Daily Update: Fastlane, upcoming WWE house shows, Cavinder Twins

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

In this issue:

  • Match and Performer of the Week
  • The Bloodline saga comes very close to a first in the history of pro wrestling on television
  • A look at the Trial of Roman Reigns, the Reigns vs. Usos feud, and the storyline that has caused WWE business to grow
  • A preview of all the big matches of the weekend in three different countries, none of which are the U.S., with TripleMania, G-1, Miyahara vs. Nakajima and Collision
  • Updated news on SummerSlam and Great American Bash and business notes on both shows
  • The new AEW rules memo, what is and isn’t new and the reality of what this means to talent
  • Full coverage of UFC 290 with two of the best fights of the year, a unique television situation and two title bouts
  • Looking at the 2023 Wrestler of the Year award and the top candidates
  • Francis Ngannou vs. Tyson Fury, the questions about the show and why the hope for it to be a success is the evolution of understanding fighting being low
  • The most detailed look at the ratings of every major pro wrestling and MMA show of the past week, the analysis, competition, segment numbers and comparisons with one year ago
  • Lots of injury talks regarding major stars
  • Key husband and wife jumping promotions
  • Mercedes Mone rivalry planned
  • Update on major sports rights negotiations in the next few years
  • The death of Michael Halac, the former Bruiser Mastino and Mantaur
  • Wrestling magazine pioneer writer Ed Garea, The Phantom of the Ring, passes away
  • Notes on the new women’s promotion
  • RevPro Epic Encounters rundown
  • Battle of the two best 18-year-old wrestlers in the world announced for next month
  • Ticket sales for tons of big shows
  • Kenny Omega talks the Tiger driver spot
  • International TV ratings
  • Lots of new major UFC fights
  • Looking at the vacant UFC light heavyweight title situation
  • World champion in UFC talks about how two years ago he supplemented his income driving for Uber Eats
  • More major show dates fr WWE
  • Backstage issue at WWE
  • A look at all the major TV shows and WWE weekend show coverage

This Week’s Retro Observer Newsletter

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Friday Update

We did a very lively show today with Larry Dallas and Garrett Gonzales talking TripleMania, Lucha Libre, All In, Kenny Omega and tons of other subjects. Bryan and I will be back Sunday to talk about perhaps the biggest single 24 hour period of potentially great matches in recent memory which will be from 1 a.m. Pacific to 1 a.m. Pacific late Friday to late Saturday.

Smackdown tonight in Raleigh has more on the Bloodline story plus Asuka vs. Bianca Belair for the women’s title and the first round of a tournament with the winner getting a shot at Austin Theory’s U.S. title. I expect Roman Reigns vs. Jey Uso as the SummerSlam main event becomes official tonight. They had 11,400 tickets out as of this morning so this will be close to sold out.

Rampage at 10 p.m. Eastern tonight on TNT

  • Dustin Rhodes & Keith Lee vs. Angelo Parker & Matt Menard
  • Taya Valkyrie vs. Izzy McQueen
  • Lance Archer vs. Trent Baretta
  • Konosuke Takeshita vs. Mentallo
  • Athena vs. Willow Nightingale in the Owen Hart Cup

The crazy Saturday of big matches is in the new issue of the Observer that dropped today.

Ric Flair’s new energy drink “Woooo! Energy” has now been released.

WrestleTix has noted that the WWE’s upcoming Raw in Ontario, CA on 9/25 is already almost sold out and the next London house show is also almost sold out.

We’re looking for reports on these weekend shows

Smackdown tonight in Raleigh, NC (dark matches only)

  • GCW tonight in New York
  • AEW in Calgary (only the ROH tapings and dark matches)
  • WWE house show tomorrow in Fairfax, VA
  • WWE Sunday in Salisbury, MD

We’re looking for results, finishes, highlights and other notes on the shows to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

The GCW show in New York tonight is sold out with Utami Hayashishita vs, LuFisto, Blake Christian vs. Mao, Komander vs. Gringo Loco vs. Arez and Matt Cardona & Steph De Lander vs. Effy & Allie Katch.

First day ticket sales for Fastlane on 10/7 in Indianapolis today topped 6,200. (thanks to WrestleTix)

WWE announced 7/22 at Arena Ciudad in Mexico City has Roman Reigns vs. Rey Mysterio for the WWE Universal title, Cody Rhodes vs. Damian Priest and Seth Rollins vs. Dominik Mysterio for the World title. 7/23 at Arena Monterrey is Rhodes vs. Priest, Rollins vs. Dominik and Asuka vs. Bianca Belair vs. Charlotte Flair vs. Becky Lynch for the WWE women’s title.

We’ll be doing weekend polls on day one and two of G-1, Impact in Windsor, ONT and TripleMania, thumbs up, down or middle, best and worst matches to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

The Cavinder Twins teased another WWE appearance while at the Espy Awards on Wednesday. Hanna Cavinder told USA Today Sports, “We have another event we’re going to soon, so we’re super excited about it. Yeah, stay tuned.”

UFC will run from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. tomorrow on ESPN and ESPN+

  • Ashlee Evans-Smith (135.5) vs. Allin Perez (135.5)
  • Alex Munoz (155.5) vs. Carl Deaton (156)
  • Tyson Nam (126) vs. Azat Maksum (126)
  • Eva Elder (156) vs. Genaro Valdez (156)
  • Austin Lingo (145.5) vs. Melquiazael Costa (146)
  • Viktoriya Dudakova (116) vs. Istela Nunes (115.5)
  • Tucker Lutz (146) vs. Melsik Baghdasaryan (145.5)
  • Nazim Sadykhov (156) vs. Terrance McKinney7y (156)
  • Norma Dumont (145.5) vs. Chelsea Chandler (145.5)
  • Albert Duraev (185) vs. Jun Yong Park (186)
  • Ottman Azaitar (156) vs. Francisco Prado (156)
  • Jack Della Maddalena (171) vs. Bassil Hafez (171)
  • Holly Holm (135.5) vs. Mayra Bueno Silva (136)

G-1 starts at 4 am ET tomorrow morning from Sapporo:

  • YOSHI-HASHI vs. El Phantasmo
  • Chase Owens vs. Gabriel Kidd
  • KENTA vs. Tanga Loa
  • Ren Narita vs. Shota Umino
  • Kazuchika Okada vs. Great O’Khan
  • Kaito Kiyomiya vs. Yota Tsuji
  • Will Ospreay vs. Taichi
  • Sanada vs. Hikuleo

Koji Miyamoto just published a new book called Inoki History Vol. 1 that came out last month. Volume 2 comes out in August and Volume three comes out in October.

OTHER NOTES

Combate Global has a Sunday show starting at 9 p.m. Eastern and 6 p.m. Pacific on Paramount + in English and Univision in Spanish. The show is billed as Mexico vs. USA with a featherweight main event of Roberto Romero (6-2-1) vs. Justin Vazquez (10-2).

Pro Wrestling Eve on Sunday at the Yard Theater in Hackney Wick in London has Alex Windsor vs.. Nightshade, Rhio vs. Regina Rosendahl and Session Moth Martina vs. Skye Smitson. They are also running 8/26 at the Yard Theater with the first Choco Pro from Japan show ever in the U.K.

KSW has a show tomorrow from the Polsat Plus Arena in Gdynia, Poland with Phil De Fries (23-6) defending the heavyweight title against Szymon Bajor (24-9). The show is available on www.KSWTV.com

The city of Windsor, ONT declared yesterday as Impact Wrestling day

Slammiversary odds from BetOnline

  • Alex Shelley -120
  • Nick Aldis -120
  • Trinity -500
  • Deonna Purrazzo +300
  • Chris Sabin -1000
  • Lio Rush +500
  • Joe Hendry -140
  • Kenny King +110
  • Chris Bey & Ace Austin -400
  • Mark Andrews & Flash Morgan Webster +400
  • Moose & Brian Myers +550
  • Rich Swann & Sami Callihan +600
  • Masha Slamovich & Killer Kelly -250
  • The Coven +175
  • Mike Bailey +150
  • Angels +250
  • Jonathan Gresham +250
  • Kushida +250
  • Kevin Knight +650
  • Eddie Edwards -140
  • Frankie Kazarian +100

Wrestlecon is doing a Destination Detroit event on 8/4 and 8/5 with Sting, Bret Hart, Lex Luger, Ron Simmons, Ted DiBiase, Honky Tonk Man, Nailz, Sgt. Slaughter, IRS, Boogeyman, Zach Gowen and Brandi Rhodes.

Lash Leroux makes his GCW debut on 9/1 in Chicago. Also on that show will be Nick Gage, El Hijo del Vikingo, Maki Itoh, Rina Yamashita and Blake Christian.