AEW All Out Names Interim Women's World Champion

By Charlie Ridgely

Ahead of AEW All Out 2022, Thunder Rosa unfortunately announced that she had an injury and wouldn't be defending her AEW Women's World Championship against Toni Storm as initially planned. In the wake of the injury, All Elite Wrestling announced that a four-way match would take place at All Out to name the Interim Women's World Champion. Former champions Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D. and Hikaru Shida were named as entrants to the match, along with Toni Storm and Jamie Hayter.

There were a lot of close calls throughout the match, but it ultimately went to Toni Storm, winning her first title in AEW. 

The match began as expected, with Hayter and Baker mostly working against Shida and Storm, pitting the two heels against the two babyfaces. While Storm has had an ongoing rivalry against Baker and Hayter in recent months, working alongside Thunder Rosa, Baker and Shida have bad blood that has gone back quite a while. Baker was the one to end Shida's World Championship run.

Storm and Shida eventually went one-on-one in the ring with each other, though they had a nice moment of camaraderie when Rebel tried to interrupt and say it wasn't their time. An out-of-ring attack on Shida saw her exit the ring with doctors, leaving Storm alone in the match against two close allies. Shida returned a couple of minutes later to even things up, pummeling both Baker and Hayter.

A lot of near falls were interrupted by competitors over the span of a few minutes, including Storm breaking up Shida's pin of Hayter. Hayter was ready to pin Shida but Baker pulled the referee out of the ring, causing a rift between the two. Baker went so far as to try and pin Hayter. Toni Storm eventually took advantage and pinned Hayter to in the Interim Women's World Championship.

Ahead of All Out, Thunder Rosa sat down with Busted Open Radio to talk about her injury, confirming that it's a legitimate issue and not part of storyline for AEW.

"I'm not the best, physically right now. I was in a lot of pain yesterday," Rosa said last week. "A lot has been happening in the last couple of weeks. Unfortunately, I'm going to be out of commission. I don't know for how long. For a couple months, probably. I have a problem with my back and yesterday, I was trying to be strong. Back problems are not easy. Some days are good, some days are not. Yesterday was not a good day, I was in a lot of pain."

"That's one of the reasons why I'm taking time off. I want to clear the air, this is not fake. This is not a work. I'm not comparing injuries to injuries. If I could fucking walk, I can f****** work," she continued. "Doctor Sampson, he didn't clear me to wrestle. I'm not cleared to wrestle. It's not that I don't want to do a match on Sunday [AEW All Out], I can't walk. It's a shame that this is being put on social media, not only to discredit me as an athlete, but also discredit me as a wrestler. I want to walk when I'm 40. I have the right to say 'No, I can't walk, I can't do it.' I don't want to have surgery. If we keep doing this and going through the pain, then I'm going to be out for longer. I don't want to do that."

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