Viva Van is all elite.
The 31-year-old has been working in AEW since January 2023. Van has mainly been used as a jobber to the stars, but the California native has been given plenty of chances to showcase her talent within the promotion. She notably had an eight minute match against then AEW World Women’s Champion Toni Storm on Rampage. She also had a Proving Ground match against Athena in May 2024.
Van continued to work in AEW throughout the year and her hard has paid off as she confirmed that she’s been hired by AEW.
Van made her official wrestling debut in 2018. Trained by WWE Hall of Famer Rikishi, Van has performed in CMLL, New Japan Pro-Wrestling, GCW, and DEFY. The new AEW star has numerous titles under her belt, with Van winning the PCW ULTRA Women's Championship, FSW Women’s Championship, AWF Championship, and BTW Championship. She held the BTW Championship for an impressive 1181 days.
Given the lack of the All Elite graphic then she may not be considered top tier talent just yet. However, The Outrunners never received the All Elite graphic as well, and they’re featured regularly on AEW programming. Van has worked in ROH and AEW television, so it’s not clear as of yet on where she’ll be wrestling regularly.
Though she’s new to the business, Van has seen a lot of growth within that short time span. Before signing with AEW, she was a regular in New Japan, and Van expressed that she was willing to move to Japan last year if she didn’t sign someone full time, “What I hope is, like you mentioned, finally find that home and officially sign somewhere,” Van said to Ella Jay of Wrestlezone. “But I made a promise to myself that if I don’t get signed by the end of this year, I will be moving to Japan. And that is a promise.”
She managed to make it before the end of the year. It’s nice that some fresh blood is entering into the women’s division and hopefully she’ll get more opportunities to showcase her talent on AEW television. Van has a unique look, but she really hasn’t been given much of a chance to show her promo skill or character work since her role has only been a jobber for the past year. She's definitely a new talent to look out for.