Daily Update
Latest News
- WWE NXT Great American Bash live results: Carmelo Hayes vs. Ilja Dragunov title match
- WWE Main Event results: Kayden Carter vs. Nikki Cross, Sanga vs. Akira Tozawa
- Impact Saturday TV taping spoilers: Alex Shelley vs. Brian Myers
- Rey Mysterio ‘fine’ after injury on WWE SmackDown
- NJPW G1 Climax 33 night 10 live results: Tanahashi vs. Goto
Latest Audio
- Wrestling Observer Live: CM Punk is AEW’s ‘Real World Champion’
- Wrestling Observer Radio: UFC recap, Collision with FTR vs. Max & Cole, Smackdown, more
- Wrestling Observer Live: Talent and TV time
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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter
In this issue:
- Match of the week and performer of the week
- SummerSlam preview, records that will be set, records that are in jeopardy and more
- Update on the card including notes about matches not yet announced
- Update on ticket sales
- Preview of Great American Bash and next NXT major event
- Gable Steveson’s decision, his debut, what his decision really is and what wasn’t true in his angle
- Preview to AEW in Wembley Stadium
- What angles are being done and what is amazing about the build
- Ticket sales and will they outsell Hogan vs. Andre at WrestleMania III before announcing the first match
- Lots of AEW booking updates
- Full coverage of the G-1 tournament, standings, matches left, Okada vs. Ospreay, what young guys are doing well and what aren’t
- How business is doing so far
- Ring of Honor Death Before Dishonor coverage, business notes, PPV
- Coverage of UFC at the O2 Arena in London, update on the heavyweight division
- DDT runs biggest show of the year
- A look at the carer of Tommy Siegler
- The most detailed look at ratings for the past week
- How wrestling shows did in the weekly standings and each night
- Segment-by-segment numbers and comparisons with one year ago
- Robbery of the box office at a major promotion show
- CMLL Anniversary show update
- World Gran Prix participants announced
- Konnan talks TripleMania Mexico City main event
- Day one of the Five-Star Grand Prix
- Stardom upcoming shows including a multi-title show featuring New Japan belt and a legends show
- King of Gate update
- NOAH match with fastest fan club advance in history
- Hogan getting married
- Senate honors legendary wrestlers and how this differs from the U.S.
- Lots of news on the Mildred Burke movie including pro wrestling personalities involved
- Lio Rush injury update
- Indie show has tickets sold to people from 32 countries
- Impact does surprisingly well on PPV
- Notes on Rush signing with AEW
- Update on AEW injuries
- Ticket sales for upcoming WWE and AEW shows including WWE PPV shows, AEW PPVs shows and Grand Slam at Arthur Ashe Stadium
- International TV ratings
- A look in detail at the largest MMA show rating of the year and it wasn’t from UFC, and how many of its viewers watch UFC
- Peacock bleeding money and its future
- WWE injury updates
- WWE Royal Rumble news
- WWE signings talk
- Big match being teased
- New names for WWE talent
- Rundown of all the WWE weekend house shows
This Week’s Retro Observer Newsletter
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Sunday Update
Bryan and I did our weekend show last night covering Collision, UFC and Smackdown. Garret and I also did our week in review show, a two-hour show covering a ton of topics including the latest business, Bam Bam Bigelow, All In, SummerSlam and a ton of other stuff. Bryan and I will be back tomorrow night covering tonight’s Great American Bash as well as Raw.
Sources have confirmed to us that Comcast, while not advertising it yet, is scheduled to air All In on PPV on 8/27 from Wembley Stadium with a $50 price tag. That would mean it would be on inDemand and all the cable systems would be expected to be carrying the show. This confirms that as of this moment, it will be a PPV show, just as All Out will be. Other cable systems have not confirmed it and AEW has yet to announce it. Andrew Zarian, who first said it would be a PPV event, has confirmed Joe Hand Promotions would be airing the show at movie theaters around the country, also just like a usual AEW PPV show. As noted many times, this is the one show that both WBD (which was prominent in the early promotion as being part of the 100 years of WBD) and AEW should have wanted in front of the most eyeballs possible, which would be television and streaming and it at this point appears that won’t be the case.
Great American Bash tonight from Cedar Park, TX at 8 p.m.:
- Carmelo Hayes vs. Ilja Dragunov for the NXT title – On paper this should be great as Dragunov has the ability to bring a level of intensity and Hayes is very talented. On paper this should be Hayes’ best title defense.
- Dominik Mysterio vs. Wes Lee vs. Mustafa Ali for the North American title. Mysterio has been driving the NXT ratings with Rhea Ripley so I wouldn’t change the title. But the three-way allows them many different options here and Lee vs. Ali was the direction they were going before Mysterio showed up.
- Gallus vs. Tony D’Angelo & Stacks Lorenzo for the tag titles. This will open the PPV portion of the show. Expect the Creeds under a mask to be a factor in this.
- Tiffany Stratton vs. Thea Hail for the women’s title in a submission match. Hail has a lot of momentum here but has dominated the angles leading up to this and Stratton is the one the company is very high on right now.
- Gable Steveson vs. Baron Corbin. This is Steveson’s pro wrestling debut and he’s been the subject of a lot of questions. WWE has a lot of money invested in Steveson so they don’t want him doing anything but succeeding. Usually I’d say Steveson wins quickly and explosively but whatever decision they make will be very interesting.
- Blair Davenport vs. Roxanne Perez in a weapons match. Davenport won their first meeting and this is in Texas, so Perez in theory would be the favorite.
- Nathan Frazer & Dragon Lee & Yulisa Leon & Valentina Feroz vs. Noam Dar & Oro Mensah & Lash Legend & Jakara Jackson in the pre-show match at about 7:40 p.m. Eastern
- There were 3,775 tickets out as of earlier today.
We’re looking for your thoughts on the Great American Bash NXT PLE, so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to [email protected]
We are also looking for reports on tonight’s WWE show in Coral Gables, FL with results, finishes and highlights to [email protected]
Both the Terrence Crawford vs. Erroll Spence Jr., boxing match and Justin Gaethje vs. Dustin Poirier UFC fight did an excess of 1 million Google searches. Early numbers indicate Crawford vs. Spence did over 1.2 million searches and the UFC fight did over 1.1 million, but the way they tally stuff now, that doesn’t mean Spence-Crawford was bigger. But it probably was as it was a bigger fight in boxing for the undisputed welterweight title while the UFC fight was for the made up BMF title. Both went head-to-head, and also opposed Collision as well as Bellator being on Showtime. People are talking of Crawford now as the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world the way he took care of Spence enroute to a ninth round TKO win at the T Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
UFC had four of the top ten searched for subjects last night with Gaethje vs. Poroier, as well as Derrick Lewis, Jan Blachowicz and Tony Ferguson. No other pro wrestling, boxing or MMA subjects cracked the top 20 for any day this past week.
I don’t think there was much controversy over the Alex Pereira vs. Jan Blachowicz decision from last night. I had it 29-28 Pereira which the vast majority also had. Blachowicz claimed he was robbed. The third round was close, but Pereira did better in the stand up. Blachowicz got a late takedown but did no damage from the top. Media scores were 85 percent with Pereira.
Justin Gaethje, after his win, was challenged by Conor McGregor. Gaethje pretty much blew it off. McGregor still hasn’t enrolled in the USADA drug testing so in theory can’t fight for the next six months, although I have little doubt they’ll find a way to waive that rule. Gaethje said he thinks McGregor turned down fighting him six times. McGregor said he’d slap Gaethje around. McGregor indicated wanting to face Gaethje rather than Michael Chandler, which had been the plan, coming off this season of Ultimate Fighter. Gaethje said he didn’t care, that at one time he would have wanted the fight, but said, “I’m not going to fight someone on steroids. I’ve never taken steroids in my life, never will–well, maybe when I retire, I might. But I’ve never taken steroids and I don’t want to fight someone that’s cheating. And I probably shouldn’t even say that if I want the fight, but it’s the truth.” He said he wants the winner of Islam Makhachev vs. Charles Oliveira for the lightweight title, and he hopes Oliveira wins so he can avenge his loss to Oliveira.
Drew McIntyre won’t be on Raw tomorrow night. He’s doing a movie in Budapest, Hungary. It’s the same reason he wasn’t on the 7/17 show. Of course he returns to the U.S. this coming weekend for his match with Gunther at SummerSlam. Seth Rollins & Sami Zayn vs. Dominik Mysterio & Damian Priest will be on tomorrow’s Raw show in Houston, which is sold out.
WWE is doing a community service experience event on Friday night at Ford Field in Detroit prior to SumerSlam. All ticket money will be donated to the V Foundation and Conor’s Cure for Pediatric Cancer. Cody Rhodes and Liv Morgan will both be appearing.
The G-1 tournament next show is Tuesday at 6 a.m. Eastern from Takamatsu with Kazuchika Okada vs. KENTA, Yota Tsuji vs. Shota Umino and Will Ospreay vs. Tanga Loa as the top bouts.
WWE from last night in Estero, FL:
- Matt Riddle b Gunther via DQ when Ludvig Kaiser & Giovanni Cinvi attacked Riddle and The Alpha Academy made the save
- Riddle & Gable & Otis b Imperium when Riddle pinned Kaiser. Gable gave Gunther a Chaos Theory suplex before the finish.
- Austin Theory retained the U.S title over A.J Styles using the trunks. Styles laid him out after the match.
- Kayden Carter & Katana Chance b Isla Dawn & Alba Fyre when Chance pinned Dawn with the usual Carter/Chance neckbreaker 450 combination
- Cody Rhodes b Damian Priest with Cross Rhodes. Rhodes saw a little girl in the front row with unicorn horns and asked if he could borrow them. He put them on and said that now he knows he can beat Brock Lesnar.
- Omos b Johnny Gargano
- Asuka won a three-way over Charlotte Flair and Shotzi when Flair gave Shotzi natural selection and Asuka threw Flair out of the ring for the pin
- Seth Rollins b Rinn Balor with the curb stomp to keep the world title. No Rhea Ripley or Dominik Mysreio on the show and both were advertised with Cody vs. Dominik and Ripley vs. Natalya (who also wasn’t there). (thanks to Shannon Walsh)
Also thanks to Matthew Merritt for weekend WWE reports.
The Pitbull Brothers accused Kleber Koike of attacking Patricky from behind in their locker room at the Bellator/RIZIN joint show at the Saitama Super Arena earlier today. Patricio, who was shockingly knocked out in the first round by Chihiro Suzuki, made this public saying that Koike kicked his brother and ran away. Patricky had beaten Koike’s teammate, Roberto Satoshi De Souza in the main event of the show, a first round lightweight Grand Prix tournament fight.
Philo, a streaming television provider, is dropping AXS TV from its lineup. Philo is a low-cost alternative to satellite and cable at $25 a month. It was a base station service to Philo and coming off the successful numbers of Slammiversary, it’s disappointing. It’s not a great deal of homes lost but it is something. The change is scheduled for 7/31 at this point.
Other Notes
Defy from last night in Seattle: Clark Connors won 8XGP match over Ethan HD, Evan Rivers and Guillermo Rosas, Vert Vixen b Billie Starkz to keep the women’s title (people were raving about this onie), Cody Chhun won 8XGP match over Schaff, Titus Alexander and Travis Williams. Connors attacked Chhun after the match and Rosas made the save. Curry Man (Christopher Daniels) b Miles DeVille, Bollywood Boyz b Billington Bulldogs to keep the tag titles, Jon Moxley b Artemis Spencer via ref stoppage.
Defy Spirit, Friday’s all women-s show results from Seattle: Trish Adora b Cat Power, Dulce Tormenta & Rebel Kel b Bambi Hall & Taryn from Accounting, Allie Katch b Nicole Matthews, Zamaya b Amira due to interference for Tara Zep–Madusa who is the authority figure for the promotion, ordered the match restarted, Amira b Zamaya, Marina Shafir b Liiza Hall, Vert Vixen b Maki Itoh. After the second Amira vs. Zamaya match, Zamaya and Zep attacked Amira & Madusa, who made their own comeback. (thanks to Shannon Walsh)
RevPro announced that its show today in Portsmouth at Guildhall was postponed and that they would be announcing a new date tomorrow morning. They apologized for the late notice.
Japanese wrestler Saki Akai announced she would be retiring in November after ten years in the business.
Kirk White’s Big Time Wrestling sold out the Newark, CA Pavilion Friday night: Matt Cardona b Chris Masters with help from Steph De Lander, Jacob Fatu b Big Fonz in what was said to be a great match, Viva Van b De Lander to keep the women’s title, The Freaks b Sir Samurai & Eliza Hammer, Alpha Zo b Chupacabra, Matt Carlos b Truex, Aaron Solo b Titus Alexander. Next show is the company 27th anniversary card on 10/6 with Mick Foley and John Morrison announced (thanks to Jim Davis)
Chainsaw Pro Wrestling from last night in Kalkaska, MI: Great Tiger b Noctambulo, Don Tone Leone & Babyface Jay Leo b TJ Meyer & Thomas Bailey, Devon Ryker b LaDon Sanders, Chris Moore b Lamario Starr-DQ, Jumal Kyng & Chris Moore b Nate Bock & Lamario Starr, Tommy Vendetta b Shazza McKenzie, Kevin Kalloway & Sean Tyler & Solo b Adam Wck & KJ Reynods & Ryan Matthias, Rick Morton & Alex Steel b Kyler Coleman & Corad Loucks, Brutus Atwell b Anakin Murphy, Rae Larson & Stelle Buho b Green Mamba & Glamorous Gazelle, Aaron Orion b Gary Jay (thanks to Leonard Brand)
Jeff Jarrett was at a minor league baseball game last night in Springfield, IL, which is the team he is co-owner of. He hit a planted fan of the visiting team with a guitar shot (thanks to Eric Krol)
Santino Brothers from Cudahy, CA last night: Raunchy Rico b Adrian Quest, Lucas Riley & Dom Kubrick b Eli Everfly & Chrisi Nastyy, Delilah Doom b Ray Rosas (good match), Slice oogie b Che Cabrera to win the Santino Brothers title, Big Dick Hoss won 20 man Rumble throwing out Bad Dude Tito to win.
