Daily Update: Kevin Sullivan, AEW Dynamite rating, Diaz vs. Masvidal

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Friday Update

– Garrett and I did a Wrestling Observer Radio show talking about the WrestleMania documentary, what was really going on behind-the-scenes during that period, Forbidden Door PPV number, Money in the Bank, Magnum T.A., G1 analysis, No. 2 companies historically and answering a lot of questions. Bryan and I will be doing shows tomorrow night after Money in the Bank, Sunday after NXT Heatwave and Monday after Raw.

  • Full Forbidden Door coverage
  • Early notes on how the PPV did
  • Arena business and what historical achievement took place this past weekend
  • How the poll for the show had a unique and noteworthy result
  • Looking at AEW going into All In
  • A look at Money in the Bank, Heatwave, and ticket demand for the three WWE shows this week in Toronto.
  • A look at the playoffs for the G1 tournament
  • UFC 303 coverage of one of the shows where they had to change everything over and over again
  • Thoughts on the WrestleMania documentary, what was talked about, and what wasn’t.
  • A look at all the TV ratings info from the past week including rankings for the night and week, the competition, the whys behind the numbers, segment-by-segment and more
  • Chris Jericho returns to Arena Mexico
  • A look at Friday’s show including the Altantis Jr. ROH TV title win
  • AAA TV time notes
  • AAA Verano de Escandalo card
  • Major changes in Stardom
  • New Japan pushes a big open to 2025 for both their promotion and Stardom with dates for tourists
  • Minoru Suzuki vs. Sanshiro Takagi rematch on the bullet train
  • Notable sight gags on the match
  • Update on Marigold’s first major show with Iyo Sky
  • Rematch of one of the best bouts of the year set for the RevPro anniversary show at the Copper Box Arena
  • WWE stars at TNA TV tapings and at Bloodsport
  • More on Britt Baker’s return
  • Tony Khan talks about media rights negotiations, the Juneteenth rating, a milestone Eric Bischoff could never do
  • Will Ospreay opens up about his autism
  • Advance ticket sales for all the WWE & AEW shows over the past week
  • Biggest merch sellers in WWE & AEW
  • Dana White makes a claim that will blow your mind
  • More on the Bloodline angle
  • SmackDown issues with FOX
  • Notes on WWE departures
  • WWE investing in new business with notable partners including the NFL
  • Dijak talks more about his contract not being renewed

– We had been asked not to talk about this for the past two months but Kevin Sullivan, the 70s, 80s and 90s star and former WCW and CWF booker, has been in rough shape, including battling sepsis and encephalitis. He’s been in and out of consciousness and in ICU. Because his insurance is running out a GoFundMe was started by his wife.

The top donors are Jim & Stacy Cornette, Chris Jericho (who is always among the top donors in these situations), Cody Runnels and Dallas Page.

– We’ll be doing polls this weekend for both Money in the Bank and Heatwave, 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

– We’re looking for reports from WWE tonight in Toronto with the dark matches on the SmackDown show and any other notes from the live show to dave@wrestlngobserver.com.  We’re also looking for reports from tomorrow night’s Collision tapings in Southaven, MS.

– Wednesday’s Dynamite averaged 688,000 viewers and drew a 0.23 rating in 18-49. We don’t have any more info as the charts and breakdowns aren’t coming out until Monday. PWTorch actually got the info that those in AEW & at the ratings websites haven’t even gotten yet. For July 3, that would be considered an outstanding number. The expectation was 20-25 percent down which is standard for television that night, not five percent up in 18-49.  Raw was on January 3 last year and was down 21 percent from the prior week.

– As of a few hours ago, Smackdown had 14,909 tickets out (paid plus comps) for the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.

– Nate Diaz and Jorge Masvidal’s boxing match takes place tomorrow night at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA, on PPV. Diaz weighed 175.6 pounds and Masvidal weighed 175.2 pounds.  Anthony Pettis vs. Chris Avila is the semi. Avila weighed 175.6 and Pettis weighed 175.3. The card will air on PPV. I don’t have high hopes for this as a PPV but Diaz and Masvidal were big draws when they fought in MMA.

– CMLL tonight at Arena Mexico has Volador Jr & Star Jr. & Esfinge vs Angel de Oro & Averno & Euforia as the main event.

– On CMLL Informa, Mistico talked about wanting matches with Chris Jericho, Penta, Magnus, Volador Jr., Averno, Hiromu Takahashi, Bryan Danielson and Claudio Castagnoli.

– Stephanie Vaquer has a non-title match (she’s still CMLL women’s champion) on Tuesday against Tessa Blanchard.

– WWE has cut way back this summer on house shows as well as NXT shows. There are only a few main roster house shows this summer and only five NXT house shows this summer.  

– Rampage tonight at 10 pm.. on TNT

  • Rush vs. Komander
  • Private Party vs. Kyle Fletcher & Konosuke Takeshita
  • Kyle O’Reilly vs. GPA
  • Mariah May vs. Hikaru Shida in the Owen Hart tournament

– NOAH has put the Kaito Kiyomya vs. Gabriel Kidd match up on YouTube.

– The Mistico vs. Volador Jr. match from Guadalajara talked about in the current issue of the Observer is also up on YouTube.

I expect that Mistico will be a top candidate this year for the Thesz/Flair award along with Cody Rhodes, Will Ospreay and some others. This ring entrance alone shows you how big a star he is.

– This Cody Rhodes story has been talked about all day, regarding making sure a fan who had won tickets to Money in the Bank, but was then unable to use those tickets because he needed wheelchair accessible seats, was able to attend tomorrow’s show.

Besides Rhodes, two others in WWE who helped put this together were executives Justin Scalise and Chris Legentil.

– Just as he did at Sami Zayn’s first show in Los Angeles, at last night’s Sami Zayn show in Toronto, Johnny Knoxville appeared. He showed up at the end of the show during the curtain call and laid out Zayn with a low blow. Also appearing at the show were Cody Rhodes, Trish Stratus and Bayley.

– Canadian TV ratings over the past week:

  • SmackDown: 212,000 viewers and 86,500 in 25-54
  • UFC prelims: 53,000 viewers  and 16,000 in 25-54
  • Raw: 243,500 viewers and 105,300 in 25-54
  • NXT: 103,000 viewers and 43,000 in 25-54
  • Dynamite: 109,000 viewerse and 65,600 in 25-54

The key notes are that NXT was much higher than usual and AEW had its best numbers in several weeks. I think every show bounced back after the NHL playoffs ended (thanks to John Pollock)

 – Our good friend Patric Laprade interviewed Donovan Dijak this past week on his podcast:

About the latest draft, when he was on NXT:

We’re sitting in the Performance Center, we’re watching, it’s a shoot right? It’s real. Nobody actually knows when you’re gonna be drafted, nobody knows if you’re gonna be drafted. You find out then and there. Nobody tells you in advance. You probably get like a 30-second notice, right, because someone runs over to you with a Raw hat and a Raw t-shirt and you’re like ‘Oh oh, I guess I’m getting drafted!’

 About staying in character during the draft:

It’s that Friday and we’re all sitting there and I just decided on my own…like they were giving us instructions, like everybody stand up and clap and be happy for your friends and blah blah blah blah blah, and I was like you know what, this is on TV and it’s gonna be airing on USA Network, I’m just gonna stay in character. I don’t really care for the idea of me standing up and giving a standing ovation to Ilja Dragunov whose life, on this channel, the USA Network, whose life I tried to take…I don’t like the idea on that channel, basically telling the audience this is pretend. So I stayed in character. And I don’t think they liked that cause they ended up hiding me in the back the next time.

 About saying the truth about his departure:

I feel like it’s out of the ordinary. It’s just an odd thing that people need to know…you know what, I’m gonna tell the truth, I’m gonna hope that the people who support me still support me and trust me, and that this doesn’t work against me from a business aspect. And the jury is still out on that. Maybe it did, I have no idea.

About not knowing why he was let go:

I’m trying to get in touch with WWE to get an answer…I don’t know what I did wrong, genuinely, to this day, I don’t know what I did wrong. I’d love for someone to call me and tell me. I would love nothing more for someone to call me and be like ‘Hey, remember that time you stepped on my foot?’ ‘No!’ ‘Ok, well I remember that and that’s why.’ At least I’d know, right? I don’t agree with that, but at least I’d know and I have to accept it. I never got that. I don’t know what I did wrong. But I know it’s costing my family money and I know I need to pay my mortgage and my kids need a house to live in…and now I’m putting that in jeopardy, possibly because of decisions I made and that’s eating me alive.

– Dijak will be working for Kevin Raphael’s first show as a promoter, Sans Restriction: Chrono, on July 14, in Quebec City, at 2pm. Tickets are on sale here.

 – Urijah Faber will be doing a submission no-gi match with Bibiano Fernandes, a former rival, on 8/2 in Abu Dhabi. Former UFC stars Chad Mendes will face off with Kevin Lee that night which will be held the day before the UFC show in Abu Dhabi.