The MLW World Heavyweight Championship will be on the line in a stipulation match at Slaughterhouse 2025 next month.
MLW has announced that new World Champion Mads Krule Krugger will defend his title against five other competitors in a Chamber of Horrors match at the Halloween-themed Slaughterhouse event. Matthew Justice, CW Anderson, and Mr. Thomas have been named as three of the challengers, with the other two opponents to be revealed soon.
The Chamber of Horrors is a steel cage match with a variety of weapons.
“Barbed wire. Steel. Weapons hanging like ornaments of destruction. Once you enter… there’s no way out,” MLW wrote. “The Chamber of Horrors has haunted generations of fighters, leaving behind only screams and scars for those foolish enough to step inside. Now the echoes of the past will return — louder, darker, and deadlier than ever before.”
Krugger — the leader of Contra Unit — won the MLW World Heavyweight Championship at Fightland last weekend. The main event of that show was supposed to be Matt Riddle defending the title against Donovan Dijak, but Krule was in possession of a title shot contract that he won at the beginning of the year. Krule cashed in to make it a triple threat, and he went on to pin Riddle and become the new champion.
Slaughterhouse is being held at Thunder Studios Arena in Long Beach, California on October 4. The show will air live on MLW’s YouTube channel for free.
MLW Slaughterhouse 2025 (Saturday, October 4) —
Chamber of Horrors match: MLW World Heavyweight Champion Mads Krule Krugger defends against Matthew Justice, CW Anderson, Mr. Thomas, and two more opponents to be announced
MLW Women’s Featherweight Champion Shoko Nakajima defends against HIMAWARI
Opera Cup 2025 quarterfinal match: Mistico vs. Ultimo Guerrero
Coverage of an incredibly newsworthy week is the focus of this week’s double-issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
We look at what could be the end of the career of David Starr, his significance in wrestling, the charges made about him by an ex-girlfriend, his response, the response fro companies he was headlining for and a discussion of the bigger picture story and business history on the subject.
The new issue also has:
Most recent COVID-19 case in the WWE, how plans changed for WWE taping, the schedule going forward, the company’s policies on the subject of testing and fans how WWE’s reaction compares to other companies, the politicizing of the COVID story in Orange County and how things could change this week. We also look at how every other company is handling the situation, Kevin Owens not wrestling at next week’s taping, a UFC fighter who just tested positive and a training partner pulled from this week’s who had problems at the Orlando Airport that all the wrestlers that don’t live in the area have to fly into.
More on the departure of Paul Heyman as the head of Raw. We look at Heyman’s goals, USA Network’s reaction, the previous difference between Raw and Smackdown, how Raw has already changed, how the booking this year on Raw had changed, how NXT looked different, as well as a look at how all the wrestling shows have done over the past month and actual drops both from late last year and from early this year in the COVID era.
Talent that was being featured that wasn’t this week and why.
A feature on New Japan Pro Wrestling opening up, talking about the first shows, plus New Japan Cup coverage with match-by-match and star ratings, and where the tournament goes this week.
One of the most significant issues in MMA, weight cutting,and how another sport handles the situation.
A feature on the stockholders lawsuit against WWE regarding Saudi Arabia including two secret witnesses and what they have said about the television negotiations and what really happened after the October show when talent couldn’t get out of the country.
Full coverage of Backlash, noting the Randy Orton vs. Edge match, match-by-match coverage with star ratings as well as poll results on the show.
More on the XFL’s demise, a huge story regarding TV rights and how it relates to WWE & AEW when their deals are up, Evolve not running new shows, WWE and new touring shows, new TV series based on the life of a wrestling star, Sports ratings for the past week, Canadian ratings for the past week, most-watched shows on WWE Network and WWE’s current market value.
Mustafa Ali talking the behavior of the police, replacement feud on Smackdown and why, Drew McIntyre talks current scene, the stalker returns to Performance Center, Randy Orton talks Tommaso Ciampa, Wade Barrett talks booking idea he was given, plus next week’s TV stuff.
Coverage of this past week’s UFC show.
A back of the book feature on Johnny “Mr. Wrestling II” Walker. We’ve got his unbelievably long career title history, a look back at Georgia Wrestling in the 70s and 80s, his early days as Johnny Walker, how far masked wrestlers went to keep their identities secret, Jim Cornette talks the one time he saw him without his mask and working with him in Mid South, Les Thatcher talks their friendship clothes, the kneelift, the birth of the gimmick and it taking off, his famous match with Junkyard Dog in New Orleans, and his period as the No. 2 babyface in the 60s in an opposition promotion in New York. We also look at his criminal record updated.
In-depth looks at the ratings of all the major shows, the key demos and quarters for AEW and WWE, what happened head-to-head and what can be learned from them.
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.
SUNDAY NEWS UPDATE
I did weekend shows with Garrett Gonzalez and Bryan yesterday, the Gonzalez show is an in-depth look at the current situation and the systematic problem that is hardly just a pro wrestling issue but one in society in general.
Only one thing related to combat sports trended over the past week, which was Curtis Blaydes, who won last night’s UFC main event, at No. 13 with 50,000 searches. That’s well down from all the UFC shows since the return. Joe Rogan was the No. 6 search yesterday with 200,000 but it wasn’t UFC related. Nothing from pro wrestling broke through to have any significant mainstream interest.
The New Japan Cup returns with four first round matches tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. Eastern live on New Japan World:
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Taichi
Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Kota Ibushi
Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Sanada
Sho vs. Shingo Takagi
On paper this should be the best show of the first round. Tanahashi never has a bad singles match. I’m beginning to think it’s simply impossible for him to do so. Ibushi vs. Sabre is always excellent. Sho vs. Takagi is also almost always excellent.
There was some good natured fun with Sasha Banks, hearing about the quarter hour ratings where she and Bayley’s match had more viewers than Chris Jericho & Sammy Guevara vs. Best Friends on Wednesday, made a note about beating Le Sex Gods 757,000 to 705,000. Jericho joked back about how in the key demo, 18-49, they actually smoked them 374,00 to 264,000, and that’s the number that really counts in television. Jericho and Orange Cassidy will face off in some sort of angle on Wednesday night’s show.
While not all names have come out, the deaths in Mexican wrestling listed in the current Observer may be just the tip of the iceberg. El Fantasma, the head of the Box y Lucha commission and legit father of the NXT star, said that he knows of 30 deaths since the start of May and he believes 90 percent of them are related to COVID-19, although in most cases no causes of death were released to the public
WWE
Ric Flair will be on Raw tomorrow to anoint Randy Orton as the greatest wrestler of all-time.
The ESPYs are tonight. Titus O’Neil of WWE is up for the Muhammad Ali award for community service. WWE has pushed this but I think within wrestling O’Neil’s work in the Tampa area has not gotten the coverage it deserves. It would be cool if he wins, but whether he does or not, his contributions during some very difficult times should be appreciated by everyone.
Jeff Jarrett, Dana Brooke, Ron Killings (R-Truth), The Usos, Wesley Blake, Jeff Hardy and others will be doing a Round Table Discussion tomorrow night at 7:30 p.m.Eastern during Raw with a live stream to benefit the leukemia and lymphoma society. Fans will be encouraged to donate during the stream.
The Josh Emmett vs Shane Burgos fight on last night’s UFC show, won by Emmett via unanimous decision, was one of the best fights of the year. We discussed it last night,but Emmett injured his knee early and Burgos attacked the knee most of the way. Emmett was landing hard punches that the much-larger Burgos was able to stand up to. But in round three, Burgos was decked twice after they seemingly went into the third round even.
ONE did an empty arena show in Shanghai China yesterday.
A second-generation Atlantic Canada referee, Emily Parker, shares memories of her father, the late Frank Parker, who was a referee too, but never got to see her work.
‘Left My Wallet’ returns with a fun filled talk about sports and video games with ECW original CW Anderson!
I’m joined by CW and his lifelong best friend Moe, who, by all accounts, is the greatest Madden player on the planet. Check out this fun group chat as CW and Moe talk about their love of all things Madden, why D-Lo Brown and Stevie Richards say Moe is the GOAT at Madden, what Moe did to make Stevie break his controller, what other games they love, Tecmo Bowl talk, and so much more.
We also talk about growing up in North Carolina, the full court that CW had growing up, their favorite NBA and college players, why they bleed Carolina Blue and can’t stand Duke, and who they love watching today. We also touch on baseball as CW was drafted as a catcher by the San Diego Padres and his amazing exploits on the baseball diamond and behind the plate. Hear who his favorite players were growing up, his favorite catcher, what can be done to speed up the game, and why he decided to not pursue a career in baseball.
