Weekend Roundup: WWE Contacted Impact Talent, Charlotte Plans Update, AEW Games, Sting, Stardom, Indies

WWE

• WWE reportedly recently contacted several top Impact Wrestling talent to find out when their contracts expire, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• WWE’s current plans for next year’s Hall of Fame ceremony reportedly is to just induct the 2020 class and potentially hold it as a virtual ceremony event, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• As noted before, a fan who regularly attends NXT tapings tested positive for the coronavirus earlier this month. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that this fan currently believes he contracted the coronavirus after trip to Disney World on November 19th. This fan also stated that he did not attend NXT’s tapings on November 25th. He also stated that everyone else in his NXT pod did not test positive for the coronavirus on December 1st while only he did for NXT’s scheduled tapings on December 2nd.
• WWE recently announced that Seth Rollins will be returning to the company at their January 1st tapings for SmackDown.
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that while WWE’s RAW and SmackDown brands have become infamous for their late script rewrites, NXT scripts are written more with long-term booking and plans in mid. Meltzer reported that NXT Creative rarely engages in late script changes unless someone gets pulled from a show for health or other reasons.
• WWENetworkNews.com reported that a new episode of the Steve Austin’s Broken Skull Sessions series will be airing on January 10, 2021. It was also reported that this episode will be featuring Bayley as the guest.
• WWE filed a new trademark for “Hardy Bros” for wrestling and entertainment-related purposes on December 23rd to the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
• Fightful Select reported (via WrestleTalk) that WWE originally did not have any plans for Charlotte Flair to be involved in the Women’s Tag Team Championship feud that revolved around Lana and Nia Jax. It was reported that WWE changed their minds following Survivor Series and made the decision to write out Lana from the feud in favor of Flair for the Women’s Tag Team title match at TLC 2020.

AEW

• AEW announced that they will be launching a new gaming-related show called AEW 2.Show following this Wednesday’s episode of AEW Dynamite on their official YouTube account.
• AEW reportedly had 130 tickets available for sale as of this past Thursday for their AEW Dynamite tapings on December 30th, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Dave Meltzer reported that the attendance capacity at Daily’s Place was increased for this upcoming taping to PPV level due to the scheduled Kenny Omega vs. Rey Fenix match.
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newletter that AEW’s recent trademark for “AEW Elevation” is currently not planned to be the official name of their upcoming second television show.
• During a recent episode of AEW Unrestricted, Sting revealed the conversations he had with AEW CEO Tony Khan that led to him signing a contract with the company. Sting stated “I got a call from Tony Khan maybe five years ago, maybe more, and I didn’t know who he was. I ended up calling him back and he wanted me to sign a baseball bat and present it to [Jacksonville Jaguars]. I met him long before AEW. He called me again about a year ago or so. He didn’t call me, he sent a text. I’m still with WWE, so I had to be careful with how I handled stuff. I kept it superficial and that was that. Two months ago or so, I reached out, and said, ‘Are you still willing to talk?’ He said yeah, and here we are.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

Other Wrestling

• Game Changer Wrestling recently requested to be released from their contract with wrestling streaming provider IndependentWrestling.TV due to monetary related reasons.
• GCW filed a new trademark for “The Collective” for wrestling and entertainment-related purposes on December 21st to the United States Patent and Trademark Office. This is the same term that WWE filed a trademark for on December 15th and is currently being disputed by GCW who is claiming past usage of the term.
• Legendary amateur wrestler and NWA wrestler Danny Hodge passed away at the age of 88 on December 25th.
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that due to the new Japanese government order limiting live attendances for events in Tokyo, NJPW could be facing around $3 million in lost revenues from ticket sales for their upcoming Wrestle Kingdom 15 event. Meltzer reported that NJPW had been planning to hold the event at 40% capacity which would have been between 16,000 to 20,000 tickets for each night of the event.
• RUSH and Dragon Lee are currently rumored to have signed new contracts with Ring of Honor. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the company had recently offered RUSH a new deal that was only second to Marty Scurll in terms of monetary amount.
• Dragon Gate reportedly generated a paid attendance of 1,855 for their Final Gate 2020 event on December 20th in Fukuoka, Japan.
• Lucha Libre AAA reportedly recently pulled down their Youtube and Facebook accounts due to the on-going lawsuit against the company by the production company of Lucha Underground, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that AAA originally had plans for the women’s match at their Triplemania XXVIII to be a singles match between Taya Valkyrie vs. Lady Shani. Meltzer reported that those plans were dropped due to Valkyrie not being willing to travel due to the coronavirus situation in Mexico.
• Major League Wrestling reportedly is currently considering plans to use AEW’s Tony Schiavone for some interview segments on their shows in 2021, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Dave Meltzer reported that Schiavone is still under contract with MLW.
• MLW officials also currently have plans to bring back fans for events at some point during the second quarter of 2021 depending on the progress of COVID-19 vaccinations, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• Stardom recently announced that they will be holding two dark matches for the card of Night 2 of NJPW’s Wrestle Kingdom 15 event on January 5, 2021. These are a tag team match of Mayu Iwatani & Tam Nakano vs. Giulia & Syuri and a 6-woman tag team match of Saya Kamtani, Azumi, & Utami Hayashishita vs. Maika, Natsupoi, & Himeka.