Jan. 1, 2019 will forever be a day etched in wrestling history as the day that The Elite – which consists of Cody Rhodes, The Young Bucks, Hangman Page, Marty Scurll, and Kenny Omega – officially announced they will run a brand new wrestling promotion called All Elite Wrestling.
We know next to nothing about AEW and fans are already hailing it as big competition for WWE. AEW, as of now, neither have a tv deal – although offers are on the table – nor a full roster, but it’s already being labeled with immense expectations.
In light of all of today’s buzz surrounding the company, we can’t help but wonder where women in wrestling fit into The Elite’s grand plan.
While the folks at AEW have yet to officially confirm whether or not they will have a women’s division, we have to assume that they will. Cody and Co. have always presented themselves as smart businessmen – particularly in how they orchestrated their All In mega event – and they would be foolish to exclude women from their organization just as the biz is in the midst of its biggest boom in women’s wrestling yet.
If we are right to assume that AEW will implement a women’s division, then this could be great news for women on the independent scene and perhaps even some WWE Superstars.
For the indie starlets, this simply gives women another place to wrestle. Having more options and spaces to work in is never a bad thing.
For the WWE Superstars, as is being predicted for the male stars, AEW provides an alternative for wrestlers who haven’t been given the best treatment in WWE. Specifically, the ones who get little to no screen time or think they deserve to be pushed higher up the card.
Of course, AEW couldn’t possibly match the high contract wages that WWE offers. However, for the WWE stars who care less about being paid and more about receiving more screen time in bigger roles, AEW could be a viable option.
However, while AEW would serve as a strong alternative to WWE in terms of popularity at least, would they really be a strong alternative when it comes to booking well done women’s wrestling? Should we even trust these AEW boys to book women’s wrestling after how they booked their women at All In?
Granted, while All In never booked their women “badly” per say (we’ve seen bad women’s wrestling and trust us, that wasn’t it), they could have presented their women in a bigger, varied, and more diverse light.
All In gave us one women’s match on a card of 11 matches. In total, four women competed at All In and they were all in the same match. Even if you count Jordynne Grace’s Pre-Show cameo in the Over Budget Battle Royal, that’s still just five women on one big sausage fest of a show.
If All In is anything to go by, the promoters over at AEW don’t seem all that invested in giving us women’s wrestling. The lack of the female presence at All In was baffling and gave us bad flashbacks of a bad bygone era of WWE women’s wrestling.
At least WWE have improved in their women’s department since then. We so farhave no reason to believe that The Elite would improve in booking women for AEW, or if they even want to. If AEW allow WWE to remain ahead of the curve when it comes to including a wide roster of women’s talent, then can we really call AEW the happy alternative that we’ve been waiting for?
Between all of the positives and concerns surrounding All Elite Wrestling and a possible women’s division, it’s all just speculation and concern on our end. We’ll learn more about what AEW have in store when they have their rally press conference next Tuesday in Jacksonville.
All we can hope for now is that they assure us at the rally that they do have plans for a women’s division and envision a bright future for it.
