Tag: Cnn

Daily Update: Cain Velazquez, CNN & AEW & Brody King

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

*Winners, top place winners, comments and every winner of every award dating back to 1980, from Wrestler of the Year, MMA MVP, Most Outstanding, Most Outstanding MMA Fighter, Tag Team of the Year, Best on Interviews, Promotion of the Year, Best Weekly TV show, Match of the Year, MMA Fight of the year, U.S./Canada MPV, Japanese MVP, Mexico MVP, Europe MVP, Best non-heavyweight, Women’s MVP, Women’s MMA MVP, Feud of the Year, Best Box Office Draw, Most Improved, Most Charismatic, Best Technical, Best Brawler, Best Flying Wrestler, Most Overrated, Most Underrated, Rookie of the Year, Best Non-WRestler, Best Television Announcer, Worst Television Announcer, Most major show, Worst major show, Best maneuver, Most Disgusting Promotional Tactic, Worst TV show, Worst match, Worst feud, Worst promotion, Best Booker of the Year, Promoter of the Year, Best Gimmick, Worst Gimmick, Best Book and Best Documentary.

*Tons of news related to the build to WrestleMania, why the card may be changing, a major concern regarding ticket sales, predictabiity vs. surprises, How Bron Brakker’s injury changes things, Brock Lesnar situation, Becky Lynch situation, situation in Las Vegas, concerns in Las Vegas, why ticket sales are down, plus build to Elimination Chamber

*Tadao Yasuda, a unique life of a former sumo star, IWGP champion, one of the biggest upsets in MMA history, the birth of the New Year’s Eve fighting tradition, gambling issues and more

*Coverage of the New Beginning in Osaka, talent leaving, talent staying, what is the difrection for New Japan the next few months and a worst and best match of the year candidate one right after the other

*Betting odds for this week’s wrestling

*Most detailed look at the TV ratings, a look at the red flags, streaming numbers and more.

*Notes on the honoring and retirement of El Satanico and career highlights

*Mistico sellout updates

*The last Friday for a month at Arena Mexico with the biggest names

*AAA TV tapings with WWE talent

*Starddom PPV notes

*Epstein files wrestling references

*Biggest UK women’s show coming

*Show coming up attempting to be the largest attendance for an all-women’s show in three decades

*Pareamount again trying to get WBD

*How politics affects pro wrestling

*Grand Slam Australia notes

*MJF talks Punk

*TV reviews

*YouTube notes

*CBS airing UFC on 3/7

*Zuffa boxing defies Ali Act with world title announcement

*WWE injury updates

*Bad Bunny Super Bowl controversy

*WWE Hall of Famer threatens to quit if another person isn’t removed

*Reigns upcoming schedule

This Week’s Back Issue

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Sunday Update

— Garrett Gonzales and I will be back tonight talking about the weekend news and more on the awards. We have a Friday night show up on the site talking about the WON Awards, Brody King, AEW Grand Slam, lots of info regarding WrestleMania in Las Vegas, and the issues going on and more.

— Cain Velasquez was released from prison earlier today after spending ten months incarcerated for attempting to shoot the man he believed had sexually abused his son between the ages of two and four. Velasquez showed up at the home of the man he believed had molested his son and people in the home took off in a car. Velasquez chased the car with the man, his mother and his stepfather in a high speed chase from Morgan Hill to San Jose, firing shots that hit the stepfather. His parole was moved up a month because of his participating rehabilitative programs.

He was sentenced at first to five years in prison, but he got credit for time served. He has a restitution hearing for the victim of the shooting Paul Bender, on 3/18. The Velasquez family is also suing Harry Goularte Jr., Patricia Goularte and Bender over the allegations of abuse by Goularte Jr., and negligence by the other two in covering it up. Right now a trial is scheduled for that case on 11/9.

— In this article on MMA Fighting on Velasquez, at the bottom is a video of Velasquez being released at 8:30 a.m. today, seeing his wife and kids and a Mariachi band playing. Velasquez did work for AAA after his arrest but I can’t see that happening under WWE ownership. I’m sure he’ll get offers from the various promotions that do boxing, forms of fighting, Dirty Boxing, Bare Knuckle, and perhaps even real wrestling that focus on past their prime UFC stars.

— We have a detailed note on Wednesday’s Dynamite ratings up on the members’ site.

— CNN’s website covered the political issues surrounding Brody King and the anti-ICE chants over the weekend which also confirmed AEW being partially owned by WBD. We had understood this was the case for years but nobody had ever said it on the record. (There was nobody saying it on the record here, either.) We do know that Tony Khan, father Shad Khan and sister Shanna Khan own 90 percent or more of AEW and that Tony Khan has 100 percent of the voting and decision making power in the company. I’ll talk more about the article on the show tonight, but the gist of that subject was covered on Friday’s show.

— Saturday’s Grand Slam Australia drew about 7,029. For the first time in a market, that’s disappointing but they don’t have television in Australia past streaming on Disney+.

— Looking for reports from last night’s WWE show in Lubbock, TX (big house show) and last night’s NXT show in Kent, WA, with results, finishes and highlights to [email protected]. We’re also looking for reports from Sydney last night for matches not on television and detailed notes from Brisbane’s show earlier today.

— Royce Keys, the former Powerhouse HObbs,made his singles debut for WWE in a dark match Friday night in Dallas before SmackDown aired. We’re looking for a report from Dallas on that one as well.

— CMLL sold out Arena Mexico on Friday and Arena Coliseo on Saturday. The Saturday show sold out on Friday, which is unusual for Saturday to sell out before the walk-up. Friday I expected to sell out because Mistico, Soberano Jr., Mascara Dorada, Altantis Jr., Hechicero and so many of the top CMLL stars are headed to Japan and won’t be on another Friday show until 3/13.

— We haven’t heard about any great matches from the weekend internationally other than yesterday’s Grand Slam show and people were raving about Friday’s Mistico vs Templario match. I would think there would be people that liked a certain style who may love Blue Panther vs. Xelhua from Arena Coliseo last night but I haven’t seen it yet.

— Mistico addressed winning the 2025 Thesz/Flair Award and other wins by CMLL in the Observer awards.

— The woman at ringside who did the angle with Andrade and Adam Page was wrestler Aysha, who actually wrestled on Sunday’s AEW house show in Brisbane where Jessica McKay and Cassie Lee debuted. This story goes back a month as they dropped the tag titles in TNA because they had the AEW offer.

— In Google searches for the weekend, Cain Velasquez was No. 46 with 20,000 and Jake Paul was No. 67 with 20,000. SmackDown had 5,000 as the only thing really related to current pro wrestling and with no UFC or major boxing event this weekend, that was the only stuff in the top 400.

— All Japan announced the 2026 Champion Carnival lineup as Rei Saito, Kento Miyahara, Go Shiozaki, Hideki Suzuki, Jun Saito, Ryuki Honda, Ren Ayabe, Yuma Anzai, Kengo Mashimo, Daisuke Sekimoto, Kuma Arashi, Madoka Kikuta (Dragon Gate), Xyon, Odyssey, Cyrus and Talos. Interesting no Davey Boy Smith Jr.

— Marigold’s 3D tournament will end on 2/23 at Korakuen Hall with Nagisa Nozaki & Misa Matsui & Rea Seto vs Mai Sakurai & Natsumi Showzuki & Erina Yamanaka.

— New Japan/CMLL Fantastica Mania debuts on Wednesday at Yoyogi Gym in Tokyo with tag team tournament first round matches with Valiente Jr. & Futuro vs. El Hijo de Stuka Jr. & Shoma Kato, Tiger Mask & Stigma vs. Averno & Magnus, Atlantis & Atlantis Jr. vs. Satoshi Kojima & Okumura, and Mistico & Mascara Dorada vs. Ultimo Guerrero & Sho. It airs on New Japan World at 5:30 a.m. that day.

— The NWA Crockett Cup tournament will be on 4/4 at the OC Theater in Forney, TX.

— Jacy Jayne and El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. were talked about on the WWC television show in Puerto Rico.

— Sammy Guevara vs. Amazing Red has been announced for the 3/21 HOG show in Brentwood, NY at the Suffolk Credit Union Arena.

— Yesterday was the birthday of Penny Mitchell, who was actually the woman under the Spider Lady mask in WWF every night except the night Moolah was under the mask and beat Wendi Richter without her knowledge in an MSG title match because Richter hadn’t signed a new contract. I believe Mitchell turned 65. (thanks to Ken Raftery).

— There was a question on this week’s Trivial Pursuit about the “8th Wonder of the World” who was the first person inducted into the WWE hall of fame. The contestant correctly guessed it was Andre the Giant. (thanks to Matt Schreiner)

— Farmer Burns, the original trainer of Frank Gotch, was born on this day in 1861. He was one of the most important figures at the end of the 19th century and start of the 20th century. Today is the birthday of Hugo Savinovich (67), LuFisto (46), Jenna Morasca (45) and Rich Swann (35). Louie Spicolli was 27 when he passed away on this day 28 years ago. Johnny Weaver, the longtime top babyface in the Carolinas, was 72 when he passed away 18 years ago today. One year ago today, Hall of Famer Gran Hamada passed away at the age of 74. Hamada was one of the most underrated wrestlers ever. He could do it all. (thanks to Tony Richards)

November 19, 2007 Observer Newsletter: John Cena’s manipulated CNN interview, 10th anniversary of the Montreal Screwjob

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

“I can’t tell you that I haven’t, but you’ll never be able to prove that I have”

John Cena’s quote on CNN, which appeared to be the answer to the question on whether he had ever taken steroids.

The strange answer John Cena gave when asked about steroids on the CNN “Death Grip: Inside Pro Wrestling,” special on 11/7 turned out to be a complete manipulation of Cena’s actual response by the producers.

The WWE web site aired the entire 40 minute interview CNN did with Cena, which covered a gamut of subjects, mostly based on the wrestling lifestyle and growing up as a wrestling fan with his family. Cena handled himself well overall. He was never pressed hard in the questioning, and largely gave the answers to almost every question that one would expect him to give. Most of the questions had to do with subjects the piece wasn’t going in the direction of.

Subscribers can read the issue here.

November 14, 2007 Observer Newsletter: Two WWE wrestlers suspended, CNN special on Chris Benoit

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

The issue of performance enhancing drugs is always going to be an exercise in frustration, but actions in both MMA and WWE this past week continue to show certain colors that make things even more uneasy.

The WWE’s Wellness Policy was shown this past week to be far more about the corporate fiscal Wellness. And in MMA, hearings conducted before the California State Athletic Commission on 10/31 left everyone on all sides confused, with the mixed messages being sent.

On 11/2, WWE announced D.H. Smith (Harry Smith) and Chris Masters (Chris Mordetzsky) had been suspended due to violations of the company Wellness policy. These were the first wrestlers suspended for drug policy violations that were announced publicly, as per the change in policy on 11/1. Smith was announced as being put on a 30-day suspension, and Masters on a 60-day suspension for a second violation.

There is the obvious aspect of the story of Smith’s father dying at 39, with the coroner who conducted the autopsy specifically mentioning steroids as a prime cause of the death, and his mentor in many ways being Chris Benoit. But everyone knows the rules of the game and to be surprised anyone does anything to get ahead in this business, no matter what their family history is, shouldn’t surprise anyone.

Subscribers can read this issue here.

VIDEO: Dave Meltzer discusses Vince McMahon’s retirement from WWE on CNN

Posted on by F4W Staff

On Saturday afternoon, Dave Meltzer made an appearance on CNN to discuss Vince McMahon’s retirement from WWE.

Meltzer was a guest on Saturday’s edition of CNN Newsroom with Jim Acosta. He addressed the McMahon story and what it will mean for WWE going forward.

When asked if he thinks McMahon will continue to call the shots from behind the scenes, Meltzer pointed out that McMahon is still WWE’s majority shareholder. Meltzer said it will be interesting to see if McMahon remains on the WWE Board of Directors. Meltzer said he believes McMahon will still have some influence, but this is the beginning of a new era for WWE in some ways.

Meltzer said that, while McMahon’s retirement is a shock, it’s not as much of a shock given everything that has come out in the Wall Street Journal’s reporting on the McMahon scandal.

One of the biggest announcements in the history of professional wrestling was made on Friday as McMahon announced his retirement from WWE. The retirement comes after it was revealed last month that the WWE Board of Directors was investigating alleged misconduct committed by McMahon.

The WSJ uncovered last month that McMahon had agreed to pay a total of more than $12 million to four women over the past 16 years to “suppress allegations of sexual misconduct and infidelity.” The four women were all formerly affiliated with WWE.

Stephanie McMahon and Nick Khan are WWE’s new co-CEOs.

VIDEO: Dave Meltzer on CNN discussing WWE’s Vince McMahon

Posted on by Ethan Renner

Wrestling Observer editor and publisher Dave Meltzer appeared on CNN today to discuss Vince McMahon stepping down as WWE CEO amid hush money allegations.

WWE announced in a press release on Friday morning that McMahon would step down as CEO while the company’s board of directors investigates misconduct allegations against McMahon and WWE head of talent relations John Laurinaitis related to payments and nondisclosure agreements.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that WWE’s board was investigating a $3 million payment that McMahon had allegedly made to a former employee that he had allegedly had an affair with. In the course of investigating the $3 million payment allegedly paid with McMahon’s personal funds and not company money, the board uncovered previous NDAs relating to McMahon and Laurinaitis. 

Stephanie McMahon has been appointed interim CEO and Chairwoman of WWE while the investigation continues. 

Dave’s segment on CNN can be seen below.