Weekend Roundup: Daniel Bryan, Riddle Lawsuit, ThunderDome Update, Dustin Rhodes, AEW Interested in Daga, LU Revival

WWE

• TalkSport held a recent interview with Daniel Bryan and one of the topics discussed included his behind-the-scenes role as a member of WWE’s creative team. Bryan stated “It’s interesting because, one, I don’t have that big of a say [laughs]. Sometimes something really great will happen on SmackDown and somebody will say ‘oh, that’s Daniel Bryan!’ Like, that’s not me! One part is our performers — we have incredible superstars. Cesaro is a no-brainer. When you say ‘Daniel Bryan helped Cesaro’ — no. All I did was ‘hey this guy is really good. We should put him on TV and use him!’ [laughs]. Apollo Crews, I don’t have anything to do with Apollo Crews stuff. He’s just great. But it is rewarding to see people that you know are talented get opportunities and knock it out of the park. There’s a certain joy to that. William Regal has been my mentor in wrestling for years and one of the things he has told me is that being a mentor to a handful of people has been more rewarding than the actual wrestling. He said don’t get me wrong, he loved the wrestling part and wishes he could still do it, but being a mentor is very fulfilling. So yeah, there is something to that, the idea of helping people and from a human perspective we all want that. For a long time, when you’re young you’re like ‘I want to achieve this, I want to achieve this!’ but as you get older it’s ‘I want to help here, I want to help here’ and it’s just a different perspective.”
• WWE recently filed a trademark for “Gauntlet Eliminator” for wrestling and entertainment-related purposes on March 24th to the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
• WWE also filed a trademark for “WCW” for wrestling and entertainment-related purposes on March 22nd to the USPTO.
• As noted before, both WWE and Gabe Sapolsky were recently dismissed as defendants from a lawsuit filed by Riddle’s sexual abuse accuser. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that the United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois recently issued an order demanding that Riddle officially respond to the lawsuit against him by April 14th. Johnson also reported that the court also ordered both parties to provide legal documents for a discovery hearing currently scheduled for April 21st.
• As noted before, Charly Caruso is currently expected to be leaving WWE once her current contract expires. Caruso has been absent from WWE television these past few weeks due to backstage complaints over her lateness for scheduled interviews and attitude issues. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that prior to her removal from WWE television, Caruso had turned down a new long-term contract offer by the company and had been looking at non-wrestling projects for her future career.
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that WWE officials currently do not have any plans to sell tickets for their ThunderDome tapings at the Yuengling Center in Tampa, Florida. WWE will be leaving their current home venue of Tropicana Field for the Yuengling Center on April 2nd.
• In regards to the length of WWE’s upcoming stay at the Yuengling Center, the venue’s official website currently has WWE scheduled to hold their television tapings there until August 3rd.
• Television cable network A&E recently released a preview trailer for their upcoming eight-part WWE themed “Biographies” episodes.
• This past Sunday’s WWE Fastlane 2021 event featured an Old Spice ad segment involving a character named “Joseph Average”, who was played by NXT developmental talent Rik Bugez. AdWeek reported that Bugez will be reprising his role as “Joseph Average” for an additional five Old Spice ads that will air on WWE television over the course of the next several weeks. It was also reported that this deal between Old Spice and WWE also includes four additional ad vignettes to air on WWE television with one planned to feature Hurricane Helms.
• Fightful Select reported that prior to Keith Lee’s removal from WWE television due to medical issues, WWE officials had plans for Lee to win the United States Championship at last month’s Elimination Chamber event. It was also reported that the exact nature of Lee’s medical issues are currently not known.
• Indie wrestler Bobbi Tyler reportedly is currently rumored to have recently signed an official contract with WWE, according to PWInsider.

AEW

• A recent episode of the Sports Guys Talking Wrestling podcast had Dustin Rhodes as the guest and one of the topics discussed included Rhodes thoughts on the future of his wrestling career. Rhodes stated “It’s different when you’re sitting in a classroom or something and you’re just talking to these people because I’m not a big talker. I don’t like to talk, you know? I like to — but it became easy. It’s just really easy to me now and I know I’m not trying to sound like a pompous ass or anything but I was taught well and I’ve learned and I’ve watched and I’ve taken bits and pieces just from about everybody, you know? And just blazed my own path here and had ups and downs and climbed over mountains and fell a few times but right now — if I was like this ten, 15 years ago, my God, I’d be on top of the world but I have no regrets and those are my teachers and here I am today at 51, having the time of my life in the twilight of my career, just a couple two, three more years before I hang it up but right now man, AEW and my wrestling academy is just — I’m having a lot of fun. It’s exhausting, but it’s fun as sh*t. I love it.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)
• AEW reportedly is currently considering the idea of signing Daga to an official contract with the company, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• AEW reportedly generated an attendance of 850 for their March 24th episode of AEW Dynamite at Daily’s Place, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Dave Meltzer reported that the split was around 700 paid and the remainder as comp tickets.
• During a recent interview with music news website Pitchfork, AEW CEO Tony Khan stated that he recently purchased the perpetuity rights for the song “Where is My Mind?” by The Pixies. Khan also stated that this will be the new theme song for Orange Cassidy in the company.

Other Wrestling

• Fightful Select reported that Taylor Wilde is currently expected to make her official return soon to Impact Wrestling. It was reported that Wilde was at Impact’s recent set of television tapings in Nashville, Florida.
• Impact Wrestling reportedly has quietly officially cancelled their Xplosion television series, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• Fightful Select reported that Major League Wrestling’s current COVID-19 protocols for their tapings are for talent to be tested at their arrival for tapings and then tested again shortly after they leave in order to avoid any spread or contamination of MLW’s bubble.
• Lucha Underground is currently rumored to be making a potential revival in the future but under a new name, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• Stardom reportedly generated around 3,000 pay-per-view buys for their 10th Anniversary Event on March 3rd, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Dave Meltzer reported that around 750 buys came from outside of Japan, which was higher than Stardom officials had expected.
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the reason for the controversial angle at the end of New Japan Pro Wrestling’s New Japan Cup 2021 Finals on March 21st was due to NJPW officials wanting to write out Bea Priestley from the company. Meltzer reported that Priestley was not interested in signing a new deal with the company which led to the decision for the angle done at the show.
• NJPW recently announced that they will be officially revealing their new IWGP World Heavyweight Championship belt at the Road to Sakura Genesis 2021 event on March 30th in Tokyo, Japan.
• NJPW generated a paid attendance of 1,230 for their March 20th New Japan Cup 2021 event in Sendai and 2,299 for their March 21st New Japan Cup 2021 Finals event in Sendai, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that around 50 lucha wrestlers representing a variety of lucha promotions held a protest march on March 18th in Mexico City demanding an easing of coronavirus pandemic restrictions. Meltzer reported that the wrestlers wanted wrestling events to be open to around 30% capacity to help alleviate their financial struggles caused by the on-going pandemic in Mexico.
• Chris Bey recently stated on Twitter that he has yet to be medically cleared for an in-ring return in Impact Wrestling. Bey has been out of action for Impact since suffering an injury during the tapings for the March 9th episode of Impact!.
• Revolution Pro Wrestling announced that former indies wrestler Doug Williams will be making his return to wrestling for the company when they resume running events this summer.
• WrestleCon announced that The Good Brothers (Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows) will be making an appearance at their WrestleCon 2021 convention on April 8-11 in Tampa, Florida.