AEW’s Joshi Complex
All Elite Wrestling is a really funny promotion to talk about at the end of the day. Now look, this isn’t a hate piece. Trust me, I hesitate to even state my own criticisms yet alone a hate piece. And I have LOADS of criticisms I can say right now and make you mad. Say I won’t! I’m talking to you… Mercedes Moné. Rian. I’m talking to you two.
Honestly, I should have thought this through. I haven’t really been using my brain lately. I know that I said I would slow down on these opinion based articles especially after the last one. This has just been something that has been on my mind since I discovered the land of All Elite. And given recent years and events, it’s a perfect time to talk about them.
Discovering AEW
Wrestling has been in my life for a long time. Much like some fans, I discovered wrestling through my family as we would watch many shows together from World Wrestling Entertainment. Me and my little brother would discover Impact Wrestling [TNA] as we were flipping through television channels or maybe that was me, I don’t really remember. That experience helped me understand there are many companies and different wrestlers around the world. Many wrestlers I first saw in Impact are wrestlers that I see in many major companies like Eddie Edwards, Taiji Ishimori [NJPW] (BULLET CLUB War Dogs), Pentagon Jr. (Penta), Josh Alexander, Ethan Page, Brian Cage, Rey Fenix, Bobby Lashley, Gail Kim, Allie (The Bunny), Kiera Hogan, Sammy Guevara, TJP [NJPW] (The Capitan of United Empire), El Hijo del Vikingo, etc.
In 2020, we would have the Covid-19 Pandemic and the world completely shut down. At this time, I was more focused on the sport of football (soccer) and wrestling became a casual thing. It did fascinate me when I saw a wrestling program with no fans in attendance. So that is when I slowly started becoming more in tune with wrestling again. Impact Wrestling was the promotion that really was fun for me in 2020 and mid-2021. And I started watching wrestling reviews during this time and discovered AEW through… What Culture Wrestling. Yes. You saw that right.
I am currently a fan of Simon Miller’s Ups And Downs Reviews that they do on their channel. In my free time, especially if I get bored, I would watch or listen to Simon Miller’s reviews everyday. Whether that being an old review or a brand new review, I’d check it out. I won’t lie, I would listen or watch his old reviews more than his new reviews. Mainly, since the appeal of watching these reviews was that they would review other promotions or different shows like iMPACT! Wrestling [TNA], Wrestle Kingdom shows [NJPW], AEW Dark, AEW Rampage, AEW Collision, etc. Now they only do WWE RAW, AEW Dynamite & WWE SmackDown along with the PPVs and TV Specials. The reason why they only do these shows is simply no one was watching the others which makes me feel like a sad panda.
First Look at the AEW Women’s Division
Since I was watching Impact Wrestling Ups And Downs, whether that being Weekly TV & PPVs, it took me until March of 2021 to watch an AEW match or sort of. To be FAIR, I did watch Simon Miller’s AEW Ups And Downs to get caught up. But I was hesitant to watch a show from AEW. ESPECIALLY, when Kenny Omega beat Rich Swann to become Impact World Champion & TNA World Heavyweight Champion during Kenny’s whole Belt Collector arc. I never like Kenny having this title, because of how Rich Swann got screwed following this.
Impact Wrestling told a beautiful story of Rich Swann’s rise as an underdog and his World Title really had fun matches that I love. So to see his title reign end like that never sat right with me, especially since Rich Swann never recovered after this.
Anyway, back to the topic. I remember watching the segment on Ups And Downs about the AEW Women’s division. I decided to check who was on the roster at the time, especially when Dr. Britt Baker DMD and Thunder Rosa were feuding at the time. I won’t lie, I wasn’t interested. I like hearing Simon Miller talk about it, but I didn’t feel it. Thunder Rosa, Riho, Dr. Britt Baker DMD & Hikaru Shida intrigued me a lot which leads into…
The Arrival Of Maki Itoh
I know that she already debuted in the AEW Women’s World Championship Eliminator Tournament, which I will include in a different section. Seeing this former idol appear made me very intrigued. She was very over the top, incorporating dancing, singing in her entrance that made her stand out. And she was a very fun wrestler on top of that. She definitely got the most amount of attention following that AEW Women’s World Championship Eliminator Tournament. I have always wondered why AEW hasn’t signed Maki Itoh, especially since she said that signing with AEW is one of her goals in an interview.
“I still want to be in AEW. It is a narrow gate, but my dream is to become a [part of the] AEW roster and play an active role on TV”
Source: WrestlingNewsCo
Like hell, even current AEW International Champion Kenny Omega said this in interviews and his twitch livestream.
Maki has been continuing to gain some notoriety in the United States since she has been working for many independent promotions as a member of Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling. And wanting to burn down Stone Cold Steve Austin’s house… for whatever reason.
It does lead me to the next section which is…
2019’s Joshi Feeling
I like to research a lot about many different types of media, especially different niches of this widely great sport. I remember going through highlights and many matches throughout certain shows, I noticed some sort of feeling with the women’s division.
Unlike the men’s division, the women’s division had many different independent wrestling personalities and one of these were the Joshis that appeared on the shows. At the first Double Or Nothing, we had the team of Aja Kong, Emi Sakura & Yuka Sakazaki vs Hikaru Shida, Riho & Ryo Mizunami. I have only seen the highlights, but the rest of joshi matches I would see throughout are really good and can get you emotionally invested.
Especially since they are all different personalities. Some are similar with their mannerisms, but they are not the same. That is what drew my interest in the AEW Women’s division, a variety of personalities like Riho, Emi Sakura & Hikaru Shida while having some crossovers. They had a significant presence in the women’s division at that time and it was really well-received by fans. It would lead to signings of Riho, Hikaru Shida, Emi Sakura & Yuka Sakazaki. Which is why I notice how much the women’s division did take a hit in 2020 given that the joshi wrestlers that were stuck in Japan due to the pandemic.
According to Dave Meltzer on the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, AEW Executive Vice President, Kenny Omega wanted to present Joshi wrestling much like World Championship Wrestling presented Lucha Libre to make it unique. WCW has used joshi wrestlers in the past and even made the WCW World Women’s Cruiserweight Championship that would be specifically used by the joshi promotion, GAEA Girls.
If AEW did continue to present their joshi wrestlers they have already signed like Mina Shirakawa, Riho, Hikaru Shida & Yuka Sakazaki in a higher regard, they would have had that unique presence they can be known for.
The Lack Of Exposure In Recent Years
AEW has evolved with many wrestlers that are in the United States like Kris Statlander, Willow Nightingale, Penelope Ford, Julia Hart, Skye Blue, Queen Aminata, Thunder Rosa, Toni Storm, and many signings like Mina Shirakawa, Deonna Purrazzo, Mercedes Martinez, Thekla, so that if the world is in another pandemic (or maybe soon given conspiracy theories), they would okay this time around. As much as the women’s division has evolved, there is one thing that I notice is that there has been less exposure of Joshi wrestlers appearing on AEW TV.
The most recent case of this was with Yuka Sakazaki.
Ever since moving to the United States, we have less and less of Yuka Sakazaki than in previous years. The last time we saw her on AEW TV was in January of this year. She defeated Deonna Purazzo, Queen Aminata and Serena Deeb to become the #1 Contender for the AEW TBS Championship on the Homecoming edition of AEW Collision. She would main event the next AEW Dynamite and came up short. This match was a problem when Yuka won the eliminator. Yuka (and Aminata, Purrazzo & Deeb) was rarely on AEW TV at that point and it felt like a one-off. Then Yuka Sakazaki would just fall into the abyss. This has been an overall AEW Women’s division problem for years, and it has been pointed out by a multitude of the fanbase.
There are multiple factors when it comes to AEW being so inconsistent with their International signings especially with those that don’t live in the United States like injuries, visa issues, etc. So it can make things quite difficult, and I understand that specific factor. It is different to not using them when they are available and ready to be featured on TV. This has been the case for the women’s division as a whole and it really makes a remarkable achievement for how many women on the roster have made names for themselves in the fanbase despite the time they are able to have with the multiple non title and title feuds.
AEW Women’s World Championship Eliminator Tournament
In 2021, AEW would announce the AEW Women’s World Championship Eliminator Tournament. There were 16 women competing to face Hikaru Shida for the AEW Women’s World Championship at that year’s Revolution event. The tournament would be won by Ryo Mizunami and many fans have coined the match with Shida as the best match on the PPV. Unfortunately it doesn’t get brought up given that same night, we had Kenny Omega versus Jon Moxley in an Exploding Barbwire Death Match. Oh boy, I felt bad for those guys ngl.
This tournament has to be the most amount of effort that AEW has put into their women’s division since the company formed. The concept of this tourney was that it was an international tournament with two brackets, the US Bracket and the Japanese Bracket. There were sanctioned matches for the Japanese side in the ICE RIBBON Dojo in Saitama. This bracket had Yuka Sakazaki, Mei Suruga, VENY, Emi Sakura, Maki Itoh, Ryo Mizunami, Aja Kong & Rin Kadokura. Even AEW Women’s World Champion Hikaru Shida would compete in tag matches in the Japanese side. The US bracket would take place in Daily’s Place as they had Leyla Hirsch, Thunder Rosa, (then) NWA World Women’s Champion Serena Deeb, Riho, Tay Conti, Nyla Rose, Dr. Britt Baker DMD & Anna Jay.
AEW would have their own YouTube shows (& Japanese commentary) and would feature some of the tournament matches and the finals AEW TV. Ryo Mizunami would win the Japanese bracket and defeated Nyla Rose in the finals at AEW Dynamite: Crosswords to win the whole tourney. This tournament was very well received by fans and Maki Itoh would be very popular following this. This tournament is still the most effort that AEW has put into their women’s division and it ended up being successful all around.
Is There Still Hope?
My answer to this is… I don’t know. I genuinely don’t know when it comes to the Joshi wrestlers in AEW yet alone as a division. This whole discussion falls in between a rock and a hard place. I know that Mina Shirakawa is on the roster and is featured, but I think she is only an exception to the problem at hand.
There are many hurdles that Joshi wrestlers face when they transition to the US. They are very capable of having many great things that you can gravitate towards. As women’s wrestlers are able to be more vulnerable and show more range with their personas than their male counterparts, Joshi wrestlers are able to master that to get you emotionally invested. Case in point:
Giulia and Waka Tsukiyama’s interaction at a Press Conference:
and
Natsupoi and Saori Anou’s Presser for their Indian Strap Match:
I genuinely don’t know if there is any hope, but probably not.
Conclusion
And in conclusion… Maika is a god. YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!
Art by Neon Ghost