Daily Update: UFC 271 fallout, Warrior Wrestling, new NXT trademark

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter: January wrestling ratings, Joe Rogan controversies

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SUNDAY NEWS UPDATE

We have two weekend shows up tonight, with a Friday show with Garrett Gonzalez and John Muse that is really interesting talking about the attempted Eric Bischoff owned launch of WCW that fell through where Muse was to be on creative and what really happened with Vince McMahon’s attempt to relaunch the WCW brand. We also talk about the awards for this year, as well as AEW and WWE right now. Last night’s weekend show with Bryan we talked UFC, Nick Wayne, Smackdown, and the latest wrestling news. Bryan and I will be back with a new show after Raw on Monday. We also talked about why there is a good chance Peacock could be airing Raw and NXT on a 24 hour delay after the Hulu contract ends and the machinations of what is going on with NBC, Hulu and WWE’s contract.

UFC 271 did 2,550,000 searches which is a good number, second only to the Super Bowl this weekend. Searches for Israel Adesanya and Robert Whittaker are part of the UFC search number. Three others cracked the top 20 from last night with Tai Tuivasa No. 7 at 200,000, Jared Cannonier No. 13 with 100,000 and Roxanne Modafferi, who retired, No. 19 with 50,000.

As far as the scorecard for the main event, judge Mike Beltran scored rounds 1, 3, 4 and 5 for Israel Adesanya. Doug Crosby scored 1, 2, and 3 for Adesanya and 4 and 5 for Robert Whittaker. Jacob Montalvo scored the same as Crosby. I had only round five for Whittaker. There were media scores for Whittaker but 85% were for Adesanya.

As far as the two split decisions, just Robert Alexander was at fault for both of them. In Andrei Arlovski vs. Jared Vanderaa, almost everyone had Arlovski winning the fist two and Venderaa winning the third. No media score gave it to Vanderaa. But Alexander gave rounds two and three to Vanderaa.

Similarly, in the Casey O’Neill vs. Roxanne Modafferi fight, every media card including me had 30-27 for O’Neill. You could have given Modafferi the third as it was competitive at least even though no media score had it that way. Even that was a stretch Alexander gave Modafferi rounds 1 and 3 and scored the fight for her. That was so bad that on the air the announcers called out Alexander by name and basically called his card unforgivable, and it was. Judges Ivan Guzman and Kerry Hately both gave Modafferi the third round.

People were raving about Friday night’s Mike Bailey vs. ACH match at West Coast Pro Wrestling. We heard lots of talk about a number of Warrior Wrestling matches last night, notably the first match back of Athena (Ember Moon) in a 30:00 draw with Thunder Rosa and the Briscoes ROH tag title defense against JD Drake & Anthony Henry.

Evil retained the Never Open weight title earlier today in Osaka beating Tomohiro Ishii. Tetsuya Naito & Sanada beat Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kazuchika Okada in the main event which was to set up this coming week’s Sapporo shows with Tanahashi vs. Sanada for the U.S. title and Okada vs. Naito for the IWGP title.

In the Super Bowl pregame show, there was a mention of Woody Strode. Strode was one of the first African-Americans to play in the NFL, and later became a pro wrestling star as well as a legit movie star. He’s actually someone WWE and AEW should be talking about when it comes to Black History month and pro wrestling.

The five best selling Ticketmaster shows over the past 24 hours

  1. Raw on Monday in Indianapolis
  2. UFC 273 on 4/9 in Jacksonville
  3. AEW on 4/6 in Boston
  4. AEW on Wednesday in Nashville
  5. WWE house show on 2/27 in Rochester, NY.

WWE

  • This doesn’t necessarily mean a lot, but WWE is advertising Becky Lynch vs. Bianca Belair vs. Rhea Ripley for the women’s title and Chad Gable & Otis vs. Riddle & Randy Orton for the 4/11 Raw in Detroit, which is a week after WrestleMania. This doesn’t necessarily mean those matches will take place or the titles won’t change hands.
  • Because next week is the Saudi Arabia trip, WWE gave the talent off house shows this weekend. The last WWE show is Raw tomorrow night in Indianapolis.
  • A correction from last night’s show. I said that Angel Garza didn’t do the pants tearing gimmick during the Friday night tag match with the New Day. He actually did and I missed it, so they haven’t dropped that from his routine. 
  • The company has filed to trademark the name “NXT: Level Up” for a new television show. This may be the new name for 205 Live, which obviously has been in the works for a name change since it’s neither 205 nor live anymore.

AEW

  • The company did its best first day of sales in a long time on Friday for the Agganis Arena show in Boston on 4/6. They are at more than 4,000 fans. They legit sold out the last time at just over 5,000 so this should sell out. (thanks to Wrestle Tix /William Zdon)

OTHER NOTES

  • Warrior Wrestling from last night in Cicero, IL: Sam Adonis b Lince Dorado-COR so retain the Lucha title, Dalton Castle b Warhorse, Skye Blue b Miranda Alize (good), Blake Christian won four-way over Alex Zayne, Myron Reed and Gringo Loco (said to be great, Christian issued a challenge for Will Ospreay’s title after winning), The Acclaimed b Brian Cage & KC Navarro (Max Caster rapped about Cage’s contract expiring to a big pop, Cage got a big reaction rapping back saying they aren’t organic but a Tony Khan creation), Santana b Speedball Mike Bailey with a piledriver (people were raving about this one), Dante Martin b Bandido (great spots, a little short), Mark & Jay Briscoe b Anthony Henry & JD Drake to keep the ROH tag titles (excellent) and Thunder Rosa d Athena (Ember Moon) over 30:00. Athena hit the eclipse with a second left. Also said to be excellent and seemed to build a rematch. Athena worked heel but after the match started crying and thanking the fans for reigniting her passion for wrestling. (thanks to Lance LeVine and Brandon Ruiz)
  • A first-time ever match with Mark & Jay Briscoe vs. Penta & Fenix was announced for the 3/11 House of Glory Wrestling show in Jamaica, NY at Club Amazura. The hope was for Fenix to return to action this coming weekend at the AAA Rey de Reyes show but we haven’t been told if he will or won’t be ready.
  • Puma King was announced for the MLW show on 2/26 in Charlotte.
  • West Coast Pro Wrestling results from Friday night in South San Francisco: Nick Wayne won three-way over Tresario and Gringo Loco, Atticus Cogar & Rickey Shane Page & Bobby Beverly b Midas Kreed & Alpha Zo & D-Rogue, Vinnie Massaro b B-Boy, Masha Slamovich won four-way over Kylie Rae, Nicole Savoy and Rachael Ellering, Kevin Blackwood b Davey Richards, Titus Alexander b Blake Christian, Jacob Fatu & Juicy Finau b Effy & AJ Gray, Mike Bailey b ACH. The 3/11 show features Gray defending the WCPW title against Jacob Fatu
  • SICW from last night in East Carondelet, IL: Curtis Wylde b Brandon Baretta, Bobby D b David Lee Walker, Flash Flanagan & Big Texan b Christopher Hargas & Ken Kasa, Gary Jackson b Frankie D, Gil Rogers & Billy McNeil b Shawn Santel & Mauler McDarby, Kowalski b Danny Dollar, Attila Khan b Jayson Breed to keep the Classic title (thanks to Patrick Brandmeyer)
  • Nolan King reported that Christian Edwards tested positive for COVID-19 so his Bellator fight against Kevin Haley on Saturday night at the Mohegan Sun Casino is off.
  • Kevin Blackwood vs. Kevin Bennett headlines Empire State Wrestling on 3/5 in Niagara Falls, NY at the Frontier Fire Hall, plus Silas Young vs. Jay Freddie, Jake Crist vs. Vinnie Moon and All Japan’s Ren & Jun Saito make their debut with the promotion.