Daily Update: AEW sells out again, Cain Velasquez, Jim Smallman

DAILY UPDATE

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We’re two polls this weekend, for both NJPW G-1 shows in Osaka, so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match from both shows to dave@wrestlingobserver.com” target=”_blank”>dave@wrestlingobserver.com

We’re also looking for reports on tonight’s Raw house show in Fort Wayne, IN to newstips@wrestlingobserver.com

CMLL TONIGHT AT 9:30 P.M. EASTERN ON THE CMLL YOUTUBE PAGE

  • Super Astro Jr.& Oro Jr.vs. Espanto Jr.& Akuma
  • Microman & Gallito & Atomo vs. Chuamuel & Perico Zakarias & Guapito
  • Universal women’s title elimination match:  Marcela, Amapola, Metalica, Tiffany, Sanely, La Infernal, La Maligna, La Guerrera, Seductora and Avispa Dorada
  • Dragon Lee vs. Gran Guerrero
  • Rush & Ciber the Main Man & El Terrible vs. Ultimo Guerrero & Mr. Niebla & Cavernario
  • Caristico & Volador Jr. & Mistico vs. Sanson & Cuatrero & Forastero

IMPACT ON TWITCH AT 10 P.M. TONIGHT ON PURSUIT AND TWITCH

IMPACT ON IMPACT+ AT 11P.M EASTERN FROM SANTA ANA, CA AT ESPORTS ARENA

  • Sami Callihan vs. Tessa Blanchard for title shot
  • Rhino vs. Moose
  • Scott Steiner & Petey Williams & Jordynne Grace vs. ?
  • Taya Valkyrie vs. Jessicka Havok for Knockouts title
  • Ethan Page & Josh Alexander vs. Reno Scum vs. Rich Swann & Willie Mack for tag titles
  • Michael Elgin vs. Eddie Edwards

COMBATE AMERICAS FROM TONIGHT AT MIDNIGHT EASTERN FROM FRESNO ON UNIVISION, UNIVISION DEPORTES AND DZAN

  • Zoila Frausto (129.6) vs. Reina Cordoba (128.1)
  • J.C. Llamas (175.5) vs. Ivan Castillo (174.9)
  • Isaiah Batin-Gonzalez (135.5) vs. Jesse Strader (135.8)

NEW JAPAN G-1 CLIMAX TOURNAMENT IN OSAKA EDION ARENA AT 4 A.M. EASTERN LATE TONIGHT ON NEW JAPAN WORLD AND 9 P.M. SATURDAY ON AXS TV

  • Juice Robinson & Toa Henare vs. Ren Narita & Yota Tsuji
  • Tomohiro Ishii & Hirooki Goto & Yoshi-Hashi vs. Toru Yano & Jeff Cobb & Tomoaki Honma
  • Tetsuya Naito & Shingo Takagi & Bushi vs. Minoru Suzuki & Taichi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru
  • Jon Moxley & Shota Umino vs. Jay White & Chase Owens
  • KENTA vs. Bad Luck Fale
  • Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Lance Archer
  • Will Ospreay vs. Evil
  • Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kota Ibushi
  • Kazuchika Okada vs. Sanada

We’re looking for reports on Saturday night’s WWE Raw house show in Toledo to newstips@wrestlingobserver.com

UFC FROM NEWARK, NJ ON SATURDAY AFTERNOON

ESPN at Noon Eastern time

  • Hannah Goldy (125) vs. Miranda Granger (125)
  • Claudio Silva (170.25) vs. Cole Williams (176)*
  • Mara Romero Borella (125) vs. Lauren Murphy (126)
  • Jordan Espinosa (126) vs Matt Schnell (126)
  • Lucie Pudilova (125.25) vs. Antonina Shevchenko (125)
  • Mickey Gall (169.75) vs. Salim Touahri (170)

ESPN+ at 3 p.m. Eastern

  • Kennedy Nzechukwu (205.5) vs. Darko Stosic (206)
  • Scott Holtzman (156) vs.; Dong Hyun Ma (158)*
  • Trevin Giles (185) vs. Gerald Meerschaert (185.5)
  • Nasrat Haqparast (156) vs. Joaquim Silva (155.25)
  • Clay Guida (154.5) vs. Jim Miller (154.75)
  • Colby Covington (171) vs. Robbie Lawler (170)

MLW ON BEIN SPORTS AT 9 P.M. SATURDAY

IMPACT ON TWITCH AT 8 P.M. EASTERN FROM FLORENTINE GARDENS IN LOS ANGELES

  • Josh Alexander & Ethan Page vs. Tommy Dreamer & Rhino
  • Michael Elgin vs. Rich Swann
  • Moose vs. Eddie Edwards street fight
  • Sami Callihan vs. Willie Mack
  • Jake Crist vs. Ace Austin vs. Trey Miguel for X title

AAA TRIPLEMANIA FROM ARENA CIUDAD IN MEXICO CITY AT 9 P.M. EASTERN ON TWITCH

  • Copa TripleMania rumble match
  • Nino Hamburguesa & Big Mami vs. Sammy Guevara & Scarlett Bordeaux vs. Villano III Jr. & Lady Maravilla vs. Australian Suicide & Vanilla Vegas for mixed tag titles
  • Keyra vs. Taya Valkyrie vs. Lady Shani vs. Tessa Blanchard vs. Faby Apache vs. Chik Tormenta vs. La Hiedra in a TLC match for Reina de Reinas title
  • El Hijo del Vikingo & Golden Magic & Myzteziz Jr. vs. Mocho Cota Jr. & Carta Brava Jr. & Tito Santana vs. Pimpinela Escarlata & Mamba & Maximo
  • Cody Rhodes & Cain Velasquez & Psycho Clown vs. El Texano Jr. & Black Taurus & ?
  • Young Bucks & Kenny Omega vs. Pentagon Jr. & Fenix & Laredo Kid
  • Blue Demon Jr. vs. Dr. Wagner Jr mask vs. hair

NEW JAPAN G-1 CLIMAX TOURNAMENT IN OSAKA EDION ARENA AT 2 A.M. EASTERN LATE SATURDAY NIGHT ON NEW JAPAN WORLD

  • Toa Henare & Yuya Uemura vs. Shota Umino & Ren Narita
  • Evil & Sanada & Bushi vs. Minoru Suzuki & Zack Sabre Jr. & Lance Archer
  • Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kota Ibushi & Tomoaki Honma vs. Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens
  • Kazuchika Okada & Will Ospreay & Yoshi-Hashi vs. KENTA & Clark Conners & Karl Fredericks
  • Tomohiro Ishii vs. Toru Yano
  • Juice Robinson vs. Taichi
  • Hirooki Goto vs. Jeff Cobb
  • Jon Moxley vs. Jay White
  • Tetsuya Naito vs. Shingo Takagi

Sunday has a Raw house show in Erie, PA.

Raw is live on Monday from Pittsburgh.  Brock Lesnar will appear on the show.

Smackdown and 205 Live will be taped Tuesday night in Detroit

F4W NEWSLETTER: Raw Reunion and WWE nostalgia

Joseph Currier looks at the successes and failures of WWE’s latest nostalgia episode.

WWE went back to the nostalgia well for last week’s Raw Reunion episode.

The show featured dozens of returns and was capped off by Steve Austin, Ric Flair, and Hulk Hogan all making appearances. Austin led a toast to Monday Night Raw to close the episode, with all of the returning wrestlers coming out and taking part in what was genuinely a sincere moment. Austin didn’t give out stunners to anyone. There was no one to come crash the segment. He spoke about all of the returners being a family, and it was intended to be a real celebration for all of them.

Raw Reunion also included an increasingly rare appearance by John Cena, D-Generation X, Kevin Nash & Scott Hall saved Seth Rollins from AJ Styles, Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson, Bray Wyatt attacked Mick Foley and put him in the Mandible Claw, and there were nine 24/7 title changes. R-Truth started and ended the night as 24/7 Champion, with Drake Maverick (twice), Pat Patterson, Gerald Brisco, Kelly Kelly, Candice Michelle, Madusa, and Ted DiBiase holding the title between Truth’s reigns.

WON NEWSLETTER: August 5, 2019 Observer Newsletter: WWE financials breakdown, AEW TV taping details, more

The new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter has details on WWE’s second quarter financials. Financially, things look great. But product popularity continues to fall, slowly but steadily.

We cover how WWE was able to beat most projections and bring in higher profits in the second quarter, even with most key metrics showing declines. 

We discuss how the company’s finances look going forward, as well as two big television deals on the horizon. 

We also have news on what could end up being the most important pro wrestling show of the year, AEW’s TV debut. We break down the two key busiess aspects to the story, and discuss what those in the TV industry expect in terms of ratings for the show. 

We cover Jerry Lawler’s lawsuit against Hardeman County, TN regarding the death of son Brian one year ago.

The new issue also covers C.M. Punk and the rumor mill that seems to follow him everywhere. We talk about the reaction to his discussion of AEW in a recent interview, as well as those who say they expect him to go back to WWE. 

We also have the latest on the SummerSlam card, and how the show is doing on the secondary ticket market. We also cover how the other WWE shows in Toronto that week are doing in terms of ticket sales. 

We have coverage of UFC 240 from this past weekend, and have business notes on nthe show, and also detailed television ratings for the prelims. 

There’s also a run down of the ratings of all the major TV shows, along with detailed demo info for the WWE shows and results of all the major pro wrestling events around the world over the past week. 

ORDERING INFO: Order the print Wrestling Observer right now and get it delivered via mail, by sending your name, address, Visa or Master Card number and an expiration date to dave@wrestlingobserver.com or by going to www.paypal.com directing funds to dave@wrestlingobserver.com.

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If you order by mail with a check, cash or money order to P.O. Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228, you can get $1 off in every price range.

FRIDAY NEWS UPDATE

We will be doing two shows today and one tomorrow, with a show with Garrett Gonzalez today and another tomorrow covering the latest news and G-1, plus Fumi Saito and Jim Valley and I are doing a show today on Harley Race. 

With all kinds of issues holding up ticket sales on the Ticketmaster end, it took three hours for AEW to sell out the 10/2 show in Washington, DC. There were 1,800 tickets up at one point on the secondary market, so as noted, the scalpers were ready for this one.  This is the first AEW show with any legit scalper buy aspects to it based on that industry sleeping on All Out.  There will also be about 1,000 tickets released within the next week or so after more production issues are figured out and seats will be released.

Cain Velasquez said in an interview today that he has two more dates with AAA after TripleMania. He didn’t say what they were but presumably that’s the Madison Square Garden and Forum in Los Angeles shows.  I do know that when the deal was made for Velasquez, the idea was he would do MSG if he didn’t fight on 9/21 in Mexico City, and he’s not fighting on that show.

This is a great article on movie stars and booking control including Jason Statham, Dwayne Johnson and Vin Diesel and their demands regarding fight scenes

Jim Smallman, who has been the man in charge at Progress since its inception, officially announced he will be leaving the company at the end of the year. Smallman has been working and will continue to work for WWE U.K. running shows and creative.

WWE

  • The WWE vs. MMA edition of Celebrity Family Feud taped months ago will air on 8/18 on ABC with The Bella Twins, J.J. Garcia, Lauren Garcia, and mother Kathy against Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture, Ilima-Lei Macfarlane, Ryan Bader and Tyron Woodley.
  • For Monday’s Raw in Pittsburgh, you can get 25 percent off all tickets by using the promo code WWEKW.  The sale runs until Noon on Monday.
  • WWE and DK Publishing are releasing a book called Beyond Extreme, about the wildest matches in WWE history.
  • Kambi has put up the star ratings for both Takeover and SummerSlam for betting purposes. You can bet over or under (thanks to David Taylor and wweleaks.org):
    Candice LeRae vs. Io Shirai **3/4
    Shayna Baszler vs. Mia Yim ***1/2
    Street Profits vs. Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly ****1/4
    Velveteen Dream vs. Roderick Strong vs. Pete Dunne ****1/2
    Adam Cole vs. Johnny Gargano *****
    Charlotte Flair vs. Trish Stratus **3/4
    Finn Balor vs. The Fiend **
    Kevin Owens vs, Shane McMahon **1/2
    Natalya vs. Becky Lynch ***1/2
    A.J. Styles vs. Ricochet ****
    Brock Lesnar vs. Seth Rollins ****
    Kofi Kingston vs. Randy Orton ***1/4

UFC

  • Jon Anik responds to Cris Cyborg’s criticism of his announcing.
  • Martin Bravo vs. Steven Peterson has been added to the 9/21 show in Mexico City. 

MISCELLANEOUS

  • Jon Moxley, Luchasaurus and Penelope Ford have been added to the Jericho cruise from 1/20 to  1/24. 
  • The first-ever singles match with Dragon Lee vs. Volador Jr. takes place on Monday night in Puebla.  The NWA world  welterweight title will be at stake.  It will stream live.  Also on the show has Electrico defending the Mexican national lightweight title against Virus.
  • The NWA tribute to Harley Race is at https://youtu.be/N0PkgQrOykY
  • A Missouri FOX affiliate with an article on Harley Race’s passing..
  • Race talks how he’d like to be remembered.
  • TJP vs. Damian Slater was announced for 8/31 in Perth, Western Australia for EPW.
  • Dan Severn vs. DCT  and Ken Shamrock & Carlo Cannon vs. Jonathan & Sean Preston are on the BCW show on 8/30 in Melbourne (thanks to Kevin Chiat)
  • Bellator announced a 10/12 show in Milan, Italy with both MMA and kickboxing.  The show will air on Paramount no a tape delay with Vadim Nemkov vs. Rafael Carvalho as the main event for the U.S.  There will be a live component that will air on Bellator’s web site in the U.S.and live on Ch. 5 in the U.K. featuring Melvin Manhoef vs. Yannick Bahati and Alessio Sakara vs. Canan Grigsby.
  • Bar Wrestling from last night in Baldwin Park,CA:  Jake Atlas & Heather Monroe & Andy Brown & Dom Kubrick b Yuma & NHK & Watts & Ryan Taylor, Luchasaurus b Brandon Cutler, Taya Valkyrie b Ethan Page, Delilah Doom & Eli Everfly won over Reno Scum, Phoenix Star & Zokre and Peter Avalon & Ray Rosas, Tyler Batman b Tommy Dreamer, Brian Cage & Scott Steiner b Joey Ryan & Orange Cassidy (thanks to Shannon Walsh and wrestlingwithdemons.net)
  • PCW Ultra on 8/9 in Wilmington, CA has Josef Samael & Jacob Fatu vs. Homicide & Eddie Kingston, Mil Muertes vs. Dan Maff, Tessa Blanchard vs. Sumie Sakai, Jake Atlas vs. TJ Perkins, Matt Sydal vs. Artemis Spencer, Douglas James vs. Schaff  vs. Brian Pillman Jr., Daga vs. Puma King and a meet and greet with Barbara Blank, better known as Kelly Kellly.
  • Billy Corgan and the Smashing Pumpkins will appear on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on CBS on 8/7.
  • Newspaper story regarding Davey Boy Smith Jr’s Great North Wrestling Triple Threat Match vs Ted Hart vs Hannibal next Saturday Aug 10 at the Petawawa Civic Center in the Ottawa Valley.  Rene Dupree and Wes Brisco will also be on the card as well as Max Testosterone and Lady Yasmine who are both participating in WWE’s Canadian Try Out in Toronto next week.
  • Ubisoft announced today that three iconic WWE theme songs will be making their way to the critically acclaimed Rocksmtih 2014. The three tracks include the entrance themes for Steve Austin, The Rock, and Chris Jericho. No word on if more are to come, but the songs will be available starting August 6th, 2019.

Daily Pro Wrestling History: Ron Simmons wins WCW World title

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