Weekend Roundup: WWE Not Happy with NXT 2.0, MitB 2022 Update, WarnerMedia Upset at WWE, Taz, NJPW, Indies

WWE

• WWE reportedly generated an attendance of 7,002 (6,000 paid) for their January 14th SmackDown show in Omaha, NE, 4,878 for their January 15th house show event in Fargo, ND, 2,887 for their January 16th house show event in Sioux Falls, SD, and 4,400 (3,900 paid) for their January 17th RAW show in Tulsa, OK, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• WWE reportedly has sold around 4,876 tickets for their January 24th RAW show in Toledo, OH, around 3,897 tickets for their January 28th SmackDown show in Kansas City, around 31,528 tickets for their January 29th Royal Rumble 2022 event in St. Louis, MO, around 4,491 tickets for their January 31st RAW show in Cincinnati, OH, around 2,574 tickets for their SmackDown show in Oklahoma City, OK, around 2,040 tickets for their February 5th house show event in Salt Lake City, UT, around 3,223 tickets for their February 6th house show event in Boise, IA, around 3,671 tickets for their February 7th RAW show in Denver, CO, around 4,361 tickets for their February 11th SmackDown show in New Orleans, LA, around 2,649 tickets for their February 14th RAW show in Indianapolis, IN, around 3,035 tickets for their February 21st RAW show in Columbia, SC, around 4,084 tickets for their February 25th SmackDown show in Hersey, PA, and around 3,129 tickets for their March 5th house show event at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that WWE officials are currently planning to hold two sets of television tapings for their SmackDown brand on February 11th due to travel related issues regarding their upcoming Saudi Arabia event on February 19th. Meltzer reported that the February 11th episode of SmackDown will air live while the February 18th episode will be taped afterwards and air the following week.
• Drew McIntyre reportedly was WWE’s Iron Man for the most matches competed in 2021 at 100 matches, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Charlotte Flair reportedly was the runner up at 81 matches competed in for the year. In regards to most wins in 2021, McIntyre reportedly also topped the list at 78 wins, followed by Riddle at 57 wins. In regards to most losses in 2021, Jey Uso reportedly topped the list at 49 losses, followed by Dolph Ziggler and Jimmy Uso at 44 losses each.
• As noted before, WWE’s renaming of WALTER to “Gunther” on their NXT brand resulted in online backlash against the company due to the name being based on a recent trademark that was discovered to be similar in name to a Nazi U-boat commander in World War II. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the reason why WWE officials decided to rename WALTER was due to trademark related issues over their inability to own the “WALTER” name. Meltzer reported that those close to WALTER stated that he very likely would have not been okay with WWE’s name change plans had he been aware beforehand that the name was based on a former Nazi since he is politically very left leaning and comes from a working class family in Austria. Meltzer reported that the current belief from his sources is that either WWE didn’t bother to research the name of Gunther Stark beforehand for their trademark or were aware at some point and still continued under the feeling that nobody would care due to Stark being little known in terms of historical status and importance.
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Kevin Owens’ victory over Damian Priest at this past Monday’s episode of RAW was the first pinfall loss suffered by Priest since his call-up to the RAW brand. Meltzer reported that prior to last week, Priest had not suffered a pinfall or submission loss since the January , 2021 episode of NXT.
• WrestleVotes reported that their sources stated that Vince McMahon and WWE officials have not been happy with the results of the first four months of their rehauled NXT 2.0 brand. Those same sources also stated that WWE officials had originally expected for more fans to gravitate towards their new NXT stars quicker than they have. It was also reported that it is currently not expected that changes will be made to the company’s current plans for their NXT 2.0 brand despite the lower than expected results so far.
• Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp reported that WWE likely will be moving the date of this year’s Money in the Bank 2022 event from its originally planned date of July 2nd to a new date of July 3rd at the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada. The reason is due to UFC’s recent announcement of their upcoming UFC 276 event taking place on July 2nd and in the same city.
• PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that a scheduled court hearing for the on-going Randy Orton tattoo lawsuit against WWE, Take Two, and 2K Games was recently postponed until January 26th. Johnson reported that a new trial date for this lawsuit is also currently expected to be determined at this upcoming hearing.
• During a recent interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, WWE lead attorney Jerry McDevitt revealed that he is currently planning on retiring within the near future. McDevitt stated “WWE is a major client, but I have other clients. I also represented Dr. Cyril Wecht. I’ll be 72 in January, so I’ve been trying to turn it down a little bit as I’m headed into retirement. But because of my longstanding relationship with WWE, I continue to represent them, although I keep telling Vince I do want to retire. Most relationships nowadays with lawyers and publicly traded companies are at the general counsel level. Outside lawyers work with the general counsel of the company and never with the CEO or chairman of the board. But my contact and my relationship is directly with and to Vince. It always has been. It always will be. That’s kind of a unique relationship in the landscape of the law these days for the outside counsel to have that sort of direct relationship.“
• During a recent episode of the Something to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard podcast, co-host Prichard gave his thoughts on the criticisms of WWE disliking their fans whenever they go against their plans. Prichard stated “That is probably one of the silliest comments I’ve ever heard [that WWE internally dislikes when fans go against the direction the company heads in product-wise] because from a writing standpoint, from a promotional standpoint, from a talent standpoint, I’ve never resented a paying customer in my life. I appreciate everyone that pays and supports and promotes. I appreciate everyone that supports this podcast. So, to make that inference, to me, is just absolutely ludicrous. Do you wish that they would react in different ways to certain things? Of course you do. Resent? Absolutely not. That is — couldn’t be further from the truth. Never. I’ve never, ever resented an audience for participating in the show, good, bad or indifferent.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that RAW generated an average attendance of 5,377 paid and an average viewership of 1,672,000, SmackDown generated an average attendance of 7,083 paid and an average viewership of 2,151,000, and NXT generated an average viewership of 622,000 for their shows in the fourth quarter of 2021 (October to December).

AEW

• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that AEW generated an average attendance of 5,644 and an average viewership of 944,000 for their Dynamite shows and an average viewership of 545,000 for their Rampage shows in the fourth quarter of 2021 (October to December).
• As noted before, WWE recently took a shot at AEW claiming that the company promoted “gory self-mutilation” in reference to the December 31, 2021 episode of Rampage that featured a Street Fight match between TayJay (Tay Conti & Anna Jay) and Penelope Ford & The Bunny. This match was notable for being very graphic in action and blood. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that WarnerMedia officials were very upset at WWE over their recent comments which they took as being a personal attack against them in order to hurt their ad revenues. Meltzer also reported that WWE only referencing a women’s match being bloody and not also recent men’s matches in AEW was a direct attempt at trying to play up old fashion cultural differences and moral views over women blading in wrestling matches in order to hurt AEW’s image for sponsors. Meltzer reported that WWE used similar tactics in the past against WCW with them trying to take the moral high ground over WCW’s “raunchy” content despite quickly becoming hypocrites themselves during the Attitude Era.
• This past Wednesday’s episode of AEW Dynamite featured the return of Jon Moxley following his time away from the company for alcohol rehab treatment. A notable incident occurred during the show’s opening segment which involved a heckler yelling out “Get this drunken piece of trash out of the ring” to Moxley after his entrance leading to Moxley yelling out the F word on a live mic as part of his response. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that despite Moxley using the F word uncensored on TBS, the network edited out his swear for the replay of the show on the West Coast. Meltzer also reported that the same was done on TSN where Moxley’s swear aired uncensored on the live broadcast but was edited out of replays of the show.
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that AEW likely will make an announcement within the near future of Marina Shafir being signed to an official contract. Meltzer reported that the company recently started selling Shafir merchandise on their online store.
• AEW reportedly generated an attendance of 3,700 (3,500 paid) for their January 19th Dynamite show in Washington, DC, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• AEW reportedly has sold around 5,389 tickets for their January 26th Beach Break 2022 Dynamite show in Cleveland, OH, around 4,500 for their February 2nd Dynamite show in Chicago, IL, around 4,070 for their February 9th Dynamite show in Atlantic City, NJ, around 2,987 tickets for their February 16th Dynamite show in Nashville, TN, around 4,490 tickets for their February 23rd Dynamite show in Bridgeport, CT, around 991 tickets for their March 2nd Dynamite show in Jacksonville, around 2,346 tickets for their March 6th Rampage show in Orlando, and around 6,886 tickets for their Revolution 2022 event in Orlando, FL as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources within AEW stated that the reason why the scheduled match of FTR vs. Brock Anderson & Lee Johnson was pulled from the card of this past Wednesday’s episode of Dynamite was due to a medical protocol issue. Johnson reported that AEW officials currently still have plans for this match to take place when possible. In regards to the medical issue, Johnson reported that it was due to someone involved in the planned match had been in recent close contract with another person who tested positive.
• During a recent interview with The Show Rules podcast, Taz gave his thoughts on being in commentary for his son HOOK’s debut match in AEW. Taz stated “I was a mess. He was cool. I was on commentary, I didn’t want to commentate his match. Tony (Khan) is like, ‘you gotta.’ I said to HOOK, ‘what do you think?’ ‘I don’t know, whatever you want to do, whatever.’ He doesn’t care. I’d rather sit in the audience next to my wife and watch. It was hard…I’ve called a lot of matches over a lot of years. That was the hardest match for me to call because I’m emotionally connected. I’m one of his trainers, he’s my son. It was weird for me. I was very proud.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• AEW recently announced that they will be holding a set of Dynamite and Rampage television tapings on March 16th in San Antonio and on March 23rd in Cedar Park, Texas. Tickets for both sets of tapings was announced to be going on sale starting on January 28th.

Indies & Other Wrestling

• As noted before, Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre announced earlier this month that they would be taking a break from running events due to the situation with the coronavirus pandemic in Mexico. CMLL returned from their break this past Friday with an event held in Mexico City. Mas Lucha reported that prior to their break, around twenty CMLL talents had tested positive for COVID-19.
• New Japan Pro Wrestling reportedly generated a paid attendance of 600 for their January 15th NJPW Strong themed New Beginning USA 2022 event in Seattle, Washington, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• As noted before, Chase Owens announced that he had recently tested positive for COVID-19 and pulled out of his scheduled indies bookings this weekend as a result. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that NJPW’s Yuya Uemura also pulled out of his bookings this weekend in the United States due to him being in recent close contact with Owens.
• As noted before, NJPW recently announced that they pulled six talents from their events this past Friday and Saturday in Tokyo and Gunma, Japan due to COVID-19 precautionary reasons. NJPW announced that those same six talent had also been pulled from their event earlier today in Tochigi due to similar COVID-19 precautionary issues.
• During a recent interview with Tokyo Sports, Tetsuya Naito revealed that he recently signed a new contract with NJPW that included a 24% pay cut due to NJPW’s financial issues during the on-going COVID-19 pandemic in Japan. Voices of Wrestling reported that Naito’s pay cut was not unique and instead was something done across the board in the company. It was also reported that these pay cuts ranged between 10-15% and the figure of 24% by Naito was done solely for storyline purposes.
• Voices of Wrestling also reported that NJPW and Pro Wrestling NOAH’s co-promoted Wrestle Kingdom 16 Night 3 event earlier this month in Kanagawa, Japan was plagued by several behind-the-scenes issues leading up to it. One issue involved both sides wanting to have their talent come out last for matches and NJPW winning the most matches which NOAH felt was going to be nonnegotiable due to NJPW hosting the event. Another issue revolved around NJPW not wanting Taiji Ishimori to take the pinfall loss in his tag team match due to their upcoming plans for him. In regards to the main event match, Keiji Mutoh reportedly caused the most issues over the original plans for the match going as far as him not wanting his tag partner Kaito Kiyomiya to have the last entrance between the two for their team nor wanting to be the one to suffer the pinfall loss against Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kazuchika Okada. Mutoh also reportedly had rejected or demanded changes made to that tag match that would have originally given Kiyomiya a big rub throughout the match and instead were mostly given to Mutoh.
• Game Changer Wrestling reportedly generated an attendance of 800 for their January 14th Most Notorious event in Detroit, Michigan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• Terminus reportedly generated an attendance of 275 for their All Roads Lead to Here event on January 16th in Atlanta, Georgia, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• Terminus announced that Lio Rush will be making an appearance for the company at their event on February 24th in Atlanta, Georgia.
• As noted before, Alberto El Patron filed a lawsuit against Combate Global this past October claiming that the company still owes him money for his MMA fight in December of 2019 and has not given up control of his social media accounts despite him no longer working for them. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Combate recently filed a motion to have El Patron’s lawsuit dismissed claiming that they did pay him in full for his fight with several payments made prior to the fight itself. Combate is also claiming that El Patron’s allegations regarding his contract situation do not match their legal records and signed documentation from him.
• The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer reported in Friday’s Daily Update that Ring of Honor has been averaging around 400,000 viewers for their weekly ROH TV shows.
• Ring of Honor is currently expected to make a big announcement this week, according to ROH’s Kevin Eck. Eck stated in a recent Eck Files article that “Expect ROH to make a major announcement sometime next week. My sources tell me that anyone who has ever been an ROH fan will be excited by this news.“