NWA Women’s World Champion Thunder Rosa made her surprise debut on AEW Dynamite last month, and quickly inserted herself into a title program with AEW Women’s World Champion Hikaru Shida. Rosa wound up falling short in their match at All Out on Sept. 5 but to the surprise of many she’ll be back on Dynamite this week defending her NWA title against Ivelisse. In a new interview with Sportskeeda, Rosa cleared up what he status with the company is.
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“The working relationship is there, I’m returning, I wasn’t expecting to return so quickly. Yes, I think Billy [Corgan] and Tony [Khan] have been talking. They are very happy with my performance so far. So I hope, knock on wood, it continues to. It’s going well for me. We are putting NWA name on a broader platform, which is, at the end of the day, what we’re trying to do.”
AEW president Tony Khan clarified in the days leading up to All Out that the AEW-NWA partnership only extends to Rosa for now.
“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.”
Kahn continued — “I’m not sure what the future would hold for us. But obviously, if Thunder Rosa wins the title there could be a lot more… If Thunder Rosa wins the title, you could see obviously a lot more stuff between us. But I don’t have plans to use anybody else from the NWA.”
Check out the full lineup for this week’s Dynamite below:
- The Best Friends vs. Santana & Ortiz (Parking Lot Brawl)
- NWA Women’s World Championship: Thunder Rosa vs. Ivelisse
- Jurassic Express vs. FTR
- Chris Jericho & Jake Hager vs. Private Party
- Hangman Page vs. Frankie Kazarian
- MJF vs. TBA
- Promos from Jon Moxley and Lance Archer
