AEW: Why All Elite Wrestling should sign Shazza McKenzie

As All Elite Wrestling continue to flesh out their roster of women, one woman who would be a brilliant addition to AEW is one Shazza McKenzie.

AEW is still very much in a learning stage with its product. Just over a year since the promotion came into existence and just over three months after their Dynamite show debuted on TNT, AEW continues to grow and build. As such, it’s made some strides, but it’s also made some mistakes, namely some fumbles within the women’s division that have been well documented by now.

The company is slowly progressing in how they try to fix those criticisms, but basing the division on talent alone, it cannot be denied that AEW can be argued to have the best women’s division in all of wrestling. The likes of Big Swole, Britt Baker, Sadie Gibbs, Nyla Rose and, of course, champion Riho all make up an incredible division.

As AEW continues to grow said division, I can’t help but feel like their division is in need of at least one more new addition to their roster in the name of Shazza McKenzie.

Shazza McKenzie is a perky Australian native who has made her presence known all over the indies across places like RISE, Shimmer and SHINE. She even had a notable NXT match against Kairi Sane in 2018.

While she’s perhaps not the most recognizable name within the wrestling community, she’s not an unfamiliar face for All Elite Wrestling fans as she previously made an appearance in the Casino Battle Royale at All Out.

Among 20 other women, McKenzie stood with a few memorable spots, yet to much surprise (at least mine), she was not signed by the company after the match. I still think the opportunity should be on the table for McKenzie to sign with All Elite Wrestling and I think she’d make a fabulous addition to its division.

As I said earlier, AEW has been heavily criticized for how they’ve booked their women’s division so far. To me, I think their biggest problem is that they’ve struggled to find a way to showcase personalities within the division.

They’ve highlighted some wrestlers as archetypes (i.e. Riho is the righteous and hard fighting champion, Nyla Rose is the monster heel), but AEW has so far struggled to highlight these women as actual characters. If you ask me to explain who, individually, each woman was by their personality, I’d struggle to offer an answer.

I know Britt Baker is a dentist. But for the longest time (until the most recent episode of Dynamite), I couldn’t tell you what her emotional motivations were, who she is as a character, etc.

That’s of no fault to the wrestlers themselves. This is strictly on AEW, but I feel like Shazza McKenzie has enough personality that she can shine and get over with fans regardless of how AEW decide to book her.

Again, with just a handful of minutes in the ring, she made an impression with a lot of viewers watching All Out. Imagine just how much of an impression and how over she can get if given months worth of storytelling to work on.

In addition, while I’ve spent much of this time analyzing while McKenzie would be a great asset to AEW improving their women’s division, I must say that as a fan of her in-ring work, I just really want to see her produce some excellent matches with the likes of Baker, Riho, Swole, Rose and even the blossoming Kris Statlander.

There are so many dream matches that can be made from McKenzie’s inclusion in the division that I think a lot of fans would get excited about.