Weekend Roundup: Mick Foley Signed WWE Legends Deal, The Outrunners Reportedly Signed AEW Contracts, Big Bill, Joe Hendry TNA Contract Update, Steph De Lander Neck Injury Update, Jerry Lawler, Indies

Indie / Misc

Steve C.

Sep 22, 2024

WWE

Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley recently signed a Legends contract with WWE. It was reported that it is currently not known when Foley had exactly signed his new deal. It was also reported that while Foley has been advised against having a farewell match for his wrestling career, Foley has told others that he is not completely done with wrestling in the ring at the moment.
WWE announced two new matches for the card for this Tuesday’ NXT show. The first new match announced was a tag team match of The Good Brothers (Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows) vs. Hank Walker & Tank Ledger. The second new match announced was a singles match of Oro Mensah vs. Lexis King.
The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff marching band, The Marching Musical Machine of the Mid-South, announced that they will be making an appearance at WWE’s Bad Blood 2024 event on October 5th in Atlanta, Georgia. It was announced that the band will be performing Cody Rhodes’ “Kingdom” entrance song at the event.
Kelly Kincaid and Elton Prince announced on Instagram the birth of their first child for their family. Kincaid stated that their baby Poppy Faye Howley was born on September 20th.
In response to a recent fan question, NXT talent Brooks Jensen revealed on Twitter that he recently got married.
As noted before, Dakota Kai has been out of action for WWE since this past August due to a torn meniscus injury. Kai recently provided an update on Instagram stating “see you soon.”
In a recent virtual fan signing event for Signed By Superstars, WWE Hall of Famer Jake “The Snake” Roberts gave his thoughts about if he will be watching Netflix’s upcoming Mr. McMahon docuseries based on former WWE CEO and TKO Executive Chairman Vince McMahon. Roberts stated “Possibly (I’ll watch Netflix’s Vince McMahon docuseries). I’m gonna wait and find out how much truth’s involved first… (Host mentioned it could be ‘a lot of bullsh*t’) Which is what I expect.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)
In a recent interview with The Ringer’s The Masked Man Show podcast, Carmelo Hayes gave his thoughts about the differences in booking between Shawn Michaels in NXT and Paul “Triple H” Levesque in the main roster. Hayes stated “It’s a positive, it’s not a negative at all. I think Shawn is very, he reacts with passion and emotion. With Hunter, he’s very calm and cool all the time, so it’s never like you ever see him get out of pocket or nothing. He’s very calm and cool all the time. There’s nothing against being passionate and emotional at all, but, you’ve got to be a little bit sharper with Shawn sometimes because he has a vision and he wants the vision to come true. If it doesn’t come true, he’s passionate. Hunter is passionate as well, don’t get me wrong, but he’s just kinda cool. He’s not gonna yell at you or anything.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
WWE recently released two new videos to their WWE Vault channel on YouTube. The first new video was a dark match of Minoru Tanaka vs. The Fallen Angel that was held prior to the start of the July 28, 1998 WWE RAW show. The second new video was a WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship Hell in a Cell match of The New Day vs. The Usos (c).
WWE’s Bash In Berlin event this past August in Berlin, Germany reportedly generated around 8,800 cable television pay-per-view buys based on updated late buys purchases, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Meltzer reported that Bash In Berlin’s buys are up 27.8% compared to this past July’s Money In The Bank 2024 event.
Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that WWE is currently not expected to get the same level of network ratings bump for their NXT shows on The CW compared to what SmackDown had gotten during their time on FOX, which was around a 30% bump. Meltzer reported that when you take out RAW and NXT shows from USA Network, the network averaged around 504,000 viewers and a 0.10 rating for prime-time shows in 2023. This reportedly was higher than The CW’s average of 453,000 viewers and a 0.07 rating for prime-time in 2023 despite being in more homes than USA Network.
WWE reportedly drew an attendance of 13,732 for their Sept. 13th SmackDown show in Seattle, WA and 10.013 for their Sept. 16th RAW show in Portland, OR, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
WWE reportedly has sold around 6,172 tickets for their Oct. 1st NXT show in Chicago, IL, 13,811 tickets for their Oct. 5th Bad Blood 2024 event in Atlanta, GA, 1,127 tickets for their Oct, 8th NXT show in Chesterfield, MO, 4,097 tickets for their Oct. 27 NXT Halloween Havoc 2024 show in Hershey, PA, and 15,340 tickets for their Nov. 30th Survivor Series WarGames 2024 event in Vancouver, Canada as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that prior to WWE moving their Oct. 8th NXT show from St. Louis to Chesterfield, Missouri, they had only sold and distributed around 2,196 tickets for the Enterprise Center which can hold up to 14,000 for max capacity. Meltzer reported that NXT’s new venue of The Factory at The District has a max capacity of 2,300 but WWE has only set it up to hold 1,715 for max capacity for their show.
PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that a new lawsuit was filed against WWE on September 16th before the Eastern District of Washington, U.S. District Court (Yakima). Johnson reported that this lawsuit was filed by a man named Leland Owens claiming that WWE owes him unpaid wages and he believed Linda McMahon’s “role as a senator” to cover up that he was “offered a $100,000 check.” Owens reportedly is also claiming that he believed “Vince and Stephanie disguised themselves as an agent to try and get away with all my ideas.” Owens reportedly also claims that after giving authorities tips on a criminal case, he told them he was a WWE fan and claimed they put him in contact with Sasha Banks and Daniel Bryan. Johnson reported that this was the second lawsuit filed by Owens against WWE over similar allegations and WWE has yet to respond to this new lawsuit.
As noted before, Booker T had claimed in an episode of his The Hall of Fame podcast this past March that he was almost involved in a backstage incident with CM Punk during a NXT tapings. Booker T’s alleged claims were denied by those within NXT and Booker T clarified in a follow up podcast show that he was not serious about his claims and was only joking. In a recent episode of The Hall of Fame with Booker T & Brad Gilmore podcast, Booker T gave his thoughts about his friendly interaction with CM Punk during last week’s NXT show. Booker T stated “I don’t know if you guys noticed. On Tuesday night NXT, I ran into CM Punk. We had words. The thing is, it was refreshing. I know people were tripping when they saw me and CM Punk. CM Punk and I we really never had any beef. We really never did. People really thought that when he was in AEW. I don’t think CM Punk and I really ever had any beef. Did I say some things about CM Punk specifically when he was in the UFC? Yeah, I did. I don’t think I said anything derogatory or mean-spirited towards CM Punk at all.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

AEW & ROH

Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that The Outrunners, Truth Magnum & Turbo Floyd, recently signed contracts with AEW despite not being given the #AllElite graphic treatment. It was reported that details regarding the terms of their contracts nor when they had signed their deals is currently not known. It was also reported that AEW officials have been very happy with the reaction and reception The Outrunners have received from crowds. It was also reported that The Outrunners current push is expected to continue.
AEW recently announced one new match for the card of this week’s AEW Rampage show on September 27th. This is a singles match of Willow Nightingale vs. Taya Valkyrie.
As noted before, AEW is believed to not be currently interested in bringing current MLW and former WWE talent Matt Riddle to the company. In a recent episode of the Grilling JR podcast, Jim Ross gave his thoughts about the possibility of Riddle joining AEW in the future. Ross stated “I don’t know if there’s an opportunity there or not. If they decided — I would suggest that he’d be given a shot. I understand Tony’s reluctance because Matt has a little baggage. How much that baggage weighs, I don’t know, but I know he’s a very talented kid, got a great look. He’s got that Kevin Von Erich look. He wrestles barefoot. I’ll never say never, I don’t know that it’s even on the drawing board, have no idea, that’s a Tony Khan thing, not nothing I’m involved in. Whatever Tony Khan does, I’ll do my best to make it work in my role. You can’t never turn your back on talented wrestlers who are still, I guess Matt Riddle is still in his early 30s, late 20s. He looks good, he’s got a unique style, he’s got good charisma. He brings something to the table and I learned from the cowboy many many years ago, Bill hired guys he didn’t like at all, but he knew they drew money. So, that’s what his priority, which it should have been, he was a one man band. Bringing guys in that would draw money would just help everybody, help everybody in the card when you stop to think about it.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
In a recent interview with Inside The Ropes, Will Ospreay gave his thoughts about his mentality when it comes to delivering promos during wrestling television shows. Ospreay stated “I’m always nervous about promos, and that goes back to years ago, when I found out that I had ADHD. I’ve always really struggled with eye contact, and I’ve struggled with stringing sentences together. So then when you sign up for American TV, that’s 60% of the job. You’ve got to be able to talk people into the building and you’ve got to have that type of unique charisma. I guess it goes in my favour because I don’t sound like everybody. I don’t sound like the Yanks. I think the main thing is I’m just happy to be here and I just treat all the audience like they’re my mate. I’m your weird mate down the pub. So I feel like because I have that aura, I get away with a little bit more. I slipped up on one of my lines that I said in the week before my match with Max and I kicked myself about it. I’d rather be honest with people and say, you know what, no, I slipped up on a line but I worked twice as hard next time because, once again, I’m not used to this and I’ve always struggled with this. I’m not perfect when it comes to promos. In fact, I wouldn’t even put me in the top 10 when it comes to promos.” Ospreay also gave his thoughts about the key to his connection with the audience is transparency and being real when he does make a mistake. Ospreay stated “I’m learning a whole new thing. It is still six months into me being here. I’m still getting used to this. If people want to throw shade my way because of that, they’ve never been in my shoes, they don’t understand what’s in my brain. For me, it’s all about being vulnerable, honest, and open, and I think that’s what connects people with me a little bit more, the fact that I do show my mistakes.“
WWLP Channel 22 reported that Saturday’s AEW Collision show in Springfield, Massachusetts was projected to bring $220,000 in revenues for its economic impact to the city. The city recently declared this past Friday to be AEW Day in the city in honor of AEW holding their first ever show in the city.
In a recent interview with News4JAX’s Going Ringside show, AEW CEO Tony Khan gave his thoughts about Mercedes Mone being one of the most talented wrestlers he has ever seen. Khan stated “She’s the face of the Superstation, TBS — the TBS Champion. The New Japan Strong Women’s Champion. The double champ, the CEO, Mercedes Mone. I think she’s one of the greatest pro wrestlers in the entire world. And she’s a huge, huge star. A huge signing for AEW. We saw her picking up big wins time after time. She’s just at the top of her profession right now. I’m a huge fan of Mercedes Mone, and she’s fantastic for AEW. And just such a great star with a huge following. And also a great person and a great pro wrestler. One of the most talented pro wrestlers I’ve ever seen is Mercedes Mone, in my opinion.” (Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com)
In a separate recent interview with the Busted Open Radio podcast, Tony Khan gave his thoughts about his decision to put big matches like Will Ospreay vs. Ricochet on AEW television instead of PPV events. Khan stated “That’s why I think it makes perfect sense with these big stages. We have the greatest roster ever. There is an unlimited supply of huge matches. These are matches that have been building since the people arrived at AEW.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
Big Bill is currently asking fans on Twitter to help out his baby nephew Connor by voting for him for Good Housekeeping’s “Baby of the Year” award. Big Bill stated “My nephew has been fighting for his life since being born at 28 weeks. He spent 81 days in the NICU and is currently nominated for Good Housekeeping’s Baby of the Year Award. I would greatly appreciate it if you could all give him a vote at link below. ❤️“
In a recent interview with Proresu Today, Stardom talent Mina Shirakawa gave her thoughts about her coming to America and working for AEW. Shirakawa stated “This is already a gamble. It is a gamble to make myself shine. I’m not getting any younger, so I’m always thinking about what I need to do to make my way up in the limited time I have. If I refuse the offer, there may not be another one. I had a gut feeling and decided to go. However, the offer from AEW was simply that they wanted me to come for one month, and that was it. There was nothing specific about which matches I was going to participate in or how many matches I was going to play. There was even a possibility that no matches would be scheduled. We didn’t know until we got there.” (English translation via DeepL and Fightful.com)
As noted before, this past May’s Double or Nothing 2024 event featured MJF revealing that he had signed a new contract with AEW. In response to a recent fan comment on Twitter about how they felt that the “Bidding War of 2024” seemed like it was everyone but MJF, MJF stated that he had quietly signed a new multi-million dollar deal with AEW and AEW had won. This fan stated “I like how the bidding war of 2024 was everyone but MJF.” MJF responded stating “It’s almost like MJF quietly signed a multi million dollar contract and AEW won or something?!?!? Wild stuff. Also sorry original post got deleted. Think my finger slipped in between takes for the movie I’m shooting. Blow me.“
Wardlow has been noticeably absent from AEW programming in recent months. Wardlow was among the AEW talent who were in attendance at this past Sunday’s special Lucha Libre event and Jacksonville Jaguars game in Jacksonville, Florida. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that the reason for Wardlow’s current absence from AEW is not due to any injury or personal reasons and instead simply just AEW officials not having any creative plans for him.
AEW reportedly drew an attendance of 2,896 for their Oct. 18th Dynamite show in Wilkes-Barre, PA, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
AEW reportedly has sold around 5,121 tickets for their Sept. 25th Dynamite and Collision Grand Slam 2024 shows at the Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, NY, 1,097 tickets for their Oct. 8th Dynamite Title Tuesday 2024 show in Spokane, WA, 4,684 tickets for their Oct, 12th WrestleDream 2024 event in Tacoma, WA, and 1,125 tickets for their Oct. 17th Collision and Battle of the Belts XII show in Stockton, CA as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
This past Thursday’s ROH TV show for Ring of Honor featured Red Velvet debuting a new custom red straps for her ROH Women’s World Television Championship. The title previously featured black straps that was held by Billie Starkz when she won the belt as its inaugural champion.
ROH recently released a “Best of Nigel McGuinness” collection on their ROH HonorClub service.

TNA, NJPW, Indies, & Misc. Wrestling

TNA Wrestling talent Joe Hendry has made several appearance for WWE’s NXT brand since this past June. Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that Hendry still has a “substantial amount of time” remaining on his contract and it is nowhere near being expiring.
As noted before, Steph De Lander is currently on a break from TNA and wrestling career due to her needing to undergo neck surgery. In a recent episode of the That’s Cooked podcast, co-host De Lander provided an update on her neck injury situation. De Lander stated “I need to take care of myself. I need to take care of my neck so I can have a long career when I return. Every wrestler’s worst nightmare is getting told that you can never wrestle again, right? But that’s not even taking into consideration the risks of paralysis, serious neck injury, and all of that kind of stuff. So even just from a career standpoint, I’m going to do everything that I can to avoid getting told I can’t wrestle, right? So, if I have the option to do this surgery, which would be a fusion of C5-C6, dissectomy, and recover and come back, which is a surgery that lots of wrestlers have had previously. I’ve spoken to multiple wrestlers that have had the exact same surgery and have returned to wrestling, and they’ve all said that they feel [like] a million bucks, that it’s the best thing they ever did. They’re so happy they did it. I’ve heard so many people have really positive experiences, which is what I need to hear. I’m gonna do this while, while I can and while it makes sense. It feels very, very reckless when I want to have a long career to risk a really serious neck injury. So that’s kind of where I’m at. That’s the answer for everyone. It’s going to be a fusion of a C5-C6. Is it career-ending? Absolutely not. How long am I going to be out? Probably six-plus months, maybe a little bit longer, and that’s just the way it is.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
This past Thursday’s Impact! show for TNA featured The Hardys competing in a Six-Person Tag Team match with Masha Slamovich against The System & Tasha Steelz. This match was notable for Jeff Hardy wearing The Fiend inspired facepaint in tribute to the late Bray Wyatt. In a recent episode of The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy podcast, co-host Matt Hardy gave his thoughts about his brother Jeff’s tribute to Wyatt. Hardy stated “It was 100 percent inspired from the Fiend mask. Jeff said, ‘Hey, do you think this would be cool if did it as a tribute? I said, ‘Yeah man, it would be awesome and I think it would be very cool for your facepaint. It was identical. The image that he used to do his facepaint – and he paints it all himself – it was absolutely identical, it was unbelievably great. That’s one of his biggest regrets. The whole time that I was working together with Bray until he actually turned and we were a half-assed tag team, Jeff was out. That’s kind of what started it, Jeff was injured. Jeff really does wish he would’ve gotten a chance to interact (with that). He really would have loved to have done Broken Matt, Bray Wyatt/Fiend whatever, and Willow. Willow is something I think we will see sooner than later in TNA because we have had some discussions about that and that’s something that Jeff is very passionate about.” (Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com)
TNA reportedly drew an attendance of around 2,000 for their Sept. 13th Victory Road 2024 event in San Antonio, TX, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Major League Wrestling reportedly drew an attendance of 764 for their Sept. Fightland 2024 event in Atlanta, GA, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Marigold reportedly drew a paid attendance of 755 for their Sept. 16th Dream Star Grand Prix 2024 event in Tokyo, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Stardom reportedly drew a paid attendance of 1,407 for their Sept. 14th Namba Grand Fight event in Osaka and 351 for their Sept. 18th Aomori 2 Days 2024 In Aomori event in Aomori, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
New Japan Pro Wrestling drew a paid attendance of 1,259 for their Sept. 14th Road to Destruction 2024 event in Noboribetsu, 1,041 for their Sept. 16th Road to Destruction 2024 event in Kitami, 1,155 for their Sept. 17th Road to Destruction 2024 event in Asahikawa, and 896 for their Sept. 18th Road to Destruction 2024 event in Sapporo, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Pro Wrestling NOAH reportedly drew a paid attendance of 1,391 for their Sept. 14th Star Navigation 2024 event in Tokyo, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. This event was notable for being Ryohei Oiwa’s final appearance for NOAH before returning back to NJPW.
All Japan Pro Wrestling reportedly drew a paid attendance of 817 for their Sept. 14th Royal Road Tournament 2024 event in Nagoya, 505 for their Sept. 15th Royal Road Tournament 2024 event in Hamamatsu, 780 for their Sept. 16th Royal Road Tournament 2024 event in Osaka, and 338 for their Sept. 19th Royal Road Tournament 2024 event in Tokyo, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
TheCubsFan reported that Lucha Libre legend El Hijo del Santo recently told the El Manana news outlet that his retirement match is currently scheduled to take place on July 26, 2025. The CubsFan reported that the reason for the July 26th date is due to that being the same date of his father El Santo’s first match under the iconic mask and ring name. TheCubsFan speculated that El Hijo’s choice for this date likely will also mean it will be the last time someone will ever wear the El Santo’s mask in a wrestling match.
Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre reportedly drew an attendance of around 16,000 for their Sept. 13th 91st Anniversary Show at the Arena Mexico in Mexico City, Mexico, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
As noted before, WWE Hall of Famer Jerry “The King” Lawler filed a wrongful death lawsuit in July of 2019 against Hardeman County, Tennessee and its sheriff over the death of his son Brian Christopher in July of 2018. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that the U.S. District Court, Western District of Tennessee (Jackson) ruled against Lawler on September 4th and dismissed his lawsuit based on recent court records. In decision for their the ruling, the court stated “In looking at whether Hardeman County could be held liable for its employees’ violations of Decedent’s rights, in its previous order this Court restated the well-established principle that local government units such as counties are liable for violations of constitutional rights by their employees only when a policy, practice, or custom of the county causes a constitutional violation. This Court also reiterated that a plaintiff may show that a municipality caused a constitutional violation in one of four ways: the existence of an illegal official policy or legislative enactment, that an official with final decision-making authority ratified illegal actions, the existence of a policy of inadequate training, or the existence of a custom of tolerance or acquiescence of federal rights violations. had previously dismissed some of the lawsuit with the Defendants asking the court to reconsider the portions it was allowing to move forward. The court sent that reconsideration to an appellate court to determine whether the remaining issues should be dismissed.” The court also stated that Lawler had failed to present evidence from which a jury could find that the individual officers knew that the Decedent possessed a “strong likelihood” of suicide, and disregarded that knowledge; therefore, Plaintiff could not show that the individual defendants were subjectively aware of such a risk.” The court also stated that the original court’s ruling allowing some of Lawler’s lawsuit to continue was based on a 2021 precedent that should have not been applied to this lawsuit and instead an earlier precedent should have been used. In regards to the earlier precedent, the court ruled that the entire lawsuit should be dismissed since the earlier precedent favored the defendants.
The National Wrestling Alliance announced that Primo & Epico Colon will be making an appearance for the company at their NWA Powerrr tapings on October 5-6 in Tampa, Florida.

Wrestling TV Ratings for Week of September 13 to September 19, 2024

WWE Friday Night SmackDown – 1,725,000 viewers, 0.55 rating (prior week – 1,770,000 viewers, 0.45 rating)
WWE RAW – 1,509,000 viewers, 0.49 rating (prior week – 1,430,000 viewers, 0.45 rating)
WWE NXT – 677,000 viewers, 0.21 rating (prior week – 628,000 viewers, 0.19 rating)
AEW Rampage – 250,000 viewers, 0.07 rating (prior week – 233,000 viewers, 0.08 rating)
AEW Collision – 268,000 viewers, 0.08 rating (prior week – 157,000 viewers, 0.04 rating)
AEW Dynamite – 687,000 viewers, 0.22 rating (prior week – 716,000 viewers, 0.21 rating)
TNA Wrestling Impact! – N/A (prior week – 74,000 viewers, 0.02 rating)

Total wrestling television viewership for the week: 5,116,000 viewers, up 108,000 viewers from the prior week’s 5,008,000 viewers.

The viewership and ratings numbers for the September 19th TNA Impact! shows are currently not known.