Daily Update: Raw, CMLL, Jeremy Ganger

DAILY UPDATE

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We’re doing polls this weekend for both NJPW G-1 shows in Osaka and TripleMania,  so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match from each shows to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

We’re also looking for reports from Pittsburgh tonight for the Main Event tapings and anything else not on the live show from Raw as well as last night’s Raw show in Erie, PA and the Impact shows the last two nights in Southern California to newstips@wrestlingobserver.com

Smackdown and 205 Live will be taped Tuesday night in Detroit.

NEW JAPAN G-1 CLIMAX FROM HAMAMATSU AT 5:30 A.M WEDNESDAY MORNING ON NEW JAPAN WORLD

  • Toru Yano & Yota Tsuji & Yuya Uemura vs. Minoru Suzuki & Taichi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru
  • Hirooki Goto & Yoshi-Hashi vs. Jon Moxley & Shota Umino
  • Juice Robinson & Tomoaki Honma & Toa Henare vs. Jay White & Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens
  • Tomohiro Ishii & Jeff Cobb & Ren Narita vs,. Tetsuya Naito & Shingo Takagi & Bushi
  • Sanada vs. Lance Archer
  • Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Bad Luck Fale
  • Will Ospreay vs. KENTA
  • Kota Ibushi vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
  • Kazuchika Okada vs. Evil

F4W NEWSLETTER: Raw Reunion and WWE nostalgia

Joseph Currier looks at the successes and failures of WWE’s latest nostalgia episode.

WWE went back to the nostalgia well for last week’s Raw Reunion episode.

The show featured dozens of returns and was capped off by Steve Austin, Ric Flair, and Hulk Hogan all making appearances. Austin led a toast to Monday Night Raw to close the episode, with all of the returning wrestlers coming out and taking part in what was genuinely a sincere moment. Austin didn’t give out stunners to anyone. There was no one to come crash the segment. He spoke about all of the returners being a family, and it was intended to be a real celebration for all of them.

Raw Reunion also included an increasingly rare appearance by John Cena, D-Generation X, Kevin Nash & Scott Hall saved Seth Rollins from AJ Styles, Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson, Bray Wyatt attacked Mick Foley and put him in the Mandible Claw, and there were nine 24/7 title changes. R-Truth started and ended the night as 24/7 Champion, with Drake Maverick (twice), Pat Patterson, Gerald Brisco, Kelly Kelly, Candice Michelle, Madusa, and Ted DiBiase holding the title between Truth’s reigns.

WON NEWSLETTER: August 5, 2019 Observer Newsletter: WWE financials breakdown, AEW TV taping details, more

The new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter has details on WWE’s second quarter financials. Financially, things look great. But product popularity continues to fall, slowly but steadily.

We cover how WWE was able to beat most projections and bring in higher profits in the second quarter, even with most key metrics showing declines. 

We discuss how the company’s finances look going forward, as well as two big television deals on the horizon. 

We also have news on what could end up being the most important pro wrestling show of the year, AEW’s TV debut. We break down the two key busiess aspects to the story, and discuss what those in the TV industry expect in terms of ratings for the show. 

We cover Jerry Lawler’s lawsuit against Hardeman County, TN regarding the death of son Brian one year ago.

The new issue also covers C.M. Punk and the rumor mill that seems to follow him everywhere. We talk about the reaction to his discussion of AEW in a recent interview, as well as those who say they expect him to go back to WWE. 

We also have the latest on the SummerSlam card, and how the show is doing on the secondary ticket market. We also cover how the other WWE shows in Toronto that week are doing in terms of ticket sales. 

We have coverage of UFC 240 from this past weekend, and have business notes on nthe show, and also detailed television ratings for the prelims. 

There’s also a run down of the ratings of all the major TV shows, along with detailed demo info for the WWE shows and results of all the major pro wrestling events around the world over the past week. 

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MONDAY NEWS UPDATE

Bryan and I are back tonight talking Raw, G-1 and the rest of the wrestling and MMA news.  You can send questions to the show to mailbag@wrestlingobserver.com

The bouncer who stopped the shooter in Dayton, OH at the door of a bar was area independent wrestler Jeremy Ganger. Ganger is a close friend of James Yun, who many of you will remember as Jimmy Wang Yang. 

For Raw, There will be a Miz TV segment with Shawn Michaels which will likely introduce Bill Goldberg in some form.  Natalya & Trish Stratus vs. Charlotte Flair & Becky Lynch, The Iiconics vs. Mandy Rose & Sonya Devlle vs. Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross vs. Asuka & Kairi Sane for the women’s tag team titles and Rey Mysterio vs. Andrade have been announced for the show.  The women’s tag title match was previously scheduled for the SummerSlam card, but was pulled from that card and will take place tonight instead. Brock Lesnar is also appearing. Stratus is also booked tomorrow in Detroit for Smackdown.

Probably the match of the night will be on the CMLL You Tube page live with the show starting at 10 p.m. Eastern with Volador Jr. vs. Dragon Lee for the NWA middleweight title from Arena Puebla.

We’ve only got ten tickets left for your show on 8/31 in Chicago at 11 a.m.  More details can be found here.

WWE

  • A story on Shawn Michaels. (thanks to Mike Kuzmuk)

UFC

  • The UFC is working on finalizing a Johnny Walker vs,. Corey Anderson fight for the 11/2 show in Madison Square Garden.  We’ll talk tonight about the ramifications of this fight on tonight’s show.
  • Polo Reyes vs. Kyle Nelson and Martin Bravo vs Steven Peterson have been added to the 9/21 show at Arena Ciudad in Mexico City.  Bravo won TUF Latin America 3.

MISCELLANEOUS

  • On one of the Harley Race shows we did, on how Race indirectly led to a record gate in St. Louis as they were booking Ric Flair vs. Kerry Von Erich on June 12, 1982 at the Checkerdome, but they wanted Kerry to beat Race for the Missouri state title.  Race changed the booking to the title would change via DQ, so he lost the title via DQ. The finish was flat so the decision was that Kerry wasn’t strong enough without that win, so they went to old standby, Dick the Bruiser, for the bout with Flair, which drew 19,027 and was the last great main event of Bruiser’s career.  Kerry was moved to the semi teaming with David to beat Ken Patera & Jerry Blackwell.  (thanks to Paul Sosnowski)
  • OWE has announced it will be holding a tag team tournament in the U.K. in September and there will be an AEW team in the tournament.
  • Hoosier Pro Wrestling on Saturday night in Columbus, IN:  Cooter DDQ Scarecrow, Ace Jackson b Duke the Nuke, Lightning Bolt b Flash Flanagan, Dodo Brown b Guy Lombardo, Buck Sexton & Dynamite Dillen b Vic the Bruiser & Omega De to win tag titles, Fireball b Clint Poe, Tim Lutz b Butcher Manson to keep HPW title.  Next show is 9/7.
  • CWA on 10/12 in Hot Springs, AR at the Convention Center Hall D.
  • MLW has tickets on sale for its 12/5 show in New York at the Melrose Ballroom at www.OperaCup.com  This will be a television taping featuring the first Opera Cup tournament since 1948 in  New York.
  • ADCC is running the submission fighting world championships on 9/28 and 9/29 at the Anaheim Convention Center.  This is the same weekend Bellator is running at the Forum.  Some of the names announced as competing are Mucus “Buchecha” Almeida, Gordon Ryan, Yuri Simoes, JT Torres, Ruben “Corinha” Charles, Gabi Garcia and Bia Mesquita.  Andre Galvao vs.; Felipe Pena is the superfight.  Galvao is a two-time world champion and Pena is one of the most grapplers in the world.
  • Ignite Wrestling on 9/14 in Vero Beach, FL at the Walking Tree Brewery with Aaron Epic vs. Erick Stevens for the Ignite title.
  • Coverage of Matty Wahlberg on Australian Survivor. Clearly sounds like he’s getting over as a heel  (thanks to Kevin Chiat)
  • A look at bear wrestling.
  • I can just recycle that same lessons every 17 years it looks like.  

Daily Pro Wrestling History: Great Sasuke wins Unified J-Crown

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