Sat. Roundup: Shotzi, Carlito WWE Return Update, AEW Talent Meeting, Mark Briscoe & Steve Maclin Updates, Impact, Indies

WWE

• Friday’s WWE Friday Night SmackDown drew a preliminary viewership of 2,158,000 viewers on FOX, according to Programming Insider.
• Friday’s WWE SmackDown show in Raleigh, North Carolina, featured Bobby Lashley making his surprise return. In a backstage parking lot segment on the show, the Street Profits were waiting for someone to show up, who ended up being Lashley emerging out of a limo. Lashley then invited the Street Profits into his limo for some talks and the group drove away. This was Lashley’s first appearance in WWE since this past May.
• Friday’s WWE SmackDown show also featured a backstage promo segment by Shotzi. During her promo, Shotzi talked about Damage CTRL’s attack on her last week and cutting off a lock of her hair. Shotzi said that Damage CRTL does not have any control over her and instead she is still in full control and showed it by shaving off more of her hair. Following the show, Shotzi revealed on Instagram that the reason why she decided to cut off her hair was in solitude of her sister who is currently battling cancer.
• RAW brand talents Damian Priest and Odyssey Jones reportedly were in attendance backstage at Friday’s SmackDown show, according to PWInsider.
• Gunther’s current Intercontinental Championship reign recently surpassed 400 days and he is now only 55 days away from surpassing The Honky Tonk Man for longest ever reign as Intercontinental Champion in WWE history.
• WWE recently announced they will be holding six new UNDERTAKER 1 deadMAN SHOW events on August 24th in Louisville, KY, August 25th in St. Louis, MO, August 26th in Kansas City, MO, November 9th in Indianapolis, IN, November 10th in Cleveland, OH, and November 11th in Pittsburgh, PA.
• WWE reportedly is currently scheduled to hold a new set of tryouts over SummerSlam 2023 weekend in Detroit, Michigan, according to PWInsider.
• As noted before, Carlito recently signed an official contract with WWE and is expected to make his official return soon. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that WWE officials had originally planned for Carlito to make his official return at their July 7th SmackDown show in Madison Square Garden. Johnson reported that Carlito was not in attendance backstage during the show but had flown to Northeast for the company that weekend. One WWE source spoken to reportedly stated that had WWE actually gone ahead with their original plans, Carlito’s return “would have been lost in the wake of the Bloodline” so it was for the best that he did not return that night.
• In a recent interview with The Footy with Broden Kelly podcast, Bronson Reed gave his thoughts about WWE holding another PLE event in the future in Australia. Reed stated “I’m really hopeful that there will be soon. I don’t know yet. I heard that there were rumblings about doing a tour in October, but I think that’s been nixed. I’m hoping early next year, but I don’t know. They should do a big premium live event from Adelaide Oval.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• In a recent interview with the Busted Open Radio podcast, The Miz gave his thoughts about the advice he gives to others within WWE’s locker room due to his status as a veteran in the company. The Miz stated “Sometimes you’re not going to have the main event storyline. It’s your job as a WWE superstar, that if you get one minute on Raw or SmackDown, you better make it a meme-worthy, talked-about-worthy minute. I tell this to all the younger guys, ‘my storyline isn’t here, I don’t have a storyline.’ ‘You have time on the show. If you have time on the show, you have the ability to connect with an audience.’ It sucks because one minute sometimes isn’t a enough time,but you have to figure it out, you have to, or you’re not going to make it as a main event. Once you start doing those one minutes where you make it meme-worthy, then it becomes two minutes and three minutes, and you get that main event storyline. Then, when the main event storyline goes away, you’re still able to keep yourself at that level. That’s what I’ve been able to do. I didn’t do that the first time I had the WWE Championship. When I had it, I had the main event caliber and was in every main event. Once I lost the title and the main event storyline, I couldn’t figure out how to get myself back into it until five years later. That’s when something clicked, and I was like, ‘this is how I do it, this is how I build myself when I’m not in the main event stuff, this is how I insert myself into something that is relevant and means something.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• As noted before, Natayla held a training session with Stardom talent Utami Hayashishita as part of Hayashisita’s current tour of the United States. Besides Hayashishita, Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling’s Miyu Yamashita and NJPW’s Yuya Uemura also had visited Natayla and Tyson Kidd’s Dungeon training place this past week as well.
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that NJPW’s Yuya Uemura was in attendance at this past Tuesday’s NXT show at WWE’s Performance Center.
• As noted before, WWE officials are currently considering plans to use a smaller stage setup for their future shows at Madison Square Garden. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that WWE officials are also currently considering using a smaller stage design for any of their future shows that have a strong advance in ticket sales. Meltzer reported that this was something WWE officials never really considered doing in the past due to the max capacity of 12,000 to 13,000 with their current stage setup for venues was something they rarely were achieving for ticket sales for regular shows. Meltzer reported that now that WWE has been generating over 15,000 in tickets sales for many of their arena shows in recent months, this is something they are currently looking into to doing going forward for their non-major arena shows.

AEW & ROH

• Friday’s AEW Rampage show in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada featured one new match added to the card of next week’s Rampage show. This is a 20-Man Royal Rampage battle royal match.
• Post Wrestling’s John Pollock reported that tonight’s AEW Collision show will be airing at a later start time of 1AM EST on Sunday on TSN 2 in Canada due to TSN’s commitments for tonight’s UFC Fight Night event. Pollock reported that AEW’s Battle of the Belts VII special will also be airing at a later start time of 3AM EST on TSN2.
• Fightful Select reported that AEW officials held a talent meeting prior to the start of this past Saturday’s AEW Collision show in Regina, Canada. It was reported that exact details regarding what was discussed during this meeting is currently not known beyond that most talent at this past Wednesday’s Dynamite show were unaware of this meeting taken place until they were told about it.
• As noted before, Warner Bros Discovery is currently in favor of AEW expanding their pay-per-view events schedule to possibly one PPV event per month as part of the terms for a new television deal. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources within AEW stated that this has been something that has been discussed recently within the company as a potential idea but no official decision has been made yet over it.
• Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that Bryan Danielson has not been in attendance backstage at any of AEW’s shows since suffering a fractured right forearm injury at this past June’s Forbidden Door II event in Toronto, Canada.
• As noted before, AEW recently implemented a new health and safety protocols for the company’s talent. Fightful Select reported that several talent were not aware of this document’s existence until their report about it was made public.
• In a recent interview with Tokyo Sports, Great-O-Khan gave his thoughts about Aussie Open recently signing contracts with AEW and revealing that he had recently turned down a contract offer from AEW. Great-O-Khan stated “What is it? You, shut up. Aussie Open (Mark Davis & Kyle Fletcher) went to AEW [as] an order to expand the Empire’s area of control… As planned. There are big offers from Tony Khan, and MJF has asked me to fight for him, but I turned them down in favor of my invasion of New Japan.” (English translation via Fightful.com)
• In a recent episode of the What Happened When podcast, co-host Tony Schiavone gave his thoughts about why he considers Eddie Kingston to be his favorite wrestler of all time. Schiavone stated “I think it’s probably his top moment. That’s not really saying anything derogatory about what he’s done for us, but I mean, knowing how much he loves pro wrestling from Japan, and just good. I will say it probably til the day I die, he’s my favorite wrestler of all time. He really is, for so many reasons. What Eddie does seems, looks and is real.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• In a recent interview with the Mark Andrews: My Love Letter To Wrestling podcast, Britt Baker gave her thoughts on the importance of AEW’s upcoming All In event for both the company and England as a whole. Baker stated “I would say yes, and even more so because we’ve never been there, we’ve never been to the U.K. as a company, as a whole. So, it’s a new territory and it’s the biggest stage you could ask to perform on. If you would’ve told me when I signed my AEW contract that we would be wrestling in a nearly sold out Wembley, I would’ve said you’re insane. I thought 10,000 people was crazy, if I never wrestled in front of 10,000 people, I would have been thrilled. We’re definitely feeling the pressure of this one too, we want to have the greatest show we’ve ever done because there are so many eyes on this, we want to have a great first impression.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• In a recent interview with the Daily Mail, Matt Hardy gave his thoughts about his favorite moments from his current career in AEW. Hardy stated “When I think about my greatest moments of AEW, I’m still really proud of that street fight we had where I ran over [Sammy Guevara], and me in the golf cart. That was a lot of fun with myself and Kenny Omega, Sammy and Jericho. The Stadium Stampede was a great thing. I really love the match with myself and Jeff and The Young Bucks at Double or Nothing a year ago, and then I enjoyed the Hardy Family Office. Especially when it was myself Isaiah and Marq Quen, and I feel like if was able to stay contained to the three of us, I think it would have been even better. But then it kind of got to that point where there were some guys that just they said, Hey, can we put them with you, Matt? You know a little bit of a rub, and you can come talk for him, whatever, and we ended up doing that. I think that watered it down a little bit. It’s going to be very funny once this contract stuff is done with Ethan, which we’re getting very close to the end game here, but I’ll make sure to make a comment about it because I’m never going to be in a contract story again at all, because I’ve done my fair share.“
• In a recent interview with SEScoops.net, QT Marshall stated that RJ City has been helping write the QTV segments that have aired on AEW programming. Marshall stated “When we do QTV, we have someone who helps us write the stuff, RJ City. Of course, I’m the leader. At the same time, I wanted to let the [group] show character. The more outrageous, the better. It’s giving the talent hopefully an outlet to present themselves. We decided we needed a female in the group. She had done Dark for us once. I saw her do the Adam Cole song and thought this girl is pretty talented, and can wrestle. We haven’t seen it yet, but she can wrestle. That rap, it took her 15 minutes to rap. She went to catering and came back within 15 minutes and had everything down. It was just a freestyle. I thought it was really good. It’s something I pushed for her to do with The Acclaimed. We were just going to put it on social media. Then when other people saw it, they thought this has to be on TV. This is good. She did it herself. We laid the clips of us. But she had her producer. She did the whole music video herself. That’s how our company is with the Darby’s of the world. They go out and do stuff themselves, and it helped them get over. Whether they loved it or hated it, they are talking about it….I will say this as humbly as possible. QTV always does a good rating. Whether it’s a match or segment it always does well. I think people want to see me get beat up, which is good.“
• As noted before, Mark Briscoe recently suffered a serious knee injury and was pulled from Ring of Honor’s upcoming Death Before Dishonor 2023 event in Trenton, New Jersey. Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that the current belief is that Briscoe will be out of action for at least the remainder of 2023 due to the severity of his knee injury.

Impact, NJPW, Indies, & Misc. Wrestling

• Pro Wrestling NOAH announced a new match for the card of their True Flight ~ Naomichi Marufuji Debut 25th Anniversary Tournament on September 17th at the Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan. This is a singles match of Naomichi Marufuji vs. Will Ospreay.
• Lucha Libre AAA recently announced that Don Callis will be making an appearance for the company at tonight’s Triplemania XXXI: Tijuana event in Tijuana, Mexico. In a video promo, Callis revealed that he will be in the corner of El Hijo del Vikingo for his AAA Mega Championship match against Kenny Omega at the event.
• As noted before, RUSH recently announced that he would be returning to Lucha Libre AAA to work at tonight’s Triplemania XXI: Tijuana event in Tijuana, Mexico. Prior to his announcement, RUSH and his father La Bestia del Ring had left AAA this June over backstage-related issues. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that LA Park has been saying publicly that he will lose on purpose in the Finals of the Guerra de Rivalidades Tournament due to him and RUSH wanting to compete against each other in a hair vs. mask match. Meltzer reported that the biggest problem with this idea is that both LA Park and RUSH likely would be asking way too much money than what AAA would want to spend for either guy to lose their mask or hair. Meltzer reported that this money-related issue likely is why AAA is believed to have had plans from the start for Sam Adonis to face off against Psycho Clown instead for the end goal of the tournament since it would be a lot cheaper on AAA’s end for Adonis to lose and cut off his hair.
• Game Changer Wrestling recently announced that former WCW wrestler Lash Leroux will be making his in-ring return at their Say You Will event on September 1st in Hoffman Estates, Illinois.
• As noted before, Impact Wrestling recently pulled Steve Maclin from their upcoming Anniversary 2023 event on July 15th in Windsor, Ontario, Canada due to Maclin suffered an unknown injury earlier this month. Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that Maclin had suffered a groin tear injury but Maclin is currently not believed to require surgery to repair it. It was also reported that a potential timetable for Maclin’s return from injury is currently not known.
• PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that Eric Young was seen at the Detroit Airport on Friday afternoon. Johnson reported that it is currently not known if Young will be the mystery partner for Scott D’Amore for his tag team match against Bully Ray & Deaner at tonight’s Impact Wrestling Slammiversary 2023 event. During this past Thursday’s Impact show, D’Amore held a phone conversation with an unknown individual stating that while PCO can’t come back to life in time, he asked this mystery person if they could. The basis for Young being the possible person revolves around Young’s storyline departure from Impact this past December involved him being stabbed to death by Deaner as Young’s final step of having Deaner become the new leader of The Design.
• Mercedes Mone reportedly is currently scheduled to be in attendance backstage at tonight’s Slammiversary 2023 event for Impact in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, according to PWInsider. Mike Johnson reported that those spoken to stated that the reason for Mone’s visit is to show support for Trinity for her match against Deonna Purrazzo at the event. Those spoken to reportedly also stated that it is unlikely that Mone will be shown on camera.
• In a recent interview with the Busted Open Radio podcast, Deonna Purrazzo gave her thoughts about Trinity becoming a future Impact Knockouts World title and feeling that she could help take the division to new heights as champion. Purrazzo stated “I don’t think as a champion you ever go in wanting to lose, but yes, I think that the division is bigger than just myself. We have a lot of women who work really hard, and [they] also want to carry this division to new heights. If Trinity being the champion, if she can get the best of me and defeat me, does that for our company, then I can’t complain about that. I think I’ve gotten to a point at IMPACT where, whether I’m champion or not — I am a three-time champion. So I’ve lost it twice at this point. Whether I’m champion or not, I tend to just keep my role as one of the faces of our company. I’m really grateful for that, and if having a champion who has done a lot more than me is bigger, has a bigger platform than me, brings more eyes to our product, and has more people watching every week, has more people talking about it than me being champion doesn’t matter. You know, we want growth. We want to continue to evolve. If Trinity does that, not just Trinity, if anyone did that, I can’t be upset at the end of the day. That’s best for business.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• In a recent interview with the New York Post, Trinity gave her thoughts about her infamous walkout incident in WWE and the backstage issues that lead to the decision of her and Mercedes Mone walking out. Trinity stated “There was a lot that happened. There was a lot that was said that ultimately led to me being put in a position and feeling like that was the best for me and what I needed to do. I still believe that. I still stand on that and that’s just what it is. I just hope that through all of the drama and the rumors and the messiness that the one thing people do know about us is how much we care about women’s wrestling. Me and her, we just had each other it felt like,” Fatu said. “Other than Tamina, Bayley checking in on us regularly, that was it. We just had each other going through that. Nobody understands the magnitude of what happened and what really went on and why we feel the way we feel and where we are but me and her and the people that were involved that day. It just goes to show how real our friendship is and how real all of this is.” Trinity also gave her thoughts about being hopeful of working together with Mone in the future. Trinity stated “I wouldn’t want to do it with anyone else other than her, whatever that is,” she said. “I’ll always do what’s best for her, what’s best for me, and what’s best for the business. And if it’s something that comes up that makes sense for the both of us, hell yeah!“
• In a recent interview with the Saturday Night’s Main Event podcast, Chris Sabin gave his thoughts about his upcoming match with Lio Rush for the Impact X-Division Championship at tonight’s Slammiversary 2023 event. Sabin stated “Yeah, I mean I’m just going to watch Lio Rush matches, prepare and study. I have the same training program, I kind of do everything the same for whatever match it is, every match is an important match to me. Yeah, especially when I’m wrestling an opponent that I’ve never been in the ring with before. I’ve never had a one on one match with Lio actually. We’ve been on the same side of matches back in the day in Ring Of Honor, but we’ve never been against each other. Yeah, everything will be the same with the exception of watching Lio Rush matches.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• WrestleCon recently announced that WWE Hall of Famer Bret Hart will be making an appearance for the company at their Destination Detroit convention on August 4-5 in Detroit, Michigan.
• As noted before, indies wrestler Cara Noir has been out of action since this past May due to a fractured foot and ankle injuries. Noir recently provided an injury update on Twitter stating that he will not know if he will be able to return to the ring for at least another 12 months due to the severity of his injuries.
• In a recent interview with New Japan Pro Wrestling’s official website, Eddie Kingston gave his thoughts about competing in this year’s G1 Climax tournament for the first time in his career. Kingston stated “It means everything to me. It’s what I’ve wanted to do since I got started in the business. The pinnacle of pro wrestling. You have to be battle hardened, you have to be battle tested to survive here.” Kingston also gave his thoughts about his belief that Japanese wrestling is the best style of wrestling. Kingston stated “To me, Japanese professional wrestling is the best professional wrestling in the world. I felt that ever since I was a teenager. My first pro-wrestling tape had Muto versus Chono in the 1991 G1 final. That blew my mind, and it made me want to be here more than anywhere else.“
• Japanese company Kao Merit recently released a new commercial for their Kao Merit Shampoo featuring NJPW’s Five Guys stable members SANADA, Taichi, DOUKI, and Yoshinobu Kanemaru.