Daily Update: Tony Khan, AEW Double or Nothing, MJF

This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

• May 27, 2024 Observer Newsletter: AEW celebrates five years, El Hijo del Santo retiring, weekend preview

The new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter is up on the site today:

• A feature on the first five years of AEW and its future.  
• A look at both the successes and as well as things not as successful
• A look at the past, present and future
• Why this year will be the telling point for the success of the company or not
• What was guaranteed when AEW started
• AEW’s business and the perceptions
• Looking at the value of the promotion
• History of wrestling wars and how they went down
• How AEW can take financial advantage of WWE’s move to Netflix
• The decline of the 18-34 male audience
• A look in depth at the last several weeks of AEW, NBA, NHL and cable in general
• WWE expands SummerSlam to two dates
• El Hijo del Santo talks retirement plans
• Looking at King & Queen of the Ring and Double or Nothing and challenges for both companies coming off the previous big shows
• A look at the debut of Marigold, already the No. 2 women’s promotion in the world, what hit and what didn’t hit
• The life and times of John “Bad Bones” Klinger, a European independent star who passed away this past week
• The most detailed look at the weekly television ratings, comparisons with other shows, age breakdowns, weekly placings and more
• Fantastica Mania in the U.S., U.K. and Mexico notes
• Stardom PPV coverage
• NOAH has the match of the week
• Why New Japan changed the Dominion main event
• All Together Now coverage
• Best of the Super Juniors coverage’
• Rematch of a match last year that got worldwide mainstream publicity
• Updated WWE, AEW, TNA  and boxing PPV notes including how many wrestling fans buy boxing PPVs
• A look at what going live vs. tape means as far as wrestling ratings
• One of the NFL’s all-time greats who was nearly became a German heel wrestler
• Funeral of Tony Jones
• Lots of notes on the final nail in the coffin of WCW and the questions still not fully answered
• Lots of injury updates
• WBD business and AEW negotiations
• Advanced ticket sales for upcoming AEW & WWE shows
• International TV ratings and streaming numbers
• Lots more on payouts for UFC fighters after lawsuit settlement
• PFL fires one of its best-known fighters for speaking out
• Mark Shapiro talks the future of WWE & UFC business
• Injury rates in WWE and AEW
• SummerSlam and All In advances
• Notes on NXT Battleground
• Top WWE star sues famous boxing star

This week’s Wresting Observer Newsletter back issue

• January 22, 2007 Observer Newsletter: 2006 Observer Awards issue

Sunday Update

• Jim Valley and I did a show last night talking about King & Queen of the Ring, as well as sportswashing in Saudi Arabia and the new normal, AEW rating, previewed tonight’s show and some history. Garrett and I will be doing our weekly show tonight covering Las Vegas, Double or Nothing and the latest business moves. Bryan and I will be back tomorrow night covering the weekend and Raw.
• Tony Khan talked to Sports illustrated this past week. Justin Barrasso wrote that there are strong indications that they will sign a new deal with WBD before the window of exclusive negotiations ends (which is not long from now). Khan was quoted as saying:
• It’s a really exciting time for AEW,” said Khan. “We’re in active negotiations for the AEW media rights. Warner Bros. Discovery continues to be the best possible partner, and they’ve helped us grow this brand. It’s going to be a very exciting remainder to this year, and we’ll find out where AEW is going to live. For everyone who cares about AEW all over the world, we’re in a great position. This is going to work out really well for AEW. We’re having great talks, and people should feel very confident about what that means for the wrestlers, the staff, and the fans. As a result of everyone’s hard work and endless support from the fans, there will be a tremendous deal for AEW. The outlook for the company is so bright moving forward.”
• Double or Nothing starts at 7 pm.. Eastern from Las Vegas with 12 announced matches and a planned nearly five hour show.  It’s very different from the WWE presentation of six matches in three hours:
• Pre show:
• Deonna Purrazzo vs. Thunder Rosa
• Billy Gunn & The Acclaimed vs. Brian Cage & Toa Leona & Bishop Kuan
• Main show at 8 p.m.
• Trent Baretta vs. Orange Cassidy
• Jay White & Gunn Brothers vs. Penta & Fenix & Pac for the AEW & ROH trios titles
• Chris Jericho vs. Hook vs. Katsuyori Shibata for the FTW title
• Jon Moxley vs. Konosuke Takeshita non-title
• Adam Copeland vs. Malakai Black in a barbed wire match, there were hints that if Black wins that Copeland joins the group
• Roderick Strong vs. Will Osperay for the International title
• Toni Storm vs. Serena Deeb for the AEW women’s title
• Willow Nightingale vs. Mercedes Mone for the TBS title
• Swerve Strickland vs. Christian Cage for the AEW title
• Anarchy in the Arena:  FTR & Bryan  Danielson & Darby Allin vs. Young Bucks & Kazuchika Okada & Jack Perry
• We talked a lot about the show on last night’s Wrestling Observer Radio. To me the most important match is Nightingale vs. Mone, because ultimately a lot of perceptions about where Mone is and her value will be made after this match. Almost every AEW PPV show is filled with great matches and on paper this should be no different. There were just under 9,000 tickets out as of this morning.  
• PWInsider reported MJF was on a flight from New York to Phoenix (not Las Vegas) with a tease he might be at the show tonight.
• Paul Levesque did say after the show that he watched Randy Orton vs. Gunther and Orton’s shoulder was up when the ref counted him  down. WWE is doing more ref incompetence spots in storylines and for booking crutches. He said that as soon as Orton is healthy that they would do a rematch.
• We’re looking for your thoughts on yesterday’s King & Queen of the Ring PPV and tonight’s Double or Nothing.  You can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match from both shows to dave@wrestlingobserver.com
• David “Silento” Rodriguez, who wrestled from 1951 to 1977, passed away on 4/7. We just received that news today from historian Al Getz who said Kriss Knight of wrestlingdata.com was the first to find it.  Rodriguez was 90.  Rodriguez was best known in the territorial days for being a deaf mute. If you can’t really talk and can’t hear at all, you can imagine the issues there are in being a pro wrestler.  
• David was on the smaller side and in most territories didn’t get much of a push, but man could that guy work. But he couldn’t promo. He had a good physique as well, just came across like a real athlete, but  his role was to put over heels and the heels would sell a ton of  him out of respect and also because he was all about having entertaining athletic matches.
• Regarding interest level, this was the first time in history a  WWE PPV show did not crack the top 20 in Google trends, and No. 20 yesterday was only 20,000 searches. Usually they do 200,000 and a big show more than that. The Lyon, France show did 100,000 and that was unusually low. AEW’s recent shows haven’t cracked the top 20 either other than the Sting show.  With no UFC nor a big boxing match this weekend, nothing all week from any of those things cracked the top 20.
• No Uncle Howdy debut at King & Queen of the Ring but the current plan, previously rumored, is largely confirmed to be a group with Taylor Rotunda/Bo Dallas as Uncle Howdy, Joe Gacy , Erick Rowan, Dexter Lumis and Nikki Cross. There were teases of a debut yesterday but by the time of the show the belief was that it would be in the near future.
• Paige VanZant went to a split decision draw with adult entertainer Elle Brooke in the  main event of last night’s Misfits Boxing show. VanZant, who is not a boxer, was heavily favored still because Brooke had never had a serious fight. After a five round draw, both were talking about a rematch. VanZant talked about it possibly being in Dubai. Brooke dropped VanZant in the first round but VanZant got stronger as the fight went on.
• Mao beat Daisuke Sasaki to win the King of DDT tournament today at Korakuen Hall. We heard this was a very strong match.  They announced Konosuke Takeshita vs. Masato Tanaka for the 7/21 DDT show at Sumo Hall in Tokyo.
• A&E will be doing a two-hour biography of Eddie Guerrero starting at 8pm tonight.
• After winning the Memphis tag team titles, Buff Bagwell & Big John Dalton were stripped due to a foot injury.  Dalton will have a mystery partner to go for the titles which is rumored to be Scotty Riggs (thanks to Brian Tramel)
• Gabe Sapolsky is doing a seminar with that promotion on 6/1 at 11am at their WrestleCenter.  
• Kid Kash and Tommy Dreamer will be at the 6/2 Memphis Wrestling tapings. Enzo Amore and AJ Francis will be at the 6/25 tapings. Sandman will be at the 8/25 tapings plus Dreamer works their 8/10 show in Pontotoc MS.
• Best of the Super Juniors continues with a B block show on Tuesday in Numazu with Dragon Dia vs. Ninja Mack, Kushida vs. Douki, Sho vs. Taiji Ishimori and Hiromu Takahashi vs. Drilla Moloney.
• House of Glory Wrestling from Friday night in Queens, NY: Gringo Loco b KC Navarro to win the HOG cruiserweight title, AJ Francis & Ken Broadway & J Bouji b Encore Moore & Jay Silver & Big Game Leroy, Jodi Aur b Michael Fain, Sexy Star & Reina Dorada b Violette & Diamond, La Sombra (obviously not the famous one since the famous one is Andrade) b Nolo Kiano to keep the Crown  Jewel title, Amazing Red & Midas Black & Jay Lyon b Charles Mason & Jay Armani & Raheem Royal, Mike Santana b Matt Riddle to keep the HOG title. (thanks to Samuel Rosenthal)
• Mark Coleman and UFC fighter Don’Tale Mayes will be appearing at The Capsule, a sneaker, sweetwear, vintage and record shop in Louisville on 6/7. WWE & UFC have the Yum Center booked for Smackdown on Friday and a UFC Fight Night on Saturday that weekend and expect WWE stars at the UFC show and UFC stars (including Valentina Shevechenko) at the WWE show. (thanks to Phil Montague)
• There are no plans for a Bob Bruggers funeral in South Florida yet but his family from Minnesota is planning to come to the area at some point for a Memorial service, perhaps in late July.  Bruggers was a member of three sports Halls of Fame in Minnesota, the high school sports and the high school basketball Halls of Fame and the University of Minnesota M Club.  He played several years of pro football including being Wahoo McDaniel’s roommate on the first three seasons of the Miami Dolphins franchise. After his football career ended, McDaniel put him in touch with Verne Gagne and he was part of the most successful training class in history, with Ric Flair, Ken Patera, Iron Sheik, Greg Gagne & Jim Brunzell in 1972. His career ended three years later in the same airplane crash that ended the career of Johnny Valentine and in which Flair suffered a broken back. The 5/20 Observer issue has one of our best stories this year on the training camp, the plane crash and all the what ifs (thanks to Alex Marvez)

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