WWE: More on Triple H’s Meeting Last Month & NXT Update, Cody Rhodes Injury Update, WrestleMania 38

More on Triple H’s Meeting at WWE’s Performance Center Last Month & NXT Status Update

As noted before, Paul “Triple H” Levesque made a surprise visit to WWE’s Performance Center this past June and held a speech stating that he was “back.”

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that Levesque has not worked directly backstage for any NXT shows since his meeting last month at the Performance Center.

Those same sources also stated that Levesque’s comments of him being “back” was meant to be about him returning to his office work in the company and not him actually regaining control of WWE’s NXT brand and developmental system.

Levesque reportedly was not seen in attendance backstage during this past Tuesday’s NXT tapings and Shawn Michaels is still currently in charge of running NXT shows and events.

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Cody Rhodes Injury Update

As noted before, Cody Rhodes has been out of action for WWE since this past June due to him suffering a torn pectoral injury. Following successful surgery, WWE announced that Rhodes would be out of action for the next nine months.

A recent episode of the Busted Open Radio podcast had Rhodes as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Rhodes revealing that the reason why WWE did not provide him with a specific timetable for his return was due to his doctors being worried that he would try to return sooner than normal due to the serious nature of his surgery.

“There’s a lot of people who have had knee injuries, back injuries, sometimes spinal and neck. When it comes to the titty, your pec, it’s a really strange injury. They tie that sucker back to your bicep. I had Dr. (Jeffrey) Dugas, he’s the best in the world to do it. The problem with him doing it is, he knows me, and they are being very coy. I was told the last time I was there for my check up, after PT [physical therapy], they are not going to give me a timeline just yet for when I’m going to be back because they are afraid that if they give me that timeline, I’m going to try and jump it by a month or two. The surgery was really…I almost hemorrhaged in the surgery because there was so much blood. People have seen the picture of it in the match. It was pretty gnarly.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

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WWE Announces Economic Impact of WrestleMania 38 for Dallas Area

WWE recently announced that this past April’s WrestleMania 38 event managed to generated around $206.5 million for the Dallas and Arlington region in Texas.

Official press release:

WrestleMania^® Generates $206 Million for Dallas/Arlington Region
07/11/2022

STAMFORD, Conn. –(BUSINESS WIRE)– WWE^® (NYSE: WWE), Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson and Arlington Mayor Jim Ross today announced that WrestleMania generated $206.5 million in economic impact for the Dallas/Arlington region this past April, according to a study conducted by the Enigma Research Corporation. This marks a new company record and the first time in history that WrestleMania has generated more than $200 million in economic impact.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220711005533/en/

Over the past 12 years, WrestleManiahas generated more than $1 billion
in cumulative economic impact for the cities that have hosted the event. WrestleMania also generated approximately $24.8 million in federal, state and local taxes.

“On behalf of the Jones family and the entire Dallas Cowboys organization, we congratulate WWE on their milestone success of WrestleMania at AT&T Stadium,” said Dallas Cowboys Chief Brand Officer Charlotte Jones. “We were honored to partner with WWE and their Superstars to give back to the community in a multitude of ways during WrestleMania Week.”

“On behalf of the city of Arlington, we congratulate WWE and their fans for surpassing $200 million in economic impact for the first time in WrestleMania history,” said Arlington Mayor Jim Ross. “We are glad to have shared this success and look forward to the opportunity for AT&T Stadium to host a future WrestleMania.”

“We are thrilled that WrestleMania’s return to full capacity generated stupendous record results for our partners in Dallas and Arlington, showcasing the continued growth for WWE’s largest annual celebration,” said WWE Executive Vice President of Special Events John P. Saboor. “This success would not have been possible without the tireless support of Mayor Johnson, Mayor Ross, Charlotte Jones and the entire Jones
family, the Dallas Cowboys organization, Dallas Sports Commission, American Airlines Center and the rest of our public and private sector partners throughout the region. We now turn our focus to next year’s WrestleMania in Hollywood.”

A capacity crowd of 156,352 fans from all 50 states and 53 countries attended WWE’s pop-culture extravaganza over the course of two nights this past April, making it the highest-grossing and most-attended event in WWE history. Key highlights from the study include:

$206.5 million in direct, indirect and induced impact derived from spending by visitors to the Dallas /Arlington region for WrestleMania.

67% of fans that attended WrestleMania were from outside the Dallas
/Arlington region and stayed an average of 3.5 nights.

$25.4 million was spent on hotels and accommodations within the Dallas
/Arlington region.

The economic impact derived from WrestleMania Week was equal to the creation of 1,777 full-time jobs for the area.

Next year, WrestleMania will take place Saturday, April 1 and Sunday, April 2 live from SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. The event will stream live exclusively on Peacock in the United States and WWE Network everywhere else. Ticket information will be forthcoming.