Daily Update: Sammy Guevara & Tay Conti, Ric Flair, Jake Paul

Daily Update

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter:

  • Match and performer of the week
  • Rundown of SummerSlam, poll, star ratings, angles
  • Early notes on Clash at the Castle
  • Business notes on both shows
  • Scary moves during the show
  • Ric Flair’s last match show, the good, the bad, the ugly, and where it stands among the biggest indie shows in history
  • The life and legacy of Ric Flair
  • Behind-the-scenes notes on the show
  • Business coverage of the show
  • UFC 277 coverage by Ryan Frederick, match-by-match, what happens next for all the key fighters on the show, business notes and more
  • Full G1 coverage with the standings, key stories, notes on the matches this week and coverage of all the past week shows.
  • Coverage of Dragon Gate’s two major shows over the weekend including one of the company’s best matches, title changes and future notes
  • The life and career of Gil Hayes, a Stampede Wrestling Hall of Famer who was one of the key building blocks of WWC in Puerto Rico, a unique life of a headliner who is largely forgotten today
  • Ratings and trends of all the national shows
  • CMLL announces the biggest matches for its anniversary show, the biggest event of the year
  • CMLL announces its annual World Grand Prix
  • First two nights of the Stardom Five Star Grand prix
  • More on the new IWGP World Women’s Championship and why it is happening
  • Karl Fredericks leaves New Japan
  • New Japan’s U.S. show rundown
  • XFL news under Dwayne Johnson
  • Women of Wrestling starting up
  • New book on ECW
  • More news on King of Indies
  • Old promotion in Mexico restarting with a national TV deal
  • The WBD financials and how it affects AEW, as well as where AEW could be very valuable
  • Cost of AEW compared to usual Discovery fare, ratings, and compared to WWE programming
  • New trademark by AEW and what does it mean
  • More on new AEW promotions
  • Upcoming WWE & AEW ticket sales
  • Streaming numbers for WWE & AEW
  • International TV ratings
  • Major new UFC fight scheduled
  • Jake Paul-Rahman fight falling apart notes
  • Sasha Banks & Naomi
  • Peacock financials
  • New PPV location
  • WrestleMania launch party
  • How Nick Khan got to WWE and his deal making ability
  • What was the match that never happened which led to Nick Khan’s first interaction with WWE
  • Dana White talks his only live WrestleMania
  • Bryan Danielson talks famous Talking Smack segment with Miz

This Week’s Retro Observer Newsletter: 

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Sunday News Update

  • Bryan and I will be back tonight covering the latest news including Battle of the Belts, G1, Smackdown, AEW drama and WWE changes. 
  • Sammy Guevara and Tay Conti were scheduled to be married today.
  • The Saturday G1 show from Osaka was easily the best G1 show so far, to no surprise. Will Ospreay vs. Shingo Takagi was everything it was expected to be and more. But the weekend’s biggest story was Jonah knocking Kazuchika Okada from the ranks of the unbeaten. G-1 continues Tuesday and Wednesday in Hiroshima with Tuesday having Yoshi-Hashi vs Yujiro Takahashi, Sanada vs. Chase Owens (who had a career match with Ishii earlier today), Tama Tonga vs Taichi, Lance Archer vs. Jonah and Tetsuya Naito vs. Kenta. It starts at 5:30 a.m. Eastern time Tuesday morning.
  • No updates on the Tatum Paxley and Carmella past the injuries were legit from last night’s shows. Paxley looks to be a jaw injury and Carmella a head injury but nothing is confirmed. (thanks also to help from Matthew Ray and Shaun Burn)
  • Ric Flair was in action last night at the WWC Aniversario event in Bayamon, PR. Andrade vs. Carlito as the main event. Ric Flair was in Andrade’s corner. This led to Carlos Colon coming out and gave Flair a few punches and a headbutt. Carlito pinned Andrade to win the match.
  • Jake Paul attempted to put together a fight with KSI on 8/27. KSI beat Logan Paul to start this entire story of web celebrities drawing huge money. Paul’s fight with Hasim Rahman Jr. scheduled for last night fell through due to weight issues as has been talked about. KSI was scheduled to fight on 8/27 but his opponent fell through and said he would get a new opponent. Jake Paul said he’d cut to 180 to make the fight. He claimed KSI’s people said they would agree to the fight only if Paul did the fight without getting paid and his side took 100 percent. Paul agreed to those terms and KSI said he would do the fight, but not on 8/27, because a fight that big should be a Wembley Stadium. Paul called him all kinds of names.
  • A&E tonight has the Lex Luger biography at 8 p.m., Rivals is on the WWE vs WCW war (I’m sure this will be a fair portrayal of that) at 9 p.m. and Smack Talk at 10 p.m. will also feature Lex Luger.
  • Jerry McDevitt stated to us that he has never spoken or dealt with the woman in question in the first Wall Street Journal article in any way. The WWE investigation of Vince McMahon started in March when a friend of the woman sent an email to the Board of Directors. The Wall Street Journal reported that the letter sent referred to McDevitt, but McDevitt said that was categorically false. We had mentioned that story on the recent Talk is Jericho show.
  • We’re looking for reports from the WWC Anniversary show in Bayamon, PR lat night, Friday and Saturday NXT shows in Largo, FL and Gainesville, FL, as well as tonight’s WWE show in Fayetteville, NC to dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  • Thanks to Thomas Simpson and Alan Thomas for the report from Greenville.
  • The Canadian National Post actually picked up the Ronda Rousey suspension and reported it as real news.
  • MMA Fighting reported that Leandro Lo, a BJJ legend, was shot in the head and passed away while attending a concert earlier today in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He was 33. Police officer Otavio Oliveira Velozo is a suspect as witnesses said that Velozo grabbed a bottle from Lo’s table, which led to Lo taking him down and holding him on the ground. They were pulled apart and then Velozo allegedly pulled a gun and shot him in the head. Lo had won eight IBJJF world championships in the black belt division since 2012.
  • Sam Alvey reported suffering a broken jaw in his fight last night against Michael Oleksiejczuk at the UFC event in Las Vegas last night.
  • We’re looking for your thoughts on both G-1 show in Osaka, thumbs up, down or middle, best and worst match for each show to dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  • There was nothing this week from pro wrestling, boxing or MMA that cracked the Google search listings except Conor McGregor on Friday finishing No. 8 with 100,000 searches because his fiance, Dee Devlin, got a tattoo of McGregor’s name as she celebrates her 35h birthday. That means Saturday’s UFC show on ESPN didn’t even chart, which is unusual. Nothing from WWE charted.
  • Rob Van Dam will be inducted into the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia’s Hardcore Hall of Fame on 12/17. If ever there was a no-brainer pick for what that Hall of Fame is, RVD would be right there with the likes of Sabu, Taz and Terry Funk.
  • Bully Ray said that he tore his hamstring in a match last night at the 2300 Arena. He said it after the main event where he and PCO wrestled Atsushi Onita & FMW Leather. Results: Brian Kendrick b VSK, Ray Jaz b Facade, Dark STG & Beastman b Afa Jr. & Charlie Haas, Rich Swann b Willie Mack, Jasmine Allure b Myka, Buddy Matthews & Tony Nese b Brian Cage & KC Navarro, Ken Shamrock b Davey Boy Smith Jr., Atsushi Onita & Super Leather b PCO & Bully Ray. Next show is 12/17 wit RVD vs. Rhino, Bubba & Devon team up plus Shane Douglas, Tod Gordon, Bill Alfonso, Sabu and Sandman.

WWE

  • WWE Performance Center strength and conditioning coach Sean Hayes finished up. He will be taking a new job as a strength and conditioning coach for the XFL owned by Dwayne Johnson and Dany Garcia.
  • Titus O’Neil’s back to school drive work in Tampa (thanks to Mike Kuzmuk)
  • Bill Goldberg honoring servicemen in South Texas for the Purple Heart Organization

Other Notes

  • Canadian Elite Wrestling on 8/12 to 8/14 in Dauphin, Oak Lake and Winnipeg, Manitoba.
  • Sanctuary Fight Club form last night in Hamtramck, MI: Ren Jones won over Shane Sabre and Joe Demaro, N8 Mattson b Kyler Coleman, Gavin Quinn & Juntai b Solo & Jody Threat, Alex Shelley b James Alexander, Karam b Dickie Bronson (thanks to Leonard Brand)
  • The annual AIW JT Lighting Invitational tournament takes place 8/19 and 8/29 in Cleveland, OH at the Odeon. The biggest names in the 24-man field are Drago, Colin Delaney, Jack Evans, Dom Garrini, Eric Young, Adam Priest, Dalton Castle and Ernest the Cat Miller.
  • Somebody uploaded a lot of 1976 and 1977 Spanish language California footage (thanks to Gerald DeTrolio)
  • The King Jerry Lawler Memphis BBQ Company has opened a restaurant in Houston on the East Side and the Houston Chronicle has a story about it (thanks to Mike Kuzmuk)
  • On Friday’s PFL show at the Hulu Theater in Madison Square Garden, they had the semifinals of the lightweight and light heavyweight tournament on ESPN. Stevie Ray beat Anthony Pettis via unanimous decision and Olivier Aubin-Mercier to Alexander Martinez in the lightweight semifinals. For light heavyweights, Omari Akhemdov beat Josh Silveira and Robert Wilkinson beat Delan Monte. The finals will be in December.
  • Eugene Palermo, the son of longtime WWF ref Bucky Palermo passed away this morning (thanks to Norm Connors)