Long-Time AEW Backstage Executive Released; December 5th Live Wrestling News Round-Up

Will Ospreay is set to compete inside a TNA ring when the legendary brand returns next year.

IMPACT Wrestling has announced that the IWGP United Kingdom Champion will compete at TNA Snake Eyes on January 14th, 2024 against an as-yet-unannounced opponent. Snake Eyes will be IMPACT’s second event after it rebrands back to TNA next month.

Ospreay last competed in TNA back in January 2016 and recently made his return to the promotion this past October. The soon-to-be AEW star competed on IMPACT TV, Bound For Glory, and Turning Point where he picked up three consecutive victories over Josh Alexander, Mike Bailey, and Eddie Edwards respectively.

BREAKING: @WillOspreay will step into a TNA ring at TNA #SnakeEyes on January 14 at the Palms in Las Vegas.

Get tickets HERE: https://t.co/uIMNT4fNfE pic.twitter.com/KGplXAQlVA

— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) December 5, 2023

途中であることに気がつく２人 pic.twitter.com/jTXFkNQNgI

— Pepsi（ペプシ） (@pepsi_jpn) December 4, 2023

Pepsi and KFC have released a new Christmas-themed commercial in Japan featuring Japanese wrestling legends Riki Choshu and Keiji Mutoh, aka The Great Muta.

So on the off-chance you ever wanted to see two elderly Japanese men devour some KFC and Pepsi like you’ve never seen before, do we have the video for you…

Tonight’s WWE NXT will emanate from the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida. The next major NXT event is NXT Deadline which takes place this weekend.

Matches and segments announced for the show include:

• Women’s Iron Survivor Challenge Summit
• Andre Chase addresses Chase University
• Baron Corbin goes face-to-face with Ilja Dragunov
• Otis, Chad Gable & Maxxine Dupri vs. Noam Dar, Oro Mensah & Lash Legend
• Carmelo Hayes vs. Eddy Thorpe vs. Joe Coffey vs. Tyler Bate – Men’s Iron Survivor Last Chance Qualifying Match
• Kiana James vs. Roxanne Perez vs. Fallon Henley vs. Thea Hail – Women’s Iron Survivor Last Chance Qualifying Match

What are you most excited to see on tonight’s episode of NXT? Let us know your thoughts here!

WWE is set to stop producing physical media at the end of this year, marking the end of its decades-long production of various content on VHS tapes, DVDs, and Blu-rays.

WWE Home Video UK announced this afternoon that WWE will no longer be producing Home Video/physical media content beyond this year. This means there will be no more DVD or Blu-ray releases of WWE content from 2024 onwards.

“With great sadness we must announce that WWE have taken the decision to withdraw from the Home Video category. No licensing deals will be renewed worldwide after 2023. This means the very last WWE Home Video release from Fremantle will be CROWN JEWEL 2023 (2-Disc DVD) on 18 December (UK) and 22nd December (GER).

WWE Home Video have been releasing VHS, DVD, Blu-ray for 36 years, the last 11 years through Fremantle in Europe, but this will come to an end on 31st December 2023 with no further WWE DVD or Blu-ray stock manufactured. Everyone at WWE Home Video UK would like to thank all our collectors and fans for many years of support and passion.”

The DVD version of WWE Crown Jewel will mark the final WWE Home Video release in the UK and Europe while WWE Survivor Series on DVD will be the last release in the US, Canada, and Australia, as reported by WrestlingDVDNetwork.

New details have emerged on reports that Kazuchika Okada is set to become a free agent.

Yesterday, it was reported that Okada is set to become a free agent when his New Japan Pro-Wrestling contract expires in January 2024. The news follows recent reports that there’s been talk of renewed interest in The Rainmaker behind the scenes at WWE.

However, Dave Meltzer has provided new details that indicate the situation isn’t as serious as first thought. Writing on X, Meltzer revealed that this is not a situation exclusive to Okada as almost every NJPW talent re-signs with the company annually in early February.

Virtually every NJPW wrestler will be a free agent at the end of January. They mostly sign deals 2/1 to 1/31 every year, but we covered WWE's interest in him weeks ago. https://t.co/2qESDWWGqZ

— Dave Meltzer (@davemeltzerWON) December 4, 2023

A new batch of WWE merchandise has indicated that a former star may have signed a Legends Deal with the company!

PWInsider noted yesterday that WWE has released several new Ken Shamrock t-shirts on WWEShop.com recently, suggesting that Shamrock has signed some sort of new deal with the company.

The outlet went as far as to speculate that the deal could be a Legends agreement and reported that there’s no word on whether WWE’s new connection with UFC may have brought Shamrock and WWE back into contact for the first time since 1999.

Since leaving WWE, Shamrock went on to compete in UFC and, in the world of wrestling, competed in TNA where he won the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship.

Don’t expect Jey Uso to be using the term ‘Yeet’ any longer.

During last night’s episode of Raw, eagle-eyed fans noticed that Jey Uso’s ‘Yeet’ t-shirt was blurred at one point during a video package promoting Uso’s match against World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins.

The reason behind the odd move was later revealed by insider X account WrestleVotes who noted that WWE has run into trademark issues with the term. As such, Uso will no longer be using the phrase on-screen nor will there be any more merchandise made associated with it.

As evident on RAW just now, I’m told WWE has found trademark issues with Jey Uso’s “Yeet.” The word & merchandising will no longer be associated with Uso going forward.

— WrestleVotes (@WrestleVotes) December 5, 2023

A big name behind the scenes at AEW has been released, leaving many at the company feeling surprised and unhappy.

Dave Meltzer and Sean Ross Sapp reported yesterday that AEW’s Vice President of Post Production Kevin Sullivan had been let go from the company. Sullivan had been with the company since its early days and is said to have been responsible for building up the post production team from scratch.

More details on the situation have now come to light via the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Radio. Meltzer notes that there was a general feeling of surprise and unhappiness over Sullivan’s firing, adding to a wave of feelings that the company is undergoing significant changes from its original vision.

“Well, the whole post-production team was his team. A lot of people were very, very surprised. And, I mean, there’s a lot of people that were not happy about this today, which is also one of the reasons I think why there’s a lot of, again, all day hearing negativity is because of this one because he’s been there from the start.

And there’s this feeling that The company is changing, which it always is, and it has to, you know, you’re always going to change, but the feeling that it’s changed, and it’s become something that it wasn’t.”

For more details on this story, click here!

Welcome back to the ITRWrestling live blog! I’ll be with you from 12pm to 6pm BST (7am – 1pm ET) covering all the biggest stories from WWE, AEW, NJPW, IMPACT, and more.

Today’s top stories are:

• Long-Time AEW Backstage Executive Released
• Jey Uso Unable To Use ‘Yeet’ Due To Trademark Issues
• Recent Merchandise Indicates New WWE Legends Deal?