Daily Update: AEW Revolution, SmackDown ratings, WWE Raw

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

One of the traditional biggest issues of the year, the 2023 awards issue, is out now. Between the awards and news, this is one of the largest issues in our history.

  • 2023 Awards, votes in all categories, placings, comments on the awards as well as a listing of every award winner since 1980.
  • More coverage of stories going back to WWE’s past, including the Paul Roma interview, what Jim Powers said about the claim, what Vince said when he fired Mel Phillips and Terry Garvin, the Pat Patterson situation, another former ring crew member comes forward, Ashley Massaro, John Cena and Randy Orton.
  • Both AEW & WWE establish ratings firsts this past week in a positive way. How WWE did so in a week that originally looked difficult, and how AEW’s record came out of the blue.
  • A look at Elimination Chamber and Revolution, lineups, ticket sales and more.
  • Full coverage of UFC 298, title change, what’s next for the winners and all the business notes including some telling numbers.
  • Wanderlei Silva in UFC Hall of Fame and a look back at pro wrestlers in MMA that faced him during the glory days of Pride, records Silva still owns, why Silva wasn’t the same fighter in UFC and more.
  • A study of people who buy pro wrestling PPVs from buyers from AEW, WWE and TNA including the best and worst state for each and what that does or doesn’t say about the fan base.
  • Michael Oku vs. Will Ospreay tops an incredible RevPro High Stakes card as well as Ospreay’s farewell to the promotion.
  • Notes on the major FantasticaMania shows.
  • The most detailed look at the ratings, including demos, competition, placing for the night and week and comparisons to one year ago.
  • Stardom PPV notes.
  • New Japan & Stardom financial info and how the business is doing.
  • Third generation of one of the biggest legends in history
  • More on NWA deal with CW
  • More on the attempted TNA purchase by Scott D’Amore
  • Notes on the hiring of Jennifer Pepperman by AEW
  • More on the proposed Ric Flair movie
  • Forbidden Door update
  • Notes on timing and taping changes for upcoming weeks and AEW
  • More on the AEW deal with CMLL
  • Update on Vikingo injury
  • Advance ticket sales for upcoming AEW & WWE major shows
  • International TV ratings and streaming numbers
  • Update on a major celebrity talked about for Mania
  • WWE injury updates
  • More on how the WrestleMania main event angle came into play

This Week’s Retro Observer Newsletter

Monday Update

Bryan and I will be back tonight unpacking a lot of the news including new WrestleMania matches, Scott D’Amore’s offer to buy TNA, Nick Kiniski and the Cung Le lawsuit as well as talking Raw, Dynamite and the AEW PPV show.

John Pollock and Brandon Thurston have the interview with Nick Kiniski where he talked about being propositioned by Terry Garvin when he worked for WWF and telling Vince McMahon about it, and the result being Garvin continued to do so.

AEW’s Revolution will not be at movie theaters. It will be shown at Dave & Busters locations and Tom’s Watch bars and other commercial locations through Joe Hand Promotions. The Meat Madness match that was added to the show is Wardlow vs. Lance Archer vs Powerhouse Hobbs. 

Bruce Buchanan who noted the Greensboro Coliseum stuff in yesterday’s update noted that WCW did run the Greensboro Coliseum through 1992 before pulling out and there was no show in that building until WWF started running there in 1997. 

We don’t have a lot of details but Smackdown did 2,272,000 viewers and 0.62 for Friday’s taped show, which is still a great number. Rampage did 364,000 viewers and 0.11. The only sports on Friday that beat AEW was Minnesota vs. Milwaukee NBA. We don’t have the full chart yet.

Raw tonight is in San Jose, CA. The show is legit sold out with 11,945 tickets out. WWE is on a run of three straight sellouts for television shows. The only stuff announced was New Day vs. Giovanni Vinci & Ludvig Kaiser in a street fight and Sami Zayn vs. Shinsuke Nakamura. It will be full blown WrestleMania promotion starting tonight.

TKO will have its earnings call at 5 p.m. Eastern tomorrow covering UFC and WWE business.

For Smackdown on Friday, from Glendale, AZ, besides Rock & Roman Reigns appearing, Asuka & Kairi Sane face Bayley & Dakota Kai in a non-title match and Carlito faces Santos Escobar in a street fight.

We’re looking for your thoughts on Elimination Chamber and both New Japan shows in Sapporo, so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match from each show to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

Barry Douglas, a UK heavyweight who wrestled from 1959 to 2002, passed away on Friday at the age of 84. He was a solid heavyweight wrestler who was well respected as both a wrestler and by his peers as a very nice guy. He came from a famous family including a grandfather who won a gold medal at the Olympics. We’ll have much more on him in the next issue. (thanks to John Lister and Tony Earnshaw)

Tomorrow’s NXT show has Noam Dar defending the Heritage Cup against a member of the No Quarter Catch Crew, Von Wagner vs. Lexis King, Dijak vs Luca Crusifino, Edris Enofe & Malike Blade vs. Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows and Kiana James vs. Kelani Jordan.

The Matt Riddle vs. Big Bad Tito match on Thursday at the Melrose Ballroom will be for the New Japan TV title that Riddle won on Friday.

Prestige Wrestling from last night at the Vermont Hollywood in Los Angeles: Jordan Cruz b Gregory Sharpe, Judas Icarus & Travis Williams b Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaacs, Kushida b Sonico, Black Taurus (still using the name and gimmick) b Rey Horus, Jordynne race b Sandra Moone, Alan Angels b Chris Sabin, Tiger Mask (New Japan) & Alex Shelley & Kevin Blackwood b Los Suavecitos, Mustafa Ali b Mike Bailey. Hot crowd and every match was good. Main event was said to be fantastic, paced faced and hard hitting with big moves and the crowd was on fire for it. Live report said it was the best match of the weekend from someone who saw the NJPW shows, the AEW show, WWE camber show and TNA PPV show. (thanks to Chris Champol)

Kurt Angle will be appearing on 7/5 at the Reading, PA Fightin Phils game at FirstEnergy Stadium. 

The Chicago White Six will host WWE Night on 5/9.

Mick Foley is coming to ISPW on 3/15 in Hackettstown,NJ at the High School. Foley will be the guest General Manager for the show and doing a meet and greet from 6-9 p.m. The promotion also announced the ISPW Rumble on 3/22 in Totowa, NJ at the PAL.