Daily Update: Triple H & Stephanie McMahon, Veer, UFC weigh-ins

Daily Update

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter:

The new issue of the Observer is up on the site with these stories:

  • The return of Vince McMahon, the sales talks, and the departure of Stephanie McMahon
  • Who is in charge of running the company right now
  • What Vince McMahon’s role is today
  • How Vince McMahon got back in power
  • A look at different entities who have expressed interest in WWE
  • Can Tony Khan get control of WWE
  • What kind of numbers are we talking about for the deal
  • What is the current market value of WWE
  • The Saudi Arabia rumors
  • How far did the rumors spread
  • What the experience of the UFC sale in 2016 tells you about what is said publicly
  • Notes from the meeting Stephanie McMahon, Frank Riddick and Nick Khan had with all the company employees
  • If something happens with Saudi Arabia, what would be the likely repercussions based on previous sports world examples
  • What companies did Nick Khan bring up to employees when talking the sale
  • Changes in WWE morale
  • 2022 Business year in review for pro wrestling, MMA and boxing major events
  • Biggest crowds of the year
  • Main eventers on top for the most biggest crowds
  • PPV numbers for the year
  • Who drew the most 15,000+ crowds
  • UFC gate numbers
  • List of $2 million gates
  • Biggest pro wrestling drawing card each year since 1916
  • Biggest drawing cards in history
  • The changing of the media landscape and how this effects AEW and WWE
  • Analysis of the losses incurred by FOX on Smackdown by Morgan Stanley
  • The career of wrestler and promoter Johnny Powers, one of the biggest stars of the 60s and 70s
  • The attempt to promote nationally and what happened
  • How he got his first break with Bruno Sammartino
  • Multiple world title matches around the world
  • His runs with major promotions
  • Being the star of the NWF
  • How Powers figured into the early days of New Japan Pro Wrestling and his biggest matches there
  • How Powers was promoted in Japan
  • Powers and the Greatest 18 Club
  • Full coverage of PWG Battle of Los Angeles with thoughts on the shows, where PWG stands, background of the appearance of Chris Jericho, who you should keep your eyes on and match-by-match coverage
  • A look back at the career of Black Warrior
  • The most detailed look at the ratings from all the shows this past week as well as segment-by-segment
  • Mexican iconic character looking at retiring
  • Sting’s last match in Japan
  • Major change in New Japan’s U.S. approach
  • Update on Sasha Banks/Mercedes Mone in New Japan with more dates
  • How Mercedes moved tickets for her first match
  • A look at the major matches on the next new Japan tour
  • Superstar Billy Graham health update
  • TV announcer starts up promoting new group
  • The death of the real Bobby Heenan, and how the pro wrestling legend found out about his brother and his family
  • Adam Cole’s return
  • Kyle O’Reilly gives health update
  • Streaming numbers for AEW and WWE
  • International TV numbers
  • Attendance for upcoming shows
  • California legislators critical of Dana White
  • Dana White talks at press conference about his situation
  • Bellator signs perhaps its top fighter
  • Phil Baroni charged with homicide and facing a lifetime in jail
  • PFL announces new tournaments
  • WWE tries to get things removed from the discovery process in MLW lawsuit
  • How slow the courts can be on these situations
  • How much did Shane McMahon earn from WWE in 2022
  • Former New Japan wrestler quietly started in WWE camp this week

This Week’s Retro Observer Newsletter:

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Friday Update

– Garrett and I will be doing a show today covering the news of the week. If you have any questions regarding this week’s news for the show you can send to mailbag@wrestlingobserver.com. Bryan and I will be back Sunday night.

– The new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter is up right now. Obviously the main story goes in depth on the return of Vince McMahon, the sales talks and the departure of Stephanie McMahon.

– Regarding the story out that Paul Levesque and Stephanie McMahon were against the idea of WWE being sold that was reported by Axios, we were told by someone close to both that “Levesque and Steph were not against selling. They were open to all possibilities. . . In many ways the company was guaranteed to be sold in some fashion in the fact that Vince McMahon’s shares had to be addressed. In that regard, some level of a sale was guaranteed.”

– A really good article on Sting retiring at some point this year, his career and his AEW run.

– The reason Veer Mahaan is on leave from NXT is because of an illness to his father, who has just passed away.

– We are doing a poll this weekend for tonight’s Impact Hard to Kill pay-per-view, 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

–  We’re also looking for reports on these weekend shows:

  • SmackDown tonight in Green Bay, dark matches or anything off television
  • WWE Saturday in Roanoke, VA
  • WWE Sunday in Corbin, KY

You can send reports to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

– SmackDown tonight from Green Bay has Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn plus Gunther vs Braun Strowman for the Intercontinental title. There were 5,500 tickets out for the show as of yesterday.

– AEW Rampage tonight on TNT

  • Darby Allin vs. Juice Robinson for TNT title
  • Brody King & Malakai Black vs. Eddie Kingston & Ortiz
  • Anna Jay & Tay Melo vs. Ruby Soho & Wilow Nightingale in a street fight

– UFC has its first show of the year tomorrow night from 4 p.m. on ESPN+ from the Apex in Las Vegas:

  • Charles Johnson (126) vs. Jimmy Flick (126)
  • Daniel Argueta (146) vs. Nick Aguirre (145.5)
  • Allan Nascimento (125.5) vs. Carlos Hernandez (125)
  • Javid Basharat (136) vs. Mateus Mendonca (134.5)
  • Meteusz Rebecki (155.5) vs. Nick Fiore (155)
  • Claudio Ribeiro (183) vs. Abdul Razak Alhassan (185.5)
  • Umar Nurmagomedov (135) vs. Raoni Barcelos (135)
  • Ketlen Vieira (136) vs. Raquel Pennington (135.5)
  • Punahele Soriano (185.5) vs. Roman Kopylov (185)
  • Dan Ige (145.5) vs. Damon Jackson (145.5)
  • Nassourdine Imavov (194) vs. Sean Strickland (204)

The main event is one of the biggest non-heavyweight weight differentials in the modern era of UFC. Imavov was to fight at 185, but opponent Kelvin Gastelum suffered an injury in training that resulted in dental surgery. Strickland was called to replace him but with just a few days before the fight, Strickland asked that the fight be at 205 and Imavov agreed to it.

The Sijara Eubanks vs. Priscila Cachoeira fight scheduled on the show was canceled today because Eubanks failed to weigh in. it was announced the fight was off due to weight management issues by Eubanks.

– Stephan A. Smith, who was heavily criticized for his position on the Dana White situation, talked about it again yesterday. He said that White deserves the same punishment he would hand down to one of his fighters. But he said he is not in favor of White losing his job over the situation.

– Raw for Monday in Cincinnati is advertising locally an Austin Theory vs. Seth Rollins match for the U.S. title. That doesn’t mean it will happen. Raw will have ridiculously tough opposition this coming Monday with the NFL playoffs. The game will be on ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 and will almost surely be the most viewers for an NFL game this season on a Monday night. The Dallas Cowboys, one of the top drawing teams, face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, with Tom Brady in what possibly could be Brady’s last playoff game, if not his last game. (thanks to Brian Henke)

– There has been some notice that the name Banger Bros for the tag team of Sheamus & Drew McIntyre. Evidently there is a porn company called Bang Bros. If the name changes, that would be the reason, although we haven’t been told the name is changing, just that there is an awareness of that.

– Impact’s Hard to Kill is tonight from a sold out Center Stage in Atlanta. Here are the BetOnline odds for the show:

Josh Alexander -5000
Bully Ray +1000

Jordynne Grace -180
Mickie James +130

Motor City Machine Guns -200
Major Players +225
Ace Austin & Chris Bey +350
Heath & Rhino +1000

Joe Hendry -300
Moose +200

Trey Miguel -600
Black Taurus +350

Masha Slamovich -400
Deonna Purrazzo +325
Killer Kelly +400
Taylor Wilde +1400

Jonathan Gresham -200
Eddie Edwards +150

Steve Maclin -800
Rich Swann +450

– One of the biggest annual events of the year, the Highspots Mark Hitchcock Memorial Super Show has been announced for 3/30 at 4 p.m. at the Globe Theater in Los Angeles.

– A correction from the new issue, the Mike Bailey vs. Bryan Keith match was meant to be rated ****1/4. There was a typo adding a star. The fact nobody complained about the prior number tells you just how good people live thought it was.

Other Notes

– One of UFC’s top fighters of the last 15 years, Jose Aldo, 36, will be making his pro boxing debut on 2/10 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. No opponent has been named. Aldo said that trying boxing has always been a dream of his.

– Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Michael Oku was announced for RevPro’s next York Hall in London show on 3/26.

– LFA runs tonight from the Mystic Lake Casino Hotel in Prior Lake, MN at the Mystic Lake Casino Hotel on UFC Fight Pass at 9 p.m. Eastern has Ary Farias (136) vs. John Sweeney (135.4) and Thomas Peterson (255.6) vs. Richard Foster (262) as the top bouts.

– Ken “Dazzler” Dunlop, an 80s regular on the Australia circuit, noted to us that he found out he was the first Australian wrestler ever to write an autobiography. Dunlop wrestled from 1978 to 2000 and also promoted from 1991 to 1998, trained a lot of young wrestlers, was inducted into the Australian pro wrestling Hall of Fame, and was openly gay and wrote about his life and career exploits.

– Defy announced a 1/20 show in Tacoma, WA with the Dark Order, Marina Shafir and Levi Cooper (Tucker in WWE) vs. Guillermo Rosas in a hair vs. hair match.

– Innovate Wrestling on 3/4 will be in Kingsport, TN at the Civic Auditorium.

– Invicta announced a television dal with DirecTV Latin America starting with the 1/18 show in Denver with Talita Bernardo challenging bantamweight champion Taneisa Tennant.

– LFA on 2/10 from the Grand Casino Hotel & Resort in Shawnee, OK has Renato Valiente (11-3) vs. Azamat Bokoev (14-3) in a middleweight main event.

– ONE tickets for its U.S debut show on 5/5 in Broomfield, CO at the 1st Bank Center go on sale Monday. There is a presale today. Demetrious Johnson vs. Adriano Moraes for the flyweight championship is the main event.

– Lucha Va Voom has announced shows on 2/8 and 2/9 at the Mayan Theater in Los Angeles. Jack Cartwheel and Taya Valkyrie are among the headliners.

–The family of Kirk White presents Big Time Wrestling on 1/20 in Newark, CA at the Pavilion featuring the annual 18 man Battle Royal for the Roy Shire trophy. Dave Dutra vs. Sledge and Viva Van vs. Su Yung are also on the show.

– Tatanka on Facebook mentioned he was invited to the 30th anniversary Raw on 1/23 in Philadelphia. Ronda Rousey is no longer advertised for the show.

– UWN tomorrow night in Mesa,AZ at the Bell Bank Park has Danny Limelight defending the UWN title against Eddie Kingston, Kevin Martenson defending the United Heritage title against Davey Richards, Reno Scum defends the tag titles against Midnight Heat, Alexander Hammerstone vs. Ortiz, Shawn Dean vs. Willie Mack vs. Bad Dude Tito vs. Joey Janela for a title shot, Peter Avalon vs. R3 Cassus, Marina Shafir vs. Zeda Zhang, Clark Connors vs. Jakob Austin Young and a 30 man Rumble.