AEW Facing Criticism Following Cody Rhodes Unprotected Chairshot

Cody Rhodes and Darby Allin had a tremendous match at AEW’s second show, Fyter Fest, on Saturday night. Unfortunately, it’s what happened after the match that has had fans talking since it occurred.

Following the match ending in a time limit draw, Shawn Spears (formerly Tye Dillinger of WWE) ran out and attacked Rhodes with a chair. Rhodes took the chairshot to the head without putting a hand up to partially block the impact, a throwback to what we often saw in wrestling before CTE became a hot topic.

Check out the video below to see the shot for yourself.

After the chairshot, Rhodes lay on the ring apron while blood began to pour out of a wound on the back of his head. It was shown on camera that Rhodes suffered a gigantic gash on the back of his head from the chair, and we later learned that it took 12 staples to close the wound. Luckily, Rhodes did not suffer a concussion.

After Fyter Fest, The Young Bucks told media backstage that the chair used during the segment was gimmicked (prepared) for the segment but it still did not work out as planned. A breakdown of the video shows that a portion of the seat back of the chair is what caused the injury.

“You think it was unprotected, and I’ll leave it at that,” Nick Jackson said. “That was all Cody’s idea. I think, see I didn’t even know what happened to be honest. All I know is that he did get staples. So I’m going to have to look back and I’ll have a comment on it later. I do know that they ‘gimmicked’ the chair. And it clearly didn’t work, right? Because he was bloody.”

Several wrestling fans and media members alike were quick to criticize the new company for using an unprotected chairshot given what has been revealed about CTE and head injuries in recent years.

AEW President Tony Khan also commented on the incident after the show.

“[We] call[ed] a doctor immediately, it was really regrettable what happened,” Khan said. “I don’t know if this is the time to go into detail about what happened. But we had taken precautions in the situation, in that specific situation and a doctor was available. Cody does not have a concussion, he has staples, and we’re all very grateful for that.”

“All I’m going to say to you guys on it right now, and I will talk about it more in detail, you could build the safest airplane in the world,” he added later in the interview. “And if there’s pilot error, there’s pilot error. And it was not good.”

What were your feelings on the inclusion of the chairshot and the way it was done? Let us know in the comments section.