Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer is back with tons to talk about including the UFC PPV recap and some Hall of Fame thoughts with Paul Fontaine, then full reviews of WWE Bad Blood, Collision and Smackdown, news on Kevin Owens’ heel turn and why they did it the way they did, AJ Styles’ injury on Smackdown and more. A fun show as always so check it out~!
Timestamps:
Start: UFC 307 recap 47:09: WWE Bad Blood recap 1:12:30: WWE SmackDown notes 1:19:20: AEW Collision notes 1:28:49: Lineups for this week, Post Wrestling’s Stephen P. New interview
Wrestling Observer Radio with myself and Dave Meltzer is back with tons to talk about including full recaps of UFC 302, AEW Collision and WWE SmackDown, plus all the news in pro wrestling, upcoming lineups, and more. A fun show as always so check it out~!
Timestamps:
Start: Toni Storm challenges Mina Shirakawa for AEW Forbidden Door, UFC 302 recap
As expected, last Saturday’s UFC 264 did great business at the pay-per-view box office, bringing in just under 1.8 million buys worldwide.
Sports Business Journal’s John Ourand first reported the news Tuesday, confirming what Dana White had estimated on Saturday night after the Conor McGregor vs. Dustin Poirier III-led show had ended.
Ourand added that 1.3 million of those buys were domestic on ESPN+ and 500,000 were international purchases.
He also reported that the prelims saw an average of 1.615 million viewers and was ESPN’s most viewed program of the day. The number is 11% better than when McGregor and Poirier fought in January (1.454 million). The early prelims did 830,000 viewers.
Here’s how the promotion and ESPN+ have done thus far on PPV this year via Ourand’s reporting:
UFC 257 (Conor McGregor vs. Dustin Poirier II): 1.6 million buys worldwide (1.2 million domestic)
UFC 259 (Jan Blachowicz vs. Israel Adesanya): 800,000 buys worldwide (600,000 domestic)
UFC 262 (Charles Oliveira vs. Michael Chandler): 300,000 buys domestic
UFC 263 (Israel Adesanya vs. Marvin Vettori II, Deiveson Figueiredo vs. Brandon Moreno II, Nate Diaz vs. Leon Edwards): 600,000 buys worldwide (500,000 domestic)
Numbers for UFC 258 or UFC 260 were not released.
On a related note, ESPN+ subscribers will see their monthly cost increase to $6.99 a month, up from $5.99, with annual plans increasing to $69.99 per year, up from $59.99, starting in mid-August. As of now, the only way U.S. viewers can buy a UFC PPV is to have an ESPN+ subscription first.
