Weekend Roundup: Vince & Talent Meeting Update, Sting, New Documentaries, PAC, Harold Meij, Tracy Smothers, Indies

WWE

• British indie wrestler Rampage Brown recently signed an official developmental contract with WWE for their NXT UK brand.
• The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer recently debunked PWInsider’s report of a meeting between Vince McMahon and WWE talent taking place this past Friday regarding the company’s current stance on Twitch and other third party services. Meltzer reported that no such meeting took place according to his sources.
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that despite the lack of notable top face stars on SmackDown, WWE currently does not have any immediate plans for John Cena nor Bill Goldberg to be hotshot into a high profile feud against Roman Reigns.
• Sting’s merchandise contract with WWE reportedly recently expired, according to the Wrestling Observer. Dave Meltzer reported that this was the reason why all of Sting’s merchandise was suddenly pulled from WWE’s online shop last week.
• Lars Sullivan is currently rumored to be potentially getting his WWE ring name changed to “The Freak” based on recent instructions by WWE officials to their SmackDown commentary team.
• The script for this past Friday’s episode of SmackDown reportedly was finished about an hour before the start of the show, according to the Wrestling Observer’s Bryan Alvarez.
• Cable television network A&E reportedly is currently working on a new wrestling documentary based on Bret “The Hitman” Hart, according to PWInsider. This would be the sixth WWE related documentary currently planned by the network.
• WWE filed new trademarks for “Rampage Brown”, “Nina Samuels”, and “Aleah James” on October 27th for wrestling and entertainment-related purposes to the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

AEW

• PAC’s travel status for future AEW events is currently not known due to the current situation with the new coronavirus lockdown in the United Kingdom, according to the Wrestling Observer.
• Cody recently announced that The Gunn Club and Lee Johnson have become the newest members of his Nightmare Family faction.

Indies

• Major League Wrestling announced that Lucha Libre AAA talent Laredo Kid will be making his return to the company as part of their The Restart plans. Kid was among the notable outside indie talent brought in by MLW for their recent set of television tapings last month.
• During this weekend’s episode of ROH TV, Jonathan Gresham defeated Tracy Williams to win the Pure Championship tournament and be crowned as its first champion since 2006.
• New Japan Pro Wrestling reportedly generated around $2 million in profits for their 2019-2020 fiscal year, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• Former NJPW President Harold Meij reportedly has been recently fired by the company, according to Fightful and Twitter user michsuzu. The announcement of Meij’s firing was made during a recent investor’s meeting held by NJPW parent company Bushiroad.
• A GoFundMe fundraiser was recently launched for the late Tracy Smothers to help financially assist the costs of his funeral expenses for his family.
• Fallah Bahh reportedly has recently signed a new contract with Impact Wrestling, according to PWInsider.
• Impact Wrestling announced that their next Impact Plus special will be called Turning Point and takes place on November 14th.
• Podcast network AdFreeShows recently announced (via Fightful) that a new podcast interview series called “Conversations with Conrad” will officially debut on their service on November 10th. Former WCW Executive Vice President Jim Herd was announced to be the first guest for this upcoming new series.
• Indie wrestler Danhausen announced that he has recently signed an official contract with Ring of Honor.