It’s always injuries according to Tony Khan, the CEO of AEW, on why certain ideas or matches don’t come to fruition with the promotions women’s division. Over the past several months, Khan has used the “injury” excuse for many reasons. A lot of the promotion’s “top stars” always seem to be injured according to him.
AEW has had tag team title belts created for over a year according to reports and confirmed by Khan himself. Then came the ROH Pure Women’s Title tournament…a title not necessarily needed, but was announced in April and just in August started the tournament. Why? Because of injuries, according to Khan.
Now the most recent question asked to Khan by Q93 was in regards to having a women’s Continental Classic. Currently, the men have one with the Continental Title. For the men, this title was created in 2023 and has only had two champions hold it. Currently Kazuchika Okada is at 533 days and counting as champion. When asked about this for the women, well Khan wants a healthy roster.
Tony Khan says he would be open to a women’s Continental Classic with a healthy roster:
“We’ve got the women’s world title and the TBS title, I think that the Continental would be something very interesting.
We had some injuries happen in the women’s division earlier this year at the All In pay-per-view. I think it would be a great thing if we get the division healthy where we’ve got all of our top fighters ready to go, that could be a really great thing. That’s a very intense tournament with matches every week. I am very open to it, especially if we can get all the top wrestlers healthy to compete.”
Regardless of the situation to book more women in AEW, there is always the injury excuse with Mr. Khan. Let’s go over the promotion’s current roster. This will include those in ROH as well as they are all under the same company.
- Alex Windsor
- Anna Jay
- Athena
- Billie Starkz
- Charlette Renegade
- Deonna Purrazzo
- Diamante
- Dr. Britt Baker
- Emi Sakura
- Harley Cameron
- Hikaru Shida
- Jamie Hayter
- Julia Hart
- Kamille
- Kiera Hogan
- Kris Statlander
- Lady Frost
- Leila Grey
- Madison Rayne
- Marina Shafir
- Megan Bayne
- Mercedes Martinez
- Mercedes Mone
- Mina Shirakawa
- Nyla Rose
- Penelope Ford
- Queen Aminata
- Rachael Ellering
- Red Velvet
- Riho
- Robyn Renegade
- Ruby Soho
- Serena Deeb
- Skye Blue
- Tay Melo
- Taya Valkyrie
- Thekla
- Thunder Rosa
- Toni Storm
- Trish Adora
- Willow Nightingale
- Viva Van
- Yuka Sakazaki
That’s a total of 43 women. Current confirmed injuries are – Thunder Rosa, Kiera Hogan, and Red Velvet. Ruby Soho has been out on maternity leave and there have been visa issues with Hikaru Shida. Charlette Renegade has been a question mark and Britt Baker isn’t injured that we know of but has been out for personal reasons as of a last report. So let’s say we can get back easily Ruby (if she is ready) and Hikaru (if her visa gets straightened out). That only leaves 5 women out. So, even though some of these women did recently come back from injury (Harley Cameron, Skye Blue, Jamie Hayter, etc) what is the excuse at this very moment? Injuries, where?
Now one can argue, we do not need any more women’s championships in AEW at this time. Common responses and opinions will be, “there’s not enough women” or “they can’t book the one’s they have”….reasonable responses….but we shouldn’t be at this point where it is all blamed on injuries. In fact, he is blaming the All In pay-per-view from July. The only woman that was on that card that is currently injured is Thunder Rosa. One woman. It can also be argued that Madison Rayne and Nyla Rose are moreso backstage personnel. Okay…okay.
Every week on Collision, for the past six weeks or so, they have had tag team matches, trios matches, four on four, and now this Saturday five on five. Ten women in one match. The same women in these multi women matches recycled over and over again. Instead of investing in separate storylines where there are multiple matches per show (not including squash matches), Mr. Khan loves throwing every woman together in a match and calling it a day. However, the man in charge loves to blame injuries on why things can’t happen.
Do better Tony.
