Well, this is unfortunate.
Due to prior commitments, Kris Statlander will not be in Jacksonville to face Riho for the #AEW Women’s World Championship on Wed, Jan 1st.
— All Elite Wrestling (@AEWrestling) December 27, 2019
Riho will still defend her championship in a 4 way match w/ Nyla Rose, Britt Baker & Hikaru Shida pic.twitter.com/3UVp5TfoZD
Kris Statlander has been one of All Elite’s breakout stars of the past few weeks, and many figured we’d be getting a title change on the Jan. 1, 2020 “Homecoming” episode from Jacksonville as a way to revitalize the company’s women’s scene.
Maybe we still will, but it won’t include the Galaxy’s Favorite Alien. Instead, the wrestlers ranked second, third, and fourth in the most recent Women’s championship Rankings will face titleholder Riho in a fourway match.
Which should be fun, but is also a bit disappointing. We’ve seen Nyla Rose & Britt Baker try and fail to beat Riho since Dynamite premiered in October, and Statlander beat Hikaru Shida & Baker en route to her title shot.
The “prior commitments” also seem like something AEW should have known about before spending the past few weeks building to this match. Presumably, they figured they could negotiate to get her out of her booking with Bar Wrestling in Los Angeles, and were unable to do so,
No matter, this is the match we’re getting on New Year’s Day. Statlander gets the winner on Jan. 8.
Thoughts?