Daily Update: DOJ approves Paramount & WBD merger, more on UFC Freedom 250

UFC White House Cage
UFC White House Cage (Image credit: UFC)

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

Among the topics covered:

  • The story behind the settlement of the shareholders lawsuit against Vince McMahon and the WWE Board
  • Janel Grant’s lawyers agree to go to arbitration in lawsuit against WWE and McMahon
  • The whys behind all of this happening
  • What we have learned in these cases about WWE’s deal with Ari Emanuel
  • Arguments in wrestling that Paul Levesque was not responsible for the boom period
  • The reversal of the WWE decline and stopping the AEW ascent
  • The first time Dynamite beat Raw in total viewers during the same week not even including MAX numbers
  • The McMahon fake resignation story
  • The content of the letters from a still unknown person that led to the end of McMahon in WWE and Endeavor taking ver
  • Grant comments on the letters
  • What the letters seem to indicate
  • Nick Khan talks about his thoughts when the company got those letters
  • Michelle McKenna talks who should thought contacted the Wall Street Journal while others say differently
  • Frank Riddick talks his reaction to the letters
  • The time frame and ramification of the sale
  • McMahon’s side responds to the settlement
  • Why Nick Khan’s reputation was hurt based on evidence
  • Why the judge was likely to side against McMahon
  • A look at the politics of UFC at the White House.
  • Realities of White House show vs. Rousey/Carano
  • Biggest UFC number to date on Paramount
  • Insanity of comparison with the Super Bowl audience
  • A look at the show itself
  • The court fight to try and get the show stopped
  • New York Times story on Conor McGregor’s alleged PED usage and how that led to the downfall of UFC drug testing with USADA
  • A look at the big shows in two weeks, Night of Champions, Forbidden Door, Great American Bash and Slammiversary, with lineups, and business notes
  • The most detailed look at the ratings and there was a ton of news between record low for Raw and high mark for Collision
  • Ticket notes for the big shows in August and September in Mexico City
  • Mistico returns and Komander week in CMLL
  • Big shows coming up with CMLL
  • AAA TripleMania notes
  • Notes on NJPW Dominion and end of the Super Juniors tournament
  • Another gold medalist signs with RAF
  • Advance ticket sales for WWE an dAEW shows
  • Movie being prepared for UK wrestling star of the past
  • New promotional concept for pro wrestling being tired with some big names involved
  • Update on new AEW streaming ventures and MyAEW
  • Dustin Rhodes talks about his return
  • Omega talks anniversary of legendary match
  • Carano vs. Rousey hits more high-water marks
  • Why big WWE shows changed dates
  • What is next for Punk
  • WWE star being talked of for doing shoot bouts
  • Rey Mystrerio talks daughter becoming a wrestler

This Week’s Back Issue

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Friday Update

Paramount Skydance
Paramount Skydance (Image credit: .)

— There is no show today with Garrett Gonzales as he’s got family commitments. We will be back Sunday night doing our week in review show as well as covering Dominion, UFC and the weekend news.

— The Department of Justice signed off on the Paramount/Skydance purchase of WBD. It was expected and really known ahead of time, but probably quicker than expected. There are still state district attorneys that will likely oppose this. The European Union and U.K. also still have to review this. Despite some trying to claim this will harm AEW, Tony Khan has been positive from the start on the companies working together. We’ve explained why in recent issues. But there is always a potential downside in the sense of the people in charge and how they value pro wrestling is always a question and this won’t be known until midway next year when the new rights negotiations begin. More than 5,500 filmmakers and actors signed an open letter opposing the deal arguing it would eliminate jobs and raise prices and hurt competition. The Teamsters union also urged the Justice Department to block the merger. In March, Omeed Assefi, the acting head of the antitrust division of the Justice Department said the deal would absolutely not be fast-tracked for approval. The European Commission is investigating the $24 billion being funded by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

— There has been a ton of talk of Sunday’s UFC show at the White House. We’ve had a complete attempt to change actual history with the idea that it was Trump who saved the UFC when two shows were held there in 2000 and 2001 at Trump’s Taj Mahal. It’s part of the Zuffa myth that the old owners ran from regulation and they ran to regulation. The old owners did not at first run to regulation but very quickly did. They created weight classes before White came along. They and the New Jersey Athletic Control Board created the rule set that is largely still in effect. They sanctioned the sport and the prior owners came in. They were free to run anywhere in the state and while they did run two shows on Trump properties, Trump was not even at those shows. In reality, UFC and Trump were on opposite sides of a promotional war that ended quickly when Affliction, with Trump, threw in the towel after major money losses on some ill-advised shows. We’ve got a full preview in the current issue.

— Reuters reported that only 16 percent of Americans are in favor of the show in a poll they conducted. That percentage said it was appropriate to run a UFC show on the White House lawn. 46 percent said it was inappropriate and 38 percent didn’t have an answer. They noted that even with Republicans, only 31 percent said they thought the show was appropriate.

— Regarding this talk of Super Bowl numbers, just for a comparison point, Monday’s NBA game on ABC had 14.75 percent of the audience that gets ABC watching the game and averaged 1.63 viewers per home. So if the show is as big as game three, with that same percentage of Paramount+ homes, it would draw 8.6 million U.S. viewers and worldwide 19 million viewers. Marco Rubio said more than a billion, Donald Trump said it would set the record for the largest sports audience of all-time and Dana White said it would do Super Bowl numbers (the 2026 game did 220 million worldwide viewers and 125.6 million in the U.S.). So prepare for some very fake number releases next week.

— Judge Sarah T. Russell today approved the motion from the lawyers for both Vince McMahon and Janel Grant to move the case to binding arbitration. Both sides requested that yesterday.

— AEW Dynamite did 548,000 viewers with an 0.08 for Wednesday. It’s way down from recent weeks although that’s not a surprise. The NBA game with the Knicks and Spurs head-to-head did 20,938,000 viewers with a 5.98 in 18-49 on ABC. Dynamite was 9th for the night on cable and third in the time slot behind only FOX News and the Food Network. That’s the panel + big data number. We’ll probably get the panel number in a few days. The big comeback was after Dynamite ended but it still averaged 20,085,000 viewers while Dynamite was head-to-head.

— SmackDown tonight was from Providence, RI with Paige & Brie Bella vs. Fallon Henley & Lainey Reid, KOTR qualifier Jey Uso vs. LA Knight vs. Royce Keys vs. Finn Balor, QOTR with Jade Cargill vs. Sol Ruca vs. Lyra Valkyria vs. Charlotte Flair, and the announcement of the Gunther vs. Cody Rhodes stipulation for next week. The last number for attendance was 7,555.

— The Cauliflower Alley Club announced that Bill Apter would receive the Art Abrams Lifetime Achievement Award at the banquet on 8/24 to 8/26 at the Plaza Hotel in Las Vegas for the 60th reunion.

— John Layfield wrestled a match last night in Louisville for OVW.

— Maple Leaf Wrestling Mayhem, the shows being taped tonight and tomorrow in Windsor, ONT, will be one-hour shows every Wednesday night at midnight on TSN 2. The first show will air on 7/15. It would have been more beneficial to start at 10:10 p.m. so they would have the Wednesday night AEW lead-in. Starting nearly two hours after AEW ends squanders the value of running on Wednesday. That’s obviously a TSN issue as the promotion has to take the time they are offered.

— We are doing one poll this weekend, for NJPW Dominion, headlined by Callum Newman defending the IWGP title against Yota Tsuji, Andrade defending the Global title against Shota Umino and Drilla Moloney, Douki vs. Yoh for the IWGP jr. title, Yuto-Ice & Oskar defend the IWGP tag titles against Henare & Great O’Khan and Mistico faces El Desperado. The show starts at 3 a.m. Eastern Sunday morning.

— We’re looking for your thoughts on the show, 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 on these shows

  • NXT tonight in Dade City, FL
  • MLW tonight in Philadelphia at the 2300 Arena
  • Maple Leaf Wrestling in Windsor, ONT
  • NXT tomorrow in Jacksonville, FL
  • MLW tomorrow in Philadelphia at the 2300 Arena
  • Maple Leaf Wrestling tomorrow in Windsor, ONT

— Heard lots of rave reviews on Komander vs. Neon from Guadalajara this week. Komander had a killer week. However he was not happy with the crowd. He said he thinks a lot of fans in that city are showing up to yell at other fans and don’t seem to show interest in the matches. He said he and Neon went all out for the few of you who were paying attention. The match was advertised to have a 10:00 time limit but they ended up going more than 20:00. That’s right after a match earlier this week he had that was announced as one fall and they just went out there and did three falls. This is like 1974 Florida when they’d advertise stips at a live show on TV and then just ignore them at the show, which was a shock to me growing up on Roy Shire where if a stip was advertised on TV or in the papers, it’s happening no matter what.

— Arena Mexico for tonight is sold out with the top matches:

  • Tiger Mask & Komander & Neon vs. Barbaro Cavernario & Ultimo Guerrero & Black Tiger
  • Sammy Guevara & Beast Mortos vs. Villano III Jr. & El Hijo del Villano III for ROH tag titles
  • Titan vs. Yutani
  • Jarochita & Lluvia & Thunder Rosa vs. Keyra & Olympia & Persephone
  • Max Star & Futuro & Valiente Jr. vs. Arkalis & Rayo Metalico & Stigma
  • El Hijo del Pantera & Pantera Jr. vs. Raider & Vegas Depredador

— Arena Coliseo tomorrow night has top bouts of Tiger Mask & Titan vs. Black Tiger & Hechicero, Komander vs. Angel de Oro and Beast Mortos vs. Zandokian Jr.

— From today’s issue regarding the sold out crowd for last night’s MLW show at the Melrose Center, those at MLW said it would be 925. Brett Lauderdale, who has run the building, contacted and said you could not draw that many in that building. He also went on Twitter to say GCW drew 750 and the venue told him he had dramatically oversold it to the point they would have to turn ticket holders away. He noted that was full balcony and no TV equipment.

— Saturday’s AAA lineup will have Octagon Jr. because the match was taped before his injury

  • El Fiscal & La Parka & Octagon Jr. vs. Abismo Negro Jr. & Taurus & Histeria
  • -Galeno vs. Golden Jacket & Valio
  • Omos vs. 3 guys
  • Mr. Iguana & Lola Vice vs. Joaquin Wilde & La Hiedra for the mixed tag titles

— Before Dynamite tonight on ITV 4 in the U.K., they aired a long All In promo with 70 percent of it based on Will Ospreay. (thanks to Mark Takada)

— Magnum T.A. turned 67 today. Jerry Lynn turned 63 today. Johnny Hot Body also turned 63 today. Mark Henry turned 55. Bryan Alvarez turned 51. Great O’Khan turned 35. George Harris III was born on this day in 1927. Stan Vachon (no relation to the Vachons except he was billed as Mad Dog & Butcher’s brother) was born on this day in 1933. Jim Wilson, who famously sued Jim Barnett, was born on this day in 1942. Flying Fred Curry was born on this day in 1943. Gary Lawler was born on this day in 1954. Hector Garza was born on this day in 1969. Grizzly Smith passed away 16 years ago this day. What a horrible person. Barbara Baker, who was one married to Ripper Collins, passed away one year ago today at 82. (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.