AEW’s CEO Tony Khan held a media call today for the promotion ahead of its pay-per-view event All Out which takes place this Sunday.
During that call, he was asked a question in regards to the way Thunder Rosa’s announcement of her injury was handled on screen. Rosa was originally scheduled to face Toni Storm at All Out but due to injury she is unable to compete. A Four-way match is now booked to decide an Interim Champion. Rosa’s announcement was a backstage segment and lasted under a minute.
The question came from Samantha from Daily DDT and it was asking why Rosa was given a short promo versus CM Punk’s longer promo when he had to announce his injury.
Khan’s gives the following response transcribed via Fightful –
“I strongly disagree with that. I very strongly disagree with that. I give the TV time based on what I believe is going to draw the most ratings. If you want my honest opinion on an eight-minute Thunder Rosa promo vs. an eight-minute CM Punk promo, then you’re going to get an honest answer. I think the eight-minute CM Punk promo is probably going to do a better rating.
As far as match length, I think Thunder Rosa has had some great matches as champion, and to come out and do a live eight-minute promo, I’m not sure that would have been good for the television show, to be honest. Especially given where we were at with Thunder Rosa, I found out she was injured a few hours before a live television show, I don’t really have time to put an eight-minute promo in when I had just a couple hours notice vs. CM Punk, I knew days earlier he was badly hurt and we had already made a plan days earlier.
Furthermore, a lot of people criticized the way Jon got his match with Tanahashi, so I guess you can’t please everybody, no matter what you do, and I’ve actually seen more people excited about the four-way match than they were for the original match and I think the four-way is one of the more anticipated matches on the card and I’ve seen people way more excited about that than, honestly, in some cases, the way we go through the Casino Battle Royale match.
I noticed people complained when Kyle got that opportunity. Jon vs. Kyle is one of my personal favorite TV matches. There were people criticizing that. I’ve seen less people, although there may be some, criticizing how we got to this. You can’t necessarily please everybody, but I do think in this case, it’s been positive given the situation we were in.”
The full media call can be listened to here.
Rosa provided an update on her injury earlier today while speaking to Gimmie A Hull Yeah! –
“I just came out of therapy, it’s my second day officially doing therapy for my injuries. I feel better. I walked out saying I do feel better. We’ll see later. It’s going to take a little while, definitely. It is positive because I know I can heal, that’s always a positive. In every other aspect, it is a positive because I get a chance to really think about the future, my present, and really reflect on the past and see what worked and what didn’t work,” she said.
The Four-way match that takes place at All Out will include Toni Storm, Hikaru Shida, Britt Baker, and Jamie Hayter. The winner will become the interim champion and will face Rosa after she returns to determine the undisputed title holder.
Check back in with Diva Dirt for more news and results from the women of AEW.
