Daily Update: Netflix-WBD, George Barrios, weekend preview

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

–The new issue of the Observer is out.  The lead story on the WBD/Netflix/Paramount situation could end up being in hindsight the most important business story of this year as far as long-term ramifications to the scene.  The second story on the TNA deal with AMC  is also  one of the major stories of the year.
*A look at the Netflix/WBD proposed deal, how iit went down, what it entails, how this affects AEW, the AEW contract situation with WBD and what it entails and how long it is s well as fears in the entertainment industry if this goes through, as well as steps being taken by Paramount to get it blocked.
*TNA signs a new TV deal with AMC, the early schedule, what is and isn’t true about the deal, as well as the power of AMC and how pro wrestling has affected and changed the ratings for all of its television partners with the most updated numbers, which also shows why it  is still valuable programming.
*A complete look at Survivor Series including how people viewed the show, changes that can be made to War Games to make it easier to watch, business notes on the show, overall interest level compared to recent PPV shows, where WWE goes from here, Netflix numbers outside the U.S. and more.
*The history of Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada, the making of their final match, where Shinsuke Nakamura fit in as well as AEW, WWE and CMLL, business notes, history, historical significance and how the story has played out since the start of the year.
*A look at this weekend’s shows and odds
*Les Hudspith aka Ringo Rigby, former U.K. wrestler who led a very interesting life, between judo, being a main eventer quick in the U.K., the political situation in the U.K. that led to his leaving, coming to the dying California promotion and thriving Mexican scene and crazy street brawls.
*The most detailed look at the television ratings from the past week, placings, comparisons and more.
*Coverage of one of the best Arena Mexico shows of the year including Claudio Castagnoi’s title win
*The next major CMLL show, plus lots of big shows around the country
*AAA and WWE combine for a big show with two great bouts, and what this leads to
*End of Stardom tag team tournament
*End of Dragon Gate tournament
*Update on All Japan and New Japan tournaments
*Who has the most five-star matches in 2025
*Real American Freestyle update and apparently business philosophy
*Lots of AEW new shows
*Detailed look at the Continental Classic including a decision to be made this week’
*Bryan Danielson talks injuries, if he can come back, Brie Bella coming back, retiring, traveling and more
*Ticket sales for upcoming WWE & AEW shows over the net five weeks
*Is AEW really closing the gap on WWE as Tony Khan says, a look at different metrics
*Tom Aspinall update
*What UFC should do and won’t to make the Amanda Nunes vs. Kayle Harrisoni fight better and less risky
*The sad plight of Nick Diaz
*Nick Khan and Laurence Epstein push their version of the Ali Act
*Rumors about Ronda Rousey fighting
*TKO stock value update
*How much has DwayneJohnson earned so far in his less than two years with WWE

This Week’s Back Issue

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Friday Update

–Garrett Gonzales and I will be back today with a show covering the WBD/Netflix situation, the latest news from the new Observer out today, your questions for the show which you can send to [email protected].  We will also be doing another show on Saturday night because of the plethora of significant shows over the next two days.

–A few more details regarding the WBD sale situation.  Paramount is still attempting to get control of WBD through arguing that David Zaslav made a deal to benefit him but their offer is better, and are now going to the shareholders.  Their argument is their deal will be able to get through antitrust better.  They also argue that their $30 per share all cash offer is higher than what Network is offering and how they were the only suitors who wanted the cable business as well.  It has been noted that Zaslav standish to make $660 million out of the Netflix deal.  It also officially came out that the Netflix bid includes a $5.8 b8llio, not the $5.0 billion listed in the current issue, fee if the deal doesn’t get regulatory approval.  Paramount had also offered a $5.0 billion fee if their proposed deal didn’t get regulatory approval.

–This is a huge weekend of events.  We will be doing polls on just two of them, the ROH show tonight and the NXT show tomorrow night.  So you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match for each show t [email protected]

–ROH has a pre-show on its streaming service starting at 7 p.m.Eastern with the main show at 8 p.m., from Columbus, OH

Bandido vs.  Sammy Guevera vs. Beast Mortos vs. Komander vs.Hechicero vs. Blake Christian Survival of the Fittest for the ROH title
Athena vs. Persephone for the ROH women’s title
Mercedes Mone vs. Red  Velvet for the ROH women’s TV title
Guevara & Mortos vs. Adam Priest & Tommy Billington for the vacant ROH tag titles
Shane Taylor & The Infantry vs. Scorpio Sky & Dante  & Darius Martin for the ROH trios titles
Ricochet vs.  Dalton Castle for the National title
Deonna Purrazzo vs. Billie Starkz to create the first Women’s Pure title
Nigel McGuinness vs. Lee Moriarty in a 30:00 Iron Man match
Wheeler Yuta &  Daniel Garcia vs. Grizzled Young  Veterans (pre-show match)
Lee Johnson vs. Ace Austin (pre-show match)
This is really quite the lineup when you look at it.

–TNA Final Resolution tonight at 9 p.m. Eastern from El Paso,TX
Frankie Kazarian vs. JDC for the TNA title

Leon Slater vs. AJ Francis for the X title

Lei Ying Lee vs. Xia Brookside for the Knockouts title

Steve Maclin vs. Stacks Lorenzo for the International title

Matt  & Jeff Hardy vs.  Tyson DuPont & Tyriek Igwe for the TNA tag titles

The Iinspiration vs. Tessa Blanchard & Victoria Crawford for the Knockouts tag team titles

Mike Santana vs. Charlie Dempsey

Matt Cardona vs. Mance Warner in a street fight

Mustafa Ali & Jason Hotch & John Skyler & Agent Zero vs. Zachary Wentz & Dezmond Xavier & Myron Reed & Trey Miguel–Smackdown tonight is from Austin, TX.  It features Gunthder vs. LA Knight in the finals of the  Last Time is Now tournament, Jade Cargill vs. Alba Fyre, Alexa Bliss vs. Kairi Sane, Ilja Dragunov’s U.S. title open challenge plus Cody Rhodes and Solo Sikoa interviews.  Randy Orton is being advertised locally but there is no indication he’s at the show.  Oba Femi, Sol Ruca and Trick Williams are all there.  They had just over 7,100 tickets out as of earlier today.

–Arena Mexico has a regular show tonight with Mistico & Mascara Dorada vs. Soberano Jr. & Difunto, Titan & Templario & Neon vs Averno & Cavernario & Volador Jr. and Dragon Rojo Jr. & Dragon Legendario & Dragon  de Fuego vs. Cobarde & Guerrero Maya Jr. & Magnus as the top matches.  The top two bouts figure to be great.

–NXT Deadline is 7 p.m. tomorrow night from San Antonio, TX
 Oba Femi vs. Ricky Saints for the NXT title – this match will open the show
Men’s Iron Survivor match with Joe Hendry, Je’Von Evans, Leon Slater, Myles Borne and Dion Lennox
Women’s Iron Survivor match with Sol Ruca, Kendal Grey, Kelani Jordan, JordynneGrace and Lola Vice
Ethan Page vs. Mr. Iguana for the North American title
Izzi Dame vs. Tatum Paxley

–The last UFC PPV show for at least seven years is tomorrow night from Las Vegas
ESPN+ at 6 p.m. Eastern
Muhammed Naimov (146) vs. Mairon Santos (147.5) – Santos missed weight by 1.5 pounds and will forfeit 20 percent of her purse
Mansur Abdul-Malik (185.5) vs. Antonio Trocoli (186)
Iwo Baraniewski (206) vs. Ibo Asian (205.5)
Edson Barboza (155.5) vs. Jalin Turner (155)
Marvin Vettori (186) vs. Brunno Ferreira (189) – Ferriera missed weight by 2.0 pounds and was fined 20 percent of his purse)
ESPN 2 at 8 p.m. Eastern
Nazim Sadykhov (155.5) vs. Fares Ziam (156)
Maycee Barber (125.5) vs. Karine Silva (125.5)
Terrance McKinney (156) vs. Chris Duncan (156)
PPV at 10 p.m. on ESPN+
Jan Blachowicz (206) vs. Bogdan Guskov (206)
Henry Cejudo (136) vs. Payton Talbott (136)
Brandon Moreno (125) vs. Tatsuro Taira (126)
Alexandre Pantoja (125) vs. Joshua Van (124.5) for the flyweight title
Merab Dvalishvili (135) vs. Petr Yan (135) for the bantamweight title
+

–New Japan has A block matches in the tag team tournament today in Osaka:
Chase Owens & Yujiro Takahashi (1-5) beat Taichi & Satoshi Kojima (1-5)
Evil & Don Fale (4-2) beat Shuji Ishikawa & El Desperado (3-3)
Shingo Takagi & Drilla Moloney (4-2) beat Oleg Boltin & Toru Yano (3-3)
Hirooki Goto & Yoshi-Hsnhi (4-2)  beat Gabe Kidd & Yota Tsuji (4-2)
The tournament continues on Sunday with B block matches.  There is one A block show leftr on Monday in Hiroshima, the B block last day is on Tuesday in Iizuka and the A block winner faces the B block winner on Wednesday in Nagasaki.
–A lawsuit filed by a Miami woman for sexual assault against Conor McGregor wsa dropped on Tuesday.  The allegation was that McGregor secxually assaulted her in the bathroom after a 2023 Miami Heat playoff final game.  No charges were ever filed due to lack of evidence. .
–The UFC announced a 3/21 show at the O2 Arena in London

–Former WWE President George Barrios is writing a book about his time in wrestling called “Sometimes Wrong but Never in Doubt:  How a Cuban Kid from Queens Transformed WWE.”  The book claims Barrios took WWE from an $800 million company to a $9.3 billion company.
–Thursday’s Washington Capitals vs.  Carolina Hurricane NBA game will be John Cena Night, to promote Cena’s final match on Saturday in the same Capital One Arena.  Those getting tickets through Facebook will get a free Cena T-shirt.

–A Willow Nightingale vs. Mara Sade (Jakara Jackson) match has been announced for the GCW/JCW joint show on 2/1 at the Melrose Ballroom in New York.  The show also features the return of Jonathan Gresham, Mad Dog Connelly vs. Paul Walter Hauser, Matt CArdona, Mance Warne, Man Like DeRiess and Joey Janela.

–Kris Statlander defends her Eve International title against Charlie, the former Dakota Kai, on the 3/8 International Womens’ Day WrestleQueendom show put on by  Eve in London.  They are attempting to draw the largest crowd for an all-women’s pro wrestling show ever in the U.k.

–Tom Billington, the original Dynamite Kid, was both born on this day in 1958 and died on this day in 2018 on his 60th birthday.  Skip Young aka Sweet Brown Sugar passed away at the age of 59 on this day in 2010.  Tom Drake, a wrestler who later served  as the speaker of the house in Alabama, was born on this day in 1930.  Larry Zbyszko celebrates his  74th birthday today (thanks to Tom Richards)

–A correction from the story in today’s Observer on Ringo Rigby.  The Killer Kim who wrestled in 1982 in California was not Kim Sung Ho, as we reported.  Kim Sung Ho did work as Killer Kim in Oregon, but he was retired by 1982.  Killer Kim was actually the son of South Korea’s sports icon, Kim Ill, who was the country’s sports hero as a pro wrestler in the 70s (the highest rated pro wrestling television match of all-time was a 1977 match on Korean television from Seoul with Ill & Tiger Toguchi (Kim Duk) vs. Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta for the International tag team championship, which did an 88.0 rating. Kim Il, aka Kintaro Oki, was also a major star around the world.  

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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.