Daily Update: WWE Survivor Series fallout, Conor McGregor, Shota Umino

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Sunday Update

  • Bryan and I did the weekend show covering Survivor Series last night. Garrett Gonzales and I were up Friday for a show which talked about the week in review, the Continental Classic, and a breakdown of AEW finances and exactly where the worst case scenario business would end up being.
  • As noted elsewhere Jimmy Uso suffered a broken toe from his dive off the top of the cage and Bronson Reed suffered an ankle injury also coming off the top of the cage in the War Games last night. Paul Levesque said it looked like Reed would be out for several weeks.
  • The show did 200,000 Google searches which would be right at expectations for such a show.
  • Just to confirm something from another show I did, the 12/14 Saturday Night’s Main Event is a two-hour show from 8-10 p.m. Eastern time. I expect they’ll get a lot of the key matches announced on tomorrow’s Raw.
  • We’re looking for your thoughts on Survivor Series so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  • The BBC has updated the Conor McGregor story with more on just how badly his reputation was hurt in Ireland because of the guilty verdict in the civil trial with Nikita Hand.
  • Shota Umino suffered an ankle injury on Friday and missed today’s show, but at least as of yesterday was listed to be on tomorrow’s show in Kochi where he & Tomoaki Honma were to face KENTA & Chase Owens in a tag team tournament match. He was doing a running back elbow where he dropped to his knees for impact and his foot got caught in the canvas and twisted.
  • IWGP Junior Heavyweight champion Douki has issued challenges for Titan, Soberano Jr. and Sammy Guevara for the 1/5 show at the Tokyo Dome.
  • A note that ROH Final Battle at the Hammerstein Ballroom is 12/20. We had at one point this past week mentioned 12/19 as the date.
  • As far as best matches of the weekend, I haven’t seen Jordynne Grace vs. Masha Slamovich from the TNA show on Friday but did see Josh Alexander vs. Steve Maclin. The fight struggle was great but the crowd being so quiet hurt. Really it feels like that’s been the case for the actual matches in WWE & AEW as well of late. I talked about the Rampage matches with Mascara Dorada & Atlantis Jr. & Katsuyori Shibata vs Top Flight & Action Andretti and Komander vs. Hechicero, which had great wrestling but crowds now are less into great action from “non-stars,” very much like WWE has been and used to be. The WCW/NWA crowds and even AEW from two years ago if two guys who aren’t stars put on a great match and the crowd would get behind it big for the action is a lot less now.  Both Rampage matches did get the crowd by the end, but they took a long time to do so.  
  • The match to see of the weekend was Mistico’s Leyenda de Plata tournament win over Hechicero. Far less flying than you’d get from a usual Arena Mexico match and a Mistico match. It was a technical match, worked like a face vs. face world title match in the 70s or 80s and that in theory is a risk for a casual tourist crowd. The tourist crowd comes for the easier to be entertained stuff that the rest of the show had, but the main event still had the most heat by far even with little flying and such a long technical match. But it worked to say the least with at least three spots where the excitement was such the building was literally shaking.
  • Some AEW ratings notes. The Wednesday Dynamite number should be out tomorrow. It should be noted that with the West Coast airing at 5 p.m. instead of 8 p.m., that would mean a roughly seven percent drop over normal. Obviously the Saturday shows outside the normal time slot in the afternoon will be way below usual. Saturday will also be hurt because we heard (and experienced it ourself) that Direc V did not record on DVR Collision if you had a season pass. It did record Rampage. I have no idea why. I don’t know if this was every home but we heard from a number of people and I checked because DirecTV screws up with Collision every few weeks so I always check and it was not going to record again. With Rampage being a Lucha show with Hechicero vs. Komander as the main event (great match but no star power) going head-to-head with Survivor Series, it would be expected to be the lowest number a regular AEW wrestling show has gotten.
  • Karl Stern of this site has written a 692 page encyclopedia on pro wrestling in the U.S. from 1835 to 1900 called “DragonKingKarl’s Pioneer Era Pro Wrestling Omnibus: The Bible Of the Pioneer Era of Pro Wrestling.” It covers every significant match in that era, talks real vs. worked, and explores myths regarding the biggest stars of that era. For more info go to WhenItWasCool.com. We’ll do a show on that era soon.
  • Shinsuke Nakamura’s U.S. title win was pushed big in NOAH because Nakamura vs. Ulka Sasaki will be on the NOAH 1/1 show at Budokan Hall. The main event is  Kaito Kiyomiya defending the GHC title against Ozawa.
  • After today’s show, Gedo has booked has B block in the NJPW tag tourney as :
    • Great O’Khan & Henare (tag champs) 4-1
    • Evil & Ren Narita 4-1
    • Toru Yano & Oleg Boltin 3-2
    • Tetsuya Naito & Hiromu Takahashi 3-2
    • Mikey Nicholls & Shane Haste 2-3
    • Hiroshi Tanahashi & Jado 2-3
    • Tome & Stevie Filip 1-4
    • Taichi & Taka Michinoku 1-4
  • The Stardom tag tournament has finished round-robin play. The playoffs start 12/7 in Hamamatsu. That show has Maika & Hanako vs. Natsuko Tora & Ruaka with the winners facing Hazuki & Koguma. Also on the other side of the bracket, Starlight Kid & Suzu Suzuki face Hanan & Saya Iida with the winners facing Natsupoi & Saori Anou.  The winner of the two semifinals meet in the finals.
  • All WWE Network subscribers in Japan have gotten notice that it will be shut down in that market at the end of the year. (thanks to Jose Gonzalez and Mori Ono)
  • The family of Gran Hamada is looking for blood donors, particularly in the San Luis Potosi area.
  • Juggalo Championship Wrestling Spanksgiving last night in Wyandotte, MI, before a sellout 225 fans: The Wrath b Bryer Wellington, Brothers of Funstruction b Young Altar Boys, Colt Cabana b Cocaine, Dani Mo b Alice Crowley in a women’s title match, Kongo Konig & 7 Foot Tall Painful Paul b Tarzan & JJ Allen, Misfit (Matt Cross) b Roddy S, Backseat Boyz b Grim Reality in a tag team title match, Caleb Konley won three-way over Moshpit Mike and Alex Taylor & Kerry Morton & Silas Mason b Willie Mack & Matt Cross  & Mickie Knuckles.  They have dates coming 12/4 in Little Rock, AR, 12/5 in St. Louis, 2/19 in Detroit at the Majestic and 12/21 in Columbus, OH.
  • Kurt Angle will be doing a seminar for House of Glory on 1/25 as well as a Q&A at the NYC Arena at 91-12 144th Place in Jamaica, NY 11435.  For more info you can email contact@hogwrestling.net
  • Lane Boyle, aka longtime WI indy wrestler Jack Spade, lost his house in a fire and a Go Fund Me was started for him.
  • NWA announced for 12/14 in Dothan AL, a cage match with Natalia Markova vs Tiffany Nieves, Colby Corino vs. Kerry Morton,Silas Mason vs. Bryan Idol and a second cage match for an unannounced NWA title.