While Jon Moxley now finally reigns over All Elite Wrestling as the undisputed world champion, the AEW women’s division is still holding its breath. The division currently has two top titleholders in the form of Interim AEW Women’s Champion Toni Storm and Lineal AEW Women’s Champion Thunder Rosa. Ahead of her anticipated defense against Storm at AEW All Out, Rosa was forced to pull out of the pay-per-view due to a back injury, leading to Storm winning a four-way to become interim champion. While previous reports have indicated that Rosa is actually hurt, the timing of the announcement have left some questioning the injury’s legitimacy. Some reports have said that Rosa did not tell anyone about her injury until after she was told that she would be dropping her AEW Women’s Title to Storm at All Out.
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Storm’s status as a temporary titleholder has left her frustrated as well. Speaking to “Doc” Chris Mueller of Bleacher Report, Storm noted her next goal is to establish herself as undisputed champion.
“I guess my first thing would be to beat Thunder Rosa and stop this interim nonsense,” Storm said. “That’s kind of what’s been bothering me. I think that’s been bothering a lot of people because she’s still calling herself the AEW Women’s World Champion and I’m the one here every week doing the work.”
It’s unclear as to when that title unification match will go down, as Rosa does not have a recovery timetable at this time. Last month, Rosa noted that she is going to be doing physical therapy for roughly 6-8 weeks and will then have to go through wrestling conditioning.
“It is a lot, because I have to go to therapy 3-4 times a week,” Rosa said in a September interview. “So it’s like my other job now.”
As Storm awaits Rosa’s return, she emphasized that she’s focused on just being a “strong champion.”
“Right now, I guess it’s about being a good champion, being a strong champion,” Storm continued. “That’s what I’m up against every day. I’m working harder than I ever had in my entire career. The time is now. I look at every week as just an opportunity to prove myself. I love giving it my all. Who knows where we go from here? But all I know is I’m gonna continue to work hard.”
Storm defends her Interim AEW Women’s Title against Hikaru Shida this Tuesday on AEW Dynamite.
