Saraya Brings Hope to AEW Women's Division

The pro wrestling world hasn't stopped buzzing about Saraya's (formerly Paige in WWE) promo in AEW on her second appearance. It's overly reactive, negative, & small pictured. I give a different view.

We can criticize Saraya's debut promo on her second appearance in All Elite Wrestling till we're blue in the face. The promo on AEW Dynamite was filled with nerves, rust, and unnecessary quick witty shots at WWE. The statement that everyone is yelling about was said within the moment of emotion.

The Internet Wrestling Community has come to the conclusion that Saraya — formally known as Paige in WWE — "maybe didn't have good ideas." 

What were the ideas? No one has said what these ideas were on any thread discussion in regard to her statement: I have a boss that listens to me! Are those ideas even public knowledge?

Obviously, Saraya was overwhelmed with emotion and sometimes as a human being that loves this business, channeling the cool, calm, and collective emotion with some charisma can be difficult when they've been years away from a wrestling ring and no prior practicing is done. 

Yes, the promo was clunky. 

Yes, the promo was cringe. 

Yes, the one line of: I have a boss that actually listens to me, can be seen as unnecessary. 

Yes, the promo wasn't fully coherent to know what the actual role would be for Saraya.

Yes, it was awkward for her to tell the timekeeper that she won't wrap it up until she's done. 

Which I thought was odd to do and say but reflecting back on the whole promo, it was about being a power-authority figure in the most striking-out way possible. It missed its mark while having a general story idea.

There's the vocal discussion of the AEW women's division not getting the time to develop as a whole. More TV time, not just 3-5 minute matches including entrances. Longer backstage promos that aren't 1 minute long and then taken over by the heel (bad guy) walking in and taking dominance over the babyface (good guy) - completely burying the babyface that NEEDS to get over. Building up feuds between women longer than two weeks and ends at a PPV. 

What's Athena doing again? Certainly not going after Jade to continue that underdog-against the numbers fight of a storyline that'll prove to be money and a draw. She's back to floating around like all the AEW Women unless you're Britt Baker or Jade Cargill as the headline names. Hikaru Shida used to be part of the headline names but has significantly cooled down. It's not a bad thing to be a headline name but we need more recognizable headline names than headline names followed by lackies. 

IMPACT WRESTLING does a fantastic job of elevating their women's division. Everyone feels and looks important and certainly has a motivation, a problem, a gripe — something against another woman that's justifiable for their character and thus why feuds continue.

We see the same thing from the WWE's women's division some 20 years later. 

So, the vocal discussion about the AEW Women's Division is on this balancing pole where it feels and seems like it gets listened to so the vocal community can be silent for a couple weeks and where it seems like an afterthought.

Saraya promises to bring change and bring a revolution to AEW. That brought hope to my heart. That's all I cared about. Keep complaining about everything else. It'll be an endless fight on twitter. 

However, the whole segment could've been produced better. AEW shouldn't acknowledge the brutal trolls, the meme trolls, and stopwatch time patrol on their programming. Let it die on Twitter, but I've made the discovery that AEW relies on this to keep the ship moving and so those who are acknowledged as a generalization can feel important and will continue to say things for reactionary purposes which becomes an endless cycle of dangerous cult-like and loyalist following.

Everything will be a joke. And no one will take anything serious and then the women's division would have to start climbing again to get equal recognition as the men. 

How would you know who wants the AEW Women's Division to succeed or not when you're acknowledging the very niche IWC troll community for the sake of trolling which will kill the division?

And this is where new insight comes in for AEW. 

Actions speak louder than words. Show don't tell.

These statements are powerful in performative media which is what wrestling is. Saraya can navigate the AEW Women's Division to make it feel more comfortable and smoother. 

But a big issue holding the division back is the severe lack of training with one another for improved chemistry.

Here's how Saraya managed to bring hope to AEW from that segment regardless of it feeling like it was put together at the last second. 

Saraya walks down the aisle and starts talking which leads to letting the timekeeper and everyone know she won't wrap it up until she's done. Then gets overwhelmed by the fans and does let us know she's nervous. Tells the fans that she's going to bring the revolution to AEW — this is the same revolution that happened in WWE between her and AJ Lee when both of them (including more minus The Bella Twins) to help elevate the women to have women's wrestling in WWE. After she calls out the AEW Women which isn't all of them and I got flashbacks to the Diva Era of WWE. Saraya puts them over, even our AEW Interim Women's Champion Toni Storm. Then Britt Baker and her crew joined by Penelope Ford join the party as well. Britt starts a counter promo against Saraya in her heel talk. Saraya then has a high school comeback of a burn saying: Britt, you wanna talk about my name [long pause], well your name rhymes with shit. 

Bitt and shit are slant rhymes so it kind of works. Slant rhymes are when words have similar, but not identical sounds. 

Here comes Britt
To talk that shit

Anyway, the crowd is stunned by this but eventually gets it. Next is the one line that everyone grabbed a pitched fork for and overreacted about. Then we get to the new stipulation for the already booked AEW Interim Women's Championship match which is now a women's lumberjack match and then we finally have at least a 15-minute match which was good. Even a good ending. Saraya is on commentary for it all. 

All of that was performative. All of that was actions put into place. Show — once we go to the match — don't tell. A first ever women's lumberjack match for AEW.

It was uncomfortable to watch because we as viewers, constructive complainers, and supporters get morsel snapshots of the women not being used regularly, naturally, and to their full potential on AEW Dynamite and AEW Rampage. AEW Dark and AEW Dark Elevation don't count in this discussion. 

That segment was a work in progress like the whole division continues to be for the last 3 years. Hopefully, Saraya can improve the division even if she needs to take inspiration from the WWE formula with tweaks to allow the women to have organic growth. 

Big Swole tried in the early days of AEW to improve the division. It was different back then but since the EVPs (Matt and Nick Jackson, Kenny Omega, and Cody Rhodes at the time. He's now back in WWE.) had multiple roles which lead to throwing Kenny Omega under the bus as a scapegoat for the overall poor performance of the women's division. The division felt like an afterthought with no structure. And by the end of Big Swole's run with AEW, told us the early signs of red flags that plagued the women's division from her post interview, yet the loyal fans patted the back of their 'Booker of the Year' Tony Khan for the way he dismissed all of Big Swole's hard work and contributions to AEW - an LLC company - that had no true foundation set up and still don't.

Saraya is true to herself — always been. She does and says what she wants. That's something people don't understand. Can Saraya be a leader for the women in AEW? If AEW lets her try and the coaches guide her, AEW could feel and look better when presenting women's wrestling.

At least two women's matches for about 15 mins long. One women's match to open — we don't need another Jericho Appreciation Society opener — one women's match to main event. 

At least, have babyface backstage promos that are longer than 1 minute and no heel interruptions.

Now that Saraya has piqued my interest and made my heart flutter with a ray of hope from that confident tone to improve the AEW Women's Division, how will Saraya handle our AEW TBS Women's Champion Jade Cargill? Jade and the baddies didn't come out during AEW Dynamite when Saraya called for all the women. 

How will Saraya and Jade get along? Will Saraya speak on Rampage too? 

Let this one play out and see what changes are made in the coming months.