Daily Update: WWE Raw, UFC & CMLL notes

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

*A look at Saturday Night’s Main Event, the interest level, the Royal Rumble and Rumble odds
*Big Bad Bobby Duncum, a look at the career of a worldwide headliner who worked on top with almost every major babyface of the 70s, including big WWF and AWA runs and Japanese major tournaments
*CMLL has a big business week with Bandido, Ricochet, Komander, Gates of Agony and Lee Moriarty.  A look at some of the best matches so far this year and the craziness that ruined could have been the best of all of them.
*A look at prior plans for 2025 PPV shows that changed
*A look at Netflix numbers over the past six months, as well as how every PPV in 2025 did and some surprises in that direction, as well as how Smackdown did internationally as well as NXT, and how shows that went head-to-head with AEW PPVs drew.
*Notes on the TNA ratings for the first show on AMC and what they tell us.
*TNA Genesis coverage
*2025 Wrestling Observer Newsletter Awards ballot
*More AEW stars to CMLL next week
*AAA TV taping notes
*Thoughts on the current AAA product and how it relates to Lucha Libre and WWE
*Stardom makes claim against Marigold
*Saya Kamitani returns early
*Notes about a mainstream model who became one of the first big stars in Stardom and women’s MVP
*Best tag team match of the year
*New Japan next major show lineup
*Eight promotions combine for a singles tournament
*The potential best actual wrestler in the world signs with RAF
*Feast or Fired thoughts
*More on AEW’s future with the WBD sale to Netflix
*Trey Miguel situation
*Ticket sales for upcoming WWE & AEW shows
*The most detailed look at the TV ratings over the past week
*UFC returns to action with first big show of 2026
*Top exec since the inception of  PFL leaves
*More notes regarding a lawsuit against Vince McMahon and WWE
*WWE headliner talks bowing out
*WWE and AEW injury updates
*Punk movie box office
*Talent coming and going from promotions
*TKO and WWE execs get millions this quarter

This issue covers the following topics:

  • The changes in the WrestleMania plans, the Drew McIntyre title win, Roman Reigns return and the whys.
  • WWE getting Will Hobbs while AEW signs a slew of new talent as well. A look at each case-by-case.
  • Notes on the big weekend coming to Mexico City
  • Kayla Harrison injury and what is the future for the biggest women’s fight in years
  • Win-loss records and total bouts for all top WWE/NXT talent in 2025
  • WWE Iron Man winner from 1984-2025
  • What cutting back on the schedule has taught us about injuries
  • Who gets protected in booking and who doesn’t
  • The problem with the current schedule and development of young talent
  • A star who has been around through various eras talks timing and injuries and best schedule
  • A look at TNA’s debut on AMC, what went right and wrong
  • When did wrestling start being a work. Studying of history shows it’s a lot earlier than you would think
  • Odds for WWE matches upcoming
  • The most detailed look at the ratings of all the pro wrestling shows this past week, as well as comparisons with the past and a look at the level of declines and why
  • What wrestler has already main evented 12 sold out shows in 2026
  • One woman wrestler announces retirement and another retires
  • Kazuchika Okada in Japan
  • Most watched New Japan World matches of 2025
  • Ted DiBiase Jr. on trial
  • Death of Rick Link, from fan clubs to main events
  • Jesse Ventura speaks about the current political environment
  • The greatest wrestler in the world signs with Eric Bischoff’s promotion
  • Tons of major independent shows coming
  • AEW gets TV in new market
  • Ticket sales for upcoming WWE, AEW and TNA events
  • Most viewed YouTube videos from AEW and WWE
  • Tag team returning to AEW
  • Dana White shuts down talk of major match
  • A new lawsuit filed against WWE
  • Notes on the recent WWE tryout
  • Notes on all the WWE arena shows this past week.

This Week’s Back Issue

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Monday Update

— Bryan and I will be back tonight talking Raw, weekend TV, as well the latest news with Wrestling Observer Radio.

— Raw tonight is in Toronto in the blizzard. It’s the go-home Raw for the Rumble so they should go hard on it on the show. Advertised is a Natalya promo on why she turned on Maxxine Dupri, Bron Breakker meets with Adam Pearce about his suspension, build for AJ Styles vs. Gunther and New Day vs. Creeds vs. Otis & Tozawa vs. Rayo & Bravo with the winners facing the Usos for the tag team titles. They had 14,800 tickets out as of today so it should be a big crowd even with the difficulties of people getting into town.

— Claudio Castagnoli returns to CMLL on Friday night at Arena Mexico to face Xelhua for the CMLL heavyweight title. Mansoor, Mason Madden and Johnny TV are also on that show.

— DJ Khaled will be in a Super Bowl commercial with a pro wrestling theme.

— The CMLL show tonight in Puebla has sold out with Mistico & Mascara Dorada & Atlantis Jr. vs. Ultimo Guerrero & Gran Guerrero & Stuka Jr. as the main event. That makes 15 Mistico sellouts this month.

— UFC did gigantic numbers as was indicated yesterday by the Google search volume. On Paramount, and this would be covering not just the U.S. but also all of Latin America, the main card averaged 4.96 million streaming views and peaked at 5.93 million, likely during the main event. There were 7.18 million devices who clicked in at some point during the show. Keep in mind this is not a U.S. number, but also not a worldwide number. If you go with 1.6 viewers per home, which is what UFC was doing for PPV prelims on television often, it would be 7.89 million viewers, but we don’t know what percentage was in the U.S. But this was an excellent number which may have been due to the novelty of a PPV card that doesn’t cost much to watch. We’ll see if they release numbers going forward, although we will going forward have a pretty good idea how these shows do. I’ve seen this mistakenly reported as the viewer number, and these are significantly lower figures than the viewer number, but also people comparing it to a U.S. TV number, and you can’t compare it to that at all.

— TNA Impact on Thursday did 171,000 viewers and an 0.03 in 18-49. Viewers were almost the same as last week due to a major increase in viewers per home. 18-49 dropped from 0.04 to 0.03.

— AEW Dynamite on Thursday did an 0.08 in 18-49 but we don’t have the viewer number. If it did 1.25 viewers per home it would be 480,000. At 1.30 it would be 500,000. At 1.35 it would be 518,000. Once again the 50-54 number was ridiculous at about 84,000, which is a ridiculous number if you’re doing that number of viewers and have so many congregated in that one age group, it’s suspicious to me, particularly when it’s every week. The show was 6th in the first hour and fifth in the second hour for the night.

— Although the most impressive numbers for the week would be the NXT growth on Tuesday covered in yesterday’s update.

— Lots of rumors Islam Makhachev vs. Kamaru Usman for the welterweight title at the 6/14 UFC White House show.

— Dustin Poirier, who retired last week, indicated being up for a fight with Justin Gaethje. Poirier beat Gaethje in 2018 and Gaethje beat Poirier in 2023. Both fights were memorable.

— Paul Levesque has a 2K26 video game cover.

— Eddie Kingston & Ortiz wrestle on Friday night in Brooklyn at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel for Outlaw Wrestling.

— Cody Fluffman of the Savannah Bananas will be in the Battle Riot for MLW on Thursday night in Kissimmee, FL. The Battle Riot match will air on YouTube on beIN Sports on 2/5.

— Mercedes Mone turned 34 today. Taylor Wilde turned 40. Other birthdays include Hall of Famer Emil Duske in 1909, Hall of Famer Gordon Solie in 1929, Hall of Famer Road Warrior Hawk in 1957 and non-Hall of Famer but California and Mexico star Raul Mata in 1947 (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.