Sat. Roundup: AEW Collision Canada Airing Update, RUSH Left AAA, Kaito Kiyomiya Drops Out of N-1 Victory 2023, Impact, Indies

WWE

• Friday’s WWE Friday Night SmackDown drew a preliminary viewership of 2,226,000 viewers on FOX, according to SpoilerTV.
• Gunther announced on Twitter that he reached the milestone of one full year as current Intercontinental Champion as of Saturday. Gunther is currently 49 days away from tying and 50 days away from surpassing Macho Man Randy Savage for #2 all-time and 89 days from tying and 90 days from surpassing The Honky Tonk Man for longest ever Intercontinental title reign in WWE history.
• Friday’s WWE SmackDown show in Des Moines, Iowa featured both the debut of a new WWE Women’s Championship belt and the return of Charlotte Flair. During the championship presentation ceremony for Asuka, Flair made her surprise return and demanded a title shot which Asuka accepted. Later in the show, WWE confirmed that this upcoming title match would be taking place at the June 30th SmackDown show in London, England.
• Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that the reason why WWE decided to debut a new WWE Women’s Championship belt was due to talks WWE officials had held for a long while over how to simplify the issue of the RAW and SmackDown Women’s titles being on different brands. This decision reportedly was influenced by Ronda Rousey who had made it clear backstage that she would rather compete in the Women’s Tag Team division with Shayna Baszler.
• Asuka responded earlier today on Twitter over the negative online reaction regarding the design of WWE’s new Women’s Championship belt. Asuka stated “I would like to see the fashion sense of the person who says that my belt design is terrible. If they have bad fashion sense, I despise them.“
• WWE filed a trademark for “Meta-Four” for wrestling and entertainment-related purposes on June 6th to the United States Patent and Trademark Office. This is the name of Noam Dar’s new group of himself, Jakara Jackson, Lash Legend, and Oro Mensah in NXT.
• WWE recently released their tribute video to late WWE Hall of Famer The Iron Sheik.
• NBC reportedly has cancelled their Young Rock television series after three seasons, according to Deadline. It was reported that Young Rock was among several television series that NBC decided to not renew for additional seasons for their network. This series revolved around Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson retelling key moments of his life, his family’s history in wrestling, and his own start in wrestling.
• A recent ad for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France featured WWE’s Roman Reigns and Paul Heyman.
• In a recent interview with the Mark Andrews: My Love Letter to Wrestling podcast, Seth Rollins gave his thoughts on who he would like to face the most at this year’s Money in the Bank event in London, England. Rollins stated “Oh my god, there’s so many people. The Raw roster is so stacked right now. We’ve got guys like Cody, you’ve got Kevin, you’ve got Sami. We’ve got, I think Drew McIntyre on the injured list at the moment right now. You’ve got Bronson Reed, Shinsuke Nakamura, the entire Judgment Day. You’ve got all four of them that are just rocking right now. I would love to beat the hell out of Dominik Mysterio in front of a rowdy London crowd. I think there’s lots of options on the table, so we’ll see what happens and where it all shakes out, but I think, right now, the thing I’m most excited for is just to go out there and listen to the fine folks sing my song. That’s really what gets me off these days.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• In a recent interview with the Tetragrammaton with Rick Rubin podcast, Paul Heyman gave his thoughts on if CM Punk should have been the one to end The Undertaker’s WrestleMania Streak at WrestleMania 29 in 2013. Heyman stated “I thought when we were going with Punk versus Undertaker, and Paul Bearer had just passed away, and we had done the out of the box and way over the line story on television that we laid out the Undertaker, and then we poured the ashes of Paul Bearer out of the Undertaker’s urn onto the Undertaker, which was just the heaviest thing we could think of doing. I was like, ‘Okay, if there’s a guy that could be anointed as a top tier star, if there’s someone that could become equal to Cena at this point in time, the Macho Man to Hogan, The Rock to Steve Austin, a clear 1 and 1A, that if we give Punk this victory, we’ve established someone for the next 20 years as a star.’ I thought the case could be made for that. CM Punk was ready to beat The Undertaker. In Vince’s mind, and a lot of other people’s minds, and most likely in Taker’s mind, Phil Brooks was not going to get that victory. CM Punk, yes. Phil Brooks, no. That was their decision. That was their judgment. But Brock Lesnar going against the streak. The moment Vince came to us and said, ‘Hey, here’s what I have in mind for Mania. When he said Brock versus Undertaker, first thing in my mind was, ‘Oh, my God, we’re getting the streak.’ I didn’t see it any other way. I couldn’t fathom it any other way.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• In a recent interview with the Women’s Wrestling Talk podcast, Zoey Stark gave her thoughts about her recent call-up to WWE’s main roster. Stark stated “It still does when we’re about five, six weeks in and every single day that I get to walk into work is incredible. I forget sometimes that I get to work with them, it’s so surreal. It’s crazy.” Stark also gave her thoughts on the differences between working in WWE’s NXT and RAW brands. Stark stated “There’s a lot more pressure on Raw than there was on NXT. A lot more eyeballs looking at you and everyone is standing there watching you and seeing what you can do. So, definitely a different feel to it but it’s a good feel, I thrive off the pressure.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

AEW & ROH

• As noted before, AEW held a retirement ceremony this past Wednesday for longtime wrestling seamstress Sandra Gray. Gray reflected earlier today on Twitter about AEW’s ceremony for her and thanked AEW CEO Tony Khan and everyone in the company for the lovely sendoff to her career. Gray stated “With all my heart, Thank you @Tony Khan and my entire @AEW family for the most beautiful and loving send off ever! I am so honored to have been with this company since day one, I’m overwhelmed with all the love and respect you gave to me, A beautiful ending, Thank you all.” AEW recently uploaded the entire ceremony on their official YouTube channel.
• As noted before, this past May’s AEW Double or Nothing 2023 event last Sunday featured Sammy Guevara and Tay Melo announcing that they are currently expecting the birth of their first child. Guevara and Melo revealed in a new video on YouTube that they will be having a baby girl and her name will be Luna.
• AEW recently announced that their upcoming new Collision television series will air live on TSN’s TSN+ streaming service in Canada.
• In regards to the status of Collision’s broadcast for the United Kingdom, Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that no official announcement has been made regarding where Collision will be airing in the U.K. as of this past Thursday.
• In a recent interview with Fightful, Darby Allin gave his thoughts about his efforts at connecting with audiences at AEW events. Allin stated “Dude, to me, that’s the biggest thing that’s important. Because when I was growing up, there wasn’t a lot of wrestlers I felt like I could relate to outside the ring. I was like, ‘Man, who could I see myself hanging out with?’ I’m like, ‘I don’t know. I see myself hanging out with skateboarders or punk rockers,’ stuff like that. Then to be given the opportunity to just let me be me inside the ring and outside the ring, I felt like I could connect to a lot more people. There’ s a lot of action sports fans like skateboarders or motocross kids that haven’t given wrestling a chance, then they see me hanging out with a Tony Hawk or a Travis Pastrana and then go, ‘Alright. What is this wrestling guy all about?’ Then they see me jumping off a huge ass ladder onto Jeff Hardy and they go, ‘Oh, alright, this is pretty awesome.’ So that’s my whole thing. I’ve talked to guys like Travis Pastrana about that. He’s like, ‘I’ve never watched wrestling, but when you started coming over to my house, I started watching what you do. Man, that’s insane.’ That’s my thing, to attract as much outside wrestling fans who haven’t given it the opportunity yet to even watch it. If they give AEW an opportunity, I think they’re gonna see something they’ll like. That’s what’s cool about what AEW gives me. Inside the ring and outside the ring. No other company is gonna let me be me. Period. Nobody’s gonna let me skate with Tony Hawk or jump my house with Travis Pastrana or even climb Mount Everest. Nobody’s letting me do that.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• This past Sunday’s NJPW Dominion 2023 event in Osaka, Japan featured Jon Moxley and Claudio Castagnoli teaming with Shota Umino for the NEVER 6-Man Tag Team Championship match on the show. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Moxley had received his work visa and Japanese residency card this past week. Meltzer reported that Moxley had to pick up his visa in-person at the Japanese consulate in Detroit, Michigan due to paperwork for his approval had been delayed. Meltzer also reported that due to Moxley getting both a work visa and residency cards, he will be allowed to return to Japan and work for NJPW at any time in the future.
• In regards to Castagnoli’s travel issues for NJPW’s Dominion 2023 event, Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Castagnoli’s trip to Japan was basically a nightmare and a photo finish for him to arrive at NJPW’s event. Meltzer reported that Castagnoli had to deal with three delayed flights, one cancelled flight, and one scheduled flight that was missed due to the delays. Castagnoli reportedly had arrived at the venue around 25 minutes before the scheduled NEVER 6-Man Tag Team Championship match at the event which left him very little time to get prepared for the match. Meltzer reported that at one point, the belief backstage was that Castagnoli would need to dress while in the cab during his ride from the airport and rush straight into the ring due to how close of a call his arrival to the venue would be.
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that AEW’s upcoming new Collision series could be facing around 11 preemptions per year on TNT due to sports-related issues. Meltzer reported that this was the number of times TNT had preempted their originally scheduled programming on their network last year for the 8PM Saturday night timeslot. In regards to this year, Meltzer reported that TNT has already preempted their originally scheduled programming for Saturday nights five times and all due to sports-related programming.
• This past Wednesday’s episode of Mayans MC on FX featured CM Punk making his return to the series reprising his role of a military veteran character named Paul.
• The June 16th AEW Rampage show is currently scheduled to be preempted to an earlier start time of 6PM EST on TNT due to Game Six of the 2023 NHL Stanley Cup Finals based on a recent programming schedule update on the network. Should the series not go to six games, then Rampage would air at its regular timeslot of 10PM EST that night on the network. This year’s Stanley Cup Finals is currently set for at least five games due to the Florida Panthers defeating Las Vegas Golden Knights in Game 3 to give Las Vegas a 2-1 series lead.
• AEW recently released a new gameplay trailer for their upcoming AEW Fight Forever video game showcasing the game’s tag team mode.
• As noted before, Kenny Omega recently praised Kurt Angle for being someone he has studied to help improve his own career and would lose to him in a hypothetical dream match. In a recent episode of The Kurt Angle Show podcast, Angle gave his thoughts about Omega’s recent comments in praise of him. Angle stated “Someone like Kenny Omega, the impact that he’s had on wrestling today — I think he’s one of the best today without a doubt. For him to say that about me, it’s a complete honor. I’ve kept my eyes on this kid for the last 10 years, wrestling over in Japan and everywhere else but the WWE, and I’m surprised WWE never picked him up. I don’t know if he wanted to go to WWE, because I think if WWE really wanted him or if he really wanted to go, they would have hired him. For some reason, he didn’t want to go there, but I respect his decision and I think he’s just the best today.” Angle also gave his thoughts on how a hypothetical match between him and Omega would have played out. Angle stated “Well, one thing we wouldn’t do, we’re not going to have some cage match. We’re not going to have a hardcore match. What we’re gonna have is a technical wrestling match. I think Kenny and I add value to that, that is our forte, and that’s what we would be able to bring to the table. It would be like Bret Hart versus Kurt Angle, I really believe that. It would be a little different because Kenny’s a little more of a high flyer, but for the most part, it would be almost the same.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

Indies & Misc. Wrestling

• In an post on Instagram earlier today, RUSH stated that he and his father La Bestia del Ring have left Lucha Libre AAA and are currently independent wrestlers in Mexico. RUSH stated that the reason for their departure was due to him being fed up with the promises that had been made to him by AAA officials that were not followed through.
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Bandido is currently believed to be finished with AAA due to he had worked at an event for Crash on June 2nd in Tijuana, Mexico. AAA head booker Konnan reportedly had previously warned Bandido that if he worked at the event, then he likely would no longer be booked for AAA events going forward due to The Crash’s status as a rival promotion.
• Following Saturday’s Sunny Voyage 2023 event for Pro Wrestling NOAH in Yokohama, Japan, Kaito Kiyomiya announced that he is dropping out of NOAH’s upcoming 2023 N-1 Victory tournament in order to fully focus on his participation for New Japan Pro Wrestling’s upcoming G1 Climax 2023 tournament. Kiyomiya stated “As a result of talking with the company, I decided to withdraw from N-1 VICTORY in order to focus on G1 CLIMAX. I’ve come to the conclusion that I will become a G1 star. I will come back with a win.“
• FITE TV recently announced that Impact Wrestling’s upcoming Down Under Tour events on June 30th to July 1st in Australia will air live on their service.
• Impact recently announced that NJPW’s Hiroshi Tanahashi will be making an appearance at their co-promoted Multiverse United 2 event with NJPW on August 20th in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
• Following Impact’s Against All Odds 2023 event on Friday in Columbus, Ohio, one new match was officially announced for the card of Impact’s Slammiversary 2023 event on July 15th in Windsor, Canada. This is an Impact World Championship match of Nick Aldis vs. Alex Shelley (c)
• In a recent digital exclusive interview with Impact, Alex Shelley recently reflected about his Impact World Championship victory at Friday’s Against All Odds 2023 event. Shelley stated “It really hasn’t sunk in. I’m still so revved up. My adrenals are just pumping. I’m just like a big ball of stress right now, but that’s fight or flight for you. It did feel surreal. As soon as there was a three count and I pinned him, it felt surreal. It’s a very lucid, waking dream. kind of sublime, like standing at the edge of a building and like looking over like, ‘I don’t know if I should be here right now.’ My back hurts. Everything hurts. My heart don’t hurt. My brain doesn’t hurt, and as soon as that bell rang, it was autopilot. It’s what I was meant to be doing. Effortlessness, time slowing down, felt like I was in complete control, even when I wasn’t. I was always not just one step ahead, but ten steps. I think the end result speaks for itself. It’d be nice to say that I did this on my own. Twenty years have taught me nobody does. Nobody. I’m legitimately just a product of everything around me. Just absorbing that energy and learning all these look into applying them. I mean, honest to God, it’s cliche, but you do your best, and that’s all you can do. It took me a long time to realize that my best was good enough. Now, I’ve got that to prove it.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• AAW Wrestling announced that that have cancelled their Crush & Destiny event which had been originally scheduled to take place tonight in Chicago, Illinois due to the Chicago city government had shut down the venue that would have hosted their event on Friday. It was announced that they were unable to find a new venue on such a short notice and had to cancel their event as a result. It was also announced that they will be issuing refunds to those who had purchased tickets to their event as soon as possible.
• As noted before, multiple promotions cut all ties with indie wrestler and former Major League Wrestling talent Davey Richards this past March over allegations of domestic violence committed by him towards his wife. Richards recently posted an official statement on Twitter denying the allegations against him and claimed that one of the two women who made the allegations had admitted to making it up. Richards stated “The last 3 months have been – wow, tempestuous to say least. Things got very dark for awhile for me – at one point I planned on taking my own life. Sounds to surreal to think I was in that state. To have a couple bitter ex’s do through the trouble, turn, and effort to spread false information about me to destroy my wrestling career – a career that I came back to with no other intent then to just give back was harrowing. Worst – they succeeded in doing so. I could have sought vengeance – but those whom seek vengeance should start by digging two graves. Since that time that accuser has admitted her claims were false and the other – well- that’s her cross to bear. I’ve dedicated my life to helping others through wrestling and medicine. To claim I was intentionally hurting others was heartbreaking. Worst again- everyone bought it. I really wanted to use my last year or so in wrestling to give back and give the vast amounts of knowledge back to the sport that has given me so much. But it looks like that was not meant to be. But the darkest days always bring the brightest mornings. I’ve re – dedicated myself to my study of medicine, my love of grappling, and most of being a father. If I hold onto the bitterness and apathy as those whom tarnished my name then I am no better than them. So I forgive them. I was given a talent by God for wrestling and for medicine – no one can take that from me and it is my responsibility to use my talents and passion to help and serve humanity. Today I can say – I am happier than I have been in a very long time. I have peace and direction in life. If this is the end of my in ring career – I am nothing but grateful for every time I got to step foot in that ring. Love me or hate me – I can say with complete honesty I gave you every thing I had in me every single time. Wrestling is good. Life is good. Love you all.“
• In a recent interview with the Wrestling Shoot Interviews podcast, Stevie Richards provided some details regarding his recent spinal infection and recovery. Richards stated “For months, I was just thinking, ‘Oh, my back’s starting to hit that wall. Maybe I’m gonna need surgery, maybe I’m gonna need a nerve block.’ Whatever fix I could have at this point to keep going. Then, in the end of January on a Sunday morning, I had one of my best workouts ever; thought I was pulling through, like, one of those bouts where your lower back keeps biting you… But from 9:00 AM when I got home and I thought, okay, that was a good workout to noon… I was completely stuck in my chair and it was just a mystery, like my back has locked out, but not to the point where my legs are almost useless. Not, paralyzed, not numb. But it hurt so bad I couldn’t put pressure on my legs ‘cause it would shoot up into my back. So my wife, literally from 9:00 AM when I got home and then at noon had me in a walker. I went right to a walker. I’m moving around and it’s just now fear. The early set of fears settling in like, well, I’ve never experienced pain like this.” “So I’m in a wheelchair, and then Mayo Clinic finally got eyes on me, thank God finally got eyes on me. And once they saw me, I got admitted. They started doing tests. They did a spine biopsy, which by the way, because of the infection, None of the twilight type of anesthesia worked. I felt every bit of them hammering a needle into my spot. Oh, dude, I’m telling you, I was just like laying there and he kept apologizing and I just hear that it sounded like a railroad spike going into my back.” Regarding how he believed he got it, he said, “I was over at my best friend’s house and his dogs got freaked out by something that happened. And I just happened to be petting one of the dogs. It bit me right in the face and like, right through the skin… The other [dog] got freaked out by the noise and then got freaked out ‘cause the dog got freaked out and bit me in the leg. It was a goofy thing, but the point of that was number one, I’m glad it didn’t bite my wife. I’m glad it didn’t bite the neighborhood kids that were over in the house either, ‘cause it would’ve been a lot more traumatic to have that. I can at least grow the beard out and cover it somewhat.” Regarding where he’s at now, “Besides the CT scan, I’m officially out of the woods, but I also have to be very careful because the effects, so the effects from the spine infection have still lowered my immunity. I’m down about 35 pounds still, which I wanted to lean out, but I didn’t wanna do it that way, but I’m down from, I was down from 215lbs and I dropped to 180lbs. Now I’m around 180, 185. But my workouts, I have to say thank God, have been outside of hip hinging movements and putting any kind of pressure, axial pressure on my neck or my spine. I’m pretty much able to do just about everything. Now, what I’ve done, James, too, because I’m really a fitness enthusiast and that’s why my fitness brand, I started my fitness journey all over again and I’m still, technically even after about two months.” (Transcript h/t: Wrestling Observer Newsletter)
• Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling announced that Yuka Sakazaki recently suffered a neck injury and as a result, they have pulled her from their upcoming Summer Sun Princess 2023 event on July 8th in Tokyo, Japan. It was also announced that they have stripped Sakazaki and Mizuki of their Princess Tag Team Championship due to Sakazaki’s injury. (English translation via PostWrestling.com)
• The National Wrestling Alliance recently announced that their upcoming NWA 75 event will be taking place on August 26-27 in St. Louis, Missouri. It was also announced that they will also be holding NWA Powerrr television tapings on August 28-29 in the city.
• Game Changer Wrestling recently announced a new match for the card of their Now And Forever event on July 14th in New York City, New York. This is a GCW World Championship match of MAO vs. Blake Christian.