Daily Update
Latest News:
WWE Draft 2023: Full list of night one picksKenny Omega vs. Jon Moxley cage match confirmed for AEW DynamiteThe Firm Deletion set for next week's AEW RampageWWE SmackDown live results: The WWE Draft beginsAEW Rampage live results: Bullet Club Gold vs. Ricky Starks & Shawn Spears
Latest Audio:
Wrestling Observer Live: Draft Day on SmackDown, Minneapolis Mania thoughts, moreBig Audio Nightmare: Stardom All Star Grand Queendom, NJPW Strong Women's titleFight Game: Did Triple H make a big mistake?Bryan & Vinny & Jeff Show: Dynamite with the Four Pillars tournament and NXT Spring Breakin'
Latest Free YouTube Video:
Join us in Las Vegas for our annual F4W Convention
This Week's Wrestling Observer Newsletter:
May 1, 2023 Observer Newsletter: More on AEW Saturday show, WWE reveals new World Heavyweight Championship
Highlights include:
*Wrestler and Performer of the week
*Lots of new news regarding AEW plans, new television show, how this impacts AEW, who will be the stars of the different shows and more.
*WWE creates a new world championship belt, the story behind it, the draft and changes in draft plans, and what NXT talent is ready now and can be stars later
*Full coverage of Stardom's All-Star Grand Queendom, one of the biggest women's events of the past 25 years. We look at business, Mercedes Mone, creation of a new championship, PPV numbers, the count out finish with match-by-match coverage with star ratings.
*The lawsuit filed by former WWE writer Britney Abrahams against the company, including stereotyping wrestlers, comments by writers, and much more
*WWE and AEW major shows between now an the end of August, matches, tickets out, interest levels and top feuds
*The next TripleMania show with the El Hijo del Vikingo vs. Kenny Omega rematch
*UFC full coverage from Saturday, results, details, business and future prospects
*The most detailed look at al the television ratings this past week, including what competition means, how things compare to a year ago, and what major change this week in television and how that impacts prime time wrestling
*Dragon Gate's next major show
*All Japan Champion Carnival update
*Will Ospreay future
*New Japan Best of the Super Junior notes
*Notes on the New Japan shows this week
*Aaron Henare talks his greatest match with Shingo Takagi
*One of the greatest woman wrestlers of all-time, at 61 wins a tag team title
*The story of Don Luce, one of the most respected pro wrestling historians
*One of the all-time greats will have a statue put up in his home town
*Notes on the new season of Dark Side of the ring
*Devon Nicholson talks about the claims of Abdullah the Butcher
*New book deal about a gangland murder of a major 80s star
*Promotions piggybacking around AEW at Wembley Stadium
*MLW TV future notes
*Owen Hart Cup
*Kota Ibushi update
*Notes from All Access
*ticket advances for WWE & AEW shows
*Streaming and international TV numbers
*Two legendary wrestlers who later did MMA have documentaries out on them and finalists for Emmy Awards
*Bellator's return to Hawaii
*Business notes on Tank Davis vs Ryan Garcia and crossover with the pro wrestling audience
*All of what went down with Nate Diaz in New Orleans
*Peacock business number and what that means for WWE
*Changes in Raw
*Law firm investigating WWE merger
*Lots of WWE injuries and talent questioning some of the training
This Week's Retro Observer Newsletter:
March 8, 2006 Observer Newsletter: Big months ahead for pro wrestling, WWE details new substance abuse policy
Ordering Info:
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Friday Update
Garrett Gonzales and I will be doing a show with Steve Keirn, talking Florida wrestling, WWE training, The Fabulous Ones and more today, and talking about his new autobiography. Bryan Alvarez and I will be doing our weekend show talking the draft tomorrow night.
Smackdown tonight is in Corpus Christi, TX for the first draft show. Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn vs. The Usos for the tag titles is the key match plus the draft. The building was set up for 7,536 fans. Cora Jade, Pretty Deadly and A.J. Styles are all there. No Drew McIntyre even though he's listed as being drafted tonight.
Both WWE shows today are sold out, as the Belfast, Northern Ireland show has been sold out for weeks.
We're looking for reports on these weekend shows:
*Smackdown tonight in Corpus Christi (dark matches and anything off the air)
*Impact TV tapings tonight in Chicago
*NXT house show tonight in Jacksonville
*WWE house show Saturday in Beaumont, TX
*WWE house show Saturday in Paris, France
*Impact TV tapings Saturday in Chicago
*WWE show Sunday in Bossier City, LA
We're looking for results, finishes and highlights from all these events to [email protected]
Tonight is the 67th anniversary of pro wrestling at Arena Mexico. The first show was April 26, 1956. The show is being headlined by the finals of the Universal champion of champions tournament with Templario vs. Atlantis Jr. vs. Dragon Rojo Jr. Plus Princesa Sugehit defends the women's title against Zeuxis.
Results from today's WWE house show in Belfast, Northern Ireland:
*Bianca Belair b Iyo Sky-DQ for the Raw women's title
*Belair & Asuka b Damage Ctrl 2 vs. 3 when Belair pinned Dakota Kai with the KOD
*Damian Priest b Dolph Ziggler due to help from Dominik Mysterio
*Dominik Mysterio b Dexter Lumis with his feet on the ropes
*Rick Boogs b Baron Corbin with a press powerslam
*Seth Rollins b The Miz with a curb stomp
*Alpha Academy b Maximum Male Models
*Austin Theory won a three-way over Bobby Lashley and Bronson Reed to keep the U.S. title by pinning Reed after Lashley speared Reed
*Cody Rhodes b Finn Balor in a great match. Rhodes thanked Balor for inventing Bullet Club and without him there would have been no American Nightmare. He said he hoped to come back to Belfast with the title. (thanks to James S and Nfallon)
Here are the Backlash current odds from BetOnline
Brock Lesnar -150 Cody Rhodes +110
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Seth Rollins +110 Omos -150
Austin Theory -125 Bronson Reed +150 Bobby Lashley +185
Rhea Ripley -1600 Zelina Vega +700
Matt Riddle & Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn -300 Usos & Solo Sikoa +200
MLW champion Alex Hammerstone said that the injury he recently received was a torn adductor muscle.
Those who signed up for the pre-sale for the AEW show at Wembley Stadium should have received their code earlier today. The idea of unique codes was to prevent scalpers. Those who have subscriptions to the AEW FITE service (a paying service in Europe where you get commercial free Dynamite & Rampage live) are also getting special codes and will have the first crack at tickets. VIP ticket sales are Tuesday from 9-11 a.m. local time. For those who got codes the presale will be Tuesday from 11 a.m. until Thursday at 8 p.m.
Among the matches scheduled to be taped tonight for Impact in Cicero, IL are
*Steve Maclin & Champagne Singh & Mahabali Shera vs. PCO & two mystery partners
*Jonathan Gresham vs. Mike Bailey
*Masha Slamovich vs. Killer Kelly
*Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley vs. Eddie Edwards & Kenny King
*Yuya Uemura vs. Bhupinder Gujjar vs. Moose & Brian Myers
*Jody Threat vs. Alisha Edwards
*The Coven vs. Deonna Purrazzo & Jordynne Grace
UFC has a full ESPN+ show from the Apex in Las Vegas from 4:30 – 10:30 p.m Eastern time tomorrow
*Hailey Cowan (137.5) vs. Jamey-Lyn Horth (135.5) – Cowan missed weight and had to forfeit 20 percent of her purse
*Journey Newson (138.5) vs. Marcus McGhee (140)
*Stephanie Egger (135) vs. Irina Alekseeva (140) – Alekseeva missed weight by four pounds and had to forfeit 30 percent of her purse
*Cody Durden (126) vs. Charles Johnson (125.5)
*Martin Buday (265) vs. Jake Collier (265.5)
*Josh Quinlan (169) vs. Trey Waters (171)
*Marcos Rogerio de Lima (262.5) vs. Waldo Cortes-Acosta (258)
*Julian Erosa (145.5) vs. Fernando Padilla (145.5)
*Rodolfo Vieira (186) vs. Cody Brundage (185.5)
*Caio Borralho (185.5) vs. Michal Oleksiejczuk (185.5)
*Song Yadong (136) vs. Ricky Simon (136)
Braun Strowman will serve as the Pace Car driver at the NASCAR race in Dover, DE on Sunday. It will air on FS1.
The Bamboozle, a New Jersey music festival that was going to host GCW shows, was canceled today. The festival was from 5/5 to 5/7 . The city of Atlantic city said that Bamboozle did not receive final permits after organizers failed to submit the necessary paperwork by the city's deadline.
70s and 80s star Ron Fuller will get back in the ring on 5/6 in Rocky Top, TN, teaming with Mike Jackson for a tag team match.
Cody Garbrandt is expected to face Mario Bautista on the 8/19 UFC show according to MMA Fighting.
Other Notes
Abdullah the Butcher will appear for AIW Wrestling on 5/20 in Eastlake, OH at Force Sports.
XICW on 5/27 in Lincoln Park, MI at the Community Center features an autograph appearance of Kurt Angle.
WAR on 5/20 in Lima, OH at the Empowered Sports Center.
House of Glory Wrestling on 5/19 at the NYC Arena in Jamaica, NY has Jacob Fatu vs. Matt Cardona for the HOG title plus Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin vs. Midas Black & Jay Lyon
In the current issue of the Observer, there was a mention of Canadian wrestler Michael Blais doing an eight hour Infinity Gauntlet match on 5/13 as a fundraiser for the Stollery Children's Hospital in Edmonton. It will be live streamed on YouTube from 10 a.m. to 7 pm. Eastern time. For more info on this you can go here.
LFA on 6/16 in Owensboro, KY at the Owensboro Sportscenter has John Sweeney (12-3) vs. Allan Begosso (7-2-1) for the interim bantamweight title and Dylan Budka (5-1) vs. Azamat Bekioev (15-3). It will air live on Fight Pass.
ISW tonight in Avenel, NJ, has a steel cage TLC match with Crowbar vs. Rick Recon. Also on he show is Bull James, Maven and Danny Morrison.
Floyd Mayweather's next exhibition fight will be against John Gotti III on 6/11 from the Florida Live Arena in Sunrise, FL