Daily Update: WWE SNME fallout, NXT Battleground, AEW Double or Nothing

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

  • Death and legacy of Sabu
  • Why WrestleMania was  moved, expected date change and how it went down
  • WWE Backlash coverage and what the Netflix number, or lack thereof, said about it.
  • Double or Nothing, Saturday Night’s Main Event, Battleground and Dean 2 looked at
  • UFC’s last two weeks of shows
  • The most detailed look at the ratings of all the wrestling shows, where they placed in weekly stands, time slot, competition, Netflix numbers and how close is Dynamite really to Raw
  • Updates in different court cases involving Vince McMahon, including what things Vince is trying to keep private and what argument are his lawyers using to get the Janel Grant case out of court.
  • AEW wrestlers at Arena Mexico in June with two shows including some very big matches
  • Notes on the last two weeks of Arena Mexico activity
  • Update on TripleMania Regia and those who were to be there and aren’t and who is
  • Who is the hottest new star in AAA
  • Champion Carnival finals
  • Ninja Mack becomes viral star
  • Best of the Super Juniors tournament
  • Woman wrestling legend retires
  • Kyle Snyder’s arrest, what happened, where he stands right now
  • New signees to RAF including Chael Sonnen as announcer
  • Sonnen issues apology
  • Pro wrestling legend announces independent show for his last match in a 20,000 seat arena
  • LA Park’s latest controversy
  • Maple Leaf Wrestling thoughts
  • TNA has a number of big shows
  • Jim Ross notes
  • Darby Allin’s climb
  • Collision technical issue
  • AEW doing more residencies
  • AEW and International television
  • Will Ospreay on AEW vs. WWE
  • Advance ticket sales for AEW, WWE and TNA events upcoming
  • UFC wins multiple awards
  • Lots of new major UFC fights
  • Boxing legend done with MMA
  • PFL tournament shows upcoming
  • Holly Holm signs with Jake Pail
  • What is going on with Nick Khan & Dana White’s boxing deal with Turki Alalshikh
  • WWE in Mexico
  • WWE injury and roster updates
  • New WWE signings

This week’s back issue: October 23, 2007 Observer Newsletter: ECW brand changes, TNA Bound for Glory recap

Sunday Update

dave@wrestlingobserver.com

— We will have a big show tonight covering AEW Double or Nothing, Battleground, Saturday Night’s Main Event, Shannon Spruill, Cain Velasquez and a number of other news subjects. We had our week in review show with Garrett Gonzales that is up on the site talking about the details of why WWE moved WrestleMania and where it stands, Sabu, Being the Elite, Best Booker of 2025, media rights and more.

— From last night’s Saturday Night’s Main Event, the Drew McIntyre conchairto from Damian Priest was an injury angle. McIntyre has been working hurt and pubicly noted stiffness in his neck. He was rocked pretty bad from the choke slam at  Backlash as well. No word on how long he’ll be out but it’s going to be a decent amount of time.

— Chelsea Green suffered a broken nose from the 619 by Zelina Vega. I don’t expect her off TV at all. It was a clean break.

— The crowd off the air at last night’s show SNME show in Tampa was chanting “You suck” at Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

— I don’t know if the Jesse Ventura rant at the end of the cage match was planned or not. He was setting it up in the opening segment but it wasn’t clear and we haven’t gotten any confirmation. But that was the weirdest thing when Michael Cole talked about the two prior cage matches on SNME, Hulk Hogan vs. Paul Orndorff (1986) and Hogan vs. Big Bossman (1989) and immediately Ventura said how things have changed that NBC would have never allowed a cage match when we were on in the 80s. Both of those matches were of course on NBC in the 80s, and I don’t recall the announcing (I do remember both matches) but most likely Ventura actually announced one or both. It was bizarre. Even more, a few minutes later during the match, Ventura said it again, so nobody in the headsets even bothered to correct him and Michael Cole and Pat McAfee both times just let it slide and didn’t react to it.  

— Tonight is head-to-head Double or Nothing on PPV and NXT Battleground. There will likely be a lot of news from each show. We’re looking for your thoughts on both shows, so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match from each show to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

— While NXT was ahead in tickets sold from when each show went on sale (NXT was part of a package with Saturday Night’s Main Event and Raw, both of which sold out), the AEW show was at 7,801 this morning and NXT was at 7,248.  NXT’s secondary was very weak. AEW’s was okay. Last night’s WWE secondary market was super strong.  

AEW:

  • Adam Page vs. Will Ospreay for Owen Hart Cup finals
  • Kenny Omega & Swerve Strickland & Samoa Joe & Katsuyori Shibata & Powerhouse Hobbs & Willow Nightingale vs. Jon Moxley & Claudio Castagnoli & Wheeler Yuta & Young Bucks & Marina Shafir in Anarchy in the Arena
  • Toni Storm vs. Mina Shirakawa for AEW women’s title
  • Mercedes Mone vs.  Jamie Hayter for womens’ Owen Hart Cup finals
  • Kazuchika Okada vs. Mike Bailey for Continental title
  • Bobby Lashley & Shelton Benjamin vs. Dustin Rhodes & Sammy Guevara for AEW tag titles
  • FTR vs. Daniel Garcia & Nigel McGuinness
  • Ricochet vs. Mark Briscoe stretcher match
  • Adam Cole & Kyle O’Reilly & Roderick Strong vs. Konosuke Takeshita & Josh Alexander & Kyle Fletcher
  • Pre-show:  Megan Bayne & Penelope Ford vs. Harley Cameron & Anna Jay

NXT:

  • Joe Hendry vs. Trick Williams for TNA title
  • Stephanie Vaquer vs. Jordynne Grace for NXT women’s title
  • Oba Femi vs. Myles Borne for NXT title
  • Sol Ruca vs. Kelani Jordan for womens’ North American title
  • Tony D’Angelo vs. Stacks Lorenzo
  • Hank Walker & Tank Ledger & Josh Briggs vs. Shawn Spears & Brooks Jensen & Nico Vance

— For Raw in Tampa tomorrow night, they’ve added Sami Zayn vs. Finn Balor vs. Seth Rollins and Chad Gable vs. Penta vs. Dragon Lee in Money in the Bank qualifiers. New Day vs. War Raiders vs. Creeds for the tag titles and Rusev vs. Akira Tozawa had already been announced.  That show will be sold out.

— In a correction from the Observer and the radio show, UFC Hall of Famer Pat Miletich wasn’t arrested again on 5/19 for a DUI. He was sentenced and started serving a 30 day prison sentence for a DUI that he was arrested for on September 14, 2023.

— Just to clarify because there is a lot of misinformation on this subject: the WWE Raw Netflix debut did 5.9 million homes based on how they were figuring it which was 17.7 million hours and a three-hour show. The 5/12 show did 2.7 million so that would seem like a 54 percent drop, but a few weeks in, Netflix changed how it figured.  If week one and 5/12 were both figured the same, week one would be listed as 6,263,000 homes and 8,580,000 viewers worldwide. 5/12 would be 2,233,000 homes and 3,059,000 viewers worldwide by the same way of measuring. So, the decline would be 64.3 percent from the first show. That would be a worldwide number with the current number including India whereas the 1/6 number would not. So, the real decline would be a little more.

— Tessa Blanchard missed the TV tapings for TNA last night due to an injury suffered in her Under Siege match on Friday with Arianna Grace.

— Marigold had Nanae Takahashi’s retirement show last night at the Yoyogi Gym in Tokyo. Mayu Iwatani won the Super flyweight title from Victor Yuzuki. Utami Hayashishita retained their world title over Mira. Takahashi lost to Miku Aono in her retirement match main event. Then Takahashi had one minute matches with Senka Akatsuki, Seri Yamaoka, Kouki Amarei, Yumiko Hotta and Momoe Nakanishi. The latter two were 90s stars of All Japan women. Marigold announced a 10/26 show at Sumo Hall in Tokyo. One would think running a building that large that WWE talent would appear.

— We’re also looking for reports from last night’s Dean 2 show in Glendale AZ, results, finishes and highlights to dave@wrestlingobserver.com. I believe the show will be put up in a few days on the ROH YouTube Channel but that is not a sure thing.

— Many people consider this match, 23 years ago today, as the best tag team match of all-time, with Dan Kroffat & Doug Furnas vs. Kenta Kobashi & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi. 

— With no UFC or boxing, the only stuff on the Google trends for the weekend were 20.000 for  Cody Rhodes and 10,000 for Bronson Reed and Bray Wyatt.

— Merab Dvalishvili showed a photo claiming he had a broken toe, but he’s not pulling out of his 6/7 bantamweight title defense against Sean O’Malley.

— Bouts I was told were great from the weekend were Kazusada Higuchi vs. Kanon in the finals of the King of DDT tournament that Higuchi won, along with the Takahashi vs. Aono match.

— Maple Leaf Wrestling on 7/5 in Laval, Quebedc has PCO vs. Dan Maff, Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson vs. David Finlay & Drilla Moloney, Josh Alexander defends the MLP title, Giese Shaw defends the women’s tite and Ace Austin debuts plus Mike Bailey is on the show.

— Mike Santana defends the HOG title on 6/7 at the NYC Arena in New York against Tomohiro Ishii. Elektra Lopez will be on that show under her former name of Karisssa Rivera.