Weekend Roundup: More on WWE vs. AEW Friday Battle, BT Sports, WWE 2K22 Update, Tony Khan, Ric Flair, Daffney, Impact, Indies

Indie / Misc

Steve C.

Oct 17, 2021

WWE

WWE filed a trademark for “Solo Sikoa” for wrestling and entertainment-related purposes on October 8th to the United States Patent and Trademark Office. WWE also filed a trademark for “Duke’s Poker Room” for wrestling and merchandise-related purposes on October 12th to the USPTO.
NXT UK talent Sha Samuels recently announced on Twitter that his daughter Skylar was born this past Friday. WWE main roster talent Lacey Evans also announced on Instagram that she recently gave birth to her second child this past Saturday.
Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that besides extending this past Friday’s episode of SmackDown by an extra 30 minutes, WWE also managed to get FOX to air the replay of SmackDown 30 minutes earlier than usual to also directly compete against AEW’s Rampage show that night. Instead of starting at 11PM EST, the replay of this past Friday’s episode aired starting at 10:30PM EST on the East Coast. This reportedly was done as WWE’s counter to AEW’s announcement of the Bryan Danielson vs. Minoru Suzuki match for their Buy-In Pre-show for Rampage that night.
In regards to the backstage mentality within WWE regarding Friday’s direct competition with AEW, Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that several WWE officials had complained about it being unfair when Tony Khan had mentioned publicly that his family was more wealthy than WWE and Vince McMahon and could eat up the loss of ad money far long than WWE could if they kept up with the no commercials plan for direct competition shows. Meltzer also reported that internally, the general comments by WWE officials towards McMahon were “we beat Ted Turner and Ted Turner is smarter than Tony Khan.”
WWE reportedly generated an attendance of 7,232 (5,200 paid) for their October 1st SmackDown show in Baltimore, MD, 10,800 tickets for their October 2nd house show event in San Juan, Puerto Rico, 3,470 for their October 3rd house show event in Lexington, KY, 5,400 (3,700 paid) for their October 4th RAW show in Nashville, TN, 200 for their October 5th NXT show in Orlando, FL, 5,610 (4,500 paid) for their October 8th SmackDown show in San Jose, 4,549 for their October 9th house show event in Fresno, 3,284 for their October 10th house show event in Bakersfield, 4,000 (2,800 paid) for their October 11th RAW show in San Fransisco, CA, and 200 for their October 12th NXT show in Orlando, FL, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
WWE reportedly has sold around 6,589 tickets for their October 18th RAW show in Sacramento, CA, around 3,800 tickets for their October 22nd SmackDown show in Wichita, KS, around 3,752 for their November 1st RAW show in Providence, RI, and around 7,656 tickets for their November 21st Survivor Series event in Brooklyn, NY, around 2,837 tickets for their November 29th RAW show at the UBS Arena in Long Island, NY, around 2,030 tickets for their December 13th RAW show in St. Paul, MN as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that this past Monday’s episode of RAW managed to draw the fifth lowest overall viewership and fourth lowest key demographic viewership (543,000) ever in RAW series history. Meltzer also reported that RAW’s first hour managed to draw the lowest ever overall viewership and key demographic rating in series history as well.
WWE reportedly still has plans for the Roman Reigns vs. The Rock match to take place at WrestleMania 39 in 2023, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Dave Meltzer reported that WWE officials are still very hopeful of The Rock being available to compete at the event.
Dave Meltzer also reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that it is very likely WWE will go ahead with plans for next year’s WrestleMania 38 event to be a two-day event like the past two WrestleMania events. Meltzer reported that WWE is currently looking into offering package ticket deals with lower prices per night than if purchased separately.
FOX Sports’ boss Eric Shanks reportedly was seen backstage for a meeting with Vince McMahon and WWE President Nick Khan during the October 8th tapings of SmackDown in San Jose, California, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the reason for the recent lack of television ratings numbers for WWE programming in the United Kingdom is due to unknown issues currently going on within BT Sports. The network reportedly has recently stopped submitting ratings and viewership data to the BARB, which is the UK equivalent of Nielsen. Meltzer reported that BT Sports’ last ratings data submission was at the end of this past July.
WWE reportedly has recently cancelled their previously scheduled December 10th SmackDown show in Cleveland, Ohio, according to the Wrestling Observer. Dave Meltzer reported that the reason for the cancellation is due to WWE officials wanting to hold that night’s SmackDown in Los Angeles, California instead as a way to appease FOX. Meltzer reported that those who purchased tickets for the Cleveland show have had their tickets transferred over to the March 7, 2022 RAW show currently scheduled to take place in the city.
Besides delaying this year’s WWE 2K video game to next year, Sports Gamers Online reported that WWE’s recent wave of mass releases also caused 2K Games to shelve their DLC plans for WWE 2K22. It was reported that at least four recently released talent had been originally planned to be among the DLC additions to the game’s roster with Bronson Reed planned to be the showcase talent for one of the DLC packs. It was also reported that over the past four months, plans for at least two DLC packs were scrapped due to WWE’s releases and there have been recent talks within 2K Games of scrapping updating WWE 2K22’s roster with DLC packs in favor of a roster update service instead.
WWE recently announced that USA Network has ordered a third season of the Miz & Mrs. reality series. This upcoming third season is expected to be ten episodes in total and air at some point next year.
PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that WWE recently responded and filed a counter lawsuit on October 5th against SITO Mobile R&D IP, LLC and SITO Mobile, Ltd in regards to their lawsuit against the company over allegations of patent infringement over certain tech used for the WWE Network streaming service.

AEW

AEW recently announced that they will be holding a set of AEW Dynamite and Rampage shows on December 1st in Duluth, Georgia. It was also announced that tickets for both shows will be going on sale starting on October 22nd.
AEW reportedly generated an attendance of 7,100 (6,800 paid) for their October 6th AEW Dynamite show in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
AEW reportedly has sold around 4,923 tickets for their October 23rd Dynamite show in Orlando, FL, around 5,411 tickets for their October 27th Dynamite show in Boston, MA, around 3,250 tickets for their November 3rd Dynamite show in Independence, MO, around 4,454 tickets for their November 5th Rampage show in St. Louis, MO, around 4,665 tickets for their November 10th Dynamite show in Indianapolis, IN, around 5,576 tickets for their November 12th Rampage show in Minneapolis, MN, around 4,082 tickets for their November 17th Dynamite show in Norfolk, VA, and around 7,536 tickets for their December 8th Dynamite show at the UBS Arena in Long Island, NY as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the reason for Riho’s absence from AEW programming in recent weeks is due to her having traveled back to Japan to resume working for Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling.
A recent issue of the Sports Business Journal featured a paid ad from the Arthur Ashe Stadium which thanked AEW for holding their Dynamite Grand Slam event at their venue last month. The ad stated “Thank you to Tony Khan, Rafael Morffi, and the entire team at All Elite Wrestling for bringing the largest attended pro wrestling event in over a decade to NYC.”
Following the publication of Arthur Ashe Stadium’s ad to AEW, Tony Khan responded on Twitter thanking stadium officials for their kindness to the company.
During a recent interview with the My Mom’s Basement with Robbie Fox podcast, Tony Khan stated that he currently considers Arthur Ashe Stadium to be one of AEW’s key home locations, especially for their New York market. Khan stated “it appealed to me at one point more so than now. I think [Arthur Ashe] is one of the home’s of AEW, certainly, in New York City it’s the home of AEW. We have great things in the market and area and New York is a bunch of markets. The UBS [Arena], what an amazing fanbase we have in Long Island and the numbers we have done for the pre-sale are pretty amazing. I love going over to Newark, but being in New York City was fantastic and Grand Slam, in many ways, is one of the biggest success stories we’ve ever had. I definitely want to keep coming back to Arthur Ashe. For MSG, it’s been appealing to me, but there has been a lot of wrestling there. We’re the only wrestling that has ever been in Arthur Ashe. The Grand Slam is very special to AEW.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
British-based financial website Money.co.uk recently released their Beloved Billionaire 100 list for 2021 which featured AEW CEO Tony Khan taking their top spot. It was stated that their study for this year’ list “looked at over 1,500 of the worlds richest people, analyzing over 2 billion internet searches and more than 100,000 social media posts to find the most popular billionaire business tycoons. The super-wealthy business leaders were then given a ranking based on the number of annual Google searches they received, combined with the % of social media posts about them that were positive.” Khan took their top honors due to social media mentions for him were higher in positivity in terms of percentage at 38% than the others who were ranked. In regards to the wrestling industry, WWE’s Vince McMahon was ranked 8th for this year’s list.
Prior to this past Friday’s head-to-head competition between WWE’s SmackDown show and AEW’s Rampage show, The New York Post held an interview with Tony Khan and one of the topics discussed included his thoughts on WWE’s decision to add an extra 30 minutes to their SmackDown show and directly compete against AEW’s show that night. Khan stated “In wrestling, we’re worth more against each other and we’re better off against each other. I believe there is greater value in the wrestling market when we’re fighting and people want to see competition in wrestling. I think it’s one of the reasons people lost interest in wrestling was because there was not true competition for 20 years. Now with AEW in the mix and competition back in wrestling, I think there are more people excited about wrestling than there have been in a long time with the free-agent movement and good shows. At the end of the day, it has to be good shows. Through the 90s there were a lot of great wrestling shows. Every week, every month there would be great stories and great matches and you couldn’t miss it. I think it’s starting to get that way again.”
During the same interview, Khan also stated “I’ve coined a phrase which is WYW, watch your wrestling. Whatever people what to watch, I want them to watch it. Unfortunately, if we are on at the same time it’s harder for people to watch their wrestling, at least live. We can take the commercials out of it. If you want to take the commercials out of it, I can do that too. It doesn’t seem very civil but I have more money than they do so I can afford to do that longer than they can. But that’s how we make money at the end of the day, so I was surprised when they took those out.”
During a recent interview with the Miami Herald, Bryan Danielson gave his thoughts about the big crowd reaction to Hangman Adam Page’s return on the October 6th episode of AEW Dynamite and AEW’s efforts of building up their original younger stars to generate crowd pops on the level of himself and CM Punk. Danielson stated “I feel like that’s what’s happening with AEW is that AEW and Tony Khan specifically and the wrestlers know, understand what the fanbase wants very well and they give it to them, you know? And so when you come to an AEW show, you have certain expectations and usually the show exceeds those expectations and people just have a great time so I think that’s why you see those reactions like that. I also think AEW’s done a great job of creating new stars people are super into. Like Hangman Adam Page just came back in Philadelphia and you think like, ‘Oh, Bryan Danielson main evented a couple WrestleManias. CM Punk, he’s like a huge superstar. Certainly, one of those guys is gonna get the biggest reaction of the night.’ No, Hangman Adam Page got the best reaction, you know what I mean? So it’s like they’ve created these new stars that people are super into and super behind so I think that’s what makes the crowd so rabid.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)
Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Tony Khan made the decision to book the Bryan Danielson vs. Minoru Suzuki match for the Buy-In pre-show of this past Friday’s episode of Dynamite following WWE’s announcement of that night’s SmackDown would be an extra 30 minutes in length. Khan reportedly had contacted Suzuki and NJPW officials after WWE’s announcement as part of his plans to counter WWE’s own counter of AEW’s Rampage show that night.

Indies & Other Wrestling

Ric Flair was recently announced to be making an appearance at a political fundraiser for Donald Trump and Republican Georgia senatorial candidate Herschel Walker on December 1st in Palm Beach, Florida.
During a panel at this past Saturday’s DC FanZone event, it was announced that DC’s “Peacemaker” television series staring John Cena will be debuting on HBO Max’s streaming service on January 13, 2022. A new trailer for the upcoming series was also released during the event.
During a recent interview with the Battleground podcast, current
NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion Trevor Murdoch stated that he believes NWA will be able to secure a television deal with a major network within the next five years. Murdoch stated “Five years? NWA [will be] for sure on a major television network. As for me, I see myself at the very least, a two-time NWA World Champion. I’m not gonna sit here and try to gloat and say, ‘Oh, I’m gonna be a world champion in five years,’ you know? Let’s, let’s be realistic here, guys. Again, that goes back to NWA being real. What if I had one more, like a bucket list? I would like to find a tag team partner and become NWA World Tag Team Champion.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
New Japan Pro Wrestling reportedly generated a paid attendance of 1,060 for their October 8th G1 Climax 2021 event in Kochi, 1,620 for their October 9th G1 Climax 2021 event in Osaka, 961 for their October 12th G1 Climax 2021 event in Miyagi, 1,303 for their October 13th G1 Climax 2021 event in Miyagi, and 861 for their October 14th G1 Climax 2021 event in Yamagata, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Major League Wrestling reportedly generated an attendance of 550 for their Fightland 2021 event on October 2nd in Philadelphia Pennsylvania, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
As noted before, MLW’s debut episode on VICE TV on October 7th drew 40,000 viewers. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that in terms of lead-in viewership from that night’s episode of Dark Side of the Ring, MLW managed to retain around 29.4% of Males 18-34, 25% of Females 18-34, 14.3% of Males 35-49, and 25% of Females 35-49 key demographic viewership groups from Dark Side of the Ring’s episode.
Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that TJP will be working for Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre soon as part of a recent deal between CMLL and NJPW. Meltzer reported that CMLL also recently announced that they will be resuming running weekly events at the Arena Coliseo in Mexico City, Mexico starting on November 6th.
Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that multiple promotions around the world have recently joined together for a new initiative called Tag Me In, which is meant to help raise awareness for mental health issues. Meltzer reported that this initiative was put together by Impact Wrestling following the tragic death of Shannon “Daffney” Spruill this past September. Meltzer also reported that almost every notable wrestling promotion with the exception of WWE has joined this new initiative. Meltzer reported that the goal of this new group “is to normalize conversations in the sport about mental health, rid the business of any negative stigma of mental health issues and create a situation where those suffering severe problems have a place to go to talk and show that they aren’t alone.” Besides promotions, several notable former and current wrestlers have also joined in to help raise awareness including Mick Foley, Trish Stratus, Effy, Nyla Rose, LuFisto, Gail Kim, Psycho Clown, Chris Jericho, Deonna Purrazzo, Shane Taylor, Kurt Angle, Hikaru Shida, Rebel, Lexie Fyfe, Lilian Garcia, Tony Schiavone, Amy Dumas, Konnan, Britt Baker, Maria Kanellis, Sharmell, Awesome Kong, Chelsea Green, EC 3, W. Morrissey, DDP, Mickie James, and Nick Aldis.
ROH talent RUSH reportedly is currently rumored to be working on plans to hold a wrestling event in Mexico within the near future featuring ROH talent, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Dave Meltzer reported that RUSH is also rumored to be planning to hold this potential event in Mexico City.
During a recent interview with 90s Wrestling podcast, Heath Slater revealed that he recently signed a two year deal with Impact Wrestling.
Impact Wrestling recently announced that NJPW talent Minoru Suzuki will be making his debut appearance for the company at their upcoming set of Impact! tapings on October 24-25 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Impact also announced that they will be airing a tribute show to the late Shannon “Daffney” Spruill on October 28th starting at 10PM EST on AXS TV.
Josh Barnett announced a new match for the card of Game Changer Wrestling’s Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport 7 event on October 22nd in Los Angeles, California. This will be a singles match of Minoru Suzuki vs. Chris Dickinson.