Daily Update: UFC, mystery announcement in Japan, AAA

Daily Update

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Join us in Las Vegas for our annual F4W Convention

This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter:

Highlights include:

*It’s one of the biggest issues of the year, given we have coverage of what will be the biggest story of the year, the Endeavor/WWE/UFC merger with all the details of how it happened and what it means, plus coverage of WrestleMania and all the major events of WrestleMania week

*The story behind the merger

*The new power structure of WWE and UFC

*All the financial details of the merger including stock, what stockholders will be getting

*How the deal went down and when

*Who will be negotiating WWE TV deals

*Vince McMahon’s worth based on what they are pitching valuation at and his actual stock worth as of right now

*How much top WWE execs were bonused from the sale and new contract for the top two guys in the company and its valuation

*How Vince McMahon changed Raw

*What are the big questions going forward regarding creative

*What employees and wrestlers were told

*Investigation of the deal

*Can WWE get out of the deal

*Financial benefits of the deal

*What it means going forward

*What happened internally in UFC from the deal

*Profits and revenue for UFC and WWE last year

*The history of Vince McMahon and UFC and secret story about a WrestleMania main event that never happened

*Coverage of WrestleMania

*Examining Rhodes vs. Reigns and the finish

*Real attendance figures and other business figures

*PPV numbers and which show had the most viewers

*What were the most watched matches after the fact

*Social media numbers and who drew the biggest and where there are contradictions

*Match-by-match coverage with star ratings as well as poll results

*AEW trying to run Wembley Stadium and more history of such

*A look at a famous period in wrestling history with the death of U.K. promoter Max Crabtree, and the debate over whether the Big Daddy era killed wrestling in that country or it was killed earlier and he just gave it a last life

*A look at the ROH Supercard of Honor, business notes, match-by-match coverage

*A look at NXT Stand & Deliver

*What happened with Gisele Shaw and Rick Steiner

*The most detailed look at the ratings over the past week and what they mean

*Arena Coliseo 80th anniversary event

*Build to the biggest show in Stardom history

*New Japan/Impact dual show

*One of the best bouts of the year took place this past week

*Jay White signing

*Injury updates

*Another major AEW hiring

*WWE Hall of Fame coverage

This Week’s Retro Observer Newsletter:

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Sunday Update

We have new weekend shows up with Garrett Gonzales where we talk the news of the week the WWE sale, AEW to Wembley Stadium and the major business. Last night’s show with Bryan Alvarez we talk Smackdown, UFC 287, New Japan Sakura Genesis, AEW at Wembley, Battle of the Belts and Smackdown. Bryan and I will be back tomorrow night talking Raw and the rest of the news.

UFC last night announced the July 11, 2015, fight with Rory MacDonald losing to Robbie Lawler will be the fight inducted into the Hall of Fame on 7/6. I remember that fight well and it is a very deserving induction as it was one of the great fights in UFC history. I was named fight of the year in 2015 by Fighters Only, The Wrestling Observer, Bleacher Report, MMA Fighting and Sherdog.

UFC 289 was announced for 6/10 at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver, BC. The main event will have Amanda Nunes defend the welterweight title against Julianna Pena in the third meeting between the two, who have split two previous fights.

There are no hints past the idea of a combined show that will be announced on Wednesday involving New Japan, All Japan and Pro Wrestling NOAH. The announcement will take place Wednesday morning at 5 a.m. Eastern time.

AAA is expected to announce the El Hijo del Vikingo title defense for the first TripleMania imminently, like today or early in the week. The show is Sunday at the baseball stadium in Monterrey. It hasn’t been announced because the match was evidently just finalized. It will not be a match with Kenny Omega, although they do hope to do that rematch this year at a TripleMania show.

Tonight on A&E will be the long talked about Dusty Rhodes bio at 8 p.m. Eastern followed by WWE Rivals at 10 p.m. on Undertaker vs. Randy Orton.

There will be a four-way for the next shot at NXT champion Carmelo Hayes on Tuesday’s show. Dragon Lee and JD McDonagh are two of the four men announced. So most likely they will save Hayes vs Bron Breakker for the 5/28 show head-to-head with AEW.

The 24th annual Tragos/Thesz Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame ceremony will be 7/20 to 7/22 in Waterloo, IA. The Lou Thesz award will go to Bill DeMott. The Frank Gotch award will go to Haku. The Gordon Solie award will go to Conrad Thompson. The Jim Melby award will go to Tom Burke. The first Jack Brisco award will go to Les Thatcher. The trainer award will go to Larry Simon aka Boris Malenko. Joe Malenko will be there to accept the award. 

For this weekend, we’re doing polls on UFC 287 last night and New Japan Sakura Genesis from yesterday. We’re looking for a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match for each show to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

From last night’s UFC, Israel Adesanya said that he wasn’t interested in facing Alex Pereira again after knocking him out to win back the title. White indicated he wanted to see Pereira move to 205 pounds. 

There has definitely been a change in the nature of Google searches. The placings are likely accurate but numbers are way down as compared to the past. For example, last night’s UFC, which would have normally done well over two million searches, did 1.3 million, even though it was No. 1 for Saturday. UFC 287 was first, Jorge Masvidal was fourth and Raul Rosas Jr., was sixth. On Monday, the death of Butch Miller was No. 15 and the WWE sale was No. 17. For the weekend, WrestleMania was at 320,000 and normally you would expect that to top one million. The WWE sale was No. 6 over the prior weekend.

As far as the two close fights last night, in the Luana Pinheiro vs. Michelle Waterson-Gomez fight that went 28-29, 29-28 and 29-28 to Pinheiro, media scores were 71% for Waterson-Gomez. Eric Colon gave Waterson-Gomez rounds two and three but Chris Lee gave Pinheiro one and two and Eliseo Rodriguez also gave Pinheiro one and two.

Cynthia Calvillo vs. Lupita Godinez, the scores were 28-29, 29-28 and 30-27 for Godinez. Colon gave Calvillo rounds two and three but Rodriguez gave Godinez one and two and Dave Tirelli gave all three rounds to Godinez. Media scores were 86 percent for Godinez and that wasn’t controversial at all, while the Waterson-Gomez result was controversial.

A story on Vince McMahon from The Times in the U.K. (thanks to Danny Hurley)

Former WWE performer Hiroko Suzuki (the wife of Kenzo Suzuki) was reelected at a member of the House of Representatives in the Chiba Assembly from Funabashi today. (thanks to Gerard Di Trolio)

Another former WWE performer, Barbra Blank (Kelly Kelly) announced that she is having twins. She had just announced last week that she was pregnant.

Thanks to Jared Brazil, Ryan Klinefieter, Jose Marquez, Kevin Pereira, Mark Villar and Arya Witner for their reports on Friday’s WWE & AEW shows.

Friday’s PFL results on ESPN:

*Larissa Pacheco beat Julia Budd in the main event on scores of 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28

*Bruno Cappelozza, who won last year’s heavyweight title, beat Matheus Scheffel via TKO at 2:15 of the first round

*Olena Kolesnyk beat Aspen Ladd on scores of 29-28, 29-28 and 28-28, Kolesnyk missed weight.

*Biaggio Ali Walsh, the grandson of Muhammad Ali, beat Isaiah Figueroa in just 1:42 of the first round via TKO. 

Other Notes

Defy Wrestling from last night in Seattle: Vert Vixen b Miyu Yamashita to retain the women’s title, Bollywood Boyz b Ethan HD & Miles Deville, Cody Chhun b Michael Oku, Marina Shafir b Nicole Matthews, Randy Myers b Judas Icarus, Randy Myers b Evan Rivers, Christopher Daniels b Randy Myers via ref stoppage and if Myers lost , he had to leave Defy, Evil Uno & Alex Reynolds & Guillermo Rosas b Ricky Gibson & Eddie Pearl & Levi Cooper, Nick Wayne b Swerve Strickland via armbar to win the Defy title. Wayne was busted open during the match. This made a lot of news because after the match was over Strickland said that he wanted his title rematch on the 7/12 AEW Dynamite show in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, which will be Wayne’s AEW debut as it’s right after his 18th birthday. Wayne signed with AEW at 16 but the contract wouldn’t go into effect until his 18th birthday. (thanks to Shannon Walsh)

Bobby Fulton noted on Twitter that his tuxedo jacket that he’s had since 1984 as part of the Fantastics was stolen. He’s asked if anyone sees it put up for sale on eBay or elsewhere to contact him. He said it was stolen from him the NWA event this past week.

Dungeon Wrestling from last night at the Victoria Pavilion in Calgary before 1,300 fans: Mighty Mo Jabari & Shaun Moore b Chris Knight & Michael Blais, Zoey Sager b Jody Threat, Tiger Raj Singh b CK Krimson-COR, Billington Bulldogs b Bollywood Boyz to win the Dungeon tag team titles in a great match, Harry Smith b Bruno Blanco, Nick Aldis b Dirty Dango to retain the Stu Hart Heritage title. For a trivia note, Bret Hart is part of the team that books this promotion andBret came up with the main event finish, which was a finish he recalled as a child seeing Sweet Daddy Siki do in Calgary in the early 60s (thanks to Ross Hart and Mike McGuire)

Horror Slam Wrestling from Friday night in Brownstown, MI: Devon Ryker b Lucha Punk, Aaron Orion & Adam Wick b LJ Lawrence & Top Gun, Jeremiah Goldman & Easter Bunny b Breyer Wellington & Chinstrap Jesus, Easter Bunny b Big Murph, Atlas Hytower b James Fury, Tommy Vendetta b KJ Reynolds, Remington Rohr b Shane Mercer, Tony Garrix won over TJ Meyer and Chuck Stein, Malcolm Monroe III won three-way over Jimmy Lloyd and Bobby Beverly, DBA b Satu Jinn and Sean Tyler to become Death match champion. This was show a benefit to help with medical expenses and funeral expenses for fan Mike Biezszk, who passed away recently. They did a ten bell salute and sold memorial T-shirts. The Easter Bunny ended up being revealed as Jason Hotch of Impact. (thanks to Leonard Brand)

United Wrestling Coalition on 4/15 in Bordentown, NJ at the Bordentown Elks Lodge with a Battle Royal with the winner facing champion Tony Chini.

WPW Fight at the Museum in Winnipeg last night drew a sellout 500 fans: Bobby Schink b Travis Williams to keep the WPW title, Mo Jabari won four-way over Kevin O’Doyle, Michael Allen Richard Clarke and Steven Crowe, Ava Lawless b Taryn from Accounting, Tyler Colton & James Korba b AJ Sanchez & Chad Daniels, James Roth b Michael Richard Blais, Red Hot Summer b Billington Bulldogs, Jody Threat b Seleziya Sparx to keep the women’s title. They announced a return on 5/12 (thanks to Blair Pacheco)

The Mahoning Drive In in Leighton, PA on 7/9 will have an afternoon wrestling show followed by airing an English translated version of the classic Mexican 1973 movie Santo & Blue Demon vs. Dracula & The Wolf Man.

AAW Ring of Fire on Friday night in Berwyn, IL at the Eagles Club with Masha Slamovich vs. Sierra, Jah-C & Calvin Tankman vs. Russ Jones & Schaff, Hartenbower vs. Levi Everett, Mance Warner vs. Robert Anthony and more.