Weekend Roundup: Veer, WWE Interested in Ethan Page, Jonathan Gresham & AEW, Marko Stunt, Impact Ratings, KAIRI, Indies

Indie / Misc

Steve C.

Mar 27, 2022

WWE

WWE recently announced that the late Shad Gaspard will be the recipient of this year’s Warrior Award for this year’s Hall of Fame ceremony. Gaspard tragically passed away in May of 2020 after getting caught in a rip current in Venice Beach, California while saving his son’s life at the cost of his own.
PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that SmackDown brand talents Ricochet, Naomi, and Shinsuke Nakamura are currently scheduled to be backstage at this Monday’s episode of RAW in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Johnson reported that it is currently not known if they will be appearing during the show itself or for potential dark match work instead.
WWE filed a trademark for the term “Kiana James” on March 22nd for wrestling and entertainment-related purposes to the United States Patent and Trademark Office. This is the new ring name of former indies wrestler Xtina Kay.
Sports Illustrated held a recent interview with Kurt Angle and one of the topics discussed included his thoughts about Gabe Steveson’s transition to professional wrestling. Angle stated “He’ll need to make sure he’s well prepared and learns all the techniques, which I think he will do very quickly, but the hardest part is the character perspective. I would tell him to practice daily, look in a mirror and work on those promo skills. He needs to show he has a lot of fire and personality. That’s where a lot of former amateur wrestlers have failed in professional wrestling. They didn’t have the personality.“
During a recent virtual fan signing event for Signed By Superstars, WWE Hall of Famer Bret Hart gave his thoughts about Brock Lesnar recently stating that a match against Hart would be his dream match for his career. Hart stated “I heard that I was his [Brock Lesnar] dream match. That was just a week ago I heard that. Always heard Brock was a good worker. I’ve never heard that [Lesnar was stiff in the ring]. Always heard just the opposite, that he looks stiff, but he’s a real pro in the ring. Totally the opposite of Goldberg.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)
Cody Rhodes reportedly is currently working on a new documentary film based on his late father Dusty’s legacy in wrestling, according to Fightful Select.
Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that the recent rumors and reports of the main event for Night 1 of WrestleMania 38 on April 2nd being the KO Show segment with Steve Austin and Kevin Owens is not true. Those same sources stated that WWE officials still have the SmackDown Women’s Championship match between Ronda Rousey and Charlotte Flair penciled in as the main event for the show. In regards to match order for both nights of WrestleMania 38, Meltzer reported that those same sources stated that it likely will not be locked in until the day of the shows. The only match currently locked in as of this past Thursday was the WWE title vs. Universal title unification match between Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns main eventing Night 2.
WWE reportedly generated an attendance of 8,078 (7,000 paid) for their March 18th SmackDown show in Charlotte, NC, 4,151 for their March 19th house show event in Springfield, IL, 3,748 for their March 19th house show event in Johnson City, TN, 3,862 for their March 20th house show event in Moline, IL, 3,314 for their March 20th house show event in Huntsville, AL, and 8,726 (7,500 paid) for their March 21st RAW show in Rosemont, IL, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
WWE reportedly has sold around 7,491 tickets for their March 28th RAW show in Pittsburgh, PA, around 10,704 tickets for their April 1st SmackDown show in Dallas, around 3,713 tickets for their April 2nd NXT Stand & Deliver 2022 event in Dallas, around 60,856 tickets for their April 2nd WrestleMania 38 Night 1 event on April 2nd in Dallas, around 58,499 tickets for their WrestleMania 38 Night 2 event on April 3rd in Dallas, around 9,744 tickets for their April 4th RAW show in Dallas, TX, around 4,015 tickets for their April 8th SmackDown show in Milwaukee, WI, around 4,731 tickets for their April 11th RAW show in Detroit, MI, around 3,586 tickets for their April 15th SmackDown show in Worcester, MA, around 4,705 tickets for their April 16th house show event in Erie, PA, around 1,892 tickets for their April 17th house show event in Syracuse, around 3,426 tickets for their April 18th RAW show in Buffalo, around 3,419 tickets for their April 22nd SmackDown show in Albany, NY, around 1,921 tickets for their April 23rd house show event in Montgomery, AL, around 2,283 tickets for their April 23rd house show event in Reading, PA, around 2,306 tickets for their April 24th house show event in Binghamton, NY, around 1,532 tickets for their April 24th house show event in Augusta, GA, around 2,719 tickets for their April 25th RAW show in Knoxville, TN, around 1,613 tickets for their April 30th house show event in Lakeland, FL, around 2,016 tickets for their May 1st house show event in Fairfax, VA, and around 5,860 tickets for their May 8th Backlash 2022 event in Providence, RI as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
WWE officials reportedly are currently planning for Veer to be given a new character as part of their plans for his return to the RAW brand at the April 4th episode of RAW in Dallas, Texas, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
As noted before, Major League Wrestling filed an antitrust lawsuit earlier this year against WWE claiming that WWE illegally interfered in several of their business deals with television networks and engaged in contract tampering with several of their contracted talent. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that the United States District Court, Northern District of California recently approved MLW’s request to have the case management hearing for their lawsuit to be delayed until October 27th. Johnson reported that this hearing had originally been scheduled to take place this September. Johnson also reported that MLW currently has until March 29th to officially respond to WWE’s motion to dismiss their lawsuit and WWE would have until April 5th to officially respond back.
As noted before, NBC’s Peacock recently debuted a new WWE-based documentary series called WWE Evil on their service. Two episodes from the series aired this past week on USA Network but it was not known at the time if other episodes would also air on the network. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources recently confirmed that all of the episodes from Season 1 will be airing on the USA Network as well and not just the Roman Reigns and The Brothers of Destruction episodes. Johnson reported that the current plan is for the episodes to air on Tuesdays following that night’s episode of WWE NXT on the network.
WWE officials reportedly have recently shown a lot of interest in signing Ethan Page to a potential contract with the company once his current contract with AEW expires, according to the Mat Men Pro Wrestling. Andrew Zarian reported that WWE officials currently have a “very high” view of Page’s promo skills and abilities. Zarian stated “By the way, Ethan Page is another dude that WWE is very high on. They like Ethan Page’s whole deal and I think he’s super hyper talented.“

AEW

A recent episode of The Ariel Helwani Show podcast had MJF as the guest and one of the topics discussed included MJF’s thoughts on his issues with the current era of the wrestling industry. MJF stated “Here’s my issue with professional wrestling today and why I stand out like no other. I feel like people are putting on a superhero costume before they go through the curtain, they are trying to be something that they’re not. They’re trying to fool people into believing they’re a star. The reason why the territory days were a beautiful thing is because these men were themselves. They were men. Nobody had to tell Tully Blanchard what or how he was supposed to act because he was Tully B. Nobody had to tell Flair how to act. Nobody had to tell Piper how to act. Nobody had to tell Buddy Landel how to act. These guys got it because they were just being themselves, it was authentic, it was as real as it got. Just like I’m as real as it gets and that’s why, to me, that’s the golden age of professional wrestling. Right now, we’re having a resurfacing of the golden age of professional wrestling and I’m leading that charge. You’re welcome.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that Jonathan Gresham is currently expected to sign a contract with AEW soon. It was reported that Gresham’s new deal would be for both AEW and Ring of Honor. It was also reported that Gresham will be mainly working in ROH but his new deal also includes dates for specific AEW shows.
During a recent episode of The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy podcast, co-host Matt Hardy revealed that he and his brother Jeff had paid for everything that took place at their compound for their Final Deletion storyline during their time in Impact Wrestling. Hardy stated “Because the thing that’s so interesting is like we had this bare-bones outline and we put meat on the bone while we were actually filming it and doing it. We were also very exhausted the day that we shot this because we’d stayed up the night before just doing stuff like literally where you see this, what looks like a grave. The big hole where Jeff eventually falls off the big statue he has out there, like, he digs this. He does it with his backhoe and he did that. I went out and I bought all the different torches that were out there. I bought fireworks, you know, Jeremy Borash went off, I mean, we did all this ourselves. This was a very DIY project … Not at all. That was a ‘Big Money Matt’ expense and a ‘Big Nickel Nero’ expense.”
Hardy also stated that the big volcano finale for Impact’s Final Deletion special was something that Jeff had spent around $5,000 to be built for the show. Hardy stated “It’s an area where he just has a lot of dirt and land. He does different things in the dirt. He built a big volcano that was there. The volcano that he paid $5,000 worth. He paid someone $5,000 to bring 10 loads of dirt and he just built a volcano. He did that for the sake of IMPACT Wrestling and Total Nonstop Deletion: Apocalypto.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
AEW filed a trademark for “Undisputed Elite” on March 21st for wrestling and entertainment-related purposes to the USPTO. AEW also filed a trademark for “AEW: Fight Forever” on March 21st for video games-related purposes.
Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that AEW CEO Tony Khan’s current strategy when it comes to announcing cards for AEW’s weekly Dynamite shows is to now spread out the announcements on Friday, Tuesday, and the day of the show in order to maximize advertising and viewership interest for their weekly shows. Khan previously had the strategy of announcing full cards for the following week’s show during the current week’s Dynamite show.
AEW reportedly generated an attendance of 4,400 (4,200 paid) for their March 23rd Dynamite show in Cedar Park, TX, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
AEW reportedly has sold around 3,904 tickets for their March 30th Dynamite show in Columbia, SC, around 5,227 tickets for their April 6th Dynamite show in Boston, MA, around 2,881 tickets for their April 13th Dynamite show in New Orleans, LA, around 2,825 tickets for their April 15th Battle of the Belts II event in Garland, TX, around 4,281 tickets for their April 20th Dynamite show in Pittsburgh, around 4,674 tickets for their April 27th Dynamite show in Philadelphia, PA, around 3,432 tickets for their May 4th Dynamite show in Baltimore, MD, around 4,625 tickets for their May 11th Dynamite show in Long Island, NY, around 3,028 tickets for their May 18th Dynamite show in Houston, TX, around 4,251 tickets for their May 25th Dynamite show in Las Vegas, around 4,078 tickets for their May 27th Rampage show in Las Vegas, around 13,029 tickets for their Double or Nothing 2022 event in Las Vegas, Nevada, around 12,571 tickets for their June 1st Rampage show in Los Angeles, around 7,269 tickets for their June 3rd Rampage show in Ontario, CA, and around 8,728 tickets for their June 29th Dynamite show in Detroit, MI as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
DDT Pro Wrestling talent Konosuke Takeshita recently announced that he is currently scheduled to visit the United States for a tour and will also be making his return to AEW after April 10th.
As noted before, Danhausen has been out of action from active wrestling since suffering a broken ankle injury this past November. During a recent interview with the AEW Unrestricted podcast, Danhausen provided an update on the rehab of his ankle injury. Danhausen stated “Recovery is going good. We have wonderful doctors at AEW that help Danhausen every single week. His name is Josh, nice, he has a mustache. Hopefully, one day, when Danhausen recovers he can have a mustache of his own. Danhausen needs a metal rod in his leg, he broken his tibia and fibula. This fellow crashed down on Danhausen’s leg, it snapped in two, he heard a ‘pop, pop,’ and he went, ‘Oh good, this is wonderful,’ and he rolled to the side of the ring, and I believe this is the only time Danhausen has sworn publicly. He went to the hospital, that was nice, had surgery a week later and now every single week we’re trying to recover it, I think we’re getting pretty close. Fingers crossed.” When asked for when he expects to be able to return to the ring, Danhausen responded “Who knows. Should we surprise people? People tweet at Danhausen, ‘When are you wrestling?’ As though he’s going to spoil it. Maybe soon? Hopefully soon. We shall wait for mustache Josh to say so. Soon. Sooner than later.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
During a recent interview with the Women’s Wrestling Talk podcast, Anna Jay stated that she is currently hopeful that AEW will debut a Women’s Tag Team Championship at some point in the future. Jay stated “I definitely think so. We didn’t think it would happen anytime soon, which you never know, it was cool to get the secondary women’s title, so now, if I had to guess, the next title for the women’s division should be a tag title. Hopefully, that’s the next one. I don’t know when. I think we do need to keep building and do what we’re doing before that happens, but I definitely think it should happen in the near future. At some point.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
During a recent interview with the Busted Open Radio podcast, AEW CEO Tony Khan stated that he does not have any plans for AEW to ever run a pay-per-view event during WWE’s WrestleMania weekend. Khan stated “I only know one way to do pay-per-view and it’s going 100% and doing the best you can. I promise to make that pay-per-view great. I know there are a lot of people who are going to be around the Dallas Metroplex area at that time. This is my first time going out there for that particular event weekend. It’s not normally something I would do, it’s not normally something AEW would do. It’s not something AEW would ever do and we’re not doing it. The event had been scheduled in advanced by Ring of Honor and the tickets had been sold, I felt the right thing to do would be do right by the fans and have the show and make it the best show I possibly could, even though it’s unusual for us to go into enemy territory and run a show that weekend. It’s normally something associated with smaller wrestling companies and something I didn’t want to do. Since it was booked and the fans are committed to it, I’m gonna go in 100% and make it the best show I possibly can. I never expected to be talking about WrestleMania weekend and the logistics of the shows there.”
During the same interview, Khan also stated that he had wished he had some television time for Ring of Honor in order to better build up their upcoming Supercard of Honor XV event. Khan stated “I’m going to tell everyone right now, it’s going to be worth it to come to the show and worth it to stay. I know there are other people doing shows on Friday night, but this will be the best one. People can troll and say what they want, but the people who order the shows know; nobody does pay-per-view better. That’s not an opinion, that’s a fact. I will promise to deliver an awesome pay-per-view. The best Ring of Honor pay-per-view. l I could possibly do. It’ll be different than an AEW pay-per-view. In terms of promising; there is going to be good matches and I’ll deliver a lot of fun stuff for the fans and do the best I can. That’s a promise right now. You’re going to want to come.The only thing I wish, I wish I had control of the TV for months to build to this pay-per-view, but I haven’t. This is my first show in charge of Ring of Honor and I’m really excited about it. It’s been awesome working with new people and meeting new people. It’s not how I’m used to building cards, but we didn’t have TV before the original Double or Nothing and there are so many great fans online that want to see exciting matches and I believe that if I can put together exciting matches, we can build off this pay-per-view and almost use it as a pilot for a new product, the same way the original Double or Nothing launched a new AEW. I have so much respect for the history of Ring of Honor and I hope that’ll come through in Supercard.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp reported that Marko Stunt’s contract with AEW is still set to expire this May and he is not expected to be given a new deal. It was reported that Stunt has not been seen backstage at AEW shows for the past several months nor does AEW have any current creative plans for Stunt. It was also reported that Stunt has not been included in any new Jurassic Express merchandise as of late.

Indies & Misc. Wrestling

This past Thursday’s episode of Impact Wrestling’s Impact! drew 100,000 viewers and a 0.02 18-49 key demographic ranking, according to Wrestlenomics. This was up compared to last week’s 68,000 viewers but even with last week’s 0.02 key demographic rating. This past week’s show failed to rank in Showbuzz Daily’s Top 150 shows for that night.
This past Saturday’s Stardom’s World Climax “The Best” event in Tokyo, Japan featured the in-ring return of KAIRI (former Kairi Sane in WWE). KAIRI teamed up with Mayu Iwatani defeating Tam Nakano & Unagi Sayaka in a tag team match at the event. This was KAIRI’s first match since July of 2020 in WWE and her first match in Stardom since April of 2017. Following her match, KAIRI revealed in her post-match press conference that she suffered a ruptured eardrum injury.
Ring of Honor reportedly has sold around 1,160 tickets for their Supercard of Honor XV event on April 1st in Dallas, Texas as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Tony Khan recently announced a new match for the card of ROH’s upcoming Supercard of Honor XV event in Dallas. This will be a ROH Pure Championship match of Wheeler Yuta vs. Josh Woods (c).
New Japan Pro Wrestling recently announced the full card for their NJPW Strong themed Mutiny event on April 10th in Hollywood, California.
NJPW reportedly generated a paid attendance of 1,019 for their March 18th New Japan Cup 2022 event in Tokyo, Japan, 700 for their March 20th NJPW Strong Style Evolved event in Tampa, FL, 1,707 for their March 20th New Japan Cup 2022 event in Niigata, and 1,450 for their March 21st New Japan Cup 2022 event in Niigata, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
DDT Pro Wrestling reportedly generated a paid attendance of 2,516 for their 25th Anniversary Show on March 20th in Tokyo, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. This show was notable for featuring the official announcement of a working relationship between AEW and DDT.
Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling reportedly generated a paid attendance of 1,714 for their Grand Princess 2022 event in Tokyo, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Dave Meltzer reported that this event was a co-promoted event with Ice Ribbon and Assemble and was also the largest ever attendance for a TJPW event in company history.
PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that Bandido’s work visa in the United States is currently set to expire soon. Johnson reported that ROH officials had not worked on getting work visas renewed for their talents ahead of Tony Khan’s recent purchase of the company. Johnson also reported that should Bandido not be able to get his work visa renewed in time, he will have to return to Mexico and will not be able to work in the United States until he receives a new work visa.
During a recent interview with Inside the Ropes, Rocky Romero gave his thoughts about the intital friction between AEW and NJPW during the early days of AEW’s existence. Romero stated “Obviously like AEW talent coming to NJPW STRONG like we talked about earlier is important but also like vice-versa …NJPW talent going to an AEW is super cool and important, you know that is how the forbidden door started right?” Romero said. “Because of, not going too deep into the backstory, but there was some friction there between AEW and NJPW when The Bucks and Kenny left [NJPW] to form AEW with Tony [Khan]and things were not easy at first. But we are really working on the relationship and people like Kenny and Moxley and Jericho were really important in opening up that conversation again… so yeah of course I want to be a part of AEW they are doing great stuff and getting to work with TRENT again was awesome and I want to do more stuff with TRENT and Chuckie, Wheeler and of course, Orange Cassidy is the man.“
WrestleCon recently announced a new match for the card of their Mark Hitchcock Memorial SuperShow 2022 event on March 31st in Dallas. This will be a 10-Man Tag Team match of Team Onita vs. Team PCO. Besides Atsushi Onita and PCO, it was announced that the remaining competitors for this match will not be revealed until the day of the event.