More NJPW notes, Henry on Middle Eastern show, NXT time change in Australia, ROH titleholder signs contract, ROH announces free event, New Day podcast note, assorted wrestling press, more Dynamites announced, Matt Hardy contract update, another name discussed for Austin podcast, more on Edge-WWE, Andrade's goals, Rey on WWE Untold soon, Jericho and Cody assist Australia, Rory Gulak dropped from multiple companies, new Dynamite match, Cobb-ROH update, and Questions on NWA vs. AEW in character development, heels being compensated for losing merch money, WWE live event happenings, and Vince's wrestling goals

At NJPW New Year's Dash:
- Jushin "Thunder" Liger, as expected, got a big retirement ceremony with a lot of tributes. Antonio Inoki sent in a video message, and both NJPW's chairman and president presented him with flowers.

- NXT and ROH also sent flowers. Very, very cool.

- Jon Moxley and Minoru Suzuki got physical at the conclusion of an eight-man tag match. Kazuchika Okada, Will Ospreay, Yoshi-Hashi, and Robbie Eagles were facing Suzuki, Taichi, Lance Archer, and Zack Sabre, Jr. when Moxley came to the ring and started a confrontation with Minoru. Moxley ended up hitting Death Rider.

Mark Henry will appear at Qatar Pro Wrestling's February 21 event. They're pulling out the checkbook!

NXT TV in Australia will now be live. That's a good opportunity for the brand.

Dragon Lee has signed an ROH contract. He can be pretty important there going forward.

ROH has announced a February 9 HonorClub event in Maryland that will be free to attend, with free meet and greets for HonorClub subscribers. This is being presented as giving back to the city where Sinclair is headquarted. The show, Free Enterprise, will feature:
- The Briscoes vs. Bandido and Flamita
- Flip Gordon vs. Slex
- Jay Lethal and Jonathan Gresham vs. Jeff Cobb and Dan Maff for the ROH Tag Team Championship
- Session Moth Martina making her WOH debut.
- Marty Scurll, PCO, and Brody King are all advertised despite no word of any of them signing new contracts. Notably this is three weeks before AEW Revolution so there's still a chance for the "Villain Club" to appear in Chicago.

New Day's latest podcast discussed the origins of Francesca, unicorns, and more.

NXT is being advertised in New York City subway displays. That's pretty cool.

Dynamite's March 4 episode will come from Colorado. Their March 11 show will come from Utah.

The Young Bucks teased AEW coming to California. It's expected a show will be announced there soon.

Matt Hardy's WWE contract expires March 1. The two sides remain in discussions, with the main sticking point being how Hardy would be used if signing a new deal. I think he'll enjoy working outside the company more at this point. I have a bad feeling we're in for the Broken Universe tying into The Dark Order, though.

Bret Hart is being considered for Stone Cold's Broken Skull Sessions. I would absolutely want to see/hear that.

Edge has been at a number of WWE TV tapings lately, which is going to get more rumors swirling about his in-ring status. There has been no confirmation of him wrestling again at this time.

WWE has begun planning their next Saudi event. I hope transportation issues are sorted out.

Andrade spoke before Raw. I hope he does carve his own significant legacy.

New York's Ridgewood Grove Arena's wrestling history was covered.

USA Network promoted its 2019 success, which WWE obviously greatly contributed to.

WWE Untold focusing on Rey Mysterio's 2006 Royal Rumble win will air January 19. That will be very interesting given the criticism the angle received at the time.

Chris Jericho is auctioning his WK14 T-shirt to benefit Australian wildfire relief. Very classy.

- Cody has a T-shirt design that will benefit their efforts, too. Big respect to him, too.

CHIKARA, the Wrestle Factory, and ICW have severed ties with Rory Gulak after allegations of serious misconduct. There is no further information on this at this time, as I don't want to report rumors without proper sourcing.

Dynamite has added The Jurassic Express vs. The Best Friends and Orange Cassidy. Good to see that there instead of AEW Dark.

Jeff Cobb is working with ROH as a free agent, turning down a contract in favor of being booked per event. He definitely has an upside; I can see other parties being interested. In the meantime, I'm glad he's getting dates.

For my take on yesterday's PWInsider.com questions:
1. AEW is intentionally focusing on in-ring athleticism being the centerpiece as a counter to the feeling that WWE has a low ratio of action to talking. I do think AEW has some good character development (Cody in particular), but I think to a degree their mindset is that the characters are already over to their audience, or that audience will follow online videos to be more acquainted. I get the argument that their target audience is more digitally savvy, but it's fair to wonder if they're limiting how over some talents can be by their approach.

2. Honestly I'm not sure how that works. Obviously some heels can do quite well in the merch department, so it could be a case-by-case basis.

3. If so I expect we'll see where those happenings came from. It definitely feels like there are moves being made to get people paying attention to WWE's product.

4. I imagine he wants the WWE Network to be more successful, for one. Other than that if there's a unique opportunity to do something no one else has done and isn't likely to do (a major wrestling event in China, for instance), I'd think he'd be motivated to make it happen.

5. I don't have time to follow NXT UK, unfortunately.

More wrestling tomorrow.