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VIDEO: Being The Elite – Chili’s joins Dark Order
Dasha teaming with Rachael Ellering in AEW Women’s Tag Team Cup
Togi Makabe filming movie, will miss NJPW events
NJPW announces KOPW first round matches, Korakuen Hall cards
NJPW reveals full lineup for Summer Struggle in Jingu
James ‘Kamala’ Harris passes away at age 70
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B&V: Saturday Night’s Main Event January 2, 1988, plus Granny! 8/9
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WON NEWSLETTER: August 10, 2020 Observer: The Rock & Dany Garcia buy XFL, new WWE president, more
The reasons behind Dwayne Johnson, Dany Garcia and Gerry Cardinale buying the XFL in bankruptcy court, the new WWE President and how television viewership of all the major pro wrestling shows has changed since the pandemic started are the lead stories in this week’s issue of the Wrestling Observer. Newsletter.
We look at the timeline of the XFL purchase, financials behind it, the goals, can the goals be achieved, why Dwayne Johnson is key, what Johnson is trying to do with the league that Vince McMahon couldn’t, and why this is such a difficult time to do so and why the interest level was what it was.
The new issue also covers:
WWE’s hiring of Nick Khan as President and Chief Revenue Officer, where he comes from, his connection with wrsetling, his connections in sports, the value of his contract, and the specific strongest value he brings.
We go through every wrestling show with notes on viewership overall and in demos, who is losing and at what pace. We look at what is turning viewers away, what is keeping viewers, and what show actually has increased viewers in an age group and what this says, the key takes from the patterns of gains and losses.
The return of pro wrestling to Mexico City and the restrictions that have been put in place.
The issues with unionizing wrestlers as well as Equity on treatmet of women in U.K. pro wrestling.
Updates on the major U.S. pro wrestling shows over the next month.
The NBA playoffs affecting the AEW schedule in August and September.
Rey Mysterio and contract talks.
Notes on furloughed WWE employees, chaos backstage at WWE tapings, WWE developmental and NXT talent and training, News from the Saudi Arabia lawsuit, behind Raw Underground, update on WWE draft, NXT writers update, Canadian ratings, Ali talks his situation, new WWE sigings, upcoming TV matches, and the most-watched shows on WWE Network.
A feature on Rollerball Mark Rocco, the best U.K. wrestler of his era.
This past week’s UFC show.
The migration of the audience and what days they watch wrestling, and the one demo that is holding firm to Friday in a big way.
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 taking the death of James “Kamala” Harris, Raw, more business trends and taking your questions that can be sent to [email protected].
UFC fighter Geoff Neal revealed this past week had a major health scare and almost died, and spent a week in the hospital and needed dialysis. He’s home and doing better, but he’s out of his 8/29 scheduled fight with Neil Magny. Robbie Lawler will be facing Magny instead.
The Mike Tyson vs. Roy Jones Jr. exhibition fight and PPV show scheduled for 9/12 and it now looks to be taking place on 11/28 according to a story in MMA Fighting. I wonder how that works out for AEW as they are looking at a late November PPV date.
Not a lot promoted ahead of time for Raw. This show was taped last Monday. Ric Flair is there for the Randy Orton vs. Kevin Owens match. Bayley vs. Asuka will face and if Asuka wins, she faces Sasha Banks at SummerSlam. There will be a contract signing opening the show with Seth Rollins vs. Dominik Mysterio. And Mickie James returns. She’s been out of action 14 months after knee reconstruction surgery. She’s been ready for months to return. There will no doubt be a bunch of Redemption fun and Raw Underground as they try to keep the teenager ratings gains from last week.
There has been a GoFundMe set up for funeral expenses and family help for the family of James “Kamala Harrris. For more information you can check out the page here.
The Seadlinnng promotion announced that tomorrow’s show has been canceled. A number of women on the show worked a weekend Pro Wrestling WAVE show in Japan where one of the wrestlers who was on the show later tested positive for COVID.
WWE
NXT on Wednesday has Karrion Kross vs. Danny Burch, and Kushida vs. Cameron Grimes vs. ? with the winner going to the North American title ladder match at Takeover and the person who doesn’t get pinned going into a singles match the following Wednesday for another spot in the five-man ladder match.
FS1 will be airing the 2019 SummerSlam show with Brock Lesnar vs. Seth Rollins, Kofi Kingston vs. Randy Orton, Shane McMahon vs. Kevin Owens, Becky Lynch vs. Natalya, A.J. Styles vs. Ricochet, Bayley vs. Ember Moon, Finn Balor vs. Bray Wyatt, Bill Goldberg vs. Dolph Ziggler and Charlotte Flair vs. Trish Stratus.
The WWE Network has added Kamala content from a number of different promotions including WWF, Mid South, Mid Atlantic, Mid Atlantic, World Class and other promotions.
Bret Hart will be on The Bump this week.
UFC
Zabit Magomedsharipov, who was scheduled to headline the 8/29 show against Yair Rodriguez, is now off the show. Rodriguez pulled out due to a injury and Magomedsharipov has returned to Russia. By returning, he won’t be able to come back for a fight by that date.
Bryan Barbarena vs. Anthony Ivy has been added to the 9/12 show in Las Vegas.
Tomorrow night’s Dana White Contenders Series lineup. The show airs at 8 p.m. Eastern every Tuesday night on ESPN+
Dustin Stoltzfus vs. Joe Pyfer – middleweight
Adrian Yanez vs. Brady Huang – bantamweight
Vanessa Demopoulos vs Cory McKenna – strawweight
TJ Laramie vs. Daniel Swain – featherweight
Anthony Adams vs. Impa Kasanganay – middleweights
AEW
The AEW women’s tag team tournament has two matches tonight as Dasha Kuret (Dasha Gonzalez) & Rachael Ellering face Ivelisse & Diamante plus one other match.
It will also be interesting to gauge the ratings this week on Wednesday. AEW did its best mark since March last week and beat both Raw and Smackdown in 18-34, the first time it beat either show in the same week let alone both, which is more amazing because of the huge edge Smackdown has been having on a network.
This week’s show has Chris Jericho vs Orange Cassidy as the likely main event, plus Kenny Omega & Adam Page defend the tag titles against Luchasaurus & Jungle Boy,Young Bucks vs. Stu Grayson & Evil Uno, the FTR tag team celebration with Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson, and Cody vs. Scorpio Sky for the TV title.
Dark for tomorrow night:
Private Party vs. Brian Pillman Jr. & Griff Garrison
Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian vs. Butcher & Blade
Alex Chamberlain vs. Shawn Spears
Rey Fenix vs. Lee Johnson
Michael Stevens. vs. Kip Sabian
Jungle Boy & Luchasaurus & Marko Stunt vs. Aaron Solow & Pineapple Pete & Corey Hollis
Austin & Billy Gunn vs. M-BAdu & Shawn Dean
Dustin Rhodes & QT Marshall vs. Jack Evans & Angelico
MISCELLANEOUS
Abema.TV has a special free airing of today’s NOAH 20th anniversary show that featured a 60:00 draw with Go Shiozaki vs. Kenou in a title vs. title match plus Keiji Muto vs. Kaito Kiyomiya. (thanks to Jose Gonzalez)
While not a pro wrestling story, Peter Nelson is out as President of HBO Sports in another major change in a week for many in the sports industry.
RevPro has the first major show back in the U.K. scheduled for 8/23 at 8 p.m. BST on FITE TV with a women’s main event of Gisele Shaw vs. Jamie Hayter for the British women’s title plus Will Ospreay & Michael Oku vs. Ricky Knight Jr.(who has great potential) & Kyle Fletcher.
The final episode of this season of Titan Games with Dwayne Johnson airs tonight at 8 p.m. on NBC.
The documentary “You Cannot Kill David Arquette” is being released on 8/28. The movie is about Arquette’s recent return to pro wrestling doing independent shows around the country. He will be doing media this month to promote the release.
Dave Bautista was on Friday night’s episode of Room 104 on HBO playing a troubled retired pro wrestler (thanks to Joe Puccio)
A story on Bill Goldberg and a restaurant that he frequents helping out area veterans. (thanks to Mike Kuzmuk)
Very interesting story on the former Mad Maxine, Jeannie Mjoseth, and her new book which is a novel about pro wrestling based on her career, and her thoughts on Fabulous Moolah, her trainer. (thanks to Mike Kuzmuk)
Daily Pro Wrestling History: Hollywood Hogan wins WCW World title
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