Weekend Roundup: WWE & MLW Update, Sammy Guevara, AEW Revolution Buys Update, Andrade, CMLL & ROH, Indies

Indie / Misc

Steve C.

May 2, 2021

WWE

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that rumors of WWE and Major League Wrestling being in recent talks regarding the idea of a potential working partnership are not true. Johnson stated that his sources within WWE denied any recent talks took place between the two companies.
WWE filed a trademark for “Top Dolla” on April 27th for wrestling and entertainment-related purposes to the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Fightful Select reported that the reason why AJ Styles and Omos have been absent from RAW in recent weeks was due to one of them was not medically cleared to compete following their RAW Tag Team Championship match at WrestleMania 37.
BT Group, parent company of BT Sport, recently confirmed reports of them currently being in the process of selling an ownership stake in BT Sport. BT Sport is the current home television network of WWE in the United Kingdom.
PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that “Road Dogg” Brian James returned to his backstage duties for WWE’s NXT brand this past Wednesday. James had been away from the company since late March due to him suffering a likely heart attack.
NBC Universal reported that the total subscription base for their Peacock streaming service was around 44 million for their fiscal first quarter 2021. NBC stated that this was up from 35 million from their fiscal fourth quarter 2020. NBC also stated that the addition of the WWE Network was one of the keys contributors to Peacock’s growth for the fiscal quarter.
PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that there are two court hearings currently scheduled to take place on May 9th and May 10th for the on-going Sonya Deville stalker case. Johnson reported that the May 9th hearing will involve if Deville should be granted a permanent injunction order of protection against her alleged stalker Phillip A. Thomas. The May 10th hearing reportedly will determine if Thomas is competent to stand trial.
As noted before, the Forgotten Sons were pulled from WWE television in June of 2020 due to several controversial comments made by Jaxson Ryker on social media. Fightful Select reported that following Ryker’s online controversies, both Wesley Blake and Steve Cutler went to WWE’s Performance Center to apologize and make amends with talent over the heat the group had generated within the company. It was reported that Ryker did not go with Blake and Cutler for this trip.
TVLine held a recent interview with Daniel Bryan and one of the topics discussed included his current contract status with WWE and the future of his career. Bryan stated “It’s funny that people gravitate towards the date “September,” and I think it’s because that’s when my last contract ended, but it doesn’t end in September. [Note: Bryan was tight-lipped about when his contract actually runs out.] I’m still trying to figure out what that looks like… I had a tag team match on SmackDown last Friday, and it was a lot of fun, but my neck was just wrecked. I’m going to be 40 in May and my daughter likes to get on my shoulders to pick leaves from a Japanese maple in front of our house [and he couldn’t this time due to the pain]. You get to that point where it’s like, how long can I do this full-time and still be able to do those kinds of things with my daughter? What’s the right balance between part-time and that sort of thing? It may be that it’s just every once in a while when the urge strikes, or maybe like a schedule where it’s like eight months on, these months off … One of the coolest things about wrestling, and just be being an independent contractor in general, is that you can say, “Well, I really only want to do this amount of work.” What that amount of work is, I have no idea yet. I still have to figure it out. But I also need to be respectful of the people who are relying on me to go to work. I have to give them an answer sooner rather than later. I’m trying to figure that out, trying to be responsible as an employee of somebody who’s taken care of our family very well. But then also, trying to take the time to figure it out.”

AEW

Fightful held a recent interview with Sammy Guevara and one of the topics discussed included him clarifying the incident with Impact Wrestling earlier this year that led to him being pulled from Impact’s television tapings. Guevara stated “I won’t go too much into it. I went over there, punch Scott D’Amore. I’m not doing any of your creative! Screw everybody! [laughs].What was presented, I didn’t see it working for me. I still wish nothing but the best for IMPACT and everybody there. I don’t put information out online and there are only certain people who knew certain information, so the information coming out is only from one side. I wish we could’ve kept it more about that instead of making it everyone’s business because it wasn’t necessary for everyone to know this stuff. That’s why I started trolling on the Vlog. Certain things were coming out and I was like, ‘This is not true at all.’ Don’t believe everything you read online. It is what it is, we all could’ve handled things better. You live and learn, grow and go. I have a lot of friends over there, Trey Miguel and Ace Austin, plenty of dudes I’d love to wrestle and have wrestled before. We were all on similar shows not long ago. It’ll happen.”
During a recent interview with Busted Open Radio, Chris Jericho stated that AEW has started to hold more production meetings to help cut back on the amount of similar segments taking place weekly on their Dynamite shows. Jericho stated “I am involved in some of the overall backstage ideas and thoughts. We have a production meeting now before the show that wasn’t happening a lot. We have an agents meeting and coaches meeting before the show that wasn’t happening a lot. The reason for this is so we don’t have the same thing happening twice. We don’t want to have a beatdown with a coffee cup in segment two and a beatdown with a coffee cup in segment three because nobody coordinated that with anyone else. You’ll see a lot more of that because we realized we are doing some similar things in the same show and how can we eliminate that? If Jericho is worried about his stuff and Kenny (Omega) and Don (Callis) are worried about their stuff and Cody (Rhodes) is worried about his stuff, we know what we’re doing but we don’t express that to each other and sometimes things are similar. We’ve really been working on that and it’s been paying off to where we’re not stepping on each other’s toes and still allowing everyone to be creative and have awesome ideas.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the current estimates for the pay-per-view buys for AEW’s Revolution 2021 event from this past March are around 159,000. Meltzer reported that the current estimated split is around 71,600 buys from traditional cable PPV providers and around 87,000 buys from streaming providers.
Dave Meltzer also reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that AEW will be remaining at Daily’s Place for television tapings and events until at least June 30th based on the venue’s current events schedule.

Other Wrestling

VICE TV recently released the first episode of the two-part Brian Pillman episodes for Season 3 of Dark Side of the Ring ahead of its official season premiere this Thursday on the network.
Former WWE talent Andrade made a surprise video appearance during Saturday’s Lucha Libre AAA Rey de Reyes 2021 event. Andrade issued a challenge to Kenny Omega for his AAA Mega Championship at AAA’s next Triplemania event.
Impact Wrestling talent and current Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo also made a surprise appearance at AAA’s Rey de Reyes 2021 event and issued a challenge to AAA Reina de Reinas Champion Faby Apache for a title vs. title match at Triplemania.
Indie wrestler Spyder Nate Webb announced on Twitter that he is taking an indefinite leave from wrestling due to physical and mental health-related issues.
New Japan Pro Wrestling’s English website held a recent interview with NJPW President Takami Ohbari and one of the topics discussed included the company’s current plans for fans to be able to attend their United States shows. Ohbari stated “We can say we want to do it! It’s a timing issue right now. Things are still fluid, and regulations differ depending on the state. The LA Dojo is in California, obviously, and California is among the strictest parts of the country; it’s very difficult to have events with attendees there. So the questions are, ‘OK, when do these restrictions look like they might ease?’ ‘Would it be easier for us to go to a different state and run there?’ Whatever the location it wouldn’t be a case of full venues right away. Then it becomes a question of how we can build a safe environment for fans, wrestlers, and staff in the same way we do in Japan. I will say that as of a couple of days ago, all our staff in the US have been vaccinated so it really does feel like we’re getting closer.”
NJPW reportedly generated a paid attendance of 1,055 for Night 1 of Satsuma No Kuni event on April 28th and a paid attendance of 1,701 for Night 2 of Satsuma No Kuni event on April 29th in Kagoshima, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
NJPW recently announced that this Friday’s episode of NJPW Strong will feature a tag team match of Jon Moxley & Chris Dickinson vs. Yuji Nagata & Ren Narita
PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that former WWE talent Alberto Del Rio (also known as Alberto El Patron in Impact and the indies) is currently scheduled to go to trial on May 3rd for the kidnapping and sexual assault charges against him from an incident in San Antonio, Texas in May of 2020. Del Rio is currently facing the possibility of life in prison if found guilty of the serious charges against him.
Ring of Honor announced that Lenny Leonard will be making his return to the company soon as the newest member of their commentary team.
Federacion Wrestling recently announced that Andrade will be making an appearance for the company at their debut event on June 19th in Mexico.
Pro Wrestling NOAH recently announced that Keiji Muto will be defending his GHC Heavyweight Championship against Naomichi Marufuji at their CyberFight Festival 2021 event on June 6th in Saitama, Japan.
As noted before, CMLL announced earlier this week that they have ended their working partnership with ROH. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that CMLL was very upset with ROH over the company not preventing their contracted talent from being booked for Federacion Wrestling’s debut event. Meltzer reported that ROH officials had told CMLL that there was nothing they could do legally since their contracts are only exclusive for the US and Ontario, Canada. Meltzer also reported that CMLL recently increased the pay of several of their key talent in order to entice them to stay in the company following the official debut announcement of Federacion Wrestling.
Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Daga is close to signing a new contract with a currently unknown promotion in the United States. Meltzer reported that Daga is currently in the process of getting residency in the U.S. and as a result had to relinquish his AAA Latin American Championship. Meltzer also reported that AAA officials currently believe that Daga will be able to return this summer and expect new deal will not prevent him from continuing to work for the company.