Friday, October 2, 2026

0:00Our Katie and Vanguard presents The Wrestling News and your daily wrestling newscast for Friday, October 2, 2026. Good morning, I'm Mike Semper-VV. We begin today with ratings news. Last Friday's edition of SmackDown drew an audience of 1.263 million viewers to USA Network according to Russell Namix. That's a drop of just 1,000 viewers, less than 0.1% from the previous week's episode. The rating in the 18-49-year-old demographic was 0.27 down from the previous week's rating of 0.29. TNA presented impact last night on AMC and TNA Plus featuring matches taped on October 24th at the Boeing Center in San Antonio, Texas. In the main events, Hedrick Alexander defeated Ricky Sosa, BDE defeated Mr. elegance to become number one contender to the X division title, Indie Hartwell defeated Zoe Serrano by disqualification when Serrano brought a steel chair into the ring.

1:11In other results, Moose beat AJ Francis, order four top-the-grade hands and Leon Slater's Quascio Alonzo. Ring of Honor stream last night on Honor Club featuring matches taped on September 9th in Charleston, West Virginia and September 8 in Jacksonville, Florida. In the main event, Hedrick Kingston beat Tremperella in a non-title proving ground match for the ROH Women's World TV title Red Velvet defeated Becca, Dalton Castle and the Outrunners topped Aaron Solo, Nick Comerato and Griff Garrison in the opening match. In other results, Alec Price and Jordan Oliver defeated the grizzled young veterans. Beef Arya DeVari and Tony Nisbee, Darian Bengston, Troy Hollywood and Saeib El Sabah, Trisha Dora top Rachel Elring. M&M went over Il cartello Grillo, Cassie Lee beat Lady Lee, an Aero Fox beat LJ Cleary. And in unfortunate news, there are two passings to report today with the loss of Maritimes Wrestling TV announcer Clary Fleming in 1980s and 90s tag team wrestler Bart Baton.

2:11Clary Fleming passed away Wednesday afternoon from Brain Cancer at the age of 88 as was reported by your Halifax News.ca. A radio and TV announcer at a Halifax Nova Scotia Fleming worked in the 1970s as a television commentator and interviewer on the ATV Television Network, calling the action on International Wrestling, the broadcast of the Eastern Sports Association, otherwise known as the Maritimes Wrestling Territory. He began his career in radio at CJCH in Halifax and at the age of 24 was program director of CFDR and Dartmouth. As a wrestling commentator, he's best remembered for keeping his cool while conducting interviews with wrestlers most memorably with killer Carl Crop. Fleming is remembered also for his working commercials, particularly those for Sobe's Canadian supermarket chain and was a track announcer for harness racing. Bart Baton, one half of the Baton Brothers tag team, has also passed away at the age of 68 as was first reported on Facebook by World Class Professional Big Time Wrestling.

3:14The Baton Brothers also known as the Baton Twins and the US Express spent much of their career in continental Memphis Gymcrocket Promotions Texas Central States as well as Puerto Rico. The Brothers were trained by Angelo and Lanny Poffo making their debut in the Poffo's ICW promotion in 1983. They wrestled many years in Puerto Rico and held the WC Tag Team title on four occasions as well as the Caribbean Tag Team title twice. They were the Central States Tag Team Champions a record four times including a 1986 win over the midnight rockers and Bart also held the title of fifth time in 1987 with Rick McCord. Bart and his brother were often managed by downtown Bruno, aka Harvey Wippelman. Bart and Brad both wrestled as singles in WCW and Smoky Mountain wrestling in the early 90s. They continued tagging together occasionally into the 2000s with their last match as a tag team happening in 2005. Bart has last match as a singles wrestler in 2018.

4:14Bart Baton is pre-deceased by his brother Brad who passed away in 2014 at age 56. And before we leave you today, we'd like to remind you that however you consume your content, you can find the Wrestling News 24 hours a day and seven days a week across social media. On Twitter, follow us at Wrestling News AV. Our Facebook page is also Wrestling News AV. The Wrestling News can also be found on the Arcadian Vanguard YouTube page and for those who utilize Amazon Echo devices, just tell Alexa to play the Wrestling News podcast and remember to make sure you add podcast at the end. Once again, for daily updates breaking news and more, follow the Wrestling News across social media. And that's the news for today. If anything happens, we will be here to tell you about it. No clickbait, no paywall, just the Wrestling News. The Wrestling News is a division of Arcadian Vanguard and the Wrestling Newscast is a production of the Arcadian Vanguard podcast network.

5:23The Wrestling News is a division of Arcadian Vanguard and the Wrestling News is a division of Arcadian Vanguard and the Wrestling News.