Daily Update: Hollywood Demons, Arena Mexico, Billie Starkz

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Friday Update

– Garrett Gonzales and I are doing our news week in review show talking about the fallout of all the action this past week. Bryan and I will be back Sunday night.

– The new issue of the Wrestling Observer, the WrestleMania issue, is up on the site. The WrestleMania issue is one of our biggest issues of the year, covering the following topics:

  • What people thought of WrestleMania and Stand & Deliver
  • An in-depth look at WrestleMania
  • Crowd reactions
  • Dwayne Johnson and his role in the show and the entire back story
  • How the John Cena story started and evolved
  • Why the Cena retiring the belt story makes no sense historically
  • Johnson tells his version of what went down
  • Matches that at different points were scheduled for the show and how they changed
  • Show audience
  • Joe Hendry story
  • How much WWE spent on Mania week compared to what AEW spent for Double or Nothing week
  • A look at all the matches and angles
  • Detailed look at how the WWE purchase of AAA went down, the partners, different people comment on what it means, AAA’s history as well as its attempt to expand to the U.S., Lucha Underground, does this effect CMLL, the original When Worlds Collide, how AAA was formed and more
  • The death of Hisashi Shinma, the golden age of New Japan Pro Wrestling, how he first got into wrestling, what he’s credited with as a booker, the rise of Inoki, the first UWF, Universal Lucha Libre, WWE Presidency, Backlund vs. Inoki, Inoki vs. Ali and more
  • A look at the life and career of Steve McMichael
  • CMLL and a week of sellouts including a killer Friday main event
  • WWE NXT Stand & Deliver coverage and poll
  • The life and times of Black Terry
  • The most detailed look at the ratings for all the wrestling and MMA shows this past week, demos, competition and segments looked at, as well as streaming numbers for Raw
  • Universal tournament ends this week
  • Biggest women’s show of the year this week
  • What’s new with Tetsuya Naito & Bushi
  • Dark Side of the Ring on Billy Graham
  • A look at the Mania week on the indies side including Bloodsport
  • Notes on future AEW PPV shows
  • Kenny Omega on What is the best schedule for wrestlers?
  • Mark Hunt’s case against UFC and Brock Lesnar thrown out
  • Advanced ticket sales to WWE & AEW shows
  • How streaming platform advertising works vs. television
  • Bayley talks her knee injury
  • WWE ID tournaments

– The Hollywood Demons episode on the Von Erichs is a must-see. It’s on MAX after airing previously on TNT. Kevin Von Erich, his daughter and Kerry’s daughters all gave an insight into the story of the family never seen before.

– SmackDown tonight is sold out in Fort Worth with just under 11,000 fans. The Street Profits defend the tag titles in a TLC three-way with DIY and the Motor City Machine Guns. Aleister Black is scheduled to return. Nathan Frazer & Axiom are in the building. John Cena is set to appear, and Chelsea Green defends the Women’s United States title against Zelina Vega. We’re looking for live reports on the dark matches before the show to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

– Dustin Poirier has his retirement fight scheduled for UFC 318 on 7/19 in New Orleans, facing Max Holloway. Poirier beat Holloway via submission in 2012 and by decision in 2019.

– We’re going to do polls on Sunday’s TNA Rebellion PPV from Los Angeles and Sunday’s Stardom show in Yokohama, thumbs up, down or middle along with a best and worst match from each show to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

– The Stardom show is headlined by Saya Kamitani vs. Tam Nakano in a loser must retire match for the World of Stardom title. It’s taking place at the Yokohama Arena which is the biggest arena an all-women’s show will take place in this year most likely. It’s more than twice the size of the Mohegan Center where WWE’s Evolution show is scheduled for in July.

– We’re looking for reports from the NXT house shows tonight in Dade City, FL and tomorrow night in Orlando, FL, results, finishes and highlights to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

– Collision tomorrow night on TNT will start at about 8:30 p.m. Eastern and 5:30 p.m. Pacific directly after the NBA playoffs. So they’ll come off a weak Wednesday number and likely follow with a strong Saturday number.

– Arena Mexico tonight has the finals of the Universal Champion of Champions tournament. There are nine wrestlers left. There will be three three-ways with Flip Gordon vs Euforia vs. Angel de Oro, Akuma vs. Esfinge vs. Niebla Roja and Titan vs. Stigma vs. Mephisto. The three winners go into another three-way as the main event for the tournament final.

– I’ve said this a lot of late, but if you want to see pure reactions from a true casual audience, you’ll learn more watching a Friday night Arena Mexico show each week than from all the blowhards combined. When you look at last Friday’s sold out crowd, they were heavily American, tons of couples and women, mostly 20s and 30s and few of whom follow the product on television or even online. You’ll see the style as well as the atmosphere. Last Friday’s main event was awesome. The crowd was so hot that Blue Panther acted like he was 35 instead of 65 with a performance you have to see to believe for a guy that age.

– Soccer superstar Patrice Evra, 43, a former captain of Manchester United and of the French national team, one of the best fullbacks of his era, will be making his MMA debut on a PFL show on 5/23 at the Accor Arena in Paris.

– Reader Suju Abraham sent a list of WWE’s top 50 Mania matches and ranked them by YouTube viewing. The biggest were Rollins vs. Lesnar vs. Reigns from Santa Clara, Rock & Roman vs. Rhodes & Rollins from last year, Lesnar vs. Goldberg, Rock vs. Cena, HHH vs. Sting in that order. Other big ones were Rhodes vs. Reigns, Ripley vs. Flair, Banks vs. Belair, Daniel Bryan vs. Orton vs. Batista, Belair vs. Lynch, Undertaker vs. HHH, Rollins vs. HHH, Edge vs. Foley, Undertaker vs. HHH, Michaels vs. Cena, Rhodes vs. Rollins and Edge & Christian vs. Hardys vs Dudleys.

– In a battle of former world’s strongest man winners, Eddie Hall faces Mariusz Pudzianowski tomorrow for KSW in Gliwice, Poland. The MMA rules fight will have two four-minute rounds and 90 seconds between rounds. Promoter Martin Lewandowski said he’d like to book the winner to face Francis Ngannou. Seriously, is he trying to get a guy killed? This is Hall’s first real MMA fight although he did do a handicap match against two 135 pound twins that he knocked out. Hall weighed in today at 334 pounds while Pudzianowski is at 267.

– UFC tomorrow is in Kansas City from 6 p.m. Eastern to around midnight. The first three hours will be on ESPN+ while the last three hours will be on both ESPN 2 and ESPN+.

  • Chelsea Chandler (134) vs. Joselyne Edwards (136)
  • Timmy Cuamba (146) vs. Roberto Romero (145)
  • Jaqueline Amorim (116) vs. Polyana Viana (115.5)
  • Malcom Welimaker (135) vs. Cameron Saaiman (135)
  • Da’Mon Blacksher (135.5) vs. Alatengheili (136)
  • Chris Gutierrez (146) vs. John Castaneda (146)
  • Evan Elder (156) vs. Gauge Young (156)
  • Matt Schnell (126) vs. Jimmy Flick (126)
  • Ikram Aliskerov (185.5) vs. Andre Muniz (185.5)
  • Randy Brown (171) vs. Nicolas Dalby (171)
  • Michel Pereira (186)n vs. Abus Nurmagomedov (185.5)
  • Gigi Chikadze (147) vs. David Onama (146) – Chikadze missed weight by one pound and was fined 20 percent of his purse
  • Anthony Smith (206) vs. Zhang Mingyang (206)
  • Ian Machado Garry (171) vs. Carlos Prates (170)

Smith will be retiring after his fight with Mingyang.

– Tickets for the AEW show on 6/18 at Arena Mexico go on sale tomorrow. FantasticaMania Mexico tickets for 6/20 at Arena Mexico also go on sale tomorrow.

– Chinese streaming service iQiYi is doing a dramatic television series based on the life of UFC strawweight champion Zhang Weili. Production is expected to begin soon. Zhang has also landed a feature role in the movie “Typhoon,” which is not about Fred Ottman.

– Masked Republic has put out a middle school graphic novel on the Munoz family (Rush, Dragon Lee, Dralistico and Bestia del Ring. The book is called “La Dinastia Munoz: Dragon Lee & The Monster of Salty River.”

– Added to Sunday’s TNA show at the Galen Center in Los Angeles is Zachary Wentz & Trey Miguel & Ace Austin, managed by Sean Waltman, against Brian Myers & JDC & Eddie Edwards, managed by Alisha Edwards.

– Toni Storm was at last night’s TCM Film Festival screening of The Empire Strikes Back.

– WWE combo tickets for the Clash in Paris on 8/31 and Raw on 9/1, both stadium shows, are on sale right now.

– There is a blood drive on Sunday in Anderson, SC, to assist Randy Mulkey, a 1980s regular with Crockett Promotions (super bumptaker) who was diagnosed with triple myeloma bone cancer in December and also is on dialysis. He is going to Atlanta in a few weeks for stem cell treatment and a bone marrow harvest, as well as chemotherapy.

-Indi Hartwell will appear on Saturday’s Memphis Wrestling TV show.

– RevPro announced a tournament to determine Michael Oku’s next challenger for the British title. Quarterfinals are 5/11 in Coventry and the semifinals and finals are 5/25 in Sheffield. Oku defends against the winner on 6/22 at the Revolution Rumble show.

– Haku will be the special guest for AIW Wrestling tomorrow night in Akron, OH at the Tadmor Shrine.

– Rhio announced she is putting her career on the line against the Progress women’s title held by Nina Samuels on 5/4.

– Lucha Va Voom on 5/2 is at the Mayan Theater in Los Angeles. Taya Valkyrie, TJP, Magno, Jack Cartwheel and Ninja Mack are on the show.

– Mistico is back from assorted injuries and will face Misterioso tomorrow night in San Jose at Mt. Pleasant High School for Pro Wrestling Revolucion. Or at least that was the expectation. Mistico didn’t work his scheduled match last night. He is booked to return to Arena Mexico on Sunday.

– Taya Valkyrie was injured so AEW is sending Billy Starkz to team with Lady Frost in CMLL this week.

– ECWA tonight in Marlboro, NJ at the Jersey Dugout for Pretzelmania.

– Effy comes to Empire State Wrestling on 5/16 at the RiverWorks in Buffalo.