DAILY UPDATE
Latest News:
Two matches set for WWE 205 Live, Raul Mendoza in action
TNT airing ‘extended’ replay of this week’s AEW Dynamite
Updated NJPW Super Junior Tag League results and standings
MLW announces Saturday Night SuperFight pre-show
Nate Diaz: I’m out of UFC 244 main event against Jorge Masvidal
Latest Audio:
WOL: Week in Wrestling, AEW vs. NXT, Smackdown, more! 10/25
Wrestling Weekly: NJPW in America, AEW Draw-namite, Finn Balor 10/25
Portland Wrestlecast: A look at the PBS wrestling doc ‘Savage’ 10/25
B&V: Bryan and Vinny review AEW and NXT head-to-head! 10/24
BELLATOR TONIGHT FROM THE MOHEGAN SUN CASINO IN UNCASVILLE, CT AT 9 P.M. EASTERN
Jake Hager (249) vs. Anthony Garrett (265)
Bec Rawlings (125.5) vs. Ilara Joanne (125.25)
Ed Ruth (170) vs. Jason Jackson (170.5)
Phil Davis (205.5) vs. Karl Albrektsson (205)
Frank Mir (265.75) vs. Roy Nelson (258)
CMLL AT ARENA MEXICO TONIGHT AT 9:30 P.M. EASTERN ON THE CMLL YOUTUBE PAGE
Grako & Coyote vs. Magia Blanca & Principe Diamante
Blue Panther Jr. & Black Panther & Super Astro Jr. vs. Virus & Raziel & Cancerbero
Atlantis Jr. vs. Templario
Stuka Jr. & Dulce Gardenia & Flyer vs. El Terrible & Hechicero & Rey Bucanero
Star Jr. & Valiente & Soberano Jr. vs. Cavernario & Gilbert El Boricua & Ultimo Guerrero
Caristico & Mistico & Diamante Azul vs. Mr. Niebla & Gran Guerrero & Euforia
UFC FROM SINGAPORE INDOOR STADIUM STARTING AT 5:30 A.M. SATURDAY MORNING ON ESPN+
Raphael Pessoa Nunes (264) vs. Jeff Hughes (254)
Loma Lookboonmee (114) vs. Alexandra Albu (116)
Maurice Greene (250) vs. Sergei Pavlovich (253)
Enrique Barzola (146) vs. Movsar Evloev (146)
Alex White (155) vs. Rafael Fiziev (155)
Randa Markos (115) vs. Ashley Yoder (115)
Muslim Salikhov (171) vs. Laureano Staropoli (171)
Cyril Gane (239) vs. Don Tal Mayes (250)
Frank Camacho (155.5) vs. Beneil Dariush (156)
Michael Johnson (156) vs, Stevie Ray (156)
Demian Maia (170.5) vs. Ben Askren (171)
BELLATOR ON SATURDAY NIGHT FROM THE MOHEGAN SUN CASINO IN UNCASVILLE, CT AT 10 P.M. EASTERN ON DAZN
Kimbo Slice Jr. (160) vs. Craig Campbell (158)
Nick Newell (159.75) vs. Manny Muro (160)
Patrick Max (136) vs. Isaiah Chapman (136.25) – Missed weght
Paul Daley (174.75) vs. Saad Awad (173)
Rory MacDonald (169.75) vs. Douglas Lima (169.25) for the welterweight title,Grand Prix finals and $1 million bonus
NEW JAPAN FROM KORAKUEN HALL SUNDAY AT 5:30 A.M. ON NEW JAPAN WORLD
Tiger Mask & Yuya Uemura vs. Will Ospreay & Robbie Eagles
Clark Connors & TJP vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Desperado
Volador Jr. & Titan vs. El Phantasmo & Taiji Ishimori
Rocky Romero & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Sho & Yoh
NEW JAPAN FROM KORAKUEN HALL MONDAY AT 5:30 A.M. ON NEW JAPAN WORLD
Tiger Mask & Yuya Uemura vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Desperado
TJP & Clark Connors vs. El Phantasmo & Taiji Ishimori
Sho & Yoh vs. Volador Jr. & Titan
Will Ospreay & Robbie Eagles vs. Rocky Romero & Ryusuke Taguchi
F4W NEWSLETTER: Looking at Raw and Smackdown’s new rosters Joseph Currier takes a look at where things stand coming out of the WWE Draft.
With both nights of the draft, free agent roster additions, and even a trade now out of the way, the new rosters for Raw and SmackDown look to be set.
WWE’s handling of the draft may have been lackluster, but this is a pivotal time for the company. If WWE is really going to commit to the brand split and making Raw and SmackDown stand out as different from each other, they need to get the roster mix right. They’re also working with two different television partners and will need to make sure FOX and USA Network don’t feel like they’re playing second fiddle to the other.
WWE is a promotion that’s overloaded with talent. That would seem like the ideal environment for a brand split, but the company’s lack of top-tier stars has been a barrier to the roster split’s long-term sustainability. When there’s a ratings slip, it’s easy to say Becky Lynch or Roman Reigns not being on both shows is the reason for it. And while the Wild Card rule may not have been overly popular, any of its short-term effects were probably a positive for ratings.
Here’s what the new Raw and SmackDown rosters look like coming out of the draft:
Current subscribers click here to continue reading.
WON NEWSLETTER: October 28, 2019 Observer Newsletter: Nate Diaz fight in jeopardy, NJPW US expansion, more
We have a huge double issue this week, with a special Hall of Fame feature, some shocking ratings news from overseas, New Japan’s international expansion, Randy Couture’s heart attack and coverage of the major shows.We also cover:
The situation with Nate Diaz and why the UFC 244 main event looks to be in jeopardy.
New Japan Pro Wrestling’s opening up a new U.S. outpost. We look at what the goals of the company are for 2020, who is in charge, why they are in charge, who surprisingly isn’t involved and why. We look at how the U.S. market has changed for New Japan, ticket sales for the upcoming shows, how it would be best served for New Japan in this market and the lessons learned from what they’ve done so far.
The difference between the fans in Japan and the U.S. for New Japan, the type of buildings they are looking at running and the ultimate goals.
Update on the situation with Randy Couture.
WWE Crown Jewel, with the lineup and circumstances of the show.
AAA Heroes Inmortales with the Kenny Omega vs Fenix AAA title change as well as a look at the rest of the show.
Xavier Woods, have all the Canadian TV ratings, 2020 NXT plans, Randy Orton update, Seth Rollins talks Kenny Omega, WWE news regarding lineup for the Mexico City show, major WWE signing, Update on 205 Live, WWE 2K commercial news, former Lucha Underground star talking with WWE, Dana White talks Cain Velasquez in WWE, former New Japan star teaching at performance center, reasons for the stock price decline, most watched shows this past week on the WWE Network, as well as a rundown of all the NXT and WWE shows, with match-by-match coverage and business news.
Impact Bound for Glory, with match-by-match coverage with star ratings and poll results.
A huge feature looking at the 2019 Hall of Fame elections, strongest and weakest candidates with bios on a lot of the different performers. We look at everyone’s strengths ad weaknesses as well as the leading still active candidates.
A complete rundown of the Wednesday night wars over the past two weeks, how both shows are doing in every segment and with every demo group. We look at the median age of viewers, how the World Series affected viewing and more.
Full coverage of all the WWE and AEW television shows from the past week.
In-depth looks at the 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.
The results of all the major pro wrestling events around the world over the past week.
Current subscribers click here to continue reading.
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FRIDAY NEWS UPDATE
We have a couple of shows coming up in the next few days. We will be doing an interview show tonight as well as a second show looking back at the legacy of Championship Wrestling from Florida. Bryan and I will be back Saturday talking Bellator, UFC and the rest of the news.
Randy Couture walked home from the hospital today after suffering a heart attack on Wednesday. He lives three blocks from the hospital.
Ratings can be confusing and misleading but as far as the key numbers to advertisers and normalized to be fair, based on the actual audience that has access to the show as opposed to making it unfair based on homes that don’t even have the channel, these were the 18-49 ratings for this past week:
UFC .47
Smackdown .77
Raw 1.01
Total Divas .17
NXT .28
AEW .61
As far as costs to the network for the episode:
UFC $10 million
Smackdown $4.02 million
Raw $5.10 million
Total Divas $400,000
NXT $588,000
AEW $500,000 plus a percentage of advertising points
According to his son, La Parka was able to speak and identify people after his surgery on Wednesday and is off the respirator and breathing on his own.
Jake Hager fights Anthony Garrett on Bellator as noted above tonight. According to ESPN’s Marc Raimondi, AEW wrestlers Sammy Guevara, Santana and Ortiz are all in Uncasville, CT for the show and will be on Bellator tonight. So that’s a third bit of competition for Smackdown. Hager weighed in yesterday at 249, which is 11 pounds heavier than his last fight.
WWE
WWE tonight on FS 1 has Smackdown live at 8 p.m. For those on the West Coast, because it’s on FS 1 instead of FOX, it will start at 5 p.m., however FS 1 will be replaying the show for the West Coast at 8 p.m. WWE Backstage will have a special one hour episode at 10 p.m. after Smackdown ends. FOX will also be airing a one hour edited version of tonight’s Smackdown on the network on Sunday. It will air in most either before or after NFL coverage, generally at 5 p.m. Eastern but different on the West Coast, so it’ll probably do a larger audience than it does on Fridays.
FOX pushed tonight’s show during last night’s NFL game with Joe Buck mentioning it on FS 1 and pushed as the stars Sasha Banks, Roman Reigns, Bayley and Kofi Kingston. It was clear Joe Buck and Troy Aikman didn’t know who they were and Buck just called them Smackdown superstars They also pushed the replay show at 11 p.m. Eastern and Aikman brought up a photo of Andre the Giant with Joe Theismann in their production room from 1975. (thanks to Jeff Rozner)
Regarding Smackdown tonight, between the night and the station, the only way they’re topping 1.6 million viewers is if Hogan and Flair still have ratings juice after all of their recent appearances.
John Cena will be the top guest on Jimmy Fallon’s show on Sunday likely pushing his new movie. (thanks to Shannon Walsh).
UFC
Sam Alvey has pulled out of his 11/16 fight with Mauricio Shogun Rua for undisclosed reasons. They are looking for a new opponent for Rua on that show.
AEW
AEW goes head-to-head with Smackdown as TNT is presenting a prime time replay of Wednesday night’s show. It’s called AEW Extended as there was footage taped involving Kenny Omega, Hangman Page, Pac and Jon Moxley after the show went off the air on Wednesday that will air for the first time tonight at the end of the show. Like Smackdown, it will run 8-10 p.m. The angle is to build the Page vs. Pac match on the Full Gear PPV show on 11/9. Full Gear tickets have moved well since it started being pushed on television but it’s not quite sold out, but it’s not far from being sold out and probably will.
Sammy Guevera is working on the 12/15 IPWA show in Tel Aviv, Israel (thanks to Kevin Chiat)
MISCELLANEOUS
Both ESPN and MMA Fighting have reported that Sergio Pettis will be signing with Bellator.
AAA has a TV taping on Twitch on Saturday that has added what should be an incredible match with El Hijo del Vikingo vs. Black Taurus vs. Arez vs. Aramis (who got over so great at BOLA).
The movie “Girl on the Third Floor” starring Phil Brooks (C.M. Punk) and Triese Kelly Dunn is now playing at selected theaters.
Tickets go on sale Wednesday for the ROH show on 12/15 in Philadelphia at the 2300 Arena.
Innovate Wrestling on 11/16 in Kingsport, TN at the Civic Auditorium headlined by Toby Farley vs. Devin Driscoll.
MLW has announced they have released more ringside tickets for the 11/2 PPV show from Cicero, IL after they’ve worked out production needs They also announced a one hour pregame show at 7 p.m. Eastern that will air before the PPV on the PPV channels with Contra Unit vs. Spirit Squad vs. Dominic Garrini & Douglas James, Zenshi vs. El Hijo de L.A.Park, Savio Vega vs. Leo Brien and Gino Medina vs. Air Wolf.
The NWA announced it has sold out its 12/15 TV tapings at the PBS Studios in Atlanta for NWA Powerrr. It’s only about 150-250 seats depending on the setup. There are tickets left for the 12/16 tapings.
A show called Joshi Wrestling in Italy on 11/9 in Udine, Italy is attempting to do a crowdfunded show through Indiegogo using wrestlers from Ice Ribbon and other Japanese groups at https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/joshi-wrestling-in-italy#/
Jay White was interviewed by Project NZ tonight, nightly news/panel show on New Zealand television on Wednesday night.
wXw announced that Alexander Wolfe would be wrestling Bobby Gunns on their 11/29 show in Hamburg, Germany.
Combate Americas returns to the Save Mart Center in Fresno,CA on 11/22 for a show live on Univision with Igancio Bahamondes (9-2) vs. Salvador Becerra (7-2) at lightweight and Corina Herrera (4-4-1) vs. Caroline Gallardo (3-3) at strawweight.
All Star Wrestling November to Remember on 11/2 in Chilliwack, BC at the Tzeachten Hall. They also run 11/1 in Vancouver, BC at the Maritime Labour Centre.
Masters of the Ring on 10/27 at 8 p.m.on FITE TV with Melina Perez vs. Lisa Marie Varon (Victoria), Shane Douglas vs. Stevie Richards, Bu Kao Dao vs. Victor Andrews vs. DeJuan O’Neal 2/3 falls, Ken Anderson vs. Eli Drake, Billy Gunn vs. Shawn Spears, TJ Perkins vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr., James Storm vs. Fred Dosser vs Brian Cage. Larry Zbyszko and Salina de la Renta will be announcing.
Slamforce Africa, a promotion run by PJ Black of ROH, has an iPPV on 10/27 on Fite TV from South Africa headlined by Rob Van Dam vs. Black.
Austin Theory defends the Evolve title against Josh Briggs on 11/9 in Queens, NY. Adam Cole, Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa will all be doing a meet and greet at that show. Anthony Henry vs. JD Drake is also on that show in a no holds barred match. plus Babatunde vs. Eddie Kingston. Matt Sydal, going back to the name Evan Bourne, will be starting as a regular with Evolve on the 11/9 show.
Adam Cole is doing a seminar tryout for Evolve on 11/10 in Brooklyn, NY. This is open to wrestlers, referees and managers who have already completed training as well as to announcers who have already worked independent shows.
An interesting story on Harold Meij and New Japan Pro Wrestling.
A new book on the history of the Roller Games called “Rolling Thunder” is out at Hey Dave.
A story on the end of Vampiro’s wrestling school and promotion.
KSW, which does the great match videos, has this on the main event for its next show.
An interview with Richard Holliday of MLW for the Wrestling Estate.
Season three of “The Toys That Made Us” on Netflix, out November 15, will feature an episode on wrestling figures of the 1980s.
A story on Kevin Nash. (thanks to Mike Kuzmuk)
Yahoo had a story on Shine wrestler Gabby Ortiz.
There is a new NWA Ten Pounds of Gold episode.
Daily Pro Wrestling History: WCW Halloween Havoc 1998
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