It hasn’t been a good time for Thunder Rosa. Apart from being injured and having to be off TV with a leave of absence from AEW since August due to injury, she has battled allegations of sandbagging and protecting her spot for not relinquishing the title for months.
On Wednesday night’s episode of AEW Dynamite, things got worse when Tony Khan decided to strip the Texan of the AEW women’s world championship. He also retroactively got rid of the “interim” label in use for the women’s champions during Rosa’s absence.
Despite all this, Thunder Rosa responded as amicably as expected, thanking her fans and AEW and saying people deserved a ‘present champion’:
Thank you #ThunderArmy for all the support and @aew for being there for me. Dream-like moments happened in this run, and this is not how I wanted to lose the championship, but you deserve a present champion; on to the next chapter.
— Thunder Rosa (@thunderrosa22) November 24, 2022
With the interim label gone, Rosa seemingly ok with this decision, and Jamie Hayter free to lead the charge as the new AEW women’s world champion, AEW can look to rebuild the women’s division, one that has been highly needed and demanded by fans.
When will Thunder Rosa return?
In what has clearly been a tough call for the promotion, “Wrestling Observer Radio” has provided an update on how AEW came to their decision. According to the Observer, AEW initially expected Rosa to return to action at some point during the final two months of the year. However, it’s said that Rosa is now not expected to be ready to return until February next year. Because of this news, AEW felt they had to “be consistent” as they gave CM Punk, who was reigning AEW World Champion for a period over the summer while injured, two months to get healthy.
