Weekend Roundup: Bray Wyatt Update, Karrion Kross, Domino’s & AEW Update, Impact Ratings, Kurt Angle, Braun Strowman, Indies

WWE

• As noted before, “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt was released by WWE this past Saturday. Fightful Select reported that Wyatt’s release was stated to have caused a big hit on the morale within the company’s locker room based on several talent spoken to. Several veteran talents reportedly spoken to stated that they “don’t feel like their jobs are safe any longer” regardless of their star status and card position within the company.
• WWE recently released the official poster for this year’s SummerSlam event, which takes place on August 21st at the Allegiant Stadium in the Las Vegas, Nevada.
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the reason why Harry Smith, former Davey Boy Smith Jr., has been appearing at dark match tryouts these past few weeks is due to Vince McMahon and John Laurinaitis pushing up his call-up plans much sooner than originally planned. Smith reportedly was originally planned to have a stint in NXT UK before being called up to the main roster but issues caused by the coronavirus pandemic ended up shelving those plans. McMahon reportedly is currently planning for Smith to be a member of the SmackDown roster for his official call-up.
• WWE filed a trademark for “Bella Wine Matchups” on July 27th for entertainment-related purposes to the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
• Jeff Jarrett filed a trademark for “Slapnutz” on July 23rd for merchandise-related purposes to the USPTO. This was Jarrett’s famous catchphrase during his second stint in WCW from 1999 to 2001. Jarrett is currently disputing an earlier filing by Freedom Pro Wrestling for “Slapnuts” on July 23rd claiming past usage of the term dating back to 2001.
• WWE reportedly generated an attendance of around 7,816 for their July 30th SmackDown show in Minneapolis, Minnesota, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• WWE reportedly has sold around 44,155 tickets for their upcoming SummerSlam 2021 event on August 21st in Las Vegas, Nevada as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• WWE also has sold around 6,300 tickets for their September 10th SmackDown show at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York and around 11,829 tickets for their August 2nd RAW show in Chicago, Illinois as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that next year’s Royal Rumble event might take place in early February instead of its usual late January date due to the NFL’s current schedule for their upcoming season’s playoffs. Meltzer reported that if WWE continues with their current trend of holding their Royal Rumble event in between the NFL’s Conference Championship games and Super Bowl, then next year’s event likely will take place on February 6, 2022.
• United Kingdom-based newspaper Telegraph & Argus held a recent interview with Ridge Holland and one of the topics discussed was his recent return to NXT from a serious left leg injury. Holland stated “unfortunately this isn’t ballet and injuries happen but that’s all behind me now and I’m looking forward to showing what a healed up Ridge Holland is capable of. The recovery process was a grind. As soon as I got hurt I was thinking of what I had to do to come back. It was Groundhog Day but I had the best physios and trainers working with me on a daily basis, five to seven days per week. I came back by battering Tommaso Ciampa and Timothy Thatcher and aligned myself with their opponents Pete Dunne and Oney Lorcan.”
• PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that WWE officials have yet to make an official decision on a replacement for former Senior Vice President of Talent Development Canyon Ceman, who was released from the company on July 24th.
• Johnson also reported that his sources within NBC’s Peacock division stated that they currently expect to finish migrating all of the WWE Network’s content to the service by SummerSlam weekend.
• The Mat Men Wrestling podcast’s Andrew Zarian reported that WWE’s plans for Karrion Kross’ debut on the main roster was for him to constantly lose matches on RAW until the debut of Scarlett Bordeaux on the brand. The idea reportedly was to present Bordeaux as someone who possesses what Kross needs in order to put him back on track and unleash the warrior or gladiator within him.

AEW

• This past Wednesday’s Fight For the Fallen 2021 themed episode of AEW Dynamite featured a Labor of Jericho No Rules match between Chris Jericho and Nick Gage, which was a television style deathmatch. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that AEW CEO Tony Khan had informed TNT officials ahead of time about AEW’s plans and the nature of the match which they approved for television.
• During the match, a notable incident occurred where a Domino’s ad aired while TNT was in a split-screen ad break showing Gage attacking Jericho with a pizza cutter on AEW’s screen. Wrestling reporter David Bixenspan reported that the story of Domino’s threatening to pull their ads from TNT was likely an embellished story from website Front Office Sports based on current evidence discovered. Bixenspan reported that the tone of the article did not match the tone of the wording from Domino’s statement and representative from Domino’s have yet to respond back nor issue any official statements clarifying their wording in Front Office Sports’ report. Bixenspan also reported that time timing of the ad and Gage’s pizza cutter spot was just a pure coincidence based on one industry insider spoken to. Bixenspan also reported that one mainstream reporter spoken to made private claims of WWE contacting him recently to persuade him to write a story about the Domino’s and AEW ad situation in order to give AEW some bad mainstream publicity.
• Adding more fuel to the rumors of WWE having a direct involvement in the Domino’s and AEW report incident is a recent report from PWInsider’s Mike Johnson who stated that he also heard from his sources of similar issues regarding the legitimacy of the report from Front Office Sports.
• As noted before, AEW is currently rumored to have signed or be close to signing CM Punk to an official contract with the company. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that Punk would be able to use the “Cult of Personality” song as his entrance theme in AEW due to WWE only had licensed the song while Punk was in the company and do not hold any exclusive perpetuity rights to it.
• Serena Deeb recently announced on Instagram that she will be out of action for AEW and the NWA for the foreseeable future due to her suffering a recent knee injury that she had tried to work through.
• AEW filed a trademark for “King of Harts” on July 28th for wrestling and entertainment-related purposes to the USPTO.
• AEW announced that they have recently signed a multi-year deal with trading card company Upper Deck for the production of officially licensed AEW trading cards. The first set of AEW cards is currently scheduled to be released this November.
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that AEW’s current plan for their television tapings is to continue holding marathon tapings sessions for their Dynamite and Dark series for at least the next few weeks. Meltzer reported that for most Wednesdays, the plan would be to tape a 1-hour episode of Dark Elevation and then a two hour episode of Dynamite afterwards. For week’s where Rampage would be taped on a Wednesday, that week’s episode would be taped following Dynamite. In regards to AEW Dark, Meltzer reported that the series will be taped going forward at a new studio location once its construction is completed likely in late August.
• AEW reportedly generated an attendance of 7,000 for their AEW Dynamite Fight for the Fallen 2021 themed show on July 28th in Charlotte, North Carolina, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Dave Meltzer reported that the split was 6,600 paid and 400 as comp tickets.
• AEW reportedly has sold around 1,850 tickets for their August 4th AEW Dynamite Homecoming themed show in Jacksonville, Florida and around 4,000 tickets for their September 8th AEW Dynamite show in Cincinatti, Ohio as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

Other Wrestling

• This past Thursday’s episode of Impact Wrestling Impact! drew 113,00 viewers and a 0.02 key demographic rating on AXS TV, according to Wrestlenomics. This was up compared to last week’s episode of 104,000 viewers but down from last week’s 0.04 key demographic rating.
• Saturday’s Impact Homecoming 2021 event featured Impact’s first ever King and Queen mixed tag team tournament, which was won by Deonna Purrazzo & “Drama King” Matt Rehwoldt who defeated Decay’s Rosemary & Crazzy Steve in the finals.
• This past Saturday was the 25th anniversary of Kurt Angle famous gold medal victory at the 1996 Olympic Games despite him dealing with a broken neck injury. Angle reflected on Twitter about the anniversary stating “on this day 25 years ago, I won the Olympic Gold in freestyle wrestling. #withabrokenfreakinneck. No better way to spend my 25 year anniversary than with my beautiful family……My wife and kids said I should buy a boat now. We shall see #25yearsofgold #olympics #1996.”
• Mickie James recently announced that Lady Frost will be making an appearance for the NWA at their all-women’s Empowerrr event on August 28th in St. Louis, Missouri.
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that ticket sales for NWA’s Empowerr event are currently the weakest of the two big events NWA will be holding in the city of St. Louis in August. The other event currently scheduled in the city is NWA’s 73rd Anniversary event on August 29th.
• Lucha Libre Online reported that former WWE talent Braun Strowman will be making an appearance for Qatar Pro Wrestling at their SuperSlam 3 event on February 26, 2022 in Doha, Qatar.
• Westside Xtreme Wrestling reportedly has sold around 400 tickets as of this past Thursday for their 20th Anniversary event on August 7th in Oberhausen, Germany, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Dave Meltzer reported that wXw will be allowed an attendance of up to 700 for their event based on current COVID-19 restrictions for events in the city.
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Yuya Uemura and Yota Tsuji will be leaving Japan soon to start their excursion phase of development.
• Meltzer also reported that his sources in Japan stated that the Tokyo Dome will be undergoing renovations soon with the potential of lasting into early next year. Meltzer reported that next year’s NJPW Wrestle Kingdom event could end up taking place on a different date and location than its usual January 4th date and Tokyo Dome location depending on the status of the renovations by that time.
• NJPW reportedly generated a paid attendance of 5,389 for their Wrestle Grand Slam 2021 at the Tokyo Dome event on July 25th in Tokyo, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• NJPW also had a paid attendance of 1,804 for their July 23rd Summer Struggle 2021 event in Osaka, 1,786 for their July 24th Summer Struggle 2021 event in Nagoya, and 454 for their July 27th Summer Struggle 2021 event in Tokyo, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• Mexico City officials reportedly have recently have given approval for Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre to hold their events at the Arena Puebla with up to 720 people allowed in the venue, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• A trademark for “Billie Starkz” was filed by indie wrestler Billie Starkz on July 22nd for wrestling and merchandise-related purposes to the USPTO.