Weekend Roundup: MVP on Denying Calling Triple H a Racist, Swerve Strickland & MFJ Taking Break from AEW, Rebel was Hospitalized for Pneumonia, AEW All Out 2024 News, New Matt Hardy Reality Series in the Works, Indies

Indie / Misc

Steve C.

Sep 8, 2024

WWE

WWE announced one new match for the card of Monday’s WWE RAW show in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. This new match was a singles match of Dominik Mysterio vs. Dragon Lee.
As noted before, Ivar has been out of action for WWE since this past May due to a spinal-related injury. Ivar recently provided an update on Twitter stating that he is working hard to be able to make his in-ring return and thanked everyone for the support they have shown towards him. Ivar stated “4 years ago today I was Temporarily paralyzed in the thunderdome on Monday night raw. Incredibly grateful for the ability to return to the ring after this double fusion surgery and Have great runs with @erik_wwe and @wwevalhalla and even this quick solo stint. And as I work hard to return from my CURRENT neck situation I wanted to take the time and thank every single one of you out there who is cheering me and my health on! I promise I will return! Thank you all for your love and support!“
Giulia recently reflected on Twitter about her upcoming in-ring WWE debut at this Tuesday’s NXT show. Giulia stated “My debut in NXT is next Tuesday! I’m ready to fight, anytime, anywhere. @ImChelseaGreen ,be ready! I can’t wait🔥 #WWENXT“
WWE NXT ring announcer Mike Rome announced on Instagram that his wife gave birth this past Thursday to new baby for their family.
In a recent interview with Denise Salcedo, Carmelo Hayes gave his thoughts about his adjustment to WWE’s main roster and how working with Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton has helped him realize that there are different levels of pro wrestling. Hayes stated “It’s definitely been a learning experience. I’ve been talking about the fact of making that transition, especially coming in as a first round draft pick, where all eyes are on you. You know what I mean? There’s really the most criticism I’ve ever faced in my whole career. But that’s OK, because at this time, that’s what you get when you get that first round draft pick label. If you want to be him, you open up yourself to that type of criticism. But really, it’s just of like that up in my game to that next level, because there’s so many guys up there. that I’ve got to work with Cody and Randy and things like that that have taught me that there are so many different levels to this game and there’s levels that I would have never knew if I wasn’t in the ring with those guys. So it’s been an amazing process and I’m just getting started really and I’m looking forward to see what’s next.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
WWE filed a trademark for “Unholy Union” for wrestling and entertainment-related purposes on September 5th to the United States Patent and Trademark Office. This is the tag team name for Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn.
WWE recently released three new videos to their WWE Vault channel on YouTube. The first new video was footage of the first ever WWE Intercontinental Championship being unearthed at WWE Warehouse. The second new video was the Intercontinental Championship match of Bret Hart vs. Mr. Perfect (c) from WWF SummerSlam 1991. The third new video was a NXT UK Women’s Championship dark match of Dakota Kai vs. Rhea Ripley from WWE Evolution.
As noted before, former WWE talent MVP was involved in an online incident this past June over a series of replies to a post on Instagram blaming WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque being the reason why WWE never brought back the Hurt Business. This led to rumors of MVP implying Levesque of being a racist towards male black wrestlers in WWE. In a recent virtual fan signing event for K&S WrestleFest, MVP clarified his past comments stating “It made the rounds that ‘MVP said Triple H was racist.’ I never said that word. I never said that. You show me the quote or the caption where I said that. Somebody made a comment on my social media about how he books black talent. I just said, ‘Ah, you see it.’ I never said he is racist. I never said that. That was never anything I said. I want to make that very clear. If you’re watching, you got that sound byte here first. I’ll go more into it on my podcast. I didn’t say that. Now, my opinion on how he books talent of color, that’s a different conversation, but I never said the man was racist. Hulk Hogan is racist. He said it himself, ‘I’m a little bit racist.’ He said that. As far as Triple H, I don’t know that he is. I don’t know what his motivations are, but I never said he was racist.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
During the same virtual fan signing event, MVP also gave his thoughts about his past work with Omos in WWE and his issues with Triple H’s booking of Omos and how Triple H was adamant on not wanting Omos to become another Big Show type wrestler and instead only viewed him as an attraction type wrestler. MVP stated “When Vince (McMahon) called me and Bobby (Lashley) in the office, he said, ‘Hey guys, I’m gonna split you guys up.’ He said, ‘Bobby, I want you to be a stand-alone star now.’ He said, ‘MVP, I wanna put you with Omos. I want you to do for Omos what you do for Bobby.’ Those were Vince’s words, and you know, praise from Caesar. Okay, alright. I’m not happy about this, but I look forward to the task, and Omos has such a huge heart. Literally and figuratively. He really wants to learn, he wants to get better. He was an open book, coachable and you know, we weren’t on TV at the time a lot but we were on all the live events. So I got to watch him week in, week out improve and get better, and I had talked to Triple H about how he was being used and Triple H was adamant that he didn’t want him to be another Big Show. He didn’t want him on TV every week. He wanted him to be an attraction. He just wanted to break him out periodically to be an attraction. So, I don’t know what his status is now. I don’t know what they plan on doing with him but, I think if you can’t — a legitimate 7-foot-3-inch — he was 400 pounds. I think last time I checked, talked to him, he’s like 385. His physique is changing, he’s getting in better shape. If you can’t make money with a 7-foot-3-inch, 385-pound basketball player that can move — you don’t see him move a lot because they don’t want him to. But when he wants to move, you’d be surprised how well that big man can move. If you can’t make money with that then you’re just an idiot.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)
Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Dominik Mysterio and Liv Morgan’s gear for their Mixed Tag Team match at this past August’s WWE Bash in Berlin event featured the same “eye” logo design of Lucha Libre AAA’s new heel group of Alberto El Patron, Konnan, & Dorian Roldan. Meltzer reported that those spoken to stated that this was meant to be a subtitle hint by WWE and AAA of Judgement Day being associated with El Patron’s new group. Meltzer reported that Konnan had worn a Judgement Day shirt at AAA’s Triplemania XXXII: Mexico City show earlier that month.
Wrestlenomics’ Brandon Thurston reported that WWE’s top merchandise sellers for their WWEShop this past August in order were CM Punk, Roman Reigns, Jey Uso, Cody Rhodes, John Cena, Rhea Ripley, Randy Orton, WWE, Steve Austin, and Seth Rollins. In regards to specific merchandise, the top sellers in order were Reigns “OTC” black shirt, Cena “Farewell Tour” red shirt, Reigns “OTC” hoodie, Wyatt Sicks black shirt, Punk’s “Return of Punk” black shirt, Jey Uso “Yeet” black shirt, Jey Uso “Eat, Sleep, Yeet, Repeat” white shirt, Reigns “Family Above All” black shirt, Ripley “B4B” black shirt, and Jacob Fatu black shirt.
As noted before, the September 3rd WWE NXT show drew 631,000 viewers and a 0.17 key demographic rating. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that WWE’s show had a very higher than usual male/female viewership skew of 73.7% in favor of males for a WWE television show.
WWE reportedly drew an attendance of 3,928 for their Aug. 29th house show event in Frankfurt, Germany, 12,002 for their Aug. 30th SmackDown show in Berlin, 13,149 for their Aug. 31st Bash In Berlin event at the Uber Arena in Berlin, Germany, 6,703 for their Sept. 1st NXT No Mercy 2024 event in Denver, and 11,118 for their Sept. 2nd RAW show in Denver, CO, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that while WWE did not give any actual numbers, Bash In Berlin is currently estimated to have drawn a live gate of over $3.5 million for the event based on the estimated 12,000 paid attendance.
WWE’s Bash In Berlin event this past August drew around 6,600 cable television pay-per-view buys based on updated late buys numbers, according to the

AEW & ROH

The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer reported in Sunday’s Daily Update that his sources stated that there has been one non-Warner Bros Discovery media partner that has been interested in potential deal with AEW.
Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that former WWE and TNA talent Mustafa Ali was in attendance backstage at Saturday’s AEW All Out 2024 event. It was reported that the reason for Ali’s appearance was due to him just visiting some people in the company and AEW’s event taking place near his hometown of Chicago.
Saturday’s AEW All Out 2024 event featured MJF defeating Daniel Garcia in a singles match and suffering a storyline injury afterwards at the hands of Garcia. WrestlePurists’ Ibou reported that his sources stated that AEW officials original plans were for Garcia to get a clean victory over MJF before those plans were changed. Ibou reported that the reason why the plans were changed was due to Garcia has still yet to sign a new contract with AEW but AEW officials are currently under the impression that he will be staying. Ibou also reported that the reason for the injury angle after the match was due to MJF will be leaving soon for filming work for the production of an upcoming movie. In response to a fan question about AEW should have given Garcia the win if they feel confident enough in him staying, Ibou responded speculating that AEW officials did not want to risk giving Garcia a clean win over someone of MJF’s star status if he was going to leave.
Saturday’s AEW All Out 2024 event also featured Swerve Strickland being involved in storyline injury angle following his Lights Out Steel Cage match against Hangman Adam Page. Dave Meltzer reported in a recent episode of the Wrestling Observer Radio that his sources stated that the reason why AEW officials booked injury angles for both MJF and Strickland is due to both of them will be taking some time off from the company following their All Out 2024 event. In regards to Strickland, Meltzer reported that those spoken to stated that Strickland had been planned to take some time off from the company after signing his new deal. Meltzer speculated that Strickland would have stayed until this year’s WrestleDream event and then take a break but now currently believes that is likely when Strickland will return to the company. In regards to MJF, Meltzer reported that those spoken to confirmed that MJF will be taking a break from the company soon. In regards to potential injuries, Meltzer reported that those spoken to stated that both MJF and Strickland were feeling fine backstage after their matches and did not suffer any serious injuries.
Saturday’s AEW All Out 2024 event also featured Blackpool Combat Club’s Claudio Castagnoli & Jon Moxley turning heel and attacking Bryan Danielson. This heel turn was notable for Moxley trying to suffocate Danielson with a plastic bag over his head. Eddie Kingston responded on Instagram reacting to the plastic bag angle on the show stating “I’m just going to leave this here.” Kingston posted a drawing with the left side featuring him talking to AEW CEO Tony Khan and being told no after he suggested the idea of a plastic bag, a chair, and gasoline and the right side being him sitting on a couch injured at his home angrily looking on over what happened.
Saturday’s AEW All Out 2024 event also featured Skye Blue making a surprise appearance. During Blue’s interview segment, Mariah May interrupted and attacked Blue leading to Queen Aminata running out to save Blue and chased away May. In a digital exclusive backstage interview, Queen Aminata issued a challange to May for a match at this Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite show in Lexington, Kentucky. Aminata stated “Mariah May, so you want to pick on somebody with a broken ankle? Well, why don’t you pick on somebody with two good ankles and more juice than you could ever handle? I also know one day, Skye Blue’s going to kick your ass, but this Wednesday, I’m going to do it first. So Mariah, you can be the champion, you can be The Glamour, but you will never, never be the one and only Queen.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
Saturday’s Zero Hour Pre-show for AEW’s All Out 2024 event featured Nigel McGuinness as one of the guests. One of the topics discussed included McGuinness’ thoughts about if he has come down yet from his buzz over making his in-ring return in over a decade at AEW’s All In 2024 event this past August and his interest in wrestling another match. McGuinness stated “It’s still at full, if I’m perfectly honest. I shot my shot and I didn’t get my opportunity, but if another opportunity presents itself, I might take it.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)
AEW filed a new trademark for “AEW: Shockwave” for wrestling and entertainment-related purposes on September 6th to the USPTO.
As noted before, Rebel has been absent from AEW programming since early 2023 due to creative-related reasons. Rebel provided an update earlier today on Instagram stating that she was hospitalized this past May due to pneumonia and was discovered to have been suffering from other minor health issues following a CT scan. Rebel stated that she is getting those minor health issues taken care of and has been feeling better every day. Rebel stated “Next year, expect a very fit birthday bikini pic 😉 👙 This year has not been what I expected. I’ve kept this private until now bc I believe I’m on the up. Thank you to the very few who knew what was going on and kept it private. And for those who didn’t know, I’ll spare you the details but in short, I was hospitalized in May for a good while bc they found a mass in my lung that they couldn’t figure out what it was, turns out it’s pneumonia. A couple of ct scans found some other minor issues that I am taking care of. I feel better every day, now that I am getting a handle on these things. cheers to another trip around the sun 🎂🥂“
AEW announced they will be holding five new AEW Dynamite and Collision events this October and November. These events are a Collision show on October 26th at the Alliant Energy Powerhouse in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. A double set of Dynamite and Rampage shows on October 30th at the Wolstein Center at Cleveland State University in Cleveland, Ohio. A Collision show on November 2nd at the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A Collision show on November 7th at the Amica Mutual Pavilion in Providence, Rhode Island. A double set of Dynamite and Collision shows on November 27th at the Wintrust Arena in Chicago, Illinois.
Wrestlenomics’ Brandon Thurston reported that AEW’s top merchandise sellers on AEWShop this past August in order were AEW, Will Ospreay, MJF, ROH, Mariah May, Darby Allin, Rob Schamberger, The Outrunners, Bryan Danielson, and Britt Baker. In regards to specific merchandise, the top sellers in order were AEW Dynasty 2024 Blu-Ray, AEW Revolution 2024 Blu-Ray, 3. Darby Allin hoodie, AEW Worlds End 2023 Blu-Ray, AEW logo shirt, MJF’s “MJF American flag” shirt;, Toni Storm Bobblehead brawler, ROH Supercard of Honor 2024 DVD, Ospreay basketball shorts, and Baker “Checkup” shirt.
As noted before, AEW generated a turnstile count of 46,476 for their All In 2024 event on August 25th at Wembley Stadium in London, England. AEW had sold and distributed around 53,393 tickets for the event. Dave Meltzer reported that while AEW CEO Tony Khan has yet to give the actual attendance number for the event beyond saying it was over 50,000, the usual percentage for a turnstill count is it being between 80-95% of the total tickets sold. Meltzer reported that this would mean that AEW’s paid attendance for the event was around 52,121.
Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that while AEW CEO Tony Khan also has yet to give the official live gate number for this year’s All In 2024 event, those spoken to stated that the event drew a live gate of around $6 million. Meltzer reported that based on current estimates, AEW is believed to have generated a live gate of $6.46 million for the event. Meltzer also reported that this year’s All In event’s live gate would have been the third largest ever for a non-WWE event in wrestling history, only behind last year’s All In event that drew over $10 million and the 1998 Antonio Inoki vs. Don Frye Inoki retirement event at the Tokyo Dome that drew around $7 million
As noted before, former AEW commentator Kevin Kelly and former AEW and ROH talents The Tate Twins (Brandon & Brent Tate), former The Boys, filed a defamation lawsuit last week against AEW, AEW CEO Tony Khan, and AEW/ROH commentator Ian Riccaboni. In regards to Kelly and the Tate Twins also requesting for the court to approve a class action lawsuit over their claims of AEW misclassifying their wrestlers as independent contractors rather than as employees, Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that while AEW talent are more independent than WWE talent in regards to being allowed to accept outside bookings, contracted talent are more similar to WWE talent when it comes to them not being able to take outside bookings that conflict with their AEW bookings. Meltzer reported that TNA talent are event more independent than AEW talent for outside bookings and the case would be much stronger of them being actual independent contractors due to TNA runs fewer tapings per month. Meltzer reported that despite this, TNA talent still wouldn’t be allowed to take outside bookings that conflict with their TNA bookings. Melzter reported that one person spoken to who is heavily involved in the bookings for indie talents responded stating that they felt WWE, AEW, and TNA talents would still not be considered as true independent contractors. This person stated “I would disagree in saying TNA talent are true independent contractors. Yes they can take any dates as long as there’s no conflict but it’s not open and shut cases. If I want to book Speedball tomorrow, I can. But if I want Speedball to lose to my local guy – he may be fine with it but he has to get the office to clear it. If they say no, I have no reason to book him. And thus he would lose a payday. A true independent contractor would be able to take any job with no strings attached. TNA is more flexible than AEW and AEW is more flexible than WWE but in no way is anyone there really an independent contractor IMO.”
AEW reportedly drew an attendance of 2,962 for their Aug. 31st Collision show in Sioux Falls, SD and 2,448 for their Sept. 4th Dynamite show in Milwaukee, WI, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

TNA, NJPW, Indies, & Misc. Wrestling

Revolution Pro Wrestling recently announced that Robbie X, Lio Rush, Cameron Khai, Barbaro Cavernario, and Kid Lykos as the first set of official entrants for this year’s British J Cup tournament on September 28th in Stevenage, England.
Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre announced one new match for the card of their 91st Anniversary Show on September 13th at the Arena Mexico in Mexico City, Mexico. This new match was a 2-out-of-3 Falls Trios match of Templario & Los Viajeros del Espacio (Star Jr. & Neón) vs. Soberano Jr. & Los Hermanos Chavez (Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja).
CMLL reportedly drew an attendance of 8,500 for their Aug. 30th Super Viernes event at the Arena Mexico in Mexico City, Mexico, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
As noted before, Nick Gage has been out of action for Game Changer Wrestling since this past August due to an undisclosed injury. In a recent interview with the Business of the Business podcast, GCW owner Brett Lauderdale recently provided an update on Gage’s recovery status and if he will be able to attend their upcoming Nick Gage Invitational 2024 event this November. Lauderdale stated “Probably soon to tell at the moment. We have a lot going on in the world of MDK at the moment. It would be premature for me to say whether or not he’ll be there.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
During the same interview, Brett Lauderdale also gave his thoughts about WWE Hall of Famer JBL’s surprise appearance at GCW’s Homecoming 2024 Night 1 event this past August in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Lauderdale stated “I’m a big fan of J.B.L. and who’s not? JBL and I have a mutual friend, who will remain unnamed, and it’s one of those things, JBL is not exclusive to — what am I trying to say here? GCW kind of has a reputation for guys like JBL where, you know, when they’re kind of dipping their foot into the independent world for the first time, they wanna go somewhere they know they can have fun, somewhere that is going to treat them with respect and present them with respect… It’s somewhere where they know it’s gonna get the attention it deserves and they’re gonna be well-represented. So, that being said, like I said, we had a mutual friend and I had good conversation with JBL and yeah, I think JBL is interested in going out and having some fun right now so, GCW is one of those places where guys like him can have fun. Well, I can’t say (if JBL will be back in GCW or not). I mean, I can say that I hope so. But, there’s nothing scheduled or announced at the moment but I would love to see JBL come back, at some point.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)
In a recent episode of The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy podcast, co-host Matt Hardy stated that development for a new House Hardy reality television series is currently in progress. Hardy stated “Something that we’ve been working on very heavily, which we did a lot this week, is a reality show for house Hardy, and that’s something that we’ve talked to some pretty some pretty important people about. So we’re working on that. That’s something that’s a work in progress. So that’s taken up a lot of our time, too. We’ve got a lot of irons in the fire here at House Hardy, and I’m feeling really good. I’m feeling very optimistic about the future and what’s going on. I’m very happy with the career path that I’ve chosen recently, doing TNA. I’m very happy with how things have been going at TNA, and very happy with all these outside projects that we’re working on, and it’s giving us the opportunity to really expand our horizons when it comes to stuff like that.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
Stardom reportedly drew a paid attendance of 2,108 for their Aug. 31st 5STAR Grand Prix 2024 Finals event in Musashino, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
All Japan Pro Wrestling reportedly drew a paid attendance of 1,013 for their September 1st Nettou Summer Action Wars 2024 event in Fukuoka, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Pro Wrestling NOAH reportedly drew a paid attendance of 1,537 for their Sept. 1st N-1 Victory Finals event in Osaka, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
New Japan Pro Wrestling reportedly drew a paid attendance of 2,266 for their Aug. 30th Capital Collision 2024 event in Washington, DC, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Dave Meltzer reported that Takayamania Empire 3 event on Sept. 3rd reportedly drew a paid attendance of 1,701 at the Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan. Similar to the prior Takayamania Empire events, this year’s event was held to help raise funds to assist Yoshihiro Takayama’s medical expenses since his spinal cord injury in 2017. This event was also notable for featuring Katsuyori Shibata’s first match in Japan since NJPW’s Wrestle Kingdom 16 event in January of 2022.
PROGRESS Wrestling reportedly drew a paid attendance of 730 for their Aug. 26th Chapter 170: Wrestling Never Sleeps event in London, England, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Rocky Romero, Jay Lethal, Tomohiro Ishii, Kazuchika Okada, Mark Briscoe, Bryan Danielson, and Zack Sabre Jr. all joined the very exclusive list of wrestlers who have competed at Wembley Stadium, Madison Square Garden, the Tokyo Dome, and Arena Mexico during their wrestling careers. All seven join John Tenta, Road Warrior Animal, Juice Robinson, Chris Jericho, and Jon Moxley. In regards to Road Warrior Animal, Meltzer reported that Animal had wrestled at Arena Mexico but not for CMLL and instead at a DragonMania indie event that was held by Ultimo Dragon.

Wrestling TV Ratings for Week of August 30 to September 5, 2024

WWE Friday Night SmackDown – 2,054,000 viewers, 0.53 rating (prior week – 2,050,000 viewers, 0.56 rating)
WWE RAW – 1,652,000 viewers, 0.49 rating (prior week – 1,796,000 viewers, 0.56 rating)
WWE NXT – 631,000 viewers, 0.17 rating (prior week – 615,000 viewers, 0.15 rating)
AEW Rampage – 218,000 viewers, 0.07 rating (prior week – 290,000 viewers, 0.10 rating)
AEW Collision – 289,000 viewers, 0.10 rating (prior week – 440,000 viewers, 0.13 rating)
AEW Dynamite – 660,000 viewers, 0.19 rating (prior week – 697,000 viewers, 0.23 rating)
TNA Wrestling Impact! – N/A (prior week – N/A)

Total wrestling television viewership for the week: 5,504,000 viewers, down 384,000 viewers from the prior week’s 5,888,000 viewers.

The viewership and ratings numbers for the August 22nd and August 29th TNA Impact! shows are currently not known.