This post contains spoilers for AEW. Header courtesy of TBS and AEW Dynamite.
All Elite Wrestling hit its 200th episode of AEW Dynamite this week. The card featured wrestlers from all corners of the company showing their stuff and highlighted many of the wrestling promotions greatest strengths. Frustratingly, it also showcased one of its greatest weaknesses.
MJF and Adam Cole got to continue the ‘Adam Cole gets Mean Girls’ed’ story, which, for my money, has somehow ended up as one of the best bits in pro wrestling right now. Meanwhile, Jungleb — sorry — Jack Perry got to build the start of a new arc with ECW legend Rob Van Dam for the extremely-fake-extremely-pointless FTW belt, and the fall of the Jericho Appreciation Society continued.
So why, with all the time given to other stories, were Hikaru Shida and Toni Storm robbed of an actual build-up to the Women’s World Title changing hands? Why weren't they given a story worthy of the match that unfolded?
Credit where it’s due: I’m thrilled to see the women getting the main event of such a big show. However, the women only getting one match per episode isn’t new, nor is AEW’s continued failure to introduce storylines for their women’s division.
A notable recent exception belongs to Jade Cargill, Taya Valkyrie, and Kris Statlander. It was a well-known secret that Kris Statlander was meant to feud with Jade Cargill and eventually win the TBS Championship. But, as is common with wrestling stories, things had to change when Stat went out with her second knee injury and Jade would go on to have the longest win-streak in AEW history. Towards the end of that run, Jade began feuding with Taya — a showcase of one of the company’s other weaknesses: giving just-signed talent immediate championship runs. The two would eventually meet for a final time at AEW’s annual Double or Nothing pay-per-view where Taya would ultimately lose and Jade would insist she’d face anyone at any time for the championship. Cue the triumphant return of Statlander, who would run in and handily beat Cargill, thus ending the streak and returning the wrestling timeline to where it was planned to be prior to the now-champ’s injury.
It had a story! It had intrigue! It had me in floor seats in the T-Mobile Arena shrieking my head off as one of my favorite wrestlers returned for the biggest surprise of the night! It is not a heavy lift to give these women the stories they deserve! And yet AEW repeatedly fails to do so otherwise.
Hikaru Shida gave her blood, sweat, and tears fighting for this company all throughout quarantine. She had her first bout as Women’s World Champion with no crowds. All of the energy had to come from her and her opponents, and an empty arena meant Shida never got the cheers she deserved. AEW acknowledged this fact in the brief package they allowed as lead-in to her match with Toni Storm in the 200th episode, but the acknowledgement and strange lead-in match just isn’t enough — even if I am always thrilled to see Nyla Rose get screen time.
The company had a story sitting right there. The Outcasts (Toni Storm, Saraya, and Ruby Soho) started a feud a while ago with what they call the “home grown talent” (wrestlers like Britt Baker and Jamie Hayter who didn’t come from WWE). A couple of months ago, Shida did align herself with the home grown talent (as she also falls under that category). The arc writes itself, and yet Hikaru Shida and Toni Storm were given scraps when the title changed hands while the men’s stories were given the rest of the evening to develop.
This treatment of the women’s division isn’t new, as the belt has unceremoniously changed hands without proper lead-in or story in most instances throughout its tenure. A fact that only frustrates me because I love this company so dang much and want to see it give its women's division a fair shake.
Shida’s first title loss back in 2021 should have been huge. She had a year-long reign and the loss was to Britt Baker, whose nose she had accidentally broken in a match prior. Before the match, the champ gave an interview with Sports Illustrated where she explicitly outlined that she was hoping for more promo time. How is it that a world champ is giving an interview with one of the biggest sports journals out there and asking for more time on TV? Make that make sense.
Baker’s run may have ended in a strong feud with Thunder Rosa before the latter ultimately took the championship, but Rosa would have to relinquish the title due to injury. This story didn’t have to end with more of a whimper than a bang. CM Punk had to vacate his title similarly and was given plenty of time to hem and haw about it on screen. Meanwhile, Rosa got a small aside with Tony Schiavone. I wasn’t sitting there with a stopwatch or anything, but there’s no argument which star got the fanfare and which one was tossed aside.
Those examples are already underwhelming, yet the handoffs between Riho and Nyla Rose, and Rose to Shida were even more underwhelming. Meanwhile, the Storm-Hayter-Storm championship hot-potato was mired by “interim this” and “interim that” and an underwhelming heel turn for the ages when Storm joined The Outcasts.
Why are the men given these rich, dense title feuds time and time again while it’s a banner evening for the ladies if they get more than one match? (We’re talking about the World Championships here; don’t get me started on the TNT belt.) Every rivalry FTR ends up in is legendary, Hangman Adam Page has had two major blood feuds at this point, Everything with MJF is a gauntlet story, CM Punk beat the shit out of the EVPs of the company but gets welcomed back with his own fake belt.
AEW’s women’s roster is stacked with talent. Yet they signed Athena and immediately stuck her in Ring of Honor purgatory. (I love ROH but, unless you’re Claudio Castagnoli, you’re not getting any meaningful television time.) They can’t figure out what they want to do with Britt Baker, the pillar frequently left out of the conversation. AEW wants to keep Nyla Rose as a monster villain despite the fact that she’s one of the funniest people on the roster. Riho — the first Women’s Champ — barely gets acknowledged and when she is she is very rarely introduced as the first women’s champion.
And all of this frustration is before we even get into issues like the fact that their women’s division still doesn’t have tag team belts.
Toni Storm got crumbs of a feud with Jamie Hayter before ultimately taking the belt, and next to nothing when Hikaru Shida took it off her. Hikaru Shida helped prop up the company during the hardest time for pro wrestling as a whole (not to mention for a young promotion that could have easily sank during that period). It was easy to excuse the lack of storylines during the pandemic, because you never knew who would be around from one week to another.
But quarantine has long since passed, and these women have put in the work. It’s time AEW gave them their flowers.
Amelia is the entertainment Streaming Editor here at IGN. She's also a film and television critic who spends too much time talking about dinosaurs, superheroes, and folk horror. You can usually find her with her dog, Rogers. There may be cheeseburgers involved. Follow her across social @ThatWitchMia
