Daily Update: Janel Grant, Jake Paul, Arena Mexico

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

  • Elimination Chamber and WrestleMania updates. Update on ticket sales to both shows as well as AEW Revolution and explanations of why and current interest level in tickets.
  • Notes on the giant gates WWE drew for WrestleMania last year and John Cena’s retirement.
  • How much Mania tickets have increased in recent years
  • Odds on this week shows
  • Gina Carano vs. Ronda Rousey and a history of how women’s MMA overcame so many obstacles due to those two. We look at what each did, their background, the story behind the 2014 fight that never happened and why this fight is happening, as well as addressing very serious questions regarding the fight.
  • A look at nostalgia fights and different ways to do them and how they work or don’t work
  • A look at the life and career of the Great Mephisto, one of the most creative minds in wrestling as a wrestler and booker of the 60s and 70s, including his heyday in San Francisco and Australia and stories about his confrontations with Roy Shire, copying from and teaming with The Sheik, Booking WCW in Australia, and a life that start as a street hustler in the depression to facing Hulk Hogan in his first match ever in Northern California.
  • The most detailed look at the television ratings over the past week, with comparisons, Nielsen and Netflix flaws, Olympics and more.
  • Major change in CMLL rules and thoughts about it
  • This past week in CMLL including a hot Friday night sold out show with Mistico vs. Templario
  • Mistico talks Observer awards
  • Saya Kamitani update
  • FantasticaMania first night
  • Cain Velasquez update
  • Notes on the death of Brett Wolverton and Kerwin Silfies
  • Mick Foley television series
  • Longest lasting pro wrestling ring announcer
  • Eve sets UK record
  • Tag team holds titles in Europe & Japan at the same time
  • TNA No Surrender notes
  • More on mainstream coverage of Brody King
  • More on WBD sale
  • Report that Trump will kill current deal
  • AEW in Australia notes
  • Sean Strickland is an idiot
  • Dana White talks boxing
  • Gable Steveson fights again and update
  • Janel Grant lawsuit update
  • Another WWE European tour and PLE show
  • Bad Bunny wrestling update

This Week’s Back Issue

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Friday Update

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— Our Friday show with Garett Gonzales talked El Santo, WrestleMania ticket sales in perspective, the Great Mephisto’s history with Roy Shire, AEW Revolution, Arena Mexico and lots of awards talk. Garett and I will be back Sunday night this week with Smackdown, Collision, New Japan and other notes.

— Thanks for all the nice feedback on the Great Mephisto story in today’s issue. The San Francisco run was legendary as well the booking in Australia.

— Janel Grant spoke in public for the first time today at an event to support NDA’s from being used when comes to sexual abuse cases. We talked about this on the show today. She was very nervous and spoke vaguely, with almost no details on her case past mentioning the name Vince McMahon a few times.

  • She said it was a series of miracles that she’s even alive today and talked about consdiering suicide
  • She indicated suffering and saying she probably left her house ten days last year.
  • She said that she was willing to speak in the investigation of Vince McMahon by the WWE Board of Directors but they did not talk to her
  • She said WWE contacted her and asked her to make a statement that her relationship with Vince McMahon was consensual and indicated being offered money to say that and she refused. She said the company then said it was a consensual relationship. She said when they know one party would not say it was consensual, that’s a hell of an announcement to make.
  • She noted that she turned over all her evidence to the Department of Justice. In the end, the DOJ did not use it nor ask for any indictments.
  • She acknowledged the love letter that it was claimed she wrote to Vince McMahon that WWE or McMahon’s reps sent to the New York Post. She called it public humiliation and intimidation of a person as well as witness intimidation. She did not address whether the letter was real or the big question of if she wrote it on her own or McMahon asked her to do so.
  • She was upset by the Liv Morgan angle that was taken from her case and said that they used her case to do an angle every Monday night.

— NXT on Tuesday did 744,000 viewers and an 0.09 in 18-49. We’ll have more details. Viewership was way up against the Olympics but that was a very low 18-49 number for so many viewers, which raises a red flag. It did much better than usual in 18-34. It was last among all networks on Tuesday.

— I don’t expect an AEW rating until Monday for the Wednesday Dynamite show. Everything was moved back a day due to the Monday holiday.

— The Royal Rumble from this year will air at 8 p.m. Eastern on Sunday on ESPN. The show will be edited down.

— Conor Benn of Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing has been signed by Zuffa Boxing. This is like 1984 in pro wrestling. Benn is 24-1 with 14 knockouts and is coming off a win over Chris Eubanks Jr. in November, avenging his only career loss. He was one of Matchroom’s top guys. To show how bad they wanted to get him, he signed only a one-fight deal, reported to be for eight figures.

— One of my friends in the Chicago wrestling scene noted to me that he paid $1,450 for tickets to ten Bulls games on his package which includes games with the Warriors and Lakers. In the exact same seat that his Bulls tickets are, it would cost him $684 for Elimination Chamber. The person earns a good living and is a huge pro wrestling fan. He’s not going to the show.

— ESPN 2 will be airing a 2K26 ratings reveal special on ESPN 2 on 2/27 at 2 p.m.

— Jake Paul will have to undergo further surgery related to the broken jaw he suffered in the fight with Anthony Joshua. This second surgery is because screws and plates from the first surgery are coming loose.

— Impact on Thursday has:

  • Mike Santana & Leon Slater vs. The Nemeth Brothers
  • Hardys & Righteous vs. The System
  • Lei Ying Lee vs. Dani Luna
  • AJ Francis vs. Mance Warner
  • Jada Stone vs. Tasha Steelz
  • Plus Mickie James will have a confrontation with Ash by Elegance

— With all the top stars in Japan, tonight’s Arena Mexico show is built around six first-round matches in the Torneo de Escuelas tag team tournament. This is for wrestling students who are unknowns and becomes the first look most people have of them:

  • Conquistador & Divino Dragon (students of Ultimo Dragoncito) vs. Pantera Jr. & Psycotic (students of Rey Cometa & Pantera from Queretaro)
  • Cerebero Negro Jr. & Dominic (students of Virus) vs. Kimba & Tenochca (students of Volador Jr.)
  • Camaleon Jr. & Karma I (students of Tony Salazar) vs. Black Warrior Jr. & Makara (students of El Satanico from Guadalajara)
  • Diamante Escarlata & Magnetico (students of El Hijo del Gladiador) vs. Estudiante Jr. & Feroz (students of Ultimo Guerrero)
  • Konjuro & Sombra Diabolka Jr. (students of Black Tiger from Puebla) vs. King Rex & Prometeo (team from Saltillo)
  • Rey Pegasus & Tornado (students of Magia Blanca) vs. Engendro & Jay Ortega (team from Monterrey)
  • Araki & KIira & Catalina vs. Dark Silueta & Olympia & Persephone
  • Josh Alexander vs. Esfinge for the MLP title
  • Johnny Consejo (Johnny TV) vs Angel De Oro vs. Neon vs. Daniel Garcia

— Saturday at Arena Coliseo has Volador Jr. vs. Consejo vs. Cavernario and Angel de Oro vs. Garcia.

— Sunday at Arena Mexico has Flip Gordon & Neon vs. Cavernario & Garcia and Esfinge vs. Consejo.

— Garcia has apparently been training this week at the CMLL school while in Mexico.

— Shayna Baszler has been helping out part-time with training and sometimes producing in Orlando for NXT. It’s not a full-time gig. She’s been producing Evolve matches. Ace Steel is there coaching this week. They bring people in part-time regularly.

— Fantastica Mania live on New Japan World at 2 a.m. Eastern tomorrow night (11 p.m. Pacific shorty after UFC ends) from Osaka

  • Tatsuya Matsumoto & Tiger Mask vs. El Hijo de Stuka Jr. & Shoma Katio
  • Okumura & Satoshi Kojima & Ultimo Guerrero vs. Sho & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Yujiro Takahashi
  • El Desperado & Masatora Yasuda & Master Wato & Ryusuke Taguchi & Stigma vs. Bone Soldier Jr. (Taiji Ishimori) & Yota Tsuji & Titan & Shingo Takagi & Daiki Nagai
  • Atlantis & Atlantis Jr. vs. Averno & Mangus in tag tournament semifinals
  • Mistico & Mascara Dorada vs. Valiente Jr. & Futuro in tag tournament semifinal

The main event is really interesting. Valiente Jr. & Futuro rarely get big show main events so you think they’ll go all out. They are young, very talented guys.

— An update from today’s issue, the Rey Misterio (uncle of current Rey Mysterio) PBS documentary in Southern California apparently has already aired there.

— UFC is back at 5 p.m. Eastern with a show on Paramount

  • Juliana Miller (126) vs. Carli Judice (125)
  • Jordan Leavitt (145.5) vs. Yadier del Valle (145.5)
  • Phil Rowe (170.5) vs. Jean-Paul Lebosnoyani (170.5)
  • Ramiz Brahimaj (170.5) vs. Punalele Soriano (171)
  • Nora Cornolle (136) vs. Joselyn Edwards (135.5)
  • Aiden Coria (125.5) vs. Luis Gurule (125)
  • Ode Osbourne (126) vs. Alibi Idris (126)
  • Chidi Njokuani (171) vs. Carlos Leal (170)
  • Zachary Reese (185.5) vs. Michel Pereira (186
  • Jacobe Smith (171) vs. Josiah Harrell (171)
  • Serghei Spivac (251.5) vs. Ante Delija (239)
  • Dan Ige (145.5) vs. Milquizael Costa (145.5)
  • Goeff Neal (170.5) vs. Usos Medic (171)
  • Sean Strickland (185) vs. Anthony Hernandez (186)

— The online debate over Dusty Rhodes vs Seth Rollins and who was better in the ring is very funny, because when Rollins was in WWE developmental, Rhodes said he was already the best wrestler in all of WWE to me (this would have been shortly after the death of Randy Savage when we had a long talk mostly about Savage but he very excitedly told me about this guy who was even better than Savage that nobody knows about, although I’d been watching NXT so knew about him and obviously did from his Tyler Black days for years). He definitely had qualms about things and wasn’t sure if he’d make it because of those reasons, but raved about him in the ring.

— Nic Nemeth appears for AIQ on 3/20 in Cleveland at the Globe Iron.

— This is quite the day in history. Buddy Rogers was born on this day in 1921, one of the all-time greats. Antonio Inoki was born on this day in 1943. Gedo turned 57 today. Gail Kim turned 49. Big Damo turned 41. Bobby Shane was 29 when he passed away on this day 51 years ago in a famous plane crash in Florida. Ciclon Negro was 80 when he passed away on this day 13 years ago. Dean Higuchi, a bodybuilder and powerlifter was 80 when he passed away on this day five years ago. Pirata Morgan had his first match 47 years ago today.

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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.