Riho got over purely through delivering excellent matches.
And made it clear where she fit in the grand scheme of things: first champ, friends with Kenny, etc. etc. They gave the people stuff to root for.
how did britt vs. rosa get over? their first match had zero heat and was fucking awesome, which is what made the second match so special.
Wasn't just that. It was also the fact that Rosa was the one she hadn't beaten. It was built up as destiny that she'd lose to Rosa. The second match then almost completely deflating the feud due to booking
how about deeb and shida? they had perhaps the best example of what fans actually want from the women's division. two matches in October 2021, a story via the tournament into November, followed by a blowoff in December. what have we gotten since? a shitty 2-minute match in January and nothing since except the two doing quick jobber matches. shit fucking sucks. and despite that it's still the most exciting rivalry in the division -- and both shida and deeb don't really do promos.
And those matches had stuff going for them because of what was already built up. The lack of doing more with it beyond matches and the occasional promos made the feud peter out.
how can anyone look at any of the women's division in AEW, at any point in time, and say "I feel like the best wrestlers in the division were getting plenty of time to put on the quality of matches they're capable of." because it's just never happened.
The most successful women's divisions in this era: NXT from Horsewomen to end of Asuka's reign, Impact in recent times, ROH near the end, were more than able to sustain themselves and their momentum while not using their best.
NXT was able to make gold out of an Eva Marie title shot. They had plenty of people in there that were not at the same level as the Horsewomen/Asuka, and still made it work.
Impact's women's division has never been the best in terms of in ring ability.
The girl who ended up being the ROH women's champion was green. One of their biggest storylines was a commentator against Angelina Love and Mandy Leon. Not Trish Adora, not Mercedes, not even Willow (all of whom are leagues better than Rok-C, Quinn McKay and The Allure). It still worked.
the entire reason people want more from the women's division is because of those rare great matches. tony's biggest failure in all of AEW has been his inability to deliver those matches frequently. week to week. month to month. you can shove as many britt and jade promos down our throat as you want. they haven't done shit to get people excited for the division.
I completely disagree with that, at least on the Jade side. There are demos AEW isn't known for getting who are actually interested in her. Demos Tony Khan almost derailed with the Big Swole fiasco. If he doesn't capitalize on that, WWE damn sure will.
And the way to do that isn't just putting Jade in matches. It's making feuds that matter, and that takes build up. Build up that would be a lot easier in replacing shows like BotB with stuff similar to one night only like Impact had.
That's my point. Great matches alone are great. But the women need more than that to break out of this complaint cycle. They need real buzz.
