Daily Update: UFC & WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event fallout, Shinsuke Nakamura

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

*A look at Saturday Night’s Main Event, the interest level, the Royal Rumble and Rumble odds
*Big Bad Bobby Duncum, a look at the career of a worldwide headliner who worked on top with almost every major babyface of the 70s, including big WWF and AWA runs and Japanese major tournaments
*CMLL has a big business week with Bandido, Ricochet, Komander, Gates of Agony and Lee Moriarty.  A look at some of the best matches so far this year and the craziness that ruined could have been the best of all of them.
*A look at prior plans for 2025 PPV shows that changed
*A look at Netflix numbers over the past six months, as well as how every PPV in 2025 did and some surprises in that direction, as well as how Smackdown did internationally as well as NXT, and how shows that went head-to-head with AEW PPVs drew.
*Notes on the TNA ratings for the first show on AMC and what they tell us.
*TNA Genesis coverage
*2025 Wrestling Observer Newsletter Awards ballot
*More AEW stars to CMLL next week
*AAA TV taping notes
*Thoughts on the current AAA product and how it relates to Lucha Libre and WWE
*Stardom makes claim against Marigold
*Saya Kamitani returns early
*Notes about a mainstream model who became one of the first big stars in Stardom and women’s MVP
*Best tag team match of the year
*New Japan next major show lineup
*Eight promotions combine for a singles tournament
*The potential best actual wrestler in the world signs with RAF
*Feast or Fired thoughts
*More on AEW’s future with the WBD sale to Netflix
*Trey Miguel situation
*Ticket sales for upcoming WWE & AEW shows
*The most detailed look at the TV ratings over the past week
*UFC returns to action with first big show of 2026
*Top exec since the inception of  PFL leaves
*More notes regarding a lawsuit against Vince McMahon and WWE
*WWE headliner talks bowing out
*WWE and AEW injury updates
*Punk movie box office
*Talent coming and going from promotions
*TKO and WWE execs get millions this quarter

This issue covers the following topics:

  • The changes in the WrestleMania plans, the Drew McIntyre title win, Roman Reigns return and the whys.
  • WWE getting Will Hobbs while AEW signs a slew of new talent as well. A look at each case-by-case.
  • Notes on the big weekend coming to Mexico City
  • Kayla Harrison injury and what is the future for the biggest women’s fight in years
  • Win-loss records and total bouts for all top WWE/NXT talent in 2025
  • WWE Iron Man winner from 1984-2025
  • What cutting back on the schedule has taught us about injuries
  • Who gets protected in booking and who doesn’t
  • The problem with the current schedule and development of young talent
  • A star who has been around through various eras talks timing and injuries and best schedule
  • A look at TNA’s debut on AMC, what went right and wrong
  • When did wrestling start being a work. Studying of history shows it’s a lot earlier than you would think
  • Odds for WWE matches upcoming
  • The most detailed look at the ratings of all the pro wrestling shows this past week, as well as comparisons with the past and a look at the level of declines and why
  • What wrestler has already main evented 12 sold out shows in 2026
  • One woman wrestler announces retirement and another retires
  • Kazuchika Okada in Japan
  • Most watched New Japan World matches of 2025
  • Ted DiBiase Jr. on trial
  • Death of Rick Link, from fan clubs to main events
  • Jesse Ventura speaks about the current political environment
  • The greatest wrestler in the world signs with Eric Bischoff’s promotion
  • Tons of major independent shows coming
  • AEW gets TV in new market
  • Ticket sales for upcoming WWE, AEW and TNA events
  • Most viewed YouTube videos from AEW and WWE
  • Tag team returning to AEW
  • Dana White shuts down talk of major match
  • A new lawsuit filed against WWE
  • Notes on the recent WWE tryout
  • Notes on all the WWE arena shows this past week.

This Week’s Back Issue

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Sunday Update

— We did two shows over the weekend. Our Friday show talked about the news of the week, Rumble, Saturday Night’s Main Event, WWE Unreal, a look at how many people outside the U.S. watched the PPV shows in 2025 and the surprises. Last night we talked about the first UFC show on Paramount, WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event and the rest of the weekend news.

— Pretty much everyone stepped up last night with the SNME show in Montreal. Every match and the non-match with Cody Rhodes and Jacob Fatu delivered, particularly AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura. The weather made travel difficult but everyone was there advertised. AEW and many independent shows last night were canceled, which is why AEW taped Collision on Wednesday instead of last night in Arlington, TX.

— Regarding the Shinsuke Nakamura Instagram post regarding AJ Styles and that he was retiring at the Royal Rumble, he later took that down. It was legit in the sense Styles did tell him he was finishing up at the Rumble. It wasn’t a planted story so they can say they fooled the Internet. That doesn’t mean they can’t change it but to do so Gunther would have to lose, and that was not the plan.

— There evidently was a ton of interest in UFC’s debut on Paramount last night. It did 2.5 million searches, the second most searched for topic of the weekend behind Alex Pretti. Saturday Nights’ Main Event was No. 21 with 100,000. UFC had seven of the top 100 searches with Paddy Pimblett leading.

— Regarding scoring from last night, in the Justin Gaethje vs. Paddy Pimblett bout, there was no doubt Gaethje won. I had it 48-46 (10-8 round two) although scores varied ranging from 49-45 to 48-47. However Gaethje did a second eye poke that should have cost him a point since he’d been warned and followed up with some big punches after. It was an early fight of the year candidate. Not great on the skill side since Gaethje was just firing big punches, with some major misses, but he landed enough of them hard enough to win. Most wouldn’t have stayed standing. Pimblett did show a lot of durability.

— In Sean O’Malley vs. Song Yadong the judges had it 29-28 across the board with O’Malley getting rounds one and three on all scorecards. Media scores were 59 percent for O’Malley so it was a close fight.

— Most had Rose Namajunas over Natalia Silva. All three judges had rounds one and three for Silva. However, media scores were 74 percent for Namajunas. The winner was to get a shot at Valentina Shevchenko for the flyweight title, but I could see that not happening since either looked like they should be getting a title fight coming out of this.

— Lilian Garcia will be the ring announcer on Raw tomorrow night. Alicia Taylor was unable to get into Toronto due to flight cancellations. Garcia was in Montreal for last night’s show so they had her go to Toronto to fill in.

— There was a very notable increase in viewers for NXT last Tuesday. While the overall number was about the same as usual (608,000 viewers and 0.08 in 18-49), it grew from 18,000 to 68,000 in 18-49 from the first half hour to the final half hour, which was the three-way women’s tag match with Sol Ruca & Zaria over Kendall Grey & Wren Sinclair. It also went from 68,000 to 156,000 in 18-49 over the same period. That is an extremely unusual level of growth.

— Last night’s fight with Michael Johnson vs. Alexander Hernandez was pulled from the UFC show. What happened was all of a sudden a ton of money was coming in on Johnson, the underdog. Evidently Hernandez was injured, the word got around from people who knew him and started betting on him to lose. The odds started falling which is the sign of either a fixed fight or people getting inside info and using it to lay a lot of money down in one direction. After the last time this happened and UFC didn’t call the fight, which in hindsight appeared to be fixed, Dana White said that they had gotten called from the gaming integrity service and they decided to pull the fight. There were gambling sites that had already pulled the fight by that time.

— CMLL had a big last two nights. Usually for Friday, and even more for Saturday, it takes a major show to sell out. Friday was just a normal Mistico & Mascara Dorada vs. Ultimo Guerrero & Averno and they drew 16,000 to Arena Mexico. Last night at Arena Coliseo, the sellout was Templario & Atlantis Jr. vs. Volador Jr.

— Juggalo Championship Wrestling announced a 4/17 show in Las Vegas at the Horseshoe Casino for StrangleMania. It will air on Triller on 4/24 at 7 pm with seven matches. The main event is Vampiro’s retirement match against PCO. Yes, he is going to Terry Funk’s record. Plus Rob Van Dam & Willie Mack & 2 Tuff Tony vs. Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson & KENTA, a four-way for the JCW world title with Ken Anderson, Nic Nemeth, Matt Riddle and Kaleb Conley with James Storm as referee. Also appearing are John Layfield, The Rock & Roll Express, Vince Russo, EC3, Ninja Mack, George South, ICP and Mecha Wolf.

— They’ve been in talks with Layfield about becoming a full-time performer on their weekly television show. They are also repackaging EC3 as a full-timer with a new gimmick starting on the 2/27 show in Miami. Former ECW personality Joel Gertner will also become a regular and will manage a tag team. Former WCW announcer Scott Hudson will be coming in in maybe six weeks or so. Jonathan Coachman will also be a TV regular.

— Mayu Iwatani had her 15th anniversary show at the Marigold show yesterday at Korakuen Hall, beating Utami Hayashishita. Iyo Sky and Kairi Sane, who were the big three stars with Iwatani in Stardom for years, sent massive flowers to Iwatani at the show.

— Willow Nightingale has been added to the Pro Wrestling Eve show on 3/8 in London that Will Ospreay is part of putting together.

— 48 years ago today was the Superbowl of Wrestling, with NWA champion Harley Race vs. WWWF champion Superstar Billy Graham at the Orange Bowl in Miami. This clip from the WWE Vault off Championship Wrestling from Florida shows the press conference and highlights of the 60-minute match with the wet ring from a rainstorm. Graham told me about this, as it was one of the bigger matches of his career. It was not a fond memory as he was not a wrestler to go 60 and doing it in the rain made it worse. It was not the financial success expected because in those days everyone bought tickets the day of, and people didn’t want to go to an outdoor stadium in the rain.

— Nik Sobic, the Senior Vice President of Business Development, Partnerships and Video Games with AEW, has been let go. He had been with AEW since the start working in business, live events and on the video game.

— Mercedes Martinez appears for Progress Wrestling on 3/29 in London at the Electric Ballroom.

— The woman on Collision last night who took the selfie with Andrade was Sofia Sivan, who is an independent woman wrestler.

— Ian Douglass has written a new book called Highland Games and Hippodromes: Scottish Identity and Influence at the Dawn of the American Pro Wrestling Industry, about the early era of pro wrestling in the U.S. and Scotland. He focuses on Donald Dinnie (a super athlete at the time), Duncan C. Ross, Duncan McMillan and Dan McLeod, and how they shaped pro wrestling in the U.S. from 1870 to 1905. Drew McIntyre wrote the foreword.

— Roy Wayne Farris (Honky Tonk Man) turned 73 today. Rod Price turned 64. Stephanie Bellars, the former Gorgeous George with Randy Savage in WCW, turned 50. Michelle McCool turned 46. Stu Grayton turned 37. Willow Nightingale turned 32. Jay Briscoe was born 42 years ago today. (thanks to Tony Richards)

— Georgiann Makropolous, who was well known inside wrestling for doing newsletters and was someone many, including myself, considered a close friend, died 16 years ago today at the age of 67. She helped so many wrestlers out with bookings and connections and asked for no money for her work. She was the President of both the Bruno Sammartino Fan Club in the 60s (the biggest in the country) and the Buddy Rogers Fan Club, which tells you something because they hated each other.

— The University of Nebraska set its home college wrestling attendance record last night in their meet against Iowa at the Bob Devaney Sports Center. They drew 7,891 fans, breaking the record of 7,094 set earlier this season against Oklahoma State.

— Kirk White’s Big Time Wrestling sold out more than a week in advance in Newark, CA for the annual January Battle Royal and Roy Shire trophy. The Cow Palace Battle Royal was the biggest show of the year in Northern California during the 70s and led to the creation of the Royal Rumble by Pat Patterson, also held annually in late January. CJ Cleary won the Battle Royal. Other results saw Ricochet b Starboy Charlie in what I was told was a fantastic match, Cleary b Alan Angels, Gates of Agony b Shane Haste & Bad Dude Tito (why is this guy not signed anywhere?), Aaron Solo & Chase Emery b Big Fonz & Marcus Lewis, Los Suavecitos b Hard Boy Summer, VertVixen b Brittniue Brooks. The next show is 3/20. They are also running Las Vegas on 4/17 over WrestleMania week. (thanks to Jim Davis)

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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.