Daily Update: Kenny Omega, Charlotte Flair, UFC 296 fallout

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

Highlights of the current issue:

  • Match and performer of the week
  • TKO COO Mark Shapiro talks WWE and UFC business and changes they are thinking about
  • Future of the house show business and why breaking even should be okay
  • Injury rate in WWE and AEW and does the schedule make a difference
  • His thoughts on the PFL taking over Bellator
  • Upcoming media rights deals to be made
  • Ideas for UFC’s streaming service
  • How much UFC is making for certain overseas shows as well as WWE
  • When deals are up
  • Change in the look of the WWE ring
  • Running shows in the same city in the same weekend
  • What is the median income of the viewers of all the different promotions
  • What is the level of education of the viewers of all the different promotions
  • What is the ethnic makeup of the viewers of all the different promotions
  • A look at All In 2024 ticket sales
  • A look at NXT Deadline and the interest level
  • A look at the Tokyo Sports MVP and its top candidates and why the person who should win has little chance to win
  • Full coverage of Saturday’s UFC show
  • The most detailed look at the TV ratings, with competition, how each segment did, how the audience has changed over the past year and demo breakdowns
  • AEW and former WWE star headed to Arena Mexico
  • Plight of arrested wrestling star ends up in Mexico president press conference
  • Stardom PPV coverage and build to the Sumo Hall show
  • All Japan tag team tournament coverage
  • New Japan tag team tournament coverage
  • AEW star will headline major NOAH show
  • Updates on Okada
  • Notes on Iron Claw movie
  • Former WWE tag champ retires
  • Sukeban coverage
  • Former WWE announcer working with Trump
  • Great match on indie show
  • U.K. promotion running April show in U.S.
  • Major show with big names in U.K. next week
  • TNA return ticket sales
  • More on the firing of Kevin Sullivan by AEW
  • Update on Continental Classic
  • Von Erichs and AEW
  • Tony Khan talks Sting’s retirement and Ric Flair
  • Khan talks future of Bryan Danielson
  • Danielson talks CM Punk
  • Ticket sales to upcoming WWE & AEW shows
  • International TV ratings and streaming numbers
  • AEW star on show in Vietnam and why
  • Final Battle rundown
  • Why Montreal didn’t do well for AEW
  • Injury updates
  • Update on buys for last two PPVs
  • How much money did the UFC owners pay themselves as compared to the fighters
  • Dana White laughs at Bellator sale to PFL
  • Former UFC champion arrested for allegedly punching his brother
  • Average ticket sales for AEW & WWE
  • More on multiple WWE firings
  • Royal Rumble notes
  • Update on WWE and Giulia
  • Changes in WWE TV schedule
  • Notes on newcomers to NXT
  • Notes on the new WWE signings
  • Rundown of WWE arena events

This Week’s Retro Observer Newsletter

Sunday Update

Some notes on the shows. Our weekend show with Garrett Gonzales was up last night talking the Von Erich movie, UFC, Smackdown, Collision, Final Battle, Charlotte Flair, Kenny Omega and much more. Garrett and I will be doing a show tomorrow night covering Raw.

For print subscribers to the Observer, please contact support@wrestlingobserver.com if you haven’t already to get access to the Observer which will come out later this week, our first non-print issue. We have on the site for this week both a regular back issue as well as the issue on the death of Kerry Von Erich given the Iron Claw movie coming out this Friday.

Kenny Omega had been in great pain for some time prior to his diverticulitis diagnosis a few days ago. He thought the pain was his hernia coming back but was in great pain and thought he could gut it out. Thank God he finally went in because the situation had he waited another 24 hours could have been devastating, risking a blood infection.

Charlotte Flair will be undergoing surgery for a torn ACL, MCL and meniscus shortly, which were the injuries suffered last week that were talked about on Smackdown this week. She’s listed as being out nine months.

We’re looking for your thoughts on Final Battle, thumbs up, down or middle, best and worst match to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

We’re also looking for reports from tonight’s WWE show in Rochester, MN, with results, finishes and highlights to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

UFC was the No. 2 trend last night behind the NFL with 1 million views. That’s well above most of the recent PPV shows and well ahead of WWE’s biggest shows as well. No. 1 was the NFL. No. 14 with Sean Strickland for the brawl with Dricus du Plessis in the stands that we talked about with Ryan Frederick last night and No. 17 was Bryce Mitchell who suffered a devastating knockout. On Friday, Jake Paul was No. 2 for the day with 200,000 for his boxing win.

Video is out of the Strickland/du Plessis brawl that wasn’t staged but may be used by UFC for promotion of their 1/20 fight in Toronto for the middleweight title. The two first exchanged insults at a press conference on Friday. Strickland then wrote a tweet saying, “I go hard on everyone I know this, izzy mouth feeding his dog, Dricus kissing his coach and grabbing his cup, Omally (sic) talking about sharing his wife in a podcast. You’re a man, on a world stage doing this in public. And what do you pick? `You got abused as a kid ha.’ Strickland attacked Du Plessis and was throwing punches as both weren’t sitting far from each other at the show last night. It was quickly broken up.Dana White blamed himself for having the two sitting so close together. Dana basically called himself an asshole and stupid for doing so. “So what kind of an asshole sits Strickland next to du Plessis? This asshole, that’s who. I do every seating assignment every week. Yep, how f***ing stupid is that? Seriously , I don’t know what humans you can sit Strickland next do but definitely not du Plessis. I don’t know how I missed that.”

White also said after Tony Ferguson’s one-sided loss to Paddy Pimblett, Ferguson’s seventh loss in a row, that he hoped Ferguson would retire.

WWE from last night in Moline, IL:

  • Jey Uso b Finn Balor via spear
  • Street Profits b Joaquin Wilde & Cruz Del Toro
  • Omos b Akira Tozawa after MVP offered $10,000 to anyone who can knock Omos off his feet
  • Drew McIntyre cut a promo and said that he was sick, but he would still beat Rollins in his home town and win the title tonight.
  • Kevin Owens & LA Knight b Jimmy Uso & Solo Sikoa when Knight pinned Uso after the BFT
  • Chelsea Green & Piper Niven b Katana Chance & Kayden Carter to keep the tag tiles when Niven pinned Chance
  • Cody Rhodes b Damian Priest in a street fight with Cross Rhodes through a table
  • Nia Jax b Shayna Baszler with the annihilator
  • Miz & Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa b Imperium when Miz pinned Vinci with the skull crushing finale, same as in the Raw match
  • Seth Rollins retained in a three-way over Shinsuke Nakamura and Drew McIntyre with a curb stomp on Nakamura. Same finish they’ve been doing for weeks at the house shows. Rollins after the match talked about being from the Quad Cities. Rollins was the most over because he’s local and then Rhodes and Jey Uso (thanks to Scott Minor)

After winning the women’s MVP award from Tokyo Sports, Tam Nakano said that she was bedridden for a month due to her knee injury and said between that and social media criticism she considered retirement. She said her knee has improved but still can’t do full squats.

Nippon TV will be doing alive wrestling show from Korakuen Hall on 2/9 to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Sharpe Brothers vs. Rikidozan & Masahiko Kimura, the first Japanese wrestling match on network television and the match that put wrestling on the map in a huge way in the country, airing on NTV.

RevPro from the Crystal Palace in London yesterday: 

  • Zack Sabre Jr. b JJ Gale, Spike Trivet b Robbie X in a street fight
  • Leon Slater b Connor Mills to win the British cruiserweight title
  • Brendan White & Danny Jones (Greedy Souls) b Anthony Ogogo & Ricky Knight Jr. (match said to be a mess, Ogogo didn’t get much reaction even though he’s a well-known name in the U.K. from boxing) and Knight at one point was taken to the back and checked for a concussion but did come back out
  • Tomohiro Ishii b Luke Jacbos (said to be great but not as great as their August match)
  • Dani Luna b Alex Windsor to win the British women’s title, 
  • Volador Jr. b Trent Seven
  • Michael Oku b Zack Gibson to keep the British Commonwealth title in a good match with a frog splash. Gibson shook Oku’s hand after and turned babyface. The Greedy Souls attacked him and James Drake made the save to set up a tag team feud
  • Will Ospreay b Gabe Kidd. Said to be a super match, ending via ref stoppage. Ospreay said his final match in RevPro would be 2/18 and wanted to face Oku for the title. Oku has never beaten Ospreay and Oku will now have to carry the promotion going forward. (thanks to Liam Fitzpatrick)

Jake Paul had a first round knockout Friday night of Andre August in Orlando, FL. Paul is now saying he’s concentrating on boxing and won’t be doing MMA next year unless it’s with Nate Diaz.

Dutch Mantell said he had an infection that turned into sepsis and was transferred from the hospital to a rehab facility and is hopeful of being able to go home next week.

Dungeon Wrestling from last night at the Victoria Pavilion in Calgary before 350 fans. This is Bret Hart and his son’s promotion: Michael Allen Richard Clarke b Shaun Moore, Tiger Raj Singh b Kamikaze, Leon Lokombo b Chris Knight, Michael Blais b Mighty Mo Jabari-COR, Taryn rom Accounting b Zoey Zager, Billington Bulldogs b Voris Twins to keep the Dungen tag team titles. (thanks to Ross Hart)

ASF, real name Luis Antonio Garcia, was arrested on 12/6 for online solicitation of a minor younger than 14 years old, a second degree felony. The Lucha Maniaks promotion in Laredo wrote that former team member Garcia has been dropped by the promotion. The arrest report says that he sent explicit photos via Facebook several years ago to an 11-year-old girl who had messaged him. The police report said that he was brought in for questioning and claimed that girl’s boyfriend made up the accusation when asked if he had sent the girl a photo of his genitalia, but then said he wasn’t sure and it was a stupid mistake. He had been a regular with GCW but they had stopped using him about one year ago.

CM Punk did commentary for CFFC MMA on Fight Pass on Friday night in Atlantic City. On the show he plugged he would be wrestling in Los Angeles on 12/30 against Dominik Mysterio joking he’s been wanting to punch Dom since he was eight and how he gets the chance.