Grading All Elite Wrestling's first year as a promotion

Women's Division: C

Britt Baker and AEW Women's Champ, Riho

This might will be a US-centric bias, but I had no idea who half of the women on the roster were throughout the early PPVs and shows. I know who Britt Baker, Allie, and Awesome Kong are, but regarding the joshi wrestlers, I was unfamiliar with most of them.

I understand wanting to feature talent from all over the world and giving them an international spotlight, but it was hard to pick who to root for other than Riho because she was barely 100 pounds soaking wet. The joshi women are obviously all immensely talented, but like featuring Chris Jericho initially as the AEW World Champion, it would have made a little more sense to me to have put the AEW Women's title on Allie.

Since the promotion is based in the US and received a TV deal with a major US cable network in TNT, it would have benefited the roster a little more with a known name carrying the title initially. Having Allie drop the tile to Riho would have worked perfectly anyways after fans got a taste of her fighting back against all the odds in order to get a title shot.

We knew that the roster wasn't filled to capacity due to the promotion being in its first year, so it made sense to feature non-rostered women like Statlander, Swole and Jamie Hayter on TV before deciding to sign them.

Kenny Omega even admitted that they hadn't booked things the best with the division but things would be changing. I know Brandi is Cody's wife and a CBO, but her presence on TV could have been given to women who are actually wrestling. Instead of trying out a new gimmick that seems to be losing steam each week, we could be seeing Shanna, Gibbs or Penelope Ford in action.