Daily Update: Conor McGregor, Alexa Bliss, WWE SmackDown

Daily Update

Latest News

Latest Audio

Latest Free YouTube Video

This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

The new issue of the Observer is up on the site today:

  • All-time records for WWE business that will be broken at the Royal Rumble
  • What 38 years old company attendance mark goes down this week
  • Rumble favorites and news on the show
  • Things AEW should look to do regarding the creative on Dynamite to avoid things like redundancy, not getting key people over, and examining what the actual purposes of angles are and making them work
  • Full coverage of Saturday Night’s Main Event from this past week, business numbers and what they  mean, Dory Funk Jr., Jesse Ventura and match-by-match coverage.
  • Paul Levesque goes into the Paul Levesque picked WWE Hall of Fame
  • One of the most notable pro wrestling arenas in the world closes this year after nearly 50 years of running major shows. A look at some of the biggest matches held there including Inoki, Jack Brisco, Hogan, Andre, Monsoon, Hansen, Dusty Rhodes, Backlund, Volk Han, Nobuhiko Takada and even the Crush Gals.
  • The life and times of Ed Wiskoski aka Col DeBeers. A look at a 25 year career that went all over the world with a variety of gimmicks, including rises and falls of major territories, the making of his most famous gimmick and its controversial nature.
  • The GFL draft is basically admitted to be a fraud as to how it was presented and all the major names from the past part of the new team-based promotion.
  • Bryce Mitchell says some of the dumbest things possible and Dana White counters. But should the company cut ties with him.
  • The life and times of 50s and 60s star Bill Melby, including the angle that put the Cow Palace on the map as a regular wrestling building, and the most accomplished wrestler/bodybuilders.
  • The most detailed look at the ratings for all the television shows, as well as WWE shows on Netflix.  Quarters, year-to-year comparisons and more. Plus competition and demo numbers
  • CMLL’s second biggest show of the year coming
  • Hot Arena Mexico main event
  • Announcer leaves promotion after 30 years
  • TripleMania news for 2025
  • Stardom awards
  • Dark Side of the Ring 2025 notes
  • How the major TV cable stations are doing
  • Former WCW star in jail
  • AEW international TV notes
  • Lots of notes on AEW Grand Slam Australia
  • International TV numbers
  • Christopher Daniels talks the end of his career
  • AEW star wants to box and do MMA
  • Giant fight talked about is for sure not happening
  • Death of legendary sportswriter Michael Katz
  • WWE star in one of the top box office movies of all-time
  • Jordynne Grace talks leaving TNA
  • WWE injury notes and thoughts about the policy of not stopping matches
  • Top YouTube numbers for the week

This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter Back Issue

Monday Update

  • Bryan and I will be back tonight talking Raw and the rest of the news from today with more from the Rumble as well.
  • A video surfaced over the weekend of Conor McGregor confronting a fan and spitting in his face because the fan said, “Let’s Go Khabib.” There’s something on him every week.
  • Alexa Bliss signed a five-year deal with WWE on Saturday negotiated by agent Dean Muhtadi (formerly Mojo Rawley). I will say that everyone insists to me the deal was finalized at the last minute and was not this plan to get one over. The fact Bliss replaced Shotzi in the match also at the last minute would indicate that as well.
  • The Smackdown the night before the Rumble did 1,578,000 viewrs and an 0.51 in 18-49 which is tremendous for a three-hour Friday night show. It was first not just on cable, but on all of teleivsion and that’s with way higher than usual news ratings.
  • Raw is tonight from Cleveland.  It should be among the most watched episodes of the year.  We’ll get a feel for what a great number is on Netflix (although that will all change with India aboard in a few months) from this one. Announced are Elimination Chamber qualifiers with Iyo Sky vs. Liv Morgan and CM Punk vs. Sami Zayn, plus both Jey Uso and Charlotte Flair will be there. There were 11,700 tickets out for the show, another big jump over the last two weeks.
  • We’re looking for reports from the show with the Main Event matches and the stuff before and after Raw not on television to dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  • We’re also looking for your thoughts on the Royal Rumble from Saturday, thumbs up, down or middle, best and worst  match to dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  • Indi Hartwell’s first match since being let go by WWE is on 3/9 for Renegades of Wrestling in Melbourne at the Northcote Theater.
  • Dana White said that he will never retire and that even though he hates Bob Arum, impressed with all he does at the age of 94. He said that he wants to do what he’s doing until he drops dead, which hopefully won’t be for a long time.
  • Jairzinho Rozenstruik was cut today by UFC after his loss to Sergei Pavlovich on Saturday.
  • UFC announcer Megan Olivi, whose husband is former UFC star Joseph Benavidez, announced that they will be having their first child this summer. Congrats to both.
  • Defy 100 on Friday night in Seattle features KENTA vs Ricky Starks for the Defy title, Paul Walter Hauser vs. Joey Janela in a street fight Marina Shafir vs. Zamaya for the women’s title, a ladder match with Travis Williams & Icarus defending the tag titles against Los Desperados, Nick Wayne vs. Marcus Mathers C4 vs. Bollywood Bloys plus Aubrey Edwards and an appearance by Swerve Strickland.
  • Michael Carvancini is working on a book on the history of the TNA Knockouts Division.
  • Heard a lot of raves about yesterday’s Saya Kamitani vs. Suzu Suzuki and the six-person tag semifinal.with Starlight Kid & AZM & Miyu Amasaki winning the titles from Tan Nakano & Natsupoi & Saori Anou.
  • El Phantasmo beat Jeff Cobb today to retain the New Japan World TV title in a rematch of their match in SanJose.
  • Tom Billington suffered what may have been a separated shoulder yesterday while doing a match on the Jericho Cruise yesterday.