Daily Update: Penta, Seth Rollins, Gabe Kidd

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

The new issue of the Observer is up on the site today:

  • All-time records for WWE business that will be broken at the Royal Rumble
  • What 38 years old company attendance mark goes down this week
  • Rumble favorites and news on the show
  • Things AEW should look to do regarding the creative on Dynamite to avoid things like redundancy, not getting key people over, and examining what the actual purposes of angles are and making them work
  • Full coverage of Saturday Night’s Main Event from this past week, business numbers and what they  mean, Dory Funk Jr., Jesse Ventura and match-by-match coverage.
  • Paul Levesque goes into the Paul Levesque picked WWE Hall of Fame
  • One of the most notable pro wrestling arenas in the world closes this year after nearly 50 years of running major shows. A look at some of the biggest matches held there including Inoki, Jack Brisco, Hogan, Andre, Monsoon, Hansen, Dusty Rhodes, Backlund, Volk Han, Nobuhiko Takada and even the Crush Gals.
  • The life and times of Ed Wiskoski aka Col DeBeers. A look at a 25 year career that went all over the world with a variety of gimmicks, including rises and falls of major territories, the making of his most famous gimmick and its controversial nature.
  • The GFL draft is basically admitted to be a fraud as to how it was presented and all the major names from the past part of the new team-based promotion.
  • Bryce Mitchell says some of the dumbest things possible and Dana White counters. But should the company cut ties with him.
  • The life and times of 50s and 60s star Bill Melby, including the angle that put the Cow Palace on the map as a regular wrestling building, and the most accomplished wrestler/bodybuilders.
  • The most detailed look at the ratings for all the television shows, as well as WWE shows on Netflix.  Quarters, year-to-year comparisons and more. Plus competition and demo numbers
  • CMLL’s second biggest show of the year coming
  • Hot Arena Mexico main event
  • Announcer leaves promotion after 30 years
  • TripleMania news for 2025
  • Stardom awards
  • Dark Side of the Ring 2025 notes
  • How the major TV cable stations are doing
  • Former WCW star in jail
  • AEW international TV notes
  • Lots of notes on AEW Grand Slam Australia
  • International TV numbers
  • Christopher Daniels talks the end of his career
  • AEW star wants to box and do MMA
  • Giant fight talked about is for sure not happening
  • Death of legendary sportswriter Michael Katz
  • WWE star in one of the top box office movies of all-time
  • Jordynne Grace talks leaving TNA
  • WWE injury notes and thoughts about the policy of not stopping matches
  • Top YouTube numbers for the week

This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter Back Issue

Wednesday Update

WWE

  • The full Oba Femi & Trick Williams vs. A-Town Down Under main event from last night’s NXT can be watched here.
  • WWE uploaded post-show interviews with Charlotte Flair and JDC (the former Fandango) after NXT.
  • In an interview with CBS Sports that was conducted before the Royal Rumble, Penta responded to reports that WWE has very high hopes for him and is excited about what he brings to the table in the ring and in merchandise sales:
    • It’s very surprising for me. Last night someone called me to tell me how many of my masks WWE sold. I said, ‘Wow! Really? This number?!’
    • I remember 20 years ago when I started this dream. The most important thing was I never doubted my talent, passion or anything. Now I’m living the dream.
  • Penta said he feels comfortable as either a singles wrestler or in a tag team:
    • I’m very comfortable because Penta myself in the ring is more aggressive, you know? More violent – more different style around the world. But when my brother is with me with the tag team, it’s different. More dynamic, you know? More special, more high-flyer. This is the difference, but I feel comfortable [with] both.
  • Director Chris Killian explained to Comicbook.com why Seth Rollins’ character was cut from his “Captain America: Brave New World” film. Killian said he decided to take the Serpent Society (which Rollins would have been part of) in a different direction after actor Giancarlo Esposito became available:
    • You know, when you’re taking characters like Serpent Society from publishing, who, as you know, are individuals dressed up as snakes and have snake adjacent powers, you’re always iterating and trying to figure out the version that totally works best in a movie like this. I love Seth, Seth’s incredible. But as we were evolving and we knew we had an additional photography period, just one that we did early on in the process that’s planned. We were trying to figure out, ‘Hey, who’s somebody that can bring a very specific kind of gravitas that works with this tone.’ And when Giancarlo became available, it was such a no brainer. I have a very particular history with him. He’s iconic for working with Spike Lee. I interned with Spike Lee when I was 19 years old.
    • And of course, fans have been fan-casting him for a long time in the MCU. So it’s really about making sure that all the elements worked in the grounded tone and vision that I have for this film. And as we evolved and iterated, Giancarlo just made sense. And what a blessing to have in this film.
  • The Undertaker addressed whether he felt bad for Hulk Hogan after Hogan got booed at Raw’s Netflix premiere:
    • I got feelings for people. Sometimes, in life, things come back. He was bigger than life, Americana kind of deal, then he gets caught on tape saying some derogatory, racist things. In this day and age, where all of that is such a hot-button deal, I don’t know what you expect. People are going to react, and they are not going to react in a positive way.
  • Lyra Valkyria joined Sheamus on this week’s edition of Celtic Warrior Workouts.
  • No-Contest Wrestling put out a new episode featuring conversations with Roman Reigns & Paul Heyman, LA Knight, Bayley, New Day, and Carlito from Royal Rumble weekend.
  • WWE produced a video with commentary teams from around the world reacting to Jey Uso’s Royal Rumble win.

Other Wrestling

  • While speaking with TV Insider, Tony Khan was asked about his approach when it comes to working with others and collaborating with talent to formulate AEW creative:
    • I love working with talented people. I really do enjoy the creative collaboration. It’s a really exciting time for AEW. We’ve been on a strong run of shows. We kicked off 2025 with a very successful debut on Max and had some great shows to launch this new era of simulcasting. I love pro wrestling so much. I’m very focused on the shows each week. Seeing some of our greatest stars return to the fold and adding some very exciting stories. There have been stars who have been there from the beginning and flourishing right now. In particular, the return of Kenny Omega. There was also Will Ospreay and Ricochet and many others. I think it’s a great mix of some of AEW’s greatest names ever. One of the great things about AEW is our wrestlers seizing an opportunity. I believe AEW is where the best wrestle. When they latch on to something special, it’s amazing to see how far they’ll take it. 
    • I’m very impressed by both a long-time star and former AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland and Ricochet, who is a relative newcomer in AEW and arrived on a big stage at All In London. I offered a new opportunity for Ricochet in recent months and am so impressed how he has seized it. In November, when we announced the Continental Classic participants and upcoming matches, I made an opening for Ricochet. What he did with it was very impressive. I thought Ricochet had one of the strongest stories coming out of the Continental Classic with Swerve Strickland. There are a  lot of times it’s possible to create specific opportunities for wrestlers to thrive, but it’s really a testament to the wrestlers and their talent when they seize those opportunities and score big. I love collaborating with talent and giving them those opportunities and trying to take the best ideas. My own ideas or suggestions that people make along the way, either the staff or wrestler’s themselves and trying to build the best version of it.
  • NJPW’s English-language website posted an in-character interview with Gabe Kidd. He said he wants a rematch against Kenny Omega when the time is right:
    • I’ll give him credit. He isn’t the phony I thought he was, or that I said he was before. He is the best of the best and that’s who I deserve to be in the ring with. He got me, but I do want round two.
    • When the time is right, I do [want a rematch]. And you know, it’ll be harder a second time. Tokyo Dome was his first match back, his first step back into the wrestling ring. A second time and he’ll be more confident, he’ll have been wrestling consistently. There’s no doubt, I could feel and you can see watching the match back that he was nervous in there. It’s a credit to him as a wrestler that he was able to beat me, because I was 100%. It’s given me things to work on, and that’s what I’m doing with my coaches, so next time we face off I’ll be 100% better than the 100% I was then.
  • MLW announced that Summer of the Beasts 2025 will take place from the Melrose Ballroom in New York City on Thursday, June 26. Tickets are going on sale next Tuesday (February 11) at 10 a.m. Eastern time.
  • An interview with Women’s Featherweight Champion Delmi Exo has been added to the lineup for MLW’s SuperFight event in Atlanta this Saturday. Exo will address what’s next for her:
    • Fans and competitors alike are eager to hear from Exo as she addresses her reign, potential challengers, and the ever-evolving landscape of MLW’s women’s division. Will a new contender emerge to step up to The God Queen, or does Exo have her own plans for SuperFight?
  • Chris Jericho interviewed Chris Van Vliet on a new episode of Talk is Jericho.
  • WrestleMobs spoke with Ryan Nemeth and Jimmy Jacobs.