Notes on Original Owen Hart Cup Plan for Sareee

As previously reported, Sareee, who had been medically cleared in Japan following a neck injury, was subsequently not cleared by AEW, where they conducted a separate examination of her neck.

Sareee was subsequently replaced in the women’s Owen Hart Cup tournament with Maya World, though she had originally brought Takumi Iroha from Japan to be her substitute. World, who recently contended with a real-life death in the family and wanted to get back in the ring for her own mental health, was thought to be a better storyline replacement.

Today’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter offers more details on what was meant to happen, while also qualifying that, “the entire story will be out sometime after the semifinals next week.” Original plans were seemingly for Sareee to win and face Athena in the semifinals, with the planned outcome of that match unclear. World won instead; the planned result of the Athena match isn’t known at this point, but everyone assumes Mercedes Mone will be in the finals, with an expected win over Hazuki. If the idea of World as a substitute is that she fits the storyline better, however, it seems unlikely they’d just eliminate her immediately thereafter.

World had been given the week off due to her brother’s death from a car accident. when he was hit by a passing vehicle.