Daily Update: Fury vs. Ngannou, WWE Berlin results, Alex Shelley

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

The new issue of the Observer is up on the site right now covering these stories:

  • Match and performers of the week
  • The history of UFC and WWE together
  • How Vince McMahon is responsible for UFC taking off and why
  • Dirty tricks McMahon tried to play on UFC and blasting it when it got popular
  • Dana White talks about his prior and current changes in relationship with McMahon
  • How Vince McMahon viewed UFC when it first broke through
  • The first attempt at Undertaker vs. Lesnar at WrestleMania and why it didn’t happen
  • How things have changed since the merger and what Vince’s role in UFC is now
  • Jon Jones injury, why Stipe Miocic is off, and what are the different possibilities going forward in the heavyweight division
  • A look at the Aspinall vs. Pavlovich fight
  • Business notes on what was expected to be a record setting show
  • Preview of Crown Jewel and Full Gear and matches announced and other things built up
  • WWE goes with more international major shows in 2024
  • Rundown of Impact changing to TNA and what it will and won’t mean
  • The decline of TNA and change to Impact years ago
  • What changes to expect with the move back to TNA
  • The story behind the Bound for Glory main event
  • Business notes on Bound for Glory
  • Match-by-match coverage
  • Hall of Fame ceremony
  • UFC 204 coverage and what next for the top stars of the show
  • Tyson Fury vs. Francis Ngannou, and how once again Saudi Arabia has changed the economic necessities of a big fight
  • The most detailed look at the ratings for all of the wrestling shows, as well as segment-by-segment and comparison and where shows were up and down
  • Blue Panther 45th anniversary event
  • Stardom bad injury situation
  • All Japan annual tag team tournament
  • Why two Japanese wrestlers disappeared in April
  • Great Triple Crown title match
  • Future of Will Ospreay
  • New Japan Super Juniors tag tourney
  • Cain Velasquez first interview
  • Mexican legend survives scary hospital stay
  • British J Cup
  • Wrestling star expects to announce a new TV series in November
  • Ric Flair in AEW
  • AEW December PPV and its competition
  • Jon Moxley on battles with addiction
  • Ticket advances for upcoming WWE & AEW shows
  • International TV ratings and streaming numbers
  • Pitch for independent star to AEW
  • How many matches top AEW stars have done
  • Controversy over UFC business deal
  • Peacock subscription number and financial losses
  • Memo all WWE employees received and how this has changed the stock price
  • Tickets now available for Survivor Series and why
  • WWE NIL talent in college wrestling notes
  • A look at the WWE shows over the past week

This Week’s Retro Observer Newsletter

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.

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Sunday Update

– I’ll be up tonight with Bryan as we cover the weekend news including SmackDown, Collision and MJF vs. Kenny Omega, the unique Tyson Fury vs. Francis Ngannou fight, Vince McMahon and Dana White and a lot more.

– The Tyson Fury vs. Francis Ngannou fight last night in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia ended up as a huge surprise, basically compared to the Rocky I movie where there was a giant underdog, clearly the champion didn’t take him seriously and showed up out of shape, and nearly lost which would have been a huge embarrassment in a non-title fight. Ngannou knocked down Fury in round three but lost a close split decision. We’ll talk more about the fight tonight.

This is how the round-by-round scoring went:

  • 1st round: Two judges had it for Fury, one for Ngannou
  • 2nd round: Two judges for Fury, one for Ngannou
  • 3rd round: All three 10-8 Ngannou
  • 4th round: Two for Ngannou, one for Fury
  • 5th round: All three for Fury
  • 6th round: All three for Fury
  • 7th round: Two for Fury, one for Ngannou
  • 8th round: All three for Ngannou
  • 9th round: All three for Fury
  • 10th round: Two for Ngannou, one for Fury

The scores were 96-93 for Fury, 95-94 for Ngannou and 95-94 for Fury.

– Because of how close the fight was and that it was competitive, it will now be part of boxing folklore that an 0-0 MMA champion nearly beat the undefeated former boxing champion in his own sport. You have to call it a moral win for Ngannou.

– Last night’s WWE show in Berlin was the same as the other nights of the tour:

  • Sami Zayn defeated Dominik Mysterio via DQ when JD McDonagh interfered. Both beat down Zayn until Jey Uso made the save
  • Jey Uso & Zayn defeated Mysterio & McDonagh when Uso pinned Mysterio after a spear
  • Rhea Ripley defeated Raquel Rodriguez to retain the Women’s World title
  • Chad Gable did a heel promo to set up Imperium as the faces (since they were in Germany) as Ludwig Kaiser & Giovanni Vinci defeated Gable & Otis when Kaiser pinned Gable
  • Cody Rhodes defeated The Miz with Cross Rhodes. Rhodes did a promo after the match building up next year’s major show in Berlin on PPV
  • Finn Balor & Damian Priest defeated New Day to keep the tag titles when Balor pinned Woods with the Coup de Grace
  • Gunther defeated Bronson Reed to keep the IC title. Imperium then did a promo for the PPV show next August in the same arena
  • Seth Rollins defeated Shinsuke Nakamura in a street fight to retain the World title with a table break and curb stomp.

(thanks to wrestling-infos.de)

– We’re looking for reports from the New Japan show last night in Las Vegas and today’s WWE show in London, results, finishes and highlights, to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

– The expectation is that Ngannou will box Deontay Wilder next, which would be a battle of perhaps boxing’s hardest hitter vs. MMA’s hardest hitter. If there is a Ngannou-Fury rematch, Ngannou is now a 3-to-1 underdog instead of the huge odds for the first right.

– The Fury vs. Ngannou fight did 2.2 million Google searches, which was the biggest thing all weekend as far as searches other than the death of Matthew Perry which did more than 10 million. This includes all the football (as of this writing) and the World Series. Nothing else combat sports related cracked the top 20 on any day this week.

– I don’t know of any connection of Perry to pro wrestling or MMA other than when UFC was in its infancy there were cast members of Friends who were big fans and they did an episode that had a UFC theme at time when UFC couldn’t get on television and it was actually considered a huge thing historically in the SEG ownership days. I don’t know which members were the fans so can’t say Perry was one of the ones who had something to do with it. Friends was a classic TV show for its era and while he had his issues over the years, this was shocking to most people and 54 is way too young to pass away. He was a great comedic talent.

– There has been a lot of talk about The Story of Vladimir, the long-awaited Peacock documentary about Vladimir Abouzeide, which finally came out this weekend. Reader David Wolf said, “I’m in tears. Had no idea what was coming. This thing is extraordinary. The documentary is 37 minutes and was filmed from 2019 to 2021 and just released this week. Reader Stephen Lyon called it must-see showing Vladimir in the crowd in shows from the 80s on, how badly COVID hit him, the death of his mother, and his own battles, and showing that the WWE giving him an award in 2021 and how it made his life. It showed all kinds of wrestlers like Drew McIntyre, Kevin Owens, Sean Waltman, Scott Hall, Hulk Hogan and Shawn Michaels all putting him over. Jeff Jarrett, who was working as a WWE executive during this time period, was shown as someone close to Vladimir.

– Alex Shelley was injured and missed today’s Impact show in Coventry, UK, which was the final night of the tour.

– The Creeds get a shot at the main roster on Raw tomorrow. That’s very interesting only because of the question as to whether it’s just a one time thing or they are being called up.

– New Japan Strong on 11/10 in Garland, TX includes Giulia vs. Trish Adora for the New Japan Strong title, Mayu Iwatani vs. Stephanie Vaquer for the IWGP women’s title, El Phantasmo & Hikuleo vs. the West Coast Wrecking Crew for the tag titles, and Trent Beretta challenging new Never champion Shingo Takagi. Satoshi Kojima vs. Eddie Kingston will be an upcoming New Japan Strong title match as well.

– Katsuhiko Nakajima did do the job yesterday in his last NOAH match. Nakajima & Go Shiozaki lost to Naomichi Marufuji & Takashi Sugiura in 22:00 when Sugiura pinned Nakajima. I heard this was a great match.

– New Japan’s Super Junior Tag League tournament continues at 5:30 a.m. Eastern Monday morning:

  • Ryusuke Taguchi & The DKC (2-3) vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Sho (3-2)
  • Taka Michinoku & Douki (1-4) vs. Clark Connors & Draila Moloney (3-2)
  • Musashi & Yoh (2-3) vs. Robbie Eagles & Kosei Fujia (2-3)
  • Titan & Bushi (2-3) vs. TJP & Francesco Akira (3-2)
  • Kevin Knight & Kushida (3-2) vs. Master Wato & El Desperado (4-1)

We didn’t get a ton of talk about great matches this weekend past the MJF vs. Kenny Omega match from last night in Uncasville, CT and Nakajima’s last match in NOAH.

– Dungeon Wrestling (Hart family promotion) from Friday night in Calgary before 350 fans: Mo Jabari b Michael Allen Richard Clarke, Shaun Moore d Sebastian Wolf, Tiger Raj Singh b CK Crimson-COR, Chris Knight b Anthony Andrews, Voros Twins b Prophets, Chris Masters b Lennie Lokmobo to win the Stu Hart Heritage title. Nick Aldis was the champion but since the show was on a Friday night, he had to pull out. We don’t have it as official that he’s not taking any new bookings, but they did strip him of the title and it would be expected he’s not taking new bookings. (thanks to Ross Hart)