AEW has a problem booking its women’s division. The sky is blue, water is wet.
I don’t want to sound like a broken record that everyone seems to have been playing for the past seven years, but for as good as Divine Dominion vs. Kris Statlander and Hikaru Shida was in a vacuum, something needs to be said about what has happened to poor Kris Statlander.
This is being written immediately after the April 29 episode of “AEW Dynamite,” meaning that I can technically say that it was only last month that Statlander was the AEW Women’s World Champion. She was defending her title in a two-out-of-three falls match on pay-per-view, she had beaten both Mercedes Mone and “Timeless” Toni Storm, and she looked to have finally managed to incorporate her original alien gimmick into her current character, which made her even more interesting. Now she’s in the midcard, again, like seriously, what the hell happened?
Don’t get me wrong, I understand that Megan Bayne and Lena Kross need challengers because right now they have precisely no one to feud against. Giving them two former world champions who kind of get along but not always is credible enough to make them look strong, but the whiplash on what has happened to Statlander in particular is just crazy. I’m not saying they shouldn’t have given the belt to Thekla because she’s doing a great job, but Statlander is a classic case in AEW’s women’s division of when you don’t have a belt, you’re just there. Look at Willow Nightingale, she is on TV every week again, because she has a title. If Thekla drops the world title to someone at Double or Nothing, she’d probably disappear as well, as would Divine Dominion.
You can say the same thing for Hikaru Shida as well. First woman to hold the AEW Women’s World Championship three times, and she’s plodding around in the midcard wrestling like a babyface but acting like a heel, give her something to do. Give all these fantastic women something to do that doesn’t involve titles, and with Storm and Mone still out, Statlander and Shida are perfect candidates to build the division around, but instead, they’re doing this.
Statlander, in particular, is one of the most naturally gifted athletes in AEW. She is someone who can be THE face of the women’s division, but the level of disrespect in her booking (which includes some of her title reign as well) is ridiculous. Hopefully something comes of this because if it doesn’t, I’d suggest Statlander look for a new place of work. Do better, Tony Khan, it’s getting exhausting now.
Written by Sam Palmer.