Since inception an overarching criticism of AEW has been the booking and organization surrounding its women’s division. With some exceptions in concession, it’s fair to say it’s lacked consistency, direction and/or structure at any given time.
While I don’t think this has been the case 100% of the time, and there have been some standout moments throughout the company’s history, the perception that is created from the lack of presentation or consideration on camera is what has always been perturbing as it’s not a reflection of the workers themselves and the work they have put in while training. Anyone who says AEW’s women’s division members across AEW proper and Ring of Honor are not working hard or are not valuable are being disingenuous.
That being said, Tony Khan and the decisionmakers within AEW are 100% due criticism for the slotting, management and direction that at least from an on-TV perspective have only begun to be felt consistently over the last year. In that we can look toward the old, canned “hey, it’s 9:30 p.m. go out there gals” approach throughout a good chunk of the company’s history. And if not during the increasingly meme-able timeslot, the division was put on earlier in the show and not seen again. It’s been disproportionate in terms of equity and I don’t think that’s debatable at least from the outside looking in.
Over time has the presentation improved? Yes. We have Ring of Honor online weekly, and although just on Honor Club no one can deny Athena’s run with the ROH Women’s Title. Over time we have started to see expanded featuring in the form of more segments backstage to further stories along, if not a second match per two hour block. That’s allowed for young people like Julia Hart to come along and step up on the heels of Jade Cargill and Kris Statlander’s TBS title runs from 2022-2023, and further rope in others into that nexus to showcase more people. That was an additional benefit of grouping Saraya, Ruby Soho and Toni Storm together, which then made the world title appear more coveted in the run up to All In London last year. You had quantifiable presence with more people vying for the top prize.
For a company still building as AEW is, that’s everything. For example, as Shida’s first title reign winded down, the way the division was booked was a matter of throwing people at Shida and having her defend on most shows. That was mostly it though on television as we’re talking about a pre-Rampage and Collision era AEW. All the company had was Dynamite and the Dark shows. And while those YouTube programs allowed for segments like Britt Baker’s interview show, or letting people like a Julia Hart develop, because those were sequestered to YouTube, not enough people saw it all. So if we take that reality into account, if one were to only watch Dynamite, perception being what it is, then the company historically hasn’t prioritized the women’s division.
Piggybacking forward, I would argue the first time the company juggled two women’s stories simultaneously was at the tail end of Shida’s first reign combined with the build up to Baker and Thunder Rosa’s Lights Out match that dovetailed into Baker winning the championship not too long after. What we mostly see, again with exceptions, is the title being booked, not the division. What I mean by that is we make the champion the only focal point as opposed to being a focus while also building the undercard of the division around that champion. That applies to any of the women’s champions up to a point, and it was further emphasized during Cargill’s TBS title run.
At a minimum, the positive result that came out of this was on PPVs where at least two matches made the main card, which on its own merit was a positive step. However, what was being built?
Let’s be frank, if all we’re doing in building out the division built off of appearances without long term structure or planning, the perception still remains negative because it feels token in the shadow of just feeding champions challengers. Up to a point, if we only have four women engaged in active appearances, what’s everyone else doing? That’s been the problem with the company since the beginning, and the division definitely isn’t where it could be after five years.
The Saraya Effect
Everyone is entitled to their opinion about her and her comeback run, but unanimously I would argue there’s been a net positive since her debut. More people on TV, more direction for more people and her impact–at least prospectively from being in Tony Khan’s ear–is greater presence across the board on TV even if it was just the Outcast story roping in lesser-used people into the same slot of TV time. That’s a net positive and a step forward.
We can go back and identify a number of circumstances across a number of companies in the past that are better off when more people are involved regardless of gender, and it’s when the focus is just on a select few that we start to see the holes in the booking. Looking just at AEW, if you look at the divisional booking since her arrival, it’s apparent the overall direction has been given the rub from her experience. Say what you will, but having her in the fold has been a plus for AEW.
Over the last 18 months it’s become commonplace for the two women’s titles to have multiple women involved and circling it, or at a minimum having someone else involved with the champion as backup. We can point to Skye Blue being paired with Julia Hart, Willow Nightengale being paired with Statlander, Mariah May coming in from Stardom and being paired with Toni Storm, or even circling back to Saraya and roping in a relative unknown in Harley Cameron into the branching-off story involving Angelo Parker and Ruby Soho. While there are still instances of booking randoms into title matches, the division has become multi-dimensional while still growing around the people there.
This has been going on the whole time with Baker and Jamie Hayter both out with injury. Looking at it as a whole, talent-wise the division is in a good place and the infrastructure is there and evolving. There are still holes and room for improvement, with some who are used less maybe benefitting from excursion to a place like TJPW or Stardom, or finding consistency in ROH, but if we’re comparing the division now to what it was two years ago it’s in a better place, and will be even more so once Hayter and Baker return.
Promises of a Step Forward
We’ve seen this before from AEW when it comes to the division. So what makes this different?
It’s a question worth asking because precedent dictates there’s been an unwillingness among decision-makers in the company to put that proclamation to commit to the division and its female wrestlers to practice. They’ve summarily failed thus far and you can only use the excuse of growing pains so much when the men’s divisions are far and away ahead. The notion is that people can’t care if the focus isn’t given where it’s earned.
Moné signing with AEW puts the company in a critical place. It’s summarily time for the company to put its Khan-bucks where their mouths are and to actually in earnest build the division beyond platitudes and placations. It’s clear each female wrestler in the company works hard and they’ve earned the right to their share of the spotlight.
Let’s look at the immediate divisional impacts since Moné’s signing.
First, on her debut episode one million people tuned in at the top of the hour on a rumour alone, and that’s without the benefit of her WWE-trademarked former ringname. That’s something worth noting. Moné is not CM Punk, so it’s pointless to direct attention toward social media imprints. On her debut outing she was present and strung throughout the episode, and opened and closed the show with Riho and Willow Nightingale main eventing. Coupled with the allusions to Nightingale and Moné’s shared history in NJPW, it established her presence, built out Nightingale leading into this week’s title shot clincher for the TBS championship at Dynasty and included three other people who have been encircling the TBS title over the last year at the same time. It’s building cohesion from week to week that we’ve seen sparingly with obvious exceptions around the title pictures.
Another notable example would be last week’s doubleheader of Dynamite and Rampage in Toronto, Canada, where the women opened and closed the three hour block. Presence matters and the appearance of cohesion matters because that dictates our perception of how seriously the company is taking the division. And frankly, in the past that perception has been poor and a disservice to the roster.
I don’t believe we can chalk all of this up to Moné being present, nor that Tony Khan suddenly knows what’s he’s doing with the division. For far too long it’s been apparent that he’s overworked and can’t properly manage two rosters beyond doing “cool stuff.” Don’t get me wrong, I love dream matches and cool stuff, but that on its own isn’t conducive to growing the company and pushing it forward. It’s been a common thread of thought that the company needed a small team of writers–reporting back to Khan for final approval–to articulate visions. That has certainly become more of a reality over time.
Additionally, back in February AEW hired former WWE writer Jennifer Pepperman to the team. Her hiring is really what ramped up the speculation that Moné’s arrival was imminent given their friendship. We can’t really know how she fits in overall, but if we solely discuss what we know or presume her role is based off the thought that she will be writing for Moné at a minimum, the cohesion over the past few weeks in how the shows are structured lends to the idea that the company is finally heading in the right direction. That’s merely from stating they did “A”, that led to “B” and that resulted in “C” Wednesday night on Dynamite with Moné present at ringside as her old NJPW Strong Women’s title opponent earned her TBS title shot.
As a whole, I’d wager we’re going to see Moné cost Willow the championship as “payback” for injuring her last year in the Strong title final, and there are a number of other avenues to walk down with them story-wise. Coupled with Toni Storm, Thunder Rosa and Deonna Purrazzo’s world title program, which can be easily spun into programs including May, Baker and Hayter upon their returns, it puts the division in welcomed uncharted territory where AEW is juggling more than one ball at a time. Add in Athena’s ROH run and the soon-to-be-established TV title and the divisions are better than they were two years ago.
The pitfall here though is taking their foot off the gas pedal. Egalitarianism in wrestling is more than one-off PPVs, infrequent main event slots, and is more valuable than contrived reasons to not even run that much like Billy Corgan did with NWA a couple of years back. Even with Corgan now pushing the likes of Kenzie Page in the world title slot for NWA, or WWE with its evolved integration coming so far that women in key spots is just accepted and commonplace (match length is still an issue across the board, but I digress), in those places it feels like a natural part of the presentation. TNA/Impact is another great example where whether it’s men or women, either is an accepted and expected potential main event. It’s ingrained in the company culture.
Conversely, this far along in AEW’s existence this shouldn’t be a conversation we’re still having. The moves they’ve made are great, and the potential for a lot of good things is there, but too often it’s felt like all of social media is yelling at Tony Khan to allocate more time with greater direction and purpose to the division. Up until the last year it’s felt forced, and perhaps what’s been missing is someone to actually hold the decisionmakers, specifically Khan, accountable. Maybe that’s the most critical role people like Saraya, Moné and Pepperman play in all of this. They are depicted as being forerunners of the WWE women’s evolution, and that lends legitimacy in what AEW is moving toward now. Mix them with the focus of having a credited, award-winning writer in Pepperman on staff, with people like Hayter, Storm, Soho, Nightingale, Statlander, and Athena along with a number of young wrestlers who can wrestle, and suddenly the expectation is created that AEW is taking the division seriously.
At the beginning of the year Khan said he was going to be active in the free agent market for female wrestlers, and so far the confirmations of Purrazzo and Moné’s signings lend weight to that statement from World’s End. The company has made good moves in the first three months of 2024, but it also needs to be understood the division is being closely watched right now, and where it goes dictates the long-term value in the AEW division. Initial steps are great, but the division needs the consistent spotlight, direction and momentum to break from a brisk walk to a full tilt run.