Weekend Roundup: Damian Priest Ankle Injury Reportedly Not Serious, Tripe H on Working with CM Punk, Mercedes Mone, Update on WWE Fed Fake 6/1 AEW Collision Ratings, The Hardys Not Under TNA Deals, NJPW, Indies

Indie / Misc

Steve C.

Jun 16, 2024

WWE

As noted before, Damian Priest suffered an ankle injury at Saturday’s WWE Clash at the Castle 2024 event following a spot involving Priest’s foot getting caught and twisted on the ropes over a botched sunset dive meant for Drew McIntyre on the outside. Fightful Select’s Sean Ross Sapp reported that their sources stated that Priest was “fine” backstage after the match and was hanging out with other talents. In regards to Priest hobbling around on his ankle throughout the rest of the match, it was reported that this was Priest just “effectively selling” his injury spot. Priest reportedly received a lot of praise backstage for his performance at the event.
Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that WWE NXT writer Johnny Russo was in attendance backstage at this past Friday’s TNA Against All Odds 2024 event in Cicero, Illinois. The reason for his visit reportedly was due to Tatum Paxley’s booking as the surprise opponent for Jordynne Grace’s open challenge match at the event.
During Saturday’s Clash at the Castle 2024 event at the OVO Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland, WWE commentator Michael Cole stated that the official attendance for the event was 11,391. Following the event, WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque announced during the post-show press conference that Clash at the Castle 2024 broke the all-time record for largest ever live gate for a WWE arena event in WWE history. The exact number was not given by Levesque but leading to the event, the average ticket price for Clash at the Castle 2024 had been the highest ever for a non-WrestleMania event.
During the WWE Clash at the Castle 2024 post-show press conference, WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque also gave his thoughts about his current working relationship with CM Punk since Punk’s return to WWE this past November. Levesque stated “There is a change and there is a new era, a new atmosphere, all those things. Absolutely, in some ways, they are things he was asking for and started a long time ago. At a time that, maybe he and I, for a lot of reasons, just saw things differently from each other. We saw eye-to-eye, but it was angry eye-to-eye. It was opposition eye-to-eye. I cannot tell you how happy I am to have him back. I cannot tell you how exciting it is for me to see the Phil Brooks that I wanted to see then. While maybe my efforts to get that were taken wrong and it’s what led to friction, I always knew the Phil Brooks that I see today was inside there. Just couldn’t express it in the right way. As much as this has changed, he has changed. I have got to tell you, it’s amazing. I am excited for the future and I’m excited to not just work with him, but to be around him. He’s a pleasure to be around in the locker room, a pleasure to be around as a performer. He’s a pleasure to be around, helping other guys to grow to change, to impart what he has learned, not only as a performer, but also as a person that was on the wrong side of things but maybe figured it out along the way. That is valuable information that he can share with another generation that is coming behind him. I’m thrilled and excited to have him here, and I’m thrilled and excited to not only work with him in a talent role but work with him to create the WWE that both he and I always wanted it to be.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
During the WWE Clash at the Castle 2024 post-show press conference, WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque also stated that Alba Fyre & Isla Dawn’s WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship victory at the event was not in any way due to Fyre’s recent family tragedy involving the passing of her mother in a hit-and-run accident this past May in Florida and claimed it was due to they had earned it instead.
Joe Gacy is currently holding an auction for his ring worn Schism vest gear with all proceeds generated to go towards helping financially support his close friend Juice over her currently suffering from a bad heart value health issue..
WWE reportedly has generated around 5,700 cable television pay-per-view buys for this past May’s King & Queen of the Ring 2024 based on updated late buys purchases, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Dave Meltzer reported that King & Queen of the Ring 2024’s buys is around 18.4% higher than this past May’s Backlash 2024 had generated after the same number of days after the event. Meltzer also reported that King & Queen of the Ring 2024’s current PPV buys are still the second lowest ever for a WWE PPV/PLE event in WWE history, not including NXT PPV/PLE events.
As noted before, Natalya’s contract with WWE is currently set to expire very soon but is also believed to be very close to signing a new deal with the company. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that Natalya has still been in talks with WWE for a potential new deal as of this past Thursday. Natalya reportedly is currently working on multiple outside projects and is making sure they all align together.
As noted before, WWE delayed the release of their new behind-the-scenes documentary for WrestleMania 40 due to wanting to include additional footage from this past April’s two-day event into the film. The reason for the delay is currently not known beyond it not being related to anything involving Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that there have been no new updates regarding the status of a potential release date for WWE’s delayed documentary from his sources.
WWE reportedly drew an attendance of 9,722 for their June 7th SmackDown show in Louisville, KY, 679 (277 paid) for their June 9th NXT Battleground 2024 event at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, NV, and 6,878 for their June 10th RAW show in Toledo, OH, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
WWE reportedly has sold around 7,575 tickets for their June 17th RAW show in Corpus Christi, TX, 12,427 tickets for their June 21st SmackDown show in Chicago, 3,448 tickets for their June 22nd house show event in Bloomington, IL, 3,439 tickets for their June 23rd house show event in Kalamazoo, MI, 8,902 tickets for their June 24th RAW show in Indianapolis, IN, 14,159 tickets for their June 28th SmackDown show at Madison Square Garden in New York City, NY, 8,479 tickets for their July 1st RAW show in Boston, MA, 15,017 tickets for their July 5th SmackDown show in Toronto, 16,572 tickets for their July 6th Money in the Bank 2024 event in Toronto, around 8,000 tickets for their July 7th NXT Heatwave 2024 event in Toronto, Canada, 6,845 tickets for their July 8th RAW show in Ottawa, Canada, 5,279 tickets for their July 12th SmackDown show in Worcester, MA, 5,394 tickets for their July 15tn RAW show in Dayton, OH, 6,961 tickets for their July 19th SmackDown show in Omaha, NE, 4,929 tickets for their July 22nd RAW show in Green Bay, WI, 9,502 tickets for their July 29th RAW show in St. Paul, MN, and 46,260 tickets for their August 3rd SummerSlam 2024 event in Cleveland, OH as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

AEW & ROH

AEW filed a trademark for “Fairway to Hell” for merchandise and golf-related purposes on June 14th to the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Prior to the start of Saturday’s AEW Collision show, The Acclaimed’s Anthony Bowens revealed on Twitter that he had been “fined” $5,000 by the EVPs The Young Bucks for “breaching AEW policy” in regards to him making negative comments about them in a public platform. During Saturday’s show, EVP representative Brandon Cutler attempted to issue another fine on behalf of the Young Bucks over disparaging comments made by The Acclaimed during their promo segment only for Interim EVP Christopher Daniels to come out and stated that AEW CEO Tony Khan had reversed both fines and gave back Bowens his $5,000. Daniels then punched Cutler and tossed him into the ring for The Acclaimed to get some revenge on him in place of the Young Bucks.
AEW announced one new match for the card of this week’s AEW Dynamite show on June 19th at the EagleBank Arena in Fairfax, Virginia. This new match announced was an All-Star Eight-Man Tag Team match of Mark Briscoe, Kyle O’Reilly, Orange Cassidy, & Dante Martin vs. Don Callis Family (Kyle Fletcher & Konosuke Takeshita), Roderick Strong, & Zack Sabre Jr.
AEW also announced two new segments for the card of this week’s AEW Dynamite show on June 19th in Fairfax, Virginia. This first new segment announced was a Face-to-Face promo segment involving Swerve Strickland and Will Ospreay. The second new segment was a AEW Women’s World Championship match contract signing segment of “Timeless” Toni Storm and Mina Shirakawa.
AEW also announced one new match for the card of this week’s taped AEW Collision show on June 20th at the PPL Center on Allentown, Pennsylvania. This new match was a tag team match of The Learning Tree (Chris Jericho & Big Bill) vs. Private Party (Marq Quen & Isiah Kassidy).
A recent FOX 32 news show in Chicago, Illinois featured Kyle Fletcher and Skye Blue as the guests. Fletcher and Blue talked about their real life relationship and promoted AEW’s upcoming AEW Dynamite show on July 7th in the city.
Mercedes Mone recently praised AEW CEO Tony Khan on her official fan newsletter for the care that he had shown towards her following her younger brother being rushed to the hospital with a health issue this past Wednesday. Mone stated that Khan offered her the use of his private get to travel to Florida to be with her bother following AEW’s Dynamite show in Des Moines, Iowa. Mone stated that when she had called Khan about the situation, he took her on his jet and stopped in Orlando. Mone praised Khan and stated that AEW showed that they were a family first company. Mone also stated that Samuray del Sol and Mojo Rawley had also traveled to her home to help her with her brother.
In a recent interview with Sports Illustrated, Bryan Danielson gave his thoughts about being hopeful that Claudio Castagnoli wins the AEW World Championship in the future. Danielson stated “I would love to see Claudio as world champion. He’s one of the best I’ve ever been in the ring with.” Danielson also gave his thoughts about Catsganoli’s recent reign as ROH World Champion. Danielson stated “I thought his Ring of Honor world title run was really special. I watched all of his matches, and I was in awe of it–as many people often are when they watch Claudio wrestle. I sincerely hope that Claudio gets a run as AEW world champion before he hangs it up. He would make the most of that opportunity.“
Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Rogers Communications recently acquired the rights to Warner Bros Discovery-based programming that goes into effect starting in January of 2025. In regards to AEW, Meltzer reported that one big factor in this deal is that Rogers owns Sportsnet which is current set to lose all of their programming at the end of this year due to WWE’s recent media rights deal with Netflix for their international markets. Meltzer reported that should Rogers replace WWE with AEW on Sportsnet that would be a big benefit for AEW due to Rogers currently airs four wrestling shows per week while AEW’s current home network in Canada, TSN, only airs Dynamite weekly on their network while Rampage and Collision primarily air on their TSN app outside of rare occasions. Another benefit would be an increase in promotion for their shows due to Sportsnet promotes their weekly WWE shows far more than TSN does for their weekly AEW shows on their respective networks.
The June 5th AEW Dynamite show was notable for CMLL talents Magnus, Volador Jr., Rugido, & Esfinge making an appearance and competed in an Eight-Man Tag Team match against Blackpool Combat Club, which also included Wheeler Yuta making his in-ring return from injury. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that the CMLL talents almost found out about their booking for AEW at close to the last minute. Meltzer reported that the CMLL talents were informed at 11PM CT on June 4th and were booked for a last minute flight by AEW at 3AM EST on June 5th. The CMLL talents reportedly arrived at the venue at 4PM EST that day and had very little prep time to put together their match for the show, which had the added issues of the two different wrestling styles both teams work in. In regards to Yuta’s in-ring return, Meltzer reported that AEW officials had explain to the CMLL talents to avoid doing any spots involving Yuta’s head due to Yuta’s recent recovery from what is believed to have been a concussion injury. Meltzer reported that despite these issues, the match was viewed as a big success within AEW and managed to generate the highest 18-34 key demo number for a match on a Dynamite show in a long while.
In a recent interview with Fightful, former AEW commentator Mark Henry gave his thoughts about the reason why AEW had him stop doing “It’s time for the main event” catchphrase and routine for AEW Rampage shows. Henry stated ““It was too over. I wasn’t a talent. You can’t be more over than the talent.” Henry also stated that it was not AEW CEO Tony Khan who made that decision but he wished Khan would have allowed him to continue doing it to help Khan become a better boss. Henry stated “You know what, man? Tony, people are going to say negative things about Tony. Communication is the key. Like, I was able to communicate with Tony. Tony is the boss. So he don’t listen, he don’t have to do nothing that I say. You know? He’s the boss. But I wish that he would allow me to help him be even more the boss because talent will always try to lead you to do it their way, to make it fit them rather than make it fit the company and I just wanted AEW to do well. I don’t disrespect no individual talent. There’s no wrestler that would ever say, ‘Mark Henry shit on me,’ except for maybe Ahmed Johnson and Ryback, but they deserve every bit of venom that I was spit at their ass. I might critique things from an educated standpoint, but I don’t target people. I don’t try to belittle anyone. I want to do just that—a critique is the point to get it fixed. I want it to get fixed. There’s some people that just criticize for clickbait to try to make it seem like, ‘Oh, I was great, and you were the shits.’ Those people, I don’t talk to people like that. There’s no wrestler that can say that they’re a friend of mine, and they run talent down.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
As noted before, WWE was recently involved in an incident over them feeding fake fast national numbers for the June 1st AEW Collision show to Forbes to generate negative PR for AEW. Dave Meltzer reported that his sources provided additional details regarding this incident by WWE. Meltzer reported that the current belief is that WWE took the numbers from the television show that aired at midnight on June 2nd since that was Collision’s originally planned timeslot had their been an NBA Playoff game that night, which turned out to not be the case. Meltzer reported that even after the numbers were exposed to have been fake for AEW’s ratings, Forbes still did not take down their ratings report for the show. Wrestlenomics’ Brandon Thurston reported that it is almost impossible to get fast national numbers for cable television shows since that is more of a thing for network shows. Thurston reported that not even Warner Bros Discovery pays to get fast national numbers for their cable TV shows while WWE has been known to purchase the numbers for AEW shows dating back for years. Thurston reported that the cost to get the fast national numbers for a cable show is around a few thousands of dollars per show and access to these numbers comes from highly exclusive Nielsen sources. Meltzer reported that this means that the number of sources are far fewer than for typical ratings reporting. Meltzer also reported that WWE has been ordering almost weekly fast nationals for AEW shows since Nick Khan started in the company. Meltzer also reportedly that WWE’s PR has been well known to have “tried to feed the numbers to a long line of reporters who long ago decided it was too shady.”
In response to a fan online who claimed on Twitter that Meltzer was lying over his report of WWE feeding fake AEW ratings numbers, Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp responded back stating that Meltzer was not lying. This person stated “it’s meltzer “reporting ” so it’s most likely a lie” and Sapp responded stating “nope.” In a follow-up tweet in response to another fan who stated this was a known dirty tactic by WWE for years against AEW, Sapp stated “We said it the first week we got them, and have said it on dozens of occasions.“
In a recent interview with Denise Salcedo, WWE’s Bayley gave her thoughts about her big support of Mercedes Mone’s post-WWE career. Bayley stated “I am so excited to see her take this to next level. As much as I miss having her here. Wrestling, to me, still feels weird without her, but it’s like I have her in a different way where I can tell her what’s going on here and what I need help with, and what I’m trying to do to make it better over here. The same goes for her. It’s kind of nice we’re able to help and grow in two different companies and separately. In a way, it’s kind of better. I’m so proud of her for taking that leap and taking the chance on herself. She has so much to offer the world. There is so much more that she’s going to be able to do. I’m really excited to watch. Now, I just get to be a fan. Can’t be her tag partner anymore, but now I get to be a fan.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
AEW reportedly drew an attendance of 2,158 for their June 8th Collision show in Council Bluffs, IA and 2,739 for their June 12th Dynamite show in Des Moines, IA, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
AEW reportedly has sold around 3,043 tickets for their June 19th Dynamite show in Fairfax, VA, 1,851 tickets for their June 20th Collision show in Allentown, PA, 2,740 tickets for their June 26th Dynamite show in Buffalo, NY, 7,823 tickets for their June 30th AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2024 event at the UBS Arena in Long Island, NY, 2,788 tickets for their July 3rd Dynamite show in Chicago, IL, 1,298 tickets for their July 6th Collision show in Southaven, MS, 2,5801 tickets for their July 10th Dynamite show in Calgary, Canada, 1,821 tickets for their July 17th Dynamite show in North Little Rock, AR, 472 tickets for their July 20th Collision show in Arlington, 701 tickets for their July 27th Collision show in Arlington, TX, and 40,768 tickets for their August 25th All In 2024 event at Wembley Stadium in London, England as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Ring of Honor reportedly has sold around 565 tickets for their July 26th Death Before Dishonor 2024 event at the eSports Arena Arlington in Arlington, TX as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

TNA, NJPW, Indies, & Misc. Wrestling

Sunday’s New Japan Soul 2024 event for New Japan Pro Wrestling in Sapporo, Japan featured three championships changing hands. The first was Boltin Oleg, Toru Yano, & Hiroshi Tanahashi defeating BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi, & Yota Tsuji to become the new NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Champions. The second was HENARE defeating Shingo Takagi to become the new NEVER Openweight Champion. The third was El Desperado defeating SHO in a Steel Cage match to become the new IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion.
In regards to HENARE’s NEVER Openweight Championship victory at New Japan Soul 2024, this was HENARE’s first ever championship victory of his NJPW career.
NJPW announced that they had pulled Shota Umino from Sunday’s New Japan Soul 2024 event due to him recently suffering a back injury. This led to the originally scheduled Six-Man Tag Team match of YOSHI-HASHI, Hirooki Goto, & Shota Umino vs. HOUSE OF TORTURE (Dick Togo, Yujiro Takahashi, & EVIL) being changed to a regular tag team match of YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto vs. HOUSE OF TORTURE (Dick Togo & EVIL) as a result.
NJPW reportedly drew a paid attendance of 7,254 for their June 9th Dominion 2024 event in Osaka and 1,506 for their June 10th Despy Invitational event in Tokyo, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. In regards to Dominion 2024, Dave Meltzer reported that NJPW’s attendance was the largest for a Dominion event and for a wrestling event at the Osaka-Jo Hall since the COVID pandemic.
Saturday’s Triplemania XXXII: Tijuana event for Lucha Libre AAA featured Dinamico being announced as the official replacement for Nick Wayne for Team Rest of the World for the Copa Triplemania Three-way Trios match. Wayne had been pulled from the event due to his AEW commitments that same night for AEW’s Collision One-Year Anniversary Show in Youngstown, Ohio.
As noted before, former AEW talent Jeff Hardy made his surprise return to TNA Wrestling at this past Friday’s Against All Odds 2024 event in Cicero, Illinois. Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that both “Broken” Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy are currently working in TNA without being under signed contracts and are still free agents. In regards to Jeff’s return to TNA, it was reported that the process leading to Jeff’s return had started earlier this past week. It was reported that many within TNA had been under the impression that Jeff would be returning soon to the company but they were not informed of the actual plans for his return prior to June 14th. TNA officials reportedly recently have held talks regarding the potential of Matt’s wife Reby working a match in the company but it is currently not known if this idea would come to fruition. In regards to The Hardys departures from AEW, it was reported that while it is currently not known if there have been any recent extended talks between the two sides, the door was stated to remain open for The Hardys to return to AEW in the future.
TNA officials reportedly were thrilled with the performance of their Against All Odds 2024 event this past Friday in Cicero, Illinois, according to PWInsider.
Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the past 14 weeks of shows for the #150 ranked show on Thursdays had drawn a 0.01 rating meaning 7,000 to 18,000 viewers in the key demographic. Meltzer reported that this meant that TNA’s Impact! during this time period drew less than those numbers for their key demographic viewership for shows due to them failing to rank even once in the Top 150 shows. Meltzer reported that in one instance, a non-TNA show managed to rank in the Top 150 despite only generating an overall viewership of 26,000 meaning TNA’s key demographic viewership was extremely low that night.
PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that the fire marshal for Cicero Stadium had informed TNA officials that the attendance for their Against All Odds 2024 event this past Friday was so packed that they could not allow any walk-ups into the building for fire code safety reasons. Johnson reported that the reason was due to TNA had sold out the venue well in advance and there was no way to accommodate extra fans for the event.
In a recent interview with the Gabby AF podcast, Joe Hendry gave his thoughts about a potential collaboration with WWE’s New Day as part of TNA and WWE’s current talent crossover partnership. Hendry stated “I would love to do something with the New Day. I’ve met Xavier Woods once before, great guy. We had a very brief conversation recently, an enthusiastic conversation about maybe collaborating or something. Again, I’ve got to do things the right way. There’s intellectual property in place, I don’t want to just poop something out there and infringe on that. I want to make sure that what we’re doing, we’re being professional. We can have fun and push the boundaries a little bit, there’s some mentions here and maybe I can post a few things and all that, but when you’re actually releasing a song or something like that, I gotta make sure I’m doing things the right way.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
Saturday’s Hit Em Up event for Game Changer Wrestling in Los Angeles, California featured Blake Christian making a surprise return appearance. During the GCW World Championship between Joey Janela and champion Mance Warner, Christian ran out and attacked both men and the referee and unzipped his jacket revealing he still has his GCW World title and held up Warner’s GCW World title teasing a future champion vs. champion match for the real GCW World title. Christian had been stripped of the GCW World title this past May due to him being unavailable for GCW due to his New Japan commitments leading to Warner cashing in his Do or Die title shot against Joey Janela at GCW’s Cage of Survival 3 event earlier this month to become the new GCW World Champion.
Stardom reportedly drew a paid attendance of 655 for their June 8th event in Nagoya, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
All Japan Pro Wrestling reportedly drew a paid attendance of 657 for their June 8th Super Power Series 2024 event in Kissei and 573 for their June 9th Super Power Series 2024 event in Gifu, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Pro Wrestling NOAH reportedly drew a paid attendance of 938 for their June 9th Star Navigation 2024 event in Tokyo, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling reportedly drew 707 for their June 9th PRISM ’24 event in Tokyo, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre reportedly drew an attendance of over 10,000 for their June 7th Super Viernes event in Mexico City and around 5,000 for their June 8th co-promoted A La Conquista event with Barba Produccion in Saltillo, Mexico, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

Wrestling TV Ratings for Week of June 7 to June 13, 2024

WWE Friday Night SmackDown – 2,207,000 viewers, 0.61 rating (prior week – 2,310,000 viewers, 0.64 rating)
WWE RAW – 1,609,000 viewers, 0.50 rating (prior week – 1,679,000 viewers, 0.53 rating)
WWE NXT – 718,000 viewers, 0.22 rating (prior week – 768,000 viewers, 0.22 rating)
AEW Rampage – 256,000 viewers, 0.09 rating (prior week – 255,000 viewers, 0.09 rating)
AEW Collision – 388,000 viewers, 0.13 rating (prior week – 378,000 viewers, 0.11 rating)
AEW Dynamite – 681,000 viewers, 0.23 rating (prior week – 790,000 viewers, 0.28 rating)
TNA Wrestling Impact! – N/A (prior week – N/A)
Various – Biography: WWE Legends (A&E) – N/A (prior week – 288,000 viewers, 0.08 rating)
Various – Who Killed WCW? (VICE) – 117,000 viewers, 0.02 rating (prior week – 138,000 viewers, 0.03 rating)

Total wrestling television viewership for the week: 5,976,000 viewers, down 630,000 viewers from the prior week’s 6,606,000 viewers.

The viewership and ratings numbers for the June 6th and June 13th TNA Impact! shows is currently not known.

A&E did not air a new episode of Biography: WWE Legends on June 9th due to WWE’s NXT Battleground 2024 event taking place that same night.