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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Bulletin:
Watchers Newsletter January 30, 2023: WWE Royal Rumble Preview, Raw is XXX Gets Big Ratings
- Match of the Week and Performer of the Week
- What records has the 2023 Royal Rumble already set and which records have a good chance of being set
- Incredible advance for the show
- The debate over the male winner and comparisons to the previous year
- Steve Austin’s Question
- The Peacock Affair
- Austin’s original approach
- The return of Cody Rhodes
- Full recap of Raw 30 and giant rankings and performance of each segment
- Bellas complaints about the show
- Why certain segments of the show changed
- The story behind WBD who erased Mark Briscoe and why there were no previous issues
- Different ways for AEW to pay homage to Briscoe
- Family and Fundraising Update
- A look at the Okada-Kiyomiya angle and its keys
- Muto’s Retreat at the Tokyo Dome Show
- What the New Japan vs NOAH show and other New Japan shows showed about the company’s takeover
- Coverage of UFC 283 featuring the retirements of Shogun Rua and Glover Teixeira
- What’s next for Jamahal Hill and Brandon Moreno
- Business notes on the show
- A look at the life and career of Jose Aldo and his biggest fights, including how one of his fights changed the entire direction of MMA for lighter weight fighters and was so successful the company shut down its doors, strange as it may say
- A look at more votes for Japanese awards
- The life of Benny Galant, a ’60s star who died this week who was a major rival to the biggest names in Mexican wrestling history, including El Santo and Mil Mascaras, and who twice set gate records of the EMLL company. This is a major piece of history spanning one of the greatest eras of wrestling in any country.
- The most detailed look at last week’s ratings
- Streaming numbers, international numbers
- Ticket advances for all AEW and WWE shows via WrestleMania
- What could be CMLL’s best game this year
- The story behind Negro Casas’ jump to AAA, how long has it been, how long has Konnan wanted him, and his duties outside of the ring
- A preview of upcoming major AAA trade shows
- Update on a number of great upcoming shows from New Japan
- Which Former WWE Star Is Angry With Dwayne Johnson For His Young Rock Performance
- 80s star arrested for multiple things
- WBD Chief Talks AEW and Slap Fighting
- Behind the new AEW deal with DAZN
- Lawsuit filed against AEW
- Update on Kenny Omega
- San Francisco records for wrestling
- Conor McGregor investigation reported
- Lots of big UFC fights announced
- Learn more about Luke Rockhold coming out of retirement
- Famous MMA trainer won’t pin fighters down anymore
- Former Pro Wrestler Talks About Slap Fighting and What He Was Offered
- Update on Vince McMahon at the office
- Another lawsuit filed against WWE over McMahon’s return and how two other lawsuits were essentially dismissed
- Notes on new NIL signings by WWE
- WWE becomes a big mainstream pub
- WWE Injury Updates
- NXT and WWE Weekend House Show Notes
This week’s Retro Observer newsletter:
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Saturday update
WWE
- I previewed tonight’s Royal Rumble PPV for Sports Illustrated and predicted who would win each game.
- Kevin Owens wore a “Sami Zayn Forever” shirt as happened at the Royal Rumble today.
- David Meltzer tweeted: “Multiple reports on Edge & Beth Phoenix in San Antonio (PW Insider originally had it). Edge was filming a Disney+ show so hadn’t returned from his injury angle.
- CJ Perry (Lana) posted a video on San Antonio social media today.
- WWE has released the cold open for tonight’s PPV. It features country music star Hardy, who performs at the show.
- WWE is streaming a press conference on Peacock, YouTube, Facebook and TikTok following the Royal Rumble tonight. It will feature Paul “Triple H” Levesque and a collection of wrestlers breaking down the Royal Rumble action.
- The WrestleMania 39 sign is now on display at the Alamodome.
- Last night’s Royal Rumble home edition of SmackDown averaged 2.43 million viewers in Rapid National ratings, a big jump from last week’s Rapid National average of 2.113 million. The rating in the 18-49 demo was 0.7 in the first hour and 0.6 in the second.
- Bayley responded to the fan reaction during her steel cage match against Becky Lynch cut from Raw last Monday: “It’s cool that the fans support us, but I don’t want them to think that women’s wrestling step back. We are very popular backstage, we are treated very well. I don’t want the fans to get the wrong idea of what happened.
- In an interview with Sports Illustrated, LA Knight spoke about treating all his feuds with importance: “It’s a great time to shine. But at the same time, it’s no different than any program I do – like when I was at Impact or the NWA. The difference is that smaller companies are not visible on the same level as WWE. It drove me crazy. It drove me crazy. But that never changed what I was doing. I have always worked as if people were watching. Each program must be better than the previous one.
- Triple H told Variety that WWE expects to have more information to share about NXT Europe this summer. Levesque talked about taking NXT in a larger overall direction:
- There has been a lot of progress on that. We are very excited to take NXT in a broader global direction.
- I wish I could find the best athletes, the biggest personalities and the most entertaining people from all over the world, and incorporate them into what we do. Because when you start creating these characters and stars from each region, those regions become more committed to what we do. If you can start going to all of these places and start finding athletes there that can resonate on the world stage, some will make it big, some will make it small, some won’t make it at all. But this Indian talent, say, you have the main events of WrestleMania and you’re from that country, it basically changes the way that [that country] view the product.
- Triple H also discussed recruiting athletes for NXT Europe:
- NXT UK was mostly based on indie wrestlers, guys who rose through the ranks and found their way to us. We start the process there by doing the same thing we are doing here. There is no college level NCAA athletics in Europe, but there are a lot of athletes training in a lot of places like Loughborough or whatever, for specific sports. We’re starting to engage with them now and finding the same level of interest that we find in NCAA athletes here.
- Triple H replied to NBA star Joel Embiid being fined $25,000 for hosting a DX crotch chop celebration: “Curious, @JoelEmbiid… If you wrote a bigger check now, could you get a volume discount to cover the rest of the season ?? #IllChipIn #SuckIt”
- Sheamus turns 45 today.
- A message from Dragon Lee regarding signing with WWE appeared on the latest edition of WWE’s Spanish-language La Previa YouTube show.
- Denise Salcedo has interviews with Dominik Mysterio, Mia Yim, Austin Theory, Bianca Belair, Otis, Chad Gable and Dana Brooke.
- Raquel Rodriguez appeared on this week’s edition of WWE After the Bell.
- WWE documented Rodriguez returning home to train with her father ahead of the Royal Rumble.
- WWE has a behind-the-scenes video from the 30th anniversary episode of Raw.
- Braun Strowman & Ricochet, Rey Mysterio and Charlotte Flair were interviewed on The SmackDown LowDown.
- The WWE YouTube channel uploaded the following: Cody Rhodes vs. Seth Rollins (WrestleMania Backlash 2022), Brock Lesnar vs. Hardcore Holly for the WWE Championship (Royal Rumble 2004) and Shorty G vs. Sheamus (Royal Rumble 2020 ).
AEW / Other Wrestling
#Daily #Update #Royal #Rumble #SmackDown #Notes #Nduka
