Daily Update: Raw, Shane McMahon, Giant Baba

Daily Update

Latest News:

Latest Audio:

Job Listing: Wikipedia guru

Do you have experience writing Wikipedia pages? Please contact Tony Leder at tonyleder@f4wonline.com for more information.

Latest Free YouTube Video:

This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter: January 30, 2022 Observer Newsletter: Royal Rumble rumors, NJPW cancels January shows

This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter Back Issue: December 20, 2004 Observer Newsletter: Brock Lesnar returning to wrestling, WWE Armageddon review

Ordering Info: Order the print Wrestling Observer right now and get it delivered via mail, by sending your name, address, Visa or Master Card number and an expiration date to dave@wrestlingobserver.com or by going to www.paypal.com directing funds to dave@wrestlingobserver.com.

Rates in the United States are $14.50 for 4 issues, $35.50 for 12, $70 for 24, $116 for 40 and $149.50 for 52.

In Canada and Mexico, the rates are $16 for 4, $27 for 8, $38.50 for 12, $76 for 24, $126 for 40 and $162.50 for 52.

For the rest of the world, rates are $18 for 4, $48.50 for 12, $93 for 24, $155 for 40 and $201.50 for 52.

If you order by mail with a check, cash or money order to P.O. Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228, you can get $1 off in every price range.

MONDAY NEWS UPDATE

Bryan and I will be back tonight talking Royal Rumble fallout, Raw, Joe Rogan, PWG and a lot more with Wrestling Observer Radio. You can also send questions for the show to mailbag@wrestlingobserver.com

Just to clear up a few things. Shane McMahon was a producer of the men’s Royal Rumble. He is not a regular producer for WWE, but Vince gave him the assignment for the match. He helped produce the Royal Rumble in both 2020 and 2021 but was way more hands on and taking control this year than in the prior two years. Both matches were constantly changed. Those on the inside knew who the winners were all along even if there were apparently many in the company told differently, but as far as what would happen in both matches, they were constantly changing. The stories about negativity toward McMahon regarding the men’s match are pretty accurate. As noted here, he is booked for both the Elimination Chamber and WrestleMania shows.

Bobby Lashley vs. Seth Rollins won’t be at WrestleMania. The winner of the Elimination Chamber match on 2/19 will defend most likely in an angle set up on the show.

WWE has said that as of right now, the plan is for the 2/14 Raw and 2/15 NXT show to be on Syfy. We had reported that initially but there was some confusion regarding the second week of the Olympics and the idea the NXT big show set for 2/15 would be on USA. So either they change the date or they are going to peak for a show and not draw nearly as well as they otherwise would have.

Raw tonight is from Cincinnati. Both Brock Lesnar and Ronda Rousey are booked for tonight’s show and coming off the Rumble, the expectation is that tonight’s show will be among the highest rated of the year. There was more interest in Rumble, even if the feedback wasn’t the most positive, than any WWE show in a long time, even beating the last two WrestleManias in google searches. There will be matches for Elimination Chamber qualifications with Austin Theory vs. Kevin Owens and AJ Styles vs. Rey Mysterio. Raw moves to Syfy for two weeks starting next Monday. Last year’s show did 1.89 million viewers and 0.58 in 18-49.

We’re looking for reports from Raw in Cincinnati tonight with any Main Event or dark matches or any other live notes, plus reports from both nights of PWG BOLA and Saturday’s RevPro show at York Hall to dave@wrestlingobserver.com. We are also looking for your thoughts on the Royal Rumble and the Stardom PPV show from Saturday, 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

Bryan Alvarez’s Sports Illustrated article on the Royal Rumble.

Kevin Mieche of TSN has a story on what made Bret Hart an all-time great.

The American Prospect has a story on the MLW lawsuit against WWE.

Balloting for the 2021 Wrestling Observer Awards closes on Thursday. There is a ballot in the January 24th issue of the Observer.

New Japan has said it will announce a major U.S. event at 10 p.m. Eastern time tonight.

Today is the 23rd anniversary of the death of Shohei “Giant”Baba, who was a giant in the industry. He is one of the three biggest Japanese stars in history along with Rikidozan and Antonio Inoki. He was also the most respected promoter and maybe the most respected booker in the history of the Japanese industry and very much a cultural icon. When we went to Japan a few years back there was a Baba exhibit with a lot of his artifacts that we did a show on. He also was the only Japanese pro wrestler to play major league baseball, although he was not noteworthy in baseball past the fact he was the tallest player ever in the Japanese major leagues. I’m not sure if he is the tallest to this day but he was still the tallest at the time of his death. He made both the International and PWF titles famous and had three brief reigns as NWA world champion when that was the No. 1 belt in the world.

Saturday’s Stardom PPV will go up on the Stardom World site Wednesday. Not sure when the RevPro show from Saturday goes up but people live were just raving about Will Ospreay vs. Michael Oku as a potential match of the year and Gabriel Kidd vs. Francesco Akira had a New Japan vs. All Japan are match that saw them just blister each other up.

As of this morning more than 5,300 tickets were out for Wednesday’s show in Chicago so they were 1,700 shy of capacity at the Wintrust Arena. With a bad snowstorm predicted to be coming this week to Chicago, it may hurt late sales and right now doesn’t look like it will sell out. The prediction is that it will be the biggest snowstorm of the season coming tomorrow night through Thursday morning. The C.M. Punk vs. MJF match did move 600 tickets from Thursday through Sunday which is good, but it’s nothing like the late movement for Ronda Rousey once the word got out she was in the Rumble, nor for Raw tonight (about 1,100 tickets moved with the Rousey announcement) (thanks to Eric Krol and William Zdon/Wrestle Tix)

Yesterday when we noted the parking prices for the NFC championship game at SoFi Stadium ($600 near the stadium), KCAL in Los Angeles reported that parking prices at the stadium will range from $700 to $1,000. When we talk about the secondary market get-in price at SoFi Stadium for the Super Bowl, it was $6,500 last night but has dropped to $5,450 for the fifth deck to $9,395 for the first deck. The average price sold is $8,498,the highest priced ticket sold so far is $24,363. Bayley and Sasha Banks were at the 49ers-Ramos game at SoFi Stadium yesterday. (thanks to Will Norris)

Kurt Angle said on his podcast that WWE called him to return to television for the next month to help build up WrestleMania. Angle was at the Royal Rumble on Saturday but did not appear in the match.

WWE

  • Brie Bella will be one of the contestants in “The Real Dirty Dancing” show on FOX which starts its season tomorrow night. It will be a four week competition.

AEW

  • The company announced the 4/6 Dynamite/Rampage taping will be in Boston at the Agganis Arena.
  • There will be a Dark taping at Universal in Orlando on Saturday with sessions from 2-5 p.m.and 7-10- p.m.
  • AEW will be making an announcement of a major health organization tie-in that would be starting for the month of February.

UFC

  • Jeremy Stephens, who let his UFC contract expire, has signed with the PFL. He noted he’s getting slightly more per fight than he did in the UFC, but he will fight more frequently, and has a shot at $1 million. He will compete at 155 rather than 145 like had been doing of late in UFC.

OTHER NOTES

  • Jeff Jarrett talks about getting back in the ring, Effy, and his minor league baseball team.
  • Tiger Jeet Singh talks about the late Strong Kobayashi.
  • Steven Bell talks about his upcoming book on the British Bulldogs, Dynamite & Davey.
  • Warrior Wrestling said that they will announce Thunder Rosa’s opponent for her women’s title for the 2/12 show in Cicero, IL on Wednesday. They said it’s the earliest they can announce it. I don’t know if it will be the former Ember Moon, but Moon’s non-compete ends this week. The belief is she will go back to her prior ring name Athena.
  • AAW Legacy on Friday night on FITE at 8:30 p.m.Easrn with Mat Fitchett defending the AAW title against Laredo Kid, Ace Austin defending the Heritage title against Davey Vega, plus Lio Rush vs. Josh Alexa.