With AEW careening toward their biggest show, a second go-around at Wembley Stadium, Tony Khan should be wondering how that show should demonstrate what AEW does best. Sure, the spectacle of a stadium wrestling show, especially one that is the second of a barely five-year-old company, is something of the draw itself. And AEW specializes in groin-grabbingly good work between the ropes, which Bryan Danielson-Swerve Strickland assuredly will be. But AEW is about more than that, or at least it once was, and if they want to showcase that to the hilt, Khan should slot the women’s world championship match between Toni Storm and Mariah May into the last slot.
Yeah, I know. Ridiculous. This could be Danielson’s last match, for fuck’s sake! (it won’t be). Swerve is the top guy in the company! (Well… yeah). But stick with me here, I think I have a case. Or at least follow along as my brain dribbles out my ear and you have more ammo to mock me.
Either way, we all win.
Toni Storm and Mariah May is the better story
While AEW is known as the workrate company, the company that will put on great matches just for the sake of it, the one that sneezes Dave Meltzer stars whenever it wants, that’s not all AEW is. Or at least shouldn’t be. The ethos of AEW wasn’t just great matches, but cleaner, better storytelling full of great matches and subtle character work mixed with excellent but to-the-point promos. AEW, at its best, has been Hangman-Swerve, or Hangman-Omega (sensing a theme here), or Punk-MJF, or Omega-Moxley. You may have your own favorite, but when AEW has truly hit the heights, it’s when it has matched its superlative matches with brilliantly crafted stories.
And no, that doesn’t mean 45-minute promos combined with glorified House of Torture matches that somehow qualify as “cinema.” Seriously, replace Solo Sikoa with Dick Togo and see if anyone notices, other than the fact that Togo is a better wrestler.
Mariah and Toni may be their best. It has been carefully laid out for over a year, with some brilliant matches from both highlighting the tale all along the way. Sure, it’s been campy at times, but that was the point. It’s also been funny, mysterious, subtle, and eventually shocking. It’s been visceral. From the very moment that Mariah debuted and she and Queen Aminata beat the ever-loving shit out of each other, she has been on a path to this very spot. Her turn on Toni after winning the Owen was arguably the most exciting moment in AEW this year, at least on TV, and the image of her wielding that bloody show is not one anyone is going to forget. It was pro wrestling at its best, in every way. Every AEW fan knows every turn and layer of what these two have produced for the past year.
Swerve and Danielson feels much more “moment-y,” which is the other company’s deal. Sure, the “championship vs. career” stip is trying to cram more stakes onto this match. But we know that Danielson isn’t going to retire fully, even if he’s laying that on pretty thick of late. It’s always been billed as retiring from being a “full-time” wrestling. We all know Danielson, he’s not going to be able to let this go entirely in two weeks.
It feels like Tony Khan trying to give Danielson his singles match in a football stadium that he never got in the other place, and again, that’s moment-y. Khan may want the prestige that Danielson holding the company’s biggest title provides. But again…moment-y. At any other PPV, that would be fine.
This is the biggest show, where AEW should be showing off what it does better than anyone. Leave the MOMENTS to the other guys, and press ahead with their best story.
AEW has a chance to take the lead on a women’s division
The company and Khan can’t completely make up for the years they spent shortchanging the women’s division, whether that was a directive of the corporate overlords or not. But don’t look now, as the AEW women’s division should be, and may already be, the home of the best women’s division anywhere.
While Khan and AEW shouldn’t book their shows in a “compete with WWE” fashion, it’s hard to avoid completely. And New York’s women’s division…is kind of a mess right now (and I’m being kind). Its biggest feud is two women capable of so much more than bickering over an incompetent fail-son (and I’m being kind to Liv Morgan there). It’s lost a lot of its star power. Mercedes Mone is in AEW. Becky Lynch has taken up temporary residence in the land of wind and ghosts. Bianca Belair is staring blankly at Jade Cargill most of the time. I don’t even know what Iyo Sky is doing, and she certainly isn’t at the top of the card. Even Charlotte isn’t around to actually try the three times a year that is her M.O.
AEW has the stars. Mone, Toni, Mariah, Willow Nightengale, Kris Statlander (and praying for a returning Jamie Hayter), Britt Baker, these are all wrestlers who can take big slots and run with it. The buzz from finally having a main event, THE main event in the company, helmed by the women’s division, could provide the kind of momentum and attention to carry out for months. And would also finally stake out AEW as the place where the best women’s wrestling takes place.
Which is a promise they hadn’t kept for years, but now’s the time to come through.
If the hometown pop is so important…
It’s clear that AEW likes to have Will Ospreay in a prime spot at Wembley, as this will be the second year in a row that he will do so. It makes perfect sense, as he might be the best wrestler in the world at the moment, and there probably isn’t a limit on how many British Bulldog-Bret Hart reenactments you can do at this stadium.
But…Mariah May is also English. And while she might not be the star Ospreay is…why can’t she be? Certainly, there are no issues in the ring, as she’s put on great matches since arriving. She obviously has the look and demeanor and can shift gears character-wise clearly. Hell, in this story, she’s been the borderline-stalker fan, the subservient assistant, the middle of a triangle, and then the vindictive former pupil now rising on her own. Quite simply. Mariah May is what everyone thinks Charlotte is. She can probably do a successful moonsault, one would wager.
Mariah winning the title on home soil shouldn’t be that much less of a pop than Ospreay conquering MJF for the international title, which, again, feels even more mashed together in a hurry feud just to get to a MOMENT. Mariah has worked toward this for over a year.
Sure, there are problems. Swerve’s title reign hasn’t always been treated as the biggest deal, and this won’t help. But that doesn’t really compare to the lack of attention the women’s division has gotten for most of AEW’s existence. There’s more ground to be made up. Danielson can main-event WrestleDream to end the full-time portion of his career. This is the moment that AEW can throw its weight behind the women’s division and set it up long-term. It shouldn’t pass on the opportunity.
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