AEW: Thunder Rosa Injury Update, Tony Khan on WBD’s Potential Interest in WWE TV Deal, More News

Thunder Rosa Back Injury & AEW Return Status Update

As noted before, Thunder Rosa made her return to AEW at the May 10th Dynamite show in Detroit, Michigan. Prior to her surprise return, Rosa had been out of action for the company since this past September due to a spinal-related injury.

NBC Chicago held a recent interview with Rosa. One of the topics discussed included Rosa providing an update on the status of her back injury and recovery.

“It’s going pretty well. Things are going as they’re supposed to go. I am super happy that I’ve been pain-free. That was the most important part. I think it took forever. I think everybody’s expecting me to give them news, but I am working out every day, trying to get back into the ring as soon as possible, and if it’s possible. That’s what I’m trying to do.”

Rosa also gave her thoughts about the debut of AEW’s upcoming new Collision series and what it means for the future of her wrestling career.

“That’s a great question. I’m just open for anything that can happen in my career. I’ve always said after the injury that I suffered and reflecting on everything that has happened in the last nine, almost ten months, I’m really open for anything. I’ve discovered many facets of my career, such as being a commentator, such as being a radio host, a singer, a vlogger, always creating something new. For professional wrestling, I don’t think [it] will be any different. I will be happy no matter what happens for my career. I think it is important to live in the moment and now with Collision and with this opportunity that AEW has given to many people I can mention that will be there, Miro, FTR, MJF, and all others, I think it’s gonna be a lot of fun. It’s gonna be different, and we’re all excited to see new beginnings and new starts on a new show.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

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Tony Khan Comments on Warner Bros Discovery’s Potential Interest in WWE TV Deal

Post Wrestling held a recent interview with AEW CEO Tony Khan. One of the topics discussed included Khan’s thoughts about the recent reports about Warner Bros Discovery being interested in a potential television contract with WWE and AEW’s current working relationship with WBD.

“I don’t want to talk too much about the contract we have with Warner Brothers Discovery, but I definitely have some pretty favorable things in there, and given the commitment that Warner Brothers Discovery is making for AEW with Collision and Dynamite, I think it really shows that they’re fully committed to AEW. We just had AEW All Access also launch on Max, in addition to being on TBS every Wednesday night and on TNT every Friday and now every Saturday night, starting this week with the launch of Collision.”

Khan also gave his thoughts about WBD CEO David Zaslav turning out to be a big fan of wrestling.

“I think so. I think so. I really believe David Zaslav has been a very, very strong supporter of AEW. I believe when he came in and said, ‘I want two more hours of AEW on Saturday nights,’ that was one of the biggest votes of confidence that you could give us, and it was certainly very favorable for us to hear that he wanted that, and then to be able to deliver in a very quick turnaround and put together what I think is going to be a great, great show with AEW Collision every Saturday night.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

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AEW News & Notes

AEW recently released a new trailer for their upcoming AEW Fight Forever video game focusing on the game’s mini-games feature.

Eternal Con recently announced that Paul Wight will be making an appearance at their Eternal Con 2023 convention on July 8th in Long Island, New York.

Athena recently revealed on Twitter that she was in attendance at Ubisoft’s Ubisoft Forward press conference this past Monday in Los Angeles, California.

As noted before, Rebel has been absent from AEW these past several months due to creative-related reasons. Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that despite her current lengthy absence, Rebel is still currently under contract with AEW. It was also reported that Rebel has not been seen backstage at AEW shows in recent weeks. It was also reported that Rebel has been working on her podcast show for Ad Free Shows network during her time away from AEW.

The Scotiabank Arena is currently advertising that CM Punk will be making an appearance at the June 24th AEW Collision show at their venue in Toronto, Canada,

In a recent interview with Reuters, AEW CEO Tony Khan gave his thoughts about AEW’s current partnership with New Japan Pro Wrestling. Khan stated “AEW, New Japan Pro Wrestling partnership is more imperative than ever before.” In the same interview, NJPW President Takami Ohbari responded stating “It’s really mutually beneficial in terms of the global expansion for New Japan and also for AEW.“

In a response to a tweet involving his brother Jeff Hardy being recently hounded by a couple of fans to sign a lot of autographs at an airport, Matt Hardy stated “Jeff doesn’t actively look at anything on Twitter unless he has something to post, so I’m gonna address this. This is def taking advantage of Jeff’s kindness. If you see a wrestler in an airport & ask for an autograph or 2, that’s acceptable. This isn’t. Not appropriate or cool.“

In a recent interview with the Refin’ It Up podcast, former WWE ring announcer Tony Chimel stated that he had been helping AEW with running their house show events. Chimel stated “Well, they (AEW) started running some live events so I was at one of those just the other day on Saturday. But I’ll help out. I’ll do numerous things. Rafael Morffi’s the one that got my foot in the door and he does like 20 different things. I kind of help him out. It’s kind of like (Steve) Rubin, do a little bit of (Mark) Carrano, a little bit of market rep stuff, a little bit of production stuff. I was helping this other girl, Lexy (Nair), who was ring announcing her first show the other day at Tupelo, Mississippi. She did a great job. You know, giving her pointers with announcing and stuff like that so, do a little bit of everything, you know? Which is nice and I’m not on the road 20 days a month so that’s a good thing as well and it still keeps me active and doing a little bit of that and working here at home. It’s a nice little mix right now.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)