Santos’ began her wrestling career in 2012 as La Nina in the revamped Women of Wrestling promotion. She later became the ring announcer for Lucha Underground in 2016 and worked as a backstage interviewer for Impact in 2019.
Santos has been married to AEW’s Brian Cage since 2019. In November, the couple welcomed their second child together, a son named Logan.
AEW has made several changes of late to its broadcast team. The company parted ways with Dasha Kuret in April. Arkady Aura made her debut earlier this year and Alicia Atout announced she had officially signed with the company last month.
Brian Cage and Melissa Santos have welcomed another baby into the world.
On Tuesday night, cage announced via social media that Santos has given birth to a baby boy named Logan.
Cage wrote:
Pumping out babies like a “f’n machine” & glad to be back into “newborn” fatherhood. Actually, @ThisIsMelSantos was the real machine this time. Now it’s time to go streets of cage/rage tomorrow in my old stomping grounds of Ontario, CA. @aew Like a Dragon streetfight
Pumping out babies like a "f'n machine" & glad to be back into "newborn" fatherhood. Actually, @ThisIsMelSantos was the real machine this time.
Now it's time to go streets of cage/rage tomorrow in my old stomping grounds of Ontario, CA. @aew Like a Dragon streetfight! pic.twitter.com/GHeGKcx07z
Cage and Santos were married in 2019. This is the couple’s second child together. In 2018, Santos announced the birth of their daughter, Skylar Faith Button.
Cage will have little time at home with his wife and newborn as he’s scheduled to wrestle on tonight’s AEW Dynamite in Ontario, California. He’ll team with The Don Callis Family against Kenny Omega, Chris Jericho, and Paul Wight in the Like A Dragon Gaiden Street Fight on the show.
The announce team for Impact’s upcoming all-women’s Knockouts Knockdown event has been set.
Impact announced on social media this afternoon that Melissa Santos will be the ring announcer for the event. Mickie James will be the color analyst, and Veda Scott will be calling the play-by-play action. Scott has previously done work as a commentator during AEW Women’s Tag Team Cup tournament last year. Mickie James also was in charge of an all-women’s card recently, holding NWA’s EmPower event last month.
Gail Kim and Christy Hemme announced Knockouts Knockdown this past Monday on a live Facebook stream. Wrestlers set to take part in the event include Lady Frost, Renee Michelle, and Mercedes Martinez. Additionally, Deonna Purrazzo will defend the Knockouts title against an unnamed opponent. A Monster’s Ball match will also be held in memory of Daffney, who along with Taylor Wilde were the first women to compete in such a match back in 2009.
Knockouts Knockdown will be taping this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at Skyway Studios in Nashville, Tennessee and will air October 9 on the Impact Plus streaming service.
Impact Wrestling returns to the Sam’s Town Hall & Casino in Las Vegas, NV for the first episode of the new set of tapings as we continue on the Road to Bound For Glory. Opening video was a wedding package for Brian Cage and Melissa Santos, who are tying the knot in tonight’s show. It had all the cheesiness you could ask for.
Josh Matthews and Don Callis opened the show, wearing tuxedos, hyping tonight’s wedding, the return of Ken Shamrock. Gabby Loren is the wedding correspondent at the wedding venue, she interviewed Gail Kim who seems to be here really early.
The North came down to the ring dressed as LAX, mocking them, imitating their entrances. Ethan Page cut a promo making fun at the crowd for expecting LAX. Alexander kept on mocking Konnan and LAX, disrespecting the t-shirt. Alexander said that unlike LAX who had 4 title reigns, they’ll only have one, because they’ll never lose the titles.
After much trash talk, Konnan finally came down to the ring to confront The North. Konnan cut a promo making fun of them and then said that he has a lot of friends that want to come and beat them up. Page held his own with Konnan on the mic. Konnan brought out Rob Van Dam and Rhino. They brawled and thus we got
Rhino & Rob Van Dam defeated Impact World Tag Team Champions The North (Ethan Page & Josh Alexander) in a non-title match.
Once the brawl came under control, The North had control over RVD for a bit, but RVD quickly turned it around with a Rolling Thunder for a two count. Rhino came in and kept that control over Page. After some more tags, Alexander distracted RVD to give Page the opening to cut him off and finally get him away from Rhino.
The North worked over RVD with several illegal chokes as they kept distracting the ref. After a couple of more tags, RVD hit a jawbreaker and got the tag on Rhino.
Rhino got the hot tag over Alexander, who got tossed around the ring. Rhino got a two count after a Belly-to-belly. Rhino set up the Gore, but got superkicked by Page for a two count. RVD came back and traded strikes with Page until they both landed on the floor after a clothesline. RVD seemed hurt, distracting the ref, giving Alexander the opening to go for a belt shot, but Konnan took the title away, allowing Rhino to hit a Gore, followed by RVD’s Frog Splash for the win over the champions. Not the best match, not at the level the tag division has delivered for a while.
Backstage, Gama Singh berated Raj and Rohit over losing to The Deaners. He said that he was forced to go back to India and recruit Shera. Gama told them that they need to start producing. Shera takes on Cousin Jake tonight.
We got the first AXS commercial of the night.
Back at the wedding venue, Eddie Edwards arrived, who was interrupted by Reno Scum, who distracted Eddie while they spiked his drink. Johnny Swinger showed up too.
Match started and Shera easily overpowered Jake, carrying him to the corner. Jake came back with a clothesline and some strikes, rocking Shera a bit, but after a small distraction, Shera easily regained control with a lariat.
Shera was under control for a while more, while Jake kept on trying to make a comeback, only to be cut off over and over. Eventually, Jake did manage to gain some momentum and hit the corner spear, but Shera came back with a huge Sky High and a powerslam for the win. Technically a squash match.
After the match, Cody Deaner faced off with Shera to protect Jake, but the numbers game was too much and ended up taking a powerslam by Shera. The Desi Hit Squad posed over the fallen Deaners.
Back at the wedding, TJP and Fallah Bahh are arguing with each other about what they’re wearing. Eddie Edwards is already drunk.
Tenille Dashwood defeated Madison Rayne
Collar and elbow lock up to start the match, leading to a sequence of reversals, fighting for wrist control. Tenille ended up getting the better of Madison, running her to the ropes. Madison kept talking trash and Tenille kept playing around with Madison, tripping her and making fun of her.
The match spilled onto the floor when Rayne tried to leave, but Tenille brought her back the hard way. Tenille hit a slingshot neckbreaker for a two count.
Madison got some offense hitting a backstabber on the ropes, earning a two count. Madison locked in a Cravate and connected a couple of knees for another two count. A third one after a Sliding Lariat. Rayne hit a ripcord cutter for yet another near fall.
Finally, Rayne went to the top rope, going for a bulldog, but Tenille side stepped and landed corner Sliding Lariat to get a chance to recover. Tenille landed a bit boot and clothesline for a two count. Rayne hit an enzuigiri and a northern lights bridge for a two count. Madison went for a German, but Tenille blocked her and hit a Neckbreaker and The Spotlight to pick up the win.
Not particularly a good match, it was too one-sided considering they’re building Tenille for the title.
Back at the wedding, RVD arrived with Katie Forbes, who were met by Rich Swann and Willie Mack. Swann said that since they’re the No. 1 Contenders, they can get their first shot. Mack is wearing a onesie with a T-Rex print.
Tenille Dashwood vs Taya Valkyrie was made official for Bound For Glory.
Ken Shamrock made his return to Impact Wrestling. His arms are out of this world, he looks fantastic for his age. Shamrock cut a promo talking about his memories about being the Impact champion, I think he meant NWA Champion. He talked the fans for the support.
Shamrock addressed Moose getting in his business and all the trash talk Moose has delivered in the last months. He said that he got an invitation from D’Amore to come to the tapings and confront Moose. He said that he is here to beat up Moose and called him out.
Moose showed up on the tron in video form. Moose is at Shamrock’s School. He is walking around cutting a promo saying he’s not afraid of Shamrock. At the end, Moose beats up some of Shamrock’s students and mocks Shamrock. Moose was great. The video itself had great camerawork.
We got an AXS commercial with Eddie Edwards saying that this is their time.
Somewhere in the Undead Realm, Taya finds Rosemary. Taya asks Rosemary that if she takes out Tenille Dashwood, she’ll give her a title shot. Rosemary tells Taya that she’ll need to deal with her problems herself because she doesn’t respect the new Taya. Before leaving, Taya gave Rosemary a matching attire for the wedding.
Impact Plus Moment of the Week was the wedding of Eric Young and ODB. This was long and terrible.
Back at the wedding, oVe arrived, only to drop off a wedding gift because they were not invited and Dave Crist had a match tonight. They took the gift back.
At another part of the venue, Dreamer and Swann are giving Cage a pep talk. Ryan Cage, Brian’s brother showed up. I don’t know if this was his shoot brother.
Madison Rayne tried to explain the Bridesmaids how to walk, but Taya used the opportunity to ask them for a favor about Tenille Dashwood.
Tessa Blanchard defeated Dave Crist (w/oVe) to qualify to the Bound For Glory X-Division Ladder Match
Dave Crist tried to attack Tessa before the bell, but Tessa caught him and brought the fight. Tessa landed some strikes until Dave pushed her off. Dave cut her off with some strikes, but when he went for a running attack, Tessa deliver a backdrop over the ropes on to the rest of the oVe teammates. Tessa took them out with a Baseball Dive.
Fulton went to attack Tessa, but Jake pulled him off so Dave wouldn’t get DQ’d. The referee ejected Fulton from ringside.
Back in the ring, Tessa worked over Dave’s injured hand, but Jake Crist was there to distract Tessa and allow Dave to cut her off once again and regain control. Dave mostly went for kicks and eye rakes on Tessa, a couple of strikes in between.
Tessa made a comeback after Dave spat on her and woke her up. Tessa unloaded a series of elbows and landed a running kick and superkick. She went for a top rope sunset flip, completely missing Dave, but Dave followed the motion to save the spot.
Dave blocked the corner Magnum, but failed to land the foot stomp, giving Tessa the opening to hit the Buzzsaw DDT for the win. This was one of the worst matches Tessa has been in for a while.
After the match, Jake Crist attacked Tessa, but she cut him off. Fulton came back, but Tessa low blowed him, only slowing him down. Fulton hit two HUGE chokeslams on Tessa.
The rest of the show was the wedding. First we saw the bridesmaids and groomsmen prepping up. Madison Rayne talked trash to Alisha for not taking care of Eddie who got drunk. Ace Austin was luckily there to take his spot for the wedding entrance.
We got a quick rundown of some of the Impact roster at the wedding, mostly funny skits. Finally, Dreamer walked down Melissa Santos. They’re starting the wedding when Taya interrupts it to get herself over saying that she hosted a great bachelorette party, but the wedding looked terrible. She just wanted to make sure no one thought she organized this.
Ethan Page also interrupted saying that him and Alexander are being disrespected by Impact management. He announced that he is going to start the first wrestler’s union.
Eddie Edwards returned, completely drunk. He puked all over Ryan Cage. Ace Austin confronted him, but took out Ryan instead. Dreamer asked for another priest, and would answer but The Sinister Minister — James Mitchell.
Mitchell finished the wedding in the most awkward way he could. He managed to sneak in his hotel card to Melissa. Let it be on record that Cage and Santos were married under the Dark Lord’s church.
Reception was back in the ring. Cage and Melissa were introduced as newlyweds. Once in the ring, they had their first dance, when suddenly, to the surprise of no one, Sami Callihan crashed the party.
Callihan said he wasn’t there to fight, he was happy for Cage and Santos, but said he was hurt because he got kicked out of the wedding. He said he drank all of the ‘gift’. He told Cage that at Bound For Glory, he wants the Brian Cage of old, he wants to beat The Machine and not an injured has been. Callihan toasted for Cage and then, as Cage went to attack him, Callihan accidentally broke the Champagne bottle on Melissa’s head. Callihan actually looked sorry for the accident. Good angle to finish this thing off.
Final Thoughts —
For a one gimmick show, all built around the wedding, this was a pretty good show. The wedding itself was one of the better executed ones I’ve seen when it comes to wrestling.
Atlantis & Atlantis Jr. & Stuka Jr. vs El Hijo del Villano III & Mephisto & Ephesto
Rush & Dragon Lee & Mistico vs. Gilbert el Boricua & Mr. Niebla & The Chris
Ultimo Guerrero vs. Ciber the Main Man
IMPACT AT 10 P.M. EASTERN TONIGHT ON THE PURSUIT CHANNEL
Jordynne Grace vs. Keira Hogan vs. Madison Rayne
NEW JAPAN G-1 CLIMAX SATURDAY AT OTA WARD GYM IN TOKYO AT 5:30 A.M. EASTERN ON NEW JAPAN WORLD AND 9 P.M. ON AXS TV
Kota Ibushi & Will Ospreay & Yuya Uemura vs. Evil & Sanada & Bushi
Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens vs. Lance Archer & Yoshinobu Kanemaru
Hiroshi Tanahashi & Shota Umino & Ren Narita vs. KENTA & Clark Connors & Karl Fredericks
Kazuchika Okada & Yoshi-Hashi vs. Zack Sabre Jr. & Minoru Suzuki
Shingo Takagi vs. Juice Robinson
Jon Moxley vs. Taichi
Tetsuya Naito vs. Toru Yano
Tomohiro Ishii vs. Jeff Cobb
Jay White vs. Hirooki Goto
Saturday has WWE Raw in Springfield, MA and Smackdown in Petersburg, VA, plus NXT in Citrus Springs, FL. We’re looking on reports from all of these shows to [email protected]
UFC SATURDAY FROM THE GOLDEN WEST CENTER IN SACRAMENTO AT 5 P.M. EASTERN ON ESPN+
Benito Lopez (136) vs. Vince Morales (135.5)
Livinha Souza (116) vs. Brianna Van Buren (115)
Jonathan Martinez (136) vs. Lia Pingyuan (136)
Darren Elkins (145.5) vs. Ryan Hall (144.5)
Nicco Montano (135.5) vs. Julianna Pena (135.5)
Andre Fili (145.5) vs. Sheymon Moraes (146)
John Allen (203) vs. Mike Rodriguez (204.5)
Cezar Ferreira (185.5) vs,. Marvin Vettori (185.5)
Karl Roberson (185.5) vs. Wellington Turman (185)
Mirsad Bektic (145) vs. Josh Emmet (146)
Urijah Faber (135.5) vs. Ricky Simon (134.5)
Germaine de Randamie (136) vs. Aspen Ladd (135)
AEW FIGHT FOR THE FALLEN FROM JACKSONVILLE ON SATURDAY AT 7:30 P.M. EASTERN ON B/R LIVE IN U.S. AND FITE TV OUTSIDE THE U.S.
Sonny Kiss vs. Peter Avalon
Shawn Spears & MJF & Sammy Guevara vs. Joey Janela & Jimmy Havoc & Darby Allin
Dark Order vs. Jack Evans & Angelico vs. Jungle Boy & Luchasaurus
Dr. Britt Baker & Riho vs. Bea Priestley & Shoko Nakajima
Frankie Kazarian & Scorpio Sky vs. Pentagon Jr. & Fenix
Adam Page vs. Kip Sabian
Brandi Rhodes vs. Allie
Kenny Omega vs. Cima
Young Bucks vs. Cody & Dustin Rhodes
EVOLVE 10TH ANNIVERSARY SHOW FROM THE 2300 ARENA IN PHILADELPHIA AT 8 P.M. EASTERN ON THE WWE NETWORK
Josh Briggs vs. Anthony Greene
Shotzi Blackheart vs. Brandi Lauren
Curt Stallion vs. Sean Maluta vs. Stephen Wolf vs. Harlem Bravado
Babatunde vs. Colby Corino
Arturo Ruas vs. Anthony Henry
Matt Riddle vs. Drew Gulak
Eddie Kingston & Joe Gacy vs. A.R. Fox & Leon Ruff for tag titles
Austin Theory vs. J.D. Drake for Evolve and WWN titles
Adam Cole vs. Akira Tozawa for NXT title
MLW ON BEIN SPORTS AT 9 P.M. EASTERN
Ace Austin vs. Air Wolf
Hart Foundation vs. MJF & Richard Holliday in a ladder match for tag titles
NEW JAPAN G-1 CLIMAX LATE SATURDAY NIGHT AT 2 A.M. EASTERN (11 P.M. PACIFIC) ON NEW JAPAN WORLD
Juice Robinson & Toa Henare & Yota Tsuji vs. Hirooki Goto & Tomoaki Honma & Yuya Uemura
Jeff Cobb & Ren Narita vs. Jon Moxley & Shota Umino
Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano & Yoshi-Hashi vs. Jay White &Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens
WWE EXTREME RULES ON SUNDAY AT 6:30 P.M. EASTERN ON THE WWE NETWORK
Seth Rollins & Becky Lynch vs. Baron Corbin & Lacey Evans for Universal & Raw women’s titles vs. Corbin & Evans not being allowed to challenge for titles again in Extreme rules match
Undertaker & Roman Reigns vs. Shane McMahon & Drew McIntyre no rules match
Kofi Kingston vs. Samoa Joe for WWE title
Ricochet vs. A.J. Styles for U.S. title
Bayley vs. Alexa Bliss vs. Nikki Cross for Smackdown women’s title
Braun Strowman vs. Bobby Lashley last man standing
Daniel Bryan & Rowan vs. Big E & Xavier Woods vs. Heavy Machinery for Smackdown tag titles
Revival vs. Usos for Raw tag titles
Tony Nese vs. Drew Gulak for cruiserweight title
Aleister Black vs. Cesaro
EVOLVE FROM MELROSE, MA MEMORIAL HALL AT 7 P.M. EASTERN ON WWW.WWNLIVE.COM
Matt Riddle vs. Curt Stallion
Austin Theory & Arturo Ruas vs. Josh Briggs & Orange Cassidy
J.D. Drake vs. A.R. Fox
Joe Gacy vs. Babatunde
NEW JAPAN G-1 CLIMAX TOURNAMENT ON MONDAY FROM SAPPORO AT 5 A.M. EASTERN ON NEW JAPAN WORLD
Kota Ibushi & Jushin Liger & Shota Umino vs. Will Ospreay & Yota Tsuji & Yuya Uemura
Tomoaki Honma & Toa Henare & Ren Narita vs. Evil & Sanada & Bushi
Hiroshi Tanahashi & KENTA & Clark Connors & Karl Fredericks vs. Minoru Suzuki & Zack Sabre Jr. & Lance Archer & Yoshinobu Kanemaru
Kazuchika Okada & Yoshi-Hashi vs. Bad Luke Fale & Chase Owens
Toru Yano vs. Shingo Takagi
Juice Robinson vs. Hirooki Goto
Jeff Cobb vs. Jon Moxley
Tomohiro Ishii vs. Jay White
Tetsuya Naito vs. Taichi
Raw is Monday at NYCB Live (the former Nassau Coliseum).
Smackdown and 205 Live are Tuesday in Worcester, MA.
Before this week’s return to the norm, Joseph Currier looked at Heyman’s promising start in his new role.
Though it was only the beginning of him easing into the role, the first Raw of the Paul Heyman era showed promising signs for his future as executive director.
It was surprising that — during the build to a pay-per-view where the top of the card has already been announced — Heyman’s presence was so obvious. Even if WWE didn’t announce his executive director role, it still would have been easy to tell that something was different about the episode.
It started with a literal bang that doubled as a statement of intent. Braun Strowman and Bobby Lashley’s falls count anywhere match kicked off the show and ended in a no contest. Strowman charged at Lashley, with explosions going off as they crashed through the stage. The angle was treated with complete seriousness. Corey Graves even let out an uncensored “holy sh*t” on commentary.
A look at Paco Alonso and his role in running the most traditional of all pro wrestling promotions, and what happens next with CMLL, is the lead story i the new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
We look at Alonso’s death, an update on who will be running the company, how things will stay the same, what could change, the 2008 Hall of Fame election, and the career of Alonso as a promoter including the wrestlings wars he was in and the boom periods he presided over. We also look at where things stand and why Alonso is the only promoter with so much tenure in the business who has never lost money promoting wrestling.
We look at the first show of the G-1 Climax tournament, including unique aspects of the crowd, the business notes and what was good and bad about the crowd, this week’s G-1 bouts, Dallas coverage with star ratings and poll results and will AEW and NJPW promote together any time soon.
We also look at a Saturday with five major shows, running down all of them and the story behind the change in WWE policy.
We also look at Dwayne Johnson and Conor McGregor earnings, Reigns winning award, new signings, Reigns talks why AEW isn’t competition, WWE’s latest network strategy, ideas that were nixed of late that were pitched, Eric Bischoff update, Stock price notes, new WWE television show, most-watched shows of the week on WWE Network as well as a rundown of all the arena events of the past week with results, highlights and business notes.
We’ve got full coverage of UFC 239, with all the different stories that came out of the show, the judging of Jones vs Santos, the future of several fighters, all of the business notes regarding the show as well as match-by-match coverage, fighter pay, and poll results.
We also look at the changes in All Japan Pro Wrestling and what it means going forward.
We also have coverage of the Impact PPV show, where Impact stands, how the PPV did, the crossover in buyers of Impact with other companies as well as match-by-match coverage with star ratings and poll results.
We also run down the ratings of all the major TV shows, along with detailed demo info for the WWE shows.
We also have the results of all the major pro wrestling events around the world over the past week.
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FRIDAY NEWS UPDATE
Brian Cage and Melissa Santos of Impact Wrestling were married yesterday. That’s the reason there were two Bar Wrestling shows this past week, so the guests could work while in town. A lot of Impact talent was at the wedding. Among the names there were Joey Ryan, Keira Hogan, Sami Callihan, Jessicka Havok, Nevaeh, Jake Crist, Su Yung and rich Swann. Many of them, including Cage and Santos, are wrestling tonight in Baldwin Park, CA at the American Legion with Tessa Blanchard vs. Daga, Joey Ryan vs. Keira Hogan and a dollar dance with Santos.
The Aspen Ladd weigh-in situation earlier today in Sacramento was very scary. She was shaking and having a hard time walking as she went to the scale. She made weight, with a pound to spare,which was irresponsible of her team for her to cut that extra pound. This is a tragedy waiting to happen. Even though she was in that condition, she was cleared to fight tomorrow night. Hopefully nothing bad happens. Because if something bad does, this was far too public of a situation.
Here are the star ratings that you can bet over/under at Kambi for Sunday’s Extreme Rules show:
Roman Reigns & Undertaker vs. Drew McIntyre & Shane McMahon ***1/2
Bryan & Rowan vs. E & Woods vs. Heavy Machinery ***1/2
Bayley vs. Alexa Bliss vs. Nikki Cross **
Kofi Kingston vs. Samoa Joe ***1/2 (thanks to David Taylor)
If there isn’t enough this weekend, The Fights Only MMA awards from last week will air at 9 p.m. Eastern tonight on CBS Sports Network. Dolph Lundgren hosts the show.
The Huffington Post has a story about George Murdoch, the former Brodus Clay and Titus, and his text message to former Fox Nation co-host Britt McHenry. They were on a show together until this story surfaced in April, noting Murdoch had sent inappropriate text messages to McHenry in late 2018 through January of this year. Murdoch was not suspended and is still with the company, although he’s been moved to a different show. I really don’t see how they didn’t can him over this. Really, with the nature of the messages, it looks bad that he’s still there.
WWE
WWE is looking for women to be part of their “Fight Like a Girl” reality show that Stephanie McMahon will star in. The show has a woman and a WWE wrestler who helps them through struggles in life.
UFC
Lina Lansberg vs. Macy Chiasson and Ion Cutelaba vs,. Khalil Rountree Jr. have been added to the 9/28 show in Copenhagen, Denmark.
MISCELLANEOUS
Brian Cage vs. Michael Elgin in a street fight for the Impact title was announced for the 7/19 tapings in Windsor, ONT.
Cage has pulled out of 7/26 and 7/27 Defy shows in Seattle due to injury. Christopher Daniels will take his place in the Super 8XGP and meets Schaff in the first round of the show.
Ace Austin vs. Austin Aries has been added to the 7/25 MLW show at the Melrose Ballroom in New York
AAW runs tonight in Milwaukee at the Turner Hall Ballroom. Sami Callihan vs. Jacob Fatu headlines. They were close to sold out but there are $25 tickets left.
C4 Wrestling on 8/14 at St. Anthony’s Hall in Ottawa, ONT. Cody Rhodes will be at the show.
Greektown Wrestling on 8/8 in Toronto at 310 Danforth Ave.
CWE tonight in Craven, SK at the County Thunder Craven Festival with a free show with festival admission.
USA Championship Wrestling tomorrow night in Jackson, TN at Oman Arena with Doug Gilbert vs. Matt Riviera in a bunkhouse match, plus Tracy Smothers, Road Dogg, Bob Armstrong and Bill Dundee will be in attendance.
CWF on 7/27 in Niagara Falls, ONT at the Scotiabank Convention Centre with Tatanka, Cody Deaner,Sinn Bodhi and more.
Pro Wresting Ontario on 7/27 in Burlington, ONT .,
PWA on 7/26 in Kitchener, ONT at the Alpine Club with the Voros Twins.
Smash vs. Progress on 8/7 at 8 p.m. at the Mid Town Event Theatre in Toronto with Chris Brookes, Jordan Devlin and Toni Storm.
Neither Dann nor Emily Read, the promoters of Pro Wrestling Eve in the U.K. will be at their show this weekend. The reason was due to Emily’s mental health situation. We wish the best for both her and everyone in this situation.
An NWA video with James Storm vs. Colt Cabana for the National title.
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.
Relationships, and the fighting that surrounds them, was a theme on the latest installment of Lucha Underground. The show tackled two different relationships. One involves a blooming romance between lovers and the other involves crazed siblings with violent tendencies.
Likewise, an eerie love triangle continues to develop in another sub-plot.
In the main event, Fenix fought in a match dedicated to Melissa Santos. Her character played a prominent role in a plot involving her being attached romantically with Fenix while Marty the Moth continues to stalk her. In the match dedicated to Santos, Fenix wrestled Mariposa in an intergender match.
All four matches on the show made up another block in the opening round of the Cueto Cup.
The opening scene showed Fenix arriving to The Temple earlier in the day. Fenix drove his sports car into a parking spot, where Melissa Santos met him for a romantic embrace. Fenix dedicated his match later on to her. They were unaware someone was watching them.
Lurking in the shadows, Marty the Moth spied on them as Santos and Fenix kissed. That greatly upset Marty, who is stalking Santos. Fenix and Santos left together, only angering Marty even more. He smashed his head into a glass window.
Moments later, after the introductory segment with Vampiro and Matt Striker, Santos was in the ring, As the ring announcer, she introduced the participants in the episode’s first match.
All the matches had a particular theme, with the opening match being about a murderous machine against a bum. In his first appearance since his character committed a gruesome murder on the previous episode, Cage enters the Cueto Cup tournament.
Cage defeated Vinnie Massaro to advance in the Cueto Cup
Cage had his gimmicked gauntlet. Massaro was doing a bum gimmick similar to the Brooklyn Brawler, without the New York Yankees apparel nor a cigar. Cage squashed him. Massaro did get a hope spot, but foolishly tried to steal the metal glove. He would pay for that by getting pummeled even more relentlessly. Cage gave him a brainbuster for the pinfall.
After the match ended, Cage kept attacking him. He put on his gimmicked glove to use as he pummeled Massaro some more. He laid out Massaro with a punch using the gauntlet. Massaro got color, bleeding from the forehead.
In the now-weekly segment hyping the upcoming match with Johnny Mundo defending his Lucha Underground Championship against Rey Mysterio, a sleek video package furthered the attempt at giving the match a big fight feel.
Mysterio trained, hung out with a mob of adoring young fans, and did an interview in front of a mural of himself painted by a street artist. The narrator played up the worldwide fame and notoriety of Mysterio.
Mundo trained by getting whacked repeatedly with kendo sticks. He also sparred with the kendo sticks and took out his sparring partner with a wicked shot to the neck. He twirled kendo sticks afterwards. He also did an interview playing a cocky and confident champion heading into the title match.
Marty “the Moth” Martinez defeated Saltador to advance in the Cueto Cup
The theme of this match was wackiness, so much so that the crowd chanted “let’s get weird” at one point. Striker called it “the odd versus the weird.” In a sub-plot of the wacky match, Marty made unwanted advances towards Santos. He leered at her as she sold being creeped out.
The personalities carried the match more so than athleticism, though they still had a good match with a simple formula of shine, heat, comeback, and the heel cutting off the comeback for the win. Marty spat on the referee during the match, which was somehow apparently not against the rules.
At the finish, Marty the Moth executed a dominator into a codebreaker before he pinned Saltador.
Backstage, members of the Rabbit Tribe worshipped Mascarita Sagrada. They bowed and knelt at his feet, praising him as their “king.” They groveled as he seemed dismissive of such a notion. Sagrada walked past them and headed to the ring for his match.
In another scene, Marty the Moth was in his lair talking to photographs of Santos. Marty muttered to a collage of pictures before his sister, Mariposa, suddenly interrupted him. Mariposa wants to fight her brother next week in the next round of the tournament.
Mariposa told him that his “lust for [Santos] has made you weak.” Mariposa and Marty slapped each other across the face. Mariposa walked away, leaving Marty to converse with the photographs.
Pindar (w/ Kobra Moon) defeated Mascarita Sagrada to advance in the Cueto Cup
The theme of this match was monster against mini. They actually had a fairly competitive match that still played off the ridiculous size difference. Pindar was a good base for Sagrada to fly around.
Kobra Moon tried to interfere at one point, but Sagrada thwarted her attempt. He then slapped her moments later. Sagrada got plenty of offense and a near fall after a moonsault press. Pindar eventually used the size difference to his advantage. He finished off Sagrada with a powerbomb into a flapjack of sorts, then pinned him.
Fenix defeated Mariposa to advance in the Cueto Cup
The theme of this match was man against woman. Moreover, two stories also played out involving two separate relationships that played into the backstory. One was romance between two lovers, and the other relationships dealt with an eerie sibling rivalry.
Fenix and Santos were at the forefront, linked together as a couple that blew kisses at each other during the match. The story of the siblings, Mariposa and Marty, played into the finish showing they will fight for family even if the family is at odds with each other.
The intergender match began with Fenix being somewhat timid with fighting a woman. That soon changed when he nailed a kick. Moments later, Mariposa countered with a tornado DDT. They fought on the floor with Mariposa getting the better with a hurricanrana. Mariposa did some lucha spots with Fenix.
Echoing the kick earlier in the match, Fenix first held back on a high kick when Mariposa offered a questionable handshake. He thought it over and then kicked her in the head. She fought back with a modified sunset flip powerbomb.
Fenix went for a Spanish Fly, but Mariposa blocked the attempt. She went for a flying crossbody off the middle rope, and Fenix caught her. He then dropped her into a Fenix Driver for the pinfall.
After the bell sounded, Marty the Moth ran in to attack Fenix. During the next round of the tournament, the two are set for a match. So Marty the Moth stomped on Fenix trying to soften him up, until Fenix fired up.
Fenix did a wild flip dive over the ropes to the floor. Santos seemed very impressed. More kisses were blown back and forth in celebration. Romance ruled the day, even if a stalker lurks.
