Here's your wrestling news for July 30th 2021
And your headlines for today include
Major Update On Brock Lesnar’s Status With AEW!
WWE Reports Q2 2021 Results; Vince McMahon Destroys AEW! Drops AEW Bombshell On WWE Releases!
How AEW Went Ahead With A Bloody Death Match On Dynamite On TV? Were ‘Gimmicked’ Weapons Used During
Chris Jericho vs Nick Gage Blood Bath?
Chris Jericho Likely To Debut With A NEW Character In AEW!
Why Domino’s Pizza Threatend To Pull Ads From AEW TV Following Nick Gage – Chris Jericho Match!
WWE NXT Fan Says He Was Removed From TV Taping By Security, Tony Khan Comments! And More
We’re kicking off today with AEW, who have reportedly signed Daniel Bryan and CM Punk, with the pair expected to debut this September.
The signing of Punk and Bryan has shown that nobody is off limits to Tony Khan, so it should come as no surprise that rumours
are circulating that Brock Lesnar is the next AEW signing. These rumours began when a post on the
Wrestling Observer Newsletter message- board said that the Beat had signed with a wrestling company outside of WWE
and this message came from what’s being called a “reliable 20-year source.”
With Tony Khan at the helm, AEW is probably the only non-WWE promotion that could afford the Beast, but fans shouldn’t expect
to see him on Dynamite just yet.
On the Mat-Men Podcast, Andrew Zarian put the rumours to bed saying:
I can tell you right now that Brock Lesnar has not signed with AEW. They have spoken maybe once in passing, nothing
serious whatsoever. Everybody that I asked about this they laughed. That’s all I know. I can only tell you what they’ve said to me.
I also know that Dave (Meltzer) said that it is not true, Brock has not already signed with AEW.”
Zarian also clarified that Brock isn’t signed to WWE either, but said that WWE wants him, and added that the company was “beyond
stupid” to let him go. Brock hasn’t been seen in WWE since WrestleMania 36, despite persistent
rumours of him returning to the company, but for now, the former Universal Champion remains wrestling’s hottest free agent.
Even without Brock Lesnar, the WWE continues to make money, and this week, the company released their 2021 Second
Quarter earnings report, which was good news all around. The company’s second quarter revenue is
265.6 million, a 19% increase from Q2 2020, and this was thanks to the increased monetization of content.
Costs are also down, as it’s set WWE back $46.3 million to run in the second quarter of 2021, a 17% decrease from the previous year.
A large chunk of that 46.3 million, is severance expenses, as WWE have paid a total $8.1 million in this quarter to recently fired talent
and employees. Digital video views increased by 13% to a record 11.2 billion views in this quarter alone,
which equated to 394 million hours of content being streamed, an increase of 5%.
As WWE continues on the road to normalcy, the company is still boasting some of it’s best earnings in history, which makes the decision
to release Superstars due to budget cuts all the more interesting.
It was during this financial report that Vince McMahon spoke to investors, and the chairman had a lot to say about AEW.
During the call, one caller noted the investments AEW is making in it’s roster, and it’s ongoing viewership successes in
the crucial 18-49 demographic. Asking McMahon how he views AEW as competition, and whether WWE needs to
counter AEW’s investments with some roster investments of their own, the Chairman refuted the idea that the All-Elite
promotion is competition, saying: “Well, it certainly is not a situation where ‘rising tides’ because that was when Ted
Turner was coming after us with all of Time Warner’s assets as well,” Vince responded. “That was a different
situation. AEW is where they are. I don’t really know what their plans are, all I know is what our plans are.
“I don’t consider them competition in the way that I would consider WCW back in the day, not anywhere near close to that. And
I’m not so sure what their investments are as far as their talent is concerned, but perhaps we can give them some more.”
That last line was especially interesting, as it implies WWE isn’t done releasing talent yet, but McMahon didn’t elaborate on
who could be on the chopping block. Before he could elaborate, WWE President and Chief Revenue Officer Nick Khan
interjected, saying how WWE sees everything as competition, even sleep:
“I think the way we always look at these situations, you know, it’s sort of like a horse race where the horse has blinders on,”
Khan added. “We’re looking straight ahead at our lane and making sure that we stay in the front of the pack. At the same time,
everything is our competition. Someone had a line a couple of weeks ago, that we all chuckled at and agreed with – sleep is our
competition. Right? “If it was up to us, people could be up 24 hours a day, watching content from
different content providers, hopefully including ours. So, we don’t look at any organization particularly as
competition, yet we see everything as competitive with what we’re trying to do, in terms of eyeballs.”
WWE’s Q2 reports were good news for the company, despite the threat of AEW, and whether WWE sees them as
competition or not, Vince McMahon’s sports-entertainment juggernaut will continue to make serious money
Speaking of AEW, this week’s Fight for the Fallen show saw Chris Jericho face Nick Gage in a bloody spectacle full of
dangerous toys, that saw Jericho get the win. This match wasn’t something AEW wanted to blindside TNT with, as during Wrestling
Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer reported that Tony Khan spoke to TNT prior to the match
Khan decided to let TNT know just how violent the match was going to be, and even asked permission to have the match
take place on the show. Meltzer added that it’s not an issue where AEW is gonna get kicked off the air, despite
the use of weapons including broken glass, a Pizza cutter and light tubes. This week’s match was especially violent,
even by AEW’s standards, but fans can rest easy knowing that AEW’s position with TNT isn’t in jeopardy.
This week’s match was one of the most violent in AEW’s history, but the match was actually far safer than you’d think from
looking at it. Many fans were worried about the use of light-tubes, as they contain a powder that
is very dangerous if it gets in your lungs. During Wrestling Observer Live, Bryan Alverez said how AEW gimmicked the
the weapons, and removed the powder from the light tubes before the match. Alverez added that the Pizza cutter was
also gimmicked to make it less dangerous, but that didn’t stop Jericho from bleeding profusely in the match.
AEW promised a no rules match on this week’s show, and delivered in a big way, and whilst Gage brought several tools
of his death match trade to Dynamite, they were used in as safe a way as possible.
This week’s No Rules match saw Jericho get the win over the deathmatch legend, but the former AEW World Champion looked
pretty worse for wear after the match. After Dynamite, Jericho took to Instagram to show some of his battle wounds,
and said that although Gage is tough, he’s insane. This is Jericho’s second victory in the
five labours of Jericho, which’ll culminate with Jericho finally getting his hands on MJF. After this week’s match, it was announced
that Jericho will be squaring off next week against his ECW nemesis Juventud Guerrera, in a match Chris must win with
a top rope move. We’ll have to wait and see how Jericho manages to defeat his old rival on next
week’s Dynamite, and what condition he’ll be in after this week’s brutal match.
Facing Guerrera next week will be a blast from the past for Jericho, and it seems that Jericho will be going old school in his
attire as well. On his podcast, Andrew Zarian said how he was told that Jericho will be bringing
back his Lionheart persona for next week’s Dynamite, the character he used in ECW.
Jericho will have to win next week to get one step closer to facing MJF, and after 25 years since his time in ECW, older fans
could see a real dose of nostalgia at next week’s AEW Homecoming.
One of the most violent parts of the No Rules match was when Gage sliced Jericho’s head with a Pizza Cutter, much to the
shock and delight of the live crowd. In what can only be called perfect comedic timing, a Dominoes commercial
timing, a Dominoes commercial was aired just as Gage took to work with the pizza cutter, and now Dominoes are disavowing
that bloody spot. In a statement, Dominoes spokesperson Jenny Fouracre-Petko told FOX Office
Sports that their chain isn’t a fan of the spot, and it’s raised some questions about their relationship with AEW:
We share the concerns expressed about this incident and the content of this TV-14 rated program, and are assessing our
advertising presence on it going forward.” The Dominos commercial airing at the time of the Pizza cutter spot wasn’t intentional
but it did make for some pretty funny viewing, but clearly, not everyone enjoyed this spot where
a pizza cutter definitely wasn’t used for it’s intended purpose.
And we’re ending with JJ Williams, who as a Wrestling Observer contributor, is used to writing the news, but became the focus
of his own story this week. Fans may recognise JJ as he’s usually in the crowd at NXT, but fans won’t be
seeing him on the gold brand anymore. That’s because at the most recent tapings, Williams was confronted by sec
security, and was escorted out of the Capitol Wrestling Center in Orlando.
On Twitter, Williams said that during the tapings, he was accosted by security, who took a copy of his ID, and had him
delete all photos from the show before escorting him from the property.
In a statement, Williams said that his efforts will no longer go to WWE from now on, saying:
“My time and devotion will no longer be given to their company going forward. It was never my intention to be a problem
or cause any issues for the promotion. None of my tweets were on the # yet I was told my social media was being
monitored. A majority of those in attendance including media representatives were sharing results with no consequences.
tickets and attending events since 2014 this obviously hurts, all I ever wanted to do was encourage the talent and share
my enjoyment of this show and genre.” Last week’s taping of NXT was for this week’s episode of SyFy as well as next
week’s episode, and the gold brand will return to a live broadcast on the USA Network on August 10th.
Not long after Williams spoke about being removed from NXT, AEW President Tony Khan responded, saying he’s looking forward to
seeing the Wrestling Observer contributor at next week’s AEW Homecoming at the Daily’s Place.
At this time, WWE haven’t put out a public statement in response to Williams’ comments, and we’ll keep following this story for
updates when more info is made available.