AEW: AEW had Plans for Hijo del Vikingo for Dynamite, Tony Khan on More “Major Announcements” Soon, Britt Baker

Mar 4, 2023

AEW Reportedly Had Plans for El Hijo del Vikingo Appearance for Face of the Revolution Ladder Match

This past Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite show in Daly City, California featured a Face of the Revolution Ladder match between Powerhouse Hobbs, Konosuke Takeshita, Ortiz, Komander, Sammy Guevara, Eddie Kingston, and AR Fox. This match was notable for being Komander’s official debut in AEW.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that AEW officials originally had plans for El Hijo del Vikingo to be one of the competitors in the ladder match. AEW reportedly had asked Lucha Libre AAA permission to use Vikingo which was denied by AAA officials.

Meltzer reported that AEW then asked if they could use Komander instead, which was granted.

Tony Khan to Make Several “Major Announcements” for AEW Soon

AEW CEO Tony Khan recently announced on Twitter that he will be making several major announcements for AEW within the near future. Khan stated that these announcements are part of his larger plans for 2023 to be the biggest year yet in AEW’s existence.

This is one of the best weekends of the year:
AEW Revolution, Sunday in San Francisco +
Friday Night #AEWRampage & then Countdown to Revolution TONIGHT on TNT!

2023 will be the biggest year yet for AEW, I have major announcements coming soon that are important to AEW & our fans!
— Tony Khan (@TonyKhan) March 3, 2023

Britt Baker Comments on All Out Backstage Brawl Incident Being “Heartbreaking”

A recent episode of Barstool Sports’ Rasslin podcast featured Britt Baker as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Baker’s thoughts on the infamous AEW All Out 2022 backstage brawl being a heartbreaking moment for her in the company.

“Speaking solely on what I watched because that’s all I saw and the scrum and what I heard. As some who loves AEW more than anything in the world and has so much pride and at a time where it felt like something special. Some of the biggest names in professional wrestling were all fighting for the same team. Especially after a huge pay-per-view, that pay-per-view was amazing, one of the biggest houses we’ve ever had. That scrum was heartbreaking. It was embarrassing and it was disappointing because, it felt like, in this moment in time, it felt like a disaster. You never want that happen and it happens every day. There are days I stub my toe in the dental office, ‘oh my God, this is a disaster.’ You never want that feeling. That was a time in AEW where I was like, ‘this sucks.’ Just me speaking personally, I think the scrums are cool because it’s after a pay-per-view and you get to speak to these wrestlers and there is a lot of emotion and they get to talk to you about what’s going on in the ring, their feelings, their storylines. It humanizes these larger than life wrestlers. That time needs to be used proactively and responsibly. If I sit here and tell you nothing but everyone I hate, everything I’m mad at, or all the Twitter lies about me and debunk them, that’s not proactive. It would be selfish of me to use your time and the world’s time like that. I would rather put over the pay-per-view and all the awesome stuff in AEW. Is that other stuff there? Of course, are there people I don’t like? Of course. Are there things I don’t like? Of course. I’m still a soldier for AEW, I’m on the front lines, and I’m going to put it over.”

Baker also gave her thoughts about all of the online responses to the brawl incident.

“Probably everybody involved was somehow wrongly characterized. We weren’t there, I wasn’t there, you weren’t there. That will be that. What I can say is that AEW is still a special place and maybe that was a little wrinkle in the fabric, but we ironed it out and we’re still a super strong company and family. People don’t realize, without the Bucks being here, there is no AEW. The first person Tony Khan called was Matt Jackson. Then he got Nick Jackson, he got Kenny and Hangman, and eventually Cody (Rhodes). If you can watch AEW today and say, ‘I love AEW, but I want the Young Bucks out of there,’ you’re completely losing the whole point. The Young Bucks are literally the foundation before anybody else came in, and Kenny, of course. It’s sad to see a lot of people, and I’m a little biased because I feel us originals are a unified family. I always want what’s best for business, but I think with all people involved, you have to take everyone’s mental health and their emotions into play. I hope people take that into consideration before they jump to Twitter and jump to conclusions and have to vocalize their opinion on everything in the world. When you’re just reading these rumors about you, that people swear are true, but they’re not true, it breathes venom inside you where all you want to do is burn it all down. The best and hardest thing you can do is take the high road. Very rarely do you regret taking the high road. It sucks, there are a lot of times I don’t want to do it and times where I haven’t, but it’s my advice for everybody in the business. Please, take the high road.
The whole division, in any aspect, I hate. The divide makes teams, there is this side and that side. We’re all on the same team. When you have teams within a team, it gets messy and muddy. I think, everybody in this company is a huge benefit for AEW. I think everybody involved in that is still a huge benefit for AEW and they all truly love professional wrestling and there is a lot of passion involved there. Everybody in AEW can probably say that they hate what happened, they wish it hadn’t happened or happened differently, but you can’t take that back. You can’t go back in time, so let’s move forward and be smart about things. Don’t just spit out every random, stupid lie, rumor that you’ve heard. Really be smart now and try to prevent this shit from happening again. I feel bad for everybody involved and I’m happy professional wrestling has moved on from that. I felt like, for a second, all eyes were on us for the wrong reasons. They say ‘no press is bad press,’ whatever that stupid phrase is, I hate it. I’m so proud at how resilient AEW is. We are still a young company and we have growing pains. Compared to what other wrestling companies have grown through, some might say it’s super minor, who cares. For us, we want to smooth sailing and we want to be very resilient. I’m really happy and proud of this company I work for. I’m super thankful for (Chris) Jericho, Cody, (Jon) Moxley, Kenny, Matt, and Nick for starting this awesome thing. When we first started AEW, Kenny, Matt and Nick wore shirts that said ‘Change the World,’ I think sometimes people need to remember that. It was truly their goal, to change the world, to change professional wrestling, and make it exciting and give people something to really look forward to. Those guys have helped so many people in the world of professional wrestling and we won’t even hear a fraction of it, but they have really helped this sport in a way that a lot of people won’t understand and I’m very thankful for them, and I know a lot of this locker room is too.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com