All Elite Wrestling: Women Need More

All Elite Wrestling has been on a hot streak of interesting stories this summer. From HOOK losing his FTW Title and undefeated streak to Jack Perry, to CM Punk claiming to be the real worlds champion and even the battles between The Elite and Blackpool Combat Club. 

But, out of all the above mentioned, women are left out. From Kris Statlander returning to win the TBS Championship earlier on this summer, to not being followed up on with a real story, to the AEW Women’s Champion Toni Storm being felt like she’s playing second fiddle to the Outcast group, it feels like the women have no meaning. 

The one positive in the women’s division is Athena, who has been having a killer championship reign with some great matches, but that’s on Ring Of Honor, and though she’s been on All Elite Wrestling TV a few times, most of her storylines happen on Thursdays on HonorClub. 

Much like most of the American women’s wrestling scene, it feels like the bookers and companies don’t care. No matter how much the fans clamor for more women’s wrestling, we still constantly see 3-5 minute matches on TV from WWE, IMPACT and AEW. And while some do better than others, like Impact, it’s still not enough to quench the need for more women in the wrestling scene. 

While WWE programming may have multiple matches on a show, they’re equaling out to roughly 5-7 minutes each show. While AEW may give you a 8-10 minute womens match, they’re putting only one on a show. So, if you’re a fan just watching weekly TV wrestling, you’d be lucky to get 20 minutes of womens action a week. That’s just unacceptable.

Not to mention, while we’re getting some matches, there’s barely any stories to really sink your teeth into, and it’s time for things to change. On WWE programming, they have one of their biggest shows of the summer coming up this Saturday with SummerSlam. As of this writing, there’s only two womens matches on the card. Asuka defending her championship against Bianca Belair and Charlotte in a triple threat match, and Ronda Rousey taking on Shayna Baszler in a MMA Rules match. 

While both of these matches have gotten some highlight and hopefully are great additions to the card, Rhea Ripley, Women’s World Champion, has no match on the event at this time. Also, Chelsea Green & Sonya Deville, the brand new Women’s Tag Team Champions, are also left matchless. Then, to make matters worse, one of the long on going stories in women’s wrestling right now is Becky Lynch vs. Trish Stratus, and instead of putting it on the big event, WWE has pushed it to the Monday Night RAW after the Premium Live Event to much fan disappointment. 

Now, in the case of All Elite Wrestling, they have their biggest summer show, and their biggest show of all time coming up in Wembley Stadium at All In on Sunday, August 27th, which will be jam packed with over 80,000 fans in attendance and millions watching around the world. As of now, there’s zero matches announced for the event, even on the men’s side, so, we can’t be too critical about what women’s matches will and will not be on the show, since nothing is yet announced. 

But, Tony Khan mentioned in an interview earlier on today that he has some match announcements planned for tonight’s 200th episode of AEW Dynamite. A milestone event in the company that features only one women’s match, with an on and off build in Toni Storm defending her AEW Women’s Championship against Hikaru Shida. Tonight’s 200th edition of AEW Dynamite should have more focus on the women, since they’re a huge part of the company, or so we thought. 

But, again, AEW has a chance to fix these wrongs with a strong statement heading into, and at AEW All In. AEW is at a point where fans are bringing signs to the shows that read “book the womens division better.” If that’s not a clear sign that AEW needs to fix their womens division, I don’t know what is. 

So, I propose that All Elite Wrestling has at least 4-5 women’s matches on All In. A show that easily could be built up like their very own WrestleMania, especially in a stadium setting. And a show that we know will run long, there’s enough time for multiple womens matches. 

Now, this doesn’t have to be exactly what I say, and AEW obviously can book what they want, but if I’m fantasy booking what could be on that card, I would give something like this; 

All Elite Wrestling: All In

Women’s Casino Battle Royal (Buy-In) 

All of Elite Wrestling often has a Buy-in on their pay-per-view cards, which is basically a free preshow on their YouTube channel. Sticking with the “Buy-in” and “All In” theme, it makes sense to have a Casino Battle Royal. So, get a bunch of women that don’t get a lot of time, bring in some women from the ROH roster and maybe even some outside sources and have them all compete to kick off the show. Plus, maybe a surprise returning Jade Cargill to win it all. 

Saraya vs. Mercedes Mone

There was a rumor that this match was potentially being looked at for Forbidden Door this year until Mercedes was injured. With no real update on how she’s doing, we can only assume she will be cleared by All In time, and if she is, this would be the perfect big non-title match to book for the card. Saraya in her home country of England vs arguably the biggest women’s star outside of AEW, coming in to face one another in what would be one of the most talked about matches on the entire card. 

TBS Championship: Kris Statlander vs. Athena

Athena has been on a tear as ROH women’s champion and she deserves a big spot on this card. What better to have champion vs. champion against another hard working opponent in Kris Statlander. It’s not even a question on if these girls would have a killer match, because we know they’d blow the roof off the building and would have fans on the edge of their seats. 

Special Attraction Match: Magical Sugar Rabbits vs. Riho & Maki Itoh 

On the inaugural All Elite Wrestling Double or Nothing Pay-Per-View, AEW ran a Joshi special attraction six-women tag team match. That match was Hikaru Shida, Riho & Ryo Mizunami vs. Aja Kong, Emi Sakura & Yuka Sakazaki, in what ended up being a fantastic match. And, with AEW being no stranger to booking Joshi’s over the past few years with women from TJPW and a partnership with NJPW/Stardom, AEW should really run another special attraction match on this event. On one side, we have Riho, inaugural AEW Women’s Champion teaming with Maki Itoh, a lovable fan favorite who has continued to speak out about how much she would love to continue working with AEW. On the opposing side of the ring, we have AEW’s very own Yuka Sakazaki, who also took part in that Inaugural match, teaming with her TJPW partner, Mizuki, forming the Magical Sugar Rabbits in AEW. This would be a perfect attraction match for the big event. 

AEW Women’s Championship: Toni Storm or Hikaru Shida vs. Britt Baker 

As mentioned, on tonight’s AEW Dynamite episode, Toni Storm defends her title against Hikaru Shida. Whoever wins this match will seemingly walk into AEW All In as the women’s champion. On that show, they should defend against Britt Baker, who’s been with AEW since the very start and it’s only right she gets a world title match at the biggest AEW event ever. Now, not to get too much into the fantasy booking, but I would love to see hometown girl Jamie Hayter return during this match, and costing Britt Baker the win, finally turning on her in front of her home crowd. Fans have been waiting to see when Jamie would turn on Britt; and this would be the perfect time to do so. Sadly, Hayter is out with an injury and it’s unknown whether she would be back in time for All In or not. But if so, this would be a big spot to see her return and get the crowd excited for a future Hayter vs. Baker match. 

Those are five ideas of matches we could see on the card. Whether these matches will happen, or something completely different, the point still stands that All Elite Wrestling All In needs to feature multiple women’s matches and some true build to the pay-per-view. 

Fans are wanting more womens matches and stories. This is more than a cry for help now, fans are begging and pleading for more from all these talented women across the wrestling scene, but please AEW, book your women. 

By: Brady Alexander

Also, read Joshua vs Whyte Undercard, PPV Price, UK TV Channel, Fight Date And MORE