Daily Update: Afa Anoa’i, Cain Velasquez legal update, WBD

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Friday Update

– Afa Anoa’i just passed away today at the age of 81. He had a number of serious health issues in recent months. This comes less than two months since the death of brother and tag team partner Sika. We send our best to the family. We are also apologetic for reporting this yesterday on X. Afa & Sika were a legendary tag team in the 70s and early 80s and part of one of the largest pro wrestling families in history, which include WWE stars Roman Reigns, The Usos, Solo Sikoa and Jacob Fatu and countless others including Umaga, Rikishi, Yokozuna, Tonga Kid, Afa Jr., Black Pearl, Zilla Fatu, Rosey and Gary Albright. What a week with the deaths of Kevin Sullivan and Dennis Brent.

– Garrett Gonzales and I will be doing our week in review show today. If you have any questions for the show on topics in the current issue you can send them to dave@wrestlingobserver.com and in particular anything on Kevin Sullivan. The weekend show with Bryan Alvarez will be tomorrow night.

– The new issue of the Wrestling Observer is up on the site right now. We have a giant story on the life and career of Kevin Sullivan. It’s one of the biggest stories we’ve done in recent years covering this very unique person who wore a lot of hats in the industry and had a lot of very significant influence on aspects of the genre.

Among the other topics covered:

  • Tony Khan announces the second AEW stadium show for 2025 and we talk about reports of a third one as well.
  • Previewing All In
  • Update on Bash in Berlin including a new main event not announced yet and the latest on the planned stipulation
  • Bryan Danielson talks about his life and career
  • AEW and Triller doing PPV bundles
  • U.S. Olympic wrestling roundup as well as Hiroshi Tanahashi wants to recruit three Olympians
  • Update on G-1 Climax tournament and all the bouts of the past week
  • A look at the career of Yoshinari Ogawa who retired this past week
  • A look at Dennis Brent, who passed away, a behind-the-scenes figure who was very close to many insiders in the wrestling community and had worked for and with World Class, Mid South, WCW, JCP and WWE before a tragic case of MS ended him in wrestling.
  • Update on legal wranglings involving Janel Grant, Vince McMahoin and Dr. Carlon Colker
  • The most detailed look at the TV ratings from the past week, weekly rankings, comparisons with a year ago, segment-by-segment, nightly placings competition and more
  • Rundown from another big show at Arena Mexico
  • More on the CMLL Grand Prix show featuring wrestlers from all over the world
  • Return date announced for one of the biggest international stars
  • Exactly what the issues are with AAA and Penta & Fenix and why their talent isn’t allowed to appear on the same shows in Mexico
  • Update on the Stardom Five Star Grand Prix
  • Dragon Gate Dangerous Gate update
  • N-1 tournament update
  • What WWE NXT star is getting over in Japan
  • Grandson of one of the biggest wrestling stars of all-time now training to wrestle
  • El Hijo del Santo retirement tour update and he talks about when he was negotiating to go full-time with WWE
  • MJF vs. Michael Oku match story and angle with Ospreay
  • GCW hits Japan
  • PPV updates for recent pro wrestling and boxing events
  • Tony Khan talks more on big announcements
  • Update on Young Bucks
  • Penta & Fenix update
  • Behind the making of MJF vs. Oku in England
  • Advances for upcoming WWE & AEW shows
  • Streaming numbers and international TV numbers
  • Update on Conor McGregor fighting
  • Former MMA fighter involved in a shooting death of a man who was friends with the person who was accused of kidnapping his son
  • Heyman talks his ECW run
  • Ronda Rousey on Vince McMahon
  • Jesse Ventura and his attempt to unionize wrestlers

– Cain Velasquez pleaded no contest in his attempted murder case today in San Jose. His trial was scheduled to start in three weeks. The plea bargain agreement was that the charge of premeditated attempted murder was dropped. If he had been convicted of that charge he would face mandatory life in prison, although with the possibility of parole. Judge Arthur Bocanegro will decide on his punishment at a date to be determined. The District Attorney in the case did say Velasquez would be facing prison time. What hurt Velasquez in this case is that a search of his phone found he was looking up searches for “sexual assault case where the victims family fights back” and “sexual assault cases where victims family retaliates,” which showed this was not a momentary rage but something he had been looking up before he chased down Harry Goularte, who was accused of molesting his young son at a daycare center. Velasquez chased a car with Goularte in it for 11 miles and fired shots which hit Goularte’s stepfather, Paul Bender in the arm. He was arrested and spent eight months in jail before being released on bail. After release he did one pro wrestling match for AAA and had been training fighters at the AKA School in San Jose.

– Kathleen Finch, the chairman and CEO of WBD’s U.S. networks, which include TBS and TNT, announced that she would be retiring at the end of this year. Channing Dungey, the Chairman and CEO of Warner Brothers Television Group, will be her successor. Finch was and is a big proponent of AEW and always talked positively publicly about the product and its ratings success. We are told that this is not expected to affect the contract negotiations for a new deal or AEW in general’s day-to-day business. Finch started as a programmer for the Food Network in 1999 after working 12 years as a reporter for CBS News.

– Tony Khan said that AEW will run a show in England in 2025. He said All In would be in Texas but they would have something in London as well. He didn’t specify the venue.

– We send our best wishes to Bobby Fulton of the Fantastics, who has been battling cancer on and off for years. Fulton had surgery on Tuesday to repair his throat from the years of cancer treatments and during the surgery had heart complications. He will be seeing a cardiologist shortly. He has been responding to people on Twitter wishing him the best.

– FuboTV’s lawsuit against ESPN, FOX, WBD and Hulu to block the debut of Venu, the streaming service that would have ABC, all the ESPN channels, TBS, TNT, TNT Sports, FOX, The Big 10 Network, FS1 and FS2 that was due to debut next week, won the first round today, blocking the launch of the service. ABC Disney, WBD and FOX have said that they will appeal this ruling.

– SmackDown tonight from Orlando, which will be sold out with more than 13,500 fans, has DIY vs. Street Profits with the winners getting a tag title shot, Kevin Owens vs. Grayson Waller, Andrade vs. Carmelo Hayes, Blair Davenport vs. Naomi, Tiffany Stratton throws a party for Nia Jax, and Roman Reigns appears.

– Rampage tonight on TNT at 10 p.m. has Mark Briscoe & Tomohiro Ishii & Orange Cassidy vs. The Butcher & The Outrunners, Nyla Rose vs. Erica Leigh, Nick Wayne vs. Kip Sabian and Top Flight vs. MxM Collection. This was taped Wednesday so Mansoor is not going to be in two places at the same time in real life. It’ll only appear that way, since he’s in the semi at Aena Mexico tonight as well.

– There are less than 30 tickets remaining for the Q&A show that I’m doing with Bryan Alvarez on the morning of All In. The event takes place at 11 a.m. at the Tattershall Castle steamship in downtown London across from the London Eye and a five minute walk from Big Ben and Parliament. For more info, click here.

–Nic Nemeth vs. Josh Alexander in a one hour Iron Man match for the TNA title headlines the 8/30 special from Louisville.

– We’re looking for reports from these weekend shows

  • SmackDown tonight in Orlando (non-Smackdown matches only)
  • AAA TripleMania tomorrow in Mexico City
  • WWE house show tomorrow in Lakeland, FL
  • AEW in Arlington, TX (matches not on Collision)
  • WWE house show Sunday in Estero, FL

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

– We’re doing weekend polls on both the Saturday and Sunday New Japan Sumo Hall G-1 semifinals and finals shows, so you can leave a thumbs up, down or middle, best and worst match for each show to dave@wrestlingobserver.com.

– The start times for the New Japan G-1 semifinals with Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Shingo Takagi and David Finlay vs. Yota Tsuji is 4 a.m. Eastern tomorrow morning. The finals are 2 a.m. Eastern very late tomorrow night.

– Dana White announced today that Alex Pereira vs Khalil Rountree Jr. for the light heavyweight title will headline the 10/5 UFC PPV in Salt Lake City, UT. Rountree as the challenger was a big surprise, as most figured Magomed Ankalaev to be the top contender. Rountree is coming off a suspension after testing positive for the steroid androsterone, which was found to be something he accidentally ingested after they tested one of his supplements. Also announced was Raquel Pennington defending the women’s bantamweight title against Julianna Pena, Kayla Harrison vs. Ketlen Vieira, Mosvar Evloev vs. Aljamain Sterling, Mario Batista vs. Jose Aldo, Steven Wonderboy Thompson vs. Joaquin Buckley and Roman Dolidze vs. Kevin Holland.

– Harrison being booked on the show with a bantamweight title fight looks to lead to her, if she wins, getting a shot at the winner and making that clear that night.

– Mistico & Esfinge & Atlantis Jr. vs. Valiente & Ultimo Guerrero & Gran Guerrero headlines Arena Mexico tonight. Mansoor & Rocky Romero also face Angel de Oro & Niebla Roja.

– Tuesday in Guadalajara is the League of Nationals Cibernetico match with Barbaza, Dulce Gardenia, Elemental, Furia Roja, El Hijo de Villano III Jr., Zandokan Jr., Mistico, Soberano Jr., Star Black, Villano III Jr., Akira (MLW), Dark Magic, Flip Gordon, Ikuro Kwon (MLW), Kyle Fletcher (AEW), Mansoor (AEW), Okumura, Robbie X (RevPro), Romero and Yutani.

– UFC 305 is tomorrow our time from Perth, Western Australia:

6:30 p.m. on ESPN+

  • Jesus Aguilar vs. Stewart Nicoll
  • Ricky Glenn vs. Sng Kenan
  • Tom Nolan vs. Alex Reyes

ESPN2 and ESPN +at 8 p.m. Eastern

  • Herbert Burns vs. Jack Jenkins
  • Casey O’Neill vs. Luana Santos
  • Josh Culibao vs. Ricardo Ramos
  • Junior Tafa vs. Valter Walker

PPV at 10 p.m.

  • Li Jingliang vs. Carlos Prates
  • Jairzinho Rozenstruik vs. Tai Tuivasa
  • Dan Hooker vs. Mateusz Gamrot
  • Steve Erceg vs. Kai Kara-France
  • Dricus Du Plessis vs. Israel Adesanya for the middleweight title

– Natsuko Tora will defend the World of Stardom title against Tam Nakano on 8/31 in Tokyo.

– Mina Shirakawa will replace Stephanie Vaquer on the 8/24 RevPro show at the Copper Box in London.

– TripleMania on Triller is tomorrow night with a Domed cage and the last person left loses their hair or mask with Dark Cuervo, Dark Ozz, Cibernetico Fiscal, Abismo Negro Jr., Psicosos (not the 90s Psicosis), Panic Clown, Dave the Clown and Murder Clown, plus Nic Nemeth defends the AAA Mega title against Alberto El Patron, Vamapiro faces a mystery man in a casket mach, Negro Casas & Psycho Clown defend the AAA tag titles against Dr. Wagner Jr. & Galeno del Mal and Raj Dhesi (Jinder Mahal) & Satnam Singh, Komander defends the AAA cruiserweight title against Matt Riddle and Laredo Kid, Flammer defends the Reina de Reinas title against Faby Apache and a Copa Bardal (Royal Rumble rules, all men in are mysteries)

– Sam Adons and Kenzo Suzuki have indicated being on the show.

– Satoshi Kojima defends the MLW title against Ares on 8/31 in San Juan, Costa Rica.

– Aja Kong makes her debut for West Coast Pro tomorrow night at the Queen of Indies show in San Francisco at the United Irish Cultural Center. The Queen of Indies is a one-night tournament with first round matches of Kylie Rae vs. Masha Slamovich, Hyari vs. Maya World, Great Sakuya vs. Brooke Havok and Amazona vs. Keyra Strong.

– Trevor Lee and Kylie Rae have been added to Scott D’Amore’s Maple Leaf Wrestling promotion debut shows on 10/19 and 10/20 in Windsor ONT.

– Actor Jeff Goldblum, who guest hosted Jimmy Kimmel Live on Tuesday, and had John Cena as a guest, mentioned watching Bruno Sammartino, Haystacks Calhoun, Killer Kowalski and Bobo Brazil as a kid on his black & white television set.

– Jonathan Gresham will be appearing on this week’s Memphis Wrestling TV show.