All Elite Wrestling officially announced on Thursday that former NWA World Women’s Champion Thunder Rosa has signed an official contract with the company. Rosa, while still holding the NWA title, first arrived on AEW Dynamite in August 2020 and started up a feud with Hikaru Shida over the AEW Women’s World Championship. She fell short at the All Out pay-per-view but would continue to appear on Dynamite and even competed in NWA title matches against Ivelissa and Serena Deeb (the woman who eventually beat her for the title). Back in March she and Dr. Britt Baker made history by being the first women to main event an episode of Dynamite, with “La Mera Mera” winning an incredibly violent Unsanctioned Lights Out Match.
All of this was happening Rosa was still a member of the NWA roster and running her own promotion (Mission Pro Wrestling), with her latest NWA match being a tag team bout on the July 6 episode of NWA Powerrr. She also made a surprise appearance at Impact Wrestling’s Slammiversary this past weekend, failing to defeat Deonna Purrazzo for the Knockouts Championship.
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Welcome to the team…@ThunderRosa22 is #AllElite pic.twitter.com/GcvAds6ANx
— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) July 22, 2021
Tony Khan explained prior to All Out last year that the talent exchange between AEW and the NWA that led to Rosa’s arrival was thanks to Khan’s friendship with NWA owner Billy Corgan.
“The working relationship between us is the extent of the good personal relationship between Billy Corgan and me,” Khan said. “I’ve had a good relationship with Billy for years, long before I got into the wrestling business.”
“… The NWA has got great history, they aren’t really operating right now, I think we’re very different companies in a very different place. And I think the NWA, it sounds like they’re going to get back to running and I wish Billy the best with the stuff he’s doing,” Khan continued. “I thought this would be a good opportunity for them, and for us because Thunder Rosa is great and I thought she’d be a great challenger for Shida. So it’s one of those situations where I thought it would make sense for both sides. Which is why I proposed it, he agreed, and that’s why we’re doing it.”
Reports started breaking shortly after Rosa dropped the NWA title that both WWE and AEW were scrambling to lock her down to a contract. Corgan then stepped in and said she was still under an NWA contract until 2021.
