Daily Update: Dave Meltzer on Dennis Condrey and Nielsen rating changes

Dennis Condrey | AEW
Dennis Condrey appears on AEW Dynamite. (Image credit: AEW)

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

Among the topics covered:

  • Full coverage of AEW Revolution, keys to the show, the returns and surprises, poll results and other business notes, thoughts on the matches
  • Notes on Tony Khan’s attempt to buy WWE in 2023 that came out this week
  • Updates on WrestleMania with confirmed matches, matches not announced but are on the schedule, the 31.6% off ticket sale, comparisons of demand for tickets with last year, potential matches and more on how matches were changed, as well as Steve Austin talks
  • AAA Rey de Reyes update, a look at the promotion and how it differs from WWE and CMLL and what comes next
  • A look at what happened in the ring when referee Dallas Edwards suffered a medical emergency in the ring during a match and the response issues
  • The most detailed look at the ratings for all the major television and streaming shows of WWE, AEW and TNA, demos, comparisons, competition numbers and placings
  • Claudio Castagnoli draws his first Arena Mexico sellout as CMLL world champion
  • Notes on the other major shows of the week in Mexico
  • Stardom Cinderella tournament finals and the top matches for the company’s biggest show of the year
  • Champion Carnival blocks
  • New Japan Cup notes
  • Manami Toyuota and never going to WWE and would it have mattered
  • Sareee talks her WWE stint
  • Kendo Kashin on Tadao Yasuda
  • 45th anniversary of the Tiger Mask debut and the best woman wrestler in the world at that time is still holding a championship today
  • NCAA wrestling tournament notes
  • Ted DiBiase Jr. trial notes
  • Ticket sales for upcoming WWE, AEW, TNA, Tokyo Joshi Pro, Rousey vs. Carano and more shows
  • Mistico sells out San Jose three weeks in advance and thoughts on the show
  • Former WWE champion in boxing match
  • Ricochet, Gates of Agony and Mercedes Mone in Europe
  • TNA new business deal
  • Ricochet Twitter controversy
  • Former AEW and WWE champion appears this weekend on one of the most-watched TV shows
  • AEW contract notes
  • Zuffa makes choice not to accept a commission regulation and will do it themselves
  • Gina Carano talks about how UFC tried to stop the Carano vs. Cyborg fight from happening
  • WWE in Saudi Arabia thoughts
  • WWE’s deal with Front Office Sports and some thoughts
  • Davey Coates, WWE tour manager, passed away

This Week’s Back Issue

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Sunday Update

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— Our Friday show with Garrett Gonzales talked about news of the week including AEW’s big PPV and TV ratings numbers of the past week, WWE WrestleMania news, the ratings controversy, Ronda Rousey, New Japan Cup and more. Bryan and I will be back tonight talking Dennis Condrey, the weekend TVs, Arena Mexico, New Japan Cup and more.

— Very sorry to hear about the death of Dennis Condrey of Midnight Express fame at the age of 74. We’ll have a major story on him this week. Condrey was a very good wrestler practically from the start. Dennis Condrey & Phil Hickerson held multiple tag team titles in Tennessee and were one of the best teams in the country in the mid-70s, when Condrey was in his early and mid 20s. He was one of those guys on Georgia television when it went national where he was not a main eventer, but was an obvious great worker. He had all the mechanics down, and was good in every facet of the in-ring. His offense was solid and innovative. His selling was great for babyface comebacks. He could impart comedy, seriousness, aggression and drama if need be in his matches.

The Original Midnight Express was Condrey & Randy Rose in the Gulf Coast, and later Norvell Austin joined the group with the gimmick there were three of them but any pairing of the three could wrestle. The Midnight Express of Condrey & Bobby Eaton managed by Jim Cornette was put together in the famed talent swap of Jerry Jarrett and Bill Watts in late 1983 that led to Mid South Wrestling having the best year in its history.

The Midnight Express feuded with Magnum TA & Mr. Wrestling II, The Rock & Roll Express, The Fantastics and had their record setting feud with Bill Watts & Stagger Lee (Junkyard Dog) which was the most successful few week period in the history of the territory including drawing more than 26,000 fans to the Superdome in New Orleans. They went to Jim Crockett Promotions during the hottest period in that company’s history as well.

Condrey disappeared and Stan Lane replaced him on the team. Condrey had said he wanted them to take the offer to go to WWE and the others didn’t want it, but he just left and later just talked abouot being burned out. Stan Lane took his place. Condrey & Rose resurfaced as the Original Midnight Express in the AWA, managed by Paul Heyman. Eventually they did a Condrey & Rose with Heyman feud with babyfaces Eaton & Lane & Cornette in WCW.

Condrey continued to wrestle after that program but was never really in a national high profile situation after that. Eaton & Condrey were one of the greatest tag teams of all-time. If you wanted ot say they were best ever in the U.S., I would not argue. If you want to say they were not one of the ten best ever, I would argue. They were so innovative with their moves, but they were two excellent and completely different stye wrestlers with one of the three greatest managers of all-time at this peak. They had the ability to have good matches with everyone, and with teams like The Rock & Roll Express and Fantastics, had the best tag team matches of that era and some of the best ever in the U.S.

— We have a story on the high rating for Wednesday’s show up on the site in our premium story lists.

— There is a giant story in television that we touched on Friday. Essentially, new data has shown that more people are watching television than streaming, contradicting data from the past year. Changing of methodologies for ratings has led to a lot of weirdness dating back to September when wrestling and UFC numbers fell badly for reasons unclear since that was not the case for other sports.

While other programming did drop, there was no real pattern of what did and didn’t including on the same stations and time slots. Then at the end of January, there was the adjustment to where wrestling total viewer numbers are back to what they were previously, and in the case of AEW, actually ahead, but 18-49 numbers are still far lower.

This latest change in calibrations would not have affected individual ratings of pro wrestling shows, but TV in general was undercounted by about 15 percent. The Wall Street Journal on Thursday noted this. The new figures weren ‘t released on 3/17 but there were complaints from streaming platforms, as YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime and Roku, where overall viewers dropped significantly under the new method.

Then Neilsen did not release the numbers at all, And the word is they won’t release this new info until the fall. This has then led to those in the linear television business to say they are losing credibility by holding back info that shows television is far more watched than believed. However, streaming is expected to continue gaining and television decreasing, just that the figures that showed streaming ahead in the past are believed to now be inaccurate.

— For stuff that will impact wrestling, we are told Nielsen’s next adjustment is likely for April and we are told this will also be a major change. How wrestling is affected by this won’t be known until a few weeks after the change.

— One person who knows and understands Nielsen better than anyone I know, and who knows people at Nielsen, said those at Nielsen realized streaming numbers were too high and there are shifts in algorithms being done. Nielsen used the term methodological innovation but the person said that was a euphemism for the actual term of “we f***ed up.”

— Collision is on tonight at 11 p.m. or later after the NCAA basektball game on TNT

  • Tommaso Ciampa vs. Lio Rush
  • Orange Cassidy & Roderick Strong vs. Lee Johnson & Jay Lethal
  • Megan Bayne & Lena Cross vs. ?
  • Mistico & Kevin Knight & Mike Bailey vs. Josh Alexander & Konosuke Takeshita & El Clon for the trios titles. This is the match where Alexander injured his knee.

— Chris Jericho guest stars on the highly rated CBS show Tracker tonight at 9 p.m. Jericho plays a lead villain on the show.

— In Friday’s update, we mentioned the UBS Arena would be the site of TNA Slammiversary according to Carlos Silva. A Silva interview saying that came out on Friday but by the end of the day it was noted that things had changed and that was no longer in the plans.

— Bandido does have a visa issue and is missing some non-AEW appearances. President Trump in January granted a number of sports leagues exemptions from needing visas for its performers to come into the country. AEW, UFC and WWE were all on the list, so that would seem to mean he would be okay to work in AEW.

We do know even if there is an issue, that athletes and entertainers can perform in Canada without visas and with TV’s in Edmonton and Winnieg and the PPV in Vancouver, if they wanted him on those shows he would be able to do there.

— In a crazy thing noted to us, after the UFC show last night in London at the O2 Arena, not one reporter asked Dana White about Ronda Rousey. White was asked a few days ago about Nate Diaz, and said that Diaz was offered a ton of money to fight on the 5/16 Rousey vs. Carano show and White said he should take it.

I odn’t know if Joe Rogan is reliable on this or not, but he said he heard the number was $10 million for one fight. White said that after the fight they are still open to using Diaz.

— White was asked about Jon Jones claiming UFC offered him $15 million to face Alex Pereiera on the White House show and White said that while people in the company may have negotiated with Jones, that he was never going to allow Jones on the show. It is so weird with White constantly saying he wouldn’t be on the show and all the negotiations that did take place for it to happen.

— Yesterday’s main event was a No. 1 contender for the featherweight title fight between unbeatens Movsar Evloev and Lerone Murphy, which Evloev won 48-46, 48-46 and there was a 47-47 score. However, media scores were that 71 percent had it a draw and 29 percent had Murphy winning and none scored it for Evloev.

Fan scores on MMA Decision had 44 percent had it as a draw, 26 percent for Evloev and 24 percent had Murphy. Ben Cartildge had Evloev winning one, three and five, four as even (due to a foul point) and Murp0hy winning round two. Derek Clearly had it the same. Clement Werner had Murphy winning one and two and Evloev taking three and five.

— Sareee’s 15th anniversary show took place today in Yokohama with Saree & Takumi Iroha over Chihiro Hashimoto & Syuuri plus Natsupoi ver 90 star Kaoru Ito.

— Alexxis Falcon beat Alex Windsor today to win the British women’s title inRevPro. Falcon beat Mercedes Mone and Windsor on successive days.

— Penn State not only won the team title at the NCAA tournament that took place Thursday through Saturday in Cleveland, but set the all-time record for most tournament points, and had four national champions. Even more notable is that a major feud has stated with Penn State, headed by Cael Sanderson, and Oklahoma State, headed by David Taylor.

Younger stars were not born during the Sanderson heyday and have no connection to his career,but do know of Taylor as the best U.S. wrestler from a few years back. Three Oklahoma State freshmen, Sergio Vega, Landon Robiedeau and Jax Forrest all won titles. Vega and Forrest both went undefeated. Vega was never taken down all season.

Forrest’s story is crazy. He was a high school senior in the fall semester, but graduated early and enrolled in Oklahoma State in January. He joined the team during the season and won the NCAA title.

— Sanderson would not mention Oklahoma State when talking about winning the title but how bad things are happening, noting a high schooler was pulled out of his senior year to be in the tournament and was unhappy about how his wrestlers were being actively recruited to leave.

He also noted that Taylor did not mention Penn State once during the tournament while other coaches congratulated them on winning the national title and setting the record.

— The flag football games that involved Tom Brady and Logan Paul took place yesterday in Los Angeles. Originally, it was to be in Riyadh. Brady, after catching a pass over Paul, threw the bell in Paul’s chest which got a lot of attention.

The Los Angeles Times outright speculated all of this is a build for WrestleMania, saying that coordinated promotional stunts by Brady, Paul and Rob Gronkowski are designed to boost viewership and social media engagement to both the game and Mania, and called it all fake.

— We don’t have more details, but on Friday in Lakeland, FL, in a match with Lexis King & Stacks Lorenzo & Charlie Dempsey & Uriah Connors vs. Elio LaFleur & Tavion Heights & Eli Knight & Kale Dixon there were two injuries. King was rocked in the match.

Reports live were that people thought he suffered a concussion but that diagnosis has not been confirmed. But the match continued. LeFleur then suffered an arm injury, they did the “X” and the match was stopped suddenly.

— Also in NXT, former UFC and Rizin fighter Ulka Sasaki, on loan from NOAH, debuted in the ring on both NXT shows.

— SmackDown numbers for Friday outside the U.S. on Netflix were way down for whatever reason, but the show was No. 1 for the day in Canada, Mexico and New Zealand.

— The first ever meeting of Konosuke Takeshita vs. celebrity wrestler Kaisei Takechi will be a main match on 8/11 for a DDT show at Sumo Hall. Takeshita wrestled on today’s show agrainst Kazuki Hirata.

He won in seven seconds. Hirata wanted a rematch and Taeshita won in ten seconds. Takeshita ripped Hirata, saying this was so bad that we’ll probably only get a tiny photo in Weekly Pro Wrestling and said that I wouldn’t even rate a match so bad.

Anyway, to make it fair, they did a third match where Hirata would only need a two count pin to get the pin and Takeshita would need a 20 count pin to win. Takeshita won that match via submission.

— Regarding weekend Google searches, the flag football game involving Logan Paul and Tom Brady where they shot an angle was No. 24 with 100,000 searaches. The UFC show yesterday had 82,000 searches. The NCAA wrestling tournament had 28,000. Logan Paul had 10,000 Dennis Condrey had 5,000 and John Cena had 2,000.

— Ivy Nile will be competing in a bodybuilding contest in seven weeks.

— Masato Tanaka vs. Mark Davis, Bandido vs. Galeno de l Mal, Latigo & Toxin vs. Danny Black & Joe Lando vs. Ben K & Hyo vs Starboy Charlie & Star Man, Flash Morgan Webster & Mark Anderws vs . Lee Johnson & Blake Chrsitian, Headbangers vs. Rhino & Heath Miller (Slater) are on the 4/16 Mark Hitchcock Super Show in Las Vegas.

— Kirk White’s Big Time Wrestling from Friday night in Newark, CA in a show that sold out well in advance:

  • Jheri Giggalo b Hunter
  • Vinnie Massaro b Marcus Lewis
  • Los Sauavicotos b Cajun Catch Revival
  • QT Marshall b Alan Angels
  • Aarn Solo b Alpha Zo
  • Vert Vixen b Sara Leon (said to be excellent, standing ovation)
  • Viva Van b Siren Veil
  • Andrade b Bad Dude Tito (said to bde excellent as well) (thanks to Jim Davis)

— Wayne Bloom/Beau Beverly turns 68 today. Eddie Dennis turn s40. Beat Priestley turns 30. Hisashi Shinma was born on this day in 1935. Villano V was born on this day in 1962. Joe Blanchard was 83 when he died on this day 14 years ago Captain Ed George, the son of The Sheik, was 76 when he died on this day five years ago. Bill Mercer was 99 when he died one year ago today (thanks to Tony Richards)

— Ricky Morton will be teaching this week at the Performance Center.

— House of Glory from last night in Suffolk County:

Angel Jacquez over JJP, Jodi Aura, Rahemem Royal, Tiny Giant, Papadon and KB Prime
Indi Hartwell b Deonna Purrazzo
Daron Richardson b Jey Silva to keep the cruiserweight title
The Acclaimed (Max Caster & Anthony Bowens) b Midas Black & Jay Lion
Sammy Guevara b Amazing Red
Mina Shirakawa b women’s champion Shotzi in a non-title match
Dijak b Charles Mason-DQ so Mason Retained the HOG title

They run 4/16 in as Vegas (thanks to Samuel Rosenthal)

— Jason Kincaid said that his final match for Innovate Wrestling will be 4/11 in Kingsport, TN at NetPro Studios.

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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.