Daily Update: Kamaru Usman, Britt Baker, House of Black
Daily Update
Latest News
- Trick Williams on WWE main roster call-up: ‘I think it has to be soon’
- Frankie Kazarian signs new contract with TNA Wrestling
- Former Baron Corbin would love to compete for NJPW, confirms new wrestling name
- GCW owner addresses potential Hammerstein return: ‘We’ll see what the future holds’
- Subscriber exclusive: Bryan Alvarez’s AEW Dynamite recap
- AEW dark match & off-air notes from Knoxville: Crazzy Steve debuts
- Christopher Daniels confirms end of in-ring career on AEW Dynamite & social media
- Will Ospreay vs. Brian Cage booked for next week’s AEW Dynamite
- Samoa Joe vs. Nick Wayne AEW Dynamite match postponed due to travel issues
- Powerhouse Hobbs vs. Big Bill added to AEW Collision
Latest Audio
- WOR: Goldberg, Alexa Bliss, Dynamite and NXT, more!
- After Dark Radio: UFO recoveries, curses, giants, more!
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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter
- January 20, 2025 Observer Newsletter: ’24 business year in review, Vince McMahon, WWE & AEW notes
- The biggest attended shows in combat sports of 2024
- Who drew the most big crowds of the year
- What companies drew the biggest crowds
- Amazing UFC PPV gates
- The biggest pro wrestling drawing card by the year from 1916 to 2024
- The biggest enduring drawing cards of all-time and where the modern stars rank with the historical stars
- Updating all the Vince McMahon legal issues, from the SEC findings, the criminal investigation an the lawsuits, plus several things that have happened regarding the Grant chase this past week and who are with Vince for his start of a new company
- WWE and NBC book Saturday Night’s Main Event head-to-head with All In Texas
- The history of this tactic, and an estimate of how much revenue it would cost AEW
- WWE on Netflix, what episode one did for business, trying to figure out what the numbers mean, time of show and more
- WWE & TNA make deal
- New Japan Battle in the Valley coverage
- The arenas in the U.S. that have held pro wrestling for the longest amount of time
- Bret Hart talks his favorite wrestler and the life of Sweet Daddy Siki
- What is up with Corey Graves
- Death of Ray Richard
- The most detailed look at the TV ratings over the past week and key takes
- Blue Panther vs. Hechicero
- Athena tours Stardom
- New Japan big shows coming up
- Thoughts on the death of Bob Uecker
- VOW best wrestlers of 2024
- More on the AEW show in Brisbane, Australia
- Lots more on AEW ratings declines and where
- Darby Allin update
- Ticket sales for upcoming WWE & AEw shows
- International TV ratings and streaming numbers
- Conor McGregro sued again in a sex case
- PFL drops the Bellator name, releases Bellator’s biggest star and cuts tournament prize money in half
- Lots of new stuff from GFL
- WWE sets more business records
- Notes on the next Saturday Night’s Main Event
- Paul Heyman talks booking
This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter Back Issue
Thursday Update
WWE
- UFC star Kamaru Usman stopped by WWE headquarters for a visit yesterday. Paul “Triple H” Levesque posted photos with Usman on social media and said it was great to see him. Usman thanked Levesque and WWE for their hospitality.
- Dragon Lee shared this morning that his new daughter will be arriving soon. Lee and his wife are at the hospital preparing for her to give birth.
- Before NXT this week, Javier Bernal returned to action for the first time since suffering a broken foot in June 2024. He wrote in an Instagram post yesterday: “I missed yall so much. Thank you [heart emoji] #WWENXT”
- Bron Breakker was the guest on No-Contest Wrestling this week.
- The Battleground Podcast spoke with Raquel Rodriguez.
- Bad Bunny appeared on a new episode of Hot Ones.
- WWE has a Playlist video featuring every Royal Rumble ending of the past 20 years.
- WWE uploaded a director’s cut version of the 2020 men’s Royal Rumble match.
AEW/Other Wrestling
- After Konnan claimed that Britt Baker and Adam Cole broke up because Baker cheated on Cole, Baker posted a tweet denying the allegation. Baker said she has never cheated on anyone in her life:
- I understand we as performers are expected to have thick skin through opinions and lies we read about ourselves, but spreading lies about my personal life is just low, weird, and something I won’t tolerate.
- I’ve never cheated on anyone in my life. #TellYourSource
- With Malakai Black not expected back in AEW, a video aired on Dynamite spotlighting Brody King, Buddy Matthews & Julia Hart as a trio. The “Hounds of Hell” has been trademarked as a potential new name for the group. They said in their promo last night:
- For years, we’ve had a voice to guide us. That voice was all but deafening. Now, that voice has gone silent. And we are done living in the shadows. It’s time to honor ourselves. No rules. No leaders. No gods. No masters. Just violence. When we bark, we bark together.
- Frakie Kazarian tweeted out the following after his former tag team partner Christopher Daniels announced his retirement from in-ring competition:
- There’s no way to articulate what [Christopher Daniels] means to me. As an opponent, a tag team partner, or most importantly as a best friend and brother. His contributions to our sport will never be realized. I love you CD. Bad Influence, The Addiction or SCU. I loved every single minute.
- In an interview with Undisputed, Mark Briscoe said he’s made it a point to incorporate a lot of his late brother Jay Briscoe’s ideas into his style as a singles wrestler:
- For so many years, Jay and me, we’d argue. Jay would sell me on his ideas and his style being the way to go. I would be selling him on how my ideas and my style were the way to go. All along, it was iron sharpening iron. Well, now I have no desire to argue his points. In the past, it was automatically incorporated because we were two partners in a tag team. Now it’s just me, and I’m incorporating what Jay was saying all along.
- When we tagged together, the contrast was obvious. You knew who Jay was and who Mark was, and the whole was greater than the sum of both parts. That’s what made The Briscoes so special. We went together like peanut and jelly, or peanut butter and chocolate if you’re a fan of Reese’s like myself.
- Mark Briscoe, at his core, is a tag team specialist with Jay Briscoe. That’s what we did for 22 years. So I made the decision to incorporate more of Jay Briscoe into what I do in the ring. Jay is one of the finest wrestlers, in my opinion, there ever has been, so I’m damn sure going to take everything my brother taught me and learn from it.
- Anthony Bowens filed a trademark for “The Pride of Pro Wrestling” on January 21.
- Rocky Romero appeared on the latest episode of AEW Unrestricted.
- AEW wished happy birthday to Powerhouse Hobbs (34) and Nigel McGuinness (49).
- Joe Hendry will be a guest at WrestleCon’s convention in Indianapolis during Royal Rumble weekend.
- Hendry and The Hardys appeared on SA Live, promoting tonight’s live episode of TNA Impact in San Antonio.
- Axiom tweeted about making his TNA debut on Impact tonight: “In 2008 @ThisIsTNA started airing on TV in Spain. Someone tell 10 years old Axiom that one day he will be making his TNA debut while defending a WWE Title.”
- CMLL announced that its Women’s Tag Team title tournament will have qualifying rounds on March 7 and March 14 with the finals then taking place on March 21. The titles were vacated last month when Tessa Blanchard departed CMLL.
- Former WWE wrestler Indi Hartwell is sharpening her in-ring skills by training with Ace Steel at his Foundation of Professional Wrestling school in Florida.