Weekend Roundup: JBL Update, Paul Heyman on Reigns Deserving Emmy Award, MJF, MLW, AAA & Omega, Himeka Retiring, Indies

Indie / Misc

Steve C.

Feb 12, 2023

WWE

This past Friday’s WWE Friday Night SmackDown drew a preliminary viewership of 2,390,000 viewers on FOX, according to SpoilerTV.
As noted before, WWE is currently in the process of potentially selling the company to a new owner. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that based on WWE’s current stock market value of $6.588 billion which would result in a likely sale price of around $8 billion, WWE Executive Chairman Vince McMahon would make over $2.5 billion from a potential sale. In regards to others on WWE’s Board, Meltzer reported that WWE CEO Nick Khan would make around $13.8 million, WWE Executive Producer & Head of Global Television Distribution Kevin Dunn would make around $24.2 million, and WWE Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque would make around $8.3 million. Former co-CEO Stephanie McMahon reportedly would make around $170.8 million from a potential sale.
WWE officials reportedly held recent talks regarding potential plans for Atlanta and Minneapolis to be the host cities for two major WWE pay-per-view events in the future, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
WWE reportedly generated an attendance of 9,652 (8,700 paid) for their Feb. 3rd SmackDown show in Greenville, SC, 5,719 (5,100 paid) for their Feb. 4th Vengeance Day 2023 event in Charlotte, NC, 9,926, 5,747 for their Feb. 4th house show event in Columbus, GA, 5,295 for their Feb. 5th house show event in Pensacola, FL, and (8,900 paid) for their Feb. 6th RAW show in Orlando, FL, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
WWE reportedly has sold around 9,442 tickets for their Feb. 13th RAW show in Brooklyn, NY, 12,553 tickets for their Feb. 17th SmackDown show in Montreal, 13,687 tickets for their Feb. 18th Elimination Chamber 2023 event in Montreal, Canada, 6,690 tickets for their Feb. 20th RAW show in Ottawa, Canada, 5,570 tickets for their Feb. 24th SmackDown show in Evansville, IN, 2,301 tickets for their Feb. 25th house show event in Champaign, IL, 2878 tickets for their Feb. 26th house show event in Rockford, IL, 5,840 tickets for their Feb. 27th RAW show in Grand Rapids, MI, 6,865 tickets for their March 3rd SmackDown show in Washington, DC, 4,348 tickets for their March 4th house show event in Toronto, Canada, 2,549 tickets for their March 4th house show event in Syracuse, NY, 4,528 tickets for their March 5th house show event in Trenton, NJ, 5,516 tickets for their March 6th RAW show in Boston, MA, 5,094 tickets for their March 10th SmackDown show in Pittsburgh, PA, 2,932 tickets for their March 11th house show event in Youngstown, OH, 6,172 tickets for their March 12th house show event at Madison Square Garden in New York City, NY, 3,331 tickets for their March 13th RAW show in Providence, RI, 4,819 tickets for their March 17th SmackDown show in Kansas City, MO, 2,608 for their March 18th house show event in Milwaukee, WI, 6,161 tickets for their March 27th RAW show in Phoenix, AZ, 54,026 tickets for their April 1st WrestleMania 39 Night 1 event in Inglewood, and 55.992 tickets for their April 2nd WrestleMania 39 Night 2 event in Inglewood, CA as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
As noted before, the February 6th episode of RAW drew 1,866,000 viewers and a 0.55 key demographic rating. Wrestlenomics’ Brandon Thurston reported that only two of RAW’s twelve quarters averaged 2 million or more viewers. These two quarters were the 5th quarter featuring the Brock Lesnar promo and brawl with Bobby Lashley, which drew 2,024,000 viewers, and the 9th quarter featuring the Paul Heyman & Cody Rhodes promo segment, which drew 2,027,000 viewers. In regards to viewership low point, RAW drew 1,618,000 viewers for their 10th quarter following the Rhodes & Heyman promo segment quarter.
As noted before, Randy Orton has been out of action for WWE since this past May due to a back injury and underwent back fusion surgery this past November. Orton made an appearance earlier this month at the The Boone Center in Missouri and had a photo taken revealing him to be in great shape and likely has been training for a potential return to WWE. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that WWE officials currently do not have any plans for Orton’s return.
As noted before, Bronson Reed made his return to WWE this past December. During a recent interview with the WWE After The Bell with Corey Graves podcast, Reed gave his thoughts on the process that led to his return to WWE. Reed stated “I was actually here at home, and it was Triple H that called me. I always had a great relationship with him. At the time, I was working with New Japan Pro-Wrestling, and it looked like I could do one of two things. I could have signed on with them to stay longer, or I could have come back to WWE. I sent a text to Hunter just to see if he was interested. He was, so he set up a time to call me. He called me, and we had a great chat about everything, not just coming back to WWE, but wrestling in general; what I’ve been doing. It just felt right. It felt like, ‘Okay, this is the move that I need to make.’ I said to Hunter, ‘I didn’t get to do those things like [compete in a] Royal Rumble or [at] WrestleMania or [in]an Elimination Chamber. These are the things that I wanted to be able to do.’ So I’m very happy that I’m back to be able to do those things.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
WWE recently announced that WWE Hall of Famer The Undertaker will be holding two new Undertaker 1 deadMAN Show events on March 24th in Las Vegas, Nevada and March 31st in Los Angeles, California.
2K Games recently announced that Roman Reigns, Ronda Rousey, Drew McIntyre, Liv Morgan, and Gunther are the next set of playable wrestlers for the launch roster of their upcoming WWE 2K23 game. In a follow-up announcement, 2K Games also announced that Jinder Mahal and the Bella Twins will also be featured among the game’s playable launch roster.
This past Friday’s SmackDown show in Uncasville, Connecticut featured the surprise return of Ronda Rousey. During Natalya’s promo segment on the show, Shayna Baszler interrupted and confronted Natalya over her insults which led to Rousey making her surprise return. Rousey and Baszler then teamed up and attacked Natalya and also took out Shotzi who had ran out trying to save Natalya. This was Rousey’s first appearance in WWE since the December 30th episode of SmackDown.
The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer reported in Saturday’s Daily Update that indie wrestler B3CCA was the identity of the enchantment talent named Cameron Harris who lost to Lacey Evans in a match during this past Friday’s SmackDown show.
As noted before, WWE Hall of Famer JBL is currently not scheduled to make more regularly scheduled appearances for WWE following this past Monday’s RAW show, which featured JBL angrily splitting away from Baron Corbin. Dave Meltzer reported in a recent episode of the Wrestling Observer Radio that his sources stated that the original plans for JBL’s pairing with Corbin was for it to not end the way it did. Meltzer reported that those spoken to stated that the reason for the change in plans was due to WWE officials had given up on the storyline since they felt it was not working and that this will be the end of Corbin’s latest push in the company.
In a recent interview with Variety, Paul Heyman stated that he believes Roman Reigns should win an Emmy award for his portrayal of the Tribal Chief character in WWE. Heyman stated “I will honestly state that I’ll put Roman Reigns and his portrayal of the Tribal Chief up against anybody right now in how he has approached a reality-based character of the top star of the industry. The fact that he’s not recognized by the people that are there to reward such performances with an award, to me, is disconcerting. We’re trying to present a body of work that exceeds all boundaries and limitations that have been imposed upon this industry, either self-imposed or imposed by the predetermined notion of what this business is by the outside world, as evidenced by the fact that we’re sitting here today talking about the unfathomable concept of the Emmy Awards because a year ago we would have been laughed out of the conversation. But this is what we strive for.”
Cable network A&E recently released their full schedule of WWE-related programming on February 19th on the network.
Sunday’s NFL Super Bowl LVII game between the Kanasis City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles on FOX featured the airing of two WWE-related commercials. One of the commercials was from Draft Kings and featured WWE Hall of Famer The Undertaker. The other was from Paul Logan’s Prime Hydration energy drink and featured footage of Logan’s match with The Miz at last year’s SummerSlam event.

AEW & ROH

AEW’s television partner Warner Bros Discovery reportedly recently dropped their plans to merge their HBO Max and Discovery + streaming services into one single service, according to Deadline.com. It was reported that the main reason for the plan being dropped was due to WBD officials being worried over the potential of a large drop in subscribers from their Discovery+ service had they went forward with their plans to increase the price of subscriptions for this new merged service due to it being higher than the current monthly price for a Discovery+ sub. It was also reportedly that WBD officials currently plan to continue to run both of their streaming services separately.
AEW reportedly generated an attendance of 4,300 (4,000 paid) for their Feb. 8th Dynamite show in El Paso, TX, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
AEW reportedly has sold around 3,003 tickets for their Feb. 15th Dynamite show in Laredo, TX, 6,078 tickets for their Feb. 22nd Dynamite show in Phoenix, AZ, 2,948 tickets for their March 1st Dynamite show in San Francisco, 1,868 tickets for their March 3rd Rampage show in San Francisco, 6,714 tickets for their March 5th Revolution 2023 event in San Francisco, CA, 3,691 for their March 8th Dynamite show in Sacramento, CA, 6,485 tickets for their March 15th Dynamite show in Winnipeg, Canada, 2,782 tickets for their March 22nd Dynamite show in Independence, MO, 2,333 tickets for their March 29th Dynamite show in St. Louis, MO, 4,412 tickets for their May 5th Dynamite show in Long Island, NY, 2,073 tickets for their May 7th Rampage and Battle of the Belts VI shows in Kingston, RI, 1,322 tickets for their May 12th Dynamite show in Milwaukee, WI, and 2,295 tickets for their May 19th Dynamite show in Pittsburgh, PA as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
This past Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite show in El Paso, Texas featured a backstage promo segment by MJF. During his promo, MJF told a tale about a past incident involving him getting into a serious car accident with a woman named Liv during his time in high school. While MJF basically admitting to committing a crime live on television, Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the recent reports of the Nassau Police Department being flooded with calls over MJF’s crime story are not true. A representative from the Nassau Police Department public information office stated that they did not receive any calls over MJF revealing his crime nor have any records regarding the story of the accident as told by MJF. Meltzer reported that while MJF embellished many of the details of his story for heel heat, he was involved in a real life car accident in high school on the night of his junior prom.
During a recent episode of the Talk Is Jericho podcast, host Chris Jericho revealed that The Great Muta was the inspiration for his decision to come up with a new finisher for his matches, which led to the creation of the Judas Effect. Jericho stated “Once again, I got that idea from Great Muta (switching up finisher). When the moonsault starts tearing his knees apart, what’d he do? A Shining Wizard, a jumping knee. It’s so easy. But once you beat a couple guys with it, then suddenly it’s over and that’s what wrestling is all about.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)
In the same episode of Talk Is Jericho, Michael Oku gave his thoughts about wanting to work for AEW for their upcoming show in London, England later this year. Oku stated “In terms of other places to wrestle, I’ll just go ahead and say it. AEW is coming to London, I’m a London wrestler and I’m trying everything in my power to see if I can get some type of opportunity there. If the stars align, that would be a cool place to say that I wrestled at. At this point, I think anything is possible. Hopefully this year or next year, I’d like to wrestle for New Japan in Japan.” In response to Oku’s comments, Jericho stated that he will do whatever he can to ensure Oku has a spot at one of AEW’s shows in London. Jericho stated “So are you talking about AEW in London, doing like a Dark match or a Elevation match or something like that? Because you got that, that’s easy. You’ll be on the show for sure, no problem, I’ll guarantee you that. I’ll guarantee it, no problem at all. That’s easy to do. Done. Done deal.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
In a recent interview with Comicbook.com, Jade Cargill gave her thoughts about her feeling that its it time she started to have more high profile storylines with AEW’s top female stars in the company. Cargill stated “I’m just going to give these ladies some time before I want to go for the big belt. That’s something that I want to accomplish. I want to go for the main belt, I know that’s for sure. I wouldn’t say so soon because right now I’m just focused on getting reps and getting better. Having longer matches, better feuds, and actual storylines. However, I believe it’s time for me to start having storylines with a Britt Baker, or Jamie Hayter, or a Saraya, or Toni Storm and working those storylines. I know I can do it. I have the charisma to do it. If you stand me next to any of these ladies, the work, the look and the aura of who I am speaks for itself.”
Satnam Singh filed a trademark for “One in a Billion” for wrestling and entertainment-related purposes on February 7th to the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Singh also filed a trademark for the logo of his “One in a Billion” nickname for similar purposes.
Ring of Honor reportedly has sold around 2,520 tickets for their March 30th Supercard of Honor 2023 event in Los Angeles, CA as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

Indies & Misc. Wrestling

As noted before, this past Tuesday’s MLW Underground show drew 79,000 viewers and a 0.03 key demographic rating on REELZ Channel. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that MLW drew an additional 25,000 viewers for their West Coast airing bringing the total to 104,000 viewers for their debut episode on REELZ. Meltzer reported that MLW’s total key demographic viewership for their combined East and West Coast airings was 54,000 viewers. For some comparisons, Meltzer reported that MLW’s debut show overall viewership is in the range of what Impact draws on average for their weekly shows on AXS TV but MLW’s key demographic viewership was much higher than Impact’s average for shows.
In regards to viewership age skews, Meltzer reported that MLW’s East Coast airing was slightly older than AEW’s average for Dynamite for youngest wrestling television show but also younger than WWE’s RAW and SmackDown averages for their shows. When including the West Coast airing, Meltzer reported that MLW had the youngest skewing wrestling show for this past week but due to MLW drawing less than 200,000 viewers for the ranking threshold, it was not officially listed for the category.
Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that MLW Underground shows on REELZ will feature more current content and not months old content starting on February 21st.
MLW reportedly generated an attendance of around 700 for their SuperFight 2023 event and Underground tapings on Feb. 4th in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Davey Richards’ current contract with MLW reportedly is currently set to expire in a few months, according to PWInsider.
As noted before, MLW talents Arez and Aramis recently requested and were denied their releases from Major League Wrestling. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that the main issue revolves around MLW blocking bookings for the two from Game Changer Wrestling. Meltzer reported that while MLW allows their talents to work for other promotions, GCW is among those blacklisted by the company for their talent. This situation reportedly led to Arez and Aramis wanting to leave MLW due to GCW being open for offering more dates while MLW was not interested in using them for their shows. Meltzer reported that those spoken to within MLW stated that due to Arez and Aramis also being AAA talent, their release request would need to go through AAA first. MLW sources reportedly also stated that Aramis never asked for his release and the reason for their lack of work for him is due to a visa-related issue. Meltzer reported that MLW recently contacted AAA to resolve this issue which likely could lead to both talents leaving MLW within the near future.
New Japan Pro Wrestling reportedly generated a paid attendance of 100 for their Feb. 3rd TAMASHII show in Coogee, Australia, 3,073 for their Feb. 4th The New Beginning in Sapporo 2023 Night 1 event in Sapporo, and 3,316 for their Feb. 5th The New Beginning in Sapporo 2023 Night 2 show in Sapporo, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the recent rumors and reports of Mercedes Mone’s contract with New Japan Pro Wrestling being higher in monetary value than what they paid for Chris Jericho is not true based on his sources. Meltzer reported that the Mone’s NJPW contract is for less money than she could get in WWE or AEW but is still very good money in terms of a per date type deal. Meltzer also reported that while Mone’s current contract is only for a few work dates with NJPW and Stardom, she has yet to accept any additional dates from other promotions. Meltzer speculated that this could mean Mone might be interested in returning to WWE once she is done with her work in Japan and would be unlikely to sign a AEW deal since a current AEW minimum contract is three years in length.
NJPW recently announced a new match for the card of their Battle in the Valley 2023 event on February 18th in San Jose, California. This is an IWGP World Heavyweight Championship match of Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada (c).
NJPW’s The New Beginning in Osaka 2023 event on Saturday in Osaka, Japan featured a surprise appearance by Lio Rush. Following Los Ingobernables de Japon’s win in an 8-Man Tag Team match at the event, Rush made a surprise video appearance challenging Hiromu Takahashi for his IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship match at a future event.
This past Wednesday’s episode of Power Slap drew 275,000 viewers and a 0.08 key demographic rating on TBS, according to ShowBuzz Daily. This is down compared to last week’s 284,000 viewers and a 0.09 key demographic rating.
Lucha Libre AAA reportedly currently is no longer planning to run an event during WrestleMania 39 week in Los Angeles, California, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Dave Meltzer reported that the reason is due to AAA officials were unable to finalize a deal with Conrad Thompson to run a potential event at a soccer stadium nor did they make any other deals with other promotions running events in the city.
AAA reportedly generated an attendance of 6,300 for their Feb. 5th Rey de Reyes 2023 event in Merida, Mexico, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
AAA reportedly is currently working on plans to potentially bring in either Kenny Omega or Kota Ibushi for a match against El Hijo del Vikingo for his AAA Mega Championship at one of their Triplemania events this year, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Meltzer reported that one potential roadblock to AAA’s plans to book Omega revolves around their partnership with AEW needing to be smooth out due to how they booked FTR to lose their AAA Tag Team titles to a WWE contracted talent as a favor to WWE at the time. Meltzer speculated that AAA wanting to use an AEW talent instead of a WWE talent for their show might also mean that AAA’s plans to form a new potential partnership with WWE have either been dropped or put on hold for the time being since this would have prevented them from being able to book WWE and AEW talents on the same Triplemania shows.
As noted before, Konnan is currently suffering from kidneys-related issues due to complications from a bout he had with COVID-19 earlier this year. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Konnan’s health has been improving since he recently went on dialysis. Meltzer reported that while Konnan has lost around 70 pounds since the start of his bout with kidney issues, he has managed to get better sleep and regained his feeling of taste compared to before.
Pro Wrestling NOAH reportedly generated a paid attendance of 825 for their Feb. 5th Star Navigation 2023 event in Tokyo, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
NOAH’s Great Voyage 2023 event earlier today in Osaka, Japan featured NJPW’s Tetsuya Naito and Kazuchika Okada making surprise appearances. Prior to the show’s main event, Naito made a surprise appearance and gave a promo directed towards Keiji Muto ahead of their match at next week’s Grand Final Pro-Wrestling Last Love event in Tokyo. Following Kaito Kiyomiya’s successful GHC Heavyweight Championship title defense against Jack Morris at the event, Okada made a surprise appearance and attacked Kiyomiya with a Rainmaker lariat. Okada then gave a promo mocking Kiyomiya and insulting NOAH fans to close out the show.
As noted before, Jon Moxley’s scheduled appearance for Over The Top Wrestling’s upcoming Scrappermania 7 event is currently in doubt due to Moxley being double booked for an AEW house show event that night. OTT recently announced that they will be making an official announcement soon regarding Moxley’s status for their upcoming event. It was also announced that they are currently in talks with AEW to resolve this issue.
Stardom talent Himeka recently announced that she will be retiring from wrestling this April. Himeka stated that she will be having her retirement match at Stardom’s upcoming event on April 23rd at the Yokohama Arena and has requested for Maika to be her final opponent. Himeka also stated that she was not retiring due to any injury and instead simply due to her only wanting a five-year career in wrestling. Stardom is currently scheduled to hold an official retirement ceremony for Himeka on May 15th in Tokyo, Japan.
Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling’s Futari Wa Princess Max Heart Tournament 2023 Finals event on Saturday featured 121000000 (Maki Ito & Miyu Yamashita) defeating Kyoraku Kyomei (Hyper Misao & Shoko Nakajima) to be crowned this year’s Max Heart tournament champions.
Game Changer Wrestling’s JCW J-Cup 2023 tournament this past Friday and Saturday featured Jordan Oliver defeating “Speedball” Mike Bailey in the J-Cup Finals to be crowned both this year’s tournament winner and new JCW World Champion.
The National Alliance’s pre-show for their Nuff Said event on Saturday in Tampa, Florida featured a backstage interview segment with EC3. During the segment, EC3 announced that he recently signed an official contract with the company. EC3 also stated that he will be bringing his Control Your Narrative into the company.
Japanese wrestling legend Genichiro Tenryu underwent emergency surgery on Saturday due to him suffering from septic shock. In an official statement, the Tenryu Project official Twitter account stating that Tenryu’s surgery was successful but is recovering in ICU.