Daily Update: Jake Paul, WWE SummerSlam, Raw

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

*More on the death of Hulk Hogan
*The ugliness of the aftermath of the death
*An article talking about the aftermath of the death
*Those close to him talk about his death
*Those not remotely close to him get harassed about his death
*Documentaries coming on Hogan
*A look at the biggest names in history when it comes to drawing and how Hogan compares with them domestically and internationally
*Hogan’s WWF peak
*WWF business under Hogan and Austin
*Hogan’s live show magic
*The Andre match on NBC
*Gorgeous George, The Rock, Sammartino, Londos, Rikidozan and Santo
*Wrestling in the U.S. pre-Hogan and the myths that have been created
*Hogan vs. Londos
*Hogan’s family talks
*SummerSlam story and interest levels
*WWE, AAA and CMLL in Mexico this past week
*Lots on WWE’s plans for AAA
*TripleMania thoughts
*Alberto, Dominik, Vikingo and Grende Americano in Mexico
*A classic match at Arena Mexico with Neon vs. Mascara Dorada
*Update on the G-1 Climax tournament
*The life and times of Gerry Morrow, a Canadian wrestling journeyman who is one of the most underrated inflential wrestler of the st 40 years with comments by those he inflenced
*Conor McGregor’s appeal of the sexual assault civil cse
*The most detailed look at the ratings for  all the TV wrestling shows
*MJF to Arena Mexico
*Five Star Grand Prix opens up
*The Hogan vs. Andre match that never happened
*Santo and Fuerza Guerrera retirement show notes
*The first major ethnic draw in the U.S.
*TNA looking for new TV deal
*Will Ospreay update
*Forbidden Door update
*Details of the WBD split
*Tony Khan has already made belts for a new title
*Tag team tournament AEW update
*TKO Boxing notes
*Update on ringboys lawsuit against the McMahons and WWE
*Vince McMahon auto accident details
*Levesque and Trump
*Thoughts on WWE Unreal
*An original Mania show
*Cody Rhodes on Bill Simmons
*Lots of notes on the WWE tryouts this week

This Week’s Back Issue

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Monday Update

–Bryan and I will be back tonight covering more on Brock Lesnar and all the news of the day along with Raw.  We have shows on both nights on SummerSlam up on the site, and talked extensively about the Lesnar decision on the Sunday night show.

–The Ring reported today that Eddie Hearn confirmed that Jake Paul is serious about fighting Anthoiny Joshua next.  He said negotiations are set to continue over the coming weeks.

–SummerSlam day one ranked first on the day it aired live in Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, the U.K., Canada and Mexico among all television shows on Netflix.  It ranked No. 3 in India.  An interesting note is that in most of those countries the Saturday show was listed as “SummerSlam Sunday,” so I have a feeling they may combine the two shows as one for a rating when it comes out tomorrow.  Because that was a weird red flag.

–Raw tonight is at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.  After three straight nights in the market, the advance was 8,300 this morning.  Seth Rollins will explain his ruse that he said nobody knew about but everyone tells me everyone knew about, Sheamus vs. Rusev was announced plus Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss are on the show.  Neither John Cena nor Brock Lesnar are advertised.  Cena is scheduled for Friday night .

–Smackdown on Friday was the No. 1 show on television with 1.54 million viewers and an 0.46 in 18-49.  It was down from the week before, but that was the day after the Hulk Hogan death so it should have been down.  Plus, 18-49 wasn’t down much at all.  Not much competition, the top show on network was a rerun of Happy’s Place on NBC at 0.23 and head-to-head the top show on cable was the Savannah Bananas on ESPN at 486,000 viewers and 0.11.  PFL did 283,000 and 0.07 in 18-49 with two tournament finals.

–We’re looking for your thoughts on both nights of SummerSlam, so you can leave a thumbs  up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle from  each show along with a best and worst match from each show to [email protected]

–We’re also looking for reports from the Barclays Center and Raw with any Main Event matches or anything else notable off TV to [email protected]

–Naked Gun, in which Cody Rhodes has a role, opened No. 3 at the box office this weekend behind Fantastic Four:  First Steps and Bad Guys 2.  The movie is estimated at $17 million in the opening weekend.

–One Hulk Hogan documentary that I was part of as well as Bill Goldberg and The Hardys is up on Fox Nation.  I  haven’t seen it.  FOX as a network airs a different documentary on 8/12 at 8 p.m. that will debut on Hulu the next day.  I was interviewed for that one as well along with Sylvester Stallone, Vince McMahon, Mick Foley, Bill Goldberg, Jimmy Hart, Alexa Bliss, Mark Henry, Jacob Fatu and Charlotte Flair.  

–G-1 continues in Osaka at 5:30 a.m. Eastern tomorrow morning with B block matches with Yoshi-Hashi vs. Konosuke Takeshita, Great O’Khan vs. Ren Nartia, El Phantasmo vs. Drilla Moloney and Zack Sabre Jr. vs.  Shingo Takagi.

–I haven’t talked much about the tournament with so much going on, but the wrestling in this tournament has been great.  The booking has been largely keeping the standings close and almost everyone alive.

–Prime Video announced that Head of State, the movie starring John Cena and Idris Elba, has, according to Amazon Prime, done more than 75 million viewers in the last month worldwide.  It would be the third most successful movie on Prime behind Red One starring Dwayn e Johnson and The Accountant 2 starring Ben Affleck.

–The Pickup, which features Roman Reigns in a key role, will be released on Wednesday on Amazon Prime video.

–The book “Life is Fighting,” an autobiography of Kevin Kesar/Karrion Kross, comes out tomorrow.

–TKO has its investors call at 5 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday.

–Bishop  Dyer has been added to the 9/13 MLW show in North Richland Hills, TX.

–A trial date has been set for Iabreehm Uazeed, the man charged with the kidnapping and murder of Aniah Blanchad, the 19-year-old stepdaughter of former UFC star Wlat Harris.  He was arrested six years ago for the crime but there have been delays after delays until the judge set a date for March 2, 2026.  He faces three counts of first degree murder and could get the death penalty if found guilty.  

–Flip Gordon suffered a legit knee injury in the first fall of his match on Friday at Arena Mexico but he was posing for photos with MJF after the show so the impression is that it wasn’t too bad.

–The New York Times ran a front page story on Flip Gordon, the idea of an American military veteran as a babyface at Arena Mexico. Gordon said that he had signed a mutli-year contract wth  CMLL and has a second child on the way.  (thanks to Bill King)

–Mistico, Neon, Mascara Dorada, Hechicero and Stigma are scheduled for AEW on Wednesday in Cleveland.  Most likely they will be part of the ROH tapings.  

–Rafael Gonzalez Lopez, legendary referee Rafa el Maya in Mexico, passed away yesterday.  He  was 72.  He was around forever in CMLL.  He was considered the prototype referee who didn’t take crap from the rudos.

–Jeff Kavanagh aka Jeff Scott, a ring announcer for TNA 2017-2020 and also ring announcer for Border City WRestling and Maple Leaf Pro, was diagnosed with stage four liver and colon  cancer.  Best wishes to him in this heavy challenge.  A Go Fund me has been established for him.