Tony Khan is days away from presenting two massive pay-per-view events from Texas for the first time. The boss of AEW and ROH has had a hectic week so far, making the media rounds and dealing with several urgent matters, including one unfortunate situation that has impacted long-term plans, championship storylines, upcoming tournaments, and other happenings, including All In Weekend.
Khan addressed the AEW and ROH women’s divisions during today’s media call for the already-controversial All In Weekend. The AEWE-ROH owner noted how multiple injuries forced changes to various storylines, citing Jamie Hayter’s back injury from late May. The herniated discs have Hayter on the shelf indefinitely, and at one point she wasn’t sure she’d be able to wrestle again, but officials are hopeful she’ll be back on TV soon. Khan commented on how this led to call-ups and changes, pointing to how Ring of Honor and All Elite Wrestling help each other.
“Due to some injuries that we’ve had in AEW and ROH, I’ve had to make some changes to some of my plans around multiple matches, in particular in the women’s division, and there are some matches that I would like to have announced, and there’s a bit of a domino effect in these things. We had a couple injuries in AEW that changed the flow of things, just to be transparent, with Jamie Hayter, her being out longer than I would like in AEW, I made some call-ups and changed the roles of some people. One example of somebody who’s been really prominent in AEW… and this is why it’s great having ROH as a complimentary promotion that is a stand-alone company that can have great events of their own, but also work with AEW and develop potentially, some young wrestlers for AEW, and also feature great veteran stars, and allow young wrestlers to work with each other, or to take on great veterans, and get that great experience,” Khan said.
Khan doubled back to his remarks on a certain prominently-featured talent in AEW, and gave praise to Queen Aminata. He noted how Aminata has benefited from the Hayter injury, announced the unfortunate injuries to Red Velvet, and touched on Ring of Honor’s Women’s Pure Championship Tournament delay.
“Somebody that’s come in and done a great job on AEW TV in recent weeks is Queen Aminata, who has also been involved at times in ROH. Queen Aminata has been very prominently involved in the AEW television lately, and is doing a great job, and whether it’s ROH or AEW, I think she’s somebody [that’s] a great example of a hard-working person that’s done very well, and had taken advantage of opportunities that I think would have presented themselves, but maybe not ever… I think she’s gotten even more opportunities as a result of an injury. Now that’s one example of an injury in AEW that is to a really prominent top star, and when you’re missing a prominent top star for several weeks, like we’ve been missing Jamie Hayter for several weeks, then you’re going to move other people into those positions, and people are going to get called up, and there’s going to be re-organization,” Khan said.
He continued:
“I had been hoping to start the ROH Women’s Pure Tournament a bit sooner, had some injuries and now have had another injury that changes the structure, and the scheduling for some of the big matches in the ROH women’s division, and that is with the ROH Women’s World Television Title, and champion Red Velvet. She’s doing a fantastic job, I really like Red Velvet a lot, and I think she’s having a great 2025. A lot of her best work has been international competition with CMLL, and representing ROH as the World TV Champion in CMLL in great matches, including on the Global Wars special, which I thought was one of the best episodes of ROH TV we’ve had, and I think one of the best episodes of TV ROH has ever done. It featured incredible matches, [Khan runs down the top bouts], and we saw a preview of the Women’s World Championship match [at Supercard of Honor] with Athena and Thunder Rosa lined up on opposite sides, and we also had the Women’s World TV Champion Red Velvet involved in that match,” Khan said.
Tony Khan Reveals Interim Championship Plans Ahead Of AEW All In Weekend
Red Velvet is expected to miss a few weeks of in-ring action, but could be out a few months in a worst-case situation. The reigning ROH Women’s World Television Champion last wrestled on June 20, defeating Kira at the CMLL x NJPW FantasticaMania Mexico event. She began the loaded week south of the border by losing to Persephone at the CMLL vs. AEW-ROH edition of Martes Populares, then teamed with Athena for a loss to Thunder Rosa and Persephone at ROH-CMLL Global Wars.
Tony Khan revealed during today’s AEW All In Weekend media call that Velvet suffered injuries that week in Mexico City, but he did not provide specifics. The heel worked her last standard ROH match more than one month before the trip to Mexico, defeating Laynie Luck in a Women’s World Television Championship Proving Ground match, four days after a Proving Ground win over Harleen Lopez. Her last title defense came against La Catalina on April 16.
Coming “Straight Outta Your Mama’s Kitchen,” Velvet has been the Ring of Honor Women’s World Television Champion for 347 days. Khan is not stripping the 33-year-old of her title while recovering, but ROH will crown an Interim Women’s World TV Champion on Friday at Supercard of Honor XVIII, which will air live from Esports Stadiumn in Arlington, TX.
“Now, Red Velvet is injured, and was injured that week in Mexico, and has not competed since. There are a number of women that have been clamoring for spots in the ROH Women’s Pure Championship [Tournament], but also would want to be in line for the following… and first thing is first, I would like to address this… with the injuries to Red Velvet, it’s something that I think she’s going to be able to work through, but she’s not going to be able to defend, due to injury, the Women’s [World Television] Championship at Supercard of Honor, so I will address that situation with an Interim World TV Title, and we’ll be, at a later date, resolving that, but because Red Velvet’s not able to compete, I will be having a ROH Women’s World TV Title Interim Champion crowned at Supercard of Honor,” Khan said.
Khan did not disclose plans for the champion vs. interim champion, but the ROH President hopes the situation will be resolved before ROH’s Death Before Dishonor XXII pay-per-view on September 5, held during Khan’s weeks-long residency at the former ECW Arena in Philadelphia. The multi-sport executive also did not name participants for Friday’s interim title match, but he did talk more about how the various injury setbacks forced a delay to the tournament to crown the inaugural ROH Women’s Pure Champion, which was announced in April, as some of the talents to be used on Friday were also planned for the Pure tournament.
“That situation then caused some delays getting the Pure Title Tournament started because a lot, frankly a lot, of the same people fighting for the position of Interim TV Champion would also be in line for the Pure Championship Tournament. So, I am looking forward to Supercard, but I would be remiss if I didn’t say that I would love to have a defense of the TV Title on this show, but I’m also not going to put the champion in that position. I think Red Velvet will be back in a matter of weeks, maybe a few months, tops. So, that’s why I think crowning an Interim Champion makes a lot of sense, and hopefully that situation will be resolved by Death Before Dishonor. That’s why we haven’t announced a TV Title match for the women’s division yet, or the Pure Women’s Championship matches because frankly, I think it’s going to be some of the same women competing for those same spots,” Khan said.
Red Velvet debuted for AEW in June 2020 following five years on the indies. After teaming with Cody Rhodes for a loss to Shaq and Jade Cargill, the Miami native signed a full-time All Elite contract. She debuted for ROH in late 2023, and has been there ever since. She made it to the semi-finals of the tournament to crown the first-ever ROH Women’s World Television Champion. Velvet later dethroned inaugural champion Billie Starkz at Death Before Dishonor in July 2024, ending her reign at 112 days.