Daily Update: NXT No Mercy, Sonny King, N1 finals

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

  • A look at the wrestling career of Sid Eudy, his death, his career highlights, the injury that basically ended his career, other major inopportune injuries, his going from place to place and more.
  • When he first started which is earlier than most have noted.
  • The Lord Humongous gimmick
  • The Skyscrapers and why it ended
  • The Four Horsemen period
  • His first PPV main event
  • A number of stories related to Brian Pillman including the squeegee story
  • His leaving WCW for WWF and his first WrestleMania main event and how that finish didn’t happen as planned
  • The failed drug test before WrestleMania
  • The Hoosier Dome match
  • Quitting WWF
  • Return to WCW and the plan for him to win the world title and how it fell through
  • Situation with Arn Anderson
  • How he ended up getting his WWF title run in 1996-97
  • The injury that ended his WWF career
  • The ridiculous win streak gimmick in WCW
  • All In coverage from London
  • The update on contract negotiations
  • Why the MAX deal didn’t happen last year
  • The upcoming stadium shows
  • Business notes on how All In did
  • All Out update
  • Notes on new contracts
  • Future of Bryan Danielson
  • WWE weekend preview
  • RevPro anniversary show
  • Look at the ratings over the past two weeks
  • International TV ratings
  • The longest match ever held at Arena Mexico
  • Japanese tournament updates
  • Oldest male wrestler ever to participate in a major match
  • Deaths of Villano V and Fritz Von Goering
  • Tony Khan talks creative process
  • Bryan Danielson talks his discussion with Vince McMahon about doing G1
  • MMA star Benji Radach passes away
  • Mark Shapiro talks new WWE ideas
  • Netflix doc notes
  • Shapiro talks Netflix deal

This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter Back Issue

Friday Update

– We have two new shows up on the site. Our week in review show with Garrett Gonzales talking Sid Vicious, lots of history, talks about what draws, and more. We also have last night’s show with Bryan talking Bash in Berlin and Collision.

WWE has NXT No Mercy tonight from Denver:

  • Ethan Page vs. Joe Hendry for the NXT title
  • Oba Femi vs. Tony D’Angelo for the North American title
  • Roxanne Perez vs. Jaida Parker for the NXT women’s title
  • Kelani Jordan vs. Wendy Choo for the women’s North  American title
  • Wes Lee vs. Zachary Wentz
  • Ridge Holland &  Andre Chase vs. Nathan Frazier & Axiom for the NXT tag titles

There were 6,700 tickets out as of this morning for the show. It’s pretty impressive since Raw is in the same building tomorrow and has more than 10,200 tickets out.

– We’re doing weekend polls for both Bash in Berlin and NXT No Mercy. You can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down, or a thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

– I want to thank everyone for their comments on the Observer story on Sid Vicious in the current issue.  

– Sonny King, who was a significant star in the 70s and into the 80s as both a wrestler and manager, passed away yesterday at the age of 79.  He was part of the fourth WWWF world tag team champions with Chief Jay Strongbow, beating King Curtis Iaukea & Baron Scicluna in two straight falls in Philadelphia. However, in a story few remember, somehow the tape got screwed up.  So they brought the Philadelphia ring to Hamburg the next night and redid only the third fall, and made it a one-fall match, and that’s the version that aired on WWWF television on both shows. King managed Afa & Sika in Georgia in 1982 when they feuded with Michael Hayes & Terry Gordy. He also was stabbed during his career which nearly ended his life, but came back. He also was a regular tag team partner of Junkyard Dog in the heyday of Mid South Wrestling feuding with the likes of Butch Reed, Ernie Ladd, and Buddy Landel. We’ll have a full story on him on the site in a few days.

– The reason there was no Bloodline segment on SmackDown is because much of the family went home for Afa’s funeral which took place this weekend.

We’re looking for reports from these shows:

  • AEW last night in Sioux Falls, SD (matches not on the live show)
  • TNA TV tapings last night in Louisville, KY

We’re looking for results, finishes, and angles at dave@wrestlingobserver.com. What we do know is that Arianna Grace and Karmen Petrovic were at the TNA tapings and they set up a Jordynne Grace TNA women’s title match.

– As noted on Friday, Nielsen made an error in reporting the AEW rating. Overall it’s nothing of note. The show was first place for the night, but it was readjusted from 0.22 to 0.23 because Nielsen had been told the show would be 69 minutes and it was 65 minutes. So the first four minutes of the next show were factored into the first released number, and the rating obviously dropped big when wrestling ended. In actuality, the final segment had 715,000 viewers and a show-high 336,000 in 18-49. This was the Bryan Danielson interview. It was also first in every male demo for the show.

– Wicked West Wrestling on 9/6 at 1735 National Avenue in San Diego has Paul London, Mecha Wolf, and Mickie Knuckles

– Kid Kash did his first match in six years last night for the Beside the Ring promotion. Kash & Ricky Morton won the main event over Hunter Wolfe, billed as 7 feet tall, and Mega Destroyer.

– Jonathan Gresham & Jordynne Grace beat Austin & Nikki Lane in the battle of husband and wife tag teams on yesterday’s Memphis Wrestling TV show. (thanks to  Brian Tramel)

– OVW drew 1,609 fans for its show last night in Pikeville, KY which is a great number for a non-WWE or AEW U.S. show. (thanks to Wrestletix).

– Ron Killings (R-Truth) performed shows Friday and Saturday night as well as has a show today in Manchester, NH as part of Lethal Weekend 7. For storyline purposes, he performed with his ribs all wrapped up since he’s doing a storyline injury from all the tsunamis from Bronson Reed.

– Yuma Aoyagi beat Kento Miyahara to retain the Triple Crown in Fukuoka today. Heard it was a great match.

– Kaito Kiyomiya won the N-1 tournament beating Kenoh in the final today in Osaka. Josh Briggs and Tavion Heights finished with NOAH on today’s show and will be back in Orlando tomorrow. Anna Jay finished with Stardom Saturday and also is returning home. El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. is back in action. Briggs on his last night beat Yoshiki Inamura.

– Tam Nakano won the World of Stardom title yesterday, the top belt in that group, beating Natsuko Tora. Maika won the Five Star Grand Prix beating Saya Kamitani in the final. Most had Maika’s semifinal win over Mayu Iwatani as the best match.

– Notes from the NJPW show in Washington, DC. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Tomohiro Ishii challenged Mikey Nicholls & Shane Haste for the New Japan Strong tag titles at Royal Quest on 10/20. Mina Shirakawa was said to be really over. She was in London as well.

– The NWA has a show on 9/27 in Queens NY at The Sacred Heart Catholic Academy.

– A video on the life and career of Baron Von Raschke, “The Claw” has been released on Prime Video.