The best damn pro wrestling year in review series continues with a stop in September 2025 on today’s Josh Nason’s Punch-Out.
Returning guest Davie Portman of Poisonrana & upNXT on Post Wrestling returns for his annual holiday drop in.
Josh and Davie talk about the somewhat head-to-head battle between AEW All Out and WWE Wrestlepalooza and all of the run-up to WWE’s PLE debut on ESPN which saw the in-ring return of Brock Lesnar and AJ Lee.
They also talk about Will Ospreay’s neck surgery, the backlash to the WrestleMania/Saudi Arabia announcement, Dominik Mysterio winning another title, and all the big headlines from WWE, AEW, NXTNAAA, ROH, Japan, Mexico and the indies.
Wrestling Observer Live with Bryan Alvarez and Filthy Tom Lawlor is back with tons to talk about including a big three-hour Dynamite with 11 segments already announced, All Out vs. WrestlePalooza, ESPN talks wrestling reporting, head-to-head battles, and more, plus the NXT TV report! A fun show as always so check it out~!
The final Wrestling Observer Live of the summer has arrived with your summer fill-in host Josh Nason, filling in for Andrew Zarian one last time before the calendar changes.
While this show has zero to do with WWE Clash in Paris (get that on Wrestling Observer Radio or the Bryan & Vinny Show), here’s what this ad-free 40 minutes does have to do with:
Josh has some issues with how AEW does their match announcements with a big pointer finger to Saturday’s AEW Collision
Josh recaps Saturday’s Collision with some befuddlement about what the deal is with Hologram (seen above)
Josh thinks that Friday’s technical issues with Ring of Honor Death Before Dishonor might be a blessing in disguise
Josh also talks about his love of afternoon live airings of WWE shows, Randy Orton’s Fireball product placement, and his take on Dave Meltzer & Bryan Alvarez’s debate about AEW All Out PPV buys vs. WWE WrestlePalooza.
All that and more awaits for free. Listen below for free on our Spotify or Apple Podcast account (search Wrestling Observer).
Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer is back with tons to talk about including the death of Great Wojo, more on the UFC/TKO deal, Hulk Hogan TMZ bio, AEW vs. WWE on December 27th, Karrion Kross, the G-1, weekend schedule, RATINGS~!~!!~, Dynamite review and some NXT notes, and more. A fun show as always so check it out~!
Wrestling Observer Live with Bryan Alvarez and Lance Storm is back to talk the return of Vince McMahon to TV, the RAW report from Monday night, more details on AEW and WWE going head-to-head including the WWE main event, and tons more. A fun show as always so check it out~!
I round out the year of 2024 by taking a look at the concerning fanbases of multiple pop culture fields including pro wrestling.
Over the past few years, wrestling fanbases have seemingly been at war with each other with fans of WWE hating fans of AEW and vice versa. Even the media has been feuding. Has it always been this way? I will examine that question, but I assure you it’s not just the wrestling community having trouble co-existing with different ideas.
Wrestling Observer Live with Bryan Alvarez and Mike Sempervive is back with tons to talk about including AEW Collision and WWE Smackdown going head-to-head tonight, All Out tomorrow, legal news on Vince McMahon and Cody Rhodes, more NXT thoughts from Tuesday, the return of Saturday Night’s Main Event, and more. A fun show as always so check it out~!
Wrestling Observer Live with Bryan Alvarez and Mike Sempervive is back with tons to talk about including the latest on the Janel Grant vs. WWE lawsuit, what both sides are saying about it and when the next big round of info should come out, comparisons between WWE vs. AEW medically, and why there is no right answer to how to do it, AEW Dynamite thoughts, and tons more.
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FRIDAY NEWS UPDATE
Garrett Gonzalez and I will be back tonight talking the WWE and AEW shows, the barbs back-and-forth and the latest pro wrestling and MMA news. I will be back Saturday night with Bryan talking AEW Dynamite and fallout from Friday.
This has certainly been a night of a lot of talk regarding WWE vs. AEW. The new issue up on the site has probably the most details of tonight’s shows, ramifications or lack thereof depending on results, and the whole competition thing.
WWE goes live from 8-10:30 p.m. and then replays from 10:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. on FS1. AEW goes live on YouTube from 9-10 p.m. and then live for Rampage on TNT from 10-11 p.m.
WWE show has:
Brock Lesnar appearing
Usos vs. Street Profits for tag titles
Becky Lynch vs. Sasha Banks
Carmella vs. Zelina Vega Queens Crown semifinals
Finn Balor vs. Sami Zayn King of the Ring semifinals
Sonya Deville vs. Naomi
AEW has:
YouTube:
Bryan Danielson vs. Minoru Suzuki
Tay Conti vs. Santana Garrett
Bobby Fish vs. Lee Moriarty
TNT:
C.M. Punk vs. Matt Sydal
The Bunny vs. Ruby Soho
Chris Jericho & Jake Hager & Sammy Guevara vs. Junior Dos Santos & Scorpio Sky & Ethan Page – Jorge Masvidal will be in the Dos Santos corner
FS 1 has the 10 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. segment commercial free. TNT will have a mostly commercial free first half hour. There will be a break after Punk vs Sydal most likely but there will be no break during the match.
Balor would be a heavy favorite over Zayn since the winner goes to Saudi Arabia and at least as of the last time, the government of Saudi Arabia wouldn’t allow Zayn there and Zayn had said he didn’t want to go in the first place.
For those in Canada, the WWE Network is available as a standalone streaming service. This removes having to have cable or satellite to have access to the network. (thanks to Oswald Jackson)
I’m not sure what this means, but Beyond Billionaire 100 has listed Tony Khan as the most loved billionaire in the world slightly ahead of Mackenzie Scott and Elon Musk. Vince McMahon was No. 7. It’s basically about the percentage of posts that mention him being positive. McMahon had about six times as many searches as Khan.
The 12/10 Smackdown taping in Cleveland was canceled. While not yet announced, the show that night will take place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Essentially it’s a favor for FOX execs due to taping where many of the top execs are based. Those with tickets to the show were being transferred to a Raw event in Cleveland on 3/7.
UFC on ESPN+ starting at 4 p.m. Eastern tomorrow
Istela Nunes (114.5) vs. Ariane Carnelossi (115.5)
Danaa Batgerel (135) vs. Brandon Davis (136)
Nate Landwehr (145.5) vs. Ludovit Klein (145.5)
Lupita Godinez (121.5) vs. Luana Carolina (125.5)
Danny Roberts (170.5) vs. Ramazan Emeev (171)
Andrew Sanchez (185) vs. Bruno Silva (185)
Manon Fiorot (125.5) vs. Mayra Bueno Silva (126)
Jim Miller (155) vs. Erick Gonzalez (155)
Andrei Arlovski (245) vs. Carlos Felipe (259)
Aspen Ladd (145) vs. Norma Dumont (145.5)
The Julian Marquez vs. Jordan Wright fight was canceled earlier today when Marquez fell ill. With Arlovski on the UFC show tomorrow, he will not be at tonight or tomorrow night’s AEW tapings in Miami.
Bellator weigh-ins for tomorrow night on Showtime at 10 p.m.
Vadim Nemkov (204.7) vs. Julius Anglickas (204) for light heavyweight title and tournament semifinal
Ryan Bader (204.1) vs. Corey Anderson (203.6) in a light heavyweight tournament semifinal
Benson Henderson (155.5) vs. Brent Primus (155.4)
Henry Corrales (135) vs. Vladyslav Parubchenko (145.4)
The movie “Dune” starring Dave Bautista debuts Thursday night both in theaters and on HBO Max.
Deadline reported that something went wrong at the filming of America’s Got Talent – Extreme earlier today. During a rehearsal, escape artist Jonathan Goodwin was injured while doing his act. Goodwin was pinned between two cars when a stunt went badly which caused an explosion. He was responsive and was hospitalized. Production of the series was shut down. Nikki Bella is one of the judges on that show, which will air next year on NBC.
Thanks to Daniel Kuester of Kansas State’s sports economics class for the fun time talking with the class on wrestling, MMA and boxing business.
WWE
Early odds for Crown Jewel at www.BetOnline.ag:
Roman Reigns -200 vs. Brock Lesnar +150
Big E -550 vs. Drew McIntyre +325
Becky Lynch -200 vs. Bianca Belair +180 vs. Sasha Banks +250
Riddle & Orton -250 vs. Styles & Omos +170
Edge -350 vs. Seth Rollins +225
Goldberg -300 vs. Bobby Lashley +200
Mansoor -1000 vs. Mustafa Ali +525
UFC
Aaron Phillips announced he is out of his fight scheduled for 10/23 against Jonathan Martinez. He said he’s been ill, headaches, low energy, extreme fatigue, groggy and sleeping in the afternoon. He said he’s tested negative for COVID and he’s trying to find answers as to what is wrong.
Miguel Baeza vs. Khaos Williams has been added to the 11/13 show.
Jeff Jarrett’s podcast with Conrad Thompson was nominated for Best Podcast Debut of the year.
Combate Global has a show tonight on Paramount + starting at 11 p.m. The main event has Dumar Roa (16-10) vs. Landry Ward (4-0).
On Wednesday, there was a pro wrestling category on Jeopardy. The contestants got every question right:
$200 – In this alliterative type of match, you need to touch your partner before you can be replaced in the ring
$400 – This beastly term can describe a powerful embrace or a move where a wrestler grabs you
$600 – Maintaining kayfabe means not letting on that the m,ach is this, the word kayfabe possibly came from with the help of pig latin
$800 – Perhaps a play on jobber, the Italian-sounding word is a wrestler hired to lose often The Rock uses it as a synonym for loser
$1,000 – The name of this masked wrestling is Spanish for Free Fighting.
WAR on 11/6 in Lima,a, OH at the Empowered Sports Center
Paradigm Pro Wrestling streams tonight on IndependentWrestling TV At 7 p.m. the main event is Myron Reed vs Suge D and Shane Taylor vs. Calvin Tankman. At 9:30 p.m. are two UWFI rules matches, Jordan Baker vs. Janai Kai for the women’s super middleweight title and Isaiah Broner vs. Matt Makowski for the Heavy Hitters championship. Davey Richards worked the first show against Cole Radrick and the second show against Austin Connelly. The shows are at American Legion Post 204 in Sellersburg, IN.
The top matches for KSW on 10/23 from Atlas Arena in Lodz, Poland have bantamweight champion Sebastian Przybysz (8-2) defending against Bruno Santos (10-2) and top draw Mariusz Pudzianowski (15-7) vs. Bombardier (2-0).
Insane Wrestling Revolution from last night in Monroe, MI before 250 fans: Sam Beale b Bryan Castle, Kenny Urban b Nate Bock, Death Threat Army b DBA & Mysterious Movado, Alex Cluckey b Benjamin Boone, Dread King Logan & Shane Douglas b Rhino & Tommy Dreamer, Rod Lee b Dr. X, Trey Miguel won six-way over N8 Mattson, Kenny Urban, Malcolm Monroe III, Sam Beale and Madman Fulton. Next show is 12/29 in Monroe. (thanks to Paul Meade)
Future house Publishing and Masked Republic are teaming up for an all-new bilingual series based on the life of the Munoz Brothers, Dragon Lee, Rush and Dralistico as well as their father, Bestia del ring. There will be English and Spanish text side-by-side so bilingual families can enjoy them.
PCO appears on 11/26 for AIW at Force Sports in Eastlake, OH.
Jimmy Hart, Typhoon Fred Ottman and Haku appear tomorrow afternoon at The Wrestling Collector in Stockholm,NJ.
Kenta Kobashi will be at tomorrow’s All Japan show at Ota Ward Gym in Tokyo as an announcer for the main events. The show is headlined by Jake Lee vs Kento Miyahara for the Triple Crown.
Bare Knuckle Fighting on 11/12 in Miami at the James L. Knight Center has Hector Lombard vs. Lorenzo Hunt for the cruiserweight world title and Luis Palomino vs. Dat Nguyen for the lightweight title
