Daily Update: Georges St-Pierre, Katsuhiko Nakajima, WWE SmackDown

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

The new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter is up:

  • Match and performer of the week for both of the past two weeks
  • The changes in WWE, Vince out of creative, how UFC and WWE are being treated differently
  • Showtime drops all sports programming and their entire sports department, both how in and of itself its a major story in boxing, MMA and could be in pro wrestling, but even more the trend that it shows
  • Stations still in the market for sports today
  • The ominous aspects of NBA current TV negotiations
  • Why boxing was dropped after such a great PPV year
  • A look back at the career of Sting after his retirement announcement
  • A look at his AEW run
  • His rise to the top in WCW
  • How his career got started
  • What person saw the potential in Sting the earliest
  • The famous 1988 Sting vs. Ric Flair match and how it changed his career trajectory
  • The multiple times Sting stepped away from wrestling
  • The TNA run
  • The WWE run
  • Power Team USA and Flash Borden
  • NWA on WB, the keys to this deal
  • Update on Crown Jewel and who isn’t scheduled right now on the show
  • The classic matches of 2023 Will Ospreay
  • New Japan Royal Quest and Power Struggle
  • Notes on last week’s UFC show
  • A look back at one of the most traveled enhancement star of the late 60s into the early 80s, Bill Howard
  • The most detailed look at the ratings for all the pro wrestling shows this past week, including segment-by-segment, competition and comparisons with a year ago
  • CMLL wrestlers traveling around the world
  • Two spectacular matches at Friday’s Arena Mexico show
  • Stardom opens tag tournament
  • One of AAA’s biggest stars likely not returning
  • Biggest woman promotion in the world at one time has a nostalgia reunion show coming in January
  • Chris Hero returns
  • What pro wrestling star of the 70s never lost a singles match in his entire career
  • AEW and CMLL relationship notes
  • Tony Khan’s tweets
  • Updates on ticket sales to WWE & AEW shows
  • International TV ratings and streaming numbers
  • UFC signs huge money international deal
  • UFC top star taking time off
  • Main event result in UFC overturned
  • Pat Miletich returns to fight at 55
  • Ari Emanuel criticized for working with Dana White, Vince McMahon and Conor McGregor
  • More on the Vince McMahon documentary
  • Completely exaggerated PPV claims
  • What percentage of Logan Paul buyers also buy AEW or WWE shows
  • WWE sells network rights internationally
  • Dynamite TV streak ends after two weeks
  • Notes on all the WWE & NXT arena events this past week

This Week’s Retro Observer Newsletter

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Friday Update

We did our week in review show with Garrett Gonzales today with a heavy emphasis on the changing television business, along with doing questions and talking a lot about Sting, surprises, Reigns vs. LA Knight and more. Bryan and I will be back tomorrow which has Impact, UFC and Collision.

Georges St-Pierre who was going to come out of retirement for a grappling match on 12/14 in Las Vegas, two days before the final PPV show of the year, said he suffered a shoulder injury and is out of the match. He also said that the match was to be against Nick Diaz, and he said Diaz has a neck injury and had pulled out. St-Pierre said he doesn’t know if he’ll need surgery, and won’t for a few weeks. He said that he won’t be ready for that date but hopes they can do the match at a later date. He said the match agreed to was with Diaz all along, but also mentioned there were talks at different points about him doing a grappling match with Kamaru Usman, Demian Maia or Gilbert Burns.

Katsuhiko Nakajima had his last Korakuen Hall match for NOAH earlier today. Nakajima teamed with Go Shiozaki & Masa Kitamiya to beat Masaaki Mochizuki & Manabu Soya & Daiki Inaba in the main event.

Smackdown tonight in San Antonio has Iyo Sky vs. Charlotte Flair for the WWE women’s title, Montez Ford vs. Santos Escobar, plus Logan Paul is in to shoot an angle for a match with Rey Mysterio over the U.S. title. Roman Reigns is not on tonight’s show. The show sold out in advance and they just added new seats. There will be more than 14,000 in attendance tonight.

The Mistico vs. Rocky Romero battle of Historic world champions in two different weight classes headlines Rampage tonight taped in Rosenberg, TX. The match is two out of three falls although neither championship title is at stake. This has become a very talked about match for both good and extremely bad reasons over the past few days, largely because of the amount of tickets the show drew after the Mistico announcement and people who somehow couldn’t handle this being the case. Hey, I was like this in 1993 when AAA ran at San Jose State University and I figured they’d be lucky to do 500 fans and then there were 5,000 fans there and it was like stepping into a different world where people were insane over every single character on the show. Also tonight is John Silver vs. Kip Sabian vs. Brother Zay–winner faces Orange Cassidy for the International title tomorrow night in Memphis, Claudio Castagnoli & Wheeler Yuta vs. Exodus Prime & Bryan Keith and Skye Blue vs. Ruby Soho. Tony Khan also promised the announcement of a dream match for tomorrow night in Memphis will be made on Rampage tonight. If Memphis had 6,000 or more tickets sold, I’d say cool. But when they have so few sold, I’d think if there really was a dream match that is a difference maker, you’d want that info out ASAP.

Kinya Okada and Yasutaka Yano, who both vanished from NOAH in April, were charged with forcible indecency for inappropriately touching a woman in Sendai on 4/16 at 12:30 a.m. NOAH was on tour and had a show in that city the next day. The two didn’t wrestle on the show and never wrestled with the promotion again. (thanks to Gerard Di Trolio)

We are doing our poll this weekend on Impact Bound for Glory which takes place tomorrow night in Cicero, IL. You can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

The top matches for Bound for Glory are Alex Shelley vs. Josh Alexander for the Impact title, Trinity vs. Mickie James for the Knockouts title Chris Sabin vs. KENTA for the X title, Trey Miguel & Zachary Wentz vs. Chris Bey & Ace Austin for the tag titles, Masha Slamovich & Killer Kelly vs. Deonna Purrazzo & Tasha Steelz for the Knockouts tag titles, Will Ospreay vs. Mike Bailey and Rhino vs. Moose vs. PCO vs. Steve Maclin in a Monster’s Brawl match. There is also a Hall of Fame ceremony for Mike Tenay, Don West and Traci Brooks.

We also looking for reports on these shows:

  • Smackdown tonight in San Antonio (dark matches and off air notes only)
  • AEW Collision tomorrow night in Memphis (any matches or things that aren’t on the live show)
  • WWE house show tomorrow night in Edinburgh, TX
  • WWE house show Sunday night in Laredo, TX
  • We’re looking for results, finishes and other highlights to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

Impact last night did 71,000 viewers and an 0.01 in 18-49 against football and baseball.

UFC 294 is from Abu Dhabi which means the show starts at 10 a.m. Eastern and 7 p.m. Pacific. It will air from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on ESPN+, and then the rest on ESPN + PPV:

ESPN + at 10 a.m. Eastern

  • Bruno Silva (186) vs. Shara Magomedov (186)
  • Jinh Yu Frey (116) vs. Vikitoriya Dudakova (116.6) – Dudakova missed weight by 0.6 pounds
  • Nathaniel Wood (146) vs. Muhamad Naimov (145.5)
  • Mike Breeden (159.5) vs. Anshul Jubli (155.5) – Breeden missed weight by 3.5 pounds
  • Abu Azaitar (186) vs. Sedriques Dumas (186)
  • Javid Basharat (136) vs. Victor Henry (136)
  • Mohammad Yahya (156) vs. Trevor Peek (155.5)
  • Tim Elliott (126) vs,. Muhammad Mokaev (126)

PPV at 2 p.m. Eastern

  • Said Nurmagomedov (136) vs. Muin Gafurov (135.5)
  • Ikram Aliskerov (186) vs. Warrley Alves (185.5)
  • Magomed Ankalaev (206) vs. Johnny Walker (205)
  • Kamaru Usman (184.5) vs. Khamzat Chimaev (185.5)
  • Islam Makhachev (155) vs. Alexander Volkanovski (154.5) for the lightweight title

New Japan Super Juniors tag league starts at 4 a.m. Eastern tomorrow morning from Kumagaya:

  • Robbie Eagles & Kosei Fujita vs. TJP & Francesco Akira
  • Kushida & Kevin Knight vs,. Douki & Taka Michinoku
  • Ryusuke Taguchi & The DKC vs. Desperado & Master Wato
  • Yoh & Musashi vs Clark Connors & Dan Moloney
  • Titan & Bushi vs. Sho & Yoshinobu Kanemaru

Today would have been the 65th birthday of Scott Hall.

A documentary on pro wrestling referees called “The Ref Didn’t See It” will be coming out soon. We’ll have more info going forward. Interviewed for the documentary include Earl Hebner, Bill Alfonso, Tommy Dreamer, Kevin Sullivan, Cameron Adamson and Emily Parker.

Combate Global announced its final show of the year will be 12/17 on Univision and Paramount +. Patrick Lehane (5-2) of Ireland faces Roberto Romero (7-2-1) of Mexico in an Ireland vs Mexico battle. The show is called Ireland vs. Mexico and is being sponsored by Conor McGregor’s Irish Stout beverage. It will be a rare Sunday night show for the promotion.

Mansoor is auctioning memorabilia and donating $4,000 for medicine, food and water into blockaded Gaza. He’s selling gear worn in WWE matches with 100 percent of the proceeds going to the Middle East Children’s Alliance.

TNT Extreme Wrestling is joining the Demand Progress Plus streaming service. It is the first of what they expect to be many promotions added to the service. It has a nearly full catalogue of Progress shows from the past.

The New York Wrestling Connection runs 10/28 at The Space in Westbury, NY with Tommy Dreamer, Mikey Whipwreck, Tony Mamaluke, Mike Mondo, Alex Reynolds, John Silver, Tracy Williams and more. There will be both a meet and greet and a wrestling show as well as a 6 p.m. Hall of Fame ceremony before the start of the card.

Wrestle Queendom from EVE on 11/19 in Tufnell Park at the Dome in London has shows at 2 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. with Miyu Yamashita vs. Safire Reed for the Eve championship in the main event. They also run 11/10 in Walthamslow, London at The Big Penny Social with Max the Impaler, Masha Slamovich, Konami, Nina Samuels, Emersyn Jayne and Session Moth Martina.

Empire State Wrestling on 11/17 at the Riverworks in Buffalo with Heath and Chris Adonis as the headliners.