Oney Lorcan is making his return to 205 Live next week, taking part in a tournament to decide Buddy Murphy’s next challenger.
Lorcan will face Humberto Carrillo in the third first round match. Akira Tozawa and Cedric Alexander in a battle of former Cruiserweight champions will take place next week as well, rounding out the tournament.
This isn’t the first time Lorcan has appeared on 205 Live. He appeared on the April 4, 2017 episode of the program, the day after WrestleMania 33, losing to Rich Swann. He’s mostly been wrestling on NXT, teaming with Danny Burch.
Drew Gulak and Tony Nese advanced tonight to make it to the second round of the tournament. Nese defeated Kalisto with a running knee to advance, while Gulak made Brian Kendrick pass out after he applied the Gu-lock.
The winner of the tournament will face Buddy Murphy for the Cruiserweight title at WrestleMania 35.
An eight man tournament has been announced on 205 Live, where the winner will face Buddy Murphy for the Cruiserweight title at WrestleMania 35.
205 Live General Manager Drake Maverick made the announcement tonight at the start of 205 Live. The tournament will be an eight man, single elimination tournament that will take place over the next six weeks leading to WrestleMania. Two matches were then announced for tonight, with Humberto Carrillo facing TJP and Cedric Alexander taking on Mike Kanellis. Maverick said that these matches would have big implications heading into the tournament, which starts next week.
A similar tournament took place last year to determine a new Cruiserweight champion after Enzo Amore was stripped of the championship and released from the company. Cedric Alexander ended up winning the title, defeating Mustafa Ali in the finals at WrestleMania 34.
Buddy Murphy defeated Akira Tozawa at the Elimination Chamber pre-show this past weekend to successfully retain the title.
The South of Heaven chokeslam got the win for Martinez.
– Dominik Dijakovic defeated Kona Reeves
Dijakovic finished this with Feast Your Eyes.
– Kairi Sane & Io Shirai defeated Aliyah & Vanessa Borne, Mia Yim & Xia Li, and Marina Shafir & NXT Women’s Champion Shayna Baszler in a four-way elimination tag match
Sane and Shirai submitted Borne and Aliyah with double submissions in the first fall. In the second fall, Baszler choked out Li.
Sane and Shirai hit a double team-assisted elbow drop and moonsault on Shafir to win.
– Mansoor Al-Shehail was cutting an in-ring promo about his dreams of being in WWE when he was interrupted by Adam Cole, who granted his own wish of having a match right now.
– Adam Cole defeated Mansoor Al-Shehail
Cole hit the Last Shot to the back of the head to win. Cole made it clear that he hates Tampa, with him not even doing the “Bay Bay” for the crowd.
– Kacy Catanzaro & NXT North American Champion Ricochet defeated Rhea Ripley & Shane Thorne
The crowd loved this match. It got “this is awesome” chants, and everyone played off of each other. Ricochet hit a great running Shooting Star Press. Catanzaro hit a few incredible moves, including a spinning stunner and a twisting splash. Great stuff.
– Jeet Rama defeated Riddick Moss
Rama got a roll-up victory over Moss.
– NXT Tag Team Champions The Undisputed Era (Roderick Strong & Bobby Fish) defeated Humberto Carrillo & Raul Mendoza to retain their titles
Excellent match. There were stereo dives to the outside by Carrillo and Mendoza, but Strong and Fish were just too much for them. Fish won with a knee strike. The crowd loved both teams and this match.
Humberto Carrillo is the latest WWE call-up, joining the 205 Live roster.
After TJP backstage tried to answer Buddy Murphy’s open challenge, 205 Live GM Drake Maverick told TJP that the open challenge had already been accepted. Carrillo came out after Murphy cut a promo about his match at the Royal Rumble.
The two had a back and forth competitve match. At one point, Murphy feigned a knee injury. Carrillo took his guard down as turned his back to Murphy, who was being attended to by referees. Murphy jumped him, but Carillo cut him off, at one point sending Murphy over the announce table. The cruiserweight champion was able to cut him off, however, and pinned him with Murphy’s law.
Carrillo is best known for his run in Mexico under a mask as Ultimo Ninja, wrestling for the Crash and other independent promotions in Mexico since his debut in 2012. He signed with WWE and made his NXT debut back in August without a mask. He’s been used on NXT television mostly as enhancement talent, sometimes teaming with Raul Mendoza.
His name was listed among other 205 Live names as part of WWE’s Worlds Collide tournament that will take place during the Royal Rumble Axxess event starting on January 26. It was later removed, with WWE listing “a superstar to be named” in his place.
As the clock struck midnight and we entered 2019, All Elite Wrestling finally became official. Weeks of speculation culminated with AEW being formally announced at the end of a Being the Elite episode that was released at midnight Pacific time on January 1, 2019. With that came the announcement of Double or Nothing, which is the sequel to All In. While there are plenty of questions about what the roster for AEW will look like, the initial group of wrestlers has started to come into focus.
When the Tokyo Dome opened on March 17, 1988, the idea of pro wrestling there wasn’t even an idea.
The Dome was built to be the new modern home of two baseball teams, the Yomiuri Giants of the Central League, the team of Shigeo Nagashima and Sadaharu Oh years earlier, the unofficial national team that had all its games on NTV, and sold out every game. The Dome held 48,316 fans for baseball, but for years, every single Giants game announced the attendance as 56,000. The other team, the Nippon Ham Fighters of the Pacific League, which played there through the 2003 season, were the ones that the average person could get tickets to see.
The idea was baseball and concerts, the Rolling Stones (who have 19 Tokyo Dome sellouts), Michael Jackson (who sold 405,000 tickets for nine dates in December 1988), U2, Madonna and Japanese artists. But while it has housed numerous sporting events, including NFL and Major League Baseball, with the exception of baseball and concerts, it’s probably best known for pro wrestling.
Pro wrestling was still huge on television back then. All Japan, headed by Giant Baba, was a fixture on Nippon TV, one of the major networks. New Japan, on TV-Asahi, had matches airing in prime time.
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THURSDAY NEWS UPDATE
WWE
Humberto Carrillo was originally announced as representing 205 Live in the WWE Worlds Collide tournament, but he’s now been removed and “A Superstar to be named” is listed in his place. Carrillo, who was known as Ultimo Ninja before signing with WWE, has been wrestling at NXT house shows and on some episodes of NXT TV since joining the company. WWE has been hyping that fresh faces will be added to the cruiserweight division in 2019.
The announcement of the Worlds Collide tournament also noted that there will be NXT UK television tapings at Royal Rumble Axxess on Friday, January 25 and Sunday, January 27.
Hulk Hogan on Kenny Omega possibly going to WWE: “It’s tough to go your whole life without eating at McDonald’s or riding in a Chevrolet. If you don’t touch on the WWE, the story’s not complete. But maybe Kenny could be the exception.”
Pete Dunne has now reached 600 days as WWE United Kingdom champion.
This week there are four WWE Hidden Gems: Billy Robinson vs. Ray Stevens (AWA, 9/13/81), Les Thornton vs. Gerald Brisco for the World Junior Heavyweight championship (Florida, 9/13/81), Davey Boy Smith and the Hart Brothers vs. J.R. Foley’s army (Stampede, 10/9/81) and Pete Dunne vs. Mark Andrews for the WWE UK title (NXT live event, 6/8/17)
The WWE PC YouTube account has footage from Raymond Rowe and Sarah Logan’s wedding.
The Official WWE Cookbook has been announced, featuring a number of dishes, drinks, appetizers and deserts. It will be out on March 19.
McKenzie Mitchell, who did backstage interviews for Impact Wrestling, has announced her departure from the company. She had been a part of Impact Wrestling since 2016.
Dominick Cruz says his shoulder surgery went well, and is now on the road to recovery.
Two fights have been scrapped from next week’s debut on ESPN Plus. John Lineker is out of his fight against Cory Sandhagen while Ion Cutelaba is out of his fight against Glover Teixeira. UFC is looking for replacements..
According to Brett Okamoto, the idea of a fight between Anthony Pettis and Steven Thompson is real, as both sides want it.
John Dodson vs. Petr Yan in a bantamweight bout is set for the UFC February 23 event in Prague. Yan has also signed a new 4 fight deal with the company.
David Teymur vs. Charles Oliveira in a lightweight bout has been confirmed for the Fortaleza event on February 2.
FloSports is reporting that Thomas Almeida vs. Marlon Vera is being targeted for UFC 235 on March 2.
Alex Gorgees will fight Jalin Turner in Melbourne, Australia on February 9.
