Shawn Daivari and Molly Holly are now reportedly working as full time producers for WWE.
PWInsider was the first to report the two being in full time. This follows reports from earlier this year that both were brought in on a trial basis. Holly had mentioned in a recent podcast appearance that she had been brought on on a trial basis and wasn’t sure if it was something that she wanted to do full time.
Daivari had been a producer for WWE previously, but was cut from his role when the COVID-19 pandemic started. He has also recently made appearances for Impact Wrestling, Major League Wrestling, and the NWA in recent months as a wrestler.
It had also been reported recently that Pat Buck, another WWE producer, has taken over the duties of former WWE referee Drake Wuertz, booking extras for WWE events. Wuertz was part of a recent wave of cuts that have occurred both on the main roster and on NXT in recent months
Two championship matches are set for the Wednesday, March 3 episode of MLW Fusion.
MLW has announced that MLW World Heavyweight Champion Jacob Fatu will defend his title against Jordan Oliver on the March 3 edition of Fusion. Fatu’s Contra Unit stablemates Simon Gotch & Daivari will also challenge for Los Parks’ MLW Tag Team titles on that episode.
Fatu attacked Injustice (Oliver & Myron Reed) as they came to the ring to face Gotch & Daivari on this week’s Fusion. The match never got underway as a brawl between Contra Unit and Injustice broke out. Reed took out Contra Unit with a dive to the outside, then Reed gave Fatu a superkick in the ring and Oliver jumped off the middle rope and hit a cutter on Fatu. Reed called Oliver the next MLW World Heavyweight Champion and Oliver said he wants Fatu’s title.
Fatu has been MLW World Heavyweight Champion since July 2019.
Los Parks (LA Park & El Hijo de LA Park) won the MLW Tag Team titles from Marshall & Ross Von Erich last month. In storyline, Salina de la Renta was the executive producer of that Fusion episode and made Tom Lawlor the special guest referee. Lawlor favored Los Parks throughout the match.
“Filthy Island” is the theme of next week’s MLW Fusion. An Aztec Jungle Fight with Mil Muertes facing Savio Vega has been added to that show. It will also feature Low Ki vs. King Mo in a no holds barred fight, Rocky Romero in action, and Dominic Garrini vs. “Mauna Loa.” Team Filthy claimed that Mauna Loa is a 14-time Polynesian Pacific Champion.
An eight-man tag match is set for Impact Wrestling’s No Surrender go-home show.
Impact Wrestling has announced that Trey Miguel, Josh Alexander, Willie Mack & Suicide vs. Chris Bey, Ace Austin, Blake Christian & Daivari will take place on Tuesday’s episode of Impact. The match involves the eight participants who will be taking part in the first-ever “Triple Threat Revolver match” at No Surrender.
Impact noted that the Triple Threat Revolver match “will be a revolving series of Triple Threat matches – three men begin, when somebody is pinned or submitted another man enters. When we get down to the final three, whoever scores the fall is the winner.” The winner will become the number one contender to the X-Division Championship.
TJP currently holds the X-Division Championship and is defending the title against Rohit Raju at No Surrender. No Surrender will air on Impact Plus on Saturday, February 13.
Here’s the updated lineup for Tuesday’s Impact:
Impact Tag Team Champions The Good Brothers (Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows) defend against Chris Sabin & James Storm
Contract signing for Rich Swann and Tommy Dreamer’s Impact World Championship match at No Surrender
ODB vs. Kimber Lee
Kiera Hogan vs. Nevaeh
Trey Miguel, Josh Alexander, Willie Mack & Suicide vs. Chris Bey, Ace Austin, Blake Christian & Daivari
Cousin Jake gives an answer to Eric Young’s invitation to join Violent By Design
A look at what happened in the last two months of the life of Jon Huber is the lead story in this week’s edition of the Wrestling Observer. We look at how the situation was handled, when the talent found out, why Huber didn’t get a lung transplant, and a look at comments from a number of people in WWE in particular as well as Jim Ross and Amanda Huber’s extensive writing on the subject.
Also in this issue:
Extensive coverage of Wrestle Kingdom and New Year’s Dash. We have match-by-match, star ratings and poll results. We also have business notes, the story of Kota Ibushi and Kenny Omega, the effect of COVID on the show and of wrestling in Japan going forward, Jay White, goal of Hiromu Takahashi, the new main event programs and international television news.
Full year television notes, Linda McMahon’s donations to Donald Trump, Dusty Rhodes tag team tournament, next Takeover show, A&E documentary notes, update on Damien Priest and others earmarked for Raw & Smackdown, lots of booking notes, new WWTV deals, Sonya Deville return, Hulk Hogan talks, head of a rival promotion sets up WWE production person’s engagement, amateur wrestling standout about to start training with WWE, how wrestling shows this past week did compared to sports, international television ratings, who was creative told a few years ago not to even think of ideas for, upcoming TV bouts, WWE market value and the most-watched shows of the past week on the WWE Network.
A story on Irwin Rivera, the UFC fighter who is being accused of stabbing two of his sisters.
A story on Bobby Davis, one of the first of the modern managers.
What wrestlers had the most four star matches in 2020, as well as in history the top 25 of all-time.
Detailed look at the television business, looking at stats not available elsewhere to get the deepest read into how shows are doing, what categories are doing well and how shows compare with previous weeks and one year ago.
Results of all the major pro wrestling events around the world over the past week.
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SUNDAY NEWS UPDATE
Bryan and I will be back tonight with Wrestling Observer Radio covering the latest pro wrestling and MMA news. You can send e-mail questions to the show to [email protected]. Our weekend show with Garrett Gonzalez talking a ton of different subjects is also up.
For the first week I can recall this happening, nothing from pro wrestling, MMA or boxing cracked the top 20 as far as searches for the day. UFC wouldn’t be expected to with no show. Pro wrestling usually only does for a WWE PPV and perhaps an AEW or NXT big show. Wrestle Kingdom has done so in the past but the interest level in the U.S wasn’t there this year as compared to a few years back.
This is the last slow weekend for a long time. UFC will start running every Saturday for a while going forward. Impact has a PPV this coming week, with UFC having the Conor McGregor vs. Dustin Poirier show on 1/23 which could end up as the biggest number of the year, and Royal Rumble coming the weekend after.
From BetOnline.ag some Royal Rumble odds favorites:
Daniel Bryan -125
Keith Lee +400
Big E +500
Edge +500
Brock Lesnar +600
Bill Goldberg +800
A.J. Styles +1000
Dwayne Johnson +1000
Kevin Owens +1200
Roman Reigns +1200
For the women:
Bianca Belair +450
Rhea Ripley +500
Alexa Bliss +600
Ronda Rousey +800
Shayna Baszler +800
Becky Lynch +900
Bayley +1000
Charlotte Flair +1200
Sasha Banks +1400
Nia Jax +1600
WWE
A CNBC story noting the group that helped organize the violent break-in at the Capitol on Wednesday was donated to by the Linda McMahon led SuperPac.
UFC
Hakeem Dawodu is out of his 1/23 fight with Shane Burgos due to a shoulder injury. Burgos is no longer scheduled to fight on the card.
With Mike Grundy out of the scheduled 1/23 fight with Nik Lentz, Lentz will now face Movsar Evloev. At this point it has not been reported why Grundy is out of the show.
Yancy Medeiros, who lives in Hawaii, was on Friday’s episode of Magnum P.I. He played a trainer of a woman who was being forced to throw a fight by a branch of the Yakuza. In the original Hawaii 5-O, show based in Hawaii, several episodes had pro wrestlers on it for fight scenes and the like. There is a funny Pampero Firpo story where he was supposed to be in an episode, but he came in with ideas for creative for his character and I think they just wanted him as an extra to get beat up and suffice to say he never appeared on that show. (thanks to Grant Zwarych)
AEW
There was a Rest in Peace Jon Huber graphic on Thursday night’s TV show “Impractical Jokers.”
OTHER NEWS
Shawn Daivari was announced as the new Contra member with Jacob Fatu andSimon Gotch in MLW. On Wednesday’s show, Salina de la Renta is supposed to reveal a special surprise for Konnan.
Three former Impact stars made an appearance at Bound for Glory.
All three made an appearance during the 20 person Call Your Shot gauntlet match. The first to return was Daivari, who previously worked for the company under the name Sheik Abdul Bashir.
He was eliminated by the next return, Swoggle, who teamed up with Brian Myers to dump Daivari to the floor. Swoggle was then betrayed by Myers and eliminated soon after. However, before he left, he helped Tommy Dreamer (who wore Road Warrior Animal face paint as a tribute) deliver a Doomsday Device to Myers.
The big surprise of the night was James Storm, who entered at #15. He made it to the final four, but was eliminated by Sami Callihan, who eliminated both Storm and Heath from the match. With Heath’s elimination, he still remains without an Impact contract.
Callihan and Rhyno were the final two entrants in the gauntlet match, setting up a singles match. Rhyno pinned Callihan with a Gore, meaning he will soon get a championship match of his choosing.
