The annual Grand Prix is an elimination match pitting Team Mexico against Team World. Last night, CMLL announced the first participants with Zeuxis set for Team Mexico and Shirakawa representing AEW as part of Team World. More entrants will be announced in the coming weeks ahead of the Grand Prix being held at Arena Mexico on October 24.
Shirakawa officially joined AEW on a full-time basis earlier this year following her departure from Stardom. She headlined ROH’s Death Before Dishonor event last Friday, unsuccessfully challenging Athena for the ROH Women’s World Championship.
Currently, Shirakawa is the interim ROH Women’s TV Champion with Red Velvet sidelined due to injury.
Zeuxis has been out of action since June but is now returning after undergoing knee surgery to repair a torn meniscus. She was working through the injury when she lost the CMLL Women’s World Championship to Mercedes Mone this June.
Representing Team Mexico, Reyna Isis was the winner of the 2024 women’s Grand Prix. Red Velvet and Willow Nightingale were among the Team World competitors.
The men’s edition of the 2025 Grand Prix took place last week with Mistico being crowned the winner.
Claudio Castagnoli has won CMLL’s International Grand Prix.
The AEW star emerged victorious in CMLL’s annual elimination match that took place Friday night in Arena Mexico. After Castagnoli defeated Volador Jr. for the win, he accepted the Grand Prix trophy given to him by the Swiss embassy of Mexico and posed for a photo with the rest of Team World.
CMLL’s International Grand Prix is an annual 20-man elimination match that pits the company’s stars against a team consisting of international talent. This year’s participants had Team Mexico comprising of Mistico, Ultimo Guerrero, Volador Jr., Titan, Valiente, Templario, Mascara Dorada, Euphoria, Esfinge, and Atlantis Jr. going against Team World’s Castagnoli (Switzerland), Yota Tsuji ( NJPW/Japan), Rocky Romero (NJPW/USA), Robbie X (RevPro, United Kingdom) Mansoor (AEW/Saudi Arabia), Kyle Fletcher (AEW/Australia), Flip Gordon (USA), Ikuro Kwan (MLW/South Korea), Davey Boy Smith Jr. (MLW/Canada) and Akira (MLW/United States)
Castagnoli has had a rough week of travel. He wrestled in Wales on Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite, reaching a time limit draw against Kazuchika Okada for the AEW Continental title. After wrestling in Mexico on Friday, he will now head back to the United Kingdom for AEW’s All In on Sunday in London.
The full lineup for the CMLL Grand Prix 20-man tag team match was revealed on Wednesday night, including AEW’s Claudio Castagnoli.
Castagnoli is one of five new members announced for Team World, which will take on Team Mexico at the August 23 CMLL Grand Prix match at Arena Mexico.
NJPW’s Yota Tsuji, Mansoor, Davey Boy Smith Jr., and Akira join Castagnoli in the lineup for Team World. Already announced for Team World are Kyle Fletcher, Robbie X, Rocky Romero, Flip Gordon, and Ikuro Kwon.
#CMLLInforma || ¡Este es el combinado internacional que enfrentará al equipo mexicano en el Grand Prix 2024!
Team Mexico’s newest additions are Mascara Dorada, Volador Jr., Esfinge, Euforia, and Valiente, joining the already announced Mistico, Ultimo Guerrero, Templario, Atlantis Jr., and Titan.
#CMLLInforma || ¡Este es el equipo que representará a México en el Grand Prix 2024!
Kyle Fletcher will be one of 10 Team World members in the August 23 CMLL Grand Prix match at Arena Mexico.
The Grand Prix will be held on Friday, August 23, with a 10-man Team World facing a 10-man Team Mexico in a tag team bout.
Fletcher, Rocky Romero, Robbie X of RevPro, Flip Gordon, and MLW’s Ikuro Kwon are the first five member of Team World, with the rest of the unit set to be revealed at a later date.
Team Mexico has Mistico, Templario, Titan, Ultimo Guerrero, and Atlantis Jr. already announced, with the rest of that group also to be revealed.
Atlantis Jr. defeated Fletcher for the ROH Television Championship in Arena Mexico at the weekly Friday night show on June 28.
Fletcher heading to Arena Mexico in August is the latest example of the strong relationship between CMLL and AEW, as evidenced by the Death Triangle group of PAC, Penta El Zero Miedo, and Rey Fenix also being announced for a CMLL event on Wednesday.
F4W NEWSLETTER: Figure Four Weekly: Sasha Banks returns to WWE Joseph Currier looks at the return of Sasha Banks and what it means for the women’s division. Plus, Bryan Rose’s Japan notes, and Vinny’s TV reviews.
The return of Banks gives Lynch the opponent she’s needed since WrestleMania. After winning the biggest women’s match in company history, Lynch was put in an impossible position by WWE. She had to maintain her momentum without having any credible opponents to face. Lacey Evans was a poor choice for her first challenger.
One of WWE’s most important goals should have been elevating Lynch and the women’s division further. It was always known that Rousey wouldn’t be with WWE forever. It’s great that Rousey was able to have main event-level matches with the company. It’s great that the Rousey/Lynch/Charlotte Flair rivalry was so deserving of its top spot going into WrestleMania.
But a year of progress doesn’t mean that much if you don’t continue to build upon it. Instead of Lynch facing someone who was near her level, her opponent was a wrestler who wasn’t even in a star in NXT.
The birth of the Wednesday Night War is the top story in the new edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
We discuss how the NXT to USA deal came about, when NXT wrestlers were told, how this impacts the WWE/Fox relationship, and what this means for the NXT brand, going forward.
We have details on the finances of the NXT to USA deal, and we break down the head-to-head aspect of NXT vs. AEW. We also have comments from a major television executive who gives his perspective on the deal, as well as the potential for audience burnout.
A story on the latest AEW TV taping sellouts is also featured in the new issue. We also have notes on the secondary ticket market demand for all of the AEW shows.
An obituary for Eddie Marlin is also in the new issue, with a ton of details on his life.
Also in this issue, Ryan Frederick covers this past weekend’s UFC show, and we have detailed TV ratings and business notes on the show.
We also wrap up our G1 coverage with a detailed breakdown of each individual’s star ratings for the tournament.
We have full coverage of all the WWE television shows from the past week.
As always, we have in-depth looks at the ratings of all the major shows,the key demos for the WWE shows and what can be learned from them.
We also have the results of all the major pro wrestling events around the world over 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].
Rates in the United States are $14.50 for 4 issues, $35.50 for 12, $70 for 24, $116 for 40 and $149.50 for 52.
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.
THURSDAY NEWS UPDATE
Forbes listed Dwayne Johnson once again as the highest paid actor, earning $89.4 million between June 1, 2018 and June 1, 2019. It noted he’s getting a $23.5 million guarantee for the Jumanji sequel, and gets a big cut from the gate from his franchise movies. He also gets $700,000 per episode of Ballers. It also noted Robert Downey made $55 million for “Avengers: Endgame” when his percentage of the box office was included. Chris Hemsworth was second to Johnson at $76.4 million.
The Super J Cup starts tonight at the Temple Theater in Tacoma, WA. Reminder, this show will not be airing on New Japan World until September, nor will any of the tournament. The winners of tonight’s matches advance to San Francisco on Saturday night. Tonight’s show has
Jushin Liger & Karl Fredericks vs. Ren Narita & Shota Umino
Rocky Romero vs. Soberano Jr.
Clark Connors vs. TJ Perkins
Caristico vs. Bushi
Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Jonathan Gresham
Robbie Eagles vs. El Phantasmo
Dragon Lee vs. Yoh
Taiji Ishimori vs. Sho
Will Ospreay vs. Amazing Red
The foreigners being brought in for CMLL’s 8/30 World Grand Prix are Matt Taven, Kenny King, Jay Briscoe, Mark Briscoe, Mecha Wolf 450, Oraculo, Luke Hawx and Big Daddy. No, not that Big Daddy, although imagining him working Arena Mexico would be something. It’s Big Daddy Yumyum, who had a very brief run years back in New Japan as part of Bruce Tharpe’s NWA stable. They also announced they would not be streaming this show live. The Mexican names in the tournament are in the current Observer.
The Kota Ibushi vs. Jay White G-1 final airs Saturday on AXS.
WWE
I’m not sure what this says about the country but there was a poll done on who would win between Jon Jones and Brock Lesnar. Now of course Jones got the majority of votes, but there were 17 states where Lesnar got more votes than Jones, mostly in the Northeast.
WWE Smackdown, with a few guys from Raw, are currently in South America and have a show tomorrow in Bogota, Colombia to go along with shows on Saturday in Lima, Peru and Sunday in Panama City.
Lacey Evans will be appearing on the Military Makeover season premiere show on 8/30 with host Montel Williams.
Alexander Wolfe comes to wXw on 11/23 for a show in Dresden, Germany. It will be the first time in five years he’s wrestled in his home town, since just before leaving and going to WWE.
Mark Madsen vs. Danilo Bellurado has been added to the UFC show on 9/28 in Copenhagen, Denmark.
MISCELLANEOUS
Pro Wrestling Revolver tomorrow night in Dayton, OH at The Brightside with Tessa Blanchard vs. Daga, Jessicka Havok vs. Jimmy Havoc, Jody Threat vs. Rickey Shane Page, Nevaeah vs. Jake Crist, Kris Statlander vs. Ace Austin and Zoey Skye vs. Ace Romero.
Carlo Di Bliae was named the President of One Italy earlier this week as the promotion continues to expand worldwide.
Fred Rosser, the former Darren Young, is taking bookings through Bill Behrens at [email protected] He is based out of Los Angeles. Other names that can be booked through Behrens include Amber O’Neal out of Charlotte and Sinn Bodhi out of Las Vegas.
Combate Americas on 9/20 in Mexicali,Mexico is headlined by Rafa Garcia (10-0) vs. Erick Gonzalez (10-3) to become the first Combate Americas lightweight champion, plus Aaron Brink (29-26) vs. Oscar Cota (10-2).
Arn Anderson will appear on 10/12 for CWA in Hot Springs,AR at Convention Center Hall D
Singapore Pro Wrestling announced Alex Cuevas & Aiden Rex vs. T-Hawk & Lindaman for its 9/15 show with Kenny Omega.
Jake Roberts is scheduled for an Australia tour from February 7-18, 2020 doing talk shows in Geelong, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Canberra, Sydney and Brisbane. (thanks to Kevin Chiat)
Riho of AEW will be working for New Taiwan Entertainment on 9/14.
Jazzy Gabert is currently touring with the Udo Lindenberg (famous German singer) tour where some characters wrestle in a ring on a stage and she’s part of that and also helped train the performers
Private Party vs. Pentagon Jr. & Fenix is set for Northeast Wrestling on 9/13 in Waterbury, CT.
Ignite Wrestling on 9/14 in Vero Beach, FL at the Walking Tree Brewery with Aaron Epic vs Erick Stevens for their singles title and Kaci Lennox vs. Kilynn King for their women’s title.
MLW Fusion will have Teddy Hart vs. MJF on Saturday night’s show along with El Hijo de L.A. Park vs. Zenshi. Monday on Bein Espanol has L.A. Park vs. Jimmy Havoc in a street fight.
IWF has a tournament on Sunday at 6 p.m. at the Nutley, NJ Rec Center. Tito Santana and Bull James appear on the show. They also run 10/11 in Wayne. NJ at the PAL with Tito Santana, Tony Atlas and Bull James.
There is a 25 percent off VIP Fan Fest tickets for the Warrior Wrestling show on 9/1 in Chicago Heights, IL. If you go to http://www.warriorwrestling.net and use the code FLASH you can get 25 percent off VIP tickets to meet Mick Foley, Austin Aries, Pentagon Jr., Fenix, Brian Cage,Caristico, Tessa Blanchard and many more.
George Kittle of the San Francisco 49ers talks being a WWE fan (thanks to Mike Kuzuk)
University of Illinois offensive coordinator Rod Smith (no relation to head coach Lovie Smith) works his longtime Ric Flair fandom into his job, especially the social-media part (thanks to Matt Kaufman)
