Daily Update: AEW Dynamite rating, Mercedes Mone, weekend preview

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Friday Update

– Garrett Gonzales and I will be up later today with Wrestling Observer Radio talking about the current issue of the Observer, and we will also talk with Marc Raimondi about his new book on the NWO and the rise and fall of WCW.

– The new issue of the Wrestling Observer is up today and it’s filled with news from the past week:

  • AEW heads to Arena Mexico, reaction of talent, background and key facts about Arena Mexico and wrestling history, the rise, fall and comeback of Mistico, the quadruple crown of wrestlers and even announcers and full coverage of the Tuesday and Wednesday night shows as well as this past Friday’s show.
  • Where New Japan stands today with its reset at Dominion, full coverage of the show, plus news ands thoughts regarding the G-1 Climax tournament
  • WWE preparing many major shows over the next few weeks
  • Coverage of TripleMania Regia
  • Vince McMahon, Linda McMahon and TKO make arguments to get out of the ringboys lawsuit and what statements made by McMahon and Gorilla Monsoon more than 30 years don’t look good regarding this case
  • A look at U.K. women’s wrestling pioneer and Scottish Hall of Famer Rusty Blair.
  • The most detailed look at the ratings of all the major shows
  • CMLL’s biggest show of the year announced
  • Konnan praises Corey Graves
  • A new television milestone reached this past month and an explanation of what it means
  • The U.S. team going to the world championships in Croatia
  • Hogan & Bischoff RAF promotion announces debut show and a very bad sign regarding their actual interest
  • Notes on two of the best attended indie shows of the year on the same night
  • El Hijo del Santo’s last match in Mexico as scheduled today
  • AEW women stars working in Europe
  • Advanced ticket sales for WWE, AEW and TNA shows
  • Tony Khan does interview, gets criticized regarding how he presented the info
  • More on Dana White and Nick Khan’s boxing project with Turki Alalshikh
  • What is the value of the UFC PPV shows?
  • Aaron Pico vs. Moovsar Evloev and what that says about UFC’s intentions
  • Reports on Vince McMahon getting back involved and what is and isn’t viable
  • Realities of AEW TV rating year-to-year
  • Gunther vs. Goldberg notes
  • Goldberg talks about why he’s coming back
  • Michelle McCool talks saving Undertaker’s life twice
  • Liv Morgan’s injury and changes that have to be made
  • Interesting note on WWE’s house shows in Mexico
  • WWE & AEW rivalry goes long past wrestling shows
  • Yet another WWE tournament

– Sports Business Journal ran an interview with Dana White on the media rights talks. When asked if UFC would end up with more than one partner, he said, “I don’t know. I don’t know yet. But yet, it’s likely.” UFC is looking for a $1 billion per year deal and has reportedly talked with Netflix, ESPN/Disney, Prime and WBD.

– TKO stock was up at $174.35 because of a lot of the recent interviews talking about that $1 billion deal.

– AEW Dynamite on Wednesday did 736,000 viewers with an 0.21 in 18-49. Those numbers don’t include MAX. It was the largest audience in 25-54 for the show since April 17, 2024, and that didn ‘t include MAX. If you factor in MAX, this would almost surely be the biggest number in years. I don’t have the chart, placings or competition. It would be 763,000 and 0.22 in the normal two hour slot. Q3 was the 18-49 peak, Q5 was the viewer peak. Q6 was men’s peak and 25-54 peak. The atmosphere of the show saw people come in and not leave although in 18-49 it did start out higher than usual.

– Those in AEW have denied the story in the new issue regarding Mercedes Mone wanting to lose to Athena to set up a rematch at All In, and it not happening when Mone was picked to face Toni Storm on that show after the departure of Mariah May. The plan for the show was always Storm vs. Mone on the biggest show of 2025 dating back more than one year.

– SmackDown tonight is from Grand Rapids MI with John Cena vs. Ron Killings, plus Randy Orton vs. Sami Zayn in the King of the Ring tournament and Alexa Bliss vs. Asuka in the Queen of the Ring tournament. There were 10,300 tickets out as of today for the show.

– CMLL, AEW and NJPW are combining for Fantastica Mania at Arena Mexico tonight. The show starts at 10:30 p.m Eastern time and is only available on the $35 per month subscription on the CMLL YouTube channel. There is a problem as there are too many matches with too short of a time limit on the matches. The good thing about Friday night at Arena Mexico is everyone has time to do their best matches and this will likely not be the case tonight:

  • Red Velvet vs. Kira
  • Thunder Rosa vs. Jarochita
  • Neon vs. Kevin Knight in a lightning match
  • Magnus & Rugido & Zandokan Jr. & Difunto vs. Rocky Romero & Robbie X & Lio Rush & Action Andretti
  • Shingo Takagi & Hiromu Takahashi & Titan vs. Francesco Akira & TJP & Templario
  • Ultimo Guerrero vs. Yota Tsuji
  • Ricochet vs. Volador Jr.
  • Mercedes Mone vs. Catalina for CMLL women’s title
  • Mistico & Mascara Dorada vs. Bandido & Hologram

We’re looking for your thoughts on this show 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

– TNA is taping tonight in Pittsburgh.

– We’re also looking for reports tonight from SmackDown in Grand Rapids with dark matches and anything not on the live show as well as from the TNA tapings to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

– Brody King is selling “Abolish ICE” shirts. All proceeds will go to families that have been impacted.

– It appears that Blue Panther’s win over Lee Moriarty on Wednesday night was to set up a Pure title match rematch, perhaps on the 7/11 Supercard of Honor (talk about too many shows to keep up on), and that Nick Wayne would defend the ROH TV title in a rematch with Titan on that show as well.

– UFC has an early show tomorrow since it’s from Baku, Azerbaijan. The show starts at Noon Eastern, airing on ESPN. From 3-6 p.m., it will be on ABC, or Noon to 3 p.m. Pacific on ABC.

  • Hamdy Abdelwahab (264.5) vs. Mohammed Usman (244.5)
  • Tagir Ulanbekov (126) vs. Azat Maksum (126)
  • Irina Alekseeva (135.5) vs. Klaudia Syguia (135)
  • Daria Zhelezniakova (136) vs. Melissa Mullins (135)
  • Ismail Naurdiev (186) vs. Jun Yong Park (186)
  • Seoikhyun Ko (169.5) vs. Oban Elliott (170.5)
  • Mohammed Naimov (146) vs. Bodgdan Grad (146)
  • Nazim Sadykhov (155) vs. Nikoas Motta (155.5)
  • Tofiq Musayev (163 ) vs. Myktbek Orolbai (165)
  • Curtis Blaydes (258) vs. Rizvan Kuniev (264.5)
  • Rafael Fiziev (155.5) vs. Ignacio Bahamondes (155.5)
  • Jamahal Hill (206) vs. Khalil Rountree (206)

– Ante Delija, who won the 2022 PFL tournament at heavyweight, has signed with UFC. according to MMA Fighting.