Weekend Roundup: King & Queen of the Ring Update, Bryan Danielson, The Bunny Update, Sabu, Matt Morgan Surgery, Indies

WWE

• In a recent inerview with the Associated Press, Gable Steveson provided an update about the status of his career in WWE. Steveson stated “I am still doing my thing. I have changed my diet, my body appearance. I wanted to be the best thing ever so when I did go on TV, it was going to be a sight that nobody has seen before. My time is coming and it’s coming sooner than a lot of people think.“
• WWE recently announced a new match for the card of their house show event on June 18th in Charleston, West Virginia. This is a Father’s Day Street Fight match of Rey Mysterio vs. Dominik Mysterio. This will be the first time that WWE will have held a Street Fight match under this name.
• In a recent episode of the Foley Is Pod podcast, host Mick Foley gave his thoughts about why he feels it is better for Cody Rhodes to feud with Brock Lesnar instead of chasing the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Foley stated “I think it’s important that the title not go to Cody because I think what Cody is going through in this series Brock Lesnar is giving him the credential, so that when he does — and I think there will definitely be a moment where he becomes that guy, everyone will feel like he deserved it.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• In a recent interview with the UpNXT podcast, Tiffany Stratton revealed that Charlotte Flair was the inspiration for her to pursue a career in wrestling. Stratton stated “Well, obviously the Queen herself, Charlotte Flair [inspired me to become a wrestler]. I was actually switching through the channels one night and I saw her on my screen. I think it was a random SmackDown, and I saw her. She’s blonde, she was jacked, and I thought to myself, ‘I could totally do that.’ So I immediately submitted my application on the WWE website, and I never heard back. So I submitted it again, and again, and again. I still heard nothing. So what I did is I found a connection. His name was Greg Gagne. He actually agreed to train me for a little bit, and actually, I took my first bump and he immediately said, ‘This girl has IT.’ So he called Stephanie McMahon, who got in contact with Triple H to get me a tryout and they finally agreed to give me a tryout. They flew me to the Performance Center and then COVID hits, so they had to fly us all back home. I didn’t get invited back for another year and a half and what it did in that year and a half is I went through a bodybuilding prep. I CrossFit’d, and I continued to train in the ring that I first ever took my bump in. Then I finally was invited back and immediately they signed me and now look where we are.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that WWE officials have not held any talks regarding holding a King & Queen of the Ring event later this year following the event being cancelled in favor of Night of Champions 2023 this past May in Saudi Arabia. Those spoken to reportedly stated that WWE officials did hold talks over the idea of keeping this event in the back pocket for a future Saudi event.
• As noted before, WWE recently signed a new partnership deal with Twitch that includes the airing of a new weekly RAW sidecast series on the service. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the reason why last Monday’s debut sidecast episode did not feature any actual video or audio from last Monday’s RAW show was due to USA Network owning the exclusive broadcast rights as part of the terms of their current television contract with WWE.
• As noted before, Major League Wrestling’s original antitrust lawsuit against WWE was dismissed this past February and had filed a new amended lawsuit this past March. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that MLW’s lawyers recently attempted to strike down some of the claims by WWE in their attempt to have the amended lawsuit dismissed. These claims reportedly revolved around WWE stating that AEW had recently signed a new television deal for $240 million as their evidence of them not hurting or preventing other promotions from getting their own lucrative television deals. MLW’s lawyers stated that this claim was both false and not properly vetted as part of their evidence with the issues with WWE’s recent motion to have the case dismissed. Meltzer reported that the only new thing that MLW had added for their amended lawsuit was their claims that REELZ dropped their television deal with the company over WWE’s terms with Peacock that do not allow other wrestling programming to air on the service.
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that most of WWE’s NIL signees visited their Performance Center this past week to met with WWE Talent Relations officials.
• Pollstar reported that WWE had generated a final paid attendance of 11,747 for a paid live gate of $649,681 for their Feb. 27th SmackDown show in Montreal, lower than the over 16,000 paid stated by WWE. Elimination Chamber 2023 on Feb. 28th in Montreal reportedly drew 13,807 paid for a live gate of $997,637, lower than WWE’s announced 17,271. WrestleMania 39 Night 1 reportedly drew 63,243 paid for a live gate of $9,542,187, lower than WWE’s announced 80,467. WrestleMania 39 Night 2 reportedly drew 64,288 paid for a live gate of $10,206,884, lower than WWE’s announced 81,395. It was also reported that WrestleMania 39’s actual combined live gate was $19,749,071, lower than WWE’s announced $21.6 million. (Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter)
• WWE reportedly generated an attendance of 9,267 (8,300 paid) for their June 2nd SmackDown show in Wilkes-Barre, PA, 4,202 for their June 3rd house show event in White Plains, NY, 4,991 for their June 4th house show event in Manchester, NH, and 8,841 (7,800 paid) for their June 5th RAW show in Hartford, CT, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• WWE reportedly has sold around 5,147 tickets for their June 12th RAW show in Wichita, KS, 7,055 tickets for their June 16th SmackDown show in Lexington, KY, 3,781 tickets for their June 17th house show event in Cincinnati, OH, 3,042 tickets for their June 18th house show event in Charleston, WV, 7,994 tickets for their June 19th RAW show in Cleveland, OH, 5,901 tickets for their June 23rd SmackDown show in Lafayette, LA, 2,069 tickets for their June 24th house show event in Monroe, LA, 3,191 tickets for their June 25th house show event in Mobile, AL, 5,312 tickets for their June 26th RAW show in Savannah, GA, 6,542 tickets for their June 29th house show event in Sheffield, England, 17,687 tickets for their June 30th SmackDown show in London, England, 17,701 tickets for their July 1st Money in the Bank 2023 event in London, England, 4,834 tickets for their July 2nd house show event in Cardiff, Wales, 6,003 tickets for their July 3rd RAW show in Baltimore, MD, 11,203 tickets for their July 7th SmackDown show at Madison Square Garden in New York City, NY, 6,508 tickets for their July 10th RAW show in Buffalo, NY, 7,123 tickets for their July 14th SmackDown show in Raleigh, NC, 3,854 tickets for their July 15th house show event in Fairfax, VA, 2,302 tickets for their July 16th house show event in Salisbury, MD, 8,831 tickets for their July 17th RAW show in Atlanta, GA, and 40,421 tickets for their Aug. 5th SummerSlam 2023 event in Detroit, MI, as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, WWE CEO Nick Khan gave his thoughts about his belief that WWE’s NXT brand could grow from being a developmental brand to becoming a new standalone major brand for the company in the future.”Initially, NXT was on WWE Network. And then when the pandemic hit, USA/NBCU needed content, we did not miss a week of production. … So we went with Tuesday nights NXT on USA from 8 to 10 p.m. Eastern time. NXT ratings are also trending up … so that is going in the right direction. We think NXT has the viability to be its own standalone brand instead of just being a developmental system – a third brand, if you will, where you can see cross-over from our superstars on Raw and SmackDown to NXT while our young talent develops there. Once we get all of that situated, then we will look at other nights of the week to develop new content as well.”
• The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer reported that the passing of The Iron Sheik this past Wednesday was the only wrestling-related topic to rank in the Top 20 for searches on Google this past week. The Iron Sheik reportedly generated around 200,000 searches for a #4 ranking for this past Wednesday.

AEW & ROH

• In a recent interview with the Haus of Wrestling podcast, Kris Statlander gave her thoughts on when she first learned that she would be winning the TBS Championship from Jade Cargill. Statlander stated “There was talks about it a few months before I fully returned, but I always never believe that things are going to happen until I walk out there and it happens. So I was kind of just, even the night before, I was like, ‘We’ll see if this happens because things can change.’ That’s how it is. It wasn’t that I don’t trust people. It’s just that, you know, things happen so much. Things need to be changed and you can never really, it’s more just you don’t want to set yourself up for disappointment. There wasn’t anything like, ‘Oh, we’re not sure if you’re the one that’s going to do it,’ it was more just, you know, ‘We’ll see what the definitive plans are when we get there.’ But I do remember when I first heard the idea, I was kind of like, ‘Okay, if that’s what you want.’ It was a very, very cool thing to know that a lot of people trusted me to be that one, and I just hope that in that moment that I did return and that everything I continued to do while I have the title lives up to and exceeds expectations.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• During the same interview, Statlander also gave her thoughts about the rumors and reports of a potential roster split for AEW’s Dynamite and Collision brands. Statlander stated “Yeah, I think it’s kind of a split, but not fully. I think hopefully you will be able to see some talent be on both shows. But I do think that it’s a good opportunity to get more people television time. But I think that if people are willing to show up and — It’s also exciting knowing, like, you never know. Knowing that you’re only going to see some people on some days, that’s great, but also seeing someone show up on a Saturday and then they’re like, ‘Oh my god, I can’t believe they’re here. I wonder who they’re gonna work with and stuff.’ I think that’s also — I like the mystery and the surprise. I feel like everyone wants to know everything all the time in wrestling, and it makes me sad because, don’t you just want to enjoy the moment and feel that surprise? I feel like everyone takes that for granted nowadays. Everyone wants to know everything and be the first to know, but I think the beauty of wrestling is not knowing what’s going to happen.” Statlander also gave her thoughts about if AEW currently has enough female talent to sufficiently fill up two brands. Statlander stated “I think so. I think people don’t realize how many women there actually are because it is a very small fraction of the show most of the time. I don’t think it’s going to be much of an issue, especially with the opportunity to possibly get to go to both shows. I think we’ll be able to provide what people are hoping for. I think we’ll be able to step up and make it worth it.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• In a recent interview with the AEW Unrestricted podcast, Maria Kanellis gave her thoughts about The Kingdom signing with AEW was always the goal for the group’s career after AEW launched. Kanellis stated “The goal was to always go to AEW as soon as the opportunity arose, and it did. I won’t give you too many specifics, but I will say that there were a couple of people that were really pulling for us, people who are what it means to be veterans in a locker room and they are what it means to fight for those guys that fought for you. To have that as your coming in, [it] felt so good.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• During the same interview, Kanellis also gave her thoughts about the future of her in-ring wrestling career. Kanellis stated “[My daughter] wants me to wrestle, so does my son. You get those pulls, they didn’t see that part of my life, but they want to and they’re interested. So, it’s almost like you have to kinda re-do it a little bit so they can see it. I don’t know. I truly felt like I was done, my last match I had was at WrestleMania 35, it was after I had my daughter and right before I got pregnant with my son. When I walked out, I was like ‘I don’t think this is for me anymore. I don’t think the wrestling part is for me anymore.’ But now because of the kids, I’m like ‘Shoot’, because they really wanna see me wrestle, especially my son. Maybe one, maybe one more run wrestling. We’ll see, if it comes up.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• AEW reportedly is currently working on plans to return to the Cincinnati area for an AEW Dynamite show this September, according to Fightful Select.
• Pollstar reported that AEW had generated a final paid attendance of 13,148 for a live gate of $1,256,272 for their Double or Nothing 2022 event, 14,428 paid for a live gate of $942,029 for their June 1, 2022 Dynamite show in Los Angeles, 10,850 paid for a live gate of $1,199,486 for their Full Gear 2022 event, 7,958 paid for a live gate of $737,010 for their March 5th Revolution 2023 event, and 10,478 paid for a live gate of $964,349 for their May 28th Double or Nothing 2023 event. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that with the exception of this past May’s Double or Nothing 2023, AEW’s announced numbers for their events ended up being lower or almost the same as what Pollstar had reported for their final attendances. In regards to Double or Nothing 2023, Meltzer reported that Pollstar might have mixed up AEW’s total and paid attendance due to AEW had reported around 9,000 paid for $900,000 and 10,500 for the total audience which includes paid and comp tickets.
• As noted before, Bryan Danielson recently joined AEW’s creative team to help with the creative plans and direction for their upcoming new Collision television series. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that Danielson’s input for AEW’s creative team was described as “someone who adds good input into any booking conversation.” Meltzer reported that whenever Danielson and AEW CEO Tony Khan are in the same room working on creative plans together, Danielson pushes Khan to think harder and improve his booking ideas. The June 2nd Rampage show reportedly was one example of this with Danielson adding to the outline idea Khan had for a Championship Friday show.
• As noted before, WWE currently has certain terms with arenas that host wrestling events preventing them from being allowed to hold an AEW event until a certain amount of weeks before and after a WWE event. These restrictions also prevent both AEW and the host venue from advertising an AEW event until after a WWE event first takes place in the venue. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that AEW’s recent announcement of a new Collision event taking place on July 29th in Hartford, Connecticut is one example of this situation since neither AEW nor any other promotion would have been allowed to publicly announce their own event at the XL Center until after this past Monday’s RAW show in the venue.
• AEW reportedly generated an attendance of 3,200 (2,800 paid) for their June 7th Dynamite show in Colorado Springs, CO, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Dave Meltzer reported that one reason for the lack of a notable last minute boost from walk-up tickets sales was due to the event going head-to-head against the Denver Nuggets NBA Finals game for the Denver area market which seriously negatively affected any chance for a late ticket sales boost.
• AEW reportedly has sold around 3,971 tickets for their June 14th Dynamite show in Washington, DC, 8,233 tickets for their June 17th Collision show at the United Center in Chicago, IL, 4,989 tickets for their June 21st Dynamite show in Chicago, IL, 1,812 tickets for their June 24th Collision show in Toronto, 12,961 tickets for their June 25th Forbidden Door II event in Toronto, Canada, 3,510 tickets for their June 28th Dynamite show in Hamilton, Canada, 700 tickets for their June 29th Collision show in Hamilton, Canada, 4,970 tickets for their July 5th Dynamite show in Edmonton, Canada, 1,346 tickets for their July 8th Collision show in Regina, Canada, 2,358 tickets for their July 12th Dynamite show in Saskatoon, Canada, 3,425 tickets for their July 15th Collision show in Calgary, Canada, 3,791 tickets for their July 19th Dynamite show at the TD Garden in Boston, MA, and 4,148 tickets for their July 22nd Collision show in Newark, NJ, and 65,745 tickets for their Aug. 27th All In event at Wembley Stadium in London, England as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• In a recent interview with Sportskeeda’s WrestleBinge podcast, Billy Gunn gave his thoughts about CM Punk’s upcoming return to AEW and if he has a toxic presence in AEW’s locker room. Gunn stated “So you can probably look at that two ways. Some people are gonna think it’s negative, and some people… I think it’s positive thing, I really do, because he is still, no matter what goes on behind the scene, he’s still got it. He’s still the guy. He still has huge drawing power, and that’s only gonna help us, so why would you not want a guy in here that can help? I don’t feel he’s as toxic as everybody thinks he is, but then again, I’m an old person and I don’t really care about all that other stuff. All I care about is what can he do for the company? What can he do for the talent in the company? He’s still very good at that, and we all have our days of where we go a little off-track. I can’t speak for anything, what happened with that, because everything I heard is also hearsay, and I don’t speak on hearsay because I’m not a gossiper. But in the general scheme of things, I think it’s a good thing, it really is. He’s just gonna help the company all around. He’s gonna help the talent on the Collision show or whatever. I mean, when the single guy can sell out Chicago arenas, yeah, I’m gonna say you might wanna keep him around a little bit. But what personality’s on the other side, sometimes you gotta set that aside. I’ve been in the business a long time. There’s been some people that I despise, but I still work with them. That’s just being honest. I still will do my job because my job isn’t to like you or dislike you. My job is to go out there and have the best match and do the best for the company that you can, and that’s what you do. I’m not gonna hang out with you. We’re not gonna go eat, we’re not gonna go to the gym, but when it comes to business, when it comes to stepping in the ring, it should always be business. It should always be, you do the best that you can at that moment in that specific time that you’re given. So I think it’s a good thing, I really do. All feelings aside, it’s gonna be a good thing. It really is.“(Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• During the same interview, Gunn stated that AEW had tried several times to bring in WWE Hall of Famer Sean “X-Pac” Waltman into the company. Gunn stated “I don’t know if that’s the thing right now, because I think you’d be hard-pressed to get Tony to get me away from The Acclaimed right now. No, I mean, it would be great. I think we’ve tried to get Sean in here a couple of times. Things just didn’t work out. I think if the time’s right, I think he would be a great asset because he still has huge popularity, everybody knows him, and he’s such a good guy that he would not only help the younger talent as well as be a good representative for our company. He’d be amazing if we could get him in here.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• A recent episode of AEW’s Hey! (EW) show featured Skye Blue as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Blue revealing that she was excommunicated from her local church as a kid over her setting a kid on fire one time. Blue stated “I got excommunicated from Church. I may or may not have lit a kid on fire. Sorry, guys.” Blue also gave her reasons why she decided to light the kid on fire. Blue stated “I just didn’t like him. I didn’t like a lot of people back then. My mom was in the back row watching and she was like, ‘Don’t do it. Don’t do it, bitch. Don’t do it.’ … She gets very scared when I come to work. That’s why she says, ‘Don’t do dumb shit.‘” Blue also provided more details regarding the incident at the church. Blue stated “It was one of those weird, white, creepy looking robes, so they’re very flammable, and God knows when’s the last time they washed them. … He dropped [to put out the fire]. … I laughed. … They [the Church] also thought I was crazy because I had colorful hair. It wasn’t blue, though, it was pink.” Blue also gave her thoughts about if her mother was upset over the incident. Blue stated “No, she thinks it’s hilarious. That’s the first story she tells. She doesn’t tell people that her kid’s a wrestler, she goes, ‘Yeah, my kid lit someone on fire.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• As noted before, The Bunny has been out of action since this past February due to a broken orbital bone injury. In a recent interview with the Punch-Out podcast, The Butcher provided an injury update for The Bunny stating “[The Bunny] hurt her orbital. She broke her orbital. She’s doing really good. I’m sure she’s going to be back soon. That’s the thing is when something like that — I think she came from an injury, too. So she was injured for a bit, then had a couple of matches and got injured. That’s gotta crush your confidence. The good thing is, since she’s been gone, we’ve been kind of building this new little faction thing. So when she comes back, it’ll be awesome.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• In a recent fan signing event for Golden Ring Collectables, Sabu revealed that Chris Jericho was the person responsible for his recent appearances in AEW. Sabu stated “About a week before I did the first appearance, the Wednesday before the Wednesday I did the Dynamite appearance, Chris Jericho called me. We chatted a little bit and then he called me back and said, ‘Hey, I got an idea.’ I said, ‘Okay.’ The he called me on the phone and said, ‘I got an idea. Adam Cole, me, you know, boom, boom, boom.’ He goes, ‘We’ll bring you out as a surprise. Would you want to do it?’ I go, ‘Yeah.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

Indies & Misc. Wrestling

• Pro Wrestling NOAH announced that Junta Miyawaki recently suffered a spinal cord concussion injury and is currently expected to be out of action for the company until June 24th as a result. (English translation via PostWrestling.com)
• New Japan Pro Wrestling reportedly generated a paid attendance of 7,040 for their June 4th Dominion 2023 event in Osaka, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• In a recent interview with the Squared Circle Podcast, Bullet Club member Clark Connors gave his thoughts about Jay White and Juice Robinson forming their own Bullet Club Gold group in AEW. Connors stated “I mean the fact that it’s called BULLET CLUB Gold means it’s not the original. It’s some knockoff of something. How they got the rights to — how they’re using BULLET CLUB? I don’t know. I think it’s bullsh*t. I think it’s an offense to what BULLET CLUB is and people might say, well, they’ve been in BULLET CLUB longer than you. It’s like, no, they have not. I’m in the real BULLET CLUB, they are not. They’re just making up their own thing over there and good for Jay White, that’s all I gotta say. Good for Juice Robinson. They couldn’t cut it in New Japan Pro-Wrestling so they had to go over to AEW and that’s it. AEW consistently has worse wrestlers than New Japan Pro-Wrestling. As much as I don’t love the company as it is, we have the best pro wrestlers in the world and BULLET CLUB’s the top faction in that company and therefore, I am one of the best pro wrestlers in the world. Better than Jay White, better than Juice Robinson. I just never had the chance to prove it and here it is, my chance is coming. So if they want any of the smoke and I just saw that they brought in ‘The Ass Kids’, good God, please. All four of them versus any four of the War Dogs, you kidding me? We’re gonna destroy them, mop the floor with them and like I said, Jay’s a great leader and Juice is a veteran but these two kids, these goofballs, good for them. I don’t know what the hell they’re doing but it isn’t BULLET CLUB.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Stardom is currently involved in a small controversy revolving around a storyline between Tam Nakano and Yuna Mizumori over Mizumori wanting to join the Cosmic Angles group but Nakano demanding that she loses around 22 pounds first. Meltzer reported that the online backlash towards this storyline has mostly come from Stardom’s international fans over their issues of the fat shamming of Mizumori due to her currently not looking like the ideal woman for the stable.
• Stardom reportedly generated a paid attendance of 306 for their June 2nd New Blood 9 event in Tokyo, 502 for their June 3rd event in Utsunomiya, 1,167 for their June 4th event in Tokyo, and 221 for their June 6th event in Shiga, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• Dragon Gate reportedly generated a paid attendance of 928 for their June 1st Rainbow Gate 2023 event in Tokyo and 1,038 for their June 2nd Rainbow Gate 2023 event in Tokyo, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• All Japan Pro Wrestling reportedly generated a paid attendance of 810 for their June 3rd Charity Machida Event ~Back To Origin 51st Anniversary Thank You, King’s Soul~ event in Tokyo, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• DDT Pro Wrestling recently announced that a mystery “former WWE talent” will be making an appearance for the company at their August 20th event in Osaka, Japan. It was also announced that the identity of this mystery person will be officially revealed on June 13th.
• Jersey Championship Wrestling recently announced a new match for the card of their Big A$$ Extreme Birthday Bash on July 9th in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey. This is a singles match of Joey Janela vs. Billie Starkz.
• In a recent interview with the Sherri show, Trinity gave her thoughts about her friendship with Mercedes Mone. Trinity stated “It’s very difficult sometimes to get out of your comfort zone. She and I kind of experienced that together being in the unknown. Having her to confide in especially those times where it really did get hard. That’s my sister for life, our relationship goes beyond wrestling. We always had, I think, a special connection, just being together in the business over the years. Working together, experiencing things together, even real life stuff, we’ve just experienced so much together and I think is very special when you find people like that in the business that where it goes beyond the work. I love her. She’s the GOAT, the greatest of all time.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• In a recent interview with The Kurt Angle Show, Frankie Kazarian gave his thoughts on the growing differences in wrestling philosophies between him and AEW being the reason why he decided to leave AEW. Kazarian stated “Pretty early on.When I left last year, I still had two years left on my contract. I probably could have been there much longer. I re-signed at the end of 2021, and hindsight being what it is, I probably shouldn’t have, but again, AEW, I was there since before day one. I was there when this was a germ of an idea. I was there discussing this company when they didn’t even have initials attached to them. In these rooms with Cody, The Bucks, and [Hangman] Page, and [Scorpio Sky and Christopher Daniels]. So again, I was committed. I was like, ‘I want to try to ride this thing out.’ it just became apparent to me that what I like and what I appreciate about pro wrestling, and the way that I like it presented, was not happening at AEW. That’s not an indictment on them. It’s just, what they perceive as good television wrestling, are different things and just the business model, everything. Again, it was one of those things, and still, to this day, I feel that I have so much more to offer than what I was being utilized for at AEW. So, I bet on myself and made the decision to walk away, and I am very thankful that I did. It is, by far, the best decision I could have made.” Kazarian also gave his thoughts on his reason why he wanted to return to Impact Wrestling. Kazarian stated “I mean, you can’t tell the story of Frankie Kazarian without IMPACT Wrestling. It’s a large part of my history; my catalog, everything is there. That’s important to me.I’m 25 years in. So, you know, you start thinking about legacy stuff, what I’m gonna leave behind, and what I want to do going forward, so it was really cool. Very happy, no ill-will [toward AEW]. I was glad I was able to walk away, and it’s the best thing best decision I could have made.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• In a recent episode of the My World with Jeff Jarrett podcast, co-host Jeff Jarrett gave his thoughts about the current fate of the assets from his former Global Force Wrestling promotion. Jarrett stated “The heavyweight and tag, in the failed merger, were utilized. Where that actual belt would be, it’s in Anthem’s possession. Where exactly, I have no idea. That was a part of that discovery that was never uncovered. The NEX GEN belt, I have, I think. So the women’s belt I think is with Anthem as well. So that’s assets. Remember last week, we talked about merch? Karen reminded me. ‘Yes, Jeff. We’ve got pictures. Not a ton, so we’ve got to do something fun with that.’ It’ll make Karen happy to get it out of storage because we moved it from one place.” Jarrett also stated that he had talks with Don West prior to his passing over the idea of West helping him sell GFW brand merchandise. Jarrett stated “Before his passing, me and Don West had a couple of different conversations. He literally was like, ‘Dude, are you kidding me?’ He said, ‘You think you can find some action shots? All your current stuff? That’s kind of part of your history. It’s kind of this and that.’ He goes, ‘Yeah, we can bundle this. How many shirts do you really have?’ I said, ‘Don, maybe four or five. It’s very limited.’ He said, ‘I can get on camera…’ I said everything I own, of GFW merch, that you can get in one camera shot.’ He said, ‘Well, then there you go. That is the limited amount,’ but he said we can package up a couple different things. At the time, the action figure that came out…Don went into this whole shtick that we could, kind of the baseball, have some surprises. Anyway, look, there’s half a box of brown bag stuff. Anyway, Conrad, you’re going to give me your best Don West thinking cap, and we’ll figure it out.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• Former WWE and Impact Wrestling talent Matt Morgan announced on Twitter that he will be undergoing back surgery this Monday. Morgan stated “Please keep me in your prayers gang, as I go in for back surgery at 6am! In a game of basketball, I dunked it, but when I landed, felt a huge bolt of electricity shoot down my spine, all the way down my left leg and foot. Back in 2002 when I first started wrestling, I originally hurt my back. It led me to severe opioid addiction. After being a functioning addict for the early years of my WWE career, I finally got help, and now 17 plus years, still sober. but this has been the most excruciating pain I’ve ever dealt with in my lifetime! I can’t take any painkillers for it, because I have to maintain my sobriety. I got an epidural, nothing! Then got a nerve block injection, that lasted for four hours, and then it got worse after it wore off. Each progressing day, my left foot has gotten more numb! Met with five surgeons (both spinal and neurosurgeons) and we’re doing a reflex test on my left foot, they said if I don’t get surgery ASAP I will lose all feeling at it. Years later, There was a time when I was wrestling with Tna Impact Wrestling where I set my opponent up on a table ( Bubba Ray Dudley) on the outside of the ring, and I went to the top rope where I jumped off in a leg drop position (non-wrestling fans: a seated 90° position) and the spot called for him to move out of the way, while I went through the table, crashing in that 90° position, right through to the concrete floor on my tailbone. That was the next time I felt that same both of electricity and numbness to my left leg. I was able to rehab it, get a nerve block injection in my spine to make the pain go away, but I was able to finish off my wrestling career in 2014, virtually pain-free. Since then, I’ve never had any lower back issues thanks to naturally treating it. But nothing I’m doing is helping, and I have no choice but to now get this surgery. Technically they wanted me to get this surgery back around 2010 if I remember correctly but I was adamant about staying away from any kind of surgery because of the horror stories, I always heard. While performing my 2 jobs this week and in the excruciating pain I’ve been in, I’ve had to be on a pair of crutches just to take SOME of the weight off of my left leg to stop that S1 nerve from continuing to cause me crazy pain. So really, I have no choice but this surgery, as per all five surgeons and pain management specialist I’ve spoken to. i’ve never had to have a serious surgery in all my life from my wrestling career, or anything else for that matter! Which I’ve always felt very blessed for considering me being 7 feet tall and the majority of my life being over 330 pounds, playing Division I college basketball as well on top of it. That’s a lot of stress on the body. So surgery has been very foreign to me, luckily. But it’s also making me 10 times as nervous about this upcoming surgery because of my inexperience in this department. Love you all very much! And any prayers you can send my way that everything goes as perfect as it can, toFix this problem in my L5/S1, left leg, and left foot, you have no clue how much I would appreciate! Please and thank you again!“
• Forbes reported that the XFL generated a net loss of around $60 million for its first season under Dwayne “The Rock” Johsnon’s co-ownership.