Daily Update: Dave’s birthday, ratings, weekend schedule
Daily Update
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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter
–The new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter is up on the site now
*Full coverage of WrestleKingdom
*Thoughts on the booking decisions
*How the PPV did and other business notes
*Polls on the show
*The unique situation of AEW in St. Louis
*Saturday Night’s Main Event update and depth in WWE right now
*The life and times of Bobby “Mo” Horne, from Men on a Mission who passed away this past week.
*The Hall of Fame case for Sabu
*Odds for upcoming major pro wrestling matches
*The most detailed look at the ratings for all the wrestling TV shows this past weeks, placings for the night and the week, annual comparisons and more
*The largest crowd for an all-women’s pro wrestling show in more than seven years
*More on the AEW talent in Mexico this week
*WWE talent in Mexico this week
*Notes on Kento Miyahara vs. Go Shiozaki
*New Japan Super Juniors tournament
*Lots of health issue updates for those in the wrestling business
*Lots of WWE injury updates
*Andrade update
*Fantastica Mania U.K. notes
*More on potential sale of WBD and how this affects AEW
*What wrestlers have had the most great matches in 2025
*Advance ticket sales for WWE & AEW shows over the next two months
*What show is expected to break the all-time arena gate record
*More on the debate over the new version of the Ali Act
*Death of Duke Roufas
*WWE value to ESPN as far as selling subscriptions
*Lots of WWE news regarding non-compete and a look at various situations including that of Brock Lesnar, Samantha Irvin and Renee Paquette
*More on AI and WWE creative
*WWE international tour notes
This Week’s Back Issue
- February 4, 2008 Observer Newsletter: John Cena makes shocking return at WWE Royal Rumble, TNA wants Impact live
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Friday Update
—Garrett and I have our week in review show talking about the stories in the new issue of the Observer today and we’ll also be doing a show most likely tomorrow afternoon after the UFC show.
–Thanks for all the birthday wishes. As I used to be reminded every year by Lance Russell, who would always call me after he called Bill Dundee, today’s is Dundee’s 82nd birthday. The original Paul Diamond from the 60s and 70s turned 90 today and as best we know he’s still alive. Kamille turned 33 and Bron Breakker turned 28. (thanks to Tony Richards)
–AEW Dynamite did 477,000 viewers and an 0.08 in 18-49. It’s just the reality of the new numbers. For every show, numbers that were inconceivable are now the reality ESPN had Cleveland vs. New York Knicks NBA at 2,166,000/0.63, FOX News had Watters (3,250,000/0.16) and Hannity (2,798,000/0.14), Middle Tennessee vs. Delaware college football on ESPN 2 did 417,000/0.09 and AEW taied with Challenge, Expedition X and The Source with Kaitlan Collins on CNN for fourth place at 0.08. A Freeform movie in the first half hour did an 0.13 so it would have tied for the first 35 minutes. There were a ton of NBA local market openers but the story is still the Big Data+Panel destroying wrestling and UFC numbers and that doesn’t look to be changing at all.
–This is a big weekend as far as shows go. We are only doing one poll this weekend which will be for the NXT Halloween Havoc show tomorrow, but a weekend scorecard:
*Women’s Grand Prix tonight from Arena Mexico on Triller PPV
*UFC tomorrow morning/afternoon in Abu Dhabi on ESPN PPV
*NXT Halloween Havoc tomorrow in Prescott Valley, AZ on Peacock
*AAA Heroes Inmortales at Juan de la Barrera Gym in Mexico City (I expect this to be put on on YouTube on a tape delay)
*Real American Freestyle tomorrow night from Penn State University streaming on Fox Nation
*Marigold Sumo Hall on Sunday
–Smackdown tonight is from Tempe, AZ at the Mullett Arena,which has 5,100 tickets out and will be sold out as it’s a smaller arena. The only stuff announced is an Ilja Dragunov U.S. title open challenge and Kiana James vs. Tiffany Stratton.
–Arena Mexico tonight:
Women’s Grand Prix Cibernetico: Reyna Isis, Jarochita, Lluvia, India Sioux, Zeuxis, Catalina, Persephone, Skadi, Olympia, Mina Shirakawa, Julia Hart, Thekla, Skye Blue, Hazuki, Koguma, Diamante, Shoko Nakajima and Kanji
Mascara Dorada & Titan vs. Difunto & Barboza
Hechicero vs. Xelhua
Dragon de Fuego & Dragon Legendario vs. Elemental & Yutani
–New Japan’s Super Juniors tournament is in Saitama with a 4 a.m.Eastern time show with Ryusuke Taguchi & Dragon Dia vs. Clark Connors & Daiki Nagai, Yoh & Master Wato vs. Templario & Jakob Austin Young and and Hiromu Takahashi & Gedo vs. Douki & Sho.
–Halloween Havoc is at 7 p.m. tomorrow night Eastern time
Ricky Saints vs. Trick Williams for the NXT title
Jacy Jayne vs. Tatum Paxley for NXT women’s title
Broken Hardys vs DarkState for NXT tag titles in a Broken Rules match
Ethan Page vs. El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. for the North American title in a Dia de a Muerte (no rules) match
Je’Von Evans & Leon Slater vs. Mr Iguana & La Parka
–UFC is an early PPV show from Abu Dhabi with two title matches. It will start at 10 a.m. Eastern on ESPN+ and FX
Jaqueline Amorim (116) vs. Mizuki Inoue (115)
Azat Maksun (129) vs. Mitch Raposo (125.5) – Maskum missed weight by three pounds and was fined 30 percent of his purse as a penalty
Hamdy Abdelwahab (265) vs. Chris Barnett (261)
Nathaniel Wood (146) vs. Jose Miguel Delgado (147) – Delgado missed weight by one pound and was fined 20 percent of his purse
Valter Walker (244) vs. Louie Sutherland (264.5)
Mateusz Rebecki (155.5) vs. Ludovit Klein (156)
Ikram Aliskerov (185.5) vs. Jon Yong Park (185.5)
Nasrat Haqparast (156) vs. Quillan Salklid (155.5)
PPV at 2 p.m.Eastern
Aleksandar Rakic (205) vs. Azamat Murzakanov (205.5)
Alexander Volkov (261.5) vs. Jailton Almeida (237)
Umar Nurmagomedov (136) vs. Mario Bautista (135.5)
Virna Jandiroba (115) vs. Mackenzie Dern (115) for the vacant strawweight title
Tom Aspinall (255) vs.Cyril Gane (247.5) for the heavyweight title
–AAA Heroes Inmortales is headlined by Dominik Mysterio vs. Dragon Lee for the AAA Mega title, Pargano & Psycho Clown vs. mystery team for AAA tag titles, Flammer vs. Lady Apache vs. Natalya for the Reina de Reinas title and Laredo Kid vs. Jack Cartwheel vs. Lince Dorado vs. Aerostar for the AAA cruiserweight title
–The Marigold Sumo Hall show features Mayu Iwatani vs Iyo Sky in the main event.
–Braun Strowman’s “Everything on the Menu” TV show begins at 10 p.m. tonight on USA right after Smackdown. There is a New York Times story on it. (thanks to Chris Cruise and many others)
–The Hulk Hogan estate led by Nick Bollea have settled out of court with Bubba the Love Sponge. The settlement allows the Bubba documentary “Video Killed the Radio Star” about the Hulk Hogan sex tape to go forward. Nick Bollea had attempted and failed to get it blocked.
–Verizon Fios’ deal with Nextra ends tonight. If a new deal isn’t reached CW will be off in Washington,DC, Buffalo, Philadelphia, New York and Norfolk so people with Verizon in those markets won’t be able to watch NXT until a new deal is made. Given that there are also Nexstar stations with NBC, ABC, CBS and FOX, and it’s football season, I presume a deal will be worked out.
–A lot of independent wrestlers have been doing PowerSlap. It pays better than indie wrestling.
— MLW will be on YouTube at 10 p.m. tomorrow night with a taped show with Mistico vs. Austin Aries and Satoshi Kojima vs. Volador Jr. in the Opear Cup, Blue Panther vs. Atlantis vs Rugido for the National openweight title, Shotzi has a match, Templario defends the middleweight title against Virus, Brock Anderson has a singles match and Magnus vs Diego Hill vs. Stigma vs. Okumura vs. Ikuro Kwon.
—Vickie Guerrero will be the guest on tomorrow’s Memphis Wrestling TV show.
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.