Daily Update: WWE shareholder suit update, lawsuit filed over UFC Freedom 250
Daily Update
Latest News
- Agreement in principle reached in WWE shareholder lawsuit
- Former World Champion departs TNA Wrestling
- Nic Nemeth announces when he will cash in TNA Call Your Shot trophy
- For subscribers: Bryan Alvarez’s WWE SmackDown report
- New match and opening segment announced for WWE Raw
- NJPW crowns Best of the Super Juniors 33 winner
- Flag flies off WWE headquarters and catches fire in Stamford
- Danhausen curses another team ahead of Stanley Cup Final Game 3
- AEW reportedly set to sign ‘nationally televised talent’ this summer
- WWE announces judges for Mr. NXT pageant
- WWE shareholder lawsuit trial canceled, removed from court schedule
Latest Audio
- DragonKingKarl: Pioneer era of wrestling mailbag show
- WOL Saturday: New court documents focus more on Vince McMahon’s alleged misconduct than valuation & revenue
- WOR: Mask vs. mask rating, WWE creative, Mick Foley
Latest YouTube Video
This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter
Among the topics covered:
- Mexico City becomes the battleground of wrestling in September. We look at the strategies, the decisions going into a period when the city will host four major shows and seven major arena shows in eight days.
- WWE attempts to counter program Forbidden Door with NXT Great American Bash. A look at the numbers the last time and trying to figure out why it would be tried again
- The most publicized UFC show in history comes to the White House. Can it beat Rousey vs. Carano numbers, can it beat NFL numbers, how it got started and plans for the show.
- AAA Noche de los Grandes, full review of the show and the make-up of the viewership and how it’s changed over the last year, as well as thoughts on the mask vs. mask match that tore down the house
- The WWE stockholders lawsuit against the WWE key higher ups goes to trial this week. We look in depth of what is being asked, why, and give background on everything involved in the case
- WWE Clash In Italy coverage and business numbers
- Ben Askren wins Gaspard/Huber award and returns for one last match
- Odds for King and Queen of the Ring
- How much has Nielsen’s new ratings method hurt the value of pro wrestling on television? We have pretty much the figures, plus the shocking real comparisons for AEW Dynamite last week with recent years
- Full ratings report for the pro wrestling programming, competition, comparisons, and more,.
- Arena Mexico coverage with lots of big matches this coming week
- NOAH tag team tournament news
- Best of the Super Juniors coverage
- Top young star getting shoulder surgery
- Japanese MMA legend wins pro wrestling tournament
- The future of Lucha Libre in 2036 on display this past week
- Ticket sales for all the major upcoming pro wrestling shows this summer
- A crazy indie story involving Jacques Rougeau
- RAF booking a major event in Tbilisi
- More on Damo & Nikki Cross buying Progress
- Lots of Mick Foley AEW talk
- How the Von Erichs viewed the A&E Biography
- Another judge upset with TKO executives not saving evidence
- McGregor return ticket prices go crazy, although not Knicks crazy
- Robbiers in boxing or just bad judging
- Notes on Smackdown going forward
- Examing what Nick Khan said about 2024 WrestleMania plans
- George Barrios claims he talked Vince McMahon into running Saudi Arabia after the Kashoggi death
- Punk on talks to go back to WWE in 2018
This Week’s Back Issue
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Sunday Update
— Bryan and I will be back tonight talking about the WWE settlement, great weekend matches, Best of the Super Juniors, Jones vs. Cormier, Hulk Hogan documentary and more. Our week in review show with Garrett Gonzales is up on the site talking about WWE booking, Nick Khan comments, and much more.
— The shareholders’ lawsuit against Vince McMahon, Nick Khan, Paul Levesque, George Barrios and Michelle Wilson, that was to start tomorrow, has been settled, although not completely formalized. Brandon Thurston reported that the parties have informed the court that they will present the settlement for approval by Judge Travis Laster. The McMahon side really had to settle for a number of reasons that include the fear that a trial would end up worse for them, while the plaintiffs removed the risk of the trial going badly for them. The judge’s recent ruling showed that he felt the defendants lost a great deal of credibility due to their erasing messages after their own lawyers told them to preserve them. It looked bad for the WWE side but it was not a lock. The other from the McMahon side is that in the story of the sale, the Janel Grant lawsuit would have come up and he, and perhaps others, would perhaps give testimony that would hurt McMahon in that case.
— A lawsuit has been filed by Paul Romano, a retired Air Force Sergeant and Vietnam veteran, and Susan Douglas, a civic activist and organizer attempting to stop this coming Sunday’s UFC show. They claim it is a violation of federal law for profit sports promotions to run on the White House lawn. They claim it is a violation of national park service agreements which prohibit sports events on federal parks lands and that the staging set up on the White House lawn has had no congressional authorization, a requirement for building on federal parklands. They also complain about the cost to taxpayers of repairing the lawn. They also in the suit note that Trump purchased TKO stock. The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, DC. They are not suing Trump or TKO, but suing the National Park Service, Regional Director of the National Park Service Jen Nersesian, Acting Director Jessica Bowron, the U.S. Department of the Interior and Doug Burgum, the secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior.
— Yoh won the Best of the Super Juniors tournament earlier today at the Ota Ward Gym in Tokyo over Kosei Fujita. It was an excellent match, very hot pro-Yoh crowd. The match was actually a much better technical version of A.J. Styles vs. John Cena from last year. Well, on the Yoh side where he did move after move of the top stars. Fujita did the usual Fujita. Yoh will face Douki for the IWGP jr. title soon, probably Dominion on 6/15. Also added to Dominion was Jake Lee vs. El Phantasmo in a no DQ match after an angle today.
— Hiroshi Tanahashi announced the fan awards for the tournament. Jun Kasai was voted Most Outstanding overall, Daiki Nagai was voted Best Fighting Spirit and Robbie X was voted Best Technical.
— Obviously if Steve Maclin asked for a release from his TNA contract, which he did last week and was approved, he’s likely headed to WWE or AEW.
— Arman Tsarukyan claimed today that he placed a $1 million bet on Justin Gaethje to win the UFC lightweight title from unbeaten Ilia Topuria at the White House show. Tsarukyan was on a live stream talking about betting $50,000 on the fight, but then got talked into making it $1 million. After all the issues with UFC fighters and gambling, this is not something that should be allowed.
— The best matches I’ve seen this weekend are Komander vs. Soberano Jr. from Friday night at Arena Mexico, Komander & Templario vs. Angel de Oro & Volador Jr. from last night at Arena Coliseo, Mistico & Mascara Dorada & Neon vs. Zandokan Jr. & Furia Roja & Difunto from Friday night which was Mistico’s return, and Yoh vs. Fujita.
— Challenges were issued on Friday for a Sammy Guevara & Beast Mortos ROH tag title defense against Villano III Jr. & El Hijo de Villano III. My impression is that match will take place this coming Friday night, but the lineup won’t be out until probably Monday or Tuesday.
— Komander goes for the hat trick tonight teaming with Mistico against Volador Jr. & Black Tiger in tonight’s main event. Tonight’s show also has Gran Guerrero & Stuka Jr. vs. Mortos & Guevara in a non-title match. Lady Frost from MLW has been on the CMLL major shows all weekend.
— Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows won the A block in the NOAH Neo Global Tag League with a win over Tetsuya Naito & Bushi today in Hirosaki. They will face the B block winners on 6/16 at Korakuen Hall. Right now there is a three-way tie for first in the B block with Yoshiki Inamura & Stallion Rogers, Naomichi Marufuji & Kenoh, and Yuki Iino & Manabu Soya.
— Jun & Rei Saito won All Japan’s world tag team titles from Talos & Ren Ayabe yesterday in Kakuda.
— We’re looking for reports on the NXT weekend shows in Davenport, FL and Citrus Heights, FL as well as TV tapings for TNA in Denver, results, finishes and angles to [email protected]
— Not much in the way of Google searches this weekend with no major events. Yesterday’s UFC show did 110,000 searches. Nobody in general was talking much about wrestling as regarding active wrestling, Myla Grace was the most searched item with 2,000.
— Grand Slam Mexico, CMLL Anniversary, WWE Raw, WWE Smackdown and AAA TripleMania tickets all went on sale in the next two days. For Grand Slam Mexico, the cheapest seats are almost double that of last year, at $36, while the most expensive is up from $655 U.S. to $1,312. Anniversary tickets are $22 to $260. Raw and Smackdown are $73 to $891. TripleMania is $36 to $537.
— UFC has announced a new rankings system in the works that will reward performance and reflect results inside the Octagon and based on measurable performance instead of opinion or popularity. Good luck with that.
— Last Saturday’s Collision did 351,000 viewers and 0.07 in 18-49 in Nielsen panel ratings, a rare case for wrestling of being down in total audience but still up in 18-49 from the 360,000 and 0.05 from panel + Big Data.
— WWE returns to the U.S. tomorrow in Baltimore with Raw with Penta vs. Rey Mysterio for the IC title, and previously announced qualifying matches with Seth Rollins vs. Je’Von Evans vs. Talla Tonga vs. Ricky Saints and Liv Morgan vs. Becky Lynch vs. Alexa Bliss vs. Chelsea Green.
— Jerry Jaffe, who was also Crazy Luke Graham Jr., is 79 today. Mick Foley turned 61. Ed Farhat, the original Sheik and one of the best drawing heels in history, was born 100 years ago today. His longtime manager, Abdullah Farouk/Grand Wizard/Ernie Roth, was born on this day in 1929. Superstar Billy Graham was born on this day in 1943. Howard Finkel was born on this day in 1950. Bulldog Don Kent passed away 33 years ago today at the age of 59. Charlie Harben passed away 33 years ago today at the age of 79. Earthquake John Tenta was 42 when he passed away 20 years ago today. Rocket Monroe was 69 when he passed away 16 years ago today. Mark Starr was 50 when he passed away 13 years ago today. The Iron Sheik was 76 when he passed away three years ago today.
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.