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1WWE WRESTLEMANIA
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3Thumbs up 262 (37.3%)
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5Thumbs down 101 (15.6%)
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7In the middle 285 (44.0%)
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9 
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11BEST MATCH POLL
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13Kofi Kingston vs. Daniel Bryan 524
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15Lynch vs. Rousey vs. Flair 36
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17HHH vs. Batista 24
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19 
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21WORST MATCH POLL
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23Women’s tag title 159
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25Baron Corbin vs. Kurt Angle 123
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27HHH vs. Batista 82
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29Roman Reigns vs. Drew McIntyre 60
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31Men’s Battle Royal 50
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33Samoa Joe vs. Rey Mysterio 46
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35Shane McMahon vs. The Miz 42
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37Women’s Battle Royal 25
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39Seth Rollins vs. Brock Lesnar 12
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41 
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43NJPW/ROH SUPERCARD OF HONOR
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45Thumbs up 371 (58.9%)
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47Thumbs down 30 (04.8%)
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49In the middle 229 (36.2%)
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51 
52
53BEST MATCH POLL
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55Kazuchika Okada vs. Jay White 312
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57Kota Ibushi vs. Tetsuya Naito 258
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59Lee vs. Ishimori vs. Bandido 38
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61Jeff Cobb vs. Will Ospreay 20
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63 
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65WORST MATCH POLL
66
67Gordon & Robinson & Haskins vs. Bully & Silas Young & Shane Taylor
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69239
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71Kelly Klein vs. Mayu Iwatani 226
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73Rush vs. Dalton Castle 64
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75Honor Rumble 39
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77Taven vs. Lethal vs. Scurll 9
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79 
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81WWE NXT TAKEOVER NEW YORK
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83Thumbs up 708 (97.8%)
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85Thumbs down 6 (00.8%)
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87In the middle 10 (01.4%)
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89 
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91BEST MATCH POLL
92
93Johnny Gargano vs. Adam Cole 478
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95Walter vs. Pete Dunne 109
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97War Raiders vs. Ricochet & Black 91
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99Velveteen Dream vs. Matt Riddle 25
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101 
102
103WORST MATCH POLL
104
105Baszler vs. Shirai vs. Sane vs. Belair 398
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107Velveteen Dream vs. Matt Riddle 49
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109Walter vs. Pete Dunne 37
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111Johnny Gargano vs. Adam Cole 12
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113War Raiders vs. Ricochet & Black 10
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115Based on phone calls and e-mails to the Observer as of Tuesday, 4/9.
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117 
118
119At seven hours and 15 minutes, WrestleMania was too long.
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121I suppose if the show was filled with great matches, it’s possible to pull that off without it being that difficult a show to get through. While it was probably the longest WWE show in history, and the longest major promotion U.S. show I’ve ever heard of in the modern era, I’ve been to longer shows in Japan. Most notably was the All Japan Women’s Tokyo Dome show in 1994 that clocked in at nine-and-a-half hours. That was a legendary night with two dozen matches, very memorable, but it was still way too long as well. I think maybe, if you have the greatest talent in the world, you can make a six hour show great. But for pro wrestling, there is no need to ever go longer than that. And this show didn’t have anywhere near the best talent in the world.
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123On the flip side, if pro wrestling is about stories and take championships seriously, and your main concern was seeing Becky Lynch and Kofi Kingston, or Seth Rollins, finally win the big one, then you got what you wanted. If you were there to see history, the first time women ever main evented WrestleMania, you got that as well.
124
125The show had a lot of different side stories. There was the transportation problems after the show, which became a news story that even the New Jersey Governor commented on. As the story goes, transit officials were under the impression the show would end at 10:30 p.m. local time, as opposed to 12:26 a.m. They said they weren’t told differently until the night before when they informed the show would end around midnight and they’d already made work assignments and it was too late notice to change. WWE claimed they never told the transit officials a specific time the show would end. Because of issues with both mass transportation and Ubers, thousands of people were left stranded for hours in the rain in the middle of the night with no way to get home or to their hotels.
126
127There was the main event finish, where Lynch won both the Raw and Smackdown women’s titles, pinning Ronda Rousey with a backslide, ended up controversial. The finishing sequence was what was planned, but Rousey’s shoulder was up while referee Rod Zapata counted her down. It probably wouldn’t have been that big of a deal, but for whatever reason, whether Vince noticed the problem and told him to bring attention to it and show the replay, or he did that on his own (unlikely), it was brought up immediately on the broadcast. Then a replay was shown where Rousey clearly didn’t have her shoulders down at one point during the count and they made that clear.
128
129Upon watching live, you were left with the impression it was a planned finish to set up a rematch. But the idea behind the finish was for the pin to be clean. But not having Lynch win via submission was a way to keep the door open for a rematch. Rousey, who was originally scheduled and advertised for Raw the next night, suffered a significant broken hand throwing a punch during the match, and the decision was made not to put her on Raw.
130
131Raw was to be her final appearance for the foreseeable future. She’s under contract until April 10, 2021 but only committed to going hard full-time through this year’s WrestleMania. She had said numerous times she was looking to start a family, and within the company the storylines were written with the idea she was leaving, going with the impression there was no time frame set for her to return. What happens next, is largely up to her and her situation. She may come back for limited shows like John Cena, or even more limited like Brock Lesnar, or not at all.
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133Because referees are taught to call matches as a shoot, Zapata was fined for counting Rousey down when her shoulders were up. He was under major pressure, because he knew it was the planned finish and a part of him probably thought he’d be screwing up the finish of the biggest women’s match of all-time and the Mania main event if he stopped the count.
134
135A.J. Styles was also injured. He was listed as having a hip injury, believed to be from doing a springboard forearm to the floor early in his match with Randy Orton. Those who saw Styles the next day noted he was limping badly and flew home rather than staying for Smackdown on Tuesday.
136
137Daniel Bryan, who lost the WWE title to Kingston in what was clearly the high point of the show, may have also been injured. The last we heard was that he also went home after the PPV, and they were awaiting word if he was hurt or not. We don’t have details on the situation past being told that it could be nothing, it could be serious and the company was awaiting a further evaluation.
138
139Big E also suffered a knee injury when the knee buckled during his Smackdown match on 4/9. Early reports was that he’d be having minor knee surgery for a torn meniscus and cartilage issues. He wrote that a crossbody cooked he cartilage.
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141Shane McMahon ended up with a mouse under his left eye. That was evident from television and the storyline reason was that The Miz’s father, George Mizanin gave it to him.
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143The situation with Rey Mysterio is also questionable. He suffered a right ankle injury in a match with Baron Corbin on 4/1, and at one point was questionable for WrestleMania. He lost via choke to Samoa Joe in :59. One would have thought from watching that the match was cut short because of the injury. And that might be the case to a degree, but we were told it was short primarily because the show was already too long and they decided they needed a short match.
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145The show overall was a mixed bag. There was only one great match, which was Kingston’s title win over Bryan. The women’s title main event was fine, but it was far from the level of Rousey’s previous PPV matches. The idea that the show would end with Lynch and Charlotte Flair having an issue since Flair lost her title to Lynch without being pinned didn’t transpire. Lynch won, and they ended the show and got out of there because it was so late.
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147They were very lucky in regards to the weather. Two days earlier in New Jersey it was 37 degrees and raining in the afternoon. Seven plus hours in that weather, with the idea of it getting even colder at night, would have been disastrous. But the weather was fine. Rain was expected around midnight, and the main event was just starting. But luckily, the rain didn’t come until the show was over.
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149On television, they talked about how seven titles changed hands, but it was actually eight since Lynch won two titles.
150
151The other title changes were:
152
153*Tony Nese beat Buddy Murphy to win the cruiserweight title
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155*Curt Hawkins broke his 269 match losing streak teaming with Zack Ryder to win the Raw tag titles from The Revival
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157*Rollins won the Universal title from Brock Lesnar
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159*The Iiconics, Billie Kay & Peyton Royce won the women’s tag titles in a four-way over champs Sasha Banks & Bayley, as well as Natalya & Beth Phoenix and Nia Jax & Tamina
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161*Kingston beat Bryan to win the WWE title
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163*Finn Balor, as The Demon, beat Bobby Lashley to win the IC title
164
165Other notes were that Kurt Angle and Dave Bautista in theory retired with their losses to Baron Corbin and HHH. Angle’s match was billed as his retirement match. It was not a secret going in that this was Batista’s last match, since he had said for years he wanted one last match with HHH at a WrestleMania. It was planned for a long time, but it was questionable for months because of how long it would take HHH to recover due to his torn pec suffered in a November match in Saudi Arabia. After the match,. Bautista said that he was now officially retired.
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167Of course, this is pro wrestling, and with very few exceptions, everyone who retires that is a major name ends up coming back.
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169A ninth title change took place two nights later on Smackdown when The Hardys beat The Usos to win the Smackdown tag titles.
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171As far as where things go next, nobody knows anything for sure. The draft shows are 4/15 and 4/16 in Montreal and virtually nobody knows who ends up on what brand. There may be a few top exceptions, but just about every performer on the roster has no idea where they will end up and who they will be programmed with next.
172
173The only real teases were for Samoa Joe vs. Braun Strowman, which would indicate one was switching, and Becky Lynch vs. Lacey Evans, which could be on either brand, since Lynch made it clear in her promos that she would be working both brands as double champion.
174
175In theory, Smackdown needs to be strengthened because the mentality has to be for it to be the A show come October, or else they’re risking a high-profile failure. Raw can’t fail because even if it continues to fall, it’s still years of continued double digit falling away from not being one of the stronger weekly cable shows. Unless Smackdown increases its audience drastically, it will lose to everything but CW on Friday nights on the network side.
176
177The general rule Vince has gone by in the past is you lose on your way out of the brand. So from that standpoint, people who would appear to have the best shot at switching are The Revival, Bayley, Bobby Roode & Chad Gable, The Bar, Andrade, Shinsuke Nakamura, Rusev and The Usos.
178
179They often also switch champions, so you could have a Kingston/Rollins switch, or a Balor/Joe switch, or a Hardys/Hawkins & Ryder switch.
180
181As far as other WrestleMania news, the only other note is that the order of the matches changed literally after the show started. The Rollins win over Lesnar was originally slotted to go right before the women’s main event. Styles vs. Orton was booked to open the main card and everything was going to go in that order. Paul Heyman and Lesnar both pushed for Lesnar vs. Rollins to go early, as it hardly took a brain surgeon to realize it’ll come off better at 7 p.m. than at 11:45 p.m. For whatever reason, Hulk Hogan, who did a segment unannounced largely to do his posing routine, at 65, no longer taking off his shirt, was never told that Heyman was going to come out at the end of his segment for the easy heat of interrupting Hogan and set up the match right away.
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183Another incident took place before the show. Pat McAfee, the former NFL player who worked on the pregame show, was told no jorts. So he came out with tuxedo pants that were cut into shorts. Michael Cole, who is in charge of the announcers, saw him in the shorts backstage and started yelling at him in front of for looking unprofessional. McAfee said he nearly quit right there. In fact, he went to his dressing room and started packing his things to leave. When somebody saw him packing and asked why he was packing before the show, he said, “You can tell Michael Cole to go f*** himself. I’m leaving. I’m not getting punked and yelled at like a child in front of everybody like that.”
184
185Vince McMahon was told about it. He called McAfee in and McAfee apparently had a photo of Lebron James wearing the same type of shorts with a suit. And well, you know, if Lebron does it, it makes it fashionable and not unprofessional. Vince claimed he knows what’s hip and told McAfee he was cool wearing them. Cole then had to apologize to him.
186
187WrestleMania announced 82,265 fans, up from the 80,676 number announced the last time they sold out Met Life Stadium for Mania in 2013. They pretty much had to announce a bigger number, which they called the entertainment record for the stadium. Because their stage blocks off more seating than they can add on the field, legitimately they can’t beat a pro football sellout even though they usually announce that they did. The last time the numbers were just over 74,000 fans and 68,900 paid. Given it’s a sellout of the same stadium, one would expect the numbers to be similar. I was told to expect 72,000 a few days before, but they did open up some late seating at the end so the number could be very slightly above that, probably very close to the 2013 numbers.
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189The WWE’s claim is that the number announced includes paid tickets, comps, suites (which can be both paid and comps) and everyone with a credential.
190
191The announced gate was $16.9 million, the second largest in pro wrestling history, trailing the $17.3 million for the 2016 show at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX. Keep in mind that WWE figures gate as a combination of ticket sales plus the surcharges that the ticket outlet takes, facility fees and suite revenues. For a comparison, a boxing or MMA gate, and for that matter the gate for any other promotion, would just be based on the face value of the ticket, not including the facility fees, ticket outlets percentage or the suites, since the suite revenue goes to the building and not the event promoter.
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1931. Tony Nese beat Buddy Murphy to win the cruiserweight title in 10:42. Very good stuff. Murphy’s left eye was busted up. Murphy continued to use moves out of Japanese wrestling including a stormbreaker like move and a kamagoye. Lots of nice moves including Nese doing a reverse huracanrana. The fans appreciated the match even if they weren’t going wild for it. Nese did a Fosbury flop dive. Murphy kicked out of a 450. Murphy used a V trigger and Murphy’s law but Nese got his foot on the ropes. Nese then won with a German suplex and running knees into the corner. ***½
194
1952. Carmella won the women’s Battle Royal in 10:25. Ageless Lilian Garcia was brought back as ring announcer for this match. The only surprise is that Ember Moon came back early from surgery because she wanted to be on the show, and they used Candice LeRae and Kairi Sane from NXT. Moon threw out Maria Kanellis first. Asuka eliminated LeRae and Nikki Cross with hip attacks. Moon and Naomi did some cool stuff. Moon hit the eclipse on Lana. Moon snapped Naomi’s neck over the top rope and Naomi was out. Lana knocked Moon off the top rope to eliminate her. Sarah Logan threw out Lana. The Riott Squad threw out Sane. Logan threw out Zelina Vega. Dana Brooke threw out Ruby Riott. Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville threw out Liv Morgan. Rose & Deville kicked Brooke off the apron. The crowd gave Brooke a big reaction. They liked her for her promo on Raw a few weeks back. Mickie James superkicked Mandy Rose out. Deville knocked James off the apron. This seemingly left Deville, Asuka and Logan. But Carmella was hiding out. Asuka knocked Deville over the top and Logan eliminated Asuka, seemingly as the surprise winner. But Carmella then got in the ring and superkicked Logan out. **1/4
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1973. Curt Hawkins & Zack Ryder won the Raw tag titles over The Revival in 13:18. Dash kissed the belt before the match started which seemed like a hint. The Revival mostly beating on Ryder. Hawkins tagged in. They pushed the 269 match losing streak so hard that it telegraphed the outcome. Scott Dawson gave Hawkins a brainbuster on the floor. As Dawson was going to finish him, Hawkins used a small package out of nowhere for the pin. ***
198
1994. Braun Strowman won the Andre the Giant Battle Royal in 10:21. This was your basic rush to get everyone out Battle Royal, built around the only match storyline of Strowman, and Saturday Night Live crew members Colin Jost and Michael Che. Jost was wearing an Odell Bekham Jr. Cleveland Browns jersey to get easy heat. The one thing about this year’s Mania is that the mentality seemed to be New York-centric, in the sense do things anti-New York for heat or praise New York, where other years the mentality, live in San Jose, is not to have guys come out in Sharks jerseys with the idea that most of the crowd, and the general rule for Mania most years is 25 percent of the crowd comes from a 150 mile radius of the location of the show and the rest aren’t from the market. The only ones given an entrance were Strowman, The Hardys, Che and Jost, so they were considered the stars. Che and Jost then left the ring and hid under the ring to both stay out of people’s way and also to make people forget about them. Eliminations were Curtis Axel, Lince Dorado, Tyler Breeze, EC 3, Shelton Benjamin and Bo Dallas as the first group. The match was mostly Strowman throwing everyone around. Strowman legit cut down to 345 pounds (his 385 regular weight isn’t far from the truth) for this match and physically looked in the best shape he’d been in since being on the main roster. Harper was also noticeably much lighter than in the past, which is probably a good thing since he’s had knee issues and is 39 years old. Next elimination were Heath Slater, Titus O’Neil, No Way Jose, Karl Andersen, Rhyno, Bobby Roode, Gran Metalik, Kalisto and Chad Gable. Gable had some nice sequences with Andrade before Andrade eliminated him. Otis threw out Konnor. Tucker threw out Viktor. Strowman threw out Luke Gallows. Strowman then dropkicked and threw out Otis & Tucker. Otis & Tucker had double suplexed Strowman earlier. Strowman threw out Jinder Mahal. Strowman kicked Ali and Harper to the floor. Andrade did a head scissors over the top on Apollo Crews and both went out. Basically Andrade eliminated himself. It looked like it came down to the Hardys and Strowman. Strowman eliminated both and it appeared that he won. Then Che and Jost came back in. A guy in a suit came in who was called a therapist with the idea he was going to calm Strowman down. Strowman threw the therapist around and choke slammed him. He then punched Che off the apron to eliminate him. They teased the idea of Jost throwing out Strowman. Strowman came back and threw Jost over the top where a bunch of wrestler who had been eliminated but were just hanging around ringside caught him to break his fall. The bad thing is between the show the night before and the two Battle Royals here, there were three straight Battle Royals with basically the same ending. You see what you think is the finish and then someone (or here two guys) show up at the e end that were never eliminated. *1/2
200
201Host Alexa Bliss came out to open the show. She said if she wants a WrestleMania moment all she has to do is snap her fingers. She snapped her fingers and Hulk Hogan came out. He said it's great to be in the Silverdome on purpose to make fun of himself when a few years ago he was at the Superdome and called it the Silverdome. Then, not on purpose, he talked about being at the Met Life Center, as opposed to MetLife Stadium. He did his catch phrases interviews and Hogan and Bliss posed together. Hogan didn’t take his shirt off. He looked in better shape than in Saudi Arabia, but he’s still 65 years old.
202
203In the middle of his routine, Paul Heyman stormed to the ring. Heyman said if Lesnar isn't on last he wants to go right now so his client can go to Las Vegas to go to a place where he's ultimately appreciated. Las Vegas and ultimately appreciated of course means UFC. That was used as a way to set up Lesnar getting heat.
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2055. Seth Rollins pinned Brock Lesnar to win the Universal title in 2:29. This was your all big moves clearly set up in advance short Lesnar match. Both brawled outside the ring before the match stared. Lesnar gave Rollins an F-5 on the floor and threw him head first into the ring frame and then the barricades. Lesnar also threw him over the German announce table onto announcer Carsten Schaefer who didn’t move fast enough. Lesnar then put Rollins through a table. After the bell rang to officially start the match, Lesnar used three German suplexes. Rollins’ back was all bruised up from the German table. Lesnar went for the F-5 but Rollins escaped and knocked Lesnar into the ref. Rollins gave Lesnar a low blow, a superkick and three curb stomps for the pin. This tore the house down with the title win and explosive match. ***½
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2076. A.J. Styles pinned Randy Orton in 16:11. This was a slow, deliberate match. It was technically good but never, perhaps due to the injury, hit the excitement level of a usual Styles match. Styles leaped over the top rope with a forearm to the floor which is believed to be the spot he was hurt. There was a teased phenomenal forearm and Orton teasing an RKO counter, and Orton fell to the floor and Styles hit a 450 for a near fall. A lot of fan reactions had nothing to do with the match, which hurt, as there was glaring lights in the eyes of many in the crowd. Orton hit the RKO, but Styles kicked out. Orton teased an RKO off the top rope, but Styles escaped and hit the Pele kick. Styles did a springboard forearm to the floor and won clean with the phenomenal forearm. ***1/4
208
209Lacey Evans did her walk to the ring cameo here.
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2117. Jimmy & Jey Uso retained the Smackdown tag titles in a four-way over Rusev & Shinsuke Nakamura, Aleister Black & Ricochet and Sheamus & Cesaro in 10:06. Black & Ricochet became the first team in history to challenge for the NXT, Raw and Smackdown tag titles in a six-day period, and lost all three bouts. This match was very good, second best on the show. Cesaro did a giant swing on Ricochet forever. I don’t know the number of spins but it had to be the all-time WWE record. Lots of pins and break-ups. There was a big tower of doom spot where Ricochet was supposed to take a giant back superplex and land on his feet. He didn’t land perfect, having a slight stumble but it stunned the crowd. Ricochet hit the 630 on Sheamus and everyone saved. Sheamus hit a Brogue kick on Ricochet but the Usos gave Sheamus a double superkick and a double splash off the top rope and Jey pinned him. ***3/4
212
213Next was the Hall of Fame ceremony.
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2158. Shane McMahon pinned The Miz in a falls count anywhere match in 15:25. Shane was doing hit-and-run to establish himself as the chickenshit heel. At one point Shane grabbed George Mizanin, Miz’s 68-year-old father to keep Miz from attacking and then Shane sucker punched Miz. Shane’s punches were awful looking, but he still managed to potato Miz with stiff shots. Shane threw Miz’s shoulder into the post and hit him with a monitor. Shane teased a jump
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217off the top rope to the announcers table on the floor but George Mizanin ran in and got in the way to protect his son. George got in the ring and put up his dukes in the most ridiculous looking manner. Shane even tried to help him at least make the stance look less horrible. You got the impression Shane wouldn’t hurt him because he was being nice to him, and then Shane threw a knee and put the boots to him. Miz recovered and went crazy, landing some good shots while George was selling like he was dead on the mat. They ended up brawling near a production lighting support structure. Miz slammed him with chairs to the knee and back. Miz used a skull crushing finale on the floor but Shane kicked out. They were fighting on a platform and Shane climbed to an even higher platform. Shane at this point started begging off and saying he was sorry. Miz attacked him and gave him a superplex off the platform onto a crash pad. As they both laid there, in the fall Shane’s arm ended up on top of Miz and the ref counted the pin. The stunt and brawling got over live. Technically the Shane stuff looked so bad, though. *3/4
218
2199. Billie Kay & Peyton Royce won the women’s tag team title in a four-way over champions Bayley & Sasha Banks, Natalya & Beth Phoenix and Nia Jax & Tamina in 10:46. Bret Hart came out with Natalya & Phoenix, who were both dressed up like the Hart Foundation. Phoenix did a suplex on Kay & Royce at the same time, as well as Phoenix & Natalya doing the Hart attack on Kay for a near fall. Phoenix reversed out of the bank statement. Natalya did a double sharpshooter on Bayley & Banks. Bayley grabbed Banks’ hand to stop her from tapping. . Tamina then superkicked Natalya for the save. Bayley did an elbow off the top on Phoenix and Banks followed with a frog splash, the idea that Bayley honored her hero Randy Savage, and Banks did so for her hero Eddy Guerrero, for a near fall. The finish saw Natalya power bomb Banks, Phoenix gave Bayley the glam slam off the middle rope. Royce broke up Phoenix’s pin and then Kay jumped on top of Bayley form the pin. *1/4
220
22110. Kofi Kingston pinned Daniel Bryan in 23:44 to win the WWE title. This was clearly the high point of the show, both the wrestling, and the crowd response to the finish. A lot of people thought the show was good regardless of everything else just because they got the Kingston win, let alone in a great match. Kingston did his big dive. Backstage they showed a ton of babyfaces watching the match and cheering Kingston on. The finish was given away before the match ever started as Big E came out with a present before the match at ringside that was clearly a new championship belt. WWE’s Shop web site also released a new Kingston T-shirt well before the match started with him with the belt. They also released a T-shirt of Bryan as champion which they pushed after the match as a collectors item. Bryan worked him over on the mat most of the way with a lion tamer like mover. Kingston did a splash off the top tom the back for a near fall. Bryan’s legs and body were all bruised up. Kingston went for trouble in paradise but Bryan caught him and tried another Boston crab, but Kingston cradled him. Kingston went for a crossbody but Bryan reversed and went for the LeBell lock but Kingston escaped. Kingston went for the SOS and Bryan turned that into the LeBell lock. Bryan did a lot of elbows t the body and back to the LeBell lock and Kingston made the ropes. Rowan threw Xavier Woods over the announcers table and clotheslined Big E. Kingston hit Rowan with trouble in paradise. Woods & E did the double-team midnight hour on Rowan on the floor. Bryan went for a tope but Kingston on the floor nailed him with an elbow. Bryan did get a near fall with his Busaiku knee. Bryan was stomping on Kingston’s head and went back to the LeBell lock. Kingston rolled to the top like in a fight and started throwing punch after punch from the top, then started kicking the hell out of Bryan. Kingston then hit trouble in paradise for the pin. After the match, the New Day dumped Bryan’s hemp title belt and unveiled the new WWE title belt for him as well as the T-shirts with the belt that were being sold well before the match started. Kingston celebrated in the ring with E, Woods and Kingston’s two young sons. ****½
222
223Michael Che, Colin Jost and Alexa Bliss were backstage. They were in the medical room getting ready to be treated. Kevin Nash and Scott Hall walked into the room dressed as doctors and Nash put on a glove and wanted to give them a prostate exam. This was good way to use legends in a cameo, rather than embarrassing them as old men in angles where they’re used as being washed up to make fans sad, or perform badly in the ring. Fans got to see them, and it was just a quick entertainment segment.
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22511. Samoa Joe retained the U.S. title over Rey Mysterio in :59. Mysterio did a tijera, a 619 and then Joe put him in a choke and choked him out. One would assume at first that it was short due to Mysterio’s injury, but we’re told it was more due to the length of the show already and they were the ones who had to do a short match since the feeling was their match was less important than ones that needed more time.
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22712. Roman Reigns pinned Drew McIntyre in 10:07. The crowd was quiet here. They didn’t boo Reigns, but didn’t cheer him much either. Really, a lot of it was that the show was long by this point. McIntyre did his sit up in the corner into overhead superplex spot. Reigns made a comeback. The crowd did a wave here which again led to the crowd not paying attention to the match. Reigns did a Samoan drop on the floor. Reigns came back to win clean with a Superman punch and a spear. Reigns was very emotional when it was over, hiding his face as it appeared he was crying in the corner. **
228
229Next was the Elias segment. They played a long film of Babe Ruth calling his shot (if in fact that really happened as it was one of those old-time legends that may or may not have been accurate) and then John Cena came out. The idea is they want fans to see Cena as the Babe Ruth of the WWE, and not Hulk Hogan or Steve Austin, since neither of them can wrestle any longer. As has been shown with his recent comebacks, WWE is looking at marketing Cena as the greatest pro wrestler of all-time going forward. Cena came out doing his 2003 doctor of Thuganomics gimmick. He was wearing a No. 3 Yankees jersey, which was Babe Ruth’s number. Cena got a big and completely positive response doing the throwback gimmick. He said that he felt like he was watching one of his own movies because this whole thing (the Elias performance) sucks. He called Elias a wasted wrestling experiment. He said Elias isn’t half a dog but a little piece of shitsu. This all got over big. He said that Elias’ face looks like his nuts but he’s got a hairier bush. He said no to the AA and you’re going to get an FU. Cena then hit him with the mic, gave him the five knuckle shuffle and hit the Attitude Adjustment.
230
23113. HHH pinned Batista in 24:43 of a no holds barred match with HHH’s career stake. This just never ended. It probably would have been better earlier in the show, and much better in 15:00. People had already seen the weapons stuff in Miz’s match. It was more creative here, but audience had tired of it pretty quickly. HHH hit him with a tool box and whipped him with a chain. He used pliers to break Batista’s hands. He used tweezers to rip the nose ring out of Batista’s nose and Batista was bleeding slightly from that. Batista came back. Shawn Michaels said that until Batista can beat HHH, he’ll never believe he can. Unfortunately, when they actually feuded, Batista beat HHH in their key match and just about every match afterwards. The crowd was dead. HHH backdropped him on the announcers table. He speared HHH through another table. That got over. HHH got the sledge hammer, but before he could use it, Batista speared him for a near fall. Batista got the sledge hammer but HHH kicked him and Batista dropped it. Batista hit the Batista bomb but HHH kicked out. Batista threw the ring steps into the ring. Batista went to the top but HHH pulled him off the ropes and power bombed him on the ring steps. HHH hit the pedigree but Batista kicked out. People did pop for that. Batista hit a DDT on the steps. Ric Flair then came out and gave HHH another sledge hammer. HHH then jumped off the ring steps that were in the ring with a sledge hammer shot on Batista and hit another pedigree for the pin. **
232
23314. Baron Corbin pinned Kurt Angle in 5:51. Angle used three German suplexes and went for the Angle slam, but Corbin kicked him off. Corbin used the Deep Six but Angle kicked out. Corbin kicked out of an angle slam. Angle went for the ankle lock, but Corbin kicked him off into the turnbuckles. That looked badly timed. Angle did three more German suplexes, but missed a moonsault and Corbin hit the End of Days. Angle did look better than he had in the last few weeks. The usual protocol is that the guy who is retiring loses but if he was going to lose his last match, it should have been with someone that people wanted to see him against. The crowd did pick up thanking Angle after he lost. Angle said that for the last 20 years, I’ve had the time of my life, in addition to tonight, and wanted to thank everyone. He asked fans to chant “You suck” at him for the last time, although he did that again the next night. They chanted it loudly. *
234
23515. Demon Finn Balor pinned Bobby Lashley in 4:01 to win the IC title. They had to rush through this one. Balor did a woo dropkick and running flip dive right away. Lashley hit the spear on the floor and another spear in the ring but Balor kicked out. Balor won with a power bomb and coup de gras. The idea is the Demon gimmick gave him his strength to execute a power bomb that normally he wouldn’t have been able to do. *1/4
236
237Bliss came out to announce the attendance. Bliss said it was time for a break and nothing happened. She said it a few times until R-Truth and Carmella came out for a dance break. Really, at this point in the show this was the last thing they needed.
238
23916. Becky Lynch won a three-way over Raw women’s champion Ronda Rousey and Smackdown champion Charlotte Flair in the winner-take-all title match in 21:27. Joan Jett played “Bad Reputation” as Rousey came to the ring. She looked so happy at this, but then immediately switched to mean intense face Rousey halfway down the ramp. Even factoring in there was no way the crowd would be that hot after midnight, the match wasn’t as good as almost all of Rousey’s prior PPV matches. Rousey went out fast and gave Flair the Piper’s Pit on the floor. Lynch threw Rousey into the post and Flair gave her a fallaway slam into the barricade. Lynch dropkicked Rousey off the apron to the floor. Flair did a double natural selection but it looked like she missed both of them. Flair was throwing chops and Rousey said “You chop like a bitch.” Flair put Rousey in the Boston crab but Lynch bulldogged Flair. Lynch gave Flair an exploder off the top for a near fall. Rousey did a crossbody off the top on both of them, then took both down with judo throws and put armbars on both at the same time. They combined to give Rousey a double-team power bomb. But Rousey clamped down harder on the armbars on both. Finally they broke it with another double-team power bomb. Lynch got Rousey in the disarm her but Rousey made the ropes and then picked Lynch up and slammed her into the turnbuckles. Lynch got the disarm her on Rousey in the ropes but Flair broke it up by kicking Lynch in the face. Flair used a Spanish fly off the top rope on Lynch for a near fall. Flair started working on Rousey’s knee, wrapping it around the post and doing the figure four around the post. Rousey tried a small package off the figure four. Flair then got the figure eight on Rousey. Lynch came off the top rope with a leg drop on Flair to break it up. Not sure where this happened, but Flair had a nasty cut on her right arm, not far from her elbow. Lynch threw a table into the ring. Rousey threw out the table saying that “tables are for bitches.” Flair speared both of them and tired to pin each of them but they both kicked out. Flair then yelled at Rousey for calling it fake and started slamming Rousey’s head into the table. Flair speared Lynch who kicked out. Rousey and Lynch hip tossed Flair into a table in the corner. Rousey went for the Piper’s Pit on Lynch, but Lynch reversed into a backslide. They did moves to where the finish should have peaked, but the crowd was too tired to reach a fever pitch, so between that and Rousey’s shoulder being up, people were flat for the finish. But they loved that Lynch won. Corey Graves took the edge off by pointing out that Rousey had her shoulder up and then they showed a replay confirming it, which only made Lynch’s win even more flat. Luckily the crowd only cared about the fact Lynch won, and not the drama and excitement level of it. The crowd was tired, but they weren’t dead like they had been for most of the period after the Kingston celebration and the Cena cameo. They worked a fast pace. There were fewer spectacular spots than you’d have expected. ***
240
241The Sports media web site “The Wrap” wrote that All Elite Wrestling was in advanced talks for a weekly television show that would likely air on TNT.
242
243The story essentially became a Twitter thing the night before when Brian McMahon, a Twitter personality who is very well connected with MMA business, who uses the name The Fight Oracle, stated that Warner Media Group (Turner Sports) will present AEW Wrestling at their upfronts to advertisers next month. The upfronts are scheduled for 5/15.
244
245This led to reports that AEW had signed with Turner Sports, with speculation the show would be on TBS, TNT or Tru TV, all under the Turner umbrella.
246
247At press time, no deal has been signed, but the story of TNT being a possible home for an AEW television deal has credence. At last report, there was a deal from within the Turner group and a second proposal from another group on the table.
248
249Because of the Double or Nothing show being on 5/25, and interest in streaming rights to the show, that’s something else notable as far as timing of the deal being completed. The idea is for AEW to be both for a weekly prime time television show and to also be involved with a streaming package with its broadcast partner. TNT’s streaming service, B/R Live, is a sports site built around various NBA packages, the UEFA championship league and the PGA. The idea of announcing AEW at the upfronts on 5/15 is also a timing issue of if or when the deal gets done.
250
251We’ve confirmed the deal hasn’t been signed as of 4/11. The Wrap story reported the same thing, saying the deal was “pretty complex” and the signing was “not imminent,” and that an announcement on 5/15 would be ideal, but it’s not a definite.
252
253Those at AEW have not addressed the story in any form.
254
255The Wrap story talked about a weekly show and threw in the idea the show would not be year-around. That would be inaccurate.
256
257As reported in the Observer previously, the plan is for a two hour live show. The last word was that the show would air on a weeknight, it would not be Monday or Friday due to WWE. If it was on TNT, it would not air on Tuesday’s due to TNT’s NBA contract. This would leave Wednesday or Thursday as the open days if on TNT. We had already reported that Tuesday, which was the plan with the trademarking of Tueday Night Dynamite, had been off the table as the likely date months ago. It could be different as far as the days of the week if it was on a different station.
258
259Reports and comments from Jim Ross and Brian McMahon that the show would start in October would be the best bet scenario if negotiations are completed soon enough to make that date viable.
260
261In some ways, the most historical show of the week was the 4/6 New Japan/ROH show in Madison Square Garden.
262
263It was the first pro wrestling event in the building that wasn’t promoted by the McMahon family since a November 14, 1960, show. That card was headlined by Argentina Rocca vs. Bruno Sammartino, Karol Krauser (Karl Gotch) vs. Dr. Jerry Graham and Ricki Starr & Miguel Perez vs. Jackie & Sonny Fargo. It was promoted by Jack Pfefer and drew 12,815 fans. The Pfefer-led group had run the building since November 13, 1959, when Vince McMahon Sr., lost his rights to promote there, and started out doing record business with the Rocca vs. Amazing Zuma feud. But after that feud ran its course, business, even with Rocca on top, started to fall.
264
265They Pfefer group had a show on December 12, 1960 scheduled, but it ended up being canceled as McMahon got the exclusive promotional rights away and was given that date after Pfefer had already been promoting his own card on that date. McMahon’s first show on that date was canceled due to a snowstorm and moved to December 23, 1960, and his family has promoted every show in the main building for the next 58 plus years.
266
267Heavy hitters including Ted Turner and Eddie Einhorn were unable to book shows in the building, even though they tried, nor could Jim Crockett Jr.
268
269But with McMahon pulling his major New York shows out of the building and running the Barclays Center, the building made it clear it would accept dates from other groups. AAA was given a date in 2018, but they canceled before it was announced. ROH got a date for a combined show with New Japan, and WWE at one point were able to pressure MSG to cancel the date on them. However, unlike with Turner and Einhorn, Sinclair Broadcasting and their lawyers threatened a lawsuit and when MSG realized its position wouldn’t hold up in court, they gave them the date. The show sold out immediately, being one of the three fastest pro wrestling sellouts in the building’s history.
270
271After the success, one would think they would try and promote the building together perhaps once a year. And while there was some great wrestling on the show, it is far from a lock a second show would do well. But you almost have to try it. But there were no plans in place, as no second date was announced, and I wouldn’t think they would try again for another year.
272
273The show itself was a mixed bag. The general feeling is that even though the contracts were that New Japan and ROH each would get 50 percent of the show, the fans were very clearly there for New Japan. The only ROH matches that really got over involved ROH wrestlers working with New Japan talent. Plus, the two surprise angles didn’t play well with this audience. After Kelly Klein had beaten Mayu Iwatani to win the WOH title, Angelina Love & Velvet Sky reprised their old TNA act as The Beautiful People, adding Mandy Leon to the group, with their new name being The Allure. The other was after a four-team match where Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa retained the IWGP tag titles and won the ROH tag titles from Brody King & PCO, in a bout that also included Evil & Sanada and Mark & Jay Briscoe.
274
275In this one, after the match, Mark Briscoe started swinging wildly with a fan out of the crowd, which turned out to be the former Enzo Amore. Amore was sitting with the former Big Cass, at ringside, surrounded by some planted fans and kept disguised. The idea was to make this look like it wasn’t part of the show. Those at ringside could immediately tell it was planned because security did nothing. Security was alerted ahead of time that an angle was being planned and to let it happen but weren’t told exactly what it is. The punches being thrown were really stiff because they wanted fans at ringside to think it was real. The idea was to fool everyone but as it turned out, while some fans were, most saw through it. They went so far as to keep this a secret from almost everyone. Tonga & Loa, who had just won, were not told, nor was anyone from the New Japan side told. They saw it, looked like they were mildly disgusted by it, didn’t fall for it and just walked away. Multiple sources have confirmed nobody in New Japan was told about it ahead of time. Tonga even tweeted sort of about it, just saying Enzo & Cass jumped the losers of the match not the winner and called it “ROH booking at its finest.” A number of people complained that this angle being booked at this time took away from the impact of the double title change.
276
277The two will use the names nZo and CazXL and their tag team name will be the Free AgentZ.
278
279A big brawl ensued, none of which was shown to the streaming/PPV audience with the idea of presenting it like it wasn’t supposed to happen. In addition, they sent Bully Ray out there with the idea that he’s a big tough guy and would be the guy who would handle things for ROH if it was a real fight. Security when it was over got Enzo & Cass out. The key thing is they weren’t handcuffed or kicked out. Cass looked very out of shape, and was blown up with bloodshot eyes. He may have gotten hurt because the punches being thrown were very real because they wanted the ringsiders to believe it was a fight and he got several potatoes from the Briscoes.
280
281The cameras pulled back and wouldn’t show any of it. The commotion continued while the focus was on the announcers killing time, and ignoring it but not ignoring it, noting how some guys were looking for publicity but they weren’t even getting on television.
282
283Regarding this situation, while it was most definitely an angle, and will play out, the two at press time had not signed contracts with ROH and have no future dates confirmed, although obviously they’re expected to appear. Withing the company, them being there was an issue that not everyone was on the same page on. Aspects of it remind me of Bully Ray’s retirement angle, which was largely his own angle. That isn’t to say this is his, but the idea of not shooting it to make it feel real, the real punches in the brawl, do come from the 90s Paul Heyman ECW mentality.
284
285When it comes to Love & Sky debuting as The Allure, as noted a few weeks back here, this was actually an idea that Madison Rayne first came up with when she said she wasn’t happy and they told her to come up with a suggestion. She suggested a new version of The Beautiful People with Love & Sky. It was agreed upon, and that Mandy Leon would also fit in with the group. Then Rayne decided to leave for Impact anyway.
286
287ROH is suffering from real problems. Attendance of late has been down significantly. It’s a company that was always built on the back of having great matches, but they don’t have the depth of in-ring talent like in the past. The great workers who didn’t have the size or the look, which was what they were built on, have mostly gone to WWE and NXT. The group that brought the company to record heights last year, is with AEW.
288
289With this MSG sellout skewing the average, it’s possible if not probable that ROH attendance for the year will top last year. But these tickets were sold based on the top stars that were in 2018 ROH and 2018 New Japan, and not the 2019 versions of both.
290
291The matches involving New Japan talent, aside from the Honor Rumble, were all very good to great. It wasn’t that the ROH matches were bad, but they felt out of place.
292
293Even though the fan takeaway after the show was that New Japan probably should work with someone other than ROH, right now, the relationship seems solid and one both sides want to keep.
294
295It feels like a philosophical change in ROH that didn’t work for this show. You legitimately had five four-star matches on the show, yet a lot of people didn’t like the show due to the other matches. Honestly, when watching the show, there was a point, during the ROH six man tag match, where I was hating the show and the live audience reaction was telling the same thing. The show ended very strong, yet the poll shows that even finishing with one great match after another, a lot of people never got the bad taste of the first part of the show out of their mouths.
296
297ROH is in a weird situation. They can’t be what people want them to be and what they were for much of their history, because NXT has become that company and AEW will become another company being like that. Yes, Sinclair could upgrade them and make them more competitive, and did to a degree with the signings of Rush, Bandido and PCO in particular. Now it feels like the idea based on this show and these angles is to try and create an ECW vibe. That didn’t work before a New Japan audience, and in fact, it’s the last thing they wanted. But for ROH, this was their showcase to shoot angles before their biggest audience. The one thing people don’t realize is that if Paul Heyman was running a promotion today, it would have some elements of ECW, but in the big picture, would be completely different, because we’re not in 1998 and this is not a 1998 fan base. That isn’t to say this new philosophy won’t work, but for this show, the fan base wanted the U.S. version of Dominion and because it was MSG, they expected one of the greatest shows ever in the U.S. Perhaps that standard was too high, but they didn’t come for a 1998 ECW remake or seeing a shoot angle with WWE washouts and Impact stars from years ago. Of course, those angles weren’t booked for the live fan base, but as a way to jump-start ROH attendance. Many were saying they would no longer watch this type of version of ROH, and time will tell which side is correct. It really hurt the show, but the angles weren’t really about the show itself, or maybe it was with the feeling the crowd wants to be surprised. The fact is, bringing guys from the past back worked all week on the indie shows and always works at Mania, so maybe the idea is that since surprises work, this was the place for surprises. But this was a unique fan base that came to see New Japan Pro Wrestling deliver a pure show.
298
299The entire ROH women’s division is a tough one. Because of WWE putting so much emphasis on women, a lot of the fan base today believes you have to have women’s matches on the show in the U.S. or you are sexist. There are two problems with that as it pertains to ROH. Unlike WWE, which has some very good and even great workers who are women, and even Impact which has people like Taya Valkyrie, Tessa Blanchard and Jordynne Grace, as well as Gail Kim in a legends role, ROH doesn’t have that. Instead, on every big show, it’s a women’s match that doesn’t get over at all and usually isn’t very good. On this show, they even brought in four women from Stardom, but when mixed in with the ROH women, the matches were way below the standard that fans wanted for a New Japan show in MSG. Since they can’t compete with matches people care about, the idea was to bring back The Beautiful People, who were TV ratings draws in their heyday and an over act at a time when WWE women were all based mostly on looks and didn’t have any acts of their caliber, to the point WWE tried to copy them.
300
301The key to the negativity was time management, as the Bully Ray street fight match went 15:00, and had a long angle with rapper Megaran (a remake of an angle that didn’t get over on the Las Vegas PPV) before, stretching the entire segment well past 20 minutes. The ladder ROH title match went almost 30 minutes, while Taiji Ishimori vs. Bandido vs. Dragon Lee, which was tearing down the house, went less than nine minute, and Jeff Cobb vs. Will Ospreay went less than 13:00. Even though this was the show Ospreay was peaking for, due to the time constraints, this was only his third best match out of three in New York that week, and fifth best match out of five for the full last two weeks. Of course he came into the match with a broken nose suffered the night before, but he had better matches over the previous week or so with A-Kid (top five of the year that I’ve seen) in Spain, a better tag match in Progress in England, a better singles match with Bandido two nights before, and a better tag match on the RevPro show in New York the previous day.
302
303The paid attendance was 16,534, the largest for any non-WWE event in the U.S. since 1999. The gate was the largest ever in North America for any company other than WWE–the first in the U.S. ever to top $1 million, something even WCW at its peak never achieved.
304
305A number of title changes took place. Kazuchika Okada defeated Jay White to win the IWGP title in the main event. Gedo had planned for Okada to beat Kenny Omega on this show originally, and had to switch plans around when Omega let the promotion know he might sign elsewhere. It was Okada’s fifth title reign. He currently holds the record for most days as champion during a career at 1,521 at press time to 1,391 for Hiroshi Tanahashi and 1,238 for Keiji Muto.
306
307The only wrestlers with more title reigns are Tanahashi (eight), Tatsumi Fujinami (six) and Kensuke Sasaki (tied with five). Okada’s final two major title records ahead of him are most reigns, which, barring injury, he’ll eventually get, and most career title defenses.
308
309He may tie or break that one this year. Okada has 25 right now, and he’ll have title matches on both 5/4 in Fukuoka and 6/9 in Osaka, unless he’s hurt, meaning it’ll probably be the fall, perhaps the early October Sumo Hall show, when he’s going for the tie with Tanahashi. If they go with only one fall title defense, he could be going to break the record at the Tokyo Dome.
310
311White had zero successful title defenses since his win over Tanahashi, who also had no successful defenses since his win over Omega. This is the first time in the Gedo era where an IWGP champion had no successful defenses, let alone two, because of plans changing due to Kenny Omega leaving. The previous last champion with no successful title defenses was Manabu Nakanishi in 2009. The last time two champions in a row had no successful defenses were Tatsumi Fujinami and Big Van Vader in 1990 and 1991.
312
313Kota Ibushi won the IC title from Tetsuya Naito. The title loss actually makes Naito a favorite in this year’s G-1. Dragon Lee won the IWGP jr. title by pinning Bandido in a three-way that also included champion Ishimori. Matt Taven won the ROH title in a three-way ladder match over champion Jay Lethal and Marty Scurll. IWGP tag champs Tonga & Loa won the ROH tag titles in four-way that also included Brody King & PCO (ROH champs), Evil & Sanada and Mark & Jay Briscoe. After the match, Toru Yano stole the IWGP tag title belts which sets up Tonga & Loa vs. Yano & Togi Makabe match for the physical possession of the belts later this month.
314
315Klein beat Iwatani to win the WOH title, and Cobb won the Never open weight title, which he defends in Japan on 5/3 against Taichi, and kept the ROH TV title in a belt vs. belt match with Ospreay.
316
317The seven title changes were the first non-WWWF/WWF/WWEchampionships to change hands in Madison Square Garden since March 2, 1936, when Dick Shikat pulled the famous double-cross, locking a submission hold for real on champion Danno O’Mahoney, who was not a real wrestler, to win the world heavyweight championship.
318
319Both the IWGP and IC title changes were classic matches. Both the Never vs. ROH TV title bout and IWGP jr. title bout had the chance of being classics if they were given more time, particularly the latter bout. Zack Sabre Jr.’s British heavyweight title defense over Hiroshi Tanahashi was also excellent.
320
321It’s been clear for some time that Tanahashi’s knees have worsened this year. It was really clear on 1/5, after the Omega match at the Tokyo Dome, how badly they were doing. Of late, he’s stopped doing the high fly flow or dives outside the ring. Luckily, he has so much charisma, technical skill and timing, that he can do great bouts regardless.
322
323However, it was announced that he suffered a left elbow injury in the match and is out of action an indeterminate amount of time and was pulled from the next tour. The only thing we were told is that he did not want to take time off.
324
325New Japan’s next tour opens on 4/13 in Tsukuba for 5 a.m. Eastern show on New Japan World, with Yota Tsuji vs. Yuya Uemura, Toa Henare vs. Ren Narita, Yuji Nagata & Satoshi Kojima & Shota Umino vs. Minoru Suzuki & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Desperado, Makabe & Yano & Tomoaki Honma vs. Tonga & Loa & Ishimori, Hirooki Goto & Juice Robinson & Mikey Nicholls & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. White & Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens & Hikuleo, Ibushi & Yoshi-Hashi & Jushin Liger vs. Sabre Jr. & Taichi & Taka Michinoku, and Okada & Tomohiro Ishii & Rocky Romero & Sho & Yoh vs. Naito & Evil & Sanada & Bushi & Shingo Takagi.
326
327The next major show, called Sengoku Lord, takes place on 4/20 from the Aiichi Gym in Nagoya at 5 a.m. Eastern: Umino & Narita vs. Tsuji & Uemura, Nagata & Kojima & Honma & Henare & Liger vs. Suzuki & Taichi & Kanemaru & Desperado & Michinoku, Makabe & Yano & Dragon Lee vs. Tonga & Loa & Ishimori, Nicholls vs. Owens, Gogo & Taguchi vs. White & Hikuleo, Okada & Ishii & Yoshi-Hashi & Sho & Yoh vs. Naito & Evil & Sanada & Bushi & Takagi, Robinson vs Fale for the U.S. title and Ibushi vs. Sabre Jr. for the IC title.
328
329There are three straight nights at Korakuen Hall on 4/22, 4/23 and 4/24. The first night has the six man titles at stake with Makabe & Yano & Taguchi defending against Tonga & Loa & Hikuleo, and a main event of Goto & Lee vs. White & Ishimori. 4/23 has Ishii & Romero & Sho vs. Naito & Evil & Takagi and Okada & Yoh vs. Sanada & Bushi. 4/24 has Ishii & Romero & Yoh vs. Naito & Evil & Bushi, and Okada & Sho vs. Sanada & Takagi.
330
3314/26 in Hiroshima has Sho & Yoh defending the jr. tag titles against Bushi & Takagi.
332
3334/29 in Kumamoto has Goto vs. White plus Tonga & Loa defending the IWGP tag titles against Makabe & Yano.
334
335The two big shows are the Dontaku shows on 5/3 and 5/4 at the Fukuoka International Center Arena. This is where you really feel the losses, as the two days in the past were usually loaded shows, but they’ve lost the Young Bucks, Cody, Page, Omega and Tanahashi.
336
337The first show is a 5 a.m. Eastern start with Honma & Umino & Narita vs. Henare & Tsuji & Uemura, Yoshi-Hashi & Liger & Tiger Mask & Taguchi vs. Suzuki & Kanemaru & Desperado & Michinoku, Makabe & Yano & Ospreay vs. Tonga & Loa & Hikuleo, Romero & Sho & Yoh vs. Naito & Bushi & Takagi, Goto & Juice Robinson & Nicholls vs. White & Fale & Owens, Okada & Ishii vs. Evil & Sanada, Cobb vs. Taichi for the Never title and Lee vs. Ishimori for the jr. title. This will be really interesting because that’s a major show to be headlined by the jr. title. The one thing is with those two in this position, they’ll probably have to go all out to do an incredible match.
338
339The second show is a 2 a.m. Eastern start with Umino & Narita vs. Tsuji & Uemura, Cobb & Yoshi-Hashi & Henare & Tiger Mask & Taguchi vs. Suzuki & Taichi & Kanemaru & Desperado & Michinoku, Makabe & Yano &Liger vs. Tonga & Loa & Gedo, Goto & Robinson & Nicholls & Honma vs. White & Fale & Owens & Hikuleo, Lee & Ospreay vs. Ishimori & X (maybe Phantasmo’s debut), Romero & Sho & Yoh vs. Naito & Bushi & Takagi, Ishii vs. Evil and Okada vs. Sanada for the IWGP title.
340
341That’s kind of a weird title match since Okada beat Sanada in the G-1 finals and Sanada hasn’t gotten a major win since, even though he had a great New Japan Cup with wins over Suzuki, Colt Cabana and Tanahashi. But he was almost a nonentity on this show and hasn’t gotten a big singles win, and that’s unlike usual New Japan protocol of building a title challenger. There really isn’t a challenger ready. Obviously these cards had to change at the top with no Tanahashi, but it would seem Sabre at least got the big win, as did Ibushi, on this show. I can see the idea of saving the Ibushi match for a bigger show and Dominion is coming, but Sabre would have made more booking sense than Sanada, even though the last Okada vs. Sanada was a classic.
342
343As far as the MSG show, it went five hours and 45 minutes which was entirely too long under any circumstance. The idea seemed like WrestleMania, with the idea that because it’s MSG that ROH wanted everyone on the roster to get to work the date. New Japan didn’t bring everyone, but the heavy hitters were there and the ones missing were the likes of Yuji Nagata, Togi Makabe, Satoshi Kojima and the Young Lions.
344
345AXS on 4/12 has Tanahashi vs. Sabre, Ibushi vs. Naito and Okada vs. White in a two hour special. On 4/19, it’ll be the Taven vs. Lethal vs. Scurll ladder match, the four-way double tag title match, the jr. title match and Cobb vs. Ospreay in another special.
346
3471. Jenny Rose & Kagetsu & Hazuki beat Sumie Sakai & Stella Gray & Hana Kimura in 6:46. Pretty decent match. Kagetsu and Hazuki were the standouts. They did a double tope and then Hazuki did a springboard missile dropkick on Sakai and Kagetsu pinned Sakai with a 450. **1/4
348
3492. Kenny King won the 31 man Honor Rumble in 42:21. The winner of this match would get an ROH title shot. The wrestling was really bad here. Most Japanese Battle Royals suck and this was no exception. They tried to get the guys in at one minute interludes but were late a few times. It opened with King, who ran the table, against Minoru Suzuki. The crowd went crazy for Suzuki, one of the biggest pops of the show. On the PPV, they overdubbed his music so we had this generic music playing while the live crowd was singing the music playing in the building. It was hilarious. Cheeseburger was next in and also got a reaction. Beer City Bruiser was No. 4 in, followed by Sho and Shingo Takagi. Sho vs Takagi was good stuff. Next in were Bushi and Yoh. Sho & Yoh did a mistimed double dropkick on Takagi. Bruiser missed a tackle on Sho & Yoh and was the first guy out. Next in were Shaheem Ali, Rhett Titus, LSG, Ryusuke Taguchi (big pop), Will Ferrara, Chase Owens (also a good reaction and showing this crowd was here to see anyone they considered legit NJPW) and Rocky Romero. There were a bunch of guys doing running clotheslines in the corner while Taguchi played third base coach to wave them in, which is a standard New Japan comedy spot. It was the first thing that really got over in the match. Romero threw out Bushi. Brawler Milonas was next in. He shoved LSG and Ali over the top. Bad Luck Fale was next in, getting a big reaction. He dumped Sho and Yoh. He threw Cheeseburger over the top, but Eli Isom and Ryan Nova, not in the match, were hanging around on the floor and caught Cheeseburger, whose feet never hit the floor. So they carried him to the apron and Cheeseburger got back in. Jonathan Gresham was next in. Fale then threw Nova and Isom over the top rope even though they weren’t even in the match. Takagi clotheslined Titus over. Suzuki threw out Takagi. Tracy Williams and Yoshi-Hashi were next in. The one New Japan guy the crowd didn’t care about was Yoshi-Hashi. Gresham threw out Taguchi. P.J. Black was next in. Suzuki then dumped Ferrara and Owens. Jushin Liger came in to a gigantic pop. Milonas wouldn’t sell Liger’s offense, so Liger stomped on his foot and threw out Milonas. T.K. O’Ryan and Vinny Marseglia were next in. O’Ryan & Marseglia threw out Williams. Delirious and Tomohiro Ishii were in next. Ishii got a big reaction. Ishii dumped Black. Toru Yano was next in, but instead of going to the ring, he went to the announcers table and told Colt Cabana to get in the match and he was going to announce. So Cabana was next in. Yano then did commentary, or at least tried to. Hirooki Goto was next in. Fale dumped Yoshi-Hashi. Fale threw out Yoh and then everyone in the ring together threw out Fale. Haku was next in and he started choking Cabana. At this point Yano ran from the announcing table t the ring and entered. Great Muta was next in and he got a big pop. He was moving a lot better than he was before his double knee surgery, but he didn’t do much. But really, he was just there to get a pop for people seeing him in a cool costume. Muta threw out Delirious. Yano pulled off the turnbuckles and hit Cabana with them, and then Suzuki dumped Cabana. Suzuki threw out Yano. Muta threw out Gresham. Suzuki kicked Goto off the apron. Suzuki used an armbar over the ropes on Ishii, but Ishii clotheslined Suzuki with his other arm and Suzuki was eliminated. Fans hated that. O’Ryan & Marseglia threw out Cheeseburger and then they threw out Haku. Then they threw out Ishii. Fans were really upset when Ishii was gone. This left Muta & Liger vs. O’Ryan & Marseglia, because King had gone into hiding. Yes, the same finish for three straight Battle Royals in two days. At least this was the first one, but when WWE followed and did it twice the next day it’s so bad. Liger threw out Marseglia. Muta threw out O’Ryan. People got all into the idea of Muta vs. Liger. They were trying to throw each other out when King showed up and threw both out. Muta blew green mist in King’s eyes after the match. Muta then left the stage to Liger and fans chanted “Thank You Liger,” knowing he’s retiring in January. *
350
3513. Jeff Cobb pinned Will Ospreay in 12:52 in a match for both Cobb’s ROH TV title and Ospreay’s Never Open weight title. Super match, but they should have gone longer. Ospreay did a space flying tiger drop. Cobb was supposed to catch him and pick him up. He didn’t quite catch him in mid-air, but did pick him up and Ospreay turned it into a tornado DDT on the floor. Cobb did a delayed superplex, then held Ospreay with one hand and used the other hand to count to ten with the crowd before dropping him. Cobb used a Samoan drop and standing moonsault for a near fall. Ospreay did a Spanish fly and a missile dropkick to Cobb’s injured shoulder. Ospreay did a great escape out of Tour of the Islands and turned it into an infrared, as a tribute to Amazing Red. Ospreay tried an Oscutter but Cobb blocked it and threw Ospreay into the air. Ospreay landed on the middle rope and jumped off and hit an Oscutter for a great near fall. Cobb won with a Tour of the Islands off the top rope and a second tour of the islands. They pushed that Cobb was the first American ever to win the Never title (Michael Elgin is Canadian). ****
352
3534. Rush pinned Dalton Castle in :15. Rush hit a Woo dropkick and two running dropkicks into the corner for the pin. This actually came off well since you want quick surprise pins at times when you don’t think they’ll happen. Plus, the story was Castle being so mad about losing that he turned heel. He went through a breakdown and then turned on both of The Boys, giving a bangarang to one of them.
354
355They went backstage and showed Juice Robinson laid out and saw a guy running off. They later announced Robinson wasn’t cleared by the athletic commission doctors to wrestle. Then, not only did he wrestle, but he sold no signs of a previous beatdown, no bandage on the head or selling of an attack when he did wrestle.
356
3575. Kelly Klein beat Mayu Iwatani in 10:38 to win the WOH title. The two shook hands before the match. Klein looked like she had dropped weight as for most on the show, just working at MSG would be a first and one of the career highlights. Iwatani did a crossbody off the top and Klein caught her and gave her a fallaway slam. Iwatani also did a crossbody off the top to the floor. Klein posted Iwatani and gave her a German suplex on her head. Iwatani came back with a dragon suplex. Iwatani missed a moonsault. Klein won cleanly with the K Power, an airplane spin and dropping her with a falcon arrow. **
358
359After the match, Angelina Love & Velvet Sky came out and did their old Beautiful People ring entrance. Mandy Leon then came out. Leon hit Klein from behind with her high heel. Love kicked her and Love also laid out Jenny Rose who tried to make the save. Sky sprayed hair spray in Stella Gray’s face when she tried to make the save and Leon hit Gray with a DDT. They did their Allure symbol on Klein’s head in lipstick, similar to the stuff they did years back in TNA.
360
361Rapper Megaran sang “Going to the Garden.” People wanted him out of there immediately. This was a crowd that came to see New Japan, not rap music. Fans were booing. Bully Ray came out to be the heel bullying him, but the fans cheered Bully. Little did they know. Bully actually played face for a second before shoving Megaran down. Megaran got up but Bully whipped him with a chain and challenged anyone to come out for a street fight.
362
3636. Mark Haskins & Juice Robinson & Flip Gordon beat Bully Ray & Silas Young & Shane Taylor in a street fight in 15:04. It started as Bully vs. Gordon, who is apparently not needing another surgery and is back working. His knee didn’t seem perfect but he did jump off the top rope and land on both feet. Young and Taylor entered at 1:53 and then Robinson & Haskins made the save. Robinson asked for the fans to turn it into a three-on-three match. Lots of weapons shots and this was different from every other match on the show. Usually different is good, but you could see this was just out of place for this crowd. Bully, Young and Taylor nailed Gordon hard with kendo stick shots and his back was all welted up. Gordon flipped off Bully. This was so ECW Tommy Dreamer 90s. Gordon came back with kendo stick shots. All six had them. Then they cornered Bully who was then begging off. Bully is a genius at his character when it comes to playing the role ad timing. He tried to walk off rather than take the comeback from Gordon but Robinson threw Bully back in. Bully came back and power bombed Gordon through a table off the top rope. Robinson and Haskins crotched Bully on the post. Young gave Haskins a twisting suplex on a chair. Haskins did a double foot stomp on Young driving him into two chairs. Robinson hit Taylor with a garbage can and gave him a cannonball through wooden steps. When you read what happened, this match sounds great but it was just the wrong setting. Robinson and Gordon held Bully’s legs apart and Haskins came off the top with a wazzup. That was a great climax and the crowd liked that. Robinson gave Bully a spinebuster, Gordon gave him a 450 and everyone covered Bully for the pin. *1/2
364
3657. Dragon Lee won the IWGP jr. title in a three-way over champion Taiji Ishimori and Bandido in 8:54. This match was great while it lasted, really as good a match given this time as you could get. Bandido did a Fosbury flop. Lee leaped over the top rope with a huracanrana on Bandido to the floor. This spot wowed the crowd. Ishimori did a middle rope moonsault on both. Lee did a double-arm backbreaker on Ishimori but Bandido saved. Bandido did a super huracanrana on Lee. Lee did a running Canadian Destroyer on Ishimori which brought the crowd to its feet. Bandido threw Ishimori in the air and hit a diamond cutter for a near fall. In the big spot, Bandido did a top rope fallaway slam on both guys a the same time while flipping over onto them, which tore the house down. Lee used a knee and reverse huracanrana on Bandido, a running knee on Ishimori and then Lee used a suplex into a twisting slam to pin Bandido. The idea is Lee never pinned Ishimori but got Ishimori’s title, to set up Lee vs. Ishimori on 5/3. Bandido grabbed the belt and put it on Lee. ****
366
3678. Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa retained the IWGP tag titles and won the ROH tag title over Brody King & PCO, in a match that also included Mark & Jay Briscoe and Evil & Sanada in 9:45. Really good. PCO came out hooked up to an electric chair with the idea he was dead and they shocked him with a car battery to bring him to life. PCO was the focal point and star of the match. He did a cannonball dive on Jay. King at his size did a huracanrana on Loa. King also did a running flip dive. Mark did a twisting tornillo dive on King. Mark did a blockbuster off the apron on Loa. Jay used the Jay driller on Sanada and Mark followed with the froggy bow elbow but King saved Sanada. King gave Mark a ganso bomb. PCO did a moonsault. Tonga & Loa gave PCO a power bomb over the top rope. There was no table to break his fall. This man is insane. Then he popped right up. The finish saw Tonga use a gunstun on King and Loa power bombed King off the middle rope for the pin. Yano then stole the IWGP belt. Enzo and Cass hopped the rail and did the post-match angle which wasn’t shown on the feed. ***½
368
3699. Zack Sabre Jr. beat Hiroshi Tanahashi in 15:14 to retain the U.K. title. This was a great technical match. Tanahashi did an elbow drop and Sabre caught him in an armbar and then switched to a Fujiwara armbar. They set up a skin the cat spot but because of the armbar Tanahashi couldn’t do it, and then Sabre aggressively went after the injured arm. They went back-and-forth with abdominal stretches. Tanahashi used the cloverleaf and Sabre used the triangle. Sabre used the European clutch for a great near fall. Tanahashi went for the European clutch but Sabre blocked it and did the European clutch. Sabre used a guillotine but Tanahashi used three twist and shouts and a sling blade. He tired a dragon suplex but Sabre countered. Tanahashi had a bloody lip. Sabre ended up trying Tanahashi up and got the submission with the Jim Breaks armbar. ****
370
37110. Kota Ibushi pinned Tetsuya Naito in 20:53 to win the IC title. This was a spectacular match. At one point Naito whipped Ibushi into the guard rail but a security guy didn’t move and blocked it. Naito yelled at the guy and had to do the move again. Naito did make peace with te guy and threw Ibushi into the front row. Ibushi used a huracanrana off the apron and both flew to the floor. Ibushi used a springboard double foot stomp for a near fall. Naito did a super huracanrana off the top and Gloria for near falls, as well as a German suplex and a straitjacket German. They traded elbows and Naito spin on Ibushi and did a reverse huracanrana followed by destino. Ibushi kicked out. Ibushi came back and did Shinsuke Nakamura’s bom a ye (Kinshasa) to Naito’s back and a regular one. Naito came back with a last ride power bomb but Ibushi finally put him away with the Kamagoye. This was a huge win for Ibushi since it was his second in a row on Naito, and pretty much establishes Ibushi as part of the big five (formerly big four) with Naito, Okada, Tanahashi and White. ****½
372
37311. Matt Taven won a ladder match to take the ROH title from Jay Lethal, in a three-way with Marty Scurll in 29:35. Everyone worked really hard but this just went too long and the show itself went too long. By this point people just wanted the main event. Nick Aldis was brought in to do color commentary since he’s defending his NWA title against Marty Scurll on 4/27. Lots of crazy stuff. Taven did a running dive over the top and crashed int a ladder on the floor. He may have hurt his elbow. Lethal back suplexed Scurll on the ladder. The crowd was quiet because of how late it was. Scurll used chair shots and umbrella shots. Lethal gave Scurll a diamond cutter on the apron. Taven power bombed Lethal onto a ladder bridged onto two chairs. No matter how extreme it got, the only thing the crowd cared about in this match was they wanted Scurll to win. Scurll superkicked Taven off the ladder. Scurll hit Lethal in the back of the head with the umbrella. Scurll did the finger break on Taven with both hands. Lethal used a chair to Scurll’s knee. Taven tried to climb the ladder but couldn’t because his fingers were broken. Lethal gave Taven a Lethal combination into the ladder. Lethal threw the ladder out of the ring and it nailed a fan. Fans started chanting “Let’s go lawsuit.” Scurll used a brainbuster on Lethal on the floor. Taven shoulderblocked Scurll off the apron and through a table. Fans chanted “Mama Mia” here mimicking Mauro Ranallo. Wrong promotion. Lethal came off a 12 foot ladder with an elbow drop that put Taven through a table. Lethal and Scurll were fighting on top of the ladder. Taven brought in a 15 foot purple ladder. Taven hit Lethal with a chair tot he back and took Scurll off the ladder. Taven and Lethal climbed to the top of the ladder. They were fighting at the top when Taven hit Lethal with the belt that was hooked up and Lethal fell backwards off the ladder and hit another ladder on the way down. Taven pulled off the belt to win. ***½
374
37512. Kazuchika Okada won the IWGP title from Jay White in 32:33. Okada was clearly the star of the show, and comes across as the best wrestler in the world today. But in a few years, White and Will Ospreay will be on his heels. Okada dropkicked White off the top rope to the floor and then threw Gedo over the barricade. He did a running dive over the barricade on Gedo and White. White twice got out of the tombstone piledriver and Okada hit the Woo dropkick followed by a great missile dropkick and a Savage elbow. White came back with a flatliner, a German suplex, a suplex into the turnbuckles, a uranage and a Saito supelx over the top rope. He also used the Kiwi crusher for a near fall. Okada hit the dropkick, nailed Gedo, hit a second dropkick and went for the rainmaker, but White ducked and used the choke suplex. They kept reversing each other and hitting hard chops until Okada hit a dropkick to the back. White went for the blade runner but Okada got out and hit a spinning rainmaker, then hit a second one, but White kicked out. Okada went for the tombstone but White escaped and hit blade runner, continuing his theme of reversing out of the other guys’ big move. But White collapsed and couldn’t make the pin. Both were on their knees trading elbows. The deal was that White was exhausted and there was nothing left on his shots. Gedo then distracted the ref and White hit a low blow. White went for the blade runner, but Okada escaped and hit a German suplex. After a few more reversals, Okada hit another dropkick, hit the rainmaker, and then hit a second one. Hew went for a third, but White reversed into the blade runner, but Okada then won using White’s own gimmick on him, reversing out of the blade runner into a spinning tombstone and hit a third rainmaker for the pin. It was midnight so the PPV ended but Okada delivered a thank you speech to the live crowd. The original idea from the New Japan side was they wanted the interview on the air but there were communication problems and the Japanese side didn’t realize it was a hard end at midnight and they couldn’t go longer, since when they do their own shows, the PPV ends when the PPV ends and they usually go for some time after the show ends to air replays and a backstage interview. ****3/4
376
377The 4/5 NXT Takeover show in Brooklyn in some ways, when it comes to just match quality, was the best major event in WWE history.
378
379Ultimately, this was PWG on a bigger stage. With the exception of Velveteen Dream and the women, every wrestler on the show came from PWG, and the ring style was largely the fast paced matches filled with hot moves that is the preeminent PWG style. The women’s four-way had two women trained in the Japanese style, Bianca Belair, who was the only wrestler developed from scratch by WWE (Dream has been trained previously with MCW but he wasn’t a name until his WWE training unlike everyone else who had experience all over the world). Pete Dunne wasn’t a PWG regular, although he did work there and actually got his key training in Japan and worked a heavily Japanese pacing and style. Shayna Baszler never wrestled at PWG, but was in the front row studying at most PWG shows for several years before she started with WWE.
380
381If anything, the success of PWG talent and the style on the bigger stage kills any narrative that this stuff would only work before a few hundred specialized fans. This was the biggest weekend for pro wrestling in any one place and no show got more positive reviews than this one.
382
383They had one of the greatest crowds for a big show in WWE major show history, ranking with the 1997 Calgary PPV and some of the Chicago shows. The show looked great going in on paper and every match lived up to, or significantly exceeded expectations, notably the Johnny Gargano win of the vacant NXT title over Adam Cole, which I’d call the greatest match in WWE history.
384
385The crowd at the Barclays Center was announced at 15,697, which was a sellout of 13,600 paid legit. The show sold out well in advance.
386
387Past the match quality, the major news, as has been expected since December, is that Kushida was announced the day of the show, but not at the show for whatever reason, as the newest WWE wrestler. He started at the NXT tapings on 4/10.
388
389When the deal was made with Kushida the plan was always to announce him at the Takeover show in Brooklyn with the idea they’d announce the signing of one of New Japan’s big stars at the same time New Japan was running its MSG show. In fact, at the time, the idea is they would do it the same night, before WWE switched gears and moved the Takeover show up a day.
390
391The usual Takeover length of 2:15 to 2:30 was extended to 3:15 so every match was given ample time to be great. While the 2:30 time frame is probably best for NXT Takeovers, this show had such a strong lineup that it never dragged and the added time aided every match.
392
3931. War Raiders retained the NXT tag titles over Ricochet & Aleister Black in 18:38. Crowd was super hot from the start, particularly for Ricochet. Ricochet & Black backdropped Hanson and Rowe, who both landed on their feet. Hanson did a high back body drop on Ricochet and then did the forever clothesline. Ricochet did a fallaway slam on Hanson to show his power and the place went nuts. Ricochet and Hanson both did handspring back elbows. Rowe held up Ricochet and Hanson did a springboard clothesline on him, but Black used a double foot stomp to Hanson’s back. Black did a moonsault off the middle rope to the floor on Hanson. Rowe did a tope on Black. Ricochet did a corkscrew space flying tiger drop on both of them. Hanson did a flip plancha on all three. They teased a double count out but Ricochet and Rowe got back in. Black hit black mass on Rowe and Ricochet used a shooting star press but Hanson drove Black onto Ricochet to break up the pin. Ricochet missed a 450 and Black missed a moonsault to the floor. Hanson hit a tope on Black and they pinned Ricochet after fall out. This made sense since Ricochet & Black are really on the main roster now. All four hugged after the match and Ricochet & Black basically did their farewell. ****½
394
3952, Velveteen Dream retained the North American title over Matt Riddle in 17:32. The crowd was super hot for both but more for Dream. Dream did a series of double sledges off the top rope. Riddle used a German suplex on the floor. Dream tried a German suplex but Riddle landed on his feet and hit a jumping knee. A funny line is that Nigel McGuinness talked about how the difference between MMA and pro wrestling is that there are rope breaks in pro wrestling, and immediately Mauro Ranallo noted “What about old school Pancrase?” Riddle did ground and pound with elbows. He did a jumping triangle armbar, later a GTS and a German suplex. Dream Hulked up, which got a huge reaction. Dream hit a double sledge off the top rope to the floor. He came off the top rope into a knee by Riddle. Dream came back using a codebreaker and a penalty kick, but Riddle got the ankle lock. Dream used a DDT and Death Valley bomb. He came off the top rope with an elbow but Riddle got the armbar on landing. Riddle followed with a power German suplex, and a moonsault senton, called the floating bro. Riddle used a power bomb and a knee for a near fall, got the bromission in the middle of the ring, but Dream cradled him off that for the pin. When it was over, Riddle stood back and clapped for Dream as he was announced the winner and offered him a fist bump which Dream accepted. ****½
396
3973. Walter won the NXT U.K. title from Pete Dunne in 25:30. They pushed Dunne’s reign of 685 days as the longest WWE title reign in modern history. Walter immediately established himself as agile doing a leapfrog and high kick. He used a back suplex on the apron. Dunne came back and did a moonsault to the floor and a double foot stomp off the top rope to the floor, which immediately made Finn Balor’s finisher look so much less impressive. Walter used a Woo dropkick and a choke. There were U.K. chant. Dunne smashed Walter’s hand on the post. Walter used a choke suplex off the top rope for a near fall. Walter went for a chop but Dunne did two finger break spots and a fast German suplex. Dunne used a ton of stomps and twisted his fingers in different directions looking for a submission. Walter tried a splash off the top but Dunne used a triangle. Walter fought free and stomped the hell out of him. Walter did a sick lariat. Dunne used his bitter end finisher but Walter kicked out. Walter ended up using hard chops, a power bomb and a splash off the top rope for the pin. ****3/4
398
3994. Shayna Baszler retained the NXT women’s title in a four-way over Bianca Belair, Kairi Sane and Io Shirai in 15:39. Baszler came out with Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir, but they never got involved. Sane came in with her shoulder banged up legit. This was really good but it’s not the right kind of match for Baszler as she’s more about submissions and the opponent selling them and showing heart and a psychology based match while four-ways are inherently exchanges of big moves and saves, with lots of high spots, which are not her forte. But they are the forte of Sane and Shirai, and Belair has her cool athletic stuff that works here. Belair is a super athlete but still green. Shirai and Sane were super here. They did a four person down spot which always gets over off a tower of doom. Shirai threw Sane over the top rope and she landed with an elbow on the other two. Shirai did a moonsault off the middle rope to the floor. I mean, that move was done now in four straight matches. It’s like what the reverse rana was two years ago and the Canadian Destroyer was last year. Belair pressed Shirai overhead and threw her over the top rope on the other two. Belair did the KOD on Baszler but Shirai saved. Shirai used a middle rope moonsault on Baszler and went to the top, but Sane saved. Shirai was mad at Sane. Sane power bombed Shirai on top of Baszler and used the elbow off the top on Baszler but Shirai saved. Sane went to the top but Belair whipped her with her hair. Belair put Sane and Shirai both on her shoulders for a double torture rack KOD on both. Baszler then kicked Belair in the head and choked her for the win. ***3/4
400
4015. Johnny Gargano won the vacant NXT title beating Adam Cole in a 2/3 fall match in 38:07. What was interesting about this match was it was all about the peak. While watching the match, it just felt like very good match after the first two falls. But it just exploded in the third fall. It was helped by the great crowd. Cole won the first fall in 13:50 with a last shot. Cole used a German suplex and running last shot for a near fall and the announcer said it was the first time anyone had kicked out of the last shot. Gargano speared him on the apron. Gargano used an air raid crash off the top rope and a slingshot DDT on the apron. Gargano had the fall won via count out, but broke the count up, which kind of made no sense. The story is that somehow winning via count out isn’t honorable. Well, wrestling does have its own rules that make no logical sense. Cole threw him into the post twice but Gargano came back with the Gargano escape and Cole tapped right away, with the idea that if you fight it for too long you’d be injured in the deciding fall. The second fall went 6:00. Both guys in the third fall started working at a fast pace exchanging big moves. Gargano did a lawn dart and turnover slam for a near fall. They traded high kicks and elbows,, clothesline and superkicks. It had a little too choreographed a feeling for a second. Gargano was bleeding over the left eye but they never called attention to it or played into it. Cole used a superkick to the back of the head and a straitjacket German suplex for a near fall. Gargano came off the middle rope with a reverse rana and a superkick. Cole used a German suplex into the ring frame. Gargano used a draping DDT, a slingshot DDT and a tope. Cole used a Canadian Destroyer off the middle rope. Gargano threw Cole over the Spanish announcers table. Cole gave Gargano the fairy tale ending on the Spanish table that didn’t break. Even though Gargano was the face they were cheering for, the fans chanted “one more time.” Cole got in the ring and the story here was that Cole was willing to win the title via count out while earlier Gargano had the chance to do the same thing but wouldn’t. Gargano dove in at the last second. Cole went for another Canadian Destroyer but Gargano reversed into the Gargano escape. Roderick Strong ran to the ring and Gargano let go of the hold to punch him. The thing is, if Strong interfered, Gargano would win the title. Gargano put the Gargano escape on again but the ref was distracted by Bobby Fish. Cole was tapping and Kyle O’Reilly ripped the eyes. The ref was knocked down and Fish & O’Reilly gave Gargano the high/low and Strong threw the ref into the ring but Gargano kicked out. Gargano backdropped Cole over the top rope onto the other three. He threw Strong into the post, hit a superkick on Fish and a tornado DDT on O’Reilly. Cole hit a superkick on Gargano and another last shot, but Gargano kicked out. Cole missed the next last shot and Gargano put on the Gargano escape. They teased Cole getting to the ropes but Gargano pulled Cole back to the middle of the ring and finally Cole tapped at 16:16 of the third fall. Candice LeRae hit the ring to celebrate with Gargano. Then as they were leaving, out came Tommaso Ciampa with a neck brace from behind. Gargano said, “he’s right behind me.” Ciampa is now Mr. Superbabyface and Gargano’s and LeRae’s best friend again, and they hugged to end the show. *****½
402
403The WWE Hall of Fame ceremony on 4/6 turned into a national news story when a nutjob MMA fighter charged into the ring set up at the Barclays Center, getting through the ropes and tackled Bret Hart while pulling him down, knocking down Natalie Neidhart (Natalya), who was standing next to him while both were giving the induction speech about the original Hart Foundation tag team of Bret and Natalie’s father Jim Neidhart.
404
405The fighter, Zach Madsen, 26, threw at least one punch to Hart when he was down and also kicked a security guard in the ribs.
406
407Given that Hart is 61 years old, and suffered a serious stroke plus a number of major injuries including a wrist operation that he never recovered from, and was blindsided and it was done while he was making a speech about his brother-in-law and friend who had just passed away this past year, the entire situation was beyond repugnant.
408
409The chaotic moment, which saw the cameras pull away and go dark during the live show, and edited off the taped show, saw Travis Browne and a number of WWE performers, Shane McMahon, Big E, Xavier Woods, Big Show, Curtis Axel, Heath Slater and Kofi Kingston get into the ring instantly. They tackled Madsen and held him down. Browne threw a few punches at him. Security jumped in and covered him and tried to get Madsen out of the ring. At that point, Davey Boy Smith Jr., the nephew of Bret, jumped on top of Madsen and started throwing left handed punches on him while wearing his sharp Tiger Mask ring. He got about four clean shots in before they pulled him off and security dragged Madsen out of the ring. As Madsen was finally being taken away and at this point was standing and being pulled to the back, Dash Wilder, dressed up in a suit and tie, walked up to Madsen, who was being held, and drilled him with an uppercut that dropped him.
410
411Bret Hart and Neidhart, after things were calmed down, continued their speech. After delivering his speech, Hart was taken to a Brooklyn hospital because of pain and stiffness in his hip. The security guard who Madsen kicked in the ribs was also hospitalized.
412
413“Bret is a cancer survivor, a stroke survivor and one of the greatest wrestlers of all-time,” said Neidhart on Twitter. “He didn’t deserve to be attacked or have his moment or my dad’s diminished. We got it back on track.”
414
415Smith said the reason he didn’t hit the ring immediately is he first thought maybe WWE was shooting an angle, but said that when he saw Shane McMahon and Travis Browne in, he realized that wasn’t the case.
416
417“I would have hit the ring immediately had I known right away it was a shoot.”
418
419Smith said he was so enraged by the situation that he was looking to hurt the guy but Paul Wight and Shane McMahon pulled him off and Shane was yelling “Harry, Harry, stop, stop, no more, he’s going to jail.” Wight was also pleading with him to stop. Smith suffered a cut knuckle from the punches.
420
421According to those on the scene, after Madsen tackled and pulled Bret down and also knocked Nattie over, he was clearly attempting on the ground to hurt Bret but the other talent in the front row instantly hit the ring, most notably Browne, who attacked the attacker and the others helped pull him off.
422
423Madsen was taken in and charged with two counts of third-degree assault and one count of third-degree criminal trespassing, as well as interfering with a sporting event.
424
425When asked by authorities why he attacked Hart, he said, “it was the right time.”
426
427He was taken to the Brooklyn Detention Complex and was being held until a 4/12 court date at Kings Criminal Court in Brooklyn.
428
429Madsen, who came to New York from his home in Lincoln, NE, to do the attack, had a 2-1 record as an amateur fighter in the welterweight division. His twitter account saw a number of crazed posts regarding the WWE, notably about how terrible it was that they were main eventing women at WrestleMania.
430
431He called it a major setback to the human race and called Vince McMahon a fool. But in other posts he called McMahon his hero.
432
433He also complained to HHH on twitter to step in and stop the women’s main event and put the women and his wife, Stephanie McMahon, backstage. He then wrote another message mad that HHH had not responded to him about his complaints.
434
435Madsen had a stalking charge out against him for allegedly violating a protection order from another fighter, Harris Talundzic. Talundzic had accused Madsen of stalking him and trying to start a fight with him. Talundzic, who is also an amateur welterweight fighter, said he left the gym both trained at in Lincoln, NE, due to concern about Madsen’s mental stability.
436
437Madsen was arrested first in September and charged with stalking, a misdemeanor charge, and three counts of violating a harassment protection order. He was released on $15,000 bond.
438
439He had a second arrest on 12/28 on charges of violating a protection order, and was released on 1/3 after posting $500 bond. He was scheduled to have a hearing on the charges on 4/17.
440
441Talundzic’s manger, Nick Goodwin, told the Associated Press that his harassment of Talundzic, both publicly and online, seemed t be the beginning of a self destructive spiral, saying he had also threatened Talundzic’s friends and family and his threats were violent in nature.
442
443Madsen had gone on social media and said that the protection order meant nothing to him.
444
445Madsen graduated from the University of Nebraska with a degree in nutritional science and was working at Allstate before quitting and attempting to be a full-time fighter.’
446
447That was not the only story coming out of the Hall of Fame ceremony. According to Sean Waltman, the writer, Robert “R.D.” Evans, who prepared the speech for Hart and Neidhart was immediately fired because he wrote a line where Hart thanked Vince McMahon for giving the two of them their break together. Writers were either told ahead of time or it was expected that they knew that McMahon’s name was not to be mentioned in any speech.
448
449Evans claimed that he was not fired and he quit. One person who was there said that as he was being berated, and was about to be fired, he quit on his own. It was explained that the attack on Bret caused such a frenzy that it created a very tense atmosphere backstage when the speech was over. The incident took place right after Hart & Neidhart’s speech was over, and it was something of a you can’t fire me because I quit scenario.
450
451Whether Vince was in a bad mood because of the attack on Hart ruining his planned show, he was furious when it was over and tore into Evans, even though the thanking of Vince was on the Teleprompter, meaning it had gotten through a number of channels after Evans wrote it. One person said that it’s possible it could have been resolved but Evans quit.
452
453Even though Evans has a wrestler dating back to around 2005 in Texas, best known in CHIKARA as Archibald Peck, The Handsome Stranger and Mixed Marital Archie doing an MMA fighter, spoof, as well as working as R.D. Evans in ROH from 2012 to 2014, very very few people in the locker room had any idea he was a trained wrestler. The belief among most of the wrestlers is he was another writer who grew up as a fan.
454
455What made that story even more unique is that after the commotion over that incident, Shawn Michaels asked McMahon if they could mention his name in their speech later and McMahon laughed about it and said he had no problem with it. They turned the incident into a comedy routine that went forever and overstayed its welcome with everyone talking about how they can’t mention the name Vince McMahon, and in doing so constantly mentioned the name Vince McMahon.
456
457This led to HHH joking about how apparently these days if you put the term Executive Vice President in front of your name, it makes people feel important, which was a clear shot at The Young Bucks, Kenny Omega and Cody, who had turned down HHH’s attempts to sign them late last year.
458
459It is true that after turning him down, they spent weeks spoofing a character called “H” on Being the Elite who was trying to sign all of them, including Adam Page and Christopher Daniels.
460
461HHH made a set-up remark about how Vince McMahon likes to hire people, just so he can fire them. Billy Gunn, who works for AEW, but was given permission to appear on the WWE event as part of the DX Induction, said how Vince can’t fire him again.
462
463HHH said that “Vince will buy that little pissant company just to fire you again.”
464
465Later, when fans did the “Too sweet, whoop whoop” chant which is actually for Marty Scurll, but HHH evidently believed it was for the Young Bucks, made another remark saying how DX did things that were cool, “but that wasn’t cool at all. But whatever, fans do what they want these days.”
466
467A notable thing is that on the BTE show that came out two days later, with the title “Pissant,” nothing was spoofed about that incident nor addressed. Nobody from AEW has said anything publicly about it, because of the deal they have to not publicly knock WWE. The mentality is to always wish them well, and act like there’s no war, even though everyone involved knows whether they like it or not, there was a war. This may have backfired since all the AEW chants two nights later during Raw (although for whatever reason, the crowd chanted it very loudly only during the commercial break) were likely stemming from this.
468
469The event drew 10,000 fans to the Barclays Center going head-to-head with a number of pro wrestling events in the area, most notably the ROH/NJPW Madison Square Garden show.
470
471In an interesting stat regarding general public interest in the weekend shows, WrestleMania topped 2 million Google searches and was the single most searched topic on the Internet on 4/7. That number would be in the same range as most WrestleMania shows do.
472
473The New Japan/ROH show in Madison Square Garden on 4/6 did not crack the top 20, and No. 20 on that day was only 20,000 searches. New Japan has only once had a top 20 presence, which would have been for the 2018 Tokyo Dome show with the Kenny Omega vs. Chris Jericho match, and even that was minimal. None of its U.S. shows that were specials of AXS have ever trended.
474
475NXT Takeovers, which had never trended in the past, did so for the second straight big show, finishing at No. 19 on 4/5, with 50,000 searches. The name Becky Lynch on Friday with all her media work, was No. 14, also with about 50,000 searches.
476
477As noted before, the two big AEW rallies did not trend either.
478
479While non-WWE wrestling clearly has enough underground support to fill arenas with traveling fans, it’s a relatively small in numbers but high in passion and merchandise sales ability fan base.
480
481The real key for AEW at this point is whether television can build them a new audience, like it did with UFC and TNA when both started on Spike. But the world and television are very different from 2005. Still, even without television, UFC was able to do 20,000 to as much as 150,000 PPV buys for its shows and sellout Las Vegas for its biggest events. Then its popularity exploded once it got on Spike TV, to where PPV ranged by the end of 2006 were as high as 900,000 buys. Impact had TV on Fox Sports Net, doing about 250,000 viewers per week, and went to Spike and was doing 1 million in a bad late Saturday night time slot, and beat that number by a significant margin almost every week when moved to prime time until the very end of its run on the station.
482
483AEW has no television presence, but has momentum, popularity underground and merchandise sales and live ticket sales that blow away where TNA was when it went on Spike. It will also start immediately, no matter which of the two deals that they take that are in play, on a station far more prestigious than Spike, and in a far better time slot than TNA started with, and likely equal to what TNA had in its peak. But with so much WWE television and television itself being so much weaker than it was in 2005 when it comes to the ability to get a new audience for new shows, it won’t be as easy. In addition, when you are on a better station, the level of numbers needed are more significant. The one-time All In pre-show special that did 200,000 viewers was fine for WGN American, but that number would not be a success for a major station.
484
485But the fact a New Japan event from a sold out Madison Square Garden doesn’t register, at a time when Bellator’s big shows always do, shows that to the public at large, television is still the key more than anything else in getting a combat sports entertainment product into real mainstream interest.
486
487AAA officially announced 9/15 as the date of their first Madison Square Garden event.
488
489The company held an event in 1994 within Madison Square Garden, at what is now called the Hulu Theater, which drew about 2,800 paid and 3,300 total. Keep in mind this was when the company was stronger, as it has superstars like Konnan, Perro Aguayo, Love Machine, El Hijo del Santo and Octagon as its top stars, plus brought in Jake Roberts and Tito Santana. They also had weekly television on Galavision.
490
491Konnan brought that show up, noting that when they did the show, Antonio Pena, who founded and ran the company until his death, at the time, told Konnan that one day they would run the big arena, and he noted it took 25 years and now they are doing it.
492
493AAA is the most popular Mexican company when it comes to television and mainstream, although CMLL’s Friday night shows at Arena Mexico are the biggest drawing events almost every week. CMLL exists in its own cocoon, without long-term goals past running shows every week in the arenas they own in Mexico City, Guadalajara and Puebla, and booking its talent to promoters around the country.
494
495AAA, which is owned by the Roldan family, with Marisela Pena Roldan (Antonio’s sister) as President and her son Dorian Roldan is basically in charge of the business. Roldan is also a partner in Lucha Underground. His goal has always been to take AAA worldwide.
496
497What appears to be the situation here is that the Oak View Group, which was represented at the press conference by Peter Luuko, and Schramm Marketing, who promoted a Mexican World Cup soccer team game in New York in 2013, have made a deal to promote live events in the U.S. The goal is to start with this show, then run a second show at the Forum in Los Angeles, and then bring AAA into other major market arenas that the Oak View Group runs. Of course, the problem is whether it can draw. AAA had great success for a few years in the early 90s, mostly in Los Angeles and San Jose, and lesser in places like Chicago and New York. After the ensuing 25 years, they ran some U.S. shows, some of which drew okay and some of which didn’t, but obviously it was never successful enough to have staying power. During most of that period, the promotion had U.S. television with Galavision.
498
499If Madison Square Garden doesn’t do well, it would have a good chance to nix the rest of the tour. While we’ve seen with All In that the traditional rules of needing television to do major arenas successfully is no longer a hard and fast rule, I think All In as the exception to the rule that not that a new rule has been created.
500
501The idea here is the idea of bringing traditional Mexican entertainment to New York which happens to be wrestling, as opposed to the idea of drawing 15,000 pro wrestling fans to see AAA. It sounds logical on paper with so many tourists in town, but there is no historical precedent of this working with pro wrestling. Even in Mexico, AAA coming to town isn’t drawing 15,000 fans to a show except for TripleMania.
502
503Last year, when AAA got a date to become the first non-McMahon promotion to run MSG, they ended up not running the date because of the idea of running an arena so big without television, and at the time the idea was that they would try and get U.S. television and then run major arenas.
504
505They still don’t have television. It’s hard to see how this can sell enough tickets to be viable.
506
507The idea is counting on the date, which will be the Sunday of Mexican Independence day weekend, and drawing from Mexican tourists as well as the rest of the Latin community with the idea of seeing an authentic Mexican entertainment staple. They kept away from Saturday night, probably because traditionally boxing has a major event the Saturday night of that weekend, likely with Canelo Alvarez, the biggest draw to that demo.
508
509Because of that, the local promoters want the show to be pure AAA Lucha Libre, and not, at least at this point, be something like a joint show with AEW, its U.S. partner. Right now there are no plans for AEW to send talent and nobody from Impact was present. We were outright told by both AAA and AEW that right now there are no plans for involvement together on ths show, and if that were to change, it would be minimal and nothing like the New Japan/ROH situation.
510
511WWE is countering the show by booking television tapings in MSG, something it hasn’t done since 2009, running not just Raw but also Smackdown on 9/9 and 9/10. WWE Raw in MSG should sell out instantly.
512
513The only outside talent announced was Impact’s Tessa Blanchard, who had a confrontation with Taya Valkyrie (who is Impact champion but is now back with AAA since Konnan returned as booker after a falling out with the promotion a few years ago). Scott D’Amore and Ed Nordholm were at the press conference, but never spoke, were not on the stage nor referenced.
514
515There was a lot of talk of selling out the venue, although those close to the situation said that the market research done claimed that they wouldn’t sell out, but would be able to draw a healthy crowd. The costs of running MSG are so high, far more than any other arena in North America, because you’re paying for the prestige of “the world’s most famous arena,” but it also means a show doing a $300,000 gate, which is fine just about everywhere else, is a huge money loser in MSG.
516
517Tickets go on sale 5/5. The nature of wrestling these days is usually tickets are sold in advance, so you would immediately know how this is doing. But the Mexican market has a higher percentage of walk-ups, plus the whole idea of this show on this date is that so many Latinos and Mexicans will be coming to New York on vacation and they’ll be looking for authentic entertainment when they get there. Whether this is viable for a company without any television, and also, without the unique strong social media presence that AEW has that has allowed them to break the usual rules of promoting wrestling. When AAA was doing big in Los Angeles in 1992-94, when they were beating both WWF and WCW in the market, they had local television that was drawing 6 to 7 ratings which was a huge key, plus Lucha Libre was in a huge boom in Mexico.
518
519The talent at the press conference, with the exception of Blue Demon Jr., who was presented like he was the biggest star, Roldan, and television announcer Hugo Savinovich, were talent who were already in the area for independent shows. Neither Dr. Wagner Jr., who has been headlining TripleMania, nor Psycho Clown, the company’s most popular wrestler right now, were brought in.
520
521Roldan thanked the local promoters for bringing them in and called it one of the most important moments in company history, calling it a game changer. He said they would be announcing the Los Angeles show in a few weeks. I believe there is no date confirmed for Los Angeles.
522
523Others on the stage besides business people involved with the show, were Daga, Puma King, Aerostar, Fenix, Drago, Valkyrie, Blanchard, Konnan (who was referred to as the creative force behind the company), Pentagon Jr., and Savinovich.
524
525One of the business leaders at the event was from Puerto Rico, and grew up during the heyday of WWC, and you have to remember wrestling did gigantic ratings on television there in the 70s and 80s and he was thrilled meeting Savinovich, noting he was a household name as the wrestling announcer during the glory days. Savinovich was in a different league with everyone else was far as being a wrestling hypester and charismatic talker, even more than Pentagon or Konnan.
526
527There was also questions about Cain Velasquez wrestling on the show. Roldan said that Velasquez being on TripleMania gave the promotion attention and talk in places that usually don’t talk about wrestling and they’d love to have him. He noted they had signed a one-show deal but said it was possible they could get him for the show.
528
529The original pitch to Velasquez was two shows, TripleMania and MSG. At the time of the talks, which was before Velasquez’s recent loss to Francis Ngannou, the idea was for him to headline a 9/21 show in Mexico for UFC, meaning a 9/15 pro wrestling date would be impossible. But with his loss and knee injury, him fighting on that date could change which would at least make it possible he’d appear.
530
531WrestleMania week is also the biggest week of the year for independent shows, with something like 55 shows in the New York market over the week, with stuff ranging from the Invisible Man to Virgil and numerous different styles.
532
533The most talked about matches outside of NXT, New Japan/ROH and WWE, as far as high quality appeared to be Josh Barnett vs. Minoru Suzuki on the Bloodsport show, Suzuki & Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Will Ospreay for Revolution Pro, Ospreay vs. Bandido on the WrestleCon Super show, Momo Watanabe vs. Utami Hayashishita at Stardom and Kazusada Higuchi vs. J.D. Drake on the WWN Super show.
534
535The biggest of the non-major promotion shows was the WrestleCon Super Show on 4/4 at the Midtown Hilton in Manhattan that drew a standing room overflow crowd of just under 2,000 fans.
536
537The show was more enjoyable from start-to-finish than anything except NXT for the week. It didn’t drag from going too long. A lot of people thought this show, or Bloodsport (which limited itself to two hours) or DDT were the most enjoyable shows of the week behind NXT.
538
539It was a unique crowd, like most of the indie crowds, who were way more into shtick and silliness, but then would rave about the big matches. The biggest crowd reactions on the show were for Jushin Liger and Orange Cassidy, but they went crazy for surprises like X-Pac and Hurricane Helms. But when they left, everyone was talking about Ospreay and Bandido, and to a lesser extent, Dragon Lee and Cavernario.
540
541The Cassidy match, while it got a great crowd reaction, was the one thing polarizing. In fact, the stuff that seemed to get the loudest positive reaction, a super slow motion chop sequence with Christopher Daniels, also had people in the crowd vehemently furious at the same time. Everyone has their limit on shtick, and there were spots in that match would have had some old school fans and wrestlers furious. But the majority, or at least the loudest, reacted to that in a positive way. A ton of people would hate DDT, but they weren’t the people paying for tickets to DDT and got the show they wanted. A lot of people wouldn’t like Bloodsport because they never saw UWFI and think pro wrestling should only look like what they’ve seen as opposed to the realization pro wrestling can take on a ton of different forms. And the reality is, nobody running shows could compete with WWE and New Japan for talent, so to stand out, you have to go for shtick, which is why the Joey Ryan and Joey Janela shows sold tickets.
542
543The deal with this show, which was the fourth biggest of the weekend, both in terms of star power, budget and crowd, is that they announced only three matches and the rest of the matches were a surprise. The crowd reacted to almost every surprise well, particularly SCU, Liger, X-Pac, Helms and Cassidy. Fans knew Pentagon and Fenix would be there. They got a mix of your Arez and Robbie Eagles types who they really didn’t know at all but did cool stuff, and SCU, who they were happy to see because they have star power to this audience.
544
545The show had a lot of changes because a lot of the talent coming from Mexico was held up in customs at the airport for four hours. Pentagon Jr. & Fenix were supposed to wrestle guys held up, but because they had go to on early since they were scheduled for Impact’s show later that night, the decision was made to have them wrestle each other.
546
547Also, because the athletic commission mandated ambulance wasn’t there when the show was supposed to start, they sent out Road Warrior Animal and Ric Flair out first.
548
549The place went nuts for Flair of course, since fans had no idea he’d be there. He said that for everything he accomplished in wrestling, it doesn’t come close to what her daughter is going to do this week. He said their match would be as big as Hogan slamming Andre, if not bigger. Well, I’d say with the benefit of hindsight that’s probably not the case.
550
5511. Masato Tanaka pinned Eddie Kingston in 8:00. Tanaka was solid with everything he did. The crowd reacted to this more like a Japanese crowd than an American crowd. They were into both guys and it was a good solid match. They did not react like a Japanese crowd the rest of the show. **½
552
5532. Fenix pinned Pentagon Jr. in 7:00. The two came out together and said they were the best tag team in the universe. Fans started chanting “Young Bucks” at them pretty loudly. They started talking that the Young Bucks were afraid to come here. Then they asked fans if they wanted to see them wrestle each other. They went out and did 7:00 of hot moves with the crowd loving it. Fenix did a double jump moonsault off the top rope to the floor. He also did a ropewalk kick. He did a double springboard moonsault. He did a running leaping infrared. Pentagon came off the top rope and hit the Canadian Destroyer for a near fall. They went to the middle of the ring and traded hard chops until Fenix won with a Spanish fly. ***½
554
5553. Tajiri & DJZ & Puma King & Samantha Heights beat LAX & Sammy Guevara & Diamante in 12:02. Fast paced all action real good match. Guevara at one point had DJZ on his shoulders and did ten full squats and a Samoan drop on him. Guevara, DJZ and Ortiz all did dives. With the guys on the floor, Heights and Diamante both went to the top rope. They paused, and then both did flip planchas to the floor. Tajiri then pinned Ortiz after blowing mist in his eyes and hitting a buzzsaw kick. All action and fun from start-to-finish.
556
557The one thing about LAX is that every time you see them, they work their ass off and are really good. ***½
558
5594. Robbie Eagles won a three-way over Arez and Flamita in 6:51. This was also very good, but felt rushed. They had no time to work the match out since Arez didn’t arrive in the building until just before the match, and he was scheduled to work a different match. Flamita and Arez were killing each other with chops. Lots of flying moves from all three. Eagles pinned Arez to take it. ***1/4
560
5615. Jushin Liger & X-Pac & Hurricane Helms beat Caleb Konley & Jake Manning & Zane Riley in 13:36. The crowd was so much easier for these guys. Konley & Manning & Riley were just there to let the other guys do their spots on. The crowd reacted really big when X-Pac and Helms’ music played since they didn’t know they’d be on the show and this was obviously a crowd that had watched wrestling for a long time and was into nostalgia of their youth. But they went bonkers for Liger, who was, by far, the most over person on the show. Every time the crowd would quiet down, X-Pac started clapping. Liger pinned Manning with a brainbuster. The match was all about showcasing Liger, which is all the crowd wanted and the other five probably figured out before the bell and worked out a match to do exactly that. The match itself was nothing special except Liger doing his usual stuff. After the match, X-Pac said that the main reason he was able to be a pro wrestler was Liger and talked of him like he was the greatest of all-time. Helms said that everyone in the building knows who he works for, but he said that he asked for permission to do this match because he wanted to be in the ring with Liger. There was nothing special to the match, but the crowd loved seeing Liger & X-Pac & Helms and reacted to everything they did. **
562
5636. Dragon Lee pinned Cavernario in 12:21. This started out fast and stayed that way. The one thing is that the fans know the New Japan guys and guys like Pentagon who work the U.S., and even Lee, but they don’t know Cavernario. His trademark stuff got oohs and surprise reactions but not giant reactions because this was clearly a crowd wanting to see spots they knew. Lee did tope and knocked Cavernario around four rows deep in the crowd. Then he did a second one that knocked Cavernario five rows deep. Cavernario whipped Lee over the guard rails and Lee flew into the crowd. Lee also did the leap over the top rope and taking Cavernario off the apron with a huracanrana to the floor. Lee did a running flip dive. Cavernario did a splash off the top rope to the floor. People didn’t know Cavernario’s moves so didn’t believe what they were seeing, but didn’t react big to it either. The fans didn’t know either wrestlers trademark moves but they did understand how good Lee is. The crowd in this match didn’t seem to care about who would win, but just wanted to see them do cool moves which they did. The crowd threw money in the ring after the match. By the end the crowd understood Cavernario was the real deal and people were raving about this match after the show. ****1/4
564
5657. Zack Sabre Jr. beat Shane Strickland in 16:41. Sabre mostly controlled him on the mat. Strickland got a big reaction as people seemed to all know he’s finishing up on the indies and this crowd knew who he was and what his big stuff was. Strickland went for a kneedrop off the top rope and Sabre caught him with an STF for the submission. ***3/4
566
5678. Christopher Daniels & Scorpio Sky & Frankie Kazarian beat Orange Cassidy & Chuckie T & Baretta in 18:20. As noted, this was a polarizing match, but the vast majority of fans enjoyed it for what it was. On the indie level, the SCU gimmick is super over at least as far as fans that attend. And getting them as a surprise made it even easier. When people saw Cassidy’s video they exploded. Cassidy’s stuff of doing high spots with his hands in his pants and wearing sunglasses got over. This was heavy comedy. At one point Kazarian and Baretta switched teams. Then SCU got heat on Baretta. From a timing and wrestling standpoint, when they were actually doing so, it was all good and the crowd reacted to everything everyone did. They would do spots to build to Best Friends hugs. All of Cassidy’s stuff got over even if I did hear people absolutely furious in the crowd when they did some of the more preposterous stuff like the slow-mo stuff. The finish saw Daniels pin Cassidy with the best Meltzer ever. All six guys did a group hug when it was over. **½
568
5699. Will Ospreay pinned Bandido in 16:48. This was pushed as their first meeting every and lived up to all expectations, if not exceeded them. Ospreay hit the standing Spanish fly, a space flying Tiger drop and an inverted 450 all in the first 30 seconds. If it was someone else, I’d think that’s nuts because what are you going to do the rest of the match, but I’ve seen enough Ospreay that I know it’ll end up fine. Bandido did a fallaway slam and Fosbury flop dive. Bandido did a long delayed vertical suplex including doing squats while holding Ospreay up. Ospreay did the Shibata low dropkick and a springboard elbow. Bandido pressed Ospreay and held him up with one arm. Bandido did this flip move that ended with a German suplex, but Ospreay landed on his feet. That spot was amazing. Bandido did a reverse huracanrana off the middle rope. In a sense, at first after reading the crowd all night, I’d say this is a crowd to have fun and do shtick with and not the NXT or New Japan crowds that wanted match of the year as they were working a PWG match for a nostalgia show crowd. But in time, I think a match like this gets over with almost every crowd because it was that good. Ospreay did a sliding kick that knocked Bandido into the front row. Ospreay then did a springboard plancha into the front row, followed by a missile dropkick to the back. He went for the Stormbreaker, but Bandido turned it into a huracanrana for a near fall. Bandido used a torture rack into a GTS for a great near fall. Storm got the clean pin with the Oscutter. I obviously didn’t see every weekend match, but it’s hard for me to think this wasn’t top three or four. ****3/4
570
571The post-WrestleMania Smackdown on 4/9 did 2,199,000 viewers, which was up three percent from the prior week, but down 26 percent from the same show one year ago. This was the usual levels the show has been doing so unlike last year, there was no WrestleMania bump at all.
572
573There’s no way to excuse this drop in the sense, unlike with Raw, there was no NCAA basketball game. Whatever it was, the ratings for Raw and Smackdown clearly show that the wrestling fan base from a casual standpoint when it comes to swelling for Mania exists in lower numbers than ever before. They have a strong and loyal hardcore audience, but that may be generally all that wrestling attracts now.
574
575Smackdown was seventh for the night on cable.
576
577The show did a 0.46 in 12-17 (up 9.5 percent from last week; down 34.3 percent from the same show last year); 0.60 in 18-34 (up 20.0 percent from last week; down 25.9 percent from last year); 0.96 in 35-49 (up 4.3 percent from last week, down 16.5 percent from last year) and 0.88 in 50+ (down 3.3 percent from last week; down 22.8 percent from last year).
578
579The audience was 64.7 percent male in 18-49 and 61.7 percent male in 12-17.
580
581Miz & Mrs. on 4/9 did 997,000 viewers, identical with the prior week and tying the show’s lowest-ever marks. As far as the retention from Smackdown, they kept 69.1 percent of women 18-49, 45.5 percent of men 18-49, 53.9 percent of girls 12-17, 38.6 percent of boys 12-17 and 37.5 percent of those over 50.
582
583The post-WrestleMania Raw may have done the company’s best numbers since 8/20, but after a big Mania, the number has to be considered a huge disappointment.
584
585The 4/8 show did a 2.02 rating and 2,924,000 viewers (1.59 viewers per home), barely the best of the year. The number for all three hours were almost identical to the 2/15 show (promoted around Roman Reigns returning to give an update on his cancer diagnosis) which did 2,922,000 viewers.
586
587The number was up 10.8 percent from last week, but last year’s Raw after Mania was up 16.8.
588
589Some of that difference is that last year the Raw before Mania went against the finals of the NCAA basketball tournament. This year the NCAA finals went head-to-head with the Raw after Mania and did 19,630,000 viewers on CBS. The finals were up from last year’s 15,967,000 viewers, but comparisons aren’t fair because this year was on CBS while last year the show was a combined number of TBS, TNT and Tru TV.
590
591The year before, when the Raw after Mania didn’t go against the tournament, the increase was 14.4 percent.
592
593But the Raw viewership was down 25.1 percent and rating down 25.7 percent from last year’s 2.72 rating and 3,903,000 viewers.
594
595In 2017, Raw after Mania did go against the NCAA finals and did 3,757,000 viewers. Other Raw after Mania numbers were 4,079,000 in 2016, 5,140,000 in 2015 and 4,611,000 in 2014.
596
597The ratings pattern also told a story with a 16.8 percent first-to-third hour drop when they spent the entire show building the third hour for the Kofi Kingston vs. Seth Rollins unification match. That tells you just how little the idea of a title unification meant to the television fan when so many dropped off rather than stayed up to watch it. It also wasn’t a good early sign for the mainstream appeal of the two new champions defending their newly-won titles one day after Mania.
598
599As far as the drops, it was 13.7 percent with women 18-49, 12.2 percent with men 18-49, 20.7 percent with girls 12-17, 5.4 percent with boys 12-17 and 20.2 percent among those over 50. This is probably as good as statistic as anything to tell you what the value of the world championship, the title unification and Kingston and Rollins appeal as new champions was in each demo.
600
601The show did a 0.72 in 12-17 (up 28.6 percent from last week; down 28.0 percent from last year), 0.91 in 18-34 (up 30.0 percent from last week; down 26.7 percent from last year), 1.25 in 35-49 (up 9.6 percent from last week; down 25.6 percent from last year) and 1.10 in 50+ (up 5.8 percent from last week; down 19.1 percent from last year).
602
603The audience was 68.5 percent male in 18-49, its highest male skew in a long time; and 64.1 percent male in 12-17.
604
605The Hall of Fame show that followed Raw on 4/8 did 1,154,000 viewers. Last year’s Hall of Fame show aired on a Saturday night with no wrestling lead-in and did 665,000 viewers.
606
607Hall of Fame retention over hour three of Raw was 39.7 percent among women 18-49, 38.7 percent among men 18-49, 35.3 percent among girls 12-17, 35.1 percent in boys 12-17 and 49.5 percent among those over 50. So, not surprisingly, the appeal of the Hall of Fame is far stronger among those over 50.
608
609The WrestleMania pregame show on 4/7, airing from 6-7 p.m., did 749,000 viewers, up 12.6 percent from last year’s 665,000 viewers.
610
611Smackdown on 4/2 did 2,141,000 viewers for the last show before WrestleMania, a drop of 10.5 percent from the previous week’s unusually high marks. I’d have to consider disappointing even though the Smackdown before WrestleMania traditionally doesn’t do big numbers. It’s a 13 percent drop from the 2,467,000 for the same Smackdown before WrestleMania last year.
612
613Smackdown was ninth for the night on cable, with Curse of Oak Island the only non-news show to beat it. NBA on TNT head-to-head did 1,168,000 viewers.
614
615The show did a 0.42 in 12-17 (down 23.6 percent from last week’s show built around the gauntlet to get Kofi Kingston into the WrestleMania title match and Charlotte Flair’s title win), 0.50 in 18-34 (down 15.3 percent), 0.92 in 35-49 (down 7.1 percent) and 0.91 in 50+ (down 12.5 percent).
616
617The audience was 63.8 percent males in 18-49 and 49.2 percent male in 12-17.
618
619The debut of the second season of Miz & Mrs. on 4/2 did 997,000 viewers. The lowest rating of the first season was 1.16 million. As far as the retention rate for the show after Smackdown, it kept 75 percent of Women 18-49, 48 percent of Men 18-49, 61 percent of girls 12-17, 48 percent of boys 12-17 and 37 percent of viewers over the age of 50. Miz & Mrs. did 53.8 percent of men in18-49 and 42.2 in 50+.
620
621This is the first issue of the current set. If you’ve got a (1) on your address label, with this being a double issue, it means your subscription expires in two more weeks.
622
623 
624
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626
627For Canada and Mexico, the rates are $15 for four issues (which includes $6 for postage and handling), $27 for eight, $38.50 for 12, $50 for 16, $75 or 24, $100 for 32, $125 for 40 issues, $162.50 for 52 and $200 for 64.
628
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630
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632
633For 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.
634
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636
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638
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640
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642
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644
645This publication is copyright material and no portion of the Observer may be reprinted without the expressed consent of publisher/writer Dave Meltzer. The Observer is also produced by Derek Sabato.
646
647Fax messages can be sent to the Observer 24 hours a day at (408) 244-3402. Phone messages can be left 24 hours a day at (408) 244-2455. E-mails can be sent to Dave@wrestlingobserver.com
648
649RESULTS
650
651 
652
6534/4 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (All Japan Champion Carnival - 1,316): Takao Omori & Masa Fuchi & Yusuke Okada & Hokuto Omori & Dan Tamura b Jun Akiyama & Koji Iwamoto & Atsushi Maruyama & Black Menso-re & Atsuki Aoyagi, Dylan James & Gianni Valletta & Joel Redman & Sam Adonis b Zeus & Yuma Aoyagi & Yoshitatsu, Takashi Yoshida b Daichi Hashimoto, Naoya Nomura b Jake Lee, Kento Miyahara b Atsushi Aoki, Suwama b Joe Doering, Yuji Okabayashi b Shuji Ishikawa
654
6554/4 New York (MLW TV tapings - 1,000 sellout): Ariel Dominguez b Brian Idol, Jordan Oliver b Kotto Brazil, Brian Pillman Jr. b MJF, Jacob Fatu b Barrington Hughes, Rey Horus b Ace Austin, Low Ki & Ricky Martinez b ?, Rich Swann & Myron Reed b Jimmy Yuta & Lance Anoa’i, Minoru Tanaka b Daga, Tables match: Dynasty b Teddy Hart & Davey Boy Smith Jr., Josefl Samael b Ace Romero, Gringo Loco b Puma King, Sami Callihan NC Mance Warner, Air Wolf b Rey Fenix, MLW title: Tom Lawlor b Jimmy Havoc, L.A. Park b Pentagon Jr.
656
6574/4 Jersey City, NJ (Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport): Dominic Garrini b Phil Baroni-DQ, J.R, Kratos b Simon Grimm, Davey Boy Smith Jr. b Killer Kross, Masashi Takeda b Jonathan Gresham, Chris Dickinson b Andy Williams, Frank Mir b Dan Severn, Hideki Suzuki b Timothy Thatcher, Josh Barnett d Minoru Suzuki 25:00
658
6594/4 Queens, NY (wXw - 500): LAX b Jurn Simmons & Alexander James, Avalanche b Darby Allin, Jordynne Grace b Yuu, Shotgun title: Emil Sitoci b Marius Al-Ani, Lucky Kid b David Starr, Chris Brooks b Absolute Andy, Tag titles: Mark Davis & Kyle Fletcher b J.D. Drake & Anthony Henry, wXw title: Bobby Gunns b Shigehiro Irie
660
6614/4 Queens, NY (DDT - 650 sellout): Soma Takao & Tetsuya Endo b Yukio Sakaguchi & Masahiro Takanashi, Kazuki Hirata won over Makoto Oishi, Saki Akai, Yoshihiko, Kikutaro, Colt Cabana, Mizuki Watase and Yuu, Harashima & Kazusada Higuchi b Akito & Ethan Page, Sanshiro Takagi won Weapons Rumble, Miyu Yamashita b Maki Ito, Joey Ryan & Royce Isaacs b Antonio Honda & Danshoku Dino, KO-D title: Daisuke Sasaki b Konosuke Takeshita to win title, KO-D title: Tetsuya Endo b Daisuke Sasaki to win title
662
6634/5 Mexico City Arena Mexico (CMLL): Metalico & Sangre Azteca b Magnus & Robin, Jarochita & Marcela & Princesa Sugehit b Amapola & Dalys & Tiffany, Ephesto & Luciferno & Mephisto b Audaz & Flyer & Stuka Jr., Felino b Hechicero, Cavernario & Mr. Niebla & Negro Casas b Atlantis & Atlantis Jr.& Titan, Gilbert el Boricua & Bestia del Ring & El Terrible b Caristico & Valiente & Volador Jr.-DQ
664
6654/5 Tijuana, BC (AAA TV tapings): Cosmico won three-way over Saklibur and Kamik-C, Genio del Aire won six-way over Black Destiny, Drake, Jonathan, Rayo Star and Fantastik, Five-way for Latin American title: Drago won over El Hijo del Vikingo, Myzteziz Jr., Aerostar and Argenis, Keyra & Lady Maravilla & Villano III Jr. b Hiedra & Lady Shani & Nino Hamburguesa, Mamba & Maximo & Pimpinela Escarlata b Averno & Chessman & Super Fly, La Mascara & El Texano Jr. b Joe Lider & Pagano, Cage match: Dr. Wagner Jr. & Psycho Clown b Blue Demon Jr. & Rey Escorpion
666
6674/5 New York (Revolution Pro - 1,000): Chris Brookes & Jonathan Gresham b Clark Connors & Karl Fredericks, Carlos Romo won four-way over A-Kid, Flamita and Kid Lykos, Brian Cage b Michael Oku, Non-title: Minoru Suzuki & Zack Sabre Jr. b Hiroshi Tanahashi & Will Ospreay, Ryusuke Taguchi b Rocky Romero, Tomohiro Ishii b David Starr, Mark Davis & Kyle Fletcher b Sho & Yoh
668
6694/5 Queens, NY (Stardom - 650 sellout): Jungle Kyona & Natsuko Tora b Sonya Strong & Violetta, Hana Kimura & Bobby Tyler b Brittany Blake & Britt Baker, High Speed title: Hazuki b Dust, Wonder of Stardom title: Momo Watanabe b Utami Hayashishita, Elimination match: Mayu Iwatani & Arisa Hoshiki & Saki Kashima & Tam Nakano b Kagetsu & Andras Miyagi & Jamie Hayter & Session Moth Martina
670
6714/5 Jersey City, NJ (Joey Janela Spring break - 650 sellout): Marko Stunt b Joey Janela, Tony Deppen b Dustin Thomas, Jungle Boy won six-way over A-Kid, Jake Atlas, Australian Suicide, Slim J and Shane Mercer, Nick Gagne b Shinjiro Otani, Invisible Man b Invisible Stan, Taka Michinoku b Orange Cassidy, Starman (Virgil) b Ethan page, Death match: Masashi Takeda b Jimmy Lloyd
672
6734/5 Queens, NY (WWN Supershow - 300): Anthony Henry b Absolute Andy, Anthony Greene won seven-way elimination match over Barrett Brown, Cyrus Satin, Colby Corino, John Silver, Harlem Bravado and Shotzi Blackheart, Miyu Yamashita b Allysin Kay, Austin Theory & Brandi Lauren b Darby Allin & Priscilla Kelly, Eddie Kingston & Joe Gacy & Shane Strickland b Marius Al-Ani & Alexander James & Jurn Simmons, WWN title: J.D. Drake b Kazusada Higuchi, Daisuke Sasaki & Tetsuya Endo & Soma Takao b A.R. Fox & Adrian Alanis & Leon Ruff
674
6754/6 Jersey City, NJ (Joey Janela Spring Break - 600 sellout): Jungle Boy b Joey Janela, LAX b Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson, L.A. Park b Masato Tanaka, Battle Royal was no contest
676
6774/6 Kisarazu (All Japan Champion Carnival - 458 sellout): Koji Iwamoto & Hokuto Omori b Yusuke Okada & Atsuki Aoyagi, Jun Akiyama & Atsushi Maruyama & Kim Duk b Takao Omori & Black Menso-re & Kazuuki Enosawa, Daichi Hashimoto b Joel Redman, Dylan James b Ryoji Sai, Yuji Okabayashi b Yuma Aoyagi, Shuji Ishikawa b Atsushi Aoki, Kento Miyahara & Suwama & Zeus & Jake Lee b Joe Doering & Yoshitatsu & Gianni Valletta & Sam Adonis, Naoya Nomura b Takashi Yoshida
678
6794/6 Osaka (Pro Wrestling NOAH - 612): Masa Kitamiya & Yoshiki Inamura & Kinya Okada b Hajime Ohara & Hitoshi Kumano & Junta Miyawaki, Mohammed Yone & Quiet Storm b Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue, Katsuhiko Nakajima & Go Shiozaki b Naomichi Marufuji & Hi69, Yoshinari Ogawa & Kotaro Suzuki & Yo-Hey b Daisuke Harada & Tadasuke & Hayata, Maybach Taniguchi & Yuji Hino b Takashi Sugiura & Kazma Sakamoto, Kaito Kiyomiya & Kenou b Atsushi Kotoge & Mitsuya Nagai
680
6814/7 Brooklyn (WWE Axxess): Dana Brooke b Jessie Elaban, No DQ for U.K. women’s title: Toni Storm won three-way over Bianca Belair and Nikki Cross, Candice LaRae b Kay Lee Ray, Marina Shafir b Taynara Conti, Piper Niven b Zelina Vega, Aliyah & Vanessa Borne b Xia Li & Kavita Devi Sony Deville b Io Shirai, Kairi Sane b Jessamyn Duke, Kacy Catanzaro b Reina Gonzalez-DQ, Lacey Lane b Deonna Purrazzo
682
6834/7 Nagoya (All Japan Champion Carnival - 694): Atsushi Aoki & Hikaru Sato & Kyosuke Ikaho b Koji Iwamoto & Dan Tamura & Daimonji So, Dylan James & Black Menso-re & Sam Adonis & Joel Redman & Futoshi Kyoboku b Jun Akiyama & Takao Omori & Naoya Nomura & Atsushi Maruyama & Kazma Sakamoto, Zeus b Gianni Valletta, Daichi Hashimoto b Jake Lee, Kento Miyahara &Yuma Aoyagi b Suwama & Yusuke Okada, Shuji Ishikawa d Ryoji Sai 30:00, Yoshitatsu b Joe Doering
684
6854/7 Nara (Pro Wrestling NOAH - 242): Hitoshi Kumano won three-way over Daisuke Harada and Junta Miyawaki, Maybach Taniguchi b Kinya Okada, Takashi Sugiura & Nosawa b Quiet Storm & Hi69, Atsushi Kotoge & Mitsuya Nagai b Akitoshi Saito b Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue, Naomichi Marufuji & Yoshinari Ogawa & Kotaro Suzuki & Yo-Hey b Kaito Kiyomiya & Kenou & Tadasuke & Hayata, Katsuhiko Nakajima & Go Shiozaki b Masa Kitamiya & Yoshiki Inamura
686
6874/7 Mexico City Arena Mexico (CMLL): Leono & Retro b Apocalipsis & Coyote, Estrellita & Kaho Kobayashi & Maligna b Daly & Comandante & Seductora, Black Panther & Pegasso & Rey Cometa b Disturbio & Universo 2000 Jr. & Virus, Audaz b Kawato San, Atlantis & Titan & Kraneo b Ephesto & Hechicero & Luciferno, Caristico & Valiente & Volador Jr. b Negro Casas & El Terrible & Rey Bucanero
688
6894/8 Brooklyn, NY (WWE Raw/Main Event TV tapings - 13,600 sellout): Jinder Mahal b No Way Jose, Heavy Machinery b The Ascension, Tag titles: Zack Ryder & Curt Hawkins b Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder, Alexa Bliss b Bayley, Ricochet & Aleister Black b Bobby Roode & Chad Gable, IC title: Finn Balor b Sami Zayn, WWE title vs. Universal title: Kofi Kingston NC Seth Rollins, Kofi Kingston & Seth Rollins b Sheamus & Cesaro
690
6914/9 Brooklyn, NY (WWE Smackdown/205 Live TV tapings - 9,500): Harper b EC 3, Ricochet & Aleister Black & Mustafa Ali b Rusev & Shinsuke Nakamura & Andrade, Women’s tag titles: Billie Kay & Peyton Royce b Kristen (Kris Statlander) & Karissa (Karissa Rivera), Tag titles: Matt & Jeff Hardy b Usos to win titles, Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods & Big E b Sheamus & Cesaro & Drew McIntyre, Humberto Carrillo b Jack Gallagher-DQ, Cruiserweight title: Tony Nese b Buddy Murphy, Kevin Owens b Sami Zayn
692
6934/9 Mexico City Arena Mexico (CMLL): Astral & Eddie Moreau b Guerillero & Espiritu Negro, Atomo & Gallito & Microman b Chamuel & Mije & Perico Zacarias, Blue Panther Jr. & Audaz & Triton b Kawato San & Tiger & Universo 2000 Jr., Flyer b Felino-DQ, Atlantis & Diamante Azul & Titan b Mephisto & Ephesto & Luciferno, Mexican national trios titles: Cuatrero & Forastero & Sanson b Angel de Oro & Niebla Roja & Soberano Jr.
694
6954/9 Kunibiki (All Japan - 407 sellout): Yuma Aoyagi & Yoshitatsu b Koji Iwamoto & Hokuto Omori, Jun Akiyama & Yusuke Okada & Hikaru Sato b Takao Omori & Black Menso-re & Lowther, Suwama & Shuji Ishikawa & Atsushi Aoki b Joe Doering & Atsushi Maruyama & Futoshi Kyoboku, Dylan James b Gianni Valletta, Jake Lee b Joel Redman, Naoya Nomura b Sam Adonis, Zeus b Kento Miyahara
696
6974/10 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (Dragon Gate - 1,825 sellout): Jason Lee & Shun Skywalker & Yuki Yoshioka & Kota Minoura & Dragon Dia b Ryo Saito & K-Ness & Mondai Ryu & Shachihoko Boy & Hiroshi Yamato, Masaaki Mochizuki & Hyo Watanabe b Yasushi Kanda & Kazma Sakamoto, Strong Machines F& G & J b Kzy & Susumu Yokosuka & Genki Horiguchi, Naruki Doi & Dragon Kid b Masato Yoshino & Kaito Ishida, Big R Shimizu & Ben K b Eita & Takashi Yoshida, Yamato & Kagetora & Kai & Yosuke Santa Maria & Kai b Shuji Kondo & Toru Owashi & Yasshi & Takuya Sugawara & Shogo Takagi
698
6994/10 Hiroshima (All Japan Champion Carnival - 224): Jun Akiyama & Atsushi Maruyama & Takeshi Okada b Yusuke Okada & Atsuki Aoyagi & Rey Paloma, Shuji Ishikawa & Atsushi Aoki & Hikaru Sato b Jake Lee & Koji Iwamoto & Hokuto Omori, Joel Redman b Sam Adonis, Yuma Aoyagi b Zeus, Kento Miyahara & Takao Omori & Black Menso-re b Dylan James & Gianni Valletta & Futoshi Kyoboku, Joe Doering b Naoya Nomura, Yoshitatsu b Suwama
700
701CMLL: CMLL has gotten U.S. TV, starting on Univision Deportes starting late Thursday nights with a early Saturday morning replay. Both shows are in time slots people aren’t going to watch on a smaller station. The only key part of the news is that AAA was really hoping for a Univision deal to help them when it came to plans for U.S. touring, and with a Univision arm just starting with their competitor, that would seem unlikely. . . Heel ref Tirantes announced on 3/29 that he is no longer with the promotion. He’s been there for nine years after making his name as a heel ref for AAA. Since he left, his real-life son, El Hijo del Tirantes, became AAA’s heel ref. Tirantes did have heat since at times he’d end matches early with three counts, sometimes saying a wrestler didn’t kick out fast enough and he was calling it as a shoot but sometimes he was quick counting. . . A crazy story is that on the 4/6 show at Arena Coliseo, referee Edgar Noriega and Valiente nearly got into a legit fist fight. It’s not clear what happened. The main event ended and they seemed to have words and Noriega charged after Valiente who tried to kind of get out of his way. But Noriega grabbed him and drove him into a corner where both started struggling in a lock-up. It was kind of preposterous seeing the ref, who is actually much bigger than Valiente, who is a short high flyer, even though he’s almost 45 years old. It was probably the longest I’ve seen something like that go on in a ring in front of fans with wrestlers in the ring. The guys just watched at first. Atlantis made a point to not get near the fight. Finally one of the wrestlers got there and tried to get them to calm down. Neither really threw a punch at the other and once the other wrestler defused everything, Noriega raised the hands of the face team, which included Valiente, to end the match. Noriega is part of the Lutteroth family so he’s not likely to get any repercussions for this ridiculous scene. . . The 4/5 show at Arena Mexico was headlined by Gilbert el Boricua & Bestia del Ring & El Terrible winning via DQ over Caristico & Valiente & Volador Jr. in two straight falls. Gilbert went down and claimed Volador had given him a low blow, and even though that didn’t happen, the ref DQ’d Volador. One would think in 2019 that doing that stuff would be so dated when everyone else does replays and they replay every big spot on the live feed. Cavernario & Negro Casas & Mr. Niebla beat Atlantis & Atlantis Jr. & Titan. Felino beat Hechicero in a match where fans threw money into the ring. . . They are starting a three-week long Parejas increibles tournament, which is where usual rivals become a tag team in a tournament. There is an eight team tournament on 4/12, another eight team tournament on 4/19, and the winners meet for the championship on 4/26. The first week’s teams are Caristico & Mephisto, Angel de Oro & Bestia del Ring, Soberano Jr. & Sanson, Titan & Cavernario, Blue Panther & Mascara Ano 2000, Flyer & Forastero, Guerrero Maya Jr. & Euforia and Triton & Rey Bucanero. The non-tournament top match is Dragon Lee & Niebla Roja & Valiente vs. Gran Guerrero & El Terrible & Casas. . . Wrestler Rey Aguila went into convulsions during a match in Oaxaca over the weekend and was stabilized and taken to the hospital. . . Cuatrero & Forastero & Sanson retained the Mexican national trios titles over Angel de Oro & Niebla Roja & Soberano Jr., on the 4/9 show at Arena Mexico in a match that was said to be really strong. . . El Terrible defends his Mexican national heavyweight title against Valiente on 4/14 at Arena Mexico.
702
703AAA: For the TV ratings for 3/29, AAA on Friday at 4:30 p.m. for two hours averaged a 2.3 rating and 4.1 million viewers, up 24 percent from the prior week. After seven weeks, the show has ranged from a low of 3.2 million in week two to a high of 4.4 million in week one and four, and averages 3.9 million viewers. The peak rating hit a 2.9 for the Laredo Kid vs. Sammy Guevara match. The TV main event was Rey Escorpion & El Texano Jr & Jeff Jarrett vs Pagano & Dr. Wagner Jr. & Psycho Clown, which peaked at a 2.8. The reason the rating was up was because it was matches from Rey de Reyes. The viewership is 52 percent male, so they have, by percentage, a higher female viewership component than the U.S. groups and also far more children, as the audience is 24 percent 12 and under, 13 percent 13/18, 13 percent 19-29, 22 percent 30-44, 10 percent 45-54 and 18% 55+. So it skews much lower than WWE where about 50 percent of the viewers are over 50. . . CMLL on Televisa on 3/30 at 4:30 p.m. (A better station and for a 4:30 p.m. start, Saturday is superior to Friday), cut to one hour from the usual two did a 1.1 rating and 1.3 million viewers. . . Rodolfo Ramirez, the Executive Director of Azteca Deportes, said that AAA had signed a two year deal with a two year option. In an articles in Mexico’s version of Forbes on AAA getting on TV Azteca, Dorian Roldan said that AAA was doing 1.1 million viewers on Televisa, so CMLL is doing similar numbers if not better than AAA, but AAA is blowing them away by moving to a station where they are doing better. The story also talked about the move from Saturday afternoon to Friday afternoon, a decision by TV Azteca, which they believe has helped ratings because 30 percent of AAA’s viewing audience is children (37 percent is actually 18 and under) and that putting AAA on after cartoons aimed for children made it a strong time slot of them. Roldan also said that 30 percent of company income comes from selling content, which would be television and streaming deals worldwide. They also said they got their full-time streaming deal with Twitch after doing an experimental TripleMania show, the one with Dr Wagner Jr. vs. Psycho Clown in the mask vs. mask match, that did 90,000 viewers on Twitch. . . They taped TV on 4/5 in Tijuana. Was told the show was fine but nothing great. The main event was a cage match with Dr. Wagner Jr. & Psycho Clown beating Blue Demon Jr. & Rey Escorpion. Wagner unmasked Demon and then escaped the cage while Demon let him go to protect his identity. This is all building to Wagner’s hair vs. Demon’s mask at TripleMania in August. La Mascara & El Texano Jr. beat Joe Lider & Pagano. Hiedra turned on her tecnico partners Lady Shani and Nino Hamburguesa in a trios match against Keyra & Lady Maravilla & Villano III Jr. So Shani is joined Konnan’s heel Mercenarios group. Drago retained the Latin American title in a five-way over El Hijo del Vikingo, Myzteziz Jr., Aerostar and Argenis. . . Upcoming TV tapings and live Twitch shows are 5/3 from Los Mochis, Sinaloa, with Wagner Jr. & Pagano vs. Blue Demon Jr. & El Texano Jr., a lumberjack match with Psycho Clown vs. Rey Escorpion and Flamita & El Hijo del Vikingo & Myzteziz Jr. vs. Chessman & La Mascara & Taurus. 5/5 in Hermosillo has Wagner & Pagano & Psycho vs. Chessman & Escorpion & Texano Jr., on top, plus Brian Cage & Drago & Golden Magic vs. Mascara & Monsther Clown & Taurus.
704
705DRAGON GATE: They ran Korakuen Hall on 4/10 and drew a sellout of 1,825 fans with a special 20th anniversary match that featured the return of Yosuke Santa Maria. Santa Maria teamed with Yamato & Kagetora & Kai & U-T to beat Shuji Kondo & Toru Owashi & Yasshi & Takuya Sugawara & Shogo Takagi as the main event. The show also featured the debut of the new Strong Machines, a trio of Strong Machines F & G & J. J is the star of th team, as he’s the real-life son of Junji Hirata, who was Super Strong Machine for New Japan for decades. The trio debuted with Ichimasa Wakamatsu, who managed the Strong Machines in New Japan in the 80s, as well as being a heel manager for years in Calgary, in their corner. Wakamatsu is 77 years old. They debuted beating Kzy & Susumu Yokosuka & Genki Horiguchi when J used his father’s windmill suplex on Horiguchi. There were some challenges issued during the show. Big R Shimizu & Ben K will have a future Open the Twin Gate title defense against Yamato & Kai. Masato Yoshino also said that he would like a match with Ultimo Dragon. Dragon started a lot of the older wrestlers in this promotion out when it was called Toryumon. Dragon split from the promotion in 2004 and that’s when they changed their name to Dragon Gate since Dragon had the rights to the Toryumon name.
706
707ALL JAPAN: The Champion Carnival tournament opened on 4/4 at Korakuen Hall before 1,316 fans. In the A block, Kento Miyahara beat Atsushi Aoki in 13:30 with a shutdown German suplex and Yuji Okabayashi beat Shuji Ishikawa in 22:34 with the Golem splash. The B block matches saw Takashi Yoshida of Dragon Gate beat Daichi Hashimoto of Big Japan in 7:52 with the pineapple bomber; Naoya Nomura beat Jake Lee with the Nomura lock in 12:14 and Suwama beat Joe Doering via ref stoppage in 9:14 when Suwama got the choke. . . On 4/6 in Kisarazu before a sellout of 458 fans, in A block matches, Dylan James pinned Ryoji Sai in 8:20 with a lariat and Ishikawa beat Aoki in 7:58 with a running knee. The B block matches saw Hashimoto beat Joel Redman in 8:00 with a shining wizard; Okabayashi beat Yuma Aoyagi in 5:28 and Nomura beat Dragon Gate’s Yoshida in 17:43. . . On 4/7 in Nagoya before 694 fans, in A block matches, Zeus pinned Gianni Valletta in 4:34 with a jackhammer slam and Ishikawa went to a 30:00 draw with Sai. On the B block side, Hashimoto pinned Lee in 10:28 with a shining wizard and Yoshitatsu pinned Doering in 16:13. . . 4/9 in Kunibiki before a full house of 407 saw A block results of James over Valletta in 10:30 with a choke slam and Zeus over Miyahara in 17:04 with a jackhammer slam. That should get Zeus a Triple Crown title shot. B block saw Lee over Redman in 12:47 with a back suplex and Nomura beat Adonis in 13:11 with the Nomura lock. . . 4/10 in Hiroshima before 224 fans saw one A block bout. Aoyagi beat Zeus in 11:02 with the end game, so Zeus loses the day after beating Miyahara. There were three B block bouts with Redman over Adonis in 8:51, Doering over Nomura with a flying body press in 10:47 and in a big upset, Yoshitatsu beat Suwama in 20:16.
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709PRO WRESTLING NOAH: The Global Tag League tournament opened on 4/6 in Osaka before 612 fans. Mohammed Yone & Quiet Storm beat Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue; Maybach Taniguchi & Yuji Hino beat Takashi Sugiura & Kazma Sakamoto and Kaito Kiyomiya & Kenou beat Atsushi Kotoge & Mitsuya Nagai when Kiyomiya pinned Kotoge with a Tiger suplex. . . The second night, on 4/7 in Nara before 242 fans, saw Atsushi Kotoge & Mitsuya Nagai beat Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue when Kotoge pinned Inoue in 13:42 with a Revolution splash, and Katsuhiko Nakajima & Go Shiozaki beat Masa Kitamiya & Yoshiki Inamura in 22:43 when Nakajima pinned Inamura with a brainbuster. It should be pointed out that Inamura at this stage of his career being in a main event is a pretty big deal. I saw him on my Japan trip and he’s definitely somebody to watch out for as the live fans know him and see him as a future star.
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711NEW JAPAN: They are discounting tickets in Dallas for 7/6 now because the advance is so disappointing. There are very different views as it’s been expressed that doing so feels like cheapening the product and New Japan’s appeal is to a select group that is willing to pay for the tickets, but the issue is how many of them are in specific markets, especially now with the key American market draws being done. . . Hiroyoshi Tenzan underwent knee surgery this past week. We don’t have any other details past that right now, regarding the severity of the surgery. . . Hiromu Takahashi is scheduled back in action right now late summer after his broken neck. . . The participants in this year’s Best of the Super Juniors tournament are expected to be announced officially in two weeks. There was an unofficial listing that got out with 19 names announced, so it’s likely a 20 man tournament. The names listed were Ryusuke Taguchi, Tiger Mask, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Desperado, Flip Gordon, Marty Scurll, Bandido, Jonathan Gresham, Taka Michinoku, Dragon Lee, Bushi, Shingo Takagi, Will Ospreay, Robbie Eagles, Taiji Ishimori, Sho, Yoh, Rocky Romero and Titan. I was told that Phantasmo was in this tournament a few months back and they’ve been pushing his debut, so he could be No. 20. . . There was a Bullet Club block party this past week at Redd’s Restaurant in New Jersey on 4/7 pushed as your chance to party with Jay White, Tama Tonga, Bad Luck Fale, Tanga Loa, Robbie Eagles, Taiji Ishimori, Hikuleo, Haku, Yujiro Takahashi, Chase Owens and Gino Gambino (an Australian who is a member of the Bullet Club) which included All You Can Eat with food provided by Jimmy’s Seafood, a hangout for wrestlers in Baltimore. It drew 800 paid and about 1,000 people total.
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713HERE AND THERE: Amazing Red (Jonathan Figueroa, 36), announced his retirement. Originally from Puerto Rico, Red started working at the age of 16 for the IWA and worked for TNA from on-and-off from 2002 to 2005. He retired at one point, and came back to TNA from 2009 to 2011. In 2014, he opened his own wrestling school and ran shows in New York. I saw a lot of wrestlers paying tribute to him this past week by doing his signature spots, most notably the infrared. . . Perhaps the most talked about of the non-major events of the past week was the Josh Barnett Bloodsport show on 4/4 in Jersey City, NJ. This was somewhat reminiscent of UWFI style from the 90s except they worked in a ring without ropes and thus there were no rope breaks. The idea was to work the matches to look real and a lot of former MMA fighters or pro wrestlers with MMA training were on the show. Dominic Garrini beat Phil Baroni via DQ. Baroni knocked out Garrini for ten count, but was DQ’d after the match for putting his hands on the referee. J.R. Kratos, a powerhouse Northern California wrestler with some shoot training, beat Simon Grimm, the former Simon Gotch of the Vaudevillains tag team. Lots of submissions and hard strikes. The match was said to be great. Really entertaining with the much bigger Kratos winning with a slam and elbow. Davey Boy Smith Jr. beat Killer Kross in what was also said to be a great bout. Lots of submission exchanges and Kross would roll out of bounds while in submissions. Finally Smith won via crossface. The ending in particular was really heated. Masashi Takeda, the death match star in Japan, who can work any style, beat Jonathan Gresham, who also can do a lot of styles. Takeda won via ref stoppage due to ground and pound. Chris Dickinson beat Andy Williams via choke. Frank Mir, in his pro wrestling debut, beat Dan Severn in a battle of former UFC champions. Mir got a heel hook quickly and Severn submitted. It was a nothing match. Mir cut a promo saying that he was unable to make Brock Lesnar the first fatality in an MMA match, so said he wanted to make Lesnar the first fatality in a pro wrestling match. Fans started chanting “Sign him Regal,” since William Regal was visible watching the show with Dean Ambrose. Hideki Suzuki beat Timothy Thatcher using a double arm suplex and Thatcher sold it as if he was knocked out. The crowd loved this as well. The main event saw Barnett and Minoru Suzuki go to a 25:00 draw. The crowd loved this. After 20:00 and a draw, people chanted for five more minutes. So they gave them five more minutes. Barnett got Suzuki in a choke but Suzuki bit his way out. He was biting Barnett’s toes (Barnett was wearing boots) and both continued to trade submissions until both got heel hooks at the same time when the time limit expired. .. Revolution Pro on 4/5 before 1,000 fans in New York saw CCK of Chris Brookes & Jonathan Gresham beat Clark Connors & Karl Fredericks of New Japan. Carlos Romo, the No. 2 star of Spain’s White Wolf Wrestling, won a four-way over A-Kid, the top star of that group, Flamita and Kid Lykos. Brian Cage beat Michael Oku. Minoru Suzuki & Zack Sabre Jr., the British tag champs, won a non-title match over Hiroshi Tanahashi & Will Ospreay in a match people were talking about as one of the best of the weekend. They put this on early so fans who wanted to leave to get to Brooklyn for Takeover could see this match. Ryusuke Taguchi pinned Rocky Romero. Tomohiro Ishii beat David Starr. In the main event, Aussie Open beat Sho & Yoh. A lot of fans left before this match started. Suzuki & Sabre attacked Aussie Open to set up a British tag title defense on 5/10 in England. . . The Stardom show at the NYC Arena in Queens, NY on 4/5, which was a PPV with Fumi Saito and Jim Valley from the site as announcers, saw Momo Watanabe beat Utami Hayashishita in 16:34 with the peach sunrise in her 13th Wonder of Stardom title defense. People were talking like the last two matches on the show were among the best bouts of the week. Hayashishita has been protected strongly since her debut since they are grooming her to be the top star in the promotion. She probably lost because she suffered a broken thumb that needs surgery. She still did the bout, but is now out of action. The other was the Stardom vs. Oedo Tai elimination match where the Stardom team of Mayu Iwatani & Arisa Hoshiki & Saki Kashima & Tam Nakano beat Kagetsu & Andras Miyagi & Jamie Hayter & Session Moth Martina. After Hoshiki and Kagetsu were both eliminated by going over the top rope, this left Iwatani and Hayter, with Iwatani getting the win in 17:06 with a moonsault. Hazuki also retained the High Speed title over Dust in just 5:44. . . wXw on 4/4 in Queens, NY before about 500 fans saw Lucky Kid beat David Starr in what was the best match on that show. It started rocky but got really good by the end. The negative is they did sick skull-on-skull head-butts, which did get over big. After losing, Starr cut a promo saying he had become disgusted that the fans that have allowed and encouraged the evil corporate giant to ruin independent wrestling. He said he was a true independent contractor while the other guys wouldn’t let their wrestlers show up at these shows. He also talked about how the evil corporation doesn’t provide health care for its wrestlers from the John Oliver story. He talked about how he’s never beaten Walter, but did tap him out with the ref not looking, and wanted Walter but Walter wasn’t allowed to wrestle on the show. He ended it by quitting the promotion, which came across like an angle since it’s been building with him doing a losing streak. . . On the WWN Supershow on 4/5, which drew about 300 fans in Brooklyn, people were raving about JD Drake vs. Kazusada Higuchi, which was called by some as the second best (nothing was beating Adam Cole vs. Johnny Gargano this past week, but it was called one of the best by almost everyone that saw it and that even includes people saying it was as good as Okada vs. White) match of the weekend. Anthony Greene and Brandi Lauren have signed with the WWN group. Darby Allin and Priscilla Kelly, who are married, are done with WWN. They had a double title match with Tokyo Princess of Princesses champion Miyu Yamashita beating Shine champion Allysin Kay. Yamashita said if Kay wants a rematch she has to come to Japan to get it. . . House of Glory Wrestling on 4/6 from Queens, NY was built around a six-man with LAX & Low Ki vs. Great Muta & Pentagon Jr. & Tajiri. Muta pinned Low Ki after a shining wizard in what was said to be a good but not great match. They worked around Muta’s limitations. That show drew 400 fans. . . Joey Janela’s first Spring Break show on 4/5 drew a sellout of 650 fans with lots of standing room. Marko Stunt made his return from his surgery and pinned Janela in the opener when Stunt cradled him after kicking out of a Michinoku driver off the top rope. All kinds of crazy high spots. Tony Deppen came out and complained that he wasn’t booked on the two shows and said since Janela wouldn’t give him an opponent, he challenged any fan. He started arguing with a “fan” who had legs missing above the knee in a wheelchair. Deppen kicked him out of his wheelchair and dragged him to the ring. Then the guy made a comeback and hit a 619 and the place went nuts as he was doing high spots and worked a competitive match. His name was billed as Dustin “No Legs” Thomas and he was one of the most talked bout guys of the weekend. Jungle Boy won a six-way over A-Kid, Jake Atlas, Australian Suicide, Slim J and Shane Mercer by submitting A-Kid. I was told this was a ****½ match live. Nick Gage beat Shinjiro Otani. Gage then said he asked for this match and Otani was his favorite wrestler. Then they had Invisible Man vs. Invisible Stan, which was ref Bryce Remsberg acting like two invisible men were doing a match. Kikutaro did a run-in and started selling for the Invisible men. There was an invisible balcony dive. Taka Michinoku beat Orange Cassidy. Virgil wrestled as Starman. . . Janela’s second Spring Break show on 4/6 didn’t actually start until 12:45 a.m. the next day because they wanted to give fans who bought tickets to the Madison Square Garden show and were coming in time to arrive. They drew a sellout of 600 fans in Jersey City, NJ. Everyone expected the MSG show to end at 11 p.m., but we had noted that in an attempt to let the top guys have time to put on great matches, they were going until midnight. It featured unique matches like Janela losing to Jungle Boy, who returned to action this week. LAX (who worked nine shows during the week) beat the Rock & Roll Express. All the stars from the past were over big. Morton, who is 62 years old, did both a tope and a Canadian Destroyer. After the match LAX said it was their personal dream match and how the Rock & Roll Express were one of their biggest inspirations. L.A. Park beat Masato Tanaka with a spear through a table in a wild brawl that was one of the weekend’s better bouts. They had a never-ending Battle Royal which went on past 3:30 a.m. and the crowd was exhausted. It was just too late. It was long and hard to follow. The Battle Royal allowed for dives out of the ring without them being eliminations so all kids of people were doing dives. Sexxy Eddy was wearing only a towel and it was pulled off and he was naked, with his hands covering his penis. He actually worked like that for a while, being nailed and unable to fight back because he had to keep both hands covering his penis. He even did a moonsault like that. The storyline was that Janela refused to book women, so eight women showed up and invaded the match and beat up all the guys including smashing light tubes over Jimmy Lloyd’s head and putting Chris Dickinson through two tables. There was no ending to the match as the women just beat up the guys. Some of the names in the Battle Royal were Necro Butcher, Nick Gage, Swoggle, Brian Pillman Jr., MJF, Joey Ryan, Marko Stunt, A-Kid, Carlos Romo, Cryme Time, Kikutaro, Teddy Hart, Homicide, Rich Swann, Dustin “No Legs” Thomas, Brendan Brown from the band Wheatus, Parrow & Odinson, Jake Atlas, Australian Suicide, Crowbar from 90s WCW, Grizzly Redwood, Jeff Farmer as NWO Sting, Tracy Smothers, Mantaur, Essa Rios and Masashi Takeda. . . We had a lot of people raving about the 4/4 DDT show which sold out Queens, NY with 650 fans. The crowd all knew and understood DDT and loved everything on the show, well, except Antonio Honda coming out as Hulk Hogan. The fans hated that, even though the spot always works in Japan. It was said to be the loudest of any of the indie crowds. Chinsuke Nakamura came out to a giant reaction and especially when he used a low blow. Danshoku Dino, whose gimmick in Japan is that he kisses guys on the way to the ring, asked people to put their hand up if they wanted to be kissed. A lot of hands went up. Dino had his trunks and thong pulled down and was bare assed. Joey Ryan stuck his lollipop in his butt and then put it in Antonio Honda’s mouth, and then superkicked Honda for a win in his match. This ended up as the hottest match as the fans that came wanted authentic DDT. Daisuke Sasaki won the KO-D championship from Konosuke Takeshita in 19:00 after two low blows and a huracanrana. It turned into a great match. Tetsuya Endo then came out and challenged for the title, and won it in 4:03 with a shooting star press. Endo was compared to a Ricochet level talent in the ring. . . Another of the biggest shows was the Joey Ryan Penis Party show that sold more than 1,000 tickets at the Midtown Hilton in Manhattan more than a week in advance, but for whatever reason, there were less than that actually in the building. . . Both wXw and Progress will be running in the Toronto area over SummerSlam weekend. There will be a Progress vs. Smash Wrestling show on 8/6, a Progress show on 8/7, a wXw show on 8/8 and Smash Wrestling will be running its biggest show of the year on 8/9, which will go head-to-head with Takeover. . . Al Snow, who owns OVW, is trying something different. They are going to run an athletic combine, which would be similar to what the NFL does with college players, inviting athletes to their school in Louisville on 6/1. The top 15 participants will be given a full tuition scholarship and room and board. The combine will run through sports specific athletic drills for speed, strength and skill, as well as IQ and mental testing. OVW’s parent company, Gladiator Sports network, is going to recruit college and pro athletes along with those in the military as well as independent pro wrestlers to participate in the combine. Snow will introduce the “Snow scale,” which will be an evaluation of mental, physical and intangible personalty traits. OVW is pushing that it developed John Cena, Brock Lesnar and Batista, which is did nearly two decades back when Danny Davis and Jim Cornette ran OVW as the key WWE developmental territory. The idea is to turn their wrestling school into a fully accredited business trade school. They have applied for accreditation from the Kentucky Commission on Proprietary Education. In attempting to get accredited they are doing a more formalized curriculum with 60 credit hours of course work spread out over eight quarters, which will include ring training, classroom work and labs. The key things being taught are safety skills in performing as a pro wrestler, exercise science, nutrition, broadcasting, production, computer science, marketing, business and fiscal management and courses will be taught by staff members who are professionals in their field they are instructing in. In doing so, they would allow prospective wrestlers to apply for grants, scholarship and financial aid like for a trade school. . . Regarding the Viceland Documentaries, which started on 4/10 with Randy Savage & Elizabeth, we’re told the Montreal screwjob one will not have a lot of new information that wouldn’t be known to Observer readers past the actual finish (the sharpshooter deal) and how it was come up with. The people that were talked with were Bret Hart, Bruce Prichard, Scott Hall, Jim Cornette and Vince Russo. I haven’t seen the Montreal one and I’ll wait until it airs, but a friend who saw it was furious and said I would hate it because he said it devolved into Cornette and Russo cutting promos on each other. They propagated the myth that Bret was going to go to Nitro the next day and never mentioned that even with the contract breach he didn’t appear on Nitro for six weeks which kills the story, nothing about the lawsuit and legal rulings on the belt from 1991 in the Flair case as well as the ongoing WWF/WCW lawsuits that were going on that would have prevented the WWF title being on WCW television with the claim he’d have brought the belt to Nitro as the justification of doing it. There was nothing about the agreement in place for Bret to lose the title at the December 1997 WWF PPV in a four-way and that Bret still had several weeks left of his contract, and Eric Bischoff had even agreed to give Bret an extra week in WWF if he needed to drop the title on PPV rather than at Raw or at MSG as Bret suggested. Worse, Hall was on there to say the whole thing was a work. They also noted far more time was devoted to Russo and Cornette than Bret, who was interviewed. I guess with the benefit of hindsight, it is really weird how I’m interviewed for the Von Erich piece, and not Brody of Montreal, although both of those were completed before they interviewed me. To even give credence to the idea Bret was showing up on Nitro the next day with the belt at this stage is ridiculous because legally everyone knew it couldn’t have happened. . . According to the people who put it together, the two ones they were the most proud of were Kevin Von Erich, who we were told gave the most in-depth interview of his life to them as the crew went to Hawaii and spent a lot of time with him, and the Gino Hernandez story which we’ll talk about after it airs but has some amazing stuff in it. . . Ben Askren vs. Jordan Burroughs is now finalized for the first time ever in a wrestling match on the 5/6 annual Beat the Streets show in New York. The two, who are two of the best American wrestlers of the last 25 years, have never faced off since they were in different weight classes. Burroughs, 30, wrestles at 162 pounds while this match will be at 174, which is Askren’s weight division. Burroughs is still active and among the best in the world winning the 2017 world championships and placing third this past year. For the most part, Askren hasn’t wrestled since not placing in the 2008 Olympics, but has done occasional matches over the last decade but not many. He’s been very successful in those matches, surprising people who figured that so long out of competition he’d be losing a step, including beating 189-pound three-time NCAA champion Ed Ruth once. Askren was a two-time Hodge Trophy winner at the University of Missouri in 2006 and 2007. . . Dave Bautista will star in a movie called “Army of the Dead,” a $70 million budget zombie heist movie that Netflix is producing and Zack Snyder will direct. It’s about a zombie outbreak in Las Vegas and a group of mercenaries have to go into the quarantined zone to pull off the greatest heist ever attempted. Batista has two movies coming out, including “Avengers: Endgame” on 4/26 and “Stuber,” a Fox/Disney film on 7/12. . . Brian Blair, the head of the Cauliflower Alley Club, has set up a Go Fund Me so that James “Kamala” Harris can keep his home. Harris, who has had both of his lower legs amputated due to diabetes, needs to pay $12,750 in back property taxes or they will confiscate his home. . . ECW Press will be publishing a third edition of “Chris & Nancy,” by Irv Muchnick, which will be repackaged as the definitive historical edition of the Benoit murders. The release date is scheduled for Spring 2020. What’s notable is ECW Press is also the company that publishes WWE books. . . Dylan Bostic, an independent pro wrestler, is out of the hospital after a speeding SUV hit the car he was driving and caused it to flip several times. Bostic is the husband of WOW wrestler Chantilly Chella, also known as Ray Lyn.
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715EUROPE: Charlie Morgan’s injury ended up being a broken ankle and needs an operation to fix it. She underwent surgery this past week.
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717MLW: MLW has gotten a television deal with Freesports in the U.K. and Ireland. It will air both its one hour weekly show as well as special events. The deal started on 4/9 with a two-hour special which was the Battle Riot show taped this past week in New York. The show will air weekly at 10 p.m. on Monday nights. Freesports is the station that previously ran 5 Star Wrestling and more recently did one set of tapings at York Hall with Revolution Pro, before the deal wasn’t renewed. When RevPro was on the station, they only did about 7,000 viewers per week and it did nothing to help their live attendance. A lot of that had to do with the channel being disorganized about getting trailers out. Freesports in a channel everyone gets, so MLW can claim that they are available in more homes than WWE in the U.K., which would be accurate, but it’s on a station like Pursuit that nobody watches. This confirms what has been common knowledge that RevPro wasn’t coming back to the station. Andy Quildan of RevPro on his podcast went into detail on this a month ago, saying he knew the project was doomed before the first episode aired. FreeSports had acquired an outside investor to work with them and RevPro to run the shows, which were called World of Pro Wrestling as opposed to Revolution Pro, with the idea that the three parties, the investor, FreeSports and Quildan would own the WOPW brand. They tried to get Quildan to sign a non-compete before the series started, which he refused to do because the way it was written, he thought it could have meant he wouldn’t be able to promote live shows. He got almost no notice when the shows were airing and had almost no contact with the channel. . . MLW returns to the Melrose Ballroom for a TV taping on 7/25. . . The first show of the week on 4/4 in New York. L.A. Park and his son ended up stuck at the Baltimore Airport although Park did get into New York in time for the main event. But they couldn’t wait for his son’s match, so after all the drama about Puma King not working here, Konnan called WrestleCon to see if they could get Puma King to come to MLW after all and be a late sub for El Hijo de L.A. Park, so he was back. The show opened with a ten bell salute to Vicki Funk, which may have been the only promotion to do so. Ariel Dominguez beat Brian Idol. Jordan Oliver beat Kotto Brazil, whose is no longer being pushed. Brian Pillman Jr. beat MJF. Jacob Fatu, who they’ve got under an exclusive deal, beat Barrington Hughes. Rey Horus pinned Ace Austin. Low Ki & Ricky Martinez managed by Salina de la Renta won a squash. Jacob Fatu and Josef Samael, the Contra Unit, attacked them after the match. Myron Reed & Rich Swann beat Lance Anoa’i & Jimmy Yuta. Minoru Tanaka beat Daga. The Dynasty beat Teddy Hart & Davey Boy Smith Jr. in a tables match. Samael beat Ace Romero. Samael & Fatu beat down Romero after the match. Hughes tried to make the save but they beat him down as well. Gringo Loco beat Puma King. Sami Callihan went to a no contest with Mance Warner. Air Wolf beat Rey Fenix. Tom Lawlor kept the MLW title over Jimmy Havoc. L.A. Park beat Pentagon Jr. in the main event. Mance Warner popped out of a box to attack Park after the match. . . Highlights from the next day saw Hart beat Austin to keep the middleweight title with a Canadian Destroyer off the top rope. Tanaka beat Myron Reed. The Battle Riot match where the winner gets an MLW title shot was won by Park. Dan Severn did the match. LAX managed by Konnan were in. Blue Meanie was a surprise. Park threw Callihan out to win. The Contra Unit attacked Lawlor after the match and buried him under a Contra Flag. . . Jim Cornette will be back announcing at the 6/1 tapings in Milwaukee. . . They are teasing a GHC jr. champion Minoru Tanaka vs. MLW middleweight champion Teddy Hart match
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719ROH: The 4/27 Crockett Cup show, which will air on Honor Club as well as television PPV, and is a joint venture with ROH and Billy Corgan’s NWA, had its card and brackets announced. The first round of the tournament will have Mark & Jay Briscoe vs. Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson, PCO & Brody King vs. Satoshi Kojima & Yuji Nagata, Stuka Jr. & Guerrero Maya Jr. vs. Flip Gordon & Bandido and Jax Dane & Crimson against the winners of a multi-person Last Chance Battle Royal. The tournament will be done in one night and the show also has Nick Aldis vs. Marty Scurll for the NWA title, Willie Mack vs. Colt Cabana for the National title and Jazz vs. Sienna (Allysin Kay_ for the NWA women’s title. . . They have two shows this coming week. On 4/13 in Pittsburgh they have a TV taping. Among the matches scheduled are Marty Scurll & PCO & Brody King vs. Jeff Cobb & Jonathan Gresham & Jay Lethal, Vinny Marseglia & TK O’Ryan vs. Mark Haskins & Tracy Williams, Caristico & Soberano Jr. vs. Mark & Jay Briscoe, Eli Isom vs. P.J. Black and Bandido v. Shane Taylor. . . On 4/14 in Columbus, OH, there is a house show live on Honor Club at 7 p.m. Eastern. The lineup has Briscoes & Shane Taylor & Silas Young vs. Shaheem Ali & LSG & Beer City Bruiser & Brawler Milonas, Soberano Jr. vs. Rush, Caristico vs. Black vs. Bandido vs. Flip Gordon (a funny story here is that Caristico and Black didn’t get along in WWE when they were the original Sin Cara and Justin Gabriel, as Caristico has said that Gabriel ribbed him to death and made inappropriate comments to and about him), a 30 man Iron man tag match with Haskins & Williams vs. Lethal & Gresham, and the six-man titles with Scurll & PCO & Brody King vs. Matt Taven & O’Ryan & Marseglia.
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721IMPACT: The company announced a TV deal with 5STARr in the U.K. and Ireland. The new deal goes into effect on 4/26. The show had been airing n 5Spike. The station airs on Sky 128, Freeview 30, Freest 131 and Virgin Media 151. It will air on Friday nights from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. The move was described as basically lateral. Both stations draw similar-sized audiences and have the same clearance and dial space. They’re on all major cable packages. Both stations average 11 to 12 times the audience that FreeSports, the station MLW just signed with, does. . . Rob Van Dam, 48, has signed an extended contract after doing his first match with the promotion in years this past week. He will be appearing as a regular for the promotion. Also signing was Cody Deaner, who was with the company in 2009 playing the boyfriend of ODB. Deaner looks to be a tag team with “brother” Jake Deaner, who came from AAW and other Midwest indies where he worked as Jake Something. . . Eli Drake has been let go. His contract was expiring on 5/31. I don’t know if this played a part in this, but he was booked to do a singles match with Tessa Blanchard on the show this past week and while publicly saying how much he thought of her as a performer, he refused to do the match. Evidently he’s from the camp that doesn’t believe in intergender matches the way they are done now. There have been minds changed on that topic but WWE still hasn’t done them (notable because there were teases of Nia Jax against both Dean Ambrose and Randy Orton and the decision was made to drop both after shooting angles, which tells you Vince McMahon himself was at one point interested and then changed his mind). Paul Levesque has been publicly negative on them and hasn’t done them in NXT either. ROH has kept the women apart. They were a staple of Lucha Underground. Impact brought in Joey Ryan specifically to work with Blanchard this past week. But they are very popular on the indies. In Mexico, CMLL stays away from them completely while AAA does them. I’ve seen them live and they can work, and I’ve seen great ones that get both parties over, but I can see why WWE wouldn’t want to present them on television. But the point is, even though to indie fans they are common and the feeling is if you don’t like them you are behind the times, they are still something that most major promotions haven’t copied to any degree. The last time his contract was expiring we had heard some WWE interest but never heard if it got to the point they made him an offer. But he did sign a new deal here. The reason given was public statements he had made about the company. Drake had been with the company since 2015.
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723AEW: The company announced its announce team for Double or Nothing, which will likely be the announce team once they get television. The biggest name, to no surprise, is Jim Ross, who was announced as having signed the most lucrative contract for an announcer in pro wrestling history. Ross will both announce as be a senior adviser to the company. The basic gist is that while all of the guys involved in running the company, Tony Khan, Cody, The Young Bucks, Christopher Daniels and Kenny Omega are students of wrestling and follow it closely, they are all also new to management. Even Chris Harrington is new to actually working in the business even though he knows the business end probably as good as just about anyone who never worked in the business end. Really, aside from Ross, when it comes to the key people, only Keith Mitchell, who heads production, and dates back to the 80s and worked in production everywhere from World Class to WCW to Impact (where he worked until recently) are all new and this is a learning on the job experience. They are working with the Jacksonville Jaguars staff who would have experience in their fields but still would all be new to pro wrestling. Ross mentioned that the company would have a major cable deal that would start in October. . . As far as the announcing team goes, Ross will do the shows, and I’m not certain if he’ll do the complete shows or just the major matches to get them over as special. The their play-to-play guys are Alex Marvez and Excalibur. I’ve known Marvez since he was 16 and he was even involved with the Observer web site before we joined with Bryan Alvarez. He was one of the leading NFL reporters in the country and of late has had a pro football show on Sirius XM. He was the former President of the Pro Football Writers of America. He, like the rest of the guys, knows the wrestling business and was actually really perceptive on it even as a teenager, did one of the best wrestling newsletters in the country when he was very young, and has done plenty of television and radio for football. But he’s never done pro wrestling announcing. Another of Ross’ roles will be to mentor both Marvez and Excalibur. . . .On the video where they announced his signing they showed him practicing calling matches which he’s been doing for some time. Marvez hosted both AEW live event rallies with Conrad Thompson. Excalibur, who is one of the key guys in PWG and their announcer, has plenty of experience announcing big matches with the most modern style wrestlers, so he’s well versed on moves, backgrounds and modern psychology. Of late he’s been announcing with New Japan World as well. The big question regarding him is do you go on a major national cable station and a major worldwide station with the announcer wearing a mask or not. He’s good, but they also want to do a sports-oriented wrestling presentation and the masked announcer is campy. Then again, with some of the signings, there is clearly going to be a campy element to the product. . . Alicia Atout will be dong the backstage interviews and Justin Roberts will be the ring announcer. Atout had been working with Impact and she’s a fan, and enthusiastic. Roberts is an experienced top caliber ring announcer. . . Chris Jericho announced the guest list for his 1/20 to 1/24 cruise. Jericho has said the cruise, based on word of mouth from the first one, is already 81 percent sold out and this was before announcing this round of guests. Myself and Bryan Alvarez will be on the cruise and we will be doing our audio shows live for cruise guests. AEW will be part of the cruise and they list AEW talent as being there without listing specific names at this point. The names will be announced closer to sailing but most of the roster will be on the cruise including all of the company’s top guys. All of the matches on the cruise will be filmed for broadcast. Names listed are Ric Flair, Jericho, the band Fozzy (who will be playing), Vickie Guerrero, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Sean Waltman, Booker T, Jake Roberts, DDP, Eric Bischoff, Conrad Thompson, Chavo Guerrero Jr., Sharmell, MVP, Lisa Varon, Shaul Guerrero and Ted Irvine (former NHL star and Jericho’s father). . . The 6/29 show in Daytona Beach, which will be the promotion’s second event, is being called Kenny Omega’s Fyter Fest (a spoof of a Netflix movie “Fyre” about the “Fyre Festival,” a disastrous 2017 concert about a totally messed up luxury promotional concert in the Bahamas), a combination gaming and pro wrestling event in conjunction with CEO, the gaming convention that takes place that week. Last year Omega promoted a show at the Ocean Center with New Japan that drew 2,350 fans. They did some very clever marketing around models in bikinis all over the trailer, basically the same trailer as the Netflix movie, with the words that it is unlikely any of these women would be at the event. The show will be an AEW promotion with a main event of Young Bucks & Omega vs. Pentagon Jr & Fenix & Pac. At least as of right now, Jericho wasn’t asked to do the show. His contract has a specified number of dates maximum. . . There wasn’t a lot of news on Being the Elite this week. They announced the Young Bucks vs. Pentagon Jr. & Fenix match at Double or Nothing would be for the AAA tag titles, which we’d reported when the title changed hands. Justin Roberts is doing a gimmick where, no matter where he is, when somebody is in the room with him he does a pro wrestling ring introduction of them. They also continued the MJF vs. Brandi not getting along storyline as well as Cody not liking Sammy Guevara, but the idea is that Chris Jericho (who Cody seemingly will feud with) is backing Guevara so he’s safe in the company. Adam Page also has somebody secretly filming him inside his house showing he’s cheating by eating junk food when he’s supposed to be dieting down to get his body in shape for the show. . . In Japan, it was reported that Hikaru Shida has signed, which the company confirmed a few days later. I do know that there is a mentality that once they get television that the Japanese women’s style will become the new big thing introduced similar to Nitro with the Mexican stars. That’s the mentality behind the recruitment of Japanese women to the promotion. Shida, 30, is close with Kenny Omega. She was a teenage actress in Japan more than a decade ago who was part of a teen idol group on a popular television show called Muscle Venus in 2008-09, so she was a pop star outside of wrestling before wrestling. The group also recorded one single. Later she did a movie about pro wrestling called Three Count where she had a starring role. She learned pro wrestling for her part in the movie and liked it so much she became a regular pro wrestler. She’s moving to the U.S. so this will now be her base. Hopefully they can get some dates on Meiko Satomura, because she’s an incredible worker and will make everyone she’s in the ring with look that much better.
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725UFC: A Moody’s Report on UFC business noted that 2018 revenues, even with the escalators in television rights fees on the last year of the FOX deal, were down from 2016 and 2017. Revenues still topped $600 million and EBITDA was about $250 million, so the company, while not generating as much revenue, was still more profitable than WWE in 2018. That will change in 2020. The decline in revenues, which wouldn’t have been a lot because the numbers were just over $600 million in 2016, was because of the greater PPV business. The company had projected $300 million in EBITDA for 2018. Even with the record setting 2.4 million buys for Conor McGregor vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov, and the 700,000 for the December show with Jon Jones vs. Alexander Gustafsson and Cris Cyborg vs. Amanda Nunes, the rest of the year’s PPV numbers were so far down that they couldn’t top the prior two years. 2016 saw McGregor and Ronda Rousey both on the roster and 2017 was boosted by UFC’s share of McGregor vs. Mayweather even though the rest of the PPV business wasn’t as strong as prior years. . . .McGregor and Nurmagomedov were back in the news as their feud got out of hand again once again, this time causing Dana White to step in. There are a few obvious things about this. The first is, that McGregor clearly is not retired, and just said that as everything he says, as an idea to help his negotiations by public posturing. Clearly, since UFC can’t get Nate Diaz to fight McGregor, he’s looking at a Nurmagomedov rematch, since the first fight did 2.4 million buys. Of course with the ESPN deal, everything is different. McGregor still has some leverage based on his drawing power, but not at the level had would have had weeks ago. It started with McGregor writing about Nurmagomedov, “Your wife is a towel, mate,” which he later deleted, which came across as a way to get under Nurmagomedov’s skin and get a rematch. But it also came across like an ethnic insult. Nurmagomedov responded by calling McGregor a rapist twice in a post while showing a photo of McGregor with his hands all over a woman who wasn’t his girlfriend Dee Devlin. White then released a statement to Kevin Iole saying, “I am aware of the recent social media exchange between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor. The ongoing situation has escalated to a level that is unacceptable. As such, we are taking the necessary steps to reach out to both athlete camps and this situation is being addressed by all parties internally.” . . Nurmagomedov wrote, “If you think that insulting (an) entire religion you be safe, you are mistaken.” McGregor then wrote, “I want to move forward, with my fans of all faiths and all backgrounds. All faiths challenge us to be our best selves. It is one world and one for all. Now see you in the Octagon.” . . McGregor is also linked to a 4/6 bar fight in Dublin according to the Irish Daily Mirror, and the paper also reported a woman in Dublin is claiming McGregor is the father of her baby, which he is denying. Irish police confirmed an assault investigation at the Marble Arch pub in Dublin. The paper said after interviewing people who were there at the bar that McGregor was being a show off in the pub and a man went up to him and said “The Russian (in reference to Nurmagomedov) battered you.” the story said there were not many witnesses and drinks were involved. The man allegedly assaulted was said to be a regular at the bar. McGregor was said to have been out partying after going to an amateur MMA show at the Green Isle Hotel in Dublin. The police confirmed an investigation of an incident inside the pub on that day and only said that no arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing. . . The paper also reported that Terri Murphy, 26, claims McGregor is the father of her baby and wants him to take a DNA test. The women claimed the two slept together in Liverpool in 2017. The paper aid that McGregor was prepared to take a DNA test to prove he was not the father. She claimed the two of them had sex when McGregor’s girlfriend, Dee Devlin, was nine months pregnant and she has released photos of the two of them together from his hotel suite. The paper said Murphy showed them messages from McGregor where he appeared to deny he was the father of the girl, named Clodaugh and claimed that she had slept with one of his friends. In May, she had filled out an initial enquiry firm for child maintenance and named McGregor in the filing. She claimed she’s not after his money and only went public with this because they couldn’t sort it out privately. She claimed they slept together on two different occasions. . . Regarding the McGregor arrest last month in Miami Beach for grabbing a guy’s cell phone and stomping on it at 5 a.m., when reviewing the case, prosecutors in Miami reduced one of the felony charges and downgraded the other felony charge to a misdemeanor. After reviewing the facts of the case, prosecutors felt there wasn’t enough evidence to support the original felony charges. The phone was valued at $200 to $1,000, damaged that would fall into the criminal mischief category rather than a felony. The felony charge, a second degree felony charge of strong armed robbery was lowered to a third degree felony charge of robbery by sudden snatching. If there is a conviction, U.S. immigration authorities would prevent him from reentering the U.S., but somehow I don’t think that will end up happening. The lawsuit filed by Ahmed Abdirzak, against McGregor, asking for $15,000, has been dropped, likely having been settled out of court. . . The date UFC is looking for regarding Daniel Cormier vs. Brock Lesnar is 8/17. There is no deal and given that information like this comes out every year right before WrestleMania is clearly a pattern for Lesnar to use it as leverage. . . T.J. Dillashaw was suspended for two years as USADA caught him using EPO, which is rarely caught. Dillashaw was caught with the drug that stimulates production of red blood cells, which is strong for endurance, in a test taken on 1/18, the day before his loss to Henry Cejudo. He will be eligible to fight again on January 18, 2021, at which time he’ll be 35 years old. A couple of more notes on this. Because EPO requires a special test which is why those using it are rarely caught, USADA tested a Dillashaw sample from 12/28 and he failed that one as well. Also, last year, Cody Garbrandt in a tweet specifically brought up Dillashaw using EPO. Garbrandt had also said in the past that Dillashaw was the guy people would go if they wanted to cheat and beat tests when he was with Team Alpha Male. Dillashaw was known for being able to fight at a high pace for long periods of time without tiring and there you go. . . B.J. Penn’s former girlfriend and mother of his children, Shealen Uaiwa filed for and received a temporary restraining order against him and asked for an order of protection against him back in October according to MMA Junkie. She alleged that Penn abused her throughout their ten-year relationship. She claimed the UFC Hall of Famer verbally abused her and menaced her in front of their two children and her mother as well as threatened to kill her family. She also claimed that he sexually abused her. Uaiwa wrote that she never previously reported it because of his name, his reputation and the control he had over their life and because she was scared. Penn’s attorneys had attempted to get the contents of her allegations sealed. Penn has not been charged with any crimes. But he is not allowed within 100 feet from Uaiwa and at one point was not allowed to contact her, although now he is allowed supervised visits with his children and limited contact with her. She filed for the order on 10/9, saying that Penn had threatened her and her mother on 10/7 when he went to pick up his children. She claimed Penn came to the car and verbally abused her and her mother in front of their children. She claimed Penn told her that because she’s not a man she thinks she can’t get knocked out and claimed Penn made threats to kill her brother and her whole family and tried to wrestle her and take her phone. She said that their 11-year-old daughter said she would rather jump off the balcony than spend time with Penn. She also claimed Penn had pressured her to have sex with other men and to smoke pot and claimed Penn has been addicted to drugs since he was 14 years old. She also claimed Penn attacked her in their hotel room after he was induced into the UFC Hall of Fame and smashed her cell phone and that he and his friends were doing cocaine all night in the bathroom. . . Ross Pearson, 34, announced his retirement on 4/8. In 2009, Pearson won the U.S. vs. U.K. season of Ultimate Fighter as a lightweight, beating Andre Winner via decision. He went 12-13 in 25 fights over the last ten years with the group, and had lost six of his last seven. His biggest wins were over Gray Maynard, Sam Stout, Paul Felder and Chad Laprise. He fought on 3/30, and was knocked out by Desmond Green in the first round. . . The first PPV show of the new era will be on 4/13, UFC 236 from the State Farm Arena in Atlanta. It will not be on television PPV, only streaming which will eliminate homes without broadband connections fast enough to stream PPV shows. Many broadband homes don’t have strong enough Internet to stream a PPV, particularly in older building and rural areas. So starting with this show you first have to subscribe to ESPN+, and after doing so, then you can order the PPV from ESPN+. The show starts with ESPN+ and Fight Pass fights starting at 6:15 p.m. Eastern with Brandon Davis (9-5) vs. Randy Costa (4-0), Lauren Mueller (5-1) vs. Poliana Botelho (7-2), And Soukhamthath (13-6) vs. Montel Jackson (7-1), and Belal Muhammad (14-3) vs. Curtis Millender (17-4). The four fights on ESPN at 8 p.m. are the colorfully named Boston Salmon (6-1) vs. Khalid Taha (12-2), Max Griffin (14-6) vs. Zelim Imadaev (8-0), Wilson Reis (23-9) vs. Alexandre Pantoja (20-3) and Matt Frevola (6-1-1) vs. Jalin Turner (8-4). The PPV card has Ovince Saint Preux (23-12) vs. Nikita Krylov (24-6), Alan Jouban (16-6) vs. Dwight Grant (9-2), Khalil Rountree Jr. (7-3) vs. Eryk Anders (11-3), Kevin Gastelum (16-3) vs. Israel Adesanya (16-0) for the interim middleweight title and Dustin Poirier (24-5) vs. Max Holloway (20-3) for the interim lightweight title. This isn’t a show that would have done huge business on PPV, although Poirier vs. Holloway is a great action fight. In theory, the winner of that fight should face Khabib Nurmagomedov for the title, but I sense McGregor getting that shot. If Holloway wins, not sure how they then handle the featherweight title since UFC has historically forced people holding two belts at the same time to get rid of one of them. If Poirier wins, then Holloway would probably defend his title against Frankie Edgar, Alexander Volkanovsky (if Volkanovsky beats Jose Aldo) or Zabit Magomedsharipov. . . Two upcoming UFC main events have fallen through. The 4/20 show in St. Petersburg, Russia, scheduled to be headlined by Alexander Volkov vs. Alistair Overeem, is out. UFC reported that Volkov was ill but Match TV in Russia reported Volkov being out due to a doping violation. As noted, these days if someone fails a drug test, it is not reported until all the due process is completed. However, fighters who do fail tests are immediately given a secret suspension. I have expected that guys who fail that are already booked on shows will start coming up with injuries or other reasons as their excuse, and the sad part is that everyone who pulls out due to an injury or illness at this point will be suspected of failing a test, and in some cases that suspicion will end up accurate. That’s the downside of not reporting the test failures and keeping suspensions secret for months or longer in some cases. Aleksei Oleinik will replace Volkov. . . For 4/27, the report was that Yoel Romero had to pull out due to suffering from pneumonia for his main event in Sunrise, FL, against Ronaldo Jacare Souza. Souza will now face Jack Hermansson, coming off his submission win over David Branch on 3/30 in Philadelphia. . . For that show, there was some interesting stuff going on behind-the-scenes. The Florida commission in its own testing had a zero tolerance policy when it came to marijuana. Basically, any amount in ones system meant a drug test violation. UFC fighters have been working in most places with the WADA standard that anything under 150 ng/ml, which are pretty significant levels, is okay. Before the 4/27 show, the Florida commission, no doubt under pressure from outside forces, has adopted the WADA standard. . . It remains a mystery why Paulo Costa was pulled from the 4/27 fight, as the original opponent of Yoel Romero. Costa blamed it on the New York State Athletic Commission not allowing him to fight because he took Plasil, a stomach medication. The commission told MMA Fighting that they did not keep Costa from fighting on 4/27 in Florida, but did say that Costa has yet to pay a $9,333.33 fine in New York. Costa is no longer licensed in New York. Lee Park, a spokesperson from the New York Department of State, which oversees the commission, told MMA Fighting that “evidence received and reviewed by the Commission conclusively showed that Mr. Costa failed to comply with Commission rules and policies regarding the use and disclosure of non-performance enhancing substances while licensed.” Costa was not suspended and he said the situation is no cleared up but that was 20 days before the show and he hadn’t been training. He said he was called to face Souza when Romero pulled out and said he’d take the fight, but it would have to be in May because he wouldn’t be ready by 4/27, so they went with Hermansson.. . . Costa and Romero have both verbally agreed to fight sometime in June. . . Urijah Faber, who has remained in the USADA testing pool since his retirement, has talked of late about fighting again. But the fight he was looking for was with T.J. Dillashaw, which could be promoted as a major grudge match, but that’s out the window with Dillashaw’s two-year suspension. .. Jimmie Rivera vs. Petr Yan is targeted for the 6/8 show in Chicago. That’s a big fight for Yan, who has looked great up to this point in time and last defeated John Dodson for his seventh win in a row. Rivera, ranked as the No. 7 contender in the division, is two spots up from No.9 Yan. Also on that show will be Karolina Kowalkiewicz vs. Alexa Grasso and the talked about previously Pedro Munhoz vs. Aljamain Sterling fight is now official for that show. . . Joseph Benavidez vs. Jussier Formiga in a match where the winner would have to be the top contender for flyweight champion Henry Cejudo (and who knows what happens if Cejudo ends up winning the bantamweight title on 6/8 in Chicago) was announced for the 6/29 show in Minneapolis. . . Luke Rockhold vs. Jan Blachowicz in Rockhold’s debut at light heavyweight will be on 7/6 in Las Vegas. With a dearth of real light heavyweight title contenders, I think they’d want to get Rockhold up and running in this division. While Rockhold is tall enough for the division and a great grappler, he doesn’t have the bone structure of a light heavyweight so that’s the one negative of the move up. . .Diego Sanchez vs. Michael Chiesa in a battle of TUF winners was added to the 7/6 show in Las Vegas, at welterweight. .. Azamat Murzakanov was announced as having been suspended for two years based on a positive test for the steroid Boldenone on September 2, 2017. That means he’ll be eligible to fight on September 2, 2019. Murzakanov, a light heavyweight from Russia with a 7-0 record, was signed by UFC but had yet to fight. He was supposed to fight in June 2017, but pulled out due to injury, and then failed the test, which put him on suspension, when the results came back. . . Vicente Luque vs. Neil Magny was announced as the semifinal on the 5/18 show in Rochester, NY. Luque comes in having won four in a row. The show is headlined by Kevin Lee moving up to 170 to face Rafael dos Anjos. . . The UFC Fight Pass documentary series “UFC: 25 Years in Short,” was nominated for a sports Emmy Award. The awards take place on 5/20 at the Lincoln Center in New York. In its history, UFC has had six sports Emmy nominations and one win, for a UFC Fight Flashback show on the second McGregor vs. Nate Diaz fight, which won an award in 2017. .. Thiago Alves, 35, has given himself until October 2020, his 37th birthday, to retire and he’s working on becoming a police officer. . . Jimi Manuwa vs. Aleksander Rakic ha been added to the 6/1 show in Stockholm, which is an ESPN+ show. . . Sergey Spivak, a Russian heavyweight who is 9-0, with nine finishes, eight in the first round, debuts on the 5/4 show in Ottawa against Walt Harris. Spivak replaces Aleksei Oleinik who was pulled from Ottawa to headline the 4/20 show in St Petersburg, Russia. . . Austin Hubbard, the Legacy Fighting lightweight champion, has signed with UFC and debuts on the 5/18 show in Rochester, NY, against Davi Ramos.
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727BELLATOR: They announced a 6/14 show in Madison Square Garden as a DAZN exclusive. Chael Sonnen vs. Lyoto Machida will be the main event, plus the schedule has a welterweight championship fight on the show. Neiman Gracie is scheduled to face the winner of the 4/27 title match in San Jose with champion Rory MacDonald vs. Jon Fitch. That’s an awfully quick turnaround for a fight, particularly a prospective five round title fight. MacDonald is heavily favored over Fitch (-350), but that still doesn’t mean he’ll escape unscathed and be ready that quickly. Also announced for the show is Dillon Danis, the submission coach of Conor McGregor and well known big mouth who is 1-0, facing Max Humphrey (3-2), plus well-known area female boxer Heather Hardy will fight on the show. . . Ryan Bader, the double heavyweight and light heavyweight champion, has signed a new multi-year deal.
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729OTHER MMA: Kate Del Castillo announced a purchase of an ownership stake in Combate Americas as part of a deal of a $20 million equity infusion. According to the promotion, Del Castillo is now an owner and said to be a significant shareholder in the company started by Campbell McLaren that has key broadcasting deals with Univision, DAZN and TV Azteca in Mexico. The $20 million reportedly comes frm Del Castillo, Joe Plumeri, ambassador Cliff Sobel and Irving Place Capital CEO John Howard. Del Castillo will chair the company’s advisory board. They also announced her first move is a show called “Reinas Del Combate,” the first all-women’s show to air live on broadcast television on 4/26 from Los Angeles, on Univision. Del Castillo, 46, is a famous movie and television star in Mexico who was named one of the 50 most beautiful women in the Latin American version of People as well as one of the 25 most influential women in Latin America in 2007, and was once the girlfriend of Televisa head Emilio Azcarriga, one of the most powerful businessmen in Mexico. . . The next Rizin show is 4/21 at the Yokohama Arena. The top two bouts are Kyoji Horiguchi vs. Ben Nguyen at 132 pounds. Both fought at 125 in UFC. Nguyen was a good flyweight who was cut at the end of the year when UFC started releasing flyweights. The other featured bout is King Mo Lawal vs. Jiri Prochazaka to determine the first Rizin light heavyweight champion. . . One announced a 5/17 show at the Singapore Indoor Stadium with new lightweight champion Shinya Aoki defending against Christian Lee (10-3), the younger brother of atomweight champion Angela Lee. Sage Northcutt, who signed a lucrative deal with this promotion, makes hid debut against 36-year-old kickboxer Cosmo Alexandre, who hasn’t fought in MMA since 2016. . . The PFL, which will air on ESPN 2 and ESPN+ with its $1 million tournament format, debuts with Thursday night live shows on 5/9, 5/23 and 6/6, all at NYCB Live, better known as the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island. The first show will air 6-9 p.m. on ESPN+ with the biggest fights airing on ESPN from 9-11 p.m. The first show will feature Sarah Kaufman vs Morgan Frier and Kayla Harrison vs. Svetlana Khautova. Kaufman, moving up two weight division, and Harrison, are the biggest stars in the women’s 155 pound tournament. 5/23 has ESPN 2 from 7-9 p.m. and ESPN+ from 9 p.m. to midnight. So the first week is about the main card on ESPN 2 to get a bigger audience, but from that point forward, the prelims will be on ESPN 2 with the idea of pushing ESPN+ subs to see the big matches. 6/6 has ESPN 2 from 7-9 p.m. which will include former UFC fighters Vinny Magalhaes, Dan Spohn and Jared Rosholt, with ESPN+ from 9 p.m. to midnight with Ronny Markes, and amain event of Philipe Lins vs Satoshi Ishii. . . Yushin Okami debuts with ONE n 5/3 in Jakarta, Indonesia.
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731WWE: Brian “Road Dogg” James stepped down this past week as the co-head writer on Smackdown. James was co-head writer with Steve Guerrieri, better known as Steve G. Steve G rarely went to television, and worked out of Stamford during the week while James would take care of things at television. James wasn’t in the office all the time, but one person in the company noted that he become increasingly frustrated with the hours. He would split time between home in Pensacola and skyping into the meetings that would take place all night, or being in Stamford and attending them live until all hours of the morning. The belief is he became frustrated with working so hard all those hours in putting together a show, only to have the show torn apart and changed by Vince at the production meetings the day of the show. Also, Vince had dressed down James more than once about continuity issues on th show or if someone would point out a problem in the show and he would try to defend it. Vince was riding him hard because James wasn’t able to mask his frustrations while at the dais and the last few weeks in particular were very hard for him.
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733Paul Levesque officially announced the new weekly FS 1 WWE news show that had been talked about since the signing of the FOX deal. The show will air on Tuesday nights and will cover WWE news. As noted before, this is really tricky because ESPN tried a weekly WWE news segment and ended up giving it up because of criticism of being a news channel and not covering actual news. Essentially, the show is the replacement for UFC Tonight. UFC Tonight covered only UFC, not other promotions, but did delve into real news issues such as drug testing, or the class-action lawsuit against the company, even if it was usually with a pro-company slant. But historically, while UFC hardly has the best track record when it comes to coverage as compared to most sports, they are far ahead of WWE in that regard. But any questions about the credibility should be answered ahead of time since there’s no way WWE would allow outsider views or opinions and no way FS 1 will try and be any different. It was a well known story that for whatever reason, the star news reporter no UFC Tonight was Ariel Helwani, and one day, for whatever reason, Lorenzo Fertitta wanted him gone, and called up FS 1, and they fired him, which is exactly the opposite of what a real news organization would do. And also it came out it was UFC and not FS 1 that was paying the FS 1 on-air talent on the show, which is something that isn’t supposed to happen on a legitimate news show. But they’ll probably use the show to break some matches and do somewhat out of character while remaining in character interviews. I can’t imagine they’d pretend wrestling was real on such a show, nor would I expect them to slap the audience in the with the idea it isn’t real. But we already saw when Vince McMahon nixed the Talking Smack show because of the feeling guys were being too real, and this would be in front of a much larger audience, so if anything, he’d be more vigilant about it.
734
735Just days before his daughter went into the WWE Hall of Fame, Alan “Al” Wilson passed away. He was believed to be about 77 years old. Al Wilson was actually a memorable WWE television character in 2002 and 2003. Torrie Wilson was feuding with Dawn Marie and they came up with the idea of a character of Torrie’s father, who Dawn Marie would seduce and it would wind up with a wedding, with the idea that Dawn ends up as Torrie’s stepmother. In the angle, the idea was that Al would die of a heart attack from sex on the wedding night, which would make the feud bigger because Dawn killed Torrie’s father. It was noteworthy because it was one of the first fake deaths of a character in modern pro Wrestling, a business at the time rife with real deaths. Torrie recommended that they use her real father in the role, which lasted abut nine months from introduction to worked death.
736
737While this has not been confirmed, within the industry the belief is the Usos have signed or at least are staying. One person high up used the term “fairly certain” when talking about them signing a new deal and staying. WWE was offering much bigger money than in the past for talent whose deals were expiring because they can afford it and because of the AEW competition, and the Usos, as a great tag team, were in a great leverage position, as was the recently-signed A.J. Styles. With the kind of money WWE is now offering, I don’t see main roster guys who are in the thick of things leaving in great numbers. There are a few who are tight with AEW management or who are really into wanting to be featured and create a legacy of being top stars and feel that’s not going to happen with them on the main roster who have at least some interest. There are also some in NXT who feel they are more likely to be used well in AEW than the main roster who have expressed interest. A few are leaning toward going when their deals are up, and others are taking a wait-and-see. As noted before, the smart play is to wait and see how AEW does on television. If they do well in ratings and present a good product that looks stable, it’s a viable option, but WWE is a lock to make good money and isn’t going anywhere, and they don’t get rid of talent except usually for disciplinary reasons. So if you’re a solid performer and you stay, especially if you’re older and with a family, it’s a solid job to not leave. But people are wired differently and some grew up as WWE fans and only know WWE, and others grew up watching other places, and wanted to be top pro wrestlers and not necessarily “WWE superstars,” but until recently, WWE superstars was the best option unless you weren’t making it there, and liked your New Japan gig or saw the writing on the wall in WWE that you weren’t going to make it and had enough experience, confidence and connections to make it outside on your own.
738
739Regarding the John Oliver piece from last week, and our article in last week’s issue, Chris Cruise, the former WCW announcer who is also a shop steward for the American Federation of Government Employees union and an active member of SAG-AFTRA since he’s a professional broadcaster, said when I said unions are not the only thing or necessary the key thing, that what I was proposing, which was a more manageable schedule on the main roster and some form of system to cover medical bills later in life from injuries that relate to their wrestling career, a pension plan, and expanding rehab to cover mental issues as well as just for drug addiction, Cruise said he agreed all of those things should be covered, but none of them will without a union. He said he’s continued to push SAG-AFTRA publicly and privately to consider trying to organize pro wrestlers to join the union. He also said it would make sense for wrestlers to try and join the stuntman’s union.
740
741Brandon Thurston at Fightful.com did an analysis that it would cost the company $28.5 million annually (which is actually a high estimate as we’d have it at $22.6 million) to make their wrestlers employees rather than independent contractors, like athletes in the major sports leagues are listed as. Given the WWE’s $178.9 million in OIBDA, a number that many analysts believe will top $500 million in 2020, that would be an easily affordable expense. Using the IRS’ ten-point test to determine whether someone is an independent contractor or an employee, pro wrestlers with WWE qualify on eight of the ten points, and debatably on a ninth, when generally, five or six of the ten makes you an employee. As noted before, the number of WWE pro wrestlers in the grand scheme of things is so small that it’s a fight that nobody has bothered in politics to touch because they’d be accused of wasting their time worrying about such a small number of fake actors. If we go with the idea that wrestlers are getting eight percent of the current revenue, which would make a $72 million payroll, the contributions to FICA tax, Medicare tax, unemployment tax and Connecticut state tax would be $2.36 million. Howard listed $3.6 million when he figured his numbers based on $118 million in salary payments to talent., estimating it at 13 percent. He estimated giving the wrestlers health insurance would be $25,000 per wrestler per year with 215 wrestlers under contract, or $5.4 million. If a retirement plan consists of five percent, when he figured it based on $118 million in salaries as just under $6 million, although it’s more likely closer to $3.6 million. He estimated $8.3 million in 401K based on seven percent, but seven percent of $72 million is $5 million. He also estimated based on the number of performers on the road, based on numbers of $315 per night for a hotel room (which sounds extremely high to me on average), $100 per day for meals (also high, as wrestlers are usually not eating in fancy restaurants regularly since the majority watch their diets closely and dinner at Chipotle’s a favorite of a lot of the talent because it’s quick and healthy, is not that expensive), $65 per day for rental cars (again high since most don’t travel on their own and usually travel in groups cutting way down the average expense per day although the per day for the car would actually be higher if someone travels alone), $28 in fuel and tolls (again a high number on average because of people traveling together) and $15 per day for gym fees they would list $5.23 million. This is harder to estimate but my feeling is the total would also be significantly lower. One WWE star told us the daily hotel average is about $150, the food estimate isn’t that far off, rental cars can be higher, plus even though plane tickets are covered, talent has to pay baggage fees to check bags for the trip which would be about $25 per flight, there are either parking fees at the airport or Uber fees going to and from the airport which would be $50 to $100 per week, not to mention wrestlers being unique for uniformed and costumed performers as far as having to pay for their own gear and boots, plus there is the expense of makeup and tanning no the road and clothing because WWE requires having to look professional on the road and show up at the arena in dress clothes unless you are a performer with a gimmick that gives you an exemption. The NXT crew, because they earn far less in salary, when they go on the road outside of Florida their expenses are taken care of as far as hotels, as the company has them all staying at the same hotel, like a sport team would, and picks up the bill. They are also bussed together going from city-to-city, again, just like a sports team would be, so the idea that it can’t be done or there is something wrong and wrestling is different, God only knows why, is more because even though nearly every touring sports and entertainment like franchise of even close to the same market value does exactly that, WWE’s main roster doesn’t simply based on the idea when wrestling was a hand-to-mouth business they didn’t do it that way and, like with pay based on the houses, it’s a system that made sense but hasn’t for a long time but simply never got changed.
742
743Howard Finkel, 68, who hadn’t been seen in a long time, was at some of the WWE festivities this past week. He’s wheelchair bound. It’s been known his health situation is pretty bad although it’s largely been kept secretive what happened past Jerry Lawler saying on his podcast that Finkel had suffered a major stroke. It was described to me that everyone was very happy to see him, but also sad because of the condition he was in.
744
745Arash Markazi of the Los Angeles Times reported the new football stadium in Los Angeles is the frontrunner to get the 2021 WrestleMania.
746
747The new videos that started this week on television were to build for the return of Wyatt. On the Raw after Mania, they also brought back Zayn and Lars Sullivan and had a cameo of Undertaker. Zayn returned and got the expected big reaction that somebody gets when they come back and are over to the hardcore fan base, worked a match with Balor as a babyface, and lost. Then he did a promo where he turned on the fans. It’s a similar character to Bryan, although Bryan blames the people for eating bad food and ruining the planet while Zayn blames the people for being judgmental and being critics because they’ve never done anything with their own lives. Some fans still cheered him with it and you never know, but that stuff worked to turn Bryan. Zayn was a heel when he left and the way things are right now, he’d have a better shot for being higher on cards as a heel. Sullivan laid out Angle with the freak accident and diving head-butt off the top rope after Angle was getting revenge by putting Corbin in the ankle lock. As noted before, he was scheduled for a huge push at Mania, and most likely was beating Cena on that show. He’s got the look and athletic ability. Undertaker laid out Elias on the show. The feeling was Undertaker’s return would foreshadow his match at the 6/7 Saudi Arabia show but after he basically destroyed Elias like nothing, it’s not like that got me excited to see that match. That said, Undertaker looked in much better shape than in his matches in Saudi Arabia and Australia last year, but he’s still 54 and loaded with decades of injuries.
748
749 A&E and WWE are partnering to produce five two-hour pro wrestling documentaries as part of the A&E Biography series. A&E and WWE Studios will be working together on the projects. The five subjects of the films are Randy Savage, Roddy Piper, Booker T, Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels and will air in 2021. Billy Corben, who directed Cocaine Cowboys and Screwball, will direct the Savage film. Joe Lavine, who has won a previous Emmy, will do the Piper piece. George Roy, who directed The Curse of the Bambino and Mayweather and also has won both an Emmy an Peabody, will do the Booker T story.
750
751 A correction from last week. The Fastlane PPV in 2020 will be on 3/15 from Philadelphia, not Toronto. Toronto will be on 3/13, which is the Smackdown show leading into Fastlane.
752
753Oliver Luck announced an XFL rule change. There will be no kicking for the extra point after touchdowns. Instead, there will be one play from scrimmage. The team has the choice to ask for the ball on the two yard line, which would be worth one point if they score; the five yard line, which will be worth two points; or the ten yard line, which will be worth three points, after the six points for a touchdown.
754
755 Pro Wrestling Sheet reported that Dasha Gonzalez, 30, better known as Dasha Fuentes, was released by WWE, which has been confirmed. They’ve brought in Kayla Braxton and Sarah Schreiber in recent weeks to the main roster to fill her interviewer spot.
756
757Something is going on with Banks. She missed Raw on Monday and had been scheduled, although schedule changes happen every night. But then she missed an appearance on the Wendy Williams show which she said was due to personal reasons. Then she wrote this: “There is something about the way life happens today that makes it hard to look ahead. There are things that make it difficult to laugh, difficult to live the way you want. There are things that make it almost impossible to trust where you are, or to believe in where you want to be. You look around and life is happening way too fast. Sometimes it feels like the moments are gone. We’re marching towards a destiny we cannot understand, towards the kingdom of convenient. Then one day you look up and you can’t find the meaning. Your crisis of purpose and passion is acting up, but they tell you that that’s supposed to be normal. Well...I don’t want normal. I want magic; cause that’s the place that feels like home to me. That’s the place where I remember what dreams look like, where meaning is effortless, and purpose is simple. That’s the place where love still matters. I want that feeling of coming home again. I want to feel like myself...I want that magic.” The people at the Wendy Williams show told the New York Post that she pulled out at the last minute with no good reason and that they would never book her on the show again. “She won’t be booked again,” they quoted someone with the show. “She didn’t give a real reason for canceling, and she did it only hours before the show tapes, so production was left scrambling to fill her spot. Wendy ended up doing an extra segment of Hot Topics instead.” Williams herself on the air said that Banks wasn’t there because of a family emergency and would be invited back. She is right now apparently on a vacation with her husband in the Dominican Republic. .
758
759According to one person high up, Banks tried to quit over the weekend, as she felt blindsided when finding out at the last minute that they were taking the tag team titles from her and Bayley. She had thought that the two of them would be given a chance to have a strong run and bring credibility to the belts and establish them as serious belts. Then the decision was made to go to the Iiconics, who as champions, could only make the belts seem like gimmick comedy belts. Basically she has been given a few weeks to think things out before sticking to a choice the company believes may have been made as a rash decision. Anyway, that’s been largely confirmed by others but probably will be denied very quickly. A second person said she’s been given time to figure out what she wants to do, whether stay or go, but couldn’t confirm the reason why, but said that she probably wouldn’t have known the finish of that match until late and did believe she and Bayley were going to be given a shot at making the belts mean something. It was noted in particular that the storyline of defending them on Raw, Smackdown and NXT started, so it was logical for them to assume a run of defending in all those places. A third person just said she was clearly unhappy.
760
761WWE announced that a number of matches taped at Axxess would be on the network over the next few weeks in different forms. On 4/14 at 8 p.m. Eastern a show called NXT vs. NXT Alumni will feature Roderick Strong vs Tyler Breeze, Dominik Dijakovic vs. Harper, Sanity vs. Undisputed Era and Aiden English vs. Kassius Ohno. 4/17 at 9 p.m. will be a cruiserweight show with Tyler Bate vs. Brian Kendrick, Akira Tozawa vs. Jordan Devlin, Flash Morgan Webster & Mark Andrews vs. Ariya Daivari & Mike Kanellis and Albert Hardie Jr. vs. El Ligero vs. Gran Metalik. 4/24 at 9 p.m. will be Women Collide with Io Shirai vs. Deville, Toni Storm vs. Nikki Cross vs. Bianca Belair, Piper Niven vs. Vega and Candice LeRae vs. Kay Lee Ray. 5/1 at 9 p.m. will a Battle Royal with wrestlers from 205 Live, NXT and NXT U.K.
762
763Regarding the Bret Hart vs. Tom Magee match, WWE has asked for the footage and wants to do a feature on it. Mary Kate Anthony, who has the VHS tape (Bret Hart should have the DVD) said that as long as Hart is fine with the footage being shared, since it’s his tape and she was just there to transfer it to DVD many years ago, then she would do so and send it to WWE. The thing is, Hart doesn’t own the rights to his WWE footage as far as I know, unless they made some sort of a deal, nobody owns WWE footage rights other than WWE. WWE did give Hart a copy of it for his own personal collection and then apparently somehow either lost or got rid of it. The only tapes Hart owns are the Stampede Wrestling tapes that feature him, since Ross Hart and the family were not allowed to sell anything regarding Bret, because of Bret getting ownership of it in a deal with his father, when the collection was sold to WWE. That held up a lot of the release of Stampede shows that feature Bret on them.
764
765Zack Ryder (Matt Cardona, 33) and girlfriend Chelsea Green, 28, were engaged this past week. The two have been a couple for some time. Green, who is out of action after wrist surgery, made her name in Impact and recent started with NXT.
766
767William Regal was scouting at the Bloodsport show in New Jersey this past weekend. Dean Ambrose was also at that show.
768
769The WWE did a fan focus group on 4/8 after WrestleMania . They only invited eight fans to participate, and as it turned out, two of the eight were Observer subscribers. All eight were said to be very smart to the business, all huge WWE fans and all were aware of the company’s faults, and none of the eight came off like fan boys based on what we were told. The main discussion was what happened during the week. The general consensus of the group was that the New York/New Jersey location was bad, due to hard to navigate public transportation, that Fan Axxess on the Brooklyn Pier was in a hard to get to location. The WWE was asking questions as to how important they felt the Hall of Fame was to the weekend, which is notable because next year they have to decide whether to hold the Hall of Fame on Thursday, Tuesday, or do it at another time of the year or in a different type of setting. As one would expect, the main take across the board was that the show was too long and the post-show public transportation issue was a nightmare.
770
771The latest advertising for Extreme Rules on 7/14 in Philadelphia is Rollins vs. McIntyre for the title and Reigns vs. Corbin.
772
773Evolve ran on 4/4 at its New York home at Club La Boom with a sellout of 650 fans for the Austin Theory vs. Kyle O’Reilly Evolve title match which Theory won to retain his title. Roderick Strong and Bobby Fish showed up as surprises to attack Theory after he retained and they said they would be coming back to Evolve. Evolve runs 4/13 in Ybor City, FL, with Theory vs. Raul Mendoza. . . The stock had a big week, whether it was WrestleMania momentum making the company look stronger or analysts thinking it would top $100, but it’s back up to $94.18 per share, giving the company a $7.350 billion market value.
774
775The most-watched shows on WWE Network in the week where viewership is by far the highest was: 1. WrestleMania; 2. WrestleMania kickoff show; 3. Hall of Fame; 4. Takeover New York; 5. How Sting debuted in WWE; 6. Ride Along with New Day, Andrade and Zelina Vega; 7. WWE Chronicle: Charlotte Flair; 8. Hall of Fame red carpet ceremony; 9. Table for 3 with Johnny Gargano, Adam Cole and Ricochet; 10. NXT pre-game show. With all the Mania, Hall of Fame and Takeover related programming, the viewership for the regular weekly shows was way down. NXT on 4/3 was only in 15th place, behind lots of old shows as well. 205 Live on 4/2 was in 17th place and WWE U.K. on 4/3 was in 19th place. The only real key take is that the Hall of Fame beat Takeover in viewership, but that also could be because the Hall of Fame ended up being a legit national news story because of the attack on Bret Hart would curious people to watch the replay. But still, the Hall of Fame pre-show beat the NXT pre-show.
776
777Notes from the Raw after Mania show. It was mostly a super hot crowd, which turned on the show late when they spent the show promoting Kingston vs. Rollins title for title and after a match that went 7:48, it ended when Sheamus & Cesaro attacked Kingston. Rollins saved and asked for a tag match in a way that in most medium market cities the challenge would have gotten over. But not with this crowd. So they largely turned on the end of the show, and there were multiple AEW chants, but they weren’t really that audible. There was a super loud one during the commercial break luckily for WWE, but it was clear that HHH’s remark at the Hall of Fame backfired. That said, this was a unique audience and the crowd reactions day after Mania don’t carry over to other cities. The basic gist is the crowd was super into the show and happy because Kingston, Rollins and Lynch won the night before. During the Ricochet & Black vs. Roode & Gable match, some people tried to get a wave going which distracted fans from the match. It didn’t catch on at first as some didn’t want it, but ultimately, it did and that’s why during that match the crowd reactions had nothing to do with what was going on. The crowd was into Rollins vs. Kingston. It was said that people really didn’t think there would be a winner, but they were expecting a big-time run-in. There were rumors running around all day that the Undisputed Era would be doing a run-in on Raw and that got around. So when it was Sheamus & Cesaro, it was like a switch went off and fans turned on the show. There were beach balls, C.M. Punk chants (which there hadn’t been all week), and multiple AEW chants. Fans were chanting AEW loudly in many sections after the show when they were leaving the building. But you could see the crowd turning their heads and looking at something to the side rather than watching the match with the two brand champions who were faces and had just won their title. The show drew a sellout of 13,600 fans. For Main Event, Mahal pinned No Way Jose with the Khallas. The crowd cheered Mahal in this match. Heavy Machinery beat The Ascension. The crowd popped for the caterpillar spot. Raw opened with the crowd hot as Rollins came out. Cole’s voice was dead, which this week will do to an announcer. Loud “You deserve it” chants. Rollins said “We deserve it.” He said he felt like he was run over by a mack truck, saying that Lesnar is a human version of a mack truck. Regarding using the low blow to set up the win, Rollins said that he didn’t do anything that Lesnar wouldn’t have done to him. He said that Lesnar and Heyman took a flight to Las Vegas for some meetings to tell people Lesnar wasn’t there. Lesnar and Rousey were both advertised and Rousey may have been on the show if she wasn’t injured but Lesnar was no longer scheduled to be since he’s got nothing scheduled as of today. Heyman, of course, was there, and Lesnar was not in Las Vegas, but the idea is that Lesnar lost his title and the first thing he’s doing is negotiating with UFC. Rollins said as far as he’s concerned, they can both stay in Las Vegas. He said he was a fighting champion. New Day came out and they pushed that next week would be the superstar shakeup. Big E, who is like 300 pounds on a 5-foot-10 frame then did the full splits. Kingston challenged Rollins to a winner-take-all match like the women did the night before. The place went nuts for that. Kingston said that he didn’t want the other members of The Shield or the New Day at ringside, and it would just be the two of them. Rollins accepted. It was really a bad sign for the value of the championships that you put both of them on the line and announce it in the first segment and lose so much audience during the third hour. Also, at least twice during the show they played a commercial for Smackdown built around the celebration for Kingston having won the title, basically telling everyone that at least when the commercial was cut, given how much plans change, that Kingston wasn’t losing. Ryder & Hawkins retained the tag titles over The Revival in 10:02. This was a good match. Lots of good near falls. The finish saw Ryder tag out to Hawkins, but the Revival didn’t know it. They gave Ryder the shatter machine, but Hawkins jumped in and pinned Dawson with a schoolboy. Corbin came out. He was booed heavily. Cole said that Corbin humiliated Angle in Angle’s last match. That was a unique choice of words. Corbin said how the fans all thought Angle deserved someone better for his last match but that Angle chose him. That was a funny one. In storyline, Angle did choose him. Then Angle in social media said that he chose all the guys he would face on TV (Styles, Joe, Chad Gable and Mysterio, even though the latter match never happened) but didn’t choose his final opponent. Corbin said that Angle doesn’t deserve to be in the same ring as him. Fans were chanting “Shut the f*** up.” Angle came out with the fans chanting “Thank you Kurt.” Angle said that last night Corbin was the better man and his career is officially over. That could be a record since aside from Jack Brisco and Antonio Inoki, has any really top guy ever retired and never come back? He said that Corbin’s career is just getting started. I took that as a threat to the audience. He said he wanted to wish Corbin all the luck in the world. They shook hands. Then Angle gave him an Olympic slam and put him in the ankle lock. Corbin was tapping like crazy when Lars Sullivan showed up and gave Angle the freak ending and a diving head-butt off the top rope. Bliss pinned Bayley with a DDT in 2:43. Bayley worked more heelish than usual. Lynch came out to a huge reaction. She said that nine years ago she was working in a bar not too far from the Barclays Center. More “You Deserve it” chants. The world would be so much of a better place if we never hear “What” “You Deserve It” or “This is awesome.” It’s like so many things in life that start out funny or well meaning and end up making you cringe. She tried to get them to chant “Becky 2 belts,” which they sort of did. Vince must have been thrilled given his ban on the word belts. She said she knows she’s not the strongest, the fastest, the most athletic, but she does have a cool theme song. Fans were singing it at the time. She told Rousey that when she’s done sulking and wants to come back The Man will be ready. She said the McMahons will probably hand Charlotte the tag titles next to get her over after losing to her again. Evans came out. They went face-to-face and Evans punched her. That was supposed to be a knockout punch but Lynch came right back and they had a brawl. Give Evans credit, she had to go out there and do a fight scene in a short skirt and high heels. Plus, the cameramen had to make sure and not shoot panties shots while a woman in a short skirt is doing a fight scene. Lynch got her in the disarm her at one point. So it looked like Lynch vs. Evans is the next title program. Black & Ricochet beat Roode & Gable in 11:04. This match was really good but the crowd doing the wave made it seem like the match was not over at all. A lot of good stuff here. Gable went for the Chaos Theory suplex but Ricochet landed on his feet and pinned Gable with a knee to the face. Roode attacked Ricochet after the match. This came across like a Roode & Gable heel turn. Elias was out next. He was mad at Cena for ruining his performance at Mania. He said he didn’t care if anyone interrupted his performance as there would be hell to pay. Lashley was supposed to face Ambrose in what was billed as Ambrose’s last match. Actually Ambrose is under contract from a few more weeks but this was to be his last television match. The match actually never happened. Lashley said that “When you’re gone I’ll make sure to take care of your wife.” Ambrose attacked him and threw Lashley into the post. Ambrose gave Lashley a DDT on the stage. But Lashley came back and speared Ambrose and gave him a spinebuster through a table. Ambrose was laid out. Renee Young left the broadcast position to tend to him. Young left for a while but did come back to announce later in the show. Fans were chanting “Thank you Ambrose.” Rawley was looking at the mirror and making a point that he wasn’t even on Mania. Like, he was just about the only one and the idea I guess was storyline for him not to be. The mirror he’s been looking into is now cracked while he looked at himself and asked “Where have you been?” Zayn came out to a huge reaction. He was acting like a total face and they were cheering him wildly. He wanted a match. Balor came out and agreed to put up the title. They had a good match, but they’ve had much better matches in the past. There was a good spot where Balor missed the coup de gras and Zayn schoolboyed him which people bought as a title change, but Balor kicked out. The finish saw Zayn used the exploder into the corner, but missed the Helluva kick. Balor pinned him with the coup de gras in 12:04. Balor left the ring. Zayn did another promo. He said that coming out here has reinforced that he’s been thinking for the last nine months. He said it seems the people really did miss me. But he said that he didn’t miss any of this or anyone one of you. He said that WWE was a super toxic environment. He said it not because of the McMahons or the superstars. But it’s because of the fans and their ugliness. He said that he lives a very meaningful and fulfilled life and the fans’ lives seem so empty. He said your joy is not enjoying the show like fans, and you’re only happy being critics. He said the fans have became the evil warlords. He said he’s been thinking about this his entire life and it’s about doing what is right. The right thing isn’t coming back to save WWE or takeover WWE. The right thing to do is to come out every week and hold all of the fans accountable because nobody else will. He then told the fans that he would see them in hell. Dana Brooke did a promo. She congratulated Lynch on winning the title. She said that he’s not in the front of the line but she’s not in the back of the line either. She said if she’s given an opportunity, she is going to seize that opportunity. Elias was in the ring. He was running down Cena again. He said that Cena was a self centered piece of garbage who was riding the coattails of Elias’ popularity. He said that Cena came out with his golden shovel to bury him, but he can’t be buried. He held up three fingers and said the middle finger was for Cena. He said the next person who comes out and interrupts him will be a dead man. Undertaker came out. He did the slow walk and Elias did a great job of facially selling that Undertaker was coming out. Elias first teased walking out, but came back in. Undertaker acted surprised that Elias came back in. Elias then backed off and started to walk out, only to charge him when Undertaker turned around. But Undertaker kicked him in the face. Undertaker hit him with a choke slam and a tombstone piledriver. The Rollins vs. Kingston double title match only went 7:48. Not much happened in the match and Sheamus & Cesaro hit the ring and attacked Kingston. Rollins made the save. Fans were furious. Rollins said that we’ll finish this some other time, which led to more boos. Then he asked for a tag match against them. Fans booed that even worse. This crowd saw through that. Kingston & Rollins beat Sheamus & Cesaro in 9:19. For the most part, the crowd turned on this match. Rollins used a plancha but Cesaro caught him and threw him on the apron. Beach balls were flying everywhere. Cesaro got mad at hurdled the guard rail trying to confiscate one of the beach balls. Sheamus gave Kingston a uranage into the barricade. Kingston came back and did his twisting dive but they both caught him. Rollins then did a tope knocking Sheamus & Cesaro over. Fans were chanting for C.M. Punk, chanting for AEW and chanting delete among other things. Rollins pinned Cesaro with a curb stomp. Rollins and Kingston then fist bumped to no reaction. They tried to raise their hands to celebrate and got a lukewarm reaction. After the show ended, Rollins thanked Kingston. Rollins then called out Reigns and Ambrose. Both came out in street clothes and Ambrose wasn’t selling the beating he took from Lashley during the show one bit. Ambrose did an interview talking about the Barclays Center being the arena they made their debut as The Shield in. He also praised Arn Anderson, which was notable, as the key guy who helped them become a strong unit, saying that when they first met Anderson, they were two indie guys and a football player. He said he was so proud of Reigns kicking the shit out of cancer and thanked the fans were supporting all three of them. He said the fans were very dedicated “even sitting through three freaking hours of Raw.” They closed the show with The Shield fist bump. Fans were chanting “Thank you Ambrose” and “Please don’t go,” which was funny since they were the same fans chanting for AEW minutes earlier. Another note that got a lot of fans mad was that during the show they kept pushing people to buy tickets for Smackdown the next night, pushing Styles & Kingston vs. Bryan & Orton as the main event when they knew full well that Styles wasn’t going to be on the show. I can’t come up with any excuse or justification for that. They are promoting all kinds of shows going forward as The Shield vs. Corbin & McIntyre & Lashley, but in the promotion they are calling Strowman an honorary Shield member.
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779Notes from the 4/9 tapings of Smackdown and 205 Live in Brooklyn. The crowd was 9,500, with a lot of the upper deck tarped and there were also empty seats in the open sections. There may have been considerable people who bought tickets for all the shows but were exhausted and didn’t come and ate the tickets or scalpers who couldn’t sell them because of fatigue. The dark match opener was an experiment. Harper pinned EC 3. EC 3 was managed by Drake Maverick and they did well together. The two had a similar role in TNA and when it TNA were really good friends in real life. Maverick had been managing AOP, but with Akam hurt, he’s just been doing the 205 Live G.M. role. Smackdown opened with the New Day out for the Kingston title win celebration. E said that Kingston was an A+ player with extra credits. E did the splits again. They all put over Lynch. In fact, the rule of thumb seemed to be for all the faces to put over Kingston and Lynch. They crowd was really hot for Kingston. His wife and two sons were at ringside. E said that the fans have known New Day for crude humor and a lot of talking about butts, but this was a celebration. Woods said that he followed Kingston’s entire career, and that when he made the main roster, it was like meeting one of his heroes. E said that the three of them came together in an attempt to reshape culture and change history. By playing the trombone and throwing pancakes? Kingston said that none of this was supposed to happen and it wasn’t in the script. Well, it wasn’t a long-term plan, that’s for sure. But for the last month plus it’s been in the script. Fans chanted for Kingston’s wife. He came across as a really likeable guy. The idea is to make him this year’s Bryan, but I didn’t get the depth of fan connection than Bryan had. With Kingston, this all feels like a short-term fad whereas with Bryan, even though that’s what it was designed to be also, it didn’t feel as much like it. Sheamus & Cesaro came out. Sheamus said that Kingston should be thanking them for interfering and saving his skin because Rollins was mopping the floor with him. Sheamus said that Kingston nearly lost his title in 24 hours. Cesaro challenged them to a six-man tag. The New Day pointed out there were only two of them. Cesaro said that when they went to Raw yesterday they made a friend, and then brought out McIntyre. Ali & Ricochet & Black beat Rusev & Nakamura & Andrade in 10:31. The crowd was singing Nakamura’s theme song during the match. At least they were weren’t chanting AEW like the night before. This was a ***3/4 level match. An interesting trivia note is that Vega was managing against her husband, Black. And they were shown together on the Hall of Fame television show. Ricochet did a moonsault block off the barricade on Rusev. Lots of big moves, ending when Ali pinned Andrade with a 450. Ali was celebrating when Orton showed up with his only appearance on the show, hitting Ali with an RKO out of nowhere. The crowd cheered Orton pretty big for this. He left and then Owens hit the ring and gave Rusev a stunner. Rusev sold it in the big bump exaggerated fashion that the guys used to do for Austin. The Usos did an interview. Jey congratulated Kingston on winning. He said that their title defense with the Hardys would be to prove who is the best tag team in WWE. R-Truth & Carmella came out. Truth said that Carmella had won the Andre the Giant Battle Royal when she won the Royal Rumble. He’s usually good at delivering these lines but this felt forced and felt like one too many times going to the well. Carmella said she couldn’t have won the match without him. She said she sees big things in her future now and thanked Truth for turning her career around. Joe came out. Joe and Truth went at it. Joe sidestepped an ax kick and choked Truth out. Joe did a promo saying he had just destroyed Mysterio in less than 60 seconds. Fans were mostly cheering him. Strowman then came out. They went at it. Joe got the choke on Strowman. Strowman backed Joe into the turnbuckles to break it. Strowman tried the powerslam but Joe got away. It certainly appeared to be the beginning of a new program. The Iiconics came out. They said they would defend their titles against a team on a winning streak. They brought out Kristen (Kris Statlander) & Karissa (Karissa Rivera) and beat them in a title match in 1:31. Corey Graves kept messing up their names on purpose with the idea nobody knew who the two were. The idea is they were top indie wrestlers from Brooklyn as a way to get heat on the Iiconics. Paige was watching all this and then did an interview saying next week she was bringing in an impressive tag team of her own. Perhaps it’s Sane & Shirai since Sane was earmarked to be brought up. Shane McMahon came out. He wasn’t dancing around, walking slowly selling that he took a beating in his match with Miz. He also had a mouse under his left eye, which he blamed on being punched by George Mizanin. Doesn’t it make every single wrestler in the company look bad when they punch each other in the face every night and nobody has a mark, but a 68-year-old guy gives Shane a messed up eye. At least claim Miz did it, since one of Miz’s problems is that people are entertained by him but don’t consider him a tough guy or a real fighter, and that limits how much they take him seriously at the main event level. Fans were chanting “You deserve it” at Shane when he said how George gave him the mouse under the eye. Shane said Miz wasn’t there because he was tending to his father who was injured by Shane. Shane called George “Baked Potato face.” Fans didn’t like this segment as it went on way too long. They started with C.M. Punk chants, which Shane actually shut down by just saying “really,” but then as the segment never ended, the chants came back louder. The segment devolved into Shane calling in ring announcer Greg Hamilton. He said that Hamilton gave him a great intro at Mania, but didn’t seem as enthused here. He asked Hamilton why. Hamilton said that several fans threatened him if he called Shane “best in the world” and told him that something bad would happen and he was fearful. Geez, they just had a psycho attack Bret Hart and now they are going on the air and telling people that their fan base is filled with more dangerous psychos. Shane snatched him and said he was his boss and ordered Hamilton to announce him as the best in the world. He kept doing it and Shane said it wasn’t good enough. This segment was starting to feel as long as the Bully Ray match or the HHH match. More Punk chants. Shane grabbed him by the tie. Fans kept booing. Finally, after a bunch of tries, Hamilton gave this awesome ring intro for Shane and Shane said “Good job.” That was it. By this point the C.M. Punk chants were really loud. The Hardys beat the Usos to win the tag titles in 8:42. The Hardys are now wearing the same ring gear they used 19 years ago, and have also died their hair. To their credit, they were able to look close enough to how they looked 19 years ago to visually pull it off, as Matt has gotten into this best shape in a long time. But Matt doesn’t move well anymore. They tried to work as 90s Hardys, and that’s a tall order. Matt took a lot more bumps than usual which isn’t a good thing for him after all his injuries. Jeff kicked out of a splash off the top by Jey. Jeff moved from a double splash by the Usos. Matt did lead chants of “delete” but was mostly early 00s babyface Matt Hardy but moving much slower and more deliberate. Matt used a twist of fate and Jeff got the pin clean with the swanton. Then, to get the belts over even more, Sullivan came out and by himself, destroyed both of them. Well, if you recall, 17 years ago when the Hardys were a hot team, they did the same thing with Lesnar destroying them. Sullivan gave Jeff the freak accident and hit Matt with a powerslam and a diving head-butt off the top. I can see Sullivan vs. Strowman at some point down the line, as well as Sullivan vs. Reigns. Lynch came out. She got the crowd to chant “Becky 2 belts.” She said that with holding both belts, she’ll be on both brands. As she was leaving, Evans came out and decked her. Ths time Lynch sold it big and didn’t get up so fast from the punch. Lynch sold it and made no comeback. Zayn came out. He looked at the crowd, said “You’re not worth it” and went to the back. New Day beat Sheamus & Cesaro & McIntyre in the main event in 7:55. Something happened in this match as they went to a commercial break right away. When they came back, McIntyre was gone and there was no mention of him. Off camera he just walked off to the back and not in a storyline way. Evidently things were changing on the fly because the show had gone long and time was cut from the match and they wanted to protect him by not having him be out there for the finishing stretch of the match and been viewed as being part of the losing team. But watching it, that was weird. Kingston pinned Sheamus with the Trouble in Paradise. Kingston brought his family in the ring after the match and celebrated with his kids. 205 Live opened with the announcement that Tony Nese would defend the title against Buddy Murphy. A lot of the crowd left before this started. Humberto Carrillo beat Jack Gallagher via DQ. The idea is that Carrillo, Drew Gulak and Gallagher are all a group and that Gulak and Gallagher are trying to keep Carrillo from doing his high flying moves. Gallagher cheap shotted Carrillo. Carrillo made a comeback and went to the top rope but Gulak shoved Carrillo off the top rope. Gulak then started beating on Carrillo until Gallagher stopped him. Nese said that he accomplished his lifelong dream at WrestleMania. Drake Maverick was with Oney Lorcan. He welcomed Lorcan to 205 Live. Cedric Alexander came to Maverick and wanted a match. Lorcan then said he would take that match next week. Nese beat Murphy to keep the title. Murphy faked a knee injury and then attacked Nese to get the advantage. Nese came back and did a Fosbury flop dive. Murphy hit Murphy’s Law but Nese kicked out. Nese hit a reverse huracanrana and then the running knees into the corner, and then did it a second time and got the pin. The dark match main event saw Owens vs. Zayn. Zayn came out and insulted the fans. He said that the fans don’t deserve a match with Owens and they should just hug and go their separate ways. Owens hugged him and went to leave. Zayn then said that Owens was never the brains behind the team when they were together. Owens then said that they both missed WrestleMania this year and it sucked. The bell rang and Owens hit the stunner for the pin, and then gave him three more stunners. He was a total Austin copy where he’d help the guy up and then give him another stunner.
780
781Notes from the 4/10 TV tapings at Full Sail University. The show opened with a dark match with Reina Gonzalez over Lacey Lane with a clothesline. Gonzalez is still doing her female Stan Hansen gimmick. Velveteen Dream pinned Buddy Murphy to keep the North American title. Great match. Dream won clean with the elbow off the top rope. Raul Mendoza pinned Riddick Moss. Johnny Gargano did an interview. The entire Undisputed Era came out. Roderick Strong jumped Gargano from behind. Dominik Dijakovic won a squash match and then issued a challenge to Dream for the North American title. Shayna Baszler kept the women’s title beating Kairi Sane via DQ. The stipulation was that if Sane didn’t win the title, she could never challenge for it again. Since she didn’t win, that would hint that she’s moving up to the main roster. Baszler kept working over the arm. At one point the doctor came out to check on it. Baszler kept working on it until Io Shirai came out and attacked Baszler to end the match. It is possible they could do Sane vs. Shirai before Sane moves up because Sane could be mad at her for costing her the match when the stip was she couldn’t get anymore shots. But Sane bowed down to the fans and got a standing ovation, which seemed also to be a hint this was her farewell. Humberto Carrillo beat Jaxson Ryker via DQ. Wesley Blake and Steve Cutler were helping Ryker until Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch made the save. Candice LeRae & Kacy Catanzaro beat Vanessa Borne & Aliyah. It looked like LeRae & Catanzaro were being put together as a regular team. War Raiders beat The Street Profits in a non-title match. Gargano beat Strong in what was also a non-title match. Adam Cole, Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly tried to interfere. Matt Riddle came out to stop them. Cole went to hit Riddle, but he moved and instead hit Strong, which led to Gargano winning. They then re-shot the Carrillo vs Ryker match with the same finish. It was basically the same match. After seeing the exact same match twice, the crowd chanted “one more time.” Dijakovic beat Mansoor Al-Shehail. Dream came out and led the crowd in singing his own version of the Star Spangled Banner. They put the words to the Dream’s on the screen for everyone to sing. Ryker & Blake & Cutler beat Lorcan & Burch & Carrillo. Kushida beat Kassius Ohno. Kushida did the same Back to the Future ring entrance that he would do in New Japan. Good match. Kushida won with a punch to the face and the hoverboard lock. Bianca Belair beat Mia Yim using both the ropes and her hair. Riddle beat Cole in a great match with a lot of near falls. Strong tried to interfere but Riddle ended up winning via submission with the bromission. They teased a split up between Cole and Strong as the two argued and teased getting into it before the other two calmed them down and they left together.