Weekend Roundup: Liv Morgan, Dalton Castle, Jonathan Gresham Injury Update, Bret Hart, AAA & Alberto El Patron, Indies

WWE

• As noted before, Rick Boogs suffered a serious knee injury at WWE’s WrestleMania 38 Night 2 event earlier this month in Arlington, Texas. Boogs recently provided an injury update on Instagram revealing that he has been cleared to walk without the need of crutches. Boogs stated “10th day after surgery…I asked the Doc when I could stop using crutches, he said whenever I feel up for it. Usually takes people around a month to start weaning off crutches….I just beat biology and became the marvel of modern medicine.”
• Liv Morgan recently pleaded with people on Twitter to stop impersonating her on social media and scamming her fans out of money. Morgan stated “Guys I’ve been sent so many emails of horror stories about people making fake accounts and emails pretending to be me & asking for huge amounts of money. This really makes me so sad. Please don’t use my name to con people out of their hard earned money. Please please please. A man sold his home and lost everything thinking he was helping “me”. This has me so sick. Please know I would never reach out to ask any of you for a single penny. I’m so sad. Please stop.”
• As noted before, WWE recently pulled advertising featuring Brock Lesnar appearing at next month’s WrestleMania Backlash 2022 event in Providence, Rhode Island. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that WWE officials never had any actual plans for Lesnar to be booked for the upcoming event and instead only had him be advertised for the event despite knowing he would not be appearing. Meltzer reported that WWE officials did not have any talks regarding potential plans or a match for him at the event prior to his removal from the event’s official poster.
• WWE reportedly generated an attendance of 8,115 (6,900 paid) for their April 8th SmackDown show in Milwaukee, WI and 9,314 (8,300 paid) for their April 11th RAW show in Detroit, MI, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• WWE reportedly has sold around 2,789 tickets for their April 17th house show event in Syracuse, around 5,733 tickets for their April 18th RAW show in Buffalo, around 5,308 tickets for their April 22nd SmackDown show in Albany, NY, around 2,606 tickets for their April 23rd house show event in Montgomery, AL, around 2,593 tickets for their April 23rd house show event in Reading, PA, around 2,630 tickets for their April 24th house show event in Binghamton, NY, around 1,666 tickets for their April 24th house show event in Augusta, GA, around 3,935 tickets for their April 25th RAW show in Knoxville, TN, around 1,726 tickets for their April 30th house show event in Lakeland, FL, around 2,419 tickets for their May 1st house show event in Fairfax, VA, around 3,128 tickets for their May 2nd RAW show in Greensboro, NC, around 6,920 tickets for their WrestleMania Backlash 2022 event in Providence, RI, around 3,583 tickets for their May 13th SmackDown show in Wilkes-Barre, PA, around 1,079 tickets for their May 14th house show event in Florence, SC, around 2,993 tickets for their May 16th RAW show in Norfolk, VA, and around 3,467 tickets for their May 20th SmackDown show in Grand Rapids, MI as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• WWE recently released their annual proxy financial statement revealing the earnings of several of their key executives for the year of 2021. WWE Chairman Vince McMahon was stated to have earned $5,051,547 in salary and an additional $13.8 million in stock dividends for the past year. WWE President Nick Khan earned a total of $5,706,871, EVP of Global Talent Strategy & Development Paul “Triple H” Levesque earned a total of $2,841,544, and Chief Brand Officer Stephanie McMahon earned a total of $2,592,205. Shane McMahon was listed to have earned a total of $1,313,823 from his talent contract. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Shane McMahon did not earn any additional money from the executive side due to him not being an actual employee of the company and he had sold all of his WWE stocks years ago.
• As noted before, former XFL Commissioner Oliver Luck is currently suing Vince McMahon over claims of wrongful termination. McMahon filed a countersuit alleging that Luck defied his orders on league personnel decisions and was derelict with his duties on the job. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that a lawsuit against Luck was filed by Peter Hurwitz on April 11th to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware. Hurwitz, who is the bankruptcy plan administrator for McMahon’s version of the XFL, reportedly is claiming that the money Luck alleges that he is owed by McMahon in compensation is excessive in amount and much higher than what he was making during his time working for the NCAA. Hurwitz is also claiming that Luck “failed to exercise proper business judgment, failed to comply with league policies, failed to comply with the XFL Employee Handbook, failed to attend meetings, disclosed confidential information without proper authorization and effectively abandoned his responsibilities when faced with the COVID crisis.” This lawsuit also alleges that Luck had cost McMahon’s version of the XFL both leverage and money when it came to negotiating deals with cities and stadiums for XFL franchises due to announcing where teams would be located despite not having deals in place beforehand.
• PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that NXT talents Ivy Nile, Damon Kemp, and Lash Legend are currently expected to make their official debuts for the NXT UK brand within the near future. Johnson reported that all three individuals revealed on social media that they had recently traveled to the United Kingdom.
• PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that a recent internal roster list for WWE’s SmackDown brand listed the top female babyface stars in order as Ronda Rousey, Sasha Banks, Naomi, and Lacey Evans. This same list reportedly currently has Charlotte Flair, Shayna Baszler, and Sonya Deville as the top female heel stars in order for the brand.
• WWE held a recent interview with Raquel Rodriguez, former Raquel Gonzalez in NXT, and one of the topics discussed included her thoughts about her recently main roster call-up to the SmackDown brand. Rodriquez stated “Being able to walk into SmackDown and know that this is my official call-up is just like, it’s nerve-racking because this is more pressure but it’s also exciting because this is what we work hard for and this is what we all look forward to is coming to Raw and SmackDown.“
• During the same interview, Rodriguez also gave her thoughts about her time in NXT and praised Dakota Kai for being a valuable mentor and friend to her. Rodriguez stated “You know what’s funny? Is it kind of came full circle because my first-ever coliseum debut was in Portland [NXT TakeOver] where I debuted and became Dakota [Kai] backup, her bodyguard, right? And that’s where we formed this friendship, where we formed this team and it’s something that worked so well for us and we were just able to coexist in like a perfect pairing. I couldn’t have asked for a better mentor, better friend, a better tag team partner and I hope we get to work again together in the future but, then having that again at Stand & Deliver, not just us reuniting after being separated for almost a year but, reuniting and getting to work together again, it just flowed. It was a lot. It was very emotional. I think if you even go back to Tuesday’s match when Dakota and Wendy [Choo] came to check on me in the ring, I did get a little emotional and I kind of looked around and I looked at the P.C and I was like, ‘This has been my life for two years since I’ve had my TV debut, this is all I’ve known.’ To know that they believed in me every step of the way and to know that they supported me every step of the way and for them to tell me that I earned this position, it solidifies and makes everything I’ve ever done, every sacrifice, five years of torturing myself mentally and trying to get over it and be positive and in the past five years, you know, it started off great because I’m like yes, my dream job and I was just excited to be here and I wanted to work hard. When you step into the P.C, you know this is the ultimate goal; is going to Raw, going to be part of SmackDown and then finally you make it and that’s exactly what NXT did for me is NXT helped me grow, it helped me be comfortable in this position and now I feel even more confident than ever that I’m just gonna kill it.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)
• WWE recently announced that tickets for this year’s SummerSlam event on July 30th in Nashville, Tennessee will officially go on sale starting on April 22nd.

AEW

• Saturday’s AEW Battle of the Belts II event in Garland, Texas featured a ROH World Championship match between Dalton Castle and champion Jonathan Gresham, which was won by Gresham. Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that it is currently not known if Castle has yet to sign an official contract with AEW and/or Ring of Honor.
• As noted before, Jonathan Gresham suffered a potential concussion injury at AEW’s Battle of the Belts II event on Saturday. Earlier today, Gresham confirmed that he did indeed suffer an injury and as a result, pulled out of his scheduled bookings for PROGRESS Wrestling’s Chapter 132 event tonight in London and their Chapter 133 event this Monday in London, England.
• William Regal recently announced that he is launching a new podcast series called The Gentleman Villain within the near future. A preview trailer for this new upcoming podcast series was released late last month.
• AEW reportedly generated an attendance of 3,900 (3,700 paid) for their April 13th Dynamite show in New Orleans, Louisiana, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• AEW reportedly has sold around 5,129 tickets for their April 20th Dynamite show in Pittsburgh, around 5,135 tickets for their April 27th Dynamite show in Philadelphia, PA, around 3,572 tickets for their May 4th Dynamite show in Baltimore, MD, around 5,631 tickets for their April 11th Dynamite show in Long Island, NY, around 3,449 tickets for their May 18th Dynamite show in Houston, TX, around 4,374 tickets for their May 25th Dynamite show in Las Vegas, around 4,432 tickets for their May 27th Rampage show in Las Vegas, around 13,140 tickets for their Double or Nothing 2022 event in Las Vegas, Nevada, around 13,020 tickets for their June 1st Dynamite show in Inglewood, around 7,276 tickets for their June 3rd Rampage show in Ontario, CA, and around 8,803 tickets for their June 29th Dynamite show in Detroit, MI as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that one major negative of the on-going WarnerMedia and Discovery merger is that Discovery has the bad reputation of being stingy when it comes to spending money. Meltzer reported that those within WarnerMedia are currently expecting a “bloodbath” of job losses once the merger becomes official due to Discovery taking over the finances of the company. In regards to AEW, Meltzer reported that they currently are not be expected to get a deal similar in value to pro sports for their next television contract due to sports having a higher prestige than wrestling within the television industry. Meltzer also reported that another key factor in how much money AEW could get for an increase is entirely dependent on Discovery officials views towards wrestling. AEW reportedly is currently expected to begin talks for a new television contract as early as the end of this year and Meltzer believes that AEW could increase their chances of landing a major increase by being able to maintain their current levels of ratings and having several key angles “peaking” at the end of the year. Meltzer also believes that should AEW be able to get a streaming deal done with HBO Max, that would also help improve their value for Discovery and make them similar in degree to what WWE is to NBC in terms of importance as a key property.
• During a recent interview with the Busted Open Radio podcast, AEW CEO Tony Khan revealed that he originally had planned for Ruby Soho to face off against A.Q.A in a qualifying match for the Women’s Owen Hart tournament. Khan stated that those plans were changed due to A.Q.A recently feeling ill which led to Soho facing off against Robyn Renegade for her qualifying match at this past Friday’s episode of Rampage. Khan stated “I also really like AQA, who is another wrestler [from] down here in Texas, and honestly I wanted to give her an opportunity and an Owen qualifier. I had looked at doing Ruby vs. AQA last week and AQA’s been sick so I hadn’t been able to get her in the mix.” (Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com)
• As noted before, AEW recently picked up the option year on Brian Cage’s contract. Cage made a surprise appearance at Ring of Honor’s Supercard of Honor 2022 event earlier this month as the mystery new client of Tully Blanchard. During a recent interview with Chris Van Vliet, Cage stated that he is currently hopeful he will be able to work on both AEW and ROH shows going forward. Cage stated “Absolutely. I feel you are correct. I know there is a lot of talk and rumors about Ring of Honor, what’s next, what’s going to happen. There’s stuff I know and there’s a lot of stuff I don’t know. There’s a lot of stuff a lot of people don’t know. It does look like we’ll hopefully be doing both at the same time and I’ll be part of it. I’m never one to turn down work.” Cage also gave his thoughts about his current plans and goals in AEW and ROH. Cage stated “More than any title, I just want to get back in there and have amazing matches with a lot of amazing talent that I haven’t worked. There are like 20 names that I wrote down that I haven’t worked with. I’ve worked with one of them. The one match I asked for was Matt Sydal. I got to work with (Hangman) Page, which was unexpected and I loved that match at Double or Nothing. Those are the only two that I feel like are Brian Cage matches.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• As noted before, John Cena recently offered his praise towards Max Caster for having better raps skills for his wrestling career than he did during his early career in WWE. During a recent virtual fan signing event for Golden Ring Collectibles, Caster gave his thoughts about Cena’s recent praise towards him. Caster stated “That’s a great question [could Max beat John Cena in a rap battle]. John has been very, very nice to me and when he didn’t need to. He reached out and he made that public so I’m allowed to say it now so he reached out and then he said things publicly about me in Forbes and that means a lot to me. So, it’s never been about beating him in a rap battle. It’s about trying to get past the point of people saying I’m a Thuganomics rip-off. Am I to an extent? Maybe. He’s a huge influence on me, one of my favorite wrestlers. The guy, I will say in 2004 that got me back into watching wrestling. So, I take that energy and propel it forward and say, maybe there’s people now in 2022, even last year who fell out of wrestling that they hear there’s this rapping guy on wrestling now and he does these disses and they are hilarious and you watch it and you say, ‘Oh, this is my guy.’ You listen to the mixtapes, songs or diss tracks that I put out, the music videos, you say, ‘Wow, this guy actually has some skill.’ So, to me it’s not about beating John at anything. It’s about paying homage, paying respect and elevating what he did and I think, by his own admission, that I’m there, I’m doing it and I hope to continue doing that.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)
• As noted before, AEW talent Toni Storm recently launched an OnlyFans account which is estimated to have generated over $10,000 in revenues from subscriber fees within its first hour. During a recent interview with the Carton & Roberts podcast, Storm clarified the misconceptions regarding the nature of her OnlyFans account. Storm stated “I didn’t have to have a conversation with anyone, to be honest. I just kind of do my thing, my family and friends and everyone I know is in full support. I didn’t really see the need to ask permission … It’s not exactly porn, what I’m doing, I think you have the wrong idea. I don’t do porn. I take sexy photos and post them at a price. Not so much crazy, hardcore scenes or anything of that nature. I like to take a lot of photos and share them with my fans. not that there’s anything wrong with being a pornstar, but I don’t do porn.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

Indies & Misc. Wrestling

• Saturday’s New Japan Pro Wrestling Windy City Riot event featured three match challenges issued for NJPW’s upcoming Capital Collision on May 14th in Washington, DC. These were Eddie Kingston challenging Tomohiro Ishii, Brody King challenging Minoru Suzuki, and Jon Moxley challenging Hiroshi Tanahashi for singles matches at the event.
• NJPW reportedly generated a paid attendance of 4,775 for their April 9th Hyper Battle 2022 event in Tokyo, Japan and 375 for their April 10th NJPW Strong themed Mutiny event in Los Angeles, California, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• Big Time Wrestling recently announced that Bret Hart will be making an appearance for the company at their June 10th event in Webster, Massachusetts. It was announced that Hart will be the manager for FTR for their tag team match against Brian Pllman Jr. & Brock Anderson (with manager Arn Anderson) at the event.
• House of Glory announced a new match for the card of their event on May 27th in Queens, New York. This will be a singles match of Will Ospreay vs. Low Ki.
• Stardom reportedly generated a paid attendance of 302 for their April 9th event in Ehime and 661 for their April 10th Cinderella Tournament 2022 event in Osaka, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• All Japan Pro Wrestling reportedly generated a paid attendance of 530 for their April 9th Champion Carnival 2022 event in Osaka, 420 for their April 10th Champion Carnival 2022 event in Hamamatsu, 430 for their April 11th Champion Carnival 2022 event in Tokyo, and 223 for their April 13th Champion Carnival 2022 event in Yokohama, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Lucha Libre AAA officials are currently working on plans for their English commentary team to be flown to Mexico to provide live on-site commentary for their upcoming major events this year, including their Triplemania XXX events. Meltzer reported that AAA’s English commentary team have been providing live commentary for AAA’s events in the United States from set up studios.
• Fanbyte’s Emily Pratt reported that her sources stated that AAA officials currently have Alberto El Patron scheduled to compete at their upcoming Triplemania XXX: Monterrey event on April 30th in Monterrey, Mexico. It was reported that El Patron is currently scheduled to be Laredo Kid’s mystery partner for his Three-way tag team match against Johnny Superstar & Taurus and Dragon Lee & Dralistico at the event.
• PROGRESS Wrestling recently announced that they will be holding an event called “Chapter 140: Wrestling. Golf. Madrid. In That Order.” on September 4th in Cardiff, Wales. This event takes place the night before WWE’s upcoming event in the same city.
• During a recent episode of the GCW Podcast, Game Changer Wrestling owner Brett Lauderdale stated that the “biggest wrestling company in the world” recently shown interest in GCW’s Bloodsport brand. Lauderdale also stated that WWE’s Stephanie McMahon had invited him to WWE’s WrestleMania 38 event and spoke to him personally and even offered praise to his company. (Transcript h/t: Wrestling Observer Newsletter)
• GCW recently announced a new match for the card of their The Old Me event on April 23rd in Detroit, Michigan. This will be a High Incident match of The Briscoes (Mark & Jay Briscoe) vs. Second Gear Crew (Matthew Justice & Mance Warner).
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that a previous report of Major League Wrestling generating an attendance of 1,203 for their March 31st Intimidation Games 2022 event and their April 1st Azteca Underground event in Dallas, Texas is not true based on those recently spoken to who attended the events. Meltzer reported that those spoken to stated that the actual attendance was much lower and estimated both shows being around 700 each. Meltzer also reported that the main reason for the low attendance for almost all of the indies events during WrestleMania 38 weekend earlier this month in the Dallas area was due to WWE fans were not attending any other non-WWE indies shows in large numbers as in the past.
• MLW announced that they have recently signed indie talent Juicy Finau to an official multi-year contract with the company.
• As noted before, Maria Kanellis recently announced that she is launching a new project called Women’s Wrestling Army. Kanellis recently confirmed the rumors of this project being a new wrestling promotion and its the debut event to take place on May 1st in Providence, Rhode Island.
• Impact Wrestling recently announced that they have signed a partnership deal with New York Yankees affiliated minor league baseball team Hudson Valley Renegades for the promotion of their upcoming Rebellion 2022 event on April 23rd in Poughkeepsie, New York.