Tag: jaka

Daily Update: Paul Heyman, NXT, Jaka

Posted on by Bryan Rose

Daily Update:

Latest Headlines

Latest Audio

Latest YouTube Video

This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

*AEW moves PPV to HBO MAX , details of the move, programming changes, All Out time move, All Out  card and ticket sales.

*The worst week of TV ratings you can imagine.  Each show broken down into all the details.*Clash in Paris coverage, business ntes
*Changes in Nielsen ratings and how this will affect sports sooner and later
*CMLL World Grand Prix with an 82:00 main event.
*Bandido vs. Hechicero is one of the best matches of 2025.
*ROH coverage including problems with the streaming.
*Early reviews on Smashing Machine starring Dwayne Johnson
*A look at the debut of Real American Freestyle
*Nick Hogan sued Bubba the Love Sponge, what he is suing over and the first court ruling comes in.
*The legend of Buford Pusser, a former pro wrestler who became a famous pop culture figure with movies and a TV show about him, and now it comes out that he may have murdered his wife.
*The Hall of Fame case for Steve Grey.
*CMLL with multiple sellouts coming up.
*Who is now in charge of AAA.
*What’s notable about the makeup of who is in  charge.
*Update on Raja Johnson and Syco Stu
*Ronda Rousey with her thoughts on WWE tenure.
*Updates on Matt Riddle.
*One of the biggest indie crowds of the year in Atlanta this past week.
*Upcoming ticket sales to all the WWE, AEW and TNA shows over the next few months.
*Notes on a new AAA signing.
*What fighter just got a $10 million payout over a lawsuit settlement
*Jon Jones case update
*Chael Sonnen crosses Rick Rude and The Grappler .
*How much is TKO worth.
*How much is Dwayne Johnson’s TK  stock worth
*Notes on the movie Street Fighter and the character named after a pro wrestler.

This Week’s Back Issue

FIRST TIME SUBSCRIBERS GET 50% OFF YOUR FIRST MONTH

Tuesday Update

WWE

  • The full segment from last night’s Raw involving AJ Lee, CM Punk, Becky Lynch, and Seth Rollins
  • Kari Kimmel, who sings AJ Lee’s entrance theme, wrote on Instagram: “AJ Lee is back! And yep…That’s still me on the theme song. I sang “Let’s Light it Up” over a decade ago, and it’s so awesome to hear it lighting up the arena again! Grateful to be a part of something so iconic.”
  • Paul Heyman reacted to The Usos making fun of him on last night’s Raw: “I watched it. I’m glad the fact the fascist dictator of the Island of Relevancy @WWERomanReigns’ horrific guillotine on me is so celebrated. If you thought my actions at #WrestleMania were shocking, wait ’til you see what I am conspiring to pull off next!”
  • Michin reacted to AJ Styles’ Raw promo: “I’ll have your back forever, Uncle Al!”
  • NXT Anonymous has resurfaced, this time capturing Ethan Page talking to Myles Borne following his recent loss to Lexis King.
  • In an interview with Esports Insider, Booker T revealed he’s a huge gamer and is doing voiceovers for WWE’s video games: “Right now, it’s an honour for me, I’m actually doing some of the voiceovers as a commentator for the video games. I’m pretty stoked about that. As soon as I finished this boom, I get started with that in a few minutes. So, I’m a huge gamer. I’ve always been a gamer since I was a kid.”
  • Recent WWE Vault additions include Triple H & Shawn Michaels vs. The Legion of Doom from an October 1997 house show at the Nassau Coliseum, Rey Mysterio vs. Eddie Guerrero in a steel cage match from the September 9, 2005 edition of SmackDown, AJ Lee vs. Kaitlyn from Money in the Bank 2013, and two hours of “gritty brawls.”

AEW & Other Wrestling

Daily Update: TNT Sports & AEW, Taishin Nagao, Jaka

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

Daily Update

Latest Headlines

Latest Audio

Latest YouTube Video

This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

*AEW moves PPV to HBO MAX , details of the move, programming changes, All Out time move, All Out  card and ticket sales.

*The worst week of TV ratings you can imagine.  Each show broken down into all the details.*Clash in Paris coverage, business ntes
*Changes in Nielsen ratings and how this will affect sports sooner and later
*CMLL World Grand Prix with an 82:00 main event.
*Bandido vs. Hechicero is one of the best matches of 2025.
*ROH coverage including problems with the streaming.
*Early reviews on Smashing Machine starring Dwayne Johnson
*A look at the debut of Real American Freestyle
*Nick Hogan sued Bubba the Love Sponge, what he is suing over and the first court ruling comes in.
*The legend of Buford Pusser, a former pro wrestler who became a famous pop culture figure with movies and a TV show about him, and now it comes out that he may have murdered his wife.
*The Hall of Fame case for Steve Grey.
*CMLL with multiple sellouts coming up.
*Who is now in charge of AAA.
*What’s notable about the makeup of who is in  charge.
*Update on Raja Johnson and Syco Stu
*Ronda Rousey with her thoughts on WWE tenure.
*Updates on Matt Riddle.
*One of the biggest indie crowds of the year in Atlanta this past week.
*Upcoming ticket sales to all the WWE, AEW and TNA shows over the next few months.
*Notes on a new AAA signing.
*What fighter just got a $10 million payout over a lawsuit settlement
*Jon Jones cawse update
*Chael Sonnen crosses Rick Rude and The Grappler .
*How much is TKO worth.
*How much is Dwayne Johnson’s TK  stock worth
*Notes on the movie Street Fighter and the character named after a pro wrestler.

This Week’s Back Issue

FIRST TIME SUBSCRIBERS GET 50% OFF YOUR FIRST MONTH

Sunday Update

— Our weekend show with Garrett Gonzales talking about the new Nielsen ratings and what will and won’t be covered and why it’s happening, the worst week of ratings in modern pro wrestling, all the politics and the cards of September 20th, Netflix keeping commercials in the show and coming up with data pretending they don’t, the reason John Cena’s retirement won’t be in Boston and more. Bryan and I will be back tonight talking about the weekend news.

— Tokyo Dome tickets for Hiroshi Tanahashi’s final match on 1/4 were put on sale to foreigners for $750 each. We don’t know the allotment or what this means, but in 15 minutes, the entire allotment had sold out.

— Arena Mexico drew a big crowd on Friday but wasn’t sold out for Mistico & Bandido vs. Angel de Oro & Hechicero.

— Regarding the story about Gunnar Wiedenfels, the head of the future Discovery Global branch of the future WBD split (the one that will own the TV stations), and the sports app for everything under the TNT Sports banner, when this story first broke we had checked about it and were told that AEW has a contract with HBO Max through the end of 2027, so this would not apply to AEW, which is listed as sorts on HBO Max but in actuality is not considered part of TNT Sports.

— Very sorry to hear about the death of Jonathan Echevarria of Beyond Wrestling and other groups, best known as Jaka, who passed away at the age of 39 after suffering a heart attack last weekend. He had been wrestling for 18 years and was very well loved.

— Regarding the news of the death of Taishin Nagao, who was run over by the tour bus accidentally months ago. He had been in a coma for months. The extent of his injuries had been kept secret by All Japan. People didn’t know how bad the situation was, even the Japanese wrestlers. Before the news got out yesterday, the All Japan locker room was told they were taking him off life support.

— Rodolfo Ruiz, a former two-time Mexican national lightweight champion in the 60s and father of Averno, passed away today at the age of 86. When I started following wrestling, Ruiz was considered one of the best lightweights in the world. He debuted in 1962 and held the lightweight title in 1965 and again 1969-71. He was also UWA featherweight champion as late as 1990. He was later a CMLL referee through 2011. He had long since retired in 1999 when he came back to Arena Mexico at the age of 60 for a match with Blue Panther.

— Averno was scheduled for tonight’s main event at Arena Mexico.

— The All Japan Oudou tournament comes down to Ren Ayabe vs. Ryuki Honda and Kento Miyahara vs. Daisuke Sekimoto. The semifinals and finals will be on the 9/15 show at Korakuen Hall.

— Stardom yesterday had a PPV in Yokohama with Saya Kamitani retaining the World of Stardom title over Bea Priestley, Starlight Kid retaining the Wonder of Stardom title over Tomoka Inaba and Sareee retaining the IWGP women’s title over Suzu Suzuki.

— Benny Saldie was given the award for Best Director at the 2025 Vince Film Festival in Italy for “Smashing Machine,” the movie starring Dwayne Johnson that is getting Oscar buzz.

— Announced for Dynamite on Wednesday is Ricochet vs. Shelton Benjamin, Mercedes Mone & Emi Sakura vs. Riho & Alex Windsor, Toni Storm vs. Skye Blue in a street fight and Adam Page vs. Josh Alexander in a non-title match.

— Raw tomorrow night from Milwaukee is the first show of the year against Monday Night Football.  It starts at 8 p.m., the regular time. AJ Lee will be there to help set up the CM Punk & Lee vs. Seth Rollins & Becky Lynch match. Also AJ Styles vs. Grande Americano, Tyra Valkyrie vs. Raquel Rodriguez and the Usos back together.

— Also on last night’s show they teased a Big Bill vs. Eddie Kingston match, so Kingston is returning soon.

— So if the rating of Dynamite wasn’t strange enough setting an unbelievable record low of 472,000 viewers  and 0.11, when it aired on Friday in the U.K. it drew the highest number for a  live episode of the show since February and was up 103 percent from the same week last year.  While U.K. ratings vary too much to take individual numbers that seriously although I’m sure as a trend they are accurate over long-term, the idea of the same show in the same week doing a terrible number in the U.S. and a tremendous number in the U.K. is something.

— RevPro has announced its biggest undertaking to date. They will run August 29, 2026 at OVO Arena at Wembley, the night before AEW runs at Wembley Stadium. It’s also notable they were able to announce it given WWE has a show in the same building in January for Raw.

— On the night AJ Lee returned to WWE, one of her movies debuted on Hulu. The movie is named “Sacramento,” starring Michael Cera. She played the owner of a wrestling gym and had 10-15 minutes of screen time, credited as AJ Mendes. The movie is available for rent as well through other platforms (thanks to Harold Kruger)

— In Google searches for the weekend, as you can imagine it’s dominated by the NFL and College Football.  The Canelo Alvarez vs. Terrence Crawford boxing match this coming Saturday had 50,000 searches. The UFC show yesterday from Paris had 95,000, which is along the lines of the WWE show the previous week.

— Longtime Carolinas wrestler George South turned 63 today. Nora Greenwald aka Molly Holly turned 48. The Great Antonio, who once appeared on “The Tonight Show” and was famous for Rikidozan and later Antonio Inoki beating the hell out of him for real, died on this day 22 years ago at 77.

— We didn’t hear about any killer matches this weekend although we were told the Wrestling Revolver match with Leon Slater, Man Like DeReiss, Marcus Mathers and Ante Leon was said to be very good.

— Josh Barnett announced two former MMA fighters on the 9/28 Bloodsport show in London at the Electric Ballroom. Oli Thomipson, a strongman who has fought in Bellator and UFC and was the pro wrestling IGF world champion faces Chris Bungard from Scotland, who has also fought in Bellator.

— The Team 3D vs. Hardys match at Bound for Glory will be a tables match.

Former EVOLVE wrestler Jaka passes away at 39 years old

Posted on by Bryan Rose

Jonathan Echevarria, an independent wrestler who worked for many promotions including Beyond Wrestling and EVOLVE under the name Jaka, has passed away.

Beyond was the first to confirm the news, writing: “The original Ace. RIP Jaka.”

On Thursday, Jaka’s family announced that the 39 year old was in the intensive care unit and in critical condition after suffering a heart attack. A GoFundMe was launched shortly thereafter to cover medical expenses.

“Jonathan is the kind of person who brings laughter and energy wherever he goes—a fun, lovable pain in the butt who means the world to us,” his sister Annette wrote at the time. “Seeing him in this state has been incredibly difficult, but we are staying strong for him and for each other.”

Jaka made his pro wrestling debut in 2007 and wrestled for various promotions including FIP, Chikara, CZW, Wrestling is Fun, and GCW. He is a former EVOLVE Tag Team Champion with Chris Dickinson. In Beyond Wrestling, he was part of Team Pazuzu with Mike Santana and Ortiz. He also worked an episode of AEW Dark: Elevation in 2021 and had a match during WWE’s WrestleMania Axxess event in 2018.

Former EVOLVE wrestler Jaka in ICU after heart attack

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Former EVOLVE wrestler Jaka (Jonathan Echevarria) is battling for his life after suffering a heart attack.

Jaka’s family announced on Thursday that he is currently in the intensive care unit and in critical condition. A GoFundMe campaign — which has already raised more than $13,000 in just a few hours — has been started to help assist him with medical bills and the other expenses he’s going to face in his recovery.

“He is currently in the ICU after suffering a heart attack and remains in critical condition. Our family is holding tightly to faith, praying for his complete healing and full restoration,” Jaka’s sister Annette wrote. “Jonathan is the kind of person who brings laughter and energy wherever he goes—a fun, lovable pain in the butt who means the world to us. Seeing him in this state has been incredibly difficult, but we are staying strong for him and for each other.”

A $5,000 donation to the GoFundMe was made by AEW’s Tony Khan. In addition to his indie work, Jaka wrestled one match for AEW on an episode of Dark: Elevation in 2021 and worked a match at WWE WrestleMania Axxess in 2018

Jaka is a former EVOLVE Tag Team Champion, holding the titles twice with Chris Dickinson. He and Dickinson were stablemates in both Catch Point and Team Pazuzu.

Anthony Henry tweeted: “If you are able, please donate to my friend Jaka. I’ve battled this dude so many times and know how tough he is. He will make it through, but this is a horrible time he is going through, and any help is appreciated.”

Street Profits vs. Chris Dickinson & Jaka confirmed for EVOLVE 114

Posted on by Joseph Currier

On what’s been a busy week of announcements concerning EVOLVE’s relationship with WWE, two NXT wrestlers have been confirmed for EVOLVE 114.

The Street Profits (NXT’s Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford) will challenge for Chris Dickinson & Jaka’s EVOLVE Tag Team titles at EVOLVE 114 in Ybor City, Florida this Sunday. Dawkins & Ford answering Dickinson & Jaka’s open challenge had been teased on Twitter before the match was officially announced.

WWE.com is also teasing further NXT involvement in Sunday’s show: “Sources say the upcoming match has gotten the attention of the NXT locker room, meaning there’s no telling who else could attend this Sunday’s event.”

All matches with WWE/NXT wrestlers at EVOLVE shows will now air live on the Club WWN subscription service. Mustafa Ali vs. DJZ is set for EVOLVE 115 in Livonia, Michigan on November 9, Ali is facing Darby Allin at EVOLVE 116 in Oak Lawn, Illinois on November 10, and Kassius Ohno will be wrestling at EVOLVE 117 in Queens, New York on December 15 and EVOLVE 118 in Deer Park, New York on December 16.