Daily Update: WWE Raw, Sting, Being The Elite
Daily Update
Latest News:
AEW Rampage viewership, 18-49 demo up from last weekWWE SmackDown viewership, 18-49 demo down against NCAA tournamentReport: Goldberg a free agent after WWE contract expiresWWE Raw live results: Roman Reigns appearsSting to team with Darby Allin & Orange Cassidy on AEW Dynamite
Latest Audio:
Filthy Four Daily: Awesome Sami Owens/Kevin Owens angle, BLP go-home showWrestling Observer Live: Awesome Kevin/Sami segment, Roman needs to transition to creating new stars, AEW house show successBryan & Vinny & Craig Show: Rampage with Brody vs. Garcia, weekly live Q&ADragonKing Dark: The strange funeral of Graham Parsons
Latest Free YouTube Video:
This Week's Wrestling Observer Newsletter:
March 20, 2023 Observer Newsletter: WWE WrestleMania 39 cards take shape, AEW Revolution buys
Highlights include:
Match of the week and performer of the weekWrestleMania updates, including status of different matches that have been planned and not announcedTicket sales notes and demand for tickets, plus notes on NXT Stand & DeliverA study of the buying patterns of PPVs for AEW, including comparisons with one year ago, how many shows the average AEW PPV buyer purchases each year, the difference between satellite owners and others in the viewing patterns, update on Revolution numbers and how many different people bought an AEW PPV this past yearLetters from WWE to the Alamodome in San Antonio show how WWE counted Royal Rumble attendance, along with the actual numbers from the showRichard Schaefer, the famed boxing promoter, heading Anthem's wrestling, MMA and new boxing divisions and what are future plans for the divisionsNew Japan Cup coverage with all the matches from the past weekNotes on AEW's Canada tourMexican star taken to prison on domestic violence charges against another Mexican wrestling starFull coverage of this past week's major pro wrestling events and the UFC showUpdate on the WWE Hall of Fame including stories on the careers of the inducteesCoverage of the WWE's return to its most famous arena, Madison Square GardenThe life of former wrestler Jeff Gaylord and his very checkered life after wrestling and during wrestlingThe most detailed look at the weekly television ratings, competition, how segments did, where shows are strong and weak.Promotion adding a ton of new talent after young wrestlers impress in a special formatMainstream angle being done in MexicoJoint show announced in Japan for the Himeka retirementA look at the Guerrero wrestling familyLegendary athlete passes away that a wrestling move done all over the world was named after including the person who actually named the moveNew promotion starting taking the name of a legendary regional companyInternational Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame 2023 inductions and ceremonyRic Flair Twitter war of wordsLots of indie notes including some big crowds this week16 Carat Gold tournament in Germany newsNotes on recent Will Ospreay matchesNotes on major AEW negotiationsAEW cancels TV tapings and whyUpdate on social media abuse of RihoChris Jericho honoredTicket sales for upcoming WWE & AEW showsStreaming numbers for WWE & AEW this past weekInternational TV ratings updates including a company sets its all-time viewing record in CanadaNotes on AEW signeesUFC TV renewal talk even though it's years awayFormer UFC champion Benson Henderson retiresUpdate on WWE's attempt to get legalized betting on its matchesUpdate on Jay WhiteInterest level mainstream of UFC, WWE and AEW big shows including geographical popularity split between AEW Revolution and WWE Elimination ChamberUpdate on MLW lawsuit against WWEWhat are the key new things in the suitWWE injury updates and returns
This Week's Retro Observer Newsletter:
February 6, 2006 Observer Newsletter: Royal Rumble, WWE business notes
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Monday Update
Bryan and I will be back tonight covering all the latest news from WWE and the rest of the wrestling world plus building to the shows during the rest of the week.
Raw is in St. Louis tonight. Roman Reigns, Sami Zayn, Logan Paul, The Usos, Rey Mysterio and Lita are all scheduled on the show. Charlie Dempsey is there as well, but he'll likely be on Main Event because that's where the NXT talent flown in usually works. Announced is a face to face with Reigns and Cody Rhodes, Austin Theory vs. Montez Ford non-title, Asuka & Bianca Belair vs. Chelsea Green & Carmella, plus Impaulsive TV with Logan Paul to likely shoot another angle with Seth Rollins. More than 12,000 tickets were out this morning so with walkup this will almost surely end up as a sellout. They will be up more than 64 percent from the last time they taped television in the building on 10/28, which tells you how hot things are compared to five months ago
Sting returns Wednesday night on Dynamite in a six-man tag with Darby Allin & Orange Cassidy vs. Kip Sabian & Butcher & Blade from Independence, MO. This is the show featuring the Kenny Omega vs. El Hijo del Vikingo match.
On Being the Elite, they did a phone chat gimmick with the Young Bucks, Adam Page and Kenny Omega but Omega bailed out of the chat, so the story is the Young Bucks are or have made amends with Page but Omega has yet to do so.
PW Insider reported that the fifth and final WWE Hall of Fame inductee this year is likely a referee who "someone the entire industry loved." It would be the first referee ever inducted if that's the case.
New Japan's New Japan Cup finals are tomorrow at 4 a.m. Eastern from Niigata:
Hiroshi Tanahashi & Yuto Nakashima vs. Taichi & DoukiZack Sabre Jr. & Kosei Fujita vs. Ryohei Oiwa & Shota UminoTama Tonga & Tomohiro Ishii & Tomoaki Honma vs. KENTA & El Phantasmo & Chase OwensDesperado & Ren Narita & Toru Yano & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Evil & Yujiro Takahashi & Sho & Dick TogoTetsuya Naito & Shingo Takagi vs. Great O'Khan & Aaron HenareKazuchika Okada & Hirooki Goto & Yoshi-Hashi vs. Aussie Open & Jeff CobbHiromu Takahashi vs. Lio Rush for the IWGP Jr. titleSanada vs. David Finlay in the New Japan Cup final
Besides the two main events, the undercard will likely set up matches for the 4/8 show at Sumo Hall.
The New York Post has a story on massive layoffs coming to ESPN and that nobody is safe, which could affect those who cover UFC, plus that they are interested in Pat McAfee.
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Popular Northeast referee Sean Patrick O'Brien, known as SPO, passed way. We don't have any details other than he refereed for a number of promotions including ICW NHB and was said to be best friends with John Wayne Murdoch, noting they were traveling partners. On Saturday night's ICW NHB show on IWTV, they had all the talent in the ring while the crowd chanted "SPO" to start the show. Danny Demanto then came out to dedicate the show to O'Brien (thanks to Ross Blair)
The 3/30 episode of ROH television, which hasn't been taped yet, will be taped on 3/29 at the Dynamite tapings in St. Louis, so they'll tape ROH, Dynamite and Rampage.
The Undertaker has a One Man Show on 3/24 at The Chelsea at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas.
The presale for Forbidden Door on 6/25 in Toronto takes place on Wednesday.
AEW will be taping Dark matches at Universal in Orlando from 6-10 p.m. on Friday night.
WWE did a combo ticket presale for both the Smackdown and Backlash shows on 5/5 and 5/6 in San Juan, Puerto Rico today. We don't have numbers but the queue was long and I expect sellouts for both shows almost immediately when they go on sale to the public.
Denise Salcedo will be joining Busted Open radio every Saturday starting this coming weekend from 9 a.m. to Noon Eastern time working with Mark Henry on Sirius XM.
Denzel Freeman, who scored a 27 second knockout on Friday night's PFL show, earning him a contract for the heavyweight tournament, was formerly in WWE developmental. After being picked by Randy Couture, Kayla Harrison and Wiz Khalifa for a contract based on being the most impressive winner on the show, he asked if Liv Morgan would go out with him. Morgan is in a relationship with Taylor "Uncle Howdy" Rotunda.
The episode of NCIS: Los Angeles with Sheamus aired last night. In the story, star Sam Hanna (LL Cool J) goes undercover in an underground Bare Knuckle fight club to catch dirty cops involved in a Fentanyl drug ring. Sheamus played Odin the head of the drug gang. The two had a fight at the end of the episode. He was billed in the credits a "WWE Superstar Sheamus" as opposed to Stephen Farrelly. (thanks to Grant Zwarych)
A correction from yesterday (it was corrected last night in the daily update) is that the next TKW show in Taylor, MI is on 4/21. We had listed it was 4/2 (thanks to Leonard Brand)