Daily Update: WWE Raw, Don West, Jeff Hardy

Daily Update

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter:

*Vince McMahon talks about returning and we talk about the prospects of that, including from those close to him
*The Rita Chatterton story resurfaces, and we go back to look at the original story and current legal status as well as a new allegation against Vince McMahon that came up this week
*What can’t happen to WWE as long a McMahon wants back in
*What would have to take place before McMahon to return to power
*What risks are there for the company
*The Vice special on Vince McMahon and those who would and wouldn’t talk
*Mandy Rose gets fired and details of why it happened and what the original plans were regarding the women’s title
*ROH PPV coverage, Honor Club, PPV buys, ROH title change
*Sasha Banks and Japan WWE, AEW prospects, a return t WWE and more
*Notes on Wrestle Kingdom, the card,te story behind the card
*Updates on Matt Riddle
*Full coverage of UFC 282, hat happens next, business notes, what’s next for the fighters
*ROH Deadline and the debut of Iron Survivor
*Just how rapidly is cable losing homes, a list for the stations that air wrestling and MMA and what the numbers are now
*Tokyo Sports awards and story behind it
*PWG Battle of Los Angels
*The most detailed look at the ratings for all wrestling shows on national TV including how each segment did,
*Streaming numbers
*Advance ticket sales for the major WWE & AEW events
*Government works with Arena Mexico for a special event
*CMLL’s next tournament
*Konnan talks his health
*Rules in place for independent promoters and usage of El Hijo del Vikingo
*A look at a Mexico match of the year candidate
*A look at another match of the year candidate
*Finances of major wrestling conglomerate
*Future of Kota Ibushi
*Why the economics are going to be tougher for New Japan
*Coverage of the New Japan tag tournament finals
*Update on the MLW lawsuit against WWE
*Huge match in London this week
*AEW announces new television deal
*Behind the Jericho loss to Action Andretti
*What famous feud started in a similar fashion
*People who have been world champion in the U.S., Japan and Mexico
*UFC takes action regarding a suspicious fight
*World MMA Awards
*William Regal news
*WrestleMania news

This Week’s Retro Observer Newsletter:

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Monday Update

Jim Valley and I will be doing Wrestling Observer Radio tonight covering Raw and all the latest news. You can send questions for the show tonight to dave@wrestlingobserver.com and we should have time for many of them like we did last night.

Raw is tonight in Des Moines, IA, which is Seth Rollins country so he should be the most popular wrestler on the show. Andre Chase is there to work a Main Event match. Announced for the show is Dexter Lumis vs. The Miz in a ladder match with a double-or-nothing money stipulation, Becky Lynch vs. Bayley and Judgment Day vs. Street Profits. Raw goes against the Green Bay Packers vs. Los Angeles Rams game. Both teams are well below .500 so it shouldn’t be killer competition. Raw is coming off one of its lowest marks ever last Monday. The Wells Fargo Arena had 5,700 tickets out as of this morning. With the walk up it should beat the last time they ran Raw in the building in May.

Mike Tenay and Don West got back together yesterday on Face Time. As many of you know West has been battling cancer for years and Tenay said that “I won’t get a better Christmas gift than our time with Don West.” The two were not just broadcast partners but are also very close friends.

PWInsider reported that Jeff Hardy’s attorney is looking at rescheduling his hearing for his most recent DUI that was scheduled for Wednesday.

We’re looking for reports from these shows:
*Raw tonight in Des Moines with Main Event tapings and any dark matches or anything off the air
*Last night’s WWE show in Rochester, MN
*Saturday’s RevPro show at York Hall in London
We’re looking for results, finishes and thoughts on the shows to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

Tribute to the Troops will replay Thursday night at 7 p.m. Eastern and Friday night at midnight on FS 1 this week.

My newest book in the series of books covering complete years in wrestling, the Wrestling Observer Yearbook from 1995, covering the start of the Monday Night Wars is available right now. 

The scheduled Robert Whittaker vs. Paulo Costa middleweight fight scheduled for UFC 284 2/11 in Perth, Western Australia is off. Even thought he fight has been announced and publicized, Costa has claimed he has never signed a contract for the fight and that he’s negotiating a new deal and until he gets the new deal he’s not signing for another fight. ESPN reported today that the fight was off and Costa then wrote on Twitter, “Great fight is going down due to lack of negotiations kills. They should stop being petty.” He said they should keep the fighters happy and it’s not only him, but also Francis Ngannou, Shane O’Malley and Mark Hunt..

We heard rave reviews of today’s Just Tap Out PPV show in Japan promoted by Taka Michinoku and Taichi. We heard great things about th Suzu Suzuki vs. Tomoka Inaba women’s match, a 2/3 fall match with Hiromu Takahashi vs. Michinoku and a great Shingo Takagi vs. Taichi King of Pro Wrestling lumberjack last man standing match. They also had a unique Minoru Suzuki & Douki vs. Tomoaki Honma & Jun Kasai and Desperado & Lance Archer vs. Daisuke Sekimoto & MJ Paul match.

Ovince Saint Preux vs. Philipe Lins has been added to the 2/18 show in Las Vegas. Saint Preux was supposed to fight on the 12/10 PPV show but three different opponents,including Lin,s pulled out for different reasons.

CMLL will be streaming live from Arena Mexico every Tuesday night starting tomorrow o its Facebook and YouTube. Tomorrow’s show has Esfinge & Fugaz defending the Mexican national tag titles against Virus & Cancerbero, and a main event of Mistico & Negro Casas & Titan vs. Euforia & Hechicero & Mephisto.

Other Notes

Warrior Wrestling from last night in Chicago Heights, IL: Trevor Outlaw b Mance Warner-COR, Tootie Lynn b KiLynn King, Technical Difficulties b Slime & SNZ, Jordan Kross b EC 3-COR, Max Caster b Stu Grayson, Zachary Wentz b Speedball Mike Bailey (said to be match of the night), Eddie Kingston b Warhorse (said to be good) Sam Adonis b Johnny Warrior (Morrison) to keep the Warrior Lucha Libre title. This sets up Adonis vs. El Hijo del Vikingo in a Warrior title vs. AAA Mega title match with both belts at stake (thanks to Dave Gould)

ICW No Holds Barred from Saturday night in Newark, NJ: AKIRA b Bobby Beverly, Dr. Redacted b Orin Veidt, Jimmy Lloyd b Danny Demanto, Hoodfoot b Abdullah Kobayashi, Matt Tremont b Tommy Vendetta, John Wayne Murdoch b Eric Ryan, Brandon Kirk b Kasey Catal to win the American death match title (thanks to Leonard Brand)

Former pro wrestler/MMA fighter/powerlifter and MMA/wrestling TV announcer Paul Lazenby noted to us he will be in the corner of Marcus Aurelio for the Inoki Ganryujima show on 12/28 at SUmo Hall in Tokyo. That’s the show where Tom Lawlor will do a UWF style match with Katsuyori Shibata. He will also be doing English language announcing for the 1/1 NOAH show for some matches on the card. That’s the Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Great Muta show.

Stephen A. Smith did a Ric Flair split liquor promo to open First Take this morning. Smith will be part of the Peacock documentary on Ric Flair which comes out next Monday so he’s getting into Flair mode (thank to Samuel Batts)

Fury Pro Grappling on 12/30 at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia on UFC Fight Pass. Several UFC fighters are on the show including Chase Hooper vs. Clay Guida, Joe Pfyter vs. Eryk Anders, Ovince Saint Preux vs. Andre Petroski plus Alex Caceres, Phillip Rowe and Trevor Giles./ C.M. Punk will be announcing the show with John Morgan.

The 2002 documentary: “Wrestling Then and Now” is now on Tubi. Killer Kowalski and Nikolai Volkoff are among those featured. It’s also on Amazon Prime.

The Sheepherders/Bushwhackers bio (Butch Miller & Luke Williams) called “Blood Seat and Cheers” is being released Christmas Day on Amazon Kindle. It’s a very fun read because they go through decades all over the world from being a savage team in the territory days to making it as a comedy act in WWE.