Report: Backstage News On AEW's Timeline For Vacating Titles
What are the rules behind AEW vacating titles?
A bugbear for some AEW fans is the company’s insistence on booking interim champions, with AEW adopting a similar method to UFC and professional boxing whenever one of their champions is injured or ill.
However, AEW seemingly went back on their policy this week, declaring that Jamie Hayter is the lineal AEW Women’s World Champion after defeating Interim Champion Toni Storm at Full Gear, with it stripping former lineal AEW Women’s World Champion Thunder Rosa of her title.
AEW subsequently revealed that Toni Storm’s reign will retroactively be a lineal reign rather than an interim reign, and on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer reported on AEW’s stance on interim champions:
“I think that’s kind of unofficially the mentality that if it’s a few months we’ll do the interim title, if it’s like six months, it’s too long,” said Meltzer.
Thunder Rosa hasn’t wrestled for AEW since August, declaring on August 24 that she could not defend the title due to injury. Reports this week stated that Rosa will not be back in action until February time.