Daily Update: AEW-Stardom, Matt Morgan surgery, Jon Jones (2024)

Daily Update

Latest News

• Stardom talent not expected at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door
• Rush says he and his father have quit AAA
• Frankie Kazarian: ‘What I like about wrestling wasn’t happening in AEW’
• Thea Hail vs. Cora Jade signed for WWE NXT
• UFC 289 live results: Amanda Nunes vs. Irene Aldana title fight
• Amanda Nunes retires following UFC 289 title defense

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter:

• June 12, 2023 Observer Newsletter: The Iron Sheik passes away, Roman Reigns passes 1,000 days as WWE Universal Champion

In this issue:

• The life and times of the Iron Sheik and Khosrow Vaziri, and how the two men were the same person but altogether different.
• The short WWF title run
• The Sgt. Slaughter feud
• His two very different periods as a pop culture celebrity
• How the Iron Sheik name and gimmick came around
• Famous Iron Sheik shoot stories
• The first WWF run
• The hostage crisis changes his career
• Did you know Iron Sheik competed in the predecessor to the G-1 in 1982
• The feud with Angelo Mosca in Canada
• The last angle with Killer Karl Kox in Florida
• Growing up as an amateur wrestler in Iran
• Why he left Iran and wound up in Minnesota
• His U.S. amateur wrestling exploits
• His being trained by Verne Gagne and Billy Robinson and altercations that came up
• Why Gagne got so much heat when Sheik was injured
• The angle to set up Sheik’s WWF tile run
• Hulk Hogan comes to WWF
• Sheik’s biggest matches during his biggest singles run with Hogan and Slaughter
• His arrest in a feud with Jim Duggan
• His teaming with Slaughter
• His drug issues
• The death of his daughter and what he wanted to do to the man who killed her
• Longest reigning world champions in pro wrestling history
• Stories behind the longest title reigns
• Differences in how world champions were picked
• New Japan Dominion, as well as build to Forbidden Door and the G-1 Climax tournament
• Travel issues relating to getting the BCC into Japan for Dominion
• Dominion match-by-match coverage
• TripleMania news
• UFC Saturday coverage
• The most detailed look at the ratings for a huge week on television for pro wrestling
• Where Raw, Smackdown and Dynamite rated among everything on cable and network, both sports and entertainment
• Ratings breakdown, looking at competition for all the show
• Perhaps the oldest living wrestling promoter passes away
• Controversial angle in Stardom
• Superstar Graham funeral notes
• The career of Gary Albright
• Pro wrestling documentary gets an Emmy nomination
• The first-ever pro wrestling closed circuit show
• Ticket sales for the upcoming AEW & WWE shows
• International TV ratings and streaming numbers
• What notable thing happened in ratings internationally this past week
• Real WrestleMania attendance and gate figures for 2023 are released
• Biggest gates in AEW history
• Merch rankings
• Dana White talks Tyson Fury vs. Jon Jones
• MMA show draws 50,000 fans this past week
• Update on Peaco*ck
• Notes on the Raw on Twitch show
• Story behind Smackdown’s monster rating
• Trends for AEW and WWE ratings
• What Friday told us about television viewership of AEW and WWE

This Week’s Retro Observer Newsletter:

• April 24, 2006 Observer Newsletter: The state of U.S. wrestling, UFC 59 recap

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Sunday Update

– We’ve got two weekend shows up today. Garrett Gonzales and I talked Iron Sheik and the latest news on our weekly show. Bryan and I did a show last night talking UFC with Ryan Frederick followed by Smackdown, G1 and other notes.

– We’re looking for your thoughts on Friday’s All Together Again show, so you can leave a thumbs up, down or middle along with a best and worst match to dave@wrestlingobserver.com.

–A couple of notes off last night’s WOR:

• Pro wrestlers are exempt from needing visas to appear in Canada. Even though no Stardom talent has Canadian visas, that’s not apparently an issue with appearing at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2 although Stardom was of the belief it was, but have since found out that wasn’t the case. That said, all the Stardom key talent is booked on a PPV in Japan the same day as Forbidden Door. There have been no talks with AEW that had even reached management as of yesterday with regard to talent at Forbidden Door. Nobody is scheduled at this point and they are of the belief nobody will be scheduled this late in the game. At this point, only four or five wrestlers have U.S. visas and with what we have seen with so much of the Mexican and U.K. talent, it’s a time consuming process to get working visas these days.
• When I was talking about the AEW wrestler that Stardom wanted to have on the January 4th Tokyo Dome show that never happened, I was referring to Kris Statlander. The call was made long before the show and before Statlander’s injury.
• Also, because I had been gone all day due to my daughter performing in two shows out of town, I wasn’t aware that they changed the rules for NJPW G1 yesterday where it will bee the top two finishers in each block making the playoffs, which will involve eight of the 32 wrestlers on the last three shows. I thought it would be like last year where only the block winners make the playoffs. It opens up for more possibilities and allows for most of the really top guys to make the final eight.

– We have heard raves from a number of people regarding today’s Stardom match from Osaka with Queen’s Quest vs. Oedo Tai which was the main event from the show in an elimination match with Natsuko Tora & Momo Watanabe & Starlight Kid & Saki Kashima & Ruaka vs. Utami Hayashish*ta & Saya Kamitani & AZM & Lady C & Miyu Amasaki.

– NJPW has teased the idea of Hirooki Goto & Yoshi-Hashi vs. Gabriel Kidd & Alex Coughlin for two matches on 7/4 and 7/5. One will be for the IWGP tag titles and one will be for the New Japan Strong tag titles.

– I also want to thank people for their comments on the Iron Sheik bio in the current Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Also, we had a correction that should be soon updated in the story on the longest world title reigns in pro wrestling history.

.–Best wishes to former TNA star Matt Morgan who is undergoing back surgery tomorrow morning. He said he’s in the worst pain of his life right now and can’t take painkillers because he had addiction issues in his WWE career. He said an epidural and a nerve block injection didn’t help and his left foot has gotten more numb. He was told without surgery he would lose feeling in his left foot. He was first talked to about this surgery in 2010 but wanted to avoid it and was pain-free for years after his career ended in 2014.

– As far as Google trends for the week, Amanda Nunes’ retirement after retaining the UFC bantamweight title had 500,000 searches for No. 2 behind the death of the Unabomber on the U.S. Internet for yesterday. Conor McGregor was No. 5, Beneil Dariush was No. 10 and the Teofimo Lopez vs Josh Taylor boxing match was No. 12. 500,000 is very low for a UFC PPV but they’ve changed some of their methodology. Still, it’s not a good sign for PPV numbers but not as bad as it would have been a few months ago. The only other thing this past week to crack the top 20 in wrestling, boxing or MMA was the death of the Iron Sheik which was No. 4 on Wednesday at 200,000.

WWE

– Roman Reigns will work this Saturday’s Cincinatti WWE house show in a title defense against Rey Mysterio.

– This coming Sunday in Charleston, WV, they announced a special Father’s Day street fight with Rey Mysterio vs. Dominik Mysterio to go along with Seth Rollins vs. Miz for the World title, Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn vs. Viking Raiders for the tag titles, and Gunther vs. Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Matt Riddle for the IC title.

– On A&E tonight at 9 p.m., Most Wanted Treasures features Roddy Piper, Drew McIntyre, Mick Foley and Lita looking for Roddy Piper memorabilia and at 10 p.m. is Stone Cold Takes on America,.

– WWE applied for a trademark for the term Meta-Four, so that’s likely the name of a new group.

AEW

– The Adam Cole/MJF promo segment Wednesday was greatly taken from this Adam Cole/Karrion Kross segment on NXT television. It’s notable that Cole was in the role saying the same phrases about Kross that MJF said about Cole in the recent promo.(thanks to Mike Marquardt)

– The first day ticket sales for AEW Collision in Greenville SC, on 8/5 was 1,399. Aside from Chicago this Saturday that is strong, and Newark, NJ, which is okay, the advances for the show, even with it being on Saturdays, aren’t good.

– RJ City interviewed Skye Blue who said that when she was a kid, she got kicked out of church for setting somebody on fire.

UFC

– Jon Jones said on Saturday that he would be open to do a boxing match with Tyson Fury. I still don’t see this happening because even though it could make Jones a lot of money, I don’t know if UFC would allow its top champion to go into a fight he’s almost certain to lose.

– On Friday when Conor McGregor punched the Miami Heat mascot Burnie twice, apparently the blow after the fake knockout, on the ground, was too stuff and the man in the costume ended up in the emergency room that night. He’s okay now. Dana White was asked about it last night and reacted like why would a mascot ask McGregor or Deontay Wilder to hit them and blamed it on the mascot. The reality is in doing a skit, McGregor, even though not trained in working punches, should be able to throw a punch and not hurt a guy.

Other Wrestling

– A horse named Big Boss Man won at Evangelina Downs in Louisiana as a 12-1 underdog on Saturday.

– Area reporter and longtime reader David Taub talks about the night he managed the Iron Sheik.

– The Daily Mail ran a story about old-time UK wrestling and Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks. They ran with the Jackie Pallo vs. Mick McManus match in 1963 drawing 16 million viewers, but did say it was reputed. Stories from 1963 actually listed the number as 11 million, which is still exceptional. (thanks to James Stanios)

– Gable Steveson defeated Mason Parris 6-2 and 5-0 in straight bouts in the 275 pound weight class in freestyle last night at Final X at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ, to represent the U.S. in the world championships in September. Steveson teased the crowd after his second win, before doing a running backflip which is something for a guy of his size. Parris is also under a WWE deal as an NIL wrestler while Steveson is under a multi-year full-time contract. Steveson dominated both bouts but not as much as when he ran through Parris a few weeks ago in the national tournament. Another NIL signee, Cohlton Schultz, will represent the U.S. at 286 in Greco-roma wrestling, after beating Adam Coon 3-2 and 5-1.

–The heavily anticipated Kyle Snyder vs. J’den Cox best of three series at Final X for the 213 pound spot never happened. Cox made weight, but later was on crutches before the start of the event and he didn’t show up and forfeited his bouts to Snyder. Snyder will represent the U.S. at 213 in this year’s wold championships.