Weekend Roundup: Emma, WWE Interested in Tegan Nox, AEW Ratings Note, Shinsuke Nakamura & NOAH, Stardom, Bret Hart, Indies

WWE

Indie / Misc

Steve C.

Oct 30, 2022

WWE

As noted before, this past Friday’s WWE SmackDown show in St. Louis, Missouri featured the official return of Emma. Emma made her surprise appearance as the mystery challenger for Ronda Rousey’s open challenge match for her SmackDown Women’s Championship, which Rousey won. Emma recently reflected on Instagram about her return to WWE. Emma stated “5 years ago today I was heartbroken feeling like my dream had come to an end. Today my heart is so full! I’m overwhelmed by the amount of support I have. You guys are the best. Now… I’ve got some unfinished business to take care of! I’m home baby!!“
The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer reported in Sunday’s Daily Update that his sources confirmed that Emma recently signed an official contract with WWE and will be a member of the SmackDown brand roster going forward.
As noted before, WWE recently canceled their plans to hold next year’s Day 1 event due to scheduling-related issues with the host venue The State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that WWE officials had made the decision to quietly cancel next year’s Day 1 event this past September and while they never put tickets officially on sale, they did allow travel packages to be purchased for this now cancelled event for reasons currently unknown. WWE recently rescheduled this event to now be a house show event on December 27th at the same arena.
Jimmy and Jey Uso reportedly are currently the front runners for this year’s WWE Iron Man in terms of most matches wrestled in a year, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Dave Meltzer reported as of October 23rd, Jimmy Uso has wrestled in 101 matches while Jey Uso has wrestled in 100 matches. Meltzer reported that no one else has reached the 100th match milestone for the year in WWE at the time of his report.
WWE reportedly generated an attendance of 6,938 (6,300 paid) for their Oct. 21st SmackDown show in Toledo, OH, 4,671 for their Oct. 22nd house show event in Dayton, OH, 3,234 for their Oct. 23rd house show event in Pikeville, KY, and 7,570 (6,800 paid) for their Oct. 24th RAW show in Charlotte, NC, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
WWE reportedly has sold around 7,354 tickets for their Oct. 31st RAW show in Dallas, TX, 3,725 for their Oct. 31st show show event in Stuttgart, Germany, 4,859 tickets for their Nov. 1st house show event in Dortmund, Germany, 3,858 tickets for their Nov. 7th RAW show in Wilkes-Bare, PA, 6,703 tickets for their Nov. 11th SmackDown show in Indianapolis, IN, 2,954 tickets for their Nov. 12th house show event in Peoria, IL, 1,908 for their Nov. 13th house show event in Madison WI, 5,850 tickets for their Nov. 14th RAW show in Louisville, KY, 4,845 tickets for their Nov. 18th SmackDown show in Hartford, CT, 4,258 tickets for their Nov. 21st RAW show in Albany, NY, 3,905 tickets for their Nov. 25th SmackDown show in Providence, RI, 12,688 tickets for their Nov. 26th Survivor Series 2022 event in Boston, MA, 3,840 tickets for their Nov. 28th RAW show in Norfolk, VA, 3,857 tickets for their Dec. 2nd SmackDown show in Buffalo, NY, 4,223 tickets for their Dec. 5th RAW show in Washington, D.C., 3,956 for their Dec. 9th SmackDown show in Pittsburgh, PA, 3,445 tickets for their Dec. 12th RAW show in Milwaukee, WI, 5,402 tickets for their Dec. 16th SmackDown show in Chicago, IL, 5,239 tickets for their Dec. 30th SmackDown show in Tampa, FL, and 29,708 for their Jan. 28, 2023 Royal Rumble 2023 event in San Antonio, TX as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
As noted before, former RAW brand commentator Adnan Virk was released by WWE this past May following a brief career in the company. During a recent interview with the Sports Media with Richard Deitsch podcast, Virk gave his thoughts on his brief career in WWE and his experiences working with Vince McMahon. Virk stated “Two things people want to know is Vince (McMahon) and the wrestlers and I’m like listen, Vince was very cordial, like, he was respectful. He’s not hobnobbing in the locker room asking me what I think about the (Toronto Blue) Jays but at the same time, he wasn’t screaming at me every five minutes. He does his own thing and he was very direct, he was very blunt with his feedback, he’s not in the mood to offer pleasantries but at the same time, I appreciate the direct approach.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)
WWE reportedly is currently interested in bringing back Tegan Nox to the company, according to Fightful Select. It was reported that the reason for Nox’s lack of work since her release from WWE in November of 2021 is due to work visa-related issues.
PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that WWE’s current television tapings plans for this December is for SmackDown to air live weekly with the exception of the December 23rd show. Johnson reported that WWE’s current plan is for the December 16th SmackDown show to air live and then tape the December 23rd show right after on the same night. In regards to NXT, Johnson reported that the current plan is for the December 6th & 13th shows to air live and the December 20th & 27th shows to be taped on Wednesday, December 14th. Johnson reported that WWE’s plans for the airing status of the December 26th RAW show is currently not known.
WWE officials reportedly are currently considering a “unique” cash-in plan for Austin Theory’s Money in the Bank briefcase, according to WrestleVotes (via GiveMeSport.com). It was reported that their sources stated that WWE officials recently held talks over the idea of Theory holding his MitB case for a full year and would cash-in on the night of next year’s Money in the Bank 2023 event. The idea reportedly being for Theory to have a show long storyline over how much time he last left to cash-in his briefcase before the title shot stip would expire. It was also reported that it is currently not known if WWE officials are planning for Theory’s cash-in to be successful in the end.
WWE filed a trademark for the term “La Madrina” for wrestling and entertainment-related purposes on October 26th to the United States Patent and Trademark Office. This is the current nickname of NXT talent Elektra Lopez.
WWE also filed a trademark for the term “Scrypts” for wrestling and entertainment-related purposes on October 25th to the USPTO.
As noted before, AEW is currently rumored to be in talks with CM Punk for a potential buyout of his contract with the company. Punk has been out of action for the company since this past September due to his current suspension over his involvement in a backstage fight at All Out 2022. PWTorch’s Wade Keller reported in a recent episode of the PWTorch podcast that one of his sources close to Paul “Triple H” Levesque stated that Levesque currently does not have any interest in the idea of bringing back CM Punk to WWE. Keller reported “Paul Levesque, while he thinks Punk personality-wise might be more trouble than he’s worth, has shown a history of recognizing wrestlers who are over with today’s fans that he himself might not have predicted would be over. Somebody who’s currently in WWE and is within the sphere of influence of Paul Levesque’s decision-making would be a hard ‘no’ as of me asking this person today. A hard ‘no’ on endorsing the return of CM Punk, even if it would help business.” (Transcript h/t: WrestlingInc.com)
Sheamus got married to his longtime girlfriend Isabella Revilla this past Friday. CJ Perry revealed on Twitter that Drew McIntyre, Claudio Castagnoli, and Miro were among the groomsmen for Sheamus while Becky Lynch, Seth Rollins, Riddle, Damian Priest, and Naomi were among the other notable people who attended Sheamus’ wedding ceremony.

AEW & ROH

TNT recently began running new ads for AEW during recent NBA games for the current NBA season on their network featuring stats about the company. One notable stat included around 3.5 million people have watched AEW Dynamite this past year. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the online confusion over this stat revolved around several people thinking that this stat had to be fake due to AEW’s weekly viewership average for their shows is much lower than the number given in the stat. Meltzer reported that this 3.5 million viewers stat only counted unique viewers who have watched at least one minute of an AEW show throughout the year. Meltzer reported that AEW currently averages around 1.18 million viewers per minute for their weekly shows when including DVR viewership. Meltzer reported that when adding in the current average of 68 minutes watched per viewer per AEW show, AEW averages around 2.08 million viewers per show this year, which would mean AEW retains around 59% of their total unique viewership per show this year. For some comparisons, Meltzer reported that WWE’s SmackDown on FOX averages around 4.6 million viewers per week when breaking down their weekly viewership average under similar methods.
Dave Meltzer reported that the breakdown for AEW’s weekly Dynamite viewership for the month of this past September was around 59% watched the show live, 23% watched on DVR but on the same night, 16% watched on Sundays, and 2% watched on the following Mondays or Tuesdays per show per week.
As noted before, Thunder Rosa has been out of action for AEW since this past September due to her suffering a spinal-related injury. Many indie talents brought in as extras for shows who were close to Rosa have not been booked or brought back to shows as of late. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Shawn Dean responded to his report last week stating that the reason for this situation is not due to anything related to Rosa and instead economic-related reasons. Dean reportedly stated that many of the extras who had been brought in for shows live in Texas and since AEW has not run shows in the region lately, AEW officials made the decision to not fly them in for shows around the country as a cost-saving measure. Dean also stated that AEW currently remains on good terms with all of those talent who have not been brought back recently for shows from the Texas area. In regards to KiLynn King and Madi Wrenkowski, Meltzer reported that neither had been under full-time contracts with AEW and they made the decision to work in NWA in order to have a better chance at getting television time to help build and develop their careers, which would be an issue in AEW due to their bloated roster at the moment. Meltzer reported that the reason why others not from Texas but were close to Rosa have not been booked lately for AEW shows are due to similar issues unrelated to Rosa’s situation in the company.
AEW reportedly recently informed their AEW Plus subscribers in Switzerland that they will no longer be offering their weekly shows live in the country starting on November 22nd. It was also announced that their weekly shows will only air live on TNT going forward and replays to only be made available on FITE 30 days after its initial airing. Dave Meltzer reported that his sources stated that the reason is currently believed to be due to AEW’s current contract with Warner Germany. This contract reportedly allowed FITE’s AEW Plus service to debut in Germany but required shows to be uploaded 30 days after their living airing. Warner Germany reportedly had asked AEW to do the same for their deal in Switzerland, which AEW agreed. Meltzer reported that the upcoming debut of AEW Plus in France likely will be under the same terms as well.
AEW reportedly generated an attendance of 3,100 (2,400 paid) for their Oct. 21st Rampage show in Jacksonville, FL and 3,400 (3,000 paid) for their Oct. 26th Dynamite show in Norfolk, VA, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
AEW reportedly has sold around 1,939 tickets for their Nov. 2nd Dynamite show in Baltimore, MD, 1,567 tickets for their Nov. 4th Rampage show in Atlantic City, NJ, 2,519 tickets for their Nov. 9th Dynamite show in Boston, MA, 1,825 tickets for their Nov. 16th Dynamite show in Bridgeport, CT, 4,976 tickets for their Nov. 18th Rampage show in Newark, NJ, 10,181 tickets for their Nov. 19th Full Gear 2022 event in Chicago, IL, 4,347 tickets for their Nov. 23rd Dynamite show in Chicago, IL, 2,512 tickets for their Nov. 30th Dynamite show in Indianapolis, IN, 2,273 tickets for their Dec. 7th Dynamite show in Cedar Park, TX, 2,128 tickets for their Dec. 21st Dynamite show in San Antonio, TX, 6,538 tickets for their Jan. 4, 2023 Dynamite show in Seattle, WA, and 3,818 (presale) for their Jan. 11, 2023 Dynamite show in Los Angeles, CA as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
During a recent episode of the Grillin’ JR podcast, co-host Jim Ross gave his thoughts over the criticisms of his recent comments on how Jon Moxley in AEW reminds him of Stone Cold Steve Austin. Ross stated”I made two comments, one, I took a screenshot of my TV with Bryan Danielson on it, and the more I get him on my TV, the more I like it. Everybody complimented that. I did another one, later on, just following the show, and it was during a Jon Moxley offensive frenzy; strikes, strikes, strikes, assault. All I said was, ‘Jon Moxley is Austin-esque.’ I should have probably said, ‘at this moment’ or ‘tonight’ or ‘during this offensive onslaught’ or something like that. I caught so much shit from fans. They want to make sure you see it, so they tag you and think you might react to them. It’s funny. I thought it was a compliment to Moxley and it was a compliment I meant. His game does remind me of Austin’s at times. Am I saying that he’s going to be better or greater than Austin? I don’t know that anybody will ever be as great as Stone Cold when he was at his peak. He’s still my favorite guy. I just thought there were pieces of Moxley’s game, surrounding his aggression and tenacity, that reminds me of Steve. That’s all I said. Then you get shit for it because someone didn’t agree with you or they think you’re putting Austin down. Just because you compliment someone doesn’t mean you’re knocking somebody else.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
During a recent interview with the Busted Open Radio podcast, AEW CEO Tony Khan gave his thoughts about the recent criticisms from Eric Bischoff over his booking of “cold” matches with little to no build for AEW shows. Khan also stated that Bischoff is a hypocrite considering Bischoff did the same when he was in charge of booking WCW shows back in the day. Khan stated “There are a lot of really interesting stories happening in AEW. There’s this fascinating thing that is happening. I’ve noticed that, things are changing a lot in the perception of how a wrestling card is built over the years. Now, there is this perception, I think because this is the way people have seen it done for most of the last 20 years, I understand it’s become, to some extent, an industry standard, if only for the lack of competition. There is this perception that every match on every show should have a long storyline built as to why it takes place. It doesn’t need to be the case for every single match. There is absolutely a lot of story in most of the matches on this show and most matches on a lot of our shows, but sometimes you can see something that is the start of a new issue. Frankly, I think the person who has been incendiary, contradictory, and hypocritical on this entire point is Eric Bischoff. If you watch Nitro, especially the good Nitros from 95 to 98, a lot of the quality of the show was lucha matches and things you didn’t expect and there was a certain exquisite randomness to the card. You turn the show on and it’d be like, ‘Hey, Rick Martel vs. Perry Saturn, that’s cool. Randy Savage vs. Bobby Eaton, okay,’ and various lucha matches that didn’t necessarily have build up but they were fun matches. They weren’t the big story matches. Sure, there were a lot of stories happening in WCW, but probably less than half the matches on Nitro had a story and that was fine. It was the industry standard show. Then, it tried to copy the competition and put lots of story where every single match had a story and had two guys having a fight over a cup of coffee in catering and that just doesn’t need to be the case. Sometimes, it can be as simple as a challenge and two people fighting to be the best, but the majority of the time, or a large percentage of the time, you should have a story built into a match, but the perception that you can’t just have two people come in and fight…it could be the start of something, it could lead to something with different people, who knows. There are a lot of different ways to skin a cat. In this case, to see the person who probably put more cold matches on TV, and did it successfully and well, say it’s an abomination to do it, it’s pretty contradictory. I found it very ironic for Eric Bischoff to say, ‘why is this match happening?’ Why did 60 percent of the matches on Nitro happen? Honestly, that’s when Nitro was a better show before they tried to change it to something else.” Khan also stated that he does not want wrestling fans to be “brainwashed” into thinking there is only one way to book wrestling television shows because they have only been exposed to that single way for a long time. Khan stated “I definitely don’t want the fans getting brainwashed into thinking there is only one way to do this just because they’re only seen it done one way for a long time.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
Chris Jericho reportedly recently joined the cast for the filming of an upcoming horror film titled The Terrifier 2, according to PWInsider. Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that Jericho makes an appearance during a mid-credits scene in the film.
AEW recently announced that they were among the companies who were included in Fast Company’s “Brands That Matter” list for 2022.
During a recent interview with Inside The Ropes, Bryan Danielson revealed that he was considering returning to Ring of Honor when his contract with WWE was set to expire in 2018. Danielson stated “It was really interesting. My contract with WWE was up in 2018 and I was considering going to Ring of Honor and I was talking to The Young Bucks and I was talking to Cody [Rhodes] just to kind of see — all their contracts were up with Ring of Honor and I was like, ‘What are you guys gonna do?’ Because even my lawyer, who doesn’t know anything about pro wrestling, he said, ‘Hey, I don’t think you’d wanna sign with Ring of Honor if these Young Bucks aren’t going because they’ve got this YouTube show. I don’t know if you’ve heard of it, called Being The Elite’ and it’s essentially the driver for the popularity of Ring of Honor at the time, right? And so those guys go away, we don’t know if Ring of Honor will nearly still be as popular and then with Cody’s contract coming up, if they leave and Cody leaves, what will Ring of Honor’s popularity be like? So that was a part of the discussion.” Danielson also gave his thoughts on who he considers to currently be the “heart and soul” of AEW. Danielson stated “It’s cool for me that Mox is where he’s at. To me, there was that excellent interview segment with CM Punk and Jon Moxley and he talked about being the heart and soul of kind of AEW and I see him as that as well. Him, Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks is kind of like — and Chris Jericho, you know what I mean? But I see those kind of people as the guys, right? And it’s cool that when I first wrestled him, it was in front of like 75 people on a Wednesday show in the middle of nowhere. Mox actually knows exactly where it was but I don’t even remember so it was like, all of that kind of stuff is just neat.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)

Indies & Misc. Wrestling

Pro Wrestling NOAH recently announced that WWE talent Shinsuke Nakamura will be making an appearance for the company at their The New Year 2023 event on January 1, 2023 in Tokyo, Japan. It was announced that Nakamura will be facing off against the Great Muta in a singles match at the event.
KAIRI and Mayu Iwatani will be facing off in a match to crown the inaugural IWGP Women’s Champion at New Japan Pro Wrestling and Stardom’s upcoming X-Over event on November 20th in Ariake, Japan. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that Stardom and NJPW’s original plans for the inaugural champion was always for either KAIRI or Iwatani to win for different reasons. Meltzer reported that the final decision will depend on which market NJPW and Stardom wants to currently focus on the most for the belt with KAIRI winning if they chose the US market due to her bigger star status there and Iwatani winning if they chose the Japanese market due to Stardom’s plans in 2023 to make her into a major mainstream star for the company. In regards to Iwatani, a film based on her life is currently scheduled to be released in theaters in Japan next year and a likely international release on Netflix. Stardom officials reportedly want to use the expected new mainstream interest in her and the company to help launch her into a much bigger star status and also try to push for their other big stars to get the film treatment as well.
Stardom reportedly generated a paid attendance of 1,011 for their Oct. 22nd First IWGP Women’s Champion Decision Battle First Round event in Tokyo and 2,034 for their Oct. 23rd Goddesses Of Stardom Tag League 2022 event in Tokyo, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that Stardom officials are currently planning to hold four tournaments per year starting in 2023 with the newest being a 14-team Trios tournament called the Triangle Derby, which takes place from January 3 to March 4, 2023.
NJPW reportedly generated a paid attendance of 1,240 for their Oct. 21st Battle Autumn 2022 event in Iwate, 1,530 for their Oct. 23rd Battle Autumn 2022 event in Aomori, 700 for their Oct. 26th Battle Autumn 2022 event in Tokyo, 700 for their Oct. 27th Battle Autumn 2022 event in Tokyo, and 1,000 for their Oct. 28th Rumble on 44th Street event in New York City, New York, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that NJPW ran into several issues with this past week’s shows in New York City. In regards to their Oct. 27th The Night Before Rumble on 44th Street event, there reportedly were a lot of complaints from those who attended the event over the very high prices for merchandise being sold ranging from $75 for some hats to $95 for an Okada brand towel to as high as $130 for other hats. Meltzer reported that the reason for the issue why Stardom talent had been advertised and later pulled from ads for the events was due to U.S. work visa related issues. Those who were booked reportedly were chosen as a last minute decision by NJPW who had only received the approved visas on October 26th.
Royce Isaacs reportedly is currently working without a contract for NJPW, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
This past Friday’s NJPW Rumble on 44th Street event in New York City featured a surprise appearance Lio Rush. Following the YOH & Rocky Romero vs. SHO & Yujiro Takahashi match, House of Torture gave a beatdown to SHO and Romero which was disrupted by Rush’s surprise appearance. Rush then teased forming a tag partnership with YOH for this year’s upcoming Super Junior Tag League tournament.
NJPW’s Battle Autumn 2022 event earlier today in Chiba, Japan featured Ren Narita defeating Toru Yano and SANADA defeating KENTA in Quarterfinal Round matches for NJPW’s World TV Championship tournament.
Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre talent Dark Silueta reportedly recently underwent knee surgery and is currently expected to be out of action for the next several months, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
All Japan Pro Wrestling reportedly generated a paid attendance of 1,018 for their Oct. 22nd 50th Anniversary in Sanjo event in Sango and 689 for their Oct. 23rd Raising An Army Memorial Series 2022 event in Osaka, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Legendary wrestling venue Mid South Coliseum in Memphis, Tennessee reportedly is currently planned to be demolished and replaced with a new soccer specific stadium, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer recently revealed that he and Bret Hart were recently interviewed for an upcoming 25th anniversary edition of Wrestling with Shadows documentary film. Meltzer stated “We basically had a conversation about what led to it, our thoughts on it, and life over the past 25 years including Bret’s thoughts on if Pat Patterson knew, the Julie Hart-HHH conformation, Bret going into heavy detail on the Vince McMahon fight and his reaction to all the people who claimed it was Vince letting him have a “free shot,” and we talk about how Vince first didn’t want the movie out, but when he couldn’t stop it, he pretty much begged for what scene to be taken out, we go into a lot on Vince and his effect on Bret’s life, both good and bad, talked extensively of the year 1997 and why it was his favorite year of his career until Montreal, why he wouldn’t lose to Michaels and noting HHH played a big part in what happened … Bret also talks candidly about why his thoughts on some of his friends and the biggest names in the modern industry that he feels never fully understood the situation. We also talked about Bill Goldberg and going into detail on his thoughts, to where he got very emotional, while watching the footage from Montreal at the end of the movie” (Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter)
Wrestlenomics’ Brandon Thurston reported that Women of Wrestling’s weekly WOW TV shows are currently averaging a median viewership age of 62 per show for the current season. For some comparisons, Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that WOW TV would be on the same level as NJPW on AXS TV, Impact Wrestling, and NXT for oldest average viewership age for weekly wrestling shows in the U.S.
As noted before, Major League Wrestling’s on-going anti-trust lawsuit against WWE recently had a scheduled court hearing delayed from its original date of October 27th to a new date of December 5th. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the reason for the court hearing delay is due to presiding Judge Edward J. Davila is currently very busy overseeing the high profile Elizabeth Holmes biotech fraud trial that has been dragging along.
Major League Wrestling reportedly recently hired former wrestling promoter Gary Juster to a backstage management job in the company, according to PWInsider. Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that Juster will be mostly working in an elder statesman’s type role in regards to helping advise and providing support to all aspects of MLW’s business. Prior to his hiring Juster had worked for WCW, Ring of Honor, and American Wrestling Association.
MLW also reportedly recently hired Delirious to a backstage producer job in the company, according to PWInsider.
Impact Wrestling recently has been purchasing commercial ad time on DirectTV during WWE’s RAW broadcasts and most recently during AEW’s Dynamite broadcasts. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that if the idea from Impact officials was that the increased exposure from airing ads during bigger wrestling shows would help lead to an increase in viewership for their own weekly Impact shows, then it has not been a success as of yet.
Saturday’s NWA USA show featured NWA owner Billy Corgan officially debuting a new NWA United States Tag Team Championship in the company.