Weekend Roundup: New WWE YouTube Show, Jim Ross AEW Contract Update, AEW Budget Issues, Teddy Hart Doc, Indies

WWE

• As noted before, WWE recently announced that the Undertaker will be among this year’s inductees into their Hall of Fame. The Undertaker recently reflected on Twitter about being honored to be inducted into WWE’s Hall of Fame. Undertaker stated “Received an overwhelming response to the news. Thank you to everyone who reached out but for now, I’ll say this… it’s been a wild ride … headed to the #WWEHOF!“
• WWE reportedly is currently working on plans to hold a “Stadium Show” event in early September in the United Kingdom, according to PWInsider. Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that this event is currently planned to take place during this year’s Labor Day weekend.
• WWE reportedly generated an attendance of 6,169 (5,500 paid) for their Feb. 11th SmackDown show in New Orleans, LA and 5,108 (4,100 paid) for their Feb. 14th RAW show in Indianapolis, IN, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• WWE reportedly has sold around 4,693 tickets for their March 5th house show event at Madison Square Garden in New York City NY, around 52,598 tickets for their April 2nd WrestleMania 38 Night 1 event in Dallas, and around 53,199 tickets for their WrestleMania 38 Night 2 event in Dallas, Texas as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• As noted before, this past Monday’s episode of WWE RAW drew 1,601,000 viewers and a 0.44 18-49 key demographic rating on Syfy. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that this past week’s show second-to-third hour drop from 1,709,000 viewers to 1,402,000 viewers was the third biggest ever single hour drop in RAW history. In an interesting note, Meltzer reported that all three of RAW’s biggest ever single hour drops took place during the month of February (2018, 2020, and 2022).
• As noted before, WWE aired an ad promoting their upcoming two-night WrestleMania 38 event during this past Sunday’s Super Bowl LVI game on NBC. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the ad rate for a 30 second commercial spot for this year’s Super Bowl game was around $6.5 million. Meltzer reported that despite a lot of complaints over WWE spending millions on an ad while engaging in waves of mass releases over claims of budgetary issues, the company did not actually spend any money to air their ad during the game. Instead WWE’s ad reportedly was one of NBC’s in-house ads that was inserted during the game’s broadcast.
• WWE recently announced that their upcoming house show events on April 23rd in Montgomery, Alabama and April 30th in Lakeland, Florida will be branded as Saturday Night Main Event themed house show events.
• As noted before, Asuka has been out of action since this past July due to a shoulder injury while Bayley has been out of action since this past June due to a torn ACL injury. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that WWE officials are still hopeful of Asuka being medically cleared by the end of this month but will only bring her back once she is fully recovered and creative plans are put in place for her return. In regards to Bayley, WWE officials reportedly are still expecting her to be medically cleared for an in-ring return by the end of this March.
• WWE filed a trademark for “Tatum Paxley” for wrestling and entertainment-related purposes on February 14th to the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
• WWE announced that they have recently signed a multi-year deal with deal with Fiterman Sports Group to be the official autograph partner for the company in the United States and Canada.
• During a recent episode of the Bare With Us podcast, co-hosts Corey Graves and Carmella announced that they will be debuting a new reality series on WWE’s official YouTube channel on February 28th. It was announced that this new series is called Corey & Carmella and the debut season will be ten episode in total. Graves stated “It is in conjunction with WWE. Full story, full disclosure, this has been a project that has been in the works since the infancy of this podcast. It happened right away. We got contacted by our good friends at Glass Entertainment.” Carmella responded “They contacted my publicist. They saw our podcast, I don’t know where they saw it, they saw a video that we had posted on Instagram or something. They contact my publicist, my publicist contacted me. They didn’t even realize we were in WWE, they had no idea, they say. I don’t know if that’s true. The rest is really history We brought it to WWE, ‘Hey, we have this opportunity, what do you guys think?’ It takes time to figure out how we’re going to go about it and how they are going to be involved. A lot of negotiation. Business. Basically, we shot a pilot episode. They took the pilot, chopped it up into ten five-minute episodes. It’s not like this thing we’re going to see on a network or anything. It’s on WWE’s YouTube.” Graves responded “It’s going to drop February 28. I believe the entire series will be dropped. It’s all subject to change.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• WWE backstage producer D-Von Dudley announced on Instagram that he recently underwent spinal surgery. Dudley stated “They had to fuse L4, L5 and L6. The damage was a lot worse than they thought. The surgery took longer than they anticipated. But God is good and he the DOCTER said I am a new man. I can run, I can jump, I can beat my son Preston in basketball on the basketball court . LOL and racing him down the street lol, he thinks he can beat the old man. They also had to shift my spine a little bit with a curve. Because it was a straight line. That was because of all the wrestling. Then again, all of it was because of wrestling.They put the bolts screws and a plates in my back. They had to go up higher in my back they told me . I was told I could not wrestle anymore because if I do I could do more damage to my back I would have to have surgery again on the upper part. That’s OK I didn’t have plans On going back in there anyway.I would be in the hospital From Tuesday to Friday from My understanding. Unless it changes. Again ,thank you for all the well wishes and love.God is a great all the time . Amen —- and testify.“
• 2K Games recently released a new trailer for their upcoming WWE 2K22 game featuring the game’s MyGM mode.
• WrestleVotes reported that WWE’s upcoming NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver 2022 event on April 2nd is currently scheduled to start at 11AM local time at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas.
• The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer reported in Sunday’s Daily Update that WWE’s Elimination Chamber 2022 event on Saturday generated around 200,000 searches and a #5 ranking on Google for that day.

AEW

• During a recent interview with the Wrestling Observer Radio, Kenny Omega gave his thoughts about Cody Rhodes’ recent departure from AEW. Omega stated “Everyone was shocked. We all know when our deals our up, especially the EVPs, we know when our deals up. In the case of the Bucks, when their options kick in. For myself, I don’t have a deal like that. I’m up next year, just straight up, done. I would have to re-sign a new [contract], there is no option.We knew Cody’s, much like the Bucks, it was that time. We would hear that there was possibly some difficulty with the negotiation or whatever, but you never think it’s going in that direction where the talent is going to opt for leaving, especially, when this thing first started, the most passionate person of our revolution, the most passionate person of creating the ‘us vs. them’ mentality was Cody. It was strange for him to just choose to up and walk away. However, that being said, feelings change, the environment around you is ever-changing and constantly changing. Maybe the mission statement, the goal, the revolution, whatever it is you’re searching for and trying to create, maybe that isn’t what it is anymore to you. Maybe it isn’t your inspiration and what gets you out of bed every day. I would always encourage everyone, in wrestling and life, if your work isn’t fulfilling and making you happy, you really should look for opportunities elsewhere, in a place where you can feel creatively free and a place where you feel your work is being appreciated and fulfilled. I’m guessing that, knowing Cody as well as I know him, I don’t think it was an issue of money. I don’t think it was Tony not shelling out enough cash to keep him invested with the company.“
• Omega continued stating “Cody, he really believed in the original vision he brought to the table for AEW and the original vision that the team brought to the table when AEW was first becoming a promotion, we didn’t know where this would go. We had been optimistic about it and thought he would be where we are today where we would be considered a major promotion and we would have our fanbase and have a lot of satisfied customers. I guess we never really sat down and talked to each other like, ‘Okay, we have this opportunity to now change wrestling. How do you see it? How do we make this work?’ Maybe, in the end, we had the Bucks and their vision, my vision, and Cody’s vision. All of our visions are different. I would say mine was more similar to what the Bucks had envisioned and Cody’s was much different. You’re going to get that when finally, you’ve committed your life to an industry and a business and finally, someone goes, ‘you’ve done this job, all your life, you’ve been raised in this business with these shackles on you, to a degree, by someone or something, now those are off. You have carte blanche. What do you want to do?’ I understand there might be some heartbreak if you are promised that, or told that, and it doesn’t come to fruition. Though my professional relationship with Cody was great, he’s not a guy that I go and get a Diet Pepsi with on my off time. I don’t know how he personally feels about anything. I can only guess as to why he would leave and I think that he saw it with his deal up, as an opportunity to investigate something within wrestling or life in general that would bring him more happiness. I don’t want anyone doing what we do in wrestling being unhappy or miserable. That destroys you. It’s a huge mental, emotional, and physical commitment that if you’re miserable while doing it, it can only lead to bad things. We’ve seen it in wrestling where that can lead to terrible things, whether it be alcohol, pills, drugs. That run rampant in wrestling. I would hate for that to happen when we set out to do was something extremely positive for professional wrestling, or that was the goal anyway. That’s sort of where the Bucks and I differed. We never want to go to war with Vince and WWE. We just wanted to give people an option and get us a platform for our brand of storytelling and our style of wrestling. When Cody had his way of going about things, I wasn’t sure how to follow up with that, nor was I interested. There was Kenny doing his thing, the Bucks doing their thing, and the Codyverse over there, doing whatever it is that he does and then there’s the stuff that Tony does. Eventually, as a lot of fans now know, essentially, it’s Tony’s show. Of course, he’s always going to listen to our advice and take our suggestions to heart, but AEW is very much Tony’s thing and baby. We’re there to support it in any way that we can. It’s very possible that this current version of AEW wasn’t a good fit for Cody and to Cody. To me, he is one of the original four and there is always going to be a place for him. You saw it in his ladder match with Sammy. He’s got incredible utility and he’s able to help our younger talent. It’s nothing from an in-ring perspective. There are no issues there. If I had a clear cut answer for you guys, I would love to tell you, but I don’t know it and all I can say is, whatever he decides to do, I heard he’s on a flight to Saudi Arabia, if that makes him happy, that makes him happy. Again, the Bucks and I, we weren’t in this for the war. All the guys and gals in WWE doing their thing, always wishing for the best for those guys.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• Serena Deeb filed a trademark for “The Professor of Professional Wrestling” for wrestling and merchandise-related purposes on February 15th to the USPTO.
• TNT reportedly will be airing an AEW Revolution 2022 Countdown special on March 4th starting at 11PM EST, according to PWInsider.
• During a recent interview with Sports Illustrated, Powerhouse Hobbs gave his thoughts about being a member of Team Taz in AEW. Hobbs stated “Team Taz is like a pot of gumbo – we all add these different flavors to the group. We all have one another’s back, and we’re not surprised by Hook’s stardom. I’ve heard people call it Hookamania. But we knew he was going to take off.“
• As noted before, AEW recently signed indie talent Nick Wayne to a contract with the company that will officially take effect once Wayne turns 18 years old. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that only around four people were aware beforehand of AEW’s plans to offer Wayne a contract at DEFY Wrestling’s Year V event last week in Seattle, Washington. In regards to Wayne’s deal, Meltzer reported that those same sources stated that AEW is currently not asking for any commitments from Wayne but his contract does give him the option to officially work for the company once he turns 18 years old.
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that one reason why AEW has been targeting and signing certain former WWE talents is due to the current idea of trying to build up those talents into becoming big stars that never happened in WWE. Meltzer reported that this is a goal AEW currently has for Buddy Matthews should he end up signing with the company.
• Dave Meltzer reported that his sources stated that the reason why Keith Lee did not appear on AEW programming this past week was due to AEW officials had given him some time off for his recent marriage and honeymoon.
• AEW reportedly recently signed a television deal to air their programming in Poland starting this March, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• AEW reportedly generated an attendance of 5,200 (4,800 paid) for their Feb. 16th Dynamite show in Nashville, TN, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• During a recent interview with Sporting News, AEW CEO Tony Khan stated that he is currently working on plans for AEW to hold events in the West Coast following AEW’s Double or Nothing 2022 event this May. Khan stated “I would love to bring AEW out to the West Coast and I’m excited to say that we are coming back to the West Coast.So I think it could be very soon. This summer. AEW is slated to return to Las Vegas where it all began for us. The first AEW show was Double or Nothing in Las Vegas. We’ll be back Memorial Day weekend in Las Vegas again. So, I think fans can look forward to that — our next pay per view, of course, is Revolution in Orlando, and then we’ve got Double or Nothing’s the pay per view after that. It’s Memorial Day weekend. So it’s every quarter, we have a huge event but after Double or Nothing, I think we can look forward to maybe [having] AEW out here, who knows?” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• During a recent interview with the Sports Guys Talking Wrestling radio show, Tony Khan revealed that Mid-South Wrestling and Jim Ross were the inspirations for his booking mentality towards AEW’s Rampage shows. Khan stated “Yeah, I do and I have [asked for Jim Ross’ thoughts on how to present a one-hour wrestling program]. I’m a huge fan of Mid-South Wrestling and actually, in the summer of 2021, before Rampage, I watched a ton of Mid-South Wrestling shows on the run-up to going back to doing a one-hour show because I didn’t have a lot of experience. The only one-hour wrestling show I’d done on TV before Rampage launched on TNT was we did a late night Dynamite, a special one-hour episode and it featured some great wrestlers including Scorpio Sky, Anna Jay and they had great matches and we had a great show and I have to say, Mid-South Wrestling is one of my favorite promotions ever and obviously, J.R., Jim Ross was a huge part of it. I have a ton of respect for him and I really, really like and value J.R. a lot as a person.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)
• During a recent interview with the JMart and Ramon podcast Jim Ross revealed that his contract with AEW is currently set to expire soon. Ross stated “[AEW is] in a really cool spot, especially a guy like me. My contract is up soon. I’m not looking to go anywhere, but nonetheless, I’m 70. I have to be realistic at some point in my crazy ass life. I haven’t been. My late wife would say, ‘Amen to that. He’s a character.’ I’m loving what I’m doing. It’s still fun for me. As long as you keep that element in the place of work, you’re alright and doing good.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• As noted before, AEW is currently rumored to be dealing with budget related issues for talent spending, which originated following Cody Rhodes’ recent departure from the company. Dave Meltzer reported in a recent episode of the Wrestling Observer Radio that his sources stated that two WWE talents had recently contacted AEW attempting to get big money offers from the company. Meltzer reported that these attempts did not pan out due to the money those talents were asking were higher than what AEW was willing to work with for their budget. Meltzer reported that AEW currently operates under a high salary scale system in order to compete with WWE over top level stars. Adam Cole reportedly is currently making “way more” money in AEW than he would have in WWE had he signed a new deal to stay in the company. Meltzer also reported that AEW very likely gave Bryan Danielson a competitive offer to sign him away from WWE, which would mean he ” isn’t working anywhere for less than several million a year.” Meltzer also reported that AEW officials are currently hoping to get a big increase with their next television deal in order to have a larger budget to work with to sign more big name stars. Despite AEW’s current budget related issues, Meltzer reported that several WWE talents are still interested in working for AEW once their contracts expire.

Indies & Other Wrestling

• Saturday’s Lucha Libre AAA Rey de Reyes 2022 event featured former WWE Spanish announcer Carlos Cabrera joining the company as the newest member of their commentary team. Cabrera was reunited with his former WWE broadcast partner Hugo Savinovich. Cabrera was let go by WWE this past Tuesday following a 29 year career in the company.
• Lucha Libre AAA’s Rey de Reyes 2022 event also featured a surprise appearance by Taya Valkyrie (former Frankie Monet in WWE). Valkyrie competed in a Fatal Four-way match and earned a shot at the AAA Reina de Reinas Championship, currently held by Impact’s Deonna Purrazzo, at a future AAA event.
• PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that former Ring of Honor talent Dalton Castle was seen backstage prior to the start of Saturday’s No Surrender 2022 event in New Orleans, Louisiana. Johnson reported that Castle did not stay for the show and instead had left at some point during the event’s pre-show.
• PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that the general mood backstage within Impact Wrestling was very positive following their No Surrender 2022 event this past Saturday. Johnson reported that many people had felt that they had a really good top to bottom show.  
• Fightful Select reported that Impact Wrestling talent Rachael Ellering recently left the company. It was reported that Ellering’s departure was something known within the company as early as the first week of January and she was not brought back for the company’s recent set of Impact tapings.
• Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling announced that Maki Itoh and Miyu Yamashita recently tested positive for COVID-19 and have been pulled from their upcoming event on February 23rd in Tokyo, Japan. (English translation via PostWrestling.com)
• Game Changer Wrestling recently announced that Shane “Swerve” Strickland will be making appearances for the company at their April 9th event in Los Angeles and their April 10th event in San Francisco, California.
• During a recent fan Q&A posting on Patreon, GCW owner Brett Lauderdale revealed that the company was unable to honor Nick Wayne’s request to compete against Will Ospreay at their upcoming Joey Janela’s Spring Break 6 event on March 31st in Dallas, Texas. Lauderdale stated “Is it politically possible? Yes. Is it logistically possible? Yes. However, is it logistically possible for this to happen in Dallas? The answer is no, it is not. Will has to be in Japan during those days. We did speak to him. He does want to do the match. We’re gonna see if we can do it at some point, but now is not the time that’s going to happen. At least not in Dallas over Wrestlemania weekend. We tried though, and William wanted to. It’s just not in the cards. Literally not possible.“
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that NBC Peacock officials are currently working on a new documentary based on Teddy Hart. Meltzer reported that this documentary is not associated with WWE nor is it part of WWE’s deal with the service for their WWE Network. Meltzer also reported that WWE officials had warned several people to not participate in interviews due to the negative nature of the documentary but at least one person rejected WWE warning. Those spoken to who were interviewed reportedly stated that this documentary was digging deep into Hart’s troubled past and a lot of questions were asked based on Hart’s bad ex-relationships. Meltzer reported that Peacock officials currently have a tentative December date scheduled for the release of this upcoming documentary on their service.
• As noted before, Konnan is currently suffering from kidneys-related issues due to his recent bout with COVID-19. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Konnan is currently expected to learn within the next two weeks if one of his potential kidney donors would be compatible for his much needed kidney transplant surgery.
• Former WWE talents Shane “Swerve” Strickland (Isiah “Swerve” Scott”, Shane Haste (Shane Thorne), and Mascara Dorada (Gran Metalik) reportedly made their official debuts for New Japan Pro Wrestling at their NJPW Strong Rivals event this past Friday in Hollywood, California, according to Fightful.
• During a recent NJPW virtual fan signing event, “Filthy” Tom Lawlor revealed that his current contract with the company is not an exclusive one. Lawlor stated “Ah, I do not [have a full-time contract with NJPW]. I consider myself a freelancer of sorts and you can see — if you watch my schedule, I am non-exclusive to New Japan.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)
• NJPW recently announced that Shane “Swerve” Strickland will be making an appearance for the company at their NJPW Strong Style Evolved 2022 event on March 20th in Tampa, Florida.
• Terminus announced a new match for the card of their Terminus II event on February 26th in Atlanta, Georgia. This will be a singles match of Shane “Swerve” Strickland vs. Davey Richards.
• Major League Wrestling recently announced two new matches for the card of their SuperFight 2022 event on February 26th in Charlotte, North Carolina. They are a singles match of Gangrel vs. Gnarls Gavin and a tag team match of The Von Erichs (Ross & Marshall Von Erich) vs. Ricky & Kerry Morton.
• During a recent Facebook video posting, Ring of Honor announcer Ian Riccaboni revealed that he and Caprice Coleman will be returning to ROH as the commentary team for the company’s Supercard of Honor XV event on April 1st in Dallas, Texas. Riccaboni also stated that the company will be resuming running live events and ROH TV tapings following this year’s Supercard of Honor event. Riccaboni also stated that the company will be debuting a new official logo at their upcoming Supercard of Honor event.