Weekend Roundup: Kevin Owens, Asuka & Stardom Issues Update, Britt Baker Dealing with Injury, Bryan Danielson, NJPW, Indies

AEW

Indie / Misc

Steve C.

Aug 20, 2023

WWE

NXT talent Arianna Grace stated on Twitter that she placed 20th in this year’s Miss Universe Canada competition, which took place on Saturday in Vancouver, Canada. Grace stated “I am so proud to share I placed top 20 at Miss Universe Canada! Rehabbing my ACL injury was very difficult, so while I was forced to be out of the ring I decided to pursue this and tonight- I did the damn thing! So fulfilled, proud and ready to return to the ring a new woman!“
As noted before, Kevin Owens has been out of action for WWE since this past July due to a rib injury. Owens made his official return from injury at this past Friday’s SmackDown show in Toronto, Canada in a post-show dark segment and match. Owens also wrestled at Saturday’s WWE house show event in Ottawa, Canada in a Six-Man Tag Team match with Drew McIntyre and Sami Zayn against Imperium.
In a recent interview with the My Mom’s Basement with Robbie Fox podcast, Cody Rhodes reflected on his recent trilogy of matches against Brock Lesnar. Rhodes stated “Brock Lesnar throwing you around I mean, the first thing I really take from it is, he’s manhandling people. When you’re a grown up, you don’t feel like being manhandled anymore. Even in an industry where [you’re] vying for leverage and grappling with one another. You don’t want to be manhandled. That guy gets everybody.He is that strong. But the thing about him that’s scary. Thing about him that is genuinely scary is how quick he is. I think people who watched him in the UFC saw how quick he was but seeing how quick he is at his age and at this level…I actually feel like he’s never been better.” (Transcript h/t: SEScoops.com)
As noted before, NXT brand talent Odyssey Jones was among those from NXT who were called up to the main roster as part of this past May’s WWE Draft 2023. Jones was drafted to the RAW brand but has yet to make his official main roster debut. Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that the reason for Jones’ absence from RAW is due to WWE officials never had any real significant creative plans for him following his main roster call up. It was reported that the reason for this creative-related issue is currently not known.
Cody Rhodes was recently announced to be participating in a Reddit AMA session on August 21 starting at 2:30PM EST on r/SquaredCircle.
This past Friday’s WWE SmackDown show in Toronto, Canada featured Edge’s last match of his current WWE contract and in the city of Toronto. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that prior to Edge signing his current contract for around $3 million per year from WWE, AEW CEO Tony Khan had been in talks with Edge for a potential deal with AEW. Meltzer reported that Edge had given the offer he received from AEW to WWE to get their response, which led to Vince McMahon ordering for Edge to be given a medical evaluation to clear him his neck injury and retirement. Meltzer reported that Khan’s offer was for less than $3 million per year which WWE topped for their offer to secure Edge from leaving.
Edge recently reflected on Instagram about his match with Sheamus at this past Friday’s SmackDown show in Toronto. Edge stated “Full circle pints of Guiness. From Dublin to Toronto and 19 years in between. Back now after an amazing trip home to Toronto. What can I say? I’ll take that experience with me to the grave. Toronto you brought it. Speaking of bringing it, @wwesheamus is a beast. As strange as this sounds it was pure joy in there. Just two buds beating the hell out of each other. I knew he was great. But I didn’t know how great. That dude is so insanely talented, spectacular at what he does, and just a damn hard worker. He is the epitome of work ethic. Can’t teach that. Thanks fella. It was an honor.“
Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that WWE’s SummerSlam 2023 event earlier this month saw an increase of 27% for late buy purchases for its second week following the show. Meltzer reported that SummerSlam 2023’s current amount is 20,200 buys based on updated data.
As noted before, Asuka recently alleges that Japanese Joshi promotion Stardom was specifically created to try to destroy her career over her bad blood issues with the Japanese wrestling media and wrestling scene. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that the basis of Asuka’s issues revolved around the time she resumed her wrestling career following the birth of her child. Asuka reported started criticizing the way Japanese women’s wrestling was being done claiming that men’s wrestling was far superior and women’s wrestling in Japan was all pop idol stuff and older veterans were hogging up the top spotlight. In regards to her claims of Stardom being created just to destroy her, Meltzer reported that those spoken to close to the situation denied this being true and instead stated that Stardom owner Rossy Ogawa had always wanted to promote women’s wrestling in Japan and had been involved in the women’s wrestling industry since the 1980s. Meltzer reported that Ogawa launching Stardom was not due to Asuka but instead of him taking over the void left after Arsion promotion had went bankrupt. Those close to Ogawa stated that he never said anything bad about Asuka and was completely caught off guard over her comments. Ogawa also had praised Asuka for being the person who designed Stardom’s High Speed Championship and her personality and work in wrestling.
As noted before, Stardom talent KAIRI recently signed an official contract with WWE and is currently expected to return to the company by this November. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that despite KAIRI leaving Stardom to return to WWE, she still has a close friendship with Stardom owner Rossy Ogawa. Meltzer reported that the source of KAIRI’s decision to leave revolved around issues with Bushiroad over her wanting to work more dates but Bushiroad wanting exclusivity over those additional dates since it would mean more money for them for her work. KAIRI reportedly contacted those close to her who supported her decision to leave with the idea of if she didn’t leave, she might always have questions or regrets about it in later life. KAIRI also reportedly felt things would be better off for her in WWE with WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque being in charge of creative.
Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that WWE’s current long term plans for Los Lotharios (Angel & Humberto) is for them to become a big babyface tag team for the company. Meltzer reported that the idea for their current run in NXT is to build them back up as a face team for the main roster and invoke their late grandfather to establish them as authentic Mexican babyface stars.
WWE reportedly generated an attendance of 10,521 (9,600 paid) for their Aug. 11th SmackDown show in Calgary and 9,702 (8,800 paid) for their Aug. 14th RAW show in Winnipeg, Canada, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
WWE reportedly has sold around 10,292 tickets for their Aug. 21st RAW show in Quebec City, Canada, 7,162 tickets for their Aug. 25th SmackDown show in Louisville, KY, 2,703 for their Aug. 26th house show event in Cape Girardeau, MO, 3,248 tickets for their Aug. 27th house show event in Huntsville, LA, 6,561 tickets for their Aug. 28th RAW show in Memphis, TN, 8,118 tickets for their Sept. 1st SmackDown show in Hershey, PA, 12,351 tickets for their Sept. 2nd Payback 2023 event in Pittsburgh, PA, 6,139 tickets for their Sept. 4th RAW show in Charlotte, NC, 8,673 tickets for their Sept. 8th SmackDown show in Boston, MA, 5,012 tickets for their Sept. 9th house show event in Uniondale, NY, 2,118 tickets for their Sept. 10th house show event in Charlottesville, VA, 4,213 tickets for their Sept. 11th RAW show in Norfolk, VA, 8,985 tickets for their Sept. 15th SmackDown show in Denver, CO, 5,046 tickets for their Sept. 16th house show event in Kennewick, WA, 3,737 tickets for their Sept. 17th house show event in Boise, ID, 5,634 tickets for their Sept. 18th RAW show in Salt Lake City, UT, 7,575 tickets for their Sept. 22nd SmackDown show in Glendale, AZ, 6,746 tickets for their Sept. 23rd house show event in Palm Desert, CA, 5,295 for their Sept. 24th house show event in Fresno, CA, 7,970 tickets for their Sept. 25th RAW show in Ontario, CA, 9,669 tickets for their Sept. 29th SmackDown show in Sacramento, CA, 4,367 tickets for their Sept. 30th house show event in San Francisco, CA, 2,082 tickets for their Oct. 1st house show event in Stateline, NV, 7,036 tickets for their Oct. 2nd RAW show in San Jose, CA, 5,318 tickets for their Oct. 6th SmackDown show in St. Louis, MO, 10,081 tickets for their for their Oct. 7th Fastlane 2023 event in Indianapolis, IN, 5,893 tickets for their Oct. 13th SmackDown show in Tulsa, OK, 2,710 tickets for their Oct. 15th house show event in Springfield, MO, 5,800 tickets for their Oct. 16th RAW show in Oklahoma City, OK, 7,066 tickets for their Oct. 20th SmackDown show in San Antonio, TX, 1,593 tickets for their Oct. 22nd house show event in Laredo, TX, 8,445 tickets for their Oct. 23rd RAW show in Dallas, TX, 4.950 tickets for their October 27th SmackDown show in Milwaukee, WI, 6,862 tickets for their Oct. 29th house show event in London, England, 5,061 tickets for their Oct. 30th RAW show in Greenville, SC, 6,214 tickets for their Oct. 31st house show event in Glasgow, Scotland, 11,837 tickets for their Nov. 24th SmackDown show in Chicago, and 12,867 tickets for their Nov. 25th Survivor Series 2023 event in Chicago, IL as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
In a recent episode of the ImPAULsive podcast, host Logan Paul gave his thoughts about his interest in potentially forming a tag team with Dominik Mysterio in WWE. Paul stated “Totally beat their ass, beat their ass at WrestleMania (Logan said about Rey & Dominik Mysterio). That’s what I did. No, Rey, he’s one of the best wrestlers of all-time and he’s a sick human being. I had a crazy idea recently, for Dom, because Dom is super heel right now. Dominik Mysterio, cannot get a word out. I’m telling you, he lifts the microphone to his mouth and the whole arena, ‘Boo!’ He can’t cut a promo and he plays on it and it’s really working right now. They hate him. Logan Paul, Dominik Mysterio, tag team. The most hated duo of all-time. The most hated tag team partners in the WWE just crushing it, running through it because we have a story arc too. We both did our first WrestleMania together. That was both our first WrestleMania. I think it’d be crazy. That’s the only issue (Dom’s partnership with Rhea Ripley). But, I’m sure I could fit my way in there. Essentially, who cares (if I third wheel)? And honestly, I don’t know, me and Dom, maybe we could go further than him and Rhea (he laughed).” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)
A recent update by Epic Games for their Fortnite video game featured WWE’s Becky Lynch and Bianca Belair being available to purchase as playable characters for the game.
Roman Reigns has been the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion for the past 1,085 days and counting. In regards to the WWE Championship, Reigns surpassed the milestone of 500 days as champion as of this past Thursday.

AEW & ROH

In a recent Q&A article for Fightful Select, Sean Ross Sapp reported that his sources stated that Britt Baker has recently been working through an unknown injury but she is not expected to miss AEW’s upcoming All In event next week in London, England.
In a recent interview with The Chase McCable Show podcast, AEW CEO Tony Khan gave his thoughts about Sting’s career in AEW. Khan stated “When you talk about some of the biggest names in pro wrestling, for me, it starts and ends with Sting. He’s one of the all-time legends, he’s one of my all-time favorites. He’s still a huge part of AEW. One of the greatest things we’ve accomplished is bringing Sting out of retirement. He is still wrestling to this day. He is undefeated in AEW, in fact, and on the greatest run of his career, right now, here in AEW.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
Jade Cargill recently announced on Twitter that she was in attendance at this past Friday’s KultureCity’s KultureBall 2023 event in Birmingham, Alabama representing AEW at the event.
This year’s KultureCity KultureBall event also featured Adam Cole being named this year’s recipient of KulutureCity’s Human Highlight Award. Cole was given the award for persevering through his health issues and returning to wrestling in 2023. Cole reflected on Twitter about the award stating “So honored & humbled 🙏 I am so thankful to have a bunch of amazing and wonderful people around me. The world is a better place when we are there for each other. ♥️ @kulturec #KultureCity“
Fightful Select reported that Adam Cole and Britt Baker ended up being booked in almost two places at the same time on Saturday. It was reported that Cole and Baker had traveled to Birmingham, Alabama to be part of Saturday’s KultureCity’s KultureBall 2023 event in the city for Cole’s Human Highlight Award presentation and then flew on a private jet to Lexington, Kentucky in order to arrive for their scheduled appearance for AEW’s Rampage tapings that night. It was reported that they had managed to arrive at the venue minutes before Baker was planned to make her entrance for her main event match on the show.
In a recent interview with the Talk Is Jericho podcast, Trent Beretta gave his thoughts about his current belief that his lingering neck issues in wrestling originated from stunt motion capturing he did for wrestling video games. Beretta stated “So you would put on a little suit covered in these little reflective balls and they would have a ring set up. Sometimes, it was big moves they needed and sometimes it was just like standing up and turning slightly to the right and then getting in a fighting position. Sometimes it was rough because you’d sit around for hours and then it’d be like, “Okay, we need a guy to take a powerbomb off the top rope.” They’d have a crash pad for stuff like that but sometimes in ring it’d be like, “Just take a Rock Bottom” or something when you’re not warmed up. It was on a crash pad. They needed…four moves with a guy on top who slips behind, starting from a fireman’s carry. The guy on top slips behind.We needed four different moves as reversals, and we’ll use whatever. And somebody said “Dragon Suplex.” Luckily, it was on a crash pad, but it just, the guy — I don’t think it was a guy who did Dragon Suplexes — and he threw it how you would throw a German with a high arc, but he had my neck instead of my waist. So I just landed right on top of my head on a crash pad.I wasn’t like, “Oh no, I can’t wrestle.” It was just slowly over five or six years, whatever it was, like it started getting worse and worse.“
Beretta continued stating that he had suffered from sleep apena in the lead up to his neck fusion surgery in 2021. Beretta stated “But after surgery, I guess there was so much extra bone and shit in my neck that, when they cleaned it up, that all went away. [Dr Michael] Samson was telling me, back in the day, the guys would be out for a year. Apparently, that’s because they would cut through all the muscle in the back of your neck and that’s what really took the most time to heal.” In response to a question from host Chris Jericho about if the surgery is now done through an incision in the front of the throat, Beretta stated “Yeah, I can barely even see it. It’s just a little hole in the front. They move your throat to the side. It was the easiest surgery I’ve ever had by far, as far as pain.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)
Fightful Select reported that Anthony Ogogo is currently scheduled to be in London next week for All In media-related work for AEW.
In a recent interview with the Under The Ring podcast, AEW referee Aubrey Edwards gave her thoughts about WWE referee John Cone and legendary NWA referee Tommy Young being her favorite referees to study from to help improve her own refereeing career. Edwards stated “My favorite referee is John Cone. I think he’s really great. I’ve learned a lot of stuff from watching him. Tommy Young is also very, very excellent with someone I studied a lot when I was first starting out.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
As noted before, Thunder Rosa has been out of action for AEW since this past September due to her suffering a spinal-related injury. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that there have been no new updates regarding when Rosa might be medically cleared for an in-ring return from his sources.
Bryan Danielson has been out of action for AEW since this past June due to a fractured forearm injury. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources confirmed that had Danielson not been injured, AEW had plans in place for a singles match between him and Kenny Omega at their upcoming All In event on August 27th at Wembley Stadium in London, England.
As noted before, The Elite (Kenny Omega, Hangman Page, and The Young Bucks) recently signed new multi-year contracts with AEW. While the length of The Elite’s new contracts are currently believed to be four years in length, Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that none from the group have confirmed this to be the actual length.
Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that due to the continued viewership and ratings declines from Big Bang Theory, AEW has not seen any real boosts or benefits for the first 30 minutes for their Dynamite shows from their lead-in programming in recent months.
In regards to DVR viewership for AEW television shows, Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that AEW’s Rampage shows have been averaging around the same amount of viewers as Dynamite while Collision has been the lowest of the three shows for DVR key demographic viewership.
AEW reportedly generated an attendance of 5,420 for their Aug. 12th Collision show in Greensboro, NC and 4,700 for their Aug. 16th Dynanite show in Nasville, TN, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
AEW reportedly has sold around 3,777 tickets for their Aug. 23rd Dynamite & Collision shows in Duluth, GA, 2,720 tickets for their Aug. 30th Dynamite show in Hoffman Estates,IL, 3,975 tickets for their Sept. 2nd Collision show in Chicago, 8,866 tickets for their Sept. 3rd All Out 2023 event in Chicago, IL, 1,827 tickets for their Sept. 6th Dynamite show in Indianapolis, IN, 2,880 tickets for their Sept. 9th Collision show in Cleveland, OH, 1,493 tickets for their Sept. 13th Dynamite show in Cincinnati, OH, 2,169 tickets for their Sept. 16th Collision show in State College, PA, 5,083 tickets for their Sept. 20th Dynamite Grand Slam 2023 show at the Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, NY, 1,894 tickets for their Sept. 23rd Collision show in Grand Rapids, MI, 1,724 tickets for their Sept. 27th Dynamite show in Broomfield, CO, 2,433 tickets for their Sept. 30th Collision show in Seattle, WA, 1,703 tickets for their Oct. 4th Dynamite show in Stockton, CA, and 1,390 tickets for their Oct. 7th Collision show in Salt Lake City, UT as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
In a recent interview with Sports Illustrated, New Japan Pro Wrestling talent Hiroshi Takahashi stated that his goal for his current IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship reign is to defend his title in AEW at some point. Takahashi stated “A dream of mine is to have a match on live prime time TV. I’d be stoked to wrestle in AEW any time and defend the IWGP junior heavyweight title there. Last year, I was supposed to team up with Darby Allin and Sting. So I want to team up with Sting rather than wrestle him. Wrestling someone? That would be Darby.“
In a recent interview with Uproxx, AEW CEO Tony Khan gave his thoughts on why AEW decided to hold their All In event at Wembley Stadium instead of at Fulham F.C.’s home venue of Craven Cottage, which is owned by the Khan family. Khan stated “There’s two places I thought about. One is also very dear to my heart, and that’s Craven Cottage. Wembley is, for a pro wrestling event, the more economical choice for many reasons. In that, you can have much more capacity for attendance since Wembley is a larger stadium by far, and also, the same wonderful charms of Craven Cottage and all the history of that magnificent venue. (Craven Cottage) poses so many challenges to loading in a pro wrestling event and it would cost millions more to produce the event at Craven Cottage than at Wembley.“

Impact, NJPW, Indies, & Misc. Wrestling

Sunday’s Multiverse United 2 event for Impact Wrestling and New Japan Pro Wrestling in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania featured Lio Rush & Trey Miguel defeating Hiroshi Takaashi & “Speedball” Mike Bailey in a tag team match. Rush pinned Takahashi and then grabbed a microphone issuing a challenge to Takahashi for his IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship at a future NJPW event.
Tommy Dreamer recently announced on Twitter that he suffered a broken nose injury at an indie event on Saturday. Dreamer stated that this was the fourth time he has suffered a broken nose injury in his career. It is currently not known how long Dreamer will be out of action due to this injury.
Saturday’s All Star Junior Festival USA 2023 event for NJPW in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania featured “Speedball” Mike Bailey defeating Kevin Knight in the Finals of the one-night All Star Junior Festival tournament. As a result of his victory, NJPW announced that Bailey has earned a title shot for Hiromu Takahashi’s IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship at a date to be announced in the future.
NJPW reportedly generated a paid attendance of 6,579 for their Aug. 12th G1 Climax 2023 event in Tokyo and 8,283 for their Aug. 13th G1 Climax 2023 event in Tokyo, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that NJPW drew a total attendance of 53,277 for this year’s G1 Climax 2023 tournament, up 11.1% compared to last year’s tournament total attendance of 47,938. Meltzer reported that NJPW officials had some disappointment over this year’s attendance was not much higher due to it being the first tournament to allow full cheering crowds since the COVID-19 pandemic nor came close to pre-pandemic level that was in the 80,000 range.
As noted before, Will Ospreay debuted a new name and new look for the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship at NJPW’s G1 Climax 2023 event on August 19th. Ospreay declared that his title would now be known as the IWGP United Kingdom Heavyweight Championship as long as he was champion. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that the reason for recent changes to the IWGP U.S. title is due to the idea of NJPW wanting Ospreay to make him as a super babyface star for their United Kingdom market.
In a recent investor’s meeting, Bushiroad revealed that NJPW generated $36.4 million in revenue and $1.60 million in net profit and Stardom generated $10.53 million in revenue and $1.72 million net profit for the past fiscal year. Both companies’ revenues were up compared to the prior fiscal year. Bushiroad’s stock dropped by around 35% two days following the release of Bushiroad’s fiscal report due to other financial areas for the company had performed lower than expected. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that despite both NJPW and Stardom generating more in revenues this year, their costs for booking foreign talent has gone up over this year due to the weakening of the yen against the U.S. dollar.
Stardom reportedly generated a paid attendance of 1,796 for their Aug. 13th Stardom X Stardom 2023 ~Osaka Summer Team~ event in Osaka and 1,519 for their Aug. 15th 5STAR Grand Prix 2023 event in Tokyo, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Prior to the start of this past Friday’s High Intensity X event in New York City, New York, House of Glory announced that Eddie Kingston would not be able to make his scheduled appearance for the company due to “circumstances beyond our control.”
Lucha Libre AAA generated an attendance of 15,863 for their Aug. 13th Triplemania XXXI: Mexico City event in Mexico City, Mexico, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
In regards to AAA’s production issues when it comes to Triplemania events, Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that AAA officials have been insistent on having Spanish commentary come out of the area speakers since they claim it is something that is ahead of its times. Meltzer reported that AAA fans have complained that this takes away the heat for matches for the live crowd and even RUSH recently criticized this tactic on Facebook saying that he hates it.
As noted before, AAA talent Flamita departed from the company earlier this month. In a recent interview in Mexico, Flamita stated that he was never under an actual contract with AAA and stated that the reason for his departure was due to backstage politics. (Source: TheCubsFan.com)
Pro Wrestling NOAH generated a paid attendance of 926 for their Aug. 11th N-1 Victory 2023 event in Tokyo, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Border City Wrestling recently announced that NOAH talent Kaito Kiyomiya will be making an appearance for the company at their 30th Anniversary event on October 7th in Windsor, Ontario, Canada.
As noted before, Takashi Sugiura has been out of action for NOAH since this past June due to an eye-related injury. NOAH announced earlier today that Sugiura will be making his return from injury at their N-1 Victory 2023 Finals event on September 3rd in Osaka, Japan.
Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling generated a paid attendance of 525 for their Aug. 12th Tokyo Princess Cup 2023 event in Tokyo and 657 for their Aug. 13th Tokyo Princess Cup 2023 Finals event in Tokyo, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Nielsen reported that the breakdown viewership consumption for the month of July was 38.7% from streaming services, 29.6% from cable television, 20% from network television, and 11.7% from other platforms. (Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter)
Revolution Pro Wrestling reportedly has sold over 3,000 tickets for their 11 Year Anniversary Show on August 26th in London, England, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Dave Meltzer reported that RevPro’s current ticket sales would be among the largest for a wrestling event held in London by a British promotion.