During an interview with PWInsider, Tony Khan revealed that the promotion has upgraded its medical protocols.
These protocols will be implemented this week starting at the Full Gear pay-per-view on Saturday. He made the news known when he was asked about criticism from fans and media members after various wrestlers were injured during matches.
Most notably, Matt Hardy suffered a severe concussion at AEW All Out show after a botched spot off a forklift with Sammy Guevera resulting in Hardy’s head missing tables and hitting the concert. The match was briefly stopped before continuing despite Hardy being clearly out of it.
There was also a scary moment with Alex Reynolds on the October 21 AEW Dynamite where he was knocked out cold and stayed in the ring for a few minutes with wrestlers still doing spots.
“Yeah, you know, we’ve been recently doing everything we can to work on our protocols and make this as safe as possible work environment. I’ve added another independent neurologist to the staff.
We’ve added an independent doctor at all the shows in addition to our staff medical team and we’re adding extra support. I’ve added a two-way feature where the referees can talk back to us if there are injuries so that the referee, you know, not all communication is going one way, and I’ve encouraged the referees to let us know what’s going on. “
Former WWE Superstar and CEO of the Concussion Legacy Foundatio, Christopher Nowinski, is also being brought in for Full Gear again so he can talk to all the staff and talent. He noted that it’s been a year since Nowinski has been at an AEW show and it’s probably overdue for him to talk with everyone.
“So I’m excited to have Chris come back because I think he’s the world’s leading expert on head trauma. As to other injuries outside of head trauma, I think we oughta do our best there too but I think that’s probably the area we’re the most concerned about, being…make sure we’re doing everything safe.”
