Daily Update: WWE Royal Rumble records, Elimination Chamber, Raw

Daily Update

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter:

  • Match of the week and performer of the week
  • What records has the Royal Rumble 2023 already set and what records have a good chance to be set
  • Amazing advance for the show
  • The debate about the men’s winner and prior year comparisons
  • The Steve Austin question
  • The business of Peacock
  • Original Austin approach
  • Cody Rhodes return
  • Full rundown of Raw 30 and the giant ratings and how each segment did
  • Complaints by the Bellas about the show
  • Why certain segments of the show changed
  • The story behind WBD clearing Mark Briscoe and the reason that hasn’t come out why there were previous issues
  • Different ways AEW paid tribute to Briscoe
  • Update on family and fundraisers
  • A look at the Okada-Kiyomiya angle and the keys to it
  • The Muto retirement at the Tokyo Dome show
  • What the New Japan vs. NOAH show and other New Japan shows have shown about recovery of the business
  • UFC 283 coverage with the retirements of Shogun Rua and Glover Teixeira
  • What is next for Jamahal Hill and Brandon Moreno
  • Business notes on the show
  • A look at the life and career of Jose Aldo and his biggest fights including how one of his fights changed the entire direction of MMA for lighter weight fighters and was so successful the company closed up, as weird as that is to say
  • A look at more Japanese awards voting
  • The life of Benny Galant, a 60s star who passed away this week who was a major rival of the biggest names in the history of Mexican wrestling, including El Santo and Mil Mascaras, and twice set EMLL’s company gate records. This is a major history piece covering one of the biggest eras of wrestling in any country.
  • The most detailed look at the ratings from the past week
  • Streaming numbers, international numbers
  • Ticket advances for all AEW & WWE shows through WrestleMania
  • What could be CMLL’s best match of this year
  • The story behind Negro Casas jumping to AAA, how long has this been in the works, how long has Konnan wanted this and his duties outside the ring
  • A look at upcoming AAA major shows
  • Update on a number of upcoming major New Japan shows
  • What former WWE star is mad at Dwayne Johnson over his portrayal in Young Rock
  • 80s star arrested for a number of things
  • WBD head talks AEW and Slap Fighting
  • Behind the AEW new deal with DAZN
  • Lawsuit filed against AEW
  • Update on Kenny Omega
  • San Francisco records for wrestling
  • Conor McGregor investigation reported
  • Lots of big UFC fights announced
  • More on Luke Rockhold coming out of retirement
  • Famous MMA trainer will no longer corner fighters
  • Former pro wrestler talks about Slap Fighting and what he was offered
  • Update on Vince McMahon in the office
  • Another lawsuit filed against WWE regarding McMahon’s return and how two other suits were basically nullified
  • Notes on new NIL signings by WWE
  • WWE getting major mainstream pub
  • WWE injury updates
  • Weekend NXT & WWE house show notes

This Week’s Retro Observer Newsletter:

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Monday Update

Bryan and I will be back tonight with Wrestling Observer radio covering tonight’s Raw, more of the fallout of the Rumble, lots of notes regarding WrestleMania and more. You can send questions to the show to mailbag@wrestlingobserver.com

There were a number of business records set Saturday night, some of which have been announced and others which will be run down in the next issue. The key is that the show was a giant business success, and the product is very over right now. The people who cling to the lower television viewers and saying it shows wrestling isn’t popular are missing the great live gates and merchandise numbers both major companies are doing and ignoring the decline of television across the board. Besides, among non-sports on cable, Raw beats almost everything but monster shows like Yellowstone and last week, taking out sports, Raw and Dynamite were the top highest rated shows for the entire week on cable television, and both often beat the major networks. 

As noted in yesterday’s update, Roman Reigns vs. Sami Zayn is the main event of the 2/18 Elimination Chamber show in Montreal. This has been the planned main event for the show since probably October and certainly early November. The program getting so hot didn’t result in a change. WWE just announced that the men’s elimination chamber match would be Austin Theory defending the U.S. title against five others. Brock Lesnar is not at this point scheduled in the Chamber match but is supposed to be on the show. The presumption is a women’s Chamber match for the opponent of either Charlotte Flair or Bianca Belair that Rhea Ripley doesn’t choose. Ripley will be making the choice on tonight’s show. This was not officially said to me, and just makes sense. We were told that while the chamber match for the U.S. title isn’t as strong as it being for a Wrestlemania title shot or the WWE title, the feeling is that Reigns vs. Zayn is so hot it doesn’t matter what is on the rest of the show.

Raw is from Tulsa, OK tonight. Raw will open with a Cody Rhodes interview and also feature Rhea Ripley making her decision. The expectation is another huge rating. Damon Kemp is there for a Main Event presumably. Seth Rollins vs. Chad Gable and Baron Corbin vs. Johnny Gargano were announced as matches to determine two of the spots in the Chamber. There were 6,900 tickets out for the show as of this morning. The last time Raw was in Tulsa, one year ago, the paid was barely 3,000.

We’re looking for your thoughts on the Rumble, with a thumbs up, down or middle, best and worst match to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

We’re also looking for live reports from Tulsa tonight with Main Event matches, dark matches and anything else not on the live TV show to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

Reigns vs Cody Rhodes is the WrestleMania main event unless they have Zayn win the title, which absolutely was not in the plans as of last week. A lot of the card will be released here on Friday if not sooner.

Laura Sanko will get her long talked about goal to become the first female announcer in more than 30 years broadcasting from the color commentary on Saturday’s show on ESPN+. Kathy Long announced the first show. Sanko had been on a lot of UFC broadcasts dating back to 2016 when UFC was on FOX. She also did play-by-play on Dana White’s Contenders Series. “I can’t think of anyone better to be the first female commentator for the modern UFC than Laura,” said Dana White. “She has worked incredibly hard to prove herself and to get this position and I couldn’t be prouder to have her call the action.”

Kevin Egan the real name of Raw announcer Kevin Patrick was hired as a play-by-play announcer for Major League Soccer Season Pass for the new season that starts on 2/25 on Apple TV. Egans’s background is soccer announcing having done local announcing for both the Chicago Fire and Atlanta United, and has also done studio hosting of soccer for Bein Sports, Turner Sports, ESPN and CNN International.

Travis Kelce, after the Kansas City Chiefs AFC championship win over the Cincinnati Bengals, channeled Dwayne Johnson (thanks to Barry Werner)

Logan Paul has teased a major announcement tomorrow which he’s teasing has to do with UFC.

The Miz and Xavier Woods are appearing all week on the syndicated game show “Pictionary.” Each will captain a team. The show appears in syndication, mostly in the afternoon.

Cody Rhodes will be wrestling on the Saturday house show in Columbus, GA and the Sunday show in Pensacola, FL. He sent out a schedule of his dates for the month which include all the Raw shows this month and no Smackdown shows.

Other Notes

Julio Ace is out of his 3/4 fight with Cody Garbrandt due to an undisclosed injury that requires surgery and will put him out of action for longer than six months.

Darren Paltrowiz did an interview where Creator of “Boy Meets World” Michael Jacobs talks about working with Vader and with Taya Valkyrie

The Dave Bautista movie “Knock at the Cabin” will be released on 2/3. To promote the movie, Bautista will be on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday.

Canadian Wrestling Elite ran three weekend shows. The biggest was Friday in Winnipeg: Robby Royce & Tyson Moore b Sammy Peppers & Bryce Bentley, Brenden Collins b Bobby Collins-DQ, Bobby Schink b Scott Ripley, Mike Mission b Adam Burton, Shaun Martens b Kevy Chevy, Chad Daniels kept the jr. title over Josh Holliday, Jack Rockne, Ronnie Attitude and Sweet Daddy Soul in a ladder match,Danny Duggan b Mentallo to win the CWE title. Next Winnipeg show is 3/31 and they will tour Manitoba at that time.

CFFC, the promotion that C.M. Punk announces for, runs 3/31 at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia and 4/1. The first night has interim lightweight champion Zuklarnalyn Kamchybekov (6-2) facing Cedric Gunnison(5-1). The second show has middleweight champion Raheam Forest (6-0) facing Charles Radtke (60-3). Both shows air on UFC Fight Pass live.