Daily Update: Drew McIntyre, WWE Raw, Utami Hayashishita

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter:

In this issue:

  • Fan reactions and poll for Forbidden Door
  • Thoughts on the Omega-Ospreay and Okada-Danielson matches, as well as the difference in match of the years today with in the past that is concerning. We look at the Omega-Ospreay storyline, the business record that was set in Toronto as well as PPV numbers, theater numbers, what we learned, the Okada-Danielson finish and the situation with C.M. Punk.
  • We have the biggest money live events in AEW history, match-by-match coverage, Danielson, Sting, Tony Khan and others talk after the show and more
  • A look at Money in the Bank and its unique record that was quietly set
  • Full coverage of Saturday’s UFC show
  • Business notes on the show
  • What’s next for the top people on the show
  • The most detailed look at the ratings of all the wrestling shows this past week, talking competition, ranking, segment-by-segment, the unique change in the Raw audience this week as well as the low rating for AEW and notes on that
  • Early Fantastica Mania notes
  • 64th anniversary of pro wrestling in one of its legendary arenas that likely has had more shows than all but a few in history
  • Notes on AAA’s next major show after TripleMania in Tijuana
  • Stardom PPV notes
  • Next Stardom PPV card
  • Stardom Five-Star Grand Prix tournament
  • Battle of two people who trained together as youths sells out standing room tickets at Korakuen Hall weeks ahead of time
  • The new three Musketeers in New Japan and thoughts
  • Update on this week’s New Japan major shows
  • A look in detail about the movie “Iron Claw” about the heyday of the Von Erichs and the collapse of their empire along with thoughts on it
  • One of the best wrestlers of the 90s and 00s goes into a sports Hall of Fame
  • Outsports talks about the most powerful LGBTQ+ people in the sports world including many from both pro wrestling and MMA
  • Notes on Ross Forman, who works backstage at Impact, making the list and his background and thoughts
  • WWC 50th anniversary show draws huge crowd in Puerto Rico and rundown of the show
  • Impact notes from the next few weeks of TV
  • AEW video game notes
  • Jim Ross update
  • Danielson talks Okada
  • Variety says AEW TV show deserves an Emmy nomination
  • Upcoming ticket sales for all WWE & AEW shows
  • Anthony Bowens felt crowd reaction was a real breakthrough, as does a reader who grew up in Chicago
  • Ariel Helwani responds to Tony Khan
  • What percentage of revenue did UFC fighters make last year
  • Lots of new UFC fights
  • Fighter rebounding from nearly fatal heart attack
  • Lots of notes on Vince McMahon and WWE
  • Notes on what happens with the new company, how much money Vince made WWE by staying and what percentage of the new company he will own
  • Notes on ideas for changes in NXT and main roster shows
  • WWE injury updates
  • International TV ratings
  • WWE top streaming segments for the week

This Week’s Retro Observer Newsletter:

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Monday Update

– Bryan and I will be back tonight with Wrestling Observer Radio covering Raw and the latest news.

– In response to the questions from Saturday night, Drew McIntyre has not signed a new deal with WWE. He is under contract for several more months and they have the right to extend it for a few more months due to injury, possibly through WrestleMania. Nothing has changed on the contract front. Based on the commentary by Michael Cole on his return, and comments to Paul Levesque at the press conference acting like there was never a story to begin with, people were given the impression he had signed a new long-term deal. This also doesn’t mean things are bad between the sides, just that he hasn’t agreed to terms yet.

– Raw is tonight from Baltimore. Coming off the PPV show, only Rhea Ripley vs. Natalya has been advertised ahead of time. Brock Lesnar will be back tonight to start the set up for his match with Cody Rhodes at SummerSlam. They are looking at record numbers for SummerSlam as the gate is far ahead of all prior records and is likely to end up as the biggest non-Mania gate ever in the U.S. The ticket advance is the second biggest of all-time (behind 1992 in Wembley Stadium).

– Raw is over 10,000 tickets out tonight in Baltimore and will be sold out by show time.

– We’re looking for reports from tonight’s show with anything not on the live show such as Main Event matches or post-show stuff to dave@wrestlingoberver.com

– WWE has not yet put out a press release with the numbers from Saturday, perhaps waiting for the viewing numbers to finalize. We do know the live gate set the all-time record for England and was the second biggest in the U.K., which means the actual gate revenue topped the Wembley Stadium number from 1992 and we were told by a considerable amount. It won’t be first for long which also tells you why they are pushing the WrestleMania in Wembley Stadium idea. From those in the U.K., there is talk that is very serious about the idea, but obviously they want the local government to pay them for having the show there.

– In a comeback of the skit with Sami Zayn that drew huge ratings, on Friday’s SmackDown, The Usos will put Roman Reigns on trial as the main event of the show in Madison Square Garden.

– We’re looking for your thoughts on Money in the Bank from Saturday. You can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

– We’ve already completed a main story for Friday on Darren Drozdov for the new Observer. It’ll be one of the better stories of its type we’ve done this year.

– New Japan World has a PPV show from Korakuen Hall at 5:10 a.m. tomorrow. There are two shows actually. Tomorrow’s show has:

  • Ryusuke Taguchi & Yoh & Oskar Leube vs. Kengo & Dragon Libre & Takahiro Katori
  • The DKC vs. Bad Dude Tito
  • Lance Archer & Alex Zayne & Ryohei Oiwa vs. JR Kratos & Royce Isaacs & Jorel Nelson
  • Tom Lawlor vs. Kosei Fujita
  • Eddie Kingston & Rocky Romero vs. KENTA & Gedo
  • Giulia & Thekla vs. Willow Nightingale & Momo Kohgo
  • Hirooki Goto & Yoshi-Hashi defend the Strong tag titles against Gabriel Kidd & Alex Coughlin
  • TJP & Francesco Akira defend the IWGP jr. tag titles against Clark Connors & Drilla Moloney
  • Jon Moxley & Homicide vs. Jun Kasai & El Desperado

Moxley won’t be in Edmonton on Wednesday for Dynamite although he is expected to be on the show doing a taped interview. Moxley vs. Desperado in a death match headlines the Wednesday show at Korakuen Hall, also at 5:10 a.m., which also includes KENTA vs. Kingston for the Strong title and a rematch with Goto & Yoshi-Hashi vs. Kidd & Coughlin but this time for the IWGP tag titles.

– AEW will be available again in Mexico starting this week on the VIX streaming service owned by Televisa. Both Dynamite and Collision will be airing. AEW currently has no television in Mexico.

– Undertaker is doing a talk show today in Manchester, England as well as tomorrow in Glasgow, Scotland.

– Ronda Rousey will be on the Fox show Stars on Mars tonight head-to-head with Raw.

–The NXT show tomorrow was taped last week. Spoilers are up on the site and with details in the Observer. The Creeds vs. Dyad loser leave town plus Damon Kemp vs. Eddy Thorpe in an NXT Underground match which features the first angle with Gable Steveson, Mustafa Ali vs. Tyler Bate, Roxanne Perez vs. Blair Davenport and Jacy Jayne vs. Lyra Valkyria.

– Utami Hayashishita of Stardom, who was voted by the Observer readers and the 2021 Woman Wrestler of the Year, debuts with GCW on shows on 7/8 in Hartford, CT and 7/14 in New York City. She’ll also work for Jersey Championship Wrestling on 7/9 in Ridgefield Park, NJ.

Other Notes

– Defy announced shows on 7/28 and 7/29 at Washington Hall in Seattle. The first night will be an all-women’s show headlined by Vert Vixen, Nicole Matthews, Maki Itoh and Allie Katch. 7/29 will feature the return of Jon Moxley and the first round of the Defy Super 8XGP, an eight-man tournament. They will also make a Hall of Fame announcement shortly.

– UWN is taping television at the Irving Improv tonight at 7:30 p.m. with Danny Limelight vs. Invictus Khash as the main event.

– The LFA runs at the Kaiser Permanente Arena in Santa Cruz, CA, with an MMA show headlined by Daniel Compton (8-2) of Santa Cruz against Renato Valente (9-6).

– Indie wrestler Megabyte Ronnie will be in tomorrow Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest that airs at 10:45 a.m. on ESPN. This usually draws a big rating built around the star power of Joey Chestnut.

– The Amazing Race Canada show debuts tomorrow night at 9 p.m. on CTV. Gail Kim and Gisele Shaw are a team in this competition.