Daily Update: Jeff Jarrett, Steve Austin, Conor McGregor

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

Among the topics covered in this issue:

  • WWE sets gate record at Clash at the Castle, as well as a look at other metrics
  • Running down the news of the show
  • The Drew McIntyre angle
  • A look at the next two PPVs
  • What the other metrics tell us about the interest level for Clash
  • Why the Cung Le lawsuit that was thought to be settled hasn’t been ratified
  • What worried the Judge
  • What worries the lawyers on both sides
  • The real world and real life issues regarding the settlement
  • Update on Forbidden Door, All In and the Owen Hart tournament
  • Kevin Kelly talks suing AEW
  • The G1 Climax tournament
  • Key news notes on the tournament
  • Review of TripleMania in Tijuana
  • A look at this week’s episode of Who Killed WCW
  • The most detailed look at the ratings this past week for all the shows, quarters, competition and placings
  • CMLL Anniversary show note
  • Mistico anniversary week notes
  • Former WWE star now agent for AAA
  • Update on Giulia, Marigold and WWE
  • Notes on the death of one of Argentina’s top stars from the heyday
  • Shocker rehab notes
  • More on the shooting involving Shannon Ritch
  • Life of James Castle
  • TNA PPV rundown
  • AEW’s new Triller deal
  • Details on the Shane McMahon story going around
  • Attendance advances for all the upcoming WWE & AEW shows
  • Streaming numbers for the week
  • International ratings
  • Update on McGregor vs. Chandler
  • Thoughts on Jake Paul’s next fight
  • New Wyatt Sicks news
  • Injury updates
  • Timeline of Hulk Hogan coming to WWF from AWA

This week’s Wresting Observer Newsletter back issue

Sunday Update

– Bryan and I will be back tonight talking about the great episode of Smackdown, Jeff Jarrett, AEW numbers, Fantastica Mania, G-1  Jamie Kellner and more.

– We’re looking for reports from the weekend WWE shows last night in Bloomington, IL and tonight in Kalamazoo, MI. We’re looking for results, finishes and highlights to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

– Jeff Jarrett got a lot of talk last night for his promo regarding the Owen Hart tournament that aired on Collision. I know that the full promo was long and segments would have had to have been canceled to fit it in, but the version on YouTube was a must-see, far more than the television version, and a longer cut should have aired last night. Maybe they can air it on  Wednesday in its entirety but I’m guessing that doesn’t happen.The unedited version can be seen here. 

– Another Jarrett story is that he was at the AIW show in Cleveland last night and Nathan Zegura, the Cleveland Browns radio host, was there working at the show and Jarrett hit him with a guitar.

– In Google searches, for the week, the UFC show from Saudi Arabia was the No. 1 search in the country with 200,000. On Friday, the death of Talor Wily (Teila Tuli who was in the first UFC fight ever on PPV) was No. 3. The only other thing during the week making the top 20 from wrestling, boxing or MMA, was Ryan Garcia being suspended officially after his positive drug test being No. 6 on Wednesday.

– The back issue on the site today from 2007 is notable for two major historical reasons, the first being the first women’s MMA fight on a major television station and how important that was to history with Gina Carano vs. Julie Kedzie. The other is the death of James Melby, a name who has been on the Hall of Fame ballot but never gotten in, who was a major magazine writer and head of the group of historians who have unveiled so much of wrestling history, doing away with tons of myths passed down and such. Melby was a huge part of both my career, as without him there is zero chance there would be a Wrestling Observer, as well as the career of Mike Tenay.  There’s also a story on plans that never happened involving Hulk Hogan for the 2007 WrestleMania.  

– Today is the 22nd anniversary of one of the most famous fights in history, Don Frye vs. Yoshihiro Takayama on June 23, 2002. It’s also the 28th anniversary of Steve Austin winning King of the Ring and cutting the Austin 3:16 promo, which almost surely led to more merchandise revenue and probably long-term ticket revenue than any promo in the history of pro wrestling.

– A&E tonight at 8 pm. airs the debut of the Rob Van Dam biography episode.

– Ramazan Kuramagomedov beat Jason Jackson yesterday in Dublin, Ireland to win the Bellator welterweight title via unanimous decision.

– Conor McGregor did a promo on that show saying that other fighters who don’t rely on footwork would have fought with a broken toe, but his game is dependent on footwork and he’s going in at 100 percent and indicated he would be fighting shortly. McGregor is known for great promos and he really didn’t come across like anything special even though of course the crowd reacted to him big.  

– Raw tomorrow in Indianapolis against game seven of the NHL playoffs has Bron Breakker vs. Ludwig Kaiser, Kofi Kingston vs. Karrion Kross, Braun Strowman vs. Chad Gable vs. Bronson Reed in a MITB qualifier and Shayna  Baszler vs.  Lyra Valkyria vs. Kairi Sane in a MITB qualifier.  They had originally announced Gable was out and Kaiser was in his spot. Then they announced Gable was back in. 

– On Friday night’s show at Arena Mexico, Catalina was in terrible pain in her match with Stephanie Vaquer. The aftermath of this match involved Mercedes Mone confronting Vaquer, which was shown on Collision last night. Catalina finished the match and then went to the hospital where she was diagnosed with an ovarian cyst. She underwent surgery yesterday morning.

– People were raving about last night’s Arena Coliseo match with Hechicero vs. Zack Sabre Jr., which Hechicero won. The other actual match we heard a lot about was Ospreay vs. Brian Cage from Collision, which ended up excellent, but I’m sure would have been better without the two long commercial breaks.

– Paige VanZant announced that she was going to compete in PowerSlap with her debut on the Friday night show in Las Vegas against Christine Wolmarans. She will become the first former UFC fighter in PowerSlap. Many others had been contacted about doing it but turned it  down.

– Shelton Benjamin beat Jonathan Gresham last night for the ASE promotion in Charlotte, NC.

– Dungeon Wrestling from from Calgary, Alberta last night before 500 fans: Harlon Abbott b Tommy Billington, Michale Alen Richard Clark b Raj Singh, Chris Knight b Red Scorpion, Shuan Mooore & Aurora Teves b Rohan Raja & Ava Lawless, Mo Jabari b Real 1 (Enzo Amore), Chris Adonis b Dirty Dango. There were photos that surfaced of promoter Bret Hart with Snoop Dogg  (thanks to Ross Hart).

– XICW from last night in Clinton Township, MI:  Dean Hendrix b Alex Lynch, Jack Price b TJ Meyer, Royce Carney III b Jheas Grey, Great Tiger b Marcus Porter, Dre Jabobs b Crazy Kig  Schwartzy b Soultaker, Randi West b Ricki Morris, Kyler Coleman b Maxximillion Rhino & DBA b N8 Mattson & Orlando Christopher (thanks to Leonard Brand)