Weekend Roundup: WWE Tryouts, RAW Ratings Note, Jim Ross, FTR AEW Contracts Update, Big Swole, Bray Wyatt Update, Indies

WWE

• Ring of Honor’s Women’s World Champion Rok-C was among the indie talents invited by WWE for tryouts this past week based on a recent photo gallery posted on their official website. This recent set of tryouts was revealed to have taken place from December 15-17 at WWE’s Performance Center in Orlando, Florida.
• Besides Rok-C, WWE reportedly had also invited several indie talents who worked at recent AEW events, according to this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Among those invited included the Renegade Twins, Cole Carter, and Nikita Knight.
• NXT UK talent and current NXT United Kingdom Champion Ilja Dragunov recently announced on Twitter that he got married this past Friday.
• As noted before, this past Monday’s episode of RAW managed to rebound from last week’s record low key demographic ratings. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that this past Monday’s episode still generated the second lowest ever 18-49 key demographic and Teenagers ratings in RAW history. In terms of overall 18-34 key demographic rating, Meltzer reported that it was the third lowest ever in RAW history. RAW’s overall viewership of 1,573,000 viewers reportedly was the sixth lowest ever in RAW history. Meltzer also reported that this past Monday’s episode also tied last week’s show for the oldest skewing in RAW history at a median age of 57 years old.
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the reason why the final viewership number for the December 10th episode of SmackDown was lower than the intital number was due to an error from Nielsen’s tracking. Some of the viewership for news programming on FOX stations covering the deadly tornadoes wrecking Kentucky and other areas reportedly had been included in SmackDown’s overnight viewership numbers.
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources within WWE stated that the official reason for Roman Reigns’ absence from the December 10th episode of SmackDown was due to him having requested and being granted a brief vacation break several months ago.
• WWE reportedly generated an attendance of 10,600 (8,600 paid) for their December 10th SmackDown show in Los Angeles, CA, 4,241 for their December 11th house show event in Saginaw, 3,670 for their December 12th house show event in Grand Rapids, MI, and 5,200 (3,900 paid) for their December 13th RAW show in St. Paul, MN, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• WWE reportedly has sold around 3,786 tickets for their December 19th house show event in Des Moines, IA, around 4,137 tickets for their December 20th RAW show in Milwaukee, WI, around 5,573 tickets for their December 26th house show event at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York, around 4,134 tickets for their December 26th house show in Tampa, FL, around 6,0378 tickets for their December 27th RAW show in Chicago, IL, around 4,549 tickets for their December 27th house show event in Orlando, FL, around 4,036 tickets for their December 28th house show event in Washington, DC, around 4,937 tickets for their December 28th house show event in Pittsburgh, PA, around 4,014 tickets for their December 29th house show event in Baltimore, MD, around 2,741 tickets for their December 30th house show event in Buffalo, NY, around 8,922 for their January 1, 2022 Day One event in Atlanta, GA, around 3,085 tickets for their January 3rd RAW show in Greenville, SC, around 4,260 tickets for their January 7th SmackDown show in Uncasville, CT, and around 25,634 tickets for their January 29th Royal Rumble 2022 event in St. Louis, MO as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• In regards to WWE’s upcoming house show events in Canada, Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the status of those shows are currently in doubt. Meltzer reported that the province of Ontario recently issued new restrictions for all indoor events in order to combat the recent surge in COVID-19 cases. All indoor venues with a capacity of more than 1,000 will only be allowed a maximum of 50% capacity for events for the foreseeable future. Meltzer reported that the December 29th house show event at the Coca Cola Coliseum in Toronto would only be allowed up to 5,000 in attendance for the event while WWE has sold around 7,178 tickets as of this past Thursday. The December 30th house show event in Laval reportedly would be capped at 5,000 for the event while WWE has sold around 6,252 tickets as of this past Thursday.
• Fightful Select reported that WWE officials originally had plans for Sonya Deville to make her in-ring return at this past July’s Money in the Bank event. It was reported that the plans went as far as to have graphics featuring Deville as a competitor for the Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder match made but in the end WWE officials scrapped their creative plans for her at the time.
• Fightful Select reported that their sources within WWE stated that many changes were made to the original plans for this past Friday’s set of SmackDown tapings in Rosemont, IL. In regards to the live episode, it was reported that the original plans were for Roman Reigns to open the show and the New Day vs. Usos match to be the main event. Those plans were changed with Reigns’ promo segment with Paul Heyman and brawl with Brock Lesnar closing out the show instead. It was also reported that a Brock Lesnar sit-down interview was originally planned for the December 17th show but was pulled for unknown reasons. In regards to the women’s division, it was reported that the original plans were for the SmackDown Women’s Championship match to take place on the live December 17th show and the Sasha Banks & Toni Storm vs. Shotzi & Charlotte Flair tag match to take place as the main event for the taped December 24th show.
• WWE filed trademarks for “Nikkita Lyons”, “Jakara Jackson”, “Javier Bernal”, “Raelyn Divine”, and “Bryson Montana” for wrestling and entertainment-related purposes on December 13th to the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
• Sports Business Journal recently released their list of Most Influential Media Influencers of 2021. Among those listed were WWE’s Vince McMahon, Stephanie McMahon-Levesque, and Nick Khan and the reasoning for their inclusion was “There is clearly a repositioning of the WWE to a media business under Khan, who joined the company from CAA Sports in August 2020, especially with the move to Peacock as part of a five-year deal reported to be more than $1 billion. High-profile projects include a multipart Netflix docuseries on Vince McMahon’s life and a deal with Blumhouse Television on a scripted series about the WWE in the 1990s.”

AEW

• During a recent episode of the ARN podcast, co-host Arn Anderson gave his thoughts about the recent AEW World Championship match between Bryan Danielson and Hangman Adam Page being the best match he has seen in the past 25 years. Anderson stated “I sat there. Will Hobbs was between Brock and I. We sat down and there was no way I was going to miss this one. Bryan Danielson may be the best in the world because I looked at his cardio, I watched his pacing, I watched his thought process, the story he was telling, the physicality, giving and receiving. Everything you would want to see in a title match for an hour was there. They didn’t miss anything. I made sure when they came through that curtain, caught their breath for a second, and started up the hallway to their dressing room, and I don’t blow smoke very much because it leaves a very bad taste in my mouth. It just doesn’t feel right. Sometimes you just do it to lift someone’s spirits. I told those two guys point blank, ‘It’s the best match I’ve seen in at least 25 years.’ If anybody wants to combat me on that, I would love to hear their thoughts, but it had everything. Let me tell you something. Hangman held his end up. I told them both they made me proud to be in the wrestling business. It was just as if one of my kids was out there. I don’t know Hangman very well because we just haven’t spent a lot of time together. Much respect for his work ethic. I do know Daniel Bryan. I was with him quite a lot at my previous employment. Even knowing kind of what I could expect, I had no idea they would shine like that. Guess what? Nobody lost in that match.” (Transcript h/t: WrestlingNews.co)
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the airing status for the December 31st episode of AEW Rampage is currently unknown due to TNT had yet to finalize their New Year’s Eve programming schedule as of this past Thursday.
• AEW reportedly generated an attendance of 6,400 (6,060 paid) for their December 15th Dynamite Winter is Coming II show in Garland, Texas, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Dave Meltzer reported that AEW managed to generate around $340,000 for the live gate revenues for the event.
• AEW reportedly has sold around 5,023 tickets for their December 22nd Dynamite show in Greensboro, NC, around 2,515 tickets for their December 29th Dynamite show in Jacksonville, FL, around 7,463 for their January 5, 2022 Dynamite show in Newark, NJ, around 4,408 tickets for their January 8th Battle of the Belts event in Charlotte, around 3,056 tickets for their January 12th Dynamite show in Raleigh, NC, around 3,531 tickets for their January 19th Dynamite show in Washington, DC, around 2,699 tickets for their January 21st Rampage show in Washington, DC, around 4,180 tickets for their January 26th Dynamite show in Cleveland, OH, and around 3,911 tickets for their February 2nd Dynamite show in Chicago, IL as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• As noted before, Jim Ross has been away from AEW since this past November due to skin cancer radiation treatments. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Ross’ radiation treatments is still on track to be finished by December 29th but it is not known if he will be making his return to AEW’s commentary booth for their Dynamite show in Jacksonville, Florida that night. Meltzer reported that one factor in favor of Ross potentially returning on that date is due to him currently living in Jacksonville so travel would not be a real issue for him.
• As noted before, Chris Jericho was pulled from several of Fozzy’s concert events earlier this month in the United Kingdom due to him suffering from an undisclosed non-COVID-19 illness. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the exact nature of Jericho’s illness is still not known due to Jericho being very quiet over his recent health issue.
• During a recent interview with the Rasslin with Brandon F. Walker podcast, FTR’s Dax Harwood revealed that his and Cash Wheeler’s current contracts with AEW are set to expire soon. Harwood stated “There’s a difference between having great tag team matches and being a great tag team. I think 2022 going forward, we can be in that same conversation with Arn and Tully, Midnight Express, and Rock ‘n’ Roll Express. That’s my goal for 2022. Because we don’t have very much longer on these current contracts. I don’t know what’s going to happen from there, but we have a short amount of time to accomplish the things we want to accomplish. Like winning the IWGP Tag Team Championships, obviously two time AEW Tag Team Championships, proving that we are the best.” (Transcript h/t: WrestlingInc.com)
• Fightful Select reported that MJF and Dax Harwood were involved in a backstage incident involving a fan during the December 8th episode of AEW Dynamite at the UBS Arena in Long Island, New York. It was reported that a fan had posed as an extra for the show and had managed to fool the arena’s security team. This fan reportedly managed to go inside AEW’s locker room and sat in seats that belonged to Harwood and The Blade. This same fan reportedly was then questioned by AEW talent while he was putting on Jeff Hardy style armbands over his presence in their locker room. This same fan was quickly exposed to have lied about being trained by Hardy as his excuse, being unable to identify the person who would have hired him as an extra for the show, and also lied about being a friend of Taz as another excuse given. Following the questioning, both MJF and Harwood ejected him out of the locker room and took him to someone who had claimed to have been kicked out of an AEW show this past October in Boston, Massachusetts. It was reported that there was no backstage heat on AEW’s security team due to the issue was not their responsibility and instead was the arena security team’s job.
• During a recent AEW panel at C2E2 (Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo), Adam Cole gave his thoughts about the future of Kyle O’Reilly’s wrestling career following his recent departure from WWE. Cole stated “I have no idea what Kyle’s gonna do. I really don’t. I’m not even sure he knows exactly what it’s gonna do. But the idea of getting to reunite with Kyle as well as Bobby? Hell yeah, I’d love that! Hell yeah, I would! Absolutely.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• During the same panel at C2E2, Christopher Daniels gave his thoughts about his in-ring future in AEW. Daniels stated “The last match I had for AEW television was the night that we wrestled against the Bucks. Unfortunately, we lost and SCU had to split up and since that time, I had sort of been weighing my future in the ring. I decided that I still wanted to give wrestling in the ring a-go. Honestly, I would be lying if I said that I was happy going to AEW and not seeing my name on the board. I want to get back in the ring and do something with this roster. But I also realized that AEW is not a vanity project, you know, and maybe Chris Daniels in the ring isn’t the best thing for AEW at this time with such a stacked card and so many young talents there. So I mean, it’s not my call, I hope to get in the ring at some point soon. But if not, I also realized that I’m still contributing to AEW and if the fates decide that my best contribution is behind the scenes, then so be it. But I’m still ready to go and the minute I see my name on the board, I’ll lace ’em up and bring it!” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• AEW recently announced that they will be holding a set of Dynamite and Rampage tapings at the Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport, Connecticut on February 23, 2022. It was also announced that they will be holding a set of Dynamite and Rampage tapings at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee on February 16, 2022. Tickets for both events officially went on sale starting this past Friday.

Indies & Other Wrestling

• As noted before, Chris Dickinson has been out of action since suffering a serious knee injury at NJPW’s Battle in the Valley event this past November. Dickinson recently provided a injury update on Twitter stating “Upon examining my xrays today my doctor said ‘this is an accelerated process’ I replied with I’M AN ACCELERATED HUMAN. Thankfully the surgeons did such a great job there isn’t even a visible line of where the fracture was and @wcwcrowbar PT regimen is working tremendously. Not like I ain’t been workin but without giving away too much in just a short time to be safe the real work will begin and I know my timeline. The clock is ticking … LFG“
• Battleground Championship Wrestling announced that Atsushi Onita will be making an appearance for the company at their March 26, 2022 event in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was also announced that Onita will be facing off against Bully Ray in a Death Match at the event.
• During a recent episode of the Callin podcast, former AEW talent Big Swole revealed her recent battles with Crohn’s disease and how it caused her to missed competing at AEW’s All Out 2019 event. Swole stated “There have been days where I have taken maybe two or three pain relievers, we’re talking hard pain relievers; narco, lortab, Percocet, Vicodin, Tramadol, morphine pills, hydrocodone, everything. There were times where I took two or three to get through a match because I don’t want to quit. There are people who have an autoimmune disease who are looking up to me and saying, ‘She’s doing it.’ Yes, I’m doing it and taking every measure I can do continue to do it. I do put my body on the line for this sport. To hear people saying that I don’t have Crohn’s, this is not something I would wish upon anyone. There have been countless times where I’ve gone to the hospital and countless times where they are telling me, ‘You’re dying.’ Before I got signed to AEW, I got really really sick, to the point where they sent my blood to the CDC and Mayo Clinic and they didn’t know what it was. There is nothing scarier than looking to the people who are supposed to know these things and them saying, ‘we don’t know what you have’ because of this illness. They ended up naming it the Nightmare Virus. I was deathly sick, dropping weight, I couldn’t hold up anything, and they couldn’t feed me. I asked God for two years to wrestle somewhere important and carry on because I felt like I needed to. He gave me the message that there was something bigger coming for me and I had to get ready. I got ready. This was right before I got to AEW, literally six months before doing the All Out battle Royale. I was in the hospital just completely gone and shriveled up to nothing. To hear people say I don’t have Crohn’s is completely ridiculous.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• Terminus recently announced three new matches for the card of their debut event on January 16, 2022 in Atlanta, Georgia. These are an Impact Digital Media Championship match of Kiera Hogan vs. Jordynne Grace (c), a singles match of Moose vs. Alex Coughlin, and a singles match of Liiza Hall vs. Janai Kai.
• New Japan Pro Wrestling recently announced that their upcoming Wrestle Kingdom 16 events on January 4th and January 5th, 2022 will air live on both New Japan World and FITE TV in the United States. NJPW also announced that their January 8th Wrestle Kingdom 16 event will only air live on AbemaTV in Japan.
• NJPW also recently announced a new match for the card of their Road to Wrestle Kingdom 16 event on December 24th in Tokyo, Japan. This will be a Provisional King of Pro Wrestling Year-End Party Rules match between Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Toru Yano (c).
• NJPW reportedly had a paid attendance of 3,215 for their World Tag League & Best of the Super Juniors 2021 Finals event on December 15th in Tokyo, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• Pro Wrestling Guerilla recently announced that Davey Richards is the next official competitor for their upcoming Battle of Los Angeles 2022 tournament, which takes place on January 29-30, 2022 in Los Angeles, California.
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the reason for the lack of any new details regarding the future wrestling career direction of Windham Rotunda, former Bray Wyatt in WWE, is due to him currently being more focused towards his current movie filming job. Meltzer reported that his sources stated that Rotunda does not want to rush back to wrestling any time soon. Meltzer also reported that another reason is due to Rotunda is likely living very comfortably with the money he had earned in WWE due to his contract had been among the top five or six in the company prior to his release. In regards to his past talks with Impact Wrestling and AEW, Meltzer reported that the last known details were that he was far apart from both companies in terms of money for a potential deal.
• Big Mami’s contract with Lucha Libre AAA reportedly recently expired, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• A recently taped episode of the ROHStrong podcast that will air this Monday had ROH COO Joe Koff as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Koff denying recent rumors that the company will not be returning from hiatus and instead will shut down. Koff stated ” What seeped into the narrative … is that we were shutting down, when all we announced is that we were not doing any live events in the first quarter. We never used the words ‘shutting down’.” (Transcript h/t: PWInsider.com)
• Ring of Honor reportedly generated an attendance of 1,620 for their Final Battle 2021 event on December 11th in Baltimore, Maryland, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• During a recent interview with The Shinning Wizards podcast, Vincent revealed that ROH originally had plans for him to face off against Jay Lethal at their Final Battle 2021 event earlier this month. Vincent stated “As it got close to the show [ROH Final Battle], I was kind of like, you know, like, ‘Wow. This could be potentially it right here,’ as far as Final Battle goes and this era, this is it. You know, once my music comes on, this is it so, ‘I think I’m gonna really enjoy this one and dance on the barricade and stuff’ and I did. But it was, you know — it was bittersweet man and the first-ever Ring of Honor Six-Man Tag Team Champion and then the last ever for this era is just kind of a cool thing and I’m really — and I’ll kind of let this cat out of the bag. It doesn’t really matter now but it was supposed to be me versus Jay Lethal at Final Battle and that’s kind of where that was headed. You know, unfortunately with everything happening, you know, it didn’t really go that way which is, you know, I think Lethal and [Jonathan] Gresham for the world title was very — made the most sense and I thought that was a good move as far as I’m concerned but, doing the six-man thing with — I really liked it because now it’s almost like when I did it with The Kingdom, it was like [Matt] Taven at the forefront and then me and TK [O’Ryan] and this time it was me with my crew now winning the Six-Man Tag Titles. It was just kind of like a cool full-circle kind of thing but like, now, Dutch and BATEMAN being able to hold these things for the first time ever for those guys, it was kind of a cool thing for me, you know what I mean? Because they’re my buddies and you know, it was cool, it was great.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)
• During a recent press conference in Japan, Kyoko Kimura, mother of the late Hana Kmiura, stated that she is currently planning to file a lawsuit against Fuji TV over their involvement in the death of her daughter. Hana committed suicide in May of 2020 following her being the victim of cyberbullying from fans of the Terrance House reality series over an incident on the show. This incident revolved around an episode that portrayed Hana acting in an aggressive manner towards another cast member who had ruined her wrestling gear.