Daily Update: WWE Survivor Series notes, Brian Kendrick, Ricky Steamboat

Daily Update

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Sunday News Update

We’ve got two shows up from this weekend. Garrett Gonzales and I went over the news of the week from WWE and AEW in depth on our Friday night show. Bryan and I talked Survivor Series, Smackdown and lots of thoughts on War Games on last night’s show. Bryan and I will be back again tomorrow night.

Some notes from last night’s show. The show was a legit sellout, and really it was pretty much sold out from day one. After production moved in, they put a few hundred more tickets on sale the last day or two, which scalpers bought immediately and then put on sale for the public. It was the largest pro wrestling gate ever in Boston and broke seven figures. It was the most-watched Survivor Series ever but with it being on Peacock which has over 15 million U.S. sub subscribers as compared to nine million last year and one million that the WWE Network had, it was a given going in it would break that record. I’ll have a story on War Games, its history and what did and didn’t work in the matches, on the Sports Illustrated site tomorrow.

Brian Kendrick was backstage producing. Not sure if this was a tryout or a new hire. PW Insider reported it as a tryout. It is notable that he was about to start in AEW when it became a thing of controversy regarding him claiming the holocaust wasn’t real and he was dropped. For some reason, with WWE, I saw nothing at all regarding that subject and his being hired. The only thing we heard was that it was a surprise to most people, including those at NXT who know him, that he was back.

Ricky Steamboat had his first match in more than a dozen years in Raleigh, NC tonight teaming with FTR against Jay Lethal & Brock Anderson & Nick Aldis managed by Arn Anderson. The Big Time Wrestling show also has Mark & Jay Briscoe vs. Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson in the final Rock & Roll Express match ever at Dorton Arena, plus Matt Hardy vs. Crowbar Devon Storm, a Jimmy Valiant Boogie Man Jam Battle Royal plus The Steiners, Kane, Lex Luger and Teddy Long appear as guests.

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

We’re also looking for reports from tonight’s WWE house show in Portland, ME and the Ricky Steamboat headlined show in Raleigh, NC tonight to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

The only thing this past week in boxing , pro wrestling or MMA to crack the Google search list was Survivor Series which was the seventh most searched term in the country with more than 200,000 searches. The number is normal level for a B show although Survivor Series is usually an A show. The previous show with Logan Paul did 300,000.

Road Dogg, Molly Holly and Alundra Blayze (Madusa) have all been announced for Tuesday’s NXT show in regard to announcing the wrestlers in the two Iron Survivor matches on the 12/10 special. 

AEW has an ROH Final Battle PPV show from Arlington, TX, also on 12/10, and UFC has a PPV show on 12/10, so that will be a crazy day. AEW has two weeks to promote the ROH show with Chris Jericho vs. Claudio Castagnoli for the ROH title with Castagnoli having to join the JAS if he doesn’t win the title as the stipulation. That will be an afternoon show which may be more difficult for PPV than the usual prime time evening time slot. There were teases of FTR vs. Gunn Club and Mercedes Martinez vs. Athena for the tag and women’s titles. The latter from TV basically looked like it was happening although not officially announced.

New Japan had both junior heavyweight and heavyweight tag team tournament bouts in Nagoya today for its biggest show so far in both tournaments. Results were:

      • Jr: Bushi & Titan over Kushida & Kevin Knight
      • Heavy: Great O’Khan & Aaron Henare b Alex Coughlin & Gabriel Kidd
      • Jr.: Alex Zayne & Lindaman b Sho & Dick Togo
      • Heavy: Aussie Open b Minoru Suzuki & Lance Archer (pinning suzuki with Coriolis)
      • Jr: Ace Austin & Chris Bey b Ryusuke Taguchi & Clark Connors
      • Heavy: Hiroshi Tanahashi & Toru Yano b Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens
      • Jr.: Yoh & Lio Rush b Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Douki
      • Heavy: Shane Haste & Mikey Nicholls b Evil & Yujiro Takahashi
      • Jr.: TJP & Francesco Akira b Tiger Mask & Robbie Eagles
      • Heavy: Hirooki Goto & Yoshi-Hashi b Tetsuya Naito & Sanada
      • Aussie Open is in first place in the heavyweight with three wins while Naito & Sanada, Archer & Suzuki, Nicholls & Haste, Goto & Yoshi-Hashi and O’Khan & Henare have two wins.
      • In the junior, Austin & Bey are first with four wins, TJP & Akira, Zayne & Lindaman, Bushi & Titan and Yoh & Rush all have three wins.

New Japan has a junior heavyweight tag team tournament show live on New Japan World at 4:30 a.m. Eastern tomorrow morning from Nagano with Ryusuke Taguchi & Clark Connors vs. Kushida & Kevin Knight, TJP & Francesco Akira vs. Sho & Dick Togo, Tiger Mask & Robbie Eagles vs. Alex Zayne & Lindaman, Bushi & Titan (who have been great all tournament) vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Douki and Lio Rush & Yoh vs. Ace Austin & Chris Bey.

The 1/4 AEW show in Seattle has a ticket special that you can get four tickets for $80 using the code AEWSEASON.

The Miz will be on NBC’s The Wheel shows from 12/19 to 12/23 and 12/26 to 12/30. He will be one of six celebrities helping contestants win money. He will also be on Pictionary soon. (thanks to Brian Henke)

A correction from Friday. We had listed that the Stardom in Showcase show yesterday was the first Showcase show on PPV, but that they had other Showcase shows on PPV. (thanks to Shannon Walsh)

Biaggio Ali-Walsh, the grandson of Muhammad Ali, fought MMA Friday night at the PFL show at the Hulu Theater. He looked very good, knocking out Tom Graesser in :45 in an amateur fight that opened the show.

Impact wrestling has received new physical belts. Top Rope Belts, which made the new belt, sent out a tweet showing heavyweight champion Josh Alexander with his new belt, Knockouts champion Jordynne Grace with her new belt and Heath & Rhino with their new tag team title belts.