I do know I complained about this last week on this very column, but I actually would have thought ahead of Revolution that AEW would have done something to treatment the shortage of top women’s talent, especially the AEW Women’s World Champion, on “Dynamite.” Treatment, as in, get them on the darn show sooner or later, quite than have a silly press conference segment that had no business taking over time.
While I’m all for giving people day off, and I’m assuming that is what was happening here, I do not really think that is a great thing in the times leading as much as a pay-per-view, especially AEW’s first big event in just a few months. Thekla, Kris Statlander, and “Timeless” Toni Storm were all missing from tonight’s show ahead of their matches at Revolution on Saturday.
TBS Champion Willow Nightingale defended her title against Peresphone tonight and had her fellow AEW Women’s World Tag Team Champion Harley Cameron alongside her in a backstage segment. Marina Shafir accompanied the Death Riders to the ring during their show-opening match as well, however it just wasn’t enough to construct to the pay-per-view. It felt like barely enough for AEW to say, “Hey, at the very least there have been women on the show tonight!”
Sure, Nightingale’s match against Peresphone ruled, and she or he arrange two different matches for herself for each of her championships at Revolution, but the large matches already set for the show were barely acknowledged. Shafir must have had a ringside brawl with Storm since she was on the market already. It won’t have fit the vibe of the match, which was more for Jon Moxley and Konosuke Takeshita to be on opposing teams ahead of their Continental Championship match, but when has that ever stopped the “Timeless” one from doing whatever she wants?
If I didn’t follow AEW on social media, I do not think I might have any concept that Thekla is defending her AEW Women’s World Championship in a two-out-of-three falls match with Statlander. That entire rematch has been arrange on “AEW Collision” on Saturdays, which is effective, I suppose, but a video package or a recap about all of it would have been nice to see tonight.
While I assumed “Dynamite” was pretty solid overall, I assumed this was a reasonably large issue. The AEW Men’s World Championship got a whole press conference-turned-brawl segment, while the ladies’s title was barely acknowledged. As we move forward into AEW’s big pay-per-views of 2026, especially Double or Nothing, All In, and All Out, I hope this does not turn out to be a trend.
Written by Daisy Ruth