Since 2011, Josh has been a contributing editor to Wrestling Observer/F4WOnline.com and also hosts the Punch-Out podcast. He has also written for Fight Magazine, Bloody Elbow, Bleacher Report, and other websites. He's a 2000 graduate of the University of Maine, worked in pro sports, and once was an indie ring announcer.
At least for Saturday night at UFC 246, Conor McGregor was the Conor McGregor of old, easily beating Donald Cerrone by TKO at 40 seconds of the first round.
McGregor charged in and missed a big punch, but landed four left shoulder strikes to the face of “Cowboy”, busting up his nose and eye. He followed that up with a left kick to Cerrone’s head that was the beginning of the end. After a few power shots to the grounded Cerrone, Herb Dean wisely called the fight.
Following the fight, McGregor (22-4) took joy in saying he was the first fighter in UFC history to get knockout finishes in three separate weight classes. He didn’t call anyone out specifically, but made veiled references to Jorge Masvidal and Paul Felder. Masvidal was at cageside with his BMF title and has been angling for a big money McGregor fight while Felder was calling the action on the broadcast team. He is scheduled to face Dan Hooker in late-February. Welterweight champion Kamaru Usman was also shown on the screen while McGregor was talking.
This is McGregor’s first UFC victory since November 2016 when he defeated Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205 in Madison Square Garden.
Cerrone (36-14-0-1) said after the fight that he wasn’t prepared for the shoulder strikes. The 36-year-old said he plans to keep fighting because that’s what he does. He is riding a three-fight losing streak for the first time since 2017.
In other notable main card action, Holly Holm returned to the winner’s circle with a unanimous decision win over Raquel Pennington in a rematch while Anthony Pettis was upset by Carlos Diego Ferreira by second round submission to open up the PPV main card.
However, the biggest upset of the night was in the final fight of the prelims as Roxanne Modafferi defeated Maycee Barber by unanimous decision. Modafferi was the biggest underdog of the night and was unrelenting in her attack on Barber, cutting her open and taking advantage of what could be a partial MCL tear Barber suffered during the fight.
After remaining silent on social media following the passing of his father, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson paid tribute to Rocky Johnson in an Instagram post Friday morning.
The post was accompanied by a clip of Rocky and Tony Atlas in the WWF with a shot of a young Dwayne in the crowd:
Rising star and UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya will look to defend his title for the first time this March against Yoel Romero, according to ESPN’s Brett Okamoto.
Adesanya vs. Romero will be the main event of UFC 248 on March 7th in Las Vegas once contracts are signed.
The undefeated 30-year-old won the title by second round knockout in a unification bout against Robert Whittaker last October, his seventh win in the UFC. Romero is an interesting choice as his first challenger given he has lost his last two fights and three of his last four. He missed weight for his last two title opportunities.
Paulo Costa was expected to get the shot, but is injured.
Like Adesanya-Romero, the bout has yet to be officially signed.
Woodley has been on the shelf since losing his title to Kamaru Usman last March, his first loss in five years. The 28-year-old Edwards, a winner of eight straight, has been calling for a big name and finally got one and in his home country.
PAC and Jon Moxley will compete on next week’s AEW Dynamite to become the number one contender to AEW World champion Chris Jericho.
Moxley earned his shot with a submission victory over Sami Guevara on Wednesday’s Bash at the Beach edition of Dynamite. However, the entire Inner Circle attacked Moxley after the match with Jericho spiking and injuring Moxley’s eye.
PAC earned his opportunity in the night’s main event with a pinfall victory over Darby Allin following the Black Arrow to Allin’s back. PAC played up the Moxley injury in a post-match promo, but Moxley emerged from an ambulance to cut a promo confirming he will be there next week.
Moxley and PAC went to a draw on on the October 23rd edition of Dynamite.
Next week’s show will be held on Chris Jericho’s Rock’n’Wrestling Rager cruise. The show will feature a tag team title match between champions SCU and Kenny Omega/Hangman Page in addition to Fenix vs. Joey Janela.
AEW announced late-Wednesday afternoon that Awesome Kong is out of tonight’s AEW Dynamite tag team match due to an undisclosed illness.
In her place and making her Dynamite in-ring debut: Brandi Rhodes. She will team with fellow Nightmare Collective member Mel (also making her Dynamite in-ring debut) to face Kris Statlander and Hikaru Shida.
Rhodes has wrestled sparingly for AEW, pinning Allie at Fight For The Fallen and competing in the women’s Casino Battle Royale at All Out.
The Collective made their presence felt on last week’s Dynamite during the AEW women’s title match between Riho and Statlander, leading to Statlander losing the match. That angle also featured the official debut of Luther, a new member of the group who will accompany Rhodes and Mel.
Tonight’s Dynamite is the Bash At The Beach themed edition of the show in Miami, FL, as the group prepares to head out on the Chris Jericho cruise where next week’s Dynamite will emanate from.
The show will feature Kenny Omega/Hangman Page vs. the Young Bucks vs. Best Friends vs. Santana and Ortiz for a tag title shot, Darby Allin vs. PAC, Jon Moxley vs. Sammy Guevara, and Cody responding to MJF’s demands for a match.
For what is being touted as their first appearance in Madison Square Garden in more than ten years, WWE Hall of Fame faction D-Generation X will return for a March afternoon house show.
Announced via an MSG ticket presale email and on social media, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, X-Pac, and Road Dogg will all be in New York City on Sunday, March 22nd. It’s not expected the foursome will actually wrestle.
Notably absent is Billy Gunn who is part of the AEW roster.
While cards are subject to change, the Raw show is scheduled to be headlined by Kevin Owens, Samoa Joe and Big Show vs. Seth Rollins and the AOP in a six-man tag while Raw women’s champion Becky Lynch will defend against Asuka.
Deadline.com reported Tuesday that Court Bauer’s Major League Wrestling has signed a deal with major Hollywood agency ICM Partners as they look to sign a new TV and streaming deal.
MLW Fusion launched on beIN Sports in April 2018 where the network currently has a reach of 23 million U.S. homes with broadcasts in English and Spanish. Fusion is also available on YouTube several days after first airing on beIN.
From Deadline: “The league showed growth of over 43% in total viewers from 2018 to 2019, and their weekly hourlong Fusion series reaches over 2.5 million viewers on beIN Sports.”
The article said that MLW is looking to take advantage of the recent upswing in live sports TV rights deals, especially in pro wrestling. Bauer was quoted as saying MLW is in an unique position, given they are the only wrestling free agent property available in 2020.
The ICM deal also includes representation for MLW Studios, “a multi-platform media studio focusing on original scripted and non-scripted programming.”
Meltzer added it’s the most lucrative deal in company history.
Scurll’s ROH deal expired in November, but he continued to work dates for the company as the two sides worked toward a new contract. Johnson couldn’t confirm the number of years on the contract, but it’s thought to be multiple.
One of the more surprising aspects is the 31-year-old joining the booking team alongside Hunter “Delirious” Johnson, effective immediately. Mike Johnson reported that Scurll was heavily involved in the creative for both of the company’s shows this past weekend and that the upcoming free February 9th show in Baltimore was his idea. Delirous will remain with the company.
Scurll will still able to work for the NWA where he’s involved in an angle with world champion Nick Aldis that was part of ROH’s Saturday event. They run Sunday in Concord, NC.
Helped by a lead-in from a college basketball game, Tuesday’s slightly delayed edition of WWE Backstage saw an increase in viewership to 124,000, the fifth-highest of the series.
That was a considerable increase from last week’s 97,000 viewers for the New Year’s Eve show. The show started roughly 12 minutes after the hour due to the end of the Villanova-Creighton game.
The only thing advertised for the show was an appearance by The Miz.
In the 18-49 demo, the show drew a 0.04 which was slightly up from the .03 from New Year’s Eve.
Here’s an updated look at Backstage’s viewership since its official premiere:
November 5 — 49,000 viewers
November 12 — 100,000 viewers
November 19 — 180,000 viewers (CM Punk’s debut as an analyst)
November 26 — 121,000 viewers
December 3 –138,000 viewers
December 10 — 127,000 viewers (CM Punk’s second appearance)
The 37-year-old’s deal with ROH was up on January 1st and he chose not to sign an exclusive multi-year contract with the promotion but on a per-show basis instead, according to the report.
He is booked for ROH’s return to Center Stage in Atlanta Saturday in a three-way tag match, one of two events they are putting on this weekend. He and Dan Maff will also challenge for the ROH tag titles on Sunday, February 9th.
Cobb, a wrestler in the 2004 Olympics, started working in ROH back in 2018 and won the TV title shortly after his promotional debut. A pro for ten years, Cobb has worked in Lucha Underground, Pro Wrestling Guerilla, and for New Japan Pro Wrestling. He was the PWG Champion for more than a year before dropping the belt to Bandido in late-December.
On Monday night, GCW announced that Cobb is the first participant in Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport III, scheduled for Thursday of WrestleMania weekend in Tampa, FL.
On a busy night for live TV coverage, the New Year’s Eve edition of WWE Backstage saw viewership drop to an average of 97,000.
That was a considerable dip from the Christmas Eve episode that averaged 153,000 viewers and is the third-lowest in the series’ young history. In the 18-49 demo, the show drew a 0.03 rating, down .02 from Christmas Eve.
College football and New Year’s Eve live coverage dominated the night, both on cable and broadcast TV. Utah/Texas (5.6 million viewers and 1.31 18-49 demo rating), Navy/Kansas State, and Virginia Tech/Kentucky took up three of the top four spots on cable with sports studio shows garnering the other two.
Here’s an updated look at Backstage’s viewership since its official premiere:
November 5 — 49,000 viewers
November 12 — 100,000 viewers
November 19 — 180,000 viewers (CM Punk’s debut as an analyst)
November 26 — 121,000 viewers
December 3 –138,000 viewers
December 10 — 127,000 viewers (CM Punk’s second appearance)
Now that 2019 is officially a wrap, let’s look back at what were the top ten most-read non-event results stories on this here website. In terms of actual news value, these weren’t necessarily the most important but these were the ones that got the most views for us.
A day before the event, WWE announced that Natalya and Lacey Evans would have the honor of the first women’s match in the country at Crown Jewel, their fourth show there. A bit further down the list, we’ll relive part of the journey to get here.
I got to admit, this being in our top 10 surprised me a lot. I never saw an episode of the show, nor did I hear anyone really talking about it. Nevertheless, our readers were interested in what was going on with the WWE god himself.
Less than a week after the sad death of former WWE wrestler Ashley Massaro, WWE legal foe Konstantine Kyros released an affadavit that included a claim she was sexually assaulted during a 2007 WWE tour of Kuwait. WWE released a statement both denying it and discrediting Kyros.
One of the biggest stories of the year has been the “Wednesday Night Wars” between AEW and NXT. This was a fairly big missile fired by WWE as NXT got a two-hour primetime slot on USA opposite their new competition and we learned about the premiere date: two weeks before the launch of Dynamite.
Anytime Vinny Mac gets upset, it’s newsworthy. In late-July, McMahon decided to rewrite a SmackDown episode and changed the lineup several times before settling on then-WWE Champion Kofi Kingston vs. U.S. Champion AJ Styles in a non-title champ vs. champ match. Why the urgency with shaking things up a few months before the move to Fox? Who knows.
Told you we’d get back here. In June, WWE had hoped to have Bliss vs. Natalya as the first-ever women’s match in Saudi history at Super ShowDown, but the government decided to not allow that. As you can expect, this got fans pretty riled up but it helped pave the way for the aforementioned Natalya-Evans match at Crown Jewel.
This was our top story by nearly double what Bliss-Natalya did. The two did a match in Manchester, England, which surprised some people who thought DoN was the first time they would see PAC and Page do their thing.
From Dave Meltzer at the time: The official word from AEW is that there were creative differences regarding the match and PAC won’t be on Saturday’s show. With PAC’s regular matches in the U.K., it’s known that because he takes his status as world champion with Dragon Gate seriously, he has not agreed to any losses since winning the Open the Dream Gate title and to protect that has done 30:00 draws with Zack Sabre Jr. and Will Ospreay. On the flip side, AEW wants to present a sports-like atmosphere and had their own direction for what they wanted.”
Honorable Mentions
I did want to throw out a few honorable mentions that barely fell outside the top 10, especially the most surprising one to me. For some reason, Rhyno’s appearance at Impact Wrestling’s Slammiversary show was very, very interesting to our readers. I’ll save the “Did our post outdraw their PPV buys?” joke, but feel free to use that at your next party.
The nine matches that scored above five stars is up three up from 2018 and up five from 2017.
In chronological order, here’s what made the list including some notes from the corresponding Wrestling Observer Newsletter:
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kenny Omega | New Japan Wrestle Kingdom 13 | *****3/4
January 4, 2019
“Live I went *****½, and most of the feedback was in that range (mostly *****1/4 to ******) but I need to be able to watch it without interruption to give a fair rating. In the building, this was maybe the best live match I ever saw. I thought it was better than the Toyota vs. Yamada hair match, but it didn’t have the screaming girls heat. It was not as emotional as the famous Tsuruta vs. Misawa match, but it was a much better worked match. It was well above any Flair-Steamboat and I saw two of the best Flair-Steamboats in history.
Because of the attention to detail, the match was significantly better on second viewing, particularly since everything built to the end result. It was a great overall presentation in an arena where that is expected, and where the succession and memories of matches are such that the big matches can’t just rely on your greatest moves formula.”
Adam Cole vs. Johnny Gargano (2/3 falls) | NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn | *****1/2
April 5, 2019
“They had one of the greatest crowds for a big show in WWE major show history, ranking with the 1997 Calgary PPV and some of the Chicago shows. The show looked great going in on paper and every match lived up to, or significantly exceeded expectations, notably the Johnny Gargano win of the vacant NXT title over Adam Cole, which I’d call the greatest match in WWE history.
What was interesting about this match was it was all about the peak. While watching the match, it just felt like very good match after the first two falls. But it just exploded in the third fall. It was helped by the great crowd. “
Adam Cole vs. Johnny Gargano | NXT TakeOver XXV | *****1/4
June 1, 2019
“Adam Cole won the NXT title in the main event over Johnny Gargano in a match that I’d consider one of the greatest matches in WWE history. On the positive, Gargano could end up with more five-star matches than everyone else in WWE combined historically as long as he remains in the main event position here. The downside is that they had promoted the NXT title situation around Gargano’s long quest for the title, which he finally won at the last Takeover in Brooklyn. There’s nothing worse for a babyface to do the long chase, win, and then lose right away.
The two followed their two of three fall match with a one fall match that went 31:45, ending with Cole winning clean. The first time I heard about Cole and the NXT title was years ago, when he was in ROH and WWE wanted to bring him in but he still had a long time left on his ROH deal. That led to the Sinclair tampering charges which saw everyone from ROH have to wait until long after their contracts expired before WWE would make a solid contract offer. But that period ended.
Gargano is easily on the best run of matches of anyone in WWE history. Gargano has now had 14 Takeover matches, with the last nine being singles matches. He’s averaged 4.83 stars per singles match. He’s been voted the best match on seven of the last eight Takeover shows, and best match on a Takeover show is not like best match on a WWE PPV show, since the standard is so much higher.”
Shingo Takagi vs. Will Ospreay | New Japan Best of the Super Juniors | *****3/4
June 5, 2019
“This year’s Best of the Super Juniors tournament, besides generally considered the greatest ever, was built from the start on the idea of Ospreay and Shingo Takagi meeting in the finals. Takagi was pushed as unbeatable, not having lost a fall in New Japan since signing in October. He went 9-0, beating Taiji Ishimori in the deciding match on 5/31 in Ehime.
Even though Takagi is Japanese, the story of the tournament was about Ospreay as the come-from-behind guy trying to be the dragon-slayer. Takagi was positioned as the unbeatable Dragon. To say they had a great match does this a disservice. Ospreay is just a different level. And his promos in their own way are completely compelling.”
Okada vs. Will Ospreay | New Japan G1 Climax | *****3/4
July 20, 2019
“I’d go so far as to say had Ospreay beat Okada, and it was that night where when watching it felt special and the time to do it, it would have been the best match of the year. With Okada winning and not having what would have been this incredible emotional ending, it simply challenged for the top spot. This was an all-time classic match.”
Shingo Takagi vs. Tomohiro Ishii | New Japan G1 Climax | *****1/2
August 8, 2019
“To show how much the audience knows who is really good and who isn’t, they were up for this when it started like it was an Okada vs. Tanahashi match with a guy who is 4-3 and another who is 2-5. Just the most brutal hard hitting match you’ll see. It was incredible and by the latter stages, you were just in awe of both guys. Kevin Kelly screamed how these two aren’t human. On the flip side, this match was everything Tanahashi used to warn against. When a match is built on just how hard you can hit each other (more or less in safe places but still) and stand up to it and take it, it becomes a point of no return. Then again, a lot of modern top level pro wrestling is past the point of no return to the previous generation.
But Ishii walking to the ring looks like his head may be ready to fall off his shoulders, and then he comes out and does another performance like this? And he’s 43, so the argument that this may shorten his career falls apart because few guys in history have been as good as he is at this age and many are done being effective, plus he’s 5-foot-4 and has developed a style where everyone thinks he’s a powerhouse and nobody ever says he’s too small.”
Jay White vs. Kota Ibushi | New Japan G1 Climax | *****1/2
August 12, 2019
“Kota Ibushi defeated Jay White in one of the best G-1 Classic finals in history on 8/12 at Budokan Hall, ending what is largely conceded to be the greatest tournament in pro wrestling history. The finale was the perfect ending of a five week journey. Ibushi had established himself as the ultimate face, and White, with his entourage, as the worst kind of heels.”
Walter vs. Tyler Bate | NXT UK TakeOver | *****1/4
August 31, 2019
“The 8/31 NXT U.K. Takeover show featured one of the best matches in company history with Walter retaining the NXT title in the main event over Tyler Bate. It was a classic big-man, little-man match, but telling the story that the little man has enormous strength. Of course from a logic standpoint it’s backwards in the sense his attempts at using strength failed early, and then his back was worked on, but they worked late. But that’s pro wrestling babyface psychology to elicit pops. The two went 42:11 before Walter got the pin with a running clothesline.”
The Young Bucks vs. The Lucha Bros (ladder match) | AEW All Out | *****1/4
August 31, 2019
“The show featured arguably the best ladder match in history, a series of car crashes where Pentagon Jr. & Fenix retained the AAA tag titles over The Young Bucks.
Fenix and Nick were climbing and Matt had Pentagon in a tombstone position for a Meltzer driver but it was broken up. Nick was climbing, Pentagon shoved him off the ladder, Nick caught his foot on the top rope, tripped a little and went face first into two tables on the floor. That was not planned to go that way and he was lucky it was his forehead that hit the tables first, but that was the one spot that looked the most dangerous. Matt unmasked Pentagon. Fans booed that. Matt was about to get the belt when Pentagon, while covering his face, tipped the ladder over and Matt took a scary bump. They used a package piledriver by Pentagon with Fenix’s double foot stomp off the top rope spike, the zero fear, on Matt outside the ring onto a ladder bridging the apron and barricade. With both Bucks done, Fenix & Pentagon climbed up to get the belts to win.”
A knee injury suffered by Randy Orton at a WWE house show Sunday night is part of a storyline that will play out on TV according to Dave Meltzer.
Orton was wrestling AJ Styles in Hershey, PA, when it was said he landed awkwardly on his knee after Styles blocked an RKO attempt causing a stoppage of the match. Fan Jessi Davin captured when officials were tending to Orton after the match:
Styles and Orton had been working together on the tour with Orton going over Styles after hitting an RKO off a Phenomenal Forearm attempt. As of this writing, Orton nor WWE has posted to social media about the injury or any tie-in.
In 2018, he had surgery to repair a meniscus tear in his left knee and returned shortly thereafter. The 39-year-old recently re-upped with WWE for five years.
