Daily Update: Weekend lineups, AAA, Arena Mexico

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

The new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter is up on the site today.

  • A detailed look at the WBD/Paramount/Netflix situation, what the latest decision of WBD to Paramount entails, the keys to why this is happening, business notes, how this affects AEW and can it get approved.
  • A look at the UFC and WWE business in 2025 and in the final quarter of this past year.  We look at the numbers, what they mean, why WWE was more profitable in 2025 than UFC and the key thing that can change that in 2026, Mark Shapiro talks ESPN value to WWE, lots of news about the business of the White House show, UFC fighters upset over pay, why WWE wrestlers are so underpaid but not publicly upset over, and business initiatives going forward
  • The violence in Mexico and tons of wrestling shows canceled this past week
  • We look in depth at the Janel Grant speech from last week, what we learned, what she said, and where everything stands.
  • Update on the build for  WrestleMania, Elimination Chamber, business notes, ticket sales and favorites for the weekend.
  • An updated look at AEW Revolution and business notes
  • The retirement of AJ Styles looked at
  • The most detailed look at  the television ratings from the past week, including comparisons with a year  ago, competition, demos and much more.
  • Notes from Arena Mexico
  • CMLL attempts to break a North  American record next week
  • Cinderalla tournament in Stardom
  • Fantastica Mania notes
  • The life and times of former Olympic wrestler Bobby Douglas, his coaching career, his beating Dan Gable, and two notable pro wrestlers he coached
  • College wrestling sets an attendance mark already this season
  • Who had the most top ten matches of the year  over a career according to Cage match.
  • City builds a bust memorializing top 80s star
  • WrestleMania week schedule
  • Former MMA fighter and pro wrestler running for Governor
  • Robbery of the ring truck for an indie group
  • Ticket sales for upcoming WWE, AEW and TNA shows over the next two months.
  • How many subscribers does Paramount need to make up for UFC expenses
  • More talk on Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano
  • Stand & Deliver moves and why
  • When Roman Reigns and Brock Ldesnar are booked for TV in the Mania build
  • Pro wrestler who is active in Japan competes this weekend for the U.S.national team in anther sport
  • Notes on a  new comer to WWE who started this week
  • More notes on value of Dwayne Johnson’s TKO stock

This Week’s Back Issue

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Friday Update

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— Garrett and I will be back this afternoon covering the news of the week, and there is a ton of it. Quite frankly big picture wise with the Paramount/WBD deal looking likely, this has more effect on pro wrestling than almost anything and pro wrestling is a sliver of a percentage of its importance overall. We’ll also be talking about a major wrestling weekend.

— Oleksandr Usyk vs. Rico Verhoeven for the WBC world heavyweight boxing title was announced for 5/23 in Giza, Egypt, as a DAZN PPV show. Verhoeven was the dominant heavyweight in kickboxing for more than a decade, but kickboxing and boxing are entirely different sports and skill sets. Boxing is now all about celebrity fights and freak show fights, and now we’ve got Verhoeven being sanctioned for a world heavyweight boxing title fight with a 1-0 record as a boxer.

— ESPN aired a special today with the ratings for the wrestlers in the 2K26 video game, with Joe Tessitore, Big E, Kevin Owens, Paul Levesque, Logan Paul, Joe Hendry, Chelsea Green and Paul Heyman.

— Many of the people involved in Mile High Madness on Wednesday noted that it was one of the most fun matches of their careers.

— A correction from today’s issue. In the story about Stand & Deliver moving, we noted reasons why it wasn’t moved to San Jose due to other wrestling shows that night. One of the shows mentioned was an AAA show in the U.S. the night it could have been in San Jose, and AAA does have a show on 4/11, but the show will be in Mexico City, not the U.S.

— There is a big show at Arena Mexico tonight with the top four matches being Angel de Oro vs. Johnny Consejo in a hair vs. hair match, Claudio Castagnoli defends the CMLL heavyweight title against Euforia and Akuma, Olympia vs. Persephone with the winner facing Mercedes Mone for the CMLL women’s title on 3/6 and a three-way in the finals of the Torneo de Escuelas with Pantera Jr. & Psycotic vs. Estudiante Jr. & Feroz vs. Rey Pegasus & Tornado.

— The loser of the hair match will wrestle bald on Saturday at Arena Coliseo which has Angel de Oro vs. Johnny Consejo vs. Esfinge in a three-way main event. Templario and Averno return to Mexico from Japan on Sunday at Arena Mexico with an Averno & Euforia & Volador Jr. vs. Templario & Neon & Esfinge main event.

— Fantastica Mania’s final show was today at Korakuen Hall.

Averno b Shoma Kato
El Hijo de Stuka Jr. & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Sho & Yujiro Takahashi b Masatora Yasuda & Master Wato & Tatsuya Matsumoto & Stigma
Tiger Mask b Magnus
Atlantis & Atlantis Jr. & Ryusuke Taguchi b Hechicero & Okumura & Satoshi Kojima
Mascara Dorada & Futuro & Valiente Jr. b Daiki Nagai & Hatsuratsu Guerrero (Shingo Takagi) & Titan
Templario b Ultimo Guerrero
Mistico b Soberano Jr. to retain the CMLL light heavyweight title.

— The AAA YouTube show will be airing an hour later than usual, at 10 p.m. Eastern, so it doesn’t go head-to-head with Elimination Chamber. Announced are Dragon Lee vs. Jack Cartwheel and a Rey de Reyes qualifying match with Ethan Page vs. Omos vs. El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. vs. Pimpinela Escarlata.

— Don King has joined the Frank Warren lawsuit against Sila and Ring Magazine.

— SmackDown is from Louisville, KY tonight. All of the 12 wrestlers in the two Chamber matches are on the show. Rhea Ripley & Iyo Sky vs. Nia Jax & Lash Legend for the tag team titles plus Uncle Howdy vs. Solo Sikoa, Miz vs. Oba Femi and Jordynne Grace vs. Candice LeRae. There were 9,800 tickets out for the show as of earlier today.

— We’re looking for reports from Sunday afternoon’s ROH TV tapings in Jacksonville with results, finishes and highlights to [email protected].

— New Japan has a PPV show on New Japan World and Triller from Trenton, NJ at 8 p.m. Eastern.

Yota Tsuji vs. Andrade for the Global title
Syuri vs. Athena for the IWGP women’s title
Tomohiro Ishii vs. Oleg Boltin for the New Japan Strong title
El Phantasma vs. Konosuke Takeshita for the NJPW TV title
Kushida & El Desperado vs. Jordan Oliver & Alec Price
Ricochet vs. Taiji Ishimori for the National title
David Finlay vs. Fred Rosser

— UFC is tomorrow from Mexico City’s Arena Ciudad starting at 5 p.m. Eastern on Paramount+.

Damian Pinas (186) vs. Wes Schultz (186)
Erik Silva (146) vs. Francis Marshall (145)
Regina Tarin (130) vs. Erenesta Kareckaite (129.5)
Douglas Silva de Andrade (146) vs. Javier Reyes (145)
Cristian Quinonez (136) vs. Kris Moutinho (136)
Macy Chiasson (135) vs. Allin Perez (136)
Ryan Gandra (185) vs. Jose Daniel Medina (186)
Santiago Luna (136) vs. Angel Pacheco (135)
Imanol Rodriguez (125) vs. Kevin Borjas (126)
Edgar Chairez (125) vs. Felipe Bunes (125)
Daniel Zellhuber (155) vs. King Green (155)
Marlon “Chito” Vera (136) vs. David Martinez (135)
Brandon Moreno (125.5) vs. Lone’er Kavanah (125)

— Kyle Snyder will face Akmed Tazhudniov, another gold medalist, for the RAF light heavyweight title at 215 pounds. The match takes place on 3/28 in Tampa.

— Gzim Selmani, the former Rezar of Authors of Pain, now under contract to Bare Knuckle Fighting, did an interview with Casinostugan saying that he wants to fight Eddie Hall, The Mountain Thor, Brock Lesnar and Bobby Lashley. He said he was cut by WWE due to a backstage incident which he said he would take responsibility for but didn’t elaborate. He’d like to do an AOP vs. Lashley & Lesnar (no chance of that happening) or Jake & Logan Paul (no chance of that either) tag team match. He said Paul Levesque is more calculated and a better boss than Vince McMahon. He said Conor McGregor would be perfect for WWE. I mean, if you’re looking to add more accused rapists he would, but that shouldn’t be the goal. He said John Cena would be great for BKFC, except that he can’t fight. He said CM Punk should have never done UFC. He also said McGregor and McMahon are very similar. I’ll say.

— Toshiyo Yamada, who was in some of the greatest pro wrestling matches of all-time (Toyota & Yamada vs. Kansai & Ozaki I & II, as well as other tags and singles with Toyota), turned 56 today. Earl Caddock, an early world champion, was born on this day in 1888. His 1920 match with Joe Stecher set a Madison Square Garden gate record that wasn’t broken until the days of Bruno Sammartino. George Zaharias, a notable star in the 30s, was born on this day in 1908. Zaharias was best known for being the husband of Babe Didrikson-Zaharias, the greatest American woman athlete prior to Jackie Joyner-Kersee. Eddie Creachman, the Palestinian brain and manager of The Sheik, was born on this day 98 years ago. Billy Robinson, a Hall of Famer and one of the greatest pure wrestlers of the last 60 years, died on this day 12 years ago at the age of 75.

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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.