WWE Stars Not Shocked by Frequent Injuries in AEW

There are many talent in AEW and ROH who always go above and beyond expectations in order to entertain fans, but injuries could happen at any given moment. In fact, AEW has been plagued with injuries lately and WWE talent are not surprised by this.

The past few months have not been going well for AEW when it comes to injuries. After all, Adam Copeland suffered a fractured tibia following his Double or Nothing match. Cole Karter also underwent surgery for an injury and most recently, Riho confirmed she suffered a fractured arm injury.

According to Mike Johnson of PWInsider, WWE talent are not surprised by the perceived high injury rate in All Elite Wrestling. Johnson reports that WWE wrestlers attribute the higher injury rates in AEW to the less frequent schedule there compared to WWE’s more consistent weekly schedule.

In a detailed discussion about WWE reducing live events this summer, Johnson highlighted how WWE performers struggled during the ThunderDome era when they only competed on Mondays and Fridays for Raw and SmackDown tapings. Many WWE talents privately complained that performing less frequently made it harder for them to stay in peak physical condition.

“One thing that was regularly privately complained about during the ThunderDome era was that they found it a lot harder to perform when they were only competing on Mondays or Fridays or doing the SmackDown and the Raw tapings because they could not callus their bodies to the ring. I had numerous top talents in WWE tell me they were actually very relieved when they were able to get back into the touring situation because it’s actually easier on their body, because their body would never get a chance to sort of heal from the weekly beatings that they would get and they would just get into the groove and be used to it. That was actually easier on the body than wrestling, having five-six days to heal, and then wrestling again. They could get into the ring and take bumps, they could get in the ring and do drills and do repetition and things of that nature but performing is a completely different animal.”

Johnson added that the performers felt they were out of practice at the start of the touring process because they hadn’t been wrestling as often. They shared that they found it easier to manage the physical demands of full-time wrestling compared to having long breaks between matches.

Johnson noted that some WWE talents believe this consistency helps prevent injuries, which might explain their lack of surprise at the higher injury rates seen in AEW, where wrestlers often work less frequently unless they choose to take on additional independent bookings.

“Many of them felt they were off quite a few steps in the beginning of the touring process because they had not been doing it. They actually relayed to me that they felt it was easier to be wrestling full-time than it would be to wrestle once and then be off a week and wrestle again. I don’t know if there is anything scientific to this but there have been WWE talents who have told me they are not surprised at the high injury rate that sometimes happens at All Elite Wrestling because those talents are not consistently wrestling all the time in comparison to a WWE talent. They are wrestling on Wednesday and then maybe they’re wrestling on a Saturday, and unless they’re choosing to do independents they’re not doing anything else.”

Even Eddie Kingston recently underwent surgery after suffering a leg injury. Regardless, we certainly hope AEW will ultimately have better luck when it comes to injuries as they are definitely not having a good time because of the ridiculous number of injuries right now.

Do you believe AEW will eventually overcome their serious issues with injuries? What should AEW do to prevent future injuries? Let us know in the comments section below!