Daily Update: Weekend preview, Logan Paul, Jerry Lawler
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Friday Update
– The weekend schedule is that Garrett Gonzales and I will be doing a show this afternoon talking the news of the week, talking about this weekend’s events, Mick Foley and taking questions. Our weekend show will be Saturday Night with Bryan Alvarez talking Saturday Night’s Main Event, Smackdown, Bandido vs. Mascara Dorada on Collision, and the rest of the news.
– The new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter is up on the site right now:
- Major Hall of Fame article covering the Mexico and Japanese ballot. We go into detail on the likes of Zack Sabre Jr., Iyo Sky, Inoki & Sakaguchi, Yoshihiro Takayama, Angel Blanco & Dr. Wagner, Dorrell Dixon, El Dandy, Volador Jr., Sangre Chicana and others.
- A look at Saturday Night’s Main Event and favorites.
- The eye poke and crazy reaction to the Tom Aspinall vs Cyril Gane ending.
- El Hijo del Santo will retire on the same night as John Cena and historical notes regarding his last shows.
- A look at the wrestling career of Mike Rotunda, from star high school and college athlete to success with a number of different gimmicks.
- Full coverage of NXT Halloween Havoc.
- How WWE continues to change AAA and the phenomenon that is Dominik Mysterio in Mexico
- The most detailed look at the ratings over the past week, how the new data has done a number on wrestling, Braun Strowman, World Series and an NFL rating that makes seven less sense than pro wrestling numbers
- Women’s Grand Prix draws the largest crowd of the week
- Lots of big matches and angles in a major week for CMLL
- The New Japan Super Juniors tag team tournament
- Iyo Sky vs. Mayu Iwatani in Sumo Hall
- Updates on many legends
- UFC star elected to wrestling Hall of Fame
- Legal action involving former wrestlers including her mother’s prior lawsuit against her daughter who now wants to be a wrestler
- Some very interesting independent notes
- RAF goes the route of using MMA names and family members as its attempt to draw in Chicago
- AEW PPV update
- How people watch AEW TV & PPVs based on a survey we are doing
- Advance ticket sales for upcoming WWE & AEW shows
- Gable Steveson fights Dirty Boxing
- Tank Davis sued by former girlfriend
- Brother of WWE & UFC head Ari Emanuel talked about as presidential candidate for 2028
- The WWE WrestleMania ad
- Andrade and his non-compete
– WWE is in Salt Lake City tonight for SmackDown. The only matches announced are Carmelo Hayes vs. Kit Wilson and Alexa Bliss vs. Nia Jax. It goes against the World Series, plus Halloween is traditionally a very bad night for wrestling on television. Don’t be surprised with a low number, although I don’t think it’ll be down by percentages as much as Halloween SmackDowns years in the past because the current audience does consist of a lot fewer trick or treaters and a far higher percentage of over 50 viewers. But the series could hurt it there. Other things announced are a Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre face-off which will be a contract signing, Jade Cargill explains her actions and interacts with Tiffany Stratton and Ilja Dragunov defends the U.S. title. There are about 7,000 tickets out. Salt Lake City has been a tough market for WWE. WWE asked fans to come in Halloween costumes tonight.
– Saturday will be Saturday Night’s Main Event, airing exclusively on Peacock in the U.S and YouTube outside the U.S. It’s Rhodes vs. McIntyre for the WWE title, CM Punk vs. Jey Uso for the vacant world title, Tiffany Stratton vs. Jade Cargill for the WWE women’s title and Dominik Mysterio vs. Rusev vs. Penta for the IC title. I think Punk vs. Jey may save the show from the hit it would take IF the series goes seven. AEW Collision has Mercedes Mone vs. Olympia for the CMLL women’s title and Bandido vs. Mascara Dorada for the ROH title. This was taped on Wednesday. People raved about the main event.
– The Best of the Super Juniors final night of B block is tomorrow morning with a 5 a.m show from Osaka. It comes down to this: A block winners and current jr. tag team champions Sho & Douki will face, most likely, the winner of tomorrow’s main event with Robbie Eagles & Kosei Fujita vs. Taiji Ishimori & Robbie X. Eagles & Fujita go to the finals with a win or a draw. If they lose, it becomes a three-way tie with those two teams and Kushida & Yuki Yoshioka, provided Kushida & Yoshioka beat El Desperado & Kuukai. If all that happens, all three teams are 4-2 and would be 1-1 against each other, meaning they’d need a playoff match. If Kushida & Yoshioka lose, then the tag match determines who goes to the finals which are Sunday morning at 4 a.m. Eastern from Gifu. That will be part of a show that includes Konosuke Takeshita defending the IWGP title against Hirooki Goto and Yota Tsuji defending the Global title against Hiroshi Tanahashi.
– Logan Paul was able to get himself removed from a class action lawsuit regarding CryptoZoo, a program that he promoted and a suit was filed for his involvement. His name was there on the grounds it was alleged he defrauded investors in a cryptocurrency game that never got off the ground. Judge Alan Albright on Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Waco, TX, dismissed Paul as a defendant in the suit. A magistrate judge had ruled that the plaintiffs failed to present evidence that directly linked Paul to the losses suffered from the game previously as the judge this week backed up that ruling.
– Arena Mexico is sold out with 16,000 tickets sold for tonight’s Halloween show. The Sky team faces Hechicero & Volador Jr. & Barbaro Cavernario on top. The Rey del Inframundo title has Difunto defending in a four-way against the winners of Cibernetico matches in Mexico City, Guadalajara and Puebla, who are Adrenalina, Villano III Jr. and Guerrero Maya Jr, plus Titan & Esfinge & Xelhua vs. Averno & Mephisto & Euforia and India Sioux vs. Persephone.
Persephone replaces Diamante, who had to return to the U.S. and cut her tour early. The show is available in English on Triller PPV. These Sky Team main events have been pretty much guaranteed fantastic matches of late.
– While Soberano Jr. did an angle on Tuesday in Guadalajara with Atlantis Jr., he is not on this coming Tuesday’s show. He’s expected to be back from surgery on the 11/11 show.
– UFC tomorrow night from the Apex in Las Vegas with an ESPN+ exclusive show airing from 4-10 p.m. Eastern. That means the top fights go head-to-head with WWE on Peacock.
- Talita Alencar (115) vs. Ariane Carnelossi (115.5)
- Phil Rowe (171) vs. Seokhyon Ko (170)
- Alice Ardelean (115.5) vs. Montserrat Ruiz (115)
- Ketlen Vieira (136) vs. Norma Dumont (136)
- Donte Johnson (184) vs. Sedriques Dumas (185.5)
- Timmy Cuamba (136) vs. Chang Ho Lee (135.5)
- Billy Elekana (205.5) vs. Kevin Christian (205)
- Allan Nascimento (129.5) vs. Cody Durden (130)
- Charles Radtke (171) vs. Daniel Funza (171)
- Isaac Dulgarian (146) vs. Yaider del Valle (146)
- Jeremiah Wells (170.5) vs. Themba Gorimbo (171)
- Wado Cortes-Acosta (263) vs. Ante Delija (237)
- Steve Garcia (145.5) vs. David Onama (146)
– Jerry Lawler will be appearing at the 11/23 taping of Memphis Wrestling. He will be doing photo-ops at the VIP experience. This will be a special Christmas TV taping for WMC-TV, which aired wrestling on Saturday mornings from 1977 to 1997, and at other points later, with Lawler as the biggest star. At its peak, it was one of the top five television shows in the market, beating NFL numbers.
– Gene Anderson died 34 years ago on this day at the age of 52. Moose Chokal died 23 years ago this day at the age of 72. 16-year-old Akihisa Mera, who was just in the news last week, had his first pro match 61 years ago today. You would know him better as the second and most famous Great Kabuki, with Gary Hart (thanks to Tony Richards).
– Tyler Breeze will be working for AIW on 11/28 at the Glove Iron in Cleveland. Nic Nemeth works the 12/27 show in Akron, OH at the Royal Palace.
– MCW is doing Autumn Armageddon shows tomorrow night in Hollywood, MD at the Volunteer Fire Department and Sunday in Dundalk, MD at the North Point Flea Market.
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.