Weekend Roundup: WWE Lifts Ban on Certain Words, T-Bar, The Boys & Blake Christian Sign with AEW & ROH, Impact, Ric Flair, Indies

AEW

Indie / Misc

Steve C.

Aug 7, 2022

WWE

This past Friday’s SmackDown show featured the surprise WWE returns of Karrion Kross and Scarlett Bordeaux. Kross made his return ambushing Drew McIntyre during his promo to Roman Reigns about their upcoming match at WWE’s Clash at the Castle event. Following the show, McIntyre reflected on Twitter about Kross’ sneak attack stating “Was I just jumped by the guy last seen wearing bondage and a helmet? I’ve had better Fridays…“
This past Friday’s SmackDown show also featured an in-ring interview segment with Liv Morgan which involved the crowd booing Morgan over her controversial win against Ronda Rousey at WWE’s SummerSlam event the past week. WWE interviewer Kayla Braxton recently responded on Twitter over fans wondering why she looked annoyed during Morgan’s interview segment. Braxton stated “For those wondering why I looked annoyed – I was disappointed with the disrespectful chants towards our SD Womens Champion. @YaOnlyLivvOnce is so deserving so hush it when she speaks!“
NXT strength and conditioning director Sean Hayes recently left WWE for a new job with the XFL. The announcement was first made by NXT talent Xyon Quinn on Instagram.
Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that the reason for Kevin Owens’ absence from this past Monday’s WWE RAW show and from most of RAW’s shows since this past July’s Money in the Bank 2022 event is due to creative-related reasons. It was reported that WWE’s creative are currently working on new creative plans for Owens.
Besides Owens, Omos also recently has been absent from WWE RAW. Fightful Select reported that despite not being booked for recent RAW shows, Omos is still on the road traveling with the RAW roster. It was also reported that Omos is among several talents who are currently waiting to learn their direction and future under WWE’s new regime.
WWE reportedly generated an attendance of 8,901 (8,100 paid) for their July 29th SmackDown show in Atlanta, GA, 40,117 (37,000 paid) for their July 30th SummerSlam 2022 event in Nashville, TN, and 10,445 (9,600 paid) for their Aug. 1st RAW show in Houston, TX, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
WWE reportedly has sold around 1,665 tickets for their Aug. 7th house show event in Fayetteville, NC, 4,546 tickets for their Aug. 8th RAW show in Cleveland, OH, 4,610 tickets for their Aug. 12th SmackDown show in Raleigh, NC, 2,418 for their Aug. 13th house show event in Salisbury, MD, 2,603 tickets for their Aug. 14th house show event in Atlantic City, NJ, 5,810 tickets for their Aug. 15th RAW show in Washington, DC, 7,897 tickets for their Aug. 19th SmackDown show in Montreal, Canada, 4,186 tickets for their Aug. 20th house show event in Ottawa, Canada, 1,877 tickets for their Aug. 20th house show event in Kingston, Canada, 4,789 tickets for their Aug. 21st house show event in Quebec City, Canada, 10,162 tickets for their Aug. 22nd RAW show in Toronto, CA, 5,784 tickets for their Aug. 26th SmackDown show in Detroit, MI, 1,620 tickets for their Aug. 28th house show event in Manchester, NH, 4,515 tickets for their Aug. 29th RAW show in Pittsburgh, PA, 60,852 tickets for their Sept. 3rd Clash at the Castle event in Cardiff, Wales, 6,733 tickets for their Sept. 9th SmackDown show in Seattle, WA, 5,237 tickets for their Sept. 12th RAW show in Portland, OR, 3,758 tickets for their Sept. 16th SmackDown show in Anaheim, CA, and 3,011 tickets for their Sept. 19th RAW show in San Jose, CA, 4,116 tickets for their Sept. 23rd SmackDown show in Salt Lake City, UT, 8,951 tickets for their Sept. 26th RAW show in Edmonton, Canada, 6,972 tickets for their Sept. 30th SmackDown show in Winnipeg, Canada, and 2,449 tickets for their October 3rd RAW show in St. Paul, MN as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
WWE’s SummerSlam 2022 event reportedly is currently estimated to have generated around 18,600 pay-per-view buys based on current numbers and estimates, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. For some comparison, Dave Meltzer reported that WWE’s two night WrestleMania 38 event generated 23,000 PPV buys for Night 1 and 23,300 PPV buys for Night 2 for most recent major WWE events.
Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that WWE officials recently lifted the ban on several words that were not allowed to be said on WWE programming during Vince McMahon’s tenure in the company. These included the terms “wrestler” and “wrestling” no longer being considered as dirty words for WWE shows. Meltzer reported that the general backstage reaction over the recent changes made by WWE’s new regime was one of positivity. Those spoken to also stated that the backstage environment has been more relaxed and calmer since McMahon’s departure.
As noted before, WWE’s recent set of tryouts in Nashville, Tennessee were described to be a “disaster” due to the amount of injuries suffered and overall poor performance by those invited. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that one source spoken to stated that nobody stood out immediately as potential future stars from the crop and this very likely will be the last tryout to only feature college athletes with no prior wrestling experience. In regards to injuries, Meltzer reported that several people had suffered concussions and shoulder injuries. Despite the overall poor performance, ESPN reported that 14 college athletes were signed to deals with the company following the tryouts.
As noted before, former WWE CEO and Chairman Vince McMahon retired from the company this past July. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that McMahon’s name was recently removed from the company’s internal roster list. These same sources stated that McMahon’s name had been listed alongside other talent who have not been assigned to any brand but would make special appearances similar to those currently under Legends deals.
David Bixenspan recently released a new article on FanByte detailing the recent media coverage of Vince McMahon’s fall from WWE and why McMahon’s latest scandal ended up being the final nail for him. In a recent four-part Titantgate series podcast special, Bixenspan reported that the reason why McMahon was able to escape prior scandals revolved around the media’s mishandling of the WWF ring boys scandal of the 1980s and conflating it with other stories of steroids and drug use abuse in the company. Bixenspan reported that the New York Times had been working on an article about McMahon during the #MeToo movement but one source spoken to stated that several female wrestlers contacted for interviews did not receive a good vibe from the NYT reporter over his understanding of the wrestling industry. Bixenspan reported that this issue was the main reason why the NYT’s decided to drop their article about McMahon at the time.
WWE reportedly is currently considering plans to repackage T-Bar, according to PWInsider. Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated WWE officials have held recent talks over the idea of T-Bar, former Dominik Dijakovic in NXT, to be given a new gimmick as part of the changes under the new regime in the company.

AEW & ROH

In a recent video promo for IWS Hardcore, Matt Menard provided an update regarding the injuries he suffered during the Blood & Guts match at AEW’s Dynamite Blood & Guts 2022 show this past June. Menard stated “June 29, Detroit, Michigan, Blood & Guts, big cage match. Two rings. Hell of an ordeal. Very early on in that match, I kind of get dumped on my head by Santana. It wasn’t pretty. Ended up actually, tearing parts of my shoulder, my labrum, my rotator cuff. If you’re wondering, ‘Geez, Daddy Magic, early on in the match. Didn’t you climb to the top of the cage to save Chris Jericho? Did you climb to the top of the cage to save Chris Jericho with a torn shoulder, with your shoulder torn to shreds?’ The answer is yes. I’m basically a hero. The good news here is that it doesn’t look like it’s going to require surgery. We’re rehabbing it, injected some stem cells into the shoulder. The bad news is I will not be able to participate in the event for the IWS.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
As noted before, CM Punk has been out of action for AEW since this past June due to a broken foot injury. Punk reportedly was recently seen walking without the assistance of a protective boot during this past week’s C2E2 convention in Chicago, Illinois, according to r/SquaredCircle.
During a recent live episode of the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast at Starrcast V, Claudio Castagnoli gave his thoughts on if he gets dizzy while performing his giant swing move on his opponents and why wrestlers are not fond of being on the receiving end of the move. Castagnoli stated “It depends. The longest I’ve ever swung somebody, the crowd counted to 100. I was made aware from people online that it was actually only 88 revolutions. That’s still a lot of rounds. It all depends on the opponent, how hot the crowd is, how tired I am. It doesn’t make me dizzy. Just my legs get tired. I’ve heard from many people that it’s their least favorite move to take and they absolutely hate it to the point where they almost refuse to take it because it makes them dizzy and they hate. It. I tell them to relax, which I guess is the wrong thing [laughs].” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that AEW officials recently held talks regarding potential plans to hold their debut event in the Northern California region in early 2023.
AEW reportedly generated an attendance of 5,300 (5,000 paid) for their Aug. 3rd Dynamite show in Columbus, OH, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
AEW reportedly has sold around 5,160 tickets for their Aug. 10th Dynamite show in Minneapolis, MN, 3,650 tickets for their Aug. 17th Dynamite show in Charleston, WV, 4,162 tickets for their Aug. 24th Dynamite show in Cleveland, OH, 5,185 tickets for their Aug. 31st Dynamite show in Chicago, 4,125 for their Sept. 2nd Rampage show in Chicago, 7,514 tickets for their Sept. 4th All Out 2022 event in Hoffman Estates, IL, 4,252 tickets for their Sept. 7th Dynamite show in Buffalo, NY, 2,598 tickets for their Sept. 14th Dynamite show in Albany, NY, 9,827 tickets for their Sept. 21st Dynamite Grand Slam 2022 show at the Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, NY, and 3,287 tickets for their Sept. 28th Dynamite show in Philadelphia, PA, as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
During a recent interview with the Absolute Geek podcast at last month’s San Diego Comic Con 2022 convention, Britt Baker gave her thoughts about wanting to help improve and grow AEW’s status in the mainstream. Baker stated “I think just being a part of anything that’s brand new, there’s ups and downs, and it is stressful because you want to be part of something successful, not something that’s a failure. But now that we’ve gotten past that, it’s like this sigh of relief like, ‘Okay, thank god, we’re doing it, it’s working.’ Now I think what’s next for us is, for most people in the world, WWE is the number one wrestling promotion. You can pick out anybody on the street, they know what WWE is. Not everybody knows what AEW is yet, and I wanna get to a point where it is super mainstream and we do more entertainment and mainstream crossovers so that they can see one of our stars and they go, ‘Oh, that person’s a wrestler from AEW,’ not just, ‘who is that person?’ So I think that’s what’s next for us is just growing massively because we have a successful show, we have a great show, we have great leadership, we have great wrestlers, we have a great product. Let’s get more eyes on it because it’s so great and we should have more eyes on it.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
As noted before, AEW recently filed a trademark for “All Elite Women” that is currently rumored to be for a potential new all-women’s AEW series and/or event. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that this trademark most likely will be used for a new AEW-based reality series similar to Rhodes To The Top. Meltzer reported that following Cody Rhodes’ departure from AEW, TNT officials dropped all of their plans and filming for a new season for Rhodes To The Top but were still interested in a reality television series featuring AEW talent. Meltzer speculated that an official announcement regarding AEW’s recent trademark will likely be made within the near future.
One Pro Wrestling recently announced that Colt Cabana will be making an appearance for the company at their A New Twist of Fate event on September 1st in Doncaster, England. It was announced that Cabana will be teaming up with Greg Burridge in a tag team match against The British Invasion (Nick Alids & Doug Williams) at the event.
The Boys, Brandon & Brent Tate, announced on Twitter that they have recently signed new contracts with Ring of Honor.
Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that indie talent Blake Christian recently signed an official contract with AEW and ROH. It was reported that it is currently not known if Christian’s contract is a full-time type deal or a tier type deal.

Indies & Misc. Wrestling

The National Wrestling Alliance recently announced that Max The Impaler is the next official participant for their The Burke Invitational Battle Royal match at their NWA 74 Night 1 event on August 27th in St. Louis, Missouri.
The NWA also recently announced that Matt Cardona will be making an in-ring appearance at their NWA 74 Night 1 event on August 27th in St. Louis, Missouri. Cardona has been out of action for NWA and Impact Wrestling since suffering a torn biceps injury this past May.
Impact Wrestling recently announced a new match for the card of their Emergence 2022 event on August 12th in Cicero, Illinois. This will be an AAW Heavyweight Championship match of 1 Called Manders vs. Mat Fitchett (c)
Impact recently announced that they have moved their upcoming Victory Road 2022 event on September 23rd and Impact! tapings on September 24th from its original venue and location of the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia, PA to a new location of the Skyway Studios in Nashville, TN due to scheduling-related issues with the 2300 Arena.
Impact Wrestling talent and commentator Matthew Rehwoldt recently announced that he will no longer be accepting any more bookings as a wrestler going forward due to him currently wanting to focus entirely on his commentary career.
PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that AAW Wrestling recently signed a streaming deal with Highspots.TV to air their events live on the streaming service starting next month.
As noted before, Ric Flair’s Last Match event took place during this past Sunday’s as part of Starrcast’s Starrcast V convention in Nashville, Tennessee. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that despite WWE not being among the promotions lending talent for the event, the company did try to get a deal made to send a WWE crew to film content for a future WWE project. Meltzer reported that talks between WWE and Conrad Thompson broke down over issues of WWE not wanting to lend WWE-owned footage likely from Flair’s days in the Jim Crockett Promotion to Thompson to help promote the event. Unlike WWE, Meltzer reported that AEW did manage to secure a deal with Thompson which is why they were able to use footage from the event to help promote Mance Warner’s match against Jon Moxley for this past Friday’s live Rampage show.
During a recent interview with Lucha Libre Online, Ric Flair stated that he was very happy over his final match. Flair stated “I’m very happy with it. I needed to give it one more shot. I feel like I didn’t go out the right way, and to have the relationship now that I do with Andrade, with Charlotte, to have a son-in-law like him to be a tag team partner, for him to tag with me and have the whole family there and his family, who I’ve gotten to know well, it was big for all of them. It was especially big for me because my entire family was there and the only person to get an opportunity to do that twice. Once in 2008 with Shawn Michaels and now with my son-in-law in Nashville, it was big.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
New Japan Pro Wrestling reportedly generated a paid attendance of 734 for their July 30th Music City Mayhem event in Nashville, TN, 2,225 for their July 30th G1 Climax 2022 event in Nagoya, 2,741 for their July 31st G1 Climax event in Nagoya, and 1,128 for their Aug. 2nd G1 Climax 2022 event in Hamamatsu, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Dragon Gate reportedly generated a paid attendance of 1,915 for their July 30th Kobe World 2022 event in Kobe and 2,515 for their July 31st Kobe Pro-Wrestling Festival 2022 event in Kobe, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Stardom reportedly generated a paid attendance of 1,527 for their July 30th 5STAR Grand Prix 2022 event in Tokyo and 1,323 for their July 31st 5STAR Grand Prix 2022 event in Tokyo, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
As noted before, Stardom recently announced that they will be debuting a new IWGP brand championship this November that will be defended at NJPW shows. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Bushiroad President Takaaki Kidani was the main person responsible for the decision and this was something he had been planning to do since Bushiroad’s purchase of the company. In regards to Stardom talent appearing at NJPW events, Meltzer reported that the current plan is for at least one major star and a few lesser name talents to be brought over to work at each NJPW Strong tapings in the United States.
Pro Wrestling NOAH recently announced that they have pulled Timothy Thatcher from the field of their upcoming N-1 2022 tournament due to visa-related issues. It was also announced that Yoshiki Inamura and Kinya Okada would be competing in a qualifying match for Thatcher’s spot at their Departure 2022 event in Tokyo, which took place this past Friday and was won by Okada.
As noted before, former MMA fighter and WWE wrestler Cain Velasquez was arrested following an attempted murder shooting incident this past February in San Jose, California. ESPN’s Marc Raimondi reported that Velasquez pleaded not guilty to the charges against him in a Santa Clara County court this past Friday. Raimondi reported that a pre-trial hearing for Velasquez is currently scheduled to take place on September 26th. Raimondi also reported that prosecutors are currently not planning on having Harry Goularte, the victim of Velasquez’s attempted murder, testify at this upcoming pre-trial hearing nor trial itself.
As noted before, former wrestler Tammy Sytch was arrested this past May in Florida following a police investigation into a fatal car accident involving Sytch this past March. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that Sytch’s attorney filed a motion on July 30th to the Volusia County Court in Florida officially waiving Sytch’s rights to a speedy trial. Johnson reported that Sytch’s attorney also filed a motion on the same day requesting that Sytch’s scheduled pre-trial hearing on August 11th be officially postponed.
Saturday’s World Wrestling Council’s 49th Anniversary event in Puerto Rico featured a singles match between Carlito Caribbean (former Carlito in WWE) and Andrade El Idolo with Ric Flair in his corner. During the match, Eddie and Carlos Colon made surprise appearances to confront Flair over his cheating antics which resulted in a brawl between Flair and Carlos. The match ended following Andrade not being able to take advantage of the distraction and was hit with a backstabber finisher by Carlito. Following the event, Flair revealed in a photo with Andrade and the Colons that his daughter and WWE talent Charlotte Flair was in attendance backstage.