Daily Update: Terry Funk, WWE Raw, Cyril Gane

Latest News

• Wrestling Observer Radio: Dave & Bryan live Q&A from London
• AEW announces special Friday night episode of Collision for November
• VIDEO: Being the Elite - 'All Out 2023'
• Tony Khan: CJ Perry hasn't signed long-term deal with AEW
• Tony Khan: Jack Perry remains ‘suspended indefinitely’ from AEW

Latest Audio

• Wrestling Observer Radio: Dave & Bryan live Q&A from London
• Wrestling Observer Radio: Bryan and Dave review AEW All Out, press conference notes, CM Punk update
• DragonKing Dark: Who is the Harvard alien hunter?
• Bryan & Vinny Show: An incredible All Out 2023

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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

• July 3, 2006 Observer Newsletter: WWE Vengeance, Luke Graham obituary

Ordering Info:

Order the print Wrestling Observer right now and get it delivered via mail, by sending your name, address, Visa or Master Card number and an expiration date to dave@wrestlingobserver.com or by going to www.paypal.com directing funds to dave@wrestlingobserver.com.

Rates in the United States are $14.50 for 4 issues, $35.50 for 12, $70 for 24, $116 for 40 and $149.50 for 52.

In Canada and Mexico, the rates are $16 for 4, $27 for 8, $38.50 for 12, $76 for 24, $126 for 40 and $162.50 for 52.

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If you order by mail with a check, cash or money order to P.O. Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228, you can get $1 off in every price range.

Monday Update

Bryan and I will be back tonight talking Raw and the rest of the news with Wrestling Observer Radio. We did a Saturday show talking the firing of C.M. Punk and WWE Payback and last night's show talking AEW All Out.

This is a television news story on the NBC affiliate in Amarillo talking about how Terry Funk's funeral was that day. It's really cool because you can see just how revered he was in that city. 

Raw is in Charlotte, NC tonight featuring the Gunther vs. Chad Gable IC title match that really should have been on Saturday's show. The Viking Raiders face Matt Riddle & Drew McIntyre in a tornado match. Jey Uso returns on tonight's show as a new member of the Raw roster. There were 7,700 tickets out for the show as of a few hours ago.

We're looking for reports from tonight's show with anything not on television such as Main Event matches or dark segments to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

Also we're looking for your thoughts on AEW All Out and WWE Payback, thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match for each show to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

Because today is Labor Day, ratings for the next few days will be delayed. The Rampage and Smackdown ratings will be out tomorrow afternoon. The Collision ratings will be out Wednesday morning. The Raw ratings will be out Wednesday afternoon. The NXT and Dynamite ratings should both be out on Thursday.

Cyril Gane's home was robbed while he was in Paris fighting Serghei Spivac in Saturday's main event. Police were called to Gane's home yesterday morning in Nogent-sur-Marne, France. They discovered a forced entry through the front door and missing items that were estimated at being worth $166,000. Among the items stolen were jewelry, a Rolex watch and more. The police report indicated that a member of Gane's entourage may have contacted the thieves regarding Gane being away from home to help set everything up. Gane beat Spivac via second round TKO in the main event.

Regarding stories coming out of yesterday's show about fans having signs confiscated related to C.M. Punk and not being allowed to wear Punk T-shirts, obviously the latter was not correct since many at ringside were wearing the classic white Punk shirt. According to one person there, the security line was very slow because they were checking every sign and took Punk signs. There was one security guard loudly telling people that they had to wear their Punk T-shirts inside out. I was told that nobody paid attention to him, but as people got to the door, nobody told them to remove their shirts and turn them inside out. But that is where the story came from.

Former MMA and TV star Jason "Mayhem" Miller was arrested at 5 a.m. on Wednesday in West Hollywood, CA. TMZ reported Miller was involved with an altercation last Tuesday at the Sunset Marquis in West Hollywood. The police report stated that a fan of Miller's approached him at the club to say hello, which turned into an argument and Miller tried to put the fan in a choke hold before security broke this up. Miller left the club before sheriffs arrived, but the police were called and he was arrested when he came back to the club the next day. Miller also was a big pro wrestling fan who when he fought in Japan listed his style of fighting as "pro wrestling."

For Saturday's UFC show in Sydney, Australia regarding the main event with Israel Adesanya vs. Sean Strickland for the middleweight title, Jared Caonnonier was brought to Sydney and will weigh in as the backup fighter in case Adesanya or Strickland for some reason can't fight.

Salina de la Renta returned to MLW on last night's PPV show. The storyline is that she's going to be the pipeline for bringing Lucha Libre talent into MLW, evidently replacing the role Cesar Duran had. Minoru Suzuki wll be on the 10/14 MLW show in Philadelphia.

OVW's Jessie Godderz, who first made his fame as Mr. Pectacular on Big Brother before his pro wrestling days, made a cameo on the show last night. The cameo was cross promotion for the debut of the NETFLIX show "Wrestlers," about OVW which debuts on 9/13. Godderz holds the record for most different years appearing on Big Brother.

Impact on Thursday has Josh Alexander & PCO vs. Bully Ray & Steve Maclin, Mark Andrews & Flash Morgan Webster vs. Rich Swann & Sami Callihan, Deonna Purrazo vs Dani Luna, Lio Rush vs. Kevin Knight and more.

PWInsider reported that Paul Ellering was in Orlando. They had been reporting that the Authors of Pain and Ellering would be starting back on NXT.

A story on a former pro wrestler who has a food truck (thanks to Barry Werner)

The NBC affiliate in New York did a television story on Johnny Rodz, the longtime WWWF prelim wrestler who is in the company Hall of Fame, and also helped train the Dudleys , Tommy Dreamer and others at Gleason's Gym in Brooklyn. It talked about his recovery from a 2021 heart attack.