Daily Update: AEW Collision fast nationals, WWE NXT No Mercy, WrestleDream

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

  • The new Observer is out right now. Among the key stuff covered:
  • Match of the week and performer of the week
  • The plight of the recently fired WWE wrestlers and where many can or will wind up
  • What is a key point about wrestlers who come from WWE and their ability to adapt to other companies and what things need to be considered
  • XFL/USFL merger talks and why
  • More on Terry Funk including his career title history and biggest awards, some of the biggest and most notable title change matches of his career, the only HBO wrestling special and the only time Vince McMahon did a broadcast announcing with Gordon Solie, why Funk’s proposed lengthy reign with the biggest regional title in the countr6 ended in a few weeks, the amazing Funk Brothers legacy in Japan, Funk’s NWA title reign and booking behind his biggest matches
  • Preview of the NXT & AEW shows, lots of talk by Bryan Danielson about Zack Sabre and his retirement, strange things about the show, AEW PPV airing on free TV in the U.K., and early notes on WWE Fastlane
  • Destruction in Kobe and the next few NJPW shows
  • More on the All In attendance mark
  • The dismissal of the landmark Mark Hunt suit against Dana White, UFC and Brock Lesnar and the judges ruling
  • Full UFC weekend coverage
  • The most detailed look at the ratings for the past week, the segments, the competition and where audiences were up and down
  • The KeMonito story in Mexico that is mainstream news there regarding his retirement
  • Lots of injury updates
  • Stardom Grand Prix updates
  • Junior Battle of Glory
  • Katsuhiko Nakajima update
  • How Jericho vs Takeshtia was put together
  • Two former WWE stars talk their steroid use
  • wXw major tag team tournament weekend
  • FantasticaMania notes
  • More on MLW and its relationship with CMLL and NJPW
  • GCW continues to tour overseas
  • Imapct Bound for Glory notes
  • PCO talks his departure from Impact and who Impact is looking to sign
  • Lots of thoughts on Tony Khan’s recent press conference
  • FOX and AEW comments, streaming comments, more PPV, ownership talk
  • How Dynamite changed this week and why
  • Kyle O’Reilly update
  • Title Tuesday
  • Notes on AEW DVR numbers for Grand Slam
  • Ticket sales for upcoming WWE and AEW shows
  • Jade Cargill to WWE
  • WWE back broadcasting in Japan
  • Shawn Michaels talks lots of WWE subjects
  • International TV ratings and streaming notes
  • WWE market value

This Week’s Retro Observer Newsletter

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Sunday Update

Bryan and I wlll be back tonight talking all the weekend news and shows and obviously with the AEW show tonight and NXT last night, there is a ton of stuff to cover. Our weekly news review show with Garrett Gonzales where we talked about the Tony Khan’s press conference, AEW big show plans, Terry Funk, and so much more is up on the site now.

I usually don’t worry about fast nationals because nobody ever talks about them once the final numbers come out, but for Collision last night they were noteworthy as it did 306,000 viewers and 0.08. The final number isn’t out until Tuesday and it will vary from this number. But the NXT and WWE Saturday shows are hurting Collision a lot, since they’ve hung tough thus far against college football. There was also the Canelo Alvarez PPV last night although I don’t know if the fight itself went against the show, but the PPV itself did. Next week wouldn’t be expected to do well either against Fastlane. It was noteworthy because you had Bryan Danielson in a main event match plus Chris Jericho & Kenny Omega as a team for the first time, so it’s not like it was a throw away show. I think the next stat to look at is how the show does with DVR numbers on these nights it goes against WWE big shows.

Regarding last night, go out of your way to see the Ilja Dragunov vs. Carmelo Hayes and Tiffany Stratton vs. Becky Lynch matches. They were two of the best WWE matches of the year. Tiffany Stratton was the talk of the show in a lot of circles.

We’re doing polls on tonight’s AEW WrestleDream show, last night’s NXT No Mercy and the Stardom Five Star Grand Prix finals, thumbs up, down or middle, best and worst match from each show to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

Tonight’s show starts 30 minutes earlier than usual at 6:30 p.m.. The last thing an AEW PPV show needs is another 30 minutes, but that said, the main card looks really strong from a wrestling standpoint. Bryan Danielson vs. Zack Sabre Jr., is a legit dream match and could be among the best matches of the year, and FTR vs. Aussie Open had a match one year ago that was incredible and haven’t wrestled since. 

  • Keith Lee & Satoshi Kojima & Athena & Billie Starkz vs. Shane Taylor & Lee Moriarty & Diamante & Mercedes Martinez
  • Claudio Castagnoli vs. Josh Barnett – Interesting that not once in the package last night did they mention Barnett as a former UFC champion or even as an MMA star, and was pushed a disciple of Antonio Inoki.
  • Luchasaurus vs. Nick Wayne – Wayne is of course from Everett, WA, so he’ll be the hometown favorite
  • The Acclaimed & Billy Gunn defend the trios titles against Shane Haste & Mikey Nicholla & Bad Dude Tito. Tito is coming off looking great at the Destruction in Kobe show

Main card starting at 8 p.m. Eastern

  • Ricky Starks vs. Wheeler Yuta
  • Young Bucks vs. Gunn Brothers vs. Lucha Brothers vs,. Orange Cassidy & Hook – winners get an AEW tag title shot
  • Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi & Chris Jericho vs. Will Ospreay & Sammy Guevara & Konoske Takeshita
  • Eddie Kingston vs. Katsuyori Shibata for the New Japan Strong and ROH title (the Pure title is not at stake here)
  • Kris Statlander vs. Julia Hart for the TBS title
  • MJF defends the ROH tag titles against Vincent & Dutch in a handicap match
  • FTR vs. Aussie Open for the AEW tag titles
  • Swerve Strickland vs. Adam Page – This one is very interesting because both could use the win to springboard into a title shot. Strickland is hometown so the crowd may be for him more than it would be anywhere else
  • Bryan Danielson vs. Zack Sabre Jr. – On paper this could be the best technical wrestling match of the year
  • Christian Cage vs. Darby Allin 2/3 falls for the TNT title was talked about in the countdown show as being the main event.

A lot of speculation regarding the end of an era and start of a new era promotion for tonight’s AEW show. We don’t have any answers although Edge being taken off Friday’s Smackdown open would naturally lead to conjecture, although I don’t consider that era changing. I will say that people in WWE would not be surprised to see Edge in AEW and there has been talk about it for months. But there has been nothing confirmed. Obviously some sort of a deal with WBD for streaming is another thing speculated on, as is talk of Mariah May (which is obviously not big enough for that hype but could be another addition to the roster) and Mercedes Mone (which has been expected once she’s healed up).

 For what it’s worth, the Twitter feedback we’ve had expect a lower than usual PPV number for tonight’s show. I think with it going against Sunday Night Football and with no world title match on the show, it would be down. Taylor Swift being at the game also adds to the interest in the Chiefs-Jets game and expectation of huge numbers.

Chris Jericho applied for a trademark for the term Golden Jets. Could that be for a Jericho & Omega tag team? The Golden Jet was the nickname of Bobby Hull, an NHL legend who played at the same time Jericho’s father played.

We’re also looking for reports from tonight’s WWE house show in Stateline, NV, results, finishes and highlights to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

WWE results from San Francisco last night: 

  • New Day b Ludvig Kaiser & Giovanni Vinci when Woods pinned Kaiser
  • Gunther b Chad Gable to retain the IC title with a power bomb after a missed moonsault by Gable
  • Nia Jax b Zoey Stark with the annihilator splash. 
  • Cody Rhodes b Damian Priest in a street fight. JD McDonagh interfered for several minutes since there was no DQ. Jey Uso made the save and brought a table into the ring and speared McDonagh into the table. Rhodes won with Cross Rhodes. Rhodes & Jey Uso asked fans to donate to Connor’s Cure as Rhodes has been doing at shows. No Finn Balor, Dominik Mysterio (obviously on the NXT show) or Rhea Ripley at the show.
  • Bronson Reed b Otis with the Tsunami
  • Iyo Sky b Charlotte Flair to keep the WWE women’s title with an inside cradle off the figure four attempt.
  • Seth Rollins b The Miz with a curb stomp to keep the world title (thanks to Shannon Walsh)

For Google Trends this week, Bad Bunny was No 15 today regarding rumors of a romance with Kendall Jenner. Last night’s Canelo Alvaerz fight did 2 million searches which is more than any combat sports event in a long time, far above WrestleMania or any UFC show. That would seem to indicate a big buy number. Nothing else related to boxing, pro wrestling or MMA made the top 20 any day this week. UFC didn’t have a show yesterday. NXT normally doesn’t crack the top 20 so that’s not a negative sign.

The Western Australian had an article yesterday regarding the Western Australian tourism council expecting $100 million in economy coming to Perth for a Coldplay concert ($68 million for two November shows) and WWE Elimination Chamber ($33 million). The tourism board noted that UFC 288 in February brought in 8,500 tourists and a $6 million gate, the largest indoor arena event gate ever in Australia, breaking the Rolling Stones record set in 2014. The board is attempting to make Perth the tourist capital of Australia.

El Hijo del Vikingo did a show last night in Dallas. He has been hurting. AAA has a big show today in Guadalajara and Vikingo is advertised for that one. 

For NXT on Tuesday, they’ve announced Gigi Dolin vs. Blair Davenport, Tyler Bate & Butch vs. Mark Coffey & Wolfgang and the start of the women’s breakout tournament.

Raw tomorrow has Jey Uso vs. Damien Priest, Nia Jax vs. Shayna Baszler (Jax is going to kill everyone until she faces Rhea Ripley most likely), Ivar vs. Xavier Woods, Becky Lynch vs. Tegan Nox for the NXT women’s title and a Gunther/Tommaso Ciampa contract signing. Drew McIntyre will be on Miz TV a second week in a row.

Women’s wrestling sold out the Yokohama Budokan (about 2,600 seats) yesterday and today. The Stardom Grand Prix finals, won by Suzu Suzuki over Maika, was on Saturday. The Crash Gals 40th anniversary show was today. The Crush Gals didn’t wrestle on the show but did a talk show and sang. There were wrestling legends on the show in matches including Jaguar Yokota, Aja Kong, and current star Sareee.

I haven’t seen the shows, but have heard that the Grand Prix finals were very good, particularly Suzuki vs. Maika where Suzuki won with a sky twister press. Also heard Friday’s Arena Mexico Noche de Campeones was strong. As far as best matches, the Suzuki-Maika match we’ve heard some talk of but the best match talk so far this weekend came from the top two matches at NXT last night.

Thanks to Rohit Sroya for the report from Sacramento and Tim Kelly for the report from last night in Seattle.. 

MLW announced B3CCA has pulled out of her featherweight title challenge to Delmi Exo on 10/14 in Philadelphia and that Exo will defend against “The Phantom Challenger.”

Pure Pro Wrestling from last night in Battle Creek, MI: Jackson Levine over Logan Link & Ethan J, Facade b Colin Jamse, Abdul Hakeem & Drake b Father Time & Tank in a tag tourney match, Tenshi won over Heather Blue and Khaos, Kongo Kong won Battle Royal, Al Snow & Head & Eric Smalls b Dylan Night & Nick Xero & Mr. One Night Only, Kongo Kong b Hernandez, Aaron Orion & Cody Manning b Zach Gowen & Kerry Morton, Alex Hammerstone b Chris Masters, James Storm & Gideon Malice b The Nomads, Dylan Derringer b Silas Young, Katie Forbes b Alexis Royal, Rob Van Dam b Brian Cage. Dan Severn was scheduled to wrestle and was there at the fan fest but was injured and couldn’t wrestle (thanks to Leonard Brand)

Stardom did a similar angle to AEW on today’s show as a group of women in disguise attacked Mayu Iwatani after Iwatani lost a non-title match with AZM.

AIW has a show called Boogey Nights with the Boogeyman appearing on Saturday night at the Tadmor Shrine in Akron, OH.

Mike Santana vs. Rocky Romero will headline the 10/13 House of Glory show at the NYC Arena in New York. Minoru Suzuki vs Charles Mason and Leila Grey vs. Kiki Van Gogh are also on the show.