Weekend Roundup: Update on FOX Censoring of 6/27 WWE SmackDown Show, Will Ospreay, Tony Khan Considering New AEW Injury Report Show & Talks with WBD Update, MJF, Dijak, WOS Wrestling Revival Update, Indies

Ricky Havlik MJF Garcia Segment Buffalo, NY AEW Dynamite June 26, 2024

Indie / Misc

Steve C.

Jun 30, 2024

WWE

WWE announced one new match for the card of this Monday’s WWE RAW show in Boston, Massachusetts. This is a singles match of Xavier Woods vs. Karrion Kross.
Saturday’s UFC 303 event in Paradise, Nevada featured Shinsuke Namakura making a special appearance. Nakamura came out with Rei Tsuruya to be in his corner for his MMA fight against Carlos Hernandez, which was won by Tsuruya. In a post-fight backstage interview, Nakamura stated that he is good friends with Tsuruya’s father and it was Tsuruya’s father who asked him if he would be in the corner for his son’s debut fight in UFC. Nakamura stated that he accepted the request since he felt it was a honor to do. (Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com)
This past Friday’s WWE SmackDown show at Madison Square Garden in New City, New York was notable for WWE’s broadcast network FOX’s repeated usage of blacking out the screen and muting the audio throughout the show due to issues related to crowd chants. Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that there was a lot of frustration behind-the-scenes due to the very frequent black screen edits done by FOX throughout the show. One veteran WWE talent spoken to stated “It’s a chore to watch sometimes. I understand censoring ‘f— the Pacers,’ but it feels like every segment is edited and it makes us look like it’s our production.”
In regards to FOX’s censorship decision for this past Friday’s WWE SmackDown show, the Wrestling Observer Dave Meltzer reported in Sunday’s Daily Update that FOX officials have recently decided to crack down on anything offensive that takes place during SmackDown shows on their network. Meltzer reported that TBS officials recently decided to crack down on the usage of vulgar language on AEW Dynamite shows on their network but in regards to promos and not crowd chants or anything else.
Fightful Select reported that there were several “We Want Dijak” chants in the crowd throughout this past Friday’s SmackDown show in Madison Square Garden.
Omos recently launched a YouTube channel called The Giant Connoisseur. Omos also released the first video for his new channel giving his top ten choices of summer fragrances for 2024.
In a recent interview with Fightful, former WWE talent Dijak gave his thoughts about his second run in WWE’s NXT brand. Dijak stated “It was such an extraordinary run. Obviously, there were times where, like any talent, you get internally frustrated because I was having lots of feuds that ended with me losing. I’m the last person that cares about wins and losses. I’ve never complained about losses or booking. There is just an association in WWE where if you lose, you tend to vanish off TV. That’s what happens creatively. If you’re winning, you get championships, and if you’re a champion, you’re always on TV. I was always of the mind of, I always want to be on TV as much as possible and wrestling. There were stretches in the NXT run where I’d be off because I lost a big feud. Ilja beat me so I was off. There were a few PLEs in a row in 2023 that I wasn’t on. I wasn’ the happiest camper in the world, but I was thankful for the TV time and presentation. In the back of my mind, I was like, ‘Keep killing it. Once you get to the main roster, they have to use you. You’ll have to be a main player. They’ll look at you and say he did everything we asked and put guys over. He’s our guy and we’re going with him.’ That was not meant to be.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
As noted before, longtime WWE creative writer John Swikata was recently promoted as the new lead writer for WWE’s SmackDown brand. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that while former SmackDown lead writer Ryan Callahan was considered as being a very talented writer, he was not well liked by many within WWE. Callahan reportedly took heat over former WWE writer Jennifer Pepperman leaving the company for AEW despite her departure was believed to be more due to AEW’s signing of Mercedes Mone and Mone getting her a job in the company. WWE talent reportedly had issues with Callhan revolving around him being someone who was hard to reach within the company after a while. Those spoken to reportedly stated that Callahan was feeling burned out from the pressure of the job and dealing with the diplomacy needed for the position. Those spoken to reportedly also stated that the current belief was Callahan just wanted to write the shows and not be a guy working to get along with everyone. In regards to Swikata, Meltzer reported that he is someone who is very well respected by the top talent and other writers and someone who does not “rock the boat” when it comes to his interactions with others.
WWE reportedly generated a final cable television pay-per-view buys number of around 6,300 for this May’s King & Queen of the Ring 2024 event, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
WWE reportedly also has generated around 4,500 cable television PPV buys for their Clash at the Castle 2024 event on June 15th based on updated late buys purchases, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Dave Meltzer reported that Clash at the Castle 2024’s current PPV buys is around 17.5% lower than what King & Queen of the Ring 2024 generated after the same amount of days after the event.
WWE reportedly drew an attendance of 14,698 for their June 21st SmackDown show in Chicago, IL, 4,305 for their June 22nd house show event in Bloomington, IL, 4,278 for their June 23rd house show event in Kalamazoo MI, and 11,316 for their June 24th RAW show in Indianapolis, IN, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
WWE reportedly has sold around 9,994 tickets for their July 1st RAW show in Boston, MA, 14,972 tickets for their July 5th SmackDown show in Toronto, 16,659 tickets for their July 6th Money In The Bank 2024 event in Toronto, 8,104 tickets for their July 7thn NXT Heatwave 2024 event in Toronto, Canada, 7,077 tickets for their July 8th RAW show in Ottawa, Canada, 6,105 tickets for their July 12th SmackDown show in Worcester, MA, 5,734 tickets for their July 15th RAW show in Dayton, OH, 7,444 tickets for their July 19th SmackDown show in Omaha, NW, 5,053 tickets for their July 22nd RAW show in Green Bay, WI, 9,980 tickets for their July 29th RAW show in St. Paul, MN, 46,195 tickets for their Aug. 3rd SummerSlam 2024 event in Cleveland, OH, 7,110 tickets for their Aug. 5th RAW show in Baltimore, MD, 6,985 tickets for their Aug. 9th SmackDown show in Tulsa, OK, 10,881 tickets for their Aug. 12th RAW show in Austin, TX, 7,563 tickets for their Aug. 16th SmackDown show in Orlando, FL, 2,539 tickets for Aug. 17th house show event in Lakeland, FL, 3,052 tickets for their Aug. 18th house show event in Estero, FL, and 8,710 tickets for their Aug. 23rd SmackDown show in Washington, D.C. as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

AEW & ROH

AEW reportedly has sold and distributed around 10,184 tickets for Sunday’s AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2024 event at the UBS Arena in Long Island, NY as of this afternoon, according to WrestleTix.
Will Ospreay announced on Twitter that he is dedicating his match against Swerve Strickland for the AEW World Championship at tonight’s AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2024 event to his late grandmother who passed away this past week. Ospreay stated “Being honest with you guys, I don’t know why I want to do this video, but I feel the need to get this off my chest. It’s been such an overwhelming week for me. I’ve got about an hour away to go over to the UBS Arena for Forbidden Door. It’ll be my first pay-per-view main event with myself and Swerve Strickland fighting for the world title. It’s been such an overwhelming week. Tuesday, I landed in America and I was given the news that my Nan passed away, and it’s the first time I’ve ever lost a family member. It’s all been such an emotional week. It’s a sense of relief as well because my Nan was in so much pain, so for her to now be at peace is good, but it still doesn’t stop the hurting. Having everybody backstage and everyone on my phone to have that amazing support system, I can’t begin to tell you guys how lucky I am to have that support. If there’s something I can [to anyone going to the arena that is currently watching the video], save some of that energy because I’m gonna need it. This has been one of the hardest weeks of my entire life, just to be able to keep all of this in. I bottled everything up and now it’s all coming here. It’s all here right in front of me. For the first time, I’m going for the world title in the UBS Arena. I can’t begin to thank AEW, my family, my friends, and everybody for this incredible support system that I’ve had, and to be trusted in the main event. I think this is the first time I’ve been in the main event with a million-dollar gate, it just makes me happy that all that hard work is paying off. So if you guys are in attendance or you guys are watching, send me your good vibes, send me all the love that you got. This one’s for all my family and for my Nan. Love all you guys so much, I hope I don’t let you guys down, and hopefully, by the end of the night, I’ll be the first-ever AEW International and World Champion. Thank you so much guys, god bless you all. Take care.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
AEW recently released their Countdown to Forbidden Door 2024 special on their YouTube channel.
Saturday’s taped AEW Collision show featured AEW talent EJ Nduka making a surprise appearance as part of Swerve Strickland’s posse for his AEW World Championship weigh-in segment with Will Ospreay.
In a recent interview with the Wrestling Observer Radio, AEW CEO Tony Khan stated that he has been considering the idea of launching a new AEW injury report show but knows there would be times where he would not be able to give away too much information. Khan stated “Sometimes it’s because people have private medical situations. Sometimes I don’t want to give out too much info about what is happening with somebody. Sometimes we probably, to your point, could communicate it more clearly. I’ve been thinking about doing an injury report show and I had some different thoughts on it, about doing something like talking about the injury report for social media. And I think the most important thing is making sure people are comfortable. I don’t want to talk too much about people’s injuries if they don’t want me to but some of them are in the context of a wrestling match. Some injuries people might not want to talk about it. There are some things where people are very sensitive about the injuries that they’ve had to overcome. Sometimes it’s not a positive memory, these injuries can be a really painful memory for the wrestlers. But to your point, there are probably times that I could communicate it better, we should communicate it differently.” (Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com)
During the same interview, Tony Khan also gave his thoughts about the current status of the talks between AEW and Warner Bros Discovery for a potential new television deal, Khan stated “I’m having great talks with Warner Bros. Discovery and as a group, our business side, really, we’ve done a lot of work. I think we’ve had a lot of great meetings and we feel like we’re in a really, really good place…The distribution of our shows is going to be a great situation, I promise. We’re going to make a great deal for AEW.” Khan also gave his thoughts about AEW’s current exclusivity window with WBD. Khan stated “Mr. Zaslav [WBD’s Chief Executive Officer] has been tremendous with us and I really value that relationship and the history we have here. So right now, all of our property is on Warner Bros. Discovery, except for our pay-per-view business, which is relatively agnostic right now…I think there are a lot of potential models for that going forward too. So that’s something to talk about. It’s yet to be determined what parts of AEW programming will be here [at WBD] and I love having everything here in terms of the TV and having a lot of different options for streaming, but potentially all these things are on the table going forward … There’s a lot of things to be talked about. In addition to Max, obviously, a lot of people are talking about Venu Sports [a streaming service to be operated as a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company, Fox Corporation, and Warner Bros. Discovery]…So there’s a lot of really interesting, exciting things. But what’s really cool is I don’t think that Warner Bros. has had such a hands-on boss who has overseen the studios like this since Ted Turner was here…You know, there is a supreme commander at the top of Warner Bros. Discovery and he loves AEW. And I have a great relationship with him. And I think it’s going to go a long way towards really keeping something that’s very important to me alive, which is wrestling on TBS and TNT. That’s a really good thing for the company to have he support of the head of the studio, one of the top, most powerful people in Hollywood who loves AEW, loves what we’re doing, and has gotten a look under the hood of AEW also very publicly. It’s not a secret that they also seen what WWE is doing, have analyzed it and done the comps. And I think there’s a very glass-half-full story to that, which is they stuck with us, and they want to be with us. And they had a chance to make a deal with someone else and they didn’t. And, you know, so that’s really something I think that’s very important because when you look at the money that’s being spent on media rights and what’s out there, I think AEW, we provided great value for the dollar and I think we’ll continue to provide great value.” Khan also gave his thoughts about AEW’s crucial Males 18-34 viewership for their shows had weaken in recent times. Khan stated “Most shows would kill for our 18 to 34. They would. And I want to continue, you know, building. I think that having MJF back in recent weeks is going to be very good. Jon Moxley, you know, I’m excited about the summer schedule. He’s defending the IWGP world title, but I have a lot of dates on Jon Moxley in the summer…Mox is somebody who’s moved the needle big time. And then of course we have other great stars like Kenny Omega, Adam Cole, Hangman … I think the most important key point is that for us, we’ve had historically really strong numbers and maintain really, really strong numbers in TV. And that is the thing we need to do is keep doing what we’re doing because the numbers we have are numbers people in TV would kill to have.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)
In a recent interview with Sports Illustrated, Bryan Danielson gave his thoughts about his upcoming match against Shingo Takagi at Sunday’s Forbidden Door 2024 event. Danielson stated “What really excites me about this is how much we’ve both developed as wrestlers since then 2010. If you go through what Shingo has done since leaving Dragon Gate, he went to NJPW, the biggest company in Japan, he won the IWGP junior championship, and then he moved to heavyweight and won the IWGP heavyweight championship. When he’s wrestling, I’m watching.“
During the same interview, Bryan Danielson also gave his thoughts about his currently belief that he does not think being a potential AEW World Champion is the right position for him anymore nor would it be the best thing for his body’s health. Danielson stated “I don’t want to be in that [world champion] position–I don’t feel like that’s my position anymore. The quality of wrestling in AEW is so high, it’s really hard to main-event pay-per-views. That’s not something my body can really do anymore. I know there are a percentage of fans who would like that, but I don’t think it’s my place. And here’s the truth: I don’t want anything to do creatively with my own stuff. I also don’t know where people get the notion that I do. It’s very hard in wrestling to be objective about yourself, so I leave that in the hands of other people.“
NHL legend Doug Gilmour recently received a pair of Brodie Lee themed Reebok sneakers from Lee’s widow Amanda Huber. Gilmour was one of Lee’s favorite NHL players. Gilmour reflected on Twitter about the gift stating “WWE- AEW Brodie Lee (Johathan Huber) sadly passed away in 2020. Yesterday I received one of the most meaningful gifts from his wife @mandahuber. A pair of Reebok shoes dedicated to him with my number also included. It was no secret this man was a fan of hockey and The Toronto Maple Leafs. I will forever treasure this gift!“
MJF recently responded on Twitter telling people to stop sending him photos of WWE’s Tama Tonga’s new MFT shirt that was shown on Friday’s WWE SmackDown show that looks very similar to his own “MJF” stylized shirt. MJF stated “Stop sending me photos of the shirt. We get it.” In a bit of a comedic moment, MJF also responded to a tweet from WrestleTalk who had reported about MJF’s reactions to Tonga’s new shirt stating “I just took a shit. Do you want to report that too?” This led to Fightful releasing a report in tongue in cheek manner about MJF taking a shit and Joey Janela responding on Twitter saying that he took one took which Fightful obliged and updated their report to include Janela’s bathroom usage.
In a recent interview with TMZ Sports, Mercedes Mone gave her thoughts about if she currently has creative control in AEW. Mone stated “I feel like here at AEW, all of my dreams and opportunity is just endless. So, of course, being the TBS champion and this Sunday at Forbidden Door, I’m about to be two-time champion. I’m going to be the TBS champion and the New Japan Strong Champion. So, yes, this little creativity that I have of taking all the belts and going global is beautiful.” In response to a question to confirm or deny if he had creative control in AEW, Mone stated “I mean, because I got this. I think just every single week you got to watch. Yes, I have creative control, but I work with Tony Khan very closely. So it’s great. It’s a great combo.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
In a recent interview with Q1043 New York, Mercedes Mone gave her thoughts about her upcoming match against Stephanie Vaquer at Forbidden Door 2024. Mone stated “We’re not friends. I’ve only met her one time last year. I had a match with her last year. And we were in a tournament for the New Japan Strong title, the title that she’s holding,and just instantly we had just an amazing chemistry. She is from Chile, but she lives in Mexico. She works for CMLL in New Japan, pro wrestling. She is legit one of the top wrestlers in the world. So I cannot wait. wait to tear down the house with her this Sunday.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
In a recent interview with Fightful, former WWE talent Dijak gave his thoughts if he was against the idea of ever working for AEW during his time in NXT. Dijak stated “People have this funny idea in their head that I hate AEW and that I was this WWE shill, which is not the case. I was very protective of NXT when I was part of it, which ironically is most of AEW at this point. Black & Gold just shifted over brands to AEW. If people were talking shit about NXT, I would give it right back because I’m always going to feel that way about myself and the people I’m surrounded with and associated with. If you look at the AEW roster, I’ve wrestled probably 80% of them between Ring of Honor and NXT Black & Gold. That’s most of the roster. All these people are my friends. At no point was I against the idea (of AEW).” Dijak also gave his thoughts about his brief online feud with Kenny Omega in 2019. Dijak stated “I clarified this in a tweet. Kenny and I, as far as I know, we have no animosity towards one another. When that happen, he made the initial statement. I don’t know if it was a work or a shoot. It doesn’t bother me either way. I heard the interview or saw the transcription, and he was taking shots at a roster that I was part of. So, I took shots back because that’s what I’ll always do. I don’t care if Vince McMahon took a shot at me. I would tweet at Vince McMahon. If someone comes at me, I’m always going to defend myself and it will always be lighthearted. I have the utmost respect for Kenny and everyone else in AEW. I have never said otherwise. He’s one of the best wrestlers in the world and I respect him, Cody, and everyone who created AEW. I will never change my viewpoint. I will also never back down from an altercation.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
In recent interview with Bodyslam.net, Deonna Purrazzo gave her thoughts about AEW’s Women’s division and how it can improve by just giving it the time needed to tell stories and let it breathe. Purrazzo stated “Yeah I think that’s what every women’s division needs… is time to tell these stories and let them breathe and let fans pick who they like and don’t like and and then do fun things like, you know, just qualification match or add different stipulations to it. I think that then there’s also, you know, we’re dealing with the Owen Hart Foundation Tournament right now and that is an opportunity to wrestle for the world championship at All In and there’s so many pieces going on in our division right now. That’s what makes a successful division is you have your stories with the champion. You have Toni Storm and Mina coming up at Forbidden Door. But then you also have this, like, underlying who’s Mariah going to pick story happening. You have Mercedes Mone and Stephanie Vaquer wrestling at Forbidden Door. And going back and forth to CMLL, like, there’s just so much. Then you have me and Thunder. Total non-storyline happening. You have the Owen happening, like… That’s what you want to see in a women’s division. That’s a women’s division you want to be a part of. If you can’t be in the world title, you can be doing something else, building your stock to get to the world title and so I’m just, again, so grateful to be on any show, doing anything, working with anyone, and continuing to build my stock and introduce myself to this new audience.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
AEW reportedly is currently estimated to have an annual talent salary of around $104 million based on data from recent AEW tax credits forms, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Dave Meltzer reported that one person spoken to familiar with AEW’s budgeting process stated that the way AEW pays their talent is some includes per match figures and all the highest paid available top stars were working that weekend and the usual weekly pay is below that figure. Meltzer reported that this would indicate that AEW’s actual total salary expenses for their roster would less than $104 million but not a lot below it. Meltzer speculated that AEW likely would need a new television deal worth around at least $125 million per year in order to break even on talent and other costs. Meltzer also reported that AEW’s talent share of the revenue is estimated to be around 50-55% which would make it one of the highest ever for a wrestling company in wrestling history. Meltzer reported that the usual range is around 8% to 40% but the latter being super rare and the real upper limit is much closer to 15-20%. In regards to comparisons with sports leagues and others, Meltzer reported that the English Premier League is around 71%, MLB is 54%, NBA and NHL are 50%, NFL is 48%, UFC is 17%, and WWE is under 20%.
Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that AEW officials currently have major plans for Bryan Danielson as he closes in on his active in-ring career retirement with the idea of him regrouping from the losses earlier in the year.
AEW reportedly drew an attendance of 2,951 for their June 20th Collision show in Allentown, PA and 4,117 for their June 26th Dynamite and Collision shows in Buffalo, NY, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
AEW reportedly has sold around 2,758 tickets for their July 3rd Dynamite show in Chicago, IL, 1,612 tickets for their July 6th Collision show in Southaven, MS, 3,003 tickets for their July 10th Dynamite show in Calgary, Canada, 1,580 tickets for their July 17th Dynamite show in Little Rock, AR, 623 tickets for their July 20th Collision show in Arlington, TX, 2,546 tickets for their Dynamite Blood & Guts 2024 event in Nashville, TN, 785 tickets for their July 27th Collision show in Arlington, TX, 1,344 tickets for their July 31st Dynamite show in Greenville, SC, 318 tickets for their Aug. 1st Collision show in Arlington, TX, 1,209 tickets for their Aug. 7th Dynamite show in Winston-Salem, NC, 318 tickets for their Aug. 17th Collision show in Arlington, TX, and 41,415 tickets for their Aug. 25th All In 2024 at Wembley Stadium in London, England as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Ring of Honor reportedly has sold around 665 tickets for their July 26th Death Before Dishonor 2024 event at the Esports Stadium Arlington in Arlington, TX as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

TNA, NJPW, Indies, & Misc. Wrestling

As noted before, New Japan Pro Wrestling announced this past April that they would be fully acquiring Bushiroad Fight Co. Ltd., parent company of Stardom, from their own parent company Bushiroad Inc. and that this process would be completed in late June. Stardom recently provided an update on Twitter confirming that NJPW’s acquisition of Bushiroad Fight was officially completed on June 28th and they are now a subsidiary of NJPW going forward.
Saturday’s event for Stardom in Tokyo, Japan featured NJPW President Hiroshi Tanahashi making an appearance. During the show, Tanahashi spoke to the crowd and gave his thoughts about Stardom now being a subsidiary of New Japan. Tanahashi stated “Today, I was officially able to make an address in front of the fans of STARDOM. Essentially, STARDOM and New Japan shows will continue to run as they have previously. But there are places where we can work with each other, such as with promotional work and interviews. I’m going over the to the USA, where men’s and women’s wrestling are traditionally both represented equally in companies. I’ll be working with President Okada to make sure that the event can be enjoyed by everyone.” (English translation via Fightful.com)
Stardom reportedly drew a paid attendance of 1,652 for their June 22nd The Conversion event in Tokyo, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. This event was notable for Queen’s Quest disbanding as a group following their loss to Oedo Tai in a 10-Women Tag Team Elimination match where the losing team had to break up.
NJPW reportedly drew a paid attendance of 1,071 for their June 22nd New Japan Soul 2024 event in Fukishima, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre reportedly drew a paid attendance of 15,000 for their June 21st NJPW x CMLL Fantasticamania Mexico 2024 event in Mexico City, and 5,100 for their June 22nd Sabados De Coliseo event in Mexico City, Mexico, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
As noted before, Chris Jericho made a surprise appearance at this past Friday’s CMLL Super Viernes event in Mexico City and challenged Mistico to a match. The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer reported in Sunday’s Daily Update that his sources stated that despite the CMLL announcers stating that this match would be taking place on the July 5th Super Viernes event, CMLL officials currently do not have plans for that match to take place on that date.
Saturday’s The 6th Annual Luau event for Blitzkrieg Pro in Enfield, Connecticut featured former WWE talent Dijak making a surprise appearance. Following CPA defeating TJ Crawford to become the new B!P Bedlam Champion, the locker room came out to celebrate. During the celebration, a mystery man in a mask came out as well and joined in leading to everyone being confused over who this person was. This mystery person removed their mask revealing himself to be Dijak and proceeded to lay out everyone in the ring. Dijak then looked at the Bedlam title. This was Dijak’s first wrestling appearance since his departure from WWE this past Friday.
Prestige Wrestling announced that Dijak will be making his official debut appearance for the company at their co-promoted Roseland 9 event with Deadlock Pro Wrestling and West Coast Pro on September 29th in Portland, Oregon.
Saturday’s event for DDT Pro Wrestling in a streetcar on the Toden Arakawa Line in Tokyo, Japan featured Minoru Suzuki defeating Sanshiro Takagi in a Streetcar match. This match featured NJPW legend Jushin Thunder Liger, Meiko Satomura, and current Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike among the guests who made special appearances throughout the match.
Reality of Wrestling announced one new match for the card of their Revolution Rising 2024 event on July 13th in Texas City, Texas. This is a ROH Champion Oro Mensah vs. Eddie Stone (c).
The National Wrestling Alliance announced that they recently signed NWA talents Colby Corino, Natalia Markova, Bryan Idol, and Spencer Slade to new “exclusive” contracts with the company. The terms of these new deals does not allow Corino, Markova, Idol, and Slade to work for other promotions with televised shows without the NWA’s permission first but does allow them to continue working in the indies.
The NWA also announced that they have also recently signed NWA talent Max The Impalier to a new long-term contract with the company.
As noted before, World of Sports Wrestling will be relaunching this September. Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that the reason why WOS Wrestling will not be airing on their old television home of ITV as part of its relaunch plans is due to the network’s current television deal with AEW. This reportedly was the reason for the company’s decision to air their shows on streaming and social media platforms instead. Those spoken to reportedly stated that the reason why the company will now be known as WOS Wrestling instead of its full name of “World of Sport Wrestling” is due to trademark-related legal issues. British indie talent reportedly have expressed their excitement over WOS’ upcoming return while some have also been concerned that this could end up leading to WWE launching their much delayed NXT Europe brand in response should WOS secure a television deal.
In a recent interview with Fightful, Dark Side of the Ring and Who Killed WCW? series producer Evan Husney gave his thoughts about the potential of creating more wrestling-based shows similar to the Who Killed WCW? docuseries. Husney stated “Oh, absolutely. There’s definitely more ‘Dark Side of the Ring’ episodes that we would love to do, that we’re actively looking into. There’s other wrestling promotions in the past that I think had, not quite the same fate as WCW, but a similar fate, where there is a lot of finger-pointing and what happened. I think looking the business side of certain promotions would be very cool to see examine, sort of off the heels of this show. Already, we’ve gotten DMs, we’ve gotten text messages from people like, ‘Oh my god, ECW would be interesting to look at, TNA would be interesting to look at,’ and things like that. So who knows?” In response to comments from Sean Ross Sapp about VICE TV having the ability to get information that’s never been out before, Husney stated “Yeah, totally, and voices who have never spoken on these types of subjects and stuff like that. So yeah, it would be awesome to keep going. We always appreciate that, and he’s cool to see that the show has been performing well and that the network is happy and everyone’s happy. That’s always a good thing because you never know.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
Revolution Pro Wrestling recently announced one new match for the card of their 12 Year Anniversary Show on August 24th in London, England. This is a RevPro Undisputed British Women’s Championship match of Stephanie Vaquer vs. Dani Luna (c).
Game Changer Wrestling recently announced one new match for the card of their Now And Forever 2024 event on August 2nd in Cleveland, Ohio. This is a singles match of Zilla Fatua vs. Joshua Bishop.
Pro Wrestling NOAH recently released a trailer for the upcoming AJ Styles vs. Naomichi Marufuji match at their Destination 2024 event on July 13th in Tokyo, Japan.
In a recent episode of The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy podcast, co-host Matt Hardy gave his thoughts about being back in the ring together with his brother Jeff Hardy in TNA Wrestling. Hardy stated “Teaming with Jeff is a lot easier than riding a bike. Teaming with Jeff is instinctual at this point … It’s gonna be very, very rewarding, in many ways. Just to remind people just who we are because sometimes they forget about it. If you’re somewhere and you don’t feel like you’re being optimized, you’re not being used to your maximum potential and you do get to go somewhere where you can perform to your maximum potential, sometimes you just have to [remind] people, this is who we are, and this is where we’re at in our life. I have had so much great feedback about my match with Moose at Against All Odds. Jeff Hardy just returning, got a ton of buzz on that, you’ve got the Hardy Boyz back together, the GOATs. We’re excited to show that we are the GOATs and we are deserving of that title. Our ultimate goal here is to win those TNA World Tag Team Titles and have an amazing run and just make people remember who we are.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
Lucha Libre AAA reportedly drew an attendance of 5,400 for their June 22nd Origenes event in Mexico City, Mexico, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
All Japan Pro Wrestling reportedly drew a paid attendance of 1,235 for their June 24th Dynamite Series 2024 event in Tokyo, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Marigold reportedly drew a paid attendance of 289 for their June 23rd Grand Opening Wars 2024 event in Tokyo, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

Wrestling TV Ratings for Week of June 21 to June 27, 2024

WWE Friday Night SmackDown – 2,336,000 viewers, 0.73 rating (prior week – 1,959,000 viewers, 0.52 rating)
WWE RAW – 1,814,000 viewers, 0.61 rating (prior week – 1,747,000 viewers, 0.55 rating)
WWE NXT – 611,000 viewers, 0.18 rating (prior week – 724,000 viewers, 0.26 rating)
AEW Rampage – 328,000 viewers, 0.12 rating (prior week – 334,000 viewers, 0.12 rating)
AEW Collision – 429,000 viewers, 0.14 rating (prior week – 431,000 viewers, 0.13 rating)
AEW Dynamite – 680,000 viewers, 0.22 rating (prior week – 502,000 viewers, 0.16 rating)
TNA Wrestling Impact! – N/A (prior week – N/A)
Various – Biography: WWE Legends (A&E) – 229,000 viewers, 0.07 rating (prior week – 230,000 viewers, 0.05 rating)
Various – Who Killed WCW? (VICE) – 124,000 viewers, 0.05 rating (prior week – 148,000 viewers, 0.06 rating)

Total wrestling television viewership for the week: 6,551,000 viewers, up 476,000 viewers from the prior week’s 6,075,000 viewers.

The viewership and ratings numbers for the June 20th and June 27th TNA Impact! shows are currently not known.