Daily Update: Raw 30th anniversary, Benny Galant, Luke Rockhold

Originally posted on F4WOnline.com | By Dave Meltzer | Last updated 1/23/23

Daily Update

Latest News:

Latest Audio:

Latest Free YouTube Video:

This Week's Wrestling Observer Newsletter:

January 23, 2023 Observer Newsletter: Death of Jay Briscoe

*Performer and match of the week
*Details of the settlement of the Rita Chatterton case
*McMahon suing Chatterton 20 ears ago and details behind that
*What role Vince McMahon has played since returning and what was originally said that has been accurate and things that have already changed, including new office people back and old ones being gone
*The latest lawsuit against WWE for bringing back Vince
*Analysts look at the different sale possibilities
*More on Stephanie leaving
*Nick Khan talks the company and hat he said that does and doesn't make sense
*Where Dwayne Johnson stands
*Tony Khan talks about his interest in buying WWE
*Dwayne Johnson talks the sale of WWE
*A look at how UFC's talks with Francis Ngannou fell through and where Ngannou could go next and whether he can return
*Royal Rumble update, who is in, how tickets are moving
*Details on the new MLW TV title with Reelz
*Impact Hard to Kill coverage including PPV numbers
*Saturday's UFC coverage
*AAA announces big show schedule or 2023 and return of Alberto with Konnan explaining why and we talk about it
*Cage match and Wrestling Observer's list of the best in-ring wrestles of 2022 based on matches
*What wrestlers were in the most great matches and to 50 of modern times as well as what cities have had the best wrestling.
*Dana White's Power Slap debut and how it was received
*The most detailed look at te ratings for all the national shows and segment by segment Numbers
*What promotions drew the most fans in Japan n 2022
*Update on another date for Mercedes Mone in New Japan and the Sakura Genesis highlights
*New Japan and Stardom quarterly business numbers
*More on death of Black Warrior
*Ric Flair new endorsement deal
*One of the biggest feuds of the 70s comes alive through each man's son this past week
*Lots of WrestleMania week news
*How AEW got Kushida
*Danielson talks Takeshita
*More on CM Punk and Colt Cabana in AEW
*AEW gets international TV upgrade
*New documentary on former AEW star
*Streaming numbers
*Dana White talks punishment
*Mike Swick talks cancer battle
*PPV numbers for the shows over the weekend
*Cena WrestleMania note
*News no three major WWE cuts
*What independent promotion has not yet been dropped by WWE for Peacock
*International TV rights

This Week's Retro Observer Newsletter:

December 12, 2005 Observer Newsletter: WWE begins exploiting Eddie Guerrero's death, drug testing policy coverage

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.

For the rest of the world, rates are $18 for 4, $48.50 for 12, $93 for 24, $155 for 40 and $201.50 for 52.

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 the latest pro wrestling and MMA news, Steve Austin at WrestleMania, Raw, and much more. You can send questions to the show but please limit them to current topics to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

Raw is tonight from Philadelphia. They are doing a commercial free first hour. Usually these commercial free hours are because of fear of low ratings and that is not the case here. My gut is they are looking for a bragging point of a giant number of viewers whether it be for the sale, the next investment call, or something else. But with all the stars from the past and the bounce back of being the first show with no football opposition, the show should be one of its biggest if not its biggest number of the year. Also on the show is Austin Theory vs. Bobby Lashley for the U.S. title in a no DQ match, Becky Lynch vs .Bayley in a cage match, Usos vs. Damien Priest & Dominik Mysterio for the tag titles and The Bloodline Tribal court with Sami Zayn. The show was sold out with just under 14,000 fans as of this morning.

The big draw is the legends with Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Shawn Michaels, HHH, Undertaker, The Bellas, Jerry Lawler, Sean Waltman, Ron Simmons, Teddy Long, Kurt Angle, Road Dogg, Jimmy Hart, Madusa, IRS, Ted DiBiase, DDP and Godfather announced. Lita was reported as being there as well. Nobody had seen Vince McMahon at the show.

We're looking for reports from the show with anything not on the TV show such as Main Event bouts, dark matches, etc., to dave@wrestlingobserver.com We're also looking for reports on last night's WWE show in Binghamton, NY and Saturday's show in Erie, PA as well.

We are doing polls for this weekend on:
Wrestle Kingdom from Saturday in Yokohama
UFC 283 from Saturday
Great Muta Bye Bye from Sunday in Yokohama
We're looking for a thumbs up, down or middle, best and worst match to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

Benny Galant, who was a star in Europe in the 50s and became a huge star in Mexico from 1962-68, passed away this past week at the age of 93. He was also featured in a number of movies and was a major rival of El Santo during that period, both at live shows around the country and in the movies.

Luke Rockhold was on the MMA Hour earlier today and said that he is coming out of retirement, has gotten his release from the UFC, and will fight again within the next four months.

Saudi Arabia tried to buy Formula 1 for $20 billion. The deal didn't transpire. (thanks to Mike Kuzmuk)

Floyd Mayweather Jr. announced an exhibition boxing match against former Bellator fighter and reality show star Aaron Chalmers on 2/25 at the O2 Arena in London.

This was a big weekend for great matches. Ones to go out of your way to see are Volador Jr. vs. Rocky Romero from Friday's CMLL show (yesterday's update has more and how to watch it), Shingo Takagi vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima from Saturday's Wrestle Kingdom show and the All Japan tag title change from yesterday with Yuma Aoyagi & Naoya Nomura over Kento Miyahara & Takuya Nomura were said to be the best matches. I saw the former two and they were great. The biggest spectacle was the Great Muta retirement show from yesterday, although the ring entrances and post-match were the best part of that presentation.

Ric Flair was announced as one of the people featured at the Gasparilla Pirate Fest on 1/28 in Tampa. The Gasparilla festival has been a big thing in the city since forever, as they used to have one of the biggest shows of the week on the Tuesday of the festival. Flair is the Grand Marshal at 2 pm.

AEW will be taping Dark on Saturday and much of the tapings goes head-to-head with the Royal Rumble. The tapings are 2-5 p.m. Eastern (before Rumble) and 7-10 p.m. Eastern (during Rumble)

Other Notes

Sage Northcutt, once thought of as the future star of UFC, will have his first fight in four years for ONE on 5/5 in Broomfield, CO in the first ONE show ever in the U.S., airing on Prime Video. He faced Ahmed Mujtaba (10-2).

Defy results from Friday night in Tacoma, WA: Judas Icarus & Travis Williams b Voros Twins, Danika Die Hard (formerly Dannika Della Rogue) b Amira, Evil Uno & Alex Reynolds b Sebastian Wolfe & Miles Deville, Marina Shafir b Cat Power, Guillermo Rosas b Levi Cooker (Tucker in WWE) in a hair vs. hair match, Artemis Spencer b Davey Richards. Next show is 2/11 in Seattle at Washington Hall with Jon Moxley & Schaff vs. Zack Sabre Jr. & Davey Richards plus Swerve Strickland and Eddie Kingston appear. Top Flight will appear on 3/11 in Seattle at Washington Hall.

UFC did end up with 500,000 searches on Sunday putting it No. 2 for the day behind the Cincinnati Bengals, which is actually very impressive given it was an NFL playoff Sunday. That is still very low for a UFC PPV show.

WGN TV news brought up it being the 39th anniversary of Hulk Hogan beat Iron Sheik for the WWF title and talked about crazy wrestling names mentioning Spanky, Bastion Booger and Beaver Cleavage (thanks to Matt Schreiner)

Rich Swann vs. Moose vs. Rhino vs. Eddie Edwards vs. Sami Callihan vs. Chris Sabin in an elimination match to determine the top contender for the Impact title will air on Thursday's Impact show. 73-year-old Mike Jackson will also face Trey Miguel for the X title.

Bellator announced a 3/31 show in Temecula, CA at the Pechanga Resort and Casino with Marcelo Golm (10-3) vs. Daniel James (14-6-1), Cat Zingano (13-4) vs. Leah McCourt (7-2),. John Salter (18-6) vs. Aaron Jeffrey (13-3) and Jaleel Willis (16-4) vs. Rustam Khabilov (24-4) as the main card.

There are auditions for the play "Master of Puppets. The play will run 5/25 to 6/11 at the Legacy Theater in Connecticut. For more info go to LegacyTheaterCT.org

This article first appeared on F4WOnline.com and was syndicated with permission.

More must-reads: