Best female AEW wrestlers in the world 2023

This is reflected in the quality of the promotion’s women’s division, which is growing and improving. AEW has a blend of homegrown stars and more mainstream names and gives them space to spread their wings, which is creating ever more exciting matches.

Picking the best five female wrestlers in the company was no easy task, but we finally narrowed down our choices after taking into account their in-ring ability, character, current storylines and wrestling legacy. Injuries meant stars like Thunder Rosa wouldn’t make this countdown, while others like Ruby Soho, Willow Nightingale and the recently returned Kris Statlander are primed to burst onto this list at its next update.

RadioTimes.com brings you our ranking of the best female AEW wrestlers in the world right now.

Best female AEW wrestlers in the world 2023

5. Jade Cargill

You’re never going to have the best undefeated streak in wrestling: The Undertaker has that honour for all of time. All you can hope for now is that if you get on a roll of avoiding defeat, it means something. Jade Cargill’s streak meant something.

Cargill’s run to becoming the inaugural TBS Champion, and her subsequent streak of defences, was unlike any other. Cargill won her first 60 professional matches, establishing herself as a dominant match for any competitor, all the way up to and including her first loss, dropping the belt to Kris Statlander at Double or Nothing.

This 60-0 run gave Cargill all the platform she needed to become a major player. She was sold like a superstar, lost the belt with a caveat and proved herself to be an athletic, powerful and charismatic heel. She’s got the look, the spark and the potential to be a top performer for years to come.

4. Hikaru Shida

Professional wrestling is as much about the fans as anything inside the ring. The audience pays the bills so their word, their fire, their passion keeps the business thriving. That’s one reason the pandemic was such a challenge for the industry.

Companies like AEW and WWE had to shut their doors to fans and figure out new ways to keep the fire burning. Just like Drew McIntyre in WWE, AEW relied on one superstar to put a division on their back in the toughest of times.

Shida won the AEW Women’s World Championship at the first Double or Nothing and lost it at the second. The majority of her historic 372-day reign was spent competing in front of no live audience. When fans were allowed back, Shida soon dropped the belt.

The fan-favourite has not long returned to AEW after a break and it is great to have her stiff strikes and class kicks back on the show. Shida may not have got her due as champion, but she’s back to regain her spot at the top of the mountain. There are some huge matches, rivalries and moments in her future. And hopefully the crowing title moment she deserves.

3. Dr Britt Baker DMD

It’s easy to hate going to the dentist. It’s strangely intimate, it’s uncomfortable and fillings are silly expensive. Well, next time you get a check up, just be glad your doc doesn’t put the mandible claw on you to finish your appointment.

Dr Britt is a legit dentist, still fixing people’s chompers on her off days, but she’s also a legit star in AEW. Still young in the business, Baker has got the crowd behind her like few others thanks to her work over the last few years.

It’s too easy to say that she’s surgical inside the squared circle, but Baker can do a bit of everything when the bell rings. Her Lockjaw finisher is already iconic, her superkicks rival those of her IRL partner Adam Cole and she looks every bit the part of a superstar.

Baker was the first woman signed to AEW, she’s a former World Champion and was the inaugural Owen Hart Tournament Cup winner. She is the poster child of the AEW women’s division, deservedly.

2. Toni Storm

Storm came to AEW with pedigree - and she capitalised on it. She is the top of the card in the women’s division, the first two-time AEW Women’s Champion and in with a shot at the title of greatest AEW Women’s champion ever. All thanks to a little help from her friends.

Don’t get me wrong, hitting piledrivers on everyone in sight has definitely helped, but the Gold Coast native is the heel to beat thanks to her excellent work alongside The Outcasts. The straight-talking Aussie is the classic win-any-way baddie, using cheats, shortcuts and the interference of her faction-mates, Ruby Soho and Saraya, to cling onto her title.

Toni Storm is growing bigger in the company of two seasoned pros with every green L spray-painted onto her opponents. She can be gritty, she can be sassy, she’s always full of disdain. Storm is the superstar to beat.

1. Jamie Hayter

The Outcasts may have been running roughshod over the women’s division ever since Toni Storm stole Hayter’s top title, but they may have forgotten a certain saying about everything that goes around.

Hayter has been MIA ever since Double of Nothing and fans are buzzing in anticipation of her return. The physical former champion has grown a healthy group of Hayters (the very opposite of haters) through her battles alongside Dr Britt Baker DMD and as a champion in her own right. Her title reign was just blossoming when it was cut short, but its next chapter is going to be a doozy.

Hayter’s comeback is going to be huge. If she returns at, or in time for, AEW’s first ever show on British soil, then Wembley Stadium will become unglued. The superstar from Southampton will receive a welcome as raucous as any. If she brings the fight to the Outcasts, and if that AEW Women’s title is in play, we better hope Wembley’s foundations are secure.

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