Joseph Currier is the lead editor of F4WOnline.com, directing daily news coverage and writing articles on professional wrestling. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, obtaining a journalism degree in 2016. Joseph joined F4W during his time at UMass and has now been writing about the industry for nearly a decade.
In addition to his work with F4W, Joseph has previously contributed to Sports Illustrated's wrestling coverage. He lives in Massachusetts and is a diehard fan of the Boston sports teams and Liverpool Football Club.
Adam Cole, Bobby Fish, and Kyle O’Reilly’s stable finally has its name.
WWE Shop released the first shirt for the trio of former ROH wrestlers today, with their merchandise page calling them “The Undisputed Era.” The name of the stable is displayed on the front of the shirt, along with the letters “CFO” for Cole, Fish, and O’Reilly. “Shock The System” is written on the back of it.
This is the first time that the stable has been identified by name. They joined together and attacked Drew McIntyre as Adam Cole debuted at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn last month, which came after Fish and O’Reilly attacked SAnitY earlier in the night. Fish and O’Reilly had already debuted in losses to Aleister Black on NXT television prior to TakeOver.
The Undisputed Era have yet to cut their first promo as a team, though that could come when NXT tapes its next round of TV episodes at Full Sail University tomorrow night.
Vince McMahon returned to television on last night’s SmackDown in Las Vegas, and it didn’t take very long for things to get physical.
After Vince announced that Kevin Owens would be facing Shane McMahon in a Hell in a Cell match next month, Owens made Vince reassure him that he would be allowed to beat “a McMahon” senseless. That led to Owens attacking Vince and laying him out to close the show.
There were also three title matches earlier in the night. AJ Styles defended his United States Championship against Tye Dillinger, Naomi got her rematch for the SmackDown Women’s title, and The Usos took on The New Day in a street fight for the tag titles.
Shane McMahon will be stepping back inside the Hell in a Cell as he faces Kevin Owens at SmackDown’s next pay-per-view.
Vince McMahon’s return to television tonight led to him announcing the match for Hell in a Cell, with Owens attacking Vince and laying him out after the announcement. The match will be Shane’s first since wrestling AJ Styles at WrestleMania earlier this year and his first Hell in a Cell match since facing The Undertaker at WrestleMania 32.
Vince came to SmackDown tonight to address Shane and Owens’ storyline. Though Owens had threatened to sue the company after being attacked by Shane last week, Vince said that he would fire Owens if he filed the lawsuit and noted that he’s never lost in the courtroom because the laws of the land are written for people like him.
Owens brought up Shane being suspended indefinitely, with Vince saying that he only suspended him for not finishing the job. Owens was fine with Shane being reinstated for the match as long as Vince promised that he could beat “a McMahon” senseless if provoked.
When Vince gave his word, Owens attacked him with a headbutt that busted him open. Owens continued the attack, hitting Vince with a punch, a kick while he was down, a superkick, and a frog splash. Stephanie McMahon then exchanged words with Owens in the entranceway as she went to go check on her father.
Shane vs. Owens is the second match officially confirmed for Hell in a Cell in Detroit, Michigan on October 8th. Jinder Mahal defending his WWE Championship against Shinsuke Nakamura is also set for the PPV.
With everything but the final now having aired, the Mae Young Classic has again challenged whether women’s wrestling occupies enough of the current WWE landscape. The matches went about as well as could be expected. There were few bad ones, a handful of standouts, and a ton of pretty good matches. The 32-competitor field showcased female wrestlers of varying skill sets — from one participant having their literal first professional match (Xia Li) to veterans finally getting their first chance in a WWE ring after lengthy careers.
A look at GFW, the departure of Jeff Jarrett, and where things go from here with the company is the lead story in the new issue. Look at the talks of a sale, incidents that happened, future direction, the current television situation, why the tape library isn’t going to be sold, the new creative team, the current angles, Bound for Glory plans, Alberto El Patron, the future of Jim Cornette, Bruce Prichard and others and more.
Look at the Mayweather-McGregor business; looking at PPV in the U.S. and U.K., live gate, what mistakes were made, and the state of McGregor coming out of the fight.
Check out the next two WWE PPV shows, the Cena vs. Reigns program and Enzo Amore and the cruiserweight division.
Details on the Battle of Los Angeles tournament including the Keith Lee vs. Donovan Dijak match, the future of Ricochet and Matt Riddle and how the New Japan/WWE situation fits in, and why the usual rules of wrestling and crowds don’t seem to apply in PWG.
Get an update on John Layfield leaving SmackDown, The Mae Young Classic, how the Mae Young Classic did on the WWE Network, new WWE TV deal in Canada, Hurricane Irma and WWE events, what opposing lawyer in concussion suit asked for as part of a settlement, Samoa Joe injury update, Sami Zayn update, more on the situation with Baron Corbin, Nikki Bella on Dancing with the Stars, WWE running Christmas and New Year’s live shows, injury updates, Australia tour notes, and company value.
Full coverage of the UFC Fight Pass event from Rotterdam, Holland is in this issue.
Examine the real numbers when it comes to cord cutting, as well as how many people have access to the key stations wrestling and MMA are on.
Get details on the ratings for all the national shows over the past week, including breakdown of who was watching all of the WWE shows.
ORDERING INFO: 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.)
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.
The turmoil regarding the future of World Championship Wrestling continues with what apparently is a shake-up leaving Brad Siegel backing Vince Russo in complete control of the company. At the same time, the losses continue to escalate, with July’s losses estimated at $7 million, the most, by far, of any month in the history of a company now on track to lose close to $80 million over the course of this year. The main stories going around, seem to involve the prospective merger of AOL and Time Warner, and getting the company’s losses under control.
WWE has a big night of television in Las Vegas tonight as the Thomas & Mack Center will host SmackDown, the Mae Young Classic finals, and 205 Live. Vince McMahon returning to television to address the Shane McMahon/Kevin Owens situation is advertised for SmackDown, plus there will be three title matches. Naomi will get her rematch against Natalya for the Women’s title, Tye Dillinger gets a shot at AJ Styles’ US title, and The Usos will face The New Day in a street fight for the tag titles.
205 Live will take place after the MYC finals end at around 10:30 p.m. Eastern time. The episode is listed as running for a full hour.
After Maryse and The Miz announced that they’re expecting their first child on Raw last night, Miz wrote a post on Instagram promising to Maryse and the baby that he’ll be the best father he can be and thanking WWE for letting them break the news on television because the company is where they first met.
Mick Foley wrote a Facebook post about his knee replacement surgery: “Hey, if you ever have a chance to talk to #WWEHOF Madusa, and she tells you something, believe it! Madusa warned me that this knee replacement was going to be painful, and the rehab to follow even worse. So far, she is right on the money!But I really needed the surgery. The hip replacement in April has helped tremendously, it was removed so much of the pain I was in the last eight or nine years. But without this knee operation, I was going to continue with that noticeable limp, in case you forgot what The Godfather once told us limpin’…it ain’t easy! As it turns out, my right knee has not been able to straighten for probably 10 years or more. As a result, I’ve been placing far too much weight on my left foot, every day for 10 years – and over the course of that time, it has greatly affected our walk… i’m kind of leaving to a domino reactions were other body parts or stressed when compensating for the knee injury. So, although this surgery is a tough one, It was also a very necessary one. Thanks to all of you responded yesterday with so many kind words. They were really helpful. Have a nice day!”
Alexa Bliss will face Nia Jax in a non-title match on Raw next week.
WWE ratings are delayed this week due to Nielsen’s data center in Florida having been closed for Hurricane Irma.
This week’s NXT television tapings at Full Sail University have also been postponed until Thursday due to the hurricane. They had been scheduled for Wednesday.
Kia Stevens (known as Awesome Kong and Kharma in pro wrestling) was one of the cast members from “GLOW” to appear on the Mae Young Classic red carpet broadcast on Facebook Live.
Rosemary has been cleared to return to the ring following the incident where she was injured by Sexy Star at Triplemania.
OVW is running a benefit show for Matt Cappotelli at Davis Arena in Louisville on September 23rd to help support Cappotelli as he battles brain cancer for a second time. Jim Cornette confirmed that he’ll be at the show and signing autographs and taking pictures with those who donate.
ROH announced that The Young Bucks will be wrestling twice on the September 22nd Death Before Dishonor pay-per-view. They’ll be defending their ROH tag titles against the Motor City Machine Guns in addition to teaming with Hangman Page to defend the six-man tag titles against the winner of a Bully Ray & The Briscoes vs. The Kingdom match that will take place earlier in the night.
UFC/MMA
Joanna Jedrzejczyk vs. Rose Namajunas is official for UFC 217 at Madison Square Garden on November 4th.
Michael Bisping joked with Georges St-Pierre as they began the media tour for their fight at the MSG show.
Brian Stann explained his reasons for leaving his analyst role with the UFC, including wanting to be with his family more and the uncertain nature of a career in television.
Demetrious Johnson said that he might be done fighting for the year if his matchup against Ray Borg can’t be be rescheduled to UFC 216 in October.
With less than two weeks to go until No Mercy, Raw came to Anaheim, California for last night’s episode.
The focus was largely on the two top matches at the pay-per-view. Braun Strowman stood tall over Brock Lesnar ahead of their match at No Mercy, then went on to face John Cena later in the show.
Cena had another heated verbal battle with Roman Reigns as well, which came after Reigns vs. Jason Jordan opened the show. We also got the announcement that Asuka will be headed to Raw when she makes her main roster debut, The Miz and Maryse made an announcement of their own, and an eight-man tag match went down in the main event.
After vacating the NXT Women’s Championship, Asuka is officially headed to the Raw roster.
The announcement was made on tonight’s episode, with Corey Graves saying that Kurt Angle signed the hottest free agent in the industry. A video package hyping that Asuka would be coming to Raw soon aired, then Alexa Bliss and Nia Jax reacted to it in a backstage segment.
Bliss expressed her disappointment about the news to Jax. She tried to patch up their friendship ahead of the fatal four-way Raw Women’s title match at No Mercy, but Jax wasn’t having it and informed Bliss that they’d be facing each other in a singles match next week.
Asuka’s 500-plus day reign as champion ended as she departed NXT by relinquishing the title in a segment that aired on last week’s episode. She’s coming to Raw undefeated and without ever losing the championship.
WWE has yet to announce their plans for how the next NXT Women’s Champion will be decided.
Though WWE has a big week planned with a loaded episode of SmackDown and the Mae Young Classic finals on Tuesday, there hadn’t been much advertised in advance for Raw tonight.
That changed this afternoon as WWE uploaded a video with Cathy Kelley running down what to expect on the show, including a first-time ever singles meeting between John Cena and Braun Strowman, Roman Reigns vs. Jason Jordan, an appearance by Brock Lesnar, and Enzo Amore guest starring on Miz TV to discuss challenging Neville at No Mercy.
Reigns facing Jordan is a result of the storyline where he wasn’t impressed with how long it took Cena to defeat Jordan last week.
With No Mercy now less than two weeks away, tonight’s Raw will continue building to the pay-per-view ahead of next week’s go-home show. Tonight is also the first time that WWE will face competition from the NFL this season, with the New Orleans Saints vs. Minnesota Vikings and Los Angeles Chargers vs. Denver Broncos set for Monday Night Football.
Before the Mae Young Classic finals take place on Tuesday, there will be a special recapping the tournament on the WWE Network tomorrow night.
The updated Network schedule for this week lists that the 30-minute recap show will be airing after Raw on Monday. It will feature Charly Caruso going over the tournament, plus a six-woman tag match will air with Santana Garrett, Sarah Logan & Marti Belle facing Jazzy Gabert, Kay Lee Ray & Tessa Blanchard.
That match was filmed on the second day of tapings in July. With it being shown, the only match from the tapings that hasn’t been released is Deonna Purrazzo & Jessica James vs. Nicole Matthews & Barbi Hayden (who were alternates in the tournament and opened the show on night two).
The WWE Network schedule also confirms what Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter were the tentative plans for Tuesday night. The Mae Young Classic finals, with Kairi Sane vs. Shayna Baszler, will stream on the Network for about 30 minutes after SmackDown before a full episode of 205 Live airs.
War Machine vs. Killer Elite Squad vs Guerrillas of Destiny for IWGP tag team titles
Juice Robinson & David Finlay vs. Leo Tonga & Bad Luck Fale
Tomohiro Ishii & Will Ospreay vs. Tetsuya Naito & Hiromu Takahashi
Evil & Seiya Sanada & Bushi vs. Kazuchika Okada & Rocky Romero & Toru Yano for six-man titles
Minoru Suzuki vs. Michael Elgin in a lumberjack match for Never open weight title
Raw will be Monday night in Anaheim at the Honda Center. Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman return for the show.
NXT is scheduled for a television taping on Wednesday night at Full Sail University in Winter Park, FL, although for obvious reasons related to the Hurricane Irma, there is a back-up plan in place.
There is a major Tuesday night taping in Las Vegas on Tuesday night. For Smackdown, there will be an Usos vs. New Day street fight for the tag titles, Natalya vs. Naomi for the women’s title and A.J. Styles vs. Tye Dillinger for the U.S. title. After that will be the Shayna Baszler vs. Kairi Sane Mae Young Classic title, followed by 20-5 Live with TJP vs; Rich Swann.
With everything but the final now having aired, the Mae Young Classic has again challenged whether women’s wrestling occupies enough of the current WWE landscape. The matches went about as well as could be expected. There were few bad ones, a handful of standouts, and a ton of pretty good matches. The 32-competitor field showcased female wrestlers of varying skill sets — from one participant having their literal first professional match (Xia Li) to veterans finally getting their first chance in a WWE ring after lengthy careers.
A look at GFW, the departure of Jeff Jarrett, and where things go from here with the company is the lead story in the new issue. Look at the talks of a sale, incidents that happened, future direction, the current television situation, why the tape library isn’t going to be sold, the new creative team, the current angles, Bound for Glory plans, Alberto El Patron, the future of Jim Cornette, Bruce Prichard and others and more.
Look at the Mayweather-McGregor business; looking at PPV in the U.S. and U.K., live gate, what mistakes were made, and the state of McGregor coming out of the fight.
Check out the next two WWE PPV shows, the Cena vs. Reigns program and Enzo Amore and the cruiserweight division.
Details on the Battle of Los Angeles tournament including the Keith Lee vs. Donovan Dijak match, the future of Ricochet and Matt Riddle and how the New Japan/WWE situation fits in, and why the usual rules of wrestling and crowds don’t seem to apply in PWG.
Get an update on John Layfield leaving Smackdown, The Mae Young Classic, how the Mae Young Classic did on the WWE Network, new WWE TV deal in Canada, Hurricane Irma and WWE events, what opposing lawyer in concussion suit asked for as part of a settlement, Samoa Joe injury update, Sami Zayn update, more on the situation with Baron Corbin, Nikki Bella on Dancing with the Stars, WWE running Christmas and New Year’s live shows, injury updates, Australia tour notes, and company value.
Full coverage of the UFC Fight Pass event from Rotterdam, Holland is in this issue.
Examine the real numbers when it comes to cord cutting, as well as how many people have access to the key stations wrestling and MMA are on.
Get details on the ratings for all the national shows over the past week, including breakdown of who was watching all of the WWE shows.
ORDERING INFO: 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.)
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.
The turmoil regarding the future of World Championship Wrestling continues with what apparently is a shake-up leaving Brad Siegel backing Vince Russo in complete control of the company. At the same time, the losses continue to escalate, with July’s losses estimated at $7 million, the most, by far, of any month in the history of a company now on track to lose close to $80 million over the course of this year. The main stories going around, seem to involve the prospective merger of AOL and Time Warner, and getting the company’s losses under control.
Jinder Mahal was supposed to walk debuting fighter Arjan Bhullar (who is of Indian descent) to the Octagon at UFC 215 tonight but didn’t make an appearance. Ariel Helwani wrote it’s because Mahal is stuck in Florida due to Hurricane Irma.
WWE posted video of Bobby Roode’s goodbye to St. Catharines last night on his NXT farewell tour. He’ll wrestle on what’s scheduled to be his final NXT house show in Toronto tonight. Tye Dillinger, who is appearing on this tour as WWE doesn’t have house shows this weekend, did a speech last night as well with the show taking place in his hometown.
Roode spoke to the Peterborough Examiner before the tour started.
As his health continues to improve, Ric Flair’s Twitter account posted photos of Charlotte visiting him in the hospital yesterday.
Jack Gallagher and his new wife Clara Sinclare got married yesterday.
WWE posted a tale of the tape on Brock Lesnar and Braun Strowman ahead of their match at No Mercy later this month.
Yahoo ran a story on Nia Jax walking the runway at theCURVYCon fashion show.
Microsoft Office’s Twitter account is eagerly anticipating the continuation of Drew Gulak’s PowerPoint presentation from 205 Live last week.
Pro Wrestling
Against the first game of the NFL season (the New England Patriots vs. Kansas City Chiefs) and coverage of Hurricane Irma, ratings for this week’s episode of Impact predictably took a big hit. The show averaged 227,000 viewers, down from the previous week’s 268,000. The number is Impact’s third lowest on Pop TV, ahead of last year’s Thanksgiving show and an episode that had technical difficulties.
Karen Jarrett tweeted a message thanking Anthem and everyone who has reached out during Jeff Jarrett’s leave of absence: “So many continue to reach out to Jeff and myself. Thank you for all the love! Thank you Ed Nordholm and Anthem for giving Jeff the time he needs! And to all the fans this is 110% a positive for Jeff and GFW/Impact!”
Christy Hemme announced that she’s pregnant with quadruplets.
NJPW’s biggest show since the G1 finals is happening overnight as Destruction in Fukushima takes place at 3 a.m. Eastern time. There will be three title matches, with Minoru Suzuki putting the NEVER Openweight Championship on the line against Michael Elgin in a lumberjack match, SANADA, EVIL & BUSHI defending their six-man tag titles against Kazuchika Okada, Rocky Romero & Toru Yano, and IWGP Tag Team Champions War Machine facing Killer Elite Squad and the Guerrillas of Destiny.
Marty Scurll vs. Chuck Taylor has been added to the card for ROH’s Death Before Dishonor pay-per-view in Las Vegas on September 22nd.
Cody Rhodes cut a promo about not regretting his open challenge for Death Before Dishonor after Minoru Suzuki answered it.
Penta El 0M & Rey Fenix will team against Rey Mysterio & Juventud Guerrera at the Cow Palace for All Pro Wrestling on November 10th.
Hannibal TV uploaded a match from 2008 with Samoa Joe & Hannibal facing Jinder Mahal & Gamma Singh Jr.
UFC/MMA
Dana White isn’t in attendance at UFC 215 tonight. Ariel Helwani tweeted that he was told it’s because White had prior business to take care of.
After he fell ill and his UFC 215 main event against Demetrious Johnson was canceled, Ray Borg issued a statement apologizing to the fans and Johnson. He also noted that he’s parting ways with the Perfecting Athletes organization and their nutritionist that he was working with.
Holly Holm predicted that Valentina Shevchenko will beat Amanda Nunes for the women’s bantamweight title in tonight’s main event.
The UFC uploaded the final episode of Embedded before tonight’s PPV.
Rafael dos Anjos doesn’t think that Conor McGregor will be defending his lightweight title anytime soon.
Stephen Espinoza said that Showtime will have some interest in a deal with the UFC when their contract with Fox comes up.
Bobby Lashley wants a title shot or someone who will get him to one if he returns to Bellator in December. Lashley also expressed interest in a fight against Fedor Emelianenko.
As the strong working relationship between the two companies continues, another WWE-contracted wrestler will be appearing for ICW next weekend.
ICW announced today that Kassius Ohno will be challenging Joe Coffey for their World Heavyweight Championship at the O2 Academy in Newcastle on September 17th. The cameo in ICW will be the first time the former Chris Hero has wrestled outside of a WWE ring since returning to NXT earlier this year.
Ohno tweeted about facing Coffey again: “Finally. Two years in the making, it’s the Knockout Artist vs. the Iron Man, round #3. Elbow? Or Lariat? See you on the 17th, @Joe_Coffey”
There will be representation from some of WWE’s UK talent on the show as well, with the British Strong Style team of Tyler Bate & Trent Seven challenging The Marauders for their tag titles and Wolfgang facing Kid Fite.
Noam Dar previously appeared for ICW in July as he returned to the promotion to team with Sha Samuels against Coffey & Bram. Pete Dunne also defended his WWE United Kingdom Championship on that show, defeating Trent Seven, Wolfgang, and BT Gunn in a four-way match.
Before the Mae Young Classic finals take place next Tuesday, WWE will be broadcasting a red carpet special earlier in the afternoon on Facebook Live.
Ronda Rousey will be making an appearance and participating in interviews ahead of possibly taking part in the follow-up to the Four Horsewomen vs. Four Horsewomen angle. WWE’s Four Horsewomen will be represented on the red carpet too, with Charlotte Flair and Bayley advertised to be there.
Stephanie McMahon, Triple H, Nikki and Brie Bella, and soccer star Hope Solo will also be appearing on the red carpet show, with WWE hyping that cast members from Netflix’s “GLOW” series will be present on Tuesday as well. The show will be hosted by Cathy Kelley at 6 p.m. Eastern time, then the tournament finals will stream live on the WWE Network at 10 p.m. ET.
The Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada will host SmackDown, Kairi Sane vs. Shayna Baszler in the MYC finals, and 205 Live next Tuesday. Dave Meltzer noted in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the tentative plan is for 205 Live to air at 10:30 p.m. ET.
With everything but the final now having aired, the Mae Young Classic has again challenged whether women’s wrestling occupies enough of the current WWE landscape. The matches went about as well as could be expected. There were few bad ones, a handful of standouts, and a ton of pretty good matches. The 32-competitor field showcased female wrestlers of varying skill sets — from one participant having their literal first professional match (Xia Li) to veterans finally getting their first chance in a WWE ring after lengthy careers.
A look at Mayweather vs. McGregor, and when happens next, is the lead story in this week’s issue of the Wrestling Observer. Read about the week that had two matches of the century and one match of the decade all within 15 hours.
Look at the fight, the judging, the realities of how McGregor and Mayweather each fought, the future of McGregor and tons of different business numbers and indicators. Check out the problems people had in viewing the show, the gambling, TV numbers and head-to-head competition.
This issue has a major feature on TripleMania, both the Dr. Wagner mask loss and the incident with Sexy Star and Rosemary. Look at the business of the show and the amazing television numbers, go through the Sexy Star match and what happened to lead to what happened, comments from many in wrestling, explanations, as best as there are, the background as to why things fell apart, how much Wagner earned for losing his mask, how much Wagner and L.A. Park were offering to lose their mask to local promoters, and the famous story of what was supposed to be the debut of Dr. Wagner Jr., in a tag team match with his father, and why the two never teamed up.
Read about the situation with Ric Flair.
This issue has a run down of the big What Culture shows of the past week with some of the top talent in the world, including the YouTube business, Will Ospreay vs. Rey Mysterio, and more.
Examine the WWE injury bug and some of the reasons the injury rate is so high, get a run down the latest injuries, thoughts on the schedule, Nikki Bella on two TV shows at the same time, Asuka’s future, The Cena/Reigns promo, Sami Zayn fund raising efforts, thoughts on the Mae Young Classic, new show for Cena, update on Ciampa, woman referee, Nakamura talks about his UFC offer, Jericho talks his role in the Styles vs. Owens situation, most-watched shows on the WWE network for the week and full coverage of all the WWE and NXT arena events over the past week and business notes.
ORDERING INFO: 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.)
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.
The turmoil regarding the future of World Championship Wrestling continues with what apparently is a shake-up leaving Brad Siegel backing Vince Russo in complete control of the company. At the same time, the losses continue to escalate, with July’s losses estimated at $7 million, the most, by far, of any month in the history of a company now on track to lose close to $80 million over the course of this year. The main stories going around, seem to involve the prospective merger of AOL and Time Warner, and getting the company’s losses under control.
It was announced on Ric Flair’s social media accounts today that Flair is changing representation and has parted ways with Melinda Morris Zanoni and Legacy Talent & Entertainment. Flair will announce new representation tomorrow.
The New York Post ran an article on Ronda Rousey potentially being part of a Four Horsewomen vs. Four Horsewomen match in WWE and the dilemma of who would win if it happens.
After Asuka vacated the NXT Women’s Championship last night, WWE uploaded a video where William Regal said he’d be letting people know about the future of the title in the next few weeks.
The Argus Leader has an article on Shayna Baszler competing in the Mae Young Classic.
Responding to a tweet from the Singh Brothers, The Rock told them and Jinder Mahal that they’re doing great.
John Cena and Shaquille O’Neal appeared together on an episode of Carpool Karaoke.
The Kingston Whig-Standard interviewed Drew McIntyre about his journey back to WWE and winning the NXT Championship.
Al Arabiya English spoke to Finn Balor in an interview that was conducted over SummerSlam weekend.
Pro Wrestling
CMLL revealed the card for this year’s anniversary show in a newspaper ad. The event will take place at Arena Mexico on September 16th and will have two mask matches. Here’s the lineup:
Niebla Roja vs. Gran Guerrero in a mask match
Caristico, Flip Gordon & Volador Jr. vs. Satoshi Kojima, Mephisto & Ultimo Guerrero
Princesa Sugehit vs. Zeuxis in a mask match
Kraneo, Rush & Sam Adonis vs. Barbaro Cavernario, Felino & Negro Casas
Diamante Azul, Marco Corleone & Valiente vs. Cuatrero, Forastero & Sanson
The Panther, Blue Panther Jr. & Stuka Jr. vs. Dragon Rojo Jr., Hechicero & Polvora
Minoru Suzuki vs. Michael Elgin for the NEVER Openweight Championship at Destruction in Fukushima on Sunday will be a lumberjack match after the stipulation was set up on NJPW’s show this morning.
Kazuchika Okada appeared on Pro Wrestling Illustrated’s podcast to discuss his placement at number one on this year’s PWI 500.
Katsuyori Shibata wrote about how an email from Yoshihiro Takayama helped him before he underwent his second surgery earlier this year.
Jeff Jarrett has updated his bio on Twitter. It now reads: “Husband! Father! Family Man! Love to quote Scripture and Quotes that mean something 2 me… Several new projects on the way…Bookings, email [email protected]”
Jay White vs. Punishment Martinez in a Las Vegas street fight has been added to the lineup for ROH’s Death Before Dishonor PPV on September 22nd.
FreeSports, a new freeview channel in the UK, announced today that Five Star Wrestling will be airing weekly live shows on the station starting in 2018. The announcement came after PCW had already indicated that they’d be working with FreeSports, with PCW posting today that the deal is off after months of FreeSports pursuing them. The promotion wrote that they could only promise what they can deliver. Amid controversy and backlash from some wrestlers, Five Star Wrestling announced earlier this year that their 128-man tournament and arena tour had been postponed until next February.
Mae Young Classic participant Santana Garrett will be wrestling at MLW One-Shot on October 5th.
USA Today interviewed Davey Richards about going to medical school and continuing to take independent bookings.
UFC/MMA
Dave Meltzer has an article for MMA Fighting on Conor McGregor vs. Floyd Mayweather officially breaking the PPV record in the United Kingdom. It did more than one million buys there.
Cris Cyborg was granted a boxing license by the California State Athletic Commission and plans to compete in the sport.
Cowboy Cerrone vs. Darren Till is slated for the main event of UFC Fight Night in Gdansk on October 21st.
Alistair Overeem accepted a challenge from Francis Ngannou.
The UFC released the second and third episodes of Embedded for Saturday’s PPV.
Demetrious Johnson doesn’t care about his placement in the UFC’s pound-for-pound rankings. Johnson also appeared on TSN and voiced his opinion that there are too many fights in the UFC.
Ray Borg said that he was a little bit surprised to get the title shot against Johnson.
Forbes reported that the Fertitta brothers have sold their remaining stakes in the UFC.
As Florida prepares for Hurricane Irma, WWE has announced the postponement of four previously scheduled NXT house shows.
The shows that were set to take place in Daytona Beach on Friday night and Crystal River on Saturday have been postponed, along with events that were planned for Lakeland on September 14th and Dade City on the 15th. The Dade City show has been rescheduled to October 5th, with WWE noting that tickets that have already been purchased will be honored on that date.
WWE has yet to indicate whether the next set of NXT television tapings, which are supposed to take place at Full Sail University next Wednesday, will go on as scheduled.
The NXT TV roster is on the road for a tour starting in Rochester, New York tonight. There will then be stops in Ontario, Canada on Friday and Saturday as NXT comes to St. Catharines and Toronto.
While still being an overwhelmingly successful number, the live gate for the Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor superfight failed to break the record that Mayweather had established against Manny Pacquiao.
The Nevada Athletic Commission confirmed today that the gate for the August 26th fight was $55,414,865.79, falling short of the $72,198,500 in ticket sales generated by Mayweather vs. Pacquiao. Mayweather-McGregor now slots in as the second-highest gate in Nevada history, with 13,094 tickets sold and 137 complimentary tickets distributed.
The T-Mobile Arena was set up for 17,698 people, but high ticket prices contributed to the event not selling out despite substantial interest in it. There were 16,219 tickets sold for Mayweather vs. Pacquiao at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in 2015.
Whether Mayweather vs. McGregor broke the North American pay-per-view record should be known soon. Showtime’s Stephen Espinoza has said that it’s tracking to do in the mid-to-high four million buy range, which would be around the 4.6 million mark set by Mayweather-Pacquiao.
Dana White previously claimed that the Mayweather-McGregor PPV did 6.5 million buys internationally.
Shane McMahon and Kevin Owens’ storyline picked up on SmackDown last night ahead of an inevitable match.
Owens insulted Shane and brought his family into it, leading to Shane snapping and attacking Owens. It was later announced that Shane had been indefinitely suspended after Owens threatened to sue WWE or press charges.
A number one contender’s match closed the episode, with Shinsuke Nakamura getting another shot at Jinder Mahal’s WWE Championship at Hell in a Cell. Dolph Ziggler also made his “re-debut.” Carmella took James Ellsworth back after saying things were through between them, and WWE built to a fairly loaded SmackDown in Las Vegas next week.
