Daily Update: R-Truth & Carlito gone from WWE, Jeff Cannonball, BJ Penn

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Sunday Update

– Bryan and I will be back tonight talking about the WWE departures of R-Truth and Carlito, weekend TV, Best of the Super Juniors and the UFC main event that didn’t happen.

– Regarding the departures of Carlito and R-Truth, which are contracts expiring and not being renewed, ultimately when there are additions coming from NXT, there will be subtractions. Older undercard guys or guys not being used are always the ones at the most risk. With R-Truth, I could see him getting a ton of indie work and TNA, maybe even AAA. But if he wants to continue, he’ll have plenty of opportunities.  Carlito knows the indie scene and worked on it for years.  It is interesting the number of WWE folks who had so much positive to say about R-Truth compared to most who get cut.

– Kosei Fujita beat Yoh to win Best of the Super Juniors earlier today at a sold out Ota Ward Gym. We were told this was a match of the year contender. They went 28:05 before Fujita won using thrill ride.

– I don’t know that Collision will be a great ratings show after the first 45 minutes given the late start, particularly Mascara Dorada vs. Hechicero starting at about 1:30 a.m. But there was a lot of great wrestling on the show and they built the Wednesday night show hard.

– Independent wrestler Jeff Cannonball has been diagnosed with ALS. Cannonball was a regular for a number of Northeast independents. He is 38 and was just diagnosed with the disease a week ago but it progressed very rapidly.

– B.J. Penn was arrested for the third time in a week on Friday for failing to appear in court. He claimed he missed his hearing because he was sick with COVID, but obviously the judge wasn’t buying this. He was released again on another $2,000 bond. His attempt to get a restraining order against his mother, Lorraine Shin, was denied. She still has a restraining order against him.

– Maycee Barber not only missed weight for her fight last night with Erin Blanchfield, which headlined the UFC show at the Apex, but just as a video package playing for the fight finished, it was announced Barber wasn’t medically cleared to compete. Blanchfield said she’s not going to agree to a match at this point with Barber.  Blanchfield said she was in the doorway about to come out when she was told they were delaying the fight six minutes. Then Hunter Campbell came in and told Blanchfield that Barber was having a seizure and the fight was off.  

– UFC Noche which was scheduled for 9/13 at Arena Guadalajara has been moved to San Antonio. It was not announced as a PPV show but originally it was. Arena Guadalajara, which hasn’t opened yet, was thought to be touch-and-go if it would even be ready to open by that date. The big question is with this no longer on PPV, does that mean Dana White will be back working with Turki Alalsheikh in promoting Canelo Alvarez vs. Terrence Crawford that night as the debut of TKO boxing. Everything has remained secretive on that front since Alalshikh announced SELA as the promoter and didn’t announce TKO, Dana White or Nick Khan.

– Announced for Raw tomorrow night are MITB qualifiers with CM Punk vs. AJ Styles vs. Grande Americano and Stephanie Vaquer vs. Liv Morgan vs. Ivy Nile.

– Matches announced for Fyter Fest, a four-hour AEW special on TNT, on Wednesday at 8 p.m. are Kenny Omega vs. Mascara Dorada vs. Claudio Castagnoli vs. Brody King for the International title, Jon Moxley vs. Mark Briscoe non-title, Toni Storm & Mina Shirakawa vs. Julia Hart & Skye Blue, FTR vs. Atlantis Jr. & Templario, Rush & Dralistico & Mortos vs. Mike Bailey & Kevin Knight & Komander plus Thekla will have her in-ring debut and The Hurt Business with MJF appear.

– The movie “The Pickup,” starring Eddie Murphy and with Roman Reigns having a role will be released on Prime Video on 8/6.

– AAA obviously went through with plans and El Hijo del Vikingo beat Alberto El Patron to win the AAA Mega title. WWE advertised this coming Saturday’s Vikingo vs. Chad Gable match as being for the title even before Vikingo won the title. Vikingo’s father, who Alberto attacked on a television show a few days earlier, interfered and hit Alberto with a guitar shot to set  up the win.

– Carlito beat longtime rival Ray Gonzalez last night in Bayamon,PR, to win the Puerto Rican title for the WWC promotion.

– Bear Bronson joins Mariah May and Abadon as those who were announced as being finished with AEW, but those decisions were all months ago and none have been used since May had her blow-off match at Revolution on March 1 with Toni Storm.

– In the English language TV show category, this was where Friday’s SmackDown placed on the day of airing in various countries:

4.  Australia

3.  India

4. New Zealand

2. Saudi Arabia

2. U.K.

3. Canada

1. Mexico

– For Google trends, R-Truth was at 100,000 as last checking and last night’s UFC show was at 57.000

– Jun Saito retained the All Japan Triple Crown beating brother Rei Saito in Sendai, where both grew up. They played this up as a big deal, including having someone sing the Japanese national anthem and a video package of them growing up, playing high school football in the U.S., and during their sumo days.

– Pro Wrestling Revolver announced that Myron Reed took a nasty spill and was knocked out in a match last night. The match was stopped immediately. He was taken to the hospital where he has since been released and he did not have any serious injuries according to the doctor.

– United Wrestling Coalition on Saturday night in New Egypt, NJ at the American Legion at 7 p.m.