Daily Update: AJPW Champion Carnival, Bron Breakker, Tony Khan

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter: COVID strikes pro wrestling again, Warner Bros. Discovery & AEW

  • The new issue of the Observer has these stories:
  • Major players from five companies test positive for COVID causing changes in television or major shows.
  • Sunday’s Fukuoka Dome show and a look back at the previous pro wrestling events in the building that featured some of the biggest American stars of all-time.
  • The Discovery/Warner merger, what was said at the earnings call about cutbacks, and the different ways this can go for AEW
  • Streaming vs. television and the realities of the numbers
  • Wrestling on television in every category, who is up, who is down, factoring out cable losses, and reasons behind the ups and downs.
  • WWE & AEW shows coming up between now and August ticket sales, interest in the secondary market, how many seats WWE is setting up for the stadium shows
  • WrestleMania Backlash card update and business update
  • Saturday’s UFC report
  • New wrestling history television show series being filmed and who is behind it
  • Karl Lauer and the growth of the Cauliflower Alley Club
  • Ratings of all the television shows of the past week
  • Death of Toro Bill Jr.
  • Preview of TripleMania
  • Unique statement by L.A. Park about TripleMania
  • All Japan, Dragon Gate, NOAH and other Japanese events
  • This week’s PWG show
  • MLW answers the WWE’s attempt to get the lawsuit by MLW thrown out
  • Personnel changes in Impact
  • AEW injury notes
  • AEW’s Double or Nothing show
  • Updates on ticket sales for WWE & AEW shows
  • Promotion gets major television deal with Amazon Prime
  • Tyson Fury on Drew McIntyre and Francis Ngannou
  • Peacock business update
  • WWE survey sent to fans about what they want
  • Biggest streaming numbers from the week

This Week’s Retro Observer Newsletter: March 21, 2005 Observer Newsletter: Raw leaving Spike TV, TNA Destination X review

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Wednesday News Update

WWE

  • WWE uploaded footage that took place following NXT Spring Breakin’ last night showing Bron Breakker being taken out by a steel chair by one of Joe Gacy’s “followers”. Two of them then placed Breakker on a stretcher and took him away to the back.
  • This week’s episode of The Bump, featuring Ezekiel, Liv Morgan, and Madcap Moss.
  • The Usos and Charlotte Flair will be guests on a WrestleMania Backlash edition of The Bump this Sunday.
  • WWE Evil, which aired after NXT last night and focused on the Stephanie McMahon character, averaged 362,000 viewers, up from last week’s 263,000 which focused on Hulk Hogan. Next week will feature the final scheduled episode of the series, which will focus on The Miz.
  • Matches taped for NXT Level Up this week include Ivy Nile and Tatum Paxley vs. Sarray and Erica Yan, Sloane Jacobs vs. Thea Hail, and Channing Lorenzo and Troy Donovan vs. Dante Chen and Javier Bernal.
  • Matches added to WWE’s YouTube page today include John Cena vs. Sami Zayn from the May 4, 2015 edition of Raw, Carmella vs. Charlotte Flair from WWE Backlash 2018, and AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura, also from Backlash 2018.
  • Last night’s episode of Young Rock scored 2,138,000 viewers, with a 0.15 in adults 18-34.
  • Stephanie McMahon was named in Variety’s New York Women’s Impact Report.

AEW/ROH

  • Tony Khan on Twitter confirmed that the ROH sale is closed and today is his first day as Ring of Honor owner.
  • Brandon Thurston reported that a lawsuit has been filed against AEW for allegedly violating the American Disabilities Act. The plaintiff, Luigi Abreu, claims that aewshop.com isn’t accessible for visually-impaired people.
  • Former ROH COO Joe Koff recently wrote on Linkedin about his departure from Ring of Honor and the recent airing of the last episode of ROH TV on Sinclair Broadcasting stations: “As I look back on this amazing journey, there are so many people who joined this journey with me, our staff, our brilliant athletes that you will always know as Ring of Honor, our partners in production and distribution, our vendors and most importantly, you, our fans. I want to thank you personally for your continuous support, belief in me and our product, what we could do, what we would do, what we did! It was the journey of a lifetime and I thank you for sharing it with me.”
  • Colt Cabana guest starred on last night’s episode of Young Rock, playing The Brooklyn Brawler. The episode was based on The Rock’s tryout match with the WWE in 1996.
  • When confronted on Instagram about a leaked US Supreme Court opinion indicating that the court is set to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade opinion regarding abortion access, CM Punk replied on Instagram Stories (h/t WrestlingInc): “ A little bit, yeah. For my wife, my sisters, for mothers and women who are helplessly watching their rights over their own bodies stripped away by elite, rich, white, terrorist religious fascists. Being human means I cry when injustices masquerade as religious right. HER BODY, HER CHOICE.”
  • Khan noted on Twitter that Ravens head coach John Harbaugh would be in attendance at Dynamite tonight.
  • Max Caster has filed for the trademark “The Ace of America”.
  • This week’s Ethan Page vlog.

Other Wrestling

  • Yuma Aoyagi is the winner of this year’s AJPW Champion Carnival tournament, defeating Jake Lee in the finals. As a result, he will face current Triple Crown Champion Kento Miyahara in a future title match.
  • DEFY Wild Ones, which was headlined by Jon Moxley vs. Tom Lawlor, is now up for free on Defy’s on demand channel.
  • Deadline reported that State Street Pictures is developing a film based on the comic book ‘Assassin and Son’, which was written by Shad Gaspard and Marc Copani (Muhammad Hassan)