Daily Update: Gene LeBell, Shawn Michaels, Tony Khan

Daily Update

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter:

  • Match and performer of the week
  • Rundown of SummerSlam, poll, star ratings, angles
  • Early notes on Clash at the Castle
  • Business notes on both shows
  • Scary moves during the show
  • Ric Flair’s last match show, the good, the bad, the ugly, and where it stands among the biggest indie shows in history
  • The life and legacy of Ric Flair
  • Behind-the-scenes notes on the show
  • Business coverage of the show
  • UFC 277 coverage by Ryan Frederick, match-by-match, what happens next for all the key fighters on the show, business notes and more
  • Full G1 coverage with the standings, key stories, notes on the matches this week and coverage of all the past week shows.
  • Coverage of Dragon Gate’s two major shows over the weekend including one of the company’s best matches, title changes and future notes
  • The life and career of Gil Hayes, a Stampede Wrestling Hall of Famer who was one of the key building blocks of WWC in Puerto Rico, a unique life of a headliner who is largely forgotten today
  • Ratings and trends of all the national shows
  • CMLL announces the biggest matches for its anniversary show, the biggest event of the year
  • CMLL announces its annual World Grand Prix
  • First two nights of the Stardom Five Star Grand prix
  • More on the new IWGP World Women’s Championship and why it is happening
  • Karl Fredericks leaves New Japan
  • New Japan’s U.S. show rundown
  • XFL news under Dwayne Johnson
  • Women of Wrestling starting up
  • New book on ECW
  • More news on King of Indies
  • Old promotion in Mexico restarting with a national TV deal
  • The WBD financials and how it affects AEW, as well as where AEW could be very valuable
  • Cost of AEW compared to usual Discovery fare, ratings, and compared to WWE programming
  • New trademark by AEW and what does it mean
  • More on new AEW promotions
  • Upcoming WWE & AEW ticket sales
  • Streaming numbers for WWE & AEW
  • International TV ratings
  • Major new UFC fight scheduled
  • Jake Paul-Rahman fight falling apart notes
  • Sasha Banks & Naomi
  • Peacock financials
  • New PPV location
  • WrestleMania launch party
  • How Nick Khan got to WWE and his deal making ability
  • What was the match that never happened which led to Nick Khan’s first interaction with WWE
  • Dana White talks his only live WrestleMania
  • Bryan Danielson talks famous Talking Smack segment with Miz

This Week’s Retro Observer Newsletter:

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Wednesday News Update

WWE

  • WWE extended its condolences to Gene LeBell’s family, friends, and fans following his passing.
  • Paul “Triple H” Levesque paid tribute to LeBell: “Gene LeBell remained a towering figure in the history and expansion of mixed martial arts and sports entertainment. A teacher to many of the sport’s greats, his influence is felt throughout @WWE to this day. Our thoughts are with his family and loved ones at this time.”
  • Ronda Rousey posted an old picture of her with LeBell and captioned it with “Legend.”
  • In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Shawn Michaels spoke about working with Triple H now that Triple H is WWE’s head of creative: “We hope now that we can put together a really powerful one-two punch between NXT and the main roster that’s going to drive WWE to even greater heights. He wants to stick to the mission statement, which is to be the greatest sports entertainment company on the face of the earth. I’m going to do everything here to help, and he’ll have the entire support of NXT. We’re all excited for the future.”
  • Ciampa and Shayna Baszler appeared on WWE’s The Bump this afternoon.
  • CBD company Hemp2Lab has announced a partnership with Goldberg.
  • WWE’s YouTube channel uploaded Cena, Eddie Guerrero & Rey Mysterio vs. JBL & The Bashams from the March 17, 2005 episode of SmackDown, Becky Lynch vs. Paige from the November 9, 2015 episode of Raw, and Damian Priest vs. Dolph Ziggler for the United States title from the December 27, 2021 episode of Raw.

Other Wrestling

  • AEW posted a tribute to Gene LeBell: “AEW joins the wrestling world in mourning the passing of ‘Judo’ Gene Lebell. Our thoughts are with his family, his friends and his fans.”
  • TVInsider and DAZN published interviews with Tony Khan.
  • TVInsider asked Khan how close we are to seeing more new content from ROH: “[Death Before Dishonor] was the first time Warner Bros. Discovery worked with Ring of Honor because Bleacher Report carried the pay-per-view. It did some of the best numbers in the history of Ring of Honor. For Bleacher Report, I think it exceeded their expectations. They’ve seen there is interest in Ring of Honor, so that’s very exciting. They were the media partner that helped launch AEW into the world. If there ever were to be a weekly Ring of Honor show, I’d love to have them be involved in it. Hopefully, that is something that will happen someday. Only with their blessing, I think it would make a lot of sense. Now we’ve seen Ring of Honor is very viable on pay-per-view. They are going to have a very strong future in the world of wrestling going forward.”
  • CBS Sports interviewed Mark Henry.
  • Nyla Rose, Marina Shafir, and Vickie Guerrero are now known as the Beast of Burdens in AEW.
  • AEW announced its updated roster rankings.
  • Miro appeared on the latest episode of The Sessions with Renee Paquette.
  • In response to a fan on Twitter on Monday night, Mickie James wrote that she feels she’s “done in wrestling.” The fan asked James if she was going to be part of WWE’s Women’s Tag Team title tournament.
  • James then responded to someone today who said she’s too good to retire: “I appreciate you. Honestly I’ve been so blessed & love my fans so much! I wouldn’t have had all this without you. What is left for me to prove anymore? What else can I do? Id rather bow out screaming ‘Womens Wrestling Matters’ from the top of the mountain than the valley.”
  • On his Kliq This podcast, Kevin Nash said he isn’t interested in having one more match: “People don’t – I love when people come up to me and they go, ‘Man, you still look pretty jacked. I think you’ve got one more [match] in you. I don’t. The f*cking thought of my f*cking rickety-ass body hitting that f*cking wood. Like, nah, man, not even for f*cking Saudi money. You could come to me with half-a-million bucks, let me take two bumps, f*ck you. What am I gonna do with that? Let me put that in the bank with the rest of my f*cking money I don’t spend.”