AEW Chief Brand Officer Brandi Rhodes recently spoke with Scott Fishman of TV Insider and talked about how she recently deactivated her Twitter account. Fans speculated that Rhodes left Twitter because of negative feedback to AEW’s “Heels” community for female fans. Rhodes said there are other things that need her attention right now.
“I just think that right now there are other things that need my attention a lot more,” Rhodes said of leaving Twitter. “I’m focusing on ‘Heels,’ which Friday we had our first members based event. It was extremely successful. It’s nice to come together in a community of women that really appreciated it and enjoyed it. We had a really great time on Friday night. It was nice to put my energy into that.
“My energy is also going into the ‘Women’s Tag Team Cup Tournament’…It has been a really nice weekend to put all my time and energy into what I want to be focusing on right now.”
Regarding the “Heels” project, Rhodes was asked about recent fan feedback to the project and if that affects her plans for what she wants the project to become. She talked about last Friday’s members event and how “Heels” is not about making money.
“I think the word of mouth on ‘Heels’ is going to be the best thing for it,” Rhodes said. “After the event on Friday the word about it was positive. There was not a single person of the two hundred and change people who showed up that said I did not get what I expected or asked for…We want to keep the women excited and looking forward to different things. The plans are very much laid out for ‘Heels.’ We’ve got a course of action for an entire year here.
“That course of action can change a little bit as the conditions of the world improves, but I think for now we’ve got plenty of events and virtual meet-and-greets and contests and cool things for these women. Not just monthly, but weekly…It’s a cool thing to talk to each other and motivate each other and share their slices of life and just have fun, which is so much of what is missing in life. These are trying times with current events. If ‘Heels’ can be the bright light at the end of the tunnel for them, we’re happy to do whatever it takes to make it that.”
She continued, “Another thing for people to know out of the gate is that ‘Heels’ is not ever going to be something I look to as a super profitable thing. It’s not intended to be. It’s intended to be something they can count on and grow with and learn with and get something out of. In order to run a multi-faceted platform like that, it costs money. It’s not cheap by any means. This is not going to be a huge cash grab for AEW. But it’s something fans will love and appreciate, so it’s worth all the work and effort. Not everything is about a dollar. Some things are about what’s right.”
AEW has also faced some fan criticism for airing their “Deadly Draw” women’s tag team tournament on YouTube instead of Dynamite. Rhodes was asked why the decision was made to air the tournament online instead of Dynamite.
“With YouTube, it’s its own show,” she said. “That means we are trusted enough to carry our own show and don’t have to be compared to men. We were also not restricted on time. So it’s really the dream scenario. Better than finding out when we are live and something went long, you may only have four minutes to put it out there.
“That’s really hard, especially when you are trying to introduce new women and put that kind of pressure on them. Being it’s our own show without the restraints and to be able to tell these stories how we want to is a really great situation.”
Follow Marc on Twitter at @this_is_marc. Send any news, tips or corrections to us by clicking here.
