DAILY UPDATE
Latest News:
MLW Fusion video & results: AAA Super Series finale
WWE Main Event results: R-Truth vs. Cal Bloom, Kairi Sane vs. Ruby Riott
Darby Allin set for Casino Ladder Match at AEW Double or Nothing
Justin Gaethje wins interim UFC lightweight title at UFC 249
Henry Cejudo retires following UFC 249 title defense
Georges St-Pierre announced for 2020 UFC Hall of Fame class
UFC 249 fighters sign COVID-19 waiver, includes non-disparagement clause
UFC 249 live results: Ferguson vs. Gaethje, Cejudo vs. Cruz
Latest Audio:
DragonKing Dark: The Joker 5/10
WOR: UFC 249, Money in the Bank, Smackdown, ratings, more! 5/10
WON NEWSLETTER: May 11, 2020 Observer Newsletter: UFC 249 and WWE MITB previews, more
The return of major shows in the U.S. and how the different companies are dong them is the lead story in the new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
We look at UFC’s plans, how the PBR handled their first event which was the first sports event back, what UFC’s plans are for May 23, lineups for the UFC shows, Dana White, doctors and others talk about UFC going back, the shows AEW and WWE is putting on, how the fighters are preparing differently, how UFC is handling backstage, how all three companies are handling testing, plus comments from other promoters.
The new issue also covers:
Preview Money in the bank, AEW Double or Nothing II, and update New Japan’s plans and cancellations. We also look at the AEW PPV scene, Big Japan needing crowd funding and going through all of the WWE released talent and look at their future prospects.
How COVID-19 has affected the ratings of every show, the variations and what lessons can be learned by the ratings drops.
Risks involving Roman Reigns, FOX airing a special head-to-head with UFC PPV, update on how WWE financials look with new information and stock value, Becky Lynch acting, New WWE TV show, WWE injury updates, wrestler who left the promotion apologizes for behavior, U.K. ratings, Matt Riddle talks heat and his meeting with Vince McMahon, Mike Bennett talks leaving WWE, When WWE tried to work with CMLL, Orlando Colon talks leaving and certain naievete, most watched sports on television, Paul Levesque selling stock, Next week’s TV, and most watched shows of the past week on WWE Network.
Supreme, the Southern California indie star who was one of the top stars of XPW, including looking back at his career, his FMW tag title run, and the famous ECW/XPW brawl at a PPV show.
Maryland commission ruling regarding the Kenny Omega match with Jon Moxley in Baltimore.
What happened to Hiroshi Hase.
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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SUNDAY NEWS UPDATE
Bryan and I will be back tonight covering Money in the Bank, fallout from UFC 249, and the latest news. You can also send questions for tonight’s show to mailbag@wrestlingobserver.com. We also have a show from yesterday with Garrett Gonzalez, basically catching up on a lot of news, including what to learn from Wednesday ratings, the Jacare Souza COVID-19 test positive and have a new show today covering last night’s UFC show.
We’ve got polls for both UFC 249 and WWE Money in the Bank. You can send in a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match for each show to dave@wrestlingobserver.com
Tonight is a unique PPV featuring a Money in the Bank movie that was taped four weeks ago at the WWE headquarters in Stamford with both the men’s and women’s MITB matches taking place at the same time. The men’s match has Daniel Bryan, Rey Mysterio, King Corbin, Aleister Black, A.J. Styles and Otis. The women’s match has Shayna Baszler, Nia Jax, Asuka, Dana Brooke, Lacey Evans and Carmella. The favorites are Styles and Baszler as far as odds that I’ve seen. These mini-movie style matches usually end up as polarizing, but with a month to edit there’s really no excuse for it not to be great.
Drew McIntyre vs. Seth Rollins for the WWE title. Rollins had a great empty arena match at WrestleMania so it should be good. This is not the time for McIntyre to be losing in my opinion.
Braun Strowman vs. Bray Wyatt for the Universal title. This will be tough. The Fiend is all about the special effects and with no fans that could be silly. A tough match.
Bayley vs. Tamina for the Smackdown women’s title. Tamina winning would be a huge upset. I don’t think anyone expects a classic match out of this spot.
New Day vs. Forgotten Sons vs. Miz & Morrison vs. Lucha House Party for the Smackdown tag titles. The match should be great. LHS should shine doing spots. Forgotten Sons are very underrated as workers and Morrison is a super talent, and New Day are always solid. My gut on this would be Miz & Morrison.
Jeff Hardy vs. Cesaro – This match comes out of nowhere with no build at all. That said, Cesaro is one of the best empty arena guys in the company so should be good.
MVP vs. R-Truth – I have no idea where this came from. Maybe there’s a reason such as interference or something but when this match was announced, I couldn’t understand it. No build, MVP rarely wrestles and there are so many people who are super talents who could be put in such a slot.
We talked about this on today’s show, but both the fighters and everyone at the show including reporters had to sign documents, one of which is that UFC was not liable for any health issues coming out of the show such as medical costs for a positive test and also that all involved could not disparage how UFC handled that aspect of the show. That’s why everyone was quiet about that. It’s insane that the media was asked to sign it and that they did. The document also stated that fighters who did so would be subject to a loss of their pay. Dana White said it was only if they lied, and that people could say whatever they wanted about how UFC was handling the situation but couldn’t lie. The problem is, that’s always the case. A lot of heavy hitters including the New York Times, Yahoo, Bloomberg and ESPN covered this. The New York Times story can be found here.
For this Wednesday, the UFC show will be on ESPN+ from about 6 p.m. Eastern to midnight. It won’t be on ESPN. Saturday’s show will be on ESPN also from 6 p.m. to midnight. So there will be three shows on Wednesday with AEW, NXT and UFC, but UFC won’t be in a television ratings battle with the other two.
The Washington Post interviewed Andrew Yang about UFC/fighter unionization. He highlights it as an issue he would lobby a Biden administration.
WWE
We will talk about this tonight, but people are raving about the WWE’s Undertaker documentary first part that is on the WWE Network now. Part two will be released a week from today.
The new Shayna Baszler documentary is already up on the WWE Network.
Interview with Undertaker from Wide World of Wrestling podcast. (thanks to Kevin Chiat)
The FOX WWE’s Greatest Ladder matches special which included matches with Rock, Steve Austin, John Cena and others, did 996,000 viewers and a 0.2 in 18-49 on the overnight ratings. That sounds bad, but it beat the 2016 NBA finals head-to-head on ABC and also beat the 2020 Super Bowl replay in the same time slot last Saturday night.
UFC
Expect some good numbers out of last night’s UFC show. It got about 2.65 million Google searches which would be a strong Jon Jones fight level. I expect the rating was strong for the first live major sports event on ESPN in almost two months. PPV has so many unknown factors involved such as no sports bars meaning a lot of people who otherwise wouldn’t have gotten it may, plus if there’s a group of eight together watching in the past, it’s possible more than one would get it. And with the economy, perhaps the price tag would keep numbers down. What we do know is that the interest level for the show was very high. It was one of the three most searched for topics over the weekend behind Mother’s Day and in the same range with the death of Little Richard. The goal for WWE today would be about 200,000.
Among the individual topics listed were Henry Cejudo due to his retirement announcement (200,000), Greg Hardy (200,000, he always trends), Francis Ngannou (100,000), Donald Cerrone (50,000), Michelle Waterson (50,000) and Joe Rogan (50,000). What wasn’t listed was Jacare Souza.
The reason Joe Rogan did interviews in the cage like usual as opposed to the plans they had announced is because Rogan insisted on doing them the way he always does.
Tony Ferguson suffered a broken orbital bone in last night’s fight.
AEW
Deadspin has a story on AEW. (thanks to Barry Werner)
A lot of talent will be appearing on Dark Tuesday with nine matches involving Fenix, Orange Cassidy, Dr. Luther, Britt Baker, Kris Statlander, Private Party, Colt Cabana, 10 (Preston Vance) and The Jurassic Express.
MISCELLANEOUS
Pitbull Craig Cole, a Melbourne wrestler and promoter of War Zone Wrestling, made a video encouraging people in Melbourne to attend an anti-COVID-lockdown protest today at the Victorian Parliament. He was also arrested and bladed on the scene.
KDOC in Los Angeles last night aired an early 80s episode of The Wally George show which included both John Tolos and Toru Tanaka. (thanks to Mike Lano)
EPW are running a 10 seminar online course May 18th-June 14th run by Damian Slater, Davis Storm and Gavin McGavin.
Wrestlemania 28 played on Australian ESPN on Friday night. (thanks to Kevin Chiat)
Fred Savage talks his friendship with Andre the Giant.
Daily Pro Wrestling History: Verne Gagne retires as AWA World Champion
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