Tony Khan On Delay In Announcing ROH Women’s Pure Title Tournament Brackets Due to Injury

Tony Khan has yet to announce the brackets for the ROH Women’s Pure Championship, and he has explained that it’s due to injuries and a few other issues. Khan announced the new title and the forthcoming tournament all the way back in April with participants including Serena Deeb, Queen Aminata, Billie Starkz, Leila Grey, Deonna Purrazzo, and Taya Valkyrie. However, the tournament has been on ice since, and Khan explained during the ROH Death Before Dishonor media call that it has been due to various injuries. You can see some highlights below from the discussion:

On injuries holding up the tournament: “I think when we started the Pure Championship Tournament idea, we had so many injuries in the division that I ended up at Supercard of Honor, instead of being able to launch the bracket as I’d originally intended, I then went into the card with the Interim TV Championship match because Red Velvet wasn’t cleared. And people I wanted to use for that, wouldn’t have been able to field the bracket that I wanted.

“And then the next night less than 24 hours later, we went out into the Casino Gauntlet match that I mentioned earlier which was a great match. And I mentioned that Mina got hurt in that match. There were several injuries in that match that affected AEW and Ring of Honor and affected potential championships in both companies. And in this case, we lost about a quarter of the women in the Casino Gauntlet match to injury. And Mina is going to be the first one back, and her first match back is going to be tomorrow.”

On how the injuries have affected both AEW and ROH: “We had something else come up this week that — when I talk about injuries and these things, on the glass half full side, I got asked a question that I really really appreciated at the scrum. And it applied to AEW, and now I’ll talk more about ROH and why I think it’s really good, a lot of the things we’ve been able to do with ROH. I got asked a question about the women’s wrestling in AEW this week and why we’re having such a good year, and why things have changed so much for the better. And I put so much of it on the quality of the wrestlers and the level of the performances. And we’ve also been really unfortunate, we’ve been very — on the plus side, very fortunate to have great wrestlers on top that have been able to stay healthy.

“We have had some major injuries like I said, just even coming out of a big match on the biggest show of the year. Women’s Casino Gauntlet was a great, great match but a lot of injuries, and big stars unavailable that really affected the booking of AEW. But even more so, probably to be honest of you, with ROH where Mina hasn’t been able to wrestle until tomorrow and it’s still been figured into the story um with Toni and Athena, where it still makes sense for her to be here. But also with Syuri, who I really wanted to use here in AEW but also in ROH. And had plans for Syuri, and her first appearance with us was an injury. So things happen and it’s okay. We’ll come back from injuries and all kinds of things. In the case of Deonna, I really want to get Deonna in uh the Pure Championship tournament and get Deonna going. And there’s a number of people I want to use in the Pure Championship Tournament.”

On having to hold off due to Queen Aminata’s passport being stolen: “I wrote a bracket for the Pure Championship Tournament. And then this past week, I had to hold off on match announcements for this. And it’s looking positive like I might be able to go hopefully with something that looks like the bracket I wanted to use. On top of all the crazy injuries — and you got people you really want to put in this tournament. Deonna is one great example, but there’s a bunch of women who are going to be in this tournament I really really like, and I think this would be a great spot and place for them.

“But to make this work, it takes a great group of wrestlers. And I want to put on a tournament commensurate with the quality of uh the roster. And in this case, one of the wrestlers that I really think would add a lot and has been featured as a name that we’ve associated with it, it’s somebody who’s really risen to prominence in AEW. Also has stepped up in part due to injuries, and taken a top place on AW TV, but has expressed an interest in being in the ROH Pure Championship field. And that’s Queen Aminata. And Queen Aminata this week, on independent show, had her passport stolen. And then that changed the uh dynamics of some of the travel and even affected some of the things I was hoping to do Wednesday, last night, which we had a great show. And it looks like Queen Aminata is going to be back for tomorrow now, with a emergency passport. Which is great because I’m now looking back to go back to another — It’s just kind of crazy, but uh there’s so much that goes into planning an event and there’s so much goes into planning shows.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit AEW with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.