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.
Former WWE star Ryback has been in talks over the last week with Bellator MMA about fighting. He teased an announcement on Twitter and Bellator has confirmed there have been talks, but nothing serious.
“Spoke, but nothing close,” said Bellator CEO Scott Coker.
Sources close to the wrestler confirmed to us that he’s interested in fighting and in the end it will come down to money. He spoke about the situation today on Las Vegas radio.
Ryback is nearly 35, and while incredibly strong, has never competed in any fighting sport, but he has done some training in boxing and Jiu Jitsu.
This has little to do with, from his perspective, what happened with C.M. Punk, who he wished well in his UFC debut. Punk was unsuccessful in his first fight after transitioning from the squared circle to the Octagon, losing to Mickey Gall by submission in the first round at UFC 203 earlier this month.
TNA champion Bobby Lashley also fights in Bellator.
Raw is tonight in Cincinnati. Chris Jericho returns to the tour for that show. There is also a Smackdown brand house show on Monday in Wheeling, WV with the entire crew including John Cena but not including Randy Orton.
Smackdown is Tuesday night from Cleveland. The main event is A.J. Styles vs. Dean Ambrose for the WWE title. John Cena and Randy Orton are both scheduled on the show.
Leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match: [email protected].
WWE Raw brand house show in Moline, IL (all the key members of the Raw roster are there except Chris Jericho) and NXT show in Jacksonville
WWE in Chicago (Raw brand house show plus Brock Lesnar vs. Randy Orton, no Chris Jericho)
WWE in Hershey, PA (Smackdown brand house show with John Cena but no Randy Orton)
ROH in Duluth, GA
WWE in State College, PA (Smackdown crew with John Cena and no Randy Orton)
ROH in Duluth, GA at the Infinte Energy Center (Colt Cabana vs. Jay Lethal in 2 of 3 matches with the first match being pinfalls only, second being submissions only and third being a 30 minute Iron Man match; Jay White & Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin vs. Kamaitachi & Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian in a Lucha Libre trios rules match; Jushin Liger vs. Dalton Castle; Silas Young vs. Stevie Richards; War Machine vs. All Night Express; Caprice Coleman vs. Delirious and Lio Rush vs. Jonathan Gresham).
Figure Four Weekly, 9/26/2016: The unlikely story of TJ Perkins (Part II) – When T.J. Perkins went to Florida Championship Wrestling without a WWE contract in 2009, it was a very different picture from how Ohio Valley Wrestling treated non contract talent before FCW took over for it as the primary developmental promotion. Subscribers click here to continue reading.
F4W YouTube Page: Tons of clips and full free audio shows that you can tell your friends about, and much more to come! Make sure you subscribe today!
Wrestling Observer Newsletter, September 26, 2016:Clash of Champions preview, new concussion test, more – The first Raw brand exclusive PPV takes place on 9/25 in Indianapolis, headlined by Kevin Owens vs. Seth Rollins for the Universal title. There are two business aspects to look at immediately. The first is whether these PPVs lead to a ratings bump, although the Raw the next day is expected to be at near all-time record lows due to the Presidential debate. The second is how it draws. The Smackdown only PPV on 9/11 in Richmond, VA, only drew 7,000 fans, and they were papering heavily… Subscribers click here to continue reading.
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 Meltzer, or by using PayPal directing funds to [email protected].
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No update on Seth Rollins past he was needing medical attention after taking the super gut buster from Kevin Owens in the match last night. He was having X-rays done earlier today. Cesaro, at last word, was fine, even though it looked scary the way he landed from that tope.
With the presidential debate, there’s a lot of talk of how tonight’s show will be the lowest rated Raw in history. To me, I’d completely discount the rating no matter what it is, and would consider anything over a 1.8 household number as a success. They may get a PPV bump, but but really the numbers from the last two weeks were more of a story than if this week does do poorly, because they are indicative of where they are at. Tonight’s number, if it stays even, says we’re probably not falling much from the past two weeks for the rest of football season. But if it’s way lower, the last two weeks are still the numbers far more indicative.
Matt Sydal tweeted yesterday saying he was in Hawaii and gave the impression it was a visa issue of sorts that kept him from entering Japan for this last New Japan tour.
The UFC has a press conference tomorrow at 6 p.m. Eastern time at The Theater in Madison Square Garden to announce the complete card for 11/12
Bryan and I will be back tonight talking Raw as well as the latest pro wrestling and MMA news. If you’ve got questions for the show, you can send them to [email protected].
WWE
For tonight’s show, they are pushing a storyline that HHH and Stephanie McMahon left the Clash happy with the idea that they are working together to keep Kevin Owens as champion. So the idea is Seth Rollins saw through them but Mick Foley didn’t.
Emma, Paige and Luke Harper are all backstage again today in Cincinnati. Keep in mind all three were last week and weren’t used.
WWE is offering combo tickets in Chicago for Raw and Smackdown tapings at the All-State Arena in Chicago on 12/26 and 12/27. The Monday night show starts at 6:30 p.m. and the Tuesday show at 6:15 p.m. They are pushing Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns and Charlotte as the top stars on Raw and Dean Ambrose, A.J. Styles and Becky Lynch as the top stars on Smackdown in advertising. Also listed for Raw are Kevin Owens, Chris Jericho, New Day, Sasha Banks, Rusev and Cesaro. For Smackdown also listed are Randy Orton, Bray Wyatt, The Miz, Dolph Ziggler, Nikki Bella and The Usos. They are pushing the idea you can get a ticket for both shows for just $30 (not $30 each but $30 for two tickets) with the tag line of being the best value in entertainment.
Asuka (Kanako Urai), turns 35 today.
Bruno Sammartino makes what he calls his final signing appearance on 11/19 in New York City as part of the Big Event Convention.
They are debuting a new Table for Three after Raw tonight with Kane, Big Show and Mark Henry.
The WWE 2K 17 Welcome to Suplex City TV spot is here.
VARIETY
There was a scary moment at the Progress Wrestling show on Saturday night at the Brixton Academy which was apparently one of the bigger indie events of the year. A match between Sebastian and Pastor William Eaver saw Eaver hit Sebastian with a clothesline, the bell rang, the referee made the count, and stopped at two like he was supposed to. The problem was that Sebastian never kicked out. They then stopped the match and promoter Jim Smallman told the crowd this was real and medics came to the ring. Sebastian was carried out on a stretcher, although he was okay and walking around backstage. He just apparently knocked out. Results from the show: Rampage Brown b Joe Coffey to win the Atlas title, Jinny & Alex Windsor & Dahia Black b Nixon Newell & Laura DiMatteo Pollyanna, Sebastian NC Pastor William Eaver, Pete Dunne & Trent Seven b James Davis & Rob Lynch to win the tag team tiles, Paul Robinson b Chuck Mamgo, Zack Sabre Jr. b Tommaso Ciampa 2/3 falls, Nathan Cruz & Zack Gibson & El Ligero & Dave Mastiff b Jack Gallagher & Eddie Dennis & Mark Andrews & Damon Mosetr, Mark Haskins won the Progress title in three-way over champion Marty Scurll and Tommy End by making Scurll tap to the sharpshooter after Jimmy Havoc returned and dropped Scurll with the acid rainmaker. They announced another show at the Brixton Academy on September 24, 2017, so it looks like this will be an annual thing. (thanks to Ian Hamilton)
Tammy Sytch has been taken into custody by the Carbon County Probation Department and is awaiting a hearing on a possible probation violation.
The son of Kimbo Slice, called Baby Slice, makes his pro debut on 10/21 in Memphis for Bellator in a prelim fight against Rick Bing. The fight at this point will stream on the Bellator web site as opposed to being on television.
Ricochet faces girlfriend Tessa Blanchard in the main event for Beyond Wrestling on Sunday in Somerville, MA. The show also features Joey Styles, Michael Elgin, Matt Riddle and MMA fighter Chuck O’Neil.
Glory kickboxing on 12/21 in Denver featuring Gabriel Varga vs. Robin van Roosmalen for the lightweight title.
CCW on 10/29 in Chatham, ONT at the WISH Centre.
MCW from Saturday night in Joppa, MD: Bill Collier & Paul Jordane b Bo Nekoda & Cousin Clay, Ivory Robyn & April Sera b Maria Manic & Angelina Love, Joe Keys b Dante Cabinero, Honky Tonk Man & Koko B. Ware & Tito Santana b Rock & Bowl Express with Danny Davis (WWF version) as referee and Jim Cornette as a heel manager, Paul Jordane won a Bunkhouse Stampede, Brandon Scott b Nick Cutler, Brittany Blake won three-way over Kimber Lee and Ivory Robyn, The Ecktourage b Punk Rock All-Stars in an anything goes match, Ken Dixon b Chuck Lennox, Swoggle & Bruiser & Rayo b Studd & Jeremiah & Vineberg, Drolix b King McBride to win the MCW title in a dog collar match. Bret Hart, Jimmy Hart, Shane Douglas and others were involved in this show.
MCW has another show on Saturday night in Hollywood, MD at the Hollywood Volunteer Fire Department featuring Scott Hall appearing.
CWE tonight in Regina, Saskatchewan at The Exchange, headlined by Nick Aldis vs. Wavell Star for the GWF title.
CWE from last night in Calgary: Danny Duggan b Shane Sabre, Travis Cole b Tony Novak, Tommy Lee Curtis b A.J. Sanchez, Jacob Creed b Math Magician, Jason Kincaid b Tony Kozina, Nick Aldis b Matt Hart (of the Hart wrestling family) to keep the GFW title, Dynamite Dan & Pistol Pete b Phantasmo & Scotty Mac. Next show in Calgary is 1/15.
Koji Kanemoto won the VKF title in Japan this past week beating Suichiro Katsumara with a moonsault.
Ho Ho Lun, who was in the cruiserweight classic, made a surprise appearance for the HEAT-UP promotion in Japan, losing to Kazuhiro Tamura. Tamura is the owner of the promotion.
IWF has live shows on 9/24, 10/1, 10/8, 10/22 and 10/29 at the IWF Centre in Nutley, NJ.
CZW has a free TV taping on 10/8 in Voorhees, NJ at the Combat Skate Zone at 2 p.m. they also have a regular show at 8 p.m. that night. No tickets are needed for the afternoon show. The evening show has a tangled web match with Tim Donst vs. Alex Colon vs. Danny Havoc vs. Rickey Shane Page and Jonathan Gresham defends the CZW title against Homicide.
Pro Wrestling Revolver on 10/28 in Clive, IA at the Seven Flags Event Center featuring Chavo Guerrero Jr. vs. Marty the Moth, Brian Cage vs. Fenix, PJ Black vs. Trevor Lee, DJZ vs. Triton (CMLL) vs. Gringo Loco, Caleb Konley vs. Silas Young, Jessicka Havok vs. Jake Manning, AR Fox vs. Davey Vega vs. Mat Fitchett vs. Ethan Case vs. Matthew Palmer vs. Anthony Henry, Sami Callihan & Dave & Jake Crist vs. Jason Cade & Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz.
Lucha Libre Boom on 10/15 in Naucalpan has Caristico vs. Mascara Dorada vs. Titan vs. Volador Jr. Not sure yet about Dorada on that one because he is going full-time with WWE shortly.
El Hijo del Santo & son El Santo Jr. face Silver King & Silver King Jr. tonight in Nuevo Laredo a the soccer stadium for Lucha Libre Convencion.
On 10/14 in Tijuana at Auditorio Municipal they have L.A. Park & ? vs Rush & La Mascara.
Major Baisden is starting a new promotion based in Kansas City called the NWL. He’s a successful entrepreneur who recently sold his last startup, a data services company, for a good bit of money. Chris Gough, a former WWE writer who has been active on the Kansas City scene, will be head of creative and talent relations, along with historian and former Memphis manager Scott Bowden. The idea is to start with shows in Kansas City and St. Louis, and expand into Texas, and then Portland and Seattle. They are looking at debuting in January. For more info you can go here.
There was a story about a bookstore in Winnipeg that mentions Ric Flair coming in and reading books there.
The television season of wrestling overexposure began this past week with both good and bad news. But when the numbers came in, virtually all the good news was limited to the World Wrestling Federation.
On 8/30, despite being moved back to an 11 p.m. start on the Eastern time zone due to U.S. Open tennis, and only going head-to-head with Nitro in the Pacific time zone, Raw’s rating was still larger than Nitro. This finished a week where Nitro the previous week had done its worst rating in years and probably had their been competition would have even beaten that mark, where Thunder did its all-time lowest rating, and figures to drop from there in future weeks due to the competition from Smack Down, and where WCW Saturday Night also did among its worst ratings in history.
WWE announced a new television deal in Germany for both Raw and Smackdown after the current deals expire in March 2017.
7Sports will be airing both shows, making it the first time WWE has been able to get over-the-air deals for both of its flagship shows in that market.
They will moving from Tele 5 (Raw) and Pro 7 Maxx (Smackdown). The former announced the decision last week not to renew its contract.
WWE claims they have a combined average of 500,000 viewers per week in the country.
“We are proud that we were able to secure this deal for Pro Sieben MAXX,” said 7Sports CEO Zeliko Karajica. “This gives us the opportunity to extend our WWE coverage and make sports entertainment even more popular in Germany.”
“ProSieben MAXX hare our vision and passion for engaging and entertaining WWE fans,” said Ed Wells, WWE Executive Vice President International. “This partnership creates our primary destination in ProSieben MAXX for fans to enjoy our unique blend of action-packed family entertainment.
ProSieben MAXX will also be a marketing partner in house shows on 11/2 in Frankfort at Festhalle, 11/3 in Munich at Olympiahalle, 11/8 in Oberhausen at the Koenig-Pisner Arena and 11/9 in Berlin at the MercedesBenz Arena..
New Japan Pro Wrestling held a press conference earlier today to announce its annual King of Pro Wrestling show — the biggest show that takes place between the G-1 finals in August and the Tokyo Dome show in January.
The show takes place on October 10 at Sumo Hall in Tokyo with a main event of Kazuchika Okada vs. Naomichi Marufuji for the IWGP heavyweight title. While the main event was known, the rest of the show was held back due to angles and match results of the three Destruction shows.
It’s notable that they are focused on five major matches and instead of a loaded show, the rest of the crew will continue in multiple person matches. That means the IC title, among other things, as well as Hiroshi Tanahashi, are not focused on.
Kenny Omega will defend his briefcase and January 4 title shot against Hirooki Goto, which is an interesting pick. Normally, he’d wrestle somebody who beat him during G-1 as opposed to the person he beat in the finals, but the feeling is the final match was so spectacular that they’ve put Goto in the spot.
The other three title matches are Katsuyori Shibata vs. Kyle O’Reilly for the Never openweight title, Mark & Jay Briscoe vs. Tama Tonga & Tanga Roa for the IWGP tag team titles and The Young Bucks vs. Ricochet & David Finlay for the IWGP jr. tag team titles. Finlay takes the place of Matt Sydal, and has become Ricochet’s regular tag team partner.
The rest of the show is multiple person matches, likely to set up angles for the November show in Osaka:
Hiroshi Tanahashi & Michael Elgin & Kushida & Jay Lethal vs. Tetsuya Naito & Seiya Sanada & Evil & Bushi
Manabu Nakanishi & Yuji Nagata & Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Go Shiozaki & Maybach Taniguchi & Katsuhiko Nakajima & Masa Kitamura of Pro Wrestling NOAH
Bobby Fish & Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Toru Yano & Jado & Rocky Romero & Baretta
Will Ospreay & Tomohiro Ishii & Yoshi-Hashi vs. Adam Cole & Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi
FROM INDIANAPOLIS AND ONLY AVAILABLE ON THE WWE NETWORK AND PPV.
*Kevin Owens vs. Seth Rollins for WWE title – On paper this should be a great match, as both have been consistently strong in big matches. It’ll be interesting to see how strong of a face Rollins will play here. As of the last odds we’ve seen when this report was being done, Owens was a 17-to-1 favorite, which tells you smart money probably has come in already. The original plan was for Finn Balor to still be champion and Rollins not to be in the title picture here.
*Rusev vs. Roman Reigns for U.S. title – After the non-match at SummerSlam, it was pretty much expected they’d be rematched here. Reigns is also a 17-to-1 favorite, although a DQ win would seem a possibility. Either way, the goal of the program is to get Reigns over as a babyface. This will probably get time and be a good match.
*Sami Zayn vs. Chris Jericho – Zayn was a 6-to-1 favorite. With Owens as champion, the time is to use Jericho, as Owens’ buddy, to get over new challengers for Owens. Of course we just had the Owens vs. Zayn last match and now they’re already working nightly again.
*Charlotte vs. Sasha Banks vs. Bayley for women’s title – Charlotte was listed at -505 to retain. This match has changed three times in the last three weeks. This also should be a good match since all three worked together in NXT for years.
*Cesaro vs. Sheamus in match seven of the best of seven series – Sheamus is actually the favorite here at -210. With heels holding both the WWE and U.S. titles, it doesn’t make sense on the surface to put a heel over in a match to determine the next title contender, so we’ll see how this goes.
*New Day vs. Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson for tag team title – Gallows & Anderson are at -1050. This title change is actually overdue, because they’ve been doing this program for so long and interest feels like it’s gotten weaker with some of the bad angles.
*T.J. Perkins vs. Brian Kendrick for cruiserweight title – Perkins is a 26-to-1 favorite and he should retain here. The question is how will the crowd react to this match after the way the cruiserweights were presented on Raw and Perkins not even appearing on the show. Perkins has looked great in his long matches, but on paper this isn’t the high flying spectacular match that at least the cruiserweight debut should be. Nor did Raw do a good job of making Kendrick a babyface that anyone should care about.
*Alicia Fox vs. Nia Jax (preshow match) – Jax is favored by a 20-1 margin. At this stage, there is no logic in Fox winning.
On paper this looks like a good show, which, if the Rusev, Jericho and women’s match clicks big, could be a great show. But with so much competition and the split in star power, it doesn’t feel like a show with major interest.
Raw will be on Monday night in Cincinnati. Chris Jericho returns to the tour for that show. There is also a Smackdown brand house show on Sunday in Wheeling, WV with the entire crew including John Cena but not including Randy Orton.
Smackdown is Tuesday night from Cleveland. The main event is A.J. Styles vs. Dean Ambrose for the WWE title. John Cena and Randy Orton are both scheduled on the show.
Leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match: [email protected].
WWE Raw brand house show in Moline, IL (all the key members of the Raw roster are there except Chris Jericho) and NXT show in Jacksonville
WWE in Chicago (Raw brand house show plus Brock Lesnar vs. Randy Orton, no Chris Jericho)
WWE in Hershey, PA (Smackdown brand house show with John Cena but no Randy Orton)
ROH in Duluth, GA
WWE in State College, PA (Smackdown crew with John Cena and no Randy Orton)
ROH in Duluth, GA at the Infinte Energy Center (Colt Cabana vs. Jay Lethal in 2 of 3 matches with the first match being pinfalls only, second being submissions only and third being a 30 minute Iron Man match; Jay White & Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin vs. Kamaitachi & Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian in a Lucha Libre trios rules match; Jushin Liger vs. Dalton Castle; Silas Young vs. Stevie Richards; War Machine vs. All Night Express; Caprice Coleman vs. Delirious and Lio Rush vs. Jonathan Gresham).
Figure Four Weekly, 9/19/2016: The Unlikely Story of TJ Perkins (Part I) – T.J. Perkins being the winner of WWE’s Cruiserweight Classic and first champion of the new version of the cruiserweight division was something of a surprise. It was clear that Zack Sabre Jr. and Kota Ibushi were booked as the stars, but neither signed with the company. Gran Metalik (Mascara Dorada) and Perkins, who both signed… Subscribers click here to continue reading.
F4W YouTube Page: Tons of clips and full free audio shows that you can tell your friends about, and much more to come! Make sure you subscribe today!
Wrestling Observer Newsletter, September 26, 2016:Clash of Champions preview, new concussion test, more – The first Raw brand exclusive PPV takes place on 9/25 in Indianapolis, headlined by Kevin Owens vs. Seth Rollins for the Universal title. There are two business aspects to look at immediately. The first is whether these PPVs lead to a ratings bump, although the Raw the next day is expected to be at near all-time record lows due to the Presidential debate. The second is how it draws. The Smackdown only PPV on 9/11 in Richmond, VA, only drew 7,000 fans, and they were papering heavily… Subscribers click here to continue reading.
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 Meltzer, or by using PayPal directing funds to [email protected].
Rates in the United States are $13 for 4 issues, $32 for 12, $61 for 24, $101 for 40 and $131 for 52. In Canada and Mexico, rates are $14.50 for 4, $35 for 12, $67 for 24, $111 for 40 and $144 or 52. In Europe, you can get the fastest delivery and best rates by sending to [email protected]. For the rest of the world, rates are $16.50 for 4, $44 for 12, $85 for 24, $141 for 40 issues and $183 for 52. If you order by mail with a check, cash or money order (P.O. Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228), you can get $1 off in every price range.)
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WON Back Issue, August 30, 1999: WWF Summerslam, Hulk Hogan and Bret Hart first match, more – Jesse Ventura’s return to pro wrestling drew the mainstream attention which probably led to a lot of curiosity buys, and WWF made the most of it putting on one of the better PPV shows of 1999. Subscribers click here to continue reading.
SUNDAY NEWS UPDATE
WWE
Randy Orton appeared last night on Booker T’s radio show in Houston. He talked about going AWOL before he was a wrestler saying, “I didn’t have the courage to die for my country. You could see from them the courage to die for this country, that they would be willing to risk everything for this country, for our freedom. that’s why you should stand for the pledge. That’s why you should stand for the anthem.” He also said he respects what Colin Kaepernick was kneeling for but doesn’t respect what he’s doing.
The Bella Twins are on the cover of the new Muscle & Fitness Hes magazine. They will also be on the TV show Hollywood Medium on Wednesday night at 8 p.m. on E! They will also be at the Phoenix Fan Fest sci-fi comic book convention 10/22 and 10/23 at the Phoenix Convention Center, with John Cena and Daniel Bryan.
At last night’s show in Brasilia, they announced these matches for Madison Square Garden on 11/12:
Tyron Woodley vs. Stephen Wonderboy Thompson for the welterweight title
Joanna Jedrzejczyk vs. Karolina Kowalkiewicz for the women’s strawweight title
Donald Cerrone vs. Kelvin Gastelum
Miesha Tate vs. Raquel Pennington
Frankie Edgar vs. Jeremy Stephens
Tim Kennedy vs. Rashad Evans
Lyman Good vs. Belal Muhammad
Jim Miller vs. Thiago Alves
Rafael Natal vs. Tim Boetsch
Liz Carmouche vs. Kaitlyn Chookagian
They specifically left one main card spot open, as Edgar vs. Stephens will be the FS 1 main event and the top four bouts will be on PPV. The main event is likely to be announced Tuesday at a press conference at Madison Square Garden at 6 p.m., at the theater, open to the public. Conor McGregor makes sense for the spot.
Tickets for the show go on sale to Fight Pass members on Wednesday and tickets go on sale to the publicon Friday.
MISCELLANEOUS
Lucha Ilimitado has gotten some pub doing the same thing TNA tried to do and didn’t get much pub out of, which is a grandstand invitation to Donald Trump. In this case, the idea is that Rey Mysterio has invited Trump to the show and the promotion said that a Trump campaign member told the promotion that the offer was being considered. Sure. Mysterio said if Trump comes he will honor him and he will unmask and talk to him.
Results from Friday night’s CES fights from Lincoln, RI on AXS TV were:
*Kody Norby (7-4) b Branden Seyler (6-4-1) via decision 30-27, 30-27, 30-27
*Pat Walsh (9-2) b Carlos Aveallos (3-4) via TKO at 1:49
*David Garcia (4-1-1) b Rico DiSciullo (6-1, 1 NC) via keylock 2:25
*Mike Rodriguez (5-1) b John Poppie (7-4) triangle 1:32 second round
*Calvin Kattar(16-2) b Chris Foster (9-5), 29-28, 30-27, 30-27
*Levin Makashvili (12-2-1) b Sean Soriano (9-5) via choke 4:05 second round
CWE from Friday night in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan: A.J. Sanchez b Shane Sabre, Tony Kozina won three-way over Tony Novak and Fil Deadly, Danny Duggan & Tommy Lee Curtis b Travis Cole & Math Magician, Jason Kincaid b The Chief, Nick Aldis b Dice Steel to keep the GFW title. Next show in St. Albert at the Prince Alberta Exhibition Grounds will be on 1/12. The promotion runs tonight in Calgary at the Royal Canadian Legion #1 with Aldis defending against Matt Hart, managed by Smith Hart, and Kincaid vs. Kozina.
CWE from last night in St. Albert, SK: Shane Sabre b Travis Cole, Jason Kincaid b Jeremy Joseph, A.J. Sanchez b Jacob Creed, Danny Duggan & Tommy Lee Curtis b Phantasmo & Tony Kozina, Math Magician b Tony Novak, Nick Aldis b Scotty Mac to keep the GWF title Next show in St Albert is 1/14.
Preston City Wrestling from yesterday in Preston, England: Iestyn Rees b Noam Dar and Sha Samuels in a three-way to win the PCW title, Chris Ridgeway b Charlie Garrett, Dave Mastiff b Kazma Sakamoto, Bubblegum b Zack Sabre Jr. to keep the PCW cruiserweight title, El Liger b Sammy Smooth, Rob Lynch & James Davis b Jack Evans & Angelico, Danny Hope b Adam Maxted, Rampage Brown & T-Bone b Roy & Zak Knight in a TLC match to retain the PCW tag titles Martin Kirby & Joey Hayes b Rampage Brown to win the PCW tag titles after a Money in the bank cash-in. Dar got a standing ovation talking about his five years with the promotion. Samuels challenged him to a title match, and Rees was added by GM Dave Rayne midway through the match. All the key matches were good. (thanks to Jan Buxton).
TNA’s Jessie Godderz will be in the new TV series New Dogs, Old Tricks playing the role of Evan McLaine. The show will premier in the spring or next summer. He’s also got a role in the FX movie “Snowfall” that will air in the spring.
WrestleMerica from yesterday in Barnesville, GA before 125 fans: Chris Henry b Damien Bennett, Iceberg NC Razor, Matt Gilbert & Bailey Mannix & Stevens b Fry Daddy & Captain WrestleMerica (David Tita) & Mr. WrestleMerica (Damien Bennett), Iceberg & Razor b Scotty Beach & Big Zane George-DQ, Tyson Dean b The Barbarian. Next show is 10/8 with Sean Waltman.
Wrestle Over Everything from last night in Caseyville, IL: Billy McNeil b Danny Adams, Robbie McCann b Moondog Pongo, Barackus b Nelson Sixx, Tyler Copeland b Gavin Alexander in a stretcher match LaMarcus Clinton b Brian Valor, Richard Faith b Da’Marius Jones, Darius Lee d Blake Belakis, Leone Mephisto b Brandon Aaron to unify the Wrestling Invaders America champion and Pro Wrestling Epic championship. (thanks to Patrick Brandmeyer)
Ultimate Championship Wrestling from last night in Bay City, MI: Dave Duponte & Chuck Wagon b Jay Maynard & Lawrence Jeter, Jake Something DCOR Danny Shay, Austin Manix & Chris Moore b Aaron Orion & Ben Boone, Kelly Klein won over Ingrid Isley & Shayla Hyde, John E Bravo b Bobo Brown, Gavin Quinn b Black Bushido, Hakim Zane DDQ MVP. Ron Simmons also appeared at the show. (thanks to Leonard Brand)
There was no new episode of Lucha Xtreme in Fresno due to the Giants game going long. When the game ended, they aired 30 minutes of last week’s show. KAIL in Fresno is now airing Best in the World starting 10/16 in a Sunday night at 10 p.m. time slot. Lucha Xtreme is listed as Saturday at 11 a.m. next week. (thanks to Jon Southerland)
Best in the World TV tapings from last night in Fresno before 100 fans: Wiseguy retained his title over Sheik Khan Abadi and Chupacabra, Lords of the Underworld b Midnight Delight to become the first tag team champions, Joey Ryan b Virgil Flynn, Scorpio Sky b Will Roberts, Suburban Commandos b Sledge & Marcus Ericks.
Rodolfo Ramirez, 28, an MMA fighter with a 2-0 record out of Arizona, was arrested on Wednesday on two counts of kidnapping, three counts of sexual assault and one count of sexual abuse related to an intoxicated woman. This has gotten a lot of publicity with the MMA fighter hook. Scottsdale, AZ police said that the victim was out drinking with a friend at a bar, The Bottled Blonde. At the end of the night, the victim’s friend left her alone to get the car, and when the friend returned, the victim had disappeared. The police report says Ramirez found the victim passed out in a parking lot. The friend drove him thinking the victim had taken a cab back home. The victim told police she could only remember drinking at the bar, and blacked out while being sexually assaulted in the parking lot. The sexual assault was captured by a surveillance camera and police also found an earring owned by the victim and her phone inside the garbage. The court documents claim Ramirez sexually assaulted her twice more at his home, and then dropped her off the next morning. Ramirez first told police he didn’t know the victim, and claimed he wouldn’t have been with her because she wasn’t pretty enough and not his type, then claimed the sex was consensual was told there was footage, but eventually admitted she had passed out. Ramirez is being held without bond.
Raw presents its first brand-exclusive pay-per-view since the WWE Draft on Sunday night as Clash of Champions hails from Indianapolis, IN.
We’re looking for your thoughts on these three shows, New Japan Destruiction in Hiroshima, Destruction in Kobe and this show with thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to [email protected]
In the show’s main event, Kevin Owens will defend his WWE Universal Championship for the first time since winning the the title on Raw a few weeks ago. Owens will defend against Seth Rollins, who he pinned to win the title after Triple H returned and turned on Rollins.
Every other Raw title will also be on the line as Brian Kendrick challenges TJ Perkins for the Cruiserweight Championship, Charlotte defends her Women’s Championship against Sasha Banks and Bayley in a triple threat match, Rusev defends his U.S. title against Roman Reigns, and The New Day put their tag titles on the line against Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows.
The card for the show is:
WWE Universal Champion Kevin Owens defending against Seth Rollins
Raw Women’s Champion Charlotte defending against Sasha Banks and Bayley in a triple threat match
United States Champion Rusev defending against Roman Reigns
WWE Cruiserweight Champion TJ Perkins defending against Brian Kendrick
Raw Tag Team Champions The New Day defending against Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows
Cesaro vs. Sheamus in the final match of their best-of-seven series
Sami Zayn vs. Chris Jericho
Nia Jax vs. Alicia Fox on the Clash of Champions kickoff show
By Dave Meltzer
NIA JAX VS. ALICIA FOX
Short match with Jax mostly ragdolling her. Fox did get two near falls including with a scissors kick. Jax came back and ran her over, a running hip attack that missed but was sold like it hit and a Samoan drop for the pin. Weak match.
NEW DAY VS. LUKE GALLOWS & KARL ANDERSON FOR TAG TITLES
The New Day did a monologue about how Gallows & Anderson wear tube sox with their flip flops and fart in crowded elevators. They said Steiners and Dudleys are the only teams to have held both the IWGP and WWE tag titles.
Short match, fast paced though. Kingston did a dive on Gallows. Xavier Woods hit Anderson with the trombone and then E & Kingston did the double-team big ending on Anderson for the pin. They pushed this as 400 days as tg team champions. E had had used the big ending on Anderson after Kingston did trouble in paradise on him, but Gallows pulled E out of the ring for the save earlier.
T.J. PERKINS VS. BRIAN KENDRICK FOR THE CRUISERWEIGHT TITLE
They did a lot of cool things and missed a few spots. Perkins retained via submission. Kendrick went for the bully choke but Perkins escaped, used a kick to the head and a kneebar for the submission. After the match, the two hugged but Kendrick then head-butted Perkins to turn himself heel and keep the program going. The crowd was decently into it, not really the match but they did the dueling chants. It was far from the spectacular cruiserweight you’d want to make a statement, but it was a good match.
They did a video game commercial using the old Petula Clark song “Downtown.” Commercial was really good, and there was an appearance of Alberto in there.
Cesaro was in a white suit. He said he was going to prove he’s the most physically dominant and have the biggest comeback in sports entertainment history.
SHEAMUS VS. CESARO
The two had an excellent match which ended when they were on the floor and Cesaro threw Sheamus into the post and then clotheslined him over the barricade into the ringside area. then both were selling injuries and the match ended with the referee ruling neither man couild continue. Sheamus had kicked out of the neutrlizer and Cesaro had kicked out of the Brogue kick. There were a lot of big spots and they did far more high flying than the cruiswerweights. At one point Cesaro did a tope but had a bad trajectory and landed on the side of his head. He seemed to come close to an injury. Everyone acted concerned but they worked several more minutes of big moves before their finish.
Charlotte and Bayley were backstage. Charlotte said you got in this match because of a dunce of a referee and an accidental pin. Charlotte said you’re not going to win. Bayley said I beat you before and I can beat you agian. Charlotte told her that she can’t even beat Sasha.
CHRIS JERICHO VS. SAMI ZAYN
Another excellent match. Zayn kept going for the Helluva kick but never got it. After Zayn got a near fall with the blue thunder bomb, Jericho used the codebreaker for the clean pin. Just a great well-built match and the one spot that wasn’t smooth, when Zayn did the dive from the floor through the ropes into and out of the ring into a DDT on the floor, which looked clumsy, Corey Graves did a great job of covering for by saying Jericho went to block the move.
Mick Foley & Stephanie McMahon are backstage with Kevin Owens. Foley said he was proud of Owens. Owens started acting sarcastic to Foley. Owens said he’s going to show why HHH picked him over Seth Rollins and why they should have picked him and not Seth Rollins as the first draft pick. He said Seth Rollins is no longer the man, he’s the mistake, and then told Foley, he’s your mistake. Foley said all the grseat ones have a chip on their shoulder
CHARLOTTE VS. SASHA BANKS VS. BAYLEY FOR WOMEN’S TITLE
Another good match. It was the typical three-way with everyone using their finishing move with the third person making the save. The show was built around Charlotte, who retained her title using a high kick to Bayley, knocking her into Sasha Banks which knocked Banks off the apron. Charlotte used another high kick on Bayley for the pin. Dana Brooke saved Banks once when she was the in bank statement. Banks used the back stabber and bank statement several times. Once Charlotte did a moonsault on both and went to pin Banks but Bayley saved.
RUSEV VS. ROMAN REIGNS FOR U.S. TITLE
Good match ending with Reigns winning the title clean with a spear out of nowhere. Reigns had powerd out of the Accolade. Earlier Reigns hit the spear but Lana pulled the ref out of the ring and he threw Lana out. Rusev did a great job here, a solid physical match but not the level of the Jericho or the Cesaro match. So the idea looks to be to use the U.S. title to keep Reigns out of the Universal title situation for a while. The crowd booed Reigns at times, like when he made comebacks, but there were an early loud dueling chant like with John Cena.
Mick & Stephanie told Rollins how proud they were of him. Rollins told Stephanie everything that comes out of her mouth is a bold faced lie and told her to tell her husband he bet against the wrong guy. They are clearly building Rollins vs. HHH that they wanted to do before Rollins was hurt last year.
KEVIN OWENS VS. SETH ROLLINS FOR THE UNIVERSAL TITLE
Good match, never reached the heat level of some of the other matches. Owens retained due to inteference of Chris Jericho and hitting a power bomb after a ref bump when Stephanie McMahon sent out a second ref. So the idea is the second ref was sent by Stephanie but it wasn’t overt in the sense it wasn’t as if she was blatantly favoring Owens. But she didn’t send the second ref out when Rollins had hit a pedigree and Owens was down for 20 seconds. Among the match highlights were Owens missing a senton and going through the Spanish table. Rollins kicked out of a package power bomb. Rollins hit his first pedigree and Jericho put Owens foot on the ropes to stop the count. Then we had the ref bump, leading to the Rollins second pedigree but no ref to count. Jericho then blatantly attacked, but Rollins backdropped Jericho over the top and hit a tope on Jericho and another on Owens on the other side of he ring. Remember that Jericho was originally to be in a three-way main event at Hell in a Cell with Owens and Finn Balor, and Rollins has been subbing for Balor.
We’re looking for your thoughts on yesterday’s Destruction in Hiroshima show, so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to [email protected]. Our other weekend poll will be on Saturday night/Sunday’s Destruction in Kobe show.
We’re looking for reports tonight on the WWE Raw brand house show in Moline, IL (all the key members of the Raw roster are there except Chris Jericho) and NXT show in Jacksonville to [email protected] and [email protected].
NEW JAPAN WORLD PRO WRESTLING RETURNS AT 8 P.M. TONIGHT ON AXS TV (one hour earlier than usual)
Mascara Dorada vs. Bushi for CMLL welterweight title
Fuego & Soberano Jr. & Pegasso & Oro vs. Virus & Puma & Tiger
Angel de Oro & Titan & Johnny Idol vs. Hechicero & Ephesto & Bobby Z
Atlantis & Marco Corleone & Stuka Jr. vs. Ultimo Guerrero & Shocker & El Terrible
Rush vs. Matt Taven
Reyes de Aire elimination match: Mistico, Volador Jr., Dragon Lee, Maximo Sexy, Valiente, Mascara Dorada, Negro Casas, La Mascara, Cavernario, Mephisto, Euforia, and Dragon Rojo Jr.
UFC ON SATURDAY FROM BRASILIA, BRAZIL
Fight Pass at 6:30 p.m. Eastern time
Glaico Franca (13-4) vs. Gregor Gillespie (7-0)
Vicente Luque (9-5-1) vs. Hector Urbina (17-9-1)
Alan Patrick (13-1) vs. Stevie Ray (19-5)
FS 1 at 8 p.m.
Luan Chagas (14-1-1) vs Erick Silva (18-7)
Jussier Formiga da Silva (18-4) vs Dustin Ortiz (15-5)
Michinori Tanaka (11-1) vs. Rani Yahya (22-8)
Mike De La Torre (14-5) vs. Godofredo Pepey (12-4)
Thiago Santos (12-3) vs. Eric Spicely (8-1)
Paul Felder (12-2) vs. Francisco Trinaldo (20-4)
Roy Nelson (21-13) vs. Antonio Silva (19-8-1)
Renan Barao (33-4) vs. Philippe Nover (11-6-1)
Cristiane Cyborg Justino (16-1) vs. Lina Lansberg (6-1)
We’re looking for reports on Sunday from this shows: [email protected]
WWE in State College, PA (Smackdown crew with John Cena and no Randy Orton)
ROH in Duluth, GA at the Infinte Energy Center (Colt Cabana vs. Jay Lethal in 2 of 3 matches with the first match being pinfalls only, second being submissions only and third being a 30 minute Iron Man match; Jay White & Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin vs. Kamaitachi & Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian in a Lucha Libre trios rules match; Jushin Liger vs. Dalton Castle; Silas Young vs. Stevie Richards; War Machine vs. All Night Express; Caprice Coleman vs. Delirious and Lio Rush vs. Jonathan Gresham).
NEW JAPAN DESTRUCTION IN KOBE AT 3 A.M. EASTERN TIME SUNDAY MORNING, MIDNIGHT PACIFIC LATE SATURDAY NIGHT ON NEW JAPAN WORLD
David Finlay & Henare & Hirai Kawato vs. Will Ospreay & Rocky Romero & Baretta
Yoshitatsu & Captain New Japan vs. Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens
Manabu Nakanishi & Yuji Nagata vs. Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly
Satoshi Kojima & Ricochet & Matt Sydal vs. Young Bucks & Adam Cole for Never trios titles
Hirooki Goto & Tomohiro Ishii & Mark & Jay Briscoe vs. Kenny Omega & Bad Luck Fale & Tama Tonga & Tanga Roa
Hiroshi Tanahashi & Juice Robinson & Kushida vs. Seiya Sanada & Evil & Bushi
Kazuchika Okada & Yoshi-Hashi & Gedo & Jado vs. Naomichi Marufuji & Toru Yano & Atsushi Kotoge & Daisuke Harada in New Japan vs. NOAH
Michael Elgin vs. Tetsuya Naito for the IC title
WWE CLASH OF CHAMPIONS ON SUNDAY FROM INDIANAPOLIS
Kevin Owens vs. Seth Rollins for WWE title
Rusev vs. Roman Reigns for U.S. title
Sami Zayn vs. Chris Jericho
Charlotte vs. Sasha Banks vs. Bayley for women’s title
Cesaro vs. Sheamus in match seven of the best of seven series
New Day vs. Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson for tag team title
T.J. Perkins vs. Brian Kendrick for cruiserweight title
Alicia Fox vs. Nia Jax (preshow match)
Raw will be on Monday night in Cincinnati. Chris Jericho returns to the tour for that show. There is also a Smackdown brand house show on Sunday in Wheeling, WV with the entire crew including John Cena but not including Randy Orton.
Smackdown is Tuesday night from Cleveland. The main event is A.J. Styles vs. Dean Ambrose for the WWE title. John Cena and Randy Orton are both scheduled on the show.
Figure Four Weekly, 9/19/2016: The Unlikely Story of TJ Perkins (Part I) – T.J. Perkins being the winner of WWE’s Cruiserweight Classic and first champion of the new version of the cruiserweight division was something of a surprise. It was clear that Zack Sabre Jr. and Kota Ibushi were booked as the stars, but neither signed with the company. Gran Metalik (Mascara Dorada) and Perkins, who both signed… Subscribers click here to continue reading.
F4W YouTube Page: Tons of clips and full free audio shows that you can tell your friends about, and much more to come! Make sure you subscribe today!
Wrestling Observer Newsletter, September 26, 2016:Clash of Champions preview, new concussion test, more – The first Raw brand exclusive PPV takes place on 9/25 in Indianapolis, headlined by Kevin Owens vs. Seth Rollins for the Universal title. There are two business aspects to look at immediately. The first is whether these PPVs lead to a ratings bump, although the Raw the next day is expected to be at near all-time record lows due to the Presidential debate. The second is how it draws. The Smackdown only PPV on 9/11 in Richmond, VA, only drew 7,000 fans, and they were papering heavily… Subscribers click here to continue reading.
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 Meltzer, or by using PayPal directing funds to [email protected].
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WON Back Issue, August 30, 1999: WWF Summerslam, Hulk Hogan and Bret Hart first match, more – Jesse Ventura’s return to pro wrestling drew the mainstream attention which probably led to a lot of curiosity buys, and WWF made the most of it putting on one of the better PPV shows of 1999. Subscribers click here to continue reading.
FRIDAY NEWS UPDATE
Today would be the 99th birthday of El Santo, the most famous wrestler in Mexico and most of the Spanish speaking world. When you go to google.com and see a Lucha Libre depiction, it is meant as a celebration of Santo’s birthday.
Regarding Cody Rhodes, he will be doing Bound for Glory on 10/2 but is still scheduled for ROH starting with Final Battle on 12/2 and will be working somewhat regularly with ROH in the first few months of 2017. He can’t use the name Cody Rhodes which is why last night on TNA he was just called Cody, but they can call his wife Brandi Rhodes, and she will be wrestling there as well. While Mike Bennett is working with Moose at Bound for Glory, the eventual program is Cody & Brandi Rhodes vs. Bennett & Maria Kanellis, which will probably be pushed at the post-BFG tapings.
There are now predictions that Monday’s Presidential debate will do 80 to 100 million viewers, which is close to Super Bowl levels. As noted on the show Wednesday night, you really should throw out any significance to the rating Raw does on Monday because it probably won’t be indicative of anything if it sets the expected record low. If it doesn’t set the record low, it would be indicative to the bump from the PPV and that the audience left is very loyal.
Matt Sydal has been off all of the New Japan shows this tour with the only public explanation being a flight issue, which would explain missing one show, but not there. Nothing else has been said as of yet but he’s got a major match for the trios title late tomorrow night on the biggest show of the tour. David Finlay filled in for him on today’s show teaming with Ricochet & Satoshi Kojima.
Kurt Angle was on the Dan LeBatard show and claimed at his worst he was taking 65 extra strength Vicodin daily. He noted that everybody was drinking in TNA so he drank and took meds and would save them all for the night, noting it led to four DUI’s in five years. He finally went to rehab in 2013 and claimed until that point that the drug addictions were ruining his life.
Two more fights have been added to the 11/12 show in Madison Square Garden. Joanna Jedrzejczyk vs. Karolina Kowalkiewicz for the women’s strawweight title was announced today along with Miesha Tate vs. Raquel Pennington. There will be a press conference on Tuesday at The Theater in Madison Square Garden where it is expected most of the show will be announced.
WWE
Luke Harper is being advertised for upcoming Raw shows.
Regarding the loss of current German TV in March when the contract expires which was covered in the latest Observer, WWE released a statement saying, “WWE is near the end of a positive and transparent bidding process for our flagship programs, Raw and Smackdown, with strong responses from multiple parties.”
Randy Orton will be the guest on Booker T’s radio show “Heated Conversations” on Sports Radio 610 in Houston on Saturday night at 8:30 p.m. local time (7:30 p.m. Eastern). He’s going to talk about his Tweets on the flag, the national anthem and more.
The WWE is putting out Magnum T.A. action figures. Mattel had negotiated Magnum action figures years ago. He has a contract with WWE for marketing purposes and being in the video game. He noted he still follows wrestling, watching Lucha Underground (his stepdaughter, Tessa Blanchard, is the girlfriend of Prince Puma), along with WWE and some TNA. In a related note, Highspots is doing a documentary called “I Never Quit – The Magnum TA story” which will be out shortly. More on Magnum from Kevin Eck.
Ringside Collectibles Ringside Fest on 10/29 at Carolines on Broadway in Times Square will feature Daniel Bryan and Bayley from 9 a.m. to Noon and Finn Balor and Sasha Banks from 1-4 p.m.
Wrestlecon announced its 2017 weekend in Orlando with a Q&A with Ric Flair and Sting on 3/30. Some of the names announced include Paul Orndorff, Bobby Heenan, Road Warrior Animal, Madusa, Tito Santana, Bob Orton, Jr. Barry “Windham, Luke Williams, Ricky Morton, Robert Gibson, Greg Valentine, Vickie Guerrero, Dutch Mantell, Brian Blair, Rick Steiner, Scott Steiner, Vader, and tons of others.
The long talked about Liam McGeary vs. Phil Davis fight for the Bellator light heavyweight title was announced for 11/4 at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, CT. Davis won a tournament last year in San Jose to earn a title shot and then won a close decision over King Mo to keep it. Also announced for the show are Brennan Ward vs. Saad Awad and Marloes Coenen vs. Talita Nogueira.
There will be a Lucha Underground panel on 10/9 at the New York Comic Con at 4 p.m. in Room 1A06 with Rey Mysterio Jr., Eric Van Wagenen (Executive Producer), Ivelisse, Catrina, Taya, Dorian Roldan and others.
TNA did 377,000 viewers last night, its best number since the Final Deletion episode on 7/5.
Barb Honchak was stripped of her Invicta flyweight title today making tonight’s Jennifer Maia vs. Roxanne Modafferi fight, which was for the interim belt, for the major belt. It’s been almost two years, since November 2014, since Honchak last defended the title.
Absolute Intense Wrestling presents a Farewell to Johnny Gargano tonight at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in Cleveland. Gargano faces his wife, Candice LeRae, in one of the main events. Also Josh Prohibition vs. Louis Lyndon, Tracy Smothers vs. Swoggle, Alex Daniels vs. Joey Janela, Tracy Williams vs. Shigehiro Irie, Eric Ryan vs. Shawn Shultz vs Gringo Loko vs. Sonjay Dutt and more.
Mick Karch, the former AWA announcer, will be the announcer for Rob Russen’s new IWA promotion. The company has actually started a Go Fund Me to raise money to start operations.
NWC on 10/2 in St. Catharines, ONT at the CWF Training Facility at 20 Hartzel Rd. for a 2:30 p.m. show.
The NFC fight card on 9/30 at Center Stage in Atlanta is sold out, headlined by Warren Thompson vs. Devorious Tubbs. It was the earliest sellout for the promotion, being two weeks ahead of time. The next date at Center Stage will be 11/11.
ECWA has its 49th anniversary show tomorrow night in Woodbury Heights, NJ at the Woodbury Heights Community Center. Sean Carr faces Devon Storm for the ECWA title in the main event.
CWE tonight in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan at the Midtown Hall is headlined by Nick Aldis (Magnus) defending his GFW title against Dice Steele and Jason Kincaid vs. Monster the Chief.
CWE results from last night in Yorkton, Saskatchewan: Tommy Lee Curtis b Math Magician, Danny Duggan b Wavell Starr, Nick Aldis b Travis Cole to keep the GFW title, A.J. Sanchez b Joey Vendetta, Jason Kincaid & Shane Sabre b Tony Kozina & Orin Vlidt.
Beyond Wrestling on 10/2 in Somerville, MA at the Armory with Ricochet vs. Tessa Blanchard as the main event.
Jeff Jones, who was the head of social media and a key office worker in ROH, was let go yesterday. No other details are available.
Battlarts Wrestling runs tomorrow night in Mississauga, ONT at the Battlarts Academy featuring original Battlarts star Yuki Ishikawa in the main event.
Rock Solid Wrestling on Saturday night in Angus, ONT featuring Crazzy Steve and Rosemary of TNA plus Cody Deaner.
IWF Fall Brawl tomorrow night at the IWF Centre in Nutley, NJ.
XICW on Sunday in Warren, MI at The Ritz at 5:30 p.m.
Bubba Ray Dudley headlines a show tomorrow night in Watertown, MA for Pro Wrestling Mass at St. James Hall. Velvet Sky, Matt Striker, Tony Atlas, Booker T and Spike Dudley also appear on the show.
A story on the Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame in Wichita Falls, TX is here.
Support The Empire… PODEROSO~!
If you’ve ever wanted to pay someone else’s grandmother to read about her favorite grandson, now is your chance. To get a copy of Granny’s book, THE DAYS IN THE LIFE OF BRYAN ALVAREZ, send $15 US, $17 Can., or $20 intl. to her PayPal, [email protected], along with your name and address.
The Death of WCW by Bryan Alvarez and RD Reynolds is now available as an audiobook through Amazon.com and Audible. Bryan did the narration for the book and it runs almost fifteen hours, so grab yours today!
EVENTS CALENDAR
Friday 9/23 – Sunday 9/25
Saturday 9/24: Ring of Honor, Reloaded Tour; Duluth (Atlanta), GA 7:00 pm
Friday 9/23
MCW Pro Wrestling presents “Ringside with Jim Ross & Jim Cornette at Jimmy’s Famous Seafood in Baltimore. Showtime 8:00PM, 6526 Holabird Ave, Baltimore, MD 21224. Tickets.
Big Time Wrestling in Raleigh, NC at Dorton Arena features Flair and Steamboat together at Dorton Arena for the first time in 28 years, plus Jeff & Matt Hardy, Cody Rhodes, Nasty Boys, Sabu, Magnum T.A., Ivan Koloff, Jimmy Valiant, Gangrel and Shane Helms with the meet & greet at 6 and show at 8.
Invicta FC: Live from Scottish Rite Temple in Kansas City, Mo. Interim Flyweight Champion Jennifer Maia Defends Against Roxanne Modafferi.
Pro Wrestling Eclipse takes a short trip to downtown Oshawa and visits the Oshawa Mason Temple. All tickets purchased on July 24 that list the venue as the Oshawa Legion will be honoured.
All Star Wrestling: Cloverdale, BC, 7:30 PM, Cloverdale Fairgrounds Alice McKay Building, 6050 176 St
East Coast Wrestling Association (ECWA), 49 ANNIVERSARY SHOW, Woodbury Heights Community Center, 741 Helen Ave, Woodbury Heights, NJ 08097. Tickets.
EWA Evolution: World War Z at Tall Cedars Hall (2501 Putty Hill Ave.) in Parkville, MD. See the double ring, 5 vs. 5 Ladder War! Bell time is 7:30 pm. Tickets are $15 front row and $12 general.
IWA Midsouth Wrestling presents the Hybrid Cup, at PRIDE Bar in New Albany, IN.
Ignite Wrestling in Vero Beach, FL at the IG Center features Dave Crist.
UCW, September 24th 7:30 PMBay City,MI UCW Champion Hakim Zane vs MVP, plus appearances by Ron Simmons and Fred Ottman.
Big Time Wrestling in Spartanburg, SC at the Memorial Auditorium with the meet and greet at 5:30 and show at 7:30 with Flair, Steamboat, Hardys, Rhodes, Nasty Boys, Sabu, Magnum T.A., Ricky Morton, Robert Gibson, Gangrel and Trevor Lee.
MCW Legends Convention at the MCW Arena in Joppa, MD at 10 a.m. featuring Bret Hart, Jimmy Hart, Howard Finkel, Honky Tonk Man, Hillbilly Jim, Paul Orndorff, Greg Valentine, Jim Ross, Bill Apter, Brutus Beefcake, Bob Orton, Tito Santana, Jim Neidhart, Tammy Sytch, Magnum T.A. and even Dennis Stamp.
Rock Solid: Anarchy in Angus 14: A Nightmare on Mill Street, 7pm – 10pm, Angus Recreation Centre, 8527 County Rd. 10, Angus, Ontario. Tickets.
ElkMania 4 Press Release: Charity Professional Wrestling, in Beverly, MA. Beverly/Salem Lodge of Elks, 39 Bow Street, Beverly, MA. Doors at 6:00pm with a 7:00 pm bell time. Tickets can be purchased ahead of time at Silver Moon Comics & Collectibles located inside the Museum Place Mall in Salem, MA (1 Church Street, Salem, MA).
Sunday 9/25
Join NECW & Meet The Stars and Celebrate The Grand Opening of Nick’s Comically Speaking! Meet Swoggle and JTG from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM. For more info call (978) 304-0396.
Canadian Wrestling’s Elite: Nick “Magnus” Aldis defends the GFW title against Matt Hart of the Hart Family in Calgary.
Rizin: Former K-1 kickboxer Minoru Kimura will make his MMA debut against former Pride fighter Charles “Krazy Horse” Bennett (29-30-2).
A press conference will be held on Tuesday at 6 p.m. Eastern time at the Theater in Madison Square Garden to announce the UFC 205 show on 11/12. At this point we know six of the matches, while a number of other matches are being talked about.
The strangest situation concerns Conor McGregor and what would be the main event. Last night on UFC Tonight, Megan Olivi, having talked with Dana White, said that Conor McGregor had a leg injury and would not be on the show. He said they were looking at Eddie Alvarez vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov for the lightweight title, but that Alvarez had been given a deadline to sign for the fight and the deadline passed. So he said they were working on that fight for UFC 206 in Toronto. Then sources at McGregor’s camp said that McGregor would be ready and wanted to fight on 11/12 against Alvarez, and Alvarez wants McGregor.
Valentina Shevchenko said that he had agreed to face Julianna Pena on that show, but Pena had not signed for the fight. UFC was looking at Chris Weidman vs. Yoel Romero for that night but as of the latest word, that fight also hasn’t been signed.
More and more, top fighters are looking at wanting more money to fight nowadays. There’s the feeling across the board that they deserve more and the sale tells them the company can afford more, plus a lot of fighters had a loyalty to Lorenzo Fertitta for building the company, and while some have loyalty to Dana White, none have that loyalty to WME-IMG.
The matches announced so far:
Tyron Woodley vs. Stephen Thompson for the welterweight title
We’re looking for your thoughts on today’s Destruction in Hiroshima show, so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to [email protected].
Ethan Carter III & Moose vs. Bobby Lashley & Michael Bennett
Figure Four Weekly, 9/19/2016: The Unlikely Story of TJ Perkins (Part I) – T.J. Perkins being the winner of WWE’s Cruiserweight Classic and first champion of the new version of the cruiserweight division was something of a surprise. It was clear that Zack Sabre Jr. and Kota Ibushi were booked as the stars, but neither signed with the company. Gran Metalik (Mascara Dorada) and Perkins, who both signed… Subscribers click here to continue reading.
F4W YouTube Page: Tons of clips and full free audio shows that you can tell your friends about, and much more to come! Make sure you subscribe today!
Wrestling Observer Newsletter, September 26, 2016:Clash of Champions preview, new concussion test, more – The first Raw brand exclusive PPV takes place on 9/25 in Indianapolis, headlined by Kevin Owens vs. Seth Rollins for the Universal title. There are two business aspects to look at immediately. The first is whether these PPVs lead to a ratings bump, although the Raw the next day is expected to be at near all-time record lows due to the Presidential debate. The second is how it draws. The Smackdown only PPV on 9/11 in Richmond, VA, only drew 7,000 fans, and they were papering heavily… Subscribers click here to continue reading.
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If you are a new subscriber ordering 24 or more issues, you can choose one free classic issue, or two free classic issues with a 40-issue subscription.
WON Back Issue, August 30, 1999: WWF Summerslam, Hulk Hogan and Bret Hart first match, more – Jesse Ventura’s return to pro wrestling drew the mainstream attention which probably led to a lot of curiosity buys, and WWF made the most of it putting on one of the better PPV shows of 1999. Subscribers click here to continue reading.
THURSDAY NEWS UPDATE
Don’t pie face KJ…
Urijah Faber was in attendance last night at the event that turned into a brawl involving former NBA star and current Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson. Sean Thompson, 32, was arrested for felony assault on a public official. According to various media reports, Thompson, a protestor, shoved a pie in the face of Johnson. Johnson then reportedly tackled Thompson and threw a number of punches, leaving Thompson with multiple bruises and a deep cut under his left eye and another to the side of the left eye. Thompson was taken to the hospital. The event was at Sacramento High School with nearly 200 people in attendance including students, and some of the city’s leading restaurant owners, as well as Faber who appeared on local television last night talking about the incident. Apparently at a 2011 city council meeting Thompson spoke and turned his back on Johnson and three officers went to go after him but Johnson waved them off at the time.
Edmond Tarverdyan told ESPN that Ronda Rousey is getting ready to fight, and hinted at Amanda Nunes (who Rousey was offered) as the opponent. He said it could be before the end of the year. We talked in the Observer why it’s not the best idea for Rousey to fight on the 12/30 show.
A big story revolves around the Cris Cyborg Justino weight cut. She is in the 150s at last word but has to make 141 by tomorrow. She started cutting from a significantly higher weight (168 one week ago) than for the last time she made 140, actually getting to 139 for the fight with Leslie Smith.
TNA has announced a Bound for Gold match for the 10/2 Bound for Glory PPV. Essentially it’s a Royal Rumble match with the winner getting a title match.
Ryback has legally changed his name to Ryback Allen Reeves, in his attempt to continue using the Ryback name for wrestling and other marketing ventures after WWE claimed ownership of the name.
WWE
There is a presale today for the 12/26 Smackdown brand house show in Madison Square Garden use the code WWEHOLIDAY
UFC
Ross Pearson vs. James Krause is set for the 11/19 UFC show in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Derek Brunson vs. Robert Whittaker was signed for the 11/27 show in Melbourne.
VARIETY
A great video by Evolve on the departure of Johnny Gargano and creation of a new top babyface is here.
Tickets will go on sale on Wednesday for a Jim Ross show on 11/20 in Toronto at 2 p.m. (the afternoon of Survivor Series). Ross will be playing at the famous Second City Theater. Prices range from $29.50 to $95 and are available at Ticketmaster.
Rob Russen, who promoted wrestling in the 80s and worked under Verne Gagne at the end of the AWA, and Sal Corrente, are relaunching the old IWA promotion. The first show is 11/25 at the Hamburg, PA Fieldhouse, the former taping home of WWWF television. Announced on the show are Ethan Carter III, Silas Young, Robbie E, Pat Tanaka, Rockin Rebel, Missy Sampson and Sonny Vice. They will also run 11/26 in Paulsboro, NJ at the Monster Factory with Silas Young, Robbie E and Pat Tanaka as the top stars. They are looking at crowning heavyweight, junior heavyweight, tag team and women’s champions over that weekend.
Empire State Wrestling on 9/30 in Salamanca, NY at the Falling Leaves Festival headlined by Adam Rose.
Charity Pro Wrestling on 9/24 in Beverly, MA at the Beverly/Salem Lodge of Elks.
All Star Wresting on 9/24 in Maple Ridge, BC at the Ridge Meadows Seniors Centre.
Smash on 11/11 in St. Catharines, ONT at Isaac’s Bar and Grill, 11/12 in London, ONT at Cowboys Ranch and 11/13 in Toronto at the Franklin Horner Community Center.
Cody Rhodes vs. Michael Rich Blais headlines an 11/26 show of the Prairie Wrestling Alliance in Edmonton at the Northgate Lions Center.
AIW on 10/15 in Tequila Jaxx in Mentor-on-the-Laek, OH is headlined by Ray Rowe vs. Jeff Cobb.
CWE kicks off ten show sin ten days headlined by Nick “Magnus” Aldis, Jason Kincaid, Tony Kozina and Danny Duggan tonightin Yorkton, Saskatchewan at the Central School.
The World Series of Fighting announced a show on 12/3 in Everett, WA at XFinity Arena with Blgaoy Ivanov (14-1) defending his heavyweight title in he main event. He’ll defend against the winner of a Shawn Jordan vs. Ashley Gooch fight that takes place on 10/7. Also, former ranked UFC heavyweight Jared “Big Show” Rosholt faces Caio Alencar.
Evolve announced a 10/15 match in Orlando with Matt Riddle vs Chris Hero and Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Fred Yehi and 10/16 in Ybor City, FL with Sabre vs. Tracy Williams.
Mongolian wrestling coaches were given a three-year ban for taking off their clothes in protest of an official decision.
If you’ve ever wanted to pay someone else’s grandmother to read about her favorite grandson, now is your chance. To get a copy of Granny’s book, THE DAYS IN THE LIFE OF BRYAN ALVAREZ, send $15 US, $17 Can., or $20 intl. to her PayPal, [email protected], along with your name and address.
The Death of WCW by Bryan Alvarez and RD Reynolds is now available as an audiobook through Amazon.com and Audible. Bryan did the narration for the book and it runs almost fifteen hours, so grab yours today!
The split-brand PPVs and a look at how the brand split changes aspects of the WWE business is the lead story in the new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. It also looks at the next two WWE PPV shows, and the introduction of the cruiserweight division on Raw.
Have a look at new research that may turn out to be very helpful in recognizing when athletes can return from concussions and when they should retire after concussions.
There are also notes on why Ryan Reeves’ physique was so impressive even while under WWE drug testing. Take a look at WWE losing a major market television deal and why it’s happening. Plus, look at Vince McMahon’s donation to Donald Trump’s charity, the Dwayne Johnson/Vince McMahon current relationship, Linda McMahon hosting a television show, update on the future of Ricochet, WWE movie news, lots of WWE injury updates, and the most watched shows on the WWE Network. There is also a look at Pat Patterson, as well as a WWE that coach wants to do pro wrestling and coverage of all the WWE and NXT events over the past week, with highlights of the matches and business coverage.
This issue has a full rundown of CMLL’s Night of Legends, and how a show headlined by the oldest trios match in recent memory to headline in a huge building drew double the second biggest crowd of the week, and a look at the tradition of Arena Mexico, the main event and what did and didn’t work at one of the company’s biggest shows of the year… Subscribers click here to continue reading.
Order the print Observer right now and get it delivered to your door via mail, by sending your name, address, Visa or Master Card number and an expiration date to Dave Meltzer, or use Paypal.com directing funds to [email protected].
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The Wrestling Observer ranges weekly from 35,000 to 50,000 words covering pro wrestling and MMA internationally. Each issue has coverage and analysis of all the major news, plus every issue breaks major news stories before the Internet sties and has the most complete look at the pro wrestling and MMA business anywhere, plus history pieces available nowhere else.
New subscribers ordering 24 or 40 issues must let us know what major stories of the past 11 years you are most interested in and we’ll send the issue with the best coverage of that story. There is coverage of every major PPV event and world wide spectacular, every major star switching promotions, histories of companies like FMW, Rings and New Japan, retirement and obituary issues of every major star who fits into those descriptions over the past 11 years, as well as our biggest issue every year, the annual awards issue, and our most controversial issue of every year, the Hall of Fame issue.
Also in this issue:
Update on the national pro wrestling holiday in Mexico
Great match booked for Arena Mexico this week
Update on the Elite promotion
Alberto El Patron returns to AAA and what that means politically regarding other groups
Lineup for AAA’s next major show and unique aspect of a show head-to-head with it regarding the family
Rey Mysterio returns to AAA and angle shot with him
All Japan tournament finals
Notes on the return of wrestling’s oldest year-end tradition
Update on Kota Ibushi
Michinoku Pro’s masked man tournament notes
Update on Terry Funk
A look at the House of Hardcore weekend
All kinds of surprises at the shows
A look at where House of Hardcore is going
Notes on three wrestlers who were married this past weekend
Notes on the return of the GLOW promotion
An iPPV with a ton of big names and Jim Ross announcing in England
Indie pro wrestling star turns down $20,000 offer for MMA fight
Early notes on the WWC Aniversario show
Big twitter war between Mexican names
More on the career of Moose Morowski and why he is well remembered in Japan with notes on his biggest matches
First Jeff Cobb vs. Matt Riddle match
Major indie tournament coming to the Chicago area
Newcomer debuts in ROH
Notes on the weekend ROH shows
Jay Lethal wrestles 69 minutes in one night
Update on TNA sale negotiations
Why things in the sale negotiations are happening the way they are
Notes on TNA newcomers
Unique situation of Cody ?Rhodes
Current TNA angles
Tons of talk regarding major UFC potential matches
Update on UFC in MSG
More on UFC schedule for the rest of the year when it comes to big shows
Notes on this week’s UFC show
Cris Cyborg and her latest weigh cut issues
New UFC color commentators
Another hair vs. hair UFC challenge
Why Al Iaquinta pulled out of the MSG show
Why Ronda Rousey shouldn’t fight on the 12/30 show
A crazy weekend upcoming
Notes on this week’s Invicta show
Lots of new UFC fights
Chael Sonnen signs with Bellator and details on why it happened
King Mo challenges huge heavyweight star
Bellator doing an MMA & kickboxing combined show overseas
RATES: For the United States, it is $13 for 4 issues, $32 for 12, $61 for 24, $101 for 40 and $131 for 52. In Canada and Mexico, rates are $14.50 for 4, $35 for 12, $67 for 24, $111 for 40 and $144 or 52. In Europe, you can get the fastest delivery and best rates by sending to [email protected]. For the rest of the world, rates are $16.50 for 4, $44 for 12, $85 for 24, $141 for 40 issues and $183 for 52. Get $1 off in every price range if ordering by mail with a check, cash or money order (P.O. Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228).
The first Raw brand exclusive PPV takes place on 9/25 in Indianapolis, headlined by Kevin Owens vs. Seth Rollins for the Universal title.
There are two business aspects to look at immediately. The first is whether these PPVs lead to a ratings bump, although the Raw the next day is expected to be at near all-time record lows due to the Presidential debate.
The second is how it draws. The Smackdown only PPV on 9/11 in Richmond, VA, only drew 7,000 fans, and they were papering heavily around town the night before. Before the brand split, WWE was routinely selling out its PPV shows.
It was bad news for WWE for a second week, as the ratings for Raw last night were almost identical to the week before, which at the time were considered shockingly low.
The three plus hour broadcast averaged 2.68 million viewers, identical to the week before. Actually there were 2,000 more viewers last night, so it would just barely beat out last week’s show as the lowest non-holiday episode of the show since 1996.
The NFL game with the Chicago Bears vs. Philadelphia Eagles did 12,137,000 viewers, which was down from the Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Washington Redskins game of the week before that did 12,961,000 viewers.
Unless the company does something major, or gets a pay-per-view bump, next week, with the presidential debate, has a good chance of being the lowest rated episode of the 23-year history of the program. The record low rating number is a 1.78 on October 14, 1996, a show which went against a live Nitro, as well as the NFL and major league baseball playoffs.
Raw was only in seventh place on cable last night, trailing football, as well as SportsCenter, Major Crimes on TNT, The O’Reilly Factor, Bret Baker and The Five, all on Fox News.
The positive, which kept the show from hitting record lows is that the cage match with Kevin Owens vs. Roman Reigns kept the audience in the third hour better than most weeks.
The three hours were:
8 p.m. 2.73 million viewers 9 p.m. 2.69 million viewers 10 p.m. 2.63 million viewers
Jesse Ventura’s return to pro wrestling drew the mainstream attention which probably led to a lot of curiosity buys, and WWF made the most of it putting on one of the better PPV shows of 1999.
The show on 8/22 at the Target Center in Minneapolis, was paced by five title changes out of six titles at stake, included the main belt in the main event, plus a shockingly good Shane McMahon vs. Test match which was almost unanimously the best match on the show. The show, which sold out within 90 minutes of tickets being put on sale months ago, drew 17,370 fans (announced as 19,404 on television), of which 15,973 paid $557,129 and another $168,456 in merchandise sales. It’s too early to get PPV estimates, but it was generally expected going in to be either the first or second most buys for a wrestling PPV show in history. The all-time record was approximately 800,000 buys for Wrestlemania (the real number as opposed to the announced 875,000) this year.
Please send thoughts on the following shows with a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match: [email protected]
New Japan Destruction in Tokyo
MONDAY
Raw is in Memphis tonight — the go-home show for Clash of Champions. Cesaro vs Sheamus in match number six of their best-of-seven series will be on the show, along with Seth Rollins vs Rusev, as well as the debut of the cruiserweight division which will likely set up something for Sunday’s PPV show.
Smackdown will have a Monday night house show in Tupelo, MS, with A.J. Styles, Randy Orton, Dean Ambrose, The Miz, Becky Lynch and Natalya.
We’re taking your news and notes from dark matches, Superstars, and anything off camera to [email protected].
TUESDAY
Smackdown and Main Event will be on Tuesday night from Birmingham, AL. John Cena is scheduled for his only show of the week on Tuesday.
We’re taking your news and notes from dark matches, Main Event, and anything off camera to [email protected].
Figure Four Weekly, 9/12/2016: More on the Last Battle of Atlanta, wrestling Holy grails, and WWE’s video library – The release of the Last Battle of Atlanta on WWE Network, discussed here last week in advance of it dropping, was met with mixed reaction online. The namesake match itself, Tommy Rich vs. Buzz Sawyer in a cage (with a roof on top for the first time in wrestling history) had become legendary more due to magazine hype and the lack of available footage than anything else… Subscribers click here to continue reading.
F4W YouTube Page: Tons of clips and full free audio shows that you can tell your friends about, and much more to come! Make sure you subscribe today!
In the end it was simple reality. Starting out at 36 with very limited training past some Jiu Jitsu classes from Rener Gracie, no great athletic gifts and a body beaten up by 15 years of pro wrestling was not going to be able to train for two years and be able to compete in the UFC.
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 Meltzer, or by using PayPal directing funds to [email protected].
Rates for the United States are $13 for 4 issues, $32 for 12, $61 for 24, $101 for 40 and $131 for 52. In Canada and Mexico, rates are $14.50 for 4, $35 for 12, $67 for 24, $111 for 40 and $144 or 52. In Europe, you can get the fastest delivery and best rates by sending to [email protected]. For the rest of the world, rates are $16.50 for 4, $44 for 12, $85 for 24, $141 for 40 issues and $183 for 52. If you order by mail with a check, cash or money order (P.O. Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228), you can get $1 off in every price range.)
If you are a new subscriber ordering 24 or more issues, you can choose one free classic issue, or two free classic issues with a 40-issue subscription.
WON Back Issue, August 23, 1999: WCW Road Wild review, NJPW G1 Climax results, plus tons more – Steve Austin has become the subject of a lot of talk in the past week, with his various injuries, his probable, maybe almost assured dropping of the WWF title at SummerSlam and stories regarding him becoming harder to deal with… Subscribers click here to continue reading.
MONDAY NEWS UPDATE
Raw looks to rebound off its lowest non-holiday number since 1996 last week going against football. Tonight’s game is the Chicago Bears vs. Philadelphia Eagles, which are two of the top five markets in the country. Next week would be the one that Raw will really take it on the chin unless they do a hot angle coming off Clash of Champions.
Katsuyori Shibata will be out of action for the next few weeks. He did a match Saturday with Bobby Fish and after doing so, it was announced he’s out the rest of the tour due to a spine injury. However, they didn’t take the NEVER title from him as he beat Fish. They set up a Shibata vs. Kyle O’Reilly match with New Japan’s next major show after this tour is the 10/10 show at Sumo Hall.
Two of the top developmental programs in MMA, the Resurrection Fighting Alliance and Legacy Fighting Championships, which both air on AXS TV, announced a merger today on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani. The new promotion, which will run 30 Friday night shows on AXS per year with New Japan as its lead-in, will be called the Legacy Fighting Alliance. The two companies combined have placed more than 100 fighters in either UFC or Bellator.
Bryan and I will be back tonight talking Raw, as well as more on the TNA sale with some exclusive notes, Terry Funk and talking your questions to [email protected].
WWE
Brandon Howard has some great research on how the first brand split affected the WWE PPV business.
Tickets for the 11/19 NXT Takeover show at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto are on sale for American Express members right now. Other presales will start on Wednesday.
Among those backstage in Memphis at Raw include Luke Harper, Emma, Paige, T.J. Perkins, Brian Kendrick, Jack Gallagher (who was in Toronto over the weekend) and Rich Swann. Emma worked the Raw weekend house shows as a referee. Harper is just about ready to return if he’s not ready right now.
UFC
Bill Goldberg feels CM Punk should not fight again in UFC. “There’s no question he should not fight in the UFC,” Goldberg said on the 100th episode of Submission Radio. “That would be blasphemy. It would be a slap in the face to all the guys who worked their asses off to make it to prelims on Fox, on undercards and on the main event card. At the end of the day, from a promoter’s standpoint, from a competitor’s standpoint, from his standpoint, there’s no logic in him stepping in that octagon agsin. If he still has the passion for it and wants to train and compete, then yeah, lower-level shows are where he needs to be.”
He said he’s still interested in fighting for Glory. He also said he’d be doing Eric Bischoff’s podcast soon in Indianapolis this weekend, the same city Clash of Champions is in, but said right now he’s got nothing going regarding WWE but said he also has no more issues with them.
Bellator kickboxing has a show airing on Friday night from Budapest, Hungary:
*Karim Ghaji (96-12) defends the welterweight title against Zoltan Laszak (10-2)
*Raymond Daniels (11-3) vs. Zsoplt Benedek (15-3)
*Denise Kielhotz (44-3) vs. Renta Lantos (5-4)
*Alexandru Negrea (9-3) vs. Ali El Ameri (42-10-2)
VARIETY
Dynamo Pro Wrestling from Saturday night in Glen Carbon, IL: CJ Shine b Matt Kenway, Jackal b Ric Maverick, Keon Option & Justin D’Air b Billy McNeil & Jayson Kahos, Elvis Aliaga b Ricky Cruz, Outkkast b Shorty Bigggs, Makaze b Ozzie Gallagher, Mike Outlaw won three-way over Brandon Espinosa and Jon Webb (thanks to Patrick Brandmeyer)
Smash vs. Progress from last night in Toronto: Face & Marc Hauss b Fuerza & Vertigo, Frankie the Mobster b El Ligero, Super Smash Brothers b James Davis & Rob Lynch and Braxton Sutter (TNA) & Mike Rollins, Jack Gallagher b John Greed Tyson Dux b Zack Sabre Jr., Mark Andrews b Kevin Bennett, Mark Haskins b Speedball Mike Bailey, Scott O’Shea b Brent Banks in a fans bring the keyboard match. There were fans who traveled from London to Toronto to see the Progress guys and all the fans knew all the Progress guys and their moves. Gallagher was said to be the star performer of the weekend (thanks to Dave Musgrave)
Wildkat Sports, the Louisiana-based promotion of Luke Hawx, debuts on Saturday night on the WUPL, Ch. 54 in New Orleans, at 9 p.m. That’s the MyNetwork affiliate.
TCW Cuore Ribelle 2016 benefit show for victims of the Central Italy earthquake: Scandalo b Rocco Gioiello, Violent Joe b Kevin Dopa, Darkness b Mefist, Frenic Rossa b Carlo Birra, Carlo Birra & Claudio Campari b Il Merchese & Death Mask to keep TCW tag titles, Darkness II b Scandalo, Violent Joe b Fenice Rossa, Kombat Komedian b Blackslash, Violent Joe b Darknmess II to win the Cuore Ribelle Trophy. (thanks to Alessio Garbini)
Capital City Championship Combat announced today they are canceling their show on Saturday due to a death to someone close to the promotion. The death was not specified in the release sent out.
Al Snow has a seminar for experienced and aspiring wrestlers on 10/1 in Omaha and will be headlining the Pro Wrestling Phoenix show that night. For those interested in the seminar, send to [email protected].
Maryland Championship Wrestling has big events this weekend. Friday night at 8 p.m. at Jimmy’s Famous Seafood in Baltimore, there will be a Jim Ross and Jim Cornette talk show. There will be a convention on Saturday from 10 a.m to 4 p.m. with Bret Hart, Jim Ross, Jim Cornette, Bob Orton Jr., Jimmy Hart, Howard Finkel, Paul Orndorff and Cornette which will include a Cornette live podcast. There will be a live show at 7:30 p.m. headlined by King McBride defending his MCW title against Drolix. Koko Ware, Tito Santana and Honky Tonk Man will wrestle and Cornette will manage on the live show.
NWA Smoky Mountain Wrestling on 10/8 in Kingsport, TN at the Civic Auditorium with Jason Kincaid defending the Southeastern title against Chase Owens.
Tonight’s Raw from Memphis, TN, is the go-home show for Clash of Champions. Cesaro vs. Sheamus in match number six of their best-of-seven series will be on the show along with Seth Rollins vs. Rusev, as well as the debut of the cruiserweight division which will likely set up something for Sunday’s PPV.
Among those backstage include Luke Harper, Emma, Paige, TJ Perkins, Brian Kendrick, Jack Gallagher (who was in Toronto over the weekend) and Rich Swann. Emma worked the Raw weekend house shows as a referee. Harper is just about ready to return if not ready right now.
Raw looks to rebound off its lowest non-holiday number since 1996 last week going against football. Tonight’s game is the Chicago Bears vs. Philadelphia Eagles, which are two of the top five markets in the country. Next week would be the one that Raw will really take it on the chin against football and the first presidential debate unless they do a hot angle coming off Clash of Champions.
