Daily Update: Hiroshi Tanahashi, NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 20, WWE
Daily Update
Latest News
- Cody Rhodes attacks Drew McIntyre at his home in WWE social media angle
- WWE Raw live results: Gunther appears after retiring John Cena
- Rapper Drake’s OVO brand teases WWE collaboration
- Jake Paul teases possible WWE run: ‘Something big’s coming’
- Ariel Helwani on John Cena vs. Gunther result: ‘Cena deserved better’
Latest Audio
Latest YouTube Video
This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter
–We’ve got a giant new issue of the Observer out today covering the Cena and Santo retirements as well as all the big events from the past week.
*John Cena and El Hijo del Santo’s retirement shows and how they are so different
*A look back at both’s careers and places in history
*Where Santo went wrong
*Key people who saved John Cena’s career
*Why he never turned heel years ago
*Marketing of Cena as The GOAT
*How Cena ranks with the biggest draws in wrestling history
*Update on WBD’s potential sales to Netflix or Paramount, what the deals entail and how this all affects AEW
*Dwayne Johnson and his Golden Globe nomination
*Odds for upcoming pro wrestling bouts
*1,000,000th fan attends CMLL pro wrestling at Arena Mexico alone. Why this has never happened before, and the absolutely staggering part of the story that nobody talks about
*UFC 323 coverage of the last UFC show on PPV for at least seven years
*A look at NXT Deadline
*A look at ROH Final Battle
* a look at TNA Final Resolution
*A look at the career of Steve “Mr. Electricity” Regal, death of territories, the shocking win over the Road Warriors and holding world titles in the AWA and NWA in the 80s.
*The most detailed look at the ratings for all the TV shows over this past week
*A look at major promotions joining together for different shows in 2026
*A look at last week’s big shows at Arena Mexico, both a hell of a Friday and a big Tuesday with Bad Bunny under a Mistico mask in the front row
*Key CMLL talent banged up
*All Japan tag team tournament ends with a former rugby star from New Zealand and former member of the Harlem Globetrotters against each other.
*NOAH’s big start of the year show
*New wrestler starting at NOAH including the brother of a UFC fighter
*New Japan tag team tournament final standings and results
*Big awards being announced this week
*Actress who played Hall of Fame pro wrestler on a Netflix series wins major award for her performance
*Where did the original star ratings in Mexico rating matcheds come from
*Hulk Hogan album being re-released
*Notes on AEW Worlds End
*Andrade makes claims about what happened with AEW and WWE
*Advance ticket sales for all the AEW and WWE upcoming shows
*Lots more on Trump UFC event at the White House
*UFC schedule
*More on the Ali Act and attempting to change and subvert it
*Dana White talks Francis Ngannou now that he wants to return
*The most interest in buying tickets to a pro wrestling or UFC show in history took place this past week
*Lots more on the two lawsuits going against Vince McMahon and WWE
*The WWE TV schedule for this coming week
*Big PPV main event match that fell through from earlier this year
This Week’s Back Issue
FIRST TIME SUBSCRIBERS GET 50% OFF YOUR FIRST MONTH
Monday Update
–Bryan and I will be up tonight with Wrestling Observer Radio. Besides covering Raw, we will talk about the 2025 Awards, Solomon Grundy, Rob Reiner, Cena, Santo, Tokyo Dome, AEW, WWE lawsuits, injuries and updates on WWE lawsuits.
–New Japan announced Hiroshi Tanahashi’s last three matches before the Tokyo Dome will be 12/19 in Gunma against Hiromu Takahashi, 12/21 in Utsunomiya against El Desperado and 12/22 at Korakuen Hall (his last Korakuen show) against Kosei Fujita.
–In a shock they announced WrestleKingdom will only have seven matches:
*A trios gauntlet match with all mystery teams except champions Toru Yano & Yoh & Master Wato for the trios tiles
*Saya Kamitani vs. Syuri for both the IWGP women’s title and New Japan Strong women’s title
*Shingo Takagi & David Finlay & Gabe Kidd & Hiorumu Takahashi & Drilla Moloney vs Great O’Khan & Callum Newman & two mystery partners
*El Desperado vs. Kosei Fujita vs. Taiji Ishimori & Sho with the winner facing Douki down the line for the IWGP jr. title
*Evil vs. Aaron Wolf for the Never title
*Konosuke Takeshita vs,. Yota Tsuji for both the IWGP and Global titles
*Hiroshi Tanahashi’s retirement vs. Kazuchika Okada
Smartly, they are going with the main event last. There has never been anything but a great WrestleKingdom show, but the reaction to this lineup is generally disappointing. The Yuto-Ice & Oskar IWGP tag title defense against tournament winners Zack Sabre Jr. & Ryohei Oiwa will take place at New Year’s Dash on 1/5 in Tokyo.
–Raw and Smackdown are being taped tonight in Hershey, PA. Raw will be live from 8-10 p.m. Smackdown started taping at about 6:30 p.m. and they will take most of the show before Raw,and maybe, depending on time, some after Raw. But they will be taping all of Friday’s show tonight but some segments will likely not be shown to the live audience. Announced for Raw are Stephanie Vaquer vs. Raquel Rodriguez the women’s title, Maxxine Dupri vs. Ivy Nile for the IC title, New Day vs. Usos, likely a No. 1 contenders match for the tag team titles, and Rey Mysterio vs. Logan Paul. CM Punk returns for the show to build his match in three weeks against Bron Breakker for the world title. Little has been announced for Smackdown although they will push a collaboration with Drake’s OVO brand and probably have a tag team title match. About 8,000 tickets were out at last look so this should be sold out or close to it.
–We’re looking for reports from Hershey, PA and in particular the Smackdown tapings with results , finishes, angles and highligh
ts to [email protected]
–AEW has 10,384 tickets out for Wednesday’s show in Manchester, UK. It will end up as one of the three most attended AEW television tapings this year, along with Arena Mexico and Brisbane, Australia. And with a good walk-up it could top Brisbane.
–A long interview with Dwayne Johnson about Smashing Machine and his other movie projects is at
https://deadline.com/video/dwayne-johnson-career-interview-smashing-machine/
–Tokyo Sports will be announcing the Japanese awards for 2025 tonight our time. There is no clear-cut winner but for MVP the top candidates I see are Hirooki Goto, Konosuke Takeshita, Saya Kamitani (no woman has ever won previously) and Ozawa.
–CMLL sold out Puebla tonight for Mistico & Templario & Esfinge vs. Angel de Oro & Niebla Roja & Soberano Jr. That’s their third sellout in four days.
–On Friday’s Arena Mexico show, Neon will be replaced by Soberano Jr. to face Kevin Knight. I was told Neon, who crashed doing his speciality move on the 12/5 show, is okay but as a precautionary measure they are keeping him off for a little while.
–NXT tomorrow has Joe Hendry vs. Dion Lennox vs. Leon Slater vs. Myles Borne for the top contender spot for Oba Femi and a title shot on 1/6, and Blake Monroe vs. Thea Hail for the North American title.
–Geronimo dos Santos, a former MMA heavyweight who had faced Josh Barnett, Junior Dos Santos and Sergei Kharitonov during his career, died from drowning in a river in the Amazon in Brazil. His body was found by divers at the Amazonas Fire Department. He was trapped under rocks on the bottom of the river. He was 45 and had fought in Bare Knuckle Fighting Championships as recently as April. MMA Fighting first reported this.
–Sky News reported that Benjamin Webb, better known as Trent Seven, is trying to raise money to start a UK promotion for television, saying that there is a big TV fan base that could be served and that WWE & AEW underserve the market.
–Rikidozan died 62 years ago today after being stabbed in a night club one week earlier. If you are doing a list of the most important wrestlers in history, Rikidozan and Frank Gotch have to be two of the very tops. You can argue others like Hulk Hogan, Jim Londos, Ed Lewis, Santo and Inoki should be the highest tier. But I can’t think if anyone who could be ahead of Rikidozan other than Gotch.
Birthdays today include Elix Skipper turning 58, Kendall Windham turns 58, Rene Dupree turns 42 and Eric Young turns 46. Russ Haas died 24 years ago today at the age of 27. Ryan Gracie died 18 years ago today at 33. (thanks to Tony Richards)
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.