Daily Update: Mariah May, Alberto El Patron, Phil Davis

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Friday Update

– Garrett Gonzales and I will be doing our week in review and business show today and if you have questions for the show you can send them to @Roheblius on Twitter. Bryan and I will be back with our weekend in review on Sunday night. We did an extra show up on the site yesterday.

– The new issue of the Observer is up on the site right now:

  • Full coverage of Double or Nothing including length of the show and why, the main event finish and who knew, the long-term booking, how things can be adjusted time wise, PPV early estimates, going head-to-head with WWE and the current WWE strategy and is it working or will it backfire, and what was unique in business regarding interest levels for this show, and match by match coverage.
  • What did readers think of Double or Nothing and Battleground.
  • John Laurinaitis joins with Janel Grant in the lawsuit against Vince McMahon and WWE. We look at the strategy, why the timing doesn’t make sense on the surface and what it shows about the belief of where the case is going, as well as Laurinaitis credibility as a witness, his past, and an amazing timeline look where the dots have never been connected before.
  • Saturday Night’s Main Event, the long-term of John Cena as champion, Cena’s last match, what match did the highest number, injury notes, Jesse Ventura and more.
  • WWE spoils a world title change in Mexico, the WWE strategy in Mexico, Alberto shoots a major angle, Worlds Collide matches and how business looks and more.
  • Salman Hashimikov, the unlikely IWGP champion, and the story of one of the best heavyweight amateur wrestlers in the world who had a short pro wrestling career, but a lot of major main event matches with legends.
  • Full coverage of NXT Battleground
  • The sad plight of BJ Penn
  • Best of the Super Juniors
  • The most detailed look at the ratings for all the shows of the past week, with demos, segments, how the shows are holding up, Netflix numbers and more
  • More on AEW talent at Arena Mexico
  • The Copa Juniors Cibernetico in Arena Mexico
  • MLW title matches at Arena Mexico
  • Nanae Takahashi retires
  • Lawsuit against Billy Jack Haynes by family of his murdered wife
  • The sad story of Shannon Spruill/Daffney
  • Unique independent matches
  • A crazy angle gets two police officers legitimately suspended
  • The Jim Ross Award
  • Why things changed at AEW PPV as far as distribution
  • Why Josh Alexander signed with AEW
  • Keith Lee update
  • Ticket sales for upcoming AEW, WWE and TNA shows
  • Another lawsuit filed against TKO
  • Cain Velasquez talks Dana White’s help
  • More on future WrestleManias
  • Update on UFC & WWE rights negotiations that will happen later this year
  • WWE main roster call-ups expected and where
  • Comparing the Raw ratings from January to last week while taking sleight of hand manipulations out
  • WWE stars in TV shows

– A few comments regarding Mariah May. Her dream was always WWE, as was noted to us years ago when she was in Stardom. That’s why I was surprised she signed with AEW in the first place. It was a smart strategy on her part. If she had gone to WWE, she very well could have still been in developmental. Instead, she made a lot more money and got a chance to make herself into a legit major star, so she goes into WWE as, I don’t want to see a proven commodity because sometimes WWE dismisses outside work, but she does go in as a star and no doubt gets her dream of being in WWE and with a far higher profile, undoubtedly with more opportunity and obviously for far more money. It’s very clear doing the blow-off of the feud with Toni Storm early and never using her again was because they were aware she was leaving. To her credit, in her last match, she and Storm put on what could easily be called a legendary women’s match. It’s the same situation with Stephanie Vaquer, where she would have made more money elsewhere, in Vaquer’s case a lot more, but their dream was WWE. WWE counts on that, as the same reason they got May and Vaquer is also the same reason they didn’t get Will Ospreay and Kazuchika Okada, because of the belief they would value a WrestleMania moment above a larger paycheck or a bigger push.

– SmackDown is tonight in Knoxville, TN, the home of mayor Glenn Jacobs with both John Cena and Cody Rhodes appearing. Bianca Belair also returns tonight. Two Money in the Bank qualifiers announced are Jacob Fatu vs. Andrade vs. Carmelo Hayes and Jake Cargill vs. Nia Jax vs. Naomi. The last Wrestletix report was 13,287 tickets out. It’s a larger building than most that WWE run as a TV taping real sellout would be closer to 16,300.

– We didn’t get the Tuesday ratings until today, but the NXT rating was 650,000 viewers with an 0.14 in 18-49 and 0.08 in 18-34. It was last among the networks but barely behind Fox in 18-49. They had very tough sports competition as the New York Knicks vs. Indiana Pacers game did 6.71 million viewers between TNT and TruTV and a 2.06 in 18-49, while the Dallas vs. Edmonton NHL game did 1.52 million and 0.43. It was much tougher competition than AEW had Wednesday night.

– Collision tomorrow night should open very strong. Tomorrow night’s Knicks vs. Pacers game will be followed by the final episode of Inside the NBA. AEW will start at around 11:30 p.m. Eastern and 8:30 p.m. Pacific. Given that time, the first 30 minutes should have a big audience but Mascara Dorada vs. Hechicero at 1:15 a.m., well, that’s going to be tough.

– Former UFC star Phil Davis has filed a class action antitrust lawsuit against UFC and TKO claiming that their attempt to monopolize the industry and keeping down other promotions has damaged the earnings potential of top stars not in the UFC. John Nash first reported this. They also claim that it damages the earnings potential by not allowing fighters from other groups to face the biggest stars and challenge for the most prestigious championships. This is actually a very interesting case. He’s filing as a class action suit with the class being the top fighters not in UFC. They are not seeking damages but asking for all UFC fighters to have one year sunset provisions to allow the openings of other companies and an ability to bid on the top UFC fighters each year. This is the second suit filed this week against UFC and TKO, the first being former fighter Misha Cirkunov who sued to invalidate the clause in UFC contracts from 2017 to the present that ban suing over financial issues and that financial issues have to be settled in arbitration.

– For those who thought the Alberto TV Azteca angle was legit, he was on another television show on the same network that night. He got a lot of publicity out of this. While it is common knowledge in Mexico that he’s losing his title tomorrow night to El Hijo del Vikingo, in none of his media interviews have they brought up that obvious question. So it appears they had to agree to that. WWE could call an audible, as Bill Watts and Eddie Graham would have, but I’d be surprised here.

– It is official that the NXT Great American Bash show on 7/12 in Atlanta, GA, will start at 3 p.m. Eastern time. That is the exact same start time as AEW’s All In.

– UFC tomorrow will air at 6:30 p.m. on ESPN+ and then ESPN joins in at 9 p.m. Eastern.

  • Rayanne dos Santos (116) vs. Alice Ardelean (115.5)
  • Bolaji Oki (155.5) vs. Michale Aswell (155)
  • Kurt Holobaugh (156) vs. Jordan Leavitt (155.5)
  • Jafel Filho (126) vs. Allan Nascimento (127.5) – Nasicmento missed weight by 1.5 pounds and will forfeit 20 percent of his purse
  • Zachary Reese (185) vs. Dusko Todorovic (186)
  • Ketlen Vieira (146) vs. Macy Chiasson (144) – This was scheduled at 135 but Vieira informed UFC and Chiasson that she couldn’t make weight so they agreed for it to be at 145. Vieira was fined 25 percent of her purse.
  • Dustin Jacoby (205) vs. Bruno Lopes (206)
  • Billy Ray Goff (170) vs. Ramiz Brahimaj (171)
  • Mateusz Gamrot (156) vs. Ludovit Klein (156)
  • Maycee Barber (126.5) vs. Erin Blanchfield (125) – Barber missed weight by 0.5 pounds and will forfeit 20 percent of her purse

A Trevin Giles vs. Andreas Gustafsson match was canceled due to an injury to Giles.

– Arena Mexico tonight is the finals of Copa Juniors with Mascara Dorada vs. Zandokan Jr. The hot trios match is Mistico & Atlantis Jr. & Neon vs. Difunto & Volador Jr. & Barbaro Cavernario. They’re on a big streak as far as Friday night attendance so this should do well again.

– Tito Santana is being inducted into the Albany, NY, International Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame. The induction will be on 10/2. He joins Trish Stratus, Rocky Johnson and Tony Atlas as inductees on that date.

– What is currently listed as El Hijo del Santo’s last match in Mexico is 6/20 in Tijuana. It’s only billed as his last match in Tijuana and it’s on the Crash show. He has said he wanted to do more in other cities so we shall see. He will be working in London and I’m surprised he didn’t do a farewell in California. Santo will team with El Hijo de Rey Misterio (the legit son of Miguel Lopez) & Santo Jr. against Dr. Wagner Jr. & He Hijo del Fishman & D-Luxe.

– Kirk White’s Big Time Wrestling on 6/6 in Newark, CA at the Pavilion is headlined by Aaron Solo vs. LJ Cleary. It also has QT Marshall vs. Bad Dude Tito and Alpha Z vs. Alan Angels. Cleary is the guy who was on Backlash and is the fiance of Lyra Valkyria.

– Maple Leaf Wrestling announced they will be doing a free show on 6/14 at the St. Clair College SportsPlex in Windsor, ONT at 2 p.m. Announced are Rhino, Gisele Shaw and Kylie Rae.

– Stephen Wonderboy Thompson faces Gabriel Bonfim for UFC on its 7/12 show in Nashville on ESPN.

– Memphis Wrestling TV tomorrow features Scorpio Sky.

– Kanji vs. Nina Samuels in a loser leaves town match for Progress is on its 7/27 show at the Electric Ballroom in London.

– Jeff Jarrett will be wrestling in Melville, NY tomorrow night at the Create a Pro Wrestling card at All Sportz Melville. Also on the show is Rich Swann, Luke Gallows, Brian Myers, Eddie Edwards, Bear Bronson and Alisha Edwards.

– Crusherfest takes place tomorrow in South Milwaukee, WI. Jimmy Hart has pulled out of the show. Tommy Dreamer will wrestle in the Saturday night main event. Chris Jericho’s band will be performing there tomorrow as well. The event honors the memory of The Crusher, the biggest pro wrestling star out of Milwaukee.