Daily Update: Coronavirus updates on AEW, WWE, UFC

DAILY UPDATE

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WON NEWSLETTER: Coronavirus cancellations, Rob Gronkowski, more

A story on the Corona Virus and pro wrestling and MMA shows around the world is the lead story in a double-issue of  the Wrestling Observer Newsletter this week.

We go through:

Where everything stood at press time for large and small promotions all over the world, as well as other sports. 

Which companies can survive this period the best and how this threatens the future of many companies and wrestlers, a well as WWE and other name indie talent that likely can’t be coming to the U.S. because of travel bans. 

This is one of the biggest stories to have faced the world in our lifetime, and it affects every business, but sports and entertainment businesses, like all, will take an unforeseen shock.

The issue also covers:

Rob Gronkowski and WWE, what is believed to be the extent of the deal, who is Gronkowski, his prior experience in WWE, what he had said about doing pro wrestling in the past and what kind of impact his being in WWE could have.

The series of copycat lawsuits filed by a number of legal firms against WWE, the claims in the cases and a response by Jerry McDevitt to the cases.

The situation with David Starr being pressured out of wXw and Progress, the attempt to unionize wrestlers in the U.K.  and companies that have jumped on board.

Full coverage of the Elimination Chamber show with notes on the show, updated plans for WrestleMania, business notes and match-by-match coverage with star ratings and poll results.

Update WWE PPV talks, Davey Boy Smith in Hall of Fame, salary of WWE’s top executives, the change in Paul Levesque’s backstage role, how talent contracts have changed, who owns the most WWE stock, XFL ratings and how this week changed the narrative, Cena movie delayed by a year of release due to Corona Virus, Rousey in WWE offices, change that was made in Friday tapings, Canadian ratings, UFC star talks about doing WWE, injury updates, more on a new athlete that just started, plus he most-watched shows on the WWE Network and details of all NXT & WWE arena events over the past week.

An extensive feature on Wayne Bridges, one of the biggest names in European pro wrestling during the 70s and 80s.  We look at his sports background before pro wrestling, how he could into pro wrestling, his unique role in some major movies, his Japanese tours and his time in North America, the history of the world heavyweight title as recognized in the U.K., plus his biggest run as world heavyweight champion, appearing on the big Wembley and Royal Albert Hall shows, tragedies in his life and much more.  This is a great history piece about an era of pro wrestling that a lot of U.S. fans aren’t aware of.

Complete coverage of UFC 248, including the show, what happens next, the judging, who the media thought won the key fights, and business notes.

Oregon wrestling in the 80s and its top heel, Rip “The Crippler” Oliver, who passed away last week. We look at the atmosphere when he first arrived, his life and career before Oregon, his attempts to leave and why he always ended up back, his records set, biggest feuds, extensive title history, the 1982 tag team tournament at the Omni in Atlanta,Billy Jack Haynes, Roddy Piper, Buddy Rose and the death of the Don Owen territory.

Update the situation with Scott Steiner.

End of an era, as after 41 years, Stu Sacks leaves Pro Wrestling Illustrated and a career in wrestling journalism that goes back 50 years to his childhood.

Regarding the Wednesday numbers, we’ve got full details, demos that each side won, how every segment did and what match ended up as the difference maker. 

All the WWE and AEW television shows from the past week.

In-depth looks at the ratings of all the major shows, the key demos and quarters for AEW and WWE, what happened head-to-head and what can be learned from them.

Results of all the major pro wrestling events around the world over the past week. 

ORDERING INFO: Order the print Wrestling Observer right now and get it delivered via mail, by sending your name, address, Visa or Master Card number and an expiration date to dave@wrestlingobserver.com or by going to www.paypal.com directing funds to dave@wrestlingobserver.com.

Rates in the United States are $14.50 for 4 issues, $35.50 for 12, $70 for 24, $116 for 40 and $149.50 for 52.

In Canada and Mexico, the rates are $16 for 4, $27 for 8, $38.50 for 12, $76 for 24, $126 for 40 and $162.50 for 52.

For the rest of the world, rates are $18 for 4, $48.50 for 12, $93 for 24, $155 for 40 and $201.50 for 52.

If you order by mail with a check, cash or money order to P.O. Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228, you can get $1 off in every price range.

SUNDAY NEWS UPDATE

I guess the No. 1 thing today is to give everyone you know some moral support; this situation has escalated badly and it’s like Tuesday was a lifetime ago. This will pass in time, I’m sure we’ll have memories of this week for the rest of our lives very distinctly. This is the time where everyone has to stick together for the common good. I just hope politicians, and this goes for both sides of the aisle, drop the game playing because agendas right now are totally meaningless when it comes to the big picture. For people with legit power, this is the time that heroes are made, and hopefully, right now it is workers in key fields that are the most affected that need to be protected as well as small businesses.

This disease first came from China as best we know. This site for whatever reason is very fortunate to have so many people from all over the world, experts in respective fields and we have been very lucky that they have been so willing to give of their time and knowledge. Dr. Alex Patel of course has helped out tremendously as have other doctors.  This is from a reader in China, and hopefully this is positive news as far as the time frame we are looking at:

I’m from England but have lived in Zhangjiagang, China a city of about 1.5 million for nearly six years. It’s about two hours away from Shanghai. Reports started coming here about it around Jan 18th and by the time I came back from holiday on Feb 1st the virus had taken hold so every person coming in had to self quarantine for 14 days. That’s still the case today but they have reduced it to 7 days unless someone on your plane had the virus. 

In terms of what it’s like now in my province, shopping centres and parks opened back up in the last week of February. Shops had reduced hours from 10am to 5pm. Just this weekend that was expanded to 8am-8pm. Restaurants opened back up last week. They are open til 10pm with seats moved apart 2 meters from each other and one member of the group has to leave their name and phone number in case anything happens. The things that are still shut here are large entertainment facilities like cinemas, bars and karaoke. The schools are still shut and will remain so until at least April. Aside from that it’s pretty much back to normal here except everyone is obviously wearing masks in public.

Cody Rhodes tweeted about doing a six-man tag on an empty arena show Wednesday which was the match to determine who would get the man advantage in Blood & Guts. Right now WWE is still doing empty arena shows on Monday, Wednesday and Friday this week, AEW on Wednesday, while UFC is looking for an arena somewhere to do upcoming shows since Nevada put a stop to their show this coming Saturday at least. 

The Nevada commission meets on the 25th to determine whether they will allow shows after the 25th to go on. UFC looks like they don’t believe they will be allowed to run at their APEX arena on their campus and are looking for a spot for Saturday, 3/28, 4/11 and 4/18 at this point since none of those shows can take place in the locations first booked.

Leon Edwards, who was to face Tyron Woodley in the main event this coming Saturday, is not coming since he would have to fly out of England. Colby Covington has said he would face Woodley on no notice. Since so many of the fighters on Saturday’s show were from Europe and can’t come in, UFC is scrambling to get new fighters with guys both under contract and perhaps free agents.  Dana White is not coming off well at all.

Vince McMahon was not at the show on Friday. 

The Australian government has placed a 14 day mandatory self-isolation period for anyone, including citizens, coming to the country. Unless that restriction is dropped by June, that will kill the World Series Wrestling tour as well as all tours from international wrestlers. Japanese wrestler Yuu was to work this weekend but couldn’t get into the country. 

UFC’s Fight Night was the seventh most searched topic in the country yesterday with 100,000 searches. Conor McGregor was No. 8 for clarifying that his aunt who just died did not die of the coronavirus. His first mention of his aunt’s death strongly implied that she did.

 WWE

  • Steve Austin, Edge and Undertaker (for a contract signing with A.J. Styles) are all scheduled for tomorrow night’s Raw show.
  • Jerry Lawler was on Cerrito Live arguing with the host about the Coronavirus. The host is very concerned about Lawler flying to Orlando tomorrow for Raw and well, at 34:00 you can see Lawler blowing it off. 
  • WWE has told talent that if they aren’t comfortable coming for tapings right now they didn’t have to come and there would be no repercussions.
  • A story about Bayley & Sasha Banks vs. Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross stopping wrestling during the commercial break Friday night (thanks to Chris Cruise)

MISCELLANEOUS

  • Reelz will be airing autopsy shows on the last hours of the life of Chyna at 7 p.m. Eastern tonight, and Chris Benoit at both 8 p.m. and 11 p.m.
  • Impact has had to move its Lockdown show scheduled for 3/28 at St. Clair College in Windsor, ONT since the college is closing everything down.
  • House of Hardcore announced its 4/11 show at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia and the Icons of Wrestling convention that afternoon have been postponed.
  • The 3/26 world premiere of the documentary on the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles has been postponed.
  • Melbourne City Wrestling canceled Saturday’s show. They would have been under the government’s 500 person limit for such an event, but they made the call to cancel anyway.
  • As of last word, PWA on 3/20 is Sydney, Australia is still on and will air live on OvoPlay at 5 a.m. Eastern.
  • Australian Wrestling League on 3/21 on the Gold Coast has been canceled.
  • PCW did a stadium show last night in Melbourne before 1,500 fans (the 500 person limit is a recommendation and they have no agency outright banning):  Nate Cross b Casss Stone to win the Ignition title, Charlie Matthews won over Syd Parker, Waik and JJ Furno, Black Diamonds b Stallions, Sammy Falcon b Lucas Daniels, Mark Kage b Ryan Rapid in a TLC match, Ryan Rapid won Rumble.  PCW owns their regular venue and at this point all events are still going on (thanks to Kevin Chiat)
  • CWE is still running 3/29 in Saskatoon, SK at JT’s Bar and Grill with Savio Vega as the headliner.
  • CZW and WSU will be running empty arenas shows today and on 3/21, which will both air on FITE.TV and IndependentWrestling.tv  The WSU show ran this afternoon.
  • Mid Missouri Wrestling Alliance ran last night in St. Louis at the South Broadway Athletic Club:  Bobby D b Freddy Fury, Ricky Cruz b Damion Cortese, Damian Blade b Keith Smith Jr., Frankie D b Waco, Gary Jackson b Ryan Ash, Moondog Rover b Attila Khan-DQ, Rick Ruby b Jimmy D (thanks to Patrick Brandmeyer)
  • Limitless Wrestling on 3/21 in Yarmouth, ME which sold out 250 tickets is still scheduled. (thanks to Philip Laine) 
  • A story saying pro wrestling helped us through crises before (thanks to John Rizzuti)

Daily Pro Wrestling History: WCW Uncensored 1998

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