Weekend Roundup: WWE RAW Format Changes, Forbidden Door, AEW Injuries, Cesaro, Impact, MLW-WWE Lawsuit, Indies

WWE

• WWE recently announced that they will be holding an event featuring WWE Hall of Famer The Undertaker called “1 deadMAN SHOW” on July 29th in Nashville, Tennessee as part of their SummerSlam 2022 weekend festivities in the city.
• WWE filed a trademark for “JD McDonagh” for wrestling and entertainment-related purposes on June 20th to the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
• WWE and cable television network G4 recently announced they will be partnering together to launch a new WWE-based television series titled Arena, which is a reboot of the classic G4 gaming competition series of the same name. It was also announced that this new series will premiere on G4 on June 29th and will be hosted by WWE’s Xavier Woods and G4’s Gina Darling.
• WWE reportedly generated an attendance of 6,300 (5,700 paid) for their June 17th SmackDown show in Minneapolis, MN, 3,706 for their June 18th house show event in Rapid City, SD, 2,667 for their June 19th house show event in Billings, MT, and 5,900 (5,200 paid) for their June 20th RAW show in Lincoln, NE, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• WWE reportedly has sold around 6,934 tickets for their June 27th RAW show in Laredo, TX, 5,697 tickets for their July 1st SmackDown show in Phoenix, AZ, 6,418 tickets for their July 8th SmackDown show in Fort Worth, TX, 5,226 tickets for their July 9th house show event in Sacramento, CA, 2,535 tickets for their July 10th house show event in Reno, NV, 6,780 tickets for their July 11th RAW show in San Antonio, TX, 4,728 tickets for their July 15th SmackDown show in Orlando, FL, 4,487 tickets for their July 29th SmackDown show in Atlanta, GA, 24,684 tickets for their July 30th SummerSlam 2022 event in Nashville, TN, 2,705 tickets for their Aug. 15th RAW show in Washington D.C., 7,531 tickets for their Aug. 19th SmackDown show in Montreal, Canada, 2,564 tickets for their Aug. 20th house show event in Ottawa, Canada, 8,227 tickets for their August 22nd RAW show in Toronto, Canada, 3,727 tickets for their August 26th SmackDown show in Detroit, MI, and 3,529 tickets for their August 29th RAW show in Pittsburgh, PA as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• As noted before, WWE recently renamed their Friday Night SmackDown post-show from Talking Smack to its new name of SmackDown Lowdown. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the reason for the name change was due to cable television network A&E will be launching a new weekly WWE-based series called WWE Smack Talk with Booker T, Jackie Redmond, and Peter Rosenberg as the hosts.
• Fightful Select reported that several former WWE talents spoken to stated that they were surprised over their inclusion in this year’s WWE 2K22 video game. Despite several former WWE talents being scanned as potential playable characters for the game, none had been informed in advance that their likeness would still be used for the game following their releases but “some caught wind of it in the days prior.” It was also reported that those spoken to stated that they were not told outright that they would be receiving pay for their inclusion in the game but “to expect something later this year.” It was also reported that their sources stated that they had heard of the rumors of WWE asking 2K Games to remove Bray Wyatt from the game following his release from the company.
• Fightful Select reported that their sources confirmed that WWE recently made changes to the production format for their weekly RAW television shows. These new changes have featured talent having to wait as long as 15 minutes from their entrance till the start of their match due to WWE cramming in multiple segments and filler content in between. It was reported that several talent spoken to stated that they have become annoyed over the new requirement of having to stand idle in the ring for a long period of time due to the recent changes made to the show’s format. Those spoken to also stated that the reason they were given by WWE officials for the new changes was to ” improve the show flow.” One talent spoken to stated that during this waiting time, they would “talk to the crowd, dance, get annoyed that I’m waiting that long.”

AEW & ROH

• AEW reportedly generated an attendance of 4,500 (4,300 paid) for their June 22nd Dynamite show in Milwaukee, WI, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• AEW reportedly has sold around 15,462 tickets for their June 26th co-promoted Forbidden Door event in Chicago, IL, 10,113 tickets for their June 29th Dynamite Blood & Guts 2022 show in Detroit, MI, 4,298 tickets for their July 6th Dynamite show in Rochester, NY, 3,410 tickets for their July 13th Dynamite show in Savannah, GA, 3,482 tickets for their July 20th Duluth, GA, 4,878 tickets for their July 27th in Worcester, MA, 4,020 tickets for their Aug. 3rd Dynamite show in Columbus, OH, and 2,469 tickets for their Aug. 17th Dynamite show in Charleston, WV as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that AEW’s plans as of this past Friday for the runtime format for tonight’s Forbidden Door event was to have the first match start at around 7:30PM EST and for the show itself to end by around 11:45 PM EST. This plan was based on the original announcement of 1 pre-show match for the event’s card. Meltzer reported that unlike with last month’s Double or Nothing 2022 event, AEW officials are not planning on adding an additional hour of run-time to the show.
• AEW officials reportedly made the decision to have Sammy Guevara join Chris Jericho’s Jericho Appreciation Society stable due to the changes they made to this year’s Blood & Guts match, which went from being a 5 vs. 5 team match to now a 6 vs. 6 team match. This change reportedly was done in order to accommodate Eddie Kingston, Santana, Ortiz, and all of the members of the Blackpool Combat Club in the match.
• As noted before, Andrade El Idolo is currently not expected to appear at AEW and NJPW’s co-promoted Forbidden Door event due to issues involving Lucha Libre AAA and Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that the main issue revolves around CMLL being the main provider of Mexican-based talent for shows involving NJPW. This reportedly was the reason why CMLL does not have any issues with American-based talents such as FTR and Sammy Guevara working at NJPW’s co-promoted Forbidden Door event with AEW despite them also working on AAA shows. Meltzer reported that CMLL is also the reason why the AAA World Tag Team Championship is not being defended at Forbidden Door since their partnership rules do not allow AAA belts to be defended at shows involving NJPW.
• Warner Bros Discovery officials currently are planning for AEW to have a heavy involvement in this year’s Shark Week festivities on the Discovery Channel, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Dave Meltzer reported that many promo ads featuring AEW talent have already been filmed and and AEW is currently working on plans to hold a gimmick match related to Shark Week during that week.
• During a recent interview with Sports Illustrated, NJPW talent Hiroshi Tanahashi gave his thoughts about AEW and NJPW’s upcoming Forbidden Door event. Tanahashi stated “I will be the star of Forbidden Door. I mean, I did think of the name after all. When I first used the term, it was three years ago, and AEW had really only just gotten started. I don’t think anyone really knew how they would develop, but they had some great talent behind them, and I knew we would be onto something great if we crossed over. So coining that phrase, it was my way of putting things into the universe.” Tanahashi also gave his thoughts about facing off against Jon Moxley at the event. Tanahashi stated “If it’s up to him, this will get wild. But I’m expecting that. I can fight fire with fire. He’s a good bit bigger than me, and he has a reputation for being a street fighter. But he’s really precise with every little thing he does. Moxley rarely makes mistakes, and I respect that about him.“
• During a recent interview with Forbes, Wardlow gave his thoughts about his current goal to become the top needle mover television ratings star for the company. Wardlow stated “I’m very in tune with numbers, and my main goal for AEW is, I want to be the reason we have more viewers. I want to be the reason the female viewership goes up. I want to be the reason that 18-49 demographic goes up. I want to be the reason our ratings are higher. I know I can’t do it on my own. It takes help from the other young talent. It takes help from the legends and the guys coming over, but I want to be one of the guys that are moving the needle for this company. I’m very proud to say that I’m really an AEW original and an AEW homegrown [star]. I mean, nobody knew of me outside of the Pittsburgh/Ohio area. Maybe a handful of people in Chicago where I worked, but other than that, nobody knew me. I think it was beneficial for me to build myself from the ground up in AEW. I know with CM Punk coming to our company, that’s just a million more eyes on me also and on our company and on our product, and it’s only going to help us to grow. And in the end, once we grow, the guys that are taking the backseat are going to start getting more opportunities. It takes some patience, but it’s also for the betterment of the company.“
• During a recent interview with the AEW Unrestricted podcast, AEW CEO Tony Khan provided an injury update to Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish. Khan stated “We’re going to make the best of a bad situation with injuries. A long list of big stars out. Now, with another injury, you have Bullet Club coming together to get some revenge on Sting & Darby. Kyle O’Reilly, getting taken out by Sting, that’s a real life legitimate injury and Kyle O’Reilly is out, not sure how long, but it’s a big loss and we were not expecting that. He had been on fire for the company, it’s a big deal to lose Kyle O’Reilly. With Fish and O’Reilly being out, Fish just had a great main event with Darby on Rampage, that’s another big loss for the company, Fish, we expect back sooner from that ankle injury than O’Reilly with his injuries. Neither one is available for the pay-per-view. Kyle O’Reilly, we hope to get back soon. Bobby Fish, I know is going to be back soon.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• During a recent interview with Tokyo Sports, AEW CEO Tony Khan stated that he is currently hopeful of being able to hold an AEW tournament one day in Japan. Khan stated “I haven’t held a tournament in another country yet, but I want to try to deliver AEW to the world. Of course, I want to do a tournament in Japan, and if I want to do it, I want to invite a lot of new Japanese wrestlers. Japan is definitely included in the list of countries where I want to do an AEW tournament.” Khan also gave his thoughts about the Japanese market being very valuable for AEW. Khan stated “I think Japan is the most valuable market in Pro Wrestling. There are so many Japanese fans, smart, and passionate. AEW will be able to build a good fan base.” (English translation via Fightful.com)
• During a recent episode of the Battleground podcast, Trent Beretta revealed the original plans AEW had for Wheeler Yuta’s storyline as a member of The Best Friends. Beretta stated “The way he got put in Best Friends was super weird and a hard situation for him to be in as a wrestler. Like, ‘Who is this new guy who is suddenly best friends with these guys I knew?’ The whole reason I was being upset with it is that we were planning on doing our own angle where we would eventually have a match and he would win my respect. I was like, ‘He needs something for people to grab on to.’ That’s why we did that, then it ended up working out a completely different way where I was mean to him for no reason and then he left.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that AEW is currently dealing with an injury crisis much larger than is known publicly. It was reported that more talents are currently dealing with undisclosed injuries that have yet to be publicly announced.
• In the same report, Fightful Select also reported that a sizable number of AEW’s roster are currently working under per-appearance type deals with the company. It was reported that the contracts of several of those talents are currently set to expire this year.
• During a recent interview with Sports Illustrated, Kenny Omega stated that despite his departure and signing with WWE earlier this year, Cody Rhodes is still currently planned to be included in the playable roster for AEW’s upcoming AEW Fight Forever video game. Omega stated “This may come as a surprise to people, but Cody is still in the game.I was very passionate about making sure his legacy and position within the company were preserved.“We’ve built this game from the ground up, starting everything from scratch. That’s why I thought this game could coincide with the birth of this company. You get to experience AEW from the beginning, from day one. The game is going to reflect a lot of that, even though our locker room is ever-changing.“
• As noted before, Cesaro’s contract with WWE expired this past February after both sides failed to reach an agreement for a new deal. Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that Cesaro has been seen in recent weeks working out at the Flatbacks Wrestling School in Orlando, Florida. This wrestling school reportedly is currently owned by AEW talent Sean Spears and former WWE talent Tyler Breeze. It is currently not known if Cesaro has been training for a potential debut in AEW nor if he is the mystery opponent for Zack Sabre Jr. at tonight’s Forbidden Door event.
• PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that an announcement regarding Ring of Honor’s next event is currently expected to be made next week. Johnson reported that Tony Khan’s current plans are for Caprice Coleman and Ian Riccaboni to continue working as the commentary team for ROH.

Indies & Misc. Wrestling

• Impact Wrestling reportedly generated an attendance of 526 for their Slammiversary 2022 event on June 19th in Nashville, Tennessee, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• Writer Michael Cavacini reportedly is currently in the production of a new book based on the history of TNA and Impact Wrestling, according to Post Wrestling. John Pollock reported that Cavancini has held around 300 interviews with both past and present people from Impact and Spike TV including former Impact EVP Andy Barton, Konnan, Kevin Nash, Jeff & Matt Hardy, Shane Douglas, Nick Aldis, and Rob Van Dam.
• Impact Wrestling recently announced that they have pulled The Briscoes, Jay & Mark Briscoe, off the card of their upcoming Against All Odds event on July 1st in Atlanta, Georgia due to storyline injury reasons following this past Thursday’s episode of Impact!
• During a recent interview with Denise Salcedo, Jordynne Grace gave her thoughts about helping put together Impact Wrestling’s first ever Queen of the Mountain match at last week’s Slammiversary 2022 event. Grace stated “Before the match, everybody was freaking out. I’ve never seen a group of girls that anxious before a match before. Even in the Ultimate X match, no one was that nervous. But I think it was because of A) there were the rules, and we had to think about who was in the box at a certain time and that was complicated in and of itself. Actually, something that we were told was gonna happen during the match, didn’t happen, which was that the timer was not on the titantron. {laughs} I think everybody was just so relieved that no one got hurt and it went as well as it did. Because everybody was doing these high-risk spots and I was like ‘I pray that I am in a position to catch people and that no one gets hurt.’ We did it, and I think we killed it. So we really had an uphill battle because A) in the first women’s anything there’s always so much pressure on the girls to do like an amazing job. 2) people already hate that kind of match {laughs} people were talking about how stupid it was, how complicated the rules were, so we really had two uphill battles to fight through. Watching everybody’s feedback and seeing that everybody really seemed to enjoy the match, I was over the moon about it, it could have not gone better for us.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• Lucha Libre AAA reportedly generated an attendance of 16,732 (16,000 paid) for their Tripelmania XXX: Tijuana event on June 18th in Tijuana, Mexico, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Dave Meltzer reported that AAA’s event was the largest attendance for a non-WWE event and the fourth largest for a wrestling event so far this year.
• As noted before, wrestling legend Keiji Muoth (also known as The Great Muta) recently announced that he will be retiring from wrestling next year. Pro Wrestling NOAH recently announced a new match for the card of their July 16th event in Tokyo, Japan. This will be a singles match of Keiji Mutoh vs. Kaito Kiyomiya and one of Mutoh’s final five matches as part of his retirement tour.
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that due to the Japanese yen recently crashing in value to around 73 yen to $1 at the time of his report, New Japan Pro Wrestling is currently looking at around a 20% increase expenses for all foreign-based talent booked for NJPW events. Meltzer reported that this also makes it more expensive for NJPW to run events in the United States and their L.A. Dojo for the forseeable future as a result. Besides NJPW, Meltzer reported that other Japanese promotions that book foreign-based talent for shows are also currently facing similar serious financial issues.
• NJPW reportedly generated a paid attendance of 1,380 for their New Japan Road event on June 21st in Tokyo, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. This event was notable for featuring the surprise return of KUSHIDA to the company.
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Game Changer Wrestling’s original plans for the Jeff Jarrett vs. Effy feud was for it to be a three-match feud. The plan was for Jarrett to win the first match, which took place at GCW’s The Wrld on GCW 2022 event this past January, and Effy would win the second match in order to setup a deathmatch between the two to end the feud. Effy reportedly was planned to win this third match and feud. Meltzer reported that scheduling issues had caused GCW to twice postpone their plans for the date for the second match and recently dropped all of their plans for the feud following Jarrett’s recent signing with WWE.
• Matt Cardona recently announced that Chelsea Green and himself will be making an appearance for GCW at their Homecoming 2022 Part 2 event on August 14th in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Cardona also announced that he will be renewing his wedding vows to Green at the event.
• During a recent interview with the PWPonderings podcast, GCW owner Brett Lauderdale stated that the company is currently in the process of working on a new WWE Network-like streaming service. Lauderdale stated “I wasn’t insulted or anything by the article. As companies like ours grow and grow at the rate that we’re growing, there are challenges that come along with it and there are sacrifices that have to be made and obstacles that have to be overcome. It starts with the diehards, the people who do love the company and want to watch and attend as many as possible. It requires a bigger and bigger commitment with the more that we do. I’m aware that it’s challenging and it can be expensive for some people. Not everybody has the luxury to watch every show and pay for every show. For people that love GCW and want to see every show, it can be challenging and I’m aware of that. It’s something we’ve been working on and trying to address for some time now. Only recently, we had some obstacles be cleared, which will now give us the flexibility to do what we want to do. People have said explicitly that they would like to see a subscription network, a GCW network of sorts, that’s obviously something we’re working on. There are a lot of variables and things that go into it, a lot of potential ways to do it and right now, I just had a conference call on Tuesday with some major players to discuss potential opportunities and ways to do this and options. It’s just a matter of figuring out what is best for GCW, best for the fans, and being able to do it in a way that benefits GCW first and foremost. Something is going to happen eventually. Hang in there, for the people who are having to make those tough decisions. We’re trying to make it accessible for everybody. In the meantime, we’re going to keep offering as many bundles as we can on FITE to try and keep the cost down for those who do want to watch everything, ” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• Starrcast recently announced a new match for the card of Ric Flair’s Last Match event on July 31st in Nashville, Tennessee. This will be an Impact Knockouts World Championship Three-way match of Rachael Ellering vs. Deonna Purrazzo vs. Jordynne Grace (c).
• As noted before, Major League Wrestling filed an antitrust lawsuit earlier this year against WWE claiming that WWE illegally interfered in several of their business deals with television networks and engaged in contract tampering with several of their contracted talent. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that MLW had filed a motion this past Friday to The United States District Court, Northern District of California. This motion reportedly requested for the court to move up the Initial Case Management Conference between the two sides from its original date of October 27th to new date of September 29th. In the filing, MLW claims that they cannot begin discovery until the Initial Case Management meeting takes place and WWE has rejected their request to sit down for a conference at an earlier date. MLW stated that they “will suffer substantial harm and prejudice without the Court’s intervention because, under WWE’s interpretation of the Federal Rules, the Rule 26(f) conference would not be required to be held until October 6, 2022, more than four months after the motion to dismiss has been fully briefed.   During this time, the parties will be foreclosed from conducting discovery.” MLW also stated that “Moving the Initial Case Management Conference from October 27, 2022 to September 29, 2022 – the same date that the Court is set to hear oral argument on WWE’s motion to dismiss – would promote judicial efficiency and enable the parties to proceed with discovery more expeditiously.”
• As noted before, MLW released Mance Warner in October of 2021. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that Warner recently made his return to the company.
• As noted before, former wrestler Tammy Sytch was arrested this past May in Florida following a police investigation into a fatal car accident involving Sytch this past March. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that the Circuit Court of Volusia County, Florida recently approved the request from Sytch’s lawyer Steven deLaroche to be officially withdrawn as Sytch’s legal representation from the case due to issues between him and Sytch.
• Fightful’s Robert Deflice reported that three individuals recently filed trademarks for the term “Wrestling at the Chase” to the USPTO. These individuals reportedly are Steven Church (representing Cosmos Entertainment Productions), Robert Koplar (representing Koplar Communications), and Kevin Depew (representing Silverback Video). Wrestling at the Chase was notable in wrestling history for being the name of a classic National Wrestling Alliance television series that ran from 1959 to 1983.
• Windham Rotunda, former Bray Wyatt in WWE, filed a trademark for “Wyatt 6” for wrestling and merchandise-related purposes on June 21st to the USPTO.