Daily Update: SmackDown, Young Rock, Von Erichs

Daily Update

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Friday Update

– Due to Garrett Gonzales’ son graduating college, we don’t have a show today but my next show will be Sunday night either with Garrett or Bryan with Wrestling Observer Radio because this was a giant week of news across the board as noted by the new issue which is loaded with news and history.

In the current issue:

  • Match of the week and performer of the week
  • A look at AEW’s changes coming up that will be announced over the next week with the debut of Collision, as well as a business analysis of rights fees as compared to WWE, different scenarios and different things that could be part of the new deal.
  • Full coverage of Backlash, including the booking, the show, Night of Champions in Saudi Arabia, Roman Reigns, business notes on the show, interest levels for the different events in a giant weekend of sports, PPV numbers, crossover between WWE and Alvarez fight, and the paradox of government money bringing WWE to cities and how that affects future hows in San Juan.
  • A full look at the AEW event at Wembley Stadium. We look at ticket sales, records, scalpers, the biggest shows ever in Europe, the biggest non-WWE shows in history, how viable is it regarding the all-time paid attendance records, and the three shows it has to beat, U.K. attendance records, differences in AEW & WWE ticket sale patterns, possible attractions for the show as well as opponents for he biggest matches and other London shows that weekend.
  • Full coverage of UFC 288, main event decision, what’s next for the top stars, business notes and match-by-match coverage.
  • A look at Dragon Gate’s Dead or Alive show
  • A look at the longest lasting U.K. headliners and Hall of Fame comments
  • The most detailed look at the ratings from the past week, with weekly placings, competition, and comparisons to one year ago, a well as how segments did
  • Wrestler goes for world title in two very different groups over a few week period
  • Konnan talks AAA U.S. TV negotiations
  • The politics behind the upcoming champion vs. champion match
  • Champion Carnival finals
  • How many tickets has Mercedes Mone moved for her next show
  • Early notes on All Together Now
  • Best of Super Juniors shows for this week
  • The most famous feud in Canadian football history, Angelo Mosca vs. Joe Kapp, and a detailed rundown
  • Former TNA & WWE star retires
  • Double or Nothing update
  • AEW booking team detailed
  • Crazy AEW PPV stat
  • Upcoming ticket sales to WWE & AEW shows
  • International TV numbers and streaming numbers
  • Aftermath of Omega vs. Moxley
  • Retired wrestler mentions being open to work Wembley Stadium as a farewell
  • Notes on the upcoming ROH shows
  • UFC business updates
  • Lots of new UFC fights
  • MMA legend talks retirement
  • PFL hit with rash of suspensions
  • Pat McAfee negotiations
  • Top merchandise sellers

– SmackDown is tonight in Knoxville, TN. It should be a big show as there are three World title tournament matches with Edge vs. Rey Mysterio vs. A.J. Styles and Bobby Lashley vs. Sheamus vs. Austin Theory. The winners meet and the winner of that match faces Seth Rollins for the title at Night of Champions on 5/27 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Roman Reigns is also on the show so they will likely start the ball rolling on his Saudi Arabia match. In addition, Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez defend the women’s tag titles against Bayley & Dakota Kai, and there may be a Cameron Grimes vs. Baron Corbin match as Grimes hinted at his debut. There were 9,500 tickets out as of this morning. As of this morning and before walkup, they were up 66 percent in ticket sales from the last time they did television in that building.

– For opposition tonight, SmackDown goes against game six of the Miami Heat vs. New York Knicks and Miami can win the series tonight. On the West Coast, they go against a monster Warriors-Lakers game and the Lakers can win the series tonight as well. The NHL has Toronto vs. Florida and Florida could knock the Maple Leafs out with a win. On the West Coast it goes against Las Vegas vs. Edmonton. The Maple Leafs will hurt SmackDown badly in Canada but because of the World title matches, they may hold up well since Raw & Dynamite put on loaded shows and held up well.

– Will Ospreay vs. Shingo Takagi takes place on 8/26 on the RevPro show at the Copper Box in London. Ospreay and Takagi have already had one match of the year winner and other contenders in a rivalry that dates back many years. They have never wrestled outside of Japan.

– Rampage, which has The Acclaimed & Billy Gunn vs. Butcher & Blade & Kip Sabian, Toni Storm vs Allysin Kay, Kyle Fletcher vs. Action Andretti and Swerve Strickland & Brian Cage vs. Alex Reynolds & John Silver, will air at 10 p.m. tomorrow night on TNT.

– After scoring poor ratings on Friday night’s head-to-head with SmackDown, Young Rock is not on NBC’s new fall schedule. NBC did not indicate anything about the future of the show.

– We’re looking for reports form these weekend shows:

  • GCW from last night in New York
  • WWE SmackDown in Knoxville tonight (dark matches and off TV only)
  • AEW house show tonight in Corbin, KY
  • NXT house show tonight in Davenport, FL
  • AEW house show tomorrow night in Salem, VA
  • NXT house house show tomorrow night in Sebring, FL
  • WWE house show tomorrow night in Augusta, GA
  • WWE house show Sunday in North Charleston, SC

We’re looking for results, finishes and other highlights from these shows to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

– AEW announced Claudio Castagnoli vs. Brian Pillman Jr. for tonight’s show in Corbin, KY.

– UFC is in Charlotte tomorrow including a main card on ABC

Prelims on ESPN at 11:30 a.m. Eastern

  • Jessica-Rose Clark (135.5) vs. Tainara Lisboa (134)
  • Bryan Battle (173) vs. Gabe Green (170.5) – Battle missed weight by two pounds
  • Ji Yeon Kim (126) vs. Mandy Bohm (126)
  • Cody Stamann (139) vs. Douglas Silva de Andrade (139.5) – they agreed to fight at 140
  • Karl Williams (239.5) vs. Chase Sherman (254)
  • Matt Brown (170) vs. Court McGee (170.5)

ABC at 3 .p.m. Eastern

  • Tim Means (170.5) vs Alex Morono (169.5)
  • Carlos Ulberg (204.5) vs Ihor Potieria (204.5)
  • Daniel Rodriguez (1700) vs. Ian Machado Garry (170.5)
  • Anthony Smith (205.5) vs. Johnny Walker (205.5)
  • Jairzinho Rozenstriuk (265) vs Jailton Almeida (231)

The scheduled Natan Levy vs. Pete Rodriguez fight is off due to weight cutting issues involving Rodriguez.

— Day two of Best of the Super Junior tournament is at 4 a.m. Eastern early tomorrow morning from Nagano

  • Hiromu Takahashi vs. Douki
  • Taiji Ishimori vs. Titan
  • Mike Bailey vs. Sho
  • Lio Rush vs. Ryusuke Taguchi
  • TJP vs. Kushida
  • Master Wato vs. Yoh
  • Desperado vs. Bushi
  • Francesco Akira vs. Kevin Knight
  • Clark Connors vs. Robbie Eagles
  • Dan Moloney vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru

– People have been raving about day one, which is up on the New Japan World site for free, in particular Bailey vs. Takahashi in the main event.

-Michael Blais is doing his Infinity gauntlet match tomorrow in Edmonton. He will wrestle against rotating opponents for eight hours starting at 2 p.m. Eastern to raise money for the Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton. It will stream live on YouTube and it’s for a good cause.

– James Roday Rodriguez, best known for the TV show “Psych” on USA, is producing a fictional play about pro wrestling called “Masters of Puppets” at the Connecticut Legacy Theater. Those involved say it is fiction but it is very much based on the McMahon family and features a cast that includes Kurt Fuller, Dana Ashbrook, Amanda Detmer and Michael Hogan. The play will run 5/25 to 6/11. 

– Bet Online has made MJF a ridiculous 50-1 favorite to win the four-way at Double or Nothing. Darby Allin is +500, Sammy Guevara is +600 and Jack Perry is +800.

– The XFL championship game between the Arlington Renegades vs. D.C. Defenders takes pale at 8 p.m. Eastern tomorrow night on ABC.

–There is a great story by Ian Douglass looking at the many false claims of legendary promoter Roy Shire.

– The entire family of Kevin Von Erich, including wrestlers Ross & Marshall, will be moving from Hawaii to Boerne, TX, a city that used to be the home of both Bruiser Body and Steve Austin. Marshall Von Erich noted to us that he and Ross decided to relocate to the continental U.S. to pursue pro wrestling, and Kevin decided he wanted the family to stay together so they purchased a 60 acre ranch and all 14 family members, Kevin and wife Pam, all the children and their grandchildren, will move together. They will be keeping their place in Kauai. There were other reasons as well, including the local high school football program for one of the grandkids.

Other Notes

– WWE producer TJ Wilson has a seminar on 6/4 in New Port Richey, FL at the WWN training center. 

– Combate Global which airs on Paramount+ and Univision at midnight Eastern time has an atomweight fight with Ana Palacios (7-1-1) of Mexico City vs. Chihiro Sawada (4-0-1), a former college wrestling champion fro Brazil, and Victor Valenzela (9-3) of Chile against Shinsho Anzai (9-4) of Japan.

– Tommy Dreamer faces Crowbar Devon Storm for the first time in each’s career tonight for ISPW in Wayne, NJ at the Wayne PAL. Bull James also faces Dirty Dango and Tina San Antonio faces Vicious Vicki.

– Ultimo Dragon will wrestle on 5/20 for TCW in Aberdeen Township, NJ in a three-way match with Sonny Onoo as his manager.

– Queen of Indies takes place tomorrow night in San Francisco. Nicole Savoy comes out of retirement for the show. Hall of Famer Chigusa Nagayo, perhaps the most popular woman wrestler ever in Japan, also wrestles on the show.

– The Bellas, now the Garcia Twins, were on E!’s Celebrity Prank War show last night.

– The LFA announced its July schedule. They run on 7/7 in Caraguatatuba, Sao Paulo, Brazil and 7/21 in Belton, TX. Both shows air live on UFC Fight Pass.