Daily Update: AEW Revolution & Sting’s final match

Daily Update

Latest News

Latest Audio

Latest Free YouTube Video

This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

With the death of Ole Anderson this week, we have a giant issue of the Observer with a huge bio of Anderson, talking about his entire career in the business, as a wrestler, promoter, booker and later executive with WCW. We talk about the beginnings of Georgia wrestling on national television, the expansion, Dusty Rhodes vs. Ole Anderson, The Black Scorpion, The Four Horsemen, Minnesota Wrecking Crew, Black Saturday and so much more. This issue includes:

  • The life and times of Ole Anderson
  • A story on the death of Mike “Virgil” Jones
  • Update on WrestleMania
  • Coverage of Elimination Chamber
  • Rock on Smackdown
  • Updated Mania lineup
  • Business notes on Elimination Chamber
  • Update on WWE & UFC 2023 business, along with 2024 projections and why the stock price dropped
  • Sting’s last match and AEW Revolution preview
  • Secondary market notes
  • History of Greensboro sellouts
  • Darby Allin and Young Bucks talk Sting
  • New Japan after Okada looked at
  • What New Japan needs to do
  • How Matt Riddle and Nic Nemeth started in New Japan
  • New Japan Cup news
  • Rundowns of New Beginning in Sapporo
  • UFC from Mexico City rundown
  • 2023 Shad Gaspard/Jon Huber Award winners
  • Triple Crown winners of Wrestler of the Year, Most Outstanding and Match of the Year in the same year
  • The most detailed look at the ratings of all the shows, segment-by-segment, demos, competition and weekly placings as well as comparisons to one year ago
  • First ever all women’s Friday night show at Arena Mexico
  • Notes on the next CMLL tournament
  • Wrestlers leaving AAA
  • Stardom Cinderella tournament
  • Two major Stardom stars confirmed as staying with the promotion
  • Movie coming out on 70s star
  • More on MLW lawsuit settlement with WWE
  • More plans and changes at TNA
  • Shocking PPV number and trying to explain it
  • Tony Khan talks business and how many PPV shows per year is optimum
  • More on the visa situation with Mexican talent
  • More on Darby Allin climbing Mount Everest
  • Lots of injury updates
  • International TV ratings
  • Advance ticket sales for WWE & AEW shows
  • Biggest event in PFL history
  • More on the Nick Kiniski story
  • Dwayne Johnson gets ownership of all his IPs
  • WWE writer talks about Vince McMahon
  • WWE star in BJJ tournament

This Week’s Retro Observer Newsletter

Sunday Update

Bryan and I will be back tonight covering AEW Revolution and whatever news comes from it. Also want to mention the Friday show I did with Lance Storm and Patric Laprade with Garrett Gonzales. The discussion with Storm was some of the frankest discussion by a wrestler looking back at the Vince McMahon situation and how the company was in the 2000s, as well as talking about the locker room and evolution of the business since that time. Laprade also came on to talk about the death of Paul “Butcher” Vachon and we also talked about his advice and influence on the early days of Andre the Giant.

Also want to thank everyone for their responses and feedback to the issue this week and the Ole Anderson story in particular. There was a lot of important history in that story. I should note that Black Saturday will be a subject covered in the upcoming season of Dark Side of the Ring.

The big story for today is obviously Sting’s retirement. Two of the people in the match, Darby Allin and Nick Jackson, have outright said this is the biggest match of their careers and Matt Jackson pretty much was on board with this sentiment. I think in many ways it will be one of the most remembered matches and a legacy match of all three’s careers.

One thing you have to say about Sting is that he went on on terms he should have gone out on, which I wouldn’t say was the case with any of his other departures in WCW, TNA and WWE. He came to AEW at 61 years of age and could have faked it through being the star that he was, and he never did that. He did far more than anyone could have expected, and he kept it quiet about what a difficult time it was in his life of late when building for this match. The guy was a total pro. You never read about ego issues (granted he won every single match he was in with the promotion) or any problems. He embraced business changes like he was a Chris Jericho or a Terry Funk, as opposed to bemoaning them like so many did. I’m sure when he showed up in Memphis in 1985 that nobody expected this kind of a career and nobody could have imagined this level of longevity.

AEW Revolution lineup:

Zero Hour:

  • The Acclaimed & Billy Gunn & Gunn Brothers & Jay White vs. Jeff Jarrett & Satnam Singh & Jay Lethal & Private Party & Willie Mack
  • Kris Statlander & Willow Nightingale vs. Julia Hart & Skye Blue

PPV:

  • Chris Jericho vs. Wardlow vs,. Powerhouse Hobbs vs. Hook vs. Brian Cage vs. Magnus (CMLL) vs. Lance Archer vs. Dante Martin – Winner gets an AEW title match
  • Toni Storm vs. Deonna Purrazzo for AEW women’s title
  • Jon Moxley & Claudio Castagnoli vs. FTR
  • Christian Cage vs. Daniel Garcia for TNT title
  • Orange Cassidy vs. Roderick Strong for International title
  • Eddie Kingston vs. Bryan Danielson for Continental Crown
  • Will Osperay vs. Konosuke Takeshita
  • Samoa Joe vs. Swerve Strickland vs. Adam Page for AEW title
  • Sting & Darby Allin vs. Young Bucks for AEW tag titles in a lumberjack match

On paper, there are a lot of sensational matches tonight like Moxley & Claudio vs. FTR, Ospreay vs. Takeshita, the world title match, Danielson vs. Kingston but tonight’s show will be judged on the main event and even more, whatever happens after the main event. It’s a tough deal as many of the top stars associated with him are not available because of WWE deals but hopefully this ceremony at the end is everything it should be and that this will be able to be compared with the fantastic stuff Pro Wrestling NOAH did last year with Keiji Muto.

We know Jim Ross, with a myriad of health issues and a broken hip, got to Greensboro yesterday. As we’ve noted many times, in the March 27, 1988, Ric Flair vs. Sting match of the year award winner at the Greensboro Coliseum on the first Clash of Champions, it was Ross and Tony Schiavone who were the announcers.

It’s also been noted that this is like the final farewell to Jim Crockett Promotions as Sting was the last star from that era still wrestling 35 plus years after the close of one of the oldest and most iconic wrestling companies in history. There will be several wrestlers from that era of JCP and WCW at the show tonight including Ricky Steamboat, Lex Luger and Nikita Koloff. Ric Flair will be involved in the main event.

I would expect an announcement of the next PPV date tonight. The belief was that there will be a show prior to Double or Nothing over Memorial Day weekend.

We’ll see how PPV numbers are. Tony Khan will know live streaming numbers when the show is over, and we’ll see if he talks about them, which will give a ballpark estimate to how the show does. On Twitter, I’m usually very conservative in over/under and most still usually pick under and my number is almost always lower than the final number. So either people have figured out to always pick the over, or this show is different. I predicted 160,000, which, aside from All In, would be the biggest number since Double or Nothing 2022. And most have picked “over” and many are talking like it’ll set a company record. The record to break is 205,000.

The show is sold out, the first pro wrestling sellout of the Greensboro Coliseum since 1999 which was a WWF PPV show. It has set the record gate for the building. Because the Coliseum was expanded after the Starrade/Crockett era, this is a larger attendance than all the Crockett era sellouts although it’s not like they will be turning 6,000 away at the door like in the Steamboat & Youngblood vs. Slaughter & Kernodle match. I believe this will be the fourth largest crowd in building history, as WWF used a smaller stage blocking off no or less seats in the late 90s Attitude era for big crowds. It was the fastest advance sale in building history.

Just because this will be a talking point after the show, if there is no WWE owned footage (JCP, Mid South, WCW and WWE libraries are all owned by WWE) it is because WWE was never asked for that favor. I’m not saying they would have done it, but unless something happened midweek, nobody had asked.

We’re looking for your thoughts on tonight’s 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

We’re also looking for reports on these show:

  • WWE last night in Palm Desert, CA
  • NXT last night in Jacksonville, FL
  • WWE tonight in Bakersfield, CA

We’re looking for results, finishes, highlights and thoughts on the shows to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

Billy Jack Haynes’ trial on charges of second degree murder in the death of wife Janette Becraft Haynes, is scheduled for 4/11.

Announcements for the WWE Hall of Fame class are expected imminently.

The New Japan 52nd anniversary show takes place at 4 a.m. tomorrow morning from the Ota Ward Gym in Tokyo

  • Jeff Cobb & Great O’Khan vs. Tanga Loa & Tomoaki Honma
  • Hikuleo & El Phantasmo vs. Zack Sabre Jr. & Mikey Nicholls
  • Hiroshi Tanahashi & Tomohiro Ishii & Hirooki Goto & Desperado vs. Shingo Takagi & Yota Tsuji & Hiromu Takahashi & Bushi
  • TJP & Francesco Akira & Callum Newman vs. David Finlay & Gave Kidd & Gedo
  • Sanada & Taichi & Yuya Uemura & Douki vs; Evil & Ren Narita & Yoshinobu Kenamaru & Dick Togo
  • Toru Yano vs. Yujiro Takahashi in the New Japan Cup
  • Yoshi-Hashi vs. KENTA in the New Japan Cup
  • Jack Perry vs. Shota Umino in the New Japan Cup
  • Tetsuya Naito vs. Sho non-title
  • The Antony Joshua vs. Francis Ngannou boxing match takes place Friday in Saudi Arabia.

On Google searches this week, Jake Paul was the No. 2 search in the U.S. yesterday for his fight in Puerto Rico yesterday, which was a first round knockout win over Ryan Bourland. Nothing from yesterday’s UFC made the top 20. On Wednesday, Virgil was No. 19 with 20,000 searches. On Tuesday, Ole Anderson was No. 3 with 50,000 searches.

On A&E tonight, at 8 p.m. the WWE Rivals episode will be on Jake Roberts vs. Randy Savage and the WWE Biography episode will be on Sgt. Slaughter. A&E is doing an all-day marathon of WWE programming starting.

Here is a Go Fund Me for the funeral expenses of Mike “Virgil” Jones. There is also a Go Fund Me for our friend Jay “Fowler” Dumont.

John Cena appeared doing a comedy sketch on The Late Show with Steve Colbert this past week.

Lance Archer and James Storm are scheduled for the Memphis Wrestling TV tapings this coming Sunday.

There is a Wrestling Classic IV gathering in Springfield, MA on 3/23 at the Southend Community Center advertising Sabu, Matt Riddle, Eric Bischoff, Rob Van Dam, Enzo Elijah (Elias), Barry Windham, Brooke Adam,s Chsity Hemme and Francine.

Dwayne Johnson paid tribute to Rocky Johnson, his father, in an Instagram post yesterday. We’ll have a funny story about Johnson’s two promos on Friday on tonight’s show.

Junior Dos Santos knocked out Alan Belcher last night in the main event of Jorge Masvidal’s Gamebred Bare Knuckle MMA on Friday night.

GOUGE on 4/6 in Raleigh, NC at Clouds and 5/4 in Fuqua Varina Mason.

City Championship Wrestling from Harrison Township, MI on Friday night: Jackson Stone & Freedom Ramsey & Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley, A’Jhaun Gains b Elijah, Andre Kabash & Ike Watts won 19 team gauntlet, Sean Tyler & Rob Lee b August Albright & TK, Leela Hall b Max Reign, Andre Kbashi b Patro Co-Lo and Lance Star (thanks to Leonard Brand)

United Wrestling Coalition on 3/16 has the 28th anniversary show in New Egypt, NJ at the American Legion. There will also be a Hall of Fame induction ceremony for Mike Sharpe, Hollywood Hooligan, Susanna, Officer Big and Biggie Biggs.

House of Glory was sold out last night at the NYC Arena: KC Navarro won over Raheem Royal, Darren Richardson, Jay Armani, Lyon and Nolo Kitano, Danhusen b Joey Silver, Kiki Van Gogh & Kamar Kouture b Ultra Violette & Diamond Virago, Carlos Ramirez b Lance Anoa’i to keep the Hog Crown Jewel title, Zachary Wentz & Trey Miguel b Ken Broadway & J Boudjii, Carles Mason b Midas Black, Mustafa Ali b Alex Shelley, Mike Santana b Penta to retain he HOG title. They announced Santana vs. Alex Shelley for the title on 4/5 in Philadelphia. (thanks to Sam Rosenthal)

GCW from Sauget, IL on Friday night: Billie Starkz b Killer Kelly, Joey Janela won three-way over Dante Leon and Aeria Van go, Effy & Allie Katch & Sawyer Wreck b Jack Cartwheel & Alec Price & Cole Radrick, Oni El Bendito b Myron Reed, Alex Zayne b Mike Bailey, Matt Cardona & Steph De Lancer & Jimmy Lloyd b Kevin Lee Davidson & Dan the Dad & Shazza McKenzie, Masha Slamovioch b Arik Cannon to keep the JCW title, Blake Christian b John Wayne Murdoch to keep the GCW title, Maki Itoh & Nick Gage b Ciclope & Miedo Extremo.