Daily Update: Jinder Mahal, LA Knight, Queen Aminata

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• New seasons of WWE Rivals & Biography: WWE Legends to premiere next month
• CJ Perry back in hospital, may need second surgery
• TNA reveals new World Championship belt
• Skye Blue was ‘super excited’ for AEW heel turn
• AEW champion Samoa Joe wants to put focus ‘back on the conflict in the ring’
• Dirty Dango signs new deal with TNA Wrestling

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• Wrestling Observer Live: Jinder Mahal, Dynamite tonight, NXT TV report, more!
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This Week's Wrestling Observer Newsletter

• January 8, 2024 Observer Newsletter: The Rock vs. Roman Reigns, Worlds End & WK18 reviews

• What people thought of Worlds End and Stardom Queendom
• Roman Reigns vs. The Rock
• All the AEW news and controversies from the past week
• Worlds End rundown
• MJF future
• AEW departures
• Business numbers
• Full coverage of New Japan at the Tokyo Dome
• Kevin Dunn's WWE departure
• Breakdown of WWE and AEW attendance in 2023 and how it compares to other companies historically
• 2023 WWE Iron Man award winner
• Pro Wrestling NOAH's big show
• Stardom show at Sumo Hall rundown
• Giulia future
• Nakajima vs. Miyahara II
• The most detailed look at the TV ratings of all the shows, rankings, demos, competition and comparisons with one year ago
• What AEW may have done this past week for the first time in its history
• What Japanese wrestler drew more major crowds in the U.S. than anyone in history
• Andrade's last match at Arena Mexico draws a sellout
• The unique show this week at Arena Mexico
• Lots of international groups coming to Philadelphia for WrestleMania
• Story behind the departures and changes in All Japan
• Annual New Year's Eve trio tournament coverage
• Takeshita comes to All Japan
• Surprise as far as popularity of Iron Claw in week two
• The story of World Class in Israel
• Mil Mascaras and Hulk Hogan speak
• Thoughts on Mad Kurt
• Grandfather of NJPW star will be honored by the King Charles
• Danielson talks his future
• International TV deals for WWE and AEW
• International TV ratings
• Streaming numbers for the past week
• UFC PPV experiment
• Lots of newcomers to WWE
• Advanced tickets for upcoming WWE & AEW & NJPW shows

This Week's Retro Observer Newsletter

• October 4, 2006 Observer Newsletter: Kurt Angle, Observer MMA Hall of Fame

Wednesday Update

WWE

• New NXT signee Madi Wrenkowski appeared in the crowd on last night’s NXT episode as part of the Chase U student section. Wrenkowski could also be seen in a video posted by NXT Anonymous earlier in the day. Before signing with WWE, Wrenkowski was an NWA Women’s Tag Team Champion and had been featured on AEW Dark.
• While appearing on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, LA Knight explained why he thinks the promo work he did during his feud with The Miz was some of the worst promo work he’s done in a while:
• Miz was really bringing it to the point where like I remember a couple guys in the back just being like, ‘Wow, I feel like this is like the best work Miz has done in a while.' Coincidentally, I felt like it was some of the worst work I'd done in a while. I hate pulling the curtain back a lot, but I'm not a good planner. I like to be off the cuff and I like to kind of just listen and react, but sometimes in these scenarios when you're doing this, you have to plan a little bit more just because there's so many moving parts and things like that and people want to know where you're going and whatever. But in the past, other places I've worked, it's just kind of, ‘Alright, well, we're gonna go out there and we're gonna generally talk about this.’ ‘Okay, cool.’ I'll say some stuff, they'll listen to me, and we’ll react and go back and forth. In this case, it was like, now I had kind of like planned canned stuff, but it's like, I don't know, whatever I'm thinking or saying at like three o'clock is not going to be the same stuff at eight o'clock, and so where I should have probably just dropped some of that stuff and just listened and reacted and just shot back that way, it was like, we got time, and I gotta hit the time, and they're expecting this, so some of that I was just kind of like, Ah, this just doesn't feel like my best.
• That's also I think, a bit of a process and still adapting because I'm still that old school, let's go out and call it out there. Let's go out there and do it on the fly, and let's just kind of, you know, I'm gonna listen and react. I don't want to know, and I don't want you to know because I want it to be fresh. I want it to be real. Like, I don't want you to already know what I'm going to say because then it's like, ‘Okay, let me react. Let it be real and then that way, I can really digest what you're saying to me, and then bring it back.'
• At the same time, I think that feud in general, rivalry, whatever you want to call it. Some people hate the word feud. That in general I think helped elevate us both in certain ways because I mean, I think it brought out a passion in him because I think there are similarities between us even though I think we're different, but we have some similarities to us. He was doing some great work, I feel like I was doing some great work, and at the same time, it was kind of like, showing a little bit of adversity because for so long, like I said, I was floundering and I wasn't doing much and now it's like, all of a sudden, now there's a little bit of elevation. So okay, let's show a little bit of adversity. Let's show, here's the guy who is established. He's been there for a while. At the same time, I'm gonna get under his skin, he's gonna get under my skin a little bit, but at the end of the day, I'm gonna kick his ass. So that's really what it comes down to. So as long as that happens and we accomplish that, then we're good.
• Jinder Mahal, Michin, and Nick Aldis were guests on WWE’s The Bump this afternoon.
• Though he didn’t directly address Tony Khan’s tweets from yesterday, Mahal did mention that he was trending all day on Twitter:
• It was a great start to the new year until I was interrupted by The Rock. But nonetheless, this past week, was in the ring with Seth Rollins. Told him exactly how I feel, and now I’m number one contender to the World Heavyweight Champion. I was trending on Twitter all day yesterday [laughs]. Trending on Twitter all day yesterday. And somehow, again, the Modern Day Maharaja is the talk of the town.
• Kayla Braxton will interview Randy Orton on The Bump next Wednesday. Carlito is also set to appear as a guest on the episode.

AEW/Other Wrestling

• Fightful reports that several AEW wrestlers have been told that Queen Aminata is signed with AEW. It isn’t known whether it’s a full-time or per-appearance deal.
• During his interview with Sports Illustrated, Samoa Joe named potential challengers he could face as AEW World Champion:
• Kenny Omega, when he’s healthy, and Will Ospreay. Swerve Strickland and Hangman, they’re both waiting for me. The matchups we can do are infinite. The possibilities going into this year are wide and varied, and it’s going to be very fun.
• Sports Illustrated also asked Joe about a potential matchup with Kazuchika Okada:
• That’s another first-time, fresh matchup you won’t see anywhere else. He can come get it, too. That’s for anyone. If someone feels like they want it, then show up–and we’ll see what you’ve got. But if you come up lame, I will laugh in your face.
• Orange Cassidy told Adrian Hernandez about the leadership Jon Moxley provides in AEW:
• Jon Moxley is a leader for AEW. I think a lot of people look to Jon Moxley for leadership. I am too, like Jon Moxley, a person that leads by example and I saw the example that he was setting and I was like, 'You know what? I want to do that.' I tried, but no one can be Jon Moxley because there's no Jon Moxley. I am forever in his debt for him changing and bringing up this version of me that is clearly a better version because I still have this thing (the AEW International Championship belt).
• Denise Salcedo has interviews with Will Ospreay and KUSHIDA.
• MuscleManMalcolm spoke with NJPW wrestler Gabe Kidd.
• DJ Whoo Kid and AJ Francis (former WWE wrestler Top Dolla) will debut the music video for their song “WE OUT$IDE” during TNA Wrestling’s Hard to Kill pay-per-view this Saturday.
• Mustafa Ali’s first post-WWE match is now available to watch on YouTube. The match was against Aigle Blanc for APC Catch in France.
• The NWA announced four new matches for their Paranoia tapings in Fort Lauderdale, Florida this Saturday:
• NWA World Women’s Champion Kenzie Paige defends against Tiffany Nieves
• NWA World Women’s Tag Team Champions Pretty Empowered (Ella Envy & Kylie Paige) defend against King Bees (Charity King & Danni Bee)
• Natalia Markova, Taylor Rising & Ruthie Jay vs. Miss Starr, Christi Jaynes & Missa Kate (the wrestler who scores the pinfall or submission earns an NWA World Women’s Championship shot)
• Eric Smalls vs. Gustavo vs. Rolando