On January 1st, AEW Dynamite will return and start the new calendar year off hot. One announced match was the newcomer Kris Statlander who was set to face AEW Womens Champion Riho for the belt. That match has been altered into a fatal four way. It will include Nyla Rose, Hikaru Shida, Britt Baker & Riho. Notable by her absence is Kris Statlander, but worry not.
AEW owner Tony Khan confirmed this on Twitter, saying “Rather than force Kris to choose between her title shot or keeping her word on a commitment she made before signing here, we’re allowing her to do both. The champion Riho will defend vs. #2 Britt/#3 Shida/#4 Nyla in a 4 way title match. The winner defends vs. #1 Kris on January 8”
Why The Change Was Made
When Kris Statlander joined the AEW roster a month or so back, she still had dates for independent shows that she committed to. One of these was an appearance for Bar Wrestling, which falls on January 1st. Instead of pulling her from the show, instead they changed the match set for Dynamite. She will still get her shot at the AEW Womens Championship, but that will happen on January 8th, where she will face the winner of the fatal four way this coming Wednesday.
It needs to be noted that Bar Wrestling was fine with Kris Statlander missing the show, but she didn’t want to not fulfill her commitment, which shows a lot about her as a person and her work ethic. That is just one thing that will make her a fixture of the AEW Womens Division.
AEW Fan Backlash?
AEW has oddly received some backlash for this change to the card, which is confusing. WWE recently caught a lot of flack for pulling some talent from the 9th anniversary show of UK based promotion Southside Wrestling, which was also the promotions final show before they would be absorbed into Revolution Pro Wrestling. WWE pulled talent such as NXT UK Women’s Champion Kay Lee Ray, El Ligero, Joseph Conners, and Ilja Dragonov from the show. AEW would help out and have Cody, Brandi, MJF & Shawn Spears appear on the show. AEW is working around their talents commitments to other promotions, instead of pulling them and having the smaller company to cope with a last minute change.
How do you feel AEW handled this situation? Let us know down below in the comment section, and be sure to return to The Overtimer regularly to stay up to date on all the happenings in wrestling today!
