Daily Update: The Rock promo, Sting trademark, ‘Dark Match’ trailer

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

  • The end of Raw on cable television and a look back at the show, Prime Time Wrestling, where it stands among the longest running wrestling shows on television, what to expect from the Netflix audience, the first show, how much WWE was getting for Raw at its ratings peak plus the year that USA nearly canceled Raw.
  • 2024 live attendance numbers for WWE and AEW and comparisons with this past year and historical.
  • Full coverage of Worlds End, including historical notes on aspects of the show, questions on the show, the decision to cut back on matches and what was left on the cutting floor, the best multiple match days in history, best openers in history, returns, PPV numbers and other business notes.
  • A look at both Tokyo Dome shows
  • A look at the career of Sweet Daddy Siki
  • President Jimmy Carter and he and his family’s connections with pro wrestling and Jim Barnett
  • Pro Wrestling NOAH Budokan Hall coverage and attempt to make a superstar in one night
  • Stardom’s big year-end show with one of the best women’s bouts of the year
  • Janel Grant’s attorneys looking at rewriting the lawsuit against Vince McMahon, John Laurinaitis and WWE and the key reason why
  • 2024 Observer Awards ballot, detailed descriptions of the categories, the criteria and who placed top three in each category last year
  • Notes from the funeral of Rey Misterio Sr.
  • The most detailed look at the ratings from the past week
  • International TV ratings
  • Advanced ticket sales for all the major upcoming U.S. events including All In Texas, WrestleMania, Royal Rumble and more
  • CMLL huge business week
  • What promotion is spending January rematching the best matches as voted by fans for 2024
  • Major Japanese title changes as the year ends and starts
  • Two major companies losing U.S. TV this week and details of what happened
  • Shooting at independent wrestling arena
  • Deaths of two British stars of the ITV era, Tally Ho Kaye and their version of Blackjack Mulligan
  • Lots of notes on discussion points of Tony Khan’s press conferences this past week
  • What AEW idea got bounced because NXT did it first
  • Debut of Sakuraba’s son
  • Updates on WrestleMania
  • Updates of archival content on Netflix internationally and MAX in the U.S.
  • New WWE TV or streaming show being talked about
  • Survivor Series PPV number makes significant change and why
  • Notes on the must-read Inside the Ropes story on the late Axl Rotten’s days backstage regarding WWE and Mel Phillips
  • New WWE business deal
  • Full coverage of WWE holiday tour and how it compared with those the past few years

This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter Back Issue

Wednesday Update

WWE

AEW/Other Wrestling

  • Kenny Omega tweeted ahead of his return on AEW Dynamite tonight: “A year to rebuild. Less to reclaim. Let’s take this as far as we can go.”
  • Renee Paquette interviewed Kris Statlander on a new edition of AEW Close-Up.
  • Sting (using his real name Steve Borden) filed to trademark the term “Old Man Sting” for merchandising purposes on January 7.
  • MxM Collection (Mason Madden & Mansoor) appeared on Talk is Jericho.
  • The trailer for “Dark Match,” a horror movie starring Chris Jericho, was released today. The movie will premiere on Shudder on January 31. Here is the synopsis: “A group of wrestlers find out just how real wrestling can get when they become the guests of honor at a match held by Satanists.”
  • In an interview with Pro Wrestling Illustrated, Zack Sabre Jr. discussed how important mentorship from Yoshinari Ogawa (who retired from the ring last summer) has been to his career:
    • Yeah, by far. I mean, if he’s not the most influential, important figure that I’ve met in wrestling, he’s definitely top two. I grew up watching Japanese wrestling and being a huge Japanese wrestling fan, so I already had an image of Ogawa-san before I got here. And I admired in the peak of All Japan that he just had such a unique presence and clearly his own philosophy. But then also [for me] to come to Japan, especially with the foreign wrestlers, he was so conscious to take care and look out for everyone. He really went above and beyond. The two or so years as his tag team partner is one of the best experiences, not of my career, but of my life, just getting to spend so much time with him professionally and socially and just to talk to him and get his philosophy … not just on wrestling, but on life. 
    • And I mean, you could see until the day he retired, how much passion he had for pro wrestling. He was doing 30-minute draws up until the moment he had to retire. His love for pro wrestling I think was just so apparent. And then, like I said, with Fujita and Oiwa, I had my eyes on them from their debut. Obviously, I dressed them up in my ring gear a couple of times. I definitely was eager to be involved with them. But after Oiwa went over to NOAH for his excursion, it just became a no-brainer that he’d come into TMDK when he [returned to New Japan]. I was speaking to Ogawa regularly, and he was training with Oiwa and speaking very highly of him. Any praise from Ogawa is hard to come by and you have to work for it, so the fact that he was speaking well of Oiwa was all the endorsement that I needed. I think it’s also a nice way for me, Mike, and Shane to be able to be thankful and acknowledge the opportunity that NOAH gave to us and how thankful we are for it. I feel like we sort of get to combine every element of our journeys with TMDK and having Oiwa in there now. 
    • I’m glad that I got to wrestle with Ogawa one last time.  I was on the (2023) NOAH New Year show, so obviously I didn’t realize that’d be the last time that I got to wrestle with him. But I’m glad I got to go back twice to NOAH and team up. He’s just the coolest. He’s just the coolest man. He’s the coolest man that ever … he hasn’t aged. He hasn’t aged in two decades or maybe even more. Effortlessly cool.