Weekend Roundup: WrestleMania 38, MJF & Tony Khan, Impact Ratings, Ace Austin Signs New Impact Deal, Mike Tenay, Indies

WWE

• PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that WWE’s current plan as of 4PM EST today is for the RAW Tag Team Championship Triple Threat match to kick off Night 2 of WrestleMania 38 later tonight in Arlington, Texas.
• Saturday’s WrestleMania 38 Night 1 event featured Cody Rhodes’ return to WWE as the mystery opponent for Seth Rollins. Following his match, Rhodes reflected on his WWE return during an interview with The Ringer Wrestling podcast. Rhodes stated “Everyone kept asking me all day, ‘what do you expect?’ Of course, I was hoping (the crowd) would be happy, at least, ‘yay, boo,’ some sort of energy and feeling. I really didn’t want to put any expectations on it and I never looked out there. I never walked the ramp, never got to see the crowd. Coming up on that lift was the first time I saw the grandeur, the showcase of immortals, all the things that WrestleMania is. A feeling that I’ll chase the rest of my life. If we never get another one, as a wrestler it’s always, ‘I have to get another, what am I doing next year?’ If I don’t get another one, I feel so vindicated. To go from nowhere on the card and no desire to have me and no priority, and that’s not a knock on anybody, to go out in the wilderness and try everything I could to make noise and change our business, pro wrestling, sports entertainment, whatever you want to call it. I felt like they appreciated it and I appreciated them.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• As noted before, Cody Rhodes is currently working on a documentary film based on his late father and wrestling legend Dusty Rhodes. Following his return to WWE at Saturday’s WrestleMania 38 event in Arlington, Texas, Rhodes issued a press release revealing that this new documentary is being produced for A&E as part of their WWE-themed Biography series. It was also revealed that Rhodes will be the executive producer for this upcoming episode.
• PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that Adam Pearce and Shane Helms were the trainers for Logan Paul for his tag team match with The Miz against The Mysterios at WrestleMania 38. Pearce and Helms reportedly were also the producers for Logan’s match at the event as well.
• During Saturday’s event, WWE announced an attendance figure of 77,899 for Night 1 of WrestleMania 38 in Arlington, Texas. WrestleTix reported that the real number of tickets sold and distributed was around 65,719 based on their data numbers.
• WWE reportedly generated an attendance of 9,300 (7,800 paid) for their March 25th SmackDown show in Brooklyn,NY, 4,200 for their March 26th house show event in Kitchener, Canada, 3,290 for their March 26th house show event in State College, PA, 7,705 for their March 27th house show event in Toronto, Canada, 3,389 for their March 27th house show event in Charlottesville, VA, and 9,726 (8,800 paid) for their March 28th RAW show in Pittsburgh, PA, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• During a recent interview with The MackMania podcast, Kevin Owens gave his thoughts about his current plans for the future of his wrestling career. Owens stated “I signed a new contract so I’ll be here for a little while doing this. once that contract is done, I really don’t see myself not being in the ring for many many more years, but I really enjoy the other side of it where…I enjoy watching other people do well. When I’m in the locker room and other people come up to me for advice, I enjoy giving it to them and I enjoy seeing them put it in practice and if it works for them, that’s a great feeling. I’ve really taking to seeing other people do well. I get as much satisfaction out of that, if not more, honestly, than when I’m…I’ve accomplished so much out of my career and this weekend is going to be insane as well. not that I feel like I’ve done it all, there are still things I would love to accomplish, but I feel like I’ve had an amazing career, so when I see other people do well, that fulfills me in a different way. Ultimately, once I’m not in the ring actively anymore, I really think I’ll hopefully have a role backstage somehow or even maybe do commentary. Those are all things I really enjoy. I don’t see myself going anywhere. Hopefully I can help people that are here now and people that are here in the future like others started helping me .” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• A recent episode of The Town podcast had WWE President Nick Khan as the guest and one of the topics discussed included Khan’s thoughts about WWE’s struggles to find and create the next big WWE Superstar in 2022. Khan stated “It’s definitely more difficult. Let’s look at Logan Paul, who is wrestling a match for us this weekend along with The Miz. If you look at Logan Paul, if YouTube and the social media platforms didn’t exist, let’s say its 15 years ago, could he have been the next big WWE Superstar? Sure, but he figured out a way to make a ton of money without having to go do that. We’ve made a massive pivot. We came to him. It used to be, you’d get boxers on the downside of their career; Joe Lewis, Muhammad Ali, coming to wrestling. Now you’re getting them on the upside; Floyd Mayweather, 15 years ago, Tyson Fury a few years ago. I think the athletes see the benefit of our platform, but in terms of creating new, full-time stars, we’ve completely shifted our recruiting efforts.We have a big tryout this week in Dallas at The Star. What our point of recruiting is, to these Division 1 Double A Athletes, men and women…let’s talk men for a moment. If you’re a football player and not going to make it to the NFL, XFL, USFL or the other options, if you’re a step short or not big enough, come to us and let’s make it easy to you. If you look at a shot putter in college, what is that man or woman going to do next? Are they going to get an office job? Are they going into pharmaceutical sales? Go work at UPS? Or are they going to come take a look at us? We want to make it easy for these athletes. That’s not just limited to Division 1 and 1 Double A. Junior college athletes, if you look at ethnicity. I’m not convinced that a first generation Mexican American kid in Los Angeles is going to the east coast to go to college. They may go to junior college, they may have family responsibilities. We want to go after those kids as well and make it easy for them to come to us.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• WWE filed a trademark for “RKO” on March 28th for merchandise-related purposes to the United States Patent and Trademark Office. WWE also filed a trademark for “Sloane Jacobs” on March 28th for wrestling and entertainment-related purposes.
• As noted before, AJ Styles recently signed a new multi-year contract extension with WWE. During a recent interview with Inside The Ropes, Styles clarified the recent reports of his new deal with the company. Styles stated “Let me make one thing clear. I didn’t sign anything, recently. I had something on my contract where I got to decide, kind of a player option, what I want to do, and we just extended the contract that I already had.” Styles also gave his thoughts regarding his current plans for the future of his WWE career. Styles stated “Time is running out, as far as AJ Styles is concerned. I am getting older. The ability to put on great matches is getting a little bit harder. I don’t want to embarrass myself at the same time. I want to get out while I can and still have somewhat of a legacy. I don’t want to have to work anywhere else. I’d love to work within WWE, but I don’t know if that’s going to happen, if I’ll have the chance. I would like to be a scout because, I know we’ve changed some things around here in WWE, but at the end of the day, you have to find these — I don’t want to call them actors or stuntmen — you have to find these athletes that have wanted this their whole life. Not saying football or basketball, athletes can’t be great, we’ve seen it with Kurt Angle and we know guys coming in from sport, Olympic sport and what not, can be great, but for someone who has wanted to do this their whole life, they know what is expected of them and they know what they can do to chase that dream. It’s a little different and I think it would be a little harder for someone who has never watched wrestling before to come to this stage. When your ego is not involved, trust me, I had a little bit of an ego because I did wrestling in high school and college, but when you learn to go, ‘what’s the story?’ That’s th most important thing. You have to let go of these egos. They don’t matter. They don’t sell pay-per-views. We need people to sell the story and sometimes people who have wanted to do this their whole life know better than anybody.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• During a recent interview with The Pat McAfee Show podcast, Randy Orton gave his thoughts about his issues with WWE’s NXT developmental system not training their talents to protect their opponents during matches. Orton stated “There is an art to what we do and a lot guys have lost that art. Instead of selling a punch because you need to sell a punch, now I’m protecting myself because I don’t want to get my fucking jaw broken. That’s unfortunate. The art to professional wrestling…when Vince (McMahon) was on (McAfee’s Show), he talked about the number one priority, above all, being protecting your opponent. That’s not taught necessarily in NXT. I know that because I’ve been in the ring with guys that came from NXT and they don’t know what the fuck they’re doing. It’s unfortunate. It’s just how kind of things are changing. Edge, I knew I could trust this guy and give this guy my body in the ring and I don’t have to, in the back of my head, worry about him only being concerned with looking cool in the ring and hitting the fuck out of me and taking my head off. He knows I know how to work and when he hits me, I’m going to sell and react and make it bigger. He doesn’t have to hurt me. The right way to do things in the ring, longevity-wise. There is a reason I’ve done it for 20 years and I’ll do it for another 10 and I want everyone to put food on the table, clothes one their back, and take care of their families for 10, 20, 30 years but they’re not going to be able to because they’re going to be all fucked up. I’m trying to preach that longevity. If I’m able to think about what’s happening in the moment and not worry about, ‘here’s this fucking guy, I don’t know where he’s coming from,’ because you have to protect yourself.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• As noted before, Bobby Lashley made his surprise return from shoulder injury during this past Monday’s episode of RAW in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Lashley confronted and challenged Omos to a match at WrestleMania 38. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that WWE officials had planned for Lashley’s return to be the start of his babyface run for their RAW brand.
• During a recent interview with ESPN, WWE senior vice president for global talent strategy and development James Kimball discussed the company’s current plans for their NIL program & stronger emphasis on signing younger talent going forward. Kimball stated “We would like that [age] number to come down, especially on the developmental standpoint. The second you enter our developmental program and then potentially end up on NXT TV and then onto Smackdown or Raw, you want that number to be 25, not 30 or 35. We’re able to develop them in an accelerated manner. Get them to WrestleMania or Raw, do media training, do community events. All those initial exposures to the business, those have been done while you’re still in school. And then you come down to Orlando and off you go. Ideally, you’d like to find a nice blend. It’s understanding how to transfer true athleticism from a given sport to a 20-by-20 ring, understanding spatial awareness and timing. And then it’s the ability to express themselves on a microphone. That becomes a requirement over time, whether you’re a heel or a face, or you’re heavy on promo or even light, at some point you need to be able to tell a story. Even if you come to WWE when you’re 23, 24, 25, that’s a significant improvement over what has historically been the case with some of our developmental talent. We fully support every athlete pursuing their dreams in their given sport. The idea is that we have that opportunity in college to evaluate them as a potential talent, and for them to evaluate us.“
• The Ringer recently announced that they have partnered with WWE for the development of a new wrestling-based podcast called the “Book of Wrestling.” It was also announced that this series will be debuting on April 4th and will be 25 episodes in total.
• During a recent interview with BT Sport, Charlotte Flair revealed that she will be getting married to AEW talent Andrade El Idolo this summer in Mexico. Flair also stated that she is currently unsure if she will be taking time off from WWE for her upcoming marriage.
• During a recent virtual fan signing event for Highspots, Bret Hart gave his thoughts about why he feels Barry Horowitz should be in WWE’s Hall of Fame and why Goldberg should not be in it. Hart stated “Personally, I think Barry Horowitz should be in the Hall of Game where as Bill Goldberg shouldn’t be. Barry Horowitz was a really good wrestler. Never hurt anybody, ever, was always a pro in there every night. That’s a guy that should be in the Hall of Fame. Bill Goldberg hurt every body he worked with. What’s he in there for? I don’t understand it. Barry was a really good wrestler, he really was, especially for beginners and stuff. He was a guy that could go in there and get you through a match. ” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

AEW

• During a recent interview with WrestleRant Radio, Eric Bischoff gave his thoughts about why he feels AEW is in a better position to compete against WWE than WCW was when they began challenging WWE. Bischoff stated “No, it would have been the same but the volume of feedback would have obviously been much higher. Keep in mind, when WCW, when I challenged WWE and went head-to-head and called out Vince McMahon and did all that crazy lunatic stuff I did, the WWE had an extremely loyal fanbase and WCW was looked at as the outcast. Now the roles are reversed, where AEW is looked upon very favorably and WWE, although it’s a much more established brand, there’s a kind of anti-WWE emotion that runs throughout social media, again, because of the nature of the social media audience. So it’s actually reversed, there’s more people cheering AEW on now than ever cheered WCW on. So, good for AEW and it’s an interesting dynamic for sure. But no, I think AEW is in a much better position, partly because of social media, than WCW was at the time .” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• AEW reportedly generated an attendance of 4,700 (4,300 paid) for their March 30th Dynamite show in Columbia, SC, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• AEW reportedly has sold around 5,254 tickets for their April 6th Dynamite show in Boston, MA, around 2,946 tickets for their April 13th Dynamite show in New Orleans, LA, around 4,482 tickets for their April 20th Dynamite show in Pittsburgh, around 4,914 tickets for their April 27th Dynamite show in Philadelphia, PA, around 3,482 tickets for their May 4th Dynamite show in Baltimore, MD, around 4,625 tickets for their May 11th Dynamite show in Long Island, NY, around 3,202 tickets for their May 18th Dynamite show in Houston, TX, around 4,317 tickets for their May 25th Dynamite show in Las Vegas, around 4,135 tickets for their May 27th Rampage show in Las Vegas, around 13,103 tickets for their Double or Nothing 2022 event in Las Vegas, Nevada, around 12,946 tickets for their June 1st Dynamite show in Los Angeles, and around 7,269 tickets for June 3rd Rampage show in Ontario, California as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Chris Jericho is currently on tour with Fozzy from March 31st to April 16th in the United States. Meltzer reported that Jericho is currently not expected to miss any Dynamite shows for AEW due to none of Fozzy’s concerts take place on a Wednesday for this current tour. Meltzer also reported that Jericho will likely miss the tapings for the April 15th episode of Rampage and Battle of the Belts II special in Garland, Texas due to having a concert event scheduled that night.
• As noted before, MJF and AEW CEO Tony Khan were involved in a recent backstage “heated discussion” incident following MJF’s interview with Ariel Helwani last month. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that Khan was mainly upset that MJF did not clear the interview ahead of time with AEW coordinator Mandy O’Donnell. These same sources stated that O’Donnell would have likely cleared the interview due to Helwani’s big name status in sports and O’Donnell clearing most interviews involving AEW talents. Meltzer reported that Khan had only found out about the interview after it was published. In terms of content, Meltzer reported that the general feeling from those spoken to was that MJF had said nothing that he had not already said in prior interviews about his main focus being to get a bigger monetary offer for his next contract in AEW or elsewhere.
• AEW filed a new trademark for “Blood & Guts” on March 27th for wrestling and merchandise-related purposes to the USPTO.
• As noted before, Jeff Hardy made his official debut for AEW at their March 9th Dynamite event in Fort Myers, Florida. Hardy’s debut featured him coming out to the familiar Hardy Boyz theme most known for his time in WWE. Fightful Select reported that AEW’s purchase of the licensing rights to the Hardy Boyz theme and Extreme Music library was only for use in AEW. It was reported that should Tony Khan want to use any of the music in the library for Ring of Honor, he would need to pay a separate licensing fee in order to be able to legally use it there. It was also reported that AEW’s license is only for the original songs and they would need permission to remix any of the songs in the library for new themes for AEW talent.
• During a recent interview with the Throwing Down with Miesha Tate & Renee Paquette podcast, Thunder Rosa gave her thoughts about her current goal of wanting to defend the AEW Women’s World Championship in Japan and Mexico. Rosa stated “I really hope there is an opportunity for me to be a fighting champion. I would love to travel with the championship. I know we have connections with Japan. I worked in Tokyo Joshi Pro before. I would love if there was an opportunity for me to bring the championship and defend it in Japan. If there’s an opportunity to defend it in Mexico. Do some of the stuff that we haven’t done yet. I’m really huge on bringing a different style of wrestling. This will be interesting because I will be able to work with people you guys probably haven’t seen before and work in a different style and showcase what we can do. I’m really hoping we’re given this opportunity. There’s a huge opportunity for me to bring a different look to the women’s championship. I do a lot of stuff in the community and I want to make sure I represent the company with honor and respect and I bring the title every time I come and do something with the community. It’s important for those kids, women, and men that they see someone who looks like them can make it far and to give an example of that. I also want to bring another type of leadership into the locker room. I’m working on it and we’re working on a lot of stuff and I’m hopeful we’re able to do a lot of cool stuff in and out of the ring. ” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• During a recent episode of the ARN podcast, co-host Arn Anderson provided an update on his status in AEW regarding his absence from AEW programming since this past January. Anderson stated “I’m at AEW TV every week, as is Brock (Anderson), we’re a little bit in limbo, as you can imagine, but we’re there. Brock has had some matches on Dark, I hope everybody is finding those and supporting him in that venture. It’s really the best way and only way to get some reps in and it be televised.”
• Anderson also gave his thoughts about AEW’s current issues when it comes to cycling talent in and out of AEW programming. Anderson stated “I agree 100%. My son being one of those. If you remember correctly, his debut match was partners with Cody, they had a really good match with QT (Marshall) and one of the other kids [Aaron Solo]. It’s been so far back that nobody remembers it. He had his three or four weeks. To his defense, I know people get sick of me singing Tony Khan’s praises, but his intention is, because now he’s assembled quite a hell of a talent roster, to try and get everybody exposed. If you get one week or two weeks and they move on, I get exactly what you’re saying. In order to get a person over you have to have about eight, ten, or twelve straight weeks of good TV. Now I’m invested in this guy. It’s where Tony knows what he wants out of his shows, we support him 100%. I do agree that talent doesn’t get exposed. Dante Martin is a very special kid. He had springs not like nobody else in the business. A short time back, he had two, three, four really good weeks and now they disappear down to Dark. It’s a dilemma we have, we will figure it out.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

Indies & Misc. Wrestling

• This past Thursday’s episode of Impact Wrestling’s Impact! drew 149,000 viewers, a 0.04 18-49 key demographic rating, and a #112 key demographic ranking, according to Wrestlenomics. This was up compared to last week’s 100,000 viewers and 0.02 key demographic rating.
• During a recent interview with Sportskeeda, Impact talent Ace Austin revealed that he recently signed a new multi-year contract extension with the company. Austin stated “I wish that I could give a very different answer than, ‘why did I sign with IMPACT in the first place?’ The answer is pretty much the same. It’s the place to be right now. it’s the best environment backstage that I’ve personally experienced. I experienced all the locker rooms in 2018. It’s the place that has been my home and has been such a launching point for me. I feel like there is some unfinished business. It wasn’t time to leave after three years. I accomplished a lot, but I didn’t accomplish everything that I said I would. That’s very important to me.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• PCO reportedly suffered a shoulder injury at Impact Wrestling’s Multiverse of Matches event this past Friday in Dallas, Texas, according to Game Changer Wrestling. GCW stated that this was the reason why PCO was abruptly pulled from the card of their Joey Janela’s Spring Break 2 event. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that PCO’s injury is not serious and he was stated to be okay following a medical check-up.
• Impact Wrestling officials reportedly currently have plans for The Briscoes and Taya Valkyrie to be used regularly on their shows going forward, according to PWInsider. In regards to Valkyrie, she made a surprise appearance at Impact’s Multiverse of Matches event and issued a challenge to Deonna Purrazzo for the AAA Renia de Reinas Championship at Impact’s Rebellion 2022 event on April 23rd.
• New Japan Pro Wrestling reportedly generated a paid attendance of 2,016 for their March 26th New Japan Cup 2022 event in Osaka and 2,987 for their March 27th New Japan Cup 2022 Finals event in Osaka, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• NJPW reportedly has sold around 2,198 tickets for their Windy City Riot event on April 16th in Chicago, Illinois, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• NJPW recently announced a new match for the card of their Windy City Riot event on April 16th in Chicago, Illinois. This will be a singles match of Tomohiro Ishii vs. Minoru Suzuki.
• WrestleCon recently announced that Bandido and “Speedball” Mike Bailey won their $5,000 bonus award for best match at their Mark Hitchcock Memorial SuperShow 2022 event on March 31st in Dallas, Texas.
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Lucha Libre AAA recently contacted former wrestling announcer Mike Tenay to gauge his interest in joining their English commentary team for their upcoming Triplemania XXX: Monterrey event on April 30th in Monterrey, Mexico. Meltzer reported that Tenay turned down AAA’s offer due to him currently enjoying his retirement from wrestling. Meltzer also reported that MLW, GCW, and WWE also had recently contacted regarding his interest in coming out of retirement and working at their shows (MLW & GCW) or for interviews for documentary projects (WWE). Tenay reportedly also turned down those offers as well due to him currently enjoying his retirement from wrestling. Meltzer reported that Tenay did leave the door open for a potential return to the wrestling industry in the future.