Daily Update: Droz passes away, weekend preview, Terry Funk turns 79

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Friday Update

– We will be doing a special Observer Radio show today with some guests talking current news as well as the Hall of Fame. For the weekend, Bryan and I will be back tomorrow night talking Money in the Bank, Darren Drozdov and the latest news.

– Very sad news today with the death of Darren Drozdov, who faced worse adversity than almost all of us but kept a great disposition about it. Drozdov ended up a quadriplegic for a while, although regained use of his upper body, from a neck injury landing from a powerbomb by D-Lo Brown on October 5, 1999, at the Nassau Coliseum. He landed on his head and broke two vertebrae in his neck, and underwent immediate surgery. He remained part of WWF/WWE for several years doing writing and Internet shows. He only wrestled a brief period of time before the accident. His injuries were such that he needed 24 hour a day medical care.

Drozdov, who was 54, was a former NFL player with the Denver Broncos before pro wrestling. He had some NFL notoriety because he once vomited during a Monday Night Football game right on the ball. He had the ability to puke at will which impressed Vince McMahon in a very strange segment in the movie “Beyond the Mat.” He was at one point made the third Road Warrior, likely with the idea Hawk was needing to be replaced because of his own issues. It was a tough position to be put in that position so early in his career. Nobody ever said anything bad about him and he never put any blame on Brown for the accident.

– A big new issue of the Observer is out today. It features:

  • 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

– SmackDown was taped earlier today in London. Spoilers for the show can be found here.

– We will be doing a poll on Money in the Bank tomorrow, so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

– MITB from the O2 Arena in London looks strong on paper with this lineup:

  • Ronda Rousey & Shayna Baszler vs. Raquel Rodriguez & Liv Morgan for the women’s tag titles
  • Cody Rhodes vs. Dominik Mysterio
  • Gunther vs. Matt Riddle for the IC tile
  • Women’s MITB: Iyo Sky, Bayley, Zoey Stark, Trish Stratus, Becky Lynch and Zelina Vega
  • Men’s MITB: Shinsuke Nakamura, Logan Paul, Damian Priest, LA Knight, Butch, Ricochet and Santos Escobar
  • Seth Rollins vs. Finn Balor for the world title
  • Roman Reigns & Solo Sikoa vs. Usos

We have a lot of notes on the show in the current Observer up on the site.

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

  • Matt Hardy & Brother Zay vs. QT Marshall & Johnny TV (Morrison)
  • Hikaru Shida vs. Taya Valkyrie
  • Shawn Spears vs. The Blade
  • Claudio Castagnoli vs. Komander for the ROH title (I believe this will open the show)

– UFC tomorrow will air on ESPN from 4-10 p.m. Eastern:

  • Alexandr Romanov (264) vs. Blagoy Ivanov (259)
  • Ivana Petrovic (125.5) vs. Luana Carolina (126)
  • Guram Kutateladze (155) vs. Elves Brener (155)
  • Joanderson Brito (145.5) vs.; Westin Wilson (146)
  • Yana Santos (144.5) vs. Karol Rosa (146)
  • Kevin Lee (171) vs. Rinat Fakhretdinov (171)
  • Brunno Ferreira (185) vs. Nursulton Raziboev (183.5)
  • Ismael Bonfim (156) vs. Benoit Saint Denis (156)
  • Ariane Lipski (126) vs. Melissa Gatto (125.5)
  • Max Griffin (170.5) vs. Michael Morales (170.5)
  • Damir Ismagulov (156) vs. Grant Dawson (156)
  • Sean Strickland (186) vs. Abus Magomedov (186)

– Terry Funk turned 79 today. Today is also the birthday of Cody Rhodes (38) and Dax Harwood (39). Terry Funk is one of the greatest in-ring performers of all-time and one of the most open minded as well. I’ll never be able to thank him enough for teaching me to embrace all styles that work and not ignore them because they are new. At a time when almost all males shunned Japanese women wrestling, he told me I had to study them because they were the look into the future of both men and women wrestling, and those 80s matches were far ahead of their time. He was a genius performer inside the ring.

– Thanks to everyone who helped out with the show reports in the U.K. and Ontario over the past week. The new issue has complete coverage and business notes of every WWE and AEW show this past week. Thanks to Amin Anjani, Matty Barker, Sarah Brooks, Joe Del Busso,David Dully, Kevin Durata, Steve Khan, Jamie Logie, Stephen Lyon, Leonardo Mendez Toledo, Matt Murphy, William Rauch, Jonathan Smith, Jeff Zinger, Shannon Walsh and Fox Whittaker.

– We’re looking for reports on these shows:

  • WWE today in Newcastle, England
  • Dark matches from Smackdown today in London
  • WWE Sunday in Cardiff, Wales
  • We’re looking for results, finishes and highlights from these events.

– The Junior Dos Santos vs. Fabricio Werdum fight we wrote about last week is currently set for Jorge Masvidal’s Gamebred Fighter Bare Knuckle MMA promotion show on 9/8 in Jacksonville. This is actually a throwback to the early years of UFC and Pancrase, which didn’t allow gloves, until Tank Abbott changed the game. The original UFC and Pancrase featured a lot more grappling and submissions because of not allowing gloves.

Other Notes

– Combate Global is heavily marketing Jimmie Pace Jr., who fights tomorrow night, under the name Jimbo Slice. Slice (2-0) will face Boris Garcia (2-1). The show airs on Paramount + at 8 p.m. Eastern and 5 p.m. Pacific time. That’s an earlier start that the promotion usually has for its Saturday night shows and Combate just sent us the new start time this morning so this was a late change.

– Nikki Garcia, the former Nikki Bella, will be competing in the American Cornhole League’s Johnsonville SuperHole IV TV event on Friday night in Milwaukee at the Summerfest Music Festival in a celebrity charity match. The show airs live this coming Friday night at 8 p.m. Eastern on ESPN2.

– PWP runs tomorrow night in Omaha, NE at the Waiting Room Lounge built around Tommy Dreamer.

– W3L Box office tonight started streaming the last match of Doug Williams. The service has matches and full events dating back more than 20 years.

– The El Hijo del Vikingo vs. Komander match from Defy in Portland went out last night at Wremix World Premier. The entire show is free to stream.