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Latest News:
Vince McMahon not backstage at WWE SmackDownFour-way number one contender's match set for WWE NXTSkye Blue officially signs with AEWWWE SmackDown live results: Triple H appears, Sami Zayn vs. Jey UsoDrew McIntyre off Friday's WWE SmackDown due to health issue
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Wrestling Observer Live: Previewing Friday's wrestling lineup, Roman vs. Cody decisionWrestling Weekly: Vince McMahon is a zombie that can't be killedBig Audio Nightmare: Stardom Cinderella recap, NJPW Sakura Genesis previewFight Game: Will Cody Rhodes' redemption story work?Bryan & Vinny Show: Jay White debuts for AEW, NXT after WrestleMania, more!
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This Week's Wrestling Observer Newsletter:
April 10, 2023 Observer Newsletter: Endeavor to acquire WWE and merge with UFC, WrestleMania 39
Highlights include:
*It's one of the biggest issues of the year, given we have coverage of what will be the biggest story of the year, the Endeavor/WWE/UFC merger with all the details of how it happened and what it means, plus coverage of WrestleMania and all the major events of WrestleMania week
*The story behind the merger
*The new power structure of WWE and UFC
*All the financial details of the merger including stock, what stockholders will be getting
*How the deal went down and when
*Who will be negotiating WWE TV deals
*Vince McMahon's worth based on what they are pitching valuation at and his actual stock worth as of right now
*How much top WWE execs were bonused from the sale and new contract for the top two guys in the company and its valuation
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*How Vince McMahon changed Raw
*What are the big questions going forward regarding creative
*What employees and wrestlers were told
*Investigation of the deal
*Can WWE get out of the deal
*Financial benefits of the deal
*What it means going forward
*What happened internally in UFC from the deal
*Profits and revenue for UFC and WWE last year
*The history of Vince McMahon and UFC and secret story about a WrestleMania main event that never happened
*Coverage of WrestleMania
*Examining Rhodes vs. Reigns and the finish
*Real attendance figures and other business figures
*PPV numbers and which show had the most viewers
*What were the most watched matches after the fact
*Social media numbers and who drew the biggest and where there are contradictions
*Match-by-match coverage with star ratings as well as poll results
*AEW trying to run Wembley Stadium and more history of such
*A look at a famous period in wrestling history with the death of U.K. promoter Max Crabtree, and the debate over whether the Big Daddy era killed wrestling in that country or it was killed earlier and he just gave it a last life
*A look at the ROH Supercard of Honor, business notes, match-by-match coverage
*A look at NXT Stand & Deliver
*What happened with Gisele Shaw and Rick Steiner
*The most detailed look at the ratings over the past week and what they mean
*Arena Coliseo 80th anniversary event
*Build to the biggest show in Stardom history
*New Japan/Impact dual show
*One of the best bouts of the year took place this past week
*Jay White signing
*Injury updates
*Another major AEW hiring
*WWE Hall of Fame coverage
This Week's Retro Observer Newsletter:
February 20, 2006 Observer Newsletter: Bret Hart agrees to enter the WWE Hall of Fame
Ordering Info:
Order the print Wrestling Observer right now and get it delivered via mail, by sending your name, address, Visa or Master Card number and an expiration date to dave@wrestlingobserver.com or by going to www.paypal.com directing funds to dave@wrestlingobserver.com.
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Friday Update
For this weekend, Garrett and I will be doing our usual Friday show covering the news from this past week and boy was there a lot of it. Bryan and I will be back Saturday also covering the news including the Friday shows, as well as Sakura Genesis and UFC 287.
Vince McMahon is not in Portland, OR, for Smackdown tonight. He did call in remotely and made some minor changes to the show.
WWE today filed a motion to dismiss the MLW lawsuit against them. It was a 32-page document where it claims WWE blocking other companies from television isn't the case, citing MLW getting on REELZ, AEW adding programming on WBD and Women of Wrestling getting a national syndication deal. They claim that they had to send MLW a cease and desist because of trying to steal their IP in using the name Enzo Amore, and that the Peacock deal for REELZ came after the MLW deal with REELZ and MLW could still make a streaming deal elsewhere. Actually wen Eric Arndt came to MLW he used nZo which WWE claimed was too close to Enzo Amore and also claimed with the spelling that they were using WWE-owned IP close to nWo because o the style of the nZo logo. They also claimed MLW used War Games last June on YouTube when WWE owned the War Games name.
Smackdown has announced Sami Zayn vs. Jey Uso, Rey Mysterio & Santos Escobar vs. Damian Priest & Dominik Mysterio and Sheamus & Ridge Holland & Butch vs. Imperium, plus HHH will cut a promo and Rhea Ripley appears. As of this morning, WWE had 9,611 tickets out for the Moda Center in Portland.
Rampage and Battle of the Belts airs 10 p.m. to midnight tonight on TNT with Anna Jay vs. Julia Hart, Hook vs Ethan Page for the FTW title, Acclaimed & Matt Menard & Angelo Parker in an eight-man tag match, Darby Allin vs. Lee Moriarty, Lucha Brothers vs. Powerhouse Hobbs & QT Marshall for the ROH tag titles, Jade Cargill vs Billie Starkz for the TBS title and Orange Cassidy vs. Dralistico for the International title. As of this morning, AEW had 2,752 tickets out for the show in Kingston, RI. They are taping ROH for next week tonight before they go live.
AEW hit 35,000 for the number of people asking for a code for the presale for the Wembley Stadium show on 8/27.
For this weekend, we are looking for your thoughts on UFC 287 and NJPW Sakura Genesis tomorrow, so you an 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 WWE in Portland, OR and AEW in Kingston, RI, for anything that doesn't happen on the live TV shows like dark matches and the like.
*Sakura Genesis starts at 4 a.m. Eastern time tomorrow morning from Tokyo Sumo Hall:
*Mystery six man tag match
*Jeff Cobb & Aaron Henare & Francesco Akira vs. Sho & Yujiro Takahashi & Evil
*Tetsuya Naito & Shingo Takagi & Bushi vs. Taichi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Douki
*Tama Tonga & Hikuleo & Master Wato vs. David Finlay & El Phantasmo & KENTA
*Mercedes Mone vs. Hazuki vs. AZM for the IWGP women's title
*Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Shota Umino for the TV title
*Hirooki Goto & Yoshi-Hashi vs. Aussie Open for the IWGP tag titles
*Hiromu Takahashi vs. Robbie Eagles for the IWGP Jr. title
*Kazuchika Okada vs. Sanada for the IWGP heavyweight title
*Mayu Iwatani will be at the show to challenge the winner of the IWGP women's title for 4/23 at the Yokohama Arena.
Skye Blue has officially signed an AEW contract.
I strongly recommend watching the Sunday match with Takagi vs Henare from Korakuen Hall It is one of the best matches of the year.
*UFC 287 tomorrow from Miami, FL:
6 p.m. on ESPN+:
*Jaqueline Amorim (115.5.) vs. Sam Hughes (116)
*Steve Garcia (145.5) vs. Shayilan Nuerdanbieke (146)
*Ignacio Bahomondes (159.5) vs. Trey Ogden (159.5)
*Cynthia Calvillo (116) vs. Lupita Godinez (115.5)
8 p.m. on ESPN:
*Karl Williams (241) vs Chase Sherman (249.5)
*Gerald Meerschaert (185.5) vs. Joe Pyfer (185.5)
*Michelle Waterson Gomez (116) vs. Luana Pinheiro (115.5)
*Kelvin Gastelum (185) vs. Chris Curtis (186)
PPV at 10 p.m.
*Raul Rosas Jr. (135) vs. Christian Rodriguez (137) – Rodriguez missed weight and was fined 20 percent of his purse
*Kevin Holland (170.5) vs. Santiago Ponzinibbio (171)
*Rob Font (135) vs. Adrian Yanez (135.5)
*Gilbert Burns (170) vs. Jorge Masvidal (171)
*Alex Pereira (185) vs. Israel Adesanya (184.5) for the middleweight title
*The gate for this show is more than $11 million, which is more than either night of WrestleMania even though they are doing an arena setting. It would be one of the biggest gates in UFC history.
UFC announced that the 6/10 PPV show will be in Vancouver, BC.
Amanda Ribas vs Maycee Barber is slated for a 6/24 UFC show that will air on ABC
Jessica Andrade vs. Yan Xiaonan is slated for a 5/6 PPV show in Newark, NJ
The Universal tournament of champions in CMLL starts tonight at Arena Mexico with Mistico vs. Atlantis Jr. vs. Rocky Romero in a battle of the three historic champions.
El Hijo del Vikingo is working for GCW on 5/26 in Las Vegas which is the AEW Double or Nothing weekend.
Other Notes
The NWA has a PPV tonight called 312 on FITE from Chicago headlined by Tyrus vs. Chris Adonis for the NWA title, Cyon vs. EC3 for the National title, Kamille vs. Rosa Negra for the women's title, Bestia 666 & Mecha Wolf vs,. Magnum Muscle for the tag titles, Kenzie Paige vs. Max the Impaler for the women's TV title and lots of other title matches.
LFA is running a show at the Gila River Resort & Casino in Chandler, AZ on 5/19.
Defy tomorrow night in Seattle at Washington Hall features Swerve Strickland vs Nick Wayne for the Defy title, plus Vert Vixen defends the women's title against Miyu Yamashita, Bollywood Boyz vs.State of Emergency, Michael Oku vs Cody Chhun, Marina Shafir vs. Nicole Matthews an Alex Reynolds & John Silver & Guillermo Rosas vs. Ricky Gibson & Eddie Pearl & Levi Cooper,. They also ran 5/5 in Tacoma at ALMA Tacoma.
Innovate Wrestling has the Smoky Mountain Cup tournament on 4/29 in Kingsport, TN at the Civic Auditorium. It will start with six singles matches and the winners go into a six-way eliminating match in the finals Chase Owens is on the show.
Central States Wrestling tomorrow night in Lenexa, KS at the National Guard Armory with a no holds barred street fight for the DWF title with Jeremy Wyatt vs. Ace Steel with Michel Strider as referee plus Tootie Lynn vs. Heather Reckless.
Lucha Va Voom returns to its home base of the Mayan Theater in downtown Los Angeles for shows on 5/4 and 5/4. Taya Valkyrie, Peter Avalon, Rey Horus and Jack Cartwheel will be on the show.
Pro Wrestling Revolver from last night ni Dayton, OH: They announced Josh Alexander wasn't there due to his injury and that Brian Cage had travel issues and wasn't there: JT Dunn b Myron Reed, Chris Sabin b Bryan Keith, Mike Bailey & Veda Scott b Steve Maclin & Deonna Purrazzo in a married tag team match, Gringo Loco won scramble match, Madman Fulton b Crash Jaxon, Miyu Yamashita b Allie Katch, Ace Austin & Chis Bey b Trey Miguel & Zachary Wentz to win the tag team titles, Alex Shelley b Jake Crist in a street fight to keep the Revolver Remix title.
Brittany Blake vs. B3CCA has been added to tomorrow night's MLW show in Philadelphia.