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3OCTOBER 1, 2018 WRESTLING OBSERVER NEWSLETTER: NJPW DESTRUCTION IN KOBE, TONS OF NEWS
4BY OBSERVER STAFF | STAFF@WRESTLINGOBSERVER.COM | @WONF4W
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6Wrestling Observer Newsletter
7
8PO Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228 ISSN10839593 October 1, 2018
9
10 
11
12NEW JAPAN DESTRUCTION IN KOBE POLL RESULTS
13
14Thumbs up 98 (99.0%)
15
16Thumbs down 0 (00.0%)
17
18In the middle 1 (01.0%)
19
20 
21
22BEST MATCH POLL
23
24Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada 99
25
26Every single person who voted listed this as best match. Historically, that almost never happens.
27
28 
29
30WORST MATCH POLL
31
32Tenzan & Kojima & Nagata & Nakanishi vs.
33
34Makabe & Honma & Taguchi & Yoshida 61
35
36Based on phone calls and e-mails to the Observer as of Tuesday, 9/26.
37
38 
39
40Hiroshi Tanahashi beat Kazuchika Okada in their third classic match of 2018, but the big story of the Destruction in Kobe show came after the match was over.
41
42Jay White, who has beaten Okada, Tanahashi and Kenny Omega this year in Gedo’s latest project of making a new young star, hit the ring after the match was over. White first laid out Tanahashi, who was selling being spent from a match that went 35:43, with the blade runner. That made sense, since, with White being the only guy who beat Tanahashi in G-1 this year, a Tanahashi vs. White match for the briefcase made sense, and the 10/8 King of Pro Wrestling show at Sumo Hall needed a couple of big matches, with no direct angles for the top guys being shot.
43
44White started throwing around the young boys and then attacked Okada, his Chaos teammate, with forearms and stomps. He then went out of the ring and confronted Rocky Romero, who is close friends with Okada and told Romero to give him his chair. Romero said, “I’m not giving you shit.” White then threw Romero into the barricade and took his chair. Kevin Kelly was trying to do his best Lance Russell of being absolutely appalled at the behavior of White.
45
46Yoshi-Hashi, another Chaos member, ran to the ring, pretty clearly to be a sacrificial lamb. It should be noted that this was the attention to detail of the Gedo booking of this angle that was genius, is that neither Hirooki Goto or Tomohiro Ishii were booked on the show, which at first made no sense since this was a major card, so they wouldn’t be there to save Okada. You did have Will Ospreay, Sho & Yoh, who didn’t come out.
47
48Yoshi-Hashi in a crazy spot, ran so fast he lost his balance and in a scene similar to Titus O’Neil in Saudi Arabia, the slip was actually more dangerous as he hit his head hard on the ring frame. He looked a little woozy although he was not out. He did split his head open which White, who did a very good job of adapting to the situation, took advantage of.
49
50Yoshi-Hashi got in the ring to attack White. White laid him out and threw a chair at his head. The chair was not thrown hard as opposed to being swung hard, so it was not a hard chair shot at all. Yoshi-Hashi rolled out of the ring. White looked like he was going to continue to attack him but ref Red Shoes Unno told him to stop. Whether that was how it was supposed to go or Unno saw Yoshi-Hashi was hurt is hard to know. White took advantage and put his hands on Yoshi-Hashi’s head and covered them with his blood and put the blood on his face to create a more savage look, which was a great job of thinking on the fly.
51
52Still, Yoshi-Hashi was hurt enough legit from running into the apron that he was taken to the hospital after the angle, but he was okay later that night. Given the Brie Bella situation the next day, there does become a question as to whether he should have hit the ring but the wrestler mentality is to continue and while he was hurt, he wasn’t knocked out. It’s still an iffy call either way.
53
54White was teasing a chair shot on Okada when Gedo hit the ring. Gedo pulled the chair away. The crowd cheered Gedo. White told Okada, “I told you I’m going to come for you.” Gedo then hit Okada in the back with a chair and White hit the blade runner on Okada. Gedo than said to Okada and Tanahashi as they were down that “Neither of you are going to the main event at the dome.” White then took Tanahashi’s briefcase and paraded around with it.
55
56While not announced at press time, it looks like Tanahashi will defend his main event briefcase against White on 10/8, and the Tokyo Dome card at this point feels like Kenny Omega vs. Tanahashi for the IWGP title, Chris Jericho vs. Tetsuya Naito for the IC title and Okada vs. White as the top matches.
57
58Gedo turning on Okada was effective because they had a nearly seven year relationship. This same angle happens all the time in the U.S., but because it’s overdone and guys don’t stay together for that length of time, it doesn’t have the same impact.
59
60That was the only big angle on the show, but there were a few hints for other new matches. The one thing New Japan, with its more frequent schedule of doing big shows, is doing badly is getting the cards out.
61
62The 9/30 show in Long Beach didn’t release a full card until six days before. At press time, there is still nothing announced for the 10/8 Sumo Hall show, less than two weeks away, other than the finals of the junior heavyweight title tournament. Considering King of Pro Wrestling is traditionally the company’s biggest show from the period of the G-1 finals until the Tokyo Dome, that leads to far less anticipation.
63
64Logic looks like Kenny Omega vs. Kota Ibushi would headline given Ibushi beat Omega in G-1. But they did nothing for it. Omega and Ibushi weren’t even booked in Kobe, and all of Omega’s promotional work has been directed at Tanahashi. Tanahashi vs. White is almost a sure thing based on the angle, but it has still yet to be announced.
65
66Never champion Taichi, heavyweight tag champs The Young Bucks and IC champion Jericho weren’t booked in Kobe so there were no angles with them. Judging from results of this show, jr. tag champs Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Desperado should defend at Sumo Hall against Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask, or perhaps a three-way adding in Sho & Yoh. The Young Bucks, who defend first against Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa in Long Beach, should (or Tonga & Loa if they win) defend against Baretta & Chucky T, since they beat former tag champs Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr. There also feels like a Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Evil match is coming, perhaps to set up Evil vs. Jericho. If that takes place, perhaps it’ll be on 11/3 in Osaka, as in the past they’ve used the IC title on top as the IWGP title match for the Dome is made official after King of Pro Wrestling and it’s the last title defense of the year. Omega & Ibushi are teaming on 7/30, and perhaps there is something storyline coming in Long Beach to set up such a match, if they are even doing it. But that’s eight days, really seven days given the time difference, between the show to announce what should be one of the biggest matches of the year.
67
68The Long Beach show, at the 4,700-seat Walker Pyramid, which had about a half house sold as of a week ago, looks on paper like good matches from top-to-bottom, but today, every promotion for the most part gives you that. Fans want authentic New Japan and not an Americanized version and the card feels too much like the latter. It’s no longer a novelty that New Japan is running in the U.S., let alone in Southern California, and since they draw from a sports perspective with matches as the draw rather than the WWE draw of the show coming to town, the not announcing matches is going to hurt, plus they’re going to have to come in with big singles matches involving the top guys to draw big going forward.
69
70They’ve added a great main event with Omega & Ibushi vs. Okada & Ishii, pushed as the first time Omega and Okada oppose each other in the U.S. That match, and the Ospreay vs. Marty Scurll semifinal of the junior title tournament look like killer matches. But there is still a feeling that this show should be bigger.
71
72The show starts at 8 p.m. Eastern, or 5 p.m. local time, and will air live on New Japan World, and on TV on 10/5 at 8 p.m. Eastern on AXS with Jim Ross and Kevin Kelly announcing together for the first time.
73
74The show has ACH & Ryusuke Taguchi & Liger vs. Sho & Yoh & Romero, Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian vs. Hangman Page & Chase Owens, Jeff Cobb & Chris Sabin & Flip Gordon vs. Goto & Baretta & Chuckie T, Naito & Evil & Sanada vs. Sabre Jr. & Archer & Smith Jr., Tanahashi & Kushida vs. White & Gedo, Ospreay vs. Scurll, Young Bucks vs. Tonga & Loa for IWGP tag titles, Juice Robinson vs. Cody for the U.S. title (which is an interesting result since the NWA champion either loses or Cody ends up with two belts), and the Omega & Ibushi vs. Okada & Ishii main.
75
76Unlike the shows in Hiroshima and Beppu, this was a strong show from start-to-finish. In a sense it was like the WWE Hell in a Cell show where every match on the show was good, although this also had the killer main event. Hiroshima was a so-so show with a spectacular main event, and Beppu was a so-so show with a terrible semi and a good but not great main event.
77
78The show drew a legit sellout of 6,454 fans to the World Memorial Hall in Kobe.
79
801. Yota Tsuji drew Yuya Uemura in 10:00. These two came into this match having done 14 singles matches, all of which ended up as 10:00 draws. That said, this match was great. Uemura has a great physique, athletic wise, not like Kitamura, while Tsuji is the physically bigger guy. Tsuji was actually a Japanese college football starting quarterback. These guys are ridiculously advanced. Both debuted on 4/10, meaning they’re just over five months in. While neither have a shot at rookie of the year for obvious reasons (Ronda Rousey), they are a lot more complete than Rousey. They are so good at selling and their offense is solid. They hit hard. Uemura has a great dropkick. The crowd was into the near falls in the last minute. Just a great technical opener in the sense they were great at everything they did, but it was all basics and they did nothing to step on the toes of the guys later on the show. ***1/4
81
822. Sho & Yoh beat Ren Narita & Shota Umino in 8:46. Another good match. Narita & Umino did Boston crabs on Yoh and Sho respectively for a teased double submission. I don’t think anyone bought Narita & Umino winning, but they got behind them for effort. Narita was really good here, got a strong near fall on Yoh. Umino right now is the best of this group of Young Lions. Yoh pinned Narita with a superkick and falcon arrow. ***
83
843. Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask beat IWGP jr. tag champs Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Desperado in a non-title match in 6:50. Fast moving match. Liger did a Frankensteiner off the top smoothly just before his 54th birthday. Kanemaru got some near falls on Tiger with a moonsault and a reverse DDT. He came off the top rope into a kick, and than Tiger got a crucifix pin. Liger & Tiger issued a challenge for the titles at King of Pro Wrestling. ***
85
864. Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi & Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima beat Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma & Ryusuke Taguchi & Ayato Yoshida in 9:56. Kojima chopped the hell out of Honma and Honma hit back hard. Honma still feels unsteady and he’s nowhere close to what he was, but he continues to improve. But Honma has been mentally beating himself up with frustration that he’s not what he was. I still worry about him as I know it’s his goal to come back and he’s decent enough in there, but I’m still worried about him. He hit the kokeshi on Tenzan. Yoshida tagged in at the end. Nagata was bleeding from the mouth. Nagata pinned Yoshida with the bridging back suplex. **3/4
87
885. Baretta & Chuckie T beat Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr. in 12:41. Evidently, since he was complaining about it on Twitter, New Japan has banned Archer from his ring entrance where he runs all around ringside like Bruiser Brody & Stan Hansen used to do, and drinks and spits water on everyone. Smith was draped over the guard rail and Baretta came off the apron with a dropkick on him. Smith did two German suplexes on Baretta, but Baretta landed on his feet on the third one. This was technically good but it had that four foreigners in a mid-card match thing where it was harder for them than the others on the card. Baretta & T did a double pescado into punches on the ground. T then did a flip dive on everyone but missed a moonsault. Then Archer missed a moonsault. T did a double foot stomp on Archer for a near fall. Archer & Smith did a Hart Attack on Baretta for a near fall. The finish was a surprise as they did the Killer bomb no Baretta and Archer went for the pin. Baretta then gave Archer a crucifix pin out of nowhere. ***1/4
89
906. Jay White & Yoshi-Hashi & Will Ospreay beat David Finlay & Juice Robinson & Toa Henare in 9:05. Great action here from start-to-finish. Ospreay looked great and was the standout, but everyone was good here. Henare has some natural charisma and real fire. He’s ready for a bigger push right now and Finlay is one win away from being a star. It’s just that this place right now has something of a talent logjam. Finlay and Robinson both missed dives. There was a miscommunication spot with White and Yoshi-Hashi, which played out in the final angle. White pinned Henare with the blade runner. After the match, White and Yoshi-Hashi argued, and Yoshi-Hashi walked out on him. Ospreay walked out on him as well. ***½
91
927. Tetsuya Naito & Evil & Seiya Sanada beat Minoru Suzuki & Zack Sabre Jr. & Taka Michinoku in 11:20. Suzuki continued his feud with Naito. He took Naito over the rail and hit hard chair shots to the gut and back. He worked over Naito’s ankle and heel with submissions. Sabre and Evil traded abdominal stretches back-and-forth and had a lot of good back-and-forth action. Evil pinned Michinoku after “It’s Evil,” the STO. Suzuki was bashing young guys with chair shots after the match. Suzuki laid out Yota Tsuji with a chair shot. Tsuji was selling for a long time. Finally, after Suzuki-gun had left and LIJ finished playing to the crowd, as Naito was leaving, with Tsuji still selling, Naito put the boots to Tsuji. It’s like a total dick move, but for Naito’s gimmick, it was funny. ***½
93
948. Kushida beat Bushi in 16:41 in the first round of the tournament for the vacant IWGP jr. title. Kushida’s timing early was unreal. Bushi used a backstabber on the apron. Kushida went for a springboard into a codebreaker. The next spot was tremendous. Bushi went for a tope but it looked like he dove too far to one side so Kushida had to move quickly to break his fall, but in actuality, that was the planned spot. Kushida was on Bushi’s side barely breaking his fall so he could turn the tope into an armbar on the floor. Kushida did a great job selling Bushi’s rewind kick. Bushi got a near fall with a Canadian Destroyer. He went for the MX, but Kushida turned it into the hoverboard lock. While in the move, Bushi threw down the ref and blew black mist all over Kushida’s face and eyes. The crowd cheered Bushi blowing mist like crazy because about 70 percent of the fans in the building were wearing LIJ merchandise. Bushi used a backslide and bridging pin but Kushida kicked out for a great near fall. Bushi tried for a codebreaker but Kushida turned it into back to the future, and then did a second one for the pin. ****
95
969. Hiroshi Tanahashi pinned Kazuchika Okada in 35:43 to retain the contract for the IWGP title shot at Wrestle Kingdom. The story behind the match is that this was their 13th career singles match, and Okada came in with a 5-4 edge in wins, with three of the matches being 30 minute draws in G-1 competition. But Tanahashi hadn’t beaten Okada since January 4, 2015, nearly four years ago. Also, every match the two have had in at least six years has gone either to a 30 minute draw or longer. With three high-profile big show classics in one year, this feud is very much like Okada vs. Omega in 2017 and Flair vs. Steamboat in 1989. It’s all a matter of opinion, but I’d rate the May match the best, because of the story elements which I think is the best of the 13 matches the two have had. This was a different match, but similar in quality to the G-1 match. It would be among the best of the series, but not top three. The crowd was pro-Tanahashi in a big way. Tanahashi dropkicked Okada off the apron and hit a pescado, but in doing so, started selling the left knee. His ability to sell the left knee with his facial expressions is as good as anyone. Okada started doing some Negro Navarro style knee submissions. Okada dropkicked the knee as Tanahashi hung upside down in the corner, and used a kneebreaker and a figure four. Tanahashi reversed the figure four and the two rolled into the ropes. They were fighting on the floor, when, out of nowhere, Tanahashi gave Okada a tombstone piledriver on the floor. The story is Tanahashi could have won via count out, but instead did a high fly flow to the floor, and of course, his knee went out, leading to him selling the knee like crazy. As far as the ability to produce a long dramatic match where every move means something, Tanahashi is one of the greatest of all-time. Both were fighting over a tombstone piledriver but couldn’t get it until Okada dropkicked Tanahashi in the left knee. They each kept reversing out of big moves. Okada chop blocked the knee, but Tanahashi hit a sling blade as Okada went for the rainmaker. Tanahashi went for a high fly flow but Okada got up and dropkicked him and hit the tombstone. But Okada’s left knee went out. Tanahashi ducked two rainmakers but Okada finally hit a spinning rainmaker. He went for another rainmaker but Tanahashi hit the dragon suplex for a near fall. Tanahashi went to the top rope but Okada dropkicked him. Okada teased a tombstone piledriver off the middle rope, and then a gut wrench superplex but Tanahashi blocked. Okada fell off the ropes and as he was falling, Tanahashi jumped off and crushed him with a high fly flow. Tanahashi went to the top, but Okada got to his knees, not standing, and was hit with another high fly flow. Tanahashi did a third one on the prone Okada for the pin. After the match came the angle with Jay White and Gedo. *****
97
98The 2018 Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame ballot is out, with several ballot newcomers, and others on the bubble in what could be their last year on the ballot.
99
100Newcomers to this year’s ballot are Paul Jones, Johnny Rougeau, Samoa Joe, Rick Martel, Universo 2000 and Kenny Omega.
101
102They are all interesting candidates. Jones, to me, is in that category of the type of guys who get some votes but ultimately are not Hall of Fame caliber. Rougeau is either the second or third biggest star in the history of Montreal wrestling, behind Yvon Robert and maybe Edouard Carpentier, and he was also a promoter and booker. While he did wrestle elsewhere and was a star wherever he went, he was really an institution in Montreal. While not impossible, it’s very hard for single promotion institution to get votes from a worldwide balloting audience. It’s similar to a guy like Dave Brown, who I can almost guarantee will get every vote out of Tennessee, but won’t get enough outside that state because he wasn’t a national name. Samoa Joe has a national name now after a long career where he was one of the biggest stars in both ROH and TNA history. He did tremendously in annual balloting for a number of major categories, but will have to overcome a stigma that exists that in the U.S., it doesn’t count if it’s not WWE. Rick Martel was a star everywhere he went and a major star in Quebec, was AWA champion when that belt meant something but didn’t draw big with it. He was a star in WWF as both a babyface and heel, but didn’t get the top of the card singles run with the champion, so for Hall of Fame standards, WWF hurts his case. Universo 2000 had a long run as part of Los Hermanos Dinamita, one of the top trios in Mexico, before his three reigns as CMLL world heavyweight champion that covered 2,555 days from 1997 to 2007. But the heavyweight title is not nearly as big a thing in Mexico as in the U.S. or Japan. Kenny Omega is interesting because in his case, you’re going to have very strong pros and very strong negatives. The key is that it’s three years since he was the top foreign star in New Japan, the No. 2 company in the world. His big match quality is off the charts. Those were easily three Hall of Fame years, and he had loads of great matches previously, but he was a junior heavyweight in New Japan, and before that, was a star with DDT who did have great matches in All Japan and New Japan in the junior division. So from a match quality standpoint, he’s strong but a lot of people are still negative on match quality candidates. Longevity at the top is short but effective. I sense the feeling it’s early for him while others will see him as a no-brainer and a guy who should be first ballot. Another aspect is how important, or not important, you believe his role has been as part of New Japan’s expansion in popularity outside Japan, where the key components and growth came from the first Omega vs. Okada match and even more the Omega vs. Jericho match. And he’s been a draw, really a big draw, at a time when individual draws are rare in the business, but it’s also really only been for a couple of years. His being voted behind only Stan Hansen among foreigners in a general public poll of the biggest wrestling star ever in Japan. My gut says that Omega, as well as Tetsuya Naito, are Hall of Famers in due time, but they will probably need more time in their top positions to clinch the spot. Kota Ibushi is interesting because he’s among the most talented in-ring performers ever, but has never gotten that IWGP title run and may never given his refusal to sign a contract with anyone.
103
104Those off the ballot based on either the 15-year-rule, or failing to get ten percent of the vote last year are Pepper Gomez, Dick Hutton, Sangre Chicana, Chyna, Curt Hennig and Tim “Mr. Wrestling” Woods.
105
106Those in danger of falling off over the 15-year-rule are Jun Akiyama, Red Bastien, Cien Caras, Jerry Jarrett, Blue Panther, Kiyoshi Tamura, John Tolos and Johnny “Mr. Wrestling II” Walker. They will be removed from the ballot if they fail to get 50 percent of the vote this year, which is a hard number to get.
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108Of those, it would be a big surprise if Bastien, Tamura, Tolos or Walker survive this election. Bastien got 25 percent and is a pure workrate candidate. He was a star for decades, but not at the level of guys who get voted in. But he was acknowledged by his peers as one of the best in the ring of his era. The problem is those candidates fall down as their peers get older, die off, and no longer vote. Bastien did well with the group that has died off and he’s not a great history book candidate.
109
110Tamura is similar. Tamura is one of the best workers of his era, and maybe the best at making worked matches look legit and remain exciting. But his style doesn’t exist anymore and when your style is dead, and your opponents aren’t well remembered, your legacy and historical remembrance declines. Tamura is the opposite of many, who aren’t thought of as even serious candidates in their prime or shortly out of, but when younger people get older and vote on who was pushed as opposed to who actually delivered, those people improve in votes. Tamura was the opposite. 15 years ago he was a close call for years, but shoot style is gone, and thus, the stars of shoot style are forgotten. Tolos has always gotten votes, but never enough to be a serious candidate. He was a guy with a long and very good career, but as far as true Hall of Fame years, it’s early 70s Los Angeles and that’s it. But his 1971 run s the top heel in Los Angeles was historically significant. Walker does better than Tolos, because his peak was several years later and the territories of his legacy were stronger later. Walker was a very good wrestler, but certainly not a Hall of Fame candidate until his early 40s. He was a much bigger star as Mr. Wrestling II, particularly in Georgia during the advent of satellite technology. Panther got 40 percent last year. He’s still active, but his prime years were 20 plus years ago and he was always considered a star, but he was never the guy a promotion was built around.
111
112Cien Caras and Jarrett would be favorites to get in this year, although they also could fall off the ballot. Panther is more of a longshot to get in, and he could fall off the ballot, but he also could survive. What may hurt Caras, and perhaps even more Panther, is that other Lucha Libre candidates look to have the best chance this year to go in.
113
114Last year’s election added Mark Lewin, A.J. Styles, Mike & Ben Sharpe, Minoru Suzuki and Pedro Morales to the Hall of Fame.
115
116The favorites this year, given that they hit 50 percent last year but didn’t hit the 60 percent level needed to be inducted, were Los Misioneros de la Muerte, the threesome of El Signo & El Texano (the father of the current AAA/Lucha Underground star) & Negro Navarro, Gary Hart, Jimmy Hart, Howard Finkel, Bill Apter, Yuji Nagata, Ultimo Guerrero, Villano III, Johnny Saint, Jim Crockett Sr., Don Owen and Jerry Jarrett.
117
118Others returning to the ballot are Edge, L.A. Park, Karloff Lagarde, Tully Blanchard & Arn Anderson with manager J.J. Dillon, Dr. Wagner Jr., Stanley Weston, Killer Karl Kox, Edmund Francis, Sputnik Monroe, Bearcat Wright, Sgt. Slaughter, Lord James Blears, Spyros Arion, Rollerball Mark Rocco, Hayabusa, Enrique Torres, Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Big Daddy, Akira Taue, George Scott, Dominic DeNucci, Cima, Los Brazos (Brazo de Oro & Brazo de Plata & El Brazo), Junkyard Dog, Bill Goldberg, Jim Crockett Jr., Larry Matysik, Kendo Nagasaki, Dave Brown, Ricki Starr, Archie “Mongolian Stomper” Gouldie, Caristico/first CMLL Mistico, Johnny Barend, June Byers, C.M. Punk, Huracan Ramirez, Otto Wanz, Randy Orton, George Steele, Mario Milano, Billy Joyce, The Von Brauners with manager Saul Weingeroff, Wild Bull Curry, Ultimate Warrior, Steve Rickard, Blackjack Mulligan, Kerry Von Erich, Tetsuya Naito, Ruben Juarez, Rocky Johnson, Trish Stratus, Kota Ibushi, Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Chavo Guerrero Sr., Cowboy Bob Ellis, Horst Hoffman, Don Fargo, Vampiro and Jackie Pallo.
119
120There seems to be almost a consensus that the strongest candidates this year are from Mexico.
121
122Caristico’s run on top as a draw in the mid 00s and being the only Mexican ever to win the Observer’s Wrestler of the Year award would have gotten almost anyone in automatically. But his WWE run was a negative, and while a main eventer and top star in his return to Mexico, he is nowhere close to the level he once was, partially due to the WWE run.
123
124Perhaps the same is the case for Park, who may be the biggest single draw in pro wrestling as far as an individual mover on a weekly basis in the business. But he also had a run in the U.S. for WCW where he got a little push, and that little was as a pure comedy figure. Ultimo Guerrero, who is active, had another year as a headliner. Villano III was lauded as one of the legendary figures when he passed away this year. Dr. Wagner Jr. got the biggest single payoff in history for his mask against Psycho Clown in one of the biggest matches in Mexico in many years. Karloff Lagarde is hard to argue against, but he’s hurt by his heyday being so long ago. Cien Caras was a major star for a long time and guys like he, Octagon, Rayo de Jalisco Jr., Fuerza Guerrera have done huge business coming back for legends shows.
125
126Liv Morgan suffered a concussion from being kicked in the face twice by Brie Bella on the 9/24 Raw in Denver, which for some reason, perhaps because it was women, led to far greater outrage than an accident such as this deserves.
127
128In pro wrestling, people are going to get hurt. There was a problem here, and that is people get hurt in varying degrees in wrestling all the time. Every week we write about multiple injuries.
129
130While there was a mistake in timing that led to Morgan’s concussion, from the moment it was obvious she was hurt, there was the real fault in this situation.
131
132The moment it was clear she was knocked out, it is the job of the referee to jump in and stop the match. Granted, this is live television and they have a story to tell, and the story of this match was that the Riott Squad was supposed to beat The Bellas & Natalya, by beating Natalya, to lead to the 10/6 Australia match where The Bellas team with Ronda Rousey against the same team.
133
134That said, there are ways to handle it. The ref can stop the match and then have it continue once the situation is cleared. She shouldn’t have gotten up, but you absolutely can’t expect a concussed wrestler to think straight, because the natural reaction is to continue and deny the injury. Morgan, after being rolled out of the ring, jumped back in the ring to do a six-way suplex spot.
135
136This is not a WWE issue, as guys continuing matches after being concussed happens in every promotion. It’s considered part of the game. But with what we know now, it’s a change that has to be made. The same thing happened in 2017 in the G-1 Climax tournament in the Kenny Omega vs. Evil match, which also could have had dangerous repercussions. As it turned out, Evil was not even diagnosed with a concussion and probably had the best match of his career days later. But that doesn’t change the point that he was out of it, whether a stinger and not a concussion, that it appeared like a concussion and the ref should have jumped in and stopped it. In that case, it wasn’t even a problem because you have an intricately laid out points tournament, but the guy being stopped was the planned loser.
137
138What happened with Brie Bella and Morgan is that Bella was throwing her series of “yes” kicks to Morgan.
139
140It should be noted that this move has far less margin for error with women then with men. Still, hard kicks to an opponent on their knees has been a staple of women’s matches going back more than 30 years without any kind of history of repeated danger, although the law of averages also is that this isn’t the first time a face was kicked hard nor the first concussion from a face being kicked hard.
141
142With men, you have a wider range of safe space to kick, basically anywhere in the body and you just have to avoid the face.
143
144With women, you have a smaller body, plus you have to kick above the breasts and below the head. Still, Brie Bella has been doing this spot for years and has never injured anyone. She has no history of seriously hurting anyone. She did nearly get hurt herself on a dive which she herself attributed to working while being a little heavier than in the past. She did cut Miz when throwing wild punches at him and one caught him, but that is hardly unusual in pro wrestling. She did do a running knee to Zelina Vega a few weeks ago that looked like it killed her, and in fact, didn’t hurt her at all, which is actually the whole idea of what you strive to do, make it look like you hurt someone without actually doing so.
145
146She threw six straight kicks on target. The seventh kick caught Morgan on the chin. In watching closely, at one point when throwing the kicks, she was looking at the corner at the other members of the Riott Squad, but those kicks were fine. She was not looking elsewhere. The seventh kick was off, which is stuff that happens all the time.
147
148After the seventh kick, she was throwing an eighth kick and Morgan head dropped, probably from the seventh kick, right into the line of her kick that was on target. That one looked and was brutal.
149
150Most likely it was the kick before that hurt Morgan, causing her to fall into the next brutal kick.
151
152Morgan suffered a concussion. According to those backstage and others who talked with her, she was fine, but showed symptoms of the concussion with a memory issue about what happened.
153
154Like all concussions, she will be allowed to wrestle when she is cleared and passes the concussion protocol testing. That could be this weekend. That could be never, although the latter is unlikely. There is no timetable on concussions. And concussions are a regular thing in pro wrestling.
155
156Because they are, there is no excuse for the confusion that came after. Morgan was not completely out, because she was able to kick out of the pin. But she clearly didn’t have her legs under her. Brie Bella was trying to get her to the corner to get out of the ring. Morgan herself seemed like she was trying to as well, but had no legs so it looked awkward.
157
158At that point, the referee should have called it, and if he didn’t, someone in the back should have. But that didn’t happen. Hopefully it’s lesson for the future because the past can’t be erased. Hopefully this goes for every company, big and small. If someone is legitimately knocked out in a match, it should be the rule of thumb to stop the match. If it’s a multi-person match, you can restart it and while awkward, that falls into the shit happens category. If it’s a singles match, well, those are the breaks. And this being pro wrestling, it’s almost a lock that somebody will try and work this almost exact situation, playing off this incident with the idea that people will believe. And that’s fine, because that’s the wrestling business.
159
160The match pretty much fell apart from there, really not getting back in synch until Natalya made a hot tag several minutes later to set up her losing to the Riott kick by Ruby.
161
162It’s one thing to stop a match on a house show, but doing it during a PPV or on TV is very different. In the match where Brock Lesnar ended Undertaker’s streak, Undertaker was knocked out early in the match. There would have been hell to pay both that night and for history for the streak to be ended in that manner. Similarly, that could and does happen all the time.
163
164The fact Undertaker wasn’t unconscious, he was still a man in his 50s, likely having had multiple concussions throughout his career, working a physical match for a long time with a concussion. There was no outcry, perhaps because he was a guy, and also because he continued as opposed to having a doctor out there to call attention to the issue. Like here, he should have been taken out and shouldn’t have moved. That was a far bigger match on a much bigger stage and literally nobody talked about that aspect. Even here, rather than use what happened to learn and teach protocol, it was more about finding a victim, when A.J. Styles, Samoa Joe and Seth Rollins have all broken necks and the latter two have ended careers (T.J. Wilson from Joe’s musclebuster; Sting from Rollins’ power bomb into the turnbuckles) or nearly done so (Styles with both Yoshitatsu and Lionheart from the Styles clash). And they are three of the best wrestlers in the industry today.
165
166The reality is that this is a business where everyone is going to get hurt who spends any time in it, and everyone, even those with reputations for safety, will end up accidentally hurting someone. I don’t know if the double standard is because it was a woman, because in this day and age we’re supposed to be past the “don’t work like guys, it’s not ladylike” mentality and not have these double standards, and that means if that’s the case we have to accept th same repercussions.
167
168The fact is, Styles and Joe have used those moves for decades and maybe four guys in 20 years were hurt by Styles, but two were hurt bad, and it’s because they took the move wrong, not that the move the way it’s executed is dangerous. Joe has safely done the move for two decades, although WWE has banned it, more out of respect for Wilson than the idea it’s dangerous. Rollins didn’t do his specific move as regularly, but had still done that specific move for years without hurting anyone, and then hurt Sting twice with the same move in the same match.
169
170UFC fighter Abdul Razal Alhassan, who just came off a 43 second knockout win on UFC’s 9/8 show in Dallas, was indicted on two counts f sexual assault after a Grand Jury meeting on 9/24.
171
172The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported that Alhassan, 33. who was at the time working as a bouncer at the Varsity Tavern in Fort Worth, was accused of driving two intoxicated women home from the bar in March and raping both of them inside one of their homes in Saginaw, TX.
173
174He was first arrested in April and released on $20,000 bond.
175
176The women, who are 20 and 22, both reported the sexual assault to Fort Worth police on 3/24 and 3/25 after both had gone to John Peter Smith Hospital for sexual assault examinations.
177
178The 22-year-old said she was so out of it that she didn’t remember anything. The 20-year-old told police that Alhassan forcibly raped her and then sexually assaulted her friend.
179
180The arrest affidavit stated that the two women had gone to the Varsity Tavern on 3/23 to celebrate the birthday of another friend, a Fort Worth police officer who worked security at the club.
181
182The 22-year-old claimed she went to Alhassan and asked if she could get her friend into the club even though she was only 20. The 20-year-old said they were allowed to enter through the VIP entrance and said that Alhassan told the 22-year-old that he wanted her phone number in exchange for letting her friend in. She said the 22-year-old gave him her number and they want in and drank a lot of alcohol.
183
184The 20-year-old said her friend disappeared and she later found her inside a dark utility closet making out with Alhassan. She told police her friend was wasted and didn’t remember what was going on. She said Alhassan took them to the home she lives in with her parents and he carried her friend into the bedroom. She said she thought after he dropped them off that he had left the home. But later she claimed she went to the kitchen for a drink and Alhassan was standing in the corner of her bedroom, and claimed he grabbed her from behind, shoved her face first int the bed, held her down and removed her spandex shorts under her dress and raped her. She said that when he was done, he moved to the other woman, took off her panties and raped her.
185
186The 20-year-old said she didn’t scream because her face was pushed into the bed and didn’t help her friend because she was so intoxicated she was trying to figure out what was going on. The 20-year-old’s mother came into the room later and found a used condom on top of her daughter’s purse and put the condom and her friend’s panties inside a zig bag to take to the police. The mother told police that after her daughter had sobered up, she started remembering what happened.
187
188Alhassan is a welterweight with a 10-1 record who is coming off three straight first round knockout wins in the UFC, twice of Sabah Homasi and the third over Niko Price.
189
190The UFC has yet to publicly comment on this story.
191
192The 9/22 UFC show was headlined by a war, with Eryk Anders, a former starting linebacker on a national championship University of Alabama football team, moving up a weight class, taking a fight with no camp on six days notice, and losing the main event to Thiago Santos.
193
194The show drew 607,000 viewers, the third lowest for a prime time show this year. Really, the rating should have been worse. The show started at 10:41 p.m., 41 minutes later than usual and 11 minutes later than scheduled due to a football game running long. While Anders did headline one show previously, he’s still new in the sport and not a major name, and opponent Thiago Santos isn’t either. The show went against not only college football on ABC, FOX ESPN and ESPN 2, but also the Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin replay on HBO (which did 726,000 viewers).
195
196The peak rating was 701,000 viewers for the knockout win by 42-year-old Antonio Rogerio Nogueira over Sam Alvey third from the top.
197
198The prelims did 243,000 viewers on FS 2, the lowest of the four prelims this year on FS 2.
199
200The postfight show did 218,000 viewers on FS 1 and the prefight show did 97,000 viewers on FS 2.
201
202One of the oldest records in the history of the company was broken when 28-year-old Charles Oliveira picked up his 11th career submission win, breaking the record set by Royce Gracie, who had ten submissions in 1993 and 1994. Oliveira choked out Christos Giagos at lightweight, and then said he wanted to move back down to featherweight, a division he failed to make weight in four times during his UFC career.
203
204Thales Leites and Evan Dunham both had what they announced as their retirement fights on this show. Leites got a win over Hector Lombard while Dunham lost to Francisco Trinaldo.
205
206The show drew 9,485 fans to the Ginasio do Ibirapuera in Sao Paulo.
207
208Santos and Anders both got $50,000 bonuses for fight of the night and Oliveira and Nogueira also got bonuses.
209
2101. Livia Renata Souza (12-1) beat Alex Chambers (5-5) in 1:21 in a women’s strawweight fight. Souza was a star in Invicta, making her debut here,. Souza took Chambers down and submitted her with a guillotine.
211
2122. Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos (20-5) beat Luigi Vendramini (7-1) at 1:20 of the second round in a welterweight fight. Both traded submission attempts in the first round. Zaleski dos Santos connected with a flying knee and a hard right in the second round for the knockout.
213
2143.Thales Leites (28-9) beat Hector Lombard (34-10-1, 2 no contest) on straight 29-28 scores in a middleweight fight. Lombard took the first round but he got tired as the fight went on and Leites won rounds two and three, with Lombard doing little late in the fight.
215
2164. Mayra Bueno Silva (6-0) beat Gillian Robertson (5-3) in 4:55 in a women’s flyweight fight. Silva made her debut and won via armbar with just seconds left in the first round.
217
2185. Sergio Moraes (14-3-1) beat Ben Saunders (22-10-2) at 4:42 of the second round in a welterweight fight. Moraes got the takedown and controlled the top in the first round. He got another takedown in the second round and won with an arm triangle submission.
219
2206. Augusto Sakai (12-1) beat Chase Sherman (11-6) at 4:03 of the third round in a heavyweight fight. The fight seemed up for grabs going into the third round, when Sakai took over. Sakai unloaded lots of hard knees to the head until Sherman went down. Sakai landed punches and elbows on the ground until it was stopped.
221
2227. Ryan Spann (15-5) beat Luis Henrique (10-5, 1 no contest) on scores of 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28 in a light heavyweight fight. Spann was able to reverse to the top on the ground and do damage on top to win the second round and third rounds.
223
2248. Francisco Trinaldo (23-6) beat Evan Dunham (18-8-1) at 4:10 of the second round in a lightweight fight. Trinaldo finished Dunham with a hard knee to the body. It hit the sweet spot as Dunham just crumbled to the ground.
225
2269. Charles Oliveira (24-8, 1 no contest) beat Christos Giagos (15-7) at 3:22 of the second round in a lightweight fight. Oliveira controlled most of the fight and got his back, got the body triangle, and broke the submission mark with a choke.
227
22810. Randa Markos (8-6-1) drew Marina Rodriguez (11-0-1) in a women’s strawweight fight on scores of 29-28 Markos and two 28-28 draw cards. Markos got a headlock takedown and controlled the entire first round to win it 10-8. Rodriguez won the second round close and also won the third to make it a draw. Rodriguez didn’t look good as much as Markos got tired as the fight went on.
229
23011. Andre Ewell (14-4) beat Renan Barao (34-7, 1 no contest) via split decision on scores of 29-28, 28-29 and 29-28 in a bantamweight fight. Actually Barao weighed in at 141.75 pounds, missing by 5.75 pounds and had to forfeit 30 percent of his purse. It’s just amazing how far Barao has fallen, losing to a first-timer after not that many years ago having a 33 fight unbeaten streak. Ewell just outstruck him as the fight went on. Barao didn’t look good at all.
231
23212. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (23-8) beat Sam Alvey (33-11, 1 no contest) at 1:09 of the second round in a light heavyweight fight. Alvey was moving up. The first round was terrible with little happening. Each got nice punches at the end of the round. Nogueira kept landing lefts on Alvey until dropping him and the fight was stopped.
233
23413. Alex Oliveira (20-4-1) beat Carlo Pedersoli (11-2) in :39 in a welterweight fight. Oliveira knocked him down with a right and landed big punches on the ground until it was stopped.
235
23614. Thiago Santos (19-6) beat Eryk Anders (11-2) at 5:00 of the third round in a light heavyweight fight. The fight went back-and-forth. Santos was getting the better of it but Anders kept coming back. Anders was working for a takedown in the third round and Santos kept landing elbows and looked like he was out of it when the round ended. Anders couldn’t get up after the round. He got up and then was wobbly and fell down. He got up again and collapsed, and the fight was stopped.
237
238One of Dragon Gate’s biggest shows of the year, the Dangerous Gate 2018 show took place on 9/24 at the Ota Ward Gym in Tokyo before a full house of 3,177 paid.
239
240Even though they announced 4,000 for the same show last year, the attendance because of how they are announced and without the exaggerations, was only slightly lower as they had fewer chairs set up on the floor this year, but it was still full. It was down from years earlier when they would pack the gym and the company has lost popularity with the loss of Cima, and Shingo Takagi, who appeared on this show, is on his way out as he’s going free agent at the end of his contract. With Cima, they also lost T-Hawk and Lindaman, who both were looked at as potential top stars for the future.
241
242Takagi’s last match is 10/7 in Fukuoka against BxB Hulk. The two have feuded on-and-off for around 13 years so the feeling is that’s the right finale match.
243
244Takagi said that ever since his appearance at BOLA, he’s been getting offers from all over the world.
245
246Bandido & Flamita are scheduled back for a tour starting on 11/4.
247
248They went with two of the veterans on top, and frequent tag partners and rivals over the years Masato Yoshino defended the Open the Dream Gate title beating Naruki Doi in the main event.
249
250Ben K will be challenging Yoshino next for the title on 11/4 in Osaka at the Edion Arena, which is the next major show. Ben K’s promos are bad, so they are getting around it having him do a silent heel gimmick are part of the new heel R.E.D. (Real Extreme Diffusion) group.
251
252Right now they are trying to build young guys, notably 22-year-old Shun Skywalker and eventually 19-year-old Kota Minoura, who just debuted in July.
253
2541. Ryo Saito & Don Fujii & Willie Mack beat Kagetora & Yosuke Santa Maria & U-T in 9:55 when Mack pinned Santa Maria with the big thump.
255
2562. Jason Lee & Kaito Ishida & Hyo Watanabe & Yuki Yoshioika beat Gamma & Shachihoko Boy & Problem Dragon & Kota Minoura in 6:22 when Ishida pinned Shachihoko Boy with a Tiger suplex.
257
2583. Kai pinned Shingo Takagi in 12:16 with the Gannosuke clutch in one of Takagi’s jobs on the way out.
259
2604. An elimination match with the Natural Vibes group vs. Antias saw Big R Shimizu & Ben K & Yasushi Kanda & Takashi Yoshida & Kazma Sakamoto (an outsider from K-Dojo) beating Kzy & Susumu Yokosuka & Genki Horiguchi & Yasshi & Punch Tominaga winning five of eight falls with the last elimination coming when Ben K pinned Kzy with a Ben K bomb in 23:49. Sakamoto was a surprise newcomer but his reveal got a completely dead reaction.
261
2625. Dragon Kid regained the Open the Brave Gate title from Eita in 13:00 using an ultra huracanrana to set up the pin.
263
2646. Yamato & BxB Hulk retained the Open the Twin Gate titles beating Masaaki Mochizuki & Shun Skywalker in 21:32 when Hulk pinned Skywalker with the first flash.
265
2667. Masato Yoshino beat Naruki Doi in 28:50 with the Sol Naciente to retain the Open the Dream Gate title. This was said to have been a fantastic match between the two long-time tag team partners.
267
268Smackdown on 9/25 did 2,193,000 viewers, a drop of four percent from the prior week, so didn’t collapse like Raw did the night before.
269
270Smackdown was ninth for the night on cable, trailing only news shows.
271
272The show did a 0.41 in 12-17 (down 8.9 percent), 0.57 in 18-34 (down 6.6 percent), 0.87 in 35-49 (down 8.4 percent) and 0.92 in 50+ (down 3.2 percent).
273
274The audience was 61.1 percent male in 18-49 and 57.3 percent male in 12-17.
275
276While Raw did its second lowest number in history on 9/24, going against NFL football and network season premieres, there was a bigger story overall.
277
278The fear or expectation about the future of television rang true. When it comes to scripted traditional television, the tastes and changes in the audience over the last year are monstrous. The premiere of The Big Bang Theory on CBS, arguably the most popular show on television, did 12,924,000 viewers, down 28 percent from last year. Now what has happened is that a lot of the declines in these types of shows are made up for with DVR viewership, which has grown from year-to-year. Young Shelton was down 39 percent, Dancing With the Star was down 25 percent and The Voice was down 10 percent.
279
280Raw was down 19 percent from the same week last year, although that was also last year the day after a big PPV show.
281
282Raw, usually among the top rated cable shows on Monday night, fell to 12th place, although it still beat everything on cable besides the news shows and NFL-related programming on ESPN.
283
284Raw did a 1.64 rating and 2,347,000 viewers (1.58 viewer per home), breaking the modern record low set on 7/9 of a 1.72 rating and 2,463,000 viewers. It was down 11.7 percent from last week, which went against the Emmy Awards.
285
286Prior to that, the record low was the September 26, 2016, show against the Trump-Clinton debate did a 1.74 rating and 2,464,000 viewers.
287
288It was the second lowest rated Monday night wrestling show ever on the USA Network, beating only the December 23, 1996, episode of Raw that did a 1.5 rating. The all-time record low for Nitro, on December11, 2000, was also a 1.7, and that was going against both Raw at its peak and the NFL. Granted, it’s not fair to compare ratings with that era for a variety of reasons.
289
290The Pittsburgh Steelers-Tampa Bay Buccaneers game did 12,011,000 viewers, up slightly from the prior week. It should be noted that while live TV for this season may be in a scary free-fall, the NFL numbers are even from last year, so the idea that live sports will stay strong and become more important and more valuable does appear to be the case. WWE is declining less than television, and less than MMA, but it is not holding steady at the level of the major live sports.
291
292The big drop was in the second hour, which dropped nine percent from the first hour. That’s unusual, since the second hour usually is in line with the first hour, with the big drop coming in hour three. Here, hour three grew slightly from hour two, which hasn’t happened once all year. But even so, hours two and three were the two of the three least-watched hours of Raw in the modern era (the lowest ever was still hour three against the Trump-Clinton debate).
293
294The big story of the first-to-second hour drop was in the strongest demo, the over 50s, where there was 13 percent drop. In that demo, which usually drops strongly in hour three, it was actually up 2.5 percent in the third hour.
295
296It’s hard to pinpoint the culprit, but the second hour had a long Connor’s Cure self congratulatory segment that was clearly there to sacrifice ratings for P.R. purposes for both WWE and Hyundai. You would know that going into it. I doubt they expected this level of a drop with older viewers, but that’s a decision they made going in. It also had Chad Gable vs. Konnor, Dolph Ziggler & Drew McIntyre defending the tag titles against The Revival and a talk segment with Elias, the Kevin Owens show and Lio Rush. Chad Gable and Konnor have both been booked as enhancement talent and The Revival, even though they had a great match, they have been given no push so that tag title match wasn’t going to help ratings.
297
298There was a lot of HHH & Stephanie, but their storyline stuff was one quick car-side interview while leaving and the in-ring was out of character Connor’s Cure stuff.
299
300The first hour did 2,493,000 viewers, making it the lowest first hour in modern history. The second hour did 2,275,000 viewers and the third hour did 2,281,000 viewers, which would be the two of the three lowest hours for Raw in modern history, with only hour three against the Trump-Clinton debate on September 26, 2016, at 2,203,000 viewers, being lower.
301
302The show did a 0.45 in 12-17 (down 13.5 percent from last week), 0.67 in 18-34 (down 4.3 percent), 0.97 in 35-49 (down 11.8 percent) and 0.94 in 50+ (down 14.5 percent).
303
304The audience was 60.4 percent male in 18-49 and 51.0 percent male in 12-17.
305
306Most of the audience drop was women and older viewers. For a first-to-third hour, women 18-49 were down 13 percent, men 18-49 were up six percent, girls 12-17 were down 16 percent, boys 12-17 were up 17 percent, and over 50 were down 11 percent.
307
308Bellator on 9/21 did 346,000 viewers, the third lowest on Paramount in the company’s history, for a show headlined by A.J. McKee’s quick knockout win over John Teixeira. It was up from 319,000 for the prior show headlined by Darrion Caldwell vs. John Teixeira.
309
310The first Impact show from the Mexico City tapings on 9/20 did 229,000 viewers, down from 258,000 the week before, against one of the most-watched broadcasts to date on the NFL Network, which did 8,632,000 viewers.
311
312The season premiere of Total Divas on 9/19 did 454,000 viewers, which was the lowest number for any episode in the history of the show.
313
314Ultimate Fighter on 9/19 did 205,000 viewers, up from 183,000 the prior week.
315
316Lucha Underground on 9/19 did 97,000 viewers, up from 79,000 the prior week.
317
318This is the third issue of the current set. If you’ve got a (1) on your address label it means your subscription expires with this double issue.
319
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321
322For Canada and Mexico, the rates are $13.50 for four issues (which includes $6 for postage and handling), $24 for eight, $34 for 12, $44 for 16, $66 or 24, $88 for 32, $110 for 40 issues, $143 for 52 and $176 for 64.
323
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327
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335
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337
338RESULTS
339
340 
341
3429/7 Birmingham, AL (WWE Raw - 4,000): Finn Balor b Baron Corbin, No DQ: Baron Corbin b Finn Balor, Cruiserweight title: Cedric Alexander b Buddy Murphy, Bobby Roode & Chad Gable b Jinder Mahal & Mojo Rawley, Three-way for tag titles: Dolph Ziggler & Drew McIntyre won over Bo Dallas & Curtis Axel and Bray Wyatt & Matt Hardy, Kevin Owens b Zack Ryder, Dana Brooke referee: Sasha Banks & Bayley & Natalya & Ember Moon b Liv Morgan & Sarah Logan & Alicia Fox & Alexa Bliss, Universal title: Roman Reigns b Braun Strowman-DQ
343
3449/7 Pittsburgh (WWE NXT): Otis Dozovic & Tucker Knight b Jaxson Ryker & Wesley Blake, Dakota Kai b Aliyah, Tyler Breeze b Dan Matha, Johnny Gargano b Lars Sullivan-DQ, Nikki Cross & Candice LeRae b Vanessa Borne & Shayna Baszler, NXT title: Tommaso Ciampa b Dominik Dijakovic, Ricochet & War Raiders b Adam Cole & Kyle O’Reilly & Roderick Strong
345
3469/7 Daytona Beach, (WWE NXT - 150): Babatunde Aiyegbusi b Luke Menzies, Brennan Williams b Rocky, Taynara Conti b Reina Gonzalez, Fabian Aichner b Humberto Carrillo, Tony Nese b Kona Reeves, Io Shirai b Bianca Belair, Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch b Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford
347
3489/7 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (New Japan - 1,712 sellout): Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens b Shota Umino & Ren Narita, Bad Luck Fale & Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa & Taiji Ishimori b Juice Robinson & Michael Elgin & David Finlay & Ayato Yoshida, Baretta b Toa Henare, Hirooki Goto & Gedo b Taichi & Taka Michinoku, Tetsuya Naito & Evil & Seiya Sanada & Bushi b Minoru Suzuki & Takashi Iizuka & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Desperado, Kazuchika Okada & Toru Yano & Yoshi-Hashi b Hiroshi Tanahashi & Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma, Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi b Tomohiro Ishii & Will Ospreay
349
3509/7 Mexico City Arena Mexico (CMLL - 7,000): El Hijo del Signo & Metalica b Pegasso & Principe Diamante, Gallito & Guapito & Microman b Chamuel & Mije & Perico Zacarias, Dalys b Reyna Isis, Esfinge & Soberano Jr. & Triton b Dragon Rojo Jr. & Hechicero & Templario, Atlantis & L.A. Park & Mistico b Gilbert El Boricua & Mephisto & Negro Casas, Caristico & Matt Taven & Volador Jr. b Cavernario & Rush & Bestia del Ring
351
3529/7 Cancun (AAA TV tapings): Keyra & Hiedra & Scarlett Bordeaux b Lady Maravilla & Lady Shani & Vanilla, Carta Brava Jr. & Mocho Cota Jr. & Tito Santana b Angelikal & Australian Suicide & El Hijo del Vikingo, Jack Evans & Golden Magic b Laredo Kid & Sammy Guevara, La Mascara & Rey Escorpion & El Texano Jr. b Aerostar & Pagano & Maximo, Brian Cage & El Hijo del Fantasma b Fenix & Psycho Clown
353
3549/7 Yokohama (Dragon Gate - 415 sellout): Kzy & Susumu Yokosuka & Yasshi & Punch Tominaga b BxB Hulk & Kagetora & Willie Mack & Yuki Yoshioka, Yamato & U-T b Ryo Saito & Gamma, Dragon Kid & Don Fujii b Shingo Takagi & Yasushi Kanada, Masaaki Mochizuki & Shun Skywalker b Yosuke Santa Maria & Kai, Eita & Big R Shimizu & Ben K & Takashi Yoshida b Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino & Jason Lee & Kaito Ishida
355
3569/7 Portsmouth, UK (Revolution Pro): Colt Cabana b David Starr, Great O-Kharn b Matt Graceson, Kushida b Kurtis Chapman, Zack Sabre Jr. b Jushin Liger, Josh Bodom b Kip Sabian, Flamita b Bandido, Kyle Fletcher & Mark Davis & El Phantasmo b Rocky Romero & Sho & Yoh
357
3589/8 Mobile, AL (WWE Raw): Finn Balor b Baron Corbin, No DQ: Baron Corbin b Finn Balor, Cruiserweight title: Cedric Alexander b Buddy Murphy, Bobby Roode & Chad Gable b Jinder Mahal & Mojo Rawley, Three-way for tag titles: Dolph Ziggler & Drew McIntyre won over Bo Dallas & Curtis Axel and Bray Wyatt & Matt Hardy, Kevin Owens b Zack Ryder, Dana Brooke referee: Sasha Banks & Bayley & Natalya & Ember Moon b Liv Morgan & Sarah Logan & Alicia Fox & Alexa Bliss, Universal title: Roman Reigns b Braun Strowman-DQ
359
3609/8 Amarillo, TX (WWE Smackdown): Three-way for tag titles: New Day won over Eric Young & Alexander Wolfe and Usos, Karl Anderson b Luke Harper, Rusev & Lana b Andrade Cien Almas & Zelina Vega, The Miz b R-Truth, Women’s title: Charlotte Flair b Carmella, Asuka & Naomi b Sonya Deville & Mandy Rose, U.S. title: Shinsuke Nakamura b Jeff Hardy, WWE title: A.J. Styles b Samoa Joe
361
3629/8 Warren, OH (WWE NXT - 1,300): Otis Dozovic & Tucker Knight b Jaxson Ryker & Wesley Blake, Nikki Cross & Dakota Kai b Vanessa Borne & Aliyah, Lars Sullivan b Marcel Barthel, Dominik Dijakovic b Dan Matha, Tag titles: War Raiders b Kyle O’Reilly & Roderick Strong-DQ, North American title: Ricochet b Tyler Breeze, Shayna Baszler b Candice LeRae, Three-way for NXT title: Tommaso Ciampa won over Adam Cole and Johnny Gargano
363
3649/8 Cocoa, FL (WWE NXT - 200): Rinku Singh b Kona Reeves, Lacey Evans b Jessie Elaban, Brennan Williams b Jeet Rama, Keith Lee b Fabian Aichner, Babatunde Aiyegbusi b Rocky, Jessamyn Duke & Marina Shafir b Kacy Catanzaro & Io Shirai, Danny Burch & Oney Lorcan b Raul Mendoza & Humberto Carrillo
365
3669/8 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (New Japan - 1,715 sellout): Shota Umino & Yuya Uemura b Ren Narita & Yota Tsuji, Chase Owens b Ayato Yoshida, Bad Luck Fale & Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa & Taiji Ishimori b Togi Makabe & Michael Elgin & David Finlay & Toa Henare, Hirooki Goto & Yoshi-Hashi b Taichi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Tetsuya Naito & Evil & Seiya Sanada & Bushi b Minoru Suzuki & Takashi Iizuka & Desperado & Taka Michinoku, Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano & Will Ospreay b Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi & Yujiro Takahashi, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Juice Robinson b Kazuchika Okada & Baretta
367
3689/8 Tijuana, BC (The Crash): Star Boy & Viento & Zarco b Audaz & Torito Negro & Xperia, Princesa Sugehit b Tessa Blanchard, Hechicero b Daga, Cima & T-Hawk b Rey Horus & Soberano Jr., Bestia 666 & Jacob Fatu & Mecha Wolf b Forastero & Sanson & Cuatrero, Volador Jr. & Caristico b Penta 0M & Daga
369
3709/8 Shimizu (Pro Wrestling NOAH - 203): Yoshinari Ogawa & Masao Inoue b Hitoshi Kumano & Yoshiki Imamura, Yo-Hey b Junta Miyawaki, Maybach Taniguchi & Mitsuya Nagai & Kazma Sakamoto & Cody Hall b Go Shiozaki & Atsushi Kotoge & Kaito Kiyomiya & Tadasuke, Mohammed Yone & Quiet Storm b Hi69 & Minoru Tanaka, Katsuhiko Nakajima & Masa Kitamiya & Kenou b Takashi Sugiura & Naomichi Marufuji & Akitoshi Saito, Ikuto Hidaka b Hayata, Daisuke Harada b Hajime Ohara
371
3729/8 Kurihara (All Japan - 202): Hikaru Sato b Atsushi Maruyama, Kotaro Suzuki b Black Menso-re, Koji Iwamoto & Aizawa #1 b Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Black Tiger VII, Jake Lee & Dylan James b Yuma Aoyagi & Yoshitatsu, Suwama & Shuji Ishikawa & Atsushi Aoki b Takao Omori & Kai & Gianni Valletta, Kento Miyahara & Naoya Nomura b Zeus & Jun Akiyama
373
3749/8 Riviera Maya, Mexico (AAA): Keyra & Lady Maravilla b Scarlett Bordeaux & Vanilla, Arkangelikal & El Hijo del Vikingo b Jack Evans & Australian Suicide, Golden Magic & Laredo Kid & Sammy Guevara b Carta Brava Jr. & Mocho Cota Jr. & Tito Santana, Psycho Clown & Fenix b Brian Cage & El Hijo del Fantasma
375
3769/9 LaSalle, IL (AAW - 325): Nick Brubaker b Dante Leon, Curt Stallion & Jake Something b Jessicka Havok & Space Monkey, Chuck Taylor b Hakim Zane, DJZ b Myron Reed, Mat Fitchett & Davey Vega b Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz, Street fight: Jimmy Jacobs b Jake Crist, Hooligans b Mike Hartenbower & Kodi Rice, Stephen Wolf b Paco, Buck Nasty b Joey Ryan,. Eddie Kingston b ACH
377
3789/9 Murayama (All Japan - 260): Black Menso-re b Aizawa #1, Atsushi Aoki & Hikaru Sato b Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Black Tiger VII, Kotaro Suzuki b Atsushi Maruyama, Naoya Nomura & Yoshitatsu b Kai & Gianni Valletta, Zeus & Jun Akiyama & Takao Omori b Jake Lee & Dylan James & Koji Iwamoto, Suwama & Shuji Ishikawa b Kento Miyahara & Yuma Aoyagi
379
3809/14 Kumamoto (Pro Wrestling NOAH - 344): Atsushi Kotoge won three-way over Yoshinari Ogawa and Masao Inoue, Mohammed Yone & Quiet Storm & Hajime Ohara b Daisuke Harada & Hayata & Yoshiki Imamura, Minoru Tanaka b Junta Miyawaki, Hitoshi Kumano b Tadasuke, Kotaro Suzuki b Seiya Morohashi, Maybach Taniguchi & Cody Hall b Go Shiozaki & Kaito Kiyomiya, Takashi Sugiura & Naomichi Marufuji & Akitoshi Saito b Katsuhiko Nakajima & Kenou & Masa Kitamiya, Yo-Hey b Hi69
381
3829/15 Sanjo (All Japan - 640 sellout): Naoya Nomura b Keiichi Sato, Atsushi Aoki & Hikaru Sato & Kanjuro Matsuyama b Atsushi Maruyama & Black Menso-Re & Black Tiger VII, Suwama & Shuji Ishikawa b Zeus & Gianni Valletta, Ryoji Sai b Yuma Aoyagi, Jake Lee & Dylan James & Koji Iwamoto b Jun Akiyama & Takao Omori & Joe Doering, Kento Miyahara b Yoshitatsu
383
3849/15 Fukuoka (Pro Wrestling NOAH - 405): Yo-Hey & Tadasuke & Junji Tanaka b Yoshinari Ogawa & Masao Inoue & Seiya Morohashi, Hayata b Junta Miyawaki, Akitoshi Saito & Mohammed Yone & Quiet Storm b Masa Kitamiya & Kaito Kiyomiya & Yoshiki Imamura, Daisuke Harada b Hitoshi Kumano, Hajime Ohara b Kotaro Suzuki, Katsuhiko Nakajima & Kenou b Takashi Sugiura & Naomichi Marufuji, Hi69 b Minoru Tanaka
385
3869/16 Kochi (Pro Wrestling NOAH - 240): Hayata won three-way over Yoshinari Ogawa and Masao Inoue, Naomichi Marufuji & Akitoshi Saito & Hi69 b Atsushi Kotoge & Junta Miyawaki & Yoshiki Imamura, Kotaro Suzuki b Tadasuke, Go Shiozaki & Kaito Kiyomiya DCOR Cody Hall & Maybach Taniguchi, Daisuke Harada b Seiya Morohashi, Hitoshi Kumano b Hajime Ohara, Katsuhiko Nakajima & Kenou & Masa Kitamiya b Takashi Sugiura & Mohammed Yone & Quiet Storm, Yo-Hey b Minoru Tanaka
387
3889/16 Nagano (All Japan - 338 sellout): Atsushi Aoki b Keiichi Sato, Shuji Ishikawa & Hikaru Sato b Yoshitatsu & Mushuku No Akatora, Jake Lee & Ryoji Sai & Koji Iwamoto b Jun Akiyama & Black Menso-re & Black Tiger VII, Suwama b Gianni Valletta, Joe Doering b Dylan James, Kento Miyahara & Yuma Aoyagi & Naoya Nomura b Zeus & Takao Omori & Atsushi Maruyama
389
3909/17 Shizuoka (Dragon Gate - 505 sellout): Masaaki Mochizuki & Gamma b Naruki Doi & Ryo Saito, Ben K b Kagetora, Masato Yoshino & Kaito Ishida b Don Fujii & Punch Tominaga, Kzy & Susumu Yokosuka b Dragon Kid & Jason Lee, Yamato & BxB Hulk & Yosuke Santa Maria & Willie Mack b Big R Shimizu & Eita & Yasushi kanda & Takashi Yoshida
391
3929/17 Imabari (Pro Wrestling NOAH - 351): Buffalo Yoshida & Rising Hayato b Bonjin Pulp & Ta Madori, Minoru Tanaka & Yoshinari Ogawa b Atsushi Kotoge & Masao Inoue, Kenou & Kaito Kiyomiya b Daisuke Harada & Yoshiki Inamura, Ikuto Hidaka b Junta Miyawaki, Maybach Taniguchi & Cody Hall & Hajime Ohara b Naomichi Marufuji & Akitoshi Saito & Yo-Hey, Tadasuke b Seiya Morohashi, Hi69 b Hayata, Katsuhiko Nakajima & & Go Shiozaki & Masa Kitamiya b Takashi Sugiura & Mohammed Yone & Quiet Storm, Kotaro Suzuki b Hitoshi Kumano
393
3949/20 Winter Park, FL (WWE NXT TV tapings - 400 sellout): Dominik Dijakovic b Dan Matha, Lars Sullivan b Victor Orchant-DQ, Shane Thorne & Nick Miller b Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford, Non-title: Kairi Sane b Vanessa Borne, Non-title: Tommaso Ciampa b Otis Dozovic, Lacey Evans b Candice LeRae, Wesley Blake & Steve Cutler & Jaxson Ryker b Terry Krish & Cesar Rice & Mixom, Johnny Gargano b Tony Nese, Lars Sullivan b EC 3, Keith Lee b Kona Reeves, Tag titles: War Raiders b Kyle O’Reilly & Roderick Strong-DQ, Shayna Baszler b Britt Baker, Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch b Tian Bing & Rocky, Nikki Cross NC Bianca Belair, Three-way for North American title: Ricochet won over Adam Cole and Pete Dunne
395
3969/20 Yanai (New Japan - 1,191): Yuya Uemura d Yota Tsuji, Sho & Yoh b Ayato Yoshida & Shota Umino, Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima & Tiger Mask b Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi & Ren Narita, Juice Robinson & David Finlay & Ryusuke Taguchi b Jushin Liger & Kushida & Toa Henare, Baretta & Chuckie T & Will Ospreay b Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Tetsuya Naito & Evil & Seiya Sanada & Bushi b Minoru Suzuki & Zack Sabre Jr. & Taka Michinoku & Desperado, Kazuchika Okada & Yoshi-Hashi & Jay White b Hiroshi Tanahashi & Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma
397
3989/21 Butte, MT (WWE Raw - 4,000): Bo Dallas & Curtis Axel b Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder, Mojo Rawley b Tyler Breeze, AOP & Jinder Mahal b Apollo Crews & Heath Slater & Rhyno, Finn Balor b Baron Corbin, Finn Balor & Bobby Lashley b Baron Corbin & Kevin Owens, Chad Gable & Bobby Roode b The Ascension, Bayley & Ember Moon & Dana Brooke & Natalya b Ruby Riott & Sarah Logan & Alicia Fox & Mickie James, Universal title: Roman Reigns b Braun Strowman-DQ
399
4009/21 Sanford, FL (WWE NXT - 350): Kassius Ohno b Stacey Ervin Jr., Io Shirai & Kacy Catanzaro b Aliyah & Kavita Davi, Matt Riddle b Fabian Aichner, Vanessa Borne b Taynara Conti, Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch b Kona Reeves & Luke Menzies, Adam Cole b Keith Lee, Tag titles: Kyle O’Reilly & Roderick Strong b Humberto Carrillo & Raul Mendoza, U.K. title: Rhea Ripley b Nikki Cross, Ricochet & Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford b Dominik Dijakovic & Shane Thorne & Nick Miller
401
4029/21 Saijo (New Japan - 1,012): Yota Tsuji d Yuya Uemura, David Finlay & Ryusuke Taguchi b Ayato Yoshida & Shota Umino, Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi & Toa Henare b Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima & Ren Narita, Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask & Kushida b Rocky Romero & Sho & Yoh, Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Desperado b Barreta & Chuckie T & Will Ospreay, Tetsuya Naito & Evil & Seiya Sanada & Bushi b Minoru Suzuki & Zack Sabre Jr. & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Taka Michinoku, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Togi Makabe & Juice Robinson b Kazuchika Okada & Jay White & Yoshi-Hashi
403
4049/21 Mexico City Arena Mexico (CMLL - 6,500): Magnus & Star Jr. b Akuma & Espanto Jr., Black Panther & Blue Panther Jr. & Fuego b Kawato San & Okumura & Virus, Sanson & Cuatrero & Rey Bucanero b Esfinge & Stuka Jr. & Triton, Ultimo Guerrero & Gran Guerrero & Euforia b Ciber the Main Man & Scharly Rock Star & The Chris, Mistico b Negro Casas-DQ, Cavernario & Rush & El Terrible b Atlantis & King Phoenix & Diamante Azul
405
4069/21 Toluca, Mexico (AAA TV tapings - 2,500 sellout): Mascarita Sagrada & Mini Psycho Clown b Espectrito & Mini Payaso Amarillo, Keyra & Lady Maravilla & Starfire b Faby Apache & Hiedra & Lady Shani, Ciclon Ramirez & Demus 3:16 & Emperador Azteca b Aerostar & Argenis & Nino Hamburguesa, Mamba & Maximo won three-way over Rey Escorpion & El Texano Jr. and Golden Magic & El Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr., El Hijo de L.A. Park & Laredo Kid & Taurus b Joe Lider & La Parka & Pagano, El Hijo del Fantasma & Psycho Clown b L.A. Park & Electroshock
407
4089/21 Tijuana, BC (The Crash - 2,300): Star Boy & Viento & Zarco b Animal & Demencia & Silver Star, Douglas James & Kody Lane & Tessa Blanchard b Matt Wandagriff & Royce Isaacs & Heather Monroe, Soberano Jr. b ACH, Bandido & Flamita & Rey Horus b Angel de Oro & Niebla Roja & Templario, Volador Jr. & Daga b Penta 0M & Caristico, Gilbert El Boricua b Mecha Wolf
409
4109/21 Hiroshima (All Japan - 351): Yoshitatsu & Takashi Okada b Takao Omori & Atsushi Maruyama, Ultimo Dragon & Black Menso-re & Mushuku no Akota & Carbell Ito b Shuji Ishikawa & Atsushi Aoki & Hikaru Sato & Rey Paloma, Joe Doering & The Bodyguard b Kengo Mashimo & Gianni Valletta, Yuji Hino b Ryoji Sai, Jake Lee & Dylan James & Koji Iwamoto b Kento Miyahara & Naoya Nomura & Yuma Aoyagi, Zeus b Suwama
411
4129/22 Billings, MT (WWE Raw - 5,000): Bo Dallas & Curtis Axel b Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder, Mojo Rawley b Tyler Breeze, AOP & Jinder Mahal b Heath Slate & Rhyno & Apollo Crews, Finn Balor b Baron Corbin-DQ, Finn Balor & Bobby Lashley b Baron Corbin & Kevin Owens, Chad Gable & Bobby Roode b The Ascension, Titus O’Neil b Mike Kanellis, Bayley & Ember Moon & Dana Brooke & Natalya b Mickie James & Alicia Fox & Ruby Riott & Sarah Logan, Universal title: Roman Reigns b Braun Strowman-DQ
413
4149/22 Tucson, AZ (WWE Smackdown - 2,600): Tag titles: Big E & Kofi Kingston b Eric Young & Killian Dain, Luke Harper b Tye Dillinger, R-Truth b Shelton Benjamin, Rusev b Andrade Cien Almas, Women’s title: Becky Lynch b Charlotte Flair, Asuka & Naomi & Nikki Cross b Billie Kay & Peyton Royce & Carmella, Three way for U.S. title: Shinsuke Nakamura won over Randy Orton and Jeff Hardy, WWE title: A.J. Styles b Samoa Joe
415
4169/22 Largo, FL (WWE NXT - 350): EC 3 b Tony Nese, Reina Gonzalez b Xia Li, War Raiders b Rocky & Tian Bing, Babatunde Aiyegbusi b Brennan Williams, Otis Dozovic & Tucker Knight & Jessie Elaban b Wesley Blake & Jaxson Ryker& Lacey Evans, Lars Sullivan b Keith Lee, Elimination match: Shayna Baszler & Jessamyn Duke & Marina Shafir b Kairi Sane & Dakota Kai & Candice LeRae, Johnny Gargano b Velveteen Dream
417
4189/22 Fukuoka (All Japan - 495): Black Menso-re b Atsushi Maruyama, Takao Omori & Koji Nizumi b Ultimo Dragon & Mushuku no Akota, Suwama & Shuji Ishikawa & Atsushi Aoki & Hikaru Sato b Naoya Nomura & Yuma Aoyagi & Yoshitatsu & King, Kengo Mashimo b Joe Doering, Ryoji Sai & Dylan James & Yuji Hino b Zeus & the Bodyguard & Gianni Valletta, Jr.; title: Shuji Kondo b Koji Iwamoto, Kento Miyahara b Jake Lee
419
4209/22 Osaka (Dragon Gate - 778): Big R Shimizu & Ben K & Yasushi Kanda b Kzy & Susumu Yokosuka & Punch Tominaga, Ryo Saito & Yosuke Santa Maria b Gamma & Shachihoko Boy, Yamato & BxB Hulk b Genki Horiguchi & Yasshi, Masaaki Mochizuki & Willie Mack b Jason Lee & Kaito Ishida, Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino & Dragon Kid b Eita & Shingo Takagi & Takashi Yoshida
421
4229/23 Loveland, CO (WWE Raw): Curtis Axel & Bo Dallas b Scott Dawson& Dash Wilder, Mojo Rawley b Tyler Breeze, AOP & Jinder Mahal b Heath Slater & Rhyno & Apollo Crews, Finn Balor b Baron Corbin-DQ, Finn Balor & Bobby Lashley b Baron Corbin & Kevin Owens, Chad Gable & Bobby Roode b The Ascension, Bayley & Ember Moon & Dana Brooke & Natalya b Ruby Riott & Sarah Logan & Mickie James & Alicia Fox, Universal title: Roman Reigns b Braun Strowman-DQ
423
4249/23 Las Cruces, NM (WWE Smackdown - 3,300): Three-way for tag titles: Big E & Xavier Woods won over Killian Dain & Eric Young and Usos, Luke Harper b Tye Dillinger, Asuka & Naomi & Nikki Cross b Carmella & Billie Kay & Peyton Royce, Rusev & Lana b Andrade Cien Almas & Zelina Vega, Three-way for U.S. title: Shinsuke Nakamura won over Jeff Hardy and Randy Orton, R-Truth b Shelton Benjamin, Women’s title: Becky Lynch b Charlotte Flair, WWE title: A.J. Styles b Samoa Joe
425
4269/23 Mexico City Arena Mexico (CMLL): Angelito & Fantasy b Pequeno Olimpico & Pequeno Violencia, Cancerbero & Disturbio & Nitro b Pegasso & Principe Diamante & Sangre Imperial, Sanely b Metalica, Hechicero & Polvora & Tiger b Drone & Guerrero Maya Jr. & Rey Cometa, Angel de Oro & Niebla Roja & Soberano Jr. b Mephisto & Rey Bucanero & Shocker, Caristico & Diamante Azul & Valiente b Ultimo Guerrero & Gran Guerrero & Felino
427
4289/24 Denver, CO (WWE Raw/Main Event TV tapings- 6,300): No Way Jose & Zack Ryder b Mojo Rawley & Mike Kanellis, Apollo Crews b Tyler Breeze, Finn Balor b Jinder Mahal, Ruby Riott & Liv Morgan & Sarah Logan b Brie & Nikki Bella & Natalya, Konnor b Chad Gable, Tag titles: Drew McIntyre & Dolph Ziggler b Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder, Bobby Lashley b Elias-DQ, Nia Jax b Alicia Fox, Roman Reigns & Dean Ambrose & Seth Rollins b AOP & Baron Corbin
429
4309/24 Colorado Springs, CO (WWE Smackdown): Three-way for tag titles: New Day won over Usos and Sanity, Luke Harper b Tye Dillinger, Asuka & Naomi & Nikki Cross b Carmella & Billie Kay & Peyton Royce, Rusev & Lana b Andrade Cien Almas & Zelina Vega, Women’s title: Becky Lynch b Charlotte Flair, R-Truth b Shelton Benjamin, WWE title: A.J. Styles b Samoa Joe
431
4329/24 Puebla (CMLL - 5,000): Millennium & Robin & Super Astro Jr. b King Rocker Jr. & Perverso & Policeman, Black Panther & Blue Panther Jr. & Stigma b Ares & Escualo & Kaiser, Diamante Azul & Kraneo & Volcano b Cuatrero & Forastero & Sanson, Caristico & Soberano Jr. b Bestia del Ring & Negro Casas, L.A. Park & El Hijo de L.A. Park b Rush & Cavernario
433
4349/24 Osaka (All Japan - 715): Oudou tournament semifinals: Kento Miyahara b Yuji Hino, Kengo Mashimo b Zeus, Ryoji Sai & Koji Iwamoto b Gianni Valletta & Hikaru Sato, Joe Doering & The Bodyguard b Jake Lee & Dylan James, Takao Omori & Black Menso-re b Atsushi Maruyama & Ultimo Dragon, Suwama & Shuji Ishikawa & Atsushi Aoki b Yoshitatsu & Naoya Nomura & Yuma Aoyagi, Oudou tournament finals: Kento Miyahara b Kengo Mashimo
435
4369/24 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (Stardom 5 Star Grand Prix finals - 850): Hana Kimura won Battle Royal, Jamie Hayter b Saki Kashima, Nicole Savoy b Kelly Klein, Hazuki b Sumire Natsu, Mayu Iwatani d Momo Watanabe, Kimber Lee b Rachael Ellering, Utami Hayashishita b Konami, Natsuko Tora b Jungle Kyona, Tam Nakano b Kagetsu, Tournament finals: Mayu Iwatani b Utami Hayashishita
437
4389/25 Denver (WWE Smackdown/205 Live/Mixed Match Challenge TV tapings - 3,500): Lio Rush b Noam Dar, Hideo Itami DCOR Mustafa Ali Brian Kendrick b Tony Devine, The Miz b R-Truth, Sheamus b Big E, Naomi& Asuka b Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville, Non-title: Shinsuke Nakamura b Tye Dillinger-DQ, Non-title: Becky Lynch b Lana, Bobby Lashley & Mickie James b Jinder Mahal & Alicia Fox, The Miz & Asuka b R-Truth & Carmella
439
4409/25 Mexico City Arena Mexico (CMLL): Bengala & Leono b Apocalipsis & Cholo, Lluvia & Marcela & Sonya de Costa Rica b Amapola & Seductora & Tiffany, Audaz & Fuego & Rey Cometa b Kawato San & Nitro & Okumura, Tiger b Black Panther, Luciferno & Mascara Ano 2000 & El Terrible b Kraneo & Volcano & Valiente, Gran Guerrero & Rey Bucanero & Shocker b Angel de Oro & Caristico & Niebla Roja
441
442CMLL: Coming off the anniversary show with most of the big stars wrestling elsewhere, the 9/21 Arena Mexico show was down to 6,500 fans, the lowest in a long time. The main event saw Rush & El Terrible & Cavernario beat Atlantis & Diamante Azul & King Phoenix when Azul accidentally took out Phoenix with a die and Rush pinned Atlantis. The Mistico vs. Negro Casas match was all kinds of annoying. The match itself wasn’t bad, but Mistico, the tecnico, pulled off his own mask and then gave Casas a low knee. The ref turned around and saw Casas selling the low blow and Mistico without his mask and DQ’d Casas. Mistico already is one of those faces that gets booed without “help” like this. If you ever think WWE booking is bad, and it often is, it’s never like this. The only match of any real importance saw trios champs Ciber the Main Man & Scharly Rock Star & The Chris lose two straight falls to former champs Ultimo Guerrero & Gran Guerrero & Euforia in a quick match. In the first fall, Chris was DQ’d for using his cane. In the second fall, Ultimo pinned Ciber using the ropes, which was payback for Ciber using the ropes last week to pin Ultimo in the title change match. Los Guerreros then wanted a title rematch
443
444The 9/28 match has the trios title match on top. They were hinting that a new member would be joining the Klan. Plus Volador Jr. will have his first Arena Mexico match after getting his head shaved, teaming with the returning Michael Elgin & Caristico against Sanson & Cuatrero & Forastero
445
446The World Grand Prix tournament on 10/5 at Arena Mexico will have as the 16 guys, David Finlay, Mark Briscoe, Jay Briscoe, Dark Magic, Flip Gordon, Michael Elgin, Okumura, Gilbert El Boricua, Matt Taven, Sanson, Cuatrero, Ultimo Guerrero, Diamante Azul, Caristico, Hechicero, Euforia, El Terrible and Volador Jr
447
448Sofia Alonso, who is the daughter of Paco Alonso and very much the Stephanie McMahon of CMLL, was on the cover of the Mexico edition of Women’s Health magazine and had a photo with who they tabbed as the future of CMLL, Titan, Hechicero, Dragon Rojo Jr., Sanson, Cuatrero, Forastero, Soberano Jr., and others
449
450Cavernario did an interview talking about how he was able to get his accounting degree while working a full wrestling schedule. He said that he went to college in Guadalajara but most of his wrestling was in Mexico City, so this is even more impressive dedication. He said that he would spend the six plus hour bus rides between the two cities and use that as time to do his homework. He wouldn’t take wrestling dates on Mondays and on Tuesday if he would wrestle it would be in Guadalajara. He said that on Sunday nights after the Arena Mexico show he’d take a 10 p.m. bus home, arrive at 5 a.m., take a shower, eat breakfast and arrive in time for his first class at 7 a.m
451
452Caristico will be defending his NWA middleweight title against Gran Guerrero soon, after Guerrero beat him to win a trios match on 9/25 at Arena Mexico and challenges were issued. Guerrero said he was trying to avenge Caristico’s winning the title from his older brother (Ultimo Guerrero)
453
454L.A. Park’s second week in Puebla on 9/24 saw he and his son beat Rush & Cavernario in the main event with a low blow finish. The show wasn’t sold out, but it was close 5,000 which is still a great crowd for that city. For 10/1, they announced Park & Hijo de Park & Volador Jr. against El Terrible & Bestia del Ring & Cavernario, with Rush not even booked on the show
455
456Elgin & Mistico & Volador Jr. vs. Cuatrero & Forastero & Sanson headlines the 9/30 Arena Mexico show.
457
458AAA: They did a 9/21 show in Toluca which was billed as AAA vs. Elite. They drew a sellout at the 2,500 seat Salon Rojo. Elite won three of the five matches so they are still keeping the Elite name strong. There is an idea at some point of Elite running on its own (which would be AAA using the Elite name) to give more street cred to the promotion vs. promotion idea. Mascarita Sagrada, as in the original one from When World’s Collide, worked the minis opener. He had a falling out with Antonio Pena in 1995 after being the star of the division from 1993-95 and the star of the division in CMLL before that. Really, he was the key guy in getting the minis over along with the original Espectrito. We were told he had gained a lot of weight over the last 20 years and slowed down greatly. He was brought back because he’s the face of an ad campaign for a company that is sponsoring AAA. He worked with two guys that he brought in who didn’t look good and Mini Psycho Clown who is a regular and had to carry the match. He’ll probably be brought back for those reasons, but the attempt will be to surround him with better workers or put him in mixed matches where he just comes in and does a few cool spots. It’s a similar deal of something that will happen with Blue Demon Jr. returning because there is a milk company using Demon in a major marketing campaign and that company is looking and working with AAA so it makes sense for Demon to work. Demus & Emperador Azteca debuted on an AAA show as part of the Elite team. Also returning was El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr., who is the son of Wagner, who also worked as Dr. Wagner III. A few months back, before Konnan was brought back as booker, they were doing a big feud with Wagner Jr. against his son, but Konnan nixed the feud thinking Wagner III wasn’t ready at that level on the card. Wagner Jr., at one point was telling everyone he was quitting after the feud was nixed, but he’s still there and has hair matches scheduled on big shows with Jeff Jarrett next month and L.A. Park in a mask vs. hair match next year at TripleMania. It is notable that Park and Wagner, who had the rep for being hard to deal with, and were in and out of here and CMLL many times, are not only here but on top even in their 50s. With Park, he’s still drawing and Wagner is a legend and all. Wagner III was in a three-way tag match teaming with Golden Magic of Elite against both Rey Escorpion & El Texano Jr., and Mamba & Maximo. Wagner turned on Magic. El Hijo de L.A. Park & Laredo Kid & Taurus beat Joe Lider & La Parka & Pagano. Laredo Kid was a replacement for Puma King, who is now working more in the U.S. Miedo Extremo & Ciclope did a video and challenged Pagano & Lider. The main event saw El Hijo del Fantasma & Psycho Clown beat L.A. Park & Electroshock. Park wasn’t happy about being on the losing side here. There is a reason that he usually has his blow-ups with companies and then they don’t do business with him for a while, before time heals wounds, he draws, he gets mad about something often like losing, and then rinse and repeat
459
460Scarlett Bordeaux’s AAA television debut did WWE Raw YouTube top angle level numbers. At press time the video had topped 2.2 million views. There is interest in using her more
461
462There will be another Elite vs. AAA show next month in Naucalpan.
463
464THE CRASH: They ran 9/21 in Tijuana, coming back too quickly from the last show, and drew about 2,400 fans, which is their lowest Tijuana crowd in a long time. The usual range is 3,500 to a sellout which is about 4,500 these days, sometimes slightly more. That was with bringing Volador Jr. & Caristico in on a Friday night so they weren’t at Arena Mexico, which probably wasn’t cheap to get. Gilbert El Boricua (Mesias) beat Mecha Wolf 450 in the main event. These are two stars from Puerto Rico against each other. Daga & Volador Jr. beat Caristico & Penta 0M when Volador unmasked Caristico and then pinned him as Caristico covered his face. The match that got the best reaction, including money thrown in, saw Bandido & Flamita & Rey Horus beat CMLL’s Angel de Oro & Niebla Roja & Templario. This isn’t just CMLL guys and AAA guys being on the same show in a third promotion, but then actually wrestling each other and the CMLL guys even lost. It’s notable CMLL has changed its longstanding bylaws at a time it’s actually doing well. Bandido & Flamita aren’t AAA full-timers, but they are still AAA guys. Soberano Jr. pinned ACH. There was also a mixed tag with Douglas James & Kody Lane teaming with Tessa Blanchard over Matt Vandagirff & Royce Isaacs teaming with Heather Monroe
465
466They are coming back in two weeks again for a show on 10/6 with Bestia 666 & Jacob Fatu & Mecha Wolf vs. Ultimo Guerrero & Gran Guerrero & Euforia, Bandido & Flamita vs. Mark & Jay Briscoe, Daga vs. Hechicero in an Iron Man match, Willie Mack vs. Austin Theory vs. Zumbi vs. Flip Gordon, Cinico & Star Boy & Viento & Zarco vs. Jonathan & Super Calo Jr. & Taliban & Xperia and Danny Limelight & Eli Everfly vs. Douglas James & Royce Isaacs.
467
468ALL JAPAN: The Oudou tournament ended with Kento Miyahara winning on 8/24 in Osaka before 715 fans at the smaller of the Edion Arenas. This sets up Miyahara to challenge Zeus for the Triple Crown title, who beat Miyahara for it on 7/29. In the semifinals, Miyahara pinned Yuji Hino with a Japanese leg roll clutch in 10:53 in what we were told was a **** match and Kengo Mashimo advanced, beating Zeus (and putting himself in line for a title shot as well) in 12:36 with an armbar with the ref stopping it in a ****1/4 match. Miyahara pinned Mashimo to win in 23:47 with the shutdown German suplex in what we were told was a ****½ match. Miyahara’s chest was brutalized with chops against Hino. Mashimo took some scary bumps with Zeus including a spinebuster to the floor, but the match story was Mashimo working on Zeus’ arm. The tournament elevated both Mashimo and Jake Lee. Also on the show, there was a tag match with Joe Doering & The Bodyguard beating Dylan James & Jake Lee. James turned on Lee and will form a tag team with Doering, likely for the World Tag League at the end of the year
469
470. In the quarterfinal round of the tournament in matches this past week, on 9/21 in Hiroshima before 351 fans, Hino beat Ryoji Sai in 12:15 with a power bomb in a reported **½ match and Zeus pinned Suwama in 15:56 with a jackhammer in a ***1/4 match. On 9/22 in Fukuoka at Hakata Star Lanes before 495 fans, Miyahara pinned Jake Lee with a German suplex in 19:31 in what was I was told was a ****1/4 to ****½ match while Mashimo advanced to the final four beating Joe Doering in 9:48 in a ***½ match
471
472Shuji Kondo of Wrestle-1 won the jr. title in Fukuoka from Koji Iwamoto using a lariat in 17:26 in a ****. The match was very hard hitting.
473
474NEW JAPAN: After the 10/8 King of Pro Wrestling, there are two major tours left this year. The Road to Power Struggle show runs from 10/16 to 11/3 and will feature the annual Super Junior tag team tournament. New Japan World will broadcast shows on 10/16, 10/17, 10/26 and 10/27 from Korakuen Hall live and in English. The finals are at the Osaka Edion Arena on 11/3, which will be the final somewhat major card before the Tokyo Dome. The final tour will be 11/17 to 12/9, which will be the World Tag League tournament, with the finals on 12/9 in Iwate. They are running mostly smaller buildings on this tour. They have 11/18, 11/29 and 11/30 dates at Korakuen Hall and the only big building is Aiichi Gym in Nagoya on 11/25. For Osaka on 12/2, they are running the smaller Edion Arena (which holds less than 1,500) instead of the bigger building
475
476Even though the Young Bucks are the current IWGP tag team champions, they are not scheduled for the tag team tournament. They may appear on the final show. The winners of the tag team tournament will challenge whoever the champions are at the Tokyo Dome. The winners of the junior tournament are likely to challenge whoever are the champions also in the Tokyo Dome, although they’ve done multiple team jr. matches on the Dome show to get as many people as possible on the big show. I don’t sense the Young Bucks at this stage of the game to be doing complete New Japan tours as they are now in the position of just working the big shows at the end of the tours. On the way up it made sense for them, but things have changed. In the spot they are in now, it really doesn’t make sense both for ROH which they are key players on every show, as well as time with family, and even non-wrestling autograph show bookings which they can get when ROH doesn’t have weekend shows
477
478Kazuchika Okada talked about wrestling in the U.S. He said that on the first shows in Long Beach last summer, his goal was not to cater to the American audience but give them a show like if it was in Japan. On Cody he said: “Like I expected, he was great. I don’t know how much came from his dad and how much he developed by himself, but he’s obviously very charismatic, and more than that, he isn’t excessively flashy. Some fans see guys who do flashy moves and might think this guy’s a great wrestler or that guy is tough, but without big showy moves, he’s able to get the fans to know he’s really tough. He’s so fundamentally sound, too.” He did joke that maybe they’re overdoing it in running California. It was noted that Hiroshi Tanahashi was a little upset when fans started chanting “New Japan” in Long Beach during the Omega & Ibushi vs. Young Bucks match. Okada said he didn’t even give it much thought and didn’t see it as a problem. But he said he wasn’t in favor of the Omega vs. Cody main event in San Francisco, saying he’s not a fan of New Japan going in with a main event that people can already see in the U.S. (there was actually only one prior match between the two, for ROH in New Orleans which set its record and with Cody winning before Omega became champion, it was logical booking). He said they should go into the U.S. with distinct New Japan main events. Regarding All In, he said, “It was awesome. Of course, it was great to have a match in front of about 12,000 (11,263) people, and it was amazing to think, wow, Cody and the Bucks were able to put this together. It was a great card. I had a good match. It all showed the power of pro wrestling, I think. For them to have their little YouTube channel, start Being the Elite, and have it grow into that, get that many people in the building, that’s amazing. I really feel that we saw new potential in professional wrestling. Really great.” He said he wants to go into the U.S. next year and do a singles match with Omega and even more a singles match with Tanahashi to give people the authentic New Japan best match. He noted that when he and Tanahashi were against each other in a tag match in Chicago for ROH, the place starting chanting “Holy shit” before they touched and he thinks that the American fans want that singles match in the U.S., and noted that this happened when New Japan wasn’t nearly as popular in the U.S. as it is now.
479
480OTHER JAPAN NOTES: Satoru Sayama, 60, the original Tiger Mask, announced on 9/20 at his Real Japan show at Korakuen Hall, that he was suffering from a neurological disorder that hasn’t been completely diagnosed. He noticed that his arms and legs would at times start trembling. He was at first diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease, but that is no longer believed to be the source of the problem
481
482Mayu Iwatani won the 5 Star Grand Prix tournament in Stardom on 9/24 at Korakuen Hall before 850 fans, pinning Utami Hayashishita, the rookie who just started wrestling few weeks ago and getting the super push, with a dragon suplex in 15:56. In the Red block, Hayashishita beat Konami with the Bruno Sammartino backbreaker submission to get to ten points. The other contenders to win the block all lost on the final day, as Kimber Lee pinned Rachael Ellering with a quick pin in 3:17, while Tam Nakano pinned Kagetsu also with a quick reverse cradle, and Jungle Kyona lost to Natsuko Tora, all on the last night. Iwatani on the last night drew with Momo Watanabe to end up with nine points. Hazuki beat Sumire Natsu to end up with nine, but Iwatani beat Hazuki to reach the finals. So the final Red block standings were: 1. Hayashishita 10; 2. Kagetsu and Ellering 9; 4. Kyona 8; 5. Konami 6; 6. Kimber Lee 5; 7. Tora and Nakano 4
483
484The Blue block saw Iwatani win with 9; 2. Hazuki 9; 3. Watanabe, Kelly Klein and Nicole Savoy 8; 6. Jamie Hayter 6; 7. Natsu and Saki Kashima 4
485
486DDT drew 1,279 fans on 9/23 to Korakuen Hall where Meiko Satomura lost her KO-D championship match. Danshoku Dino won the title with Shigehiro Irie being the third person in the match. Even though Satomura is a woman and much smaller than Irie, the crowd treated their stuff as serious while Dino was doing his all his way over the line of what could work in the U.S. gay-based comedy. The biggest pop was Satomura giving Irie a superplex. Satomura used a step up ax kick on Irie and Dino then pinned Irie with the Gaydo clutch, which is the Gedo clutch in 16:00. Dino then pinned Satomura in 20:01 with his version of a piledriver which meant he stuck Satomura’s head inside his own trunks while doing it. Usually he does that spot with guys. I was told the main event was ***½ level. Dino turned face after the match, because his opponent on the company’s biggest show of the year on 10/21 in Sumo Hall, Daisuke Sasaki, is a total heel. Sabu worked the show in a six-man teaming with Jun Kasai & Kikutaro to lose to Shunma Katsumata & Akito & Konosuke Takeshita in a hardcore brawl. After the match, Cima, Lindaman, T-Hawk and Tian Yunan from the Oriental Wrestling Federation hit the ring for a series of Sumo Hall challenges. There will be an eight-man tag with the OWF guys against Katsumata & Akito & Takeshita & Yuki Iino on 9/26 and then at Sumo Hall it’ll be a Takeshita vs. Cima singles match. Yukio Sakaguchi & Harashima vs. Keisuke Ishii & Shigehiro Irie in Irie’s farewell match, a six-man with Iino & Katsumata & Akito vs. Yunan & Lindaman & T-Hawk, Soma Takao & Tetsuya Endo & Mad Paulie defending the six man titles against Toru Owashi & Kazuki Hirata & Yuki Ueno; and a Weapons Rumble match with Sanshiro Takagi vs. Mao (they’ve been feuding all year over who is the King of the Street Fights; the rules here is that the buzzer sounds every minute or two, but when it goes off, instead of someone entering the ring, a new weapon is brought to the ring). Joey Ryan, who works regularly here, and wife Laura James, are the only Americans on the Sumo Hall show and unlike in the past, nobody from New Japan or a big name outsider is coming in. Irie’s contract expires this week but he’s going to work for DDT through 10/21 before becoming a free agent
487
488They are also doing a fan voting election where the winner gets a KO-D title shot at 1 million yen ($8,900 U.S.). The second place finisher gets a shot at any other title of his choosing in the promotion. As of 9/25, woman wrestler Maki Ito was in first place with 502 votes to Masahiro Takanishi’s 309 and Harashima’s 179. There is also an election for favorite stable with the winning stable getting to book their own live show
489
490Big Japan death mach wrestler Isami Kodaka suffered a fractured jaw in a cage match with Masashi Takeda and will be out of action for three to four months.
491
492HERE AND THERE: The DDT promotion from Japan and wXw from Germany will both be debuting in the U.S. in New York over WrestleMania week, working with the WWN crew. WWN announced that over Mania week from 4/4 to 4/6 at La Boom in Queens, NY, a small building that Evolve runs regularly, will be the first-ever authentic DDT show and first wXw show in seven years in the U.S. WWN is also doing their traditional Supershow, and Evolve, Shimmer and Kaiju Big Battel will also be part of the program. Konosuke Takeshita of DDT will also be working other shows that weekend, the first time he’s worked Mania week. The schedule will be announced soon. DDT is a very unique group, which would be viewed negatively by most U.S. fans, but it works in Japan as a niche group. Given the audience that will come will be their audience, and the first time most of them see it so they’ll be ready, it’ll work big. wXw is more traditional hard hitting wrestling with strong booking
493
494The situation with Larry Matysik when he was hospitalized last week is that he suffered a stroke which has left his with weakness on one side of the body and slurred speech
495
496Bein Sports, which carries MLW on both its English and now Spanish language stations, has reached a new deal with both the Dish Network and Sling TV, but is still off both DirecTV and Comcast
497
498Court Bauer also officially announced an MLW TV taping on 4/4 in New York at the Melrose Ballroom, which is the Thursday night before WrestleMania. That has been expected, and also officially means no WaleMania this year, which had become something of a WrestleMania week tradition. We’d pretty much been told WaleMania was doubtful when Wale appeared on 205 Live several weeks ago. The 10/4 tapings at the Melrose Ballroom have Low Ki vs. Daga for their world title, L.A. Park vs. PCO, Jimmy Havoc vs. Sami Callihan in a spin the wheel match, Tom Lawlor vs. Shane Strickland, Teddy Hart & Brian Pillman Jr. & Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Marko Stunt & ACH & Rich Swann, Tommy Dreamer vs. Brody King and Sammy Guevara vs. El Hijo de L.A. Park
499
500Joey Janela suffered what a very serious knee injury that is going to put him out for a while, probably six to ten months. The injury took place on his own Gamechanger Pro Wrestling show on 9/21 in Asbury Park, NJ. He was doing a plancha to the floor in a match against the original Psicosis, and it was just a bad landing and his knee went out. He noted he’d done the move 100 times or more, that Psicosis wasn’t at fault, but in landing, his left knee bent at a very unnatural angle and was pretty much destroyed. The injuries included a destroyed PCL, a destroyed MCL, a fractured bone in the knee, a bone contusion in the knee, a sprained ACL and a few other injuries. It will almost surely require major surgery. That is the one real problem with the indie wrestling doing the high-risk style is the money isn’t that big unless you’re one of the chosen few, and if you get hurt and can’t perform, there’s no money coming in and if you need surgery, unless you have insurance (and premiums are very expensive), you have a lot of money going out. If you’re with one of the major companies under contract, at least the medical is paid for and if you’ve got a guaranteed money deal, that is as well
501
502Jordynne Grace also suffered a leg injury the same night . She was working for Nova Pro Wrestling in an intergender match with Tracy Williams. It was a standard move, jumping off the middle rope for a DVD. She didn’t think the injury was too serious but was on crutches
503
504Edouard Carpentier was inducted into the Quebec Sports Hall of Fame on 9/25 in Montreal. Since Carpentier has no family in Quebec, historian/reporter/announcer Pat Laprade received the award for him along with Carpentier’s former agent. Carpentier is the third pro wrestler who has been inducted into that Hall of Fame, following Yvon Robert and Maurice Vachon
505
506The 10/19 PWG show, called Smoky and the Bandido as a tribute to both Burt Reynolds and Bandido, will be at the Globe Theater in Los Angeles. The lineup announced is Flamita vs. Puma King vs. Rey Horus, which sounds like a great match, Brody King vs. Timothy Thatcher, Darby Allin vs. ? (it was to be Joey Janela), Rey Fenix vs. Bandido which sounds sick which is one of the unique first-ever matches, Hechicero vs. Zack Sabre Jr., in another first-ever match that has real great potential as a battle of submissions, Zachary Wentz & Dezmond Xavier defend the PWG tag titles against Impact tag champs LAX and Walter vs. BOLA winner Jeff Cobb for the PWG title. Hechicero appearing is interesting because forever it was CMLL not letting its talent work for promoters that used AAA guys, like Flamita and Bandido. With Puma King, when he was announced for PWG, that was the prelude to his quitting CMLL to work full-time on the U.S. indie scene. But Hechicero is staying with CMLL according to all accounts
507
508People ask about Neville all the time and this is the situation as best we can tell. WWE said that he is free and clear and can wrestle anywhere. He was in talks with some promotions but told them he wasn’t ready to start yet, citing legal issues. He’s then completely gone off the grid and hasn’t responded to promoters as best we can tell. Will Ospreay wanted to do a singles match with him at Wrestle Kingdom but we have no idea if he’s up for that or anything in wrestling right now
509
510Northeast Wrestling announced that on 11/9 in Poughkeepsie that Kenny Omega’s opponent will be Fenix, which will be a first-time ever singles match between the two. Also on that show in a first-ever match is Penta 0M vs. Darby Allin and David Arquette and Rob Van Dam are also on the show
511
512Arquette is doing a lot of indie stuff for different groups like NEW, and he’s working the 10/6 Border City Wrestling anniversary show in Windsor. Some of it seems to be working with RJ City and helping him build his name. He did a FOX News interview and said his return to wrestling was fueled by a tweet from Bully Ray, who said about the change of IHOP to IHOB, that it was the worst idea since making David Arquette world champion. So Arquette saw that tweet and wanted to get back into wrestling and prove to be a real wrestler to I guess shut people up. So here’s the deal. When Arquette was made world champion, in that day and age, it was a horrible idea. The ratings gap the next week between Raw and Nitro with Raw ahead was the biggest in the history of the Monday Night War. It hurt what was already a badly declining credibility of the WCW world title. Arquette could become as good a worker as Bret Hart and that doesn’t change this. Second, I don’t know of anyone mad at Arquette, that was a corporate decision. Everyone viewed Arquette as a person positively, and he donated all his WCW money to wives of wrestlers who had died young. If he’s having fun wrestling and people enjoy seeing him, more power to him. It’s a different business now than it was then. Nobody sees it as a business where everyone is a legit tough guy, because it’s not. And some don’t like that, but that’s how it is. There are positives to that and negatives to it. Arquette said that although Rock has changed this somewhat, there is ignorance in Hollywood regarding wrestling. He also felt that he had become bullied in social media over being the joke of a world champion. He said he’s been training like crazy to be a wrestler. He also noted that he’s never taken any money for wrestling. Andy Kaufman was the same way. Kaufman never cashed any of those Jarrett checks during his program with Jerry Lawler. He said he’s already taken a knee to the face and broken three ribs
513
514Cima and his group are taking a lot of bookings all over the world because the Oriental Wrestling Enterprises group out of Shanghai hasn’t panned out to expectations. They were supposed to start running weekly in Shanghai in June, which still hasn’t happened. They ran two free shows and then had a show last week canceled the day of the card. They did announce a partnership with The Crash called World Martial Arts Wrestling for 2019
515
516wXw announced an 11/17 street fight match with PCO vs. Ilja Dragunov in Dragunov’s hometown of Dresden, Germany. They also announced matches for Oberhausen’s World Tag Team League from 10/5 to 10/7. The first night has Daichi Hashimoto & Hideyoshi Kamitani vs. Penta 0M & Rey Fenix, Timothy Thatcher & Walter vs. Jonathan Gresham & Chris Brookes, Kyle Davis & Mark Fletcher vs. Jeff Cobb & Angelico and Jay Skillet & Francis Kaspin vs. Avalanche & Julian Nero. 10/6 has Brookes & Gresham vs. Hashimoto & Kamitani, Fenix & Penta vs. Walter & Thatcher, Angelico & Cobb vs. Skillet & Kaspin and Avalanche & Nero vs. Fletcher & Davis. 10/7 has Brookes & Gresham vs. Fenix & Penta, Thatcher & Walter vs. Hashimoto & Kamitani, Davis & Fletcher vs. Kaspin & Skillet and Avalanche & Nero vs. Cobb & Angelico. The two highest point-getters out of the round robin will face off on 10/7 in the championship fight. In addition, 10/5 will have a Toni Storm vs. Satomura match, 10/6 will have Storm vs. Wesna (who had a killer match in Oberhausen last year) and 10/7 has Wesna vs. LuFisto
517
518An autobiography of Mike Davis, best known as Bugsy McGraw although he was a headliner as The Brute, The Mighty Brutus and Beautiful Brutus (the Brutus name was because he resembled the heel character in the Popeye cartoon) is now pretty much fully written. No word yet on the release date
519
520Tony Schiavone and Jim Cornette will be calling the Cody vs. Nick Aldis NWA title match on 10/21 in Nashville at the Fairgrounds that Billy Corgan and Jeff Jarrett’s GWF are putting on as the NWA’s 70th anniversary show. Mike Tenay was also in original discussions as Nick Aldis in particular has been wanting Tenay to call his big matches and Jeff Jarrett always wants Tenay announcing in whatever projects he’s got going. Cody, who headlines the show defending the NWA title against Nick Aldis, has said that he was going to donate 100 percent of his meet and greet proceeds to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation
521
522Dave Prazak’s all-women Shimmer promotion has started a $9.99 per month streaming service which will include their entire archives at some point. At launch, the first 61 shows they promoted starting in 2005 are up, which include the pre-WWE career of Beth Phoenix, Becky Lynch, Natalya, Paige, Bayley, Asuka, Billie Kay, Ember Moon, Ruby Riott, Candice LeRae Nikki Cross, Dakota Kai, Sarah Logan as well as historical legends like Aja Kong, Mayumi Ozaki, Ayako Hamada and others at Stream.SHIMMER.com
523
524Pro Wrestling Eve is doing a live streaming show from London on 9/27 at 8 p.m. Greenwich time (3 p.m. Eastern) as part of a free trial of EVEonDemand.pivotshare.com called Global Woman Strike headlined by a no time limit match with Meiko Satomura vs. Toni Storm, Hana Kimura vs.; Sammii Jayne and Chihihiro Hashimoto (Sendai girls world champion) vs. Millie McKenzie
525
526Two different pro wrestlers are currently running for local office. Daniel Rodimer, a former college football player who was on the 2004 $1 million season of Tough Enough (the season that The Miz took second to Daniel Puder in, Rodimer was among the finalists for his Dave Draper bodybuilder look, got signed, and Stephanie McMahon personally picked him to be in the top heel group with Edge & Randy Orton, but he then decided to quit the business because he was making more money selling real estate), is running for the state senate in Nevada in District 8 in Las Vegas. Rodimer ended up graduating from law school and moving from Tampa to Las Vegas in 2013
527
528Houston Barrow, who wrestled as Lancelot Bravado of the Bravado Brothers, is running for the North Carolina House of Representatives in District 65, in Eden, NC
529
530An indie Lucha Libre group that runs Villa Park, IL, at Arena Galli, had what may have been their last show in the building over the weekend and booked Fenix defending the AAA title against Galli champion Aeroboy. The Cubs Fan reported that they were at the don’t let the fire marshal see this levels of full and got a great match, full speed from the start and would have been PWG caliber for these two guys. Of course, nobody believed Fenix could lose his title but that’s a different issue. Powerbomb.tv carried the match live
531
532One guy on the indie scene that people are sleeping on is Jacob Fatu, the son of Tonga Kid and cousin of the Usos. He’s big, explosive and talented as hell. The funny thing is family in the company and business usually helps, but a guy this good would probably be in WWE except he’s too close in work style to the Usos and they’ve already got the Usos. New Japan already has too many guys so that doesn’t leave a top of options
533
534AAW announced the complete first round of the Jim Lyman Memorial tournament which takes place on 9/28 in Chicago at the Logan Square Arena, with the rest of the tournament the next day. The matches are Trey Miguel vs. Sammy Guevara, Sami Callihan vs. Moose, Trevor Lee vs. Rich Swann, Rey Fenix vs. Shane Strickland, DJZ vs. Ace Romero, Myron Reed vs. AR Fox, ACH vs. MJF and Darby Allin vs. Jimmy Jacobs. Brody King defends the heavyweight title against Penta 0M and David Starr & Eddie Kingston defend the tag titles against Curt Stallion & Jake Something
535
536Ring Warriors will be taping on 10/10 and 10/11 in Las Vegas at Sam’s Town. The names announced are Lance Archer, Killer Kross, Douglas James, Heather Monroe, and Matt Lancie as newcomers with Austin Aries as the top star doing a storyline where he’s a heel partial owner. This is one of those companies where I can’t understand the business model. They are paid programming on WGN at 8 a.m. on Saturday mornings, so they are paying significant money weekly for a bad time slot on a weak national station. I don’t think anyone had made the paying for a time slot thing work in pro wrestling since Vince McMahon in the 80s. In today’s business, there is no way possible it can work because the only way that one works is if you sell advertising to make up for the time buy money, which won’t have with no name brand wrestling, or you use the TV to run house shows that can make money to pay for TV costs, and that’s not going to happen today unless you’re WWE, and they don’t even bother doing it
537
538Shaul Guerrero, the daughter of Eddy and Vickie, and wife of Aiden English, will be the ring announcer for the WOW promotion that tapes next month in Los Angeles and will air weekly on AXS starting in January
539
540Nicole Matthews, who just worked the Mae Young Classic, had issues coming across the border recently and is now like Mike Bailey, where she is banned from coming to the U.S. for five years.
541
542EUROPE: Kushida vs. Tomohiro Ishii has been added to the 10/13 OTT anniversary show in Dublin
543
544Will Ospreay confirmed he will work the entire World of Sport house show run in January and February. Also confirmed for the tour are Robbie X, Rampage Brown, Crater, Justin Sysum, Nathan Cruz, Joe Hendry Adam Maxted, Grado, Key Lee Ray, Viper and Sha Samuels
545
546World of Sport wrestling on 9/22 was the next to last episode of the first set of tapings. At this point no tapings for a second season have been announced. There were two matches. In the first, Kay Lee Ray beat Viper to keep the women’s title in what was called a passable match. The main event was a 40 minute long 16 man match, which was called the clusterfuck of all clusterfucks. It was called a Buzzer Battle match. It started out with Robbie X vs. Kip Sabian. Then it turned into an elimination match where regular tag partners BT Gunn & Stevie Boy split up with Stevie Boy & X vs. Gunn & Sabian. Then every few minutes, heel authority figure Stu Bennett would press the buzzer and two more guys would come out, with one man joining each of the two teams. There was no clock like in a Royal Rumble or War Games. Bennett just pressed the buzzer when ever the heels were in trouble. Sometimes it was in two minutes. Sometimes it was in five minutes. Even though he lost a loser leaves town match two weeks ago, Nathan Cruz was back. Moose from Impact was there as well. When asked why Cruz was back, Bennett just said he liked the guy. It ended up as Robbie X & Stevie Boy & Liam Slater & Grado & Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Adam Maxted & Justin Sysum & Moose vs. Sabian & Gunn & Iestyn Rees & Sha Samuels & CJ Banks & Cruz & Crater & Gabriel Kidd in an elimination match. Then guys were getting pinned and eliminated until they were down t the final eight, Crater, Sysum, Moose, Cruz, Maxted, Banks, Kidd and Samuels. Cruz was eliminated but stayed out there and caused Maxted to be eliminated. Moose and Crater were the last two it seemed, but Sysum was on the floor having gone through the middle rope. Crater threw out Moose to apparently win. But Sysum returned to the ring and eliminated Crater. They announced for the final show of season one that Rampage Brown defends the WOS title against Sysum, from winning the match that aired this past week. Sabian & Rees also defend the tag titles against Grado & Smith Jr
547
548The show was moved to 2:30 p.m.
549
550Independent Pro Wrestling Germany on 9/15 in Luebeck did a show that drew 1,274 fans without any major names, but they brought in title matches from three different German promotions
551
552Scotland’s ICW, had its title change hands on 9/23 in Glasgow as Jackie Polo won it from DCT, who did a stretcher job.
553
554ROH: Cody, on a new David Lagana video as a postscript to All In, strongly hinted of a second show. He said that it could have just been one fun night for everyone involved, but it felt to him like a revolution, and revolutions aren’t one night
555
556The 9/28 PPV at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas is Jay Lethal vs. Will Ospreay for the ROH title, which is a great match on paper coming out of nowhere, Young Bucks & Cody & Marty Scurll & Hangman Page vs. Kazuchika Okada & Tomohiro Ishii & Rocky Romero & Baretta & Chuckie T, Mark & Jay Briscoe vs. Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian for the tag titles, Chris Sabin vs. Punishment Martinez for the TV title, Bully Ray & Silas Young vs. Flip Gordon & Colt Cabana in a tables match, Sumie Sakai vs. Tenille Dashwood for the WOH title and Jushin Liger vs. Kenny King. That is the complete planned card at this point as they are going with seven matches to give them time
557
558Announced for the 9/29 TV tapings in the same location are Cody vs. Willie Mack for the NWA title, Briscoes (or Daniels & Kazarian) defend the tag titles against Coast 2 Coast, Lethal & Jonathan Gresham vs. Liger & Kushida, Baretta & Chuckie vs. Evil & Seiya Sanada vs. Young Bucks vs. Daniels & Kazarian (or Briscoes) in a four-way, Sabin vs. Scurll, which will be a TV title match if Sabin wins the night before, plus Chase Owens vs. Kenny King
559
560Cody did an NWA/Lagana video from his appearance at Championship Wrestling from Hollywood and they brought up his being a free agent on 1/1. Obviously he didn’t say anything definitive at this point past he said he’s making a decision based on his gut, and said the choices would be stay with ROH, pointing out how much fun he had in 2018, going to WWE, touring as NWA champion and trying to take Jack Brisco photos or going full-time with New Japan
561
562The Young Bucks & Cody are working on an All In DVD release
563
564Another match added to the Jericho cruise is an ROH vs. Impact ten man tag with Young Bucks & Scurll & Page & Cody vs. Johnny Impact & LAX & Brian Cage & Sami Callihan.
565
566IMPACT: Abyss (Chris Park. 44) was announced for the Impact Hall of Fame this year. Park works as a producer and has been on-and-off as a character in recent years, both with his mask and as his Joseph Park alter ego. With a few brief interludes, he’s been with the company since it’s first show in 2002. He will be inducted at a ceremony the night before Bound for Glory (10/14 in New York) and highlights will be shown on the PPV. He certainly gave a lot of himself during his career with his willingness to take crazy punishment for a guy of his size, and you have to give him credit for being a unique and very different talent in both guises. He’s a good choice given he’s spent most of the last 16 years with the company and not only headlined by worked backstage in recent years as well, on booking and producing
567
568The first TV from Mexico City aired on 9/20. Most of the fans there didn’t know the Impact guys, but reacted big for the AAA guys, which makes sense if you think about it. Another issue at the tapings is the live crowd would lose interest in the long English language promos, which wasn’t the fault of the guys or the promos but the language barrier, given Austin Aries, who is one of the best promos here, was in a long segment with Johnny Impact building their title match, but when the entire audience speaks Spanish, you could have Stone Cold debate Roddy Piper and if it goes past 90 seconds it’s not working. The first TV show had some good action, in particular a Dave & Jake Crist & Sami Callihan vs. Laredo Kid & Aerostar & El Hijo del Vikingo match. Vikingo stood out as a potential star of the future. They also had a Fenix & Pentagon vs. Rich Swann & Matt Sydal match which was fantastic athletically. All four of these guys are great but maybe it was crowd reactions or something but at times it felt too acrobatic. Impact has only had TV in Mexico for a few months and it’s not clear how many people are watching. Maximo was really over as well the guys you’d expect like Pentagon and Fenix. The ones who hadn’t worked here before that impressed the most were Vikingo, Faby Apache and Keira, so it wouldn’t surprise me to see some of them on Impact shows going forward. The crowds weren’t as bad as first indicated, as the first night there was a storm and it was empty early but it ended up being close to 1,000 people, and that’s all they were setting up for.
569
570UFC: In a story that also has repercussions when it comes to pro wrestling, the National Labor Relations Board dismissed the claims by Leslie Smith that UFC fighters should be reclassified as employees rather than independent contractors. It also kills her case as far as wrongful termination for being cut while still ranked because you can’t fire an employee for trying to unionize, but you can cease to use an independent contractor. A favorable NLRB ruling in UFC, where they are less employees than WWE (more say so on schedule, not being told to win or lose or how to perform within their fight) would have opened the door for a similar ruling on WWE. Smith’s lawyer, Lucas Middlebrook, accused Dana White of going to Donald Trump to get the case ruled against them. White did meet with Trump recently. Middlebrook also said they are appealing the ruling
571
572Dana White is claiming that UFC 229 will do two million buys and that it is trending to do 2.5 million buys. About a week after he said it, those with knowledge of trending said that it was trending at 2.2 million to 2.6 million, and that it’s weird in the sense if it really does 2 million even there will be people disappointed in the number, even though it’ll blow away the all-time record. The one thing is the real high numbers are the hardest to predict, but White’s pre-fight predictions on big show numbers historically are always extremely optimistic, to put it nicely, and trending numbers this far out for the smaller shows are usually not far off, but for the bigger shows they are often high
573
574They did the press conference with the two of them on 9/20. It was hurt by having no live crowd. I found it weak because it was clear from the start that Khabib Nurmagomedov had no interest in exchanging barbs and it felt like he didn’t want to be there. That made Conor McGregor come off as a guy who just wouldn’t shut up and kept repeating the same thing over-and-over, about him having a glass jaw and that when he came to fight him in Brooklyn that Nurmagomedov didn’t get off the bus to fight. McGregor has the great delivery, and for insiders, he did research going after Nurmagomedov’s father, the guy who put the money behind him (who as he pointed out is now in jail) and his manager (who he said was behind in child support to a son) to mess with his head. It’s hard to say if it worked or not. This fight is all about one thing. Can Nurmagomedov keep McGregor grounded and do enough damage on the ground to make him mentally quit. If he can, he wins easily. If he can’t, he loses. It’s that simple. Nurmagomedov has almost no chance in a standing fight (there is always the puncher’s chance but in this case it’s slim) unless he can tire him out like he did with Edson Barboza, a superior striker who Nurmagomedov outstruck because he beat him up so badly on the ground early. So far nobody has stopped Nurmagomedov, and McGregor talking about the embarrassing performance he put on against the real estate agent (Al Iaqunta) was still a fight Nurmagomedov got a 50-43 type win against. Nurmagomedov’s weakness was shown in the Michael Johnson fight, where he was hurt standing before he got it to the ground. But he ended up destroying Johnson in that fight. Still, McGregor’s striking is better than anyone Nurmagomedov has faced, but it’s about his takedown defense, not his striking. Nurmagomedov’s takedown defense looked awfully good against Eddie Alvarez, but not as good against Chad Mendes (granted that was several years ago), although he won both of those fights. McGregor’s loss to Nate Diaz was a fight he got tired in first after Diaz survived a destruction early, and in the second Diaz fight, which McGregor won, it was because he wanted it more and because Diaz wasn’t in his best shape due to injury
575
576Aside from that one press conference, there has been little hype, but maybe this fight is so big it doesn’t need it until the last few days. McGregor hasn’t wanted to do anything past the one press conference, as he’s wanted to stay home and train. Nurmagomedov’s feeling is that if McGregor isn’t going to do stuff, he won’t either
577
578McGregor signed a new six-fight deal which includes his new brand of Irish whiskey that he was promoting at the press conference being a sponsor for all of his fights. The deal also allows him to box without UFC being part of the deal. Evidently from the press conference alone, McGregor’s new whiskey line, Proper No 12, sold so quickly in Tesco stores over the past few days in Ireland that customers have been limited to buying two bottles at most. The whiskey is not available in the U.K. yet, nor the U.S., but they are working on it being in the U.S. market prior to 10/6 when it will get all the space as a sponsor of what is expected to be the biggest PPV event of 2018
579
580Malki Kawa, the manager of Jon Jones, was on the MMA Hour with Luke Thomas on 9/24. Even though USADA said that Jones’ reduction of his suspension from 48 months to 18 months (which was later lowered to 15 months by an arbitrator because he believed Jones was being truthful) was due to turning state’s evidence, he said that wasn’t the case, that there was no information he gave up on anyone, and that it was cut back because the level of steroids found in his system was so low and they had worked so hard after his last bust that it was because they believed he wasn’t guilty. He acted like the idea he had turned state’s evidence was something just worded that way. I don’t even know what to say. “I can just tell you without a shadow of a doubt that Jon did not tell on any teammates,” said Kawa on Ariel Helwani’s ESPN show. “Jon did not tell on anyone in MMA. Jon did not do anything that these people are saying he did. So all that `he’s a snitch’ and all that stuff, we can put it to bed. He did not d that. There’s other things that took place in here. There’s other things that Jon did with himself. There’s things that USADA, and the arbitrator and everyone involved, got from Jon about Jon that they had never had before.” Wait, if Jon was turning himself in, why would he get reduction. Danielle Eurich from USADA told MMA Junkie that USADA has the ability to cut off part of the suspension for proving information that would result in either a criminal or disciplinary body discovering or bringing forward a criminal offense or breach of professional rules committed by another person. Given that it was another person, the question becomes, who is higher on the food chain that they would be after. Obviously they aren’t going to tell now, but in a few years we’ll look back and see if something huge broke, or not. Kawa is claiming nothing will break but that doesn’t answer why the suspension was cut. “Importantly, if the athlete or support personnel fails to continue to cooperate and provide credible substantial assistance, USADA will reinstate the original suspension.” So in other words, Jones has to continue to cooperate, because if he stops, they will suspend him for the original term
581
582Basically we are now left with these two options because we have entirely differing stories. One is that Jones had his suspension dropped for 18 months for no reason past they argued it would have been stupid for him to cheat with small amounts of stuff in his system given he’d already been caught and had worked so hard not to get caught. But given the penalties, it would be stupid for everyone to use PEDs today with the risk of being caught, but obviously some still are because failed tests continue. Actually it makes less sense for others to risk it than Jones, but they didn’t commute or cut back anyone else’s suspension without evidence of a tainted supplement on the defense that it would be stupid for them to use, and given that, they must not be knowingly using. Unlike with Jones, the majority of fighters testing positive don’t have the money to potentially circumvent the system, let alone the few guys who have gotten four years for a second offense without the Jones bank account to where it’s basically the end of their careers. Or we have to believe he did turn state’s evidence against someone, but that still makes no sense unless he’s directly involved with usage and the idea is to turn in somebody bigger. But except for McGregor, there’s nobody bigger than USADA can sanction. Kawa said that they were not happy that he was suspended for 15 months, that it was not a win that he only got 15 months, because he claimed Jones was innocent to begin with. On the cocaine usage after July, Kawa blamed that on Jones having a terrible year, between his mother dying, and then him being stripped of his title and his win over Daniel Cormier. Kawa said he and Jones were hoping he’d fight by the end of the year and he wanted a fight with Cormier, but that Cormier was wanting to face Brock Lesnar first. He seemed fine for a fight with Alexander Gustafsson which really makes the most sense. Interestingly, Kawa never brought up he idea of a fight with Lesnar, which makes me think that hasn’t been brought to the table and UFC is committed to Lesnar vs. Cormier. Lesnar still has his own power to a degree because of his unique position of being a draw but not having signed a new contract. Kawa said he didn’t think it would come together for MSG but wasn’t as adamantly negative about it as Dana White was
583
584Tyron Woodley underwent surgery for a dislocated thumb suffered in his 9/8 title win over Darren Till. The injury apparently took place during the ground and pound where he missed Till and punched the mat hard and got hurt. This was before the finish, and perhaps was one of the reasons he was so aggressive on taking Till out when he did. There were hopes of Woodley vs. Colby Covington for the title at MSG on 11/3, which would have been a weak main event by MSG standards, but it’s at least still a legit title match. Even though they had announced Covington was being stripped of his interim title, for what it’s worth, the UFC web site still lists Covington as interim champion
585
586The 9/8 PPV numbers were well below expectations with Woodley vs. Till on top . They are so bad we haven’t even gotten an estimate past an early number of about 130,000 that was going around
587
588Nate Diaz on Twitter claimed that his fight on the MSG show with Dustin Poirier would be for the newly created 165 pound title. Just what they need is a 165 pound weight class and a 170 pound weight class title. Now if they moved 170 to 175 and created a 195 between 185 and 205, that would be both good as a sport and bad for championships. All those belts would make it even closer to boxing where belts mean nothing to any casual fan who has no idea who all but one or two champions are to begin with, if they even know one or two. But we’re already past that point anyway. Anyway, UFC immediately denied the Diaz story. Dana White claimed they are still working on an MSG main event. Ariel Helwani then reported that the match they were working on was Alexander Gustafsson vs. Yoel Romero, which would either be for the interim light heavyweight title or the light heavyweight title, depending on the company’s ruling. If this happens, this would make the fourth straight title fight Romero has been booked on. He lost to Robert Whittaker for the middleweight title which was the interim belt at the time, which became the real belt when GSP wouldn’t defend. Then he beat Luke Rockhold for the interim title, but didn’t get the title because he failed to make weight. Then he lost to Whittaker in what was supposed to be a title fight but again missed weight. He missed weight in a lighter weight class twice, but still, he missed weight twice and has had three straight title fights and has never fought as a light heavyweight and is potentially getting a fourth straight title fight. Daniel Cormier is the champion but isn’t going to defend it until after facing Brock Lesnar, and since Cormier is talking retirement in March, there is a question of whether he will defend it. Not that any of this has to make sense because we’re long past that, but this makes no sense because no matter who wins this fight if they become interim champion, if Cormier beats Lesnar, the money fight is Jon Jones, not Romero or Gustafsson. So UFC is creating a title scenario that they have a good chance at not adhering to from the start. Where the story gets weirder is that Romero vs. Paulo Costa was booked on this MSG show and Romero pulled out, telling Helwani one month ago that eye surgery would keep him out of action for another four to five months. Of course you could argue that Joanna Jedrzejczyk is walking into a title fight after a loss at a lighter weight to Rose Namajunas, but women’s flyweight is a new division with no real contenders, while men’s light heavyweight would have Jones, Volkan Oezdemir and Jan Blachowicz who could face Gustafsson
589
590Valentina Shevchenko vs. Jedrzejczyk for the vacant women’s flyweight title (Nicco Montano was stripped of the title when she was hospitalized in a weight-cutting issue which forced her out of her defense against Shevchenko on 9/8) will take place on the 12/8 PPV show from Toronto
591
592With streaming service and sports channels looking for content, there has never been a better time to be an MMA promoter. UFC is expected to announce imminently a new TV deal in the U.K. and Ireland with 11 Sports that will also move some of the biggest shows like McGregor fights or major title fights to PPV in that country. This leaves the former home of BT Sports looking for a promotion to fill the spot. Bellator on Ch. 5, a terrestrial station, will have the most exposure and most shows in the country of any worldwide promotion next year, and are looking at trying to be the home group in the U.K. by signing a lot of British, Irish and European fighters. ESPN+ is looking at doing something with the PFL down the line as its UFC deal is not exclusive in the sense they can add another MMA group and they are looking for more streaming product
593
594Georges St-Pierre said he’s now 183 pounds in an MMA Fighting interview. He said that a lot of lightweights are bigger than he is. He said he’s not looking at fighting just yet because he’s still battling ulcerative colitis, but he’s getting better. Obviously for him, the money fight is McGregor. If McGregor loses to Nurmagomedov, it’s doable. If McGregor wins, such a title fight would be the biggest money fight in UFC history. However, GSP thinks UFC won’t want him to go after the title, for fear that if he wins, he’ll then vacate it
595
596ESPN+ has now passed the 1 million mark on subscribers, and this is months before UFC starts. The key is that for the UFC deal to pay off, it has to add more than 2.5 million new subscribers that weren’t there previously. The match says 2.5 million new subscribers but that’s off because there are costs involved so you probably need closer to 3 million for it to make sense, which means 4 million plus (adding in the costs of whatever other new sports properties are being offered) within a few years. Also, some UFC fans, including people I know, already have subscribed having nothing to do with UFC. It also should be noted that ESPN+ looks like it has done a little trick to reach that 1 million mark. According to one subscriber to ESPN Insiders, which was $39.95 and gave you digital access to the magazine and some other content that wasn’t available to others on the web site, he got added to the ESPN+ subscription list because he was a subscriber to Insiders
597
598There is no UFC show this week as the next show is UFC 229 with the Nurmagomedov vs. McGregor main event. Herb Dean will referee the main event. An interesting note is that Dean will earn $1,900 for officiating the main event. A cageside ticket to the show was priced on the primary market at $2,505. I wonder how frequent it has been where the main event referee for a UFC show has earned less than the ticket price for one cageside ticket
599
600Johny Hendricks was on the MMA Hour and talked about how USADA banning IV’s is what messed up his career. He praised the USADA testing. Hendricks’ career declined when USADA testing came in led people to speculate maybe he was one of the guys whose physique changed as did his performance. But he said that he walked around at 210 pounds, and that has been his weight since he was 19. He competed in wrestling at 165 pounds in college and then 170 in MMA. He said he could make weight, use the IV to get his weight back up and would perform well. But isn’t that the whole idea, that 210 pound guys shouldn’t be fighting at 170 and getting back up near that weight. He said that he instead cut his regular body weight to 190 and cut from there, but he wasn’t as strong as a 190 pounder as he was as a 210-pounder. Well, duh. Hendricks was 12-3 before USADA and 1-5 after, including missing weight three times. He noted that when he fought Neil Magny and tired to get to 170, his kidneys shut down. He fought on a Saturday and then was 219 pounds the day after his fight and went to the hospital because he was retaining so much water. He said at that point he realized he was risking killing himself to fight at 170, so moved to 185. He noted he considered going to Bellator but decided instead to do Bare Knuckle boxing
601
602On the 10/5 Quintet submission show at the Pearl at the Palms in Las Vegas, the night before the McGregor fight, in the Team Sakuraba vs. Alpha Male survival series match, it’s already been announced that Sakuraba will start for his team and Urijah Faber will start for his team, meaning they will compete against each other. It’s notable because Faber idolizes Sakuraba. They also announced a singles match with Frank Mir facing 2008 judo heavyweight gold medalist Satoshi Ishii which will take place before the main event
603
604Mark Godbeer, a heavyweight with a 13-4 record, announced his retirement this past week. He was to face Luis Henrique on the 9/22 show in Sao Paulo, but pulled out due to injury
605
606Michael Chiesa is moving up to welterweight and will debut in the division against Carlos Condit on the 12/29 show in Las Vegas
607
608Mark Hunt vs. Justin Willis was announced for 12/2 in Adelaide, Australia. This is the last fight on Hunt’s contract and he’s given every indication he’s looking at leaving. He’s the kind of guy that Bellator has been signing
609
610Justine Kish underwent knee surgery. She’s been battling right knee problems suffered in her loss to Ji Yeon Kim in January. She tried to rehab without surgery and it hasn’t responded well enough
611
612Jessica Aguilar vs. Weili Zhang has been added to the 11/24 show in Beijing.
613
614BELLATOR: To show how bad the falling numbers of Bellator are this year, since he promotion went on Paramount/Spike, they ranged from 664,000 to 759,000 viewer averages for the year, with last year being 689,000. This year so far is at 445,000, or a drop of 35 percent
615
616The first major event on DAZN, meaning no free television, is the 9/29 show in San Jose at the SAP Center. The main card won’t start until 10 p.m. Eastern. The show will also air live on Ch. 5 in the U.K., at 3 a.m., which is a key start of the Bellator and Ch. 5 relationship in the country which will include regular prime time shows built around U.K. fighters held in the U.K. The main event has middleweight champion Gegard Mousasi (44-6-2) defending against welterweight champion Rory MacDonald (20-4), plus the fourth meeting of Rampage Jackson (37-13) vs,. Wanderlei Silva (35-13-1). Silva won twice in Pride in legendary fights but those were more than a decade ago. Jackson beat a past his prime Silva in UFC in a first round knockout and now we’ve got both guys way past their primes. Also, Andrey Koreshkov (21-2) faces Douglas Lima (29-7) in a first round fight in the welterweight Grand Prix tournament, Aaron Pico’s (3-1) biggest test to date against Leandro Higo (18-4), plus Keri Melendez (Gilbert’s wife, a former kickboxer who is 2-0 in MMA who they are pushing with the belief she’s marketable) vs. Dakota Zimmerman (1-0)
617
618They ran on 9/21 in Boise, ID with a four-fight TV shoot. Patricky Pitbull Freire (20-8) set a Bellator record for most knockouts in the promotion with nine, by stopping Roger Huerta (24-11-1) with punches at :43 of the second round. Veta Arteaga (5-2) stopped kickboxer Denise Kielholtz (2-2) with a guillotine at 4:24 of the second round. Rafael Lovato Jr. (9-0) beat John Salter (15-4) via choke submission at 4:27 of the third round. The main event saw A.J. McKee (12-0) set a new Bellator record for the longest winning streak with 12, and he started his career with the promotion, with a knockout of John Teixeira (21-9-2) in 1:09. The thing with McKee is that he and Aaron Pico are training partners and they are both being groomed by the company to slowly build as future stars. But there is only room for one champion, and if either gets it, that puts the other out of the running in that weight class. And McKee, with that record, is probably close to the time of getting a title shot.
619
620OTHER MMA: Glenn Robinson, who ran the old Blackzillians gym that a number of top UFC stars like Rashad Evans, Alistair Overeem, Eddie Alvarez, Anthony Johnson and many others trained at, passed away on 9/19. His death was believed to have been from a heart attack. Robinson coached the 21st season of The Ultimate Fighter which was built around his real-life feud with Dan Lambert of American Top Team. Robinson started his team by offering money to ATT fighters and they did a team vs. team competition
621
622A correction on the Kid Yamamoto story. Kid is actually three years older than Seiko Yamamoto, so he’s not the youngest, she is
623
624The early estimates on the 9/15 Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin fight are 1.0 million to 1.1 million buys. Alvarez got the decision. Among reports, it was roughly 50 percent having Golovkin winning, 45 percent having it a draw and five percent for Alvarez. So while that would indicate one of those unique decisions (and stuff like this happens in MMA all the time) that is probably a bad decision, it’s far from a robbery and that it was a competitive fight and Alvarez was lucky in the call. Of course, that makes twice since the first fight most felt Golovkin win by a more sizable margin and it was called a draw. The problem is, going into this fight, there were already people thinking that if Golovkin didn’t knock him out, he wasn’t winning, and then even though it was competitive, he got bad luck on the decision a second time. Of those buys, only 40,000 buys were streaming and the rest were traditional television. The first fight between the two last September did 1.3 million buys, but it was generally conceded that this one wouldn’t do the numbers of the first. Still, it was the biggest PPV number for anything in 2018, although the expectation is that UFC 229 beats that number solidly. Golden Boy, the promoters, said that they would not be releasing the actual number, which pretty much say that it wasn’t better than the number that reporters have from PPV sources. The gate, which will be the largest combat sports live gate of the year, beating WrestleMania and McGregor vs. Nurmagomedov, was 16,732 paid at the T Mobile Arena and 1,451 comps for 18,183 total (although the promotion announced 21,965 so the announced number was exaggerated) and $23,473,500. The gate would be the fourth biggest gate for any combat sports event ever in Nevada, trailing only Mayweather vs. Pacquiao ($72,198,500), Mayweather vs. McGregor ($55,414.866) and the first Alvarez vs. Golovkin ($27,059,850)
625
626Matchroom Boxing, Eddie Hearns’ group that signed the big deal with DAZN in the U.S., just signed an eight-year deal with DAZN Canada
627
628The PFL’s light heavyweight and lightweight tournaments will have both quarter and semifinals taking place on 10/13 at the Long Beach Arena and live on NBC Sports Network. The format, like in all the weight classes, are four quarterfinal matches and the winners being brought back for semifinals that night. The two semifinal winners will then meet for the championship, where the winner gets a $1 million purse, which takes place on 12/31 at The Theater in Madison Square Garden. The light heavyweight quarterfinals are Vinny Magalhaes vs. Rakim Cleveland, Bozigit Ataev vs. Emiliano Sordo, Dan Spohn vs. Sean O’Connell and Maxim Grishin vs. Smealinho Rama. There is also a Brandon Halsey vs. Ronny Markes alternate fight. The lightweight tournament has Natan Schulte vs. Johnny Case, Chris Wade vs. Robert Watley, Islam Magomedov vs; Thiago Tavares and Will Brooks vs. Rashid Magomedov, with Ramsey Nijem vs. Yuki Kawana as the alternates fight
629
630The welterweight and middleweight play9offs are 10/20 in Washington, DC. The middleweights have Abus Magomedov vs. Gasan Umalatov, Bruno Santos vs Sadibou Sy, Shamil Gamzatov vs. John Howard, Luis Taylor vs. Rex Harris and the alternates bout of Eddie Gordon vs. Andre Lobato. The welterweights has a rematch with Ray Cooper III vs. Jake Shields, Rick Story vs. Handesson Fereira, Magomed Magomedkerimov vs. Pavlo Kusch, and Joao Zeferino vs. Bojan Velickovic, with the alternates fight being Yuri Villefort vs. Abubaker Nurmagomedov
631
632Pro wrestler Keisuke Okuda, who has wrestled for a number of groups including Dragon Gate and All Japan, but has been a regular with DDT and IGF, won the 9/17 Ganryujima tournament. Ganryujima is a shoot promotion with different rules than MMA, which is run by former FEG (parent company of K-1) President Sadaharu Tanikawa. Katsuya Kitamura of New Japan won such a tournament before going into pro wrestling. They do one-night tournaments similar to the original UFC tournaments where guys from different styles compete. Okuda actually did a dropkick in one of his matches. Okuda first beat Left Zen Maru of Kempo, Shuichi Watanabe of karate and Wicky Nishiura of Shooto. After winning the tournament, he signed a new contract with DDT. He had been with the group but not under a contract.
633
634WWE: The stock continues to soar, perhaps to the point where the enthusiasm for it can’t match the reality. On 9/26, the stock closed at $95.04 per share, giving the company a $7.411 billion market valuation. If you go with value being 20 times earnings and the idea that the price is based on 2021 after the new deals kick in, that would mean profits should be around $372 million by that point in time. Right now profits for the first six months of 2018 are just under $24 million, and that figure includes the $40 million plus in gross revenue coming from Saudi Arabia. If we go with $50 million for the year, and I think it’ll be a little above that, and add in the $310 million in TV money increases, you in fact do hit $360 million. The problem is you are then not figuring in talent making any more money, no added expenses, no new hirings, no raises, no additional spending for talent or anything else, and somehow that added $310 million also not being taxed at all. If you look at other media companies with $350 million in profits, the price makes no sense, particularly if you look long-term at television. If television declines, while wrestling, because it draws consistent eyes, can become more valuable even with declining viewership, at some point if television revenue decline, they won’t have the ability to pay that kind of money and unlike in the past when WWE was all about a number of different revenue streams, it is all television money now. Perhaps it’ll continue to increase, and like with UFC, there is literally nothing to worry about until 2024, and may never be but the huge payments for streaming for other sports have to pay off or that sector could fall as well because ultimately they have to make money or collapse that those streaming fees have to be justified by revenue at some point. Point being, you can justify $6 billion based on logically looking at the future. But this price is based on the rapid growth playing on itself and at some point there will be a market correction. Keep in mind that Sinclair profits were $542 million last year and it’s market value is $2.89 billion, so it’s far ahead of where WWE will be in a few years yet it’s market value is a fraction of WWE’s, which has to do with people scared about the future of local television. Disney’s profits were $11.8 billion last year and it’s market value is $170 billion, so a multiple of 14. Aside from just the enthusiasm for people jumping onto a stock that keeps growing, which, the other news that made a difference this past week was the concussion lawsuits being thrown out. Whatever scare that had, and really that case wasn’t looking good to begin with, is out the window
635
636The concussion lawsuits, while dismissed by Judge Vanessa Bryant, may still be alive because Konstantine Kyros, the attorney spearheading the claims, said, as noted last week, he was planning on appealing. Kyros claimed Bryant’s ruling was very poorly researched. Jerry McDevitt said that Kyros should be disbarred. “He engaged in misconduct and he is an embarrassment to the profession,” McDevitt said to the Connecticut Law Tribune. “He just does not get it. Lawsuits are not about making up facts. And that is what he has done repeatedly.” Bryant ruled that Kyros and his firm have to pay WWE $176,486.74 in legal fees regarding fees that led to him being sanctioned
637
638Both William Regal and Brian Kendrick were scouting last week at the PWG Battle of Los Angeles
639
640We don’t have a lot regarding the meeting Paul Levesque had with Ed Nordholm and Scott D’Amore of Impact, but it was WWE that requested the meeting, that Impact pitching as we reported was not correct. It was said that no deal of any note came out of the meeting, and that while Impact has been a huge money loser for most of its existence, the bleeding money of 2017 has also been turned around this year and it’s a much more efficient business. As far as the meeting goes, really the only thing being said is that the days when the two sides were enemies are supposed to be over
641
642Even though Rey Mysterio has signed here, according to AroLucha CEO Jason Brown, Mysterio will retain his ownership shares in the company. They haven’t announced a new show in a while
643
644Regarding rumors of Michaels working more than just the tag match in Saudi Arabia, the best we can get is that there are people who feel Michaels may do more than one match but that nobody on the inside can confirm anything other than the Saudi Arabia match at this point
645
646Whatever the injury to Banks is that has kept her out of action the past week is something that has been kept quiet. The only thing we’ve been told is that she’s taking time off for a health-related issue. Mickie James took her place as Lashley’s partner in Mixed Match Challenge which is kind of weird since James is a heel on Smackdown and a face on MMC. Then again, Carmella is face on television with R-Truth but working on the heel side in tag matches on house shows
647
648If there was a misinterpretation last week, when talking about the 9/14 show in Tampa and saying Kyle O’Reilly & Roderick Strong retained the titles against War Raiders, when Strong pulled the ref out of the ring for the DQ. That meant War Raiders won, but didn’t win the title. This also made the 43rd straight win for War Raiders
649
650While this will likely change many times over the next few months, Madison Square Garden is advertising this for its next show, which is 12/26, which is the WWE’s traditional biggest drawing house show of the year since MSG is still its best building to draw in and Christmas week is the best week to draw for a live event. Interestingly they are going with the Smackdown crew, which is the lesser crew when it comes to live events. Often when they’ve run Smackdown in MSG, they’ve added some Raw stars or outsiders to boost the show. But this right now is pure Smackdown with Styles vs. Joe in a cage match for the WWE title, Bryan vs. Miz and Lynch vs. Charlotte as the top matches
651
652Stephanie Bell, 29, better known as Mia Yim and Jade, has signed coming off the Mae Young Classic. This has been expected. She was a college volleyball player who got into pro wrestling in 2009, using the Mia Yim name. She worked some in Impact from 2010 to 2014, before becoming a regular in 2015 as part of The Dollhouse group. She won the Impact Knockouts title on April 5, 2016, in a three-way over Gail Kim and Madison Rayne, and then lost it at Slammiversary to Sienna when Marti Bell turned on her. She left the company in early 2017 when her contract expired and the company was undergoing financial cutbacks. She was in the Mae Young tournament last year, but wasn’t signed. This year she beat Allysin Kay and Kaitlyn in the tournament before losing to Toni Storm, who could be the eventual winner, in the third round
653
654Tom Casiello, who at one point was the lead writer for the women and the liason to Total Divas, noted this past week in regard to the Supreme Court hearings that he was sexually molested while a child by one of the priests whose name came out in a lawsuit in Connecticut that was recently settled. Casiello said that he kept it quiet until he was 14, and then four men from the church told him he should never talk about it again, but if he felt he had to, he should say he was abused by his uncle or someone else, and then they told him to pray with them together. He said he sat there pretending to pray to appease them and then decided for his own survival to pretend it never happened. The person who he said did it came out in a news story this week as part of the settlement and he said that nobody can tell him he can’t talk about it anymore or to say it never happened or ask him to pin it on his uncle. He said that when he was 25, detectives and lawyers came to see him but he never returned those calls. He said if the man involved wasn’t dead and if the settlement hadn’t happened and the man’s name wasn’t in print, he still would never come forward
655
656Big Show, who is working as a brand ambassador for WWE these days, has gotten a role in the Syfy television series “Happy.” He will appear in five episodes of season two playing the character of Big Pink, the cellmate of Mr. Blue
657
658.Pro Wrestling Sheet reported that WWE will be filming a pilot for a show in early October from Matt Hardy’s home where he’d be in character, possibly for a Halloween WWE Network special
659
660I recently read Nakamura’s autobiography. This was the Japanese book that was basically him being interviewed about his life called “King of Strong Style: 1980-2014" that was released in Japan in 2015 and then just translated and released in English. The book hasn’t gotten a lot of buzz and while I’ve gotten releases and such, it really wasn’t promoted hard and I haven’t heard of him doing media to back it up. If you are very into New Japan and Nakamura I’d recommend it because it has a lot on him growing up, his amateur days, his MMA days, his early push in New Japan ahead of other guys and then his rise to stardom. But the way the book is written, unless you are really into New Japan because it’s mostly his inner thoughts about different periods in his life that non-New Japan fans won’t know about, you probably wouldn’t get a lot out of it. You know, things like evolving feelings and thoughts on guys like Hirooki Goto (who once beat him when they were both in high school), Katsuyori Shibata, Hiroshi Tanahashi and others. But he did talk about the old L.A. Dojo and the days with Samoa Joe, Lyoto Machida, Karl Anderson, Bryan and others. There was one story I thought was funny, and this was when he was based in Los Angeles training at the old Inoki Dojo in Los Angeles, he got a press credential for the 2006 Royce Gracie vs. Matt Hughes UFC fight. He was already a star with New Japan by this point, although New Japan’s U.S. visibility was tiny compared to now. But he was surprised that a lot of people in UFC recognized him and of course they knew him because he’d fought MMA before since his fights with Daniel Gracie and Alexey Ignachov was high-profile on major shows, but also because he was IWGP champion so early in his career. The two things most interesting was that they asked him if he wanted to fight in UFC, and for whatever reason, in his mind, since New Japan didn’t ask him to fight like in the other matches, he thought it was up to New Japan. So he never fought in the UFC, but looking back, he said that he wished that he had. The other was him noting, and for whatever reason I found this funny, that he said that to the people in UFC, their favorite wrestler was Manami Toyota. I mean, I’m certain he was talking about Joe Silva as one of those people but not sure who else would have been big into All Japan Women tapes from the Toyota heyday and brought that up in 2006
661
662TV this week is 10/1 in Seattle and 10/2 in Portland, OR. It’s the go-home shows for the Super Showdown event. Undertaker and Michaels are both scheduled for Raw, which has announced Rousey vs. Riott and Lashley vs. Owens. Portland has only announced Rusev & Lana vs. Jimmy Uso & Naomi in the battle of married couples and Balor & Bayley vs. Mahal & Fox and a 205 Live match with TJP vs. Kalisto
663
664For what it’s worth, regarding Undertaker, he has scheduled an autograph show on 11/17 in Los Angeles, which is the weekend of Survivor Series
665
666The ten most-watched shows of the past week on the WWE Network were: 1. NXT on 9/19 (this was the Ricochet vs. Pete Dunne episode and it’s very rare when NXT is No. 1); 2. Mae Young Classic week three on 9/19; 3. Hell in a Cell; 4. 205 Live on 9/19 (so the taped show as part of the Wednesday night block did significantly better than the live version on Tuesday); 5. NXT Chicago pre-show (this is the show that automatically clicks in after many shows you watch so it shows the flaw in the way they rate shows, because I’m guessing most people who get that click off within a minute or two); 6. Mick Foley 20 Years of Hell; 7. Mixed Match Challenge week one; 8. Mae Young Classic from 9/12; 9. Hell in a Cell pre-game show; 10. WWE Story Time episode 5
667
668Notes from the 9/24 Raw tapings in Denver. It was the first of two straight nights at the Pepsi Center. They drew 6,300 fans the first night which is low for a major arena Raw taping. The wrestling was better than usual with two strong bouts, the six-man main event with The Shield vs. AOP & Corbin and the tag title match with McIntyre & Ziggler vs. The Revival where they allowed the Revival to do more than they’ve been able to do on the main roster to date. Most of the show was built around Ziggler & McIntyre & Strowman trying to tease the idea that Ambrose was going to turn on his partners, and later, Rollins trying to convince McIntyre that Ziggler & Strowman were using him. Main event opened with Ryder & Jose beating Rawley & Kanellis and Crews pinned Breeze. They have a new open of the show, with Then, Now, Forever theme which highlights Hogan slamming Andre so even though he hasn’t made his TV return, he’s going to and he’s back all the way. The show opened with a limo backstage and Corbin opened the door for Stephanie. He was singing “Happy Birthday” to her. It was her 42nd birthday (and also the 25th birthday of Sonya Deville). Stephanie was clearly not happy. HHH was with her. Stephanie was mad at Corbin for putting himself in a Universal title match the prior week. I’ll bet after she saw the ratings drop. She said what he did was over the line. Geez, she dumped Angle for him. He said The Shield was running wild so he had to do it and she said that he’s admitting he’s not in control. She told him to get two partners and face The Shield tonight and if he doesn’t straighten things out, then Angle may be brought back from his vacation sooner than expected. They pushed that The Shield being together in a match would be the first time this has happened on Raw in more than a year. One would think that would have saved the ratings, and hour three was up, but it was still the third lowest hour of modern times. The Shield came out. Ambrose talked first and said how they were the workhorses of WWE. Ambrose has been the iron man several years (most matches in a year) until he tore his triceps. Ambrose said that they may have lost a few battles but they’ve never lost a war, and they are still standing. Fans cheered him like crazy. Reigns started talking and people booed heavily. Really, it was more than expected given how much they were cheered coming out, but they all laughed about it. They posed with Reigns and Rollins holding up their belts and Ambrose having nothing, which played into the segment. Rollins called Corbin the world’s largest substitute teacher and challenged him to come out. Corbin came out right away, said it was Stephanie’s birthday. Corbin said that nobody in the locker room likes any members of The Shield, let alone the group collectively. Strowman, Ziggler and McIntyre all came out. Strowman said it’s only a matter of time before The Shield implodes from within. He said in Australia it would be 2 vs. 4. Rollins asked him about his math since there were three of them and four of the other guys. He said he wasn’t talking about Corbin, and that Ambrose was going to turn on them. Ziggler tried to recruit Ambrose, saying how when he was on his own on Smackdown, he was WWE champion. Ziggler said that Reigns and Rollins have everything and Ambrose has nothing. McIntyre said that Ambrose last week pushed him to his limits and he was lucky to win, and that Ambrose has sacrificed himself for Rollins and then for Reigns, and asked what did he get out of it? He said that they are champions and you are sucker. They asked Rollins how long after Ambrose got hurt did he replace him with Jordan, said it was a week or two. Reigns told them to shut up and the fans still booed him. Reigns said the fans didn’t pay money to watch them bump their gums, they paid money to watch us whip your asses. Corbin stopped the fight. Balor pinned Mahal in 9:49 with a schoolboy. This match was largely to build the mixed match challenge match the next night, as Balor had Bayley in his corner and Mahal had Fox in his. Singh tripped Balor leading to a near fall by Mahal. Bayley tripped Mahal. Bayley also decked Fox and hit a Bayley-to-belly on Singh. That was awkward because it looked like she went to throw him one way, but almost lost him and then instead threw him the other way. Balor and Bayley did the big hug after. Maybe too big a hug. Mahal then started bullying Singh around before he and Fox sat down in th ring and said “Shanti.” Fox is very entertaining in her psycho role. Riott & Morgan & Logan beat The Bellas & Natalya in the match where Morgan got hurt. The match wasn’t good. Once Morgan got hurt, the match was way off. About the only part that was good was the last minute or say when Natalya hot tagged in. She had Logan in the sharpshooter but Riott hit Natalya with a superkick to break it up, then tagged in and hit the Riott kick on Natalya for the pin in 10:32. With two Bellas as her partners against two heels, this was tough to make work, plus while Nikki was selling, Brie had to be occupied somehow to not make the save, as no doubt what was laid out involved Morgan taking her out. Everyone, both faces and heels, were on stage together. This is still really awkward in the middle of a show. It’s like you’re watching a movie and an hour in, everyone is on stage dressed up in their movie character clothes but out of character, and then after a few minutes, we’re back to watch the rest of the movie. It was a long segment promoting Connor’s Cure. Obviously WWE was proud of getting Hyundai, the type of company that wouldn’t work with them a few years ago, to buy in and donate to the charity they set up. They put them over as business partners. They gave two kids, named Carter and Elizabeth, suffering from cancer, title belts. The live crowd was great chanting “You deserve it” at them. Hyundai did the oversized check and announced they were donating $200,000 to the cause. Ambrose confronted Ziggler. Ziggler told him that he doesn’t have to turn on his partners. He told Ambrose that he, McIntyre and Strowman would come out for the main event, and all Ambrose has to do is give the signal and they’ll attack his partners. Konnor pinned Gable in 2:33 with a dominator. I get that they book 50/50 programs and this is just to keep it alive, but Konnor is going nowhere and Gable has potential. This result establishes that they still see Gable as a prelim guy, and his version of the three-week Rawley push that ends up forgotten is running low. It’s not even that he lost, but that he lost in a manner where there was no excuse or protection and just came off like an opening match guy in a prelim tag team like Slater when he got his little push, as opposed to a rising star. Stephanie & HHH went to leave. Before he left, HHH was asked about Undertaker. So he cut a short promo, saying that if Undertaker thought that him wearing a suit is a factor, then he’s already lost. And he said as far as selling his soul, he sold his soul a long time ago. He said that everyone around has felt it for a while, that when it comes to Undertaker, the end is near. McIntyre & Ziggler retained the tag titles over The Revival in 12:44. This was a ***½ match. Ziggler & McIntyre gave The Revival a ton and they looked like the tag team they were in NXT, with the crisp timing and great work. There was a funny line when Graves talked about how the Revival is no flips, just fists, and then a second later Dawson did this flipping kick. Dawson used movies like a tiger driver, a superplex and a splash off the top on Ziggler for near falls. McIntyre chopped the post. Wilder did a great tornado DDT. They showed Ambrose watching this. There was a screw-up on a famouser spot. The Revival even did the Doomsday Device for a near fall. McIntyre, as a heel, did a hot tag in cleaning house. That was weird. Wilder came off the top with a crossbody but McIntyre caught him and held him, but then Dawson came off te top with a missile dropkick on McIntyre for a great near fall. Wilder was pinned after the combination Zig Zag and Claymore kick. Elias came out and said that Denver doesn’t deserve an Elias performance. He then called out Owens. So they did the Kevin Owens show. Owens called out Lio Rush as the guest. Rush wouldn’t come to the ring because he was too smart to walk into the ambush. Last week Rush was Lashley’s manager. They’ve gone from not wanting managers to actually talking about recruiting some, and Stokley Hathaway’s name was broached, to go with adding Rush and Maverick in recent weeks. But Rush is now called Lashley’s hype man. At one point Owens pulled out a booster chair for Rush to make fun of his size. The segment went nowhere. Lashley beat Elias via DQ in 13:04. Most of the match was Elias working over the left knee of Lashley. The finish was weak. Owens and Rush were in the corners. Owens was chasing Rush around the ring, and in doing so, bumped into Lashley on the floor so they called a DQ. Even the traditional Lashley has Elias beat and Owens runs in for the DQ finish, which takes no thought, would have been better than this. Owens continued to try and get ahold of Rush. He finally caught him and was going to power bomb him when Lashley made the save. Rollins was backstage with McIntyre. Rollins told McIntyre that he was being used. Rollins asked him if he thinks Strowman gives a damn about him, and said everyone knows Ziggler is the weak link of the tag team. Rollins told him that Ziggler was riding on his coattails. Rollins said that McIntyre is the one who gets all the wins but Ziggler is the one getting the title shots that should go to McIntyre. Rollins said that he was the opponent and he knows McIntyre carried Ziggler in the Hell in a Cell match against them, and said that before you point fingers at me or Reigns for using Ambrose, which they aren’t doing, look in the mirror and see how much you’re being used. Rollins left. Ziggler walked up and asked McIntyre what that was all about. McIntyre told him not to worry about it. Jax pinned Fox with the Samoan drop in 2:56. Bliss and James were at ringside with Fox. Bliss still isn’t cleared and did nothing physically. McIntyre and Ambrose were backstage. McIntyre told Ambrose that Rollins came up to him and it felt like he was recruiting him, so he said either Rollins was looking at a four-man Shield or he’s looking for a replacement because he knows what he and his partners said about Ambrose was true. McIntyre then said, maybe I’m just overreacting and it’s not Rollins has ever stabbed him in the back before. Real good main event with The Shield over AOP & Corbin in 19:19. This was a ***3/4 match. Strowman, Ziggler and McIntyre all came out. The AOP looked good in there with The Shield. The crowd popped big in particular for Reigns vs. Rezar, so as much as they boo Reigns, they still react to him like he’s the tough guy in the Shield group. During commentary they talked about Rezar’s MMA career and how he won his fights in less than 30 seconds. He was 6-2 in MMA, and fought in Bellator, and did have two of his six wins in less than 35 seconds. Crowd was also into Rollins with loud “Burn it down” chants. Maverick distracted the ref, so Corbin pulled down the ropes and Rollins took a bump over the top. Ambrose finally hot tagged in. AOP went for the last chapter on Ambrose, but Reigns broke it up with a Superman punch. Rollins used a curb stomp on Corbin and a tope on Akam. Then he hit a tope on Rezar. Ambrose hit the Dirty Deeds on Corbin and followed with a tope on Akam. Reigns speared Corbin for the pin. The show ended with Strowman, Ziggler & McIntyre trying to talk Ambrose into joining them as he left, but he got back in the ring and bumped fists with Reigns and Rollins with the idea he was staying with them. After the main event, The Shield surrounded Corbin. They were attacked by McIntyre & Ziggler & Strowman to save Corbin, but The Shield cleaned house and ended putting Corbin through a table with a Shield power bomb
669
670Notes from the 9/25 Smackdown tapings. Smackdown had good storylines with the English and Joe cliffhangers to build next week. Let’s see how this works as far as building ratings goes. The show drew 3,500 fans which is very weak for a taping but it was also two nights in the same building. 205 Live, taped early, didn’t feel much different from when it was taped later. It actually felt deader because it’s become more wrestling heavy and wrestling heavy with no crowd reactions isn’t good. Lio Rush pinned Noam Dar in 8:11 with a frog splash. Rush did an Asai moonsault. Rush worked as the heel here even though he’s a face on Monday. But that is evened out by Maverick being the big manager face here while a heel on Monday. There was nothing wrong with the match. It was fine, got little reaction but Rush’s calling card as a wrestler, given his size, is how spectacular he is. But here, with no spectacular at all in the match, he’s just a small guy who is a solid worker. They did an interview segment with Cedric Alexander and Buddy Murphy to build for Australia. They were sitting in chairs with Maverick in the middle. Maverick said that Alexander was undefeated in singles matches this year but Murphy is his equal physically and technically, and in Melbourne, will have the home field advantage. They went face-to-face and Murphy walked out. Brian Kendrick beat Tony Devine in :08 with the captain’s hook. Devine’s name was never mentioned. Drew Gulak beat Devine down after the match. TJP did an interview holding Lince Dorado’s mask. He said that he wrestled in Mexico, and did so under a mask, but he didn’t care about his mask then and doesn’t care about masks now. He said it was going to tap out Kalisto next week. The main event saw Hideo Itami go to a double count out with Mustafa Ali in 16:26. Some stalling early. Itami was bleeding from the mouth. There was no heat but the stuff looked slid. Itami used a snap suplex on the floor. Ali barely beat the count in. Ali at one point backdropped Itami over the top rope and followed with a running flip dive. Itami used a superplex into a falcon arrow for a near fall. Ali came off the top with a splash as Itami fell off the rope from the superplex position. There was a light “205" chant. This was quite the example of who watches what because this was the spot that Tanahashi and Okada did for the first time two days earlier. The problem is that Ali came off the top and was supposed to splash, but for some reason Itami put his feet in the air and Ali landed on his feet. However, since the move was supposed to work, both reacted like the feet weren’t up and Ali went for a near fall. The finish saw Itami roll out of the ring. While rolling on the apron, Ali did a 450 off the top rope onto him. Both men fell on the floor and were counted out. The fans didn’t like this finish at all and booed. Smackdown opened with Truth TV, which is an R-Truth talk show with Carmella. Part of the gimmick is that every few minutes, they just started dancing for seven seconds. Carmella now has dark hair and is a full-fledged face without a turn. The dancing gimmick worked great. They called out Bryan. R-Truth had these giant cue cards to read questions. He talked about Bryan & Brie Bella facing Miz and the other Carmella, which is a joke from a few weeks ago when R-Truth was backstage and thought Maryse was Carmella. Then they pushed the Bryan vs. Miz match from Australia and pushed that the winner gets a title shot. Bryan said that he wants to win the WWE title again, because the last time he had it, he only defended it once. He also said he had unfinished business with Miz. Miz came out and said that R-Truth stole his talk show. R-Truth explained that he had a match with Miz two weeks ago, and if Miz had a title, that title would now be his. But Miz didn’t have a title, so he took his talk show. Miz told a story that he would do anything to win, but where Bryan will fall short is that he will never compromise his moral code, but without doing so, Bryan won’t win. He said Bryan won’t compromise his moral code because if he cheats to win he’ll steal the hopes of the people and tarnish the Daniel Bryan name. R-Truth then banned Miz from Truth TV. R-Truth said he would fight Miz over the talk show. R-Truth was really entertaining here. Miz went backstage to Paige and demanded that she cancel Truth TV. She told Miz that he had to go out there and win his show back. So he did. Miz pinned R-Truth, which was a lock because when R-Truth beat him two weeks ago, Miz had to get his win back since whenever you have a prelim guy beat a bigger star in an upset, it’s just meant to set up a rematch and everything ends up as it should, as opposed to the old way of thinking where you did the upset on TV with the idea that the guy winning becomes a bigger star off the win rather than beating him right back to cool his ascension. Bryan was great on commentary giving detailed real answers to largely worked shallow questions. I couldn’t stop laughing. Miz gave R-Truth an eye poke and the skull crushing finale. Instead of going for the pin, Miz just kept looking and taunting Bryan. He stalled forever. Then he finally gave R-Truth the Daniel Bryan running knee and pinned him in 11:44. Charlotte was doing a photo shoot. In the middle of the shoot, Lynch attacked Charlotte and threw her into a bunch of drawers over and over. With Charlotte laid out, Lynch stepped on her and told the photographer to take the champ’s photo. Somebody writing her material is clearly a Conor McGregor fan, with the idea she’s Irish like he is, because she was using a lot of his lines on her promos this show. Sheamus pinned Big E in 6:39 with a Brogue kick. Paige was backstage with Styles talking about the contract signing later in the show. She didn’t want him destroying the announcer table since the monitors are expensive. He promised that if he needs to destroy something, it would be Joe. Rusev was backstage with Lana. We never saw Lana tell Rusev what English said. Rusev said he wanted to know why English attacked him so he was going to call him out. Rusev then came out with Lana. Rusev said that his partner betrayed him on Rusev Day. He called English a traitor. English came out and said that this wasn’t his fault. He said that when he met Rusev, Rusev was a supreme athlete, but the fans didn’t care about him and his career was floundering and lacking in direction. But he said he saw the potential in Rusev and made him the most beloved superstar in the entire WWE. He then blamed all the problems on Lana. He said that things were better when it was he and Rusev, now, he, Rusev & Lana. Some fans started chanting the Lana song and she smiled about it. Then English talked about how Lana tells Rusev everything and asked her if she told Rusev about that night in Milwaukee. He dropped the mic and left. This was well done. It was so well done that the fans later started chanting “Milwaukee.” Asuka was throwing punches while Naomi held pads to warm up. If you’re a fighter looking at hitting pads, Naomi probably isn’t the person to hold them. For one, she just held them steady and you’re supposed to move them to the fighter has a moving target to hit. Second, Asuka would throw only a few punches and Naomi would get tired and want to stop. Lana told Rusev that he had no idea what English was talking about when it comes to Milwaukee. Lynch came up and did more of her McGregor lines on Lana to set up a match later. Naomi & Asuka beat Rose & Deville in 3:55 when Asuka pinned Deville after a double high kick. Kay & Royce were on commentary. Suffice to say they weren’t as interesting as Bryan was earlier. Nakamura beat Dillinger via DQ in 2:05 in a non-title match. This was weird. Dillinger was punching Nakamura in the corner when Orton hit he ring and attacked Dillinger. Orton threw Dillinger shoulder first into the post. He then threw Dillinger over the announcers table, gave him a back suplex no the table and a draping DDT on the floor. Orton then mocked Dillinger’s “ten.” hand sign. Nakamura was leaving, but saw Dillinger laid out and gave him a Kinshasa on the floor into the apron. Orton did an interview and said that this wasn’t starting a program with Dillinger, he just said that the perfect ten crap pissed him off. I guess they thought that since people liked to chant ten at Dillinger that maybe this will get Orton booed, which hasn’t been easy to get done. I don’t think this will accomplish that. Lynch beat Lana in a non-title match in 2:48 with an exploder and the disarm her. English did an interview and said that he has video evidence of what happened in Milwaukee and he would show it next week. So he’s the new Jon Bravo. Speaking of Bravo, he did say he would get back with his evidence, and well, then he disappeared. Next was the contract signing for Styles vs. Joe. But when Joe’s music played, he never came out. They built to this the entire show with Paige making plans, and nobody let her know Joe wasn’t there. Joe was on the screen in front of Styles’ supposed house. You know, with an old fashioned mailbox that said “Styles” on it. Joe is so great in this feud. Styles was absolutely frantic that Joe was at this house and he was in Denver. Joe said, “You feeling helpless morphing into horror because you realize there’s nothing you can do about it.” Joe said he stole his title win away from him and that demanded consequences. Joe told him to use his cell phone to call home, and then joked that he knew Styles did come to the ring with his cell phone. The show ended with Joe ringing the doorbell. Next was Mixed Match Challenge. The audience, much lower than season one the first week, had another drop this week. Lashley & James beat Mahal & Fox in 7:58 when Lashley pinned Mahal after a delayed suplex. They did explain that James and Fox were friends since they’re both part of Bliss’ group on Raw. This was a lot of comedy. It got over, actually big since it was Lashley in Denver. They did a push-up contest. Then Fox got on Mahal’s back and he kept doing push-ups and James got on Lashley’s. So Singh jumped on Mahal’s back and he collapsed. Singh and Rush went at it and Rush gave Singh an enzuigiri. They only had viewers in the 20s for almost the entire match, peaking at 30,900 for the finish, a drop of 29 percent from the prior week. Fox screamed at Singh after the match and told Mahal he had to choose between them. She also demanded to be captain next week when they face Bayley & Balor. Miz & Asuka beat R-Truth & Carmella in 9:55. Loud “Truth TV” chants. Miz was mad they weren’t chanting Miz TV. There were tons of stalling. Then everyone but Miz danced. Miz vowed to moonwalk, but instead of doing a Michael Jackson moonwalk, did the slow motion Neil Armstrong gravity style walk on the moon. More stalling after that. But the crowd was into it. Asuka beat Carmella with a flying armbar into the Asuka lock for the submission. This match peaked at 34,500, down 30 percent from last week’s second match
671
672Notes from the 9/19 NXT TV show. It opened with Lacey Evans & Aliyah beating Deonna Purrazzo & Dakota Kai in 7:35. Purrazzo is a good wrestler but it was clear from watching this that Evans is the one of the four they see as the star. It’s still looks first no matter how it’s being framed to the public. Evans pinned Kai with the punch. Velveteen Dream did an interview and talked about his win over Gargano, who he continued to call Johnny Failure. He was asked about who attacked Aleister Black. He got mad at that line of questioning and walked out. They did a Street Profits vignette. They talked about The Mighty who took their chains. They explained that their chains were a symbol of their success. They said the chains show that no matter what hand you are dealt, they can’t stop you. They pushed again that their chains are not just chains. That sounds like somebody is going to deface their chains in some form. There’s really too much talent now in NXT because people like Montez Ford, who should be a major star by this point, has stagnated because so many others with more experience are ahead of him. Really, if NXT isn’t developmental, then they need a real-life developmental for all their home-grown guys. Bianca Belair did an interview. She said that Nikki Cross was crazy. Belair also pushed that she was undefeated. She isn’t, but this is pro wrestling. Jaxson Ryker beat Humberto Carrillo in 2:10. Carrillo, who was Ultimate Ninja, was just used as a squash guy. They did acknowledge that his uncle was the late Hector Garza. Ryker’s winning move is a slingshot power bomb. They didn’t allow Carrillo a chance to show anything. Candice LeRae was being interrogated by William Regal and an investigator on the Aleister Black attack investigation. NXT is doing a great job turning Black’s legit injury into a long-term storyline. Usually with WWE when the real world hands you something, you ignore or it drop it. She pushed that she thought Tommaso Ciampa was the guy who attacked him. Regal said they’ve investigated Ciampa and there’s no evidence of it. Hopefully their investigation isn’t as transparent as USADA. Regal then asked LeRae if she knew where Johnny Gargano was at the time. She said they are trying to keep their work and personal lives separate, but that after his match he went to the locker room to clean up and they drove home together. There was a vignette introducing Keith Lee. The idea is that he was a guy who failed several WWE tryouts and was ready to quit the business, but Dusty Rhodes talked him out of it. That’s basically a true story. Ricochet no contest Pete Dunne in 21:43. This was among the best WWE matches of the year. Dunne is so creative with his offense. The crowd was on fire. Ricochet used a tope, a 619 and a springboard elbow for a near fall. Ricochet did a standing shooting star but Dunne got the armbar out of nowhere and then attacked his wrist and fingers. All kinds of near falls. Ricochet did a moonsault to the floor, Dunne sidestepped and hit the X plex on he apron. Ricochet did a reverse huracanrana and an incredible hamstring into a DDT for a near fall. Ricochet did a super huracanrana with both standing on the top rope followed by an ax kick. He did a springboard 450 into a triangle By Dunne, and then Ricochet power bombed his way out of that. Ricochet also did a deadlift vertical suplex. The Undisputed Era ran in and attacked both guys and the War Raiders made the save. I gave it ****½ and it would have been higher with a real finish, and perhaps a lot higher with a strong build to a finish with a real climax. It was pretty much like being near the level of a classic match, but without the intensity of build to the finish because there was a non-finish and it came out of where. It’s too bad they had to take one for the angle, because this was on par with some of the best NXT matches but the nature of the finish was that the most important aspect of the match, the build to the finish and the finish, weren’t there
673
674Notes from the 9/20 NXT tapings. Dominik Dijakovic pinned Dan Matha with a cyclone kick to win the dark match. Now, this could be taped out of order, but this is how it appeared to be done. The first hour opened with William Regal coming out to talk about the investigation as to who attacked Aleister Black. Adam Cole, Roderick Strong and Kyle O’Reilly came out. Cole made a crack about how Regal should be doing his job rather than trying to play Sherlock Holmes. They demanded punishment for Ricochet and the War Raiders. Cole demanded his North American title rematch with Ricochet right now. Regal instead announced that in two weeks it would be Ricochet vs. Pete Dunne vs. Cole for the title and in three weeks it would be Strong & O’Reilly defending the tag titles against the War Raiders. Lars Sullivan beat Victor Ochant via DQ when EC 3 attacked Sullivan. The Mighty (Shane Thorne & Nick Miller) beat The Street Profits . Montez Ford went to tag to Angelo Dawkins but he was pulled off the apron and then Ford was rolled-up. They did a long match. In a non-title match, Kairi Sane beat Vanessa Borne. Sane won with the elbow off the top rope. Shayna Baszler came out and said that she wanted her rematch and would take back the title and it was announced for the 10/28 women’s evolution show. In another non-title match, and TV main event, Tommaso Ciampa pinned Otis Dozovic with a draping DDT. House two opened with Lacey Evans pinning Candice LeRae with the punch. The Forgotten Sons of Wesley Blake & Steve Cutler & Jaxson Ryker (Gunner) beat Cesar Rice & Terry Kirsch & Mixon in a squash. Ryker used a slingshot power bomb. Johnny Gargano beat Tony Nese. It’s interesting as the crowd was split with chants of “Johnny Wrestling” and “Johnny Failure.” I hope that means the idea is for him to be going heel, because if it’s not, I’ll lose faith in their booking since that what it appears from the outside. That said, the crowd was with Gargano at the end and he won with the Gargano escape. Sullivan pinned EC 3 after a diving head-butt off the top rope. The third hour opened with Ciampa out for an interview. He talked about Velveteen Dream and said that he doesn’t think Dream is Tough Enough (get it) to face him. Dream came out. So did Nikki Cross. The crowd started chanting Triple Threat since this audience wants the man vs. woman stuff that WWE won’t book. Cross then told Dream that she knew what he did. That’s a tease that Dream was the guy who hurt Black since the surveillance cameras showed that Cross was watching when the attack happened. She slapped the mic away from Ciampa and kept saying she knows what he did. The crowd was chanting “Nikki has a secret.” Keith Lee pinned Kona Reeves with the jackhammer slam. Next they started taping for the fourth week. War Raiders beat Cole & O’Reilly via DQ. Cole came out. The War Raiders had it won when Bobby Fish came out and hit them both with chair shots for the DQ. The crowd was completely behind Undisputed Era and popped big for Fish’s interference since it was a surprise return. Baszler beat Dr. Britt Baker. They did a shoulder injury angle here and a ref stoppage finish. Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch beat Tian Bing & Rocky. Next was Cross vs. Bianca Belair. The match was going and then the lights went out and Black showed up in front of Cross. Cross started rolling around acting crazy. Black told her to tell him who did it. She whispered in his ear and left. Black was furious at the name. Maybe Gargano? The final match taped which was the hour three main event saw Ricochet retain the North American title in a three-way over Cole and Pete Dunne. Said to be another excellent blow-away match and it ended when Ricochet pinned Dunne
675
676The first NXT house show of the weekend was 9/21 in Sanford, FL, before 350 fans. It was said to be one of the best of the Florida shows in a long time with a lot of unique first-time matches. Stacey Ervin Jr., a national-level gymnast who is the boyfriend of Simone Biles, made his debut against Ohno, which would have been quite the size difference,. This is very quick for someone to get a match since he’s only been in the system for two months. Ervin did a corkscrew moonsault and landed on his feet when Ohno moved, but Ohno pinned him after a rolling elbow. Io Shirai & Kacy Catanzaro beat Aliyah & Kavita Devi when Shirai pinned Devi after a moonsault. Matt Riddle debuted, wearing his wife’s shorts (how they fit I’d have no idea) and beat Fabian Aichner. The story behind is it that Riddle’s gear has the SPLX insignia because they were sponsoring him, but WWE doesn’t allow sponsors so he wasn’t allowed to wear it. His wife, who was a Division I gymnast, trained for a while to be a wrestler. They had a great match with Riddle winning with a power bomb and a knee. Riddle was super over as expected. Vanessa Borne pinned Taynara Conti with a swinging reverse neckbreaker. Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch beat Kona Reeves & Luke Menzies when they used a double-team DDT on Menzies. Adam Cole pinned Keith Lee in what would have been Lee’s first NXT loss. Also said to be a great match. Cole won clean with the last shot. Kyle O’Reilly & Roderick Strong retained the tag titles over Humberto Carrillo & Raul Mendoza. Also a strong match. Carrillo & Mendoza did some great flying but lost clean to the total elimination. The fans gave Mendoza & Carrillo a standing ovation after the match. Rhea Ripley pinned Nikki Cross to keep the U.K. title with her feet on the ropes. Main event saw Ricochet & Street Profits beat Dominik Dijakovic & The Mighty. The finish saw all three use frog splashes at the same time
677
678The other show was 9/22 in Largo, FL, also before 350 fans. This was said to have been another of the best Florida NXT shows ever with a lot of unique matchups. EC 3 beat Tony Nese with the one percenter. Very strong wrestling between the two. At first Nese didn’t get much of a reaction but once the small crowd realized he was actually a main roster guy, then they got into him. Reina Gonzalez pinned Xia Li after a lariat. Gonzalez does a female Stan Hansen gimmick. Gonzalez got a bloody nose from a kick to the face by Li. She didn’t use a cowboy and bullrope like she has in the past. War Raiders beat Rocky & Tian Bing in a squash. The crowd chants “War, War,War” at them. In a battle of giants, Babatunde Aiyegbusi beat Brennan Williams. Aiyegbusi is bigger than Strowman, but doesn’t have a good body. Aiyegbusi’s son was in the crowd. Williams is doing a mid-90s Goldust type character. Jessie Elaban did The Jesse show. She does a goof nerd gimmick not far from the original Bayley, but not getting over with to the level Bayley did. Jaxson Ryker & Wesley Blake came out and tried to scare and bully her. Then Lacey Evans came out as well. All three are legit military vets who do that gimmick here. For Evans it’s not pushed as much but Ryker & Blake & Steve Cutler do the Forgotten Sons, with the idea they are heel military guys, on the Florida loop. Heavy Machinery came out to help Elaban. Percy Watson worked the show as the ring announcer and said that he just heard from Regal and Regal ordered an immediate six-man tag. Machinery & Elaban beat Ryker & Blake & Evans with the assisted world’s strongest slam. Lars Sullivan pinned Keith Lee. The crowd was strong into both guys and both worked very hard for their first ever singles match. Sullivan apparently stepped up his game with his level f competition. Sullivan won after a diving head-butt and freak accident. Next was an elimination match with Baszler & Jessamyn Duke & Marina Shafir beating Kairi & Sane & Dakota Kai & Candice LeRae. Even though heels, the Horsewomen got a big babyface reaction when they came out as people see them as a group as something big. Duke distracted the ref and Shafir hit Baszler with a chair when Sane moved. Shafir then threw the chair to Sane. The ref saw Baszler on the ground selling and the chair in Sane’s hand and DQ’d Sane. That’s notable because in NXT, unlike NJPW or the main roster, there is a strong rule of thumb to never make the refs look bad. In fact, there are DQ’s in some NXT matches that aren’t planned finishes because the refs are told to call the matches as shoots except for at TV and Takeovers where obviously the finishes have to go as planned. The idea is it teaches the refs to work as a shot and teaches the talent not to use refs for shortcuts in getting heat. Shafir then pinned LeRae with a judo throw leaving Kai in with all three. Kai got big offense in but eventually the numbers caught up with her and Baszler choked her
679
680out so the heels won the match in three straight falls. Main event saw Gargano beat Dream in what was said to be among the best matches in months on the Florida loop. Gargano was cheered more than Dream. Gargano used a superkick and the Gargano escape in a match that went more than 25:00 to get the win
681
682The Raw tour opened on 9/21 in Butte, MT before 4,000 fans. 9/22 in Billings, MT, drew 5,000 fans. We didn’t get the crowd for 9/23 in Loveland, CO
683
684The Smackdown tour opened on 9/22 in Tucson before 2,600 fans. 9/23 in Las Cruces, NM, drew 3,300 fans We didn’t get an attendance figure for 9/24 in Colorado Springs
685
686Butte opened with B Team over Revival. The B Team had the cheerleader chants from the fans almost the entire match. The entrance music was over big. Axel rolled up Wilder for the pin. Rawley pined Breeze after a tackle. AOP & Mahal beat Crews & Slater & Rhyno. Rhyno was really over with ECW chants, only 17 ½ years after ECW folded. Singh interfered until O’Neil chased him away. Rhyno made the hot tag and the place exploded, so of course Rezar then pinned Rhyno right after the hot tag. Balor beat Corbin via DQ. Balor was on the top rope for the coup de grace when Owens did a run-in for the DQ. Corbin then announced, as the General Manager, he was restarting the match as a handicap match. Lashley then ran down and even though he’s not the General Manager, it turned into a tag team match after Lashley called them cowards. The finish saw Lashley take out both Corbin & Owens and Balor pinned Owens after the coup de grace. Roode & Gable beat The Ascension when Gable pinned Viktor. Bayley & Moon & Brooke & Natalya beat Riott & Logan & James & Fox. Morgan constantly interfered. Natalya beat Logan with the sharpshooter. Reigns beat Strowman via DQ in the Universal title match which was similar to all of their recent matches. Strowman was mostly cheered. Reigns was cheered as well, with about a 75/25 split. Fans chanted for both guys. Strowman hit Reigns with the ring steps and wasn’t DQ’d, but was DQ’d when McIntyre and Ziggler interfered. This led to Ambrose & Rollins making the save. All four of those guys were on the card and didn’t even have a match. Ziggler took The Shield power bomb to end the show. Bliss and Elias was advertised but not there, although Bliss is having arm problems. They pushed the Super Show Down and HHH vs. Undertaker constantly through the show
687
688Billings was mostly the same show. The only change is that O’Neil in Butte was just a second in the six-man, but here he beat Kanellis in a singles match. Kanellis came out and said that nobody would face him so he should get a forfeit win. O’Neil then came out and beat him. On this show, Reigns got a split reaction but everyone cheered Strowman. Natalya got a huge pop, which some thought were Canadians coming across the border. Stampede Wrestling used to be on TV in Montana but that was also decades ago so that shouldn’t matter
689
690. Loveland was also the same show
691
692Tucson opened with New Day, being E & Kingston, keeping the tag titles over Sanity, which was Young & Dain with the midnight hour on Dain. Harper pinned Dillinger with the spinning clothesline. Harper was cheered at first like he was the face, but it changed as the match went on. Kids stared cheering for Dillinger since he worked as the face but the adults were more for Harper. Dillinger got cheered on the way out. They showed a video of Lynch winning the title for those who didn’t see the PPV or watch the TV, and then Byron Saxton announced that Tucson gets a rematch. R-Truth pinned Benjamin with a small package. They did a comedy spot where ref Charles Robinson tried to badly do R-Truth’s dance moves. After the match, Benjamin and Robinson argued and Robinson shoved down Benjamin. Rusev beat Almas in a singles match. Vega wasn’t at this show but was there the rest of the tour. In this match, Rusev had it won when English came out and stopped the ref from counting the pin. Rusev was distracted and this allowed Almas to get the advantage. English was kicked out and Rusev came back and won with the accolade. Lynch pinned Flair to keep the women’s title by using the trunks to reverse a rolling reverse cradle. Both were cheered during the match, but Lynch was cheered louder and had the crowd chanting for her. Naomi & Asuka & Nikki Cross beat Kay & Royce & Carmella. Kay & Lynch came out for a promo and insulted Tucson, pronouncing it wrong. Mostly comedy involving Asuka. Asuka beat Royce with the Asuka lock. Nakamura won the three-way over Orton and Jeff Hardy. Orton had a bandage on his left thigh from the cut from the HIAC match. Orton was cheered as a face. The reality is that Orton is so much better as a heel, but at this stage of his career, the fan that goes to the arena just sees him as this big babyface superstar no matter what he does. Orton hit the RKO on Hardy, then Nakamura used the Kinshasa on Orton and Nakamura pinned Hardy for the win. I still don’t understand why if Hardy is the one getting pinned that he doesn’t hit the twist of fate on Orton and take the Kinshasa, but I guess they just see Orton in their minds as a bigger star that gets more protection, even on a house show. Styles pinned Joe in the main event in a good match using the phenomenal forearm
693
694Las Cruces was mostly the same show. Big E & Woods worked the tag title match, which was a three-way, adding the Usos who weren’t in Tucson. Also, Vega was in Las Cruces so it was the same mixed tag they’ve been doing with Rusev & Lana beating Almas & Vega with the double accolade submission
695
696Colorado Springs was pretty much the same show as Las Cruces.
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