Weekend Roundup: NXT WrestleMania Plans, Shaq, AEW Women’s Title Tournament Update, NJPW, Impact UK TV Update, Indies

WWE

• Sporting News held a recent interview with Edge and one of the topics discussed included Edge revealing when he knew Christian would be in the Men’s Royal Rumble match. Edge stated “I was one of the few that was privy to the fact that he got cleared a few months ago. We didn’t know he was going to be in the Rumble until Friday, though. I was in the midst of driving down to his house from North Carolina to stay for the weekend. And then we found out and we’re like ‘OK, well, we’ll drive over to the Rumble together then.”
• WWE announced that Sasha Banks will be the honorary starter for this year’s NASCAR Daytona 500 race, which takes place on February 14th.
• Sportskeeda Wrestling held a recent interview with Damian Priest and one of the topics discussed included his thoughts on getting to work with Bad Bunny in WWE. Priest stated “Yes, absolutely. I mean, tell me how I should complain about being involved with one of the hottest and most popular human beings on the planet. Yeah, sounds good to me. But also, I love what I do and I love just being happy and loving life and seeing him doing that, I was excited for him. He was so excited and so happy because he is a huge fan, so for me to see him… His enjoyment made me happy because he’s a good dude, you know, we’re cool, and then he’s just so like in love, like he loves this business, so to watch his excitement and how he’s acting and reacting to everything in the back and interacting with people, it’s cool to see. I know a lot of people don’t see that side but it’s really neat to watch.”
• WWE is currently rumored to be considering the idea of Finn Balor defending his NXT Championship at WrestleMania 37, according to WrestleVotes.
• WWE reportedly is in the process of tweaking their Creative team with former Senior Vice President of Creative Writing Dave Kapoor transitioning to a new role in NXT’s creative team, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• WWE’s stocks saw another decline during this past Friday’s trading falling from $56 per share to $49.23 at the end of after-hour trading. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the reason for the decline was due to the lingering fallout from WWE’s recent fiscal report revealing lower than expected company earnings from the fiscal fourth quarter.
• Entertainment website Complex.com held a recent interview with Rey Mysterio and one of the topics discussed included Mysterio’s thoughts on wrestling in an empty arena setting. Mysterio stated “It’s been really crazy and very hard at the beginning, trying to adapt, trying to step into a ring when there’s no fans around. Now we have the bubble or [Thunder] dome, which at least we can see the fans and they can see us, and you kind of play off of [the] monitors. I want to say I might have been the first match on Raw during the pandemic that was the first match televised. I believe we kind of kicked off the show for Raw that day and the first match on the card was me and Andrade so it just felt very weird. Very awkward. It felt like you were auditioning for a part in a wrestling movie, you know? Overall, we’ve managed to get through it. As time has gone by, nine months later, we create this connection between us the Superstars, and the fans. I think if this is the future for the next, I don’t know, year, year and a half because we have to say “No, this is gonna get better, things are gonna get better.” Now we have a vaccine. When are we going to start having fans inside the arenas? NFL is doing it, Major League Baseball was doing it, so I think now, it’s our turn, because me, personally, I feed off the energy from the fans.”
• WWE filed a new trademark for “Mei Ying” for wrestling and entertainment-related purposes on February 3rd to the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

AEW

• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the reason why the intergender tag team match with Shaquille O’Neal is taking place on the March 3rd episode of AEW Dynamite instead of at AEW Revolution 2021 on March 7th is due to O’Neal’s current NBA commitments. The NBA is currently planning to hold their All-Star game on that date.
• AEW reportedly drew around 700 fans for their AEW Dynamite Beach Break special on February 3rd, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Dave Meltzer reported that the split was 650 paid and the rest given away as complimentary tickets.
• Japanese all-women’s wrestling promotion Marvelous stated that they will be hosting the Japanese half of AEW’s upcoming Women’s Championship Eliminator tournament. The company also stated that these matches will be taped and held with no fans allowed in attendance.
• Hikaru Shida recently revealed on Twitter that she is currently in Japan to help with the production of the Japanese half of AEW’s upcoming Women’s Championship Eliminator tournament.
• A recent episode of the Dynamite Download podcast had Griff Garrison as the guest and one of the topics discussed included the origin of his tag team partnership with Brian Pillman Jr. in AEW. Garrison stated “We were in the Charlotte airport and were talking. We had met once or twice. We got to talking and he was like, ‘We’re both young and good looking dudes with nice hair. What if we were a tag team?’ Shit you not, the next day when we get down [to Jacksonville], on the board it’s ‘So & So vs. Brian Pillman Jr & Griff Garrison.’ Me, Brian, and Tony Khan came up with the Varsity Blondes name.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• During a recent episode of the Talk Is Jericho podcast, Tony Khan revealed that Matt Hardy’s teleportation segment was one idea he wished AEW should not have done due to how poorly it was executed. Khan stated “That was your idea [Chris Jericho]. There’s stuff like that, those are the things I tried to do a lot less of this year, honestly. That’s a good example. There’s stuff like that where somebody had something and I knew I was skeptical going in and I talked myself into it and I wouldn’t have done it. It’s not against you or the idea, it’s just the way it was executed and the way we were talking it about, I had a feeling it wasn’t going to work. That’s the perfect example of things. I didn’t do very many of them this year. We had many mistakes this year, but I tried to cut down on that. That’s a perfect example of where I wish we hadn’t done it but it was my fault. If I really believed it that strong, I should have stood up and said it. Your idea was good, but the way we executed it on short notice, it didn’t really look right. It was tough. We were short-handed in the pandemic and we were trying to do cool stuff. I think everybody was happy to have wrestling stuff and we don’t really do stuff like that on the show.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• Fightful Select reported (via WrestlingHeadlines.com) that Kip Sabian is currently dealing with an injury that has kept him out of ring action since this past December.

Other Wrestling

• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that besides Roku, NJPW had been in talks with ESPN, Vice, and CBS Sports for a potential new television deal in the United States. Meltzer reported that Roku’s offer was the best one on the table from a long-term perspective. CBS Sports’ offer reportedly was only for a split in ad revenues and nothing more.
• NJPW reportedly generated a paid attendance of 2,156 for their The New Beginning in Nagoya 2021 event on January 30th in Aichi, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• NJPW also reportedly generated a paid attendance of 557 for their February 1st Road to The New Beginning in Hiroshima 2021 event, 582 for their February 2nd Road to The New Beginning in Hiroshima 2021 event, and 600 for their February 3rd Road to The New Beginning in Hiroshima 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• Jun Akiyama’s contract with All Japan Pro Wrestling reportedly has recently expired, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Akiyama is currently working full-time for DDT Pro-Wrestling in a free lancer type deal.
• Impact Wrestling reportedly recently lost their television deal with FreeSports in the United Kingdom, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Dave Meltzer reported that Impact had been on a trial deal with the network who decided against continuing the deal due to monetary reasons. Impact reportedly will be airing their weekly television series on their Facebook and YouTube accounts while they work on finding a new network home in the U.K.
• Impact also reportedly is currently planning to hold their next set of television tapings from February 9th to February 11th at the Skyway Studios in Nashville Tennessee, according to Fightful Select (via WrestlingHeadlines.com). It was reported that Impact officials currently are planning to invite at least one talent who is not under contract with the company for these tapings.
• Lucha Libre AAA reportedly has recently signed a one-year deal with the Mexican Department of Tourism to hold empty arena events in several venues around the country to help promote tourism to those locations in Mexico, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• Stardom reportedly generated a paid attendance of 403 for their Nippon Budokan Great Eve Festival on January 30th in Tokyo, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• WrestleCon reportedly had recently changed their plans of not holding a WrestleCon event this year and instead is currently planning to hold their series of events during WrestleMania 37 weekend this April in Tampa, Florida, according to PWInsider.
• PWInsider reported that the trial for the Randy Orton tattoo lawsuit against WWE, Take Two, and 2K Games in regards to claims of copyright infringement by Orton’s tattoo artist is currently scheduled to start on September 20th.
• PWInsider also reported that the trial for Booker T’s lawsuit against Activision in regards to claims of Activision using his likeness without permission for a character in Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is currently scheduled to start on April 19th.