AEW RISING AND FADING STARS: The downfall of the AEW Women’s Division, MJF grows by culling his material, AEW fans shine

Welcome everyone!!!

This one might upset a few people by the time we get to the Fading Stars portion, but that’s okay.

Another week of AEW is in the books and I feel like Collision was back to being the B show other than the brief MJF appearance. It was a night of “well, you know who is going to win this” type of matches. The only somewhat, but not really, intriguing thing was Anthony Bowens finally turning heel and possibly joining Hook. We’ll see how that plays out.

On to the list!

RISING STAR OF THE WEEK

MAXWELL JACOB FRIEDMAN – MJF

This one is for a lack of anyone else rising up this week. What I mean by that is the Swerve Strickland heel turn promo was good, not great. I did like that they didn’t play Swerve’s music so you didn’t get the immediate chants for him. Kenny Omega and Will Ospreay are out. Toni Storm, well, more on that later. Jon Moxley is in some bizarro world where he’s a good guy and his entire faction is not and they have a never-ending battle with the Don Callis Family. Kyle Fletcher feels stale at the moment. I can’t put my finger on it. The slow play of the throuple that is Takeshita, Okada, and Fletcher is a VERY slow moving story. There are plenty more I could give you and explain why they aren’t on my list. That said, with Revolution coming up, anyone could make it to my list after that show.

MJF has come back from his layoff last year and become the top guy AEW needs right now. AEW needs a star and MJF is that. AEW also needed a heel that can get the crowd to hate him and want to see him lose; he has also done that. There are far too many wrestlers on the roster that flip from face to heel and back again to no differing reactions. Look at the crowd reaction to Swerve Strickland. Like I said earlier, AEW even tried to foster more of a heel response to Swerve by not playing his music and it fell frustratingly flat.

MJF on the other hand gets immediate hate from every crowd. Why? Because he’s not trying to be cool or get the joke pops he use to. No, MJF is fully bought in to this heel version of himself. I think he is playing it perfectly and part of that is having a face that everyone cheers for on “Hangman” Adam Page.

Hangman vs MJF has been going on since AEW’s inception. The first match at the first ever AEW branded show “Double or Nothing” in 2019, the Casino Battle Royal, ended with Hangman eliminating MJF to earn an AEW World Title match at the first All Out. MJF brought this up during his promos recently. Funny enough, MJF was the second-to-last entry at 20 and Hangman was the last to enter at 21. Almost like Tony Khan knew out of the 21 people in the match that these two were the future stars. He was not wrong.

This will be just their fourth singles match in AEW. It feels like it could be more, but think this is what makes the match feel so much better, or maybe special is the right word. They haven’t faced each other on random Dynamites over the years. Just once in 2019. Then they will have had three singles matches over the past year. One at last year’s Revolution, then one while Hangman was champ last year, and now this match while MJF is champ. Again, amazing that these were the last two guys in the first AEW-branded PPV ever in 2019.

So now we are in 2026 and AEW’s Revolution is almost upon us. Meaning MJF vs Hangman 4 is almost upon us.

Quick bit of trivia: Do you know who these guys each faced last year at Revolution? No? It was each other. Hangman defeated MJF in the opener. Now a year later they will be in the main event. Beautiful.

1st Runner Up – AEW Crowds

They have been amazing recently. Keep up the “F— Ice!” chants all night if you want.

ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…

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FADING STAR(S) OF THE WEEK

AEW Singles Women’s Divison

What is going on with the AEW Women’s single division? It was barely big enough to have two singles titles and then the AEW Women’s Tag Titles were added. Meaning the thin division is even more thin because you have legit World Title contenders and champions playing in the tag division.

First, Willow Nightengale won the TBS and Tag Titles four days apart. The TBS Title win should have been a huge turning point for Willow because of who she beat – Mercedes Mone. Instead, this has barely been mentioned and Willow has only defended her TBS Title twice in 62 days. Willow and her partner Harley Cameron have defended the tag titles four times in 66 days. So it’s not that Willow isn’t wrestling, but her time is not being evenly split between the tag and TBS division. Reason being is she should just have one of those belts right now.

Second, Megan Bayne. Remember when Bayne came in and looked like she was an immediate threat to everyone? That’s now been over a year since that happened and it feels like she has regressed.

Third, and most important, Toni Storm. Look, I get why she was put in the tag division – to solidify it. That said, you could have done that with a different former World Champ and not used your top star. The different former champ I’m talking about is Jamie Hayter. Instead, you have both of them, sort of, in the division. I will say it looks like Toni might be headed back to the singles division; I hope I am right.

This doesn’t even bring up the missing Mercedes Mone. Thekla and the fact there were no true challengers set up for her. Or the mess that was the Kris Statlander title reign.

One reason I’m bringing this up is do you remember where we were with this division last year going into Revolution? Let me remind you: AEW was about to pay off one of their best long term story’s ever and it was in the women’s division. The “Hollywood Ending” match between Toni Storm and Miriah May. Now look at where the division is one year later.

I just have one word to describe it. Disappointing.