Weekend Roundup: Sasha Banks Update, WWE UK Shuts Down, All Out Main Event, CM Punk, Impact Ratings, Don West, Daffney, Indies

WWE

• As noted before, Sasha Banks has been out of action for WWE since last month due to unknown issues that are not injury-related. Fightful Select reported that Banks was in attendance backstage during this past Friday’s taping of Friday Night SmackDown in Jacksonville, Florida. It was reported that it is currently not known if WWE has any creative plans in place for her at the moment.
• WWE filed a trademark for “Brodown” for wrestling and entertainment-related purposes on August 31st to the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
• PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that WWE Bump co-host Evan T. Mack departed from WWE this past week.
• The Miz reportedly will be one of the contestants for the upcoming next season of ABC’s Dancing With The Stars reality competition series, which premieres on September 20th, according to PWInsider.
• WWE reportedly generated an attendance of 180 for their August 24th NXT show in Orlando, Florida, 5,375 (4,000 paid) for their August 27th SmackDown show in North Little Rock, AR, and 4,818 (3,500 paid) for their August 30th RAW show in Oklahoma City, OK, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• WWE reportedly has sold around 1,688 tickets for their October 11th RAW show in San Francisco, CA and around 2,789 tickets for their January 1, 2022 Day 1 event in Atlanta, GA as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• WWE reportedly has also sold around 5,228 tickets for their September 6th RAW show in Miami, FL, around 9,840 tickets for their September 10th SmackDown show at Madison Square Garden in New York City, NY, around 7,462 tickets for their September 13th RAW show in Boston, MA, and around 6,700 tickets for their September 26th Extreme Rules 2021 event in Columbus, OH, as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• Dave Meltzer reported that Riddle recently generated backstage heat within WWE over his comments during a recent interview with Bleacher Report in response to earlier comments made by Roman Reigns about CM Punk not being a “needle mover” as a big star. Meltzer reported that Riddle’s comments insulting Reigns was not something storyline-related and was viewed negatively by several officials within the company. Meltzer speculated that WWE could end up turning his comments into a future storyline depending on their plans for their upcoming Draft but at the moment, they do not have any plans for a potential future Riddle vs. Reigns feud.
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that WWE’s plans for a WrestleMania match between Roman Reigns and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson are entirely dependent on when Johnson wants to do the match. Meltzer reported that Johnson’s current schedule does not have any free time locked away for wrestling-related work but the current feeling within WWE is that this match will happen at their WrestleMania 2023 event in Los Angeles, California. Meltzer reported that this potential date is also entirely dependent on Johnson’s plans for the XFL’s second revival attempt in 2023. Meltzer also reported that Johnson’s match being pushed back from 2022 to 2023 was the reason why WWE brought back Lesnar to fill in as Reigns’ WrestleMania opponent for next year’s event.
• NXT UK referee Chris Sharpe announced on Twitter that he recently signed a new contract with WWE.
• PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that NBC recently sent out an email informing Peacock subscribers that WWE recently changed their schedule for the airing of the next episode of their Steve Austin’s Broken Skull Sessions series on the WWE Network. The previously announced episode featuring John Cena that was scheduled to air on September 26th was pulled in favor of an episode featuring Seth Rollins instead. No new date was announced for the Cena episode.
• DAZN held a recent interview with Charlotte Flair and one of the topics discussed included Flair’s goal of becoming the female John Cena for WWE. Flair stated “First, I want to say there will never be another John Cena. He has meant that much to the industry. But I do know when I first started, and to this day, that is who I want to mold myself after and be like. Unfortunately, I am a bad guy on camera, and Cena is the ultimate good guy. But I never lose that density or passion of wanting to embody WWE, wanting to do as much on the outside, for instance, media and the Special Olympics. There’s so many community events that we take part in. I hope to be mentioned in the same sentence as him. He’s John Cena. I’m a talent in the same company as him. Not even a peer but as a co-worker, and I still say it like that. He’s John Cena. Yes, I want to be the female John Cena. And if people say that, then I’m going to continue, even if I don’t feel like I’ve gotten there yet, but I’m going to continue to work as hard and feel that I want to be that way with everything I do.”
• The October 29th episode of WWE Friday Night SmackDown reportedly will no longer be taking place at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, according to the host venue. It was announced that WWE will be returning to the venue for the February 21, 2022 episode of RAW. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that sources close to the situation stated that the reason for WWE moving the October 29th show to a new location was due to COVID-19 related issues.
• The Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Louisiana recently announced on their official website that WWE’s February 11, 2022 episode of SmackDown will be taking place at their venue. WWE originally had planned for the October 1st episode of SmackDown to take place at the venue but moved it due to damage caused by Hurricane Ira.
• WWE reportedly recently filed a notice to the British government informing them of their intentions to dissolve their United Kingdom branch on September 7th, according to Fightful. WWE’s NXT UK brand is currently not expected to be affected based on recent comments from NXT UK Creative Director Jim Smallman on Instagram.

AEW

• The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer reported on Twitter that AEW’s current plans for the main event of tonight’s All Out 2021 event is for the AEW World Championship match between Kenny Omega and Christian Cage to close out the show.
• ESPN recently released a detailed behind-the-scenes report of CM Punk’s debut in AEW. Some of the highlights included Punk’s talks with WWE for a new deal did not progress beyond the intital stage, Punk’s deal and work with FOX for WWE Backstage reignited his passion for wrestling and was when he started to make plans for a future return, and his free ice cream bar offer at his debut on AEW Rampage would have normally cost him around $84,000 but he got a special discount deal.
• AEW reportedly recently hired former Impact Wrestling executive Shane Emerson as their new Head of Global Programming and Partnerships, according to PWInsider. Mike Johnson reported that this was a similar position Emerson held in Impact during his time with the company from 2011 to 2017.
• AEW reportedly generated an attendance of 5,900 for their September 1st Dynamite show in Chicago, Illinois, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• AEW reportedly has sold around 10,164 tickets for their September 5th All Out 2021 event in Hoffman Estates, Illinois as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• AEW reportedly has also sold around 11,315 tickets for their September 15th Dynamite show in Newark, NJ, around 17,605 tickets for their Grand Slam Dynamite show at the Arthur Ashe stadium in New York City, NY, around 918 for their October 15th Rampage show in Miami, around 1,215 tickets for their October 16th Dynamite show in Miami, FL, around 3,396 tickets for their October Dynamite show in Orlando, FL, and around 3,214 tickets for their November 17th Dynamite show in Norfolk, VA as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• In an interesting note, Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the August 20th episode of AEW Rampage, which featured CM Punk’s AEW debut, was the first time ever that an AEW show had more key demographic viewership than a WWE show in the same week. Meltzer reported that when adding both live and DVR viewership, the August 20th episode of Rampage had 878,000 key demographic viewers compared to 869,000 viewers for WWE RAW’s August 16th episode and 861,000 viewers for WWE SmackDown’s August 20th episode.
• During a recent interview with the Busted Open Radio podcast, CM Punk revealed who he would like to wrestle in AEW. Punk stated “The lame answer is everybody.I’ve never worked with The Young Bucks or Kenny Omega. I’ve worked with Cody in 2009. Those are the guys I never mention when I’m doing media because I always feel the need to put the spotlight on other young guys; Darby Allin, Brian Pillman Jr, (Powerhouse) Hobbs, Ricky Starks. There are people that have potential and if you know anything about wrestling and watch the program, you see those guys and you go, ‘that guy right there. That guy has something.’ I love how they are rough around the edges and that’s so great. It reminds me of watching an old wrestling studio show and not everything is super polished and an LED screen. These guys have different gear, different looks, personalities, they are all different. You can tell they come from different spots and have trained in different ways and have different styles. That’s what 100% attracted me to the AEW locker room. Why wouldn’t I want to wrestle these guys and go there? You talk about big money matches. There are way more in AEW than anywhere else for me.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

Indies & Other Wrestling

• Thursday’s Impact Wrestling drew 126,000 viewers on AXS TV, up from last week’s 98,000 viewers, according to ShowBuzz Daily. It drew a 0.04 rating in the 18-49 demographic, up from last week’s 0.03 rating.
• Former TNA/Impact Wrestling announcer Don West announced that his brain cancer has recently went into remission.
• Ring of Honor announced that they will be revealing the identities of the two mysterious new talents who will be debuting at this month’s Death Before Dishonor 2021 event during this Tuesday’s episode of ROH Week By Week show.
• ROH recently announced a new match for the card of their Death Before Dishonor 2021 event on September 12th in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This will be an Honor Rumble that will be taking place during the event’s Hour One pre-show.
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that ROH talent RUSH recently told his friends that he currently believes he will be able to return to wrestling from his recent knee surgery by February or March of 2022. Meltzer reported that both RUSH and Dragon Lee’s contracts with ROH are currently set to expire at the end of this year.
• New Japan Pro Wrestling recently announced that next year’s Wrestle Kingdom 16 event will be taking place over the course of three nights. The first two nights will be taking place on January 4-5 at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo and the third night will be taking place at the Yokohama Arena in Yokohama, Japan.
• NJPW reportedly generated a paid attendance of 580 for their August 27th Summer Struggle 2021 event in Tokyo, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• NJPW reportedly has sold around 125 tickets for their September 25th Autumn Attack themed NJPW Strong tapings and around 82 tickets for their September 26th Autumn Attack themed NJPW Strong tapings in Garland, Texas as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• NJPW talent Will Ospreay reportedly is currently planning to work more often in the United States going forward, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Dave Meltzer reported that Ospreay is working on plans to travel at least once a month to the US for indies events during the free time he has from his NJPW commitments.
• As noted before, former WCW and TNA/Impact Wrestling wrestler Daffney passed away this past Wednesday. TMZ reported that the official police report for Daffney’s death stated that the cause of death was due to a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest. It was reported that police had met up with Daffney’s mother at her apartment in Norcoss, GA following Daffney’s disturbing suicidal stream on social media. Police reportedly knocked on Daffney’s door and received no response resulting in them leaving without trying to gain entry into her home. It was reported that police returned several hours later and were given access to Daffney’s apartment by the building’s officials but discovered that it was deadbolt locked, which required the help of the local fire department to break open the door. Once police were finally able to enter Daffney’s apartment, they discovered her body.
• Chris Jericho announced that NJPW talent Will Ospreay will be making an appearance at his upcoming Rock N Wrestling Rager Triple Whammy Cruise event on October 21-25. Ospreay was stated to not be wrestling during the cruise but would only be making special appearances.
• Wrestling merchandise retailer Pro Wrestling Tees is currently holding a 20% Off Labor Day sale until this Monday.
• Daily Wrestling announced that former WWE talent Tyler Breeze will be making an appearance for the company at their September 25th event in Pompano Beach, Florida. It was also announced that Breeze will be going by the new ring name of “The Prince of Pretty” T Breeze.
• This past Thursday’s episode of Impact Wrestling Impact! featured the return of Jake Crist to the company. Fightful Select reported that the reason for Crist’s return was due to Impact officials wanting a second look at him before making any decision regarding signing him to a potential new contract. It was reported that Crist is well liked backstage and Impact officials value his creative mind.
• Former WWE talent Braun Strowman recently announced on Twitter that he will be making an appearance at an event called Free The Narrative II: The Monster In Us All on October 1st. Strowman will be wrestling under his real name of Adam Scherr and in a special match against EC3 at the event.
• The National Wrestling Alliance reportedly generated an attendance of 843 for their Empowerrr event on August 28th, 856 for their 73rd Anniversary event on August 29th, and 340 for their NWA Powerrr tapings in St. Louis, Missouri, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.