Daily Update: WWE SmackDown, AEW Rampage, Kota Ibushi

Daily Update

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter:

In this week’s issue
*Complete Royal Rumble coverage
*Match and performer of the week
*Highlights of the Rumble
*The story of the Reigns-Zayn angle
*Why Reigns vs. Zayn won’t be happening at WrestleMania
*Records set at Royal Rumble
*How many people watched Royal Rumble on Peacock
*The 15 largest gates in pro wrestling history
*PPV crossover with Full Gear and Survivor Series
*Elimination Chamber update
*Wrestlemania update
*Return of Pat McAfee
*WrestleMania sponsorship
*Nick Khan talks WWE sale
*Khan talks about the next rights deals
*More on the Vince McMahon investigation and how much it cost WWE so far
*WWE business numbers for 2022
*A look at the career of Fedor Emelianenko as he has his retirement fight
*What pro wrestler brought Fedor into prominence
*What former pro wrestling promotion did he first become a star in
*A look at hs glory days in Pride
*Who is the best heavyweight ever
*The life and times of Lanny Poffo
*His career high points
*Winning the world tag team title at the age of 20
*Feuding with his brother
*The big name historically Randy Savage was to feud with that never happened
*The funeral of Jay Briscoe
*Another new lawsuit filed trying to get Vince McMahon out of power
*Legendary enhancement wrestler Kenny Jay passes away and the night he had a match with Muhammad Ali
*Why he never became a bigger star
*The story behind his match with Ali
*2022 Wrestling Observer Awards allot
*The most detailed look at the television ratings over the past week
*International TV ratings for AEW and WWE
*Streaming ratings for AEW & WWE
*Ticket sales for upcoming shows
*One of the oldest titles in history defended on Jericho cruise
*Keiji Muto struggles through retirement matches
*New Japan changes with New Japan Strong
*Mercedes Mone talks her new Japan debut
*Hiroshi Hase in controversy over doing a wrestling match last month
*Why Kota Ibushi did Bloodsport
*Thought on AEW doing house shows
*Difference between AEW and WWE fans
*Thoughts on MJF vs. Takeshita
*New A&E wrestling schedule

This Week’s Retro Observer Newsletter:

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Friday Update

We have a show today where we talk some news regarding the WWE sale and ten talk to Adam Cole about all aspects of his career, recovery from his injury, growing up as a fan and the evolution of his career, as well as a story on meeting Britt Baker. Bryan and I will be back tomorrow night with a ton of different events to talk about for our weekend show.

The new issue of the Wrestling Observer is up on the site now. It’s a loaded issue with the most detailed coverage of the Royal Rumble, Elimination Chamber, WrestleMania, the WWE business, the retirement of Fedor Emelianenko and stories on the deaths of former wrestlers Lanny Poffo and Kenny Jay.

Smackdown tonight on FOX has Charlotte Flair defending the Smackdown title against Sonya Deville and Ludvig Kaiser & Giovanni Vinci vs. Braun Strowman & Ricochet, with the winners getting a tag title shot. The big thing is obviously the aftermath of the Roman Reigns-Sami Zayn Royal Rumble angle. They also shot an angle today at a NASCAR appearance with Judgment Day vs. Rey Mysterio & New Day, which will air on tonight’s show. The show has had a lot of tickets sold in the last few weeks and was over 9,000 this morning.

Rampage at 10 p.m. on TNT:
*Kenny Omega & Young Bucks vs. Matt Hardy & Isaiah Kassidy & Ethan Page for trios titles
*Swerve Strickland vs. Brian Pillman Jr.
*Saraya & Toni Storm vs. Renegade Sisters
*Rush vs. Christopher Daniels

While I don’t know anything comes of this, Rizin promoter Nobuyuki Sakakibara went public that he is trying to put together a Manny Pacquiao vs. Kota Ibushi match now that Ibushi is a free agent.

The Reyes del Aire match from Arena Mexico this past Friday night, which was really spectacular, is at 1:27 of the show here. This is an example of the best of CMLL these days.

It’s a real big weekend of events coming up. We’ll be doing polls on the New Japan shows in Sapporo on Saturday and Sunday, NXT Vengeance on Saturday and the Stardom show tomorrow (late tonight) from Sapporo with Giulia vs. Suzu Suzuki and Saya Kamitani goes for the Wonder of Stardom record for most title defenses against previous record-holder Momo Watanabe. You can leave a thumbs up, down or middle along with a best and worst match to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

New Japan Pro Wrestling at 3 a.m. Eastern late night (midnight Pacific) has Tetsuya Naito vs. Shota Umino, Will Ospreay vs. Taichi and TJP & Francesco Akira vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru &* Douki for the IWGP Jr. tag titles. They have another show at midnight Eastern Saturday night with Hiromu Takahashi vs. Yoh for the IWGP jr. title, Zack Sabre Jr. defends the TV title against Tomohiro Ishii and Hirooki Goto & Yoshi-Hashi vs. Mikey Nicholls & Shane Haste for the IWGP tag titles.

Kento Miyahara vs. Yuma Aoyagi for the Triple Crown takes place tomorrow. Those two always kill it and have the unique ability to make a 30:00 match feel like 15:00 because of Miyahara’s pacing ability.

We’re also looking for reports from these shows
*WWE tonight in Greenville, SC with dark matches and anything not on the live show
*WWE house show tomorrow night in Columbus, GA
*MLW TV tapings tomorrow night in Philadelphia at the 2300 Arena with Alex Hammerstone s. Jacob Fatu for the MLW title (the taping for the debut of their TV on Reelz Tuesday night)
*WWE house show Sunday night in Pensacola, FL
We’re looking for results, finishes and highlights to dave@wrestlingobserver..com

MMA returns to CBS television from 9-11 p.m. Eastern for the first time in 12 years tomorrow night with Bellator featuring Fedor Emelianenko’s retirement fight, going for the heavyweight title, from the Kia Forum in Los Angeles:
*Sabah Homasi (170.8) vs. Brennan Ward (170.8)
*Johnny Eblen (184) vs. Anatoly Tokov (184.8) for the middleweight title
*Ryan Bader (234.4) vs. Fedor Emelianenko (236.2) for the heavyweight title

UFC has an ESPN+ show tomorrow from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. Eastern time. Yes you read that right. It’s late here so it can be in a better time slot in Asia, since the show features a number of Asian fighters as it was originally supposed be in South Korea before being moved to Las Vegas.
*Tatsuro Taira (125.5) vs. Jesus Santos Aguilar (125)
*Jun Yong Park (185.5) vs. Denis Tiuliulin (186)
*Ji Yeon Kim (125.5) vs Mandy Bohn (125.5)
*Seung Guk Choi (125.5) vs. Hyun Sung Park (124.5)
*Toshiomi Kazama (136) vs. Rinya Nakamura (135)
*Jeong Yeong Lee (145) vs. Zha i (145.5)
*Jaka Saraagth (155) vs.; Anshul Jibli (155.5)
*Yusaku Kinoshita (170.5) vs. Adam Fugitt (170.5)
*Doo Ho Choi (145.5) vs. Kyle Nelson (145.5)
*Marcin Tybura (253.5) vs. Blagoy Ivanov (256.5)
*Da Un Jung (205) vs. Devin Clark (204.5)
*Derrick Lewis (265) vs. Serghei Spivac (255.5)

Reelz on Sunday will be having a three hour wrestling block starting at 9 p.m. Eastern with shows in Chyna, Owen Hart and Roddy Piper.

El Hijo del Vikingo was announced for the WrestleCon Super show on 3/30 in Los Angeles. Will Ospreay was previously announced for the show.

UFC has moved the 2/18 fight with Marlon Vera vs. Cory Sandhagen from 2/18 to 3/25. The 3/25 show will be in San Antonio. Taila Santos vs. Erin Blanchfield will be the new five round main event on the 2/18 show.

Bet Online has put up odds for WrestleMania:

Cody Rhodes -400
Roman Reigns +250

Rhea Ripley -500
Charlotte Flair +300

The Miz and Alexa Bliss will be appearing on the TV show “That’s My Jam” during the second season that starts on 3/7 in the Tuesday night at 10 p.m. time slot on NBC. Jimmy Fallon hosts the show.

Other Notes

AIW tomorrow night in Akron, OH at the Tadmor Shrine features Paul London.

GCW on 2/18 in Lo Angeles has Gringo Loco & Los Vipers vs Jack Cartwheel & Arez & Mago, Nick Gage vs Mike Bailey, Komander vs. Lio Rush, Blake Christian vs. Willie Mack and Los Macizos vs Bollywood Boyz.

Combate Global announced the signing of 19-year old Angelo Pettis, the cousin of Anthony and Sergio Pettis. 

Bryan Alvarez & Tom Lawlor will wrestle as a tag team for Black Label Pro Wrestling on 3/25 in Crown Point, IN at the RDS Gym.