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 ended up last night doing almost identical to the previous week in totals, but the pattern was very different likely due to the NBA playoffs.
Raw averaged 1.82 million viewers with a 0.58 rating in 18-49 and a 0.43 in 18-34.
The viewers were down 3,000 from last week, which is 0.2 percent, while 18-49 was down two percent and 18-34 was also down two percent.
However, the first two hours were big, but there was a huge third hour drop against the start of the Warriors-Kings game on TNT that did 4,322,000 viewers and drew a 1.54 in 18-49.
Raw was fourth on cable behind the two NBA games and the Inside the NBA Playoffs show at 12:55 a.m. after the second game that still did 1.54 million viewers and a 0.65.
Raw also beat every show on network TV last night, which seemingly were hurt even worse than Raw by the NBA playoffs as it beat American Idol (0.53), The Voice (0.51) and 911 (0.51).
On cable, Raw beat Boston vs. Florida in the NHL playoffs (1,072,000/0.37) on ESPN as well as Los Angeles vs. Edmonton on ESPN (483,000/0.19), the New York Islanders vs. Carolina on ESPN2 (642,000/0.21) and Minnesota vs. Dallas on ESPN2 (561,000/0.21).
Raw was third behind the two NBA games in women 18-49, fourth in men 18-49, fourth in people 18-34, fourth in women 12-34 and fourth in men 12-34.
It was 10th in total viewers behind six news shows and three NBA-related shows.
Raw was up 10 percent in viewers from last year going against similar sports competition, as well as up 23 percent in 18-49 and up 34 percent in 18-34. If you factor in the loss of cable homes over the the past year, the real gains were 17 percent in viewers, 30 percent in 18-49 and 42 percent in 18-34, which is phenomenal growth year-to-year.
The Warriors-Kings game did lead to Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn & Matt Riddle vs. Judgment Day not keeping the audience in the third hour as well as most recent weeks.
The first-to-third hour declines were 28 percent in women 18-49, seven percent in men 18-49, 33 percent in women 12-34 and 16 percent in men 12-34. The decline with people over 50, which is the majority of the WWE audience, was 18 percent from hour one to three.
*Update with more details on the proposed new AEW television show and if it happens, probable time slot, potential issues, and how the roster will be handled.
*Update on AEW at Wembley Stadium, different standards of numbers to break, ticket pricing, AEW’s goals for the show, signups and how that compares to Clash at the Castle and what it means.
*Sanada wins the IWGP title after a character change and the questions that opens up, plus notes on the next several months of New Japan major events, including G-1, Dominion and Forbidden Door.
*Full coverage of the Sakura Genesis show
*Full coverage of UFC 287, what happens next for the headliners, business note and fight-by-fight coverage
*Major article on the life and career of The Sheepherders/Kiwis/Bushwhackers with the death of Butch Miller. We follow Miller’s life both in and out of wrestling, the territory days, fan attacks, crazy angles, their days of bloodbath matches and the 180 at the end of their careers that made them the most famous. We go through everywhere from New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Oregon, Southwest, Stampede, Mid South, Puerto Rico and of course WWE, the politics, the craziness and Miller’s later fights for his life.
*WWE attempts once again to get the MLW lawsuit thrown out. A look at their response and strategy in the case
*The most detailed look at the ratings for all the pro wrestling shows of the past week, what the ratings mean, placings, yearly trends, and how different segments did.
*Update on the Champion of Champions tournament.
*The celebrity angle that fell apart in so many ways and a look at why.
*Notes on the next season of Dark Side of the ring.
*NWA PPV coverage.
*The story behind Bob Backlund becoming WWF champion.
*How wrestling ratings will be affected the next two months and why
*Lots of injury updates.
*International TV ratings and streaming numbers.
*Ticket sales for all the upcoming WWE & AEW events.
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 talking all the latest wrestling news , as well as Raw, previewing upcoming shows and talking SummerSlam, Cody Rhodes and other topics. If you have questions for the show you can send to [email protected]
WWE reported 32,000 tickets sold for SummerSlam and Sports Business Journal reported it as the largest day-one sale for any stadium event outside of WrestleMania in company history. Not to minimize this because it is a great number, but it is actuality the largest first day in the U.S., but it is the third largest on a worldwide basis.
There is no All Access this week after Dynamite and Dynamite airs three hours earlier than usual on the West Coast due to TBS not having a West Coast staggered feed on Wednesday. On the West Coast it goes right from Dynamite at 5 p.m. to U.S. vs. Mexico soccer at 7 p.m.., with the East Coast times being 8 p.m. and 10 p.m.
The meeting noted on Friday that was scheduled with Chris Jericho, C.M. Punk, FTR and Tony Khan has not taken place yet.
Former pro wrestler Jerome Robinson, real name Jeremy Hardy was sentenced to two years in prison on charges of oral copulation of a person under the age of 16 and two counts of lewd and lascivious behavior in a child 14-15. The alleged incident took place in 2015 and he was arrested in 2018. Hardy was an independent wrestler and a teacher at Riverside Prep High School. The story was reported to SoCal Uncensored.
Raw is tonight in North Little Rock, AR at the Simmons Bank Arena. Becky Lynch sent out a tweet that she won’t be at the show tonight, which is an angle. Announced for the show is Austin Theory vs Bobby Lashley, and they did two matches over the weekend to get ready doing DQ finishes, Seth Rollins vs. Miz and Trish Stratus is to explain her actions. Plus Brock Lesnar will be there to set up his upcoming match with Cody Rhodes. They had about 7,300 tickets out for the show as of this morning.
We’re looking for reports from Little Rock tonight with Main Event matches, any other dark matches or anything else not on television to [email protected]
The War Chamber match will headline tomorrow night’s MLW Underground show on REELZ The match is Alex Hammerstone & The Second Gear Crew vs. Raven’s Calling group.
New Japan Pro Wrestling will be running shows on 8/19 and 8/20 at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia. The 8/19 show will be the All Star Junior Festival featuring top junior heavyweights from multiple companies. The 8/20 show will be a joint show with Impact and New Japan. Tickets go on sale for 8/19 at midnight tonight.
Bill Algeo said that his promo on Saturday’s UFC show in Kansas City was a tribute to Ric Flair.
On NXT tomorrow night, Nathan Frazer will be debuting a new segment plus they’ve added a Gigi Dolin vs. Cora Jade match.
Other Notes
Devon “Crowbar” Storm, 49, did a leg drop off the top of a 15 foot high steel cage on Rick Recon through a table on the ISPW show in West Milford, NJ. The two will have a cage TLC match on 4/28 in Avernel, NJ at the First Presbyterian Church Hall.
Cage Fury Fighting Championships runs 6/16 at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City on the boardwalk. C.M. Punk calls the action.
Former WWE announcer Jonny Loquasto is the voice of Shazam! in two new DC Comic Kids Motion comics called “Monster Society of Gotham.”
*Update with more details on the proposed new AEW television show and if it happens, probable time slot, potential issues, and how the roster will be handled.
*Update on AEW at Wembley Stadium, different standards of numbers to break, ticket pricing, AEW’s goals for the show, signups and how that compares to Clash at the Castle and what it means.
*Sanada wins the IWGP title after a character change and the questions that opens up, plus notes on the next several months of New Japan major events, including G-1, Dominion and Forbidden Door.
*Full coverage of the Sakura Genesis show
*Full coverage of UFC 287, what happens next for the headliners, business note and fight-by-fight coverage
*Major article on the life and career of The Sheepherders/Kiwis/Bushwhackers with the death of Butch Miller. We follow Miller’s life both in and out of wrestling, the territory days, fan attacks, crazy angles, their days of bloodbath matches and the 180 at the end of their careers that made them the most famous. We go through everywhere from New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Oregon, Southwest, Stampede, Mid South, Puerto Rico and of course WWE, the politics, the craziness and Miller’s later fights for his life.
*WWE attempts once again to get the MLW lawsuit thrown out. A look at their response and strategy in the case
*The most detailed look at the ratings for all the pro wrestling shows of the past week, what the ratings mean, placings, yearly trends, and how different segments did.
*Update on the Champion of Champions tournament.
*The celebrity angle that fell apart in so many ways and a look at why.
*Notes on the next season of Dark Side of the ring.
*NWA PPV coverage.
*The story behind Bob Backlund becoming WWF champion.
*How wrestling ratings will be affected the next two months and why
*Lots of injury updates.
*International TV ratings and streaming numbers.
*Ticket sales for all the upcoming WWE & AEW events.
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
Bryan and I will be up tonight talking about the latest news and whatever shows we get a chance to see tonight and the other weekend television. You can also send questions to tonight’s show to [email protected]
Hiroshi Tanahashi suffered a broken rib in last night’s NJPW main event in Washington, DC. The Philadelphia show is going on as we speak and the main event has been changed to Aussie Open defending the Strong tag titles (that they won last night) against Lio Rush & Tomohiro Ishii. TJP also missed tonight’s show due to travel issues. Even with the injury, Tanahashi did a Meet & Greet to make up for his not wrestling today. They also did a worked suspension angle for Juice Robinson so Lance Archer faces Fred Rosser today. This is part of the tournament for the next shot at Kenny Omega’s U.S. title. The winner of Archer-Rosser faces the winner of Will Ospreay vs. Tanahashi (if he’s okay, the injury could change that) in Long Beach and the winner of that faces Omega.
Drew McIntyre won’t be returning to action for at least a few moer week, at least based on word over the weekend.
Will Ospreay’s return from a shoulder injury will be this coming Saturday for 1PW in England where he’ll face Bobby Fish.
TripleMania tonight in Monterrey:
*10 men in a cage: Laredo Kid, Antifaz del Norte, Octagon Jr., Villano III jr. Myzteziz Jr., Argenis, Aero Star, Parka Negra, Abismo Negro Jr . and Taurus. It’s cage escape rules and the last two left will then have a mask vs. mask singles match.
*Copa TripleMania
*DMT Azul & Blue Demon Jr. vs.; L.A. Park & Rush
*Pentagon Jr. & Alberto El Patron vs Sam Adonis & Psycho Clown
*Chessman vs. mystery partner
*El Hijo del Vikingo vs. Swerve Strickland vs. Rich Swan vs. Komander for the Mega heavyweight championship
As far as trending over the past week, the only thing MMA, boxing or pro wrestling related was Max Holloway was No. 4 for his win over Arnold Allen on yesterday’s UFC show on ESPN. It was listed at 100,000 searches but as we’ve noted the way that’s done is different from the past. As noted in this week’s issue, the comparisons are still accurate for different shows but the numbers now as compared to the past are tabulated differently.
The 4/28 Rampage show is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Eastern due to playoffs.
WWE from last night in Rio Rancho, NM for a legit sold out house show
*Cody Rhodes came out saying he wasn’t medically cleared (he is) and this led an Imperium coming out and attacking him. Kevin Owens & Matt Riddle made the save and Cody said he’s a rebel and he’s going to wrestle in the main event.
*Ricochet & Braun Strowman b Viking Raiders
*Dominik Mysterio b Santos Escobar with his feet on the ropes
*Piper Niven won three-way over Chelse Green and Shotzi to earn a title shot next
*Bianca Belair won three-way over Niven and Asuka
*Miz did an open challenge. Shinsuke Nakamura came out and beat him quickly
*Bobby Lashley b Austin Theory via DQ in a U.S title match for using a chair.
*Rhodes & Riddle & Owens b Imperium in the main event (thanks to Michael Aquino and Shannon Walsh)
We’re looking for reports from tonight’s WWE house show in El Paso, TX, results, finishes and highlights to [email protected] As of this morning they had more than 6,900 tickets out, which by the standards of the last few years would be a tremendous mid-market house show number, although it more normal in the last few months..
We are doing polls this weekend for both yesterday’s New Japan show in Washington, DC and today’s TripleMania show in Monterrey, Mexico, so you can leave a thumbs up, down or middle, along with a best and worst match from each show to [email protected]
While not outright confirming it, Dana White said that Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic for the UFC heavyweight title could take place in Madison Square Garden.
Dana White said he was pissed off that Clay Guida tricked the company into doing an interview last night. Guida had lost his fight to Rafa Garcia and took his gloves off to make people think he was retiring. So because of that, Daniel Cormier went to interview him and he said that he tricked everyone and he’s not retiring and put over Garcia and then wished his mother (who was in the crowd) a happy birthday. White said he was pissed off, saying he faked to everyone he was retiring just so he could tell his mother happy birthday at a show she was already at.
Impact Rebellion is tonight on Impact+ and FITE from the Rebel Complex in Toronto:
*Heath & Rhino vs. Champagne Singh & Mahabali Shera
*Eddie Edwards vs. PCO in a last rites match
*Design vs. Joe Hendry & Dirty Dango & Santino Marella
*Trey Miguel vs. Mike Bailey vs. Jonathan Gresham for the X title
*The Coven vs. Death Dollz for the knockouts tag titles
*Bully Ray & Kenny King & Moose & Brian Myers & Masha Slamovich vs. Tommy Dreamer & Bhudinder Gujjar & Yuya Uemura & Frankie Kazarian & Killer Kelly in a hardcore wars (War Games style with weapons)
*Ace Austin & Chris Bey vs Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley in an Ultimate X match
*Jordynne Grace vs. Deonna Purrazzo for the vacant Knockouts title
*Kushida vs. Steve Maclin for the vacant Impact title
WWE talent taped episodes of Celebrity Family Feud yesterday afternoon in Los Angeles. It was men vs. women with the women’s team being Bayley & Becky Lynch & Alexa Bliss & Natalya & Liv Morgan and the men’s team being New Day, Seth Rollins and Dolph Ziggler.
Bad Bunny’s new book has a page on him doing wrestling.
Hayata beat Amakusa to win the GHC jr. title earlier today in Sendai. Takashi Sugiura & Shuhei Taniguchi also beat Masa Kitamiya & Daiki Inaba to win the heavyweight tag team titles.
Other Notes
House of Glory from Friday night in New York City: Mighty Mante b Ichiban in a cruiserweight title match, Nolo Kitano & The Anunnakis b Smiley & Osito & Elijah Eden, Kiki Van Gogh b B3CCA, Amazing Red & BXL b The Jabronis to keep the tag titles, Midas Black & Jay Lyon b Trey Miguel & Zacharty Wentz, Charles Mason b Lio Rush to keep the Crown Jewel title, Ken Broadway b Detective James in a street fight, Jacob Fatu b Willie Mack to keep the4 heavyweight title. The next show is 5/19 at the NYC Arena with Fatu vs. Matt Cardona for the HOG title and Black & Lyon defending the tag titles against Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley (thanks to Samuel Rosenthal)
St. Lous Anarchy from Friday night in Alton, IL: Jeremy Wyatt b Rahim De La Sueda, Camaro Jackson & Warhorse b KC Karrington & Moonshine Mantell, Dave Vega b Christian Rose to win the Destination titel. Mad Dog Connelly b 1 called Manders, Gary Jay b AnakinMurph,k Sean Orleans b Nick King, Nikki Victory won over Dmitri Alexandrov, Evan Gelistico and Victor Analog, Thomas Shire b Adrian Surge, Billie Starkz b Aaron Williams, Derke Neal b Dingo to keep the Gateway title (thanks to Tommy Peterson)
Body Zoi Wrestling announced a 6/10 show called Joey Janela’s European vacation in Faches-Thumesnil, France. Announced as coming in for the show are Janela, NickWayne, Allie Katch, Gringo Loco, Jordan Oliver, The Invisible Man, Aiie Blanc Senza Bolto and MBM.
With the WWE Hall of Fame inductions coming up, it once again asks the questions as to what is a wrestling Hall of Fame and who deserves inclusion. I probably know better than anyone the heated arguments because everyone thinks they know, and no two people are of the same opinion.
There are currently four Hall of Fames for pro wrestling of some renown in the U.S. There is the WWE version, which because it’s WWE, has the most fame, but in many ways, the least credibility. There are also the two actual physical Halls of Fame in conjunction with actual wrestling museums.
One is in Newton, IA, which bears the names of Lou Thesz, and his original trainer, George Tragos. Tragos was not a major professional star, but was a noted tough guy who wrestled in the Olympics before coming to the U.S. Thesz hand-picked the original inductees, but they have an annual ceremony each year with newcomers picked.
There are a lot of things in play regarding AEW, C.M. Punk, and the launching of a new Saturday night television show.
None of this has been announced, but it has been known for a few weeks to expect another one or two Tony Khan major announcements if the deals are finalized and both were strongly in play.
As reported here the past two weeks, a Punk return is largely expected. It’s a tenuous situation because the dressing room issues involving him have not been settled at all at press time. The working idea was that the Saturday show would star Punk and that they would split crews to a large degree. History does show that the splitting crews never lasts long, but in this case, the idea is to ease the dressing room problems in the sense those who have not made up would be kept on different crews and wouldn’t have to interact with each other.
Raw last night fell back to normal levels after the giant numbers last week, averaging 1.82 million viewers and drawing a 0.59 rating in 18-49.
Raw was first on cable and was the highest rated show on all of television since the top network show, American Idol, did a 0.56.
The ratings pattern was notable because the first hour was unusually low, the second hour was way up, and then it fell in hour three, so the third hour was almost identical in viewers to the first hour, and it was ahead in the key demos.
On cable, Raw was first across the board. Second place Tucker Carlson did a 0.25 in 18-49, less than half of Raw. Raw’s 0.40 in women 18-49 beat second place Summer House at 0.24. Raw’s 0.80 in men 18-49 beat second place Tucker Carlson and PTI that did 0.30. Raw’s 0.44 with people 18-34 beat Summer House at 0.13.
Raw was ninth on cable in total viewers, behind eight news shows.
Raw was down from last week’s post-WrestleMania 39 edition of the show, but that was to be expected. It was down 20 percent in viewers, down 22 percent in 18-49, and down 24 percent in 18-34.
From last year, Raw was up one percent in viewers, up 10 percent in 18-49, and up 16 percent in 18-34, so the audience is skewing much younger than a year ago. Factoring in the loss of cable homes over the past year, the real gains are seven percent in viewers, 17 percent in 18-49, and 24 percent in 18-34.
*It’s one of the biggest issues of the year, given we have coverage of what will be the biggest story of the year, the Endeavor/WWE/UFC merger with all the details of how it happened and what it means, plus coverage of WrestleMania and all the major events of WrestleMania week
*The story behind the merger
*The new power structure of WWE and UFC
*All the financial details of the merger including stock, what stockholders will be getting
*How the deal went down and when
*Who will be negotiating WWE TV deals
*Vince McMahon’s worth based on what they are pitching valuation at and his actual stock worth as of right now
*How much top WWE execs were bonused from the sale and new contract for the top two guys in the company and its valuation
*How Vince McMahon changed Raw
*What are the big questions going forward regarding creative
*What employees and wrestlers were told
*Investigation of the deal
*Can WWE get out of the deal
*Financial benefits of the deal
*What it means going forward
*What happened internally in UFC from the deal
*Profits and revenue for UFC and WWE last year
*The history of Vince McMahon and UFC and secret story about a WrestleMania main event that never happened
*Coverage of WrestleMania
*Examining Rhodes vs. Reigns and the finish
*Real attendance figures and other business figures
*PPV numbers and which show had the most viewers
*What were the most watched matches after the fact
*Social media numbers and who drew the biggest and where there are contradictions
*Match-by-match coverage with star ratings as well as poll results
*AEW trying to run Wembley Stadium and more history of such
*A look at a famous period in wrestling history with the death of U.K. promoter Max Crabtree, and the debate over whether the Big Daddy era killed wrestling in that country or it was killed earlier and he just gave it a last life
*A look at the ROH Supercard of Honor, business notes, match-by-match coverage
*A look at NXT Stand & Deliver
*What happened with Gisele Shaw and Rick Steiner
*The most detailed look at the ratings over the past week and what they mean
*Arena Coliseo 80th anniversary event
*Build to the biggest show in Stardom history
*New Japan/Impact dual show
*One of the best bouts of the year took place this past week
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 talking Raw and the latest pro wrestling news with Wrestling Observer Radio.
A clarification regarding news over the weekend, as things stand right now, the Swerve Strickland vs. Nick Wayne match on the 7/12 Dynamite show in Saskatoon will not be a Defy title match. After Strickland lost the Defy title to Wayne on Saturday night, he brought up a match on 7/12, after Wayne turns 18, on Dynamite. The match is scheduled, but it is not scheduled as a title match. Strickland also clarified it saying that in his challenge he never brought up the title. Defy announced today that Wayne will make his first title defense on 5/5 in Tacoma, WA at ALMA Tacoma. The show is sold out but they have standing room tickets available. Wayne will defend in a four-way against Komander, Gringo Loco and Arez.
Vince McMahon is not physically at Raw in Seattle tonight. Zoey Stark and Tyler Bate are there, and would likely be working on Main Event in tryout matches. As of this morning there were 9,900 tickets out for the show. Seattle is usually a very hot crowd as well. Cody Rhodes will be addressing his future. Lita & Becky Lynch defend the tag titles against Raquel Rodriguez & Liv Morgan and The Miz faces Matt Riddle. Actually Miz vs. Riddle could be off the show since WWE stopped promoting it yesterday and has deleted tweets that were promoting the match. They will also continue the Bad Bunny & Rey Mysterio vs. Judgment Day storyline. They will also start likely setting up matches for Backlash on 5/6.
We’re looking for reports from Seattle tonight to anything not on the live show, such as Main Event matches or segments after the show to [email protected]
We’re doing polls for the weekend on UFC 287 and New Japan Sakura Genesis, so you can leave a thumbs up, down or middle along with a best and worst match from each show to [email protected]
For NXT tomorrow, there is a four-way to determine the top contender for Carmelo Hayes with Dragon Lee and JD McDonagh announced as two of them, plus Alba Fayre & Isla Dawn vs. Kiana James & Fallon Henley for the tag titles, Ilja Dragunov vs. Von Wagner and if Wagner loses, he and Robert Stone split up, Tony D’Angelo & Stacks Lorenzo vs. Josh Briggs & Brooks Jensen, and Duke Hudson gets the Chase U MVP award.
For next week’s A&E show, WWE Biography is about The Iron Sheik and rivals is about Hulk Hogan vs. Roddy Piper.
Adrian Marcelo will not be allowed to wrestle Chessman in what was the biggest match on the TripleMania show Sunday mainstream in Mexico. Marcelo failed his licensing exam which was a very physically arduous three hour test. He will be there but the match can’t happen.
John Oliver of HBO’s “Last Week Tonight” show talked about Vince McMahon. He touched on the merger for really just mocked McMahon and his mustache. It was total humor, nothing serious.
Tommy Dreamer noted that his mother is in ICU right now after suffering another brain bleed. She was scheduled to come home today from the rehab facility. Best wishes to his mother and his family during these times.
AEW Rampage this coming week will air after an NBA playoff game so the rating should be higher than usual for that reason On 4/21, due to NHL playoffs, Rampage is being moved to 4/22 at 10 p.m. Eastern.
NBC has pushed that an episode of the new season of Weakest Link when it is revived with have The New Day Becky Lynch and The Miz.
Eddie Kingston is off the 4/16 New Japan show at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia where he was to face Gabriel Kidd. Orange Cassidy will replace him, making his New Japan debut on the show.
Pro Wrestling King from Saturday in South Bend,IN: Avery Hurts b Zane West, David Champion b Sandor Malenko, Xander Michaels won Battle Royal, Twist & Flip b NDS, Magnum McClaren b Dustin Mack, Jack Morris won three-way over Simon Socrates & shawn Phoenix, Javen Myra b Powersurge, Pro Dads b Asylum, Charlie Kruel b Gary Jay, One Man Chu b Dan Severn, Scott Young b Robert Gibson (Rock & Roll Express), Isaiah Moore b Brutus Dylan to keep PWK title, Josh Morris b Isaiah Moore to win PWK title. Next show is 4/29 in Culver, IN at the Culver Community Middle School featuring Robert Gibson. (thanks to Leonard Brand)
Olympic gold medalist Helen Maroulis has been added to the final X show on 6/10 in Newark, NJ at the Prudential Center that will have best two of three matches in every division for the 2023 world freestyle and Greco-Roman championships. Maroulis will compete in women’s freestyle at 125 pounds. Maroulis won a gold medal in 2016 at 117 pounds beating the legendary Saori Yoshida, generally considered the greatest woman wrestler of all-time. He also won a bronze medal in 2021.
*It’s one of the biggest issues of the year, given we have coverage of what will be the biggest story of the year, the Endeavor/WWE/UFC merger with all the details of how it happened and what it means, plus coverage of WrestleMania and all the major events of WrestleMania week
*The story behind the merger
*The new power structure of WWE and UFC
*All the financial details of the merger including stock, what stockholders will be getting
*How the deal went down and when
*Who will be negotiating WWE TV deals
*Vince McMahon’s worth based on what they are pitching valuation at and his actual stock worth as of right now
*How much top WWE execs were bonused from the sale and new contract for the top two guys in the company and its valuation
*How Vince McMahon changed Raw
*What are the big questions going forward regarding creative
*What employees and wrestlers were told
*Investigation of the deal
*Can WWE get out of the deal
*Financial benefits of the deal
*What it means going forward
*What happened internally in UFC from the deal
*Profits and revenue for UFC and WWE last year
*The history of Vince McMahon and UFC and secret story about a WrestleMania main event that never happened
*Coverage of WrestleMania
*Examining Rhodes vs. Reigns and the finish
*Real attendance figures and other business figures
*PPV numbers and which show had the most viewers
*What were the most watched matches after the fact
*Social media numbers and who drew the biggest and where there are contradictions
*Match-by-match coverage with star ratings as well as poll results
*AEW trying to run Wembley Stadium and more history of such
*A look at a famous period in wrestling history with the death of U.K. promoter Max Crabtree, and the debate over whether the Big Daddy era killed wrestling in that country or it was killed earlier and he just gave it a last life
*A look at the ROH Supercard of Honor, business notes, match-by-match coverage
*A look at NXT Stand & Deliver
*What happened with Gisele Shaw and Rick Steiner
*The most detailed look at the ratings over the past week and what they mean
*Arena Coliseo 80th anniversary event
*Build to the biggest show in Stardom history
*New Japan/Impact dual show
*One of the best bouts of the year took place this past week
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Sunday Update
We have new weekend shows up with Garrett Gonzales where we talk the news of the week the WWE sale, AEW to Wembley Stadium and the major business. Last night’s show with Bryan Alvarez we talk Smackdown, UFC 287, New Japan Sakura Genesis, AEW at Wembley, Battle of the Belts and Smackdown. Bryan and I will be back tomorrow night talking Raw and the rest of the news.
UFC last night announced the July 11, 2015, fight with Rory MacDonald losing to Robbie Lawler will be the fight inducted into the Hall of Fame on 7/6. I remember that fight well and it is a very deserving induction as it was one of the great fights in UFC history. I was named fight of the year in 2015 by Fighters Only, The Wrestling Observer, Bleacher Report, MMA Fighting and Sherdog.
UFC 289 was announced for 6/10 at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver, BC. The main event will have Amanda Nunes defend the welterweight title against Julianna Pena in the third meeting between the two, who have split two previous fights.
There are no hints past the idea of a combined show that will be announced on Wednesday involving New Japan, All Japan and Pro Wrestling NOAH. The announcement will take place Wednesday morning at 5 a.m. Eastern time.
AAA is expected to announce the El Hijo del Vikingo title defense for the first TripleMania imminently, like today or early in the week. The show is Sunday at the baseball stadium in Monterrey. It hasn’t been announced because the match was evidently just finalized. It will not be a match with Kenny Omega, although they do hope to do that rematch this year at a TripleMania show.
Tonight on A&E will be the long talked about Dusty Rhodes bio at 8 p.m. Eastern followed by WWE Rivals at 10 p.m. on Undertaker vs. Randy Orton.
There will be a four-way for the next shot at NXT champion Carmelo Hayes on Tuesday’s show. Dragon Lee and JD McDonagh are two of the four men announced. So most likely they will save Hayes vs Bron Breakker for the 5/28 show head-to-head with AEW.
The 24th annual Tragos/Thesz Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame ceremony will be 7/20 to 7/22 in Waterloo, IA. The Lou Thesz award will go to Bill DeMott. The Frank Gotch award will go to Haku. The Gordon Solie award will go to Conrad Thompson. The Jim Melby award will go to Tom Burke. The first Jack Brisco award will go to Les Thatcher. The trainer award will go to Larry Simon aka Boris Malenko. Joe Malenko will be there to accept the award.
For this weekend, we’re doing polls on UFC 287 last night and New Japan Sakura Genesis from yesterday. We’re looking for a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match for each show to [email protected]
From last night’s UFC, Israel Adesanya said that he wasn’t interested in facing Alex Pereira again after knocking him out to win back the title. White indicated he wanted to see Pereira move to 205 pounds.
There has definitely been a change in the nature of Google searches. The placings are likely accurate but numbers are way down as compared to the past. For example, last night’s UFC, which would have normally done well over two million searches, did 1.3 million, even though it was No. 1 for Saturday. UFC 287 was first, Jorge Masvidal was fourth and Raul Rosas Jr., was sixth. On Monday, the death of Butch Miller was No. 15 and the WWE sale was No. 17. For the weekend, WrestleMania was at 320,000 and normally you would expect that to top one million. The WWE sale was No. 6 over the prior weekend.
As far as the two close fights last night, in the Luana Pinheiro vs. Michelle Waterson-Gomez fight that went 28-29, 29-28 and 29-28 to Pinheiro, media scores were 71% for Waterson-Gomez. Eric Colon gave Waterson-Gomez rounds two and three but Chris Lee gave Pinheiro one and two and Eliseo Rodriguez also gave Pinheiro one and two.
Cynthia Calvillo vs. Lupita Godinez, the scores were 28-29, 29-28 and 30-27 for Godinez. Colon gave Calvillo rounds two and three but Rodriguez gave Godinez one and two and Dave Tirelli gave all three rounds to Godinez. Media scores were 86 percent for Godinez and that wasn’t controversial at all, while the Waterson-Gomez result was controversial.
Former WWE performer Hiroko Suzuki (the wife of Kenzo Suzuki) was reelected at a member of the House of Representatives in the Chiba Assembly from Funabashi today. (thanks to Gerard Di Trolio)
Another former WWE performer, Barbra Blank (Kelly Kelly) announced that she is having twins. She had just announced last week that she was pregnant.
Thanks to Jared Brazil, Ryan Klinefieter, Jose Marquez, Kevin Pereira, Mark Villar and Arya Witner for their reports on Friday’s WWE & AEW shows.
Friday’s PFL results on ESPN:
*Larissa Pacheco beat Julia Budd in the main event on scores of 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28
*Bruno Cappelozza, who won last year’s heavyweight title, beat Matheus Scheffel via TKO at 2:15 of the first round
*Olena Kolesnyk beat Aspen Ladd on scores of 29-28, 29-28 and 28-28, Kolesnyk missed weight.
*Biaggio Ali Walsh, the grandson of Muhammad Ali, beat Isaiah Figueroa in just 1:42 of the first round via TKO.
Other Notes
Defy Wrestling from last night in Seattle: Vert Vixen b Miyu Yamashita to retain the women’s title, Bollywood Boyz b Ethan HD & Miles Deville, Cody Chhun b Michael Oku, Marina Shafir b Nicole Matthews, Randy Myers b Judas Icarus, Randy Myers b Evan Rivers, Christopher Daniels b Randy Myers via ref stoppage and if Myers lost , he had to leave Defy, Evil Uno & Alex Reynolds & Guillermo Rosas b Ricky Gibson & Eddie Pearl & Levi Cooper, Nick Wayne b Swerve Strickland via armbar to win the Defy title. Wayne was busted open during the match. This made a lot of news because after the match was over Strickland said that he wanted his title rematch on the 7/12 AEW Dynamite show in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, which will be Wayne’s AEW debut as it’s right after his 18th birthday. Wayne signed with AEW at 16 but the contract wouldn’t go into effect until his 18th birthday. (thanks to Shannon Walsh)
Bobby Fulton noted on Twitter that his tuxedo jacket that he’s had since 1984 as part of the Fantastics was stolen. He’s asked if anyone sees it put up for sale on eBay or elsewhere to contact him. He said it was stolen from him the NWA event this past week.
Dungeon Wrestling from last night at the Victoria Pavilion in Calgary before 1,300 fans: Mighty Mo Jabari & Shaun Moore b Chris Knight & Michael Blais, Zoey Sager b Jody Threat, Tiger Raj Singh b CK Krimson-COR, Billington Bulldogs b Bollywood Boyz to win the Dungeon tag team titles in a great match, Harry Smith b Bruno Blanco, Nick Aldis b Dirty Dango to retain the Stu Hart Heritage title. For a trivia note, Bret Hart is part of the team that books this promotion andBret came up with the main event finish, which was a finish he recalled as a child seeing Sweet Daddy Siki do in Calgary in the early 60s (thanks to Ross Hart and Mike McGuire)
Horror Slam Wrestling from Friday night in Brownstown, MI: Devon Ryker b Lucha Punk, Aaron Orion & Adam Wick b LJ Lawrence & Top Gun, Jeremiah Goldman & Easter Bunny b Breyer Wellington & Chinstrap Jesus, Easter Bunny b Big Murph, Atlas Hytower b James Fury, Tommy Vendetta b KJ Reynolds, Remington Rohr b Shane Mercer, Tony Garrix won over TJ Meyer and Chuck Stein, Malcolm Monroe III won three-way over Jimmy Lloyd and Bobby Beverly, DBA b Satu Jinn and Sean Tyler to become Death match champion. This was show a benefit to help with medical expenses and funeral expenses for fan Mike Biezszk, who passed away recently. They did a ten bell salute and sold memorial T-shirts. The Easter Bunny ended up being revealed as Jason Hotch of Impact. (thanks to Leonard Brand)
United Wrestling Coalition on 4/15 in Bordentown, NJ at the Bordentown Elks Lodge with a Battle Royal with the winner facing champion Tony Chini.
WPW Fight at the Museum in Winnipeg last night drew a sellout 500 fans: Bobby Schink b Travis Williams to keep the WPW title, Mo Jabari won four-way over Kevin O’Doyle, Michael Allen Richard Clarke and Steven Crowe, Ava Lawless b Taryn from Accounting, Tyler Colton & James Korba b AJ Sanchez & Chad Daniels, James Roth b Michael Richard Blais, Red Hot Summer b Billington Bulldogs, Jody Threat b Seleziya Sparx to keep the women’s title. They announced a return on 5/12 (thanks to Blair Pacheco)
The Mahoning Drive In in Leighton, PA on 7/9 will have an afternoon wrestling show followed by airing an English translated version of the classic Mexican 1973 movie Santo & Blue Demon vs. Dracula & The Wolf Man.
AAW Ring of Fire on Friday night in Berwyn, IL at the Eagles Club with Masha Slamovich vs. Sierra, Jah-C & Calvin Tankman vs. Russ Jones & Schaff, Hartenbower vs. Levi Everett, Mance Warner vs. Robert Anthony and more.
There weren’t any big surprises, but an excellent main event with Kurt Angle vs. Undertaker paced a strong No Way Out show on 2/19 at the First Mariner Arena in Baltimore before a sellout of 11,000 fans.
The WWE’s final PPV show before Wrestlemania meant the results were either going to be predictable, or kind of stupid, when it came to the major matches. As is becoming the pattern for WWE PPV shows, the undercard wasn’t much. In some ways, fans are now more than ever into “stars” as opposed to “matches,” and thus undercard matches unless there is a really charismatic performer, or they put a main event match on early, aren’t going to get much response. Even though it was a full house and WWE has more business momentum now than at any time in a good four plus years, the crowd was cold for most of the show. But you got three good matches.
*It’s one of the biggest issues of the year, given we have coverage of what will be the biggest story of the year, the Endeavor/WWE/UFC merger with all the details of how it happened and what it means, plus coverage of WrestleMania and all the major events of WrestleMania week
*The story behind the merger
*The new power structure of WWE and UFC
*All the financial details of the merger including stock, what stockholders will be getting
*How the deal went down and when
*Who will be negotiating WWE TV deals
*Vince McMahon’s worth based on what they are pitching valuation at and his actual stock worth as of right now
*How much top WWE execs were bonused from the sale and new contract for the top two guys in the company and its valuation
*How Vince McMahon changed Raw
*What are the big questions going forward regarding creative
*What employees and wrestlers were told
*Investigation of the deal
*Can WWE get out of the deal
*Financial benefits of the deal
*What it means going forward
*What happened internally in UFC from the deal
*Profits and revenue for UFC and WWE last year
*The history of Vince McMahon and UFC and secret story about a WrestleMania main event that never happened
*Coverage of WrestleMania
*Examining Rhodes vs. Reigns and the finish
*Real attendance figures and other business figures
*PPV numbers and which show had the most viewers
*What were the most watched matches after the fact
*Social media numbers and who drew the biggest and where there are contradictions
*Match-by-match coverage with star ratings as well as poll results
*AEW trying to run Wembley Stadium and more history of such
*A look at a famous period in wrestling history with the death of U.K. promoter Max Crabtree, and the debate over whether the Big Daddy era killed wrestling in that country or it was killed earlier and he just gave it a last life
*A look at the ROH Supercard of Honor, business notes, match-by-match coverage
*A look at NXT Stand & Deliver
*What happened with Gisele Shaw and Rick Steiner
*The most detailed look at the ratings over the past week and what they mean
*Arena Coliseo 80th anniversary event
*Build to the biggest show in Stardom history
*New Japan/Impact dual show
*One of the best bouts of the year took place this past week
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
For this weekend, Garrett and I will be doing our usual Friday show covering the news from this past week and boy was there a lot of it. Bryan and I will be back Saturday also covering the news including the Friday shows, as well as Sakura Genesis and UFC 287.
Vince McMahon is not in Portland, OR, for Smackdown tonight. He did call in remotely and made some minor changes to the show.
WWE today filed a motion to dismiss the MLW lawsuit against them. It was a 32-page document where it claims WWE blocking other companies from television isn’t the case, citing MLW getting on REELZ, AEW adding programming on WBD and Women of Wrestling getting a national syndication deal. They claim that they had to send MLW a cease and desist because of trying to steal their IP in using the name Enzo Amore, and that the Peacock deal for REELZ came after the MLW deal with REELZ and MLW could still make a streaming deal elsewhere. Actually wen Eric Arndt came to MLW he used nZo which WWE claimed was too close to Enzo Amore and also claimed with the spelling that they were using WWE-owned IP close to nWo because o the style of the nZo logo. They also claimed MLW used War Games last June on YouTube when WWE owned the War Games name.
Smackdown has announced Sami Zayn vs. Jey Uso, Rey Mysterio & Santos Escobar vs. Damian Priest & Dominik Mysterio and Sheamus & Ridge Holland & Butch vs. Imperium, plus HHH will cut a promo and Rhea Ripley appears. As of this morning, WWE had 9,611 tickets out for the Moda Center in Portland.
Rampage and Battle of the Belts airs 10 p.m. to midnight tonight on TNT with Anna Jay vs. Julia Hart, Hook vs Ethan Page for the FTW title, Acclaimed & Matt Menard & Angelo Parker in an eight-man tag match, Darby Allin vs. Lee Moriarty, Lucha Brothers vs. Powerhouse Hobbs & QT Marshall for the ROH tag titles, Jade Cargill vs Billie Starkz for the TBS title and Orange Cassidy vs. Dralistico for the International title. As of this morning, AEW had 2,752 tickets out for the show in Kingston, RI. They are taping ROH for next week tonight before they go live.
AEW hit 35,000 for the number of people asking for a code for the presale for the Wembley Stadium show on 8/27.
For this weekend, we are looking for your thoughts on UFC 287 and NJPW Sakura Genesis tomorrow, so you an leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to [email protected]
We’re also looking for reports from WWE in Portland, OR and AEW in Kingston, RI, for anything that doesn’t happen on the live TV shows like dark matches and the like.
*Sakura Genesis starts at 4 a.m. Eastern time tomorrow morning from Tokyo Sumo Hall:
*Mystery six man tag match
*Jeff Cobb & Aaron Henare & Francesco Akira vs. Sho & Yujiro Takahashi & Evil
*Tama Tonga & Hikuleo & Master Wato vs. David Finlay & El Phantasmo & KENTA
*Mercedes Mone vs. Hazuki vs. AZM for the IWGP women’s title
*Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Shota Umino for the TV title
*Hirooki Goto & Yoshi-Hashi vs. Aussie Open for the IWGP tag titles
*Hiromu Takahashi vs. Robbie Eagles for the IWGP Jr. title
*Kazuchika Okada vs. Sanada for the IWGP heavyweight title
*Mayu Iwatani will be at the show to challenge the winner of the IWGP women’s title for 4/23 at the Yokohama Arena.
Skye Blue has officially signed an AEW contract.
I strongly recommend watching the Sunday match with Takagi vs Henare from Korakuen Hall It is one of the best matches of the year.
*UFC 287 tomorrow from Miami, FL:
6 p.m. on ESPN+:
*Jaqueline Amorim (115.5.) vs. Sam Hughes (116)
*Steve Garcia (145.5) vs. Shayilan Nuerdanbieke (146)
*Ignacio Bahomondes (159.5) vs. Trey Ogden (159.5)
*Cynthia Calvillo (116) vs. Lupita Godinez (115.5)
8 p.m. on ESPN:
*Karl Williams (241) vs Chase Sherman (249.5)
*Gerald Meerschaert (185.5) vs. Joe Pyfer (185.5)
*Michelle Waterson Gomez (116) vs. Luana Pinheiro (115.5)
*Kelvin Gastelum (185) vs. Chris Curtis (186)
PPV at 10 p.m.
*Raul Rosas Jr. (135) vs. Christian Rodriguez (137) – Rodriguez missed weight and was fined 20 percent of his purse
*Kevin Holland (170.5) vs. Santiago Ponzinibbio (171)
*Rob Font (135) vs. Adrian Yanez (135.5)
*Gilbert Burns (170) vs. Jorge Masvidal (171)
*Alex Pereira (185) vs. Israel Adesanya (184.5) for the middleweight title
*The gate for this show is more than $11 million, which is more than either night of WrestleMania even though they are doing an arena setting. It would be one of the biggest gates in UFC history.
UFC announced that the 6/10 PPV show will be in Vancouver, BC.
Amanda Ribas vs Maycee Barber is slated for a 6/24 UFC show that will air on ABC
Jessica Andrade vs. Yan Xiaonan is slated for a 5/6 PPV show in Newark, NJ
The Universal tournament of champions in CMLL starts tonight at Arena Mexico with Mistico vs. Atlantis Jr. vs. Rocky Romero in a battle of the three historic champions.
El Hijo del Vikingo is working for GCW on 5/26 in Las Vegas which is the AEW Double or Nothing weekend.
Other Notes
The NWA has a PPV tonight called 312 on FITE from Chicago headlined by Tyrus vs. Chris Adonis for the NWA title, Cyon vs. EC3 for the National title, Kamille vs. Rosa Negra for the women’s title, Bestia 666 & Mecha Wolf vs,. Magnum Muscle for the tag titles, Kenzie Paige vs. Max the Impaler for the women’s TV title and lots of other title matches.
LFA is running a show at the Gila River Resort & Casino in Chandler, AZ on 5/19.
Defy tomorrow night in Seattle at Washington Hall features Swerve Strickland vs Nick Wayne for the Defy title, plus Vert Vixen defends the women’s title against Miyu Yamashita, Bollywood Boyz vs.State of Emergency, Michael Oku vs Cody Chhun, Marina Shafir vs. Nicole Matthews an Alex Reynolds & John Silver & Guillermo Rosas vs. Ricky Gibson & Eddie Pearl & Levi Cooper,. They also ran 5/5 in Tacoma at ALMA Tacoma.
Innovate Wrestling has the Smoky Mountain Cup tournament on 4/29 in Kingsport, TN at the Civic Auditorium. It will start with six singles matches and the winners go into a six-way eliminating match in the finals Chase Owens is on the show.
Central States Wrestling tomorrow night in Lenexa, KS at the National Guard Armory with a no holds barred street fight for the DWF title with Jeremy Wyatt vs. Ace Steel with Michel Strider as referee plus Tootie Lynn vs. Heather Reckless.
Lucha Va Voom returns to its home base of the Mayan Theater in downtown Los Angeles for shows on 5/4 and 5/4. Taya Valkyrie, Peter Avalon, Rey Horus and Jack Cartwheel will be on the show.
Pro Wrestling Revolver from last night ni Dayton, OH: They announced Josh Alexander wasn’t there due to his injury and that Brian Cage had travel issues and wasn’t there: JT Dunn b Myron Reed, Chris Sabin b Bryan Keith, Mike Bailey & Veda Scott b Steve Maclin & Deonna Purrazzo in a married tag team match, Gringo Loco won scramble match, Madman Fulton b Crash Jaxon, Miyu Yamashita b Allie Katch, Ace Austin & Chis Bey b Trey Miguel & Zachary Wentz to win the tag team titles, Alex Shelley b Jake Crist in a street fight to keep the Revolver Remix title.
Brittany Blake vs. B3CCA has been added to tomorrow night’s MLW show in Philadelphia.
World Wrestling Entertainment has agreed to a deal with Endeavor that will lead to the formation of a new company, currently called NewCo, but that could be changed. Its name on the stock market looks to be TKO, and the new company will combine UFC and WWE.
The merger of the two similar dominant brands in their respective industries is expected to be finalized and the company is to go public in four to six months. If, for whatever reason, the merger isn’t finalized by the start of 2024, which is unlikely to happen, the deal will fall apart. The idea is to create a company with a stock market value of $21.3 billion, based on a valuation of UFC at $12 billion and WWE at $9.3 billion.
These are claimed valuations from the new company and there is no actual cash changing hands, as this is a merger and not an acquisition. Vince McMahon did not sell WWE as much as merge it with UFC and he will remain a key person in power with the new company. Basically McMahon and Ari Emanuel will be the key decision makers for WWE business going forward, while Nick Khan goes from his role of CEO to WWE President. Paul Levesque remains in charge of creative, but Vince McMahon will have influence and power over all the major creative decisions and could have power over all decisions as things played out during the week.
The Raw after WrestleMania 39 was expected to do a monster number, but beat expectations with 2.26 million viewers and a 0.76 rating in 18-49.
It was the second biggest Raw audience of the year, trailing only the Raw 30th anniversary episode. But in the 18-49 demo, it was the best Raw rating in more than three years.
Raw beat everything on television except CBS’ coverage of the NCAA men’s basketball finals where Connecticut beat San Diego State, which went against the last two hours of Raw. The game did 14.69 million viewers with a 3.73 in 18-49, which is one of the toughest nights of competition of the year for Raw.
Raw did peak in the commercial-free first hour, off the WrestleMania curiosity, and then the game started. Even with spending the entire show advertising a match with Brock Lesnar & Cody Rhodes vs. Roman Reigns & Solo Sikoa, which ended up not being delivered, between the basketball game and the circumstances of an audience tuning in early after Mania, the drop from the first to third hour was the largest in weeks. But that was to be expected.
Raw dominated cable. It tripled second place Tucker Carlson in 18-49. It more than doubled second place Rock the Block in women 18-49. It more than tripled everything in men 18-49. The 0.58 in 18-34 was amazing when you consider second place was 0.12. The rating with men 12-34 was 0.62 compared to a 0.14 for second place.
The number two show for the night on cable, Tucker Carlson, did 3.25 million/0.25 in 18-49, less than one-third of Raw in the key demo.
Raw even beat The Voice and American Idol on network TV.
Raw was seventh on cable in total viewers behind six news shows.
It was up 23 percent in viewers from last week, up 37 percent in 18-49, and up 41 percent in 18-34.
As compared to last year’s show this week, also the day after WrestleMania, Raw was up eight percent in viewers, up 21 percent in 18-49, and up 23 percent in 18-34, and that’s with major decreases in homes that can get the USA Network. Factoring in direct homes comparisons, the real percentage gains from last year were 14 percent in viewers, up 29 percent in 18-49, and up 31 percent in 18-34.
The number would have been far higher without the basketball game, as men 18-49 dropped 23 percent from hour one, not against the game, to hour three, far more than usual. Other drops were 15 percent for women 18-49, 21 percent with women 12-34 , 14 percent with men 12-34, and 13 percent with people 50.
Records that will be set during WrestleMania weekend
Match by match previews, odds, and what are the goals of the matches
Ticket sales for the six major shows in Los Angeles this week
Notes on NXT and AEW doing major shows on the same day on 5/28 and background of that story
A look at the career of Tim White, going into the Hall of Fame
Stand & Deliver and Supercard of Honor previews
Secondary market interest in all of the shows
Update on WWE sale
Update on Vince McMahon as it pertains to WrestleMania and the sale
A look at the careers of Anderson Silva and Donald Cerrone as they go into the UFC Hall of Fame
Full coverage of this past week’s UFC show, business notes, problems that seem to always be there in Texas and why
Notes on the first AAA TripleMania show of 2023 and the AEW relationship, the tag team tournament that will lead to a mask or hair being cut, another mask match, a celebrity match that has gotten mainstream news in Mexico and a funny story behind it, and more.
How many homes are the major stations that carry wrestling and MMA in as compared to the peak
The most detailed look at the ratings for the past week’s shows, competition, quarter hours, the weekly standings and more
80th anniversary of pro wrestling in one of the major arenas in the world coming up this weekend
Wrestler whose matches are now not being put up new on YouTube and why
Kairi talks AEW & WWE talent she’d like to work with
Stardom Cinderella tournament news and new major matches
Lots of injuries to major stars being talked about
Konosuke Takeshita returns to Japan this past week to team with former WWE star
Mark Hitchock Memorial show with top matches
XPW returns
RevPro York Hall big show notes
Bloodsport notes including the first match back of Kota Ibushi
Impact dealing with key injuries and crowning one or two new champions
Impact star competing in a bodybuilding contest this week
Impact uses former NHL star who has been doing indie shows
Tons of AEW news including Jon Moxley’s podcast interview, C.M. Punk’s potential return, next PPV show
Don Callis injury update
Notes on timing of a major return
Tony Khan’s view of ROH compared to AEW and who ROH is aimed for
Honor Club update
AEW All Access first episode looked at
AEW’s top merchandise sellers
Tony Khan on MJF as a babyface
Vickie Guerrero talks leaving AEW
International TV ratings and streaming numbers
New UFC main events
Fighter attempts to win title in third weight class
Benavidez vs. Plant boxing numbers and what percentage of AEW & WWE big show buyers purchased that PPV
MMA stars in major boxing event this week
Promotion with its own unique audience with 91 percent of TV viewers not watching any rival promotion on TV
Nick Khan talks TV rights
What Nick Khan says are the most important things to WWE
Rey Mysterio’s future and how long he wants to wrestle
Update on Dominik Mysterio
Interesting note on Rey Mysterio’s career
Ronda Rousey talks creative and not in flattering way
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].
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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.
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Sunday Update
Bryan and I will be back tonight covering night two of WrestleMania. We did shows Friday night covering the TV shows and ROH Supercard of Honor, and last night covering the latest news and WrestleMania night one, previewed night two and NXT Stand & Deliver. We’ll also be up after Raw tomorrow.
There are multiple reports out that it will be announced tomorrow that Endeavor has purchased the majority interest in WWE. This CNBC story that just broke said that Endeavor would spin WWE & UFC into a separate publicly traded company, which would allow both the UFC and WWE profits to pay the interest and that this deal could be announced as early as tomorrow. The story is that Endeavor would create a joint company composed of both UFC and WWE. They would have people in place in the company which would enable them to cut duplicate jobs if necessary, lowering costs, plus negotiate deals either together or separately with using the power of owning both brands. The idea is through owning both brands they could use that leverage to get higher rights fees for both properties. The rest of Endeavor would become a separate company. Notable in that is that the UFC profits have been valuable in the old Endeavor company in carrying it. Ari Emanuel would run both companies. Vince McMahon and Mark Shapiro would be Executive Chairmans of the new company while Nick Khan would remain president of WWE and Dana White would remain president of UFC. Essentially that gives McMahon even greater power in the sense he would be co-chair of both WWE and UFC if the story is accurate. Emanuel had said multiple times of late that he wasn’t interested in buying WWE and they were trying to lower the company debt. The new company would theoretically pick up the UFC and WWE purchase debt.
Regarding Randy Orton, on Friday we were told by WWE and actually asked to put out that he was not ready to return for a while due to his recovery from injuries and were told they wanted that out with the idea people shouldn’t get their hopes up for an appearance. The only reason I’m bringing that up is because Nick Khan did say in an interview this week that Pat McAfee would not be part of WrestleMania this year (which was kept secret from everyone) and there he was last night. When asking others nobody knew of plans for Orton for tonight but that would likely be a secret if there were.
The WrestleMania match order as of a few hours ago was:
Brock Lesnar vs. Omos
Shayna Baszler & Ronda Rousey vs. Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez vs. Sonya Deville & Chelsea Green vs. Natalya & Shotzi
Gunther vs. Sheamus vs. Drew McIntyre for the IC title
Bianca Belair vs. Asuka for the Raw Women’s title
Edge vs. Finn Balor Hell in a Cell
Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes for the Undisputed title
There will be major ring entrances of course like last night including for Edge and Finn Balor. Everything points to Brood Edge as part of the presentation and it’s already been announced Demon Balor. There is the Hall of Fame announcement later in the show. Bobby Lashley has been saying he will issue an open challenge.
As of this morning there were 67,134 tickets out for tonight’s show and 88 remaining plus 1,522 secondary market tickets that were purchased but not yet sold (which is not unusual at all). There will probably be some tickets opened up late like happened yesterday.
There were a lot of chants for LA Knight when they talked about The Miz open challenge last night and “Yeahs.” Fans were after clearly wanting Knight to be the guy Lashley faces tonight. Houston Mitchell of the LA Times said he’s been going to wrestling for over 40 years and has rarely seen a groundswell of support for a guy out of nowhere like that and can’t believe it’s just because his name is LA.
Dustin Rhodes is in Los Angeles
Dante Martin was released from the hospital and was with Tony Khan. There is no update regarding the medical procedure.
MJF will be getting a key to the city of Oyster Bay on Long Island tomorrow at 2 p.m.. at Oyster Bay Town Hall.
For the weekend we are dong polls on ROH Supercard of Honor, NXT Stand & Deliver and both nights of WrestleMania. You can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match from all four shows to [email protected]
We are also looking for reports from the GCW Hall of Fame ceremony today as well as any of the Los Angeles non-WWE/ROH shows the last two days to [email protected]
As far as Google searches go for the week, WrestleMania had 500,000 thus far for Friday/Saturday and was second behind the Final Four for the week. Snoop Dogg was No. 18 yesterday although that was at least partially not due to WrestleMania and the lead story on him wasn’t Mania related. Nothing from MMA made the list with no UFC shows. But ROH and NXT didn’t nor would they be expected to crack the top 20. Anthony Joshua was No 10 yesterday with 50,000 and Roy Jones Jr., who boxed MMA star Anthony Pettis last night in Milwaukee, was No; 15 with 20,000.
Pettis beat the 54-year-old Jones via decision in a boxing match in Milwaukee last night via eight round decision. Vitor Belfort also knocked down Jacare Souza three times in winning a decision on the show, while Jose Aldo went to a draw on that show with Jeremy Stephens. Aldo in his post-fight interview went hard on Conor McGregor claiming McGregor turned down a rematch with him. McGregor responded of course saying that the two of them should box.
Bret Hart agreed to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame at the ceremony on 4/1 in Chicago–the night before this year’s Wrestlemania, ending a long recruiting practice by the company that started immediately after last year’s show.
Hart was the leading vote getter in the company’s unofficial balloting to present names to Vince McMahon, although he was being recruited long before any real discussion for this year had started. He indicated to WWE officials more than a week ago that he would do so, but still was going back-and-forth on the decision until finally telling Kevin Dunn on 2/12 that it was okay to make the announcement the next night on Raw (which aired live in Canada and the U.K.). All sides agreed on confidentiality until the announcement was done on television.
As things stand, Hart has only agreed to do the Hall of Fame, and will not appear at Wrestlemania. Hart is currently in Calgary working in his book project, which he wants done quickly, but at this point is only in 1999.
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Friday Update
– This is the busiest weekend of the year with countless shows in Los Angeles. Bryan and I are doing shows Saturday, Sunday and Monday night. Tonight’s schedule is to be determined. Garrett is on vacation with his wife celebrating her birthday so no show with him today.
– We are looking for reports on any of the indie shows today and tomorrow. I’ll be watching ROH Supercard of Honor. For WWE, the only thing we’re looking for is dark match results before SmackDown tonight in Los Angeles to [email protected].
– For polls this weekend, we are doing Supercard of Honor tonight, NXT Stand & Deliver and both nights of WrestleMania. So you can leave a thumbs up, down or middle, along with a best and worst match for each of the four shows to [email protected]
–Our WrestleMania preview issue of the Observer is up, filled with tons of news on all of the shows:
Records that will be set
Match by match previews, odds, and what are the goals of the matches
Ticket sales for the six major shows in Los Angeles this week
Notes on NXT and AEW doing major shows on the same day on 5/28 and background of that story
A look at the career of Tim White, going into the Hall of Fame
Stand & Deliver and Supercard of Honor previews
Secondary market interest in all of the shows
Update on WWE sale
Update on Vince McMahon as it pertains to WrestleMania and the sale
A look at the careers of Anderson Silva and Donald Cerrone as they go into the UFC Hall of Fame
Full coverage of this past week’s UFC show, business notes, problems that seem to always be there in Texas and why
Notes on the first AAA TripleMania show of 2023 and the AEW relationship, the tag team tournament that will lead to a mask or hair being cut, another mask match, a celebrity match that has gotten mainstream news in Mexico and a funny story behind it, and more.
How many homes are the major stations that carry wrestling and MMA in as compared to the peak
The most detailed look at the ratings for the past week’s shows, competition, quarter hours, the weekly standings and more
80th anniversary of pro wrestling in one of the major arenas in the world coming up this weekend
Wrestler whose matches are now not being put up new on YouTube and why
Kairi talks AEW & WWE talent she’d like to work with
Stardom Cinderella tournament news and new major matches
Lots of injuries to major stars being talked about
Konosuke Takeshita returns to Japan this past week to team with former WWE star
Mark Hitchock Memorial show with top matches
XPW returns
RevPro York Hall big show notes
Bloodsport notes including the first match back of Kota Ibushi
Impact dealing with key injuries and crowning one or two new champions
Impact star competing in a bodybuilding contest this week
Impact uses former NHL star who has been doing indie shows
Tons of AEW news including Jon Moxley’s podcast interview, C.M. Punk’s potential return, next PPV show
Don Callis injury update
Notes on timing of a major return
Tony Khan’s view of ROH compared to AEW and who ROH is aimed for
Honor Club update
AEW All Access first episode looked at
AEW’s top merchandise sellers
Tony Khan on MJF as a babyface
Vickie Guerrero talks leaving AEW
International TV ratings and streaming numbers
New UFC main events
Fighter attempts to win title in third weight class
Benavidez vs. Plant boxing numbers and what percentage of AEW & WWE big show buyers purchased that PPV
MMA stars in major boxing event this week
Promotion with its own unique audience with 91 percent of TV viewers not watching any rival promotion on TV
Nick Khan talks TV rights
What Nick Khan says are the most important things to WWE
Rey Mysterio’s future and how long he wants to wrestle
Update on Dominik Mysterio
Interesting note on Rey Mysterio’s career
Ronda Rousey talks creative and not in flattering way
A look at new WWE recruits
– Even though Randy Orton is in Los Angeles this weekend, it’s been noted to us he won’t be doing wrestling matches soon as his back injury has a ways to go. There have been photos of him and he was in great looking shape more than a month ago.
– ROH Supercard of Honor tonight with the live show on YouTube starting at 7 p.m. Eastern and PPV at 8 p.m. Eastern
Jeff Cobb vs. Tracy Williams
Willow Nightingale vs. Miranda Alize
Stu Grayson vs. Slim J
Konosuke Takeshita vs. Willie Mack
Brian Cage & Toa Leona & Bishop Kaun vs. AR Fox & Blake Christian & Metalik for ROH trios title
Wheeler Yuta vs. Katsuyori Shibata for the Pure title
Athena vs. Yuka Sakazaki for the Women’s title
El Hijo del Vikingo vs. Komander for the AAA Mega title
Samoa Joe vs. Mark Briscoe for the TV title
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Daniel Garcia
Ladder match for tag titles tribute to Jay Briscoe: Lucha Bros, Aussie Open, Top Flight, Mike Bennett & Matt Taven and Rush & Dralistico
Claudio Castagnoli vs. Eddie Kingston for the ROH title
– SmackDown and the WWE Hall of Fame take place tonight at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. SmackDown has the Andre the Giant Battle Royal, a Cody Rhodes/Roman Reigns final angle, Drew McIntyre & Sheamus vs. Giovanni Vinci & Ludvig Kaiser, and Raquel Rodriguez vs. Natalya vs. Shayna Baszler vs. Sonya Deville.
– Rampage returns to its regular time slot tonight at 10 p.m. Eastern on TNT:
Konosuke Takeshita vs. Sammy Guevara
Chuck Taylor & Trent Baretta vs. Brody King & Malakai Black
Taya Valkyrie vs. Marina Shafir
Action Andretti vs. Juice Robinson
– Shinsuke Nakamura is also in Los Angeles, including being with Keiji Muto for his Hall of Fame induction tonight.
– I have not seen it yet, but the two matches of late I’ve been told have been the best of the last few days are the El Hijo del Vikingo vs. Black Taurus vs. Komander from yesterday’s Mark Hitchcock Memorial show and the Michael Oku vs. Zack Sabre Jr. match from RevPro.
–Regarding odds movement for Mania, Owens & Zayn have gone to a -5000 favorite to win the tag titles. Dominik’s odds of beating Rey have increased to -260. Rollins is a major favorite now at -350 over Paul. Asuka has gone from a -200 to -140 favorite over Belair, so those odds have closed. Balor is now a -140 favorite over Edge, when Edge had been the favorite. Lesnar’s odds have come down from -1500 to -600. In the women’s four-way, Rousey & Baszler are -1000, Morgan & Rodriguez at +300, Shotzi & Natalya at +800 and Deville & Green at +1000,.
– Joey Janela’s Spring Break on 8 p.m. Eastern tonight against SmackDown, Rampage and ROH among others is still sold out with Joey Janela vs. Kota Ibushi and El Hijo del Vikingo vs. Mike Bailey. So Vikingo is working two major matches today.
–Prestige Wrestling tonight at 7 p.m. Eastern on Highspots.TV has Aja Kong vs. Masha Slamovich, Miyu Yamashita vs. Taya Valkyrie, Ultimo Dragon & Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley vs. Tom Lawlor & Royce Isaacs & Jorel Nelson, Michael Oku vs. Titus Alexander, Shigehiro Irie vs. Kevin Blackwood, Adam Brooks & Warhorse vs. Midnight Heat, Clark Connors & Yuya Uemura & Kevin Knight vs. Cody Chhun & Guillermo Rosas & Sonico and Vinnie Massaro vs. Calvin Tankman.
Other Notes
– Invicta returns on 5/3 from Reelworks in Denver with a 9 p.m. main card on AXS in the U.S., plus Invicta’s YouTube and Facebook Page as well as Fight Network in Canada and Fox Spots in Mexico. Jillian DeCoursey (6-3) defends her atomweight title against Brazil’s’ Rayanne dos Santos (13-6) in the main event.
– Lazaro Dayron vs. (5-0) vs. Nathan Greyson (6-4) headlines tomorrow night’s Combat Global show that airs on Univision and Paramount +.
– LFA on 4/14 in Sioux Falls, SD on UFC Fight Pass is headlined by a welterweight title match with Jalin Fuller (7-2) vs. Trey Waters (6-1).
– GOUGE runs tomorrow at 3:30 p.m.. at Clouds Tap Room in Raleigh NC.
