· 7 years ago · Jan 17, 2019, 03:14 PM
1Wrestling Observer Newsletter
2
3PO Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228 ISSN10839593 January 21, 2019
4
5
6
72018 BUSINESS YEAR IN REVIEW
8
9
10
11BIGGEST EVENTS AND TOP DRAWS
12
13
14
15Compiled by Patric Laprade
16
17
18
19LARGEST ATTENDANCES
20
21
22
2380,000 - 9/22 Matchroom Boxing London, England, Wembley Stadium Anthony Joshua vs. Alexander Povetkin
24
2578,000 - 3/31 Matchroom Boxing Cardiff, Wales Principality Stadium Anthony7 Joshua vs. Joseph Parker
26
2764,900** - 4/8 WWE WrestleMania New Orleans Mercedes Benz Superdome Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns
28
2962,000 - 10/6 WWE Melbourne, Australia Melbourne Cricket Grounds HHH vs. Undertaker
30
3150,000 - 4/27 WWE Jeddah, Saudi Arabia King Abdullah International Stadium Greatest Royal Rumble
32
3343,500*** - 1/4 New Japan Tokyo Dome Kazuchika Okada vs. Tetsuya Naito; Chris Jericho vs. Kenny Omega
34
3529,105* - 12/31 Rizin Saitama Super Arena Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Tenshin Nakusawa
36
3727,208 - 9/30 Rizin Saitama Super Arena Kyoji Horiguchi vs. Tenshin Nakusawa
38
3925,000 - 8/18 Queensbury Promotions Belfast, Northern Ireland Windsor Park Carl Frampton vs. Luke Jackson
40
4124,000 - 7/21 Patriot Boxing Promotions Moscow, Russia Olimpiysky Stadium Oleksandr Usyk vs. Murat Gasiev
42
4322,603 - 9/15 UFC Moscow, Russia Olimpiysky Stadium Aleksei Olenik vs. Mark Hunt
44
4521,965**** - 9/15 HBO Las Vegas T Mobile Arena Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin
46
4721,000 - 8/25 YouTube Manchester, UK Manchester Arena KSI vs. Logan Paul
48
4920,034 - 10/6 UFC Las Vegas T Mobile Arena Conor McGregor vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov
50
5120,000 - 7/28 Matchroom Boxing London O2 Arena Joseph Park vs. Dillian Whyte
52
5319,776***** - 3/17 NCAA Division I tournament finals Cleveland Quicken Loans Arena Kyle Snyder vs. Adam Coon
54
5519,267* - 3/17 NCAA Division I tournament tp eight playoffs/consolation round Cleveland Quicken Loans Arena
56
5719,039* - 12/8 UFC Toronto Scotiabank Arena Max Holloway vs. Brian Ortega
58
5918,680* - 3/15 NCAA Division I tournament evening session Cleveland Quicken Loans Arena
60
6118,680* - 3/16 NCAA Division I tournament morning session Cleveland Quicken Loans Arena
62
6318,680* - 3/16 NCAA Division I tournament event session Cleveland Quicken Loans Arena
64
6518,660* - 3/15 NCAA Division I tournament morning session Cleveland Quicken Loans Arena
66
6718,117****** - 6/9 UFC Chicago United Center Robert Whittaker vs. Yoel Romero
68
6917,912 - 7/29 Rizin Saitama Super Arena Kanna Asakura vs. Rena Kubota
70
7117,794* - 8/4 UFC Los Angeles Staples Center T.J. Dillashaw vs,. Cody Garbrandt
72
7317,587* - 12/2 UFC Detroit Little Caesars Ana Max Holloway vs. Jose Aldo
74
7517,464 - 7/7 UFC Las Vegas T Mobile Arena Daniel Cormier vs. Stipe Miocic
76
7717,026******* - 4/7 UFC Brooklyn Barclays Center Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Al Iaquinta
78
7917,011 - 11/3 UFC New York Madison Square Garden Daniel Cormier vs. Derrick Lewis
80
8116,274* - 3/17 London O2 Arena Alexander Volkov vs. Fabricio Werdum
82
8316,015* - 1/20 UFC Boston TD Garden Stipe Miocic vs Francis Ngannou
84
8516,000 - 8/3 CMLL Mexico City Arena Mexico King Phoenix & L.A. Park & Penta 0M vs. Rush & Mark & Jay Briscoe
86
8716,000 - 9/14 CMLL Mexico City Arena Mexico Rush & Cavernario vs. Volador Jr. & Matt Taven double hair vs. hair
88
8916,000* - 11/2 WWE Riyadh, Saudi Arabia King Saud University Stadium Shawn Michaels & HHH vs. Undertaker & Kane
90
9116,000 - 12/28 CMLL Mexico City Arena Mexico Caristico vs. Penta 0M
92
9315,862* - 12/29 UFC Los Angeles Forum Jon Jones vs. Alexander Gustafsson
94
9515,200* - 5/14 WWE London O2 Arena Kevin Owens vs. Bobby Lashley vs. Elias
96
9715,000 - 6/9 Queensbury Promotions Manchester, UK Manchester Arena Terry Flanagan vs. Marucie Hooker
98
99*Denotes sellout crowd
100
101**59,900 paid
102
103***34,995 paid
104
105****Largest MMA crowd in Nevada
106
107*****Largest crowd ever for an NCAA wrestling championship tournament, all-time indoor record for college wrestling, third largest crowd in U.S. history for college wrestling
108
109******Robert Whittaker was to face Luke Rockhold when all tickets were sold
110
111*******Tickets were sold for Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Tony Ferguson
112
113
114
115MOST MAIN EVENTS DRAWING MORE THAN 10,000 FANS
116
11716 - Roman Reigns
118
11910 - Braun Strowman
120
1219 - Seth Rollins
122
1238 - Finn Balor
124
1257 - Kevin Owens, Rush
126
1276 - John Cena, A.J. Styles, Elias, Volador Jr., L.A. Park
128
129Notes: This was Cena 13th year in the top ten. This moves him ahead of Bill Longson and Buddy Rogers who had 12 years in the top ten. He’s now tied with Argentina Rocca and Killer Kowalski at 13 years, putting him in 10th place all-time.
130
131
132
133Those ahead of Cena are Jim Londos (21), Lou Thesz (21), Bruno Sammartino (19), Strangler Lewis (18), Ric Flair (18), Hulk Hogan (18), Joe Stecher (14), Dick the Bruiser (14) and Andre the Giant (14).
134
135
136
137ESTIMATED NORTH AMERICAN PPV BUYS
138
1392,400,000* - 10/6 UFC 229 Conor McGregor vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov
140
1411,100,000 - 9/15 HBO Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin
142
143784,000** - 8/25 YouTube KSI v. Logan Paul
144
145700,000 - 12/29 UFC 232 Jon Jones vs. Alexander Gustafsson
146
147380,000 - 7/7 UFC 226 Daniel Cormier vs. Stipe Miocic
148
149350,000 - 4/7 UFC 223 Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Tony Ferguson
150
151350,000 - 1/20 UFC 220 Stipe Miocic vs. Francis Ngannou
152
153300,000 - 8/4 UFC 227 T.J. Dillashaw vs. Cody Garbrandt
154
155260,000 - 3/3 UFC 222 Cris Cyborg vs. Yana Kunitskaya
156
157250,000 - 6/9 UFC 225 Robert Whittaker vs. Yoel Romero
158
159250,000 - 11/3 UFC 230 Daniel Cormier vs. Derrick Lewis
160
161250,000 - 12/8 UFC 231 Max Holloway vs. Brian Ortega
162
163130,000 - 9/8 UFC 228 Tyron Woodley vs. Darren Till
164
16555,000 - 9/1 All In Young Bucks & Kota Ibushi vs. Rey Mysterio Jr. & Fenix & Bandido
166
16743,000 - 11/24 Golden Boy Promotions Chuck Liddell vs. Tito Ortiz
168
169*Largest number for a non-boxing event in PPV history
170
171**Largest number for a streaming event in history
172
173
174
175CROWDS OF MORE THAN 15,000
176
177 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013
178WWE 5 3 3 5 3 4
179CMLL 3 2 1 0 1 2
180AAA 0 1 0 1 1 1
181UFC 11 11 8 7 3 4
182NJPW 1 1 1 1 2 1
183NCAA 6 6 7 7 3 6
184Rizin 4 3 1 -- -- --
185Boxing 8 6 1 -- -- --
186
187
188UFC PPV BUYS BASED ON DECEMBER TO NOVEMBER
189
190 Shows Buys Average
1912007 10 4,660,000 466,000
1922008 13 6,885,000 530,000
1932009 13 7,755,000 595,000
1942010 15 8,970,000 508,000
1952011 15 5.950,000 397,000
1962012 11 6,025,000 463,000
1972013 13 5,470,000 420,770
1982014 12 3,825,000 318,800
1992015 13 6,515,000 501,154
2002016 12 8,440,000 703,333
2012017 12 4,735,000 394,583
2022018 13 5,515,000 424,231
203Note: Factoring out the McGregor vs. Nurmagomedov fight out, the average for 12 shows would have been 259,583, the lowest number since 2005
204
205
206
207UFC AVERAGE GATE OF NORTH AMERICAN PPV SHOWS DECEMBER TO NOVEMBER
208
209
210
211Shows Shows Total Gate Average
2122007 10 $26,700,350 $2,670,035
2132008 10 $32,,857,231 $3,285,723
2142009 11 $34,005,156 $3,091,378
2152010 14 $40,841,459 $2,917,247
2162011 14 $43,838,517 $3,131,394
2172012 9 $31,125,774 $3,458,419
2182013 12 $35,386,997 $2,948,916
2192014 10 $24,416,991 $2,441,699
2202015 10 $31,483,113 $3,148,311
2212016 10 $64,272,212 $6,427,221
2222017 11 $29,677,878 $2,697,989
2232018 11 $43,417,849 $3,947,077
224Note: This would have been UFC’s second best year for average behind only 2016. Factoring out McGregor vs. Nurmagomedov, the average would have been $2,651,785, the second worst year since 2007, beating only 2014
225
226
227
228BIGGEST PRO WRESTLING DRAWING CARD BY THE YEAR (based on number of shows headlined over 10,000 fans)
229
2301916 - Joe Stecher
231
2321917 - Joe Stecher
233
2341918 - Joe Stecher, Ed “Stranger†Lewis, Wladek Zbyszko
235
2361919 - Ed “Strangler†Lewis
237
2381920 - Joe Stecher
239
2401921 - Ed “Strangler†Lewis
241
2421922 - Stanislaus Zbyszko
243
2441923 - Ed “Strangler†Lewis
245
2461924 - Ed “Strangler†Lewis and Jim Londos
247
2481925 - Ed “Strangler†Lewis, Joe Stecher, Wayne Munn and Stanislaus Zbyszko
249
2501926 - Jim Londos
251
2521927 - Jim Londos and John Pesek
253
2541928 - Jim Londos
255
2561929 - Gus Sonnenberg
257
2581930 - Jim Londos and Dick Shikat
259
2601931 - Jim Londos
261
2621932 - Jim Londos
263
2641933 - Jim Londos
265
2661934 - Jim Londos
267
2681935 - Danno O’Mahoney
269
2701936 - Danno O’Mahoney
271
2721937 - Jim Londos
273
2741938 - Jim Londos and Steve Casey
275
2761939 - Jim Londos, Vincent Lopez and Dave Levin
277
2781940 - Jim Londos
279
2801941 - Bill Longson
281
2821942 - Bill Longson
283
2841943 - Bill Longson
285
2861944 - Bill Longson
287
2881945 - Bill Longson
289
2901946 - Bill Longson
291
2921947 - Bill Longson
293
2941948 - Gorgeous George
295
2961949 - Gorgeous George and Whipper Billy Watson
297
2981950 - Lou Thesz and Argentina Rocca
299
3001951 - Lou Thesz
301
3021952 - Lou Thesz
303
3041953 - Lou Thesz and Blue Demon
305
3061954 - Argentina Rocca
307
3081955 - Lou Thesz
309
3101956 - Argentina Rocca and Whipper Billy Watson
311
3121957 - Lou Thesz
313
3141958 - Argentina Rocca & Miguel Perez
315
3161959 - Argentina Rocca & Miguel Perez
317
3181960 - Buddy Rogers
319
3201961 - Buddy Rogers
321
3221962 - Buddy Rogers
323
3241963 - Bruno Sammartino
325
3261964 - Bruno Sammartino
327
3281965 - Bruno Sammartino
329
3301966 - Lou Thesz
331
3321967 - Bruno Sammartino
333
3341968 – Bruno Sammartino
335
3361969 - The Sheik
337
3381970 - The Sheik
339
3401971 - The Sheik
341
3421972 - The Sheik
343
3441973 - The Sheik
345
3461974 - Bruno Sammartino
347
3481975 - Bruno Sammartino
349
3501976 - Bruno Sammartino
351
3521977 - Superstar Billy Graham
353
3541978 - Superstar Billy Graham
355
3561979 - Bob Backlund
357
3581980 - Bob Backlund
359
3601981 - Bob Backlund
361
3621982 - Bob Backlund
363
3641983 - Ric Flair
365
3661984 - Hulk Hogan
367
3681985 - Hulk Hogan
369
3701986 - Hulk Hogan
371
3721987 - Hulk Hogan
373
3741988 - Hulk Hogan
375
3761989 - Hulk Hogan
377
3781990 - Hulk Hogan
379
3801991 - Hulk Hogan
381
3821992 - Ric Flair
383
3841993 - Konnan
385
3861994 - Konnan
387
3881995 - Shinya Hashimoto
389
3901996 - Nobuhiko Takada
391
3921997 - Shinya Hashimoto
393
3941998 - Steve Austin
395
3961999 - The Rock
397
3982000 - The Rock
399
4002001 - Steve Austin
401
4022002 - The Rock
403
4042003 - Brock Lesnar
405
4062004 - HHH
407
4082005 - Kenta Kobashi
409
4102006 - Mistico (now Caristico)
411
4122007 - John Cena
413
4142008 - Mistico (Caristico)
415
4162009 - John Cena
417
4182010 - John Cena
419
4202011 - John Cena
421
4222012 - John Cena
423
4242013 - John Cena
425
4262014 - John Cena
427
4282015 - Seth Rollins
429
4302016 - Roman Reigns
431
4322017 - Roman Reigns and Braun Strowman
433
4342018 - Roman Reigns
435
436
437
438MOST FIRST PLACE YEARS
439
44013 - Jim Londos
441
4428 - Bruno Sammartino and Hulk Hogan
443
4447 - Bill Longson, Lou Thesz and John Cena
445
4465 - Joe Stecher, Ed “Strangler†Lewis, Argentina Rocca and The Sheik
447
4484 - Frank Gotch, Stanislaus Zbyszko and Bob Backlund
449
4503 - Buddy Rogers, The Rock and Roman Reigns
451
4522 - George Hackenschmidt, Danno O’Mahoney, Gorgeous George, Whipper Billy Watson, Superstar Billy Graham, Ric Flair, Konnan, Shinya Hashimoto, Steve Austin, Miguel Perez Sr. and Mistico
453
454
455
456TOP 50 DRAWS OF ALL-TIME (based on era domination, top ten placings and records set)
457
4581. Jim Londos
459
4602. Bruno Sammartino
461
4623. Lou Thesz
463
4644. Bill Longson
465
4665. Hulk Hogan
467
4686. Ed “Strangler†Lewis
469
4707. Argentina Rocca
471
4728. Ric Flair
473
4749. Buddy Rogers
475
47610. John Cena
477
47811. Joe Stecher
479
48012. Dick the Bruiser
481
48213. The Sheik
483
48414. HHH
485
48615. Killer Kowalski
487
48816. The Rock
489
49017. Bob Backlund
491
49218. Andre the Giant
493
49419. Whipper Billy Watson
495
496Stanislaus Zbyszko
497
49821. Yvon Robert
499
50022. John Pesek
501
50223. Mistico/Caristico
503
50424. Frank Gotch
505
506Randy Orton
507
508Roman Reigns
509
51027. Konnan
511
51228. Undertaker
513
51429. Everett Marshall
515
51630. Gene Kiniski
517
51831. Ed Don George
519
520Seth Rollins
521
52233. Harley Race
523
524Dick Shikat
525
526Gus Sonnenburg
527
52836. Steve Austin
529
530Antonio Inoki
531
53238. Kane
533
53439. Danno O’Mahoney
535
536Randy Savage
537
538Johnny Valentine
539
54042. Perro Aguayo Sr.
541
542Gorgeous George
543
54444. Fred Blassie
545
546The Crusher
547
54846. Superstar Billy Graham
549
550Shinya Hashimoto
551
55248. Ray Steele
553
554Dory Funk Jr.
555
55650. Verne Gagne
557
558Ray Stevens
559
560WWE NXT U.K. TAKEOVER POLL RESULTS
561
562Thumbs up 154
563
564Thumbs down 0
565
566In the middle 24
567
568
569
570BEST MATCH POLL
571
572Gibson & Drake vs. Bate & Seven 118
573
574Pete Dunne vs. Joe Coffey 55
575
576
577
578WORST MATCH POLL
579
580Dave Mastiff vs. Eddie Dennis 67
581
582Toni Storm vs. Rhea Ripley 31
583
584Pete Dunne vs. Joe Coffey 25
585
586Finn Balor vs. Jordan Devlin 24
587
588Based on e-mails and phone calls to the Observer as of Tuesday, 1/15.
589
590
591
592The latest in the land grab for top tier talent is that ROH has signed William Munoz Gonzalez, 30, better known as Rush, to an exclusive one-year U.S./Ontario market contract.
593
594The deal, believed to be for approximately $155,000 per year, is added to Munoz’s five year deal with CMLL which runs until the end of 2020.
595
596The contract takes Rush out of MLW’s attempt at the biggest match of its run, on the 4/4 show in New York a the Melrose Ballroom that was built around Rush vs. L.A. Park.
597
598This is after the angle for the match was shot on the live special. Pentagon Jr. will face Park in that show’s main event. Pentagon Jr. had already been booked on the High Spots WrestleCon Super Show on 4/4 going head-to-head, but the agreement was already worked out where he and Fenix’s match would go on early on the High Spots show, and he would then go on last on the MLW show. Then on 4/5, they will work early on the MLW show and head to the Wrestle Con show. They’re also working an Impact show that has to be worked around.
599
600Unlike in the past, where big name independent talent like Ricochet, Will Ospreay, Michael Elgin, Matt Riddle and Jeff Cobb were working seven to ten matches over WrestleMania week, now almost everyone is signed to exclusive deals. Park, who is a genuine free agent, and Pentagon Jr. & Fenix are the exceptions. Besides the four dates with WrestleCon and MLW, Pentagon Jr. & Fenix are also already booked for Impact and Sami Callihan’s Pro Wrestling Revolver.
601
602“This is a match and organization Rush wanted to be part of but sometimes politics get in the way and that’s what this comes down to, politics,†said MLW President Court Bauer
603
604Rush was the hottest star when MLW debuted in Chicago and drew 2,000 fans, its best crowd in its history. He’s a super talent in ways that few in the current business are. He’s got the best heel stage presence in the industry today and is a throwback to the U.S. market heels of the late 70s like Ric Flair, Roddy Piper and more than anyone, Gino Hernandez.
605
606The funny thing is my gut is he’d have been more valuable to MLW, since it has a Spanish language outlet and draws a heavily Hispanic audience as opposed to ROH which doesn’t draw an Hispanic crowd. The Hispanic audience will support what they consider an Hispanic oriented show like MLW produces and they have a Spanish language outlet. They don’t usually draw as well on an American show, although obviously there are historical examples of the opposite. But ROH has never drawn significantly bigger than usual when it has brought in CMLL names.
607
608Because Paco Alonso had Rush under contract for two more years, he had the power to decide where he was going and had to approve any contract in the U.S. market. Bauer had been in talks with Rush and Alonso about a contract for the U.S. market, which would not have been exclusive for North America, but would have given MLW the right to keep him from going elsewhere.
609
610The MLW offer included them agreeing to a number of deal points Rush had asked for, including using his two brothers, Dragon Lee and Mistico, which Bauer would have wanted to push anyway, and some involvement of his father Bestia del Ring, although perhaps not in the ring. Also part of the deal was not just getting him a new working U.S. visa (he had a visa that just expired), which ROH is now working on doing, but also on getting his wife and children U.S. citizenship and they would move to the U.S. Another aspect of the deal was that Bein Sports would use him as an analyst for their Mexican soccer coverage in Spanish so he could break into sports broadcasting.
611
612Alonso’s main demand was that he would have the right to use Rush on Fridays and other major dates. MLW was willing to run for the most part on Thursdays and Saturdays, which don’t coincide with major CMLL shows.
613
614Ironically, with this new deal, he’ll be working far more dates for ROH than he would have for MLW, and ROH, and not CMLL, has priority on dates, although CMLL is supposed to have the ability to book him on all their major Friday shows. But both Rush and Bandido signed one-year deals with ROH, giving them good money for limited dates in ROH. The deal opens New Japan up for Bandido (Rush already had New Japan opened up but he’s not really a Japanese style wrestler and it wasn’t high on his priority list) and still allows them to work Mexico on their off dates. And then, if AEW is stable at the end of this year, they will both become free agents after being pushed as top guys in ROH, meaning at least three different companies will be after them.
615
616In the case of Rush, he’s very close with Andrade, who pretty much warned him and Dragon Lee about going to WWE. There is the belief Dragon Lee will be making a move similarly, with the same idea of signing a one-year deal if possible, to take advantage of free agency early next year. It still could be ROH because ROH offers the line to New Japan which, at least this week, AEW doesn’t. But who knows what happens by the end of this year.
617
618MLW had also offered him their world title as part of the deal to get him to sign and multiple sources said had beaten the ROH financial deal, surprisingly enough, for what would have been far fewer dates, which shows how much the market has changed quickly when it comes to marketable free agents.
619
620In the end, ROH got the deal because New Japan, the promotional partner of CMLL, pushed Alonso to assign him to their partner as ROH wanted to use him as a regular in 2018 and because Andrade’s advice was that WWE wasn’t what it was cracked up to being, which also probably explains Andrade’s recent push now that there is a far more competitive marketplace and he’s a real talent who would have plenty of options when his contract expires.
621
622Bauer attempted to keep him through the 4/4 show and finish the angle that they started but the new deal wouldn’t allow for that. Instead, one would expect him to appear on the NJPW/ROH 4/6 Madison Square Garden show.
623
624Bauer also said that while he was told he could continue using CMLL talent such as Dragon Lee and Mistico, under the circumstances, he didn’t think it was a good idea since CMLL could still assign its talent to ROH if ROH wants them, and New Japan can always put the pressure on, particularly when it comes to Lee. He is bringing in Flamita and Aerostar, neither of whom work for CMLL.
625
626With it being a one-year deal, and with the current business landscape, Rush would be in a good position at the end of the year, although that depends to a degree on how he is pushed and gets over in ROH. But he still wouldn’t be a full free agent, since Alonso has to be part of any U.S. deal, until the end of 2020.
627
628This is also why L.A. Park has turned down every contract offer everywhere, both in the U.S. and Mexico, because he doesn’t want anyone to have the right to control what he does. But right now there is far more money in contracts with big promotions than one could make on the independent scene, although free agency may not be bad if things heat up because the scarcity of free agents a year from now will make them more valuable provided AEW ends up viable and Sinclair backs ROH to the point they are going for the key free agents as well.
629
630ROH made the announcement on 1/15 of Rush signing an exclusive deal, but it’s the same thing as Bandido where it’s exclusive to the U.S. and Ontario, and he’ll continue to work CMLL (which likely will remain his main focus). But ROH will be getting him his working visa a well, and he’ll be starting a soon as that is taken care of.
631
632The Brock Lesnar vs. Braun Strowman Universal title match that had been pushed for months, is now off the Royal Rumble, which is not because Strowman hasn’t been cleared due to recent elbow surgery (and he hasn’t been), but because it wasn’t the plan for at least a month.
633
634The back story of this goes back to Crown Jewel (a term that no longer exists as the WWE has renamed the show World Cup because of the negative connotation toward the prior name). The idea was that the match story, where Baron Corbin laid out Strowman with a belt shot before his match with Brock Lesnar, and then Strowman kept kicking out of F-5s over and over until he took the one out of the ring and then another in the ring, was that you were supposed to come out of it not being able to wait for Strowman to “get these hands†on Lesnar. The problem was, most saw it as Lesnar squashing him since they expect comebacks from their faces and it didn’t happen.
635
636Still, Lesnar vs. Strowman was scheduled for the Rumble. When Strowman needed elbow surgery again for bone spurs, and they did the injury angle, Vince McMahon changed direction. The mentality was that Strowman lost at Crown Jewel and the reaction to the match wasn’t what they wanted. Then, because of the injury, they felt compelled to do an angle where he’d get destroyed again. McMahon felt that since WrestleMania is still earmarked for Lesnar vs. Seth Rollins as the title match, that a Lesnar vs. Strowman match either had to be a screw job finish, which wouldn’t go over well and would necessitate a rematch, or a win by Lesnar, which he felt would hurt Strowman.
637
638So, when Strowman was injured, McMahon changed it to Lesnar vs. Finn Balor. If you recall, Lesnar vs. Balor was scheduled for last year’s Royal Rumble, only to have McMahon change it because he squashed Balor for Kane, feeling he could get Balor over later, and then decided Balor wasn’t over enough and went with a Lesnar vs. Strowman vs. Kane three-way.
639
640The reason they continued the Lesnar vs. Strowman push was because of the original storyline when the match was still planned, where Strowman beating Corbin was to give him a title shot and because the idea was to fire Corbin, they went with it, although the Balor idea was already in place by the time of the TLC match. Also, and this is classic bait-and-switch, but for whatever reason, WWE believes it doesn’t have to deliver what it advertises, they had a big stadium to fill and the belief was Lesnar vs. Strowman would sell more tickets than Lesnar vs. Balor. So they waited until as late as possible to make the switch.
641
642The storyline was that Corbin taunted Strowman and hid from him in Vince McMahon’s limo. Elias told Strowman where Corbin was, and Strowman destroyed the limo. Vince was furious and pulled him out of the Rumble.
643
644A four-way with John Cena, Balor, Drew McIntyre and Corbin was made to determine who would get the title shot. But first, Jinder Mahal wanted in, and Vince told him he could pick any of the four for a match to get into the four-way. Mahal picked Balor, and jumped him before the match. Balor came back to beat Mahal, and then won the four-way pinning Cena clean with the coup de grace. Cena then endorsed Balor, with the storyline that Vince thought Balor was too small, but the fans believed in him, trying to get Balor over in the same way as worked for Daniel Bryan as fans willing a guy who Vince doesn’t see as a star, not realizing Vince is pulling the strings in this case.
645
646The rest of the show is the same, with seven matches besides two Rumbles that both have to go 50 to 70 minutes. So this will be a six to seven hour show.
647
648The other matches are Daniel Bryan vs. A.J. Styles for the WWE title, Ronda Rousey vs. Sasha Banks for the Raw women’s title, Asuka vs. Becky Lynch for the Smackdown women’s title, Sheamus & Cesaro vs. Shane McMahon & The Miz for the Smackdown tag titles, Rusev vs. Shinsuke Nakamura for the U.S. title and Buddy Murphy vs. Akira Tozawa vs. Kalisto vs. Hideo Itami for the cruiserweight title.
649
650In what should be a surprise to nobody given the quality of wrestling worldwide (not necessarily in WWE) 2018 reached new levels, with a record 252 **** matches.
651
652New Japan had the most, setting the all-time record for any promotion during any single year in history with 118, followed by WWE (which, with the help of NXT, also had its best year in-ring in history), PWG, ROH and CMLL.
653
654Over the year, the top ten were: 1. Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi (25); 3. Will Ospreay (22); 4. Kazuchika Okada (20); 5. Zack Sabre Jr. (17); 6 Tomohiro Ishii (15); 7. Young Bucks and Walter (14); 10. Hiroshi Tanahashi (13). Also in the top 20 were Cody, Hiromu Takahashi, Marty Scurll, Tetsuya Naito, Seiya Sanada, Hangman Page, Kushida, Hirooki Goto, A.J. Styles, Kyle O’Reilly, Michael Elgin, Minoru Suzuki and Ricochet.
655
656The number broke the record of 225 set in 2017. There were 167 in 2016. Before the modern era of independent wrestlers and YouTube where having great matches was more of a key to getting noticed and advancing in your career, which was less of a case in the pre Youtube era, the biggest years were 1995, 1994, 2015, 2014, 1993, 1992 and 2013.
657
658Leonardo Mendez Toledo, who compiled the lists and has focused on this for decades, said he believes it’s a combination of better athletes in wrestling, more of an emphasis on having great matches than any other period in history and more exposure for the top talent due to streaming services.
659
660Over the course of history, by city, it has been Tokyo, Osaka, New York, Mexico City, Orlando, Sapporo, Los Angeles, Reseda, Philadelphia and Yokohama as the top ten.
661
662By arena, it ha been Korakuen Hall, Sumo Hall in Tokyo, Budokan Hall in Tokyo, Edion Arena in Osaka, Tokyo Dome, the American Legion Post in Reseda, Universal Studios in Orlando, Arena Mexico, the Nakajima Sports Center in Sapporo, The Aiichi Gym in Nagoya and the Bunka Gym in Yokohama.
663
664The all-time top 50 are: 1. Kenta Kobashi; 2. Mitsuharu Misawa; 3. Toshiaki Kawada; 4. Kazuchika Okada; 5. Hiroshi Tanahashi; 6. Jushin Liger; 7. Chris Benoit; 8. Tomohiro Ishii; 9. A.J. Styles; 10. Akira Taue; 11. Rey Mysterio; 12. Tetsuya Naito; 13. Kurt Angle; 14. Young Bucks; 16. Shinjiro Otani; 17. Jun Akiyama; 18. Koji Kanemoto; 19. Kota Ibushi; 20. Hirooki Goto; 21. Kenny Omega; 22. Will Ospreay; 23. Chris Jericho; 24. Eddy Guerrero; 25. Shawn Michaels and Shinsuke Nakamura; 27. Manami Toyota and Ricochet; 29. Edge and Kushida; 31. John Cena, Jumbo Tsuruta and Keiji Muto; 34. Katsuyori Shibata; 35. Yuji Nagata and Kyoko Inoue; 37. KENTA, Ric Flair and Seth Rollins; 40. Bryan Danielson; 41. Steve Williams and Naomichi Marufuji; 43. El Samurai, HHH, Satoshi Kojima and Tsuyoshi Kikuchi; 47. Aja Kong, Randy Orton and Juventud Guerrera; 50. Psicosis.
665
666Kobashi has 142 to 139 for Misawa, 129 for Kawada and 101 for Okada, who, barring injury, will eventually hit No. 1 in this category.
667
668Okada is already No. 1 for singles matches with 74, to 71 for Tanahashi, 65 for Ishii, 59 for Benoit and Styles, 58 for Naito, 52 for Kobashi, 51 for Angle, 49 for Kawada, 46 for Misawa and Liger, 41 for Omega and Ibushi, 40 for Goto, 39 for Ospreay, 35 for Mysterio and Michaels, 34 for Cena, 33 for Eddy Guerrero and 32 for Nakamura.
669
670This year also set the record for five star matches with 21, breaking the record of 15 set in 1993 and 13 in 1995.
671
672The most career five star matches are Misawa with 25, Kobashi with 23, Kawada with 21, Taue with 15, Omega and Toyota with 14, Okada with 13, Tanahashi with 12, Flair with 9 and Tsuruta, Kyoko Inoue and Toshiyo Yamada with 8.
673
674Most single five star matches is Okada with 12, Omega and Tanahashi with 11 (with 1/4 added on, they would now tie Okada at 12), followed by Kobashi, Flair, Misawa, Toyota, Ishii, Naito, Kawada, Liger and Ricky Steamboat.
675
676The WWE’s newest brand, the NXT U.K. office, ran its first Takeover show on 1/12, a strong show with a hot crowd that sold out 2,100 tickets at the Empress Ballroom in Blackpool as soon as tickets were put on sale.
677
678The show featured two titles changes, as Zack Gibson & James Drake became the first NXT U.K. tag team champions beating Trent Seven & Tyler Bate in the tournament final, and Toni Storm beat Rhea Ripley to win the women’s title.
679
680The biggest news was the surprise appearance of Finn Balor, facing Jordan Devlin after they did an injury angle to get out of the Devlin vs. Travis Banks match.
681
682The show had a great end, as after Pete Dunne beat Joe Coffey to keep the U.K. title, and was pushed as being the longest reigning WWE champion for any title since Hulk Hogan, out came Walter. The great went nuts as the idea of Dunne vs. Walter could conceivably be WWE’s best match of the year, and they certainly gave you the impression that’s the main event for the second Takeover show. Coffey stood up so it was first teased for a three-way but the Walter kicked Coffey out of the ring. The key thing is that it sounded like every fan in the building knew Walter’s music, who he was, and that the match would be special when it happened.
683
684While already known, this was the official debut and announcement that Walter was with WWE.
685
686The other was showing Kay Lee Ray and Jazzy Gabert in the audience as the surprise additions.
687
688Kay Lee Ray is still booked for the World of Sport tour that starts this weekend, but she and Viper (who was in Japan and had a major match on 1/14 so coming in would be difficult) are both expected in WWE when those contracts expire. Viper reportedly got a much better offer, since AEW had interest and the market has changed, than the women in the NXT U.K. brand. Gabert would have also likely had AEW interest, and got over huge in the 2017 Mae Young Classic and was offered a contract, only to have it rescinded because of the state of her neck after being examined. She since underwent surgery.
689
690The main event was polarizing. Dunne beat Coffey in 34:14, and the time of the match was the big story. What can’t be denied is that the crowd was loud and loved it, and in the end, that’s what counts. And Dunne is one of the best workers in the world these days.
691
692At the same time, there were a lot of weakness exposed in this match, like body positioning and movement from Coffey, but this was a crowd just looking for near falls and kick outs, over and over, and there’s nothing wrong with giving the crowd what they wanted. In the end, it was great, even with its flaws. But the crowd peaked nine minutes before the finish and they had to keep going because on a TV shoot they plan out the time and decided the crowd would see a long match as a classic. And for all the flaws, the live crowd and most of the TV crowd did.
693
694Still, the tag title match stole the show. Tyler Bate is as good a 21-year-old wrestler as you’ll ever find. Every time he was in the ring it was electric, but all four stood out.
695
6961. Zack Gibson & James Drake beat Trent Seven & Tyler Bate to become the first UK tag team champions in 23:46. Gibson & Drake are usually called the Grizzled Young Veterans, although that name wasn’t used here. It was used at the TV tapings the next night. Bate & Seven were dressed up like the British Bulldogs tag team. Bate’s got the thick legs so it’s a mistake for him to cover them up. They were over like crazy and this was strong from start-to-finish. Seven hit a tope on Drake. Seven was bleeding from the back of the head taking an elbow. The crowd was loud, but into themselves in the sense it was a loud crowd but the nature of their reactions, often not to the match itself, really didn’t help the match, especially early, but it didn’t hurt it either. At one point Bate put Gibson and Drake on his shoulders and did a double airplane spin that the crowd went nuts for. He also did an exploder off the apron and a shooting star off the apron. Right now, if I had to start a company from scratch, with the idea of peaking in five years or more rather than tomorrow, Bate would be among the first draft choices. Even being short and needing work on promos, he is so electric in the ring and he’s only going to get better. Bate did a tope on Drake. Drake did a 450 for a near fall. Drake & Gibson did Shankley Gates on Bate & Seven at the same time but Bate picked Drake up when powering out and dropped him right on Gibson to break that one. At another point, Gibson put Bate on his shoulders on the floor and Drake did a tope, hitting the clothesline on Bate like doing the Doomsday Device on the floor. Seven went for a tope but Drake kicked him, and they did a double-team codebreaker on Seven, called the ticket to mayhem, and Drake pinned Seven. ****½
697
698They aired a clip from earlier in the day where Jordan Devlin attacked Travis Banks. Banks was selling the knee when he came out. Devlin attacked the knee again with a chop block and kept working on it. Officials came out to break it up. They carried Banks out. Devlin cut a promo saying there’s a reason you never bet against the ace. Devlin then said he was the greatest Irish wrestler in the world. The fans started chanting for Finn Balor. Sid Scala and Johnny Saint came out. Saint is the General Manager, but because he’s been forgetful on live interviews, they use Scala as his assistant to do all the talking. Scala said how after what happened earlier, they came up with a backup plan, and then Balor’s music played.
699
7002. Finn Balor pinned Jordan Devlin in 11:45. This was far more intense than Balor’s U.S. matches. He also used the Bloody Sunday DDT, which he’s apparently not allowed to use on the main roster. I have no idea why there would be different rules about what moves are allowed when it’s all WWE, and if anything, with the less experienced wrestlers and less money involved, the developmental brands in theory should be the ones where they are taught to work safer. Devlin crotched Balor, threw him into the post and went for a pin with his feet on the ropes but Balor kicked out. Devlin did a moonsault but Balor got his knees up, hit the Bloody Sunday DDT again, the Woo dropkick and coup de grace for the pin. ***½
701
702Luke Menzies, the former soccer star, was introduced.
703
7043. Dave Mastiff pinned Eddie Dennis in 10:44 in a no DQ match. Lots of kendo stick shots by both. Mastiff is this really heavy guy, and it’s cool that he let Dennis slam him and such, but he took so many bumps that he negated his size and made it too easy. Dennis used a spinning slam on he ring steps, a forward fireman’s carry, a walking bad luck fall, a side slam and just kept throwing him around. Mastiff got the pion after a cannonball that put Dennis through a table. ***
705
7064. Toni Storm pinned Rhea Ripley in 14:48 to win the women’s title. Storm should be either be on the main roster and heavily pushed as one of the top women in the promotion. But this indicates that’s not happening now. Ripley did a nice dropkick. Some good exchanges and Storm did a pair of German suplexes. Storm hit Storm zero once for a near fall, kicked out of Ripley’s rip tide, then escaped a rip tide and hit Storm zero for the pin. ***1/4
707
7085. Pete Dunne pinned Joe Coffey to retain the NXT UK title in 34:48. This had a lot of good and bad in it. Dunne walked up the ring steps, somersaulted and landed on his feet and hit the enzuigiri. Coffey powerslammed him on the ramp. Coffey was hesitant a lot here, in the sense while the crowd loved it, I couldn’t get the vibe of a contest and it felt more like a guy trying to get in position for his next spot. Dunne did a moonsault off the middle rope to the floor. Coffey speared Dunne to the back and squashed him, and used a power bomb for a near fall. They traded head-butting each others’ shoulders. Dunne used a German suplex, downward spiral and Koji clutch. Coffey went for a tombstone but Dunne reversed into an ankle lock. Coffey went for a spear but ran into a knee. Coffey came off the top rope into a forearm and Dunne hit the bitter end, but Coffey kicked out. Coffey drove Dunne’s back into the post and gave him a power bomb on the apron. Dunne was stomping the fingers. Fans gave them a standing ovation and it really peaked here. Dunne used an armbar but Coffey climbed the ropes while in he armbar and power bombed him. They traded punches and Coffey dropped Dunne with a left. Dunne hit the bitter end again. Both ended up on the top rope for something, they lost balance and Coffey took a bad bump to the floor. They tried it again and this time both fell off the ropes t the floor. Dunne used the bitter end for a third time but Coffey kicked out and then Dunne started twisting the fingers until Coffey tapped out. ***3/4
709
710A few notes about the Hiroshi Tanahashi IWGP title win over Kenny Omega at the Tokyo Dome.
711
712From being there live, and far away, the show became about big moves on the big screen as opposed to emotion that is the key to close range. That’s where the Chris Jericho vs. Tetsuya Naito match shined. As for Tanahashi vs. Omega, it scored big in both categories.
713
714Because of the attention to detail, the match was significantly better on second viewing, particularly since everything built to the end result. It was a great overall presentation in an arena where that is expected, and where the succession and memories of matches are such that the big matches can’t just rely on your greatest moves formula. Another strong strength was the announcing booth, with Don Callis presenting it as a bout between his two favorite wrestlers, Kevin Kelly presenting the narrative and Chris Charlton, one of the few Brits that not only can speak Japanese but actually really is Japanese in the sense of understanding culture and symbolisms getting that into the presentation.
715
716Tanahashi used a dropkick on the floor. Omega slammed Tanahashi on he announcers table and Tanahashi’s ass hit the edge of the table. Announcer Milano Collection A.T. was laid out on the floor from Tanahashi’ bump. Omega did a moonsault off the guard rail over the announcer area to lay out Tanahashi. They traded sick chops. Tanahashi did the middle rope somersault off the top for a near fall and Omega did the Kitaro crusher. Omega went for the Terminator dive, but Tanahashi jumped into the ring and dropkicked him. The fans booed hat because they wanted to ee the dive. Omega hit a Frankensteiner out of nowhere and then hit the Terminator dive. Omega hit hard back first on the edge of the ramp. Omega used a missile dropkick to the back of the head and a snap dragon suplex. Omega went for you can’t escape, but suddenly, his knee went out. Tanahashi followed with a reverse dragon screw and hit the Styles clash for a near fall. Tanahashi went for a high fly flow. Omega got his knees up but what was amazing was the timing of it, in the sense Omega waited for the last second to do it. People were halfway waiting for that, then decided it must not be happening, and then it did. The ring mic picked up Nick Jackson being amazed at the timing and ability to pull that off. Omega went for a V trigger, but Tanahashi moved and Omega’s knee hit the turnbuckles. Tanahashi hit the dragon screw and used a sling blade on the apron and slammed Omega onto the table. This was really the key spot because Tanahashi went for the top rope for a high fly flow putting Omega through the table, with the idea that Tanahashi was having to abandon his own beliefs in what pro wrestling was, and adopt the Omega beliefs to beat Omega, and violate what he had said in the build in quest to win the title. What was amazing to me was that in the part of the stadium I was in, every English speaking fan pretty much said that at that moment, understanding the depth to the story. Some people get mad at the checkers vs. chess comparisons but the depth here was chess grand masters playing in a business of good checkers players.
717
718Tanahashi crashed through the table. Omega was shaking out his knee. The story here is that Omega could have taken the win because Tanahashi wasn’t going to beat the count, but he instead threw him in to pin him. He did a double foot stomp to the back of the draping Tanahashi. Omega hit three had power bombs but Tanahashi kept kicking out. Omega then sorted t choking. Omega went for a V trigger but Tanahashi hit the sling blade. Omega hit a German suplex and hit the high fly flow on Tanahashi, who kicked out at one. Tanahashi then dropkicked Omega’s good knee, the left one. Omega hit the reverse huracanrana and a V trigger. He went for the one winged angel but Tanahashi turned it into a reverse huracanrana of his own. Tanahashi hit a dragon supelx and a cross body off the top, followed by the high fly flow, but Omega kicked out. After a V trigger, Omega climbed the ropes, but had to switch legs to climb, climbing different than his usual pattern, something few would even notice. Omega hit the top rope dragon suplex but Tanahashi turned over so instead of landing on his head, he landed on his face. Omega hit a running V rigger and went for the One Winged Angel. Tanahashi from that position hit a sling blade, a second sling blade and the high fly flow for the pin.
719
720It ended with both men on the ground, exhausted and unable to get up, with a big glob of blood coming from Tanahashi’s nose. In most years, this would run away for match of the year, but after 2018, you can’t say that. I’d go *****3/4, which was better than I had it live because of how you notice so much more depth to the second time, and the greater emotion
721
722Impact ran its “Homecoming PPV on 1/6 at the Fairgrounds in Nashville before a full house crowd of about 1,200 fans. The show was generally well received, and as expected the Pentagon Jr. & Fenix vs. LAX tag team title match was the highlight of the show.
723
724Impact’s last few shows have gotten good reviews but with the television situation being what it is, with the changing time slot and less viewers, the company has no real buzz going for it and reaction to the show was lower than most shows in the past.
725
726Arya Witner of the web site filed this report from the show since we were out of the country and couldn’t watch it.
727
728Forgotten in all the news of the weekend, Impact Wrestling presented Homecoming on 1/6. For the first time since November 2010, the company returned to the Nashville Fairgrounds Arena. Nicknamed “The Asylum,†Impact, then TNA, held every single weekly pay per view in the building from July 17, 2002 to September 8, 2004.
729
730The crowd was a positive, as they were hot all night and were knowledgeable in the storylines going into this show.
731
732Homecoming followed three very good to excellent 2018 pay per views, but unfortunately were unable to continue on that momentum here. The Ultimate X opener was a fun spotfest, the tag team title match was really good and would have been great with 5 more minutes and the main event was pretty good until a confusing finish. The booking of the finishes brought back negative memories as 5 of the 8 matches had some form of either outside interference or a referee being impaired.
733
734Announcer Don Callis literally flew in from WrestleKingdom in Tokyo to do commentary on this show.
735
7361. Rich Swann won the vacant X-Division Championship, defeating Jake Crist, Trey Miguel and Ethan Page in an Ultimate X Match in 13:40. Impact used to book this match once every few months, but this was the first Ultimate X Match since May 2017 and the first on a traditional pay per view since Bound For Glory 2015. Forgotten and never mentioned was a year ago on Impact Ethan was Chandler Park, the supposed cousin of Joseph Park. This was a really fun opener, with all four men taking turns hitting huracaranas, dives and superkicks. Miguel did a moonsault from one of the lighting rigs they used to hold up the cables to the floor. Crist gave Swann a Tombstone Piledriver on the floor and then carried him up the ramp. Swann didn't sell long, as a minute later it was down to him vs Miguel on the cables and he shimmied across faster and got the title before Trey could stop him. Everyone looked good, but Jake Crist looked great. ***3/4
7372. Su Yung & Dark Allie defeated Keira Hogan & Jordynne Grace in 8:53. This match was sloppy when it was Su Yung vs Keira, but Allie and Jordynne carried it to a passable match. Grace got the hot tag and hit a combination power slam/power bomb on the heels, but Allie took her out with a spray of mist. Allie then submitted Hogan with a glove-assisted Mandible Claw. *1/2
738
739After the match Su called for the Undead Bridesmaids to bring a coffin out. Rosemary made her return, popping out of the coffin and laying out Su as Allie ran away.
7403. Eddie Edwards pinned Moose in a Falls Count Anywhere Match in 13:20. Moose is good enough to hold his own and Eddie has really gotten over as the new Hardcore Legend. This was a wild match and a callback to the plethora of Hardcore Matches that used to be held on the weekly ppv's. They actually had the same production problem they used to have all the time where Eddie and Moose fought into the crowd, but a camera crew was unable to follow at first, so you had to watch them fight in the crowd via the hard camera for a minute until another cameraman caught up. The finish saw Eddie pull a Kendo Stick out and ready to lay into Moose, but Alisha Edwards ran in and demanded that she do it. No swerve, she hit Moose repeatedly and then Eddie pinned Moose with a DDT. Without Alisha we would have had the same finishing sequence. ***
7414. Sami Callihan pinned Willie Mack in 10:15. Josh Mathews claimed Callihan was a God to the people in Dayton, Ohio. I wonder how many people in Dayton bought this show to see their deity? Anyway this was one of those matches that appeared much better on paper than it was in reality. They tried hard, Callihan hit a V-Trigger that Callis popped for. Dave Crist interfered before the finish, allowing Callihan to hit a Death Valley Driver from the middle rope, which was only a 1 count. A minute later Callihan won with a piledriver. So they used a spectacular move from the middle rope, set up with interference, which was easily kicked out of and the finish was a much less spectacular move. **1/4
7425. Eli Drake pinned Abyss in a Monster's Ball Match in 12:15. Eli did a promo before the match in the lair that Abyss was “born†in. Not mentioned was that Kid Kash discovered him in that lair. Actually they could have used the entire 3 hour pay per view trying to make sense out of the storyline career and life of Abyss. This was a Best Of Abyss Match, as we brought out both the bag of thumbtacks and Janice, the nail covered board. I guess we can't re-name it after Ed Nordholm's Mom, can we? Drake took an amazing looking bump where Abyss gave him a belly to belly throw over the top rope and through two tables that had been set up. Abyss had the match won with both a Black Hole Slam and a choke slam into the thumbtacks, but Drake had thrown a handful of tacks into the referee's face moments earlier. Drake tried to use zipties to tie Abyss' hands behind his back to recreate the Rock-Mankind I Quit Match, but thankfully that didn't work. Abyss still took about a dozen hard chair shots and was pinned after being hit with an oar. **
743
744Killer Kross cut a backstage promo guaranteeing that he was getting involved in the main event somehow.
7456. LAX defeated Pentagon & Fenix to retain the Impact Tag Team Championship in 11:20. The story of this match was Konnan believed LAX wasn't ready to face the Lucha Brothers and so he wasn't in his corner. This was a great match and easily the best of the night, but it ended pretty quickly. All four men went at 100mph and it was exactly what the fans wanted to see. The most memorable spot of the match saw Fenix did a Suicide Dive and, as he came through the ropes, Pentagon threw him over his head and onto LAX, who was seated on the ramp. At one point Ortiz was covering Fenix and Pentagon ran, jumped off Ortiz' back and hit a Canadian Destroyer on Santana. The finish saw Fenix pinned after a double team flapjack. ****1/4
746
747Konnan came out after and led a cheer for all 4 men. Josh tried to hard to push this as a match of the year and while this was great, it wasn't quite at that level.
7487. Taya Valkyrie pinned Tessa Blanchard to win the Knockouts Title in 10:25 with Gail Kim as referee. The match built up to two spots where Gail ultimately cost Tessa the title. Tessa is really good and her byplay with Gail was excellent. Late in the match Tessa brought the title into the ring, Gail tried to grab it away, but in the tug of war she accidentally hit Taya, who kicked out of the ensuing pin. Gail finally shoved Tessa and tried to count her out during a school boy, but Tessa kicked out. Finally Gail hit Tessa with Eat Defeat and allowed Taya to cover her and win the title. **½
7498. Johnny Impact pinned Brian Cage to retain the World Title in 20:15. Nick Wilson and Dave Rickenbacker, who were both on Survivor with Johnny, were at ringside. Cage came out dressed like The Terminator and his physique made him look a lot more like Arnold Schwarzenegger than when Kenny Omega wore something similar. This was a really good match and Cage looked better than Moose did back in July when he got his ppv main event. Impact kept things moving fast enough to keep things interesting, but paced it enough so Cage never got tired. Impact kicked out of 3 power bombs in a row and barely got his foot on the ropes after Weapon X. Cage got sent out of the ring and ended up in a confrontation with Nick and Dave. The referee went out to break that up, which distracted him as Cage got a visual pinfall in the ring with a Drill Claw. Finally Cage went for the dead lift suplex on the ropes, but they stumbled and finally they both fell into the ring for the planned finish. Impact rolled him up and Cage kicked out just as the referee counted 3. The bell never rang, but Impact's music began playing, which confused and angered the crowd. ***
750
751After the match Cage threw the belt down at Johnny's feet. Taya ran down and celebrated with Johnny, but the crowd booed both of them. Finally, as the show was ending, Killer Kross attacked Johnny on the ramp, laying him out. Taya attacked Kross, but Kross ended the show by power bombing Taya onto 5 or 6 plants in the crowd.
752
753Weekly Pro Wrestling released its fan voted awards for 2018 last week in its magazine.
754
755The fans voted Wrestler of the Year as Hiroshi Tanahashi, who had nearly triple the votes of Tetsuya Naito, who finished second.
756
757After that was Masashi Takeda (the death match star from Big Japan), Kenny Omega (it is tradition that only Japanese get voted on for these awards so him getting any votes at all is a surprise let alone finishing No. 4), Kazuchika Okada, Takashi Sugiura, Naomichi Marufuji, Kento Miyahara, Kota Ibushi and Shinsuke Nakamura.
758
759Match of the Year was Tanahashi vs. Ibushi G-1 final beating out Omega vs. Okada from Dominion. After that was Omega vs. Tomohiro Ishii from 8/4 in Osaka, Okada vs. Naito from the Tokyo Dome, Omega vs. Ibushi from 8/11 at Budokan Hall, Hiromu Takahashi vs. Taiji Ishimori Best of the Super juniors finals on 6/4 in Tokyo, Naomichi Marufuji vs. Kenta from 9/1 at Sumo Hall, Takeda vs. Jun Kasai from 8/28 at Korakuen Hall, Sanada vs. Zack Sabre Jr. from the G-1 show on 7/21 at Korakuen Hall and Miyahara vs. Zeus from 10/21 at Yokohama Bunka Gym.
760
761Tag Team of the Year was Evil & Sanada, followed by Suwama & Shuji Ishikawa, Omega & Ibushi, Sho & Yoh, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Desperado, Young Bucks, Yamato & BxB Hulk, Shingo Takagi & Bushi, Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa and Miyahara & Yoshitatsu.
762
763Foreign Wrestler of the Year was Omega, followed by Jay White, Zack Sabre Jr., Chris Jericho, Juice Robinson, Will Ospreay, Joe Doering, Violento Jack, Pac and Hangman Page.
764
765Woman Wrestler of the Year was Meiko Satomura, followed by Io Shirai, Tsukasa Fujimoto, Asuka, Momo Watanabe, Kairi Sane, Chihiro Hashimoto, Chigusa Nagayo (yes, the same 80s icon), Kagetsu and Hana Kimura.
766
767Rookie of the Year was Stardom’s Utami Hayashishita, followed by New Japan’s Yota Tsuji, New Japan’s Yuya Uemura, Taku Hokato, Yoshiki Inamura (I saw him in NOAH against Takashi Sugiura on 1/6 and he was really good for a rookie who debuted in August and misses the cutoff for the 2019 rookie of the year), Mikoto Shindo, Hemika Arita, Hokuto Omori and Kota Minoura.
768
769They also listed the top 40 most popular in Japan as voted by the readers as Naito, Tanahashi, Hiromu Takahashi, Okada, Omega, Ibushi, Naomichi Marufuji, Minoru Suzuki, Nakamura, Sanada, Kasai, Takeda, Keiji Muto, Kushida, Ishii, Takagi, Mayu Iwatani (highest ranking woman), Taichi, Desperado, Shirai, Katsuyori Shibata (I should note that even though doctors have said that they don’t believe Shibata can ever be cleared, those close to Shibata have told us that Shibata is not accepting that answer and is determined and is training for a comeback), Evil, Ryusuke Taguchi, Sugiura, Bushi, Sari Anou, Jushin Liger, Masato Yoshino, Tam Nakano, Toru Yano, Tsukasa Fujimoto, Jay White, Miyahara, Will Ospreay, Momo Watanabe, Dragon Kid, Yoh, Daisuke Sekimoto, Katsuhiko Nakajima and Naruki Doi.
770
7712018 WRESTLING OBSERVER AWARDS
772
773
774
775Voting is now open for the 39th annual Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards.
776
777Voting will close on February 16, 2019, with results published later in our annual double awards issue.
778
779Voting is only open to Observer subscribers. With the addition of online subscriptions, to vote, you have to send your name, and whether you are subscribing by print or on-line so we can double-check. If you are an online subscriber, please send a receipt from your last order. You can submit ballots by mail, e-mail or fax.
780
781These awards cover the period from January 1, 2018 through
782
783December 30, 2018.
784
785If you've got any thoughts on the awards, you are encouraged to send them in to hsmeltzer@juno.com for publication on the Observer web site.
786
787These awards every year get more mainstream coverage than any pro wrestling awards aside from the exclusively Japanese Tokyo Sports awards.
788
789Just to clarify the major awards, the Lou Thesz/Ric Flair Wrestler of the Year award is open only to working pro wrestlers. The MMA MVP award is similar to the Thesz/Flair award in that it should combine importance to business and drawing power with success in the cage. For both MMA and pro wrestling, there is a separate award for the best in-ring performer, the Most Outstanding Wrestler and Most Outstanding MMA fighter. The MMA award is for purely who had the best year in the ring or the cage, throwing out business considerations, and the Most Outstanding is for who had the best matches over the past year and was the best in-ring wrestler, throwing out business considerations.
790
791There are still some combined MMA/pro wrestling awards such as Best Promotion, Promoter of the Year, Feud of the Year, Best Show and Best Drawing card, because essentially business goals of both pro wrestling and MMA are the same–drawing money and putting on good shows.
792
793In regard to actual competitive (non-worked) matches, the main categories are Most Outstanding MMA fighter and MMA Match of the year. They are open to all MMA rules promotions. Most Outstanding MMA fighter of the year should be based entirely on success in fights during the time period.
794
795Both performance in the ring as well as drawing power, marketability, value to the promotion and significance during the year among both shoot and worked matches should be considered for the big two awards.
796
797Most Outstanding Wrestler is purely the best in-ring, bell-to-bell performer. Anything that takes place in a legitimate match situation should not be considered.
798
799Best Box Office Draw is self-explanatory. It's open to everyone whether participating in worked or legitimate matches. This is for the person who moves ticket sales, TV ratings and/or PPV sales.
800
801Tag Team of the Year and Most Improved are both limited to worked promotions.
802
803Feud of the Year is about drawing money, creating excitement and delivering in the ring. Shoot feuds and worked feuds are both eligible. Best on Interviews and Most Charismatic are also open to both worked and shoot promotions.
804
805Best Promotion is open to worked and non-worked companies. Match of the Year is only for worked matches. Rookie of the Year is open to only pro wrestlers making a major promotion professional debut after September 1, 2016. Best and Worst TV announcer and Best and Worst Major show are also open to both worked and shoot promotions.
806
807Because they’ve awards have gotten so big in recent years with so many responses, we’ve had to change things this year. Going forward we are very much limiting category A awards and far more awards will be Category B.
808
809
810
811"CATEGORY A" AWARDS. PICK A FIRST, SECOND AND THIRD PLACE FINISHER IN EACH CATEGORY. POINTS WILL BE AWARDED ON A 5-3-2 BASIS. THE WINNER OF THE AWARD IS DETERMINED BY TOTAL POINTS.
812
813
814
8151. LOU THESZ/RIC FLAIR AWARD - This is open to pro wrestlers, for a combination of everything, being both important and influential this year in a positive manner from a business perspective, combining both box office impact as well as strong match quality in worked matches. Last year's top three were Kazuchika Okada, Kenny Omega and Tetsuya Naito.
816
8172. MMA MOST VALUABLE FIGHTER: This is also for a combination of fighting inside the ring and importance outside in a positive manner from a business perspective as well. Last year’s top three were Georges St-Pierre, Conor McGregor and Michael Bisping.
818
8193. MOST OUTSTANDING WRESTLER: This is based on working ability in the ring only. Simply, the best workers in the world on a consistent basis over the past year. Drawing power, charisma and push shouldn't be considered. Last year's top three were Kazuchika Okada, Kenny Omega and A.J. Styles.
820
8214. MOST OUTSTANDING FIGHTER: This should be based on in-ring ability and wins against the top level of competition during the calendar year. Last year's top three were Demetrious Johnson, Max Holloway and Robert Whittaker.
822
8235. TAG TEAM OF THE YEAR - For the best working and most valuable tag team during the previous year. Last year's top three were The Young Bucks, The Usos and War Machine.
824
8256. BEST ON INTERVIEWS - Who has given the best interviews on a consistent basis over the past year? Reputation from previous years shouldn't be taken into consideration. It should be based on work over the course of the year as opposed to one or two memorable interviews. Last year's top three were Conor McGregor, Chris Jericho and The Miz.
826
8277. PROMOTION OF THE YEAR - Should be based on which group put together the best live and television product on a consistent basis, and secondarily, the ability to sell that product at a high level. This means box office and marketing combined with product quality. Theoretically, the top pick should be a company at or near the top on both categories. Last year's top three were New Japan Pro Wrestling, Ring of Honor and WWE.
828
8298. BEST WEEKLY TV SHOW - Weekly television shows are the only ones eligible, not monthly shows, specials or individual episodes of a specific program. This is for the best consistent program. The shows have to be produced with the idea they are a weekly ongoing show and not a short-term mini-series. In other words, the Friday, Monday and Tuesday CMLL shows count as three different shows and are all eligible. Ultimate Fighter, Mixed Match Challenge or Lucha Underground, even though they didn’t run 52 weeks, are eligible. Being the Elite is also eligible. Something like G-1 Climax or Mae Young Classic are not eligible because they were not scheduled to be year-around continuing long-term shows. Last year's top three were New Japan World Pro Wrestling, WWE NXT and CMLL Viernes.
830
8319. PRO WRESTLING MATCH OF THE YEAR - Pick the three best matches, in order, from the time period. Please list both the date and location of the match, because some matches were held many times during the year. Last year's top three were Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega on January 4 at the Tokyo Dome, Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega from June 11 in Osaka and Kazuchika Okada vs. Katsuyori Shibata on April 9 in Tokyo.
832
83310. MMA MATCH OF THE YEAR - Pick the three best matches, in order, from the time period listed. Again, please list both the date and location of the match. Last year's top three were Cub Swanson vs. Doo Ho Choi on December 10, 2016 in Toronto, Justin Gaethje vs. Michael Johnson on July 7 in Las Vegas and Yancy Medeiros vs.; Alex Oliveria on December 2 in Detroit.
834
835
836
837"CATEGORY B" AWARDS. PICK ONE IN EACH CATEGORY. WINNER CHOSEN ON THE BASIS OF FIRST PLACE VOTES.
838
839
840
8411. UNITED STATES/CANADA PRO WRESTLING MVP - First time category
842
8432. JAPAN MVP - First time category
844
8453. MEXICO MVP - First time category
846
8474. EUROPEAN MVP - First time category
848
8495. NON-HEAVYWEIGHT MVP - First time category
850
8516. WOMAN WRESTLING MVP - First time category
852
8537. WOMAN MMA MVP - First time category
854
8558. BEST BOX OFFICE DRAW - Based on drawing big houses (or for that matter selling tickets to small houses as the case may be), buy rates and/or television ratings. Ring work shouldn't even be considered. Last year's top three were Conor McGregor, Kenny Omega and Tetsuya Naito.
856
8579. FEUD OF THE YEAR - This should be based on a combination of having a compelling storyline along with having great matches that should strengthen the box office. Last year's top three were Kenny Omega vs. Kazuchika Okada, Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Conor McGregor and Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Tetsuya Naito.
858
85910. MOST IMPROVED - This is based on making the biggest strides in ring work during the previous year. This should not be for someone who was already good, but was given a bigger push. Last year's top three were Braun Strowman, Juice Robinson and Velveteen Dream.
860
86111. MOST CHARISMATIC - What person had to do the least to get the most out of it? Who do crowds naturally react to emotionally even before the person does anything? Last year's top three were Tetsuya Naito, Conor McGregor and Kenny Omega.
862
86312. BRYAN DANIELSON BEST TECHNICAL WRESTLER AWARD - This is for having the ability to use high level technical wrestling moves within the context of building a great worked pro wrestling match. Last year's top three were Zack Sabre Jr., Kushida and Hideki Suzuki.
864
86513. BRUISER BRODY MEMORIAL BEST BRAWLER AWARD - This is for the wrestler who uses brawling tactics to put together the best matches during the previous year. It's not for a guy who does brawling matches that aren't any good. Last year's top three were Tomohiro Ishii, Katsuyori Shibata and Minoru Suzuki.
866
86714. BEST FLYING WRESTLER - This is for the wrestler who does the most innovative and solidly executed flying maneuvers within the context of putting together great wrestling matches. This is not for simply the hottest daredevil moves, which are sometimes hit and sometimes miss. Last year's top three were Will Ospreay, Ricochet and Volador Jr.
868
86915. MOST OVERRATED - The wrestler who gets the biggest push, despite lacking ring ability or charisma. Last year's top three were Jinder Mahal, Roman Reigns and Baron Corbin.
870
87116. MOST UNDERRATED - The wrestler with the most ability, who, for whatever reason, doesn't get a push commensurate with their ability. This should be based on this past year, and not a business reputation earned in prior years. Last year's top three were Rusev, Tomohiro Ishii and Finn Balor.
872
87317. ROOKIE OF THE YEAR - This is based on ring performance, not how someone is pushed or necessarily even long-term star potential. By the standards of the category, a rookie is someone who hasn't had a regular job with a full-time wrestling company before September 1, 2017. Among the top candidates are Ronda Rousey, Utami Hayashishita, Kacy Catanzaro, Stacey Ervin Jr., MJ Jenkins, Yota Tsuji, Yuya Uemura, Hokuto Omori, Kinya Okada, Brian Pillman Jr., Marko Stunt, Lacey Lane, Yuki Ino, Natsumi, Ayame Sasamura, Leo Onozaki, Mikito Shindo, Yuna Mizumori, Rina and Hina. Last year's top three were Katsuya Kitamura, Microman and Bianca Belair.
874
87518. BEST NON-WRESTLER PERFORMER - For the best performer on a television show who isn't a traditional wrestler, whether they be a management figure, a woman who doesn't wrestle, or a traditional manager. Last year's top three were Daniel Bryan, Zelina Vega and Paul Heyman.
876
87719. BEST TELEVISION ANNOUNCER - Last year's top three were Mauro Ranallo, Corey Graves and Don Callis.
878
87920. WORST TELEVISION ANNOUNCER - Last year's top three were Booker
880
881T, Percy Watson and JBL.
882
88321. BEST MAJOR SHOW - This should be a major show, as opposed to a TV taping or house show, although TV specials like Saturday Night's Main Event or Ultimate Fight Night are eligible. Last year's top three were New Japan Wrestle Kingdom on January 4 at the Tokyo Dome; New Japan Dominion June 11 in Osaka and UFC 217 on November 4 in Madison Square Garden.
884
88522. WORST MAJOR SHOW OF THE YEAR - Last year's top three were WWE WWE Battleground on July 23 in Philadelphia, AAA TripleMania on August 26, in Mexico City and Impact Bound for Glory on November 5 in Ottawa.
886
88723. BEST WRESTLING MANEUVER - Last year's top three were Kenny Omega’s one winged angel, Kazuchika Okada’s rainmaker and Tetsuya Naito’s destino.
888
88924. MOST DISGUSTING PROMOTIONAL TACTIC - WWE’s pushing Jimmy Snuka to strongly after his death; Jinder Mahal’s race bating interviews in his feud with Shinsuke Nakamura and WWE lionizing the Ultimate Warrior in their breast cancer campaign when he had made fun of Bobby Heenan’s cancer.
890
89125. WORST TELEVISION SHOW - Last year's top three were WWE Raw, Impact and WWE 205 Live.
892
89326. WORST MATCH OF THE YEAR - Last year's top three were Randy Orton vs. Bray Wyatt on April 2 in Orlando, Randy Orton vs. Bray Wyatt on April 30 in San Jose and the AAA Rumble n August 26 at TripleMania in Mexico City.
894
89527. WORST FEUD OF THE YEAR - Last year's top three were Randy Orton vs. Bray Wyatt, Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Jinder Mahal and Randy Orton vs. Jinder Mahal.
896
89728. WORST PROMOTION - Last year's top three were TNA (for the 11th straight year), AAA and WWE.
898
89929. BEST BOOKER - Last year's top three were Gedo, Paul Levesque and Jun Akiyama.
900
90130. PROMOTER OF THE YEAR - Last year's top three were Takaaki Kidani, Dana White and Paul Levesque.
902
90331. BEST GIMMICK - Last year's top three were Los Ingobernables en Japon, Hiromu, Darryl & Carol Takahashi and Velveteen Dream.
904
90532. WORST GIMMICK - Last year's top three were Bray Wyatt/Sister Abigail, Jason Jordan as Kurt Angle’s son and Dolph Ziggler.
906
90733. BEST WRESTLING BOOK - Last year's top three were Crazy Like a Fox: The Brian Pillman Story by Liam O’Rourke, Slobberknocker by Jim Ross and Best Seat in the House by Justin Roberts.
908
90934. BEST PRO WRESTLING DVD/STREAMING DOCUMENTARY - Last year's top three were Ric Flair 30 for 30 by ESPN, Brody: Pro Wrestling’s Last Rebel†from Highspots and Fight Owens Fight by WWE.
910
911Smackdown on 1/15 was only up slightly from the prior week, a surprise because of how much Raw was up and also because of the quality of the shows.
912
913The show did 2,143,000 viewers, up 5.5 percent from last week, but Smackdowns up and downs usually correlate with that of Raw, which was up far more. Smackdown was 8th for the night, trailing Curse of Oak Island on The History Channel (3,519,000) viewers and six news programs. The bad news is after all the hype, the debut of Temptation Island, which followed Smackdown, only did 872,000 viewers.
914
915The show did a 0.41 in 12-17 (the same as last week), 0.46 in 18-34(down 17.9 percent), 0.94 in 35-49 (up 6.8 percent) and 0.91 in 50+ (up 16.7 percent, so it was basically this audience that was the reason for the increase).
916
917The audience was 62.4 percent male in 18-49 and 55.8 percent male in 12-17.
918
919Raw on 1/14 had a strong-post football bounce-back of 15.2 percent in ratings and 17.1 percent in viewers, ending with a 1.89 rating and 2,722,000 viewers (1.59 viewers per home).
920
921The show was built around the story of who will get the Royal Rumble title shot at Brock Lesnar, and the story did a better job of holding the audience than most Raws in recent months, with only a 5.9 percent first-to-third hour drop coming off the 20.7 percent drop (seventh worst in history) the prior week.
922
923The bounce-back after football was 17.2 percent in viewers the same week in 2018, and 12.5 percent the same week in 2017. Usually you hope for about 10 percent, so this number was a success.
924
925Raw finished second for the night on cable, trailing only Rachel Maddow on MSNBC with 3,347,000 viewers, meaning it beat everything on FOX News Network, which usually has several shows ahead of Raw.
926
927It’s a good sign for the WrestleMania season that a lot of the decline in viewership and interest was football related and viewers were coming back to sample this show, which was largely a good show. Vince McMahon and John Cena were both heavily featured on the show, with McMahon in several segments and Cena being on both early in a segment that built the four-way main event.
928
929The key, and I suppose the good sign, is the audience that came back was the football audience, and the heavy male audience, as in the 18-49 demo the show did 68.3 percent males and in 12-17 they did 66.1 percent males.
930
931Compared to last week against the College Football championships, the 18-49 male audience was up 18.4 percent while the female audience was only up 4.8 percent, so that tells you the audience that came back.
932
933The negative is that even with the big increase, last year’s Raw for the same week after the post-football bounce-back did a 2.20 rating and 3,219,000 viewers, so the show is still down 15.4 percent year-to-year in viewers and 14.1 percent down in households. The post-football bounce-back show in 2017 did 3,271,000 viewers.
934
935The show did a 0.58 in 12-17 (up 26.1 percent), 0.70 in 18-34 (up 27.3 percent), 1.12 in 35-49 (up 6.7 percent) and 1.11 in 50+ (up 19.4 percent).
936
937Another key is that in males the third hour held up and the small third hour drop was almost entirely female. From hour one-to-three, women 18-49 were down 3.4 percent, men 18-49 were up 3.3 percent, girls 12-17 were down 15 percent and boys 12-17 were up 24 percent, while over 50 overall was down 11 percent.
938
939Total Bellas on 1/13 did 505,000 viewers. That would be the second lowest number of the four seasons of the show, beating only the second episode of season three which was over Memorial Day weekend.
940
941With the move to the Pursuit Channel, Impact ratings look to no longer be available due to tracking so low.
942
943Ariel Helwani’s MMA Awards show that aired on New Year’s Eve on ESPN 2 from 9 p.m. to midnight averaged 62,000 viewers.
944
945This is the first issue of the current set. As a double issue, if you’ve got a (1) on your address label, it means your Observer subscription expires in two more weeks.
946
947Renewal rates for the printed Observer in the United States are $13.50 for four issues (which includes $4 for postage and handling), $25 for eight, $35.50 for 12, $46 for 16, $69 for 24, $92 for 32, $115 for 40, $149.50 for 52 up through $184 for 64 issues.
948
949For Canada and Mexico, the rates are $15 for four issues (which includes $6 for postage and handling), $27 for eight, $38.50 for 12, $50 for 16, $75 or 24, $100 for 32, $125 for 40 issues, $162.50 for 52 and $200 for 64.
950
951For the rest of the world, the rates are $17 for four issues (which includes $9 for postage and handling), $33 for eight, $47.50 for 12, $62 for 16, $77.50 for 20, $93 for 24, $108.50 for 28, $155 for 40 issues and $201.50 for 52 issues.
952
953You can also get the Observer on the web at www.wrestlingobserver.com for $11.99 per month for a premium membership that includes daily audio updates, Figure Four Weekly, special articles and a message board. If you are a premium member and still want hard copies of the Observer, you can get them for $9.50 per set in the U.S., $10.50 per set in Canada and $13 per set for the rest of the world.
954
955All subscription renewals should be sent to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, P.O. Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228. You can also renew via Visa or MasterCard by sending your name, address, phone number, Visa or MasterCard number (and include the three or four digit security code on the card) and expiration date to Dave@wrestlingobserver.com or by fax to (408)244-3402. You can also renew at www.paypal.com using dave@wrestlingobserver.com as the pay to address. For all credit card or paypal orders, please add a $1 processing fee. If there are any subscription problems, you can contact us and we will attempt to rectify them immediately, but please include with your name a full address as well a phone number you can be contacted at.
956
957All letters to the editor, reports from live shows and any other correspondence pertaining to this publication should also be sent to the above address.
958
959This publication is copyright material and no portion of the Observer may be reprinted without the expressed consent of publisher/writer Dave Meltzer. The Observer is also produced by Derek Sabato.
960
961Fax messages can be sent to the Observer 24 hours a day at (408) 244-3402. Phone messages can be left 24 hours a day at (408) 244-2455. E-mails can be sent to Dave@wrestlingobserver.com
962
963RESULTS
964
965
966
96712/27 Columbus, OH (WWE Raw - 8,000): Finn Balor won three-way over Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre, Apollo Crews won 14 man Battle Royal, Ember Moon & Natalya b Ruby Riott & Sarah Logan, Bobby Lashley b Elias, Cage match for IC title: Dean Ambrose b Seth Rollins, Three-way for tag titles: Bobby Roode & Chad Gable won over AOP and The Revival, Bayley & Sasha Banks b Dana Brooke & Mickie James, No DQ: Bray Wyatt b Baron Corbin, Women’s title: Ronda Rousey b Nia Jax
968
96912/27 Uniondale, NY Nassau Coliseum (WWE Smackdown - 7,000): Mustafa Ali b The Miz, R-Truth & Carmella b Andrade Cien Almas & Zelina Vega, Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson & Shelton Benjamin & Primo & Epico Colon & Aiden English, Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson b Alexander Wolfe & Killian Dain, Rey Mysterio b Randy Orton, Three-way for tag titles: Sheamus & Cesaro over Big E & Kofi Kingston and Usos, Jeff Hardy b Samoa Joe, Cage match for WWE title: Daniel Bryan b John Cena, Lana & Naomi b Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville, U.S. title: Rusev b Shinsuke Nakamura, Three-way for Smackdown women’s title: Asuka won over Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch
970
97112/28 Detroit (WWE Raw/Main Event TV tapings - 10,500): Titus O’Neil b Curt Hawkins, The Revival b Tyler Breeze & Zack Ryder, Cage match: Drew McIntyre b Dolph Ziggler, Apollo Crews won Battle Royal, Sasha Banks & Ember Moon & Bayley b Ruby Riott & Sarah Logan & Liv Morgan, Bobby Lashley b Seth Rollins-DQ, 2 on 3 handicap match: Jinder Mahal & Samir & Sunil Singh b Heath Slater & Rhyno, IC title: Dean Ambrose b Apollo Crews, Ronda Rousey & Natalya b Nia Jax & Tamina, Cage match for IC title: Dean Ambrose b Seth Rollins
972
97312/28 Baltimore (WWE Smackdown- 5.000): Mustafa Ali b The Miz, R-Truth & Carmella b Andrade Cien Almas & Zelina Vega, Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson & Shelton Benjamin b Primo & Epico Colon & Aiden English, Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson b Sanity, Rey Mysterio b Randy Orton, Three-way for tag titles: Sheamus & Cesaro won over New Day and Usos, Jeff Hardy b Samoa Joe, Cage match for WWE title: Daniel Bryan b John Cena, Lana & Naomi b Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville, U.S. title: Rusev b Shinsuke Nakamura, Three-way for women’s title: Asuka won over Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch
974
97512/28 Mexico City Arena Mexico (CMLL - 16,000): Coyote & Grako b Arkalis & Oro Jr., Estrellita & Lluvia & Marcela b Amapola & Dalys & Tiffany, Audaz & Flyer & Guerrero Maya Jr. b Kawato & Okumura & Vangellys, Atlantis & Diamante Azul & Titan b Hechicero & Rey Bucanero & El Terrible, Dragon Lee & Mistico & Volador Jr. b Cuatrero & Forastero & Sanson, Caristico b Penta OM-DQ
976
97712/28 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (Choshu Promotions - 1,580 sellout): Yoshitatsu & Rocky Kawamura & Ayato Yoshida b Hikaru Sato & Tomohiko Hashimoto & Kazma Sakamoto, AKIRA & Akitoshi Saito b Mazada & Fujita, Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Gota Ihashi b Minoru Tanaka & Mitsuhiro Yoshida, Takashi Sugiura & Shinjiro Otani & Yutaka Yoshie & Takuya Nomura b Kendo Kashin & Kohei Sato & Katsuhiko Nakajima & Tomoyo Hirata, Daisuke Sekimoto & Kengo Mashimo & Kota Umeda b Shiro Koshinaka & Yukio Sakaguchi & Dinosaur Takuma, Riki Choshu & Tatsumi Fujinami & Masa Kitamiya b Kaito Kiyomiya & Jun Kasai & Nosawa
978
97912/29 Pittsburgh (WWE Smackdown/205 Live TV tapings - 10,500): Kalisto b Lio Rush, Akira Tozawa b Drew Gulak, Samoa Joe b Jeff Hardy, Sonya Deville b Naomi, John Cena & Becky Lynch b Andrade Cien Almas & Zelina Vega, A.J. Styles won five-way over Samoa Joe, Mustafa Ali, Randy Orton and Rey Mysterio, Cage match for WWE title: Daniel Bryan b A.J. Styles
980
98112/30 Tampa, FL (WWE Smackdown - 8,000): Three-way for tag titles: Sheamus & Cesaro won over Usos and Big E & Xavier Woods, Titus O’Neil b Killian Dain, Mustafa Ali b Andrade Cien Almas, Jeff Hardy b Samoa Joe, John Cena b The Miz, Naomi & Lana b Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville, U.S. title: Rusev b Shinsuke Nakamura, Three-way for women’s title: Asuka won over Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch, Cage match for WWE title: Daniel Bryan b A.J. Styles
982
9831/1 Mexico City Arena Mexico (CMLL- 6,000): Coyote & Grako b Arkalis & Robin, Amapola & Dallys & Seductora b Avispa Dorada & Jarochita & Lluvia, Double mask vs. hair: El Hijo del Signo & Yago b Akuma & Camorra, El Hijo de L.A. Park & Kraneo & Volcano b Felino & El Hijo de Villano III & Villano IV, Dragon Lee & King Phoenix & Penta 0M b Cuatrero & Forastero & Templario, Caristico b Ultimo Guerrero-DQ
984
9851/02 Orlando (WWE NXT TV tapings - 400 sellout): Stacey Ervin Jr. b Shane Thorne, Bianca Belair b Nikki Cross, Marcel Barthel & Fabian Aichner b Kunsman & Watts, Adam Cole b EC 3, Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford b Metro Brothers, Dominik Dijakovic b Adrian Jaoude, Johnny Gargano b Humberto Carrillo, Kassius Ohno b Keith Lee, Lacey Evans b Xia Li, Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch b Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel, Kairi Sane & Io Shirai b ?, Velveteen Dream b Bobby Fish, Otis Dozovic & Tucker Knight & Ricochet & Aleister Black b Adam Cole & Kyle O’Reilly & Roderick Strong & Bobby Fish
986
9871/3 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (All Japan - 1,585): Yusuke Okada & Atsuki Aoyagi b Hokuto Omori & Danji Tamura, Osamu Nishimura & Hikaru Sato b Masa Fuchi & Yoshitatsu, Jake Lee & Ryoji Sai & Koji Iwamoto b Jun Akiyama & Zeus & Atsushi Maruyama, Suwama & Shuji Ishikawa & Atsushi Aoki b Joe Doering & Dylan James & Gianni Valletta, TV title: Tajiri b Minoru Fujita, All-Asia tag title: Yuma Aoyagi & Naoya Nomura b Takao Omori & Black Menso-re, Triple Crown: Kento Miyahara b Kai
988
9891/4 Columbus, GA (WWE Raw - 5,000): Finn Balor won three-way over Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre, Titus O’Neil & Heath Slater & Rhyno b Mojo Rawley & Curt Hawkins & Viktor, Bobby Lashley b Elias, Apollo Crews b Jinder Mahal, John Cena b Baron Corbin, Tag titles: Bobby Roode & Chad Gable b AOP, Lucha House Party b Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder, Sasha Banks b Mickie James, Sasha Banks & Bayley & Ember Moon b Mickie James & Alicia Fox & Dana Brooke, IC title: Dean Ambrose b Seth Rollins
990
9911/4 Atlanta, GA (WWE NXT - 700 sellout): Matt Riddle b Adam Cole, Kairi Sane & Xia Li b Lacey Evans & Aliyah, Keith Lee b Dominik Dijakovic, Brennan Williams b Kona Reeves, EC 3 & War Raiders b Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly & Roderick Strong, North American title: Ricochet b Shane Thorne, Bianca Belair b Rhea Ripley, Aleister Black & Velveteen Dream b Tommaso Ciampa & Johnny Gargano
992
9931/4 Mexico City Arena Mexico (CMLL - 9,000): Ephesto & Gran Guerrero & Templario b Guerrero Maya Jr. & Rey Cometa & Stuka Jr., Titan b Triton, Caristico & Valiente & Volador Jr. b Euforia & Mephisto & Ultimo Guerrero-DQ, Bestia del Ring & Rush & El Terrible b Atlantis & Kraneo & Volcano, Dragon Lee b Cavernario, Mexican national trios titles: Cuatrero & Forastero & Sanson b Angel de Oro & Niebla Roja & Soberano Jr.
994
9951/5 Greensboro, NC (WWE Smackdown - 3,000): Three-way for tag titles: Sheamus & Cesaro won over Big E & Kofi Kingston and Usos, Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville b Lana & Nikki Cross, The Miz b Mustafa Ali, Jeff Hardy b Samoa Joe, U.S. title: Rusev b Shinsuke Nakamura, Carmella & R-Truth b Andrade Cien Almas & Zelina Vega, Three-way for women’s title: Asuka won over Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair, WWE title: Daniel Bryan b A.J. Styles
996
9971/5 Spartanburg, SC (WWE NXT - 1,400): Dominik Dijakovic b Shane Thorne, Lacey Evans b Xia Li, Brennan Williams b Kona Reeves, EC 3 b Bobby Fish-DQ, EC 3 & Keith Lee & Matt Riddle b Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly & Roderick Strong, Aleister Black b Adam Cole, Four-way for UK women’s title: Rhea Ripley won over Kairi Sane, Bianca Belair and Aliyah, Ricochet & Velveteen Dream b Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa
998
9991/5 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (New Japan - 1,730 sellout): Sho & Yoh & Rocky Romero b Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Lance Archer & Takashi Iizuka, Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens b Tomoaki Honma & Toa Henare, Juice Robinson & David Finlay b Baretta & Chuckie T-DQ, Will Ospreay & Hirooki Goto & Tomohiro Ishii b Jeff Cobb & Yuji Nagata & Kushida, Never six man titles: Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa & Taiji Ishimori b Togi Makabe & Toru Yano & Ryusuke Taguchi, Minoru Suzuki & Zack Sabre Jr. & Taichi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Desperado b Tetsuya Naito & Evil & Seiya Sanada & Bushi & Shingo Takagi, Jay White & Bad Luck Fale & Gedo b Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kazuchika Okada & Yoshi-Hashi
1000
10011/6 Fort Myers, FL (WWE Raw - 4,000): Finn Balor won three-way over Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre, Rhyno & Heath Slater & Titus O’Neil b Mojo Rawley & Curt Hawkins & Viktor, Bobby Lashley b Elias, Apollo Crews b Jinder Mahal, John Cena b Baron Corbin, Three-way for tag titles: Bobby Roode & Chad Gable won over Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder and Kalisto & Gran Metalik, Sasha Banks b Mickie James, Bayley & Sasha Banks & Ember Moon b Mickie James & Alicia Fox & Dana Brooke, IC title: Dean Ambrose b Seth Rollins
1002
10031/6 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (Pro Wrestling NOAH - 1,577): Masa Kitamiya b Kinya Okada, Takashi Sugiura b Yoshiki Imamura, Hi69 & Minoru Tanaka b Atsushi Kotoge & Masao Inoue, Hajime Ohara & Hitoshi Kumano b Seiya Morohashi & Junta Miyawaki, Akitoshi Saito & Mohammed Yone & Quiet Storm b Mitsuya Nagai & Kazma Sakamoto & Cody Hall, Yo-Hey & Yoshinari Ogawa & Kotaro Suzuki b Daisuke Harada & Tadasuke & Hayata, GHC tag titles: Maybach Taniguchi & Yuji Hino b Katsuhiko Nakajima & Go Shiozaki to win titles, GHC hwt title: Kaito Kiyomiya b Kenou
1004
10051/7 Orlando (WWE Raw/Main Event TV tapings - 10,000): Natalya b Lacey Evans, EC 3 b Curt Hawkins, John Cena & Finn Balor & Seth Rollins b Bobby Lashley & Drew McIntyre & Dean Ambrose, Lumberjack match for tag titles: Bobby Roode & Chad Gable b Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder, Baron Corbin b Elias, Apollo Crews & Ember Moon b Jinder Mahal & Alicia Fox, Sasha Banks b Nia Jax, Falls count anywhere for IC title: Dean Ambrose b Seth Rollins
1006
10071/7 Nashville (Impact TV tapings - 250): Crimson & Jax Dane b Bram & Caleb Konley, Pentagon Jr. & Fenix b Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz, Willie Mack b Sami Callihan, Non-title no DQ: Killer Kross b Johnny Impact, Tessa Blanchard b Cali, Crazzy Steve b Logan James, Ethan Page b Eddie Edwards-DQ,. Jordynne Grace & Keira Hogan b Allie & Su Yung, KM NC Caleb Konley, Rich Swann b Trey Miguel, LAX b Jake & Dave Crist, Brian Cage b Moose
1008
10091/8 Jacksonville, FL (WWE Smackdown TV tapings - 5,000): Noam Dar b Tony Nese, Hideo Itami b Cedric Alexander, Non-title: Daniel Bryan b R-Truth, Samoa Joe & Andrade Cien Almas b Rey Mysterio & Mustafa Ali, Non-title: Sheamus & Cesaro b Usos, Becky Lynch won three-way over Charlotte Flair and Asuka, Otis Dozovic & Tucker Knight b Primo & Epico Colon, WWE title: A.J. Styles b Daniel Bryan-DQ
1010
10111/8 Mexico City Arena Mexico (CMLL): Coyote & Grako b Bengala & Sonic, Amapola & Dalys & Metalica b Jarochita & Princesa Sugehit & Skadi, Audaz & Flyer & Titan b Kawato San & Okumura & Virus, Angel de Oro b Templario, Gran Guerrero & El Terrible & Ultimo Guerrero b Caristico & Soberano Jr. & Volador Jr., Dragon Lee & Mistico & Rush b Cuatrero & Forastero & Sanson
1012
10131/9 Tokyo Shin-kiba (All Japan - 248): Tamura b Danji Tamura, Takao Omori b Hokuto Omori, Jun Akiyama & Black Menso-re b Yuma Aoyagi & Atsushi Aoyagi, Dylan James b Gianni Valletta, Kento Miyahara & Suwama & Shuji Ishikawa b Jake Lee & Naoya Nomura & Yoshitatsu, Yusuke Okada & Kotaro Suzuki & Seiki Yoshioka & Black Tiger VII b Atsushi Aoki & Atsushi Maruyama & Hikaru Sato
1014
10151/10 Largo, FL (WWE NXT - 177): Mansour Al-Shehail b Rick Bugez, Aliyah & Vanessa Borne b Jessie Elaban & Kacy Catanzaro, Jeet Rama b Riddick Moss, Jaxson Ryker b Stacy Ervin Jr., Humberto Carrillo & Raul Mendoza b Cezar Bononi & Adrian Jaoude, Punishment Martinez b Kona Reeves, Candice LeRae b Deonna Purrazzo, Ricochet & Keith Lee & Matt Riddle b Shane Thorne & Johnny Gargano & Kassius Ohno
1016
10171/11 Charleston, WV (WWE Raw - 4,900): Gran Metalik & Kalisto b Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder, Natalya b Ruby Riott, Sasha Banks & Bayley & Natalya b Ruby Riott & Sarah Logan & Liv Morgan, Cruiserweight title: Cedric Alexander b Buddy Murphy, IC title: Dean Ambrose b Seth Rollins, Tyler Breeze & Curtis Axel & Bo Dallas & No Way Jose b Mojo Rawley & The Ascension & Jinder Mahal, Drew McIntyre b Elias, No DQ: John Cena b Baron Corbin
1018
10191/11 Fort Pierce, FL (WWE NXT- 350): Stacey Ervin Jr. b Kona Reeves, Kacy Catanzaro & Lacey Lane b Aliyah & Vanessa Borne, Kassius Ohno b Mansoor Al-Shehail, Shane Thorne b Boa, Matt Riddle b Punishment Martinez, Keith Lee & Mia Yim b Riddick Moss & Chelsea Green, Deonna Purrazzo b Xia Li, EC 3 & Otis Dozovic & Tucker Knight b Wesley Blake & Steve Cutler & Jaxson Ryker
1020
10211/11 Osaka (New Japan Fantastica Mania - 1,082 sellout): Templario & Taiji Ishimori & Gedo b Audaz & Ryusuke Taguchi & Tiger Mask, Forastero & Taichi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru b Titan & Flyer & Jushin Liger, Sanson & Okumura b Atlantis & Atlantis Jr., Ultimo Guerrero & Gran Guerrero & Cuatrero b Mistico & Dragon Lee & Angel do Oro, Caristico & Barbaro Cavernario & Namajague (Desperado) b Volador Jr. & Soberano Jr. & Kushida, Tetsuya Naito & Bushi & Shingo Takagi & El Terrible b Satoshi Kojima & Toa Henare & Raijin & Fujin (Sho & Yoh)
1022
10231/11 Mexico City (Impact TV tapings - 1,300): Impact title: Johnny Impact NC Killer Kross, Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz b Rohit Raju & Raj Singh, Non-title: Taya Valkyrie b Keyra, Trey Miguel b Ethan Page, Pentagon Jr. & Fenix & Tauro b LAX & Daga, Keira Hogan & Jordynne Grace b Su Yung & Allie, Rich Swann & Willie Mack b Jake & Dave Crist, Moose & Killer Cross b Johnny Impact & Brian Cage, Elimination match: Psycho Clown & Puma King & Aerostar & El Hijo del Vikingo b Eli Drake & Sami Callihan & Eddie Edwards & Fallah Bahh, Tessa Blanchard b Lady Maravilla, Trey Miguel b Raj Singh
1024
10251/11 Mexico City Arena Mexico (CMLL): Cancerbero & Disturbio & Raziel b Robin & Star Jr. & Super Astro Jr., Drone & Esfinge & Guerrero Maya Jr. b Kawato San & Sagrado & Tiger, Polvora b Felino-DQ, Mascara Ano 2000 & Rey Bucanero & Shocker b Blue Panther & Rey Cometa & Triton, Ephesto & Luciferno & Mephisto b Kraneo & Stuka Jr. & Volcano, Euforia & Niebla Roja & Valiente b Bestia del Ring & Rush & Villano IV-DQ
1026
10271/11 Tsushima (Pro Wrestling NOAH - 183): Tadasuke b Kinya Okada, Yo-Hey & Yoshinari Ogawa b Junta Miyawaki & Yoshiki Inamura, Akitoshi Saito b Masao Inoue, Maybach Taniguchi & Cody Hall & Kazma Sakamoto b Takashi Sugiura & Mohammed Yone & Quiet Storm, Masa Kitamiya & Kenou & Keisuke Ishii & Kouki Iwasaki b Go Shiozaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima & Hajime Ohara & Hitoshi Kumano, Kaito Kiyomiya & Daisuke Harada & Hayata b Atsushi Kotoge & Hi69 & Minoru Tanaka
1028
10291/11 Guildford, England (Revolution Pro): Josh Bodom & Sha Samuels b Dan Magee & Kurtis Chapman, Great O-Kharn b MK McKinnan, Women’s title: Zoe Lucas b Yuu, Never open weight title: Will Ospreay b Chris Brookes, Cruiserweight title: David Starr b Kip Sabian, Jay White b Chris Ridgeway, Mark Davis & Kyle Fletcher b Jim & Lee Hunter, British hwt title: Zack Sabre Jr. b Shigehiro Irie
1030
10311/12 Knoxville, TN (WWE Raw - 4,500): Kalisto & Lince Dorado b Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder, Natalya b Ruby Riott, Natalya & Sasha Banks & Bayley b Ruby Riott & Sarah Logan & Liv Morgan, Cruiserweight title: Buddy Murphy b Cedric Alexander, IC title: Dean Ambrose b Seth Rollins, Bo Dallas & Curtis Axel & Tyler Breeze & No Way Jose b Jinder Mahal & Mojo Rawley & Viktor & Sunil Singh, Drew McIntyre b Elias, No DQ: John Cena b Baron Corbin
1032
10331/12 Johnson City, TN (WWE Smackdown - 3,000): Lana & Naomi b Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville, Jeff Hardy b Samoa Joe, U.S. title: Rusev b Shinsuke Nakamura, Three-way for tag titles: Sheamus & Cesaro won over Big E & Kofi Kingston and Usos, WWE title: Daniel Bryan b A.J. Styles, Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson & Shelton Benjamin b Primo & Epico Colon & Aiden English, Mustafa Ali b The Miz, Three-way for women’s title: Asuka won over Becky Lynch and Carmella
1034
10351/12 Blackpool, UK (WWE NXT TV tapings - 1,700): Luke Menzies b Flash Morgan Webster, Nina Samuels b Lana Austin, Kenny Williams & Amir Jordan b Tyson T-Bone & Saxon Huxley, Eddie Dennis b Jamie Ahmed, Travis Banks DCOR Jordan Devlin, Dave Mastiff b Jay Melrose, Walter b Jack Starz, Jinny b Kasey Owens, Tyler Bate & Trent Seven b Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel, El Ligero b Mark Andrews, Xia Brookside b Candy Floss, Joseph Conners b Mike Hitchman, Joe Coffey b Ashton Smith, Walter b Mark Coffey
1036
10371/12 Orlando, FL (WWE NXT - 300): Matt Riddle b Shane Thorne, Vanessa Borne & Aliyah b Lacey Lance & Kacy Catanzaro, Punishment Martinez b Kona Reeves, Chelsea Green b Reina Gonzalez, Montez Ford & Angelo Dawkins & Stacey Ervin Jr. b Steve Cutler & Wesley Blake & Jaxson Ryker, Dominik Dijakovic b Rick Bugez, Gauntlet match: Otis Dozovic & Tucker Knight b Rocky & Boa, Otis Dozovic & Tucker Knight b Adrian Jaoude & Cezar Bononi, Otis Dozovic & Tucker Knight b Humberto Carrillo & Raul Mendoza, Otis Dozovic & Tucker Knight b Saurav Gurjar & Rinku Singh, Adam Cole & Bobby Fish b Otis Dozovic & Tucker Night
1038
10391/12 Ehime (New Japan Fantastica Mania - 1,090 sellout): Audaz & Kushida & Ryusuke Taguchi b Gedo & Taiji Ishimori & Templario, Flyer & Titan b Forastero & Taichi, Okumura & Sanson & Yoshinobu Kanemaru b Atlantis & Atlantis Jr. & Tiger Mask, Barbaro Cavernario & Cuatrero & Ultimo Guerrero b Angel de Oro & Mistico & Soberano Jr., Dragon Lee & Jushin Liger & Volador Jr. b Caristico & Gran Guerrero & Namajague, Bushi & Shingo Takagi & El Terrible & Tetsuya Naito b Fujin & Raijin & Satoshi Kojima & Toa Henare
1040
10411/12 Atlanta Center Stage (ROH TV tapings - 700 sellout): Ken Dixon & Bishop Khan & Malcolm Moses b Joe Keys & Parrow & Odinson, Tag titles: Mark & Jay Briscoe b Colt Cabana & Chuckie T, Tracy Williams b David Finlay, Bandido b Mark Haskins, Silas Young b Eli Isom, Marty Scurll & Brody King & PCO b Corey Hollis & John Skyler & Josie Quinn, WOH title: Kelly Klein b Rochelle Vaughn, NWA title: Nick Aldis b PJ Black, Shane Taylor won six-way over Luchasaurus, Rhett Titus, Chris Sabin, Kenny King and Flip Gordon, Beer City Bruiser & Brian Milonas b Marcus Kross & Griff Garrison, Cheeseburger & Eli Isomi & Ryan Nova b Griff Garrison & Marcus Cross & Slim J, Madison Rayne won three-way over Sumie Sakai and Jenny Rose, Juice Robinson & David Finlay & Tracy Williams & Mark Haskins & Bandido b Jonathan Gresham & Flip Gordon & Dalton Castle & Jeff Cobb & Jay Lethal
1042
10431/12 Mexico City (Impact TV tapings - 1,300): Non-title: Rich Swann b El Hijo de Vikingo, Keira Hogan b Allie, Trey Miguel b Rohit Raju, Willie Mack b Ethan Page, Four-way for Impact title: Johnny Impact won over Moose, Killer Kross and Brian Cage, Psycho Clown b Fallah Bahh, Sami Callihan b Puma King, Eli Drake & Eddie Edwards b Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz, Tag titles: Pentagon Jr. & Fenix b LAX to win titles, Fallah Bahh b Raj Singh, Jordynne Grace b Su Yung
1044
10451/12 Kyoto (Dragon Gate - 675 sellout): Kaito Ishida b Misterioso, Eita b Susumu Yokosuka, Shun Skywalker b Dragon Dia, Yuki Yoshioka b Hyo Watanabe, U-T b Kota Minoura, Big R Shimizu & Ben K & Takashi Yoshida b Ryo Saito & Don Fujii & Gamma, K-Ness & Kagetora b Masaaki Mochizuki & Jason Lee, Yamato & Kai b Pac & Yasushi Kanda, Kzy & Genki Horiguchi & Yasshi b Masato Yoshino & Naruki Doi & Dragon Kid
1046
10471/12 Hamamatsu (Pro Wrestling NOAH - 245): Yo-Hey & Yoshinari Ogawa b Masao Inoue & Yoshiki Inamura, Takashi Sugiura b Kinya Okada, Go Shiozaki & Hayata b Atsushi Kotoge & Junta Miyawaki, Katsuhiko Nakajima & Hajime Ohara & Hitoshi Kumano b Kenou & Keisuke Ishii & Kouki Iwasaki, Mohammed Yone & Quiet Storm & Akitoshi Saito b Maybach Taniguchi & Cody Hall & Kazma Sakamoto, Kaito Kiyomiya & Hi69 & Minoru Tanaka b Masa Kitamiya & Daisuke Ikeda & Tadasuke
1048
10491/12 Miyagi (All Japan - 260): Atsushi Aoki & Yusuke Okada b Hokuto Omori & Danji Tamura, Jun Akiyama & Black Menso-re & Atsushi Maruyama b Takao Omori & Koji Iwamoto & Aizawa #1, TV title: Tajiri b Tsuyoshi Kikuchi, Jake Lee & Ryoji Sai b Dylan James & Gianni Valletta, Zeus b Yoshitatsu, Kento Miyahara & Naoya Nomura & Yuma Aoyagi b Shuji Ichikawa & Suwama & Hikaru Sato
1050
10511/13 Huntsville, AL (WWE Raw - 4,200): Kalisto & Gran Metalik b Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder, Natalya b Ruby Riott, Natalya & Sasha Banks & Bayley b Ruby Riott & Liv Morgan & Sarah Logan, Cruiserweight title: Buddy Murphy b Cedric Alexander, IC title: Dean Ambrose b Seth Rollins, Bo Dallas & Curtis Axel & Tyler Breeze & No Way Jose b Jinder Mahal & Mojo Rawley & Viktor & Samir Singh, Drew McIntyre b Elias, No DQ: John Cena b Baron Corbin
1052
10531/13 Johnson City, TN (WWE Smackdown - 3,650): Three-way for tag titles: Sheamus & Cesaro won over Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods and Usos, Naomi & Lana b Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville, Three-way for U.S. title: Rusev won over Shinsuke Nakamura and Jeff Hardy, WWE title: Daniel Bryan b A.J. Styles, Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson & Shelton Benjamin b Primo & Epico Colon & Aiden English, Rey Mysterio b Aiden English, Mustafa Ali b The Miz, Three-way for women’s title: Asuka won over Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch
1054
10551/13 Kyoto (New Japan Fantastica Mania - 801 sellout): Gedo & Taiji Ishimori & Templario b Audaz & Jushin Liger & Ryusuke Taguchi, Angel de Oro & Kushida b Cuatrero & Taichi, Atlantis & Atlantis Jr. & Flyer b Okumura & Sanson & Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Mistico & Soberano Jr. & Titan b Barbaro Cavernario & Forastero & Ultimo Guerrero, Caristico & Gran Guerrero & Namajague b Dragon Lee & Tiger Mask & Volador Jr., Bushi & Shingo Takagi & El Terrible & Tetsuya Naito b Fujin & Raijin & Satoshi Kojima & Toa Henare
1056
10571/13 Concord, NC (ROH - 750): Cheeseburger & Eli Isom & Ryan Nova b John Skyler & Corey Hollis & Josie Quinn, Mark Haskins b Beer City Bruiser, Juice Robinson & David Finlay b Chuckie T & Baretta, Tracy Williams b Flip Gordon, Non-title: Matt Taven & Vinny Marseglia & TK O’Ryan b Luchasaurus & Delirious & Shane Helms, Bandido b PJ Black, Three-way for TV title: Jeff Cobb won over Rhett Titus and Jonathan Gresham, Street fight for WOH tile: Kelly Klein b Jenny Rose, Marty Scurll & Brody King & PCO b Mark & Jay Briscoe & Silas Young, ROH title: Jay Lethal b Dalton Castle
1058
10591/13 Mexico City Arena Mexico (CMLL): Angelito & Shockercito b Mercurio & Pierrothito, Amapola & Comandante & Tiffany b Avispa Dorada & Maligna & Sanely, Black Panther & Blue Panther Jr. & Guerrero Maya Jr. b Kawato San & Universo 2000 Jr. & Virus, Blue Panther & Esfinge & Triton b Dragon Rojo Jr. & El Hijo del Signo & Polvora, Stuka Jr. b Hechicero, NWA light heavyweight title: Stuka Jr. b Hechicero, Kraneo & Niebla Roja & Valiente b Vangellys & Rey Bucanero & Euforia-DQ
1060
10611/13 Osaka (Dragon Gate - 930): Hyo Watanabe d Misterioso, Eita b Ryo Saito, Don Fujii & Gamma & K-Ness b Masaaki Mochizuki & Genki Horiguchi & Problem Dragon, Shun Skywalker b Yuki Yoshioka, Kaito Ishida b U-T, Yasushi Kanda & Takashi Yoshida b Masato Yoshino & Jason Lee, Kzy & Susumu Yokosuka b Naruki Doi & Dragon Kid, Yamato & Kagetora & Kai b Pac & Big R Shimizu & Ben K
1062
10631/13 Isanuma (Pro Wrestling NOAH - 240 sellout): Minoru Tanaka won three-way over Tadasuke and Kinya Okada, Akitoshi Saito & Hi69 & Junta Miyawaki b Go Shiozaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima & Masao Inoue, Atsushi Kotoge & Yoshinari Ogawa b Kenou & Hayata, Keisuke Ishii & Kouki Iwasaki & Seiya Morohashi b Hajime Ohara & Hitoshi Kumano & Yoshiki Inamura, Maybach Taniguchi & Cody Hall & Kazma Sakamoto b Takashi Sugiura & Mohammed Yone & Quiet Storm, Masa Kitamiya & Yo-Hey b Kaito Kiyomiya & Daisuke Harada
1064
10651/14 Memphis, TN (WWE Raw/Main Event TV tapings - 8,000): Zack Ryder & No Way Jose b Tyler Breeze & Cut Hawkins, Alicia Fox & Mickie James b Ember Moon & Dana Brooke, Ronda Rousey & Sasha Banks b Tamina & Nia Jax, Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder b Kalisto & Gran Metalik, Bayley & Natalya & Nikki Cross b Ruby Riott & Sarah Logan & Liv Morgan, Finn Balor b Jinder Mahal, Three-way for IC title: Bobby Lashley won title over Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose, Finn Balor won four-way over John Cena, Drew McIntyre and Baron Corbin
1066
10671/14 Gifu (New Japan Fantastica Mania - 1,607 sellout): Audaz & Ryusuke Taguchi & Tiger Mask b Gedo & Taiji Ishimori & Templario, Cuatrero & Taichi b Angel de Oro & Flyer, Atlantis & Atlantis Jr. & Kushida b Okumura & Sanson & Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Dragon Lee & Soberano Jr. & Titan b Barbaro Cavernario & Forastero & Gran Guerrero, Jushin Liger & Mistico & Volador Jr. b Caristico & Ultimo Guerrero & Namajague, Tetsuya Naito & Bushi & Shingo Takagi & El Terrible b Fujin & Raijin & Satoshi Kojima & Toa Henare
1068
10691/14 Nagoya (All Japan - 495): Yuma Aoyagi b Hokuto Omori, Naoya Nomura & Danji Tamura b Takao Omori & Atsuki Aoyagi, Zeus & Konaka b Jun Akiyama & Atsushi Maruyama, Atsushi Aoki & Yusuke Okada b Black Menso-re & Black Tiger VII, Kento Miyahara & Yoshitatsu b Dylan James & Gianni Valletta, Jake Lee & Koji Iwamoto & Ryoji Sai b Suwama & Shuji Ishikawa & Hikaru Sato
1070
10711/14 Kuwana (Dragon Gate - 332): Ryo Saito & Don Fujii b Shun Skywalker & Yuki Yoshioka, Hyo Watanabe b Kota Minoura, Masaaki Mochizuki & Kai & Kaito Ishida b Yamato & Kagetora & U-T, Eita & Big R Shimizu b Kzy & Susumu Yokosuka, Pac & Ben K & Yasushi Kanda b Naruki Doi & Dragon Kid & Jason Lee
1072
10731/15 Birmingham (WWE Smackdown/205 Live TV tapings - 5,000): EC 3 b Aiden English, Otis Dozovic & Tucker Knight b Primo & Epico Colon, Becky Lynch b Peyton Royce, Asuka b Billie Kay, Andrade b Rey Mysterio, The Miz b Sheamus, Lio Rush b Lince Dorado, Non-title: Buddy Murphy b Humberto Carrillo, WWE title: A.J. Styles b Daniel Bryan-DQ
1074
10751/15 Mexico City Arena Mexico (CMLL): Acero & Aereo b Pequeno Nitro & Pequeno Violencia, Metalico & Nitro & Sangre Azteca b Oro Jr. & Star Jr. & Retro, Drone & Pegasso & Stigma b Disturbio & Kawato San & Universo 2000 Jr., Sagrado b Tiger, Black Panther & Blue Panther & Blue Panther Jr. b Coyote & Felino & Polvora, Kraneo & Niebla Roja & Volcano b Luciferno & Mephisto & Rey Bucanero-DQ
1076
10771/15 Abeno (All Japan - 352): Danji Tamura b Atsuki Aoyagi, Atsushi Aoki & Hikaru Sato b Hokuto Omori & Koji Iwamoto, Jake Lee & Ryoji Sai b Dylan James & Black Tiger VII, Suwama & Shuji Ishikawa & Yusuke Okada b Jun Akiyama & Takao Omori & Black Menso-re, Yoshitatsu b Gianni Valletta, Kento Miyahara & Naoya Nomura & Yuma Aoyagi b Zeus & The Bodyguard & Atsushi Maruyama
1078
10791/16 Chiba (New Japan - 1,015): Forastero & Taiji Ishimori & Gedo b Titan & Ryusuke Taguchi & Kushida, Fujin & Raijin b Bushi & Shingo Takagi, Angel de Oro & Soberano Jr. & Audaz b Barbaro Cavernario & Okumura & Namajague, Tetsuya Naito & El Terrible b Satoshi Kojima & Toa Henare, Caristico & Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask b Ultimo Guerrero & Gran Guerrero & Templario, Sanson & Cuatrero b Atlantis & Atlantis Jr., Mistico & Dragon Lee b Volador Jr. & Flyer
1080
10811/16 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (Dragon Gate - 1,615 sellout): Ryo Saito & Super Shisa & Hollywood Stalker Ichikawa & Shachihoko Boy & Hiroshi Yamato b Gamma & K-Ness & Yasshi & Mondai Ryu & Misterioso, Yuki Yoshioka b U-T, Eita & Yasushi Kanda & Takashi Yoshida b Don Fujii & Hyo Watanabe & Kota Minoura, Pac & Big R Shimizu & Ben K & Kazma Sakamoto b Masato Yoshino & Naruki Doi & Dragon Kid & Jason Lee, Shun Skywalker b Kaito Ishida, Kzy & Susumu Yokosuka & Genki Horiguchi b Yamato & Kagetora & Kai, Shuji Kondo b Masaaki Mochizuki
1082
1083CMLL: They have announced the Universal champion of champions tournament will be taking place on 2/1, 2/8 and 2/15 at Arena Mexico. Based on who are champions right now, there look to be 17 possible entrants in what is usually a 16 man tournament. The champions are Volador Jr. (NWA welterweight), Caristico (NWA middleweight), Stuka Jr. (NWA light heavyweight), Dragon Lee (CMLL lightweight), Mephisto (CMLL middleweight), Cuatrero (CMLL welterweight & Mexican national trio), Niebla Roja (CMLL light heavyweight), Valiente (CMLL tag team), Diamante Azul (CMLL tag team), Forastero (Mexican national trio), Sanson (Mexican national trio), Ultimo Guerrero (CMLL heavyweight and CMLL trios), Gran Guerrero (CMLL trios), Euforia (CMLL trios), Soberano Jr. (Mexican national welterweight), Cavernario (Mexican national light heavyweight) and El Terrible (Mexican national heavyweight)
1084
1085With most of the top stars in New Japan, they did a weak show on 1/11 at Arena Mexico with Euforia teaming with usual tecnicos Niebla Roja & Valiente against usual heels Rush & Bestia del Ring (Rush’s father) & Villano IV (brought back because he was once a big star and they need some help these weeks and this really showed how limited the depth in the company is right now). It was a quick two straight falls match ending when Rush pulled off Euforia’s mask and punched ref Edgar for the DQ to set up a singles match. Mephisto & Ephesto & Luciferno beat Kraneo & Stuka Jr. & Volcano. I was told the show wasn’t much on paper or in real life
1086
1087The 1/18 show has the Rush vs. Euforia singles match plus Ephesto & Gilbert El Boricua (Mil Muertes/Ricky Banderas, etc.) & Mephisto vs. Diamante Azul & Niebla Roja & Valiente. Anyway, nothing much there but I’ve been told 1/25 will be a major show when everyone gets back. They were pushing both Penta 0M and King Phoenix for the show, but then the lineup didn’t have them
1088
1089Stuka Jr. retained the NWA light heavyweight title over Hechicero on 1/13 at Arena Mexico.
1090
1091AAA: Televisa didn’t air AAA last week which Konnan on his podcast said he thought was due to the holidays, but it also wasn’t on this week
1092
1093However, AAA aired on Multimedios, which is a major Monterrey station, on1/13 at 3p.m. airing a replay of TripleMania. Multimedios is a syndicated network based on Monterrey where it is strongest but they have affiliates in Mexico City, Puebla, Ciudad Juarez, Nuevo Laredo, Torreon and Guadalajara, but are far from Televisa. Multimedios is also on a lot of U.S. cable systems, usually in a Spanish language tier, including DirecTV as well as on some local stations in Houston, Phoenix and Salt Lake City
1094
1095Konnan also noted they were trying to add an English language Twitch channel to go along with their Spanish language channe
1096
1097Reporter Lio Riano reported that Konnan and Vampiro will have a retirement tour and retire at the end of the year. Konnan has certainly talked of that. Vampiro has already retired and come out of retirement 20 times. He also said AAA is looking at booking Madison Square Garden. AAA had a date in MSG last year but pulled out because somebody finally explained that they wouldn’t draw unless they got better U.S. television, so until that happens, that’s unlikely to happen
1098
1099La Mascara vs. Maximo in a hair vs. hair match will take place on 2/1 in Tlalnepantla. But it isn’t their hair at stake. Instead, Maximo will be risking the hair of his father, Super Porky Brazo de Plata. Mascara is risking the hair of his cousin, female wrestler Goya Kong. So it looks like Porky is getting a hair payoff to help him out since he can’t wrestle any longer
1100
1101Sammy Guevara makes his first AAA cruiserweight title defense on a 2/1 show in Tijuana against Laredo Kid
1102
1103They will have a TV taping that airs live on Twitch on 1/19 with the top four bouts being Killer Kross vs. Dave the Clown vs. Parka Negra, Maximo & Murder Clown & Taya vs. Chessman & La Mascara & Faby Apache, Brian Cage & Pagano vs. Joe Lider & El Texano Jr., and Dr. Wagner Jr. & La Parka & Psycho Clown vs. Blue Demon Jr. & El Hijo del Fantasma & Rey Escorpion.
1104
1105DRAGON GATE: The new Dragon Gate show on MBS is significant in parts of Japan as MBS is a major station in Osaka. It’s not available in other parts of Japan, such as Tokyo. But even in the middle of the night, it’s an exposure level that only New Japan can rival, putting them ahead of WWE in the market as far as television goes
1106
1107The first major show of the year will be Memorial Gate on 3/21 in Wakayama
1108
1109Pac returned this past weekend after the AEW rally
1110
1111They opened the new year with a show on 1/12 in Kyoto. They are doing a newcomers rookie rankings tournament. On 1/12, Shun Skywalker beat Dragon Dia, Yuki Yoshioka beat Hyo Watanabe and U-T beat Kaito Minoura. On 1/13, Skywalker beat Yoshioka and Kaito Ishida beat U-T. Watanabe beat Minoura in a fifth place match on the 1/14 show
1112
1113The big show of the week was 1/16 at Korakuen Hall, which sold out with 1,615 fans. It was built around the return of Shuji Kondo, who was fired from the promotion at the end of 2004 (actually he was fired from Toryumon, which was the promotion that preceded Dragon Gate). Kondo pinned Masaaki Mochizuki in 16:22 with a lariat in the main event. Skywalker beat Ishida in the finals of the tournament with a moonsault in 18:59. The third place match took place earlier with Yoshioka beating U-T with a small package.
1114
1115ALL JAPAN: Big Japan’s Strong BJ team of Daisuke Sekimoto & Yuji Okabayashi won the double world tag team titles from Suwama & Shuji Ishikawa in the main event of Big Japan’s 1/13 show at Korakuen Hall before 1,063 fans. The finish came at 26:14 when Sekimoto pinned Ishikawa with a German suplex. Their first title defense will be against Jake Lee & Ryoji Sai on 2/24 in Yokohama
1116
1117They started the new year with shows on Jan. 2 and 3 at Korakuen Hall, which is tradition dating back to the beginning of time. Both were 11:30 a.m. shows. The first show drew 1,440 fans and featured the annual crappy Battle Royal, this year won by Jake Lee. Koji Iwamoto retained the world jr. title over Yusuke Okada in 15:21. Okada got a title match even though he’s only been in the business 12 months. Suwama & Ishikawa retained the tag titles over tournament winners Joe Doering & Dylan James in 18:33 when Ishikawa pinned James. Sekimoto came out at that point to issue the challenge for the tag title that followed
1118
1119I was at the 1/3 show, which drew 1,585 fans. It was a fun show. Masa Fuchi was super over doing his old school comedy underneath. Naoya Nomura & Yuma Aoyagi’s All Asia tag title defense over Takao Omori & Black Menso-re was ****. It built really well, lots of selling by the champions and the crowd went crazy for Nomura pinning Omori, since by Japanese tradition that wouldn’t happen usually with the seniority edge. Kento Miyahara, who is very much like a Tanahashi live, retained the Triple Crown beating Kai in 28:34 with the shutdown German suplex. Pretty much everyone had it either ****½ or ****3/4. The thing about this match is it went so long but breezed by and felt like it was 15 minutes, unlike Omega-Tanahashi which felt as long as it was. As good as Miyahara looks when you watch his matches streaming, he’s one of those guys who does so many little things well live that you don’t notice on television. He’s one of the best in the ring at working, at being world champion, and I have no idea what he said in his promo but he did that long Tanahashi show end promo that nobody was leaving during and that people were going crazy for.
1120
1121PRO WRESTLING NOAH: The first big show of the new year was 1/6 at Korakuen Hall before a full house of 1,577 fans with two title bouts. Maybach Taniguchi & Yuji Hino won the GHC tag titles from Katsuhiko Nakajima & Go Shiozaki in 19:00 when Taniguchi pinned Shiozaki with a power bomb. This was really good stuff most of the way. Nakajima’s offense was great and Hino did a lot of power stuff with it. Kaito Kiyomiya, who they are grooming as the top star, retained his GHC title over Kenou in 25:06 with a Tiger suplex. I’d go ****1/4 on this one. Kiyomiya sells great and his offense is solid. He’s 22, but looks young at that age, and kind of too young looking to be world champion but he’s technically there. Kenou was great in this one.
1122
1123NEW JAPAN: We don’t have a gate for the Tokyo Dome yet, but it was confirmed as the largest gate for a pro wrestling show in Japan since the Antonio Inoki retirement show in 1998 (which did the equivalent of $7 million for the Inoki vs. Don Frye main event),. It would be the second or third biggest of all-time in Japan, with the other monster gate from that era being the first Keiji Muto vs. Nobuhiko Takada match in 1995 that did $6.1 million. Aside from maybe the Australia show WWE did last year, and perhaps not given the value of the Australian dollar, it would be the biggest non-WrestleMania gate anywhere in the world since that show in 1998. There were fewer tickets sold because they had a larger capacity with a less elaborate stage in that era, but higher ticket prices now than that era so it’s on par
1124
1125Harold Meij responded to people thinking the Dome show was the beginning of the end by saying that more big companies in the industry is proof of a healthy business and that wrestling was a one billion dollar a year business and it’s become a 1.3 billion to 1.5 billion dollar business. “I used to be in charge of a $1.8 billion business (he ran the biggest toy company in Japan). Not the entire industry, a company worth that much, and forgive me for saying, I did pretty well. And New Japan has a great structure, our people have a lot of skill and know how and our wrestlers are great. Talent will come and go. That’s life. Half of Japanese people have had more than one occupation. More overseas. There are different life stages. Priorities change. What counts is that while here, people shine as bright as possible and produce the best product for us. Our job as a business in New Japan is to make sure our wrestlers are not spending their life worrying about ticket sales, living expenses, feeding their family or injury. They need to be able to focus on the ring. I often see talk along the lines of since Meij came in, they’re only looking at international. They don’t care about Japan. That couldn’t be more wrong. New Japan has gotten to the stage that the world has taken notice of it and we can do these things abroad. I’m not pushing the company international. If anything, it’s the other way around. I’m doing my job as a professional to fulfill very strong demand.†The reality is that the business has clear economic indicators, and while there are hits and misses, when it comes to the criticism of the Kenny Omega title reign and the Gedo booking, the Tokyo Dome’s success was combined with he demand for New Year’s Dash as the highest in history for that show by a huge margin. Those at New Japan believed they could have sold 20,000 tickets to Dash this year, which is one of the reasons they are doing two Tokyo Domes on successive nights next year. I knew they outgrew Korakuen Hall badly but the previous regime had already booked the schedule. I figured they’d go to Sumo Hall or Budokan next year, but the Tokyo Dome a second day was really ambitious. Dash was just a decent show. The angles building February weren’t as interesting as in the past, and unlike last year where all the key guys on the Dome worked Dash, they pulled guys not booked for February angles like no Omega, Chris Jericho, Marty Scurll, Cody, Young Bucks, and Hangman Page. There were lots of angles, the most heated of which was the Tomohiro Ishii vs. Yuji Nagata stuff, which was intense and got over great. Surprisingly, it’s earmarked for the Los Angeles, Charlotte and Nashville run and not the Japan run. Baretta & Chuckie T vs. Juice Robinson & David Finlay in a tag match where Chucky was DQ’d for hitting Finlay with a chair to the head (not brutally, but still), and then gave him a piledriver on a chair. They were also pushing Robinson vs. Baretta as a U.S. title program. There was a **** match with Will Ospreay & Ishii & Hirooki Goto beating Kushida & Nagata (who I’m guessing got the slot originally scheduled for the injured Michael Elgin) & Jeff Cobb. Ospreay beat Kushida with the storm breaker to win, and Ospreay was put over huge here. They also heated up Goto vs. Cobb for the U.S. market. Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa & Taiji Ishimori beat Togi Makabe & Toru Yano & Ryusuke Taguchi to keep the trios titles in the match set up when the latter team won the Tokyo Dome gauntlet. This was where Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens helped the Bullet Club team win and they all reunited when it was over. In a surprise, Minoru Suzuki & Zack Sabre Jr. & Taichi & Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru beat Tetsuya Naito & Evil & Seiya Sanada & Bushi & Shingo Takagi. The winning team wasn’t a surprise, but Taichi pinning Naito was. Taichi laid out Naito after to set up a big show main event, which is quite a scary proposition. We’ll see how strong the company is on that night. Suzuki & Sabre beat down Evil & Sanada to set up a tag title match and Kanemaru & Desperado laid out Bushi & Takagi to set up the jr. tag title match. It was all basic angle stuff. To me, the Suzuki & Sabre stuff seemed to work the best. The jr. tag was just basic, continuing a program people have seen and isn’t fresh. Taichi main eventing a big show was definitely a stretch although with a good showing (which he didn’t have with Goto & Elgin over the Never title), he can make himself viable. The work with Suzuki vs. Sanada in particular was great because of the unique style difference between the two. The main event saw the return of Yoshi-Hashi from a concussion. He was super over. Yoshi-Hashi teamed with Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kazuchika Okada against Jay White & Bad Luck Fale & Gedo, which ended when White pinned Yoshi-Hashi with the blade runner. The focus was Tanahashi vs. White and Okada vs. Fale. After the match, everyone beat down Tanahashi until Okada ran in for the save, and Fale laid Okada out with the grenade. Tanahashi’s knees were in horrible shape after the Dome match. I don’t know what he’s doing to have matches like he has on big shows and then can barely walk the next day, but it reminds me of Terry Funk. But Tanahashi does nothing much on the house shows but whatever selling he needs to do to get the angle over. White even made fun of how bad Tanahashi was walking. Okada & Tanahashi were stars at a completely different level of everyone else on the show, including Naito. Once again, while merch lines were huge, there was not a ton of LIJ merchandise on fans like there was months ago when the whole place was filled with LIJ merch. Away from wrestling and on the streets, I didn’t see people with wrestling merchandise in the real world much, a little more than you’d see away from wrestling in the real world as there was Bullet Club stuff on people even today and a rare LIJ, which is more than the U.S. where I never see it except in certain malls where you do see Bullet Club stuff or retro 90s stuff rarely but nothing with current WWE stars. Tanahashi is like the living legend and Okada is clearly the guy they see as the real best wrestler among the Japanese
1126
1127Kenny Omega, when accepting the 2018 Match of the Year award by Tokyo Sports at their ceremony on 1/17 (for the Okada match at Dominion last year) said he wouldn’t be on that stage next year but would still be doing matches of the year next year, but on the international stage. Not sure I’d throw away the possibility of the Tanahashi match winning for 2019
1128
1129The Fantastica Mania tour opened on 1/11 in Osaka. Until the 1/16 show in Chiba (near Tokyo), which drew 1,015 fans, every show this year has sold out. The tour thus far was described as fun house shows every night. No real angles and nothing must-see but very entertaining live. Fujin & Raijin, who are Sho & Yoh under masks, beat Takagi & Bushi in a non-title match on 1/16 when Fujin pinned Bushi with La Magistral. They also did the first round of the family tag team tournament as Sanson & Cuatrero beat Atlantis & Atlantis Jr. In 9:52 when Sanson pinned Atlantis Jr., and Mistico & Dragon Lee beat Volador Jr. & Flyer in 14:35 when Lee beat Flyer with the Desnucadora
1130
1131The Fantastica Mania tour ends with three Korakuen Hall shows this week, on 1/18, 1/20 and 1/21, all live on New Japan World at 4:30 a.m. The 1/18 show features a Memorial match for Victor Mar (Black Cat), who was the New Japan/Mexico liaison, with Satoshi Kojima & Toa Henare (who has looked great on this tour when featured more) & Raijin & Fujin vs. Naito & El Terrible & Bushi & Takagi, Soberano Jr. vs. Cavernario Barbaro, the third place match in the family tournament with Atlantis & Atlantis Jr. (who is green but overall has gotten good reviews based on his level of experience) vs. Volador Jr. & Flyer and the first place mach with Mistico & Dragon Lee vs. Cuatrero & Sanson. 1/20 has Henare & Raijin & Fujin vs. Naito & Bushi & Takagi, Kojima vs. Terrible and Ultimo Guerrero & Gran Guerrero (2018 families tag team tournament winner) face the 2019 winners. 1/21 has Flyer & Audaz vs. Cavernario & Templario, Atlantis Jr. vs. Okumura, Kojima & Henare & Raijin & Fujin vs. Naito & Terrible & Takagi & Bushi, Sanson & Cuatrero & Forastero defend the Mexican national trios titles against Atlantis & Angel de Oro & Titan, Mistico & Dragon Lee & Soberano Jr. vs. Ultimo Guerrero & Gran Guerrero & Namajague, Dragon George (Okada) & Sweet Gorilla Maruyama (Togi Makabe) vs. Gokuuri Mask & Ginbae Mask (Tanahashi & Taguchi) with the wrestlers playing their characters from the movie “My Dad is a Heel Wrestler,†and Volador Jr. vs. Caristico
1132
1133For the next tour, New Japan will have live coverage with English commentary for shows on 1/28 at Korakuen Hall, 1/29 at Korakuen Hall (Tanahashi vs. Kushida in Kushida’s last match), 1/30 in Sendai, 2/2 in Sapporo, 2/3 in Sapporo, 2/9 in Osaka, the big show on 2/11 in Osaka, 2/21 at Korakuen Hall (Takashi Iizuka’s retirement match) and the Honor Rising shows on 2/22 and 2/23 from Korakuen Hall
1134
1135One of the things with Kushida which led to his leaving for WWE is that early last year he wanted to go heel and join the Bullet Club, but Gedo wanted him to stay in his place. The deal was that New Japan needed the solid junior heavyweight guy, with Will Ospreay in Chaos, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Desperado and Taka Michinoku in Suzuki-gun, Taiji Ishimori in Bullet Club and Bushi and Hiromu Takahashi in LIJ. The home team side had Ryusuke Taguchi, but he’s more comedy now and only turning it on as a serious guy for a few matches a year like Super Juniors, and Tiger Mask and Jushin Liger are legends, but they are no longer in the singles title picture. That probably isn’t the only reason but it was part of it. He handled it professionally, working until 1/29, doing his clean jobs at the Dome and Dash, and because he handled it so professionally he’s getting his first career singles match with Hiroshi Tanahashi on his last night at Korakuen Hall
1136
1137Katsuya Kitamura’s contract was renewed for 2019 even though nobody knows whether he’ll be able to wrestle again after crushing one of his legs in an accident on a scooter. NJPW pays guys their full salaries if they are off while injured. Guys are naturally going to come back early from injuries because they are wrestlers and that’s the way wrestlers think. But there’s not an economic incentive with the idea that you have to come back early because you’ll either make far less or make nothing if you don’t
1138
1139Hiromu Takahashi is expected to return but probably not soon
1140
1141Tanahashi’s title win was the first time the G-1 briefcase winner actually won the title, after six straight losses. There had been G-1 winners who have gone on to win the title, but not since the briefcase were started in 2013. Tanahashi broke his old record with his eighth IWGP title reign. Tatsumi Fujinami has six while Kensuke Sasaki has five, and Kazuchika Okada, Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Keiji Muto have four
1142
1143Also, Toru Yano has the longest winning streak at the Dome with six years, all in tag team matches. The previous three years he had also won a title at the Dome, In 2016, he teamed with Mark & Jay Briscoe to win the Never trios titles from Bad Luck Fale & Tama Tonga & Yujiro Takahashi. In 2017, he and Tomohiro Ishii won the IWGP tag titles over Tonga & Loa and Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma. In 2018, he and Baretta & Ishii won the Never trios title in the gauntlet. This year he and Makabe & Ryusuke Taguchi won the Never gauntlet to become top contenders for the trios title, but they lost the title match at Dash on 1/5
1144
1145The 2/19 Sumo Hall show which is built around the 20th anniversary of the death of Giant Baba as well as honoring the retirement of Abdullah the Butcher, a multi-promotional show, as Taichi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Taka Michinoku vs. Masa Fuchi & Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Yuma Aoyagi, a three-way tag match with Seiya Sanada & Bushi vs. Jake Lee & Koji Iwamoto vs. Ayato Yoshida & Shota Umino, Satoshi Kojima & Yuji Nagata & Osamu Nishimura vs. Jun Akiyama & Takao Omori & Taiyo Kea (Baba’s last ever protégé); and Mil Mascaras & Dos Caras vs. Kaz Hayashi & Nosawa. There will be matches still to be announced involving Tanahashi, Tomoaki Honma, Kento Miyahara, Great Kojika, Daisuke Sekimoto, Naomichi Marufuji, Kazushi Miyamoto, Tomohiko Hashimoto, Atsushi Onita and Kendo Kashin.
1146
1147OTHER JAPAN NOTES: Over the past few weeks there was a Giant Baba exhibit in Tokyo at a major store. There was a giant billboard on the side of the store in Shibuya, which is one of the busiest parts of Tokyo (it would be like having a giant billboard of Hulk Hogan at Times Square). It had a lot of memorabilia including old tour posters, videos of famous All Japan matches and music constantly playing, the old United National, PWF and International belts, the original World League from the Rikidozan era giant trophy and some other trophies, Baba’s urn, Baba’s bowling ball, two life-size Baba mannequins (there was another life-size Baba poster downstairs in the mall) and it was pretty busy with mostly an older clientele when we were there. It also had some of his paintings, photos from his major league baseball career as well as other historical photos. The talk was that after it finished its run in Tokyo it would become a museum in Niigata, where he grew up
1148
1149Riki Choshu, 67, had one of his final matches on 12/28 at Korakuen Hall before a sellout of 1,580 fans for his own show. Choshu teamed with his biggest rival, Tatsumi Fujinami & NOAH’s Masa Kitamiya (symbolic since Kitamiya is a copy of Masa Saito, and Saito was Choshu’s mentor) to beat GHC champion Kaito Kiyomiya & Jun Kasai & Nosawa when Choshu pinned Nosawa with a lariat in 8:01
1150
1151Stardom held its eight anniversary show on 1/14 at Korakuen Hall before 910 fans. The biggest news was the push of Utami Hayashishita, who captured both the SWA world title (European group) and the Eve International title (U.K. group) from Viper, since Viper is leaving for WWE. Because Viper had to be here, that’s probably why she wasn’t introduced at the WWE Takeover show. Hayashishita won in 11:25 with a German suplex. This makes four championships for Hayashishita, who has the Future of Stardom title (she beat Starlight Kid for it on 1/3 in Shin-kiba with the torture rack) and the Goddesses of Stardom tag title. Mayu Iwatani, who when I saw her 11 days earlier she hardly seemed like someone who would be ready to return that quickly, made her return from a knee injury in her own eighth anniversary match, teaming with Arisa Hoshiki & Saki Kashima to beat Konami & AZM & Bea Priestley. Momo Watanabe retained her Wonder of Stardom title over Tam Nakano in 21:37 with the Peach sunrise. Both Sadie Gibbs and Jamie Hayter issued title challenges after the match. The main event saw Kagetsu keep her World of Stardom title beating Jungle Kyona in 21:37 with a Death Valley Bomb. Hazuki challenged Kagetsu for the title after the match. Also at the show, both Natsuko Tora & Kyona and Hoshiki & Iwatani challenged Hayashishita & Watanabe for the tag team titles. Upcoming title matches are 1/27 in Osaka has the Kagetsu vs. Hazuki match, Watanabe & Hayashishita defend the tag belts against Kyona & Tora and Iwatani & Nakano & Saki Kashima defend the trios belts against Hana Kimura & Sadie Gibbs & Bobbi Tyler. On 2/2 in Kyoto, Watanabe defends the Wonder of Stardom title against Jamie Hayter
1152
1153Big Japan ran Korakuen Hall shows on 1/13 and 1/14. The 1/13 show drew 1,063 fans with the All Japan tag title change, and the 1/14 show drew 987 with Masaya Takanishi keeping the death match heavyweight title in a 344,440 thumbtacks death match over Ryoji Ito and a jackhammer on light tubes. They also ran Jan. 2 at Korakuen Hall, which was their big show, before 1,513 fans that was said to be a great show with nothing but good matches, compared almost to PWG-level. The two big ones were Sekimoto retaining the Big Japan strong title against Ryota Hama in 15:04 after a lariat. Hama, who is about 5-foot-8 and 460 pounds has incredible live event charisma. He’s a former sumo who was a star in All Japan early in his career. Masaya Takanashi kept the death match tile over Takumi Tsuakmoto in 18:24 in a bout filled with breaking light tubes
1154
1155The U.K. based Fight Club Pro group drew 1,000 on 1/7 at Korakuen Hall. This was the show that Pete Dunne, Trent Seven and Tyler Bate were pulled from because they don’t let their talent work anywhere one week before U.K. TV. WWE did send them Akira Tozawa as a replacement. The main event was a crazy bloodbath death match where Jimmy Havoc won over Masashi Takeda, Drew Parker and Rickey Shane Page after a Canadian Destroyer through light tubes. Tozawa teamed with Meiko Satomura to beat CCK (Chris Brookes & Kid Lykos), so Tozawa worked a match where a woman was taking punishment from guys. Sekimoto & Okabayashi had a chop fest beating Aussie Open. The main event and the OWE match where T-Hawk & Lindaman beat Cima & Seiki Yoshioka were the best matches but most of the show we’re sold was so-so
1156
1157DDT on 12/30 sold out Korakuen Hall for the Grand Prix final where Konosuke Takeshita beat Go Shiozaki of NOAH in 23:07. The crowd had a hard time getting into it because in the previous match Naomi Yoshimura took a pedigree, and it didn’t even look bad, but he couldn’t move and the match had to be stopped. People feared he had a broken neck but it ended up just being a sprain. But it took them out of the main event
1158
1159DDT and Big Japan ran their joint New Year’s Eve show at Korakuen Hall before 1,242 fans, opposite Mayweather vs. Nakusawa and the concert on national TV. The show was very entertaining and Yuko Miyamoto & Takeshita beat Yuji Okabayashi & Yukio Sakaguchi (Seiji’s son) in the championship match in a ***½ match. DDT’s Fan Appreciation show on 1/3 at Korakuen Hall also sold out with 1,750 fans at $20 each, and these tickets were impossible to get, with Shinya Aoki keeping the extreme title in a worked kickboxing match over Tanomusaku Toba in the third round with a left hook. They did allow takedowns and submissions to go with the kickboxing. Main event saw the DDT team of Yuki Iino & Takeshita & Akito win the KO-D six-man titles from the Stronghearts, the stars of OWE, being Cima & T-Hawk & Duan Yingnan in 19:38 when Takeshita pinned Cima with a springboard flip clothesline. Takeshita’s chest was bloody and this was said to be a **** match
1160
1161DDT has a Sumo Hall show called Judgment on 2/17, with Go Shiozaki & Kazusada Higuchi & Yukio Naya vs. Sekimoto & Toru Owashi & Yuki Iino, Sanshiro Takagi & Chigusa Nagayo & Ryuji Ito vs. Soma Takao & MadPaulie & Takumi Iroha in a hardcore match Aoki defends the hardcore title against Harashima, Mao & Mike Bailey defend the tag titles against Sakaguchi & Takanahshi and Cima & Seiki Yoshioka in a three-way, and Daisuke Sasaki defends the KO-D title against Takeshita in the main event.
1162
1163HERE AND THERE: MLW will have a second live special on 2/2 from Philadelphia. The show, airing at 8 p.m. will be built around Pentagon Jr. & Rey Fenix defending the tag titles against Teddy Hart & Davey Boy Smith Jr., plus feature Low Ki, Tom Lawlor and Salina de la Renta. Also scheduled for that show, but perhaps off television, is Low Ki vs. Lawlor for the world title, Aerostar vs. Rey Horus, Ace Romero vs. Simon Gotch and Tommy Dreamer and a mystery partner vs. Brian Pillman Jr. and a mystery partner. MLW has at least hinted of announcing an international television deal shortly. Ricky Martinez, Almighty Sheik (formerly Joey Machete) and Mance Warner were signed by MLW to contracts and Rey Horus, who is another Lucha Underground guy, is expected to start as a regular with his 2/2 match in Philadelphia against Aerostar. Other names who are being brought in and have been signed are Jacob Fatu, who is a very agile member of the Samoan family who is one of the best “undiscovered†workers out there, and Alexander Hammerstone, who is a big bodybuilder guy from Arizona who works West Coast indies and looks a lot like a young HHH. Apparently they are going to have him change his look to not resemble him so much. MLW is looking at locking its talent up for three year deals which are not exclusive, so the talent would be able to work anywhere as long as MLW gets first dibs on their services
1164
1165Ivelisse Velez wrote a post about her frustration, and she’s far from the only one, with Lucha Underground. Most of the talent, who were unknown when Lucha Underground started and had no real options, signed seven-season deals for low money. And that’s not necessarily terrible except now there are lots of options and nobody even knows what the future is for LU. They don’t have the funding for a new season, but are working on getting it, so there have been long delays between filming. Virtually all the talent that got over there to a degree where they are in demand wanted out, but they’ve also made alliances with Impact and MLW which is why Pentagon, Fenix, Johnny whatever, can work TV for those companies. Guys like Ricochet and Jeff Cobb got out and were able to go elsewhere, but even Ricochet wasn’t allowed on some U.S. NJPW shows before he got out and signed with WWE. Velez wrote: “I’ve done everything in my power to avoid having to do this but at this point I literally have no other choice. For a big over 1 ½ (years) now I’ve been battling LU to grant me my release. They convinced me to do season 4 under the promise that I’d be released after the season concluded and was still unhappy. They currently are still refusing to do so despite having been told numerous times that they would. This has caused me an unbearable amount of grief for so long now, I really have no words to describe and don’t know what else to do, being legally held hostage while pro wrestling is booming is a matter not to be taken lightly, especially coming from someone who has dedicated their lives to their work. It’s everything to me. I am at my wits end, so that this point, regardless what happens from here on out, at the very least my story is told.†When it comes to Fenix and Pentagon Jr., who are working MLW and Impact because Lucha Underground, who they are under contract to, allow it, both will almost surely have major offers waiting from AEW and WWE if and when they can get out or are out of the Lucha Underground deals, which could be if the promotion officially closes over not being able to finance a new season, or if they push hard enough to get out. Both are making good money working indies right now. Pro Wrestling Sheet got a quote from Eric Van Wagenen, the producer of Lucha Underground, who said those decisions aren’t his, or those of MGM, and that Dorian Roldan and John Folgeman of Factory Made Ventures make those kind of decisions. I was surprised to see him pass the buck and use those names. After the Bandido situation, WWE has made it clear, at least for certain people, that they will beat anyone’s offer for talent, although they did not do so in the case of Chris Jericho. WWE has told people if you can show on paper an offer from another company, they’ll beat it, even double it on the spot provided you sign immediately. While Jericho was a clear example of the opposite, WWE and Vince McMahon right now are going very hard on trying to avoid the idea that people want to leave, or the concept being in the business that people can get more money leaving or benefit from leaving, particularly after people like Juice Robinson, Jericho and Cody all clearly did. That’s why Lesnar keeps getting better offers to keep him from UFC, and why guys who they were doing nothing with that were unhappy are starting to get pushes because there are viable options for them to leave. The worst is one of these guys leaves and becomes an Okada, because then you look like TNA. Unlike everyone else in this game, WWE has no financial issues because they are structured for gigantic profits going forward and can and will stockpile talent even if they don’t have a definite idea of how to use them effectively. AEW has an ownership group with money that blows away that of Vince McMahon, but wrestling isn’t their only business, their prime business and they are not structured in a way they can turn the kind of profit or make the level of money where they can spend gigantic to get everyone and still be profitable like WWE can. Really, until they are up and running and fully established, everything with AEW is a crap shoot whereas WWE can double triple everyone’s salary tomorrow and not blink an eye because the lack of competition has artificially kept salaries ridiculously low based on the revenue generated
1166
1167Black Label Pro wrote that Tom Lawlor had been pulled from their WrestleMania weekend show due to contract commitments. Basically MLW, which he’s under contract to, had a call time for their show on the same day that couldn’t be worked out and he couldn’t be in two places at the same time as MLW said they couldn’t work out the logistics. Lawlor said he asked for permission to take the Black Label Pro booking on the same day as MLW without finding out the call time made it impossible
1168
1169Dan Severn, 60, will be inducted into the Michigan chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame for lifetime service to the sport. The induction ceremony will take place no 4/28 in Ann Arbor at Weber’s Inn. Severn’s background includes winning both the freestyle and Greco-Roman high school national championship in 1976 (third place in his weight in freestyle that year was Bruce Woyan, who later became the late Mad Dog Buzz Sawyer). He was also named the 1976 most outstanding high school wrestler in the nation. He ended his high school career with national championships in 1975 and 1976, ended with eight national records and won his last 100 matches leading Montrose High School to two state titles. Severn said he actually loved football more than wrestling, but wrestling allowed him to control his destiny where football didn’t. At Arizona State, he won three Pac-10 titles (would have won a fourth but as a freshman he had a knee injury that ended his season when he was 26-0), and from 1977-1980 was 127-11-1 with 73 pins. He holds ASU records for career pins and pins in a season (25). He lost in the finals in the 1984 and 1988 Olympic trials and actually beat future gold medalist Lou Banach the year he won a gold medal, and captured the AAU national championship every year from 1982 to 1994. He was 36 when he started in MMA and became a Hall of Famer in the UFC
1170
1171.Former multi-time UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir, 39, makes his pro wrestling debut on 4/4 as part of WrestleMania week on Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport show in Jersey City, NJ
1172
1173PWG returns on 1/18 at the Globe Theater in Los Angeles with a show that features Jungle Boy vs. Brody King, Puma King vs. DJZ, Jonathan Gresham vs. Robbie Eagles, LAX vs. Rey Horus & Laredo Kid, ACH vs. Bandido, Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz defend the tag titles against Chuckie T & Baretta and the main event is Jeff Cobb vs. Trevor Lee (in what is likely his farewell show) for the PWG title
1174
1175Priscilla Kelly, who works for Evolve, was in the news this past week when a clip of her pulling her tampon from her ring bottom and putting it in the mouth of opponent Tuna on a Bar Wrestling show in Southern California went viral. The big deal was that a number of major wrestling personalities including Gail Kim, Jim Ross, Brian James, Tessa Blanchard and Jim Cornette being critical and then others like Paige and Joey Ryan backing her up. Here’s the situation. It’s an over-21 bar wrestling show. It’s not national television. It’s gross but lots of gross things happen on wrestling shows. Does is make pro wrestling look classy? Not in the least. Things that don’t make wrestling look classy happen all the time. Does it hurt pro wrestling or women’s pro wrestling? No, but it sure doesn’t help, either. It’s an attention getting device that got her name out and may get her more bookings. On the flip side, if her goal is WWE, this likely did her no favors. If her goal isn’t, it may get her recognition and help her slightly but I don’t see this as a Joey Ryan career changing move either because I think far less indie promoters will want it on their shows. Also to be clear on Cornette, as I read what he wrote, he was more mad because those in the business who defended it took the “it’s all fake anyway†approach and Cornette hates people in the business saying that publicly. Not that what she did probably fits into what Cornette thinks should be in pro wrestling I’d guess. And I don’t think it’s something that would be a positive on a nationally televised promotion. Things like that on an over 21 bar show don’t bother me in the least. If it works to that audience, fine. If it doesn’t, then it doesn’t. There are different audiences, just like in other forms of entertainment there are things that you wouldn’t want on shows aimed at large general audiences that you can do at a unique bar location. If it as on national television, I’d be critical because my belief is that more people will be turned off than on, but I don’t think any major national promotion is going to have her do it so right now it’s not an issue. Kelly, who is married to independent star Darby Allin, when she was younger she appeared on a reality TV show on A&E and WWE had interest in her. They didn’t want to sign her and ended up directing her to Evolve to learn the game better. But a lot of higher-ups in WWE were not happy with the spot
1176
1177Pro Wrestling Tees listed the ten best selling t-shirts of 2018 from their store and web site as, in this order, Young Bucks, Marty Scurll (Villain Club), Kenny Omega, Cody, Bruce Prichard, Kota Ibushi, Steve Austin, C.M. Punk, Tama Tonga and Hangman Page
1178
1179A correction in running down the number of homes different stations were in, in the Pursuit/Impact story from last week. AXS is in 54 million homes, not 44 million, so at this point New Japan has the widest distribution of television of any television show other than Raw or Smackdown
1180
1181Superstar Billy Graham, 75, was rushed to the hospital due to a bad case of pneumonia on 1/8
1182
1183In legal filings regarding the second lawsuit filed by Scott Colton (Colt Cabana) against Phil Brooks (C.M. Punk) after the first one was dismissed by the court, Brooks said that he had spent in excess of $1 million in defending both himself and Colton in the lawsuit filed by Dr. Christopher Amann. In the second lawsuit, Colton is asking for $200,000 in damages claiming that as legal fees he had to pay after Brooks had promised to pay all the legal fees in defending both of them in the suit. Brooks had paid the legal fees until some sort of a falling out happened, but then, because having Colton and Brooks united in defense, he agreed to pay the legal fees again and had Colton use his lawyers. There was a second issue between the two which led to Colton no longer being represented by Brooks’ lawyers and having to get his own lawyers, and those legal bills totaled $200,000
1184
1185The 2019 Cauliflower Alley Club reunion takes place 4/28 to 5/1 in Las Vegas at the Gold Coast Hotel. Mark Henry will be getting the highest honor, the Iron Mike Award. Other honorees will be Dr. D David Shultz, who was a 70s and 80s star who worked a number of territories as well as the first year plus of the WWF expansion where he was a rival of Hulk Hogan; former Georgia referee Charlie “Scrappyâ€McGowan getting the Charlie Smith Referee Award; Andrew Anderson; Cody Hawk getting the trainer award; Jeff Walton, who did play-by-play, color announcing, ring announcing, promoted spot shows, was the on-screen authority figure (Billed as the NWA representative for the Southern California region) and handled publicity for the LeBell promotion in Los Angeles from the late 60s to the early 80s and later was the first editor of the WWF Victory Magazine and also had a stint as a heel manager Tux Newman in Tennessee in the mid-80s, getting the promoter award; Tony Vellano, who put together the Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame in Amsterdam, NY(which has since been moved to Wichita Falls, TX where John Lusk aka Johnny Mantell is running it) getting the Art Abrams Lifetime Achievement Award and Mike Rodgers getting the James C. Melby Historian Award. Rodgers has compiled one of the greatest collections of results anywhere and is the foremost wrestling historian in the Pacific Northwest, as well as published the insider newsletter “Ring Around the Northwest†for decades
1186
1187Buffalo independent wrestles Kevin Bennett, Nick Pufpaff, Danny Garcia and Kevin Lockwood were headed back home after a show in Montreal over the weekend when their car slid over black ice and sped off the road and was demolished. The car ended up almost sliced in half. Pufpaff and Bennett were taken to a hospital in Batavia, NY with minor injuries, while both Lockwood and Garcia suffered serious injuries. Lockwood, who lives in Buffalo and works as a tattoo artist, had a broken right ankle which needed surgery, a broken leg below the knee and a minor skull fracture. Garcia suffered a broken leg and broken ankle. There was a go fund me done to cover their medical expenses that had raised more than $23,000 of a $50,000 goal in one day from wrestling fans
1188
1189Jerry Lynn, 55, got his second hip replacement on 1/9
1190
1191Former WWE performer Eva Marie, real name Natalie Nelson, will be a Celebrity Big Brother cast member. The new season on CBS starts 1/21 and 1/22 and will have 13 episodes, ending on 2/13. Also on the season will be Jonathan Bennett (Mean Girls), Tamar Braxton (singer/actress), Kandi Burruss (reality show star), Dina Lohan (mother of Lindsay Logan), Kato Kaelin of O.J. Simpson fame, plus the big stars Tom Green, Olympian Lolo Jones, Joey Lawrence, Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte, former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci and NFL star Ricky Williams
1192
1193Brody King finished up with AAW with his new ROH contract in effect and dropped his AAW title to Sami Callihan on 12/29 in Marionette Park, IL, before 685 fans. King worked with a broken jaw suffered when he was superkicked by Jake Atlas on a 12/21 show in Southern California. The match was a cage match with lots of weapons used. King worked with his jaw wired shut. Callihan attacked King’s leg with a piece of a broken table and then used the stretch muffler for the submission. With Jeff Cobb also gone, their WRSTLING heel faction of Callihan, David Starr and Eddie Kingston added Jake Something, Curt Stallion and Quinn McKay. They announced 1/26 in Chicago with Penta 0M & Rey Fenix vs.. LAX. The 12/29 show also featured the departing Cobb, Bandido (ROH) and ACH (who has one show left on 1/26, which is also Trevor Lee’s last date with the promotion before he starts with WWE). AR Fox & Myron Reed kept the tag titles over Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz in a high flying match when Reed pinned Wentz with a small package. Kingston beat ACH when Starr gave ACH a low blow and they used tape to tie ACH to the ropes and Kingston used four backfists on him. ACH after said he had one match left in the promotion after previously denying stories he was leaving. Bandido lost when challenging DJZ for the Heritage title. MJF won a six-way over Ace Romero, Colt Cabana, Mance Warner, Stephen Wolf and Trey Miguel to earn a shot at DJZ’s title. Cobb lost to Starr due to Kingston interfering. Cobb was given a standing ovation after the match
1194
1195Robert Schaffner, who was a longtime subscriber and part of the Southern California independent scene as a promoter was found dead in his home in Lancaster, CA, at the age of 57 due to suicide. Schaffner ran the Mondo Video store in Los Feliz. He had been suffering from pain from spinal stenosis and chronic arthritis. His video store had almost every weird movie ever made. His store attracted a clientele such that a petition was passed around in the area claiming that the store was bringing down property values and attracting morally deficient people to the neighborhood, which led it him having to move the store. Schaffner also promoted pro wrestling shows in Southern California with his brother Bruce and Ana Medina. Mondo Video was a hangout for pro wrestling fans in a previous ear because they had a lot of bootleg pro wrestling tapes from the 70s. Bruce and Robert Schaffner’s father was a TV repairman, and sometimes he would bring them on repairs, including a few times at the home of Hank Matheny, the Southern California referee who they noted would drink shots on Saturday mornings when their father would be repairing his television
1196
1197Warrior Wrestling ran 1/5 in Chicago Heights, IL, bringing in a number of top stars from around the world including having Jordynne Grace retain the Progress women’s title over Kylie Rae, A-Kid from Spain, who had that ***** match with Zack Sabre Jr., last year that got a lot of attention, came in and teamed with Carlos Romo, his big rival in Spain as Team White Wolf (the promotion they work for is called White Wolf Wrestling) and they lost to Penta 0M & Rey Fenix in what was said to have been a great 20:00 **** match that the crowd was super into. Brian Cage beat Bandido in what was also said to be a **** match in he main event
1198
1199In the article a few weeks ago on the last shoot ever in New Zealand from 1937 in Dan Lennard’s newsletter, the actual research for the story was done by Shannan Gough, who originally wrote a story on it for the www.kayfabia.com web site
1200
1201Trevor Dorbitz, who worked in the AWA as Jim Evans and worked Midwest independent shows as Trevor Adonis, was on life support at the end of the year after a serious heart attack at the age of 52
1202
1203Dave Bautista will be a cast member in the movie “Dune,†which stars Timothee Chalmet. I want to make mention of the death of Daniel Chornomaz, who was a reader of this publication dating back almost 29 years, after a long battle with ALS. He grew up in Hillsdale, NJ with he, his brothers and his father, watched WWWF wrestling events from Madison Square Garden in Spanish as kids and attended the monthly shows during the first Bruno Sammartino era. He then became a bigger fan with Georgia Championship Wrestling on cable in the 80s due to the heel commentary of Roddy Piper, and loved Ric Flair, and it was a thrill when he later met Flair. When his first son was born in 1982 on a Saturday, Greg, who is a reader and web site audio show listener, the first thing he did was watch Georgia Championship Wrestling at 6:05 p.m. that night together. His father then became a big fan of Jim Cornette & The Midnight Express, the Four Horsemen, Ricky Steamboat and Terry Funk. He learned about the Observer from Wrestling Eye magazine in and he and his son, then 8, started reading. They became big ECW fans in 1994 when an uncle sent them tapes off the Philadelphia television shows and attended shows there throughout the 90s. Through the Observer, they heard about ROH and started attending shows in 2003 on a card headlined by A.J. Styles vs. Bryan Danielson, and then in 2014, after ordering WrestleKingdom with the Jim Ross commentary, became a big fan of New Japan and watched regularly on AXS. He was first diagnosed with ALS three years ago, and his son said he was determined to enjoy what brought him happiness and that meant the radio shows on the web site and the Observer. He had a bad fall on New Year’s Eve and was in intensive care, and when he got off sedation, he said the first thing he would do when he got home was watch the Tokyo Dome show
1204
1205Dan Warren, who wrestles as Danny Duggan and promotes CWE, explained the situation where Ed Leslie walked off his tour throughout Canada in November. He had booked Leslie for a 32-show tour called “The Struttin and Cuttin Tour.†He worked the first 27 dates and was paid for a 28th date. Warren noted that they agreed to the tour without him doing a deposit. Most name wrestlers require deposits unless they know and trust the promoter. It’s a situation to protect them because if you agree to a date when you’re in demand, it means you are turning down other offers for dates and if the show falls through, which on indies and with promoters you don’t know, can happen, or the money isn’t there, at least you’ve got your deposit. But that works both ways. Warren noted he avoids is because frequently talent will take the deposit money and you never hear from them again. I also want to note that while this still happens today, it was far more prevalent when dealing with some of the 80s generation stars and in reality, most of them aren’t dong much these days. Warren noted his promotion has been in business for ten years and has no reputation for not paying. After making the deal, Missy Leslie, Ed’s wife, five days before the tour, asked for a $5,000 U.S. deposit to be sent (about two weeks worth of what was the agreement he’d be earning for the tour). He turned that down citing they had an agreement already. She said that Ed never leaves home without a deposit. He said he’s already purchased plane tickets and had advertising out based on him in 32 markets, and sent a screen shot of their agreement which specifically said no deposit. They ended up with a compromise, he sent money for the first four shows and would be paid ahead on the tour, so basically would get his next week’s pay at the start of the week, and that the money would be sent to her. Everything was fine and he was wiring her the weekly pay ahead of time. On the last week he asked that instead of the weekly money wired, he wanted to be paid in cash ahead of time. So Warren agreed to that. On 11/10, he paid Leslie the cash for the next show. He then no-showed the next night in Thunder Bay, going home without telling the promotion and they found out a few hours before the show started. He did tell some of the talent he was going home, so a few hours before the show, someone mentioned to Duggan about Leslie not being there and he texted Leslie, who never got back to him. The next day, Leslie texted back saying there was a family emergency and “didn’t you get Missy’s message.†She did call before the Winnipeg show saying there was an emergency and she needed to get in touch with him, but he was at the show in Winnipeg and said nothing about leaving. Warren also noted there were issues with merchandise money. He said everything was fine at first, but one night Leslie started complaining about someone else handling his merchandise money. Warren said that they always have a third party handle the money and they count it out and account everything after the show. Leslie on that show said that if they think he can’t be trusted ont the mech money he’s going to get on a plane and go home. So the next few night he refused to let the third person hold onto the money so Warren said just try and keep track of the actual sales and let Leslie handle his money. Of course the sales the next two nights totaled more money than Leslie claimed came through. Warren said to save the tour and if it made Leslie happy, and that if it makes him feel better than he’s getting one over on everyone, at least he won’t be a headache. He also said Leslie insisted on staying at name brand hotels and said he’s pay for any price difference between the hotels that were booked by the promotion, but of course, then he’d stick the office with the complete hotel bill. He also complained that while he was able to get media interviews for Leslie since Canada is so much more open than the U.S. about covering wrestling, especially nostalgia names, that he’d book him on interviews to push the shows and the interviewers were then complain that he didn’t seem interested in being there. In Regina, when Leslie was asked what advice he’d give to aspiring young wrestlers, he said they should quit the business, or never get involved in the first place, because wrestling is a dead business. He also complained that Leslie made an inappropriate racial remark about a hotel clerk in the presence of a wrestler on he tour who then demanded that he never travel with him, or that he was drinking beer at an elementary school. Once they realized he wasn’t coming back, they contacted Jimmy Jacobs and brought him in for the last several dates of the tour. Leslie claimed that it was a cheap promoter trying to screw one of the boys. He said he asked for a deposit, which is protocol for a wrestler on the indie scene working with a promoter he doesn’t know. That is true. He said his other requests were extra leg room on the plane because he’s recovering from knee surgery and ample room in the vehicle they are traveling in because they were going long distance all over Canada. He said the car he was being transported in looked unsafe and said the driver drove unsafe and he refused to travel with him. So he rode in the ring truck. He said the hotels he stayed at were poor and some of the crew had to sleep in the arena at times or on air mattresses. He said he asked to stay at a Days Inn and pay the difference and he agreed. He said he was retired but Warren kept wanting him to put guys in the sleeper and cut guys hair, while he said he thought it was just an autograph tour. He claimed his wife called and said he was needed home for a family emergency and he didn’t walk out.
1206
1207EUROPE: ITV will be replaying the first season of World of Sport Wrestling starting 1/20, in a Sunday at 12:35 a.m. time slot for the following ten weeks. This will be done to try and help boost ticket sales for the World of Sport tour that starts on 1/18 in Southampton and 1/19 in Newport and continues through 2/3
1208
1209wXw’s Back to the Roots 18 takes place on 1/19 in Oberhausen with Absolute Andy defending the wXw title against Ilja Dragunov in a cage match with UFC’s Nick Hein as the special enforcer, plus it’s RISE vs. RISE in a cage for the tag titles, Shotgun title and the right to use the RISE name going forward with Tarkan Aslan & Da Mack (tag champs) & Marius Al-Ani (Shotgun champ) defending against Lucky Kid & Pete Bouncer & Ivan Kiev, Toni Storm defends the wXw title against Melanie Grey in a loser leaves town match, Bobby Gunns vs. Shigehiro Irie, Timothy Thatcher vs. David Starr, Walter & Veiet Muller vs. Jay Skillet & Francis Kapsin and Jurn Simmons vs. Avalanche. WxW goes to London on 1/26 with David Starr getting a shot at the Andy vs. Dragunov winner and 16 Carat gold qualifying matches with Mark Davis vs. Olive Carter and Francis Kapsin vs. Ivan Kiev. The hatred by some fans of Hein doing this show continued this week as a German podcaster did a show with Hein on1/9 and people started organizing a denial-of-service attack on his site, flooding the server with invalid requests to stop it from responding to valid requests so people couldn’t listen to the show. Hein did an interview with German podcaster Tim Petrowski, and said that he was very interested in wrestling for wXw and wanted to do so but UFC wouldn’t allow it. He noted that he’s under contract to UFC, and they allowed him to be an enforcer on the show but would not allow him to do a match. He said he grew up as a big fan of Lex Luger and talked about the 1994 Royal Rumble match where Luger and Bret Hart were co-winners. He said that when working as a police officer in Germany, after an early UFC fight, when he got home, his superiors met him at the airport and told him he could no longer fight MMA and told him the values of MMA are not compatible with the values of being a police officer. He said he had been granted civil servant for a lifetime status, meaning he had a job until he would choose to retire. He said it’s almost impossible to get fired from that position. But he said after that ultimatum, he quit the police department and that was almost unheard of. When he quit, he told the police department that MMA training would be a big part of police work one day, and they laughed him out of the office. Only a few weeks later, he got a request for a training seminar by the precinct, but the guy in charge then nixed it. He said people had always disagreed with his political views (he leans heavily right wing) but said he never received so much criticism for them from anyone in sports or entertainment until it came out he was working at wXw and the pro wrestling fans went after him so hard. The way we heard it was that he ended up arguing with some fans who attacked his views, and those fans made it a mission to keep him out of wXw, and that didn’t work. The office did recommend that he remove some of the worst comments and ignore and block people. He said that if a fan laid a hand on him at a wrestling show he would absolutely defend himself. He said he’s not racist as he was made out to be, and said it’s ludicrous if you know his family (he didn’t say anything but his wife is Japanese)
1210
1211Former Battlarts owner and star Yuki Ishikawa is coming on 3/9 for the annual Ambition tournament which is a UWFI style show, and will face Timothy Thatcher in a non-tournament match
1212
1213Right after the Tokyo Dome show, Zack Sabre Jr. defended his newly won British heavyweight title against Dragon Gate Open the Dream Gate champion Pac, on the 1/6 Revolution Pro show. Sabre was disqualified so kept the title in a finish that involved Will Ospreay interfering. The show was in the Cockpit, the arena they do their smaller shows in that only holds a few hundred people. Sabre made his next title defense on 1/11 in Guildford over Shigehiro Irie. Will Ospreay made his first Never title defense on that show beating Chris Brookes. Aussie Open (Mark Davis & Kyle Fletcher) beat Jim & Lee Hunter in a match where the winners would get a shot at British tag team champions Sabre & Minoru Suzuki. David Starr also kept the cruiserweight title over Kip Sabian
1214
1215The first Pac vs. Ospreay match will be 2/15 at York Hall in London for Revolution Pro
1216
1217Progress on 12/30 before a sellout of 700 at the Electric Ballroom saw Jordynne Grace win the Progress women’s title from Jinny (WWE bound). Trent Seven retained the Atlas title against Los Federales Santos Jr.
1218
1219Ospreay & Paul Robinson beat Aussie Open to win the tag team titles and Pete Dunne beat Tyler Bate. The next show is 1/20 which is already sold out with Ospreay & Robinson defending the tag titles against Chris Brookes & Kid Lykos, Angelico vs. Jody Fleisch, Dragunov vs. Thatcher and Irie vs. Chris Ridgeway.
1220
1221ROH: Both Chris Sabin and Flip Gordon were injured this past weekend. Sabin was injured on the 1/12 show in Atlanta. Sabin believed from past experience that he tore his ACL, but had not gotten results from the MRI as of the last report we had. Sabin has a history of torn knee ligaments that nearly ended his career at one point. Gordon was injured on the 1/13 show in Concord, NC. He also hasn’t gotten an MRI but the original belief is an MCL sprain, which isn’t nearly as bad and he could be back in about a month
1222
1223Katsuyori Shibata will be doing meet and greets at the 1/24 show in Dallas, 1/25 show in Houston and 1/26 show in Austin, TX
1224
1225Tracy Williams and PJ Black have signed contracts so should be featured more
1226
1227There will be a 12-team tag team tournament that will take place on the next set of shows on 1/24 to 1/26 in Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. The winning team will go into Billy Corgan’s NWA Crockett Cup tournament which takes place on 4/27 in Concord, NC. There will be three first round matches on 1/24 in Dallas and three more on 1/25 in Houston. Then the winning three teams on 1/24 will have a three-way on 1/26, as well the three winning teams on 1/25 will have a similar match. The two winning teams out of those matches will meet in the tournament final on 1/26. The teams are Jay Lethal & Jonathan Gresham, PCO & Brody King, Juice Robinson & David Finlay, TK O’Ryan & Vinny Marseglia, Colt Cabana & ? (was to be Flip Gordon but his situation is up in the air), Coast 2 Coast, Mark Haskins & Tracy Williams, Kenny King & ?, Beer City Bruiser & Brian Milonas, Eli Isom & Cheeseburger, The Boys and Karl Fredericks & Alex Coughlin (Shibata trainees from the New Japan LA Dojo). PCO & Brody King vs. O’Ryan & Marseglia and Lethal & Gresham vs. Haskins & Williams have been announced as a first-round match. Also on the 1/24 show in Dallas, they’ve announced Bandido vs. Silas Young, Dalton Castle & The Boys vs. Briscoes & Shane Taylor, Madison Rayne vs. Holidead, Rocky Romero vs. Matt Taven and Marty Scurll vs. Rhett Titus
1228
1229This past weekend saw the first shows of the new post-Bullet Club era. The 1/12 TV tapings sold out Center Stage with 700 fans, but that was to be expected. 1/13 in Concord, NC, was down to 750 fans, but it’s going to take time to rebuild and even so, I don’t think, aside from MSG, that you’re going to see the overall business be at last year’s level. But there was excitement around the new acts and it’s not like the sky is falling or anything, but I don’t expect a record year. The Center Stage tapings opened with a dark match where Ken Dixon & Bishop Khan & Malcolm Moses beat Joe Keys & Parrow & Odinson (the two big guys who were just in the All Japan tag team tournament). In a match as an Honor Club exclusive, Mark & Jay Briscoe beat Chuckie T & Colt Cabana to keep the tag titles. Cabana subbed for Baretta who had a family emergency. Jay pinned Chuckie after the Jay driller. Mark put Chuckie through a table with the elbow off the top rope after the match. Tracy Williams beat David Finlay. Bandido won with a German suplex off the top rope over Mark Haskins. Bandido got over really big in his debut. Silas Young beat Eli Isom with misery. The winner of this would get a shot at Jeff Cobb for the TV title. Cobb, Young and Shane Taylor all brawled after the match. Villain Enterprises of Marty Scurll & Brody King & PCO, who were said to have a great dynamic together, beat Corey Hollis & John Skyler & Josie Quinn when Scurll used the chicken wing submission on Hollis. Kelly Klein retained the WOH title beating Rockelle Vaughn. Nick Aldis retained the NWA title over PJ Black. Juice Robinson came out and said he’d be in ROH regularly this year. He talked about how what ROH was built upon, honor, had been lost and he was forming a new stable called Lifeblood with the idea of bring back what ROH used to be. The new stable is himself, Finlay, Haskins, Bandido, Williams and Tenille Dashwood. Taylor won a six-way over Sabin, Luchasaurus, Rhett Titus, Kenny King and Gordon. Taylor pinned Titus after a tombstone piledriver. King was thrown out for using a chair. This was the match that Sabin was injured in. Beer City Bruiser & Brian Milonas beat Marcus Kross & Griff Garrison. After the match, Lifeblood came out and confronted champion Jay Lethal. Basically this set up the newcomers against the ROH established stars in a TV main event. Cheeseburger & Eli Isom & Ryan Nova beat Garrison & Kross & Slim J. Madison Rayne won a three-way over Sumie Sakai and Jenny Rose. The final match saw Robinson & Finlay & Williams & Haskins & Bandido over Jonathan Gresham & Gordon & Dalton Castle & Cobb & Lethal when Haskins made Castle submit. All ten shook hands after the match
1230
1231The Concord show opened with Cheeseburger & Nova & Isom over Skyler & Hollis & Josie Quinn. Haskins beat Beer City Bruiser with a double foot stomp. The crowd was mostly quiet. The two shared a beer after the match. Robinson & Finlay beat Baretta & Chuckie. Finlay pinned Chuckie to win. The match seemed to be building Robinson defending the U.S. title against Baretta. But those two shook hands after the match. Williams beat Gordon when Gordon was injured and the match was stopped. They seemed to be pushing a Gordon vs. King program, but the injury may change that. The crowd was quiet for this one. Gordon did a springboard dropkick and then couldn’t continue so the match was stopped. The Kingdom of Matt Taven & Vinny Marseglia & TK O’Ryan won a non-title match over Delirious & Luchasaurus & Shane Helms. Delirious dropped O’Ryan on his head on a suplex. Bandido beat Black. There were a few botched spots and Bandido didn’t get over as good here as the first night. He won with a fallaway Spanish fly like slam off the top rope. Cobb kept the TV title beating Titus and Gresham. It was supposed to be a four-way with Taylor, but Taylor came out and said he was too good for this. Cobb pinned Titus with tour of the islands. Taylor attacked Cobb after the match. Klein beat Jenny Rose in a street fight to keep the WOH title. Rose tried to splash Klein through a table but it didn’t break. Klein used her K-Power on chairs to win. Scurll & PCO & King beat Briscoes & Silas Young. Villain Enterprises were the hottest act and Scurll came across as the biggest star on the show. Jay Briscoe was bleeding. Young hit a Canadian Destroyer on the apron on PCO. PCO was taking scary bumps. PCO hit Mark Briscoe with a moonsault for the pin. Fans were chanting for PCO. Main event saw Lethal beat Castle to keep the ROH title. The match was fine but the crowd was dead and it was nothing special. The two shook hands after the match.
1232
1233IMPACT: The first TV show on Pursuit was on 1/11. We don’t have a viewer number but that is a very low-rated station so it won’t be much. The only Twitch numbers we have is that the Impact station had 20,000 viewers throughout the day total on 1/11 and 19,000 on 1/12, which was up a little from the 5,000 to 10,000 most days. So it’s not like there are a ton of people watching the show on that platform.
1234
1235We had good reports regarding the TV tapings held on 1/11 and 1/12 in Mexico City. Both shows did about 1,300 fans, which was way up from the first time they ran at Fronton Mexico and they struggled to draw. The biggest news was Pentagon Jr. & Fenix beating LAX to win the tag titles on 1/12 in a match people have been raving about. I believe the match will air on 2/1 and those there said it was much better than their PPV match, which had gotten rave reviews. They tore the house down and the crowd threw money after it was over. This will be interesting because Pentagon Jr & Fenix are going to be highly coveted by AEW, but they also are still under contract on those even-season Lucha Underground deals, and that allows Impact and MLW (who both have good relations with AAA and LU) to use them. But there are stories of very strong AEW offers for them even if that wouldn’t happen any time soon, or AEW making a play to work with AAA. But AEW working with AAA has a weird thing with the New Japan/CMLL alliance and working with New Japan, so this whole game is a very tricky political minefield right now, since AEW/New Japan is still the most important potential AEW alliance
1236
1237Notes from the 1/11 tapings. It opened with Johnny Impact going to a no contest with Killer Kross. Brian Cage, who was the most popular non-Mexican at the tapings, ran in and took out both guys when Kross had Impact in the sleeper. Moose, who was at ringside, attacked Cage. Cage & Impact worked together to clean the ring. The crowd was pretty hot behind Impact. Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz beat Rohit Raju & Raj Singh, the Desi Hit Squad, managed by Gama Singh. Gama Singh claimed on his interview that he had pinned El Santo, Mil Mascaras and Blue Demon. Wentz pinned Singh with the hot fire flame in a match that got over. Taya Valkyrie beat Keyra in a non-title match with the STF. During her promo she noted that Tessa Blanchard was suspended. Trey Miguel beat Ethan Page via pin after a move described as like the crossroads. The crowd didn’t care about either guy. Pentagon Jr. & Fenix & Taurus beat LAX & Daga. Best match of the first night. Pentagon pinned Ortiz after a spike package piledriver. Both Taurus and Daga looked great. Pentagon then challenged LAX to another shot at the tag team title for “next week†and LAX accepted. Jordynne Grace & Keira Hogan beat Su Yung & Allie. During the match the lights went out and when they came back on, Yung had disappeared and Rosemary was in Yung’s place in the corner. Allie was shocked by this and Hogan pinned her. Rich Swann & Willie Mack beat Dave & Jake Crist when Swann pinned Dave after a 450. Moose & Cross beat Impact & Cage when Moose pinned Impact after a spear when Impact and Cage had some miscommunication issues and were arguing with each other. Callihan did an interview. He said that Swann had turned down his proposal to join OVE, Swann came out and they brawled with Callihan giving Swann a piledriver on the ramp and then throwing him off the ramp through a table. The TV main event for week two looked to be an elimination match with the debut of Psycho Clown, one of AAA’s top stars, teaming with Puma King & Aerostar & El Hijo del Vikingo as Team Mexico beating Team Impact of Eli Drake & Callihan & Eddie Edwards & Fallah Bahh. This was for the World Cup tournament, billed as AAA Mexico vs. Impact. Team Mexico got a nice golden cup. The crowd took to Puma King and Vikingo the most, more than Psycho because they stood out in the match. The crowd reacted the loudest to Psycho but a lot of people booed him. Puma King pinned Drake. Bah pinned Vikingo. Aerostar pinned Bahh after he moved from the bonzai drop. Edwards pinned Aerostar with the Boston knee party. Callihan pinned Puma King after a piledriver. Psycho pinned Callihan after a roll-up. Psycho then pinned Edwards with La Magistral when Drake cost Impact the World Cup when he hit Edwards with his own kendo stick. They also taped Blanchard pinning Lady Maravilla with a DDT and Miguel pinning Raj Singh after a meteora off the top rope for Xplosion
1238
1239Notes from the 1/12 tapings. The second night opened with Swann over Vikingo in a non-title match with a 450 splash. Told this was a great match. The crowd loved Vikingo. Callihan & The Crist Brothers came out after the match to confront Swann. Callihan said he has always been there for Swann, even more than Swann’s own family. Swann’s parents died when he was young so there is a back story there. Callihan said Swann owes everything to him. Callihan again offered Swann a chance to join OVE and Swann turned it down. Keira Hogan beat Allie. Grace and Su Yung were in the corners. Grace attacked Yung and Allie was distracted, and Hogan rolled her up. Miguel beat Rohit Raju in a long good match once again using a meteora off the top rope to win. Valkyrie beat Blanchard in a street fight to keep the Knockouts title. Very brutal match. Valkyrie got the pin after a double foot stomp off the top rope onto Blanchard, who was on a table. Crowd was into all the weapons spots. Mack beat Page in a short match with the stunner. Impact won a four-way to keep the title over Cage, Moose and Kross it a great match. Impact hit Starship pain on Moose while Cage hit the drill claw on Kross but Impact covered Moose a split second earlier so his pin was first and he retained. The idea is very much that Cage should be the champion and is being positioned for the case. Cage and Impact faced off after the match again. Psycho Clown beat Bahh. The crowd booed Psycho more than cheered him. Callihan pinned Puma King after a piledriver in a great match. Puma King was very over. Drake & Edwards beat Xavier & Wentz. Drake used Edwards’ kendo stick on Wentz and then pinned him after the gravy train. Edwards and Drake argued after the match. Pentagon Jr. & Fenix won the tag titles over LAX. Pentagon & Fenix got a big entrance with Chinese dragon dancers. Fans chanted Cero Miedo loudly. Pentagon pinned Santana after the spike package piledriver and then Fenix hit Ortiz with a tope. With the crowd going crazy, all four hugged. All the babyfaces came out and celebrated the title win with Pentagon & Fenix while the crowd chanted “Impact Wrestling.†They then taped two matches for Xplosion with Bahh over Raj Singh with the bonzai drop and Grace over Su Yung with a pump handle half nelson driver
1240
1241The next TV tapings will be 2/15 and 2/16 in Las Vegas. They will also be back doing TV in Toronto in April
1242
1243They will be doing a live Twitch show on 1/25 from Brooklyn working with the WrestlePro promotion.
1244
1245AEW: There has been a lot of talk regarding who owns the All In footage. Based on the contracts signed at the time, ROH owns all of the broadcast rights to that show
1246
1247Chris Jericho did tell Vince McMahon ahead of time that he would be signing with AEW as a matter of courtesy. They were still negotiating as late as the end of December but in the end AEW put the better offer on the table. Technically McMahon didn’t put an offer on the table because he knew the basic level of the AEW offer and didn’t match it. Jericho also revealed on his podcast that it was Tony Khan’s private jet that got him to and from his concert tour to Chicago to do the run-in on Kenny Omega at All In. Besides a much better financial offer, as in significantly more than he’s ever made in wrestling, the deal would have allowed him to continue the cruise and work for New Japan, the former of which it would have been difficult to do and the latter of which he couldn’t have done had he gone back to WWE, and had been really enjoying being a top focused guy and having the major freedom in his angles and matches that New Japan gives him. New Japan’s attitude is that Jericho knows what’s best for Jericho because he’ll think it out and understands what he can do best and what angles work best, and as long as the match results are what they want, they’ll let him for the most part do what he wants. With WWE, even though he had a lot more freedom on promos than most and Vince McMahon would listen to his ideas, there are so many channels to go through so things get watered down. The specifics is that he can work New Japan outside of Japan based on the deal unless it conflicts with an AEW booking, so he could work NJPW shows in the U.S. and the U.K. unless AEW has a show the same night because they have priority on all of his dates. He’ll also have a lot more control of his creative on the outside, not so much as contractual but just because there will be less filters. Gedo and Jericho have known each other for more than 25 years and as long as it doesn’t interfere with Gedo’s big picture plans, Jericho is going to be able to do what he wants in New Japan, and in AEW, given he has more experience than anyone else in the company, there will be less filters on him as well
1248
1249Cody did an interview with Sports Entertainment Scoops and said that Tony Khan would be bringing his analytical experience (sports analytics are his thing), and that the booking would be more sports oriented, and that they are not looking at booking single nights but long-form stories. He said they’ve talked about having win-loss records and rankings. My opinion is that win-loss records are more of a headache than they are worth in pro wrestling unless it’s a tournament, in which case, like G-1, they greatly enhance the presentation. Rankings have never been done well in pro wrestling but they aren’t inherently bad by any means. He also said they are not looking at hiring writers for their television show. Cody very much has the idea that wrestlers need to lead wrestlers. “We’re talking bullet points, we’re talking an overall knowledge of the business, and hey, let them go out and play. Take a look back at the wrestling you and I love. For the most part, they’re all grown men and women doing what they were hired to do. They’ve cut their teeth. They’ve paid their dues and now they’re going to go out there and play their music. I would very much like a presentation that mirrors that. We don’t need to micro-manage and we certainly don’t need to script a great deal of the product we’re planning. This is probably going to be an unpopular thing to say, but I will say it. There won’t be a writer hired for All Elite Wrestling any time soon, because wrestlers are the writers. We’re the writers. Like I said, with guys going out there and plaing their own music, believe me, the day comes that I see `this is something we can really benefit from’ absolutely, but I knew 40 writers in WWE and about four of them actually did anything. The reason I remember them and value them, they helped produce pre-tapes, they were team players, so right now that’s one thing we’ve gotten a lot of questions about. We’re keeping it very in-house for now.†It should be noted that Tony Khan is the ultimate head of creative and the Executive Vice Presidents (currently Young Bucks & Cody) would be the creative team
1250
1251There were reports that Jack Perry, 21, who wrestles as Jungle Boy, has signed here. That’s premature although he was given an offer by AEW, but at this point hasn’t signed, but the signing could take place any day now. In this environment, that may also lead to other offers. This shows the change in the business. Perry is the son of 90210 and Riverdale co-star Luke Perry. He’s god a good look and some natural charisma in the sense he gets over on live shows the minute he walks through the curtain due to his look when few people have any idea who his father is. That said, he’s inexperienced and I’d call him a project. I think this was a Cody deal since Cody worked some APW shows with him when he was just starting out, including the first APW Cow Palace show where Jungle Boy got a big pop in the Battle Royal on the show Cody vs. Joey Ryan headlined in a cage match. Jungle boy is supposed to start a program with Bryan Alvarez right now in APW. He is starting this week in PWG, and under normal circumstances, he’d be a guy who, with the indie scene losing much of its talent, would have a year or more going around as a new guy getting those bookings, and either learn or not, make a name or not, and at that point if he was good, you’d start hearing about people being interested. Now, he’s already not just on the radar for the future, but he’s getting offers. I think the days of Matt Riddle and Jeff Cobb and Walter and Ricochet and Keith Lee spending years on the indie scene going all over the world and having gr3eat matches and making underground names are pretty much over
1252
1253Cody will be starting a YouTube mini-series shortly to build the Double or Nothing show on 5/25 in Las Vegas
1254
1255At the 1/16 Bar Wrestling show in Los Angeles where Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian and Scorpio Sky wrestled, The Young Bucks, Cody, Brandi and Adam Page also all showed up.
1256
1257UFC: The ESPN debut will be on 1/19 from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The show will start at 6:30 p.m. with fights on ESPN+. It opens with Chance Rencountre (12-3) facing Kyle Stewart (11-1), then Belal Muhammad (14-2) vs. Geoff Neal (10-2) and Dennis Bermudez (16-9) vs. Te Edwards (6-2). At 8 p.m. they go to ESPN, airing fights on the network with the goal to drive people to subscribe to ESPN+ to see the good fights they’ll be hyping during these two hours. The ESPN fights are Cory Sandhagen (9-1) vs. Mario Bautista (6-0), Vinicius Moreira (9-1) vs. Alonzo Menifield (7-0), Ariane Lipski (11-3) vs. Joanne Calderwood (12-3) and Donald Cerrone (34-11) vs. Alexander Hernandez (10-1). Then at 10 p.m. they go back to ESPN+ with Glover Teixeira (27-7) vs. Karl Roberson (7-1), Paige VanZant (7-4) vs. Rachael Ostovich (4-4), Joseph Benavidez (26-5) vs. Dustin Ortiz (19-7) Yancy Medeiros (15-5) vs. Gregor Gillespie (12-0), Allen Crowder (9-3) vs. Greg Hardy (3-0) and the main event is Henry Cejudo (13-2) defending the flyweight title against TJ Dillashaw (16-3). From a sports standpoint, Benavidez vs. Ortiz is a key flyweight fight if they’ll keep the division, which may depend on whether Cejudo retains or not. Benavidez has a win over Cejudo and is way overdue for a title shot. If Dillashaw wins, as the bantamweight champion, he may give up the flyweight title and they may kill the division. Gillespie is a high-class wrestler, who won an NCAA title in 2007 and was a four-time All-American at Edinboro. He’s undefeated and a win over Medeiros if he can should put him in with the tops in the lightweight division as this is by far his toughest opponent to date. What’s crazy is that Hardy, in his first UFC fight, and Crowder, who has never fought in UFC and is basically here to be Hardy’s enhancement guy, are in the semi-main. That leads me to believe having Hardy on the show is very much an ESPN move since he was a former NFL star, because C.M. Punk had more drawing power than Hardy in his debut and even though Punk’s debut fight was heavily promoted, they didn’t put him in he semi-main. The show is almost sold out at press time. Stewart replaced Dwight Grant, who was the first replacement when Randy Brown pulled out, but Grant wasn’t cleared to fight by the New York State Athletic Commission. There’s been a lot of talk regarding Dillashaw, who was ripped to shreds fighting at 135, moving to 125 for this fight. He said this past week he was already at 138, which for usual weight cutting was normal shooting distance of 125
1258
1259An interesting breakdown is that for the first six months of 2019, UFC will have 20 events, and the main cards will be on ESPN+ for 11 of them, with five PPV’s and four main cards on ESPN. For a comparison, in 2018, there were ten main cards on television, six on PPV and two streaming.
1260
1261. After Luke Rockhold ripped on Anthony Smith for getting a title shot at Jon Jones, Smith said that win or lose with Jones, he wants his next fight after to be with Rockhold
1262
1263Dana White announced that Darren Till vs. Jorge Masvidal will headline the 3/16 show in London which will be an ESPN+ show and Gunnar Nelson vs. Leon Edwards will be the co-feature. It will be interesting to see if UFC can sell out the O2 with those two bouts on top. Masvidal was originally slated to face Nick Diaz on the 3/2 show in Las Vegas, but UFC seems to have washed their hands of Nick and Nate Diaz unless they come in asking to fight
1264
1265Cat Zingano is appealing the result of her 12/29 loss to Megan Anderson. Anderson won the fight when she threw a kick and the toe went in Zingano’s eye and she was unable to continue. Poking the eyes with the fingers is illegal, but because something like this never happened, there was no rule against poking the eyes with the toe, so it’s going to be difficult to change the finish. However, it does bring up the need to change the rule. Nathan Gable, Zingano’s lawyer, is appealing based on the rule against eye gouging of any kind, although that rule states it means attacking the eyes with the fingers, chin or elbow, but punches to the eye are legal. His argument is that the rule says fingers, yet thumbs to the eye are fouls and the Oxford dictionary claims thumbs are not fingers, so he felt if it applies to thumbs it should apply to toes. And it should, but it doesn’t
1266
1267. The featherweight division is in jeopardy. After Amanda Nunes beat Cris Cyborg to win the title, she’s pretty much said she’s not fighting at 145 anymore. She actually posted a video of her being unable to fit into her jeans because of her weight gain so she could be around the same size as Cyborg and wrote “never again.†The next day she posted a photo of her fitting into her jeans
1268
1269UFC announced streaming of a Combat Jiu Jitsu show on 2/22 at 10 p.m. with a four-man tournament if Fabricio Werdum, Josh Barnett, Gordon Ryan (the big star of the last Quintet show who submitted Barnett in 2:00) and Rustam Chsiev. Combat Jiu Jitsu allowed for submissions and it also allows for open handed palm strikes to the head and body while on the ground to open up for submissions. The first round is Werdum vs. Ryan and Barnett vs. Chsiev and minutes later will be the finals
1270
1271. Anthony Pettis will move to welterweight to face Stephen Wonderboy Thompson on the 3/23 show in Nashville if everything works out. Ariel Helwani reported verbal agreements for that fight are already in place
1272
1273Edson Barboza vs. Justin Gaethje, on paper a huge action fight, was added to the 3/30 show in Philadelphia
1274
1275Holly Holm, 37, has filed for divorce from husband Jeff Kirkpatrick. The two met when both were attending the University of New Mexico and were married in 2012, and separated ten months ago
1276
1277Jennifer Maia and USADA have come to an agreement for a six month suspension for testing positive for diuretics furosenide, hydrochlorothiazide, chlorthiazide and thiazide in an 8/16 out of competition test. In the investigation, she provided all her supplements she had put on her form she signed for the test, and one of them, a weight loss supplement, was shown to be tainted with all of those substances. Because of that her suspension was six months. USADA added the supplement to its high risk list for athletes. Her suspension period runs from 8/31, when she was first suspended, until the end of February
1278
1279Thomas Almeida vs. Marlon Vera has been added to the 3/2 show in Las Vegas
1280
1281Junior Albini vs. Jair Rozenstruck (debuting with a 6-0 record) has been added to the 2/2 show in Fortaleza, Brazil. Rozenstruck replaces Dmity Sosnovskiy, who pulled out of the show
1282
1283Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos vs. Curtis Millender has been added to the 3/9 show in Wichita.
1284
1285OTHER MMA: The actual number of iPPV buys for the Chuck Liddell vs. Tito Ortiz PPV was 13,000, which is a higher percentage than usual when comparing streaming orders to television orders. But it was nothing like Oscar de la Hoya implied when he said the Internet orders were through the roof and that the articles regarding how badly the PPV did weren’t including Internet buys. The actual television orders were between 30,000 and 40,000. Speaking of Ortiz, he said he’s going to fight Chael Sonnen, probably in Bellator, next. Ortiz beat Sonnen on January 21, 2017 in just 2:03 via choke in a fight that really wasn’t competitive. Ortiz is saying that he would not submit Sonnen this time, but will punish him for all three rounds. This fight is not a done deal, but it is a fight Ortiz really wants to do. I think the most notable aspect is Ortiz is trying to get back with Bellator, which indicates de la Hoya has nothing future planned in MMA. De la Hoya really had nobody and it was hilarious watching de la Hoya talk about how great this how would do on PPV, claim it was a huge success, and then the next week when promoting Canelo Alvarez on DAZN, was pushing the line that PPV was dead and we’re in a new era
1286
1287ESPN announced that a weekly one hour edited version of Ariel Helwani’s Monday show that streams on ESPN+ will air on Tuesday nights at midnight every week on either ESPN 2 or ESPN News
1288
1289Guilherme Cruz wrote an article in MMA Fighting about the constricting of the MMA scene in Brazil. He noted MMA really exploded mainstream with the Anderson Silva vs. Vitor Belfort UFC fight in 2011, when UFC started running seven shows a year and the biggest fights were doing huge ratings on Globo, the country’s dominant television network. It noted that Wallid Ismail’s Jungle Fights promotion was UFC’s best feeder league, and they ran 16 shows in 2013 and 12 in 2014,and winning a title there usually meant a UFC spot was on the way. In 2017 and 2018 combined, Jungle Fights was down to just five shows. Andre Pederneiras, the noted trainer who promoted ten Shooto shows last year, said it is impossible to do live events without losing money, but his other businesses allow him to promote shows. He said it is impossible to make money promoting shows in Brazil right now and turn a profit. Ricardo Saldanha, who promotes Max Fights, said business was okay through 2016 but got difficult in 2017 because sponsors were gone and people were no longer buying tickets. Tata Duarte said business was good until 2014. Among the things blamed was the UFC deal with Reebok killing Tapout, Venum and brands like that in the MMA marketplace and they were key sponsors of smaller events. Then the Combate Channel made the decision to only televise shows sanctioned by CABMMA (the Brazilian version of a commission) covering MMA after the death of Leandro Souza who died cutting weight for a show in 2013. The costs of doing a sanctioned show were $4,000 to $5,000, which killed profit margin, plus fighters would have to pay more in medical exams than their purses. Combate is now for the most part a UFC channel (Shooto Brazil and Max Fights are still on since they pay the commission costs). Most others can’t afford those costs. Combate has also fallen from 500,000 subscribers at the peak of MMA in 2011. The U.S. scene has also restricted as Steve Kelliher did research that indicated the peak of the number of MMA events in the U.S. looks to have been 2013 with 1,909 shows and dropped to 1,753 in 2014, 1,619 in 2015, 1,384 in 2016, 1,291 in 2017 and 1,181 this past year
1290
1291Cedric Marks, 44, who fought from 1998 to 2016, almost exclusively on smaller shows (he had one 2010 fight in a Bellator prelim, which he lost), has been in the news in Texas and Oklahoma regarding the deaths of Michael Swearingin, 32, and Jenna Scott, 28, who had been reported missing on 1/5. The couple lived in Temple, TX and their car was found abandoned in Austin and it had become news in Texas and Oklahoma about their disappearance. Their bodies were discovered in shallow graves in rural Okfusee Country in Oklahoma on 1/15. Marks was the ex-boyfriend of Scott. He was arrested on 1/8 in Grand Rapids, MI, on a felony burglary charge. He is not a suspect in this case but also has an outstanding breaking and entering charge trying to get into Scott’s home and is awaiting extradition. Police in Minneapolis also confirmed that at one point Mark was considered person of interest in the disappearance of ex-girlfriend April Pease, 30, in 2009, who has ever found again. Marks had a 31-27 record as a fighter, fighting mostly as a middleweight.
1292
1293WWE: During the year 2018, the most successful growth stock on the Standard & poor’s 400index was WWE which gained 144.3 percent in 2018 after a 66.2 percent increase in 2017. And that was during a year where the market declined overall significantly
1294
1295The company officially announced the opening of its second Performance Center, which will be in the U.K. This is the start of what will be regional centers to develop talent strategically placed all over the world. They opened a 17,000-square foot location. Paul Levesque and Shawn Michaels were there for the announcement. The idea is to train 30 to 50 prospective wrestlers at a time at these new locations
1296
1297On Raw they officially announced that there would be one set of women’s tag team champions and not two, which, because Raw is always favored as the A show, means they are likely to get those belts, meaning teams like Bayley & Banks, Jax & Tamina and The Riott Squad would look to be favored. There will be a six-team Elimination Chamber match, so figuring those three teams plus maybe Deville & Rose, Kay & Royce and a face team on Smackdown (Lana & Naomi or Flair and the Asuka/Lynch loser ), that takes place on 2/17 in Houston to determine the first champions. This would be the first women’s tag team champions in WWE since the titles were dropped in 1989. Moolah had haphazard women’s tag team champions that were called NWA world women’s tag team champions from 1970 to 1983, that on occasion defended the titles on WWWF shows. In 1973, 1975 and 1977 they had NWA women’s tag team title changes on WWWF shows. In 1984, when Vince McMahon purchased the rights to the titles from Moolah when he expanded, those women’s tag team titles became the WWF women’s tag team titles, although they were rarely talked about or pushed until 1987-88 when Judy Martin & Leilaini Kai did a program with the Jumping Bomb Angels in the U.S. and Japan over them and then after that ran its course, and WWF cooled down on promoting women’s matches, the belts were dropped
1298
1299There’s really nothing new on the Lars Sullivan story. The company is handling it about as well as could be possible and to the best of our knowledge he has been told he has the option to return when he is ready and the company is very supportive of him. He was not mentioned once on television this week. It’s probably for the best he didn’t come back this week given the way they debuted most of the newcomers
1300
1301Regarding the debuts, Vince is of the mentality right now he just wants people to see their faces on television. So the writers have to write stuff where they are in the background. They haven’t decided how to use them or on what show, but he wants people seeing them and feels what matters is when they come up with the plan how to use them and people will forget this, but they’ll know who they are, with the idea the majority of his fans don’t know who they are. Thus far EC 3 has come across as a minor league Lex Luger, Dozovic as a stocky Eugene, Cross as kind of wacky but charismatic woman with no direction and Evans likes wearing hats and is somebody’s idea of a Southern Belle from the 50s
1302
1303Ticket sales for the Rumble in Phoenix aren’t bad, although the secondary market remains soft ($21.85 price of entry so at least it hasn’t declined since last week). But they are far enough from being packed that they were doing two-for-one tickets this past week to anyone who wanted them
1304
1305Here is an update on the XFL. They expect to announce their broadcast agreements in the next few weeks. There was far more interest in them than people think. Stations want live sports and football more than any other live sport. Even though the rival AAF claims it will have $650 million in funding and Vince McMahon hasn’t committed to that much, the belief is right now his league will be stronger because they are running in bigger markets and will pay players better and thus getting a higher caliber of player. I’m not sure that’s the case because the XFL is going to be for players who don’t think they can make the NFL, because they will be signing people to long-term exclusive contracts, while the AAF has told players that they are signed to where they can’t go to a league like the XFL, that they can leave if they have an NFL offer. They are currently interviewing for the people who will run the eight teams, notably the coaches, and are spending up to $300,000 for quarterbacks. They want their eight “star quarterbacks†signed by the end of March, so they can start marketing the coaches and quarterbacks in the local markets starting at the end of March, giving them 10 plus months of local promotion before the season starts
1306
1307Although the USA Network constantly pushes the idea they were No. 1 in prime time in 2018, technically that’s far from the case. USA was actually No. 5 on basic cable averaging a 1.07 rating and 1,291,000 viewers. That number is greatly boosted by Raw and Smackdown. And it will decline significantly after Smackdown leaves and will likely fall several notches. With no Smackdown this year the average would have fallen to 1,164,000 and move it to eighth place. Fox News, ESPN, MSNBC and Home & Garden TV were the top four. TBS and TNT have a strong shot of beating USA next year and even more so in 2020 without Smackdown
1308
1309The WWE has made the decision to leave the Disney Streaming Services and go with Endeavor streaming as the host of the WWE Network. Disney Streaming, formerly BAMTech, was the original company formed by Major League Baseball to handle its streaming and they were the best in the field when WWE launched its network. WWE worked with them since the 2014 launch but when the contract expired, WWE decided not to renew. Vince McMahon told Variety “Endeavor Streaming’s best-in-class technology enables us to offer more features, elevate the user experience and provides us even more opportunity to delight out fans from around the world.†WWE also will partner with Massive Interactive, a user-interface design firm to work with Endeavor. Endeavor streaming is basically the company that was NeuLion, which Endeavor purchased last March for $250 million, and handles UFC’s Fight Pass. Endeavor also inked new deals with the U.K.’s BT Sport Box office and OSN in the Middle East and Northern Africa, and also serves the NFL, NBA, EurolaGUE,K Univision, Sportsnet in Canada, Sky Sports, MSG, National Geographic and the Big Ten Network
1310
1311.The world premiere of the movie “Fighting With My Family†will be on 1/28 at the Sundance Film Festival. The main stars, including Dwayne Johnson, will be at the premiere. Also at the premiere will be Paige, her family, and Vega, who plays the role of A.J. Lee in the movie. MGM had purchased global distribution rights from Johnson’s Seven Bucks Entertainment for $17.5 million.
1312
1313Bonnie Hammer, who had been running NBCU after cutting her teeth in charge of the USA Network, has been moved to being in charge of the company’s streaming service that has yet to launch. Her new title is Chairman of Direct-to-Consumer and Digital Enterprises. Hammer was the key person in getting WWE to return to USA in late 2005 after they had spent five years with Spike
1314
1315205 Live returned to being live on 1/15 and will be back regularly in the 10 p.m. Eastern time slot on Tuesdays directly after Smackdown
1316
1317Lawler, on his podcast, said that he had signed a new two-year contract with WWE and that he had gotten a raise. He also said that he would be calling the Royal Rumble match this year. WWE said that Cole would call the Rumble with both Lawler and John Layfield. I have no idea why they would want Layfield in that spot. At least with Lawler you get the nostalgia deal, but Graves is so much better than Layfield in the same position and he’s up on the current talent
1318
1319Ilja Dragunov, who is one of the best sellers around and made a huge hit in PWG at Battle of Los Angeles, may be headed in. He has just started pulling out of dates for contractual reasons. He was at the Germany tryout and would have been the best guy there, plus was at the training camp in the U.K. I don’t know this but his situation would likely be similar to Walter because he’s always put his family first, so it makes more sense for him to work the U.K. brand in Europe as opposed to come to the U.S., but anything is possible. The belief is he’s going to be similar to Walter, Pete Dunne and Mustache Mountain n the sense he’ll be one of the main stars of the U.K. brand and do NXT shows in the U.S. at times
1320
1321Zayn (recovering from surgery on both shoulders) and Sin Cara (reconstructive knee surgery) were both training this past week at the Performance Center for a return
1322
1323The Revival, after their win over Kalisto & Metalik on the 1/13 Raw, while still in their gear, asked for their release. As of press time they haven’t been given their release. The word we got is that nobody who asks for their release right now is expected to be given it for obvious reasons
1324
1325Despite reports to the contrary, Harper has not been medically cleared as of press time. He’s pretty much healed and shouldn’t be far off, but it hasn’t happened yet. Rowan has been training for his return. Guys who are on the injured list and not cleared are having the Mysterio/Bryan thing with their contracts so each day they are out of action their contract extends for another day, so in the case of guys like this out for months, the contracts are being extended for months
1326
1327WWE debuted a Nigel McGuinness documentary after the 1/12 Takeover show. It’s something worth going out of your way to see because it’s a rare WWE documentary where almost nothing has to do with WWE, other than it was his childhood dream that he never achieved as a wrestler and that he came very close to achieving it, and even now, there are so many unanswered questions in his mind. It does put WWE over as the be-all and end-all while having lots of ROH footage and some Impact footage. They made deals with both companies for the documentary and I’m not sure what ROH got out of it except perhaps financial compensation, but Impact did get a commercial for its Global Wrestling Network on the WWE Network in exchange. The people who were used besides McGuinness to talk about his career were Bryan, Joe, Rollins (who you could tell really idolized him), Angle, his original trainer Les Thatcher and Michael Cole, who hired him to be an announcer with WWE. Bryan was probably the most interesting because each pretty much believes that the best matches of each one of their careers were with each other in ROH, and talked in specific about their Liverpool match. I’d have given that match ***** except I absolutely hated the hardway into the post that McGuinness took and I think that was the match with a series of ramming head-butts to set up the finish that were far too concerning. I can remember Thatcher and I having a conversation after seeing the match where we both thought it was one of the best bouts we’d ever seen except both took it way too far, and I think a year later after CTE became a topic, I’m pretty sure both of them probably came to the same conclusion. The talked about McGuinness as being perhaps the greatest wrestler who never wrestled in WWE and really put him over as an all-time great in the ring who never made big money as a wrestler. They focused on him becoming Pure champion in ROH (this video really did a strong job of getting over the quality of ROH in that era) and how he did so well it led to a long run as ROH champion, but also the physical toll being the top guy in ROH took on him. It noted that he and Bryan signed their WWE contracts at the same time, and that Bryan actively said that he lied to the doctors about his past medical issues and McGuinness told the truth about having a previously torn biceps during the period he was ROH champion (from so many lariats) and it has scarred, was fully functional, but never had surgery. Because Bryan lied by not telling the doctors about his past issues, they signed him. Because McGuinness told the truth, his contract offer was rescinded. What’s notable to me is that I’ve known athletes in other sports with torn biceps and doctors often have said that the surgery is more cosmetic than functional. If you’re into having a full biceps, and there’s nothing wrong with that, get the surgery. But eventually with rehab you get most of your functional strength back, but you have the half biceps thing that you see in a lot of athletes. Hiroshi Tanahashi is the perfect example with tears in both arms and he never had surgery and performs in the ring as good as anyone, but still has big but half biceps and it’s joked because it’s half that maybe they even peak better. But WWE medical told him he needed surgery. He got a letter from his doctor who took care of him saying the biceps were not more susceptible for a tear, that they function properly and that he’s fine and had no need for the surgery. But WWE turned him down. He said he could have gotten the surgery but it would have cost him $6,000 to $8,000, plus he’d be unable to work for about six to eight months, and basically couldn’t afford that, plus there was no guarantee at his age that they would hire him even if he got it taken care of. Shelton Benjamin, who had a torn rotator cuff, was in the same position, had the surgery, and in fact they did hire him eventually but not right away and there was never a guarantee that they would. So he got an offer from TNA and worked there, and noted how well he started off with Angle. TNA is a real sad situation because he got over really big in his debut program with Angle but the people in charge at the time, which was the Bischoff-Hogan regime, they didn’t see him as top talent. They did that deal where they wanted to be fan friendly and create a deal where fans voted for Matt Morgan to get a shot at the TNA world title. They had the idea you’d do a fan voting for the next title shot to get fan involvement, which sounded like a great and novel idea until they came to the conclusion that hardcore fans don’t get that the masses want when the results kept coming up with Desmond Wolfe (his name in TNA) winning and not Morgan or Jeff Hardy. Anyway, none of this was discussed and really it was a fascinating thing but ultimately when it comes to the big picture story of his career, it maybe have been worth a minute but they didn’t go there. While in TNA, they did some vignettes to introduce Wolfe & Magnus (Nick Aldis) as a tag team with the model/actress who used the name Chelsea which were entertaining, but then they were dropped. Wolfe got Hepatitus B, and he noted that he never shared needles, never had unprotected sex, but did have a lot of bloody wrestling matches so he figures that’s where he got it, but also found it weird that others in wrestling hadn’t (aside from Abdullah the Butcher, Devon Nicholson, Superstar Graham and one or two others, I’m not aware of wrestlers with Hepatitus and considering all the group sex, drug use and bloodbaths in the 70s and 80s that’s very lucky). Once again, he didn’t have money for treatment but due to his economics, was able to get a new treatment that they were giving to people without a lot of money and he was cured. He was fired by TNA something like the day before he was cleared. So in his mind at that time, TNA was no longer an option, he didn’t have the money for surgery for his biceps and there was no guarantee WWE would have him at that point either, and he felt his body couldn’t take the ROH style, so he did his farewell tour. It was noted that the day after his farewell match in the U.K. in front of almost no fans in 2011, that Bryan won one of the two major WWE titles at the time on a PPV cashing in the Money in the Bank (in a last day decision). McGuinness ended up working for ROH as both an announcer and the on-screen authority figure, and was working on a stand-up comedy career at the same time. His job in WWE came because ITV was starting a show so WWE decided to implement a U.K. brand, and wanted a U.K. announcer, and Cole had seen him in ROH and hired him. They showed a lot of McGuinness and Mauro Ranallo backstage prepping for shows as well as calling stuff together. McGuinness is actually, and by a wide margin, the best guy doing color in WWE because he’s a total student of history from all over the world, speaks well and concise, knows all the moves and the psychology and has a great but subtle wit. I have no idea why he’s not on Raw or Smackdown, especially since neither the Raw nor Smackdown announcing dynamics right now are working well
1328
1329Even though Owens is expected to be cleared fairly soon, right now the decision is not to bring him back to television until after Mania
1330
1331The WWE is doing a casting call tryout for former football players in April at the Performance Center. They are looking for former football players, and players who are not retired but aren’t on a team. They pushed that WWE has been the home to former University of Miami player Dwayne Johnson, Georgia Tech’s Roman Reigns and Florida’s Titus O’Neil
1332
1333Trevor Lee Caddell, 25, announced at the CWF Mid Atlantic show in Gibsonville, NC on 1/12 that he was headed to WWE. While that was well known, it was a big surprise he announced it because WWE has always had a rule that talent wasn’t supposed to tell anyone about being signed until WWE made the announcement themselves. The threat always was (even though never carried out) that the contract would be rescinded if the story broke before WWE got it out, so I was surprised he himself would break it in a public venue where it was guaranteed the news would get out. Lee has a few more dates this month before starting with WWE in February
1334
1335Expect Shane Strickland in as well. He had been attempting to get a release from both MLW and Lucha Underground to come here and evidently he officially got his releases this past week
1336
1337The University of Minnesota sent out footage of Lesnar training with Gable Steveson, who is a true freshman but is already the No. 1 ranked heavyweight in the country and has a 20-0 record, and looks to be the next Aaron Pico/Kyle Snyder/Logan Steiber/Kyle Dake level prodigy in the sport. Lesnar has known him for some time and brought him to WWE show when he was in high school. Heyman already knows him as well, as does Gerald Brisco. In trying to not make college wrestling their enemy, WWE pretty much has a rule to not try and lure anyone in a Division I program until after they finished their four years. Lesnar may do more training with him down the line. It should be noted that almost every national champion heavyweight from Minnesota has gone onto good to great success in pro wrestling, with the biggest being Lesnar and Verne Gagne
1338
1339TV this coming week has Raw on 1/21 in Oklahoma City and Smackdown on 1/22 in Wichita as the go-home shows for the Rumble in Phoenix. It’s all hands on deck with all the non full-timers working Rumble (Lesnar, Bryan, Mysterio and Orton) all scheduled. Cena is starting on a movie on 1/20 and is not advertised for either show, but is scheduled for the Rumble
1340
1341WWE stock closed on 1/16 at $81.51 per share, so a big increase this past week even though the market is still so-so (although not as bad as it was). The current company worth is $6.36 billion
1342
1343The top ten most-watched shows of the past week on the WWE Network were: 1. NXT UK Takeover from Blackpool; 2. The Nigel McGuinness Story; 3. NXT UK Takeover Blackpool pregame show; 4. New Day 2018 Year in review show; 5. NXT from 1/9; 6. TLC 2018; 7. Edge & Christian show episode six from season two; 8. Botch Club; 9. NXT U.K. from 1/9; 10. 205 Live from 1/9
1344
1345Notes from the 1/14 Raw in Memphis. One of the key storylines was Lashley winning the IC title in a three-way over Ambrose and Rollins. He pinned Ambrose to take it. In a trivia note, it’s been 11 ½ years (summer of 2007 when he was champion of the WWE’s version of ECW when he was given the spot first offered to Bob Sapp) since Lashley had previously held a WWE championship. The other was Balor getting the Rumble title shot at Lesnar when it was pulled from Strowman. The show drew 8,000 fans. Main Event opened with Jose & Ryder over Hawkins & Breeze when Ryder pinned Hawkins after the Rough Ryder. Breeze went back to his old supermodel ring entrance. Fox & James beat Moon & Brooke when James pinned Brooke after a DDT. So Brooke was back on the face side after no turn, but later during the Raw show she was shown chatting with James and Lacey Evans as a heel. The show opened with Vince arriving in his limo. He got out and saw some minor scratches and ordered the driver to touch them up and did his Vince walk backstage. Strowman came out and got a “Get these hands†chant. He said that Lesnar has always been afraid of him. He talked about his match with Lesnar at the WWE World Cup PPV show. Notable that WWE has now changed the name from Crown Jewel and it’s negative connotation to World Cup. He said he was all healed up. He still hasn’t been cleared. He said that with Corbin no longer in power, there was nobody to save Lesnar so he’d win the title. Corbin came out. Strowman tried to lead the crowd in a “You got fired†chant. Corbin said that if I stand here for five minutes, that’s longer than Strowman lasted in his last match with Lesnar. Corbin said that there were people who believe in Strowman, but all he does is let them down and “You can’t beat Lesnar and you know it.†Corbin said that on the other hand, he was winning the Rumble and going to the main event of WrestleMania, something Strowman will never do. Corbin left. Strowman went after him. Strowman went backstage and threw Sunil Singh over a table in catering and chased after Corbin. He went past Elias, who was singing a song about Corbin. Elias told Strowman that Corbin was hiding in the limo. Strowman went to the limo and destroyed it, using a pipe to knock out the windows and pulled the door off. Corbin ran away and Vince showed up, since it was the limo he arrived in. This got really stupid because Strowman saw Vince and at first froze, and then tried to somehow put the limo back together trying to put the door back on. Vince was mad and fined him $100,000. Strowman said that piece of crap wasn’t worth $100,000. So Vince pulled him out of the Rumble match. After Vince left, Strowman picked up and turned over the limo. Authorities then took Strowman away and Corbin was laughing about it. Rousey & Banks beat Jax & Tamina in 10:11 when Banks beat Tamina with the banks statement. Rousey did a cool move early on. Rousey basically crawled up Tamina’s body and did a flying armbar, but Tamina made the ropes. Charly Caruso interviewed Rousey and Banks. This was pretty lame. Rousey said that a win over Banks would be the greatest accomplishment of her pro wrestling career. Banks then got mad because Rousey was talking about beating her and said that Rousey isn’t the only person who can tap people out, since she just did it to Tamina and last week did it to Jax. Banks said she’d face any woman of any size anywhere. Banks said it would be her pleasure to teach Rousey how to lose with class. Rousey said that Banks could keep the title of world’s classiest loser because she doesn’t want it. Banks said that she wasn’t scared, that Rousey always has to get her way and that the only loser will be Rousey when she taps her out. She left. Rousey went through this whole segment trying to apologize and be friends with Banks. Banks took everything she said wrong. Rousey ran after Banks to try and apologize again. There was a line of people outside Vince’s office. In the line included Rhyno, Slater, Crews, The B Team, Hawkins and others. In another shot, EC 3 was in line which was one hell of a way to debut him. The door opened and Lawler came out of Vince’s office, to get the easy Memphis pop for Lawler. That was Lawler’s only appearance on the show. Crews wanted a shot at Lesnar. The B Team wanted a shot at Lesnar. Hawkins wanted a shot at Lesnar as well. But Slater, he didn’t want a shot at Lesnar because he’s got kids. Not sure why he’d be in line then. Bayley and Natalya argued about the Banks/Rousey argument. Bayley said that Rousey was out of line and Natalya said that Banks had to learn to control her emotions. Natalya said that Banks was too sensitive to what Rousey was saying. This argument came across so non-believable. I mean, it was scripted so bad. The Riott Squad came out. Riott said that while everyone else was falling apart, the Riott Squad sticks together. Morgan told Bayley that Banks dumped her to chase the title. Bayley got mad and The Riott Squad told both of them to get a third person to be their partner for a match. The Revival beat Kalisto & Metalik in 4:08. The Revival was mad at the Lucha House Party for not telling the ref about how their foot was under the ropes during the pin in the title match last week. Dawson hit a DDT on Metalik and went for the pin. Metalik got his foot on the ropes but Wilder pushed it off the ropes, so The Revival won by using the methods they had been cheated by in recent weeks. In normal storytelling, that makes them the babyfaces. Vince came out of his office and told Dasha Fuentes that he was going to the ring. Vince came out to announce who would face Lesnar. Cena came out first. He said that 20 years ago, Austin said “See ya Vince,†Rock said “See ya Vince†and Lesnar said “take this job and shove it I’m trying to play football.†He managed by make everyone, notably Lesnar look old because this wasn’t exactly 20 years ago. Austin walked out in 2002 and came back later. Rock left in 2003 as far as being a regular, but his association ended when there was that pesky clerical error at the end of 2003 where his contract expired and it wasn’t renewed. Lesnar left in 2004 after Mania. Cena said that Vince was begging for somebody to step up and he walked up to Vince and said that if you give me a chance I will not let you down. He said he missed birthdays, weddings and funerals for this, but stepping up is making WWE your life and loving every second of it. Cena said if Vince gave him a chance against Lesnar he’d become a 17 time champion and wouldn’t let him down. Vince was smiling through all of this. Cena said the reason he knows this is because he has ruthless aggression, which was the line he used on his Smackdown TV debut against Angle. McIntyre came out and said that Cena had ruthless aggression but today he’s the one with ruthless aggression. Corbin then came out and said that what’s best for business is for him to get a shot. He noted that he had a lawyer on speed dial so the idea is he was threatening a lawsuit over his firing so that was his leverage to get the title shot. They didn’t script Vince to dress him down over the legal threat as I guess this was their storyline as to why Vince would put him in that match. Balor then came out and said he’s the only one of the four people in the ring who had ever actually won the Universal title. Vince told Balor he was a great competitor but didn’t know about him compared to “all this beef†and pretty much said Lesnar was too big for him. Balor said that Vince never believed in him but these people do. The people were kind of lukewarm to him but when he begged for the response he did get it. Balor attacked Corbin. McIntyre hit Balor with the Claymore kick. McIntyre hit Cena with one as well so he was the last man standing. Vince was smiling at all this and announced a four-way for the title shot. What happened to all those guys in line? Like not one of them came out. Backstage, Vince was with Mahal. Mahal wanted the title shot, saying he was one of the greatest WWE champions of all-time and was supposed to face Lesnar at the 2017 Survivor Series. He said the fans were deprived of that dream match and he can beat Lesnar, and that he would have come out during the last segment but he was tending to Sunil Singh, who Strowman had injured. Vince told him he could pick any of the four guys in the match, challenge them, and if he wins, he gets their spot. Mahal picked Balor. Bayley & Natalya & Nikki Cross as the surprise third partner beat Riott & Morgan & Logan in 11:11. They specifically noted that the newcomers, EC 3, Cross, Lacey Evans and Heavy Machinery will be appearing on both Raw and Smackdown for now until a decision is made on what brand they are on. Cross still came out to the Sanity theme, but they never acknowledged her as being part of Sanity. Cross did a crossbody off the apron on Riott. Cross used a draping neckbreaker to Morgan and Bayley then used the Savage elbow off the top on Morgan for the pin. Balor was walking to the ring and they showed Evans, James and Brooke all talking, so that was the debut of Evans. Ambrose cut a promo about his odds of winning. Balor pinned Mahal in 9:30. Samir Singh distracted Balor and Mahal attacked him before the match. Mahal rammed his ribs into the apron and the barricade. Balor came back. The finish saw him dropkick Samir out of the ring and then backdrop Mahal over the top rope and follow with a running flip dive on both. He got the pin after the coup de grace. Rollins did an interview with Caruso and called her Charles, which was first an idea Jericho came up with. He talked about how after Reigns told the world he had leukemia that the three of them were together and that very night Ambrose turned on him. Lashley won the IC title in the three-way over Rollins and Ambrose in 13:09. There was an awkward moment where Graves talked about Lashley’s great genetics, and Renee Young argued that Ambrose has good genetics. Look, I got the defending your husband at all, but you have to pick your spots better. Rollins did a tope on both. Ambrose & Rollins worked together a lot against Lashley, and the crowd cheered them doing so. Rush was doing all kinds of flips to evade Rollins and then Lashley gave Rollins an overhead belly-to-belly on the floor. Rollins had Ambrose pinned with a falcon arrow when Rush jumped in to break up the pin. Rollins hit the frog splash on Lashley but Ambrose threw Rollins out of the ring and went for the pin, but Lashley kicked out. Lashley & Ambrose did the doomsday device on Rollins, but he landed on his feet. Rush pulled down the rope and Rollins took a bump over the top. Lashley then speared Ambrose for the pin to take the title. This was a good match, probably ***½ or so. A backstage guy kept knocking on Bliss’ door. Nobody answered. He yelled that he was coming in. He walked in and she acted surprised as the idea is she was topless and had to grab her shirt to cover her boobs. Everybody does stuff like this on TV and on the list of things to be outraged about this was pretty low. In fact, even on this show it was far from the top. Now, yes, when they try and promote that they are trying to treat the women with respect and all that, like they are athletes, and then do a skit like this, well, it shows that is all lip service. But they’ve shown that many times, from the Saudi deal to other angles. That lowest common denominator stuff does work for ratings, and also makes wrestling look low-rent in the sense you’re embarrassed to be watching if somebody walks in, but WWE will always have that element. It’s not like New Japan camera work with Pieter is any more classier, but they also don’t brag like it’s a badge of honor of how they are so progressive in their portrayal of empowered women and such. Bliss came out for her Moment of Bliss interview segment with Heyman. But first, she made the announcement about the new women’s tag team title and showed the belts. The crowd kind of groaned about the announcement, whether it’s the idea it was being done in the Elimination Chamber or what. Heyman cut a promo saying that suplex city was built on Cena, and that he’s had his eyes on McIntyre like everyone, and said McIntyre is almost guaranteed t be Universal champion some day, but not now. He talked about Corbin and people booed and groaned. Then Otis Dozovic showed up. I guess the idea is that he’s supposed to be this hillbilly from the 80s doing the George Steele/Elizabeth thing having the hots for Bliss. It was about the worst debut. Tucker Knight came out to pull him away. The segment abruptly ended. This may have been the worst segment Heyman was ever involved in during his career. Balor won the four-way over Cena, McIntyre and Corbin in 18:40. They all traded big moves. Cena looked very rusty here and his punches, which are never good, were at a new degree of bad looking. Cena used the Attitude Adjustment on McIntyre, but Corbin saved. Came off the top rope but McIntyre took a step back and power bombed him. Cena did an Attitude Adjustment off the middle rope on Balor, but Corbin threw Cena out of the ring and tried to steal the pin, but Balor kicked out. Corbin nailed Balor with chair shots to the back. Cena hit the Attitude Adjustment on Corbin, but McIntyre used the Claymore kick on Cena. Balor then used a DDT on McIntyre and came off the top rope with the coup de grace on Cena for the pin. Cena, who with is new haircut looks shockingly like JBL, at least from the side, said to Balor that even though Vince doesn’t believe in you, the people believe in you and Cena said there’s one more person who believes in you. It was done well. After the show was over, McIntyre said that he didn’t get pinned and Corbin didn’t get pinned. He laid out Balor with a Claymore kick and said that Lesnar would finish Balor. He went for a Claymore kick on Cena, who moved and laid McIntyre out with the Attitude Adjustment and then Balor delivered the coup de grace to end the show
1346
1347Notes from the 1/15 tapings in Birmingham. The show featured maybe the best main roster television match in months with Andrade (no longer Andrade Cien Almas, just Andrade) beating Mysterio, which is a surprise, as 50/50 booking would tell you this week was Rey’s turn. So they’re trying to do something with Andrade since he’s told his friends this isn’t what it’s cracked up to be, and now his friends are valuable pawns. But I’d go ****1/4 for that match and it’s a sign they are going farther with the program which is a good thing for both of them. They are back to doing 205 Live after Smackdown, which means no crowd reactions for that show. The show drew 5,000 fans. EC 3 pinned English with the one percenter. Heavy Machinery beat the Colons. Both of those were dark matches. Smackdown opened with Lynch showing up. Kayla Braxton asked her a few questions and she threw her keys at Braxton, so I guess she thought she was the car parking valet. The New Day was backstage with Heavy Machinery. They were putting all kinds of food including pancakes in a blender. Otis Dozovic drank it. Vince loves him. Six months from now we’ll find out if he is or isn’t better off because of that. Lynch walked by and drank it as well and said it was a little weak. She went to the ring. I hate to say this, but after all the great work Lynch has done of late, this promo just sucked starting out. She was pandering to the crowd playing the wrong kind of babyface. It was the exact wrong thing for her character and you could tell from the lack of reaction that the crowd sensed this. The fans didn’t seem comfortable with this character. Lynch was a lot better once she focused on Asuka, saying Asuka went undefeated for a long time, but once she lost, she fell apart. She said that Asuka couldn’t beat the one woman (Flair) who she’s been beating for five months in a row. Asuka came out and yelled and screamed in Japanese. Luckily she’s got that great expressive face, but instead of making foreigners seem like children who can’t speak English, it’s like every other sport with international competitors uses translators. Maybe we’ll get them into the 1960s in a few decades. Asuka said that maybe Lynch won’t be in Flair’s shadow, she’ll be in her shadow. The Iconics came out. They vowed to both win the Rumble, then win the women’s tag team titles and then main event Mania. Good luck on that. Lynch challenged either of them. Lynch beat Royce in 9:49. Cold match and it wasn’t good. Lynch sold a lot and won with the disarm her. Asuka then started yelling more in Japanese, and challenged Kay. Kay didn’t have much choice as Asuka threw her in the rig, used an armbar, then the Fujiwara armbar (Lynch’s disarm her) and finally the Asuka lock for the tap in :40. Really his would have been more effective had she gotten the tap to the Fujiwara. One, it teaches people that you don’t only win with one move, and it builds the match better with Asuka using Lynch’s own finisher. Asuka and Lynch went face-to-face when Styles came out. Styles then left and went into the crowd and wound up in the concourse at the concession stand where a ton of obviously planted fans and a row of hot dogs were at. Styles was throwing merchandise to the fans when Bryan came out of the crowd in disguise and attacked him. Styles gave Bryan a spinebuster through a concession stand table onto all the hot dogs. Bryan’s leg was covered with mustard and had foods all over his clothes. The Usos were doing a photo shoot. A box came for Jimmy. He had Jey open and read it. It had a rose and a racy love letter and then Jey read it was from Rose and had a hotel room key as well. He said he didn’t know what he was going to do. If Jey wasn’t so freaking dumb he’d have told him. Give the key to me, so you don’t cheat on your wife and she probably won’t know the difference. At least use the fact you look alike to your advantage. Joe walked backstage and there was EC 3 looking at himself in the mirror. They couldn’t have made him look more like the next Curt Hawkins had that actually had been the goal. Joe attacked Ali. He threw Ali into the post and kept head-butting him. He threw him hard int the post again. He teased giving him a power bomb through a table, but stopped and instead threw Ali threw the barricade. That was weird and my thought was it was a tease since the crowd would have cheered the table break, so he teased it, didn’t give it, and still hurt Ali, keeping him with a heel reaction. Rose & Deville were backstage. Deville was not down with Rose’s battle plan of sleeping with Jimmy. Rose came off heavily cruel, saying it’s not about Jimmy, she just hates Naomi with a passion and if there’s any way to make her life miserable, she will, and the best way to ruin her life is break up her marriage. Deville was somewhat appalled by all this. Mysterio was walking to the ring when Nikki Cross was on the other side of some cage wires and asked Rey if he wanted to play. He thought she was a goof and went walking. Joe did an interview and said what he did to Ali was a declaration and that he’s winning the Rumble. The one thing is Joe vs. Ali does look like it’s got a lot of promise as a program. Andrade beat Mysterio in 20:35. Super match. Lots of cool moves by Mysterio. Andrade power bombed him on the floor. Mysterio came off the top corner and gave Andrade a huracanrana to the floor. Mysterio also came off the top of the post with a Thesz press tot he floor. Mysterio came off the top rope into a dropkick. Andrade did a double moonsault for a near fall. Mysterio hit another Canadian Destroyer out of nowhere. Andrade blocked a 619 and hit a crucifix bomb for a near fall. Mysterio was on the top rope when Vega distracted him allowing Andrade to crotch him and use the hammerlock DDT for the pin. Jimmy Uso was all nervous and indecisive about going to Rose’s hotel room. But he went in, she was in her robe, took off her robe and was in her underwear and Jimmy said that they can’t do this. A photographer showed up and started shooting photos and she then blew him off, like she had no interest in doing it with him, just wanted the photos to send to Naomi. But as a parting shot Rose told Jimmy that his wife will never look like this and never be as hot as me. They’re clearly trying to up the risque content. It’ll work for ratings and they do need a stronger audience for when they go on FOX. But it also makes the women’s direction they espouse publicly a complete fraud, with the idea they are promoting women as role models for young girls and such when it’s back to using them as sex objects for ratings. Somehow Naomi was there all along and attacked Rose and they fought on the bed and Rose actually got the better of it for some unknown reason and threw Naomi over a chair. Jimmy ended up coming back. Next was the Shane McMahon birthday segment. Shane turned 49. Miz gave him a present of Jordan 33's and then they showed a nice video of Shane’s career dating back to his start. Shane thanked him. Shane said that from the first time he went to a WWE show, he always dreamed of holding the tag team titles with Andre the Giant as his partner. Sheamus & Cesaro came out. Shane noted that Sheamus kicked Miz in the face last week and said he wants Miz to face Sheamus. Miz said he wasn’t dressed for it but Shane told him to do it. So we had Shane in dress clothes, and working the match with a dress shirt on before he figured out he could take it off, against Sheamus. Shane ended up throwing Cesaro off the apron and through a table with a cake on it. Miz pinned Sheamus with a schoolboy. Miz gave Sheamus the skull crushing finale after and told Shane to do the coast-to-coast dropkick. Miz held another cake in front of Sheamus’ face. The idea was for Shane to dropkick the cake into Sheamus’ face, but it didn’t work out very well. So Miz after that didn’t work out shoved the cake in Sheamus’ face. 205 Live opened with Lio Rush doing a promo. He was to face Lince Dorado. Rush told Dorado that Dorado brought out the other two guys because he knew he couldn’t beat him on his own. That got Dorado to tell them to leave. All I could think of watching this was how good Rush used to look and how he was okay here, but kind of blah, did none of the things nor worked the style that got him over. It really wouldn’t have mattered because the crowd was dead and they did work hard. Dorado did a tope to no reaction. Rush did the BME, also to no reaction. Basically Dorado kicked out of three moonsaults, and did so in the opening match of a weak TV show. Talk about changes in the business with wasting big spots where they got no reaction and you knew they wouldn’t in a non-major match. After more near falls, Rush won with a frog splash in 10:32. Rush attacked his ankle after the match until Kalisto and Metalik came out. Noam Dar did an interview and talked about beating Tony Nese last week. Nese came out and said he dominated the match. Dar said that Nese lost. Nese said he’d beat Dar 99 times out of 100. Nese challenged him to a match. Dar aid he already beat him. Drake Maverick and TJP were talking. Maverick told TJP that Buddy Murphy already had an opponent, a newcomer making his debut. Maverick was talking to TJP when TJP just walked out on him in mid-sentence. Kalisto did an interview saying he’d dedicated his life to being the best and at the Royal Rumble he’s walking out as champion. Brian Kendrick said that he was teaching Akira Tozawa every dirty trick in the book so he could win the title at the Rumble. Tozawa’s basic role is to look at the camera and do a big goofy looking smile that screams out opening match. Ariya Daivari then cut a promo for Hideo Itami, noting that the other three guys in the Rumble match have all held the cruiserweight title, but Itami never has and he’s the one who is hungry and talked about it being the start of the Itami era. They announced Itami vs. Tozawa vs. Kalisto on next week’s show. Murphy did an interview saying that he’s the greatest cruiserweight of all-time. Not sure Mysterio, Jushin Liger and Danny Hodge aren’t still a bit ahead of him. He issued an open challenge for a non-title match and Humberto Carrillo came out. So here’s the situation. Two weeks ago, Carrillo was told that they were going to push he and Raul Mendoza as a tag team in NXT and they wanted them to have matching outfits. Then he was announced as part of the Phoenix Axxess tournament representing 205 Live, and obviously the plan was to move him there. Of course, they jumped the gun on that one, and pulled his name from the tournament (now that he’s been on TV as a surprise, his name is back in he tournament as part of 205 Live). The two had a good match, but again a dead crowd. Carrillo missed a tope early and crashed on the floor. Carrillo backdropped Murphy on the apron. Keep in mind the crowd didn’t react at all to either spot. There was even a “this is boring†chant, which sucked because they were out there working hard but the crowd didn’t know Carrillo and decided it was boring. So they just started hitting big moves to little reaction, but there were enough of them that some fans did a this is awesome chant, but it was light. Murphy then sold a right knee injury and the idea is they were stopping the match. The problem was that nobody, and it was clear, nobody bought this except the referee and Carrillo, so they looked stupid. So Murphy attacked. And that wasn’t the finish either as they went back to trading big moves. Carrillo hit a tope that knocked Murphy over the announcers table. The finish saw Carrillo go for a springboard splash, but Murphy hit a V trigger as he came off the top rope and hit Murphy’s law for the pin in 15:24. Main event saw Styles over Bryan in a dark title mach when Bryan hit Styles with a low blow. Styles made his comeback after the match to lay Bryan out and end the show on a happy note
1348
1349Notes from the 1/12 tapings in Blackpool, UK for NXT U.K. The show drew 1,700 fans taping the shows were 1/30, 2/6 and 2/13. The 2/20 show will feature matches taped in Phoenix at Axxess. The show live had no storylines, just a procession of matches. Nothing backstage was shown. Some of the wrestling was good and Walter was super over. Luke Menzies, a former soccer star, beat Flash Morgan Webster, who doesn’t appear to be in their plans for much of anything. Menzies was a heel, wearing a Flatcap and holding a wooden baton. He was super green and won with a powerslam. This was a dark match. For 1/30, Pete Dunne came out for a promo. Joe & Mark Coffey & Wolfgang, the top heel squad called Gallus, came out. Joe said that Dunne’s win at Takeover was a fluke. Walter came out to a huge reaction and the crowd was singing the Ringkampf theme. Walter & Dunne cleared the ring together and then did a staredown. Nina Samuels beat Lana Austin with the Attitude Adjustment. Austin got a big pop since she’s based in Northwest England and a lot of the fans knew her. Kenny Williams & Amir Jordan beat Tyson T-Bone & Saxon Huxley when Jordan pinned Huxley after a swanton. Eddie Dennis beat Jamie Ahmed with the next stop driver . The main event was Travis Banks going to a double count out with Jordan Devlin. The action was great. Devlin hit a Spanish fly off the apron to the floor and another one in the ring that Banks kicked out of. Both ended up fighting outside the ring and were counted out and continued to brawl until the officials broke them up. The crowd didn’t like the finish. For 2/6, Dave Mastiff beat Jay Melrose after a cannonball in the corner. Zack Gibson & James Drake came out for a promo. They used the Grizzled Young Veterans name that they had been using, but they were not called on the Takeover show. Sid Scala came out and said he was searching the world for the best tag team competition to face them. He then announced they would be facing Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch in Phoenix. This will be out of the matches taped at Axxess and pushed it as NXT UK defending against a top NXT team. Walter destroyed Jack Starz in a squash match with a power bomb. Jinny beat Kasey Owens with a facebuster out of the corner. Tyler Bate & Trent Seven beat Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel, who were called The European Union. Went 12:00 with good action. Barthel & Aichner looked great as a team. Seven pinned Barthel with a snap dragon suplex. The final show on 2/13 saw El Ligero beat Mark Andrews with a jumping DDT off the middle rope after Andrews tried a shooting star press and Ligero got his knees up. Good face vs. face high spot style match. They shook hands after. Xia Brookside, the daughter of Robbie Brookside, beat Candy Floss with a bridging in. Both Brookside and Floss are 19 years old and babyfaces. After the match, Rhea Ripley came out and destroyed both of them and put Brookside in a swinging Indian deathlock. Toni Storm made the save but Ripley threw Brookside into Storm and they bonked heads. Ripley then gave Storm a pump handle slam and left her laying. Joseph Conners beat Mike Hitchman. Joe Coffey beat Ashton Smith with a discus lariat. The crowd was dead at this point. Walter beat Mark Coffey in the main event in a super stiff match. Walter mostly no-sold Coffey’s offense and won with a power bomb. The crowd got tired in the third hour. They announced the next tapings would be 2/22 and 2/23 in Coventry
1350
1351The NXT tour opened on 1/10 in Largo, FL before 177 fans. Mansour Al-Shehail beat Rick Bugez with a stunner off the turnbuckle. Al-Shehail has tights with the emblem of the flag of Saudi Arabia on them with the words “Arab Aesthetic†written. Aliyah & Vanessa Borne beat Jessie Elaban & Kacy Catanzaro. The gimmick is that Aliyah and Borne both brought out mirrors and after doing anything, they’d look in the mirror to check themselves out. It looked like they were going to put them together as a regular team. Riddick Moss came out and talked about the Riddick Regiment that allowed him a speedy recovery from surgery. He kept talking about the Riddick Regiment until Jeet Rama came out. Rama pinned Moss with a roll-up. Moss destroyed him after the match. Jaxson Ryker pinned Stacey Ervin Jr. with a sit out choke slam. Humberto Carrillo & Raul Mendoza beat Cezar Bononi & Adrian Jaoude when Mendoza used a 450 splash to win. Punishment Martinez pinned Kona Reeves with a lariat and used a gogoplata submission. Martinez choke slammed Reeves after the match. Very interesting they allowed Martinez to use Undertaker’s submission finisher. Candice LeRae beat Deonna Purrazzo with the unprettier. Main event saw Ricochet & Keith Lee & Matt Riddle over Shane Thorne & Johnny Gargano & Kassius Ohno. Crowd was hot for this one and this was one of the better Florida main events of late. Ricochet pinned Thorne with a cradle shock
1352
1353The second show of the week on 1/11 in Fort Pierce, FL, drew 350 fans. Ervin Jr. pinned Reeves with a roll-up. Catanzaro & Lacey Lane beat Aliyah & Borne. Kassius Ohno pinned Mansoor Al-Shehail with a spinning elbow. Thorne beat Boa with a choke. Riddle pinned Martinez. This was a very different style match than you’d usually see in WWE. It was all about hitting big moves. Martinez looked great here. Martinez even used a Canadian Destroyer on Riddle, but then Riddle came back with a jumping knee and collapsed on Martinez for the pin. Keith Lee & Mia Yim beat Moss & Chelsea Green. Good amount of comedy here. Yim did a big vie. Lee pinned Moss with the spirit bomb to win. Deonna Purrazzo beat Xia Li with the Fujiwara armbar. Purrazzo’s hair now has a purple tint. EC 3 & Heavy Machinery beat Wesley Blake & Steve Cutler & Ryker in the main event. EC 3 & Heavy Machinery then thanked the fans for their supporting NXT
1354
13551/12 in Orlando drew 300 fans. Riddle pinned Thorne with a knee strike. Aliyah & Borne beat Lacey Lane & Catanzaro when Aliyah pinned Lane with her feet on the ropes. Martinez pinned Reeves after a choke slam. Chelsea Green pinned Reina Gonzales after a roll-through on a pin. Tommaso Ciampa came out and cut a promo. Aleister Black came out and Ciampa bailed out. Johnny Gargano then attacked Black with a superkick from behind. Ciampa got back in the ring and offered Gargano his hand. Fans were chanting “DIY†pretty loudly. This whole dynamic is unique as the fans want to see the two heels get back together because
1356
1357it’s news. Candice LeRae ran out and pulled Gargano away from Ciampa to keep him from shaking hands, so even though she’s the face trying to keep her husband from aligning with the top heel, she’s the heel because the fans want them back together. The Street Profits & Stacey Ervin Jr. beat The Forgotten Sons of Wesley Blake & Steve Cutler & Jaxson Ryker when Ervin used a moonsault and Montez Ford followed with his great frog splash. Dijakovic beat Rick Buez with feast your eyes, which is basically the GTS. Next was a gauntlet match with the winning team getting a shot at the tag team titles held by Roderick Strong & Kyle O’Reilly the next time NXT runs Orlando. The Undisputed Era came out first and said “Daytona, are you ready (they were in Orlando, did it for easy heat).†Heavy Machinery ran through Rocky & Boa, Adrian Jaoude & Cezar Bononi, Humberto Carrillo & Raul Mendoza and Saurav Gurjar & Rinku Singh. They were supposed to face Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch in the finals but the Undisputed Era laid them out. Adam Cole & Bobby Fish then replaced them and beat Heavy Machinery in the last match and the Undisputed Era said that means there is no tag team title. The War Raiders came out and they and Heavy Machinery cleaned house on the Undisputed Era. The show ended with Heavy Machinery saying goodbye to NXT. Tucker Knight said that he now lives in Orlando and wants everyone to know how important the fans have been in them going to the main roster and led a “We are NXT†chant
1358
1359Raw opened on 1/11 in Charleston, WV, before 4,900 fans. 1/12 in Knoxville drew a nearly full house of 4,500 to the City Coliseum which was built around Mayor Kane appearing. This was up from most of the recent shows in that building. 1/13 in Huntsville, AL, drew 4,200
1360
1361Smackdown opened on 1/12 in Johnson City, TN, before 3,000 fans. 1/13 in Lexington, KY drew 3,650
1362
1363Charleston opened with the Lucha House Party of Metalik & Kalisto over The Revival. Natalya beat Riot in 4:51 with the sharpshooter. Banks, Bayley, Logan and Morgan were at ringside. This turned into a six–person tag with the faces winning. Murphy pinned Alexander to keep the cruiserweight title in 17:50 with Murphy’s Law after Alexander fell for a fake injury spot. Ambrose retained the IC title over Rollins in 16:24. The new deal is that Ambrose before the match said that if he couldn’t beat Rollins in five minutes he would hand him the title belt. He couldn’t, but since he’s a heel, he lied. But he did win with an eye poke and Dirty Deeds. Ambrose tried to attack him after but Rollins came back and laid him out with a curb stomp. Jose & Dallas & Axel & Breeze beat Rawley & Mahal & The Ascension in 9:20. Elias got a big reaction singing “County Roads.†But McIntyre pinned him in 12:21 with the Claymore kick. Main event saw Cena beat Corbin in a no DQ match in 18:00. Two refs were knocked down before Cena gave Corbin an Attitude Adjustment through a table to win
1364
1365Knoxville was pretty much the same show. It was Kalisto & Dorado who worked as Lucha House Party. Rollins came out before his match with Ambrose and called out Mayor Glenn Jacobs. They had a ceremony where the mayor presented the $100,000 check from WWE (this was part of the deal to get Kane to work the Australia and Saudi Arabia shows and it was smart because politically Jacobs could to the shows with less criticism since it directly led to a charitable donation in the county) to the Knoxville Public Safety Foundation to benefit first responders and their families. In the eight-man tag, Konnor didn’t work and was replaced by Suntil Singh
1366
1367Huntsville was pretty much the same show as Knoxville. Lots of comedy in the Lucha House Party (Kalisto & Metalik on this show) match with the Revival. It was Samir Singh replacing Konnor in the eight-man tag here. Elias played “Sweet Home Alabama.†Cena took a lot of bumps you wouldn’t expect him to take at this stage, including a suplex onto a barricade that was put in the ring. He also took a number of chair shots to the back
1368
1369Smackdown in Johnson City opened with Lana & Naomi over Rose & Deville when Naomi pinned Deville. Jeff Hardy beat Joe in the same short match they’ve been doing for weeks. Rusev pinned Nakamura in the same match they’ve been doing for weeks. Lana took a bump off the apron at one point when Nakamura drove Rusev into Lana. Sheamus & Cesaro kept the tag titles in a three-way over Big E & Kingston and Usos. A lot of comedy in this one. Cesaro pinned Jey in a good match. Bryan pinned Styles to keep the WWE title. Good 20:00 match with Bryan winning with a small package. After the match Styles laid out Bryan with a forearm and the Styles clash. Gallows & Anderson & Benjamin beat Colons & English when Gallows pinned Primo in a lackluster match. There was a Miz TV segment with Ali that turned into a match. Ali pinned Miz with a 450. Main event saw Asuka win a three-way over Carmella and Lynch, since Flair was in the U.K. for Takeover and media. Asuka beat Carmella with the Asuka lock. Both Lynch and Asuka were really over
1370
1371Johnson City was mostly the same. It was Kingston & Woods who worked as the New Day here. Hardy was added to the Rusev vs. Nakamura U.S. title match, making it a three-way. Hardy was about to pin Rusev when Joe, who didn’t wrestle on the show, distracted Hardy and Rusev hit the matchka kick on Nakamura for the pin. Mysterio was added to the tour and he did a short match. After Gallows & Anderson & Benjamin beat The Colons & English and Benjamin pinned English with paydirt, English got on the mic and laid out an open challenge to anyone. He then refused to leave. Mysterio came out and he pinned English with a 619 and frog splash.