ups & 4 Downs From AEW Dynamite (January 24 - Results & Review)

3. Another Night In The AEW Women's Division

Thunder Rosa Vs. Red Velvet was developing quite nicely, despite being placed in that dead zone between the top of the hour and the live Sting interview segment. There was a ferocity to the chop exchanges, the body language and intent putting over the most familiar exchange in wrestling. It felt like they were properly scrapping in there. It's a shame that the match threatened to fall apart completely by the finish.

The thread was lost during a series of counters with very awkward, spell-breaking timing, but even before that, the crowd simply didn't react to a thing they were trying to do in there. Bleak, again, was the operative word: this was a match that existed, and this got boring to write roughly four years ago, to put a women's match on the show. AEW - wary of the optics, incredibly - feels like they have to. It's the done thing, isn't it, having women wrestle These Days.

Red Velvet might not receive these shrugging reactions if, for example, AEW actually did something with her that wasn't having her wrestle once every now and then.

AEW should have partnered with a women's promotion years ago, to assist in this sort of talent development exercise, but they somehow managed to work with AAA and CMLL (!) before doing that.

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Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!