Daily Update: Keiji Muto, WWE Raw, UFC

Daily Update

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter:

In this week’s issue:

  • One of the biggest history issues of the year with the lead story on Jerry Jarrett and the glory days of Tennessee wrestling
  • Jarrett’s booking the wrestling war in Atlanta
  • Jarrett outside of wrestling
  • The start of TNA Wrestling
  • Jarrett’s departure from TNA wrestling
  • The original premise of TNA
  • How Jarrett first got into wrestling
  • Jarrett and Bill Watts discussion of fighting
  • The Mario Galento story from the Jarrett side, the Lawler side and the Galento side
  • The court case, exposing the business, and how the business did
  • Jarrett building the promotion with he, Jackie Fargo and Tojo Yamamoto as the big three
  • Jarrett’s booking philosophy
  • How Tennessee wrestling was viewed outside Tennessee
  • How Saturday morning wrestling became a tradition
  • How Dave Brown got into wrestling and how his career as a newsman changed due to wrestling
  • The wrestling war in Memphis
  • How the NWA title matches changed when Sam Muchnick was no longer booking the champion and why Muchnick was taken out of the position
  • The booking that led to Jerry Lawler being the king of Memphis wrestling
  • The key people Jarrett wanted to win the wrestling war
  • Details of the brief war
  • How popular was the TV show
  • What happened when Lawler threatened to start up and go against Jarrett
  • The fall of the promotion
  • Jarrett attempts to buy WCW
  • Jarrett’s ideas after wrestling
  • Jarrett’s last matches in the ring
  • Wrestling moving weekly to the Mid South Coliseum
  • How Jarrett figured into the first shows
  • The first sellout at the Coliseum
  • Jerry Lawler’s first big crowds
  • How a local rock band played into Memphis wrestling
  • What star much bigger than Andy Kaufman was talked with about doing wrestling
  • The Jimmy Hart era
  • Major names who got their start in wrestling
  • The boxer vs. wrestler angle they did and how it could never work now
  • The Lawler vs. Dundee feud
  • Jarrett selling the company and the attempted revivals
  • Why the MLW vs. WWE lawsuit was thrown out and what happens next
  • Tony Khan talks issues with WWE and the story behind the new Japan story
  • Khan talks about new business deals
  • The big question about Elimination Chamber
  • Full coverage of Islam Makhachev vs. Alexander Volkanovski and UFC 284
  • Keiji Muto about to retire
  • What next for Jay White
  • New Japan’s big events for the next two months
  • New Beginning in Osaka coverage
  • Billy Two Rivers, a cultural icon among native Americans and a celebrity in Europe passes away and his life story
  • The life of flying Eric Froelich, a 60s and 70s star
  • The most complete look at the ratings of all the major shows over the past week
  • Update on Jon Moxley’s planned European tour
  • Debut of ROH television
  • A look at the Revolution card
  • Upcoming ticket sales for WWE & AEW shows
  • Changes in UFC contracts
  • International TV ratings

This Week’s Retro Observer Newsletter:

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Monday Update

Bryan and I will be back tonight after Raw talking all the latest MMA and pro wrestling news. You can also send questions to the show but it’s better on the key topics well talk such as Chamber & Raw, the Chamber main event finish, Ariel Helwani, AEW and OTT and Jerry Jarrett to mailbag@wrestlingobserver.com

We’re doing weekend polls for Elimination Chamber and the New Japan show in San Jose, so you can leave a thumbs up, down or middle, along with a best and worst match to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

Keiji Muto, one of the true legends of the last 40 years in wrestling, retires tomorrow morning at the Tokyo Dome in a match with Tetsuya Naito. The show airs on Wrestle Universe with this lineup

      • Masa Kitamiya & Daiki Inaba vs. Yoshiki Inamura & Yasutaka YanoMiyu 
      • Yamashita & Yuka Sakazaki & Rika Tatsumi & Shoko Nakajima vs. Miu Watanabe & Maki Itoh & Yuki Arai & Mizuki
      • Takashi Sugiura & Satoshi Kojima & Timothy Thatcher vs. Jake Lee & Jack Morris & Anthony Greene
      • Eita & Yoshinari Ogawa & Hayata & Daga & Chris Ridgeway vs. Atsushi Kotoge & Yo-Hey & Seiki Yoshioka & Alejandro & Junta Miyawaki
      • Shunma Katsumata & Toi Kojima & Mao & Yuki Ueno vs. Tetsuya Endo & Hideki Oktatani & Yuya Koroku & Takeshi Masada
      • Shun Skywalker & Kai & Diamante vs. Naomichi Marufuji & El Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. & Ninja Mack
      • Kento Miyahara & Suwama & Yuma Aoyagi vs. Kenoh & Katsuhiko Nakajima & Manabu Soya
      • Nosawa Rongai & Mazada vs. Taiji Ishimori & Gedo
      • Hiromu Takahashi vs. Amakusa in a battle of the IWGP jr. champion vs. GHC jr. champion with no belts at stake
      • Kazuchika Okada vs. Kaito Kiyomiya in a battle of IWGP heavyweight and GHC heavyweight champions with no belts at stake
      • Keiji Muto vs. Tetsuya Naito

Raw tonight is from the Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa, ONT. Matches announced are Seth Rollins vs. The Miz, Austin Theory vs. Edge for the U.S. title and Mustafa Ali vs. Dolph Ziggler. Obviously they will start the full scale build for WrestleMania off this show and in theory the rating should be up coming off the PPV. Expect another lively crowd. There were 7,800 tickets out as of earlier today.

Aljamain Sterling will defend the UFC bantamweight title against Henry Cejudo on the 5/6 PPV show. This had been expected for some time. Sterling is coming off recuperation from a torn biceps which has delayed the fight.

Every time I do this it makes me sad about the medical situation in this country. But there are Go Fund Me’s up for 

I’m hopeful for the best for both of these men in their battles for health. Graham has had many close calls over the years and has battled health issues for nearly 35 years.

Tony Khan promised a major announcement on Dynamite on Wednesday. They also announced for the tag team Battle Royal on Wednesday that the last three entrants would be Rush & Preston Vance, Top Flight and Aussie Open, who are a late addition to the match. The match is for one of the open spots in a four-way title match with the Gunns and Acclaimed on 3/5 at Revolution in San Francisco.

Lineup for NXT tomorrow is Bron Breakker vs. Jinder Mahal for the NXT title, Gallus vs. Edris Enofe & Malik Blade for the tag titles, Sol Ruca vs. Zoey Stark, Jacy Jayne vs. Indi Hartwell, Trick Williams vs. Ilja Dragunov and Andre Chase & Duke Hudson vs. The Dyad.

Want to mention, as many noted, that Richard Belzer passed away. We wrote about him yesterday in reference that he passed away but didn’t actually mention he passed away, because I thought almost everyone knew. But it should have been mentioned.

Other Notes

Mercedes Mone and Trinity Fatu (Naomi) will be appearing on the opening episode of Bar Rescue on Paramount on Sunday at 10 p.m. Eastern.

Tomorrow night’s MLW television show on REELZ has Alexander Hammerstone against Dragon Gate’s Yamato for the title, The Billington Bulldogs vs. New FBI and Calvin Tankman vs Sam Adonis. The second hour will be an older show with Jacob Fatu vs. Mads Krugger in a weapons of mass destruction match and Myron Reed vs. KC Navarro vs. Arez.

Delmi Exo has signed with MLW. She’s been on shows dating back to 2021. 

Warrior Wrestling from Saturday night in Chicago at Thalia Hall before 425 fans: Sam Adonis b Storm Grayson, Queen Aminata b Max the Impaler-DQ, Jordan Kross b Carlos Romo, Trevor Outlaw b Beast Man, Mike Bennett b Joey Janela, KC Navarro b Brian Cage-COR to keep the Warrior title, El Hijo del Vikingo beat Aero Boy, Black Taurus and Aramis to retain the Lucha title. As noted yesterday, we got rave reviews on the main event and hope to see it later this week.

Dave Marquez will be promoting Derby City Wrestling, a weekly series that will have its first taping on 3/26 with Elijah Burke announced. The show will air locally on the low power MY58.3 channel.

Central States Wrestling on Saturday night in Lenexa, KS at the National Guard Armory with Jeremy Wyatt vs. Jake Something as the main event.

Dana White’s Looking for a Fight will be taped n 3/5 for a Combat Zone 79 show in Boston at the encore Casino. UFC fighter Calvin Kattar runs the promotion.