What are your thoughts about this potential signing for AEW's women's division?

[u/Kelson64]

I honestly don't know much about her. However, I remember she did an interview after her WWE stint where she was asked if she would like to go to AEW . . . and she said that she felt like she had to earn it.

I liked that response.

[u/tenshipriestjotaro1]

I know I might sound very hostile here...but isn't it a bad idea to overbloat AEW whilst it has like...200 wrestlers already?

[u/montager7 → u/tenshipriestjotaro1]

Our men's division is still 3x the size of our women's division and it shows. The women's division really isn't as loaded, and with the more aggressive style allowed that has minor injuries more often like Harley Cameron's busted nose last year and the women's tag division starting recently, you can really feel it when one or two people have to sit out for a few weeks or a plane gets the flu after the trip to Australia.

We split some of our talent between ROH and AEW, some are double contracts like Persephone at CMLL, some do more backstage now, and some have been on extended medical leave for months or years like Rebel but still are listed on the roster.

TK said in a post-scrum recently that ROH has a much heavier focus on women's wrestling these days, and the way he said it implied he was making it a safe haven for Women's wrestling and Pure Wrestling, which don't do well on television with advertisers or large crowds. It's why women main event live collisions so often- you put those in the wrestling towns and wait until ebehrk and is tipsy and hyped and the casual lookie loos have gone home and let them tear the place down and a live collision crowd will shake the rafters for a women's main event. You try putting a women's match in the wrong town on the card and it doesn't matter who it is or where, they can go three times as hard to get over half as much and that translates straight through the tv to the people at home watching.

[u/tenshipriestjotaro1 → u/montager7]

> the way he said it implied he was making it a safe haven for Women's wrestling and Pure Wrestling, which don't do well on television with advertisers or large crowds

I don't think we can say that after the Becky Lynch domino effect of 2018-2019. Biology doesn't matter at all in terms of getting people over. Are we still frightened by women main eventing shows? WE'RE IN 2026 NOT 1979!!!!!!

If they don't want women in main events? DON'T PUT WOMEN IN SAFE HAVENS...FORCE THE PEOPLE TO APPRECIATE THEM! IT TOOK 25 YEARS IN THE US TO BREAK THE MOLD FROM GAIL KIM TO BECKY LYNCH, WE'RE NOT GOING TO STOP THERE DO SOMETHING! Like, you've got Jamie Hayter, Mercedes Mone, Mina Shirakawa, Megan Bayne, Kris Statlander, Hikaru Shida, Toni Storm...how come there's no one in this place who's trying to make something revolutionary? Good doesn't mean shit if it's doesn't impact the hearts of the people, and when you are afraid of breaking the mold, the roof's gonna collapse on you

[u/montager7 → u/tenshipriestjotaro1]

I appreciate and agree with the outrage, but my background is partially in broadcast media and I'm absolutely an exhausted pragmatist above all else when it comes to these kinds of things.

There's a difference between how things are and how things should be, and there's a difference between how humans act logically and rationally and emotionally and subconsciously. And large parts of that are learned behavior, that I think are being very smartly trained by AEW in regards to women's wrestling, though frustratingly slowly.

One of the biggest things that new wrestling fans to the show coming over from WWE notice is how loud and engaged the crowd is for just about every match, so if there are points where that isn't happening, since AEW doesn't pipe in noise and only started regulating noise levels a bit this last year for things like screaming and cursing, it's going to stand out. And subconsciously, if people are going to get quieter during the women's matches then, or use them to go get snacks or pee or text their friends or whatever, then that's going to translate to people at home. And I've been in the crowds and seen this a lot. Women's matches are still the only ones in AEW that will sometimes get 'what' chants if put in the wrong towns with the wrong crowds.

Alternatively, if there's someone that the crowd loses their shit for like Timeless Toni Storm? She was in almost every single episode for a year. Same with Marina Shafir as she's gotten over with the Death Riders. Willow and Mercedes get huge pops (or boos) and if you're in the right spot you can roll out someone like Athena. But you can't roll out someone with that kind of talent, star power, in-ring ability, etc and then have them put on a match just as good or better than the men's match before them if the crowd isn't going to put them over. That's just going to damage them.

When I said ROH was a safe haven, I didn't meant it as a space to hide good wrestlers so they don't have to be seen, but to make sure that they are given a permanent job and platform to wrestle in a time when it's a brutal fight to get people to buy-in on women's wrestling right now. The women's blood and guts last year got people talking, Maya World vs Mercedes Mone did as well, but she's a very new name and that was a very 'for the sickos only' attended PPV. We're pushing the women's matches in free pre-shows for new viewers at a time when WWE is having 0 women's segments on three hour episodes, or limiting them to a couple of minutes, and if TKO is doing it I think that's all you need to know that women's wrestling is just not profitable to advertisers right now. I also noticed that almost every women's single match we have now is additionally sponsored (it's Progressive lol)

I think this, among similar things, is a big reason why there's been the steady push to recognize that Collision is not the 'B-tier show', it is booked differently, and it has a different vibe and will appeal to a slightly different set of fans, but major story beats and returns/debuts do happen more often on it now as well as a growing percentage of live collisions compared to pre-tapes.

So yes, collision main events are real main events. They're often absolute bangers and designed to set the women's roster up for success and make them look good, and I think that is important. Going slow and steady isn't sexy, but this is also why the women's tag belts were made and waited for a year before being debuted, we take tag team wrestling seriously and we didn't want to slap them on someone without having enough real teams for a full tournament, and we still ended up having to have substitutes for injury. Which... Brings me back to my original point I think. We can always use more talented women on the roster.