Daily Update: Josh Alexander, AEW & WWE ticket notes, Atsushi Onita

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MONDAY NEWS UPDATE

Happy Valentine’s Day. Bryan and I will be back tonight talking about the latest news as well as covering Raw tonight on Wrestling Observer Radio.

Best wishes to former referee Mickey Jay Henson, who is in very bad shape due to COVID-related pneumonia.

As noted on the front page, Josh Alexander reported that his Impact contact is expiring. He’s working on getting a new U.S. working visa since Impact got him his current one so for the time being can’t work in the U.S. It should be noted that Brandi Rhodes on the air on Impact made reference to Alexander saying that the only reason AEW even signed Page was to get to Alexander. It should be noted that Alexander is still open to staying with Impact but they haven’t made a new deal so nothing is certain.

Raw is tonight in Indianapolis on Syfy. If you have not specifically set your DVR for the show, it may not record automatically. That also goes for tomorrow’s major NXT Vengeance Day show. Damien Priest vs. A.J. Styles for the U.S. title was the only match announced as of this afternoon. There will be a Randy Orton & Riddle “Broga” (toga) party plus Brock Lesnar and Lita appear. This is the final live show before Elimination Chamber. The number should be up from last week if only because people are more familiar, plus Lesnar is on the show.

We are looking for reports from Indianapolis with any dark matches or Main Event matches or anything else notable from a live perspective to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

Our 2021 awards issue will be out on late Thursday night/Friday morning. Everything is fully tabulated.

We’re looking for your thoughts on UFC 271, so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

Dustin Poirier said that he will not face Conor McGregor for a fourth time. McGregor had wanted a rematch when he returned from his broken leg. Poirier did media Saturday and said he wanted to face Nate Diaz next.

The top five selling tickets over the last 24 hours in Ticketmaster shows thanks to Wrestle Tix are:

  • Tonight’s Raw in Indianapolis
  • Smackdown on 2/25 in Hershey, PA
  • Dynamite on Wednesday in Nashville
  • Dynamite on 4/6 in Boston
  • WWE on 3/5 in Madison Square Garden

Madison Square Garden had two for one tickets today. If you want them you can go to Ticketmaster and use the code HART by 10 p.m. Eastern tomorrow night. After the third lowest paid attendance in MSG in more than 80 years last time at the Garden Vince has loaded up with Brock Lesnar and Ronda Rousey and it’s the biggest house show lineup for the company in years.

WrestleMania and AT&T Stadium also had two for one tickets using the code WMLOVE until tomorrow at 10 p.m. They have a lot of tickets left to sell for that show.

Smackdown Friday did 2,231,000 viewers and 0.55 in 18-49, which is very good considering the Olympics. Rampage did 549,000 viewers and 0.19. The latter is low for the show but Rampage was still second on cable behind only the Olympics in the 10 p.m. time slot, and 10th for the night.

Atsushi Onita will be wrestling at the Wrestlecon show in Dallas over WrestleMania weekend. The annual Mark Hitchcock Memorial show has also announced Mark & Jay Briscoe, a farewell tour event for Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson, Bandido, Mike Bailey and Jonathan Gresham.

AEW

  • AEW will be having a presale on Wednesday for the 5/11 show just announced today from the UBS Arena in Long Island. This will be the start of the Owen Hart Cup, both a men and women’s tournament that takes place that month. The code is BELMONT
  • Matt & Jeff Hardy have three bookings as a team at this point once Jeff’s non-compete ends, with a 3/12 show for Big Time Wrestling in Webster, MA, 3/13 for Big Time Wrestling in Albany,NY at the Washington Avenue Armory against Matt Cardona & Brian Myers and 3/19 for the Patriotic Wrestling Federation in Clover, SC at the High School.
  • Dark Elevation tonight
    • Matt Sydal vs. Powerhouse Hobbs
    • John Silver & Evil Uno & Stu Grayson & Alex Reynolds & Alan Angels vs 2.0 & The Acclaimed & Daniel Garcia
    • Anna Jay & Tay Conti & Ruby Soho vs. Emi Sakura & Nyla Rose & The Bunny
    • Ethan Page & Scorpio Sky vs. Jaden Valo & Steve Pena
    • Dante Martin vs. Kevin Matthews
    • Thunder Rosa vs. Riley Shepard
    • Zack Clayton (Jersey Shore) vs. Serpentico.
    • This was taped in Atlantic City and several members of the Jersey Shore cast were at ringside.

UFC

  • Booker T was at the UFC 271 post-show press conference as media. He asked Dana White several questions and when Israel Adesanya saw him he popped seeing him.

OTHER NOTES

  • AAA Rey de Reyes on 2/19 will air live on FITE with a new set of English language announcements. The English announcement has been a disaster for years. The new team is Joe Dombrowski and Larry Dallas. Dallas has noted that he has been studying with Mike Tenay for this debut. He did a great job with Dragon Gate and was going to be there regularly until the pandemic hit.
  • The International Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame has reached an agreement with Albany Count in New York for 1,500 square feet of space within the MVP Arena, the city’s major indoor sports complex. The location will be on the first upper level within the atrium across from the offices of the Albany FireWolves Lacrosse team and will be available to fans during events within the arena. They hope to open in the spring or the summer.
  • Impact sent out a press release for its Gut Check on 3/6 in Columbus, OH at the Arnold Classic. It will be at 10 p.m. for an open trout at the Greater Columbus Convention Center. Lance Storm and John E. Bravo will run the camp. To enter you have to fill out a Gut Check registration form at impactwrestling.com
  • Defy results from Saturday night in Seattle: Joey Janela & Schaff b Royce Isaacs & Jorel Nelson, Adam Ryder b Derek Shaw, Jonathan Gresham b Cody Chhun to keep the ROH title, Bollywood Boyz b Ricky Gibson & Eddie Pearl to win the Defy tag titles in a ladder match, Trey Miguel kept the Impact X title over Titus Alexander and Guillermo Rosas, Christoper Daniels b Nick Wayne to keep the Defy interim title. This was where Darby Allin offered Wayne an AEW contract.
  • Phil De Fries (20-6) defends the KSW heavyweight title against Darko Stosic (16-4) in the main event of the 67th KSW show on 2/26 in Warsaw, Poland. De Fries will be making his sixth title defense. Stosic is 15-0 at heavyweight with ten knockouts, nine in the first round.
  • Lucha Masks has expanded from doing Lucha Masks to doing masks sold for Rob Van Dam and a number of NJPW masks, including three Bullet Club masks, two Shingo Takagi masks and one for Jay White, Tetsuya Naito, Kota Ibushi and Bushi.
  • MCW on Saturday in Dundalk, MD at the Flagship Cinemas Eastpoint with Lance Archer as the headline.