Daily Update: Revolution, William Regal, Cain Velasquez

Daily Update

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Tony Khan buys Ring of Honor, Cain Velasquez charged with attempted murder

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Monday News Update

  • Bryan and I will be back tonight with Wrestling Observer Radio covering Raw and the latest WWE news. You can also send questions for the show to mailbag@wrestlingobserver.com
  • We’re looking for reports from tonight’s Raw in Cleveland regarding the Main Event taping and any dark matches or anything else notable from the live show to dave@wrestlingobserver.com. We’re also looking for reports on last night’s WWE show in Allentown, PA.
  • We are looking for your thoughts on AEW Revolution, 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. 

AEW

  • Regarding the name William Regal, there is a trademark for entertainment services and merchandise to the name owned by Darren Matthews, which of course is William Regal. He got it on 2/9. There is an entertainment service mark owned by WWE in 2007 and still showing as a live registration. Anyway, Tony Khan continually called him Lord Regal last night so I presume that will be his TV name. We got reports from a number of movie theaters and in almost every report they said his appearing was the biggest pop of last night’s show (thanks to Justin Hemmings).
  • We have nothing conclusive at this point regarding the AEW PPV number, but a positive sign is that AEW Revolution was the No. 4 most searched topic on Google yesterday with 200,000. Granted, UFC was 2.3 million the day before and in total 2.8 million. The only things ahead of the AEW PPV were UFC (which was first two days in a row), Manchester United and Outlander.
  • Tay Conti who debuts for AAA on 3/26 in Tijuana in a mixed tag with Sammy Guevara as her partner, said that she will be wrestling at one of the TripleMania shows this year.

WWE

  • Raw is tonight in Cleveland, the city that both Miz & Logan Paul grew up in, so they may be big-time babyfaces in the building. Or may not. Both are advertised to appear on the show. The three-way tag title match with Chad Gable & Otis vs. Randy Orton & Riddle vs. Seth Rollins & Kevin Owens is scheduled to open the show. Bron Breakker and Tommaso Ciampa are both backstage so one would expect a segment building tomorrow’s three-way and involving Dolph Ziggler. Breakker vs. Ciampa vs. Ziggler for the NXT title headlines the show tomorrow night and the new thing is to do angles as much as possible before the big audience on Raw to help build the smaller audience of NXT. Breakker has never appeared on Raw before. Edge will also do a promo to explain his heel turn on A.J. Styles. They announced a worked neck contusion injury from last week’s show.

Other Wrestling

  • There was a big scare regarding Gran Guerrero taking a super power bob for the finish of his match with Euforia to decade the vacant Mexican national heavyweight title on Friday night at Arena Mexico. He went out on a stretcher, but apparently he was okay since he wrestled the next night.
  • The AAA show over WrestleMania week in Dallas will air as a FITE TV iPPV show.
  • Rev Pro from yesterday in London, UK: Yota Tsuji b Misterioso, Rhia O’Reilly b Hyan, Dan Moloney & Lee Hunter b Ricky Knight Jr. & Robbie X, Shota Umino b Luke Jacobs, Alex Windsor retained the British women’s title over Allysin Kay. Alex Coughlin b Mark Davis of Aussie Open, TK Cooper & Chuck Mambo b Michael Oku & Conor Mills to keep the tag titles. O’Reilly issued a challenge to Windsor for the next title match.
  • Tito Santana was announced as a member of the International Pro Wrestling Hall of fame. Santana will be there on Sunday night when they reveal their 13 person class of 2022, as well as for induction weekend 8/26 to 8/28 in Albany, NY.
  • The New Japan Cup update is that today, Shingo Takagi beat Tomohiro Ishii, so he faces Tanga Loa on 3/13. Chase Owens beat Jado, so he faces Tiger Mask on 3/13. Evil beat Ryusuke Taguchi and he faces Tama Tonga on 3/13. Hiromu Takahashi beat Sho, so he faces Minoru Suzuki on 3/13.
  • New Japan posted the 2019 New Japan Cup match with Kazuchika Okada vs. Sanada on its YouTube page as the free match of the week.
  • The Dragon Dia vs. Takuma Fujiwara Brave Gate match is free on YouTube from Saturday. Fujiwara is someone to pay attention to regarding 2022 Rookie of the Year, even though he’s in a tough year since we already have Bron Breakker and Hook.

UFC

  • Regarding Cain Velasquez not being allowed out on bail at all in today’s hearing, a number of major MMA figures including Dana White, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Henry Cejudo, Scott Coker, Ryan Bader and Kamaru Usman along with WWE’s Rey Mysterio along numerous others have written letters to judge Shelyna Brown asking that she change her decision.
  • Gunnar Nelson is expected to face Takashi Sato on the 3/19 show in London. Sato replaces the injured Claudio Silva.
  • Cynthia Calvillo is moving back to 115 pounds for a 6/4 fight with Brianna Fortino. Fortino used to fight under the name Brianna Van Buren and hasn’t fought in two years.

Other MMA

  • LFA announced a show on 3/25 in Commerce, CA at the Commerce Casino & Hotel at 10 p.m. Eastern on UFC Fight Pass. Ozzy Diaz (6-1) faces Bruno Assis (12-5) for the middleweight title in the main event.