AEW’s Resurgence in 2025 Has Been Led By Women

Close to 1 a.m. on Sunday morning, February 16, hundreds of thousands of people on the East Coast were watching pro wrestling.

The main event of Grand Slam Australia provided one of the more eye-opening tv ratings in recent memory, as the strength of Toni Storm and Mariah May’s feud kept people from their bedtimes. Toni Storm won the AEW world title, the sold-out crowd in Australia roared their approval, and fans had a new memory.

The final 11 minutes of the show, which ended at 12:56 a.m., averaged nearly 300,000 viewers and a 0.10 demo, which is what an episode of Collision sometimes does on a normal Saturday night in primetime. A good portion of the AEW fanbase did not want to wait until the next day – they wanted to see Toni win that title then and there.

As an ardent AEW supporter from the start, there has been a clear feeling of resurgence through the first four months of 2025.

That does not diminish 2024, which was one of the best years in AEW history creatively and financially. However, AEW in 2024 battled with inconsistency. There were great shows and great matches, but there wasn’t that sense of everything hitting on all cylinders.

That changed dramatically in 2025, and the Grand Slam Australia show has turned into a telling turning point.

The show – despite the best efforts of WWE to make it feel like a failure – was a runaway success. The lead-in of NBA’s All-Star Saturday Night gave AEW a huge platform. More than 1 million people watched the incredible tag team match that started the show with Kenny Omega and Will Ospreay.

That said, the real allure of Grand Slam Australia were the two women’s matches. Of course, the Toni/Mariah feud was the main event and already in the process of becoming an all-time rivalry. The surprise was the TBS title match between Mercedes Mone and suddenly white-hot Harley Cameron.

Cameron’s breakthrough, in particular, reveals how far the AEW women’s division has come since 2019. When AEW launched, they simply did not have the workers they did on the men’s side. WWE had successfully locked up its stars and the talent pool did not have the depth of men’s wrestling.

This is where we must stop and blame Vince McMahon for being such a sexist pig that women’s wrestling did receive its proper due in this country until only the last decade.

In the early years of Dynamite, the treatment and placement of the women on tv were a lightning rod for criticism, which was a fundamental “chicken or egg” scenario. AEW did not have the women’s talent to put on consistently great matches or draw, yet the fanbase demanded it because WWE did.

It was not until 2021 and the emergence of Britt Baker that AEW finally had a women’s star who could draw ratings. While fans do not like to talk ratings, those ratings would determine the long-term health of AEW. Tony Khan had to think big picture while understanding the situation needed to be fixed.

Starting with the crowd’s love for Jamie Hayter, the women’s division finally started to show signs of life – but it was still very hit and miss. The first Wembley Stadium All In show, for example, had Saraya winning the world title in a very mediocre match. The women were still behind.

Around that same time, Toni Storm became Timeless, Mariah May debuted, and the entire complexion of the women’s division changed in the latter half of 2023. The arrival of Mercedes Mone in spring 2024 solidified the women’s division. Most importantly, the division now had two legitimate stars they could build angles, storylines, and characters around.

Fast forward a year, and it feels like AEW’s women’s division is an embarrassment of riches.

Timeless Toni Storm has literally transcended the business and issued a challenge at the TCM Movie Film Festival for a Dynamite match after being photobombed by George Lucas. Her feud and matches with Mariah May were among the best in company history. Mercedes elevated Harley Cameron to stardom. Megan Bayne arrived, with Penelope Ford as her mouthpiece, and instantly became a star. Kris Statlander, Jamie Hayter, and Billie Starks are all over and putting on great matches. Ring of Honor champion Athena showed up on Dynamite and immediately wrestled a stone-cold classic vs Mercedes.

Let’s not forget the fact that Willow and Marina Shafir have been inserted into the main event Death Riders storyline, including an incredible mixed tag match on the go-home show for Dynasty.

I’ve written a lot of words and it’s time to get to the lede: AEW is better in 2025 because the women are better in 2025.

Even the staunchest AEW fans can admit there were times when a women’s match would start and they knew it would not be good. Those days are long gone.

The women’s matches and segments are no longer throwaways worth of a fast-forward skip or a trip to the fridge.

No, they are now driving the show. Mercedes and Toni are both heat magnets that build up anyone in their orbit, and they have the skills in the ring to back it up.

In Boston, AEW ran back-to-back live shows on tv for the first time ever. It was a celebration of passing Nitro. It was a salvo in the war against WWE, by putting on two of their best shows ever, mere days before WrestleMania.

That’s why it was so telling the show Wednesday started with a women’s match and the show on Thursday closed with a women’s match.

The AEW women are no longer part of the show; they are the show. 

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