Various: Steve Maclin Pulled from Slammiversary, Billy Corgan on New TV & Streaming Deal for NWA, WOW TV Ratings

Jul 8, 2023

Steve Maclin Injury Status Update – Pulled from Impact’s Slammiversary 2023 Event

As noted before, Steve Maclin has been out of action for Impact Wrestling since suffering an unknown injury at this past Saturday’s Down Under Tour event in Australia.

Impact Wrestling announced earlier today that they have pulled Maclin off the card of their upcoming Slammiversary 2023 event on July 15th in Windsor, Canada due to the current status of his “serious” injury.

It was also announced that Maclin’s replacement for his scheduled tag team match with Bully Ray against PCO and Scott D’Amore at the event will be officially revealed at this Monday’s Busted Open Radio show.

Official press release:

Major Change Confirmed For Slammiversary Match On Saturday, July 15
Press Release / July 8, 2023 / by IMPACT Wrestling Staff
Former IMPACT Wrestling World Champion Steve Maclin is unable to participate in the high-profile Slammiversary tag team match on Saturday, July 15, at the St. Clair College Sportsplex in Windsor, Ontario, Canada.
Maclin suffered a serious injury during IMPACT’s just-completed Down Under Tour in Australia and is unable to participate at Slammiversary, IMPACT Wrestling confirmed.
Maclin was scheduled to team with Bully Ray in a Special Grudge Match against PCO and Scott D’Amore. The match will continue as scheduled and Bully Ray’s new tag team partner will be announced live on Busted Open this Monday, July 10, airing on SiriusXM Fight Nation, channel 156. Busted Open airs from 9 a.m. to 12noon ET with host Dave Lagreca, plus a crew of rotating co-hosts, including Bully Ray, Tommy Dreamer, Mickie James and others.
“First and foremost, everyone at IMPACT Wrestling wishes Steve Maclin a full and speedy recovery,” said Santino Marella, IMPACT Director of Authority. “Whoever Bully Ray brings aboard as his new tag team partner will step into a violent fight, that’s for sure. PCO is fearless and nearly unstoppable; Scott D’Amore is bent on revenge against Bully Ray, so any new partner for Bully Ray also will feel the wrath of D’Amore and his 30 years of pro wrestling knowledge.”
Former NHL star Darren McCarty, a 4-time Stanley Cup winner for the Detroit Red Wings, will be the Special Enforcer for this Special Grudge Match.
Slammiverary is one of IMPACT Wrestling’s premiere events of the year, airing live around the world on pay-per-view, starting at 8 p.m. ET. Slammiversary kicks off with the Countdown to Slammiversary show, streaming LIVE & FREE at 7:30 p.m. ET on YouTube, IMPACT Plus (live player) and FITE. For all the latest Slammiversary news, as well as ticket information, go to: impactwrestling.com.

Billy Corgan Comments on Upcoming TV & Streaming Announcement for NWA

A recent episode of the Good Karma Wrestling podcast had National Wrestling Alliance owner Billy Corgan as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Corgan revealing that the NWA will be making an announcement soon regarding a new television and streaming deal for the company.

“I’ve talked to just about everybody in the sphere over the last few years. For a while, I was in discussions with WWE, when they were more interested in bringing outside content onto the network. That didn’t happen. They were very cool about it, though, so nothing but love there. I’ve talked to every major platform in the world. I don’t have to roll the names out because I wasn’t able to necessarily get those deals done.
I think everything from here is, we have to find network broadcast partners. We have some good news coming up, I think, that will surprise and get some people talking as far as where we’re going. But at the end of the day, Dave Meltzer is not my friend, and of course, if you’re a wrestling fan, you know who Dave Meltzer is. But I do agree with Dave Meltzer on one thing, which is if you don’t have TV at the higher level, you’re gonna have a hard time drawing. I think at the end of the day, wrestling always works in conjunction with television. We have a very robust YouTube channel, where we put all our programming, and we still partner with FITE on our pay-per-views, and our numbers are pretty good on YouTube, so there’s nothing to sneeze at there. But until you can reach that larger public [through] broadcast, whether it’s digital or classic old-school networks, you’re gonna have a hard time really growing. So that’s kind of where we’re at right now. We’re right on the precipice of that.”

Corgan also gave his thoughts about the NWA’s current goals for growth in the future.

“It’s a difficult thing to easily answer because there are a lot of strong, independent wrestling organizations in the world. I would say anything below New Japan, AAA, AEW, or WWE, you could classify as a top-tier independent or a second-tier independent, and I don’t mean that as a slight. We’re just talking about economics. I want the National Wrestling Alliance to be up there and competing at the top level with WWE, New Japan, AAA, and AEW. So we’re doing is to get ourselves prepared for a bigger run at a higher level, which seems counterintuitive to a lot of the crowd that follows the independent scene. But that’s exactly what we’re here to do. What we can do and how we can do it at a ground level, there’s lots of argument there to be made. Part of it is economic, part of it is trying to build the product up from the ground up. Part of it is even delineating that our wrestling product is far different than just about every other company out there.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

WOW TV Ratings – June 2023

Women of Wrestling reportedly drew 343,000 viewers for their June 4th WOW TV episode on syndication. It drew a 0.06 18-49 rating.

Women of Wrestling reportedly drew 418,000 viewers for their June 11th WOW TV episode on syndication. It drew a 0.07 18-49 rating.

Women of Wrestling reportedly drew 343,000 viewers for their June 18th WOW TV episode on syndication. It drew a 0.05 18-49 rating.

Women of Wrestling reportedly drew 329,000 viewers for their June 25th WOW TV episode on syndication. It drew a 0.07 18-49 rating.

In regards to WOW TV on VICE, the June 6th show drew 77,000 viewers and a 0.02 rating for its Tuesday midnight airing and 70,000 viewers and a 0.01 rating for its 3AM EST replay airing. The June 13th show drew 46,000 viewers and a 0.01 rating for its midnight airing and 20,000 viewers and a 0.01 rating for its 3AM EST replay airing. The June 20th show drew 50,000 viewers and a 0.01 rating for its midnight airing and a 27,000 viewers and a 0.01 for its 3AM EST replay airing. The June 27th show drew 42,000 and a 0.01 rating for its midnight airing and 20,000 viewers and a 0.00 rating for its 3AM EST replay airing.

Source: Wrestlenomics