Britt Baker

Britt Baker beat Tay Conti at AEW Full Gear on Saturday to retain the AEW Women's World Championship.

Conti gave Baker a great challenge and somehow was able to keep going after finding herself on the wrong end of this Air Raid Crash:

Conti even landed this moonsault onto Rebel and Jamie Hayter:

Baker tried to finish the challenger with the Lockjaw, but Conti reached the ropes to survive. That was only temporary, however, as the champion retained after countering Conti's pin attempt for a roll-up and win.

Baker entered Full Gear as one of the most dominant women's champions in AEW history with only Hikaru Shida having a longer reign, while Conti received one of the first big breaks of her career.

Conti received a title shot once before against Shida in April, but after losing that match, she didn't have another televised bout for four months.

The Brazilian grappler was on a roll in the weeks leading up to Full Gear, however, winning several matches on Dark, beating Santana Garrett in a Rampage pre-show match and teaming with Anna Jay to beat Penelope Ford and The Bunny on Dynamite.

Meanwhile, Baker was essentially an unstoppable force after beating Shida for the title at Double or Nothing in May, successfully defending the belt against Nyla Rose, Red Velvet, Kris Statlander and Ruby Soho.

Baker often received help from Rebel and Jamie Hayter in those matches, but she turned in impressive performances nonetheless.

Issues between Baker and Conti started to bubble last month when Baker defeated Jay in a match on Rampage and then tried to attack her.

Conti saved her tag team partner from further damage, which set the stage for a Baker vs. Conti title match at Full Gear.

While Conti has come a long way since arriving at the WWE Performance Center in 2016 without any professional wrestling experience, she lagged behind Baker in that regard.

Still, she had every opportunity to become a champion for the first time in her career and came close to doing so on multiple occasions.

Ultimately, Baker emerged from Full Gear with her AEW Women's World title reign intact, and there may be no end in sight to her dominance over the women's division.

Listen to Ring Rust Radio for all of the hot wrestling topics. Catch the latest episode in the player below (warning: some language NSFW).

Bianca Belair's breakout year in WWE was recognized Thursday, as Pro Wrestling Illustrated officially placed her No. 1 in the PWI Women's 150 rankings for 2021.

PWI began ranking the top men's wrestlers in the world in 1991 with the PWI 500, and it introduced the PWI Female 50 in 2008, which eventually became the Women's 100 and expanded to the Women's 150 this year.

The top five in the 2021 PWI Women's 150 is as follows:

1. Bianca Belair (WWE)

2. Utami Hayashishita (Stardom)

3. Deonna Purrazzo (Impact Wrestling)

4. Britt Baker (AEW)

5. Thunder Rosa (AEW)

Belair had a year to remember, as she went from an NXT call-up with a ton of promise to one of the biggest stars in women's wrestling.

The EST truly broke out in January when she won the 2021 Women's Royal Rumble match to earn a Women's Championship bout at WrestleMania 37.

Belair went on to challenge Sasha Banks for the SmackDown Women's title in a match that main evented Night 1 of WrestleMania 37. Belair prevailed in an instant classic, marking her first title win of any kind in WWE.

The 23-year-old Hayashishita may not be well known to most American fans, but she is a standout in the Japanese Stardom promotion where she is the reigning World of Stardom champion.

Purrazzo is a former WWE Superstar who found enormous success in Impact Wrestling after her WWE run fell well below expectations.

The 27-year-old native of New Jersey is the reigning Impact Knockouts champion and AAA Reina de Reinas champion, beating Faby Apache for the title at Triplemania XXIX in August.

Purrazzo has held the Impact Knockouts Championship for nearly one year, making her the second-longest-reigning champion of all time behind only Taya Valkyrie's reign of 377 days.

The final two spots in the PWI Women's top five are occupied by AEW stars in Baker and Rosa. It is fitting that they are connected on the list since their unsanctioned lights-out match in March is considered the best women's match in AEW history and one of the best in all of wrestling over the past year.

Baker has been the AEW Women's World champion since May, when she beat Hikaru Shida for the title at Double or Nothing.

With Belair taking the top spot, WWE has had the No. 1 wrestler in the PWI Women's rankings in each of the past eight years.

Listen to Ring Rust Radio for all of the hot wrestling topics. Catch the latest episode in the player below (warning: some language NSFW).

Bleacher Report catches you up on the latest news from the WWE Universe and All Elite Wrestling.

Reigns Doesn't View AEW as Competition

The battle between WWE and AEW is perhaps the hottest story in pro wrestling currently, but arguably the biggest star in the business has a different perspective.

In an interview with Mike DeStefano of Complex, WWE universal champion Roman Reigns was asked if he views AEW as competition for WWE, to which he responded:

"So me, I don't see the real competition [with AEW] because I think their fanbase legitimately is a hardcore fan base. So there's like a ceiling and a built-in ground to that viewership. [The WWE is] trying to connect with everyone. We're trying to connect with the mainstream. We're trying to pull in the casual fan. We're trying to engage the new viewer, while also servicing our hardcore fan base and give them compelling stories to fulfill them as well.

"I don't know if I've said it before, but I've said it before, when the audience is probably the biggest character in your show, that's strange to me. You'll hear it all the time, the reviews and the comparisons. I think because they are the new kids on the block, they're the cool kids in town I guess because of how premature and how novel it kind of still is, I think they're still being babied by these hardcore wrestling fans. Which is fine. That's great. I don't think anybody's going to ever, especially from a performance standpoint say, 'Oh no, there's more opportunities out there? That sucks.' So it's not a bad thing. It's a great thing for professional wrestling. It's just a weird argument because there's so much bias and there's so much, 'I'm on this side and I'm not gonna open my mind to the other side.' And it goes both ways."

As Reigns alluded to, AEW undoubtedly has a loyal and rabid fanbase, but that hasn't necessarily translated into AEW truly challenging WWE from a television ratings perspective.

AEW Dynamite did consistently post better viewership and ratings in the 18- to 49-year-old demographic than NXT when they were both on Wednesday nights, but Raw and SmackDown remain well ahead.

SmackDown's Friday show oftentimes doubles Dynamite's viewership and Raw's Monday show has maintained a strong lead as well, although Dynamite did best Raw in the demo on a couple of occasions.

Meanwhile, AEW Rampage's viewership has dropped off significantly since topping 1 million for CM Punk's debut, as it set a new low last week with just 502,000 viewers.

Reigns also suggested that he doesn't concern himself with AEW since he believes he is the best all-around performer in wrestling:

"As far as competition, not to me. There might be some other people on our roster who maybe think they need to dig deep and get better as a performer and what they do out there at the art form, but there's nobody in the whole world, any other promotion, in WWE…I'm better at this art form than everybody else. And I stand on that. That's the totality of it. I'm not just talking about, 'Oh, his spots are so good and he counters real well.' That stuff don't mean anything to me. When you tally it all up, nobody touches me in this business."

It is difficult to argue too much with The Tribal Chief's assessment given what he has accomplished since returning from a hiatus in August 2020.

Reigns turned heel upon his return and has gone on to turn in the best performances of his career, both in the ring and from a character perspective. He has also now been in possession of the Universal Championship for well over a year.

Reigns has consistently been the best thing on WWE programming and carries himself as a massive star, so having him in the fold is a significant factor that gives WWE the edge over other promotions.

The Rock Reportedly Not Appearing at Survivor Series

While there had been rumors about Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson appearing at WWE Survivor Series next month, those plans have reportedly fallen through.

According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (h/t Subhojeet Mukherjee of Ringside News), The Rock has other commitments that will make appearing at Survivor Series impossible.

Specifically, The Rock will be in Australia for filming of the second season of his sitcom Young Rock. Meltzer noted that COVID-19 regulations, including the need to quarantine, will preclude anyone involved with the show from going back and forth between the United States and Australia during that timeframe.

Survivor Series is set for Nov. 21 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. It would have marked the 25-year anniversary of The Rock's WWE debut, as he had his first official WWE match at Survivor Series 1996 under the name Rocky Maivia.

It was originally reported by Andrew Zarian of the Mat Men Pro Wrestling Podcast in July that The Rock was planned for Survivor Series. The belief at that time was that it could be the precursor to a match against Reigns at WrestleMania 38 in Dallas next year.

If The Rock does not appear at Survivor Series, it calls into question whether a match with Reigns will happen at WrestleMania in April.

It seems inevitable that the dream match will eventually come to pass since Reigns and The Rock are real-life cousins, but it is possible WrestleMania 39 in Inglewood, California, could be a more realistic target.

Key AEW Contracts Reportedly Expiring Soon

AEW is coming up on the three-year mark since it was officially founded, and that reportedly means some significant contracts are reaching their conclusions.

Although he did not specify precisely who has contracts that are set to expire, Meltzer (h/t Michael Perry of Ringside News) reported that "a lot of key deals" will be up in either 2022 or 2023.

Meltzer's report came on the heels of Scorpio Sky recently saying he signed a five-year extension with AEW.

Britt Baker, the reigning AEW women's world champion, is another top performer who reportedly signed a new contract with the company recently as well.

In terms of performers who have been with AEW since at or near the start of the company, some of the bigger names include Kenny Omega, Cody Rhodes, The Young Bucks and Chris Jericho.

Of that group, Jericho is likely the only one with even a slight chance of leaving since he is 50 years of age and the others are executive vice presidents.

Some of the younger, up-and-coming talents who have been with AEW the entire time include MJF, Darby Allin, Jungle Boy and Sammy Guevara.

Signing any of AEW's top stars would be a major coup for WWE or any other wrestling company, but there is no indication that any top talent plan to leave as of now.

Listen to Ring Rust Radio for all of the hot wrestling topics. Catch the latest episode in the player below (warning: some language NSFW).