Tag: FloSports

Daily Update Bully Ray, Mickie James, FloSports

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

DAILY UPDATE

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We’re looking for your thoughts on Saturday night’s NXT Takeover 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 also looking for reports on these weekend shows:

  • WWE Raw Saturday night in Lubbock, TX
  • WWE Smackdown Saturday night in Waco,TX
  • WWE Raw Sunday in San Angelo, TX
  • WWE Smackdown Sunday in College Station, TX
  • ROH Sunday in Portland, OR
  •         You can send reports to [email protected].

We’re also looking for reports on the matches from tonight in Austin, TX not on Raw to [email protected].

Raw is tonight night in Austin, TX, featuring the return of Stephanie McMahon, the promise that Brock Lesnar will cash in his Money In the Bank contract during the three hours, the return of the Undertaker, plus Roman Reigns & Usos vs. Drew McIntyre & The Revival.

Smackdown will be Tuesday in Laredo, TX. There will be A Moment of Bliss with Bayley, an interview with Lars Sullivan and the return of Bill Goldberg.

NEW JAPAN AT TOKYO SUMO HALL AT 5:30 A.M. WEDNESDAY MORNING ON NEW JAPAN WORLD

  • Best of the Super Junior finals
  • Juice Robinson vs. Jon Moxley for the U.S. title
  • Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Jay White

F4W NEWSLETTER: Figure Four Weekly: Thoughts on AEW Double or Nothing

If it wasn’t already clear, the success of All Elite Wrestling’s Double or Nothing has solidified one thing: the remainder of 2019 is going to be a great time for the professional wrestling industry and its fans.

AEW’s maiden voyage had a lot of hype to live up to. There’s always difficulty when something transforms from an idea to a fully-formed product, complete with its own issues and imperfections. And while Double or Nothing wasn’t perfect, it managed to exceed reasonable expectations.

WON NEWSLETTER: June 3, 2019 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Double or Nothing review

A look at Double or Nothing and the debut of AEW is the lead story in this week’s issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

Look at how the show did on PPV, where the buys came from, and how this number compares with the other companies. Compare it with All In, look at what was both good and bad about running in Las Vegas, the problems with Starrcast and high spots of Starrcast, merch numbers, the Cody vs. Dustin match,

Look at what Jon Moxley is doing next, why he left WWE, and cover his detailed interview on Talk is Jericho about why he left WWE and his goals going forward.

Also look at WWE’s Super Showdown, including some questions that you can’t get away from asking. Also run down the show, and the issue of it being easy to say things when it’s to your benefit but another having to make decisions that back up your proclaimed beliefs.

Examine this year’s Best of the Super Juniors tournament and where New Japan goes next.

Read about new legislation that could greatly affect how WWE and AEW wrestlers are treated, preview Takeover Bridgeport, updated PPV cards, update on Ric Flair, update on Sasha Banks, Lineups for big shows and WWE looking at making more purchases. 

Have a look at the Hall of Fame career of Rashad Evans, from his start in winning The Ultimate Fighter, to winning the light heavyweight title, to his grudge matches with Jon Jones and Rampage Jackson, and famous bouts with the likes of Lyoto Machida and Chuck Liddell. 

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 [email protected] or by going to www.paypal.com directing funds to [email protected].

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If you order by mail with a check, cash or money order to P.O. Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228, you can get $1 off in every price range.

MONDAY NEWS UPDATE

Bryan and I will be back tonight covering Raw and the latest pro wrestling and MMA news. You can send questions to today’s show to [email protected].

With no NBA playoffs, the promise of a Money in the Bank cash-in and Undertaker advertised in advance, tonight’s Raw should do a good number, North of 2.5 million viewers. Whether it actually does we shall see. Raw is going against game four of the Bruins vs. Blues Stanley Cup finals. Smackdown is unopposed as the NHL playoffs game five is Thursday while the NBA playoffs game three is Wednesday. Raw on 6/10 will go against game five of the NBA playoffs and that has a shot to set an all-time record low.

Mickie James is out of action with a knee injury after all. She was hurt on Saturday night but we were told that she was listed to wrestle yesterday in College Station, TX. She was replaced in the match by Zelina Vega and her injury was listed in the company’s new injury report. We don’t have word yet on the severity of the injury.

Regarding the incident with fan Josh Ketch, Bully Ray on Twitter has responded.

The lineup for Wednesday’s New Japan Sumo Hall show should be announced late tonight. It’s crazy they run a major show and don’t announce the full card until the day before. It’s not like they are sold out in advance or even close. It’s Jon Moxley’s first match since WWE against Juice Robinson, plus the Will Ospreay vs. Shingo Takagi Best of the Super Juniors tournament final that has been building for the last few weeks. 

WWE

  • Last week they were also advertising the U.S. title situation would be announced tonight with Rey Mysterio vacating the title due to his shoulder separation.
  • WWE is among a number of investors in FloSports, that raised another $47 million in funding. FloSports briefly had a pro wrestling channel, that was disbanded. They have all kinds of minor sports channels including a strong amateur wrestling channel. They have more than 250 rights deals. Fertitta Capital, an investment firm owned by Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta, were also inventors in the latest round of funding.
  • Peter Rosenberg, who did some WWE television work including kickoff shows, said he was no longer with the company beacuse there was no spot for him. He said he was doing other projects and missed some shows, but he was free for WrestleMania and expected to do the show, but Michael Cole told him he was no longer going to be used.
  • WWE has cut localized promos for Friday’s show in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for the General Sports Authority Twitter accounts both the English and Arabic language versions.

MISCELLANEOUS

  • FITE TV will carry Dominion from New Japan which starts early Sunday morning at 3 a.m. headlined by Kazuchika Okada vs. Chris Jericho for the IWGP title, Kota Ibushi vs. Tetsuya Naito for the IC title, Taichi vs. Tomohiro Ishii for the Never title and Dragon Lee vs. Wednesday’s Super Juniors winner for the jr. title. Dominion has historically been one of the best shows of the year. It will be priced at $29.99. It is also available live on New Japan World.
  • Alexander Gustafsson was the 20th most searched term yesterday on Google. There were three major MMA retirements this weekend, as besides Gustafsson, also retiring is Nick Hein (who did some pro wrestling training and an angle for wXw in Germany, and also once came out to “Badstreet USA” by Michael Hayes as his entrance music) and King Mo Lawal, who worked for Impact and did some indie wrestling and once turned down a WWE contract after being recruited by Gerald Brisco.
  • Andy Ruiz was listed as a +1600 underdog to Anthony Joshua on Saturday. It was compared to Buster Douglas-Mike Tyson as the biggest heavyweight title upset in history, but going by the odds it was the fourth biggest of the last 30 years behind:
    1) Douglas +4200 against Tyson in 1990
    2) Corrie Sanders +2000 against Klitschko (2003)
    3) Hasim Rahman +2000 against Lennox Lewis (2001)
  • The Wrestlers on Viceland on Wednesday night at 10 p.m. will air an episode on Japanese women’s wrestling.
  • Thunder Championship Wrestling from Saturday night in Auburndale, FL: Spirit Kid b Bruce Worley, George Rodriguez b Irish Jack, Michael Patrick & Leon Brien DCOR Kahagas & Michael Tarver, Anna Diaz b Amber Nova, Ray Beez b Chico Adams falls count anywhere, Sean Maluta b Mike Reed-DQ. Hector Guerrero and Brian Knobs also worked the show. (thanks to Al Haft)
  • United Wrestling Coalition on 6/15 in Wrightstown, NJ at Kelly’s Banquet Hall with the tenth annual Wrightstown Rumble.
  • TCM has a short called Bone Crushers on Saturday night at 5:10 a.m. It’s a film about pro wrestling in 1933. (thanks to Russell Griffith)
  • Konnan will be working for CWE out of Winnipeg on 6/28 and 6/29. He will be part of a show on 6/28 and then at 12:30 a.m. on 6/29 he will be doing a seminar/training session. For more info you can go to [email protected].
  • Sendai Girls from Sunday in Hiroshima: Mikoto Shindo b Manami, Aiger b Sakura Hirota, Meiko Satomura & Heidi Katrina b Alex Lee & Kaoru, Chihiro Hashimoto b Yuu, Dash Chisako & Mika Iwata b Millie McKenzie & Charli Evans. Katrina appears here through 6/9 and then returns to the U.S. for bookings starting on 6/11. (thanks to Shannon Walsh and wrestlingwithdemons.net)
  • The XFL announced a health advisory committee headed by Dr. Julian Bailes, Dr. Larry Mema and Dr. Claudia Reardon representing neurosurgery, orthopedics and mental health. Bailes will be the XFL’s Chief Medical Advisor. Daniel Wright, who was the head trainer for the Milwaukee Brewers was hired as Vice President of Heath and Safety. He will be there to prepare and run XFL health, wellness and safety policies and also hire and supervise each team’s trainers.
  • NFC debuts on 6/29 at the Pink Pony for an 18-and-over MMA show in Atlanta.
  • Defy runs 6/15 in Portland, OR at the Hawthorne Theater with Artemis Spencer, Brian Cage and TJ Perkins. They also run 6/16 in Tacoma at Jazzbones for a 5 p.m. Father’s Day show.

Daily Pro Wrestling History: Misawa vs. Kawada in an all-time classic

CONTACT INFORMATION

WWN events pulled from FloSlam schedule

Posted on by Joseph Currier

The relationship between FloSports and WWN, Inc. took another turn for the worse this afternoon.

Despite the ongoing legal situation, EVOLVE’s shows in Livonia, Michigan tonight and Summit, Illinois tomorrow had been scheduled to stream live on FloSlam — but that now won’t be happening. WWN’s Gabe Sapolsky announced on Twitter today that FloSlam won’t be airing tonight’s show.

“FloSlam is refusing to broadcast tonight’s EVOLVE event,” Sapolsky wrote. “We apologize, but this is their decision. Please contact them for customer issues.”

Sapolsky added that WWN is doing their best to get tonight’s show on their own website as soon as possible, which is how they used to offer events before their deal with FloSports began last year.

No WWN events are currently listed on the FloSlam schedule. IPW:UK’s Supershow 12, which will air on November 19th, is the only upcoming event currently listed.

News broke yesterday that FloSports had filed a lawsuit against WWN on September 15th in U.S. District Court in Travis County, Texas that asked for more than $1 million in damages. It alleged that WWN provided them with “just plain false” data on how many people were ordering events, causing FloSports to make a deal based on those numbers.

FloSports and WWN announced a five-year agreement in October of 2016, with shows from WWN promotions (EVOLVE, FIP, SHINE, and Style Battle) anchoring the streaming service’s content lineup since.

WWN attorney Samuel Heller released a statement earlier today claiming that FloSports was using the press to spread false statements about WWN. Heller also wrote that FloSports had failed to live up to their contractual obligations and that FloSlam is a mismanaged and failing platform.

UPDATE: FloSports confirmed that WWN events will no longer be available on FloSlam going forward: “Planned coverage of WWN events will no longer be available on FloSlam. This includes EVOLVE, SHINE, FIP, Style Battle, and ACW events. We know fans are excited about these events and we’re disappointed to share that we will no longer provide the coverage you deserve and expect. If you’d like a refund, please email [email protected] with the subject line ‘FloSlam Refund Request,’ and our team will assist you.”

Tonight’s EVOLVE show will be available on WWN’s website and they’re offering a $5 refund to FloSlam subscribers who purchase it if they send proof of their subscription.

WWN attorney issues statement on FloSports lawsuit

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

What looks to be an ugly split between WWN, Inc. (the parent company of EVOLVE, FIP, and Shine) and FloSports, which has been airing their events on its FloSlam platform, continued today with WWN’s attorney making a statement alleging FloSports had failed to live up to their contracted obligations and called FloSlam a failing subscription streaming platform.

FloSports filed a lawsuit for more than $1 million on September 15th in U.S. District Court in Travis County, Texas, alleging that WWN misled them by providing inflated numbers for how many people were ordering the EVOLVE events on Internet PPV, which caused FloSports to make a deal based on those numbers.

Joshua Gavin, who worked for WWN, in a Fightful article backed up claims in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit was clearly an attempt to get out of the terms of the current contract.

WWN attorney Samuel Heller released a statement earlier today regarding the lawsuit saying:

“While we prefer not to litigate cases in the media, it is clear that FloSports is attempting to use the press to create leverage in this dispute by spreading false, defamatory and misleading statements about WWN. In reality, FloSports has wholly failed to honor its contractual obligation to promote WWN’s events, and has been unable to successfully integrate WWN into its mismanaged and failing subscription streaming platform. At no time has WWN provided incorrect, false or misleading information and this lawsuit is nothing more than a transparent effort to FloSports to avoid its responsibility to WWN, its talent and its fans. We are confident that the litigation will result favorably to WWN.”

It should be noted that FloSports did not go to the media, nor have they at this point commented to the media, but only filed suit.

Both sides were promoting the EVOLVE shows tonight in Livonia, Michigan and tomorrow night in Summit, Illinois, on the service.

Beyond Wrestling and PWX to stream events on FloSlam

Posted on by Joseph Currier

In an announcement on Friday, FloSports revealed that independent promotions Beyond Wrestling and PWX would be airing live events on the streaming service. FloSlam will stream Beyond’s December 11th event in Melrose, MA, along with PWX’s two-night X16 tournament on November 19th-20th.

The promotions are the second and third announced additions to the lineup, with the company previously announcing that they had reached an exclusive multi-year deal to stream events from EVOLVE and the rest of the World Wrestling Network.

Beyond tweeted that, for now, their deal is only for the December 11th show and 90-day rights to its VOD.

Beyond is based in the Northeast and prides itself on featuring a unique atmosphere with standing-room crowds, and the promotion has regularly been home to some of the region’s top talent. The December 11th show will take place in the same building before EVOLVE 75.

The North Carolina-based PWX has already announced Zack Sabre Jr., Matt Riddle, Fred Yehi, Trevor Lee, Davey Richards, and others for the 16-man X16 tournament.

FloSlam will broadcast its first live pro wrestling show tonight with SHINE 38. The subscription costs $20 a month or $150 for a year.

Jeremy Botter of FloSports joined Bryan Alvarez and Mike Sempervive on a free edition of Wrestling Observer Live to talk about the news.

FloSports announces deal with WWNLive, launches pro wrestling streaming service

Posted on by Josh Nason

On Monday, FloSports and WWNLive announced a deal that will make FloSports the exclusive source for streaming Evolve Wrestling and a myriad of other independent wrestling promotions.

The deal calls for FloSports to take over worldwide, exclusive live streaming rights from WWNLive in addition to hosting their on-demand event library back to 2003.

Similar to other streaming services, all events will be available for a $20/month subscription with a deeper discount for a one-year committal. FloSports is available on both AppleTV and Roku, making it easier for users to access the service.

In conjunction with the announcement, FloSports officially launched FloSlam, a pro wrestling focused website that will feature the streams, news, and documentaries.

Financial terms were not disclosed, but it is a five-year deal that will cover roughly 60 shows yearly. It begins on November 4th with SHINE 38. 

In addition to groups like FIP, SHINE, WWN Supershow and Dragon Gate, the Evolve wrestling inclusion makes this partnership all the more interesting given WWE’s recent interest in bringing on more independent wrestling as part of a tiered Network package as well as their past working relationship with Evolve.

An added layer: WWE recently was part of a group that invested in FloSports. Unless a deal can be worked out, WWE will have to look elsewhere for new sources of non-WWE wrestling content.

FloSports teasing new wrestling streaming service

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

A live webpage seemingly tells the story of news that is about to break regarding a new pro wrestling streaming service.

FloSports, which already streams live events in a number of sports including gymnastics, softball, amateur wrestling, grappling and track and field, is the group behind the new FloSlam website where the service would be hosted.

The page currently lists a monthly rate of $20 with a $12.50 monthly discount for a year commital. If it is like other similar services, the idea would be regular live streaming of events.

In the past, we have had Chael Sonnen on Wrestling Observer Radio talking about FloSports with relation to grappling events he promoted that air on their grappling-specific section.

In the People section, several WWE and NXT talents are featured as well as Jay Lethal, The Young Bucks, and Matt Riddle.

It is expected more news will break on this story imminently and it will be a major part of tonight’s Observer radio show in some form.

As noted on this website before it was announced, WWE is an investor in FloSports as they participated in a recent round of funding, but this is completely independent from WWE.

WWE part of $21.2 million Series B funding of FloSports

Posted on by Josh Nason

WWE is officially part of a group of investors in FloSports, a subscription-based sports media company based in Austin, TX.

FloSports announced the round of $21.2 million Series B funding Monday via a press release. Joining WWE in the investment round are Discovery Communications and current investor Causeway Media Partners. 

The size of WWE’s investment was not disclosed.

Our Dave Meltzer first broke the news of Flo’s involvement in the August 1st edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

Heavily focused on video, FloSports covers a multitude of different sports including MMA, amateur wrestling, boxing, volleyball, and more through individual websites. The company bolstered their team in 2016 by bringing on familiar MMA media members like Jeremy Botter, Front Row Brian, Duane Finley, and more. 

Besides traditional written pieces, Flo streams live events and has also moved in the realm of documentary filmmaking.

WWE has been no stranger into investing in companies in the past like Avid, Tout, and even reviving the TapOut brand.