Daily Update
Latest News
- Thea Hail vs. Tatum Paxley announced for WWE NXT
- Erick Rowan cancels indie date due to ‘new contractual commitments’
- Jordynne Grace appears via video on Sendai Girls show, issues challenge
- First Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen fight going into UFC Hall of Fame
- WWE Main Event results: Ivar vs. Julius Creed
- NJPW crowns new NEVER Six-Man Tag Team Champions
- Conor McGregor vs. Michael Chandler official for UFC 303
- Jon Moxley appearance, The Elite six-man tag set for AEW Dynamite
Latest Audio
- Wrestling Observer Radio: UFC 300, could Vince start a new promotion, Smackdown, Collision, BOTB, more
- Wrestling Observer Live: Jon Moxley, Tama Tonga, more
Latest Free YouTube Video
F4W/WON Convention
This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter
- April 15, 2024 Observer Newsletter: WWE WrestleMania 40 review, AEW airs CM Punk/Jack Perry All In footage
One of the biggest issues of the Observer is out this week. Tons of interesting information on current news and lots of historical figures. It’s full coverage of a weekend of major events.
- Poll results on all the major shows
- Historical nature of WrestleMania 40 including business notes in depth, gate, PPV, attendance, merch, it’s all there.
- Ticket demand
- Historical nature of Rhodes’ win
- How WWE has changed due to Dwayne Johnson
- A look at the booking of both nights
- Internal talk on Rock vs. Rhodes
- More changes from WWE to TKO
- How many WWE PPV buyers watched Revolution and Hard to Kill
- How the WWE/AEW dynamic has changed
- Future WWE direction
- A look at Dynamite with the Jack Perry/CM Punk footage and Will Ospreay interview
- Whose ideas these were and what the background was
- Different lines and why they were said
- Full Stand & Deliver coverage
- The life and times of Akebono, a Japanese cultural figure
- The early 90s heyday of sumo
- The Bob Sapp fight and doing kickboxing and MMA
- The long pro wrestling career and his various roles
- His brief WWE run
- UFC 300 looked at
- AEW 2024 PPV plans
- New Japan Sakura Genesis coverage and next major shows
- Bryan Danielson vs. Blue Panther singles match looked at
- ROH Supercard of Honor coverage
- Gary Shaw, a controversial figure in MMA and his role in promoting Kimbo Slice and putting women’s MMA on the map against major opposition
- Jon Jones’ latest incident
- A look back at Al Zinck and the heyday of pro wrestling in the Maritimes
- The most detailed look at the ratings of the past week, weekly standings, placings for the night and time slot, major competition for each show, segment-by-segment numbers and more.
- Rey de Parejas tournament from Dragon Gate
- One of the greatest U.S. amateur wrestlers in history may retire in a few weeks, or this summer
- A look at the Olympic trials
- Wrestling TV show headed to Netflix
- Indie Hall of Fame
- The Boys answer back at charges they were fired for no-showing
- International TV ratings
- Ticket sales for all the upcoming WWE & AEW shows
- Update on lawsuit filed by former MMA superstar against Disney, backed by Elon Musk
- Vince McMahon’s stock sales, how much cash he’s made, value of current shares and how much does he still own
- How much Dwayne Johnson has made for his being on the TKO Board thus far
- Changes in WWE management
- Why so many wrestlers today as compared to the past get busted mouths
- Slammy Awards
This Week’s Retro Observer Newsletter
- December 18, 2006 Observer Newsletter: UFC, TNA
Sunday Update
– Both of our weekend shows are already up. On Friday night, Garrett and I covered the week’s news and talked about New Japan Windy City Riot. Last night Bryan and I talked with Paul Fontaine about the 2024 Hall of Fame ballot and how the modern ballot is ridiculously tough and Cody Rhodes as a candidate, plus UFC 300, Collision, Smackdown, and more.
– UFC 300 was one of the great shows in company history. The show did a $16.5 million gate, the third largest of all time and the largest without Conor McGregor. Max Holloway vs. Justin Gaethje was a match of the year and knockout of the year contender. Jiri Prochazaka vs. Alexander Rakic, Charles Oliveira vs. Arman Tsarukyan, and Bobby Green vs. Jim Miller were outstanding as well. We talked about the show in-depth on the audio show last night.
– The show did 2.3 million Google searches, and for all we talked about how much interest there was last week in Mania, this did about double, with Holloway, Tsarukyan, and Holly Holm all in the top 20 yesterday. Conor McGregor, who faces Michael Chandler at 170 pounds on 6/29 officially, was No. 6 as of today. Nothing else in combat sports cracked the top 20 for any specific day.
– As far as the two split decisions on the show went, media scores were 86 percent for Jessica Andrade (who won) vs. Marina Rodrigues. Adelaide Byrd gave Andrade the first two rounds. Derek Clearly gave Andrade only round one. David Lethaby gave Andrade the first two rounds. I felt Andrade won 29-28.
– In Charles Oliveira vs. Arman Tsarukyan, it was very close and could have gone either way. I had rounds one and three for Oliveira due to the near submissions, although Tsarukyan won more of the round but Oliveira was close to finishing both. 71 percent of media scores were for Tsarukyan. Michael Bell had the same rounds that I had. Byrd gave Tsarukyan rounds two and three and Ron McCarthy had the same, so it ended up coming down to round three.
– Islam Makhachev defends the lightweight title against Dustin Poirier in the main event of UFC 302 on 6/1. Dana White also last night announced Sean Strickland vs. Paulo Costa, a fight Strickland had gone public with a few days ago.
– I was devastated to find out last night about the death of Tony Jones, a long-time independent wrestler in the Bay Area, who was also an avid reader and listener to our shows. On almost every show I went to in the Bay Area, he’d come up and we’d talk, usually right after the show or right before, as well as at times at MMA shows. I’ll always remember how he kept such a brave face when his daughter, Selina, was battling cancer from a young age and passed away at the age of 14 in 2014. Wikipedia lists that he beat Stephen Neal (a Hodge trophy winner and considered the best wrestler in the world in 1999 regardless of weight), but he told me it was just that he once took down Neal in a practice match. He was in tournaments with Kurt Angle but they never wrestled each other.
Tony was nicknamed Shooter because he was a good college wrestler at San Francisco State University before pro wrestling. Tony died Thursday night of a heart attack while watching a movie. He was 53, having celebrated his birthday by watching day one of WrestleMania. He was a big MMA and pro wrestling fan. I didn’t know of him having any health issues and he always kept in good shape. He was always very proud of his son, Tony Jr. He was probably best known for appearing in Beyond the Mat and having a tryout match in Sacramento in 1998 that Vince McMahon and Jim Ross commented on including Ross telling him he should try and add muscle to his chest and shoulders.
– Rossy Ogawa’s new women’s promotion in Japan has a press conference at 3:30 a.m. Eastern late tonight/early a.m. on both YouTube and Wrestle Universe. They will both introduce the new promotion with its name, the roster and announce the first shows. It being on Wrestle Universe would indicate that the big events will be on that platform. (thanks to Jose Gonzalez)
– Voices of Wrestling had a poll where the Action Dean show was listed as the best show of Mania weekend in Philadelphia. Night two of Mania tied with ROH Supercard of Honor for third place. The top five bouts were voted as Demus vs. Mad Dog Connelly dog collar at Action Wrestling Dean, Mark Briscoe vs. Eddie Kingston, Kyle Fletcher vs. Lee Johnson was third, Daniel Makabe vs. Timothy Thatcher at Action Wrestling Dean was fourth and Adam Priest vs. Slim J from Action Wrestling Dean was fifth. The highest WWE bouts with Gunther vs. Zayn at No. 7 and Rhodes vs. Reigns at No. 10.
– Sheamus returns on Raw tomorrow night in Montreal, which wasn’t sold out today but is close enough that it should be by tomorrow. Jey Uso vs. Finn Balor, Chelsea Green & Piper Niven vs. Katana Chance & Kayden Carter and Sami Zayn vs. Chad Gable are announced, plus Cody Rhodes will be there.
– Riho is in Japan getting her visa renewed.
– On last night’s show, Bryan mentioned the AEW show in Highland Heights, KY, drew 1,800. We don’t have a final figure at press time but WrestleTix had the number at 2,511. It was 1,759 in the Observer that came out Thursday night but that was the advance number. It’s not a good number, but it’s the largest crowd ever in that city for wrestling. There were only three prior significant shows, a WWE show that did 2,000 in 2011, a TNA show that did 500, and an NXT show that did 1,500. I’m not saying it’s good, but it does appear to be the city record.
– Atsushi Onita, who went to Amarillo to put flowers on the grave of Terry and Vicki Funk, said that he wanted to run one last show at Kawasaki Baseball Stadium for an explosive barbed wire match against Dory Funk Jr. Dory is 83 and I strongly suspect that one isn’t happening.
– Hiroshi Tanahashi & Toru Yano & Oleg Boltin won today’s tournament for the vacant Never trios titles that Tanahashi & Tomohiro Ishii & Kazchika Okada held when Okada left New Japan. They beat Evil & Sho & Yoshinobu Kanemaru in the finals in Taiwan.
– WWE wrestlers taped a Celebrity Family Feud episode on Friday. The teams were men vs women with Sonya Devlle, Jade Cargill, Michin, Bianca Belair, and Zelina Vega against LA Knight, Bobby Lashley, Austin Theory, and The Street Profits.
– Akbebono was honored last night at the sumo world championships at The Theater in Madison Square Garden.
– The Fairmont Hotels issued an apology to Chelsea Green after kicking her out of the hotel last week in thinking she was an escort.
– There will be a Wrestling at the Chase event on Tuesday at 10 a.m. at the Mirowitz Center in St Louis. Ed Wheatley, who wrote a book about that era, will talk about the glory days of St Louis wrestling. The event is free but you have to register at [email protected] or call 314-733-9813.
News Summary:
- Daily Update: UFC 300 fallout, Tony Jones, Rossy Ogawa
- Check all news and articles from the latest Cricket updates.