Daily Update: WWE’s The Bump, Randy Orton, Nick Wayne

F4W/WON Convention

This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter:

• May 20, 2024 Observer Newsletter: More Grant vs. McMahon developments, AEW Collision residency

Among the topics covered in this gigantic issue:

• The legal games involving the Janel Grant lawsuit against Vince McMahon. The arguments for  arbitration, McMahon’s side goes after Janel Grant’s character, why Vince can’t produce the text messages, and WWE and McMahon file new arguments.
• AEW going to tape Collisions & ROH leading up to All In, all in Arlington, TX.  We look at the good and the bad as well as the significance to this move
• The crazy competition the first AEW show in the building wll face
• Update on King and Queen of the Ring as well as AEW Double or Nothing. What to look for on both shows.
• Full detailed rundown of New Japan Resurgence
• The death of inDemand, a company that was a huge part of the wrestling and boxing business for decades
• Huge historical feature on the life of Bob Bruggers, as well as the 1972 Verne Gagne training camp that produced five Hall of Fame candidates of its six trainees and background of Ken Patera, Ric Flair, Greg Gagne, Jim Brunzell and Iron Sheik
• The most detailed look at the ratings of all the pro wrestling and MMA TV shows this past week
• The biggest trouble spot AEW faces
• The weekly rankings for wrestling, quarter hours, competition for the shows and more
• Arena Mexico big show update
• AAA doing a feuding authority figure angle
• NWA deal with All Japan
• Behind the new executive who will be in charge of three different pro wrestling companies at the same time
• New Japan Super Juniors coverage
• One of the biggest drawing cards of the last 40 years to announce his retirement details this week
• Another of the biggest stars of the last 40 years enters sports Hall of Fame
• Billy Corgan talks TV deal for NWA
• Homicide talks injuries
• Death of wrestler and horror stories about warring with Eddie Graham
• MLW breaks records and gets its most mainstream media ever
• New AEW licensing deals
• Konosuke Takeshita talks frustrations in AEW
• Advance ticket sales for AEW & WWE shows
• More on Dwayne Johnson’s next movie
• Details of the most expensive sports ticket I’ve ever heard of
• Dana White talks WWE PPVs on Sundays and update
• What Las Vegas is expecting as far as tourism for WrestleMania
• More behind the departures of two more WWE executives
• Lots of injury updates
• Streaming numbers and international TV numbers
• Sami Zayn’s first comedy show looked at
• WWE arena notes and weekend business

This week’s Wresting Observer Newsletter back issue:

• January 15, 2007 Observer Newsletter: Triple H, WWE Raw

Wednesday Update

WWE

• WrestleVotes reports that WWE’s The Bump is going on a five-week hiatus after this week. The hiatus is so the show, which airs on YouTube on Wednesdays, can transition to WWE’s new headquarters starting on July 3.
• Logan Paul, Natalya, and JBL were today’s guests on The Bump.
• WWE shared a Twitter thread of wrestlers arriving in Saudi Arabia for King & Queen of the Ring.
• Paul “Triple H” Levesque posted a photo of himself boarding the WWE jet: “Next stop…Riyadh. Excited to kickoff a great weekend in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ahead of #SmackDown and #WWEKingandQueen in Jeddah.”
• While speaking with Sportskeeda WrestleBinge, Randy Orton opened up about the challenges he faced after undergoing back surgery in 2022:
  • I had top neurologists telling me that, ‘You know what, you had a great career, you have a life after wrestling, and you wanna be comfortable. You don’t wanna be in pain the rest of your life. We’re gonna fix your back, but you’re gonna have to stop wrestling.’ The first six months that I was out, I had that in the back of my head, and it was tough. It was mentally very challenging.
  • Didn’t really know what the future held for me, but I was able to find a couple of doctors that had done the exact surgery that I needed on some MMA guys that went back to the Octagon, competed, and were successful and had longer careers, so I knew that these were the doctors that I needed to have put me under and go under the knife with.
• Natalya tweeted about the run she’s currently having in NXT:
  • When I get time and space to remind people of who I am and what I can do, I jump on it. I don’t take a second of this for granted. I’m not someone who can rely on opportunities to come my way every week, so I need to make them count when they’re there. That’s what I’ve been laser focused on over the past several months. I’ve used my matches as statement pieces. I want it ALL and more.
• Bill Apter interviewed former WWF referee Rita Chatterton for Sportskeeda WrestleBinge.
• The Babyfaces Podcast interviewed Cody Rhodes.
• Austin Theory appeared on the Battleground Podcast.

AEW/Other Wrestling

• AEW uploaded its Control Center video for tonight’s Dynamite.
• Bryan Danielson is celebrating his 43rd birthday today. He’s facing Satnam Singh on Dynamite tonight.
• In advance of his match against Swerve Strickland on Dynamite, Nick Wayne spoke with Cageside Seats. Wayne said he idolized Strickland on the Pacific Northwest indies and wanted to be like him:
  • I would show up to the DEFY shows and [Strickland] was there since day one. He was the main event at the first show and he would then go on to main event all the shows. Watching him [at] 14 years old, sneaking into these shows and watching him in the corner of the room, I ended up idolizing him. I saw what he was doing on the independents and everything that he’s achieved and where he was going. I was like, wow, this guy is awesome. I looked up to him, I wanted to be like him. I wanted to do the things that he did.
• Wayne discussed being critical of his own work:
  • I’m one of the most nitpicky people when it comes to myself and my work. There’s matches that I enjoy and I love deeply and I’ll cherish for the rest of my life, but I’ll always find something nitpick. I’m always trying to get better. I’m always trying to learn, so I’m always looking for stuff to critique on myself, asking others for their critiques… And I always try to put other people’s input into my work.
• Strickland appeared on the WrestleChat Podcast.
• AEW produced an AEW Stories mini-documentary on Mark Briscoe and his ROH World Championship win.
• Lehigh Valley News interviewed Ian Riccaboni.
• After attending TNA Wrestling’s television tapings this past weekend, former AEW talent Jose the Assistant wrote on Instagram:
  • The women and men at @tnawrestling are putting on GREAT professional wrestling matches. GO SEE THEM!
  • TNA has an incredibly talented roster, a strong production team and the live events have super loud fans.
  • It had been a while since I had been at wrestling, going there felt GOOD.
• Bad Dude Tito will be an entrant in MLW Battle Riot VI.

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