Daily Update: Mark Coleman, Afa Anoa'i, WWE Raw

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• WWE SmackDown viewership and 18-49 demo rating down
• WWE Raw live results: Last Woman Standing match
• Oba Femi, Tony D'Angelo segments set for WWE NXT
• AJ Styles: This isn’t the same WWE that Vince McMahon was in charge of
• Report: Raquel Rodriguez listed as out of action on WWE internal roster

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• Wrestling Observer Live: WrestleMania main event predictions, the ROCK, Smackdown and Collision notes
• Wrestling Observer Radio: Smackdown and Collision, the Rock, New Japan Cup, tons more
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F4W/WON Convention

This Week's Wrestling Observer Newsletter

• March 18, 2024 Observer Newsletter: More Janel Grant/WWE lawsuit developments, Mercedes Mone debuts for AEW

Highlights of the new issue:

• Going into detail with the name revelations in the Front Office Sports story by John Pollock, Brandon Thurston and Tim Marchman, more on the lawsuit, what it means in context, more notes not in the suit, Brock Lesnar update and the claims explained.
• The heroic Mark Coleman story from the past week, as well as a look at his wrestling, MMA and pro wrestling careers.
• The Mercedes Mone debut in AEW, what happened, ratings, live gate, money involved, and even a WWE comment
• WrestleMania update, business notes, secondary market demand
• Full coverage of UFC 299, business, what's next for the fighters, how much of a superstar has Sean O'Malley become and what is next for him
• Notes on SummerSlam coming to Cleveland
• A study of WWE & AEW PPV buyers and how frequently each group has bought shows over the past year
• The death of Yutaka Yoshie
• A detailed look at Paul Levesque's first Hall of Fame class and their respective backgrounds including multiple Muhammad Ali appearances in pro wrestling detailed, as well as the politics of the Hall of Fame, Vince McMahon, people not in and everyone going in this year
• Joanna Jedrzejczyk enters UFC Hall of Fame
• Major story on the 16 Carat Gold tournament
• The most detailed look at the ratings from the past week, including demos, competition, placing for the night, time slot and week
• The first-ever all women's show at Arena Mexico and how it did
• MLW title defended at Arena Mexico
• Stardom PPV coverage
• All Japan Champion Carnival notes
• NOAH heads to the U.K.
• NOAH tag team tournament ends and notes
• Update on New Japan Cup
• What to look for in the NCAA wrestling tournament in two weeks
• Former WWE wrestlers wedding notes
• Lots of TNA business news and build to the next PPV
• Will Ospreay talks why he chose AEW
• Tag team tournament notes
• Update on AEW Revolution, WWE Elimination Chamber, TNA Hard to Kill and Francis Ngannou vs. Anthony Joshua PPV numbers as well as PFL vs Bellator
• Kenny Omega talks surprise match that was being set up for him
• Advance ticket sales for upcoming WWE & AEW shows
• Takeshita talks Ospreay match
• International TV ratings and top streaming numbers
• Vince McMahon finances update

This Week's Retro Observer Newsletter

• November 27, 2006 Observer Newsletter: Kurt Angle, UFC 65

Monday Update

Bryan and I will be back tonight talking Raw and all the latest news.

Mark Coleman was out of the hospital and in the gym today. Also, on Google trends for the week, the only thing from MMA, boxing or pro wrestling to crack the top 20 was Coleman at No. 9 on Tuesday with 50,000. The UFC show on Saturday, The Rock on Friday and Mercedes Mone during the week did not crack the top 20.

Afa , 81, is currently hospitalized after falling down and breaking his back in two places. Afa is the uncle of Roman Reigns and granduncle of The Usos & Solo Sikoa and Jacob Fatu.

Raw tonight is from Raleigh, NC. Matches announced are Becky Lynch vs. Nia Jax in a last woman standing match, plus Miz & R-Truth vs. Veer & Sanga, The Creeds vs. Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa and New Day vs. Otis & Tozawa with the winners of those three matches going into the WrestleMania six-way tag team title ladder match. They had 12,400 tickets out earlier today so this should be another sellout.

Smackdown did 2.34 million viewers on Friday and an 0.68 in 18-49. It will be among the highest rated network shows of the week but won't be No. 1. Rampage did 327,000 viewers and 0.11 on Friday.

AAA announced the first TripleMania will be 4/27 at the baseball stadium in Monterrey. Alberto el Patron will face Nic Nemeth for the vacant Mega title that El Hijo del Vikingo vacated due to injury in the main event. 

Dark Side of the Ring tomorrow night will be covering Terry Gordy. Gordy was one of the bigger stars as a teenager in decades and remained one of the top performers in the game until a drug overdose on a flight to Japan. Gordy was a member of the Fabulous Freebirds and later the Miracle Violence Combination that was the top foreign tag team during a boom period in All Japan with Steve Williams.

Ronda Rousey is doing a book signing tour for her newest autobiography:

• 4/2 at Barnes & Noble in New York at 5 p.m.
• 4/3 in Plainview, MA at An Unlikely Story at 7 p.m.
• 4/4 in Middletown,CT and R.J. Julia Booksellers at 5 p.m.
• 4/6 in Philadelphia at Wrestlecon from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
• 4/7 in Columbus, OH at Thurber House at 6:30 p.m.
• 4/8 in Minneapolis,MN at Magers and Quinn Bookstore at 7 p.m.
• 4/11 in West Hollywood, CA at Book Soup at 6 p.m.
• 4/12 in Las Vegas at Barnes & Noble at 6 pm.
• 4/19 in La Jolla, CA at Warwick's Bookstore at 6 p.m.

Negro Casas will be receiving the 2024 Lucha Libre Award from the Cauliflower Alley Club. The convention will be 8/19 to 8/21 in Las Vegas.

The Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, KS, has said that it is going to picket the Raw taping on 4/29 in Kansas City. 

Marshall Zelaznik, whose background includes being head of PPV for inDemand and later helping build the UFC brand outside the U.S., was announced as the new CEO of Glory kickboxing. He was CEO there previously from 2018 and 2020.

Rick Martel turned 68 today.

The NCAA wrestling tournament starts Thursday in Kansas City. The current issue has the times of each session and where it's broadcast. The prime time sessions Thursday, Friday and Saturday will air on ESPN. Saturday night, with no Collision due to the basketball tournament on TNT, will have the wrestling tournament championship matches at 7 p.m. followed by UFC at 10 p.m.

Glory Pro Wrestling ran Saturday and Sunday night at the South Broadway Athletic Club in St. Louis. Friday had Mansoor & Mason Madden , who were Maximum Male Models in WWE. Sunday had Warhorse over Danhausen in the main event. (thanks to Patrick Brandmeyer)

Combate Global on 5/11 on Univision and Fuse from Miami is headlined by Lucero Acosta (5-2) vs. Alejandra Lara (9-7). Fuse is the new English language home of Combate.

Bellator has its first show under new ownership on Friday from Belfast, Northern Ireland. At this point no television has been announced for the show, although Ariel Helwani reported something should be announced tomorrow or Wednesday. I mean, one would think if there's a deal they probably should be announcing it by now.

The Memphis Grizzlies basketball team gave Jerry Lawler a lifetime achievement award on Saturday night's home game. Dave Brown was there for the ceremony. Jeff Jarrett and Satnam Singh came out to take the award away which set up the Grizzlies mascot getting the award back from Singh.

Mascara Dorada & Rocky Romero won Friday's Parejas Increibles tournament at Arena Mexico and will team up in the finals on the El Homenaje a Dos Leyendas show on 3/29 which is the show AEW's BCC will be headlining and is already sold out.

RevPro announced Mark Andrews & Flash Morgan Webster vs. Grizzled Young Veterans for the tag titles on 3/31 at York Hall in London.

Petr Yan looks to be out the rest of the year due to a ruptured ACL and other injuries from his fight with Song Yadong that he won on 3/9 in Miami at UFC 299. He will be undergoing surgery tomorrow.

The book "Keirn Chronicles 2" after the very good Keirn Chronicles book that Steve Keirn did with Ian Douglass, will be released in the upcoming months.