Daily Update: Adam Cole surgery, Davey Boy Smith Jr., NJPW Royal Quest III

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

This week’s issue of the Wrestling Observer is out with these stories:

  • The Tuesday night head-to-head battle
  • The ratings numbers and competition, quarters, demos, and how both numbers compared to last year
  • Tony Khan’s tweets
  • Controversy over the MJF storyline
  • Some notable bad taste angles
  • Advertising of Moxley vs. Fenix
  • MJF talks his angle
  • Highlights and rundowns of both shows
  • Next head-to-head battle and why this one won’t be close
  • The end of the UFC/USADA relationship from both sides
  • Major questions on the USADA era and the good and the bad of it
  • The cases of Jon Jones, Brock Lesnar and Conor McGregor
  • Things fighters didn’t like about USADA
  • Travis Tygart’s statement and UFC’s response
  • WWE Fastlane coverage and business note
  • 2023 Hall of Fame ballot and thoughts on leading candidate
  • Who are unknown to most but almost have to be in
  • New Japan & Stardom talk future business, youth movement, reality show, Inoki movie
  • Destruction in Ryogoku coverage, business notes, major angles, and plans for Copper Box
  • This past week’s UFC coverage
  • The most detailed look at the U.S. TV ratings
  • International TV ratings and streaming numbers
  • Major women’s tournament
  • Stardom PPV notes
  • Lots of injury updates
  • Several wrestlers celebrate 25th anniversary
  • Small town locals draw nice All Japan crowd
  • Katsuhiko Nakajima update
  • Tanahashi & Okada talk about Inoki upon release of movie as well as their futures
  • Plans for January 4th by New Japan and Stardom
  • Mayu Iwatani’s first IWGP title defense in the U.S. and opponent
  • Bill Dundee update
  • Billy Corgan talks NWA changes
  • Update on Mil Mascaras
  • Four-part BBC drama on famous talk show host and sometimes wrestler Jimmy Savile
  • Controversy regarding business deal in Europe
  • Update on Davey Boy Smith Jr.
  • GCW goes to Japan
  • Lots of new directions for AEW
  • AEW injury thoughts
  • Gordon Solie award winner for 2023
  • Update on WrestleDream PPV numbers
  • Two AEW stars in movie roles
  • Ticket advances for AEW & WWE shows
  • International TV ratings
  • Kyle O’Reilly talks return
  • UFC Saudi Arabia deal
  • UFC 294 changes
  • Laurence Epstein talks WWE/UFC merger
  • New UFC historical specials to be released this month
  • Bellator 300 coverage
  • Talks about the future of Bellator
  • Real weights vs. weigh-in weights and some surprises
  • A look at the career of Alistair Overeem
  • Update on WWE creative process
  • Ari Emanuel with interesting notes on the WWE TKO stock declines
  • John Cena update
  • Survivor Series notes
  • Update on recent main roster call-ups
  • Brian Pillman Jr. update
  • Update on WWE prospect

This Week’s Retro Observer Newsletter

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Sunday Update

Bryan and I will be back tonight talking all the weekend news including the television shows, Vince McMahon and Ari Emanuel, Royal Quest and Logan Paul boxing. Our week in review show talking Tuesday night ratings, MJF angle, UFC/USADA, Hall of Fame in-depth, and much more with Garrett Gonzales is up right now.

We’re looking for your thoughts on Royal Quest, so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

Adam Cole did get ankle surgery on Thursday.

Davey Boy Smith Jr. is out of the hospital after surgery to remove part of his colon due to getting appendicitis and diverticulitis at the same time. It was said to be painful as hell. He was in the hospital for four days and now he’s at home recovering.

I would tell everyone to go out of their way to see both the Will Ospreay vs. Zack Sabre Jr., main event and the Tomohiro Ishii vs. Shingo Takagi semi from Royal Quest. The reaction across the board is both were match of the year candidates. Ospreay vs. Sabre was in the vein of Danielson vs. Sabre, but the idea was similar but the match was completely different. It was incredibly innovative. Takagi vs. Ishii was exactly what you would think it would be. I will say at least from my standpoint the sound didn’t travel well on the broadcast so it felt like it was a hard crowd but others have said the atmosphere was unreal.

For Google Searches this week, nothing from pro wrestling made the list. You can really see how little interest there is these days based on the Saturday UFC shows that are strictly streaming shows on ESPN+ not cracking the top 20. It used to be automatic for every UFC show to do so. As far as yesterday’s PPV show, the Logan Paul vs. Dillon Danis fight got 1.1 million searches while the KSI vs. Tommy Fury main event got 50,000. Paul vs. Danis also got another 200,000 on Thursday based on Danis hitting Paul with the mic and cutting him open. The only other thing to make the list this week was No. 6 on Wednesday with 50,000 was UFC announcing that Fight Pass would be airing several college wrestling dual meets this season. Nothing involving Tuesday’ NXT vs. AEW made the list.

On last night’s Collision show, Tony Khan made the call for Tony Schiavone to be the lead announcer. Kevin Kelly worked the show as well, as did Nigel McGuinness. During the Bryan Danielson vs. Christian Cage main event (an outstanding match by the way), Jim Ross replaced Kelly.

At Royal Quest, they made three new matches. For Power Struggle on 11/4 in Osaka they made Will Ospreay vs. Shota Umino for the UK and US titles and Jon Moxley vs. Great O’Khan. For 10/28 in Las Vegas, Tama Tonga will defend the Never title against Singo Takagi.

WWE house show results from last night in Kansas City, MO, with a rare Roman Reigns house show match. Reigns is not on tonight’s house show in Springfield,MO:

  • Cody Rhodes & Jey Uso retained the tag titles over Ludvig Kaiser & Giovanni Vinci when Rhodes pinned Kaiser.
  • Dominik Mysterio b Ricochet using the tights and ropes to retain the North American title
  • LA Knight b Jimmy Uso via DQ when Solo Sikoa interfered. Sikoa laid out Knight with the Samoan spike
  • Gunther b Chad Gable to retain the IC title after a power bomb. Maxxine and Otis were also involved
  • Seth Rollins b Shinsuke Nakamura with a curb stomp in a street fight for the world title
  • Carlito & Joaquin Wilde b The Street Profits
  • Iyo Sky won three-way over Charlotte Flair and Asuka. Apparently there was a close near fall where people thought Asuka didn’t get her shoulder up after a spear by Flair but that wasn’t the finish. Sky reversed the Asuka lock into a pin
  • Roman Reigns beat Sami Zayn with a combination spear and Solo Sikoa interfering with the spike. Long match. Jimmy Uso interfered. Zayn kicked out of the first spear. A couple of refs bumps. Jimmy Uso brought in a chair but Zayn speared him. Zayn used the helluva kick on Reigns but the ref was slow counting and Reigns took out. Sikoa came out and they did the spear and spike combo as the ref was down and that was the pin. Jimmy & Solo were beating on Zayn after the match. LA Knight made the save and used the BFT on Reigns, Uso and Sikoa.(thanks to Shannon Walsh)

We’re looking for reports on these shows:

  • NXT on Friday night in Largo, FL and last night in Winter Haven, FL
  • WWE house show tonight in Springfield, MO
  • We’re looking for results, finishes and highlights to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

Thanks to Brian Overholt, Paul Meade and John Muse for the reports from AEW last night in Toledo.

With Nick Aldis now a WWE television character, it looks like no more indies. We don’t have that confirmed but he did pull out of his show for the Hart Family’s promotion in Calgary so it looks that way.

The Grizzled Young Veterans, formerly the Dyad, had their contracts expire and wrote, “You’ve got soulless wrestlers with heartless gimmicks. And then you’ve got the death of creativity. We took a long look around and we said to ourselves, `If this is the big life, then we’re not looking to live it.’ We are sick of taking the safe option, we are sick of reading the same old boring scripts that go absolutely nowhere. And we are sick of dealing with knobheads that have wormed their way into this business.”

The Grizzled Young Veterans will be part of the 10/28 OTT ninth anniversary show at Dublin National Stadium.

Cody Rhodes said he made one last decision as NXT General Manager which will be announced on Tuesday.

The Logan Paul boxing match with Dilon Danis was predictably terrible as Danis can’t box. Paul dominated and Danis just kept trying to block punches and not get hit. In the fifth round, Danis went for a guillotine and since it was a boxing match, he was DQ’d. Paul challenged Rey Mysterio and Conor McGregor, as well as challenged Danis to an MMA fight. 

Tommy Fury beat KSI in the main event in Manchester, UK on scores announced as 57-57, 57-56 and 57-56 in what was a close fight. KSI claimed he was robbed. The fight was also said to be terrible. Just Rafael Ramos, who scored the fight 57-57 actually added up his scores incorrectly and when added up it later came out he als scored it 57-56 for Fury.

UFC Hall of Famer Pat Miletich faced reporter and sometimes fighter Mike Jackson last night. Miletich, 55, beat on Jackson, best known for his fight with CM Punk, for two rounds at the fight in Davenport, IA. But Miletich was so exhausted he couldn’t come out for the third round and Jackson won the fight. Jens Pulver was furious at Jackson for celebrating his win.

Brian Cage was injured so he was out of last night’s scheduled match with Komander. Komander beat Metalik as part of the ROH tapings last night in Toledo, OH. 

Jerry Lawler was at a wrestling show Friday night in Memphis in a show put on by the Memphis Tigers college before their game with Tulane at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium. Lawler came to the ring but didn’t wrestle. Jimmy Hart, Doug Gilbert, Tommy Rich and Koko B. Ware were also at the show.

Defy from Friday night in Yakima, WA: Juventud Guerrera & Super Crazy & Guillermo Rosas b Ricky Gibson & Eddie Pearl & Mils Deville, Coyote Azteca & Alan Extreme b Sepulcro 3000 & Vaquero Fantasma, Masato Tanaka b Bryan Keith, Gringo Loco won three-way over Arez and Galeno del Mal (son of Dr. Wagner Jr.) for the Defy Lucha title, Shaff won BMF Battle Royal, Vert Vixen retained the Defy title in a four-way over Nicole Matthews, Liiza Hall and Karisma, Ultimo Dragon & Nick Wayne & Cody Chhun b Judas Icarus & Travis Williams & Evan Rivers, Swerve Strickland b El Hijo del Vikingo. The next show is 10/27 in Seattle with Sanada and Mike Bailey.

Brian Pillman Jr. worked both of the NXT house shows this weekend as Lexis King. Gable Steveson also wrestled on both shows.

West Coast Pro from last night in San Francisco: Alpha Zo b Mike Bailey, Bryan Keith b Jiah Jewell, Calvin Tankman & Beef b Royce Isaacs & Jore Nelson, Johnnie Robbie & Unagi Sayaka & Rachael Ellering & Chikayo Nagashima b Sandra Moone & Maria & Riko Kawahata & Mio Momono in what was said to be a great match, Vinnie Massaro b Masato Tanaka in a no DQ match, Ultimo Dragon & Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin Adrian Quest & Danny Rose & Ricky Gee, Timothy Thatcher b JT Thorne, Takumi Iroha b Masha Slamovich to keep the West Coast Pro women’s title, Starboy Charlie b Titus Alexander in 40:00 to win the West Coast Pro title. Also said to be really good. The show ended with Kenta Kobashi putting the title belt around Charlie’s waist. Chris Hero, who hasn’t wrestled in a few years but is the booker here, challenged Thatcher to a match after Thatcher attacked him which will be on 11/17 in San Francisco. Kobashi also did a long interview in the ring. He talked about getting his kidney removed in 2006 due to cancer and said he thought his life and his career were over. He said he came back from it and wrestled until 2013 and retired with no regrets and was grateful to be back in the U.S.

Innovate Wrestling tonight at 6 p.m. in Kingsport, TN at 100 Emory Lane at the Beautiful Bobby Eaton Arena.

Spark Wrestling from last night in Orlando: Devlyn Macabre b Brittany Blake, KZT b Kelsey Raegen, Amber Nova b Maika Ozaki, Sumie Sakai & Dani Mo b Emi Sakura & Ultra Violette, Miu Watanabe b KiLynn King, Miyu Yamashita b Jessie, Ram Kaichow b Xia Brookside to keep the Pacific title, Saki b Maya Yukihi to become the first Atlantic champion.

House of Glory Friday night in New York: Midas Black & Jay Lyon retained the tag titles over Ken Broadway & Showtime Moore, Carlos Ramierz b O’Shay Edwards, Idris Jackson b Joey Silver, Kevin Blackwood won over JJ Doujii, Raheem Royal, Dezmond Cole, Jay Armani and Roachie Roach, Nolo Kitano b Michael Fain to keep the cruiserweight title, Kiki Van Gogh b Leila Gray-DQ, Mike Santana b Rocky Romero, Minoru Suzuki b Charles Mason. Santana challenged HOG champion Matt Cardona for the 12/1 show.(thanks to Samuel Rosenthal)

UWC on 10/21 in New Egypt, NJ at the American Legion with a Halloween themed show.