Weekend Roundup: Sheamus, WWE’s Current WarGames Plans, New AEW Hiring, Kota Ibushi Injury, Mercedes Mone, MLW, Indies

Indie / Misc

Steve C.

Nov 12, 2023

WWE

Friday’s WWE Friday Night SmackDown drew a preliminary viewership of 2,090,000 viewers on FOX, according to Programming Insider.
This past Friday’s SmackDown show in Columbus, Ohio featured Kevin Owens filling in for Corey Graves on commentary due to Graves being given time off due to the recent birth of his first child. During the broadcast it was stated that Owens had one restriction given to him for his commentary duties which was that he was not allowed to get physical with anyone else during the show. Owens broke this rule following his attack on Austin Theory and Grayson Waller after they threw water at him. Following the show, WWE announced that SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis had suspended Owens over his actions.
This past Tuesday’s NXT show featured the announcement of WWE Hall of Famers Mick Foley, Lita, Jerry “The King” Lawler, and JBL will be making their official picks for the qualifying matches for this year’s Men’s and Women’s Iron Survivor Challenge matches at next month’s NXT Deadline 2023 event. Lita recently announced on Instagram that her selection for qualifying matches for this Tuesday’s NXT show are Roxanne Perez vs. Lash Legend and Trick Williams vs. Joe Coffey.
As noted before, Sheamus has been out of action for WWE since this past August due to a shoulder injury. Sheamus could be making his return from injury as early as by the end of this month based on recent advertising by WWE. Sheamus is currently advertised to be making an appearance at the November 24th, December 8th, and December 15th SmackDown shows.
PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that WWE officials currently have plans for Becky Lynch to join Bianca Belair, Charlotte Flair, and Shotzi for their team against Damage CTRL for this year’s Women’s WarGames match at Survivor Series 2023 later this month.
In regards to WWE’s current plans for this year’s Men’s WarGames match at Survivor Series 2023, Fightful Select reported that their sources confirmed the Dave Meltzer’s report that Drew McIntyre is currently planned to be added to Judgement Day’s team to turn the match into a 5 vs. 5 match. It was reported that Randy Orton is currently planned to join Seth Rollins, Sami Zayn, Cody Rhodes, and Jey Uso’s team for the match.
Apollo Crews has been noticeably absent from WWE since this past August. Crews made his in-ring return at this past Monday’s tapings for this week’s Main Event show, which aired this past Thursday. Crews recently reflected on Instagram about his recent in-ring return and revealed that the reason why he was absent for the past several months was due to him dealing with an undisclosed injury. Crews stated “Had a little injury that kept me out for a few months. Felt great being back in the ring.“
In a recent interview with the WWE After The Bell with Corey Graves podcast, Bobby Lashley gave his thoughts about the future of his wrestling career. Lashley stated “I tell my sparring partners, I tell my training partners, and I tell anybody that works out with me, when you see that I’m missing a step or slowing down a little bit, just tell me. I mean, because you see a lot of times those guys that are fighting in the UFC or boxing or something, and they take that one fight too many. It’s almost sad. Or you see those guys get in the ring and they just can’t move the same, it’s sad. He kind of loses that a little bit. I don’t want to be that guy. It’s like when Superman gets that kryptonite, you see Superman kind of falling apart and becoming weak. I don’t need that. I put myself financially in a very, very good position that it’s not for the money. It’s for my enjoyment. I mean, I truly love going out there and being in front of the crowd and being in front of fans and stuff like that really gets me up and I really like some of the guys that I work with.” (Transcript h/t: WrestlingNews.co)
Haus of Wrestling’s Nick Hausman reported that his sources stated that WWE officials currently are expecting their NXT shows to constantly outdraw AEW’s Dynamite shows next year and especially once NXT moves to The CW.
As noted before, TKO Group Executive Chairman Vince McMahon will be selling 8.4 million shares of his stock in the company that is worth around $100 million. Wrestlenomics’ Brandon Thurston reported that McMahon’s stock sale is estimated to represent around a 4.8% share of his ownership in the company dropping him from 16.4% to now around 11.6%. In regards to the reason for the stock sale, Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that McMahon’s sale was something that was actually planned beforehand to be done following WWE’s sale to Endeavor and was not due to any other reason. Meltzer reported that McMahon must maintain at least seven million shares in order to keep his position on TKO’s Board of Directors.
In regards to Wall Street’s reaction to McMahon’s TKO stock sale announcement, TKO’s stocks dropped from its closing price of $84.85 per share to slightly above $77 per share at the start of this past Friday’s trading hours and closed for the week at $79.22 per share.
Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that WWE’s RAW drew an average attendance of 9,800 per show, SmackDown drew an average attendance of 11,400 per show, and house show events drew an average attendance of 5,700 for this year’s fiscal third quarter. For some comparisons, RAW drew 9,400 per show, SmackDown drew 10,200 per show, and house show events drew 6,100 per show for the prior fiscal quarter. In regards to yearly comparisons, RAW was up 7.7%, Smackdown was up 34.5%, and house shows events were up 42.5% compared to the same third fiscal quarter last year.
As noted before, TKO Group announced this past Tuesday that WWE recently signed a new television deal with The CW for their NXT television series starting in October of 2024. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that WWE’s new TV deal for NXT is currently rumored to be worth somewhere between $34 million to $42.5 million per year. In regards to the potential boost NXT could get from The CW, Meltzer reported that The CW is currently in around 78 million homes compared to around 71.1 million homes for USA Network). Meltzer also reported that despite The CW being in more homes, it is actually a weaker network than USA when it comes to average primetime viewership since their average is around 400,000 viewers and a 0.05 key demographic rating. Meltzer reported that when you take away RAW and NXT from USA Network, The CW outdraws USA Network for average primetime viewership for shows.
Financial firm JP Morgan reported (via Wrestling Observer) that they currently expect WWE to get a new television deal worth around $375 million per year for their RAW series. In regards to potential destinations for RAW, it was reported that they currently feel the leading candidates are FX, TBS or TNT, and USA Network with Netflix and Apple as possibility for a streaming direction. In regards to the current feeling within WWE, Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that WWE officials currently favor RAW going to FX the most at the moment. WWE officials reportedly have also held talks about RAW moving back as a two-hour weekly show and also the potential of remaining as a three-hour show with the first two hours airing on FX and the third hour airing on Hulu.
WWE’s Crown Jewel 2023 event on November 4th in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia reportedly currently generated around 8,700 pay-per-view buys from traditional cable PPV providers, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Dave Meltzer reported that this was up 17.5% compared to this pact October’s Fastlane 2023 after its first week and up 20.8% compared to last year’s Crown Jewel event.
As noted before, the November 3rd SmackDown show drew 2,119,000 viewers and a 0.53 key demographic rating. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that WWE almost managed to pull off the rare feat of being the top network show in terms of key demographic ratings and the lowest in terms of overall viewership for the night. Meltzer reported that SmackDown barely edged out a rerun of Blue Bloods that drew 2,1000,000 viewers on CBS that night.
WWE reportedly drew an attendance of around 9,109 for their Nov. 4th Crown Jewel 2023 event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 4,789 for their Nov. 4th house show event in Rochester, NY, 3,950 for their Nov. 5th house show event in Springfield, MA, and 7,308 (6,600 paid) for their Nov. 6th RAW show in Wilkes-Barre, PA, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
WWE reportedly has sold around 6,581 tickets for their Nov. 13th RAW show in Washington, DC, 4,574 tickets for their Nov. 17th SmackDown show in Evansville, IN, 3,143 tickets for their Nov. 18th house show event in Canton, OH, 2,403 tickets for their Nov. 18th house show event in Tupelo, MS, 2,760 tickets for their Nov. 19th house show event in Saginaw, MI, 2,447 tickets for their Nov. 19th house show event in Jonesboro, AR, 6,245 tickets for their Nov. 20th RAW show in Grand Rapids, MI, 13,893 tickets for their Nov. 24th SmackDown show in Chicago, 15,687 tickets for their Nov. 25th Survivor Series 2023 event in Chicago, IL, 2,213 tickets for their Nov. 26th house show event in Peoria, IL, 7,638 tickets for their Nov. 27th RAW show in Nashville, TN, 8,957 tickets for their Dec. 1st SmackDown show in Brooklyn, NY, 3,383 tickets for their Dec. 2nd house show event in Bangor, ME, 4,289 tickets for their Dec. 2nd house show event in Allentown, PA, 2,552 tickets for their Dec. 3rd house show event in Portland, ME, 2,195 tickets for their Dec. 3rd house show event in Newark, DE, 4,080 for their Dec. 4th RAW show in Albany, NY, 6,180 tickets for their Dec. 8th SmackDown show in Providence, RI, 2,187 tickets for their Dec. 9th NXT Deadline 2023 event in Bridgeport, CT, 2,525 tickets for their Dec. 9th house show event in Utica, NY, 1,835 tickets for their Dec. 10th house show event in State College, PA, 4,768 tickets for their Dec. 15th SmackDown show in Green Bay, WI, 2,402 tickets for their Dec. 16th house show event in Moline, IL, 2,182 tickets for their Dec. 17th house show event in Rochester, MN, and 8,488 tickets for their Dec. 26th house show event at Madison Square Garden in New York City, NY as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

AEW & ROH

Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that former TNA Wrestling music producer Dale Oliver was hired by AEW several months ago for their production team. It was reported that Oliver has been hlping out with the music production of AEW television shows and also helps out with AEW’s post-production team in Nashville, Tennessee.
In a recent interview with CBS Sports’ Maggie and Perloff radio show, Britt Baker gave her thoughts about CM Punk’s time in AEW. Baker stated “CM Punk coming back to wrestling was one of the most historical things in All Elite Wrestling history and always will be. You can’t take that out of the wrestling books. I’m really thankful we got to work with CM Punk. I learned some stuff from him, he was always really helpful and willing to work with younger talent. It didn’t work out, it wasn’t a fit, but it’s always going to be part of the AEW story. It’s just that chapter is closed now. Everyone wishes him well, we hope and think he wishes AEW well too. It just didn’t work out. At the end of the day, how cool was it that CM Punk was in wrestling again for AEW and got to wrestle in Chicago again?” Baker also gave her thoughts on if Punk will wrestle again in the future. Baker stated “I don’t know where he’s at mentally. I think wrestlers always have that itch. Once it’s in your blood, it’s in there, and no matter how much you want to stay away, it’s hard to stay away. He came back after seven years. I think if the time, place, and company is right, I think he would.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
AEW recently announced that they are giving away free tickets for their upcoming shows for active United States military veterans in honor of this year’s Veterans Day holiday.
Kota Ibushi announced on Twitter that he recently broke his right hand while training for his upcoming 8-Man Tag Team Street Fight match at this Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite show. Ibushi stated “Street fight training is over. The back of my hand broke when I threw it in a full swing, but it would have healed in three days. I’m looking forward! I’m in the mood! Sorry if it’s not what you expected. I need to get insurance lol.“
In a recent interview with the Chillin with ICE podcast, Powerhouse Hobbs gave his thoughts about his future career after his in-ring wrestling career is over. Hobbs stated “Maybe still being part of wrestling. Maybe a backstage role or maybe acting. I would like to be a super villain in a movie and play different roles. I would like to do that. I would like to maybe have my own cooking show one day. My own grilling show.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
This past Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite show in Portland, Oregon featured Red Velvet making her in-ring return since this past February due to an undisclosed injury. Red Velvet recently reflected on Twitter about her in-ring return at this past Wednesday’s Dynamite show. Red Velvet stated “Last night was unforgettable! Feels so good to be back 🥣. Big thank you to everyone that played a huge role in my recovery . Feeling so blessed. Thank you @tonyrkhan for being a big part of me living my dreams and making this comeback. LFG!!! Time to keep cookin 🔥🥣“
Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that AEW’s Dynamite drew an average attendance of 4,800 per show and Collision drew an average attendance of 4,100 per show for this year’s fiscal third quarter. For some comparisons, Dynamite drew 5,100 per show and Collision drew 6,100 per show for the prior fiscal quarter. Meltzer reported that the reason for the big drop for Collision from quarter to quarter was due to its number being inflated over the big number for their Chicago show featuring CM Punk’s return. In regards to yearly comparisons, Dynamite was down 22.2% compared to the same third fiscal quarter last year.
Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that AEW officials currently have plans to book Komander more often for their Collision and Ring of Honor tapings on Saturdays going forward. Meltzer reported that Komander’s future in Lucha Libre AAA is now believed to be in doubt due to AAA also likes to book Komander for their television tapings that usually take place on Saturdays as well. Meltzer also reported that Komander likely will be dropping his AAA Cruiserweight Championship soon as a result of this issue.
In a recent investor’s meeting to discuss the results of their fiscal third quarter 2023 report, Warner Bros Discovery stated that they had generated around $9.98 billion in revenue and posted a net loss of $417 million for the fiscal quarter, which was lower than last year’s fiscal third quarter net loss of $2.31 billion. Ad revenue for the fiscal quarter was stated to have dropped by 12% while their total subscriber base for their merged MAX and Discovery + service was a 95.1 million for the end of the fiscal quarter, down compared to the fiscal second quarter subscriber base of 95.8 million.
As noted before, former Stardom talent Mariah May made her official debut for AEW at this past Wednesday’s Dynamite show in Portland, Oregon. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that May’s current storyline involving her fascination with Toni Storm is directly based off of a 1950 film titled All About Eve. Meltzer reported that the idea being that Storm is portraying the Broadway star who turns 40 and worried about her career while Eve, being portrayed by May, is her fan girl and becomes a big part of her life. In the film, Eve starts to manipulate things until she eventually become the new big young star to push out the older star.
As noted before, Stardom and indies talent Megan Bayne has been signed to an official contract with AEW since earlier this year. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources denied Fightful’s report about AEW officials had specifically sent Bayne to Stardom for some work and to improve her skills. Those spoken to reportedly stated that Bayne was recruited by Stardom’s Sonny Gutierrez for potential work in the company and AEW officials did not block her from working there for the time being. Stardom officials reportedly were aware that Bayne was signed with AEW when they contacted her and got permission from AEW to use her for their shows.
AEW reportedly drew an attendance of 3,026 for their Nov. 4th Collision show in Wichita, KS and 4,413 for their Nov. 8th Dynamite show in Portland, OR, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
AEW reportedly has sold around 2,959 tickets for their Nov. 15th Dynamite show in Ontario, CA, 3,225 tickets for their Nov. 17th Collision show in Los Angeles, CA, 9,675 tickets for their Nov. 18th Full Gear 2023 event in Los Angeles, 2,117 for their Nov. 22nd Dynamite show in Chicago, IL, 2,125 for their Nov. 25th Collision show in Pittsburgh, PA, 2,656 for their Nov. 29th Dynamite show in Minneapolis, MN, 1,347 for their Dec. 2nd Collision show in Erie, PA, 2,253 for their Dec. 5th Collision show in Montreal, 3,958 for their Dec. 6th Dynamite show in Montreal, Canada, 1,566 for their Dec. 13th Dynamite show in Arlington, TX, 2,820 for their Dec, 20th Dynamite show in Oklahoma City, OK, 1,850 for their Dec, 27th Dynamite show in Orlando, FL, and 5,693 for their Dec. 30th Worlds End event in Uniondale, NY, as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
In a recent interview with the WrestlePurists podcast, NJPW officials and talent Rocky Romero gave his thoughts about the idea of New Japan Pro Wrestling sending one of their Young Lion talents to AEW or Ring of Honor for their excursion. Romero stated “I think that would be cool. What’s cool about AEW’s setup is — yeah, sending a Young Lion to the Ring of Honor show and starting them there. Building them up [to] Rampage, Collision, Dynamite. That could be cool and kind of give them that experience.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
As noted before, Ring of Honor owner Tony Khan turned down a potential television deal from The CW for ROH in 2022. In a recent Q&A article, PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that the likely reason why Khan turned down The CW’s offer was due to The CW being in the process of being sold to a new owner at the time and any talks or potential deal likely would have needed to be redone with the new owner. Johnson stated “I don’t think Tony Khan cares because based on the story that you linked in your question, Khan allegedly turned down meeting with a CW exec when AEW last ran Los Angeles. That would have been June of 2022. Nexstar didn’t purchase controlling rights of CW until August of 2022, so that would have meant Khan would have been talking with someone who ended up no longer in power, since there’s an entirely new management team and strategy for the network. That’s like you going to potentially interview with someone for a job, but then they get fired, so it’s not like they could get you the job after that. So, I don’t think Khan cares, since it sounds like a nothing story – in my opinion – trying to connect dots where they aren’t actually there under scrutiny when you look at the timeline of how things went. If he HAD met with someone then, they would have been out of power a few weeks later and the meeting wouldn’t have led to anything of merit. So, that doesn’t sound like Khan or AEW were “passed up” for anything. It was all potentials that never came to fruition because the CW changed from an internal, structulal standpoint.“

Impact, NJPW, Indies, & Misc. Wrestling

Sunday’s Ultimate Party 2023 event for DDT Pro Wrestling featured Saki Akai’s official retirement from her in-ring wrestling career. Following the match, DDT held a retirement ceremony for Akai and offered her a backstage job in the company, which she accepted. Akai’s retirement ceremony also featured video messages from several people including NJPW’s Hiroshi Tanahashi and Togi Makabe and also WWE’s Shinsuke Nakamura. In regards to Nakamura’s message, his speech was only shown to the live crowd and not shown on the live stream of the event on DDT’s Wrestle Universe service.
Sunday’s DDT’s Ultimate Party 2023 event also featured Chris Jericho defeating Konosuke Takeshita in a singles match. In a post-match press conference, Jericho gave his thoughts on why he wanted this match to take place in DDT rather than in AEW. Jericho stated “I had this idea for this match with Takeshita and I didn’t want to have it just on Dynamite, just another match, I wanted it to be something special. I wanted to have a match that was special and I wanted to have it here in Japan and I think the match was very special and I was very happy with the crowd, the fans, DDT as a company, and most importantly Takeshita as a great opponent.“
Game Changer Wrestling announced that Andrade El Idolo will be making appearances for their company at their Highest In The Room 2 event on December 12th in Los Angeles, California, their January 12, 2024 event in Chicago, Illinois, and their January 26, 2024 event in Tampa, Florida.
This past Friday’s Lonestar Shootout 2023 event for New Japan Pro Wrestling in Dallas, Texas featured one new match officially announced for the card of Wrestle Kingdom 18 on January 4, 2024 in Tokyo, Japan. This is a NEVER Openweight Championship match of Tama Tonga vs. Shingo Takagi (c).
NJPW reportedly drew a paid attendance of 4,046 for their Nov. 4th Power Struggle 2023 event in Osaka, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Great Lakes Championship Wrestling recently announced one new match for the card of their Blizzard Brawl event on December 2nd in Waukesha, Wisconsin. This is a NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship match of Matt Cardona vs. EC3 (c).
Major League Wrestling recently announced that NJPW talent Satoshi Kojima will be making an appearance for the company at their One Shot event on December 7th in New York City, New York.
As noted before, Lance Anoa’i and Juicy Finau were both granted their releases from MLW this past Sunday. In a recent interview with WrestlingNews.co, Anoa’i gave his thoughts on his reasons for asking his release from MLW. Anoa’i stated “So the release was asked for because I was traveling, I was in Japan. I told them when I was getting back from Japan. They had no dates for me, they had nothing for me. Nothing was planned. I knew once I dropped the tag straps, I wasn’t sure what was gonna happen. But since they didn’t give me no dates or anything, no vision, because at first, when we signed, the vision was The Samoans versus The Von Erichs, The Samoans versus 5150, the SATs. It was a big tag division, and then slowly it started chopping down. It was The Samoans versus FBI, who was a great tag team also. We still wrestled great tag teams. But they pitched a good selling looks to us when we were there, and then slowly everything just started dying off, and then we started dying off, and I said, ‘Hey, man, right now, I’m in Japan, but I don’t want my value to go down. I’m enjoying it, travel back and forth, I don’t want no conflicts with Japan and MLW.’ They granted me as many tours as I want with Japan, and they granted that for me. But just more of the freedom. Maybe a possibility, man. We just be able to throw it up [makes Bloodline sign]. But who knows? [laughs] I just wanted that freedom, mainly for right now. Especially with my family being at the top of the best company there is. I missed a few opportunities being with MLW on A&E, I missed possibility of being on the Tribal Court they were doing, with bringing in the family. I missed that opportunity. Now, I can do it all. I can be at extra work, I can be at tryouts. Nothing’s stopping me now, so I’m just ready to go.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
As noted before, Alex Hammerstone recently asked for his release from Major League Wrestling that was rejected by the company. Hammerstone recently provided an update on Twitter stating “I just wanted to take a second to jump on here and talk to you guys. I’ve been getting a lot of questions and comments. Has MLW released me? Are they gonna release me? What’s my future in wrestling look like? So I kind of want to give an update. Unfortunately, the update is that I am not really sure at this point. Before I continue, the point of this video is not to bash the company. It’s not to talk negatively about anybody. It’s just to be an update on the situation as I currently understand it. Now this whole situation kind of broke to the news and the dirt sheets just recently, but it’s actually been ongoing for a couple months now. The communication on that end to me has been sparse, to put it nicely. I’ve tried several times to get on the phone with Court Bauer. It hasn’t happened, unfortunately. The people in the office that I have been related to speaking with, the last I was told was that they were actually working towards a release. However, that was several weeks ago at this point. Then when they broke the story to the dirt sheets, they told them that they had actually no intention of releasing me. So I’m not sure if there’s a miscommunication somewhere, or if I was simply told that just to kind of shut me up and make me leave them alone for a little while. But like I said, I’m trying to leave the emotion and the options out of this and just give you the facts of this and just give you the facts of my situation. The facts are this: I have not worked for the company in well over 100 days at this point. They removed me from their active roster page, they removed me from all current marketing material. They edited me out of the show intro and highlights and those sort of things. I have not been contacted for any dates moving forward. Several dates have come and passed. I wasn’t contacted to work those, and I have not been contacted for their upcoming shows. It’s been made pretty apparent to me at this point that they have no intention of using me moving forward, but their official statement was that they have no intention of releasing me. So I’m not sure if I’m being punished, just for asking if that was a possibility, or if there’s a miscommunication somewhere. Unfortunately, that’s the best I can update you guys with right now. I’m trying to stay optimistic and just trying to move forward one day at a time. I love this business, I love this sport, and I want to continue doing it on a high level. Hopefully, there’s a resolution to this situation soon, but that’s all I can tell you right now.“
Over The Top Wrestling recently announced that The Rascalz (Trey Miguel & Zachary Wentz) will be making an appearance for the company at their Now That’s What I Call Christmas event on December 16th in Dublin, Ireland.
Impact Wrestling reportedly has sold around 326 tickets (presale) for their TNA Hard to Kill 2024 event on January 14, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
As noted before, Impact signed British indies talent Harley Hudson to a developmental contract this past October. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that besides Hudson, Impact also had signed indie talent Mike D Vecchio to a developmental contract as well following last month’s Gut Check tryouts.
In a recent interview with the Knockouts and 3 Counts podcast, PCO gave his thoughts about his current goals for his career in Impact following him recently signing a new deal to stay in the company. PCO stated “My main goal is always…when I first signed in 2019 with Ring of Honor, I believe it was 2019, my goal was to become the world champ. This is the same goal with TNA, to become the world heavyweight champion in the company, and also to keep improving the character in a way where there is no other option, you have to go to that route because people are wanting it. It’s there. That’s my main goal. Get more people on the bandwagon. There’s a lot of kids on it with their parents, which is kind of a double generation thing because either the parents explain to their kids, ‘Okay, I know this guy from before,’ but…I think that’s why kids like monsters and things like that. It feels like to them not a superhero because I’m their favorite wrestler, but they don’t want to come by for a picture because they’re afraid. But in the meantime, it’s a double-edged sword for the kids. But I see in their eyes when they get in close, they’re afraid, but in the meantime, they’re happy. I go through that a lot. Just growing this thing bigger and bigger and bigger, I think that’s the challenge.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
Dragon Gate reportedly drew a paid attendance of 2,408 for their Nov. 5th Gate of Destiny 2023 event in Osaka, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Dave Meltzer reported that this was the largest attendance for a Dragon Gate event since 2019.
Consejo Mundial De Lucha Libre reportedly drew an attendance of around 15,000 for their Nov. 3rd Dia De Muertos 2023 event in Mexico City, Mexico, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
TheCubsFan reported that Lucha Libre AAA held a talent search this past Friday in Mexico City, Mexico. It was reported that AAA had invited indie wrestlers who were between the ages of 12 to 29 and will be holding a series of fitness and in-ring tests mostly on Tuesdays through November 28th. It was also reported that the best prospects will get to wrestle at AAA’s first television taping next year and the top three prospects will receive one-year contracts with the company.
As noted before, Pagano has been out of action for AAA since this past October due to a shoulder injury. TheCubsFan reported that Pagano stated in a recent interview with La Tijera Lucha Libre that he recently underwent surgery and is currently expected to be out of action for at least a month to a month and a half.
Stardom talent Hanan reportedly recently suffered appendicitis and is currently out of action for the company, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Stardom reportedly drew a paid attendance of 436 for their Nov. 3rd Goddess of Stardom Tag League 2023 event in Toyama, 429 for their Nov. 4th Goddess of Stardom Tag League 2023 event in Gunma, and 334 for their Nov. 5th Goddess of Stardom Tag League 2023 event in Ushiku, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter,
Pro Wrestling NOAH reportedly drew a paid attendance of 1,024 for their Nov. 4th Demolition Stage 2023 In Niigata event in Niigata, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

Wrestling TV Ratings for Week of Nov. 3 to Nov. 9, 2023

WWE Friday Night SmackDown – 2,119,000 viewers, 0.53 rating (prior week – 1,145,000 viewers, 0.35 rating)
WWE RAW – 1,522,000 viewers, 0.47 rating (prior week – 1,391,000 viewers, 0.43 rating)
WWE NXT – 794,000 viewers, 0.26 rating (prior week – 674,000 viewers, 0.20 rating)
AEW Rampage – 298,000 viewers, 0.11 rating (prior week – 319,000 viewers, 0.09 rating)
AEW Collision – 366,000 viewers, 0.09 rating (prior week – 472,000 viewers, 0.13 rating)
AEW Dynamite – 804,000 viewers, 0.27 rating (prior week – 832,000 viewers, 0.28 rating)
Impact Wrestling Impact! – 97,000 viewers, 0.02 ratings (prior week – 86,000 viewers, 0.01 rating)

Total viewership in terms of overall tally for the week: 6,000,000 viewers (up 1,081,000 viewers compared to prior week’s 4,919,000 viewers)