AEW is changing a highly-anticipated New Year’s title match
Wrestling fans were looking forward to an AEW Women’s Championship match between rising stars Kris Statlander and Riho on the New Year’s Day edition of Dynamite, but the match will be officially changed into a multi-women’s bout.
Kris Statlander signed with AEW earlier in December after choosing their offer over WWE’s less appealing one. Just weeks into her time with the company, Statlander earned a shot at Riho’s AEW Women’s Championship on the New Year’s episode of Dynamite after going on a winning streak, which included a win over Britt Baker.
However, it looks like Statlander won’t be able to receive her one-on-one shot at the championship. The company announced on Twitter that, due to prior commitments, Statlander won’t be available to wrestle on Jan. 1 in Jacksonville against Riho.
Therefore, AEW will be turning this match into a four-way title match involving Riho, Nyla Rose, Hikaru Shida, and Britt Baker.
While this four-way match will still be excellent, it’s extremely disappointing for fans to see that Statlander vs. Riho won’t be on the New Year’s card. It’s a major episode for AEW in their “headquarters” of Jacksonville involving two of their biggest rising stars who looked poised to tear the roof off the place.
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Surely, the four women in the new title match will put on a show as well, but, again, the change from the announced singles match creates more questions and concerns around the competency of AEW’s leadership. They are still trying to figure things out, yes, but it’s a bad look that they could not have anticipated these “commitments” on Statlander’s part beforehand. There may be a reasonable explanation for all of this, but major wrestling companies with television deals shouldn’t be running into these issues frequently.
The good news is that Statlander vs. Riho will take place on Jan. 8, assuming Riho retains the title on New Year’s Day. So on the bright side, AEW fans will get to see two amazing title matches out of all this. Silver linings, folks.
Thankfully, we will get to see Statlander and Riho in a title match in the coming weeks, because both women are incredible and can put on a top-notch match. AEW needs to show it is serious about women’s wrestling, and Riho and Statlander have a major role to play in their women’s division.