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Friday, March 13, 2020

Coronavirus wrestling updates, WWE HoFer official, Raw injury, Interviews with Khan/Show, AEW name signed, ECW speaking tour, WWE series trailer, NXT notes, WWE does no makeup shoot, Dynamite+NXT audiences, Gronk-WWE update, more WWE lawsuits, Starr update, HoFer wrestling update, new CMLL title, big AAA event set, NXT UK name done, MLW-AAA update, former WWE exec sells stock, and why MMA names were at WWE HQ

Coronavirus-related stories, chronologically updated:
- Ireland's OTT has canceled their March 14 and March 15 events. Jon Moxley was scheduled to work the March 14 show.

- Sting and Diamond Dallas Page's MonsterMania convention appearances have been postponed. That event will now take place in August.

- MLW has dropped meet and greet plans for WrestleMania week.

- AEW's New Jersey debut has been rescheduled for July 22.

- Fast & Furious 9 has been moved to April 2021.

- EVOLVE 147 has been postponed to May 8 in Michigan. EVOLVE 148 has been postponed to May 9 in Illinois.

- ROH canceled their March 12 meet and greet with PCO and Marty Scurll.

- WrestleMania 36 is currently planned to go on as scheduled. County officials will meet next week to discuss whether to cancel the event if WWE does not make the decision to do so on their own.

- Smackdown will be held at the WWE Performance Center this week. No fans will be able to attend.

- Raw's Madison Square Garden event on March 22 has been canceled, as the venue is shutting down under local decree.

- WrestleMania 36 has contingency plans being considered, but has not been moved at this time. I would be shocked if the show doesn't go on in some capacity.

- ROH canceled their 18th anniversary event as well as Past vs. Present. Some talents were already in town for the events or on their way when this decision was made.

- WWE's Sunday Ohio live event has been canceled.

- Dynamite next week will be held at the site of Fight for the Fallen under a restricted attendance policy. The New York show set for Wednesday has been rescheduled for July 22.

- Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling currently intends to resume shows March 21.

- wXw's WrestleMania week event has been canceled due to the European travel ban.

- PWG has postponed its March 29 event.

- XFL has canceled the remainder of its season. Players will be paid as if the games took place, and the league intends to return in 2021.

- Tony Khan has made it clear that employees can miss next week's show without consequence. That's big!

- WWE's Saturday Toronto live event has been canceled.

British Bulldog has been officially announced for the WWE Hall of Fame. Davey Boy Smith, Jr., Tyson Kidd and Natalya discussed the induction on "After The Bell." Glad to see him honored.

Rezar tore his right biceps during Raw. That's really going to put a damper on Seth Rollins' faction. We'll see what backup plan they devise. There are some NXT bruisers available (Killian Dain comes to mind) if they want to go that route.

Tony Khan is on "AEW Unrestricted" this week, recapped here:
- I admire how much of a public face he's been for the company; there are a lot of people with his resources who wouldn't be this involved.

- There aren't many people able or willing to give tens of millions of dollars to start a wrestling company, particularly with signing a large roster, giving competitive deals to top talents and going live on the road every week. This is a big part of what separates AEW from other promotions that have tried to carve out a niche.

- Again, it's great Khan has the huge amount of resources to pay talent that well.

- It's fair to wonder how long Khan was willing to fund the company if they didn't get the TV extension. It's clear he's dedicated (and loaded) but even that has its limits if something isn't successful. Luckily for him it's not a problem.

Dr. Luther has signed with AEW for a role on camera and behind-the-scenes. AEW continues to be an eclectic mix of personalities and styles. Some see that as a strength and others see it as a drawback.

Shane Douglas, The Sandman, and Justin Credible are launching a "Stories from the Extreme" live show tour focusing on their time in ECW. Their first announced shows are April 18 in Connecticut and June 14 in New York.

WWE's "Fight Like A Girl" series got a trailer.

NXT's audience this week was bussed in from Full Sail University a few miles away.

NXT's Tommaso Ciampa/Johnny Gargano brawl was shot live in its entirety. That was a hell of a segment.

WWE did a no makeup photo shoot for Women's History Month.


Dynamite drew 766,000 viewers Wednesday night, a significant hit from previous episodes. It's likely coronavirus coverage affected this to a degree.

NXT drew 697,000 viewers this week, which was also on the low side. I think you can attribute some of that loss to the coronavirus coverage, too, but not nearly to the extent of Dynamite losing 140,000 viewers.

Dynamite drew around 2,500 fans this week, with around 500 fans who bought tickets not attending. That's a significant concern about the virus.

Rob Gronkowski is not currently wrestling at WrestleMania. His deal is only believed to be for a few matches, which was expected. I'm interested to see how they use him given that, especially given the rather sudden debut.

WWE is facing more lawsuits over their alleged misrepresentations of the company's financial health, largely dealing with the company's dealings in the Middle East. If these are as meritless as they seem, I hope WWE doesn't have to spend a lot of resources getting them dealt with.

David Starr is expected to stay at OTT, despite WWE's association with that company. WWE's opposition to Starr is said to be over his vocal pro-union stance, rather than stemming from the incident with the NXT UK Championship.

Beth Phoenix is still expected to wrestle at WrestleMania, teaming with Natalya in a triple threat match for the women's tag team championship also involving Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross as challengers.

Elimination Chamber was a legitimate sellout of 13,000 fans. That's good news!

CMLL is introducing Mexican women's tag team titles.

Triplemania Regia is set for October 10. 

Killer Kelly is no longer with WWE. That's not particularly surprising given that she hadn't worked NXT UK since November.

MLW is planning another Mexico taping.

WWE's former co-president Michelle Wilson has sold all her WWE stock. 

Ronda Rousey and Cain Velasquez were at WWE headquarters for meetings. A lot of talents are being brought in in that fashion due to corporate changes in WWE. 


More wrestling tomorrow.

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