Daily Update: RevPro referee incident, MLW, Junior dos Santos

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ROH GLOBAL WARS SUNDAY IN MILWAUKEE AT THE POTAWATOMI CASINO AT 6 P.M. EASTERN ON HONOR CLUB 

  • Caristico & Stuka Jr. & Volador Jr. vs. Okumura & Hechicero & Rey Bucanero
  • Angelina Love & Mandy Leon vs. Kelly Klein & Stacy Shadows
  • Flip Gordon vs. PJ Black vs. Triton
  • Jay Lethal & Jonathan Gresham vs Silas Young & Josh Woods
  • Marty Scurll vs. Joe Hendry
  • Brawler Milonas & Beer City Bruiser vs. PCO & Brody King
  • Mark & Jay Briscoe & Cavernario vs. Mark Haskins & Tracy Williams & Bandido
  • Matt Taven & Vincent (Vinny Marseglia ) vs. Rush & Jeff Cobb

F4W NEWSLETTER: Chris Jericho becomes first AEW World Champion Joseph Currier gives his thoughts on AEW choosing Jericho as their inaugural champion. Plus, Vinny’s TV reviews. 

When AEW debuts on TNT on October 2, they’ll be doing so with Chris Jericho as their champion.

Saturday’s All Out pay-per-view ended with Jericho defeating Hangman Page to become the inaugural AEW World Champion. After Jericho kicked out of the Dead Eye, Page hit a Buckshot Lariat and went for the Dead Eye again. The finish saw Jericho reverse the move and then connect with his Judas Effect elbow strike to win the title.

The match was very good, but it fell short of being the epic main event you’d want to crown your first World Champion with. The dynamic just didn’t work quite as well as AEW wanted. The fans would ideally have been desperate for Page to defeat Jericho and become champion. But people weren’t all that interested in booing Jericho — and Page didn’t have the momentum that he needed going into the match. The way Page won his way into getting the title shot was probably a misstep. It’s understandable that AEW wants to create their own unique match concepts and give them meaning, but Jericho defeating Kenny Omega at Double or Nothing felt like a far bigger deal than Page earning his spot in the title match through winning the Casino Battle Royale. While Page got wins at Fyter Fest and Fight for the Fallen, they weren’t against big enough opponents and they weren’t strong enough victories for people to see him as being one of the top two wrestlers in the company.

Jericho was an obvious choice to become AEW’s first World Champion. He’s an easily recognizable star that lapsed and casual fans will already be familiar with. There will inevitably be criticism over a new company choosing a 48-year-old wrestler as their initial champion, but AEW isn’t at any risk of being seen as a nostalgia promotion. It’s fine to have one wrestler in their late 40s in a top spot. Signing Jericho and pushing him heavily is a no-brainer for any start-up company. Jericho is still wrestling at a high level, helps bring credibility to the promotion for those who aren’t already fans of The Elite, and has protected his image by only working in main event-level matches with great opponents since departing WWE.

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WON NEWSLETTER: AEW All Out review, Chris Jericho title saga, more

A full review of AEW All Out, and the saga of Chris Jericho’s stolen belt are the lead topics of discussion in this week’s double issue Wrestling Observer Newsletter. 

We have complete coverage of All Out from a live perspective, as well as the television version of the show. We talk about what worked, what might not have, and what we can learn about match order when laying out a card. We have the latest on the business of the show, including preliminary pay-per-view numbers. 

We have coverage of AEW and WWE running the same markets, and have notes and numbers on how each promotion is doing in selling tickets there. We also have all the details on the Chris Jericho AEW title story. 

NJPW Royal Quest is covered as well in the new issue. We have star ratings for the matches, as well as business notes for the show. 

The upcoming WWE Clash of Champions show is covered in detail. We have a preliminary card for the show.

We also cover the WWE writing team shake-up that took place this week. 

NXT U.K. TakeOver: Cardiff is covered in detail as well, with everything from match reports and star ratings, to attendance and what we can learn from the show. 

We have a story on Cris Cyborg signing with Bellator, and talk about potential opponents for her. 

The new issue also has a history piece covering Harley Race’s St. Louis wrestling history. A lot can be learned from the piece, thanks to the late Larry Matysik’s Wrestling at the Chase Record book.

We also have Ryan Frederick’s coverage of the 8/31 UFC event in Shenzhen, China. 

The passing of Australian wrestling legend, Norman Frederic Charles Lowndes, known as Sir Norman Frederich Charles III, is covered as well. We have notes on his life and career. 

We look at AEW’s hype show that aired on TNT, and break down the viewership for the show, and what can be learned from it. 

We also have news and notes on all of the top wrestling and MMA promotions in the world. 

We have full coverage of all the WWE television shows from the past week.

As always, we have in-depth looks at the ratings of all the major shows,the key demos for the WWE shows and what can be learned from them.

We also have the results of all the major pro wrestling events around the world over the past week.

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SUNDAY NEWS UPDATE

Our weekend Observer radio show is up on the site covering all the weekend news including all the news from yesterday’s UFC PPV.

There was a big controversy in last week’s RevPro Wrestling show at York Hall.  During Aussie Open vs. Josh Bodom & Sha Samuels, referee Aaren Wilde evidently ended the match early, saying a few days later that a post-match attack on him was a shoot. He said he was slammed by Samuels and the rest was a blur. RevPro released a statement on Sunday that they had not heard from Wilde during the week nor knew any of the allegations before he went on Twitter to discuss it. They did not respond until Sunday because they said they were gathering all the facts. After speaking to everyone, they said Samuels made a horrible error of judgment but did his best to protect the referee.  They said they are confident he knows what he did wrong and under no circumstances is he allowed to touch a non-wrestler without consent. He will be disciplined and they will have a zero tolerance policy regarding any future incidents. “However, we are confident, given his track record, he will respond to this in the most positive manner possible.”

Regarding Bodom, RevPro said his actions did not match his recollection of events and they have no option but to cut ties with him.  They said they hope Bodom will be able to learn and grow from this. The two have been stripped of their British tag team titles immediately. They said that not being aware of this for several days made them realize there is an issue and they have to change that, adding they will be instituting an internal incident report policy specific to performers. A simple form can be filled out and emailed to management if there are any concerns or any official complaints, somehing they feel will be better in dealing with these types of things in a more timely fashion. The company also said they are publicly apologizing to Wilde and said that if he can’t referee going forward, they hope to continue to work with him in other areas of business if he wants to keep working with them.

A correction from last night’s WOR: the reason Shane McMahon wasn’t on television this past week was he was serving jury duty.

MLW announced at its War Chamber show Saturday in suburban Dallas that Jacob Fatu vs. L.A. Park for the MLW title will headline its first PPV show on 11/2 from Chicago. That is not exactly the best night for a promotion that caters to a Latino audience as boxers Canelo Alvarez and Sergey Kovalev are in talks to finalize a fight in Las Vegas plus there’s the UFC at MSG show headlined by Nate Diaz vs. Jorge Masvidal. It really shows how quickly things have changed when Alvarez, the biggest draw in boxing, and UFC PPVs are only available on streaming services while MLW is on traditional television PPV.

WWE

  • Jessamyn Duke returned to action at Saturday’s NXT show in Gainesville, FL, after being out with an injury.
  • Andrade missed WWE’s Friday show in Buenos Aires, Argentina, which caused the show to be shuffled around from the night before. We don’t know any more than that.   
  • PW Insider’s Mike Johnson reported WWE has filed trademarks for “Yowie Wowie,” “Firefly Funhouse” “Legit Boss” and “Monster Among Men”.
  • Kofi Kingston, Bayley, and Big E will be at the New York Mets game Monday night at Citi Field as part of a benefit for Connor’s Cure, doing a meet and greet with a portion of each VIP package going to the charity. That means they will likely not be in Syracuse for that night’s house show.

UFC

  • UFC 242 did two million Google searches, meaning it had major interest. However, we actually got very little feedback compared to most shows, perhaps due to it being an early show. Bellator did not crack the top 20, but I wouldn’t expect it to given the NFL season kicking off.
  • Former UFC heavyweight champion Junior Dos Santos vs. former Bellator heavyweight champion Alexander Volkov will be the main event of the 11/9 UFC Fight Night event in Moscow, Russia.

MISCELLANEOUS

  • Ric Flair canceled an appearance scheduled for this weekend at the Little Rock (AR) Comic Con which sounded more like a transportation issue.  It’s definitely not a health issue as he’s fine and scheduled everywhere else including on the 10/4 WWE SmackDown Fox show.
  • Limitless Wrestling’s 4th anniversary show from Friday in Portland, ME:  Ace Romero b Dan Maff, Christian Casanova b Leyla Hirsch, New Hart Foundation b Workhorsemen, Kevin Blackwood b JT Dunn, Maine State Posse b Brandon Kirk & Alexander Lee in a street fight, Butcher & The Blade b Chris Dickinson & Tom Lawlor, DL Hurst won five-way over John Silver, Puf, Harlow O’Hara and Jody Threat, Kris Statlander & Ashley Vox b Skylar & Jeremy Leary in a career vs. hair mach, Anthony Greene b MJF for the Limitless title (thanks to Josh Nason)
  • Tommaso Ciampa, Johnny Gargano and Candice LeRae will be doing meet and greets at both the 9/20 Evolve show in Brooklyn and the 9/21 Evolve show in Queens, NY.  The Brooklyn show has Austin Theory vs. Babatunde, Josh Briggs vs.;JD Drake, AR Fox vs; Joe Gacy, Anthony Gutierrez vs. Karam vs. Sean Maluta vs Stephen Wolf, Antony Greene vs. Brandon Taggart vs. Curt Stallion vs. Daniel Garcia and Arturo Ruas vs. John Silver.  The Queens shoe has Theory vs. Josh Briggs, Drake vs. Anthony Henry and a 2/3 fall 10 man tag match.
  • MPW from Friday night in Chatsworth, GA:  Brandon Devine b Dustin Daniels, Renegade b Master Flame, Great Zumbi & Piranha & Sweet Robin Shaw b Frankie Frank & Bulletproof & Dr. Feelgood, Ray Rosas b Pinky Santino, Luchasaurus b Danny Devine, Diego Valens b Jack Mercer (thanks to Scott Walton)
  • CWE at Rookie’s Sports Bar in Winnipeg on 10/25 featuring Vampiro wrestling on the show in his first match with the promotion.
  • Rise on 11/1 in Berwyn, IL at the Eagles club in a show called La Escalera has Big Swole vs. Delilah Doom for the Phoenix of Rise title, Allysin Kay vs. Taya Valkyrie, Cassandro vs. Saraya Knight with Colt Cabana as referee, Rosemary vs. Shotzi Blackheart and a ladder match with Laynie Luck, Jake Atlas, Priscilla Kelly, Hyan with the winner getting a hot at the Rise Legendary title in 2020.
  • I Believe in Wrestling from Friday night at Team Vision Dojo in Orlando:  Cauis Wolfe & Chris Ramirez b Ricky Anderson & Owen Mitchell, Josh Dawkins won three-way over Djokovic Rabbit and Jarrett Diaz, Mike Reed b Cisco Sucio, Gia Roman NC Christina Mills, Kwame Nas b JD Amazing, Aaron Epic b Remi Danilo, Kaci Lennox retained women’s title in a three-way over Lexi Gomez and Sofia Castillo, Andrew Merlin & Carlos Gabriel b Jake Shadows & Jay Sky, Deon James b Chasyn Race to win Florida title.  Next show is 10/4 (thanks to Al Haft).
  • NHPW from last night in Perth, Western Australia:  Rory Holmes b Kenicki Wheeler, Aaron O’Malley b King Shahil, Salem Sixx b Creek Murdoch, Jebediah b Matthew Pace, Lena Kross b Su Yung to keep Indy Gurlz Australia title, Rory Holmes b Aaron O’Malley in tournament final for NHPW Hybrid title, Homicide & Hernandez won three-way no DQ match over Michael Morleone & Kiel Steria and Julian Ward & Ryan Karguis.  Homicide sang Happy Birthday to Low Ki after his match.  Yung challenged Kross to a rematch. (thanks to Kevin Chiat)
  • Stardom Five Star Grand Prix from yesterday in Tokyo at Shinkiba:  Konami won five-way over Saya Iida, Rina, Andras Miyagi and Saya Kamitani, Saki Kashima & Riho & Starlight Kid b Utami Hayashishita & Leo Onozaki & Hina, Hazuki b Natsu Sumire,. Hana Kimura b Avary, Momo Watanabe b AZM (people have been raving about this match to me since it ended), Kagetsu b Jamie Hayter, Jungle Kyona b Natsuko Tora, Mayu Iwatani b Tam Nakano, Arisa Hoshiki b Bea Priestley (thanks to Shannon Walsh and wrestlingwithdemons.net)
  • Stardom from today also in Tokyo at Shinkiba:  Utami Hayashishita announced she was dropping out of the tournament due to a hand injury.  Riho b Leo Onozaki, Bea Priestley & Momo Watanabe & Hina b Konami & Rina & Saya Kamitani, Jamie Hayter & Natsuko Tora & Natsu Sumire b Tam Nakano & Starlight Kid & Saya Iida,
  • Saki Kashima b Avary, AZM b Hana Kimura, Jungle Kyona b Kagetsu, Hazuki b Mayu Iwatani, Arisa Hoshiki b Andras Miyagi
  • Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling from last night in Cahokia, IL:  Shawn Santel & Mauler McDarby b Frankie D & Damion Cortess, Big Texan & Waco b Moondog Rover & Chris Kade, Mac Godeker & Tyler Grey b Big Texan & Waco to win Multi-state tag titles, Ken Kasa b Roy Lewis, King Christopher Hargas b Bobby D, Gary Jackson b Attila Khan-DQ, Ricky Cruz & Billy McNeil b Curtis Wylde & Kowalski in 2/3 falls (thanks to Patrick Brandmeyer)
  • During today’s Redskins-Eagles game, an announcer said one of the assistant coaches looked like Jim Neidhart (thanks to Brian Henke)

Daily Pro Wrestling History: NWA strips Ric Flair of World Title

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