AEW has only been around for two years and it’s insane to think of all the things they’ve accomplished in such a short amount of time. From selling out crowds, to signing huge names, to bringing freaking CM Punk to wrestling; they’ve cemented themselves already as one of the biggest pro wrestling companies in the world. However, there is one thing AEW has been neglecting since the start: their women’s division. AEW has many talented women with so much potential. They have a lot of women with huge potential like Kris Statlander and Anna Jay; women who just have that star look about them like Jade Cargill and incredible wrestlers like Hikaru Shida, Thunder Rosa, Jamie Hayter, and Ruby Soho. The biggest name in their women’s division is their current women’s champion: Britt Baker. Baker’s someone whose star power knows no bounds. She’s one of AEW’s biggest stars- male or female. However, her current reign seems to have fallen flat to some fans. Is it the fan’s fault for hyping the dentist up so much in the beginning? Is it Baker’s fault for not being able to deliver? Or has AEW failed her and their women’s division?
Photo credit to AEW
Promises to give the AEW women’s division more tv time is something we’ve been promised over and over again. One match on Dynamite and a backstage interview promo from Britt Baker seems to be all the women's content most weeks. This problem has been prevalent even before Baker became champion. The former champion, Hikaru Shida, could barely get on the show and until recently was stuck wrestling on Dark. Thankfully, the addition of a new women's mid card title has given a reason for more than one women's segment a night.
Despite being a heel, Baker gets some of the biggest cheers of the night. Chants of “D.M.D” fill the arena whenever she’s on screen. Putting the title on her during the peak of her popularity was inevitable. Baker and Shida had an amazing match at Double or Nothing earlier this year. Here we saw Baker became the new AEW Women’s champion and despite being the heel, the crowd was mostly on her side. Baker’s been champion since May, but it seems her reign has run its course already. It’s only been around 6 months but it’s felt way longer than that. If we’re being honest, most of her title defenses have been forgettable. She’s faced the likes of Nyla Rose and Anna Jay- two matches I have no memory of. Baker also defended her title against Red Velvet. I don’t see who this match benefited besides Baker. Velvet wasn’t on Dynamite that much and she was supposed to be the face in this feud against the more popular Baker. To make it worse, the match was in Baker’s hometown. Velvet got boo’d out the building. After this title match, I can’t remember the last time Velvet was on Dynamite.
In her 4th title defense, Britt faced Ruby Soho. Some say this match was a good thing for the women’s division because it main evented, and yeah, it was nice. However, the match was just decent and no one will remember it over the more awesome match of Bryan Danielson vs Kenny Omega at the start of the show. This is not to discredit either women or their skills. However, I don't think fans should be overly appreciative when women get to main event shows because it should be the norm. It's not something we should be oh so grateful for. Moving on, Baker also faced Kris Statlander and, just recently, Tay Conti. Both decent matches and nothing more. Of course it takes two to tango, but the pattern shows this might be a Baker problem. Baker’s wrestling style isn’t flashy- and that’s fine, but it hurts when every match feels like it fails to truly take off. Most of her matches feel like they’re in slow motion.
Britt’s potential exceeded her, and she was champion before her skills in the ring could catch up. Her best two matches in AEW were against Shida and Thunder; women much more experienced who forced her to step up to the plate. Her opponents in her title matches were women who, for the most part, didn’t have that much experience either or just didn't click with Baker. So no one looks good, no one gets over and we get a reign filled with average matches.
Photo credit to AEW
This isn’t just a Britt Baker problem. How can you have great and compelling feuds with a division filled with no characters? One major criticism I have of the women’s division is there seems to be no time given to the women to work on their gimmicks. So you have many women without unique characters or personality. Most of the feuds have just been over the title with no other depth. And when there’s nothing else to talk about, you have women like Tay Conti bringing ass sizes into the feud.
You have a broad range of women who could do something unique with their characters. Kris is a freaking alien, and she has no fun segments building upon that- at least not on TV. You have characters like “The Bunny”... whatever that means. I get she’s supposed to be a little “off” but how would you know that besides the fact she makes weird expressions. Girls like Tay and Anna have no characters besides being best friends with each other. Jamie Hayter's stuck to being Baker's bodyguard. Penelope Ford has a "bad girl" thing going on- which again, how are we supposed to know that she is a bad girl. There’s a lot of girls who I can’t remember the last time I heard their voice on TV. AEW needs to build personalities. We need more non title feuds. We need more promos and backstage segments. There's been some great backstage promos from the women that I felt really helped build up their character and motives, and I'd like to see more of that! Everyone can’t just be a “good wrestler” and that’s it. When everyone is just generic, it makes it hard to build interesting characters who we want to see succeed. Hell, the reason Baker is so popular is because of her mic skills and overall star power presence. No one’s been able to compete with her on the mic besides maybe Ruby- and even then, Soho had to slut shame Britt for an easy pop.
-"You look like every other broad that I've stepped across the ring from. Entitled, self-centered and banging some dude in the back." (Samy Tony, same)
Photo credit to AEW
They’ve failed to build a baby face that could be believable enough to beat Baker. It's hard to get behind the newer faces completely when the crowd is so in favor of Baker and she gets way more cheers than the actual faces. The only woman I can see taking the title off Baker right now is Thunder Rosa, and it seems it’s the only big feud they’ve planned for Britt. With Thunder getting on TV more and more, I think this feud is happening soon. Will Rosa winning the title solve all the problems? Maybe we’d get better matches, sure; but without actual effort by the people in the back, these problems won’t go away.
Despite her shortcomings, Baker is still insanely over. It’s easy to see why they put the title on her when they did. She was just that popular. But the experiment has run its course and I feel this run has benefited no one but Baker. Like I said before, switching champions won’t help. It didn't help when they took the title off Shida. It’s not a one step solution. The addition of a new mid card title will hopefully get more women matches on TV, but we do need to see more non title feuds. We need to see more character building. We need more promos that aren’t about asses or bringing up who’s banging who. We need effort by creative to create compelling characters and feuds. Effort by people who can try to give women more time on the show. We need effort by Tony Khan- and not have him cutting off women when asked about the future of their women’s division. Maybe it's a hard pill to swallow, but it's an important conversation to be had.
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