Daily Update: WWE Raw, Wrestlepalooza, SmackDown ratings
Daily Update
Latest Headlines
- WWE Raw live results: Naomi addresses her status
- AEW adds time to wrestler’s contract against their request
- Philadelphia Street Fight to kick off WWE NXT this week
- Update on September WWE PLE going head-to-head with AEW All Out
- Ace Austin comments on joining AEW
Latest Audio
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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter
*The most detailed look at the UFC deal with Paramount, and all the doors that had to be opened to put it together, UFC getting out of PPV, how TKO boxing fights, trying to make this work economically, the loss to ESPN and the loss of ESPN exposure for UFC, analysts, stock market reaction and how much Vince McMahon and Dwayne Johnson made on this deal.
*A look at the next AEW, NXT and WWE major shows between now and the end of the month. The lineups, the business, the stories and more.
*Full G-1 Climax reports, the booking, the best matches, the worst matches and more
*The most detailed look at the strange case involving Karrion Kross
*Amateur wrestling Hall of Famer Greg Wojciechowski, who later was a world champion with Dick the Bruiser’s Indiana promotion, the grandstand challenge to Hulk Hogan, the boycotted Olympics and more.
*The most detailed look at the ratings for all the wrestling television shows this past week as well as UFC, competition, placings and more.
*A look at CMLL and the popularity of wrestling in Mexico City and Guadalajara.
*Arena Mexico coverage for this week.
*TripleMania notes
*Five Star Grand Prix notes
*Notes on two different Hulk Hogan documentaries
*What the documentaries didn’t cover
*Robbie Ellis, the art dealer turned independent wrestler
*Longest match in history
*More career highlights of Gerry Morrow
*The most detailed look at TNA, its agreement with WWE, why WWE may want outside ownership of the company and another attempt to break its attendance record
*New AEW signings
*Lots of injury updates
*Taz talks about Bret Hart’s view of wrestling
*WWE library
*Latest WWE cut
*New movies WWE talent is in
*Leading YouTube numbers
This Week’s Back Issue
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Monday Update
–Bryan and I will be back tonight talking about Raw, weekend news, as well as items in this report and taking questions.
–Raw taping starting with the 9/15 show in Springfield, MA, are listing a 6:30 p.m. local start time. They advertise 30 minutes before Raw starts because they want the crowds in the seats. Either they are doing a new one hour show taped prior to Raw or Raw will move to a 7 p.m. start time as a way to get a one hour jump on the NFL, likely the latter.
–Raw tonight has Becky Lynch vs. Natalya for the IC title,Penta vs.Xaiver Woods, Bron Brakker vs.Jey Uso, Iyo Sky vs. Raquel Rodriguez plus Naomi and Seth Rollins. Naomi will address her medical issue and one would think the world women’s title situation will also be answered tonight. The show is from Philadelphia and at last check there were 12,265 tickets so a big house. It will be interesting if there are Karrion Kross chants because Philadelphia is the city you’d expect them in.
–The 9/20 Indianapolis PLE will be called Wrestlepalooza, which was the name ECW first used and First Wrestling in Minneapolis has used. The last we heard yesterday is that it was strongly expected to be on ESPN, but not 100 percent, but an announcement should be made very soon. This would be WWE’s first live show on ESPN, months before the new deal kicks in in April. They must have left some loophole in the contract with Peacock since Peacock was supposed to get all of them through March 2026. This goes head-to-head with an AEW PPV show.
–Smackdown was the top rated show on television on Friday night with 1.43 million viewers and an 0.35 in 18-49. Those numbers were down, particularly 18-49, from recent weeks. They went head-to-head with an NFL preseason game with Tennessee vs. Atlanta on the NFL Network which did 1.22 million viewers and 0.29. That was the No. 2 show on TV for the night.
–Sunday’s AEW PPV show which starts the main show at 1 p.m. Eastern and Zero Hour starts likely 11:30 a.m.(8:30 a.m. Eastern). The show has about 17,000 tickets out, so it’ll be the company’s second largest attendance number and second largest gate number of the year.
–Regarding the Friday note, the MJF vs. Mistico match from Mexico City was not the top 18-49 segment of the year. However, Adam Page and MJF very clearly are the highest drawing AEW wrestlers with women. It was also noted to us that there were seats in 101 and 102 for Forbidden Door at 53 pounds right now, and others in the section paid four to six times that price for the same area.
(thanks to Trish Speirs)
–El Hijo del Vikingo vs. Dominik Mysterio for the Mega title will headline the Worlds Collide AAA show on 9/12 in Las Vegas at the Cow Pavilion. TKO is doing the Canelo Alvarez vs. Terrence Crawford fight at Allegiant Stadium that they expect will draw a ton of Mexican travelers so they decided to run AAA the night before. I actually would expect a title change here. It’ll be interesting because Dominik was the biggest babyface and Vikingo was the biggest heel on the Saturday show, even though their actual roles were the opposite. But that crowd loved all the AAA stars and hated Vikingo because he’s seen as the anti-Alberto El Patron, and Alberto is AAA’s most popular wrestler. Alberto vs. VIkingo matches made Vikingo seem so inferior to Alberto fthe way they were worked, and the crowds turned on Vikingo because of that.
–Tickets to that show go on sale Friday to the public and there will be a presale on Thursday.
–We’re looking for your thoughts on these shows from the weekend:
*G-1 on Saturday (semifinals) and Sunday (finals) from the Ariake ARena
*AAA TripleMania on Saturday
*CMLL from Arena Mexico on Friday
We’re looking for a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match from each show to [email protected]
–NXT tomorrow is from the Philadelphia Met with Trick Williams vs. Je’Von Evans with the winner facing Oba Fami for the title on Saturday night at Heatwave, Ethan Page & Chelsea Green vs. Tavion Heights & Tyra May Steel, Jordynne Grace and Black Monroe have a face-off before Saturday’s show, Josh Briggs vs. Yoshiki Inamura in a street fight, Fatal Influence vs. The Elegance Brand with Masha Slamovich as referee and Ricky Saints vs. Jasper Troy.
–The new ESPN streaming service that will be the home of WWE PLE shows starting in April will launch on Thursday.
–For the weekend and Google searches, the UFC show on Saturday with Khamzat Chimaev winning the middleweight title from Dricus Du Plessis is at 1,030,000 and AAA TripleMania was at 20,000.
–The infamous Shockmaster segment on the WCW Clash of Champions took place on this day in 1993. Tom Lawlor once recreated it for a UFC weigh-in entrance.
–The Cauliflower Alley Club is having its 2025 ceremony this week in Las Vegas. Wish I could go. Mick Foley as the Mike Mazurki award winner and Nattie Neidhart as the Lou Thesz Award winner are the two biggest awards.
–The Hardys will be doing media in Minneapolis this week to promote TNA TV tapings in that city.
–Individual tickets for Crown Jewel Perth go on sale Friday with a presale Thursday. They have Smackdown on 10/10, Crown Jewel on 10/11 and Raw on 10/13. The RAC Arena will hold about 11,000 for a WWE set up so I expect the tickets to go fast.
–The Volador Jr. vs. Titan first round match in the MLW Opera Cut tournament was announced for the 9/13 show in North Richland Hills, TX.
–Ronda Rousey will be at the New York Comic Con on 10/10 in North Room 406 at 5 p.m. to promote her new graphic novel on her life.
–Paul Walter Hauser defends the Progress Proteus title in a four-way with Simon Miller, Chrles Corwley and Bullit on 8/25 at the Electric Ballroom in Camden, London.
–Isla Dawn, using that name, was announced for the AIW show on 9/20 at The Roxy in Lakewood, OH. It’s part of the annual JT Lightning Invitational tournament that takes place with shows at 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. that day.
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.