Daily Update: Big E, LA Knight, Beyond Wrestling

LA Knight WWE WrestleMania 42
LA Knight makes his entrance at WWE WrestleMania 42. (Image credit: WWE)

Daily Update

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

Among the topics covered:

  • The most detailed look at the sale of New Japan, what happened, the glory days that Bushiroad built and why it came down and what led to the sale.
  • Business realities of Japanese wrestling today.
  • The reason for the surprising low sale price.
  • The shareholders lawsuit against Vince McMahon and the WWE Board of Directors is getting near. Judge Travis Laster orders sanctions against Nick Khan and Vince McMahon for destruction of evidence. Laster makes a ruling, and we look at it in detail, on how this changes the trial and the exact details of the destruction of evidence including when McMahon and company knew not to do it and ignored their own lawyers. Also we look at problems with the case.
  • AEW Double of Nothing coverage. Business notes, historical biggest gates in U.S. pro wrestling, three-time world champions by 30, how the PPV did, poll results, Mick Foley and more.
  • Did Ronda Rousey set a viewing audience record for MMA, plus coverage of Rousey vs. Carano, how everything goes forward, can things be sustained, can she fight, will she fight, her thoughts on AEW.
  • Scott Coker returns to MMA with a new promotion.
  • Marcel Barthel (Ludwig Kaiser) arrested.
  • A look at the career of Jerry Grey.
  • The most detailed look at the ratings for all the TV shows over the past two weeks.
  • Mistico injury update.
  • How CMLL is doing this year compared to last year.
  • Natalia Jiminez and J Balvin appear and are part of CMLL shows.
  • Wrestlers vs. media soccer game.
  • Grande vs. Grande match looked at.
  • Major return to Stardom.
  • Champion Carnival finals.
  • NOAH tag team tournament.
  • New Japan Best of the Super Juniors tournament.
  • Hana Kimura tribute show.
  • Phil Hickerson passes away.
  • WCW announcer is the final anchor as CBS News Radio closes its doors after 99 years.
  • Death of the Laguna version of Piloto Suicida.
  • Junior Hodge Trophy winner.
  • Advance ticket sales for all major events in AEW, WWE, TNA and other indies.
  • Pro wrestler/fighter on the Rousey-Carano undercard.
  • WWE stars purchase promotion.
  • Tony Khan media appearances.
  • More thoughts on how Paramount/Skydance can affect AEW.
  • What can affect the time slot of Collision in 2027.
  • What’s next for AEW.
  • AEW star to return in the fall.
  • Latest Zuffa myths regarding Trump and UFC.
  • UFC fighter pay comes up again

This Week’s Back Issue

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Thursday Update

Big E WWE

WWE

  • Big E will be delivering a TEDx Talk in Davenport, Iowa on August 12:
    • Excited to announce that I’ll be delivering a @tedx_official talk in Davenport, IA, on August 12 at @thelastpichouse!
    • ‘How I Got Over’
    • Sharing my struggles with major depressive disorder and psychosis, and my eventual healing through medication, hospitalization, ECTs, talk therapy, and mindfulness/meditation.
  • On Insight with Chris Van Vliet, LA Knight shared that – during his brief time as Max Dupri – Vince McMahon would always tell him that he needed to speak softer:
    • Vince told me before, ‘You gotta talk soft, I don’t want you to say or do any of the things that you used to do, none of that, whatever.’ If I’m honest though, he wasn’t familiar with any of it. He didn’t know LA Knight. I think he was told a little bit…
    • That first day of introducing the Models and we’re doing the little rehearsal thing talk-through. And he comes down and he’s like, ‘I need you to talk softer.’ And I’m like, okay, well, I’m thinking like, you had me talking soft in the backstage, but like now I’m doing a presentation. I need to be a little bigger, right? To present to the people. But it’s his show. Sure. And he goes, ‘Just read me a line from there as softly as you can.’ He’s like, ‘I don’t think you can be effeminate, but try and be effeminate without being effeminate.’ What?
  • Knight said the initial impression he was given for the Dupri character was that he would take a similar trajectory to Roddy Piper in WWE, starting out as a manager before wrestling full time:
    • The bill of goods that was sold to me there was that I was going to be kind of a Roddy Piper. In the sense of when Roddy first came in, he was like a manager, a mouthpiece that then sometimes wrestled, and then eventually just became a full-time wrestler. That was kind of how it was painted to me.
    • There were some other details in there that made me think like, ‘Okay, this could be okay.’ Then it started going in directions where I was like, this is going to be awful. This is going to be pigeon-holed. We’re stuck. We’re never going to get above a certain trajectory.
  • Becky Lynch discussed her friendship with Je’Von Evans:
    • We’ve got Je’Von Evans who’s 21. He’s younger than my wrestling career. He calls me ‘mom,’ because I’m old enough to be his mom. But then I’m so proud of him. I’m like, ‘Oh son, look at you, look at you out there main eventing Elimination Chamber.’ And I just think he’s the coolest. I think he’s so awesome. Like the confidence that he has and the ability that he has and his promo, everything. I’m like, this kid’s a star.
  • Nattie praised Undertaker and Jeremy Borash for the work they’re doing behind the scenes in Lucha Libre AAA:
    • I will say that Taker and Jeremy Borash – Jeremy Borash, he works alongside Taker at AAA. A lot of people know JB as being somebody that puts together the most amazing video packages in WWE. He puts together, if you see some of the best video packages in the company, usually JB is behind a lot of them.
    • And so to see what Taker, who by the way – Taker is not known for being a luchador. When you see what Undertaker has built in just the last six months of booking at AAA alongside Jeremy Borash and, of course, the people that had been in place in Triple A that work with them. Taker is very, very collaborative.
    • I’m just blown away. Like, I think that Taker has really stepped into this new role and he is proving why his influence past the ring may be one of his greatest accomplishments.
  • WWE Hall of Famer Typhoon (Fred Ottman), who is still working through the rehab process after spending approximately a month in the hospital earlier this year when his gallbladder “exploded,” is getting ready to head back on the road for signings. His first booking is in North Carolina on July 25.
  • Sol Ruca was the guest on No-Contest Wrestling this week.
  • WWE Vault uploaded an Ultimate Warrior & Strikeforce vs. Demolition & Mr. Fuji match from the Boston Garden in 1988.

Other Wrestling

  • Rebel thanked The Young Bucks – and Matt Jackson’s wife Dana Massie – for donating their YouTube live stream proceeds from last night to her ALS fundraiser:
    • BIG thank you to you guys and Dana. My heart is filled and I am truly grateful for your prayers
  • On the stream, Matt Jackson responded to someone who said they’d like to see The Good Brothers (Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows) back in AEW:
    • I would love to do that, trust me. I may have tried to do that recently. They’re killing it right now. They’re so busy on the indies
  • Though MJF is unable to appear due to injury, Wheeler Yuta and Lio Rush have been added to Beyond Wrestling’s show in Cranston, Rhode Island this Friday night.
  • Indie promotion F1RST Wrestling will hold its annual Mall of America event on July 31 in Bloomington, Minnesota.
  • Uncrowned FIlms put together a 13-minute video on Brodie Lee Jr.’s debut at Spring Break.
  • Jonathan Gresham shared his thoughts ahead of competing in GCW’s Tournament of Survival this weekend:
    • If you had told me years ago that I’d willingly enter a deathmatch tournament, I probably would have laughed. But after returning to the ring, something changed. I felt blessed simply to be here again. Blessed to compete. Blessed to learn. Blessed to experience this life through professional wrestling.
    • That feeling opened a door in my mind.
    • I no longer want to see only one side of this art form—I want to experience all of it. Every style. Every challenge. Every lesson hidden behind a different set of ropes. Professional wrestling is a vast world, and I want to walk every path it offers.
    • So this is my next step.
    • Deathmatch wrestling.
    • I look forward to testing myself, embracing the unknown, and carrying the spirit of pure wrestling and MAG with me into an environment where it rarely exists. Different roads. Different philosophies. Same pursuit of growth.
    • As always, I am a student of the game.
    • And this weekend, the classroom just happens to be a tournament of survival.
    • With the fire and spirit of the originals, I am the foundation.
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Joseph Currier
Joseph Currier

Joseph Currier is the lead editor of F4WOnline.com, directing daily news coverage and writing articles on professional wrestling. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, obtaining a journalism degree in 2016. Joseph joined F4W during his time at UMass and has now been writing about the industry for nearly a decade.

In addition to his work with F4W, Joseph has previously contributed to Sports Illustrated's wrestling coverage. He lives in Massachusetts and is a diehard fan of the Boston sports teams and Liverpool Football Club.