Weekend Roundup: Jeff Hardy Contracts COVID, Michael Cole, Emi Sakura AEW Update, Impact Ratings, Alex Shelley, Indies

WWE

• Jeff Hardy reportedly is currently rumored to have recently contracted COVID-19, according to a music event promoter in Kansas City, Missouri. The promoter announced on Facebook that they pulled Hardy from their meet & greet fan event on July 26th at the recordBAR in the city due to him recently testing positive for the coronavirus.
• As noted before, WWE’s main roster talent had mandatory training at the company’s Performance Center earlier this month to get into top ring shape prior to the resumption of weekly live touring. Fightful Select reported that despite Vince McMahon’s orders being mandatory for all talent, WWE officials did allow several talent to be excused from training for personal reasons. It was also reported that almost all of the company’s main roster female talent participated in the mandatory training sessions.
• During a recent interview with The Pat McAfee Show podcast, Michael Cole praised Pat McAfee for helping revitalize his career as a wrestling announcer. Cole stated “you have completely revitalized my career. I’ve been doing this for almost 25 years and have seen and been part of everything in WWE. You go through different partners and everyone I have worked with has been great and have all brought a different style to the product. JBL, unbelievable partner. Corey Graves, incredible talent. You’re different than all of those guys because you’re a true fan and you bring that enthusiasm to the product and seeing how you’ve been acting over the past couple of months has really revitalized what I do and I realize that I have to step up my game to keep up with what you’re doing from an enthusiastic standpoint and that’s what I’m trying to do. It’s been a lot of fun for me and it’s been really different. Thank you for breathing life into this old man.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• WWE reportedly drew an attendance of 14,969 for their July 16th Friday Night SmackDown show in Houston, 9,979 for their July 18th Money in the Bank 2021 event in Forth Worth, and 9,200 for their July 19th RAW show in Dallas, Texas, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• WWE also reportedly drew an attendance of 180 for their July 20th NXT show at the Performance Center in Orlando and 180 for their July 21st NXT tapings also at the Performance Center in Orlando, Florida, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• WWE reportedly has sold around 42,462 tickets for their August 21st SummerSlam 2021 event in Las Vegas, Nevada, around 3,535 tickets for their July 25th Supershow house show event in Louisville, Kentucky, around 4,348 tickets for their July 26th RAW show in Kansas City, Missouri, around 6,903 tickets for July 30th SmackDown show in Minneapolis, Minnesota, around 4,070 tickets for their July 31st Supershow house show event in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, around 6,802 tickets for their September 1st Supershow house show event in Detroit, Michigan, and around 10,559 for their September 2nd RAW show in Chicago, Illinois as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Dave Meltzer reported that WWE has also sold around 4,771 tickets for their September 26th Extreme Rules 2021 event in Columbus, Ohio and around 5,400 tickets for their September 10th SmackDown show in New York City, New York.
• WWE recently added a new match to the card of their NXT TakeOver 36 event on August 22nd. This will be a NXT United Kingdom Championship match of Ilja Dragunov vs. WALTER.
• Goldberg is currently scheduled to be appearing at the August 2nd episode of RAW in Chicago, Illinois and the August 16th episode of RAW in San Antonio, Texas based on recent ticket advertisements by WWE.
• A trademark for “Earn The Day” was filed by WWE on July 19th for merchandise-related purposes to the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
• Spectrum Sports 360’s Jon Alba reported that despite Triple H promoting NXT over the years to be viewed as a third main brand for WWE, other high level WWE officials still view NXT internally as nothing more than just a developmental brand in terms of status in the company.

AEW

• During a recent episode of the Keepin It 100 podcast, host Konnan discussed a recent conversation he had with AEW CEO Tony Khan over if AEW has signed Daniel Bryan. Konnan stated “I will tell you this because I did ask Tony Khan. The only reason I asked him is because I wanted to use Bryan Danielson in AAA. I was like, ‘Hey man, have you signed Bryan Danielson?’ He goes, ‘You know I can’t tell you that’ and then I looked at him and I go ‘bro, if that **** shows up in Chicago, that place is gonna melt’, and he just smiled. So I think he might have but he has not told me.” (Transcript h/t: WrestlingInc.com)
• Trademarks for “Leyla Hirsch” and “Legit Leyla Hirsch” were filed by Leyla Hirsch on July 21st for wrestling and entertainment-related purposes to the USPTO.
• A trademark for “The First Dance” was filed by AEW on July 19th for wrestling and entertainment-related purposes to the USPTO.
• A trademark for “Best Wrestler Alive” was filed by Max Caster on July 19th for wrestling and entertainment-related purposes to the USPTO.
• During a recent interview with the Wrestling Observer Radio, Kenny Omega stated that he is hoping AEW’s upcoming new weekly Rampage television series will feature a bigger focus on the company’s women’s division. Omega stated “rather than give them more Chris Jericho, Kenny Omega, MJF…I’d rather give them the extremely talented individuals that maybe you can’t see that week. We have incredibly gifted female wrestlers that have been working really hard fighting for a spot, maybe it’s time we give them some more. That would count as a variation in content: more women’s wrestling.” (Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com)
• Gatoh Move Pro Wrestling talent Emi Sakura recently announced on Twitter that she will be traveling to the United States and will be making her return soon for AEW.
• The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer reported that TNT is currently scheduled to air NHL doubleheader games on October 13th and October 20th. Meltzer reported that TNT’s plans for the airing status of AEW’s Dynamite shows those weeks are currently not known.
• Dave Meltzer also reported that AEW is currently working on television deals for their upcoming AEW Rampage series for their Canada, Brazil, South America, India, Germany, Italy, France, and Africa markets. Meltzer reported that AEW Rampage is currently expected to air on the AEW+ service for the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand.
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that AEW officials currently do not have any plans to hold a special for Dynamite’s upcoming 100th episode. Meltzer reported that AEW officials are currently working on plans to hold a special in October to celebrate Dynamite’s second anniversary.
• AEW reportedly is currently interested in potentially signing Buddy Murphy to a contract with the company, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• AEW reportedly has sold around 16,403 tickets for their Dynamite Grand Slam event on September 22nd at the Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York City, New York as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• AEW also reportedly drew an attendance of 5,688 for this past Wednesday’s Fyter Fest 2021 Night 2 show in Garland, Texas, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Dave Meltzer reported that the split was 5,400 paid and 288 as comp tickets.
• AEW also reportedly has sold around 5,792 tickets for their July 28th Dynamite show in Charlotte, North Carolina, around 3,900 tickets for their August 11th Dynamite show in Pittsburgh, and around 3,750 tickets for their August 13th AEW Rampage show in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

Other Wrestling

• This past Thursday’s episode of Impact Wrestling Impact! drew 104,00 viewers and a 0.04 key demographic rating on AXS TV, according to Wrestlenomics. This was down compared to last week’s episode of 109,000 viewers but up from last week’s 0.02 key demographic rating.
• Impact Wrestling reportedly drew an attendance of 180 for their Slammiversary 2021 event on July 17th in Nashville, Tennessee, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• Impact also reportedly drew an attendance of 180 for their Impact! television tapings on July 18th and 180 for their Impact! television tapings on July 19th in Nashville, Tennessee, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• Impact is currently planning to hold another set of television tapings on August 15th to August 17th in Nashville, Tennessee, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Lucha Libre AAA talent Laredo Kid is currently expected to be returning soon to Impact Wrestling. Kid reportedly is expected to receive a big push as part of Impact’s return plans for him.
• During a recent interview with the Pro Wrestling 4 Life podcast, W. Morrissey revealed that his current contract with Impact is set to expire this October. Morrissey stated “I wasn’t at first, but I am signed with IMPACT until Bound For Glory in October. Things could change tomorrow. We’ll see. We’re kind of going on a ‘feel’ basis. They brought me in and I’m not stupid, I understand I’m a high risk because they don’t know what they’re getting. We’ve gone taping by taping and they were like, ‘We’ll sign you up until Bound For Glory’ and that was cool with me because I’m not interested in signing anything long-term right now. It worked out perfectly. I’m there until October for right now.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• The National Wrestling Alliance recently announced a new match for the card of their 73rd Anniversary event on August 29th in St. Louis, Missouri. This will be a title vs. career match of Trevor Murdoch (career) vs. Nick Aldis (NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship).
• New Japan Pro Wrestling reportedly drew a paid attendance of 687 for their July 17th Summer Struggle 2021 event in Tokyo, 542 for their July 19th Summer Struggles 2021 event in Ryugasaki, and 1,490 for their July 22nd Summer Struggle 2021 event in Osaka, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• Warrior Wrestling reportedly drew an attendance of around 700 for their Stadium Series 2021 event on July 17th in Chicago Heights, Illinois, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that due to recent coronavirus pandemic lockdowns in Australia, all wrestling events in both Sydney and Melbourne have been postponed for the foreseeable future.
• Meltzer also reported that all wrestling events in the state of Hidalgo in Mexico have been postponed due to the recent surge in COVID cases in the country. Mexico City officials reportedly are currently not planning to issue another shutdown order at least for the time being.
• Ring of Honor recently announced two new matches for the card of their Glory By Honor 2021 event on August 21st in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. These are an Eight-man tag team match of Violence Unlimited (Brody King, Tony Deppen, Homicide, & Chris Dickinson) vs. The Foundation (Jay Lethal, Jonathan Gresham, Tracy Williams, & Rhett Titus) and a tag team match of The Briscoes vs. Flip Gordon & Demonic Flamita.
• Game Changer Wrestling announced that Alex Shelley will be making an appearance for the company at their co-promoted 3 Cups Stuffed event with Black Label Pro Wrestling on September 3rd in Hoffman Estates, Illinois.
• During this past Saturday’s airing of Major League Wrestling’s Battle Riot III event on their YouTube channel, the company announced that they will be launching a new mini-series called Fusion Alpha starting next month.