Women’s wrestling has been a force in the industry for the last few years. Many of the biggest moments in the business have occurred in the women’s divisions, and they have been more consistent than their male counterparts. Toni Storm, Athena, and Mercedes Mone are three giants when talking about women’s wrestling. All three are standing atop the women’s division in AEW in one way or another. However, their dominance is creating a space where fans want to see someone new rise up the ranks.
Toni Storm, Mercedes Mone, and Athena are a dominating group of women. Storm is 190 days into her fourth reign as the AEW Women’s World Champion. Mone has held the TBS Championship for 455 days, and Athena has them both beat, holding the Ring of Honor Women’s World Championship for 988 days.
Along the way, each woman has beaten the best that both AEW and ROH have to offer. Storm has even defeated both Mone and Athena herself. Fans have loved the matches and the builds to both, but now that Storm picked up the win at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2025, where does the division go next to build up new names to beat them all. There are some interesting names on the roster, but the path to creating any real momentum behind any of them is a long path that needs to begin now.
Look at this AEW women’s division. There are so many women who’d be great candidates to become champions. This should be the time in which new, never-before-seen champions make their way to the top. Thekla and Queen Aminata are two women who’ve stood out with their feud and should be rewarded with a championship moment. Aminata has dropped championship title matches in the past, but Thekla has yet to hit that point on the roster. Perhaps this is an intentional move to keep her warm for a major title moment.
There are other women on the roster who could be a part of this conversation as well. Willow Nightingale has all the makings to be a John Cena-like babyface for AEW. While she’s held a championship once before, it was well understood that this was a transitional move to get the title onto Mercedes Mone. Still, she’s someone who AEW could easily heat up because the fans are always behind Nightingale. She’s just one name who jumps off the page, but there are others worth mentioning as well.
All Elite Wrestling has a stacked women’s division, and the promotion deserves praise for what it has built. Toni Storm, Mercedes Mone, and Athena are leading the way, but it is time to see newer names rise to the top. Unfortunately, that’s going to be a tough task with how strongly they’ve been built. That doesn’t mean it is an impossible task.