Daily Update: WWE-Indiana deal, AEW-Triller, Charlotte Flair

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Friday Update

– Regarding the AEW rating, which is a huge story, my front page story goes through it in depth and I talked a lot about it, as well as news of the week, Willie Mays, WWE, Fantastica Mania, SummerSlam, Who Killed WCW?, and more with Garrett Gonzales on today’s Wrestling Observer Radio. Bryan and I will be back Sunday night.

– The new issue of the Observer is up on the site today:

  • WWE sets gate record at Clash at the Castle, as well as a look at other metrics
  • Running down the news of the show
  • The Drew McIntyre angle
  • A look at the next two PPVs
  • What the other metrics tell us about the interest level for Clash
  • Why the Cung Le lawsuit that was thought to be settled hasn’t been ratified
  • What worried the Judge
  • What worries the lawyers on both sides
  • The real world and real life issues regarding the settlement
  • Update on Forbidden Door, All In and the Owen Hart tournament
  • Kevin Kelly talks suing AEW
  • The G1 Climax tournament
  • Key news notes on the tournament
  • Review of TripleMania in Tijuana
  • A look at this week’s episode of Who Killed WCW
  • The most detailed look at the ratings this past week for all the shows, quarters, competition and placings
  • CMLL Anniversary show note
  • Mistico anniversary week notes
  • Former WWE star now agent for AAA
  • Update on Giulia, Marigold and WWE
  • Notes on the death of one of Argentina’s top stars from the heyday
  • Shocker rehab notes
  • More on the shooting involving Shannon Ritch
  • Life of James Castle
  • TNA PPV rundown
  • AEW’s new Triller deal
  • Details on the Shane McMahon story going around
  • Attendance advances for all the upcoming WWE & AEW shows
  • Streaming numbers for the week
  • International ratings
  • Update on McGregor vs. Chandler
  • Thoughts on Jake Paul’s next fight
  • New Wyatt Sicks news
  • Injury updates
  • Timeline of Hulk Hogan coming to WWF from AWA

– A lot of people have talked about the Kendrick Lamar concert on Wednesday and AEW numbers. Like all things, it was a factor. The concert was the largest musical audience in the history of Amazon. What that means with viewers, well, that information hasn’t been released.

– In today’s Observer and on Wednesday’s show when we talked about the Triller deal for AEW historical PPVs and how that would affect or come about because of how media rights negotiations would be going, we’re told they are different situations. AEW PPV shows from the past have always been available through Bleacher Report, but were not marketed well. Since AEW has added many other places carrying the PPVs, including Triller, they are marketing the old shows on Triller. It’s not giving away rights while in negotiations that could include archival content. The reality is those rights can still be part of negotiations since none of that would go into effect until 2025 anyway.

– More on the story of Indianapolis bidding for major WWE events. Some expect the deal to be announced as soon as Monday if possible but this story in the Indianapolis Business Journal indicates the deal isn’t officially finalized yet. Based on a number of WWE sources, this story is accurate.

– The idea of a major fourth NBA package that TNT would get appears to be dead. TNT getting the NBA isn’t 100% dead, but that news makes it less likely.

– Teila Tuli, who lost to Gerard Gordeau in the first-ever UFC PPV fight in 1993, passed away yesterday at the age of 56. Tuli famously got his tooth knocked out by a kick from Gordeau in immediately and the fight was stopped at :28. The 400 pound former Japanese sumo star from Hawaii, who trained for pro wrestling under Tatsumi Fujinami, never fought again. He changed his name to Taylor Wily and became an actor, with a role in the movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall and was a regular on Hawaii Five-O as Kamekona Tupola and also played the same role as his Five-O character on several episodes of Magnum P.I. and MacGyver.

– MJF was on Fox 5 in New York today promoting Forbidden Door and his match with Hechicero.

– Tetsuya Naito turns 42 today.

– UFC debuts in Saudi Arabia with no women’s fights tomorrow.

 Noon Eastern on ESPN

  • Xiao Long (136) vs Chang Ho Lee (136)
  • Magomed Gadzhlyasulov (205) vs. Brendson Ribeiro (205)
  • Kyung Ho Kang (136) vs. Muin Gafurv (136)
  • Rinat Fakhretdinov (170.5) vs. Nicolas Dalby (171)
  • Muhammad Naimov (145.5) vs. Felipe Lima (145.5)
  • Nasrat Haqparast (156) vs. Jared Gordon (156)

ABC at 3 p.m. Eastern

  • Johnny Walker (206) vs. Volkhan Oezdemir (206)
  • Shara Magomedov (185.5) vs. Antonio Trocoli (185.5)
  • Kelvin Gastelum (184.5) vs. Daniel Rodriguez (184)
  • Sergei Pavlovich (260) vs. Alexander Volkov (258)
  • Robert Whittaker (186) vs . Ikram Aliskerov (184)

– Fantastica Mania is tonight in Mexico City with Mistico vs. Hiromu Takahashi on top. Mercedes Mone will be at ringside watching the Stephanie Vaquer vs Catalina match for the New Japan Strong women’s title. Three guesses who is winning that one.

– Reader Neil Trama noted to us that the ad for last night’s AEW show in Allentown, PA, listed photos of Kris Statlander, Jay White and Bryan Danielson the largest as well as Pac, Daniel Garcia, Swerve Strickland, Willow Nightingale, Malakai Black and Penta. The only one who wrestled on the show from that list was Black. 

– Arena Coliseo in Mexico City tomorrow has the Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Hechicero dream match plus Mistico & Taiji Ishimori vs. Hiromu Takahashi & Volador Jr., along with Rocky Romero vs. Angel de Oro.

– Monday in Puebla has Mistico & Mascara Dorada vs. Romero & Ishimori, Hiromu Takahashi vs. Templario, Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Virus and Guerrero Maya Jr. vs. Neon for the Mexican national middleweight title.

– CMLL announced the first week of Leyenda de Plata on 7/12 with Volador Jr., Mascara Dorada, Flip Gordon, Angel de Oro, Brillante Jr., Futuro, Villano III Jr., and Stigma.

– The Collision main event of Kazuchika Okada vs. Ultimo Guerrero was a total mess according to multiple people who saw it. Guerrero, who lost his mask ten years ago to Atlantis in a very famous match, found out that AEW had promoted him with a mask. He hadn’t brought one. So they had to scramble to find one and ended up with one that kept falling off during the match. We were told it was very lucky this didn’t air live. (thanks to The Cubs Fan)

– Rampage tonight at 10 p.m. on TNT

  • Private Party vs. Komander & Metalik
  • Shingo Takagi vs. AR Fox
  • Rey Fenix vs. Turbo Floyd
  • Serena Deeb vs. Willow Nightingale in the Owen Hart Cup tournament

– PFL is tonight on ESPN at 9 p.m. Eastern with matches in the lightweight and light heavyweight tournaments

  • Antonio Carlos Jr. vs. Alex Polizzi (light heavyweight)
  • Doviet Yagshimuradov vs. Simon Biyong (light heavyweight)
  • Rob Wilkinson vs. Josh Silveira (light heavyweight)
  • Patricky Pitbull Freire vs. Bruno Miranda (lightweight)
  • Impa Kasanganay vs. Jakob Nedoh (light heavyweight)
  • Clay Collard vs. Mads Burnell (lightweight)

– The start of the G-1 Climax qualifier tournament is tomorrow morning US time from Fukushima with Callum Newman vs. Yujiro Takahashi and Yoshi-Hashi vs. Chase Owens

– Matt Riddle is scheduled to face El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. in the main event of AAA’s TV taping tomorrow at Juan de la Barrera Gym. Riddle suffered a concussion last week and we haven’t heard anything about him in a few days.

– Nic Nemeth makes his first defense of the AAA Mega title tomorrow, but in Puerto Rico against Eddie “Primo” Colon, not in AAA.

– People were raving about the Kyle Fletcher vs. Lee Johnson 2/3 fall match that aired on ROH television last night. Also heard good things about the Mark Briscoe ROH title defense against Fletcher that was taped last night in Allentown, PA presumably for this coming Thursday’s show.

– Charlotte Flair has started rehabbing her knee and she’s ahead of schedule as far as her quad strength in the knee she had surgery on. 

– Bellator on MAX tomorrow at Noon Eastern time from Dublin:

  • Darragh Kelly (155.7) vs. Mathas Poiron (155.1)
  • Norbert Novenyl (185.8) vs. Dalton Rosta (185.1)
  • Sinead Kavanagh (146.0) vs. Arlene Blencowe (145.4)
  • Paul Hughes (155.7) vs. Bobby King (156.0)
  • Jason Jackson (169.9) vs. Ramazan Kuramegomedov (169.8) for the welterweight title
  • Rosta appeared on many episodes of Dynamite a few years back when they were doing the Dan Lambert angle.

– Roman Dolidze replaces Carlos Ulberg to face Anthony Smith on the 6/29 UFC 303 PPV from Las Vegas. Dolidze’s name was expected but it wasn’t officially announced until today.

– MLW is doing a Minoru Suzuki Meet and Greet before the 7/12 show at the St. Petersburg Coliseum at 6 pm.

– Insane Wrestling Revolution from last night in Monroe, MI: Ace Austin b Zeeko, Dub Club b Alienated Youth, Mila Moore b Kayla Kassidy, Silas Young b Jake Something, Buckeye Sam b ?, Jason Hotch b Madman Fulton to keep the US title Death Threat Army b Zachary Wentz & Trey Miguel, Thom Latimer & Sam Beale b Eh Team Special Forces, Monsters of Destruction over Fear & Loathing Saint brothers and Gold Standard, Rhino b Steve Maclin to keep IWR title. Next show is the Insane Rumble on 8/1 with Danhausen announced.