England-born Sadie Gibbs is more an investment in the future than somebody who was brought into AEW to compete for the title her first few months in the company. In March 2019, the Wrestling Observer reported AEW signed “The Amazing Grace” days before her 27th birthday even though she had fewer than two total years of professional in-ring experience at that time. 

It’s easy to understand what Omega and others saw in her. Gibbs could be the best athlete on the women’s roster, as her background includes track and field, gymnastics, and CrossFit. In May 2017, WWE gave Gibbs a tryout in London, but she never appeared on a NXT show. 

Gibbs may not have been ready for prime time on October 2, but her twisting Sasuke Special that she unleashed while on the independent scene was already better than what you’d see from many veterans of the business. To use a sports analogy, Gibbs is a sixth-round pick that AEW hopes will develop into Tom Brady with a little seasoning and time. 

Following the Fyter Fest show in June 2019, AEW founder, owner, and president Tony Khan told reporters that viewers should not expect to see intergender or “mixed” matches on shows such as Dynamite. That could disappoint fans of Penelope Ford. “The Bad Girl” entered the company with a deep history of intergender wrestling versus male performers such as Joey Ryan and Ethan Page, and she also grew a reputation for competing in hardcore matches … and for her willingness to throw her body into barbed wire. 

In December 2019, WWE announced that the gymnast and cheerleader received a tryout at the company’s Performance Center. Less than a month after that, Ford and Joey Janela disclosed they both had signed with AEW. Admittedly, Ford has a ways to go to demonstrate that she’s more than just a talented athlete capable of getting over in street fights, deathmatches, and controversial contests that involve man-on-woman violence. For the most part, AEW stashed Ford away on the roster through the promotion’s opening month of televised programming. 

We wouldn’t recommend holding your breath hoping she and Janela will team up in an AEW ring during the 2020s. 

It’s often felt as if the Allie character was limited by curious storylines during her time in Impact Wrestling. She once accidentally and unintentionally won that company’s women’s championship. A fake proposal led to her being jumped from behind. Some of you still watching Impact in 2018 may have enjoyed the Dark Allie gimmick or when the promotion killed her off, but none of this did anything to attract any real attention to the product. AEW did well to rewrite portions of her professional story after the company acquired her, seemingly scrubbing the more corny aspects of her resume from her past and, ideally, her future. 

Allie is one of the more versatile members of the women’s roster, in that she can play the role of a beloved and dainty bunny or a darker and more sinister demonic heel. Nobody should expect AEW to create its version of an undead realm, but the company eventually aligning her with The Dark Order would make sense if a time came when the women’s division was short on heels. 

It’s only natural that Kenny Omega wanted Hikaru Shida for a division he’s tasked with building. He has experience working with her in the ring. According to Squared Circle Sirens and Joshi City, Shida made her professional debut for the Ice Ribbon promotion in 2008, and she earned both singles and tag-team gold in multiple promotions over a decade before AEW scooped her up in 2019. There was so much hype surrounding Shida’s involvement with the promotion, in fact, that her loss to Riho at  All Out in 2019 stunned many who believed and expected Omega would hand-pick Shida as the division’s initial champion. 

Shida carries star-power confidence to the ring that comes from backgrounds beyond pro wrestling and mixed martial arts. She has also worked as an actress for film and television when not delivering stiff kicks, running knee strikes, or Falcon Arrows to opponents. Had Riho not been available for AEW in early October for whatever reasons, Shida would’ve been a perfect choice to carry the banner for the women’s division as its first titleholder. There’s only one question about her future championship reign, whenever it may come: Will she be a babyface or heel when the gold is around her waist? 

The history of pro wrestling is filled with wacky gimmicks and performers playing different roles. Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D. is the real deal, as she told Diva Dirt in June 2019: a professional wrestler for AEW who is also a practicing dentist. Baker differs from those on the AEW roster in one other way. She’s on the opposite end of the “Wednesday Night Wars” from her husband, Adam Cole, who began October 2019 as the NXT champion and the leader of that roster’s Undisputed Era faction. 

WWE previously had Baker underneath the company’s umbrella, as she worked for a taped NXT show and was also an alternate for the Mae Young Classic. She and WWE never came to a long-term agreement, however, and she ultimately chose AEW in early 2019. “One of the major selling points personally for me was that Kenny Omega was going to have heavy involvement and that there would be a lot of use of the Japanese women,” she told ComicBook.com about her decision to sign with the company competing with her husband’s employer. 

Baker remained green as of the middle of October 2019, something that was evident during her title match versus Riho. She’s nevertheless been front and center at AEW media events because of her potential and also because of her unique story. She’s a future champion in the making. 

AEW unsurprisingly selected Chris Jericho to win its first World Championship, but the company went in a different direction with the women’s title. The undersized yet energetic Riho earned a surprise flash-pin win over Hikaru Shida at the All Out show in August 2019, and she then faced monster heel Nyla Rose during the Dynamite debut. With that odds stacked against Riho, she repeatedly kicked out of pin attempts that followed Rose’s powerful offensive attacks before delivering a double-knee strike that secured her the victory and the right to be called the promotion’s first women’s champion. 

As Brandi told Newsweek after Riho’s hand was raised on that fateful night, the champion was up against it from the moment she signed with the North American promotion, as she’s not a native English speaker. That didn’t prevent Riho from getting over and receiving massive pops from crowds each time she worked inside of an AEW ring. She’s no stranger to the squared circle, as she first started training to wrestle when she was 9-years-old, per 411 Mania, Online World of Wrestling, and Daily DDT. 

Riho became the face of AEW women’s wrestling at the age of 22. She’s already the division’s best babyface. We can only imagine where she will sit in overall wrestler power rankings by October 2029.