AEW’s latest pay-per-view, Full Gear took place this past weekend and featured Hikaru Shida vs Nyla Rose for the AEW Women’s World Championship.
The build for the match was minimal and very last minute. Fans heavily criticised the lack of story, who feel the division deserves so much better.
On a media call, which took place before the show took place, EVP, Cody Rhodes defended the “build” for the match.
After Full Gear, AEW President, Tony Khan took part in the virtual media scrum. He was asked about the lack of build and said that he understood the criticism and that he should have done better.
Khan had this to say;
“I understand what people are saying about the division. I probably, I should have probably done better to put some of Nyla’s story when she said she wasn’t going to wrestle again and Vickie said she wasn’t going to wrestle again until they got the title shot. I should have used that on Dynamite more. I watch Dark very closely and work on Dark very closely, and book Dark. So I’m obviously watching Dark, but I forget sometimes that there’s about half the audience watches Dark for us, typically. If we do, typically, if we do in the overall audience 800,000 to a million on a good week, 400 [thousand] -plus in the demo, I think Dark is probably about half that. And I think it’s a good audience we’ve built and a great show, but I probably should have put that on.
“And then to be honest, the time in the real world, Vickie was not able to come those weeks. Not because she was sick, but because it was a conflict that she always had. And so I gave her that time off, and I probably should have made it clear. There’s a lot to putting the shows together.”
Criticism of AEW’s women’s division is nothing new. Fans have been calling out for a lot more focus on the women’s division for a long time. Hopefully, with this admission and understanding, Tony Kahn will implement a lot more effort in the division as soon as possible.
Thanks to 411Mania for the transcript.
What are your thoughts on what Tony Khan had to say? Let us know in the comment section below.
