Daily Update: UFC Freedom 250 numbers, Conor McGregor, CMLL weekend preview

UFC Freedom 250
The scene from UFC Freedom 250 at the White House. (Image credit: UFC)

Daily Update

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

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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Friday Update

CMLL logo
CMLL logo (Image credit: CMLL)

— Garrett and I did our show today talking mostly about UFC at the White House vs. Carano and Rousey, the lack of a Forbidden Door in Forbidden Door, Mistico in Houston and San Jose, and several other topics. The weekend show with Bryan will be Sunday night.

— The new issue of the Observer is out today with no doubt the most detailed look at all the stories coming out of the UFC show at the White House and the rest of the week’s news

— After the numbers came out (it’s all explained in the issue, most media reports covering this had no understanding of what they were reporting) with a listing of Rousey vs. Carano doing 9.3 million viewers in the U.S. and the White House show doing 7.0 million viewers (those are kind of comparable except the Rousey-Carano number is from VideoAmp) and White House show is from Neilsen and VideoAmp skews higher so you can’t outright say the Rousey match did better in the U.S. but you can say it was bigger worldwide, Rosuey wrote “Lmao! Kiss my a** Hunter Campbell.” Campbell was the one who made the decision to lowball Rousey and Carano after they had agreed to Rousey’s highest PPV percentage to date for the fight, but then UFC moved away from PPV., which forced a restructuring of the deal.

Rousey’s fight may have set a U.S. record (it did not set a world record because during the fad days in Brazil the biggest Anderson Silva and Junior Dos Santos fights topped 40 million viewers on Globo) and many are calling it such but there are many variables. But it will be regarded as the all-time so Campbell essentially gave away the most-watched fight in history and in the end, on a show with 10, 20 times the publicity, especially mainstream, UFC does not appear that it could equal the U.S. numbers and definitely couldn’t equal the worldwide numbers. The reason is both Netflix is a larger platform, really the key reason, but also UFC did not have big enough drawing cards on its show to equal it.

— Due to the Juneteenth holiday, Dynamite ratings are delayed until Monday.

— Conor McGregor was on Jimmy Kimmel Tuesday night and there was actually more controversy about that than anyone expected. McGregor has not done a high-profile show of that level since losing his lawsuit filed by Nikita Hand who charged him with sexual assault. There was also blowback on Ariel Helwani for having him as a guest. McGregor no-showed Stephen A. Smith and ESPN this past week. There was much social media criticism against both for allowing him on their shows. It was noted that in Ireland no media person of any level would allow him on their show and there would be hell to pay if they did. Still, McGregor will draw the all-time record gate for an MMA fight on 7/11 for his match with Max Holloway.

— The Smackdown show tonight in Kansas City features Cody Rhodes vs. Gunther for the WWE title with Sami Zayn as referee, plus KOTR and QOTR qualifiers with Jey Uso vs. Je’Von Evans and Charlotte Flair vs. Liv Morgan. I presume something off tonight’s show will build to the PPV on Saturday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia since there are only four bouts announced at this point. Last attendance figure was 6,618 as tickets were not moving at the usual pace even after they bulked up the show.

— Justin Gaethje, who has talked about retirement, hasn’t done so since winning the lightweight title from Ilia Topuria on Sunday. But he said since he’s fought twice already this year that there is a very small chance he would consider another fight before the end of the year.

— CMLL has FanasticaMania, a PPV, tonight on MyAEW from Arena Mexico for $9.99:

  • Max Star & Futuro & Valiente Jr. vs. Okumura & Shoma Kato & Yutani
  • India Sioux vs Rina for the Japanese women’s title
  • Mascara Dorada & Neon & Templario vs. Robbie X & Taiji Ishimori & Titan
  • Angel de Oro & Niebla Roja vs. Dick Togo & Sanada for CMLL tag titles
  • El Phantasmo vs. Cavernario Barbaro
  • Ultimo Guerrero & Gran Guerrero vs. Hechicero & Konosuka Takeshita
  • Tiger Mask (Mexico retirement match) & Mistico & Blue Panther vs. Black Tiger & Averno & Volador Jr.

The show will broadcast in English.

This show at this writing is not sold out, which at this point is more of a news story than if it was.

— For the weekend shows on the CML YouTube channel, Arena Coliseo tomorrow night has Soberano Jr. & Templario vs Phantasmo & Yutani, Cavernario & The Villlano III Brothers vs Robbie X & Ishimori & Titan and Blue Panther & Xelhua vs Sanada & Togo.

Sunday is one of the bigger Sunday shows of the year at Arena Mexico:

  • Rina vs. Garra Negra
  • Tessa Blanhard vs. Lluvia in the finals of the daughters of wrestlers tournament
  • El Hijo del Pantera & Pantera Jr vs. The Villano III Brothers in the finals of the sons of wrestlers tag team tournament
  • Valiente vs. Euforia in the finals of the fathers of wrestlers tournament
  • Averno vs. Zandokan Jr. in the finals of the sons of wrestlers singles tournament
  • Dick Togo & Sanada vs. Difunto & Furia Roja
  • Neon & Soberano Jr. vs. Robbie X & Ishimori
  • Mistico vs. Phantasmo

— On Tuesday’s show in Guadalajara, Dorada hit Soberano Jr. with a tope into the first row and a fan put up his feet which ended up kicking Soberano Jr in the back. Dorada started yelling at the fan and the fan stood up like he was mad and then Euforia jumped in. Soberano pulled Euforia away from the fan before anything happened and security showed up. This was all edited off the video from the shows as CMLL due to appealing so much to non-wrestling fans and families and doesn’t want anything that would make it feel like the old, dangerous to attend a show.

— Otis, Tozawa and Grayson Waller are on the NXT house shows this weekend.

— No polls this weekend. The biggest shows other than TVs are CMLL FantasticaMania live, Stardom has a PPV tomorrow and AAA has a live TV show tomorrow night on YouTube.

— We’re looking for reports on these shows:

  • NXT in Pikeville, KY tonight
  • NXT in Evansville, IN tomorrow night

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

  • The AAA show in Merida
  • Grande Americano, Dominik Mysterio and Rey Mysterio appear
  • Rey Fenix vs. Lince Dorado vs. Laredo Kid for the cruiserweight title
  • Omos & El Hijo del Vikingo vs. El Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. & Mini Vikingo

— Deonna Purrzzo posted that a man drove two hours from Connecticut to meet her at WrestleCon thinking they were in a relationship. She had to tell him he’d been catfished. Other women wrestlers commented on this including Shayna Baszler saying this has happened multiple times with her.

— The 9/4 SmackDown show in Cincinnati is officially off as confirmed by WWE. It was said to be that there were logistical issues and production related issues with doing the show, and in the end, it gives the talent Labor Day weekend off. There will be a TV show that night. They will probably tape it either the prior Friday in Cleveland or Monday in Birmingham, but that decision has not been finalized.

— UFC starts at 5 p.m. Eastern tomorrow on Paramount +

  • Shane Collins (145.5) vs. Otari Tanzilov (145)
  • Karol Rosa (135.5) vs. Luana Santos (136)
  • Leon Shahbazyan (170.5) vs. Levin Chokheli (170.5)
  • Gaston Bolanos (145) vs. Michael Aswell (146)
  • Allan Nascimdento (126) vs. Mitch Raposo (125.5)
  • Bia Mesquita (136) vs. Melissa Mullins (135.5)
  • Andre Lima (126) vs. Kevin Borjas (129) – Borjas was three pounds overweight and was fined 20 percent of his purse
  • Vinicius Oliveira (145.5) vs. Andre Fili (145.5)
  • Melsik Baghdasaryan (145.5) vs Muydrtazali Magomedov (146)
  • Hyder Amil (145) vs. Christian Rodriguez (145.5)
  • Ion Cutelaba (205.5) vs. Navajo Stirling (205)
  • Manel Kape (125) vs. Kyoji Horiguchi (125)

The main event winner has a good shot at getting a title shot at flyweight champion Joshua Van.

— Canek turned 74 today. Canek was a giant star in the 70s and 80s and one of the biggest draws in the world. Tod Gordon turned 71 today. Shanky turned 34. Leo Nomellini, one of the greatest athletes to ever work in pro wrestling, was born on this day in 1924. In college, Nomellini was a Hall of Famer in football, one of the best heavyweight wrestlers in the country and also one of the best shot putters, discus throwers and also ran the 100 which is a combination you will almost never see. He was one of the greatest lineman in pro football history and an NWA title claimant in 1955 during his feud with Lou Thesz. Thesz said that Nomellini was the greatest pro wrestler ever to play in the NFL. Wahoo McDaniel, a Hall of Famer, was born on this day in 1938, Jim Browning, a former world champion who Strangler Lewis said was the toughest of the era, died on this day in 1936 at the age of 33. Tom Jenkins, who had legendary matches with both Gotch and Hackenscmidt, passed away on this day in 1957 at the age of 84. Jim Mitchell, a pioneer African American wrestler died on this day in 1996 t thagge of 87. Stan Stsiak, who briefly held the WWWF title, passed away 29 years ago today at 60. Tim White, the WWF referee and road manager, passed away four years ago today at 68.

— Green Mountain Wrestling on Sunday in Stowe, VT a the Alchemist has a free event that starts at Noon.

— In Monday’s update for the CIW show, we listed a result of Sam Beale winning a four-way over Jackson Stone, Calvin Coco and Ren Jones. The actual results were Beale beat Stone and Coco beat Jones to win the CIW heavyweight title (thanks to Paul Meade)

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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.