LuFisto Alleges Backstage Politics In AEW's Women's Division

Independent wrestling stalwart LuFisto has gone into detail on her purported negative experiences in All Elite Wrestling, alleging backstage politics are hampering the company's women's division.

LuFisto, who wrestled for AEW on a Dark: Elevation taping in April 2022, told Fightful she had been invited to the show by QT Marshall, who had offered her a coaching opportunity and meeting with company founder Tony Khan. Said meeting didn't happen - and LuFisto claims she was prevented from showing what she could do by the six-person tag's other participants.

This, according to the independent legend, led to intense backstage criticism from Dustin Rhodes:-

"We go backstage and they all keep going. Dustin is right there and is like, 'What did you do?' 'What do you mean?' 'You made all those girls that are signed when you're not look really bad. It was terrible.' 'Okay, details?' 'You should have bumped on everything they did.' I'm like, 'everything they planned was for me to sell to the next for the other to sell to the tag for me to give a clothesline, tag out, and only tag back in.' I have 40 seconds in there. 'Sir, can you please give me details on what I should have done better so I don't repeat it?' 'When Anna Jay biffed you on the apron, you should have fallen outside.' Now I'm like, 'Thank you, sir. I see.' Of course, everyone else left. No one is there when he's giving me this criticism. Billy Gunn is nearby. I look around and am like, 'can someone else tell me that I suck this bad? I need another opinion.' He was looking at me like I was disgusting. Now I'm like, 'they told me to stay on the f*cking apron.' The thing that I was thinking about was, there were a few girls that told me they had matches with Britt Baker where they would go in the ring and they would change the match completely or, if the girl forgot something, she would go, 'where are we?' Silence. Of course, the match would look bad, they would never be called again and they got stiffed as well. They didn't want to stiff me, but they made sure, to at least an agent, I looked like a !*$% idiot. I went around and asked some guys, 'did you watch the match?' One of them told me, 'I did not, but I will.'"

Rhodes has since responded to LuFisto's claims:-

Hey @LuFisto , read your story and sometimes as a coach I have to be very honest and won't ever tell you a lie about how good or bad it was. Sometimes hard love comes out and wouldn't have it any other way.

I hope you find what you're looking for. #KeepSteppin❤️

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— Dustin Rhodes (@dustinrhodes) August 3, 2023

Later in the interview, LuFisto unpacked her issues with AEW's Ruby Soho in particular, going over a previous interaction with the former Ruby Riott in WWE:-

"I'm so upset that I went there and spent my money for this. I'm like, 'you should have known better,' especially with Ruby. When I was backstage at WWE at WrestleMania (2016) because I had tickets from Pat Patterson. [Senior Director of Talent Development] Canyon Ceman was right there. Kimber Lee was working there, and Andrea, we were sitting together, and so was [Ruby]. Canyon comes to sit with us, 'Oh, I went to the women's shows. Queen of Combat, that was the s**t. We went to SHIMMER, we got what we wanted there. The rest was whatever.' Kimber Lee and Andrea are looking at the floor and [Ruby] is like, 'Yeah, yeah. I know, I know.' You're sh*tting on SHIMMER? From that moment on, I've always had that problem with her. How the f*ck can you throw them under the bus, just to kiss ass? The funny thing is, he looks at me, 'Who are you?' 'Hi sir, I'm Gen [Genevieve Goulet], nice to meet you.' He kind of figured out I was on that show. 'Well I gotta go.' [Ruby says] 'I gotta go too,' and she left. I don't know if she ever thought I was going to talk about it. She gets booked at IWS in Montreal. They want to book her against me. 'Alright, let's do this.' Two days before they announce our match, IWS is freaking out. 'We have to change everything, we're sorry. Something with AEW. It involves five people on the card, we have to re-do the card.' 'Okay, it's going to be Ruby, because of me, and all the other girls, which makes five of us is the reason why everything is f*cked up.' Of course that's what it is, they didn't want to tell me. She shows up, 'Hi, how are you?' Gives me a big hug, 'it's so nice to see you.' I'm like, 'Motherf*cker, after everything, you think I don't know?' I've seen this behavior forever."

She then summarised what she believes are the issues with AEW's women's division:-

"I'm telling my story and my experience for people to understand that the reason why this division doesn't work is the gatekeeping of it. It's not going to get any better as long as somebody doesn't stand up. Everybody is afraid to talk. Everybody doesn't want to say what I'm saying right now. I'm even struggling right now, but someone has to say it."

Following the interview's release, another independent wrestling legend, Nicole Matthews, spoke up on Soho's behalf:-

"You know who’s one of my absolute favourite people I’ve ever met in professional wrestling? @realrubysoho. After not seeing her lovely face in 5 years, the second I saw her at AEW, she ran up and gave me the most giant hug. It was like no time had passed at all. One thing she said that stuck to me was “you always remember the ones who treated you right on the way up” Funny that."

LuFisto's public AEW criticisms behind on 28 June, when she effectively claimed she had been blackballed from the promotion:-

It's cute how people blame booking for a bad women's division.

Talent with too much power; talent denigrating each other; talent trash-talking potential employees so they never get in as soon as they walk in...It starts here.- The one you called FN French Canadian !*$% pic.twitter.com/6VVLV4LeWI

— LuFisto (@LuFisto) July 27, 2023

This led to immediate fan speculation on potential Britt Baker involvement, though Fightful Select reported: "Britt Baker 100 percent was not responsible for keeping LuFisto away from AEW." LuFisto also confirmed this to the outlet herself.

Fightful noted, however, that there have been numerous issues in AEW's women's division over the years. Baker has had the finger pointed at her several times, though she is believed to have "significant personal reasons to have her guard up in any situation."

On Thursday, LuFisto posted a multi-part Twitter thread naming Britt and her "crew." She claimed Tony Khan was present at a backstage meeting with several members of the women's division, sending those who addressed the problems she has outlined home. LuFisto alleges, too, that "the legitimate wrestlers" are of the impression that Khan does not care about women's wrestling.

Here's the thread in its entirety:-

Had a one hour phone call with a current AEW talent. The women who actually addressed the problems I did today were the ones sent home by Tony Khan. There was a meeting to shoot on Thunder Rosa that Khan attended. Before leaving, he reminded them that... ... their segments were the lowest. When some girls arranged a meeting to talk about Baker’s crew, one of them ran to Britt to let her know. The girls that wanted to address the problem were the ones punished. Things didn’t better. They got worst...The legitimate wrestlers believe Tony doesn’t give a damn about women’s wrestling and feel like they are going back to the Divas era. Ask me who the f**k am I. Tell me I’m irrelevant and that I’m doing this for attention. Call me a liar. Tell me to kill myself...You keep on closing your eyes and supporting human beings with sh*tty behaviour. With the messages of support and especially this phone call I received from AEW employees… This nobody did the right thing.

LuFisto's claims against Baker and Soho are yet to be corroborated publically.