Daily Update: AEW & WBD deny sale story, more on New Day departure
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- AAA on Fox spoiler: WWE main roster star returns
- Rebel says AEW Collision message and fan signs ‘lift her spirits’
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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter
- A look at the WWE releases, reasons, prospects for the future, who should AEW or TNA be interested in
- Nick Khan speaks to WWE employees about Paul Levesque, WrestleMania, social media, Saudi Arabia and AI
- WWE Backlash and AEW Double or Nothing updates, including interest levels for both shows
- Stardom All-Star Grand Queendom show looked at
- How the latest Nielsen ratings change affects pro wrestling and where it affects it the most
- Dragon Gate has its annual big Nagoya show this week
- A look at the career of Gran Markus Jr.
- The most detailed look at the television ratings for pro wrestling and MMA programming this past week
- The 70th anniversary of pro wrestling at Arena Mexico
- Who is coming for Fantastica Mania Mexico
- Big match planned for AAA television
- Champion Carnival update
- NOAH major show update
- New Japan has Dontaku with Andrade and Will Ospreay this week
- Wrestling Red Zone coverage
- A look back at the original Tiger Mask and his influence on pro wrestling and MMA
- Who are the most famous wrestler in the ten largest cities in the world, and top 50 cities in the world
- Biggest moments in NCAA wrestling tournament history over the past 60 years
- Former pro wrestling booker heading up a unique promotion
- Updates on Real American Freestyle
- More UFC stars coming to RAF
- Advance ticket sales for all the major pro wrestling events over the next two months and the story that it tells
- Two relatives of major pro wrestling stars signing with NFL teams
- Remembeing David Allan Coe, the country singer of Great American Bash fame
- Jimmy Valiant retires
- Former WWE star says she’s making a comeback
- Carlos Silva on why TNA won’t let its talent work with AEW talent and examining what he said
- AEW May television schedule changes
- WWE television schedule changes
- Ronda Rousey wants to be a promoter
- Puck breaks a notable story on Ari Emanuel and Vince McMahon
- More on when the next lawsuit against WWE goes to court
- More notes on TNA expanding domestic exposure
- More on new WWE signings
- NXT house show notes
This Week’s Back Issue
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Sunday Update
— Bryan and I will be back tonight to talk about today’s news and stuff here, as well as whatever we can watch with all the stuff that happened this weekend.
— Tanea “Rebel” Brooks in response to the message to her by Tony Schaivone on Collision last night said, “Thank you to my AEW family and to Tony Kahn and thank you to the fans for the signs. They truly lifted my spirits.” Brooks was diagnosed this past week with ALS, a horrible disease and from her video, she has likely been affected by it for a few years since she’s had multiple health issues that they had been unable to get to the bottom of. The story is so sad because ALS is a horrible disease and there is no cure for it. I think everyone says their prayers for her in this situation.
— I hate even addressing a non-story but this whole AEW story by John McMullen, which he completely rewrote, was such a non-story. Tony Khan has said the conversation claimed with David Zazlav in August never happened. Both AEW and WBD have completely denied the story. Of course they would if it was true, but the idea that any decision on AEW would be made prior to Paramount getting the company in and of itself makes no sense, let alone in August before ANYONE knew who would get it and Netflix was the clear frontrunner. Since August we’ve seen HBO MAX start adding AEW PPVs to its service and multiple new WBD/AEW integrations including on Adult Swim, the timeline of which made the story makes no sense.
MyAEW TV was not even released in the U.S. and Canada and was obviously, and we noted this from day one, a way for AEW to break ties with Triller which was having so many financial issues. It was not rushed out or even intended for the U.S. market, it was to replace AEW+ on Triller with an in-house service.
The only accurate thing is that the contract expires at the end of 2027 and whatever decisions will likely be made that year by whomever at Paramount/Skydance on either the sports side or entertainment side (and we don’t even know yet which side it will fall under) makes those decisions. Paramount + would have a small ownership stake in the company when the sale goes through and get a percentage of PPV revenue besides owning streaming and television rights from the sale.
I’ll talk more about this tonight.
— The stories on New Day that largely broke yesterday are accurate in that they were asked to take a pay cut on a deal signed in 2025 that was to go to 2030. They didn’t accept the pay cut and left on their own. For their careers, it was time to leave probably two years ago. It is most of the time good for longevity for a change in scenery, but talent doesn’t do it much for a variety of reasons including comfort and less or a risk in their minds. But they will be free agents in three months I believe, as their situation is different from the other roster cuts.
— The one incorrect narrative going around is that what has happened is something different than in the past. This happens every year. There are always lots of cuts, and always a few surprises such as talented people who were in stories that end up cut. Most of the cuts are people in the middle of contracts. There may be one or two no-cut contracts but for 99 percent of the talent they can be cut at any time. The cuts are more roster size than anything else and Vince McMahon did the exact same thing. Now, restructuring of contracts in the middle was not common, but it did happen under McMahon many times., Nothing is new here.
— Regarding Roman Reigns being pulled from June TV dates that were announced, the reason we were told is that he’s not going to be on the Saudi Arabia PPV and thus there was no reason to do the TV’s building that show. If he loses the title next week, of course that would be a change and there will be more to the story. If he retains, that’s probably all it is. But Reigns is no longer scheduled for any television in June.
— We haven’t gotten much on great weekend matches. Shane Haste’s GHC tite win over Yoshiki Inamura was 30+ minutes and if you like that kind of match, very solid, world title style working, it was a great version of that match, particularly Haste. Haste’s first title defense is 5/13 at Korakuen Hall against Kenta.
— Andrade beat Yota Tsuji earlier today to win the Global title in Fukuoka.
- Mistico & Desperado & Taiachi & Yuya Uemura b Ryohei Oiwa & Hartley Jackson & Robbie Eagles & Kosei Fujita. Mistico & Desperado vs Eagles & Fujita tomorrow is now an IWGP jr. tag title match.
- Will Osperay & Great O’Khan & Henare b Hirooki Goto & Yoshi-Hashi & Tatsuya Matsumoto
- Konosouke Takeshita & Shota Umino b Chase Owens & Yujiro Takahashi
- Shingo Takagi & Drilla Moloney & Taiji Ishimori & Robbie X & Daiki Nagai b CallumNewman & Jake Lee & Francesco Akira & Jakob Austin Young & Zane Jay
- Aaron Wolf b Don Fale
- Ren Narita b Oleg Boltin to retain the Never title
- Andrade b Tsuji with the message.
Andrade will be defending next against either Umino or Moloney next, or in a three-way against both.
The second show starts at 1:40 a.m. Eastern tonight. Key bouts are:
- Newman vs. Takagi for IWGP title
- Goto & Yoshi-Hashi & Boltin defend the trios titles against Ospreay & O’Khan & Henare
- Tsuji & Moloney & Robbie X & Hartley Jackson vs. Lee & Akira & Young & Jay
- Eagles & Fujita vs. Mistico & Desperado for the IWGP jr. tag titles
- Uemura & Taichi vs. Hartley Jackson & Oiwa
- Takeshita vs. Owens for the TV title
— Templario beat Kushida on Friday night at Arena Mexico to win the MLW middleweight title. They didn’t sell out for CMLL vs. MLW but it was a very big crowd. Donovan Dijak & Trevor Lee both remarked it was the loudest in the case of Lee and one of the two loudest in the case of Dijak crowds they had performed in front of. Angel de Oro & Soberano Jr. beat Lee & Austin Aries. Dijak & Bishop Dyer kept the MLW tag titles over Euforia & Averno. Shotzi kept the MLW women’s title over Garra Negra.
— Jack Perry vs. Mascara Dorada and the ten-man tag match with The Rascalz & Top Flight vs. Death Riders & Dogs from Peoria last night on Collision were also great.
— I would have thought due to the time slot that the UFC show would not have done well, but it was reversed. UFC was the No. 2 television show on Paramount + yesterday worldwide, as well as No. 2 in the U.S. even though the show aired early in the morning from Australia.
— As far as Google searches for the weekend:
- David Benavidez had 200,000
- UFC last night was 310,000
- Kofi Kingston was 100,000 (Roman Reigns not listed)
- The Rock (for being pulled over) was 20,000
- Ricky Saints was 5,000
— I saw nothing for Naoya Inoue, whose boxing match at the Tokyo Dome drew a reported 55,000 fans (sounds high to me but it was sold out way in advance) and a $32 million gate. It was the largest combat sports gate ever in Japan by a wide margin In the all-time rankings, it was behind Mayweather’s fights with Pacquiao and McGregor, Alaverez vs Crawford and both nights of the 2025 WrestleMania. Not sure what the 2026 Mania gates were so it’s possible it could be above that but don’t think so because WWE did not announce a record gate and this number was just underneath the $33 million each night from last year.
— AJPW Champion Carnival update:
A block
- Kento Miyahara 7
- Rei Saito, Kengo Mashimao, Oddyssey, Go Shiozaki, Talos and Kuma Arashi 6
- Yuma Anzai 5
B block
1. Ren Ayabe and Daisuke Sekimoto 8
3. Hideki Suzuki and Yuma Aoyagi 7
5. Madkota Kikuta and Ryuki Honda 6
7. Xyon 5
8. Jan Saito (injured)
— Tom Aspinall said that things with his eyes are progressing well now and he hopes to be cleared for contact training soon. He said he is training, but not sparring, but said if things continue to improve, he’s back. He said he’s looking to fight the winner of Cyril Gane vs Alex Pereiera, who fight in June for the interim title.
— Dwayne Johnson turns 54 today. Pat McAfee turns 38. Wild Bull Curry was born on this day in 1913. Don Kernodle was born on this day in 1950. Randy Culley/Moondog Rex was born on this day in 1950. Ray Traylor aka Big Bubba aka Big Bossman aka The Boss was born on this day in 1963. Sammy Steamboat, who got canoeing into Hawaiian high school sports and was a legit legend of the 60s, passed away 20 years ago today at the age of 71.
Kirk White’s Big Time Wrestling from Friday night at a sold out Newark, CA Pavilion: Jiah Jewell b Marcus Lewis, Satnam Singh b Ben Bishop, Viva Van b Simone, Los Suavecitos b All Day Kru, VertVixen b Indi Hartwell, Bad Dude Tito b Jordan Cruz, QT Marshall b Royce Isaacs with Tommaso Ciampa as referee, Aaron Solo b Tome Filip. Next show is 7/17 (thanks to Johnny Poon and Jim Davis)
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.