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F4W NEWSLETTER: Figure Four Weekly: Jon Moxley and the WWE creative process

After becoming the talk of the professional wrestling world when he joined AEW at Double or Nothing, Jon Moxley took things up to another level when he appeared on Chris Jericho’s Talk is Jericho podcast last week.

While prefacing his comments with how grateful he was for his time in WWE, Moxley got years of frustration off his chest in the 90-plus minute podcast episode. The WWE creative process was his target, with Moxley saying that one of his goals in AEW is to prove that the process WWE uses sucks, is absolutely terrible, and is “killing the company.”

WON NEWSLETTER: June 10, 2019 Observer Newsletter: The evolution of Will Ospreay

A look at Will Ospreay and the Super Juniors tournament win, a study of PPV buyers of AEW, WWE and Impact and questions regarding WWE and Saudi Arabia are among the lead stories in the new double issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

The lead story talks about the rise of Ospreay, the Super Juniors tournament, the debut of Jon Moxley in New Japan, the new Juice Robinson, the Super J Cup business, Dominion, plus a rundown of the last three nights of the tournament.

Also look at Ospreay’s interviews and his future goals.

Have a look at WWE Super Showdown and the last minute story involving the women and the culture.

Read full coverage of Takeover Bridgeport with the next main event, match-by-match coverage with star ratings and poll results.

Also look at Gargano’s big run.

This issue has a story on the life of Atsushi Aoki, the All Japan booker and trainer and his career.

Read a study on PPV buyers and what the real crossover between WWE and AEW and Impact and AEW among buyer actually is. 

Go into depth on the Wade Keller interview with Jon Moxley, birth of Hulkamania, reaction from WWE, WWE looking at changing how they do entry -evel wrestler contracts for obvious reasons, & Ric Flair releases videos.

This issue contains full coverage of the UFC show in Stockholm.

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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SATURDAY NEWS UPDATE

WWE

Pro Wrestling

  • NJPW held contract signings for Kazuchika Okada vs. Chris Jericho and Kota Ibushi vs. Tetsuya Naito at Dominion. The show is taking place at Osaka-jo Hall overnight tonight (starting at 3 a.m Eastern time). Here’s the card for the show:
    IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada defending against Chris Jericho
    IWGP Intercontinental Champion Kota Ibushi defending against Tetsuya Naito
    IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Dragon Lee defending against Will Ospreay
    IWGP Tag Team Champions Guerrillas of Destiny defending against EVIL & SANADA
    NEVER Openweight Champion Taichi defending against Tomohiro Ishii
    Hiroshi Tanahashi, Juice Robinson & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Jay White, Chase Owens & Taiji Ishimori
    Jushin Thunder Liger & YOSHI-HASHI vs. Minoru Suzuki & Zack Sabre Jr.
    Shingo Takagi vs. Satoshi Kojima
    Jon Moxley vs. Shota Umino
  • Last night, the Pursuit Channel aired last week’s Impact instead of the new episode. Impact made the new episode immediately available to US viewers on Impact Plus. This is the second time in a month that Pursuit has had issues. On the May 17 episode, Impact ended early without the whole main event being shown.
  • Joey Janela vs. Low Ki is set for Game Changer Wrestling’s 5150 show in Brooklyn on July 14. The event celebrates Homicide reaching 25 years in pro wrestling.

UFC/MMA

  • Dana White claimed that Brock Lesnar getting a better deal from WWE was why Lesnar didn’t return to the UFC, not the company’s PPV structure changing with their ESPN+ deal: “That’s not why Brock Lesnar didn’t fight. Brock Lesnar got a better deal is basically what happened for Brock.”
  • White said that BJ Penn won’t get another fight in the UFC: “No, I want BJ to retire. I love BJ Penn. BJ Penn is one of the legends of the sport. This is a young man’s game. I gave him a lot of opportunities because he’s BJ and because of the relationship that I’ve had with BJ his entire career and before that. But I can’t do that again. I can’t do it again.”
  • White would like to see Sage Northcutt retire: “I would really like to see Sage Northcutt retire. I hope he does. Good looking, charismatic kid, smart. He was [going to] college to be an engineer. He’s got a lot going on in his life. This isn’t the sport for him. I don’t want to sound like I’m sh*tting all over the guy because I really like the kid a lot. But this isn’t the sport for him. I would love to see him retire before he seriously gets hurt.”
  • White explained why the UFC released Elias Theodorou and Justin Willis: “Yeah, well you know there is a ton of guys and girls that fight here. We have like 600 people on the roster. There’s always times when we release people and they question. Well, why were these people released? I’m looking for people who can break into the top five or possibly become world champions. And, I make these decisions. The real question is, ask me how many times I’ve been wrong? If you look at when I release people and who I’ve released, how many times have I actually been wrong about that? And, you’ll see people stick around that are on a skid that put on unbelievably exciting fights.”
  • Khabib Nurmagomedov and Dustin Poirier will attend a press conference in London on Wednesday (June 12). Nurmagomedov and Poirier are facing each other at UFC 242 in Abu Dhabi on September 7.
  • Chris Weidman told Ariel Helwani that he’s decided to move up to the light heavyweight division and wants to return this fall.
  • The UFC uploaded episodes five and six of Embedded for tonight’s PPV.

Daily Pro Wrestling History: Triple H wins 1997 King of the Ring

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