An update is available regarding the GoFundMe campaign launched to bring deceased wrestling fan Marc Izard home.
Izard passed away while attending WWE WrestleMania weekend in Las Vegas earlier this month. Family and friends launched the fundraiser to help cover the costs of bringing him home to the United Kingdom and paying for funeral services.
According to the campaign page, any remaining funds raised will be donated in Marc’s memory to Diabetes UK & Addenbrooke’s Hospital Charitable Trust, and the Make-A-Wish Foundation, charities he supported.
As of this writing, the campaign has raised €16,235, approximately $19,000 USD, toward its €30,000 goal.
Some notable donations listed on the fundraiser include Chris Jericho, who donated €1,100. Gabe Kidd, using his real name Gabe McMenamin, donated €1,000. Natalya Neidhart also donated €258.
The GoFundMe reads:
“Marc traveled the world for wrestling. Now, we just want to bring him home one last time. Thank you for your kindness, your prayers, and your support. The Izard family & friends.”
The reasons behind Dwayne Johnson, Dany Garcia and Gerry Cardinale buying the XFL in bankruptcy court, the new WWE President and how television viewership of all the major pro wrestling shows has changed since the pandemic started are the lead stories in this week’s issue of the Wrestling Observer. Newsletter.
We look at the timeline of the XFL purchase, financials behind it, the goals, can the goals be achieved, why Dwayne Johnson is key, what Johnson is trying to do with the league that Vince McMahon couldn’t, and why this is such a difficult time to do so and why the interest level was what it was.
The new issue also covers:
WWE’s hiring of Nick Khan as President and Chief Revenue Officer, where he comes from, his connection with wrsetling, his connections in sports, the value of his contract, and the specific strongest value he brings.
We go through every wrestling show with notes on viewership overall and in demos, who is losing and at what pace. We look at what is turning viewers away, what is keeping viewers, and what show actually has increased viewers in an age group and what this says, the key takes from the patterns of gains and losses.
The return of pro wrestling to Mexico City and the restrictions that have been put in place.
The issues with unionizing wrestlers as well as Equity on treatmet of women in U.K. pro wrestling.
Updates on the major U.S. pro wrestling shows over the next month.
The NBA playoffs affecting the AEW schedule in August and September.
Rey Mysterio and contract talks.
Notes on furloughed WWE employees, chaos backstage at WWE tapings, WWE developmental and NXT talent and training, News from the Saudi Arabia lawsuit, behind Raw Underground, update on WWE draft, NXT writers update, Canadian ratings, Ali talks his situation, new WWE sigings, upcoming TV matches, and the most-watched shows on WWE Network.
A feature on Rollerball Mark Rocco, the best U.K. wrestler of his era.
This past week’s UFC show.
The migration of the audience and what days they watch wrestling, and the one demo that is holding firm to Friday in a big way.
Ratings of all the major shows, the key demos and quarters for AEW and WWE, what happened head-to-head and what can be learned from them.
Results of all the major pro wrestling events around the world over the past week.
ORDERING INFO: Order the print Wrestling Observer right now and get it delivered via mail, by sending your name, address, Visa or Master Card number and an expiration date to [email protected] or by going to www.paypal.com directing funds to [email protected].
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For the rest of the world, rates are $18 for 4, $48.50 for 12, $93 for 24, $155 for 40 and $201.50 for 52.
If you order by mail with a check, cash or money order to P.O. Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228, you can get $1 off in every price range.
MONDAY NEWS UPDATE
Bryan and I will be back tonight taking the death of James “Kamala” Harris, Raw, more business trends and taking your questions that can be sent to [email protected].
UFC fighter Geoff Neal revealed this past week had a major health scare and almost died, and spent a week in the hospital and needed dialysis. He’s home and doing better, but he’s out of his 8/29 scheduled fight with Neil Magny. Robbie Lawler will be facing Magny instead.
The Mike Tyson vs. Roy Jones Jr. exhibition fight and PPV show scheduled for 9/12 and it now looks to be taking place on 11/28 according to a story in MMA Fighting. I wonder how that works out for AEW as they are looking at a late November PPV date.
Not a lot promoted ahead of time for Raw. This show was taped last Monday. Ric Flair is there for the Randy Orton vs. Kevin Owens match. Bayley vs. Asuka will face and if Asuka wins, she faces Sasha Banks at SummerSlam. There will be a contract signing opening the show with Seth Rollins vs. Dominik Mysterio. And Mickie James returns. She’s been out of action 14 months after knee reconstruction surgery. She’s been ready for months to return. There will no doubt be a bunch of Redemption fun and Raw Underground as they try to keep the teenager ratings gains from last week.
There has been a GoFundMe set up for funeral expenses and family help for the family of James “Kamala Harrris. For more information you can check out the page here.
The Seadlinnng promotion announced that tomorrow’s show has been canceled. A number of women on the show worked a weekend Pro Wrestling WAVE show in Japan where one of the wrestlers who was on the show later tested positive for COVID.
WWE
NXT on Wednesday has Karrion Kross vs. Danny Burch, and Kushida vs. Cameron Grimes vs. ? with the winner going to the North American title ladder match at Takeover and the person who doesn’t get pinned going into a singles match the following Wednesday for another spot in the five-man ladder match.
FS1 will be airing the 2019 SummerSlam show with Brock Lesnar vs. Seth Rollins, Kofi Kingston vs. Randy Orton, Shane McMahon vs. Kevin Owens, Becky Lynch vs. Natalya, A.J. Styles vs. Ricochet, Bayley vs. Ember Moon, Finn Balor vs. Bray Wyatt, Bill Goldberg vs. Dolph Ziggler and Charlotte Flair vs. Trish Stratus.
The WWE Network has added Kamala content from a number of different promotions including WWF, Mid South, Mid Atlantic, Mid Atlantic, World Class and other promotions.
Bret Hart will be on The Bump this week.
UFC
Zabit Magomedsharipov, who was scheduled to headline the 8/29 show against Yair Rodriguez, is now off the show. Rodriguez pulled out due to a injury and Magomedsharipov has returned to Russia. By returning, he won’t be able to come back for a fight by that date.
Bryan Barbarena vs. Anthony Ivy has been added to the 9/12 show in Las Vegas.
Tomorrow night’s Dana White Contenders Series lineup. The show airs at 8 p.m. Eastern every Tuesday night on ESPN+
Dustin Stoltzfus vs. Joe Pyfer – middleweight
Adrian Yanez vs. Brady Huang – bantamweight
Vanessa Demopoulos vs Cory McKenna – strawweight
TJ Laramie vs. Daniel Swain – featherweight
Anthony Adams vs. Impa Kasanganay – middleweights
AEW
The AEW women’s tag team tournament has two matches tonight as Dasha Kuret (Dasha Gonzalez) & Rachael Ellering face Ivelisse & Diamante plus one other match.
It will also be interesting to gauge the ratings this week on Wednesday. AEW did its best mark since March last week and beat both Raw and Smackdown in 18-34, the first time it beat either show in the same week let alone both, which is more amazing because of the huge edge Smackdown has been having on a network.
This week’s show has Chris Jericho vs Orange Cassidy as the likely main event, plus Kenny Omega & Adam Page defend the tag titles against Luchasaurus & Jungle Boy,Young Bucks vs. Stu Grayson & Evil Uno, the FTR tag team celebration with Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson, and Cody vs. Scorpio Sky for the TV title.
Dark for tomorrow night:
Private Party vs. Brian Pillman Jr. & Griff Garrison
Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian vs. Butcher & Blade
Alex Chamberlain vs. Shawn Spears
Rey Fenix vs. Lee Johnson
Michael Stevens. vs. Kip Sabian
Jungle Boy & Luchasaurus & Marko Stunt vs. Aaron Solow & Pineapple Pete & Corey Hollis
Austin & Billy Gunn vs. M-BAdu & Shawn Dean
Dustin Rhodes & QT Marshall vs. Jack Evans & Angelico
MISCELLANEOUS
Abema.TV has a special free airing of today’s NOAH 20th anniversary show that featured a 60:00 draw with Go Shiozaki vs. Kenou in a title vs. title match plus Keiji Muto vs. Kaito Kiyomiya. (thanks to Jose Gonzalez)
RevPro has the first major show back in the U.K. scheduled for 8/23 at 8 p.m. BST on FITE TV with a women’s main event of Gisele Shaw vs. Jamie Hayter for the British women’s title plus Will Ospreay & Michael Oku vs. Ricky Knight Jr.(who has great potential) & Kyle Fletcher.
The final episode of this season of Titan Games with Dwayne Johnson airs tonight at 8 p.m. on NBC.
The documentary “You Cannot Kill David Arquette” is being released on 8/28. The movie is about Arquette’s recent return to pro wrestling doing independent shows around the country. He will be doing media this month to promote the release.
Dave Bautista was on Friday night’s episode of Room 104 on HBO playing a troubled retired pro wrestler (thanks to Joe Puccio)
Very interesting story on the former Mad Maxine, Jeannie Mjoseth, and her new book which is a novel about pro wrestling based on her career, and her thoughts on Fabulous Moolah, her trainer. (thanks to Mike Kuzmuk)
More than two months removed from the first women’s WrestleMania main event, the WWE women’s division is struggling to regain the momentum it had earlier this year.
In a rematch from Money in the Bank, Becky Lynch will defend her Raw Women’s Championship against Lacey Evans at Stomping Grounds. Bayley and Alexa Bliss will look to improve upon their underwhelming feud from 2017 as they face off for the SmackDown Women’s Championship at the pay-per-view.
A look at what we can learn from the ticket sales to AEW’s All Out show, the ticket demand, how it compares with WrestleMania’s and major UFC events, details on the number, why the secondary market tickets are so limited, why ticket demand was so strong out of the block, reaction of the ticket industry, details on the process used for selling the ticket and what the number mean, and rate of sales for the biggest WrestleMania.
Also have a look at WWE Stomping Grounds, including ticket demand, lineup, thoughts on the matches, interest in Super Showdown and more.
Read a preview of the G-1 Climax tournament, with the lineups, who are the favorites, different storyline directions, what matches will air on television, live broadcast times of every show on the tour and more.
Take a look at Adrian “Lionheart” McCallum and his recovery from a broken neck to become a U.K. star, and the sad ending of his life.
Also look at cities being considered for WrestleMania, what city is a favorite for the next two years, value of WWE to FOX and FOX Friday numbers, WWE gets an Espy, full card for next Takeover, update on XFL, death of AAF and how they are related, more Ric Flair legal issues, funny stories on WWE names, new movie with WWE stars, new TV deal, WWE salaries and revenue, and a WWE star honored.
This issue has a complete rundown of Bellator in Madison Square Garden, the plight of Aaron Pico, notes on the new fighters, pushed fighters who lost and match-by-match coverage.
ORDERING INFO: Order the print Wrestling Observer right now and get it delivered via mail, by sending your name, address, Visa or Master Card number and an expiration date to [email protected] or by going to www.paypal.com directing funds to [email protected].
Rates in the United States are $14.50 for 4 issues, $35.50 for 12, $70 for 24, $116 for 40 and $149.50 for 52.
In Canada and Mexico, the rates are $16 for 4, $27 for 8, $38.50 for 12, $76 for 24, $126 for 40 and $162.50 for 52.
For the rest of the world, rates are $18 for 4, $48.50 for 12, $93 for 24, $155 for 40 and $201.50 for 52.
If you order by mail with a check, cash or money order to P.O. Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228, you can get $1 off in every price range.
THURSDAY NEWS UPDATE
Bobby Eaton, 60, has been hospitalized since Friday with heart issues. Jim Cornette reported that congestive heart failure led to fluid buildup in Eaton’s chest, legs and other parts of his body, forcing his heart to have to pump harder. He’s being treated with medication and diuretics and his heart rate is now down and his pacemaker is working well.
Shawn Michaels spoke to Challenge Mania about his new movie, 90 Feet from Home, how taxing the role was, transitioning to acting and his decision to snip off the hair.
NXT this weekend has shows tonight in San Antonio, tomorrow night in Houston, Saturday night in Dallas and Sunday in Oklahoma City.
Paul Heyman has gotten into a Twitter battle with Ranveer Singh, an actor from India, who used the phrase, “Eat. Sleep. Dominate. Repeat.” Heyman wrote he’s litigious and then Eat. Sleep. Deposition. Repeat.
UFC
UFC is working on a stadium show in Australia for the Robert Whittaker vs. Israel Adesanya middleweight title match.
UFC also runs an 8/3 show at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ.
Alexey Kunchenko vs. Laureano Staropoli has been added to the 8/10 show in Montevideo, Uruguay.
MISCELLANEOUS
Bret Hart and Corey Feldman will be starring in a horror movie “Tales From The Dead Zone” about a medical examiner conducting autopsies on the victims or a horrible car crash, who imagines how they may have lived their lives. (thanks to Joe Puccio)
Colt Cabana is out of action with a hematoma on his thigh which has left his with weakening of the leg so he had to pull himself off his bookings this week.
Jim Ross has announced live shows on 7/12 in Jacksonville, the night before Fight for the Fallen, and 7/14 in Philadelphia, before the Extreme Rules show.
The Von Erichs & Tom Lawlor vs. Jacob Fatu & Simon Gotch & Josef Samael will headline Saturday night’s MLW TV show, plus Richard Holiday vs. Teddy Hart and Jordan Oliver vs. Isais Velasquez.
Barbi Hayden is claiming she has signed somewhere. She pulled out of a show in the U.K. because of her signing. She has also worked as Abilene Maverick with WOW. (thanks to Shannon Walsh)
Kevin Eck reported a former ROH tag team champion will be returning next weekend at the Baltimore PPV or Philadelphia TV tapings and that a former ROH star from outside the U.S. will be returning full-time in the near future.
AAW on 6/28 in Merrionette Park, IL at 115 Bourbon Street has LAX vs. Besties in the World vs. Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz, Jake Something vs. Trey Miguel for the AAW Heritage title, Jimmy Jacobs vs. Mance Warner loser leaves town, Kris Statlander vs. Priscilla Kelly, Eddie Kingston & Curt Stallion vs AR Fox & Myron Reed plus Sami Callihan,Fatu, Ace Austin and Clayton Gainz. They also run 7/12 in Milwaukee at the Turner Hall Ballroom.
Silas Young vs. Josh Woods and Angelina Love vs. Jenny Rose vs. Tasha Steelz vs. Stella Grey for a shot at Kelly Klein’s WOH title have been added to the 6/29 ROH TV tapings in Philadelphia.
Dean Malenko will be doing a seminar on 7/21 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the CZW Wrestling Academy in Voorhees, NJ. The seminar cost is $75. It’s open to pro wrestlers of any experience level. Check here for more info.
J.D. Drake defends the WWN title against Babatunde of WWE on the 6/30 Evolve show in Brooklyn. Bobby Fish won’t be wrestling on that show but will be doing a meet and greet, along with Roderick Strong and Kyle O’Reilly.
O’Reilly vs. Josh Briggs takes place on the 6/30 show as well.
Newcomers headed to Evolve are John Silver, Brandon Watts, Randy Summers, Milk Chocolate and Steven Pena.
Roderick Strong will be doing a seminar as part of the 6/30 Evolve tryout in Brooklyn. This is open to wrestlers, referees and managers.
Evolve on 6/29 in Queens, NY:
Austin Theory vs. Leon Ruff for Evolve title
Roderick Strong & Kyle O’Reilly vs. JD Drake & Anthony Henry
Josh Briggs vs. Arturo Ruas
Brandi Lauren vs. Shotzi Blackheart
AR Fox vs. Stephen Wolf
Plus Eddie Kingston, Joe Gacy and Babatunde
Gouge on Saturday at 2 p.m. in Fuquay Varna, NC at the Fainting Goat Brewery.
CWE on 6/29 in Morden, Manitoba at the Access Event Centre with Lanny Poffo & Sam Davidson vs. Jay Walker & Gabriel Lestat.
Tickets are on sale for the Fighters Only Awards on 7/3 at the Pearl at the Palms in LasVgas at Ticketmaster.
IPWA on 8/26 in Lehavot Haviva, Israel features Rabbi Swiss vs. Joey Ryan and promises to convert Ryan in the match. (thanks to Kevin Chiat)
MWE on 7/12 in St. Louis Park, MN at the Rec Center’s ROC featuring an appearance of Nikita Koloff.
Action Wrestling on 6/21 in Tyrone, GA with Marko & Logan Stunt.
Shine announced they have canceled their 7/12 show in Philadelphia. They announced it was due to conditions beyond our control. Shine is still running an 8/24 show in Livonia, MI at 4 p.m. before an Evolve show in the same building. Shine is also running 6/29 at La Boom in Queens, NY at 3 p.m.
