Daily Update: Bryan Danielson, WWE Raw, Creed Brothers

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

The new issue of the Observer is up on the site right now covering these stories:

  • Match and performers of the week
  • The history of UFC and WWE together
  • How Vince McMahon is responsible for UFC taking off and why
  • Dirty tricks McMahon tried to play on UFC and blasting it when it got popular
  • Dana White talks about his prior and current changes in relationship with McMahon
  • How Vince McMahon viewed UFC when it first broke through
  • The first attempt at Undertaker vs. Lesnar at WrestleMania and why it didn’t happen
  • How things have changed since the merger and what Vince’s role in UFC is now
  • Jon Jones injury, why Stipe Miocic is off, and what are the different possibilities going forward in the heavyweight division
  • A look at the Aspinall vs. Pavlovich fight
  • Business notes on what was expected to be a record setting show
  • Preview of Crown Jewel and Full Gear and matches announced and other things built up
  • WWE goes with more international major shows in 2024
  • Rundown of Impact changing to TNA and what it will and won’t mean
  • The decline of TNA and change to Impact years ago
  • What changes to expect with the move back to TNA
  • The story behind the Bound for Glory main event
  • Business notes on Bound for Glory
  • Match-by-match coverage
  • Hall of Fame ceremony
  • UFC 204 coverage and what next for the top stars of the show
  • Tyson Fury vs. Francis Ngannou, and how once again Saudi Arabia has changed the economic necessities of a big fight
  • The most detailed look at the ratings for all of the wrestling shows, as well as segment-by-segment and comparison and where shows were up and down
  • Blue Panther 45th anniversary event
  • Stardom bad injury situation
  • All Japan annual tag team tournament
  • Why two Japanese wrestlers disappeared in April
  • Great Triple Crown title match
  • Future of Will Ospreay
  • New Japan Super Juniors tag tourney
  • Cain Velasquez first interview
  • Mexican legend survives scary hospital stay
  • British J Cup
  • Wrestling star expects to announce a new TV series in November
  • Ric Flair in AEW
  • AEW December PPV and its competition
  • Jon Moxley on battles with addiction
  • Ticket advances for upcoming WWE & AEW shows
  • International TV ratings and streaming numbers
  • Pitch for independent star to AEW
  • How many matches top AEW stars have done
  • Controversy over UFC business deal
  • Peacock subscription number and financial losses
  • Memo all WWE employees received and how this has changed the stock price
  • Tickets now available for Survivor Series and why
  • WWE NIL talent in college wrestling notes
  • A look at the WWE shows over the past week

This Week’s Retro Observer Newsletter

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.

Rates in the United States are $14.50 for 4 issues, $35.50 for 12, $70 for 24, $116 for 40 and $149.50 for 52.

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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.

Monday Update

Bryan and I will be back tonight with Wrestling Observer Radio covering Raw as well as the latest pro wrestling news.

Regarding the story earlier today by Justin Barasso of Sports Illustrated that the injury to Bryan Danielson actually took place against Andrade on Collision and not in the tag match last Wednesday, we’ve been told that is accurate. That would mean he actually worked a match on Wednesday with the injury and his selling at the end was planned to use the injury in storyline to involve Orange Cassidy and Kazuchika Okada. No word on how long Danielson will be out of action. But they were originally hopeful that the injury wouldn’t require surgery.

Raw tonight is from Greenville, SC and this would be on paper the toughest night of competition with both game three of the World Series and the NFL, which has the Las Vegas Raiders vs. Detroit Lions . But WWE programming has held up well last week against the baseball playoffs. It’s the Raw go-home show for Crown Jewel with Seth Rollins vs. JD McDonagh in a non-title match, Chelsea Green vs. Natalya in a Trick or Street fight match, Chad Gable & Otis vs. The Creeds making their debut, Dominik Mysterio vs. Ricochet in a non-title match, the first Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa tag match in three years against Giovanni Vinci & Ludvig Kaiser and Candice LeRae vs. Xia Li. There were about 7,500 tickets out as of earlier today for the show.

As noted as of yesterday the plan was for the Creeds to be brought up to the main roster and today’s show being their debut, which means it’s very important they look good.

Both NXT tomorrow and AEW on Wednesday also go against games four and five of the World Series. If a game six is necessary, it would go against both Smackdown and Rampage. That would also mean Smackdown would be on FS 1. A game seven would go Saturday against Collision.

NXT has one of its biggest lineups of the year on Halloween night. NXT is unique of all the shows in the sense that competition usually doesn’t hurt it as bad. But Halloween is traditionally a bad night for WWE ratings for the obvious reasons so we’ll see if that hurts the show or not. Ilja Dragunov vs. Carmelo Hayes for the NXT title headlines, Dominik Mysterio vs. Nathan Frazer for the North American title, Piper Niven & Chelsea Green defend the WWE women’s tag titles against Jacy Jayne & Thea Hail, Kelani Jordan faces Lola Vice in the Breakout tournament finals, The Creeds face Angel Garza & Humberto Carrillo in a Tables, Ladders and Scares match (which is set to open the show), Bron Breakker vs. Robert Stone and Tiffany Stratton vs. Fallon Henley. Breakker vs. Stone is obviously set up to lead to Breakker vs. Von Wagner.

We’re looking for reports from Raw with anything, such as Main Event bouts or post-show activities not on the TV show, as well as from today’s house show in Nottingham, England. The Smackdown crew arrived for the show yesterday and runs today and then finishes up tomorrow in Glasgow. Then some of the crew goes home and others go to Saudi Arabia. The top Raw stars like Seth Rollins and Cody Rhodes worked Saturday in Berlin, flew to Greenville tonight and then fly out to Saudi Arabia after tonight’s show.

Jon Moxley returned to action over the weekend with matches for OTT in Wolverhampton, England against Trent Seven, and in Dublin, Ireland, against B. Cool. We heard he really liked wrestling at Dublin National Stadium.

PFL Founder Donn Davis was interviewed by Ariel Helwani and talked up the idea of Francis Ngannou vs. Deontay Wilder in a mixed rules match. He said Wilder is open to the idea and it’s a matter of things like availability and money. The problem is the money one would have to pay Wilder unless it’s backed a foreign government doesn’t make the economics make any sense. Ngannou was also on Helwani’s show and brought up Wilder in MMA is something they are talking about. Ngannou said that he didn’t want the two judges, Alan Krebs and Juan Carlos Pelaya, to even judge one of his fights again. Both judges had very fair cards.

Steve Johnson has a story on the beginnings of the Fritz Von Erich character after researching the letters from the Jack Pfefer collection at Notre Dame University.

There is a Super Juniors show tomorrow at 5:30 a.m. from Toyama:

  • Clark Connors & Drilla Moloney (4-2) vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Sho (4-2)
  • TJP & Francesco Akira (3-3) vs,. Desperado & Master Wato (5-1)
  • Kevin Knight & Kushida (3-3) vs. Robbie Eagles & Kosei Fujita (3-3)
  • Titan & Bushi (3-3) vs. Douki & Taka Michinoku (1-5)
  • Ryusuke Taguchi & The DKC (2-4) vs. Yoh & Musashi (2-4)

AAW from Saturday night in Berwyn, IL: Gnaris Garvin b Koda Hernandez, Levi Everett b Hartenbower to win the Heritage title, Robert Anthony b Jah-C, Silas Young b Gary Jay, Davey Vega b Calvin Tankman to keep the heavyweight title, Ren Jones won Battle Royal, Sierra b Masha Slamovich in a last woman standing match to take the women’s title (thanks to Leonard Brand)