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This week’s Wrestling Observer newsletter
The new issue of the Observer:
- Update on the situation with Ricochet, the WWE angle, his legacy, his future, comments from Will Ospreay and a look at his career before WWE.
- Clash at the Castle preview, matches, thoughts on fights, record setting attempts and much more.
- Conor McGregor vs. Michael Chandler collapses, the calm of the last two weeks, replacement fights and other withdrawals.
- How much money McGregor would have generated that night
- New coverage of Japan Dominion, Hikuleo’s departure for WWE, Super Junior Finals, Forbidden Door angles, G-1, this week’s big show and more.
- Coverage of NXT Battleground, Apex, the fights, the timing of the show.
- Final WrestleMania trade numbers live from the Pennsylvania commission. What was the true attendance for both nights, Raw, Smackdown and NXT.
- Huge Story on Who Killed WCW Part 2, Company Finances Running a Wrestling Business Back Then Versus Today, What Went Wrong, Hogan vs. Goldberg and the Real Story Behind the lack of build, where money was left on the table, Goldberg as champion, booking philosophy and more.
- Why WCW lost top stars under Jim Herd
- The most detailed look at wrestling and MMA TV show ratings, including how close another MMA show was to UFC last week, this week’s ratings, competition for shows, segment by segment and more.
- Learn more about who CMLL talent is allowed to work with
- Lots of big matches coming to CMLL next week
- Son of the Viking Update
- Notes on the film about a current wrestling star released in Japan
- Ratings from the upcoming Stardom PPV and Five Star Grand Prix
- WWE and NOAH announcement coming soon
- Big match for NOAH this week
- Despe invitational show
- Iyo Sky comes to Marigold and how the ticket sales went
- Mexican and Japanese group working together
- Bloodsport Notes
- Sad Steve McMichael update
- Death of Larry Santo
- One of professional wrestling’s all-time legends will be honored in his hometown next week.
- A celebrity wrestling show booked
- Lots of injury updates
- Forbidden Door Update
- How Arlington tapings are going for AEW
- Advance ticket sales for WWE and AEW shows
- CMLL talent booked for Dynamite at last minute
- International TV Ratings and Top Streaming Numbers
- Dana White asked to channel Andy Kaufman
- Consideration of changing MMA rules
- PFL Tournament Updates
- Manny Pacquiao arrives at Rizin
- Drew McIntyre inducted into Scottish Hall of Fame
- Update on Vince McMahon’s legal action
- PPV Updates
- More projects from Dwayne Johnson
Back issue of this week’s Wresting Observer Newsletter
Sunday update
– Bryan and I went on our weekend show last night to talk about Clash of the Champions, all the details on Judge Richard Boulware not approving the settlement in the Cung Le trial and the rest of the news from weekend. Bryan and I will be back tomorrow night after Raw.
– Regarding Damian Priest, although we won’t know for sure until he gets his knee looked at, the feeling last night after the show was that he dodged a bullet and it wasn’t as serious as it seemed. He went to the press conference and before getting it checked out he said he felt like his knee had been beaten up, but later that night we were told things were full of hope.
– As for how the Priest vs. Drew McIntyre main event ends, I have mixed feelings. The idea of McIntyre being beaten due to outside interference in two consecutive Clash of the Castles in his part of the country has been negative. But I understand that Punk vs. McIntyre doesn’t need a title to be a huge match while Priest vs. Gunther needs a title more. Many people said fans wouldn’t come back, and perhaps charging the highest prices in history for an arena show led people to expect a cleaner finish. Bookers often have wins with the idea of making fans unhappy, but I can get that with live ticket prices, you wouldn’t be happy with this ending, but they book their long term stories thinking about the way to attract the most global audience. interested.
The idea was to make people unhappy or happy, but get them to care about Punk vs. McIntyre. We experienced this with Sami Zayn and Cody Rhodes, who were very overfaces, and it didn’t hurt WWE’s popularity, and in most of the world Punk was the face and McIntyre the heel. Monday and Friday we will see how they present it on television, but it will not hurt WWE’s popularity and business. Although part of me didn’t like that they did essentially the same ending (McIntyre getting fucked by Punk leading to Priest’s victory) as WrestleMania, it was the right ending to heat up Punk vs. McIntyre as a major feud and that was the priority. . But you certainly have the right to dislike it for the reasons given, and I think most of those who didn’t like it understood why that was done.
– A&E Biography is doing an episode on ECW tonight that will naturally feature Paul Heyman.
– There were three title changes during today’s New Japan broadcast in Sapporo. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Toru Yano & Oleg Boltin regained the trio titles they lost last week to Yota Tsuji & Bushi & Hiromu Takahashi. Henare defeated Shingo Takagi after all their wars to become Never champion in the biggest victory of his career, Desperado defeated Sho in a cage match to win the IWGP jr. title. Douki then challenged Desperado to a title match.
– I am very sorry to hear of the passing of Scott Hanson, who Bryan knew and was a part of our community. We don’t know more but Bryan will talk about it on tomorrow’s show.
– The AJ Styles vs. Naomichi Marufuji match will be part of the NOAH show on 7/13 at Budokan Hall. The show will be broadcast on Abema-Global.com in PPV. The programming is as follows:
- Alejandro and Cristobol against. Ninja Mack and Junta Miyawaki v. Hajime Ohara and super crazy
- Manabu Soya & Masa Kitamiya & Daiki Inaba vs. Takashi Sugiura & Shuhei Taniguchi & Kazuyuki Fujita
- Akira, Shuji Kondo and Eita vs. Yoshinari Ogawa, Ryohei Oiwa and Yu Owada
- Kenoh vs. Yuji Nagata
- Jake Lee, Yo-Hey and Tadasue vs. Jack Morris, Anthony Greene and LJ Cleary
- Hayata vs. Ulka Sasaki for the national title (Sasaki is a former UFC fighter)
- Daga vs. Amakusa for GHC jr. title
- Alpha Wolf and Dragon Bane Vs. The son of Dr. Wagner Jr and Galen of Evil
- Styles versus Ban
- Kaito Kiyomiya vs Yoichi (Yoshiki Inamura) returning from the UK
– We’re looking for your thoughts on the Clash at the Castle show, you can leave a thumbs up, down or middle as well as the best and worst match at dave@wrestlingobserver.com. We’re also looking for coverage from last night’s TNA TV tapings.
– According to Google searches this week, four items related to wrestling and combat sports made the list. For some reason, they ranked the UFC show at the Apex on Friday as fourth for the day with 200,000 people, which is a good number for such a lousy show. Clash at the Castle was #7 at 100,000. The previous PPV/PLE, King & Queen of the Ring, didn’t do 20,000, so the interest level was much higher it seems . For Saturday, Gervonta Davis vs. Frank Martin was #1 with 500,000 searches, the David Benavidez vs. Oleksander Gvozdyk boxing match was #8 with 50,000 and #10 was a story about boxer Cindy Ngabba. The latter two were out of the rankings a few hours later.
– An update on LuFisto from his Facebook page:
I posted a little something about this on my other social media accounts, but to be more specific and answer a few questions, my left leg started turning a strange color yesterday, so I called my American doctor and sent him photos. He said it was an infection and immediately called my pharmacy to get antibiotics. They wouldn’t take his prescription because he’s an American surgeon. I ended up in the emergency room where I sat uncomfortably for so long that I passed out from the excruciating pain. I was quickly transferred to intensive care where, after a series of tests, they discovered that I had some sort of flesh-eating bacteria. (I don’t remember the name). This is not something I received from the surgery, but as I have had injuries it has been getting into my body over the last few days.
Since then, I have been taking three strong antibiotics and they are monitoring me closely. I am also on strong morphine. I have my own room now but I have no idea how long I will stay here. If the disease should spread, there’s a surgeon on call to cut open my leg and get rid of all this crap.
So that’s how it is. Another day in the life of Gen Goulet. To those who took the time to check on me, thank you.
Today she posted that they removed all the IVs. (thanks to Patric Laprade)
– I’m also looking for notes on the New Japan and NOAH shows regarding which fights were the highlights. Today’s NOAH show saw Kaito Kiyomiya defeat Gabe Kidd to retain the GHC title.
– It was announced Thursday that Jamahal Hill withdrew from his UFC 303 match with Carlos Ulberg, at the time of the show’s semifinal, due to injury. Hill said he had two torn meniscus, a sprained ACL, a Baker cyst that was leaking fluid from the back of his knee and an infusion in some joints.
– There was an exhibition boxing match last night between Chael Sonnen and Anderson Silva that was ruled a draw as it was unscored. Silva claimed, as an exhibition, that he had not opted for a knockout. The fight was described as more like a friendly sparring session than a serious fight. MMA Fighting had it 50-45 for Silva had there been a ruling. Naturally, Sonnen said after the fight that he won the first three rounds. Sonnen says he wants to box Jorge Masvidal next.
– Shota Umino missed today’s New Japan show due to a back injury he reportedly suffered on Wednesday in AEW against Rocky Romero. We were told that the referee and Doc Samson were talking about Umino being injured after the match, although Umino came out on his own.
– Friday Night Northeast Wrestling in Woodbridge CT: Love Doug & RJ Rude & Jaylen Bandyn & Traevon Jordan by Chris Battle & Stephan Azure & Steve Somerset & Rylie O’Neil, Brad Baylor by Jermaine Marbury Kerr Madan by Tiara James, Brett Ryan Gosselin b Landon Hale, KC Navarro b Brad Holister, Dan Maff b Matt Taven-DQ, Johnson won a Rumble match. This one from the weekend shows Matt Riddle missing due to his concussion in his Uber earlier today. This was the second NEW show in a row he’s missed.
– Rhino headlines Pro Wrestling Phoenix on 7/6 in Omaha at the Waiting Room Lounge.
– GOUGE on 06/29 in Roxboro, North Carolina at Hitlab.