Top Ten AEW Women Who Deserve Better
AEW has a larger roster of women than you might expect. For a company that features Dr. Britt Baker, DMD on Dynamite and Rampage weekly, one may assume that the weekly womens’ contest at the ninety minute mark on Dynamite features the only women All Elite Wrestling employs.
Twenty six wrestlers are listed on the official AEW roster page, and over a dozen more appear regularly on AEW Dynamite. Many of them have worked in the independent scene or even WWE.
A diverse group by any metric, the following list highlights just a few of the talented women that deserve a little more screen time, even at the expense of everyone’s favorite dentist.
All photos from the AEW Roster page
Abadon
Horror films and pro wrestling have long enjoyed a crossover fanbase. As long as fans cheer performers who embrace the supernatural, there will always be wrestlers who choose to fill the void between sports entertainment and scary movies. We had The Undertaker, The Fiend, and Boogeyman, but rarely do women go down the road to portray a truly terrifying character.
Enter Abadon, the ‘Living Dead Girl’.
Abadon, with their unique makeup and mannerisms, has improved dramatically since their debut in 2019. The commitment to the gimmick goes outside of the ring as well, as Abadon has appeared on the popular YouTube channels of Danhausen and The Bunny.
Abadon gets plenty of experience in the ring on Dark and Elevation; hopefully AEW can come up with a storyline befitting this monstrous presence on one of their televised programs.
Jamie Hayter
UK-based powerhouse Jamie Hayter has been featured as Dr. Britt Baker’s muscle for the last several months. Her in ring work shows technical skill as well as ruthless aggression, a combination that should have led to some interesting character development by now. She has teased a turn on her stablemates several times, but they haven’t amounted to much more than the occasional steely glare.
A seven year veteran, Hayter has worked around the globe and even had an NXT UK match against Piper Niven (now Doudrop) back in 2019. She has a great look as well as a backbreaker that is brutal to behold, and when unleashed she shines as a powerful opponent to whoever has wronged her friend (frenemy?) Britt that week.
The turn against the DMD is all Jamie needs to become an AEW singles star. The sooner that feud is booked, the better!
Leyla Hirsch
‘Legit’ Leyla Hirsch is currently laid up with an ACL tear that required surgery. She was just starting a program with Kris Statlander when that injury stopped her momentum dead in its tracks. Built like a female Tazz, Hirsch’s recent heel turn had her ready to stand against some of AEW’s best heroes.
Hirsch is immediately noticeable when she enters the ring. Standing only 4’11’ (150cm) but still very imposing, Leyla exudes confidence. She performed in front of crowds for Combat Zone Wrestling and STARDOM, among other companies, before she signed with AEW in 2020, and her style of shoot wrestling is always a reliable counter to the more flashy pro wrestlers that AEW is known for.
Powerful and possessing a unique look and style, Leyla Hirsch deserves a chance to get back on our screens as soon as she’s healthy.
AQA
The young talent with the amazing shooting star press, AQA was signed after a handful of matches in WWE and Impact Wrestling. A graduate of Booker T's Reality of Wrestling, AQA is a diamond in the rough for AEW.
She has developed steadily on Dark and Elevation, but AEW isn’t her first time in a wrestling ring. AQA has been competing since 2018, and deserves a chance to go out and show she’s more than just a one trick pony. She may not end up the next Sasha Banks or Charlotte Flair, but how will we know without giving her a chance?
Toni Storm
One of the biggest recent signings by AEW, Storm felt like the obvious choice to win the Owen Hart Memorial Tournament earlier this month; another Britt Baker win derailed that push.
Storm has long been recognized as one of the best women’s wrestlers in the world by her fans. Unfortunately, her fans don’t seem to include the folks who book the matches in WWE or AEW. After the embarrassing feud with Charlotte Flair, capped with a pie to the face, Storm decided she needed to leave WWE for her own mental health. Toni seemed like a natural fit for Tony Khan and AEW. She’s young, but even at 26 she has over a decade of experience in the squared circle.
As a talented performer with a great moveset, she would fit right in as the top talent for any company. AEW may yet have plans for Toni Storm against Britt Baker, but you can’t just book everyone against your top heel. A run at the TBS Championship or even just a well planned feud against a good opponent like Jamie Hayter would do wonders for Ms. Storm.
Penelope Ford
After her real life husband, Kip Sabian, was written off TV after their on screen marriage and his subsequent mauling by Miro, Penelope hasn't had much of a chance to do what she does best. The former valet for Joey Janela back when AEW was born, Penelope has a reputation as a performer willing to do whatever it takes to get the win. She’s a rare combination of in ring talent, technically proficient but also able to switch to a brutal hardcore style. One of her more notable matches in AEW, a bloody tag team bout where she paired with The Bunny against Tay Conti and Anna Jay, allowed Ford to show exactly what she can bring to the table. It’s a brutal and almost uncomfortable to watch match, with a level of violence rarely seen in the women’s division.
AEW has developed a reputation for putting on some good hardcore matches, and Ford would fit in perfectly if they decide to start booking a few more women in that style.
Tay Conti
After the universally panned feud with Men of the Year, Tay has gone from one of the most over performers in the women's division to Sammy Guevara's arm candy. She and Sammy were recently engaged, and hopefully they have some time away to recalibrate their characters into something more than just horny kids.
Tay is a black belt in judo and a blue belt in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, which has been mentioned numerous times on AEW programming. She’s also had WWE experience, as her career started at the performance center. She had some matches on NXT, and she participated in the Mae Young Classic before being released in 2020.
Tay has had some legitimately great matches in AEW, including several as a part of TayJay with Anna Jay. She’s also had good title matches against Britt Baker and Jade Cargill, although she came up short in both bouts.
Tay’s martial arts background and willingness to get her hands dirty should get her far in AEW, as long as she can get away from the awful mess that was the American Top Team. The tacky storyline and the disrespectful name calling from Dan Lambert really piled onto a character that didn’t deserve that type of shaming.
The Bunny
A talented performer and a charming personality, The Bunny is a lot more than just a pretty face and a creepy mask. She’s been active since 2019, and has been a part of some memorable matches. Her most recent bloodbath of note was the tag match with Penelope Ford, Anna Jay, and Tay Conti that I mentioned earlier.
Allie, as she’s also known, is also an avid vlogger. Her love of horror movies and Oreo cookies is reflected in the weekly YouTube vlog she’s had going for years, and she always gets some fun backstage content with some unlikely AEW talent. If she’s not looking to continue her in-ring career, I think there’s a bright future for the Bunny in doing backstage work with AEW, or on her own.
Mercedes Martinez
The Ring of Honor Champion has defended her championship on AEW Dark and Elevation multiple times, a move that seems disrespectful to Tony Khan's newest acquisition. Mercedes is a veteran of basically every wrestling company in America, including WWE, Ring of Honor, AEW, and Impact. She deserves every accolade she’s received, as a legit talent and a serious threat to whoever is on the other side of the ring. While she’s been working in the ring for over twenty years, she obviously has a lot left in the tank. The Ring of Honor Women’s Championship deserves better than some pre-taped matches on a YouTube show, and so does the Ring of Honor Women’s Champion.
Thunder Rosa
The current AEW Women's Champion, Thunder Rosa has expressed frustration with her current direction and TV time. Can you blame her? Her last title defense was set up in an open challenge segment shortly before the match, against Marina Shafir. No disrespect to Shafir, but the champ deserves full stories and time to let rivalries flesh out.
Thunder Rosa is a great choice for champ, with a fantastic look, passionate promo skills (in two languages!), awesome in ring ability, and a knowledge of wrestling that comes from not only years of experience on the mat, but also running her own promotion, Mission Pro Wrestling. She’s also an outspoken proponent of women’s wrestling, causes dear to her heart, and delicious tacos via her taco vlog. It seems like so many wrestlers have started to produce their own content to help themselves get over, and it’s almost wasteful not to promote those side hustles on AEW programming. Even something small like a QR link on the bottom third would say a lot to the wrestlers about how AEW feels about their effort. After all, if the talent is popular, doesn’t their workplace benefit?
Hey, I appreciate you stopping by, and would love it if you drop your thoughts in the comments section below. You can also follow me on Twitter @ElOsoPequeno, where I try to remember to post whenever I update the blog. I recap Raw, Dynamite, and Rampage weekly, and recap anything else I happen to watch. There’s also a weekly wrap up on Fridays, and I’ll do predictions before any big AEW or WWE pay per premium live events.
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