Top WWE Star’s Contract Set To Expire In 2024; December 4th Wrestling News Round-Up

Watch CM Punk’s most important championship wins, shocking moments, his 2023 return and more.

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Scotty 2 Hotty, also known as Scott Garland talks exclusively to Inside The Ropes about CM Punk’s departure from AEW, his return to WWE and the effect on the industry.

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One WWE fan decided to be an absolute idiot during a recent Live Event by jumping the barrier in an attempt to attack Grayson Waller.

Waller has a knack for getting under the skin of the WWE Universe, with Taylor Swift fans being frequent targets of The Australian wrestler’s insult. While most fans are able to simply shake it off, one fan at a recent house show in Newark, Delaware stupidly tried to take matters into his own hands.

As seen via fan footage, the audience member is quickly restrained by security after hopping the guard rail. The camera then cuts to a separate shot of the fan being dragged out of the arena:

A fan jumped the barricade to attack Grayson Waller#WWENewark pic.twitter.com/j459ThLUX2

— TheSpotlightNews.com (@TheSpotlight___) December 4, 2023

There are not many certainties in life but there is death, taxes and KENTA being annoyed at CM Punk.

The pair have a storied rivalry online, mostly one sided, due to KENTA’s anger at Punk for “stealing” his iconic finisher the GTS.

Well, after CM Punk returned to the WWE, a place KENTA has spoken openly about not enjoying his time in and declaring himself “home” after mocking the company for years…KENTA couldn’t resist himself.

Ahead of his match at West Coast Pro’s West Coast MONSTER show, KENTA took the ring microphone in hand to mock Punk’s WWE return promo.

The NJPW Strong star would declare “I’m home” much to the joy of the live crowd.

Check out the moment below!

KENTA did the thing. 🏠#WestCoastMonster pic.twitter.com/Hyb00uDOlW

— cozy superkick ♻️ (@cozysuperkick) December 4, 2023

Divisive former WWE talent Charly Caruso, real name Charly Arnolt, has been announced as a “honoured guest” for the New York Young Republican Club’s upcoming Annual Gala alongside disgraced former President Donald Trump.

The annual event promises to “welcome back both members and guests for a black-tie evening featuring Cipriani’s signature bellini upon arrival, an open bar featuring top-shelf liquor, butler-passed hors d’ouvres, and a multi-course French-service dinner as we hear from high-profile national speakers, mingle with honoured guests, and discuss opportunities for the advancement of our mission.”

Carlie Arnolt, who has traded the WWE for FOX News, is set to be joined by Donald Trump, Senator Roger Marshall M.D, Representative Matt Gaetz and more.

If you are interested in reading a breakdown of all 91 felony counts charged against disgraced President Trump, you can do so here.

Late last week WWE released several corporate members of staff alongside on-screen personality McKenzie Mitchell in the latest round of post merger cuts.

According to a new report, unfortunately, this does not look to be the last of the cuts as more are expected.

Speaking on the cuts on the most recent episode of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer would reveal that more are to come following the WWE’s merger with UFC earlier this year.

“They cut five senior vice presidents. They’ve cut Michael Whites who’s on all the conference calls. The investor’s conference calls every quarter. And I figured the last investment conference call was completely different. I mean, there was no Nick Khan. Nobody really from from the WWE standpoint, it was recently Ari Emmanuel and Mark Shapiro. They’re handling the business.

So most of the people who were cut were from the business and it was the redundancy thing. They already have people in Endeavor for the jobs, Craig Stimmel, who was the head of Global Sales. I’m sure they got plenty of people there. Karen Mullane, who was the chief accounting officer, and then Stuart Fry, who was the senior vice president of streaming technology, and Matt Geyer, who was the senior vice president of gaming. They were some of the key people who were cut.

Michael White’s been with the company for probably 17 years. And always on those calls going through everything. I mean, no surprises, like I said, when the deal went through, I mean when the UFC deal went through there were no sacred cows. I mean, they cut a lot of people in who built that company from an organisational standpoint. And, you didn’t know who was gonna get cut and who wasn’t going to get cut and a lot of major people got cut. And same thing here and when they did the last round of cuts they said there’s gonna be no more cuts.

There’ll be more cuts. Once they examine things and everything like that, yeah. I haven’t seen the stock price since they did the cuts, but I guess we’ll see that in a couple of days.”

h/t TJRWrestling

Austin Theory and Grayson Waller have been a regular feature of WWE TV since their first in-ring pairing together back in August.

The duo has received largely positive reactions from fans but according to a new report the pair also have “tremendous support” behind the scenes as well.

According to a new report from WrestleVotes, Waller and Theory were initially only meant to be a temporary pairing but their on-screen success has changed WWE officials minds with the pair now set for a longer term partnership.

Taking to Twitter, WrestleVotes notes:

X”We’ve heard over the past few weeks of tremendous support for the team of Grayson Waller & Austin Theory.

Source in creative has said it was meant to be a short term pairing but those plans have changed.

The expectation is that the brash, young team may benefit from the mutual partnership in the long run.

Expect the duo to play a strong role in programming thru Mania.”

Have you been enjoying the partnership between Theory and Waller? Let us know by hitting the thumbs below!

Dave Meltzer may be like marmite to wrestling fans, but one thing is undeniable, the man watches a lot of wrestling.

So, if a match was great, there’s a good chance that he has already flagged it to be worth checking out.

Well, writing in this morning’s Wrestling Observer Daily News Update, Dave Meltzer has revealed his and his audiences Match of the Week for the week ending December 3rd, 2023.

Meltzer would name NJPW’s Tag League clash between the teams of Ishii and Yano and Umino and Narita from Friday December 1st as the match of the week/

He notes:

“The big talk all weekend is Ishii & Yano vs. Shota Umino & Ren Narita on Friday was the match of the week so far.”

If you want to check out that match you can do so over on NJPW World, just look for Day 9 of the NJPW World Tag League 2023 from the Wakayama Prefectural Gymnasium in Wakayama, Japan.

Do you agree with Dave? What was your match of the week? Let us know by using the get involved feature at the top of the page!

Iconic WWE Attitude Era star Spike Dudley has made his in-ring return after almost a decade out of action.

At LIVE Pro Wrestling’s December 3rd event in New Bedford, Massachusetts, Spike Dudley returned to the ring taking on The Cosmic Cuties, the team of Leon St Giovanni and Aaron Rourke.

Dudley’s last match, as per Cagematch, was back in 2015 for New York based promotion 2CW with the former Hardcore Champion defeating Jimmy Olsen and Jason Axe in what appeared, until now, to be his final match.

Taking to Twitter, ‘The Ace of Space’, Leon St Giovanni would relish in the moment noting that “life is crazy” before sharing some fan footage of the match.

Check it out below!

I wrestled Spike Dudley tonight. Life is crazy.

Don't worry about the footage. Trust me, I beat him senseless afterwards.@LIVEpwevents pic.twitter.com/CSqTuQaETc

— LSG 🚀 (@LeonStGiovanni) December 4, 2023

AEW All In 2024 may be almost a year away but that hasn’t stopped the major event raking in seven figures already.

Taking to social media, Tony Khan would reveal the events earnings so far whilst also sharing his excitement for the event that is still over nine months away.

Taking to Twitter, Tony Khan would reveal:

“Thank you all who made today’s #AEWAllIn on-sale a huge success for AEW + @wembleystadium!

Our 2023 ticket on sale was in May; this time we began 5 months sooner! On day 1, AEW’s already sold over $4 million in tickets (over £3M), just getting started: All In is 9 months away!”

Recently it was revealed that AEW had seen a growth in revenue year-on-year in 2023 with company expected to gross an astounding $170,000,000 this year.

You can read a full breakdown of AEW’s 2023 earnings, here.

At Survivor Series 2023, ‘The Viper’ made his long-awaited return to the WWE after over a year out with a career-threatening injury.

But how long will the master of the RKO be sticking around in the WWE?

Well, according to a new report Randy Orton could be under contract for as long as another three years if WWE are to invoke a certain contract clause.

According to a new report from Fightful Select, Orton’s WWE deal is currently set to expire in Autumn 2024, however, the company could extend the deal up to an additional two years due to the former WWE Champion missing 18 months of his contract due to injury.

Additionally, the report notes that a higher-up within the company noted they “would be surprised” if Randy Orton’s WWE deal was not extended.

Orton was recently filmed shouting 10 more years to the WWE Universe following his return at Survivor Series 2023 meaning that fans should have plenty more to come from ‘The Apex Predator’ following his return.

Who would you like to see Orton take on in the WWE following his return? Let us know by using the ‘get involved’ feature at the top of the page!

Good Afternoon!

I hope everyone is doing well and had a great weekend.

I can’t believe it is December already, how is timing moving so quickly!

I will be with you from 12pm to 6pm BST (7am – 1pm ET) covering all the biggest stories from WWE, AEW, NJPW, IMPACT and more.

We will be kicking things off today with the biggest stories from the last 24 hours including:

• A top WWE star’s contract is currently set to expire in 2024.
• Tony Khan reveals AEW All In 2024’s eye-watering earnings so far.
• Further WWE cuts are to be expected following UFC merger.
• Former WWE Talent “honoured” at New York Young Republican’s Gala alongside Donald Trump.
• A WWE ‘Attitude Era’ star has returned to the ring for the first time in almost a decade.
• KENTA mocks CM Punk‘s WWE return promo.