AEW: RUSH Suffered Torn Hamstring Injury, Britt Baker on Stepping Back from AEW Spotlight in 2023, Ortiz on Santana Split

Jan 4, 2024

RUSH Suffered Torn Hamstring Injury During AEW Continental Classic

RUSH announced earlier today on Twitter that he had suffered a torn hamstring injury and had been working through this injury during AEW’s recent Continental Classic tournament. RUSH stated that he had suffered the injury during his second match in the tournament.

No other details were given by RUSH in regards to the severity of his injury nor how long he will be out of action.

In the #AEWContinentalClassic I tore my hamstring in the second match I had.

I will recover and return ready and hungrier than ever for a fight.#LFI #AEWDynamite pic.twitter.com/1KczV1DxoU
— RUSH OFICIAL (@rushtoroblanco) January 4, 2024

Britt Baker Comments on Stepping Back from AEW Spotlight in 2023

Britt Baker has been noticeably absent from AEW programming since this past September.

A recent episode of the Ring The Belle podcast featured Baker as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Baker’s reasons for her reduced role in AEW in 2023.

“I think with our very passionate fans, they’re very vocal with what they want, what they don’t want, what they like, what they don’t like. And we listen — I listen. So if they are telling me they want more or less of something, then ok, I hear you loud and clear. And a lot of them said, ‘We want less Britt Baker.’ So if that’s what they want, ok that’s what they’ll get. Let me take a step back. Here’s the rest of the women. Someone else take the ball and run with it and make the women’s division about you, and you be the face of the women’s division. And when no one else can do that, I’ll be there to pick up the pieces and do it all over again.”

Baker also gave her thoughts about her current plans for the future of her career in AEW.

“AEW right now — there’s a new vibe, a new era to it. It’s just kind of figuring out when and how I fit into that, and taking over the women’s division all over again. It takes patience.”

Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com

Ortiz Comments on His Split with Santana & AEW’s Original Plans for Them as a Team

A recent episode of The Shining Wizards Wrestling podcast featured Ortiz as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Ortiz’s thoughts about AEW did not make the decision to end their team and instead Santana was adamant about not wanting to work together as a team anymore.

“Unfortunately, it wasn’t the company’s call to split us (Santana & Ortiz). Me and Santana just couldn’t get it together personally and he was just very adamant about not working with me anymore. So, the company kind of had no choice but to split us up, right? So they’re like, ‘Okay, you’re just not gonna not tag. It doesn’t make any sense. Let’s at least make this make sense why you split.’ But even when we did it on TV, it just ended up, I feel like, being kind of rushed and you know what I mean? Let’s get to the point already due to stuff that was going on backstage and it was just making it hard to really put forward a program and then just our television in general, kind of has that feeling all over on all our shows. There’s almost that sense of rushing at times. Some stuff kind of sits and settles but, you could kind of see what they’re putting their effort into. The stuff that really gets time to settle and really get to cook whereas some other segments, due to time constraints, you just kind of have to make those segments go faster and faster and there were supposed to be more development between me and him. It just, again, things out of my control. It just never panned out the way it was. It was set out to be a couple of weeks program throughout all our television. Like Collision, Dynamite and Rampage and then we just kind of went to Rampage and then we stood there and yeah, it just kind of played out how it played out unfortunately.”

Ortiz also gave his thoughts about AEW officials having plans at one point for him and Santana to win the AEW World Tag Team Championship but those plans fell through due to other issues.

“I tend to avoid it at times but that stuff (opinions from fans that Ortiz & Santana should’ve gotten AEW Tag Title run), it’s almost hard to avoid because we’re constantly tagged in stuff about that. To answer your question, how I felt about it, ah, I think we could have forced a hand a little bit more when we did have the opportunities that we had and I can’t completely blame the company because I mean, there was talks about it but it was almost like it was never the right time, right? It just wasn’t our time and it was just kind of because we were always intertwined with a huge storyline with The Inner Circle and it would have been hard to sway off and kind of go do our own tag thing and go after the Tag Titles. So, it actually was supposed to happen more than once. But just due to stuff out of our control, out of my control, it just never seemed to pan out. It’s not like those people on the internet that were clamoring for us to be Tag Team Champions — it was noticed by the people in AEW and above and it almost happened two times. It just never panned out. I won’t get into the weeds of things, only because I think I’ll get in trouble if I do (he laughed). That’s pretty much it. It was supposed to happen. It just never did unfortunately.”

Ortiz also gave his thoughts about the future of his wrestling career as a tag team wrestler.

“Yeah, definitely. I’m still in that phase (of figuring out what direction I want to go in as a singles talent). I kind of want to change my whole persona… I’ve kind of been typecast into the street brawler guy which is fine. But it’s very close to home and I’m down to play that role, but I also just — I wanna wrestle, I wanna chain wrestle, I wanna go hold for hold, I wanna do more lucha stuff. I’ve always prided myself on being a hybrid wrestler and I just kinda wanna do more of that and I feel like in the last couple of years, especially coming off of IMPACT, because me and Santana did gimmick matches so well; Street Fights and Barbed Wire Massacres and Table matches and we did well and excelled in those matches, it was like a double-edged sword. We were kind of typecast into playing that role. We were in all the Blood & Guts and all the Stadium Stampedes — well except for one Blood & Guts but, yeah… we kind of fell into playing that role and I kind of just wanna go back to just wrestling, doing some cool stuff. My favorite type of wrestling is early 90s Michinoku Pro so I wanna do more stuff like that. I wanna be in dope multi-man matches and I love tag team wrestling and I wanna continue tag team wrestling but kind of now, it doesn’t seem like it’s in the cards for me. Maybe I could push a little harder to do it. I find myself on an island all by myself and I’m just trying to find that voice. I feel like I have an opportunity. Instead of looking at the cup half-empty, I could look at it half-full and I could take this opportunity and reinvent myself and kind of maybe a gimmick change. I don’t know. I’m playing with stuff, I have a lot of ideas, a lot of stuff in the tank and kind of seeing where it goes. I don’t wanna say one thing because honestly, I might wake up tomorrow and feel something else.”

Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com