Daily Update: Nikkita Lyons, weekend schedule, Will Ospreay

Daily Update

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter:

August 22, 2022 Observer Newsletter: WWE Q2 financials, G1 Climax 32 finals

  • WWE business numbers for quarter two and how they compare with a year ago
  • Why numbers are up and where
  • Stephanie McMahon discusses the departure of Vince McMahon and first meeting Nick Khan
  • Stephanie McMahon discusses leaving and returning
  • Stephanie McMahon talks Vince McMahon’s interest going forward
  • How the recent PPV shows have done and put into perspective
  • Raw and Smackdown as compared with the TV business
  • How USA Network would be doing without Raw
  • How FOX would be doing without Smackdown
  • Nick Khan talks the sports rights landscape
  • Paul Levesque talks scouting new WWE talent
  • Actual paid attendance for this year’s WrestleMania and tickets sold for SummerSlam and Clash at the Castle s well as next year’ Wrestlemania
  • WWE revenue in every category
  • WWE live show attendance and merchandise
  • Kazuchika Okada repeats as G-1 winner
  • All the G-1 events over the past week as well as the business of G-1
  • The end of NXT UK and promise of NXT Europe
  • A list of WWE cuts
  • Clash at the Castle notes
  • UFC coverage of Saturday night’s show
  • The retirement of Rory MacDonald
  • TV ratings for wrestling and MMA shows this past week
  • How every segment on AEW programming did
  • Arena Mexico has one of its biggest events of the year
  • Stardom PPV notes
  • All Japan and NOAH tournament notes
  • Kota Ibushi update
  • Most popular wrestlers in Japan
  • Looking at media consumption
  • The biggest angle in Philadelphia Roller Games history
  • Behind the Punk-Page strange thing on television
  • Update on a major AEW return
  • Kenny Omega’s return
  • All Out plans
  • AEW adds new North American TV
  • Takeshita update
  • Ticket sales for upcoming WWE and AEW events
  • Streaming and international TV numbers
  • New major UFC fights
  • MMA legend to debut as a boxer next month
  • Major company trying to go public
  • Former UFC champion and his race for Governor
  • Former WWE star sues MMA company
  • Behind the Vince McMahon-Donald Trump payments for appearing on WWE show
  • Thoughts on new WWE signings

This Week’s Retro Observer Newsletter:

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Friday News Update

  • Garrett Gonzales and I will be doing a show tonight on the news of the past week, as well as the current issue. Bryan and I will be doing our weekend show tomorrow night after the UFC show.
  • Smackdown tonight is the 1,200th episode of the show. They will no doubt claim it is the second longest prime time TV show in history, even though that is far from the case. Kevin Owens was brought in because the show is in Montreal and he’s a huge favorite there. They have more than 10,000 tickets out so it will be among the biggest Smackdown crowds of the year. As noted earlier today, the women’s tag team tournament match tonight is now Natalya & Sonya Deville vs. Jacy Jayne & Gigi Dolin Jayne & Dolin replace Zoey Stark & Nikkita Lyons. Stark suffered a concussion in her match Tuesday with Mandy Rose and wasn’t cleared. Lyons wouldn’t have been allowed to go as they didn’t realize she wasn’t vaccinated and thus couldn’t get into Canada.
  • Rampage tonight at 10 p.m. Eastern on TNT:
  • Keith Lee & Swerve Strickland vs. Private Party for the tag titles
  • Hook vs. Zack Clayton of Jersey Shore for the FTW title
  • Buddy Matthews vs. Serpentico
  • Chuck Taylor & Trent Baretta & Orange Cassidy vs. Parker Boudreaux & Ari Daivari & Slim J in the trios tournament
  • The CMLL World Grand Prix takes place tonight at Arena Mexico.
  • On the Stardom PPV show on Sunday, Kairi is out of her Wonder of Stardom title match with Saya Kamitani due to testing positive for COVID. She will be replaced by Himeka in the title match.
  • Kazuchika Okada and wife Suzuko Mimori, a singer and actress, just had their first child, a baby boy.
  • There is a ton of interest in the AEW presale next week for the two shows in Toronto. The first show is expected to be an instant sellout and they may both be.
  • Impact announced 8/26 at The Factor in Deep Ellum near Dallas with Doc Gallows & Karl Anderson vs. Matt Taven & Mike Bennett for the tag titles and Deonna Purrazzo vs. Masha Slamovich. For 8/27 in the same location they’ve announced Gallows & Anderson vs. Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley.
  • UFC will continue its sellout streak tomorrow for a PPV show, UFC 278, in Salt Lake City. There were 16,018 tickets out as of today and 814 left.
  • The lineup for the show starting at 6 p.m. Eastern on ESPN
  • Victor Altamirano (125) vs. Daniel Da Silva (126)
  • Aoriqileng (136) vs. Jay Perrin (136)
  • Amir Albazio (126) vs. Francisco Figueiredo (125.5)
  • AJ Fletcher (170) vs. Ange Loosa (170.5)
  • 8 p.m. on both ABC and ESPN
  • Sean Woodson (146) vs. Luis Saldana (145.5)
  • Leonardo Santos (156) vs. Jared Gordon (155.5)
  • Marcin Tybura (252.5) vs. Alexandr Romanov (239.5)
  • PPV at 10 p.m.
  • Tyson Pedro (205.5) vs. Harry Hunsucker (204.5)
  • Wu Yanan (136) vs. Lucie Pudilova (135.5)
  • Jose Aldo (136) vs. Merab Dvalishvli (136)
  • Luke Rockhold (185.5) vs. Paulo Costa (185.5)
  • Kamaru Usman (170) vs. Leon Edwards (170) for the UFC welterweight title
  • Miranda Maverick vs. Shanna Young was pulled from the show Young was hospitalized, likely due to issues related to weight cutting. Young was cutting weight when she was rushed to the hospital.
  • We are looking for reports on these weekend shows:
  • NXT tonight in Lakeland, FL
  • Smackdown tonight in Montreal (dark matches only)
  • WWE house show tomorrow in Ottawa, ONT
  • WWE house show tomorrow in Kingston, ONT
  • NXT house show tomorrow in Venice, FL
  • WWE house show Sunday in London, ONT
  • WWE house show Sunday in Quebec City, Quebec
  • We’re looking for results, finishes and other highlights to dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  • We are doing polls for all three NJPW shows at Budokan Hall, as well a tomorrow night’s UFC 278 and the Sunday Stardom sow in Nagoya so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs dow or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  • We also also doing polls for the best match of the G-1 Climax tournament and MVP of the G-1 Climax tournament
  • Will Ospreay has a chance to have one of the most amazing in-ring weeks in history. He’s already had a great match with Juice Robinson, a classic with Tetsuya Naito, one of the best story telling matches ever with Kazuchika Okada, and finishes up on Saturday in London at York Hall with Mike Bailey, who has had the best U.S. indie matches this year, and Sunday against RKJ, one of the rising stars of the U.K. scene defending his British title for RevPro.
  • The PFL playoffs continue tomorrow at 2 p.m. Eastern on ESPN+ from the Copper Box Arena in London, UK. They have the women’s lightweight and men’s featherweight semifinals
  • Ryuji Kudo (145) vs. Bubba Jenkins (146) at featherweight
  • Larissa Pacheco (155) vs. Olena Kolesnyk (156) at lightweight
  • Chris Wade (145) vs,. Brendan Loughnane (145) at featherweight
  • Kayla Harrison (155) vs. Martina Jindrova (154) at lightweight

WWE

UFC

  • Jesse Ronson will face Joaquin Silva on the 10/1 show. Silva replaces Vinc Pichel, who pulled out of the show due to an injury.

Other Notes

  • The N-1 tournament continues at Korakuen Hall on Wrestle Universe tomorrow with Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Masato Tanaka, Go Shiozaki vs. El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr., Hideki Suzuki vs Anthony Greene, Masakatsu Funaki vs. Satoshi Kojima, Kaito Kiyomiya vs. Kinya Okada and Takashi Sugiura vs. Jack Morris.
  • Championship Supercard from Shanghai, China takes place on 11/3 at the Mao Live House
  • Combate Global tonight on Paramount + at 11 p.m. Eastern is headlined by Ivan Tena (4-0) vs. Roberto Romero (4-2-1) in a featherweight bout. 
  • Headlocked Comics and Defy are at the Emerald City Comic Con tomorrow with the Bollywood Boyz and Bobby Fish doing an afternoon panel. They are in booth #117.
  • Jeannie Buss, who is behind the new WOW promotion that starts in syndication in a few weeks, mentioned it on Jimmy Kimmel earlier this week. 
  • LFA on 9/16 on UFC Fight Pass from the Mystic Lake Casino Hotel in Prior Lake, MN at 9 p.m. with women’s strawweight champion Jacqueline Amorim (5-0) defending her title against Ashley Nichols (4-3).
  • LFA also runs 9/9 at the Dobson Arena in Vail, CO on Fight Pass with a main event of Harris Talundzic (5-0) vs. Chris Brown (8-4).
  • Defy on 10/8 in Portland, OR at the Kliever Armory with Christopher Daniels, Swerve Strickland and Kevin Sullivan.
  • Pro Wrestling Phoenix from Wednesday night in Omaha, NE: Pat Powers & Preston Maxwell b Purple & Xander McIntosh, Con Artiest b Tank Bryson, Brian Blade b Angus Keyser, Omar Pachecco b Vic Douglas, Luke Luna b Angus Keyser, Duke Cornell b Willy Sweet, Omar Pachecco won Rumble. Next show is 9/21 at the Waiting Room Lounge in Omaha.
  • AIW has its annual JT Lightning tournament in Cleveland tonight and shows tomorrow at 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. in Cleveland at The Odeon. Among those in the tournament are Drago, Colin Delaney, Joseline Navarro, Dominic Garrini, Eric Young, Cheech, Chase Oliver, Ernest Miller and Dalton Castle.
  • Wrestlerager 6 on 8/27 in Cleveland at 11213 Detroit Avenue is headlined by Tom Lawlor.