7 Promises AEW Have Made Since Launching (But Haven't Kept)
5. The Joshis = WCW's Cruiserweights
AEW fans were led to believe that the company's women's division would be handled like the old WCW cruiserweight scene, specifically with regards to the incoming joshi wrestlers and how they'd interact with the other performers on the roster. This promise was most notably made by Tony Khan on Wade Keller's Pro Wrestling podcast prior to Dynamite's debut.
What did he mean by this? One would assume an awesome, all-action division, a unique selling point, and a surefire source of great in-ring action every single week, with the appeal of catching overseas performers American audiences wouldn't be able to see without doing some serious digging.
Things haven't panned out that way. Riho is champion and Hikaru Shida is a full-time roster member, but the joshis haven't been particularly well-utilised elsewhere. Emi Sakura was an underwhelming title challenger, Yuka Sakazaki vanished after capturing the eye last summer, while Aja Kong, Ryo Mizunami, and Shoko Nakajima have worked just a single match each. That's far from the talent share we were led to expect in 2019 and nowhere close to WCW's old cruiserweights.
Perhaps AEW has found working with these wrestlers (who have existing commitments across the Pacific) trickier than they anticipated, but their utilisation has underwhelmed so far. Here's hoping we see more from these talented Japanese grapplers in 2020 (Sakazaki is back this very week!).