>she definitely does. and she could, and does, have
>entertaining matches now. i just think that if they keep the
>belt off her until the non-smart marks arent the only ones who
>think she should be champ, then her run could be MASSIVE. and
>the way to make casuals think you should be champ is by
>kicking ass in a way that signifies "championship level
>athlete" in whatever style that may be. thats what i meant by
>thinking her work is still coming along. i dont look at her
>through casual fan eyes and see "champ" yet.
>

I hear ya, though I think the state of the women’s division changes things quite a bit. Until the last month or so it feels like they’ve been stuck in first gear so I think they should strike while the iron is hot and put the title on her soon. Also RE: being a championship level athlete, I agree she’s not there yet but her finisher goes a long way, cause it looks fucking painful. I really get a kick out of her stealing gloves from the refs first too.

I do think the majority of AEW’s audience is smart marks of one variety or another though, so I’m not sure how much consideration they have to give to casual fans at this moment. They’ve made some lighthearted attempts at capturing a larger audience but I don’t think they’ve been successful as of yet (the pandemic obviously hurts that). Even the Shaq match, which was fun as hell, didn’t move the needle much if at all. I could go into the things I think they need to do to get casual fans, but we’ve all kinda had that discussion like a dozen times by now lol.