Daily Update: Paul Heyman, Carlos Silva, Don Frye
Daily Update
Latest News
- Wrestling is great, but no longer makes for great TV | Opinion
- Updated WWE Night of Champions betting odds released
- Big E addresses Xavier Woods & Kofi Kingston’s WWE departures
- Cody Rhodes on the ‘irony’ of him being the face of WWE
- AEW Collision to air on Thursdays twice in July, more preemptions possibly coming
- WWE pulls ‘match-used steel chair’ auction after blunder
- Big E: ‘There’s life outside of wrestling, and it ain’t that bad’
- Becky Lynch makes visit to Irish wrestling school
- TNA reportedly expects culture to ‘change for the better’ after Tommy Dreamer exit
Latest Audio
- WOL: NXT recap, Dynamite, Adam Abdalla talks Produce 1
- DragonKingKarl: August 3, 1986 Wrestling Observer Newsletter review
- B&V: NXT from June 26, 2013, plus Granny~!
Latest YouTube Video
This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter
- June 22, 2026 Observer Newsletter: UFC Freedom 250 news recap, big TNA creative changes, new champions emerge at NJPW Dominion
Among the topics covered:
- Crazy hyperbole for the UFC White House show
- The arrests of people looking at ruining the show and worse
- Explaining all the misleading viewership numbers
- The best real comparisons to Rousey vs. Carano and Gaethje vs. Pimblett
- The lessons that the viewership number taught us
- Who paid for what and what the taxpayers had to cover from the show
- The Josh Hokit situation
- Gavin Newsom responds to the show
- Sean Strickland silliness
- Celebrities who came and didn’t come
- The Daniel Cormier/Eric Trump twitter show
- What the public thought of the show
- A look at next weekend’s big shows, business notes, and big show business for AEW & WWE PPV shows the next few months
- Updates on Forbidden Door and what is and isn’t there
- Full coverage of UFC at the White House
- Full coverage of NewJapan Dominion and the G-1 Climax tournament
- The life and career of Pete Doherty, the Duke of Dorchester
- The most detailed look at the ratings of all the major shows this past wek
- CMLL gets new international PPV home
- A look back at another big week for Komander, a week of sellouts and big crowds, and Komander mad at Guadalajara fans
- All Japan big show coverage
- NOAH tag tournament finals
- Tiger Mask’s farewell notes
- Maple Leaf Wrestling TV tapings
- Out of control brawl at RAF show
- The story behind the birth of King of the Ring
- Layfield out of retirement
- Death of Van Hammer update
- Big names coming to European indies
- MLW TV taig notes
- Departures of Tommy Dreamer and Tessa Blanchard from TNA looked at
- More on the Paramount/Skydance purchase of WBD and how it affects AEW
- Sareee explains missing AEW show
- Mistico teaes ROH title match
- Advanced ticket sales to upcoming WWE & AEW shows
- Fallout of the Conor McGregor New York Times story
- More on UFC officials deleting evidence agauisnt lawyers advice in regard to Kajan Johnson case
- Allegations against Alex Pererira
- Former Pride star charged in sexual assault case
- Former UFC star charges dropped in beating daughter
- Janel Grant speaks about her case, and depositions in the shareholders lawsuit
- Kaiser case updated
- George Barrios defends voting for Vince’s return
This Week’s Back Issue
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Wednesday Update
WWE
- The CW’s YouTube channel uploaded last night’s full NXT episode for free. It was the go-home show for Great American Bash, which airs live on The CW this Sunday.
- Brooks Jensen showed support for former AJPW Triple Crown Champion Joe Doering (who is entering hospice care amid his battle with brain cancer) by writing Doering’s name on his wrist tape for a dark match last night.
- During his appearance on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Paul Heyman said he believes the Emmys are “years behind” and should be nominating WWE and its performers for awards. He doesn’t know if some of the best actors in the world could take the pressure of performing in front of huge live crowds like WWE wrestlers do:
- We do these scenes in front of five, 10, 15, 20, 30, 50, 70,000 people in an arena, in a stadium, in a hall, and we play them out. And if we mess up, we have to incorporate that mess-up into the shtick, or we have to acknowledge – no pun intended – the fact that we messed up and we have to correct it or just move on.
- I don’t know if Javier Bardem can take that pressure. I’d love to find out. I don’t know if Paul Giamatti can take that pressure. I’d love to find out. I don’t know if Christian Bale. I don’t know if Jeffrey Wright. I don’t know if Tom Hardy. I don’t know if Meryl Streep can take the pressure of that live audience.
- Van Vliet asked Heyman what he said to Brock Lesnar during the moment where Lesnar appeared to be retiring at WrestleMania 42 (before later returning and resuming his feud with Oba Femi):
- I thanked him for everything. He thanked me for everything. I told him that I love him. He told me that he loves me. Then I asked him if he finds it funny that the two of us are standing in the middle of the ring, in the middle of the stadium, in the middle of WrestleMania, being broadcast all over ESPN, telling each other that we love each other. I said, ‘This is kind of a surreal moment.’ He goes, ‘F**k them! Don’t worry about that, this is just for us.’ Okay, my Beast. Happy to happen, happy to participate in the moment. It was just a very personal moment that we were not hesitant to share with the rest of the world. It was a very emotional moment.
- Heyman addressed how fans should feel about the moment given that Lesnar has already returned:
- [I would] remember how I felt if I’m an audience member. I would remember how I felt watching it. I’d remember what that moment was. I remember all that it encompassed, and I would be appreciative of the fact that I got to live that moment and experience it and hold it in my data bank as a fan.
- WWE released a new merchandise collection in celebration of June 23 being the 30th anniversary of Steve Austin’s “Austin 3:16” promo from King of the Ring 1996.
- Kendal Grey appeared on TMZ Inside the Ring.
Other Wrestling
- Q93 Radio has an interview with Tony Khan.
- AEW Women’s World Champion Thekla spoke to ClutchPoints about the experience she’s had in the promotion so far:
- It has been only great. I love working with all the people there. I love being around so many legends and people who have done great and big things for the wrestling industry. The locker room is fun. There are a bunch of nasty girls, obviously, as in every locker room. But most people are f***ing phenomenal, so I couldn’t be happier. Actually, I think I may have finally found my wrestling home in AEW.
- Bandido told Undisputed that he’s both nervous and excited for his match against Jon Moxley at Forbidden Door:
- Jon Moxley is one of the biggest names in the whole wrestling world. Getting into the ring with him makes me nervous and excited. This is my opportunity to show people why I’m elite.
- I wrestle with my soul. That’s who I am. Out of the ring, I work every day to be better. I am not the biggest or strongest, but you can’t kill my fighting spirit.
- I had a big match earlier this year against MJF, now I have a match against a legend. I’m ready to be disrespectful and do whatever it takes to show what I can do.
- Jon Moxley can’t kill my fighting spirit. People will see that on Sunday when I become the next Continental Champion.
- Mark Briscoe appeared on Casual Conversations with The Classic.
- Lio Rush put out an official music video for his song “HE Would.”
- TNA President Carlos Silva sent out a tweet celebrating the viewership for last week’s Impact:
- 255k: Proud of our @thisisTNA team and our USA broadcast partners @AMC_TV — last week was one of our highest-rated episodes so far. We’ll do it again Thursday night, then it’s on to Boston and Slammiversary!
- On the 24th anniversary of his legendary PRIDE fight against Yoshihiro Takayama, Don Frye called for Takayama to be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame:
- I would love to see Yoshihiro Takayama-san get inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame…I hope you’ll all join me in wishing Yoshihiro Takayama-san great luck in getting his body back together so he can hold his wife tight like a man wants to. Yoshihiro Takayama-san is a great man, a great fighter. He deserves to be remembered as such. Nobody else could have been in that fight like he does.
- The Frye vs. Takayama fight from 2002 can be watched here.
Joseph Currier
Joseph Currier is the lead editor of F4WOnline.com, directing daily news coverage and writing articles on professional wrestling. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, obtaining a journalism degree in 2016. Joseph joined F4W during his time at UMass and has now been writing about the industry for nearly a decade.
In addition to his work with F4W, Joseph has previously contributed to Sports Illustrated's wrestling coverage. He lives in Massachusetts and is a diehard fan of the Boston sports teams and Liverpool Football Club.