Daily Update: Janel Grant, AEW All In, Dragon Kid

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

The new issue of the Wrestling Observer is up on the site right now.  It was a huge news week as it’s the largest issue in some time:

  • Full coverage of Crown Jewel with the matches, business and interest level
  • Thoughts on the programs going forward
  • TKO gives its quarterly business update
  • Why profits are lower than usual.
  • UFC’s media rights deal thoughts
  • Talk about the future of Fight Pass
  • Revenue for UFC & WWE in different categories
  • Stock value
  • How much debt TKO currently has
  • How the Cung Le lawsuit factors into all this
  • More on the show at  Sphere
  • Thoughts about Dana White and/or Nick Khan getting involved with  boxing from Mark Shapiro
  • More Netflix plans
  • A look at the Wrestle Kingdom lineup
  • Where New Japan’s business currently stands
  • Upcoming New Japan tag team tournament notes
  • Power Struggle coverage, great matches and angles
  • NXT and AEW go head-to-head, the most detailed breakdown as to what happened and why
  • Where AEW stood in the overall standings that night
  • How every quarter did
  • Coverage of the Conor McGregor trial going on
  • Update on Full Gear, announced matches,  other matches, ticket buying interest
  • Notes on WWE cuts like Baron Corbin, Indi Hartwell and Tegan Nox.
  • Dragon Gates runs a major show
  • The most detailed look at the ratings for all the shows this past week, with standings for the night and week, segment-by-segment numbers, and all the competition.
  • CMLL to fill the historical middleweight title vacancy by Mistico this week
  • Arena Mexico draws the week’s largest crowd for themed show
  • Update on El Hijo del Vikingo
  • Stardom tag team tournament update
  • King of Gate tournament update
  • Davey Boy Smith Jr. wins Triple Crown and background of that
  • Death of Scorpio Jr.
  • Hall of Fame candidate health issue update
  • The life of AWA’s Al DeRusha
  • Can actual wrestling draw more than 40,000 each to six events over three days. 2028 we’ll get the chance to find out.
  • Marko Stunt talks retirement
  • Santo retirement tour noes
  • Mike Mansury talks AEW production changes for 2025
  • All the PPV business updates
  • Ricochet talks leaving WWE
  • International TV ratings and streaming numbers
  • Jon Jones talks Tom Aspinall and why he’s not interested in that ight
  • More on the Bruce Prichard and Michael Hayes leave of absences
  • WWE scheduling updates
  • Yoshhiki Inamura comes to NXT
  • WWE signs former Olympic athletes
  • Lots of WWE injury updates
  • Notes from all the live arena events and the European tour

This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter Back Issue

Friday Update

  • Garrett Gonzales and I have our weekly news show today that will be up shortly.  For the weekend, my show with Bryan Alvarez will be on Sunday night.
  • Smackdown tonight in Buffalo was built around Sami Zayn & Roman Reigns meeting, and Chris Sabin &  Alex Shelley on the Grayson Waller Effect.  They had 11,800 tickets out earlier today so another big crowd tonight.
  • Dr. Carlon Colker and Peak Wellness have attempted to get Connecticut Superior Court to throw out the request by Janel Grant to obtain her medical records.  The statement claimed that they have already given her electronic copies of all her records and they provided the evidence to the court.  Ann Callis told Post Wrestling that by their own admission in their pleading, they are withholding records for fear of legal action against Colker.
  • AEW will be doing a kickoff party on 11/20 from 6-9 p.m. local time at Texas Live! in Arlington to push ticket sales for All In Texas on 6/12 at Globe Life Field. The event is free and open to everyone.  Dustin Rhodes, Jeff Jarrett, Thunder Rosa, Athena, Sammy Guevara, The Outrunners and Abadon are scheduled to appear.

Rampage tonight at 10 p.m. on TNT

  • Hikaru Shida vs. Viva Van
  • Mike Bennett & Matt Taven vs. The Infantry vs. Alex Reynolds & John Silver
  • Top Flight vs. JD Drake & Beef
  • Komander vs. Lio Rush
  • Ayako Hamada was on a show Sunday and on the mic said that her father, Gran Hamada, was seriously ill.
  • An update on Dragon Kid, who landed on his head  at a bad angle at yesterday’s show at Korakuen Hall where he faced Flamita. We’re told he is okay and the injury isn’t serious but he does have a neck injury and won’t be wrestling this weekend or next weekend.

We’re looking for reports on these weekend shows:

  • Smackdown tonight in Buffalo (only stuff not on the live TV show)
  • TNA TV tapings in Fayetteville, NC tonight
  • The Crash tonight in Tijuana
  • TNA TV tapings tomorrow night in Fayetteville, NC
  • MLW tomorrow night in Chicago
  • We’re looking for results, finishes and highlights to dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  • Jay White & Juice Robinson vs. Christian & Adam Page has been added to Dynamite on Wednesday.
  • New Japan World’s show from Lowell, MA is not a PPV but free for subscribers with Gabe Kidd vs. Kosei Fujita for the New Japan Strong title, Konosuke Takeshita vs. TJP for the International title, Kenta vs. Ryohei Oiwa, Zack Sabre Jr. & Bad Dude Tito vs. Shota Umino & Tomohiro Ishii, Shingo Takagi & Yota Tsuji vs. Mike Bennett & Matt Taven, Anna Jay vs. Hazuki vs. Koguma vs. Trish Adora for a shot at Mercedes Mone’s Strong title in Long Beach on 12/15 and other bouts already completed.
  • Kazuchika Okada turns 37 today.
  • They are not using a tron for the Saturday Night’s Main Event show at the Nassau Coliseum on 12/14 so they’ll be able to fit close to 15,000 in the building.
  • Arena Mexico tonight has a six-way for the vacant Historic middleweight title with Flip Gordon, Villano III Jr., Neon, Guerrero Maya Jr., Dragon Rojo Jr. and Difunto.  The rules are unique in that four will be eliminated and the last two will have a singles match next Friday for the title.  Main event is Atlantis Jr. & Mascara Dorada & Mistico vs. Angel de Oro & Hechicero & Soberano Jr.

UFC tomorrow is a full ESPN+ show starting at 4 p.m. Eastern

  • Melissa Mullins (137) vs. Klaudia Syguia (136) – Muillins missed weight by one pound
  • Tresean Gore (186) vs. Antonio Trocoli (186)
  • Cody Stamann (135.5) vs. Da’Mon  Blackshear (135.5)
  • Matthew Semelsberger (171) vs. Charlie Radtke (170.5)
  • Elizeu Zaleski Dos Santos (171) vs. Zach Scroggin (174) – Scroggin missed weight by three pounds
  • Gaston Bolanos (135.5) vs. Cortavious Romious (136)
  • Karolina Kowalkiewicz (115.5) vs. Denise Gomes (115)
  • Mansur Abdul-Malik (186) vs. Dusko Todorovic (185.5)
  • Luana Pinheiro (115.5) vs. Gillian Robertson (116)
  • Gerald Meershaert (185) vs. Reinier de Ridder (185)
  • Neil Magny (171) vs. Carlos Prates (170.5)
  • Mistico vs. Titan vs. Averno for the MLW middleweight title headlines tomorrow’s MLW show at Cicero Stadium in Chicago.
  • Nikki & Brie Garcia will be on an episode of the show Side Hustles on VEEPS, a streaming platform of Live Nation Entertainment. They will be talking about their Bonita Bonita wine brand.
  • Kevin Nash has a back injury and won’t be able to travel so he will miss his MCW meet and greet session booking. John Layfield and Booker T have been booked as replacements.
  • The Crash has its 13th anniversary show tonight in Tijuana at Auditorio Municipal.  Bestia 666 vs. Mecha Wolf have a hair vs. hair match plus Heavy Metal vs. Super Crazy vs. Mr Aguila vs Juventud Guerrera also have a hair match. Matt Riddle was announced as off the show due to reasons outside the control of the promotion and they contacted Raj Dhesi (Jinder Mahal) as a replacement.