DAILY UPDATE
Latest News:
Cyber Monday Sale: Get one month for just $3.99~!
Tom Lawlor vs. Von Erich family member set for MLW Opera Cup
WWE Starrcade off-air results: The Fiend vs. Braun Strowman
Stephen Amell to appear on this week’s WWE Backstage
NJPW World Tag League updated results and standings
WWE Starrcade live results: Rusev vs. Bobby Lashley
Latest Audio:
FREE WOL: Starrcade, false-advertising, RAW, NXT vs. AEW, more! 12/2
B&V&G: Granny, WWF Saturday Night’s Main Event November 1992! 12/1
WOR: Brandon Thurston joins Dave & Garrett to talk WWE and AEW business 12/1
WOL: Smackdown, Corey Graves, Butcher and Blade, tons more! 12/1
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We’re looking for reports from Raw tonight in Nashville with Main Event and dark matches as well as reports on Friday’s WWE show in Little Rock, Saturday’s show in Mexico City and Starrcade in Atlanta (stuff not on television) to [email protected]
Raw tonight has Seth Rollins apologizing and Charlotte Flair in a handicap match against Kairi Sane & Asuka.
NXT ON WEDNESDAY NIGHT AT 8 P.M. ON THE USA NETWORK
Killian Dain vs. Damien Priest
AEW ON WEDNESDAY NIGHT AT 8 P.M. ON TNT
Trent vs. Rey Fenix
Kris Statlander vs. Hikaru Shida
Christopher Daniels vs. Pentagon Jr.
Joey Janela vs. Jon Moxley
Young Bucks & Dustin Rhodes vs. Santana & Ortiz & Sammy Guevara
F4W NEWSLETTER: NXT’s Survivor Series involvement Joseph Currier looks at how WWE featured NXT at Survivor Series and in the build to the PPV.
Even with how forced the battle for brand supremacy can admittedly be, Survivor Series is one of the bright spots on the WWE calendar.
The PPV has given us some of the main roster’s best matches in recent years. Last year, we got Brock Lesnar vs. Daniel Bryan and Ronda Rousey vs. Charlotte Flair (filling in for the injured Becky Lynch). In 2017, Lesnar faced AJ Styles. Those matches wouldn’t have happened without the brand vs. brand concept. And while there would ideally be more substantive stakes involved, the brands facing off has given some life to the traditional Survivor Series elimination tag matches.
The added involvement of NXT this year only improved things. The battle of the brands would have been even more forced without their inclusion. Viewers can believe that NXT really wants to prove that it’s better than Raw or SmackDown. It’s much harder to suspend your disbelief and buy into Raw and SmackDown’s wrestlers being undyingly loyal to their brand just weeks after a draft.
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WON NEWSLETTER: December 2, 2019 Observer Newsletter: Survivor Series weekend, Mauro Ranallo/Corey Graves
Coverage of Survivor Series weekend and five shows in six nights in Chicago, as well as the business, polls and more, heads this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
We look at the directions things are going, how DVR viewership affects all the major shows, the decision on match order, what Vince McMahon was doing during the Survivor Seres main event, the next two major shows as well as Survivor Series and Takeover with full coverage and star ratings for every match.
The issue also covers:
The myth of NXT as developmental, World’s Collide, the next Takeover, the mention of Britt Baker on the air and more.
The tragic death of Aniah Blanchard, the stepdaughter of UFC fighter Walt Harris.
Changes in the UFC drug policy, regarding levels, what drugs are low levels now allowed, what UFC is encouraging fighters to do as far as supplements, .
The situation with Corey Graves and Mauro Ranallo, what happened, why Graves should have been more careful, and where things stand.
Jim Cornette’s apology, how his departure from the NWA took place, more of the background as to why Cornette was castigated for things that nobody would have batted an eye about had others said and why, what NWA wanted to do with him and why their hand was forced.
C.M. Punk signing with FOX, Vince McMahon’s thoughts on Seth Rollins pushing the Punk match, TV ratings in Canada and overseas, WWE get awarded, legend selling home, Oney Lorcan talks future, Mike Bennett talks wanting to leave, Injury updates in WWE, WWE market value and the most-watched shows of the past week on the WWE Network, plus notes on the house shows.
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.
Results of all the major pro wrestling events around the world over the past week.
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MONDAY NEWS UPDATE
Bryan and I will be back tonight talking Raw, Wednesday ratings, new UFC fights and other stories. You can also send questions to the show to [email protected]
We did a special show yesterday covering the economics and business of WWE and AEW going forward with Brandon Thurston and Garrett Gonzalez.
Regarding ratings from Wednesday, we’ll talk in depth tonight but the night before Thanksgiving affected every show on television and the AEW decline was far more than just the night before Thanksgiving. The key is that one week aberrations do happen, but while I’d throw out Friday’s Smackdown decline as not even being a real story based on the weekend, with AEW, the number is a very significant story unless the numbers rebound greatly this week.
Aniah Blanchard, the stepdaughter of Walt Harris, was killed by a gunshot wound and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in the case against Ibraham Yazeed, who had been charged with kidnapping in the case.
UFC is working on a Weili Zhang strawweight title defense against Joanna Jedrzjczyk for a show on 3/7 which would be a PPV card, as well as Jan Blachowicz vs. Corey Anderson on 2/15 which would be a possible light heavyweight title fight eliminator, which would not be on a PPV show.
Kenny Omega retained the AAA title over Dragon Lee at the baseball stadium show in Monterrey yesterday. The show will be uploaded to YouTube sometime over the next week. The big news was that Rush invited L.A. Park to join Los Ingobernables. What’s notable is that CMLL owns the name, but Rush and Park had the hottest feud in Mexico for the past two years.
WWE
Monday Night Football tonight has the 8-3 Minnesota Vikings vs. 9-2 Seattle Seahawks, so that will hurt the Raw numbers somewhat. With only two Raw shows left before TLC, they have to shoot angles for the Raw side of that show’s card tonight.
On “Jeopardy” this weekend with the WWE category, they asked a question “The Song Stand Back was performed by this head honcho?” Answer was Vince McMahon, which none of the contestants got (thanks to Ken Raftery)
The final episode of the season of Total Divas airs tomorrow night. It’s about Ronda Rousey taking a sabbatical from WWE to start a family.
Stephen Amell appears on WWE Backstage tomorrow night.
UFC
Junior Dos Santos had been a contestant on Brazil’s version of Dancing with the Stars. He was eliminated yesterday. He had been off the show due to a leg injury and got the least amount of votes this past week. Dos Santos is now set to fly to Florida to start training for his 1/25 fight with Curtis Blaydes.
Brad Tavares vs. Antonio Carlos Jr. has verbal agreements in place for a 3/14 show in Brasilia, Brazil.
MISCELLANEOUS
New Japan tag team tournament matches tomorrow from Kochi, which won’t be broadcast live but will be on New Japan World some time tomorrow are:
Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi vs. Zack Sabre Jr. & Taichi
Juice Robinson & David Finlay vs. Colt Cabana & Toru Yano
Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma vs. KENTA & Yujiro Takahashi
Hiroshi Tanahashi & Toa Henare vs. Minoru Suzuki & Lance Archer
Yoshi-Hashi & Tomohiro Ishii vs Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens
Hirooki Goto & Karl Fredericks vs. Evil & Sanada
Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima
Due to injuries, three new bouts have been announced for Saturday’s Alberto vs. Tito PPV from McAllen, TX. The new bouts are Dani Barez (11-4) vs. Joao Camilo (6-3), Dulce Garcia aka Sexy Star (1-0) vs. Anali Lopez Hernandez (0-0) and Gason Reuno (8-2, 2 no contests) vs. Rey Trujillo (24-27).
Jushin Liger will be working a 12/14 show in Sydney, Australia. Liger teams with Robbie Eagles against Jack Bonza & Bad Luck Fale. (thanks to Kevin Chiat)
Northeast Wrestling from Saturday night in Bethany, CT: JT Dunn b Chuck O’Neil (who is an area MMA fighter/pro wrestler), Christian Casanova DDQ Wrecking Bell Legursky, Keith Youngblood b Mike Verna, RJ Rude & Zane Bernardo b Aiden Aggro & Danger Kid, Mike Gamble b Daniel Evans, Dexter Loux b Brett Gosselin, Tasha Steelz b Aria. the first four matches are part of the NEW Live tournament for a title belt to be defended exclusively on Facebook (thanks to Nick Mahmood)
Bellator announced its first show of 2020 would be on 2/21 from Thackerville, K with Ed Ruth vs. Yaroslav Amosov and Brandon Girtz vs.Myles Jury as the top fights.
AWS from Saturday in South Gate, CA: Viva Van b Simone Sherie, Johnny Paradise won four-way over Dicky Meyer, Mike Camden and Hunter Freeman, Michael Hopkins & Juan Mattioli b Yuma & Watts, Daniel Moon & Danny Divine & Brendan Divine b Ray Rosas & Diego Valens & Frankie Frank, Ruby Raze & Vipess b Ashley Vox & Delmi Vox, Mariachi Loco & Lil Cholo b Steven Andrews & Simon Lotto, Andy Brown b B-Boy, Piloto Suicida vs. Acero Dorado vs. Human Tornado vs. Shamu Jr. vs. Hector Canales ended with no winner, Tito Escondido & Che Cabrera b Jesse James & Hoss Hogg (thanks to Shannon Walsh and wrestlingwithdemons.net)
Matt Sydal is the first name announced for the 2/20 Qatar Pro Wrestling show in Doha, Qatar. The other name announced for the show is Eric Bischoff.
A correction from yesterday, Herb Simmons noted there was a phone issue and somehow there was a Facebook post saying the 12/28 show in East Carondelet, IL was canceled, but it is still on at the Community Center. Another correction from yesterday is the Limitless Wrestling show listed in Yarmouth, Mass., was actually in Yarmouth, Maine.
Daily Pro Wrestling History: Kyle O’Reilly wins ROH World title at Final Battle 2016
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