Ariel Helwani is not a fan of how WWE handled John Cena’s final match and how the final year of his career was booked.
Helwani expressed frustration that he would hear from people who say Cena had to lose on his way out, citing it as a time-honored tradition in wrestling. According to Helwani, that way of thinking comes from a bygone era.
Dedicating a significant amount of time to the topic, Helwani said:
“The fan boys will be like ‘No, this is what you have to do, this is what John wanted, this is exactly what he wanted, he wanted to give back to the business.’ And to that I say BS. I say hogwash to that. I say that’s nonsense because that is an ideology from a business that no longer exists. That’s 1970s, 1980s wrestling.”
“That’s not WWE Unreal territory, that’s not the era that we’re living in now.”
“Who wanted to see John Cena lose time and again in the last few months? Got his ass whooped by Brock Lesnar, lost to Dominik Mysterio, loses to Gunther. And not only does he lose in his retirement match, the guy who told us for 20+ years never to give up, not only does he lose, he loses via submission.”
“No, I reject this. This is not what those people wanted. This is not what anyone who was a fan of his wanted.”
Helwani suggested a better ending would have seen Cena win the match, followed by a post-match attack from Gunther leading several of Cena’s allies, including Cody Rhodes, to make the save.
“The match should have never been Cena vs. Gunther to begin with, and the result should have never been Cena losing, and it sure as hell never should have been him tapping.”
The Ariel Helwani Show X account posted a clip of Helwani’s comments along with the following caption:
“No one wanted to see John Cena go out like that. And to suggest it’s a time-honored tradition for him to ‘do the job’ is such a thing of the past. We live in a different era. Cena deserved better. The farewell tour had so much potential. In the end, it feels like fans were left wanting more. I think it was a mistake.”
The full episode of The Ariel Helwani Show from Monday, December 15 is available below.
No one wanted to see John Cena go out like that. And to suggest it’s a time-honored tradition for him to “do the job” is such a thing of the past. We live in a different era.
Cena deserved better. The farewell tour had so much potential. In the end, it feels like fans were left… pic.twitter.com/9W7k9yH7Eq
On the Battleground podcast, Tatum Paxley was asked how she reacts when fans on social media call for her to be brought up to the main roster:
Whenever my time comes to be on Raw or SmackDown, I trust when Triple H sees the perfect time – I trust in his decision entirely. You know, I’m in no rush to get to Raw or SmackDown. But I’m super excited to be there.
But I’m super comfortable here in NXT as well. I just know, wherever I am, I’m going to try to connect to that audience.
Charlotte Flair congratulated Maxxine Dupri on her Women’s Intercontinental title win: “At @FlatbacksT I saw firsthand the work, the growth, and the passion she poured into chasing her dreams. Congratulations, champ @maxxinedupri so damn proud & happy for you!”
Sony Pictures posted a photo today giving a first look at Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and the rest of the cast for the next Jumanji movie. The film, which is the third and final installment in the rebooted Jumanji franchise, recently began production. It’s scheduled for a Christmas 2026 release.
Ariel Helwani commented on his interview with Tony Khan: “If you would have asked me in 2023 who’s the one guest I’d never see in studio, it would prob would have been @TonyKhan. Massive respect for him for coming in & even greater respect for how he handled today. Enjoyed the chat very much. Hope we can all be friends now, AEW fans.”
Khan responded to Helwani: “Thank you for having me on your show, I appreciate you inviting me + giving me that tremendous opportunity to promote Wednesday Night #AEWDynamite Tomorrow night + #AEWCollision and #AEWFullGear this Saturday night! You and your staff were very kind hosts!”
During the Helwani interview, Khan mentioned that AEW brings in Chris Nowinski every year to talk to the roster about head injuries and safety.
Nowinski posted a tweet calling the annual visit an honor: “It’s a privilege and honor to share my concussion experience, CTE research & @ConcussionLF HelpLine with my former colleagues to help them stay safe in the ring. Thanks @AEW & @TonyKhan for the annual invitation.”
In a rare interview, Jimmy & Jey Uso opened up to Ariel Helwani ahead of their highly-anticipated match against Roman Reigns & Solo Sikoa at Saturday’s WWE Money in the Bank, talking about Trinity Fatu leaving, Jimmy’s DUI arrest, and more.
While the two have made tag team wrestling their priority, Jey said his dream is to face Jimmy at WrestleMania “like back in the living room, uce.” He would want his family to be involved like their father, Rikishi, as referee.
Jimmy said they never pitched a split of their team, but would be supportive of each other if that was best for their careers as they could always come back to the team. Earlier in the interview, he said he was inspired by how Jey was performing during the pandemic era while he was recovering from his own injury.
The two agreed the injury was “a blessing in disguise” and weren’t sure where they would be today if that didn’t happen.
“We’re having the most fun in our careers. We have tapped into something different in our careers…revamped us and we’ve leveled up,” Jimmy said.
Trinity’s departure
Jimmy was asked about last year’s situation that saw his wife, Trinity Fatu, leave WWE along with Mercedes Money (Sasha Banks). He said “it’s been weird” after being on the road together for 12 years and that’s it been an adjustment, but they are making it work as she’s enjoying her time in Impact.
He said the night they left, he had a match and when he came to the back, she left and he knew something was happening. He would like for her to eventually come back in a perfect world so they could end their careers in the place they both started.
Jey joked he wants her back on the road so she can be the middleman between the two brothers so they don’t have to be around each other so much.
The DUI arrest
Asked about his DUI arrest last year, Jimmy said he wasn’t concerned about the situation.
“Everyone has their issues outside work, everyone’s human. everyone makes mistakes and go through it. As long as you face the noise, even if we got in trouble, we always stood right in front of our mess, our noise, we push through it, learn from it, keep it moving” he said.
Jey said they were initially against having Sami Zayn involved in The Bloodline angle as part of the family but was wrong. Jey joked that he needed to be more professional when he was legitimately cracking up during some of the live promos.
Asked about The Rock being involved, the two joked about it and said there are layers to his Bloodline storyline that they haven’t even got to yet.
The two also talked about Rikishi’s influence in their life, and how their own kids don’t know what’s going on in WWE and think they are “lame.”
Dave Meltzer and I are back for a new Wrestling Observer Radio going over all the news in the latest issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter with a deep dive into the 2022 WON Awards.
We also talked about the following:
Current WrestleMania plans and the leader in the clubhouse for one of the main events
Kenny Omega’s upcoming free agency
AEW Dynamite ratings
Keiji Muto’s farewell and if something like that could happen in the US
Tony Khan vs. Ariel Helwani
The video version of this show is available for paid video subscribers at video.f4wonline.com.
It’s a brand new We’re Live, Pal! as Andrew Zarian and I talk the latest news in wrestling.
We recapped Saturday’s WWE Elimination Chamber and put together some pieces from the follow-up Raw to look at where things may be going on the road to WrestleMania.
We discussed the Ariel Helwani/Tony Khan situation and also talked about Mercedes Mone’s performance at NJPW Battle in the Valley.
We then pondered what Tony Khan’s announcement will be on this Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite in addition to the entire card.
You can watch the show above or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts in addition to the link below.
During the Monday edition of The MMA Hour, Ariel Helwani went into detail about how his WWE experience in Montreal came to be, including his infamous reply-tweet to AEW head Tony Khan and some pointed barbs at his critics.
Helwani said he didn’t know until Wednesday of last week that he was even going to Montreal. Following January’s Royal Rumble, he had reached out to WWE about writing something to honor the event in Montreal and WWE took him up on it, but he didn’t hear back after he submitted it.
He later followed up and an agreement was made for him to do the voiceover and then attend both Elimination Chamber and SmackDown over the weekend, but there was nothing else arranged.
He said he talked to someone backstage Friday who suggested that due to him being so tied to Montreal and for this being a big event, he should be part of the broadcast.
He credited Paul “Triple H” Levesque for making this happen and also shouted out Paul Heyman with helping him out with specific terminology and how he would deliver his message on Friday.
He said he initially made it a point to not look at his phone backstage or while he was in the Gorilla position and just let the moment be.
However, when he did after his first appearance, he saw Tony Khan’s tweet calling him a fraud and originally thought it wasn’t him.
Helwani said the tweet was an “own goal” and feels Khan is still upset about Helwani’s criticism about his 2022 interview with him being a bad one. He said Khan had turned down interviews in the past because of trepidations with Helwani’s relationship with Nick Khan and BT Sport.
He then debated about whether he should reply and wanted to wait until after his second hit during SmackDown. He said Khan’s tweet would have ruined the night for the “old Helwani” but he wasn’t going to let that happen. Meanwhile, he said people were buzzing backstage about Khan’s tweet toward him.
Helwani said he tweeted his reply on the way back home that night and felt bad for Tony Schiavone being mentioned by Khan. He never addressed why he specifically called Khan “snowman.”
He also threw a jab that the only reason Khan was able to launch AEW was due to the finances of his father and that while his own father is an immigrant, what he’s built as an MMA journalist and personality is his own.
After the second hit, Helwani said he was invited back the next night. When he arrived at Elimination Chamber and was told he would be out in the crowd as part of a celebrity shot with Georges St. Pierre, he saw Michael Cole and Cole said, “Just wait until you hear how I introduce you.” It wasn’t until Helwani went backstage that he saw what Cole said and said people were giving him high fives. He joked his tweet toward Khan “popped the boys in the back.”
“I felt like I was part of the team,” he said, later addressing his critics, “If I disappointed you by doing this (WWE appearance), I don’t give a f**k.”
He said this was a one-off and there are no plans for him to do anything further. He even joked that he is up for hire for AEW and that they should do a “fraud” t-shirt.
He thought Khan tweeting that actually helped him be featured on the Elimination Chamber.
Helwani reiterated that, “I am not a wrestling journalist,” saying for MMA, he will not break that rule of working for a promotion and revealed he was offered the change to do a voiceover for Fedor Emelianenko’s last fight for Bellator MMA and turned it down.
He said he wants to have fun and do things that give him joy and that’s what this WWE appearance was all about, reiterating he doesn’t do daily wrestling news or have a website like Dave Meltzer and didn’t understand the constant comparisons on social media all weekend.
He did get paid by WWE whereas he initially turned it down for his first video package voiceover that he offered last year.
He said when he was hired by BT Sport, it was primarily for UFC but Dana White “threw a fit” and they then moved him to do WWE interviews instead.
Helwani added he thinks Sami Zayn should have beaten Roman Reigns for the WWE undisputed Universal title.
The following is a free podcast. Scroll down to listen.
24 hours after his comments on his interview with AEW head Tony Khan went viral on wrestling Twitter, Ariel Helwani makes his serendipitous debut on Josh Nason’s Punch-Out.
Ariel Helwani commented on a recent interview he conducted with Tony Khan, saying it was one of the “not so fun interviews of my career”.
On a recent episode of The MMA Hour, Helwani said his interview with Khan that took place last week was “one of the most frustrating and, to a degree, not so fun interviews of my career”.
“He didn’t want to answer anything,” Helwani said. “You’re going to come on and promote X, Y, and Z, great. And I’ll play that dance with you. I did, at the beginning. But you got to give us something, to not even tell me how you were feeling. I’m not asking for specifics, alright fine I am, but is Punk going to wrestle for you, is he coming back, you don’t want to get into it, fine. But tell me how you were feeling. Give me something.”
Ariel Helwani says interviewing Tony Khan last week was one of the most frustrating interviews of his career
During the interview, which was uploaded on October 5, Tony Khan refused to comment on the backstage altercation between CM Punk, Kenny Omega, and The Young Bucks that took place September 5. When asked about specifics regarding suspensions and the status of those involved in the fight, Khan again said that it was something he didn’t want to talk about.
AEW has not commented publicly regarding the fight or the status of Punk, The Young Bucks, Omega, Ace Steel, and others that were involved. Christopher Daniels, Brandon Cutler, and Michael Nakzaza, who were also suspended around the same time as others, returned to the company shortly after the fight took place.
In an hour-long interview with Ariel Helwani that dropped after Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite, Tony Khan said that WWE is more likely to look at similar free agents as they do because of the regime change.
After talking about his thoughts about WWE and their improvements since Vince McMahon resigned, Khan dropped in a line about how there will be “probably a bit more similarity (between the companies) in what we are looking for in the profile of a free agent…it’s probably going to start being a thing.”
Pressed by Helwani for what he meant, Khan discussed the swath of WWE releases and said that with most of them, he wasn’t sure if those people would have necessarily been released if the new regime was in place given their star power. Given that, both companies would have a similar profile in who they are looking to sign.
In talking about how they evaluate free agents, Khan talked about the company’s group of coaches and executives that come together. He then threw in a line about how AEW Dark was “at one point, the premiere tryout system in America. Plenty of people will tell you WWE was recruiting off AEW Dark during the pandemic. If anyone tells you that’s not true, ok, you’re full of sh*t.”
During another part of the interview, Tony Khan said he has never met WWE co-CEO Nick Khan. Later, when explaining his promo toward Nick during the reported WWE talks with NJPW in May 2021, Tony mentioned he had talked to Nick about those talks and Helwani pressed him on his answer. He declined to answer anything about their conversations or even if they were recent, clarifying they had never met in person but did talk on the phone in a bit of semantics.
He also said he had spoken to Paul Levesque and Stephanie McMahon prior to AEW being founded and thought they were friends at one point.
“They were really nice to me once upon a time as a football owner,” he said.
Khan talked around or declined to answer direct questions about whether Rampage would eventually become a two-hour live show, MJF talking about his contract during promos, anything surrounding the All Out post-press conference fight involving CM Punk, Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks, whether he tried to keep Cody Rhodes in AEW and his thoughts on Rhodes going to WWE.
A few other quick-hit notes:
He declined to say whether Saraya will indeed wrestle in AEW and/or what her role will be.
He declined to comment on any negotiations he may or may not have had with Bray Wyatt.
When asked about the mood in the locker room, Khan said AEW is “in a really great place as a roster and a company.” He joked that he isn’t Bill Watts and doesn’t enforce things that way.
His original idea and business plan was to run on Tuesdays starting in October 2019. If Dynamite couldn’t be on Tuesday or Wednesdays, he wasn’t going to do it.
When asked if he watches WWE, he said, “I watch a lot of wrestling from different places. All wrestling is competition.”
He said he sees AEW as a “challenger brand” based on a book he received from Warner Bros. management when he first started AEW. He equated AEW to Pepsi or Burger King where the goal is not necessarily to be the industry leader but also to not to be a niche. Similar to those brands, that’s why he isn’t afraid to mention WWE in interviews.
He said WBD was “floored” by the buys for Ring of Honor’s Death before Dishonor, saying it tripled projections.
He also revealed that during the AOL chat era of the Internet, he was chat friends with Brian Pillman Sr., Dallas Page, and Lou Thesz himself.
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.
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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
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.
Roman Reigns said that CM Punk “Was not as good or as over as” John Cena and The Rock.
In an interview with Ariel Helwani for BT Sports, Reigns was directly asked for his take on part-time WWE performers like Cena coming back to the company in main event positions. In framing the question, Helwani referenced CM Punk noting displeasure in the past with part-timers coming back in main event positions.
“Those statements are coming from bitter people who possibly thought they were better than they really were,” Reigns said.
“When it comes down to it, CM Punk was not as good or as over as John Cena, he was not as good or as over or moved the needle like The Rock. It just was what it was,” said Reigns. “From a full-time performer, I understand the frustration and wanting more. But like I said before, you’ve gotta take it.”
In answering whether he was okay with Cena coming back for a short-term run, Reigns answered affirmatively.
“If more eyeballs are being brought to our product, a guy like John Cena, who’s starring in multiple movies this summer, has earned the right where he’s at that portion of his career where he is a part-time performer, I’m not gonna complain,” said Reigns. “I’m just gonna capitalize on him being here and everything that he brings.”
The full Reigns interview with Helwani stretched for nearly 45 minutes and can be found below.
Updates on the WWE PPV shows heads up the new issue of the Observer, including proposed main events, ticket sales and the reason for the Hell in a Cell change.
Also in this issue:
Update on the health situation of Antonio Inoki.
Another Saudi Arabia lawsuit, the details in the suit and the two possible endings including comments from Jerry McDevitt.
Updated ticket sales for all the WWE shows through early September, demand and comparisons with AEW, plus why WWE books NBA buildings and blocks off most of the building while AEW runs smaller buildings.
Dwayne Johnson talking the presidency, Edge creative, Brock Lesnar in WWE, new WWE hires, house show changes, Ronda Rousey update, international AEW & WWE ratings, what WWE is looking for in tryout camps going forward, ESPY Award, Titus O’Neil, John Cena movie, vaccines in WWE, Andre the Giant history, WWE injuries, WWE new names, plus the most-watched videos of the past week and WWE market value.
The decision by New Japan Pro Wrestling to run three Domed stadium shows in the upcoming months and how the Saitama dates preclude them from their biggest named American stars, plus the attempt to run so many major shows on successive dates in July.
Full coverage of UFC 263, with poll results, match-by-match rundowns, and the future direction of the top fighters on the show.
Full coverage for NXT Takeover, including poll results, star ratings, direction after Takeover, the next two major dates for the promotion, as well as interest level in the show.
An update on Don West, the former TNA announcer, as he battles brain cancer.
The Federacion promotion, the latest company to try and make it as a major group in Mexico, what went wrong, and the history of new attempts to go national in that country.
Stardom Cinderella tournament finals and the main event that has gotten so much talk, Utami Hayashshita vs Syuri, with the background on the two, plus coverage of storylines and direction, match-by-match with star ratings.
More into detail on the ratings than any other source, how many different viewers the shows had, breakdown of who watches the shows and how they watch, DVR numbers and how long the average fan watches.
Results of the major pro wrestling events of the past week
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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 NEWS UPDATE
Bryan and I will be back tonight with Wrestling Observer Radio covering Raw and the latest wrestling and MMA news. If you’ve got any questions for the show you can send them to [email protected]
We’ll have much more in the issue, but Smackdown did 2,040,000 viewers and 0.54 in 18-49 for the show with Roman Reigns vs. Rey Mysterio in the Hell in a Cell title match. It was the most viewers the show has done since 5/7. AEW on Friday night was up to 551,000 viewers and 0.20 in 18-49, so up in viewers a lot and up slightly in the demo. It was the most viewers they’ve had since Friday which surprised people because it didn’t have a big main event.
Raw tonight has both men’s and women’s Money in the Bank qualifiers. The men’s matches are A.J. Styles vs. Ricochet, Randy Orton vs. John Morrison and Drew McIntyre vs. Riddle. Yes, McIntyre lost a match where he could never challenge Lashley for the title and the next day was in a match where the goal was to challenge Lashley for the title. In the women’s side, it’s tag matches with Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler vs. Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross and Asuka & Naomi vs. Eva Marie & whatever name Piper Niven ends up being called.
WWE Hell in a Cell finished No. 10 for searches on Google yesterday with 200,000, which is the normal interest level for a WWE PPV show. We’re looking for your thoughts on the show so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to [email protected]
Karrion Kross, Scarlett and Bronson Reed are again backstage at television today. As of 30 minutes before this writing, the plan was for Kross vs. Shelton Benjamin on Main Event and that Scarlett will not be used in the corner. Scarlett is being talked about for a tryout on her own this coming Friday.
Ariel Helwani announced today a series of new jobs he’s going to after leaving ESPN with the expiration of his contract six days ago. He is largely taking time off until August and will start these gigs:
He returns to MMA Fighting to do the MMA Hour every Monday & Wednesday, a talk show with the top MMA talent
He will do a YouTube show interviewing people from outside the MMA world, whether it be music, pro wrestling, sports, book authors and more
He will write MMA for Substack
He will work with BT Sports in the U.K. on MMA, boxing and WWE pro wrestling.
He will work for The Ringer doing shows on Friday’s before major MMA shows and Saturday nights after, talk shows covering the events.
New Japan has a Korakuen Hall show tomorrow at 5:30 a.m. on New Japan World:
Tetsuya Naito & Shingo Takagi & Sanada & Bushi vs. Kota Ibushi & Satoshi Kojima & Yuji Nagata & Hiroyoshi Tenzan
Tomohiro Ishii & Yoshi-Hashi & Hirooki Goto defend the Never six-man tag titles against Evil & Yujiro Takahashi & Dick Togo
There will also be a Wednesday morning Korakuen Hall show with Sho & Yoh defending the IWGP jr. tag titles against Ishimori & Phantasmo
WWE
Congratulations to Mustafa Ali who announced that he and his wife were expecting a child in December.
Kevin Owens on Twitter wrote, “I fought like hell, Now, I need a little break. I’ll be back soon.” The impression we were given is this is a storyline.
AEW
Dark Elevation tonight:
Jade Cargill vs. Robyn Renegade
The Acclaimed vs.Baron Black & Tamillian Vineesh
Wardlow & Shawn Spears vs. Ryzin & Kal Herro
Kris Statlander vs. Rene Michelle (who was in WWE as Drake Maverick’s real-life wife)
Powerhouse Hobbs vs. Darien Benston
Brian Pillman Jr. & Griff Garrison vs. Bums R Us
FTR vs. Royce Isaacs & Jorel Nelson
Matt Hardy vs. Jora Johl
Penta & Eddie Kingston vs. Vary Morales & Fuego del Sol
Matt Sydal vs. Jack Evans
Nyla Rose vs. Delmi Exo
Jungle Boy vs. Cezar Bononi
OTHER NOTES
XICW from Saturday night in Standish,MI: Solo b Kyler Coleman, Aam Wick b Alex Weir, LJ Lawrence & Billy Ray Daniels won over Mysterious Movado & Royce Carney III, Mike Idol & Jamie Race and Eric Freedom & Kavan O’Reilly, Brutus Atwell b Soultaker, Kevin Kalloway & Sean Tyler b Jheras Grey & Jimi Grey, Tommy Vendetta d Dre Jacobs, Schwartzy & Randi West b TJ Meyer & Hannah Henderson, Mongo b Justin Dream, Rhino & Cody Deaner b DBA & Jaimy Coxxx, Aaron Orion b Trey Miguel (thanks to Leonard Brand)
A correction from yesterday’s results from Memphis. We listed Briar & Blair Skimahorn over Lil Chris & Aaron Roberts & Zay Washington winning their tag titles. It was actually the Skimahorn team over Lil Chris by himself and Roberts & Washington in a triple threat match to win the tag team titles as Chris’ partner Simon was hurt.
AIW on 7/30- has the Chandler Biggins Memorial tournament at the Odeon Concert Club in Cleveland with only 150 tickets available. They also run 7/31 in Jefferson, OH at the Ashtabula County Fairgrounds.
Mike Dimuzio, 63, a referee who worked all over from the Northeast into Tennessee and the Carolinas, passed away due to cancer on Saturday morning. He also ran his own promotion out of Gettysburg, PA. He loved working at wrestling events.
Dean Muhtadi, the former Mojo Rawley, is in the trailer for the upcoming G.I. Joe movie “Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins.” He’s shown briefly in the trailer in a fight scene.
Kylie Rae vs. Lady Frost, the granddaughter of 60s and 70s star Tony Marino, will headline for Warrior Wrestling on 7/17 in Chicago Heights, IL
Double or Nothing is the lead story in the new issue of the Wrestling Observer. Match-by-match coverage, star ratings, poll results, surprising PPV numbers and reasons why it happened, the atmosphere, what did and didn’t work and the signing of Mark Henry and the situation with Lio Rush.
Also in this issue:
WWE front office hires, their background, the shift in company strategy an how they fit in, as well as the reasons for the controversy regarding Jamie Horowitz and what happened when he was at FOX.
WWE cutting of Braun Strowman, Lana, Ruby Riott, Aleister Black, Murphy and Santana Garrett, reasons all were let go as well as the future prospects for all of them individually.
WWE schedule going forward, with the shows through September, the exclusive first word on plans for NXT going on the road, and a SummerSlam update.
New Japan/WWE talks, the history of Vince McMahon and booking of WWF talent in Japan when working with the Japanese, next Takeover show, more firings, U.K. and Canadian ratings, next week’s TV show and most-watched WWE videos.
A major feature on the life of 60s and 70s star Tony Marino, from his bodybuilding days to his start in wrestling, his international tours, the Battman gimmick from the Batman TV show, his biggest career shows, being part of setting the all-time indoor pro wrestling gate record for North America in 1970 and more.
More detail on ratings than any other source, how every segment on NXT and AEW did with different age groups and more, all other wrestling shows of the past week, how many different viewers the shows had which is very different from the television number, breakdown of who watches the shows, how they watch, DVR numbers and how long the average fan watches.
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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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 NEWS UPDATE
Bryan and I will be back tonight with Wrestling Observer Radio, talking Raw, the Bret Hart documentary, Dominion, Mayweather vs. Logan Paul and the rest of the news. You can send questions to the show to [email protected].
The Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Logan Paul fight yesterday ended up being a big success on PPV, at least based on the very weak advance. Based on U.S. television buys,not including international or streaming, the verified number we have based on limited data although covering several million homes was 11.9 times what AEW Double or Nothing did. So that probably falls in the 600,000 to 650,000 range but any number this early with limited data is a very rough estimate. It was a Showtime event and they are a public company so most likely they will announce an estimate (that will include streaming numbers so a number much higher than this) later in the week.
The event ended up getting 11.5 million Google searches, so based on that, there was far more interest in the fight than people who actually wanted to pay to watch it. It was easy money for Mayweather, but whether this gimmick will run its course or not as freak show fights usually do if they are done too often, remains to be seen. But this was still a lot of revenue at $50 a pop.
Francis Ngannou said that it’s amazing that Logan Paul could make $20 million for a boxing exhibition since he vs. Jon Jones could generate more PPV revenue and neither will make anywhere near that, and in fact it’s not even looking like it will happen because UFC isn’t agreeing to Jones’ financial demands.
Even though cable numbers we got indicated a big increase for AEW this week, the actual number by Nielsen for Friday was way down with 462,000 viewers and 0.19 in 18-49. Smackdown had 1,883,000 viewers and 0.50 in 18-49.
New Japan made the call today to go with Shingo Takagi as its new IWGP champion instead of Kazuchika Okada. The Dominion show took place earlier today. We’re looking for your thoughts on the show, including thumbs up, down or middle, best and worst match to [email protected]
The New York Post has a detailed story of the Ariel Helwani contract talks with ESPN. As noted yesterday. Helwani is leaving in eight days. The story said they did try and get him to take a pay cut, and there was far too much money out there from new gambling media sites for him to do so, and projected he could make double what he made at ESPN on his own.
Raw tonight has a Battle Royal to determine who gets a tag team title shot on 6/20 against A.J. Styles & Omos, featuring The Viking Raiders,New Day, Randy Orton & Riddle, Mace & Tbar and The Lucha House Party. Shayna Baszler will be in Alexa Bliss’ playground. There will also be a Bobby Lashley vs. Drew McIntyre contract signing.
Competition for Raw tonight includes NBA playoffs with the the Bucks vs. Nets at 7:30 p.m. and Nuggets vs. Suns at 10 p.m.plus Winnipeg Jets vs. Montreal Canadiens in the Stanley Cup playoffs at 8 p.m. So the number is likely to be well under usual levels.
The A&E episode last night on Bret Hart was my favorite of the season. I was told it was held to last because the general feeling is it was the strongest episode. It was basically what it had to be given that it is a WWE production so you’re not going hard after Vince McMahon or Paul Levesque on anything. I also heard they wished that they had far more time because there were so many different subjects they all thought was worthy of a documentary, from his growing up in a wrestling family, his ascension to being a headliner, the Montreal screwjob, the death of Owen Hart and the recovery from the stroke. It was really quite the happy ending story. Julie & Allison Hart, Natalya and especially Bret were very strong in the piece.
Stephanie McMahon was on CNBC this morning. She said they are experiencing really significant trends toward increased attendance at live events based on early ticket sales. She claimed the selling of their WWE network content to Peacock is that they don’t want to be in the technology business and they felt they would have difficulty competing with Disney and Amazon, so sold to someone who can. She also noted while the company has done well during the pandemic that traditionally live events add more than $100 million a year more in revenue to the company.
DDT announced its biggest show of the year, Peter Pan, will be 8/21 in Fujitsu Stadium outdoors and feature Atsushi Onita in an explosive barbed wire match.
2K announced today the debut of the Forged card tier and rewards celebrating the upcoming Hell in a Cell PPV event in WWE Supercard.
ICW Fight Club and wXw will both have new events on Peacock/WWE Network on Saturday.
Kay Lee Ray vs. Meiko Satomura for the NXT UK title will be on Thursday’s NXT UK show.
AEW
Dark Elevation tonight has:
Hikaru Shida vs. Diamante
The Acclaimed vs. Alex Reynolds & 5
Evil Uno vs. Danny Limelight
Santana & Ortiz vs. Liam Gray & Adrian Alanis
Kris Statlander vs. Queen Aminata
Brian Pillman Jr. & Griff Garrison vs. JD Drake & Ryan Nemeth
Ethan Page vs. Mike Sydal
Jade Cargill vs. Rache Chanel
Brian Cage & Powerhouse Hobbs vs. Trevor Aeon & Kendall Blake
Scorpio Sky vs. Trevor Read
OTHER NEWS
Invicta is doing an added innovation for Friday night’s eight-man 105 pound tournament. None of the fighters know who they will be facing first as they will be doing an online fan vote by visiting the Phoenix Tournament Voting Portal for Invicta and vote for the four first round matches that you want to see. You are allowed to stuff the ballot box and vote over-and-over. For the semifinals, the fighter who wins their first round fight the quickest will get to pick which of the other three winners she wants to face in the semifinal.
A story on Mongopalooza, a concert that will be done as a benefit for medical bills for former WCW and NFL star Steve McMichael, who is battling ALS. I saw that Ric Flair recently visited him.
Deonna Purrazzo will be going to AAA Verano de Escandalo on 7/3 to face Lady Shani.
MLW has released more tickets for its 7/10 show at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia, its first with a live audience and first since getting on Vice TV.
ROH has put tickets on sale to its 7/11 Best in the World PPV show in Baltimore at the Chesapeake Employers Insurance Arena.
Impact airs the 2017 Bound for Glory on Thursday at 3 p.m.
Scheduled for Impact TV on Thursday night has Havok vs. Rosemary and If Havok wins, she’s added to the Saturday Deonna Purrazzo vs. Rosemary title match on Saturday, plus W. Morrissey vs. Willie Mack no DQ and an appearance by Tony Khan regarding Kenny Omega’s match on Saturday’s Against All Odds show.
Dwayne Johnson’s Seven Bucks Entertainment and Flynn Picture Company will be producing a movie called “Emergency Contact” for Warner Brothers.
Corus Entertainment, Canada’s biggest media company, is launching its firs fiction podcast which was released today called “Escaping Denver.” Brady Roberts, a Western Canadian pro wrestler who trained with Lance Storm is one of the lead stars of the show.
New England Fights returns to live fans on 8/21 at the Hampshire Dome in Milford, NH with MMA and kickboxing fights.
