Daily Update: WWE SmackDown ratings, Netflix, Raw

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

  • The big weekend,matches, booking,business, favorites and strategies
  • The life and times of Cowboy Bob Ellis, one of the great babyfaces of his era.  A long career as a star all over the world, defining the wrestling cowboy character, the bulldog headlock, wars with Dick the Bruiser and why he had a long career but his top ten drawing days were only a few years.
  • Donald Trump wants a UFC show at the White House on July 4, 2026
  • Preview of the G-1 Climax tournament
  • The most in depth look at the ratings for all the TV shows, including quarters, competition, people watching together, year over year and week over week comparisons and all the little details you won’t get anywhere else on the shows.
  • The Arena Mexico business milestone and comparisons to 2006 and 1991 boom periods and CMLL sells out three shows this past week.
  • AAA has one of its big shows of the year this week
  • Details over the attempt to trademark a major name as part of a fight between wrestler and promoter
  • Stardom star taking a temporary leave
  • Dragon Gat’s biggest show of the year
  • Tiger Mask retires in 2026
  • Notes on Tanahashi Jam
  • Updates on Ric Flair and Wendi Richter
  • Highest ratings for a woman’s main event in American television history
  • Tons of major indie shows coming up
  • Maple Leaf Wrestling coverage
  • Grandson of legend about to start out
  • Kim Wood, the architect of the Brian Pillman storyline, turns 80
  • TNA attempts to upgrade its U.S. TV situation
  • Ticket sales for upcoming WWE, AEW and TNA shows
  • Kenny Omega talks, taking risks, career, match philosophy and future
  • Tony Khan talks more stadium shows, Britt Baker,  U.S. record gate ad Unified title
  • How much is the Khan sports empire worth, the TKO sports empire and where both trank in the world standins
  • New contract signings
  • AEW quarter two television final numbers and explaining what the numbers mean
  • Jim Ross update
  • Lots of business updates
  • Phil Davis talks attempt to legally change the foundation of MMA to make it like a real sport
  • Randy Couture update
  • A $25 million tournament announced
  • Update on Janel Grant case
  • WWE stars in acting roles and a movie that will a top name from both WWE & NJPW
  • Wrestlers who get harassed the most in social media

This Week’s Back Issue

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Monday Update

Photo: WWE
  • We have like a million shows up on the site from this weeeknd including three from me over the last three days covering all the news of the weekend and there is a lot of it.  Tonight I’ll be covering Raw  and a lot of other news with Garrett Gonzales with Wrestling Observer Radio.
  • Smackdown on Friday night did 1.40 million viewers and 0.37 in 18-49.  It was first on all of television.  It’s lower than I expected because 1.40 million over two hours would be equivalent with the usual third hour drop to a 1.35 million number two weeks ago.  That’s with no competition of note.  It was just a bad night for television as the second biggest show did an 0.22.  The biggest show head-to-head on cable was Summer League Basketball on ESPN at 568,000 viewers and 0.12 in 18-49.   Maybe with so much over the weekend, people decided to skip the show.  But first on all of television is still a positive.  That’s with the advertising of Jelly Roll.
  • Netflix announced that the actual Katie Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano fight (not the average of the entire boxing card) from bell-to-bell averaged 6 million viewers worldwide and 4.2 million of them were in the U.S.  The full show itself was actually behind Smackdown in several Netflix markets including the U.K., Canada and Mexico.   So lots of people only tuned in for the main event.  The average for the show will come out tomorrow and we’ll have also in tomorrow’s update info (but likely not numbers) for Evolution outside the U.S. and Raw numbers for last Monday.
  • Raw tonight is from Birmingham, AL.  They had 9,000 tickets out  as of this morning.  The show goes against the Home Run  Derby.  In the past, Home Run Derby has hurt ratings a significant amount, less when the company is hot.  We won’t have those ratings until next Tuesday because of the Netflix lag.  Plus, an event big in the U.S. isn’t going to hurt worldwide numbers as much as in the past it hurt U.S. numbers.  They are doing a gauntlet match with Bron Breakker, CM Punk,  LA Knight, Penta and Jey Uso for a title shot at Gunther at SummerSlam.  Also Naomi will be there as world women’s champion and Nikki Bella has a singles match with Chelsea Green.  The gauntlet could be great.
  • We’re doing polls on these weekend shows:
  • ROH Supercard of Honor
  • NXT Great American Bash
  • AEW All In Toronto
  • WWE Evolution
  • We’re looking for your thoughts on all of these shows, thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match for each show to dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  • GCW is running at Mariomondes Park, the home of the Brooklyn Cyclones, this coming Saturday night with Effy vs   Charles Mason, Elayna Black & Priscilla Kelly (Cora Jade & Gigi Dolin) vs. Atticus & Otis Cogar and Jonathan Gresham vs. Deonna Purrazzo.
  • AEW starts its residency at the Aragon Ballroom on Wednesday.  No matches have been announced.  The only thing is the Adam Page  promo as champion.
  • Tetsuya Naito said he and Bushi will be doing two shows this summer in the U.K., one of which is the RevPro SummerSizzler show, before touring the U.S. in August and September.
  • MLW announced its trading card lineup in its deal with Panini with Matt Riddle, Donovan Dijak & Bishop Dyer as the new Skyscrapers, Shotzo, Kushida,  Brock Anderson, Ultimo Guerrero and Yuki Kamifuku.
  • Guerrero was also announced for the MLW show on 9/13 in North Richland Hills, TX.
  • PFL’s show on Saturday will air on ESPN+ in the U.S. at 2 p.m. Eastern.  The show is from Cape Town, South Africa and features Johnny Eblen defending the middleweight title against Costello van Sternis and Dakota Ditcheva vs. Sumika Inaba, as well as AJ McKee vs. Akmed Magomedov and Corey Anderson at heavyweight against Denis Goltsov in a battle of the current light heavyweight champion in Anderson and the 2024 heavyweight tournament winner in Goltsov.
  • Under the L Productions has a documentary on Wisconsin based independent wrestler and promoter Dave Herro, as well as son Kai Herro,  Al Snow and Braun Strowman.  The film debuted in May and was a finalist for the Remember the4 Future World Film Festival in Canada and a selection for the Toronto International Hollywood Film Festival and the Left-off Global Network New York Film Festival.
  • Tonight’s Arena Puebla’s  show with Mistico & Mascara Dorada & Neon. vs. Ultimo Guerrero & Gran Guerrero & Stuka Jr,. sold out in advance.  It’s on the CMLL streaming service live.