Daily Update: WWE Raw, Dana White, Chris Charlton

Daily Update

Latest News

Latest Audio

Latest Free YouTube Video

This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

  • The end of Raw on cable television and a look back at the show, Prime Time Wrestling, where it stands among the longest running wrestling shows on television, what to expect from the Netflix audience, the first show, how much WWE was getting for Raw at its ratings peak plus the year that USA nearly canceled Raw.
  • 2024 live attendance numbers for WWE and AEW and comparisons with this past year and historical.
  • Full coverage of Worlds End, including historical notes on aspects of the show, questions on the show, the decision to cut back on matches and what was left on the cutting floor, the best multiple match days in history, best openers in history, returns, PPV numbers and other business notes.
  • A look at both Tokyo Dome shows
  • A look at the career of Sweet Daddy Siki
  • President Jimmy Carter and he and his family’s connections with pro wrestling and Jim Barnett
  • Pro Wrestling NOAH Budokan Hall coverage and attempt to make a superstar in one night
  • Stardom’s big year-end show with one of the best women’s bouts of the year
  • Janel Grant’s attorneys looking at rewriting the lawsuit against Vince McMahon, John Laurinaitis and WWE and the key reason why
  • 2024 Observer Awards ballot, detailed descriptions of the categories, the criteria and who placed top three in each category last year
  • Notes from the funeral of Rey Misterio Sr.
  • The most detailed look at the ratings from the past week
  • International TV ratings
  • Advanced ticket sales for all the major upcoming U.S. events including All In Texas, WrestleMania, Royal Rumble and more
  • CMLL huge business week
  • What promotion is spending January rematching the best matches as voted by fans for 2024
  • Major Japanese title changes as the year ends and starts
  • Two major companies losing U.S. TV this week and details of what happened
  • Shooting at independent wrestling arena
  • Deaths of two British stars of the ITV era, Tally Ho Kaye and their version of Blackjack Mulligan
  • Lots of notes on discussion points of Tony Khan’s press conferences this past week
  • What AEW idea got bounced because NXT did it first
  • Debut of Sakuraba’s son
  • Updates on WrestleMania
  • Updates of archival content on Netflix internationally and MAX in the U.S.
  • New WWE TV or streaming show being talked about
  • Survivor Series PPV number makes significant change and why
  • Notes on the must-read Inside the Ropes story on the late Axl Rotten’s days backstage regarding WWE and Mel Phillips
  • New WWE business deal
  • Full coverage of WWE holiday tour and how it compared with those the past few years

This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter Back Issue

Monday Update

  • Bryan and I will be back tonight talking about the WWE Netflix debut, Chris Charlton, New Year’s Dash and more.
  • Raw on Netflix is the story of the day.  The show at the Intuit Dome is sold out with around 17,000 fans. John Cena, HHH, Shawn Michaels, Hulk Hogan , Logan Paul, Cody Rhodes and Undertaker are among those expected to be on the show and there will likely be a lot of celebrities shown as well.  They are trying to make this a giant event. We heard earlier in the day the show is scheduled to run in the range of three hours and 20 minutes to three hours and 30 minutes. We do know international stations that still carry the show are listing it as a three hour weekly show, although since Netflix is the priority the idea is they’ll go as long as they need to. The opening match was said to be Roman Reigns vs.  Solo Sikoa but there would be HHH and Rock on before that. The idea of the start of the show is to be an introduction to WWE. Hogan’s return is scheduled for later in the show, as is CM Punk vs. Seth Rollins. The other matches are Jey Uso vs. Drew McIntyre, Liv Morgan vs Rhea Ripley last woman standing for the world title. Penta, under whatever name he’s going by, is expected to debut as well as Rey Mysterio’s mystery partner.
  • Dana White was named to the Board of Directors of Meta (formerly Facebook) today by Mark Zuckerberg. Luke Thomas, who I formerly worked with, speculated that among what are likely many reasons for this, is that the Trump administration is not going to go after a company where White is on the board.
  • We’re looking for your thoughts on WrestleKingdom and Wrestle Dynasty, so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  • Kenny Omega did a very emotional interview after the show backstage at the Tokyo Dome that’s worth watching. We’ll talk about that tonight.
  • Chris Charlton was suspended for comments about AEW misusing Will Ospreay, Jay White and Kazuchika Okada on yesterday’s show and calling Tony Khan a money-mark. It was so weird watching it. He was trying to do a New Japan vs. AEW storyline and Rocky Romero and Walker Stewart seemed very uncomfortable.  Romero tried to calm him down to no avail.  Bushiroad President Takaaki Kidani made a comment about the English announcing of the show being an issue immediately after the show was over. Charlton was not on today’s New Year’s Dash show and Jeff Cobb made a remark to Stewart in character about being out there by himself. We were told it was an indefinite suspension but others have reported it as two months. We haven’t got that two month timeline confirmed from New Japan at this point. 
  • The reaction we’ve gotten probably shouldn’t be simplified as many had different opinions. The fan reaction was sympathetic to him. We’ve heard from many within the industry in both companies who had a very different view.  
  • Tony Schiavone did a tweet negative to Charlton saying, “Speaking for all of us in AEW, GFY.  And Speaking for all of us who have been around you, take a shower once in a while.” He very quickly took it down.
  •  Tommy Dreamer said on Busted Open radio today that he suffered a torn meniscus and strained PCL from a match last week.  He’s been walking with a cane but did his match Saturday night in Poughkeepsie, NY, against Thom Latimer while injured.
  • Hunter Campbell told ESPN that  the 2/22 UFC show in Seattle will have the top two bouts of Henry Ceudo vs. Song Yadong and Dominick Cruz vs Rob Font. This is Cruz’s first fight in more than two years.
  • One of the biggest grudge fights in UFC history will be rematched in a boxing match sometime this year.  Rashad Evans and Rampage Jackson, who coached on Ultimate Fighter and the grudge from the show turned into the biggest buy rate up until that time in history for a show not headlined by a championship fight. Evans won the fight back in 2010 via decision. After all the build, the fight itself was a huge disappointment at the time.  Jackson hasn’t fought since 2019 and Evans since 2022. No date was announced for the boxing match, but it’s scheduled for Albuquerque.
  • All Caribbean Wrestling based in the Bahamas has announced Mark Henry as the new CEO. Henry has worked with the company since 2022.
  • Bronson Reed said his injury was a talus bone (the bone that connects the foot to the ankle) smashing in half. He said it was repaired with screws and fragments were removed, and had some bone marrow taken from his hip and put into his foot. He said he would not make a surprise at the Rumble nor be ready for  Mania.  He said this was a very serious surgery and it’s much more than a simple fracture.