Daily Update: Jim Valley, Georges St-Pierre, WWE SmackDown

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

The new issue of the Observer is out with the following covered:

  • Match of the week and performer of the week from the past two weeks
  • The most detailed story of the AEW/C.M. Punk relationship
  • The honeymoon period
  • The business records
  • The difficulty of the decision to cut ties with him
  • Lots of new information not reported previously
  • The original records set and business success
  • The fight after All Out and its aftermath
  • Realities of pro wrestling
  • Analysis of him going to WWE
  • Support and non-support for him in AEW
  • Punk’s prior two contacts in recent years with WWE about returning
  • Conflict between Punk and other talent
  • The situation with Adam Page
  • The attempts to get everyone working together and why it kept being delayed
  • Details on what happened in the investigations after All In
  • Tony Khan’s speech before the live crowd in Chicago
  • The life and times of Sheik Adnan-Al Kaissie, the Native American babyface torn foreign menace
  • Amateur wrestling, legend in Hawaii, and giant stadium crowds in Iraq including beating Andre the Giant
  • His WWWF tag team title run
  • His AWA run including the biggest crowds in the heyday of the promotion affiliated with Jerry Blackwell and Ken Patera
  • The final run with Sgt. Slaughter
  • Full coverage of Payback, business notes, stories out of the show and match-by-match coverage
  • Full coverage of All Out, highlights, polls, business notes and more
  • UFC weekend coverage from Paris
  • More notes on the formation of a new all-women’s promotion that starts in a few weeks with Japanese stars
  • The most detailed look at the ratings for every wrestling and MMA show, segment-by-segment notes
  • Rocky Romero talks his CMLL run
  • Latest from Arena Mexico
  • Hall of Famer says he hopes to recover from recent operation and have a big retirement match
  • Stardom Five-Star Grand Prix tournament notes
  • Stardom PPV coverage
  • New rookie getting rave reviews
  • All Japan and NOAH have big shows
  • Terry Funk funeral notes
  • Notes on new TV show
  • Big tag team tournament coming
  • More notes on Wembley Stadium attendance
  • Bryan Danielson and Adam Cole talk post All Out
  • Advance ticket sales for WWE & AEW shows
  • AEW value calculated
  • International TV ratings and streaming numbers
  • Aussie Open on why they signed with AEW
  • Sports franchise owned by pro wrestling star wins championship
  • Dana White talks Bellator being for sale
  • More on Bellator sale talks
  • Analyst talks where he thinks WWE will wind up on television
  • Gable Steveson not doing world championships and update
  • Merchandise sales for Clash at the Castle and for All in
  • Cena’s drawing power on his return

This Week’s Retro Observer Newsletter

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@wrestlingobserver.com or by going to www.paypal.com directing funds to dave@wrestlingobserver.com.

Rates in the United States are $14.50 for 4 issues, $35.50 for 12, $70 for 24, $116 for 40 and $149.50 for 52.

In Canada and Mexico, the rates are $16 for 4, $27 for 8, $38.50 for 12, $76 for 24, $126 for 40 and $162.50 for 52.

For the rest of the world, rates are $18 for 4, $48.50 for 12, $93 for 24, $155 for 40 and $201.50 for 52.

If you order by mail with a check, cash or money order to P.O. Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228, you can get $1 off in every price range.

Friday Update

Garrett Gonzales and I have the week in review and covering the news in today’s Observer on the show up on the site right now. 

Our good friend Jim Valley is looking for a donor for a kidney transplant. He has been on dialysis for two years and it can take years unless he gets a living donor. His blood type is A positive but arrangements can be made possibly for another blood type. Anyone interested in donating can call 206-598-3627 or go to uw.donorscreen.org

Georges St-Pierre will be inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame on 10/19. He will also be awarded the Order of Sport, recognizing a Canadian athlete’s contributions to Canada through sports. 

Smackdown tonight is from Boston, which was just about sold out as of today, has A.J. Styles vs. Jimmy Uso, Charlotte Flair & Shotzi vs Bayley & Iyo Sky and Finn Balor & Damian Priest vs,. Ridge Holland & Butch.

We’ve looking for reports on these weekend shows:

  • Impact Victory Road tonight from White Plains, NY
  • Smackdown tonight in Boston (dark matches only)
  • NXT tonight in Sebring, FL
  • AEW tomorrow night in Cleveland (non-live TV matches only)
  • WWE tomorrow night at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, NY
  • NXT tomorrow in Melbourne, FL
  • WWE Sunday in Charlottesville, VA
  • We’re looking for results, finishes and highlights to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

AEW tonight at 10 p.m. on TNT has Jay Lethal vs. Penta and Samoa Joe vs. Jeff Hardy in the tournament, plus Young Bucks vs. Matt Menard & Angelo Parker and Hikaru Shida & Britt Baker & Skye Blue vs. Taya Valkyrie & The Bunny & Anna Jay.

Junior Dos Santos faces Fabricio Werdum tonight for Jorge Masvidal’s Gamebread Bare Knuckle MMA promotion, which is basically UFC before UFC 5 when Tank Abbott introduced gloves. The show takes place from the Vystar Arena in Jacksonville, FL. It will be live streamed on YouTube and Facebook for free.

Impact Victory Road tonight is an Impact+ PPV show from White Plains, NY

  • Bully Ray vs. PCO anything goes
  • Trinity vs. Alisha Edwards for the Knockouts title
  • Kenny King vs. Tommy Dreamer – Digital Media title vs. Dreamer having to retire
  • Lio Rush vs. Kushida for the X title
  • Trey Miguel & Zachary Wentz vs. Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley for the tag titles
  • Jordynne Grace vs. Deona Purrazzo
  • Josh Alexander vs. Steve Maclin

UFC has a PPV tomorrow from Sydney, Australia:

ESPN+ at 6:30 p.m. Eastern time

  • Kevin Jousset (170.5) vs. Keifer Crosbie (170.85)
  • Shane Young (149.75) vs. Gabrel Mirdanda (144.95) – Young forfeited 30 percent of his purse for missing weight by 3.75 pounds
  • Blood Diamond (170.25) vs. Charlie Radtke (170.30)

ESPN & ABC at 8 p.m. Eastern

  • Nasrat Haqparast (155.85) vs Landon Quinones (155.75)
  • Jamie Mullkarey (155.35) vs. John Makdessi (155.10)
  • Jack Jenkins (145.85) vs. Chepe Mariscal (145.85)
  • Carlos Ulberg (204.70) vs. Da Un Jung (205.30)

PPV at 10 p.m.

  • Tyson Pedro (205.45) vs. Anton Turkalj (205.35)
  • Justin Tafa (262.20) vs. Austen Lane (205.35)
  • Manel Kape (126) vs. Felipe Dos Santos (125.40)
  • Tai Tuivasa (265.60) vs. Alexander Volkov (262.90)
  • Israel Adesanya (184.80) vs. Sean Strickland (184.90) for the middleweight title

All Japan ran Yoyogi Gym in Tokyo earlier today: Yoshi Tatsu b Black Menso-re, Naruki Doi & Naoki Tanizaki & Hokuto Omori b Kotaro Suzuki & Keiichi Sato & Mazada, Masa Fuchi & Kaz Hayashi & Ryuji Hijikata b Osamu Nishimura & Mitsuya Nagai & Masao Inoue, THawk & Lindaman & Shigehiro Irie & Junjie b Koji Iwamoto & Takuya Nomura & Fuminori Abe & Ryo Inoue, Jun Akiyama & Sanshiro Takagi & Yusuke Okada b Suwama & Hikaru Sato & Dan Tamura, Kairi & Saori Anou b Unagi Sayaka & Sareee, Yuma Aoyagi & Atsuki Aoyagi & Rising Hayato b Ryuki Honda & Yusuke Kodama & Masao anabata, Jun & Rei Saito b Ren Ayabe & Shuji Ishikawa to keep the G-Infinty tag titles, Kento Miyahara b Yuma Anzai. In the All Japan vs. DDT match ther was a post-match angle with Suwama and Yukio Naya. They showed Rossy Ogawa at ringside during the women’s match. The other women went at it after the match but not Kairi since there’s no point in her shooting an angle with her leaving for WWE.(thanks to Shannon Walsh)

Tickets for the 11/17 and 11/18 AEW shows at the Forum in Inglewood went on sale today. The PPV show on Saturday did more than 4,000 tickets sold while Collision did 1,500. That’s only pre-sale but compared to previous events it was obviously way down.

A correction from today’s issue. The legends Ciberneticos on 9/22 at Arena Mexico will not be a three-week tournament. It will be one match with Felino, Aguila Solitaria, Solar, Black Terry, Octagon, El Satanico, Atlantis, Blue Panther, Panterita del Ring, Panera, Negro Navarro and Rocky Santana.

WWE gates from Pollstar. The 7/17 show in Atlanta sold out with 11,082 paid and $513,206. The 6/19 show in Cleveland sold 9,432 for $561,928.

AIW announced a new location for its show tomorrow at 4 p.m. in Wadsworth, OH. It will now be at the OJ Work Auditorium at 151 Main St. Eric Taylor vs. Mikey Montgomery in a cage match is the main event plus Swoggle will be wrestling. Their annual JT Lightning tournament which features Tom Lawlor, Ale Price, Colin Delaney, Masato Tanaka and Chavo Guerrero Jr. will be 9/15 and 9/16 in Cleveland at Temple Live. Eddie Kingston also will wrestle on 9/16 in a non-tournament match.

Aljamain Sterling vs. Nathaniel Wood in grappling takes place at Polaris 25 on 9/30 in Wales. The event will air on UFC Fight Pass.

Lucha Teotl, a stage play based on Lucha Libre will be running at the Goodman Theater in Chicago from 9/29 to 10/29. (thanks to Jacob Burnett)

Demetrious Johnson has challenged Kenny Omega to play Street fighter VI against him for charity.