Daily Update: Hulk Hogan, Kevin Owens, Shane Haste
Daily Update
Latest News
- AEW Dynamite ratings up for 250th episode, best viewership in three months
- CM Punk: WWE & UFC being under the same umbrella is ‘really exciting’
- Julius Creed’s Bloodsport XI opponent revealed
- Jordynne Grace hypes big surprises for TNA Slammiversary
- Joe Hendry: Me winning the TNA World title at Slammiversary is ‘best for business’
- Jinder Mahal wishes he could take back ‘racial’ WWE promo from 2017
- NJPW reveals IWGP Committee members
- Subscriber exclusive: Bryan Alvarez’s AEW Dynamite report
- Joe Hendry still has ‘a while’ left on TNA contract
Latest Audio
- Wrestling Observer Live: Lance Storm joins to discuss Dynamite, Hogan at RNC, more
- Wrestling Observer Radio: AEW Dynamite & NXT recaps, MJF vs. Ospreay, G1 lineups, CMLL
Latest Free YouTube Video
This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter
The new issue of the Observer is up on the site now. Among the stories covered are:
- Lots of news on John Cena’s retirement tour
- What plans are made and what are yet to be made
- WWE marketing of Cena
- The Ric Flair and Lou Thesz records
- Who actually held the most world title reigns
- The 15 biggest drawing cards in North American history
- Cena’s early career
- The Stephanie Vaquer timeline and why everything happened the way it did
- SummerSlam top seven matches
- Money in the Bank coverage
- Unique poll result
- Business notes on the show
- PPV updates on Money in the Bank, Forbidden Door, Double or Nothing and Diaz vs. Masvidal
- Dana White talks about two giant deals from the past and why they fell through at the last minute
- NXT Heatwave coverage
- All In update and business notes
- Explaining the decline in cable television and how AEW compares to that
- The most detailed look at the TV ratings for all wrestling and MMA shows including competition, one-year comparisons and segment-by-segment.
- Weekly TV placings for the top wrestling shows
- Mistico vs. Chris Jericho
- G-1 updates
- Oldest still-living major world champion agrees to come back for one last match
- Notes on the Marigold PV show
- Update on Kevin Sullivan
- Second oldest living wrestler passes away, career dates back to the 1940s
- Historical wrestling landmark about to be torn down
- Major matches in Europe
- Update on AEW TV negotiations
- Lots of health updates on WWE stars
- International TV ratings and streaming numbers and what wrestler in main events makes a 31% positive difference in AEW international numbers
- Studying the changes in submissions in UFC by the decade
- Ronda Rousey praises Dana White and Paul Heyman
- WWE talking new belts update
This Week’s Wresting Observer Newsletter Back Issue
Thursday Update
WWE
- Hulk Hogan will speak at the final night of the 2024 Republican National Convention tonight. There will also be speeches by Linda McMahon and Dana White. Yesterday, Glenn Jacobs (Kane) met up with Linda at the convention.
- At the RNC, Going Ringside asked Linda McMahon how the McMahon family is doing. “We’re all doing great,” she responded. “Thank you. Doing great.”
- Kevin Owens announced some good news regarding his mother’s health status today. He tweeted a photo of her holding a Just Keep Fighting shirt and captioned it with “She kicked out.” On SmackDown earlier this month, Owens gave an emotional speech revealing that his mother had been rushed to the hospital and was fighting like hell. He still wrestled at Money in the Bank because he knew his mother would be mad if he didn’t.
- Cody Rhodes interviewed LA Knight on episode two of “What Do You Wanna Talk About?”
AEW/Other Wrestling
- Tony Khan thanked everyone who watched AEW Dynamite’s 250th episode last night: “Thank you all who watch AEW! Thanks to you, last night Wednesday Night #AEWDynamite 250 had our most viewers on TBS in over 3 months, + continued a streak of great Dynamites! See you all next Wednesday on TBS, we’ll extend this hot run, + this weekend don’t miss @AEWonTV on TNT!”
- AEW will make its Springfield, Massachusetts debut at the MassMutual Center for Collision on Saturday, September 21.
- New CMLL Women’s Champion Willow Nightingale appeared on CMLL Informa and said she plans on showing up to Mexico City to defend her title. It was said that Nightingale will be coming to Arena Mexico soon.
- Ric Flair sent out a tweet congratulating MJF on his AEW International Championship win.
- AEW Music’s “Who We Are: A Celebration Of Excellence, Vol 2” is now available to stream on Apple and Spotify.
- On Instagram, Minoru Suzuki wrote about chatting with Mercedes Mone after Dynamite last night:
- Checking in at the hotel and a voice over there… ‘Hey Suzuki ~ Come Here ~’ AEW Dynamite is over with a few people drinking… It’s a blast… Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Let’s go! Then Mone @mercedesmone said, ‘You’re going to Tequila, right?’ I got involved. They’re going! And meet up. We talked about many things. Pro wrestling talk, past talk, future talk… The nights in Little Rock are slipping away.
- PCO told Straight Talk Wrestling that he feels like he’ll end up appearing for WWE as part of the working relationship that now exists between WWE and TNA:
- I think the day you see that (me back in WWE), I think the roof will go off the building. That would be pretty amazing. I guess, yeah. I guess. I’ve got a strong feeling it’s gonna happen. I don’t know why. Just, I’ve always been very super close to guessing a little bit. I don’t know how things are gonna happen, I never know how. Like when I decided to stay with TNA, I was not supposed to stay and I had that conversation with Scott (D’Amore) before he got fired and I don’t know, for whatever reason, he convinced me to stay and he had planned for Montreal and after the month that it was supposed to be on didn’t happen and then, it came back and the way it’s happening now, it’s like, okay, now I know why I’ve been with TNA for the last two years and now everything was aligned with this. The (Canadian) International Heavyweight title on the line too (at Slammiversary) with the great lineage and the Digital Media title and all that on the line. It’s so much on the line and in front of my people.
- TNA streamed its pre-Slammiversary press conference this afternoon.
- Comicbook.com interviewed Nic Nemeth ahead of Slammiversary.
- Shane Haste confirmed to WrestleMobs that he’s signed a new contract with NJPW. Haste said that, with how much he loves Japan and with how well NJPW treats him, it wouldn’t have made sense to go anywhere else.
- Hiromu Takahashi has officially been announced for NJPW Capital Collision in Washington, D.C. on Friday, August 30.
- Stardom wrestler HANAKO will debut for MLW at Summer of the Beasts in New York City on Thursday, August 29.
- GCW announced that Nick Gage won’t be able to wrestle at their events this weekend: “Due to injury, Nick Gage will not be able to compete on this weekend’s events. We apologize for the late notice. Nick fully intended to wrestle but it’s in his best interests to wait.”
- PWInsider reports that production has started on season six of Dark Side of the Ring.