‘What A Huge Signing’ – Tony Khan Calls Thekla The MVP Of Past Year’s AEW Women’s Roster Additions

Published: Apr 10, 2026 by Dave Adamson | Last Updated: Apr 10, 2026 by Dave Adamson

Dave has been a website writer for WrestleTalk since October 2022, having previously written for Den of Geek, among a number of wrestling, movie and television-related sites. Dave has been around the independent wrestling scene for more than a decade, including behind-the-scenes.

‘What A Huge Signing’ – Tony Khan Calls Thekla The MVP Of Past Year’s AEW Women’s Roster Additions

Tony Khan has named AEW Women’s World Champion Thekla as the MVP of the past year’s additions to the women’s roster.

Coming off the back of a run in Stardom over in Japan, Thekla signed with AEW in July of last year, having passed a probation period.

Now a member of Triangle of Madness and the current AEW Women’s World Champion, Thekla’s status in the company has seen praise from Tony Khan.

Addressing Thekla’s MVP status on the Ringer Wrestling podcast, Tony Khan would praise her as a member of the “new crop” of stars, saying:

“I think when you look at the champions on the women’s side, I would say absolutely, Thekla would be, of this new crop, the MVP of the new arrivals.

“She has been fantastic. When she arrived, she had a goal of winning the world title, but the very first thing she did was go after Jamie Hayter. Jamie Hayter has been a huge part of AEW, one of our most popular stars, a former world champion.

“Jamie Hayter vs Thekla, I think is a really compelling, exciting rivalry, and I’m excited for their match this weekend at AEW Dynasty.

“I think Thekla has been a huge part of the company on the women’s side, absolutely. What a huge signing.”

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Thekla defends her Women’s World Championship against Jamie Hayter at AEW Dynasty on April 12.

The Growing AEW Women’s Division

Women’s wrestling has been at the heart of AEW since the company’s launch back in 2019, with that year’s Double or Nothing seeing a six-woman tag team match that saw Hikaru Shida, Riho, and Ryo Mizunami defeat Aja Kong, Emi Sakura, and Yuka Sakazaki, alongside a four-way match with Britt Baker victorious over Nyla Rose, Kylie Rae, and Awesome Kong.

The roster would see the AEW Women’s World Championship added in October 2019, with its second singles title added two years later, in the form of the TBS Championship. More recently, September of last year saw the introduction of the AEW Women’s World Tag Team Championship.

Under Tony Khan’s leadership, the women’s roster continues to grow, with the AEW owner securing the likes of Thekla, despite interest from WWE. While stars such as Blake Monroe (previously Mariah May) and Jade Cargill may have headed to WWE, there appears to be little public animosity over the decision from Khan himself, with the man making the signings clearly having an eye out for new female stars to add to his already stacked division.

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