AEW has been criticized for its lack of a women’s division since launching in 2019.
Cody Rhodes spoke about this during an appearance on AEW Unrestricted and stated there was unreal pressure on female talent:
“I think our women’s roster, the women in AEW, so much pressure is put on them. When women have a main event, everyone wants to see what the rating is. When women sell a shirt, everyone wants to talk about the shirt. When women have an action figure, everyone wants to see what the price point is at. It’s almost a realistic pressure. Every time that pressure has been presented, they have shown out. For an old curmudgeon wrestler…that’s real change. I know it’s probably tone deaf for a man to talk so heavily about women’s wrestling, but to me, that’s real change. There are guarantees on our show. You put Serena Deeb out there, you better have your working boots on or she will outwork you. That’s genuine change and it’s really cool to see. I’m at the school now, we have like five girls in this camp. It’s not like back then there wasn’t an example to look at, but now the pressure is on. It really is. I think there are a lot of male wrestlers who, behind the scene, were like ‘ughh’ who are kind of rooting against it, and I’m not saying at AEW, I’m saying in the general space of wrestling, and they need to hop on. It’s happening, it’s growing, it’s building and it’s really cool to see”
H/T to Fightful for the transcription
