Kiera Hogan didn’t sit around waiting for AEW to come save her career. She walked through the door herself.
During her conversation on Hitting The Turnbuckle, Hogan opened up about how her AEW run came together after her time with TNA. She made it clear that Sanjay Dutt being in AEW had nothing to do with her getting there. This was Hogan making the move on her own.
Hogan explained that she was already on her way out of TNA after she and Tasha Steelz lost the Knockouts Tag Team Titles. TNA wanted her to stay, but she wanted to see what else was out there.
“When fans were allowed to come back to wrestling events, TNA had pay-per-view. Obviously, me and Tasha lost the titles. I was kind of already on the way out of TNA. I was asked to re-sign with TNA. But I was at a point in my career where I wanted to see what else was out there. I was just curious.”
Hogan said she had been with TNA for years and had grown a lot there, but she didn’t want to wonder whether that was the only place for her.
“I’ve been with TNA for four years, five years. I had grown a lot with TNA. I could have stayed and just flourished from there, but I was just curious to see if this was it. I was just a curious person. I’ve always been curious. I want to see what other challenges are out there.”
AEW also made sense because Hogan already had people there. Diamante, her fiancée, was working there, and Hogan had friends in the locker room including Big Swole, Red Velvet, and Nyla Rose.
“My fiancé Diamante was working, is working at AEW still. At the time, my friend Big Swole was there, Red Velvet was there, I had a lot of friends, Nyla Rose. I just had a lot of friends in the AEW locker room, and they were asking, ‘Hey, are you going to come to AEW? When are you going to wrestle at AEW?’ So I was like, ‘Let me just see if I can go to AEW and see what’s there for me.’”
Once Hogan got there, she started on AEW Dark. Her first opponent was Hikaru Shida, and Hogan said Kenny Omega was the one who gave her that match because he wanted her to have a real chance to show what she could do.
“I wrestled for Dark. I wrestled Shida first. Kenny Omega was the one who gave me Shida because he wanted to give me an actual chance to show. He was like, ‘I just wanted to give you somebody that you know you guys would flow really well,’ and we did. I loved wrestling her.”
Hogan then wrestled Kris Statlander, and after that, AEW offered her a contract.
“Then I wrestled Kris Statlander as well and then after that match they offered me a contract. It was that easy.”
Then Hogan shut down the idea that someone else made the call for her. She said she was the one who reached out, showed up, and made herself available.
“Nobody, it wasn’t like Sanjay called and said hey do you want to. It was all me. I was the one that went in the door and was like, ‘Hey, I’m available if you guys want to.’ I just went through the right channels to ask, ‘Hey, I’m available. I’m a free agent. Can I come work?’ And they saw me work and they wanted to sign me and that was it really.”
That’s a pretty blunt version of how the business works. Hogan bet on herself, got in the ring, delivered, and AEW signed her. Her AEW run later put her in Jade Cargill’s Baddies group, but the first step was all Hogan. No magic phone call. No secret recruitment pitch. Just a wrestler making her own move.
What do you think about Kiera Hogan saying she created her own AEW opportunity? Did AEW use her the right way once she got there? Leave your feedback in the comments.
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