Weekend Roundup: Cody Rhodes, Jade Cargill Breaks AEW Record, PWG, Mercedes Mone, Kota Ibushi, Jinny Retires, Indies

WWE

• This past Friday’s WWE Friday Night SmackDown drew a preliminary viewership of 2,182,000 viewers on FOX, according to SpoilerTV.
• During a recent interview with the Keepin It 100 with Konnan podcast, Dominik Mysterio revealed that he was working without a contract in WWE until August of 2020. Mysterio stated “Actually, it was before I went on contract (was the payday that took me by surprise the most), because I was getting paid per show… I did SummerSlam without being on contract. So I got paid for that pay-per-view… We were in the middle of negotiations so it was all kind of being handled at the time. But in good faith, I was like, ‘Yeah dude, I’ll do it.’ This is an opportunity of a lifetime so I jumped on it but after that SummerSlam and that following — because I did SummerSlam and then Monday Night Raw and then that following week, we did Payback when I tagged with my dad for the first time, like back-to-back, so I got two pay-per-view checks and a couple TV checks in one sitting and that’s when I was like, oh sh*t. This is pretty crazy.” Mysterio also gave his thoughts about becoming more comfortable working as a heel than he was as a babyface in WWE. Mysterio stated ” I think so (I feel more comfortable being a heel than a babyface). I think for me… when I first started with my dad, it just seemed like an overexaggerated version of me because I’m very laid back and very calm and I just feel like I had to match my dad’s energy. So it was always smiling, because they were like, ‘Dude, you got a good smile. Smile bro’. I felt like I just had more options and more variety to play with as a heel and stuff and I did feel a lot more comfortable and plus, when I was training before I debuted, when I would do matches, I would always be the bad guy and I would always be the heel working the babyface in training so it kind of just came a little bit more natural and comfortable for me.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)
• As noted before, Cody Rhodes has been out of action for WWE since this past June due to a torn pectoral injury. Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that Rhodes had been seen training at WWE’s Performance Center in Orlando as recently as this past late December. Rhodes reportedly handpicked NXT talents Carmelo Hayes and Joe Gacy to help him train for his in-ring return from injury to WWE.
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Cody Rhodes being among the talent shown in WWE’s official poster for their upcoming Royal Rumble 2023 event does not guarantee that he will be medically cleared in time for the event. In regards to WWE’s Royal Rumble plans, Meltzer reported that while WWE officials had hoped that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson would be able to make an appearance at the event, that has become a “pie in the sky” likelihood as of late. Meltzer reported that Rhodes is likely the current favorite to win the Royal Rumble but WWE still has not made a decision on if the Royal Rumble winner will face Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 39 for his Undisputed WWE Universal Championship or compete in a separate match for a new World title on the first night of WrestleMania 39.
• WWE reportedly generated an attendance of 9,119 (8,000 paid) for their Jan. 6th SmackDown show in Memphis, TN, 3,667 for their Jan. 7th house show event in Jackson, MS, 3,702 for their Jan. 8th house show event in Huntsville, AL, and 7,321 (6,500 paid) for their Jan. 9th RAW show in Birmingham, AL, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• WWE reportedly has sold around 6,573 tickets for their Jan. 16th RAW show in Cincinnati, OH, 9,997 tickets for their Jan. 20th SmackDown show in Detroit, MI, 2,125 tickets for their Jan. 21st house show event in Erie, PA, 2,277 tickets for their Jan. 22nd house show event in Binghamton, NY, 13,243 for their Jan. 23rd RAW 30th Anniversary show in Philadelphia, PA, 3,749 tickets for their Jan. 27th SmackDown show in Laredo, TX, 34,963 tickets for their Jan. 28th Royal Rumble 2023 event in San Antonio, TX, 4,780 tickets for their Jan. 30th RAW show in Tulsa, OK, 4,566 tickets for their Feb. 3rd SmackDown show in Greenville, SC, 3,179 tickets for their NXT Vengeance Day 2023 event in Charlotte, NC, 2,172 tickets for their Feb. 4th house show event in Columbus, GA, 1,951 tickets for their Feb. 5th house show event in Pensacola, FL, 6,463 tickets for their Feb. 6th RAW show in Orlando, FL, 3,962 tickets for their Feb. 10th SmackDown show in Uncasville, CT, 6,389 tickets for their Feb. 13th RAW show in Brooklyn, NY, 12,394 for their Feb. 17th SmackDown show in Montreal, 12,998 tickets for their Feb. 18th Elimination Chamber 2023 event in Montreal, Canada, 5,574 tickets for their Feb. 20th RAW show in Ottawa, Canada, 4,208 tickets for their Feb. 24th SmackDown show in Evansville, IN, 2,102 tickets for their Feb. 26th house show event in Rockford, IL, 4,356 tickets for their Feb. 27th RAW show in Grand Rapids, MI, 3,284 tickets for their March 3rd SmackDown show in Washington, DC, 1,721 tickets for their March 4th house show event in Syracuse, NY, 3,341 tickets for their March 5th house show event in Trenton, NJ, 3,928 tickets for their March 6th RAW show in Boston, MA, 3,827 tickets for their March 10th SmackDown show in Pittsburgh, PA, 2,410 tickets for their March 11th house show event in Youngstown, OH, 4,793 tickets for their March 12th house show event at Madison Square Garden in New York City, NY, 49,513 tickets for their April 1st WrestleMania 39 Night 1 show in Inglewood, and 50,052 tickets for their April 2nd WrestleMania 39 Night 2 show in Inglewood, California as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• As noted before, Dragon Lee announced this past December that he had recently signed an official contract with WWE. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that WWE officials currently do not have an official start date set for Lee. Meltzer reported that Lee is currently in the process of finishing up his remaining commitments in Mexico before he reports to WWE’s Performance Center to start his career in the company.
• As noted before, WWE is currently in the process of potentially selling their company to a new owner. Among those who had opposed WWE’s plans for a sale were WWE Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque and former WWE co-CEO Stephanie McMahon. The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer reported in Friday’s Daily Update that one source close to Levesque and McMahon stated that “Levesque and Steph were not against selling. They were open to all possibilities. . . In many ways the company was guaranteed to be sold in some fashion in the fact that Vince McMahon’s shares had to be addressed. In that regard, some level of a sale was guaranteed.”
• As noted before, Sheamus and Drew McIntyre revealed on the January 6th SmackDown show that their new tag team pairing will be known as the Banger Bros going forward. The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer reported in Friday’s Daily Update that WWE officials have been aware that this name is similar to a porn company called Bang Bros. but have not made any decision regarding a potential name change for Sheamus and McIntyre’s new team.
• This past Friday’s WWE SmackDown show featured an Intercontinental Championship match between Braun Strowman and champion Gunther. Prior to the match, Strowman and NFL team Green Bay Packers announced that they would be working together to honor the memory of Jackson Sparks, who was among those killed in the Waukesha Christmas parade attack in November of 2021. Strowman wore special Packers-themed wrestling boots for his match that were set to be auctioned off afterwards to raise money for a benefits foundation to help the victims of the Christmas parade attack.
• PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that RAW brand talents Damien Priest and Karl Anderson were seen backstage during this past Friday’s SmackDown show in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
• WWE reportedly recently pulled Ronda Rousey from the list of talent advertised to be making an appearance at their upcoming RAW 30th Anniversary show on January 23rd in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
• In a recent 8-K filing by WWE to the SEC, WWE revealed that Shane McMahon had been retained by the company as an independent contractor performer in 2022 and was paid $828,000 for his services. McMahon only competed in one match in 2022, which was the Royal Rumble 2022 event in January of 2022. This event was notable for McMahon being fired by WWE afterwards over serious backstage issues he caused during the show.
• WWE recently announced two new house show events on March 4th in Toronto, Canada and March 12th in New York City, New York for their current schedule of events from now until this May.
• WWE also recently announced that they will be holding their next investor’s meeting on February 2nd to discuss the results from their fiscal fourth quarter 2022 and fiscal year 2022 reports.

AEW & ROH

• As noted before, Chris Jericho and the rest of the Jericho Appreciation Society made their surprise appearances at Pro Wrestling Guerilla’s Feb. 8th Battle of Los Angeles 2023 Night 2 event in Los Angeles, California. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Jericho had wanted to work at a PWG event as a fun thing to do for his career. Jericho reportedly talked to Excalibur around six months ago regarding the idea of him showing up at a PWG event as a surprise. Meltzer reported that Daniel Garcia had suggested to Jericho the idea of joining him in a non-tournament tag team match for PWG’s Battle of Los Angeles 2023 event. Jericho agreed but wanted the whole JAS to be involved which Meltzer reported is how the six-man tag team match at the event was set. Jericho reportedly asked and was granted permission from AEW CEO Tony Khan to work at the show. Khan reportedly felt that Jericho’s suggestion was a great idea to do.
• AEW reportedly generated an attendance of 5,300 (5,100 paid) for their Jan. 6th Rampage & Battle of the Belts V shows in Portland, OR and 11,400 (9,400 paid) for their Jan. 11th Dynamite show in Inglewood, CA, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• In regards to the Jan. 11th Dynamite show in Inglewood, CA, Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the reason for the much higher than usual amount of comp tickets was due to the large number of WBD officials, business relationships, sponsors, and local celebrities who had attended the show. In terms of live gate, Meltzer reported that this past Wednesday’s show drew a paying gate of around $700,000 for AEW. This reportedly was down from their debut show in the city this past June, which drew a paid attendance of 13,900 and a gate of $860,000.
• AEW reportedly has sold around 4,704 for their Jan. 18th Dynamite show in Fresno, CA, 4,329 tickets for their Jan. 25th Dynamite show in Lexington, KY, 2,455 tickets for their Feb. 1st Dynamite show in Dayton, OH, 2,754 tickets for their Feb. 8th Dynamite show in El Paso, TX, 2,097 tickets for their Feb. 15th Dynamite show in Laredo, TX, 5,397 tickets for their Feb. 22nd Dynamite show in Phoenix, AZ, 2,953 tickets for their March 1st Dynamite show in San Francisco, and 6,126 tickets for their March 5th Revolution 2023 event in San Francisco, CA, 6,191 tickets for their March 14th Dynamite show in Winnipeg, Canada, and 1,291 tickets for their March 22nd Dynamite show in Independence, MO as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• Following his match at this past Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite show in Inglewood, AEW held an exclusive backstage interview with Bryan Danielson. One of the topics discussed included Danielson’s thoughts about his match against Konosuke Takeshita at the show. Danielson stated “Tonight I finally got the chance to wrestle Takeshita. I was really looking forward to it. I’d heard a lot of people who I’ve wrestled, when they wrestled Takeshita, they said, ‘Oh, man, that guy’s great,’ and I got to feel it. It’s one thing to watch somebody, and I watch him, and you see, for how young he is, he’s in his 20s, he looks so good. It looks like he hits so hard. But I want to feel it. It’s one of the things I love about wrestling is feeling [when I’m] out there. When we got out there, and he hit me with the first forearm, I felt it. I felt, this guy is special. I’ve been in the ring with some of the best wrestlers in the world, some of the best wrestlers of all time. I think, by the end, we’re gonna be talking about Takeshita in the same way.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• During a recent interview with Fightful, Rocky Romero gave his thoughts about working with Orange Cassidy and the Best Friends in AEW. Romero stated “Getting to see Sue a little more often, which is always nice. My mom and Sue are really good friends on Facebook. They send each other stuff, it’s really cute. ‘Did you see what Sue posted?’ ‘No,’ then she shows it to me and it’s awesome. Not only do I get to work with Trent, which is awesome, he’s one of my very best friends in the whole business and I love wrestling with him and working with him, but also I got to work with Orange Cassidy and Big Chuck. I’ve been lucky. I enjoy that I get to do fun stuff and show up on AEW and work with these guys. OC is so over with the fans and he’s such an incredible performer. He doesn’t even get the flowers that he should. Literally, everything he does is so difficult. Imagine doing all that wrestling with your hands in your pockets. I feel like fans don’t get how hard that is. Even Jim Cornette, all the shit he talks on Orange Cassidy is insane. Jim Cornette couldn’t walk and tie his shoes at the same time or walk and chew bubble gum. He’s the most unathletic person I’ve ever seen. Then you see Orange Cassidy, and he’s making fun of him. I don’t understand, you just don’t get it. He’s got the whole thing down. The right pockets and everything. Chuck is an amazing wrestler too. I’ve been lucky that I get to work with those guys. It’s cool that I can fill in when they need it. If OC is doing singles stuff, then I can be the third man for the trios. It’s been fun.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• In a recent interview with Dark Puroresu Flowsion, wrestling legend Jun Akiyama gave his thoughts on his interest in returning to AEW in the future and who from AEW he would like to face in potential matches. Akiyama stated “I would like to play a match if given the chance. It’s Chris Jericho, who is in condition at the same age, and Moxley, who I have never played against before. I was happy to hear that Eddie saw our wrestling and became a professional wrestler with courage and hope. I wanted to respond to that feeling by fighting in AEW.“
• WrestleCade recently announced that Bryan Danielson will be making an appearance for the company at their WrestleCade Weekend 2023 convention on November 24-26th in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
• Jade Cargill reportedly recently broke the record for longest ever championship reign in AEW history at 374 days and counting, according to Fightful. Cargill’s current TBS Championship reign broke the record on Saturday, surpassing the previous record of 372 days held by Hikaru Shida and her AEW Women’s World Championship reign from May 23, 2020 to May 30, 2021.
• During a recent interview with the DEFYANT Ones podcast, Wheeler Yuta gave his thoughts on when he started to feel confident of his career in AEW. Yuta stated “I’m trying to think of some of the earlier matches but kind of more fresh in my mind, I think about AEW stuff. Like I had this match with Penta when I was still with the Best Friends before all of the Blackpool Combat Club stuff and that was really the first time that I’d say I felt comfortable like in AEW. Like, okay, this is what I was doing on the independents, these are the kind of matches that I can have. Then that sort of snowballed, that was I think a month or two before the Blackpool Combat Club stuff started to roll, so that was a really good confidence booster for me. From then on, it just kind of snowballed and I got to have some really good matches with some really good people.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

Indies & Misc. Wrestling

• New Japan Pro Wrestling recently announced two new matches for the card of their Battle in the Valley 2023 event on February 18th in San Jose, California. These are a singles match of Eddie Kingston vs. Jay White and a Filthy Rules Fight match of “Filthy” Tom Lawlor vs. Homicide.
• As noted before, NJPW is currently working on plans to revamp and “rebuild” their NJPW Strong series at some point this year. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that talent who have been working for NJPW Strong have yet to be told of NJPW’s plans for the revamp of their Strong brand. Meltzer reported that is it unlikely that NJPW would bring over most of their NJPW Strong brand talent to Japan for their shows nor on a regular basis.
• As noted before, Mercedes Mone, former Sasha Banks in WWE, made her official debut for NJPW at their Wrestle Kingdom 17 event earlier this month. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that Mone recently generated some negative backlash in Japan from those who feel she is currently not dedicated to her NJPW and Stardom careers. This feeling reportedly is based on Mone has yet to train at Stardom’s dojo nor visit their shows since she traveled to Japan this past December and instead has been primarily training at Sendai Girls dojo. Mone reportedly had also been promoting Sendai Girls and Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling more on her social media accounts than Stardom and her upcoming IWGP Women’s Championship match. Meltzer reported that this issue is unlikely to be a serious one within Bushiroad nor Stardom and instead simply more of Mone had not been told beforehand of the proper mentality when it comes to dealing with the Japanese wrestling business, especially when it comes to mentioning rival promotions on social media.
• Mercedes Varnado reportedly recently joined the cast for an upcoming action film titled The Collective, according to Deadline.com
• As noted before, Kota Ibushi has been out of action for New Japan Pro Wrestling since October of 2021 due to a shoulder injury and issues over allegations of NJPW’s management committing “power harassment” against him. During a recent interview with Dark Puroesu Flowsion, Ibushi stated that his shoulder is currently around “90% comeback.”
• In the same interview with Dark Puroseu Flowsion, Ibushi gave his thoughts on the idea of potentially reuniting with Kenny Omega as the Golden Lovers in the future. Ibushi stated “I guess it depends on the current unstable WWE situation and other factors regarding that, but not while Kenny Omega is currently continuing to rise in New Japan Pro Wrestling. Will he drop the belt and go to AEW or where? Neither he nor I know. One thing I do know is that (1) I will be back. (2) How much I can move. (3) I don’t know if it will be this year, but I have a picture of it in my mind in the near future as much as possible. Actually. So I hope GL [Golden Lover] fans will wait for me. That’s about all I can say. Should Kenny continue to appear for New Japan once he loses the belt, then I don’t think we’re going to be able to wrestle together. However, he should be under a contract with AEW that [gives him more] freedom. So I think, depending on when his timing and my timing overlap, then there is a possibility that we will tag. There are still more problems with that, and I don’t want to tag with him if it’s not the right] situation to do so. Because the tag team with him is more special to me than anything. I think it will finally take shape once the time when we should wrestle [together], the conditions under which we should wrestle, our respective [physical] conditions, all of that has come together.”
• Pro Wrestling Guerilla reportedly generated an attendance of around 600 for their Jan. 7th Battle of Los Angeles 2023 Night 1 event in Los Angeles and around 600 for their Jan. 8th Battle of Los Angeles 2023 Night 2 event in Los Angeles, California, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• During a recent interview with Sports Illustrated, “Speedball” Mike Bailey gave his thoughts on winning this year’s PWG BoLA tournament. Bailey stated “PWG is the place where you go to become a star. If you look at their history, the best wrestlers in the world have all been there. It’s completely out-of-this-world talent. My favorite part of this year’s ‘BOLA’ was the diversity among all the people competing. Backstage, there were so many languages being spoken that it became extremely confusing. I started speaking Japanese to Bandido because we were all so mixed up.” Bailey also gave his thoughts about his First Round tournament match against Jordynne Grace at the event. Bailey stated “I went over 15 minutes with Jordynne Grace—after that, I was thinking, ‘I have three more of these?’ At that moment, it felt insurmountable. But it was a lot like when I competed in taekwondo tournaments. You’d start at nine in the morning, you’d be there all day, and you didn’t know how much time there would be between fights. The hardest part for me is always cooling down. Luckily, there wasn’t much time between my semifinal match and the finals. Before the semis, I got to cool down, rest, and relax, but then I warmed up, and I could feel all the damage from the first two fights. So I knew I couldn’t cool down or lose focus for a second because I needed to keep my adrenaline.” Bailey also gave his thoughts on competing against Konosuke Takeshita in the Finals of this year’s tournament. Bailey stated “Right before the end of the finals, when we went to the outside, and I did that one last springboard moonsault onto Takeshita, I remember feeling a great sense of relief. We still had the most difficult part left, but I just felt unreal. It was a truly amazing feeling.”
• Lucha Libre AAA and Marvel’s upcoming El Origen De La Mascara series reportedly is currently scheduled to debut on Disney+ on January 18th but only for the Latin American market, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• Stardom reportedly generated a paid attendance of 821 for their Jan. 6th Triangle Derby event in Tokyo, 1,071 for their Jan. 8th Triangle Derby event in Nagoya, and 711 for their Jan. 9th Triangle Derby event in Anjo, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• Dragon Gate reportedly generated a paid attendance of 978 for their Jan. 11th The New Year Gate 2023 event in Tokyo and 1,022 for their Jan. 12th The New Year Gate 2023 event in Tokyo, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• Pro Wrestling NOAH reportedly generated a paid attendance of 622 for their Jan. 8th Reboot 2023 event in Tokyo, 570 for their Jan. 8th New Sunrise 2023 event in Tokyo, and 227 for their Jan. 9th Sunny Voyage 2023 event in Yokohama, Japan.
• Westside Xtreme Wrestling recently announced that their current plans for a new streaming deal recently fell through. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that wXw officials have been searching for a new streaming service to air their events due to issues with their current deal with Vimeo. wXw reportedly is alleging that Vimeo had broken numerous terms in their contract, missed every deadline given, and is farther than ever from being able to present solutions to their problems. wXw also announced that they will provide an update in the future regarding the streaming of their events. Meltzer reported that at the moment, wXw currently only airs on the WWE Network for streaming services but not for live events.
• Revolution Pro Wrestling recently announced a new match for the card of their Revolution Rumble event on March 26th in Bethnal Green, England. This is a singles match of Michael Oku vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
• Impact Wrestling recently announced that this year’s Rebellion event will be taking place on April 6th at the Rebel Complex in Toronto, Canada.
• Besides his on-screen appearance at Impact’s Hard To Kill 2023 event this past Friday, PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that Raven also worked as a backstage producer for the event. Johnson reported that Raven also worked as a backstage producer for Impact’s television tapings on Saturday in Atlanta, Georgia.
• Game Changer Wrestling recently announced that KUSHIDA will be making his official debut for the company at their Eye for an Eye event on March 17th in New York City, New York. It was also announced that Alex Shelley will also be making an appearance at this upcoming event.
• GCW also recently announced that “Speedball” Mike Bailey will be making an appearance for the company at their Worst Behavior event on March 19th in Toronto, Canada.
• Major League Wrestling recently announced a new match for the card of their SuperFight 2023 event on February 4th in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This is a DRAGONGATE Open The Twin Gate Championship match of TBA vs. Natural Vibes (Kzy & Big Boss Shimizu) (c).
• MLW also recently announced that B3CCA will be making her official debut appearance for the company at their SuperFight 2023 event on February 4th in Philadelphia.
• Variety and Nielsen recently released a chart analyzing the key demographic ratings for shows among the top 50 television networks. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that this chart revealed that only 1 network in the Top 20 managed to not suffer a serious decline in key demographic viewership average for shows over the past year. This reportedly was ESPN, who saw an increase of 13% compared to their key demographic viewership average in 2021. In regards to television networks home to wrestling, USA Network averaged 224,000 key demographic viewers (down 25%), TNT averaged 383,000 key demographic viewers (down 18%), and TBS averaged 299,000 key demographic viewers (down 20%) per show in 2022.
• Dralistico recently announced that due to his brother Dragon Lee’s recent signing with WWE, they are vacating their AAA, The Crash, PWR, and KAOZ Tag Team Championship titles as a result.
• Former NXT UK talent Jinny recently announced on Twitter that she has retired from wrestling due to an injury-related issue. Jinny stated “After a long time away due to an injury, I have made the decision to hang up my fashionable boots. Thank you for all the memories. I’ll remember for them forever. Every journey has an end, but in life, every ending is just a new beginning. I’m excited about what’s next.”