Daily Update: Conor McGregor, AEW Collision, WWE SmackDown

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter:

In this issue:

  • Match of the week and performer of the week
  • The debut of Collision, AEW’s ratings decline and reasons and what the return of Punk will tell us
  • The problems Collision will have from the get go
  • Why the success of Collision is so important financially to AEW
  • The reaction as far as cheering and booing for Punk outside of Chicago and what is far more important than booing or cheering
  • Oversaturation of television in the marketplace
  • Ticket sales for Collision and all AEW & WWE events this summer
  • Update on WWE negotiations
  • Value of WWE to a new station with interest
  • The situation with WBD and potentially getting WWE
  • How many homes the key stations that could carry WWE & AEW are in right now
  • Conor McGregor sexual assault charge
  • Lawyer Eric Anderson breaks down the judges ruling to continue the MLW lawsuit against WWE, WWE’s arguments on antitrust, the judges reaction and what comes next
  • B.J. Whitmer fired
  • Full details on G-1 Climax tournament, the blocks, the favorites, the key matches and some storylines to look for going in
  • Update on the Forbidden Door show and business and key things to learn from about the business results
  • UFC 289 coverage including the retirement of Amanda Nunes, why, what about the titles she retires and other storyline notes from the most recent show and business notes as well
  • Updates on WWE Money in the Bank
  • Full coverage of All Together Now, the Japanese show with New Japan, All Japan and NOAH’s top talent and how it went down
  • Coverage of Final X
  • The most detailed look at the ratings of the wrestling and MMA shows this past week, with key breakdowns, segment-by-segment, who watches, rankings in sports and entertainment for the week
  • An attempt to make a superstar with a new character later this month
  • Update on Rush in AAA and TripleMania
  • New Japan Strong goes to Japan
  • More on the longest world title reigns in wrestling history
  • Movie on wrestling star to be released in September
  • Against All Odds results and Slammiversary notes
  • New AEW hires
  • What was Brock Lesnar’s biggest-ever one night payoff?
  • Jon Jones and Tyson Fury talk business
  • XFL business notes
  • Lots of injury updates

This Week’s Retro Observer Newsletter:

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Friday Update

Garrett Gonzales and I will have a show up today covering the news of the week and this week’s issue. Bryan and I will be doing a weekend show as well.

A video was released on TMZ regarding the Conor McGregor claim of a sexual assault at the Kayseya Arena on Friday night after the Nuggets-Heat game. The clip was brief and showed McGregor and the woman, whose face was not shown, and them going into the bathroom. Barbara Llanes, the attorney for McGregor, made a statement to TSN saying, “After the video was released by TMZ, the claimant’s lawyer now has charged her story. McGregor welcomes the investigation, which he firmly believes will show the claims against him are false. After not responding t the demand for money made by the claimant’s counsel, she turned to the media to apply pressure. This is no more than a shakedown.” The key aspect of the case looks to be the clothes that the alleged victim gave to police which she claimed would have DNA evidence. Obviously if it doesn’t, her case falls apart from likely a legal standpoint. If it does, then things are different. 

Regarding Collision airing in Canada, tomorrow’s show will air live on the TSN app and then air on TSN 2 on replay at midnight-2 a.m. Eastern. In week two, which is the show from Toronto, it will air live at 8 p.m. Eastern on TSN 5. Going forward it will be a week-to-week thing as no decision has been made. TSN has the rights to Collision in Canada and will make its decision each week depending on other sports whether to air it live, later that night, or only streaming live. There is not a regular time slot nor specific station for the show at this point.

Smackdown tonight has Roman Reigns appearing, Jey Uso making his choice, the Grayson Waller Effect with Charlotte Flair, A.J. Styles & Michin vs. Karrion Kross & Scarlett, Iyo Sky vs. Zelina Vega and a gauntlet match for a shot at the tag titles held by Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn with the Street Profits, Joaquin Wilde & Cruz Del Toro, Sheamus & Ridge Holland, Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows and Pretty Deadly. There were 9,300 tickets out as of earlier today. They did TV in the arena in January and drew 5,500.

Rampage tonight at 10 p.m. Eastern on TNT has:

  • Will Ospreay & Kyle Fletcher & Jeff Cobb vs. Rocky Romero & Trent Baretta & Chuck Taylor
  • Taya Valkyrie vs. Trish Adora
  • Mark Briscoe & Papa Briscoe & Aubrey Edwards vs. Jeff Jarrett & Jay Lethal & Karen Jarrett
  • Konosuke Takeshita vs. Bandido

The first and last match were said to be really good. The Briscoe match got over good in the building as the gimmick of Edwards vs. Karen and Papa Briscoe wrestling.

We’re looking for reports on these weekend events:

  • WWE Smackdown tonight in Lexington, KY (only dark matches needed)
  • AEW Collision tomorrow in Chicago (dark matches and ROH matches)
  • WWE house show tomorrow in Cincinnati
  • WWE house show Sunday in Charleston, WV
  • We’re looking for results, finishes and other highlights to dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  • The Cincinnati show is headlined by Roman Reigns vs. Rey Mysterio for the WWE title. The Charleston show is headlined by Rey vs. Dominik in what is billed as a Father’s Day Street fight.

Kevin Kelly, who was announced as the host of Collision starting tomorrow night with Nigel McGuiness and Jim Ross, did note that he will be missing a number of shows next month because of his prior commitments to do the G-1 Climax tournament live in Japan.

Anderson Silva told MMA Fighting today that he’s in talks with a group in Japan about a final MMA fight in that country. Silva had become a star in Pride in Japan before going to UFC and becoming one of the greatest fighters in the history of the organization.

Nick Jackson on Instagram posted a clip of with a photo of Adam Page saying “Not only is he good at wrestling but he’s an even better human being” which is obviously a response to C.M. Punk’s quotes about Page in Marc Raimondi’s ESPN article earlier today.

I spoke on the show with Garrett Gonzales on the article as the actual interview caused a lot of controversy although I don’t know that the article as it came out did. I’ve obviously known Raimondi for years when we worked together at MMA Fighting, and if you’ve ever heard me talk about him which I have many times, I have the highest respect for his work. I never once expected anything but an attempt to be as fair and as accurate as possible as far as the finished article was concerned. 

Cory Sandhagen vs. Umar Nurmagomedov was announced as the main event of an 8/5 UFC show in Nashville. That show will go head-to-head with SummerSlam.

Max Holloway did an interview this past week talking about wanting to face Chan Sung Jung, the Korean Zombie, next. UFC announced yesterday it would headline an 8/26 show in Singapore.

UFC runs tomorrow at the Apex in Las Vegas. The show will air 7-10 p.m. only on ESPN+ and from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. it will air on both ESPN and ESPN+:

ESPN+ fights:

  • Zac Pauga (205) vs. Modestas Bukauskas (205)
  • Daniel Argueta (136) vs. Ronnie Lawrence (136)
  • Tereza Bleda (125) vs. Gabriella Fernandes (126)
  • Carlos Hernandez (125) vs. Denys Bondar (126)
  • Kyung Ho Kang (135.5) vs. Cristian Quinonez (135)
  • Jimmy Flick (125.5) vs. Alessandro Costa (126)

ESPN at 10 p.m. Eastern:

  • Nicolas Dalby (170.5) vs. Muslim Salikhov (170)
  • Manuel Torres (156) vs. Nikolas Motta (155.5)
  • Pat Sabatini (145) vs. Lucas Almeida (145.5)
  • Armen Petrosyan (186) vs. Christian Leroy Duncan (186)
  • Arman Tsarukyan (155.5) vs. Joaquim Silva (155.5)
  • Marvin Vettori (185.5) vs. Jared Cannonier (185.5)

Cyril Gane vs. Serghei Spivak will headlined the 9/2 UFC show in Paris, France, over Labor Day weekend.

BetOnline odds for G-1 list Sanada as the -500 favorite in Block A with Kaito Kiyomiya second, Kazuchika Okada as the -200 favorite in block B with Will Ospreay second, David Finlay as the -300 favorite in block C with Shingo Takagi second and Zack Sabre Jr. as the -130 favorite in Block D with Tetsuya Naito second.

For WWE Money in the Bank, these are the odds:

  • Seth Rollins -2000 Finn Balor +700
  • Cody Rhodes -1000 Dominik Mysterio +500

Men’s MITB:

  • LA Knight -175
  • Damian Priest +125
  • Butch +1000
  • Santos Escobar +1000
  • Shinsuke Nakamura +1000
  • Ricochet +1000

Apple Original Films and ARV announced the release of the movie Argyle on February 2, 2024. John Cena is a part of the cast of the movie.

For next Saturday’s Collision show in Toronto, they’ve lowered prices and have a new deal that if you buy four tickets, you can get them for $16.50 per ticket. Since dropping prices and announcing C.M. Punk, tickets have moved to above 2,500.

Other Notes

Jon Moxley returns to Defy on 7/29 at Washington Hall in Seattle.

Raven (Scott Levy) will be undergoing shoulder surgery next week and has pulled out of appearing at The Gathering in Charlotte, NC. 

Combate Global runs Sunday on Paramount+ at 10 p.m. Eastern with Cristian Perez vs. Bruno Cannetti in the main event.

The LFA has announced an 8/18 show in Santa Cruz, CA at the Kaiser Permanente Arena.

The NWA and Boca Raton Championship Wrestling have a combined show on 7/19 at the Boca Black Box with Thom Latimer vs Noah Kekoa for the NWA TV title and Kerry Morton vs. Alan Martinez for the NWA Jr. title.

The next AAW show will be 7/15 in Berwyn, IL at the Eagles Club.

Combate Global’s Claire Lopez (8-4) will challenge Seika Izawa (10-0) for the Rizin super atomweight title on 7/30 at the Saitama Super Arena. Izawa is a former judo champion and former wrestler with five submission wins.

House of Glory Wrestling tomorrow night at the NYC Arena is headlined by Matt Cardona vs. Carlito for the heavyweight title and Charles Mason defends the Crown Jewel title against El Hijo del Vikingo, Alex Shelley vs. Mighty Mante, Mike Baily vs. Nolo Kitano and tag champs Amazing Red & Brian XL also appear. The show will stream live on the Premier Streaming Network.