Weekend Roundup: Bad Bunny, Sammy Guevara & Impact Update, Hikaru Shida, NWA Tapings, Jim Crockett Jr. Gravely Ill, Indies

WWE

• Fightful Select reported that the reason why WWE created their WWE Icons documentary series was in order to have a new brand to push as a series and build up hype instead of promoting individual documentaries on their own. It was also reported that the company is still currently working on a Beth Phoenix episode for their Icons series.
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the reason why NXT did not air live weekly in Canada until last week was due to monetary reasons. Meltzer reported that WWE and sports cable network Sportsnet 360 had been too far apart on the monetary terms for a potential deal until very recently.
• WWE announced that they will be airing their first ever non-professional wrestling documentary on the WWE Network on March 7th. This documentary is titled Heaven and focuses on high school wrestler named Heaven Fitch, who became the first female athlete to win a boy’s state wrestling championship event in North Carolina in 2020.
• Sports Illustrated held a recent interview with Shawn Michaels. One of the topics discussed included Michaels thoughts on NJPW’s Kazuchika Okada’s recent comments about one of his favorite matches ever involved Michaels and if Okada would fit in working in WWE. Michaels stated “I’m so incredibly appreciative of that. I’ve always admired the style in Japan, and here’s a guy that admires my style. Someone once asked me how Okada would adjust if he were ever in the WWE, and I know the answer to that—he’d adjust fantastically, because he’s a fantastic talent. It’s like me. People would say, ‘Well, you only wrestled in the WWE,’ but I could have wrestled anywhere. When a guy is talented, he’s talented. So I’m thankful that Okada, this unbelievably talented young man, gained one or two things from my match.”
• Fightful Select reported (via 411Mania.com) that WWE originally had plans for King Corbin to work at their Superstar Spectacle event last month but due to the COVID-19 outbreak that hit the company at the time, those plans were changed. It was reported that WWE officials pulled Corbin from the event in favor of him working at their tapings of SmackDown that was held on the same night on January 22nd. It was reported that this decision was due to the lack of notable talent available for that night’s taping of SmackDown and was the reason why his feud with Dominik & Rey Mysterio was restarted.
• Fighful Select reported that Bad Bunny’s tenure in WWE has been met with a lot of positivity backstage. It was reported that sources spoken to stated that Bad Bunny has been an easy person to have conversations with backstage and has been very open to the plans WWE has for him during his time in the company. It was also reported that one RAW talent spoken to stated that Bad Bunny is taking his run in WWE seriously and has made a “great impression” on RAW’s locker room.
• Vicente Beltrán held a recent interview with Riddle and one of the topics discussed included Riddle’s thoughts on The Undertaker’s recent criticisms about WWE’s current product woes being due to their current talent being “too soft.” Riddle stated “I would say to the Undertaker and everybody else, times have changed, the human race and everyone is evolving, and yes we don’t carry knives and guns to work because we have metal detectors to keep us safe so people don’t do that. We have a wellness policy where we are all getting tested regularly so we are safe and in our right state of mind. I love my job, I show up to work and… I am a former professional UFC fighter that broke people’s jaws on a steel cage, something that wasn´t around when he was a young man and I bet if it was he still wouldn’t step up because it takes a different breath, so that’s that and he shouldn’t say certain things about the upcoming roster because we are real savages, not pretend ones, so he should watch out.”
• Riddle continued stating “But I still respect him, I think just a little overzealous and I don’t think he wanted to be mean I just think he thought his time was tougher. I would say this when he worked times weren’t tougher, they weren’t smart either and they were dumber, they abused certain things, they abused their bodies and they are all paying the price for it. Today’s wrestlers are smarter, work smarter and if they think they took more bumps, we don’t work the same schedule you were working, and you can’t say we are softer. For that, we’re smarter and more educated like the modern day athlete. We’re are not getting hurt that much, we’re training smart, we eat healthier and we do things better because people in the past made so many mistakes that we learned from them. So Undertaker saying we are soft, I don’t think we are soft, I think we are more intelligent and we don’t get hurt and don’t put ourselves in stupid situations like bringing guns to work. So Undertaker, nothing but respect, but at the end of the day respect and understand evolution.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

AEW

• AEW recently revealed on Twitter the official rules for the Casino Tag Team Battle Royale match at their upcoming Revolution 2021 event on March 7th.
• TSN held a recent interview with Tony Khan and one of the topics discussed included AEW running shows at Daily’s Place during the coronavirus pandemic and the potential of holding tapings in other locations. Khan stated “We’re looking at COVID data as far as new infections and the spread of the disease and keeping an eye on it and trying to gauge when it might be safe to return to touring and doing indoor shows, because we’ve really only done outdoor shows for the past 10 months. The whole time we’ve been doing these shows, we’ve never done anything where we felt unsafe. We’ve always felt like we’ve put the fans in a good, safe position outdoors where there’s 99 per cent less chance of transmission between people, putting people in pods, also, and not overcrowding it. I just think I don’t want to do anything now, after we’ve been doing everything right for so many months, and rush to make a bad decision. I think it’s important to do it slowly.”
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the reason why Powerhouse Hobbs missed the last set of AEW Dynamite television tapings was not due to travel-related issues as was the case with Miro and the recent blizzard that struck his hometown of Nashville, Tennessee.
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that one of the main causes of the creative dispute between Sammy Guevara and Impact Wrestling was Impact’s plans for his last appearance in the company. Impact officials reportedly wanted Guevara to win his last match but receive a post-match beatdown that would not result in him getting any revenge as a way to write him out of the company. Guevara reportedly took issue with this plan and had suggested instead of being placed in a high-level program and win the X-Division title which Impact was not interested in doing. Meltzer also reported that Black Taurus being on Ace Austin and Chris Bey’s team for last week’s 6-Man Tag Team match on Impact! was originally meant to be Sammy Guevara’s spot instead.
• Current AEW Women’s World Champion Hikaru Shida recently set a new all-time record in AEW history for longest AEW championship reign at 279 days and counting. Shida surpassed the previous record held by Jon Moxley and his former AEW World Championship reign of 277 days.
• During a recent interview with the Wrestling Perspective podcast, The Butcher (real name Andy Williams) revealed that he hopes to be able to have a new AEW entrance theme created by his band Every Time I Die for himself and The Blade by the end of this year.
• The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer reported that Brooke Havok suffered an ACL injury during the taping of her match against Leyla Hirsch on February 17th for this past Tuesday’s episode of AEW Dark.

Other Wrestling

• The National Wrestling Alliance reportedly is currently expected to make an announcement within the next few days in regards to why all of their content was recently removed from their YouTube channel. The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer reported that his sources stated that this upcoming announcement is actually something good for the company and has nothing to do with their current partnership with AEW.
• Dave Meltzer also reported in a recent episode of the Wrestling Observer Radio that the NWA is currently planning to hold a new set of tapings on March 21-24. Meltzer also reported that details regarding the location of these tapings nor if fans would be allowed to attend are currently not known.
• Stardom recently released a promotional video featuring a celebratory message from former Stardom talent and current NXT Women’s Champion Io Shirai ahead of the company’s upcoming 10th Anniversary event on March 3rd.
• Fightful Select reported that New Japan Pro Wrestling had required all of their talent who worked at their recent set of tapings for NJPW Strong to sign non-disclosure agreements. It was reported that this was done due to the company being very upset with several talent who had been leaking stuff online following previous Strong tapings.
• During a recent interview with Wrestle Inn, NJPW announcer Kevin Kelly revealed that NJPW officials originally wanted Bret Hart to join him in the English commentary booth for their events. Kelly stated “before Don Callis, [NJPW] had floated — it was going to be Kenny and Jericho (wrestling) — they floated the idea of Bret Hart. I said, ‘Reach out to him.’ Before they did, because they didn’t have his number, Kenny suggested Don. That’s how Don Callis came to be, but one of the first names floated was Bret Hart. They were thinking, ‘Oh, Canadian!’ That would have been interesting and a lot of fun.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre reportedly will be resuming events in Mexico starting on March 26th, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• During a recent episode of the Keepin 100 podcast, Konnan provided details regarding his recent hospitalization due to COVID-19 and life threatening kidney issues. Konnan stated “So let me tell you what happened. I f*cking was in the hospital, I wake up, there’s six doctors in front of me. An Nephrologist, a Cardiologist, an Infectious Disease doctor and they’re very, very mad. They’re angry with me because I’m not taking my pills, I’m being very rude, I’m not listening to instructions. This is in the hospital.”
• Konnan continued stating “[I wasn’t listening to them] because I didn’t want to believe it was as bad as they were telling me. I didn’t wanna hear bad news. Now the bad news mean I can’t work, I can’t make money, as if that’s everything in life which it isn’t and so they’re f*cking talking to me and one guy just f*cking gives me a kick right in the nuts. He goes, ‘Well Mr. Ashenoff, since you don’t seem to understand the gravity of this situation, I’m gonna put it to you in black and white. There’s a very good chance, and when I mean very good chance, over 60 percent that your heart is going to stop. What would you like us to do with that heart?’ The other guy goes — I just was in shock. The other guy goes, ‘Obviously, that didn’t seem to illicit a response out of you.’ Well of course it didn’t motherf*cker. I’m f*cking in shock. ‘Your kidneys are failing. What would you like us to do with that? Donate it to science?’ They gave us like three or four f*cking things. Then another guy walks in, a Chaplain and you know I hate religion, and the motherf*cker wanted to pray with me. I almost threw him out the window but that’s real sh*t bro, and you survey your life and you go, ‘Okay, so what have I done?’ Had a lot of fun, took a lot of drugs, traveled the world, told a lot of people to go get f*cked. But I did it my way, you know what I’m saying? And at the end of the day, I am not any way, shape or form going to in any way, shape or form cow toe, bend to, kiss ass, just because people in this industry have money and everybody’s trying to get as much money as they can and they don’t wanna tell them the truth. Some of the conversations that I had with my closest friends were, ‘How did you put up with my bullsh*t for so long?’ And one of the things they always told me is, ‘No matter what, at least you kept it real with us.’” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)
• PROGRESS Wrestling recently announced that they have parted ways with indie wrestler Paul Robinson due to the recent online backlash of him working backstage at their Chapter 104 event on February 20th and the company failing to inform their fans of his hiring. Robinson had been among those accused of committing sexual harassment and abuse in the wrestling industry during this past June’s #SpeakingOut movement.
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Jimmy Jacobs is currently the head writer for Impact Wrestling. Meltzer reported that Jacobs reports to Impact’s Co-Executive Vice President Scott D’Amore who has the final say over all creative decisions. Meltzer also reported that Impact shows are mostly put together by Jacobs, Robert Evans, and Tommy Dreamer.
• A recent Pro Wrestling Junkies Q&A virtual session had Bret Hart as the guest and one of the topics discussed included Hart revealing that he is currently working on a new book about his life in wrestling. Hart stated “I remember those memories and I kind of thought about trying to write and sort of recreate what it is that I love about wrestling as a kid and bring back my… just what I believed in wrestling and why I loved it so much and tie it in with my childhood stories about growing up in a family with 12 kids and my dad’s a famous wrestler and just the whole sort of life that I had. I had such a great life and I’ve been working on that for a while and it’s a long ways from being completed and it may never get done but I think that it’s — I’ve got all this time, sitting down here doing nothing. I might as well try and do something constructive so that’s something I’m working on.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)
• Chris Jericho filed a trademark for “Corazon de Leon” for wrestling and entertainment-related purposes on February 18th to the United States Patent and Trademark Office. This was Jericho’s ring name during his career with CMLL from 1992 to 1995.
• Former WWE wrestler Big Cass made a surprise appearance for Lariato Pro Wrestling at their event last night in Lyons, Georgia. This was Big Cass’ first appearance at a wrestling event since September 2019.
• Former legendary wrestling promoter Jim Crockett Jr. reportedly is currently suffering from liver and kidneys failure, according to the Wrestling Observer Radio. Dave Meltzer reported that Crockett Jr.’s current condition is “grave” and the outlook on the future of his life “is not looking good.”