Daily Update: WWE Crown Jewel & UFC Fight Night fallout, NJPW Power Struggle

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

  • Updates on Chris Bey and El Hijo del Vikingo
  • Preview of Crown Jewel
  • Lots of notes on 2025 WrestleMania
  • WWE tie-in with some wrestling schools and what does it mean
  • Changes in TKO as a company
  • More on Samantha Irvin leaving WWE
  • Sports star ways he wants to do pro wrestling after he retires
  • Preview of Full Gear
  • Crown Jewel favorites
  • Updated Bad Blood and WrestleDream PPV numbers and the most shocking thing about the Bad Blood number.
  • Why the ringboys lawsuit was filed in Baltimore this year
  • A star from the 80s and 90s talks about the ring boys lawsuit
  • NXT Halloween Havoc coverage
  • UFC 308 coverage, fighter of he year thoughts, what’s next for the winners
  • Previewing Wednesday’s AEW & NXT going head-to-head, what are the key things to look out for
  • TNA Bound for Glory coverage
  • The weekly placing of the pro wrestling shows on cable
  • Competition, demos, where NXT was way down this week and where AEW is right now
  • Looking at how the segments did for the major shows
  • The longest reigning world champion of a major promotion of the modern era gives up his title
  • Women’s Grand Prix tournament
  • New Japan Super Junior tag tournament notes
  • Fantastica Mania 2025 notes
  • Kota Ibushi issues with DDT
  • Two pro wrestlers and MMA star entering amateur wrestling Hall of Fame
  • Anthony Robles movie out soon
  • TNA TV tapings notes
  • What interview actually secretly had the biggest AEW news in it
  • More on Young Bucks taking time off and dropping the titles
  • Jericho tries to get Hall of Famer to come out of retirement
  • Kenny Omega talking about a return
  • Ticket sales for upcoming WWE & AEW shows
  • International TV ratings Netflix ratings notes, streaming numbers
  • Merch numbers
  • Dana White wants to do rankings a new way
  • Former UFC champion retires at the end of this year and turns down January fight

This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter Back Issue

Sunday Update

  • Bryan and I did our weekend show talking Crown Jewel and Collision from last night and Garrett Gonazles and I did our week-in-review news show on Friday.
  • Some notes for Raw tomorrow. I believe Gunther vs. Damian Priest will be one of the main matches on Saturday Night’s Main Event. I was told that it was likely two weeks ago and everything is going in that direction. As for Liv Morgan vs. Iyo Sky, it could be on that show as well but that’s not confirmed.
  • Regarding the Bill Goldberg vs. Gunther match, we don’t have a date for it but were told it was not planned for the Royal Rumble show as things stand right now.
  • WWE announced its European tour in March, before WrestleMania, that it will include Smackdown being taped in Bologna, Italy on 3/21, Raw being taped in Glasgow, Scotland on 3/23, Smackdown being taped on 3/28 in London and Raw being taped on 3/31 in London.
  • We’re looking for your thoughts on yesterday’s WWE Crown Jewel show and tonight’s NJPW Power Struggle show, so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down, or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to [email protected]
  • We’re also looking for reports on today’s WWE show in Dublin, Ireland, and tomorrow’s show in London, with results, finishes and highlights to [email protected]
  • Power Struggle will start at 12:30 a.m. tonight Eastern and 9:30 p.m. Pacific time:
    • Shoma Kato & Capitan Suicida & Tiger Mask vs. Ninja Mack & DKC & Yoh
    • Gabe Kidd & Taishi Ishimori & Robbie X & Clark Connors & Drilla Moloney vs. Kevin Knight & Kushida & Jude London & Paris de Silva &  Katsuya Murashima
    • Toru Yano & Tomoaki Honma & Ryusuike Taguchi & Dragon Dia vs. Tetsuya Naito & Yota Tsuji & Hiromau Takahashi & Bushi
    • Hiroshi Tanahashi & Oleg Boltin vs. Evil & Ren Narita
    • Mikey Nicholls & Shane Haste vs. Great O’Khan & Henare for IWGP tag titles
    • Robbie Eagles & Kosei Fujita vs. TJP & Francesco Akira in the Super Juniors tag team tournament final
    • Douki vs. Master Wato for the IWGP Jr. title
    • David Finlay vs Taichi for the Global title
    • Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Shingo Takagi for the IWGP world title
  • The story reported about Jushin Liger turning down Chris Jericho to do a farewell match in January on the Jericho cruise was said to be a made-up story by  Sonny Onno and Jericho said he didn’t ask Liger to do so.
  • They taped ROH before and after Collision last night in Philadelphia. Before Collision, it was:
    • The Infantry b Tom Mitchell & Trace Parker
    • Septentico & Angelico b LSG & ?
  • After Collision:
    • Sammy Guevara b Preston Vance
    • EJ Nduka & Lee Johnson b Philly Marino Experience
    • Vincent & Dutch were attacked by Dustin Rhodes & Sammy Guevara
    • Leyla Hirsch b Tina San Antonio
    • Nick Wayne b Fancy  Ryan Clancy – The crowd was very into Clancy and chanting for him
    • Diamante b Rachael Ellering
    • Tomohiro Ishii b Aaron Solo
    • AR Fox b Josh Woods. The crowd was very into this even though it was very late. Nick Wayne laid out Fox after the match to set up a match this coming Saturday on Collision. Orange Cassidy, Beef, JD Drake, Angelico, and Serpentioc all made the save. (thanks to Michael Yeon)
  • Derek “Dthomp” Thompson and Matt Kelly, who worked backstage at UFC, passed away over the last week. Thompson was I believe only 40 and Kelly was 54. Kelly had been in hospice care battling Stage 4 colon cancer. Thompson’s cause of death was not announced. Both deaths were announced on last night’s show from Edmonton.
  • “It’s hard to find the words to describe the loss of these two,” sportscaster Megan Olivi wrote on Twitter. “Derek was our gentle giant. We flew to and worked so many events together. We quoted old school lyrics, I tried to convince him to come to Pilates, and we shared some great meals in whatever city we were in.  Matt was such a bright light.  If you didn’t know he was sick you would have never guessed by the way he carried himself. He was so funny and even though his battle was so tough, the smile never left his face. He made it a joy to work together and I was always so grateful to see him.”
  • Last night’s Fight Night did a $2.6 million gate making it the highest gate for a Fight Night show ever in North America.
  • In the Caio Machado vs. Brendson Ribeiro fight the judges went via split decision for Ribeiro, media scores were 56% for Machado, so basically it was a fight that could have gone either way. In Erin Blanchfield vs. Rose Namajunas, where the judges all went 48-47 for Blanchfield, media scores were 63 percent for Blanchfield. All three judges had Blanchfield winning rounds three through five and winning 48-47.
  • While there was talk on Friday of Alex Pereira stepping in on the 12/7 UFC PPV to defend his light heavyweight title when welterweight champion Belal Muhammad had to pull out due to a toe infection, Pereira said his hands are still hurting from the Khalil Rountree fight and he won’t be able to fight that soon.
  • GCW ran last night in Honolulu: Jamie Senegal b Gino Rivera, Cole Radrick b Broski Jimmy, Gringo Loco b Arez, Danhausen b Colt Cabana, Joey Janela NC Rain, Joey Janela & Rain b Giant Leather & Kory Oliver, Effy b Mike Bailey, Allie Katch b Dark Sheik, Megan Bayne b Sam Stackhouse, Mance Warner b Kaimana to keep the GCW title,  2 Tuff Tony & Aerial Van Go & Matt Cross & Kaleb Conley b  Bobby Flaco & Jake Lander & Geoffrey John & Kid ATapa,Aleki Afa b Matt Cardona (thanks to Leonard Brand)
  • Slam Pro Wrestling ran last night in Canberra, Australia for a Rage in the Cage show and reported 2,432 fans, with Dan Archer beating Luke Watts in a cage match to win the Slam Pro Wrestling league title. Former NRL player and local legend Terry Campese made his pro wrestling debut in a Battle Royal. We were told this was the largest crowd for an indie show in Australia in recent memory.
  • Juggalo Championship Wrestling from Thursday night in Detroit:  Breyer Wellington & Jeeves b Facade & Dani Mo, Luigi Primo b Joey Janela, Caleb Konley b Simon Gotch, Alex Taylor, and Tarzan Duran to keep the American title, Mickie Knuckles b Mosh Pit Mike as Mikey Knuckles, Kerry Morton won over Kongo  Kong and Co-Kane, Babathunder & JP Grayson & Tommy Grayson b Painful Paul & August Matthews & Davey Bang, James Storm NC Silas Mason, Matt Cross & Willie Mack b Jesus Rodriguez & Mecha Wolf (thanks to Leonard Brand)
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