TKO has announced plans to repurchase $1 billion worth of its own stock.
In a press release on Monday, the company said it has entered into an accelerated share repurchase agreement with Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC for $800 million. TKO will receive an initial 3,161,430 shares of Class A common stock on September 16, with the final total being based on the stock’s average trading price. The transaction is expected to be completed in December.
After that, TKO will begin repurchasing up to $174 million in stock under a 10b5-1 trading plan, gradually buying shares from the open market.
The company also disclosed that it repurchased approximately $26 million worth of stock in a privately negotiated transaction on September 5. The seller was not identified.
TKO has taken out $1 billion in a first lien term loan to fund the transactions.
“This plan to repurchase $1 billion in shares reflects our conviction in the business and the intrinsic value of our stock,” said Mark Shapiro, President and COO, TKO. “The repurchases, together with the recent 100% increase to our quarterly cash dividend program, reflect our continued commitment to a robust and sustainable capital return program. We remain focused on executing our balanced capital deployment strategy to deliver long-term value for our shareholders.”
The dividend program Shapiro mentions above refers to an increase to its quarterly cash dividend program announced earlier this month. Shareholders now receive $0.76 every three months for each share in the company they own, up from the previous rate of $0.38.
Shares of the company are listed at $202.44 as of the morning of Monday, September 15, 2025.
In the constantly changing world of content creation, Paramount Skydance — one of the newest media partners for TKO — is reportedly preparing to make a bid for primary AEW media partner Warner Bros. Discovery.
On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal first reported that the David Ellison-backed Paramount Skydance is preparing to offer a majority cash bid for the entire company which would include the TV side and movies /streaming side which were set to split in 2026.
No official bid has been made and any such move would result in U.S. regulatory approval which, given the relationships between the Ellison family and the Trump regime, is not seen as an impedance. It’s unknown how much the offer would be for given WBD’s current debt load of roughly $35 billion.
Ellison’s Skydance recently closed on the sale for Paramount and all of its assets for $8.4 billion and then shortly thereafter, acquired the domestic TV rights for UFC events for seven years and more than $7 billion to air on the streaming service.
While Paramount doesn’t have any pro wrestling content on its platform, WBD certainly does with AEW whose deal runs through 2027 with an option year held by WBD.
Of all the things that came up during a 35-minute appearance at a technology conference Wednesday, getting asked about fighter and wrestler pay likely wasn’t at the top of TKO COO Mark Shapiro’s list.
That did happen, however, as during the annual Goldman Sachs Communacopia & Technology Conference, Shapiro (seen above) was asked about his take on fighter and wrestler pay as relates to the level of reinvestment into the company and how investors should take that into account.
Shapiro said they already run “a pretty lean cost structure” that fighter and wrestler pay is part of, but they will “continue to do right by our fighters and our (WWE) superstars.”
“The cream of the crop will get paid the premium dollars,” he said, adding that when they sign big rights deals like UFC’s with Paramount and WWE’s with ESPN, they reinvest in the product. He used UFC doing “of the night” bonuses when they signed with ESPN as an example of that, perhaps not realizing UFC bonuses began long before the ESPN deal.
“We’re going to share as much as makes sense with the stars of both leagues. We will be very competitive…we are very competitive. We pay more than any other competitor in the combat sports space. We know why we’re here and it’s a team effort,” he said.
Citing the amount of events TKO runs in a year, Shapiro said, “We have to pay for performance in terms of our people and the same goes for our fighters and (WWE) superstars.”
He said there are cases where Conor McGregor and Jon Jones get paid more, but they “deliver more in return. It’s a scale and a formula, and we’re very transparent about it with our fighters and (WWE) superstars.”
A week after a clip went viral with a fan questioning WWE head Nick Khan about the increasing price of WWE tickets, the message apparently didn’t get through to TKO leadership in terms of what’s to come.
TKO chief operating officer Mark Shapiro spoke at the annual Goldman Sachs Communacopia & Technology Conference Wednesday (audio below) and in talking about ticket prices for both UFC and WWE, he said “WWE is not where the UFC yet is on ticket yield. We have our work to do there.”
“We know we have a lot of room there because Vince McMahon was primarily pricing tickets for families and wasn’t totally focused on maxing the opportunity there. Now that we’ve seen what we can do with UFC, we’re replicating that in terms of ticket yield and holding back and advance sales when it comes to OnLocation on the WWE side and it’s working out really well,” he said.
A term used commonly by concert venues, airlines and hotels, ticket yield is considered a measure of the average revenue generated per ticket sold, maximizing revenue with the goal of selling all inventory at the right mix of prices.
WWE live event & hospitality revenue finished at $185.7 million for the second quarter, up $41.4 million year over year, partially attributed to higher ticket revenue. Both WrestleMania 41 and Night of Champions from Saudi Arabia were in the second quarter.
Shapiro hasn’t been shy about saying publicly this year that TKO sees “tremendous upside” in increasing ticket prices. An example he used Wednesday was UFC shattering previous records to become the highest-grossing event in the history of Chicago’s United Center.
Site fees continue to be a key focus of TKO with Shapiro saying they need to sell out their inventory of UFC numbered events in addition to WWE PLEs before moving on to UFC Fight Nights, WWE Raw and SmackDown events.
He said they are talking to Atlanta, Charlotte, Detroit, London, Paris and that “there are no shortage of countries…that want to see us bring our show to town.” He said they will continue to maximize those opportunities with both in-kind deals (goods & services) but that the “most important to me is cash. Cash kills.”
He also had a warning of sorts for towns that are successful when WWE or UFC comes to their town, especially for the smaller events, using UFC Fight Nights as an example.
“If we have a St. Louis going up against a Des Moines, Iowa, and you want us back there and you’ve broken records and sold out both your arenas, you have to pay for us to come back or else we’ll take it to another town. And that goes for NXT, Raw and SmackDown on the WWE side.”
TKO chief operating officer Mark Shapiro is putting a lot of stock into this month’s WWE WrestlePalooza.
Shapiro spoke at the annual Goldman Sachs Communacopia & Technology Conference Wednesday where he talked about the September 20 premium live event that will kick off their multi-year deal with ESPN. Audio from the talk can be found below.
He said they hope Wrestlepalooza is “an annual recurring franchise” for the company and one that is both is on par with two of their most notable annual PLEs and becomes part of their big four events of the WWE year.
“Hopefully, Wrestlepalooza is a winner and we can bring that back annually. That could be a marketing bonanza for us if we do that right,” he said, adding that Paul “Triple H” Levesque is spending day and night creatively making “what we think it can be: another WrestleMania or another SummerSlam.”
He said the Royal Rumble is just below that level and they feel Wrestlepalooza could be in that quadrant.
The Saturday show from Indianapolis, Indiana, will be the first PLE on the new ESPN streaming service and will run partially head-to-head with the AEW All Out pay-per-view.
TKO Sports Group — the parent company of WWE & UFC — is extending its partnership with T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
It was announced today that TKO and T-Mobile Arena are extending their partnership through 2030, with the deal guaranteeing that the venue will host at least two WWE events and four UFC events every year. A press release touted that this extension reinforces T-Mobile Arena’s status as the “official home” of WWE & UFC in Vegas.
“T-Mobile Arena has become a classic Las Vegas arena known for showcasing some of the biggest sports and entertainment events. We’re proud that UFC and WWE will continue to be featured among T-Mobile Arena’s top events through the end of the decade,” said Peter Dropick, TKO’s EVP of Event Development and Operations.
T-Mobile Arena opened in 2016 and has hosted five of the UFC’s top 10 gates in company history.
Vegas has become an increasingly important city to WWE in the TKO era. WrestleMania 41 was held at Allegiant Stadium — and WWE’s signature event will be back in Vegas again next year with Allegiant Stadium hosting WrestleMania 42. SmackDown and Raw will take place at T-Mobile Arena surrounding WrestleMania.
WWE’s next trip to Vegas will be for its Worlds Collide show with Lucha Libre AAA on Friday, September 12. The event is being held at The Pavilion at the Thomas & Mack Center.
TKO says pay-per-view is a barrier between its product and the fans.
On the heels of the announcement that UFC events are moving to Paramount Plus, TKO CEO Ari Emanuel and President and COO Mark Shapiro appeared on CNBC’s Squawk on the Street to talk about the deal.
“We wanted to get rid of the old model pay-per-view,” Emanuel said.
Shapiro added, “It’s antiquated. It’s just an antiquated model. What’s on pay-per-view these days? Once in a while, a big time boxing match that starts in the middle of the night and/or maybe some movies on DIRECTV. It’s an antiquated model. It’s a wall. It’s a barrier, at the end of the day, for our fans to get our product.”
“This will be well-received by our athletes, by our fans, and that was crucially important to Dana White,” he continued.
Earlier in the conversation, Shapiro and Emanuel discussed UFC events also airing on CBS in addition to Paramount Plus, and why that’s important for expanding the promotion’s fanbase.
“It was important to us to have CBS play a big component in this,” Shapiro said. “This is Paramount Plus exclusively, but CBS will have simulcast on many of the fights and likely all of the numbered events which are formerly the pay-per-view fights.”
“For us also we wanted the reach of CBS,” Emanuel said. “When we were at ESPN and Disney, we always actually were asking for a little bit of ABC because we want the broadest reach.”
The all-inclusive deal is for $7.7 billion over seven years and includes 13 UFC numbered events (formerly UFC pay-per-views) and 30 Fight Night events annually beginning in January 2026. All UFC events will be available to Paramount Plus subscribers without additional purchase required, effectively ending UFC’s pay-per-view model that it had used since its inception in 1993.
Ari Emanuel and Mark Shapiro’s full appearance on CNBC is available below:
TKO is making a change to a now-former WWE severance pay policy.
PWInsider reported Friday that according to a company memo, any severed employees will now receive two weeks of pay for every year they have worked for the company, effective immediately. That’s a change from the previous way of one month for every year.
The outlet also reported that “there are additional caps on the policy based on management level but have not heard particulars on that.”
It’s unknown if the policy also applies to other TKO properties like UFC, Professional Bull Riders, On Location, and IMG.
TKO has not been in the news for any layoffs as of late following a multi-year consolidation after merging UFC and WWE and eventually bringing on the other aforementioned companies. On various investor calls, TKO’s Mark Shapiro has mentioned looking for efficiencies throughout the various brands.
Endeavor, now owned by private equity firm Silver Lake Investments, purchased 1,579,080 shares of Class A common stock from McMahon at $158.32 per share — a total sale bringing McMahon approximately $250 million.
Wrestlenomics’ Brandon Thurston noted that unless McMahon made another transaction since September 2024, he now holds 6,442,325 shares of TKO, bringing him to 3% ownership of the company. He has no voting rights.
14 months ago, McMahon listed all of his TKO stock for sale which at that point stood at 8,021,405 shares. From late-2023 through the spring of 2024, McMahon sold over $1.5 billion in stock through five distinct sales.
Another busy weekend in pro wrestling continues with tonight’s AEW Double or Nothing and Josh Nason gives you a final preview as part of a Memorial Day weekend edition of Wrestling Observer Live.
Join Josh as he runs down the card and makes the case for Hangman Page winning the men’s Owen Hart Foundation tournament, who could return in the Anarchy in the Arena match, and why it’s a pretty chalk-heavy lineup for predictions.
He looks at TKO and WWE’s decision making this week when it comes to moving WrestleMania out of New Orleans in what felt like a decision that wouldn’t be made in a different era of WWE leadership and why WWE continues to counterprogram AEW when they are so far ahead financially and in the pop culture zeitgiest.
Josh also previews WWE NXT Battleground and recaps the big news out of Saturday Night’s Main Event.
— Bryan and I will be back tonight talking about all the wrestling news of the weekend.
— We don’t have any updates regarding Collision. Due to a technical issue, the show ended about 30 minutes early last night on TNT. It was said by Tony Khan on X that the full two hour version would air on the West Coast feed and be on MAX last night. The problem persisted and MAX doesn’t even have the show up, or at least didn’t the last I checked. We are told the overseas show on Triller aired in its entirety.
We had gotten updates last night but nothing new today past Tony Khan late last night writing on X that they will get the show up on MAX as soon as possible. Dustin Rhodes & Sammy Gueveara beat Lio Rush & Action Andretti to earn a title shot at Bobby Lashley & Shelton Benjamin on the 5/25 Double or Nothing PPV show in one of the bouts, and the other was Powerhouse Hobbs vs. Wheeler Yuta.
— Mike Raybeck, who wrestled for years in Northern California as Mike Diamond and Maxx Justice, passed away after being hit by a vehicle while riding his bicycle home from work on 5/9. Raybeck was believed to be 63. He was a regular with Roland Alexander’s All Pro Wrestling with the likes of Michael Modest, Tony Jones, Vic Grimes, Erin “Crash Holly” O’Grady, Vinnie Massaro, Robert Thompson and others from that period. He was working for the city of Hayward for the last 16 years as a utilities maintenance mechanic. His death was discussed at the City Council meeting this past Tuesday. They lowered the flags at all city properties.
He was 6-foot-5 and about 260 pounds. Because of his size, he had a WWE tryout as well as one for WCW in the 90s. He held the APW Universal title five times. He was in the movie “Beyond the Mat” where he nearly got into a fight with a fan who spit on him.
–There is a lot of talk in the boxing/MMA world regarding the announcement that SELA and Riyadh Season will be promoting the Terrence Crawford vs. Canelo Alvarez fight, which has been moved to 9/13, head-to-head with a UFC PPV show. On the recent TKO conference call, it was talked about that TKO would be promoting the show. Inquiries to both UFC and WWE officials close to Dana White and Nick Khan have not gotten a response whether something has or hasn’t changed regarding Turki Alalshikh and TKO.
— The Sky Team of Mistico & Mascara Dorada & Neon won the CMLL trios titles from Averno & Mephisto & Euforia on Friday night at Arena Mexico.
— Scott D’Amore announced that he would match all donations during a time frame in a Go Fund Me for the family of Sabu and to pay funeral expenses. In doing so, he’s paid $15,932 to make the total $52,282 in donations. Other major donations included $5,000 by Chris Jericho, $2,000 by Ryan Barker of Pro Wrestling Tees and $1,600 by Joey Janela.
— Want to give best wishes to Jim Ross in his battle against colon cancer. There’s no update past what Ross stated publicly on Twitter earlier in the week, regarding him having surgery in the next week or two.
— Dricus du Plessis defends the UFC middleweight title against Khamzat Chimaev on 8/16 at the United Center in Chicago.
— Islam Makhachev, who was considered by most as UFC’s best champion, vacated the lightweight title to move to welterweight and challenge Jack Della Maddelena for the title. No date or place for this fight has been announced. This comes after Makhachev said that Ilia Topuria, the featherweight champion, didn’t deserve a lightweight title fight because he’d never beaten anyone major at lightweight. So now he’s getting a title fight having not beaten anyone of note at welterweight.
— The vacant lightweight title will be filled on 6/28 in Las Vegas for the International Fight Week show with Topuria moving up to face former champion Charles Oliveira. Also on that show, Alexandre Pantoja will defend the flyweight title against Kai Kara-France. Top flyweight contenders Brandon Royval and Manel Kape are on the undercard.
— In an interview with Adam Glyn, Dana White said when asked about Conor McGregor that he’s not fighting anytime soon. I don’t think anyone really expects McGregor to fight again in the UFC.
— Kyle Snyder is expected to plead guilty to disorderly conduct, a fourth-degree misdemeanor in his arrest last week for engaging in prostitution. Snyder, the 2016 Olympic gold medalist in freestyle wrestling, was arrested when police set up a sting operation taking out an ad for prostitution. Officers received text messages and called from a man, and a meeting was arranged in a nearby hotel. Snyder allegedly arrived at the hotel and paid an undercover officer cash for a sexual act and he was arrested. He will likely have to pay a fine and attend a John school class to prevent repeat offenses. Snyder was one of 16 men arrested during the sting operation. Snyder signed with the Hogan/Bischoff Real American Freestyle group. Snyder is still listed for Final X on 6/14 at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ, facing Hayden Zillmer for the U.S. berth at 213 pounds in the upcoming world championships.
— Patchy Mix, the former Beallator bantamweight champion, who got his release from the PFL last week, was announced as debuting in UFC on the 6/7 PPV show. He will face Mario Bautsta at the Prudential Center. Mix is replacing Marlon Chito Vera, who was injured in training.
— Defy results from Friday night in Seattle: Kevin Blackwood won the PrimoLucha title in a scramble match over champion Guillermo Rosas, Cody Chhun, Eddie Pearl, Evan Rivers and Miles Deville, Labron Kozone b Vaughn Vertiigo, Marina Shafir retained the women’s title over Kylie Rae, Steve Migs won a BMF Battle Royal, Sinner & Saint retained the tag titles over Los Suaveitos, Minoru Suzuki b Joey Janels. Next show is 6/13 at Washington Hall. They also have a 6/7 show in White Center, WA at the Lariat Bar.
— Friday’s show was a memorial for Kevin Diers, who passed away last week at the age of 39 Diers handled the social media for Defy and also handled interview segments. He worked for local Rock station KISW so was very tied into the Seattle community and he had been with Defy since the launch of the promotion.
— WWE has plans to run a major show in Mexico City headlined by Cody Rhodes.
— Regarding the Hardys and TripleMania Regia, they were part of the original plans for the show for AAA through TNA but as Matt Hardy mentioned, they had already booked an autograph signing on that date and the promotion was told they had been paid half up front and weren’t wanting to pull out. TNA is sending the Nemeths, the tag champs, and Moose to the 6/15 event in Monterrey. Regarding reports that Rey Mysterio was going to be on that show but was injured so couldn’t appear, obviously AAA would have wanted him and would have asked, but it was never agreed to prior to his injury. There was talk in that direction.
— Real American Freestyle, the Hulk Hogan & Eric Bischoff-led promotion, has announced Evan Wick, Austin Gomez, Real Woods, Will Lewan and Parker Keckeisen to the roster. Wick recently won the U.S. national championship. Gomez represented Mexico in the 2024 Olympics and placed second in the 2024 NCAA tournament wrestling for the University of Michigan. Woods was second in the 2023 NCAA tournament. Lewan was an age group world champion and placed fifth at the 2022 NCAA tournament. Keckeisen won the 2024 NCAA title wrestling for Northern Iowa.
— Paramount Global Content Distributions announced an all-wrestling FAST channel called Wrestling Central for Roku in the U.S. and Canada. It will feature weekly shows from Women of Wrestling and the Billy Corgan NWA.
— Ozawa retained the GHC title over Kaito Kiyomiya in a match with a lot of interference at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo today. A lot of people liked it because there was great wrestling but others thought too much interference. In the pre-match stuff they talked about Kiyomiya leaving if he lost. Ozawa looks to next defend in a three-way against Tetsuya Endo and Takashi Sugiura.
— Rei Saito won the Champion Carnival in All Japan today beating Kento Miyahara in the finals. This leads to brother Jun Saito vs. Rei for the Triple Crown on 6/1 in Sendai, which is near where both are from.
— The final episode of LFG airs at 8pm tonight on A&E. Wrestling’s Greatest Moments at 9:30 pm. is on DX and 10 pm is on Money in the Bank cash-ins.
— Tommy Dreamer was the first inductee in the Mid Hudson Civic Center pro wrestling Hall of Fame in Poughkeepsie, NY. This was at the Awesome Championship Wrestling show at the building.
— Kratos & Odinson won the Crockett Cup tournament beating Eddie & Orlando Colon (Primo & Epico) in the main event last night at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia. Nattie Neidhart lost when challenging Kenzie Paige for the NWA women’s title. Thom Latimer kept the NWA title over Rhino and Colby Corino.
— Limitless Wrestling put on a wrestling show at a youth prison in South Portland, ME. The show was an idea from Ace Romero, the former Impact wrestler who is a member of the Long Creek Youth Development Center staff, a juvenile facility. Scotty 2 Hotty, who is from the area, was on the show.
— The International Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame announced Tony Atlas & Rocky Johnson going in as a tag team in 2025. They had previously announced Trish Stratus being inducted.
— Shoko Nakajima defends the MLW women’s featherweight title against Kaya Toribami on 6/7 at Kitazawa Town Hall for Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling.
Any hope WWE fans might have of ticket prices coming down any time soon will have to wait.
During his annual appearance at the JP Morgan Global Technology, Media and Communications conference in Boston, TKO president & chief operating officer Mark Shapiro (pictured above) spoke about both WWE and UFC business which included the upside he sees in both brands.
One of those is ticket pricing which he says has “tremendous upside” in addition to site fees, dynamic pricing (a growing trend with concerts and events where prices are driven by demand in real-time), and yield management (a broader strategy that aims to maximize revenue by controlling inventory availability and pricing).
WWE live event reduction
Shapiro also defended TKO’s decision to reduce yearly WWE live events to around 200 a year, a cut of what he said was 75% off the 300 WWE used to do (even though it’s actually a 33% reduction). He said that decision wasn’t done just to improve margins, and that WWE already had a strong following. Shapiro feels 200 events is a good place to be, but they will continue to prune the schedule as time goes on.
WWE & Peacock
Shapiro said they are continuing to talk with NBC Universal/Peacock who are interesting in renewing their deal for WWE PLEs that expires at the end of March 2026.
Shapiro said they aren’t afraid of working with multiple partners from a business perspective as it’s smart to not put all the marketing eggs in one basket while also maximizing financial opportunity. He added that as a viewer, “I can’t stand it” but admitted that’s the world we live in now.
Like with the UFC rights, there is no rush to make a deal and they want to have the right partner(s) from a financial and brand growth perspective. He also again noted that what is unique about WWE PLEs is they are “very high quality and low volume.” He again didn’t mention anything about the library and perceived value there.
Here’s some other highlights from Shapiro’s 35-minute talk:
He confirmed that the state of New Jersey is giving WWE a $7 million site fee for this August’s first-ever two-night SummerSlam. As previously reported, the money is coming from pandemic funding.
Shapiro put over how half the WWE/UFC audience is in the 18-49 demographic and that under 18 years old is one of their biggest audiences. He said in that age, they are tied with the NBA as the biggest draw and no. 1 with males under 18.
The X-factors to growth with younger viewers: sporting betting with the UFC and Netflix with WWE.
He feels WWE will be one of the vehicles Netflix uses to become the first-ever company with a $1 trillion valuation as WWE is an “anditote to churn” and a “proven formula for subscriber acquistion.”
He said Raw is in the Netflix top 10 weekly in 29 countries and up 14% for “what we did on USA last year” without specifying what that 14% represents.
He pushed the WWE Unreal docuseries in June on Netflix, noting that he cautioned Nick Khan to “not give away the Coca-Cola formula” to expose everything they do but said there’s a proven desire for behind-the-scenes content like this.
Through new reporting, the percentage of WWE’s controlling interest in Mexican wrestling promotion AAA has been revealed.
Reported in Spanish language publication LexLatin, WWE (owned by TKO) will own 51% of AAA when the transaction completes in Q3 of 2025 with Mexican sports and entertainment company Fillip owning the remaining 49%.
The total amount of the sale has yet to be revealed. The sale itself was revealed during the pre-show for last month’s WWE WrestleMania 41.
From the report:
“The deal had a strong intellectual property component as the main value of the acquired company (part of the main assets purchased) is its intangible assets (trademarks, copyrights, and exclusive use rights, among others). Because of this, the transaction required an audit of these assets “to verify their specific characteristics, validity, and legal status, as well as a review of the licenses and other contracts entered into regarding them,” Creel explained.
Creel, Garcia-Cuellar, Aiza y Enríquez, SC was the firm that represented Fillip in the sale. It was stated by the same firm that “several of the seller’s IP assets were subject to litigation, necessitating an analysis of potential liabilities and risks arising from the litigation.”
Roberto Cornish of Mexican legal firm Cornish+Pani Abogados that represented the sellers said that “the IP due diligence also included the structuring and documentation of AAA’s “valuable portfolio of characters, brands, and licensing agreements.'”
No other details were provided as to the audit and the potential litigation regarding AAA’s IP.
Lots more on the AAA sale to TKO (and that it’s not actually completed), CMLL’s cryptic response, Grand Slam Mexico, Dorian Roldan talks why he sold and Konnan and Latin Lover talk the future of AAA and in theory how things change in Mexico and the U.S., plus the major business goals.
Tam Nakano ends her career, Mayu Iwatani leaves Stardom, Stardom puts on its biggest show with its biggest match in history and a couple of award categories this should do well in.
Update on WWE Backlash
Update on both major lawsuits against Vince McMahon and WWE. New plaintiffs emerge in the ringboys suit and a new Vice President is implicated, and Janel Grant’s attorneys push for the case to move forward while the defendants want discovery held up.
Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff promote Real American Freestyle. What they need for success, what mistakes they’ve already made and is Hogan the right person to the face of the company
Full coverage of TNA Rebellion
Long story on the Hollywood Demons episode on the Von Erichs, how this is different from other stories, more on the deaths, the political situation in Texas and things in the new documentary that aren’t completely accurate, as well as dispelling major myths.
The most detailed look at the ratings, including placings, demos, competition and more for all the shows
End of the CMLL Universal championship tournament with a super finish
MLW vs. CMLL matches this week
Champion Carnival update
Lots of New Japan big matches coming up
Meiko Satomura retires
Big indie shows this week
Big Progress tournament this week
RVD injury update
More NXT stars on TNA television
AEW expects one of its biggest gates for upcoming show
Bryan Danielson talks his career and AEW
Advanced ticket sales for upcoming WWE and AEW shows
Lots of injury updates
PFL involved in a number of messy lawsuits
Freak show fight with powerlifters gets major attention
SmackDown time slot change
Did you know the person behind the movie with Liv Morgan did a movie based on a Hall of Fame 80s and 90s pro wrestling legend
Value of WWE’s PLEs on the open market
The story of the most powerful man in combat sports that most reporters aren’t touching
Lots of notes on the Smashing Machine movie
How much Dwayne Johnson has made since joining the TK Board
More talk on a WWE all-women’s PPV show
This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter Back Issue
— We did our weekend show last night instead of tonight to get the WWE releases analysis out as soon as possible. Last night’s show went in depth on everyone that was released, lots of talk as to why the releases were done, some reasons, and future prospects for everyone. We also talked about the rest of the weekend news. Garrett Gonzales and I did our week in review as well with instant thoughts on the releases, Hogan & Bischoff’s new promotion, and answered a lot of questions. Bryan and I will be back tomorrow night after Raw.
— WWE just added Iyo Sky vs. Roxanne Perez in a non-title match to Raw. Those in WWE are very high on Sky as you can tell and these two were great on Tuesday’s NXT in the tag match.
— Tetsuya Naito’s final New Japan match earlier today in Fukuoka drew the largest crowd in the city for wrestling in six years with Hirooki Goto over Callum Newman in the IWGP world title match main event. Naito & Shingo Takagi & Hiromu Takahashi & Bushi beat Shota Umino & Tomohiro Ishii & Taichi & Taka Michinku.
— Turki Al-Sheikh announced yesterday that the expected TKO boxing debut show will be 9/12 with Canelo Alvarez vs. Terrenice Crawford for the Ring Magazine title as the main event. Dana White and Nick Khan will be promoters of the show at Allegiant Stadium, the site of WrestleMania. They said that the TV platform for the show will be announced shortly. I wonder if they will go with PPV or try and get as many viewers as possible. I think Netflix looking to repeat the one-night boxing model that worked for them with Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul is a good bet.
— Mayu Iwatani’s Marigold debut today over Nanae Takahashi at Korakuen Hall was recommended to us as an excellent match. Iwatani won. Reports that Korakuen Hall sold out instantly were incorrect as they were not sold out at all.
— The other match outside of New Japan heavily recommended was Ozawa over KENTA in the Sumo Hall main event yesterday for NOAH to retain the GHC title.
— TNA announced a media rights deal with Claro Sports in Mexico, South and Central America for all its programming. It will both air on Pay TV as well as streaming.
— Mistico beat Kushida in Friday’s Arena Mexico main event in the CMLL vs. MLW show. MLW talent is there for the weekend.
— Maple Leaf Wrestling’s debut in Toronto is said to be selling well for the Mattamy Athletic Center. They took out ads during Dynamite on TSN as well as have a billboard up in Dundas Square in Toronto, which is the closest thing they have to Times Square.
— Ryan Bader was at the Tokyo Dome for today’s show put on by Rizin. He indicated fighting the winner of their heavyweight Grand Prix on 12/31. Bader, who plays Mark Coleman in the movie “Smashing Machine,” said that he would be heavyweight champion after the fight.
— There are two more episodes of LFG tonight, one at 8 p.m. Eastern and the other at 9:30 p.m. Eastern. The second show will air the male semifinals with the winners meeting for “a contract” (keep in mind everyone on the show is already under contract) at an event in Madison Square Garden.
— For Google searches this weekend, Canelo Alvarez, who beat William Scull via unanimous decision in what has been dubbed the most boring major fight weekend in modern boxing history had 560,000 searches. Terrence Crawford had 50,000. Last night’s UFC show had only 120,000 with most of the talk about Reiner de Ridder stopping Bo Nickal in the second round, handing Nickal his first loss. WWE releases had 100,000.
— Insane Wrestling Revolution had a show last night in Monroe, MI. We were told that they offered all fans 40 percent off tickets to Collision on Thursday in Detroit. Those tickets are not selling well with nothing announced for the show. They had a Wrestlefest with Kurt Angle, RVD, Eric Bischof, Shark Boy, Boogeyman, Rhino, Heath Slater, Brookln Brawler, Victoria and ODDB. Benjamin Boone won a Battle Royal. Angle put Pierre Guerin in an ankle lock in a segment. Country Gentlemen b Rhino & Heath Slater to keep the tag titles, Johnny Swinger b Buckeye Sam, KJ Reynolds & Ryan Matthias b Aaron Orion & Adam Wicks, Dread King Logan b Zeeko ODB b Jessicka Havok, Adam Wick won a four-way over Myron Reed, Jake Crist and Rich Swann (all four got a standing ovation after the match) to win the U.S. title, Eh eam b Alienated Youth and PCO & Soultaker to keep the IWG tag titles, Kitty Lafleur & Kenny Urban b Sam Beale & Shelly Benson, NWA champion Thom Latimer beat IWR champion Silas Young to win the title. (thanks to Paul Meade)
— Invicta on 5/16 in Kansas City has announced Katharina Lehner vs. Olga Rubin as the main event.
— Dominick Cruz will replace Joe Rogan as announcer for Saturday’s UFC 315 show in Montreal. Rogan has said he won’t go to Canada.
Three new plaintiffs have joined the lawsuit against WWE and The McMahons.
Post Wrestling reported on Monday that the former ring boys filing the suit against WWE, TKO and Vince & Linda McMahon have provided further details regarding the defendant’s alleged failure to report sexual abuse. The filing includes allegations from three additional plaintiffs that allege abuse not only by former ring announcer and road crew member Mel Phillips, but also from longtime WWE official Pat Patterson and former WWE wrestler Koko B. Ware.
John Doe 6, a Missisippi resident, alleges that he met Phillips around 1988 when he was 11 or 12 years old. After a house show on July 14, 1989 in Baltimore he was told that he needed to stay in Patterson’s hotel room while other boys stayed in Phillips’ room. It was there that Doe 6 alleges that he was given alcohol as Patterson played pornography on the television. Patterson then allegedly proceeded to perform sexual acts on Doe 6.
He said he was also sexually abused by Phillips after a July 21, 1992 event in Portland, Maine. This was after Phillips’ reported exit from the WWE in March of 1992.
In a separate incident that took place in Portland, Maine, Doe 6 alleges that Ware pushed his head against a wall and patted him down, grabbing him by the crotch with other witnesses present including Phillips, Patterson, Tony Chimel, and referee Danny Davis, with only Chimel telling Ware to let go. Ware did not immediately respond to Post Wrestling for comment.
John Doe 7 says he was around 14 or 15 years old when he met Phillips in 1974. He says he was abused by Phillips in Baltimore, Maryland during his work as a ring boy, including forced oral sex. Doe 7 also said abuse happened away from WWE events and Phillips sometimes recorded the abuse with a video camera.
John Doe 8 met Phillips when he was around 15 years old in Baltimore back in 1982 while he was working concessions at the Baltimore Civic Center. Before a April 10, 1982 WWE event Doe 8 alleges that Phillips told he and another boy were told to get undressed at a hotel room. Doe 8 says Phillips then proceeded to put the boys’ feet on his crotch to compare sizes while he was aroused. They were also offered cocaine and pills.
Linda McMahon filed a motion earlier this month to dismiss the lawsuit, saying she has no significant connection to the state and never communicated with the then five individuals who originally filed the lawsuit. She also sought to distance herself from Phillips, saying she never personally supervised him while he was employed in WWE. In the amended suit, the ring boys outlined times when they interacted with or were in the presence of Vince & Linda McMahon.
