Daily Update: WWE shareholder lawsuit settlement & more TKO conference call notes

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Monday Update

TKO
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— Bryan and I will be back tonight talking about all of the news from the day including Raw, TKO financials, this week in Mexico, G-1 and more with Wrestling Observer Radio.

— In the WWE financials that came out today, it listed that the WWE’s portion of the settlement in the shareholders lawsuit would be $105 million. They expect insurance to pay $70 million, although this will result in a giant rise in premiums. It is not clear if that is the total of the settlement as if Vince McMahon agreed to pay part of the settlement that would not be included. That figure tells you TKO knew it was losing, since the judge all but said due to evidence being destroyed that he wasn’t believing much of what they were saying. Essentially the large settlement was to keep the trial from happening and risking the judge giving them a higher verdict, and from the lawyers sde on the settlement, it ends the case with a guaranteed WWE and avoid TKO taking to an appeal costing more time and risking a judge more favorable to corporate.

— Not a lot of major news in the TKO conference call. They never mentioned an attendance for SummerSlam, only that they sold out the fan fest. This is the first time I can ever recall the company not announcing stadium ticket numbers or numbers for a show that exceeded 11,000. They defended going to Las Vegas a second year in a row even with lower ticket sales noting it was still among the largest gates in company history and Las Vegas paid them a good price. They said they lost $30 million on the White House show which was fine, as they’ve picked up many new corporate sponsors and believe UFC is now higher profile because of it. When asked about the PFL & MVP merger, Mark Shapiro said it was two companies, neither of which was sustainable, getting together. Shapiro said Minneapolis was important because they haven’t run PLE’s in the Midwest aside from Chicago of late, and that while they probably would have sold more tickets with one show, it was a better fan experience having two shows.

— UFC fighter Allan Nascimento of Brazil, passed away today of an apparent heart attack in his sleep. The medical team when alerted pronounced him dead on the scene. Nascimento had a 4-2 UFC record and 22-7 overall record, fighting most recently in June and losing a split decision too Mitch Raposo. He had been fighting since he was 34 and started his pro career in 2011. He debuted in UFC in 2021.

— At the Association of Boxing Commissions, they are looking at rule changes to discourage eye pokes and other fouls. This is not confirmed, only discussion, but the key discussion is that an incidental foul by total accident would be no points. A reckless foul, in the sense the fighter had some responsibility although accidental, should be a one point deduction. A reckless foul, with intent, should be a two point deduction if the fighter can continue and a DQ if he can’t. The idea is if the rules are put in effect fighters will know that they can’t keep poking people in the eyes and get away with it and to keep their hands closed when striking.

— Raw tonight is from Des Moines, IA with Je’Von Evans vs. Ethan Page, Sol Ruca vs. Roxanne Perez, Joe Hendry vs. Broin Brakker, Penta & Chad Gable vs. Dominik Mysterio & JD McDonagh and a main event of Jacob Fatu vs Royce Keys. Historically the show after SummerSlam is one of the highest rated of the year. We’ll at least have an idea about that tomorrow. There were 6,659 tickets out as of this afternoon.

— We’re looking for your thoughts on both days of SummerSlam. You can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle for each show along with a best and worst match from each show to [email protected]

— In the Netflix ranking for Sunday, both Summer Slam shows were combined so this is a combination of both shows did these numbers for Sunday alone. The combo of the two shows during the day did far more viewers than Raw would do even though it doesn’t include the U.S. market for SummerSlam. It was No. 1 in The Bahamas, Bahrain, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Chile, Ecuador, Egypt, Guatemala, Honduras, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Nicaragua, Oman, Qatar, Salvador, Saudi Arabia and Sri Lanka. It was third on all of Netflix for the day among TV shows and fifth among all programming. In other key markets it was No. 2 in Australia, No. 2 in Canada, No. 5 in France, No. 3 in Germany, No. 3 in India, No. 2 in Italy, No. 2 in Mexico, No. 2 in New Zealand, No. 10 in Spain and No. 2 in the U.K.

— Yesterday’s G-1 in Fukuoka was said by many to be the best night. It was the best I’ve seen with four excellent matches. Drilla Moloney did an incredible job with an improving Aaron Wolf. Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Oskar was even better than it sounds on paper, Ren Narits vs. Yuya Uemura was much better than it sounded on paper even with the interference at the end leading to the finish. Uemura is one of the best in the business, total modern Steamboat. Gabe Kidd beat Henare in one of the most brutal, hard hitting matches you’ll ever see. It was so hard hitting it was uncomfortable in spots, but that was by design. Legit match of the year candidate and very different from any other such match that would be on most lists.

— CMLL is sold out in Arena Puebla tonight with Mascara Dorada & Neon & Soberano Jr. uniting against foreigners Austin Aries & Douki & Leon Cage in the main event, plus Xelhua & Villano III Jr. & Star Black vs. Okumura & Yutani & Yujiro Takahashi and Star Jr vs. Shoma Kato.

— Arena Mexico drew more than 12,000 last night for Mistico’s return, teaming with Templario over Aries & Douki on top. That was the best Sunday crowd in a long time. Tuesday will also be well above usual most likely, but it is not sold out. This is live on both the CMLL YouTube and a PPV on My AEW.

  • Max Star vs Leon Cage lighting match
  • Candela & Kira vs. Maya World & Hyan
  • Los Calaveras Jr I & II vs. Blake Christian & Lee Johnson
  • Esfinge vs Austin Aries lighting match
  • Angel de Oro & Niebla Roja vs. Yujiro Takahashi & Douki for the New Japan Strong tag team titels
  • Neon & Ultimo Guerrero & Zandokan Jr. & Xelhua vs. Brian Cage & El Clon & Hechicero & Volador Jr.
  • Soberano Jr. vs. Komander lightning match
  • Bandido vs. Cavernario Barbaro in a non-title match
  • Kevin Knight vs. Titan for the TNT tite
  • Kyle Fletcher vs. Mascara Dorada in a non-title match
  • Bandido vs., Cavenario was an ROH title match until today when it was changed to non-title, likely because AEW is already promoting Bandido vs. Nick Wayne on 8/22 in Philadelphia for the ROH show as a title match.

— AEW also did yet another new poster for Wednesday’s Grand Sam show and Kenny Omega was taken off the poster.

— Netflix heavily edited Monday’s Raquel Rodriguez vs. Sol Rua match with new camera angles and such to hide the blood.

— Dave Bautista will replace Ryan Hurst in the lead role of Kratos on the “God of War” drama series on Amazon. Hurst suffered a torn biceps in training four months into the series and the decision was made to recast the role.

— Shara Magomedov of UFC has signed to start with RAF. UFC allows its fighters to do wrestling matches with RAF.

— You won’t believe this, but here you go. BJ Penn is running for the District 1 council in Hawaii.

— The National Wrestling league debuts on Sunday in Newcastle, UK and have reportedly sold 1,700 tickets for the first show. There will be a mix of soccer stars like Keith Gillespie and Razor Ruddock as well as D-Lo Brown, The Godfather, Grado, Wolfgang, Luke Menzies, Martin Kirby and more. It’s a new concept mixing wrestling with soccer. We wrote about it some time back in the Observer. Every show will have six matches of 15 minutes, all Iron Man rules. It’s a team concept with six teams and it’s three points for a win, one for a draw and zero for a loss. Whatever team has the most points wins the league championship. There will be halftimes, yellow and red cards and other new rules. (thanks to Jordan Clark)

— Pro Wrestling Revolucion from San Jose announced a 10/25 show in Tijuana.

— Maple Leaf Wrestling TV tapings are Friday and Saturday night in Windsor, ONT at St.Clair College. Among those appearing are Stu Grayson, Gisele Shaw, Rhino, Shotzi Blackheart, The Grizzled Young Veterans, Karl Anderson, Luke Gallows, Nikki Storm, Brent Banke & Sheldon Jean as well as Sinner & Saint debuting.

— Tickets for the 9/11 TripleMania, having moved from the Luxor to MGM Grand, are on sale today with the code WWETIX.

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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.