Daily Update: TNA Slammiversary, UFC fallout, CMLL notes

TNA Slammiversary 2025 Global Start Times

Daily Update

Latest Headlines

Latest Audio

Latest YouTube Video

This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

This week’s issue is one of the biggest of the year when it comes to major shows and we have one our biggest issues of the year out:

  • Full coverage of All In Texas including why matches ended the way they did, business numbers, lots of injury updates, booking notes on the top matches,  PPV numbers, gate, merch, history of Texas stadium shows, complaints about the length and why, interest level comparisons with WWE this week and the past month, next head-to-head and more
  • Bill Goldberg’s retirement, his comments, a look into the ratings of the show, WWE side of the story, what could have been done differently, Seth Rollins angle looked at, SummerSlam card revealed, how to accurately look at the numbers and more.
  • WWE Evolution, early numbers, booking thoughts.
  • Great American Bash and competition wth All In.
  • ROH Supercard of Honor featuring an incredible main event
  • Dragon Gate has its biggest show of the year
  • The life and times of the Amazing Kung Fu on the death of Eddie Hamill and his influence on how babyfaces in the U.K. work
  • The most detailed look at the ratings for all the wrestling television shows this past week, with demo, comparisons with last year and quarters.
  • A look at the CMLL anniversary show
  • MJF heading to Mexico to challenge for title
  • Arena Mexico has trios match with young wrestlers that was super
  • Alberto turns face in AAA
  • G-1 Climax first week news
  • Celebrity returns to Japanese rings
  • MMA legends do pro wrestling title match
  • Cowboy Bob Ellis and the Hall of Fame
  • Tokyo Joshi Pro in the U.S.
  • Slammiversary is TNA’s  biggest event in years
  • Update on lawsuit against AEW
  • Tony Khan talks a number of subjects after All In
  • The story behind the Dralisico & Dragon Lee win over FTR in Mexico and what happened next
  • Advance ticket sales for WWE & AEW upcoming shows
  • Dana White talks about White House show for next year
  • MMA champion shot five times this past week
  • Randy Couture update
  • Business of Taylor vs. Serrano
  • Lawsuit involving Real American Beer
  • Stratus talks Evolution
  • SummerSlam advances

This Week’s Back Issue

FIRST TIME SUBSCRIBERS GET 50% OFF YOUR FIRST MONTH

Sunday Update

CMLL vs AEW ROH Card Bandido
Image Copyright: AEW

— Garrett Gonzales and I did a show last night talking about the news of the past week as well as talking UFC, SmackDown, business strategies, Jon Jones, G-1, an incredible trio, and a ton of other subjects coming out of the weekend. Bryan and I will be talking about weekend news tomorrow night after Raw.

— After the UFC show last night Dana White said, when asked about Jon Jones fighting on the White House show next year, was quite negative. “I just can’t risk putting him in big positions, in a big spot, and have something go wrong, especially on the White House card.” Jones responded saying that he was a little disappointed but was ready to fight on the show.

— Adding AJ Styles to tonight’s Slammiversary show at the UBS Arena in Belmont, NY, has put it over the top. It is at 6,805 tickets out. That’s 2,400 up from when Styles was first announced for the show. The legit TNA U.S. record is 6,700 paid and they did 8,000 in London as the all-time record. While 6,805 is not a paid number, it is going to be either the No. 1 or No. 2 show in company history and largest since 2013. The lineup for tonight:

  • Trick Williams vs. Mike Santana vs. Joe Hendry for the TNA title
  • Masha Slamovich vs. Jacy Jayne for the TNA & NXT women’s titles
  • Nic & Ryan Nemeth defend the tag titles against The Hardys, AJ Francis & KC Navarro and Trey Miguel & Zachary Wentz with  the Hardys saying if they don’t win they will retire
  • Moose vs. Leon Slater for the X title
  • Ash & Heather by Elegance defend the Knockouts tag titles against The Iinspiration (the former Iconics)
  • Indi Hartwell vs. Tessa Blanchared
  • Mustafa Ali vs. Cedric Alexander
  • DarkState vs. Eddie Edwards & Brian Myers & JDC & Matt Cardona

— Looking for reports from these weekend shows:

  • SmackDown on Friday in San Antonio (only dark matches)
  • NXT on Friday in Sebring, FL
  • WWE last night in Corpus Christi, TX
  • NXT last night in Tampa, FL
  • WWE tonight in Edinburg, TX

— We’re looking for results, finishes and highlights to [email protected]

— We’re also doing polls on the first night of G-1 yesterday in Sapporo as well as TNA Slammiversary tonight in Belmont, NY, thumbs up, down or middle, best and worst match from each show to [email protected]

— G-1 is back on Tuesday from Sendai at 5:30 a.m. Eastern time with an A block show with Ryohei Oiwa vs. Callum Newman, Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Oleg Boltin, Evil vs. Sanada, Taichi vs. David Finlay and Yota Tsuji vs. Yuya Umura.

— Raw tomorrow has CM Punk and Roman Reigns appearing, Becky Lynch has a proposal for Lyra Valkyira, Sheamus vs. Rusev, Jaquin Wilde & Cruz del Oro vs. New Day vs., Creeds and Sami Zayn returns against Karrion Kross.  

— Nina Samuels sustained an injury and is off the 7/27 Progress show so her loser leaves town match with Kanji is off the show and will take place when Samuels can return.

— AEW announced a 9/24 Dynamite date in Pittsburgh at the Petersen Events Center.

— Matches that are among the best of the weekend are:

  • Konosuke Takeshita vs. Gabe Kidd from the first night of G-1
  • Mistico & Bandido & Atlantis Jr. vs. Barboza & Difunto & Zandokan Jr,. from Friday night at Arena Mexico
  • Templario vs. Mascara Dorada from Friday – Rushed however
  • The four-way tag team match on Smackdown
  • Mistico & Bandido vs. Mortos & Volador Jr. from last night at Arena Coliseo and people also have raved about the post-match where Bandido brought his daughter to the ring

— Friday’s Arena Mexico show drew a sellout of 16,000, the third sellout in four weeks. CMLL is now in its hottest business period since 1991. The six-man tag mentioned above was said to us by one regular as the best match they thought of the year. I wouldn’t put it at that level, but the heat was incredible even by Arena Mexico levels and I will say the work from the rudo trio was the best work by a rudo trio in a match I’ve seen there this year. The Fantasma trio are so fast, aggressive, bumping and selling machines and have perfect ring positioning.    

— Mistico & Dorada vs. Mortos & a mystery partner headlines Oaxaca, Mexico tonight.

— KENTA is the new GHC champion, beating Kenoh for the title today at Korakuen Hall in 28:04.  He will next defend against Naomichi Marufuji. Kenoh beat Ozawa for the title on Saturday also at Korakuen Hall.

— Amanda Nunes has officially enrolled in the UFC drug testing program for a potential title fight with Kayla Harrison.

— Neon and Mascara Dorada of the Sky Team face off this coming Friday at Arena Mexico in the finals of the Leyenda de Plata. They did a single elimination tournament where Neon beat Max Star and Titan and Dorada beat Captain Suicida and Templario. Friday’s show goes head-to-head with AAA at Juan de la Barrera Gym with Alberto vs. Mesias and if Alberto loses, he must leave AAA.

— For Google searches, UFC was the No. 1 of the weekend at 1.22 million. Most were for Dustin Poirier. UFC did a great job with the retirement. It blew away the Bill Goldberg retirement from WWE the prior week. Interest level also was on different levels Manny Pacquiao was at 1 million and Oleksandr Usyk was 100,000. Nothing from pro wrestling was close this weekend.

— Regarding the comments by Daniel Cormier in the interview with Demetrious Johnson about him being on the banned list for something real bad, this is not a new story. TKO legal to this point has not cleared Lesnar due to the Janel Grant lawsuit. It’s been the same situation since he was pulled from a planned surprise appearance at the 2024 Royal Rumble.

— ACW from last night at the MJN Convention Center in Poughkeepsie, NY: Real 1 (Enzo Amore) b Zack Clayton to keep the National title, Lena Kross b TRina San Antonio, Sidney Akeem b AJZ, Parker Boudreaux b Danny Doring, Carlito b Lee Sparrow & Brian Myers, Sent2Slaughter b Crowbar & Kerr, Mike Santana b Dante Casanova, Indi Hartwell b Vicki Ventuto, Matt Riddle b Richard Holliday via DQ so Holiday retained the ACW title. Announced for the next show on 10/18 is Holiday defending in a four-way against Riddle, Nic Nemeth and Matt Cardona and Vampiro debuts.

— WWE LFG airs on A&E tonight at 10 p.m.

— TNA announced Mike Santana vs. Joe Hendry for Thursday’s live TV show in Kingston, RI.