Daily Update: Cassie Lee, Pat McAfee, The Undertaker

Daily Update

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter:

In this issue:

  • Match and performer of the week
  • C.M. Punk agrees to return to AEW again
  • Plans for Collision
  • Some of the agreements reached for Punk’s return including what happens with Ace Steel
  • Promotion of the United Center show
  • Early ticket sales for United Center and all the Collision tapings
  • Economics of arenas in Chicago
  • Promotion of the Collision shows so far
  • Collision later this year against tougher sports competition
  • Nick Khan talks lots of new potential ideas for television and NXT
  • The U.K. television landscape
  • New ways WWE is looking to make money from its major events
  • A preview of WWE’s two big shows this week, favorites, and business notes
  • AEW Double or Nothing looked at, including business notes on the show, ideas and angles
  • Mercedes Mone injured and Willow Nightingale ends up as New Japan Strong women’s champion
  • A look at the tournament
  • Lots of thoughts and notes on the show
  • Mark Davis injury
  • Angles coming off the New Japan Long Beach show
  • How tickets moved after Mone was announced
  • Match-by-match coverage, star ratings and poll results
  • Rundown of the Best of the Super Juniors tournament, coverage of the biggest matches this pas week and how the tournaments went down
  • UFC show coverage
  • The most in-depth look at the ratings for all the national wrestling shows and how they compare with the same period last year, as well as the competition and what the numbers mean
  • Major wrestling and boxing promotion looking at working with each other
  • More on the CMLL Anniversary plans
  • AEW star debuting in AAA
  • AEW star looks to be done with AAA
  • Stardom building title vs title match this weekend
  • Hana Kimura Memorial show
  • DDT tournament finals
  • Schedule for Dark Side of the Ring and thoughts
  • Cain Velasquez trial update
  • Promotion quietly gets national cable deal
  • A number of different stars on next MLW tapings
  • Impact TV lineups
  • AEW video game update
  • AEW and profits and losses
  • Darby Allin and climbing Mount Everest
  • Tony Khan talks booking team
  • Notes on Forbidden Door
  • Thunder Rosa talks battling depression
  • What stars who believe they can’t appear on Forbidden Door
  • Ticket sales for upcoming WWE and AEW shows
  • International TV numbers
  • Talk about promoting AEW live events
  • Best merchandise sellers
  • Update on how UFC pays fighters
  • Dana White talks Francis Ngannou deal
  • PFL talks the deal and why it makes sense even if it doesn’t seem to
  • Tyson Fury and Jon Jones war of words has predictable outcome
  • Mackenzie Der and divorce issues
  • Lots of Billy Graham history and Hogan & Flair talk about his influence
  • Why Hogan and Graham fell out years ago
  • Graham’s lawsuit against Vince McMahon
  • Graham’s sellout records in MSG and why they are even more impressive than they appear
  • Hogan the face of a new company
  • Women’s’ tag team division issues
  • Lots of injury notes and updates
  • Two WWE stars play women wrestlers of the 30s and 50s in a new movie being filmed soon
  • More on a Ric Flair movie
  • Kota Ibushi talks WWE
  • Three WWE athletes going for a world championship berth in wrestling this year
  • Gable Steveson talks his pro wrestling training
  • Median age of wrestling Tv viewers for the different shows

This Week’s Retro Observer Newsletter:

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Wednesday Update

WWE

  • Rhea Ripley spoke to Sports Illustrated about her evolution in WWE: “I’m a very genuine person. When I first started in WWE, I was very timid and scared that I was going to do something wrong. I wanted to please everyone. That’s why you saw the Rhea Ripley you did. I didn’t think people would gravitate toward me. I thought they wanted something else from me. But it’s amazing. I stopped caring. I know myself better than anyone else. I found the confidence within myself to be myself. That’s the Rhea Ripley you see today.”
  • The New York Post reported that Pat McAfee’s contract with ESPN is for five years and around $85 million total. McAfee will be making about $17 million per year.
  • In an interview with the Manchester Evening News, The Undertaker discussed the reaction he’s received from fans now that he speaks out of character: “It’s so funny, because I was the last guy that put that kind of effort into protecting the business and protecting a character. It’s so funny the amount of hate that I’ve got, from people now, you know, they hear my normal voice, and me talk about normal things. The hate that I get because people feel like I destroyed their childhood and I’m like, ‘Me!?, me!? I was the last one. I was the last one, I’m the guy you’re gonna take your heat out on?’”
  • Undertaker also spoke to The Independent about how he’s dealing with retirement:
          • I’ve got to the point now where if I’m home, I’m fine. It’s when I do show up at a WWE event I get that ‘I should be getting ready’ feeling.
          • At WrestleMania 39, I was there and I had my family and friends up in a suite watching the show and I kind of found myself rocking in my chair like, ‘oh, my gosh, I should be down there’. So in those instances, it’s there. It’s still in my heart and it’s in my brain.
  • After announcing her pregnancy, Alexa Bliss assured a fan on Twitter that she’ll be returning to the ring.
  • Seth Rollins, Chelsea Green, Sonya Deville, and Titus O’Neil were guests on WWE’s The Bump this afternoon.
  • Maxxine Dupri appeared on the latest episode of Out of Character.
  • WWE’s YouTube channel uploaded the following matches: Triple H vs. Scott Steiner for the World Heavyweight Championship (No Way Out 2003), Otis vs. The Miz (Hell in a Cell 2020), and Charlotte Flair vs. Rhea Ripley for the Raw Women’s Championship (July 19, 2021 Raw).

AEW/Other Wrestling

  • With tonight’s Dynamite taking place in the city, today was declared as “All Elite Wrestling Day” in San Diego.
  • AEW shared footage of Eddie Kingston, Matt Jackson, and Nick Jackson from their Fight Forever video game.
  • On his podcast, Tony Schiavone said his current AEW contract runs through April 2024. Schiavone responded when Conrad Thompson joked about him having a lifetime deal with AEW: “That’s a f*cking lie. Unless my life ends by April of next year. There is no guarantee that they’re gonna re-sign me. There’s no guarantee on that. That’s how I approach life.”
  • During an appearance on Busted Open Radio, Cassie Lee (the former Peyton Royce) discussed returning to the ring for World Series Wrestling in Australia this October: “This is a home promotion for me in Australia. Shawn Spears is already doing it, and we thought it was kind of perfect for me to go along with him and take our son. It’s really exciting and they were open to the idea. We’ve been talking about doing mixed tag stuff for a long time and it was a good opportunity to do that.”
  • Lee was asked about potentially reuniting with her former tag team partner Jessica McKay: “At the moment, she’s really focused on her acting career, which I still am too, but being a mom now, I feel I need to contribute a certain amount to our household and my son. I had a whole life before he came along and I had all my big accomplishments before he came along. He’s so young, but we’ll have photos and footage, and he’ll know that he was there to see it all. Jess is still concentrated on acting, but I still want to tag. That’s why I want to tag with Shawn. I love tag wrestling.”
  • Jonny Candido thanked Dark Side of the Ring for telling his brother Chris’ story: “A huge thank you to @DarkSideOfRing and @evanhusney for telling my brother’s story. You guys did an amazing job”
  • Ichiban vs. TJ Crawford has been announced for MLW’s Fusion TV tapings in Philadelphia on Saturday, July 8.