Daily Update: UFC notes, Logan Paul, weekend lineups

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

  • March 9, 2026 Observer Newsletter: More on AEW’s potential future with Paramount, WWE Elimination Chamber review & ratings
  • More on the Paramount purchase of WBD and details of when it goes through, if it goes through and details on how it helps or hurts UFC, AEW and Zuffa Boxing as well as a cost efficiency look at the three properties for 2027 if plans go through as stated.
  • The road to WrestleMania and why Paul Levesque is in a position where it’s impossible for him to do the job people want and impossible for him to fail, business notes on the show, and a look at the Elimination Chamber show, how it did on Netflix, the good and the bad.
  • Preview and updates on AEW Revolution and interest level
  • Odds on upcoming wrestling matches
  • Coverage of the New Japan New Beginning USA show in Trenton with two title changes
  • A look at the Demolition tag team as they go into the WWE Hall of Fame
  • The most detailed look at the ratings of all the pro wrestling TV shows, including demos, competition and comparisons with last year.
  • Johnny TV in the most heated match so far this year with Angel de Oro
  • Why AAA television is so entertaining
  • Stardom Cinderella tournament notes
  • Brothers face off in NOAH jr. tag tournament final
  • New Japan Cup first two days
  • Final night of Fantastica Mania notes
  • Jeff Jarrett documentary
  • Wrestler out of prison starts working on indices this week
  • Real American Freestyle angle
  • Update of the robbery of the Canadian promotion and the Davey Boy Smith Jr. Hall of Fame ring
  • John Laurinaitis wants back in to wrestling
  • 16 Carat Gold weekend in Germany
  • Pro Wrestling Eve has biggest show of its history this week
  • Brodie Lee Jr. first singles match date
  • Steph De Lander talks why she and Mance Warner quit TNA
  • Notes on David Finlay signing with AEW
  • ROH first TV tapings in a studio
  • UFC heavyweight and light heavyweight title updates
  • Lots of new UFC fights
  • Updates on WWE front office news and changes
  • The story behind leaking fast nationals
  • WWE accused of deleting key information in a lawsuit
  • More notes on the WWE deal with Endeavor and how it went down
  • Janel Grant speaks in favor of changing Connecticut law on NDAs
  • Bianca Belair update
  • WWE sends out unchecked email to network subscribers causing a panic
  • Next WWE media deal to be made
  • WWE injury updates
  • Nick Khan sells millions in TKO stock

This Week’s Back Issue

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Friday Update

Image: WWE

— Garrett Gonzales and I will be doing our show later this afternoon covering all the news of the week in the new issue and there is a lot of it. We will also be back talking more news tomorrow night with a big weekend of activity including the all-women’s show tonight, the UFC show tomorrow night, NXT Vengeance Day, AEW Collision, Smackdown and whatever else breaks.

— The lineup for the UFC show on 6/14 at the White House will be announced tomorrow night on the UFC PPV show. White said it will be only a six-fight show but there may be a seventh fight. But six fights will be announced tomorrow.

— Jake Paul’s MVP Promotions announced an all-women’s promotion called MVPW, along with announcing a three-year deal for the promotion with ESPN. The debut show will be 4/5 in London, and it will also air on Sky Sports. It will air on ESPN Unlimited in the U.S. The first ESPN television date will be on 4/17 and Alycia Baumgardner (17-1) vs. Bo Mi Re Shin (19-3-3) for the super featherweight title at the Theater in Madison Square Garden. They also announced a 5/30 show from El Paso headlined by Stephanie Han (12-0) defending the lightweight title against Holly Holm (34-3-3)

— AEW Dynamite on Wednesday did 650,000 viewers with an 0.12 in 18-49 and an 0.20 in 25-54. That tells you how ridiculous the 50-54 number is. I don’t have the number yet but it’s likely around 100,000.

— Today is crazy talk day. Logan Paul and NFL player Le’Veon Bell have agreed to a boxing match with no headgear with no time limit and three-minute rounds, ending only via knockout or someone giving up.
Meanwhile, Dana White and Eddie Hearn are both saying that they are up for a boxing match against the other. White had made a comment about their feud saying they could do a boxing match. Hearn said he would accept. This is the crazy grandstand stuff that Eric Bischoff did in 1998 with Vince McMahon, that McMahon didn’t accept, nor should he have, although McMahon did counter that if they wanted a fight they could do it but not on a WCW show. Of course, that went nowhere. We’ll see where this one goes.

— SmackDown tonight from Portland, OR, features the Drew McIntyre vs. Cody Rhodes WWE title match that theoretically determines who faces Randy Orton at WrestleMania. Rhea Ripley is on the show. There will be a tag team turmoil match to determine who faces the MFTs for the title next week. There are 8,000+ tickets out.

— Hearn, who is now managing Tom Aspinall, noted that he was stunned at how little Aspinall, the UFC heavyweight champion, was making.

— New Japan’s 54th anniversary show was earlier today at Korakuen Hall:
Drilla Moloney & Daiki Nagai b Yuya Uemura & Masatora Yasuda
Great O’Khan & Henare & Francesco Akria & Jakob Austin Young b Hirooki Goto & Oleg Boltin & Toru Yano & Tatsuyua Matsumoto
Zack Sabre Jr. & Ryohei Oiwa b Yuto-Ice & Gedo
Yota Tsuji & Shingo Takagi b Don Fale & Yoshinobu Kanemaru
Ren Narita & Chase Owens & Yujiro Takahashi & Sho & Dick Togo b Satoshi Kojima & Shota Umino & Aaron Wolf & Tatsumi Fujinami & Leona (Fujinami)
Jake Lee b Yoshi-Hashi in the New Japan Cup
Callum Newman b Oskar in the New Japan Cup
Robbie X & Taiji Ishimori b Kosei Fujita & Robble Eagles to win the IWGP jr. tag titles
Douki b Master Wato to retain the IWGP jr. title

— Stardom also had the first day of the Cinderella tournament in Aichi:
Rian b Yuma Mizumori
Aya Sakrua b Fukigen Death
Ranna Yagami b Waka Tsukiyama
Natsupoi b Tabata
Hanako DCOR Yuria Hime
Maki Ioh b Kikyo Furusawa
Saori Anou DCOR Fuwa-Chan
Hana b Momo Kohgo
It’s a single-elimination tournament that runs over the next week. The women in the double count-out matches are both eliminated from the tournament.

— It’s a pretty big weekend but the only show we are doing polls on is NXT Vengeance Day tomorrow night. You can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down, or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to [email protected]

— CMLL tonight at Arena Mexico has an all-women’s show available as a PPV through Triller at $9.99 or $7.99 if you have a Triller subscription. It will likely be one of the largest crowds for an all-women’s show outside Japan in history. The show starts at 9:30 p.m. Eastern. Based on the advance, it is not going to sell out. It needs just over 9,000 to break the Mexico record and 10,900 to break the North American record.
Catalina & Sanely vs. Garra Negra & Keyra
Maika vs. Dark Silueta
Mina Shirakawa vs. Zeuxis
Megan Bayne vs. Olympia
Princesa Sugehit vs. Marcela vs La Magnifica for the Copa Irma Gonzalez
Kira & Skadi vs. Candela & Metalica for the Mexican national women’s’ tag team titles
Jarochita & Lluvia vs Starlight Kid & Mei Seira for the CMLL women’s tag team titles
Mercedes Mone vs. Persephone for the CMLL women’s title

— The Pro Wrestling Eve show at the Indigo at the O2 Arena in London is Sunday, which will be before the largest crowd to ever witness an all-women’s pro wrestling event in the U.K. with a lot of AEW talent working the show including Willow Nightingale, Kris Statlander and Harley Cameron. Nightingale defending the TBS title against Nina Samuels is now official for the EVE show on Sunday at the Indigo. The show will air on the EVE streaming service.

— The Arman Tsarukyan vs. Georgio Poullas wrestling match for RAF from last Saturday which Tsarukyan won via decision ended in a wild brawl where Tsarukyan threw a number of punches after it was over. Instead of Tsarukyan being punished, they are being booked for a rematch ASAP, meaning on the 3/28 show in Tampa.

— Francis Ngannou and the PFL have parted ways before the expiration of their contract together.

— UFC 326 starts at 5 p.m. Eastern on Paramount Plus from the T Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. It should be noted that from 8-10 p.m. Eastern and 5-7 p.m. Pacific that four fights scheduled as the Johnson fight through the Rodrigues fight, will be airing on CBS. This will be the first time in history that two main card fights from a “numbered” show will be airing on television.
Luke Fernandez (205) vs. Rodolfo Bellato (204.5)
Rafael Tobias (204) vs. Diyar Nurgozhav (205.5)
Sumudaerji (126) vs. Jesus Aguilar (125.5)
Cody Durden (125.5) vs. Nyamjargal Tumedemberel (125.5)
Ricky Turcios (146) vs Alberto Montes (145.5)
Donte Johnson (185.5) vs. Cody Brundagde (185.5)
Cody Garbrandt (136) vs. Xiao Long (135.5)
Gregory Rodrigues (186) vs. Bruno Ferreira (184)
Drew Dober (156) vs. Michael Johnson (155.5)
Rob Font (136) vs. Raul Rosas Jr. (135.5)
Caoi Borralho (186) vs. Reinieer de Ridder (185.5)
Max Holloway (155.5) vs. Charles Oliveria (156)
The Jeong Yeong Lee vs. Gaston Bolanos fight was canceled due to Lee having a weight issue.

— Buff Bagwell was at the TNA tapings last night in Atlanta. He’s on the show that will air next Thursday, and said he would wrestle with TNA. Frankie Kazarian shoved him down. Elijah made the save. Bagwell had his right leg amputated form above the knee. Yoshiaki Yatsu wrestled in that condition and Zach Gowen did as well.

— Nic Nemeth will be on tomorrow’s Memphis Wrestling TV show.

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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.