Various: Dean Malenko Dealing with Serious Health Issues, D-Von Dudley Pulled from Indie Event, Indies

Dec 22, 2022

Dean Malenko Currently Dealing with Several Serious Health Issues

A recent episode of the What Happened When with Tony Schiavone podcast featured co-host Tony Schiavone revealing that Dean Malenko is currently dealing with several serious health issues involving Parkinson’s Disease and diabetes and had also recently suffered a heart attack.

“His health is not good. We had him on Starrcast in Chicago. No one had really talked about it, but he mentioned that he had Parkinson’s. He’s also had a heart attack. He’s got diabetes. So he’s had some serious, serious health problems, but he’s still a part of AEW backstage.
They always make sure that he’s, of the big matches when you see like Moxley or Danielson or one of those main events, big main events, Dean is always the coach. One of the reasons that they have Dean as the coach for it is he doesn’t put up with any bullsh*t at all. I’m glad to see him still working, but I’m very sad about his health problems that he’s had these days.”

Transcript h/t: WrestlingNews.co

D-Von Dudley Pulled from Indie Event, Battleground Championship Wrestling Issues Updated Statement

WWE producer and coach D-Von Dudley was involved in an incident this past weekend over him being pulled by WWE for an indie event by Battleground Championship Wrestling called Tribute To The Extreme in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

During the show itself, BCW promoter Timothy Embler stated in a heated address to the crowd that the reason for Dudley’s removal was due to a legal letter sent by WWE about them being upset over the marketing of their event and claimed that it infringed on their ownership of the ECW and D-Von Dudley name. Embler also stated Dudley had talked with WWE Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque to allow him to work at the show but Levesque denied his request.

Embler recently issued a follow-up statement on Facebook rescinding his earlier claims that WWE had purposely pulled Dudley in order to hurt his company’s show and apologized for his heated comments against WWE.

“Hey guys. I have a follow up statement to the situation with the WWE that I addressed in the ring this past Saturday. After having several conversations today I now know that everything that went down with D-Von was a misunderstanding. The wwe did not intentionally pull Dvon to hurt our show. I won’t get into those details but if I had the information then that I have now I wouldn’t have made the comments I made. It felt as if we were under attack and I reacted in the defense of our company. I can’t thank everyone enough for the support you showed and the future for The Battleground is limitless! Have an amazing rest of the holiday season and just remember… this March… A Champion Shall Rise! -Tim”

Misc. Wrestling News & Notes

WWE Hall of Famer Koko B. Ware reportedly is currently hospitalized in Mississippi for an unknown medical issue, according to PWInsider.

Sasha Banks reportedly arrived in Japan on Wednesday ahead of her upcoming appearance for New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Wrestle Kingdom 17 event, according to PWInsider.

NJPW announced that they have pulled Oskar Leube from the card of their Road to Tokyo Dome 2022 event today in Tokyo, Japan due to him recently falling ill with a fever. It was also announced that Leube was tested for COVID-19 as a precaution and his test returned back negative.

NJPW also recently announced that Kazuchika Okada and Jay White will be making an appearance at their Battle in the Valley 2022 event on February 18, 2022 in San Jose, California.

Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling recently announced that they have pulled Nao Kakuta from the card of their December 24th event in Tokyo, Japan due to her recently tested positive for COVID-19.

Premier Streaming Network announced that they have recently signed multi-year deals with WrestlePro and WrestlePro Alaska to air their live events and library of past events on their service.

As noted before, Premier Streaming Network recently signed a deal with Combat Zone Wrestling to air their events on the service. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that PSN’s announcement was made in error and instead their deal with CZW is not exclusive and CZW will still be airing their events on other services as well.

Absolute Intense Wrestling recently announced that they have moved their upcoming December 30th event from Cleveland to Akron, Ohio due to issues with the host venue. It was announced that due to The Odeon venue being recently sold to new owners and currently planned to undergo renovations next year, they were told by venue officials that their upcoming event on December 30th and all of their scheduled dates for 2023 at the venue would no longer be possible as a result.

VICE Media, parent company of VICE TV, reportedly is currently expected to fall short of their revenue projections for this year by around $100 million, according to the Wall Street Journal. It was reported that VICE Media’s inability to hit their expected projections “could make it harder for the company to fetch” the $1.5 billion they are seeking in a sale to Antenna Group. Despite the lower than expected revenues, VICE Media reportedly is still expecting to see “significant growth” in earnings before deductions compared to their previous fiscal year. It was also reported that VICE Media is also currently dealing with some financial issues over them being “several months behind” in paying several of their vendors.