Daily Update: WWE blocks Logan Paul from boxing, Bella Twins, UFC fallout

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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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Sunday Update

Bella Twins
Bella Twins

— We have two new shows up for subscribers this weekend. We had an interview on Friday’s Wrestling Observer Radio with former WWE and TNA producer David Sahadi talking about his book, “Backstage Pass” that comes out this week. This was a fun interview that many have called it among the best we’ve done. We talk a lot about both companies, from the Attitude Era to the present, and even some RAF, Dwayne Johnson, Vince McMahon, Kevin Dunn, Lou Sahadi, and many others. Our weekend WOR is also up, covering the news of the week as well as Konnan, Cody Rhodes, UFC, Smackdown, Collision, CMLL Friday at Arena Mexico and much more.

— We’ve looking for your thoughts on last night’s NXT Vengeance Day. You can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to [email protected].

— Dana White said that they have been in talks with Conor McGregor, but not for the White House show. “We are definitely talking to Conor obviously. Not even close. We have no date for Conor right now. Not even close,” he said.

— As things are planned, Randy Orton vs. Cody Rhodes is scheduled for WrestleMania 42 and not a three-way or four-way.

— For those who have asked about the Bella Twins, they are expected back to television very soon.

— There was a crazy story this weekend where Logan Paul challenged any NFL football player for a $1 million challenge boxing match. The idea is both sides put up $1 million. Two players, Breiden Fehoko, who played for the Pittsburgh Steelers but is now retired, and Le’Veon Bell, a former all-pro running back who retired and has had three pro boxing matches and several exhibitions, both answered his challenge.

When I saw it, I thought it was just a grandstand challenge and nothing would come of it because no NFL team is going to allow one of its players to do a boxing match, but I wasn’t thinking about retired players. Maybe Paul wasn’t either. But since Feihokio and Bell aren’t active any longer, that wouldn’t apply to them. But, it never got that far.

Yesterday, after all the trash talk challenges for doing three minute rounds until one person quits and then accepted by both sides, Paul was “caught” with a conversation with Chris Legentil, WWE’s EVP of Talent Relations and Head of Communications. The conversation was shared on social media so I would presume that would mean it was planned because if not, I can’t even imagine Legentil would want to have this conversation air everywhere, but Paul probably could get away with breaking protocol to that degree.

Bell accused the call of being staged to get Paul out of the challenge. In the conversation, Legentil told Paul that WWE would not allow him to do any boxing matches. He pleaded to do so. They said there’s an injury risk, he said they are a bunch of football players who can’t box, but Legentil said WWE would not allow him to do it.

— Jordynne Grace was injured on Friday doing a Main Event match taped before SmackDown. She is currently in a walking boot. Not sure of the nature of the injury.

— UFC last night was pretty much dominant in Google searches for the weekend. There were UFC topics that finished No, 3, No. 4, No. 22, No. 25, No. 49, No. 51 and No. 54. No. 3 was the UFC show at the White House. No. 4 was the show from last night headlined by Charlies Oliveira beating Max Holloway to retain the BMF title. The total searches for last night’s show were 885,000, which is below the usual PPV number. Other numbers included the Big 10 wrestling championships at 50,000, Cody Rhodes had 20,000 and NXT Vengeance at 5,000.

— The difference between a regular Saturday UFC show and a “numbered” show has now been watered down as last night’s show was only up two percent in views from the show the week before. As far as what happens if you put the PPVs up without a paywall, the reality is that at least last night’s show would do only slightly more than a regular show. If you had a marquee event, that’s different.

— UFC announced that the Zhang Weili vs. Joanna Jedrzejczyk fight from March 7, 2020, will go into the Hall of Fame this year. This was the best women’s fight in any discipline that I’ve ever seen and easily among the best UFC fights, men or women, in history, winning almost all the fight of the year awards for that year. Weili retained the strawweight title in that fight.

— The best matches I’ve seen this weekend were FTR vs. The Rascalz and Claudio Castagnoli vs. Konosuke Takeshita from AEW Collision last night. The only other recommended stuff was Kosei Fujita & Robbie Eagles vs. Taiji Ishimori & Robbie X, and Oskar vs. Callum Newman from the New Japan anniversary show.

— AEW Dynamite on Wednesday in San Jose has Jon Moxley & Claudio Castagnoli vs. Hechicero & Konosuke Takeshita, Young Bucks & Mark Briscoe vs. FTR & Tommaso Ciampa, Willow Nightingale vs. Persephone for the TBS title, Darby Allin & Orange Cassidy vs. David Finlay & Gabe Kidd, and footage from a press conference with Adam Page and MJF. They are shooting that for television with legit press in San Jose a few hours before the show.

— I’ll only say the 6/14 UFC White House show card reveal was a huge disappointment:

  • Ilia Topuria vs. Justin Gaethje in a lightweight title unification bout
  • Alex Pereira vs. Cyril Gane for the interim heavyweight title
  • Sean O’Malley vs. Aimann Zahabi
  • Mauricio Ruffy vs. Michael Chandler
  • Bo Nickal vs. Kyle Daukaus
  • Diego Lopes vs. Steve Garcia

People were teased by months of Conor McGregor, Jon Jones, Colby Covington and others saying they wanted on the show. There was a fight that fell through at the last minute, but Dana White wouldn’t say what it was. Most speculated it was Pereira vs. Jon Jones, but White denied that. Jones and White had totally conflicting stories with White saying that Jones was never ever considered for the show and he even told Jones’ team that despite Jones saying that they were in negotiations for the show. White said that Jones has a bad hip that would need replacing and probably will never fight again.

Jones wrote on X, “So all of this negotiating was complete bullsh*t, is that what you want me to agree to publicly. I’m released from the UFC!!”

— White was asked about the brawl with Arman Tsarukyan and Georgio Poullas at last Saturday’s RAF show. He said he didn’t love it but that was somebody else’s problem. But, he said he wasn’t thrilled with Tsarukyan right now and that there are a lot of different reasons and not just the stuff you see publicly.

— As far as the judging went, in the Cody Garbrandt vs,. Xiao Long split decision, Michael Bell had 28-27 Garbrandt with them splitting the two rounds and Long winning round three but losing two penalty points. Ben Cartildge had 28-27 for Garbrandt with Long winning one and two and Garbrandt winning three plus getting the two penalty points. Ron McCarthy had it 28-27 for Garbrandt as well, with Garbrandt winning round one, Long two and three, but the two penalty points. 63.6 of reporter cards had it 28-27 for Long with only 27.3 percent for Garbrandt and the rest had it a draw.

— The judges had straight 30-27s for Caio Borralho over Reinier de Ridder. I thought de Ridder clearly won one round although had him down 29-28 86 percent of media scores were identical to what I had.

— Mercedes Mone lost two titles this week, dropping the CMLL Women’s title to Persephone Friday night at Arena Mexico as many had expected. Today in Italy, she lost the BestYa women’s title to Swan.

— Alex Windsor beat Syuri today to win the New Japan Strong Women’s title on the Pro Wrestling Eve show at the Indigo at the O2 Arena in London. We’re looking for complete reports on today’s show as well as Friday’s Eve show to [email protected]. Windsor has the British and New Japan Strong belts and will no doubt be getting a shot soon at the AEW Women’s tag team titles alongside Jamie Hayter.

— The first NCAA women’s wrestling championship tournament in history took place this weekend in Coralville, IA. Bella Mir of North Central, the daughter of former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir, who has also fought in MMA, pinned Reese Larramendy of Iowa in 2:26 to win the tite at 145. Kennedy Blaydes, who has wrestled for RAF, pinned Tiffani Baublitz in 1:19 to win at 160.

— In the New Japan Cup today in Amagasaki, Shota Umino beat Chase Owens and Ryohei Oiwa beat Yuto-Ice. Tuesday in Okayama has Shingo Takagi vs. Don Fale and Yuya Uemura vs. Drilla Moloney. Thursday in Takamaatsu has Satoshi Kojima vs. Ren Narita and Oleg Boltin vs Henare. Friday in Kanaoka has Hirooki Goto vs. Jake Lee and Callum Newman vs. Hartley Jackson. Saturday in Nagoya has Yujiro Takahashi vs. Shota Umino and Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Ryohei Oiwa. Well, at least that last match looks great on paper. Uemura vs. Moloney should be great and Henare vs. Boltin should be as well.

— Last night’s CMLL show at Arena Coliseo in Mexico City sold out, which makes 11 weeks in a row, the longest streak of the modern era.

— Stardom Cinderella tournament matches in round two today at Korakuen Hall

  • Hanan b Ranna Yagami
  • Rian b Natsupoi
  • Hina b Azusa Inaba
  • Sayaka Kurara b Tomoka Inaba
  • Rina b Ami Sohrei
  • Miyu Amasaki b Saya Iida

— House of Glory sold out show at the Logan Square Auditorium in Chicago before about 325 on Friday night: Myron Reed b Ken Broadway, Infamous b JJ Doze to keep the cruiserweight title, Shotzi b Killer Kelly to keep the women’s title, Gringo Loco b Trik Davis, Zilla Fatu b Bishop Dyer to keep the Crown Jewel title, Private Party b Bang & Matthews, Charles Mason NC Bryan Keith to retain the heavyweight title. Next show is 3/21 in Long Island, NY.

They also announced a HOG Culture Cash show on 4/16 at 8 pm. at the Pearl Theater in Las Vegas with Zilla Fatu vs. Brody King.

— Birthdays today include Maki Ueda, the Japanese women’s star of the 70s, who turned 67, Ursula Hayuden the Farmer’s Daughter from GLOW turned 57, Michael Tarver turned 49, and Chad Gable turned 40. Wild Bull Curry was 71 when he died 41 years ago today.

— Trish Stratus will be doing a Fan Experience at Flanker Kitchen and Sports Bar in Las Vegas from 4/13 to 4/20-, with merchandise, food, podcasts, panels and other talks.

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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.