Weekend Roundup: Vince McMahon, Sami Zayn Injury, CM Punk, Hayashishita & AEW, Tully Blanchard, ROH DBD PPV Buys, Indies

WWE

• PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that the weather forecast for this Saturday’s SummerSlam 2022 event at the Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee currently calls for a 60% chance of rain that day. The Nissan Stadium does not featured a retractable roof nor a roof at all should it rain during the time WWE’s event takes place.
• As noted before, Brock Lesnar walked out of WWE prior to the start of this past Friday’s SmackDown show in Boston, Massachusetts over his issues with Vince McMahon’s departure from the company. Following the end of the main event 6-Man Tag Team match, Lesnar made a surprise appearance beating up Theory to close out the show. Fightful Select reported that their sources confirmed that Lesnar’s walk out incident was legitimate and WWE had quickly rewrote the script for the show to not include Lesnar following his departure. It was reported that WWE officials had reinserted Lesnar back into the script when he returned to the venue in a much better mood. Besides Lesnar, it was reported that the original plans for the show included more focus on the Maximum Male Models and a longer segment between Ronda Rousey and Liv Morgan.
• The July 15th episode of Friday Night SmackDown featured Sami Zayn wearing a sling during his appearance on the show. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that Zayn’s injury is legitimate and not a storyline-based injury. Those same sources stated that Zayn’s injury is not serious but WWE officials still expect him to be out of action for the next few weeks. Details regarding the nature nor cause of the injury are currently not known.
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the reason why Jeff Jarrett is able to work at the upcoming Ric Flair’s Last Match event in Nashville is due to him currently only being under a corporate type contract and not also a talent-based contract with the company. In regards to WWE’S upcoming SummerSlam 2022 event, Meltzer reported that his sources stated that WWE officials made the decision to book Jarrett for the event to help boost ticket sales and interest due to Jarrett and his family’s long-time ties with wrestling scene in the Nashville region. Jarrett’s appearance at SummerSlam reportedly will be a one-time type deal and WWE officials currently do not have any plans for Jarrett to become a regular presence on WWE programming.
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that the main reason for Liv Morgan’s current big push is due to the lingering fallout from Sasha Banks and Naomi’s walk out of the company this past May. Meltzer reported that following Banks and Naomi’s walk out and suspension, WWE officials felt that they needed a new top babyface star for their SmackDown brand and made the decision to go ahead with Morgan being that person.
• WWE reportedly generated an attendance of 8,378 (7,700 paid) for their Aug. 15th SmackDown show in Orlando, FL, 3,551 for their Aug. 16th house show event in Tallahassee, FL, 3,918 for their Aug. 16th house show event in Fort Myers, FL, 2,472 for their Aug. 17th house show event in Daytona Beach, FL, 3,498 for their Aug. 17th house show event in Fort Lauderdale, FL, and 8,955 (8,200 paid) for their Aug. 18th RAW show in Tampa, FL, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• WWE reportedly has sold around 2,632 tickets for their July 24th house show event in Utica, NY, 10,857 tickets for their July 25th RAW show at Madison Square Garden in New York City, NY, 6,596 tickets for their July 29th SmackDown show in Atlanta, GA, 31,834 tickets for their July 30th SummerSlam 2022 event in Nashville, TN, 9,850 tickets for their Aug. 1st RAW show in Houston, TX, 3,775 tickets for their Aug. 5th SmackDown show in Greenville, SC, 2,103 tickets for their Aug. 6th house show event in North Charleston, SC, 1,955 tickets for their Aug. 7th house show event in Fayetteville, NC, 3,550 tickets for their Aug. 12th SmackDown show in Raleigh, NC, 2,592 tickets for their Aug. 14th house show event in Atlantic City, NJ, 3,788 tickets for their Aug. 15th RAW show in Washington, DC, 7,636 tickets for their Aug. 19th SmackDown show in Montreal, Canada, 3,085 tickets for their Aug. 20th house show event in Ottawa, Canada, 4,682 tickets for their Aug. 20th house show event in Quebec City, Canada, 8,938 tickets for their Aug. 22nd RAW show in Toronto, CA, 4,653 tickets for their Aug. 26th SmackDown show in Detroit, MI, 4,006 tickets for their Aug. 29th RAW show in Pittsburgh, PA, and 6,477 tickets for their Sept. 9th SmackDown show in Seattle, WA, 4,601 tickets for their Sept. 12th RAW show in Portland, OR, 2,946 tickets for their Sept. 16th SmackDown show in Anaheim, CA, 2,172 tickets for their Sept. 19th RAW show in San Jose, CA, 8,740 tickets for their Sept. 26th RAW show in Edmonton, Canada, 6,840 tickets for their Sept. 30th SmackDown show in Winnipeg, Canada, and 2,097 tickets for their Oct. 3rd RAW show in St. Paul, MN as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• As noted before, former WWE CEO and Chairman Vince McMahon announced this past Friday that he has officially retired from the company. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that WWE officials held an “all hands-on-deck” virtual meeting with staff and talent prior to the start of this past Friday’s SmackDown show in Boston. These same sources also stated that this was a short “rah rah meeting” that featured McMahon stated to be “irreplaceable” but co-CEOs Stephanie McMahon and Nick Khan would be plotting the course of the company going forward.
• PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that Vince McMahon had sent an internal letter to talent following his public retirement announcement. This letter stated “To all WWE Superstars: As I approach 77 years old (OMG am I really that old?), I feel it’s time for me to retire. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed sharing my passion, wisdom, and love of the business with you. No longer will you see the smiling, docile, level-headed, calm presence at Gorilla every week. Your dedication to WWE will ensure that our company will continue to grow and prosper. Our organization is nothing without you. You are WWE’s only natural resource, chosen to perform in front of a global audience.You are all WWE Global Ambassadors. Carry the WWE flag wherever you go. Wave it high and proud. And bust your ass to be all you can be as a person and as a performer. One other thing-I won’t be with you, but I’ll be watching. Remember to keep your hands up, grab a hold, and sell. BTW, SmackDown airs live tonight at 8pm Eastern/7pm Central on FOX. Vince“
• WWE recently announced that they will be holding a tour of events this October and November in Mexico, Scotland, and Germany. This five-city tour takes place from October 29th to November 1st and features two events each in Mexico and Germany and one event in Scotland.
• During a recent interview with ComicBook.com, Cody Rhodes gave his thoughts on his big reveal moment to the crowd of his bruised torn pectoral injury at WWE’s Hell in a Cell 2022 event this past June. Rhodes stated “No one saw it, other than, I think Vince (McMahon) saw it. I was going to take my robe off for cameras, and the voice of God, whoever is head of production in that moment, I remember them saying, ‘Don’t.’ Stu, the camera operator, told me we were going to save it for the show. Very few people had actually seen it and how bad it was. Through the day, it was getting worse because there was so much blood, so much blood under my skin. I’m almost anemic, so if you chop me or squeeze me, you can see it instantly. Just the perfect person to have their body ripped in half for that moment.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• WWE announced that they have recently signed a partnership deal with Make-A-Wish Connecticut to launch a new Storytelling Studio at Make-A-Wish’s headquarters in Trumbull, Connecticut.
• Seth Rollins was involved in an incident at his Black x Brave Academy wrestling school in Davenport, Iowa this past week. This incident revolved around two fans visiting his wrestling school unannounced and tried to interact with him while he was in the middle of a long workout session which resulted in an verbal outburst by Rollins. Rollins stated on Instagram that he had invited those fans to return to back his place at some time so that he could personally apologize for his “harsh and abrupt” actions towards them.

AEW & ROH

• As noted before, CM Punk has been out of action for AEW since this past June due to a broken foot injury. During a recent interview with Skewed and Reviewed podcast, Punk provided a health update on the status of his foot injury. Punk stated “It’s healing. It’s not healed. It feels like it’s on fire every day, partly probably because of how much you know I was on my feet all day yesterday. I just don’t wear the boot, but that’s mostly because I want people to recognize that I don’t want them near my foot. I’m working hard to come back; It’s just, it’s a shitty injury you know, not being able to walk and like my entire calf on that side kind of shut down so learning how to walk again is fucking frustrating, but I’m better than I was yesterday, I’ll be better tomorrow, and hopefully I’ll see everybody soon.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• AEW recently announced that they will be holding a set of AEW Dynamite and AEW Rampage events on September 28th at the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was also announced that tickets for this upcoming event will officially go on sale starting on July 29th.
• AEW CEO Tony Khan recently faced some online negative backlash over comments he made in jest on Twitter following Vince McMahon’s retirement announcement from WWE. Khan stated “Thanks to you wrestling fans and your great support of @AEW, I’m grateful to now be the longest-tenured CEO in pro wrestling. Thank you very much to every single person who watches @AEWonTV! See you for Friday Night #AEWRampage on @TNTdrama @ 10pm ET/9pm CT/10pm PT *TONIGHT*!” During Saturday’s ROH Death Before Dishonor 2022 post-show media scrum, Khan stated that his “factual statement” was only meant in reference to AEW, WWE, and NJPW for the current major CEO figures in wrestling. Khan stated “I was referencing AEW Rampage is on and just a fact. Of the big, major companies, of what I would consider The Big Three, I am the longest tenured. (NJPW President Takami) Ohbari and now there is a new CEO there (in WWE). If you consider it pro wrestling, then I think it’s a fair statement. I thought it was a factual statement, a note to promote Rampage, but that’s all it was. I can’t say anything else about it. I hopefully, maybe got some eyeballs on Rampage and I really care about Rampage a lot.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• AEW reportedly generated an attendance of 5,500 (5,100 paid) for their July 20th AEW Dynamite Fyter Fest Week 2 show in Duluth, GA, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• AEW reportedly has sold around 5,436 tickets for their July 27th Dynamite show in Worcester, MA, 4,700 for their Aug. 3rd Dynamite show in Columbus, OH, 3,938 tickets for their Aug. 5th Rampage show in Grand Rapids, MI, 4,043 tickets for their Aug. 10th Dynamite show in Minneapolis, MN, 3,134 tickets for their Aug. 17th Dynamite show in Charleston, WV, 3,884 tickets for their Aug. 24th Dynamite show in Cleveland, OH, 4.695 tickets for their Aug. 30th Dynamite show in Chicago, and 7,323 tickets for their Sept. 4th All Out 2022 event in Hoffman Estates, IL as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• Cole Karter, former Troy “Two Dimes” Donovan, reportedly recently signed an official contract with AEW, according to Fightful Select.
• During a recent interview with WrestlingInc.com, Paul Wight revealed that AEW CEO Tony Khan recently purchased the rights to the Captain Insano character, which was portrayed by Wight in the 1998 film The Waterboy. Wight stated that he plans on using this character for one final run of his career before retiring. Wight stated “He’ll [Captain Insano] be back,” Wight confirmed. “The guy who wrote The Waterboy has approved. Tony Khan and I have secured the rights to Captain Insano. There’s already an outfit made, the whole nine yards. We’re doing a lot of prep work, and this will be my last hoorah so to speak. Let’s be honest – I don’t think this character is going to be a killer going out there trying to beat Jon Moxley for the AEW World Championship. At this point, I think this character is just to have fun. We’ll see how it goes, but for me right now, this is just a chance to have fun with this character and be a bright spot on the show. We’ll see how I’m feeling, and we’ll see how everybody takes off with it.“
• AEW’s Abadon and Stardom’s Utami Hayashishita recently sent messages to each other on Twitter this past week. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that Abadon and Hayashishita’s recent online interaction was not a simple coincidence and instead Hayashishita has been in recent talks with AEW over the idea of working for the company in the future. Meltzer reported that the talks between the two have progress far enough that a deal is very likely close to being finalized if not already done as of the time of his report.
• During a recent virtual fan signing event for K&S WrestleFest, Ricky Starks gave his thoughts on which AEW talents he currently feels are the most underrated in AEW. Starks stated “I really like Isiah from Private Party.I really like Ethan Page, Daniel Garcia. I think those are a good handful of underrated people, including myself.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• AEW reportedly shot a new storyline angle between Darby Allin and House of Black during AEW’s panel earlier today at the San Diego Comic Con 2022 event in San Diego, California. This angle involved House of Black members Malakai Black and Brody King ambushing and attacking Allin and left after a short message to the crowd. This is the second time AEW has shot an angle involving Allin and House of Black at an outside event, following one earlier this month at a fan signing event in Seattle, Washington.
• As noted before, Jonathan Gresham recently requested his release from Ring of Honor and AEW. Prior to ROH’s Death Before Dishonor 2022 event this past Saturday, Wrestle Pursuits held an interview with Gresham and one of the topics discussed included Gresham’s thoughts on his working relationship with ROH owner Tony Khan. Gresham stated “To be honest, I’ve not really talked to him. I don’t know what he thinks about me. I’ve had very short conversations with him, when I say short I mean short. So I don’t know. I would hope that he values me, I don’t know though. So we’ll find out in the coming weeks, months I guess.” Gresham also gave his thoughts on ROH’s decision to have him join Tully Blanchard’s group. Gresham stated “I arrived at TV one day and then I was told that’s what I was doing, then I was like ‘okay’. I don’t know if it was super thought through, I don’t know anything. All I know is that’s what I was told, alright lets make it work.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• Saturday’s ROH Death Before Dishonor 2022 event featured Prince Nana revealing in a backstage interview segment that he recently made a deal with Tully Blanchard to purchase his Tully Blanchard Enterprises group. Prince Nana stated that the group would be known as The Embassy going forward, which was the name of Nana’s group in ROH from 2004 to 2006.
• In regards to Tully Blanchard, Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that Blanchard is currently believed to be gone from AEW and ROH. These same sources stated that Blanchard was not seen backstage at ROH’s Death Before Dishnor 2022 event and there was mixed messages sent on whether he had missed his flight or if there had been some confusion over his travel schedule. One source spoken to stated that Blanchad runs a prison ministry group and that was the reason for his absence from the event.
• During Saturday’s ROH Death Before Dishonor 2022 post-show media scrum, ROH owner Tony Khan stated that the event managed to generate one of the highest ever pay-per-view buys rate in ROH history at around 25,000 buys based on early numbers and estimates. Khan stated “I know for sure that it is going to be one of the three biggest pay-per-views in the over 20 year history of Ring of Honor, even higher than Supercard of Honor, which was already one of the three biggest. Now our two that we’ve done are two of the four biggest of all time along with Supercard at Madison Square Garden and All In. This is also in the top four attendance and is the highest attendance ever for a Ring of Honor show that is not at WrestleMania week.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

Indies & Misc. Wrestling

• New Japan Pro Wrestling recently announced that they have pulled Clark Connors from the card of their upcoming Music City Mayhem event on July 30th in Nashville, Tennessee due to him recently suffering a herniated disc in his back. It was also announced that Blake Christian will be replacing Connors for his scheduled triple threat match against El Desperado and Hiromu Takahashi at the event.
• NJPW reportedly generated a paid attendance of 2,891 for their July 16th G1 Climax 2022 event in Sapporo, 2,942 for their July 17th G1 Climax 2022 event in Sapporo, and 1,919 for their July 20th G1 Climax 2022 event in Sendai, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• As part of his on-going years long online feud with Kenny Omega, Will Ospreay posted a video statement on Twitter blasting Omega for having his “Billy The Wanker” shirt be removed recently from Pro Wrestling Tees’ online shop. Following PWT’s announcement of the shirt’s removal from sale, Omega stated that the shirt had triggered various legal concerns from AEW over it containing Omega’s “Best Bout Machine” catchphrase. Following Omega’s statement, Ospreay responded stating “I have just exposed Kenny as an insecure little bitch. It was fine when those guys were throwing up the Too Sweet and got hit with a cease & desist. They continued to poke the bear. When it is me doing it to you guys, you have a problem with it. It’s because Kenny is a miserable little prick. He takes it out on me because I’m actually having fun with my life. I’m doing the things he’s done, plus more. You’re also pissed off because the vision you had for AEW has now turned into something you don’t like and people are starting to get NXT vibes about the joint or maybe it’s because the Joshi girls are not getting TV time, but the 205 Live guys are. Now the shoe is on the other foot. You’ve turned into the big boys, trying to look down on the little guys. I’m going to keep poking the fucking bear. I just exposed Kenny Omega as everything I’ve been saying, a little fucking cunt. Have a good day Kenny the fucking prick.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• The National Wrestling Alliance recently announced a new match for the card of their NWA 74 Night 1 event on August 27th in St. Louis, Missouri. This will be a 10-Women Burke Invitational Gauntlet match with the winner to receive a title shot for the NWA World Women’s Championship at NWA 74 Night 2 event on August 28th in St. Louis.
• Starrcast recently announced that Kal Herro, Wolfie D, Gringo Loco, and Adam Priest are the next set of official competitors for Bunkhouse Battle Royal match at Ric Flair’s Last Match event on July 31st in Nashville, Tennessee.
• Starrcast also announced that Clark Connors has been pulled from the card of Ric Flair’s Last Match event due to him recently suffering a back injury. It was announced that Yuya Uemura will be replacing Connors for his scheduled match against Ren Narita at the event.
• Starrcast also recently announced that Joe Dombrowski, Ian Riccaboni, Tom Hannifan, Scott D’Amore, and Dave Prazak will be the official commentary team for the upcoming Ric Flair’s Last Match event in Nashville.
• House of Glory recently announced that Eddie Kingston will be making an appearance for the company at their High Intensity event on August 28th in New York City, New York.
• During a recent interview with the DA podcast, Zicky Dice revealed that his current contract with Impact Wrestling is three years in length. Dice stated “I’ll be at IMPACT for a while. Signed a three-year deal at IMPACT so I’m there for a little bit.” Dice’s contract is currently set to expire in September of 2024. (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)
• ECW founder Todd Gordon reportedly is currently in the process of writing a new autobiographical book titled Tod is God: The Authorized Story of How I Created Extreme Championship Wrestling, according to PWInsider.
• As noted before, Alberto El Patron filed a lawsuit against Combate Global this past October claiming that the company still owes him money for his MMA fight in 2019 and has not given up control of his social media accounts despite him no longer working for the company. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that United States District Court for the Southern District of New York recently informed both parties that an official ruling will be issued this week regarding if El Patron’s lawsuit will be able to continue or not.
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that Dragon Gate officials are currently planning for Takuma Fujiwara, SB Kento, and La Estrella to work in both Mexico and the United States for their excursion. Meltzer reported that Dragon Gate officials and Kento are currently split over the plans for his excursion with Pro Wrestling NOAH head booker Nosawa Rongai wanting him to go on an excursion in the U.S. and then return for a planned major push. Dragon Gate bookers Ryo Saito and Genki Horiguchi reportedly are not fond of the idea nor the need for Kento to go on an excursion since they feel he is already a big star in the company and does not need to wait to get a big push. Kento reportedly has been frustrated over the current plans for his excursion which might cause it to be dropped in the end.
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that the company recently made some changes with Kendo Kashin taking over more of the workload from Nosawa Rongai. Meltzer reported that the official reason was due to Rongai having a heavy workload in recent weeks handling the booking of both Dragon Gate and Pro Wrestling NOAH. Kashin reportedly will be handling the booking of the company’s heavyweight division while Rongai will be handling the booking of the rest of NOAH’s divisions and all crossovers with Dragon Gate.
• Pro Wrestling NOAH reportedly generated a paid attendance of 3,215 for their Destination 2022 event on July 16th in Tokyo, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• Lucha Libre AAA recently signed a television deal to air their programming in the Los Angeles television market, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.