Daily Update: Weekend preview, All Out, UFC notes

DAILY UPDATE

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WON NEWSLETTER: September 7, 2020 Observer Newsletter: Future of Brock Lesnar, Rock battles COVID-19, more

A look at the different directions Brock Lesnar could go is the lead story in the new issue of the Observer. We look at the money he can generate for a fight with Jon Jones, the reality about his trying to fight today, why he’s a free agent right now, what Tony Khan said about Lesnar, and why, unless Dana White isn’t telling the truth, it’s unlikely he will fight.  Plus we’ve got comments by both White and Scott Coker on fights they would want to make if he does want to fight.

Also in this issue: 

Positive COVID tests of Dwayne Johnson, A.J. Styles, Kevin Nash, Glover Teixeira and others that came out this week.

Payback, including the genesis of the Roman Reigns heel turn, the Rey Mysterio injury, the booking of the show, plus poll results and star ratigns.

New Japan at Jingu Stadium, including Tetsuya Naito growing up going to the stadium, all three-time IWGP champions, most IC tilte runs in Japan, business notes, plans for the tour going on this weeeknd, plus match-by-match coverage with star ratings and poll results.

The departure of Mauro Ranallo from WWE, looking and his five years in the company, his background prior to the company, what old and new projects he’s expected to work on, and why he left.

The NXT title Iron Man match, next Takeover shows, Rey Mysterio television cartoon show, Paul Levesque stock sales, Levesque talks UK brnad, more on different allegations against WWE talent, returns of peope who have sit time out, change to Payback, Charlotte Flair news, Renee Young talks leaving WWE, Styles talks Heyman, lots of TV ratings updates internationally, new member of WWE Board of Directors, WWE market value and the most watched shows of the past week on WWE Network.

This past week’s UFC show.

Bio of Tom Anderson, who wrestled as The Claw and one half of the Masked Interns tag team. We look at two of the most tasteless angles in wrestiling that he was involved in, how one failed miserably and how the other was a huge business success.  This includes the death of Alberto Torres, the heyday of the The Interns, the history of the masked doctors tag team and where it all came from, and classic stories involving Paul “Bear” Bryant, Ken Ramey, Lonnie Mayne, Beauregarde and what top promoter wouldn’t use the Interns and Ramey and why.

The life and career of Ric Drason, from bodybuilding to wrestling, including what two AEW stars he started, the glory days of Gold’s Gym in Santa Monica and the characters involved, his art work that sold millions of T-shirts, how one of the greatest wrestlers of all-time got his name from him, and why he had chacnes to be a star and the reason he never was.

A major change in how television ratings are done and how this is expectede to impact sports the most.

A comparison of the last week of AEW with competition and the show this past week where the only television competition was a replay show. We look at how this impacted every audience, what the audience numbers are likely to be for a regular unopposed Wednesday for AEW or NXT, and go in depth as to both sides of why WWE and USA would or would not want to move NXT. We also look at the huge change in the AEW audience from 8/12 to 9/2.  We also have how the audience ebbed and flowed during the Iron Man match.

Ratings of all the major shows, the key demos and quarters for AEW and WWE, what happened head-to-head and what can be learned from them.

Results of all the major pro wrestling events around the world over the past week. 

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.

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FRIDAY NEWS UPDATE

Garrett Gonzalez and I will be doing a show tonight and Bryan and I will be going tomorrow night covering the UFC show and All Out.

John Silver & Alex Reynolds vs. Private Party is the new pre show match for Saturday’s All Out PPV show as they moved Britt Baker vs. Big Swole’s taped cinematic match at the dentist office to the main show. The preshow is 7-8 p.m. with the main card 8 p.m. to midnight.

Main card:

  • Britt Baker vs. Big Swole tooth and nail match
  • Hikaru Shida vs. Thunder Rosa for AEW women’s title
  • 21 man Casino Royale match for an AEW title shot
  • Chris Jericho vs. Orange Cassidy Mimosa mayhem match
  • Matt Hardy vs. Sammy Guevara broken match (Last man standing, Hardy must leave the promotion if he loses)
  • Kenny Omega & Adam Page vs. FTR for tag titles
  • Young Bucks vs. Luchasaurus & Jungle Boy
  • Dustin Rhodes & QT Marshall & Matt Cardona & Scorpio Sky vs. Brodie Lee & Colt Cabana & Stu Grayson& Evil Uno
  • Jon Moxley vs. MJF for AEW title

New Japan has its junior heavyweight tag team tournament start with a 6 a.m. Eastern time show tomorrow morning from Chiba with Ryusuke Taguchi & Master Wato vs. Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru and Hiromu Takahashi & Bushi vs. Taiji Ishimori & Gedo.  They also have a 2 a.m. late Saturday night show also from Chiba with Desperado & Kanemaru vs. Ishimori & Gedo and Taguchi & Wato vs. Takahashi & Bushi.  Both shows air live on New Japan World, but only in Japanese.

New Japan at 10 p.m. Eastern tonight on New Japan World:

  • Alex Zayne & Fred Rosser (Darren Young) vs. Clark Connors & The DKC
  • Karl Fredericks vs. Misterioso
  • Brody King vs. Hikuleo
  • Jay White vs. Flip Gordon

Weigh-in for tomorrow night’s UFC show which airs on ESPN+ starting at 6 p.m. Eastern:

  • Cole Smith (135) vs. Hunter Azure (135.5)
  • Alexander Romanov (239) vs,. Marcos Rogerio de Lima (260.5)
  • Vivane Araujo (126) vs. Montana De La Rosa (125.5)
  • Andre Muniz (185.5) vs. Bartosz Fabinski (184.5)
  • Thiago Moises (155.5) vs. Jalin Turner (155)
  • Brian Kelleher (146) vs. Kevin Natividad (144.5)
  • Michel Pereira (170.5) vs. Zelim Imadaev (171)
  • Ovince Saint Preux (205.5) vs.Alonzo Menifield (204)
  • Alistair Overeem (252.5) vs. Augusto Sakai (261.5)

A Go Fund Me campaign to raise money for funeral costs of reporter Casey Michael.

WWE

  • For Smackdown tonight, there will be a four-way with Baron Corbin, Matt Riddle, Big E and Sheamus with the winner getting the next shot at Universal champion Roman Reigns, plus Shayna Baszler & Nia Jax vs. Bayley & Sasha Banks for the women’s tag title and Paul Heyman & Roman Reigns will be doing a promo.
  • A correction from Sunday.  Regarding the article on Drew McIntyre referenced, it was not the Cambridge University paper that published it but it was published by Cambridge University law grad Yaz Jung.
  • An interview with The Miz with DAZN/Sporting News.

UFC

With the Glover Teixeira vs. Thiago Santos fight off the UFC show on 9/12 due to Teixeira testing positive for COVID-19, the Michelle Waterson vs. Angela Hill fight will be the new main event and they’ve agreed to go five rounds instead of three.

The Claudia Gadelha vs. Yan Xiaonan fight that was scheduled for 9/26, but moved off the card due to Gadelha suffering a knee injury, is now slated for 11/7.

Dana White was teasing a Khamzat Chimaev vs. Demian Maia fight earlier today after the weigh-ins, when asked about Chimaev’s next bout.  He indicated it would probably be on the next run in Abu Dhabi.

AEW

  • Tickets went on sale this morning for Wednesday’s Dynamite tapings at Daily’s Place in Jacksonville. The last I checked out of about 750 tickets that were put on sale, there were still 429 available. It is going to be extremely difficult to sell tickets for weekly or even bi-weekly shows in a city like Jacksonville although the PPV shows will sell out instantly with so few seats available. 
  • Odds for All Out from BetOnline.ag:
    Jon Moxley -250 vs. MJF +170
    Hikaru Shida -500 vs. Thunder Rosa +300
    Chris Jericho -120 vs. Orange Cassidy -120
    Matt Hardy -400 vs. Sammy Guevara +250
    Battle Royale: Darby Allin +125 vs. Lance Archer +150 vs. Eddie Kingston +500 vs. Brian Cage +700 vs. Ricky Starks +1200 vs. Jake Hager +1500 vs. Rey Fenix +1500 vs. Shawn Spears +2500 vs. Chuck Taylor, Ortiz, Santana and Trent +4000 vs. Pentagon, Blade, Butcher vs. Austin Gunn and Billy +5000
    FTR -500 vs. Adam Page & Kenny Omega +300
    Dark Order -600 vs. Scorpio Sky & Matt Cardona & Dustin Rhodes & QT Marshall +350
    Young Bucks -600 vs. Jungle Boy & Luchasaurus +350
    Britt Baker -140 vs. Big Swole +100

MISCELLANEOUS 

  • This week’s ROH news from Kevin Eck.
  • OVW Wrestling has gotten clearance to return to the Davis Arena In Louisville on 9/15
  • Dan Severn, at 62, will compete in a UWFI rule match on the 11/6 Paradigm Pro Wrestling show in Sellersburg, TN.  Severn in the 90s was part of the UWFi promotion
  • Jacques Rougeau Jr. is starting a podcast and George St-Pierre will be his first guest, sending a message to Vince McMahon.
  • There are limited tickets left for Sunday’s AIW return show at noon from the Celebration Plaza Amphitheater at White River State Park in Indianapolis.  Among those appearing– are Swoggle, Erick Stevens, Lee Moriarty, Tom Lawlor, Tre LaMar, Benjamin Carter, Dominic Garrini,Calvin Tankman and more.
  • ROH announced that the three judges in all the Pure tournament matches if they go the distance will be Gary Juster, Sumie Sakai and Will Ferrara.  The tournament starts airing on ROH’s television network the weekend of 9/12.
  • Kamille vs. Heather Monroe is the newest match announced for the UWN PPV debut on 9/15 that will be the first of weekly shows produced by the NWA, Championship Wrestling from Hollywood and other promotions.
  • MLW announced the signing of Kevin Ku for their return to action in the fall.
  • Phil Baroni has pulled out of the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship main event on 9/11 against Thiago Alves. Julian Lane, who fought in TUF 16, will be the replacement.
  • A piece on the best Pittsburgh athlete never to wear a uniform number which talks about both Bruno Sammartino and Kurt Angle, and also is a rare media store to have correct stats on Sammartino and MSG sellouts. (thanks to Zach Brendza and Chris Cruise)
  • A story on a local promotion helping out on a fundraiser for one of its fans. (thanks to Mike Kuzmuk)
  • YouTube link for Adam Brooks vs Havok from RCW on Saturday night. (thanks to Kevin Chiat)

Daily Pro Wrestling History: WCW Monday Nitro premieres

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