Daily Update: AEW ticket sales, AAA, weekend schedule

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter: More on Tony Khan & ROH, AEW Revolution review

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Friday News Update

Garrett Gonzalez and I will be back tonight covering all the week’s news with Wrestling Observer Radio. We will also have a weekend show with Bryan Alvarez coming up.

The new issue of the Observer came out today. Our main stories are:

  • Tony Khan’s purchase of ROH, what is still being worked on for the future, how Sinclair had the shot to make ROH huge including how much they at one point were willing to try to do to build the company and what they didn’t do to keep what they had, the library, Honor Club and the future
  • Famous promotion vs. promotion angles and how successful they were
  • Update on Cody Rhodes including what were the plans for his first WWE program
    AEW Revolution, business notes on PPV, live gate, theater numbers, mainstream interest level, poll results, star ratings
  • AEW’s first million dollar gate and what it means historically
  • WrestleMania, the matches as of this week, new matches on the books and how they could change, changes to matches how they were announced, plus WWE ticket sales for the Dallas shows
  • The sad case involving Cain Velasquez
  • UFC 272, the background, what comes next for the fighters, the business and more
  • The most heavily promoted WWE house show in 20 years, the Madison Square Garden event with the Brock Lesnar-Roman Reigns angle, as well as an update on the New York market for AEW and WWE
  • Update on the good and the bad of the New Japan Cup tournament
  • The Hall of Fame career around the world of Leon “Vader” White, from his start to the creation of the Vader character to his biggest matches
  • Why Joe D’Orazio was considered the smartest man in the U.K. wrestling business, a look at the life of someone who has been around pro wrestling for more than 70 years
  • The 16 Carat gold tournament in Germany
  • The television business of pro wrestling with all the shows, the whys and competition for the ratings, the segment numbers and how shows are doing compared to last year
  • AEW & WWE ticket sales
  • Bryan Danielson’s two-hour interview with the Observer
  • International TV numbers
  • Streaming numbers for the major shows
  • New WWE series

**********

AEW

  • Lots of shows went on sale today. The big one was the 6/1 AEW show at the Forum in Los Angeles which as of a few hours ago had more than 12,500 tickets out with a total television capacity of 12,664. There were 162 tickets left at last report so it’s either a total sellout or very close. This is the largest gate ever for a wrestling show at the Forum and was the fastest ticket sale for the building for pro wrestling in history. For those talking scalpers, the total tickets purchased by scalpers was 3,081 based on secondary site tickets. It will end up as the third highest attendance since WCW ran shows there with no stage and drew more, but did surpass the WWE record in the building set by a Hulk Hogan vs. John Studd match in 1984. The Detroit debut on 6/29 had 7,700 tickets out as of a few hours ago and the Ontario, CA debut on 6/3 had 5,700 with a full stadium set up for Rampage at 7,700.
  • Rampage tonight has Darby Allin vs. Marq Quen, Jamie Hayter vs. Mercedes Martinez, Keith Lee vs QT Marshall and Shane Strickland’s debut against Tony Nese.

WWE

  • In the MSG segment where Brock Lesnar bled, they did it hardway rather than used a blade, or at least that’s what those in WWE say since they are so anti-blade. The segment got 5.4 million views on Instagram, the all-time record, and 4.5 million more on YouTube, which isn’t a record but is the highest number for anything in a while.
  • More on the Sami Zayn-Johnny Knoxvlle interview from TMZ.

Other Wrestling

  • AAA will be airing the first of its monthly shows in Monterrey live tomorrow on FITE at 6 p.m. Eastern. Dave Sturchio, who announces for Wrestle Pro out of New Jersey, will debut in the spot with Larry Dallas. This deal must have just come together. El Hijo del Vikingo, who was thought to be out six weeks and was back last night, is listed to face Demonic Flamita in the main event, plus Octagon Jr. & Myzteziz Jr. & Laredo Kid vs. Sanson & Forastero & Cuatrero.
  • Fenix & Penta are also set to challenge FTR for the AAA tag titles in Merida on Sunday. At this point we don’t know for sure if Fenix will be working the show or not since he hasn’t worked since he dislocated his elbow in the AEW tag title loss.
  • GCW tomorrow night at Center Stage in Atlanta has Matt Tremont & Nick Gage defending their tag titles in a death match against Mathew Justice & Mance Warner, AJ Gray vs. Effy for the Extreme title, Jonathan Gresham vs. Blake Christian for the ROH title, Matt Cardona vs. Mike Jackson (the 80s TBS enhancement guy), AR Fox vs. Nick Wayne and ACH vs. Tony Deppen.
  • Defy tomorrow night at Washington Hall in Seattle has Christopher Daniels defending his Interim Defy title against Wheeler Yuta and the Bollywood Boyz defend the tag title s against Stevie & Tome Filip from Australia, plus Eddie Kingston vs. Big Damo (formerly Killian Dain) Schaff & Jacob Fatu & Josef Samael vs. Midnight Heat & Levi Cooper (formerly Tucker in WWE)and Kevin Knight vs. Ethan HD.
  • Added to the MLW matinee show on 4/1 at Gilley’s in Dallas is Aerostar & Microman & El Dragon vs. Arez & Mini Abismo Negro & TBA. It will be a Lucha-themed show.
  • IWF on 4/23 in Nutley, NJ with Tony Atlas, Nunzio, Bull James and more. It will be the company’s 25th anniversary show.
  • Expo Lucha takes place on 6/11 and 6/12 at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia. On 6/11 will be a Dragon Lee vs. Laredo Kid match, Super Astro Jr. vs. Gringo Loco vs. Aeroboy for the PWR Jr.title. The 6/12 show has Tinieblas Jr. & Octagon vs. Pirata Morgan & Damian 666 and Psicosis & Xtreme Tiger vs. Juventud Guerrera & Lince Dorado. Others at the convention will be Super Crazy, Ultimo Dragon, Solar, Black Taurus, Lady Maravilla, Keyra, Solar Jr.,Bestia 666 and Mecha Wolf.
  • The Wrestling Estate talks to Rhino, discussing nasty injury from Eddie Edwards, why he didn’t re-sign with WWE and his love of boating.

UFC

UFC at 4 p.m. from the APEX in Las Vegas tomorrow with a pure ESPN+ show:

  • Tafon Nchukwi (205.5) vs. Azamat Murzakanov (205.5)
  • Guido Cannetti (136) vs. Kris Moutinho (135)
  • Dalcha Lunglambula (186) vs. Cody Brundage (185.5)
  • Sabino Mazo (125.5) vs. Miranda Maverick (125.5)
  • Damon Jackson (145.5) vs. Kamuela Kirk (14)5
  • Trevin Jones (135) vs. Javid Basharat (136)
  • JJ Aldrich (125.5) vs. Gillian Robertson (125.5)
  • Matthew Semelsberger (169) vs. AJ Fletcher (170
  • Alex Pereira (186) vs. Bruno Silva (185.5)
  • Drew Dober (155) vs. Terrance McKinney (156)
  • Khalil Rountree (205) vs. Karl Roberson (203)
  • Sodiq Yusuff (145.5) vs. Alex Caceres (145)
  • Marlon Moraes (136) vs. Song Yadong (135.5)
  • Thiago Santos (205.5) vs. Magomed Ankalaev (205)

Other MMA

LFA runs tonight in UFC Fight Pass at 9 p.m. Eastern from Rio de Janeiro,Brazil:

  • Jonas Bilharino (144) vs. Jose Delano (147)
  • Gabriel Bonfim (168.8) vs. Eduardo Garvon (175.8)
  • Ismael Bonfim (156) vs. Andrey Augusto (159.6)
  • Andre Vieira (258.4) vs. Eduardo Neves (263)
  • Tamires Vidal (136) vs Queila Braga (134.8)
  • Rodolfo Bellato (204.8) vs. Thiago Vieira (203.6)
  • Gabriel Braga (144.5) vs. Rogerio Furtado (144.4)
  • The top two fights were to be for the featherweight and welterweight titles but Delano and Garvon missed weight. If Bilharino and Gabriel Bonfim win, they will be champions. Garvon missed weight for a title fight by 4.8 pounds.

PFL tonight at 9 p.m. on Fubo Sports Network:

  • Reinaldo Ekson (145.8) vs. Mike Barnett (145.8)
  • Edwin Cooper Jr. (145.8) vs. Troy Lamson (145.8)
  • Do Gyeom Lee (148.6) vs. Boston Salmon (146)
  • Scottie Stockman (145.8) vs. Brahyan Zurcher (145.4)
  • The most impressive fighters off tonight’s show will advance to the 2022 featherweight tournament
  • Donn Davis, a co-owner of the PFL, issued a challenge for an interpromotional match to Scott Coker of Bellator for Kayla Harrison to face Cris Cyborg. Coker attempted to sign Harrison for the fight, but PFL had the right to match any outside offer to keep Harrison, and they did. Davis then challenged Coker to put on a joint show as a PPV with the promotion whose fighter loses the main event paying the production costs.
  • Bare Knuckle Fighting Championships announced a 4/8 show in Wichita, KS at the Intrust Bank Arena with Mike Richman and David Rickels, both former Bellator fighters, as the top stars on the show.