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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

Among the highlights in this issue:

  • The Rock & Cody Rhodes angle, blading in WWE, then now and forever.
  • What should be done in the night one main event
  • More WrestleMania notes including ticket sales and secondary market
  • A story on the career of Chigusa Nagayo, at one time the most popular women’s wrestler who ever lived
  • We look at her retirement match in San Francisco
  • We look at her breaking into wrestling at the age of 15, getting pushed at 17, and becoming part of the greatest tag team ever in women’s wrestling at the age of 18.
  • The first run of the Crush Gals
  • Being the top singles star in women’s wrestling, the decline of ratings and Nagayo’s first retirement
  • Her second run with Asuka as the Crush Gals in Gaea Japan
  • The end of Nagayo’s career including winning Japan’s tag team of the year award at the age of 51
  • Lots more Ronda Rousey talk on Vince McMahon, John Laurinaitis, Bruce Prichard, WWE, changing plans, Paul Levesque, the Holly Holm fight, concussion issues and Becky Lynch talking about McMahon
  • WWE policy on dating within the company put together after the Board first heard Vince McMahon allegations
  • Multiple Japanese companies join together for two charity shows
  • NCAA wrestling tournament notes
  • The most detailed look at the ratings for all the wrestling shows, including quarters, comparisons with one year ago, competition and more
  • Biggest show of the year at Arena Mexico
  • Former promotional hatred ends up with an angle
  • Giulia and Utami Hayashishita finish with Stardom with two PPV shows this week
  • Champion Carnival news
  • Unique gimmick match in New Japan
  • Dream match coming to DDT
  • Bret Hart raves about a new book
  • Tons of WrestleMania week big shows
  • Sabin & Shelley leaving TNA
  • Lots of contract news
  • Kenny Omega news
  • List of those unavailable this past week for AEW
  • ROH Supercard of Honor notes
  • Will Nigel McGuinness wrestle
  • Advance ticket sales for WWE & AEW shows
  • International ratings and streaming notes
  • AEW stars in foreign countries
  • UFC’s biggest match of the year may have a date
  • Conor McGregor claims he broke a Dwayne Johnson record
  • Dana White talks loyalty to Joe Rogan
  • First Bellator show since purchase
  • Contract status updates
  • New A&E TV plans with WWE
  • Barnett talks making deal to get Baszler on Bloodsport
  • Becky Lynch talks Mercdes Mone’s AEW deal
  • Heyman puts together Reigns special
  • Nick Aldis talks his situation
  • Bron Breakker’s college career, NFL combine numbers and what hampered him playing in the NFL even with his athletic ability

This Week’s Retro Observer Newsletter

Saturday Update

WWE

  • After Monday’s angle with The Rock attacking and bloodying Cody Rhodes, the story was furthered on SmackDown last night with Paul Heyman revealing that Roman Reigns ordered The Rock’s hit on Rhodes.
  • With the UFL kicking off its inaugural season today, The Rock appeared at the opening game and spoke to the crowd. He and Dany Garcia also joined the broadcast booth for an interview. The Rock and Garcia are two of the owners of the football league.
  • During a Fanatics Live stream yesterday, AJ Styles teased that he’ll be debuting new theme music at WrestleMania 40: “You’ll be surprised come WrestleMania when it comes to music. Shouldn’t let the cat out of the bag. It’s big because my music is pretty freaking awesome, but it doesn’t suit the AJ Styles that people are seeing at this moment.”
  • PWInsider reports that Jerry “The King” Lawler recently underwent knee replacement surgery.
  • “Jackass” star Johnny Knoxville told Sports Illustrated about the reaction his WrestleMania 38 match against Sami Zayn received backstage:
        • Aside from having to actually look at Sami’s big, dumb face, I was thrilled with the match. Afterward, it felt like we did something special. To walk in backstage into [the] Gorilla [position, right behind the curtain], I think they call it, they stood up and clapped–and those guys and girls have seen it all. For them to clap, I took it as a big compliment. And I hate to say anything good about Sami Zayn, but he did an amazing job in that match–an amazing job losing, I should point out.
        • And I was happy to have my guys there. Wee Man body slamming Sami was the highlight of the match and the whole night.
  • The Metro interviewed Bianca Belair.
  • Entertainment Tonight, Superstar Crossover, and WrestlingNewsCo uploaded interviews with Becky Lynch.
  • Lynch shared her memories of Bray Wyatt:
        • Bray was always one of those people that you look forward to seeing because he had this warmth about him and this kindness and this mischief in his eyes. He had the most sparkly eyes you’ve ever seen. And that raspy voice and his signature laugh, and his hugs, like he gave you the world’s best hug. There was just nothing but love and you could just sit down and talk to him for hours about anything. I remember the first time meeting him and he was a huge star and I was just an extra and he just talked to me like an equal and there’s not a lot of people that did that, you know, especially back then. And there was just goodness in him. He was good and he was kind and I told the story about how I didn’t have a clue how to set up a table and he spent a long time showing me and then it was funny because I had a Last Woman’s Standing match with Nia [Jax] and couldn’t set up the damn table and I was like ugh, if only Windham was here.
  • Nick Aldis was the guest on the latest episode of Gabby AF.
  • The LWO, Grayson Waller & Austin Theory, and LA Knight appeared on The SmackDown LowDown.

AEW/Other Wrestling

  • AEW’s Control Center video for tonight’s Collision can be watched here.
  • On X/Twitter, Tony Khan coined the following tagline for AEW: “AEW: Where The Best Wrestle”
  • In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Bryan Danielson said Kazuchika Okada is a great fit for the AEW roster:
        • Okada is a great fit for AEW. We’ve seen that right since his debut with The Young Bucks.
  • Danielson also discussed how Okada has been introduced into AEW:
        • That’s the way Tony presents stars in AEW. It’s not about starting over in AEW. So he was brought in as a star and introduced as a star. It’s the same way we introduced Will Ospreay, and the same way we’ve treated Místico. They’ve already proven it, so that’s the way we’ll present them to our audience. It’s a different approach from the ‘let’s see if this new talent can sink-or-swim.’ He’s a star. That’s how he’s treated.
  • Tony Schiavone announced the passing of his dog Bug:
        • Tonight I had to say goodbye to my best buddy, my good boy, my Buggity Bug. He passed away peacefully in my arms. Lois was there along with my son, daughter and granddaughter. We gave him a piece of chocolate, because no dog should leave this world without knowing the taste of chocolate. He was such a good boy and I will miss him tremendously. I appreciate everyone who has reached out and have sent my family and I messages. We appreciate it more than you know. Love your dogs. We only have them for a little while #loveyourdogs
  • Queen Aminata was interviewed on AEW Unrestricted this week.
  • AEW wished Trent Beretta a happy 37th birthday.
  • Dark Side of the Ring noted that their Harley Race documentary that premieres on Tuesday will feature “newly discovered and incredibly rare 8mm film” courtesy of the Race family. It includes the earliest known wrestling footage of Race.
  • NJPW’s English-language website posted an interview with Jack Perry.