Daily Update: Toxic Attraction, Cody Rhodes, MLW ratings

Daily Update

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter:

In this week’s issue
*Complete Royal Rumble coverage
*Match and performer of the week
*Highlights of the Rumble
*The story of the Reigns-Zayn angle
*Why Reigns vs. Zayn won’t be happening at WrestleMania
*Records set at Royal Rumble
*How many people watched Royal Rumble on Peacock
*The 15 largest gates in pro wrestling history
*PPV crossover with Full Gear and Survivor Series
*Elimination Chamber update
*Wrestlemania update
*Return of Pat McAfee
*WrestleMania sponsorship
*Nick Khan talks WWE sale
*Khan talks about the next rights deals
*More on the Vince McMahon investigation and how much it cost WWE so far
*WWE business numbers for 2022
*A look at the career of Fedor Emelianenko as he has his retirement fight
*What pro wrestler brought Fedor into prominence
*What former pro wrestling promotion did he first become a star in
*A look at hs glory days in Pride
*Who is the best heavyweight ever
*The life and times of Lanny Poffo
*His career high points
*Winning the world tag team title at the age of 20
*Feuding with his brother
*The big name historically Randy Savage was to feud with that never happened
*The funeral of Jay Briscoe
*Another new lawsuit filed trying to get Vince McMahon out of power
*Legendary enhancement wrestler Kenny Jay passes away and the night he had a match with Muhammad Ali
*Why he never became a bigger star
*The story behind his match with Ali
*2022 Wrestling Observer Awards allot
*The most detailed look at the television ratings over the past week
*International TV ratings for AEW and WWE
*Streaming ratings for AEW & WWE
*Ticket sales for upcoming shows
*One of the oldest titles in history defended on Jericho cruise
*Keiji Muto struggles through retirement matches
*New Japan changes with New Japan Strong
*Mercedes Mone talks her new Japan debut
*Hiroshi Hase in controversy over doing a wrestling match last month
*Why Kota Ibushi did Bloodsport
*Thought on AEW doing house shows
*Difference between AEW and WWE fans
*Thoughts on MJF vs. Takeshita
*New A&E wrestling schedule

This Week’s Retro Observer Newsletter:

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Wednesday Update

WWE

  • WWE wished Jerry “The King” Lawler a speedy recovery as he recovers from a stroke.
  • Toxic Attraction imploded with Jacy Jayne attacking Gigi Dolin on NXT last night.
  • Dolin tweeted a photo of the damage that she sustained from the attack: “trauma is the ultimate killer”
  • Cody Rhodes told Inside the Ropes that he would be more than happy to present NXT’s Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic trophy in the future:
          • For all things Dusty Rhodes, the A&E Biography that I was able to be the executive producer on, his story that is coming soon, hopefully before WrestleMania itself, to see the full story. Not to mention the Dusty Rhodes Classic. One of the things that was obviously very appealing for me is you’re never not your father or your mother’s son and it is important to me. He cannot be there to protect and explain and defend his legacy. So that was always a huge thing that was on the table that is obviously very appealing to me, being here and coming back to WWE. So when it comes to the Dusty Rhodes Classic, I’d love to do anything involved. Obviously, it’s more NXT and that’s where we’re developing, like I was saying on Raw, tomorrow’s superstars today. You want to keep it in their wheelhouse, but I’d be more than happy to hand a potentially Pretty Deadly that trophy or a different team because so much is going on that’s good down there. Shawn Michaels has done an incredible job and continues to do, but I love all things Dusty. I just want to make sure he’s represented fairly because for a good time in the business, he wasn’t and WWE has done a really great job of letting you know what he did, how he did it and how it still affects what we do.
  • Rhodes was asked about AEW’s Ricky Starks being spotted on camera visiting him at the Royal Rumble:
          • What an idiot though! The locker rooms do have crossovers, people are married to people in other locker rooms, people are friends. This is a kid I started on his journey at my former home and I obviously want to follow and see his journey, but I will say it’s probably best none of my friends visit me at the shows anymore.
          • We don’t need security cam footage of that poor dude, I hope he didn’t get into any trouble – and I don’t think he did. He was there to support a friend, who had been absolutely down and out with the pec injury.
          • Ricky was one of the guys that nursed me through it, and helped remind me of who I can be, so I was happy to have him there and I had some other friends there but the other friends stayed on the bus because they’re not crazy yayhoos.
          • Maybe we’ll just watch each other at a distance, I don’t want to cause any strife between any places. We all love the same thing, it’s a squared circle, it’s the wrestling industry. I always think I don’t have any rules, there are rules!
  • WWE congratulated LeBron James on breaking the NBA’s all-time career points record.
  • The Miz will play in the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game on Friday, February 17.
  • In an interview with the Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling podcast, Samu said he hopes his son Lance Anoa’i will join The Bloodline one day: “I’m just proud to be able to watch these kids do their thing. I’m hoping one day they’ll smarten up and put my son in there too, Lance. He’s been busting his ass, he’s been in the ring since he was five years old. Everyone’s got their turn. He’s still in the shadows, waiting for his turn.”
  • WWE paid tribute to “Sensational” Sherri Martel on what would have been her 65th birthday.
  • Seth Rollins was on The Pat McAfee Show from Super Bowl Radio Row today.
  • Bayley, Dakota Kai, Big E, Xavier Woods, and Tyler Breeze appeared on WWE’s The Bump this afternoon.
  • Liv Morgan was the guest on this week’s episode of Out of Character with Ryan Satin.

AEW/Other Wrestling