Various: Batista on His Issues with WWE’s Overly Scripted Promos, AEW Notes, MLW Notes

Batista Comments on His Issues with WWE Creative’s Overly Scripted Promos for Talent

A recent episode of the Wrestling Sheet Radio podcast had Batista as the guest and one of the topics discussed included his thoughts on WWE creative’s overly scripted promos for their talent.

“The creative process I still don’t get. It was a nightmare to me the last time I was there, which was 2014, and it seems like its become worse. I feel like they don’t have a clear vision, a long term vision, everything is very week-to-week. It doesn’t seem like they stick to a plan very much.” [Chris] Jericho pointed out something to me that makes complete sense. He said that John Cena is the last guy who is gonna be over like he is and it’s because the performers now they’re limited. Their hands are tied. They can’t go to war like we used to. We used to go to war and beat the crap out of each other and it earned a level of respect from people. And it was just like a different level of respect, it was a different level of getting over. We had more freedom.”

Transcript via Fightful.com.

All Elite Wrestling News & Notes

All Elite Wrestling reportedly have recently hired Rafael Morfi, former WWE Senior Director of Live Event Marketing, to handle live events for the company going forward, according to PWInsider. It was reported that Morfi was seen backstage at last month’s AEW’s Double or Nothing event and he’s expected to play an important role in the company.

AEW is considering plans to release their pay-per-view events on home video. The company’s official Twitter account recently polled fans on their interest in a Double or Nothing release on DVD or Blu-ray.

Which format would you like to see #AEW's #DoubleOrNothing released on…#AEWDoN #AEWDVD #AEWBluRay

— All Elite Wrestling (@AEWrestling) June 10, 2019

ComicBook.com held another recent interview with Cody Rhodes and one of the topics discussed included the inspiration for AEW’s World Championship belt. Cody also revealed that AEW’s main championship belt weighs around five pounds more than New Japan Pro Wrestling’s IWGP Heavyweight Championship.

“The founder of AEW, Tony Khan is a lifelong wrestling fan. You can ask him about any talent, the most obscure, and he can tell you where they had their run, how many stars were in this match. It’s really crazy but him and I had watched Mid-South — the North American Title was so large. Bill Watts was wearing it and it was so large. We thought, we really want this big, big belt. Then we went to The Ace of Belts, Dave Millican, he knew exactly what we were going for. We went through some edits back and forth with the other EVPs. We were so happy with how it turned out. It’s probably about five pounds heavier than the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. That’s the heaviest belt I had ever seen. It’s really a solid chunk of change. The person who’s got to put that in their carry-on bag is going to have some fun at TSA but it’s inspired a lot by the Mid-South and the larger titles in our industry.”

Major League Wrestling News & Notes

As noted before, Ace Romero suffered an injury during his match at Impact Wrestling and House of Hardcore’s co-promoted event last Saturday in St. James, New York. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that Romero’s injury was not serious and his match stoppage was done as a precautionary measure by the official ringside doctor.

MLW announced that Austin Aries will be making his official return to the company at their Never Say Never 2019 event on July 25th in New York City, New York.

MLW officials reportedly were very pleased with the first day ticket sales for their upcoming first ever event in Dallas, Texas, according to PWInsider. It was reported that the initial sales were the highest ever for an event in company history and stronger than all of the first day sales for their events held in Chicago.

PWInsider also reported that MLWW founder Court Bauer is currently working on finalizing two new television deals for the company’s international markets.