Highlights

  • AEW's women's division has a strong roster but is not utilized effectively, resulting in lackluster presentation and booking.
  • The division lacks compelling storylines, with a lack of direction and focus on The Outcasts and Jade Cargill's TBS Title reign.
  • Both AEW and WWE can learn from Impact Wrestling's Knockouts Division, which excels in character development, multiple feuds, and treating female wrestlers as equals to their male counterparts.

With the launch of All Elite Wrestling in 2019, Tony Khan and the EVPs of AEW stated that they wished to create an alternative wrestling company against the leader in the field, WWE. Since then, AEW has found its audience and has presented itself as a strong number two when compared to WWE. While AEW has its strengths, the company is not without its weaknesses, with one area that the brand has lacked since it's creation being the presentation and booking of the AEW women's division. Despite glimmers of greatness and potential, AEW has once again found its women's division feeling lifeless and broken, with much of the blame falling on Tony Khan.

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Tony Khan Has Built A Great Women's Roster In AEW, He Just Doesn't Use Them Well

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While the original AEW roster featured some names that were not all-that-great for the AEW Women's Division, with Big Swole, Brandi Rhodes, Mel, and Leva Bates all leaving a lot to be desired in the ring, and Awesome Kong being well past her prime, AEW has since made some major signings for the greater health of the division. Names like Jamie Hayter, Toni Storm, Thunder Rosa, Mercedes Martinez, Jade Cargill, Athena, Red Velvet, Tay Melo, and Willow Nightingale were all names that joined AEW in the years after the company's launch. On top of that, there are the originals like Britt Baker, Riho, Hikaru Shida, Emi Sakura, and Kris Statlander, all of whom are still important assets to the company in 2023.

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With a division featuring that many strong names, AEW's Women's Division has the potential to turn things up a notch and to be seen as the best women's division in the world today, if they were only given an actual chance to shine. Unfortunately, most weeks the women only find themselves given one match per show, normally with 10-15 minutes to work. The women also tend to have much less promo time than their male co-workers, leading to the stories of the division becoming less than easy to follow.

AEW's Women's Division Lacks Compelling Storylines

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2023 has proven to be a breaking point for many fans towards the women's division in AEW, with the year starting off promising, as the company hyped a mystery partner for Saraya in January 2023, with many assuming it would be Mercedes Mone. That never happened, and instead, The Outcasts were born, as they wreaked havoc on the division as a whole. For months and months, the division felt directionless, with every week The Outcasts standing tall against Britt Baker, Jamie Hayter and a rotating cast of supporting characters. Meanwhile, Jade Cargill's TBS Title reign continued to unfold in the background, with her not only rarely wrestling, but also getting less and less promo time.

RELATED: 10 Best Women's Matches In AEW History, Ranked

With Jamie Hayter getting injured and Jade's streak ending on the same night, at Double or Nothing 2023, the division has felt like it is in a strange place ever since. Thankfully there have been some recent positive developments. Toni Storm is turning in some of the best character work for any women's wrestler in any company right now, Hikaru Shida is reigning as AEW Women's World Champion, being presented as a fighting champion, and Collision is paving the way for Kris Statlander's reign as TBS Champion, with support from Willow, Mercedes Martinez, and the recently returning Diamante. Still, there is much work to be done.

AEW & WWE Both Need To Take Notes From Impact Wrestling

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While AEW is struggling with their women's division, they are not alone, as WWE has faltered quite hard with the presentation of their women's division under Triple H's creative reign. 2023 has seen both AEW and WWE misuse and undermine their women's divisions with little signs of change. AEW still regularly falls into its trope of one women's match per show, while WWE is giving the women less and less ring time on a weekly basis. Somehow, after so much progress was made in the past several years, mainstream women's wrestling feels as if it is regressing towards the Divas Era. Thankfully, there is a glimmer of hope in anoter notable North American Wrestling company.

Looking at Impact Wrestling, the Knockouts Division continues to be the strongest women's division in the United States today, with the company having well-defined characters for each of the women on the roster, regularly having multiple feuds running in the division, and doing their best to present their female wrestlers as equals to the male wrestlers. Names such as Trinity, Deonna Purrazzo, Killer Kelly, and Masha Slamovich have risen up the ranks and have made Impact a must-see promotion for fans of women's wrestling.