Daily Update: Vince McMahon, Matt Riddle, CMLL Anniversary Show

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

The new issue of the Observer is out with the following covered:

  • Match of the week and performer of the week from the past two weeks
  • The most detailed story of the AEW/C.M. Punk relationship
  • The honeymoon period
  • The business records
  • The difficulty of the decision to cut ties with him
  • Lots of new information not reported previously
  • The original records set and business success
  • The fight after All Out and its aftermath
  • Realities of pro wrestling
  • Analysis of him going to WWE
  • Support and non-support for him in AEW
  • Punk’s prior two contacts in recent years with WWE about returning
  • Conflict between Punk and other talent
  • The situation with Adam Page
  • The attempts to get everyone working together and why it kept being delayed
  • Details on what happened in the investigations after All In
  • Tony Khan’s speech before the live crowd in Chicago
  • The life and times of Sheik Adnan-Al Kaissie, the Native American babyface torn foreign menace
  • Amateur wrestling, legend in Hawaii, and giant stadium crowds in Iraq including beating Andre the Giant
  • His WWWF tag team title run
  • His AWA run including the biggest crowds in the heyday of the promotion affiliated with Jerry Blackwell and Ken Patera
  • The final run with Sgt. Slaughter
  • Full coverage of Payback, business notes, stories out of the show and match-by-match coverage
  • Full coverage of All Out, highlights, polls, business notes and more
  • UFC weekend coverage from Paris
  • More notes on the formation of a new all-women’s promotion that starts in a few weeks with Japanese stars
  • The most detailed look at the ratings for every wrestling and MMA show, segment-by-segment notes
  • Rocky Romero talks his CMLL run
  • Latest from Arena Mexico
  • Hall of Famer says he hopes to recover from recent operation and have a big retirement match
  • Stardom Five-Star Grand Prix tournament notes
  • Stardom PPV coverage
  • New rookie getting rave reviews
  • All Japan and NOAH have big shows
  • Terry Funk funeral notes
  • Notes on new TV show
  • Big tag team tournament coming
  • More notes on Wembley Stadium attendance
  • Bryan Danielson and Adam Cole talk post All Out
  • Advance ticket sales for WWE & AEW shows
  • AEW value calculated
  • International TV ratings and streaming numbers
  • Aussie Open on why they signed with AEW
  • Sports franchise owned by pro wrestling star wins championship
  • Dana White talks Bellator being for sale
  • More on Bellator sale talks
  • Analyst talks where he thinks WWE will wind up on television
  • Gable Steveson not doing world championships and update
  • Merchandise sales for Clash at the Castle and for All in
  • Cena’s drawing power on his return

This Week’s Retro Observer Newsletter

Ordering Info:

Order the print Wrestling Observer right now and get it delivered via mail, by sending your name, address, Visa or Master Card number and an expiration date to dave@wrestlingobserver.com or by going to www.paypal.com directing funds to dave@wrestlingobserver.com.

Rates in the United States are $14.50 for 4 issues, $35.50 for 12, $70 for 24, $116 for 40 and $149.50 for 52.

In Canada and Mexico, the rates are $16 for 4, $27 for 8, $38.50 for 12, $76 for 24, $126 for 40 and $162.50 for 52.

For the rest of the world, rates are $18 for 4, $48.50 for 12, $93 for 24, $155 for 40 and $201.50 for 52.

If you order by mail with a check, cash or money order to P.O. Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228, you can get $1 off in every price range.

Monday Update

Bryan and I will be back tonight with Wrestling Observer radio talking a ton of news from wrestling and MMA as well as tonight’s Raw coverage.

Today is the last day of WWE as a separate company as the merger with UFC to form TKO goes into effect tomorrow. So tonight will be the last Raw where the McMahon family has been the owners of WWE although Vince still is a major shareholder in the new company and will still be running WWE for the new company once he’s back from medical leave.

Matt Riddle is not at Raw. WWE hasn’t responded today as far as questions regarding Riddle coming off the incident at the JFK Airport coming back from India. But the fact he’s not at the show is noteworthy. 

The CMLL Anniversary show is Saturday night, not Friday at Arena Mexico and it is sold out.

Raw tonight is from Norfolk, VA at the Scope Arena. Rhea Ripley vs. Raquel Rodriguez with Dominik Mysterio banned from ringside for the women’s title has been announced. There is also an Imperium celebration of Gunther breaking Honky Tonk Man’s record for the longest reign as IC champion. That should lead to an angle to create a new top contender. Cody Rhodes is also advertised on the show, although he’s there every week except last week. Buffalo vs. New England opens up the Monday Night Football season tonight against Raw. They haven’t loaded up the show and don’t have the benefit they had last week of going right after a PPV show. Most years the rating drops noticeably this week. There were 7,007 tickets out as of this morning with a big last week of sales.

The Disney-Charter dispute was settled today so the 20 percent of the country not getting access to the game on ABC and ESPN issue is over, and not having access to Disney stations is over. As part of the deal, Charter subscribers in certain tiers will get free access to ESPN+, Disney + and the ESPN channel streaming when they start doing the streaming channel. Charter is also dropping eight Disney channels that aren’t watched much from its regular tier. A lot of people see this deal as the prototype major companies will have. Disney was upping its price to carry its stations and Charter refused to pay the new price because of the feeling that they were paying for non-exclusive stuff that subscribers could get elsewhere. The new deal means they will have the rights to market the streaming services themselves.

AEW had less than 2,200 tickets out for Wednesday’s Dynamite in Cincinnati as of last count. The last time in the market drew 4,740. 

Gail Kim noted that she was okay. She hit her head on the floor when she was pulled out of the ring by Velvet Sky at the Impact 1,000 tapings on Saturday night in White Plains, NY. She wrote, “I’m OK,just so everyone knows and is updated. I woke up to a lot of people concerned. So yes, I got rattled but I’m ok.”

Paul Levesque was spotted at New York Fashion Week yesterday with both Amazon owner Jeff Bezos and Ari Emanuel. As noted in the current Observer, Amazon is expected to be a player in the bidding for Smackdown.

The Cassandro movie will have a limited theatrical release starting on Friday. It premieres on Amazon Prime video on 9/22. The story is about the well known gay wrestler from El Paso who played an exotico and became a star. Gael Garcie Bernal stars as Casssandro.

The Will Ospreay vs. Tetsuya Naito match, which is expected to be among the top contenders for match of the year, will air on television for the first time in the U.S. on Thursday’s New Japan show on AXS.

West Coast Pro from last night in Los Angeles: Royce Isaacs & Jorel Nelson b Alan Angels & Kevin Blackwood, Kidd Bandit & Ishmael Vaughn & Kubes & Viento b Wicked Wickett & Koto Hiro & Lucas Riley & Dom Kubrick, Kevin Knight b Vinnie Massaro, Robert Martyr & Jiah Jewel & JT Thorme b Adrian Quest & Danny Rose & Ricky G, Lee Moriarty b Alpha Zo, Starboy Charlie b Shun Skywalker to earn a shot at the West Coast Pro title, Bryan Keith b Francesco Akira (this was a surprise match and heard it was great), Iron Kid won three-way over Aramis and Black Taurus. It started as a singles match and then Taurus (who was late arriving from Mexico) ran to the ring mid-match. Fans threw a ton of money in the ring after and people raved about this match., Takuma Iroha b Johnnie Robbie to retain the West Coast Pro women’s title, Titus Alexander retained the West Coast Pro title with a 30:00 draw with Daniel Garcia. Charlie gave Alexander a Gotch piledriver after to set up their title match. Chriis Hero is the booker for this group. Manami Toyota was the special guest. She handed Iroha the title after she retained it. Chigusa Nagayo was also at the show with Iroha and Toyota so you had two of the greatest women wrestlers of all-time at this event (thanks to Shannon Walsh)

Another match I’ve heard from several on as far as a great match over the weekend was El Hijo del Vikingo vs. Arez vs. Aramis vs. Gringo Loco from the First Wrestling promotion’s show in Minneapolis’ Mall of America.

C.M. Punk will make a return as the announcer for CFFC, an MMA promotion, for its next show on 10/13 from Tampa’s Florida State Fairgrounds. He is the regular announcer for the promotion and has been for years. The promotion noted that it has sold out its prior building six straight times in Tampa so is moving to a larger location.

CPW Fairplay Wrestling on 10/11 and Thanksgiving Eve in Boonsboro, MD.

Lucero Acosta of Combate Global will appear this week on Enamorandonos, a dating show that airs on Unimas at 8 p.m. all week. In the show, viewers of the show can vie for dates with Acosta by calling the show or posing on social media for a chance to be brought to the studio live to meet her. The show would then follow whatever relationship does or doesn’t develop.