Author: Josh Nason

Since 2011, Josh has been a contributing editor to Wrestling Observer/F4WOnline.com and also hosts the Punch-Out podcast. He has also written for Fight Magazine, Bloody Elbow, Bleacher Report, and other websites. He's a 2000 graduate of the University of Maine, worked in pro sports, and once was an indie ring announcer.

Update on ‘The Smashing Machine’ box office performance

Posted on by Josh Nason

Image: A24

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s film The Smashing Machine continued to get smashed at the weekend box office as did several other new releases.

From Variety, the movie finished eighth overall with just $1.7 million generated from 3321 venues, a drop of 70% from its opening weekend last week.

The film appears guaranteed to be a financial loser for A24 with $10.1 million in gross revenues against a cost of $50 million.

Johnson plays former UFC/MMA fighter Mark Kerr in the dramatic version of the documentary of the same name that came out more than 20 years ago. It also stars Emily Blunt and former MMA champion Ryan Bader.

The poor showing wasn’t just for Johnson’s movie as the new Disney film Tron: Ares brought in just $33.5 million on 4000 screens in North America to lead the weekend. Other new releases like Roofman the Kiss of the Spider Woman remake also failed to draw much attention or revenue.

Injured wrestler returns on AEW Collision after six month absence

Posted on by Josh Nason

Mark Davis has returned from injury to AEW to further deepen the active ranks of the Don Callis Family.

Davis returned on Saturday’s Collision following Josh Alexander’s countout win over Kota Ibushi and started beating on Ibushi which then brought out Kenny Omega to take out both men with a trash can.

After returning from a lengthy injury absence last November, Davis was injured again in April during a bout with Powerhouse Hobbs, fracturing his foot and causing the match to be cut short. He had just joined the Callis clan two months prior.

Davis already has his next match booked as he will team with Alexander and Hechicero against Omega and Jurassic Express on this Wednesday’s three-hour block of Dynamite and Collision.

Current Don Callis Family members:

  • Konosuke Takeshita
  • Kazuchika Okada
  • Mark Davis
  • Trent Beretta
  • El Clon
  • Hechicero
  • Kyle Fletcher
  • Lance Archer
  • Andrade El Idolo
  • Brian Cage
  • Josh Alexander
  • Rocky Romero
  • Wardlow

YouTube star to debut at TNA Bound for Glory

Posted on by Josh Nason

Popular YouTuber BDE will make his TNA in-ring debut this Sunday at the Bound for Glory pay-per-view, announced by the promotion Friday.

He will participate in the Call Your Shot gauntlet match where the winner earns an anytime, anywhere World title shot.

BDE (Brandon Collymore) made his wrestling debut this past January for Wrestling Revolver. He has 14 matches under his belt thus far and is the current WR Remix Champion.

His YouTube channel boats 1.4 million subscribers and features interviews, opinions, and reaction videos.

TNA Bound for Glory lineup | Sunday, October 12

  • TNA World Champion Trick Williams defends against Mike Santana
  • TNA and NXT Tag Team Champions The Hardys (Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy) defend against Team 3D (Bully Ray and Brother Devon) in a tables match
  • TNA Knockouts World Champion Kelani Jordan defends against Indi Hartwell
  • Hardcore War: Order 4 (Mustafa Ali, Special Agent Zero, Jason Hotch, John Skyler, Tasha Steelz) vs. The System (Eddie Edwards, Moose, Brian Myers, JDC, Alisha Edwards)
  • TNA International Champion Frankie Kazarian defends against Steve Maclin
  • X-Division Champion Leon Slater defends against Je’Von Evans
  • Call Your Shot Gauntlet match
  • Tessa Blanchard vs. Gia Miller
  • Pre-show: Knockouts Tag Team Champions The IInspiration (Cassie Lee and Jessie McKay) defend against The Elegance Brand (Heather by Elegance and M by Elegance)

Inaugural WWE ID Women’s Champion announces contract not being renewed

Posted on by Josh Nason

In some surprise news, inaugural WWE ID Women’s Champion Kylie Rae is leaving the WWE ID program after her contract wasn’t renewed.

The longtime indie veteran took to social media Thursday to both announce the news and show gratitude for her 11 months in the program.

“Today I share that my time with WWE ID is coming to an end as I was informed my contract will not be renewed. I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunities, memories, and people I met along the way,” she wrote.

Rae, who joined the program 11 months ago, revealed three weeks ago that she is pregnant for the second time with independent wrestler Isaias Velazquez. She previously gave birth back in October 2023. The title that Rae won just two months ago was then vacated with no announcement as to crowning a new champion.

Earlier on Thursday, Zayda Steel also announced she was also leaving the program. However, she chose to withdraw herself. Steel was part of the match where Rae won the title along with Zara Zakher.

Three male wrestlers were also released in August.

The program was created to provides indie talent with financial support and other development opportunities while creating a potential pathway to NXT if WWE decides to sign them to a full developmental contract.

Update on Kota Ibushi injury suffered at AEW Collision taping

Posted on by Josh Nason

Image: JJ Williams

Kota Ibushi may have suffered a broken femur in his match with Josh Alexander during Wednesday’s AEW Collision taping that will require surgery.

Our Bryan Alvarez confirmed the news Thursday which was first reported by PWInsider after incident on Wednesday night.

As described by our JJ Williams who is in attendance, Ibushi fell off the top rope to the outside of the ring as his leg appeared to give out. He didn’t make it back into the ring in time and Alexander won the match by countout.

Kenny Omega then made his return to fight off the Don Callis Family and tended to Ibushi afterward. The house lights were lowered as medical personnel assisted Ibushi, eventually carrying him out on a stretcher to an ambulance. AEW head Tony Khan later came out and thanked the fans for being “good fans” and re-iterated how dangerous wrestling is.

He had not been announced for next weekend’s WrestleDream pay-per-view, nor was Omega. It’s unclear if the Alexander match will still air and how that affected plans for the PPV.

The 43-year-old Ibushi last competed at August’s Forbidden Door as part of the Will Ospreay-led team in the unsanctioned steel cage match. After a lengthy absence from AEW, he returned in June to re-align with Omega against the Callis crew with five matches total since his return.

First time ever match added to WWE NXT lineup

Posted on by Josh Nason

A first time ever match has been added to this Tuesday’s WWE NXT lineup as Blake Monroe will take on Zaria.

Monroe is coming off a loss to Jordynne Grace in a weaponized steel cage match at last month’s No Mercy premium live event — her second straight defeat. Primarily focused on tag team wrestling with Sol Ruca, this will be Zaria’s first televised singles bout since June.

The new additions join the previously announced battle royal with both TNA and NXT talent to determine the Halloween Havoc challenger for NXT Women’s Champion Jacy Jayne in addition to El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. making his NXT in-ring debut against Lexis King, and Matt Cardona vs. Josh Briggs.

Current WWE NXT lineup for Tuesday, October 14:

  • Josh Briggs vs. Matt Cardona
  • El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. vs. Lexis King
  • Blake Monroe vs. Zaria
  • Battle royal for Hallowen Havoc NXT Women’s title match, TNA Knockouts roster invited

Kota Ibushi stretchered out during AEW Collision taping

Posted on by Josh Nason

Image: JJ Williams

Kota Ibushi apparently suffered an injury during his match with Josh Alexander during Wednesday’s AEW Collision TV taping in Jacksonville, Florida.

As described by our JJ Williams who is in attendance, Ibushi fell off the top rope to the outside of the ring as his leg appeared to give out. He didn’t make it back into the ring in time and Alexander won by countout.

Kenny Omega then returned to fight off the Don Callis Family and then tended to Ibushi. The house lights were lowered as medical personnel assisted Ibushi, eventually carrying him out on a stretcher to an ambulance (seen below). AEW head Tony Khan later came out and thanked the fans for being “good fans” and re-iterated how dangerous wrestling is.

As of this writing, it’s unconfirmed what the injury is or what led to the fall. A PWInsider reported stated there is talk backstage of a broken femur but nothing has been announced yet.

The 43-year-old last competed at August’s Forbidden Door as part of the Will Ospreay-led team in the unsanctioned steel cage match. After a lengthy absence from AEW, he returned in June to re-align with Omega against the Callis crew and has wrestled four total times since then.

Raven diagnosed with early-onset Parkinson’s disease

Posted on by Josh Nason

Former ECW, WWE and WCW star Raven revealed that he has been diagnosed with early-onset Parkinson’s disease.

Appearing on Wednesday’s Ariel Helwani Show (seen below), he was talking about his upcoming documentary and said at this point in his life, he’s “as content as I’ve ever been…other than this stupid tremor I got from the Parkinson’s.”

Helwani mentioned he noticed in the documentary that he was suffering from the disease and asked how he is doing with it.

“I’m lucky. It hasn’t affected me too bad. When I get anxious, the tremor gets worse or if I’m really tired. I have a sleep disorder,” he explained.

“You gotta pay the piper sometime. For all the drugs and alcohol and chair shots I took to the head, you gotta pay for the damage at some point,” he said, admitting those three things resulted in his current state.

He also admitted that he has “tons of regrets” and that anyone that says they don’t is “full of sh*t,” but wouldn’t have changed anything.

“It made me who I am. I’m happy with who I am. I’d rather be happy with who I am at the end of my life rather than earlier in my life and not be happy at the end,” he said.

Nevermore: The Raven Effect comes out on Amazon Prime on November 18 with a special screenings with Raven at the PhilaMOCA in Philadelphia on October 11 and 12. 

Former WWE NXT Champion advertised for return

Posted on by Josh Nason

Former WWE NXT North American Champion & Heritage Cup Champion Tony D’Angelo appears to be returning to the ring imminently.

D’Angelo is featured on social media advertising for NXT live events on Thursday, October 9 in Columbus, Ohio; Friday, October 10 in Detroit, Michigan; and Saturday, October 11 in Cleveland, Ohio, along with Trick Williams, Jaida Parker, Sol Ruca, and Oba Femi.

The 30-year-old hasn’t wrestled since a July 25 NXT live event. Several days later on NXT TV, he was shown in a vignette eating at a restaurant. He was approached by an unidentified person and then the vignette cut to black, an assumed homage to The Sopranos‘ finale.

Last week, our Dave Meltzer reported that D’Angelo wasn’t injured, but asked for time off. His storyline with former factionmates Luca Crusifino and Channing Lorenzo wrapped up in mid-July.

D’Angelo is a former two-time NXT Tag Team Champion, former Heritage Cup Champion, and former NXT North American Champion. He’s made one main roster appearance, losing to Akira Tozawa on a January 2023 WWE Main Event episode.

AEW All In Texas actual attendance revealed, state reimbursement reduced

Posted on by Josh Nason

A lower than expected turnout for July’s AEW All In from Arlington, Texas’ Globe Life Field will result in the company getting a reduced reimbursement from the state.

The news comes from public records obtained by Wrestlenomics that revealed the actual turnstile count (aka tickets scanned for those coming into the venue) at 21,973 which included 274 suite tickets out of 678 that were actually sold. Actual attendance in the venue was listed at 23,759 according to the documentation. While not specified, the difference could be arena workers and other personnel.

The total amount of tickets sold & distributed was not provided in the records. WrestleTix had previously estimated 27,245 as total distributed. Following the event, AEW head Tony Khan had said he thought the attendance was at nearly 29,000. In pre-show media, he said that All In was nearing the $3 million mark in gate revenue.

Why that scan count matters is the Texas Event Trust Fund which uses both state and local funding to help cover expenses for certain events coming into the state. AEW was set to receive $1 million in pre-approved funding based on a February estimated attendance of 33,490 with 32,500 of those being fans.

Arlington City Manager Trey Yelverton confirmed to Wrestlenomics in the report that AEW would end up receiving “around $700,000 in reimbursements” toward All In costs.

In the past, WWE has also received reimbursement from the same fund for events like WrestleMania.

Another interesting note from the full Wrestlenomics report had nearly 6300 fans coming to All In from outside Texas with just over 4600 fans coming from outside the Dallas/Arlington market. The residences of nearly 5300 fans could not be determined.

Additionally, documentation showed that there was originally both NJPW and CMLL events planned for All In week in addition to a Chris Jericho/Fozzy/Swerve Strickland combo concert that never happened.

JNPO: Todd Grisham on his WWE past, UFC tenure & boxing’s future

Posted on by Josh Nason

Image: DAZN

On a new Josh Nason’s Punch-Out, Josh talks with former WWE broadcaster Todd Grisham on his lengthy run in WWE, dealing with Vince McMahon, and whether he has any interest in returning to the business.

Josh and Todd also talk about the current state of boxing, Todd’s role commentating fights for DAZN and Glory Kickboxing, and why his time in the UFC was cut shorter than expected. Todd even addresses winning two Wrestling Observer Newsletter Worst Announcer awards.

All that and more await on this week’s Josh Nason’s Punch-Out, available for free below, on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Just search “Wrestling Observer.”

Click here to listen

AEW makes change to next week’s Dynamite & Collision schedule

Posted on by Josh Nason

With next week being a pay-per-view week for AEW, the company is making a change to their programming schedule.

Announced during the special Title Tuesday edition of Dynamite, AEW will have a three-hour combined edition of Dynamite and Collision on Wednesday, October 15 starting at 8 PM Eastern.

The Kansas City, Missouri, show will be the go-home for WrestleDream which takes place on Saturday, October 18 in its usual slot of 8 PM Eastern (main card).

While the three-hour show will be live, the event will begin a run of AEW Dynamite/Collision taping nights in the upcoming weeks which includes San Antonio, Texas, on Wednesday, October 22 and Edinburg, Texas, on Wednesday, October 29. The next live Collision will be on Saturday, November 8 from Houston, Texas.

AEW has experimented frequently with longer Wednesday night broadcasts in the first year of their new multi-year deal with WBD. That includes June’s four-hour Summer Blockbuster and four Fyter Fest, last week’s two-and-a-half hour anniversary show and Wednesday’s Title Tuesday which is also two-and-a-half hours.

WWE Raw September 29 episode viewership ties record low

Posted on by Josh Nason

Image: WWE

Episode viewership for the September 29 edition of WWE Raw on Netflix remained consistent with the prior week’s record-low.

Global hours viewed remained at 2.3 million with global hours viewed remaining at 4.5 million through its first seven days, according to the Netflix weekly Tudum report.

For the third straight week, the show began at a 7 PM Eastern start time in the U.S.

Raw Viewership Details:

  • Raw was a Top 10 show in six countries, ranking both eighth globally and eighth in the U.S.
  • The 1:53 runtime was slightly less than 1:55.
  • The average for the last ten weeks decreased to 2.61 million global views and 5.19 million global hours viewed.

Raw Show Notes:

  • Raw was headlined by The Usos vs. Bron Breakker & Bronson Reed in a tornado tag team match with Roman Reigns making a surprise appearance at the end.
  • Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins had a face-to-face to build up their Crown Jewel match.
  • Dominik Mysterio defended the WWE Intercontinental title against Rusev, Rhea Ripley kicked off the show and had a confrontation with Asuka and Kairi Sane that also included IYO SKY, and Bayley took on Roxanne Perez among other matches.

Last 10 weeks of WWE Raw on Netflix ratings/viewership:

Episode dateGlobal ViewsGlobal Hours
September 29, 20252.3 million4.5 million
September 22, 20252.3 million4.5 million
September 15, 20252.6 million5.3 million
September 8, 20252.6 million5.1 million
September 1, 20252.4 million5.2 million
August 25, 20252.6 million5.0 million
August 18, 20252.8 million5.4 million
August 11, 20252.8 million5.3 million
August 4, 20253.0 million6.1 million
July 28, 20252.7 million5.5 million
Average for last 10 weeks:2.61 million5.19 million

Santos Escobar becomes free agent as WWE contract expires

Posted on by Josh Nason

Santos Escobar is now a free agent after his WWE contract expired Tuesday at midnight.

That new report comes from Fightful Select who first reported Monday that it was likely Escobar would part ways with WWE after attempts to re-sign him were declined. Sources indicated to the outlet that it was more “creative dissatisfaction than it was about money” and that he was offered more money.

They also reported Escobar could appear at New York Comic Con this weekend.

The Legado del Fantasma member hasn’t been in the ring since appearing in trios matches on WWE SuperShows in Mexico July 26 and 27. He has wrestled just seven times overall this year with two of those appearances coming in battle royals.

The former El Hijo del Fantasma, Escobar signed with WWE in August 2019, got injured while training, and then started with NXT in February 2020 under his real name (Jorge Bolly) which was eventually changed to his current moniker after winning the NXT Cruiserweight title that same year.

He, Joaquin Wilde and Cruz Del Toro were called up to the main roster in October 2022 where he has remained ever since. After splitting with the LWO, Escobar has been aligned with Los Garza.

He was relatively quiet on social media for September, but has began posting pictures of him in a suit from a photo shoot including the following which included an hourglass emoji (seen below).

The 41-year-old is both a former titleholder in CMLL and AAA and has also wrestled for TNA in the past. Given WWE’s ownership of AAA, a reunion would appear to be unprecedented.

New Nielsen ratings method does not include HBO Max streaming data

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According to a new report from Wrestlenomics, the new method Nielsen is using for ratings does not include any data from HBO Max.

Citing a WBD spokesperson, it was stated that when it comes to WBD shows like AEW Dynamite or AEW Collision, “linear viewership information reported by Nielsen (still) does not include HBO Max streaming viewership.” It’s unclear if that would change in the future.

Wrestlenomics also noted the news above doesn’t mean other streaming services like Peacock or Paramount Plus are also not being counted. It’s unknown as of now if they are.

Nielsen recently transitioned to their new “Big Data + Panel” methodology. From our Dave Meltzer’s piece this past Sunday:

“Nielsen now combines data from its traditional panel homes with information from internet-connected smart TVs, set-top boxes, and other devices. The updated methodology also accounts for viewing in public settings like bars and restaurants, which was a significant factor that was previously difficult to measure. Formerly, most of the data came from 40,000 to 45,000 Nielsen homes. Now there is data coming from more than 45 million homes and 75 million devices and will provide far more data.”

This became newsworthy in the wrestling space last week as wrestling ratings took a big hit, including Dynamite and NXT, in the new system in a way that didn’t affect other types of TV shows quite so much. It’s unclear why it affected wrestling so much and if it will continue to do so as time progresses.