Daily Update: Ratings disaster, The Smashing Machine, Bad Bunny

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

The new issue of the  Wrestling Observer Newsletter is up on the site today:
*Updates on Crown Jewel and WrestleDream, interest level , lineups and what could be added
*Notes on Tuesday’s AEW/NXT head-to-head battle
*Odds regarding upcoming big matches
*Tokyo Dome ticket sales and notes from Hiroshi Tanahashi and Aaron  Wolf
*NXT No Mercy coverage
*New Japan Destruction in Kobe notes
*CMLL Noche de Campeones notes
*Fuerza Guerrera retires with a look back at his career
*Television ratings are crazy this week and what is the change
*One of the most impressive attendance streaks in history has ended
*CMLL’s focus on wmens’wrestilng in October
*Tessa Blanchard back  in CMLL
*AAA goes head-to-head with CMLL featuring AEW and WWE stars on each show
*Saya Kamitani becomes double champion
*Go Shiozaki leaves NOAH
*King of Pro Wrestling shw final.zied
*Mistico vs. Bandido singles match this past week
*Bret Hart talks his career and we look back at what he said
*New wrestling documentaries
*European star may have cost himself his career with full details as to what happened
*MLW makes comment on WWE business on its TV show
*Upcoming TNA TV news
*Thoughts on Andrade’s return to AEW and what happened
*History of pro wrestling on the SuperStation
*Zuffa Boxing TV deal and notes on the promotion
*Dana White on 60 Minutes coverage
*How UFC went from almost dying to a $15 billion business, the moves it made and how Vince McMahon killed one of its biggest TV deals
*What happened with Wanderlei Silva’s boxing match after it was over
*Notes on stockholder lawsuit against TKO
*WWE top star to take time off for major movie role
*WWE headed to Japan for big shows
*Injury updates
*Updates on Edris Enofe and Jazmyn Nyx leaving the company

This Week’s Back Issue

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Friday Update

Part two of our Hall of Fame series covering international candidates and the Mexico ballot with Phil Lions, John Muse and  Ethan Tyler will be up on the site shortly.  Garrett Gonzalez and I covered the news including what happened over the past week that in the long run could greatly change the economics of wrestling.  We will be back tomorrow night covering the weekend shows and UFC,.

–The new Nielsen methodology for television ratings is a disaster for pro wrestling.  The move is basically complete and from this point forward we’ll be getting it based on the new numbers.  AEW did 465,000 viewers and 0.09 for the anniversary show, down 32 percent from last week under the old method from 0.14.  These numbers don’t include HBO MAX.  The Yankees-Red Sox game hurt it but it’s more the change.  NXT was also down 41 percent from the prior Tuesday going from 0.17 to 0.10.  Smackdown was also down heavy, but more in viewers than 18-49, which went from 0.37 to 0.35.  

–The last 30 minutes did hurt the show but even so, in the regular two hours it was 0.10.  The second hour had a big drop from the first which also could relate to the baseball game.  Male numbers were incredibly down.  As for where it hurt most, males 18-34 were down 66 percent,  Women 18-34 were down 57 percent, males 35-49 were down 27 percent nd wmen 35-49 were up 16 percent.  Baseball should have accounted for a small part of that, but it was also the anniversary show.  NXT also did terribly with 18-34, doing an 0.06 and AEW did even worse at 0.04.  While nothing in reality has changed, these numbers are going to be viewed over the long term with the conclusion young people don’t watch wrestling and that’s a very bad conclusion when the vast majority of revenue comes from television.

–Smashing Machine starts tonight nationally.  It debuted in a lot of places last night.  It has a 73 percent positive critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes.  I’ve heard a lot of good things about the acting debut of Ryan Bader, who played Mark Coleman.  Also heard that the person who played Paul Varelans was even worse casting than the guy who played Ric Flair in Iron Claw.

–US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem  said this  about sometimes WWE performer Bad Bunny working the Super Bowl.  “The NFL sucks and we’ll win and God will bless us and we’ll stand and be proud of ourselves at the end of the day and they won’t be able to sleep at night because they don’t know what they believe and they’re so weak.  We’ll fix it.”  

–Arthur Jones, a former NFL star with the Baltimore Ravens and older brother of Jon Jones passed away today at the age of 39.  No cause of death was announced.  Arthur was a two-time state heavyweight wrestling champion as well as a football star, got his brother into wrestling.

–Bandido defends the ROH title tonight at Arena Mexico against Hechicero in a rematch of one of the best matches this year.  I believe this is the first time an American based world title match was rematched at Arena Mexico based on reaction to the quality of the match.  It is not the main event, as it’s women’s month so every Friday night main event will be a women’s match.  The first round of the CMLL Universal women’s tournament starts tonight with Catalina, LLuvia, India Sioui, Princesa Sugehit, Olympia and Candela.

–1980s woman wrestler Sabrina passed away from cancer at the age of 64.  Her real name was Doris Whitlock.  She did take the name from the comic book character Sabrina the Teenage Witch.  She had a short career as part of Moolah’s stable, working and touring the country in 1982 and 1983 before going into real estate (thanks to Ken Raftery) There is a Go Fund Me for funeral expenses.

–UFC 320 is tomorrow in Las Vegas with two title bouts
6-8 p.m. Eastern on ESPN+ and FX
Veronica Hardy (125.5) vs. Brogan Walker (124.5)
Ramiz Brahimag (170.5) vs. Austin Vanderford (170.5)
Punahele Soriano (170.5) vs. Nikolay Veretennikov (170.5)
Patchy Mix (136) vs. Jakub  Walker (136)
Macy Chiasson (137.5) vs.  Yana Santos (135) – Chiasson was fined 25 percent of her purse for missing weight by 1.5 pounds
ESPN+/FX/ESPN News at 8 p.m. Eastern
Daniel Santos (151) vs. Joo Sang Yoo (152.5)
Chris Gutierrez (136) vs. Farid Basharat (135)
Edmen Shahbazyan (185.5) vs. Andre Muniz (185.5)
Ateba Gautier (186) vs. Treston Vines (185)
PPV at 10 p.m. Eastern
Abus Magomedov (185.5) vs. Joe Pyfer (186)
Josh Emmett (146) vs.  Youssef Zalal (146)
Jiri Prochazka (206) vs. Khalil Rountree Jr. (205)
Merab Dvalishvili (135) vs. Cory Sandgagen (134.5) for the bantamweight title
Magomed Ankalaev (204.5) vs. Alex Pereira (204.5) for the light heavyweight title

–Crown Jewel next Saturday will be airing at 2 p.m. local time in each time zone rather than live at movie theaters through Fandango.  They have been airing recent shows live, but because live is 8 a.m. Eastern and 5 a.m. Pacific, the decision was made to air it at 2 p.m. in every time zone.

–AEW Collision was taped last nigth and airs at 7 p.m., one hour early, on TNT Eastern time.  It airs at 4 p.m., four hours early, Pacific time.  I shudder to think of what the ratings will be at an unfamiliar time:
Kevin Knight vs. Dax Harwood
Jon Moxley &  Claudio Castagnoli & Daniel Garcia vs. Adam Priest & Tommy Billingtn & Jay Lethal
Rush & Sammy Gueveraa vs. Cha Cha Charlie & Shane Stetson
Eddie Kingston vs. Dralistico
Konosuke Takeshita & Josh Alexander & Kyle Fletcher vs. MxM Collection & Johnny TV
Jamie Hayter vs. Anna Jay
Orange Cassidy & Roderick Strong & Kyle O’Reilly vs. Hechicero & Lance Archer & Rocky Romero

–Steven Bordern, El Hijo del Sting, makes his pro wrestling debut at 52 Walker, for an art gallery show in Downtown Manhattan put on by Darby Allin.

–More bad news regarding hotel rates for WrestleMania in April in Las Vegas.  They  already rose with the announcement of  2027 in Saudi Arabia with the idea there will be more demand to attend this year because most won’t be going next year.  The National Associationof Broadcasters is also doing theri convention that same week and that convention usually sells out almost all the hotel rooms in the city.

–The WWE LFG finals are Sunday at 10 p.m. on A&E with Penina Tuilaepe vs. Danii Sekelsky and Drake Morreaux vs. Harlem Lewis.  Lewis is currently in Japan for Pro Wrestling NOAH.

–There will be a Jumping Bomb Angels 40th anniversary event with Itsuka Yamazaki and Noriyo Tateno on 12/1 at Shinjuku Face in Tokyo.  The Crush Gals and Dump Matsumoto, rivals of the JB Angels, will be appearing.  The JB Angels were a big hit in WWF in the 80s in matches with Judy Martin & Leilani Kai, who usually blew away every match on the show when they toured.

–Leon Slater had to pull  out of Sunday’s RevPro show in London due to commitments likely related to TNA.  Luke Jacobs will now face a mystery opponent.

–Mistico vs. Michael Oku headlines 10/18 for RevPro Fantastica Mania at The Hanger in Wolverhampton.  There will also be an afternoon show with CMLL talent headlined by Chris Ridgeway vs. Hechicero.

–The Sky Team of Mistico & Mascara Dorada & Neon defend the CMLL trios titles against Barboza & Difunto & Volador Jr. on Monday night in Puebla.  Volador Jr’s team beat them on Monday in a non-title match to set this up.

–The mayor of Gomez Palacio in Mexico honored Blue Panther this week.

–Eddie Hall, the former world’s strongest man, said he would like to do a fight against either Dwayne Johnson or Jason Momoa.

–Bret Hart announced that his daughter, Jade, has won her fight with breast cancer.  

–The Raven documentary “Nevermore” is coming to Amazon Prime Video on 11/18.

–Indi Hartwell vs. Jayda Steel for the HOG women’s title takes place on 10/10 at the NYC Arena, along with Leon Slater vs. Amazing Red, Killer Kross vs. Matt Cardona, Zilla Fatu vs. Bear Bronson, Mane Event vs. Hardys for the HOG & TNA tag titles and Charles Mason vs. Man Like DeReiss for the HOG men’s title

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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.