Daily Update: 24/7 title, Rashad Evans, Georges St-Pierre

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DAILY UPDATE

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F4W NEWSLETTER: The Fiend challenging for Universal title at HIAC Joseph Currier looks at how quickly Wyatt’s Fiend character has been elevated to the title picture. Plus, Bryan Rose’s notes on Japan, and Vinny’s TV reviews. 

With an upcoming Universal title shot at Hell in a Cell, WWE seems poised to elevate Bray Wyatt’s Fiend character to the absolute top of the company.

Sunday’s Clash of Champions pay-per-view ended with an angle to kickstart The Fiend’s program against Seth Rollins. After Rollins retained the Universal Championship against Braun Strowman in the main event, The Fiend appeared and attacked Rollins as he was celebrating on the stage. The lights went out during the celebration, with The Fiend then hitting Sister Abigail on Rollins and putting him in the Mandible Claw.

The next night on Raw also included an angle with The Fiend. At the start of the show, it was confirmed that Rollins will defend his Universal title against The Fiend inside of Hell in a Cell at next month’s PPV. In the main event segment, The Fiend put Kane in the Mandible Claw after Kane made an appearance in Knoxville, Tennessee and saved Rollins from Robert Roode, Dolph Ziggler, AJ Styles, Luke Gallows, and Karl Anderson. The Fiend then taunted a terrified Rollins, and the show ended with a distorted version of the Firefly Fun House theme song and intro video.

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WON NEWSLETTER: NXT debut on USA, Clash of Champions reviewed

NXT debuted on the USA Network and we look at the good and the bad of the first broadcast, plus have coverage of a number of major weekend shows and stories behind the scenes at all of them, and extensive details on New Japan’s business plans going forward as some of the lead items in the new issue of the Observer.

We look at the changing TV landscape, NXT numbers, problems with the web site, the two big TV bouts, all the things promoted for the future, and what happened at the show.

We also have a full report on Clash of Champions, with a look at the business notes, the Hell in a Cell show, a major item going forward on ticket sales throughout U.S. wrestling, PPV estimates, plus match-by-match coverage with star ratings and poll results.

We look at the changes at AXS TV and how it affects wrestling going forward, as well as MMA.

We also look at tons of changes happening in WWE in October, FOX’s plans for promoting Smackdown, Smackdown on the West Coast, Paul Levesque talks changes in NXT, what When Worlds Collide will be, Takeover changes, value of NXT to WWE business going forward, FS 1 studios show update, Smackdown going overseas, Kacy Catanzaro, Royal Rumble notes, Ric Flair notes, WWE stock market value, most watched shows on the WWE Network, as well as a look at the weekend WWE and NXT live events with match rundowns, highlights and business notes.

We’ve got coverage of New Japan’s Destruction shows, previewing this week’s big show, the Young Lions tournament, as well as looking at the two shows this past week.

We look at the New Japan annual financial report, talking about revenue, profits, U.S. expansion and how it’s going, why WWE runs so many smaller markets and how that applies too New Japan and AEW, a look at where New Japan revenue comes from, New Japan World subs, merchandise sales, what match was most important to New Japan World growth, how AEW got television on TNT without ever running a show while New Japan struggles to make any TV money.

We also have an interesting talk by Jon Moxley about competing in G-1.

We also have full coverage of AAA in New York, the story behind why it was different from a usual AAA show, why a lot of talent wasn’t there, why the main event was handicapped as compared to past matches as well as match-by-match coverage with star ratings, business notes and poll results.

We also have a full repot of UFC from Vancouver, what’s next for the different fighters, match-by-match coverage and business notes.

We also update the situation over the weekend involving Big Cass.  We run it down, a well as give his own thoughts on why he’s sorry for what happened.

We also have full coverage of all the WWE television shows from the past week.

We’ve also got in-depth looks at the ratings of all the major shows,the key demos for the WWE shows and what can be learned from them.

We also have the results of all the major pro wrestling events around the world over the past week. 

Current subscribers click here to read.

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 dave@wrestlingobserver.com or by going to www.paypal.com directing funds to dave@wrestlingobserver.com.

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.

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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

WWE

  • EC3 briefly won the 24/7 Championship at today’s house show in the Philippines before dropping it back to R-Truth.
  • To promote SmackDown’s move to FOX, Braun Strowman made an appearance on the broadcast for last night’s St. Louis Cardinals vs. Chicago Cubs baseball game. ESPN’s Keith Olbermann posted a screenshot of Strowman’s appearance and tweeted: “You guys are kidding, right?” Strowman then responded to him: “Yea I know right it’s unreal how good I looked on the show today!!!!!!”
  • The Big Lead reported that the current plan is for WWE’s weekly studio show on FS1 to premiere on Tuesday, November 5. The show will be hosted by Renee Young and the working title is “WWE Backstage.” The Big Lead wrote that: “Who will be joining [Young] is not yet decided. Several names are being discussed including, but not limited to, Booker T, Edge, Christian, and Paige.”
  • Joaquin Wilde (formerly known as DJZ) commented on his broken eye socket injury: “Whenever i get an injury, i always bounce back. No matter how bad it gets, I come back stronger. I come back better. Nobody will ever break my spirit. Ive been through much worse than this eye socket so dont even worry. I will see yall real soon.” Pro Wrestling Sheet reported that Wilde will only be out of action for a few more weeks after having surgery.
  • Torrie Wilson and her new husband got married in Sedona, Arizona yesterday.
  • Tickets for the 2020 Royal Rumble are now on sale. It’s taking place at Minute Maid Park in Houston on January 26.
  • Sonya Deville spoke to Sports Illustrated about representing the LGBTQ community.
  • Yahoo Music interviewed Becky Lynch.

Pro Wrestling

UFC/MMA

  • Rashad Evans has mutually parted ways with the UFC and is strongly considering coming out of retirement elsewhere: “I changed my diet after I retired, and it’s drastically changed my body and how I feel. I am definitely heavily thinking about coming back. I just felt, when it came down to it — I want to make some money in this comeback, and I didn’t know if the UFC was interested. They’re focused on something different. I don’t think they’re into bringing back the older fighters who have retired. They’re into what’s next, what’s new.” Evans last fought in June 2018 and was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame this July.
  • Dana White said he’d be interested in talking about Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Georges St-Pierre if Nurmagomedov vs. Tony Ferguson doesn’t happen: “(The fight with Georges St-Pierre) can happen, too. We’ll see what happens with Tony. Tony’s had opportunities before that he didn’t take, so if he doesn’t, I would be interested in talking about GSP.”
  • White also detailed why negotiations to make the Kamaru Usman vs. Colby Covington fight fell through: “Here’s the thing with that. Obviously, you heard me say in interviews after that fight that that was the fight I was gonna make. So Colby Covington can say whatever he wants. We make fights for a living, that’s what we do. We go after guys and say, ‘This is next. This is the date. Do you want the fight?’ He wanted more money to fight Usman, we went back and forth, this is the second time he’s done it. We had a fight in Dallas too, so we said if you don’t want to fight Usman, then we’ll give you Tyron Woodley. He turned down Tyron Woodley too. You either want to fight or you don’t. When Colby Covington’s ready to fight, he’ll let us know.”
  • Greg Hardy’s next fight has been moved to the UFC’s Fight Night show in Boston on October 18. He’ll face Ben Sosoli.

Daily Pro Wrestling History: Sting’s last match at Night of Champions 2015

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