YouTube star and budding boxer Jake Paul is continuing his climb up the MMA food chain as he will face former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley in a boxing match.
The Athletic was the first to report the news which has yet to be formally announced. The fight will be on August 28th with the venue still TBA, expected to be announced this Saturday during the Logan Paul vs. Floyd Mayweather exhibition boxing match in Miami, Florida.
The 24-year-old Paul (3-0) is coming off a swift first round knockout of Woodley teammate and former Bellator/ONE champion Ben Askren in mid-April while the 39-year-old Woodley is riding a four-fight losing streak in the UFC. He became a free agent after his last fight, a March first round submission loss to Vicente Luque. His last win came in September 2018.
This will be Woodley’s first professional boxing match. He has seven knockouts and two knockout losses in 27 professional MMA fights over a twelve year career.
After the Askren fight did big business for Triller/FITE.tv, Paul signed a multi-fight deal with Showtime.
Dave Meltzer reports on WWE returning to live crowds, the proposed WarnerMedia-Discovery merger, Nick Khan has been in talks with New Japan Pro Wrestling about WWE becoming NJPW’s exclusive American partner.
Also in this issue:
Updating WWE going on tour and what early ticket sales show
Double or Nothing preview and ticket sales for all upcoming AEW events and what it says about the brand right now
Full UFC coverage from last week
A look at both Warrior documentaries and separating fact from fiction
Collision in Korea and going through fact vs. fiction as well
Most detailed look at television viewership over the past week
Amazing training notes about an 80s star about to return to the ring
AEW TV schedule notes for June
And much more.
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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.
FRIDAY NEWS UPDATE
Bryan and I will be back tonight talking about all the latest news and there is a lot of it, including Smackdown, AEW Dynamite, New Japan/WWE talks, SummerSlam and more. You can send questions for any of these subjects to [email protected]
Smackdown on FOX at 8 p.m. Eastern tonight
Rey & Dominik Mysterio vs. Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode for the tag titles
Jimmy & Jey Uso vs. Street Profits
AEW tonight at 10 p.m. Eastern on TNT has:
Jade Cargill open challenge
Darby Allin vs. Cezar Bononi
Scorpio Sky & Ethan Page vs. Stu Grayson & Evil Uno
Joey Janela vs. Adam Page
Miro vs. Dante Martin for TNT title
Hikaru Shida one year anniversary as champion celebration
Inner Circle feature with Eric Bischoff
New Japan Strong tonight at 10 pm. Eastern on New Japan World:
Clark Connors vs. AJZ
El Phantasmo vs. Wheeler Yuta
Tom Lawlor vs Chris Dickinson for Strong Openweight championship
CMLL has a PPV tonight on the Mexican Ticketmaster site featuring a one-night family tournament, the Copa Dinastia
Adam Cole talks about Pete Dunne on the Mark Andrews podcast. The full interviews with Cole and also Dunne are available to listen to now on latest episode of the Mark Andrews: My Love Letter to Wrestling podcast.
On Tuesday night’s Jeopardy show, the category was tournaments and the clue was “This organization’s first King of the Ring saw Don Muraco beat The Iron Sheik,” which of course meant “What is WWE.” (thanks to Ken Raftery)
UFC
Michel Pereira vs. Niko Price has been added to the 7/10 UFC show in Las Vegas.
Triller announced a concert with Hip Hop superstar Meek Mill, Latin star Myke Towers and Reggaeton star Lunay directly before its 6/19 boxing PPV show at 7:30 p.m. Eastern.
Innovate Wrestling on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. at the Kingsport Civic Auditorium
IWF on 8/21 and 8/22 in Nutley, NJ at the Rec Center. Headlining is former ECW and WWE wrestler Nunzio.
The new Federacion promotion in Mexico announced Shane Taylor and Extreme Tiger for the 6/19 PPV show.
ROH Survival of the Fittest will debut next weekend on TV with Flamita vs. Rey Horus. Also set for TV is Josh Woods vs. Silas Young in a Pure rules match.
Originally scheduled for early-February and once thought to be dead, the Floyd Mayweather vs. Logan Paul boxing exhibition is back on, announced for June 6 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, Florida.
The event will air on Showtime PPV for $49.99 and will not keep with the original concept of fans paying more the closer it gets to the fight. Paul had initially said the reason for the delay was due to COVID-19 and wanting fans in the stands.
The 44-year-old Mayweather is shorter and lighter than the 26-year-old Paul. Yet to be announced is how many rounds, the size of gloves, rules, and what Paul can weigh in at. An undercard wasn’t announced.
Mayweather has been retired for several years, but returned for a December 2018 exhibition against Japanese kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa, winning easily in under three minutes. Before that, he ran his pro record to 50-0 by defeating former UFC champion Conor McGregor.by tenth round TKO in August 2017.
Paul, a former Disney Channel star turned YouTube star that is known to WWE fans for his involvement in the Sami Zayn-Kevin Owens WrestleMania 37 match, has boxed just once, losing a split decision to another YouTube star.
His brother, Jake, is 3-0 in his young boxing career and recently dispatched Ben Askren quickly by knockout. He and former UFC double champion Daniel Cormier got into a war of words at Saturday’s UFC 261. Cormier challenged Paul to fight him in MMA while Paul declined, insisting they box instead which he detailed in an interview with Ariel Helwani.
We have a loaded issue of the Wrestling Observer this week, with business and history features.
We update WWE financials, with comments from Nick Khan, Vince McMahon, Stephanie McMahon and Kristina Salen talking about the state of the company, the state of sports business, what media companies are looking at right now, AEW, plus a look at WWE revenue and profits. We also look behind the numbers at what they mean, how every category is doing and what categories the company is no longer reporting on. We also look at the decline of WWE ratings as compared to that of cable television and network television.
Also in this issue:
The new attempt at a unique concept PPV with the Triller promotion and Ben Askren vs. Jake Paul, the show, the match, the blitzed announcers, Ric Flair, comparisons to other similar things and long-term sustainability.
Kenny Omega vs Rich Swann match, followed by a story on famous title unification matches throughout pro wrestling history. We look at some of the biggest and most important matches of all-time that were two champions unifying a world title from 1920 to the present.
WrestleMania business numbers when it came to the two live shows, with real attendance, real gates and what it means.
New Smackdown announcing team, Pat McAfee talks his debut, Daniel Bryan talks his current situation and contract, thoughts on Daniel Bryan’s future, new hires and departures at WWE, change in show distribution, former star talks coming out of retirement, how the WWE & AEW shows rank among sports programming, WWE star bio released, Damien Priest talks Bad Bunny, more on Kalisto being let go, Dr. Wagner Jr. talks WWE, political reason for a winning streak, and most-watched YouTube segments on his week’s WWE programming.
A major feature on the career of Steve Austin and the A&E special, his background, how he got into wrestling, the WCW years, the Stone Cold name, life after wrestling, and what were key things not talked about on the documentary.
Mickie James garbage bag situation and the firing of Mark Carrano.
MLW’s new television deal, who else was in talks about that deal, MLW returning to shows with fans and a spinoff planned.
Coverage of this past week’s UFC show, business notes, where the top fighters are headed plus match-by-match coverage.
More detail on ratings than any other source, we have how every segment on NXT and AEW did as well as how it did with different age groups, genders and more, plus a look at all other wrestling shows of the past week.
Results of the major pro wrestling events of the past week.
ORDERING INFO: Order the print Wrestling Observer right now and get it delivered via mail, by sending your name, address, Visa or Master Card number and an expiration date to [email protected] or by going to www.paypal.com directing funds to [email protected].
Rates in the United States are $14.50 for 4 issues, $35.50 for 12, $70 for 24, $116 for 40 and $149.50 for 52.
In Canada and Mexico, the rates are $16 for 4, $27 for 8, $38.50 for 12, $76 for 24, $126 for 40 and $162.50 for 52.
For the rest of the world, rates are $18 for 4, $48.50 for 12, $93 for 24, $155 for 40 and $201.50 for 52.
If you order by mail with a check, cash or money order to P.O. Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228, you can get $1 off in every price range.
MONDAY NEWS UPDATE
Bryan and I will be back tonight talking Raw, New Japan, what the NHL deal means as far as pro wrestling goes and much more. You can send questions for the show to [email protected]
The second NHL contract looks like it will end up with Turner Broadcasting, a seven-year deal at $225 million per year. This has a ton of ramifications when it comes to both pro wrestling rights fees, as well as time slots. We’ll talk a lot more about that tonight and there is an article already written in the Observer regarding what this means for wrestling and MMA. Fox & FS 1 were thought to be the frontrunners, while NBC/USA pulled out officially today. WWE President Nick Khan on Thursday said that he thought NBCU would not be getting the NHL deal. When NBC dropped NBC Sports Network, part of the deal was to add sports programming, with the key being the NHL and NASCAR, to USA, but evidently they didn’t want to bid as high as the numbers got for a partial package.
We’re looking for your thoughts on last night’s UFC show as well as tonight’s Impact Rebellion, you can leave a thumbs up, down or middle, best and worst match for each show to [email protected]
Daniel Cormier, on his show with Ariel Helwani, said that he wanted to smash Jake Paul on Saturday but he can’t do that at work and would have gotten into trouble. He challenged Paul to an MMA fight, saying he has no interest in boxing him but if he wants to fight him, fight in mixed rules. He said he would cut to 205 and would come out of retirement for such a fight. That is not going to happen.
Raw tonight has Drew McIntyre & Braun Strowman vs. T-Bar & Mace, Miz & Elias & Jaxson Ryker vs. Damien Priest & Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods and Nia Jax & Shyana Baszler & Rhea Ripley vs Asuka & Lana & Naomi. Bobby Lashley is also scheduled for an interview.
Tickets for AEW’s Blood and Guts went on sale this morning. We don’t know how many tickets were put on sale. It was not 2,500 but they will open up to 2,500 if they have the demand. They put about 1,500 tickets on sale, or that could be off by 100 or so in either direction, and the last time I checked they were 353 tickets shy of a sellout.
Triller filed a lawsuit against 11 streaming companies and 100 individuals (not named) claiming piracy in both offering and selling their PPV. They claimed there were two million people at least who streamed it illegally and that cost them $100 million.
The company released a statement saying:
It’s shocking to think a theft so grand can be done so blatantly and brazenly and with no remorse. There is zero difference between what they did and walking into a market stealing tons of a product and selling it at a discount in the parking lot. It’s neither civilly nor criminally any different, and we are prosecuting to the fullest extent of the law. There were more than two million illegal streams, akin to hundreds of millions of dollars. Sites, mostly using Google’s YouTube, such as FILMDAILY.COM, ACCESSTVPRO.CO, enONLINE2LIVESTREAM.US, CRACKSTREAMSLIVE.COM, SPORTS-TODAY.CLUB, MY-SPORTS.CLUB, BILASPORT.COM, TRENDY CLIPS, MIKE, YOUR EXTRA, ECLIPT GAMING, ITSLILBRANDON, and others are causing significant damage not just to Triller Fight Club but content creators overall. People put a lot of hard work, time and money into creating a product for the consumer, and having it stolen and resold is terribly damaging. The good news is they are not protected by VPN masking or other firewalls as their activities are criminal and grand theft, so we will ultimately find them and prevail not just for us but for content creators in general.
Ryan Kavanaugh, co-controlling shareholder, Triller
Vice announced that the trailer for the 5/6 two-hour Dark Side of the ring season premiere on Brian Pillman will be out tomorrow.
WWE
Next week’s A&E biography will be about Randy Savage. The A&E Biography website has both the Steve Austin and Roddy Piper documentaries up.
Mickie James will be doing an interview on her Grown Ass Women podcast on YouTube on Wednesday at 5 p.m.talking about her being let go and the garbage bag story.
OTHER NOTES
A sad story about two brothers who won the New Jersey state high school tournament and their grandmother dying right after is at (thanks to Barry Werner)
Memphis Wrestling from Saturday’s TV show: Bam Bam Malone NC Action Jackson, Diana Taylor b Paris Kelly, Da Russell Twins b Ryan Rembrandt & Precious, Norman Meklakov b Justin Cole, Chris Lexx b Carter Matthews, Austin Lane b Van Vicious. They are building the 5/15 television show called the Grind City Rumble. They are doing a taping with Jerry Jarrett as a guest. The show airs at Noon every Saturday on CW 30 and on YouTube. The Twitch review show with longtime Observer subscriber Brian Tramel and RynoJB is at 1 p.m. every Saturday called Rollin Into Mempho.
Combate Global announced an all women’s show on Univision this coming Friday night called Combate Latina starting at 12:30 a.m. late Friday night. The show takes place at the Univision studios in Miami. It airs on Televisa In Mexico at 5 p.m. local time Saturday. The main event has Criszaida Adames (4-0) vs. Karen Cedillo (4-1). In the co-feature, Dulce Garcia (2-0) faces Claudia Diaz (0-2). Dulce Garcia is much better known as pro wrestler Sexy Star of AAA and Lucha Underground fame.
El Hijo de L.A. Park vs. Bu Ku Dao was announced for MLW Fusion on Wednesday night.
AAW results from Saturday night in Villa Park, IL: Ace Perry b Jake Lander, Skye Blue b Katie Arquette, Mat Fitchett b Thomas Shire, Schaff b Davey Vega, Myron Reed b Brayden Lee to keep the Heritage title, Hyan b Skye Blue 2/3 falls, Fred Yehi b Matt Justice. Next show is 5/7 at 115 Bourbon Street in Merrionette Park, IL with Mance Warner vs. Fred Yehi for the AAW heavyweight title, Myron Reed vs. Mat Fitchett for the Heritage title, Davey Vega vs. ACH, Skye Blue vs. Allysin Kay plus Ace Austin, Mad Man Fulton, Lio Rush, Laredo Kid, Jake Something, Manders, Bryden Lee, Ace Perry, Matt Justice and more.
ONE will air after Dynamite at 10 p.m. Wednesday night on TNT with Aung L N Sang (26-11) vs. Reinier de Ridder (13-0) for the light heavyweight title, Eddie Alvarez (30-8) vs. Rae Yoon Ok (14-3) and Kirill Grishenko (3-0) vs. Oumar Kane (3-0). Notable is that Shinya Aoki’s fight with Eduard Folayang will be airing on B/R Live, and not on TNT.
The Brady Roberts podcast MINT CONDITION MUSCLE has a new interview with NXT’s Franky Monet, talking about her background in fitness competitions, training under Lance Storm, being discovered by Shad Gaspard and marrying John Morrison.
World Wrestling Entertainment gave a very enthusiastic look at its future on the 4/22 investors conference headed by President Nick Khan, with Chief Brand Officer Stephanie McMahon and Chief Financial Officer Kristina Salen.
Like with the last call, Vince McMahon opened, said a few words and was never heard from again, with Khan impressively handling the questions.
The key with Khan is his knowledge of the sports media industry is so impressive, as he talked about the NHL deal and that he doesn’t believe NBC will get the second half of the package, Amazon Prime and Apple TV being players going forward and how the big players, and he considers WWE a big player, will thrive in this marketplace but that unproven companies will be hurt because the big media companies are spending so much on the big players and there’s only so much money going around.
For example, he said the Southeast Conference was in great shape with its television deal, talked about the NFL getting a 79 percent increase, but even more impressively, the NHL, with ratings down 25 percent, has already doubled its television deal from $200 million to $400 million with ESPN/Disney and still has another package to sell. But he also said that the Big 10 will have challenges.
Our annual WrestleMania issue of the Observer is out this week with full coverage of pro wrestling’s biggest event.
We go through all the news of the show, including the booking, the title changes, the finishes, the direction, what did and didn’t work, the difference between the two nights, after four examples how does two shows work vs one, the big money WrestleMania main events, the returns, the celebrities and business notes on the show. We also look at next year.
Also in this issue:
Match-by-match coverage with star ratings and poll results from both nights of WrestleMania and both nights of Takeover, to see how people saw all four of the WWE’s big events.
Stone Cold Broken Skull Sessions with Chris Jericho. We talk about the stories told, Jericho’s career, what they did talk about and what was avoided, how this went against usual McMahon policy and why we probably won’t be seeing another show like this very soon. We look at what was said about AEW, New Japan, WWE, some of Jericho’s frustrations with WWE that he talked about, the formation of AEW and much more.
The sale of FITE TV to Triller and why it happened this week.
Anthem Entertainment’s purchase of Invicta, plans for Invicta on AXS, and a sale that was talked about for Invicta that didn’t happen.
WWE cuts, person by person, their strengths and weaknesses and where they would fit in.
WWE international plans, hiring of Adnan Vink as an announcer, new members of the WWE Board of Directors, how much WWE’s top executives earned in 2020 and where it came from, Edge and Paul Heyman building Mania, changes in WWE announcing, WWE International numbers and where Raw & Smackdown rank with sports shows of the past week. We also look at WWE’s most-watched streaming clips and a star about to return, as well as the current market value of WWE.
Coverage of Saturday’s UFC show, comments on the winning fighters and upcoming booking, along with business notes on the show.
A feature on John Da Silva, who was the biggest babyface and a national hero in New Zealand in the 70s.
More on Ethel Johnson and sister Babs Wingo, who integrated women’s pro wrestling in the Billy Wolfe stable in 1951.
More detail on ratings than any other source, we have how every segment on NXT and AEW did as well as how it did with different age groups, genders and more, plus a look at all other wrestling shows of the past week.
Results of the major pro wrestling events of the past week.
ORDERING INFO: Order the print Wrestling Observer right now and get it delivered via mail, by sending your name, address, Visa or Master Card number and an expiration date to [email protected] or by going to www.paypal.com directing funds to [email protected].
Rates in the United States are $14.50 for 4 issues, $35.50 for 12, $70 for 24, $116 for 40 and $149.50 for 52.
In Canada and Mexico, the rates are $16 for 4, $27 for 8, $38.50 for 12, $76 for 24, $126 for 40 and $162.50 for 52.
For the rest of the world, rates are $18 for 4, $48.50 for 12, $93 for 24, $155 for 40 and $201.50 for 52.
If you order by mail with a check, cash or money order to P.O. Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228, you can get $1 off in every price range.
SUNDAY NEWS UPDATE
Our weekend show with Bryan Alvarez and I is up on the site right now covering last night’s Triller show, the UFC, Smackdown and WWE cuts. Garrett Gonzalez and I also have a Friday night show talking about the news of the last week.
The Triller show was ridiculously popular, even as totally unprofessional as it was. Right now it appears there were 7.2 million searches on Google, which is gigantic, basically that beats anything in combat sports except for Ronda Rousey’s biggest fights or something like McGregor-Mayweather. Both days of WrestleMania combined did 750,000. AEW Revolution did 200,000 as a comparison. The UFC show last night head-to-head had 200,000 last night with Robert Whittaker, Tracy Cortez and Jeremy Stephens all cracking the top 20. For the rest of the week, WWE releases had 20,000 searches on Friday. Bad Bunny causing a Ticketmaster crash had 1 million searches on Thursday. Jake Paul had 100,000 searches on Tuesday.
A&E is airing two WWE-themed shows tonight. At 8 p.m. will be the first of the eight weeks of WWE profiles, covering Steve Austin. At 10 p.m. will be the new show starring Paul Levesque and Stephanie McMahon covering looking for WWE treasures. The Andre the Giant HBO documentary was the lead-in. Jason Hehir, who did The Last Dance and the Andre HBO documentary did the Austin show.
The Ultimate Fighter returns after a few years on ESPN+ on Tuesday nights starting 6/1. Alexander Volkanovski and Brian Ortega will coach, to build to a featherweight title match. These are the cast of fighters:
Men’s bantamweights:
Daniel Argueta (5-0)
Brady Hiestand (4-1)
Dustin Lampros (5-0)
Vince Murdock (11-6)
Mitch Raposo (5-0)
Joshua Rettinghous (16-5)
Liudvik Sholinian (9-1)
Ricky Turcios (10-2)
Men’s middleweights:
Aaron Phillips (5-1)
Andre Petroski (5-1)
Bryan Battle (4-1)
Ryder Newman (3-1)
Tresean Gore (3-0)
Miles Hunsinger (7-0)
Kemran Lachinov (10-3)
Gilbert Urbina (6-1)
Greg Schimizzi, a longtime Michigan area timekeeper, passed away on Friday after battling a chronic illness. He had worked on area shows for decades.
Regarding the close scores in a number of last night’s UFC fights, here are media scores:
Tracy Cortez got 54% of media scores to 38% for Justine Kish and 8% even. Cortez won via split decision.
Luis Pena got 31 percent of the media scores to 69 percent for Alexander Munoz, however Pena won the split decision
Alexander Romanov got 0% of judges’ scores even though he won a split decision over Juan Espino. Espino got 75 percent and 25 percent had it as a draw.
Jessica Penne won a split decision over Loopy Godinez. Media scores had 35 percent for Pena and 65 percent for Godinez.
OTHER NOTES
SWE Fury April 17th house show results: SWE Fury had a small card after a charity rodeo event April 17th in Belton TX at the Bad Dog Rodeo Arena, SWE Fury TV Champion Rodney Mac and Texas Champion The Blood Hunter fought to a no contest in a bunkhouse match when Blood Hunters manger Salina De La Renta started lighting hay bails on fire with kerosene fluid referee James Beard threw the match out, Rudy Gonzalez won a 20 man Battle Royal and Moonshine Mantell defeated a local. Blood Hunter also rode a bull to open the rodeo. The next SWE event is a FITE TV PPV and SWE Fury TV taping this Friday at Southern Junction in Irving TX featuring Sabu, Big Cass, Melina, Gangrel, The Boogeyman, Mark Henry among other stars. More info at SWEFury.com
A story on the C.M. Punk movie “Girl on the Third Floor”. (thanks to Chuck Langerman)
EPW from last night in Perth, Western Australia: Aaron hawk b Davis Storm to win EPW Coastal title, Julian War b Kaz Jordan, Del Cano & Zenith won over Stella Nyx & Chadwick Johnson, Casey Johns & James Hartness and Dan Moore & Jesse Lambert, Damian Slater b Bruno Nitro, Marcius Pitt b Gavin McGavin, Kiel Steria b Tyler Jacobs, Mikey Nicholls b Robbie Eagles to retain EPW title. Was told this show was tremendos and Pitt vs. McGavin was a great match. Next show is 6/12 with Slater vs. Mchael Morleone in a submission match and Edith Night vs. Casey Johns in a street fight.
Deathmatch Downunder from last night in Melbourne, Australia: JXT & FOX b Kid Valiant & Zane Zodiac, Aysha & Murdoch b Mitchell Wright & Hector Jones, Jake Navara b Magnificent Mitchell, Caveman Ugg b Tommy Knight, Joel Bateman b Atlas Whittaker in a light tube death match, Callen Butcher & Michael Weaver & Zuzu the Clown b Gweedo & York & Mike Kaos in a fans bring the blocks death match, Tyson Baxter b Shazza McKenzie, Gore b Ritchie Taylor, Aysha & Murdoch b JXT & FOX to become the first tag team champions in tournament final (thanks to Kevin Chiat)
Pro Wrestling Diana from today in Kanagawa: Dash Chisako & Hanako Nakamori b Nanami & Nagisa Nozaki, Madeline & Asuka (Venny) b Andras Miyagi & Ami Miura, Jaguar Yokota & Shinobu Kandori b Kaoru Ito & Takako Inoue, Haruka Umesaki & Miyuki Takase b Ayame Saasamura & Rina Shingaki to win the Diana tag team titles, Kyoko Inoue b Ayako to to win the Diana title. Bull Nakano made a surprise appearance to put the belt around Inoue’s waist.
Tokyo Joshi Pro from yesterday in Tokyo at Korakuen Hall: Marika Kobashi & Seana Shiori b Moka Miyamoto & Arisu Endo, Miu Watanabe & Raku & Pom Harajuku b Yuna Manase & Mahiro Kiryu & Haruna Neiko, Miyu Yamashita b Hikari Noa, Mirai Maiumi & Suzume won three-way over Yuka Sakazaki & Mizuki and Shoko Nakajima & Hyper Misao, Yuki Kamifuku b Nao Kakua to keep International Princess title, Sakisama & Mei Saint-Michel b Nodoka Tenma & Yuki Aino to win the Princess tag team title, Rika Tatsumi b Maki Itoh to retain Princess of Princess championship
Stardom from yesterday in Takazaki: Mina Shirakawa b Lady C, Tam Nakano & Unagki Sayaka b Konami & Rina, Maika & Himeka & Natsupoi b Utami Hayashishita & Saya Kamitani & Hina, Giulia & Syuri d Momo Watanabe & AZM 15:00, Fukigen Death & Natsuko Tora & Ruaka b Mayu Iwatani & Starlight Kid & Hanan (thanks to Shannon Walsh)
On a bizarre show that featured musical performances from Justin Bieber, Snoop Dogg and Ice Cube, a low blow that wasn’t a low blow that resulted in a fighter being stretchered out, a robot, a inebriated Oscar de la Hoya on commentary, and the boxing debut of former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir, a YouTube star knocking out a former MMA champion and amateur wrestling legend wasn’t the strangest thing on the broadcast.
In the main event of Saturday’s Triller Fight Club pay-per-view in Atlanta, GA, Jake Paul defeated former Bellator welterweight champion Ben Askren by first round TKO to remain undefeated.
Paul threw a left jab and landed a straight right to drop Askren. Askren took the mandatory eight count and got up, but the referee chose to wave it off at 1:59 of the first round.
Askren had retired from MMA following a October 2019 loss to Demian Maia. He made a minimum of $500,000 for the fight in addition to any PPV percentages.
Earlier in the night, Steve Cunningham defeated Mir by unanimous decision while in the co-main event, Regis Prograis won a technical decision after hitting Ivan Redkach with a body shot the referee thought was a low blow. Redkach was eventually taken out on a stretcher.
Ric Flair was also on the show as a ceremonial official alongside SNL star and comedian Pete Davidson for a slapfight.
We’ve got the most detailed analysis of AEW Revolution as the lead story in the new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
We look at the fallout of the errant explosion, the business numbers, what drew and what was the reason for so many new purchasers and will they be back, lessons from the show, the signing of Christian Cage, a look back at different signings and how they’ve turned out, Christian’s road to returning to wrestling, usage of Christian Cage, differences with AEW and Impact, Ethan Page, plus match-by-match coverage with star ratings and poll results.
Also in this issue:
WrestleMania ticket sales, as well as the planned show.
We’ve got our first annual Shad Gaspard/Jon Huber Memorial Award winners for 2020 and the reasons why.
WWE Network migration to Peacock, a look at the seven year history of the WWE Network and what was and wasn’t a success financially regarding it, what has happened to PPVs in general. We look at projections and how they fell short, but what ended up saving the company from the projections falling short.
John Laurinaitis being put back n his old position, and his story, and what happens to Mark Carrano, matches for the next Takeover shows, update on Fast Lane, new and departing WWE writers, new television location, WWE reaction to thigh slapping, where wrestling shows rank among sports shows in the U.S. this past week, foreign television ratings, Gable Steveson goes for NCAA title, Jim Johnstone talks WWE music today, Pat McAfee talks WrestleMania, WWE current market value, and the surprising most-watched thing this past week on the WWE Network.
Life of Buddy Colt and the plane crash that ended his career.
UFC 259, with scoring notes, business notes, poll results, where the champions go next, plus match-by-match coverage.
NHL deal affects pro wrestling and what it means for WWE and AEW, how ESPN is using it and where things stand with NBCU.
WWE over WrestleMania weekend, and the Hall of Fame ceremony.
Dwayne Johnson’s attempt to revive the XFL.
New Japan Cup and the anniversary show with match-by-match coverage and star ratings for the matches over the past week, and a look at where things stand for the rest of the tournament.
More into detail on the ratings than any other source, we have how every segment on NXT and AEW did as well as how it did with different age groups, genders and more, plus a look at all other wrestling shows of the past week.
Results of the major pro wrestling events of the past week.
FRIDAY NEWS UPDATE
Garrett Gonzales and I will be covering the news of the last week on tonight’s Wrestling Observer Radio show.
I’m told there will be notable directions evident for WrestleMania on tonight’s Smackdown show. Scheduled for the show is The Kevin Owens Show with Sasha Banks and Bianca Belair and a contract signing for the Roman Reigns vs. Daniel Bryan Universal title match at Fastlane.
The New Japan Cup continues with a 4 a.m. Eastern show tomorrow from Dolphins Arena in Nagoya on New Japan World:
David Finlay & Gabriel Kidd & Yota Tsuji vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano & Yoshi-Hashi
Zack Sabre Jr. & Taichi & Douki vs. Great O’Khan & Will Ospreay & Jeff Cobb
Tetsuya Naito & Sanada & Bushi vs. Kazuchika Okada & Yuji Nagata & Sho
Hiroshi Tanahashi & Juice Robinson & Toa Henare vs. Jay White & Bad Luck Fale & Evil
KENTA vs. Minoru Suzuki in the New Japan Cup
Shingo Takagi vs. Hirooki Goto in the New Japan Cup
New Japan Strong at 10 p.m. Eastern tonight on New Japan World:
JR Kratos vs. Fred Rosser in a New Japan Cup USA qualifying match
Hikuleo vs. Jordan Clearwater in a New Japan Cup USA qualfying mach
Adrian Quest & Barrett Brown vs. Logan & Sterling Riegel
UFC tomorrow from Las Vegas starting at 5 p.m. Eastern time on ESPN+:
Matthew Semelsberger (169.5) vs. Jason Witt (171)
Jinh Yu Frey (115.5) vs. Gloria de Paula (115.5)
Courtney Casey (126) vs. JJ Aldrich (125.5)
Nasrat Haqparast (156) vs. Rafa Garcia (156)
Rani Yahya (136) vs Ray Rodriguez (135.5)
Charles Jourdain (145.5) vs. Marcelo Rojo (145.5)
Angela Hill (115.5) vs. Ashley Yoder (116)
Eryk Anders (186) vs. Darren Stewart (185.5)
Manel Kape (125.5) vs. Matheus Nicolau (125.5)
Jonathan Martinez (136) vs. Davey Grant (135.5)
Dan Ige (145.5) vs. Gavin Tucker (146)
Misha Cirkunov (205) vs. Ryan Spann (206)
Leon Edwards (170.5) vs. Belal Muhammad (170)
The son of Kazushi Sakuraba, using the name Saku Jr., debuted on today’s Quintet show from Japan that’s on UFC Fight Pass. He defeated Kazuhiro Suzuki in a submission rules match using a Kimura.
The children of Buddy Colt and Legends Lunch would like to invite everyone who knew Buddy Colt to a celebration of life tomorrow at 1 p.m. at the Church at Odessa on 1234 Gunn Highway in Odessa, FL 33556. Fans who want to celebrate the life of Buddy Colt are invited to attend but they ask no photos and no asking for autographs of the wrestlers who will be appearing.
The Impact Sacrifice show airs Saturday night at 8 p.m. on Impact+ with Rich Swann vs. Moose for the Impact title, winner faces Kenny Omega in a title vs. title match on 4/24.
Pro Wrestling NOAH has a PPV on FITE TV at 1 a.m. late tomorrow night with Keiji Muto vs. Kaito Kiyomiya for the GHC title in the main event.
WWE
There will be a new Progress show put up on the WWE Network tomorrow.
UFC
UFC strawweight champion Zhang Weili made the cover of Forbes 30 under 30 sports issue.
Cheyanne Buys vs. Montserrat Ruiz has been added to the 3/20 UFC show. What’s notable about this is that JP Buys, Cheyanne’s husband, is also fighting on the show against Bruno Silva.
Luigi Vandrammini vs. Fares Ziam has been added to the 6/12 UFC show.
Ed Herman vs Danilo Marques has been added to the 6/26 show..
Ilir Latifi vs.; Tanner Boser in a heavyweight fight is set for the 6/5 show.
Justin Tafa vs. Jared Venderaa is set for the 5/2 show.
Triller Promotions announced undercard fights for the 4/17 show headlined by Jake Paul vs Ben Askren. Announced are a super lightweight fight with Regis Prograis vs. Ivan Radkach, former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir vs. former boxing world champion Antonio Tarver and Joe Fournier vs musical star Reykon making his debut. This will be a very unique test of the PPV market putting Paul against a former MMA champion whose boxing game is his weak point.
Innovate Wrestling on 3/27 in Kingsport,TN at the Civic Center features Chase Owens vs. Gustavo Aguilar in the main event.
CWE wrestlers appeared on the TV show Mobile MD on City TV Saskatchewan. The promotion will also return to television starting later this month on Shaw TV Ch. 9 across Canada on Shaw Direct.
LFA announced for 3/19 a main event of Elijah Johns (7-1) vs. Bruno Souza (8-1) and the semifinal of the middleweight tournament with Gregory Rodrigues (7-3) vs.; Al Matavao (8-3) from Shawnee, OK at the Grand Casino Hotel & Resort.
Sendai Girls from today in Miyagno, Japan: Hiroyo Matsumoto b Rydeen Hagane, Yurika Oka & Kanon d Mikto Shindo & Maria over 15:00, Dash Chisako d Hanako Nakamori over 15:00, Meiko Satomura & Kaoru b Chihiro Hashimoto & Manami (thanks to Shannon Walsh and wrestlingwithdemons.com)
Arena Coliseo in Guadalajara will reopen for shows with fans this coming Tuesday. They had run some empty arena shows. Face masks are required for attendance.
Rush & Dragon Lee & Kenny King & Bestia del Ring vs. Jonathan Gresham & Tracy Wlliams & Rhett Titus & Jay Lethal will be on the 3/20 ROH TV show
Cage Fury airs tonight on UFC Fight Pass headlined by Collin Huckbody (9-2) defending his middleweight title for the first time against Aaron Jeffrey (9-2), as well a fight for the vacant heavyweight title with Jamella Jones (10-6) vs. Cody Goodale (7-4)
PWA Black Label from earlier today in Sydney, Australia on FITE TV: Mark Davis & Kyle Fletcher b Jack Bonza & Mick Morreti, Jessica Troy b Charli Evans to keep the PWWA title in a n DQ match, Sam Osborne b Punch DrunkIstira, Ricky South b Caveman Ugg to win the PWA title after a series of piledrivers, Sam Osborne won 30 man Rumble (thanks to Shannon Walsh)
On the New Japan Roku Channel show that debuted yesterday has Kazucika Okada vs. Taichi
YouTube star and pay-per-view draw Jake Paul’s boxing career will continue against an unlikely foe as he will face former UFC fighter and former Bellator welterweight champion Ben Askren as the headliner for an April 17th pay-per-view.
The two have been talking on social media about a fight since December, but it was made official Tuesday. It will be an eight round bout promoted by Triller, the same group that put on the Mike Tyson vs. Roy Jones Jr. exhibition PPV. Both men will wear eight ounce gloves and fight in a 20×20 ring with the location still TBA.
The 36-year-old Askren (19-2-0-1) hasn’t fought since retiring from the UFC after an October 2019 loss to Demian Maia. Despite a background that includes a dominant amateur wrestling run, he wasn’t known for his knockout skills throughout his ten-year MMA career.
Paul (2-0) is coming off a knockout of former NBA player Nate Robinson in the co-main event of the Tyson/Jones event and another YouTube star before that. His brother, Logan, was supposed to compete in an exhibition fight against Floyd Mayweather in February, but it’s reportedly being moved to a different date.
