Daily Update: More on IWGP World title change, UFC 317 & WWE Night of Champions fallout

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

  • The new issue of the Wrestling Observer is up on the site right now:
  • Jon Jones announces his retirement, a look back at a remarkable career inside the cage and a story of problems and controversy outside the cage.  We look at his background, details on his latest arrest, and thoughts by others.
  • Preview to Night of Champions, the stories and the direction
  • Who is Aaron Wolf and why he’s starting his career under more pressure than almost anyone in recent history, his background as a fan, and as an Olympic gold medalist and world champion in judo.
  • A look at All In Texas and the largest attendance and biggest grossing non-WWE PPV shows in history.  What milestones has the show already broken with two weeks out, and what’s the final milestone that it’s touchy if it can break.  We look at money adjusted for inflation and AEW’s former biggest shows as  well as big shows from Crockett, WCW and the 114 year  milestone.
  • A look at the combined CMLL,  AEW,  NJPW and RevPro Fantastica Mania at Arena Mexico on Friday.  We look at moves CMLL should make to take advantage of its new exposure, popularity and  position in the wrestling ecosystem, the big tag team main event and the future booking direction.
  • The most detailed look at the television ratings for pro wrestling and MMA this past week, including how segments did, demos, did and comparisons to one year ago.  
  • A detailed look and discussion of how Raw on Netflix is doing and on AEW Dynamite on MAX.
  • More on CMLL’s big week at its other arenas
  • Next CMLL tournament
  • AAA booking direction and when WWE takes over the booking and state of current angles
  • One of the best matches of the year took place on Saturday
  • Dragon  Gate has its biggest event of the year
  • Lots of G-1 updates
  • Jun Kasai vs. Desperado looked at
  • Sabu funeral
  • Tom Lawlor physical issues discussed in detail
  • Ronda Rousey physical issues discussed as well
  • Real American Freestyle early ticket advance
  • Tetsuya Naito back in action and new name of his faction
  • Mistico and MJF angle in MLW
  • More on many AEW and WWE stars health updates
  • Which company has a higher injury rate by percentage, AEW or WWE, with the actual stats.
  • AEW ratings comparison between the end of 2024 and the current MAX era
  • Mortos on wrestling at  Arena Mexico after 15 years
  • Update on AEW performers who aren’t being used
  • More on  the Cung Le lawsuit settlement
  • Dana White goes into promoting boxing and BJJ
  • Internet personality arrested for threatening Joe Rogan
  • Crazy story about Sedriques Dumas and UFC signing him to fight this week and how bad a look that was, and the fight falling apart
  • Why the UFC main event this week is so big
  • Update on Ben Askren nd B Penn
  • Update on Janel Grant lawsuit against  Vince McMahon and TKO
  • How another sport’s move from TV to streaming compares with Raw and what we can learn from it as it relates to Raw
  • Boxing legend and former MMA champion both talk performing in WWE
  • Thoughts on Cody Rhodes saying his babyface run is almost over
  • WWE star doing a record album as a tribute to 1990s All Japan Pro  Wrestling

This Week’s Back Issue

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Sunday Update

dave@wrestlinobserver.com

— Our weekend show was done last night covering Night of Champions, UFC 317, All In & Forbidden Door business, AEW ratings, Mistico vs. Bandido and more.

— No real major news coming out of Night of Champions. No injuries that we are aware of. Paul Levesque said that would be the last John Cena vs. CM Punk match.  He said he was proud of Punk for apologizing to Saudi Arabia.

— Because Night of Champions was an early show, we have placings for all the key countries except Australia and New Zealand. The show was the No. 2 show for the day on Netflix in Canada, No. 5 in India, No. 2 in Mexico, No. 2 in Saudi Arabia and No. 2 in the U.K. U.S. rankings aren’t available because it aired on Peacock in this country. It appears to have done similar numbers to Smackdown the night before. It was similar in placing in Canada, Mexico, lower in India and lower in Saudi Arabia and the U.K. We’ll be able to get a good international estimate on Tuesday.

— We’re looking for your thoughts on Night of Champions, 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

— Zack Sabre Jr. beat Hirooki Goto earlier today in Nagoya  to win the IWGP title. There has been a ton of weird confusion around it because the show didn’t air on New Japan World. New Japan signed an exclusive broadcast deal for the show in the home Japan market since it was the last show after 59 years of regular events for pro wrestling at Dolphins Arena in Nagoya. It was formerly known as the Aiichi Ken Gym. I don’t know why it was a worldwide exclusive since it airing on New Japan World in the U.S. or U.K., or other countries even on a delay, won’t affect broadcast numbers in Japan. We were told it was an excellent match.  

The Aiichi Ken Arena is very much a legendary building there, I wouldn’t rank it with Madison Square Garden but perhaps more like Kiel Auditorium, the Cow Palace or the Omni in Atlanta.  It was the building where Antonio Inoki beat Andre the Giant via armbar submission before the Hogan-Andre match in Pontiac, tons of G-1, the 1984 Bruiser Brody & Stan Hanswen vs. Funks match,  the All Japan first appearance on Riki Choshu’s army and tons of G-1 bouts. Today’s show aired live on national television in Japan because of that, so the exposure in Japan, the key market, was far higher than any show in a long time.  

There was no Goto injury. The booking was based on getting the most people to see the title change on a high profile show. The reality is that Goto as champion was always planned as a relatively short-term gimmick, but this wasn’t an AEW decision, it was an NJPW decision, and the idea it was changed on a house show and not a big show shows zero understanding of Japan. That said, even in Japan there were fans negative feeling they pay for New Japan World, and the Desperado vs. Jun Kasai match was put on a PPV last week and not a regular show on World, and then this wasn’t on at all. It should be noted that this show will be put up on the site at some point. It’ll be put up when the TV-Asahi broadcast exclusive window ends.

— Complete results of today’s show: 

  • Katsuya Murashima drew Daiki Odashima
  • Hiroshi Tanahashi & Shota Umino & Ryusue Taguchi b Tatsumi Fujinami & Hiromu Takahashi & Leone
  • Evil & Ren Narita & Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens b Yuya Uemura &N Tomohiro Ishii & Taichi & Yoshi-Hashi
  • Oleg Boltin b Yuji Nagata to keep the Never title
  • Dragon Kid & El Desperado & Yoh & Master Wato b Sanada & Sho & Douki & Yoshinobu Kanemaru
  • El Phantasmo b Taiji Ishimori to keep the TV title
  • Shingo Takagi & Yota Tsuji & Shun Skywalker b Great O’Khan & Callum Newman & Jakob Austin Young
  • Zack Sabre Jr. b Hirooki Goto to tin the IWGP title
  • Hiroshi Tanahashi & Naomichi Marufui b Kaito Kiyomiya & Ryohei Oiwa

— Lots coming out of UFC. Dana White said he was mad that Paddy Pimblett was allowed in the cage after Ilia Topuria’s win. Topuria was running down Pimblett bad on the mic after he won the lightweight title beating Charles Oliveira for the vacant title. Pimblett was at ringside and Joe Rogan called for Pimblett to get in the cage. Topuria shoved him hard and they had security keep them apart. It created a match people want to see but is probably not the fight UFC wanted for Topuria next.

— Mistico beat Bandido with La Mistica before a sellout of 16,000 fans on Friday night at Arena Mexico. This has to be the highlight of Bandido’s career, as he grew up with the dream of wrestling Mistico in the building, which he did achieve previously but this was the first timed as the main event sellout for him in a singles match. A number of people raved about it as a spectacle and even said Friday’s show was as good or better than Fantastica Mania, even though no match was as good as the prior Friday’s tag match that headlined (Mistico & Mascara Dorada vs. Bandido & Hologram).

— In Google searches for the weekend, UFC 317 did 1.27 million searches which is a very high number the way they calculate it now. Jake Paul’s fight with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., which Paul won by any decision since Chavez appeared totally washed up and did nothing, did 500,000. It should be noted that Paul fights always have a lot of curiosity but most of the recent ones have bombed on PPV. People are curious but don’t necessarily want to watch them. WWE Night of Champions did 130,000, which is below most PLE shows. Ben Askren did 20,000.

— Paul vs. Chavez set the Honda Center gate record for boxing of $1.57 million.

— Raw for tomorrow has New Day vs. Finn Balor & JD McDonagh for the tag titles, Sheamus vs. Rusev, Sami Zayn & Penta vs. Bronson Reed & Bron Brakker, announcements for Evolution and more with Gunther and Bill Goldberg.

— Dana White, when asked about Justin Gaethje saying he’d retire if he didn’t get a title match with Topuria, said that if he’s thinking about retirement, he should just retire.

— The second episode of the new season of WWE LFG airs at 10 p.m tonight on A&E

— ROH’s web site has put up all three FTR vs. Briscoes matches from 2023. These were all place winners in match of the year balloting.

— Brie Garcia (Bellla) was on the broadcast panel for the X Games show that aired today on ABC.

— Hall of Famer Johnny Saint turned 83 today.

— Regarding those stories last week of Vince McMahon talking with Dave Feldman about buying BKFC (from McMahon’s side they’ve neither confirmed nor denied them), the reality is BKFC is owned 77 percent by Triller so the idea of McMahon buying from Feldman makes no sense.

— WWE has put on sale three-day combo tickets for Smackdown on 10/10, Crown Jewel on 10/11 and Raw on 10/13, all at the RAC Arena in Perth. The building will be set up for about 11,500 all three nights so I expect quick sellouts at high prices.  

— Besides the Mistico vs. Bandido and Mascara Dorada & Flip Gordon & Neon & Esfinge vs. Rocky Romero & Magnus & Rugido &  Volador Jr. matches, from Friday at Arena Mexico the other weekend bouts getting raves are Goto vs. Sabre Jr. from today and Kazusada Higuchi’s KO-D title win over Chris Brookes earlier today.

— House of Champions will present a WWE ID Showcase on 7/19 in Orlando FL, featuring mostly matches with WWE ID talent.