Daily Update: CM Punk, Stardom, G1 fallout

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

In this issue:

  • Match of the Week and Wrestler of the Week
  • The big Saturday night with SummerSlam, UFC, Diaz vs. Paul, Collision and G-1 and who watched what
  • The departure of Brock Lesnar and his scheduled return, and departure of Ronda Rousey and her importance and the MMA rules attempt
  • The Bloodline angle
  • Business numbers including PPV, WWE buyers who bought Forbidden Door, Spence vs. Crawford and Diaz vs. Paul
  • What record did SummerSlam set and what record that it set will last only a few more weeks
  • The ruling in the Cung Le vs UFC lawsuit regarding it becoming a class action suit, what the judge said, the MLW suit against WWE, and how this lawsuit potentially affects WWE
  • Full coverage of the G-1 Climax tournament, with the storylines and match reviews from the past week
  • All In sets its own new record and update on the show
  • Full coverage of Saturday’s UFC show
  • CMLL anniversary show news
  • The most in depth look at the ratings of all national pro wrestling and MMA shows, including segment-by-segment and by different groups, as well as where the wrestling and MMA shows stood in the overall weekly cable and network standings
  • Lots of foreign stars coming to CMLL
  • TripleMania notes
  • Stardom Five Star Grand Prix tournament update
  • N-1 tournament update
  • NOAH sells out in seconds
  • New Japan’s All-Star Junior event in Philadelphia
  • Hulk Hogan and his new stories
  • Schedule of shows for London over All In weekend
  • Arenas trying to block their agreements with WWE from public view
  • Legendary tag team reunites
  • Young Bucks talk signing their new deals and current thoughts on wrestling
  • Full Gear 2023 update
  • Dynamite and Smackdown upcoming time changes for baseball playoffs
  • Lots of injury updates
  • Upcoming attendance numbers for WWE and AEW
  • International TV ratings and streaming numbers
  • Update on Forbidden Door PPV numbers
  • Dana White predicts a fight doing 10 million buys at $100 a view
  • New UFC main events
  • Bellator planning huge show
  • Jake Paul vs. Nate Diaz
  • Logan Paul’s next fight and why it’s such a joke
  • Boxing superstar signs with MMA group
  • Vince McMahon’s ownership in the new UFC/WWE company
  • New Board of Directors
  • Plans for NXT
  • More on Kairi’s return
  • AEW star close to signing with WWE
  • WWE performer going for the real wrestling Triple Crown
  • How much is WWE currently worth

This Week’s Retro Observer Newsletter

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Sunday Update

Garrett and I did a long interview with Andy Quildan, the promoter of RevPro. It was a very interesting look at promoting a show, getting new talent over, the ups and downs of the British independent scene, how NXT UK changed everything, All In and much more. Bryan and I will be back tonight covering all the weekend news and there is a ton of it.

Regarding questions about the C.M. Punk off-screen promo on Adam Page, this was not storyline or anything like that. Page was actually sent to Greensboro last night to do a pre-tape interview backstage for Wednesday’s Dynamite show and when he got there was told that they would have to do it away from the Coliseum and not to go to the show. He wasn’t booked to appear on Collision itself. This was not the Jim Ross interview with Kenny Omega that was taped, but not in Greensboro last night, for Wednesday which will announce the Omega match for All In. Punk got a mixed reaction during the show itself but when he ran down Page for no apparent reason he was booed heavily. After the clip that made its way on social media ended, while still in front of the fans, he said that he wanted to tell the fans he loved each and every single one of you, that we sold more tickets than the last time in the building and said it was cool that people made signs that read CM Skunk. As noted before, the Young Bucks and Punk do have an agreement to not say anything negative publicly about each other, but that does not include Page.

I haven’t seen the Mayu Iwatani vs. Utami Hayashishita match from today’s Stardom PPV show in Osaka but people have raved about it. The other matches I have seen from the last two nights of G-1 and I felt Will Ospreay vs. Tetsuya Naito was incredible, Naito vs. Kazuchika Okada was one of the best storytelling matches in a long time and a legit classic final match, and a lot didn’t like Okada vs. Evil because of the redundant interference, but it did have great heat and the Okada performance as a babyface coming back and winning was off the charts. I’d say the last three nights were excellent as far as the G-1 bouts went.

As is usual at the G-1 Climax finals, there was a ton of news. Ryohei Oiwa will be going for a time to NOAH to pick up more experience that team with Kaito Kiyomiya. Usually young talent is sent overseas and I’ve never heard of them being sent to another Japanese promotion.

There should be a press conference very soon and these bouts that were set up will be likely announced for different dates:

  • Sanada vs. Evil for the IWGP title (likely October, as best we can tell Sanada is not going to have surgery on his torn left biceps)
  • Will Ospreay vs. Yota Tsuji for the UK title
  • Tetsuya Naito vs. Jeff Cobb for the Tokyo Dome main event IWGP title challenger spot
  • Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Oleg Boltin for the TV title
  • Hirooki Goto & Yoshi-Hashi vs. Shane Haste & Mikey Nicholls for the IWGP tag title
  • David Finlay vs. Tama Tonga for the Never title
  • Taichi vs. Sho for the KOPW title

Conor McGregor did an interview with TalkSport and said he would face Michael Chandler in December, which based on USADA rules shouldn’t happen because he hasn’t enrolled in drug testing and you need six months of clean tests after “retiring” to fight. But they’ll waive that rule for him. He said that after Chandler, he wants to face Justin Gaethje for the BMF title and after that, wants to face Nate Diaz. While at the Saturday night Anthony Joshua fight, McGregor said he wanted a Bare Knuckle boxing match with KSI.

Stardom PPV results from earlier today from the Edion Arena in Osaka:

  • Suzu Suzuki & Mei Seira won the tag team gauntlet
  • Starlight Kid b Natsuko Tora in the Five Star Grand Prix
  • Saki Kashima b Koguma to keep the High Speed title
  • Natsupoi & Saori Anou b Mina Shirakawa & Mariah May to win the Goddesses of Stardom tag titles. Lots of praise for Natsupoi and May here
  • Giulia b Yuu to keep the New Japan Strong women’s title. Giulia officially announced going to Philadelphia for her next title defense on the joint show with Impact on 8/20. This looks like a four-way with Giulia defending against Deonna Purrazzo, Gisele Shaw and Momo Kohgo
  • Mayu Iwatani b Utami Hayashishita to keep the IWGP womens’ title
  • Tam Nakano b Megan Bayne to retain the World of Stardom title

We’re doing a series of polls, for these shows:

  • G-1 Saturday in Sumo Hall
  • G-1 Sunday in Sumo Hall
  • AAA TripleMania Saturday in Mexico City
  • Stardom Sunday in Osaka

We’re looking for your thoughts on these shows, thumbs up, down or middle, best and worst match for each show to dave@wrestlingobserve.rcom

We’re also doing our annual poll for both the G-1 MVP and best match of G-1 for the entire tournament to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

There were no WWE house shows this weekend. We are looking for reports on tonight’s PWG Mystery Vortekz show in Los Angeles, Friday night’s NXT shows in Sanford, FL and last night’s NXT show in Jacksonville, to dave@wrestlingobserver.com. Looking for results, finishes and highlights.

Bianca Carelli, who is Arianna Grace in NXT and is the daughter of Anthony “Santino Marella” Carelli, is competing to be Canada’s representative in the Miss Universe contest this week. Carelli has been out of action since October due to a foot injury but has just started back in the last two weeks taking bumps.

As noted on Friday the fast nationals for Friday’s Smackdown of 2,650,000 viewers and 0.61 are misleading because it measures all FOX affiliates in that time slot and many FOX affiliates aired far higher rated NFL preseason football which would be figured in. The number taking the football viewers out won’t be out until tomorrow.

Regarding Google searches for the week, nothing related to wrestling made the top 20 all week. Nothing related to UFC did either. There were three boxing listings for yesterday with Anthony Joshua at No. 10, Oscar Valdez at No. 16 and Emanuel Navarette vs. Valdez at No. 18.

NOAH’s N-1 tournament won’t’ be back in action until Saturday night in Sapporo.

The only stuff announced for Raw at this point is Becky Lynch vs. Trish Stratus, plus Shinsuke Nakamura talks about his turn on Seth Rollins.

Defy from last night in Seattle: Tom Lawlor b Shigehiro Irie, Artemis Spencer b Ninja Mack, Guillermo Rosas b Casey Ferreira, Travis Williams & Evan Rivers b Ricky Gibson & Eddie Pearl, Judas Icarus b Titus Alexander, Nicole Matthews b Masha Slamovich, Cody Chhun b Clark Connors to win the Super 8XGP tournament. The next shows are 8/26 with one show in London, England at the Electric Ballroom at Noon and the other in White Center, WA at the Lariat Bar. The next Washington Hall show in Seattle is 9/23 and they are also running 10/13 at the Sundome in Yakima, WA.

Northeast Wrestling had announced a show today in Jackson, NJ at Six Flags with The Acclaimed & KC Navarro vs Brick City Boys & Victorious BRG, plus Billy Gunn, Jay Lethal, Johnny TV from AEW, Enzo and Jimmy Hart.

Miyu Yamashita won the Tokyo Princess Cup on today’s Tokyo Joshi Pro show at Korakuen Hall.

Cody Garbrandt pulled out of the 8/19 UFC show where he was to fight Mario Bautista due to injury. It was announced on last night’s show it was due to a training injury suffered this weekend they are looking to get a new opponent for Bautista.

Eve from today in London (thanks to Shannon Walsh):

  • Rhia O’Reilly is off the show due to illness and Emersy Jayne couldn’t make it due to travel issues. Safire Reed came out and said she can’t wrestle due to an injury
  • Chantal Jordan b Amara Jayde
  • Millie McKenzie b Alex Windsor
  • Nina Samuels b Marika Kobashi
  • Promoter Dan Read invited Kobashi to represent Eve at the Eve vs. Choco Pro show on 8/26 and she accepted
  • Skye Smitson b Rita Slayworth
  • Nina Samuels & Chantal Jordan b Mille McKenzie & Alex Windsor