In the fallout from the recent surge in positive COVID-19 tests in WWE and NXT, Nikki Cross and WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax were all off last night’s Clash of Champions pay-per-view.
The only thing we know about Cross is that she’s in quarantine while both Baszler and Jax did not test positive. However, both were in contact with someone who did test positive so they will also not be used for 14 days so long as they test negative.
– As noted in my segment on Jason Agnew’s Sunday Night’s Main Event, several members of RETRIBUTION are also off for 14 days or longer. They could always put others under the masks to keep the gimmick going, but at this point, I don’t know what they are going to do in this situation.
– Following his injury during last night’s WWE Raw Tag Team Title match, there is no confirmed update on Angel Garza other than that he was being examined this morning. He suffered what appeared to be a left leg injury which is why they rushed into the messed up finish. As noted last night on Wrestling Observer Radio, the titles were not scheduled to change hands from the Street Profits to Garza and Andrade.
In a new interview, James Storm said he was supposed to debut for WWE following WrestleMania, but plans were put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Storm told Pro Wrestling Sheet’s Ryan Satin that he was first approached by the company in January during Royal Rumble weekend. While Storm was a part of the NWA at the time, Dave Lagana and Billy Corgan allowed Storm to be let out of his NWA contract early, not exercising a rollover clause in his deal.
“I told them I would work the weekend of WrestleMania shows with Eli [Drake] to drop the NWA belts to whoever they wanted to drop it to,” Storm told Satin. “Just go out on good terms. Good business, ya know? Then that show got cancelled for the NWA, and then it kept snowballing.”
During the months following WrestleMania, Storm prepared for WWE’s pre-signing physical and bought new gear. He also told Satin that the deal had been done, and he had signed. But eventually, he was told that things were being put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Storm competed on NXT briefly in 2015, wrestling two matches. However, he opted to sign with Impact Wrestling. He continued to wrestle for Impact until leaving in 2018.
Rumors of a recent COVID-19 outbreak among NXT talents at the WWE Performance Center became real Thursday night as WWE released a statement somewhat acknowledging some positive tests.
“As part of ongoing testing protocols, WWE completed its second round of weekly COVID-19 testing on Tuesday. Individuals that tested positive will quarantine for 14 days, receive medical care, and then will only be cleared when they are symptom-free and test negative. Additionally, extensive contact tracing has taken place and other individuals have been placed in 14-day quarantine, and will then only be cleared after they test negative.”
As expected, WWE didn’t release any information on the amount of talents that tested positive and cannot release names due to HIPAA laws.
PW Insider reported that training has been paused at the Performance Center as of Thursday.
NXT is covered for tapings until TakeOver on October 4th, giving time for recovery for those infected. It’s unknown if this recent outbreak has affected main roster members, or even AEW talents, who might have come into contact with those infected.
Both Fightful and Spectrum Sports 360’s Jon Alba first reported that during the week of September 9th, several positive tests resulted in some changes to their TV plans and that mask wearing has gotten a bit lax at the PC.
The day after Lance Archer said he will be out for a few weeks due to a positive COVID-19 test, rising prospect Ben Carter tweeted Thursday that he has tested positive as well.
The 23-year-old didn’t explain how he got it or when, but said he feels fine other than losing some of his taste. His return is unknown.
Carter, a trainee of Seth Rollins and Marek Brave’s wrestling school, recently got praise for his debut match against Ricky Starks on Dark and wrestled twice on Tuesday, losing to Scorpio Sky on Late Night Dynamite and on Dark in a win over Lee Johnson.
Fightful and Spectrum Sports 360’s Jon Alba reported late Wednesday that several AEW wrestlers and talents tested positive for COVID-19 in the weeks following their September 9th tapings. The company has yet to make any public comment to either outlet about the report.
Archer tweeted Wednesday he got it from a family friend and would be out for two weeks. As of now, no one else from AEW has said they have tested positive.
Despite more positive COVID-19 tests, CMLL’s 87th Aniversario is still scheduled to take place.
CMLL announced on Wednesday that Ultimo Guerrero and Bandido have both tested positive for COVID-19 and are off this Friday’s 87th Anniversary show. Ultimo Guerrero, Gran Guerrero & Euforia were scheduled to defend their CMLL World Trios titles against Hechicero, El Terrible & Templario. Bandido was supposed to challenge Volador Jr. for the NWA World Historic Welterweight Championship.
Titan defending his CMLL World Welterweight Championship against Soberano Jr. has now been added to the Anniversary show card, along with Volador Jr. defending the NWA World Historic Welterweight Championship against Templario. The winner of Volador Jr. vs. Templario will face Bandido in October.
A rough translation of CMLL’s statements on the two positive COVID-19 tests is available below:
Ultimo Guerrero —
CMLL communicates that Ultimo Guerrero, CMLL World Trios Champion, has tested positive after the COVID-19 tests performed on the cast. The match for the World Trios titles that was scheduled for the 87th Anniversary show will be postponed.
After the above, CMLL has decided that a match will be held for the World Welterweight Championship, where Titan will defend his title against Soberano Jr. at the 87th Anniversary show
CMLL reiterates its commitment to strictly comply with the guidelines established by the health authorities.
Bandido —
CMLL communicates that after the COVID-19 tests carried out on the cast, the official challenger of the NWA World Historic Welterweight Championship, Bandido, has tested positive, so he will not be able to participate in the 87th Anniversary show.
Therefore, his place will be taken by Templario – second place in the voting – who will challenge the current champion, Volador Jr., and the winner of said match will face Bandido in the month of October.
CMLL reiterates its commitment to strictly comply with the guidelines established by the health authorities.
Ultimo Guerrero and Bandido are the third and fourth wrestlers to be removed from the Anniversary show card due to positive COVID-19 tests. Princesa Sugehit and Lluvia were also removed from the card after testing positive. Ultimo Guerrero is Lluvia’s boyfriend.
Here’s the updated lineup for the Anniversary show:
CMLL World Micro-Estrellas Champion Chamuel defends against Microman
CMLL World Welterweight Champion Titan defends against Soberano Jr.
NWA World Historic Welterweight Champion Volador Jr. defends against Templario
CMLL World Women’s Champion Marcela defends against Dalys
Mexican National Women’s Champion La Metalica defends against Reina Isis
Mexican National Trios Champions El Cuatrero, Forastero & Sanson defend against Cancerbero, Raziel & Virus
CMLL World Tag Team Champions Caristico & Mistico defend against Espiritu Negro & Rey Cometa
Details are still sketchy, but several reports emerged Monday evening that a number of NXT wrestlers and/or personnel tested positive for COVID-19.
Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez discussed the situation briefly on the post-Raw Wrestling Observer Radio with Meltzer saying there was talk about it backstage at Raw and that others on the main roster have been talking about it as well.
As of this point, the number of positive tests appears to be small enough where several people in NXT had no idea anything had happened.
As of now, no names have been released nor has anyone come forward on social media to confirm they tested positive. WWE has not commented publicly either.
Fightful first reported that “several positive tests in NXT the week of September 9 led to significant changes to NXT programming over the last couple of weeks” and that it involved recruits at the WWE’s makeshift Performance Center. Some classes were canceled while others remained on the schedule and that PC policies called for wearing masks while outside the ring but not while inside the facility or in the gym area.
Citing multiple sources, Spectrum News 13’s Jon Alba also reported there was an “outbreak” and that his sources said some “have gotten relaxed with mask wearing, especially in spots where some people congregate and there was concern over that. Am told people were still testing positive as recently as this weekend, with the belief being a coach accidentally spread it.”
AEW has rescheduled several dates for next summer.
The company announced today they are moving several dates that were previously scheduled for the fall. These dates, which were originally announced for this spring, were moved following the spread of COVID-19 in the United States.
The new dates for these shows are as follows:
The October 7 show at Chaifetz Arena in St. Louis, MO will now take place on June 23, 2021.
The October 28 show at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena in Milwaukee, Wisconsin has been moved to July 14, 2021.
The November 4 show at the University of Houston’s Feritta Center in Houston, Texas has been rescheduled to June 30, 2021.
The November 11 show at the Blue Cross Arena in Rochester, NY has been moved to June 16, 2021.
AEW has mostly run shows at Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Florida during the COVID-19 pandemic. Last month, they began allowing fans into the arena at a reduced capacity.
“I also tested positive a couple of weeks ago, probably almost a month. I think, ago,” Styles said when asked about Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson announcing that he and his family battled COVID-19. “I feel for people who have to deal with this, but I gotta say, I didn’t have many problems with it. So, hopefully The Rock and his family, hopefully everybody is safe and everybody is taken care of and nobody has too bad of symptoms and stuff like that. It sucks, it’s not good for anybody.”
Styles said he was one of the lucky ones and didn’t have severe symptoms. He had a headache and “maybe a couple boogers” but never had a fever.
In an Instagram video on Wednesday, Johnson said that he, his wife Lauren Hashian, and their two young daughters Jasmine and Tiana tested positive for COVID-19 but are now on the other end of it and are no longer contagious. Johnson called the experience one of the most challenging and difficult things he’s ever had to endure and urged everyone to “control the controllables” in terms of boosting their immune systems, wearing masks, and applying an even greater sense of discipline in having friends and family over.
Kevin Nash wrote to Johnson on Twitter and said that he also battled COVID-19: “Welcome to the team. Very sorry you’re family is infected. I was tired for a while didn’t train for the 4th day. My wife still hasn’t got smell or tastes back. Son was asymptomatic. Pray you heal up quickly. Thank you for making people realize it’s real.”
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and his family are doing better after battling COVID-19.
In an Instagram video today, Johnson revealed that he, his wife Lauren Hashian, and their two baby daughters Jasmine and Tiana tested positive for COVID-19 but are now “on the other end of it” and are no longer contagious.
Johnson said he wanted to give everyone an update on what he had been going through for the past two and a half to three weeks. He called the experience one of the most challenging and difficult things he and his family have ever had to endure and spoke about how protecting them is always his number one priority.
“But I am happy to tell you guys that we as a family are good,” Johnson said. “We are on the other end of it. We are on the other side. We are no longer contagious, and we are, thank god, we are healthy. And we’ve gotten through COVID-19 stronger and healthier. Believe me, I am counting my blessings. Because like all of us, we all have been hit by this thing, whether it is people we know, family we know, loved ones we know, friends we know. So we are counting our blessings right now because we’re well aware that it isn’t always the case that you get on the other end of COVID-19 stronger and healthier.”
Johnson said his daughters only had a sore throat for the first couple of days but bounced back quickly. For him and his wife, they had a rough go of things but got through it as a family.
Johnson said they caught COVID-19 through very close family friends who have no idea how they got it and are devastated that they spread it to Johnson and his family. Johnson urged people to “control the controllables” in terms of applying an even greater sense of discipline in having friends and family over to their houses, boosting their immune systems, and wearing masks.
A look at the life of James “Kamala” Harris, one of pro wrestling’s biggest stars of the 80s, and Daniel Cormier, one of the biggest MMA stars of all-time, are the lead stories in the current issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
The Kamala story goes through how he got the Kamala gimmick, who came up with the idea, the story around the video that instantly made him a star, how Kamala worked in that time but wouldn’t now, how he was as a draw against Hulk Hogan, his late life health issues, his original meeting with Bobo Brazil, how he started watching wrestling, his pre-Kamala career, going to Europe, how J.J. Dillon was a key in getting him over and a look weekly at the first Memphis run that made him a big star.
His rivalry with Andre the Giant and how it was ugly early on, the feud with Bruiser Brody and every WWF run. We look at his career peak in 1986-87 and the gates and payoffs he got, his working Mexico, his last big WWF run, and the declines of his health.
Daniel Cormier’s quest for the storybook ending, others who tried to have that ending, the greatest heavyweight of all-time, his tragic upbringing, growing up as a wrestler, competing with Cael Sanderson, his Olympic dream crushed, his MMA beginnings, his word title wins, and more building the fight with Stipe Miocic.
Also in this issue:
Return of ROH to action, what the new TV will be about, the creative involved, testing and more.
How Kevin Reilly is one of the key people who fell into place and without him there would be no AEW. We look at the changes in TNT management including a unique note about Reilly’s successor.
A scary scene at NXT tapings, Dwayne Johnson’s earnings for the year, New contracts signed in WWE, Sports ratings, U.K. ratings and Canadian ratings, Lawler 50th anniversary sow, WWE market value, and most-watched shows on WWE Network.
WWE moving TV into the Amway Center, Takeover and SummerSlam news updates and creative.
COVID updates from Japan, with many shows canceled this past week, why they were, and what this says about Japan in comparison with the U.S.
New Japan’s Jingu Stadium show for the end of the month.
WWE Network featuring independents.
Saturday’s UFC show with a complete rundown and match-by-match coverage.
Kenny Omega and Michael Nakazawa doing a lecture for students at Tokai University on sports entertainment during the COVID era, with notes on AEW profitability, ad spending, how COVID has changed the world, how the AEW audience has changed, A.J. Styles, personal goals and New Japan Pro Wrestling.
New Japan, All Japan and NOAH have their biggest tournaments of the year at the same time.
CMLL’s planned return.
Ratings of all the major shows, the key demos and quarters for AEW and WWE, what happened head-to-head and what can be learned from them.
Results of all the major pro wrestling events around the world over the past week.
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FRIDAY NEWS UPDATE
Our schedule this weekend includes two shows on Saturday, one with Lance Storm (who will be with Bryan tonight as well) and Garrett Gonzalez, as well as a show with Bryan on Saturday night covering the Stipe Miocic vs Daniel Cormier UFC card. We will also be doing a poll on the UFC show.
Smackdown tonight on FOX has:
Battle Royal with members from Raw, Smackdown and NXT, winner faces Bayley for the Smackdown title at SummerSlam
Big E vs. John Morrison
Alexa Bliss interview
Arguably the biggest fight of the year, and certainly the most important from an historical context, takes place tomorrow night with UFC 252 from Las Vegas:
ESPN at 7 p.m. Eastern:
Kai Kamaka (145.5) vs,. Tony Kelley (145.5)
Chris Daukaus (241) vs. Parker Porter (264.5)
Livinha Souza (115.5) vs. Ashley Yoder (115.5)
TJ Brown (146.5) vs. Danny Chavez (146)
Felice Herrig (116) vs. Vira Jandiroba (115.5)
Jim Miller (156) vs. Vinc Pichel (156)
PPV on ESPN+ at 10 p.m. Eastern:
John Dodson (136) vs. Merab Dvalishvili (136)
Herbert Burns (149.5) vs. Daniel Pineda (146)
Junior Dos Santos (238.5) vs,. Jairzinho Rozenstruik (254)
Sean O’Malley (136) vs. Marlon Vera (136)
Stipe Miocic (233) vs. Daniel Cormier (236) for the heavyweight title
The fight is being promoted as for the title of the greatest heavyweight of all-time. Brown missed weight by 0.5 pounds and Burns by 3.5 pounds. Both have been fined 20 percent of their purse, which will go to their opponent.
New Japan Strong on New Japan World at 10 p.m. tonight:
Alex Zayne & ACH & TJP vs. Blake Christian & Misterioso & PJ Black
Jordan Clearwater & Clark Connors vs. Barrett Brown & Logan Riegel
Jeff Cobb vs KENTA in semifinals of New Japan U.S. Cup
David Finlay vs. Tama Tonga in semifinals of New Japan U.S. Cup
Thanks everyone for all the feedback on the stories in this week’s issue on Kamala and Daniel Cormier.
The viewing for James “Kamala’ Harris is tomorrow from 5-6 p.m. at the Rodgers Funeral Home in Coldwater, MS. The Funeral is Sunday morning at 11:30 a.m. at the Batesville Civic Center in Batesville, MS and burial is at the Simon Chapel #2 in Sardisk MS. Masks are required and there will be a temperature check at the door. There is a GoFundMe for funeral expenses trying to raise $30,000. They met their goal of just over $30,000 with major donations coming from Chris Jericho ($5,000), Scott D’Amore ($2,500), Ryan Barkan of Pro Wrestling Tees ($2,500), writer Jason King ($1,000), James Gregory ($1,000), Dillon Hines of the Bobby Fulton family ($750) and an anonymous donor of $3,000.
ROH has laid out extensive procedures for all talent and referees which include testing 14 days out, quarantine, testing three days out again and isolated after at the hotel, testing the day of the show, tracing, temperature taking (nobody with a temperature above 100.0 will be allowed in), masks at all times except for participants and social distancing. The first taping will be a tournament for the Pure title, which was scheduled to be revived in an April tournament before the pandemic. Those in the tournament included Jay Lethal, Jonathan Gresham, Matt Sydal, David Finlay, Tracy Williams, Wheeler Yuta and Josh Woods.
As far as the different key demos for this past week:
In Men 18-34, Raw was No. 1
In Women 18-34 Dynamite was No. 1
In Men 35-49 Raw was No.1
In Women 35-49 Smackdown was No. 1
Realistically, Smackdown should be No. 1 by a wide margin across the board
WWE
WWE has started loading into the Amway Center in Orlando for SummerSlam. It will be the new home of WWE live television starting either Friday or Monday and the Performance Center will go back to being a training gym.
John Cena and Dwayne Johnson will be appearing at the DC Entertainment Fandome on 8/22, a virtual panel show. Cena will be at 3 p.m. and Johnson will be at 6 p.m.
WWE 24 will be doing a feature on WrestleMania 36 that debuts on the WWE Network right after SummerSlam on 8/23 according to WWE Network News.
Amalie, a European regular from France, has signed here to be part of the U.K. brand.
UFC
EA Sports released EA Sports UFC 4 on Playstation 4 and Xbox One today.
The lineup for Dana White’s Contenders show on Tuesday on ESPN+ at 8 p.m. Eastern
Kevin Syler vs. Ken Cross – lightweight
Josh Parisian vs. Chad Johnson – heavyweight
Orion Cosce vs Matt Dixon – welterweight
Cheyanne Buys vs. Hilarie Rose – strawweight
Louis Cosee vs Victor Reyna – welterweight
MISCELLANEOUS
Legacy Fighting announced shows on 8/21 8/28, 9/4 and 9/11 at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, SD. 8/21 features Jaeleel Willis vs Vinicius DeJesus for their welterweight title. 8/18 features Brent Moore vs. Joe Gainnetti as the main event. 9/4 has Zviad Lazishvili vs. Ricky Steele for the bantamweight title. All shows air live on UFC Fight Pass.
MLW Fusion at 6:05 p.m. tomorrow night on YouTube from 2002
Christopher Daniels & Dick Togo & Ikuto Hidaka vs. Joel & Jose Maximo & Quiet Storm
C.W. Anderson vs. Devon Storm
Bellator announced Valerie Loureda has signed a new multi-year contract. Loureda has gotten a lot of attention based on her looks and charisma and was a former member of the U.S. Olympic team in taekwondo.
CWE tonight in St. Albert,Alberta at the St Albert Community Hall. The promotion ran last night in Calgary: Danny Duggan b Kevy Chevy, Alex Zwicker b Kylie Morgan, Jude Dawkins & Lumberjack Larry b A.J. Sanchez & Kevin O’Doyle, Johnny Devine b Travis Cole. Next show in Calgary is 10/22.
NFC returns as the first sport in Atlanta with paid customers on 8/29 at District Atlanta. There will be 17 fights and they are only opening up to 35 percent capacity.
All Japan has a memorial show for Atsushi Aoki on Saturday at Korakuen Hall with Suwama & Shuji Ishikawa & Shigehiro Irie vs. Kento Miyahara & Jake Lee & Yuji Okabayashi.
Those watching AEW Dynamite Wednesday likely noticed the presence of more fans in the stands than in the past few months as the company nearly doubled the amount of people they allowed in, albeit with added COVID-19 protocols.
According to a report from Pro Wrestling Sheet that was also verified by our Dave Meltzer, nearly 150 “invited spectators” were allowed into Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, FL, but were seated a good distance away from the AEW wrestlers who are at ringside, Spaced apart unless they were with a pre-determined group, the spectators were subject to temperature checks and had to wear a mask throughout the event with security doing constant checks to ensure that was happening.
Noted wrestling fan Jessi Davin was one of the people in attendance, along with her husband. She gave some of the details of the night on Twitter, saying seating was planned out in advance and that they both felt very safe with how things were handled. She also shared video of the aforementioned security checking on masks and suggesting adjustments for proper use.
It’s unclear as to the process in which the spectators were chosen, but Devlin said she got in thanks to a “non-wrestling related connection.” A Reddit user that claims to work at Daily’s Place said people were able to get tickets if you worked for the venue’s sponsors and that capacity was limited to around 100 people.
The Rock & Dany Garcia purchase the XFL, WWE hires a new president, plus tons of news.
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FRIDAY NEWS UPDATE
As it relates to wrestling, the biggest news of the week by far is that Kevin Reilly, who greenlit AEW as one of his pet projects and actually was one of the keys in the creation of the organization, is out at WarnerMedia. Reilly and Bob Greenblatt were announced as being out today and Casey Bloys and Ann Sarnoff have been promoted to oversee content. Bloys was the President of HBO Programming and will now oversee HBO Max, TNT, TBS and truTV. Bloys, by coincidence, went to Freedom High in Bethlehem, PA at the same time as Dwayne Johnson and greenlit “Ballers,” although he and Johnson were not friends in high school.
It is far too early to know what this means for AEW going forward. It may not be bad news, but it is most definitely not good news in the sense Reilly was strongly behind AEW. In fact, the entire idea of AEW came from a conversation Tony Khan ad Reilly had in the spring of 2018 when Reilly told Khan how much money WWE programming rights were going for and Khan had seen the business and interest level of the Kenny Omega vs. Chris Jericho match at the Tokyo Dome and knew both were free agents, and that a lot of key contracts would be expiring at the end of 2018 in wrestling. The stuff with Cody Rhodes and me with the tweet before that time did lead to All In, and the success of All In was definitely a huge part of the equation as well as Khan talking about the success of that show, and his ability to sign the key people, was a key factor in Reilly agreeing to take the chance on giving them a prime time show on TNT. But Khan thinking of getting into wrestling was prior to All In.
The new Observer out today, besides the most detailed story on the hiring of Nick Khan as WWE President, has an in-depth story on the ratings patterns for Raw, Smackdown Dynamite, NXT and Impact during the pandemic and there is a ton of major information that tells you about things going up and down, lines intersecting this week regarding huge changes in viewing habits of wrestling. We also have the most details on this past week and where new viewers came from, as well as the first week in history where the most-watched show in 18-34 was not a WWE show since 1998. Actually this is a major underplayed story, not because it happened this week, but that it had been building for months and what it means if things continue in this direction.
The 8/21 Smackdown show will be airing live from Orlando. Mike Johnson at PW Insider reported WWE will be doing Raw and Smackdown live going forward after that point. We know that has been discussed and we haven’t had it confirmed. If this is the case, it means more expense and more travel and only makes sense if they feel live helps ratings, which today, it is very clear it doesn’t make a difference at all.
UFC has a show tomorrow on ESPN+ from Las Vegas at the Apex Arena starting at 6 p.m. Eastern:
Irwin Rivera (136) vs. Ali Al Qaisi (136)
Youssef Zalal (146) vs Peter Barrett (145.5)
Gavin Tucker (146) vs; Justin Jaynes (146)
Andrew Sanchez (185.5) vs. Wellington Turman (185.5)
Nasrat Haqparast (156) vs. Alex Munoz (156)
Kevin Holland (183.5) vs. Joaquin Buckley (185)
Tim Means (171) vs. Laureano Staropoli (174.5)
Beniel Dariush (158) vs. Scott Holtzman (156)
Yana Kunitskaya (135.5) vs. Julija Stoliarenko (136)
Darren Stewart (186) vs. Maki Pitolo (186)
Chris Weidman (186) vs. Omari Akhmedov (185.75)
Derrick Lewis (265) vs. Aleksei Oleinik (227)
Due to Dariush missing weight, he has to forfeit 20 percent of his purse. Staropoli also has to forfeit 20 percent of his purse for missing weight.
Weigh-ins for Bellator tonight from the empty Mohegan Sun Casino Arena at 10 p.m. Eastern on Paramount & DAZN:
Sabah Homasi (175) vs. Curtis Millender (174)
Myles Jury (155.6) vs. Georgi Karakhanyan (155.5)
Matt Mitrione (262.6) vs. Timothy Johnson (263.2)
Michael Chandler (155.9) vs. Benson Henderson (155.6)
Chandler’s contract expires with this fight and he’s talked about becoming a free agent. So he has a lot riding on this outcome.
Yuki Miyazaki of Pro Wrestling WAVE tested positive for COVID-19 and WAVE has postponed all of its shows over the next several days including the 8/16 show at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. Sunday’s Oz Academy show was also canceled because Hiroyo Matsumoto, Yumi Ohka and others worked on the same show at Miyazaki. (thanks to Shannon Walsh)
CMLL returns to streaming tonight on the Capital 21 website with matches taped last week at an empty Arena Mexico.
WWE
205 Live Tonight has Danny Burch vs. Tony Nese and a tag team match featuring Matt Martel & Chase Parker. Announced for Smackdown is Sheamus vs. Matt Riddle.
DC Entertainment is hosting a virtual celebration on the weekend of 8/22 (SummerSlam weekend) for free to break news of upcoming movie and comic book projects. Dwayne Johnson and John Cena will both be taking part in this.
The WWE announced episodes of WWE Timeline, a new show on the WWE Network which will cover major historical feuds. Sunday’s debut episode is on Daniel Bryan vs. The Miz. 8/12 has Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart. 8/19 has John Cena vs, A.J. Styles and 8/26 has Randy Orton vs. Christian.
UFC
UFC announced an 11/21 PPV show with Deiveson Figueiredo vs. Cody Garbrandt for the flyweight title and Valentina Shevchenko vs. Jennifer Maia for the women’s flyweight title. Garbrandt has never fought before at flyweight, dropping from 135 to 125.
Corey Anderson of UFC, even though he had several fights left on his contract, was able to get a release and has signed with Bellator. Normally UFC doesn’t do things like that.
After missing his second straight fight at the last minute, UFC has released Ray Borg. Borg missed his fight with Nathan Maness on Saturday, pulling out with no public explanation. He had missed weight three times and had a lot of problems due to the health of his son which caused him to pull out of a previous fight and also take time off.
Mirsad Bektic vs. Eduardo Garagorri has been added to the 9/26 show in Las Vegas.
A story on someone sued for pirating UFC events. (thanks to James Ryder)
AEW
Brandi Rhodes quit Twitter after people complained regarding her AEW Heels project, basically a booster club idea for women fans.
MISCELLANEOUS
U.S. District Court Judge Laurie Silverstein approved the sale of Alpha Entertainment (XFL) to Alpha Acquico, the new company formed and headed by Dwayne Johnson, Dany Garcia and Gerry Cardinale.
Kenny Omega & Michael Nakazawa are doing a live stream tonight at 11:30 p.m. Eastern teaching an English language college class at Tokai University in Japan about the U.S.pro wrestling industry. It will be in English and you can watch it by signing up here.
Dragon Gate’s streaming network will be airing a show at 5 a.m. Eastern tomorrow morning from Kyoto as well as a show from Osaka at 5 a.m. Eastern Sunday morning.
Matt Sydal will be returning to ROH based on a podcast interview on the ROHStrong Podcast. He was going to be part of an ROH then vs. now show that ended up cancelled in March, but that was just a one-shot deal.
The biggest wrestling show in months in the Chicago area takes place tonight at Marian Catholic High School outdoors on the football field for Warrior Wrestling:
Brian Cage vs. Jeff Cobb
Lance Archer vs. Sam Adonis
Joey Janela vs. Jake Something
Brian Pillman Jr. vs. Robert Anthony w/ Frank the Clown for the Warrior Wrestling Championship
The Rascalz vs. Alex Zayne, Blake Christian, and Benjamin Carter
Kylie Rae vs. Ray Lyn
Isaias Velazquez vs. Tre’ LeMar
Spartan Stadium Stampede Scramble: Warhorse vs. Dan the Dad vs. Matt Knicks vs. Beast Man vs. Elayna Black vs. Cornbelt Cowboy vs. The Chicago Sideshow
Wrestle Rampage on 8/28 in Adelaide, Australia has been postponed due to changes in rules for licensed premises involving alcohol service (thanks to Kevin Chiat)
The World Series Wrestling promotion in Australia which is built around importing foreign stars has canceled its scheduled November tour for obvious reasons, since getting people into the country from the U.S. won’t be easy.
Jimmy Jacobs returns to CWE provided governmental regulations will allow him to come to Canada and leave, for shows from 10/27 to 11/9 in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario.
CWE tonight in Winnipeg at Rookie’s Sports Bar with only 100 seats available.
AIW announced a return on 9/6 at Noon at the Celebration Plaza Amphitheater at White River State Park in Indianapolis.
Famous Mexican wrestling exotico Cassandro has signed with Masked Republic for representation. Academy Award winning director Roger Ross Williams is working on a film on his life that will star Golden Globe winner Gael Garcia Bernal.
Bellator announced 8/21 from the Mohegan Sun on Paramount and DAZN with Ryan Bader (22-5, 1 no contest) vs. Vadim Nemkov (11-2) for the light heavyweight title, Julia Budd (13-3) vs. Jessy Miele (9-3) and Roy Nelson (23-19) vs. Valentin Moldavksy (9-1.)
The NFC returns on 8/29 at District Atlanta as Atlanta’s first sports event with fans. It will be at 35 percent capacity with 15 fights and all tickets priced at $100.
Due to problems regarding organization, yesterday’s Smackdown tapings only taped one show instead of the scheduled two.
The one show taped will air this Friday.
To make up for things, the scheduled August 17 taping for Raw has been moved to August 13, and they will tape the August 14 episode of Smackdown and the August 17 episode of Raw on that date.
This will come one day after NXT tapings. As a result, many of the people involved will have to stay an extra day, but they still would need to add a taping for the August 21 Smackdown that was to be taped on August 17.
WWE held tapings for Raw this past Monday, taping Monday’s episode and the August 10 episode of the program. The situation backstage for those tapings were described as being more chaotic than usual due to constant changes.
Set for next week’s Raw is Asuka vs. Sasha Banks where if Asuka wins, she will get to challenge Raw Women’s champion Sasha Banks at SummerSlam. Kevin Owens will also face Randy Orton in a singles match.
An article in the New York Post Monday revealed that Ric Flair’s wife, Wendy Barlow, has COVID-19 while the pro wrestling legend denies having it himself.
The article was accompanied by a picture of Flair paying cash at a Georgia Starbucks drive-through window without a mask, pointing out that Flair asked his Facebook followers to wear one in a partnership with the American College of Surgeons along with other social media posts the past few months.
The Post cited a source that claimed Flair tested positive last Wednesday, but the 71-year-old said that was “absolutely incorrect.” He confirmed her diagnosis and said he is living in the basement of their 5000 square foot house while she lives on the third floor. According to Flair, Barlow is getting better but has had her good and bad days.
Flair has done in-person appearances on Raw as recently as last week’s show.
WWE recently had an outbreak of the virus with dozens of personnel testing positive, resulting in the company doing COVID-19 tests and instituting a mask policy for those not on camera.
In an interview with Sports Illustrated released Monday, Kevin Owens said the fine system associated with WWE’s recent implementation of a mask policy came from him.
“…The masks weren’t being taken seriously enough. Eventually, a fine system was implemented to make sure people took it seriously. That came from me. I thought that the masks weren’t being worn seriously enough, so I went and talked to the people in charge. They immediately did what they could to remedy the situation,” he said.
The 36-year-old said he doesn’t blame anyone for the lack of a policy, but that even if some people don’t feel the masks make a difference, everyone has to work together to keep each other safe. He said WWE’s adoption of the policy and safety protocols were the reasons he decided to come back.
Earlier in July, Fightful had reported that a talent had gone to Vince McMahon about masks and social distancing echoed by a recent podcast author Pat Laprade was on.
As the story goes, Owens went to McMahon and aired his concerns about people not wearing masks, saying he was going home. McMahon reportedly questioned Owens if he wanted him to fine them for not doing so and Owens said yes and that McMahon was the only person the crew was going to listen to. Owens told McMahon that he once swore on SmackDown and was fined, never doing it again as a result.
Owens’ wife recently lost her grandfather due to COVID-19 and he had been spending time at the family’s Orlando, FL, home for a good amount of the pandemic due to the aforementioned safety concerns and also nursing an injured ankle from WrestleMania. He said his wife had suggested he look into going back after the new protocols WWE put into place.
Those protocols also include COVID-19 testing which they were not doing before, but added following an outbreak of the virus among nearly 40 people at last report.
