Daily Update: CMLL, Jake Paul-Mike Perry fallout, TNA notes

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

  • The new issue of the Wrestling Observer is up on the site right now:
  • The updated details of the biggest lawsuit that ever faced TKO
  • Build to SummerSlam and All In
  • Updated PPV numbers on Forbidden Door, Money in the Bank and Diaz vs. Masvidal
  • G-1 is starting and a look at the first week of the tournament
  • The first Fantastica Mania show in the U.S.
  • The latest moves by Janel Grant’s legal team regarding Vince McMaahon’s doctor, the motion, why they are doing this and more on Vince’s doctor including bigger celebrities than Vince that he’s worked with along with legendary fighters
  • Pro Wrestling NOAH runs Budokan Hall with A.J. Styles
  • A look at the N-1 tournament
  • Longtime NOAH star retires
  • NOAH star joining New Japan and Bullet Club
  • A look at Marigold’s biggest show in its history with Iyo Sky plus Sareee vs Giulia
  • Giulia timeline updated of going to WWE
  • Upcoming Marigold PPV shows
  • A look at the Category A Observer awards and favorites after six months of 2024, who should win MVP in pro wrestling and MMA, match & fight of the year
  • The closing months of  WCW looked at as Lenita Erickson says she played a part in killing Eric Bischoff’s TV deal that would have kept the company alive
  • Lots of talk regarding different negotiations to get the company
  • The most detailed look at the ratings from the past week
  • What place did the pro wrestling and MMA shows finish in the ratings
  • How the different shows did  with ratings, segment-by-segment, competition and placings as well as other notes on viewership
  • Lots of big things coming to Arena Mexico
  • Leyenda de Plata tournament
  • 11 companies join together with a united front to government
  • Death of Ken Hoffman and the major title change that happened because of what he wrote in the newspaper
  • Notes on a number of wrestling movies and documentaries
  • MLW with big show with lots of CMLL talent
  • More on Bloodsport with WWE talent
  • TNA looking at biggest crowd in years
  • As AEW talks with WBD about  a new deal, lots of things are going on in that world
  • International ratings and streaming numbers
  • Advance ticket sales for all upcoming AEW & WWE shows
  • More on Nate Diaz lawsuit against promoter
  • Peacock raising prices
  • WWE Survivor Series notes
  • Lots of new WWE dates
  • Cody Rhodes talks AEW

This Week’s Wresting Observer Newsletter Back Issue

Sunday Update

– Bryan and I will be back tonight talking about all the latest news, including this week and next week’s Smackdown, the first AEW show in Arlington, TX and G-1, as well as Jake Paul vs. Mike Perry with Wrestling Observer Radio tonight.

– Although Judge Richard Boulware said he would make his ruling on whether to accept the $335 million settlement by TKO in the Cung Le lawsuit over this past week, it came and went  with no news.

– There will be a one-night tournament on Tuesday night at Arena Mexico with Flip Gordon, Templario, Valiente, Esfinge, Rugido, Zandokan Jr., Stuka Jr. and Averno and the winner will get the shot at MJF and his International title on 8/2 at Arena Mexico. It’s notable because the tradition at Arena Mexico is angles are shot for the night of the week, so it’s rare a Tuesday night tournament will lead to a Friday night match, but times are changing.

– The story of Naomichi Marufuji going to SummerSlam was overblown. The actual story is that Marufuji will be announcing the show for the Japanese broadcast on ABEMA PPV, but he will be doing so from Japan.

– Added to the ROH Death Before Dishonor show on Friday night in Arlington, TX is Diamante vs. Leyla Hirsch in a Texas death match.

– Skye Blue suffered an ankle injury last night in her match with Hikaru Shida and they stopped the match immediately upon orders of the doctor. Shida’s win was planned and was to set up Shida vs. Britt Baker on Wednesday night’s show in Nashville.

– We’re looking for reports on these weekend shows:

  • Smackdown in Omaha (everything not on the live show)
  • Dragon Gate Kobe World Festival from today in Kobe

– We’re looking for results, finishes and highlights to dave@wrestlingobserver.com. We’re also doing polls from both nights of  G-1 in Osaka as well as last night’s TNA Slammiversary show in Montreal, thumbs up, down or middle, best and worst match for each show to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

– As expected by most, Jake Paul, the actual boxer, had his way with MMA fighter/Bare Knuckle boxer Mike Perry, who is smaller and comes from a different sport. Paul scored several knockdowns and won via sixth round stoppage. Paul then issued a challenge to Alex Pereira, the UFC light heavyweight champion, but of course not under MMA or kickboxing rules but boxing rules, a sport Pereira only competed in once, in 2017. This fight can’t happen because Pereira is under contract with UFC who will never let him do that fight

Perry, who was the top star of Bare Knuckle Fighting, which Conor McGregor owns a piece of, saw McGregor rip on Perry who claimed that he’d never fight in BKFC again.  Perry said that wasn’t going to happen, saying, “Me and him are both owners of BKFC, so he can’t fire me.  We can fight in Bare Knuckle.  Look at me. I lost to Jake Paul. Why don’t you go fight Jake Paul in boxing with the gloves on? I think it would be worse that Conor McGregor vs. Mayweather.”

McGregor made these tweets, which he then deleted, writing, “Perry took a pay cut to take that fight btw. It was a wish of his. Astounding.  He will not be offered a return to the BKFC ring. He can do a few matches of his new Dirty Boxing thing with MMA sparring gloves he has set up.  We wish him well,  Wish granted.

After Perry responded saying he was a oc-owner, McGregor said “Michael you are not an owner in BKFC. Not an iodta. You have the tiniest minute dot of a share in the social media app.  Which is promising, in fairness. But  it’s’ a speckle you have. You own nothing  in (BKFC). Not an iota. And trust me, you are out, bro.”

– At yesterday’s UFC show it was announced that the 8/3 co-main event in Abu Dhabi of Nick Diaz vs. Vicente Luque is off. The reason  given was travel issues. No more details were said. The claim is they are looking at still holding the fight later in the year. This would have been Diaz’s first fight since 2021, when he lost to Robbie Lawler. The new No. 2 bout on the show is Shara Magomedov vs. Michal Oleksiejczuk in a middleweight bout. Umar Nurmagomedov vs. Cory Sandhagen is the main event.

– In Google searches, the Jake Paul vs. Mike Perry boxing match did 1 million searches yesterday and was No. 1. The only other stuff related to boxing, wrestling and MMA that cracked the lists this week were Hulk Hogan, Dana White and Linda McMahon on Thursday speaking at the  Republican convention at 500,000 (No. 3 for the day) and Paul vs. Perry was No. 9 on Thursday with 100,000. The UFC show yesterday did not crack the list.

– Mike Perry announced this week a new promotion with new rules. He announced a company called Dirty Boxing Championships that he’s starting along with his team at First Round Management, Adam Kovacs (Karate Combat) and Josh McLean. It will combine boxing with five ounce gloves and allow limited ground-and-pound. It will be fought in an 18×18 boxing ring with strikes allowed from fists, slaps, palms and elbows. If  someone is knocked down, they can finish with ground-and-pound. The person punching has to remain on his feet. They are looking at debuting in September or October.

– AEW didn’t have the Elton John Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting open on last night’s show in Arlington, TX. No word as to why. It was expensive to use and there have been cutbacks on using some expensive music.

– Tonight’s A&E Biography wll be on Mark Henry at 8 p.m.

– The story behind the International belt from last night’s TNA show is that former Vermont promoter Gary Hathaway hold old plaques from one of the International title belts from Quebec in the 80s. They made a belt to look like the one used for International Wrestling, dominated by Dino Bravo, in the late 70s through mid 80s. a In storyline, AJ Francis bought it from Gino Brito and since the lineage goes back to the 30s it’s why he used names like Bravo, King Tonga (Haku) and Lou  Thesz. The big crowd (more than 3,000 but not the 4,000 number used, I was told 3,500 max) was a tribute to the promotional work of PCO, as well as local wrestlers who were allowed into a dark match Battle Royal if they sold a certain number of tickets. PCO, who sold a ton of tickets himself, got the biggest live reaction followed by Mike Bailey and Joe Hendry. Hendry’s T-shirt for the weekend said “Oui Believe” instead of “I believe.”  Lots of you screwed Bret chants for Earl Hebner, whose surprise appearance was booed more than anyone on the show. AJ Francis was second. This was the first time French language commentator Marc Blondin worked ringside on a PPV after a 40 year career. The security guard who held Bailey’s feet in the angle at the end with Ali was Zak Patterson, the son of author Bertrand Hebert (Patterson, Andre & Mad Dog bios as well as the great Montreal history book,). Hebert worked with PCO in promoting the show locally. Former area stars Paul LeDuc, Richard Charland, Louis Laurence (who trained Vampiro originally) and Gilles “The Fish” Poisson/Louis Cyr were in attendance. Kim LeDuc, who founded the first all-women’s promotion in Quebec in 2006 was also there (thanks to Pat Laprade)

– At tonight’s tapings in Montreal, new champion Nic Nemeth defends against Mustafa Ali and PCO defends the International and Digital belts against Moose. There will also be a PCO/Steph De Lander wedding angle. Other bouts have Jordynne Grace & Eric Young vs. Alex Hammerstone & Ash By Elegance, Jake Something vs. Steve Maclin and Masha Slamovich vs. Jody Threat.

– At the DDT Peter Pan show, which went five hours, was told there were great matches with Konosuke Takeshita vs. Masato Tanaka, Tetsuya Endo &  Yuki Iino vs. Go Shiozaki & Atsushi Kotoge for the KO-D tag titles and Yui Ueno vs Mao for the KO-D title was said to be awesome.  The champions retained in both matches.

– Raul Rosas Jr. vs Aoriqlieng was added to the UFC show at The Sphere on 9/14. Since the show is going to emphasize Mexican-American and Mexican fighters, Rosas being on it makes sense. Rosas, who is 19, the youngest fighter on the roster, is 3-1 in UFC competition.

– The NWA announced world tag team champions Blunt Force Trauma defending against 2023 Crockett Cup winners Mike Nox & Trevor Murdoch on the 8/31 NWA 76th anniversary show at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia.

– Defy from Friday night in Seattle: Artemis Spencer b Mark Haskins (from UK),  Marina Shafir b Amira to keep the Defy women’s title, Anthony Bowens & Randy Myers b Ricky Gibson & Eddie Pearl, Man Like DeReiss (UK) b Evan Rivers, Sebastian Wolfe b Coco Flash, Cody Chhun & Guillermo Rosas b Sinner & Saint and champions Bollywood Boyz to win the tag titles. Next show is 9/20 at Washington Hall in Seattle.  Max Caster wasn’t able to make the show due to the Microsoft glitch that caused all the computer errors including at many airports.

– At yesterday’s All Japan show, Musashi issued a challenge to Naruki Doi for a World jr. title match and Doi turned him down saying he’d only defend against an All Japan roster member, Musashi then asked President Fukuda at the timekeeper’s table and asked to join the promotion full-time and Fukuda agreed, to a big pop and chants (thanks to Gerard Di Trolio)

– Bleeding Gums Wrestling ran a show at  The Ice Factory in Perth, Scotland called Wire & Ice, featuring the first-ever no rope barbed wire death match in Scotland featuring Jack Harrop vs. Alton Thorne. Harrop won. Historian Bradley Craig noted to us that deathmatch culture has now expanded into Scotland.

– Ruthless Pro Wrestling from last night in Berwyn, IL: Schwartzy & Randi West b Brutus Dylan & Bull Bronson, Rickey Shane Page & Vincent Nothing b Zach Thomas & Gregory Iron, Remingon Rhor b Chuck Stein Shlak b Eric Dillinger, Tommy Vendetta b Otis Cogar, Judge Joe Dredd Casanova Valentine, Atticus Cogar kept the heavyweight title over Jake Crist, Malcolm Monroe III b Drake Younger (thanks to Leonard Brand)