Daily Update: WWE Raw after Mania, Seth Rollins, Stephanie McMahon

Daily Update

Latest News

Latest Audio

Latest Free YouTube Video

F4W/WON Convention

This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

Among the highlights in this issue:

  • WrestleMania weekend preview, the matches, the plans for the matches, favorites in every match, where things can go next and how we got there
  • How plans changed throughout the period
  • Dwayne Johnson’s preparation to get into ring shape
  • How Johnson’s return came about
  • Stand & Deliver preview
  • Business notes on all the shows including the insane scalper market setting a new all-time pro wrestling record
  • The lawyers grapple in Janel Grant lawsuit against Vince McMahon.
  • What we’ve learned new and the strategy McMahon’s side is taking
  • AEW cuts and the current realities of AEW business
  • CM Punk’s interview on the Ariel Helwani show in detail and each subject covered
  • The most heated pro wrestling show in decades from last week at Arena Mexico featuring top AAA talent, and how the crowd makeup was different, and exactly what happened at WrestleMania 30 that led to this show taking place
  • The most detailed look at the the ratings from the past week, weekly rankings, competition, segment-by-segment, analysis, how it compares with one year ago
  • Notes from three Stardom PPV shows this past week
  • Preview of two major New Japan events
  • Lots of Mania week shows talked about
  • Main event for RevPro’s biggest show of the year
  • Bloodsport coverage
  • How Kingston vs. Briscoe came about
  • Ticket sales for upcoming WWE & AEW shows
  • Streaming numbers and international TV ratings
  • AEW PPV updates
  • McGregor sets record
  • Dana White talks about blowing off a sponsor
  • PFL signs boxing champion
  • Nick Khan talks Vince McMahon, Netflix deal and bringing in Dwayne Johnson
  • Details behind Vince McMahon’s most recent stock sale
  • WWE numbers in quarter one
  • Martha Hart talks Vince McMahon
  • Ronda Rousey and Drew Gulak controversy
  • WWE star likely returning
  • Merchandise sale updates
  • Update on amateur wrestlers in WWE system
  • Notes from all the house shows

This Week’s Retro Observer Newsletter

Monday Update

  • Bryan and I will be back up tonight with Wrestling Observer Radio covering Raw and the latest news.
  • No lineup for Raw which will be the largest Raw audience in many years and largest U.S. gate ever for a Raw show. There were tickets left yesterday but they were legit over 18,100 tickets because of using a smaller stage tonight.
  • Raw goes against the Purdue vs. Connecticut NCAA men’s basketball final. It’s one of the biggest nights of competition, but Raw after Mania goes against this most years and it’s usually the biggest rating of the year. Mania week activities are so strong that the basketball competition this time of year don’t seem to affect it like it does in a normal week.
  • Smackdown did a monster number on Friday with 2.60 million viewers and an 0.77 in 18-49. This was against the semifinals of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament with the early game doing 14.2 million viewers (Iowa vs. Connecticut). That was the largest ESPN audience for any basketball game in years.
  • Seth Rollins will be taking time off after yesterday. The hope this morning was that this will be only about four weeks off. 
  • The big question coming out of yesterday seems to be whether Stephanie McMahon will be returning as an executive with Vince completely out of the picture. Nobody is directly answering that question, no confirmations or denials.
  • Rhea Ripley said she had a straight up panic attack two hours before her match Saturday with Becky Lynch. She said she was nervous as expected before the match but the nerves went away as soon as she went through the curtain and was in the zone.
  • Fightful reported that Matt Hardy had decided against signing a new deal with AEW. He had gotten a contract offer and turned it down. We have confirmed that independently. I believe he is now a free agent, or if not, that will be the case imminently.
  • Nate Diaz and Jorge Masvidal will be doing a press tour for their pro boxing match on 4/19 in Los Angeles. They’ll have press conferences 4/12 in LAS Vegas at Resorts World Las Vegas, 4/16 in New York at the Palladium and 4/17 in Miami at Pier 6 at Bayside Marketplace.
  • For those keeping up with this, the South Carolina vs. Iowa women’s basketball finals won by South Carolina did 18.7 million viewers based on the fast nationals. The final number should be higher, which will come out tomorrow. It was the largest basketball audience on television since 2019, even beating the NBA finals and NCAA men’s finals. Aside from the NFL, the only sports audience larger would have been the 2022 FIFA World Cup final and an Olympic broadcast for anything in the past five years.
  • Mick Foley said that he was not going to do one last match. He had said that he was looking to do a final death match, but noted even after light training in the ring he had been dizzy and had headaches and his doctors, his family and everyone pretty much came to the conclusion that somebody was telling him something. He said he had symptoms of a concussion and basically did nothing that would have given him a concussion that he was aware of.
  • This is the AEW lineup for Wednesday. This is the show where they are going to air the backstage footage of Jack Perry and CM Punk. Most feel this is not a good idea and I think it doesn’t come across well with the idea of using Punk to garner an audience, even if the idea is to use it to build Perry. I guess we’ll see on Wednesday. Announced for the show is Samoa Joe vs. Dustin Rhodes non-title, Adam Copeland vs. Penta for the TNT title, Chris Jerichio & Hook & Katsuyori Shibata vs. Shane Taylor & Lee Moriarty & Anthony Ogogo and a segment with Toni Storm and Thunder Rosa.
  • In Google trends, WrestleMania did 1.35 million searches over the weekend. It wasn’t anything like the basketball playoff numbers but much larger than the past few years of any pro wrestling event. 
  • Liv Morgan has teased going after Rhea ripley starting on tonight’s Raw show.
  • John Cena will be featured in a new Hefty garbage bag commercial ad campaign. The campaign will continue throughout the year.
  • Sabu no-showed the Indie Wrestling Hal of Fame. Brett Lauderdale wrote yesterday, “In the true spirit of independent wrestling, Sabu has decided to keep his deposit and no show the indie hall of fame ceremony today. He accepted the booking and took the money, but doesn’t wanna get in the elevator and come upstairs. What a legend.”
  • The MLW War Chamber match with Akira & Raven & Jake Crist & Jimmy Lloyd vs Sami Callihan & Rickey Shane Page & Cannonball & Dr Cornwallus plus Satoshi Kojima vs. Bad Dude Tito for the MLW title and Tom Lawlor & Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Alex Kane & Mr.Thomas, Matt Riddle vs. Timothy Thatcher, Star Jr. vs. Virus and more will be on a two-hour Bein Sports special at 10 p.m. on 4/20.
  • Got good reviews for yesterday’s Jack Morris & Anthony Greene vs. Kaito Kiyomiya & Ryohei Oiwa GHC tag title match from Osaka. Regular reviewer Gerald Di Trolio called it one of the best tag matches this year.