Daily Update: New WWE trademarks, AEW Road to New Year’s Smash, NJPW notes

Daily Update

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter:

*Wrestler of the Week and Match of the week
*John Cena’s early career and his return, as well as an update on his WrestleMania prospects
*In depth on why television and streaming are cutting back on new programming and how this impacts the pro wrestling business.
*If you asked people to name a pro wrestler, how many could name one and who would be the first person they’d name, and the reality of “mainstream” knowledge of today’s pro wrestlers.
*Complete coverage of UFC’s last show of the year as well as a sad lesson about getting injured the week of your fight.
*A look at one of the best shows of 2022, the TakaTaichi promoted show at Yoyogi Gym in Tokyo
*The most detailed look at TV viewership for every major show over the past week
*New weekly streaming live show debuts
*Promotion doing rematches of its best matches of 2022
*The story behind the voting for tag team of the year in Japan
*Stardom has one of its biggest shows in its history this week
*Notes on the upcoming show at the Tokyo Dome
*A week of incredible matches
*Ospreay vs. Ishii
*El Hijo del Vikingo in the U.S. working dates
*Impact next PPV
*AEW makes major new broadcast deal that will be announced in a few weeks
*The mystery man on Dynamite this week
*Tickets sales for upcoming AEW & WWE shows
*WWE & AEW streaming numbers
*International TV ratings
*Ticket sales for upcoming AEW & WWE shows
*UFC PPV numbers for this past year
*A bill expected to be introduced in the U.S. Senate that would greatly change the MMA world
*Dana White talks about luck and timing
*Judging controversies
*Two fighters feud on Twitter and got into it at the UFC gym
*Sports business analyst predicts NBCU buying WWE and we talks about what is and isn’t valid about that
*Post-Christmas WWE touring
*Most popular WWE names in social media
*Current WWE market value

This Week’s Retro Observer Newsletter:

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Tuesday Update

WWE

  • The company filed several trademarks on December 23, including “All Heart All In”, “Inspire the Impossible”, “From Dreams to Destiny”, “Desire. Determination. Destiny.”, and “Where The Stars Align”. The trademarks were filed for entertainment services as well as for merchandise, metaverse, crypto, and e-sports competition purposes.
  • WWE posted a video celebrating Shelton Benjamin’s 20 year anniversary in WWE.
  • When Jade Cargill on Twitter mentioned that she would like to face Charlotte Flair, Flair responded writing “Keep killing it, queen. #undefeated”.
  • Gunther posted a picture of he & Jinny having dinner with Ludwig Kaiser and Tiffany Stratton following Gunther & Kaiser’s MSG debut on Monday night.
  • A new trailer has been released for Dave Bautista’s next film, Knock at the Cabin.
  • The Green Bay Packers has a profile on fan Braun Strowman.
  • WWE’s YouTube has a video recap of the best NXT moments of 2022.
  • Free matches added to WWE’s YouTube today include Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar from WrestleMania 33, Beth Phoenix vs. Kelly Kelly from WWE TLC 2011, and Hollywood Hogan vs. Goldberg from the July 6, 1998 edition of WCW Nitro.
  • Zelina Vega and Goldberg are celebrating a birthday today.

AEW

  • This week’s AEW Road to New Years Smash, hyping Samoa Joe vs. Wardlow and Bryan Danielson vs. Ethan Page.
  • A longer version of the commercial hyping the new look for AEW Dynamite starting on January 4.
  • When asked about a return to AEW, Shawn Spears wrote on Twitter: “Don’t hold your breath…Not going there anytime soon.”
  • Tony Khan wrote on Twitter Monday: 2 years ago today 12/26/20, the world lost Jon Huber. In wrestling he was formerly called Luke Harper, and for us he was Mr. Brodie Lee. He loved his family so much, his amazing wife Amanda and their great sons Brodie & Nolan, and he loved wrestling. Please keep him in your heart”
  • Nyla Rose spoke to Fightful on the upcoming AEW video game and cutting more promos.
  • Claudio Castagnoli and Yuka Sakazaki are celebrating birthdays today.

Other Wrestling

  • Kenny Omega gave a kayfabe interview on NJPW’s website, talking about his upcoming match against Will Ospreay at Wrestle Kingdom 17.
  • Tama Tonga has won NJPW’s bodybuilding competition, Concurso, which was judged by fan voting. Tama Tonga placed first with 1,487 votes, followed by DOUKI in second place with 1,183 votes. YOH finished third with 944 votes. Full results can be seen here.
  • NJPW’s website published an interview with the Super Junior Tag League winners YOH and Lio Rush ahead of their title match on January 4.
  • NJPW World recently documented Kazuchika Okada returning to his hometown of Anjo.
  • Impact’s show on Thursday will be a ‘Best of’ episode.
  • Lita will appear for West Coast Pro on March 4, where she will present the first ever West Coast Pro Women’s Championship.
  • El Hijo del Vikingo vs. Joey Janela has been added to GCW’s New Year’s Eve event on December 31.