Daily Update: Tony Khan, KAIRI, weekend schedule

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter: 2021 Awards issue, Cody and Brandi Rhodes leave AEW

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Friday News Update

  • We will have a special show tonight, and Bryan and I will be back tomorrow night with Wrestling Observer Radio covering the multitude of huge shows this weekend.
  • One of our biggest issues of the year is up right now, the 2021 Awards issue which lists the readers voting in dozens of different awards categories. The issue has a complete list of awards winners dating back to 1980. We also have the story on the departure of Cody Rhodes from AEW, lots of notes on this year’s WrestleMania and the upcoming AEW Revolution show, all the big events coming up this weekend and all the major news from around the world.

WWE

  • Smackdown is a taped show tonight featuring a Roman Reigns-Bill Goldberg faceoff as well as a Charlotte Flair & Sonya Deville vs. Ronda Rousey & Naomi angle. Only three matches were taped last Friday for the show which were Ivar vs. Jimmy Uso, Ricochet vs. Sheamus and Sami Zayn’s IC title win over Shinsuke Nakamura. Ratings will be interesting because we’ll see the difference between a live and taped show. All of the major stars left days ago for Saudi Arabia so it was impossible to do a live show this week.
  • The company also debuts Level Up tonight at 10 p.m. on Peacock. It’s the same show that was 205 Live, just with a new name. Matches are Harland vs. Javier Bernal, Fallon Henley (the bartender on NXT Tuesday night) & Kala Inlay vs. Ivy Nile & Tatum Paxley and Kushida vs. Edris Enofe. Kelly Kincaid (Quinn McKay) debuts as the ring announcer on the show.
  • The Elimination Chamber show starts at Noon Eastern time tomorrow from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia:
  • Rey Mysterio vs. The Miz
  • Usos vs. Viking Raiders for the Smackdown tag titles
  • Drew McIntyre vs. Madcap Moss falls count anywhere
  • Women’s Chamber, winner gets a Raw title match at WrestleMania with Bianca Belair vs. Liv Morgan vs. Doudrop vs. Nikki ASH vs. Rhea Ripley vs. Alexa Bliss
  • Becky Lynch vs. Lita for the Raw women’s title
  • Ronda Rousey (with one hand tied behind her back) & Naomi vs. Charlotte Flair & Sonya Deville
  • Roman Reigns vs. Bill Goldberg for the Universal title
  • Men’s chamber match for the WWE title with Bobby Lashley, Brock Lesnar, A.J. Styles, Riddle, Austin Theory and Seth Rollins

AEW

  • Regarding the Tony Khan announcement of something big he’s been working on, what we do know is he was in meetings all day yesterday trying to put it together.

Other Wrestling

  • Regarding the former Kairi Sane, whose WWE contract just expired, she is now with Stardom under the name KAIRI. Her first match will be 3/26 at Sumo Hall teaming with Mayu Iwatani vs. Tam Nakano & Unagi Sayaka. She will do a singles match on 3/27 at Sumo Hall. She legitimately picked who she wanted to work with on the two big shows. Right now the plan is for her not to work every show, but work the bigger events.
  • New Japan on New Japan World at 3 a.m. Eastern late tonight from Sapporo:
  • Togi Makabe & Kosei Fujita vs. Taka Michinoku & DOUKI
  • Minoru Suzuki & Taichi vs. Toru Yano & Ryohei Oiwa
  • Tomohiro Ishii & YOH vs. Dick Togo & SHO
  • Great-O-Khan vs. Tomoaki Honma
  • Kazuchika Okada & Satoshi Kojima & Yuji Nagata vs. Tetsuya Naito & Shingo Takagi & Hiromu Takahashi
  • Tiger Mask & Robbie Eagles vs. El Phantasmo & Taiji Ishimori vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Desperado vs Master Wato & Ryusuke Taguchi for the IWGP Jr. tag tiles
  • Hirooki Goto & Yoshi-Hashi vs. Evil & Yujiro Takahashi for the IWGP tag titles
  • Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. SANADA for the US title
  • Other big events tomorrow include Impact No Surrender from New Orleans, AAA Rey de Reyes from Veracruz and GCW from the Showboat in Atlantic City. All are available live on FITE TV.
  • Kevin Eck’s weekly look at the ROH news is here.
  • Gangrel debuts for MLW on the 2/26 show in Charlotte against Gnarls Gavin.
  • A 3/11 show at The State Room in South San Francisco, CA with West Coast Pro and Prestige, headlined by Malakai Black vs. Kevin Blackwood, is now sold out.
  • Game Related on 4/15 at The State Room in South San Francisco features Hall of Famer Yuji Nagata.
  • GCW on 3/12 at Center Stage in Atlanta has Blake Christian vs. Jonathan Gresham and AR Fox vs. Nick Wayne, plus Matt Cardona, Joey Janela, and more.
  • MCW tomorrow night in Baltimore at the FPX Theater features Lance Archer and Moses from ROH.
  • Renegades of Wrestling on 4/30 in Melbourne, Australia featuring the return to Australia of JONAH.
  • ISPW tonight in Butler, NJ at St. Anthony’s Church Gym headlined by Scotty 2 Hotty vs. Danny Morrison and H.C. Loc vs. Traxx.

UFC

  • UFC on ESPN+ tomorrow starting at 4 p.m.:
  • Johnny Walker (206) vs. Jamahal Hill (205)
  • Kyle Daukaus (193.5) vs. Jamie Pickett (194) — 195-pound catchweight bout
  • Parker Porter (263) vs. Alan Baudot (256)
  • Jim Miller (156) vs. Nikolas Motta (154.5)
  • Joaquin Buckley (183) vs. Abdul Razak Alhassan (186)
  • Gabriel Benitez (148) vs. David Onama (144.5)
  • Jessica-Rose Clark (135.5) vs. Stephanie Egger (135)
  • Chas Skelly (146) vs. Mark Striegl (145)
  • Diana Belbita (116) vs. Gloria de Paula (115.5)
  • Chad Anheliger (135) vs. Jesse Strader (135)
  • Jonathan Pearce (145.5) vs. Christian Rodriguez (146)
  • Mario Bautista (135.5) vs. Jay Perrin (136)
  • Benitez missed weight by two pounds and will be forfeiting 30 percent of his purse.
  • Joe Rogan is doing a live comedy show on 4/8 in Jacksonville at the Vystar Veterans Memorial Auditorium which tells you he’s going to be doing the UFC show that weekend.
  • Jimmy Crute will be out for one year due to knee reconstructive surgery.
  • Ilia Topuria vs. Jai Hebert has bee added to the 3/19 show in London.
  • Darren Elkins vs. Tristan Connelly is set for a 4/30 show.

Other MMA

  • Bellator tomorrow night on Showtime at 9 p.m. Eastern: 
  • Davion Franklin (262.75) vs. Said Sowma (243)
  • Brennan Ward (174.8) vs. Brandon Bell (173.8)
  • Georgi Karakhanyan (156) vs. Adam Piccolotti (155.5)
  • Andrey Koreshkov (171) vs. Chance Rencountre (169.5)
  • Neiman Gracie (170.75) vs. Logan Storley (170.5)
  • The PFL Challengers series has a series of light heavyweight fights streaming on the Fubo Sports network tonight at 9 p.m. Eastern. Ray Lewis and Tyron Woodley are part of the broadcast team: 
  • Josh Silveira (205) vs. Mohamed Jurna (205.2)
  • Alexander Poppeck (205.6) vs. Taylor Johnson (204.2)
  • Travis Davis (206) vs. Bruce Sout (202.4)
  • Miles Amos (205.6) vs. Karl Williams (205.2)