Weekend Roundup: Ember Moon Update, SD Ratings Note, Britt Baker Injury Update, Charlotte Flair at TripleMania, Indies

Indie / Misc

Steve C.

Aug 15, 2021

WWE

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that WWE officials invited NXT talents Xia Li, Aliyah, Dakota Kai, Kacy Catanzaro, Ridge Holland, and Austin Theory backstage for dark match tryouts prior to the start of this past Friday’s episode of SmackDown in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
WWE reportedly generated an attendance of 8,800 for their August 6th SmackDown show in Tampa, 5,664 for their August 7th house show event in Fort Myers, 8,200 for their August 9th RAW show in Orlando, and 160 for their August 10th NXT show in Orlando, Florida, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
WWE reportedly has sold around 41,640 tickets for their SummerSlam 2021 event on August 21st in Las Vegas, Nevada as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
WWE also reportedly has sold around 6,516 tickets for their August 16th RAW show in San Antonio, Texas, around 9,301 tickets for their September 10th SmackDown show at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York, and around 5,929 tickets for their September 26th Extreme Rules 2021 event in Columbus, Ohio as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
In an interesting WWE historical note, Dave Melzter reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the upcoming WWE Championship match of Goldberg vs. Bobby Lashley at this year’s SummerSlam event is currently believed to be second oldest combined age for a WWE title match in WWE history. Meltzer reported that Goldberg (54) and Lashley’s (45) combined age of 99 is believed to only be behind the combined age of 101 for the WWE Undisputed Championship match of Ric Flair (53) vs. Hulk Hogan (48) that was held on the May 13, 2002 episode of RAW.
Fightful Select reported that the producer of the opening promo segment between Roman Reigns and John Cena during this past Friday’s episode of SmackDown was Jamie Noble.
WWE recently announced several new live events for the month of October. They are a SmackDown show on October 1st in New Orleans, Louisiana, a house show event on October 3rd in Louisville, Kentucky, a RAW show on October 4th in Nashville, Tennessee, a SmackDown show on October 15th in Ontario, California, a house show event on October 16th in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, a house show event on October 17th in El Paso, Texas, and a Raw show on October 18th in Sacramento, California.
This past Wednesday’s episode of NXT featured Dakota Kai replacing Ember Moon for her scheduled match against Sarray. WWE announced prior to the start of the show that Moon was pulled due to her not being “medically cleared” to compete. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that Moon was seen backstage during the show despite being pulled from her scheduled match. Johnson also reported that one sources spoken to stated that Moon’s current health situation is “not serious.”
Rob Conway reportedly was invited by WWE to work as a guest coach for their Performance Center this past week, according to PWInsider.
WWE backstage producer Pat Buck reportedly was recently given a promotion as the company’s newest official in their Talent Relations department, according to PWInsider. Mike Johnson reported that besides his usual producer duties, Buck will now also be in charge of handling the bookings of extras and indie talent brought in for shows. This position reportedly was previously held by NXT referee Drake Wuertz, who was released from the company this past May.
WWE recently announced that their New Year’s Eve themed episode of Friday Night SmackDown will be taking place at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer reported on Twitter that the main reason for the huge spike in viewership for this past Friday’s episode of SmackDown was due it also included viewership numbers for NFL games that aired that night on several FOX television markets. Meltzer reported that the real viewership for this past Friday’s show will be much lower once the viewership for the NFL games are removed for the release of the final numbers on Monday.

AEW

During a recent interview with Sports Illustrated, AEW CEO Tony Khan stated that the August 20th episode of AEW Rampage will be a “very atypical episode” for the series. Khan stated “Next week’s Rampage is ‘The First Dance,’ and I think everyone knows what to expect — and everyone is very excited. We built a foundation here for what you’re going to see next week. This was a huge premiere, and there is tons of anticipation for next week in Chicago … It’s a totally different format for us, and next week will be a very atypical episode of Rampage. I’m so excited for what is ahead next week. We’re going to give people very special wrestling television. ‘The First Dance’ is going to be a one-time, historic wrestling television event.”
Khan also stated that Fuego Del Sol was not told ahead of time that he would be presented with an actual contract with the company despite losing his TNT title match that had a contract as the stipulation. Khan stated “That was a complete shoot. Fuego had no idea that was going to happen. Sammy was the only person I told, and Fuego was legitimately surprised to receive the contract he’s been dreaming of and chasing.”
As noted before, Britt Baker suffered a broken wrist injury at AEW’s Fight For the Fallen 2021 Dynamite special on July 28th in Charlotte, North Carolina. Fightful Select reported that Baker’s injury was discovered to have occurred following a Death Valley Driver spot by Nyla Rose near the end of their match. It was reported that despite the injury, Baker did not want the match to be cut short and continued working for another four minutes to finish it.
AEW reportedly generated an attendance of 5,200 for their August 11th Dynamite show in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Dave Meltzer reported that the split was 4,900 paid and 300 as comp tickets.
AEW reportedly has sold around 13,931 tickets for their August 20th Rampage show in Chicago, around 3,246 tickets for their August 18th Dynamite show in Houston, Texas, around 3,279 tickets for their August 25th Dynamite show in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, around 5,022 tickets for their September 1st Dynamite show in Chicago, and around 5,069 tickets for their September 3rd Rampage show in Chicago, Illinois as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
In regards to other notable upcoming events, Dave Meltzer reported that AEW’s September 15th Dynamite show in Newark, New Jersey has sold around 11,035 tickets and their September 22nd Grand Slam Dynamite show in New York City has sold around 17,015 tickets as of this past Thursday.
Shane Douglas and Tommy Dreamer reportedly were backstage during AEW’s Rampage show on August 13th in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, according to PWInsider. Mike Johnson reported that besides Impact Wrestling’s Executive Vice President Scott D’Amore, other Impact personnel were also backstage filming content with Christan Cage for upcoming Impact! shows.
As noted before, Emi Sakura announced last month that she would be traveling to the United States to make her return and work full time for AEW soon. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Sakura’s final match in Japan was held on August 7th for an event for Chocopro. Meltzer reported that his sources stated that the current belief is that Sakura will likely take on a player-coach type role similar to Dustin Rhodes for AEW’s Women’s division.

Other Wrestling

Ring of Honor recently teased on their official website that several recently released talent from WWE could be heading their way soon to the company as early as their Death Before Dishonor 2021 event on September 21st.
The National Wrestling Alliance announced that Claudia Reiff, Yali Sapphire, and Beckie Phillips will be the official referee crew for their upcoming all-women’s Empowerrr event on August 28th in St. Louis, Missouri.
The NWA also announced that Jennacide is the next official competitor for their Women’s Invitational Cup battle royal match at their upcoming Empowerr event.
WrestlePro announced that Mercedes Martinez will be making an appearance for the company at their October 16th event in Rahway, New Jersey. Martinez will be facing off against Deonna Purrazzo for the Impact Wrestling Knockouts Championship at the event.
New Japan Pro Wrestling announced that they pulled both Shingo Takagi and BUSHI from the card of their Summer Struggle 2021 event earlier today in Nagano, Japan due to COVID-19 health concerns. The company announced that both had recently developed a fever and have taken PCR tests to determine if they have contracted the coronavirus.
During Saturday’s Resurgence event in Los Angeles, NJPW announced that they will be returning to California for an event called Battle in the Valley on November 13th in San Jose, California.
NJPW reportedly generated a paid attendance of 483 for their August 7th Summer Struggle 2021 event in Tokyo, 518 for their August 8th Summer Struggle 2021 event in Tokyo, 435 for their August 9th Summer Struggle 2021 event in Tokyo, and 759 for their August 10th Summer Struggle 2021 event in Yokohama, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. NJPW also reportedly generated a paid attendance of 2,256 for their August 14th Resurgence event in Los Angeles, California.
In regards to upcoming NJPW Strong television tapings in the United States, Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that NJPW has only sold around 125 tickets for their September 25th Strong tapings and only 82 tickets for their September 26th Strong tapings in Garland, Texas as of this past Thursday.
During a recent interview with the Wrestling Observer Radio, NJPW talent David Finlay teased that he is planning to leave the company and sign with WWE for their NXT brand once his current contract expires. Finlay also stated that he is currently in the process of moving to Florida.
As noted before, Sanson, El Cuatrero, and Forastero were released by Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre this past week. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the reason for the departures were mainly due to disagreements over outside indie bookings. Sanson, El Cuatrero, and Forastero reportedly wanted to take indie bookings that would pay them more than what they were getting in CMLL but CMLL officials refused to give them permission due to those bookings featured talent from rival Lucha Libre AAA. Meltzer reported that CMLL officials eventually agreed to grant their releases and other talent such as Soberano Jr. and Mistico are also considering leaving the company for better paying work elsewhere.
In an interesting historical note, Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the week of August 2-8 was the first time in 22 years that two different wrestling television shows from different companies managed to place in the Top 5 for weekly key demographic ratings. Meltzer reported that the August 2nd episode of WWE RAW was ranked #2 while the August 4th episode of AEW Dynamite was ranked #4. Meltzer reported that the last time this happened was during the week of April 12-18, 1999 with WWF RAW ranked #1, WCW Nitro ranked #3, and WWF Sunday Night Heat ranked #4.
Former WWE talent JTG is currently selling Cryme Tyme themed NFTs on the Mintable.app store with half of all the profits from the Official Cryme Tyme NFT Collection going towards the son of the late Shad Gaspard.
WWE talent Charlotte Flair reportedly was seen backstage during Lucha Libre AAA’s Triplemania XXIX event on Saturday in Mexico City, Mexico, according to WrestlingInc.com. It was reported that this was the reason why Flair was unable to make her scheduled appearance at WWE’s house show event in Charlotte, North Carolina that night.
Fightful Select reported that Chelsea Green recently held talks with Lucha Libre AAA for potential work for the company. It was reported that the progress of these talks recently slowed down due to the recent surge in COVID-19 cases in Mexico. It was also reported that Green has yet to sign an official contract with any company and all those who have been in talks with her are aware that any deal would likely have to include the ability for her to also work elsewhere.