MLW has requested a court deny WWE’s motion for a protective order that would prevent confidential information about their talent contracts, disciplinary action and more come out in discovery.
In early-January, WWE filed a motion in the Northern District of California’s U.S. District Court to suspend their obligation to produce documents related, among other things, to WWE’s efforts to recruit wrestlers, all performance evaluations, all documents concerning terminations/resignations of wrestlers, documents related to their efforts to “prevent competitors from booking arenas or venues.”
MLW defended their claim, saying in a January 23rd filing that it’s WWE’s “latest desperate attempt to delay discovery that will expose its anticompetitive scheme” to destroy MLW “and monopolize the U.S. market for the sale of broadcasting rights for professional wrestling programs.”
MLW filed an antitrust lawsuit with WWE in January 2022 that claims they pressured third parties like Tubi (Fox) and Vice to abandon contracts and prospective relationships with them.
From the MLW legal response:
And WWE’s false concern for third parties is nothing more than an attempt to prevent discovery into its predatory scheme which involved, inter alia, preventing its competitors from booking the arenas that were essential to the creation of professional wrestling content.
Later in the filing, MLW pointed to an interview then-Ring of Honor head Joe Koff did with PWInsider where he said WWE blocked ROH from running shows at Madison Square Garden in 2018.
WWE claims that MLW would have “no possible cause of action” relating to its efforts to block its competitors, Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro-Wrestling, from booking Madison Square Garden for events.
WWE’s statement again underscores its fundamental misunderstanding of the antitrust laws of the United States. MLW’s narrowly tailored third-party subpoenas seek records that are relevant to MLW’s allegations that WWE “leveraged” its decades-long relationships with virtually every major arena in the United States to make it harder for WWE’s competitors to book arenas, which are critical for creating professional wrestling content to be licensed or sold in the relevant market. By impeding or delaying its competitors from creating content, WWE unlawfully maintained its monopoly power in violation of the Sherman Act.
It’s unknown when the court will rule on the WWE motion.
WWE head of international Matthew Drew has left the company after less than two years, according to PWInsider.
It’s unknown if Drew left on his own accord or if he was relieved of his duties. WWE began a round of office cuts last week as it’s assumed they are leaning things out in preparation for a sale this summer.
Drew, who joined WWE in June 2021, had come to WWE from DAZN where he was executive vice president of rights for nearly five years. He is a 2005 Nottingham Law School graduate.
His main job roles in WWE were to grow the company’s business outside the U.S., manage their global media partners, and to work on their international strategies on live events, digital, consumer products and revenue opportunities.
It’s the latest executive departure for WWE as their longtime vice president of public relations Adam Hopkins and vice president of communications Stefanie Fiondella both left the company earlier this month.
Through the McMahon family corporate tumult that has dominated headlines, WWE CEO Nick Khan has been the buffer between the various parties trying to smooth things over.
Dave Meltzer reported as such in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
In reviewing the circumstances in which Stephanie McMahon suddenly resigned as co-CEO and left the company completely this week, Meltzer wrote, “It was also conceded that she and Vince (McMahon) did have issues in working together as family members and how Khan was a buffer who kept things smooth between them as well as between Vince and (Paul) Levesque.“
In a whirlwind of moves, Vince McMahon returned to the company from his July resignation last Friday after six months away and was officially reinstated as Executive Chairman of the Board on Tuesday. Hours earlier, Stephanie had resigned as co-CEO and Khan was granted the full role. She had also served the role as Chairwoman since her father resigned.
At the time Stephanie McMahon had taken a leave of absence to spend more time with family prior to her father’s scandal, a Business Insider piece painted her in a negative light and reported that her father had replaced her. Meltzer reported afterward that wasn’t the case and that she had left on her own accord.
Khan remains as CEO as the company is pursuing a sale this year while Levesque, Stephanie’s husband, is also still in his role of heading up creative as chief content officer.
WWE has begun to fill the void left when Stephanie McMahon was promoted to co-CEO and Chairwoman as they have hired a new senior vice president and head of global sales & partnerships.
Craig Stimmel, formerly of Snapchat, Procter & Gamble, and NCR, will report to McMahon and co-CEO Nick Khan directly.
From the company’s press release Tuesday:
“As head of WWE’s Global Sales & Partnerships division, Stimmel will be a key member of the company’s senior management team, responsible for overseeing day-to-day operations and leading WWE’s sales organization while expanding its roster of sponsors and promotional partnerships.”
McMahon had previously headed some of those areas up as Chief Brand Officer. She relinquished them when she took a temporary leave of absence to spend time with family that quickly ended in the wake of the allegations against Vince McMahon that saw the 76-year-old resign as CEO and Chairman last month.
Stimmel was the head of global brands at Snapchat the last three years.
Despite a Business Insider report over the weekend that alluded to Vince McMahon driving Stephanie McMahon out of WWE, that is not the case according to our Dave Meltzer.
Meltzer confirmed Monday that she indeed took a leave of absence on her own.
The BI report read that Stephanie “is being replaced in her corporate role as part of a shakeup executed by her father, Vince McMahon, the organization’s 76-year-old CEO.”
The longtime WWE Chief Brand Officer announced her leave of absence on May 19th, saying she was going to take time off to spend time with her family and looked forward to returning.
The piece featured quotes from WWE insiders that painted a less positive picture of the 45-year-old and appears to be part of what Meltzer called a burial by the company via our message board.
One of the BI quotes focused on the lack of growth on sponsorship which was around $20 million in Q1. Stephanie said on the Q1 investors call that there’s no reason WWE couldn’t be bringing in hundreds of millions a year in the next three-to-five years.
“We weren’t seeing that growth,” said the company insider (said) of Stephanie McMahon’s tenure. “When someone is moved out of a company, it’s usually the result of something not working. We took stronger control of that a few months ago.”
Her exit, temporary or permanent, is the latest in what has been a multi-year overhaul of the front office since Nick Khan took over as president for fired co-presidents George Barrios and Michelle Wilson in early-2020.
BI also reported that former Manchester United chief marketing officer Catherine Newman will start her WWE tenure this month as head of marketing.
In what is becoming old hat, WWE announced another record-breaking quarter on Thursday, hitting a record $333.4 million in revenue in the first three months of 2022 — a year-over-year increase of 27%.
They also announced an operating income increase of $92.4 million for the quarter, an increase of 42%.
WWE’s stock was down over 3% for the day at $59.49 at the market closes. However, all U.S. markets were also down for the day.
Key discussion points from today’s conference call can be found further below.
Revenue increase drivers
The major driver for the increase was their media rights which increased $36 million year-over-year, thanks to the February Saudi Arabia Elimination Chamber show. Live events were up $23.1 million from just $500,000 a year ago while consumer products increased $11 million.
The WWE2KK video game was part of the consumer products increase ($20 million vs. $11 million year-over-year) in addition to $4.5 million of live event merchandise sales offsetting a $2.3 million dip in ecommerce revenue.
Among the highlights they mentioned in their supporting press release was their multi-year expansion of content for A&E which will see 130+ new hours of WWE-themed series and specials; their MENA region broadcast deal with MBC Group; their long-term e-commerce and licensed merchandise deal with Fanatics; and the release of the WWE 2K22 video game.
WrestleMania 38 highlighted
While the event didn’t happen until the second quarter, WWE did highlight WrestleMania as they usually do, claiming 156,352 combined fans were in AT&T Stadium over two nights. It was both their highest-grossing and most-attended event in WWE history.
They also said domestic unique viewership was up 61% year-over-year with global unique viewership up 54%, making it the most viewed “premium live event” in company history.
Of note, viewership in India hit a record 56.1 million views, a 29% year-over-year increase.
Attendance
WWE held 53 total live events in Q1, all of one (Saudi Arabia) held in the U.S. Average attendance was 5700 which is down from 6300 in Q1 of 2019 which is the last time they had live events for a full quarter.
Here are some notes from the quarterly investors call:
Vince McMahon was on the call briefly to kick things off, going through some of the major successes including “a stupendous WrestleMania.”
Nick Khan touted how well WWE is doing on Peacock despite the streaming industry audience now shrinking and stabilizing in terms of growth. He said they are reaching new fans on the service and reaching a new audience. They are confident the company viewership there will continue to grow and that 1/3 of Peacock accounts watched some programming during Mania week.
Khan said to expect news on the next Saudi Arabia show soon.
Khan said 20 episodes of WWE Rivals are coming to A&E in addition to some post-shows for certain A&E Biography episodes featuring the star featured in the show. It’s part of the aforementioned 130 hours of programming in the deal.
Khan said that when WWE enters next round of TV rights negotiations, they will have more potential buyers than last time. He feels it’s a matter of time before Netflix is interested in live programming, citing Apple and Amazon’s recent pushes in that area.
When asked about bundling Raw and SmackDown in a deal, Khan said that “can be a powerful tool” and that they will talk to both NBCU and Fox before deciding how to proceed.
He feels a robust international market awaits for WWE rights, citing the Peacock success in the U.S. They are in “deep talks” in many territories. and also mentions everyone is waiting on India cricket rights to gauge what’s happening there.
Stephanie McMahon said sponsorship accounted for more than $10 million the last quarter — a 50+% increase year-over-year.
She also mentioned gaming as a big strategy for their future, something that has come up on calls before. She cited a survey where 80% of WWE fans identify themselves as gamers.
She said they signed a new deal in the RPG space that will be announced soon, and are continuing to look into the Metaverse.
CFO Frank Riddick said there’s no decision as of yet when it comes to the expansion of Performance Centers globally, but they are looking at it.
Arguably the most interesting quotes from Thursday’s WWE Q2 financial call came from Vince McMahon when he was asked about AEW — one of which has people trying to figure out what the chairman was trying to say.
During the Q&A portion of the investors’ call, McMahon was asked about whether he sees AEW as competition given their recent success and whether he feels the need to counter them with investing in more talent since they may eventually compete for media rights. The caller also asked if it could be a “rising tide lifts all boats” situation.
“It’s certainly not a situation where rising tides because….that was when Ted Turner was coming after us with all of Time Warner’s assets. That was a different situation. AEW is where they are. I really don’t 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. I’m not so sure what their investments are as far as their talent is concerned…but perhaps we can give them some more (inaudible).”
The final few words had some people confused as to what McMahon meant because his voice got low and it was hard to understand, leading to speculation as to whether McMahon was indicating that AEW could sign more released talent as they have been doing as of late.
However, immediately after speaking, WWE president Nick Khan added some thoughts so it seems more likely that McMahon was verbally handing it over to Khan to share a few words.
Khan equated WWE to being in a horse race and that they have blinders on, looking straight ahead and making sure they stay in front of the pack. He reiterated the “everything is competition” line he and Paul Levesque have used before, stealing a line from Netflix’s Reed Hastings that sleep is their competition.
“If it was up to us, people could be up 24 hours a day watching content from different content providers, hopefully including ours. 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,” he said.
WWE’s return to touring was a main part of Thursday’s WWE Q2 conference call, one that didn’t include any official news about their return to Saudi Arabia but did offer one soundbite regarding AEW.
One direct Saudi-related question came up when president Nick Khan was asked about a MENA rights deal to which Khan said he, Vince McMahon and others were deep into negotiations and were confident it would happen.
When asked if they are going to return there for a show, CFO Kristina Salen pointed to their investor guidance that they are planning on one large-scale international event for the second half of 2021. She did not confirm it was in Saudi Arabia as has been reported here and elsewhere.
When asked if he considers AEW as competition and a need to counter their investments in talent, McMahon said he doesn’t consider them competition like he did with WCW back in the day backed by Ted Turner. He said he didn’t know what their investments were in talent, but somewhat inaudibly mentioned something along the lines of “giving them more.” Khan said they consider everything competition.
During his portion of the presentation, Khan said many live events were outperforming the last time they visited the cities, both in revenue and in merchandise sales. Their first post-pandemic appearance in Houston, for example, was the highest grossing non-PPV WWE event in the venue in company history.
One of the more interesting notes was the year-over-year viewership notes on Peacock. Khan said viewership for Backlash was up 26%, Hell in a Cell was up 25% and Money in the Bank was up 40% from last year on WWE Network alone.
On the financial front, Q2 revenue was $265.6 million, up 19% year-over-year ($42 million). This was attributed to the continued monetization of content and live event revenue from WrestleMania ticket sales.
Operating income decreased to $46.3 million, down 17% ($9.4 million). Higher TV and event production for both the ThunderDome and WrestleMania were the reasons in addition to $8.1 million in severance and $3.2 million in compensation as employees returned from furlough.
Some other notes from the Q&A portion:
As he has done in the past, Khan discussed other media rights deals happening in sports across the world and how that will benefit WWE in the future.
McMahon said the last quarter was focused on efficiency both within the organization and with content production. He also pointed to positive trends in live event sales, TV tapings and digital video compensation.
According to Khan, SummerSlam at Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium has sold 40,000 tickets thus far (of a possible 45,000) and will be the highest non-WrestleMania gate in company history.
The remaining 2021 schedule will be released soon.
They recently re-upped their Australian rights deals and are looking to license WWE Network internationally.
Khan said more scripted and unscripted series are coming.
Grounds for the new corporate offices were broken in June and they expect to be able to sell their existing corporate building once they move in.
They will be dropping another NFT at SummerSlam, this time with John Cena.
PW Insider reported Thursday that WWE corporate employees learned that raises and promotions have been reinstated.
That was the biggest news coming out of the Thursday all hands meeting according to PW Insider who also reported “the implication was that a big part of the staff would be receiving raises in the days and weeks ahead.”
That followed news from February where a “large number” of employees learned they were getting a $3000 stock award. However, that news came days after they first learned of the promotion and raise freeze.
It has been a tumultuous year on the corporate side, starting with pandemic-related cuts and then in recent months with dozens of full-time employees let go due to restructuring as president Nick Khan continues to get his people into place. May was especially notable as some divisions, including Advanced Media, digital and WWE Studios, were restructured under Kevin Dunn. In April, WWE saw several longtime PR and communications people depart in addition to some talent relations leadership.
Senior vice president of talent development Canyon Ceman is still with WWE despite our incorrect report earlier that he was no longer with the company.
Dave Meltzer originally reported the news and WWE reached out to confirm that was not accurate. We apologize for the incorrect reporting.
Additionally, Fightful reported Tuesday that Sonjay Dutt is no longer with WWE as a producer, choosing to leave on his own terms. He had been with WWE since January 2019. Meltzer said Dutt left the company two weeks ago.
WWE made a number of major cuts in various departments Tuesday in a consolidation effort.
Those within the company categorized the reason as a re-examining of the business due to COVID-19 and discovering a lot of redundancy in duties. The result is that some divisions will be merging under Executive Vice President of Television Production Kevin Dunn.
The biggest name let go was Jaylar Donlan, Executive Vice President of Advanced Media, while the other major name released was Brian Pellegatto, Senior Vice President of Production. The Advanced Media departments in both the U.S. and UK. were heavily pared down as well which included producers, associate producers and those in both digital and WWE Network.
Wrestlenomics reported that Jay Rosenstock, EVP of International Television, and Makham Nolan, VP of Media Operations, were also let go.
Deadline covered the large scale WWE Studios cuts in both Stamford, CT, and Los Angeles, CA, reporting that the news was given by Khan via a phone call.
One example of a redundancy that was noted to us was the presence of two different graphics departments, one for television and one for digital.
The company, which currently occupies two buildings in Stamford will be moving into a single new building next year — the construction of which was delayed due to the pandemic.
There was some hard feelings in WWE’s corporate offices last week as employees learned in a meeting that there are no impending promotions, raises or bonuses.
Fightful Select first reported the news with Dave Meltzer discussing it on Saturday’s Wrestling Observer Radio. Fightful also added the news didn’t apply to wrestlers or talent.
Meltzer said the reason was that WWE missed their stock price target and are attempting to rebuild it. The news comes despite the company announcing record-setting revenues even with the pandemic in addition to a new $1+ billion deal with NBCU for WWE Network to move to the Peacock streaming service in March.
Both Meltzer and Fightful said there was a lot of unhappiness following the meeting, especially with members of the production team.
As part of the recent Q4 call, WWE announced they are resuming operations on a new corporate facility, estimated to cost between $65 to $85 million. Rising costs for production on the ThunderDome were brought up several times on the call.
WWE announced Tuesday that Kristina Salen is their new Chief Financial Officer, effective August 3rd and reporting directly to Vince McMahon.
Salen replaces interim CFO Frank Riddick who stepped in when co-presidents George Barrios and Michelle Wilson were fired in late-January. The company has yet to replace their Chief Revenue Officer position.
Salen comes with an impressive resume as the first CFO of Etsy from January 2013 through March 2017, helping grow the business from $895 million to $3 billion in gross sales over four years and executing their move to go public, according to the WWE release.
Following that, she was in similar roles for UnitedMasters and Moda Operandi, both New York-based companies. She was the first woman named to the board of Endeavor (the former WME-IMG) in 2019, and also sits on the boards of SiriusXM and Cornerstone OnDemand.
On LinkedIn, the Vassar College and Columbia Business School graduate said, “I’m pinching myself over this announcement. I’m beyond excited to join WWE as their next star wrestler…or CFO…whichever is a better fit. 🙂 Such a great team, brand + company. #lucky“
As of this writing, WWE’s stock price was down nearly 2% for the day to $45.48.
Due to the uncertain economic situation directly impacting them and other media businesses in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, WWE announced changes to their staffing, executive compensation packages, and more on Wednesday.
The news was delivered to employees on a brief, 12 PM Eastern conference call followed by the company sending out a press release. In the release, WWE said they conducted an analysis of operations over the last several weeks and identified some areas in which they will see short-term cost reductions and cash flow improvement.
Those areas: reducing executive and board member compensation; decreasing operating expenses; cutting talent expenses, third party staffing and consulting; deferring spend on the build out of the Company’s new headquarters for at least six months; and both layoffs and furloughing of a portion of their workforce immediately. That includes some of the talent roster.
Furloughing employees, a suspension in work without pay for a period if time vs. a permanent layoff, has been a constant since the economic impact of the pandemic really started hitting.
The call itself was said to last roughly five minutes with McMahon announcing several of the details above and that employees will receive texts about their standing in the company.
WWE said the changes will save them $4 million a month and give them a cash flow improvement of $140 million, mainly from the deferral in spending on their new offices. The release also said the company has approximately $500 million in cash and debt capacity to help them manage through the crisis.
McMahon suspended operations of the XFL last week and the league filed for bankruptcy on Monday. He also made the decision last Friday to return WWE to live programming vs. a taped model.
Their next investors call is set for Thursday, April 23rd. As of this writing, the stock was mainly unaffected by the news, trading at $38.01.
We’re looking for reports from Tulsa tonight with the dark matches at the WWE Smackdown tapings and NXT in Citrus Springs, FL to [email protected]
We’re also doing polls this weekend for both New Japan shows in Sapporo, thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to [email protected]
No WWE house shows this weekend. It’s the new deal. House shows lose money so they are cutting way back on them.
CMLL TONIGHT AT ARENA MEXICO AT 9:30 P.M. ON THE CMLL YOU TUBE PAGE
Robin & Arkalis vs. Akuma & Espanto Jr.
Drone & Fuego & Diamond vs. Kawato San & Okumura & Virus
Stuka Jr. & Atlantis Jr. & Star Jr. vs. Negro Casas & Mephisto & Ephesto
Soberano Jr. vs. Templario
Angel de Oro & Titan & Niebla Roja vs. Gilbert el Boricua & Euforia & Gran Guerrero
A look at the current WrestleMania card, as well as what big name is being talked with, what big name is not on the card, as well as the Royal Rumble decision making is the lead story in the new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
We also have complete Rumble coverage including a table with each participant, how long they were in, eliminations, number of entry and exit and more. We look at Vince McMahon’s change in the winners in the last week, the stories told in the Rumble, why the winners were changed, the return of Edge, his new contract, how he got such a big deal, the WWE injuries, the Andrade drug test failure, those who were not in the Rumble and why, business notes on the way and what are expected to be the biggest wrestling crowds of the year. We also look at viewer interest in the show, the interest as compared to the UFC 246 show, plus match-by-match coverage with star ratings and poll results.
The new issue also covers:
The sale of Pro Wrestling NOAH to CyberAgent, more on big companies buying wrestling franchises, plans for NOAH under the new ownership and the relationship with DDT as it stands right now.
UFC 246, with show notes, business notes and match-by-match coverage.
Worlds Collide with match-by-match coverage, star ratings, business notes and what did and didn’t work on the show.
Changes in the WWE house show business and why. We look at both the positive and negative of it. We also look at the behavior of Vince McMahon at the Rocky Johnson funeral, the incident with Brock Lesnar and Matt Riddle, new contracts signed, wrestler asking for her release, WWE Canadian numbers, Charlotte Flair talks Kairi Sane concussion, new WWE signees, the most-watched shows on the WWE Network and house show coverage.
New Year’s Dash from New Japan, the Jushin Liger retirement ceremony, match-by-match coverage with star ratings and the angles coming out of the show.
A bio on Hercules Ayala, one of the biggest stars of the glory days of Puerto Rican wrestling, covering how he started there, his work outside Puerto Rico, how he first got into Stampede Wrestling, his biggest matches on major stadium events including major bouts with Ric Flair and Randy Savage, his heel turn with Carlos Colon, the aftermath of the death of Bruiser Brody and how he was used to try and get the business back.
NWA Hard Times PPV show.
A bio on Carlos Rocha, the Portuguese star who was one of the biggest drawing cards in North America in 1971 and 1972 with his bloodbaths against The Sheik and Abdullah the Butcher. We look at those feuds as well as look back at The Sheik in Toronto during the period when he was one of the biggest single city draws in pro wrestling history, and how his undefeated streak put limits on the Rocha feud. We look at how Sheik vs. Rocha was the biggest drawing Toronto feud of the era, and why he outdrew Andre, Bruno, Bobo Brazil and all the other major Sheik foes in Toronto. We also look at his return to North America and his retirement run in the WWWF.
Regarding the Wednesday numbers, we’ve got full details, demos that each side won, how every segment did and what match ended up as the difference maker.
Full coverage of all the WWE and AEW television shows from the past week.
In-depth looks at the ratings of all the major shows, the key demos and quarters for AEW and WWE, what happened head-to-head and what can be learned from them.
Results of all the major pro wrestling events around the world over the past week.
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FRIDAY NEWS UPDATE
There really isn’t a lot more on Vince McMahon’s firing of co-Presidents Michelle Wilson and George Barrios yesterday. It came out of nowhere. Those in the company have no answers as to why. Stock insiders claim it was due to a disagreement regarding investing money into the company. The profit margin for the fourth quarter and the year is at the low end of projections, and for the year, was down $20 million from the original guidance. WWE said yesterday that annual OIDBA will be around $180 million, at the beginning of the year they projected $200 million. In October they changed that projection to from $180 million to $190 million. Keep in mind the original guidance for the year only had one Saudi show and no NXT television revenue worked in. Both did sell millions of dollars of WWE stock back in July. President of WWE is a tough position because everyone in it gets dumped, and even Vince’s own wife didn’t last in that position. It’s always said when you work too closely with Vince, and are not family, you are going to have a shelf life.
The stock closed today at $48.88 per share, down $13.42 per share from yesterday’s close. It’s an overreaction because the reality is the key TV deals are still in place for years and the company is idiot proof as far as making money for years. That said, Wall Street was stunned and a lot of questions regarding earnings being lower than expected were being asked. And Wall Street doesn’t even know about the house show cutback or the decline in the interest of the Rumble. Another big thing will be the network subscription number on 12/31 which will be announced in six days. It is possible it could fall below 1 million if it stays above 1 million, it will be a sign that putting NXT on television had no real effect on network numbers. But that’s an if.
Analysis have had very divergent views of the stock. Morgan Stanley has just its projected price to $54, Evercore ISI to $50 and Loop Capital to $50. But MKM Partners still lists a projected price of $92.
WWE announced that Frank Riddick III, who will be the interim CFO until they find a permanent person for the spot, will be paid $33,333.33 per week.
Bret Hart announced that he will be having surgery to remove basal cell carcinoma, a form of skin cancer.
WWE
Roku and FOX are at a negotiations stalemate. Roku’s distribution deal ends tonight. Roku claims they have been unable to reach a new deal with FOX and FOX also declined an extension to the current deal.
UFC
Diego Sanchez was suspended for three months for testing positive for Ostarine and S-23 from a test that came back on 10/26. That means his suspension is already over. Sanchez had one of his supplements tested and both substances showed up and thus his suspension was only three months instead of two years since that indicated inadvertent usage.
Similarly, Ovince Saint Preux tested positive for Ostarine and di-hydroxy-LGD-40-33 and two other drugs in an 11/1 test. He submitted his supplements to be tested and they showed the supplements contained the banned substances. He also was given a three month suspension which is also now over.
Blagoi Ivanov vs. Augusto Sakai has been added to a 5/9 PPV show from Sao Paulo, Brazil. Marion Reneau vs. Ketlen Vieira was also agreed to on the how according to an original report from MMA Junkie.
Cody Stamann vs. Raoni Barcelos is earmarked for the 3/28 show in Columbus, OH.
AEW
Riho and other women from Stardom were on this week’s episode of S.W.A.T. on CBS. The team had to go to Japan to transfer a prisoner who escaped and Riho played the prisoner’s girlfriend. She played a wrestler and there were wrestling scenes in the show.
MISCELLANEOUS
Mistico will be out two to three months after surgery to remove a screw that came loose stemming from a 2014 surgery when he broke his leg. Doctors put a rod in his leg to help heal it and one of the screws became loose. They had been building a Mistico vs. Gran Guerrero big match that will have to be put on hold.
Defy has its third anniversary show tonight in Seattle at Washington Hall with the Jurassic Express from AEW, The Strong Hearts form AEW, Killer Crown, plus Schaff vs. Artemis Spencer in a ladder match and Josef Samael & Jacob Fatu vs. The Amerikan Gunz in a tag team title match.
Impact announced that there will be an Ultimate X match on its 4/3 show in Ybor City, FL.
CWO on 2/9, 2/17 and 3/12 at The Rockpile Bar & Nightclub in Toronto.
All Star Wrestling on 2/29 in Vancouver, BGC at the Maritime Labour Centre.
Combate Americas on 2/21 in Mexicali, Baja California which will air on Univision, Univision Deportes, AXS in the U.S. and Televisa 5 in Mexico. The main event has Rafa Garcia (11-0) vs. Humberto Bandenay (18-7, 1 no contest) for their lightweight title, plus Yasmine Jauregui (4-0) vs. Karen Cadillo (4-1).
River City Wrestling on 2/8 in San Antonio at The Grand Event Center.
559 Fights on 2/8 in Orange Cove, CA at the Community Center will crown a middleweight champion with Jared Velasquez (4-3) of Orange Cove against A.J. Perez (3-1) of Fresno.
