Daily Update: Wrestle Kingdom preview, Nigel McGuinness injury, TNA-NESN

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

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Friday Update

– Right now our schedule, and this could change, is that Garrett Gonzales and I are doing a show covering the latest news and the 2024 Awards today. Bryan & Vinny are doing two shows tomorrow covering the Tokyo Dome. Right now I’ll be back with Bryan on Sunday night.  

– We’ve got a big new issue of the Observer up on the site today.

  • The end of Raw on cable television and a look back at the show, Prime Time Wrestling, where it stands among the longest running wrestling shows on television, what to expect from the Netflix audience, the first show, how much WWE was getting for Raw at its ratings peak plus the year that USA nearly canceled Raw.
  • 2024 live attendance numbers for WWE and AEW and comparisons with this past year and historical.
  • Full coverage of Worlds End, including historical notes on aspects of the show, questions on the show, the decision to cut back on matches and what was left on the cutting floor, the best multiple match days in history, best openers in history, returns, PPV numbers and other business notes.
  • A look at both Tokyo Dome shows
  • A look at the career of Sweet Daddy Siki
  • President Jimmy Carter and he and his family’s connections with pro wrestling and Jim Barnett
  • Pro Wrestling NOAH Budokan Hall coverage and attempt to make a superstar in one night
  • Stardom’s big year-end show with one of the best women’s bouts of the year
  • Janel Grant’s attorneys looking at rewriting the lawsuit against Vince McMahon, John Laurinaitis and WWE and the key reason why
  • 2024 Observer Awards ballot, detailed descriptions of the categories, the criteria and who placed top three in each category last year
  • Notes from the funeral of Rey Misterio Sr.
  • The most detailed look at the ratings from the past week
  • International TV ratings
  • Advanced ticket sales for all the major upcoming U.S. events including All In Texas, WrestleMania, Royal Rumble and more
  • CMLL huge business week
  • What promotion is spending January rematching the best matches as voted by fans for 2024
  • Major Japanese title changes as the year ends and starts
  • Two major companies losing U.S. TV this week and details of what happened
  • Shooting at independent wrestling arena
  • Deaths of two British stars of the ITV era, Tally Ho Kaye and their version of Blackjack Mulligan
  • Lots of notes on discussion points of Tony Khan’s press conferences this past week
  • What AEW idea got bounced because NXT did it first
  • Debut of Sakuraba’s son
  • Updates on WrestleMania
  • Updates of archival content on Netflix internationally and MAX in the U.S.
  • New WWE TV or streaming show being talked about
  • Survivor Series PPV number makes significant change and why
  • Notes on the must-read Inside the Ropes story on the late Axl Rotten’s days backstage regarding WWE and Mel Phillips
  • New WWE business deal
  • Full coverage of WWE holiday tour and how it compared with those the past few years

– The Los Angeles Times has a story on WWE Raw to Netflix and Monday night’s show quoting Paul Levesque and myself.

– We don’t have the Wednesday ratings numbers for Dynamite but do know the number was low. We also don’t know what it means because one would expect a low number on 1/1 against the football games, but also we don’t have info on how many regular TBS viewers chose to watch on MAX. The latter number is obviously very key as is what number if any gets out and if they are apples to apples numbers and not misleading numbers.

– The first three hour SmackDown is tonight from Phoenix. Three matches have been announced: The Usos & Sami Zayn vs. Solo Sikoa, Jacob Fatu & Tama Tonga, Nia Jax vs. Naomi for the WWE Women’s title, and Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Andrade in a non-title match. The show will air on the WWE YouTube page in Canada and U.K. because the Netflix coverage of SmackDown in those countries debuts next Friday. In the U.S., nothing’s changed except the extra hour on USA. They had 8,600 tickets out as of last night.

– We’re looking for reports from Phoenix on any matches not on the live TV show and other live notes to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

– We are doing polls this weekend on both Wrestle Kingdom late tonight and Wrestle Dynasty tomorrow. You can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

– Wrestle Kingdom starts at 2 a.m. Eastern tonight and 11 p.m. Pacific on both New Japan World and Triller. Wrestle Dynasty starts at 10 p.m. Eastern (right after Collision ends on the East Coast) and 7 p.m. Pacific (head-to-head with Collision) Saturday night.

For tonight:

  • Mystery Rambo (Rumble) match. Nobody knows who is in it. The winner will get a shot at the IWGP world title, likely in February. This starts at 2 a.m. Eastern
  • Kevin Knight & Kushida defend the IWGP jr. tag titles against Drilla Moloney & Clark Connors, TJP & Francesco Akira and Robbie Eagles & Kosei Fujita in a ladder match. All four of these teams are great. Hopefully the ladder stip enhances rather than detracts. I expect some crazy chances being attempted before what may be a tough crowd.
  • Mayu Iwatani vs. AZM for the IWGP women’s title. Iwatani is a strong Women’s MVP candidate for this past year and had a feature movie at the theaters out on her life. AZM is great as well. I can’t imagine this not being great.
  • Ren Narita defends the New Japan World TV title against Jeff Cobb, El Phantasmo and Ryohei Oiwa.
  • Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Evil in a lumberjack death match. Tanahashi is one of the greatest wrestlers in history bell-to-bell. But I’m so not looking forward to this one.
  • Konosuke Takeshita vs. Shingo Takagi for the AEW International title and the New Japan Never title. To say expectations are high for this is an understatement.
  • Douki vs. El Desperado for the IWGP jr.  title. These two are so underrated as workers. Because there are so many great ones, two like this often get overlooked. If you’ve never seen them, you’ll be surprised at how good both are.
  • David Finlay vs. Yota Tsuji for the Global title. They had a killer match in G-1.
  • Tetsuya Naito vs. Hiromu Takahashi. Naito is the most popular wrestler in Japan although long past his prime. Takahashi has always wanted this match and vowed this will be the only time the two meet in a singles match.
  • Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Shota Umino for the IWGP World title. Sabre never has anything but strong matches and Umino is good, but this does not feel at all like a Tokyo Dome main event.

– The injury to Nigel McGuinness talked about in this week’s issue was a badly broken finger. He said at a recent magic show last week that the bone came through the skin. He said he got the injury by trying new things in the ring.

– Arena Mexico is loaded tonight with three match of the month winner rematches, well actually two but a third being called that. January’s Espiritu Negro & Rey Cometa vs. Akuma & Dark Magic match opens. March’s Neon & Futuro & Max Star vs Magnus & Rugido & Magia Blanca is second. That match was awesome. October’s Zandokan Jr. vs. Villano III Jr. match isn’t happening with Villano III Jr.  suffering a serious knee injury. So Zandokan is facing his brother El HIjo del Villano III. Templario defends the CMLL middleweight title against Volador Jr. The main event is Atlantis Jr. & Mistico & Legendario vs. Ultimo Guerrero & Gran Guerrero & Crixus. Legendario and Crixus are getting main events on a big show coming off the Gran Alternative tournament.

– Cain Velasquez was announced as being a team manager in the GFL, the new promotion that is paying huge money for former MMA stars to fight including even Wanderlei Silva at 48 and Frank Mir. Velasquez won’t be fighting. His team will also have Javier Mendez as the head trainer. The announcement is strange because Velasquez is expected to be sentenced to prison on 1/25. GFL also announced a women’s roster headed by Paige VanZant, Julia Budd, Cynthia Calvillo, Jessica Aguilar, Pannie Kianzad, Tonya Evinger, Lvinha Souze and Olympic bronze medalist Natalie Kuziutine.

– The GFL will have a draft with the idea of coaches picking the men and women fighters for their 20-roster teams. The league is to debut in April.

– Jun  Akiyama & Konoske Takeshita teamed up at today’s DDT show at Korakuen Hall beating Yuki Iino & Yukio Naya. In addition, Chris Harrington, the Director of Business Strategy for AEW, was at the show (he’s repping AEW for Wrestle Dynasty) and ended up as the Ironmetalweight champion, which is their version of the 24/7 title. He sprayed something in the eyes of promoter Sanshiro Takagi backstage and pinned him.

– Stardom earlier today in Tokyo:

  • Mizuki Kato & Yuma Makoto defeated Rian & Honoka
  • Lady C & Nanami defeated Saya Iida & Momo Kohgo
  • Hina & Ranna Yagami defeated Zones & Soy
  • Athena & Thekla defeated Mina Shirakawa & Tay Melo when Athena pinned Melo, in her first match in 22 months
  • Saki Kashime won a Battle Royal
  • Ruaka & Rina defeated Hanan & Manami
  • Chi Chi defeated Aya Sakura to keep the Sendai Girls jr. title
  • Syuri & Tomoka Inaba & Kiyoka Kottsu defeated Momo Watanabe & Azusa Inaba & Fukigen Death in a kickingmatch
  • Mayu Iwatani & Hazuki & Koguma defeated Mei Seira & AZM & Miyu Amasaki
  • Saori Anou & Natsupoi & Sayaka Kurara defeated Dump Matsumoto (the original) & ZAP & Natsuko Tora
  • Maika & Hanako defeated Chihiro Hashimoto & Yuu
  • Tam Naano defeated Sayaka Unagi so Unagi must leave Stardom forever
  • Starlight Kid & Suzu Suzuki defeated Saya Kamitani & Momo Watanabe when Suzuki pinned Kamitani, which likely makes Suzuki the top contender for Kamitani’s World of Stardom title

– After the show earlier today in Tokyo, Thekla challenged Athena to a match for her ROH women’s title.

– Utami Hayashishita beat Sareee to win the Marigold title at the Ota Ward Gym in Tokyo today. Already heard raves about this one.

– TNA has gotten TV on NESN on Saturday nights at midnight. It seems like it’ll be used as filler programming.

– AJ Francis will be on Memphis TV this weekend.

– Awesome Championship Wrestling tomorrow night in Poughkeepsie, NY at the Mid Hudson Civic Center has Thom Latimer vs. Tommy Dreamer for the NWA title, Nic Nemeth vs. Matt Riddle, as well as Anthony Greene, Crowbar, Little Guido, Richard Holiday and appearances by Tony Atlas and Rita Chatterton.