Daily Update: Dustin Rhodes, AEW Dynamite, Cameron Grimes

Daily Update

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter:

  • The legacy of Inoki, his title histories and highlights, where he stands in Japanese culture, record attendances and gates, stadium shows from around the world, merchandise, major opponents, hostage settlement, Ali vs. Inoki, Bruno Sammartino, the complete story on the most famous mixed martial arts match of its generation, the heyday of wrestling in Japanese domed stadiums, Inoki vs. Don Frye, Inoki’s career start, and his heyday over more than 30 year, formation of new Japan and IGF, New Year’s Eve specials on network television, famous programs with Hogan, Andre, Backlund and Singh, his matches against international stars and stars from other sports, his legacy in foreign countries, the Inoki vs. Maeda and Inoki vs. Baba matches that didn’t happen, and so much more.
  • What happened with Sammy Guevara and Andrade, from multiple people who were there
  • WWE PPV business update
  • WWE television changes
  • Giulia, the Five Star Grand Prix, biggest match for Stardom at the end of the year and notes on the show
  • Television ratings for every national show this past week
  • New Japan Declaration of Power
  • New Japan notes from England
  • The story of AEW changing its Latin American distribution
  • New AEW signing and where other potential signings stand
  • Live event business upcoming for WWE and AEW
  • Streaming number updates
  • New A&E docs on wrestling stars
  • International ratings

This Week’s Retro Observer Newsletter:

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Wednesday News Update

WWE

  • Cameron Grimes celebrated becoming a homeowner, calling it the greatest moment of his life so far:
          • 10/12/22
          • Today is the greatest moment of my life so far.
          • In sixth grade my father and I moved into my grandmothers home and from then until I graduated High school I shared a 100 sqft room with my father. I then moved to Burlington NC to continue to chase my dream. Through that process I slept on every couch that I could possibly sleep on until I ran out of couches! Then I moved into our training facility and slept on the floor hiding the fact that I was living there. I then started to make it in wrestling and then could afford to rent a place to live and have been renting for the past 7 years.
          • Today marks the greatest moment for me because now I am officially a Homeowner!
  • WWE has filed trademarks for the names “Uncle Harper” and “Uncle Howdy.”
  • Sheamus announced that his Celtic Warrior Workouts will return to YouTube this Friday. Sheamus will be working out with Bobby Lashley on the new episode.
  • Drew McIntyre reflected on today being the 15th anniversary of his WWE debut: “15 years ago this fresh faced kid made his @WWE debut. I had only been in America for about 2 weeks, the titantron got my name wrong, and I didn’t know what a hard-cam was or how to find it. Craziest part is I’m still 37 years younger than @WWESheamus”
  • Liv Morgan attended last night’s “Halloween Ends” premiere in Los Angeles. AEW wrestler Miro and his wife CJ Perry (Lana) were also at the movie’s premiere.
  • Johnny Gargano, X-Pac, Los Lotharios, and comedian Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias were guests on WWE’s The Bump this afternoon.
  • Shawn Michaels was on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani today.
  • WWE’s YouTube channel uploaded Tommaso Ciampa vs. Johnny Gargano for the NXT Championship from TakeOver: Brooklyn IV, John Cena & Batista vs. Kane & JBL from the July 28, 2008 episode of Raw, and Raquel Gonzalez vs. Dakota Kai from the November 16, 2021 episode of NXT.

AEW/Other Wrestling

  • Dustin Rhodes tweeted today: “Man, old age has caught up to me guys. As much as I push myself beyond my limits, I can honestly say, I am doing some heavy thinking about the next step. We all think we can go forever with new batteries, but TIME comes for all of us. Kinda scared tbh. #KeepSteppin”
  • AEW has announced that WarJoe (Wardlow & Samoa Joe) will be in action on Dynamite tonight. A promo from MJF has also been added to the episode.
  • Ahead of AEW holding its first show in Canada tonight, Tony Khan was interviewed by Sportsnet: “It’s been a long time coming for AEW to come to Canada. I want to do various cities all over Canada. There’s so many good markets and wrestling cities in Canada, and Toronto, for us, had to be the first. It’s one of the best wrestling cities in the world, in my opinion.”
  • Chris Jericho explained why he still uses “Judas” as his theme music despite being a heel: “Even though I’m a heel, it’s a very organic reaction when people sing along to ‘Judas,’ so why would you want to stop that even when you’re a bad guy because it’s a very unique part of the show? And it’s one of the highlights. I get tweets and people commenting all the time with people saying ‘Ah, I’m so excited to sing ‘Judas’ tonight. I can’t wait!’ To take that away would be kinda stupid. So I think that’s the same when you’re in your home country or hometown. Let people enjoy the moment. How many times do you get to come to Canada? AEW fans have been waiting for us, so why would you want to – proverbially – sh*t on them and try to get them to boo? So if people want to cheer Chris Jericho or if people want to cheer Bryan Danielson or boo either one of us, it doesn’t really matter as long as they’re making noise or as long as they’re excited and engaged and invested in the match that we’re doing. That’s really all that matters in any way, shape or form.”
  • TV Insider asked Eddie Kingston what he’s most proud of during his time in AEW thus far: “The most fun I’ve had was teaming up with Jon Moxley. I think that came off when people saw our interviews and saw us together. Beating people up with Mox was fun. Teaming up with Santana and Ortiz was also good. I remember the day they signed with AEW. They were at an independent show with me and told me. I hugged them and was so proud. I remember Santana saying, ‘One day all three of us.’ I told them don’t worry about that and to just do great. They did. Then when we were able to be together [in AEW] it became we set out a goal and did it. That is a proud moment.”
  • Kingston was also asked how he’s grown and evolved in AEW: “I make missteps every time I’m there, to be honest with you. I’m still learning that this is a different world. It’s still professional wrestling, but the backstage stuff, which I don’t like to tweet about or talk about – you got to get used to it. It’s a different world compared to the independents. The independents are very outlaw. We don’t have HR there. We police ourselves. I learn every day. That’s where I have grown. I’m able to now be open and learn. There are different ways of doing things that can help the locker room and also keep my mental sanity. I don’t want to be angry. I want to save all that anger and energy for my opponent or what I’m doing that night.”
  • Christian Cage was interviewed by The Canadian Press.
  • The Root has a story on Stokely Hathaway.
  • Ric Flair noted that his stepdaughter Sophia works for AEW doing a lot of their social media.
  • Last night’s Tales from the Territories averaged 111,000 viewers on Vice TV, down slightly from the 113,000 viewers the series premiere drew last week. The rating in the 18-49 demo ticked down to a 0.04.