AEW Chief Brand Officer Brandi Rhodes recently spoke with Monsters and Critics Reality to discuss a wide range of topics, including how happy she is that President Tony Khan took his time building up the company’s women’s division. Highlights from the interview are below.
On the growth of the AEW women’s division and Tony Khan taking his time building it:
I feel like a lot of people forget that I said in the beginning that it’s going to take time. I think that people just wanted everything ‘now, now, now,’ when you look at it, the road to get here was a little bit bumpy, but something has to catch. Something has to start working for people in order for people to get on board. As much as we wish we could do what we want to do all the time, at the end of the day, we want to do what people want to see. So to just throw darts at a board forever is a terrible idea, in my opinion. I don’t run the company. But I’m glad that Tony didn’t do that. I’m glad that he did take his time and wait for stars to start to emerge and wait for the right women, like you said, Jade Cargill, I mean, the sky’s the limit with Jade, but you have to take your time with it. You can’t just throw Jade out there for a 30-minute match and see what happens. I can tell you what happens isn’t good. So we keep building in the direction that we’re going now and I think we continue to cultivate fans.
On the Heels group and how good it is to be a female fan in wrestling right now:
I love that everything is going so well with heels. It had a rocky beginning because people didn’t understand it. That’s the trend, people jump on things they don’t understand, and then when they finally do, take a second look and understand it. It goes great. We just had our first in-person meetup with Heels It was so successful. I was so successful that Tony Khan held his schedule for 30 minutes so that we could have 30 extra minutes. That’s how well things are going in that direction. That’s how happy people are and I’m so happy that it’s turned into a community that fans can really thrive in so many women come up to me at this event tell me this was the first show that they came to live and they came because of Heels and they wanted to meet you know, this woman that they connected with in the community and they were crying and you know, as women we like to drink and cry at the same time. It was great. But yeah, so you know, as far as being a female wrestling fan or female wrestler in AEW, now’s a really great time.
(H/T and transcribed by Fightful
)