Tony Khan discusses the time difference between CM Punk and Thunder Rosa's injury-related their respective championships.
When Thunder Rosa announced that she wasn't going to be able to compete at All Out due to injury, some fans found it controversial that she was only afforded a couple of seconds in a backstage promo, as opposed to CM Punk, who got a full segment on AEW Rampage to announce his injury back in June.
On today's AEW All Out Media Call, Tony Khan discussed the difference between the two segments.
"I strongly disagree with that. I very strongly disagree with that. I give the TV time based on what I believe is going to draw the most ratings. If you want my honest opinion on an eight-minute Thunder Rosa promo vs. an eight-minute CM Punk promo, then you’re going to get an honest answer. I think the eight-minute CM Punk promo is probably going to do a better rating. As far as match length, I think Thunder Rosa has had some great matches as champion and to come out and do a live eight-minute promo, I’m not sure that would have been good for the television show, to be honest. Especially given where we were at with Thunder Rosa, I found out she was injured a few hours before a live television show, I don’t really have time to put an eight-minute promo in when I had just a couple hours notice vs. CM Punk, I knew days earlier he was badly hurt and we had already made a plan days earlier. Furthermore, a lot of people criticized the way Jon got his match with Tanahashi, so I guess you can’t please everybody, no matter what you do, and I’ve actually seen more people excited about the four-way match than they were for the original match and I think the four-way is one of the more anticipated matches on the card and I’ve seen people way more excited about that than, honestly, in some cases, the way we go through the Casino battle Royale match. I noticed people complained when Kyle got that opportunity. Jon vs. Kyle is one of my personal favorite TV matches. There were people criticizing that. I’ve seen less people, although there may be some, criticizing how we got to this. You can’t necessarily please every body, but I do think in this case, it’s been positive given the situation we were in."
This backs up a report from Fightful Select that indicated that AEW was blindsided by Thunder Rosa's injury shortly before the August 24 Dynamite. Fightful had reported that AEW planned for a Toni Storm win until that point, when they were forced to change plans. Much of the Dynamite episode had actually been written before Rosa's injury became known.
Earlier today, Thunder Rosa provided an update on her injury. To learn more, click here.
Fans can listen to today's media call by clicking here.
If you use any of the quotes above, please credit the original source with a h/t and link back to Fightful for the transcription.
