Below are a couple of top AEW & WWE news stories of the day.
• At one point, AEW seemed confident about keeping Daniel Garcia under contract despite WWE’s interest. However, that confidence has faded recently.
Garcia returned to AEW programming during the MJF vs. Will Ospreay match for the International Title at All In 2024, where he cost MJF the win. He later lost to MJF at All Out before attacking him.
Garcia has not yet signed a new contract, and his current deal expires in October. WWE remains interested in him.
The Wrestling Observer reported the following about Garcia’s status:
“Yes, it has everything to do with [AEW not using him on TV because he hasn’t re-signed]. I don’t think that they want to put him on TV until he makes the commitment. And I get it. You can use the TV time for people who are signed.
As far as what’s going to happen with him, I would say that the almost surety or the strong confidence that he was signing, I wouldn’t say that it’s as strong. I wouldn’t say that he’s leaving either but it’s not as strong as it was a month ago. He may leave.
The fact he didn’t sign before the last pay-per-view was one that is like, ‘Hey, wait a minute, why didn’t he sign before the last pay-per-view?’ It made a difference.”
New Video: Revealing Footage Of AEW Wrestler Hikaru Shida:
• WWE SmackDown potentially adding a third hour in January 2025 is not confirmed yet. WrestleVotes first reported that SmackDown would move to three hours starting January 3rd, with plans to return to two hours in June 2025. USA Network is pushing for the additional hour, similar to how they did with RAW in 2012.
RAW, meanwhile, will switch to a two-hour format in October before returning to three hours in January when it moves to Netflix. WWE has not officially announced these changes.
On Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer shared that WWE is in talks with USA Network about extending SmackDown. “It’s not 100%, but it’s certainly in negotiations, and I would say better than 50% that it’s going to happen,” he said.
Bryan Alvarez added, “So by negotiations, you mean they’re attempting to get more money.”
Meltzer confirmed, “Yeah… the original deal was definitely a two-hour show, and now they’re discussing a three-hour show.”
