Spoiler: Former World Champion returns after 15 weeks for AEW
A former World Champion has returned to AEW after 15 weeks of absence. The star being discussed here is Riho.
Riho was last seen on the March 13 episode of Dynamite titled Big Business. On the show, she suffered a loss to former TBS Champion Willow Nightingale. PWInsider recently reported that the 27-year-old star returned to AEW this week. Like always the company taped this week's edition of Collision on Wednesday. The tapings took place at the Keybank Center in Buffalo, New York.
Riho will be featured on this week's edition on Collison which will air on Saturday. In a segment before Dynamite, Serena Deeb and Kelly Madded squared off in a singles match.
After Deeb pulled off a victory, she called out all the female stars on the roster and dared them to challenge her. This led to the return of the Japanese wrestler. The returning star confronted her and then the two faced off, bringing the segment to a close.
Jim Cornette calls AEW CEO Tony Khan "stupid" for paying Riho too much
Last month, a Reddit post went viral, claiming that Riho made an insane amount of money in AEW. Speaking on the matter, Jim Cornette on his Drive Thru podcast, stated that he thinks Tony Khan shouldn't invest so much in her.
"Riho couldn’t turn down 400 grand a year either. Is it something that Tony would have done based on whoever say so? Probably. Maybe. It’s not out of… It’s not ridiculous. But at the same time, it could also be her saying, 'Oh well'... Maybe that’s a little more than she made or considerable if it’s $200,000 and that’s an unofficial count."
He continued:
"The guy said she wrestled like 10 times. Do you think she could’ve wrestled more than 20 or 25? Even doing dark matches on YouTube or whatever? (...) My God, if she’s making half of that and she had 20 matches then $200,000 for 20 matches, he paying her 10 grand a match. It’s getting a little bit more believable although stupid."
Check out the video below:
Riho became All Elite in 2019. She is the inaugural AEW Women's World Champion and has held the title once since her arrival in the company.