Notes from this week's After The Bell:
- Shawn Michaels is working at the WWE Performance Center full-time, and taking on a bigger role running NXT UK.
- Michaels didn't intend to remain in the business after his retirement, but the energy in NXT drew him back in.
- Triple H discussed wanting wrestling to be "less individualistic" in the sense of one top name being the spotlight as in past decades.
- Triple H discussed the UK wrestling scene seeing promotions go out of business after NXT UK came on the scene, saying a lot of those companies were low-paying with unsafe rings and didn't care about talent. That's going to get people talking!
- Tommaso Ciampa has become a producer for EVOLVE. Wow. That's cool as hell.
ROH has announced:
- For the January 11 HonorClub event in Georgia:
-- Dragon Lee vs. Andrew Everett for the ROH Television Championship
-- Jonathan Gresham vs. Josh Woods
-- Angelina Love and Mandy Leon vs. Sumie Sakai and Nicole Savoy
-- Marty Scurll, Brody King, and Flip Gordon vs. Bandido/Flamita/Rey Horus
- For the January 12 HonorClub event in North Carolina:
-- Marty Scurll, PCO, and Brody King vs. La Faccion Ingobernable of Rush, Dragon Lee, and Kenny King for the ROH Six-Man Tag Team Championship. Scurll's been booked for non-ROH dates after this, so right now he's a free agent. This would definitely be a logical way to end his run.
-- Flip Gordon vs. Flamita
-- Bandido vs. Alex Zayne in Zayne's ROH debut
-- Mark Haskins and Tracy Williams vs. Vincent and Bateman. Notably Tracy was another talent listed as having his contract end at the end of 2019, so the two sides are at least doing this date.
-- Additionally, Danhausen will be part of both events.
Xavier Woods played Mortal Kombat 11 for Google Stadia on IGN.
ROH averaged 1,082 fans in attendance in 2019, the third-most successful year in company history. That was greatly helped by the Madison Square Garden show, as without it, the average was only 707. It's very telling that even with the overwhelming success of Supercard, it wasn't their most successful year ever.
Stardom's WK14 match came about due to Bushiroad's president pushing for it. There was strong backlash to this due to the feeling men's wrestling and women's wrestling have very different audiences in Japan. Due to this, it's expected crossover will be rare between Stardom and NJPW.
- There was also backlash to Giulia getting such a big opportunity so soon after joining the company. Fans and other Stardom workers were critical of the spot. I hope things smooth over as Stardom prepares for a new chapter.
Hiroshi Tanahashi teased challenging for the AEW World Championship. That would really get people talking, but I don't expect to see it, since NJPW wants to grow their own U.S. business. It just made sense for Tanahashi to tease contendership should he beat the champion
Stardom's Kagetsu's retirement was partially due to Hazuki's retirement. Both women had lost power in the company and were going to further be out of power under the new regime. Kagetsu used to be the head trainer and locker room leader before she was voted out of the role due to fining people when they were late and similar tactics. I enjoy the work of both women, but if them being ousted means growth for Stardom and greater unity, I think the company will rebound fine.
RetroMania will have Colt Cabana and Ian Riccaboni as commentators. That's interesting given Ian's ROH duties.
ROH and NEW essentially have a working agreement now as far as ROH talents being able to work NEW events. Flip Gordon and TK O'Ryan were booked for events through ROH, with Marty Scurll being booked as a free agent.
- O'Ryan intends to stay in ROH should he be able to wrestle again after his ongoing concussion issues.
Matt Jackson suffered a stinger on the December 18 Dynamite, but is still expected for the January 1 show.
AEW is looking to run California in May. I'm surprised they haven't announced anything in the West Coast before now.
Andrade won the United States Championship at Raw's Madison Square Garden live event. Can't say I expected that! We'll see how long he holds it.
R-Truth lost the 24/7 Championship at Madison Square Garden in a handicap match with The Singh Brothers. Samir Singh pinned him to win the title, then lost the title himself to Sunil, who then lost the title back to Truth.
Rusev wasn't at Raw's Madison Square Garden event. Ricochet replaced him to beat Lashley. The story was Lana had a restraining order against Rusev that barred him from appearing.
Dash Wilder didn't compete at Smackdown's December 26 event. Curtis Axel replaced him in a loss to Big E and Xavier Woods. This match was for the Smackdown Tag Team Championship.
WWE Backstage drew 153,000 viewers this week, a significant boost from last week. That's impressive.
For my take on yesterday's PWInsider.com questions:
1. Edge speared Elias at Summerslam, so he was at least cleared to do that. That led to speculation we would see him do more, and I believe at one point Edge said he could do another match. Nothing has come of it, though, and it's possible WWE doctors made it clear he wouldn't be able to wrestle again.
1. Edge speared Elias at Summerslam, so he was at least cleared to do that. That led to speculation we would see him do more, and I believe at one point Edge said he could do another match. Nothing has come of it, though, and it's possible WWE doctors made it clear he wouldn't be able to wrestle again.
2. That would have been pretty cool.
3. I believe he's working at WWE headquarters in Connecticut now. I wonder how he would be as Smackdown's executive director if Prichard doesn't work out.
4. At one point he was working with a hockey team. It doesn't look like he's involved in wrestling in a regular role, as fun as he is.
5. WWE, particularly Vince, treats Madison Square Garden as a special venue given the history the company has there in decades past. This was part of that. It could also have been a way to get attention ahead of the U.S. Title change.
More wrestling tomorrow.
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