Due to problems regarding organization, yesterday’s Smackdown tapings only taped one show instead of the scheduled two.
The one show taped will air this Friday.
To make up for things, the scheduled August 17 taping for Raw has been moved to August 13, and they will tape the August 14 episode of Smackdown and the August 17 episode of Raw on that date.
This will come one day after NXT tapings. As a result, many of the people involved will have to stay an extra day, but they still would need to add a taping for the August 21 Smackdown that was to be taped on August 17.
WWE held tapings for Raw this past Monday, taping Monday’s episode and the August 10 episode of the program. The situation backstage for those tapings were described as being more chaotic than usual due to constant changes.
Set for next week’s Raw is Asuka vs. Sasha Banks where if Asuka wins, she will get to challenge Raw Women’s champion Sasha Banks at SummerSlam. Kevin Owens will also face Randy Orton in a singles match.
We’ve got yet another double issue of the Observer out this week covering both the creative changes in WWE and a long bio on Johnny “Mr. Wrestling II” Walker, as well as a number of other features.
The move to Bruce Prichard as creative head of Raw and Smackdown and the steps leading to this process change. We look at who appears to be safe and who isn’t. We look at what was tried on Raw and what wasn’t working, and notable key recent moves. We also look at the problems of comparing Raw with Smackdown.
We have a long look at the life and career of Mr. Wrestling II, Johnny Walker. We look at his heyday, his connection with President Jimmy Carter, the birth of cable and his role in popularizing pro wrestling on cable, how babyfaces changed in the 70s, his 1980 feud with Harley Race, his checkered past, his wrestling debut, his coming mainland, interactions with the toughest guys of his era, his first good run in Tennessee, how his life was notable in both pro wrestling and country music, his first masked gimmick and his planned retirement. Having the right gimmick in the right place at the right time made him one of the biggest stars in the country. We look at the Georgia wrestling war and the creation of Mr. Wrestling II. We look at the Mr. Wrestling vs. Mr. Wrestling II feud and all of II’s biggest feuds over the next decade. We look at II’s meetings with the president’s mother, his biggest matches at the Omni, his runs in Mid South, feud with Magnum T.A., his WWF tenure, and his life after wrestling in Hawaii.
We also cover:
New Japan Pro Wrestling returning to business this week, scouting out the New Japan Cup, directions for fans attending the Osaka shows and why the matches won’t have traditional heat, and the complete schedule.
Economics of Conor McGregor, Jorge Masvidal, Jon Jones and Henry Cejudo and how the ESPN deal has removed fighter leverage. We look at comments by the fighters, response from Dana white and realities of he situation.
An enormous donation made by John Cena, Paul Levesque talks a signature match, WWE canceling over shows due to the pandemic, weekly sports ratings, Edge movie, DVR viewership, Canadian ratings, twitter feuds, Arn Anderson on Sami Zayn, funny story on the first time Adam Cole heard from WWE, what happened to Chris DeJoseph, plus upcoming TV bouts.
Fight Island and the next UFC PPV show
UFC 250, with business notes, popularity notes, poll results and match-by-match coverage.
NXT Takeover In Your House with a rundown, booking notes, match-by-match coverage with star ratings and poll results.
Backlash and story behind Edge vs; Randy Orton.
In-depth looks at the ratings of all the major shows, the key demos and quarters for AEW and WWE, what happened head-to-head and what can be learned from them.
Results of all the major pro wrestling events around the world over 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 covering Raw and all the latest news with Wrestling Observer Radio. You can send questions for the show to [email protected] We’re also looking for your thoughts on last night’s Backlash show, so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to [email protected].
Paul Heyman is not at Raw tonight unless he’s being hidden. Ric FLast night’s Observer Radio show talks in depth the amended complaint and changes in the lawsuit regarding Saudi Arabia included a deposition from a WWE wrestler about what really happened in Saudi Arabia. Flair has an appearance on tonight’s show talking about Randy Orton’s win. Randy Orton is scheduled to open the show to discuss injuries both he and Edge received on the show. Drew McIntyre & R-Truth vs. Bobby Lashley & MVP has been announced, as has a rematch with Asuka vs. Nia Jax for the women’s title. Dominick Mysterio will do a segment with Seth Rollins. With this being the first Raw under Bruce Prichard, expect some new directions and probably a few big angles.
Raw will be live to tape done in the afternoon. Smackdown is being taped for Friday tonight. Raw & Smackdown for next week will be taped on Tuesday, while two weeks of NXT will be taped on Wednesday.
Yesterday’s Backlash show was the eighth most searched Internet term with 200,000. exactly the number expected, the same number as UFC did the day before. So the interest level was similar to most non-major WWE PPV shows.
New Japan started up today and has shows on Tuesday and Wednesday live on New Japan World. Tomorrow’s show at 6 a.m. Eastern has New Japan Cup bouts with Togi Makabe vs. Yota Tsuji, Tomohiro Ishii vs. Desperado, Toru Yano vs. Jado and Hiromu Takahashi vs. Tomoaki Honma. The Wednesday first round matches are Kazuchika Okada vs. Gedo, Yuji Nagata vs. Minoru Suzuki, Yuya Uemura vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru and Gabriel Kidd vs. Taiji Ishimori.
On last night’s show when talking about muscle tears, I noted that in the NFL, quad tears never happened until the steroid era and are generally considered in football as steroid injuries. One of our readers noted he’s never taken steroids and has had decent quad tears playing soccer. He said that the only sports where quad tears seem to happen not involving steroids are Australian Rules football and soccer, which he believes has to do with the body mechanics used for kicking, and said in Australia several doctors have told him that those injuries seem exclusive to those sports.
WWE
The 7-foot-3 masked giant in the Street Profits-Viking Raiders skit was Jordan Omobeghim, who has been in developmental for a while. He’s from Lagos, Nigeria and played college basketball at Morgan State and the University of South Florida. Here are his NCAA stats.
The FS1 wrestling block tomorrow has the 1996 Survivor Series show from Madison Square Garden at 7 p.m. which features Dwayne Johnson’s first WWF main roster match as Rocky Maivia, plus a classic Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin match. Bret Hart and C.M. Punk will both be on WWE Backstage at 11 p.m.
Anthony Agogo, a former pro boxer who was an Olympic medalist in the sport and is under a developmental deal to AEW, was on a webcam feed discussing Anthony Joshua vs. Tyson Fury on Sky Sports News on Saturday. He talked about his eye injury that led to the end of his boxing career. Pro wrestling wasn’t brought up but he was wearing an AEW T-shirt (thanks to Tony Garvey)
MISCELLANEOUS
Rusev talked about Impact’s showing a Bulgarian flag in its Slammiversary commercial as a tease he’s coming, not confirming or denying anything, saying: “As I said, any Bulgarian can go and debut. They may have another kid from Bulgaria. I keep saying that. Could be anybody. Look, I don’t know why you think it’s me. I understand why you think it’s me, but I can’t confirm or deny. Or I don’t wanna confirm or deny. Maybe they wanna pay me a million dollars for one match. Who knows? Maybe I’ll come in.” You can watch the clip here. (thanks to Himanshu D)
CWE announced the 2020 Lethal Lottery for 7/10 in Winnipeg at Rookie’s Sports Bar with a 100 person capacity. Fans will draw the matches at random. The winners of the first round matches will go into a second drawing for the main event where teams will be drawn one pick after another seconds before the match starts, so rivals may team up and friends will; battle. So the entire show has to be called in the ring with no planning ahead of time since nobody will know their matches.
IWTW announced a new partnership with Riptide Wrestling out of the U.K. and its library will be part of the service.
OVW will be doing a one-hour special on the career of Jessie Godderz on its national show on the YTA Network that airs at midnight Easter time on Friday night. The show is called “From Pectacular to Prime Time.”
Are you interested in attending our annual F4W/WON convention? We will hold it during AEW Double or Nothing weekend. For more information, check this post for activities and prices.
The battle to keep UFC 249 alive is the lead story in our annual WrestleMania double issue, which shows how big a story that became.
We look at how a U.S Senator, government agencies, doctors and Dana White all chimed in and what killed plans for the show next week. We look at the fighters who dropped out of the top two bouts, the reaction locally, the commission, how the association of commissions didn’t back the California commission, how UFC was to be regulated, what happens next, what the doctors said, the business reasons behind why UFC pushed so hard for the show, and what the show originally had.
The new issue also covers:
The wrestling industry going forward after WrestleMania, with a look at WWE, AEW, Impact, MLW and New Japan and what has and hasn’t been taped, who returns to WWE this week, Money in the Bank, Double or Nothing, AEW California crew wrestling, and more.
WrestleMania with a look at the good and the bad of the show, business numbers, the stories of the different unique matches, Roman Reigns update, television ratings for the prelims, and media criticism. We also have match-by-match coverage of both nights with poll results.
President Trump’s meeting with the key players in the sports world including Vince McMahon and Dana White as well as others talking about when or if spectator sports can return.
The key numbers to look for at the next WWE investors call, new WWE TV deals, Paul Levesque talks Wednesday night ratings, Michael Cole’s new role, WWE new documentaries including thoughts on the Edge documentary, new angles, Drew McIntyre talks about a number of subjects, new WWE movie, NXT booking, Kurt Angle talks Brock Lesnar, C.M. Punk talks Vince McMahon, FS 1 TV block, TV sports ratings, Charlotte Flair talks WrestleMania, WWE market value and the most-watched shows of the past week on the WWE Network.
A story on one of the strangest lawsuits you’ll ever see against Dana White.
A story on the break-in of the home of Anthony Smith.
A huge back-of-the-book story on the life of Danno O’Mahoney, one of the biggest short-term drawing cards in pro wrestling history. We go back to the 1930s, the politics that led to the creation of O’Mahoney, how Paul Bowser put the plan in place, the story of Jim Londos, the biggest drawing card in U.S. history and his role in this, some of the biggest matches in wrestling history and why the O’Mahoney vs. Shikat match changed the industry for a dozen years after and some historians call it the most important match in history. It’s all here, creation of world titles, promotions not getting along, in-ring double-crossess, stadium shows and the tragic story about how happy ever after end up lasting five weeks.
Coverage of all the WWE and AEW television shows from the past week.
In-depth looks at the ratings of all the major shows, the key demos and quarters for AEW and WWE, what happened head-to-head and what can be learned from them.
Results of all the major pro wrestling events around the world over 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.
FRIDAY NEWS UPDATE
Tonight’s Smackdown show was to air “as close to live as it gets.” WWE is taping five episodes of Raw, five episodes of Smackdown, as well as many episodes of NXT this week. Smackdown is being taped today and tomorrow. Raw is being taped Sunday and Monday. NXT will also be taped over the weekend, presumably at Full Sail while Raw & Smackdown will be taped at the Performance Center. Rules for shutdown in Orange County are very different from California.
Besides Sen. Dianne Feinstein being against UFC taking place in Lemoore, CA, Gov. Gavin Newsom specifically went to Disney, the parent company of ESPN, saying he didn’t want the show taking place in California. ESPN then told UFC not to run it. Dana White said that he is making plans for a Fight Island where all the fighters will be housed for one month prior to fights and they will be starting up with regular shows as soon as possible. Some day somebody is going to do a movie on a UFC promoter who gets crazier by the week.
Regarding the release of The Revival, it’s what they’ve been wanting for a year. There is no 90-day non-compete so they would be free to be on AEW television Wednesday if it wasn’t already taped more than a month ahead of time. They have since changed their names on Twitter to Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood.
On the XFL closing up, the economy has changed and opening a new sports league right now is all of a sudden not the easiest thing. If AEW had not signed their deal with TNT in January, things would be very rough on them right now, not that they aren’t rough for everyone, because they are. Every company, whether it’s WWE, New Japan, UFC, AEW and everyone else is going through a rough time economically as are most businesses in the U.S. Almost all employees of the league and all its teams, as well as the players, have been laid off. There were a few people still employed being needed to tie things up. The big question is how much of the $20 million deal did Oliver Luck end up making.
Signs that the XFL was closing actually came right after we finished the issuewhen Sports Business Journal reported that the league would be refunding all deposits for 2021 season tickets, which was the first sign that they were not planning to return. At first, the league had announced that people who had tickets to games called off could use them as credit for 2021 games. When that happened, Sports Business Journal asked if they were planning on playing in 2021, and they got no answer back.
WWE
BT Sports will be airing WrestleMania free to their customers on this coming Saturday and Sunday nights at 10 p.m. (thanks to Colin McMillan)
Taken another digit, the audience for NXT on Wednesday was 629,900 and AEW was 629,500, so the difference in viewers was 400. The actual difference was in the first ten minutes of the show where the much larger rated USA Network gave NXT ten much bigger minutes before it fell into a more normal range starting around minute 11.
Update on Wednesday’s show is Jon Moxley vs. Jake Hager for the AEW title, Kip Sabian vs. Chuckie T, Colt Cabana vs. Lance Archer in the TNT tournament, plus a match with Britt Baker.
MISCELLANEOUS
Kevin Sullivan was on Jim Cornette’s podcast and denied ever giving Nancy Toffoloni a black eye, and said that she spent three days in jail for coming after him with a knife. He said the two of them were living apart and if Nancy had a black eye, it came from someone else.
Impact finishes taping today and will be taping the planned Rebellion PPV, which now looks to be one or two episodes of the television show. The planned card is looking like it would have to change based on people not coming into Nashville this week for taping.
ROH did a fan voting tournament for its best wrestler in history with 27 former ROH champions and five others. Bryan Danielson beat C.M. Punk in the finals. Danielson in the tournament beat Colt Cabana, Austin Aries, A.J. Styles and Samoa Joe to reach the finals.
Tickets went on sale at 10 a.m. today for the Defy Wrestling/Progress/PCW Ultra joint shows on 7/30 in Los Angeles at the ILWU Hall, 7/31 and 8/1 in Seattle at Washington Hall. Tickets for the 8/2 show in Portland, OR at the Crystal Ballroom go on sale at a later date.
MLW airs the first show of its MLW vs. AAA series taped on 3/13 in Tijuana tomorrow night. Alexander Hammerstone vs. Laredo Kid for the national title headlines.
