While domestic house shows are becoming increasingly rare for WWE, a new one has been added to the company’s schedule.
WWE will hold a non-televised live event at American Bank Center in Corpus Christi, Texas on Saturday, July 19. The show is sandwiched between SmackDown in San Antonio on July 18 and Raw in Houston on July 21.
The event is branded as a “WWE Supershow” with wrestlers from both SmackDown and Raw appearing. Cody Rhodes, Jey Uso, Gunther, Jacob Fatu, Solo Sikoa, Tiffany Stratton, Liv Morgan, Raquel Rodriguez, Rhea Ripley, Seth Rollins, Kofi Kingston, and Xavier Woods are advertised.
Tickets are going on sale to the general public next Friday (June 13).
This show is happening one week after AEW’s All In: Texas pay-per-view, although Arlington and Corpus Christi are several hours away from each other. The AEW PPV is taking place at Globe Life Field on Saturday, July 12. WWE will be in Atlanta on July 12-13 for three events (NXT Great American Bash, Saturday Night’s Main Event, and Evolution).
After this, the next house shows currently listed on WWE’s schedule are European tour dates in August surrounding the company’s Clash in Paris PLE. WWE has significantly reduced the amount of house shows it runs aside from international dates and the annual Christmas season tour in the U.S.
WWE has announced a few big matches for a house show next month.
The company heads back to the UK in October with live events in Cardiff, Liverpool, Newcastle Upon Tyne, and Manchester. On Monday, WWE announced three big title matches for the final stop of the tour on October 16 in Manchester.
Cody Rhodes will defend his Undisputed WWE Championship in a Bullrope match against Solo Sikoa on the show. Gunther will also defend his World Heavyweight Championship against Jey Uso in a street fight. Also, Nia Jax will put her WWE Women’s Championship on the line against Bayley.
Other wrestlers advertised to appear on the show include LA Knight, Shinsuke Nakamura, Tama Tonga, Tonga Loa, Jacob Fatu, #DIY, Santos Escobar, Andrade, Bianca Belair, Jade Cargill, Chelsea Green, Piper Niven and Randy Orton.
WrestleTix has just under 2800 tickets distributed to the show as of September 7.
WWE Live Wed Oct 16 2024 19:30:00 Co-op Live, Manchester
Available Tickets: 5,239 Current Setup: 8,020 Tickets Distributed: 2,781
Announced lineup for WWE house show on October 16 in Manchester:
Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes defends against Solo Sikoa in a Bullrope match
World Heavyweight Champion Gunther defends against Jey Uso in a street fight
WWE Women’s Champion Nia Jax defends against Bayley
Cody Rhodes and Solo Sikoa will battle for the Undisputed WWE Championship in a Bull Rope Match, and MORE at #WWELive in Manchester, UK on October 16! đŹđ§ @TheCoopLive
Roman Reigns and Sami Zayn are set to face off in Canada once again. This time, it will be at an untelevised house show.
The Coca-Cola Coliseum in Toronto announced today that Reigns will defend his Undisputed WWE Universal Championship against Zayn at WWE’s house show this Saturday (March 4). The show is part of WWE’s Road to WrestleMania live event tour.
It was originally advertised that Reigns would be teaming with Solo Sikoa against Zayn & Kevin Owens in the main event of the Toronto show, but Zayn and Owens haven’t officially reunited on WWE television yet.
Reigns retained his Undisputed WWE Universal Championship against Zayn at Elimination Chamber in Montreal earlier this month. Though Owens saved Zayn from a Bloodline beatdown after the match, Owens has rejected Zayn’s offer to work together to dismantle The Bloodline.
A Tag Team title match with Zayn & Owens challenging The Usos has been rumored for WrestleMania 39. In storyline, Jey Uso is currently conflicted between siding with Zayn or staying loyal to The Bloodline.
House show appearances by Reigns have become increasingly rare over the past year. Prior to this, his most recent house show match took place last September.
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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SUNDAY NEWS UPDATE
Our weekend show with Bryan was up last night and we did a show Friday night with Garrett looking at the business, where it is today, and where it looks to be going. Bryan and I will be back tomorrow night to talk Raw and the latest news.
We’re doing weekend polls for both last night’s UFC 270 and tonight’s GCW show from the Hammerstein Ballroom. You can leave a thumbs up, down or middle, along with a best and worst match for each show to [email protected]. We’re looking for reports from tonight’s WWE show in Huntington, WV to [email protected]
Lots of news coming out of last night’s UFC show. Dana White refused to get into the ring and put the belt on Francis Ngannou after his win. Mick Maynard had to do that. White also didn’t attend the press conference. Ngannou talked negatively about White at the press conference. Ngannou’s contract expired, but there was a champion’s clause in the contract that can be extended for three more dates. Ngannou was asked on the broadcast about boxing and said that he wanted to box. Tyson Fury wrote to him saying, “If you want to make some real money come see the GK (Gypsy King).” Ngannou made $600,000 as a base purse and he has previously said he won’t fight for that amount again. Fury earned about $30 million for his last fight. Top Rank President Todd duBoef called making the fight a no-brainer. But if Ngannou is still under any contract with UFC, which he would be, such a fight would need UFC approval.
There are people looking at Ngannou challenging the champion’s clause, or using his knee injury which is legit as a reason to stay one for one year and not fight. What Ngannou does next will be very interesting but he would get killed by Fury in a boxing match, but he’d also make the kind of money he wants to make, and at his age, that would be a move to make. It’s really sad when UFC runs with the idea of making so ridiculous profits that their top stars can make more fighting boxers than defending their world titles.
As far as the judging, in Ngannou’s win over Cyril Gane, judges Derek Clearly and Ron McCarthy gave rounds one and two to Gane and three to five to Ngannou, which is the same as most people. Sal D’Amato only gave Gane round two. Round one was close. 96 percent of media scores went to Ngannou.
In Deiveson Figueiredo’s win over Brandon Moreno to take the flyweight title, which was a very close fight, Moreno would have clearly won rounds three and five had not Figueiredo knocked him down in both rounds. But that happened. Most people I saw had it 38-38 going into the fifth, but the reality was that Moreno needed a finish in the fifth round since two judges at it 39-37 for Figueiredo. Michael Bell gave Figueiredo rounds one, three and four, giving Moreno five. Chris Crill had one, three and five for Figueiredo,which is what most seemed to have. Judge Wade Vierra had one, three and four for Figueiredo. Of the reporter scores we’ve seen, 67 percent had it for Figueiredo and 33 percent for Moreno. Because of how close the fight was, and how great it was, a fourth meeting between the two, unprecedented in UFC history for two guys to have four straight fights, seems to be the logical next step.
Game Changer Wrestling tonight:
Jon Moxley vs. Homicide for GCW title
Jonathan Gresham vs. Blake Christian for ROH title
Briscoes to defend GCW tag title
Ruby Soho vs. Allie Katch
Jeff Jarrett vs. Effy
Joey Janela vs. Matt Cardona
Bandido & Laredo Kid & ASF vs. Gringo Loco & Demonic Flamita & Arez
Ladder match, winner can get a title shot of their choosing at any time with Lio Rush, PCO, Tony Deppen, Jimmy Lloyd, Alex Colon and Jordan Oliver.
Jack Cartwheel vs. Nick Wayne vs. Dante Leon vs. Ninja Mack vs.Alex Zayne vs. Grim Reefer
For Google searches, UFC was No. 2 yesterday with 2 million, which indicates a solid PPV number, probably better than expected really. The only other combat sports related topic that made the top 20 all week was Mike Tyson at No. 11 on Monday with talk of a Jake Paul fight and him kind of denying it.
WWE last night in Corbin, KY: AJ Styles b Austin Theory (said to be best match), Omos b Reggie, Bobby Lashley b Kofi Kingston, Damien Priest b Dolph Ziggler to keep U.S title, Becky Lynch kept Raw tag title in four-way over Doudrop, Bianca Belair and Liv Morgan, Otis b Riddle, Charlotte Flair b Noami to keep Smackdown women’s title with help from Sonya Deville and Roman Reigns & Usos b Big E & Seth Rollins & Kevin Owens.
WWE
Toledo, where Raw is from tomorrow, is under a weather advisory and is supposed to get three to six inches more of snow tomorrow. (thanks to Paul Meade)
UFC
Glover Teixeira vs. Jiri Pochazka for the light heavyweight title is being earmarked for a 5/7 show. Prochazka opens as a -180 favorite.
OTHER NOTES
Warrior Wrestling from last night in South Bend, IN: Silas Young b Danny Bang (who replaced an injured Brian Pillman Jr.), Sam Adonis won the Lucha title in a five-way over champion Aramis, Gringo Loco, ASF and Drago Kid, Mil Muertes b Beast Man, KC Navarro b Myron Reed, Warhorse b Rohit Raju, Tom Lawlor b Anthony Henry, Dante Martin & Skye Blue b Kylie Rae & Isaias Velazquez, Will Ospreay b Brian Cage to keep the Warrior title. All night last night I heard people raving about this main event including multiple people saying it was the best match they had ever seen live. Lawlor’s match and the Lucha title match also got high praise. Ospreay talked about bringing the United Empire with him when he returns to the promotion in April. Drago Kid did a dive off a high structure. (thanks to Cory Schimmoeller)
Congratulations to Bob & Jackie Caudle on today being their 73rd anniversary. That is amazing. Bob Caudle was the voice of Mid Atlantic Wrestling and later Smoky Mountain Wrestling
This is the link for Saturday’s Stardom PPV show. The show will be at 3 a.m. Eastern time late Friday night or midnight Pacific.
Northeast Wrestling from last night in Poughkeepsie, NY: Jon Moxley (unadvertised) b Channing Thomas, Jaylen Bradyn & Traveon Jordan & Giovanni Galvano & Wrecking Ball Legursky b Antonio Zambrano & Cam Zagami & RJ Rude & Zane Benardo, Penta won three-way over Bandido and Flip Gordon Thunder Rosa b Megan Bayne, Dan Maff b JT Dunn, Mark & Jay Briscoe b Bateman & Dutch (the mystery team), Hale Collins b Mike Verna to win NEW Live tile, Malakai Black b Christopher Daniels (subbing for Jay Lethal who missed the show due to a health issue), Adam Scherr & Erick Redbeard b Bully Ray & Nzo
St. Louis Anarchy from Friday night in Alton IL: Chase Holliday b Austin Connelly, Anakin Murphy b Adrian Surge, Thoma Shire b Manders, Evan Gelistico b Deacon Cash, Jeremy Wyatt b Christian Rose, Derek Neal b Camaro Jackson, Aaron Williams b Davey Vega, Kody Lane & Matt Kenway & SK Bishop b Victor Analog & Mysterious Q & Marcus Mathers, Mat Fitchett b Arik Cannon, Jake Dirden & Moonshine Mantell b Kevin Lee Davidson & Dak Draper, Gary Jay b Billie Starkz in an Anarchy rules match (thanks to Patrick Brandmeyer, Sophia King and Lindsay Hester)
Biff Busick, the former Oney Lorcan, is taking independent dates starting in ten days. You can book him at [email protected]
Southern Territory Wrestling from last night in Western Australia: Del Cano b Julian Ward, Felix Young b Roga Kargus, NC Viper won local legends Battle Royal, Julio Garcia b Kaz Jordan Chris Target b Dizzy Videl, Stella Nyx b Great George & Chadwick Jackson in a handicap match Taylor King b Antonio Corradok Mikey Nicholls b Jarrad Slate. A lot of shows in Eastern Australia have been postponed or canceled due to widespread COVID. RWA in New South Wales canceled their iPPV show this weekend and aren’t going to run until 2/26. Deathmatch Downunder moved their show to 3/5. (thanks to Kevin Chiat)
MCW on 2/5 at the Hollywood, MD Fire Department has a convention with Jimmy Hart, Lita, Lex Luger, Kevin Nash, Luke Williams, Adam Cole, Lio Rush, Thunder Rosa, Serena Deeb, Quinn McKay, Angelina Love, Velvet Sky, Taya Valkyrie, Sabu and the Headbangers. Cole will headline a live wrestling show.
MCW on 2/6 in Glen Burnie, MD at La Fontaine Bleue has a convention with Bob Backlund, Lia, Bully Ray, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Jerry Lawler, Lex Luger, Slick, Bushwhacker Luke, Adam Cole, MJF, Nyla Rose, Danie Garcia, Leila Gray, Eddie Edwards, Lady Frost, Mark & Jay Briscoe, Trevor Murdoch, Al Snow, Killer Kross, Scarlett, Ember Moon, Oney Lorcan, Shane Douglas, Jacques Rougeau Jr., Dan Severn, Marc Mero, Steve Keirn, Warlord and Barbarian. Cole and Rush wrestle on the show late that afternoon.
Big Time Wrestling from last night in Spartanburg,SC: Scotty 2 Hotty b Tedd Goodz, Brock Anderson b Lodi, Scott Steiner b Dirty Joe, Matt hard b Danny Miles, Jerry Lawler b George South in a crown vs. ring jacket match, FTR b Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson in a first-time ever match.
Here are results from Monday nightâs WWE house show event in Orlando, Florida.
It was announced prior to the start of the show that some talent would not appear on the card due to COVID protocols. They didnât specify who would not be on the show.
Drew McIntyre came out for a promo and said he wanted to face The Bloodline. The Usos interrupt and say that Roman Reigns isnât there, but they can handle their own business. They attack Drew, but Sheamus makes the save, setting up a tag team match for tonight.
Kofi Kingston defeated Sami Zayn with the Trouble in Paradise. Kingston was not accompanied by King Woods.
Ricochet and Cesaro defeated The Viking Raiders and Los Lotharios in a triple threat tag match. Cesaro swung Garza 15 times, then Ricochet hit a shooting star press for the win.
Ridge Holland defeated Mansoor.
McIntyre and Sheamus defeated The Usos by DQ after The Usos attacked McIntyre with a chair. McIntyre and Sheamus make their comeback, but Sheamus turned on McIntyre and laid him out. Sheamus challenged McIntyre to a street fight later, and McIntyre accepted.
Xia Li defeated Shotzi. Shayna Baszler came out after the match and jumped Li, but Li made a comeback.
Charlotte Flair defeated Toni Storm and Sasha Banks in a triple threat match. The finish had Banks locking in the Bank Statement on Storm, but Flair pulled Banks off and pinned Storm.
Drew McIntyre defeated Sheamus in an Orlando street fight. Holland came in to interfere at least twice during the match. Holland was eventually taken out after being put through a table. McIntyre picked up the win after a Claymore kick.
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].
Rates in the United States are $14.50 for 4 issues, $35.50 for 12, $70 for 24, $116 for 40 and $149.50 for 52.
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SUNDAY NEWS UPDATE
Bryan and I will be back tomorrow night after Raw. We have two weekend shows up, a general news of the week state of the industry show with Garrett Gonzalez as well as a Saturday show covering UFC and ROH with Bryan.
For Google searches for the week, the UFC show last night did 2.7 million which means it should be a very strong number. It was the third most searched item over the weekend behind Mayfield, Kentucky and Vincente Fernandez. Aside from Dustin Poirier and Charles Oliveira, who would be counted in UFC 269 searches, Julianna Pena had 500,000 searches yesterday, and both Sean O’Malley and Cody Garbrandt had 100,000. The only other search involving wrestling, boxing or MMA was Jeff Hardy, who was No 15 on Thursday with 100,000.
Some notes on fights from last night as far as decisions went. In Geoff Neal vs. Santiago Ponzinibbio, Derek Clearly gave all three rounds to Neal, Doug Crosby only gave round three to Neal and Sal D’Amato gave one and three to Neal. Media scores were 73 percent for Neal. In Josh Emmett vs. Dan Ige, which was really close, Crosby gave Emmett one and three, D’Amato gave Emmett all three rounds (no way Emmett won round two but he did win one and three was very close) and Ron McCarthy gave Emmett one and three. Media scores were 57 percent for Emmett.
We are looking for your thoughts on both UFC 269 and ROH Final Battle. You can send 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 tonight’s WWE house show in Grand Rapids, MI.
Results from last night’s WWE show in Saginaw, MI: Bianca Belair b Doudrop, Finn Balor b Austin Theory, Queen Zelina & Carmella retained the women’s tag titles over Liv Morgan & Dana Brooke and Rhea Ripley & Nikki ASH, Drew McIntyre b Madcap Moss, Angelo Dawkins b A.J. Styles via DQ, Charlotte Flair b Sasha Banks to keep the Smackdown women’s title, Big E b Kevin Owens to keep the WWE title. Some notes from the show. McIntyre vs. Moss was reported as the best match with Moss doing really well. No Montez Ford so Street Profits vs. Styles & Omos was made into a singles match which ended via DQ when Omos interfered as Styles seemed to have the mach won, so more trouble with Styles & Omos.
After the last two night’s shows, Wednesday’s New Japan show at Sumo Hall will have the junior heavyweight tournament finals with Hiromu Takahashi vs. Yoh and the tag team tournament finals with Hirooki Goto & Yoshi-Hashi vs. Evil & Yujiro Takahashi. The winners will go to the Tokyo Dome and face jr. champion Desperado, and tag champs Zack Sabre Jr. & Taichi. I’m not sure who had Yujiro in the tag team tournament finals in 2021 six months ago. Katsuyori Shibata will also be making an announcement at the show.
Here are the winners of Friday night’s World MMA Awards from the event in Las Vegas:
Charles Mask Lewis Male Fighter of the Year – Kamaru Usman
Female Fighter of the Year – Rose Namajunas
Breakthrough Fighter of the Year – Brandon Moreno
International Fighter of the Year – Israel Adesanya
Fight of the Year – Brandon Moreno vs.Deiveson Figueiredo at UFC 256
Knockout of the Year – Joaquin Buckley vs. Impa Kasanganay
Shawn Tompkins Coach of the Year – Trevor Wittman
Trainer of the Year – Phil Daru
Gym of the Year – American Top Team (Dan Lambert’s Gym)
Referee of the Year – Herb Dean
Ringcard Girl of the Year – Brittney Palmer
Leading Man – Dana White
Promotion of the Year – UFC
Personality of the Year – Daniel Cormier
Analyst of the Year – Michael Bisping
Best MMA Programming – Morning Kombat
Media Source of the Year – ESPN
Journalist of the Year – Ariel Helwani
Fighting Spirit of the Year – Brandon Moreno
Lifetime Achievement Award – Matt Hughes
Bronwyne Billington noted that Gary Portz, who many of you would know as Scotty McGhee from the 80s, was hospitalized for six weeks due to COVID and suffered loss of memory of that time. He also suffered a collapsed lung. He had a tube that was keeping his lung drained but there was blood and fluid leaking and they had to take it out is he is having trouble breathing without it. He is in Scotland as he was there to sort out the estate of his mother, and is not allowed to fly home commercial and would have to fly via air ambulance at a cost of $80,000 according to wife Angela Portz. Billington started a GoFundMe for him.
Big E -200 vs. Seth Rollins +200 vs. Kevin Owens +600
Usos -250 vs. New Day +170
Edge -700 vs. Miz +400
The news regarding Ian Riccobani announcing the next New Japan Strong tapings in Seattle is because Kevin Kelly will be in Japan from late January (I believe he must got there to quarantine 10 days before the first Tokyo Dome show) until the end of the New Japan Cup in March.
WWE
Tickets have picked up for Day One with the announcement of the key matches on the card. They have topped 8,000 for the State Farm Arena in Atlanta. A pro wrestling sellout for a PPV legit would be 15,000 so that is extremely unlikely to happen, but the Lesnar-Reigns announcement last week did start moving tickets at a faster clip.
They are offering a buy three and get one free ticket discount for both nights of WrestleMania using the promo code PEACOCK.
There are more than 4,600 tickets out in St. Paul for Raw tomorrow.
AEW
Regarding the Wednesday night rating, both Challenge and Survivor have season finales on Wednesday at 8 p.m. (thanks to Scott Yager)
They’ve added new seating with production moving in and there were 362 tickets left yesterday for Wednesday’s Winter is Coming show. They have already topped the most tickets sold in the Curtis Culwell Center which they had sold out earlier this year. They came back so soon because the NFL owners meetings are in Dallas this week.
UFC
The Apex in Las Vegas on Thursday at 9 p.m. Eastern and 6 p.m. local time will be having its first non-UFC event called UFC Fight Pass Invitational, which will be a four-team grappling tournament using the old All Japan Survival Series rules (team sport, and the loser in each match gets eliminated). There will be four teams in the one-night tournament, with an LFA team, a CFFC team (they are two promotions that air on Fight Pass), a Fury FC deal and James Krause’s Fighting Alliance Championship team. Each team has four members with a UFC star or former star as team captain with the winning team splitting a $25,000 prize. Fight Pass also has a 16-ma featherweight tournament in grappling on 12/19 featuring Donald Cerrone and o 12/30 Fury Pro Grappling will be on Fight Pass featuring Rose Namajunas.
OTHER NOTES
For those who live in the Seattle area, the store Sir Lonebuck’s House of Comics & Geekery offers about 30 different pro wrestling books including the Observer Yearbooks, Death of WCW, Mox, Eggshells (Chris Charlton’s New Japan history book), Wrestling at the Chase and Orange Crush Magazine.
Some acting clips of Mike Mazurki, who has a major pro wrestling award name after him as one of they founders of the Cauliflower Alley Club.
When Mazurki founded the club the idea was to unite pro wrestling, boxing and acting stars in Los Angeles. In time, it ended up being almost exclusively a pro wrestling organization. (thanks to Mike Kuzmuk)
Championship Wrestling from Memphis Awards from last night:
Best Moment of the year – Bret Michaels beat Alan Steel to win the Heritage title
TV match of the year – Bret Michaels vs. Mike Anthony street fight
Tag team of the year – Yung Goats, Aaron Robertson & Zay Washington
Woman of the year- Nikki Lane
Man of the year – Bret Michaels
They had a banquet last night and a VIP Q&A hosted by Rollin into Mempho podcast hosts Brian Tramel and RYUNOJB
Kurt Angle will be a playable wrestler in the upcoming card and dice game called All-Time Wrestling.
Stardom results from today in Takadanobaba: Mai Sakurai won three-way over Ruaka and Rina, Maika & Lady C b Unagi Sayaka & Waka Tsukiyama, Momo Watanabe & AZM b Himeka & Natsupoi, Hazuki d Konami 15:00, Mayu Iwatani & Koguma b Starlight Kid & Saki Kashima, Utami Hayashishita & Tam Nakano b Syuri & Saya Kamitani.
The main event of Stardom’s 12/29 show at Sumo Hall with Hayashishita vs. Syuri has no time limit with Hayashishita putting up the World of Stardom title and Syuri putting up the SWF title. Giulia also makes her return after an injury.
Ember Moon and Ricardo Rodriguez worked as agents last night for Thunder Rosa’s Mission Pro Wrestling show in San Antonio which drew just over 200 fans.
Details on all the WWE cuts, reasons some were cut, and new philosophies on talent
WWE finances, its future, how the return of arena shows has impacted business, short and long-term TV rights fees talked about by Nick Khan, why certain cities are getting stadium shows in 2022
How WWE ratings are doing compared to the rest of television
Update on Survivor Series
2021 Hall of Fame ballot, leading candidates to go in, how the balloting works, which active wrestlers have the best qualifications, candidates that aren’t well known in North America, which wrestlers have gotten the highest vote totals in history, the list of first ballot Hall of Famers, which active wrestlers have been voted into the Hall of Fame
Ticket sales for the upcoming major WWE & AEW shows
Jon Moxley talks about a ton of different subjects
An early look at the first AEW special on TNT
Jim Ross talks battle with skin cancer
Television ratings from the past week, international TV ratings
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].
Rates in the United States are $14.50 for 4 issues, $35.50 for 12, $70 for 24, $116 for 40 and $149.50 for 52.
In Canada and Mexico, the rates are $16 for 4, $27 for 8, $38.50 for 12, $76 for 24, $126 for 40 and $162.50 for 52.
For the rest of the world, rates are $18 for 4, $48.50 for 12, $93 for 24, $155 for 40 and $201.50 for 52.
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.
SUNDAY NEWS UPDATE
Bryan and my weekend show is up on the site, talking Angelo Mosca, WWE cuts, UFC and New Japan big shows and more. We will be back tomorrow night talking Raw.
Garrett Gonzalez will be among those ringing the opening bell tomorrow morning at the New York Stock Exchange as Nextdoor, the company he was one of the founders of, goes public tomorrow.
As far as Google searches for the past week, the two big ones obviously were the Canelo Alvarez vs. Caleb Plant fight at 2.5 million and the UFC PPV show from Madison Square Garden at 2 million. WWE cuts on Friday were No. 14 at 100,000.Jon Moxley was No. 13 on Wednesday also at 100,000.
Regarding last night’s two title matches, in the Kamaru Usman vs. Colby Covington fight, Judge Derek Cleary gave Usman the first, second, third and fifth rounds. Sal D’Amato gave him the first, second and fifth. Dave Tirrell gave Usman the first, second and third round. None of the three gave Usman a 10-8 second round. In media scores, 68 percent had a 10-8 second round. 86 percent of media scores were for Usman with nine percent having it even and five percent had it for Covington.
In the Rose Namajunas vs. Zhang Weili fight, 61 percent of reports had it for Namajunas, 35 percent had it for Weili and four percent had it even. Judge Mike Bell gave the first three rounds to Zhang. Judge Eric Colon have only the first round d to Zhang. Judge Douglas Crosby gave the first and third rounds to Zhang. I had the first three for Zhang close and the last two clearly for Namajunas.
We are doing polls this weekend on both the UFC show last night and the New Japan Power Struggle show yesterday. You can vote for a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match for each show to [email protected]’re also looking for reports from yesterday’s WWE show at SSE Wembley in London to [email protected].
Results from today’s Smackdown brand house show in Liverpool, England:
Finn Balor b Sheamus
Shayna Baszler b Natalya
Walter b Cesaro (said to be the best match of the show)
Tommaso Ciampa b Bron Breakker & Sami Zayn
Shinsuke Nakamura b Jinder Mahal
Jeff Hardy b Madcap Moss-DQ
Jeff Hardy & Drew McIntyre b Happy Corbin & Madcap Moss
Charlotte Flair b Sasha Banks to keep the Smackdown women’s title
So Balor won’t be on Raw tomorrow since he’s on the tour. (thanks to Stephan Lyon and Liam Armstrong)
Jeff Cobb will be going to CMLL soon with TJP as reps from New Japan.
Charlie Bruzzese was announced as the newest member of the 2300 Arena Hardcore Hall of Fame. Bruzzese helped produce the ECW television show
Rob Black’s XPW is doing a rebirth show tonight from the Armory in Rochester, NY at 76 p.m. There will be a one night tournament to crown a new XPW champion with first round matches of Masada vs. Rhino, Bill Collier vs. TJP, Brian Cage vs. KC Navarro and Willie Mack vs. Matt Cross. Also on the show are Silas Young, Vincent, Shlak,,G-Raver, Colin Delaney, Facade and Madman Fulton.
Pro Wrestling All-Stars from Friday night in Taylor, MI: Royce Carney III & Tanner Nix & Brutus Atwell b Alex Van Zant & Frank Isaac Anderson & Kyler Coleman, Chuck Stein & Sean Lawhorn & The Spider b Top Fun & Iron Eagle & Roadhouse-DQ, Chinstrap Jesus b Solo, N8 Mattson & Breyer Wellington & Zach Main b Royce Carney III & Tanner Nix& Brutus Atwell, Mysterious Movado & Adam Wick b Top Gun & Iron Eagle in a non-title match, Zach Gowen b LJ Lawrence, Lamano Star won Battle Royal, Chuck Stein & Sean Law, Chuck Stein & Sean Lawhorn The Spider b N8 Mattson & Breyer Wellington & Zach Man, Atlas Hytower b Ace Austin (thanks to Leonard Brand)
Bray Wyatt’s Fiend character made its house show debut at WWE’s event in Calgary, Alberta, Canada on Friday night.
The Fiend challenged for Seth Rollins’ Universal Championship, with Rollins winning by disqualification. For the finish, The Fiend put Rollins in the Mandible Claw against the turnbuckle/ropes and wouldn’t let go of the hold.
It appeared that Rollins was going to stand tall after giving The Fiend four curb stomps in the post-match angle. But when Rollins stood over him after and was seeing if The Fiend was going to stay down, The Fiend reached up and put Rollins in the Mandible Claw again. The lights went out and The Fiend was gone when they came back.
The Fiend controlled the match until Rollins countered a Sister Abigail attempt. The Fiend popped right up after being hit with a curb stomp during the match and did the same for the first curb stomp he took after it was over.
This was Wyatt’s third match as The Fiend. He defeated Finn Balor at SummerSlam and defeated The B-Team (Curtis Axel & Bo Dallas) in a post-SmackDown and 205 Live dark match at Madison Square Garden earlier this month.
Rollins will defend his Universal title against The Fiend in a Hell in a Cell match at WWE’s Hell in a Cell pay-per-view in Sacramento, California on October 6.
The Raw roster will be in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada for a house show tonight. Rollins vs. Wyatt is again advertised for the card.
Due to a water main break, WWE’s house show that was supposed to take place in Chattanooga, Tennessee tonight has been rescheduled.
WWE’s weekend was supposed to begin with a Raw brand house show at McKenzie Arena on the campus of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, but the water main break has caused a water service outage in the area.
The house show has been rescheduled to Sunday, January 19, 2020. Tickets that had been purchased for the original date will be honored at that show. Refunds will be available at the point of purchase for those who can’t make the new date.
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga tweeted that water service is “not expected to be restored to campus before 8 pm/possibly later.”
The Raw roster will be in Macon, Georgia tomorrow for a house show at the Macon Coliseum. The Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina will then host WWE’s Clash of Champions pay-per-view on Sunday.
Last week was a period of arrivals and departures for WWE.
Without much advance warning, Ricochet, Aleister Black, Johnny Gargano, and Tommaso Ciampa all debuted on Raw last Monday. After news of them being backstage was reported online, WWE tweeted out pictures of them to hype that they were at the show. Triple H then opened Raw and confirmed that they would be debuting later in the night. Ricochet made a save for Finn Balor and teamed with him to defeat Bobby Lashley & Lio Rush, Black defeated Elias, and Gargano & Ciampa got a win against Raw Tag Team Champions The Revival in a non-title match.
Roman Reigns (Leati Joseph Anoaâi, 33), returned to WWE after four months off, which included both a battle with leukemia as well as a role in the movie âHobbs and Shawâ on the 2/25 show in Atlanta.
Georges St-Pierre announced his retirement on 2/21, seeming very happy to go out on his own terms but admitting that he was retiring now because UFC wasnât interested in making a fight between him and Khabib Nurmagomedov.
New Japan this past week announced their first-ever 32-man New Japan Cup tournament, as well as announced its 47th anniversary show and sold out two joint Honor Rising shows with ROH.
Jeff Jarrett and his now-dormant Global Force Entertainment Company have filed a new $4.8 million lawsuit against Impact Wrestling and Anthem Entertainment in U.S. District Court in Tennessee on 2/21.
This weekâs update on WrestleMania is that HHH vs. Batista is obviously a done deal.
The UFC debuted in the Czech Republic on 2/23 with a fight night event in Prague held on ESPN+ headlined by Jan Blachowicz and Thiago Santos in a light heavyweight bout.
Honky Tonk Man (Roy Wayne Ferris, 66) was announced on 2/26 as being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame on 4/6 at the Barclays Center. Ferris had been asked in the past and turned it down because he didnât like some of the restrictions in the contract claiming it would cost him independent money because heâd have to cancel dates.
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FRIDAY NEWS UPDATE
by Bryan Rose, Joseph Currier and Dave Meltzer
WWE
As currently advertised, Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins and Ronda Rousey are only scheduled for television in Philadelphia on Monday and not any of the weekend Raw brand house shows. Daniel Bryan and Randy Orton are working the entire weekend with the SmackDown crew. Becky Lynch is not advertised but that doesn’t mean anything since she’s âsuspended,â but she is being advertised anyway for TV in Wilkes-Barre. The Miz is not advertised for Minneapolis on Saturday, but he is for Syracuse on Sunday. Rey Mysterio and Kevin Owens are only advertised for television on Tuesday.
WWE This Week has behind-the-scenes footage of Reigns on the set of the Nickelodeon show âCousin for Lifeâ.
Koji Kanemoto was arrested today in Kobe for assaulting his wife. According to the translation, Kanemoto stated that she suspected him of cheating, and when she went to look at his phone he hit her with his hand. Tokyo Sports reported that there is no record of prior incidents of domestic violence.
A Crockett Cup qualifying match will take place on the ROH TV tapings the night after the 17th Anniversary show.
The next Triple Crown title defense will take place at 3/19 in Korakuen Hall as Kento Miyahara will defend against Naoya Nomura.
All Japan will also hold a tournament to crown new All Asia tag team champions on 3/21. The teams are Jake Lee & Koji Iwawoto, Masaya Takahashi & Takayuki Ueki, Takao Omori & Black Menso~re and Daichi Hashimoto & Hideyoshi Kamitani.
Priscilla Kelly on Twitter mentioned that she is now a free agent. She most recently was under contract to WWN.
Caleb Konley also announced that heâs a free agent: âToday I’m officially a free agent. For 3 years I’ve had the opportunity to wrestle on national TV Work on 4 continents & be ZNAs resident orphan child. I owe all of that to @IMPACTWRESTLING I want to thank everyone who has supported me. I look forward to what ever comes nextâ
UFC/MMA
Mirko âCro Copâ Filipovic announced today on Croatian television that he is retiring from MMA after suffering a stroke following a win over Roy Nelson last month at Bellator 2016. He apparently just came out of the hospital today after having bleeding in his brain. He told ESPN that he can never take punches to the head again.
Max Holloway, Dustin Poirier, Kelvin Gastelum, and Israel Adesanya took part in a press conference for UFC 236 today, which is taking place on April 13.
Walt Harris has been suspended for four months by the CSAC for a positive drug test. His win over Andrei Arlovski at UFC 232 has been overturned to a no contest.
In a press release, UFC announced a broadcast partnership with the BBC that will have their BBC Radio 5 and BBC Sport Online stations carry live commentary on four UFC events this year.
Paige VanZant on Twitter: âWell…. I fractured my arm again. So thereâs that.â
Ed in San Antonio presents the WRESTLEMANIAWeekend Events (more to be added):
Sunday, April 6th, at 12:00 pm: Lunch (all you can eat) at Churrascaria Plataforma ($90 per person), located at 316 W. 49th street in Manhattan. Purchase tickets here~!
Luxury Bus to MetLife Stadium for Wrestlemania: We will depart from the Hilton Midtown (site of Wrestlecon) located at 1335 Avenue of the Americas. Departure time is 4:00 pm and will return from MetLife approximately 30 mins after the event. Times are subject to change, and cost $67.00 per person for the round trip. Purchase tickets here~!
Ronda Rousey will be in action at an upcoming house show in Paris, France according to the arena website.
Accorhotels Arena has a card for the May 19 event on their website. It lists Ronda Rousey vs. Mickie James in what would be Rouseyâs second professional wrestling match. It’s possible the match could be changed down the line following the Superstar Shakeup. She is also set to appear on three other dates during WWE’s European tour, including May 16 in Geneva, Switzerland, May 17 in Vienna, Austria and May 18 in Turin, Italy.
Rousey had her first wrestling match a few weeks ago at WrestleMania 34, where she and Kurt Angle teamed together to defeat Stephanie McMahon and Triple H in a mixed tag team match. In recent weeks, she has started an angle on television with Natalya, who helped train her in pro wrestling.
Other matches listed for the Paris card include Roman Reigns vs. Samoa Joe, Seth Rollins vs. Finn Balor vs. Bobby Roode vs. Jinder Mahal for the Intercontinental title, Bayley vs. Sasha Banks vs. Nia Jax vs. Alexa Bliss for the Raw womenâs title, Braun Strowman vs. Baron Corbin, Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt vs. Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens and Bobby Lashley vs Elias.
Submitted by Nam Nguyen from the Lawlor Event Center
– Intercontinental Champion Dolph Ziggler defeated The Miz to retain his title
Decent match, obviously nowhere near their match at No Mercy. Both were very over.
– American Alpha & The Hype Bros defeated The Ascension & Vaudevillains
Pretty much the same match as No Mercy. Gable pinned Simon Gotch.
– Apollo Crews defeated Curt Hawkins
This was a short match. Hawkins cut a promo after the match demanding another opponent. Kane came out and chokeslammed him.
– SmackDown Tag Team Champions Heath Slater & Rhyno defeated The Usos to retain their titles
Once again, very similar to No Mercy.
– Naomi & Nikki Bella defeated Alexa Bliss, Natalya, & Carmella in a handicap match
Average match. Bella was clearly more popular than everyone else.
– Baron Corbin defeated Jack Swagger
Pretty boring match. Corbin won after an eye poke and End of Days.
– Randy Orton defeated Bray Wyatt
Orton was very over as expected. He won with an RKO in an okay match.
– WWE World Champion AJ Styles defeated John Cena and Dean Ambrose in a triple threat match to retain his title
Repeated a few of the spots from No Mercy, but a fairly different match in the sense that there was a lot more one-on-one fighting. Good house show main event that finished with Styles attempting to hit Cena with a chair, getting it blocked, and then hitting a low blow.
Styles cut a promo afterwards, but was laid out with Dirty Deeds and then an AA to send the fans home happy.
Vector Arena was almost sold out, and during the show there was an announcement about an upcoming NXT tour in New Zealand and Australia with dates to be announced soon.
– Apollo Crews defeated Sheamus
Crews won with a roll-up. Fun opener and good reaction for both. Sheamus did some mic work to get the crowd angry.
– Braun Strowman defeated Jey Uso w/ Jimmy Uso
Strong reaction for both Usos. Strowman won with the reverse chokeslam. After the match, the Usos gave Strowman a double superkick to make the crowd happy.
– WWE Tag Team Champions The New Day (Xavier Woods & Kofi Kingston) defeated The Club
Big E didn’t come out with his partners in the beginning because he was still selling the injury he had suffered at the hands of The Club. Average match with The Club initially getting the edge with shady tactics. Big E finally showed up to distract Anderson, then Kingston hit Trouble in Paradise for the pin.
– Finn Balor defeated Chris Jericho
Great match and amazing mic work by Jericho to turn the crowd against him. Strong reaction for Balor. Both guys worked really hard with Jericho locking in the Walls of Jericho and later hitting a Codebreaker.
But Jericho paid too much attention to the crowd, which allowed Balor to get the comeback win after hitting the Coup de Grace. There were a couple of great near falls.
– Rusev w/ Lana defeated Titus OâNeil
This was a squash match with OâNeil only getting minor offense in. Rusev won via submission with the Accolade.
– John Cena defeated AJ Styles
Really great match that included a referee bump, interference from The Club, and Cena finally getting the win with the AA.
There were multiple near falls, both guys had their submissions locked in, and the crowd responded great to both guys. I would say this was better than the match between Jericho and Balor, but not by a big margin.
We had some mandatory Cena sucks chants, but he got a great ovation from the crowd in the end.
– WWE Womenâs Champion Sasha Banks defeated Charlotte w/ Dana Brooke
Short match that included some comedy spots, interference from Dana Brooke, and good work by both wrestlers. Good house show match with Banks getting a strong reaction. She won with the Banks Statement.
– Sami Zayn defeated Kevin Owens
Fun match between these two. Watching Owens interact with the crowd is great live. No crazy spots, but it was a good house show match. Zayn won the with Helluva Kick.
– Roman Reigns defeated Seth Rollins
Second strongest reaction of the night for Reigns, though he got some boos as well. Great match between these two with Rollins getting the upper hand then verbally running down the crowd on the mic. That gave Reigns enough time to recover, hit the spear, and pin Rollins.
After the match, Reigns stayed around the ring to a good crowd response and took pictures with fans.
Submitted by Charlie Oliver from the Save Mart Center
Show began with hype for SummerSlam. Fans chose their favorite SummerSlam match and they aired part of it. Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels was chosen.
– Cesaro defeated Sheamus
Cesaro came out to a huge pop. Sheamus then came out to face him. Long match ended with Cesaro getting the pin after hitting an ugly looking Neutralizer.
– Jey Uso defeated Tyler Breeze
Tyler Breeze and Fandango came out to pretty big heat. Jey Uso then appeared and the crowd loved him. Short match ended when Breeze accidentally kicked Fandango, then Uso pinned Breeze. No signs of discord after the match.
– Intercontinental Champion The Miz defeated Titus OâNeil & Darren Young in a triple threat match to retain his title
OâNeil was a definite heel here, teaming up with Miz and taking cheap shots at Young. Young hit a big move but Maryse distracted the ref, then Miz threw Young out of the ring and stole the pin. Bob Backlund was surprisingly mellow.
– Sami Zayn defeated Baron Corbin
Not a bad match but Corbin got almost all of the offense. Zayn stole the win with a roll-up, but Corbin got back his heat by hitting the End of Days on Zayn after the match. Zayn had to be helped backstage by a ref.
– WWE Tag Team Champions The New Day (Xavier Woods & Kofi Kingston) defeated The Club (Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows) to retain their titles
An inflatable Booty O’s box to the side of the stage began to pump up so the crowd started getting hyped up. Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston (no sign of Big E) came down the ramp to a massive pop.
Their opponents were The Club, and the match was mostly The Club beating down Woods until Kingston got a hot tag and cleaned house.
The Club were about to make a comeback when Big E’s “Fresno! Don’t be sour!” speech came on and the third member of New Day made his way to the stage. Anderson and Gallows were distracted and New Day got the win.
– Roman Reigns defeated Seth Rollins
Seth Rollins came out to thunderous applause, followed by Roman Reigns with a mixed reaction. Pretty decent match that ended with a sequence where Rollins hit everything, but Reigns kept kicking out which sent Rollins into a tizzy.
Rollins grabbed a mic and started running down Fresno and Reigns, saying we were all losers. This didn’t work out well for him because as he entered the ring talking on the mic, Reigns speared and pinned him.
Before the match could begin, Eva Marie came out and did some mic work. She apologized to everyone that she couldn’t be in the match tonight, but explained that we all deserved to see her because we paid our hard earned money. After a bit of posing, she left. She got a ton of heat.
After Eva’s departure, the match began and Becky Lynch ended up with the submission win on Alexa Bliss.
– Randy Orton defeated Bray Wyatt
Randy Orton was incredibly over. Lots of weird character work like Wyatt running out of the ring and calling a timeout. Erick Rowan interfered constantly but was more mischievous than menacing. Orton beat Wyatt after Rowan was ejected by the ref.
– WWE Champion Dean Ambrose defeated AJ Styles to retain his title
Good match but sloppy in parts. Both men were very over. Ambrose won after hitting Dirty Deeds.
There were loud, lengthy “Cody” chants, which Stardust acknowledged on the house mic, saying, “It’s not Cody. It’s Stardust.”
– R-Truth d. Curtis Axel w/ Adam Rose
Goldust saved R-Truth from a two-on-one situation and they teased Golden Truth’s formation with a “maybe” from R-Truth, the two dancing together, the two going backstage together, etc. It’s also worth mentioning that Axel appears to have gotten busted open near the finish as there were drops of blood outside of the ring where he fell near the finish, which I’m pretty sure WWE’s social media manager inadvertently mopped up with his pants while filming the Truth & Goldust mic work from his cell phone.
– US Champion Kalisto d. Alberto Del Rio to retain
The finish involved a turnbuckle that ADR exposed, which backfired on him.
– Sasha Banks & Summer Rae d. Naomi & Tamina
Sasha played Ricky Morton during the majority of the match but somewhat telegraphed when the false tags were by not grabbing the tag rope consistently.
– Sheamus d. Mark Henry
Before the match, Sheamus cut a promo, offering not to embarrass Mark in front of a Louisville crowd who remembers his OVW days. Mark balked, Sheamus kept true to his word, and got the victory. Sheamus also did a strange rolling maneuver going up the aisle, which seemed planned.
– Dean Ambrose d. I-C Champion Kevin Owens via DQ
Owens was pummeling Ambrose in the corner and wouldn’t stop when the ref demanded that he break. Owens got on the mic and basically said that DQ was a ridiculous finish and he was going to show the crowd why he is the greatest IC Champion and WWE Superstar of all-time.
When Owens went to lift Ambrose off of the ground, presumably for a Pop-up Powerbomb, Ambrose countered into Dirty Deeds. It’s also worth mentioning that they teased Del Rio’s turnbuckle pad removal spot from earlier in the night but the ref caught it before it could be completely removed. Once Dean got out of the ring, he posed for numerous selfies with ringside fans.
*****
Overall, it was a solid show. I believe that the only three who were advertised locally to appear but did not were Paige, Natalya, & Dolph Ziggler. The top most section of the KFC Yum! Center was curtained off, which was likely a planned aspect of the ring configuration to begin with.
