Daily Update: Cain Velazquez, CNN & AEW & Brody King

Brody King

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

*Winners, top place winners, comments and every winner of every award dating back to 1980, from Wrestler of the Year, MMA MVP, Most Outstanding, Most Outstanding MMA Fighter, Tag Team of the Year, Best on Interviews, Promotion of the Year, Best Weekly TV show, Match of the Year, MMA Fight of the year, U.S./Canada MPV, Japanese MVP, Mexico MVP, Europe MVP, Best non-heavyweight, Women’s MVP, Women’s MMA MVP, Feud of the Year, Best Box Office Draw, Most Improved, Most Charismatic, Best Technical, Best Brawler, Best Flying Wrestler, Most Overrated, Most Underrated, Rookie of the Year, Best Non-WRestler, Best Television Announcer, Worst Television Announcer, Most major show, Worst major show, Best maneuver, Most Disgusting Promotional Tactic, Worst TV show, Worst match, Worst feud, Worst promotion, Best Booker of the Year, Promoter of the Year, Best Gimmick, Worst Gimmick, Best Book and Best Documentary.

*Tons of news related to the build to WrestleMania, why the card may be changing, a major concern regarding ticket sales, predictabiity vs. surprises, How Bron Brakker’s injury changes things, Brock Lesnar situation, Becky Lynch situation, situation in Las Vegas, concerns in Las Vegas, why ticket sales are down, plus build to Elimination Chamber

*Tadao Yasuda, a unique life of a former sumo star, IWGP champion, one of the biggest upsets in MMA history, the birth of the New Year’s Eve fighting tradition, gambling issues and more

*Coverage of the New Beginning in Osaka, talent leaving, talent staying, what is the difrection for New Japan the next few months and a worst and best match of the year candidate one right after the other

*Betting odds for this week’s wrestling

*Most detailed look at the TV ratings, a look at the red flags, streaming numbers and more.

*Notes on the honoring and retirement of El Satanico and career highlights

*Mistico sellout updates

*The last Friday for a month at Arena Mexico with the biggest names

*AAA TV tapings with WWE talent

*Starddom PPV notes

*Epstein files wrestling references

*Biggest UK women’s show coming

*Show coming up attempting to be the largest attendance for an all-women’s show in three decades

*Pareamount again trying to get WBD

*How politics affects pro wrestling

*Grand Slam Australia notes

*MJF talks Punk

*TV reviews

*YouTube notes

*CBS airing UFC on 3/7

*Zuffa boxing defies Ali Act with world title announcement

*WWE injury updates

*Bad Bunny Super Bowl controversy

*WWE Hall of Famer threatens to quit if another person isn’t removed

*Reigns upcoming schedule

This Week’s Back Issue

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Sunday Update

— Garrett Gonzales and I will be back tonight talking about the weekend news and more on the awards. We have a Friday night show up on the site talking about the Awards, Brody King, AEW Grand Slam, lots of info regarding WrestleMania in Las Vegas and the issues going on and more.

— Cain Velasquez was released from prison earlier today after spending ten months incarcerated for attempting to shoot the man he believed had sexually abused his son between the ages of two and four. Velasquez showed up at the home of the man he believed had molested his son and people in the home took off in a car. Velasquez chased the car with the man, his mother and his stepfather in a high speed chase from Morgan Hill to San Jose, firing shots that hit the stepfather. His parole was moved up a month because of his participating rehabilitative programs. He was sentenced at first to five years in prison, but he got credit for time served. He has a restitution hearing for the victim of the shooting Paul Bender, on 3/18. The Velasquez family is also suing Harry Goularte Jr., Patricia Goularte and Bender over the allegations of abuse by Goularte Jr., and negligence by the other two in covering it up. Right now a trial is scheduled for that case on 11/9.

— In this article on MMA Fighting on Velasquez, at the bottom is a video of Velasquez being released at 8:30 a.m. today, seeing his wife and kids and a Mariachi band playing. Velasquez did work for AAA after his arrest but I can’t see that happening under WWE ownership. I’m sure he’ll get offers from the various promotions that do boxing, forms of fighting, Dirty Boxing, Bare Knuckle, and perhaps even real wrestling that focus on past their prime UFC stars.

— We have a detailed note on Wednesday’s Dynamnite ratings up on the site.

— The CNN article on the Brody King situation is located here (thanks to Barry Werner, Matt Schreiner, Chris Cruise and many others). This is the article that mentioned AEW being partially owned by WBD. We had understood this was the case for years but nobody had ever said it on the record. There was nobody saying it on the record here either. We do know that Tony Khan, father Shad Khan and sister Shanna Khan own 90 percent or more of AEW and that Tony Khan has 100 percent of the voting and decision making power in the company.

— I’ll talk more about the article on the show tonight, but the gist of that subject was covered on Friday’s show.

— Looking for reports from last night’s WWE show in Lubbock, TX (big house show) and last night’s NXT show in Kent, WA, with results, finishes and highlights to [email protected]. We’re also looking for reports from Sydney last night for matches not on television and detailed notes from Brisbane’s show earlier today.

— Royce Keys aka Will Hobbs made his singles debut for WWE in a dark match Friday night in Dallas before SmackDown aired. We’re looking for a report from Dallas on that one as well.

— The Sydney show drew about 7,029. For the first time in a market that’s disappointing but they don’t have television in Australia, past streaming on Disney+ there.

— CMLL sold out Arena Mexico on Friday and Arena Coliseo on Saturday. The Saturday show sold out on Friday, which is unusual for Saturday to sell out before the walk-up. Friday I expected to sell out because Mistico, Soberano Jr., Mascara Dorada, Altantis Jr., Hechicero and so many of the top CMLL stars are headed to Japan and won’t be on another Friday show until 3/13.

— We haven’t heard about any great matches from the weekend internationally other than yesterday’s Grand Slam show and people were raving about Friday’s Mistico vs Templario match. I would think there would be people that liked a certain style who may love Blue Panther vs. Xelhua from Arena Coliseo last night but I haven’t seen it yet.

— Mistico on winning the 2025 Thesz/Flair Award and other wins by CMLL in the Observer awards.

— The woman at ringside who did the angle with Andrade and Adam Page was wrestler Aysha, who actually wrestled on last night’s AEW house show in Brisbane where Jessica McKay and Cassie Lee debuted. This story goes back a month as they dropped the tag titles in TNA because they had the AEW offer.

— In Google searches for the weekend, Cain Velasquez was No. 46 with 20,000 and Jake Paul was No. 67 with 20,000. SmackDown had 5,000 as the only thing really related to current pro wrestling and with no UFC or major boxing event this weekend, that was the only stuff in the top 400.

— All Japan announced the 2026 Champion Carnival lineup as Rei Saito, Kento Miyahara, Go Shiozaki, Hideki Suzuki, Jun Saito, Ryuki Honda, Ren Ayabe, Yuma Anzai, Kengo Mashimo, Daisuke Sekimoto, Kuma Arashi, Madoka Kikuta (Dragon Gate), Xyon, Odyssey, Cyrus and Talos. Interesting no Davey Boy Smith Jr.

— Marigold’s 3D tournament will end on 2/23 at Korakuen Hall with Nagisa Nozaki & Misa Matsui & Rea Seto vs Mai Sakurai & Natsumi Showzuki & Erina Yamanaka.

— New Japan/CMLL Fantastica Mania debuts on Wednesday at Yoyogi Gym in Tokyo with tag team tournament first round matches with Valiente Jr. & Futuro vs. El Hijo de Stuka Jr. & Shoma Kato, Tiger Mask & Stigma vs. Averno & Magnus, Atlantis & Atlantis Jr. vs. Satoshi Kojima & Okumura, and Mistico & Mascara Dorada vs. Ultimo Guerrero & Sho. It airs on New Japan World at 5:30 a.m. that day.

— The NWA Crockett Cup tournament will be on 4/4 at the OC Theater in Forney, TX.

— Jacy Jayne and El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. were talked about on the WWC television show in Puerto Rico.

— Sammy Guevara vs. Amazing Red has been announced for the 3/21 HOG show in Brentwood, NY at the Suffolk Credit Union Arena.

— Yesterday was the birthday of Penny Mitchell, who was actually the woman under the Spider Lady mask in WWF every night except the night Moolah was under the mask and beat Wendi Richter without her knowledge in an MSG title match because Richter hadn’t signed a new contract. I believe Mitchell turned 65. (thanks to Ken Raftery).

— There was a question on this week’s Trivial Pursuit about the “8th Wonder of the World” who was the first person inducted into the WWE hall of fame. The contestant correctly guessed it was Andre the Giant. (thanks to Matt Schreiner)

— Farmer Burns, the original trainer of Frank Gotch, was born on this day in 1861. He was one of the most important figures at the end of the 19th century and start of the 20th century. Today is the birthday of Hugo Savinovich (67), LuFisto (46), Jenna Morasca (45) and Rich Swann (35). Louie Spicolli was 27 when he passed away on this day 28 years ago. Johnny Weaver, the longtime top babyface in the Carolinas, was 72 when he passed away 18 years ago today. One year ago today, Hall of Famer Gran Hamada passed away at the age of 74. Hamada was one of the most underrated wrestlers ever. He could do it all. (thanks to Tony Richards)

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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.