Daily Update: WWE-Big 12, Logan Paul, MxM Collection

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

  • Death and legacy of Sabu
  • Why WrestleMania was  moved, expected date change and how it went down
  • WWE Backlash coverage and what the Netflix number, or lack thereof, said about it.
  • Double or Nothing, Saturday Night’s Main Event, Battleground and Dean 2 looked at
  • UFC’s last two weeks of shows
  • The most detailed look at the ratings of all the wrestling shows, where they placed in weekly stands, time slot, competition, Netflix numbers and how close is Dynamite really to Raw
  • Updates in different court cases involving Vince McMahon, including what things Vince is trying to keep private and what argument are his lawyers using to get the Janel Grant case out of court.
  • AEW wrestlers at Arena Mexico in June with two shows including some very big matches
  • Notes on the last two weeks of Arena Mexico activity
  • Update on TripleMania Regia and those who were to be there and aren’t and who is
  • Who is the hottest new star in AAA
  • Champion Carnival finals
  • Ninja Mack becomes viral star
  • Best of the Super Juniors tournament
  • Woman wrestling legend retires
  • Kyle Snyder’s arrest, what happened, where he stands right now
  • New signees to RAF including Chael Sonnen as announcer
  • Sonnen issues apology
  • Pro wrestling legend announces independent show for his last match in a 20,000 seat arena
  • LA Park’s latest controversy
  • Maple Leaf Wrestling thoughts
  • TNA has a number of big shows
  • Jim Ross notes
  • Darby Allin’s climb
  • Collision technical issue
  • AEW doing more residencies
  • AEW and International television
  • Will Ospreay on AEW vs. WWE
  • Advance ticket sales for AEW, WWE and TNA events upcoming
  • UFC wins multiple awards
  • Lots of new major UFC fights
  • Boxing legend done with MMA
  • PFL tournament shows upcoming
  • Holly Holm signs with Jake Pail
  • What is going on with Nick Khan & Dana White’s boxing deal with Turki Alalshikh
  • WWE in Mexico
  • WWE injury and roster updates
  • New WWE signings

Thursday Update

WWE

  • College football writer Chris Vannini reports that WWE is expanding its already existing partnership with the Big 12 conference:
    • Sources: The Big 12 and WWE are expanding their partnership this fall. WWE will hold several episodes of Friday Night SmackDown in Big 12 markets, the night before football games. 
    • Includes a Week 0 show in Ireland before KSU/ISU and an Orlando show before UCF/UNC.
  • In footage for his vlog that was filmed before facing Jey Uso at Saturday Night’s Main Event last weekend, Logan Paul cut a promo addressing other members of the roster being unhappy that he gets opportunities like challenging Uso for the World Heavyweight Championship:
    • It’s my understanding that some of my peers are not happy that I get these shots so quickly in my career. Let me break it down for you. In your simple brains, you think I’m here because I go viral. You see the numbers, and you think that’s why I’m here.
    • No. The reason that I’m here, the reason that I’m given these opportunities so early in my career, is A) because I’m fantastic, but B) because I’ve been getting those impressions for a decade now.
    • And with those impressions comes an audience, a fan base, eyeballs. That’s why I’m here. ‘Cause people watch what I do. They care what I do. Whether they’re on my team, they want me to win, whether they’re waiting for me to fail, doesn’t matter, they’re watching.
    • And that’s the currency: attention. And so my question would be, for the people who have a problem with my position in the WWE: who’s watching you?
  • Karrion Kross posted his own promo responding to Paul.
  • WWE broadcast team member Cathy Kelley has booked her first movie role in an action comedy titled “Karate Ghost.” Here is how the movie is described:
    • Set in a town ruled by absurd karate law, the film watches as a lonely teen forms an unlikely bond with the ghost of his late father’s favorite action hero. What begins as a haunted mentorship quickly escalates into a fight for identity, legacy, and redemption. [Tim] Rozon leads the cast as Johnny Maim, a washed-up ’90s action star who died tragically mid-stunt now trapped in the afterlife and hungry for one last shot at glory, with [Colton] Gobbo playing grieving 15-year-old Bobby Brody.
  • Goldberg’s son Gage has gotten the same tribal tattoo on his shoulder that his father has.
  • Trick Williams and Lash Legend bought a home together this week.
  • Dublin Live interviewed Lyra Valkyria.
  • WWE LFG contestant Leigh Laurel is now part of the Evolve roster and is going by the name Jin Tala. She’ll face Carlee Bright on next week’s episode.

Other Wrestling

  • Salman Hashimokov, an amateur wrestling champion and former IWGP Heavyweight Champion for NJPW, has passed away. He was the fifth-ever wrestler to hold the IWGP title, winning it from Big Van Vader in 1989 before dropping it to Riki Choshu. Hashimokov also competed at Starrcade 1990 in the Pat O’Connor International Tag Team Tournament.
  • AEW/ROH tag team MxM Collection (Mason Madden & Mansoor) will make their DDT Pro Wrestling debut at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo on Sunday, June 29. They’re facing Kazuki Hirata & Danshoku Dino at the show.
  • “Speedball” Mike Bailey uploaded a new vlog from Double or Nothing weekend.
  • Author Keith Greenberg is the guest on AEW Unrestricted this week, discussing his upcoming book “This Book Is All Elite: The Inside Story of All Elite Wrestling.”
  • Deonna Purrazzo will return to House of Glory in Queens, New York on Saturday, June 7 for a match against Karissa Rivera (formerly Elektra Lopez in WWE).
  • Purrazzo and her husband Steve Maclin spoke to Sports Illustrated about the Tower Climb fundraiser they’ll be participating in for Tunnel to Towers this weekend.
  • Paul London will face CMLL wrestler Neon in a lightning match on the TV taping portion of MLW’s Summer of the Beasts event in Queens on Thursday, June 26.