Daily Update: Triple H, Trish Stratus, weekend schedule

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter: William Regal discusses health, WrestleMania 38 update

  • The main story covers William Regal’s health issues and brush with death. Regal was on Talk is Jericho and went into detail about his issues that date back nearly 30 years including with his heart, his neck, his balance and sepsis in his leg.
  • WrestleMania, Stand & Deliver, Hall of Fame and all the WWE events this coming week in Dallas. We have lineups, matches not yet announced, Hall of Fame updates, ticket sales, scalper tickets and more.
  • Another story on Scott Hall, looking at the first gimmick he pitched to Vince McMahon and Pat Patterson before Razor Ramon, times he was very upset about plans changing where he thought he needed to win, the proposal he made to McMahon in 1996 to not leave for WCW and who he learned from when his work took its greatest strides forward.
  • An update on the New Japan Cup and all the matches of the past week.
  • A story on the NCAA wrestling tournament and Gable Steveson, with all the business notes, Steveson to WWE, possibility of continuing with amateur wrestling at the Olympic level or fighting MMA.
  • The Jorge Masvidal-Colby Covington story, what both men did and said that led to it and UFC’s attitude and treatment of those who draw money.
  • The first AAA TripleMania show of the year.
  • Complete coverage of UFC in London.
  • The life and times of Pepper Martin, a 60s and 70s star who was also an actor, his idea that led to the formation of one of the greatest tag teams in history, his acting running mates, career highlights, his biggest Cow Palace matches and other career highlights.
  • DDT’s major show and the announced relationship with AEW.
  • CMLL’s El Homenaje a Dos Leyendas show and the honoring of Ringo Mendoza and Dorrell Dixon.
  • TV ratings of all the major pro wrestling shows and how it relates to sports and television overall.
  • The sad accident that led to the death of Black Warrior Jr.
  • If you asked 100 people on the street to name a pro wrestler, who is the first person that would be said.
  • Crockett Cup notes.
  • Ticket sales for all upcoming AEW & WWE shows plus scalper markets for the big shows.

This Week’s Retro Observer Newsletter: February 7, 2005 Observer Newsletter: Royal Rumble review, business year in review

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Friday News Update

  • Garrett Gonzales and I will be back tonight talking the news of the week. It’s a very busy weekend although nothing like next week coming up, with the two Stardom shows at Sumo Hall and the semifinals and finals of the New Japan Cup, as well as Monday being the last Raw prior to WrestleMania.
  • We’ll talk about Paul Levesque more on tonight’s show but this is from Dr. Alex Patel:

“An Ejection fraction is a measure of heart function. It’s graded from I (around 60 percent) down to 4 (less than 20). It can concur a prognosis of no more than a few years if it doesn’t recover at that level.
Him having a defibrillator is because the heart function is so low that he can develop arrhythmias that are lethal (MADIT II criteria – recent heart attack and EF less than 30). It’s designed to help prevent him from dying basically.
I am assuming that the cardiology team thinks that a combination of medication could lead to remodeling where the heart function recovers. If it doesn’t he’s probably looking at a transplant.
And either situation the stress of wrestling could easily trigger an arrhythmia or heart failure again so wrestling would definitely be out of the question.”

  • It should be noted that Levesque has made good progress since his heart scare that was nearly fatal.
  • Smackdown is tonight at the Barclays Center in New York. Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns are featured. Austin Theory, Riddle, Randy Orton, Chad Gable and Otis are all backstage. That doesn’t mean they will be on the show.
  • Rampage tonight at 10 p.m. on TNT:
  • Dustin Rhodes vs. Lance Archer
  • Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly vs. Alan Angels & 10
  • Nyla Rose vs. Madi Wrenkowski
  • Ricky Starks vs. Shane Strickland for the FTW title
  • QT Marshall also does an angle with Hook
  • Shad Khan today shut down the Black News Channel that he was the owner of due to inability to draw ratings. The station was listed this past year at No. 123 of the 124 cable stations Nielsen monitors with a prime time average of 4,000 viewers (thanks to Chris Cruise, Mike Kuzmuk and many others).
  • UFC has a full ESPN+ show from Columbus, OH starting at 4 p.m. Eastern
  • Luis Saldana (145) vs. Bruno Souza (144)
  • Matheus Nicolau (126) vs. David Dvorak (125.5)
  • Jennifer Maia (126) vs. Manon Fiorot (125.5)
  • Aliaskhab Khizriev (185) vs. Denis Tiuliulin (185.5)
  • Chris Gutierrez (135) vs. Batgerel Danaa (136)
  • Sara McMann (135) vs. Karol Rosa (135)
  • Neil Magny (170) vs. Max Griffin (171)
  • Marc Diakiese (155) vs. Vlacheslav Borshchev (155.5)
  • Ilir Latifi (239.5) vs. Aleksei Oleinik (246)
  • Askar Askarov (126) vs. Kai Kara-France (125.5)
  • Matt Brown (170.5) vs. Bryan Barbarena (170.5)
  • Joanne Wood (125) vs. Alexa Grasso (1q25)
  • Curtis Blaydes (259) vs. Chris Daukaus (243)
  • Stardom has two PPV shows this weekend, the first tomorrow morning at 4 a.m. Eastern and the second very late that next night at 1 a.m. Eastern. So the second show will start at 10 p.m. on the West Coast on Saturday night. Both are from Sumo Hall in Tokyo. The first night’s show is
  • Hanan vs. Rina in a battle of sisters for the Future of Stardom title
  • Saya Iida vs. Mirai
  • Himeka & Natsupoi & Mai Sakurai vs. Mina Shirakawa & Waka Tsukiyama & Momo Kohgo vs. Saki Kashima & Fukigen Death & Ruaka vs. AZM & Lady C & mystery partner
  • Maika & Thekla vs. Risa Sera & Suzu Suzuki
  • Himeka & Koguma defend the Goddesses of Stardom titles against Momo Watanabe & Starlight Kid
  • Kairi (Kairi Sane, first match in Stardom in years) & Mayu Iwatani vs. Tam Nakano & Unagi Sayaka
  • Saya Kamitani vs. Utami Hayashishita for the Wonder of Stardom title
  • Syuri vs. Giula for the World of Stardom title
  • Sunday’s card depends on the winners of this show but Iwatani will face the Syuri-Giula winner for the title in the main event.
  • Both shows are available with English language commentary.
  • New Japan runs Osaka Jo Hall with the semifinals of the New Japan Cup with Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Shingo Takagi and Kazuchika Okada vs. Tetsuya Naito with a 3 a.m. start Eastern time tomorrow morning. The finals will be at 1 a.m. Eastern late Saturday night. The late Saturday night show will also shoot the angles for the 4/9 show at Sumo Hall.
  • For this weekend, we are doing polls for both Stardom shows and both New Japan shows, so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match from each show to dave@wrestlingobserver.com We also have polls for the overall New Japan Cup MVP and best match of the New Japan Cup.
  • We’re also looking for reports from these shows:
  • Smackdown tonight at the Barclays Center in New York (dark matches)
  • Saturday night house shows in Kitchener, ONT and State College, PA
  • Sunday night house shows in Toronto, ONT and Charlottesville, VA
  • Trish Stratus will be appearing in Kitchener and Toronto as host of both shows. The advertised main events are Becky Lynch vs. Bianca Belair vs. Rhea Ripley for the women’s title, U.S champ Finn Balor defends against Damian Priest, Kevin Owens & Seth Rollins vs. Street Profits vs. Chad Gable & Otis and Miz TV with Dominik Mysterio The Smackdown shows list Roman Reigns vs. Drew McIntyre and Charlotte Flair vs. Sasha Banks vs. Natalya in title matches as the main events.

WWE

  • Svengoolie from MeTV, who is a longtime subscriber,noted to us the stories he was backstage at Raw on Monday in Chicago are false. He said he was not backstage nor even in his costume at the show as was reported. He said he thinks the reports came from a social media photo of him with Adam Pearce which was taken in the arena before the show.
  • Dolph Ziggler will be doing a comedy show on 3/31 in Dallas at Fair Park at the Creative Arts Building at 5 p.m. local time.
  • R-Truth will be doing a concert on 3/31 in Fort Worth,TX at the Halltom Theater.
  • Steve Austin’s Broken Skull Sessions with Lita debuted on Peacock today.

AEW

  • Adam Cole, Britt Baker and Christian Cage will all be appearing at Wrestlecon in Dallas.

UFC

  • MMA Fighting has reported Casey O’Neil vs. Jessica Eye verbally agreed to for the 7/2 show in Las Vegas.

Other Notes

  • The PFL tonight on Fubo Sports Network at 9 p.m. Eastern
  • Bevon Lewis (226.6) vs. Marcelo Nunes (237.4)
  • Giacomo Lemos (225.4) vs. Billy Swanson (265.6)
  • Adam Keresh (237) vs. Chad Johnson (223.2)
  • Daiqwon Buckley (262.6) vs. Jon Cunningham (230.8)
  • LFA tonight in Commerce, CA at the Commerce Casino & Hotel near Los Angeles on Fight Pass at 10 p.m. Eastern has Ozzy Diaz vs. Bruno Assis for the middleweight title in the main event.
  • Absolute Intense Wrestling tomorrow night at 7:30 p.m. in Akron, OH at the Tadmor Shrine features Dr. D David Schultz, plus Matt Cardona, Brian Myers, 2.0 and Dominic Garrini. They also run 4/22 in Cleveland at the Odeon Concert Hall with Minoru Suzuki.
  • LFA on 4/22 in New Town,ND at the 4 Bears Casino& Lodge is headlined by Mariusz Ksiazkiewicz (9-1) vs. Alessandro Gambulino (12-3) in a middleweight fight. The show will air live on UFC Fight Pass.
  • “The Claw,” a documentary on Baron Von Raschke, will be screening this weekend at the Garden State Film Festival in Asbury Park, NJ.
  • Koko B. Ware will be performing the song “Piledriver” live tonight at a show in Totowa, NJ at the ISPW show at the Totowa PAL. Lanny Poffo will also be there doing a live poem. Others appearing include Maven, Dave LaGreca, The Headbangers, Bull James, HC Loc, Sal Sincere, Crowbar Devon Storm and more.
  • Epic Wrestling Association tonight in Gloucester, NJ at the Pine Grove Civic Association.
  • CWE on 4/7 in Prince Albert Saskatchewan at the Carlton Park Community Club.
  • IHW & IHWE  Thursday March 31st at Ridglea Theater, 6025 Camp Bowie Blvd, Fort Worth, Texas 76116:
  • Tickets. All Tickets gain admission to IHW & IHWE Doubleheader, Ringside VIP Ticket Holders gain access to Southern Wrestling Hall of Fame Ceremony 3 pm.
  • Insane Hardcore Wrestling IHW 5 p.m.:
  • Sam Stackhouse, What Culture’s Simon Miller, Sam Beale, Jaden Newman, Vinny Pacifico, Aaron Mercer
  • Iconic Heroes Wrestling Excellence IHWE 7 p.m.:
  • Tim Storm, Aaron Eagle, Sam Stackhouse, Laynie Luck, Amaris Blair, Mysterious Q, Tommy Becker, Joe Angelo Garcia, Max Heights, T-Ray
  • Appearing: Ty Walker & Eli Jordan from 1310 The Ticket, Marc Lowrance, North Dallas Damo, Rob Hall, Semi-Finalist from America’s Got Talent, NBA/TCU Alumni Lee Nailon, Rob Moore.