Daily Update: Hulk Hogan, Gordon Solie, Mexico notes

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

  • Notes from the new issue:
  • Life of Hulk Hogan, notes on his death, WWE expansion, comparisons with Rikidozan, Santo and Dwayne Johnson, the complicated legacy, the story behind the tape that ruined his legacy, last WWE appearance, Bobby Heenan comments,  Jimmy Hart’s first connection with Hogan, first match with Andre and how it got him to national TV,  lies about his career, meeting Superstar Billy Graham the start of his career and the real story on Hiro Matsuda, Ed Leslie, Austin Idol, New Japan Pro Wrestling, the Terry Funk hotel room story, never doing jobs, the myths about the AWA title, leaving the AWA, his most famous match with Inoki,  his return to WWF, the first WrestleMania, record breaking attendance, WrestleMania III payoff,  Ultimate Warrior, WestleMania VII with Sgt. Slaughter, the Zahorian and McMahon steroid trials, Jerry McDevitt, going to WCW, the rise and fall of WCW,  the Sting & Goldberg matches, the end in WCW and return to WWE, the TNA run and life after wrestling.
  • Updates on SummerSlam
  • Notes on Buff Bagwell
  • The most detailed look at what we’ve learned about both viewing habits on Netflix as well as actual numbers for Smackdown, NXT, PPVs and shows from the past.
  • Complete UFC 318 coverage and retirement of Dustin Poirier
  • G-1 notes
  • TNA Slammiversary coverage
  • The most detailed look at the TV ratings over the past week
  • CMLL anniversary show taking shape
  • MJF headed to Arena Mexico
  • The amazing Friday night show this past week
  • The weekend battle of Mexico City
  • A look at why CMLL is on fire
  • Omos update
  • Stardom major show coverage
  • All Japan big matches
  • NOAH and the two GHC title bouts
  • Real American Freestyle update
  • How the financial situation after WWE has changed for certain women after leaving the company
  • A look at Ed Don George and his being honored this past week
  • More on Cowboy Bob Ellis
  • AEW on MAX update as well as DVR numbers
  • Bryan Danielson talks a lot about many different things
  • The Ali Act and the attempt to change it to benefit TKO
  • Dana White on Jon Jones
  • Lots of new UFC PP main events
  • Diego Sanchez arrested
  • Ben Askran returns home
  • Changes in the WWE workplace
  • Notes on Survivor Series this year
  • Punk on his promos
  • Goldberg talks
  • McIntyre  with Logan Paul
  • A celebrity out of the video game after his situation with WWE has changed
  • WWE weekend house shows

This Week’s Back Issue

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Sunday Update

— Bryan and I will be back tonight covering the news from the weekend with a lot more thoughts on Hulk Hogan, G-1 and more. Friday’s show with Garrett Gonzales included answering questions about Hogan as well as an interview with Mark Briscoe. You will love how well Briscoe came off on this one.

— Thanks to everyone for their comments on the current issue and the Hogan story. Some stuff on Hogan that I did:

— The New York Times with Hogan’s affect on U.S. journalism in the Gawker case (thanks to Steve Tanzer)

— Gordon Solie passed away 25 years ago today. Boy do I remember that day well. Vincent Carolan sent us an interview with Solie.

— Our story on Soile is at https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/august-7-2000-wrestling-observer-newsletter-gordon-solie-passes-away/

— Drew McIntyre said this in a video, “It’s quite the week I’ve had. You want to know how it’s been capped off? I can’t get back in America. They wouldn’t let me board my flight. I’m in England still. I’m at my buddy’s wedding. What a wedding it was. Planning to go back, train for SummerSlam. But no, no, no, no, no I got blocked. Wife and I walked up to the gate trying to check in. Always goes perfectly fine. Not this time. ‘You don’t have your US passport. I know who you are. I know you’ve lived there for a long time. I know you’re showing me pictures of US passport and your global entry It doesn’t matter. I know exactly who you are, your property and the likes. But no, we can’t let you in the country, buddy. We can’t let you in the country.’ So my wife and I panic. We say we’ve got a sick animal at home. We’re good people. We care about our animals. We care about people. Go ahead, babe. Don’t think about me. Leave me behind. Leave me to die behind. It’s okay. She has to go against her will. Goes back home, look after the cat. And here I am.”

“So what happened?,” he continued. “What changed this trip? Jelly Roll. You know somebody? Got some connections? You got your 15 minutes of Fame right now. You can get away with some stuff. You’re hot. Soon you will not be. You’re getting in while you can. You realize when I took off my shirt on SmackDown, you went, ‘Oh my God, all that aura, I’m screwed.’ So you’re going to screw up my training for SummerSlam week. Why am I in a field? I don’t know why I’m in a field. I can tell you one thing. When this is all over and I’m going to get back, I’m going to drop you, Jelly Roll. I’m going to make you pay. And eventually, you’re going to gain all that weight back and you’re going to look like one of these f***ers [shows a photo of a cow].”

At least the second part is a work.  First part I’m not sure what is or isn’t accurate.  But he did have issues getting out of the country today.

— The SmackDown tribute to Hulk Hogan on the day of airing was No. 3 in Australia on the Netflix English language TV show chart, No. 3 in India, No. 3 in New Zealand, No. 3 in Saudi Arabia, No. 2 in the U.K., No. 1 in Canada and No. 3 in Mexico.  It was up in five of those countries from the prior week.

— Happy Gilmore 2 was huge on Netflix. On the movie charts, which are much tougher than the TV show charts, for yesterday (meaning not for the first day but the second day), the movie was No. 1 in Canada, Australia, Mexico, New Zealand and the U.K., No. 4 in India and No. 2 in Saudi Arabia. To show how big it was, the first movie  from 1996 among everything on Netflix yesterday was No. 2 in Canada, No. 3 in Australia, No. 4 in New Zealand and No. 3 in the U.K.

— Mexico City for the last two nights saw 16,000 at Arena Mexico, a sellout, for the CMLL show with Mascara Dorada vs. Neon and Misitco vs. Hechicero, AAA did 5,000 on Friday, also a sellout head-to-head with Alberto vs. Mesias and Alberto having to leave town if he lost, I didn’t get a crowd last night at Arena Ciudad for the WWE show but I have to think it sold out because WWE hasn’t run in such a long time and it’s hot. Arena Coliseo sold out at 5,100 last night for CMLL.

— WWE from last night at Arena Ciudad:

  • Mr. Iguana & Pagano & Psycho Clown b Santos Escobar & Angel & Berto
  • Dominik Mysterio won non-title three-way over El Grande Americano (super over as a babyface on Friday’s show) and Ron Killings
  • Raquel Rodriguez &  Roxanne Perez b Michin & B-Fab to keep the tag titles
  • Jey Uso & Sami Zayn b Bron Breaker & Bronson Reed
  • Stephanie Vaquer b Chelsea Green
  • Tiffany Stratton b Nia Jax to keep the WWE Women’ s title
  • Rey Fenix & Andrade b Creeds
  • Cody Rhodes & Jimmy Usoo & Jacob Fatu b Solo Sikoa & JC Mateo & Tonga Loa
  • Gunther b  Penta to retain the World title

— G-1 standings:

A block

  • Yota Tsuji 4-1
  • Evil, Oleg Boltin, Ryohei Oiwa, Yuya Uemura 3-2
  • Taichi, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Sanada, Callum Newman 2-3
  • David Finlay 1-4

B block. Just points because everyone has gotten two added points except Takeshita for forfeit wins over Gabe Kidd

  • Yoshi-Hashi, Ren Narita, Konosuke Takeshita, Drilla Moloney 6 points
  • Shota Umino, Zack Sabre Jr., 4 points
  • El Phantasmo, Gerat O’Khan, Shingo Takagi 2 points
  • Gabe Kidd 0 points

— The matches I’ve seen people rave about heavily this weekend are Dorada vs. Neon, with some calling it a match of the year candidate as well as Shingo Takagi vs. Konosuke Takeshita and Zack Sabre Jr. vs.El Phantasmo from the weekend’s G-1. Most have Takagi vs. Takeshita as the best G-1 match so far. I’ll hopefully watch both later today and talk about it on the show. Also Rising Hayato vs. Seigo Tachibana from the All Japan jr. tournament was said to be one of the best jr. matches of the year from a men’s company.

— Raw tomorrow has Finn Balor & JD McDonagh defending the tag titles against the LWO, Iyo Sky & Rhea Ripley & Stephanie Vaquer & Nikki Bella vs. Naomi & Chelsea Green & Piper Niven & Alba Fyre plus Jey Uso vs. Bronson Reed.

— Announced for Dynamite Wednesday is Adam Page vs. Jon Moxley for the AEW title, Young  Bucks vs. Outrunners and MJF will appear.

— During today’s IndyCar race a Laguna Seca, they played Real American (thanks to Brian Henke)

— My friend Jeff Bukantz was announcing the world fencing championships is Tbilisi, Georgia (European country, not U.S. state) today and in the heavyweight gold medal match, as it started he compared it to a Hulk Hogan vs. Macho Man Randy  Savage match.

— Bill Goldberg suffered a broken hand in his match with Gunther

— The movie Coyote vs. ACME starring John Cena will be released in theaters on August 28, 2026.

— The show Caught! Sharks Strike Back as part of Shark Week, with Darby Allin on it, did 563,000 viewers and 0.10 on Discovery.

— Tenesha Biggers, a former TNA wrestler who had a relationship with Kurt Angle when both were in TNA, was arrested yesterday morning on criminal trespassing charges, as well as a violation from a prior eviction order. In the TMZ story, the photo for Biggers was of former WWE and college basketball star Linda Miles.

— UFC’s main event from yesterday with Reinier de Ridder vs. Robert Whittaker’s super close decision, winner likely getting a middleweight title shot, saw judge Michael Bell give de Ridder rounds two and four, going 48-47 for Whittaker; judge Ben Cartlidge had da Ridder winning two, four and five for a 48-47 edge, and judge David Lethaby saw it the same at 48-47 for da Ridder. Media scores were 56-44 in favor of de Ridder.  

— We have Impact spoilers from Friday night in Kingston, RI, that can be found here (thanks to Arya Witner)

— GCW is running Japan this week, starting a stretch of eight shows over the next seven days on multiple continents for the promotion.

— As far as Google searches this past week, Hulk Hogan was 10 million which is enormous, Ozzy Osbourne was 11 million, Malcolm-Jamal Warner has 5 million.  For the weekend, Happy Gilmore 2 was 200,000 (6 million for the week), the UFC show yesterday did 165,000, MJF was 10,000 and SummerSlam was 20,000.

— WWE LFG tonight at 10 p.m. on A&E.