Dave Meltzer is the founder and lead writer on the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the weekly constant when it comes to news and reviews in pro wrestling and mixed martial arts for more than 40 years. Dave also co-hosts Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and had had bylines for The National, Yahoo Sports, MMA Fighting and others.
Raw last night averaged 1.59 million viewers and did an 0.50 rating in 18-49, both among the lowest marks of the year.
The total viewer number was the lowest since football season ended and the 18-49 number was the lowest since a show on July 3, which is a holiday night.
The combination of NFL preseason and a show that felt repetitive led to a larger third hour drop than in recent weeks with the show built around two members of the Judgment Day against Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn, which ended up as a trios match with Judgment Day vs. Owens, Zayn & Cody Rhodes.
The show was down nine percent in viewers, down eight percent in 18-49, and down 15 percent in 18-34 from last week’s show.
The show had a big drop in men 18-34 from last week’s levels.
From one year ago, the show was down 21 percent in viewers, down nine percent in 18-49, and up three percent in 18-34. But if you factor in the loss of homes over the past year, a real fair percentage would be down 16 percent in viewers, but up less than one percent in 18-49 and up 13 percent in 18-34.
The general rule is that Raw doesn’t take the big hit until the regular season begins.
On today’s media call, Tony Khan spoke of a change in the card that he wouldn’t go into likely because it would involve a storyline.
Multiple sources have noted that Rey Fenix is trying to establish residency in the United States and for that reason, has not left the country of late. It was noted to us that the reason he didn’t go to Triplemania and drop the Latin American title is for that reason, and he was instead stripped of both that title and the AAA cruiserweight title.
It’s not clear when the promotion found out that Fenix wouldn’t be able to go. Obviously when they put the show together the belief was he would be available.
Fenix is wrestling Jon Moxley tomorrow night on Dynamite in Duluth, Georgia. One would expect something storyline related to come out of this match unless somehow his not being available was able to be fixed at the last minute, but multiple sources did say as of earlier this week he was off the show.
In checking on potential replacements, Bandido was touch-and-go but badly wanted to be on this show. He just got the pin removed from his broken wrist yesterday so it would be early, but not impossible.
El Hijo del Vikingo pulled out of his GCW dates this past weekend because he’s banged up but also would be available for a show at this level.
Fenix was scheduled to team with Eddie Kingston, Penta El Zero Miedo, Orange Cassidy, Trent Beretta & Chuck Taylor against Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, Wheeler Yuta, and three mystery partners in a Stadium Stampede match at Sunday’s pay-per-view in London.
Behind the scenes of the last month of AEW. why stories were kept quiet, why people were not allowed to attend Collision, why this has gone on for 18 months
All of the recent incidents talked about from multiple sides
The promo by C.M. Punk and what happened at the Greensboro show which led to all of his getting out
Different reactions to the promo
The apology that did happen
All In and attendance records plus the updated card with new matches that have not yet been announced
Full coverage of the end of G-1 and the big fall shows for New Japan
Business notes on G-1
Naito has two of the best matches of the year
Koichi Yoshizawa and his role in Japanese wrestling coverage in the U.S.
Saturday’s UFC coverage and where the top stars go from here as well as the business notes
Coverage of the final TripleMania show of the year and storylines behind it
Tammy Sytch update
The most detailed look at ratings for all the wrestling and MMA shows, gains and losses with what groups and why, what segments did the best and worst
Another women’s champion out of action due to surgery
RevPro and CMLL working relationship notes
World Grand Prix notes
Stardom PPV coverage and upcoming tag team tournament
N-1 coverage
New Japan and Stardom business notes
Hiromu Takahashi talks junior heavyweight goals
New Japan PPV shows this weekend
One of the biggest women stars has major surgery and a look back at her career
How the television industry continues to change
Full PWG coverage of the first show since January including some of AEW’s top stars
Update on new promotion opening next month and what well known announcer is in talks to appear
RevPro anniversary show update
WWE & AEW upcoming ticket sales
WWE & AEW streaming numbers
WWE and AEW international ratings
Conor McGregor talks future
Former UFC legend officially retires
Update on Bellator sale
Update on PPV numbers for Diaz-Paul and SummerSlam
Order the print Wrestling Observer right now and get it delivered via mail, by sending your name, address, Visa or Master Card number and an expiration date to [email protected] or by going to www.paypal.com directing funds to [email protected].
Rates in the United States are $14.50 for 4 issues, $35.50 for 12, $70 for 24, $116 for 40 and $149.50 for 52.
In Canada and Mexico, the rates are $16 for 4, $27 for 8, $38.50 for 12, $76 for 24, $126 for 40 and $162.50 for 52.
For the rest of the world, rates are $18 for 4, $48.50 for 12, $93 for 24, $155 for 40 and $201.50 for 52.
If you order by mail with a check, cash or money order to P.O. Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228, you can get $1 off in every price range.
Monday Update
Bryan and I will be back tonight with Wrestling Observer Radio covering Raw and the rest of the weekend news. Also want to bring up that on Friday we had a show on the site with a rare interview with Mike Tenay talking about Kochi Yoshizawa and his influence on us as well as the wrestling industry as a whole.
Konnan has confirmed having a kidney donor. He’s been looking for one for years. He told Haus of Wrestling that he’s found a donor who just has to lose six pounds and then they can donate their kidney but they also have to find out if the person is compatible.
Kasowitz Benson Torres partner Christine A. Montenegro was the featured guest on SportsWise: A Podcast About Sports and the Law hosted by Gabriel Feldman, Professor of Sports Law at Tulane University, in the episode “Battle Royal: WWE Gets Slammed in Court.” In the podcast, Ms. Montenegro discusses the antitrust lawsuit of Kasowitz’s client MLW Media against WWE alleging that WWE has monopolized and attempted to monopolize the market for the sale or licensing of media rights for professional wrestling programming in the United States.
With TSN+ in Canada moving from a free streaming service if you have a TSN subscription to an $8 per month service, that looks to limit the audience for Rampage and Collision which TSN only puts on streaming rather than regular television.
Raw is in Quebec City tonight where another crowd of 10,000 plus is expected. The only stuff announced ahead of time was Gunther vs. Chad Gable as Gunther goes for the all-time longest IC title reign, and Matt Riddle & Drew McIntyre vs. New Day. There looks to be a comedy match with Miz leading to an angle with LA Knight.
WBD sent out a press release stating Wednesday’s Dynamite had 2.3 million viewers and did an 0.81 in 18-49 L-3. To break that down for those not understanding, the 2.3 million viewers would be everyone who watched the show live plus on DVR through Saturday night at 3 a.m. The 0.81 is based on the actual audience that TBS gets. By that standard the show did an 0.70 same day number and anther 15.7 percent increase factoring in the next three days, which is the normal percentage increase that Raw, Smackdown and Dynamite (NXT is lower and Rampage is by far the highest and Collision is about the same as the other shows).
Rampage was 13th for the night on cable on Friday and third in the time slot. Smackdown won the night on network TV and overall.
Joe Lauzon, who hasn’t fought since 2019, asked UFC for a retirement fight on the recent PPV show in Boston but was told that the card was already full. Dana White said that he believes Lauzon should retire rather than fight one more time.
Kai Kara-France, who was to face Manel Kape at the 9/9 UFC PPV show in Sydney, Australia, had to pull out of the fight due to suffering a concussion over the weekend in training.
Mackenzie Dern will face Jessica Andrade on the 11/11 show in Madison Square Garden. After Andrade lost to Tatiana Suarez, one would think UFC would like to see Dern get a big win in MSG in what should be the biggest PPV audience of the year with the Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic heavyweight title main event.
The 9/1 Smackdown show in Hershey, PA, which is the John Cena return, was almost sold out before the announcement today of his coming back. It was just about sold out a few hours ago after the announcement so the secondary market tickets are a lot more valuable since very few primary market tickets are left. Cena will also be wrestling on the 9/8 show in India.
The docuseries “Wrestlers,” which is about the Ohio Valley Wrestling promotion run by Al Snow, will be debuting on Netflix in September.
Progress sent out a release saying that the International Exchange of North America (IENA) from the U.S. has made a significant investment in the company.
Impact on Thursday will have Alex Shelley vs. Brian Myers, Deonna Purrazzo vs. Taylor Wilde, Chris Sabin vs. Samuray del Sol, Chris Bey & Ace Austin vs. Jason Hotch & John Skyler and Laredo Kid vs Deaner.
AEW will be taping both Dynamite and Collision on Wednesday in Duluth, GA with this card:
Will Ospreay & Chris Jericho contract signing
Adam Cole and MJF interviewed by Renee Paquette
Sky Blue vs. Ruby Soho
Swerve Strickland & AR Fox vs. Darby Allin & Nick Wayne
Jack Perry retires the FTW title
Aussie Open vs. Hardys for ROH tag titles
Kenny Omega & Young Bucks vs. Juice Robinson & Gunn Brothers
For Collision they only announced an “All-Star 8 man tag match.”
Other Notes
House of Glory Wrestling on Friday night in Jamaica, NY: Encore Moore won Matt Travis Memorial Battle Royal, Steph De Lander b Kiki Van Gogh, Nolo Kitano won six-way ladder match to win cruiserweight title over champion Joey Silver, Super Crazy, Jordan Oliver, Raheem Royal and Isaiah Kaissidy, Hiroshi Tanahashi b Matt Cardona in a non-title match, Charles Mason b Masha Slamovich to retain the Crown Jewel title, Midas Black & Jack Lyon b Amazing Red & Brian XL in a cage match to win the House of Glory tag titles
Combat 1 Wrestling from from Friday night in Waterford Township, MI: Nate Bock b Antonio Christiano, Miami Mike b Reggie Collins, Tommy Vendetta b Fancy Ryan Clancy, Gio Bronco b Fabio, Krystal Moon b Sadiee Suicide-DQ, Alex Shelley won over Jason Hotch, Tommy Vendetta and Miami Mike to become the first Crash champion (thanks to Leonard Brand)
TMart Promotions has already announced a convention, The Gathering 5 for August 1-August 4, 2024 at the Hilton University Place in Charlotte, NC. This has been an annual event the past several years.
A horse named Fabulous Moolah won the eighth race at Finger Lakes in New York as a 3-2 favorite and it was the horse’s second win in a row (thanks to Barry Werner)
Behind the scenes of the last month of AEW. why stories were kept quiet, why people were not allowed to attend Collision, why this has gone on for 18 months
All of the recent incidents talked about from multiple sides
The promo by C.M. Punk and what happened at the Greensboro show which led to all of his getting out
Different reactions to the promo
The apology that did happen
All In and attendance records plus the updated card with new matches that have not yet been announced
Full coverage of the end of G-1 and the big fall shows for New Japan
Business notes on G-1
Naito has two of the best matches of the year
Koichi Yoshizawa and his role in Japanese wrestling coverage in the U.S.
Saturday’s UFC coverage and where the top stars go from here as well as the business notes
Coverage of the final TripleMania show of the year and storylines behind it
Tammy Sytch update
The most detailed look at ratings for all the wrestling and MMA shows, gains and losses with what groups and why, what segments did the best and worst
Another women’s champion out of action due to surgery
RevPro and CMLL working relationship notes
World Grand Prix notes
Stardom PPV coverage and upcoming tag team tournament
N-1 coverage
New Japan and Stardom business notes
Hiromu Takahashi talks junior heavyweight goals
New Japan PPV shows this weekend
One of the biggest women stars has major surgery and a look back at her career
How the television industry continues to change
Full PWG coverage of the first show since January including some of AEW’s top stars
Update on new promotion opening next month and what well known announcer is in talks to appear
RevPro anniversary show update
WWE & AEW upcoming ticket sales
WWE & AEW streaming numbers
WWE and AEW international ratings
Conor McGregor talks future
Former UFC legend officially retires
Update on Bellator sale
Update on PPV numbers for Diaz-Paul and SummerSlam
Order the print Wrestling Observer right now and get it delivered via mail, by sending your name, address, Visa or Master Card number and an expiration date to [email protected] or by going to www.paypal.com directing funds to [email protected].
Rates in the United States are $14.50 for 4 issues, $35.50 for 12, $70 for 24, $116 for 40 and $149.50 for 52.
In Canada and Mexico, the rates are $16 for 4, $27 for 8, $38.50 for 12, $76 for 24, $126 for 40 and $162.50 for 52.
For the rest of the world, rates are $18 for 4, $48.50 for 12, $93 for 24, $155 for 40 and $201.50 for 52.
If you order by mail with a check, cash or money order to P.O. Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228, you can get $1 off in every price range.
Sunday Update
– Our weekend show with Garrett Gonzales talking UFC, Smackdown, Collision, Edge, G-1 and answering questions is up on the site now. I’ll be back with Bryan Alvarez tomorrow night talking the weekend shows and Raw.
– I’d also like to thank everyone for their nice words on the Friday show with Mike Tenay and on this week’s Observer for the stuff regarding Koichi Yoshizawa. It really means a lot to both Tenay and I because Yoshizawa was not only so important in our lives but so important regarding all coverage of Japanese pro wrestling in magazines and newsletters for decades. Tenay said he believed Yoshizawa was the most important correspondent in the history of the Observer Newsletter and probably nobody else would be close. I have so many books and magazines and memorabilia from Yoshizawa and he was a friend to many in my family.
– Last night’s UFC show could not have gone better for the company as Sean O’Malley was seen as a major superstar, and a win or loss in the title match with Aljamain Sterling would have made all the difference in the world going forward. Dana White claimed last night’s show did the biggest PPV numbers in history for a show headlined by a bantamweight title fight. In addition, the devastating one-sided win by Zhang Weili to retain the women’s strawweight title was big because the hope is to do a show in China with her defending the title in the main event and use her fame and success to build the company in that market.
– UFC was the No. 3 most searched term yesterday on Google with 1 million. Chris Weidman was No. 15 with 50,000. The top two were women’s World Cup and Lionel Messi. That supplanted Hurricane Hilary which was in the top spot Wednesday through Friday.
– The UFC uploaded the end of O’Malley vs. Sterling to its YouTube channel immediately after the fight. Clearly they wanted to make sure everyone saw O’Malley’s win as soon as possible, even knowing they were sacrificing late PPV buys to do so.
– Dana White begged Chris Weidman to retire, saying that he was told by Dr. Jeff Davidson that Weidman may have blown out his ACL or MCL in last night’s loss to Brad Tavares, and that would put him out for some time. Weidman said he wanted to continue fighting. Weidman did say that when Tavares was kicking the leg that broke that he thought it was a tactic Tavares wouldn’t do out of respect but said he should have assumed he would. He said he would need an MRI and he was sitting in a wheelchair later that night. He said both legs were hurting pretty bad,. But he said he wasn’t done.
– Zhang Weili in her win over Amanda Lemos outstruck her 288-21 to show how one-sided the fight was. It was the biggest differential in landed strikes ever in a UFC women’s fight.
– The lone controversial decision was the Mario Bautista win over Da’Mon Blackshear on the PPV show. Sal D’Amato gave Bautista rounds two and three. Chris Lee also gave Bautista rounds two and three. Steve Rita gave Bautista all three rounds. Of media scores, no media members gave Bautista all three rounds and we were told that card was really bad, but that it could have gone either way. The media scores were 67 percent for Blackshear.
– We wrote on Friday about All In surpassing 80,709, As of yesterday, the number according to WrestleTix was 81,103. We talked about this and what it means in the issue but total in the building for WrestleMania 32 and tickets distributed for this show are different numbers. Paid attendance, which should be the most important number, and we don’t know what All In has other than it’s obviously under 81,103 because there are going to be comps. It is unlikely All In has broken the all-time record as of this moment but that record is very much in the air and could end up being broken. If we use SummerSlam as a comparison, that show sold 5,500 more tickets in the last week. If this show does that then it probably ends up with all the records except the gate record.
– That gate record set at WM 32 can’t be broken any time soon. WWE did set the all-time gate record for two shows on consecutive days for next year’s WrestleMania.
– We’re looking for reports on these weekend shows:
NXT from Friday night in Citrus Springs, FL
NXT from last night in Tampa, FL
WWE house show tonight in Laval, Quebec
We’re looking for results, finishes and highlights to [email protected]
– Tonight’s WWE house show in Laval, Quebec had 6,747 tickets out as of earlier today, which is a great house show number.
–NJPW/Impact Multiverse United is tonight from Philadelphia on FITE
Heath & Joe Hendry & Yuya Uemura vs. Ryusuke Taguchi & Rocky Romero & Master Wato
Kenny King vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru for the Digital Media title
Douki vs, Sami Callihan
Francesco Akira & TJP vs Robbie Eagles & Kosei Fujita
Chris Sabin vs. Frankie Kazarian vs. Rich Swann vs. Mao vs. Desperado vs. Yoh vs. Bushi vs. Kevin Knight
Giulia vs. Momo Kohgo vs Deonna Purrazzo vs,. Gisele Shaw for the New Japan Strong women’s title
Zack Sabre Jr. & Shane Haste vs. Eddie Edwards & Moose
David Finlay & KENTA & Clark Connors & Alex Coughlin & Ace Austin & Chris Bey vs. Josh Alexander & PCO & Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa & El Phantasmo & The DKC
Lio Rush & Trey Miguel vs. Hiromu Takahashi & Mike Bailey
Alex Shelly vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi for the Impact title
– Last night’s WWE house show results from Ottawa, ONT:
Drew McIntyre & Sami Zayn & Kevin Owens defeated Imperium when Owens pinned Kaiser after a stunner. This was Owens’ second match back as he worked a Friday night dark match in Toronto which was the same match as here
Rhea Ripley defeated Natalya with the riptide. Dominik Mysterio was not there. Nobody was in Ripley’s corner
Iyo Sky won a three-way over Charlotte Flair and Asuka when Flair speared Asuka and Sky threw Flair out of the ring and pinned Asuka. Sky worked as a babyface and was super over, Very fast paced match. Bayley was not there.
Cody Rhodes defeated Damian Priest after three Cross Rhodes. Ripley was in Priest’s corner and gave Priest the briefcase to use for a near fall.
AJ Styles & Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson defeated Austin Theory & Shelton Benjamin & Cedric Alexander when Styles pinned Theory.
Becky Lynch defeated Trish Stratus & Zoey Stark in a handicap match by pinning Stark. Stratus did a heel promo on Ottawa before the match so she wouldn’t get cheered.
Seth Rollins defeated Finn Balor in a street fight after a power bomb through the table and curb stomp to keep the world title
(thanks to Shannon Walsh)
– Ava, the daughter of Dwayne Johnson, had her first singles match beating Ivy Nile on last night’s NXT show in Tampa.
– Mike Bailey’s jr. festival tournament win over Kevin Knight is to lead to Hiromu Takahashi vs. Bailey for the IWGP Jr. title.
– El Hijo del Vikingo returns to House of Glory Wrestling on 9/15. Also on that show are Matt Cardona and Steph De Lander.
Within pro wrestling, there are far too many stories of overindulgent behavior leading to early deaths. But it’s even more tragic when a young man with a loving family is simply dealt a bad hand that he can’t overcome. Worse, we often like to take solace in the case of deaths by saying that at least the man didn’t suffer. And in this case, there is no solace.
John “Earthquake” Tenta battled cancer bravely for the past few years, and with nothing but complete dignity. He regularly posted updates on the Wrestlecrap forum of his friend, Randy Baer (aka R.D. Reynolds). Every message was about a fight that he was bound and determined to win. He was winning early, and by his words and spirits, at first, you couldn’t envision him losing. He came back after being handed the first verdict by his doctors of a probable death sentence two years ago. In 2004, he was first diagnosed with bladder cancer. After chemotherapy, he got the good news that he was winning the fight and the cancer was barely a dot.
Behind the scenes of the last month of AEW. why stories were kept quiet, why people were not allowed to attend Collision, why this has gone on for 18 months
All of the recent incidents talked about from multiple sides
The promo by C.M. Punk and what happened at the Greensboro show which led to all of his getting out
Different reactions to the promo
The apology that did happen
All In and attendance records plus the updated card with new matches that have not yet been announced
Full coverage of the end of G-1 and the big fall shows for New Japan
Business notes on G-1
Naito has two of the best matches of the year
Koichi Yoshizawa and his role in Japanese wrestling coverage in the U.S.
Saturday’s UFC coverage and where the top stars go from here as well as the business notes
Coverage of the final TripleMania show of the year and storylines behind it
Tammy Sytch update
The most detailed look at ratings for all the wrestling and MMA shows, gains and losses with what groups and why, what segments did the best and worst
Another women’s champion out of action due to surgery
RevPro and CMLL working relationship notes
World Grand Prix notes
Stardom PPV coverage and upcoming tag team tournament
N-1 coverage
New Japan and Stardom business notes
Hiromu Takahashi talks junior heavyweight goals
New Japan PPV shows this weekend
One of the biggest women stars has major surgery and a look back at her career
How the television industry continues to change
Full PWG coverage of the first show since January including some of AEW’s top stars
Update on new promotion opening next month and what well known announcer is in talks to appear
RevPro anniversary show update
WWE & AEW upcoming ticket sales
WWE & AEW streaming numbers
WWE and AEW international ratings
Conor McGregor talks future
Former UFC legend officially retires
Update on Bellator sale
Update on PPV numbers for Diaz-Paul and SummerSlam
Order the print Wrestling Observer right now and get it delivered via mail, by sending your name, address, Visa or Master Card number and an expiration date to [email protected] or by going to www.paypal.com directing funds to [email protected].
Rates in the United States are $14.50 for 4 issues, $35.50 for 12, $70 for 24, $116 for 40 and $149.50 for 52.
In Canada and Mexico, the rates are $16 for 4, $27 for 8, $38.50 for 12, $76 for 24, $126 for 40 and $162.50 for 52.
For the rest of the world, rates are $18 for 4, $48.50 for 12, $93 for 24, $155 for 40 and $201.50 for 52.
If you order by mail with a check, cash or money order to P.O. Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228, you can get $1 off in every price range.
Friday Update
Garrett Gonzales and I did a show with Mike Tenay today talking about newsletters in the 70s and Koichi Yoshizawa, as well as updating some of the news in the current Observer. Garrett & I will be back tomorrow night covering Collision, UFC, Smackdown and the other weekend news as well as do our usual week in review stuff. Bryan and I will be back up on Monday.
The new issue of the Observer is up and we’ve gotten a lot of compliments regarding it as one of the best issues of the year, both the lead story on AEW and the story on Koichi Yoshizawa.
There is still no update regarding the status of the FTR vs. Young Bucks match at All In. Daniel Wheeler is legally allowed to go to England. Tony Khan hasn’t said anything regarding the arrest of Wheeler that broke earlier today although it actually was from a few weeks ago. There is no word on when Khan first round out but talent that we know found out the same time everyone else did. I would expect if there is a change that it would be addressed on Collision tomorrow night. The idea that I’ve seen brought up by fans, ironically, is the same idea I had, which is basically hold up the titles if the decision is made not to use Wheeler at this time, and have Dax team with Mark Briscoe and go for the vacated titles against the Young Bucks. Now Briscoe was injured so that also may not be possible. But at this moment Young Bucks vs. FTR is still the match on the schedule.
All In was at 80,848 tickets out as of earlier today. The largest legit crowd ever at a pro wrestling event that the majority paid to attend was 80,709 at WrestleMania 32. So in a sense, that record appears to have been broken. It is possible that some people with tickets won’t attend, but it is unlikely that number would be higher than the number of tickets that will be sold over the next eight days. So this show probably sets the all-time record but that’s not official until the day of the show.
WWE released that WrestleMania for next year has sold 90,000 tickets for Philadelphia which is a combined number of two days or 45,000 each day. Pretty much all the tickets that were put on sale today were sold, and most tickets were already sold in the presale earlier in the week. Obviously more tickets will be released as the event approaches. For a WrestleMania set up, the show could put 62,000 in and obviously they are announcing a number larger than that.
WWE is claiming a gate record for Philadelphia. But that would be by adding the gate of two shows together. The claim is more than the record of $21.5 million set last year. However, the audited two date combined number from Los Angeles was really $19,749,071. To me, nobody combines two shows for gate records. New Japan doesn’t claim the two gates for Wrestle Kingdom beat the Inoki vs. Don Frye record. WWE had claimed $17.3 million for WrestleMania 2016 and neither show this year or next year will hit that mark, but of course adding up the two shows and comparing it to one would be a higher number. This isn’t to say the number isn’t impressive as it is. But it would be like baseball adding up the seven games of the World Series together and claiming they drew more than a single NFL game.
With Edge’s possible retirement match tonight, it was noted that the series Percy Jackson and the Olympians, which features Adam Copeland in a recurring role, will premiere on 12/20 on Disney+.
Rampage tonight at 10 p.m. on TNT has:
Rey Fenix vs. Komander – people who saw this live were raving about it
Ethan Page & Brother Zay vs. Aussie Open
Sammy Guevara vs. Jon Cruz
Hikaru Shida & Skye Blue vs. Toni Storm & Ruby Soho
We are looking for reports on these weekend shows:
Smackdown tonight in Toronto (dark matches only)
NXT tonight in Citrus Springs, FL
WWE house show tomorrow night in Ottawa, ONT
NXT tomorrow night in Tampa*WWE Sunday in Laval, Quebec
We’re looking for results, finishes and highlights to [email protected]
UFC 292 is tomorrow from the TD Garden in Boston:
ESPN+ at 6:30 p.m. Eastern
Karine Silva (125) vs. Maryna Moroz (125)
Andrea Lee (125) vs. Natalia Silva (125)
Andre Petroski (186) vs. Gerald Meerschaert (185)
ESPN 2 at 8 p.m. Eastern
Brad Katona (135) vs. Cody Gibson (135)
Austin Hubbard (155) vs. Kurt Holobaugh (155.5)
Gregory Rodrigues (186) vs. Denis Tiuliulin (185)
Chris Weidman (186) vs. Brad Tavares (185)
PPV at 10 p.m.
Marlon Vera (135) vs. Pedro Munhoz (135)
Da’Mon Blackshear (135.5) vs. Mario Bautista (136)
Ian Machado Garry (170.5) vs. Neil Magny (170.5)
Zhang Weili (115) vs. Amanda Lemos (114) for the strawweight title
Aljamain Sterling (135) vs. Sean O’Malley 135) for the bantamweight title
Chris Weidman was very upset about his return fight after a gruesome broken leg not being on the PPV. I don’t really understand that decision either, especially with the show on ESPN 2 rather than ESPN.
PFL on ESPN tonight at 9 p.m. from the Theater in Madison Square Garden:
Renan Ferreira vs. Maurice Greene in a heavyweight tournament semifinal
Larissa Pacheco vs. Olena Kolesnyk in a women’s featherweight tournament
Denis Goltsov vs. Jordan Heiderman in a heavyweight semifinal
Marina Makhnatkina vs. Amber Leibrook in a women’s featherweight semifinal
The semifinal winners go to a championship match later this year where the tournament winners get a $1 million bonus.
Pro Wrestling NOAH’s N-1 tournament has shows in Sapporo on Saturday and Sunday.
New Japan has two PPV shows this weekend,the All-Star Junior Festival on Saturday and the joint show with Impact on Sunday, both from the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia. Added to the Sunday show is TJP & Franesco Akira, one of the top tag teams in the world, facing Robbie Eagles & Kosei Fujita.
Gunther, Grayson Waller and Trck Williams were at Lincoln Financial Field last night promoting the WrestleMania on sale. Williams did a hype promo. Waller talked about Jordan Mallata of the Eagles, who is from Australia and Gunther was there with his belt. Eagles announcer Dave Spadaro called Gunther’s belt “the championship” and Gunther corrected him, but Spadaro was told that Gunther is about to break the Honky Tonk Man’s record. This led to a scripted moment where Gunther shoved him down hard. (thanks to Ken Raining)
The former HBO hit show “Ballers” that Dwayne Johnsonh was behind and starred in is now on Netflix.
The Pat McAfee show will debut on ESPN on 9/7. The show will air from Noon to 2 p.m. eastern on ESPN and ESPN+ with a third hour daily only on ESPN+
Combate Global runs tomorrow night on Univision and Paramount Plus with a lightweight main event of Ivan Castillo (22-17) vs. Santiago Guzman (7-3).
MLW tickets for 12/7 in New York at the Melrose Ballroom go on sale 8/25. It will be a PPV show plus a TV taping.
Kurt Angle will be signing autographs before the 10/7 Border City Wrestling show in Windsor, ONT that also features a match with Kaito Kiyomiya. The show will be at St. Clair College’s Sportsplex.
The Chicago Cubs will host WWE Night on 8/28 at Wrigley Field in a game against the Milwaukee Brewers.
This is actually happening this weekend, a boxing match featuring Jeff Monson against former UFC legend Oleg Taktarov.
A promo by C.M. Punk and Adam Page and Ryan Nemeth being booked to work at the 8/12 Collision show at the Greensboro Coliseum and being turned away and not allowed to be in the building for the show ended up as the latest major divisive drama for the promotion.
Because of what happened, some minor things from the past that were not considered that big of a deal and just things that happened, became major stories this week as part of the pattern.
Essentially, in recent weeks, Matt Hardy was booked for a Collision taping but was later told not to go into the building. He was told it was related to C.M. Punk and while the story was not talked about heavily, it was mentioned as one of those things that happened. Those close to Punk have denied Punk being the reason for this.
Daniels, the head of talent relations, had been working Collision in his regular duties and wrestling on ROH shows as a single and sometimes as a tag team. He was recently told no longer to come to Collision and was of the impression it was related to Punk.
Koichi Yoshizawa, who was the most important source of information about Japanese wrestling when it came to wrestling magazines and newsletters from the 1960s until the internet era, passed away on July 28.
He was 73.
Yoshizawa was a childhood fan of Rikidozan and all of the stars of that era and was one of Japan’s top wrestling historians because he went back so far.
Because he knew English, he was very close with most of the Americans that would tour Japan until about a decade ago when he started having health issues and wasn’t allowed to travel to shows.
Against doctors orders, I believe the last show he attended was The Destroyer Memorial show and told me had to go to Tokyo to see Abdullah the Butcher for the last time.
Yoshizawa sent letters to numerous magazines and newsletters from the 60s on with the results and news covering the major shows. He would send multiple letters per week and as the Observer became the leading insider source, he would call me multiple times per week.
He wrote and took photos for both the Japanese wrestling magazines, was affiliated with the sports newspapers, and wrote reports and took photos for every U.S. wrestling magazine during the magazine era heyday. While there were others from Japan affiliated with different wrestling magazines, he was by far the number one and most consistent source and without him there would have been almost no photos or coverage of Japanese wrestling in the U.S.
Had it not been for him, American knowledge and understanding of what was going on in Japan and its history would have been nonexistent at least until the early 80s, and he was the key source of information for virtually anyone covering Japanese wrestling until the internet era.
From the 60s on, at most of the major events in Japan he was very visible at ringside shooting photos. Even though he loved and was fascinated by American wrestling, he never came to the U.S.
His knowledge of Japanese wrestling history was extensive and he was exceedingly well liked. He was responsible for teaching me Japanese wrestling from when we first got in contact when I was 13.
Raw last night started unusually low but recovered well, doing 1.76 million viewers and a 0.55 rating in 18-49. It was the lowest viewership number since June 12, which was the episode that went head-to-head with the final game of the NBA playoffs.
The low start meant the first and third hours had identical viewership and for the first time I can recall in a long time, the first quarter at 1.59 million viewers was the low point of the entire show.
Rankings for the day are unavailable at press time.
The show would be expected to be down from last week, given last Monday was the Raw after SummerSlam.
The drop from last week was seven percent in viewers, 10 percent in 18-49, and seven percent in 18-34, which would be drops along the lines of what one would expect.
However, the difference in the make-up of viewership from one year ago was notable. While down 11 percent in total viewers, that was largely due to a decline in viewers over 50. The 18-49 demo was up four percent and 18-34 was up 42 percent from the same week last year.
When you factor in the losses of cable homes over the past year, you would still have a six percent drop in total viewers. It has been very rare that total viewers from this year were down over the same week last year. But with the younger audience, the numbers are still way up, as factoring that in you get a 14 percent increase in 18-49 and a 57 percent increase in 18-34.
All things considered based on the patterns, the Cody Rhodes vs. Finn Balor main event was strong in keeping the viewership until the end of the show. But that’s also attributable to people starting watching the episode late, meaning that they are more likely to stay with the show longer.
The big Saturday night with SummerSlam, UFC, Diaz vs. Paul, Collision and G-1 and who watched what
The departure of Brock Lesnar and his scheduled return, and departure of Ronda Rousey and her importance and the MMA rules attempt
The Bloodline angle
Business numbers including PPV, WWE buyers who bought Forbidden Door, Spence vs. Crawford and Diaz vs. Paul
What record did SummerSlam set and what record that it set will last only a few more weeks
The ruling in the Cung Le vs UFC lawsuit regarding it becoming a class action suit, what the judge said, the MLW suit against WWE, and how this lawsuit potentially affects WWE
Full coverage of the G-1 Climax tournament, with the storylines and match reviews from the past week
All In sets its own new record and update on the show
Full coverage of Saturday’s UFC show
CMLL anniversary show news
The most in depth look at the ratings of all national pro wrestling and MMA shows, including segment-by-segment and by different groups, as well as where the wrestling and MMA shows stood in the overall weekly cable and network standings
Lots of foreign stars coming to CMLL
TripleMania notes
Stardom Five Star Grand Prix tournament update
N-1 tournament update
NOAH sells out in seconds
New Japan’s All-Star Junior event in Philadelphia
Hulk Hogan and his new stories
Schedule of shows for London over All In weekend
Arenas trying to block their agreements with WWE from public view
Legendary tag team reunites
Young Bucks talk signing their new deals and current thoughts on wrestling
Full Gear 2023 update
Dynamite and Smackdown upcoming time changes for baseball playoffs
Lots of injury updates
Upcoming attendance numbers for WWE and AEW
International TV ratings and streaming numbers
Update on Forbidden Door PPV numbers
Dana White predicts a fight doing 10 million buys at $100 a view
New UFC main events
Bellator planning huge show
Jake Paul vs. Nate Diaz
Logan Paul’s next fight and why it’s such a joke
Boxing superstar signs with MMA group
Vince McMahon’s ownership in the new UFC/WWE company
New Board of Directors
Plans for NXT
More on Kairi’s return
AEW star close to signing with WWE
WWE performer going for the real wrestling Triple Crown
Order the print Wrestling Observer right now and get it delivered via mail, by sending your name, address, Visa or Master Card number and an expiration date to [email protected] or by going to www.paypal.com directing funds to [email protected].
Rates in the United States are $14.50 for 4 issues, $35.50 for 12, $70 for 24, $116 for 40 and $149.50 for 52.
In Canada and Mexico, the rates are $16 for 4, $27 for 8, $38.50 for 12, $76 for 24, $126 for 40 and $162.50 for 52.
For the rest of the world, rates are $18 for 4, $48.50 for 12, $93 for 24, $155 for 40 and $201.50 for 52.
If you order by mail with a check, cash or money order to P.O. Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228, you can get $1 off in every price range.
Monday Update
Bryan and I will be back tonight with Wrestling Observer radio covering the latest news. We will have a lot more on the AEW backstage stuff and also be answering questions on that subject that you can send to [email protected]
The C.M. Punk camp has claimed that they did not get Adam Page or Matt Hardy booted from recent Collision shows, but a number of reports said he did so with Christopher Daniels, who is head of talent relations. Others have claimed he did with Page and Hardy and much of the locker room believes that. One person claimed he didn’t even know Page was in Greensboro. There have been people who said he was responsible for Ryan Nemeth being out and that was a major cause of concern on Saturday night in the company, both from those in Greensboro and those not, but others have claimed that was a management call and not a Punk call although it related to two incidents with Punk, one on Saturday and one in June.
WrestleMania tickets for next April in Philadelphia go on sale in a presale tomorrow. You can use the code WPGH. The two day combo package goes on sale tomorrow as well to the public. Individual show tickets go on sale to the public on Friday. (thanks to WrestleTix)
Raw tonight is in Winnipeg with Becky Lynch vs. Trish Stratus doing their planned for SummerSlam match. Shinsuke Nakamura will be doing a promo talking about his turn on Seth Rollins and they’ll be starting to build the 9/2 PPV show in Pittsburgh. There were more than 8,000 tickets out as of this morning.
We’re doing polls this week on these shows:
G-1 semifinals on Saturday night
G-1 finals on Sunday
TripleMania on Saturday
Stardom on Sunday
You can leave your thoughts with a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to [email protected]
A ton of New Japan major matches for shows like 10.9 at Sumo Hall and 10/14 at the Copper Box Arena in London should be announced over the next day or so. The Eddie Kingston vs. Aaron Henare New Japan Strong title match will headline a 10/28 show in Las Vegas.
For All In, the doors at Wembley Stadium are to open at 3:30 p.m. and the first match goes into the ring at 5 p.m. I’d say arrive early because they’ve topped the 80,000 mark.
Kevin Nash said that he pitched WWE on the idea of being a host or MC for SummerSlam. The show was in Detroit, where he grew up. He said he pitched it months ago but never heard back.
The Stardom Five Star Grand Prix is tomorrow at Korakuen Hall with these matches:
Red: Mayu Iwatani vs. Tam Nakano
Red: Syuri vs. Hazuki
Blue: Utami Hayashishita vs. AZM
Blue: Mom Watanabe vs. Saori Anou
Blue: Mariah May vs. Mina Shirakawa
Kevin Blackwood debuts for MLW on 9/3 in Philadelphia in a three-way against Alec Price and TJ Crawford.
New Japan has announced Kenny King vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru for the Impact Digital Media title and Joe Hendry & Yuya Uemura & Heath vs. Rocky Romero & Master Wato & Ryusuke Taguchi for the 8/20 joint show with Impact in Philadelphia at the 2300 Arena.
Masked Republic is talking about doing a Lucha Libre cruise in 2025.
SICW from Saturday night in Belleville, IL: Jayson Breed b Shawn Douglas, Billy McNeil b the Intern, Curtis Wylde b Waco, Gary Jackson b Kowalski-DQ, Gil Rogers b Payto Ayres, Ax Allwardt & Mike Masters b Brandon Bareretta & Joe Vinetti, Sean Vincent b Flash Flanagan-DQ . Tito Santana was a special guest at the show (thanks to Patrick Brandmeyer)
Ken Yasuda, a bodybuilder who worked with a number of Southern California fighters and pro wrestlers as a strength and conditioning coach, passed away. He had a long affiliation with Antonio Inoki and the IGF. He was 52. He was a bodybuilder and actor who coached the Tokyo Sabres of the International Fight League and helped train Mark McGwire, Don Frye, Tito Ortiz, Kazuyuki Fujita, Ichiro Suzuki and Shinsuke Nakamura. He was also a guest ambassador at the 2017 Wrestle Kingdom show.
Lucha Va Voom returns to the Mayan Theater in Los Angeles on Friday night. Taya Valkyrie and Peter Avalon are on the show.
Dwayne Johnson was on the CBS Morning show thanking Americans for helping out with the victims of the Maui fire.
NXT tomorrow has Dijak vs. Wes Lee, winner gets a title shot at Carmelo Hayes at Heat Wave on the 22nd, plus Tony D’Angelo & Stacks Lorenzo defend the tag titles against The Dyad, Dana Brooke vs. Blair Davenport and Drew Gulak vs. Trick Williams.
Thunder Rosa’s Mission Pro Wrestling on Saturday night in San Antonio, TX: Shay Karmichael b Denisse Dae, Queen Uju b Nova Phoenix, Maya World b JP Harlow, Joey Hyder b Tina Nixx, Joey Huder b Jael, Alejandra Quintanilla b Hyder, Casey Blackrose b Quintanilla, Boss Baines b Blackrose, Lady Bird b Baines to win the MPW Cup, Madi Wrenkowski & Rache Chanel b MJ Satana & Mia Friday, Jazmin Allure b Izzy Moreno, Tiffany Nieves b Janacide to win the MPW title. Moreno is Izzy the Bayley fan from the Full Sail University NXT tapings years ago. (thanks to Shannon Walsh)
The big Saturday night with SummerSlam, UFC, Diaz vs. Paul, Collision and G-1 and who watched what
The departure of Brock Lesnar and his scheduled return, and departure of Ronda Rousey and her importance and the MMA rules attempt
The Bloodline angle
Business numbers including PPV, WWE buyers who bought Forbidden Door, Spence vs. Crawford and Diaz vs. Paul
What record did SummerSlam set and what record that it set will last only a few more weeks
The ruling in the Cung Le vs UFC lawsuit regarding it becoming a class action suit, what the judge said, the MLW suit against WWE, and how this lawsuit potentially affects WWE
Full coverage of the G-1 Climax tournament, with the storylines and match reviews from the past week
All In sets its own new record and update on the show
Full coverage of Saturday’s UFC show
CMLL anniversary show news
The most in depth look at the ratings of all national pro wrestling and MMA shows, including segment-by-segment and by different groups, as well as where the wrestling and MMA shows stood in the overall weekly cable and network standings
Lots of foreign stars coming to CMLL
TripleMania notes
Stardom Five Star Grand Prix tournament update
N-1 tournament update
NOAH sells out in seconds
New Japan’s All-Star Junior event in Philadelphia
Hulk Hogan and his new stories
Schedule of shows for London over All In weekend
Arenas trying to block their agreements with WWE from public view
Legendary tag team reunites
Young Bucks talk signing their new deals and current thoughts on wrestling
Full Gear 2023 update
Dynamite and Smackdown upcoming time changes for baseball playoffs
Lots of injury updates
Upcoming attendance numbers for WWE and AEW
International TV ratings and streaming numbers
Update on Forbidden Door PPV numbers
Dana White predicts a fight doing 10 million buys at $100 a view
New UFC main events
Bellator planning huge show
Jake Paul vs. Nate Diaz
Logan Paul’s next fight and why it’s such a joke
Boxing superstar signs with MMA group
Vince McMahon’s ownership in the new UFC/WWE company
New Board of Directors
Plans for NXT
More on Kairi’s return
AEW star close to signing with WWE
WWE performer going for the real wrestling Triple Crown
Order the print Wrestling Observer right now and get it delivered via mail, by sending your name, address, Visa or Master Card number and an expiration date to [email protected] or by going to www.paypal.com directing funds to [email protected].
Rates in the United States are $14.50 for 4 issues, $35.50 for 12, $70 for 24, $116 for 40 and $149.50 for 52.
In Canada and Mexico, the rates are $16 for 4, $27 for 8, $38.50 for 12, $76 for 24, $126 for 40 and $162.50 for 52.
For the rest of the world, rates are $18 for 4, $48.50 for 12, $93 for 24, $155 for 40 and $201.50 for 52.
If you order by mail with a check, cash or money order to P.O. Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228, you can get $1 off in every price range.
Sunday Update
Garrett and I did a long interview with Andy Quildan, the promoter of RevPro. It was a very interesting look at promoting a show, getting new talent over, the ups and downs of the British independent scene, how NXT UK changed everything, All In and much more. Bryan and I will be back tonight covering all the weekend news and there is a ton of it.
Regarding questions about the C.M. Punk off-screen promo on Adam Page, this was not storyline or anything like that. Page was actually sent to Greensboro last night to do a pre-tape interview backstage for Wednesday’s Dynamite show and when he got there was told that they would have to do it away from the Coliseum and not to go to the show. He wasn’t booked to appear on Collision itself. This was not the Jim Ross interview with Kenny Omega that was taped, but not in Greensboro last night, for Wednesday which will announce the Omega match for All In. Punk got a mixed reaction during the show itself but when he ran down Page for no apparent reason he was booed heavily. After the clip that made its way on social media ended, while still in front of the fans, he said that he wanted to tell the fans he loved each and every single one of you, that we sold more tickets than the last time in the building and said it was cool that people made signs that read CM Skunk. As noted before, the Young Bucks and Punk do have an agreement to not say anything negative publicly about each other, but that does not include Page.
I haven’t seen the Mayu Iwatani vs. Utami Hayashishita match from today’s Stardom PPV show in Osaka but people have raved about it. The other matches I have seen from the last two nights of G-1 and I felt Will Ospreay vs. Tetsuya Naito was incredible, Naito vs. Kazuchika Okada was one of the best storytelling matches in a long time and a legit classic final match, and a lot didn’t like Okada vs. Evil because of the redundant interference, but it did have great heat and the Okada performance as a babyface coming back and winning was off the charts. I’d say the last three nights were excellent as far as the G-1 bouts went.
As is usual at the G-1 Climax finals, there was a ton of news. Ryohei Oiwa will be going for a time to NOAH to pick up more experience that team with Kaito Kiyomiya. Usually young talent is sent overseas and I’ve never heard of them being sent to another Japanese promotion.
There should be a press conference very soon and these bouts that were set up will be likely announced for different dates:
Sanada vs. Evil for the IWGP title (likely October, as best we can tell Sanada is not going to have surgery on his torn left biceps)
Will Ospreay vs. Yota Tsuji for the UK title
Tetsuya Naito vs. Jeff Cobb for the Tokyo Dome main event IWGP title challenger spot
Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Oleg Boltin for the TV title
Hirooki Goto & Yoshi-Hashi vs. Shane Haste & Mikey Nicholls for the IWGP tag title
David Finlay vs. Tama Tonga for the Never title
Taichi vs. Sho for the KOPW title
Conor McGregor did an interview with TalkSport and said he would face Michael Chandler in December, which based on USADA rules shouldn’t happen because he hasn’t enrolled in drug testing and you need six months of clean tests after “retiring” to fight. But they’ll waive that rule for him. He said that after Chandler, he wants to face Justin Gaethje for the BMF title and after that, wants to face Nate Diaz. While at the Saturday night Anthony Joshua fight, McGregor said he wanted a Bare Knuckle boxing match with KSI.
Stardom PPV results from earlier today from the Edion Arena in Osaka:
Suzu Suzuki & Mei Seira won the tag team gauntlet
Starlight Kid b Natsuko Tora in the Five Star Grand Prix
Saki Kashima b Koguma to keep the High Speed title
Natsupoi & Saori Anou b Mina Shirakawa & Mariah May to win the Goddesses of Stardom tag titles. Lots of praise for Natsupoi and May here
Giulia b Yuu to keep the New Japan Strong women’s title. Giulia officially announced going to Philadelphia for her next title defense on the joint show with Impact on 8/20. This looks like a four-way with Giulia defending against Deonna Purrazzo, Gisele Shaw and Momo Kohgo
Mayu Iwatani b Utami Hayashishita to keep the IWGP womens’ title
Tam Nakano b Megan Bayne to retain the World of Stardom title
We’re doing a series of polls, for these shows:
G-1 Saturday in Sumo Hall
G-1 Sunday in Sumo Hall
AAA TripleMania Saturday in Mexico City
Stardom Sunday in Osaka
We’re looking for your thoughts on these shows, thumbs up, down or middle, best and worst match for each show to [email protected]
We’re also doing our annual poll for both the G-1 MVP and best match of G-1 for the entire tournament to [email protected]
There were no WWE house shows this weekend. We are looking for reports on tonight’s PWG Mystery Vortekz show in Los Angeles, Friday night’s NXT shows in Sanford, FL and last night’s NXT show in Jacksonville, to [email protected]. Looking for results, finishes and highlights.
Bianca Carelli, who is Arianna Grace in NXT and is the daughter of Anthony “Santino Marella” Carelli, is competing to be Canada’s representative in the Miss Universe contest this week. Carelli has been out of action since October due to a foot injury but has just started back in the last two weeks taking bumps.
As noted on Friday the fast nationals for Friday’s Smackdown of 2,650,000 viewers and 0.61 are misleading because it measures all FOX affiliates in that time slot and many FOX affiliates aired far higher rated NFL preseason football which would be figured in. The number taking the football viewers out won’t be out until tomorrow.
Regarding Google searches for the week, nothing related to wrestling made the top 20 all week. Nothing related to UFC did either. There were three boxing listings for yesterday with Anthony Joshua at No. 10, Oscar Valdez at No. 16 and Emanuel Navarette vs. Valdez at No. 18.
NOAH’s N-1 tournament won’t’ be back in action until Saturday night in Sapporo.
The only stuff announced for Raw at this point is Becky Lynch vs. Trish Stratus, plus Shinsuke Nakamura talks about his turn on Seth Rollins.
Defy from last night in Seattle: Tom Lawlor b Shigehiro Irie, Artemis Spencer b Ninja Mack, Guillermo Rosas b Casey Ferreira, Travis Williams & Evan Rivers b Ricky Gibson & Eddie Pearl, Judas Icarus b Titus Alexander, Nicole Matthews b Masha Slamovich, Cody Chhun b Clark Connors to win the Super 8XGP tournament. The next shows are 8/26 with one show in London, England at the Electric Ballroom at Noon and the other in White Center, WA at the Lariat Bar. The next Washington Hall show in Seattle is 9/23 and they are also running 10/13 at the Sundome in Yakima, WA.
Northeast Wrestling had announced a show today in Jackson, NJ at Six Flags with The Acclaimed & KC Navarro vs Brick City Boys & Victorious BRG, plus Billy Gunn, Jay Lethal, Johnny TV from AEW, Enzo and Jimmy Hart.
Miyu Yamashita won the Tokyo Princess Cup on today’s Tokyo Joshi Pro show at Korakuen Hall.
Cody Garbrandt pulled out of the 8/19 UFC show where he was to fight Mario Bautista due to injury. It was announced on last night’s show it was due to a training injury suffered this weekend they are looking to get a new opponent for Bautista.
Eve from today in London (thanks to Shannon Walsh):
Rhia O’Reilly is off the show due to illness and Emersy Jayne couldn’t make it due to travel issues. Safire Reed came out and said she can’t wrestle due to an injury
Chantal Jordan b Amara Jayde
Millie McKenzie b Alex Windsor
Nina Samuels b Marika Kobashi
Promoter Dan Read invited Kobashi to represent Eve at the Eve vs. Choco Pro show on 8/26 and she accepted
Skye Smitson b Rita Slayworth
Nina Samuels & Chantal Jordan b Mille McKenzie & Alex Windsor
The second ECW One Night Stand was, more than anything else, a night the crowd made the show.
Crowds help and hurt shows every night. The first ECW One Night Stand was a great show, made legendary because of the crowd. The second was a show, that if it was held in Orlando and called TNA, people would have called it awful and complained about gutless booking of finishes. If it had been called WWE instead of ECW, people would be complaining about how bad the wrestling was. But it was ECW, very much the new ECW. The 2,460 fans at the Hammerstein Ballroom, after five years of mental anguish when their beloved promotion went out of business, and failing to get it revived last year when by all rights a lot more should have been done in the aftermath, were there to make sure the decision on its resurrection ended up nothing like the 2001 WWF decision to market WCW.
Going in, you knew all that. The show didn’t live up to last year’s model, but it was a completely different type of show. Last year was a stand-alone reunion. No matter what happened, it was noted the next night on Raw by Eric Bischoff, that “last night never happened,” and in storyline form, that is how it was handled.
The big Saturday night with SummerSlam, UFC, Diaz vs. Paul, Collision and G-1 and who watched what
The departure of Brock Lesnar and his scheduled return, and departure of Ronda Rousey and her importance and the MMA rules attempt
The Bloodline angle
Business numbers including PPV, WWE buyers who bought Forbidden Door, Spence vs. Crawford and Diaz vs. Paul
What record did SummerSlam set and what record that it set will last only a few more weeks
The ruling in the Cung Le vs UFC lawsuit regarding it becoming a class action suit, what the judge said, the MLW suit against WWE, and how this lawsuit potentially affects WWE
Full coverage of the G-1 Climax tournament, with the storylines and match reviews from the past week
All In sets its own new record and update on the show
Full coverage of Saturday’s UFC show
CMLL anniversary show news
The most in depth look at the ratings of all national pro wrestling and MMA shows, including segment-by-segment and by different groups, as well as where the wrestling and MMA shows stood in the overall weekly cable and network standings
Lots of foreign stars coming to CMLL
TripleMania notes
Stardom Five Star Grand Prix tournament update
N-1 tournament update
NOAH sells out in seconds
New Japan’s All-Star Junior event in Philadelphia
Hulk Hogan and his new stories
Schedule of shows for London over All In weekend
Arenas trying to block their agreements with WWE from public view
Legendary tag team reunites
Young Bucks talk signing their new deals and current thoughts on wrestling
Full Gear 2023 update
Dynamite and Smackdown upcoming time changes for baseball playoffs
Lots of injury updates
Upcoming attendance numbers for WWE and AEW
International TV ratings and streaming numbers
Update on Forbidden Door PPV numbers
Dana White predicts a fight doing 10 million buys at $100 a view
New UFC main events
Bellator planning huge show
Jake Paul vs. Nate Diaz
Logan Paul’s next fight and why it’s such a joke
Boxing superstar signs with MMA group
Vince McMahon’s ownership in the new UFC/WWE company
New Board of Directors
Plans for NXT
More on Kairi’s return
AEW star close to signing with WWE
WWE performer going for the real wrestling Triple Crown
Order the print Wrestling Observer right now and get it delivered via mail, by sending your name, address, Visa or Master Card number and an expiration date to [email protected] or by going to www.paypal.com directing funds to [email protected].
Rates in the United States are $14.50 for 4 issues, $35.50 for 12, $70 for 24, $116 for 40 and $149.50 for 52.
In Canada and Mexico, the rates are $16 for 4, $27 for 8, $38.50 for 12, $76 for 24, $126 for 40 and $162.50 for 52.
For the rest of the world, rates are $18 for 4, $48.50 for 12, $93 for 24, $155 for 40 and $201.50 for 52.
If you order by mail with a check, cash or money order to P.O. Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228, you can get $1 off in every price range.
Friday Update
Garrett and I did a two-hour interview with RevPro promoter Andy Quildan, talking all kinds of subjects from All In, RevPro’s new relationship with CMLL, RevPro history, the show at the Copper Box, Pat Patterson watching the British J Cup with me a few years ago, Leon Slater, Luke Jacobs and other stars on the rise, COVID and NXT UK’s effect on the British independent scene and so much more. Bryan and I will be back Sunday night talking the weekend news including the G-1 finals.
The big stuff this weekend is TripleMania and G-1. We’ll be doing polls on both G-1 shows at Sumo Hall and TripleMania and you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to [email protected]
When the fast nationals come in tomorrow for Smackdown, please note that they will be heavily inflated because a number of markets, including Atlanta and Detroit, are airing NFL football and not Smackdown in that time slot. Fast nationals only count the time slot, not the show. The actual ratings will be out on Tuesday but sometimes people every August jump to conclusions and think there was a huge rating when the number is actually inflated due to football.
Heard Kenoh vs. Yuki Yoshioka at today’s NOAH show at Korakuen Hall as part of the N-1 tournament was great.
Jon Moxley will be on the OTT anniversary show on 10/28 in Dublin at the National Stadium. He had promised them a date when he had to pull out of a date due to an AEW conflict some time back.
Bushi & Shun Skywalker vs. Matt Sydal & Yoh was added to the 8/19 All Star Junior show New Japan is putting on at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia.
We’re also looking for reports from these shows:
Smackdown tonight in Calgary (dark matches only)
NXT tonight in Sanford, FL
AEW Collision tomorrow night in Greensboro (ROH stuff only)
NXT tomorrow night in Jacksonville, FL
We’re looking for results, finishes, angles and other highlights to [email protected]
Hirooki Goto & Yoshi-Hashi & Togi Makabe & Toru Yano & Yoh vs. David Finlay & Gabe Kidd & Alex Coughlin & Chase Owens & KENTA
Yota Tsuji & Shingo Takagi & Bushi vs. Jeff Cobb & Great O’Khan & Aaron Henare
Hiroshi Tanahashi & Eddie Kingston & Tomohiro Ishii & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Zack Sabre Jr. & Mikey Nicholls & Shane Haste & Kosei Fujita
Sanada & Taichi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Douki & Taka Michinoku vs. Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa & Hikuleo & El Phantasmo & Jado
Will Ospreay vs. Tetsuya Naito in the G-1 semifinals
Kazuchika Okada vs. Evil in the G-1 semifinals
The winners of the semifinals meet in the finals which start at 2 a.m. Eastern late Saturday night.
TripleMania from Arena Ciudad in Mexico City Saturday night at 10 p.m. Eastern:
Dalys & Lady Shani & Sexy Star vs. Chik Tormenta & La Hiedra & Maravilla
Copa Bardahl (usually a Rumble match) with Komander, Laredo Kid, Willie Mack, Dave the Clown, Pagano, Aramis, Mr. Iguana, Murder Clown, Arez, Octagon Jr., Myzteziz Jr., and Nino Hamburguesa
Negro Casas vs. Nicho
Taya vs. Flammer for the Reina de Reinas title
Penta vs. QT Marshall vs. Dralistico vs. Brian Cage for the vacant Latin American title
El Hijo del Vikingo vs. Mike Bailey vs. Daga vs Jack Cartwheel for the AAA Mega title
Rush vs. Sam Adons vs. LA Park vs. Psycho Clown, loser loses his hair or mask
UFC Saturday is an ESPN+ show from 4-10 p.m. Eastern:
Juliana Miler (126) vs. Luana Santos (126)
Da’mon Blackshear (136) vs. Jose Johnson (135.5)
Jaqueline Amorim (116) vs. Montserrat Ruiz (113)
Josh Parisian (266) vs. Martin Buday (266)
Francis Marshall (145.5) vs. Isaac Culgarian (145.5)
Terrance McKinney (156) vs. Mike Breeden (156)
JP Buys (136) vs. Marcus McGhee (136)
Josh Fremd (189) vs Jamie Pickett (186) -Fremd missed weight by three pounds and was fined
AJ Dobson (185.5) v. Tafon Nchukwi (189.5) – Nchukwi missed weight by 3.5 pounds and was fined
Polyana Viana (116) vs. Iasmin Lucindo (116)
Khalil Rountree (203.5) vs. Chris Daukaus (205)
Cub Swanson (146) vs. Hakeem Dawodu (146)
Rafael dos Anjos (171) vs. Vicente Luque (170.5)
Insane Wrestling Revolution on 9/28 in Monroe, MI has King Thom Latimer defending their title against Sami Callihan and Heath.
Eddie Kingston defends the New Japan Strong title on 9/23 in Seattle at Washington Hall for Defy against Rocky Romero.
Takumi Iroha won the West Coast Pro women’s title from Masha Slamovich last night. Iroha celebrated after the match with the legendary Chigusa Nagayo. Iroha then rushed back for Saki Akai’s 10th anniversary show for DDT on Sunday.
Impact has added a second show in Coventry, England on 10/29. Tickets for the show go on sale Wednesday at 9 a.m. UK time.
Helen Maroulis goes for a spot on Team USA in the 2023 world championships next month in Belgrade, Serbia tomorrow. Maroulis will face Xochitl Meta-Pettis in the 125 pound weight class. Due to a Maroulis injury, this match was delayed until tomorrow.
There was a lot to digest from one of the biggest nights of competition for the year on 8/5, led by SummerSlam and a Jake Paul vs. Nate Diaz fight.
SummerSlam saw Roman Reigns retain the Universal title in the main event over Jey Uso, in a match that went 36:03 and featured tons of interference for the last ten minutes straight, including the supposed injured Jimmy Uso returning to turn on brother Jey, who Jey was defending in the first place.
A lot of people didn’t like it, and I can see why since the match went too long and the show went too long at four hours and 15 minutes. I expected Jimmy to turn on Jey based on television where they established Jimmy being jealous of Jey’s success but it was low-key and not thrown in your face. The match itself was more throwing out things to keep the storyline going with Jimmy and Jey now at odds and the inevitable Reigns vs. Solo Sikoa confrontation teased strongly when Reigns accidentally speared Sikoa.
Raw last night averaged 1.89 million viewers and drew a 0.61 rating in 18-49, numbers that would normally be considered good, but all things considered the total viewer number had to be a disappointment.
Last year’s Raw after SummerSlam did 2.23 million viewers, although the 0.62 in 18-49 isn’t much different from this year and that’s with a decline in homes that get the USA Network.
Still, with the commercial-free first hour and coming the day after one of the biggest shows of the year, and the general growth almost every week, one would have thought it would have topped two million viewers.
Over the past three years, the 18-49 bump averaged 37 percent while this year the number was 14 percent.
The show was up seven percent in viewers from last week, up 14 percent in 18-49, and up 21 percent in 18-34.
As compared to the episode after SummerSlam last year, Raw was down 20 percent in viewers, down one percent in 18-49, and up 15 percent in 18-34. So the decline was largely with people over 50.
The other surprise is that with the first hour commercial-free, it created an artificial high, but the drop-off of viewers during the show was minimal. Usually after a PPV there is a big first hour with people watching out of curiosity, but a big drop in hour three.
