The quantity of history that All Elite Wrestling has made within the six years that they have been in existence is nothing in need of remarkable, all things considered. They’re an organization many individuals didn’t think would live to see its first anniversary, would not survive a world pandemic, and would not give you the option to ascertain itself as a legitimate competitor and/or alternative to WWE, and yet, they’ve done all of that and so far more.
With all that said, none of that will have been possible if not for the deep pockets of the Khan family, and more specifically, the richest wrestling fan on the earth, AEW President Tony Khan, who has assembled certainly one of the best rosters within the history of the business. The male side of things often gets the lion’s share of the highlight, but since 2019, it has been the ladies’s division that has produced a few of AEW’s most iconic moments most of the time.
While they do not get as much TV time as many individuals would really like, and even in spite of everything these years, they’re still confined to having one match per episode of “AEW Dynamite,” when the women get the prospect to indicate up and show out, they routinely outshine the boys to the purpose where people literally plead with Tony on social media to book them more often. We recently shared a listing of probably the most historic women’s rivalries in AEW history, but today, we would like to dive somewhat deeper into a number of the matches from the ladies of AEW that can stand the test of time long after we’ve got all gone.
So sit back, loosen up, and prepare so as to add all of those bouts to your watchlists for future viewings, as these are five of probably the most historic women’s matches in AEW history.
Riho vs. Nyla Rose – AEW Women’s World Championship (AEW Dynamite #1)
Like all stories, you’ve gotten to begin initially, and All Elite Wrestling’s women’s division got off to a start that each excited and confused people all at the identical time. One in all AEW’s earliest experiments was to treat the Joshi scene in Japan like how WCW treated cruiserweights within the Nineties, where they’d usher in a number of the biggest names for exhibition bouts on the primary few shows that they produced. It’s how the likes of Aja Kong, Ryo Mizunami, and Emi Sakura all featured on the inaugural Double or Nothing pay-per-view, while Hikaru Shida and Yuka Sakazaki would find yourself receiving full-time deals. Nonetheless, the girl who caught everyone’s attention was Riho.
Already a 20-year veteran on the time of writing despite being 28 years old, Riho was seen as the primary breakout star of the AEW women’s division. To not be fooled by her size, she was a lightning bolt within the ring and was in a position to tackle opponents double her size and get the win most of the time. Because of this Nyla Rose, the primary openly transgender to sign with a significant American promotion, was such a superb match for Riho, as Rose was in a position to bully virtually anyone she stepped within the ring with, making a number of the division’s most formidable opponents appear to be David in comparison with Rose’s Goliath.
Riho and Rose would eventually face off one-on-one on October 2, 2019, on the debut episode of “AEW Dynamite,” where the winner would walk away because the inaugural AEW Women’s World Champion. While the match itself has since been overshadowed by the eventual rematch they’d have in February 2020, a match that many saw as the primary truly great women’s match in AEW history. With that said, their initial match on the first-ever “Dynamite” belongs within the history books not simply because it determined the primary women’s champion, however the sight of a transgender woman, and a Japanese woman who weighed lower than 100 kilos wrestling in front of a sold out arena in america, set the tone for what the AEW women’s division could truly be.
Dr. Britt Baker D.M.D. vs Thunder Rosa – Lights Out Unsanctioned Match (AEW St. Patrick’s Day Slam 2021)
While it’s extremely clear that corporations like WWE, and on their day, TNA, could be seen as places which might be more encouraging to women’s wrestling than AEW, there’s one area of interest area of girls’s wrestling that AEW has not only mastered, but change into famous for: death matches. As other corporations are a bit apprehensive to let anyone, let alone women, bleed in all places, All Elite Wrestling has allowed its women’s division to roll around in thumbtacks, strangle one another with barbed wire, and let the red stuff run as if you happen to were showering in cranberry juice.
Anna Jay and Tay Conti vs. Penelope Ford and The Bunny from the 2021 Recent Yr’s Smash edition of “AEW Rampage” was seen as “gory self-mutilation” by WWE, Willow Nightingale and Kris Statlander had a Chicago Street Fight at All Out 2024 that was as graphic because it was glorious, however the match that began all of it was Dr. Britt Baker D.M.D. vs. Thunder Rosa from the St. Patrick’s Day Slam edition of “AEW Dynamite in March 2021.
It’s unclear if their real-life rivalry had change into public knowledge on the time of this match, but they sure made it appear to be they really hated one another because the two women beat one another senseless with any weapons they may find. This went beyond a traditional hardcore match, and by the tip of it, the green aesthetic of the show, given its theme, had been overtaken by crimson red as Baker and Rosa had shed more blood in a single night than some male wrestlers will shed of their entire careers. It received several match of the 12 months nods on the time, and cemented Baker and Rosa because the two top stars in the ladies’s division, something that was emphasized by Baker winning the AEW Women’s World Championship from Hikaru Shida two months later, and no other woman other than Baker or Rosa holding the title until September 2022, and even that only happened because Rosa got injured.
Hikaru Shida vs. Jamie Hayter – AEW Women’s World Championship (AEW Holiday Bash 2022)
By the tip of 2022, AEW was a really different company from what it was even firstly of the 12 months. WWE had gotten its mojo back by telling Vince McMahon to retire after a string of sexual assault allegations were revealed. CM Punk had gone scorched earth on nearly everyone after All Out 2022, descending the corporate right into a tailspin that they’re only now fully recovering from, and various backstage altercations and stories of drama began to change into routine within the news cycles. But one thing that many individuals look back on fondly from AEW at the tip of 2022 is the AEW Women’s World Championship reign of Jamie Hayter.
Hayter had dethroned Toni Storm at Full Gear in November to change into the Interim AEW Women’s World Champion, which was later converted to the undisputed title after it was made clear that the lineal champion, Thunder Rosa, wasn’t returning any time soon. Her first defense was against Hikaru Shida, a lady we have already mentioned, and a lady who still holds the record for longest individual reign as AEW Women’s World Champion.
Within the midst of falling rankings, falling attendance, and wrestlers falling down because they couldn’t stop fighting one another backstage, Hayter and Shida principal evented the 2022 Holiday Bash edition of “AEW Dynamite” and gave everyone a really exciting, very physical early Christmas present. The 2 women beat the colour out of one another for over quarter-hour, and the fans in San Antonio that night were on their feet, applauding mainly all the pieces they did until Hayter retained at the tip of the bout.
In spite of everything of the incredible in-ring motion AEW fans had seen that 12 months, Hayter and Shida made a late push to get themselves a match of the 12 months nomination, which they did with most publications, and a part of the rationale why it’s still so fondly remembered is that since that night, Hayter and Shida have never crossed paths again.
Timeless Toni Storm vs. Mariah May – The Hollywood Ending for the AEW Women’s World Championship (AEW Revolution 2025)
Far and away, probably the most beloved character to ever come out of the ladies’s division in AEW is “Timeless” Toni Storm. What began as people considering Storm had began showing signs of some kind of hysteria was a delusional fantasy that has evolved into Storm being probably the most provocative, yet rewatchable character in all of AEW.
On condition that she is actually a living movie character playing the role of a lifetime in front of a live audience, Storm’s heroic journey needed a villain, and that villain got here in the shape of Mariah May. Storm took May under her wing after the English star told Storm how much she admired her and aspired to be like her, right right down to traveling to STARDOM in Japan simply because Storm did. They might grow extremely close, but as a consequence of the story being modeled after the 1950 movie “All About Eve,” there was only a technique this was going to go, and May not only betrayed Storm, but beat her inside an inch of her life with a shoe, and eventually took the AEW Women’s World Championship from her at All In London in August 2024.
After returning months later and eventually recapturing her title, May and Storm were set to put in writing the right “Hollywood Ending” at AEW Revolution 2025 in Los Angeles, California, but this ending could be written in blood. This match was Baker vs. Rosa on steroids, as Storm and May had broken glass glued to their fists, blood pouring from every cut and gash on their bodies, to the purpose where despite the fact that people would have liked this match to have lasted a bit longer, there was no way either woman could have gone on longer than what they already had. Storm not only defeated May, but in her own words, compromised her to a everlasting end, concluding the best story within the history of the AEW women’s division with certainly one of the best women’s matches to happen on American soil.
Timeless Toni Storm vs. Mercedes Moné – AEW Women’s World Championship (AEW All In Texas 2025)
This could be seen as recency bias to some, but make no mistake about it, “Timeless” Toni Storm vs. Mercedes Moné from AEW’s All In Texas event lived as much as its billing as the largest match within the history of the AEW women’s division, and will probably be thought to be certainly one of the nice women’s matches of the twenty first century. Having one major star be of their prime is one thing, but having two is something else, and getting those two stars to cross paths naturally is an especially difficult thing to do, but AEW managed to do it with Storm and Moné.
After Mariah May had been killed off screen and was Blake Monroe in “WWE NXT,” the girl everyone desired to see Storm face as “The CEO,” and after Moné defeated Jamie Hayter in the ultimate of the Owen Hart Foundation Tournament at Double or Nothing, the match everyone desired to see was on, and nobody knew the way it was going to go. Storm was, and on the time of writing still is, certainly one of the largest stars in your complete company, but Moné was literally riding the “Moné Train” through the wrestling world, picking up titles in every single place she went to the purpose where people online thought she had some kind of creative control (she in truth doesn’t have creative control in line with Tony Khan).
Moné had been so dominant that many thought that there could be no probability that Storm would give you the option to resist what Moné was going to throw at her, but when the bell rang at Globe Life Field, the 2 biggest stars within the history of the AEW women’s division locked horns, and it was all the pieces people wanted it to be. Each women nearly killed one another with a view to change into champion, and while there was no dramatic blood loss or Taipei Death match antics just like the “Hollywood Ending,” Storm vs. Moné was seen on the identical level as the opposite two principal events on that night, and will definitely be in contention for AEW’s match of the 12 months when 2025 draws to an in depth.