Daily Update: Hero returns, NJPW on AXS schedule, Velasquez surgery

Posted on January 7, 2017 by Dave Meltzer

THE ROUND-UP

The Latest from the F4W Staff

NEWS

AUDIO

We’re looking for reports on tonight’s WWE Raw house show in Columbus, GA (Roman Reigns vs. Kevin Owens) and NXT show in Largo, FL to [email protected].

Today is the last day for our poll on New Japan Wrestle Kingdom, so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to [email protected].

TNA LIVE ONE NIGHT ONLY PPV AT 8 P.M. TONIGHT

Eddie Edwards vs. EC3 for World title
Bobby Lashley vs. Davey Richards
Jeff & Matt Hardy vs. Eli Drake & Tyrus for tag team titles
Moose vs. Michael Bennett anything goes for Grand championship
Rosemary vs. Sienna for Knockouts title
DJ Z will defend the X title

NEW JAPAN ON AXS TV AT 8 P.M. EASTERN

Kazuchika Okada vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi for the IWGP heavyweight title

This is the match from last year’s Tokyo Dome, as a prelude since next Friday will be the Okada vs. Kenny Omega match from Wednesday’s show.

CMLL THREE KINGS DAY SPECIAL FROM ARENA MEXICO AT 9:30 P.M. EASTERN TIME TONIGHT

Marcela & Estrellita & Vaquerita vs. Dallys & Zeuxis & Amapola
Rey Cometa vs. Cavernario
Blue Panther & Blue Panther Jr. & The Panther vs. Negro Casas & Puma & Tiger
Volador Jr. vs. Mephisto
Rush & La Mascara vs. Marco Corleone & Maximo Sexy
Valiente vs. Ultimo Guerrero
Mistico & Caristico & Atlantis vs. Euforia & Gran Guerrero & Niebla Roja

Saturday has WWE Raw in Montgomery, AL and Smackdown in Bossier City, LA, along with NXT in Ocala, FL.

STYLE BATTLE ON FLO SPORTS FROM YBOR CITY, FL ON SATURDAY NIGHT

This is an eight-man tournament promotion with first round matches of:

Darby Allin vs. Dave Crist
Dezmond Xavier vs. Sammy Guevara
Fred Yehi vs. Anthony Henry
AR Fox vs. Austin Theory

Sunday has WWE Raw in Mobile, AL and Smackdown in Lafayette, LA.

There is a big Raw episode Monday night in New Orleans with Roman Reigns vs. Chris Jericho & Kevin Owens in a handicap match for the U.S. title, plus appearances by Shawn Michaels and Undertaker. Smackdown has a house show on Monday in Lake Charles, LA.

Smackdown and 205 Live on Tuesday are from Baton Rouge, LA. Matches on Smackdown will be John Cena vs. Baron Corbin, Jason Jordan & Chad Gable vs. The Wyatt Family for the tag team titles and Nikki Bella vs. Natalya.

FIGURE FOUR WEEKLY: WWE’s transformative 2016

Though the malaise of three-hour Raws and seemingly constant content often made it difficult to appreciate in the moment, 2016 was a transformative year for WWE that featured high points in diverse in-ring action. Some of the same problems that have long existed still remain as we enter the New Year. Raws are, indeed, too long… Subscribers click here to continue.

WRESTLING OBSERVER NEWSLETTER: January 9, 2017 – Ronda Rousey loses potential final fight, NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 11 review

Coverage of Wrestle Kingdom at the Tokyo Dome and the legacy of Ronda Rousey are the lead stories in the new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. There are updates on the WWE WrestleMania situation, coverage of the Japanese New Year’s Eve Rizin show and its mix of fighting and pro wrestling theatrics.

The lead story talks about Amanda Nunes’ win over Rousey, the lack of promotion by Rousey, how the show did on PPV and television numbers, what happened in the fight, the coaching of Rousey, the Rousey fan base, Rousey in WWE, Rousey’s legacy in MMA, how the history of MMA could have changed greatly by different matchmaking, the myths of Rousey’s career and the reality, all the numbers, as well as the Cody Garbrandt title win over Dominick Cruz, plus match-by-match coverage, poll results and how much each fighter made on the show.

Inside, coverage of Wrestle Kingdom 11, when the main event airs on U.S. TV, Kenny Omega, the future big shows of the year, the business of the show, all the tile changes along with match-by-match coverage with star ratings.

Check out the plans for the 2018 WrestleMania and the big announcement coming, new inductee into WWE Hall of Fame, notes on WrestleMania activities, strange WWE injury story, notes on upcoming Raw episodes, some comedy regarding top WWE stars, WWE value, most watched shows on WWE Network, plus notes from all the holiday week house shows and business notes.

Finally, this issue contains full coverage of the Rizin weekend shows, as well as the business notes on the show and the different storylines, including who they are pushing as stars for the future as well as what they are looking at doing next.

If you are a new subscriber ordering 24 or more issues, you can get one free classic issue of your choice sent to you today. With a 40 issue subscription, you can get two free classic issues sent to you today.

Subscribers click here to continue.

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.

WON BACK ISSUE: December 12, 1999: WWF slightly tones down product, Vince Russo on WOL, more – After a week of bad publicity which sent sponsors running and sent its stock plummeting, the kinder, gentler WWF came back with a toned down Smackdown and a slightly toned down, although you’d have to examine to closely to notice, Raw show… Subscribers click here to continue.

FRIDAY NEWS UPDATE

We will have live coverage on the site tonight of both the TNA PPV show and the CMLL show. The expectation for the Arena Mexico show tonight is one of the biggest crowds of the year.

For this weekend, it’s basically the usual Raw and Smackdown crews. Chris Jericho is only advertised for Mobile and television, but not the other shows. Randy Orton has the weekend off but will be at television on Tuesday. All the other top stars, including John Cena, are booked for all of the shows.

Chris Hero returned to WWE as Kassius Ohno at the NXT tapings in Winter Park, FL last night. I don’t know if this was taped or not, as it appeared to be dark, but he did have a confrontation with Shinsuke Nakamura.

Nothing new on Kenny Omega past that he isn’t on the February New Japan tour.

Wrestlecon has announced a 3/30 WrestleMania launch party with Ric Flair, Jim Ross and Sting together at 4 p.m. There will be a fan Q&A with Matt Striker as the moderator. Ross and Flair will also do a meet and greet on 3/31 and Ross ad Sting will do a meet and greet on 4/1.

This is the AXS schedule for the Tokyo Dome matches:

1/13 the entire show will be the Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega match
1/20 will be Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Tetsuya Naito and the three-way with Tama Tonga & Tanga Roa vs. Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano
1/27 will be the Never trios gauntlet match and Katsuyori Shibata vs. Hirooki Goto for the Never open weight title
2/3 will be Cody vs. Juice Robinson, Young Bucks vs. Rocky Romero & Baretta and Kushida vs. Hiromu Takahashi

Obviously to fit into one hour, many of the matches are going to have to be edited for time.

WWE

Dean Ambrose is back home in Cincinnati today for the Cavalcade of Customs auto show.
Trent Seven, one of the favorites, talks the upcoming UK championship tournament.

UFC

Cain Velasquez had minor back surgery Wednesday and it went well. MMA Fighting reported that Velasquez should be back training in one month. This is the second time he’s had the same surgery.
Ronaldo Jacare Souza vs. Tim Boetsch was added to the 2/11 UFC 208 PPV show from Brooklyn.
MMA Fighting is reporting that Shogun Rua vs. Gian Villante is being negotiated with for the 3/11 show in Fortaleza, Brazil.
Rafael dos Anjos reported on Twitter that he’s moving to welterweight.

MISCELLANEOUS

The latest in concussion research is a blood test that is said to be 90 percent accurate already in determining concussions.
What Culture Pro Wrestling from yesterday in Liverpool for a show called KirbyMania, because Martin Kirby was the General Manager. This show streamed live on the WCPW YouTube Channel. Doug Williams b Prince Amin, BT Gunn b Zack Gibson. The show opened with Martin Kirby out. Bully Ray Dudley was out next, followed by Drew Galloway who saved Kirby, which set up Galloway defending against Bubba for the WCPW title. But then Paul Robinson & Scotty Wainwright attacked Galloway and Liam Slater & Johnny Moss made the save, setting it up a six-man. Drake NC Joe Hendry when Joseph Conners attacked Hendry to set up a no holds barred match later. Marty Scurll b Gabriel Kidd. Ivelisse b Lana Austin. Joe Coffey b Trent Banks. Lukas Archer & Alex Gracie b Martin Kirby & El Ligero when Kirby walked off on Ligero who got pinned in a comedy match. Cody Rhodes b Zack Sabre Jr. to retain the Internet title. Crowd was 50/50. Rhodes came out to the Bullet Club theme. Rhodes won clean with crossroads and said that he flew 17 hours from Japan to make this show and doesn’t want to be an American part-time import but wants to be a regular at every WCPW show. Best match on the show and the crowd went wild for him making that statement. Paul Robinson & Scotty Wainwright & Bully Ray Dudley b Drew Galloway & Johnny Moss & Liam Slater when Bully Ray hit Galloway with a chain and pinned him. This set up today’s match in Manchester, UK where Galloway defends against Bully Ray. Joe Hendry b Joseph Conners in a no holds barred match. This appeared to be Conners’ last match or one of his last matches as WWE is not allowing him to work WCPW after next week. (thanks to Nicklas Fechtmann)
Notes on the Go Fund Me for Adam Geller.
On the show a few nights ago, the deal with Geller is it was Lennie Hardt who did the announcing at his wedding. Howard Finkel did the ring announcing for the birth of his daughter Sydney in 2015. The Finkel announcement is here.
A story on Hamilton, ONT comedy rock musician B.A. Johnston starting an on-line petition asking the city to have a statute of Mike Sharpe. This would be the WWF’s Mike Sharpe Jr., not the father, who was also from Hamilton and a far more noteworthy star, but from another generation.
Speaking of Mike Sharpe Sr., we’ve got a really good show up on the site talking to Rock Rims who wrote the book “When Wrestling Was Big Time,” about the history of pro wrestling in Northern California.
Announced for the 1/15 Stardom show at Korakuen Hall is Io Shirai vs. Viper for the World of Stardom title and Yoko Bito & Kairi Hojo vs. Nixon Newell & Kay Lee Ray for the Goddess of Stardom tag team titles.
Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Ethan Page has been added to the 1/27 Evolve show in San Antonio, as has Dustin vs. Jason Kincaid. Laredo Kid debuts with Evolve on 1/28 in San Antonio.
They are pushing 1/27 and 1/28 as Chris Hero’s final shows with Evolve. Hero’s last match will be with Sabre Jr. on 1/28.
NWA Smoky Mountain wrestling House party tomorrow night in Kingsport, TN at the Civic Auditorium with The Heatseekers defending the NWA tag team titles against Lance Lude & Rob Killjoy, plus Chase Owens vs. Jordan Kage.
Megan Anderson (7-2) vs. Charmaine Tweet (9-5) for the Invicta interim featherweight title has been added to the company’s 1/14 show at the Scottish Rite Temple in Kansas City. The featherweight champion is Cris Cyborg, although with her suspension due to a drug test failure, she should be stripped of the title, but that hasn’t happened yet. The show airs live on Fight Pass.
The NWL debuts tomorrow night at 7 p.m. also at the Scottish Rite Temple in Kansas City. They have spent more money than most indies when it comes to signing talent and promoting shows with the idea of running Kansas City and St. Louis regularly this year.
Former pro wrestler, actor and bodybuilder Ric Drasin talks Ronda Rousey in WWE.
XICW Best in Detroit on 1/14 in Clinton Township, MI at the Imperial House with the Headbangers Zach Gowen, Gregory Iron, Cody Deaner and Johnny Devine.

Today in Professional Wrestling History (1/6): Lance Storm & William Regal win tag team gold

CONTACT INFORMATION

Poll opinions: [email protected]
Feedback: [email protected]
Show results and news tips: [email protected]
Wrestling Observer Radio questions: [email protected]

Daily Update: More Del Rio brawl details, Jarrett & TNA, New Year’s Dash

Posted on January 6, 2017 by Dave Meltzer

THE ROUND-UP

The Latest from the F4W Staff

NEWS

AUDIO

We’re looking for your thoughts on yesterday’s New Japan Wrestle Kingdom 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].

We’re looking for reports from tonight’s TNA tapings in Orlando to [email protected].

TNA returns to Pop TV for an almost live episode tonight at 8 p.m. The show is scheduled to end at 10:10 p.m., so set your DVR’s for an extra time frame or you’ll miss the climax of the show. Eddie Edwards will be defending the TNA title tonight.

WWE is also taping NXT for the next month tonight at Full Sail University. We’ll have coverage up on the site later tonight.

FIGURE FOUR WEEKLY: WWE’s transformative 2016

WRESTLING OBSERVER NEWSLETTER: January 9, 2017 – Ronda Rousey loses potential final fight, NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 11 review

The legacy of Ronda Rousey, the woman who in many ways changed the course of MMA and combat sports and entertainment history, took another unique turn on 12/30. In her return 13 months after suffering her first career loss, she was beaten in just 48 seconds when challenging bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes. Nunes, the hardest puncher in the division, came out landing punches. Rousey showed no head movement or punch defense as she just took one punch after another to the head until the fight was stopped…

Kenny Omega and Kazuchika Okada may have put on the greatest match in pro wrestling history in the main event of Wrestle Kingdom 11 on 1/4 at the Tokyo Dome. The 46:45 classic, coming at the end of a show that lasted five hours and 40 minutes, set New Japan’s all-time record for live foreign streaming viewers, peaking at about 7:30 a.m. Eastern time. A Jim Ross/Josh Barnett commentated version of the match will air on 1/13 on AXS TV, which very well could be the best one hour pro wrestling television show ever…

Some key changes have been made to what was the WrestleMania show, although what those changes are isn’t confirmed. Three of the key bouts remain Brock Lesnar vs. Bill Goldberg, Seth Rollins vs. HHH and Big Show vs. Shaquille O’Neal. Aside from a Raw women’s title match, of which there are at least two different possibilities, everything else is up for grabs. The only other non-regular confirmed as wrestling on the show is Undertaker….

There is a saying that justice delayed is justice denied. That saying may as well have been put on the tombstone of Nancy Argentino back in 1983. Lehigh County Judge Kelly Banach officially dropped all charges against Jimmy Snuka, 73, in the death of Argentino due to ruling that Snuka was mentally incompetent to stand trial…

Subscribers click here to continue.

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.

THURSDAY NEWS UPDATE

Bryan and I have a show up right now covering the Tokyo Dome show and the business of UFC 207 among other topics, plus another show with Rock Rims covering his book on the history of pro wrestling in Northern California.

We got some more news on the weekend incidents involving Alberto (Del Rio) Rodriguez and brother Guillermo in Austria. This is from an eye witness who was there for both skirmishes. The version verified the police statements about the incident printed in the new issue and that some of the tabloid coverage was exaggerated. Alberto & Guillermo were actually scheduled to leave and return home for an early morning flight, and be driven at about 2:30 a.m. to Vienna for their flight home after their match on Friday. Alberto then asked promoter Chris Raaber if they could stay an extra day and he’d use his miles to change the flights and so that happened.

There was a fight between Alberto and a 26-year-old Austrian and punches were thrown. Guillermo jumped in to help his brother. It wasn’t a bad fight but Alberto did deliver some damage to the guy, and he was bruised up but not hurt badly. The police were called. At the police station, the two brothers started arguing in Spanish so nobody knew what they were saying or fighting over. The belief was Guillermo was just trying to calm Alberto down and Alberto was yelling at him. Alberto did break the zip-ties and they used ankle shackles, but the shackles were around Alberto’s wrists, not his ankles.

There was a back of a chair broken off and some blood splattered on the wall from Alberto and Guillermo’s fight. Guillermo was not knocked out as per media reports, but he did go to two different hospitals and took a train to the airport while Alberto had already left by cab. (thanks to Markus Gronemann)

Jeff & Karen Jarrett are in Orlando for the TNA tapings, as is Dutch Mantell. Also at the tapings include Brooke Tessmacher, Davey Richards, Angelina Love and Caleb Konley. Tonight’s show will also, at least theoretically, promote a PPV show that takes place on Friday night.

Suzuki Gun and Dragon Lee appeared earlier today at New Year’s Dash at Korakuen Hall. Key matches set up included Kazuchika Okada vs. Minoru Suzuki for the IWGP title, Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr. for the IWGP tag team titles, Tetsuya Naito vs. Michael Elgin for the IC title and Hiromu Takahashi vs. Dragon Lee for the jr. titles.

New Japan World picked up 5,500 new subscribers from the U.S. alone on Tuesday and Wednesday.

We are on verge of getting more feedback to Wrestle Kingdom than any show since either the 2015 or 2014 WrestleMania, depending on the next two days, which is ridiculous when you think about it. But it is almost a lock at this point to break last year’s WrestleMania number.

WWE

As noted on the front page, Mark Andrews, whose TNA contract expired a few days ago, has signed with WWE and will be part of the U.K. championship tournament that takes place 1/14 and 1/15 in Blackpool, England.
Presale for the 3/12 afternoon house show in Madison Square Garden is going on now and ends at 10 p.m. tomorrow with the code WWEMSG

UFC

Mark Hunt has agreed to face Alistair Overeem on the 3/4 show in Las Vegas. Hunt had been turning down fights stating that he wanted it in his contract that if his opponent fails a drug test, he could get their entire purse. UFC wouldn’t agree to it. But Hunt said that at some point, he has to fight to support his family. He’s been outspoken that he felt the $250,000 fine that Brock Lesnar received was far too lenient.
A story on betting in the Ronda Rousey vs. Amanda Nunes fight is here.

MISCELLANEOUS

New Japan has a press conference in a few hours where they will likely announce the Fantastica Mania tour matches.
A quick reminder that tomorrow night’s CMLL show airs live and free on Claro Sports and on paper, it’s an usually strong lineup. I believe New Year’s Dash is also available on the New Japan World site for free. I know it was free earlier today when it was live.
First Light, a daily hour-long radio magazine show that airs on 300 stations on its section on famous birthdays, noted that of Jim Ross earlier this week.
A story on a survey examining the popularity of various wrestling companies is here.
More on the death of UFC studio producer Adam Geller, which we talked about on the radio show last night. It was Lennie Hardt, not Howard Finkel, who did his wedding and we’ve got a ridiculously awesome clip from his wedding is here.
A story on the remake of World of Sport wrestling is here.
CZW on 1/14 in Voorhees, NJ with Joe Gacy defending the title against Rickey Shane Page.
Cheick Kongo (25-10-2) vs. Oli Thompson (17-9) and Adam Piccolotti (9-0) vs. Brent Primus have been added to the 2/18 Bellator show in San Jose. That’s the show headlined by Fedor Emelianenko vs. Matt Mitrione.
AAW on Saturday night in LaSalle, IL at the Knights of Columbus has Sami Callihan vs. John Morrison for the AAW title, ACH vs. Jake Crist for the AAW Heritage title, Rey Fenix vs. Michael Elgin, Silas Young vs. Colt Cabana and more.
Ontario independent wrestler Bill Skullion has opened up a wrestling school called the Lucha Slam Championship Wrestling Training Centre in Brantford, ONT at 183 Erie Ave. The grand opening will be Saturday from Noon to 5 p.m. The head instructors will be Skullion and Kaitlin Diemond. They also plan to run monthly shows out of the gym.
NWL KC debuts on Saturday night at the Scottish Rite Temple in Kansas City. They will be announcing the new Kansas City championship title, showing the belt and detailing the tournament that will crown the first champion.
Carnaval de Lucha on 1/29 at Variety Village in Scarborough, ONT featuring Josh Alexander, Super Smash Brothers, and Sami Callihan.
NWX on 1/22 at the CWF Training Facility in St. Catharines, ONT featuring Rene Dupree.
Rock Solid Wrestling on 2/20 at 1 p.m. in Wasaga Beach, ONT at the YMCA of Simcoe Muskoka Reeplex

Today in Professional Wrestling History (1/5): Kerry Von Erich wins World Class gold

CONTACT INFORMATION

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Show results and news tips: [email protected]
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Daily Update: Wrestle Kingdom 11 results, SD matches, G1 specials

Posted on January 5, 2017 by Joseph Currier

THE ROUND-UP

The Latest from the F4W Staff

NEWS

AUDIO

FIGURE FOUR WEEKLY: WWE’s transformative 2016

WRESTLING OBSERVER NEWSLETTER: January 2, 2017 UFC 207 preview, Wrestlemania’s rumored matches, more

A look at Ronda Rousey going into what will be the fight that determines a lot of her legacy is the lead story of the new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Find out why this fight will be looked back on as a key to her career, why it could be her last fight, and the psychological issues going into this fight. There is also a look at other aspects of the show including Cain Velasquez not fighting, and the last show for two of the longest-tenured UFC employees, booker Joe Silva and announcer Mike Goldberg. Plus, look at the ramifications of the show.

This issue also has an update on WrestleMania 33, with the three matches confirmed for the show and several others likely, plus the latest on the Undertaker situation and the different ideas Vince McMahon has been talking about, and also look at where other top stars are fitting in.

Preview the Kenny Omega vs. Kazuchika Okada match and the Tokyo Dome build, and find out what to look for from a business standpoint as well as a history standpoint. Also, have a look at the rest of the show and what to expect and a look back at some history of January 4th at the Tokyo Dome.

Mick Foley’s hip surgery situation and why he’s not having it just yet, notes on the 2017 Money in the Bank show, a look at the past 11 years with what WWE stars headlined most often and what WWE matches drew the best with a lot of surprises, inside this issue. Also, look at exactly who owns WWE right now. Find out what WrestleMania main event poll that was taken down, and also look at the situation in the U.K. Examine the NXT TV specials, Hulk Hogan, a college class on a former WWE champion, WWE and Matt Riddle, how a WWE Network special was edited, as well as stock notes, and the most watched shows of the past week on the WWE Network… Subscribers click here to continue.

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.

WEDNESDAY NEWS UPDATE

WWE

Three matches have been announced for next week’s SmackDown. John Cena will make his in-ring return against Baron Corbin, The Wyatt Family will challenge American Alpha for their tag titles, and Nikki Bella will face Natalya.
Baron Corbin became the first announced SmackDown entrant in the Royal Rumble on last night’s show.
Tonight’s two-hour episode of NXT features matches from the brand’s show in Melbourne, Australia last month. The full version of the NXT Championship cage match between Shinsuke Nakamura and Samoa Joe will air in the main event. The show will also feature DIY defending their tag titles against TM61, Ember Moon facing Liv Morgan and Billie Kay in a triple threat match, Tye Dillinger & Buddy Murphy teaming up to take on Bobby Roode & Elias Samson, and The Revival vs. Tino Sabbatelli & Riddick Moss.
Seth Rollins tweeted about Wrestle Kingdom 11 today: “Pretty awesome to see professional wrestling on all levels alive and well all over the world. #wrestlekingdom11”

PRO WRESTLING

The announced paid attendance for Wrestle Kingdom 11 at the Tokyo Dome was 26,192 people, which was up from last year’s crowd of 25,204.
NJPW announced two “G1 specials” in California at the Long Beach Convention Center on July 1st and 2nd. The tournament itself will begin on July 17th and end with three straight nights in Sumo Hall concluding on August 13th.
NJPW’s New Year’s Dash show airs on NJPW World late tonight/early tomorrow morning at 4:30 a.m. ET. The post-Wrestle Kingdom event takes place at Korakuen Hall every year to set up the angles coming out of NJPW’s biggest show of the year.
Michael Elgin demanded to challenge Tetsuya Naito for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship after Wrestle Kingdom.
NJPW posted the Kenny Omega Terminator video that aired prior to his entrance at the Dome.
For the first time ever at the Tokyo Dome, the Ring of Honor World Championship changed hands this morning as Adam Cole beat Kyle O’Reilly. The title switch would seem related to O’Reilly’s contract status, with O’Reilly’s contract having expired at the end of last year. Cole is the first person to ever hold the title three times.
Scott Norton appeared in this morning’s New Japan Rumble match.
Timothy Thatcher will defend the EVOLVE Championship against Jeff Cobb over Royal Rumble weekend in San Antonio, Texas at EVOLVE 77 on January 28th. Before that, Thatcher & Cobb will team up to challenge the Catch Point team of “Hot Sauce” Tracy Williams & Fred Yehi for their tag titles at EVOLVE 76 on January 27th. ACH will also make his debut for the promotion against Matt Riddle at EVOLVE 76.
The Washington Post has a profile on Shane Douglas that focuses on why he voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 election.
Ric Flair’s podcast at MLW Radio has ended its run.

UFC / MMA

Matching the suspension that he got from the Nevada State Athletic Commission, USADA announced on Wednesday that Brock Lesnar has been suspended for one year for his drug test failures surrounding UFC 200.
Mark Hunt posted that his UFC 209 fight with Alistair Overeem is official.
ONE Women’s Atomweight Champion Angela Lee will defend her title against Jenny Huang in Bangkok on March 11th.

Today in Professional Wrestling History (1/4): NJPW Tokyo Dome cards

CONTACT INFORMATION

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Daily Update: Wrestle Kingdom, Rumble entrants, SmackDown

Posted on January 4, 2017 by Joseph Currier

THE ROUND-UP

The Latest from the F4W Staff

NEWS

AUDIO

Smackdown and 205 Live are tonight from Jacksonville.

NEW JAPAN WRESTLE KINGDOM 11 FROM THE TOKYO DOME ON NEW JAPAN WORLD IN ENGLISH AND JAPANESE STARTING AT 2:30 A.M. LATE TUESDAY NIGHT EASTERN TIME

New Japan 20 man Royal Rumble rules match
Tiger Mask W (Kota Ibushi) vs. Tiger the Dark (ACH)
Young Bucks vs. Rocky Romero & Trent Baretta for IWGP Jr. tag titles
Gauntlet series for trios titles with Satoshi Kojima & Ricochet & David Finlay (champions), Seiya Sanada & Evil & Bushi, Yoshi-Hashi & Will Ospreay & Jado and Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi & Hangman Page
Cody the American Nightmare vs. Juice Robinson
Kyle O’Reilly vs. Adam Cole for ROH title
Tama Tonga & Tanga Roa vs. Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma for IWGP tag team titles
Kushida vs. Hiromu Takahashi for IWGP jr. tag title
Katsuyori Shibata vs. Hirooki Goto for Never Open weight title
Tetsuya Naito vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi for IC title
Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega for IWGP title

FIGURE FOUR WEEKLY: Figure Four Weekly 12/26/2016: Is WWE violent enough?

A couple years ago, I was working on an article for Fighting Spirit Magazine about how lopsided WWE was in terms of having too many babyfaces and not enough heels, as well as the company’s heel/face divide in general. One of the people I interviewed for the article was Kevin Sullivan, who spoke at length about how he felt that WWE heels were inherently limited because they couldn’t “commit a violent act” due to WWE’s “PG” content restrictions… Subscribers click here to continue.

WRESTLING OBSERVER NEWSLETTER: January 2, 2017 UFC 207 preview, Wrestlemania’s rumored matches, more

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.

TUESDAY NEWS UPDATE

WWE

Braun Strowman, Chris Jericho, and all three members of The New Day were announced on Raw as entrants in the Royal Rumble match. They join Goldberg and Brock Lesnar (who were previously announced as the first two entrants) in the Rumble.
John Cena will be back on SmackDown this week for a contract signing for his Royal Rumble match with AJ Styles. The Miz vs. Dean Ambrose for the Intercontinental title and Dolph Ziggler vs. Baron Corbin are also scheduled for the show.
Tonight’s episode of 205 Live features Neville vs. TJ Perkins, as well as the return of Tajiri to WWE TV.
Finn Balor spoke to ESPN about the upcoming UK Championship tournament and how being in NJPW can help Will Ospreay become a better performer.
WWE uploaded a clip from last night’s debut episode of Bring it to the Table with JBL and Paul Heyman defending three-hour episodes of Raw.
Nikki Bella impersonates Carmella in the latest video on the Bella Twins’ YouTube channel.

PRO WRESTLING

Kenny Omega spoke to Sports Illustrated’s Justin Barrasso ahead of his IWGP Heavyweight Championship main event against Kazuchika Okada at the Tokyo Dome.
Broken Matt Hardy tweeted a message to Omega ahead of the show: “@KennyOmegamanX understands the threat of MeekMahan’s monopoly to the industry, he sees the LIGHT that exists outside. Win your war. #WK11”
As has been the case lately, there will be no intermission for this year’s Dome show.
Kurt Angle will face Cody Rhodes in a steel cage match for Northeast Wrestling on March 3rd in Waterbury, Connecticut.
Stardom’s Rossy Ogawa posted a picture with ROH’s Delirious backstage at the promotion’s show today.

MMA

Former WWE and ESPN personality Todd Grisham will be joining the UFC broadcast team later this month.
Fox Sports named Michael Bisping their 2016 Fighter of the Year.
ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne wrote an article that looks at Ronda Rousey’s UFC 207 loss and what’s next for her future.
Tony Ferguson said that there’s something wrong if Khabib Nurmagomedov is willing to pay what Ferguson wants to fight him and the UFC won’t after Nurmagomedov offered on Twitter to pay Ferguson $200k extra to make the fight happen.
Dominick Cruz thanked his fans, friends, family, and the media for their love and support in an Instagram post after his UFC 207 loss. Cruz also congratulated Cody Garbrandt on a good fight and said that he isn’t going away.
The UFC released the first episode of the second season of Dana White: Lookin’ for a Fight on YouTube.
Bellator has full audio of today’s media conference call featuring Chael Sonnen and Tito Ortiz.

Today in Professional Wrestling History (1/3): Triple H defeats Big Show for the WWF title

CONTACT INFORMATION

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Feedback: [email protected]
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Wrestling Observer Radio questions: [email protected]

Daily Update: Paige & Del Rio, Tokyo Dome week events, Raw

Posted on January 3, 2017 by Dave Meltzer

THE ROUND-UP

The Latest from the F4W Staff

NEWS

AUDIO

We’re looking for your thoughts on UFC 207, so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst fight to [email protected]. We’ll also be doing a poll on the Tokyo Dome show on late Tuesday/early Wednesday.

Raw is tonight in Tampa with Braun Strowman vs. Sami Zayn in a last man standing match announced plus the return of Bill Goldberg. There is no Smackdown house show on Monday night so it actually would make sense for Smackdown talent to be on the show teasing the Rumble match. It also would have made a good night for the Slammys since most Mondays you can’t have the Smackdown talent at the show.

Smackdown and 205 Live are Tuesday night from Jacksonville. The Miz vs. Dean Ambrose for the IC title is on Tuesday.

NEW JAPAN WRESTLE KINGDOM 11 FROM THE TOKYO DOME ON NEW JAPAN WORLD IN ENGLISH AND JAPANESE STARTING AT 2:30 A.M. LATE TUESDAY NIGHT EASTERN TIME

New Japan 20 man Royal Rumble rules match
Tiger Mask W (Kota Ibushi) vs. Tiger the Dark (ACH)
Young Bucks vs. Rocky Romero & Trent Baretta for IWGP Jr. tag titles
Gauntlet series for trios titles with Satoshi Kojima & Ricochet & David Finlay (champions), Seiya Sanada & Evil & Bushi, Yoshi-Hashi & Will Ospreay & Jado and Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi & Hangman Page
Cody the American Nightmare vs. Juice Robinson
Kyle O’Reilly vs. Adam Cole for ROH title
Tama Tonga & Tanga Roa vs. Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma for IWGP tag team titles
Kushida vs. Hiromu Takahashi for IWGP jr. tag title
Katsuyori Shibata vs. Hirooki Goto for Never Open weight title
Tetsuya Naito vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi for IC title
Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega for IWGP title

FIGURE FOUR WEEKLY: Figure Four Weekly 12/26/2016: Is WWE violent enough?

WRESTLING OBSERVER NEWSLETTER: January 2, 2017 UFC 207 preview, Wrestlemania’s rumored matches, more

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.

MONDAY NEWS UPDATE

Bryan and I will have a show tonight talking Raw and the latest news. You can also send questions to tonight’s show to [email protected].

Paige and Alberto Del Rio were at the Raw show earlier today. Del Rio came to pick her up. She was backstage being talked with about how her recovery from her neck surgery is going.

Regarding the contract issues with Spectrum Cable and NBC, where the contract expired on 12/31 and the sides were apart in talks, both sides are still carrying the shows right now to keep service uninterrupted, so Raw will be available in the same amount of the country as usual.

Steve Corino and Kevin Kelly are in Japan to announce the New Japan events, which start late tonight after Raw with the matches at the Fan Axxess show at Differ Ariake in Tokyo. The Tokyo Dome show starts at 2:30 a.m. Eastern time late Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. The press conference airs starting at 10 p.m. Eastern time tonight on New Japan World.

Cheeseburger from ROH is in Japan so he’ll likely be in the Rumble, like he was last year.

WWE

Enzo & Cass vs Rusev & Jinder Mahal was added to tonight’s Raw lineup.
“Moana,” starring Dwayne Johnson opened at No. 2 in Australia with a $5,115,137 gross. In the U.S., even though it’s been out six weeks, it was still No. 4 this past weekend. (thanks to James Stanios)
Lilian Garcia sang the national anthem at the Los Angeles Rams game yesterday.
Tajiri will return on 205 Live tomorrow night.

Some new WWE live events

2/18 in Bakersfield
2/19 in Long Beach
2/20 in San Diego (this will be a Smackdown Monday night house show)

Some new NXT house show dates are:

2/9 in Philadelphia at the Tower Theater
2/10 in Asbury Park, NJ at Convention Hall
2/11 in Albany, NY at the National Guard Armory

MISCELLANEOUS

EWA had a year-end show in Leoben, Austria on Friday night before a virtually sold out crowd of 1,000 fans. The big draw on the show was Alberto E Patron, who came with brother El Hijo del Dos Caras. Alberto the promoter Chris Raaber have been friends since they met working in WWE developmental in 2009. Alberto helped Raaber win the EWA title, and stopped Joe Doering from using a belt shot on Raaber. He cut a promo praising the EWA and its fans and burying WWE. He also thanked fans for supporting real wrestling and that he was not a sports entertainer but a pro wrestler. Tommy Tornado & Timmy Torpedo & Christian Meixner b Leon & Nico Narciso & Robert Dreissker, Michael Jartiz b Dennis Zinner, Amber Rox b Andrea Haid, Michael Kovac b Hakeem Waqur, Rock & Rolla b Red Scorpion, Alberto El Patron & El Hijo del Dos Caras b Chris Bolen & Demolition Davies in 15:00 when Alberto tapped out Davies with an amrbar. Chris Raaber b Joe Doering to win the EWA title in a no DQ match. Raaber came out with seven other belts that were at stake. Alberto did another promo saying that Raaber was his best friend and the only guy in developmental in WWE who would talk to him and help him with his English. He said that pro wrestling was a business of back stabbers and people in WWE will try and hold you down, but here you can just have fun. He then challenged Raaber for a match and the two shook hands about it.
A look at Evolve in 2016 is here.
Volador Jr. defends his NWA Historic welterweight title tonight in Puebla against La Mascara. Atlantis & Caristico & Maximo vs. Cavernario & Gran Guerrero & Negro Casas is the semi. The show will air live on the CMLL YouTube channel starting at 8 p.m. Eastern time.
Bellator has a Chael Sonnen-Tito Ortiz press conference tomorrow to promote their 1/21 show in Los Angeles.
IWF on 1/7 at 7 p.m. at the IWF Centre in Nutley, NJ.
The World Series of Fighting show aired live on WFAN, the No. 1 sports station in the country, on Saturday afternoon. They used the same feed that NBC did with Bas Rutten, Todd Harris, Renzo Gracie and Kayla Harrison announcing. (thanks to Burt Turelli)
Cross Body Pro Wrestling on 1/7 in Kitchener, ONT at 69 Anges St.
Empire State Wrestling on 1/21 in North Tonawanda, NY featuring Braxton Sutter and JT Dunn.
MCW on 1/28 in Joppa, MD at the MCW Arena with Matt & Jeff Hardy, King Maxel, Queen Rebecca and Senor Benjamin. Also on the show are Melina and Lio Rush.
NWA Smoky Mountain Wrestling on 1/7 in Kingsport, TN at the Civic Auditorium. Chase Owens was on the show.
Mike Tyson and Sting will be the headliners for The Big Event autograph signing on 3/4 in Queens NY. Also appearing are Jerry Lawler, Billy Gunn, Road Dogg, Cody Rhodes, Sean Waltman, Kamala, Demolition, Gene Okerlund, Lita, Sid Vicious, Abyss, Crazzy Steve, Rosemary, Melina, and Koko B. Ware.

Today in Professional Wrestling History (1/2): Arn Anderson wins the NWA TV title

CONTACT INFORMATION

Poll opinions: [email protected]
Feedback: [email protected]
Show results and news tips: [email protected]
Wrestling Observer Radio questions: [email protected]

Daily Update: UFC 207 interest, HBK & Undertaker, World Of Sport ratings

Posted on January 2, 2017 by Dave Meltzer

THE ROUND-UP

The Latest from the F4W Staff

NEWS

AUDIO

Raw will be Monday night in Tampa with Braun Strowman vs. Sami Zayn in a last man standing match announced plus the return of Bill Goldberg. There is no Smackdown house show on Monday night so it actually would make sense for Smackdown talent to be on the show teasing the Rumble match. It also would have made a good night for the Slammys since most Mondays you can’t have the Smackdown talent at the show.

Smackdown and 205 Live are Tuesday night from Jacksonville. The Miz vs. Dean Ambrose for the IC title is on Tuesday.

NEW JAPAN WRESTLE KINGDOM 11 FROM THE TOKYO DOME ON NEW JAPAN WORLD IN ENGLISH AND JAPANESE STARTING AT 2:30 A.M. LATE TUESDAY NIGHT EASTERN TIME

New Japan 20 man Royal Rumble rules match
Tiger Mask W (Kota Ibushi) vs. Tiger the Dark (ACH)
Young Bucks vs. Rocky Romero & Trent Baretta for IWGP Jr. tag titles
Gauntlet series for trios titles with Satoshi Kojima & Ricochet & David Finlay (champions), Seiya Sanada & Evil & Bushi, Yoshi-Hashi & Will Ospreay & Jado and Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi & Hangman Page
Cody the American Nightmare vs. Juice Robinson
Kyle O’Reilly vs. Adam Cole for ROH title
Tama Tonga & Tanga Roa vs. Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma for IWGP tag team titles
Kushida vs. Hiromu Takahashi for IWGP jr. tag title
Katsuyori Shibata vs. Hirooki Goto for Never Open weight title
Tetsuya Naito vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi for IC title
Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega for IWGP title

FIGURE FOUR WEEKLY: Figure Four Weekly 12/26/2016: Is WWE violent enough?

WRESTLING OBSERVER NEWSLETTER: January 2, 2017 UFC 207 preview, Wrestlemania’s rumored matches, more

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:December 5, 1999 WWF losing advertisers, Steve Austin gets good news regarding neck, more – If you’re looking for this week’s top story to be simplified into good vs. evil, you’re looking in the wrong place. After two years of the WWF’s new direction turning it into prime advertising for companies aiming products at in particular, teenage and young adult males, suddenly, this week advertisers were dropping like flies… Subscribers click here to continue.

SUNDAY NEWS UPDATE

Bryan and I will have a Wrestling Observer Radio show tonight talking the weekend news plus, with no major show to cover, we’ll be taking a lot of questions that you can send to [email protected].

Undertaker and Shawn Michaels will be on Raw on 1/9, which will probably be promoted hard on tomorrow night’s show.

There was a ton of interest in the UFC. On Friday, Cody Garbrandt was the No. 7 most searched for term in the country with more than 200,000 searches. Ronda Rousey was the most searched for term over the past few days other than New Year’s Eve related searches, with more than 10 million. That would be among the highest in history.

The World of Sport rating for the wrestling show yesterday was 1.25 million viewers and a 7.3 market share. The number isn’t high enough to guarantee the show gets turned into a series, nor low enough to guarantee that it doesn’t. It’s a lot lower than ITV did in the time slot the week before, but they were down all night, probably due to it being New Year’s Eve.

MISCELLANEOUS

Jon Fitch, after retaining his WSOF welterweight title, beating Jake Shields yesterday at the Theater in Madison Square Garden, talked like it could be his last fight. He noted that he’d like to continue, but he’s got a bulging disc plus there was an MRI of his brain that was something concerning that he needs to follow up on. If you DVR’d the show, the Justin Gaethje lightweight title win over Luiz Firmino was a hell of a fight. I wouldn’t call it a fight of the year candidate because of the ending. It was really strong in the second and third round, but Firmino couldn’t see out of his right eye after the third round, wanted to continue, but the doctor stopped it. Fans were chanting to let him fight, but the eye was swollen badly and it was clearly the only decision possible.
Coverage of the New Japan Festival, which is similar to WWE Fan Axxess, and will include live matches, starts at 10 p.m. Eastern time on Monday night. The Tokyo Dome show starts at 2:30 a.m. late Tuesday night.
CMLL has a major show on Friday night, its last big show before the top talent goes to Japan for Fantastica Mania, with three singles matches, Rey Cometa vs. Cavernario, Volador Jr. vs. Mephisto and Valiente vs. Ultimo Guerrero. It’s very much unlike how the traditional promotion runs so it’ll be very interesting to see why the change was made.

AAW Unstoppable

Friday night in Merrionette Park, IL before 690 fans: Homicide b Conor Braxton (Scarlett Bordeaux, who was on Raw on Monday as the opponent of Nia Jax, was Braxton’s manager), Jake & Dave Crist b Markus Crane & Kongo Kong, Matt Riddle b Davey Richards (this may have been their first ever meeting), Michael Elgin won four-way over Mat Fichett, Paco Gonzalez and Dezmond Xavier, Drew Galloway b Jeff Cobb, Pentagon Jr. b Chris Hero, Colt Cabana & Chuck Taylor b Davey Vega & Silas Young, Heidi Lovelace b Kimber Lee, ACH b AR Fox to win the AAW Heritage title, Sami Callihan b Rey Fenix to retain the AAW title.
In the Hero vs. Pentagon match, Hero was whipped into the turnbuckle and one of the pieces of the ring post broke and then the top rope broke at the 2:00 mark of the match. The two continued to wrestle while they tried to repair the top rope but it deflated the crowd They did fix the top rope between matches and neither guy was hurt. The two had to improvise without a top rope. Pentagon won with the package piledriver and the two men raised each others’ hands. Hero talked about the ring breaking and said it was amazing. He thanked the fans for supporting the promotion and supporting him even with his lack of an appealing physical appearance. He said that he’s never had a bad match in AAW and he’s never seen a bad AAW show and it’s his Midwest home. He said he’s been asked a lot of questions, but right now still doesn’t have an answer and thanked the fans for his ability to have made a living in pro wrestling.
Lovelace did an interview and noted it was her last show with the promotion (she and Kimber Lee are both headed to WWE) and thanked Danny Daniels for giving her the chance to compete and that whatever success she gets in wrestling was because of AAW. She was fighting back tears and thanking people for her being able to call AAW her home promotion. For Lovelace and Lee, it was both of their last indie shows.
Callihan noted it was Fenix’s birthday and the crowd started singing Happy Birthday to him. But then he gave Fenix a low blow and laid him out with a belt shot. Homicide made the save and challenged the Killer Cult to a cage match on 1/20. Next show is 1/7 in LaSalle, IL with Callihan vs. John Morrison for the AAW title, Rey Fenix vs. Michael Elgin and Colt Cabana vs. Silas Young. On the 1/20 show in Merrionette Park, it will be Silas Young’s last AAW appearance plus Galloway, Eddie Kingston, Andrew Everett, Matt Sydal, Brian Cage and Abyss appear.
There was a controversial situation with language used by Homicide in a promo on the show. Keith Lipinski from the promotion noted that they had no clue words like that would be used in their promotion. They give the talent bullet points but let them cut their own promo. He said Homicide did apologize to the AAW staff immediately after he got through the curtain, and also apologized on Twitter saying he made a huge lapse of judgment. Lipinski said that the promo did alienate fans and feels racial or homophobic slurs have no place on their shows.
Danny Daniels of the promotion wrote a post about the subject.

Today in Professional Wrestling History (1/1): Sam Muchnick retirement show

CONTACT INFORMATION

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Feedback: [email protected]
Show results and news tips: [email protected]
Wrestling Observer Radio questions: [email protected]

Daily Update: Rousey’s payout, Cena & Reigns Twitter feud, UFC 207 fallout

Posted on January 1, 2017 by F4W Staff

THE ROUND-UP

The Latest from the F4W Staff

NEWS

AUDIO

Smackdown and 205 Live are Tuesday night from Jacksonville. The Miz vs. Dean Ambrose for the IC title is on Tuesday.

NEW JAPAN WRESTLE KINGDOM 11 FROM THE TOKYO DOME ON NEW JAPAN WORLD IN ENGLISH AND JAPANESE STARTING AT 2:30 A.M. LATE TUESDAY NIGHT EASTERN TIME

New Japan 20 man Royal Rumble rules match
Tiger Mask W (Kota Ibushi) vs. Tiger the Dark (ACH)
Young Bucks vs. Rocky Romero & Trent Baretta for IWGP Jr. tag titles
Gauntlet series for trios titles with Satoshi Kojima & Ricochet & David Finlay (champions), Seiya Sanada & Evil & Bushi, Yoshi-Hashi & Will Ospreay & Jado and Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi & Hangman Page
Cody the American Nightmare vs. Juice Robinson
Kyle O’Reilly vs. Adam Cole for ROH title
Tama Tonga & Tanga Roa vs. Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma for IWGP tag team titles
Kushida vs. Hiromu Takahashi for IWGP jr. tag title
Katsuyori Shibata vs. Hirooki Goto for Never Open weight title
Tetsuya Naito vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi for IC title
Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega for IWGP title

FIGURE FOUR WEEKLY: Figure Four Weekly 12/26/2016: Is WWE violent enough?

WRESTLING OBSERVER NEWSLETTER: January 2, 2017 UFC 207 preview, Wrestlemania’s rumored matches, more

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.

SATURDAY NEWS UPDATE

Today is the final day in the annual Whale Scout fundraising drive. Whale Scout is a certified Washington State 501(c)3 non-profit run by Bryan’s wife Whitney, so Bryan has thrown in a bunch of wrestling-related perks including signed copies of the original 2005 edition of Death of WCW. All donations are tax-deductible for the year 2016. There are also a lot of great and unique whale-related perks left if you or someone in your life loves whales. Whitney has a video up, a look at all the perks and more on the Indiegogo page here, or you can check out more information at www.whalescout.org. Of course, you can donate without grabbing a perk if you are so inclined. She also has a regular podcast available on iTunes searching Whale Scout Podcast, the latest of which features an interview with Mark Leiren-Young, who wrote the new book “The Killer Whale Who Changed The World.” Thanks from Whitney and Bryan!

WWE

John Cena and Roman Reigns went back and forth on Twitter yesterday after Reigns responded to a video of him laughing in a match with Kevin Owens by saying he was laughing at Owens’ merch check. Cena first sent a tweet to Reigns with a video of him working out at Georgia Tech, where Reigns played football in college: “While @WWERomanReigns was making fun of what people earn I was at @GeorgiaTechFB to #EarnTheDay #recognize.” And then Reigns responded to Cena.
WWE.com looks at their top 25 matches of 2016.
Tommy End spoke about his background in kickboxing and his road to WWE.
WWE has a video on the top 10 new catchphrases of 2016.

PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING

While time will tell whether it was a success, ITV’s World of Sport special aired in the UK today. Our British wrestling reporter Alan Boon will have a column on the show tomorrow.
Ratings were up a bit for this week’s Hardy-centric best-of edition of TNA Impact. 224k peoople watched the show, whereas last week’s best-of 2016 episode was watched by 209k viewers. Matt and Reby Hardy revealed that their next child will be a boy on the show.
Tyrus (formerly Brodus Clay) takes part in New Year’s Eve coverage on Fox News tonight doing man-on-the-street segments in Times Square with Libertarian pundit Kat Timpf. Tyrus is a regular contributor for Fox News.

MMA

The UFC uploaded video of Amanda Nunes’ interview inside of the Octagon after decimating Ronda Rousey in the first round last night at UFC 207, as well as full video from last night’s post-fight press conferences.
Not that it was a surprise, but Rousey didn’t speak to the media after her loss. She released a statement to ESPN on Saturday, saying that she would have to take some time to reflect and think about the future.
Bloody Elbow has a transcript of advice that Rousey’s coach Edmond Tarverdyan gave her during the fight. Nunes didn’t have kind words for Tarverdyan at the post-fight press conference.
Rousey’s mom posted a blog about her daughter’s loss.
Rousey’s disclosed fight purse was $3 million, with Nunes receiving $100k for the fight and a $100k win bonus before PPV points are calculated.
Dana White said that TJ Dillashaw is likely next in line to challenge Cody Garbrandt after Garbrandt won the bantamweight title from Dominick Cruz last night.
In an interview with ESPN, White also said that he’s unsure if Rousey will fight again and credited her for the success of women fighters in the UFC.
Garbrandt gave his bantamweight championship belt to cancer survivor and friend Maddux Maple after the win.
Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports looks at Rousey and her future in his latest column.
The fight between Gabi Garcia and 49-year-old pro wrestler Yumiko Hotta took place at RIZIN’s show this morning and went pretty much exactly as expected. After showing off her rope running ability, Hotta got knocked out in under a minute.
After defeating Baruto earlier in the night, Mirko Cro Cop went on to win RIZIN’s Grand Prix later in the night by beating Amir Aliakbari.
World Series of Fighting debuted in New York City today with a big show from Madison Square Garden with the main card airing on the NBC Main Network. Justin Gaethje (17-0) retained his lightweight title in the main event over Luiz Firmino after a doctor stoppage at the end of round three. There were three other title fights on the show with Jon Fitch (over Jake Shields), Marlon Moraes (over Josenaldo Silva) and Dave Branch (over Louis Taylor) all retaining their belts.
Mike Goldberg’s son wasn’t happy with his father not being given a chance to have a proper sendoff in his last event with the company at UFC 207. Kole Goldberg tweeted: “my dad did so much for the UFC over the past 13 years and they can’t even give him a proper goodbye. what a joke @ufc.”

Results from the Observer Panel picks for last night’s show:

5-0: Paul Fontaine
4-1: Josh Nason, Front Row Brian, Steve Juon
3-2: Mike Sempervive, John Pollock, Dave Meltzer, David Bixenspan
2-3: Mike Sawyer
1-4: Ryan Frederick

Final standings for the year:

John Pollock (79-49; .617)
Josh Nason/David Bixenspan (78-50; .609)
Dave Meltzer (74-54; .578)
Mike Sawyer (73-55; .570)
Mike Sempervive/Front Row Brian (72-56; .563)
Steve Juon (71-57; .555)
Ryan Frederick (70-58; .547)
Paul Fontaine (66-62; .516)

Today in Professional Wrestling History (12/31): Bruiser Brody wins Florida Title

CONTACT INFORMATION

Poll opinions: [email protected]
Feedback: [email protected]
Show results and news tips: [email protected]
Wrestling Observer Radio questions: [email protected]

Daily Update: Ronda Rousey returns, UFC 207 tonight, Yurnet injury

Posted on December 31, 2016 by Dave Meltzer

UFC 207: Rousey’s Return

Fight Pass at 7:30 p.m.

Alex Oliveira (170.5) vs. Tim Means (170)

FS1 at 8 p.m.

Brandon Thatch (170) vs. Niko Price (170)
Antonio Carlos Jr. (186) vs. Marvin Vettori (186)
Mike Pyle (170) vs. Alex Garcia (170.5)
Johny Hendricks (173.5) vs. Neil Magny (171)

PPV at 10 p.m.

Louis Smolka (125.5) vs. Ray Borg (129.5)
Dong Hyun Kim (171) vs. Tarec Saffiedine (171)
T.J. Dillashaw (136) vs. John Lineker (135.25)
Dominick Cruz (135) vs,. Cody Garbrandt (135) for welterweight title
Amanda Nunes (135) vs. Ronda Rousey (135) for women’s welterweight title

We’re looking for your thoughts on tonight’s UFC 207, so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst fight to [email protected].

We’re also looking for reports on tonight’s WWE shows in Los Angeles (Roman Reigns vs. Kevin Owens for U.S. title) and Miami (A.J. Styles vs. John Cena vs. Dean Ambrose for WWE title), last night’s shows in Boston and Atlanta and Wednesday night’s show in Nashville to [email protected]. With the holiday weekend, everyone has Saturday and Sunday off, and WWE resumes touring on Monday night with Raw in Tampa.

NEW JAPAN WORLD PRO WRESTLING FROM 8-11 P.M. EASTERN TONIGHT ON AXS TV

This is three hours from the January 4, 2016 Tokyo Dome show

Kenny Omega vs. Kushida for IWGP jr. title
Shinsuke Nakamura vs. A.J. Styles for IC title
Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson vs. Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma for IWGP tag titles
Mark & Jay Briscoe & Toru Yano vs. Tama Tonga & Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi for trios titles
Tomohiro Ishii vs. Katsuyori Shibata for Never Open weight title
Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly vs. Young Bucks vs. Matt Sydal & Ricochet vs. Rocky Romero & Trent Baretta for IWGP jr. tag titles

CMLL FROM ARENA MEXICO LIVE TONIGHT AT 9:30 P.M. EASTERN TIME

Flyer & Robin vs. Metalico & El Hijo del Signo
Pegasso & Star Jr. & Triton vs. Nitro & Sangre Azteca & Virus
Rey Cometa vs. Sagrado
Blue Panther Jr. & The Panther & Drone vs. Kraneo & Olimpico & Ripper
Marco Corleone & Angel de Oro & Stuka Jr. vs. Shocker & El Terrible & Rey Bucanero
Caristico & Volador Jr. & Valiente vs. Negro Casas & Felino & Cavernario

RIZIN tonight at 1 a.m. EST

Valentin Moldavsky vs. Amir Aliakbari in tournament semifinals
Mirko Cro Cop vs. Baruto Kaido in tournament semifinals
Hayato Sakurai vs. Wataru Sakata
Gabi Garcia vs. Yumiko Hotta
Kizaemon Saiga vs. Dillin West
Andy Nguyen vs. Miyu Yamamoto
Reina vs. Hanna Tyson
Hideo Tokoro vs. Erson Yamamoto
Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Kron Gracie
Tournament finals

WORLD SERIES OF FIGHTING TOMORROW FROM THE THEATER IN MADISON SQUARE GARDEN

NBC Sports Network at 3 p.m. Eastern

David Branch (19-3) vs. Louis Taylor (13-3) for the middleweight title
Caio Alencar (10-1) vs. Jared Rosholt (14-3)

Live on NBC at 4 p.m. Eastern

Marlon Moraes (17-4-1) vs. Josenaldo Silva (25-4) for bantamweight title
Jon Fitch (28-7-1) vs. Jake Shields (31-8-1) for welterweight title
Paul Bradley (23-6) vs. Yushin Okami (32-10)
Justin Gaethje (16-0) vs. Luiz Firmino (19-7) for lightweight title

Smackdown and 205 Live are Tuesday night from Jacksonville. The Miz vs. Dean Ambrose for the IC title is on Tuesday.

NEW JAPAN WRESTLE KINGDOM 11 FROM THE TOKYO DOME ON NEW JAPAN WORLD IN ENGLISH AND JAPANESE STARTING AT 2:30 A.M. LATE TUESDAY NIGHT EASTERN TIME

New Japan 20 man Royal Rumble rules match
Tiger Mask W (Kota Ibushi) vs. Tiger the Dark (ACH)
Young Bucks vs. Rocky Romero & Trent Baretta for IWGP jr. tag titles
Gauntlet series for trios titles with Satoshi Kojima & Ricochet & David Finlay (champions), Seiya Sanada & Evil & Bushi, Yoshi-Hashi & Will Ospreay & Jado and Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi & Hangman Page
Cody the American Nightmare vs. Juice Robinson
Kyle O’Reilly vs. Adam Cole for ROH title
Tama Tonga & Tanga Roa vs. Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma for IWGP tag team titles
Kushida vs. Hiromu Takahashi for IWGP jr. tag title
Katsuyori Shibata vs. Hirooki Goto for Never Open weight title
Tetsuya Naito vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi for IC title
Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega for IWGP title

FIGURE FOUR WEEKLY: Figure Four Weekly 12/26/2016: Is WWE violent enough?

WRESTLING OBSERVER NEWSLETTER: January 2, 2017 UFC 207 preview, Wrestlemania’s rumored matches, more

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.

FRIDAY NEWS UPDATE

Bryan and I will have a show tonight covering tonight’s UFC show as well as the latest pro wrestling news. If you’ve got questions for the show you can send them to [email protected].

Ronda Rousey was the second most searched term in the U.S. yesterday with 500,000 searches. That is very unusual for a UFC fighter the day before, but not for Rousey. Personal searches for Rousey are always high and don’t necessarily indicate a gigantic buy rate, but it would be a good sign. A big issue is that so many people think the show is tomorrow night.

Live tickets are just about sold out. That would be ahead of the other shows at the T Mobile Arena, but the gate will be much lower since they were charging significantly less than the other shows at the arena. Rousey was cheered louder than anyone at the weigh-ins and Amanda Nunes was booed more than anyone else. Dominick Cruz was also booed pretty heavily but he’s pretty much playing arrogant heel to precision.

A major story involving the New York area is that Charter Communications (Spectrum Cable) and NBC Universal are in a dispute. As of right now, if a new deal isn’t reached by midnight tomorrow, when the contract expires, then 16 million homes around the country, including much of New York, will be without not only NBC but MSNBC, Bravo, E!, USA and Syfy. I’ve seen some stuff to rally people against the cable company and in pushing shows people won’t be able to see, they have mentioned Raw, Smackdown ad Total Divas. Usually these things get worked out because the contract would expire before Sunday Night Football which is a huge show.

There is a weird story as a Go Fund Me was set up for John Yurnet, who wrestled on Tuesday night’s 205 Live show against Mustafa Ali and apparently blew his knee out. He’s trying to raise $10,000 in medical expenses for an MRI and surgery. As of this morning they had raised $1,995. It’s weird because WWE usually covers injuries to talent, but Yurnet is not under a WWE contract, although he wrestled in a WWE ring. There is also a lot of talk that Yurnet was injured before the match and not on the first spot of the match as was first said.

World Series of Fighting has the biggest show in its history tomorrow with the main card on NBC in the afternoon. WFAN in New York, the biggest sports radio station in the country, will also be covering the event.

WWE

There was a brief injury scare with Bo Dallas last night in Boston. The report was that they stopped his match early and the ref gave an “X” sign, but he seemed okay after because his gimmick all week is that after losing in a multiple person match, he then challenges anyone from the back to come out and refuses to leave the ring. Big Show then knocks him out. And after the match was stopped, he did recover and issued the challenge spot.

MISCELLANEOUS

New Japan announced that Masahiro Chono would be doing Japanese commentary for Wrestle Kingdom 11.
Kurt Angle will wrestle on 3/3 for Northeast Wrestling in Waterbury, CT.
There will be a lot of New Japan World live events this week. There will be three matches from Differ Ariake on Tuesday (late Monday U.S. time) as well as New Year’s Dash, which often has some of the best angles because it’s setting up the new year, which will be at 4:30 a.m. early Thursday morning Eastern time.
Beyond Wrestling Party Animals show last night in Providence, RI before a sellout crowd even with WWE in Boston head-to-head: Rex Lawless b Maxwell Jacob Feinstein, Warbeard Hanson b Scotty Slade, VSK & Dorian Graves won four-way over Anthony Green & Big Daddy Beluga, Davey Cash & Kris Pyro and Ace Romero & Xavier Bell, Brian Milonas b Travis Flip Gordon, Chris Hero b Keith Lee (said to be ****+ and best thing on the show), Matt Riddle & Chuck O’Neill (another former UFC fighter) b Bill Carr & Dan Barry (Barry walked out on Carr after the match), Pinkie Sanchez b Tracy Williams (bad match), Dan Maff & Monsta Mack b Chris Dickinson & Jaka, Kimber Lee b Donovan Dijak (Kimber Lee’s farewell to Beyond as she’s going to WWE). After the match, Lee gave a farewell speech and Hero came out. JT Dunn then hit an elbow from behind to her and Hero laid her out with a piledriver. Veda Scott & Sonya Strong b Jordynne Grace & Karen Q. There was a problem here as Karen pinned Scott and the ref counted three and the bell rang. Everyone looked confused and they all continued the match like it never happened. John Silver b Joey Janela in a very good match. David Starr b Jonathan Gresham to keep the wXw (German promotion) Shotgun title. Donovan Dijak & Mikey Webb won four-way over Hero & Dunn. This match went 30 minutes and started at almost midnight. The crowd was tired. Kimber Lee interfered to help Dijak & Webb win. Kimber Lee then did her farewell speech. She never mentioned WWE by name. But she hoped the crowd would follow her on her new journey on a new stage. The promoter gave her a framed photo of herself with the Beyond logo (thanks to Patrick Tobin).
Alberto El Patron and brother Guillermo as El Hijo de Dos Caras arrived Wednesday in Austria for a show today in Leoben. They held a press conference yesterday at the Schwarzenegger Museum in Graz (where Schwarzenegger is from). Alberto then attended the local hockey team’s game and had a seminar yesterday. Paige was not on this trip even though he did say on Instagram a few days earlier she was coming. Chris Raaber, the promoter, faces Joe Doering, coming back from brain cancer, in the main event for their title. More than 600 tickets were sold in advance which is a great number for a small Austrian promotion. (thanks to Markus Gronemann)
Pro Wrestling 2.0 from last night in Orlando: Chasyn Rance & Kaci Lennox b Chico Adams & Mila Naniki, Brandi Lauren b Trish Adora, Kahagas b Aaron Epic, Lacey Lane b Jon Cruz, Seth Petruzelli b Josh Hess & Wolfe Taylor, Shane Strickland (Killshot) d Martin Stone. (thanks to Al Haft)
I Believe in Wrestling on 1/13 in Orlando at the Team Vision Dojo with Seth Petruzelli.
CMLL from Tuesday night in Guadalajara: Star Black & Vaquero Jr. b Carlo Roggi & Linterna, Cancerbero & Joker & Raziel b Magnum & Marvel & Star Jr., Cuatrero & Forastero & Sanson b Blue Panther Jr. & Esfinge & Pegasso, Kraneo & Polvora & Ripper b Drone & Stuka Jr. & Triton, Caristico & Marco Corleone & Volador Jr. b La Mascara & Shocker & El Terrible.
Only one day remains in the annual Whale Scout fundraising drive. Whale Scout is a certified Washington State 501(c)3 non-profit run by Bryan’s wife Whitney, so Bryan has thrown in a bunch of wrestling-related perks including signed copies of the original 2005 edition of Death of WCW. All donations are tax-deductible for the year 2016. There are also a lot of great and unique whale-related perks left if you or someone in your life loves whales. Whitney has a video up, a look at all the perks and more on the Indiegogo page here, or you can check out more information at www.whalescout.org. Of course, you can donate without grabbing a perk if you are so inclined. She also has a regular podcast available on iTunes searching Whale Scout Podcast, the latest of which features an interview with Mark Leiren-Young, who wrote the new book “The Killer Whale Who Changed The World.” Thanks from Whitney and Bryan!

Today in Professional Wrestling History (12/30): Big Van Vader defeats Ron Simmons for WCW World Title

CONTACT INFORMATION

Poll opinions: [email protected]
Feedback: [email protected]
Show results and news tips: [email protected]
Wrestling Observer Radio questions: [email protected]

Daily Update: WWE ratings, Lethal & Daniels sign with ROH, Hendricks

Posted on December 30, 2016 by Dave Meltzer

THE ROUND-UP

The Latest from the F4W Staff

NEWS

AUDIO

We’re looking for reports from the WWE shows tonight in Boston (Roman Reigns vs. Kevin Owens) and Atlanta (A.J. Styles vs John Cena vs. Dean Ambrose) as well as last night’s show from Nashville.

TNA Tonight will present a New Year’s show from the Hardy Compound.

Big day tomorrow with UFC 207 and the Rizin New Year’s Eve show (which starts on Friday night immediately after UFC 207 ends). WWE also has a Raw brand house show at the Staples Center in Los Angeles and a SmackDown brand show in Miami.

UFC 207 TOMORROW

Fight Pass at 7:30 p.m.

Alex Oliveira (170.5) vs. Tim Means (170)

FS1 at 8 p.m.

Brandon Thatch (170) vs. Niko Price (170)
Antonio Carlos Jr. (186) vs. Marvin Vettori (186)
Mike Pyle (170) vs. Alex Garcia (170.5)
Johny Hendricks (173.5) vs. Neil Magny (171)

PPV at 10 p.m.

Louis Smolka (125.5) vs. Ray Borg (129.5)
Dong Hyun Kim (171) vs. Tarec Saffiedine (171)
T.J. Dillashaw (136) vs. John Lineker (135.25)
Dominick Cruz (135) vs,. Cody Garbrandt (135) for welterweight title
Amanda Nunes (135) vs. Ronda Rousey (135) for women’s welterweight title

RIZIN tomorrow night at 10 p.m.

Charles Krazy Horse Bennett vs. Minoru Kimura
Valentin Moldavsky vs. Amir Aliakbari in tournament semifinals
Mirko Cro Cop vs. Baruto Kaido in tournament semifinals
Hayato Sakurai vs. Wataru Sakata
Gabi Garcia vs. Yumiko Hotta
Kizaemon Saiga vs. Dillin West
Andy Nguyen vs. Miyu Yamamoto
Reina vs. Hanna Tyson
Hideo Tokoro vs. Erson Yamamoto
Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Kron Gracie
Tournament finals

We’ll be dong polls this week on UFC 207 and the New Japan Tokyo Dome, which starts at 2:35 a.m. Eastern time on Tuesday night.

FIGURE FOUR WEEKLY: Figure Four Weekly 12/26/2016: Is WWE violent enough?

WRESTLING OBSERVER NEWSLETTER: January 2, 2017 UFC 207 preview, Wrestlemania’s rumored matches, more

Ronda Rousey will historically be considered one of the most important fighters in the history of her sport. But no matter what she has done before, a big part of how she will be viewed in the future will depend on Friday’s fight with Amanda Nunes. A win, making her two-time bantamweight champion, will make the narrative that she came back from a devastating defeat and layoff to regain her championship…

Right now when it comes to WrestleMania while there are a lot of rumors and directions being stated, there are only three matches locked in, which are Brock Lesnar vs. Bill Goldberg, HHH vs. Seth Rollins and Big Show vs. Shaquille O’Neal. John Cena vs. Undertaker is a probable, but Vince McMahon was not locked on it…

Kenny Omega and Kazuchika Okada go into the Tokyo Dome on 1/4 with almost an unreal amount of pressure. In some people’s eyes, unless they have the match of the year, because expectations are so high, there will be a measure of disappointment. It’s very rare you have a match like this on such a big stage. I think Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat had that in all three of their national airing matches in 1989…

A series of flukes may have established an inadvertent new holiday tradition. The days of the big Christmas wrestling spectaculars in pro wrestling are long gone. And in the past, Christmas night has been tough and Christmas Eve has been death for ratings when it comes to Raw and SmackDown… Subscribers click here to continue.

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.

THURSDAY NEWS UPDATE

SmackDown beat Raw in the ratings this week, although that story feels way overplayed. Raw went against the highest rated NFL Monday Night game of the season and SmackDown featured the return of John Cena and a show advertised with three title matches, so by all rights it should have won handily.

Jay Lethal and Christopher Daniels both signed new deals with ROH. Kyle O’Reilly is the name everyone is talking about. He has not signed a new deal at this point.

Regarding something we got a lot of questions about Tuesday and Wednesday, Paige is still under contract to WWE.

One of the potentially biggest events, if it is a success and leads to a series, takes place 12/31 on ITV in the U.K. with a two-hour World of Sport wrestling special featuring some world title bouts, a ladder match, and talent including Grado, Dave Mastiff and Davey Boy Smith Jr., plus Jim Ross will be announcing the show.

This was the Johny Hendricks interview about challenging people to cut 20 pounds just prior to his missing weight today.

WWE

After last night’s events at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, it was announced a 3/20 Raw in the building with the password BKISRAW with tickets on sale through tomorrow morning.
Sky Sports has a story on Sam Gradwell debuting with WWE in the U.K. title tournament.

Variety

A story on why the third quarter of 2016 was the best quarter in recent years for great matches.
Josh Burkman (28-14, 1 no contest) vs. Michel Prazeras (21-2) was added to the 3/11 UFC show in Fortaleza Brazil.
Due to an injury to Jussier Formiga, the 1/15 UFC show in Phoenix features Sergio Pettis (14-2) now facing John Moraga (16-5). Jordan Rinaldi also pulled out of that show and Devin Powell’s new opponent is Drakker Klose, making his UFC debut with a 6-0-1 record.
AXS TV tomorrow night will air three hours from last year’s Tokyo Dome show. Most of the top matches will air with the exception of the Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada match. The A.J. Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura match was edited so it wasn’t nearly as good as the Japanese unedited version.
AAW tomorrow night in Merrionette Park, IL at 115 Bourbon Street has Sami Callihan vs. Rey Fenix for the AAW title, AR Fox vs. ACH for the AAW Heritage title, Pentagon Jr. vs. Chris Hero, Heidi Lovelace vs. Kimber Lee, Davey Vega & Silas Young vs. Chuck Taylor & Colt Cabana, Drew Galloway vs. Jeff Cobb plus Matt Riddle, Michael Elgin, Homicide, Dave & Jake Crist and Dezmond Xavier.
They also run 1/7 in LaSalle, IL at the Knights of Columbus with Sami Callihan vs. John Morrison, Michael Elgin vs. Rey Fenix, Silas Young vs Colt Cabana, Jessicka Havok vs. Taya and more.
Shigehiro Irie of the DDT promotion will be working from 1/10 to 1/16 for CWE in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.
The Legacy Fighting Alliance on 2/17 in Bossier City, LA at the Horseshoe Casino & Hotel with Kevin Aguilar vs. Raoni Barcelos for their featherweight title. The show airs live on AXS at 9 p.m. Eastern time, which will be the new time slot for live fights starting with the new year..
Dan Severn will be promoting an MMA show on 1/14 and a pro wrestling show on 1/21 in Denver. He is also looking at coming out of retirement for one last fight in 2017 after his fight with Ken Shamrock fell through when Shamrock failed a drug test.
Darius Rucker on the red carpet before the Kennedy Center Honors said that Ric Flair should get a Kennedy Center Honor.
FMLL with L.A. Park, Damian 666, Rey Bucanero, Nicho and more headline 1/22 in El Monte, CA at Florentine Gardens.
Derek Campos vs. Derek Anderson has been added to the 1/21 Bellator TV card on Spike, which is the Chael Sonnen vs. Tito Ortiz show. Also added in Rebecca Ruth (6-2) vs. Invicta’s Colleen Schneider (10-7). Schneider has done pro wrestling in the past.
AMW on 1/8 in Hazard, KY at the Frontline Ministries Full Gospel Church.
Great Canadian Wrestling from Tuesday night in Oshawa, ONT: Mark Wheeler b Idris Abraham, Sinn Bohdi & Canuck Kid b Bill Skullion & Pepper Jack, Tarik b Space Monkey, The Fraternity b Flight or Fight, Tyson Dux b Sebastian Suave, Space Monkey won Battle Royal. (thanks to Steven Ashe)

Today in Professional Wrestling History (12/29): Mick Foley wins the WWF title for the first time

CONTACT INFORMATION

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Feedback: [email protected]
Show results and news tips: [email protected]
Wrestling Observer Radio questions: [email protected]

Daily Update: Cena vs. Styles, Foley’s hip replacement, UFC 207

Posted on December 29, 2016 by Joseph Currier

THE ROUND-UP

The Latest from the F4W Staff

NEWS

AUDIO

WWE has a Raw house show at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn and a SmackDown show in Nashville.

RIZIN ON WEDNESDAY NIGHT AT 1 A.M. EASTERN AND 10 P.M. PACIFIC FROM THE SAITAMA SUPER ARENA

Satoru Kitaoka vs Daron Cruickshank
Kanna Asakura vs Alyssa Garcia
Vadim Nemkov vs. Aliston Vicente in a tournament substitute bout
Yusuke Yachi vs. Mario Sismundo
Tatsumitsu Wada vs. Kai Kara-France
Yuki Motoya vs. Allan Nascimento
Kazuyuki Miyata vs. Andy Souwer
Tenshin Nakusawa vs. Nikita Sapun
Rin Nakai vs. Kanako Murata
Valentin Moldavsky vs. Szymon Bajor in the tournament quarterfinals
Amir Aliakbari vs. Heath Herring in the tournament quarterfinals
Baruto Kaido vs. Tsuyoshi Kosaka in the tournament quarterfinals
Mirko Cro Cop vs. King Mo Lawal in the tournament quarterfinals

FIGURE FOUR WEEKLY: 12/12/2016 The Paige/Alberto Del Rio relationship isn’t funny anymore

International Wrestling Revolution Group, or IWRG, has been one of Mexico’s top independent promotions for over two decades. Yet aside from the period where it was the Mexican home of Ultimo Dragon’s students when Toryumon was getting off the ground, the promotion rarely got much international attention… Subscribers click here to continue.

WRESTLING OBSERVER NEWSLETTER: December 26, 2016 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: WWE announces UK tournament, Urijah Faber retires, more

A look at WWE and New Japan gearing up for a changing pro wrestling landscape in 2017 with new moves and ideas planned by each side is the lead story in the new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. The story notes the WWE new moves in the U.K., the U.K. scene, the top talent there, notes on who WWE signed and why they didn’t sign the biggest names, long-term WWE plans for the market, HHH talks about WWE producing so much content and thoughts on how this changes the mentality of a lot of wrestlers in the U.K.

New Japan is making moves to expand internationally and its owner, Takaaki Kidani, talks about what he feels are the weakness of the WWE business model and why he thinks they will be running into trouble in just a few years.

This issue examines Urijah Faber’s career and the rise of lighter weight fighters, the success of Paige VanZant as a drawing card and what that means going forward, as well as future thoughts on Michelle Waterson, Mickey Gall and the others from Saturdays’ UFC show.

WWE’s final PPV show of 2016, Roadblock End of the Line is covered. Also, there’s talk about public interest, business notes on the show, what happened in the key bouts, the booking and why things happened the way they did, along with match-by-match coverage with star ratings and poll results.

Finally, there is an update on Mick Foley, what the original plans were for him and why they changed, and why he’ll soon be taking time off. Also, an update on Zack Ryder, a new WWE signee, a successful WWE franchise, advertised main events for this week’s television, WWE star competes in major fitness contest soon, as well as the most watched shows on the WWE Network, inside this issue.

Subscribers click here to continue.

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.

WEDNESDAY NEWS UPDATE

WWE

John Cena returned to WWE television on last night’s SmackDown. Cena opened the show with a promo challenging whoever won the show’s WWE Championship triple threat main event to a title match at the Royal Rumble, and he came out at the end of the show to officially set up his match with AJ Styles at the Royal Rumble on January 29th at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.
Also on last night’s show, America Alpha won their first tag team titles since being promoted to the main roster. Dissension between Randy Orton & Luke Harper was teased at the finish. Heath Slater appeared to suffer a leg injury during the match, but tweeted that everything is (mostly) fine on Wednesday.
Tonight’s episode of NXT is a special two-hour edition of the show featuring matches from their house show at the Edion Arena in Osaka, Japan earlier this month. That show was headlined by Shinsuke Nakamura regaining the NXT Championship against Samoa Joe, which already aired on TV. Two other title matches will also air tonight with DIY defending the tag titles against Tajiri & Akira Tozawa and Nia Jax challenging Asuka for the Women’s title.
Tajiri returns to main roster TV on next week’s edition of 205 Live. On last night’s episode, Neville defeated Rich Swann in a non-title match which likely sets up a Cruiserweight Championship match between the two down the road.
In a Facebook post, Mick Foley provided an update on the status of his health and the hip replacement that he needs. Foley wrote that he had intended to get the operation at the start of 2017, but never set a date because he doesn’t have health insurance. He claimed that the surgery would cost $60,000 out-of-pocket. In the post, Foley clarified that he’s on a handshake deal with WWE and doesn’t have a contract in his role as general manager of Raw.
WWE’s YouTube channel has a video looking at the 12 most talked about moments of 2016.
DDP spoke about his WWE DVD, which is set to be released in March.

PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING

Chris Hero will be wrestling for EVOLVE at their two shows over Royal Rumble weekend in San Antonio, Texas on January 27th and 28th. Hero will face Zack Sabre Jr. on the 28th.
The Ricochet vs. Will Ospreay match (along with the rest of the card) from Over The Top Wrestling’s first show that was filmed to air on FloSlam will stream on the service tonight at 8:30 p.m. ET.
Matt Riddle will face Tyler Bate at OTT’s show on February 5th.
New Japan World has made every title match of 2016 free to stream through January 4th.
Vader talks his WCW Starrcade match with Ric Flair, as well as his feud with Sting.

UFC / MMA

The UFC posted full video from Dana White’s media scrum on Wednesday afternoon. White spoke about Ronda Rousey not doing media for UFC 207, and tried to make sense of what’s going on with the lightweight division as they attempt to book a match for the interim title. He confirmed that Jose Aldo wanted a fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov, but Nurmagomedov’s father didn’t want him fighting. White also said that Tony Ferguson agreed to fight Nurmagomedov, but only for exactly what his opponent would make.
Cody Garbrandt stormed out of an interview with Dominick Cruz
Dana White confirmed that Amanda Nunes will be getting PPV points for UFC 207.
Jeremy Botter tweeted that talks are ongoing for Jim Rome to be Mike Goldberg’s replacement in the UFC broadcast booth.
Cain Velasquez posted a statement about being pulled from UFC 207.
Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports’ latest column focuses on Amanda Nunes ahead of her championship defense against Ronda Rousey on Friday night.
Miesha Tate appeared on FS1’s Undisputed to talk about Amanda Nunes vs. Ronda Rousey.
The UFC posted episode two of Embedded for UFC 207.

Today in Professional Wrestling History (12/28): Sting defeats Hollywood Hogan at Starrcade 1997

CONTACT INFORMATION

Poll opinions: [email protected]
Feedback: [email protected]
Show results and news tips: [email protected]
Wrestling Observer Radio questions: [email protected]

Daily Update: SmackDown, Dana on Punk & Brock, UFC 207 hype

Posted on December 28, 2016 by Joseph Currier

THE ROUND-UP

The Latest from the F4W Staff

NEWS

AUDIO

There will be a Raw house show tonight in St. Louis.

Wednesday has a Raw house show at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn and a SmackDown show in Nashville.

RIZIN ON WEDNESDAY NIGHT AT 1 A.M. EASTERN AND 10 P.M. PACIFIC FROM THE SAITAMA SUPER ARENA

Satoru Kitaoka vs Daron Cruickshank
Kanna Asakura vs Alyssa Garcia
Vadim Nemkov vs. Aliston Vicente in a tournament substitute bout
Yusuke Yachi vs. Mario Sismundo
Tatsumitsu Wada vs. Kai Kara-France
Yuki Motoya vs. Allan Nascimento
Kazuyuki Miyata vs. Andy Souwer
Tenshin Nakusawa vs. Nikita Sapun
Rin Nakai vs. Kanako Murata
Valentin Moldavsky vs. Szymon Bajor in the tournament quarterfinals
Amir Aliakbari vs. Heath Herring in the tournament quarterfinals
Baruto Kaido vs. Tsuyoshi Kosaka in the tournament quarterfinals
Mirko Cro Cop vs. King Mo Lawal in the tournament quarterfinals

FIGURE FOUR WEEKLY: 12/12/2016 The Paige/Alberto Del Rio relationship isn’t funny anymore

WRESTLING OBSERVER NEWSLETTER: December 26, 2016 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: WWE announces UK tournament, Urijah Faber retires, more

Subscribers click here to continue.

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.

TUESDAY NEWS UPDATE

WWE

Stephanie McMahon was prepared for Chicago’s CM Punk chants at last night’s Raw. During the opening segment, she responded to the chants by saying that if the crowd kept it up for two minutes and 15 seconds, they’d last a second longer than Punk did in his fight against Mickey Gall.
SmackDown closes out the year tonight with a big show that’s also in Chicago, Illinois. Three title matches are scheduled with AJ Styles defending the WWE Championship against Baron Corbin and Dolph Ziggler in a triple threat match, the Wyatt Family defending their tag titles in a four corners elimination match, and Alexa Bliss putting her Women’s title on the line against Becky Lynch. John Cena’s return to WWE TV will also kick off the show.
John Cena was interviewed by ESPN ahead of his return tonight.
Cody Rhodes spoke out on Twitter about last night’s Raw segment that referenced his father. In the segment, Bayley gave Goldust a Dusty Rhodes teddy bear before Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows interrupted the Golden Truth and Anderson tore the head off of the bear. Cody tweeted after it aired, “Not gonna’ say something mean or blow a whistle. All I can say…is that whoever produced that, I hope they never know what this feels like.” He also later responded to the reaction he got from the tweet, “Appreciate all the kind words tonight & even the dissenting opinions. I turned something private to public. I’m not perfect. I just miss him.”
Goldberg turns 50 years old today, and it’s also the anniversary of Kevin Nash breaking his WCW undefeated streak at Starrcade 1998. Goldberg returns to Raw next week in Tampa, Florida.
WWE revealed the logo for the upcoming United Kingdom Championship tournament.
Alexa Bliss gets her customized SmackDown Women’s title plates.

PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING

Ring of Honor announced Kyle O’Reilly & Jay Lethal vs. Adam Cole & Cody Rhodes for their TV taping in Atlanta on January 14th. It’s the first 2017 ROH match that O’Reilly has been advertised for with his contract set to expire at the end of this year.
EVOLVE released a mini-documentary on Matt Riddle’s recent trip to China.

UFC

In an interview with TMZ Sports that was released today but appears to have been taped last week, Dana White was asked about Brock Lesnar and CM Punk’s futures in the UFC. White said that he doubted that Lesnar would fight again but wasn’t definitive about it. White said that he will figure out Punk’s future with him and needs to talk to him about it, though he seemed more pessimistic than Punk was recently on the MMA Hour about continuing his career in the UFC.
Josh Barnett has been flagged by USADA for a potential anti-doping violation caused by an out-of-competition sample taken on December 9th.
Cody Garbrandt was interviewed about his upcoming bantamweight title fight against Dominick Cruz at UFC 207.
The UFC released the first episode of Embedded for UFC 207, as well as the full Countdown special for the PPV.
John Gooden and Dan Hardy break down the Cruz vs. Garbrandt bantamweight title fight.
Guilherme Cruz of MMAFighting profiled Amanda Nunes.

Today in Professional Wrestling History (12/27): Kevin Nash ends Goldberg’s streak at Starrcade

CONTACT INFORMATION

Poll opinions: [email protected]
Feedback: [email protected]
Show results and news tips: [email protected]
Wrestling Observer Radio questions: [email protected]

Daily Update: WWE house shows, wrestling in China, UFC 207

Posted on December 27, 2016 by Dave Meltzer

THE ROUND-UP

The Latest from the F4W Staff

NEWS

AUDIO

Raw will be live on Monday from Chicago while Smackdown will be in Madison Square Garden headlined by A.J. Styles vs. John Cena vs. Dean Ambrose in a three-way for the title. We’re looking on reports from Chicago for Main Event matches, dark matches, and anything else not on the television show to [email protected].

Smackdown will be Tuesday in Chicago with three title matches announced, Styles vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Baron Corbin for the WWE title, Alexa Bliss vs. Becky Lynch for the women’s title and a four-way tag title match with The Wyatt Family vs. Usos vs Heath Slater & Rhyno vs. American Alpha, plus the television return of Cena. There will also be a Raw house show on Tuesday night in St. Louis.

Wednesday has a Raw house show at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn and a Smackdown show in Nashville.

RIZIN ON WEDNESDAY NIGHT AT 1 A.M. EASTERN AND 10 P.M. PACIFIC FROM THE SAITAMA SUPER ARENA

Satoru Kitaoka vs Daron Cruickshank
Kanna Asakura vs Alyssa Garcia
Vadim Nemkov vs. Aliston Vicente in a tournament substitute bout
Yusuke Yachi vs. Mario Sismundo
Tatsumitsu Wada vs. Kai Kara-France
Yuki Motoya vs. Allan Nascimento
Kazuyuki Miyata vs. Andy Souwer
Tenshin Nakusawa vs. Nikita Sapun
Rin Nakai vs. Kanako Murata
Valentin Moldavsky vs. Szymon Bajor in the tournament quarterfinals
Amir Aliakbari vs. Heath Herring in the tournament quarterfinals
Baruto Kaido vs. Tsuyoshi Kosaka in the tournament quarterfinals
Mirko Cro Cop vs. King Mo Lawal in the tournament quarterfinals

FIGURE FOUR WEEKLY: 12/12/2016 The Paige/Alberto Del Rio relationship isn’t funny anymore

WRESTLING OBSERVER NEWSLETTER: December 26, 2016 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: WWE announces UK tournament, Urijah Faber retires, more

Subscribers click here to continue.

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.

MONDAY NEWS UPDATE

Bryan and I will be back tonight for Wrestling Observer Radio talking the latest news as well as covering Raw. You can also send questions to the show to [email protected].

Sorry to report the death of retired Lt Col. Eduardo Garcia yesterday. Garcia is the father of Lilian Garcia. Eduardo Garcia had been battling cancer for some time and the key reason Garcia left WWE was to be with her father as he was battling the disease that they were told was terminal.

The New York Times today has a story on WWE trying to make it in China.

The San Francisco Chronicle has a Cow Palace history story. Both Roller Derby and wrestling get mentioned, although not the best mention for either. The Roller Derby mention on Ann Calvello’s debut was seven years off, and while history has remembered her after her death as the biggest star, and she was the most popular Bombers women skater in the late 50s, the most popular and biggest stars were Charlie O’Connell and Joan Weston and the heyday were the championship games from 1960 to probably 1973. The Battle Royal reference was after the peak as the heyday of Cow Palace wrestling would have been 1961 to 1963, the biggest Battle Royals probably 1971-74, and the biggest event ever really when it comes to history would be the Thesz vs. Nomellini matches in the 50s because those were major sports events in the city.

WWE

The Raw brand house shows are scheduled right now as Kevin Owens vs. Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins vs. Chris Jeircho, Cesaro & Sheamus vs. New Day vs. Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson, Cass vs. Rusev, Sami Zayn vs. Braun Strowman, R-Truth & Goldust & Sin Cara & Curtis Axel & Rich Swann & Darren Young vs. Shining Stars & Titus O’Neil & Jinder Mahal & Neville & Bo Dallas, Sasha Banks & Bayley & Alicia Fox & Liv Morgan vs. Charlotte & Dana Brooke & Emmalina & Nia Jax.
The Smackdown brand house shows are scheduled as A.J. Styles vs. John Cena vs. Dean Ambrose for the WWE title, Wyatt Family vs. American Alpha vs. Usos vs. Breeze & Fandango vs. Rhyno & Heath Slater vs. Ascension for tag titles, Miz vs. Dolph Ziggler for IC title, Alexa Bliss vs Becky Lynch for women’s title, Baron Corbin vs. Kalisto, Apollo Crews & Jack Swagger & Mojo Rawley vs. Vaudevillains & Curt Hawkins, Nikki Bella vs. Carmella.

UFC

With Cain Velasquez vs. Fabricio Werdum off, the new five-fight PPV show for Friday’s UFC 207 has Ray Borg vs. Louis Smolka, Tarec Saffiedine vs. Dong Hyun Kim, TJ Dillashaw vs. John Lineker, Dominick Cruz vs. Cody Garbrandt for the bantamweight title and Amanda Nunes vs. Ronda Rousey for the women’s bantamweght title.

MISCELLANEOUS

The show “Tainted Dreams” starring TNA’s Jessie Godderz debuts toady on Amazon, Amazon Prime and Amazon Video. Godderz plays Dylan Buckwald a lead character. The show is about a crew that works on the cast of a fictitious soap opera loosely based on real life experiences from working on a soap opera. Lisa Marie Varon also has a regular role in the show.
Best in the West Wrestling was scheduled to debut on the local NBC affiliate this past weekend after Saturday Night Live at 1 a.m., but the company announced the television debut on KSEE will be moved back two weeks, after the holidays. They also announced a 1/1 show at the training center at 5494 E. Lamona Ave #150 at 6 p.m. They are taping on 1/8 in Visalia, CA at the Veterans Memorial Building with Joey Ryan vs. Virgil Flynn.
Cross Body Pro Wrestling on 1/7 in Kitchener, ONT at 69 Agnes St.

Today in Professional Wrestling History (12/26): Starrcade 1988

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Daily Update: Ronda Rousey, no opponent for Werdum, TripleMania

Posted on December 26, 2016 by Dave Meltzer

THE ROUND-UP

The Latest from the F4W Staff

NEWS

AUDIO

CMLL FROM ARENA MEXICO ON CHRISTMAS DAY AT 6 P.M. EASTERN TIME on the CMLL YouTube channel live

Astral & Shockercito vs. Pequeno Olimpico & Pierrothito
Drone & Johnny Idol & Star Jr. vs. Bobby Z & Vangellys & Virus
Stuka Jr. & Titan & Valiente vs. Gran Guerrero & Rey Bucanero & El Terrible
Atlantis & Marco Corleone & Volador Jr. vs. Barbaro Cavernario & Felino & Negro Casas

Raw will be live on Monday from Chicago while Smackdown will be in Madison Square Garden headlined by A.J. Styles vs. John Cena vs. Dean Ambrose in a three-way for the title.

FIGURE FOUR WEEKLY: 12/12/2016 The Paige/Alberto Del Rio relationship isn’t funny anymore

WRESTLING OBSERVER NEWSLETTER: December 26, 2016 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: WWE announces UK tournament, Urijah Faber retires, more

Subscribers click here to continue.

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:November 29, 1999 Steve Austin’s career in doubt, WCW Mayhem review, more – Steve Austin gets bad news from doctors regarding his neck, a full review of WCW Mayhem, plus tons of news. As mentioned last week, the future of Steve Austin as an in-ring performer is in serious doubt after getting results of tests on his neck, originally injured in the August 3, 1997 Meadowlands match against Owen Hart… Subscribers click here to continue.

SUNDAY NEWS UPDATE

Bryan and I will be back tonight for Wrestling Observer Radio talking the latest news. With no major shows over the weekend, we’ll be doing a lot of answering of questions so you can send questions to the show to [email protected]. We’ll also be talking awards and much more.

One of the big stories, which we’ve covered, is that Ronda Rousey is doing no media for Friday’s show. There are no public workouts nor is there a midweek press conference. Amanda Nunes is also doing no media, and with Velasquez vs. Werdum out, that means almost all the media has to be carried by Dominick Cruz and Cody Garbrandt. That would be a risk under normal circumstances but given the show is on a Friday and not a Saturday, Rousey not doing media is going to hurt that much more. Essentially she’s gone from being the person most interested in how her numbers are, since she gets paid based on them, to someone who clearly doesn’t care all that much about them.

Until news broke that he was off of UFC 207, Cain Velasquez and his camp didn’t even know he was off of the show and he was still training as late as yesterday. UFC had contacted Junior Dos Santos to take the fight and Fabricio Werdum turned Dos Santos down as an opponent, so the show will proceed with ten fights.

Last night’s UFC show on FOX did 4,689,000 viewers based on the fast nationals. Those numbers were through the roof based on lack of competition. This will end up as either the second or third largest overall audience to watch a UFC television show in history, and the fight of the year candidate with Doo Ho Choi vs. Cub Swanson will rank among the most watched MMA fights in history. For a comparison, last week’s live show with Paige VanZant vs. Michelle Waterson averaged 3,178,000 viewers and it was viewed as a gigantic success. The show was a tape of four fights from 12/10 in Toronto.

In showing how much social media means, it was so dead last night regarding that show, it was unbelievable. Yet more people watched it than any episode of Raw, Smackdown, or UFC show or anything of the sort in years.

TripleMania has been announced for August 26, 2017, headlined by Dr. Wagner Jr. vs. Psycho Clown in a mask vs. mask match.

WWE

Here is another Linda McMahon story on her new position.
WWE returns to action tomorrow night with its biggest house show week of the year, kicking off with a Smackdown show in Madison Square Garden featuring the return of John Cena and the first serious match of A.J. Styles since his ankle injury.
A story on the worst WWE moments of the year is here. (thanks to Chris Cruise)

UFC

Aleksei Olynik will replace Damian Grabowski on UFC’s first show of the year on 1/15 in Phoenix, facing Viktor Petsa in a heavyweight bout.
Alex Morono, coming off his win in Sacramento last week, will face Sheldon Wescott in a fight added to the 2/4 show in Houston.

MISCELLANEOUS

Here is a look back at the stupid Ric Flair fake heart attack angle on Nitro.
Ryan Spann (9-3) vs. Trevin Giles (8-0) will headline a 2/10 show in Lake Charles, LA at the Golden Nuggett Hotel for the Legacy Fighting Alliance on AXS TV.
CWE from Friday night in Winnipeg: Jacob Creed b Mike Mission, Bubbles McFly b Son of Stan in a lumberjack match, A.J. Sanchez b Dagrneed 2/3 falls, Wildman Firpo b Tod Bullet in a bar room brawl, Shadow Xtreme b Kevin Cannon in a kiss my ass match, Bobby Schink b JJ Sanchez in a bra and panties match, Danny Duggan b Rob Stardom in a barbed wire board match. Next tour is 1/10 to 1/21.
Championship Wrestling of Arkansas debuts on 1/21 in North Little rock at the Maumelle Events Center with a fund raiser for Kaitlyn Ison, who is battling leukemia. Tim Storm & Buff Bagwell vs. Matt Riviera & Greg Anthony headlines the show, plus a guest appearance by James Beard.
The Rizin shows will start at 1 a.m. late Wednesday night and late Friday night Eastern time and be available.
DDT drew its biggest crowd at Korakuen Hall of 2016 with a show earlier today headlined by Harashima retaining the KO-D title over Shigehiro Irie.
The only Americans on the show were the husband and wife duo of Joey Ryan and Laura James.
Lucha Xtreme TV from yesterday in Fresno Anthony Idol b Ryan Kidd, Mike Camben & Hunter Freeman b Chris Myra & Dirty Doug, Darwin Finch b Sean Black. (thanks to Jon Southerland)

Today in Professional Wrestling History (12/25): Christmas Day cards

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Daily Update: XFL, no fight week media for Rousey, B&V Christmas show

Posted on December 25, 2016 by F4W Staff

THE ROUND-UP

The Latest from the F4W Staff

THE 2016 F4W X-MAS SHOW~! 12/24

NEWS

AUDIO

UFC ON FOX CHRISTMAS EVE SPECIAL (taped 12/10) at 8 p.m. Eastern and Pacific time

Lando Vannata vs. John Makdessi
Cub Swanson vs. Doo Ho Choi
Matt Brown vs. Donald Cerrone
Anthony Pettis vs. Max Holloway for interim welterweight title

If you didn’t see the PPV, this will be the most entertaining two hours of MMA all year. Two knockout of the year candidates and one of the best fights in UFC history all on the same show. For those on the West Coast, it will air from 8-10 p.m., not 5-7 p.m. like most FOX specials.

CMLL FROM ARENA MEXICO ON CHRISTMAS DAY AT 6 P.M. EASTERN TIME (on the CMLL YouTube channel live)

Astral & Shockercito vs. Pequeno Olimpico & Pierrothito
Drone & Johnny Idol & Star Jr. vs. Bobby Z & Vangellys & Virus
Stuka Jr. & Titan & Valiente vs. Gran Guerrero & Rey Bucanero & El Terrible
Atlantis & Marco Corleone & Volador Jr. vs.. Barbaro Cavernario & Felino & Negro Casas
Cage match, last person in the cage loses mask or hair: Jarochita, Sanely, Vaquerita, Princesa Sugei, Marcela, Estrellita, Zeuxis, Dallys, Amapola and Metalica

Raw will be live on Monday from Chicago while Smackdown will be in Madison Square Garden headlined by A.J. Styles vs. John Cena vs. Dean Ambrose in a three-way for the title.

FIGURE FOUR WEEKLY: 12/12/2016 The Paige/Alberto Del Rio relationship isn’t funny anymore

WRESTLING OBSERVER NEWSLETTER: December 26, 2016 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: WWE announces UK tournament, Urijah Faber retires, more

Subscribers click here to continue.

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.

SATURDAY NEWS UPDATE

WWE

To promote ESPN’s upcoming 30 for 30 documentary on the XFL, a pop-up XFL Hall of Fame featuring memorabilia and other items from the failed football league’s brief run will be open to the public on January 14th at the Helen Mills Event Space and Theater in New York City.
Some WWE superstars answer the question of what they want for Christmas this year.
WWE wrestlers recite The Night Before Christmas.
The Miz appeared on the first episode of “Chin Locked” with James Ellsworth.
WWE.com looks at the top 10 new entrance themes of 2016.

Pro Wrestling

ITV released a promo video for their upcoming World of Sport special that will air on New Year’s Eve. Dave Mastiff, Viper, and Danny Hope appeared on ITV’s This Morning to promote the special.
This week’s best of 2016 recap edition of TNA Impact was watched by 209k viewers, which was down from the 329k who watched last week’s new episode.
Juice Robinson was interviewed about his upcoming Wrestle Kingdom 11 match with Cody Rhodes.

MMA

Ronda Rousey won’t be participating in any UFC 207 fight week media events. As a result, women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes will also not be at the UFC Ultimate Media Day on December 28th. No pre-fight press conferences are scheduled for next Friday’s pay-per-view.
Amanda Nunes said that the UFC is coddling Ronda Rousey ahead of their fight.
After facing Urijah Faber in Faber’s final fight before retirement, Brad Pickett said that he wants to retire in his hometown at UFC Fight Night London on March 18th.
Dana White was interviewed by Fox 5 in New York.

Today in Professional Wrestling History (12/24): Christmas Eve wrestling

CONTACT INFORMATION

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Daily Update: Ospreay vs. Dragon Lee, Onita breaks leg, RIP Mocho Cota

Posted on December 24, 2016 by Dave Meltzer

THE ROUND-UP

The Latest from the F4W Staff

NEWS

AUDIO

This is one of the quieter weekends of the year, as aside from Mexico, nobody is running major events. WWE is off until Monday when they go back to action with a Madison Square Garden house show and the live Raw from Chicago.

NEW JAPAN WORLD ON AXS TV AT 9 P.M. EASTERN

Kushida vs. Bushi for IWGP jr. title
Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma vs. Doc Gallows & Karl Anderson for IWGP tag team titles

CMLL FROM ARENA MEXICO TONIGHT AT 9:30 P.M. EASTERN TIME

Demus 3:16 & Mercurio vs. Fantasy & Ultimo Dragoncito
Blue Panther Jr. & The Panther & Triton vs. Forastero & Okumura & Sagrado
Guerrero Maya Jr. & Soberano & Titan vs. Dragon Rojo Jr. & Luciferno & Polvora
Atlantis & Stuka Jr. & Valiente vs. Kraneo & Mephisto & Ripper
Maximo Sexy & Volador Jr. & Marco Corleone vs. Euforia & Hechicero & Mascara Ano 2000
Caristico vs. Ultimo Guerrero

UFC ON FOX CHRISTMAS EVE SPECIAL (taped 12/10) at 8 p.m. Eastern and Pacific time

Lando Vannata vs. John Makdessi
Cub Swanson vs. Doo Ho Choi
Matt Brown vs. Donald Cerrone
Anthony Pettis vs. Max Holloway for interim welterweight title

CMLL FROM ARENA MEXICO ON CHRISTMAS DAY AT 6 P.M. EASTERN TIME (on the CMLL YouTube channel live)

Astral & Shockercito vs. Pequeno Olimpico & Pierrothito
Drone & Johnny Idol & Star Jr. vs. Bobby Z & Vangellys & Virus
Stuka Jr. & Titan & Valiente vs. Gran Guerrero & Rey Bucanero & El Terrible
Atlantis & Marco Corleone & Volador Jr. vs.. Barbaro Cavernario & Felino & Negro Casas
Cage match, last person in the cage loses mask or hair: Jarochita, Sanely, Vaquerita, Princesa Sugei, Marcela, Estrellita, Zeuxis, Dallys, Amapola and Metalica

Raw will be live on Monday from Chicago while Smackdown will be in Madison Square Garden headlined by A.J. Styles vs. John Cena vs. Dean Ambrose in a three-way for the title.

FIGURE FOUR WEEKLY: 12/12/2016 The Paige/Alberto Del Rio relationship isn’t funny anymore

WRESTLING OBSERVER NEWSLETTER: December 26, 2016 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: WWE announces UK tournament, Urijah Faber retires, more

Subscribers click here to continue.

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.

FRIDAY NEWS UPDATE

Manuel “Mocho” Cota, a top heel in EMLL in the 80s and 90s, passed away yesterday at the age of 62. He had suffered a fall in his home and a fractured skull. He also had a run with AAA in the late 90s and was still wrestling and promoting as late as this year. There will almost surely be a moment of silence at tonight’s Arena Mexico show for him. He was a former Mexican national and NWA world welterweight champion when those belts meant a lot.

The Los Angeles Times has a story on the autopsy of Chyna.

Hall of Famer Atsushi Onita suffered a broken leg in a match in Takamatsu earlier today. Onita & Masa Fuchi held the All-Asia tag titles with All Japan and are likely to have to vacate the titles. Onita is expected out of action for two months.

ROH today announced Dragon Lee vs. Will Ospreay for the 3/4 show at the Hammerstein Ballroom in Manhattan.

Here is a Mayo Clinic study comparing the health issues of people who played high school football with those who didn’t, as far as if that led to problems when they got older.

WWE

The Huffington Post has a story on the ring boy scandals in WWE while writing about Linda McMahon.

UFC

USA Today has a story on Carla Esparza, the former strawweight champion and the financial plight of UFC fighters.
UFC previews the Saturday night show on FOX.

MISCELLANEOUS

Revolution Pro has one of its biggset shows on 1/21 in York Hall in London with Katsuyori Shibata vs. Matt Riddle, Marty Scurll vs. Zack Sabre Jr. (I just saw them in a match last Friday and it was one of the best matches of the year), plus War Machine, Yoshi-Hashi, Trevor Lee and Trent Seven.
In promoting their 1/21 fight, Bellator has found the previous meeting of Tito Ortiz vs. Chael Sonnen, when both were college wrestlers. Sonnen was wrestling a weight class below Ortiz and was a few years younger, but Sonnen was also the better wrestler of the two.
A story on the life of Mario Milano is here.
A story on a documentary on the life of Adrian Street is here.
Josh Alexander vs. David Starr headlines 1/22 for Alpha One Wrestling in Hamilton, ONT at the Knights of Columbus.

Today in Professional Wrestling History (12/23): ROH Final Battle 2011

CONTACT INFORMATION

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