Tag: Daily updates

Daily Update: Hulk Hogan, WBD split, WWE Raw

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

Daily Update

Latest Headlines

Latest Audio

Latest YouTube Video

This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

  • Notes from the new issue:
  • Life of Hulk Hogan, notes on his death, WWE expansion, comparisons with Rikidozan, Santo and Dwayne Johnson, the complicated legacy, the story behind the tape that ruined his legacy, last WWE appearance, Bobby Heenan comments,  Jimmy Hart’s first connection with Hogan, first match with Andre and how it got him to national TV,  lies about his career, meeting Superstar Billy Graham the start of his career and the real story on Hiro Matsuda, Ed Leslie, Austin Idol, New Japan Pro Wrestling, the Terry Funk hotel room story, never doing jobs, the myths about the AWA title, leaving the AWA, his most famous match with Inoki,  his return to WWF, the first WrestleMania, record breaking attendance, WrestleMania III payoff,  Ultimate Warrior, WestleMania VII with Sgt. Slaughter, the Zahorian and McMahon steroid trials, Jerry McDevitt, going to WCW, the rise and fall of WCW,  the Sting & Goldberg matches, the end in WCW and return to WWE, the TNA run and life after wrestling.
  • Updates on SummerSlam
  • Notes on Buff Bagwell
  • The most detailed look at what we’ve learned about both viewing habits on Netflix as well as actual numbers for Smackdown, NXT, PPVs and shows from the past.
  • Complete UFC 318 coverage and retirement of Dustin Poirier
  • G-1 notes
  • TNA Slammiversary coverage
  • The most detailed look at the TV ratings over the past week
  • CMLL anniversary show taking shape
  • MJF headed to Arena Mexico
  • The amazing Friday night show this past week
  • The weekend battle of Mexico City
  • A look at why CMLL is on fire
  • Omos update
  • Stardom major show coverage
  • All Japan big matches
  • NOAH and the two GHC title bouts
  • Real American Freestyle update
  • How the financial situation after WWE has changed for certain women after leaving the company
  • A look at Ed Don George and his being honored this past week
  • More on Cowboy Bob Ellis
  • AEW on MAX update as well as DVR numbers
  • Bryan Danielson talks a lot about many different things
  • The Ali Act and the attempt to change it to benefit TKO
  • Dana White on Jon Jones
  • Lots of new UFC PP main events
  • Diego Sanchez arrested
  • Ben Askran returns home
  • Changes in the WWE workplace
  • Notes on Survivor Series this year
  • Punk on his promos
  • Goldberg talks
  • McIntyre  with Logan Paul
  • A celebrity out of the video game after his situation with WWE has changed
  • WWE weekend house shows

This Week’s Back Issue

FIRST TIME SUBSCRIBERS GET 50% OFF YOUR FIRST MONTH

Monday Update

Bryan and I will be back tonight covering Raw and the latest news.  We also have a Friday show with Garett Gonzales taking questions on Hulk Hogan as well as an interview with Mark  Briscoe.

With the tribute to Hulk Hogan, Smackdown was the top rated show on television Friday with 1.71 million viewers and an 0.48 in 18-49.  The No. 2 show in the time slot on cable was Watters on FOX News which did 2.75 million viewers and an 0.11. The  top rated network show was a repeat of Celebrity Jeopady! which did 2.29 million viewers and 0.28.

WWE legal is working on getting Drew McIntyre back in the U.S. by Saturday for SummerSlam.  Basically he brought his U.K. passport with him since he was going to the U.K. after Smackdown to a wedding.  When he went to come home, they didn’t accept the passport, saying he was a U.S. citizen not a U.K. citizen.  That was the last we heard but was told WWE is working on it.  I certainly expect it’ll be cleared up shortly.

WBD announced that in the split, that David Zaslav’s run company with Warner  Brothers movie studios, DC Studios, HBO, HBO Max, anid TCM will going forward be called Warner Brothers.  Gunnar Weidenfels company consisting of international television as well as TNT, TBS, CNN, Cartoon Network, Discovery, Food Network and HGTV as well as Discovery + will be called Discovery Global.

Raw tonight is from Detroit.  Announced matches are Jey Uso vs. Bronson  Reed, Iyo Sky & Rhea Ripley & Stephanie Vaquer & Nikki Bella vs. Naomi & Chelsea Green & Piper Niven & Alba Fyre, Finn Balor & JD McDonagh vs. Joaquin  Wilde & Cruz Del Toro for the tag titles (this should be a great match) plus Roman Reigns, CM Punk and Gunther promos.  It’s the last Raw before SummerSlam.  We’re looking for reports from this show with any matches not on the live show to [email protected]

Raw is almost sold out, and surely will be.  It was at 14,276 the last I checked  and 470 tickets were left.

AEW Dynamite is sold out in Chicago Wednesday but that’s only 1,144 tickets.  Thursday for Dustin Rhodes vs. Kyle Fletcher had like 160 left so it should be as well.

We’re looking for live  reports from the WWE shows in Mexico City and Monterrey over the weekend to [email protected]

WWE Unreal launches tomorrow with five 50 minute long episodes.  I’m sure we’ll be talking a lot about this.

A&E brings back WWE’s Greatest Moments on 8/10 with episodes of SummerSlam in the 2000s and John Cena.

CMLL sold out Arena Puebla tonight and  Arena Coliseo  in Guadalajara tomorrow night.  Puebla is week three of the latest streak while Guadalajara will be the sixth straight Tuesday night.  That’s Dusty 1974 or Von Erichs 1983 level stuff.  

Mistico will have worked a show every day from 7/23 to 8/3.  Of what we know,he will have had 25 matches in  July, most  of  which sold out.

Sheikh Mohammed Bin Maktoum Bin Juma Al Mouktoum has joined the ownership group of PFL.  He is the founding chairman of Alpha MBM investments out  of Dubai.  He will be heavily involved in the expansion in Dubai and the United Arab Emirates.

Cody Rhodes will be on The Hot Ones on Thursday promoting SummerSlam.

HyuSung Park (10-0) replaces Amir Albazi in the main event for the UFC show this coming Saturday on ESPN from the Apex.  Park faces Tatsuro Taira in a key flyweight match.  The ESPN top of the card starts at 9 p.m.

Sports and entertainment attorney Brad  Small has joined Innovative Artist Entertainment to rep athletes.  He was a partner in the Fox Rothschild, LLP law firm’s entertainment and sports law department out of Los Angeles.  He will bring to IAE clients including Drew McIntyre, Jack Perry, Chavo Guerrero Jr., Goldberg, Asuka and Dallas Page.

CPW on 8/7 at the Cuyahoga County Fair (near Cleveland) at 7:30 p.m. with Rich Swann and Jamjes Ellswroth.  They are running 8/9 at the Berkeley County Fair in Martinsburg WV with Heath Slater and Beer City Cruiser at 2 p.m., 8/16 at the Doddridge County Fair is West Union, WV with Shane Douglas, 8/22 at the Sandusky County Fair in Fremont, OH with Kongo Kong and Dan Severn (Severn not wrestling), 8/29 in Berkeley Springs, WV at the Moran Co Fireman Carnival and their biggest show to date on 9/17 in Dover, OH.

The Hardys will host an event at the Williams Center in Rutherford NJ on Friday night.  It will be a combination of Matt doing a live podcast and Jeff doing a concert.

Jersey Championship Wrestling on Sunday in Ridgefield Park NJ with Masha Slamovich vs. Marcus Mathers, 1 Called Manders vs. Thomas Shire,  Matt Tremont vs. Gay Jay, Joey Janela vs. Nick Comoroto plus Mara Sade (Jakara Jackson), Tohy Deppen, Billie Starkz, Drew Parker, Alec Price, Jordan Oliver, Kevin Knight and Mike Bailey.

ISPW is doing  a Hulk Hogan tribute on Tuesday night  at the Wildwoods Convention Center in Wildwood,NJ with Jake Roberts, Sgt. Slaughter, Jim Duggan, Tito Santana,Demolition, Tatanka, Sandman, Francine and Tod Gordon.

Karl Fredricks (Eddy Thorpe) was announced for the 9/5 West Coast Pro show at The Foundry in San Francisco.

Daily Update: Hulk Hogan, WWE SummerSlam, The Smashing Machine

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

Daily Update

Latest Headlines

Latest Audio

Latest YouTube Video

This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

  • Notes from the new issue:
  • Life of Hulk Hogan, notes on his death, WWE expansion, comparisons with Rikidozan, Santo and Dwayne Johnson, the complicated legacy, the story behind the tape that ruined his legacy, last WWE appearance, Bobby Heenan comments,  Jimmy Hart’s first connection with Hogan, first match with Andre and how it got him to national TV,  lies about his career, meeting Superstar Billy Graham the start of his career and the real story on Hiro Matsuda, Ed Leslie, Austin Idol, New Japan Pro Wrestling, the Terry Funk hotel room story, never doing jobs, the myths about the AWA title, leaving the AWA, his most famous match with Inoki,  his return to WWF, the first WrestleMania, record breaking attendance, WrestleMania III payoff,  Ultimate Warrior, WestleMania VII with Sgt. Slaughter, the Zahorian and McMahon steroid trials, Jerry McDevitt, going to WCW, the rise and fall of WCW,  the Sting & Goldberg matches, the end in WCW and return to WWE, the TNA run and life after wrestling.
  • Updates on SummerSlam
  • Notes on Buff Bagwell
  • The most detailed look at what we’ve learned about both viewing habits on Netflix as well as actual numbers for Smackdown, NXT, PPVs and shows from the past.
  • Complete UFC 318 coverage and retirement of Dustin Poirier
  • G-1 notes
  • TNA Slammiversary coverage
  • The most detailed look at the TV ratings over the past week
  • CMLL anniversary show taking shape
  • MJF headed to Arena Mexico
  • The amazing Friday night show this past week
  • The weekend battle of Mexico City
  • A look at why CMLL is on fire
  • Omos update
  • Stardom major show coverage
  • All Japan big matches
  • NOAH and the two GHC title bouts
  • Real American Freestyle update
  • How the financial situation after WWE has changed for certain women after leaving the company
  • A look at Ed Don George and his being honored this past week
  • More on Cowboy Bob Ellis
  • AEW on MAX update as well as DVR numbers
  • Bryan Danielson talks a lot about many different things
  • The Ali Act and the attempt to change it to benefit TKO
  • Dana White on Jon Jones
  • Lots of new UFC PP main events
  • Diego Sanchez arrested
  • Ben Askran returns home
  • Changes in the WWE workplace
  • Notes on Survivor Series this year
  • Punk on his promos
  • Goldberg talks
  • McIntyre  with Logan Paul
  • A celebrity out of the video game after his situation with WWE has changed
  • WWE weekend house shows

This Week’s Back Issue

FIRST TIME SUBSCRIBERS GET 50% OFF YOUR FIRST MONTH

Friday Update

Garrett Gonzales and I did a show today where I answered a lot of questions on Hulk Hogan from those who read today’s story, we talked about WWE on Netflix and what we’ve learned from the latest numbers about how viewing habits have changed, and have a great interview with Mark Briscoe as well.  Bryan and I will be back  Sunday talking about the news of the weekend.

The Hulk Hogan issue of the Observer is out right now on the site.  We’ve gotten so much positive response to it and man, this was one tough issue to put together on such a short timeline.  There is so much in this story that we’ve never talked about before, notes on his life, background, trace through his career, fabrications, realities, and so much more.

There are at least two documentaries by major networks being worked on regarding Hulk Hogan.  One will be out in early August.  Apparently Netflix is doing a third one as well, but it’s a WWE production, which means most likely bad on the historical accuracy side.  Hopefully not.  I’d say good luck, because it’s quite the subject.  I think even more than Andre, the Hogan story has always been very myth oriented. Not Rikidozan in Korea level of myth, but it’s been amazing reading Hogan history and seeing how little people understand what wrestling was pre-1984.

Hulk Hogan’s beach merch shop in Clearwater, FL is shutting down, but the Hulk Hogan  Sam Sports Bar across the street from Madison Square Garden is still scheduled to open up.

Ike Richman,  the former PR director at the Spectrum in Philadelphia, noted that Hulk Hogan wrestled 55 times in the building.  That’s third all-time behind Bob Backlund with 72 and Tony Garea with 58.  (thanks to  Chuck Langerman)

Arena Mexico is sold out tonight even with AAA having a show head-to-head at Juan de la Barrera Gym.  AAA also sold out.  WWE has a show tomorrow night at Arena Ciudad (a totally loaded show that I expect will draw well and sell out or come close).   CMLL sold out with  a main event of Mascara Dorada vs. Neon in the Leyenda de Plata tournament final and those two are likely going to have a mind blowing match that will either hit huge or miss huge.  Probably the former.   Mistico faces Hechicero.  AAA at Juan de la Barrera Gym is Alberto El Patron vs. Mesias and if Mesias wins Alberto must leave AAA, El Grande American (Ludwig Kaiser) vs. Octagon Jr., and Natalya & Lola  Vice have a three-way match with Dalys & Chik Tormenta and Faby Apache & Lady Shani.

The current issue didn’t have a match rating for Mistico & Atlantis Jr. & Bandido vs. Zandokan Jr. & Barboza & Difunto from last Friday but it would be ****1/2.  The heat was off the charts and the rudo team was just incredible.  The only negative is that the entire show tried to do too many matches due to the tournament so every match felt too short.  But in many ways that match was something to see as The Fantasmas trio never looked better.  

I expect a huge rating for Smackdown tonight with the Hogan tribute show in Cleveland.

Notable in the WWE announcement of each night of SummerSlam is that it feels like they’ve loaded night one with the Gunther match, the Roman Reigns match and the Randy Orton match.  Night two has the biggest match in John Cena vs. Cody Rhodes and the three-way women’s match with Naomi vs. Iyo Sky vs. Rhea Riipley that on paper looks to have the best chance at being the top match.  

Happy Gilmore 2 is up on Netflix right now.

Xelhua vs. Virus in a Pure rules match will be taped at Collision tomorrow in Chicago at the Aragon Ballroom.  It will air on ROH, not Collision.  Also wrestling on the show will be Magnus, Rugido, Volador Jr., Hechicero and Neon.  Neon is also on the card at Arena Coliseo tomorrow night.  The guy can fly but that’s asking a lot.

The head-to-head Saturday in Mexico City has WWE with Cody Rhodes, Gunther, Dominik Mysterio, Penta, Fenix, Jey Uso, Stephanie Vaquer,  Mr.  Iguana, Pagano, Psycho Clown and Jacob Fatu.  CMLL runs Arena Coliseo with the Sky Team vs. Averno & Zandokan Jr. & Anel de Orto and the return of El Hijo del Villano III teaming with brother Villano III Jr. against Templario & Titan.  I just noticed that Neon is booked in Mexico City and Chicago at the same time.  

G-1 tonight at  2 a.m. Eastern and 11 p.m. Pacific from the Ota Ward Gym in Tokyo

  • Yoshi-Hashi vs.  Great O’Khan
  • Zack Sabre Jr. vs. El Phantasmo
  • Ren Narita vs. Shota Umino
  • Konosuke Takeshita vs. Shingo Takagi

Pete Dunne will be on the 8/2 Bloodsport show in Rutherford, NJ.

Impact TV tapings from last night for next week:

  • Xia Brookside & Lei Ying Lee beat ?
  • Indi Hartwell and Dani Luna defeated Jody Threat and Ariana Grace
  • The Rascalz beat The Nemeths
  • After the match, The Nemeths cut a promo. Nic said their loss at Slammiversary was a fluke, but are invoking their rematch clause vs the Hardys at Emergence.
  • Ryan made fun of Rhode Island’s lack of sports teams and their ugly children. Home Town Man came out and demanded an apology. Shockingly they didn’t apologize. Nemeth’s laid out HTM and unmasked him, but security covered him up. Rascalz ran back down to run them off.
  • A LOT of people left after the live Impact, even though they announced there were more matches to go.

After Impact…

  • KO Champion Jacy Jayne vs Masha Slamovich. Masha wins by DQ when Ash by Elegance came  in and hits Masha with the KO Tag Team Title. The match went around 5 minutes and was disappointing if only because they didn’t have the time to have a better match with a better finish.
  • X-Division Champion Leon Slater vs Cedric Alexander vs Jason Hotch. Leon retained in a great, but short match.
  • Moose and Eddie Edwards vs AJ Francis & Trick Williams. Moose pinned Trick with a Spear after KC Navarro accidentally hit Trick with his crutch.
  • Matt cut an end of show promo, saying Trick’s title reign will be short and then talked about how special this run has been.
  • My guesstimate was the crowd was around 400. Only around 100 remained at the end of the show. They cut the arena down quite a bit. When AEW was here a few years ago for Rampage and Battle of the Belts, they probably did around 2500 for comparison. (thanks to Arya Witner)

Looking for reports on these shows this weekend:

  • WWE in Cleveland tonight (dark matches only)
  • RevPro Summer Sizzler today.
  • TNA tonight in Kingston, RI
  • WWE tomorrow night in Mexico City
  • WWE Sunday in Monterrey, Mexico
  • Looking for results, finishes and highlights to [email protected]

The world premiere of The Smashing Machine, the Dwayne Johnson movie where he plays Mark Kerr, a former rival of Kurt Angle in amateurs, and later at one point considered the top heavyweight in MMA before his career was derailed, will be at the Venice International Film Festival.

Matt Sydal worked his first match in a long time on 7/19 in  Beziers, France, losing to Ultimo Dragon

Mercedes Mone performs on Sunday for Prime Time Wrestling in Koslow, Poland, facing Diana Strong from Poland.

James Ellsworth, Reggie B. Fine and WWEID wrestler Aaron Roberts are on tomorrow’s Memphis Wrestling TV show.

MCW on Sunday at 7 p.m. at the North Point, Flea Market in Baltimore at 2401 North Point  Blvd.  Matt Riddle, Patrick Clark (Velveteen Dream) and Nick Comoroto are on the show.

Daily Update: Hulk Hogan, Our Lady Peace, Will Ospreay

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Daily Update

Latest Headlines

Latest Audio

Latest YouTube Video

This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

This week’s issue is one of the biggest of the year when it comes to major shows and we have one our biggest issues of the year out:

  • Full coverage of All In Texas including why matches ended the way they did, business numbers, lots of injury updates, booking notes on the top matches,  PPV numbers, gate, merch, history of Texas stadium shows, complaints about the length and why, interest level comparisons with WWE this week and the past month, next head-to-head and more
  • Bill Goldberg’s retirement, his comments, a look into the ratings of the show, WWE side of the story, what could have been done differently, Seth Rollins angle looked at, SummerSlam card revealed, how to accurately look at the numbers and more.
  • WWE Evolution, early numbers, booking thoughts.
  • Great American Bash and competition wth All In.
  • ROH Supercard of Honor featuring an incredible main event
  • Dragon Gate has its biggest show of the year
  • The life and times of the Amazing Kung Fu on the death of Eddie Hamill and his influence on how babyfaces in the U.K. work
  • The most detailed look at the ratings for all the wrestling television shows this past week, with demo, comparisons with last year and quarters.
  • A look at the CMLL anniversary show
  • MJF heading to Mexico to challenge for title
  • Arena Mexico has trios match with young wrestlers that was super
  • Alberto turns face in AAA
  • G-1 Climax first week news
  • Celebrity returns to Japanese rings
  • MMA legends do pro wrestling title match
  • Cowboy Bob Ellis and the Hall of Fame
  • Tokyo Joshi Pro in the U.S.
  • Slammiversary is TNA’s  biggest event in years
  • Update on lawsuit against AEW
  • Tony Khan talks a number of subjects after All In
  • The story behind the Dralisico & Dragon Lee win over FTR in Mexico and what happened next
  • Advance ticket sales for WWE & AEW upcoming shows
  • Dana White talks about White House show for next year
  • MMA champion shot five times this past week
  • Randy Couture update
  • Business of Taylor vs. Serrano
  • Lawsuit involving Real American Beer
  • Stratus talks Evolution
  • SummerSlam advances

This Week’s Back Issue

FIRST TIME SUBSCRIBERS GET 50% OFF YOUR FIRST MONTH

Thursday Update

WWE

  • Madison Square Garden expressed its sadness at the death of Hulk Hogan: “We are deeply saddened by the loss of WWE Hall of Famer, Hulk Hogan, who made his debut at Madison Square Garden in 1979.”
  • TMZ reports that, while Hogan and his daughter Brooke were estranged at the time of his passing, Brooke feels grateful that she got to tell her father “I love you” during the last conversation they had in 2023:
    • Sources close to Brooke tell TMZ … she learned of her dad’s death Thursday morning when her brother, Nick, texted her husband to share the news. We’re told the father-daughter relationship had been fractured for some time — the result of a culmination of issues over the years and how Hulk treated Brooke.
    • We’re told Brooke feels lucky and grateful she got to say ‘I love you’ during their last conversation, and she feels at peace knowing she did everything she could to protect and support him.
  • Ric Flair spoke to TMZ about Hogan’s passing.
  • Eric Bischoff tweeted: “Thanks for the house Hulkster.”
  • “Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase posted a video paying tribute to Hogan.
  • The Hollywood Reporter has an article on how Hogan helped pave the way for other wrestlers to become Hollywood stars.
  • The Undertaker tweeted about his segment with Trick Williams from NXT: “[Tuesday] night wasn’t your night @_trickwilliams, but the future is there for your taking. It was a pleasure sharing the ring with you, now go get yours young man…just leave my LFG team alone!”
  • Shawn Michaels joined Undertaker & Michelle McCool on Six Feet Under this week.
  • Jelly Roll appeared on a new episode of Stephanie McMahon’s “What’s Your Story?” podcast.
  • Our Lady Peace has re-recorded their song “Whatever” – which was Chris Benoit’s theme music – and is donating the proceeds to suicide prevention initiatives:
    • It’s been [18] years since the tragic events surrounding WWE wrestler Chris Benoit and the theme song we wrote for him. 
    • We feel that enough time has passed that it was necessary to  to re-record ‘Whatever’ to help shine a light on suicide prevention and mental health awareness. 
    • We’re donating all monies earned from streaming ‘Whatever’ to suicide prevention initiatives across North America.
  • Bronson Reed was the guest on this week’s edition of Celtic Warrior Workouts with Sheamus.
  • Logan Paul uploaded a new episode of his vlog.
  • WWE ranked Shawn Michaels vs. Triple H from SummerSlam 2002 as the seventh greatest match in SummerSlam history:
    • 25. Cody Rhodes vs. Brock Lesnar (2023)
    • 24. Seth Rollins vs. John Cena title vs. title match for the WWE Championship and United States Championship (2015)
    • 23. The Undertaker vs. Bret Hart for the WWF Championship (1997)
    • 22. Brock Lesnar vs. Seth Rollins for the Universal Championship (2019)
    • 21. Bianca Belair vs. Becky Lynch for the Raw Women’s Championship (2022)
    • 20. Randy Orton vs. Christian no holds barred match for the World Heavyweight Championship (2011)
    • 19. Brock Lesnar vs. The Undertaker (2015)
    • 18. Jeff Hardy vs. CM Punk TLC match for the World Heavyweight Championship (2009)
    • 17. Steve Austin vs. Kurt Angle for the WWF Championship (2001)
    • 16. Rey Mysterio vs. Eddie Guerrero ladder match (2005)
    • 15. Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns vs. Samoa Joe vs. Braun Strowman for the Universal Championship (2017)
    • 14. The Rock vs. Triple H ladder match for the Intercontinental title (1998)
    • 13. John Cena vs. CM Punk for the Undisputed WWE Championship (2011)
    • 12. Roman Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar Last Man Standing match for the WWE Championship (2023)
    • 11. John Cena vs. Daniel Bryan for the WWE Championship (2013)
    • 10. The Undertaker vs. Edge Hell in a Cell match (2008)
    • 9. Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon ladder match for the Intercontinental title (1995)
    • 8. The Rock vs. Brock Lesnar for the Undisputed Championship (2002)
    • 7. Shawn Michaels vs. Triple H unsanctioned street fight (2002)

Other Wrestling

  • Chris Jericho shared a remembrance of Hulk Hogan: “When I started in WCW, I had the pleasure of meeting one of my childhood heroes, then years later in WWE, I had a blast with him entertaining millions…the same way he had entertained me for many years. Thank you for everything Hulkster…you paved the way for all of us. Please Say your prayers and eat your vitamins everybody….you just never know.”
  • Will Ospreay, who is dealing with a neck injury, reiterated that he’s doing everything he can to return in time for Forbidden Door next month: “Thanks for all the love. I’ll do everything they need to make sure I’m fit and healthy for Forbidden Door. No promises, I can only go as quick as the healing process. But as said everyone is confident I’ll be good.”
  • Glacier appeared on AEW Unrestricted this week.
  • Priscilla Kelly (former WWE wrestler Gigi Dolin) was a guest on Saraya’s Rulebreakers podcast.

Daily Update: TNA Impact lineup, Kacy Catanzaro, Ric Flair

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Daily Update

Latest Headlines

Latest Audio

Latest YouTube Video

This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

This week’s issue is one of the biggest of the year when it comes to major shows and we have one our biggest issues of the year out:

  • Full coverage of All In Texas including why matches ended the way they did, business numbers, lots of injury updates, booking notes on the top matches,  PPV numbers, gate, merch, history of Texas stadium shows, complaints about the length and why, interest level comparisons with WWE this week and the past month, next head-to-head and more
  • Bill Goldberg’s retirement, his comments, a look into the ratings of the show, WWE side of the story, what could have been done differently, Seth Rollins angle looked at, SummerSlam card revealed, how to accurately look at the numbers and more.
  • WWE Evolution, early numbers, booking thoughts.
  • Great American Bash and competition wth All In.
  • ROH Supercard of Honor featuring an incredible main event
  • Dragon Gate has its biggest show of the year
  • The life and times of the Amazing Kung Fu on the death of Eddie Hamill and his influence on how babyfaces in the U.K. work
  • The most detailed look at the ratings for all the wrestling television shows this past week, with demo, comparisons with last year and quarters.
  • A look at the CMLL anniversary show
  • MJF heading to Mexico to challenge for title
  • Arena Mexico has trios match with young wrestlers that was super
  • Alberto turns face in AAA
  • G-1 Climax first week news
  • Celebrity returns to Japanese rings
  • MMA legends do pro wrestling title match
  • Cowboy Bob Ellis and the Hall of Fame
  • Tokyo Joshi Pro in the U.S.
  • Slammiversary is TNA’s  biggest event in years
  • Update on lawsuit against AEW
  • Tony Khan talks a number of subjects after All In
  • The story behind the Dralisico & Dragon Lee win over FTR in Mexico and what happened next
  • Advance ticket sales for WWE & AEW upcoming shows
  • Dana White talks about White House show for next year
  • MMA champion shot five times this past week
  • Randy Couture update
  • Business of Taylor vs. Serrano
  • Lawsuit involving Real American Beer
  • Stratus talks Evolution
  • SummerSlam advances

This Week’s Back Issue

FIRST TIME SUBSCRIBERS GET 50% OFF YOUR FIRST MONTH

Wednesday Update

WWE

  • WWE uploaded the full Oba Femi vs. Josh Briggs vs. Yoshiki Inamura NXT Championship main event from last night.
  • There was no new episode of WWE Speed today, making this the second straight week without an episode or an explanation why. WWE did not announce a new tournament at the end of the most recent Speed broadcast.
  • Tiffany Stratton was a guest on PHL17 News and discussed the importance of the WWE Performance Center: “I think it’s so important to have some sort of training center to coach the next in line, the future of the business. And they’ve been doing such a great job. I am from the WWE Performance Center, I’m a homegrown talent. So, I am proof that the WWE Performance Center works.”
  • Stratton named Rhea Ripley as a dream opponent she’s hoping to face in the future, as well as saying she wants to have a rematch against Becky Lynch.
  • Chris Sabin noted that today is the one-year anniversary of him signing with WWE: “1 year ago today I signed my first WWE contract. 24 years of hard work, dedication, injuries, comebacks, highs and lows and everything was absolutely worth it to achieve what was both my dream and goal. Never give up.”
  • WWE filed a new trademark for “SuperBrawl” on July 22.
  • WWE 2K25 is now available on Nintendo Switch 2.
  • Nikki Bella is the guest on a new episode of Cody Rhodes’ “What Do You Wanna Talk About?” podcast.
  • Chelsea Green appeared on the Toronto Sun’s No Holds Barred podcast.
  • Myles Talks Wrestling spoke with CM Punk & Rhea Ripley.
  • In the ongoing top 25 countdown, WWE ranked The Rock vs. Brock Lesnar from 2002 as the eighth greatest match in SummerSlam history:
    • 25. Cody Rhodes vs. Brock Lesnar (2023)
    • 24. Seth Rollins vs. John Cena title vs. title match for the WWE Championship and United States Championship (2015)
    • 23. The Undertaker vs. Bret Hart for the WWF Championship (1997)
    • 22. Brock Lesnar vs. Seth Rollins for the Universal Championship (2019)
    • 21. Bianca Belair vs. Becky Lynch for the Raw Women’s Championship (2022)
    • 20. Randy Orton vs. Christian no holds barred match for the World Heavyweight Championship (2011)
    • 19. Brock Lesnar vs. The Undertaker (2015)
    • 18. Jeff Hardy vs. CM Punk TLC match for the World Heavyweight Championship (2009)
    • 17. Steve Austin vs. Kurt Angle for the WWF Championship (2001)
    • 16. Rey Mysterio vs. Eddie Guerrero ladder match (2005)
    • 15. Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns vs. Samoa Joe vs. Braun Strowman for the Universal Championship (2017)
    • 14. The Rock vs. Triple H ladder match for the Intercontinental title (1998)
    • 13. John Cena vs. CM Punk for the Undisputed WWE Championship (2011)
    • 12. Roman Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar Last Man Standing match for the WWE Championship (2023)
    • 11. John Cena vs. Daniel Bryan for the WWE Championship (2013)
    • 10. The Undertaker vs. Edge Hell in a Cell match (2008)
    • 9. Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon ladder match for the Intercontinental title (1995)
    • 8. The Rock vs. Brock Lesnar for the Undisputed Championship (2002)

Other Wrestling

  • Ric Flair (who is now cancer-free) apologized for having to miss his scheduled appearance at ATL Comic Convention last weekend, sharing a picture of his forehead after undergoing skin cancer treatment: “@ATL__CC, I’m Sorry I Missed You, But Now You Know Why! Moving Forward With @FitermanSports, It Won’t Happen Again!”
  • While speaking with Busted Open Radio to promote “Happy Gilmore 2,” MJF reiterated that he wants to be both a full-time wrestler and actor for years to come:
  • There’s a lot of people in the history of our sport where they just try to do one or the other. I love both with a passion, so I plan on being in All Elite Wrestling for years to come and being on your movie screen or TV screen for years to come.
  • Shark Boy appeared in a video promoting tonight’s Shark Week edition of AEW Dynamite.
  • AEW put together an eight-hour Timeline video featuring moments from Hangman Page’s redemption story.
  • Powerhouse Hobbs named Chris Jericho, Jon Moxley, Kenny Omega, and The Young Bucks on his Mount Rushmore of AEW.
  • Here is the updated lineup for this Thursday’s live episode of TNA Impact:
    • Joe Hendry vs. Mike Santana
    • NXT Women’s Champion & TNA Knockouts Champion Jacy Jayne appears
    • We’ll hear from new X-Division Champion Leon Slater
    • The Elegance Brand (Ash By Elegance, Heather By Elegance & M By Elegance) vs. The IInspiration (Cassie Lee & Jessica McKay) and a mystery partner
    • No DQ match: Jake Something vs. Mance Warner
  • TNA President Carlos Silva presented Alisha Edwards with a TNA All Star Award at Slammiversary celebrating how much she contributes to the promotion in the ring and behind the scenes
  • The Battleground Podcast interviewed Leon Slater.
  • Frankie Kazarian appeared on Busted Open Radio today.
  • Buff Bagwell uploaded a new YouTube video documenting his successful amputation surgery.
  • Kacy Catanzaro (former WWE wrestler Katana Chance) announced that she and her boyfriend Naoufal Abouelhouda are now engaged: “Cheers to forever I SAID YES Yes today, Yes tomorrow, Yes ALWAYS”

Daily Update: WWE Raw, SmackDown ratings, Happy Gilmore 2

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

Daily Update

Latest Headlines

Latest Audio

Latest YouTube Video

This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

This week’s issue is one of the biggest of the year when it comes to major shows and we have one our biggest issues of the year out:

  • Full coverage of All In Texas including why matches ended the way they did, business numbers, lots of injury updates, booking notes on the top matches,  PPV numbers, gate, merch, history of Texas stadium shows, complaints about the length and why, interest level comparisons with WWE this week and the past month, next head-to-head and more
  • Bill Goldberg’s retirement, his comments, a look into the ratings of the show, WWE side of the story, what could have been done differently, Seth Rollins angle looked at, SummerSlam card revealed, how to accurately look at the numbers and more.
  • WWE Evolution, early numbers, booking thoughts.
  • Great American Bash and competition wth All In.
  • ROH Supercard of Honor featuring an incredible main event
  • Dragon Gate has its biggest show of the year
  • The life and times of the Amazing Kung Fu on the death of Eddie Hamill and his influence on how babyfaces in the U.K. work
  • The most detailed look at the ratings for all the wrestling television shows this past week, with demo, comparisons with last year and quarters.
  • A look at the CMLL anniversary show
  • MJF heading to Mexico to challenge for title
  • Arena Mexico has trios match with young wrestlers that was super
  • Alberto turns face in AAA
  • G-1 Climax first week news
  • Celebrity returns to Japanese rings
  • MMA legends do pro wrestling title match
  • Cowboy Bob Ellis and the Hall of Fame
  • Tokyo Joshi Pro in the U.S.
  • Slammiversary is TNA’s  biggest event in years
  • Update on lawsuit against AEW
  • Tony Khan talks a number of subjects after All In
  • The story behind the Dralisico & Dragon Lee win over FTR in Mexico and what happened next
  • Advance ticket sales for WWE & AEW upcoming shows
  • Dana White talks about White House show for next year
  • MMA champion shot five times this past week
  • Randy Couture update
  • Business of Taylor vs. Serrano
  • Lawsuit involving Real American Beer
  • Stratus talks Evolution
  • SummerSlam advances

This Week’s Back Issue

FIRST TIME SUBSCRIBERS GET 50% OFF YOUR FIRST MONTH

Monday Update

Bryan and I will be back tonight covering Raw, Cora Jade, Real American Freestyle, G1, TNA and much more with Wrestling Observer Radio.

WWE Raw tonight is in Houston and one would expect several key matches for SummerSlam to be finalized, including if Roman Reigns is doing a singles or a tag match. Reigns and CM Punk are on the show. Raquel Rodriguez & Roxanne Perez defend the Women’s tag titles against Bayley & Lyra Valkyria.  Sami Zayn returns (out an indefinite amount of time wasn’t long at all) to face Karrion Kross, Rusev vs. Sheamus, plus New Day vs. Creeds vs. Joaquin Wilde & Cruz Del Toro with the winners getting a tag title shot agaisnt Finn Balor & JD McDonagh.

The show is a complete sellout with more than 13,000 fans, so WWE sold out both of its TV shoots in Texas this week.

SmackDown on Friday was first on television at 1.55 million viewers and 0.45 in 18-49. The move to two hours helps although this was significantly up from last week’s two hour show. The WNBA All-Star three point competition and skills challenge on ESN did 1.32 million and 0.31 for second place. The biggest network number was 0.20.

We’re looking for your thoughts on TNA Slammiversary and the first night of the New Japan G-1 tournament, you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to [email protected].

We’re also looking for reports from Raw in Houston tonight as far as Main Event matches or anything before or after the live show, as well as from the house shows in Corpus Christi and Edinburg, TX, over the weekend and any dark matches from San Antonio on Friday. We’re looking for results, finishes and highlights to [email protected].

Nia Jax and Tiffany Stratton will be at the New York Mets game night at Citi Field as its WWE Night.

Mercedes Mone vs. Safire Reed, and Mortos vs. Robbie X will be on Friday’s RevPro show at The Hangar in Wolverhampton, UK.

The presale for the 10/12 TNA Bound for Glory is 7/30 at 10 a.m and the onsale to the public is 8/1 at 10 a.m. It’s set for the Paul Tsongas Center in Lowell, MA.

The first WWE ID men’s champion will be crowned on 8/1 at the Game Changer Wrestling show in Rutherford, NJ, with Jack Cartwheel vs. Cappuccino Jones.

The Eddie Murphy movie “The Pickup” will be released on 8/6 on Amazon Prime Video. Joe Anoa’i (Roman Reigns) is part of the cast that includes Murphy, Pete Davidson, Keke Palmer, Eva Longoria, Marshawn Lynch, Andrew Dice Clay, and Ismael Cruz Cordova.

Happy Gilmore 2 will  be released on Netflix on Friday. I’d expect it to be heavily advertised on pro wrestling television this week with MJF, Becky Lynch and Nikki Garcia/Bella all having parts. MJF plays a son of star Adam Sandler in, by far, his biggest major movie role to date.

The result of the Slammiversary main event, where Trick Williams retained the TNA title even though fans wanted Mike Santana to win, was because the sides were doing an angle where NXT has both of TNA’s major titles.

Santino Marella will be on NXT tomorrow night.  Undertaker will also be on to confront Williams. They are taping NXT in Houston tomorrow rather than running in Orlando. One would think Undertaker being advertised as a focal point of the show will boost the ratings above the usual level. Also on the show is Blake Monroe vs. Wren Sinclair, Jasper Troy vs. Ricky Saints and Oba Femi defending the NXT title in a three-way against Josh Briggs and Yoshiki Inamura.

AEW has reached a deal with the American Association of Professional Baseball for appearances at shows over the next few days. Jeff Jarrett and Wheeler Yuta will be in Fargo, ND, for their All-Star game today and tomorrow. Jay Lethal and Satnam Singh will be at a game in Genevera, IL on Thursday and the Outnunners will be at a game on Thursday in Gary, IN.

Roddy Hogan, a fan out of Detroit who dressed up as Hulk Hogan at matches, passed away this past week. He was very well known in that part of the country to people who went to matches in the 80s and 90s.

Trey Miguel wanted to do the Slammiversary show last night, but he is in need of surgery for a hernia. He doesn’t have a date set, but it looks like he’ll be out of action until September at the earliest. Myron Reed, another member of the Rascalz, replaced him in the tag title ladder match.

Brianna Laughlin, the woman who did the national anthem at last night’s TNA show, is the daughter of Tommy Dreamer and wife Trisa, well-known in the ECW days as Beulah McGillicutty.  

EJ Nduka, who was recently not renewed by AEW, was backstage at the TNA show last night.

There are a lot of wrestler appearances at the San Diego Comic-Con which runs Thursday through Sunday. Brandon Cutler, Orange Cassidy and  Nyla Rose will be at the Omni San Diego Hotel on the 4th Floor Grand Ballroom at 10 a.m.  Johnny TV will be at the Neil Morgan Auditorium at the San Diego Central Library.  Vampiro will be at Nova SD Club at 11 a.m. Thunder Rosa will be in Room 9 at the same location on Thursday.  Giulia, Jacob Fatu and Jey Uso will be in Room 6A with Mattell unveiling action figures at 11:15 a.m.   At 12:45 pm.. they will be at the Mattel Booth.  Dragon Lee will be at the Masked Republic Booth at 2 p.m.  Anthony Bowens will be at the Headlocked Booth at 2 p.m.  Samoa Joe will be at Ballroom 20 promoting Twisted Metal.  Vampiro and Dragon Lee will be in Room 10 at 5:30 pm.  Paul London will be at Room 11 at 6 p.m.  Mike Bailey will be at Grand 6 at the Marriot Marquis at the San Diego Marina at 8:05 p.m.

On Friday AJ Mendez will be at the Nova SD club at 2:30 p.m. in Room 6DE, Danhausen will be at the Headlocked booth at 1 p.m., Vampiro will be at the Masked Republic Booth at 2 p.m., Santana Garret, Jennie Buss and David McLane will be part of the Women of Wrestling group at 5:30 pm. in room 6DE

Darby Allin will have a  Shark Week tie in as part of the show Caught!  Sharks Back’s on Thursday at 9 p.m. on Discovery.  This is expected to be promoted on Dynamite on Wednesday.

Arena Puebla sold out for CMLL in advance today for its anniversary show with a unique match featuring Mistico & Ultimo Guerrero & Gran Guerrero vs. Averno & Mephisto & Esfinge as well as Volador Jr. vs. Mascara Dorada.

Daily Update: Jordynne Grace, Bloodsport, TNA notes

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Daily Update

Latest Headlines

Latest Audio

Latest YouTube Video

This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

  • The big weekend,matches, booking,business, favorites and strategies
  • The life and times of Cowboy Bob Ellis, one of the great babyfaces of his era.  A long career as a star all over the world, defining the wrestling cowboy character, the bulldog headlock, wars with Dick the Bruiser and why he had a long career but his top ten drawing days were only a few years.
  • Donald Trump wants a UFC show at the White House on July 4, 2026
  • Preview of the G-1 Climax tournament
  • The most in depth look at the ratings for all the TV shows, including quarters, competition, people watching together, year over year and week over week comparisons and all the little details you won’t get anywhere else on the shows.
  • The Arena Mexico business milestone and comparisons to 2006 and 1991 boom periods and CMLL sells out three shows this past week.
  • AAA has one of its big shows of the year this week
  • Details over the attempt to trademark a major name as part of a fight between wrestler and promoter
  • Stardom star taking a temporary leave
  • Dragon Gat’s biggest show of the year
  • Tiger Mask retires in 2026
  • Notes on Tanahashi Jam
  • Updates on Ric Flair and Wendi Richter
  • Highest ratings for a woman’s main event in American television history
  • Tons of major indie shows coming up
  • Maple Leaf Wrestling coverage
  • Grandson of legend about to start out
  • Kim Wood, the architect of the Brian Pillman storyline, turns 80
  • TNA attempts to upgrade its U.S. TV situation
  • Ticket sales for upcoming WWE, AEW and TNA shows
  • Kenny Omega talks, taking risks, career, match philosophy and future
  • Tony Khan talks more stadium shows, Britt Baker,  U.S. record gate ad Unified title
  • How much is the Khan sports empire worth, the TKO sports empire and where both trank in the world standins
  • New contract signings
  • AEW quarter two television final numbers and explaining what the numbers mean
  • Jim Ross update
  • Lots of business updates
  • Phil Davis talks attempt to legally change the foundation of MMA to make it like a real sport
  • Randy Couture update
  • A $25 million tournament announced
  • Update on Janel Grant case
  • WWE stars in acting roles and a movie that will a top name from both WWE & NJPW
  • Wrestlers who get harassed the most in social media

This Week’s Back Issue

FIRST TIME SUBSCRIBERS GET 50% OFF YOUR FIRST MONTH

Wednesday Update

WWE

  • In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Jordynne Grace spoke about how her role in NXT compares to what she’s experienced in the past:
    • I was used to being on top all the time. I was used to, you know, being quote unquote, like the face of the company. But at NXT there’s incredible women everywhere you look, right. So it’s a little bit harder to stand out. But the one thing that I always go back on is, I just want to be the best wrestler in the ring. No matter what, I want to have the best match on the show, and I always go back to that, and it’s never failed me.
  • Bianca Belair shared a photo with Jazz from backstage at Evolution:
    • When I 1st got into wrestling in 2016, I didn’t know much… my Husband @MontezFordWWE is literally a wrestling historian so I asked him who should I watch and study? 1st person he said was Jazz! I still remember the night we sat and watched hours of matches he pulled up as he went on for hours and hours about you, your skill, grit, impact, etc. and I fell in love with the b*tch clamp and the high leg drop (which I tried and yeah, no it hurts lol) Thank you for paving the way! Dream match!
  • Drew Moss, a rookie lineman for the San Francisco 49ers, revealed that he is dating shotputter Mya Lesnar – the daughter of Brock Lesnar.
  • Michael Hayes remembered his Fabulous Freebirds partner Terry Gordy on the 24th anniversary of his death: “It’s hard to believe it’s been 24 years since Terry passed away! Think about you and miss you every day. Thank you Bam!!”
  • William Regal paid tribute to World of Sport legend Eddie Hamill following his passing:
    • I’m very saddened to hear of the passing of Eddie ‘Kung Fu’ Hamill. As good as a Pro I ever saw Wrestle and a lovely man who always treated me as an equal when I was a teenage Wrestler when many older fellas wouldn’t give me the time of day. My deepest condolences to Eddie’s family.
  • In their countdown of the 25 greatest matches in SummerSlam history, WWE ranked Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns vs. Samoa Joe vs. Braun Strowman from SummerSlam 2017 in the 15th spot:
    • 25. Cody Rhodes vs. Brock Lesnar (2023)
    • 24. Seth Rollins vs. John Cena title vs. title match for the WWE Championship and United States Championship (2015)
    • 23. The Undertaker vs. Bret Hart for the WWF Championship (1997)
    • 22. Brock Lesnar vs. Seth Rollins for the Universal Championship (2019)
    • 21. Bianca Belair vs. Becky Lynch for the Raw Women’s Championship (2022)
    • 20. Randy Orton vs. Christian no holds barred match for the World Heavyweight Championship (2011)
    • 19. Brock Lesnar vs. The Undertaker (2015)
    • 18. Jeff Hardy vs. CM Punk TLC match for the World Heavyweight Championship (2009)
    • 17. Steve Austin vs. Kurt Angle for the WWF Championship (2001)
    • 16. Rey Mysterio vs. Eddie Guerrero ladder match (2005)
    • 15. Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns vs. Samoa Joe vs. Braun Strowman for the Universal Championship (2017)

Other Wrestling

  • NXT Women’s Champion Jacy Jayne will appear on TNA Impact this Thursday for a segment where she’ll address her winner-take-all match against Masha Slamovich ahead of Slammiversary. The PPV is being held in Long Island, New York this Sunday (July 20).
  • TNA President Carlos Silva was a guest on My Mom’s Basement with Robbie Fox.
  • A tweet posted by Silva this week has led to speculation that he’s teasing an AJ Styles appearance for Slammiversary. In the tweet, Silva used the word “phenomenal” and capitalized it: “We’re moving the stage back to accommodate more fans. This event will be TNA’s greatest achievement and trust me it’s going to be PHENOMENAL. #Slammiversary #TNA @ThisIsTNA”
  • While speaking with Going Ringside, Victoria Crawford (the former Alicia Fox) gave an update on her status with TNA: “So, it’s official, I’m with TNA. It was kind of half official [when she was interviewed on Going Ringside before], but it’s official, official. I’m a Knockout.”
  • Janai Kai vs. Jordan Blade has been announced for Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport XIV in Rutherford, New Jersey on August 2.
  • Excalibur (45), Bobby Lashley (49), “Speedball” Mike Bailey (35), and QT Marshall (40) are all celebrating birthdays today.
  • Sammy Guevara uploaded a vlog from All In weekend.
  • The Magic of Wrestling interviewed Brian Cage.
  • NJPW & Stardom will be holding a joint event in Guangzhou, China on October 5.
  • For the first time since suffering a cervical spine injury in May, Daisuke Sekimoto will return to the ring for Big Japan Pro Wrestling at Korakuen Hall on July 27.

Daily Update: WWE SmackDown ratings, Netflix, Raw

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

Daily Update

Latest Headlines

Latest Audio

Latest YouTube Video

This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

  • The big weekend,matches, booking,business, favorites and strategies
  • The life and times of Cowboy Bob Ellis, one of the great babyfaces of his era.  A long career as a star all over the world, defining the wrestling cowboy character, the bulldog headlock, wars with Dick the Bruiser and why he had a long career but his top ten drawing days were only a few years.
  • Donald Trump wants a UFC show at the White House on July 4, 2026
  • Preview of the G-1 Climax tournament
  • The most in depth look at the ratings for all the TV shows, including quarters, competition, people watching together, year over year and week over week comparisons and all the little details you won’t get anywhere else on the shows.
  • The Arena Mexico business milestone and comparisons to 2006 and 1991 boom periods and CMLL sells out three shows this past week.
  • AAA has one of its big shows of the year this week
  • Details over the attempt to trademark a major name as part of a fight between wrestler and promoter
  • Stardom star taking a temporary leave
  • Dragon Gat’s biggest show of the year
  • Tiger Mask retires in 2026
  • Notes on Tanahashi Jam
  • Updates on Ric Flair and Wendi Richter
  • Highest ratings for a woman’s main event in American television history
  • Tons of major indie shows coming up
  • Maple Leaf Wrestling coverage
  • Grandson of legend about to start out
  • Kim Wood, the architect of the Brian Pillman storyline, turns 80
  • TNA attempts to upgrade its U.S. TV situation
  • Ticket sales for upcoming WWE, AEW and TNA shows
  • Kenny Omega talks, taking risks, career, match philosophy and future
  • Tony Khan talks more stadium shows, Britt Baker,  U.S. record gate ad Unified title
  • How much is the Khan sports empire worth, the TKO sports empire and where both trank in the world standins
  • New contract signings
  • AEW quarter two television final numbers and explaining what the numbers mean
  • Jim Ross update
  • Lots of business updates
  • Phil Davis talks attempt to legally change the foundation of MMA to make it like a real sport
  • Randy Couture update
  • A $25 million tournament announced
  • Update on Janel Grant case
  • WWE stars in acting roles and a movie that will a top name from both WWE & NJPW
  • Wrestlers who get harassed the most in social media

This Week’s Back Issue

FIRST TIME SUBSCRIBERS GET 50% OFF YOUR FIRST MONTH

Monday Update

Photo: WWE
  • We have like a million shows up on the site from this weeeknd including three from me over the last three days covering all the news of the weekend and there is a lot of it.  Tonight I’ll be covering Raw  and a lot of other news with Garrett Gonzales with Wrestling Observer Radio.
  • Smackdown on Friday night did 1.40 million viewers and 0.37 in 18-49.  It was first on all of television.  It’s lower than I expected because 1.40 million over two hours would be equivalent with the usual third hour drop to a 1.35 million number two weeks ago.  That’s with no competition of note.  It was just a bad night for television as the second biggest show did an 0.22.  The biggest show head-to-head on cable was Summer League Basketball on ESPN at 568,000 viewers and 0.12 in 18-49.   Maybe with so much over the weekend, people decided to skip the show.  But first on all of television is still a positive.  That’s with the advertising of Jelly Roll.
  • Netflix announced that the actual Katie Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano fight (not the average of the entire boxing card) from bell-to-bell averaged 6 million viewers worldwide and 4.2 million of them were in the U.S.  The full show itself was actually behind Smackdown in several Netflix markets including the U.K., Canada and Mexico.   So lots of people only tuned in for the main event.  The average for the show will come out tomorrow and we’ll have also in tomorrow’s update info (but likely not numbers) for Evolution outside the U.S. and Raw numbers for last Monday.
  • Raw tonight is from Birmingham, AL.  They had 9,000 tickets out  as of this morning.  The show goes against the Home Run  Derby.  In the past, Home Run Derby has hurt ratings a significant amount, less when the company is hot.  We won’t have those ratings until next Tuesday because of the Netflix lag.  Plus, an event big in the U.S. isn’t going to hurt worldwide numbers as much as in the past it hurt U.S. numbers.  They are doing a gauntlet match with Bron Breakker, CM Punk,  LA Knight, Penta and Jey Uso for a title shot at Gunther at SummerSlam.  Also Naomi will be there as world women’s champion and Nikki Bella has a singles match with Chelsea Green.  The gauntlet could be great.
  • We’re doing polls on these weekend shows:
  • ROH Supercard of Honor
  • NXT Great American Bash
  • AEW All In Toronto
  • WWE Evolution
  • We’re looking for your thoughts on all of these shows, thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match for each show to [email protected]
  • GCW is running at Mariomondes Park, the home of the Brooklyn Cyclones, this coming Saturday night with Effy vs   Charles Mason, Elayna Black & Priscilla Kelly (Cora Jade & Gigi Dolin) vs. Atticus & Otis Cogar and Jonathan Gresham vs. Deonna Purrazzo.
  • AEW starts its residency at the Aragon Ballroom on Wednesday.  No matches have been announced.  The only thing is the Adam Page  promo as champion.
  • Tetsuya Naito said he and Bushi will be doing two shows this summer in the U.K., one of which is the RevPro SummerSizzler show, before touring the U.S. in August and September.
  • MLW announced its trading card lineup in its deal with Panini with Matt Riddle, Donovan Dijak & Bishop Dyer as the new Skyscrapers, Shotzo, Kushida,  Brock Anderson, Ultimo Guerrero and Yuki Kamifuku.
  • Guerrero was also announced for the MLW show on 9/13 in North Richland Hills, TX.
  • PFL’s show on Saturday will air on ESPN+ in the U.S. at 2 p.m. Eastern.  The show is from Cape Town, South Africa and features Johnny Eblen defending the middleweight title against Costello van Sternis and Dakota Ditcheva vs. Sumika Inaba, as well as AJ McKee vs. Akmed Magomedov and Corey Anderson at heavyweight against Denis Goltsov in a battle of the current light heavyweight champion in Anderson and the 2024 heavyweight tournament winner in Goltsov.
  • Under the L Productions has a documentary on Wisconsin based independent wrestler and promoter Dave Herro, as well as son Kai Herro,  Al Snow and Braun Strowman.  The film debuted in May and was a finalist for the Remember the4 Future World Film Festival in Canada and a selection for the Toronto International Hollywood Film Festival and the Left-off Global Network New York Film Festival.
  • Tonight’s Arena Puebla’s  show with Mistico & Mascara Dorada & Neon. vs. Ultimo Guerrero & Gran Guerrero & Stuka Jr,. sold out in advance.  It’s on the CMLL streaming service live.

Daily Update: Huge weekend preview, AEW & WWE perception, business notes

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

Daily Update

Latest Headlines

Latest Audio

Latest YouTube Video

This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

  • The big weekend,matches, booking,business, favorites and strategies
  • The life and times of Cowboy Bob Ellis, one of the great babyfaces of his era.  A long career as a star all over the world, defining the wrestling cowboy character, the bulldog headlock, wars with Dick the Bruiser and why he had a long career but his top ten drawing days were only a few years.
  • Donald Trump wants a UFC show at the White House on July 4, 2026
  • Preview of the G-1 Climax tournament
  • The most in depth look at the ratings for all the TV shows, including quarters, competition, people watching together, year over year and week over week comparisons and all the little details you won’t get anywhere else on the shows.
  • The Arena Mexico business milestone and comparisons to 2006 and 1991 boom periods and CMLL sells out three shows this past week.
  • AAA has one of its big shows of the year this week
  • Details over the attempt to trademark a major name as part of a fight between wrestler and promoter
  • Stardom star taking a temporary leave
  • Dragon Gat’s biggest show of the year
  • Tiger Mask retires in 2026
  • Notes on Tanahashi Jam
  • Updates on Ric Flair and Wendi Richter
  • Highest ratings for a woman’s main event in American television history
  • Tons of major indie shows coming up
  • Maple Leaf Wrestling coverage
  • Grandson of legend about to start out
  • Kim Wood, the architect of the Brian Pillman storyline, turns 80
  • TNA attempts to upgrade its U.S. TV situation
  • Ticket sales for upcoming WWE, AEW and TNA shows
  • Kenny Omega talks, taking risks, career, match philosophy and future
  • Tony Khan talks more stadium shows, Britt Baker,  U.S. record gate ad Unified title
  • How much is the Khan sports empire worth, the TKO sports empire and where both trank in the world standins
  • New contract signings
  • AEW quarter two television final numbers and explaining what the numbers mean
  • Jim Ross update
  • Lots of business updates
  • Phil Davis talks attempt to legally change the foundation of MMA to make it like a real sport
  • Randy Couture update
  • A $25 million tournament announced
  • Update on Janel Grant case
  • WWE stars in acting roles and a movie that will a top name from both WWE & NJPW
  • Wrestlers who get harassed the most in social media

This Week’s Back Issue

FIRST TIME SUBSCRIBERS GET 50% OFF YOUR FIRST MONTH

Friday Update

WWE Saturday Night's Main Event
  • This is going to be a major weekend here.  Bryan is going to be doing separate shows covering every major show of the weekend.  Garrett and I did a long show today talking about the business strategy of WWE for this weekend, if it will continue, how we can determine if it worked and why WWE attendance at these events is irrelevant.  We also talked about an AEW perception shift and how the booking edge in wrestling has seemingly changed and why.
  • I’ll be doing one show with Bryan tomorrow covering All In Texas, Great American Bash, Supercard of Honor  and Saturday Night’s Main Event.  I’ll also be doing another show on Sunday night covering Evolution and the Saturday fallout.  Next week we’ll have shows talking about the business fallout of the weekend.

Updated attendance numbers for the shows this weekend:

  • Smackdown tonight was at 9,375.  Not sold out.  It was likely hurt by UFC having a show in the same building the next night. They’ve done this before and it always hurts WWE attendance, but it’s part of TKO marketing and selling and they see bigger picture revenue growth doing it that way.
  • ROH Supercard of Honor is sold out in Arlington, TX, but it’s a small building, set up for less than 1,500
  • NXT Great American Bash is at 689, less than 100 shy of a sellout so will be sold out
  • AEW All In Texas is at 24,277
  • WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event is at 11,781 – 1,000 shy of a sellout.  Should end up sold out.
  • WWE Evolution is at 6,321, and that’s with heavy papering the last few days.  Not a success on the surface but as talked about on today’s show, the goals were  different for this weekend.
  • Syuri from Stardom is in town.  Not sure what AEW/ROH show she’ll be at but she’s been seen.
  • Bryan Danielson revealed that WWE sent him letters telling him not to do the “Yes” chant. He was always careful not to start it while on television.  I guess they saw him doing it in one of his recent off television cameos and didn’t see it that way.
  • I really sense such a difference in perception of both WWE and AEW since mid-April.  

We are also doing polls for the weekend shows.  We are not doing one for SNME, but are doing them for:

  • Supercard of Honor tonight
  • Great American Bash tomorrow afternoon
  • All In Texas tomorrow afternoon
  • Evolution Sunday night
  • We’re looking for you thoughts on all of these shows so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match for each of those shows to [email protected]
  • Smackdown tonight in Nashville has Jelly Roll starting his SummerSlam angle which was reported by PWInsider to be with Logan Paul, plus Street Profits vs. Wyatt Sicks for the WWE tag titles, Sol Ruca vs. Alexa Bliss vs. Roxanne Perez vs. Kairi Sane, and Ron Killings vs. Aleister Black.
  • Collision did 323,000 viewers and 0.07 in 18-49 last night. Not a good number.

ROH Supercard of Honor tonight starting at 7 p.m. Eastern:

  • Bandido vs. Konosuke Takeshita for the ROH title
  • Athena vs. Thunder Rosa for the ROH women’s title
  • Dustin Rhodes & Sammy Guevara vs. The Infantry for ROH tag titles
  • Lee Moriarty vs. Blue Panther for Pure title
  • Nick Wayne vs. Titan for the ROH TV title
  • Miyu Yamashita vs. Yuka Sakaszaki vs. Persephone vs. Mina Shirakawa for the interim ROH women’s TV title
  • Michael Oku vs. Hechicero
  • Dark Order vs. Frat House
  • Arena Mexico’s streak of three straight Friday sellouts probably won’t be extended tonight with a main event of Gran Guerrero & Stuka Jr. & Ultimo Guerrero vs. Euforia & Averno & Mephisto in a battle of rudo teams, plus Mortos vs. Esfinge and Cobarde & Felino Jr. & El HIjo de Stuka Jr. defend the Mexican national trios titles against Dragon de Fuego &  Dragon Legendario & Dragon Rojo Jr.
  • Sunday’s Arena Mexico has Mascara Dorada & Atlantis Jr. & Titan vs. Barbaro Cavernario & Valiente & Volador Jr. on top, plus Templario vs. Difunto which is a very intriguing singles match.
  • AAA also has its Verano de Escandolo show in Aguascalientes tonight  with Angel & Berto defending the tag titles against Octagon Jr. & Laredo Kid , plus Lola Vice & Santina Marella vs. La Hiedra & Mr. Iguana and a main event of King Vikingo & El HIjo del Vikingo vs. Alberto El Patron & Mesias.
  • Bare Knuckle Fighting Championships announced the signings of former UFC stars Yoel Romero and Thiago Santos.

UFC tomorrow in Nashville on ESPN starting at 6 p.m. Eastern

  • Fatima Kline (115.5) vs. Melissa Martinez (116)
  • Mike Davis (115.25) vs. Mitch Ramirez (156)
  • Kennedy Nzechukwu (238) vs.  Valter Walker (244.5)]
  • Lauren Murphy (126) vs. Eduarda Moura (126)
  • Jake Matthews (170.5) vs. Chidi Njokuani (171.5) – Njokuani missed weight by 0.5 pounds
  • Chris Curtis (170.5) vs. Max Griffin (170.25)
  • Junior Tafa (206) vs. Tuco Tokkos (206)
  • Vitor Petrino (249) vs. Austen Lane (245)
  • Nate Landwehr (146) vs. Morgan Charriere (146)
  • Calvin Kattar (146) vs. Steve Garcia (146)
  • Stephen Thompson (170.5) vs. Gabriel Bonfim (171)
  • Derrick Lewis (261) vs. Tallison Teixeira (259)
  • Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano have their third boxing match tonight on Netflix from Madison Square Garden.  The show starts at 8 p.m. with the main event expected at 11 p.m.
  • Mike Santana and KC Navarro are doing promotional work for TNA’s 7/20 show at the New York Yankees game today.
  • Shark Boy airs on tomorrow’s Memphis Wrestling TV show.
  • House of Glory will be on TRiller at 9 p.m. Eastern tonight with Charles Mason vs. Zilla Fatu, Indi Hartwll vs. Hyan and Daron Richdrdson vs. Laredo Kid.
  • GCW had 800 tickets sold for Gilley’s tonight in Dallas with Matt Tremont vs. John Wayne Murdoch in an Ultraviolent title match Effy vs. Atticus Cogar for the GCW title, Matt Cardona vs. Shotzi Blackheart, Ricky Morgan vs. Mance Warner. Jordan Oliver &  Alec Price vs. Dante Leon & Ninja Mack and Priscilla Kelly (Gigi Dolin) vs. Elayna Black (Cora Jade).

Daily Update: WWE notes, Briscoe documentary, Francine

Posted on by Joseph Currier

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Thursday Update

WWE

  • WrestleVotes reports that “OTC1” and “Tribal Chief One” are being considered as new monikers for Roman Reigns when he returns to WWE TV:
    • With his return drawing closer, we’re told the moniker ‘OTC1’ — or ‘Tribal Chief One’ — is the leading idea for how Roman Reigns will be presented upon his return to TV. Sources continue to indicate Reigns is slated for SummerSlam at MetLife Stadium.
  • Rhea Ripley sent out the following message today: “Fan mail sent directly to my house will not be opened. It will be thrown out.”
  • Fox News Digital interviewed Drew McIntyre in advance of his match against Randy Orton at Saturday Night’s Main Event this weekend. McIntyre, who recently took a break to heal up, said he’s now feeling better than he’s felt in a long time:
    • I honestly feel better than I felt in about, minimum, six or seven years. During this time off, I’ve had a chance to step back and look at everything from an outside perspective – the product itself and more specifically me because I’m only competing against myself as far as I’m concerned.
  • NXT wrestler Lola Vice expressed her excitement for her Lucha Libre AAA debut at Verano de Escandalo tomorrow, where she’ll be teaming with Santino Marella against La Hiedra & Mr. Iguana:
    • Tomorrow starts a new chapter in my wrestling career. Grateful for the opportunity to grow as a performer, gain experience, and debut Lola internationally. Love you Vice City see you soon Mexico
  • Jazz, who has been guest coaching at the WWE Performance Center, posted a picture of herself at the PC: “Another fun night! Observing, Assisting & Learning from the best! I’m built for this!”
  • John Cena is the executive producer of a new series that’s been picked up by HGTV and will premiere later this year. Hosted by Bobby Berk, the series has the working title “Junk or Jackpot?” Here is the synopsis for the show:
    • From an overwhelming stash of superhero figurines to cramped spaces stuffed with rare puppets and dolls and miniature sets that leave no room for actual, life-size furniture – these homes are begging for professional help, and the collectors must decide whether they are willing to sell some of their items to pay for the much-needed renovation. With a combination of humor, compassion and a celebration of the passionate collector in all of us, Bobby will support the homeowners through the process of sorting through, appraising and letting go of their stockpile, discovering the ‘found money’ along the way to achieving their dream makeover.
  • Charlotte Flair was the guest on today’s episode of Six Feet Under with The Undertaker & Michelle McCool.
  • WWE Vault uploaded the full inaugural Evolution PPV from 2018.
  • WWE continued its countdown of the top 25 matches in SummerSlam history, ranking Bianca Belair vs. Becky Lynch from 2022 in the 21st spot. Here is the list so far:
    • 25. Cody Rhodes vs. Brock Lesnar (SummerSlam 2023)
    • 24. Seth Rollins vs. John Cena title vs. title match for the WWE Championship and United States Championship (SummerSlam 2015)
    • 23. The Undertaker vs. Bret Hart for the WWF Championship (SummerSlam 1997)
    • 22. Brock Lesnar vs. Seth Rollins for the Universal Championship (SummerSlam 2019)
    • 21. Bianca Belair vs. Becky Lynch for the Raw Women’s Championship (SummerSlam 2022)

Other Wrestling

Daily Update: AEW notes, John Cena, WWE ID

Posted on by Joseph Currier

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Wednesday Update

WWE

  • NJ.com notes that John Cena and comedian Eric Andre are in New Jersey filming their Netflix movie “Little Brother” with production now underway. Here is the description for the film:
    • The movie revolves around a prominent real estate agent, played by Cena, and his younger brother, played by Andre. Everything in the professional’s life is turned upside down when his little brother shows up.
  • A new trailer for the upcoming “WWE: Unreal” docuseries will be released next Tuesday (July 15). The series debuts on Netflix on July 29.
  • Nikki Bella was a guest on the Today show this morning.
  • Goldberg and Jade Cargill made appearances on 11Alive News in Atlanta to promote WWE’s events that are happening in the city this weekend.
  • The inaugural men’s and women’s WWE ID Champions will be crowned in Rutherford, New Jersey on August 1. Kylie Rae vs. Zara Zakher vs. Zayda Steel will determine the women’s champion. The men’s champion will be a singles match featuring whichever two wrestlers advance out of Brad Baylor, Ice Williams, Sean Legacy, Jack Cartwell, Bryce Donovan, and Cappuccino Jones.
  • A WWE Evolve Championship match has been announced for the July 19 WWE ID Showcase event in Longwood, Florida. Jackson Drake will put his belt on the line against Timothy Thatcher.
  • Roxanne Perez joined Sheamus on this week’s episode of Celtic Warrior Workouts.
  • WWE ranked Brock Lesnar vs. Seth Rollins from SummerSlam 2019 as the 22nd greatest match in SummerSlam history.
  • The WWE Vault YouTube channel put together a compilation video on the rise of AJ Lee from 2013-2014.

Other Wrestling

  • Max – the streaming service that AEW Dynamite and Collision are simulcast on – officially rebranded back to HBO Max as its name today.
  • Big Boom AJ cut a promo calling out the Don Callis Family ahead of All In, saying it doesn’t matter which member of the faction Don Callis sends to face him at the show. AJ said he’ll have his son Big Justice and their friend The Rizzler accompanying him for the match.
  • After it was announced that an interim ROH Women’s TV Champion will be crowned due to Red Velvet being injured, Red Velvet posted the following: “Not the news I wanted to share. I won’t be cleared to compete at Supercard of Honor due to injury. Don’t get it twisted this is just a pause, not the end. To the new Interim ROH Women’s TV Champ congrats in advance. Hold it down, because when I come back? I’m coming for it ALL.”
  • In an interview with Uncrowned, Tony Khan praised Swerve Strickland:
    • He arrived in AEW with a strong reputation as an excellent wrestler, and he’s become a bigger and bigger wrestling star. Each year he has been here, he’s appeared in some of the most important AEW matches, and his star continues to rise because he’s one of the hardest working wrestlers,
    • He’s very respected by his peers and through his hard work and his remarkable skill. So Strickland has been able to evolve himself into one of the most dynamic and exciting top stars in pro wrestling today.
  • Uncrowned also published a story on Athena, who discussed the love she has for pro wrestling:
    • I tell [Tony Khan] all the time — I’m a sicko. I love wrestling. I still watch pro wrestling. I’ll watch 14 hours of PWG, old ROH from 2003 to 2006, which is my era.
    • I love that pro wrestling, in general, is always consistently changing, consistently evolving. There’s always something to learn. There’s always a new trick to do. There’s always a new move to invent. When I first started wrestling, I never wanted to do the same thing two days in a row.
  • While speaking with Undisputed, AEW World Champion Jon Moxley hyped up his All In match against Hangman Page:
    • I’ve found myself pacing, I’ve found myself twitching my fingers, I honestly can’t remember the last time I’ve looked forward to physically hurting someone the way I’m going to hurt Hangman Page on Saturday. I don’t even hate him, but I do have this intrinsic disdain for him. It would be different if we worked in an office. But in the line of work we’re in, I get to beat the shit out of him.
  • The Beast Mortos has been pulled from his scheduled appearance at Starrcast this Friday. Instead, Mortos will be facing Esfinge in a singles match at CMLL’s Arena Mexico show that night.
  • A Swerve Strickland panel will no longer be taking place at Starrcast due to a scheduling conflict, but Strickland will still be at the convention for photo ops. A new panel has been added with Excalibur, Tony Schiavone, and Nigel McGuinness giving an inside look at AEW commentary.
  • The New York Post interviewed “Timeless” Toni Storm.
  • MJF was a guest on The Ringer’s Masked Man Show.
  • Members of the AEW roster discussed their favorite All In moments.
  • NJPW’s English-language website posted an interview with Zack Sabre Jr.
  • Elayna Black vs. Priscilla Kelly is now set for GCW’s show in Dallas this Friday with Kelly replacing Masha Slamovich in the bout.
  • CMLL wrestler Templario has been announced for MLW’s Fightland event that’s taking place in North Richland Hills, Texas on September 13.

Daily Update: WWE Raw, Becky Lynch, ratings

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

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Monday Update

  • Bryan and I will be back tonight covering Raw and all the latest wrestling and MMA news with Wrestling Observer Radio.  Also want to mention the Friday show with Kenny Omega is also up which was one of the best interviews we’ve had in a long time.
  • Raw tonight in Providence, RI has announced Penta vs. Seth Rollins, Sami Zayn vs.  Bron Breakker, Jey Uso vs. Bronson Reed and Roxanne Perez vs. Kairi Sane.  Nothing yet announced regarding the Raw team in the tag title match at Evolution, but I could see perhaps Sane & Asuka stemming from the Perez vs. Sane match.  Ludwig Kaiser as El Grande Americano will also be on the show.  The show was almost sold out this morning with 9,000 tickets out so it’s a lock it’ll be sold out.
  • Becky Lynch, under her real name of Rebecca Quin, was in a comedy that FX has picked up callde “Movers”  Movers is a workplace comedy based aournd a crew of movers.
  • The holiday has delayed the Smackdown number and will likely delay the  Collision number that otherwise would come out tomorrow.  Don’t expect good numbers for either show.  Pro wrestling always takes a hit this week, and worse on the 4th itself.  Collision was back on its regular night but aired three hours earlier than usual on the West Coast, which was not heavily publicized.
  • A note that on Friday’s show I talked about the summer heat in Texas and how it may affect the ropes being moist for the stadium show Saturday.  The show on Saturday at Globe Life Field will be under the retractable roof so the temperature will be 72 degrees and that won’t be an issue.
  • CMLL reported its third straight Friday night sellout for the debut of Mortos.  It was notable that in a graphic they actually said that he used to wrestle at Arena  Mexico as Semental.  Part of it was that the July 4th holiday may have led to a lot of Americans going on holiday although in crowd shots it didn’t look any different from usual.  But to sell out after two straight and without Mistico even on the show says something.   This is the best run I believe since August 2006, which  I’ll have to look up, but they had four straight big houses that month when Mistico was the big draw and they had El Hijo del Santo and Perro Aguayo Jr.
  • The soccer team CD Leganes from Spain was at last night’s Arena Mexico show.
  • Akuma defends the Mexican national heavyweight title against Volcano tomorrow night at Arena Mexico, which is headlined by The Skhy Team vs. Angel de Oro & Hechicero & Niebla Roja.
  • On last night’s show I did talk about the big matches from the weekend including the Billie Starkz & Megan Bayne & Miyu Yamashita vs. Alec Price & Marccus Mathers & Jordan Oliver match from GCW in Hartford, CT, Tomohiro Ishii vs. Taichi from yesterday in Tokyo and Neon & Titan vs. Cavernario & Angel de Oro from Friday.
  • In yesterday’s update when talking about the Cauliflower Alley Club taking donations for Wendi Richter, this is the link. Women’s wrestling historian Ken Raftery noted that Richter’s home burning down is the same thing that happened  to Fabulous Moolah’s home a few years ago, noting what are the odds it would happen to both of their homes.
  • El Hijo del Santo announced another match for 8/10 in Tulancingo, Hidalgo.  The top matches are Santo & Santo Jr. & Crazy Boy & Huracan Ramirez vs. Misterioso Jr. & El Texano Jr. & Blaze & El Hijo de Fishman plus Charly Manson & Cuervo & Escoria vs. Pig Destroyer & Pig Destructor & Pig Pool.
  • The New York Mets will celebrate WWE Night on 7/21 at Citi Field.  The Mr. Met Bobblehead will be yeeting.
  • The PFL noted that Operations Manager Jeff Brady died in Arizona while saving the lives of two children in a river.  A lot of the top PFL fighters noted his death in posts over the past day.
  • NXT tomorrow has Hank Walker & Tank Ledger defending the tag titles against Shawn Spears  & Niko Vance, Charlie Dempsey vs. Tavion Heights and if Heights wins he can leave NQCC, Mike Santana & Joe Hendry vs. Tyriel Igwe & Tyson DuPont and a gauntlet with Ricky Saints against Jackson Drake, Brad Baylor  and Ricky Smokes and if Saints wins he gets a shot at Ethan Page for the North American title.  In theory they should also set up a tag team to go into the women’s tag title match at Evolution.
  • For this weekend the NXT Great American Bash  will air on Peacock in the U.S. and Netflix outside the U.S. the same with Evolution, while Saturday Night’s Main Event airs on NBC in the U.S. and on YouTube or local television depending on the international market.
  • Antoine Long, the son of Teddy Long, passed away over the weekend.  We send our sympathies to him.
  • GCW runs in Dallas on Saturday with Matt Cardona vs. Shotzi Blackheart and Ricky Morton vs. Mance Warner.
  • Maple Leaf Pro is back 7/26 in Windsor, ONT with Gisele Shaw, Luke Gallows, Karl Anderson, Ace Austin and Sheldon Jean.  They also run Ohsweken, Ontario on 9/5 with Shaw, Gallows, Anderson, Austin, Shotzi Blackheart and Bishop Dyer.
  • For those in Dallas or going to Dallas, Martinez Promotions has a show on Sunday at 1520 Nolan Ryan Expressway featuring Jack Cartwheel, Laredo Kid and Psycho Clown in a three-way main event.

Daily Update: Kenny Omega, Chris Bey, Jelly Roll

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Daily Update

Latest Headlines

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

Among the topics covered:

  • The new issue of the Wrestling Observer is up on the site right now:
  • Jon Jones announces his retirement, a look back at a remarkable career inside the cage and a story of problems and controversy outside the cage. We look at his background, details on his latest arrest, and thoughts by others.
  • Preview to Night of Champions, the stories and the direction
  • Who is Aaron Wolf and why he’s starting his career under more pressure than almost anyone in recent history, his background as a fan, and as an Olympic gold medalist and world champion in judo.
  • A look at All In Texas and the largest attendance and biggest grossing non-WWE PPV shows in history. What milestones has the show already broken with two weeks out, and what’s the final milestone that it’s touchy if it can break. We look at money adjusted for inflation and AEW’s former biggest shows as well as big shows from Crockett, WCW and the 114 year milestone.
  • A look at the combined CMLL, AEW, NJPW and RevPro Fantastica Mania at Arena Mexico on Friday. We look at moves CMLL should make to take advantage of its new exposure, popularity and position in the wrestling ecosystem, the big tag team main event and the future booking direction.
  • The most detailed look at the television ratings for pro wrestling and MMA this past week, including how segments did, demos, did and comparisons to one year ago.
  • A detailed look and discussion of how Raw on Netflix is doing and on AEW Dynamite on MAX.
  • More on CMLL’s big week at its other arenas
  • Next CMLL tournament
  • AAA booking direction and when WWE takes over the booking and state of current angles
  • One of the best matches of the year took place on Saturday
  • Dragon Gate has its biggest event of the year
  • Lots of G-1 updates
  • Jun Kasai vs. Desperado looked at
  • Sabu funeral
  • Tom Lawlor physical issues discussed in detail
  • Ronda Rousey physical issues discussed as well
  • Real American Freestyle early ticket advance
  • Tetsuya Naito back in action and new name of his faction
  • Mistico and MJF angle in MLW
  • More on many AEW and WWE stars health updates
  • Which company has a higher injury rate by percentage, AEW or WWE, with the actual stats.
  • AEW ratings comparison between the end of 2024 and the current MAX era
  • Mortos on wrestling at Arena Mexico after 15 years
  • Update on AEW performers who aren’t being used
  • More on the Cung Le lawsuit settlement
  • Dana White goes into promoting boxing and BJJ
  • Internet personality arrested for threatening Joe Rogan
  • Crazy story about Sedriques Dumas and UFC signing him to fight this week and how bad a look that was, and the fight falling apart
  • Why the UFC main event this week is so big
  • Update on Ben Askren nd B Penn
  • Update on Janel Grant lawsuit against Vince McMahon and TKO
  • How another sport’s move from TV to streaming compares with Raw and what we can learn from it as it relates to Raw
  • Boxing legend and former MMA champion both talk performing in WWE
  • Thoughts on Cody Rhodes saying his babyface run is almost over
  • WWE star doing a record album as a tribute to 1990s All Japan Pro Wrestling

This Week’s Back Issue

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Thursday Update

WWE

  • WrestleVotes reports that Jelly Roll’s announced appearance on the July 11 episode of SmackDown is expected to be “the start of something more” for the musician ahead of SummerSlam:
    • According to sources, several within WWE expect Jelly Roll’s upcoming appearance on SmackDown (7/11) to be the start of something more. There’s anticipation the music superstar will make additional appearances in the near future.
    • Worth noting: while currently touring, Jelly Roll is off the first weekend of August.
  • Natalya will challenge Kali Armstrong for the Evolve Women’s Championship on the episode of WWE Evolve that airs next Wednesday. On this week’s show, a contract signing between Armstrong and Natalya ended with Natalya dodging an attack from Armstrong and locking her in the Sharpshooter.
  • John Cena named his four favorite movies of all time: The Shawshank Redemption, The Matrix, Saving Private Ryan, and Star Wars (episodes four, five, and six).
  • Penta told the story behind his tattoos on the latest episode of WWE Tattooed.
  • Sheamus – a huge fan of soccer team Liverpool FC – paid tribute to Liverpool player Diogo Jota after the 28-year-old Jota passed away in a car crash today: “Shocked & heartbroken. Rest in peace, Diogo. You’ll never walk alone.”

Other Wrestling

  • Kenny Omega spoke to the crowd after AEW Dynamite went off the air last night, thanking everyone who has supported the show through its first 300 episodes.
  • Omega explained the Masa Takanashi shirt he wore on Dynamite and shared a GoFundMe campaign to help Takanashi, who suffered a serious neck injury this March while competing for DDT Pro Wrestling. Omega has made a $10,000 donation to the campaign.
    • Not many know my beginning days of what started my 11 year journey in Japan. Masa Takanashi was my first roommate in the @ddtpro dormitory in 2008 and soon introduced me to future @AEW athletes, Emi Sakura and Riho. A little later, Hikaru Shida as well. 
    • Whether I was full time in DDT or even @njpw1972, I could always count on Takanashi to help me train at a dojo somewhere. His work to help develop the indies and Joshi scene was never for any selfish reason. He just simply loves to help wherever he can and be involved in the sport of professional wrestling. 
    • I can truly say he is one of the greatest and safest professional wrestlers I’ve had a chance to work with over the years and it’s a shame that I can’t directly introduce his work to fans on an international level. But rest assured, his influence is shown in every performance of mine, no matter what promotion I represent. 
    • Takanashi now is in a dire struggle after a terrible accident in a match. He isn’t the type to seek attention, money, or gratitude, but I’m personally making a choice now to share why he has and will continue to be so special and important to me and the scene as a whole. Thanks to all who’ve read this.
  • The Takanashi shirt Omega wore can be purchased on Pro Wrestling Tees.
  • While speaking with TMZ Sports, Tony Khan addressed how much influence fans have on the AEW product:
    • The fans are a huge, major influence on me personally and on AEW. I really believe in listening to fans, and the fans have been so positive about AEW in 2025.
    • I think it’s the most positive it’s been in four years, maybe ever. Right now we’re having great trends. We’ve been able to grow viewership quarter over quarter, multiple quarters in a row.
  • Danhausen and his wife Lou Lou welcomed their new baby – a boy named Victor – into the world on July 2.
  • Denise Salcedo interviewed “Timeless” Toni Storm.
  • Referee Brandon Martinez was the guest on AEW Unrestricted this week.
  • Former NFL coach Jon Gruden was gifted a box of merchandise from AEW: “This box may have the greatest gift I’ve ever received inside and it comes from Tony Khan and @AEW! I’m a big wrestling fan, and what they’re doing over at AEW is pretty amazing! If you like wrestling, you gotta check this stuff out… but you’ll have to beat me for my belt!”
  • After announcing earlier this week that he would be undergoing surgery soon, Ric Flair thanked everyone who has reached out to him: “Thank You To Everyone Who Has Reached Out & For All The Thoughts And Prayers! It Means A Lot To Me. I Will Get Through My Health Issues And Be Stronger Than Ever!”
  • NJPW’s English-language website posted an interview with IWGP Global Heavyweight Champion Gabe Kidd. He spoke about wanting to make his title the top championship in NJPW: 
    • Traditionally, the NEVER Openweight title has been about fighting spirit, about Tokon, but I think the title has been demoted from what it once was. Especially with me holding it, this is the workrate championship. This is about who has the most fighting spirit, who is willing to fight through the pain, who’s going to represent you going through your struggles in daily life and work and everything. This is a championship that asks ‘are you a man, or are you a mouse?’ Put your hands up and let’s find out.
    • The Global title, to me, means who is the hardest worker. The IWGP World Heavyweight Championship, all those title matches are between 40 year olds, but we’re talking about that being the number one title? This is the number one title, and I will make this the number one title.
  • Chris Bey celebrated being two years sober from alcohol: “It’s been 2 years since I last drank alcohol and I’m so proud of myself No judgement to anyone who partakes, but it had been somewhat of an issue in my personal life for many years. When I decided to quit, I didn’t think I’d be able to fully commit. Here we are 2 years later. Yay me.”
  • TNA Wrestling is putting on a charity softball game in Merrick, New York on July 19. All proceeds will benefit Merrick Bellmore Little League.
  • A hair vs. hair match between Felino and Rey Bucanero is set for CMLL’s 92nd Aniversario on September 19.
  • Following her release from WWE, Isla Dawn will return to the ring against Aleah James at a show for Burning Heart Pro Wrestling in Manchester, England on August 3.
  • Tommy Dreamer vs. Mance Warner has been announced for GCW’s event in Coney Island, New York on July 19.
  • Scott Armstrong will have his retirement match for Diamond Championship Wrestling in Theodore, Alabama on July 12.

Daily Update: Cody Rhodes, John Cena, AEW notes

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Daily Update

Latest Headlines

Latest Audio

Latest YouTube Video:

This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

Among the topics covered:

  • Jon Jones announces his retirement, a look back at a remarkable career inside the cage and a story of problems and controversy outside the cage. We look at his background, details on his latest arrest, and thoughts by others.
  • Preview to Night of Champions, the stories and the direction
  • Who is Aaron Wolf and why he’s starting his career under more pressure than almost anyone in recent history, his background as a fan, and as an Olympic gold medalist and world champion in judo.
  • A look at All In Texas and the largest attendance and biggest grossing non-WWE PPV shows in history. What milestones has the show already broken with two weeks out, and what’s the final milestone that it’s touchy if it can break. We look at money adjusted for inflation and AEW’s former biggest shows as well as big shows from Crockett, WCW and the 114 year milestone.
  • A look at the combined CMLL, AEW, NJPW and RevPro Fantastica Mania at Arena Mexico on Friday. We look at moves CMLL should make to take advantage of its new exposure, popularity and position in the wrestling ecosystem, the big tag team main event and the future booking direction.
  • The most detailed look at the television ratings for pro wrestling and MMA this past week, including how segments did, demos, did and comparisons to one year ago.
  • A detailed look and discussion of how Raw on Netflix is doing and on AEW Dynamite on MAX.
  • More on CMLL’s big week at its other arenas
  • Next CMLL tournament
  • AAA booking direction and when WWE takes over the booking and state of current angles
  • One of the best matches of the year took place on Saturday
  • Dragon Gate has its biggest event of the year
  • Lots of G-1 updates
  • Jun Kasai vs. Desperado looked at
  • Sabu funeral
  • Tom Lawlor physical issues discussed in detail
  • Ronda Rousey physical issues discussed as well
  • Real American Freestyle early ticket advance
  • Tetsuya Naito back in action and new name of his faction
  • Mistico and MJF angle in MLW
  • More on many AEW and WWE stars health updates
  • Which company has a higher injury rate by percentage, AEW or WWE, with the actual stats.
  • AEW ratings comparison between the end of 2024 and the current MAX era
  • Mortos on wrestling at Arena Mexico after 15 years
  • Update on AEW performers who aren’t being used
  • More on the Cung Le lawsuit settlement
  • Dana White goes into promoting boxing and BJJ
  • Internet personality arrested for threatening Joe Rogan
  • Crazy story about Sedriques Dumas and UFC signing him to fight this week and how bad a look that was, and the fight falling apart
  • Why the UFC main event this week is so big
  • Update on Ben Askren nd B Penn
  • Update on Janel Grant lawsuit against Vince McMahon and TKO
  • How another sport’s move from TV to streaming compares with Raw and what we can learn from it as it relates to Raw
  • Boxing legend and former MMA champion both talk performing in WWE
  • Thoughts on Cody Rhodes saying his babyface run is almost over
  • WWE star doing a record album as a tribute to 1990s All Japan Pro Wrestling

This Week’s Back Issue

FIRST TIME SUBSCRIBERS GET 50% OFF YOUR FIRST MONTH

Wednesday Update

WWE

  • WWE uploaded the full main event segment from NXT last night where Blake Monroe helped Jordynne Grace fend off an attack by Fatal Influence. It was announced at the end of the show that Grace & Monroe will face Jacy Jayne & Fallon Henley in a tag match at NXT Great American Bash on Saturday, July 12.
  • Nexus Point News reports that Cody Rhodes is in talks to play Guile in the upcoming live-action “Street Fighter” movie from Legendary Entertainment. Roman Reigns has already booked a role in the film, playing the character Akuma.
  • John Cena and his wife Shay Shariatzadeh were in attendance at Wimbledon in London today for day three of the tennis tournament.
  • In a GOAT Talk feature for Complex, Cena praised Dave Bautista as the greatest wrestler-turned-actor of all time:
    • I’m going to give respect where respect is earned – going Dave Bautista. The dude has range and has now transformed his whole body. The stuff he’s about to do, look out for Dave Bautista. The stuff he’s already done is incredible, but as far as like wrestler-turned-actor with the range. You know me, I’m just d*ck jokes, that’s it. Dave’s got range.
  • Cena named “Stone Cold” Steve Austin’s entrance as the greatest WWE entrance ever and listed Roddy Piper, The Rock, Austin, and CM Punk as the best trash talkers.
  • Cena made an appearance on ITV’s This Morning during the promotional tour for his new movie “Heads of State” that premiered on Amazon Prime Video today.
  • Bret Hart is celebrating his 68th birthday today.
  • Foundation Radio has an interview with Karrion Kross.
  • WWE Vault put together a compilation video of rare house show matches from the 1990s New Generation era:
    • Buckle in for a compilation of never-before-seen Live Event matches featuring your favorite New Generation Superstars, including a huge tag team from Madison Square Garden, pitting Shawn Michaels and Diesel against Bret ‘Hit Man’ Hart and The Undertaker. Plus, action featuring ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin, Mankind, Razor Ramon and more!

Other Wrestling

  • Tony Khan shared a graph today celebrating that TV viewership for Dynamite and Collision has now grown for two consecutive quarters.
  • Renee Paquette spoke with “Speedball” Mike Bailey on a new episode of AEW Close-Up.
  • While being interviewed by Denise Salcedo, Sammy Guevara spoke about how happy he is to have his wife Tay Melo back on the road after her post-pregnancy return:
    • Man, it’s so cool. Because, I mean, for the longest time it was her and I, and we were just this package deal, as we always said – package deal. And then all of a sudden, it was just me on the road for a long time. Because even when she was pregnant, she was still traveling. She traveled all the way up until like August and she gave birth in November. So, yeah, I mean, she literally quit the [Jericho Appreciation Society] with like a big old belly. It was awesome. But then after she left, then it was just me. And it was a little weird at first. Now it’s cool because it’s like I got my partner in crime back.
    • But now it’s different too because it’s like I’m still missing our other partner in crime, which is our little daughter Luna. Any time all of us go, it’s tougher, it’s harder, but it’s like I feel like – okay, peace, we’re all here. We’re not bringing her every week because I feel like that’s a little unfair for Luna, even though she probably would love to go. In my opinion, I want to bring her all the time. I don’t want to be away from her. But we’re like, only if we’re going to be gone multiple days we’ll bring her.
  • During a Q&A at River City Wrestling Con, Shelton Benjamin credited Tony Khan for giving new life to his career since joining AEW:
    • I think Tony’s been great. I like to point this out – no matter what your opinion is, Tony has created a lane for people to be on TV, have gainful employment, and make a name for themselves. 
    • So I think first and foremost, I commend him for that. Because he’s, you know, he’s given my career new life. He’s given guys who probably wouldn’t even get a sniff at the other place a chance to actually be stars. So I think that alone makes Tony a real special guy. Tony’s been nothing but great to me.
  • Mercedes Mone named some of her favorite matches of her career:
    • NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn against Bayley
    • WrestleMania 37 against Bianca Belair
    • Hell in a Cell 2020 against Bayley
    • Any of her matches against Asuka
    • NJPW Battle in the Valley against Kairi Sane
    • Full Gear against Kris Statlander
    • Worlds End against Kris Statlander
    • Wrestle Dynasty against Mina Shirakawa
    • Spring BreakThru against Athena
  • AEW’s YouTube channel uploaded the full Jack Perry vs. Darby Allin coffin match from All In 2024.
  • Big Boom AJ and his son Big Justice will host an AEW Cosplay Contest at Starrcast during All In Texas weekend.
  • The Hardy Boyz were guests on The Ariel Helwani Show today.
  • Daily Star interviewed Leon Slater.

Daily Update: NJPW title change, Raw, WWE ticket sales

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

Daily Update

Latest Headlines

Latest Audio

Latest YouTube Video:

This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

  • The new issue of the Wrestling Observer is up on the site right now:
  • Jon Jones announces his retirement, a look back at a remarkable career inside the cage and a story of problems and controversy outside the cage.  We look at his background, details on his latest arrest, and thoughts by others.
  • Preview to Night of Champions, the stories and the direction
  • Who is Aaron Wolf and why he’s starting his career under more pressure than almost anyone in recent history, his background as a fan, and as an Olympic gold medalist and world champion in judo.
  • A look at All In Texas and the largest attendance and biggest grossing non-WWE PPV shows in history.  What milestones has the show already broken with two weeks out, and what’s the final milestone that it’s touchy if it can break.  We look at money adjusted for inflation and AEW’s former biggest shows as  well as big shows from Crockett, WCW and the 114 year  milestone.
  • A look at the combined CMLL,  AEW,  NJPW and RevPro Fantastica Mania at Arena Mexico on Friday.  We look at moves CMLL should make to take advantage of its new exposure, popularity and  position in the wrestling ecosystem, the big tag team main event and the future booking direction.
  • The most detailed look at the television ratings for pro wrestling and MMA this past week, including how segments did, demos, did and comparisons to one year ago.  
  • A detailed look and discussion of how Raw on Netflix is doing and on AEW Dynamite on MAX.
  • More on CMLL’s big week at its other arenas
  • Next CMLL tournament
  • AAA booking direction and when WWE takes over the booking and state of current angles
  • One of the best matches of the year took place on Saturday
  • Dragon  Gate has its biggest event of the year
  • Lots of G-1 updates
  • Jun Kasai vs. Desperado looked at
  • Sabu funeral
  • Tom Lawlor physical issues discussed in detail
  • Ronda Rousey physical issues discussed as well
  • Real American Freestyle early ticket advance
  • Tetsuya Naito back in action and new name of his faction
  • Mistico and MJF angle in MLW
  • More on many AEW and WWE stars health updates
  • Which company has a higher injury rate by percentage, AEW or WWE, with the actual stats.
  • AEW ratings comparison between the end of 2024 and the current MAX era
  • Mortos on wrestling at  Arena Mexico after 15 years
  • Update on AEW performers who aren’t being used
  • More on  the Cung Le lawsuit settlement
  • Dana White goes into promoting boxing and BJJ
  • Internet personality arrested for threatening Joe Rogan
  • Crazy story about Sedriques Dumas and UFC signing him to fight this week and how bad a look that was, and the fight falling apart
  • Why the UFC main event this week is so big
  • Update on Ben Askren nd B Penn
  • Update on Janel Grant lawsuit against  Vince McMahon and TKO
  • How another sport’s move from TV to streaming compares with Raw and what we can learn from it as it relates to Raw
  • Boxing legend and former MMA champion both talk performing in WWE
  • Thoughts on Cody Rhodes saying his babyface run is almost over
  • WWE star doing a record album as a tribute to 1990s All Japan Pro  Wrestling

This Week’s Back Issue

FIRST TIME SUBSCRIBERS GET 50% OFF YOUR FIRST MONTH

Monday Update

  • Bryan and I will be back tonight with Wrestling Observer Radio talking Raw, Terry Funk, Ric Flair, Goto vs. Sabre, Mistico vs. Bandido and the rest of the  pro wrestling news.
  • A few more notes off the Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Hirooki Goto IWGP title win from yesterday at the final show ever at Dolphins Arena in Nagoya.  We had mentioned yesterday that the title didn’t change due to a Goto injury and he wasn’t injured.  He was banged up and is taking time off due to an elbow injury.  The title change wasn’t impromptu or due to the injury.  I suspect the decision of Goto losing in Nagoya was made about the same time he won it.  I know factually the decision was made within a few weeks of his winning.  We’ll talk more about that tonight.  When it comes to the IWGP title, generally these decisions are made months if not years in advance.  
  • Iyo Sky vs. Rhea Ripley for the world women’s title is on the 7/13 Evolution PPV show in Atlanta.
  • Raw started as of this writing because they are doing a double taping tonight in Pittsburgh.  The show is airing live all over the world from 6-8:30 p.m. Eastern time from Pittsburgh.  They had 13,400 tickets out as of last report and were just shy of capacity.
  • Trish Stratus is in Pittsburgh for tonight’s tapings.
  • SummerSlam has 38,697 tickets out for 8/2 and 39,024 out for 8/3 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ.  It’ll probably end up as the biggest SummerSlam crowds in decades.  I don’t see it having a shot at beating 1992 at the old Wembley Stadium. (thanks to Wrestletix)
  • We’re looking for your thoughts on WWE Night of Champions so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to [email protected]
  • We are looking for reports from Pittsburgh with anything  not on  the live Raw such as  Speed matches, Main Event matches and the Smackdown taping for Friday to  [email protected]
  • There is an AEW/Superman crossover for this week.  Cast members of the show , David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan  and Nicholas Hoult will be on Dynamite Wednesday night to promote the 7/11 movie release.  There was a cross promotional deal made with AEW, WBD and Superman that includes Kenny Omega, MJF and Toni Storm promoting the movie.
  • Lots of talk today because June 30th would have been the 81st birthday of Terry Funk, who was an all-time great in wrestling, the best instinctual wrestler I ever saw, the master of reinvention and one of the most versatile as well.  But today is also the birthday of Mike Tyson (59), Cody  Rhodes (40), Dax Harwood (41) and Ed “Strangler” Lewis, who was born 134 years ago today.
  • A singles match with Neon vs. Difunto with a 10:00 time limit takes place tomorrow night at Arena Mexico.  We may see some stuff that is completely nuts.
  • Syuri, who just had one of the best matches of the year last week with Sareee, is taking time off due to lingering injuries.  She said she’s considering going overseas when she returns.  She talked about her time off as a temporary break from Stardom but said she will return.

WWE vault has released the full January 6, 1985 Great American Bash from Charlotte Baseball Stadium before 27,000 fans

  • Ron Bass vs. Buddy Landel
  • Ole & Arn Anderson  vs. Buzz Sawyer &  Dick Slater for the National tag team titles
  • Manny Fernandez & Buzz Tyler & Sam Houston vs. Superstar Billy Graham & The Barbarian & Abdullah the Butcher
  • Jimmy Valiant vs.  Paul Jones
  • Ivan Koloff & Khrusher Khruschev defend the NWA tag title against the Road Warriors
  • Magnum T.A. defends  the U.S. title against Kamala
  • Ric Flair vs. Nikita Koloff for the NWA title with David Crockett as referee
  • Dusty Rhodes vs. Tully Blanchard
  • Sukeban announced a fan experience at Anime Expo 2025 from 7/3 to 7/6 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.  There will be active all three shows including a live show this coming Saturday night at 7 p.m.  Yuriyan Retriever, who did perhaps the best job of playing a real wrestler in a dramatic role for her portrayal of Dump Matsumoto in Queen of Villains will be there from 5-7 p.m. Friday doing a panel discussion and in-ring demo with the wrestlers from Sukeban.
  • Stars of Wrestling presents Grapplr’s Paradise at the “Alameda Point Gym in Alameda, CA at 4 p.m. on 8/9.  Among those announced are Moose, Steve Maclin, KC Navarro, Tasha Steelz, Deonna Purrzzo, Fred Rosser and Ray Lyn.
  • This is not going to happen, or at least I sure hope not.  Butterbean has challenged Jake Paul. to a boxing match.
  • Steve Maclin vs. Ricky Morton headlines for Boca Raton Prom Wrestling on 8/31 in Boca Raton, FL.
  • ACW on 7/18 in Poughkeepsie, NY at the Mid Hudson Civic Center has Richard Holiday vs. Matt Riddle, Real1 (Enzo) vs. Zack Clayton plus Indi Hartwell, Dan Maff, Mike Santana, Parker Boudreaux, Sidney Akeem and Carlito.
  • Masha Slamovich vs. Killer Kelly in a chain match headlines Thursday’s TNA television show.
  • Maple Leaf Wrestling for Saturday night in Laval, Quebec at Colisee de Laval has Josh Alexander defending the Canadian title against Ace Austin, Gisele Shaw defending the Canadian women’s title against Shotzi Blackheart, PCO vs. Dan Maff in a house of pain match with Billy Gunn as referee, Thom Latimer defends the NWA title against Matt Cardona, Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson vs. David Finlay & Drilla Moloney, plus Mike Bailey, TJP, Rohan Raja and Jonathan Gresham.

Daily Update: CM Punk, Jake Paul, weekend preview

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

Daily Update

Latest Headlines

Latest Audio

This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

  • The new issue of the Wrestling Observer is up on the site right now:
  • Jon Jones announces his retirement, a look back at a remarkable career inside the cage and a story of problems and controversy outside the cage.  We look at his background, details on his latest arrest, and thoughts by others.
  • Preview to Night of Champions, the stories and the direction
  • Who is Aaron Wolf and why he’s starting his career under more pressure than almost anyone in recent history, his background as a fan, and as an Olympic gold medalist and world champion in judo.
  • A look at All In Texas and the largest attendance and biggest grossing non-WWE PPV shows in history.  What milestones has the show already broken with two weeks out, and what’s the final milestone that it’s touchy if it can break.  We look at money adjusted for inflation and AEW’s former biggest shows as  well as big shows from Crockett, WCW and the 114 year  milestone.
  • A look at the combined CMLL,  AEW,  NJPW and RevPro Fantastica Mania at Arena Mexico on Friday.  We look at moves CMLL should make to take advantage of its new exposure, popularity and  position in the wrestling ecosystem, the big tag team main event and the future booking direction.
  • The most detailed look at the television ratings for pro wrestling and MMA this past week, including how segments did, demos, did and comparisons to one year ago.  
  • A detailed look and discussion of how Raw on Netflix is doing and on AEW Dynamite on MAX.
  • More on CMLL’s big week at its other arenas
  • Next CMLL tournament
  • AAA booking direction and when WWE takes over the booking and state of current angles
  • One of the best matches of the year took place on Saturday
  • Dragon  Gate has its biggest event of the year
  • Lots of G-1 updates
  • Jun Kasai vs. Desperado looked at
  • Sabu funeral
  • Tom Lawlor physical issues discussed in detail
  • Ronda Rousey physical issues discussed as well
  • Real American Freestyle early ticket advance
  • Tetsuya Naito back in action and new name of his faction
  • Mistico and MJF angle in MLW
  • More on many AEW and WWE stars health updates
  • Which company has a higher injury rate by percentage, AEW or WWE, with the actual stats.
  • AEW ratings comparison between the end of 2024 and the current MAX era
  • Mortos on wrestling at  Arena Mexico after 15 years
  • Update on AEW performers who aren’t being used
  • More on  the Cung Le lawsuit settlement
  • Dana White goes into promoting boxing and BJJ
  • Internet personality arrested for threatening Joe Rogan
  • Crazy story about Sedriques Dumas and UFC signing him to fight this week and how bad a look that was, and the fight falling apart
  • Why the UFC main event this week is so big
  • Update on Ben Askren nd B Penn
  • Update on Janel Grant lawsuit against  Vince McMahon and TKO
  • How another sport’s move from TV to streaming compares with Raw and what we can learn from it as it relates to Raw
  • Boxing legend and former MMA champion both talk performing in WWE
  • Thoughts on Cody Rhodes saying his babyface run is almost over
  • WWE star doing a record album as a tribute to 1990s All Japan Pro  Wrestling

This Week’s Back Issue

FIRST TIME SUBSCRIBERS GET 50% OFF YOUR FIRST MONTH

Friday Update

  • There is no show with Garrett Gonzales this week since he’s on vacation.  We will be back with a show on 7/4.  The weekend show with Bryan will be tomorrow night covering Night of  Champions and UFC.
  • We’re looking for your thoughts on Night of  Champions tomorrow, thumbs up, down or middle, along with a best and worst match. The issue has a preview.
    John  Cena vs. CM Punk for WWE title
    Cody Rhodes vs. Randy Orton King of the Ring finals
    Jade Cargill vs. Asuka Queen of the ring finals
    Jacob Fatu vs. Solo  Sikoa for the U.S. title
    Rhea Ripley vs. Raquel Rodriguez street fight
    Sami Zayn vs. Karrion Kross
  • C.M. Punk apologized today for his tweet regarding Saudi Arabia, saying it wasn’t about Saudi Arabia.  He didn’t and wouldn’t address other comments made over the years about never going there.  He was going to get booed had he not.  Whether he was asked to do so, or wanted to do so isn’t clear, just as we don’t know if he was given a bonus for going, if it was part of the contract he signed, or if there were booking things such as this  match that he could only get on this date.  Either way, he comes off really bad, but because of his prior outspokenness, he was going to come off badly doing the show, and that was decided a long time ago.
  • Smackdown results are on the front page as the show was taped earlier today in Saudi Arabia and has aired in most of the world.  There was a technical issue which led to a 30 minute delay in the show, but that should be fixed in the U.S. airing.  Some of the matches were cut on time because of it.
    Jimmy Uso vs. JC Mateo
    Zelina Vega vs. Giulia for the U.S. title
    Andrade & Rey Fenix vs. Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa
    Street Profits vs. Dexter Lumis & Joe Gacy for the tag titles
    Tiffany Stratton vs. Nia Jax last woman standing for  the WWE title
  • Jake Paul did an interview with Piers Morgan that aired yesterday which saw Morgan make fun of him and Paul walked off.   Morgan criticized him for taking advantage of a nearly 60-year-old Mike Tyson and showed clips of  Canelo Alvarez and Terrence Crawford doing so as well.  Paul said all three of them should go to a therapist and asked Paul if he thought he could really beat Alvarez and he said that if they were in the streets he’d beat him and that he’s a real killer.  Paul said he’s knocked out the best of the best and criticized old heads and boxers who think they know the sport for not respecting him.  Morgan then said Paul has only had  one fight with a real boxer which he lost.  Paul then brought up Tyson as his defense.  Paul said Alvarez was ducking him.  Paul said he wanted Alvarez and Anthony Joshua.  Paul lost his cool and said “I’m just taking your audience to sell PPVs.  I don’t give a f*** about your show you dumbass.  This is a f***ing business enterprise.,  Buy the PPV on Saturday, June 28 me vs. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr..  Then he logged off.
  • MVP promotions announced the show tomorrow has set the largest boxing gate record for the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA.
  • Oscar de la Hoya, who is working with him, said that he thinks Paul could win a world championship and acted like beting Chavez Jr., who recently lost to aging non-boxer Anderson Silva, would prove he was of championship caliber.
  • Chriopher Ewert, who was a late replacement for Sedriques Dumas (who didn’t have permission from the court due to  his having to wear an ankle bracelet from his arrest in April and had to pull out, as if he ever should have been booked in the first place), isn’t fighting on tomorrow’s UFC show.  He was ten pounds overweight and UFC fired him for missing by so much.  Jakckson McVey, after all that work of finding him three different opponents, is now off the show.
    UFC 317 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas
    ESPN+ and  Disney+ at 6:30 p.m. Eastern
    Jhonata Diniz (257.5) vs. Alvin Hines (259.5)
    Niko Price (170.5) vs. Jacobe Smith (170.5)
    ESPN, ESPN+ and Disney+ at 8 p.m. Eastern
    Terrance McKinney (156) vs. Viachesla Borshchev (155)
    Viviane Araujo (125.5) vs. Tracy Cortez (126)
    Hyder Amil (145.5) vs. Jose Miguel Delgado (145.5)
    Jack Hermansson (185.5) vs. Gregory Rodrigues (186)
    PPV at 10 p.m.
    Payton Talbott (136) vs. Felipe Lima (135.5)
    Beneil Dariush (156) vs. Renato Moicano (156)
    Brandon Royval (125.5) vs. Joshua Van (125.5)
    Alexandre Pantoja (125) vs. Kai-Kara France (125) for the flyweight title
    Ilia Topuia (155) vs. Charles Oliveira (154.5) for the vacant lightweight title
  • Kevin Iole, who I worked with for many years at Yahoo!, and covered boxing and MMA for Yahoo! after a long career with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, said that this show will be his last show that he covers and that he’s retiring as a sportswriter.  I could and will talk a lot about him in he days to come, but he had a very distinguished career including being induced into the Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame, having been nominated for the International Boxing Hall of Fame, named the Outstanding Journalist in Nevada in 1999, won the Nat Fleischer Award in 2007 for career excellence in covering boxing, multi-time state sportswriter of the year awards in Nevada and Vermont as well as national awards from the National Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association.  On a personal level, we are very good friends and I enjoyed the time we worked together immensely.    He was in the WWE WrestleMania documentary on the 1993 show that recently aired and did some coverage of pro wrestling.  He did extensive coverage of all major sports during his career.
    His farewell column.
  • Mistico vs. Bandido headlines tonight’s show at Arena Mexico.  Templario & TJP defend the New Japan Strong tag titles against CMLL tag champs Angel de Oro & Niebla Roja.  They expect another large crowd.  After drawing more than 53,000 to shows last week, one would expect another big crowd to take weeks to rebuild.  All of the foreign stars won’t be on the other shows this week.
  • The Leyenda de Plata at Arena Mexico will be a Cibernetico match on 7/18 with Max Star, Capitan Suicida, Explosivo, Titan  Templario, Mascara Dorada and Angel de Oro.  The final two have a singles match for the trophy on 7/25.
  • Salvador Lutteroth was on Informa this week thanking everyone for the CMLL success in the first six months of the year.  He thanked his wrestlers, his staff the fans, members of the Japanese, UK and US embassies for attending the show this past Friday night, thanked Tony Khan for bringing AEW to Arena Mexico, talked about record ticket sales and positive reaction from the fans and said the seal of authenticity of Mexican Wrestling is CMLL.  That line was directed at Rey Mysterio who said that WWE helping AAA gave AAA the seal of authenticity.
  • If you’re following this, Kevin Owens and Cody Rhodes talked about a wrestler from WWE who started charging too much on the indies and hasn’t been booked in years.  The name was bleeped out.  Ryback threw a fit over it.  Then Ryback tweeted that Owens said he wasn’t talking about him.
  • Jinder Mahal was married recently.  Congratulations to him and his bride.  There was  a photo of Mahal, Heath  Slater and Drew McIntyre, who were together as 3MB as a WWE group and remained friends long after, in Indian garb at the wedding that he posted.
  • There was a sellout last night at Arena Queretaro for a  show with Atlantis, Atlantis Jr., Octagon, Templario, Rocky Romero, Angel de Oro and Bandido. Still no word on when Komander will return.
  • Mistico is teaming with Mascara Dorada against Volador Jr. & Hechicero in Pachuca.
  • Pat Mineo reported Olympic bronze medalist Aaron Brooks failed a USADA test for a banned substance.  The report is that his suspension would end prior to the 2028 Olympics.  This game one day after another Penn State wresler, five-time NCAA champion Carter Starocci was the subject of a story of major sexual misconduct in the Penn State school newspaper.
  • AEW Collision Thursday did 285,000 viewers and an 0.08 in 18-49.  Even with that number, it was third in the time slot on cable behind the NBA Draft on ESPN at 1,179,000/0.35 and  Watters at 3,737,000 and 0.19 and Hannity at 3.101,000 and 0.17.