Weekend Roundup: WWE’s “Disaster” Tryouts, NXT Update, SummerSlam 2022, MJF Update, AEW & Canada, Ric Flair, Indies

WWE

• During a recent interview with the Cheap Heat podcast, Finn Balor stated that he would like to have more creative control over his Demon Balor character in WWE. Balor stated “I would like more creative control over the Demon. A lot more and I would execute it a lot differently if it was given to me to like babysit. Working with a company that has so many different levels of management and different departments that need to be kept happy, something you lose is some of that creative license that you have when you’re independent. So, obviously, as a perfectionist and something that I created, I would like more control over it, but I understand the limitations when I work for a company like the WWE.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that WWE recently removed all of their signage for Vince McMahon for their backstage office with the former “Vince Room” room now being called the CEO Office room and a second backstage office room now features signage for Paul Levesque.
• The State Farm Arena recently announced that next year’s WWE Day 1 event will be taking place on January 1st at their venue in Atlanta, Georgia.
• WWE recently held a new set of tryouts this past week in Nashville, Tennessee. Among those who participated included NBA player Dwight Howard. Bryan Alvarez reported in a recent episode of the Wrestling Observer Live that his sources described this recent set of tryouts as being a “disaster” due to the amount of injuries that took place. These same sources also stated that the overall performance at the tryouts was viewed very negatively by WWE officials to the point that they very likely will be dropping their current focus and priority on their NIL program for new signings. This NIL program revolves around signing young college athletes and people with no real prior wrestling skills. Alvarez stated “The word is this is the last time that this is going to happen. They are not getting rid of the NIL program, but the idea of the NIL program — the point of this is that there were a lot of injuries at this set of tryouts. Concussions, there were a lot of people who got hurt. It was the blind leading the blind. I heard a lot of injuries and a lot of them, quite frankly, sucked. I don’t want to put a lot of words in people’s mouths, but the last I heard was that it was a disaster. ” (Transcript h/t: WrestlingNewsSource.com)
• As noted before, WWE held a virtual meeting with their staff and talent discussing Vince McMahon’s retirement from the company and Stephanie McMahon and Nick Khan taking over as co-CEOs. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that one source spoken to over why WWE decided to have co-CEOs stated that “I actually believe this pairing is necessary. Nick is a revenue driver. And he’s been involved in things that are not his specialty. What he’s good at, he’s great at. Steph is the promoter. The old school promoter with the new lexicon in media about analytics and branding. If Steph sticks to being a promoter, managing the relationships for the company, and Nick sticks to revenue, they’re a formidable team.”
• As noted before, WWE recently barred their employees from trading company stocks following Vince McMahon’s retirement from the company. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that one source spoken to stated that WWE’s current restrictions on trading company stocks is only meant for their employees and not also talent. This same source also stated that talent did not receive the internal memo nor were informed about the new restrictions.
• As noted before, Paul “Triple H” Levesque recently was named WWE’s new Head of Creative and Head of Talent Relations. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that the current belief within the company is that the NXT brand will be reverting back to a degree to Levesque’s prior vision of it. Those same sources also stated that the current belief is that while WWE will still continue to heavily recruit college athletes for potential new signings, the company will also be more open to signing experienced indies talent and those who did not fit Vince McMahon’s preferences in size and looks for WWE talent. Meltzer reported that the NXT’s prior version very likely will not become the format going forward for WWE’s main brands shows due to Levesque himself had stated in past interviews about how the NXT brand under his control catered to a specific different audience than WWE’s general audience and did stuff that likely would not work out as well on WWE’s main brands.
• WWE reportedly generated an attendance of 8,351 (7,600 paid) for their July 22nd SmackDown show in Boston, MA, 4,465 for their July 23rd house show event in Bridgeport, CT, 2,540 for their July 24th house show event in Utica, NY, and 13,379 (12,100 paid) for their July 25th RAW show at Madison Square Garden in New York City, NY, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• WWE reportedly has sold around 10,057 tickets for their Aug. 1st RAW show in Houston, TX, 4,680 tickets for their Aug. 5th SmackDown show in Greenville, SC, 2,296 tickets for their Aug. 6th house show event in North Charleston, SC, 2,072 tickets for their Aug. 7th house show event in Fayetteville, NC, 4,053 tickets for their Aug. 12th SmackDown show in Raleigh, NC, 2,679 tickets for their Aug. 14th house show event in Atlantic City, NJ, 4,295 tickets for their Aug. 15th RAW show in Washington, DC, 7,855 tickets for their Aug. 19th SmackDown show in Montreal, Canada, 3,207 tickets for their Aug. 20th house show event in Ottawa, Canada, 4,825 tickets for their Aug. 21st house show event in Quebec City, Canada, 9,312 tickets for their Aug. 22nd RAW show in Toronto, CA, 4,932 tickets for their Aug. 26th SmackDown show in Detroit, MI, 1,495 tickets for their Aug. 28th house show event in Manchester, NH, 4,148 tickets for their Aug. 29th RAW show in Pittsburgh, PA, 60,555 tickets for their Sept. 3rd Clash at the Castle event in Cardiff, Wales , 6,623 tickets for their Sept. 9th SmackDown show in Seattle, WA, 4,738 tickets for their Sept. 12th RAW show in Portland, OR, 3,428 tickets for their Sept. 16th SmackDown show in Anaheim, CA, and 2,507 tickets for their Sept. 19th RAW show in San Jose, CA, as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• Comcast released their fiscal second quarter 2022 report last week revealing that NBC’s Peacock streaming service saw a net gain of zero new paid subscribers for the fiscal quarter for a total of 27 million active account with around 13 million being active paid accounts. This was down 1 million in total subscribers but equal in paid subscribers compared to the prior quarter. In regards to revenues, Peacock was stated to have posted a net loss of $467 million in total profits for the fiscal quarter.
• During a recent interview with Fightful Select, Bobby Lashley stated that he still has hopes of continuing his MMA career and was recently contacted by a ” bare knuckle boxing company rep” over his interest in a potential future boxing match against Mike Tyson. Lashley stated that this rep mentioned Madison Square Garden as a potential location for this potential fight.
• PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that former WCW and WWE talent David Taylor worked as a guest coach for WWE’s Performance Center this past week.
• WrestlingInc.com reported that their sources stated that the reason why WWE tarped off a large portion of seats at the Nissan Stadium for Saturday’s SummerSlam 2022 event was due to the company had never intended to sell those seats since they had planned the seating and stage layout setup to be more similar to a television taping at an arena than major PPV event at a stadium. WWE officials reportedly were also under the belief that they would not be able to sell around 60,000 tickets for the event and made the decision to tarp off large sections as a result.
• Saturday’s WWE SummerSlam 2022 event reportedly generated around 550,000 searches on Google for that night, according to the Wrestling Observer. Dave Meltzer reported that this number is around the typical range WWE generates for a major PPV event.

AEW & ROH

• During a recent interview with The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz podcast, AEW CEO Tony Khan gave his thoughts on the recent reports about former WWE talents being interested in returning to WWE now that Paul “Triple H” Levesque is in charge of creative and if he would grant releases to AEW talent who wanted to leave over it. Khan stated “It depends on who it is and it depends on who the person is if I would grant them their release or not. But, I don’t think those two situations [reported situation with Jonathan Gresham and Triple H coming into power] had anything to do with each other. Keep an eye on it. I don’t think that’s gonna be dots that will connect, and I definitely think that it’s probably gonna be a change in the management philosophy I would totally think. That being said, I’m not sure it’s gonna be a bad thing for AEW, but I do think it’ll be a good thing for the wrestling fans because the competition is gonna change and probably in a way that will be good for the fans.” Khan also gave his thoughts on former WWE CEO and Chairman Vince McMahon’s legacy in wrestling. Khan stated “Grew the wrestling business on television more than anybody else ever has and the growth that he [Vince McMahon] helped launch in this business as a television industry is probably more than everybody else in the history of the wrestling business combined and I don’t think I’d be understating it to say that he was one of — has been one of the most influential figures in American entertainment and whether you consider wrestling a sport or not, I think in the world of sports, he’s also been one of the most influential people. Ask any athlete on the planet and they all are very familiar with his product.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)
• During a recent live episode of The Sessions with Renee Paquette podcast at Starrcast V, Bryan Danielson gave his thoughts about his most recent injury and his concerns that his doctors were going to talk about it being time for him to retire. Danielson stated “It’s interesting, this last one, he said, ‘After you start feeling better, we’re going to have to have a serious talk about your long-term health.’ I thought what that meant was, ‘After you feel better, I’m going to talk to you about not wrestling anymore.’ Then my brain scans came back so goddamn good that not a single person could say anything about it. I do put a lot of work and effort into keeping my brain healthy and doing things outside of normal stuff to keep my brain healthy. I think that’s paying dividends a little bit.” Danielson also gave his thoughts about the kind of things that he does to keep his brain healthy. “The developments in medicine and science are so much better. There is a lot of like hyperbaric oxygen therapy. For those that do care, it’s being placed in a tube where it’s 1.5 atmospheres of pressure, a lot of oxygen being flooded into your brain. A lot of the military is doing it for people who have had concussions. It’s not FDA approved yet. That stuff is a long process. I did that, 100 sessions of that, where I’m in there for an hour and a half each time.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• During a recent live episode of the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast at Starrcast V, Claudio Castagnoli gave his thoughts about how Johnny Gargano’s farewell promo in NXT helped influence his decision to leave WWE. Castagnoli stated “I may have felt for a while that I needed a change. Leading up to it, there were a bunch of signs. A bunch of stuff that different people said where they may have not even realized that they said it that kind of helped me make up my mind. One of the things was Johnny Gargano’s last promo in NXT where he said to ‘always bet on yourself.’ That was like maybe the last straw. ‘Yup, he’s 100% right.’ It was a lot of things leading up to it. I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it because a lot of people do. When Cody left the first time, he made that list of who he wanted to wrestle. After that, everybody made a list. It was the new favorite thing. I wanted to do it differently. I’m against the grain a lot. ‘Everybody is doing this, let me try to do this over here.’ I felt it was better that way because I figured if I want to keep wrestling and I pop up somewhere, it’s going to be a bigger surprise. Wrestling is all about moments and if I would have been like, ‘Alright, I’m leaving,’ then people would have known and it would have been, ‘Okay, I’m gonna show up somewhere.’ If it’s quiet then it’s ‘what’s going to happen? When is it going to happen?’ That’s the beauty in wrestling. You want to be surprised. Yes, you want to know, but you also love being surprised. To me, that’s a very important thing. You do know, maybe, but there’s always that doubt. That’s what makes magic happen. I feel I’m more action than talking.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• During a recent interview with ComicBook.com, Chris Jericho gave his thoughts on why matches like his recent Barbed Wire Everywhere match in AEW is good for wrestling in general. Jericho stated “You just go, ‘Fuck, that hurt.’ Matches like the one we just had are probably good for the wrestling business because it lets people know that it’s not just all fun and games. ‘Oh that stuff isn’t real, they don’t really hit each other,’ then you literally get bashed in the nose with the leg of a chair. You can see it, it was just an accident, but when it hit my nose, I thought for sure it was broken. It wasn’t as badly broken as I thought. It’s more just cracked and cartilage and that sort of thing. Still, as long as you can still move, breathe, and see, it’s just part of the job. If it’s on TV, at least we’ll get some shots of it and it’s probably good for the business in the long run. It doesn’t feel good the next day.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• As noted before, MJF was involved in an incident this past May in Las Vegas, Nevada over him no showing an AEW fan fest event in the city causing his status for AEW’s Double or Nothing 2022 event to be in doubt at the time. MJF had been upset at AEW CEO Tony Khan for some time over pay-related issues which he referenced in a heated promo during the June 1st episode of AEW Dynamite in Los Angeles, which was also MJF’s most recent appearance for the company. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that “nobody knows what’s up with MJF” and his current status in the company is currently unknown based on his sources spoken to.
• As noted before, AEW recently announced that they will be making their official debut in Canada this October. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the reason why AEW’s debut shows in the country will be taking place at the Cola-Cola Coliseum in Toronto instead of at the larger Rogers Centre is due to the venue will be undergoing renovations after the end of the current MLB season and AEW officials did not have any real interest in running an event there this fall. Meltzer reported that AEW officials had shown some interest towards the Scotiabank Arena but were unable to book the venue due to scheduling-related issues after AEW locked in the week for their debut show in Canada.
• AEW reportedly generated an attendance of 6,200 (6,00 paid) for their July 27th Dynamite show in Worcester, MA, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• AEW reportedly has sold around 4,807 for their Aug. 3rd Dynamite show in Columbus, OH, 4,049 tickets for their Aug. 5th Battle of the Belts III show in Grand Rapids, MI, 4,273 tickets for their Aug. 10th Dynamite show in Minneapolis, MN, 3,226 tickets for their Aug. 17th Dynamite show in Charleston, WV, 4,047 tickets for their Aug. 24th Dynamite show in Cleveland, OH, 5,057 tickets for their Aug. 30th Dynamite show in Chicago, and 7,423 tickets for their Sept. 4th All Out 2022 event in Hoffman Estates, IL, 4,008 tickets for their Sept. 7th Dynamite show in Buffalo, NY, 2,370 tickets for their Sept. 14th Dynamite show in Albany, NY, 9,676 tickets for their Sept. 21st Dynamite Grand Slam 2022 show at the Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, NY, and 2,544 tickets for their Sept. 28th Dynamite show in Philadelphia, PA, as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• This past Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite Fight for the Fallen 2022 show featured HOOK defeating Ricky Starks to become the new FTW Champion. Following the show, AEW held an interview with TAZ reflecting over his son HOOK winning the same belt he once held during his own career.
• Ring of Honor reportedly generated an attendance of 3,100 (2,900 paid) for their Death Before Dishonor 2022 event on July 23rd in Lowell, MA, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Dave Meltzer reported that ROH managed to generate over $400,000 in revenues from streaming PPV buys from Bleacher Report.
• During a recent interview with the Wrestling Inside the Ropes podcast, ROH owner Tony Khan revealed that Claudio Castagnoli winning the ROH World Championship at ROH’s Death Before Dishonor 2022 event was part of his original plans for ROH after he bought the company. Khan stated “That was part of my original plan, yes [for Claudio Castagnoli to be the face of ROH/ROH World Champion] and I knew there was a chance that he would also be stepping into the Blackpool Combat Club with Bryan Danielson injured. Now Bryan Danielson’s back and the Blackpool Combat Club is truly stronger than it’s ever been, literally with Claudio in the group, one of the strongest men in wrestling and with Bryan Danielson, one of the greatest wrestlers of all-time coming back.” Khan also stated that he is currently not interested in the idea of running ROH and AEW events on the same weekends. Khan stated “Probably not [Khan said about the idea of running AEW and ROH events on the same weekend]. I think it makes more sense to keep them separate events so that we’re not trying to oversaturate the weekend. I think the best-case scenario is to space it out and I thought we found a really good cadence with Double or Nothing and Forbidden Door in May and June and then following up with Death Before Dishonor in July and course in April, we had Supercard of Honor so I think we found a good cadence.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)

Indies & Misc. Wrestling

• PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that WWE Hall of Famer The Undertaker was seen backstage during tonight’s Ric Flair’s Last Match event in Nashville, Tennessee.
• During a recent interview with the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast, Ric Flair stated that his upcoming match at tonight’s Ric Flair’s Last Match event will be his final match despite him receiving some big money offers from other promoters for follow-up matches. Flair stated “It has to be. I get that question asked a lot, but it has to be. Even if I do well, I can’t go back on my word to the people that have given me all this respect, time, and bought tickets. I have been offered 10 matches at 50 grand a piece, and I think in Europe someone offered me 100 grand. But this will be the last one. I can manage somebody and be in the ring, but it will be my last match.” (Transcript h/t: 411Mania.com)
• During the same interview, Flair also gave his thoughts on who he considered to be in his Mount Rushmore for Wrestling. Flair stated”(Steve) Austin, (Hulk) Hogan, Taker [Undertaker], and Shawn Michaels.” Flair also gave his thoughts on why he did not include himself in his list. Flair stated “I would, but I think those four guys had a huge….I could put The Rock on there too, it’s interchangeable. The best worker of all time is Shawn Michaels. The biggest personality of all time would be The Rock. The biggest draw of all time would be Steve. You can’t ever leave Hulk off because he drew a ton of money, different time frame, but it was sold out every night. Even though I was NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion, my job was a lot harder than anybody else. Being NWA Champion and being gone six months at a time, sometimes longer, wrestling everybody all over the world, makes a difference. You’re not just wrestling the same guy, which I’ve done too, wrestling (Ricky) Steamboat, Sting, Dusty (Rhodes), and them. That was all while I was traveling around the world, especially with Dusty and Steamboat.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and WWE’s Dolph Ziggler made surprise video appearances at Starrcast’s The Roast of Ric Flair event this past Friday in Nashville, Tennessee.
• New Japan Pro Wrestling recently announced that their upcoming co-promoted event with Stardom on November 20th is called Historic X-Over. It was also announced that this upcoming event will feature mixed tag team matches featuring NJPW and Stardom talent.
• During a recent interview with NJPW’s official English website, KUSHIDA gave his thoughts on one of the major reasons why he decided to leave WWE and return to NJPW. KUSHIDA stated “Well, to set the scene a bit, the turnover in WWE is really relentless. In August of 2021, there was a really sudden change in thinking there. Essentially they wanted to train young wrestlers, under 30, that didn’t have pro-wrestling experience and had come from other athletic backgrounds. When it comes to me, I don’t think it’s controversial to say that left me redundant, effectively. You have to remember I was 36 when I got an offer from WWE…So with this youth push on over there, it wasn’t like I had a shoot time machine of my own, so it became ‘OK, what can I do here?’. Everyone was asking the same questions, I think, actually. And NJPW immediately popped in my head. I felt really strongly right away that LA would be the best place to base myself. You have to remember I was 36 when I got an offer from WWE…So with this youth push on over there, it wasn’t like I had a shoot time machine of my own, so it became ‘OK, what can I do here?’. Everyone was asking the same questions, I think, actually. And NJPW immediately popped in my head. I felt really strongly right away that LA would be the best place to base myself.“
• NJPW reportedly generated a paid attendance of 1,919 for their July 23rd G1 Climax 2022 event in Tokyo, 2,518 for their July 24th G1 Climax 2022 event in Tokyo, 1,312 for their July 26th G1 Climax 2022 event in Tokyo, and 1,323 for their July 27th G1 Climax 2022 event in Tokyo, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• Stardom reportedly generated a paid attendance of 845 for their July 23rd Stardom in Showcase Vol. 1 event in Nagoya and 1,064 for their July 24th MidSummer Champions event in Nagoya, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• During a recent interview with Tokyo Sports, Stardom Executive Producer Rossy Ogawa gave his thoughts about a new IWGP branded Championship debuting for the company this November. Ogawa stated “This belt [IWGP Women’s Championship] will be operated and managed by STARDOM, but it has a different meaning from the STARDOM belt. I think it is a belt created to send out a message to the world and in a world of gender equality. The existing STARDOM belts also have a history, so we will continue to manage them as well, and let the audience decide which belt is the best. When Bushiroad came into power, I thought it would be good to have the IWGP belt. I think it is also because we are now in the third year of the new system and our recent achievements have been recognized.” (English translation via PostWrestling.com)
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that indies and NWA talent Natalia Markova is currently dealing with visa-related issues for her bookings in Lucha Libre AAA. Meltzer reported that Markova recently no showed a second event for the company that AAA officials claim was due to a flight issue similar to the first time. Those close to the situation reportedly stated that the real reason is due to recent changes made by the Mexican government over visas for people from Russia which now require them to have a special visa in order for them to travel into the country. AAA officials reportedly were unaware of the new changes and had tried to secure a new special visa for Markova but were unable to do so in time of their event this past Sunday.
• As noted before, Dragon Gate talent Kaito Ishida recently left the company due to his growing frustrations over the recent changes within Dragon Gate’s booking. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that Ishida had informed Dragon Gate booker Genki Horiguchi that he would be willing to return to the company only if Pro Wrestling NOAH booker Nosawa Rongai had all of his booking powering removed. Ishida reportedly stated that he currently feels that Rongai hates him and would never give him a push in the company while he was there. Meltzer reported that Ishida recently contacted GLEAT and NJPW to gauge their interest in signing him to a deal. Other Dragon Gate talents reportedly have recently gave signals to Dragon Gate officials that they will be leaving the company once their contracts expire over similar booking-related issues.
• As noted before, NWA recently removed Nick Alids from their scheduled NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship match at their upcoming NWA 74 event. The reason is currently believed to be due to backstage heat Aldis currently has with NWA officials over creative and attitude-related issues. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that Aldis’ removal from the match was meant to be NWA’s attempt at doing a shoot angle. Meltzer reported that while some real life issues between Aldis and NWA owner Billy Corgan have likely since crept into the angle, it started off as just being a regular storyline for Aldis.
• A new wrestling-based autobiographical book based on The Bushwhackers reportedly recently finished production, according to PWInsider. Mike Johnson reported that an official announcement regarding the book and its release date is currently expected to be made soon.
• Trademarks for “Monster Factory” and “Danny Cage” were filed by Monster Factory on July 5th for wrestling and entertainment-related purposes to the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
• During a recent interview with the Daily Star, Sami Callihan gave his thoughts about his recent return from injury and his current goals in Impact Wrestling. Callihan stated “If you don’t always want to be champion, you don’t always want to be the top guy at the company, why are you doing this?” Callihan also gave his thoughts on why he considers Impact to be an “island of misfit toys.” Callihan stated “I look at Impact Wrestling, I think we have unquestionably one of the best rosters in all of professional wrestling. Right now, we’re the island of misfit toys. When the chips are down, we always come through, we have some of the best PPVs and wrestling on a weekly basis.”