The Disturbing Truth Behind The AEW Women's Division

Yuka Sakazaki
AEW

The problem with AEW's women's division does not begin and end with AEW, which informs a significant part of the problem. A woman born in 2015 is the grand old age of seven, and that was the year WWE finally decided that it would make for good PR, if they stopped booking women almost exclusively as airheads susceptible to a roll-up within two minutes. At best, they were allocated six or seven minutes on pay-per-view. There were so few incentives for aspiring women's wrestlers to actually enter the monopolised business that the business is lucky to have so much great female talent.

"Yes yes you have sweet little dreams of headlining WrestleMania, but have you considered getting breast implants and having John Cena call you a slag?"

AEW's women's division started brightly, as Kenny Omega realised his vision to present a range of joshi action comparable to the holy-f*ck-what-is-that buzz generated by the WCW cruiserweight division. The trios match at Double Or Nothing 2019 was a killer blend of charm, spirit and brutality, and Riho's struggle with and euphoric victory over Nyla Rose was arguably the highlight of Dynamite's smash-hit premiere. Even then, the one-random-tag-match-per-show booking and the bizarre insistence on not retelling Riho and Emi Sakura's incredible real-life story were early moments of concern. Building the division around the Nightmare Collective as the champion made only sporadic appearances was a total disaster salvaged by the decision to go with Nyla Rose in the top spot.

The pandemic brought what barely qualified as momentum to a halt.

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Contributor
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 surefire Undisputed WWE Universal 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!