Daily Update: WWE Raw, ROH Final Battle, AEW Dynamite

Daily Update

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter:

  • The history and creation of War Games
  • How the rules have changed and what did and didn’t work this year
  • The copies of War Games
  • Why WWE didn’t do War Games on the main roster, and why they started it on NXT
  • Business notes on how the show did, live, streaming, PPV
  • Crossover audience between War Games and Full Gear and Crown Jewel
  • Full show coverage with poll results
  • The story behind William Regal’s AEW departure
  • Why many questioned the MJF booking
  • Best of Seven notes
  • PPV number updates, as well as updates on the last four AEW PPV shows
  • Who bought Full Gear, Forbidden Door or All Out and patterns
  • Revenue, movie gate numbers and more
  • Notes behind the title changes
  • Match by match coverage and poll results on the show
  • Updates on the Royal rumble, ticket sales and more notes
  • New Japan and Stardom Historic X Over
  • The story behind Kairi winning the IWGP title and not Mayu Iwatani
  • The story behind Omega vs. Ospreay
  • Match by match coverage and poll results
  • C.M. Punk mocks the brawl, Young Bucks & Kenny Omega mock C.M. Punk, and more
  • TV ratings over the past two weeks, including where AEW faltered this week and did great the week earlier and it’s the same group, the huge drop during the show of Raw, what about Smackdown was the best of the year for the show, and where wrestling ranked in the sports charts and the entertainment charts the past two weeks
  • Wrestling legend gets honored by an international embassy
  • Cain Velasquez wrestling and the story behind it
  • Stardom PPV show coverage
  • Updates on all the traditional Japanese tournaments
  • Update on Kota Ibushi
  • Fantastica Mania news
  • Generational legends battle this past week
  • Ricky Steamboat comes out of retirement
  • Plan for a statue of iconic wrestler to be built in his home town
  • Battle of Los Angeles news
  • Mayor Glenn Jacobs in the middle of controversy
  • Injury changes the winner of a tournament
  • Major WWE legend coming out of retirement in December
  • One of the most well traveled wrestlers of all-time passes away
  • Former ECW and WWE star retiring
  • Thoughts on wrestlers whose contracts are coming due
  • New angle off television for recently signed AEW wrestler
  • International TV ratings
  • AEW & WWE streaming numbers
  • Lots of new UFC main events
  • Conor McGregor gets sued twice
  • UFC gaming controversy
  • MMA returns to CBS prime time
  • PFL season finale
  • Paul Levesque talks WWE future
  • Big stock rise for WWE and why
  • Nick Khan and Stephanie McMahon talk WWE business, international, buying companies and more
  • WWE injury updates
  • Ticket sales for upcoming WWE & AEW events
  • Next MSG show

This Week’s Retro Observer Newsletter:

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Monday News Update

Bryan and I will be back tonight with Wrestling Observer Radio covering Raw, the record low ratings for AEW Rampage, Barry Windham and the rest of the news.

Raw tonight is from Washington, DC. They had a good advance of more than 7,000. Bayley vs. Asuka vs. Rhea Ripley and Becky Lynch vs. Alexa Bliss vs. Nikki Cross have been announced. These bouts are to lead to a Raw women’s title defense by Bianca Belair. Also The Usos vs. Matt Riddle & Elias for the tag titles. Also announced is the JBL Invitational poker tournament. Sami Zayn and Solo Sikoa will be there with the Usos. The NFL game is the New Orleans Saints vs. Tampa Bay Bucs. Again both teams are below .500 but it’s still Tom Brady who is one of the biggest stars in the modern era.

AEW sent out a press release for Saturday’s ROH PPV show which starts at 4 p.m. Eastern. Keith Lee’s mystery partner is officially Swerve Strickland against Shane Taylor & JD Griffey. There will be a pre-show at 3 p.m. Eastern. Most of the show will be announced on Wednesday’s Dynamite. The show is priced at $39.99.

We’re looking for reports from tonight’s show from a live perspective with any Main Event and dark matches to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

Jon Moxley has been added to Wednesday’s Dynamite show. Well he has to be. They need to have interviews with Moxley and Adam Page.

NXT tomorrow is the go-home show for Saturday’s deadline with the wild card matches to determine the final participant in the men and women’s Iron Survivor match. The men’s qualifier is Andre Chase vs. Axiom vs. Von Wagner and the women’s qualifier is Wendy Choo vs. Fallon Henley vs. Indi Hartwell, plus Pretty Deadly performs “A Christmas Story” and Tony D’Angelo, who Saturday night returned from his knee injury, will make his TV return inside the ring.

WWE results from last night in Petersburg, VA: Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson b Dominik Mysterio & Damian Priest with Finn Balor and Mia Yim in the corners, with Yim bodyslamming Balor to a big pop, Emma b Xia Li, Gunther b Shinsuke Nakamura to keep the IC title, Ridge Holland & Butch b Usos via DQ in a tag title match with Sami Zayn interfering, Holland & Butch & Kevin Owens NC Usos & Zayn when Solo Sikoa and Braun Strowman interfere, Strowman & Owens & Holland & Butch b Usos & Zayn & Sikoa when Owens pinned Jey after a stunner, Dakota Kai & Iyo Sky kept the tag titles over Asuka & Mia Yim dud to distraction from Bayley, Elias & Matt Riddle b Giovanni Vinci & Ludvig Kaiser, Austin Theory b Seth Rollins to keep the US title with a low blow but Rollins laid out Theory with a curb stomp after the match when Theory tried a post-match attack with a belt shot (thanks to Gene Restaino and Joshua Fer). Said to be very enjoyable.

New Japan has the Super Junior tag tournament on Wednesday at 4:30 a.m. from Sasebo with Kushida & Kevin Knight vs. TJP & Francesco Akira, Ryusuke Taguchi & Clark Connors vs. Yoh & Lio Rush, Sho & Dick Togo vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Douki, Tiger Mask & Robbie Eagles vs Bushi & Titan and Alex Zayne & Lindaman vs. Chris Bey & Ace Austin which is a battle for the top spot right now.

Ronda Rousey has been officially announced for the RAID: Show Legends” video game as a free character seven days after logging into the game. 

Due to an undisclosed injury, Robbie Lawlor is out of his Saturday UFC 282 PPV fight with Santiago Ponzinibbio. 

Demetrious Johnson vs. Adriano Moraes for the ONE flyweight tile was announced for the promotion’s U.S. debut on May 5 in Broomfield, CO. This will be the third match between the two with each having a knockout win.

Kevin Holland will need surgery for multiple breaks in his hand in Saturday’s main event with Stephen Wonderboy Thompson. Holland lost the fight in the fourth round via stoppage but bought most of those four rounds after breaking his hand on a punch early in round one.

Zhang Weili was on the MMA Hour today and said she wanted a fight against flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko. She said the fight is a must. She didn’t guarantee a win but did guarantee a great fight.

Other Notes

Battleground Championship Wrestling on 12/17 at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia is a tribute to the Extreme with Rob Van Dam vs. Rhino, Bully Ray (with Devon in his corner) vs. Matt Cardona, 2 Cold Scorpio vs. Rich Swann, Super Crazy vs. Juventud Guerrera, Al Snow vs Gangrel, FBI vs. Afa Jr. & Beastman and more.

LFA announced its first show of the year on 1/6 in Chandler, AZ at the Gila Resorts & Casinos Wild Horse Pass Casino headlined by a match for the flyweight title with Felipe Bunes (12-6) of Brazil vs. Yuma Horiuchi (10-5) of Japan. The show airs live on UFC Fight Pass.

Lex Luger will be appearing at Squared Circles Collectibles in Winchester, VA on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and $10 from every combo will be sent for Barry Windham’s medical expenses.

Chael Sonnen will be hosting the World MMA Awards show on Thursday from the Sahara in Las Vegas. The show will air live on ESPN+. Some of the nominees for the major awards are:

      • Charles Mask Lewis Male Fighter of the Year: Alexander Volkanovski, Johnny Eblen, Charles Oliveira, Islam Makhachev, Francis Ngannou
      • Female Fighter of the Year: Julianna Pena, Cris Cyborg, Kayla Harrison, Valentina Shevchenko, Raquel Pennington
      • Fight of the year: Jiri Prochazka vs. Glover Teixiera, Justin Gaethje vs. Michael Chandler, Alexander Volkanovski vs. Brian Ortega, Khamzat Chimaev vs. Gilbert Burns, Max Holloway vs. Yair Rodriguez
      • KO of the year: Michael Chandler (vs. Tony Ferguson), Ignacio Bahomondes (vs. Roosevelt Roberts), Sergio Pettis (vs. Kyoji Horiguchi), Molly McCann (vs. Luana Carolina) and roman Faraldo (vs. Robert Turnquest)
      • Submission of the Year: Jiri Prochazka (vs. Glover Teixeira), Stevie Ray (vs. Anthony Pettis), Oliver Enkamp (vs. Mark Lemminger), Jessica Andrade (vs. Amanda Lemos), charlies Oliveira (vs. Dustin Poirier).

Central States Wrestling on Saturday night in Kansas City at the National Guard Armory at 100 S. 20th Street) with an Ultimate Jeopardy cage match with The Howletts vs. The Premiere. If the Howletts lose, they must break up and leave the promotion forever. If the Premiere loses, Coach Frass gets five minutes in a cage with Roscoe Leech Ace Steel is also guest referee of the Dak Draper vs. Jeremy Wyatt match for the Central States title.

Peacock is adding new ICW, Progress and wXw shows on Saturday.