Daily Update: WWE Elimination Chamber, XFL, Mercedes Mone

Daily Update

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter:

In this week’s issue:

  • One of the biggest history issues of the year with the lead story on Jerry Jarrett and the glory days of Tennessee wrestling
  • Jarrett’s booking the wrestling war in Atlanta
  • Jarrett outside of wrestling
  • The start of TNA Wrestling
  • Jarrett’s departure from TNA wrestling
  • The original premise of TNA
  • How Jarrett first got into wrestling
  • Jarrett and Bill Watts discussion of fighting
  • The Mario Galento story from the Jarrett side, the Lawler side and the Galento side
  • The court case, exposing the business, and how the business did
  • Jarrett building the promotion with he, Jackie Fargo and Tojo Yamamoto as the big three
  • Jarrett’s booking philosophy
  • How Tennessee wrestling was viewed outside Tennessee
  • How Saturday morning wrestling became a tradition
  • How Dave Brown got into wrestling and how his career as a newsman changed due to wrestling
  • The wrestling war in Memphis
  • How the NWA title matches changed when Sam Muchnick was no longer booking the champion and why Muchnick was taken out of the position
  • The booking that led to Jerry Lawler being the king of Memphis wrestling
  • The key people Jarrett wanted to win the wrestling war
  • Details of the brief war
  • How popular was the TV show
  • What happened when Lawler threatened to start up and go against Jarrett
  • The fall of the promotion
  • Jarrett attempts to buy WCW
  • Jarrett’s ideas after wrestling
  • Jarrett’s last matches in the ring
  • Wrestling moving weekly to the Mid South Coliseum
  • How Jarrett figured into the first shows
  • The first sellout at the Coliseum
  • Jerry Lawler’s first big crowds
  • How a local rock band played into Memphis wrestling
  • What star much bigger than Andy Kaufman was talked with about doing wrestling
  • The Jimmy Hart era
  • Major names who got their start in wrestling
  • The boxer vs. wrestler angle they did and how it could never work now
  • The Lawler vs. Dundee feud
  • Jarrett selling the company and the attempted revivals
  • Why the MLW vs. WWE lawsuit was thrown out and what happens next
  • Tony Khan talks issues with WWE and the story behind the new Japan story
  • Khan talks about new business deals
  • The big question about Elimination Chamber
  • Full coverage of Islam Makhachev vs. Alexander Volkanovski and UFC 284
  • Keiji Muto about to retire
  • What next for Jay White
  • New Japan’s big events for the next two months
  • New Beginning in Osaka coverage
  • Billy Two Rivers, a cultural icon among native Americans and a celebrity in Europe passes away and his life story
  • The life of flying Eric Froelich, a 60s and 70s star
  • The most complete look at the ratings of all the major shows over the past week
  • Update on Jon Moxley’s planned European tour
  • Debut of ROH television
  • A look at the Revolution card
  • Upcoming ticket sales for WWE & AEW shows
  • Changes in UFC contracts
  • International TV ratings

This Week’s Retro Observer Newsletter:

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Sunday Update

Both of our weekend shows are up on the site now. Garrett and I did a show talking about the news of the week, the WWE sale price, how Saudi fits in that is unique and talked to Rocky Romero in a fun interview taking New Japan, CMLL and his duties as the New Japan American rep. Bryan and I did a show on Elimination Chamber, Sami Zayn, Battle in the Valley and also talked the Saudi interest in WWE and what that’s all about.

I loved the crowd last night at the Chamber show. Crowds like that make a show fun and the performance by the talent was off the charts. The less matches but better matches and keeping the show at just over three hours from that standpoint works well. You can debate the finish of the main event, and I would as well, but Roman Reigns and Sami Zayn as performers put on a memorable match. I loved the pacing as they went very long and it never felt long. A lot of that was also how hot the crowd was. When you have a crowd like that you can wait 5:00 to touch and work slower early on. . Stories this hot are rare. It’s been years and that also gave them the latitude of all the ref bumps and run-ins that often detract from a match and are so overdone, but in this match it worked. Also, they didn’t give away the Jey Uso decision or the Kevin Owens hug that people expected, so they have plenty for the Mania build. 

The XFL debuted yesterday. Dwayne Johnson was promoting it and gave a big speech at the start of the first televised game yesterday on ABC, but it didn’t feel as big to me as the first two launches of the league. Ratings will tell the story. The XFL was the No. 4 searched topic yesterday on Google at 500,000, with Elimination Chamber No. 5 at 200,000. The top three were Jimmy Carter, the Daytona 500 and Arsenal vs. Aston Villa. UFC did not crack the list and No. 16 was only 20,000. So there was no real interest in that event.

The XFL championship game will take place on 5/13 on ABC at 6 p.m. Eastern , from San Antonio at the Alamodome. Dwayne Johnson made the announcement at the San Antonio Brahmas home opener toady.

Mercedes Mone’s next New Japan match will be on the 4/8 show at Sumo Hall. That will be her first IWGP women’s title defense after winning last night. It was a very emotional deal in the building and it was amazing how hot the crowd was for Kairi. It was a unique crowd in the sense they wanted Eddie Kingston to beat Jay White in the loser leaves town match, but when it was announced before the match that all Bullet Club members were barred from ringside, which you would think the crowd would cheer, they booed that announcement heavily. Nobody in WWE has confirmed Jay White coming in, but they are certainly the favorite. One would think if White was going to AEW, he’d be able to work big shows with New Japan and would continue to do so, but they wouldn’t do the loser leaves for good stipulation.

Richard Belzer, best known for Law & Order: SUV, but having a wrestling connection since Hulk Hogan legit put him out with a guillotine on his old nationally syndicated TV show the week before the first WrestleMania, then let him go and he landed on his head and split his head open. He ended up suing WWF and Hogan and did a comedy routine about the incident noting that he bought a house with the money he got in the suit.

Yuji Nagata beat Kento Miyahara to win the Triple Crown earlier today at Korakuen Hal. Nagata had never won that title previously. We’ve heard lots of great reviews of that match.

The other indie match we’ve heard about from different people was El Hijo del Vikingo vs. Black Taurus vs. Aero Boy vs. Aramis from Warrior Wrestling last night.

Names at the New Japan show in San Jose included C.M. Punk with Rancid’s Lars Fredericksen, Bayley (who was cheering in the crowd and chanting during the Mercedes Mone match and I saw a photo of her with Stanford professor and sports business expert George Foster), Scott D’Amore, Tamina, Naomi, Lou D’Angeli and Gisele Shaw. 

Pat Laprade noted that Friday night’s ovation for Sami Zayn on Smackdown was the longest known in history at the Bell Center, lasting 5:12, longer than Hulk Hogan in 2002, Saku Kolvu i 2002 and Jacques Villeneuve in 1997. The Montreal record was set at the old Forum by Maurice “Rocket” Richard, the hockey legend.

Dickie Davies, a name well-known in the U.K., passed away today at 94. He was the legendary host of the ITV World of Sport block from 1965 to 1985. He was affiliated with soccer, the Olympics and the five hour sports show on Saturday afternoons on ITV that included wrestling. He also hosted the wrestling DVDs from the ITV days produced a few years ago. (thanks to Bradley Craig and Stephen Lyon)

Brian Bukantis, who published Stranglehold and Body Press magazines in Detroit and was a photographer and writer for national wrestling magazines and newsletters passed away on Friday at the age of 73.

Want to thank everyone for the nice comments on the current Observer with the Jerry Jarrett lead story. Want to make one clarification. When about Roy Welch and Jarrett-Welch promotions, this was the situation. When Jarrett split from Nick Gulas in 1977, Roy Welch sided with Jarrett. His health had declined by that point and he passed away later in 1977. The Jarrett-Welch name for the promotion on television after that point was for Edward Welch, better known as Buddy Fuller, the father of Ron & Robert Fuller (whose real last name is also Welch).

A celebration of life for Jerry Jarrett takes place Tuesday at 11 a.m. at Long Hollow Church in Hendersonville, TN. Visitation will be at 10 am. The family has asked in lieu of flowers for memorial donations in Jerry’s name to the St. Jude Christan’s Hospital.

Jerry had 14 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

The 2022 Observer awards issue comes out Friday.

We’re looking for your thoughts on both Elimination Chamber and Battle in the Valley, so you can leave a thumbs up, down or middle, plus and best and worst match from each show to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

In the U.K. the AEW PPV shows starting with Revolution are available on DAZN. If you are a DAZN subscriber, you can get the PPVs through DAZN, but not as part of the package. It’s a separate price. You can also get the PPVs in the U.K. through FITE, which I believe is the better option because it doesn’t come with a $19.99 per month subscription fee.

I don’t know if this is related to Tony Khan’s new announcement on Wednesday, but AEW did file a trademark this week for “AEW Collision” which would be for a television/streaming show.

A study at Wrestling-World.com listed the 15 biggest social media reach personalities associated with pro wrestling as Dwayne Johnson, Logan Paul, John Cena, Ronda Rousey, Nikki Bella, Brie Bella, Roman Reigns, HHH, Randy Orton, Saraya, Alexa Bliss, Eva Marie, Steve Austin, Mercedes Mone and Becky Lynch.

The death of Raquel Welch this past week brings up the Roller Games movie “Kansas City Bomber” which she starred in. The movie story was always said to be based very loosely on Joanie Weston replacing the older Annis “Big Red” Jensen as the top woman star of the Bay Bombers of the rival Roller Derby promotion. However Irv Muchnick noted and likely so, that the single mom from a divorced family with the young child is likely influenced by Ann Calvello, who was another skating star who was one of the greats at different times in both Roller Derby and Roller Games.

Other Notes

Invicta runs 3/15 from Reelworks in Denver at 9 p.m. Eastern on AXS TV. The main event has Valesca Machado vs. Danni McCormack for the strawweight title. 

Sean Waltman appears for AIW with a meet and greet as part of its 3/24 show in Cleveland, OH at the Temple Live Asylum Room.

Glory has announced a return of the eight-man one-night heavyweight kickboxing tournament, which was a giant event annually in Japan in the K-1 era. Like with K-1, there will be qualifying matches throughout the year and the tournament will be an annual event in December, just like it was for K-1. The winner will get $500,000. There will be a four-man tournament on 4/29 and the winner will face interim heavyweight champion Antonio Plazibat.

Aja Kong vs Vert Vixen was announced for West Coast Pro on 4/7 in San Francisco at The State Room.

Insane Wrestling Revolution on Wednesday night in Monroe, MI: Benjamin Boone b Tanner Nix, Hannah Henderson b Kelly Moore, Kyle Barrett & Big Flex b Rhino & DBA=-DQ, Buckeye Sam b Ace Evans, Trey Miguel & Myron Reed b Aaron Orion & Tommy Vendetta to win the tag titles, Kamille b Shawna Reed, Jason Hotch b Rich Swann, Bry Sullivan & Damian Chambers b Kenny Urban & Rod Lee, Madman Fulton b Sam Beale Thomas Latimer b Dread King Logan to win the heavyweight title. Next show is 3/23 at F.O.P. Hall in Monroe, MI. Rhino promotes this group (thanks to Leonard Brand)

Dungeon Wrestling in Calgary from Friday night at the Pavilion before 900 fans: Chris Cutthroat Knight b Shaun Moore, Tiger Raj Singh b Michael Allen Richard Clark, Zoey Zager b Nicole Matthews, Harry Smith & Billington Bulldogs b Bruno the Cuban Giant Blanco & Michael Blais & Karou, Mighty Mo Jabari b C.K. Krimson-DQ in a tournament match for the world mid heavyweight title, Nick Aldis b Chris Masters to keep the Stu Hart Heritage title (thanks to Ross Hart)

Tanner Boser vs. Ian Cutelaba is expected for a 4/15 UFC show in Kansas City at the T-Mobile Center. This was reported by MMA Fighting.