Weekend Roundup: Liv Morgan Injury Update, Omos, Ciampa, Lance Archer Dealing with Triceps Injury, NJPW, Lita, CMLL, Indies

AEW

Indie / Misc

Steve C.

Jun 4, 2023

WWE

As noted before, Liv Morgan has been out of action for WWE since this past May due to a potential torn rotator cuff injury. In a recent UpUpDownDown live stream session, Morgan provided an injury update stating that she had suffered a torn shoulder injury. Morgan stated “You know, it’s really funny that you bring it up because I’m sitting at home with my torn shoulder and I’m like, wow, I’m really excited to win the UpUpDownDown Championship. I’m really excited to beat (ma.ce) and he just so happened to ‘have a recital’. I would like to see the footage of this recital, just saying. So you sent your friend out (man.soor) but you know what? Even with one shoulder, I’m still gonna beat you and I’m gonna be the new UpUpDownDown Champion. I wasn’t gonna miss this for the world. One shoulder, no shoulder, doesn’t matter.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)
Omos and his wife Cheyenne got married on Saturday in
Kissimmee, Florida.
In a recent interview with the WWE After The Bell podcast, Sami Zayn revealed that he had considered dropping out of The Bloodline storyline at one point due to issues over how his involvement was not going in the direction he had hoped. Zayn stated “Yeah, there were, and I can’t mention names [laughs]. There were doubts as to whether it should even happen. Even in its early infancy stage of it all. Then, for me, going back to a question about impatience. There was a point when I was actually very impatient with the storyline and I was almost ready to abandon ship and say, ‘Okay, we need to start moving on in a different direction if this isn’t going to go where it needs to go.’ For me, it all hinged on me and Roman getting together finally and the swerve being, ‘Roman likes this guy.’ You expect him to not like him, but he meets him, and he likes him. That was the money of the whole thing. He buys in. Roman drives the whole story, and it works very well, even if he’s not there, but because he’s the main antagonist, his decision at the next point in the story is going to drive and propel the story in whatever direction it’s going. You needed him involved.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
WWE’s Night of Champions 2023 event last Saturday in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia is currently estimated to have generated around 8,300 pay-per-view buys, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Dave Meltzer reported that this was up compared to this past May’s Backlash 2023, which generated around 6,700 PPV buys. In regards to Google searches, Meltzer reported that Night of Champions 2023 generated around 200,000 searches and a #6 ranking for Saturday, May 27th.
Dave Meltzer reported that WWE’s decision to hold their NXT Battleground event on the same night and in head-to-head competition against AEW’s Double or Nothing 2023 event ended up backfiring. Meltzer reported that instead of siphoning interest and pay-per-view buys away from AEW, the opposite happened instead for NXT with one metric being Google searches for the event were down 60% compared to this past April’s Stand & Deliver 2023 event.
WWE reportedly generated an attendance of 3,482 (3,000 paid) for their May 28th NXT Battleground event in Lowell, MA and 7,393 (6,500 paid) for their May 29th RAW show in Albany, NY, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
WWE reportedly has sold around 6,730 tickets for their June 5th RAW show in Hartford, CT, 5,079 tickets for their June 9th SmackDown show in Des Moines, IA, 4,908 tickets for their June 12th RAW show in Wichita, KS, 6,912 tickets for their June 16th SmackDown show in Lexington, KY, 3,583 tickets for their June 17th house show event in Cincinnati, OH, 2,946 tickets for their June 18th house show event in Charleston, WV, 7,994 tickets for their June 19th RAW show in Cleveland, OH, 5,988 tickets for their June 23rd SmackDown show in Lafayette, LA, 1,963 tickets for their June 24th house show event in Monroe, LA, 3,042 tickets for their June 25th house show event in Mobile, AL, 5,162 tickets for their June 26th RAW show in Savannah, GA, 6,951 tickets for their June 29th house show event in Sheffield, England, 17,658 tickets for their June 30th SmackDown show in London, England, 6,711 tickets for their June 30th house show event in Newcastle, England, 17,700 tickets for their July 1st Money in the Bank 2023 event in London, England, 4,834 tickets for their July 2nd house show event in Cardiff, Wales, 10,591 tickets for their July 7th SmackDown show at Madison Square Garden in New York City, NY, 6,083 tickets for their July 10th RAW show in Buffalo, NY, 6,955 tickets for their July 14th SmackDown show in Raleigh, NC, 3,680 tickets for their July 15th house show event in Fairfax, VA, 2,253 tickets for their July 16th house show event in Salisbury, MD, 7,777 tickets for their July 17th RAW show in Atlanta, GA, 7,278 tickets for their July 21st SmackDown show in Orlando, FL, 6,463 tickets for their July 24th RAW show in Tampa, FL, 4,300 tickets for their July 28th SmackDown show in New Orleans, LA, 11,965 tickets for their July 31sr RAW show in Houston, TX, 3,202 tickets for their Aug. 4th in Dayton, OH, 40,190 tickets for their Aug. 5th SummerSlam 2023 event in Detroit, MI, and 5,889 tickets for their July 7th RAW show in Minneapolis, MN as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
As noted before, a 2022 Panini Prizm WWE Back Prizm trading card featuring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson broke the all-time record for highest ever auction sale for a wrestling-based trading card this past April. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that a 2022 Panini black Prizm WWE trading card of John Cena sold for $17,100 at an auction on May 25th for PWCC marketplace.
As noted before, Tommaso Ciampa has been out of action for WWE since this past October due to a hip injury and surgery to repair it. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that Ciampa is currently expected to make his return from injury soon. Meltzer reported that when Johnny Gargano had stated in a promo that there was one more member of their family who would be coming back soon, this was assumed to be in reference of Ciampa.
In a recent episode of The Ringer’s Cheap Heat podcast, Shayna Baszler stated that the reason why she is currently teaming with Ronda Rousey in WWE was due to Rousey had pushed hard and demanded it to be done for them in the company. Baszler stated “Ronda’s Ronda, right? She’s been main title, she’s been the main event at WrestleMania. She still gets one of the loudest pops when we walk out. This was something she’d demanded. We’ve been asking for it forever, but she finally put her foot down and went to the office and said, ‘Listen, we’ve been asking for this forever. You keep telling us after.. after… after..’ I honestly don’t know if she hadn’t done that, If they would have ever gotten to it. I wasn’t in a position yet to be elevated to a Ronda level. So the fact that Ronda said, ‘No, stop, I’ve done this. I want to do this because this is why I started wrestling.’ So, I think that’s huge. You know what I mean? She could be main eventing SummerSlam. She doesn’t have to be where she is, which is elevating these titles. I at least want people to understand like, this is happening in large part because she demanded it. So she demanded to work with me, as a friend. So, it’s cool to have someone who truly isn’t out for themselves. You know what I mean? And that’s in show business. That’s so rare. So it’s very cool.” (Transcript h/t: SEScoops.com)
Wrestlenomics’ Brandon Thurston reported that the Top 10 sellers for WWE’s online WWEShop store in order were Seth “Freakin” Rollins, LWO, Roman Reigns, Rhea Ripley, Kevin Owens, Cody Rhodes, The Usos, Hulk Hogan, SummerSlam, and The Ultimate Warrior. In regards to specific Top 10 selling items for the past week in order reportedly were Men’s Black Rhea Ripley She’s My Mami T-Shirt, Men’s Black Seth Freakin Rollins Whoa Ohh Ohh T-Shirt, Men’s Black Roman Reigns Life’s Not Fair T-Shirt, Men’s Black Eddie Guerrero LWO T-Shirt, Men’s Black Cody Rhodes Undeniable T-Shirt, Men’s Black LWO Latino World Order T-Shirt, Men’s White The Bloodline We The Ones T-Shirt, Men’s WWE Together Pride Pullover Hoodie – White, Men’s White Hulk Hogan Stars & Stripes T-Shirt, and Men’s WWE Together Pride T-Shirt – White.

AEW & ROH

Sunday’s Dominion 2023 event for New Japan Pro Wrestling in Osaka, Japan featured Will Ospreay defeating Lance Archer in the Finals of the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship #1 Contender tournament. Following his match, Archer stated to the backstage press that the reason why he has not wrestled as much in 2023 is due to him currently dealing with a torn triceps injury. Archer stated “2023 hasn’t been the best year for me. The amount of disrespect that I feel all over the world right now, it pisses me off. Nearly 23 years in this business. One of the best, if not the best, big man to step in the fucking ring. AEW, this message is for you. New Japan Pro-Wrestling, this message is for you. Every fucking mark around the world, this message is for you. There’s a reason I haven’t been wrestling a lot, and it has nothing to do with bad booking, you dumb shits. What everybody doesn’t even realize that I’ve been battling a torn tricep and I’ve kept getting it quiet. I didn’t tell everybody because I don’t need your sympathy, I don’t need your get well wishes. I don’t need anything. I just needed time, and now I’m back.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
As noted before, AEW’s Double or Nothing 2023 event last Sunday featured Sammy Guevara and Tay Melo officially announcing that they are currently expecting the birth of their first child. In a recent interview with TMZ Sports, Guevara and Melo reflected on their baby announcement. Guevara gave his thoughts about his feelings during his entrance for his match following his and Melo’s big announcement. Guevara stated “I mean, there was a cool moment where once I got in the ring, me and Jungle Boy gave each other a hug and even our referee, Bryce (Remsburg), he gave me a hug, Justin Roberts said congrats. It was like this real moment right before we’re about to beat each other up and then I had to snap out of it. I almost started crying as Darby (Allin) was coming in. I’m punching myself in the face. I’m like, come on, come on, you gotta focus. Because it was just very surreal, you know? Us four young men guys wrestling for the world title and then right before that, going out there announcing that we’re having a baby and then because, you know, the crowd’s coming back around on me but we were not always the most loved people out there and so for them to give us the big reaction that everyone was happy, showing us the love, it was just overwhelming in a way where I was just like, okay, okay, we gotta get back into it.” Melo responded stating that she was worried that the crowd would boo their announcement. Melo stated “It was pretty cool. We didn’t know what to expect and we talked about it before. I’m like, ‘I don’t know. Maybe the crowd is gonna boo and we just need to be ready for it, you know?’ Because we never knew what to expect now and they were so excited which made it so much better. I was about to cry because I was not really expecting the love so it was pretty special, pretty good.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)
YouTube channel DenkOps recently released a new video featuring an in-game look of Owen Hart for their upcoming AEW Fight Forever video game.
As noted before, Jamie Hayter suffered an unknown injury this past May. Despite her injury, Hayter was able to compete in her scheduled match against Toni Storm at last Sunday’s Double or Nothing 2023 event albeit with AEW’s dropping their original plans in favor of a short match instead. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that Hayter’s injury is currently believed to be a shoulder-related injury.
AEW reportedly generated an attendance of 10,550 (9,000 paid) for their May 28th Double or Nothing 2023 event, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Dave Meltzer reported that AEW’s live gate revenue for the event was around $900,000 and up from this past March’s Revolution 2023 event’s live gate of around $800,000. In regards to theater revenues, Meltzer reported that AEW had generated around and $138,000 from 5,500 ticket purchases from 240 theaters and up from Revolution 2023’s theater revenues of around $120,000 to $125,000 from 5,000 ticket purchases from 300 theaters.
Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that those spoken to who attended last year’s Double or Nothing event but did not do the same for this year’s event stated that the main reason was due to the rise in associated costs. This reportedly was stated to have been higher ticket prices for flights and higher costs for hotel stays for this year’s event.
AEW’s Double or Nothing 2023 event reportedly generated around 50,000 searches and a #11 ranking on Google for Sunday, May 28th, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
As noted before, this past Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite show in San Diego, California featured the official announcement of CM Punk’s return to AEW for Collision’s debut show on June 17th. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the current belief is that both Punk and Ace Steel will be heavily involved AEW’s creative for Collision in regards to the creative plans for Punk for shows.
AEW reportedly generated an attendance of 5,400 (4,00 paid) for their May 31st Dynamite show in San Diego, CA, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
AEW reportedly has sold around 2,478 tickets for their Dynamite show in Colorado Springs, CO, 3,087 tickets for their June 14th Dynamite show in Washington, DC, 7,067 tickets for their June 17th Collision show at the United Center in Chicago, IL, 4,940 tickets for their June 21st Dynamite show in Chicago, IL, 1,762 tickets for their June 24th Collision show in Toronto, 12,862 tickets for their June 25th Forbidden Door II event in Toronto, Canada, 3,439 tickets for their June 28th Dynamite show in Hamilton, Canada, 730 tickets for their June 29th Collision show in Hamilton, Canada, 4,955 tickets for their July 5th Dynamite show in Edmonton, Canada, 1,325 tickets for their July 8th Collision show in Regina, Canada, 2,334 tickets for their July 12th Dynamite show in Saskatoon, Canada, 3,393 tickets for their July 15th Collision show in Calgary, Canada, 3,717 tickets for their July 19th Dynamite show at the TD Garden in Boston, MA, and 3,947 tickets for their July 22nd Collision show in Newark, NJ as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
In a recent interview with Sporf, Chris Jericho stated that he is currently working on plans to hold a Fozzy concert in London during AEW’s All In weekend in the city. Jericho stated “I think Wembley is going to be monumental because it’s our first time with AEw and any time we go over with Fozzy, to see the band continue to grow, it’s just amazing to me. I can’t state how awesome the whole U.K. is. Scotland is insane for us. Wales, Northern Ireland, I love everything about the U.K. So any time I can go over there with Fozzy or AEW or back when I was with WWE, I just know it’s going to be a blast and a lot of fun and the shows are always memorable in different ways.“
Angelico reportedly recently joined AEW’s Spanish commentary team for AEW shows, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Wrestlenomics’ Brandon Thurston reported that the Top 10 merchandise sellers for AEW’s AEWShop online store for this past week in order were Mr. Brodie Lee, AEW x NJPW, Orange Cassidy, The Acclaimed, Blackpool Combat Club, FTR, CM Punk, Kris Statlander, Kenny Omega, and Jade Cargill. In regards to specific Top 10 selling items for the past week in order reportedly were Mr. Brodie Lee – AEW Unmatched 6, AEW x NJPW – Bullet Club Gold, Orange Cassidy – One Line, Blackpool Combat Club – BE REAL, FTR – Billion Star FTR, CM Punk – Best in the World Ringer, Kris Statlander – Stat is Back, The Acclaimed – Aces in the Air, Kenny Omega – Goodbye and Goodnight, ShopAEW Exclusive Jade Cargill – All Elite Wrestling – 6-Inch Jade Cargill Unrivaled.
In regards to Pro Wrestling Tee’s AEW store, Thurston reported that the Top 10 merchandise sellers for the past week in order were AEW, Orange Cassidy, Kris Statlander, Jay Lethal, The Acclaimed, $1 per Autograph deal, Blackpool Combat Club, FTR, Owen Hart, and CM Punk. In regards to specific selling items for the past week, the top seller was the AEW x NJPW – Bullet Club Gold t-shirt.
As noted before, AEW recently dropped their Dark Elevation and Dark series due to their new television deal with Warner Bros Discovery for their new Collision series. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that the general feeling with AEW is that TV tapings and overall production have become easier to handle due to everyone not needing to go in multiple directions all at once for multiple shows on the same night. AEW officials reportedly also currently feel that this has also given crowds a shorter but easier show to focus on so they are not getting burned out by the end of the night’s set of tapings.
In a recent interview with the Swerve City Podcast, Adam Cole opened up about dealing with self-confidence issues throughout his life. Cole stated “For me, certainly, I think lots of times I battle with — and Shane (Swerve Strickland), I don’t know if you agree with this or not but I definitely have some self-confidence issues, even to this day, after doing it for 15 years. I think part of the Adam Cole character as a heel that I enjoyed so much is I was this cocky, brash, no one can touch me, I am the best in the world character that is so not who I am as a person. It’s like when I walk through that curtain, it was like I felt invincible for a second and then you walk back through and again, I think at the end of the day, it comes down to because I care and we care so much about this job that you wanna be perfect and you’re constantly chasing that perfection of whether it’d be matches or promos or what have you, you wanna be the best. You really, really do so I think I’m still growing and learning as time goes on but early on, it was such an internal battle constantly of being able to balance that act between always wanna better yourself and not absolutely tearing yourself apart for feeling like you’re not perfect if that makes sense.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)

Indies & Misc. Wrestling

This past Friday’s The New Hoodslam event for Hoodslam featured WWE Hall of Famer Lita making a surprise appearance for the company. During a match between Jack Cartwheel and Dark Sheik on the show, Lita made her surprise appearance and interfered by kicking Cartwheel in the nether regions helping Sheik pick up the victory.
In a recent interview with Tokyo Sports, Kazuchika Okada stated that he feels that it is time for New Japan Pro Wrestling to drop the NEVER branding for their 6-Man Tag Team Championship and rename it under their IWGP banner. Okada stated “Of course I understand the history of NEVER, but I think it would be better to make it IWGP…. If so many members are involved, I think it would be interesting. I want the three of us to continue to fight these battles, and I want to bring it to the point where people say, ‘Maybe we should make this the IWGP.” (English translation via Fightful.com)
Sunday’s NJPW’s Dominion 2023 event in Osaka, Japan featured two new champions crowned. The first was Catch 2/2 (Francesco Akira & TJP) defeating the Jet Setters (Kevin Knight & KUSHIDA) to be crowned the new IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions. The second was Bishamon (YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto) defeating United Empire (Great-O-Khan & Aaron Henare) and House of Torture (Yujiro Takahashi & EVIL) to be crowned the new IWGP Tag Team and NJPW Strong Openweight Tag Team Champions.
NJPW announced that they recently signed a streaming deal with FITE TV to air their NJPW Strong brand events and library on the service as part of its FITE+ subscription tier.
NJPW reportedly generated a paid attendance of 1,330 for their May 26th Best of the Super Juniors 2023 event in Tokyo and 3,123 for their May 28th Best of the Super Juniors 2023 Finals in Tokyo, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
In a recent interview with the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast, Will Ospreay gave his thoughts about the amount of five star rated matches he has had in his career and how it impacts talks for his next contract. Ospreay stated “They don’t matter in terms of my financial gain. I’m not going to make any money on it. However, when contracts come up and I become a free agent, who is not going to want the kid that works hard and puts on these phenomenal matches that everyone talks about? That’s where we can always argue. If I come up against someone else who doesn’t have one (five-star match), in the current format, for me, if I’m on the market who is not going to want someone that works hard and puts on banger matches?” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
Saturday’s Crockett Cup 2023 Night 1 event for the National Wrestling Alliance featured an eight-women Hardcore Team War match. Prior to the match, the NWA announced that they had pulled La Rosa Negra off of the card and replaced her with Ruthie Jay due to La Rosa Negra being involved in a recent car accident. It was also announced that La Rosa Negra is currently doing well and recovering from her accident. It was also announced that La Rosa Negra will be back in the company soon.
Saturday’s NWA Crockett Cup 2023 Night 1 event also featured Vampiro making a surprise appearance. During the main event Crockett Cup 2023 Second Round match between La Rebelión (Bestia 666 & Mecha Wolf) and Control Your Narrative (Flip Gordon & Psycho Boy Fodder), Vampiro ran in and attacked both Gordon and Fodder to help La Rebellion pick up the victory and advance to the next round.
Saturday’s Tournament of Survival 8 event for Game Changer Wrestling in Atlantic City, New Jersey featured Rina Yamashita defeating John Wayne Murdoch in the Finals of the Tournament of Survival to be crowned this year’s tournament winner.
Pro Wrestling EVE recently announced that they will be holding two new co-promoted events with Gatoh Move Choco Pro on August 26th in London, England as part of AEW’s All In weekend in the city.
Pro Wrestling NOAH reportedly generated a paid attendance of 455 for their May 31st Sunny Voyage 2023 event in Tokyo, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Dragon Gate talents SB Kento and Takuma Fujiwara reportedly are no longer working nor are affiliated with the company, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Dave Meltzer reported that details regarding their departures from the company is currently not known beyond both are currently working in Mexico.
Stardom reportedly generated a paid attendance of 1,759 for their May 27th Flashing Champions 2023 event in Tokyo, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
TheCubsFan reported that Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre officials will be bringing in a new masked wrestler to portray the Mascara Dorada character. It was also reported that Metalik had recently stated on Twitter that the identity of this new mystery person is not him nor is he reprising his former character. It was also reported that CMLL currently owns the trademark to “Mascara Dorada” but there is a legal dispute over who actually owns the trademark, CMLL’s current owner Salavador Lutteroth or former CMLL owner Sofia Alonso, who was pushed out of power and control of the company by Lutteroth.
As noted before, Chris Brookes has been out of action for DDT Pro Wrestling since late May due to a dislocated right shoulder injury. During Saturday’s Yokohama Unlimited Vol. 3 event for DDT Pro in Yokohama, Japan, Brookes made a surprise appearance and stated in a promo to the crowd that he would be making his return from injury on July 7th.