Daily Update: WBD/Paramount deal, Christy Hemme, Babe Face passes away

Among the topics covered:

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— Our show with Garrett Gonzales covering the week’s issue is up on the site, where we talk about the WBD/Paramount update, All Out , Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens finish controversy, Kota Ibushi, Ari Emanuel outfoxing Vince McMahon and a look back at that period. Will Cody Rhodes get the credit he deserves as a star, and how CMLL’s success this year actually has hurt Mistico’s chances for Wrestler of the Year. We will also be back up Saturday night after All Out covering the show and the WWE shows this weekend as well.

— Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin told attorneys for both the state of California and Paramount that she wants both to address a number of concerns before approving the deal. She said she wanted them to do so in writing by Tuesday and said about whether to approve the settlement agreed upon on Monday, “I’ll get you a ruling in due course.”

— Jose Fuentes, who wrestled as Babe Face, passed away today at the age of 79. Babe Face was a major star in the 70s and 80s in the UWA in Japan. Bret Hart heavily praised him as a worker as they worked in New Japan at the same time in the early 80s. He was most famous as part of Los Tigres del Ring with Scorpio & Luis Mariscal. He was Mexican national light heavyweight champion from 1981 to 1983 and was one of the best workers in Mexico during that era, almost always a brawling heel who was known for his selling and bleeding. He worked with all the top junior heavyweight stars from Dynamite Kid, Tiger Mask, Gran Hamada, Perro Aguayo, El Hijo del Santo, Villano III and the like. He in recent years owned a restaurant called “Los Arroces del Babe Face,” near Arena Mexico where the menu had items named after famous wrestlers. He also had a big hair vs. hair match with Eddy Guerrero in 1988 in Ciudad Juarez.

— Christy Hemme wrote a paper on premature deaths of pro wrestlers due to heat issues, praising fans for helping wrestlers when they have had medical issues noting she had seen about $1.5 million raised by wrestlers themselves and wrestling fans for medical care and funeral costs as well as other financial hardships for wrestlers, most of whom worked for major promotions. She also wrote about worker misclassification, inadequate regulatory oversight and financial words disproportionately small compared to the risk. To access the report you can go to https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=7473640

— The Anthony Joshua vs Tyson Fury fight is back in jeopardy. It’s a power play where Turki Alalshikh is pushing the idea of doing Terrence Crawford vs. Ryan Garcia if he doesn’t get his way or Fury vs David Benavidez The current issue covers the complete childishness and arrogance involved in Joshua vs Fury. Basically when they made the deal with Joshua and Eddie Hearn, in the contract specifically they stated that Dana White could not promote the show and that it had to be in the U.K. Fury actually took it out of the deal he signed because he didn’t care, but Joshua insisted on both. They signed it. All sides agreed to it. Then Alalshikh went to White and Nick Khan to promote the show. and wanted it in Madison Square Garden since Netflix was going to pay for it and they wanted it in the U.S.

I will say this. If I was Netflix, all of these childish games should cause them to think twice going forward. Clearly Turki tells every person involved a different story. Joshua’s side balked, stating they contractually agreed both sides to those terms. Essentially, to override that, they are pushing that they won’t even do the fight after just announcing it this week if Joshua and Eddie Hearn, who did get their way in getting the fight in Cardiff, Wales don’t give in on the White promoting the show since he promised White a long time ago he’d be the promoter. Alalshikh today posted a photo with White and Nick Khan, to essentially show they have to be involved now even though he signed a different deal and White said when asked about promoting the show, “Who is gonna stop me.” So there you have current issues with boxing in a nutshell. Turki signs a contract, but then thinks he doesn’t have to live up to it, and now the pressure is on the fighter to give in on what they had signed.

— SmackDown tonight is from Indianapolis with Trick Williams vs Baron Corbin in a cage match for the U.S. title, plus Money in the Bank qualifiers with Gunther vs CM Punk vs. Finn Balor and Charlotte Flair vs. Guilia vs. Lash Legend. The show had 7,455 tickets out as of this afternoon. II think both AEW and WWE were hurt a bit because both ran Indianapolis this week.

— We’re looking for reports on these shows

We’re looking for results, finishes highlights and thoughts on these shows to [email protected]

— We’ll be doing two weekend polls, one for AEW All Out tomorrow night in Chicago and one for Sunday New Japan Destruction in Kobe show, you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match from each show to [email protected]

— Arena Mexico tonight has Noche de Campeones, with all the matches determined by fan voting

At this writing the show is not sold out, but they had a strong advance. It will almost surely be the largest crowd ever for a Noche de Campeones show.

— TNA tonight is taping TV in San Antonio with Ricky Sosa vs. Cedric Alexander, Leon Slater vs. Joe Alonzo and AJ Francis vs. Moose.

— People have been heavily praising last night’s Mustafa Ali vs Jason Hotch vs Trey Miguel main event on the TNA show from San Antonio.

— UFC starts at 5 p.m. Eastern tomorrow from the Apex Arena in Las Vegas

— At today’s weigh-ins, because Perez was twerking after weighing in, Dumont threw condoms at her and then threw money at her saying that you pay a whore with money. That was a new twist.

— The Memphis Wrestling TV show tomorrow will have a tribute show for Bill Dundee

— Khamzat Chimaev will face Robbie Lawler for the RAF show on 10/23 at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Las Vegas. The show is headlined by Arman Tsarukyan v.s Dillon Danis. Lawler hasn’t wrestled since high school 44 years old. Honestly from a sports standpoint, these two matches reflect horrible matchmaking. I can’t imagine anyone wants to see Danis and Lawler was famous because he was such a hard puncher and had exciting fights, but that was years ago.

— Jimmy Garvin turns 74 today. Aja Kong, on the short list of the greatest women wrestlers who ever lived, turned 56 today. Anthony Durante, who was Pitbull II in ECW, was 36 when he died 23 year ago today, Curtis Smith of the Infernos tag team was 80 when he died three years ago. Stanley Weston, who published the leading wrestling magazines in the country for decades, was born on this day in 1919. Villano II was born on this day in1949. Jerry Oski was born on this day in 1962 (thanks to Tony Richrds)

— Defy returns to Washington Hall in Seattle on 12/4 with a show called 8X Unknown, where everything on the show will be a surprise and no talent or matches will be announced ahead of time.

— MMA Fighting reported Brandon Moreno vs. Charles Johnson on 12/12 at the UFC show at the T Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Dave Meltzer is the founder and lead writer on the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the weekly constant when it comes to news and reviews in pro wrestling and mixed martial arts for more than 40 years. Dave also co-hosts Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and had had bylines for The National, Yahoo Sports, MMA Fighting and others.