AEW is heading towards a ‘give Divas a chance' moment — Tony Khan needs to listen before it’s too late
On the media scrum before Forbidden Door I asked Tony Khan if any women are involved with AEW’s creative and working directly with the women’s roster.
It’s something I’ve been thinking about for over two years at this point.
When it comes to who helps Tony with creative, we hear many reports about Bryan Danielson and Jon Moxley being so close to Tony, how he books with Chris Jericho in a hotel room, and CM Punk leading Collision’s direction.
But given how neglected the women’s division is on television, I had to try and find out if there were any women who Tony listens to as much as the men I mentioned.
In his answer, Tony highlighted Madison Rayne and Sarah Stock, saying they were involved in coaching and producing matches, which is fantastic.
But I wasn’t asking about coaching or producing, it’s the creative I wanted to know about.
He did go on to list other male names and say he listens to input from the wrestlers themselves, naming female talent including Britt Baker.
But watching AEW, it really feels like the women’s division is being neglected and this isn’t a new problem.
They don’t usually get much TV time for their matches and their storylines are often lacklustre.
After I asked Tony my question, I heard another podcaster discuss it and argue that any conversation about female voices backstage was pointless because Tony has the final say over everything.
And yes, Tony does have the final say, he even made that point himself during his answer.
AEW doesn’t have a writers room but there’s obviously a team of people around Tony who he takes creative input from.
Punk, for instance, has always had well-developed storylines in AEW that feel authentic to him.
Jericho gets TV time every week for his storylines, if he’s not there in person he'll have a pre-tape.
It’s obvious those two example are able to, not only advocate for themselves, but they get a good amount of creative control.
If AEW was a weekly scripted series and Tony was the showrunner and the female characters were being underserved, questions would be asked about how many female voices are being heard in production.
We should wonder the same about AEW.
If the people around Tony, with the loudest voices, who are acting as creatives, producers, and agents, are mainly men and older men at that, maybe they’re having trouble finding the best way to use a roster of talented young women they can’t possibly relate to.
Maybe that’s why the booking of the women’s division isn’t anywhere near being on par with the men’s.
AEW certainly doesn’t suffer from a lack of female talent. There are many great women in that company who can deliver both in the ring and on the microphone when given the chance.
Discourse about the misuse of AEW’s women’s roster isn’t new, it’s been around pretty much since the beginning of the company.
In the early days when people were complaining I was always in the camp of giving AEW the benefit of the doubt. The women’s division was in a different place to the men’s. They didn’t have a big name star like Chris Jericho, they were starting from scratch.
Initially the company leaned heavily on using Japanese talent but the pandemic meant they lost a lot of the women they had been featuring prominently.
But we’re now four years into AEW and things haven’t gotten much better, despite the milestones and firsts that have been achieved.
In recent months the feud between The Outcasts and the AEW Originals was the main women’s storyline. While it had some good points, it also felt very repetitive week to week and never seemed to fully develop. Then unfortunately Jamie Hayter got injured and instead of pivoting, the storyline seemed to fade away.
Around the same time Britt Baker was involved in the feud between Adam Cole, her real-life boyfriend, and Chris Jericho. Britt is undoubtedly the biggest star the women’s division has produced so far and she’s had legendary matches for the company.
Legendary matches that showed she’s capable of an extreme level of violence and able to take punishment. Watching her being attacked by Saraya with a kendo stick while her boyfriend was handcuffed to the ropes felt a little beneath her. Especially when, in the weeks afterward, the Cole/Jericho storyline included a lot of Cole being called a man who ‘did nothing to protect his woman’ by the heel.
Sure Britt got revenge on Saraya when they had the mixed tag but she could never fully get revenge on Jericho. It was all an odd teaming up of the men’s storyline with the women’s where no one really benefitted.
Recently Jade Cargill tweeted: “Outside of the wrestling bubble is nice. I might stay.” Then when a fan asked if she was coming back anytime soon she said: “No”.
Now I don’t know Jade, or have any idea what she’s up to but I understand why she would want to take a break.
Jade had an awesome debut, teaming with Shaq, against Cody Rhodes and Red Velvet. She then became the first TBS Champion and broke records with her reign. But during that reign she seemed to get minimal storylines. There was the formation of the Baddies, Nyla stealing her belt, a weird thing with Bow Bow, and her feud with Taya Valkyrie.
Jade's feud with Taya got a decent amount of TV time but it didn't lead to the end of her TBS title reign.
Her reign was ended at Double or Nothing by a returning Kris Statlander. A cool moment, yes, but imagine if Jade had been defeated by a long-time rival that fans couldn’t wait to see finally win.
There is a huge amount of talent on the AEW women’s roster and many newer faces who fans are really getting behind.
Willow Nightingale is incredible and it’s strange to think how long AEW took to actually sign her to a contract. Sky Blue has impressed when given the chance and Julia Hart is an absolute scene-stealer.
Fans want better for the AEW women’s division. On Dynamite they showed a sign reading ‘Book the Women’s Division Better’. I can only believe that was a directorial mistake.
Surely AEW doesn’t want a ‘give Divas a chance moment’.? That made WWE look so outdated, and misogynist eight years ago. Tony shouldn’t need fans to tell him to do better, it should be obvious.
I don’t have the answer when it comes to the women’s division and I don’t think Tony does either. But maybe it wouldn’t hurt for him to delegate when it comes to the women’s division. The man is booking three weekly TV shows and Ring of Honor. Maybe women’s wrestling just isn’t his strong suit?
I do know that something needs to be done because the company that was founded on giving us an alternative to WWE, that was meant to move the wrestling business forward, shouldn’t be having fans seeing them as treating the women’s roster in such a neglectful way.
Excellent article. Incredibly fair critiques of TK’s booking of the women’s division...probably fairer than TK deserves. AEW has too many hours of tv airing each week for the ladies to maybe only get one storyline or match on Dynamite or Collision. It’s not asking a lot to get more than one segment weekly using talent not involved with the title feud.
Awesome article Steph so many good points.