Daily Update: Terry Funk, PFL/Bellator, Sukeban

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• LA Knight, The Miz segment set for WWE SmackDown
• Chicago Bulls legend Dennis Rodman to appear on AEW Collision
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This Week's Wrestling Observer Newsletter

• September 4, 2023 Observer Newsletter: Deaths of Terry Funk & Bray Wyatt, AEW All In recap

The new issue of the Observer is out and it's the biggest issue in terms of volume that we have ever done:

• The life of Terry Funk with many different stories from many different places
• The Ric Flair/Terry Funk 1989 feud
• Terry Funk sees the death of the territories before anyone else
• Paul Heyman on Terry Funk
• The life and career of Bray Wyatt
• The sad situation regarding his death
• Career highlights
• How COVID led to serious health issues
• Him just being seen in the hospital a week before his death
• Life before wrestling
• Full coverage of AEW All In
• Notes on attendance records
• A rundown of the other four biggest shows in history
• Every $10 million gate in pro wrestling history
• Early PPV numbers
• Crossover buys with SummerSlam
• Thoughts on next year's show at Wembley
• Tony Khan's thoughts after the show
• A detailed look at the Punk-Jack Perry incident with different stories from people there
• How it affected the show backstage
• What happened with the show and to Punk and Perry after the incident
• Rundown of the show
• WrestleMania ticket sales as of this week
• Last year's Mania numbers and numbers from other years
• How the secondary market is doing for WrestleMania
• Saudi Arabia gets into business with the PFL and causes a WWE stock price drop
• Preview of the next AEW & WWE PPV shows
• Business notes on this week's show
• A look at the RevPro show with Ospreay vs. Takagi
• The most detailed look at the ratings over the past two weeks
• How each segment did, how the show compares with one year ago
• A look at the best rated Smackdown show in almost three years
• International TV numbers
• CMLL matches at Denver Broncos game
• CMLL Grand Prix show notes
• Metalik done with CMLL and explanation as to why
• Konnan health update
• QT Marshall defends Latin American title in Europe
• Notes on the last Stardom PPV show
• Notes on Dragon Gate's Dangerous Gate show
• All Japan finishes tournament and legend challenges for Triple Crown out of it
• N-1 tournament update
• Talks of a New Japan expansion
• Naito talks his future
• The All-Star Junior show in Philadelphia
• DDT has big show coming
• Major former promoter in Mexico Carlos Elizondo passes away
• New Netflix wrestling show
• Impact changing taping schedule
• Notes on upcoming Impact shows
• Lots of talk from Tony Khan about new things with the company and deals
• Punk gets Cauliflower Alley Club award
• Update on Cung Le lawsuit against UFC
• Update on Edge
• John Cena's return notes

This Week's Retro Observer Newsletter

• June 26, 2006 Observer Newsletter: DX, TNA Slammiversary

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Friday Update

Terry Funk's funeral took place this afternoon in Amarillo. I don't believe it was taped and wasn't able to see it. Among those in attendance were Dory Funk Jr., Ted DiBiase, Manny Fernandez, Chris Hero, Tommy Dreamer, C.M. Punk, Dan Spivey, Joe Malenko, Stan Hansen, Tully Blanchard, Don Frye, Barry Blaustein and Mark Youngblood. We hope to have more on it later. It's still hard to believe he isn't with us anymore. 

We have a big weekend of shows coming up. Garrett and I just finished our first show together without a guest in about a month, talking about the news of the week, All In, C.M. Punk and Jack Perry as well as some stories on Terry Funk and the upcoming WWE and AEW PPV shows. Bryan and I will be back Saturday and Sunday nights covering the PPV shows.

Front Office Sports reported on the PFL/Bellator sale talks. The story said that Bellator is valued at as much as $500 million and that the deal would be primarily cash but that Paramount, the owners of Bellator, would also get a percentage of the new company. They said it's not clear if the deal goes through if they will merge into one company or continue as two separate entities but have matches between the promotions. Saudi Arabia has just invested $100 million in the PFL, which caused stock market concern for both WWE and Endeavor because of the idea Saudi Arabia funding a new MMA group could challenge UFC's domination. The stock market freaked out yesterday and WWE stock tumbled, but today it came back and closed at $104.58 once people realized this won't hurt WWE business at all and UFC's financial deals are locked in for years.

As noted in the new issue, the announcement of the Sukeban promotion came this morning with the debut show on 9/21 at Capitale, a 750-seat theater in New York City. The show sold out instantly with tickets going on sale today. The show has top Japanese women, many of whom have appeared with Stardom this year, with new characters and put into different factions. The main event of the first show has Ichigo Sayaka (Unagi Sayaka) vs Countess Saoori (Saori Anou) with the winner going into a championship match on the second show. The trailer for the promotion.

Announced as signed to long-term deals to Sukeban are Ram Kaichow (as Atomic Banshee), Kaori Yoneyama (as Otaku-chan), AOI (as Midnight Player, Sayaka, Maya Yukihi (as Maya Mamushi), Saki (as Saki Bimi), Ancham (as Babyface), Yuu (as Crush Yuu), Rikio Iaiju (as Rik Blondie, Anou, Arisa Nakajima (as Commander Nakajima), Risa Sera (as Lady Antoinette) and Miyuki Takase (as Queen of Hearts).

Smackdown tonight features the return of John Cena in Hershey, PA. The show is sold out with 8,848 fans. Also announced is the return of Jimmy Uso, a Miz and LA Knight face-to-face segment to set up their match on Saturday's PPV show in Pittsburgh, and Rey Mysterio & Santos Escobar vs. Autin Theory & Grayson Waller.

AEW announced Dennis Rodman appearing on tomorrow's Collision show in Chicago at the United Center. Rodman was already in town for Conrad Thompson's Starrcast event. AEW had 4,086 tickets out as of today for the show. There will be angles shot on the show for the PPV on Sunday. Ricky Steamboat will be there but the tease of him doing a strap match with Ricky Starks is to set up a match with someone against Starks. Someone other than CM Punk has been asked to do the match but if Punk is to be on the PPV this would in theory be the spot. Punk was still suspended as of today.

For what it's worth we are told that at the WWE Store in Pittsburgh they have all the matches and segments spread on the walls of the store and have a Cody Rhodes-Grayson Waller segment with John Cena in the picture. (thanks to Tyler Dawson)

Rampage at 10 p.m. tonight on TNT:

• Tag Team Battle Royal for a PPV shot at MJF & Adam Cole on Sunday
• El Hijo del Vikingo & Nick Wayne vs. Kip Sabian & Gringo Loco
• Adam Page vs Bryan Keith
• Willow Nightingale & Skye Blue vs Taya Valkyrie & Anna Jay
• The Vikingo match got great reviews.

UFC is tomorrow in Paris on ESPN+ starting at Noon Eastern time:

• Zarah Fairn (140) vs. Jacqueline Cavalcanti (139)
• Farid Basharat (136) vs. Keydson Rodrigues (134.5)
• Nora Cornolle (136) vs. Joselyne Edwards (136)
• Ange Loosa (171) vs. Rhys McKee (171)
• Taylor Lapilus (135) vs. Caolan Loughran (136)
• Morgan Charriere (146) vs. Manolo Aeccini (146)
• William Gomis (146) vs. Yanis Ghemmouri (146)
• Volkan Oezdemir (205) vs. Bogdan Guskov (205)
• Benoit Saint Denis (156) vs. Thiago Moises (156)
• Manon Fiorot (125) vs. Rose Namajunas (125)
• Cyril Gane (250) vs Serghei Spivac (256)

Edge auctioned off his Toronto wrestling gear and gave 100 percent of the proceeds for Sami Zayn's Syria campaign of having mobile hospitals in war-torn areas.

MLW tapes Sunday at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia with Alex Kane vs. Willie Mack for the MLW title, Jacob Fatu vs. Rickey Shane Page for the National title in a weapons of mass destruction match, Matt Cardona vs. Mance Warner in a kiss my foot match Maki Itoh vs B3CCA for a women's title shot and Tracy Williams vs. Ichiban on the FITE+ live show. There will also be a Fusion TV taping. The show starts at 6 p.m. Eastern.

Pablo Frage, a Texas referee filed suit against Devon Nicholson and Texas promoter Jerry Bostic due to injuries suffered while working a match with Nicholson. He is asking for more than $250,000 alleging that Nicholson was carrying a beer and stumbling and shouldn't have been allowed to perform. The lawsuit claimed Frage was supposed to cut himself in doing an angle but Nicholson wasn't pleased with the amount of blood and put him in a choke and stabbed him in the head multiple times with a spike. Frage said he lost consciousness and with no medical staff on site, was rushed to the hospital where he received seven staples. He said since this incident in December 2021, he has continued so suffer from headaches, memory problems, depression and has scars

GCW and Renegades of Wrestling did a joint show in Sydney, Australia last Friday as part of a three-show tour and drew 350 fans. Maki Itoh was really over. El Hijo del Vikingo beat Gringo Loco in an AAA Mega title match in the main event. Caveman Ugg kept the Renegades of Wrestling title over Joey Janela. The crowd knew all the GCW guys like Allie Katch and Effy. Itoh beat Charli Evans. Steph De Lander also returned to Australia for this tour. People were raving about Vikingo. On Saturday in Melbourne, the ROW champ Aysha beat Itoh and Vikingo kept the title over Emman Azman. On Sunday in Brisbane, Itoh beat Allie Katch, Outback Adam beat Janela, and Vikingo retained his title over Mitch Ryder. (thanks to Dan Lennard and Kirk Beattie)

Paul Felder, a UFC commentator, announced that he has put his name back in the USADA testing pool. He noted that his hips are bad and he is not sure if he will fight again, but that he is back training and hopes to fight guys around his own age if he does fight.

Combate Global is on Paramount and Univision tomorrow night as well as Paramount + with a main event of Jose Ferriera (11-0) vs. Leonardo Morales (12-7).

CPW on 9/9 in Fairplay, WV with Ricky Morton, Tony Atlas and Shane Douglas doing meet and greets.