Daily Update: WWE notes, Mike Santana, Zayda Steel
Daily Update
Latest News
- WWE SmackDown ratings rebound from Halloween low
- Chelsea Green, Ethan Page announced for AAA Mexico City show
- CMLL and band Linkin Park announce ‘Noche From Zero’ for Arena Mexico
- Tony Khan calls France and Germany ‘untapped markets’ for AEW
- Chris Jericho: TNA looked like ‘second biggest company in the world’ at Bound for Glory
- Former WWE NXT wrestler addresses ‘common misconception’ about pay
- Hangman Page explains referring to himself as AEW Men’s World Champion
- Bron Breakker: It’s ‘been an honor’ to learn from John Cena
- Chavo Guerrero confirms re-signing with WWE, comments on role with AAA
- Tag team match announced for TNA Turning Point
Latest Audio
- WOL: Blood and Guts, Cena’s last match, Tanahashi, NXT
- B&V: TNA Impact 20 years ago this week, plus Granny!
- BVV: TNA Open Fight Night review with Mike Santana vs. Cedric Alexander
- DragonKingKarl: December 1985 in wrestling history
Latest YouTube Video
This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter
A larger than usual issue this week with a wide variety of stories and tons of history:
- The fixed fight accusations from Saturday’s UFC show, what happened, how Dana White and UFC handled it, fixed fights in the early days of MMA and the different motivations then vs. now, and a look back at history with a former world heavyweight boxing champion who later became one of the biggest stars of his era in pro wrestling.
- A look at the third quarter TKO business, covering mostly UFC and WWE. How each category is doing and explanations as to why.
- Nick Khan talks WWE ticket prices and booking decisions on live events
- Full coverage of Saturday Night’s Main Event and business notes on the show
- Hiroshi Tanahashi’s Farewell in Gifu and 30 minutes that capsulized the best aspects of the past, present and future of pro wrestling
- Notes on the Tokyo Dome advance
- Finals of the Best of the Super Juniors tag team tournament
- Notes on the upcoming heavyweight tag team tournament
- Lots of notes regarding AEW Full Gear
- The real history of the original NWA national heavyweight championship
- Matches likely to happen at Full Gear
- The final installment of our Hall of Fame series, covering international and non-wrestlers, where we talk about the cases of people including Spyros Arion, Dominic DeNucci, George Gordienko, Ted Boy Marino, Billy Joyce, The Royal Brothers, Dave Brown, Zane Bresloff, Bobby Bruns, Bob Caudle, Joe Higuchi, Jim Johnston, James Melby, Bill Mercer, Gorilla Monsoon, Rossy Ogawa, Reggie Parks, Morris Siel, Tony Schiavone, George Scott, Kevin Sullivan, Mike Tenay, Ted Turner, Jesse Ventura, Roy Welch, Stanley Weston, The Grand Wizard and Koichi Yoshizawa.
- Notes on the death of Victor Conte Jr.
- Tank Davis kills his last payday and Netflix’s big fight for the fall is out the window and thank God for that
- DDT has one of its biggest shows of the year
- Betting odds for pro wrestling matches last week and this week
- The most complete look at the television ratings of wrestling shows over the past week. How these numbers compare in placings to past years, where other than pro wrestling is hurting with the new ratings, competition for each show and placings for the time slot
- CMLL has four straight sellouts and coverage of the main matches including a major return this week
- What wrestler is having the best year for someone their age in wrestling history
- Notes on a very confusing tournament coming up
- What young wrestler sold out in a singles with Mistico this past week
- Notes from the last AAA tapings
- AAA booking huge arena for a taping
- Stardom big show plus notes on the tag team tournament
- Will Vince McMahon write a book?
- Former pro wrestling star elected Mayor
- How network, cable and streaming numbers have affected NASCAR in 2025
- Update on Blue Demon Jr.
- More on Smashing Machine including Dwayne Johnson comments
- Jerry Lawler returns to WMC
- Athletic commission in trouble over a sponsored women’s championship
- El Hijo del Santo retirement tour hits Europe
- More WBD sale talks
- Blood & Guts news
- A poll on AEW viewership and how people watch the TV and PPV shows
- Advance ticket sales for WWE, AEW, TNA, MLW and RAF
- BJ Penn arrested again
- WWE sets gate records
- Paul Levesque’s booking
- How much Dwayne Johnson’s TKO stock is worth
- Notes on the WWE arena business going forward
- The Ridge Holland story
This Week’s Back Issue
- February 20, 2008 Observer Newsletter: WWE scores record profits, Georgia looks to regulate pro wrestling
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Wednesday Update
WWE
- WWE uploaded the full Ricky Saints vs. Trick Williams Last Man Standing NXT Championship match from last night, along with an extended video of Oba Femi returning to confront Saints after the match.
- Sheamus, Lyra Valkyria, Grayson Waller, JD McDonagh, and Otis are working NXT’s house shows in St. Paul, Green Bay, and Chicago this weekend.
- Matt Hardy praised John Cena and Dominik Mysterio’s Intercontinental title match from Raw: “For aspiring pro wrestlers.. Watch the John Cena vs Dominik Mysterio from RAW on Monday. That match represents the true essence of pro wrestling – Creating & maximizing emotional investment from your audience. THAT is what matters in excelling in the art pro wrestling, not star ratings or cagematch reviews.”
- WWE Shop released a new “Grand Slam Champion” shirt to mark Cena’s IC title win.
- Natalya spoke to the Boston Herald about how John Cena helped support her husband TJ Wilson (Tyson Kidd) after his career-ending neck injury:
- John is a good friend and a great person. When TJ got injured, John was the one who took the time to reach out. When TJ was recovering, John would call and talk with him. He’d even take us out for dinner. The injury was very emotional and traumatic, but John made TJ felt heard.
- Natalya was the guest on a new episode of Cody Rhodes’ “What Do You Wanna Talk About?” podcast.
- A new episode of “What’s Your Story?” with Stephanie McMahon debuts tomorrow with Paul Heyman as the guest.
- Trish Stratus made an appearance on Pod Meets World.
Other Wrestling
- Powerhouse Hobbs cut a promo on Hangman Page ahead of their falls count anywhere match on Dynamite tonight.
- AEW put out a video with the women’s Blood and Guts teams getting a look at the cage for tonight’s match.
- Willow Nightingale spoke to Uncrowned about being her authentic self in AEW:
- My life’s work, everything I have done in wrestling up to this point, to me, it needs to happen as myself, my authentic self, without ever having to compromise or change who I am for anybody else.
- To win the big one in the company that I love as myself, being the person I am, care-free, Black joy, big girl, never changing for anyone and just being myself and accomplishing something that grand, I think is the biggest story I can tell.
- TNA World Champion Mike Santana reflected on reaching 1000 days sober:
- 1000 DAYS CLEAN AND SOBER.
- Very proud of this milestone. Blessed with what I’ve been able to accomplish during this time. Both personally and professionally. Living proof of what happens when you put in the work. I’d be lying if I told you that everyday was easy. Life is going to do what life does, but I’m thankful to have a set of tools to help me maneuver thru the bad as well as the good.
- Thanks to everyone who’s rode with me thru it all. The ride continues…
- TNA has announced that we’ll hear from Santana on this Thursday’s live Impact episode at Full Sail University in Orlando. The show will feature:
- TNA World Champion Mike Santana speaks
- Elijah returns with a live concert
- Knockouts Champion Kelani Jordan in action
- Jason Hotch vs. Cedric Alexander
- Indi Hartwell vs. Dani Luna
- We’ll hear from The System
- Due to a scheduling conflict, Zayda Steel – who AEW is rumored to be interested in – has been pulled from her scheduled appearance at the Big Event Entertainment and Sports Expo in Brentwood, New York this Saturday. She will still be competing for Pro Wrestling Junkie in New Jersey on Sunday despite missing the convention:
- Sorry for the bad news due to scheduling conflict Zayda Steel will no longer be attending the Big Event with us. We hope to bring her back in the future…..
- She will be appearing the next day on Sunday 11/16 at our Wrestling event in NJ if anybody would like to travel to meet her and see some awesome matchups we will give you a discount ticket at the door. Just send me a message.
- GCW promoter Brett Lauderdale remembered the late Trent Acid on what would have been his 45th birthday:
- Happy Bday trent acid! weve now cycled thru several generations of indie wrestlers/fans since he passed 15 yrs ago so many of today’s wrestlers dont even know who he is but rest assured, many of your favorites or favorites favorites were inspired by or wanted to be trent acid
Joseph Currier
Joseph Currier is the lead editor of F4WOnline.com, directing daily news coverage and writing articles on professional wrestling. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, obtaining a journalism degree in 2016. Joseph joined F4W during his time at UMass and has now been writing about the industry for nearly a decade.
In addition to his work with F4W, Joseph has previously contributed to Sports Illustrated's wrestling coverage. He lives in Massachusetts and is a diehard fan of the Boston sports teams and Liverpool Football Club.