Daily Update: Kevin Sullivan, Scott D’Amore, Roman Reigns

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Friday Update

  • Garrett and I just finished a show largely talking about my memories of Kevin Sullivan and there are a lot of them. I think you’ll get a lot of good insight about different aspects of his career both as a wrestler and a booker. We talked a lot about what made his personality tick and his early days in Florida, his heel turn, the devil gimmick, booking and life after wrestling, Chris Benoit, his role in introducing the luchadores to American national television and a lot more.
  • Bryan and I will be back Sunday night talking more about Sullivan and there will be a huge article in next week’s issue.
  • Just want to say I’m deeply saddened as I liked Sullivan a lot, he was very smart when it comes to the history of wrestling and psychology of wrestling, as well as in his hits and misses which we talked about on today’s show. He was a very charming person and the type of person that was very politically astute in that he treated everyone like they were his friend and was exceptional at playing to people’s egos, which you have to be in a booking position in a place like WCW was in the late 80s and through the early 00s when he was in and out of power.
  • Lots of mainstream stories on Sullivan today including The New York Times, ESPN, Deadline Hollywood and more. I’ll bet he never thought when he died it would be in the New York Times.
  • Paul Levesque announced they are adding a Women’s Speed championship for X. They will start taping matches likely before Smackdown starting imminently.
  • We’re looking for reports from Smackdown tonight in Tulsa with the pre-show matches as well as the post-show matches, and other notes on the non-televised part of the show to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

Rampage tonight at 10 p.m. on TNT:

  • Nyla Rose vs. Saraya
  • Wheeler Yuta vs. Rocky Romero
  • Private Party vs. ?
  • Darby Allin vs. The Butcher

G-1 continues in Sendai at 3 a.m. Eastern tonight with B block bouts:

  • Konosuke Takeshita (4-3) vs. Oleg Boltin (2-5)
  • Ren Narita (4-3) vs. Henare (3-4)
  • Hirooki Goto (4-3) vs. El Phantasmo (2-5)
  • David  Finlay (4-3) vs. Jeff  Cobb (5-2)
  • Yota Tsuji (4-3) vs. Yuya Uemura (3-4)
  • There will be one B block show left after this, on Wednesday. The top three in the block go into the playoffs that start on Thursday. Everyone but Boltin and Phantasmo are still alive.
  • The PBS documentary “When Giants Walked Here” on the history of Raleigh, North Carolina’s Dorton Arena and its connection with pro wrestling is now available here. It’s just under an hour and features interviews with David Crockett, Earl Hebner, Jimmy Valiant, Bobby Fulton, CW Anderson, George South, Shane Helms, and more.
  • Scott D’Amore, who is starting his new Maple Leaf Wrestling promotion (new Observer covers it as well as all the news  from the past week) said that he put together the Jordynne Grace appearance at the Royal Rumble just before he was removed from power at TNA. His new promotion debuts with shows on 10/19 and 10/20 from Windsor, ONT and will be airing live on Triller.
  • Roman Reigns has been added to the 9/13 show in Seattle, which already had a huge advance.
  • Imane Khelif, the woman boxer who was the subject of controversy last week including heavily criticized remarks by Logan Paul and Pat McAfee won the gold medal in her division.
  • Spencer Lee today won a silver medal and Aaron Brooks and Helen Maroulis won bronze medals today. Maroulis is the first American woman to win a medal in three Olympics in wrestling and her 2016 gold medal was a major key in helping build the sport in this country.  Mason Parriis, a WWE NIL athlete, was eliminated without a medal in the 286 pound division Gable Steveson would have been in.  Kyle Dake who was a medal favorite lost today and the best he can do is a bronze. Kayla Miracle was also eliminated without a medal.

UFC is from the Apex tomorrow starting at 2 p.m. Eastern for a show through about 8 p.m. on ESPN

  • Stephanie Luciano (115) vs. Talita Alencar (115.5)
  • Youssef Zalal (145.5) vs. Jarno Errens (145.5)
  • Jhonta Diniz (258) vs. Karl Williams I(243)
  • Karol  Rosa (135.5) vs,. Pannie Kianzad (135.5)
  • Toshiomi Kazama (136) vs, Charaimpos Grigoriou (136)
  • Yana Santos (135.5) vs. Chelsea Chandler (141) -Chandler missed weight by five pounds but the fight is still on and she was fined)
  • Chris Gutierrez (136) vs. Quang Le (136)
  • Danny Barlow (171.25) vs. Nikolay Veretennikov (170.5) – Barlow missed weight by 0.25 pounds and was fined
  • Damon Jacksoin (146) vs. Chepe Mariscal (149) – Mariscal missed by two pounds and was fined
  • Marcin Tybura (252) vs. Serghei Spivac (238)
  • There will be a signing at www.SignedbySuperstars.com  with former ECW stars Sandman, Bill Alfonso and Tod Gordon to raise money for 2 Cold Scorpio, who is out of work at this point because of a fight while working as a security guard.
  • Tickets are now on sale for AEW Dynamite’s fifth anniversary show on 10/2 in Pittsburgh at the Petersen Events Center and 10/3 Collision in Toledo and 10/8 Dynamite Title Tuesday in Spokane, WA at the  Arena.
  • Peyton Manning will  be at the 8/18 Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson press conference at the highly publicized Fanatics Fest in New York.  That’s the same Fanatics  Fest that a lot of the top WWE stars will be at.
  • MLW will be releasing its Never Say Never show on YouTube at 10 p.m. Eastern with Satoshi Kojima & Matt Riddle & Akira vs. Mads Kruger & Ikuro Kwon & Minoru Suzuki and Mistico vs. Magnus plus Paul Walter Hauser vs. Tom Lawlor in an MMA cage match.
  • AEW has been going through discount and seat filler sites to allow health care workers to get a voucher which can be redeemed for unsold upper bowl tickets at Wembley Stadium.
     (thanks To Rohan Grove)
  • On the game show Press Your Luck, a contestant won a trip to next year’s WrestleMania , but then lost it when he messed up. (thanks to Brian Henke)
  • Was told Kaito Kiyomiya vs Ryohei Oiwa at today’s N-1 tournament was awesome. It was a really great showcase for Oiwa (thanks to Doug Hunt)
  • Arena Mexico’s main event tonight is Mistico & Mascara Dorada &  Templario vs. Barbaro Cavernario & Angel de Oro & Soberano Jr.  It’s just a regular show, the first in a few weeks.  Main event could be great though.
  • Alamo Drafthouse Theaters are going to be screening the film “Jackpot!” which features John Cena.  It’s open to Victory Members of the chain.