Ahead of this Saturday’s Full Gear pay-per-view, AEW president Tony Khan has announced new protocols and changes to medical staff as the fledgling promotion continues to adapt and grow.
Speaking with PWInsider, Tony Khan touted changes to their medical team following a scary situation with Matt Hardy at the previous pay-per-view, AEW All Out on September 5.
“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,” said Khan.
Tony Khan is also bringing back former WWE Superstar, Chris Nowinski, as an advisor. Nowinski is the leading expert on concussions and head trauma in the industry and co-founded the Sports Legacy Institute, which is now the Concussion Legacy Foundation in June of 2007.
“Speaking of Chris [Nowinski]- Chris is actually coming back this weekend, so Chris will be at Full Gear and I’m going to have Chris talk to all the staff and all the talent and me. It’s been over a year since Chris came and saw us last and I think it’s probably overdue for Chris to come in and give us his thoughts and his critiques and it’s important that we listen to that. 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.”
WrestleZone will have live play-by-play coverage of the pay-per-view beginning Saturday at 8 p.m. Eastern.
