Daily Update: UFC 329 fallout & Hangman Page’s AEW Collision return

Conor McGregor | UFC 329
Conor McGregor injured his right leg during his UFC comeback Saturday. (Image credit: UFC)

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

Among the topics covered:

  • How with CM Punk and Kenny Omega title wins affect upcoming shows
  • A look at big shows with WWE & AEW with very little announced and only a few weeks to go
  • Updates on ticket sales to SummerSlam, All In, Redemption and more
  • The story of Conor McGregor, going through the drug testing issues, an amazing thing that seemed to come up, double and triple standards, the sexual assault cases and UFC covering up so much of his news. We go through a lot of fairness issues in UFC that others may not fully understand or won’t touch
  • We look at tomorrow’s UFC show
  • Sheamus leaves WWE, a look back at his run and where he goes next
  • Tiger Mask IV retires, and it’s all about the original Tiger Mask and the golden age
  • Notes on the ceremony
  • Dark Side of the Ring and TNA history, a look back and what was and wasn’t overed from the start of the promotion and the twists and turns
  • Tomoaki Honma announces retirement
  • The most complete look at the TV ratings for all the wrestling, boxing and MMA shows, details about who watched, the World Cup kills wrestling and more.
  • Wrestler leves promotion after 33 years
  • This week’s CMLL records being broken
  • Is CMLL overextending itself with the number of live events
  • World Grand Prix lineups
  • Vikingo update
  • AAA YouTube numbers
  • G-1 Climax first day notes
  • Notes on New Japan’s big show of the week in Japan
  • Ticket sales for all the major pro wrestling events in the U.S. for the next two months
  • Most watched YouTube segments for WWE and AEW
  • Notes from recent wrestler interviews
  • More notes from depositions reveal what the Board of Directors knew about Vince McMahon and Janel Grant long before the lawsuit was filed
  • Dwayne Johnson plays character based on his grandfather

This Week’s Back Issue

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Sunday Update

Hangman Page makes AEW return
Hangman Page makes AEW return (Image credit: AEW)

— Our weekend show with Garrett Gonzales on Friday covered the news of the past week and previewed the weekend. We did our weekend show last night talking UFC, G-1, Collision and Smackdown with Garrett & Paul Fontaine.

— Not a lot left to say about the UFC show. The big question was if Conor McGregror came in with the injury. There is a clip of him coming to the cage that is suspicious but it also could have been a minor injury that got worse. McGregor’s denial should mean nothing because he has to say that. It was actually a very good show aside from the main event where McGregor threw a kick, and he couldn’t stand up after his planted leg twisted, even though he tried. It was a terribly disappointing ending for such a hyped fight.

— Paddy Pimblett did come across as an amazing star doing a near Zack Sabre Jr. style submission on Benoit Saint-Denis in the semi last night. Really the production was tremendous (past Dana White going crazy when they listed Shakur Stevenson, now the most highly paid fighter in TKO, as an NBA player). Pimblett got an amazing reaction.

— The show did a $26.4 million gate at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, the largest in UFC history.

— The New Japan G-1 show suffered from very significant sound problems. I kept hearing from the building how loud the crowd was but they picked it up badly. Even with those issues I could tell how hot they were for Yuto-Ice and in the Callum Newman vs. Yuya Uemura and Yota Tsuji vs. Konosuke Takeshita bouts.

— Adam Page last night on Collision made a mention of wishing he ddn’t know so much about cervical radiculopathy. Cervical radiculopathy is the technical term for a pinched nerve in the neck. Symptoms include radiating pain, numbness, tingling, or weakness in the shoulder, arm, or hand. It is most commonly caused by disc herniation or bone spurs. It can lead to spinal stenosis and is not uncommon among wrestlers but it does suck. He returned with a promo on the show, was insistent he would never challenge for the AEW title again, but also said he never signed a contract and wouldn’t do it out of being a man of his word. Fans were not happy he said he would never challenge again. He also challenged every other singles champion.

— The best weekend match I’ve seen was Konosuke Takeshita vs. Yota Tsuji last night on the G-1 in Chicago. I didn’t get anything recommended past Yutani vs. Titan for the CMLL welterweight title from Arena Coliseo which was very good but a number of the Chicago matches were better.

— Looking for your thoughts on G-1 last night from Chicago so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to [email protected]

— We’re also looking for reports from these weekend shows:

Smackdown in Oklahoma City (dark matches only)

  • NXT Friday night in Venice, FL
  • NXT Saturday night in Sebring, FL
  • WWE tonight in Albuquerque, NM

Looking for results, finishers and highlights to [email protected]

— Results from WWE in Las Cruces, NM last night:

  • Penta b Ethan Page to retain the IC title
  • Charlotte Flair b Jacy Jayne via DQ with Fatal Influence interfering and Chelsea Green and Tiffany Stratton making the save
  • Flair & Stratton & Green beat Fatal Influence
  • Danhausen b Kit Wilson
  • Obe Femi & Seth Rollins b Bron Breakker & Austin Theory via DQ in a tag team title match
  • Chad Gable b Rusev
  • Trick Williams b Carmelo Hayes to retain the U.S. title
  • Cody Rhodes & CM Punk b Gunther & Ricky Saints

— In Google searches, last night’s UFC show was second to Linsday Graham and ahead of all World Cup related searches. It did 2.79 million searches on Google. The White House show did 2.88 million and Carano vs. Rousey did 2.75 million so all three were in the same basic ballpark

— It was the No. 1 show on Paramount in 14 countries including the U.S., Brazil and Mexico. Worldwide it was behind Dutton Ranch and Yellowstone for the day as the No. 3 TV show on Paramount +.

— In other searches, RAF’s show yesterday did 10,000 searches while Baron Corbin’s return to Smakdown did 5,000. There were a ton of UFC related searches regarding past stars, future shows, but nothing traditional pro wrestling related besides Corbin.

— Gable Steveson did no wrestling, just stood up and boxed, kicked and threw knees in his first round UFC debut win. He won fairly easily. Abandoning wrestling will not end well when he goes against good fighters. This could be just trying to get him experience in stand-up but at the high level his game is going to be about ground-and-pound or it won’t do well.

— For Dynamite on Wednesday, the only stuff announced was a Kenny Omega championship celebration which one would think leads to the angle for Omega’s opponent in Montreal on 7/26, and Mercedes Monde & Megan Bayne & Lena Cross vs. Willow Nightingale & Maya World &N Hyan.

— RAF drew nearly 10,000 fans in Tisibili, Georgia (as in Russia, not the U.S. state) with what was said to be one of the most exciting fights in company history where Merab Dvalishvili came from from an 8-0 deficit against Henry Cejudo, a former gold medalist in wrestling and ended up winning 11-8. More notable from a wrestling standpoint was Kyle Snyder pinning Abdulrashid Sadulaev, who many considered the best wrestler in the world. I believe Sadulaev was injured early in the match. Arman Tsarukyan won via tech fall over Kaut Khaitov 11-0. Cruiserweight champion Kyle Dake beat Vladimer Gamkkrelidze 2-0 and women’s bantamweight champion Helen Maroulis beat Annelina Lysak via pin.,

— Blake Avignon reported that Anheuser-Busch and Bud Lite have paused their working agreement with Dustin Poirier. During the Bud Lite ad that has been playing on UFC shows that Poirier is in, the one wth Bruce Buffer, Poirier was edited out.

— WWE on A&E tonight

  • 8 p.m. Greatest Moments of Mick Foley
  • 8:30 p.m. Greatest Moments of Randy Savage
  • 9 p.m. Greatest Moments of Steve Austin
  • 9:30 p.m. Greatest Moments of tag teams of the 90s

— Killer Kross will defend the MLW world title against Jimmy Townsend on the 7/26 Alpha-1 Wrestling show. Ethan Page runs Alpha-1 Wrestling.

— Amanprett Singh, the former Mahabali Shera, knocked Jack Swagger totally out on Friday night’s PowerSlap show in Las Vegas. It was brutal.

— After doing his retirement match in Japan five days ago, Tiger Mask is coming out of retirement for the 8/3 Produce wrestling show in Brooklyn at Pioneer Works where it will be Tiger Mask & Tommy Billington vs. two Black Tigers.

— Brock Lesnar turned 49 today. Shane Helms turned 52. Sami Zayn turned 42. Bobby Bruns was born on this day in 1914. Bruns is one of the most influential players in pro wrestling history, as the guy who broke Rikidizan into pro wrestling. Carolinas promoter Joe Murnick was born on this day in 1916. Roy Heffernan of The Fabulous Kangaroos was born on this day in 1925. Newton Tattrie/Geeto Mongol was born on this day in 1931. Rene Goulet was born on this day in 1932. Jack Curley, a Hall of Fame promoter died on this day in 1937 at the age of 61. Yvon Robert, the biggest wrestling star ever out of Montreal and a multit-iome world champion died on this day in 1971 at the age of 56. Dara Singh, a movie star and pro wrestling superstar in India, died 14 year ago at the age of 83. Paull Ordnorff passed away five years ago today at the age of 71. (thanks to Tony Richards)

— Mike Jackson, who I believe is 76 or 77, won a five-way star Eli Knox, Wonder Boy, The Shocker and Sawn Aries on Memphis Wrestling this weekend to win their Junior Heritage title. He in fact was a high flying wrestler in his day. (thanks ito Brian Tramel)

— Nickla Roberts (Baby Doll) announced she was pulling herself from all appearances due to her husband suffering a heart attack. Best wishes to her,

— Kirk White’s Big Time Wrestling on 7/18 at 3 p.m. at Raimondi Park in Oakland,CA will have four matches with QT Marshall vs LJ Cleary, Viva Van vs. VertVixen, Los Suavecitos vs Aaron Solo & Tome Filip and Alpha Zo vs Toa Liona.

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Dave Meltzer
Dave Meltzer

Dave Meltzer is the founder and lead writer on the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the weekly constant when it comes to news and reviews in pro wrestling and mixed martial arts for more than 40 years. Dave also co-hosts Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and had had bylines for The National, Yahoo Sports, MMA Fighting and others.