Due to a neck injury, Queen Aminata was removed from the AEW’s first ever women’s Blood and Guts match last month. Now, that same problem is forcing her to miss out on another historic first.
On the Ring of Honor Final Battle media, ROH owner and AEW President Tony Khan confirmed that Aminata is still dealing with the aftereffects of her injury, and as a result, has yet to be medically cleared to compete in the wrestling ring again. With this, Khan announced that Aminata would also give up her spot in the ongoing ROH Women’s Pure Championship tournament.
“I have to say that Queen Aminata was not cleared to compete on tonight’s [ROH] show and she will have to forfeit,” Khan said. “That was unexpected, but we’ve given her as much time as I possibly could to come back and wrestle in the tournament. The plan was to have the semi-final match filmed yesterday for tonight’s show. The doctors would not clear her to do that match. Deonna [Purrazzo] has done a fantastic job in this tournament and I thought Deonna versus Aminata would have been a great match. The winner of that match is a great opponent for the winner of Yuka [Sakazaki] versus Billie [Starkz].”
Sporting a neck brace, Aminata confirmed the news herself on Thursday night’s edition of “ROH on HonorClub,” noting that the health of her neck wasn’t something she would gamble with. As such, Deonna Purrazzo’s path to the tournament finals cleared, with Billie Starkz’s victory over Yuka Sakazaki in the same episode later ensuring that Starkz would meet her there at ROH Final Battle on December 5. The winner of Purrazzo vs. Starkz will earn the bragging rights as the first ever ROH Women’s Pure Champion.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit ROH with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
