The amount of history that All Elite Wrestling has made in the six years that they've been in existence is nothing short of remarkable, all things considered. They are a company many people didn't think would live to see its first anniversary, wouldn't survive a global pandemic, and wouldn't be able to establish itself as a legitimate competitor and/or alternative to WWE, and yet, they've done all of that and so much more.
With all that said, none of that would have been possible if not for the deep pockets of the Khan family, and more specifically, the richest wrestling fan in the world, AEW President Tony Khan, who has assembled one of the greatest rosters in the history of the business. The male side of things usually gets the lion's share of the spotlight, but since 2019, it's been the women's division that has produced some of AEW's most iconic moments more often than not.
While they don't get as much TV time as many people would like, and even after all these years, they are still confined to having one match per episode of "AEW Dynamite," when the ladies get the chance to show up and show out, they routinely outshine the men to the point where people literally plead with Tony on social media to book them more often. We recently shared a list of the most historic women's rivalries in AEW history, but today, we want to dive a little deeper into some of the matches from the women of AEW that will stand the test of time long after we have all gone.
So sit back, relax, and get ready to add all of these bouts to your watchlists for future viewings, as these are five of the most historic women's matches in AEW history.
Like all stories, you have to start at the beginning, and All Elite Wrestling's women's division got off to a start that both excited and confused people all at the same time. One of AEW's earliest experiments was to treat the Joshi scene in Japan like how WCW treated cruiserweights in the 1990s, where they would bring in some of the biggest names for exhibition bouts on the first 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 end up receiving full-time deals. However, the woman who caught everyone's attention was Riho.
Already a 20-year veteran at the time of writing despite being 28 years old, Riho was seen as the first breakout star of the AEW women's division. Not to be fooled by her size, she was a lightning bolt in the ring and was able to take on opponents double her size and get the win more often than not. This is why Nyla Rose, the first openly transgender to sign with a major American promotion, was such a good match for Riho, as Rose was able to bully virtually anyone she stepped in the ring with, making some of the division's most formidable opponents look like David compared to 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 as the inaugural AEW Women's World Champion. While the match itself has since been overshadowed by the eventual rematch they would have in February 2020, a match that many saw as the first truly great women's match in AEW history. With that said, their initial match on the first-ever "Dynamite" belongs in the history books not just because it determined the first women's champion, but the sight of a transgender woman, and a Japanese woman who weighed less than 100 pounds wrestling in front of a sold out arena in the United States, set the tone for what the AEW women's division could truly be.
While it's very clear that companies like WWE, and on their day, TNA, can be seen as places that are more encouraging to women's wrestling than AEW, there's one niche area of women's wrestling that AEW has not only mastered, but become famous for: death matches. As other companies are a bit apprehensive to let anyone, let alone women, bleed all over the place, All Elite Wrestling has allowed its women's division to roll around in thumbtacks, strangle each other with barbed wire, and let the red stuff run as if you were showering in cranberry juice.
Anna Jay and Tay Conti vs. Penelope Ford and The Bunny from the 2021 New Year's Smash edition of "AEW Rampage" was seen as "gory self-mutilation" by WWE, WillowNightingale and Kris Statlander had a Chicago Street Fight at All Out 2024 that was as graphic as it was glorious, but the match that started it all was Dr. Britt Baker D.M.D. vs. Thunder Rosa from the St. Patrick's Day Slamedition of "AEW Dynamite in March 2021.
It's unclear if their real-life rivalry had become public knowledge at the time of this match, but they sure made it look like they really hated each other as the two women beat each other senseless with any weapons they could find. This went beyond a normal hardcore match, and by the end 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 one night than some male wrestlers will shed in their entire careers. It received several match of the year nods at the time, and cemented Baker and Rosa as the two top stars in the women'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 apart from Baker or Rosa holding the title until September 2022, and even that only happened because Rosa got injured.
By the end of 2022, AEW was a very different company from what it was even at the start of the year. 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 company into a tailspin that they are only now fully recovering from, and various backstage altercations and stories of drama started to become routine in the news cycles. But one thing that many people look back on fondly from AEW at the end of 2022 is the AEW Women's World Championship reign of Jamie Hayter.
Hayter had dethroned Toni Storm at Full Gear in November to become 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 woman we've already mentioned, and a woman who still holds the record for longest individual reign as AEW Women's World Champion.
In the midst of falling ratings, falling attendance, and wrestlers falling down because they couldn't stop fighting each other backstage, Hayter and Shida main evented the 2022 Holiday Bash edition of "AEW Dynamite" and gave everyone a very exciting, very physical early Christmas present. The two women beat the color out of each other for over 15 minutes, and the fans in San Antonio that night were on their feet, applauding basically everything they did until Hayter retained at the end of the bout.
After all of the incredible in-ring action AEW fans had seen that year, Hayter and Shida made a late push to get themselves a match of the year nomination, which they did with most publications, and part of the reason why it's still so fondly remembered is that since that night, Hayter and Shida have never crossed paths again.
Far and away, the most beloved character to ever come out of the women's division in AEW is "Timeless" Toni Storm. What started as people thinking Storm had started showing signs of some sort of hysteria turned into a delusional fantasy that has evolved into Storm being the most provocative, yet rewatchable character in all of AEW.
Given that she is essentially 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 came in the form 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 down to traveling to STARDOM in Japan just because Storm did. They would grow extremely close, but due to the story being modeled after the 1950 movie "All About Eve,"there was only one way this was going to go, and May not only betrayed Storm, but beat her within 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 write the perfect "Hollywood Ending" at AEW Revolution 2025 in Los Angeles, California, but this ending would 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 point where even though 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 permanent end, concluding the greatest story in the history of the AEW women's division with one of the greatest women's matches to take place on American soil.
This might be seen as recency bias to some, but make no mistake about it, "Timeless" Toni Storm vs. Mercedes Mon from AEW's All In Texas event lived up to its billing as the biggest match in the history of the AEW women's division, and will be regarded as one of the great women's matches of the 21st century.Having one major star be in their prime is one thing, but having two is something else, and getting those two stars to cross paths naturally is an extremely difficult thing to do, but AEW managed to do it with Storm and Mon.
After Mariah May had been killed off screen and turned into Blake Monroe in "WWE NXT,"the woman everyone wanted to see Storm face as "The CEO,"and after Mon defeated Jamie Hayter in the final of the Owen Hart Foundation Tournament at Double or Nothing, the match everyone wanted to see was on, and no one knew how it was going to go. Storm was, and at the time of writing still is, one of the biggest stars in the entire company, but Mon was literally riding the "Mon Train" through the wrestling world, picking up titles everywhere she went to the point where people online thought she had some sort of creative control (she in fact does not have creative control according to Tony Khan).
Mon had been so dominant that many thought that there would be no chance that Storm would be able to withstand what Mon was going to throw at her, but when the bell rang at Globe Life Field, the two biggest stars in the history of the AEW women's division locked horns, and it was everything people wanted it to be. Both women nearly killed each other in order to become champion, and while there was no dramatic blood loss or Taipei Death match antics like the "Hollywood Ending," Storm vs. Mon was seen on the same level as the other two main events on that night, and will certainly be in contention for AEW's match of the year when 2025 draws to a close.
