Kenny Omega Rips Fans with 'No Class' Who Criticize AEW's Women's Division
January 9, 2020
Kenny Omega fired back at fans who criticized All Elite Wrestling's women's division during a Twitter question and answer session Thursday.
When asked about those who have expressed concerns regarding the AEW women's division, Omega didn't hold back:
As one of AEW's four executive vice presidents, Omega oversees the women's division. He also said during an interview with Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio in February that he played a major role in recruiting and scouting talent for the division.
The first AEW women's champion was crowned on the Oct. 2 episode of AEW Dynamite. Riho beat Nyla Rose to win the title, and she has held it ever since.
Riho has essentially dominated the division thus far, although she wasn't on television for several weeks before returning last week to beat Britt Baker, Hikaru Shida and Rose in a Fatal 4-Way match.
On Wednesday's Dynamite, Riho successfully retained the title against Kris Statlander when Nightmare Collective members Brandi Rhodes, Awesome Kong and Mel interfered. Dr. Luther also debuted and distracted Statlander.
The booking of the match has been widely panned, and it didn't help the cause of a division that has often taken a back seat to the men's singles and tag team stables thus far.
Since Dynamite's debut in October, the women's division has often been given just one segment per show, which isn't enough of a spotlight to build it into a thriving part of the product.
There have also been some head-scratching booking decisions. Aside from Wednesday's match, the call to give Emi Sakura a title shot against Riho at Full Gear seemingly out of the blue was strange, as was the decision to advertise a title match between Riho and Statlander for last week only to postpone it because Statlander had other commitments.
Talent is far from the issue with the AEW women's division, as Riho, Statlander, Baker, Shida, Rose, Kong and others can thrive if given an opportunity.
AEW's division has paled in comparison to what the women are doing on WWE's NXT, however, as Rhea Ripley recently beat Shayna Baszler for the NXT Women's Championship in a main event, and NXT also held the first-ever women's WarGames match at NXT TakeOver: WarGames.
Every aspect of AEW will be compared to NXT for as long as the shows go head-to-head, and while expecting the AEW women's division to match NXT's may not be fair, there is no question it can improve in several areas.
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