Daily Update: AEW Collision, Maxx Justice, TKO & boxing

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Sunday Update

— Bryan and I will be back tonight talking about all the wrestling news of the weekend.

— We don’t have any updates regarding Collision. Due to a technical issue, the show ended about 30 minutes early last night on TNT. It was said by Tony Khan on X that the full two hour version would air on the West Coast feed and be on MAX last night. The problem persisted and MAX doesn’t even have the show up, or at least didn’t the last I checked. We are told the overseas show on Triller aired in its entirety.  

We had gotten updates last night but nothing new today past Tony Khan late last night writing on X that they will get the show up on MAX as soon as possible. Dustin Rhodes & Sammy Gueveara beat Lio Rush & Action Andretti to earn a title shot at Bobby Lashley & Shelton Benjamin on the 5/25 Double or Nothing PPV show in one of the bouts, and the other was Powerhouse Hobbs vs. Wheeler Yuta.

— Mike Raybeck, who wrestled for years in Northern California as Mike Diamond and Maxx Justice, passed away after being hit by a vehicle while riding his bicycle home from work on 5/9.  Raybeck was believed to be 63. He was a regular with Roland Alexander’s All Pro Wrestling with the likes of Michael Modest, Tony Jones, Vic Grimes, Erin “Crash Holly” O’Grady, Vinnie Massaro, Robert Thompson and others from that period. He was working for the city of Hayward for the last 16 years as a utilities maintenance mechanic. His death was discussed at the City Council meeting this past Tuesday. They lowered the flags at all city properties. 

He was 6-foot-5 and about 260 pounds. Because of his size, he had a WWE tryout as well as one for WCW in the 90s. He held the APW Universal title five times. He was in the movie “Beyond the Mat” where he nearly got into a fight with a fan who spit on him.

–There is a lot of talk in the boxing/MMA world regarding the announcement that SELA and Riyadh Season will be promoting the Terrence Crawford vs. Canelo Alvarez fight, which has been moved to 9/13, head-to-head with a UFC PPV show. On the recent TKO conference call, it was talked about that TKO would be promoting the show. Inquiries to both UFC and WWE officials close to Dana White and Nick Khan have not gotten a response whether something has or hasn’t changed regarding Turki Alalshikh and TKO.

— The Sky Team of Mistico & Mascara Dorada & Neon won the CMLL trios titles from Averno & Mephisto & Euforia on Friday night at Arena Mexico.

— Scott D’Amore announced that he would match all  donations during a time frame in a Go Fund Me for the family of Sabu and to pay funeral expenses. In doing so, he’s paid $15,932 to make the total $52,282 in donations. Other major donations included $5,000 by Chris Jericho, $2,000 by Ryan Barker of Pro Wrestling Tees and $1,600 by Joey Janela.

— Want to give best wishes to Jim Ross in his battle against colon cancer. There’s no update past what Ross stated publicly on Twitter earlier in the week, regarding him having surgery in the next week or two.

— Dricus du Plessis defends the UFC middleweight title against Khamzat Chimaev on 8/16 at the United Center in Chicago.  

— Islam Makhachev, who was considered by most as UFC’s best champion, vacated the lightweight title to move to welterweight and challenge Jack Della Maddelena for the title. No date or place for this fight has been announced. This comes after Makhachev said that Ilia Topuria, the featherweight champion, didn’t deserve a lightweight title fight because he’d never beaten anyone major at lightweight. So now he’s getting a title fight having not beaten anyone of note at welterweight.  

— The vacant lightweight title will be filled on 6/28 in Las Vegas for the International Fight Week show with Topuria moving up to face former champion Charles Oliveira. Also on that show,  Alexandre Pantoja will defend the flyweight title against Kai Kara-France. Top flyweight contenders Brandon Royval and Manel Kape are on the undercard.

— In an interview with Adam Glyn, Dana White said when asked about Conor McGregor that he’s not fighting anytime soon. I don’t think anyone really expects McGregor to fight again in the UFC.

— Kyle Snyder is expected to plead guilty to disorderly conduct, a fourth-degree misdemeanor in his arrest last week for engaging in prostitution. Snyder, the 2016 Olympic gold medalist in freestyle wrestling, was arrested when police set up a sting operation taking out an ad for prostitution. Officers received text messages and called from a man, and a meeting was  arranged in a nearby hotel. Snyder allegedly arrived at the hotel and paid an undercover officer cash for a sexual act and he was arrested. He will likely have to pay a fine and attend a John school class to prevent repeat offenses. Snyder was one of 16 men arrested during the sting operation. Snyder signed with the Hogan/Bischoff Real American Freestyle group. Snyder is still listed for Final X on 6/14 at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ, facing Hayden Zillmer for the U.S. berth at 213 pounds in the upcoming world championships.

— Patchy Mix, the former Beallator bantamweight champion, who got his release from the PFL last week, was announced as debuting in UFC on the 6/7 PPV show. He will face Mario Bautsta at the Prudential Center.  Mix is replacing Marlon Chito Vera, who was injured in training.

— Defy results from Friday night in Seattle: Kevin Blackwood won the PrimoLucha title in a scramble match over champion Guillermo Rosas, Cody Chhun, Eddie Pearl, Evan Rivers and Miles Deville, Labron Kozone b Vaughn Vertiigo, Marina Shafir retained the women’s title over Kylie Rae, Steve Migs won a BMF Battle Royal, Sinner & Saint retained the tag titles over Los Suaveitos, Minoru Suzuki b Joey Janels. Next show is 6/13 at Washington Hall. They also have a 6/7 show in White Center, WA at the Lariat Bar.

— Friday’s show was a memorial for Kevin Diers, who passed away last week at the age of 39  Diers handled the social media for Defy and also handled interview segments. He worked for local Rock station KISW so was very tied into the Seattle community and he had been with Defy since the launch of the promotion.

— WWE has plans to run a major show in Mexico City headlined by Cody Rhodes.

— Regarding the Hardys and TripleMania Regia, they were part of the original plans for the show for AAA through TNA but as Matt Hardy mentioned, they had already booked an autograph signing on that date and the promotion was told they had been paid half up front and weren’t wanting to pull out. TNA is sending the Nemeths, the tag champs, and Moose to the 6/15 event in Monterrey. Regarding reports that Rey Mysterio was going to be on that show but was injured so couldn’t appear, obviously AAA would have wanted him and would have asked, but it was never agreed to prior to his injury. There was talk in that direction.

— Real American Freestyle, the Hulk Hogan & Eric Bischoff-led promotion, has announced Evan Wick, Austin Gomez, Real Woods, Will Lewan and Parker Keckeisen to the roster. Wick recently won the U.S. national championship. Gomez represented Mexico in the 2024 Olympics and placed second in the 2024 NCAA tournament wrestling for the University of Michigan. Woods was second in the 2023 NCAA tournament. Lewan was an age group world champion and placed fifth at the 2022 NCAA tournament. Keckeisen won the 2024 NCAA title wrestling for Northern Iowa.  

— Paramount Global Content Distributions announced an all-wrestling FAST channel called Wrestling Central for Roku in the U.S. and Canada. It will feature weekly shows from Women of Wrestling and the Billy Corgan NWA.

— Ozawa retained the GHC title over Kaito Kiyomiya in a match with a lot of interference at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo today. A lot of people liked it because there was great wrestling but others thought too much interference. In the pre-match stuff they talked about Kiyomiya leaving if he lost. Ozawa looks to next defend in a three-way against Tetsuya Endo and Takashi Sugiura.

— Rei Saito won the Champion Carnival in All Japan today beating Kento Miyahara in the finals.  This leads to brother Jun Saito vs. Rei for the Triple Crown on 6/1 in Sendai, which is near where both are from.

— The final episode of LFG airs at 8pm tonight on A&E. Wrestling’s Greatest Moments at 9:30 pm. is on DX and 10 pm is on Money in the Bank cash-ins.

— Tommy Dreamer was the first inductee in the Mid Hudson Civic Center pro wrestling Hall of Fame in Poughkeepsie, NY. This was at the Awesome Championship Wrestling show at the building.

— Kratos & Odinson won the Crockett Cup tournament beating Eddie & Orlando Colon (Primo & Epico) in the main event last night at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia. Nattie Neidhart lost when challenging Kenzie Paige for the NWA women’s title. Thom Latimer kept the NWA title over Rhino and Colby Corino.  

— Limitless Wrestling put on a wrestling show at a youth prison in South Portland, ME. The show was an idea from Ace Romero, the former Impact wrestler who is a member of the Long Creek Youth Development Center staff, a juvenile facility. Scotty 2 Hotty, who is from the area, was on the show. 

— The International Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame announced Tony Atlas & Rocky Johnson going in as a tag team in 2025. They had previously announced Trish Stratus being inducted.

— Shoko Nakajima defends the MLW women’s featherweight title against Kaya Toribami on 6/7 at Kitazawa Town Hall for Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling.