Daily Update: Weekend notes, UFC controversy, Will Ospreay

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Sunday Update

— Our weekend show covering Saturday Night’s Main Event, Collision, SmackDown, the Super Junior semifinals and more is up on the site right now. Garrett and I did our Friday night show talking about the news of the week, Mick Foley and much more, WWE & AEW booking and much more.

— The only stuff that came out of today’s New Japan show as it pertains to the Tokyo Dome is that with Yota Tsuji beating Hiroshi Tanahashi for the Global title and Konosuke Takeshita beating Hirooki Goto for the IWGP belt, Tsuji now will face Takeshita for the IWGP title. I mean, people have been clamoring for Tsuji or Yuya Uemura to win the big one  As for Hiroshi Tanahashi’s last opponent, I expect that to be announced very soon. Gedo confronted Tanahashi  today and basically said he would be bringing in a guy. That led to the expectations of it being Kazuchika Okada, who hasn’t worked in New Japan since he started in AEW, even last year on the joint show at the Tokyo Dome.

— One of the craziest stories of the day revolves around the UFC fight last night between Yaider del Valle and Isaac Dulgarian. Dulgarian was a major favorite to win. In the last few hours before the fight, a tremendous amount of money came in from people betting on del Valle to win in the first round. The odds moved greatly from all the money that came in to the point people were wary and talking about it before the fight started. Dulgarian  was also associated with James Krause, who was banned from UFC and who UFC would not use fighters trained by because of the belief he’d been involved with gambling issues. Dulgarian then lost via submission to a choke in the first round.

Several platforms took down the match or certain prop bets. Keep in mind so many of the bets came in on Dulgarian losing via submission in the first, and he had never lost by submission. Both Caesars Sportsbook and William Hill US announced they would refund cash credits for single bets that lost on the fight, or for parlay bets that were ruined based on the fight. They would not do that without tremendous suspicion that the fight was fixed in some form. This is all coming right after the NBA gambling scandal.

— Paul Levesque wasn’t at the show last night in Salt Lake City. Bruce Prichard was running the show. Levesque has missed several shows of late, often related to political things.  

— After the lawsuit was filed accusing Gervonta “Tank” Davis of assault and battery on an ex-girlfriend at the club she worked at, and apparently criminal charges were filed, the Netflix show on 11/14 where he was to face Jake Paul is in jeopardy. MVP Promotions (Paul’s company) sent out a press release yesterday saying that they were gathering information and reviewing the details to ensure the decision that they make is thoroughly vetted. “We unequivocally condemn any form of violence and are committed to handling this matter with diligence and respect for all involved.”  

It is known that Paul’s side are talking with various people with the names being mentioned centering on Francis Ngannou and Nate Diaz (who Paul has already fought and beaten). Ryan Garcia’s name was tossed around but Oscar de la Hoya said that Garcia is with DAZN and won’t fight on Netflix. Terrence Crawford’s name was thrown around as well. They also may delay the fight until December.

— From Google searches this weekend, the alleged fixed fight didn’t even make the top 500.  Gervonta “Tank” Davis had 20,000. The UFC show yesterday had 58,000. Saturday Night’s Main Event had 7,000 searches out of topics that made the top 600. The World Series dominated everything.  

— Kota Ibushi, still in a wheelchair, has gotten out of his wheelchair to start doing light upper body workouts that he can do while sitting on a bench.

— Regarding Will Ospreay, some people brought up to me from a social media post thinking he would be back in January. That is not the case. He is hopeful of being able to start light weight workouts in January. He is a long way away from returning.

— I didn’t hear anything about today’s New Japan show which I’ll watch later. Matches I have seen and would recommend from this weekend are Ilja Dragunov vs. Nathan Frazer on Smackdown, Bandido vs. Mascara Dorada on Collision and yesterday’s Robbie Eagle & Kosei Fujita B block winner deciding match with Taiji Ishimori and Robbie X. All were a lot bigger than anything on the SNME show last night. I’ve also heard Leon Cage vs. Nino Bryant from RevPro was another great match.  

–SNME was largely good in the ring and had two title changes, but had no new angles. They did announce a 16-man tournament to face John Cena on 12/13, which was the idea we were told about and was talked about a few months ago.  At the time Gunther was to win. In fact, aside from stuff affected by the injuries to Seth Rollins and Jacob Fatu, most of the WWE directions haven’t changed much at all in the last month or two.

Joe Hendry did a social media post teasing being in the tournament.

— Announced for Raw tomorrow in Rio Rancho, NM, is AJ Styles & Dragon Lee defending the tag team titles against JD McDonagh & Finn Balor, Stephanie Vaquer & Nikki Bella vs. Raquel Rodriguez & Roxanne Perez, El Grande Americano vs Penta and Bayley & Lyra Valkyria vs Asuka & Kairi Sane. CM Punk will be on the show as the new world champion.

— Matches made for Dynamite on Wednesday were Willow Nightingale & Harley Cameron vs Mercedes Mone & Athena in the tag team tournament and Adam Page & Hook & Eddie Kingston in a non-title match against Samoa Joe & Katsuyori Shibata & Powerhouse Hobbs.

— Stardom runs tomorrow at the Ota Ward Gym with Saya Kamitani defending both the World of Stardom and New Japan Strong women’s title against Momo Watanabe, Starlight Kid vs.  Konami for the Wonder of Stardom title, Mei Seria vs. Hazuki and Saki Kashima vs. Bozilla.

— AAA in Monterrey tonight has Chelsea Green & Ethan Page going after the mixed tag team titles held by Mr. Iguana & La Hiedra. This was talked about on Tuesday’s NXT show, but was not mentioned Friday night on Smackdown.

— According to  his family, Blue Demon Jr., has improved from his Monday serious auto accident where he was in critical condition. He was to be released from the Intensive care unit yesterday but will remain hospitalized.

 — Chad Slivenski, who was on On Patrol Live on REELZ last night, was former ECW and independent wrestler Chad Austin from the 90s. In the episode, a police officer was speaking to someone in Tennessee who had a lot of medical issues and noted that he used to be a pro wrestler. He said his wrestling name, said he had wrestled for Paul Heyman and Jim Cornette, mentioned having wrested Mr. Hughes and then cut away. They never referencess who he was stopped by police or if he was arrested.

— Some birthdays today include Michael Buffer (81), Sharmell (55), Yoshniari Ogawa (59), Fred Rosser (42) and Dezmond Xavier (31). Fabulous Moolah passed away 18 years ago today.  (thanks to Tony Richards)

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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.