The latest WWE and AEW News and Results
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The new Wrestling Observer Newsletter has arrived.
This week, Dave Meltzer looks at last weekend’s WWE Crown Jewel, the injury Seth Rollins suffered, and the subsequent fallout.
Dave also previews AEW WrestleDream, reviews TNA Bound for Glory, and all the news of the pro wrestling week.
Last year’s race was historical, and this year’s was predictable. The usual rule of thumb for this award is that the winner is a world champion who is a top draw and a good worker. Last year saw Mistico become the first non-heavyweight to win, and first Luchador to win, in a year where eight of the top 12 finishers were non-heavyweights. This year, of the 15 top finishers, 12 are heavyweights (although Shawn Michaels would be considered a heavyweight and Bryan Danielson is booked like a promotion would book a heavyweight with Mistico as the other). It’s a different race when you take the MMA fighters who are generally non-heavies, out of the mix.
Every year has a theme, and for the awards, this was a year of landslides. Nearly every category was predictable, and results weren’t close. Part of the reason is that in most categories, for a number of reasons, there were so few true candidates.
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The new Wrestling Observer Newsletter has arrived.
Dave Meltzer leads off with an extended look at the new way Nielsen is providing ratings and the havoc it’s wreaking for WWE and AEW TV.
He also looks at the announcement of John Cena’s final opponent and gives a preview for Saturday’s WWE Crown Jewel.
All that and the news of the wrestling week awaits. Let’s get reading, because reading is your friend.
New Japan’s 17-year-old tradition of opening the year with the 1/4 Tokyo Dome remains hovering on extinction.
But this past week’s installment based on most reports was a good show, highlighted by New Japan wrestlers battling outsiders from TNA, All Japan, Zero-One Max and the new Dradition (formerly Muga) promotion.
Shinsuke Nakamura captured the “real” IWGP heavyweight title in the main event for the second time in his career, beating natural rival Hiroshi Tanahashi in the main event. The other main event saw Kurt Angle retain the IGF version of the same title, beating Yuji Nagata in what was said to be the best match on the show. This was designed to set up a title unification match on 2/17 at Tokyo Sumo Hall. This was set up with Angle and Jeff Jarrett coming to the ring to set up a confrontation after Nakamura was awarded the belt. We don’t know if there is anything to this, because it’s Antonio Inoki, but Inoki claimed Angle vs. Naoya Ogawa would headline his 2/16 show at the Ariake Coliseum.
Dave Meltzer and I are back with the Friday edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, talking about two major stories from today’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
The first is on the new ratings and how it’s affecting wrestling television shows. The second is on why Andrade was able to go to AEW so quickly.
John Muse, Ethan Tyler, and Phil Lions then joined us to talk about the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame candidates in both Mexico and rest of the world categories.
Click here to listen (sub needed) or watch on YouTube
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Dave Meltzer returns with the new Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
He leads off with an early look at this month’s WWE Crown Jewel and AEW WrestleDream.
He also goes into the NXT vs. TNA Showdown event set for this Tuesday and why the name of the event changed.
All that plus ratings, other wrestling news, reviews, and more.
Ring of Honor taped its fifth PPV, scheduled for March, as the first of two weekend “Final Battle” shows at the Manhattan Center. But from most accounts, the spectacular show was the Sunday card that wasn’t taped, even with the company getting the injury bug the night before.
Champion Nigel McGuiness had his face jammed into the guard rail when hit with a tope by Austin Aries. He needed 14 stitches, suffered a broken nose and had a mild concussion which resulted in him not defending the title as scheduled the second night. Partially due to not having the singles title match advertised, the decision was made to do a previously unplanned tag team title change with Tyler Black & Jimmy Jacobs of the Age of the Fall beating Mark & Jay Briscoe.
McGuiness did a promo the next night causing a weird reaction. I’d been led to believe it was the kind of reaction John Cena would get, but it really wasn’t. It appeared to be about 15-20% or so booing him, and chanting “Drop the belt,” while the vast majority were behind him. Still, you could see that was enough that it unnerved him.
It’s Friday and that means a new edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
In this week’s issue, Dave Meltzer provides thoughts, recaps and his star ratings from a full weekend of wrestling including AEW All Out, WWE Wrestlepalooza and CMLL’s 92nd Anniversary Show.
He also goes into the news of the wrestling and MMA week and looks ahead to next week.
Click here to read, because reading is your friend.
So at around midnight or so in Las Vegas on 12/29, a few hours after the end of UFC, after people had eaten their late dinner, heading up the elevator at the Mandalay Bay, some drunk guys were still buzzing. “Man, we saw history.”
A few hours before, in a different world and a very different place, the Greensboro Coliseum, fans may have also seen history, although most won’t know it until they look back. To hardcore MMA fans, Chuck Liddell vs. Wanderlei Silva was their Hulk Hogan vs. Ric Flair, or maybe Ray Leonard vs. Marvin Hagler for those who haven’t been to a live UFC show and realize it’s so much like 1970s pro wrestling in intensity and 1980s pro wrestling in atmosphere that it’s almost scary. If there was one thing evident quickly while attending the weigh-in, is that Liddell’s two losses this year, and Silva’s two losses, may mean they were washed up on the Internet boards, but those people and the hardcore fans who come to the weigh-ins are completely different animals.
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The latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter has arrived on the doorstep of another busy pro wrestling weekend with two head-to-head shows Saturday.
AEW All Out will kick things off in the mid-afternoon followed by WWE Wrestlepalooza with several hours of crossover. From WWE’s ESPN debut to the return of Brock Lesnar to how AEW will perform with their third-straight afternoon PPV are among the many topics covered by Dave Meltzer this week.
There’s all that, plus a look at CMLL’s anniversary show Friday, the other news of the pro wrestling week and more.
The first part of the most important week for the TNA promotion, the Victory Road PPV, was not a home run, but was a mild success amidst all kinds of late negotiations.
In the end, negotiations with Sting fell through, and a last minute deal was made with Randy Savage, 52, who has not appeared on a wrestling TV show in more than four years, to take his planned spot which was to be in the final scene on the PPV after Jeff Jarrett, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall were wreaking havoc on everyone. But that turned out to be a waste, when two days later, Savage quit the company, blaming it on Hulk Hogan and saying the company had an unsafe working environment.
It was clear the company’s direction has totally changed, from one to a company trying to use talent from the past that Vince McMahon doesn’t want, to garner interest. Besides the aforementioned trio, Diamond Dallas Page also debuted the 11/9 Impact tapings, and Jerry Jarrett tried at the last minute to get Hulk Hogan to make an appearance on the PPV.
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The newest issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter is here for subscribers.
Dave Meltzer leads off with one of the bigger stories of the week: WWE is planning on bringing WrestleMania 43 to Saudi Arabia in 2027 — an announcement that should be made official on Friday afternoon.
The final roadmap to the end of John Cena’s in-ring career has been laid out and ending in a place that wasn’t initially expected. Dave looks at the end of the road for Cena.
All that and more await. So, let’s get reading as reading is your friend.
In compiling these numbers, there are a few things to note. Because WWE has elaborate stages when it tapes television, it cutes the capacity of arenas down significantly. In a 19,000-seat arena, a sold out Raw is only going to be around 13,500 fans, and Smackdown would be closer to 12,000. WWE can top 15,000 for regular house shows without staging, but virtually never does in North America. By that standard, if you compare these numbers with other periods in wrestling history, from a live attendance perspective, things are pretty bad. WWE used to top 15,000 in Madison Square Garden alone a dozen times per year during the territorial days. But it’s a different game today.
Even though the perception is that UFC is declining and boxing had a banner year, when you compare the top 15 PPV shows, you note a different story. Boxing had one record setting fight that skewed things. If anything, from a monthly get your friends together and watch the PPV aspect, UFC looks to have become No. 1 far more decidedly this past year.
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Dave Meltzer has returned with the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter to kick off your weekend.
Dave leads off with this week’s news that HBO Max will begin to offer AEW pay-per-views starting this month with All Out. He also writes about the decision to move the PPV to earlier in the day to avoid WWE Wrestlepalooza — a topic that came up this week on Wrestling Observer Radio.
Dave also recaps last Sunday’s WWE Clash in Paris which was part of a big financially successful weekend for WWE in the city.
There’s that, the latest news around the wrestling world, a few scoops, and TV recaps from the last week.
So let’s get to it because reading is your friend.
The road to Wrestlemania, through the Royal Rumble, had a few changes made over the past week, which changed the finish of the HHH vs. Jeff Hardy match at Armageddon on 12/16 in Pittsburgh.
In the build for Wrestlemania, at least based on this week’s concept (and all of this changes weekly), whomever wins the Rumble will not be able to pick the champion he faces but will have to face the champion of his brand. Then the other brand would have the Elimination Chamber. I can see this becoming an annual tradition because annual traditions draw better, and No Way Out has been a very tough draw sandwiched between Rumble and Mania, and this will make it more relevant. Based on the Chamber being originally a Raw match (which obviously could change, since the participants in the match originally were based on the idea HHH would win the title from Orton in the Rumble, which is no longer happening), that would indicate a Smackdown winner of the Rumble, who would have almost surely been Undertaker.
