Daily Update: AEW, Billy ‘Highlight’ Reil, WWE Draft

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

The new issue of the Observer is loaded with news:

  • The most detailed look at the news of the week regarding the Janel Grant lawsuit against Vince McMahon, WWE and John Laurinaitis
  • Vince’s lawyers strategies in the case
  • What Vince is hoping to have happen and is it even possible
  • Lawyers for both sides go back-and-forth on things that really aren’t related to the key aspect of the case
  • Answers to some questions on the case
  • Vince’s under oath recent pleading
  • AEW Dynasty news
  • Early business reports
  • Comparing Ospreay vs. Danielson to the best matches ever including someone who saw that match, Omega vs. Okada IV and Omega vs. Ospreay II live
  • What the PPV number teaches us
  • Ospreay vs. Danielson or Ospreay vs. Oku, strengths of each
  • Strickland wins AEW title
  • Danielson & Ospreay booking for long-term thoughts
  • WWE draft preview
  • Details on all the WWE cuts
  • Which wrestler cut was just assured he wouldn’t be cut
  • A note about how the Netflix deal by WWE may open things up for international deals for other companies
  • TNA Rebellion PPV notes and numbers
  • The most detailed look at the TV ratings over the past week
  • Looking at last week’s Arena Mexico show
  • Stardom PPV preview
  • New Japan surprise debut
  • Dos Caras responds to accuser
  • Why MLW tag titles were vacated
  • TNA taping news
  • Tony Khan recent pub
  • Notes on Bill Goldberg and his comments on AEW
  • Ticket advances for upcoming shows
  • Cain Velasquez trial update
  • Non-compete ruling by FTC and WWE
  • Lots of WWE injury updates
  • How much top TKO execs made in 2023
  • Backlash preview
  • London mayor talks WrestleMania
  • New WWE title
  • Ronda Rousey talks MMA media
  • WWE arena and TV reports

This Week’s Retro Observer Newsletter

Monday Update

  • Bryan and I will be back tonight talking the WWE draft, and the rest of the pro wrestling and MMA news. If you’ve got a question regarding any of the topics of the past week in particular, or historical, you can send for tonight’s show to mailbag@wrestlingobserver.com
  • There is no Collision show on Saturday. There is no wrestling this week on TNT. Rampage is moved to TBS on Wednesday night at 10 p.m. TNT will be airing NHL playoffs on Saturday night. For those needing to watch more wrestling on Saturday, New Japan has two major shows, one on Friday morning and the other on Saturday morning.
  • We’re very sorry to report the death of Billy “Highlight” Reil, at the age of 45. He was quite the character. He was a Northeast independent wrestler who started at the age of 15 often teaming with the late Trent Acid. He was from Philadelphia and he was a big ECW fan. He had wrestled people like CM Punk, Sabu and Samoa Joe. He’d been in rough shape for years. He was hospitalized recently with infections and reportedly had his leg amputated. I didn’t know him well but he would email and message a decent amount over the years.
  • There are rumors of several more NXT call-ups tonight. Most have Ilja Dragunov pegged but other names are floating around.
  • This is the time of the year when ratings take a hit due to the playoffs. Smackdown had its lowest number of the year on Friday with the NBA, NFL draft and NHL. Tonight is pretty loaded. There is an NHL doubleheader with Tampa Bay vs. Florid at 7 p.m. and Dallas vs. Las Vegas at 9:30 p.m. on ESPN. The real competition is the NBA which has Boston vs. Miami at 7:30 p.m. on TNT, Oklahoma City vs. New Orleans at 8:30 p.m. on NBA TV and Los Angeles Lakers vs. Denver at 10 p.m. on TNT. Boston and Los Angeles are two of the best drawing teams. I would expect the show to do the lowest number since January against the NFL, but the draft usually draws well. That didn’t happen on Friday, though.
  • The show tonight is from Kansas City. They had just under 10,000 tickets out this morning. So it could sell out but it’s not a lock that it will. Besides the draft, with 24 names being picked on the air and a few others likely announced after the show goes off the air, they’ve announced Damian Priest & Fin Balor & JD McDonagh vs. Jey Uso & Ricochet & Andrade. Logan Paul and CM Punk are advertised and Punk will be picked tonight.
  • Names up for the draft tonight are Apollo Crews, Braun Strowman (who may be on the show as PWInsider reported he was in Kansas City), Bronson Reed, Candice LeRae & Indi Hartwell, Piper Niven & Chelsea Green, Punk, The Creeds, Iyo Sky & Dakota Kai & Kabuki Warriors, Drew McIntyre, AOP & Karrion Kross & Scarlett, Giovanni Vinci, Gunther & Ludvig Kaiser, Jade Cargill, Finn Balor & Dominik Mysterio & JD McDonagh (no Rhea Ripley), Kayden Carter & Katana Chance, Kevin Owens, Santos Escobar & Berto & Angel & Elektra Lopez, Rey Mysterio & Dragon Lee & Zelina Vega & Joaquin Wilde & Cruz Del Toro, Naomi, Natalya, Tyler Bate & Pete Dune, New Day, Odyssey Jones, Pretty Deadly, Shinsuke Nakamura, Tegan Nox, Bobby Lashley & Street Profits & B-Fab and Tiffany Stratton.
  • Regarding Cody Rhodes holding his shoulder after the missed Oscutter on Friday night in the double miss spot with Carmelo Hayes, the only thing we were told by those in WWE is that there is no injury noted for Rhodes’ shoulder.
  • The Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight on 7/20 a AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX, will be sanctioned in Texas as a real fight that will go on both men’s records. However, the fight will be with two minute rounds rather than three. The show will also feature a women’s super lightweight title match with Katie Tyalor vs. Amanda Serrano. It will air exclusively on Netflix.
  • The 31-year-age gap is the largest ever for a sanctioned pro boxing match in history. A lot of publications today have made a major mistake saying the former record was for the 1963 match with 49-year-old Archie Mocoe vs. 25-year-old Mike DiBiase, who was a major pro wrestling star. However, in 1963, DiBiase, the adopted father of Ted DiBiase, was 39-years-old. So the stories are totally inaccurate. Moore did several boxing matches against pro wrestlers, all of which were stopped on cuts. So it may not have even been legit, although it was sanctioned and is on Moore’s record. It’s crazy that an all-time great light heavyweight would have a fight against an 0-0 pro wrestler and it be sanctioned by a commission in the first place. Whether it was real or not, I was always of the belief it was not but people who were wrestlers in that era did try and say it was. Most of the fake boxer vs. wrestler matches weren’t sanctioned.
  • MLW announced that the 5/11 show at Cicero Stadium in Chicago with all the CMLL talent has sold out two weeks early and broken the company’s all-time gate record.
  • Sanada is out of action in New Japan due to a health concern.
  • Kobe Ngannou, the 18-month old son of Francis Nganou passed away. Details of what happened have not been released. and Ngannou’s coach Eric Nicksick asked to respect Ngannou and the family’s privacy.
  • Lots of MJF rumors regarding surgery. We can’t confirm surgery since he has been quiet for the most part since the end of the year, but he was at C2E2 in Chicago over the weekend and his left arm was in a sling.
  • SummerSlam tickets go on sale to the public on Thursday and there is a presale starting at 10 a.m. tomorrow for the 8/3 show at Cleveland Browns
  • Jordynne Grace vs. Miyu Yamashita for the Knockouts title and Mustafa Ai vs. Chris Bey for the X title will be on Thursday’s TNA TV show.
  • Bryan Barbarena announced that he has completed his UFC contract and is now a free agent. He said he’ d like to take some time off but also would like to face Mike Perry in Bare Knuckle Fighting.
  • Winnipeg Pro Wrestling drew a sellout 600 fans on Sunday at the Manitoba Museum: Jody Threat b Alan Angels, Chad Daniels b AJ Sanchez in a dog collar match, Josh Alexander b Alex Kane, Red Hot Summer won tables match over Tommy Lee Crrtis and Scott Ripley, Bobby Scink b Anderson Tyler Moore, Vanna Black b Ava Lawless to win the WPW women’s title Josh Holiday won over Nick Nelson, Mo Jabari, Eli Surge, Tom Billington and Charlie Hubley, Tyler Cllton b James Roth to keep the WPW title (thanks to Blair Pacheco)
  • The PFL announced the next round of its lightweight and light heavyweight tournaments will be on 6/21 in Salt Lake City with Clay Collard vs. Mads Burnell as the main event.
  • Former UFC fighter Miranda Granger was named Vice President of the CFFC promotion. This is the promotion that CM Punk announces for.