Daily Update: Olympic ratings, Daniel Bryan on Raw, Lesnar & Heyman

Olympic Ratings Suffer

The ratings being way down this year for the Olympics is already a huge story. Friday night’s opening ceremonies did a 16.5 rating, down from a 23.0 in London. The difference is that this year almost everything is airing live while in London, almost everything was taped. There were theories how this year’s numbers would be way up because of it and the result was the opposite. 

The real reason is that there are fewer must-see stars that were promoted. Some day that will be figured out. All the people who complain about taped Olympics for the last decade don’t understand that most people watch for entertainment and don’t care about something being taped delayed by a few hours.  Anyway, the idea that the last Olympics didn’t really hurt WWE ratings because it was taped and these Olympics will isn’t looking to be a good theory right about now.

Bryan and I will be back tonight with Wrestling Observer Radio covering Raw, Joey Styles, Conor McGregor, G-1 and the rest of the latest news. Send e-mail questions to the show to MailBag@WrestlingObserver.com.

THE ROUND-UP

SCHEDULE, REPORTS & POLLS

We’re also looking for feedback on Saturday’s G-1 Climax show in Osaka, 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.

Raw is tonight from the Honda Center in Anaheim. No Brock Lesnar or Paul Heyman scheduled live on the show. Daniel Bryan will be appearing on the show.  Sean Combs will be on tonight’s show as the celebrity guest.  We’re looking for Superstars notes, dark match notes and anything else not evident from the live show to NewsTips@WrestlingObserver.com.

Tuesday has Smackdown in Bakersfield. Neither John Cena nor A.J. Styles are scheduled for this show because they leaving Monday night after Raw for a house show in Auckland, New Zealand, starting a four-show Australia & New Zealand tour. Rhyno vs. Heath Slater is scheduled for this show.

G-1 CLIMAX AT 5:30 A.M. EASTERN TIME ON WEDNESDAY FROM THE YAMAGATA SPORTS CENTER

  • Ryusuke Taguchi vs. David Finlay
  • Satoshi Kojima & Manabu Nakanishi & Juice Robinson vs. Bad Luck Fale & Tama Tonga & Yujiro Takahashi
  • Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Captain New Japan vs. Bushi & Seiya Sanada
  • Hiroshi Tanahashi & Togi Makabe & Kushida & Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask vs. Kazuchika Okada & Tomohiro Ishii & Hirooki Goto & Gedo & Naomichi Marufuji
  • Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Kenny Omega
  • Toru Yano vs. Evil
  • Yoshi-Hashi vs. Tetsuya Naito
  • Katsuyori Shibata vs. Yuji Nagata
  • Tomoaki Honma vs. Michael Elgin

Figure Four Weekly: Figure Four Weekly 8/3/2016: Latest developments in wrestling related lawsuits – If it wasn’t clear before that the Hulk Hogan vs. Gawker lawsuit is a whole lot bigger than Hulk Hogan or even Gawker, the events of the last few weeks have made it more obvious than ever before. Of course, the revelation two months ago that billionaire Peter Thiel had been funding Hogan’s lawsuit (and others against Gawker) was a game changer, but the effects of Thiel’s influence weren’t as obvious… Subscribers click here to continue reading.

F4W YouTube Page: Tons of clips and full free audio shows that you can tell your friends about, and much more to come! Make sure you subscribe today!

Wrestling Observer Newsletter: August 8, 2016 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: WWE financial report, MMA rules change, UFC 201– There really wasn’t a lot of big news coming out of the second quarter WWE conference call.

Even though the idea of barely making a profit in the quarter of WrestleMania would have been disastrous most years, this year it was stated well in advance that due to the time frame of programming costs, this quarter would probably break even.

WWE pushed that it was the most revenue ever generated in a quarter, but with the fallout of WrestleMania and the new free subscribers from the prior quarter, that was inevitable. Some of them stayed with the service, some may have forgotten to cancel the service, and there are also the contractual increases in television revenue. Plus there was the Mania event revenue… Subscribers click here to continue reading.

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Wrestling Observer Newsletter BACK ISSUE: June 28, 1999 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Reaction to WWF contracted Sable appearing on WCW TV, more on Hart/WWF lawsuit – After a week, it is even less clear what WCW hoped to accomplish when putting Rena Mero on Nitro on 6/14… Subscribers click here to continue reading.

MONDAY NEWS UPDATE

TNA officially announced Bound for Glory on 10/2 in Orlando today. The date has been known for several weeks and was a rescheduling of the originally planned 9/11 date, which they moved off because WWE added a PPV on that date. TNA has added a Bound for Glordy 2016 commercial with “Broken” Matt Hardy. DELETE DELTE DELETE!

Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman did tape stuff last week so they may be on Raw in some form, but are not in Anaheim tonight. They are both booked for Raw next week in Corpus Christi for the go-home show for SummerSlam. Daniel Bryan is on the show since they need something with the Olympics going on.

Most of the top Raw names as well as John Cena and A.J. Style leave after Raw tonight for New Zealand and a four show tour that begins on Wednesday in Auckland with Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins, John Cena vs. A.J. Styles and Chris Jericho vs. Finn Balor as the top matches.

UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez was interviewed by TMZ about Conor McGregor’s remarks about WWE wrestlers. He said that while WWE performers are actors, a lot of them are incredible athletes and many come from real combat sports backgrounds. He also challenged the winner of the McGregor vs. Diaz fight to a title match. Or the loser.

Get caught up on the Hulkster’s attemtp to settle out of court witgh Gawker prior to bankruptcy (thanks to Chris Cruise and Dennis Gorman): 

​WORLD WRESTLING ENTERTAINMENT

  • The Stone Cold Podcast with Dean Ambrose will be on after Raw on the WWE Network.
  • Cruiserweight Classic matches on Wednesday night will be second round bouts with Gran Metalik (Mascara Dorada) vs. Tajiri and Cedric Alexander vs. Kota Ibushi in what was said to be the best match of the tournament. I was told with editing this will appear to be **** or better.
  • Ric Flair talks his daughter, podcasting and more. 
  • A look at Baron Corbin is here.
  • A story on Victoria Gonzalez, who recently got a WWE tryout is here. 
  • Sean Combs will be involved in the soundtrack for the WWE 2K 17 video game, so that probably ties in with him being on the show tonight. There will be 13 unique songs from different artists in the game. 

The WWE 2K17 in-game soundtrack, curated by Puff Daddy, will include the following artists and songs:

  • Action Bronson & Joey Bada$$ (feat. Rico Love) – “What About The Rest Of Us”;
  • Anderson .Paak – “Come Down”;
  • Andy Black – “We Don’t Have To Dance”;
  • Axwell Λ Ingrosso – “This Time”;
  • Black Sabbath – “Paranoid”;
  • Bring Me The Horizon – “Run”;
  • FIDLAR – “Drone”;
  • French Montana (feat. Kojak Black) – “Lockjaw”;
  • iSHi (feat. French Montana, Wale, & Raekwon) – “We Run”;
  • P. Diddy, Black Rob & Mark Curry – “Bad Boy For Life”;
  • Travis Barker & Yelawolf – “Out of Control”;
  • Twenty One Pilots – “Ride”;
  • Yellow Claw (feat. Lil Eddie) – “We Made It”.  

Developed collaboratively by Yuke’s and Visual Concepts, a 2K studio, WWE 2K17 is not yet rated by the ESRB. WWE 2K17 is currently scheduled for worldwide release on the PlayStation®4 and PlayStation®3 computer entertainment systems, Xbox One and Xbox 360 on October 11, 2016. Consumers who pre-order WWE 2K17 at any participating retailer will receive two playable Bill Goldberg characters, as well as playable WCW Monday Nitro and Halloween Havoc arenas, at no extra cost on launch day. For more information on WWE 2K17 and 2K, visit wwe.2k.com, become a fan on Facebook, follow the game on Twitter and Instagram using the hashtag #WWE2K17 or subscribe on YouTube.

Download assets for the WWE 2K17 Soundtrack announcement here:

  • Puff Daddy Video Interview
  • Diddy artwork

PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING

  • ROH has announced Jay Lethal, The Young Bucks, Mark & Jay Briscoe and Dalton Castle for the shows on 11/18 in Liverpool, UK at The Olympia, 11/19 in Leicester at the Community Sports Arena and 11/20 in London at the Seymour Leisure Centre.  
  • The CMLL Friday night shows are available for $10 on the Live Events Viewer for anyone who has a PlayStation 3 or 4. (thanks to Larry Huber Jr.)
  • A video look at Evolve storylines was just released.

MISCELLANEOUS

  • Chinzo Machida, the older brother of Lyoto Machida, makes his Bellator debut against Mario Navarro in a prelim match on the 8/26 show in Anaheim at the Honda Center. 
  • World Series of Fighting 32 was on Ziggo Sport, a free to air TV station in Holland owned by Ziggo, and did 14,000 viewers. Fred Rooyers, a former fighter, did commentary. (thanks to Hank Mulder)

RESULTS

  • GOUGE Wrestling did the old 24/7 title gimmick at the Charlotte Mid Atlantic Wrestling convention over the weekend. It’s the same thing Joey Ryan has been doing with his DDT title losing and winning to everyone he meets that was a name wrestler so that person will be on the 1,000 plus list of the title legacy. So Gouge has the Spaceman Frank Hickey Memorial Scientific Rassling Trophy. Seymour Snott brought the trophy to the convention and was attacked by retired 80s wrestler Ric McCord and given a dragon sleeper and tapped. Jimmy Valiant then put the sleeper on McCord to win. Valiant was doing a promo. Bobby Fulton came up and asked Valiant a question about something and Valiant said “I don’t know, I give up.” Tommy Young was there and ruled that a title change. Young then pinned Fulton. Bill Apter put Young to sleep. Apter was about to relinquish the title when Count Grog used a cobra on him. Tammy Sytch hugged Count Grog, who acted like he had a heart attack, and Shane Helms pinned him. David Wills then pinned Helms until he laid down on a couch and Snott jumped on him for the pin.
  • Hoosier Pro Wrestling from Saturday night in Columbus, IN: Timmy Danger b Scarecrow Eddie Felson, Lightning Bolt b Drax O’Brien, Bambino Family b Derek Neal & Aden Blackheart, Shigehiro Irie b JKO Cousin Cooter b Wicked Clown, Too Cool TJ & Shawn Kemp b TVZ, Vic the Bruiser b Dynamite Dillen-DQ. Next show is 9/3 at the 4-H Fairgrounds with Vic the Bruiser vs. Dynamite Dillen. (thanks to Jerry Wilson)
  • Dreamwave Wrestling from Saturday night in LaSalle, IL before 450 fans: Spears & Beers b The Colony, Stephen Wolf over KLD, Brandon Espinosa, Corbin Blaze, Connor Braxton and Stevie Fierce, Christian Rose b Arik Cannon, Suge D b Joey Ryan to win the DDT Iron Man title with Mick Foley as referee, Santino Marella b Suge D to win the DDT Iron Man title, Joey Ryan b Santino Marella to win the DDT Iron man title, JT Dunn b Lio Rush, Bucknasty b Little Guido, Brubaker b Zicky Dice, Ariya Daivari b Donovan Dijak, Alexander Hammerstone b Chris Castro, Prince Mustafa Ali b AR Fox to keep the Dreamwave title. Next show is 8/13 in Mendota, IL for a free show and 9/3 in LaSalle, IL with Kurt Angle appearing.
  • Revolution Pro in London on Sunday before 150-200 fans: Rob Lias b Josh Wall, Jake McCluskey & Kieran Bruce b Dan Magee & Kurtis Chapman, Jinny b Xia Brookside, Jeff Cobb b Big Damo, Josh Bodom b Ryan Smile, Marty Scurll b Jay White, Zack Sabre Jr. b Trent Seven. Sabre vs. Seven said to be in the **** range. Zack Sabre Jr. will be defending the Revolution Pro title on Friday night against Cobb.  Scurll vs. White was really good. (thanks to Ian Hamilton)
  • Tier One Wrestling from Sunday in Brooklyn: Flawless &Lawless b Dan Barry & Chuck Taylor, Indy Card Mafia b Mr Grim & Christian Casanova, J George b Sebastian Cage, Darius Carter won six-way over Sonny Kiss, Black Baron, Ace Romero, VsK and Randy Summers, Abominable CPA & Francis Kipland Stevens b Jesse Vane & Anthony Lacerra, Nikki Addams b Allie Recks, Certified Sexy b Sons of Brooklyn, Darius Carter & Ryan Galeone b Rude Boy Riley & Aaron Stevens (Damian Sandow). An angle involving Stevens at the show is here.
  • Scenic City Invitational from Sunday in Chattanooga: Kyle Matthews & Mikael Judas & Chase Jordan b Ray Fury & Troque & Cyrus the Destroyer, Gunner Miller b Joey Lynch, Anthony Henry b Billy Buck, Chris Hero b Chip Day, Jimmy Rave b Matt Riddle, Tank & Iceberg b Corey Hollis & John Skyler and Drew Delight & Rush, Gunner Miller won four-way over Jimmy Rave, Chris Hero and Anthony Henry to win the tournament.

UP-COMING EVENTS

  • Big West Wrestling on Friday night in Kelowna, BC at the Bowl-a-Rama II.
  • Big Time Wrestling on Friday night in Newark, CA at the Pavilion with Aaron Stevens (Damien Sandow), Teddy Hart vs. Joey Ryan, Chris Masters and more.  There will be a meet and greet from 5:30 to 7:15 with Bret Hart, Aaron Stevens, Anthony Carelli (Santino Marella) and more.
  • Pure Wrestling Association on 8/19 in Nanaimo, BC and 8/20 in Nanaimo, BC, 8/20 in Bradford, ONT and 8/21 in Nanaimo, BC.
  • Moonshine Branded Wrestling on 9/2 at the Italo-Canadian Hall in Fort Erie, ONT.
  • Canadian Wrestling Elite on 9/2 in Winnipeg at Rookie’s Sports Bar.
  • Chaotic Wrestling and the Lowell Spinners announced “A Night of Grand Slams” on 9/9 featuring the Chaotic wrestling debuts of Rob Van Dam and Cody Rhodes.  Also on the show includes Tommy Dreamer, Austin Aries, Tommaso Ciampa, Johnny Gargano, Rhyno, Scotty 2 Hotty, D-Lo Brown (managed by Ron Simmons), Robbie E, Hanson, Thea Trinidad, and Donovan Dijak.  RVD & Dreamer headline against Chase Del Monte & the Logan Brothers, plus Brian Fury vs. Rhodes, Ciampa vs. Hanson last time in New England and Gargano vs. Aries vs. JT Dunn.  There will be two meet and greet sessions before the show.
  • Barrie Wrestling on 9/10 headlined by Tyson Dux.
  • Elite Canadian Championship Wrestling on 9/24 in New Westminster, BC at the Sapperton Pensioners Hall.

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