In recent weeks AEW has been dealing with a bit of fan backlash regarding how the company books its Women’s Division. On top of the women getting less than five minutes of screentime on last week’s Dynamite and the AEW Heels group demanding a $50 annual subscription fee, fans were upset that the Women’s Tag Team Tournament Cup had been shunted off television and onto AEW’s YouTube channel, broadcasting new episodes on Monday nights before Monday Night Raw. In a new interview with TV Insider, Brandi Rhodes defended the company’s decision.
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“With YouTube, it’s its own show,” Rhodes said. “That means we are trusted enough to carry our own show and don’t have to be compared to men. We were also not restricted on time. So it’s really the dream scenario. Better than finding out when we are live and something went long, you may only have four minutes to put it out there. That’s really hard, especially when you are trying to introduce new women and put that kind of pressure on them. Being it’s our own show without the restraints and to be able to tell these stories how we want to is a really great situation.
“The tournament has been really well-received. When I last checked the first episode surpassed 500,000 views on YouTube, which is kind where people start paying attention and say, ‘This is really cool.’ On a success level, I think we’re doing well. I think it opens the door to possibilities for more. As far as the when, where and why, that isn’t something we’re not in any rush to do because we’re very new. To be able to do something like this and be successful this early is a really good sign.”
Rhodes opted to shut down her Twitter account late last week amidst the fan backlash. She addressed that decision as well.
“I just think that right now there are other things that need my attention a lot more. I’m focusing on ‘Heels,’ which Friday we had our first members based event,” Rhodes said. “It was extremely successful. It’s nice to come together in a community of women that really appreciated it and enjoyed it. We had a really great time on Friday night. It was nice to put my energy into that. My energy is also going into the ‘Women’s Tag Team Cup Tournament’…It has been a really nice weekend to put all my time and energy into what I want to be focusing on right now.”
Here’s the full lineup for this week’s AEW Dynamite.
- AEW TNT Championship: Cody Rhodes vs. Scorpio Sky
- AEW World Tag Team Championships: Kenny Omega & Hangman Page vs. Jurassic Express
- Chris Jericho vs. Orange Cassidy
- The Young Bucks vs. Evil Uno & Stu Grayson
- Special Appearances by The Brainbusters and The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express
