Daily Update: WWE Raw, Damon Kemp, AEW Rampage

This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter

• July 8, 2024 Observer Newsletter: AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door recap, WWE Money in the Bank weekend preview

Among the topics covered in this issue:

• Full Forbidden Door coverage
• Early notes on how the PPV did
• Arena business and what historical achievement took place this past weekend
• How the poll for the show had a unique and noteworthy result
• Looking at AEW going into All In
• A look at Money in the Bank, Heatwave, and ticket demand for the three WWE shows this week in Toronto.
• A look at the playoffs for the G1 tournament
• UFC 303 coverage of one of the shows where they had to change everything over and over again
• Thoughts on the WrestleMania documentary, what was talked about, and what wasn’t.
• A look at all the TV ratings info from the past week including rankings for the night and week, the competition, the whys behind the numbers, segment-by-segment and more
• Chris Jericho returns to Arena Mexico
• A look at Friday’s show including the Altantis Jr. ROH TV title win
• AAA TV time notes
• AAA Verano de Escandalo card
• Major changes in Stardom
• New Japan pushes a big open to 2025 for both their promotion and Stardom with dates for tourists
• Minoru Suzuki vs. Sanshiro Takagi rematch on the bullet train
• Notable sight gags on the match
• Update on Marigold’s first major show with Iyo Sky
• Rematch of one of the best bouts of the year set for the RevPro anniversary show at the Copper Box Arena
• WWE stars at TNA TV tapings and at Bloodsport
• More on Britt Baker’s return
• Tony Khan talks about media rights negotiations, the Juneteenth rating, a milestone Eric Bischoff could never do
• Will Ospreay opens up about his autism
• Advance ticket sales for all the WWE & AEW shows over the past week
• Biggest merch sellers in WWE & AEW
• Dana White makes a claim that will blow your mind
• More on the Bloodline angle
• SmackDown issues with FOX
• Notes on WWE departures
• WWE investing in new business with notable partners including the NFL
• Dijak talks more about his contract not being renewed

This Week’s Wresting Observer Newsletter Back Issue

• December 21, 2005 Observer Newsletter: Eddie Guerrero’s official cause of death

Monday Update

• Bryan and I will be back tonight with Wrestling Observer Radio covering Raw, Dana White talks UFC history on Fox News, Bobby Steveson/Damon Kemp, and lots of AEW news as well as taking questions you can send to mailbag@wrestlingoberver.com
• Raw is tonight in Ottawa, ONT.  They had 7,600 tickets out earlier today.  This is a major arena that would hold 14,000 for a Raw taping and 19,000 without a stage.  So this won’t be close to sold out.    Dominik Mysterio & Liv Morgan vs. Rey Mysterio &  Zelina Vega is on the show along with  Finn Balor & JD McDonagh & Carlito vs. Braun Strowman & Awesome Truth, Jey Uso vs. Chad Gable and Lyra Valkyria & Katana Chance & Kayden Carter vs. Iyo Sky & Kairi Sane & Dakota Kai.
• We’re looking for reports live from Ottawa with anything not on the live show including Main Event results and post-show matches to dave@wrestlingobserver.com
• We’re looking for your thoughts on both WWE Money in the Bank and NXT Heatwave so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to dave@wrestlingobserver.com
• Regarding the WWE departure of Bobby Steveson aka Damon Kemp, we’ve had different versions of the story told but the idea he’ll be able to take bookings on 8/13 would work out to the usual 30 day non-compete in contracts. It also could be that they informed him they aren’t renewing and that’s the date his deal expires on  But he won’t be on television going further.
• Rampage on Friday did 309,000 viewers and an 0.10 in 18-49.  We don’ t have the Smackdwon number yet.
• The Collision number will be out in the morning but it’s expected to be way down going against Money in the Bank. There was a report on Fast Nationals being an 0.0 in 18-34 for Rampage and Collision over the weekend but it looks that it was being misleading. I guess the idea when presented was it’s rounded to 0.0 meaning under 0.05 which is misleading, not to mention the actual final number was 0.06 for Ramage in 18-34.
• We have a very detailed report on the front page regarding the Wednesday Dynamite number and the overall numbers for last week.
• We also have an article that went on the front page on John Cena’s retirement and where he ranks among the biggest stars and biggest draws in wrestling history.
• In some numbers regarding the viewership of cable television over the first six months of 2024 vs. 2023, cable overall is down 20 percent in 18-49, 20 percent in 18-34 and ten percent in total viewership on Wednesday nights. AEW is doing better than television in 18-49, but the decline is more than that of television in total  viewers and 18-34.
• WWE announced in Japan that on the 7/25 to 7/27 tour it will have Cody Rhodes, Damien Priest, Bayley, Liv Morgan, Sami Zayn, Finn Balor, JD McDonagh, Tiffany Stratton, The Bloodline, Jey Uso, Kevin Owens, Dominik Mysterio, Rey Mysterio, Gunther, New Day, LA Knight , Shinsuke Nakamura, Bianca Belair, Iyo Sky, Jade Cargill and Kairi Sane. It’ll be Sky’s second trip in a couple of weeks since she’s working for Marigold this coming Saturday..
• WWE also runs Arena Ciudad in Mexico City on Saturday night with Rey Mysterio and Cody Rhodes as the star of the show.  Sunday they will run in Arena Monterrey. Arena Mexico on Friday for CMLL is running a tournament to compete with them.
• Bad Dude Tito vs Danny Jones has been added to the 7/12 Major League Wrestling show in St. Petersburg, FL. This will be a match in round one of the Opera Cup.
• The NWA announced that EC 3 over the weekend wrestling in France twice is now up to 30 successful title defenses, the most of any champions since Nick Aldis
• AJ Francis and The Real 1, formerly Enzo Amore, did a pull-apart to end the Memphis Wrestling television show on Saturday and build to a future match (thanks to Brian Tramel)
• Defy on 7/19 at Washington Hall in Seattle has  The Acclaimed vs. Midnight Heat, Ricky Gibson & Eddie Pearl. There will also be a three-way for the Defy tag titles with the Bollywood Boyz defending against Cody Chhun & Guillermo Rossas and Sinner & Saint plus Artemis Spencer vs. Mark Haskins of the U.K.
• Guy Evans announced a new book, “Beyond Nitro,” with untold stories from WCW that will be released in September.

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