Weekend Roundup: Jacob Fatu Believed to Sign with WWE, Vince McMahon’s Trainer on Vince’s WM 40 Absence, WM 40 News, AEW Battle of the Belts X New Match, Sabu No Shows Indie HoF Event, Indies

Photo: Basil Mahmud

Indie / Misc

Steve C.

Apr 7, 2024

WWE

Former Major League Wrestling talent Jacob Fatu reportedly is currently believed to have recently signed an official contract with WWE, according to Fightful Select. It was reported that their sources stated that Fatu recently informed others that he had signed a contract with WWE. It was also reported that their sources within WWE have not confirmed that Fatu has been signed to the company nor has Fatu responded to their request for comments. Fatu is the cousin of The Usos and son of Sam Fatu, also known as Tama of the Islanders in WWE and The Tonga Kid elsewhere.
WrestleTix reported that WWE has sold and distributed around 69,621 tickets for tonight’s WrestleMania 40 Night 2 event at the Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia as of this afternoon.
Vince McMahon’s personal trainer Michael A. Monteforte posted a statement on Instagram about McMahon not being able to attend this weekend’s WrestleMania 40 event in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Monteforte stated “Vince McMahon was unable to attend his first Wrestlemania. How quickly people forget, that without his vision, there would be no Wrestling or Wrestlemania. Sadly, when a person is down, the people who say they love you, turn their backs on you.” Monteforte also posted a caption on his post that stated “Don’t judge a Man, without getting all the facts. Things aren’t always as they appear.” Monteforte also responded to several comments on his post regarding the current sex trafficking lawsuit allegations against McMahon. Monteforte stated “You are probably a good dude, but in this particular case, “sex trafficking “ was used as a catch phrase… sad that something that serious would be used, for her own gains… if these allegations were true, why isn’t she pressing charges? She knows that her texts & everything she is about would be revealed, so she is going for the $$$ , everything she has intended to do, since setting her sights on Mr. McMahon… I will never feel bad, because I know the truth in real time, You may feel like you are defending an innocent victim, but you should look into her past, all her life she has been a predator for men with $$, & if she was to reveal her reply to those texts, as she conveniently left out, you would see that she is far from innocent and any victim… actually the aggressor… it’s easy to believe, something that you hope would be true… just like the love letter, there is more coming out.” In response to comments from another person, Monteforte stated “she claims many things, but she never reveals her reply to texts , because people would no longer view her as a victim, look into her past, this is how she lives, being a predator on men with $$.“
Sheamus made a surprise appearance at a Premier League Fan Fest event earlier today in Nashville, Tennessee. During his appearance, Sheamus gave a speech to the live crowd and provided an update on his current recovery from a shoulder injury. Sheamus stated “Seven months I’ve been off from WWE but I want to tell everybody, big things are coming for Sheamus this year! Huge things are coming for Sheam-O!” (Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com)
Logan Paul’s Prime drink company announced that they have recently signed a sponsorship deal with Cody Rhodes and the first WWE Superstar to be signed under their Prime Athletes brand.
WWE announced that they will be releasing a new behind-the-scenes documentary titled WrestleMania 40: Behind the Curtain on April 10th on their official YouTube channel.
WWE announced that the official attendance for Saturday’s WrestleMania 40 Night 1 event at the Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was 72,543. WrestleTix reported that WWE had sold and distributed around 68,412 tickets for the event as of the time of the start of the show.
WWE officially debuted a new WWE signature open video at the start of Saturday’s WrestleMania 40 Night 1 event featuring WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque narrating the “Then. Now. Forever. Together” tag line. This new signature open no longer features famous catchphrases from wrestlers that the prior signature opening video contained.
As noted before, Roman Reigns recently revealed that he is still on very potent medication for his current battle with leukemia. During his portion of the WrestleMania 40 post-show press conference, Reigns clarified comments made by WWE commentator Pat McAfee during the show about his current battle with leukemia. Reigns stated “I’m still on oral chemotherapy, it’s a medication that I’m going to have to remain on my entire life most likely. It’s just a part of my personal battle. It doesn’t affect me, thank God, I’m still able to perform. I think anybody in my position would say health is wealth. As long as I continue to perform, you already know that’s at bay. We’re good. We’re still in remission. It is something that is still part of my life.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
Saturday’s WrestleMania 40 Night 1 event featured Jade Cargill, Naomi, & Bianca Belair defeating Damage CTRL in a Six-Women Tag Team match. Cargill reflected on Twitter about making her official WrestleMania debut at last night’s show. Cargill stated “Heart full. Last night was incredible. Thank you to the production, everyone who helped put on a great show and the fans the fans are the real MVPs. Thank you for watching and waiting for us in such cold temperatures.”
Saturday’s WrestleMania 40 Night 1 event also featured Rhea Ripley defeating Becky Lynch to retain the WWE Women’s World Championship. During the match, WWE commentator Michael Cole revealed that Lynch had been suffering from strep throat this past week. WWE commentator Corey Graves responded stating that Lynch had told him that her fever had reached 102 degrees at one point.
Fightful Select’s Corey Brennan reported that his sources stated that WWE officials were originally concerned that Bron Breakker had suffered a potential concussion injury during the NXT Tag Team Championship match at Saturday’s NXT Stand & Deliver 2024 event. Brenann reported that Breakker cleared medical tests and was stated to be feeling fine when he returned backstage after the match.
Fightful Select’s Corey Brennan also reported that his sources stated that WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque was in attendance backstage during NXT Stand & Deliver 2024 event. Levesque reportedly did not have any creative influence or input for the event and instead NXT head booker Shawn Michaels was in full charge of the event.
As noted before, WWE officially announced the debut of a new NXT Women’s North American Championship at Saturday’s NXT Stand & Deliver 2024 event. Fightful Select’s Corey Brennan reported that WWE officials had plans in place to debut a new women’s title for their NXT brand since late 2023.
WWE announced that Saturday’s NXT Stand & Deliver 2024 event in Philadelphia set a new all-time attendance record of 16,545 for a NXT brand event in NXT history.
In a recent interview with the Good Karma Wrestling podcast, Natayla stated that WWE will be returning to Japan for a new tour of the country at some point this year. Natayla stated “I was actually, just yesterday, at a STARDOM show and I met some of the Japanese women that I hadn’t seen in almost 20 years, like Aja Kong and Kyoko Inoue. I teamed with Aja Kong, I wrestled against Kyoko Inoue. These are legendary, Japanese female wrestlers that are just phenomenal and then I met some of the other girls that were on the show and I was like, ‘I want to wrestle with these women.’ They’re so talented. I would like to win some of the new championships that we have because I haven’t won those. People always say, ‘Oh, you’ve done everything.’ I have not main evented a WrestleMania. I cannot wait to go back to Japan and compete. Japan is one of my favorite places in the world to perform. I know we’re going back there sometime this year. There’s just so many things I wanna do. I’m working on a book right now, I’ve got a special project in the works with my family that I’m really excited about. But in WWE, in wrestling in general, in or outside of the company, there’s just so much more that I wanna do.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)
As noted before, Charlotte Flair has been out of action since this past December due to a torn ACL, a torn meniscus, and a torn MCL injuries and had underwent surgery this past January. In a recent Fanatics Live stream, Flair provided an update on her injury recovery. Flair stated “Knee feels good. Walking. Actually, I saw my doctor this morning on the elevator, like who actually performed the surgery. He was like, ‘Actually, the heels are okay because of the elevation’ and I was like, ‘See, I told all you guys that were like, why are you in heels?’” Flair also gave her thoughts about her current plans for her future return from injury to WWE. Flair stated “I just can’t decide, when I go back, if I really wanna give this good guy role a legitimate chance because I’m really overcoming something that I never have experienced. Or do I come back and just go full-blown bad again? Or can I just change every week back and forth?… Kind of like I do now (she laughed). I just wanna come back with a new skill set. I’m just super motivated right now. You never know what you have until it’s gone… I have (been an Ironwoman). No, but I left after the I Quit match with Ronda (Rousey). I was out, but then it just got extended and they just brought me back later. But, this will be the longest time since July 2012.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)
In a recent interview with the Impaulsive podcast, WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque gave his thoughts about his belief that Netflix would be interested in broadcasting WWE PLEs once WWE’s current streaming deal with Peacock expires. Levesque stated “I think, at the end of the day, it would seem odd to me for them to say, ‘We want Raw, that’s it. We’re good.’ That doesn’t seem to be how they do business. I think at some point down the road, when SmackDown comes up, is that something of interest to them? Down the road, when the PLEs come up on Peacock, that’s probably something of interest to them. It makes for interesting times and a really promising future.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the reason for McMahon’s recent sales of his TKO Group stock is due to terms of a loan deal he made with banking firm Morgan Stanely over him folding the XFL in March of 2020. Meltzer reported that shortly after he folded the league, McMahon received an $85 million loan from Morgan Stanley using WWE as collateral to finance the deal. Meltzer reported that the terms of the deal required McMahon to transfer stock sales of originally WWE and now TKO Group to Morgan Stanley after a four year period. Meltzer reported that McMahon agreed to transfer 2.25 million shares in TKO to Morgan Stanley in exchange for $85 million and recently transferred another 1.2 million shares to Morgan Stanley for $100 million in return. Meltzer reported that Morgan Stanley ended up making a huge profit off of the first transfer due to the stock price had more than doubled from the $37.43 per share originally agreed to.
WWE reportedly drew an attendance of 7,074 for their March 29th SmackDown show in Uncasville, CT, 5,978 for their March 30th house show event in Manchester, NH, 4,672 for their March 31st house show event in Syracuse, NY, and 13,545 for their April 1st RAW show in Brooklyn, NY, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
WWE reportedly has sold around 17,208 tickets for their April 8, RAW show in Philadelphia, PA, 11,595 tickets for their April 12th SmackDown show in Detroit, MI, 9,588 tickets for their April 15th RAW show in Montreal, Canada, 9,741 tickets for their April 19th SmackDown show in Pittsburgh, PA, 3,785 tickets for their April 21st house show event in Fort Wayne, IN, 6,614 tickets for their April 22nd RAW show in Columbus, OH, 6,643 tickets for their April 26th SmackDown show in Cincinnati, OH, 6,559 tickets for their April 29th RAW show in Kansas City, MO, 5,477 tickets for their May 6th house show event in Hartford, CT, 6,338 tickets for their May 10th SmackDown show in Wilkes-Barre, PA, 2,303 tickets for their May 12th house show event in Macon, GA, 4,574 tickets for their May 13th RAW show in Greenville, SC, 6,575 tickets for their May 17th SmackDown show in Jacksonville, FL, 6,036 tickets for their May 20th RAW show in Greensboro, NC, 1,692 tickets for their May 26th NXT Battleground 2024 event in Savannah, 4,368 tickets for their May 27th RAW show in Savannah, GA, and 4,473 tickets for their May 31st SmackDown show in Albany, NY as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Wrestlenomics’ Brandon Thurston reported that WWE’s top merchandise sellers on WWEShop for this past March in order were WWE, Cody Rhodes, Roman Reigns, Jey Uso, CM Punk, Steve Austin, The Rock, Randy Orton, Rhea Ripley, and Seth Rollins. In regards to specific merchandise, the top sellers in order were Reigns “Levels Above” hoodie, Punk “Best in the World” shirt, Jey Uso “Yeet” black shirt, Orton “Orton Strikes First Viper Bolt” shirt, Rhodes “Claim Young Kingdom Pharaoh” shirt, Jey Uso “Yeet” blue shirt, Ripley’s “Mami’s Always on Top” shirt, Reigns’ “Levels Above” shirt, The Rock’s “People’s Champ” shirt, and The Rock’s slap to Cody photo shirt.

AEW & ROH

Following his match at Saturday’s Sakura Genesis 2024 event for New Japan Pro Wrestling in Tokyo, Japan, Jack Perry gave his thoughts in a backstage post-match press conference about his name still being brought up following CM Punk’s recent interview on The MMA Hour show. Perry stated “All the amazing shit going on in the world of professional wrestling. All you motherfuckers want to keep talking about me. I’m not surprised. Mox, go ahead and do me a favor. Tell all those cowards at home I said ‘what’s up?” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
AEW announced three new matches for the card of their April 10th AEW Dynamite show in Charleston, West Virginia. The first new match announced was an AEW World Championship Eliminator match of Dustin Rhodes vs. Samoa Joe (c). The other two matches announced were a singles match of Mariah May vs. Anna Jay and a Trios match of Chris Jericho, HOOK, & Katsuyori Shibata vs. Shane Taylor Promotions (Anthony Ogogo, Shane Taylor, & Lee Moriarty)
AEW also announced the first official match for their Battle of the Belts X special on April 13th in Highland Heights, Kentucky. This new match was an AEW International Championship Eliminator match of Rocky Romero vs. Roderick Strong (c).
As noted before, AEW announced that their April 10th AEW Dynamite show in Charleston will be featuring The Young Bucks presenting never before seen backstage footage from this past August’s AEW All In event. This footage is currently expected to be CM Punk’s backstage altercation with Jack Perry. In an interesting note, the location for this week’s Dynamite show is the same place that CM Punk once said in a promo in AEW that “the apology must be as loud and as public as the disrespect.”
In a recent interview with the Good Karma Wrestling podcast, Athena gave her thoughts about her potential return to AEW television. Athena has been primarily working for Ring of Honor since Tony Khan’s purchase of the company and has only wrestled twice for AEW since this past June. Athena stated “Oh my gosh, you’re gonna have to wait and find out (when I’ll be back on AEW TV). I think it’s very likely. It’s something that Tony (Khan) and I have talked about. I won’t go into detail but it is something that is happening. It’s something that we’ve been talking about for almost eight months now, just waiting for the right time, the right moment. But that moment’s coming very soon. That’s all I can say about that.” Athena also gave her thoughts about Mercedes Mone’s recent signing with AEW. Athena stated “She adds star power, she adds confidence. I think for so long, we, as a women’s division, especially in AEW, were having these great matches and we had stars but we were trying to breach the ceiling of star power and I think Mercedes Moné brings that to the table. From her being (on) The Mandalorian to her being a multi-time world champion to just the charisma and aura that she brings into every moment she’s on TV. I really feel like that is what’s gonna set this women’s division over the edge in AEW. On top of that, it’s not that she’s doing it by herself. She’s bringing those women up with her, right? Like your Willow (Nightingale), Kris Statlander, your Julia (Hart), Skye Blue. They’re all in the same scene as her and that’s really cool that we’re doing that. Now, with that being said, your ‘Minion Overlord’ is just tiers above her, tiers above her. She’s doing great over there. We’re doing the Minion Overlord’s work over here, okay? We’re up here, we’re up top. She down here, we up here… This is my arrogance talking so sure, whatever, I’m certain we’re gonna get a whole lot of comments about it on the X app if you will. But, I think that the work that me, Billie (Starkz), Lexy (Nair), even Willow, have put in, doing these main events, showing Tony (Khan) that women can main event and deliver every single time. There’s a reason why I call myself ‘the inspiration to every women’s division’ and I definitely think our work inspired him to bring Mercedes Moné to the table.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)
In a recent interview with The Athletic, Brandi Rhodes gave her thoughts about her departure from AEW in 2022. Rhodes stated “What I feared with that company, I was seeing before my eyes. When you start to see things drift from the original vision and … I’ve seen this happen before, then you start to (think) this may not be what we thought it was.“
Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that several AEW talents are currently interested in wanting to work at an event for Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre at the Arena Mexico following Blackpool Combat Club, Matt Sydal, and Willow Nightingale working at CMLL’s Homenaje A Dos Leyendas 2024 event this past March. Meltzer reported that one of the talents who wants to work at a CMLL event is Chris Jericho and speculated that this might have been the reason for Jericho’s recent matches against CMLL talents on AEW shows.
AEW reportedly drew an attendance of 4,281 for their March 30th Collision and Rampage shows in London, Ontario, Canada and 4,000 (3,600 paid) for their April 3rd Dynamite show in Worcester, MA, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
AEW reportedly has sold around 2,313 tickets for their April 10th Dynamite show in Charleston, WV, 1,386 tickets for their April 13th Collision and Battle of the Belts X shows in Highland Heights, KY, 1,561 tickets for their April 17th Dynamite show in Indianapolis, IB, 1,225 tickets for their April 20th Collision show in Peoria, IL, 5,359 tickets for their April 21st Dynasty event in St. Louis, MO, 1,329 tickets for their April 24th Dynamite show at Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, FL, 1,368 tickets for their April 27th Collision show at Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Florida, 3,052 tickets for their May 1st Dynamite show in Winnipeg, Canada, 2,650 tickets for their May 8th Dynamite show in Edmonton, Canada, 5,025 tickets for their May 11th Collision show in Vancouver, Canada, 2,343 tickets for their May 15th Dynamite show in Everett, WA, 1,736 tickets for their May 16th Collision show in Portland, OR, 1,239 tickets for their May 22nd Dynamite show in Bakersfield, CA, 4,905 tickets for their May 26th Double or Nothing 2024 event in Las Vegas, NV, and 3,558 tickets for their May 29th Dynamite show in Los Angeles, CA as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Wrestlenomics’ Brandon Thurston reported that AEW’s top merchandise sellers on their AEWShop for this past March in order were Sting, AEW, Will Ospreay, Mercedes Mone, Kazuchika Okada, Swerve Strickland, Bullet Club Gold, Adam Copeland, Briscoe Brothers, and “Timeless” Toni Storm. In regards to specific merchandise, the top sellers in order reportedly were All In 2023 Blu-Ray set, Ospreay “Bruv” shirt, Ospreay “Billy Goat” shirt, Sting “split sting” shirt, Sting “Sting Thanks You” shirt, Mone “Mo Mone: No Problems” shirt, Sting Crow Micro Brawler, Sting “Final Encounter” shirt, AEW Brawler Buddies Sting, and Sting “Sting 3 Moon” shirt.
This past Friday’s Supercard of Honor 2024 event for Ring of Honor featured Mark Briscoe making his entrance coming out to “Gimme Back My Bullets” by Lynyrd Skynyrd, which was used by The Briscoes for most of their careers in the company. In a recent post on Twitter, Dax Harwood revealed that he worked with ROH owner Tony Khan to secure the rights to the song for Briscoe’s entrance at the event. Harwood stated “Tony and I worked together on getting this song for Mark. It was so important for Tony to have this song on such a special night for Pugh family. Maybe I shouldn’t share this, but Tony’s exact words to me were… “This is the best $_____ I’ve ever spent.” That’s the kind of boss we work for.“
This past Friday’s ROH Supercard of Honor 2024 event in Philadelphia also featured actor Paul Walter Hauser making a surprise appearance. Hauser made his surprise appearance coming out wearing a Boys mask during the Fight Without Honor match between Dalton Castle and Johnny TV. Hauser joined in on the parade of Boys who came out to help Castle win the match.

TNA, NJPW, Indies, & Misc. Wrestling

As noted before, Sabu was recently announced to be getting inducted into Game Changer Wrestling’s Indie Wrestling Hall of Fame as a member of their 2024 class. GCW owner Bret Lauderdale announced on Twitter that the reason for Sabu’s absence at today’s Indie Hall of Fame ceremony was due to him no-showing the event despite him being in the same hotel that the event was taking place downstairs. Lauderdale stated “In the true spirit of independent wrestling, sabu has decided to keep his deposit and no show the indie hall of fame ceremony today. He accepted the booking and took the money, but doesnt wanna get in the elevator and come upstairs. What a legend.” Matt Hardy revealed on Twitter that Sabu was in attendance at WrestleCon’s convention event in the hotel while GCW’s Hall of Fame ceremony was taking place.
Saturday’s Sakura Genesis 2024 event for NJPW in Tokyo, Japan featured two championships changing hands. The first was Bishamon (YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto) defeating Chase Owens & KENTA to become the new IWGP Tag Team Champions. The second was Shingo Takagi defeating EVIL to become the new NEVER Openweight Champion.
NJPW reportedly drew a paid attendance of 828 for their March 30th Road to Sakura Genesis 2024 event in Takaoka, 1,082 for their March 31st Road to Sakura Genesis 2024 event in Hamamatsu, and 1,195 for their April 3rd Road to Sakura Genesis 2024 event in Tokyo, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
NJPW reportedly has sold around 5,323 tickets for their April 12th Windy City Riot 2024 event in Chicago, IL as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Dave Meltzer reported that NJPW’s current advance ticket sales would be the highest for a NJPW event in the United States since the COVID pandemic.
As noted before, Stardom founder and head booker Rossy Ogawa was fired by Bushiroad this past February over allegations that he was he was poaching Stardom talent and staff for a new Joshi promotion. In a recent interview with Tokyo Sports, Ogawa provided an update on his launch announcement plans for his new promotion. Ogawa stated “I think we will be able to make some kind of announcement by the end of this month.” (English translation via Fightful.com)
CMLL reportedly drew an attendance of over 15,000 for their March 29th Homenaje A Dos Leyendas 2024 event at the Arena Mexico in Mexico City and 5,500 for their March 30th Sabados De Coliseo event in Mexico City, Mexico, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
In a recent press conference held by CMLL prior to this past Friday’s Super Viernes event, Bryan Danielson gave his thoughts about the possibility of him wrestling more in Mexico. Danielson stated “We don’t know, but I would love to come to Mexico more and not just do Arena Mexico. [I’d like to] go all around Mexico because the tradition of Mexican wrestling is so rich in all these different parts of the country. I’d love to go wrestle [in] all of them. But there’s schedule constraints [laughs].” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
Stardom reportedly drew a paid attendance of 493 for their March 30th event in Sendai, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newlsetter.
Stardom announced that they drew an official paid attendance of 976 for their April 4th American Dream 2024 event in Philadelphia, PA.
This past Friday’s TJPW Live in Philly event for Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania featured Athena making a surprise appearance for the company. Athena made her surprise appearance coming out alongside Billie Starkz for Starkz’s match against Hyper Misao at the event. Near the end of the match, Athena got involved leading to her being mist sprayed attacked by Misao and causing Misao to get distracted leading to Starkz rolling her up for the pinfall victory.
TJPW reportedly drew a paid attendance of around 2,349 for their March 31st Grand Princess ’24 event in Tokyo, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Pro Wrestling Revolver recently announced that Matt Cardona will be making an appearance for the company at their Cage of Horrors event on June 22nd in Clive, Iowa.
Ice Ribbon recently announced that Ibuki Hoshi will be going on a hiatus for her wrestling career for an undisclosed amount of time. Hoshi recently provided an update stating that the reason for her upcoming hiatus is due to her currently expecting a child and relinquished her ICExInfinity Championship. Ice Ribbon announced that a tournament will be held to crown a new champion starting on April 28th.
Pro Wrestling NOAH reportedly drew a paid attendance of 1,338 for their March 31st Star Navigation 2024 event in Tokyo, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
NOAH announced that they have pulled Dragon Bane from this Sunday’s event and their upcoming April 11th and April 14th events due to Bane recently suffering a broken nose injury. (English translation via PostWrestling.com)
Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that Major League Wrestling is currently planning to make a wave of talent cuts to their roster. Meltzer reported that the reason is not believed to be anything financially related due to them recently getting a massive payout from WWE over their antitrust lawsuit settlement and instead just them releasing talent who are signed but not being used by the company. Meltzer also reported that MLW officials will be leaving the door open to those who will be released for potential future appearances and work.
As noted before, former MLW talent Teddy Hart was arrested this past July over a speeding incident resulting in him being charged for with possession of MDMA and possession of a controlled substance without prescription. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that a new arrest warrant was issued against Hart over him failing to appear at his scheduled court hearing on April 4th in Titusville, Florida based on recent court records.

Wrestling TV Ratings for Week of March 29 to April 4, 2024

WWE Friday Night SmackDown – 2,201,000 viewers, 0.60 rating (prior week – 2,235,000 viewers, 0.61 rating)
WWE RAW – 1,780,000 viewers, 0.59 rating (prior week – 1,727,000 viewers, 0.57 rating)
WWE NXT – 641,000 viewers, 0.20 rating (prior week – 601,000 viewers, 0.17 rating)
AEW Rampage – 350,000 viewers, 0.11 rating (prior week – N/A)
AEW Collision – 458,000 viewers, 0.11 rating (prior week – N/A)
AEW Dynamite – 752,000 viewers, 0.23 rating (prior week – 747,000 viewers, 0.23 rating)
TNA Wrestling Impact! – N/A (prior week – 74,000 viewers, 0.02 rating)
Various – Biography: WWE Legends (A&E) – 337,000 viewers, 0.11 rating (prior week – 357,000 viewers, 0.11 rating)
Various – WWE Rivals (A&E) – 333,000 viewers, 0.11 rating (prior week – 320,000 viewers, 0.10 rating)
Various – Dark Side of the Ring (VICE) – 149,000 viewers, 0.04 rating (prior week – 150,000 viewers, 0.05 rating)

Total wrestling television viewership for the week: 7,001,000 viewers, up 790,000 viewers compared to the prior week’s 6,211,000 viewers.

The viewership and ratings numbers for the April 4th TNA Impact! show is currently not known.

AEW did not air a new episode of Rampage on March 22nd and instead that week’s episode was aired at an earlier date of March 20th due to TNT’s commitments with the 2024 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament for this past Friday.

AEW did not air a new episode of Collision on March 23rd due to TNT’s commitments with the 2024 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament that night.