Daily Update: WWE ID, Rob Van Dam, Kris Statlander

This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

• November 11, 2024 Observer Newsletter: WWE Crown Jewel recap, TKO financials, Wrestle Kingdom gets its main event

The new issue of the Wrestling Observer is up on the site right now.  It was a huge news week as it’s the largest issue in some time:

• ull coverage of Crown Jewel with the matches, business and interest level
• Thoughts on the programs going forward
• TKO gives its quarterly business update
• Why profits are lower than usual.
• UFC’s media rights deal thoughts
• Talk about the future of Fight Pass
• Revenue for UFC & WWE in different categories
• Stock value
• How much debt TKO currently has
• How the Cung Le lawsuit factors into all this
• More on the show at  Sphere
• Thoughts about Dana White and/or Nick Khan getting involved with  boxing from Mark Shapiro
• More Netflix plans
• A look at the Wrestle Kingdom lineup
• Where New Japan’s business currently stands
• Upcoming New Japan tag team tournament notes
• Power Struggle coverage, great matches and angles
• NXT and AEW go head-to-head, the most detailed breakdown as to what happened and why
• Where AEW stood in the overall standings that night
• How every quarter did
• Coverage of the Conor McGregor trial going on
• Update on Full Gear, announced matches,  other matches, ticket buying interest
• Notes on WWE cuts like Baron Corbin, Indi Hartwell and Tegan Nox.
• Dragon Gates runs a major show
• The most detailed look at the ratings for all the shows this past week, with standings for the night and week, segment-by-segment numbers, and all the competition.
• CMLL to fill the historical middleweight title vacancy by Mistico this week
• Arena Mexico draws the week’s largest crowd for themed show
• Update on El Hijo del Vikingo
• Stardom tag team tournament update
• King of Gate tournament update
• Davey Boy Smith Jr. wins Triple Crown and background of that
• Death of Scorpio Jr.
• Hall of Fame candidate health issue update
• The life of AWA’s Al DeRusha
• Can actual wrestling draw more than 40,000 each to six events over three days. 2028 we’ll get the chance to find out.
• Marko Stunt talks retirement
• Santo retirement tour noes
• Mike Mansury talks AEW production changes for 2025
• All the PPV business updates
• Ricochet talks leaving WWE
• International TV ratings and streaming numbers
• Jon Jones talks Tom Aspinall and why he’s not interested in that ight
• More on the Bruce Prichard and Michael Hayes leave of absences
• WWE scheduling updates
• Yoshhiki Inamura comes to NXT
• WWE signs former Olympic athletes
• Lots of WWE injury updates
• Notes from all the live arena events and the European tour

This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter Back Issue

• May 23, 2007 Observer Newsletter: What wrestling could learn from Mayweather/de la Hoya PPV success

Wednesday Update

WWE

• WWE uploaded the full Fallon Henley vs. Kelani Jordan NXT Women’s North American title match from last night.
• New WWE ID recruits will be revealed at shows for Wrestling Open (Thursday in Worcester, Massachusetts), Fire Star Pro Wrestling (Thursday in Greensboro, North Carolina), Chaotic Pro Wrestling (Friday in Andover, Massachusetts), Memphis Wrestling (Sunday in Memphis, Tennessee), and Northern Crown (Sunday in Toronto, Ontario, Canada) in the coming days.
• While appearing on This is Wrestling Life, Rob Van Dam reflected on his induction into the WWE Hall of Fame. RVD said it was an honor to be inducted, but having the induction happen during the pandemic era was a little disappointing:
  • It was very validating, you know, to be thought of on that Mount Rushmore of wrestlers. That’s something that they can never take away from me now. Like, it felt like I elevated up to a level and now people like yourself refer to me as a Hall of Famer. It’s very prestigious, so I was honored. The fact that it was during COVID and we didn’t have a crowd was kind of disappointing after going to Hall of Fame for so many years and watching the really long speeches. And then they told us to go 3-5 minutes on our speeches after hearing these guys [doing long speeches in the past].
  • The thing about the time and there not being people there, if you’ve seen my speech, then you’ve seen like nine minutes of it, but the whole thing was actually 27 minutes. So I actually went, in theory, maybe like 24 minutes over the three-minute request. I didn’t hear anything when I got back except I said, ‘That was a little long, wasn’t it?’ But I had no idea until I saw the whole thing that it was that long. You’re playing off of somebody turning the volume up and down on a response… I’ll have to get in it again.
• Chelsea Green joined Sheamus on the latest episode of Celtic Warrior Workouts.
• Paul “Triple H” Levesque congratulated Sheamus on the Celtic Warrior Workouts YouTube channel reaching one million subscribers. Sheamus responded that he wants to have Levesque on an episode of the show.
• Paradigm Talent Agency – which represents several WWE stars – has announced the launch of The Sports Group, which is “a dedicated, all-encompassing division established to represent a roster of elite athletes and iconic teams.” Damian Priest, Tiffany Stratton, CM Punk, Drew McIntyre, and Liv Morgan are among the WWE wrestlers that Paradigm represents.
• Bret Hart will be in Las Vegas for WrestleMania 41 weekend. He’s advertised as part of the hospitality ticket packages that fans can purchase for the event.
• WWE remembered Eddie Guerrero on the 19th anniversary of his death.
• Liv Morgan was a guest on The Pat McAfee Show this afternoon.
• 360 With Speedy interviewed Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

AEW/Other Wrestling

• Kris Statlander gave Ring the Belle the following explanation when asked about her partnership with Stokely Hathaway breaking up:
  • We had a common goal in destroying Willow [Nightingale], and I think we accomplished that. But I think we just didn’t have any sort of, like, we didn’t have any other goals after that. The goal was to take care of her. I think after that, we just kind of decided like, you know what, the job is done. It’s kind of like a handshake and, ‘You helped me. I helped you. We’ll see if our paths cross again in the future or something.’ Then he tried to pass a Spanish quiz and put my [CMLL Women’s] title shot on the line that I rightfully won. He put that on the line without me knowing, lost it. So, not my fault. I also decided to give him a boot for that, because how dare you take my opportunities away from me.
• Appearing on Stories With Brisco and Bradshaw, Jake Hager discussed his departure from AEW and what’s next for him:
  • It’s interesting. I’m excited to find out (what’s next for me). My contract expired with AEW in June, so I just left them. I’m currently working independents, but I’m 42 and I think it’s time to — I don’t know. I want to find a way to be home more with my kids and so I’m looking into more business opportunities; construction, rental properties and I’d love to sit down with you John (Bradshaw Layfield) and get some pointers about announcing and maybe stay on camera that way. But really, just doing what I can. I had a great career, very blessed to have that career. So, now, it’s kind of easier. The pressure’s off and just try to be a good dad and good example for my kids.
• Casual Conversations with The Classic interviewed Aubrey Edwards.
• CMLL legend Atlantis has been announced for MLW Kings of Colosseum in North Richland Hills, Texas on Saturday, January 11.

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