Various: Nielsen’s Facing Potential Loss of Accreditation Over Issues Cause By Their New Ratings Measurement System, NOAH Announces Full Field for Junior Heavyweight Grand Prix 2025 Tournament, Indies/Misc

Oct 18, 2025

Nielsen’s Reportedly Facing Potential Loss of Accreditation Over Issues Caused By Their New Ratings Measurement System

As noted before, Nielsen Media Research launched a new television ratings measurement system called “Big Data + Panel” earlier this month. This new ratings system has resulted in a mostly negative impact for the wrestling television industry with WWE and AEW generating year-low to near year-low ratings numbers for some of their recent shows.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the Media Rating Council is currently reviewing Nielsen’s new ratings measurement system. The MRC is a governing body that reviews, audits, and accredits media measurement products.

Meltzer reported that Marketing Brew recenetly revealed that an email was sent to the audit committee members who had attended a Council meeting on September 10th.

This email reportedly requested that members vote to start the process of stripping Nielsen’s new system of its accreditation or to give Nielsen an additional 60 days to address some of the organization’s concerns about it.

The major concerns reportedly included delays in processing the ratings data, Nielsen’s comprehensive weighting, Nielsen’s Household Demographic Model which estimates demographic data for lacking details, and issues over its Hispanic demographic measurement.

Meltzer reported that the Council gave its accreditation to Nielsen’s new measurement system program this past January under the belief that the full year of testing would have removed the kinks before the system was officially put in place to replace the old one as the new “accepted” ratings going forward.

NOAH Announces Full Field for Junior Heavyweight Grand Prix 2025 Tournament

Pro Wrestling NOAH recently announced the full field of competitors for this year’s Junior Heavyweight Grand Prix tournament, which takes place from November 8th in Tokyo to November 21st in Sendai, Japan.

Full list of competitors for NOAH Junior Heavyweight Grand Prix 2025:

Hiromu Takahashi
AMAKUSA
Daga
Alejandro
Kai Fujimura
Tadasuke
Ninja Mack
HAYATA
Daiki Odajima
Black Menso~re
Shuji Kondo
Junta Miyawaki
Eita
Yuto Kikuchi
Jun Masaoka
Hajime Ohara

／
🏆11.21 仙台【NOAH Jr. GRAND PRIX Semi Final & Final】開催決定‼️‼️
＼

CROSS OVER 2025
📅11月21日(金)18:30開始/17:30開場

🏢仙台サンプラザホール大会の詳細を見るhttps://t.co/EuLuLezZv5 #noah_ghc pic.twitter.com/LrU9HfJa9R
— プロレスリング・ノア｜PRO WRESTLING NOAH (@noah_ghc) October 17, 2025

Misc. Wrestling News & Notes

Global News reported that the province of Alberta, Canada held a ceremony this past Wednesday in Calgary to dedicate a bridge on Highway 8 in Calgary in honor of the late Stu Hart. This bridge will now be known as the Stu Hart Memorial Bridge going forward in the city. Hart was the co-founder of Stampede Wrestling and the patriarch of the iconic Hart Family in wrestling. Hart was also the trainer at the iconic The Dungeon wrestling school in his house that trained many legendary and famous wrestlers including his sons Bret and Owen Hart.

The California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) held a hearing this past Wednesday and voted 6-0 in favor of the Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act. This bill has been backed by TKO Group had been seeking to make major changes in how the sport of boxing operates for their new TKO Boxing company. These changes include the creation of a new Unified Boxing Organization that would give power to promoters to control their own belts and rankings and also have full influence over their matchmaking decisions. Under the current Ali Act, only sanctioning bodies such as the WBC and WBO can manage ranking systems and championship. These new changes would also include the ability for boxers to remain in the current sanctioning body-run system or opt out by joining the UBO. This new bill also would contain a rule that will force both the UBO and non-UBO boxing promoters to pay a minimum of $150 per round and offer up to $25,000 in health coverage for injuries sustained by boxers. Many people in the MMA and boxing world have been vocal in their opposition to the new bill stating that this would allow one company to achieve a stranglehold or monopoly on the sport.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that The Smashing Machine drew $1,796,992 for its second weekend box office. Meltzer reported that this was a decline of 69.2% and the film ranked #8 in the box office for that weekend. Meltzer also reported that the film’s opening weekend box office was adjusted to a lower total of $5,841,662 compared to its earlier estimates of $6.2 million. Meltzer reported that as of October 14th, the film has grossed $10,181,196 in the U.S. and Canada and $3,399,036 internationally. Meltzer also reported that the current belief is that the film would need to gross around $70-80 million just to break even and is currently on pace to generate around a third of that amount for its box office total. This film starred Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and him portraying the role of MMA legend Mark Kerr.

TNA Wrestling recently announced that they will be airing a Fade To Black special for next week’s TNA Impact! show on October 23rd on AXS TV and Sportsnet 360. This upcoming special was announced to be a behind-the-scenes documentary based on TNA’s Bound For Glory 2025 event. A preview clip of this upcoming documentary was released during this past Thursday’s TNA Impact! After Glory special.

As noted before, TNA announced attendance of 7,795 for their Oct. 12th Bound For Glory 2025 event at the Tsongas Center in Lowell, Massachusetts. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that WrestleTix’s final tickets sold and distributed for TNA’s event was 6,623. Meltzer reported that WrestleTix’s number is more likely the real attendance for TNA’s event and this would put it lower than this past July’s Slammiversary 2025 event that was listed at 7,042 by WrestleTix.

TNA and WWE officials reportedly held recently talks regarding potential plans for a Best of Seven series between Leon Slater and WWE NXT talent Je’Von Evans, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

Fightful Select’s Sean Ross Sapp reported in a recent Q&A article that he currently believes WWE likely would not be buying TNA in the future. Sapp reported that TKO Group Holdings has not been in asset acquisition mode recently and WWE would not get much out of buying TNA beyond strengthening a potential antitrust case against WWE. Sapp also reported that another reason why he believes a purchase of TNA is unlikely is due to TNA has no particularly valuable television time slot, not many contracts, not much production equipment owned due to TNA rents most of it, and other issues that don’t make buying the company that appealing. Sapp reported that the main valuable asset TNA currently has is its IP and library.

Matt Hardy recently reflected on Twitter about him and Jeff Hardy celebrating the 33rd anniversary of the debut of their pro wrestling careers. Hardy stated “Today marks 33 full years that Jeff & I have been pro wrestlers. October 15th, 1992, was our first match in Carthage, NC. Here is our first promo pic, followed by our most recent pic, taken at BFG on Sunday. If you told young 1992 us we would experience all the success we have, we wouldn’t have believed it. My brother & I are both so grateful. Grateful for our loyal & dieHARDY fanbase. Grateful for the opportunities we’ve earned & been given. Grateful to God we’re as healthy as we are after all the punishment we’ve put our bodies thru. Grateful we’ve been able to inspire multiple generations. Thank you for letting these 2 kids from Cameron, NC live their childhood dreams & thrive in life. We are both SO blessed. With that said, it’s time to go to work in year number 34.“

Mickie James recently reflected on Twitter about her induction into TNA’s Hall of Fame at this past Sunday’s Bound For Glory 2025 event. James stated “Standing on that stage and being welcomed into the TNA Wrestling Hall of Fame was one of the most humbling and magical moments of my career. Thank you to @ThisIsTNA & @RealJeffJarrett for giving a young Alexis Laree her first real opportunity & to @TNADixie for welcoming me back & helping bring #HardcoreCountry to life. Thank you @carlossilva for the incredible honor bestowed upon me & for a beautiful ceremony at such a historic event for the company. @THETOMMYDREAMER thank you for believing in me, for fighting for me, and for always seeing the woman and the wrestler I’ve tried to be. To my sister, my ride-or-die, @REALLiSAMARiE thank you for inducting me — there’s no one else I’d rather share that moment with. You’ve been my partner in crime through it all, and I love you so much. To the entire Knockouts Division — past, present, and future — you are the heart and soul of this company. You’ve broken barriers, told stories, and made magic every single time you stepped through those ropes. I’m so proud to stand beside you all. And finally, to the fans — you’ve been with me through every high, every low, every reinvention and every return. Your love, your chants, your unwavering support… it means the world. I wouldn’t be here without you. This honor isn’t just mine — it’s ours.“

Ring of Honor recently announced one new match for the ROH TV tapings on October 29th in Edinburg, Texas: