Does that count in Cage’s favour or does that go against him seeing as Vince is supposed to be a massively out of touch, wrestling promoter that puts too much stock in big beefy men?
I disagree the whole division is bad. That initial 6 person Joshi tag match was incredible at Double or Nothing. That was eye-opening and different and would have a real shot to get over on TV since it is nothing like what we see today.
Where they went wrong was incorporating traditional North American talent and mixing and matching with the Joshi and the styles just don’t mesh well. At least not with workers like Nyla Rose or Britt Baker or Statlander who never spent extensive time working in Japan with that style of wrestler.
If someone showed Vince a picture of Cage I’m sure he would love him. Doubt he has any idea who he is. Cant imagine Vince watching one second of Lucha Underground.
Not all of the people from that initial tag match aren’t on the roster though. And it was decent not amazing. But only 4 of those performers are listed on the roster and only 3 have wrestled on AEW TV. Only one of which I find compelling (Shida). Emi has an awful gimmick, Riho is ok, but has been booked poorly, and Shida is pretty good. Those 3 cannot carry the division, so I stand by that the division is terrible the whole thing. That isn’t to say no one there can work, but they have been booked poorly and set up in spots to fail.
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Terrible is a bit harsh. It’s been ok but just a lot of the talent is green. If you terrible then look at ROH’s women’s division. AEW is at least giving people time to work, the execution has been off but not terrible.
I stick to terrible, simply because I don’t care about a single competitor. None of them really have characters/personalities, the only “story line” is the nightmare family thing. They have run through ever “big match” with little to no build. I mean tell me one thing about anyone in that division outside of the fact that we have a dentist, an alien, an underdog (who is champion), Freddy Mercury,a librarian, A monster, and the nightmare collective.
It is really bad, some matches have been passable but I just don’t care who wins any of them. Riho is a terrible champion, not because she is a bad wrestler but because she is both an underdog and unbeatable.
Sorry but whoever is booking the division is bad at their job. They have talent there but it is so poorly used it is on NXT call up levels of bad. The only plan it seems like they had with the division was to put the belt on Riho and they did that terribly. They had one interesting feud with Baker and Priestly and it went no where, they were in one tag match together and then blew off the feud at the paper view with no real build. But when I was more interested in the Becky/Lacey feud then anything that has ever happened in AEW it just isn’t good.
I think they could do a lot with Shida. Nyla Rose plays the monster well. Statlander has something but the gimmick holds her back in my opinion. And maybe Britt Baker will show more personality as a heel and drop the dentist stuff as it adds nothing.
There’s potential but things haven’t really come together so far and AEW need to let them do more promos whether that’s video packages, backstage interviews or in ring. Instead, most of the spotlight is on Brandi. Riho as well was a terrible idea to have as champion.
And if she was going to be the champion because she is Kenny’s prodigy, then please do mixed tags and intergender wrestling so we can see her at her fullest. Not trying to work match after match with a missmatch of opponents and Britt Baker.
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It’s been absolutely terrible. The women’s division is easily the single worst thing about AEW. From the talent to the non sensical booking to the Brandi nightmare crap.
They have had one or two bright spots (ie Kris) but she looked green asf against Riho.
Also just compare it to NXT or main roster WWE. It’s night and day. The women of AEW need to step up their game and get a competent booker
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I think Riho, Shida, Statlander and Shanna all have potential. Add in Rose and Kong and there is a decent division there. I’d also turn Baker heel.
I think now with Rihi seemingly more available there will be some development.
They have plenty of potential, but the booking and character work is terrible. I’m not saying it has no hope of getting better based on the available talent. But what has happened thus far is bad. Much closer to ROH then WWE/Impact. They aren’t even close to any brand in WWE and Smackdown has been bad recently.
I also think they have made some mistakes that are going to be irreparable or at the very least extremely difficult to fix. Riho’s booking to me is the big one.
She’s an underdog babyface champion. It’s more that she hasn’t been around.
I just dont think it’s been as bad as ROH or Smackdown. At least wrestlers get reactions. Bayley is death on the mic in this role, Banks is barely used and Lacey Evans is the top babyface. SD is much more of a disaster right now
You had the fans booing the end of a match between their two biggest faves (Riho and Kris). That is at least if not worse than anything on Smackdown.
Kong can barely move. Who in god name knows or cares about Lucus or whatever.
They have some good bones but the solution isn’t that simple. They need to book better and work better. That’s a tall order
Because the heels interfered and ruined the match.
Everyone in AEW gets reactions, they have a much more forgiving fan base. Bayley is better on the Mic then any woman in AEW because none of them talk. I know more about Evans so at least there is buy in. Yeah it is bad, AEW is worse.
RIho is not a good underdog because she was never booked that way, she is really an 80 lb monster who cannot be beaten. That is the problem with her booking, she should not have been the initial champion because an underdog babyface champion needs tell the story of the rise to the top. She didn’t have that, it has nothing to do with her not being around, her being around more would have been worse, I mean what would she have done? More meaningless multi-woman tag matches? Run through the rest of the roster of potential challengers? Have dropped the title already? Cut Promos? In Japanese? Her not being around has been good for the division not bad. This is what I’m talking about, she is only an underdog because we are told she is and she is small, but I never think she is out matched or going to lose, so she isn’t actually an underdog. It is like having a 1 on 1 basket ball tournament with Manut Bull, Shawn Bradley, The Big Show, and Michael Jordan and being told Jordan is the under dog. He isn’t he is just the small guy. Underdogs need to overcome adversity beyond just size. They could have told this story and had her be the first champ, but they didn’t other than the Nyla match somewhat, but Nyla literally had not won a match at that point other than a battle royal which she did not win clean.
Look if you think this has been a success and love it then more power to you. The fans didn’t want to see that BS.
AEW does a lot right. They have the hottest heels (Jericho and MJF) and faces (Mox and Cody) in wrestling. That’s hard to do.
Women’s division they have not done well with. It needs less Brandi nonsense and better worked matches. It’s way too WWE like right now expect at least WWE girls can work better to save dumb storylines
I said it’s been ok. Definitely not a success but you can’t really call it a disaster yet.
Ok, so the AEW women’s division isn’t the best. It could use some work. But if we are gonna be honest, all major north American promotions women’s divisions were horrible up until a few years ago.
I’d rather say nothing than sound like a robot. Same with Evans. She’s scripted to speak like no ordinary person would ever speak. Allie, Brandi and Swole are all better talkers than Bayley.
I’m not disagreeing about the mishandling of Riho but the fans are behind her. If she was around more they could have done more subtitled promos or actually defended the title. Now that she’s around we will see how she’s booked.
You are more forgiving than I am I think it has largely been a disaster.