Daily Update: UFC 292 fallout, AEW All In ticket sales, Ava

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

  • G-1 MVP and best match of G-1
  • Match of the week and performer of the week
  • Behind the scenes of the last month of AEW. why stories were kept quiet, why people were not allowed to attend Collision, why this has gone on for 18 months
  • All of the recent incidents talked about from multiple sides
  • The promo by C.M. Punk and what happened at the Greensboro show which led to all of his getting out
  • Different reactions to the promo
  • The apology that did happen
  • All In and attendance records plus the updated card with new matches that have not yet been announced
  • Full coverage of the end of G-1 and the big fall shows for New Japan
  • Business notes on G-1
  • Naito has two of the best matches of the year
  • Koichi Yoshizawa and his role in Japanese wrestling coverage in the U.S.
  • Saturday’s UFC coverage and where the top stars go from here as well as the business notes
  • Coverage of the final TripleMania show of the year and storylines behind it
  • Tammy Sytch update
  • The most detailed look at ratings for all the wrestling and MMA shows, gains and losses with what groups and why, what segments did the best and worst
  • Another women’s champion out of action due to surgery
  • RevPro and CMLL working relationship notes
  • World Grand Prix notes
  • Stardom PPV coverage and upcoming tag team tournament
  • N-1 coverage
  • New Japan and Stardom business notes
  • Hiromu Takahashi talks junior heavyweight goals
  • New Japan PPV shows this weekend
  • One of the biggest women stars has major surgery and a look back at her career
  • How the television industry continues to change
  • Full PWG coverage of the first show since January including some of AEW’s top stars
  • Update on new promotion opening next month and what well known announcer is in talks to appear
  • RevPro anniversary show update
  • WWE & AEW upcoming ticket sales
  • WWE & AEW streaming numbers
  • WWE and AEW international ratings
  • Conor McGregor talks future
  • Former UFC legend officially retires
  • Update on Bellator sale
  • Update on PPV numbers for Diaz-Paul and SummerSlam
  • Former WWE wrestler wins MMA fight
  • Edge and possible retirement
  • Build to Payback show
  • ESPN exec talks interest in pro wrestling
  • Possible retirement of Lacey Evans
  • Women’s tag title update
  • Asuka talks Japanese wrestling and the back story
  • Logan Paul offers a $1 million bet
  • New WWE signing

This Week’s Retro Observer Newsletter

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Sunday Update

– Our weekend show with Garrett Gonzales talking UFC, Smackdown, Collision, Edge, G-1 and answering questions is up on the site now. I’ll be back with Bryan Alvarez tomorrow night talking the weekend shows and Raw.

– I’d also like to thank everyone for their nice words on the Friday show with Mike Tenay and on this week’s Observer for the stuff regarding Koichi Yoshizawa. It really means a lot to both Tenay and I because Yoshizawa was not only so important in our lives but so important regarding all coverage of Japanese pro wrestling in magazines and newsletters for decades. Tenay said he believed Yoshizawa was the most important correspondent in the history of the Observer Newsletter and probably nobody else would be close. I have so many books and magazines and memorabilia from Yoshizawa and he was a friend to many in my family.

– Last night’s UFC show could not have gone better for the company as Sean O’Malley was seen as a major superstar, and a win or loss in the title match with Aljamain Sterling would have made all the difference in the world going forward. Dana White claimed last night’s show did the biggest PPV numbers in history for a show headlined by a bantamweight title fight. In addition, the devastating one-sided win by Zhang Weili to retain the women’s strawweight title was big because the hope is to do a show in China with her defending the title in the main event and use her fame and success to build the company in that market.

– UFC was the No. 3 most searched term yesterday on Google with 1 million. Chris Weidman was No. 15 with 50,000. The top two were women’s World Cup and Lionel Messi. That supplanted Hurricane Hilary which was in the top spot Wednesday through Friday.

– The UFC uploaded the end of O’Malley vs. Sterling to its YouTube channel immediately after the fight. Clearly they wanted to make sure everyone saw O’Malley’s win as soon as possible, even knowing they were sacrificing late PPV buys to do so.

– Dana White begged Chris Weidman to retire, saying that he was told by Dr. Jeff Davidson that Weidman may have blown out his ACL or MCL in last night’s loss to Brad Tavares, and that would put him out for some time. Weidman said he wanted to continue fighting. Weidman did say that when Tavares was kicking the leg that broke that he thought it was a tactic Tavares wouldn’t do out of respect but said he should have assumed he would. He said he would need an MRI and he was sitting in a wheelchair later that night. He said both legs were hurting pretty bad,. But he said he wasn’t done.

– Zhang Weili in her win over Amanda Lemos outstruck her 288-21 to show how one-sided the fight was. It was the biggest differential in landed strikes ever in a UFC women’s fight.

– The lone controversial decision was the Mario Bautista win over Da’Mon Blackshear on the PPV show. Sal D’Amato gave Bautista rounds two and three. Chris Lee also gave Bautista rounds two and three. Steve Rita gave Bautista all three rounds. Of media scores, no media members gave Bautista all three rounds and we were told that card was really bad, but that it could have gone either way. The media scores were 67 percent for Blackshear.

– We wrote on Friday about All In surpassing 80,709, As of yesterday, the number according to WrestleTix was 81,103. We talked about this and what it means in the issue but total in the building for WrestleMania 32 and tickets distributed for this show are different numbers. Paid attendance, which should be the most important number, and we don’t know what All In has other than it’s obviously under 81,103 because there are going to be comps. It is unlikely All In has broken the all-time record as of this moment but that record is very much in the air and could end up being broken. If we use SummerSlam as a comparison, that show sold 5,500 more tickets in the last week. If this show does that then it probably ends up with all the records except the gate record.

– That gate record set at WM 32 can’t be broken any time soon. WWE did set the all-time gate record for two shows on consecutive days for next year’s WrestleMania.

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

  • NXT from Friday night in Citrus Springs, FL
  • NXT from last night in Tampa, FL
  • WWE house show tonight in Laval, Quebec

We’re looking for results, finishes and highlights to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

– Tonight’s WWE house show in Laval, Quebec had 6,747 tickets out as of earlier today, which is a great house show number.

–NJPW/Impact Multiverse United is tonight from Philadelphia on FITE

  • Heath & Joe Hendry & Yuya Uemura vs. Ryusuke Taguchi & Rocky Romero & Master Wato
  • Kenny King vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru for the Digital Media title
  • Douki vs, Sami Callihan
  • Francesco Akira & TJP vs Robbie Eagles & Kosei Fujita
  • Chris Sabin vs. Frankie Kazarian vs. Rich Swann vs. Mao vs. Desperado vs. Yoh vs. Bushi vs. Kevin Knight
  • Giulia vs. Momo Kohgo vs Deonna Purrazzo vs,. Gisele Shaw for the New Japan Strong women’s title
  • Zack Sabre Jr. & Shane Haste vs. Eddie Edwards & Moose
  • David Finlay & KENTA & Clark Connors & Alex Coughlin & Ace Austin & Chris Bey vs. Josh Alexander & PCO & Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa & El Phantasmo & The DKC
  • Lio Rush & Trey Miguel vs. Hiromu Takahashi & Mike Bailey
  • Alex Shelly vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi for the Impact title

– Last night’s WWE house show results from Ottawa, ONT:

Drew McIntyre & Sami Zayn & Kevin Owens defeated Imperium when Owens pinned Kaiser after a stunner. This was Owens’ second match back as he worked a Friday night dark match in Toronto which was the same match as here

Rhea Ripley defeated Natalya with the riptide. Dominik Mysterio was not there. Nobody was in Ripley’s corner

Iyo Sky won a three-way over Charlotte Flair and Asuka when Flair speared Asuka and Sky threw Flair out of the ring and pinned Asuka. Sky worked as a babyface and was super over, Very fast paced match. Bayley was not there.

Cody Rhodes defeated Damian Priest after three Cross Rhodes. Ripley was in Priest’s corner and gave Priest the briefcase to use for a near fall.

AJ Styles & Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson defeated Austin Theory & Shelton Benjamin & Cedric Alexander when Styles pinned Theory.

Becky Lynch defeated Trish Stratus & Zoey Stark in a handicap match by pinning Stark. Stratus did a heel promo on Ottawa before the match so she wouldn’t get cheered.

Seth Rollins defeated Finn Balor in a street fight after a power bomb through the table and curb stomp to keep the world title

(thanks to Shannon Walsh)

– Ava, the daughter of Dwayne Johnson, had her first singles match beating Ivy Nile on last night’s NXT show in Tampa.

– Mike Bailey’s jr. festival tournament win over Kevin Knight is to lead to Hiromu Takahashi vs. Bailey for the IWGP Jr. title.

– El Hijo del Vikingo returns to House of Glory Wrestling on 9/15. Also on that show are Matt Cardona and Steph De Lander.