AEW: Thunder Rosa & Britt Baker deliver in the main event

It was the moment AEW fans had been waiting for: the women main eventing Dynamite. Britt Baker and Thunder Rosa were the women who were chosen for this historic moment. The women’s division has been working so hard to get to this point. It should’ve happened much sooner, but when they finally got their moment, they more than delivered.

This match was historic for other reasons. Baker and Thunder Rosa competed in an Unsanctioned Lights Out-Anything Goes match; the first of its kind for the women on Dynamite. These women brought everything they had and left it all out in the ring.

There were chairs, tables, ladders, and even thumbtacks. Of course, there was Baker’s trusty latex glove to deliver the lockjaw (although her opponent had.a clever way to get out of it). There was even Rebel and her trusty crutch and some will say, she got what was coming to her.

Thunder Rosa and Baker set an incredibly high bar. They have brought excitement to the division and the show. Prior to this match, the women had the most watched match for two consecutive weeks. The Eliminator tournament brought a lot of intrigue and followed through with fantastic matches. We know the interest is there.

The women should be main eventing regularly. There doesn’t need to be a big stipulation like an Unsanctioned Lights Out match. Just give the women time to tell their story. They deserve 12-15 minute matches.

Besides main events, there needs to be more than one women’s match per Dynamite regularly. We’ve seen multiple women’s matches on Dark and Dark: Elevation. These matches typically run 3-5 minutes. That’s not enough time anyway, but it’s definitely not enough time for Dynamite. 

After the show, AEW Women’s World Champion, Hikaru Shida, tweeted that she told Sports Illustrated that the women were “proving our division has the power to carry the show.” Shida is absolutely right. As the longest-reigning women’s champion, she has done just about everything except main event. She should definitely be the next woman to main event.

Judging by the reaction after the match, fans are clamoring for more women’s matches. It’s great that there are multiple women competing on the YouTube shows. Over the last few weeks, these women have shown the that they deserve multiple matches on national TV. They deserve to headline pay-per-views. The women have more than earned the right to be in the spotlight.

It’s not lost on me that this match (along with RIHO vs. Maki Itoh main eventing the very first episode of Dark:Elevation) occurred during Women’s History Month. Women main eventing can’t be a PR stunt. It has to happen consistently. AEW can’t go back to the same old, same old. As I mentioned before, AEW can normalize regular main events featuring women.

Now is the time to capitalize on the interest of women’s main events. AEW can truly set itself apart by the way it features their women’s division. Give us what we want.