by Mike Johnson
June 22, 2020
FOX held a meeting several hours ago to inform everyone working on WWE Backstage that the series was done in its current format for now.
There will not be a new episode tomorrow. They had announced Bayley for the episode. A rerun of an older episode is most likely.
Among those who worked on the series, the belief is the show is completely done beyond the outside chance that it could be used for special programming down the line. There is no gameplan for such a thing currently, but things are being left open with the idea that FS1 could do more if they choose to do so.
Since we have gotten a few hopeful emails on this, I am sorry to douse the fire - CM Punk is under contract to FOX, not WWE, so the end of WWE Backstage does not mean he's going to migrate over to other WWE programming. WWE and Punk would have to make a deal and as we've seen, that doesn't seem likely. WWE had dropped even plugging Punk was part of the FOX series.
by WWE.com Staff
June 26, 2020
WWE has come to terms on the release of Travis Banks, Ligero and Jaxson Ryker. We wish them the best in all their future endeavors.
by Dave Meltzer
June 26, 2020
#SPEAKINGOUT The Pro Wrestling industry in Europe and North America, an industry that has had a male-dominated culture since its inception, was rocked to the core by women this past week with story after story of abuse with names from every significant promotion.
The U.K. scene was hit the hardest, but there were allegations against significant names in every promotion.
WWE has fired Jaxson Ryker, Travis Banks and Ligero. Banks, Ligero, David Starr and referee Mark Parry were earlier let go by Progress Wrestling, which has strong ties to WWE.
We previously wrote about Ryker's comments regarding using President Donald Trump's comments to justify his role as a part of the Forgotten Sons team. The feeling was from sources close to the company that the heat following up from that was too hot to handle. It is unknown what will become of Steve Cutler and Wesley Blake, the unfortunate scapegoats in all of this. One would presume they will be repackaged.
Jordan Devlin & Scotty Davis, the Progress tag team champions, were both suspended indefinitely by that promotion. Devlin was also the previous WWE Cruiserweight Champion. While NXT UK operations are currently suspended due to U.K. lockdowns, Devlin joins Joe Coffey and Wolfgang as suspended pending investigation.
From NXT, following the abundance of accusations from Velveteen Dream's interactions with teenaged fans on the Internet. While there are supporters of Dream within the company, there are also his detractors. While long considered a pet project of the WWEPC, there are those who feel that with his push of late, Dream's confidence has begun to rub people the wrong way. While there is yet to be an announcement as to a suspension or potential firing, given the ongoing NXT storyline of a fan vote between Finn Balor and he with the idea the winner challenges for the NXT title on 7/8, it is suspected WWE may wait until after the storyline is completed before a decision is made.
Violet O’Hara claimed Ligero had indecently assaulted her after she allowed him to lay in her bad when he was in a hotel room she was sharing with others. Ligero denied that, but did apologize to two specific women he trained.
“The current story that has been released by Violet O’Hara/Claire-Michelle Oldfield is neither accurate nor true. This is a completely false allegation and whilst I’ve done other things in my life that I deeply regret, this isn’t an accurate or truthful portrayal of events. This is something I strongly deny and is something I’ve been in the process of speaking to a legal team about.”
But he did corroborate other women regarding his role as their trainer.
“Regarding the other statements from people like Laura, Natalie, who have spoken about the way they were made to feel, and others that have come forward about unwanted messages, I have no excuse. It’s inappropriate. It’s a embarrassment and it’s an absolute shameful way to act from someone in a position of trust. I sincerely apologise for my actions and any hurt I’ve caused. I have no justification of my actions in the slightest. In these situations, I have failed people as a friend, as a fiancé and as a decent human being.”
Hannah Francesca posted photos of her body bruised up and attributed that to Devlin.
“This is scary.” she wrote. “ I’m really scared. Jordan Devlin did this to me. And this is just the physical damage. Not including my arse and back bruises because I don’t fancy posting that online. To the promotions, wrestlers and fans staying silent. I hear you. To the abusers tweeting their support. I see you. I was also told to reach out to my abuser as the whole thing might just be a `misunderstanding?’ Promoters. Educate yourself. Don’t gaslight your fans or talent.”
Devlin wrote in response, “I didn’t even want to address the hurtful allegation made against me, but for the sake of my followers and friends on this platform that may be for whatever reason be unsure, I’m going to address this once. The recent allegation made against me is completely and utterly false and I deny it entirely. This is a case of a malicious personal agenda being executed against me on the back of a very brave telling of true experiences by other women. I completely denounce it. This is all I will say on the matter and I am now working with a legal tea to help decide how to proceed from here.”
WWE stated, “Individuals are responsible for their own personal actions. WWE has zero tolerance for matters involving domestic violence, child abuse and sexual assault. Upon arrest for such misconduct, a WWE talent will be immediately suspended. Upon conviction for such misconduct, a WWE talent will be immediately terminated. WWE’s ability to fine suspend or terminate a WWE talent will not be, however, limited or compromised in any manner in the event incontrovertible evidence fo such illegal misconduct is presented to WWE.”
Millie McKenzie, a well regarded U.K. wrestler who started at the age of 14, and is now 20, listed a number of things. She claimed at the age of 14, an early trainer told her that he would leave his wife for her.
At 16 she started training in Wolverhampton at Fight Club Pro. Banks was the head trainer, who was 33 at the time. She said that they started a relationship shortly after, which Banks wanted kept secret, but it was well known on the local scene. Banks was her coach at the time. McKenzie also claimed Banks cheated on him multiple times in front of his face and was horrible to her. She also produced screen shots of an argument between the two of them where Banks begged for her to let her into his hotel room and begging for forgiveness while she kept telling him to leave her alone. The two have since broken up.
Banks released a statement saying the relationship was between consenting adults that failed. If the relationship started when she was 17, that is consenting by the laws of the U.K. McKenzie later said Banks destroyed the last years of her childhood and that the relationship had a massive effect on her mental health and self-confidence and she grew to hate wrestling and the person she was when with him.
With so many names linked, the very future of NXT U.K. is in question, since it’s a money-losing proposition put in place to kill the World of Sport, which is already dead. WWE’s long-term goal after the launch was to put NXT outposts all over the world with the U.K. brand as the first model. But after COVID and things scaling back, those expansion plans were temporarily shelved until things get back to normal.
In the U.K. the general feeling among many in and around the industry is shock and disgust, and within the U.S., it’s the same but with less fear regarding the future of the business itself. In the U.K. we’re told there is a realization that this has gone on too long, and while hidden in some ways, it’s been in plain sight all along. But the belief is few if anyone, while every knew something existed and maybe even suspected it being very bad, realized the problem was as big as it was.
One thing I’ve learned from women contacts and friends is that women who talked with each other were far less surprised about the names and the stories as guys, who all knew stuff existed but had no idea of the extent with some of the talent.
There is great concern about the U.K. scene. The popularity of wrestling peaked during the period when the independent scene was also strong in the U.S., with lots of marketable talent all around at the same time. Then WWE started stockpiling talent, first to keep them from ROH and New Japan which were gaining popularity, and then from World of Sport, and even more in the past year, from AEW. AEW itself put together a major roster, and ROH, MLW and Impact started signing up more people to try and fill their rosters and be competitive. Suddenly, the independent scene guys dried up in the U.K. and WWE also had a major decrease in popularity and drawing on recent tours.
Several promotions that relied on so many of the names mentioned, like Progress, OTT and RevPro, are hurt badly. The belief is some companies may not have come back from COVID even if this didn’t happen. The fear is the scene will revert back to the levels of 20 years ago and have to be rebuilt. But to rebuild needs a structure where young people can learn by working a ton of shows, which the top guys were able to do in the past.
OUTBREAK SHUFFLE During a week of ugliness, a second terrible story broke out with a COVID outbreak within WWE that also impacted AEW.
Details are sketchy because WWE literally has said nothing, not to talent, not to anyone. What we do know is that they were scheduled to tape two weeks of Smackdown and Raw on 6/26 and 6/27, and all shows have had to be rewritten multiple times because of talent that won’t be available.
Kayla Braxton, Jamie Noble and Adam Pearce are the only official names because they, for their own reasons, decided to go public with positive tests. For Braxton, her admission came warning people that just because you have had the disease and gotten through it doesn’t mean you can’t get it a second time. Second cases have been extremely rare. Braxton was the first WWE talent to test positive. She was the person show tested positive at the time of the WrestleMania tapings as the talent who was there when all talent was told about her positive test. Braxton was believed to have gotten it by socializing with people working at Florida hospitals in March.
One of the NXT talents in the audience had gotten sick and on her own, was tested. WWE alerted the media and talent of this on 6/15, and canceled tapings on 6/16 for a test for all performers, production people and staff who worked the tapings, as well as for friends and families of talent that were allowed in as fans starting on 6/15.
For the tapings on 6/17, they started late because they wouldn’t let anyone in until they got a negative test result. Because of that, they had to make a change in schedule, with Smackdown and Raw for 6/26 and 6/29 originally being taped on 6/26, and Smackdown and Raw for 7/3 and 7/6 being taped on 6/27.
Talent was brought in a few days early for testing scheduled for everyone involved, including the fans, from 6/23 to 6/25. It was the tests on the first day that had multiple positives, and there were evidently more as the week went on. Literally nobody knows anything about how deep the problems are except for perhaps the few top people in charge.
But that was changed again on 6/26 with the Raw for 6/29 being moved to being taped on 6/27 and it was unclear about 205 Live.
This would mean they would have to return on 7/3 for Smackdown tapings and likely tape the 7/6 Raw on that date as well. The belief is that with so many people unable to work the shows this week they hope they can tape with more people taping next week, which was originally supposed to be off.
NXT will tape the Great American Bash shows for 7/1 and 7/8, on 7/1, and then tape for 7/15 and 7/22 on 7/2.
Because of performers being absent, the 6/26 Smackdown show was changed to a tribute to Undertaker, with less live footage being used and more taped stuff, including airing the entire Undertaker vs. A.J. Styles boneyard match from WrestleMania. The report ahead of time was that they would tape about one hour on that afternoon and the rest of the show would be taped material related to Undertaker. In theory, airing the most talked about match from Mania and being an Undertaker tribute, this should do well above normal numbers. Then again, when they did shows built around HHH’s 25th anniversary, those shows drew very disappointing numbers.
With Pearce, there was a lot of concern since he worked so closely with both Bruce Prichard, who is 57, and very heavy, and Vince McMahon, who is 74. In addition, Ric Flair, who is 71, and has had numerous major health issues in recent years, was one of the performers who appeared on both days of tapings last week when the breakout took place. As of last word, Flair was not experiencing any health issues.
With Braxton, after trying to let the public know that you can get the disease twice, something a lot of people, including herself, were not aware of (there are cases of it but they are rare), was harassed online by cyberbullying to the point that she deactivated her account. Braxton in particular had posted a photo of herself at the beach with no mask on just recently before her positive test, which led to the harassment. She even stated that she thought she was invincible regarding the disease because she had already had it once, and warned people that having it doesn’t make you immune from getting it again, writing “Don’t be dumb like me.”
While it can’t be pointed out with surety, the belief is the person responsible for this latest outbreak was a female NXT performer in the stands.
Producer T.J. Wilson (who wrestled as Tyson Kidd), came to testing on 6/25 with a fever. Both he and wife Nattie Neidhart tested negative for COVID in I believe two different tests, but as a precautionary measure, the company asked both to sit out this weekend even though she was fine.
Obviously, it was horribly irresponsible for WWE to continue to tape shows during the pandemic without doing anything but temperature checks until 6/16. No other sports company even dreamed of continuing without regular COVID testing. Most were insisting on regular tests weekly, often more than once a week, and far more isolating. That, combined with not having people wear masks in the building, was almost mind-boggling in ignorance, or perhaps arrogance, to where the look at what they want the TV show to look like is more important than the health of the performers. AEW can be criticized for some things as well, but they did institute COVID testing, They did not have all people in the stands with masks and the talent at ringside was on top of each other, and there were several people in their 60s on television. But they didn’t discourage mask usage and were transparent about what they were doing. They also ran outdoors in a much larger arena which was a far safer venue.
For the tapings this week, WWE had sent at least four e-mails to their list of hardcore NXT fans to come and get tested this week until a final e-mail on 6/24 which stated that everything had changed and no fans would be allowed to upcoming tapings. Talent had already been unhappy about fans being let in, feeling that you never know where the fans had come from and they felt safer if it was only wrestling personnel in the building. WWE had than told all NXT talent that they were basically required to work as fans for this week’s tapings, although likely the biggest names that are stars on NXT television would probably not be used in that role.
Regarding the mandating of masks in Orange County, FL, where WWE starts taping again on 6/26, it will not apply to the WWE television shoot. Those in WWE have said the mandate is for all public places and the Performance Center is not under that category.
Regarding fans at the 6/15 WWE, none wore masks but there were four people who did, two production people, one producer and a social media person. While multiple reports including us got a number of messages that masks were banned and that if they didn’t feel comfortable not wearing a mask not to come, for fans who were there, they were not told not to wear masks. We were told that somebody did inquire to one of the doctors if he should wear a mask and the doctor said it’s not required, but did not say that he couldn’t. But none of the fans in the crowd nor trainees wore them at the show.
WWE had planned to start taping with crowds in Florida. They have contacted a company for local people for a Friday and a Monday in late July (7/24 and 7/27 were the dates being bandied about) for live televison shoots at the RP Funding Center in Lakeland, FL, an 8,000 seat arena. The plans was to allow fans but to have social distancing, so limiting crowds to a percentage of capacity. Last word is that may be pushed to August, but the July dates were originally set to be announced this coming week because Vince McMahon was determined to be the first person to run a live indoor sports event with a crowd.
WHEN THE CHIPS ARE DOWN WWE’s next PPV will be Extreme Rules: Horror Show, on 7/14. The irony of Horror Show being added to the title after this week is the epitome of a lack of self awareness. In actuality it is being used as a technique to entice viewers into watching. With the concept already to present a show choc full with gimmick matches, the idea is from those in higher management that subtitles are the in-thing in marketing right now. It is suspected that SummerSlam and September's Clash of Champions will follow suit with similar subtitles.
RUSH JOB While the plan long-term was for Matt Riddle to defend the NXT Tag team championships alone before introducing Timothy Thatcher, clearly there was big changes made. With Pete Dunne still trapped in the U.K., Thatcher was always intended to come in for a feud with Riddle as his introduction to the audience. This was sped up dramatically on 6/24, with Riddle and Thatcher not only losing the titles to Ever-Rise, but having a match intended to build for the first ever Fight Pit.
Conceptually it looks to be a steel cage match without ropes, akin to Josh Barnett's Bloodsport.
We have received word that with Matt Riddle being earmarked for a main roster push, his feud with Thatcher is intended to get him ready for the next step.
THE LAST RIDE? The Undertaker Last Ride series ended on 6/21 with an episode where Undertaker was happy with his match with A.J. Styles and said he would be fine to end his career with that bout.
He said that because of all the retakes, that people may have thought that match was physically easier than a normal match but he described the hours of taping to doing a very physical 45 minute match. He never said he was retired, and during the series there were a number of times where he went into the ring thinking it was his last match, and left the ring thinking that as well. He said the Bill Goldberg match, which was a disaster, was always in the back of his head.
During the series, the theme was that his wife, Michelle McCool, always wanted him to retire. He also noted that just before the taping of the Styles match, that his older brother died of a heart attack and McCool’s younger brother died in an auto accident and it made him reevaluate his priorities. McCool, however, encouraged him to face Styles, as did Styles, with the idea he was so talented and a safe worker and was the guy so good he could end his career on a high note. Really, if he was looking for a last final bow, that match was it.
The fact they aired this series where he pretty much gave up the character that he protected for decades always felt to me that the final episode would tell you he’s done. But we also know that every year with the lure of the money and Vince asking him to help out a show, whether it’s Mania or Saudi Arabia, you just never know. Plus, the idea of an advertised ahead of time retirement match and Hall of Fame week like they did with Ric Flair is, for this time where very little makes a business difference, this would be huge as a spectacle, as well as for media attention. It would also bring fans from the past back for one show.
WWE has not announced Undertaker has retired but Madison Square Garden did on its outside billboard this past week thanked Undertaker for 30 years.
KO-NCELLATION The One Night Only show with Owens in Glasgow, Scotland has been moved to 11/5.
WON Ratings:
Asuka vs Baszler - RAW 6/22 - ***½
McIntyre vs Owens - RAW 6/22 - ***¾
Fantasma vs Atlas - NXT 6/24 - ***¾
TV Ratings:
SmackDown 6/12 - 2.08 million viewers
RAW 6/22 - 1.99 million viewers
NXT 6/24 - 0.78 million viewers
