Daily Update: Weekend lineups, Julio Cesar Rivera, Wanderlei Silva

Daily Update

Latest News

Latest Audio

Latest YouTube Video

This Weekâ€s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

This Weekâ€s Back Issue

FIRST TIME SUBSCRIBERS GET 50% OFF YOUR FIRST MONTH

Friday Update

– Garrett Gonzales and I will be up later today covering all the news from the past week as well as the first of two 2025 Hall of Fame shows, discussing North America and Japan. Bryan and I will be back on Sunday.

– The new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter is out with the fallout of three major shows this past weekend and what key things we learned from them:

• Reader polls on the weekend shows
• Key points we learned from WWE going after AEW
• Numbers for all three shows and how they did
• Does the price make a difference, how is afternoon vs. evening?
• What we’ve learned about AEW that goes against the grain of 30 plus years of PPV numbers
• Mistico vs. MJF looked at as well as Mistico’s place in Lucha Libre history
• Misconceptions about John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar
• The next big shows from WWE & AEW
• Lots of injury updates
• Advanced ticket sales for the major shows over the next month
• Odds for last weekend and next weekend
• Where wrestling shows stood in the weekly ratings and comparisons with the same week in 2024 and 2023
• Exactly how much the audience makeup has changed for AEW on television this past year
• For every major TV show, what percentage of viewers were women this past week
• Blue Panther wins title at 65 years old
• Big head-to-head battles in Mexico City on Saturday and Sunday this week
• Lineup for the women’s Grand Prix match in Mexico City with talent from RevPro, Stardom and AEW/ROH
• Notes from the Pokemon CMLL crossover event
• Story about the changes in the crowds at Arena Mexico and leading reporter opposes the story
• Lots of health updates
• Real American Freestyle signs first woman gold medalist
• Masha Slamovich controversy
• Zuffa Boxing close to announcing TV deal
• Former WWE developmental talent signs with UFC for November debut
• International promotion in talks with ESPN Unlimited
• Jake Paul vs. Tank Davis silliness
• Cody Rhodes talks Paul Levesque’s successor
• Mark Shapiro talks how WWE & UFC will decide on locations for big shows
• ESPN review of Wrestlepalooza and the controversy allows ignoring the far bigger story
• Jazmyn Nyx turns down WWE offer, says it’s too low

– Drew McIntyre has been cast in a lead role in “The Highlander” movie. He will play the brother of Henry Cavill’s character. The movie also includes Russell Crowe and Dave Bautista and will be filming in early 2026, so he’ll have to be out of action at that time.

– CMLL announcer and part of creative Julio Cesar Rivera will be at the MLW show on 10/4 in Long Beach, CA. He will be doing interviews and commentary on the show.

– SmackDown tonight on USA is from Orlando, FL. In a trivia note, WWE actually has three shows going on in the same vicinity tonight with SmackDown in Orlando, an Evolve taping in Orlando at the PC and an NXT house show in Citrus Springs, FL. Tiffany Stratton defends the women’s title in a three-way against Jade Cargill and Nia Jax. The winner faces Stephanie Vaquer at Crown Jewel. Also tonight has a Sami Zayn U.S. title open challenge and Giulia & Kiana James vs. Michin & B-Fab. They had 9,100 tickets out for the show at last look.

– TNA has Victory Road tonight from Edmonton:

• Cedric Alexander vs. Trey Miguel vs. Zach Wentz
• Joe Hendry vs. Eric Young
• Matt Cardona & Home Town Man vs. Nic & Ryan Nemeth
• Mike Santana vs. Ridge Holland
• M & Heather by Elegance defend the Knockouts tag titles against The IInspiration
• Leon Slater defends the X title against Myron Reed
• Steve Maclin defends the International title against Frankie Kazarian
• Moose vs. Mustafa Ali to determine the man advantage in the Hardcore War team match at Bound for Glory
• Ash By Elegance will make an announcement

– We’re looking for reports from these shows:

• SmackDown tonight in Orlando, FL (dark matches only)
• NXT tonight in Citrus Springs, FL
• TNA tomorrow night in Edmonton, Alberta
• NXT tomorrow night in St. Petersburg, FL

We’re looking for results, finishes and highlights to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

– For the weekend, we’re doing a poll on the NXT Heatwave show tomorrow night,thumbs up, down or middle, best and worst match to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

– Originally Mistico was listed as working three shows yesterday. He did work the first two, but was not at the Arena Neza show. In fact, nobody but Star Jr. from CMLL was at the show. Not sure what happened. The crowd was not told until late in the show that the talent wasn’t going to be there at the Neza show.

– There’s a carriage issue with YouTube TV and NBCU. The contract between the sides expires on Tuesday. The hold-up is money, of course, as YouTube wants Peacock as part of its package and the two sides have not reached an agreement yet.

– CMLL has Noche de Campeones (Night of Champions) tonight with all the matches voted by the fans. Normally this does not draw well even though you would think it should. With the company as hot as it is, we’ll see how this does. They did draw a sellout 16,000 fans last night for the Pokemon Legend tie-in show. For tonight:

• Tengu defends CMLL Micros title against KeMalito
• Templario defends CMLL middleweight title against Villano III Jr.
• El Hijo de Stuka Jr. & Cobarde & Felino Jr. defend the Mexican national trios title against Stigma & Arkalis & Rayo Metalico
• Mascara Dorada defends the Historic welterweight title against Capitan Suicida
• India Sioux defends the Mexican national women’s title against. Kira
• Ultimo Dragoncito defends the CMLL minis title against Angelito
• Atlantis Jr. defends the Historic light heavyweight title against Xelhua

– UFC runs from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m.Eastern tomorrow night on ESPN+ only from Perth, Western Australia:

• Elisha Ellison vs. Brando Pericic
• Luana Carolina vs. Michelle Montague
• Rolando Bedoya vs. Jamie Mullarkey
• Josias Musasa vs. Colby Thicknesse
• Andre Petroski vs. Cam Rowston
• Loma Lookboonmee vs. Alexia Thainara
• Rodolfo Bellato vs. Navajo Stirling
• Charlie Campbell vs. Tom Nolan
• Louie Sutehrland vs. Justin Tafa
• Neil Magny vs. Jake Matthews
• Jack Jenkins vs. Ramon Taveras
• Jimmy Crute vs. Ivan Ersian
• Dominick Reyes vs. Carlos Ulberg

We have more notes on this in the current issue.

– NXT No Mercy runs tomorrow night at 7 p.m. from Fort Lauderdale, FL

• Oba Femi vs. Ricky Saints for NXT men’s title
• Jacy Jayne vs. Lola Vice for NXT women’s title
• Blake Monroe vs. Jordynne Grace in a weapons cage match
• Ethan Page vs. Tavion Heights for North American title
• Sol Ruca vs. Lainey Reid for the Speed title
• Je’Von Evans vs. Josh Briggs

– Wanderlei Silva has a boxing match tomorrow night in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Silva is 49 and has claimed issues with concussions but he’s still sanctioned. It gets better, his opponent, Acelino Freitas, a former WBA and WBO champion, weighed in at 162.7 while Silva weighed in at 206.7. There’s a reason boxing is supposed to be regulated.

– The documentary on Raven is airing tonight in Red Bank, NJ ,at the Smodcastle Cinemas. Raven will be doing a Q&A after the movie in the theater.

– AEW’s Deonna Purrazzo and TNA’s Steve Maclin will be running the Tunnel2Tunnel 5K race in New York on Sunday to benefit heroes of 9/11.

– AEW’s Justin Roberts was the in-stadium announcer for last night’s Arizona Cardinals vs. Seattle Seahawks NFL game.

– Shotzi Blackheart vs. Natalia Markova has been added to the 10/17 NWA Samhain show at Center Stage in Atlanta.

– Rikishi will appear on tomorrow’s Memphis Wrestling TV show. He will be there with his son, Thamiko Fatu, who wrestles on the show. Fatu is the brother of The Usos and Solo Sikoa.

– Arya Witner has a book out called “40 Years of Pay-Per-View: Book Two” covering pro wrestling PPV shows from 1991-93, that will be available on Tuesday via Kindle and Kindle Unlimited. It will also be released on paperback. It is on Amazon right now.

– MLW’s Fury Road taped show airs tomorrow night on YouTube:

• Mads Krule Krugger vs. Bishop Dyer
• Atlantis & Blue Panther & Diego Hil vs. Zandokan Jr. & Barboza & Difunto
• Shotzi Blackheart vs. Alejandra Quintanilla
• Kushida vs. Austin Aries in the Opera Cup
• Satoshi Kojima vs. Mr. Thomas
• Volador Jr. vs. Titan in the Opera Cup
• Paul London vs. Okumura in the Opera Cup

– Kirk White’s Big Time Wrestling 29th anniversary show is 10/3 in Newark, CA at the Pavilion with Bret Hart as the special guest for a meet and greet. Also on the show is QT Marshall vs. Powerhouse Hobbs, Timothy Thatcher vs. Mo Jabari, Aaron Solo vs. Jack Cartwheel, VertVixen vs. Brooke Havok, Los Suavecitos vs. Royce Isaacs & Jorel Nelson, LJ Clearly vs. Marcus Lewis and Dan Lausen vs. Jeri Giggalow

previous story

Source link