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This week's Wrestling Observer newsletterR
This week's previous edition of the Wrestling Observer newsletter
Sunday update
- Bryan and I did the Survivor Series weekend show last night. Garrett Gonzales and I were there on Friday for a show where we talked about the weekly recap, the Continental Classic, a breakdown of AEW's finances and exactly where the deal would end up in a worst-case scenario.
- As mentioned elsewhere, Jimmy Uso suffered a broken toe while jumping off the top of the cage at War Games last night, and Bronson Reed also suffered an ankle injury while jumping off the top of the cage last night. Paul Levesque said it looked like Reed would be out for several weeks.
- The show drove 200,000 Google searches, which is exactly in line with expectations for a show like this.
- Just to confirm something from another show I did: Saturday Night's Main Event on 12/14. is a two-hour show from 8 to 10 p.m. Eastern Time. I expect they will see many of the important matches announced on Raw tomorrow.
- We're looking for your thoughts on Survivor Series so you can leave dave@wrestlingobserver.com a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with the best and worst match
- The BBC the story of Conor McGregor with more on how badly his reputation in Ireland was damaged by the guilty verdict in the Nikita Hand civil case.
- Shota Umino suffered an ankle injury on Friday and missed today's show, but was at least listed yesterday for tomorrow's show in Kochi, where he and Tomoaki Honma were scheduled to face KENTA and Chase Owens in a tag team tournament match. He did a running back elbow that caused him to fall to his knees on impact and his foot caught in the tarp and twisted.
- IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Douki has challenged Titan, Soberano Jr. and Sammy Guevara for the 1/5 show at Tokyo Dome.
- Please note that ROH Final Battle will take place at the Hammerstein Ballroom on December 20th. takes place. Last week we had December 19th. mentioned as date.
- As far as the best matches of the weekend go, I didn't see Jordynne Grace vs. Masha Slamovich from Friday's TNA show, but I did see Josh Alexander vs. Steve Maclin. The fight was great, but the silence of the crowd hurt. It really feels like this has been the case with actual WWE and AEW matches lately as well. I've talked about the Rampage matches with Mascara Dorada & Atlantis Jr. & Katsuyori Shibata vs. Top Flight & Action Andretti and Komander vs. Hechicero, which had great wrestling, but the crowd is now less into great action from Not -Stars”, very similar to WWE and it was. The WCW/NWA audience and even the AEW audience from two years ago, when two guys who aren't stars would put on a great match and the crowd would root hard for the action, is much smaller now. Both Rampage matches did reach the audience in the end, but it took a long time for them to do so.
- The must-see game of the weekend was Mistico's Leyenda de Plata tournament win over Hechicero. Far less flying than a normal Arena Mexico game and a Mistico game. It was a technical match that operated like a face-v-face world title fight in the '70s or '80s and theoretically posed a risk to a casual tourist audience. The tourist crowd comes for the more entertaining stuff that the rest of the show offered, but the main event was still by far the most heated, even with only a few flights and such a long technical match. But it worked, to say the least, in at least three places where the excitement was so great that the building literally shook.
- Some notes on AEW ratings. The Wednesday Dynamite number should be released tomorrow. It should be noted that airing “West Coast” at 5:00 p.m. instead of 8:00 p.m. would represent a decrease of approximately seven percent from normal. Apparently Saturday performances outside of the normal afternoon time slot will be well below usual. Saturday will also hurt because we've heard (and experienced) that Direc V won't record Collision on DVR if you have a season pass. It recorded Rampage. I have no idea why. I don't know if this was the case with every house, but we heard from several people and I checked because DirecTV makes a mistake every few weeks with Collision so I always check and it couldn't be resumed. Since Rampage is a Lucha show with Hechicero vs. Komander as the main event (great match but no star power) and a direct comparison to Survivor Series, it's expected to be the lowest number that a regular AEW wrestling show has ever achieved.
- Karl Stern of this website has written a 692-page encyclopedia on pro wrestling in the United States from 1835 to 1900 entitled “DragonKingKarl's Pioneer Era Pro Wrestling Omnibus: The Bible Of the Pioneer Era of Pro Wrestling.” It covers every major game of the era, talks about real and working games, and explores myths about the era's biggest stars. For more information, visit WhenItWasCool.com. We'll be doing a show about that era soon.
- Shinsuke Nakamura's US title win was given a big push in NOAH as Nakamura will be featured against Ulka Sasaki on the NOAH 1/1 show at Budokan Hall. The main event is Kaito Kiyomiya's defense of the GHC title against Ozawa.
- After tonight's show, Gedo booked a B block in the NJPW tag tournament as:
- Great O'Khan & Henare (Tag Champs) 4-1
- Evil & Ren Narita 4-1
- Toru Yano & Oleg Boltin 3-2
- Tetsuya Naito & Hiromu Takahashi 3-2
- Mikey Nicholls & Shane Haste 2-3
- Hiroshi Tanahashi & Jado 2-3
- Tome & Stevie Filip 1-4
- Taichi & Taka Michinoku 1-4
- The Stardom Tag Tournament has concluded round-robin play. The playoffs start on December 7th. in Hamamatsu. This show pits Maika & Hanako against Natsuko Tora & Ruaka, with the winners facing Hazuki & Koguma. Also on the other side of the tournament, Starlight Kid and Suzu Suzuki will face Hanan and Saya Iida, while the winners will face Natsupoi and Saori Anou. The winners of the two semi-finals meet in the final.
- All WWE Network subscribers in Japan have been informed that the WWE Network will be discontinued in that market at the end of the year. (Thanks to Jose Gonzalez and Mori Ono)
- Gran Hamada's family is looking for blood donors, especially in the San Luis Potosi area.
- Juggalo Championship Wrestling Spanksgiving last night in Wyandotte, MI in front of a sold out crowd of 225 fans: The Wrath b Bryer Wellington, Brothers of Funstruction b Young Altar Boys, Colt Cabana b Cocaine, Dani Mo b Alice Crowley in a women's title match, Kongo Konig & 7 Foot Tall, Painful Paul from Tarzan and JJ Allen, Misfit (Matt Cross) from Roddy S, Backseat Boyz from Grim Reality All in one Tag team title match was won by Caleb Konley in three ways against Moshpit Mike and Alex Taylor & Kerry Morton & Silas Mason against Willie Mack & Matt Cross & Mickie Knuckles. The dates take place on December 4th. in Little Rock, AR on December 5th. in St. Louis, on February 19th. in Detroit at the Majestic and on December 21st. in Columbus, OH.
- Kurt Angle will be on January 25th. a House of Glory seminar and Q&A session at the NYC Arena at 91-12 144th Place in Jamaica, NY 11435. For more information you can send an email to contact@hogwrestling.net
- Lane Boyle, also known as longtime Wisconsin indy wrestler Jack Spade, lost his home in a fire and a was started for him.
- The NWA announced December 14th. in Dothan AL a cage match with Natalia Markova against Tiffany Nieves, Colby Corino against Kerry Morton, Silas Mason against Bryan Idol and a second cage match for an unannounced NWA title.
