Daily Update: Netflix & WBD, Arena Mexico, top matches from the weekend

Daily Update

Latest News

Latest Audio

Latest YouTube Video

This Weekâ€s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

–The new issue of the Observer is out.  The lead story on the WBD/Netflix/Paramount situation could end up being in hindsight the most important business story of this year as far as long-term ramifications to the scene.  The second story on the TNA deal with AMC  is also  one of the major stories of the year.
*A look at the Netflix/WBD proposed deal, how iit went down, what it entails, how this affects AEW, the AEW contract situation with WBD and what it entails and how long it is s well as fears in the entertainment industry if this goes through, as well as steps being taken by Paramount to get it blocked.
*TNA signs a new TV deal with AMC, the early schedule, what is and isn’t true about the deal, as well as the power of AMC and how pro wrestling has affected and changed the ratings for all of its television partners with the most updated numbers, which also shows why it  is still valuable programming.
*A complete look at Survivor Series including how people viewed the show, changes that can be made to War Games to make it easier to watch, business notes on the show, overall interest level compared to recent PPV shows, where WWE goes from here, Netflix numbers outside the U.S. and more.
*The history of Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada, the making of their final match, where Shinsuke Nakamura fit in as well as AEW, WWE and CMLL, business notes, history, historical significance and how the story has played out since the start of the year.
*A look at this weekend’s shows and odds
*Les Hudspith aka Ringo Rigby, former U.K. wrestler who led a very interesting life, between judo, being a main eventer quick in the U.K., the political situation in the U.K. that led to his leaving, coming to the dying California promotion and thriving Mexican scene and crazy street brawls.
*The most detailed look at the television ratings from the past week, placings, comparisons and more.
*Coverage of one of the best Arena Mexico shows of the year including Claudio Castagnoi’s title win
*The next major CMLL show, plus lots of big shows around the country
*AAA and WWE combine for a big show with two great bouts, and what this leads to
*End of Stardom tag team tournament
*End of Dragon Gate tournament
*Update on All Japan and New Japan tournaments
*Who has the most five-star matches in 2025
*Real American Freestyle update and apparently business philosophy
*Lots of AEW new shows
*Detailed look at the Continental Classic including a decision to be made this week’
*Bryan Danielson talks injuries, if he can come back, Brie Bella coming back, retiring, traveling and more
*Ticket sales for upcoming WWE & AEW shows over the net five weeks
*Is AEW really closing the gap on WWE as Tony Khan says, a look at different metrics
*Tom Aspinall update
*What UFC should do and won’t to make the Amanda Nunes vs. Kayle Harrisoni fight better and less risky
*The sad plight of Nick Diaz
*Nick Khan and Laurence Epstein push their version of the Ali Act
*Rumors about Ronda Rousey fighting
*TKO stock value update
*How much has DwayneJohnson earned so far in his less than two years with WWE

This Weekâ€s Back Issue

FIRST TIME SUBSCRIBERS GET 50% OFF YOUR FIRST MONTH

Sunday Update

[email protected]

— Both of our weekend shows are up on the site today. Our Friday show with Garrett Gonzales talked about the news of the week, heavily on the WBD/Netflix story and how it affects AEW, John Cena, the weekend and all sorts of other topics. Last night we talked more on the lead story with more details on how it affects AEW and what are the next things to watch out for, Paul Fontaine talked UFC 323 with us which had two title change and lots of big fights underneath, we talked some other matches that were among the best of the week, as well NXT Deadline, Collision, ROH Final Battle and Arena Mexico.

— Regarding the WBD/Netflix story that will continue, probably the best on how it currently looks in relation to AEW is on our show from last night. Netflix sent a memo to all subscribers about the proposed sale and said that Netflix and HBO Max will be kept separate. Of course they have to say that now, and that doesn’t mean a few years from now that will be the case. But that would be very good news for AEW in theory. There are so many different ways this can go as we talked about last night.

— Dana White signed a new five-year deal to remain President of UFC.

— Arena Mexico became the first arena that as best we can tell in history has ever sold 1 million tickets in a calendar year. CMLL presented a championship belt to the fan who had purchased ticket No. 1 million at Friday night’s show. There have been reports that El Toreo in Naucalpan during the heyday of the UWA had done 1 million in a calendar year, but I think that’s a little exaggerated. This 1 million is paid, not total, and also only includes CMLL regular shows, not sponsored shows, not including special sponsor shows, the Pokemon show, nor the AEW show.  Including those shows, by the end of the year it should top 1.1 million. There is no building in the U.S., Europe, Japan or anywhere that would come anywhere close to that.  I don’t even know if outside of El Toreo and Arena Mexico that any other place ever did half that.  The Mid South Coliseum in Memphis in its best year did like 375,000. What’s even more remarkable is that a solid percentage of that number would be Americans. I think you’d have to go back at least 40 years to find an arena in the U.S. that drew as many Americans in its best year as Arena Mexico did this year. To me, while the latter is not a shock since we talked about this in 2024 a few times because it was also a good year for tourist sales, it’s still mind-boggling when you think about it.

— Alexandre Pantoja dropped the flyweight title to Joshua Van in seconds, post his arm when Van took him down and it appeared his arm bent badly at the elbow joint. They had to stop the fight, which made Van the youngest world champion in UFC history. Megan Olivi after the show on the broadcast said that she had spoken to Dr. Jeff Davidson and said that Pantoja had a shoulder dislocation, but then the shoulder popped into place on its own. On Monday they will go for additional imaging to see the extent of the other or if there is another damage and diagnose more from there. Joe Rogan then said that this doesn’t make sense because you could see the elbow pop out of the joint.

— We’re looking for your thoughts on both NXT Deadline and ROH Final Battle, so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to [email protected]

— Some weekend match recommendations as this was a big weekend for good matches. Yesterday’s NXT show to me was the best major show they’ve done in a while, with both the men’s and women’s Iron Survivor matches being excellent. ROH Final Battle you should check out the Bandido vs. Mortos vs. Komander vs. Blake Christian vs. Sammy Guevara vs. Hechidero, Athena vs. Persephone, Shane Taylor Promotions vs. Sky Flight and if you are into technical wrestling Nigel McGuinness vs Lee Moriarty to some will be one of the more fun matches in a long time. Both shows to me were very good. The Continental Classic matches last night on Collision were great, particularly Jon Moxley vs Konosuke Takeshita but really all three.  The UFC main event, where Petr Yan won the bantamweight title over Merab Dvalishvili as well as Brandon Talbott vs. Henry Cejudo were great fights. We were also told there were two excellent quick bouts, Ob Aslan vs. Iwo Baraniewski and Chris Duncan vs. Terrence McKinney.

–The Arena Mexico Friday  main event was excellent as well. It was Misitco & Mascara Dorada losing to Soberano Jr. & & Difunto when Soberano Jr. pinned both Dorada after a nasty power bomb and Mistico after a piledriver-like move. The power bomb looked dangerous and Dorada went out on a stretcher. Dorada then flew to Columbus, OH for his match with Claudio Castagnoli which saw the Historic welterweight champion pin the CMLL world heavyweight champion. After the main event at Arena Mexico, Soberano Jr. issued a challenge to Mistico for the CMLL world light heavyweight title, and that will be the main event on this coming Friday’s show.  Also on Friday will be the Gran Alternativa tournament, with the first and second round on this week with the two final teams facing off on 12/19.

Teams are:

• Volador Jr. & Elemental
• Euforia & Gallero
• Angel de Oro & Yutani
• Averno & Barboza
• Atlantis Jr. & Xelhua
• Titan & Explosivo
• Templario & El Hijo del Pantera
• Neon & Futuro

The idea is the second name listed, if their team wins, that person moves from underneath level to semi-main or main event level. Yutani sold out Puebla against Mistico already. Barboza is already a star, Xelhua is a favorite and Futuro was Neon’s regular tag team partner before Neon got elevated.

— The news from the weekend from those in WWE is that Penta is 50/50 regarding whether he’ll be able to wrestle on 12/20 in Guadalajara for the Penta & Fenix vs. Dominik Mysterio & Grande Americano main event. He suffered a shoulder injury in his Raw match with Solo Sikoa.

— You’ve probably heard about this but Bayley did a weekend seminar and camp for top women independent wrestlers over the last few days in Orlando. She flew everyone in, took care of lodging and set up a camp at no cost to the women. Helping her with coaching included Charlotte Flair, Natalaya, TJ Wilson, John Cena, Bianca Belair, Ivy Nile, Lyra Valkyria, Rhea Ripley, Roxanne Perez, Maxxine Dupri and others. Bayley rushed to TV on Friday and flew right back. Cena spent hours there talking and giving advice to everyone individually. This is really something special and you have to give Bayley all the credit in the world for putting it together, and for all the other wrestlers who participated.

— Regarding Google searches, nothing from NXT Deadline nor ROH Death Before Dishonor cracked the top 600. Nor anything from WWE or AEW. UFC last night did 870,000 which is not a giant number but definitely a good number. Searches for the show were No. 6 among all topics over the weekend.

— As far as the judging went, in the main event, Judge Michael Bell only gave Dvalishvili the first round for a 49-46 score. Judge Derek Cleary gave Yan rounds three through five and a 48-47 score. Judge Eric Colon gave Dvalishvili only the first round for 49-46. I only had round two for Dvalishvili at 49-46. Both Ryan Frederick and Paul Fontaine from our site had a clean 50-45 sweep for Yan. Of reporters’ scores we’ve seen, they were 65 percent 50-45 and 35 percent 49-46.  Nobody but Cleary gave Dvalishvili two rounds.

— In the Jan Blachowicz vs. Bogdan Guskov draw, Junichiro Kamijo had it even at 28-28 with Blachowicz winning one and three and Gukov getting a 10-8 round two. Chris Lee had it 29-28 with the same winners but not a 10-8 second. Judge Ron McCarthy gave Guskov a 10-8 round two for a 28-28 so it was a majority draw  Among reporters through MMA Decisions, 57 percent went for Blachowicz and 43 percent had it as a draw.

— The Countdown to Worlds End show airs on the 17th. As of right now nothing has been announced for the show past the semifinals and finals of the Continental Classic. What that means is aside from the tournament, the rest of the show’s key bouts should be announced by a week from Wednesday. I strongly suspect Samoa Joe vs. Swerve Strickland as the main event. They gave the impression last night that Strickland will face Josh Alexander on 12/13 in Cardiff for the shot at Joe.

—  The final episode of RJ City’s Hey EW show aired this weekend. He did a roast of the company, a parody of scenes in Beyond the Mat and WWE Unreal, spoofing Paul Levesque, a Renee Paquette run-in that leaves him  laying and then Tony Khan shows up and orders everyone to get back to work. Mercedes Mone, who people had continued to request as a guest but never did the show, then showed up, saw that nobody was there, and left. (thanks to Stephen Lyon).

— The 12/11 El Hijo del Santo farewell show in Guadalajara was canceled due to poor ticket sales. His last match is 12/13 in Mexico City and they will have to paper like crazy to avoid it looking bad. But overall this farewell tour has been a disaster.

— The All Japan tag team tournament finals are Wednesday at Korakuen Hall with Ren Ayabe & Talos vs. tag champs Xyon & Odyssey Jones, who went 5-0 in the tournament.

— New Japan’s next to last night of B block took place in Kihoku today:

• Great O’Khan & Callum Newman (4-2) beat Hiroshi Tanahashi &  El Phantasmo (2-4)
• Lance Archer & Alex Zayne (3-3) beat Yuto-Ice & Oskar (3-3)
• Zack Sabre Jr. & Ryohei Oiwa (3-3) beat David Finlay & Hiromu Takahashi (2-4)
• Shota Umino & Yuya Uemura (4-2) beat Ren Narita & Sanada (3-3)

Monday is the A block last day, Tuesday is the B block last day and the playoffs are Wednesday and Friday with the finals Sunday.

Tomorrow:

• Hirooki Goto & Yoshi-Hashi vs. Shingo Takagi & Drilla Moloney
• Taichi & Satoshi Kojima vs. Yota Tsuji & Gabe Kidd
• Shuji Ishikawa & El Desperado vs. Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens
• Evil & Don Fale vs. Oleg Boltin & Toru Yano

— NXT on Tuesday has Shiloh Hill’s first NXT TV match, Hank Walker & Tank Ledger back from Japan, Blake Monroe in an open challenge for the North American title and Kelani Jordan vs. Jordynne Grace.

— We’re looking for reports on the TNA TV tapings from yesterday and today in El Paso.

— Kenoh beat Kaito Kiyomiya in a 60:00 Iron Man match on today’s NOAH show at Korakuen Hall. Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows attacked Kiyomiya to set up them facing Kiyomiya & Jack Morris on 1/1.

— The 12/15 Raw show in Hershey, PA was moved to a 6 p.m. Eastern start time. They will be airing Raw but also taking an episode of Smackdown that night. In Grand Rapids, MI that Friday they will be doing Smackdown plus an episode of Raw.

— Curtis Highes turned 61 today, Tammy Sytch turned 53, Wolfie D turned 52, Jon Moxley turned 40 and ACH turned 38.  Rick Rude would have been 67 today.  The notorious Ian Croitoru/Johnny K-9/Bruiser Bedlam would have been 62.  The famed McGuire Twins who are both over 700 pounds would have been 79.  Joe Blanchard would have been 97,  the father of Tully and grandfather of Tessa who was both a wrestler and the promoter in San Antonio and Corpus Christi for many years. Haystacks Calhoun, who was among the most mainstream famous wrestlers of the 60s, passed away on this day 36 years ago at the age of 55.  (thanks to Tony Richards)

— Michelle McCool said he has one last run in her.

— Kirk White’s Big Time Wrestling from Friday night:

• Beatrice Domino b Jheri Giggalow
• Jian Hewell b Vaughn Vertigo
• Los Suavecitos b Jordan Cruz & Chris Nasty
• Vary Morales won three-way over Marcus Lewis and Alpha Zo
• Aaron Solo b Shane Haste
• VertVixen won three-way over Harley Cameron and Angelica Risk
• Starboy Charlie won a three-way over Alan Angels and Toa Liona to get a main event match with  QT Marshall
• Marshall b Charlie

Next show is the Kirk White Memorial Battle Royal for the Roy Shire trophy on 1/23 with Ricochet and The Gates of Agony. (thanks to Jim Davis)

Exclusive access to podcasts and newsletters

Bryan Rose

Bryan Rose is an editor from California that has been covering professional wrestling for well over a decade. He officially joined F4WOnline as an editor in 2017.

previous story

Source link