AEW All In Texas clears $1 million mark in ticket sales

AEW All In Texas has already made history for the company.

On the most recent Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer reported that for Monday’s public on-sale, AEW cleared the $1.25 million mark in ticket sales. The number is already their third-highest gate in company history behind the first two All In events at London’s Wembley Stadium and their all-time highest gate in North America.

The first Wembley show in 2023 did over $10 million in ticket sales with the second one this past August bringing in over $6 million.

Meltzer didn’t have the total amount of sold seats and speculated the majority of sales were from their highest priced tickets. The pre-sale began on December 2nd with VIP packages going on sale on November 20th.

The event is set for Saturday, July 12th at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, and will be their first-ever outdoor stadium show in North America.

The week will also feature the return of the Starrcast convention from Conrad Thompson in addition to other events that will be announced at a later date.

Daily Update: WWE MSG, Gabe Sapolsky, AEW ticket sales

Daily Update

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter:

*Wrestler of the Week and Match of the week
*John Cena’s early career and his return, as well as an update on his WrestleMania prospects
*In depth on why television and streaming are cutting back on new programming and how this impacts the pro wrestling business.
*If you asked people to name a pro wrestler, how many could name one and who would be the first person they’d name, and the reality of “mainstream” knowledge of today’s pro wrestlers.
*Complete coverage of UFC’s last show of the year as well as a sad lesson about getting injured the week of your fight.
*A look at one of the best shows of 2022, the TakaTaichi promoted show at Yoyogi Gym in Tokyo
*The most detailed look at TV viewership for every major show over the past week
*New weekly streaming live show debuts
*Promotion doing rematches of its best matches of 2022
*The story behind the voting for tag team of the year in Japan
*Stardom has one of its biggest shows in its history this week
*Notes on the upcoming show at the Tokyo Dome
*A week of incredible matches
*Ospreay vs. Ishii
*El Hijo del Vikingo in the U.S. working dates
*Impact next PPV
*AEW makes major new broadcast deal that will be announced in a few weeks
*The mystery man on Dynamite this week
*Tickets sales for upcoming AEW & WWE shows
*WWE & AEW streaming numbers
*International TV ratings
*Ticket sales for upcoming AEW & WWE shows
*UFC PPV numbers for this past year
*A bill expected to be introduced in the U.S. Senate that would greatly change the MMA world
*Dana White talks about luck and timing
*Judging controversies
*Two fighters feud on Twitter and got into it at the UFC gym
*Sports business analyst predicts NBCU buying WWE and we talks about what is and isn’t valid about that
*Post-Christmas WWE touring
*Most popular WWE names in social media
*Current WWE market value

This Week’s Retro Observer Newsletter:

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Monday Update

We had some schedule changes this week as far as shows. Our show for today wit Bryan is already up because there is no new Raw tonight, being a Best of show. I will be doing a show with Jim Valley Wednesday night and there will be a ton on that. We’ll also have a big show with Garrett Gonzales on Friday. Bryan and I won’t do another show together until Jan. 1 and from there we will be back on schedule, including a big show on Jan. 4 covering the Tokyo Dome and Dynamite. Plus we will have a special show immediately after Battle of Los Angeles the week after next.

We have a gigantic history piece in the next issue of the Observer, which talks about the early days of the NWA, Sam Muchnick, Vince McMahon Sr., promotional battles around the country, when the government investigated wrestling, when the NWA encouraged promoters not to air arena matches on television for fear of hurting live attendance, wrestlers strikes, talk of heath care for wrestlers all revolving around Johnny Doyle, a promoter show life story is fascinating.

Raw is a Best of 2022 show tonight. No doubt they will heavily push the Friday Smackdown show where the expectation is for the biggest match rating for WWE this year. As noted yesterday,. FOX heavily pushed the Cena & Owens vs. Reigns & Zayn match during its football broadcasts Saturday and Sunday. Raw tonight goes against the Indianapolis Colts vs. Los Angeles Chargers NFL game. With a highlights show I suspect the numbers will be way down, perhaps a record low, but it would be silly to try and read anything into this week’s rating.

We are looking for reports on tonight’s WWE shows from Madison Square Garden and Columbus, OH, results, finishes and highlights to [email protected] There is talent that was having problems getting into New York for the show. Even though Ricochet took six stitches, that match was actually on 12/16, not Friday, so he’s fine for this week. As noted on Friday, Drew McIntyre is still off this week’s shows due to a busted eardrum suffered at Survivor Series. He did work matches after the injury not realizing the severity of it. 

There were 9,700 tickets out for MSG with a show headlined by Braun Strowman & Kevin Owens vs. Usos. Columbus and all the Raw house shows this week have Austin Theory vs. Seth Rollins. Most shows are doing very well attendance wise since this is traditionally the easiest week to draw for live shows of the year.

Ratings will be delayed by one day this week. So the Friday numbers will be out tomorrow and the Raw number will be out Wednesday afternoon. It’s not a lock that Dynamite numbers will be out Thursday. They have been out on Thursday after other holidays this year but there have also been holiday weeks they aren’t out until Friday.

WWE is pushing a Pitch Black match for the Royal Rumble in conjunction with a Mountain Dew sponsorship deal.

The Ric Flair documentary is up on Peacock right now. We’ll talk more about this later in the week.

WWE’s Gabe Sapolsky is doing a seminar on 1/21 at the WWN Training Center in Port Richey, FL which will include tryout matches and those at the seminar will have the right to use their footage of their tryout matches to send promoters and Sapolsky will talk about what WWE is looking for, ideas on promos and more.

Athena defends the ROH women’s title against Kiera Hogan on Dark Elevation tonight. Also Dralistico faces Blake Christian.

AEW had 3,700 tickets out as of this morning for Wednesday’s show. It’s normal range for what they’ve been doing these days before walkup, but they are well ahead of the pace they were for their first time in the Denver market, which you can’t say about a lot of the recent shows. On paper it’s a strong show with Samoa Joe vs. Wardlow for the TNT title, match six in the best of seven with The Elite vs. Death Triangle, Bryan Danielson vs. Ethan Page, Jon Moxley & Claudio Castagnoli vs Dante & Darius Martin and Ruby Soho & Willow Nightingale vs. Tay Melo & Anna Jay.

Regarding Wednesday’s AAA show in Acapulco they are listing Sammy Guevara & Tay Melo defending the mixed tag titles against Octagon Jr. & Lady Shani and Komander & Sexy Star. Obviously that isn’t happening as Melo is booked for Dynamite in Broomfield, CO that same night. From what we talked about on today’s show, here is an update. the visa issue that kept Guevara & Melo from the last tapings in Mexico where they were to defend has been cleared up. However, AEW had an illness that changed original plans for a women’s match on Wednesday so last week they set up Melo & Jay vs. Nightingale & Soho, which means Melo was pulled from Acapulco. We are told there will be a mixed tag title match but Guevara & Melo will be stripped of the titles and new champions will be crowned. Two other things we were told is that Konnan will be at the show, which will be his first TV taping back since his health improved due to undergoing kidney dialysis, and we were told Larry Dallas would be there announcing. Dallas had said he was going into rehab but we just heard from him today and he’s doing much better. The main event is El Hijo del Vikingo vs. Bandido for the Mega title and FTR vs. Dralistico & Dragon Lee for the tag titles.

Bandido beat Vikingo in a non-title match on Christmas Day for
Bandido’s Big Lucha promotion championship belt. Yes, this is the same as if MJF or
Roman Reigns worked an indie show and lost to that company’s champion. Well not exactly the same.

UWC on 1/7 in Bordenton, NJ at the Elks Lodge has a show with an 80s theme wit wrestling mixed with music from the 80s.

Jeff Molina has been suspended by the Nevada Athletic commission. The reasons were not disclosed but Molina is associated with James Krause, who was suspended in the recent suspicious battling scandal. Molina’s profile on mixedmartialarts.com listed “this fighter is currently serving a suspension by an ABC-recognized athletic commission” and note it is from Nevada.

With Volador Jr. out due to testing positive for COVID, Soberano Jr. takes his place on tonight’s show in Puebla. Volador Jr. is scheduled for the main event on Friday night teaming with Titan to challenge Angel de Oro & Niebla Roja for the CMLL tag titles.

AIW on Friday night in Akron, OH at the Tadmor Shrine with Brian Myers, Tom Lawlor, Matthew Justice and Joey Janela. They also just announced a 2/11 date in Youngstown, O at West Side Bowl.

Daily Update: Weekend shows, AEW ticket sales, new MMA league

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WON NEWSLETTER: September 20, 2021 Observer Newsletter: Big E wins WWE Championship, WWE at MSG

Big E cashed in his Money in the Bank contract on the 9/13 Raw to win the WWE championship from Bobby Lashley, signifying his switching brands and reuniting The New Day.

Born Ettore Ewen, the 35-year-old Tampa product was a state heavyweight champion wrestler at Wharton High School and football player, who went to the University of Iowa, and after college, became a powerlifter.

A mutual friend contacted Jim Ross, and he was given a WWE tryout in 2009 and WWE signed him to a deal at that time. He started as Big E Langston in Florida Championship Wrestling, which was shortened to Big E. He was popular due to his personality and those in developmental thought he could be a groundbreaking performer with his leaping ability and agility and power combination.

In 2012, he was brought up to the main roster, and on November 18, 2013, won the IC title from Curtis Axel. But his career took off in 2014 as part of the New Day tag team. The idea started out silly but ended up being tweaked by the three guys in it and the group held the Raw tag team titles twice and Smackdown version of the titles six times.

Current subscribers click here to continue reading.

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FRIDAY NEWS UPDATE

Garrett Gonzalez and I will be back for Wrestling Observer Radio and it’s not like we don’t have some major topics with Dark Side of the Ring and the fallout on Ric Flair and Tommy Dreamer (and not Brock Lesnar), what this week’s ratings really mean past who won and lost and the pattern, plus this is a huge weekend of major event including the start of G-1.

Ariel Helwani reported earlier this week on a new promotion called the World Fight League that is scheduled to launch in 2023. He said the promotion will be run by several former and current pro athletes from the NFL, NBA and MMA including former world champions, five former MMA promoters, as well as actors and recording artists. The idea is a team sport with four conferences, one in North America, South America, Africa and Europe with eight to 24 teams in each conference and each team will have 24 fighters, three in each weight class. There will be a union and fighters will get health insurance, pension, a union and fighters will be paid 50 percent of revenue.

A few on sale numbers that indicate “Houston, we have a problem.” The next New York battle is AEW vs. WWE at the UBS Arena. WWE tickets were put on sale to the public today and are less than 1,000 for Raw on 11/29.  AEW was bout 5,500 first day for its 12/9 Dynamite. To say this is shocking is an understatement.

AEW’s first day ticket sales for the Dynamite on 11/24 at the Wintrust Arena in Chicago at last look was over 5,800. The place sells out at about 7,000 for the pro wrestling set up so it’s pretty much a lock that the show will sell out.

Smackdown tonight from Knoxville,TN has Rick Boogs vs. Robert Roode, a homecoming celebration for Bianca Belair and Seth Rollins will talk about the Edge angle.

AEW Rampage taped from Wednesday night in Newark, NJ:

  • Penta & Fenix vs. Butcher & Blade for tag titles (told this was really good)
  • Anna Jay vs. The Bunny
  • Miro vs. Fuego del Sol TNT title vs. Fuego’s car

There is also a Ruby Soho/Britt Baker angle and interviews with Bryan Danielson and Kenny Omega for both matches on Wednesday from New York.

UFC has a full ESPN+ show tomorrow starting at 4 p.m. Eastern:

  • Emily Whitmire (125) vs. Hannah Goldy (125)
  • Gustavo Lopez (135) vs. Heilli Alateng (136)
  • Impa Kasanganay (170.5) vs. Carlston Harris (170)
  • Erin Blanchfield (125) vs. Sarah Alper (126)
  • Montel Jackson (136) vs. JP Buys (136)
  • Brandon Jenkins (155.5) vs. Rong Zhu (158) – Zhu missed weight and will forfeit 20 percent of his purse
  • Pannie Kianzad (136) vs. Raquel Pennington (135.5)
  • Mike Rodriguez (202) vs.; Tafon Nchukwi (204.5)
  • Nate Maness (135) vs. Tony Gravely (135.5)
  • Joaquin Buckley (184.5) vs. Antonio Aroyo (186)
  • Arman Tsarukhyan (155.5) vs. Christos Giagos (155.5)
  • Ariane Lipski (126) vs. Mandy Bohm (125.5)
  • Ion Cutelaba (205) vs. Devin Clark (206)
  • Anthony Smith (205.5) vs. Ryan Spann (206)

The Nikolas Motta vs. Cameron VanKamp fight was pulled from the show due to an injury to one of the competitors.

Bellator runs the SAP Center in San Jose tomorrow night at 10 p.m. Eastern on Showtime:

  • Christian Edwards (204.3) vs. Ben Parrish (205.6)
  • Georgi Karakhanyan (155.6) vs. Saul Rogers (155.7)
  • Alejandra Lara (125.2) vs. DeAnna Bennett (129.2) – missed weight by 3.6 pounds and will be fined
  • Neiman Gracie (170.6) vs. Mark Lemminger (169.9)
  • Phil Davis (206) vs. Yoel Romero (205.4)

Last night’s Dark Side of the Ring did 153,000 viewers and an 0.07 in 18-49. That was the lowest number in show history, largely because of going head-to-head with the NFL game (New York Giants vs. Washington) which was the most watched Thursday game on NFL Network in three years. The game did 7,327,000 viewers and 2.38 in 18-49 on television and another 532,000 streaming.

G-1 starts at 4 a.m. Eastern tomorrow morning from the Osaka Edion Arena:

  • Sho vs. Ryohei Oiwa (non-tournament)
  • Kota Ibushi vs. Yujiro Takahashi
  • Toru Yano vs. KENTA
  • Tetsuya Naito vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
  • Tomohiro Ishii vs. Shingo Takagi

There is a second show at 1 a.m.Eastern tomorrow night with Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada as the main event:

  • Sho vs. Kosei Fujita
  • Yoshi-Hashi vs. Evil
  • Jeff Cobb vs Chase Owens
  • Tama Tonga vs Sanada
  • Hirooki Goto vs. Taichi
  • Tanahashi vs. Okada

CMLL has its El Homenaje a Dos Leyendas show tonight at Arena Mexico, honoring both Sangre Chicana and Salvador Lutteroth. The two main events are Felino vs. Cavernario in a hair vs. hair match stemming from their early 2020 feud that never had a chance to be resolved, plus Volador Jr. vs. Gran Guerrero in the finals for the Copa Independencia.

Brian Cage is out with knee issues coming from recent stem cell therapy and will be out of the Battleground Championship Wrestling show in Philadelphia at the 2300 Arena tomorrow night.  Bobby Fish will replace him in the first big match of Buddy Matthews, the former Buddy Murphy, since leaving WWE.

Impact Victory Road will be taped tonight for airing tomorrow on FITE and Impact +:

  • Tenille Dashwood vs. Taylor Wilde
  • Matt Cardona vs. Rohit Raju no DQ
  • Chris Bey & Hikuleo vs. Juice  Robinson & David Finlay
  • Sami Callihan & Eddie Edwards vs. Moose & W. Morrisey
  • Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows vs. Rich Swann & Willie Mack for tag titles
  • Havok & Rosemary vs. Tasha Steelz & Savannah Evans for Knockouts tag titles
  • Josh Alexander vs. Chris Sabin for X title
  • Christian Cage vs Austin Austin for  Impact title

Game Changer Wrestling tonight from Los Angles on FITE:

  • Minoru Suzuki vs.  Jonathan Gresham
  • Tony Deppen vs. Ron Funches
  • Jacob Fatu vs. Chris Dickinson
  • Effy vs. 2 Cold Scorpio
  • Atticus Cogar vs. Ninja Mack
  • Alex Zayne vs. Jordan Oliver
  • Second Gear Crew vs; Nick Wayne & Riley & Starboy Charly  

WWE

UFC

  • Tickets for the 11/6 show  in Madison Square Garden went on sale today.
  • Raphael Assuncao vs. Ricky Simon has been added to the 12/18 show.

OTHER NOTES

  • Kevin Eck’s weekly look at the ROH news.
  • A story on dressing for pro wrestling promos is in GQ (thanks to Lee Wall)
  • Stand Alone Pro Wrestling on 10/9 in Lacey Township, NJ at the High School.
  • Maryland Championship Wrestling tonight at the MCW ARena at the Joppa Market Place in Joppa, MD with Matt Hardy, Mojo Rawley, Tammy Sytch, Ray Lyn, Scott Norton and others at the meet and greet before the show.
  • Combate Globo tonight on Paramount + at 11 p.m. Eastern is headlined by Martin Bravo (11-3) vs Andrew Whitney (16-9).
  • WAR Wrestling on 10/9 in Lima, OH at the Empowered Sports Center.
  • Paradigm Pro Wrestling on 10/15 in Sellersburg, IN with both UWFI rules matches and hardcore matches.  Myron Reed vs Suge D and Calvin Tankman vs. Shane Taylor are the top matches.  Davey Richards will be on bot shows.  Both shows are on IWTV and take place at American Legion Post 204.
  • Legacy Fighting on 10/22 from Vail, CO at the Dobson Arena has Renato Valente (8-4) vs. Josh Fremd (7-2) in the middleweight main event for a live show at 10 p.m. Eastern on UFC Fight Pass.
  • 559 Fights tomorrow night in Visalia, CA at the Valley Strong baseball stadium headlined by Sal Bruno (3-2-2) vs. Marvin Garcia (3-0) as the main event of a 17-fight show.
  • Matt Cardona returns to AIW on 10/2 in Akron, OH at the Tadmor Shrine.
  • The Bollywood Boys, formerly the Singh Brothers in WWE, have been added to the 9/25 Defy Wrestling show in Seattle at Washington, Hall, facing Cody Chhun & Nick Wayne (the son of Buddy Wayne) on a show that includes Eddie Kingston, Brody King and Christopher Daniels. They also run 9/9 in Portland, OR at the Kliever Armory with Kingston and King, and 10/14 in Los Angeles at the Highland Park Lodge Room with Kingston, Daniels, Daniel Garcia and Calvin Tankman.
  • NWA By Any Means Necessary on 10/24 in Oak Grove, KY at th Valor Hall Event live on FITE TV with Jax Dane vs. Crimson in cage match plus NWA champion Trevor Murdoch, Kamille, Nick Aldis, Tim Storm, Thom Latimer, The Pope and more.
  • Nicole Savoy vs. Holidead has been added to MLW’s 10/2 show at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia.
  • NFC tomorrow in Atlanta for ten MMA and Muay Thai Fights at The District.

Daily Pro Wrestling History: Ric Flair wins his first NWA World title

CONTACT INFORMATION

Daily Update: Stardom notes, AEW ticket sales update, nWo anniversary

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JOB LISTING: Web/UI Developer(s)

  • Experience with OnLamp (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP)
  • GITHUB and Linux command line experience while be helpful as well.
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  • Cloud based hosting experience a plus
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While this is a diverse request this doesn’t have to be just one person! If you fit any part of this please feel free to inquire.

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WON NEWSLETTER: July 5, 2021 Observer Newsletter: More WWE cuts, Del Wilkes passes away

A look back at all the WWE cuts of the last week, person by person, with the background, what the direction the company is going. We look at where different people would be best served working at next, highlights of their WWE careers, and a lot more about the cuts.

Also in this issue:

A feature on Del Wilkes, known as The Trooper and The Patriot, his drug issues, his multiple arrests, his entire career, his noteworthy college football career, his biggest matches, how he broke in, and days in AWA, Global, All Japan, WCW and WWF, the origin of the idea of The Patriot that few know about, kicking his drug problem, what others have said about it, and his life after wrestling.

A talent move that will be very interesting to watch and long-term repercussions of this move, Great American Bash news, Money in the Bank news, ticket sales for all WWE shows and Breakout Star tournament news

AAA’s biggest show of the year, with a look at the TripleMania lineup, Verano de Escandalo as well, restrictions and angles leading up to the big matches.

This past week’s UFC show with Cyril Gane and Alexander Volkov, the next heavyweight title match, why Gane vs. Derrick Lewis is happening, why it’s a bad idea, plus match-by-match coverage.

All Japan crowning a new Triple Crown champion after Suwama vacated the title due to COVID and the three-way with Jason Lee, Kento Miyahara and Yuma Aoagi, the complete All Japan Ota Ward show.

More detail on the ratings than any other source, we have how every segment on NXT and AEW did with different age groups, genders and more, plus a look at all other wrestling shows of the past week, how many different viewers the shows had, DVR numbers and how long the average fan watches.

Results of the major pro wrestling events of the past week.

ORDERING INFO: 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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SUNDAY NEWS UPDATE

Bryan and I will be back tonight talking about the weekend news, Smackdown, Stardom and the week coming up. You can send questions to the show to [email protected]

Stardom’s PPV results from Yokohama Budokan Hall:

  • Fukigen Death & Konami won over Saki Kashima & Rina, Miaka & Lady C and Hanan & Hina
  • Momo Watanabe & AZM b Starlight Kid & Ruaka
  • Mina Shirakawa b Unagi Sayaka in the finals of the Future of Stardom title tournament
  • Giulia & Syuri won over Mayu Iwatani & Koguma to keep the tag titles
  • Tam Nakano b Saya Kamitani to keep the Wonder of Stardom title
  • Utami Hayashishita b Natsuko Tora to keep the World of Stardom title
  • The main event ended when Tora injured her leg with a running diving foot stomp off the apron onto a table.  Tora was unable to continue and the match ended

Grappl has just listed its top ten matches of the first six months of the year based on 132,000 match ratings. They are:

  • Shingo Takagi vs. Will Ospreay 5/4
  • Utami Hayashishita vs. Syuri 6/12
  • Jeff Cobb vs. Shingo Takagi 1/5
  • Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Shingo Takagi 1/30
  • Kazuchika Okada vs. Will Ospreay 1/4 
  • Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Will Ospreay 3/14
  • Kota Ibushi vs. Jay White 1/5
  • Aussie Open vs. Velocities 5/8 Australia
  • Shingo Takagi vs. Will Ospreay 3/21
  • Britt Baker vs. Thunder Rosa 3/17

With no major shows there was only one thing that cracked the Google top 20 all week. UFC 264 was sixth yesterday at 100,000. That’s amazing because it was that high seven days before the show. That’s unheard of for a UFC show and likely indicates the show will be gigantic.

Fast 9, which features John Cena, was the No. 1 movie for the second straight weekend. It is estimated to do $24 million this weekend.

A.J. McKee talked to Showtime Sports ahead of his Bellator Featheriweight title match on 7/31 against champion Patricio Pitbull Freire. The match is also for the Featherweight Grand Prix title and $1 million dollars.

A big spot people have been talking about from yesterday’s Verano de Escandalo show with El Hijo del Vikingo do a springboard, hang onto the ceiling of the arena and dropped down into a hurricanrana.

Another thing getting a lot of rave reviews was the DDT show and in particular Konosuke Takeshita vs. Yuji Hino.

The Stardom Five Star Grand Prix starts 7/31 at Yokohama Budokan and ends 9/25 at the Ota Ward Gym in Tokyo.

The Red block:

  • Giulia
  • Mayu Iwatani
  • Natsuko Tora (may have to change as she was badly injured today)
  • Saki Kashima
  • Starlight Kid
  • Himeka
  • Natsupoi
  • Koguma
  • Mina Shirakawa

Blue block:

  • Utami Hayashishita
  • Syuri
  • Tam Nakano
  • Saya Kamitani
  • Maika
  • AZM
  • Konami
  • Ruaka
  • Unagi Sayaka
  • ?

The key is that Hayashishita vs. Syuri’s rematch of the best women’s match of the year and maybe in several years or even decades will be during the tournament.

Northeast Wrestling announced its 25th anniversary show on 8/14 in Poughkeepsie at the Mid Hudson Civic Center with Eddie Kingston, Private Party, Matt Hardy, Tay Conti and Darby Allin.

WWE

  • Dwayne Johnson is in his last week of production of the movie “Black Adam.”  It’s scheduled for a July 2022 release.
  • There is no firm date on when the Lex Luger documentary, which was supposed to come out today, will be airing.  It had been advertised all week but it was another left hand knows one thing and right hand decides differently.
  • The WWE has announced NWO week for the 25th anniversary of Hulk Hogan joining Scott Hall and Kevin Nash, which would be on Wednesday. Peacock will be celebrating this with a Best of NWO show on Tuesday, Sean Waltman on The Bump on Wednesday and Kevin Nash on Steve Austin’s Broken Skull Sessions on Sunday.
  • Announced for Tuesday’s NXT is Hit Row Championship Celebration of Isaiah Scott’s title win and a face-to-face with Johnny Gargano and Karrion Kross.

UFC

  • Louis Smolka said the reason he pulled out of this coming Saturday’s fight with Sean O’Malley was due to an infection and said when he’s healthy he would like to face O’Malley.

AEW

  • The Charlotte show is at 4,400 tickets sold which is both well above WWE’s show in the same market in a better arena but also way up from the first appearance. But this Wednesday’s show in Miami is at 3,200.  The first time in the market they did 3,900 so they will likely fall a little short. As noted, the first post-pandemic era show to actually sell out if the 7/14 AEW show in Cedar Park, TX, although WWE’s Money in the Bank on 7/18 in Fort Worth will sell out with twice as many tickets.
  • Jake Hager is trying to get the 10/23 fight with Fedor Emelianenko in Russia.  The odds are that he won’t but he is pushing for it.

OTHER NOTES

  • Congratulations to longtime reader Steve Stone and wife Sara who gave birth to a baby girl Delaney Stone on Friday.
  • August Grey, after being released by WWE, will go back to his original name Anthony Greene.
  • Defy Wrestling announced a return to action with shows on 8/27 and 8/28.Ticket release info will be announced soon.
  • Revolution Pro Wrestling Resurgence on 8/29 in Harrisburg, PA with Rikishi, Samu and Gangrel. The show will be at the Harrisburg Midtown Arts Center.
  • Dean Muhtadi, the former Mojo Rawley, has landed a role in the action movie “Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins” starring Henry Goldberg that will be released on 7/23.

Daily Pro Wrestling History: Lex Luger slams Yokozuna

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