Sat Roundup: WWE Commentary Shakeup, SummerSlam, WBD, Steve McMichael Hospitalized, WOW TV Ratings, Indies

WWE

• Variety reported that their sources stated that WWE has made a shakeup to their commentary teams for their RAW and SmackDown shows. It was reported that Michael Cole will become the lead announcer for both RAW and SmackDown, Wade Barrett will be moved over from SmackDown to RAW, and Corey Graves and Kevin Patrick will be moved over from RAW to SmackDown. It was reported that these new changes will go into affect starting with this Monday’s RAW show.
• Friday’s WWE Friday Night SmackDown drew a preliminary viewership of 2,151,000 viewers on FOX, according to Spoiler TV.
• Friday’s WWE SmackDown shown in Dayton, Ohio featured WWE commentator Michael Cole revealing the rules for the upcoming MMA Rules match between Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler at tonight’s SummerSlam 2023 event in Detroit, Michigan. Cole stated that the only way to win a MMA Rules match is to make your opponent pass out, submit, or be knocked out.
• Friday’s WWE SmackDown show in Dayton also featured Santos Escobar, Butch, Ridge Holland, Grayson Waller, The Miz, AJ Styles, Karrion Kross, Luke Gallows, and Matt Riddle being revealed as the next set of official competitors for the Slim Jim Battle Royal match at tonight’s SummerSlam 2023 event.
• Friday’s WWE SmackDown show in Dayton also featured the official announcement of Edge will be celebrating the 25th year anniversary of his WWE at the August 18th SmackDown show in Toronto, Canada.
• WWE held one dark match prior to the start of Friday’s SmackDown show which featured Odyssey Jones defeating Raul Mendoza in a singles match.
• PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources confirmed that the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship match of Jey Uso vs. Roman Reigns (c) will go on last at tonight’s SummerSlam 2023 event as of Saturday afternoon. Johnson reported that WWE officials have allocated that match to have the most time given out of all the matches on tonight’s show.
• As noted before, Robert Roode has been out of action for WWE since June of 2022 due to a neck-related injury and surgery. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that Roode will be making his return to WWE at tonight’s SummerSlam 2023 event but not as a wrestler and instead as a backstage producer. Johnson reported that Roode is also currently expected to work as a producer for this Monday’s RAW show in Minneapolis, Minnesota as well. Johnson also reported that it is currently not known if this is a producer tryout or the start of a new permanent role for him in WWE.
• PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that WWE’s current plans as of Friday afternoon was for the Logan Paul vs. Ricochet match to be the opening match for tonight’s SummerSlam 2023 event. Johnson reported that the reason is due to Paul wanting to be able to travel right afterwards to attend his brother Jake’s boxing match in Dallas, Texas that same night.
• As noted before, Randy Orton has been out of action for WWE since May of 2022 due to a back injury and had underwent back fusion surgery this past November. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that Orton recently traveled to Detroit ahead of tonight’s SummerSlam 2023 event. Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that despite the current speculation online, Orton is still yet to be medically cleared for any potential in-ring action.
• WWE reportedly has distributed around 48,173 tickets for tonight’s SummerSlam 2023 event at Ford Field in Detroit as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Dave Meltzer reported that the split was around 43,500 tickets sold and the rest as comp. In regards to venue capacity, WWE CEO Nick Khan stated during this past Wednesday’s investor’s meeting that the event was still on track to sell out. Meltzer reported that Ford Field’s max capacity for wrestling event is around 60,000 which means that WWE will be giving an inflated number when it comes to their upcoming official announcement for SummerSlam’s attendance during the event
• In a recent interview with GQ Sports, Cody Rhodes gave his thoughts about if it was a hard decision for him to leave AEW in February of 2022. Rhodes stated “No, it was the easiest thing I ever did. And it’s because I had a personal issue that I wasn’t going through, over, or around. I was just going to steer clear of it. If anything, I wanted to look at what we had done at AEW and say, ‘Amazing, what a wonderful time, a beautiful memory, and very special in every way. And now it’s time to move on.’ You know, all good things. And it certainly was like that with me. So I mean it not in a negative way, like I was happy to burn rubber and speed out, but it just wasn’t a decision that was difficult for me at all. Or for Brandi.“
• In a recent interview with the Stay Busy with Armon Sadler podcast, Drew McIntyre gave his thoughts on him currently not being interested in a potential heel turn in WWE unless it makes “perfect sense” for him. McIntyre stated “Staying on the path I’m on right now. I just want to make sure I get in interesting and compelling stories. It’s cool coming out and getting the cheers, people are happy to see Drew. But I always want to be in something interesting that gets you emotionally invested as well. I know there was a period where I wasn’t doing that, and thankfully I got back into it when I got with Sheamus and leading into that triple threat. But I want to make sure we keep evolving, keep adding layers to the character, keep doing all the cool things I get to do outside the ring, and get that title reign in front of fans finally. The character itself, I’m willing to go any direction that’s going to be interesting. I know people are calling for a heel turn, but I’m not willing to do that unless it makes perfect sense. You know, we’ve got a lot of equity in McIntyre. When I show up at places like Special Olympics and see the effect WWE and McIntyre has on people, I can understand [John] Cena’s perspective of not turning for so long. And he was on such a higher level and did so much outside the ring, but I can understand where he was coming from. But for the right time, the right moment, and if it was entertaining for the fans, I would be about that. One of my favorite runs outside the company was as a heel. And when that dark side comes out, it’s pretty dark.” (Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com)
• PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that Becky Lynch recently flew out of Detroit and is currently in Los Angeles, California. Johnson reported that his sources stated that Lynch is currently scheduled to be in attendance for this Monday’s RAW show in Minneapolis, Minnesota and not for tonight’s SummerSlam 2023 event.

AEW & ROH

• AEW announced that they will be holding a new set of AEW Dynamite and Rampage tapings on October 4th at the Stockton Arena in Stockton, California and a new Collision taping on October 7th at the Maverick Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. Tickets for all of the upcoming shows was announced to officially go on sale starting on August 11th.
• As noted before, this past Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite show in Tampa, Florida featured ECW legend Rob Van Dam making his official AEW debut. In a recent interview with Inside The Ropes, RVD gave his thoughts about AEW getting the rights to his original entrance theme of “Walk” by Pantera for his AEW debut. RVD stated “That was awesome. Yeah, when I found out that he (Tony Khan) was gonna have the rights to ‘Walk,’ it just put me in a different vibe, you know what I mean? Just knowing the reaction that-that was going to get and how the fans would be emotionally connected to that, you know, let it play for a few seconds. And then it wasn’t until a little while, hour or so, within the first hour when I was at the building when that just changed (I officially would be coming out to ‘Walk’). I was like, ‘What? Wait, how? Is this updated? Because I just yesterday … sweet!’ I was like, ‘That’s awesome.’ So yeah, I read some of the comments on social media… people saying (it) brought tears to their eyes and stuff like that. It’s pretty cool.“
• In a recent interview with Sports Illustrated, CM Punk gave his thoughts about the early success of AEW’s new Collision television series. Punk stated “It’s a team effort. FTR is a big part of it. There is a group of people I want highlighted on Collision almost every Saturday. It’s a lot of people and it’s hard to get them in there, but it’s FTR, Samoa Joe, Jay White and Juice, the Gunns, Ricky Starks, all three members of House of Black, Andrade, and we just got Rush–that guy is f—— awesome, I want him on Collision, too–Hobbs, Miro, and I don’t want to forget anyone else. Give me a Statlander every week, give me a Toni Storm every week. That’s what is going to drive repeat viewers, knowing they’ll see these people every Saturday. That’s how we’ll hold a rating. It’s 100 percent a team effort. We want to bring new people up. That’s the rub. People recognize that. A perfect example is Gunn Club. They’re right there, and they need to associate with people who are perceived to be top guys.” Punk also gave his thoughts on the importance of top wrestlers in AEW helping to bring other wrestlers ip to their star level. Punk stated “It’s not about me at all, it’s about us. It’s not just me on Collision. It’s not one single person. Sure, there is numerical evidence that points to people selling the most merchandise and doing everything else, but all that stuff is garbage if you’re not trying to bring people up into our orbit. From my perspective, I have to go out there and be excellent because I expect excellence out of everybody else. Dax expects that out of me, and I expect it out of Ricky, who expects it out of Hobbs, who expects it out of Miro. We’re trying to build something out of this show. I’m pleasantly surprised so far that we are doing just that.”
• In an AEW panel at a recent Terrificon 2023 event, Wardlow gave his thoughts about his current absence from AEW programming. Wardlow stated “I do not know when I’ll be back, hopefully soon. I’ve been off TV for almost a couple months and I’ve been very depressed. Wrestling is my everything that makes me happy. So, today I feel like me again for the first time in months. I just want to say thank you guys for coming out because you guys really flip a switch in my mind, my heart that I needed, so thank you.” (Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com)
• Starrcast recently announced that AEW CEO Tony Khan will be making an appearance for the company as part of a special live edition of the AEW Unrestricted podcast at their Starrcast VI convention on September 1-3 in Chicago, Illinois.
• Starrcast also announced that Sting will be making an appearance for the company at their Starrcast VI convention on September 1-3 in Chicago.
• As noted before, AEW’s television partner Warner Bros Discovery is currently interested in the idea of signing a potential television deal with WWE. Dave Meltzer reported in a recent episode of the Wrestling Observer Radio that his sources stated that WBD officials are still interested in the idea of signing a potential television deal with WWE for WWE’s new media rights deals. Those spoken to reportedly stated that WBD would not drop AEW in favor of WWE if it were to happen but instead this would be part of a larger idea by WBD on wanting to corner the market on the wrestling television industry and be the home to major television wrestling. Meltzer reported that WBD officials also currently have potential plans for cross-overs between AEW and WWE to help promote each others shows if they were secure a TV deal with WWE. Meltzer reported that the likelihood of this happening would be very low due to WWE would not want to share a network with AEW nor work with them. Meltzer reported that WBD’s idea is similar to what ESPN currently has for their plan to become the home of MMA and have UFC, PFL, and Bellator cross-promote in the future. (Transcript h/t: WrestleTalk.com)
• Warner Bros Discovery recently released their fiscal 2023 second quarter report revealing that the company had finished the past quarter with around $47.8 billion in debt and $3.1 billion of cash on hand. In regards to revenues, WBD generated $10.36 billion in revenues, down 4% compared to last year’s fiscal quarter, while their net loss was $1.24 billion for the past fiscal quarter. In regards to their streaming services, it was stated that the service lost $3 million for the past fiscal quarter due to the launch of their new MAX service.
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the recent story going around online of WWE Hall of Famer Bret Hart had contacted AEW for potential work as an agent only to be turned down by AEW CEO Tony Khan is not a current story. Meltzer reported that this actually dates back to 2019 and the reason why Khan turned down Hart was not due to him not being interested. Instead the reason was due to Khan wanted Hart to be an on-screen personality for the company and not a backstage one which Hart rejected. Meltzer reported that Hart had made a similar offer to WWE around the same time which was also rejected by the company. Meltzer also reported that Hart’s offers to AEW and WWE were for him to work as a potential agent or producer from his home and not have to travel to shows. Meltzer also reported that Hart himself recently spoke about this story stating that it was being a bit overblown.
• In a recent episode of The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy podcast, co-host Matt Hardy gave his thoughts about how AEW’s creative process and structure has changed during his time in the company. Hardy stated “It is very interesting because when this place first started, usually you would speak to Tony. That’s how it started, especially back in the pandemic era when we were just in Jacksonville everyone was in the same area every single week for the same amount of time. Now they have started filling out the system a little bit, and they’re making things work a little more smoothly. There’s Tony here, and then there’s a couple of guys underneath him. They’re also putting in guys that are almost like writers or guys who keep track of the angles and all the stories on the show. So, it depends. You go to a different guy that’s kind of considered your guy. QT [Marshall] has done a lot of the work with myself and Ethan Page and Isiah [Kassidy], and Jeff [Hardy], so it would probably be QT that would be our starting point. QT or Sonjay [Dutt].” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
• In a recent episode of the What Happened When podcast, co-host Tony Schiavone gave his thoughts on his interest in working in a backstage role in wrestling after he retires from on-screen commentary work. Schiavone stated “No, I’d still want to work backstage. I’d like to have a baseball bat and whack guys in the ass with it when they wouldn’t get their work done. Which I kinda got now. I’d like to do kind of what I’m doing now, and that is work in talent relations. Because I think I know how to handle people, and I do.” Schiavone also gave his thoughts on his current work in AEW’s Talent Relations department. Schiavone stated “It’s a very, very tricky job in wrestling to work in talent relations. I’m not the only one who works in talent relations, there’s like three of us. It’s a very tricky job because you have to, everybody’s different, you have to approach people differently, you have to be receptive to their ideas, and you have to kind of be sympathetic to their feelings. Right now, I handle every gripe and complaint that a wrestler has now, kind of goes through me and I try to settle it as best I can. If it ends up between two wrestlers, we probably need to go over my head with it or get other people involved. But I like dealing with talent, I really, really do. I think part of that is because the talent that I’m dealing with now all kind of watched me as they were going up, so they have a respect for me. I don’t get it, but they do, and it helps me with my job. So I really like talent relations. Now talent relations is nothing like what JR was doing. Because JR was doing payoffs, contracts and shit like that. I’m just kind of like babysitting, but I like that.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

Impact, NJPW, Indies, & Misc. Wrestling

• As noted before, former WCW wrestler Steve “Mongo” McMichael has been battling ALS since being diagnosed with the disease in April of 2021. The Chicago Tribune reported that McMichael is currently in intensive care following him being hospitalized this past Thursday due to sepsis and pneumonia. It was reported that McMichael was in an unconscious state when he was admitted to the hospital but managed to wake up and his vital improved after being given some antibiotic medicine.
• In a follow-up, McMichael’s wife Misty stated to FOX 32 Chicago that McMichael’s health situation has improved recently and he has recovered from his bout with sepsis but is still dealing with pneumonia though. Misty stated “Steve will be in the ICU for a few more days on IV antibiotics to clear this infection. He also has some fluid in his lungs which he is being treated for as well. “He’s as feisty as ever. Our Mongo is back! Please keep the prayers coming.“
• WWE Hall of Famer Robert Gibson, one half of legendary tag team The Rock N’Roll Express, reportedly underwent hip replacement surgery last week, according to PWInsider.
• Indies and Major League Wrestling wrestler Krule recently announced on Twitter that he is currently a free agent and was granted his release from MLW this past January.
• Game Changer Wrestling recently announced that Maki Itoh will be making an appearance for the company at their Crushed Up event on September 10th in Brooklyn, New York.
• GCW also recently announced that Jacob Fatu will be making an appearance for the company at their No Signal In The Hills event on August 11th in Los Angeles, California.
• In a recent interview with the Oh … You Didn’t Know podcast, Impact Wrestling Senior Producer and former Impact commentator Josh Matthews gave his thoughts about him having recently talks with AEW for a potential job in the company in the future and his interest in finishing his career in Impact. Matthews stated “Informally (there have been talks with AEW). I think what they’re doing is great. I should start by saying I love IMPACT and if they’ll have me, I’ll stay for the rest of my career and it’s funny because with our (Josh & Madison Rayne) schedules because she’s on the Wednesday show and so, I just don’t know. It really is (a perfect schedule).” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)
• In a recent interview with the Refin’ It Up podcast, Impact talent Tasha Steelz gave her reasons for her current absence from Impact. Steelz stated “Flava’s been doing some flava things. Booked and busy, that’s what I do. I’ve been in the lab cooking. Cooking up something new for everybody. That’s what the chef does. The chef always brings flavor. I’m better than Baskin Robbins. They only can provide 31 flavors but me, my flavors are endless, alright? To infinity so I’ve been cooking a lot and I can’t wait to present what I’ve been cooking to you guys lately. It’s really tasty. Really flavorful… They say good things come to those who wait so, patience is a virtue.” Steelz also gave her thoughts about Trinity’s upcoming Impact Knockouts title defense against Deonna Purrazzo at Impact’s Emergence 2023 event later this month. Steelz stated “Trin has been making that impact, all pun intended. I love it, I love it because it’s a new and different environment for her. She’s used to NXT and the main roster of WWE so now this is just something different that she’s stepping into and just right off the bat, stepping into it, showing off and being able to be champion right now is amazing for her, I love that for her and literally the bet on yourself story. So, she did that, got that opportunity, won and now she’s champion and you just never know, Tasha Steelz versus Trinity for the IMPACT Knockouts World Championship, that right there is money. That sells tickets, that’s money. We’re gonna keep that in mind… We do have to wait though because Emergence is coming up in Toronto, August 26th. So, we have Trinity versus Deonna (Purrazzo) so it might not be Trinity versus Tasha Steelz for the Knockouts World Championship. It may be Deonna Purrazzo versus Tasha Steelz or it could be Trinity versus Tasha Steelz. Either way, it’s gonna be a huge story so, tune in. Everybody’s gotta tune in. You gotta see.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)
• Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Lucha Libre AAA talent Emperador Azteca had announced earlier this week that he was finished with AAA and left the company. Meltzer reported that the current belief is the reason why Azteca and Flamita had announced their departures was due to Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre wanting those two to announce it publicly before they would use them for their upcoming joint event with Big Japan.
• Dave Meltzer also reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Cibernetico is also currently believed to be leaving AAA soon due to him being booked for an upcoming Crash event and AAA’s current rules that forbide their talent for working for their rival Crash promotion. Meltzer reported that AAA might not end up granting Cibernetico’s release due to him being a bigger star name for the company than Emperador Azteca and Flamita were.
• Stardom talent Syuri reportedly will be portraying the role of former Stardom talent Kagetsu in the upcoming film Runaway Wrestler that is based on the life and wrestling career of current Stardom talent Mayu Iwatani, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• Women of Wrestling reportedly drew 328,000 viewers and a 0.04 18-49 rating for their July 2nd WOW TV episode, 271,000 viewers and a 0.04 18-49 rating for their July 9th WOW TV episode, and 295,000 viewers and a 0.05 rating for their July 16th WOW TV episode on syndication, according to Wrestlenomics.