Daily Update: OVW incident, Jake Paul, AEW notes

OVW Rise
Logo for March 12 Ohio Valley Wrestling Rise event. (Image credit: OVW)

Daily Update

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

Among the topics covered:

  • Preview and business notes on AEW Revolution
  • Updates on WrestleMania, how we got to Rhodes vs. Orton and feuds that are starting
  • A look at the UFC White House show and how we got here
  • Full UFC 326 coverage including the most viewers of a TV UFC show since Paige Van Zant vs. Michelle Waterson
  • A look at the new AEW streaming service
  • NXT Vengeance Day coverage and poll results
  • Odds on upcoming pro wrestling matches
  • Logan Paul’s grandstand challenge to football players gets several takers, including some big names, but nothing can transpire and how it ended
  • Full coverage of the 16 Carat Gold tournament in German featuring many of the best independent wrestlers in the world
  • A complete look at the TV ratings from all the pro wrestling shows over the past week, including breakdowns in various categories, placings, how Raw did on Netflix, competition and more
  • CMLL’s lineup for its No. 2 show of the year next week
  • Full rundown of the CMLL all women’s show onFriday
  • Konnan news
  • Behnid the Nino Hamburguesa firing
  • Rey de Reyes notes
  • Stardom Cinderella tournament news
  • New Japan Cup and anniversary show news
  • Pro wrestler and MMA star looks back at a fixed fight and more comments including the Japanese attempt to get a major WWE star to job in an MMA match to theri guy
  • Notes on a new promotion debuting
  • Attendance updates for future WWE, AEW, TNA and other shows including Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano.
  • Giant weekend in Europe including the two big Eve shows and the controversy
  • TNA future direction
  • Notes from the Tony Khan media call
  • Putting recent Collision numbers into perspective
  • How Zuffa boxing’s biggest show did
  • Rousey vs. Carano and Rousey’s promotional tactics as well as responses from other fighters
  • Lots of new UFC fights
  • Jake Paul’s women’s boxing group makes ESPN deal
  • Changes to the WWE writing team
  • ESPN reporting side does exactly what they said they wouldn’t do regarding pro wrestling
  • More vacant WWE titles

This Week’s Back Issue

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Friday Update

— We did our week in review show with Garrett Gonzalez today, talking about AEW Dynamite, the WrestleMania build, Gedo’s booking, Ronda Rousey and UFC missing one of the things Vince McMahon was most adamant about, Dwayne Johnson discovering Austin Idol, best matches ever in San Jose, and next week’s Arena Mexico show. Bryan and I will be back Sunday night covering AEW Revolution.

— Many of you have seen the video from last night’s OVW show where referee Dallas Edwards went into convulsions during a match. He took a planned bump off a crossbody by Brendan Balling and laid there. Everyone kept doing what they were scheduled to do. Then he started convulsing. They continued to do what they were scheduled to do including Evans using his feet to move Edwards out of the way so he could keep doing whatever it was he planned to do. Edwards was convulsing and it was very clear they needed to stop everything. Eventually, way late, everyone stopped what they were doing in sensing the magnitude of what happened. His girlfriend posted about a brain injury later but didn’t go into further detail.

OVW is run by Al Snow,and there is the natural inclination to blame him even more because it was under his watch and because he’s been such a critic of safety standards in AEW under Tony Khan and it literally couldn’t make him look worse. It was inexperienced guys who just didn’t react fast enough to what was happening. Usually it’s the job of the referee in these situations to call it off, but it was the referee who was having the emergency. But the video is around, everyone reacted too slow and Evans in particular looked very bad. Going forward, this should be used as a learning tool at all levels of pro wrestling for what not to do. If someone is having a clear medical issue,the match needs to be stopped immediately. They did stop wrestling but the reaction took far too much time.

— Dynamite on Wednesday did 619,000 viewers with a 0.09 in 18-49. It was a tougher than usual Wednesday with the World Baseball Classic, the NBA, big news numbers due to the war, and multiple college basketball league tournament games. It was 15th for the night, 9th in the first hour and 4th in the second hour. It was behind several shows it usually beats.

— Tomorrow’s Revolution show has topped $1 million at the gate.

— In addition to the usual places internationally for AEW PPVs, DAZN will be streaming them live in 180 countries starting with Sunday’s show.

— I was at the Collision tapings that took place Wednesday night in San Jose. The Andrade vs. Mascara Dorada match was outstanding. We talked a lot about the tapings on today’s show and Wednesday’s show.

— There are some clips going around of President Trump talking with Jake Paul today. It is hilarious and sad on so many levels. Trump kept going on and on about how wonderful Dana White was and how great the White House show is while Paul just stood there. Paul always criticizes White and knocked the White House card, as almost everyone has done. Paul said he wanted to start fighting guys his own size, maybe do MMA, and Trump said he should fight Khabib. And he just stood there.

— Arena Mexico tonight at 9:30 p.m. Eastern time has Claudio Castagnoli vs. Ultimo Guerrero for the CMLL heavyweight title, Atlantis Jr. & Templario & Titan vs. Angel de Oro & Soberano Jr. & Volador Jr., Esfinge & Flip Gordon & Xelhua vs. Barbaro Cavernario & Yutani & Gran Guerrero. Arena Coliseo goes for its 12th straight sellout tomorrow night with a battle of three rudo teams with Ultimo Guerrero & Gran Guerrero & Stuka Jr. vs. Averno & Mephisto & Euforia and Barboza & Difunto & Furia Roja, plus Neon vs. Yutani. Sunday at Arena Mexico has Atlantis Jr. & Esfinge & Titan vs. Angel de Oro & Cavernario & Volador Jr.

— So the notable thing is Mascara Dorada is not booked so he could be in the Blackjack Battle Royal.

— Colby Covington said he was mad about being left off the UFC show at the White House. Bo Nickal said that he has not signed for his fight with Kyle Daukaus on the show and said he would fight Covington instead if they wanted him to.

— We’re looking for reports this weekend from tomorrow night’s MLW show in Atlanta, NXT in St. Petersburg,FL and Gainesville, FL as well as tnight from Phoenix with any dark matches to [email protected]

— We are doing our usual PPV poll on Sunday for Revolution. You can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to [email protected]

— Today in the New Japan Cup in Kanaoka saw Callum Newman beat Hartley Jackson and Hirooki Goto beat Jake Lee to advance. This leads to Newman vs. Goto on Tuesday.

— El Homenaje a Dos Leyendas week starts Monday in Puebla, runs Tuesday in Guadalajara and the big show is Friday in Mexico City. Monday has Atantis Jr. & Templario vs Volador Jr. & Soberano Jr., and Angel de Oro & Niebla Roja defend the CMLL tag titles against Dorada & Neon.

— AAA Rey de Reyes from Puebla tomorrow night airs one hour live on YouTube at 10 p.m. Eastern with Dominik Mysterio vs. El Hijo del Vikingo for the AAA Mega title, a Flammer open challenge for the Reina de Reinas title and the Rey de Reyes final with Grande Americano Kaiser vs. Grande Americano Gable vs Santos Escobar vs. La Parka.

— Vikingo in an interview with Denise Salcedo and in other interviews this week teased the idea of going to WWE.

  • — UFC is from the Apex tomorrow starting at 5 p.m.Eastern time
  • Piera Rodriguez (116) vs. Sam Hughes (116)
  • Elijah Smith (136) vs. SuYoung You (136)
  • Bia Mesquite (135.5) vs. Montes Rendon (135)
  • Luan Lacerda (136) vs. Hecher Sosa (135.5)
  • Bolaji Oki (155.5) vs. Manoel Sousa (155)
  • Chris Curtis I170.5) vs Myktybek Orolbal (170.5)
  • Brad Tavares (186) vs, Eryk,Anders (186)
  • Charles Johnson (126) vs. Bruno Silva (126)
  • Vitor Petrino (248.5) vs. Steven Asplund (265.5)
  • Marwan Rahiki (146) vs. Harry Hardwick (145.5)
  • Andre Fili (145.5) vs. Jose Miguel Delgado (146)
  • Ion Cutelaba (205) vs. Oumar Sy (205.5)
  • Amanda Lemos (116) vs. Gillian Robertson (116)
  • Josh Emmett (146) vs. Kevin Vallejos (145.5)

— For the last month, this was the approximate male/female percentages of viewers in 18-49 for the different TV shows.

  • NXT 63.8 percent male
  • Dynamite 64.9 percent male
  • SmackDown 63.8 percent male
  • Collision 60.4 percent male

So there’s no great discrepancy or disparity

— Candice Michelle was signed by TNA to become an agent and producer. for women’s matches. Beats me.

— Mistico and Mascara Dorada will be headlining tomorrow night in San Jose, CA, at Mount Pleasant High School.

— MLW is taping at Center Stage in Atlanta tomorrow which is almost sold out. Teddy Long is advertised as a special guest. No matches announced but Matt Riddle, Shotzi Blackheart, Kushida, Austin Aries, Titan, Karl Anderson, Doc Gallows, Isla Dawn, Priscilla Kelly, Donovan Dijak, Alex Hammerstone, Paul London, Matt Justice, Ikuro Krown and Okumura are on the show.

— My longtime friend Kurt “Vandal Drummond” Brown turns 64 today. Masakatsu Funaki turned 57. Matt Jackson of The Young Bucks turned 41. Len Montana, a headliner who became a fairly well known actor, was born on this day 100 years ago. Geoff Portz, one of the great British wrestlers of the 60s and father of Scott McGhee, was born on this day in 1935. Magnificent Maurice/Gene DuBurque wsa 46 when he died 42 years ago. Kurt Von Hess was 56 when he died 27 years ago. Arnold Skaaland, a former part-owner of WWWF, storyline manager of Bruno Sammartino and Andre the Giant, longtime wrestler and promoter, was 82 when he died on this day 19 years ago. Andrew “Test” Martin was 33 when he died 17 years ago today. Dennis Stamp, a former college star who was a solid pro best known for Beyond the Mat, was 70 when he died nine years ago.(thanks to Tony Richards)

— Kirk White’s Big Time Wrestling on 3/20 at the Newark, CA, Pavilion is sold out with Andrade vs. Bad Dude Tito, which sounds like a great indie match, Aaron Solo vs. Alpha Zo, QT Marshall vs. LJ Cleary, Viva Van vs, Siren Vell, Vinnie Massaro vs. Marcus Lewis, VertVixen vs. Valentina Rossi and more.

— Innovate Wrestling has the Smoky Mountain Cup tonight and tomorrow night in Kingsport, TN as the Beautiful Bobby Eaton Arena at Netpro Studios. The tournament celebrates the 24th anniversary of the promotion.

— Warrior Wrestling runs Logan Square Auditorium for the first time tonight since the brewery they usually run at has roofing issues that needed emergency repairs. Mustafa Ali and Beast Mortos are the headliners.

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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.