DAILY UPDATE
Latest News:
WWE Raw ratings down, still well above pre-ThunderDome levels
Excalibur scheduled to return on this week’s AEW Dynamite
Thunder Rosa making AEW in-ring debut on Wednesday’s Dynamite
WWE Raw video highlights: New number one contender decided
Lineup announced for NJPW Fighting Spirit Unleashed night one
WWE announces Thatcher vs. Reed for Tuesday’s NXT
Rey Mysterio triceps injury legitimate, surgery not expected
AEW reveals ‘Broken Rules’ for Hardy-Guevara at All Out
WWE Championship match official for Clash of Champions
Latest Audio:
DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show: Fall of 1980 9/1
WOL: RAW, Payback fallout, AEW and NXT this week, more! 9/1
WOR: Lesnar, Mauro, RAW after Payback, Rey Mysterio, tons more! 9/1
WON NEWSLETTER: August 31, 2020 Observer Newsletter: Death of Bob Armstrong, WWE ThunderDome debut
A look at the life and wrestling career of Bob Armstrong is the lead in this week’s double issue of the Observer. We go through what made him a star, his appeal in the Southeast, his role in the famed Atlanta promotion war, what his booking by Bill Watts in Florida inspired more than a decade later, the Roddy Piper feud, the numbers Georgia wrestling did on cable, his success in different territories and his authority roles later in his career.
Also in this issue:
Thunderdome, what hit, what missed, what audience came back for it, what has been learned so far, the sweetheart business deal, the Payback card and booking, plus match-by-match coverage with star ratings and poll results.
Television situation changing for Bellator and what that means, including the unique nature of their ownership that explains why it was purchased in the first place.
Karrion Kross injury and Tuesday’s NXT show to fill the title vacancy.
A look back at the first NXT Takeover and at the 30th show, with match-by-match coverage, star ratings and poll results.
New Japan’s first major outdoor stadium show in 21 years, the last non-Tokyo Dome stadium show before this, what Jingu Stadium is most known for historically, an show preview and a look at this past week’s Korakuen Hall show.
The economics of WWE, the Sonya Deville court hearing, return to action of the U.K. crew and plans, Renee Young talks her time in WWE, Big E/Miz talk, WWE new hires, Orton and Flair talk their angle, how wrestling did compared to other sports this past week, Canadian & U.K. ratings, rewriting of Raw this past week, most watched shows on WWE network this past week and company current market value.
Saturday’s UFC show with business notes and match-by-match coverage.
Return of CMLL, its plans for this year’s anniversary show and how the voting for specific matches is doing.
Television viewers per home for the biggest sports events of the past week and how wrestling fits in.
Ratings of all the major shows, the key demos and quarters for AEW and WWE, what happened head-to-head and what can be learned from them.
Results of all the major pro wrestling events around the world over the past week.
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TUESDAY NEWS UPDATE
WWE
Post Wrestling reported that a source noted to them that RETRIBUTION “is expected to only appear on Raw moving forward.” The group appeared on last night’s show and struck during a tornado tag match between The Street Profits and Andrade & Angel Garza.
On Twitter last night, Roman Reigns responded to someone who said Reigns is being forced down the audience’s throats again: “Only reason I’m down your throat, is because you keep your mouth open. I’m the best performer of this generation period and the title is finally in the right hands for it to hold true value.”
WWE uploaded a post-match interview with The IIconics after they lost to Ruby Riott & Liv Morgan on Raw last night. The stipulation was that the winning team would get a Women’s Tag Team title shot in the future and the losing team would have to split up.
WWE confirmed that the following content is coming to the WWE Network in September:
Four new episodes of WWE Timeline
WWE Break it Down: Sasha Banks
Broken Skull Sessions: Jerry Lawler
WWE Day Of: SummerSlam 2020
WWE Chronicle: Matt Riddle
WWE Untold: Edge vs. Cena
This month’s classic content drop: 10 episodes of WWE Velocity
WWE Day Of: Payback 2020
Clash of Champions 2020
Broken Skull Sessions: Kurt Angle
William Regal tweeted about Mauro Ranallao parting ways with WWE: “I cannot thank my friend Mauro enough for his time spent with NXT. You are an incredible announcer and talent and I’ll miss our lovely ‘old British wrestling’ and life chats.”
Triple H posted a look at the setup for NXT UK at BT Sport studios.
Finn Balor spoke to Newsweek about still wanting to face WALTER: “We were building to the match with WALTER, which was something that I was super excited about, but the world kind of went to sh*t. COVID came and kind of shut that down, but you know that’s something that definitely isn’t gone. I think when we all get back up and running and the doors open back to normal, that WALTER match is something that I’ve definitely got my eyes up and it’s something I’ll look forward to. There was NXT UK TakeOver: Dublin, where there was a lot of exciting stuff planned that I was gonna be super-involved in and then obviously got taken away, but I think it’s just gonna be put on pause and hopefully when everything gets back up and running, me and WALTER can get out there one-on-one, because in my opinion he’s kind of like an anomaly in this business. [Wrestlers like WALTER] come along very, very rarely and he has the same star attraction as [Brock] Lesnar, and getting in there with him and testing myself against him, I’ll be able to sleep that night.”
Mustafa Ali vs. Ricochet will air on this week’s episode of WWE Main Event. Ali tweeted about the match: “This match is on #WWEMainEvent this week. Seriously. I know. Catch it on @hulu!”
As part of The V Foundation’s month-long campaign for pediatric cancer research, Dick Vitale and WWE “have combined their efforts this year to fund three pediatric V Foundation Translational Grants totaling $1.8 million, with $900,000 being contributed by Vitale and WWE. Translational Grants are three-year awards of $600,000 total and support bench-to-bedside research. Two of the grants will fund studies related to DIPG, a universally fatal brain cancer, and the third grant will fund research for solid tumors in children.”
Steve Pamon has been elected to WWE’s board of directors.
Charles Barkley, Chris Eubank, and Bridget Everett have been added to the voice cast for the movie “Rumble,” which WWE Studios is co-producing with Paramount Animation. Becky Lynch and Roman Reigns are also voicing characters in the movie.
The word “jabroni” is one of 650 new words added to Dictionary.com.
R-Truth, Sam Roberts, Shayna Baszler, and Adam Pearce have been announced as guests for tomorrow morning’s episode of WWE’s The Bump.
WWE’s YouTube channel uploaded Kurt Angle vs. The Undertaker for the World Heavyweight Championship from No Way Out 2006, Nikki Bella vs. Paige vs. Tamina for the Divas Championship from Beast in the East, and AJ Styles vs. Jinder Mahal for the WWE Championship from Clash of Champions 2017.
Other Wrestling
Hana Kimura’s mother Kyoko Kimura has opened a Pro Wrestling Tees store with a memorial shirt for Hana. Proceeds will go to Hana’s family and to pay for their lawyer expenses.
Eddie Kingston’s Grindhouse will launch live on Club WWN on September 26.
A new season of Colt Cabana’s Art of Wrestling podcast will begin on September 15 with episodes coming out every other week until November. The episodes will be with other AEW talent and are already available via Cabana’s Patreon.
The New York Post has a story on MJF ahead of All Out.
The Major Wrestling Figure Podcast interviewed Brandi Rhodes.
Kevin Kelly interviewed Fred Rosser (formerly known as Darren Young) about making his NJPW debut on this week’s Fighting Spirit Unleashed night one edition of NJPW Strong. Rosser is teaming with Alex Zayne against Clark Connors & The DKC.
David Arquette spoke to Sports Illustrated about his “You Cannot Kill David Arquette” documentary.
MMA
The UFC is targeting a rematch between Jorge Masvidal and Nate Diaz. The fight could potentially take place in January.
Dana White confirmed that the UFC is finalizing a welterweight title fight between Kamaru Usman and Gilbert Burns for UFC 256 on December 12. That PPV will also feature Amanda Nunes vs. Megan Anderson for the women’s featherweight title
On his DC & Helwani show yesterday, Daniel Cormier reiterated that he’s now retired: “I’m not going to fight anymore. I was talking to Joe Rogan after the fight, and I told him my interest is fighting for championships, and I can’t imagine with a loss that I’d be fighting for a belt again. I lost two fights in a row for the first time in my career. You’ve got to understand when it’s time, and the reality is part of the reason I got hit with that right hand by Stipe is because I’m older. You can’t fight father time. At 41 years old, I fought the heavyweight champion of the world three rounds to two with the idea that I wanted to win. I didn’t go in there trying to give a good account of myself. I wanted to win the fight and I still believe I can beat Stipe Miocic. But every day that passes, it doesn’t work in my favor.”
Cormier said he probably isn’t going to need surgery for the torn cornea he suffered against Stipe Miocic: “The first week and a half, [the eye] was really bad, it wasn’t opening, and it was completely blurry, but now it kind of feels like an eyelash is in it. I went and saw the doctor last week, and he told me I’m probably not going to have to have surgery, just kind of rest and recover. And today it feels good, but just feels like something in there, you know when you get an eyelash and can’t get it out? It’s just right in the corner. It was concerning initially, because they didn’t know how severe the impact was going to be going forward. They didn’t know if I was going to have to have surgery and do all these other things. Luckily I was able to recover, and I feel better, and I prefer not to have surgery.”
Cormier spoke about why he considers Miocic to be his greatest rival: “My greatest rival is Stipe Miocic: a fireman, a husband, and a guy that loves his family. Not Jon Jones, a guy that has done those things in his life and has been a real education in what not to do. I’d rather my rival be a guy that’s a firefighter and that protects the community and loves his family and does things the right way. That’s who I’m gonna give my energy to when people ask about my greatest rival.”
Jon Jones posted tweets about potentially facing Miocic or Brock Lesnar: “Stipe doesn’t want to fight Francis again because the first fight really wasn’t close. Looking at it from Stipe’s point of view, fighting Francis again is definitely more of a lose situation than win. Stipe asked for a new challenge, why not fight the light heavyweight GOAT? Besides we’re way closer in size. What’s more exciting than that? By the time he heals up my body weight should be right where it needs to be. This fight lines up perfectly. Brock I’ll beatcho ass too.”
Scott Coker was asked if Bellator has interest in Lesnar: “Yes, if he’s truly available. Fedor vs. Brock is interesting. It’s the fight that never happened!”
Daily Pro Wrestling History: All In
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