Daily Update: Impact ratings drop, UFC 215, Jinder Mahal

THE ROUND-UP

The Latest from the F4W Staff

NEWS

AUDIO

We’re looking for reports on today’s NXT show from Toronto to newstips@wrestlingobserver.com.

UFC 215 FROM EDMONTON

Fight Pass at 6:30 p.m. Eastern

  • Kajan Johnson vs. Adriano Martins
  • Mitch Clarke vs. Alex White

FS 1 at 8 p.m. Eastern

  • Arjan Bhullar vs. Luis Henrique
  • Rick Glenn vs. Gavin Tucker
  • Ashlee Evans-Smith vs. Sara Moras
  • Sara McMann vs. Ketlen Vieira

PPV at 10 p.m. Eastern

  • Henry Cejudo vs. Wilson Reis
  • Gilbert Melendez vs. Jeremy Stephens
  • Ilir Latifi vs. Tyson Pedro
  • Rafael dos Anjos vs. Neil Magny
  • Amanda Nunes vs. Valentina Shevchenko for the women’s bantamweight title

NEW JAPAN DESTRUCTION IN FUKUSHIMA AT 3 A.M. EASTERN SUNDAY MORNING EASTERN AND MIDNIGHT PACIFIC ON SATURDAY NIGHT ON NEW JAPAN WORLD

  • Yuji Nagata & Hirai Kawato vs. Manabu Nakanishi & Shota Umino
  • Tomoyuki Oka & Katsuya Kitamura vs. Hirooki Goto & Yoshi-Hashi
  • Baretta & Jado vs. Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens
  • Hiroshi Tanahashi & Togi Makabe & Kushida & Ryusuke Taguchi & Ricochet vs. Takashi Iizuka & Taka Michinoku & Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Taichi
  • War Machine vs. Killer Elite Squad vs Guerrillas of Destiny for IWGP tag team titles
  • Juice Robinson & David Finlay vs. Leo Tonga & Bad Luck Fale
  • Tomohiro Ishii & Will Ospreay vs. Tetsuya Naito & Hiromu Takahashi
  • Evil & Seiya Sanada & Bushi vs. Kazuchika Okada & Rocky Romero & Toru Yano for six-man titles
  • Minoru Suzuki vs. Michael Elgin in a lumberjack match for Never open weight title

Raw will be Monday night in Anaheim at the Honda Center. Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman return for the show.

NXT is scheduled for a television taping on Wednesday night at Full Sail University in Winter Park, FL, although for obvious reasons related to the Hurricane Irma, there is a back-up plan in place.

There is a major Tuesday night taping in Las Vegas on Tuesday night. For Smackdown, there will be an Usos vs. New Day street fight for the tag titles, Natalya vs. Naomi for the women’s title and A.J. Styles vs. Tye Dillinger for the U.S. title. After that will be the Shayna Baszler vs. Kairi Sane Mae Young Classic title, followed by 20-5 Live with TJP vs; Rich Swann.

FIGURE FOUR WEEKLY: Figure Four Weekly 9/4/2017: Women’s wrestling takes another step forward with Mae Young Classic

With everything but the final now having aired, the Mae Young Classic has again challenged whether women’s wrestling occupies enough of the current WWE landscape. The matches went about as well as could be expected. There were few bad ones, a handful of standouts, and a ton of pretty good matches. The 32-competitor field showcased female wrestlers of varying skill sets — from one participant having their literal first professional match (Xia Li) to veterans finally getting their first chance in a WWE ring after lengthy careers.

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WRESTLING OBSERVER NEWSLETTER:September 11, 2017 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Jeff Jarrett takes leave of absence from GFW, PWG BOLA reviewed, more

A look at GFW, the departure of Jeff Jarrett, and where things go from here with the company is the lead story in the new issue. Look at the talks of a sale, incidents that happened, future direction, the current television situation, why the tape library isn’t going to be sold, the new creative team, the current angles, Bound for Glory plans, Alberto El Patron, the future of Jim Cornette, Bruce Prichard and others and more.

Look at the Mayweather-McGregor business; looking at PPV in the U.S. and U.K., live gate, what mistakes were made, and the state of McGregor coming out of the fight.

Check out the next two WWE PPV shows, the Cena vs. Reigns program and Enzo Amore and the cruiserweight division.

Details on the Battle of Los Angeles tournament including the Keith Lee vs. Donovan Dijak match, the future of Ricochet and Matt Riddle and how the New Japan/WWE situation fits in, and why the usual rules of wrestling and crowds don’t seem to apply in PWG.

Get an update on John Layfield leaving Smackdown, The Mae Young Classic, how the Mae Young Classic did on the WWE Network, new WWE TV deal in Canada, Hurricane Irma and WWE events, what opposing lawyer in concussion suit asked for as part of a settlement, Samoa Joe injury update, Sami Zayn update, more on the situation with Baron Corbin, Nikki Bella on Dancing with the Stars, WWE running Christmas and New Year’s live shows, injury updates, Australia tour notes, and company value. 

Full coverage of the UFC Fight Pass event from Rotterdam, Holland is in this issue.

Examine the real numbers when it comes to cord cutting, as well as how many people have access to the key stations wrestling and MMA are on.

Get details on the ratings for all the national shows over the past week, including breakdown of who was watching all of the WWE shows.

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ORDERING INFO: Order the print Wrestling Observer right now and get it delivered via mail, by sending your name, address, Visa or Master Card number and an expiration date to Dave Meltzer, or by using PayPal directing funds to Dave@WrestlingObserver.com. 

Rates in the United States are $13 for 4 issues, $32 for 12, $61 for 24, $101 for 40 and $131 for 52. In Canada and Mexico, rates are $14.50 for 4, $35 for 12, $67 for 24, $111 for 40 and $144 or 52. In Europe, you can get the fastest delivery and best rates by sending to moonsault@mediaplusint.com. For the rest of the world, rates are $16.50 for 4, $44 for 12, $85 for 24, $141 for 40 issues and $183 for 52. If you order by mail with a check, cash or money order (P.O. Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228), you can get $1 off in every price range.)

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WON BACK ISSUE: August 14, 2000 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: WCW turmoil, Hall of Fame candidates, more

The turmoil regarding the future of World Championship Wrestling continues with what apparently is a shake-up leaving Brad Siegel backing Vince Russo in complete control of the company. At the same time, the losses continue to escalate, with July’s losses estimated at $7 million, the most, by far, of any month in the history of a company now on track to lose close to $80 million over the course of this year. The main stories going around, seem to involve the prospective merger of AOL and Time Warner, and getting the company’s losses under control.

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SATURDAY NEWS UPDATE

WWE

  • Jinder Mahal was supposed to walk debuting fighter Arjan Bhullar (who is of Indian descent) to the Octagon at UFC 215 tonight but didn’t make an appearance. Ariel Helwani wrote it’s because Mahal is stuck in Florida due to Hurricane Irma.
  • WWE posted video of Bobby Roode’s goodbye to St. Catharines last night on his NXT farewell tour. He’ll wrestle on what’s scheduled to be his final NXT house show in Toronto tonight. Tye Dillinger, who is appearing on this tour as WWE doesn’t have house shows this weekend, did a speech last night as well with the show taking place in his hometown.
  • Roode spoke to the Peterborough Examiner before the tour started.
  • As his health continues to improve, Ric Flair’s Twitter account posted photos of Charlotte visiting him in the hospital yesterday.
  • Jack Gallagher and his new wife Clara Sinclare got married yesterday.
  • WWE posted a tale of the tape on Brock Lesnar and Braun Strowman ahead of their match at No Mercy later this month.
  • Yahoo ran a story on Nia Jax walking the runway at theCURVYCon fashion show.
  • Microsoft Office’s Twitter account is eagerly anticipating the continuation of Drew Gulak’s PowerPoint presentation from 205 Live last week.

Pro Wrestling

  • Against the first game of the NFL season (the New England Patriots vs. Kansas City Chiefs) and coverage of Hurricane Irma, ratings for this week’s episode of Impact predictably took a big hit. The show averaged 227,000 viewers, down from the previous week’s 268,000. The number is Impact’s third lowest on Pop TV, ahead of last year’s Thanksgiving show and an episode that had technical difficulties.
  • Karen Jarrett tweeted a message thanking Anthem and everyone who has reached out during Jeff Jarrett’s leave of absence: “So many continue to reach out to Jeff and myself. Thank you for all the love! Thank you Ed Nordholm and Anthem for giving Jeff the time he needs! And to all the fans this is 110% a positive for Jeff and GFW/Impact!”
  • Christy Hemme announced that she’s pregnant with quadruplets.
  • NJPW’s biggest show since the G1 finals is happening overnight as Destruction in Fukushima takes place at 3 a.m. Eastern time. There will be three title matches, with Minoru Suzuki putting the NEVER Openweight Championship on the line against Michael Elgin in a lumberjack match, SANADA, EVIL & BUSHI defending their six-man tag titles against Kazuchika Okada, Rocky Romero & Toru Yano, and IWGP Tag Team Champions War Machine facing Killer Elite Squad and the Guerrillas of Destiny.
  • Marty Scurll vs. Chuck Taylor has been added to the card for ROH’s Death Before Dishonor pay-per-view in Las Vegas on September 22nd.
  • Cody Rhodes cut a promo about not regretting his open challenge for Death Before Dishonor after Minoru Suzuki answered it.
  • Penta El 0M & Rey Fenix will team against Rey Mysterio & Juventud Guerrera at the Cow Palace for All Pro Wrestling on November 10th.
  • Hannibal TV uploaded a match from 2008 with Samoa Joe & Hannibal facing Jinder Mahal & Gamma Singh Jr.

UFC/MMA

  • Dana White isn’t in attendance at UFC 215 tonight. Ariel Helwani tweeted that he was told it’s because White had prior business to take care of.
  • After he fell ill and his UFC 215 main event against Demetrious Johnson was canceled, Ray Borg issued a statement apologizing to the fans and Johnson. He also noted that he’s parting ways with the Perfecting Athletes organization and their nutritionist that he was working with.
  • Holly Holm predicted that Valentina Shevchenko will beat Amanda Nunes for the women’s bantamweight title in tonight’s main event.
  • The UFC uploaded the final episode of Embedded before tonight’s PPV.
  • Rafael dos Anjos doesn’t think that Conor McGregor will be defending his lightweight title anytime soon.
  • Stephen Espinoza said that Showtime will have some interest in a deal with the UFC when their contract with Fox comes up.
  • Bobby Lashley wants a title shot or someone who will get him to one if he returns to Bellator in December. Lashley also expressed interest in a fight against Fedor Emelianenko.

Today in Professional Wrestling History: Dusty Rhodes wins NWA TV title

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