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1Wrestling Observer Newsletter
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3PO Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228 ISSN10839593 August 27, 2018
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5 
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7WWE SUMMERSLAM POLL RESULTS
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9Thumbs up 262 (56.6%)
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11Thumbs down 56 (12.1%)
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13In the middle 145 (31.3%)
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15 
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17BEST MATCH POLL
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19Samoa Joe vs. A.J. Styles 303
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21Seth Rollins vs. Dolph Ziggler 72
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23The Miz vs. Daniel Bryan 51
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25Charlotte vs. Carmella vs. Lynch 8
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27 
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29WORST MACH POLL
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31Braun Strowman vs. Kevin Owens 154
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33Roman Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar 62
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35Almas & Vega vs. Rusev & Lana 55
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37Ronda Rousey vs. Alexa Bliss 53
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39Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Jeff Hardy 29
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41Charlotte vs. Carmella vs. Lynch 26
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43Finn Balor vs. Baron Corbin 16
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45 
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47NXT TAKEOVER BROOKLYN
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49Thumbs up 486 (99.8%)
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51Thumbs down 1 (00.2%)
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53In the middle 0 (00.0%)
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55 
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57BEST MATCH POLL
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59Ricochet vs. Adam Cole 176
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61O’Reilly & Cole vs. Bate & Seven 145
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63Tommaso Ciampa vs. Johnny Gargano 96
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65Kairi Sane vs. Shayna Baszler 52
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69WORST MATCH POLL
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71Velveteen Dream vs. EC 3 334
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73Kairi Sane vs. Shayna Baszler 46
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75Tommaso Ciampa vs. Johnny Gargano 8
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77Based on phone calls and e-mails to the Observer as of Tuesday, 8/21.
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81There was hardly a shortage of news coming out of this year’s SummerSlam show on 8/19 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
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83It was three years and five months after the plan to coronate Roman Reigns as the company’s main champion by beating the guy who ended the streak, Brock Lesnar, was supposed to play out. It was delayed so often by fear of a bad fan reaction that the breaking of the streak was not even relevant in the storyline. Indeed, Reigns himself beat Undertaker a second time at a WrestleMania and that’s wasn’t relevant by this time either.
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85In this case, the company’s approach to avoid the negativity, but finally pull the trigger ended up with a clever bait & switch idea that at least made the fans at home not think the fans were revolting on the switch.
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87It is entirely possible, if not probable, that the crowd would have crapped all over the match, particularly when he went on last on a show that had started well over five hours earlier.
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89But the key was using Braun Strowman and his Money in the Bank briefcase. Strowman came out at the start of the match and most thought he would make a three-way. But while that would have avoided the crowd rejecting the match, Strowman would have lost his briefcase and the fans would have hated the finish. Instead, Strowman said he was going to cash in after the match against the winner.
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91In a short but attempting to be explosive match with nothing but hot moves and no down time, Lesnar destroyed Strowman, giving him an F-5 on the floor, hitting him with his own briefcase and throwing it to the top of the entrance way. After a few more chair shots on Strowman, Lesnar got in the ring, was hit by a spear and pinned in 6:07. Yes, Lesnar took spear after spear and survived in previous matches, including three in a row earlier in the match. But just one did the trick here. It should be noted that there are stories going around that the match was cut short because Vince McMahon didn’t like Reigns being booed, but that was not the case. The match went pretty much exactly as designed.
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93Strowman was too badly hurt to cash in. But the fans didn’t realize it at the time. So they didn’t crap on Reigns winning. They cut away immediately, and when the live crowd figured out they weren’t getting the Reigns vs. Strowman match, they were hot, but the show was already off the air.
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95So they did a masterful job of manipulating the crowd. One could argue working the crowd like that could lead to resentment, but this is a different era. Fans now protesting their dislike for the company by spending more money than ever to support it, while being angry and at times protesting. WWE understands this.
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97But not every manipulation is perfect. The biggest pop on the show, and the biggest on Smackdown two days later, was for Becky Lynch, who the promotion thought they were turning heel with an attack on Charlotte Flair. I usually can figure out what they’re doing, but in hindsight, I was in disbelief. The whole story, from week one, was that Lynch had been waiting for so long for her title shot in a one-on-one match, and it got taken from her. She was the clear crowd favorite, had Carmella beat with the disarmer in the middle when Flair hit the natural selection on her for the pin. That’s been the classic totally overused heel stealing the victory from the babyface finish used in three-ways since Paul Heyman or whoever it was came up with the idea more than 20 years ago. So Lynch attacked Charlotte and beat her down after the match.
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99This was supposed to be a heel turn. Well, except that most people at home saw her as the face, and I thought they manipulated brilliantly, even if the announcers were calling it as a heel turn. Plus, in New York at a big PPV, people are going to pop for any turn, because they are into being there for moments and news. Lynch’s turn ended up getting, by far, the biggest babyface pop on the show. They stayed the course and had Lynch try and insult the crowd to be a heel. That didn’t work either. The problem now is that they are booked for a Charlotte vs. Lynch program, with Charlotte as the face. They have to go with the program, and in doing so, they are risking Charlotte becoming the female Reigns.
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101Reigns and Strowman is clearly the Raw main event program going forward. What’s notable is on Raw, The Shield all beat down Strowman in a classic heel beatdown. However, The Shield have a nostalgia thing to them and putting them together is the one way it’s possible Reigns could get cheered. It was the plans months back, but first Reigns got the mumps and then Ambrose tore his triceps, so The Shield return run never really got off the ground. It’s supposed to now, and also in doing so, sets up a break-up and rivalry with Reigns, whether it be Ambrose or Rollins, who does it. Since Rollins already did it once, Ambrose would make sense as a favorite.
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103As far as Lesnar, his WWE contract expires in a few days. He was written out of storylines when Kurt Angle refused to give him his rematch. He was pulled by WWE off the Raw show this past week because nobody could come up with an idea for him that made sense. If he was staying, he could destroy everyone, but they weren’t going to have Strowman beat him since he had no matches left, and he had no matches to build up. He could go crazy and get suspended or fired, but that doesn’t do WWE any good to put more focus on him when he’s got no date to return. He is back training for fighting. He has dropped weight. He is going in with the idea of facing Daniel Cormier for the UFC heavyweight title in early 2019. The company, which gave him an incredible deal to stay the last nearly five months, finished him up as champion and evidently didn’t meet the UFC offer to keep him through WrestleMania. It’s pretty much a lock he’ll be back at some point, since at 41, and with limited striking ability, even in a weak heavyweight division his time in UFC is clearly limited.
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105Ronda Rousey won the Raw women’s title from Alexa Bliss, which was pushed as making her the first woman to win both the WWE and UFC women’s titles. It was booked pretty much as a squash match and with Rousey injuring her. The Bellas were at ringside and they, along with Natalya, celebrated withy her. The working idea is Rousey vs. Nikki Bella at the 10/28 Evolution PPV.
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107Rollins beat Dolph Ziggler to regain the IC title.
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109The show drew a sellout of about 14,000 paid. It was a hugely successful secondary market show after ticket brokers bought nearly half the seats at the start. With most sales coming the last week when demand was high, there were likely well over 6,000 ticket broker seats out. Stubhub alone sold 5,363 seats for $1,097,191, an average of $205 per ticket, or far above the original ticket price. Data like that would seem to assure higher prices going forward, although this was also the New York market where you can charge more, but if they return to Barclays, the data tells them where to scale the house. About 76 percent of the tickets sold were in New York and bordering states.
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111For a comparison, Takeover the night before sold 2,798 Stubhub tickets at a $112 average. About 85 percent of the tickets coming from the area.
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113An interesting note is that for ROH in Madison Square Garden, thus far is that 75 percent of sales were local. A key to that is that this is not the same audience as All In as most expected. Nor is it a fly-in audience coming in for WrestleMania. It is a New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania crowd so the idea of piggybacking fly-ins off WrestleMania as most have thought was the key to the sellout is not the case.
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115All In has sold 1,387 tickets on the secondary market with less than two weeks to go, with a $204 average (basically they way underpriced this show) and 30 percent of the tickets came from Illinois, Indiana or Wisconsin. While more tickets were sold from Illinois than anywhere, New York, California, Pennsylvania and New Jersey have all sold more tickets than Wisconsin, Ohio or Indiana.
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117The other bit of news coming out of the show is that Erick Rowan suffered a torn right biceps in catching someone on a dive. He will undergo surgery later this week. Biceps surgery usually means around eight months out of action. He did work the next night with his arm heavily braced to drop the tag titles to the New Day. It’s a disaster for them because this is a timing business and it was their time after both spent seemingly forever on ice before the repackaging.
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119The next PPV is Hell In a Cell on 9/16 in San Antonio. The only match announced is Daniel Bryan & Brie Bella vs. The Miz & Maryse, stemming from Maryse giving Miz Brass Knucks to knock Bryan out and win the singles match. One would think Reigns vs. Strowman (unless they do a Shield six-man) or A.J. Styles vs. Samoa Joe (which looks to be a lock for a rematch) will be the title matches, with one or both in the Cell.
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1211. Andrade Cien Almas & Zelina Vega beat Rusev & Lana in 7:01. A simple match. Lana’s wrestling looked better than in the past. The finish saw Lana go to slap Almas, and Vega schoolboyed her from behind. Vega was supposed to get both feet on the ropes and she finally got it after two times reaching. *1/4
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1232. Cedric Alexander pinned Drew Gulak to keep the cruiserweight title in 10:39. Good match, but not much heat. Alexander got out of the Gu lock and hit a great dropkick. He did a running flip dive. Gulak worked over the neck. There were a series of near falls. Alexander won with a cradle after a series of reversals. ***1/4
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1253. Bo Dallas & Curtis Axel beat Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder in 6:11 to retain the Raw tag titles. Dallas sings the new B Team song as he comes to the ring, “B Team, B Team, Go, Go, Go.” The Revival hit the shatter machine on Axel, who wasn’t the legal guy. So they worked on Dallas for a few minutes. The Revival controlled most of the match and they booked it like it was a fluke finish. Dawson had Axel pinned with an inside cradle. Wilder snapped Dallas’ neck on the top rope and he fell backwards and in doing so, knocked into Dawson who fell down and Axel cradled him for the pin. *1/2
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1274. Seth Rollins pinned Dolph Ziggler in 21:59 to win the IC title. Dean Ambrose and Drew McIntyre were in the corners. Real good. Ziggler backdropped Rollins over the top and he began selling the knee. Rolling suplexed Ziggler over the top and both went over. Rollins made a comeback including a tope, springboard clothesline and a knee for a near fall. Ziggler kicked Rollins into the post and DDT’d him on the apron. Rollins came off the top with a frog splash and Ziggler got the knees up. Ziggler got a near fall with the Zig Zag. The crowd got hot in the last two minutes. McIntyre threw Ambrose into the steps. Ziggler hit th Zig Zag for a near fall. Rollins was bleeding from being thrown into the steps. Rollins hit a buckle bomb while Ambrose pulled McIntyre off the apron and hit Dirty Deeds on the floor. Rollins then superkicked Ziggler and used the curb stomp for the pin. ***3/4
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129The Bella Twins did an interview and teased Evolution, and pushed all their marketing stuff. They said they’d be in the front row for the Rousey vs. Bliss match.
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1315. Big E & Xavier Woods beat Luke Harper & Erick Rowan via DQ in 9:29 so Harper & Rowan kept the Smackdown tag titles. This was really good until the flat finish. E gave Rowan and Harper overhead belly to belly throws on the floor. Harper nearly landed on his head. Lots of big moves. Rowan missed a tackle and went into the post. Woods did a flip dive on Rowan. Harper did the Bossman slam on Woods on the floor. E tackled Harper through the ropes to the floor. Rowan tried a crossbody off the apron on E, which looked clumsy. They did the double choke slam on E but Woods saved. E gave Rowan the big ending on he floor and E threw Harper off the ropes with uranage onto Woods’s knees on the floor. Woods did an insane elbow drop off the top rope to the floor on Harper. It looked like the New Day would win the titles as Harper was up for the Midnight Hour but Rowan hit both E and Woods with the mallet for the DQ. Harper also hit E with the mallet after it was over. ***½
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1336. Braun Strowman pinned Kevin Owens in 1:53. Strowman got a big reaction. He ran over Owens twice on the floor and then choke slammed him on the ramp, and pinned him after a powerslam in the ring. ½*
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1357. Charlotte Flair won the Smackdown women’s title in a three way over champion Carmella and Becky Lynch in 14:39. Carmella threw Charlotte into the post. Charlotte missed a kick badly that Lynch still sold. Lynch hit a missile dropkick on both. The action picked up as Charlotte and Lynch looked good and this was Carmella’s best big show match to date by far. Carmella went for a huracanrana, Charlotte blocked it and put her in a Boston crab bomb and then a deep Boston crab. Flair used the figure four and Lynch came off the top rope with a leg drop to break it up. Carmella did a great tope on Lynch and Charlotte did a corkscrew moonsault to the floor on both. Lynch had the disarmer on Charlotte in the middle and Carmella saved. Lots of near falls. Lynch got the disarmer on Carmella but she made the ropes. Lynch got it on again after an exploder, but Charlotte hit natural selection on Lynch and pinned her. Charlotte and Lynch hugged after the match and the fans booed the hug that they were supposed to cheer. It was clear they wanted Lynch to win and felt Charlotte stole it from her. Lynch then turned on her and it got the pop of he night. Lynch threw her into the barricade and over the table. I’m beyond baffled that they thought this storyline was going to get Lynch heat. ***½
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1378. Samoa Joe beat A.J. Styles via DQ in 22:43 so Styles retained the WWE title. Even with the DQ finish this was the best match on the show. And at least this DQ made sense within the storyline. They showed Styles’ wife and daughter at ringside before the match. Tom Phillips talked about how Styles was working over Joe’s calf bone. At least Corey Graves recognized the calf wasn’t a bone. Joe hit the elbow suicida. Styles hit the phenomenal forearm to the outside. Joe teased another tope but Styles kicked him in the head. Styles used a backbreaker but because Joe is so heavy, sold the knee. Joe did a great twisting powerslam. Styles hit a Styles clash, which looked a little rough because of Joe’s size, for a near fall. They traded shots and Styles hit a Pele kick, but ran into a uranage. Styles went back to the calf crusher but Joe slammed Styles head into the mat and got a choke. Styles made the ropes. Styles was on the top rope and Joe kicked him off to the floor. Joe threw Styles head first into the steps. Joe then told Styles’ wife that A.J. was coming home, “Or maybe he’s not, but I’ll be the new Daddy.” Styles was bleeding for the steps shot and tackled him off the table and started throwing around people at ringside and hit Joe with chair shot after chair shot for the DQ. ****1/4
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139Elias came out, was going to play, and his guitar broke. This was planned. The crowd liked Elias but this was way too late in the show to do a long vignette.
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141The Miz was backstage with Dallas & Axel. Miz told them to fetch his limo. Dallas & Axel said they didn’t work for him and have some celebrating to do. They said they weren’t the Mizterouge, they were the B Team. They said the B stands for Bryan and they hope Bryan beats him.
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1439. The Miz pinned Daniel Bryan in 23:25. Miz did his terrible looking kicks in the corner and the running dropkick that Bryan usually does. There was a clumsy bulldog spot when Miz didn’t go for it. Miz did the Rito Romero special. Bryan did a Romero special. The crowd was quieter than I would have expected for this. The build has really hurt Bryan. Still a very good match. Bryan did a plancha over the post. Bryan did the kicks and running dropkick into the corner. Bryan also did a backwards superplex. Miz threw kicks and Bryan just leaned into them and walked forward, which was right out of the Tanahashi vs. Ibushi match, followed by Bryan using a dragon screw. Miz catapulted Bryan into the post and hit the skull crushing finale but Bryan kicked out. Miz’s chest was all welted up. Bryan threw a ton of kicks until Miz moved and Bryan kicked the post. Miz used the figure four but Bryan turned him over and Miz made the ropes. Bryan used the yes lock but Miz made the ropes. The finish saw Maryse give Miz Brass Knucks and hit Bryan with them for the pin. There were a lot of people cheering Miz winning, not the majority, but more than you’d think. ***3/4
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14510. Finn Balor pinned Baron Corbin in 1:26. Balor surprisingly came out as The Demon and immediately hit a sling blade and running flip dive. He used another sling blade, a Woo dropkick, a double foot stomp to the back, and another Woo dropkick and got the pin after a double foot stomp. The best thing they did here was go short because the show had gone long and the people just wanted to see Rousey and boo the main event by this point. *
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147Bryan was backstage and was telling Brie Bella how furious he was about losing. He said that his return has been a bust.
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14911. Shinsuke Nakamura pinned Jeff Hardy to keep the U.S. title in 10:57. The crowd was dead here. Even when Hardy hit the twist of fate, nobody cared. Nakamura rolled to apron. Hardy went off the top rope with a swanton to the apron, and missed. It’s one thing when a young guy trying to make his name like Joey Janela does this, but for a guy past 40 suffering from nerve damage, it’s probably not worth it. Plus, because the crowd was so dead, it got no reaction. Nakamura threw him into the ring, hit an ax kick and the Kinshasa for the pin. Randy Orton’s music played. He came out, acted like he was going to attack the still laid out Hardy. But he turned around and left. **
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15112. Ronda Rousey beat Alexa Bliss in 4:39 to win the Raw women’s title. This was mostly Bliss running away. At one point Rousey sat down and let Bliss choke her. Bliss put it in, Rousey peeled her arms off and hit a spinning Samoan drop. Bliss threw some knees that Rousey no sold. Rousey used two judo throws, another Spinning Samoan drop and bent Bliss’ arm at a sick angle. Since Bliss is double jointed, they could do that as an injury angle without hurting her. It looked sick if you didn’t know. Rousey then used the armbar for the submission. Rousey and Natalya hugged and the Bellas came in and hugged them. The fans booed the Bellas a lot. Nobody was going to boo Natalya. Rousey jumped into the arms of Travis Browne at ringside. They really focused on Natalya with her. **
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15313. Roman Reigns pinned Brock Lesnar in 6:07 to win the Universal title. Strowman came out and said he was cashing in as soon as the match was over. So the crowd waited. They opened hot, with Reigns hitting three Superman punches and two spears. He went for a third spear, but Lesnar caught him in a guillotine. Reigns picked him up from that position and gave Lesnar a spinebuster. Lesnar did another guillotine and Reigns did another spinebuster. Lesnar then took his gloves off. Lesnar hit three German suplexes. Fans were chanting “You both suck.” So the crowd was starting to turn. Lesnar went for an F-5 but Reigns got behind him. Reigns went for a spear, Lesnar moved and Reigns flew out of the ring hitting Strowman with a tope. Lesnar went outside and hit an F-5 on Strowman on the floor. Lesnar hit Strowman with his own briefcase and threw the briefcase to the entrance way. Lesnar followed with two more chair shots on Strowman and got in the ring, where Reigns speared him for the pin. The crowd didn’t boo as they expected Strowman to cash in immediately and then they rushed off the air before the crowd realized they’d been had. **½
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155Villano III, considered one of the greatest wrestlers in Mexican history, passed away on 8/21 from a brain hemorrhage in the hospital at the age of 66.
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157Born Arturo Diaz Mendoza, the son of Ray Mendoza, he was a huge star in the 70s, 80s and 90, best known as a headliner during the glory days of the UWA promotion at El Toreo in Naucalpan. He had seven reigns as WWF world light heavyweight champion (while never actually defending it in WWF, as it was a belt recognized by UWA in Mexico and New Japan). His March 17, 2000, match with Atlantis at Arena Mexico where he lost his mask in one of the most emotional matches in pro wrestling history, a match that is considered one of the most important and greatest matches in Lucha Libre history. It was also the only match from Mexico ever to win Match of the Year in the Observer poll, something that would figure, just because of the exposure situation, to be nearly impossible.
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159Villano III was days before his 48th birthday at the time of the Atlantis mask match, and long past a prime where he was often regarded as one of the best technical wrestlers of his era. The UWA, his home promotion during his heyday, had long since folded. While he did work some for CMLL in the 80s and early 90s, as he was a big enough name that he could work both CMLL and UWA, he went full-time with AAA from 1992 through 1997.
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161When he left and came back to CMLL in 1998, he was a rudo and started a long program with Atlantis. It was two of the top stars of the 80s who were in the same position with the two leading promotions. While it wouldn’t exactly be a version of Hulk Hogan vs. Ric Flair, that may be the closest U.S. analogy, although Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Jumbo Tsuruta or Keiji Muto vs. Mitsuharu Misawa may be closer to the mark.
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163The match was teased for the September 24, 1999, 66th anniversary show. The main event was Mr. Niebla & Shocker vs. Atlantis & Villano III in a tag match, where the winning team would be in the mask match. Atlantis vs. Villano III was the hotter program, but Niebla & Shocker won. Shocker, who was a huge star at the time, lost his mask. At one point an Atlantis vs. Villano III singles match was planned, but because the feud was so hot, they decided to milk it for another several months.
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165Villano III then beat Atlantis on November 22, 1999, to win the CMLL world light heavyweight title, a belt he held going into what was his most famous career match.
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167At the time of their mask match, Villano III was generally listed by historians as one of the 15 biggest stars in Lucha Libre history, and had worn his trademark mask, first used by how two older brothers, Villano I & Villano II, since 1973. He had won at least 53 matches in a row to defend his mask, including winning the hair of big names like Cesar Valentino, Colosso Colosetti, Lobo Rubio, Babe Face, Alberto Munoz, El Signo, El Texano, Perro Aguayo, Rambo (who he had unmasked six years earlier) as well as masks of El Medico, Black Powers I & II, Pegasus Kid (Chris Benoit) and Super Astro.
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169The match drew a reported 20,000 fans, which in that case may have been actually been reported low. Arena Mexico was set up for 17,678 tickets and there were actually 4,000 standing room tickets sold, but due to problems from a 1990 match where 23,000 were put in the building and the upper deck nearly collapsed under the weight, they legally couldn’t put more than 20,000 fans in.
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171The show sold out all seats two days in advance, which at the time was the earliest sellout in the history of Arena Mexico. That was an era where more than 90 percent of tickets were sold as walk-up the night of the show. On the morning of the show, they put the standing room tickets on sale, and sold out instantly. There were numerous arrests that night of the show as police confiscated more than 2,000 fraudulent tickets being sold by ruthless scalpers. The numbers turned away the night of the show were in the thousands, although police never reported an estimated number.
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173The match had some of the widest demographic ranges at a show you’ll see in modern times. There were fans very old, very young, and in the middle, all reacting as one, in some very unique ways. It’s unheard of to see audience members old enough to be great-grandparents reacting with such enthusiasm.
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175At the time, we compared the match to Jack Brisco vs. Dory Funk Jr., one of the classic feuds in U.S. history, except using more modern moves to create the same story. It was a one fall match. Villano III had his father, Ray, who is considered along with Perro Aguayo as one of the two biggest non-masked stars in Mexican history, in his corner.
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177The atmosphere, there all night, was more like one of the biggest boxing matches of the decade. Villano III did a tope, and they cracked heads and both bladed huge from the planned spot. Atlantis’ white mask, not torn, was soaked red. Atlantis was bleeding so badly, like in a boxing or MMA fight, they called in the doctor to check the cut, teasing the match would be stopped and he’d lose his mask. The crowd cheered both men. Whoever was on the verge of losing, that’s who was being cheered for. It was clear that as much as the crowd was primed to see the match and was enraptured by it, that when it was there and on, and they realized what it was, the prime emotion was that they didn’t want either man to lose.
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179Villano used a number of submissions, old style moves and moves rarely seen. Villano did a combination abdominal stretch and entangled armlock, morphing 1950s pro wrestling with 2000 MMA. Every move and movement got over.
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181At the 22:00 mark, Dr. Alfonso Morales, one of the country’s most famous mainstream sportscasters who, in wrestling always guarded against overhype, said that this match was an all-time classic.
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183Atlantis finally got the torture rack, and fans started screaming for Villano to escape, thinking it was the finish, but he reversed into a sunset flip. Atlantis got the torturer rack a second time, and then dropped to his knees, a move not yet invented but now called shock treatment, and Villano submitted at 25:28.
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185The big pop lasted 90 seconds and fans were still on their feet minutes later.
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187His two brothers, Tomas (Villano IV) & Reymundo (Villano V) were both at ringside, in their masks even though at the time both were working for WCW. They held him up on their shoulders in the ring. His father, Ray went to Morales, and cried heavily on his shoulder while the post-match interview was going on.
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189Arturo Diaz Mendoza Jr., his 18-month-old son, who is now a pro wrestler as Villano III Jr., was there with his mother at ringside.
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191The match gained so much interest that it was the first time a match was the lead story on the front page of the daily sports newspaper Ovaciones in many years. Even though Atlantis was the home promotion superstar, about half the crowd, a much older crowd than was usual at the time, was for Villano, and it was relatively common knowledge he would be losing. He was reportedly paid $9,500 for the match.
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193Villano III was put on the Observer Hall of Fame ballot starting in 2001, but was never voted in. He always garnered respectable support and was one of the leading vote getters in 2007, 2015, 2016 and 2017, all years he came relatively close to induction.
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195His father, Ray Mendoza, was a six-time NWA world light heavyweight champion at the time that was considered the most valuable championship in Mexico. It was the success of Mendoza and Mil Mascaras in Southern California in the late 60s that led to doors opening for the top stars in Mexico to work as stars in the LeBell promotion, and get national attention with the weekly Spanish language show on the Spanish International Network (now Galavision).
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197His two older brothers, Jose de Jesus Diaz Mendoza and Alfredo, had already become a tag team under a number of names, but eventually became Villano I & Villano II. Arturo, trained by his father and Felipe Ham Lee, made his pro debut under the name Ray Rosas, on January 29, 1970, at the age of 17.
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199He later wrestled under masks as Pulpo Blanco (White Octopus), Mancha Roja (Red Spot), Bufalo Salvaje (his older brothers, before becoming Villanos, were Bufalo Salvaje I & II) and Rokambole. His father, in 1973, felt he had progressed enough to use the name Villano III. Even though he and his brothers were masked, it was not hidden that they were Mendoza’s sons, which is why Mendoza wouldn’t allow him to become a Villano until he felt he was ready.
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201In 1975, Ray Mendoza, at the time one of the most respected superstars in Mexico, along with promoters Francisco Flores and Benjamin Mora, broke away from EMLL (now CMLL) to form the UWA. They were able to get the biggest stars to join with them with the promise of more modern promotion and bigger payoffs. Mendoza also felt that EMLL wasn’t giving his sons a fair push.
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203In the new promotion, Los Villanos became the top babyface trio, but Villano III was usually not part of that group. Villano III was pushed as the top non-heavyweight singles tecnico. He won a tournament on December 14, 1975, to become the first UWA world welterweight champion, a title he held until May 29, 1977, when he lost to Solar. On March 1, 1981, he beat Fishman to win the UWA world light heavyweight title.
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205In 1981, Hisashi Shinma of New Japan, Southern California promoter Mike LeBell, Flores and Vince McMahon Sr., created the WWF world light heavyweight title belt. The original idea for the title was to create a world championship for Gran Hamada, who was considered at the time too small for even the junior heavyweight title, which was held by major star Tatsumi Fujinami and with Fujinami moving to heavyweight, was being groomed for Satoru Sayama as Tiger Mask. Villano III was also used as one of the main foreign stars brought to Japan to battle Tiger Mask as champion.
206
207Perro Aguayo was made the first champion, as Hamada’s biggest rival at the time. While billed as a WWF championship, it was never actually defended in the Northeast or in WWF when the organization expanded in 1984. It was a belt controlled by the UWA, with the championship recognized and defended in Southern California, UWA and New Japan. Villano III beat Aguayo for the title on March 20, 1983. Villano III, Aguayo, Fishman, Sangre Chicana and others bounced the belt around until it was dropped when UWA went down in 1995, with Villano in his seventh title reign.
208
209He was the longest reigning champion in that title’s history, a run from March 20, 1984, when he beat Hamada, until a loss on August 21, 1986, to Fishman, both at El Toreo. He would also defend the title and feud with the best technical foreigners from Japan and North America, including both a title and mask vs. mask program with Pegasus Kid (who he unmasked as Chris Benoit) and Blue Blazer Owen Hart (although it was Canek who beat Blazer for his mask in 1991).
210
211During that period the UWA, with Villano III, Canek, Aguayo, Dos Caras, Mil Mascaras and Fishman as the biggest stars, drew as many as 1 million fans in its key arena, El Toreo, which would do 8,000 to 10,000 fans on average for two shows per week.
212
213Konnan remembered that when he started with UWA as a green bodybuilder, that most of the talent wanted to see him fall flat on his face and figured he was a few week wonder. He said that a number of guys, but Villano III especially, came to mentor him, not being one of the stars who were trying to make sure he failed or held him down. Villano would tell him what to avoid doing and how to win the respect of the veterans. He noted Villano was a great technical wrestler, the best in the family, and a real shooter and street fighter with the deeply scarred up face of an Aguayo or Abdullah the Butcher from all his bloody wars.
214
215After the UWA folded, by which point Villanos I & II were no longer around (Villano II, the oldest brother, passed away in 1989, depressed about his injuries in the ring and committed suicide at the age of 39; Villano I retired for the most part when the UWA went down and passed away at the age of 50 in 2001 from a heart attack, the prior year he underwent brain surgery due to a coagulum caused from all the bumps he had taken in the rock hard rings they worked in during that era), it was Villanos III & IV & V who were the regular trio. They went to AAA, and they won the Americas trios titles that were created in a match with Cien Caras & Heavy Metal & Latin Lover, and held the belts for most of 1996 and 1997.
216
217Villano III was past his prime when WCW signed up his two younger brothers, but he did have a run with the WWC where he won the Puerto Rican title twice.
218
219Villano III remained a top star for CMLL through 2003, and then worked with his brothers on independents, usually as a trio. He would come back to Arena Mexico, or AAA, for nostalgia based matches, until announcing that due to knee problems and diminishing eyesight, he had to retire in May, 2015. He had also reportedly suffered a stroke. Still, AAA brought him back for the August 9, 2015, TripleMania show where he teamed with his two younger brothers against the Psycho Circus in what may have been the worst major promotion match of the past five years and even those involved with that show recognized it was a huge mistake to put him back in the ring after the stroke.
220
221After his loss to Atlantis, he won 19 straight hair matches from 2000 through 2007, beating the likes of Mascara Ano 2000, Rambo (in 1993, 2001 and 2005), Signo (in 2001, 2004 and 2005 after first beating him for his hair in 1982), Super Brazo (in 2002 and 2005), Brazo de Oro (in 2002, 2004 and 2006), Scorpio Jr. (in 2005 and 2009) and Brazo de Platino. He finally got his head shaved for the first time in losing a hair vs. mask match to L.A. Park on May 5, 2007.
222
223He has two sons currently wrestling. Besides Villano III Jr., there is also an El Hijo de Villano III.
224
225NXT Takeover Brooklyn kept up the streak of great shows, and had a few interesting twists.
226
227The 8/18 show at the Barclays Center featured three excellent matches with a hot crowd, selling out for the first time since the first time NXT came to Brooklyn, with a crowd announced at 14,676, which was 13,000 paid.
228
229NXT beat both Raw and Smackdown in attendance. The show had two title changes, with Ricochet over Adam Cole for the North American title, and Kairi Sane beating Shayna Baszler for the women’s title, which could lead to a rematch at the Evolution show, although Bianca Belair has been getting pushed into that position as well.
230
231The show also featured a post-match angle after Roderick Strong & Kyle O’Reilly retained the tag titles over Trent Seven & Tyler Bate, where the War Raiders laid out Undisputed Era to set up the next tag team program.
232
233Matt Riddle, making a fashion statement with a nice suit, a tie, a baseball cap and flip flops, officially was announced as being part of NXT.
234
235Perhaps the key things is that in what appears to be an attempt to take control or bring back kayfabe, Paul Levesque claimed that the finish of the main event, where Tommaso Ciampa beat Johnny Gargano in a last man standing match, was changed on the fly due to a knee injury to Gargano that he was getting checked this week.
236
237It’s pretty clear that those involved were all told to say that, even though the finish looked like a planned finish and a couple of people have admitted the finish went as planned and Levesque is working an angle, and that will be clear with how everything will play out on television. They did the same thing last month with the Lars Sullivan broken jaw story after his match with Aleister Black.
238
239EC 3, on the other hand, was banged up. His right eye swelled up badly and there was fear of a concussion.
240
241The other was the idea that Velveteen Dream went into business for himself with the “Call Me Up Vince” tights, as if something like that happens without approval.
242
243The tag titles, the NXT title and North American title matches were all great in different ways. It was more a matter of taste. The tag match was excellent, although not quite the level of their Full Sail match. Ricochet vs. Cole was similar to a normal Ricochet PWG match, but since fans of NXT have never seen anything like it, it got over great. The NXT title match didn’t overdo the ten counts that, if people don’t buy them, break the momentum. The finish felt too similar to their last match and the fact that fans are starting to turn on Gargano is interesting. Still, it’s the best feud in pro wrestling this year. The first two matches were taped for the 8/22 NXT television show.
244
2451. Bianca Belair beat Deonna Purrazzo.
246
2472. Pete Dunne beat Zack Gibson to retain the U.K. title.
248
2493. Kyle O’Reilly & Roderick Strong beat Trent Seven & Tyler Bate in 18:06 to retain the NXT tag titles. They traded punches early and did a double knockdown. There were loud dueling chants. Bate did an airplane spin on O’Reilly and giant swing on Strong at the same time in a spot that always gets over. O’Reilly did the Pancrase style open handed ground and pound strikes. They worked over Bate’s left leg. Seven made the hot tag and hit O’Reilly with a tope. O’Reilly came back with a brainbuster on Seven and Strong used a Stronghold while O’Reilly had Bate in a triangle. Bate picked O’Reilly up with one arm and power bombed O’Reilly into Strong to break up the Stronghold. Fans gave them a standing ovation for the spot. Bate did a running flip dive on O’Reilly and used the Tyler driver 97 on Strong for a near fall. O’Reilly threw Bate’s left knee into the post and Strong threw it into the turnbuckles. O’Reilly used an inside heel hook. Seven got a towel and teased throwing it in, but instead threw the towel into the crowd. I’m not sure why he didn’t jump in to save his partner rather than messing with the towel, but because the last match ended with the towel throw, the spot worked. Seven had O’Reilly up for a burning hammer while Bate came off the top with a kneedrop. The finish saw O’Reilly hit Seven with a chop block and the did the high-low for the pin. The War Raiders attacked both and Hanson did a powerslam on O’Reilly, a tope on Strong and then they did the fallout on O’Reilly to lay both out. ****½
250
2514. Velveteen Dream pinned EC 3 in 15:05. Both guys had great ring entrances. They both have great ring presence, but as the match got going, you can really see EC 3 just isn’t at the level in the ring. As a personality, between the promos, ring presence and just look and how he carries himself, he’s above almost everyone in wrestling. Something happened in the crowd because people turned to look away from the match. EC 3 hit his original Impact one percenter, which is a different move from the current version, for a near fall. EC 3 slammed Dream off the top and went for a crossbody, but Dream rolled through. EC 3 used two power bombs. Dream used a superkick and Death Valley bomb. EC 3 was bleeding from the eye. Dream used a Death Valley bomb on the apron, followed by an elbow drop off the top rope onto the apron. Dream threw EC 3 back in the ring for the pin. **3/4
252
2535. Ricochet pinned Adam Cole in 15:19 to win the North American title. Cole kept yelling at Ricochet that he wasn’t special while he held him down. Actually this period wasn’t like a PWG match. Cole yelled at Ricochet for calling him a coward in the buildup. Ricochet did a Fosbury Flop dive followed by a shooting star off the middle rope and Phoenix splash off the middle rope. Ricochet did a springboard, and Cole went for a superkick but Ricochet blocked and hit a spinning forearm. Ricochet did a quebrada into the ring but Cole met him with a superkick in the big spot of the match. Cole followed with an ushigoroshi for a near fall. That spot turned the match around as the crowd was on fire for the next several minutes. Cole missed a shining wizard and Ricochet hit a reverse huracanrana. Ricochet went to the top rope but Cole rolled out of the ring. Ricochet did the Dragon Lee leap over the top rope into a huracanrana off the apron to the floor, and later hit the 630 for the pin. ****½
254
2556. Kairi Sane pinned Shayna Baszler in 13:35 to win the women’s title. They showed Ronda Rousey, Marina Shafir and Jessamyn Duke at ringside and Mauro Ranallo pushed how well Shafir and Duke are doing in training. Baszler worked over Sane’s leg. Fans booed the ground and pound by Baszler but she did a great job working on the right knee. Baszler was mocking her pirate stomp and used a gut wrench off the middle rope from the 1984 Dynamite Kid vs. Cobra jr. title match. Sane used a spear and an elbow off the middle rope to the back but Baszler rolled out of the ring. Sane used a plancha off the top rope to the floor. Sane hit the elbow off the top but Baszler became the first person to kick out. Sane went for the anchor and Baszler turned it into a choke, but Sane made the ropes. Fans were way behind Sane. Sane went for the elbow off the top again, but Baszler got her legs up and put Sane in the choke. Sane, while in the choke, cradled Baszler for the pin. The finishing sequence was great. Sane is excellent and Baszler knows how to play her role, but in spots that require movement and timing you could see her thinking rather than reacting naturally. Still, this was Baszler’s second best big show match, behind only the Toni Storm bout. ***½
256
2577. Tommaso Ciampa beat Johnny Gargano in a last man standing match to keep the NXT title in 33:40. Gargano attacked him at the start. He did a flip dive off the apron and threw Ciampa over the announcers table. Ciampa did an emerald flowsien off one announcers table and through another. Gargano came back with chair shots. Gargano gave Ciampa a lawn dart spot into the chair. Ciampa came back with three German suplexes. Ciampa delivered four chair shots to the back. Gargano was up at four. Ciampa hit three Project Ciampas and Ciampa sat in a chair in the ring to watch Gargano get counted down. Gargano got up and superkicked Ciampa out of the chair. They traded punches. Gargano tried a spear into the ring but got kicked. Gargano came back with two German suplexes but missed a cannonball off the apron and crashed on the floor. Ciampa used a pedigree on the ring steps. Gargano got up at nine. Ciampa then undid the canvas and pulled off the mats in the corner of the ring, leaving only the boards, the same thing as in the last match. Gargano sprayed him with a fire extinguisher to the face and hit two topes. He went for a superkick but Ciampa moved and instead hit a crew member. Ciampa threw Gargano’s head into the barricade and threw the crew member on top of him, and then threw suitcases, boxes and chairs on him. Gargano still got up at nine which got a big reaction. Ciampa pulled out handcuffs, but Gargano then pulled Ciampa into the post. Gargano superkicked Ciampa off the apron and through a table. Ciampa grabbed a crutch to help get him to his feet. Gargano kicked the crutch away and attacked him and threw him into the set. Gargano used the Gargano escape. Ciampa was tapping but it didn’t count. Gargano handcuffed Ciampa to the stage. Ciampa at this point was unable to escape and begging for mercy and saying he was sorry. Gargano threw a few superkicks and went for a running knee, but in the follow through, fell off the stage. Ciampa was knocked off the stage but in doing so, while handcuffed, landed on his feet. The idea was that Gargano blew out his knee on landing and thus couldn’t stand up to beat the ten count. ****½
258
259What was expected to be the biggest match in Mexico of the year, a hair vs. mask match with Rush vs. L.A. Park, is not happening.
260
261The story behind it is sketchy, because Park (Adolfo Tapia) came to Arena Mexico on 5/25, immediately started up a feud with Rush that had been hot in several independent matches around Mexico in recent years. The Park return was huge, as crowds immediately grew from 5,000 to 9,000 or more most weeks, and it opened up the door for other AAA wrestlers, Penta 0M and Rey Fenix, to come in and the crowds have remained big even when Park isn’t there.
262
263What made things even more interesting is that Park was putting up his mask at TripleMania on 8/25, AAA’s biggest show of the year, and then with Rush on 9/14, CMLL’s biggest show of the year. Until Park, both companies were not using wrestlers that worked for the other side, and not only that, banned their talent from working on independent shows against wrestlers from the other side. But Park, and then Penta and Fenix drew so well that foundation, as grudging as it may have been for both sides, started to change.
264
265Still, those at AAA have claimed for some time that there would not be a Park vs. Rush match mask vs. hair match this year, since Park had told them that. The belief at first was that Park was going to lose his mask to Rush, and not lose it at TripleMania. It was, similar to Dr. Wagner Jr., Park’s feeling that at almost 53, his career was winding down and he could get a big payoff for his mask. Park and Wagner for years were trying to get promoters to pay them huge money for an independent mask match, but as one promoter told me, the price they wanted was so high you could never justify it for the gate unless you could get cartel money to launder to finance it. And well, that never happened.
266
267Still, Park and Rush continually challenged each other to a hair vs. mask match whenever Park worked at Arena Mexico, which were five shows since late May, including a double count out in a heated singles match on 6/22.
268
269The first sign was when Anniversary tickets went on sale a few weeks ago and they were less expensive than expected. The appearance is that CMLL is not interested in Rush losing his hair, which would be the way out of this match even if the whole thing started with Park being willing. Park has pushed that he is willing to lose the mask, but whether the payday wasn’t good enough, or more likely, his career being revitalized over the last three months at a level none expected made him feel, and correctly so, that the time wasn’t right.
270
271Park is now in great demand all over Mexico, the hottest he has been in years and perhaps drawing the best he has in a long career. Park is scheduled to be one of the key players going forward with MLW, and he needs the mask to be at that level. There is also talk of interest from other U.S. promotions, notably Impact.
272
273On 8/17 at Arena Mexico, the main event was Caristico & Matt Taven & Volador Jr. vs. Rush & Cavernario & Bestia del Ring. The match itself was said to be good. Cavernario gave Taven a low blow for the apparent finish but Volador saved. Then Rush went down and faked that Volador had kicked him low, and the ref, seeing Rush sell, called for the DQ. Volador then issued the first challenge for a singles hair vs. hair match which turned into a tag team challenge.
274
275After Volador issued his challenge, Rush asked the fans if they would rather he put his hair up against Volador or against Park. The crowd still favored Park, which was funny since they had just done the heated finish with Volador, and they were counting on the storyline that the crowd said they were more interested in the new match for the explanation for the match they’d been building wasn’t happening. Volador then threw a drink in Rush’s face and Taven attacked Cavernario. Taven then asked for a tag team hair match with he and Volador against Cavernario and Rush, saying he was sick of all the low blow finishes. Rush said he was only interested in a singles match and Volador threw a drink on him again and they brawled a second time.
276
277Rush’s explanation for all this is saying that while everyone on social media says they want Rush vs. Park, when he asked the fans live on 8/17 if they want him against Volador or Park and they said Volador, which was the idea except that it didn’t happen. His explanation, and this is some unique business sense, is that wrestling fans on social media are hypocrites who don’t go to the live shows. Whether this is the feeling that CMLL’s business is so strong they can do a big house this year without paying a huge fee to Park, or Park changing his mind, is unclear, but the latter makes all the business sense in the world. In May, Park was old and this was his farewell run. Now he’s hot, but without the mask, he will lose a great deal of his appeal.
278
279Even more interesting is that Park will return on 8/24, the night before TripleMania, but he’s working second from the top and for the first time, not against Rush, in a rudo vs. rudo match teaming with Ultimo Guerrero & Gran Guerrero against Ciber the Main Man & Scharly Rock Star & The Chris. He’s also booked on the 8/31 show, but also not against Rush.
280
281The anniversary lineup is now official with Taven & Volador Jr. vs. Cavernario & Rush on top, with both members of the losing team getting their heads shaved, which is notable, because either Taven and Volador are both getting shaved, or Rush is. If Rush was going to get shaved, there was no reason they couldn’t have done the Park match.
282
283However, one person with knowledge of the situation told us that CMLL did not want its top star losing such a big match to an outsider who could leave at any time. Whether Rush will lose his hair or not, if he does, it has to be to one of their guys. And that if Rush vs. Park was going to happen in a hair vs. mask match, that Rush ultimately had to win.
284
285The rest of the show is Caristico & Park & El Hijo de L.A. Park vs. Diamante Azul & King Phoenix (Rey Fenix) & Penta 0M, Euforia & Ultimo Guerrero &Gran Guerrero defending the CMLL trios titles against Ciber & Scharly & Chris, Atlantis & Mistico & Soberano Jr. vs. Cuatrero & Forastero & Sanson, Angel de Oro & Audaz & Niebla Roja vs. Felino & Mr. Niebla & Negro Casas and opening with a women’s bout with Jarochita & Marcela & Princesa Sugehit vs. Dalys & Maligna & Reyna Isis.
286
287Another interesting twist regarding the Anniversary show is that Impact will be doing television tapings in Mexico City head-to-head. Impact announced tapings next on 9/13 at 9/14 at Fronton, a 4,200-seat building in Mexico City (which will be set up for a 2,000 capacity for Impact tapings), not all that far from Arena Mexico. This will be the first time in years that a U.S. promotion has taped television in Mexico City, and I believe the second time only, other than a Raw and Smackdown taping in Mexico City in 2011. CMLL can’t be happy with Impact running TV tapings in the same city head-to-head with their biggest show of the year, and at much lower prices. It becomes interesting because Fenix and Pentagon are booked for both shows on 9/14. They are close enough they could do both shows and that’s routine in Mexico for guys to work multiple shows on the weekend, but this situation is a little different than doing a couple of indie dates on the same night. This is two companies going head-to-head, since Impact has an affiliation with AAA, and going head-to-head on CMLL’s biggest show of the year. It’s doubtful Impact realized they were going head-to-head with the Anniversary show when they first made the date, although obviously they are aware now. But CMLL did not pull either guy off the anniversary show when they were advertised for the Impact tapings. Impact has used footage taped in Mexico several times in the past but this is the first full-fledged taping. Something noted is that most of the Impact wrestlers are unknown in Mexico City and they are bucking the biggest show of the year by CMLL, but more important, Impact’s television relies heavily on interviews, and how will the fans respond to constant English language interviews?
288
289A lesson here regards why a lot of promoters only want to use their own stables, because if you have outsiders who come in and draw for the major league group, it make the outsiders bigger but the major league group isn’t in control. Park went from ready to lose his mask to his biggest run. Penta and Fenix are now bigger stars than ever in Mexico, and now they may be working against CMLL, or they get booked elsewhere leading to CMLL having to change dates.
290
291AAA held a press conference on 8/21 to announce its TripleMania card, with not everything announced even though it’s four days before the show on 8/25 at Arena Ciudad in Mexico City.
292
293They also announced the broadcast schedule. The show starts at 8:30 p.m. Eastern, airing on Space TV in Mexico and Twitch in both English and Spanish, with Vampiro and Matt Striker as the English announcers. Hopefully they do better than in 2016, because that was one of the worst broadcasted major shows ever.
294
295The show is built around the main event, a four-way cage match with L.A. Park, Pentagon Jr., El Hijo del Fantasma and Psycho Clown. The match starts with escape the cage rules until two have gotten out. The two left in the cage will have a one fall mask vs. mask match.
296
297Televisa Ch. 5 will be airing the show live starting at 11 p.m., meaning probably just the main event, and perhaps on tape delay. They aired the Dr. Wagner Jr. vs. Psycho Clown mask vs. mask main event last year and did 12 million viewers in a country the size of Mexico out of prime time, which WWE couldn’t dream of doing half that for anything in the U.S. nor New Japan in Japan, and look at the population difference. Of course last year’s show came with a television lead-in of McGregor vs. Mayweather.
298
299It was also notable that neither Park nor Pentagon were even at the press conference.
300
301Aside from that, the card has Lady Shani putting up her mask against the hair of Faby Apache; Jeff Jarrett defending the AAA heavyweight title against Fenix, Brian Cage and Rich Swann; La Mascara & Rey Escorpion & El Texano Jr. vs. Joe Lider & Murder Clown & Pagano in a street fight; Jack Evans & Juventud Guerrera & Teddy Hart vs. Averno & Chessman & Super Fly in a lumberjack match; Mamba & Maximo & Pimpinela Escarlata (Exoticos trio) vs. Carta Brava Jr. & Mocho Cota Jr. & Tito Santana; Aero Star & Drago defend the AAA tag titles in a ladder match against Golden Magic & Laredo Kid, Bandido & Flamita and Andrew Everett & DJZ; Nino Hamburguesa & Big Mami defend the AAA mixed tag titles against El Hijo del Vikingo & Vanilla (Vanilla Vargas from Puerto Rico), Dinastia & Lady Maravilla and Angelikal & Hiedra; a ten man match for the AAA cruiserweight title with Australian Suicide defending against nine mystery guys; and a Llave a la Gloria match. Among the wrestlers booked on this show are Sammy Guevara, ACH and Shane Strickland, so expect them in the cruiserweight match.
302
303They are hoping for 15,000 fans at the show.
304
305Alberto El Patron, who had been announced for the show against a major star months ago, was not on the lineup. Alberto’s people sent out a release, blaming Dorian Roldan by name, saying he never made his promised deposit or met his terms for the show. At this stage of the game, he wasn’t going to be a big difference maker as he would have been a few years ago.
306
307Alberto was first announced, but his name hasn’t been mentioned in months and he’s done no television. The promotion soured on him when he no-showed the Impact vs. AAA show in New Orleans and just felt with his track record that he wasn’t worth the risk. After Alberto went public on Roldan, Roldan essentially said the same thing, saying he had little communication with him after he no-showed New Orleans. Alberto has only wrestled rarely in recent months, but did do a show honoring his uncle, Mil Mascaras, last week.
308
309After Roldan made his statement, Alberto went on a mainstream media tour saying Roldan first told him they couldn’t find him an opponent, claimed Roldan talked about having him wrestle Rey Mysterio Jr., and also that Roldan talked about teaming him with Mysterio Jr. four weeks ago. His point was Roldan was talking with him after Impact, and said he’s been waiting for his deposit that never came for the show. He said Roldan promised him his deposit as well as the rights to the name Alberto El Patron, which AAA trademarked behind his back. He also said he’s mad that AAA blamed him for not dropping the AAA world title when he signed with WWE. The fact is, Alberto and AAA and Alberto and WWE have had their issues and usually end up making up like nothing ever happened to begin with, and then fall out again. The reality is, while they did talk and even considered using him on the show, the decision was made not to based on simply feeling it wasn’t worth the risk, and that did relate to what happened in New Orleans.
310
311While it took a week, a surprise with it such a short time frame before so many significant shows, but New Japan has announced the complete Destruction tour lineup and announced a few things regarding its next U.S. major event in Long Beach.
312
313While not yet announced, with the 5 p.m. Pacific (8 p.m. Eastern) start time, the show, like the previous New Japan shows in California, will air live on AXS. We’ve been told that is scheduled right now but no official announcement has been made. Three matches have been announced, which are Juice Robinson vs. Cody for the U.S. title, Young Bucks vs. Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa for the IWGP tag titles and Will Ospreay vs. Marty Scurll in a first round match of the four-man tournament for the IWGP jr. title which is vacant due to Hiromu Takahashi suffering a broken neck.
314
315The jr. title will be decided in a four-man tournament that also features Kushida vs. Bushi in a semifinal on 9/23 in Kobe, and the two winners meeting in the finals on 10/8 at Sumo Hall’s King of Pro Wrestling show.
316
317The four were named as the four most recent champions. It’s hard to change things because guys are booked so far in advance all over the world and New Japan books months ahead, but with the Takahashi injury and the depth of the division, an eight or 16 man single elimination tournament would have garnered more big singles matches on the upcoming big cards, and also put more emphasis on the belt and tournament. There is so much talent out there like Taiji Ishimori, Desperado, Volador Jr., Dragon Lee, Titan, Mistico, Ultimo Guerrero, ACH, Jushin Liger, Sho, Yoh, Ryusuke Taguchi, Flip Gordon as well as others in the U.S., Mexico or U.K. that they could have debuted and made the tournament something memorable.
318
319There will be more stuff added, but probably not until the last week before the show. One of the big issues with New Japan in running a business where they try and have wins and losses make sense, is that when running so many “big” shows in short period of time where results matter, you don’t announce anything until late. It’s one thing if the brand is so over that you can just announce a big show and sell out. But that’s no longer the case in the U.S. It hurt in San Francisco, although they did a big walk-up. A New Japan show where the only matches announced don’t involve any Japanese wrestlers makes me feel they may be missing an element of what makes it popular. Yes, the North Americans are important in expanding the business outside of Japan, but the key product is still the great wrestling and that comes from everyone, and to the hardcore fans, the Japanese legit superstars are a major part of the product.
320
321Actually I find this show an experiment, particularly Young Bucks vs. Firing Squad. If this match gets over big in Long Beach, it says that the grudge match aspect is a key. That’s always been the key since the beginning of time, not the idea of match quality. But if it doesn’t get over as far as interest, it says the NJPW U.S. audience is unique and it’s about seeing matches above and beyond quality wise that you can get from major league wrestling elsewhere. Nobody really knows the answer and it is changing. The last Long Beach show would tell me it’s unique and different, but San Francisco would tell me the opposite.
322
323I can also see Cody ending up as U.S. champion, and another key thing is he may be NWA champion going into the match, and if so, it gets the NWA title on a nationally broadcast special. I would think Billy Corgan would want that.
324
325G-1 CLIMAX SCORECARD (based on star ratings)
326
327 
328
329WRESTLER	3.0-3.75	4.0	4.25+	Average
330Kazuchika Okada	2	1	6	4.20
331Hiroshi Tanahashi	4	3	3	4.13
332Michael Elgin	2	4	2	3.70
333Minoru Suzuki	6	0	3	3.60
334Hangman Page	7	1	1	3.58
335Yoshi-Hashi	6	0	2	3.50
336Evil	6	2	1	3.50
337Jay White	5	3	10	3.25
338Togi Makabe	7	0	1	3.19
339Bad Luck Fale	5	0	0	2.64
340 	 	 	 	 
341Kota Ibushi	2	0	8	4.68
342Tomohiro Ishii	2	1	6	4.38
343Kenny Omega	0	0	7	4.38
344Tetsuya Naito	2	0	6	4.10
345Seiya Sanada	2	1	5	4.00
346Zack Sabre Jr.	3	1	4	3.81
347Hirooki Goto	3	0	4	3.60
348Juice Robinson	3	1	3	3.53
349Toru Yano	3	0	0	2.47
350Tama Tonga	4	0	0	2.42
351A few notes. The performance of Okada, Ibushi, Ishii, Omega, Naito and Sanada is most notable because all of them topped 4.25 for more than half of their matches. Last year Yuji Nagata, Ishii, Tanahashi, Naito, Ibushi and Okada all did that.
352
353While Ishii ran away with the MVP award, to a degree because everyone talked about him as MVP for much of the tournament, including on the air, it really looks like Ibushi’s tournament was even more unreal. Okada had the highest average last year at 4.28, and that would have only been fourth place this year. Omega was either feast-or-famine, in the sense he either tore the house down in every match, or wrestled Yano (which was entertaining) or Tonga. Still, Ibushi and Ishii topped three stars in all of their matches.
354
355Another thing notable is the idea that Okada didn’t have a good tournament. In actuality, he had a great tournament while in the weaker block, and didn’t have the edge Tanahashi did in going to a no holding back final match.
356
357Another way to look at this, is instead of average, you look at median. This has two advantages. The first is that the few matches above ***** don’t get bonus points for people who want to think you can’t go above that number. The other is that while the matches with whomever who weren’t there to have good matches are on your weak end, but don’t drag down your average. Essentially this normalizes what your average match is, throwing out the highs and the lows.
358
359By that standard, and this is amazing, but the median matches of Ibushi and Omega were 4.75, Ishii was 4.50, Okada, Naito and Sanada were 4.25 and Tanahashi, Sabre and Elgin were 4.0.
360
361Another stat is looking at who had their opponents’ best match of G-1, which is the stat of who elevated the game for their opponent. Ibushi wins in that category as well, as seven of his ten matches (Tanahashi, Omega, Sabre, Sanada, Robinson, Yano and Tonga) were the best matches those wrestlers had in the tournament. Okada had six (Elgin, Suzuki, Evil, Page, Yoshi-Hashi and White). Tanahashi had five (Ibushi, Okada, Suzuki, White and Fale) and Omega had three (Goto, Naito and Sanada). The numbers are weird because there would be ties in the sense people had similar rated matches that were their best with different opponents.
362
363As expected, in having the opponents’ worst match of the tournament, you can easily guess top three. Fale had seven (Okada, Page, Evil, Elgin, Yoshi-Hashi, White and Makabe). Tonga had six (Ibushi, Ishii, Omega, Goto, Sabre and Yano) and Yano had six (Ibushi, Naito, Sanada, Omega, Robinson and Tonga).
364
365There were seven five-star matches in the tournament, with Omega having four out of his nine matches and Ibushi, Tanahashi, Ishii and Goto having two and Okada and Naito having one. Last year had three.
366
367As far as most consistently excellent, these are the top four-stars and above percentages:
368
369Kota Ibushi 80%
370
371Kazuchika Okada 78%
372
373Tomohiro Ishii 78%
374
375Kenny Omega 78%
376
377Michael Elgin 67%
378
379Seiya Sanada 67%
380
381Tetsuya Naito 67%
382
383Hiroshi Tanahashi 60%
384
385Zack Sabre Jr. 56%
386
387Notably both this year and last year, nine of the 20 competitors beat **** in more than half of their matches. The total number of four-star matches was identical, 38 out of 91, both this year and last.
388
389As far as most total matches above 4.5 stars, or really near match of the year level performances:
390
391Kota Ibushi 8
392
393Tomohiro Ishii 6
394
395Kenny Omega 6
396
397Kazuchika Okada 4
398
399Tetsuya Naito 4
400
401Hiroshi Tanahashi 3
402
403Hirooki Goto 3
404
405Seiya Sanada 3
406
407Zack Sabre Jr. 3
408
409Minoru Suzuki 2
410
411Juice Robinson 2
412
413It’s really here where you see that from a top end standpoint, great match standpoint, it was the best tournament ever even if you can argue for last year or the year before regarding better booking and less in the way of bad matches. Last year Ishii had the most with five, but this year Ibushi, Ishii and Omega all beat Ishii’s mark last year.
414
415Thanks to Tyler Shillman for some of the statistics
416
417Cody vs. Robinson always figured to be one of the top matches in Long Beach, but there will be people unhappy if it’s the main event and if a singles match involving the big four isn’t added.
418
419Still, while pushing the guys like Cody, Omega, Young Bucks and Robinson more on the U.S. shows make sense to a degree, the American fans of New Japan want the authentic New Japan, more the top tier big matches like on a Japanese major show, with the top Japanese stars. To date, with the exception of Cody vs. Kazuchika Okada, there hasn’t been an IWGP title match in the U.S. nor another singles match with guys like Okada, Minoru Suzuki, Hiroshi Tanahashi or Tetsuya Naito on one of these shows.
420
421Given that nothing has been announced for any of the big four (Omega, Okada, Tanahashi and Tetsuya Naito) makes examining the card premature. But they also have King of Pro Wrestling on 10/8 at Sumo Hall and need a quality show there, and the IC title theoretically is on ice with Chris Jericho, so it can’t be like the past when they had two major events so close and one would get a strong IC title match.
422
423During a conference call on 8/22, Cody was asked about the contract situation, which is really one of the most important news stories for the U.S. and world markets going into 2019.
424
425“As far as what’s next, I really wish I could answer. A lot has happened in the last few weeks. A lot of discussions about the future. One thing that’s special about this, and I have to be rather cagey in answering one thing that is special about this group is we have verbally committed to each other and I don’t know that that’s ever been done before in the history of professional wrestling, where I have verbally committed to the Bucks, The Bucks, Kenny Omega, Hangman Page. There’s this verbal commitment that the next step we take because it’s no secret, our contracts are all up. What happens next? The next step we take, we’re going to take together and we’re going to take it as a family. It could be the dumbest move ever. Wrestling is sort of a shady business or we can do what my gut tells, the right call.”
426
427If there was a surprise about the match announcements, it’s that neither Omega vs. Tomohiro Ishii for the IWGP heavyweight title, nor Tanahashi vs. Okada for the briefcase, are at King of Pro Wrestling.
428
429Omega vs. Ishii will be the main event of Destruction in Hiroshima on 9/15 at Sun Plaza Hall. Tanahashi vs. Okada will be the main event for the 9/23 Destruction in Kobe show.
430
431That leaves the 10/8 show unknown, other than the finals of the jr. title tournament, where the Scurll vs. Ospreay winner faces the winner of the 9/23 Bushi vs. Kushida match in the finals will be at Sumo Hall. Omega would almost certainly defend the IWGP title at Sumo Hall, and that would leave Kota Ibushi as the leading candidate for the match. If Tanahashi is to defend the briefcase again, Jay White would be a leading candidate as the only guy who beat Tanahashi in G-1.
432
433It feels way too fast to me to do Omega vs. Ibushi again, but they have so many big shows in a short period of time.
434
435New Japan World will be doing live shows on 9/7, 9/8, 9/9, 9/15, 9/17 and 9/23, with the latter three shows in English and the first three only in Japanese. The tour starts on 9/5 in Nagoya and the second, third and fourth date are live.
436
437The 9/7 Korakuen Hall show at 5:30 a.m. Eastern has Shota Umino & Ren Narita vs. Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens, Robinson & Michael Elgin & David Finlay & Ayato Yoshida (who looks to be getting regular dates here) vs. Bad Luck Fale & Tonga & Loa & Taiji Ishimori, Toa Henare vs. Baretta, Hirooki Goto & Gedo vs. Taichi & Taka Michinoku, Naito & Evil & Sanada & Bushi vs. Minoru Suzuki & Takashi Iizuka & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Desperado, Tanahashi & Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma vs. Okada & Toru Yano & Yoshi-Hashi and Ishii & Ospreay vs. Omega & Ibushi.
438
4399/8 at Korakuen Hall at 5:30 a.m. has Umino & Yuya Uemura vs. Narita & Yota Tsuji, Owens vs. Yoshida, Makabe & Elgin & Finlay & Henare vs. Fale & Tonga & Loa & Ishimori, Goto & Yoshi-Hashi vs Taichi & Kanemaru, Naito & Evil & Sanada & Bushi vs. Suzuki & Iizuka & Desperado & Michinoku, Ishii & Yano & Ospreay vs. Omega & Ibushi & Yujiro Takahashi and Tanahashi & Robinson vs. Okada & Baretta.
440
441The 9/9 show in Togane at 3 a.m. Eastern features the return of Satoshi Kojima, teaming with Yuji Nagata & Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Manabu Nakanishi vs. Makabe & Honma & Robinson & Finlay, with that as the main event, plus Ishii & Yano & Baretta & Ospreay vs. Omega & Ibushi & Yujiro Takahashi & Owens.
442
443The 9/15 show in Hiroshima at 5 a.m. Eastern has Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask & Kushida vs. Rocky Romero & Sho & Yoh, Henare vs. Fale, Elgin & Yoshida vs. Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr., Baretta & Chuckie T & Ospreay vs. Ibushi & Yujiro Takahashi & Owens, Tonga & Loa & Ishimori defending the six man titles against Robinson & Finlay & Ryusuke Taguchi, Goto & Yano & Gedo vs. Iizuka & Taichi & Kanemaru, Naito & Evil & Bushi & Sanada vs. Suzuki & Zack Sabre Jr. & Desperado & Michinoku, Tanahashi & Makabe & Honma vs. Okada & Jay White & Yoshi-Hashi and the Omega vs. Ishii title match. This will be very interesting running a building of this size with basically a one drawing match show.
444
4459/17 in Beppu for a 5 a.m. Eastern show has Tenzan & Kojima & Tsuji vs. Nagata & Nakanishi & Uemura, Finlay & Narita vs. Henare & Umino, Iizuka vs. Yoshida, Liger & Tiger Mask & Kushida & Taguchi vs. Ospreay & Romero & Sho & Yoh, Baretta & Chuckie vs. Archer & Smith, Evil & Sanada & Bushi vs. Sabre & Kanemaru & Desperado, Tanahashi & Makabe & Honma & Robinson vs. Okada & White & Yano & Yoshi-Hashi, Goto vs. Taichi for the Never title and a main event of Naito vs. Suzuki, and I could easily see the winner of this match getting a title shot at Omega later this year as well.
446
4479/23 in Kobe at World Memorial Hall at 3 a.m. Eastern has Tsuji vs. Uemura, Umino & Narita vs. Sho & Yoh, Liger & Tiger Mask vs. Kanemaru & Desperado, Makabe & Honma & Taguchi & Yoshida vs. Nagata & Tenzan & Kojima & Nakanishi, Baretta & Chuckie vs. Archer & Smith Jr., Robinson & Finlay & Henare vs. White & Yoshi-Hashi & Ospreay, Naito & Evil & Sanada vs Suzuki & Sabre & Michinoku, Kushida vs. Bushi in the jr. tourney and Tanahashi vs. Okada for the briefcase.
448
449Walt Harris, a former pro wrestling announcer for Roy Shire in the 1960s, best known for his work hosting Bay Bombers Roller Derby, passed away on 8/18 at the age of 97.
450
451Harris was believed to have been the oldest living member of the pro wrestling fraternity until his death. Not only that, but as far as records go, he may have lived longer than all but four members of the pro wrestling industry in history, as the only ones older we have records of were Abe Coleman, who was 101 when he passed away in 2007; Angelo Savoldi, a former world junior heavyweight champion (the man who lost the title to Danny Hodge at the start of Hodge’s career), who later promoted for the WWF and also ran his own promotion, who was 99 when he passed away in 2013; Dan McLeod, a two-time American champion at the turn of the 20th century, who was 98 when he passed away in 1958; and Betty Wagner, the early valet and first wife of Gorgeous George, who was 98 when she passed away in 2011.
452
453He had stopped eating earlier in the week and friends had informed us he was unable to be sent to hospice care but that his death was imminent.
454
455Harris was a radio personality with a distinctive great voice, who was the first person hired by KTVU, Ch. 2, in the San Francisco Bay Area, prior to the station going on the air in 1958. In the early days of the station, he was the anchor for the morning news and also hosted a live musical show. He was also tabbed as the host of the first hit on the station, Bay Bombers Roller Derby. He had never seen Roller Derby before he was hired to broadcast it, but after a short period working with Ken Nydell, who was the announcer during the early 1950s glory days of Roller Derby when it ran three nights per week in prime time on ABC television and was one of television’s first national hit shows, Harris for the most part worked solo the next 15 years. He occasionally did broadcasts with owner Jerry Seltzer over the last year or two, until the folding of Roller Derby in 1973. Over the past few days, he was almost universally praised as the greatest announcer in Roller Derby history. And the reality is, he was probably top ten in pro wrestling as well.
456
457He was named in the Silver Circle of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in 1989, was inducted into the Roller Derby Hall of Fame in 2006–only the third non-skater inducted after founder and creator Leo Seltzer and his son, longtime promoter Jerry Seltzer. He was also inducted into the Northern California Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2017.
458
459His wrestling tenure started a few years after he had become the voice of Roller Derby. Harris was not, as is usually reported, the original host of National All Star Wrestling. He actually came in early in the tenure of the show, in around 1961. It was only natural he would get the nod with the success of the Bombers and him being the face of the station. The Bombers had become a huge local television hit on Sunday nights all summer long on KTVU. The big games were already selling out the Cow Palace and people like “Mr. Roller Derby” Charlie O’Connell, Carol “Peanuts” Meyer, Ann Calvello and Annis “Big Red” Jensen were major local stars, particularly popular with children in an era when most kids had roller skates and would skate on sidewalks, and roller rinks were packed on weekends, with both boys and girls pretending to be their skating TV stars.
460
461National All Star Wrestling during the early 60s heyday of the promotion was a two-hour live weekly show from 7-9 p.m. every Friday night broadcast from KTVU studios in Oakland, where the top stars of the era would battle in squash matches, and give colorful interviews, to build to the big shows every few weeks at the Cow Palace. The show ended up being syndicated in many places on the West Coast as well as in Honolulu. Shire also produced a second weekly show, the one-hour long Big Time Wrestling, taped on Thursday nights in Sacramento on KCRA, Ch. 3, with Harris as announcer.
462
463By the late 60s, with all of Harris’ regular work for the station, as well as doing wrestling on Thursday and Friday nights and Roller Derby on Sunday, he opted out of the trips to Sacramento and Hank Renner, a local boxing ring announcer, took over as host of Big Time Wrestling.
464
465While it is likely that no video of Harris’ work in wrestling exists (although some of his Roller Derby work has survived), and he was slightly before my time, I heard audiotapes of his announcing matches and conducting interviews. He called wrestling as he did Roller Derby, low key and subdued, not doing anything to infringe on his own credibility, although neither Shire nor Seltzer wanted him to do anything like that anyway,.
466
467His strength was in conducting interviews, where he was one of the greatest wrestling ever had. He was very similar to Lance Russell in the sense he was never over the top or silly, even if the action could be, but was the guy the fans could trust with a strong moral compass. He would praise the babyfaces and argue with the heels, doing so to maintain his own credibility but not hurting their heat. In fact, Harris’ interactions determined fans behavior. He would treat the babyfaces as friends, calling them always by their first name. Sometimes the heels would insult him, but he’d yell at them for their tactics, and always call them by their last name. If there was a heel vs. heel program, Harris made it clear who to cheer for by calling one person or team by their first name, but to make sure and not sound hypocritical, such as if Ray Stevens would wrestle someone like The Sheik or Kinji Shibuya, he’d end the interview by saying, “I can’t believe it’s come down to this, but Ray, best of luck in your match Saturday night.”
468
469National All Star Wrestling was a huge hit, and Roy Shire’s Northern California territory in the early 60s was considered the best in the country. In that era, promotions often reflected the values of dreams of the person who ran them. Shire was a small heel as a wrestler who was a great worker, so built around his former “brother,” Stevens (who was Ray Shire of the famous Shire Brothers tag team before coming to San Francisco as the top star), also a small heel, and made it a workers territory. The home base, the Cow Palace, drew the second largest crowds of any arena in the country, trailing only Madison Square Garden. On the wall of the Cow Palace now are photos of the famous rock stars, and athletes who played, including Hulk Hogan, but in those days, the wall had photos of the Warriors, The Beatles, The Stones, Elvis, John F. Kennedy, and the sold out Cow Palace Battle Royal and Roller Derby playoffs.
470
471His days in wrestling ended in 1970. Shire, who owned a ranch, was constantly chewing tobacco and spitting it wherever he wanted, including on the carpets at the plush KTVU studios when he’d come in for business meetings. Arrogant with his success, as millionaires were rare in those days, he didn’t care about rubbing anyone the wrong way. He was often asked not to, which only made him do it more, feeling untouchable with the fact that on a non-network station his wrestling shows, while down from the early 60s peak, were still doing 250,000 viewers every week in a market with 4 million people. One day, the ax came. He spit tobacco juice on the carpet and KTVU went through with its threat and canceled his show. Shire was shocked. Attendance in the Bay Area plummeted with no television, and while Shire did get a new station after a few months, Ch. 44, rather than tape a specialized show, he just used the Big Time Wrestling show from Sacramento, and thus, Harris was no longer part of the crew.
472
473While Shire lasted another decade, and the early-to-mid-70s were strong, he never got business back at the level it was with KTVU.
474
475Roller Derby died at the end of 1973, a victim of a failed attempt to expand its base out of the Bay Area and run multiple full-time circuits around the country. Perhaps it could have survived in its Bay Area base since all the top skaters lived there, but new management took over KTVU, and they were from out of town, had no idea of Roller Derby’s local history and felt it was beneath them. Even if they hadn’t, there most likely wouldn’t have been a 1974 season as the 1973 season did not draw well. Seltzer, from the experience of his father, never believed Roller Derby was going to be a long-term success and just accepted that its day was over, something its fans and skaters, remembering the popularity, of just a couple of years earlier, could never understand. The rival league, Roller Games, wilder and flashier and less sports like, had gained popularity with younger fans, but it also fell on hard times in 1974, even with the deepest talent roster in history, and was never a successful touring entity after that point even with multiple attempts at restarts with different ideas.
476
477Still, Harris was bitter at the new management’s decision, feeling they didn’t understand a Bay Area tradition, and how they wouldn’t even entertain the thought of putting it back on the air when new promoters tried revival leagues, which never had a smidgen of the original popularity.
478
479While Harris was well liked by all the skaters, even O’Connell, who didn’t like almost anyone, he never came back for all the attempted revival leagues in the Bay Area for the next few decades.
480
481His face wasn’t visible, but his distinctive voice was around on KTVU doing voice-overs until he retired in 1986. He’d get his shoutouts as the producer of the San Francisco Giants baseball games.
482
483While he was in the Bay Area so long everyone thought he was a native, he was actually from Tacoma, WA, where he graduated from Pacific Lutheran College and started his career at a radio station in Yakima. He bounced around in places like Albuquerque, Seattle and Los Angeles. He ended up at KFRC radio in San Francisco around World War II, hosting a radio show with Merv Griffin. Harris announced and Griffin would sing and bands touring San Francisco would play on their show. In 1950, Griffin had a song that reached No. 1 on the national charts so he left the job. Later Griffin hosted the Merv Griffin Show from 1962 to 1986, which for years was the second most popular show of its kind in the U.S., behind only The Tonight show with Johnny Carson.
484
485Harris worked for a number of television stations in Northern California before being hired at KTVU, where he became its original face and voice.
486
487“I worked almost harder than anyone else during those years,” he said. “Wrestling shows, Roller Derby, Giants games, station announcing. It was just an incredible time for me. I’ll never forget my good fortune.”
488
489When he was honored in 1989 by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, it was said that very few people who had lived in the Bay Area for any length of time wouldn’t know his name.
490
491His interaction with Stevens made Stevens the most popular, and most hated area pro wrestler in history. Harris noted a poll in 1962 in the Bay Area, when Stevens’ drawing power was at its peak, that they had a newspaper area poll for the most hated wrestler, which Stevens, the main event heel headliner who was drawing huge crowds, won, as expected. But in the same poll, Stevens also won Most Popular, which shocked everyone in the promotion and area media.
492
493“It shocked everyone when he won it, because when we’d go to the arena, everyone would boo him,” said Harris.
494
495He would wax romantically about Stevens, calling him the little boy in a grown man’s body who never grew up, was a thrill seeker and daredevil, both in and out of the ring. He would refer to Stevens as the man who would make magic inside the ring.
496
497“He was Shire’s meal ticket because he could do amazing things in the ring,” said Harris. “The fans loved him. They loved him even when they hated him.”
498
499Harris always loved telling the story that after a show in Honolulu drew a sellout and record gate for the real-life wedding of Johnny Barend, how Stevens came back from the show and cut a promo about it on KTVU.
500
501“We were always in competition with Hawaii (the big shows at the HIC, now NBC Arena in Honolulu) to see who could draw the biggest houses (on the West Coast),” said Harris.
502
503He noted, that without his knowledge, Stevens brought up the record gate in Honolulu and talked about how they had to go so far as to have a live wedding to beat the Cow Palace gate that month and how at the Cow Palace we’d never stoop to it.
504
505Standing next to his tag team partner, Pat Patterson, who was gay, and keep in mind this was the late 60s, Stevens told Harris that he could guarantee that his partner would never get married in a wrestling ring, and Harris said how he had to maintain his dignified straight face when he was busting up inside.
506
507After every Cow Palace event in San Francisco, Harris would rundown the results of the card, and tell the story of the main event, the big moves, the blood, and Shire’s unique finishes that were always done to logically lead to the next card. On the first interview segment after a Cow Palace event, he would, with his credibility in sports, tell you how exciting the main events were and say to those who didn’t attend, “you should have been there,” not like a hypester and really not like a friend, like Russell came across to his audience, but more matter of fact like an anchor on the local news in an era when viewers trusted their local anchorman. Then he would immediately segue into the lineup for the next big event based directly on the results of that card.
508
509He made O’Connell arguably the most popular athlete in the area, in a market that included Willie Mays and John Brodie, and for about 15 years he was described by those living in the area as an almost John Wayne like character. When the 23-year-old New Yorker exploded on television as a big, fast and aggressive skater and heartthrob in the late 50s, Harris would say on broadcasts, “And ladies, he’s single.” Unlike the other sports in the Bay Area that were drawing heavily male audiences, women made up 55 percent of the Bombers attendance, some because of the female role models, but also because of the popularity of the young O’Connell. The arena owners would that nothing else they would book could draw that type of an audience. He made Joanie Weston perhaps the most popular female athlete in the country, as cited numerous times in the 60s in Sports Illustrated, a larger-than-life heroine known as “The Golden Girl.”
510
511Harris was universally respected by both its audience and those he broadcasted. Seltzer and he remained close friends for the rest of his life. Even O’Connell, who made a rule of never talking about Roller Derby at all after it was over to the media, or anywhere, saying it was a part of his life that had ended, did his lone interview in decades when the San Jose Mercury-News ran a story on Harris, saying he’d talk about it for Walt, but not for anyone else. Even when Calvello, arguably the best heel woman sports entertainment figure of all-time, and girlfriend at the time the Bombers caught fire when both wore the same No. 40 uniform number, passed away, he refused all interviews.
512
513The Roller Derby broadcasts had a degree of sameness, the cheesy scoreboard, and his trademark opening, “Welcome to another exciting Roller Derby game....from Kezar Pavilion in Golden Gate Park in the city of San Francisco.”
514
515Harris worked hand-in-hand with Seltzer, who in the 60s was an innovative sports promoter, using mail-based marketing to promote events as well as a trademark phone number, Roller 3-1600. Harris took the phone number idea to the Giants ticket department, who later told him it was such a business success that if he had asked for a commission when he presented them with the idea, he’d have been independently wealthy.
516
517The real success of Roller Derby in the 60s stemmed from an off-hand remark on television by Harris. The games were doing big business in Northern California, and a car dealer near Eugene, OR, somehow knew of the success on television in San Francisco, where the Sunday night games were outrating “Bonanza,” in the market, at the time the most popular show on network television. So he made a deal to get tapes to a local station and would put his commercials all over the show.
518
519The ratings in Eugene were large, and out of the blue, Harris asked during a game if you fans in Eugene were interested in a live game. Mail flooded into the company headquarters, so on a midweek off night, they charted a couple of planes and did a live show, and there were 8,000 fans in the building and thousands turned away in a city that only had 51,000 residents.
520
521Immediately, the business changed. As they had done in previous years, they would tape six months of weekly games in the Bay Area during the summer in the Bay Area, but Seltzer started making deals to syndicate the tapes to stations all over the country, and doing winter tours where the fans, with only one or two chances to see a game, would often sell out.
522
523Harris would cut localized promos with the skaters that would air at the end of the game, or at halftime, talking about the live game coming into the city for weeks preceding the games. Seltzer also did mail marketing. During each game, Harris would plug that if you sent a self addressed stamped envelope, they would send you a free copy of the Roller Derby rules. He also plugged the mailing list. And at all live games, a table was set up to get on the mailing list. The list was used to send mailers before the games to fans in each market. Seltzer learned that television ratings were not a good barometer of what would draw, but the number of people on his mailing list in different cities proved to be an excellent predictor of ticket sales. After learning that in the first year of touring, he actually booked his tours based on the number of people in each market on the mailing list.
524
525Seltzer didn’t believe, like with wrestling, in giving away the television for free, but there was almost no money in it and almost all the revenue came from presenting the live games. He joked about how, in the 60s, he would haggle with a then-unknown Ted Turner over the tapes for his Atlanta station, noting Ted said he liked the programming but the station was struggling and Seltzer’s $25 per week for the show was a bit high and asked if he could get the tapes for $10.
526
527At the peak, the Roller Derby games from Kezar Pavilion aired weekly on more than 120 stations and Bombers games drew more than six million television viewers. In most cases, fans were watching games from weeks, if not months earlier. Since they only taped television in the summer, except for occasional road games like in Madison Square Garden in the winter, most of the winter months were just replays of the games that had already aired in the summer. One time a game on WOR-TV drew more than a million viewers on a local station on a Sunday morning, a rating absolutely unheard of.
528
529Live Bomber games at their peak drew more than 700,000 fans each summer in the Bay Area, and when the Oakland Coliseum Arena (Oracle Center) was built, they routinely outdrew the Oakland A’s at the stadium next door when they would go head-to-head on Saturday nights. It created a feud between Seltzer and the area’s other Charlie O, A’s owner Charlie O. Finlay as Seltzer would point to attendance in comparison and lack of media coverage. Once, when Seltzer booked the stadium on July 4, 1971, for a fireworks show and Roller Derby doubleheader, and sold it out with 34,418 fans, he noted it was the largest crowd in the stadium that year without something being given away. Calling the two games that night was something Harris always brought up later in life. Interestingly, while he was very open about pro wrestling being entertainment, when asked about Roller Derby being fixed, his response always was, “Nobody ever talked about it and I never asked. It didn’t matter to people.”
530
531But the big money during the heyday was made outside the Bay Area, when, during the winter, they would tour all over the U.S., and would do about 1.4 million in attendance on those tours.
532
533Frank Deford wrote that because the Bombers in the late 60s were the home team, the babyfaces, for Roller Derby fans all over the U.S. and Canada, citing their weekly television ratings, that he believed with the exception of Notre Dame football, that they had more fans than any other sports franchise in the country. He also noted with the exception of a few major league baseball teams, the Bombers were the only sports franchise to draw more than 2 million annually in paid attendance.
534
535They once sold out Madison Square Garden three nights in a row, which led to the building wanting its own full-time franchise. But that proved to be the undoing, as the gas prices and the few superstars aging (O’Connell was 38, Weston was 36 and Calvello was 44 in a speed-based sport and all three were banged up from the years of hard hitting and bumps on a Masonite track) led to a bad 1973 and Seltzer, who never believed Roller Derby could endure at a successful long-term franchise due to its history of short-term ups and big declines, felt the era was over.
536
537Harris made a couple of public appearances as late as last year, including attending the APW show at the Cow Palace, but he left early. They had wanted him to speak but Alzheimer’s had set in and he was ornery. He was still sharp into his early 90s, and the first sign people noted of his memory loss was that he no longer could remember the 1963 Stevens vs. Pepper Gomez ladder angle, easily he biggest in area history. He also attended a get together of ex-Roller Derby skaters in San Leandro last year.
538
539He noted that while others would say different, he loved working with Shire and the two would ride together weekly to do the local television in other markets. He said that in nine years, the two never had a cross word.
540
541He noted that in the 60s, when he would go on the road to do Giants games, he would usually go out with Russ Hodges, one of the greatest baseball announcers of all-time. But due to the popularity of Roller Derby, he was the one who most people noticed and approached.
542
543The funeral for Jim Neidhart took place on 8/17 at the Hodges Funeral Home in Tampa.
544
545Among those who spoke at the funeral were wife Elizabeth (Ellie), daughters Natalie (Natalya) and Kristen (Muffy), Bret Hart, Bruce Hart, nephew Harry Smith (Davey Boy Smith Jr.) and close friend Doug Price.
546
547Most of the speeches talked about his wrestling career in Stampede Wrestling and WWF, and his accomplishments as a shot putter in high school, college and international meets, with a lot of funny stories about his career, his marriage and his relationship and interaction with Stu Hart.
548
549Bret Hart spoke about Neidhart’s training sessions in the dungeon with his father. He wore the same black trunks that he would wrestle in during the Stampede era when he was a babyface. Bret said that Neidhart was Stu’s last personal project to teach hooking and submissions to and sparred all out with before Stu’s age, and back and knee problems took their toll.
550
551He said they would have lengthy battles but Stu knew too much and Neidhart would get stretched pretty good. He said Neidhart took some good beatings, but always came back, and won Stu’s respect.
552
553He met Ellie at that time when he would come over to train shooting with Stu. He liked her immediately but asked for Stu’s blessing before he asked her out. They actually didn’t date at first, not until Jim offered to fly her to California in the summer of 1979 when he was in camp with the Oakland Raiders. He then proposed to her within a few months.
554
555Bret also noted how important Neidhart was to his career. He noted that WWF booker George Scott wanted him as Cowboy Bret Hart, and he would ride to the ring on a horse. Bret hated the idea. For one, he barely knew how to ride a horse, which would kill the gimmick, and second, he wasn’t a cowboy, and because he had spent his career performing in front of real cowboys in Western Canada, he felt real cowboys would see the gimmick as phony. Scott was still pushing it when Bret asked if he could turn heel and team with Neidhart as the Hart Foundation. Scott turned down the idea and told him they were going with the cowboy gimmick.
556
557He said that a few weeks later, Scott and Vince McMahon changed their minds, largely because the British Bulldogs wrestled a style much faster and more advanced than the existing WWF heels at the time could keep up with. But they knew Bret could keep up with them and the Bulldogs just needed a viable team to put them over.
558
559Bret said he was always grateful Neidhart went along with the idea since Neidhart was slated for a singles push. He said that as a team, they always got along. He said Neidhart partied very hard in night clubs and bars and still was able to be a good partner in the ring. He said that Neidhart and the Hart Foundation tag team probably saved his wrestling career.
560
561Bruce Hart noted a funny story about a show on the Morley Indian (Native American) Reservation outside Calgary in December 1981. Duke Myers and Goldie Rogers, two heels, were driving to the show, and ran into a horse, which ruined their car and couldn’t make it. They had to change the card around and Neidhart worked with Hercules Ayala, and the two were having a terrible match of big babyfaces before a small crowd and it wasn’t working. A fan screamed out “Boring,” and this was a few years before “boring” chants became part of pro wrestling. Neidhart stopped the match and said, “It is boring, isn’t it.” The punch line of the story is that it wasn’t a fan, but a young Davey Boy smith, who went into the crowd, and was the one who yelled out boring.
562
563One of the reasons he left Stampede, partially to get experience in other parts of the country, was also with the belief he would be a more natural heel, which he was, and because of him being part of the Hart Family, he couldn’t be in Stampede.
564
565Others who were there included Stephanie McMahon, Chris Jericho, Wade Boggs, Brian Blair, Steve Keirn, Fit Finlay, Haku (along with several family members), Mick Foley, Danny Spivey, Dean Malenko, Dory Funk Jr. and Marti Funk, Ata Johnson (Dwayne’s mother), Bushwhacker Luke Williams, Sarona Snuka (Tamina), The Nasty Boys and Ricky Santana as well as many Hart family members including Jim’s daughter Jenni, son-in-law Drew (married to Kristen, Jim’s grandsons Lochlan & Maddox), sister-in-law Georgia and her daughters Angie and Annie, Stephanie Hart (Bret’s wife), Jim’s sister-in-law Allison and her daughters Lindsay and Brooke, brother-in-law Ross and sister-in-law Diana.
566
567In a family coincidence, Jim passed away on August 13, 2018, and Jim’s father Hank Neidhart, passed away on August 13, 1998.
568
569Harry Smith noted that he was very close with Neidhart and when he was a kid, back around 1995 and 1996, he would wrestle Roderick Strong in Neidhart’s backyard ring when Neidhart was training them and Strong’s father.
570
571Following SummerSlam, Smackdown did its best number since 4/24, with 2,437,000 viewers.
572
573The number was up 11.3 percent from the prior week. However, Smackdown fell to 11th place for the night on cable.
574
575The show was up in every demo, doing an 0.49 in 12-17 (up 14.0 percent), 0.57 in 18-34 (up 21.3 percent), 0.97 in 35-49 (up 4.3 percent) and 1.05 in 50+ (up 15.4 percent).
576
577The audience was 60.8 percent male in 18-49 and 60.0 percent male in 12-17.
578
579Miz & Mrs was also up 6.3 percent from the prior week with 1,235,000 viewers. As far as retention rate, it retained 80.0 percent in women 18-49, 55.9 percent in males 18-49, 91.4 percent in teenage girls, 59.7 percent in teenage boys and 35.8 percent among those over 50. It was 52.0 percent male in 18-49 and 49.4 percent male in 12-17.
580
581The 8/20 Raw show, the day after SummerSlam, was not only the most-watched episode of the show since 4/23, but accomplished something that rarely if ever happened in the past.
582
583Hour three of the show was not only the second most watched program on all of U.S. television, but was actually the highest rated. House three of Raw did 2,936,000 viewers, beating everything on cable as well as two of the three major networks (FOX and CW don’t run national programming at 10 p.m.). Elementary on CBS did 3,338,000 viewers, so beat Raw, but if you factor in the homes available on USA vs. CBS, Raw easily drew a higher rating.
584
585Raw averaged a 2.13 rating and 3,092,000 viewers (1.61 viewers per home), the first time over the 3 million mark since 4/30. It was up 8.7 percent in ratings and 9.6 percent in audience from the previous week. It would be expected to have a strong number coming off the show. In doing so, Raw easily beat a Colts vs. Ravens NFL preseason game on ESPN (2,656,000 viewers) and the MTV Video Music Awards (2,250,000).
586
587Last year, the Raw after SummerSlam didn’t compete with the MTV awards, but did compete with preseason football and the NFL did 3,574,000 viewers and Raw did 3,392,000, so Raw had a nine percent year-to-year drop but the NFL was down 25.7 percent. Of course NFL ratings vary greatly based on the teams.
588
589Raw was second for the night on cable, trailing Hannity at 3,237,000 viewers.
590
591The first hour did 3,110,000 viewers. The second hour did 3,241,000 viewers which is notable because you would have expected the day after a big PPV that hour one would be the strongest. The third hour dropped to 2,936,000 viewers.
592
593The show did a 0.67 in 12-17 (up 11.7 percent from last week), 0.78 in 18-34 (up 8.3 percent), 1.32 in 35-49 (up 10.0 percent) and 1.27 in 50+ (up 10.4 percent) .
594
595The audience was 65.7 percent male in 18-49 and 62.5 percent male in 12-17.
596
597Bellator on 8/17 did 319,000 viewers, for a show headlined by Darrion Caldwell vs. Noad Lahat. It would be the second worst number for a prime time show since going on Spike/Paramount. Actually it would be the lowest watched because the one show that did worse also aired on CMT and with the combination, easily topped 319,000 viewers. It did another 94,000 viewers via DVR over the next three days, and the peak for the show was the James Gallagher vs. Ricky Bendejas fight with 699,000 viewers including plus three.
598
599Impact ratings on 8/16 were up 25 percent from last week, which sounds good, but really isn’t because the 210,000 viewers was the second lowest of the year. An NFL preseason game on ESPN did 2,562,000 viewers, but that shouldn’t hurt Impact that much, and if it does, what happens when the result season starts and the numbers are five times higher?
600
601Lucha Underground on 8/15 dropped 16 percent to 97,000 viewers.
602
603This is the second issue of the current set. With this being a double issue, it means if you’ve got a (1) on your address label it means your subscription will expire with next week’s issue.
604
605Renewal rates for the printed Observer in the United States are $12 for four issues (which includes $4 for postage and handling), $22 for eight, $31 for 12, $40 for 16, $60 for 24, $80 for 32, $100 for 40, $130 for 52 up through $160 for 64 issues.
606
607For 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.
608
609For Europe, you can get the fastest delivery and best rates by sending to Moonsault, P.O. Box 3075, Barnet, Herts EN4 9YR, England, or by sending e-mail orders to moonsault@mediaplusint.com. Rates are £9 per set of four issues. U.K. readers ordering at least six sets can get them for £8.50 per set.
610
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612
613You can also get the Observer on the web at www.wrestlingobserver.com for $10.99 per month for a premium membership that includes daily audio updates, Figure Four Weekly, special articles and a message board. If you are a premium member and still want hard copies of the Observer, you can get them for $8 per set in the U.S., $9 per set in Canada and $11.50 per set for the rest of the world.
614
615All subscription renewals should be sent to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, P.O. Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228. You can also renew via Visa or MasterCard by sending your name, address, phone number, Visa or MasterCard number (and include the three or four digit security code on the card) and expiration date to Dave@wrestlingobserver.com or by fax to (408)244-3402. You can also renew at www.paypal.com using dave@wrestlingobserver.com as the pay to address. For all credit card or paypal orders, please add a $1 processing fee. If there are any subscription problems, you can contact us and we will attempt to rectify them immediately, but please include with your name a full address as well a phone number you can be contacted at.
616
617All letters to the editor, reports from live shows and any other correspondence pertaining to this publication should also be sent to the above address.
618
619This 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.
620
621Fax 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
622
623CMLL: Caristico won the NWA middleweight title from Ultimo Guerrero on 8/21 in Guadalajara. Guerrero had held the title for about three years, beating La Sombra (Andrade Cien Almas) on August 31, 2015, for the belt in Puebla
624
625In addition, the CMLL world heavyweight title is now officially vacant as Marco Corleone has left Mexico, as he had hinted a few years ago and has not decided whether he will return to wrestling or not
626
627Besides the main event as noted in the CMLL Anniversary show story, the other big event on the 8/17 Arena Mexico show was the CMLL debut of Kazuchika Okada, who worked as a rudo, teaming with Negro Casas & Ultimo Guerrero to beat Mistico & Valiente & Diamante Azul. Okada pinned Mistico with the rainmaker to win the third fall. Okada worked mostly with Mistico. Okada worked hard and the crowd was into him. Azul attacked Okada after the match but it’s believed Okada was only in for one night, so it seemed out of place. Forastero beat Audaz in the singles match just 29 seconds before the time limit would have expired. They had stars four deep with Gran Guerrero & Rey Bucanero & Euforia beating Atlantis & Guerrero Maya Jr. & Kraneo. The show drew just under 10,000 fans, so the string of big houses continues. Okada definitely came across like a superstar
628
629The 8/24 show has Caristico & Taven & Volador Jr. against Rush & Cavernario & Bestia del Ring once again, with Park & Ultimo Guerrero & Gran Guerrero vs. Ciber the Main Man & Scharly Rock Star & The Chris, Casas & Mephisto & Hechicero vs. El Hijo de L.A. Park & Soberano Jr. & Flyer and Angel de Oro vs. Titan
630
631On 8/31, Tetsuya Naito & Evil & Bushi will headline against Park & Volador Jr. & Diamante Azul
632
633There will be a World Grand Prix tournament on 10/5, with David Finlay, Mark & Jay Briscoe already announced.
634
635AAA: The final TV tapings before TripleMania were at Valle de Chalco on 8/18. Fantasma & Psycho Clown beat Park & Dr. Wagner Jr. (still around after telling everyone he was done) in 15:38 due to help from heel ref El Hijo del Tirantes. Fantasma, Rey Escorpion Jr. & El Texano Jr. have a new faction called Los Mercenarios and they are in some form affiliated with Konnan’s MAD group. Fantasma said he wanted to be called El Lobo Solitario. Konnan and Fenix argued in a promo. Fantasma came and started brawling with Fenix. Escorpion and Texano helped Fantasma. Vampiro jumped in and he was beaten down and given a piledriver, and taken out on a stretcher
636
637Expect more of a push for some of the younger talent after TripleMania. The keys will be guys that are given new characters and names, as those will be the guys whose gimmicks they trademark and are most likely to be pushed.
638
639NEW JAPAN: Kenny Omega got an endorsement deal from Razer, a German lifestyle brand for gamers. The deal is that Omega will represent Razer as a gaming lifestyle ambassador at different events and in advertising campaigns. Among the products he’ll be endorsing are the Razer Panthers Evo fight stick and the Razer Thresher Ultimate headset for PlayStation 4.
640
641OTHER JAPAN NOTES: Keiji Muto’s Pro Wrestling Masters show on 8/21 at Korakuen Hall drew 1,382 fans for a pure nostalgia show. The main event saw the 90s heel group Heisei Ishingun reunite with Shiro Koshinaka & Akitoshi Saito & AKIRA being joined by Masashi Aoyagi coming out of retirement to face Hiroshi Hase & Taiyo Kea & Jinsei Shinzaki & Shinjiro Otani, with Muto in their corner. Hase scored the fall in 21:09 with a Northern Lights suplex on AKIRA. Among the other names on the show were Tatsumi Fujinami, Jushin Liger, Takuma Sano, Wild Samoan Samu, The masked Gasper Brothers (a short-lived New Japan pirate heel tag team but it was not the original members as that was Bob Orton Jr. & Skywalker Nitron), Great Kojika, Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Kim Duk and Great Sasuke
642
643So this is the story of the Danshoku Dino KO-D open weight title win from DDT last week. Dino is billed as the producer, which is like the General Manager character. He’s usually a face. Shigehiro Irie, the new champion, was pushing a storyline that the old DDT was better than this version. The story is that Dino gave Irie the chance to defend his title in the U.S. Irie lost the title to Sami Callihan in Dayton, but won it back a week later. Dino challenged and beat Irie after Irie had retained in a long grueling match. So Dino defends against Meiko Satomura on 8/28. After Dino won the title, he went full-fledged heel saying he had been planning this all along, had been pretending to be a babyface and the plan had come to fruition. He said that as producer, there will be no title defenses for him until October at Sumo Hall. He would then face whoever wins the King of DDT tournament which starts in a few weeks. But Satomura had a briefcase so she could challenge for the title first
644
645Stardom began its Five Star Grand Prix tournament on 8/18 at the Shin-Kiba first ring in Tokyo before 298 fans. The foreigners won four of five matches on the first night. Kimber Lee beat Natsuko Tora, Jamie Hayter beat Sumire Natsu, Rachael Ellering beat Jungle Kyona, Kelly Klein beat Mayu Iwatani while the only loser was Nicole Savoy on the first night against Momo Watanabe. All the matches were kept short, 10 minutes or less. The big story in the tournament has been rookie Utami Hayashishita, who only had one match before the tournament, and then beat Tam Nakano with a torture rack submission in a huge upset, and beat Tora on the second show on 8/19 via choke. Iwatani, the top star left in the promotion, lost to Saki Kashima. All the foreigners who won on the first night lost on the second night, while Savoy, the lone foreign loser on the first night, beat Sumire via submission, so every foreigner is now 1-1.
646
647HERE AND THERE: Steve Musulin, who was best known in the ring as Steve Travis of the mid-card Carolina Connection tag team in the WWF in 1982, passed away on 8/10 after what was reported as a lengthy illness at the age of 67
648
649Chris Ashford-Smith, 57, best known as Chris Champion and Yoshi Kwan in the 80s and 90s, passed away on 8/22. He had reportedly suffered a major stroke the week prior. Ashford-Smith was a talented guy who in the late 80s seemed on the verge of stardom, considered one of the best new talents in the U.S. But timing issues ruined his shots at big time positions and after that was early shine was pretty much categorized as just a talented smaller guy with something of a bad reputation. A native of Tampa, Ashford-Smith was trained by the Malenko family and began wrestling as Dennis Smith in 1984. He got his first push in 1986 during the dying days of Championship Wrestling from Florida in a tag team with Sean Royal called The New Breed. The gimmick is that they were time travelers, sent back from the year 2002 to compete in 1986, and did a lot of innovative moves that weren’t seen in that era of pro wrestling, which was actually quite ironic. They had different haircuts, styles that would be popular years later ironically enough, and neon ring gear that would also become popular a few years later. They came out to Beastie Boys music and as part of their gimmick as coming from the future, they referred to Dusty Rhodes as Mr. President, claiming he won election to the office in 2000. They won the Florida tag team titles in a tournament on December 25, 1986, beating Kendall Windham & Vic Steamboat (Ricky’s legit younger brother). They lost the titles on February 21, 1987 to Tracy Smothers & Steve Armstrong, since they were getting a start date with Jim Crockett Promotions, with the idea of being heels with cool moves who would feud with the Rock & Roll Express. However, just as it got going, they were in a car accident and Champion was out of action for months. They were starting to get popular and when they returned, they made them babyfaces and were going to feud with the Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton & Stan Lane), at the time the top tag team in pro wrestling. But that never got off the ground either, as Royal suddenly quit the promotion and really that was the biggest run of his career. Because he used hard kicks, he then did a karate gimmick as a single but went nowhere. He and brother Mark, who used the name Mark Starr, formed a tag team called Wild Side, named after a short-lived 1985 television show on ABC that Terry Funk was one of the stars in (the show went against Cosby, the hottest show on TV, and got killed in the ratings). He wrestled mostly in Tennessee for several years, including 1990 to 1993 under a mask as Kawabunga the Ninja Turtle. He had legal issues stemming from issues with underage girls while in that territory. In 1993, he came into WCW under as Yoshi Kwan, managed by Harley Race, wearing Kabuki make up and billed from Hong Kong. He had a brief feud with Cactus Jack, but after a knee injury, he was out of the promotion. He wrestled independently and in Japan as Yoshi Kwan and Sinn, before suffering a major stroke in 2002, where he was in critical condition. He was able to return to wrestling in 2004 and worked independently for the next several years
650
651Jim Jameson, a regular television enhancement wrestler on Memphis television during the 80s, also passed away on 8/22. He wrestled mostly on television, and never won, regularly from 1983 to 1987 on WMC Television, sometimes under a mask as The Invader or The Destroyer as well
652
653Jacques Rougeau Jr., who has retired at least twice previously, did so a third time on 8/18 with a show at IGA Stadium, a tennis stadium on the grounds of the old Jarry Park, where the two biggest wrestling shows in Montreal were both held in the early 70s. The show was called “Last Chapter: Father and Sons.” In the promotion of the show, they said it would be no violence, sex or drugs, and the matches were worked with no punching, no kicking and no alcohol was served. It was promoted as the end of the 75-year history of the Rougeau family in Quebec wrestling. While Yvon Robert and Edouard Carpentier are the two biggest stars in Quebec wrestling history, the Rougeaus are, by far, its first family, dating back to Eddie Auger (the uncle of Jacques Sr. & Raymond) in the 40s and Jean “Johnny” Rougeau who started around 1949. Jacques Sr. & Johnny were Montreal legends, as were the next generation of Jacques Jr. & Raymond, and there was a third brother, Armand. Jacques Jr. has three children, 28, 25 and 18, named Jean Jacques, Cedric and Emile, who wrestled but he said that none of them have any interest in continuing at it. So he put together a show for them all to say farewell and him to have his retirement match at the age of 58. He said that he hoped the Rougeau family would reach 100 years in pro wrestling, but that his sons had no more interest so it would end at 75 years. He tried to get legends from the past to come. He had mentioned asking Hulk Hogan at one point, but it’s unknown whether he did or not. We do know he called Rick Martel, Pat Patterson and brother Raymond, who all declined attending. His father, Jacques Sr., couldn’t attend for health reasons and the only major old-timers who came were Gino Brito (who was paid to come) and Gilles Poisson. The four Rougeaus won the main event over four of Jacques’ trainees, Velvet Valentine & Silver Valentine & Uncle Paul & The Predator. They also gave away a 74-page book to every child who attended called “LeadershipMania,” promoting good values for kids, and they brought in kids attending a number of summer camps to attend for free. He did get a lot of media to talk about the show locally but no media actually covered it and there was no coverage of the show itself. He did interviews in the media saying they had sold 11,500 tickets and had only 500 tickets left. It was closer to 3,500, which is still gigantic for anything not WWE in modern Canadian pro wrestling. What he did was sell sponsorships to local businesses and as part of the deal, gave them hundreds of tickets for them to give out to customers for free. So it’s not paying customers but people getting free tickets that come, but he made money from the sponsorships. He was very successful at one time with this and was the top indie promoter in the world. But that marketing clearly isn’t working any longer which is why he is closed up. Sponsors who got tons of free tickets noted that it was hard to give away free tickets in Montreal for wrestling, even the end of the Rougeaus era which should have some historical value. But the celebrity of the Rougeaus was a long time ago. Jacques has been promoting shows of his own in Quebec for about two decades, including some that were among the biggest drawing independent shows in history, even one that outdrew All In. A farewell show teaming with his three sons is what his father did in 1984. He is getting out of the business as he’s no longer promoting shows, is closing his wrestling school, and sold his equipment that he used on shows to one of his students. After the show, he wrote, negative things toward Vince McMahon, particularly about the Rougeaus, in particular Jacques Sr., & Johnny, not being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame
654
655I’ve been asked my a number of independent promoters about Rey Fenix and Penta 0M. The main thing is that both are not taking any dates in 2019, which is usually a sign of going to WWE. At the same time, the expectation is Fenix winning the AAA world title, and AAA has already been burned in the past when Alberto was champion years ago and then told them at the last minute (like a month after agreeing to the deal but a little before his secret WWE return) and vowed to come back and lose it and fulfill his remaining dates, only to do none of that. It got even more interesting since Fenix was booked on 8/17 originally at both Arena Mexico and for APW in Daly City. He canceled Arena Mexico, which they weren’t happy about at all. Fenix contacted APW promoter Markus Jacobsen and told him he was flying from Acapulco, to Mexico City, where he would then fly to San Francisco for his show. He said that he had an issue with his flight but was trying to change, and would send his new schedule. But then couldn’t make his flight. Penta, who was to team with Fenix, told Jacobsen that he hurt his back in a match on 8/16 and couldn’t travel. Jacobsen was able to get Ultimo Dragon in at the last minute. Penta also missed an 8/18 area date for Pro Wrestling Revolution. We’re told that promoters in the past have had similar issues with them on similar situations but nobody wanted to go public because they didn’t want to hurt them and they are great performers. But when the 8/18 PWR show took place and was streaming on Facebook, fans started accusing PWR of false advertising Penta. The promoter publicly called them out on the no-showing the weekend dates. Certainly the belief is that they see their future as WWE, but even so, I don’t know that it looks good to WWE when independent promoters have these kind of issues. But two different promoters in recent weeks when asking me about them said essentially that when it comes to going to WWE, that the American wrestlers are professional about it and work with them as best they can to make things right and tip them off, but that this is more mysterious. It is not clear they are going for sure, but once they became evasive on date and questions, the belief is it must be the case because if they were going to New Japan, and really New Japan is overloaded with talent at this point so that wouldn’t be likely, they’d have plenty of dates to work around the schedule. Impact and Lucha Underground don’t run full enough schedules to where they wouldn’t take any dates. Then they both worked in Mexico on 8/19 and we’re told Penta wasn’t outwardly showing signs of any back injury. Granted, things heal and all that. But the nature of missing the shows here combined with everything has people very skeptical right now. The question also regards Lucha Underground, as they would be under contract there until six months after the conclusion of the current television season
656
657In the Jim Neidhart story last week, a couple of corrections. The first is that the Hart Foundation’s second WWF tag title loss was to the Nasty Boys, not Greg Valentine & Honky Tonk Man. Also, the city Neidhart lived was Wesley Chapel, FL, not Chapel, FL
658
659The Netflix version of GLOW has been renewed for a third season
660
661The Viceland series on pro wrestling called “The Dark Side of the ring” will be debuting in early 2019, as opposed to the original plans of late 2018. It will be a series of about ten documentaries on a number of different pro wrestling stories including the Montreal screw job, Chris Benoit, Gino Hernandez, Bruiser Brody and many other topics of the type. As part of the Starrcast convention in Chicago on 8/31 at 4 p.m., they will have the world premiere of the Brody episode. There will also be a Q&A with producer Evan Husney, Director Jason Eisener and Dutch Mantell, who was in the building the night Brody was killed. The documentary has Tony Atlas, who witnessed everything, giving the blow-by-blow as to what happened
662
663Melbourne Championship Wrestling’s biggest show in its history took place on 8/18 built around Tetsuya Naito, Will Ospreay and Bad Luck Fale as the guests. They drew 1,200 fans, with Naito beating Jonah Rock in what was called a good match and Slex beating Ospreay to retain the Intercommonwealth title in what we were told was the best match. Australian historians Dan Lennard and Kirk Beattie independently called this one of the best matches ever held in Australia, although that’s what people were saying a few weeks ago about Ospreay vs. Robbie Eagles in Sydney, another match where Ospreay put over an Australian. Beattie said the consensus of fans who saw both was that this was as good or better than the match a few weeks ago. Beattie, who has seen everyone dating back to the WCW days said that he considers Ospreay one of the greatest wrestlers ever to perform in the country. Gino Gambino was wearing a Firing Squad T-shirt like he was a member of the New Japan Tongans
664
665There is a wrestler in Australia called Zhan Wen who we’re told is a likely WWE signee if they hear of him. He’s a big jacked up guy who has Chinese ethnicity although he was trained in Australia. But big, jacked up and Chinese click three major boxes.
666
667. EUROPE: For those in Chicago and the U.K., I’ll be doing shows in both places the first two weekends of the month. As noted last week, it looks, due to the travel, that I won’t be able to do an issue for about two weeks after the issue that would be out next week. It’ll be the first week missed since 2002 and I’m not going to schedule anything going forward that will do this again. I’d agreed to the U.K. long before All In, and for Chicago, thought I’d come in for the show itself and one talk show the morning of the card, but ended up being booked for the Starrcast convention. The Manchester, UK event is 9/8 and 9/9 at the BEC Arena which will include two Revolution Pro shows with a 16 man British J Cup tournament as well as the return of Impact to the U.K. Besides myself, at the convention will be Pat Patterson, Sean Waltman, Jushin Liger, Nick Aldis, Colt Cabana, Moose, Eddie Edwards, Rich Swann, Rampage, Joe Hendry, Don Callis, SoCal Val, Sho, Yoh, Rocky Romero, Tiger Mask, Ryusuke Taguchi, LAX, Bandido, Matt Sydal, Su Yung, Eli Drake, Sami Callihan, Kushida, Trevor Lee, Flamita, David Starr and more. The British J Cup will be 5 p.m. on 9/8 and 1 p.m. on 9/9. Walter & Timothy Thatcher vs. CCK (Chris Brookes & Jonathan Gresham) is also on 9/8. The 16 men in the tournament are Liger, Taguchi, Romero, Chris Ridgeway, Kyle Fletcher, Sho, Yoh, Kurtis Chapman, Phantasmo, Swann, Tiger Mask, Bandido, Dean Allmark, Flamita, Starr and Kushida. This is the right tournament given the fan base coming and quality of potential opponents where some of the U.K. guys in particular to really make an international name. The Impact show is at 5 p.m. local time or Noon Eastern on 9/9, and will be airing live on Twitch with LAX defending the tag titles against Jody Fleisch & Jonny Storm, Sami Callihan vs. Jimmy Havoc in a barbed wire baseball bat match, Eli Drake vs. Joe Hendry, Su Yung vs. Lana Austin, Rich Swann vs. Matt Sydal vs. Trevor Lee plus Eddie Edwards appearing. The U.K.’s New Generation Wrestling and Defiant Wrestling will also have shows. There will be a number of panel events. On 8/8 at 8 p.m., they will induct myself, Cabana, Martin Goldsmith (the person who brought the WWF to the U.K. for the first time in the late 80s and was a key person in promoting the 1992 SummerSlam event at Wembley Stadium, which was, by far. the biggest pro wrestling event, ever in the country) and Findlay Martin (editor of Powerslam magazine for more than 20 years) into their Wrestling Media Hall of Fame. I’ll also be doing a talk show on 9/9 at 6 p.m
668
669Week four of World of Sport on ITV did 545,000 viewers, which was up from last week, but still bad. It had a new lead-in as instead of the game show “The Chase,” they put in the movie “Scorpion King” starring Dwayne Johnson. ITV rarely runs Saturday afternoon movies but it appears they were using a Johnson movie to help the lead-in. Scorpion King from 3:15 to 5 p.m. did 609,000 viewers. The show opened with Kay Lee Ray going to a no contest with Bea Priestley when Viper came out and destroyed both of them. Ayesha (Ayesha Raymond) attacked Priestley and Ray as well. Announcer Alex Shane did the deal where he acted like he had no idea that Ayesha was there, or was in the promotion, which is weird given both the web site and Twitter account has listed her as part of the promotion. They announced that next week, Ray would defend her title in a Battle Royal rules match with Priestley, Viper and Ayesha. They showed Grado in Stu Bennett’s office asking for another chance. Bennett said if he can find him a partner he could put him in the final qualifying match in the tag team tournament. Will Ospreay beat Martin Kirby. Good match. Some felt it was the best match so far this season. Grado came out with Davey Boy Smith Jr. as his partner in the tag tournament beating Crater & Robbie X. Grado acted scared of Crater. Grado pinned X with an RKO. Main event saw Jason Sysum winning a three-way over Joe Hendry and Nathan Cruz. They announced the first semifinal match in the tag team tournament would be next week. Including DVR viewership, the first show did 1.1 million viewers and a replay did 164,000. The second week with DVR viewing was 676,000 viewers and 205,000 for the replay
670
671The 8/17 Revolution Pro show at York Hall had 900 fans, and they’ve been selling out regularly with 1,100 and expected a full house from an Ishii vs. Walter main event. It was probably hurt because of so many big shows in the market, including ROH in the same building the next day and Progress in Wembley next month, WWE doing UK tapings and everyone is now drawing less than expected. The feeling is that doing low priced family shows in small buildings will always do well but right now the high level indie shows that put the U.K. scene on the world map are drawing from a small specific fan base, who are willing to spend a lot of money and react great at the shows, but too many shows is going to dilute that audience. It didn’t have quite the level of New Japan talent as previous York Hall shows. They had Kushida, Lance Archer and Tomohiro Ishii only. They had to change things up late. The show stealing match of Chris Brookes & Jonathan Gresham as CCK vs. Aussie Open (Mark Davis & Kyle Fletcher), that people went crazy about, came because of a number of issues. Brookes was to face Sam Adonis, but he got pulled due to his interview. Aussie Open was to face KES, but Davey Boy Smith Jr. canceled because of the funeral of Jim Neidhart. With Gresham coming for the ROH tour, they got him in for the show. Josh Bodom beat Dan Magee in 11:00 in a grudge match. Magee is a RevPro trainee making his York Hall debut and got over well as a babyface. It was hard hitting with near falls, with Bodom winning afer a penalty kick. They shook hands after. Great O-Kharn, who is Tomoyuki Oka who is a regular here on excursion, beat Shane Strickland in 11:50. The Mongolian gimmick didn’t get over in his first matches and only did slightly better and the match was slow. O-Kharn used a reverse exploder as his finisher. Strickland was the more impressive of the two. Kushida beat Adam Brooks in 12:40. The story here is Brooks was looking for Ospreay, so instead faced one of Ospreay’s top rivals. Kushida won with back to the future. The match was disappointing. In the show stealer, Aussie Open beat CCK in 24:40. Good comedy early. The last ten minutes had a ton of near falls. People were raving about this as one of the best tag matches in the U.K. Davis pinned Gresham with a pop up piledriver. Both teams got a standing ovation. Titan beat Soberano Jr. in 16:30 in the debuts for both guys. The crowd enjoyed what was a very different style match than is usually presented. There was no face-heel dynamic. Titan won with a roll-up and both got over well. Lance Archer pinned Jurn Simmons in 12:20. It was slower, but guys that size are hardly going to be as spectacular as Titan and Soberano. It was hard hitting. Archer worked hard to be he heel and mostly succeeded. Fans chanted “Please come back” at Simmons after the match. David Starr beat El Phantasmo to keep the British cruiserweight title. Solid match going 21:30 with a ref bump and a lot of early stuff like Starr walking out to tease the count out that felt like WWE style. Starr at one point threw Phantasmo off the stage. Ishii beat Walter in 14:30 in the main event of a match where the winner was to become the top contender for Minoru Suzuki’s British Commonwealth title. The crowd was mostly behind Ishii, with Walter even getting some boos. It was hard hitting with Ishii winning after a brainbuster. Main event was solid but not the level of most RevPro mains. The crowd loved it and as long as Walter hits some chops people are going to get into it
672
673With the close WWE/Progress relationship, Progress was able to get Matt Riddle for what is being pushed as his last indie appearance on its 9/30 show at SSE Wembley.
674
675ROH: A key story to watch is that there are news reports that private equity firms are interested in buying Sinclair
676
677Billy Gunn, Marko Stunt and Jimmy Jacobs were added to the All In Battle Royal. Stunt got rave reviews for a performance on Joey Janela’s Gamechanger Wrestling show in New York over the weekend and his name was then announced for All In. Cody said that Matt Jackson made a pitch for C.M. Punk to be on the show and was turned down
678
679Sanada and Evil have been added to the already announced Kushida for the 9/28 PPV from Las Vegas as well as the TV tapings the next day
680
681Tenille Dashwood pulled out of this past weekend’s shows due to a horrible psoriasis flare-up that put her in the hospital. She had been working with the bad flare-up that had become uncomfortable, but it just kept getting worse. She’s had it on-and-off since she was 14. .. Being the Elite this week opened with Flip Gordon talking about not being booked for All In. It was a total spoof of Dennis Stamp in “Beyond the Mat,” complete with the jumping jacks while holding light dumbbells. Gordon said he knew he could have a better match with Cody than Nick Aldis could. Matt Jackson, playing Terry Funk in that scene, asked Gordon to come to the show. Matt asked him to referee their six-man, he was trying to talk with a Texas twang and even said “it might be my last match.” In the 1996 Terry Funk retirement match in Amarillo, chronicled in the movie, Stamp ended up as the referee for Funk vs. Bret Hart, when Hart was WWF champion but it was a non-title match. Funk, because it was his retirement match, felt he had to lose. Bret, who grew up idolizing the Funks, even though he was champion at the time, felt since it was non-title and it was Terry Funk’s last match in Amarillo (and he ended up having several more later and retired many more times) that he should lose. Terry, as the booker, got his way, and Bret won but they did a double pin finish that wasn’t dramatic. There were lots of incidents in that era of wrestlers refusing to do a job, but it wasn’t nearly as often when you had two of the biggest stars of the era in a singles match with both insisting on losing, and the booker in the match, in his home town, insisted to where he got his way. Anyway, like in the movie, Matt offered him the spot refereeing in his match, they agreed, hugged and Matt, walking away, like Funk did in the movie, then stumbled. Matt texted Cody (they didn’t have text messaging in 1996) who said, “No” four times over. Hangman Page was all over the U.K., training, shopping, etc. bare-footed. He convinced The Young Bucks to also walk around bare footed and Matt claimed his old lower back problem has gotten better. But then Page’s boots showed up (they can talk by the way) in the U.K., but it was all Page’s nightmare once again. Christopher Daniels also cut an amazing promo on Stephan Amell
682
683They are taping TV on 8/25 at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia with Young Bucks & Cody defending the six-man titles against Silas Young & Beer City Bruiser & Brian Milonas, Punishment Martinez defending the TV title against Aaron Solow (the longtime boyfriend of Bayley), Marty Scurll vs. Hurricane Helms, Kenny King vs. Hangman Page, TK O’Ryan & Vinny Marseglia vs Coast 2 Coast and Trent Baretta & Chuckie T vs,. The Boys
684
685ROH sent an e-mail to all Honor Club members apologizing for the U.K. shows not airing live. They made a deal with Fite TV to make them PPVs. “First and foremost, we apologize. Heading into the UK tour, we were faced with a situation where we would have to forego streaming the tour live, but due to our great relationship with FITE, we opted for a solution that would still allow the events to be seen as they happen. In hindsight, this did not feel fair to you and that is never our intent. All three events are available now for HonorClub members and we will do everything in our power to assure that all touring shows will be presented live going forward.
686
687The U.K. tour opened on 8/16 in Edinburgh, Scotland before about 600 fans. The crowds were way down from prior tours, but when you look at the lineups, they used way more U.K. guys who are there all the time and had been in the same three cities in mid-May. We were told that three months was too fast to come back to the same buildings, and this was with a smaller roster and the same high (for the market) ticket prices. The first four matches were in the U.S. vs U.K. tournament. Basically you had to have two U.S. winners and two U.K. winners. Mark Haskins beat Jonathan Gresham by submission. Flip Gordon pinned Kip Sabian. Gordon was said to be way over. Jimmy Havoc beat Christopher Daniels. The story is that Havoc wanted it to be a hardcore match and Daniels kept refusing. A staple gun ended up involved and at one point ref Todd Sinclair got stapled in the ass. Page pinned Joe Hendry after the rites of passage. The crowd was really into this one. Viper pinned Kay Lee Ray. Both are friends in ICW, which is the big company based in Glasgow. Fans were chanting “ICW” during the match. Ray turned heel at one point but they made up after the match. In a non-title match, Jay Lethal beat Chris Brookes with the Lethal injection. The main event saw the Young Bucks & Marty Scurll beat Mark & Jay Briscoe & Punishment Martinez. It started out with comedy and turned into a really good match. Fans were chanting “heavyweight” at Scurll meaning they watch the BTE storylines
688
689. 8/18 in Doncaster drew 400, which is one of the smallest ROH crowds in a long time. Briscoes beat Fleisch & Storm. In the tournament semifinals, Haskins beat Gordon and Page beat Havoc. Kay Lee Ray beat Charlie Evans. Martinez retained the TV title over Delirious. Lethal & Gresham beat Young Bucks in an upset. Haskins beat Page in the main event to win the title and get the title shot the next day
690
6918/19 at York Hall in London drew 600 fans. Gresham beat Hendry with a roll-up. Both worked babyface. Page won a three-way over Kip Sabian and Gordon. Gordon and Page got big reactions. Good match ending when Page pinned Sabian with the rites of passage. Kay Lee ray pinned Ayesha Raymond in a basic match. Daniels beat Mark Briscoe via DQ. Briscoe worked heel. Mark used a chain to get a submission but the ref saw the chain and reversed the decision. Briscoes continued to beat up Daniels until Gordon and Hendry made the save. Martinez beat Havoc in a street fight. Havoc was the most over guy on the show. Crazy match with an ironing board, staples, pizza slice cutters and more. Martinez was bleeding and Havoc squeezed lemon juice int the cuts. Martinez won via choke slam into thumbtacks. This had the hottest crowd of the tour so the real hardcore stuff worked. Scurll beat Jay Briscoe. Scurll is always over in the U.K. Fans again chanted “heavyweight” at Scurll since the storyline is he’s trying to gain weight for his Okada match, although his being in the jr. tournament with New Japan later sort of counters that. Daniels got involved to lead to Scurll’s win. Young Bucks beat Storm & Fleisch. Face vs. face match. Both teams were very popular. All kinds of big moves. Bucks won with the Meltzer driver and this was real good. Main event saw Lethal keep the ROH title over tournament winner Haskins. It was tough as they followed three hot matches in a row. Both worked face. Both kicked out of the others’ finisher and Lethal won after a second Lethal injection.
692
693IMPACT: One person at the second night of last week’s Impact tapings said that 80 people was a ridiculous number and pegged it as 60 to 70 percent of the fist night, which would be just over 200. The first night’s attendance was listed to us at 350
694
695They are doing a One Night Only PPV taping on 8/25 in Binghamton, NY at American Legion Post 80 with Xcite Wrestling. The show is being called “Night of the Dummies.” The announced matches are Eddie Edwards vs. Eli Drake as the main event, plus Sean Carr vs. Brute Vanstyke, KM vs. Moose, LAX vs. DJZ & Andrew Everett, Rebel vs. Alisha Edwards, and more.
696
697UFC: UFC 229, the Conor McGregor vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov show on 10/6 at the T Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, is now the biggest gate for UFC ever in Las Vegas and second biggest ever (behind the $17.7 million for McGregor vs. Eddie Alvarez in Madison Square Garden). We don’t have the advance other than the number after day one of sales were ahead of the $12,075,000 U.S. of UFC 129, which was the Georges St-Pierre vs. Jake Shields show at Rogers Center in Toronto. The Nevada record was$10,746,248 record set by UFC 200 (Brock Lesnar vs. Mark Hunt and while the fight didn’t happen, Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier was likely the primary actual ticket seller) but it can’t beat the first MSG show. At the end of the first day of public ticket sales on 8/17, there were only 300 tickets left in a building set up for around 18,000, with seats priced from $2,505 down to $200, so it would be the quickest selling high priced Las Vegas fight in history as none of the T Mobile fights or even the MGM Grand top dollar fights sold at such a fast pace. The only seats left were the most expensive seats. Because of the strong sale to Fight Club members, there were so few tickets available to the general public that every seat below $1,505 was sold out three minutes into the public sale. It’s one thing to do that for the first MSG show, but to do that in Las Vegas where they run so often that the high ticket shows usually don’t sell out that quickly, if they do at all, that is a pretty major thing. On the secondary market, there were about 1,260 tickets out at press time, and for an 18,000 seat show you’d expect closer to 3,600 tickets. Because of that, the $200 tickets are starting at $725 and floor seats range from $3,500 to $45,000, although you can still get about 40-50 last two rows on the floor tickets at regular prices
698
699Ariel Helwani reported Cris Cyborg vs. Amanda Nunes for the women’s featherweight title has been signed for 12/29 in Las Vegas. It would be the biggest possible women’s fight the company could put on
700
701UFC fighter Desmond Green lost control of his 2011 Dodge Durango on 8/19, hitting a truck with a trailer in the next lane, which led to three more vehicles crashing including two deaths and a very serious injury. Green, 28,had been in an accident two weeks earlier was at the time was cited for driving with a suspended license and no proof of insurance after a minor accident in Deerfield Beach, FL. He was also pulled over on 4/20 for expired tags. Police smelled marijuana in the car and Green admitted usage of marijuana and mushrooms that were stuffed into his shoe. He was cited for possession of marijuana and expired tags. Green was scheduled to face Mairbek Taisumov on the 9/15 show in Moscow
702
703The Luke Rockhold vs. Chris Weidman rematch that has been talked about for weeks is now scheduled for 11/3 in Madison Square Garden
704
705The plan is to run a Francis Ngannou vs. Curtis Blaydes rematch as the five round main event for the 11/24 show in Beijing, China. Ngannou won their first fight on April 10, 2016 via ref stoppage after Blaydes suffered an eye injury in the second round. Blaydes has won five straight since
706
707Jimi Manuwa vs. Thiago Santos has been announced as the new main event for the 9/22 show in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Santos replaces Glover Teixeira, who pulled out due to a shoulder injury
708
709So this is a crazy stat, since the start of 2018, or a little over eight months, Cormier, who has never failed a drug test in his life, has been tested 11 times. Jones, on suspension with multiple failures, has been tested once. The idea is that fighters who have failed tests and are on suspension are supposed to be tested more often
710
711Both Evan Dunham and Thales Leites have said this past week that they will be retiring after their fights on the 9/22 show in Sao Paulo. Dunham (18-7-1), 36,who faces Francisco Trinaldo, said he’s looking at concentrating on building his gym. He’s been with UFC since 2009 and for most of that period was a ranked lightweight, but never beat the top guys. Still, since a July 16, 2014, loss to Edson Barboza, he hadn’t lost until his most recent fight on 4/7 against Olivier Aubin-Mercier. Leites, 36, who faces Hector Lombard, is 27-9 and lost his last two fights to Jack Hermansson and Brad Tavares. He started in UFC in 2006, was cut in 2009, and returned in 2013. He got a middleweight title fight on April 18, 2009, a boring decision loss to Anderson Silva, the boring aspect of it led to his being cut after his follow-up loss. As late as last year, he beat Sam Alvey, but like Dunham, when he faced the biggest stars like Michael Bisping, Silva and Gegard Mousasi, he lost, with his biggest career win being in 2008 over a prime Nate Marquardt
712
713Amanda Nunes, 30, the women’s bantamweight champion, and longtime girlfriend Nina Ansaroff, 32, who is ranked currently as the No. 10 contender at strawweight, announced their engagement this past week. They would become only the second married couple in UFC history, with Mark and Montana De La Rosa and the first openly gay married couple in the promotion. Although this has not been pushed for publicity at all to get the company over, nor is it any kind of a secret, Nunes would be the first openly gay champion in company history
714
715Dana White on the BBC MMA show said that Georges St-Pierre would not get a fight with the winner of the Nurmagomedov vs. McGregor fight. So here’s the deal, the biggest possible money fight in MMA right now is St-Pierre vs. McGregor, even more than Brock Lesnar vs. Jon Jones. However, after St-Pierre won the middleweight title, promised to defend it in his contract, and then vacated it, I don’t know how you can give him another title match. That said, if Nurmagomedov wins, St-Pierre vs. McGregor absolutely makes sense provided McGregor is into it. I wouldn’t do anything to force McGregor or even pressure him into fighting someone that much bigger than he is. But it’s a no-loser for him. If he loses, it not only was St-Pierre, the greatest ever, but someone much bigger. And if he wins, even if St-Pierre isn’t what he once was, and no matter what he says, at 37, he is not the same fighter he was at 27, it’s McGregor’s biggest win. White said he’s interested in St-Pierre fighting at 170, not 155
716
717White also got some business headlines by claiming that UFC is now worth $7 million. Basically people who follow the sport couldn’t figure out where he got that valuation. Endeavor’s second ownership purchase, where they got the last bit of stock from the Fertittas, was at a $5 billion valuation and that was figuring on the $300 million per year deal. WWE with a $470 million per year deal is worth north of $6 billion, so White gave a number to top that, but now, for the first time in years, because of the TV negotiations, WWE is the more valuable franchise
718
719The planned Yoel Romero vs. Paulo Costa fight on 11/3 in Madison Square Garden is off as Romero said that he underwent surgery for a broken orbital bone and needs four to five months off before he can start back training. Romero also signed a new eight-fight contract. Costa has indicated he’s wanting to wait until Romero is healed to have that fight next
720
721Bryce Mitchell had a unique injury this past week. In his own words, he ripped his nutsack in half. He was holding a board over his head and had his drill in his pants to work on it. The drill went off accidentally and the rest is history. Kids, never put a drill in your pants.
722
723After two weeks off, they’re back with a show on the normal Saturday night on FS 1 on 8/25 with the company’s debut in Lincoln, NE at the Pinnacle Bank Arena. The show starts at 6:30 p.m. Eastern time with Fight Pass fights of Rani Yahya (25-9) vs. Luke Sanders (12-2), Jon Tuck (10-4) vs. Drew Dober (19-8) and Joanne Calderwood (11-3) vs. Kalindra Faria (18-7-1). The prelims are scheduled for FS 2 and not FS 1, at 8 p.m., with Mickey Gall of C.M. Punk fame (4-1) vs. George Sullivan (17-6), Andrew Sanchez (9-4) vs. Markus Perez (10-1), Cory Sandhagen (8-1) vs. Iuri Alcantara (35-9) and Warlley Alves (12-2) vs. James Krause (25-7). The main card at 10 p.m. on FS 1 has Tim Williams (15-4) vs. Eryk Andes (10-1), John Moraga (190-6) vs. Deiveson Figueiredo (14-0), Jake Ellenberger (31-14) vs. Bryan Barbarena (13-5), Angela Hall (8-4) vs. Cortney Casey (7-6), Michael Johnson (17-12) vs. Andre Fili (18-5) and James Vick (13-1) vs. Justin Gaethje (18-2)
724
725Dober is an interesting story as he fought and made weight at 155 two fights back in Anaheim and when they did a weigh-in before getting into the cage with Josh Burkman, he was 183, so he had gained 28 pounds since weigh-ins. California’s commission ruled he couldn’t fight at lighter than welterweight, so in his last fight, he fought at that weight. He then tried to get approval to fight at lightweight, and they did a number of weigh-in checks and he was walking around in the high 160s, so he dieted off a lot and was allowed to cut to 155 for this show
726
727Gray Maynard, 39, the one-time high school training partner of Dolph Ziggler and former top contender at lightweight, returns to the division on 10/6 against Nik Lentz. Maynard, who was bigger than Ziggler in high school, had dropped to 145 in his prior three fights but is back to 155
728
729In a surprise, Joe Giannetti, who was 6-1, was cut by UFC. Giannetti went to the finals of season 27 of The Ultimate Fighter, where he lost a split decision to Michael Trizano in his first loss on 7/6. That’s usually not someone you cut, a finalist on the show, and then loses close
730
731Matt Frevola vs. Lando Vannata was added to the 11/3 show in Madison Square Garden
732
733Season 27 TUF winner Mike Trizano vs. Luis Pena and Alonzo Menifield vs. Saparbeg Safarov have been added to the 11/10 show in Denver
734
735Paul Craig vs. Jim Crute (making his debut with an 8-0 record off Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contenders) has been added to the 12/2 show in Adelaide
736
737Jordan Johnson (9-0) vs. Adam Andiev (also 9-0) has been added to the 9/15 show in Moscow. Johnson replaces the injured Krzysztof Jotko
738
739Karl Robertson vs. Jack Marshmann was added to the 11/3 Madison Square Garden show.
740
741BELLATOR: Michael Chandler, the company’s biggest home-grown star, has signed a new multi-fight contract. His Bellator deal expired with his most recent fight and listened to both sides before renewing here. Patricio Pitbull Freire then claimed Chandler did so to avoid USADA, claiming he used UFC as a negotiating tactic but was never going anywhere and called him one of the biggest PED users in the sport
742
743Wanderlei Silva is running for the Congress in Brazil as a Federal Deputy. The election is in October, so Silva has said that his 9/29 fight with Rampage Jackson, if he wins the election, could be his last fight. He said that even if he didn’t get elected, it could be his last fight. He said some of that depends on his performance in the fight. Silva, 42, has only fought once im the last five-and-a-half years, which was a loss last year in a grudge match with Chael Sonnen
744
745Phil Davis vs. Vadim Nemkov in a battle of former UFC fighters was announced for an 11/15 show in Tel Aviv, Israel. Nemkov is coming off a knockout win over former light heavyweight champion Liam McGeary. The main event for Tel Avis was already announced as Patricio Pitbull Freire vs. Emmanuel Sanchez for the featherweight title
746
747Robson Gracie Jr, 27, the youngest brother of Renzo Gracie, who has no pro fights, was signed here
748
749They had a B level show on 8/17 from Sioux Falls, SD. The main event saw bantamweight champion Darrion Caldwell (13-1) move up to featherweight and beat Noad Lahat (12-4) via ref stoppage from punches at 2:46 of the second round. Logan Storley, the former University of Minnesota All-American wrestler, a welterweight, moves to 9-0 with a second round ref stoppage win due to punches over A.J. Matthews (9-8). Maybe the biggest surprise was James Gallagher, one of the younger stars they were pushing, was knocked out by a kick by Ricky Bendejas (11-1) in 2:49. The TV opener saw Tywan Claxton (3-0) beat Cris Lencioni (3-2) via straight 30-27 decision
750
751Bellator doesn’t have another show until a B show on 9/21 in Boise, ID, where another of their major push stars, A.J. McKee, faces John Teixeira.
752
753WWE: The lead idea for the Evolution main event on 10/28 at the Nassau Coliseum is Rousey vs. Nikki Bella, with the idea you are headlining with the two biggest mainstream women stars in the company. That was the match we heard as the scheduled main event last week and they seemed to start the tease at SummerSlam with the Bellas watching Rousey win the title and sharing in her celebration with Rousey and Natalya. It’s also not at 100 percent locked in as many think about Rousey vs. Charlotte for WrestleMania. It’s certainly an idea on the boards, but there are a number of ideas . They announced Bliss vs. Trish Stratus for the show over the weekend. This is probably a dream match for Bliss who internally has been patterned after the heel version of Stratus. Another match confirmed is the Toni Storm vs. Io Shirai Mae Young Classic final, and obviously both the Smackdown and NXT women’s titles will be defended on the show. Another note regarding Tegan Nox and her knee injury, it was very much not a lock that Storm was going to win the tournament and Nox was actually the probable winner. Storm vs. Nox was the scheduled Evolution match and Mae Young Classic final before Nox got hurt. But Nox was said to be in consideration for winning the whole thing
754
755They are taping several more shows for the U.K. division television on 8/25 and 8/26 in Birmingham, UK as part of Insomnia, the UK’s biggest gaming festival. They will be doing the complete tournament for the newly created NXT U.K. women’s championship with Storm, Jinny, Isla Dawn, Millie McKenzie, Nina Samuels, Dakota Kai, Rhea Ripley and Xia Brookside announced. This becomes interesting because Storm was heavily favored to be the U.K. women’s champion. They could have her win Mae Young and this tournament, but more likely they’d spread that around. It would have made sense for Nox and her to win the two tournaments, but now, if they want her as champion, that would mean Shirai would win MYC which was very much not the plan, or they could put this title on someone else and have Storm win MYC. Dunne & Bate vs. Wolfgang & Mark Coffey is on 8/25 and Dunne will defend the UK title on 8/26
756
757There was an interesting video which pretty much confirmed what was believed at the time regarding the timing of WWE going after Riddle. Lisa Riddle, Matt’s wife, on 8/12 did an interview where she acknowledged his signing (which was supposed to be a no-no, even though everyone knew as such a thing is hard to keep secret when one of the top indie guys stops taking dates). She said in June that Matt had gotten an offer from New Japan. When WWE found out about the offer as Matt told Gabe Sapolsky, who he was under contract with at WWN about it, and Sapolsky also works behind-the-scenes at NXT, so shortly after he told Sapolsky, Matt suddenly got a call from Paul Levesque. After a 30 minute discussion, Levesque offered a contract. We pretty much had reported things looking like that since we were aware of the unique time frame of both offers coming at almost the same time after months of neither side not talking with him and us being told by both sides that they weren’t going to use him because of the marijuana issue. With WWE it was more of a surprise as the word we were told only a few months ago is that when you look at Riddle in Wikipedia, you see too many mentions, and there was also an article on him that came out this year that wasn’t viewed as favorable. Still, this is 2018 and marijuana as a stigma in the U.S. is almost gone and pro wrestlers using pot has been plentiful for the last 50 years. In Japan the perception of the drug is very different. That’s why I was more surprised New Japan changed their tune. Bushiroad first put the kibosh on him to debut last November in the tag team tournament we were told it was dead and not even to be brought up. Basically it shows just how highly they thought of his potential to be a big star that WWE would react based on the idea he would sign with New Japan otherwise. With two years working with the New Japan guys as a regular, it’s scary how good he could have been. He’ll be a guaranteed superstar in NXT. Main roster who knows because you never know with Vince, and he’ll have to evolve on interviews or that could hold him back. I suppose if he was with Heyman on the main roster that would be guaranteed top guy status
758
759. Lesnar’s being put in the USADA testing pool for his probable UFC comeback has resulted in him already getting three surprise tests. His body changed and he’s dropped significant weight and has been in hard fight training already. We’re told the idea is for him to walk around and train at 270, much lower than during his UFC career, and not have much of a weight cut to get to 265
760
761Daniel Bryan in a few media interviews this week talked of his signing as imminent, saying the delay was because, for the first time, he had an attorney look over his contract. The last contract he signed was in 2012 and there were things that allowed them to freeze and prolong the deal for years after what would have been the expiration time due to his not wrestling due to the belief he had a career ending brain injury. By virtue of the interpretation of his time off, WWE believed the deal was valid until late 2019. As noted before, one of the things he wanted was a lighter schedule. He said that he wanted to wrestle until he’s 70 or more, noting how Jerry Lawler and Terry Funk are out there and mentioned Firas Zahabi, an MMA trainer who talked about wanting to grapple until he’s 90. Funk really isn’t out there anymore although he did wrestle Lawler not that long ago, but he’s in rough shape physically. He noted that he’d have to modify his style, and noted he already has, and has felt great so far and there have been no serious issues since his return. “For me, my goal is to enjoy this moment that I have in the WWE spotlight because that doesn’t last forever. That really has taken hold since I was forced to retire. You have to appreciate every moment of this, but I also have to transition my style in a way that I could still be wrestling when I’m 70 years old. I want to transition my style slowly to something that’s a little big easier on my body.” WWE has given him more time off and taken him off some house show weekends. He’s gotten great reviews for his house show matches, often being the best match on the show, even though he’s yet to have that classic match on TV because whether it was time, finishes needed or whatever, he hasn’t been put in the position on TV to do a classic. He’s rarely doing dives, and I can’t remember a diving head-butt. He always brings up Zack Sabre Jr. and watching tapes of him since Sabre probably works the safest style out of any of the elite pro wrestlers in the world right now, which is why you see more of an emphasis on the submission game. I don’t know this, but I would hope that he’d get something in his contract that for whatever reason he’s not cleared again by WWE, that they can’t freeze his contract and there is less vagueness about an end date. Still, he will probably wrestle in WWE for a long time to come. No word at this point on the length of the new deal. He noted that being married with a baby there were things he was concerned with regarding a new deal that he didn’t care as much about when he was single and without a child in 2012. But he said there are guys like Styles, Roderick Strong, Bill Goldberg, Almas and Nakamura that he’s really looking forward to working with. He noted Almas because one of his dreams that he probably will never do is be in a big singles program at Arena Mexico, so with Almas, at least he’ll work with somebody who at his roots works that style
762
763Hulk Hogan did an interview with Bill Apter to give his side of the controversy regarding his meeting with the talent and apologizing, which ended in some controversy. Many people had different views and there are people who have said anywhere from 20 percent to 50 percent or more accepted his apology in their own minds. Based on those I contacted, some did and some didn’t, and most basically said that the Kofi Kingston tweet pretty much summarized their feelings, but others were just fine with everything. I think pretty much everyone was fine with him in the Hall of Fame and respecting what he has done for wrestling. Really, maybe it would have been better to talk about the bad side of social media (which is a valid subject) at a different point in time and not tie it into him, because his issue is something different. Hogan said to Apter that he said, “The first thing I want to tell you guys, 12 years ago I said something. About three years ago, it just came to light. And I want to apologize for everything I said. I could give you the `woe is me’ story. I could tell you all the things, all the reasons why I was in this pace. I was in a very dark, dark space. But everybody’s got a `woe is me’ story, everybody’s got an excuse. But the truth is, I said these things 12 years ago, and I didn’t even know they were said until three years ago because that’s when they came out. I can’t remember what I said last weekend, let alone 12 year ago. Maybe you guys can, but I can’t. And when I said it, it was in a fit of anger. But I did say it. I’m accountable. That’s not who I am. That’s not how I feel. That’s not how I believe. But the one thing I will tell you is when I said it, I was very, very mad. Very, very mad at a situation. But I did say it. It was inappropriate. It was out of context. It was hurtful. It was unacceptable and I did it. I apologize. If you guys could ever forgive, me I would be forever grateful.” He then said he told guys not to make any mistakes because they were in the spotlight. He said if you make a mistake you’ll be on the front page of every newspaper, of every magazine, just like it happened to me. I made a mistake and this machine was so big, the WWE’s made me such a big star, that everyone knows what’s going on. So please be careful because people have cell phones and cameras, os just be careful.
764
765Jerry Lawler was on the news on Ch. 24 in Memphis talking about his son Brian’s death. He described his life as living a nightmare that he can’t wake up from. He said he talked with Brian at 10 a.m. on the morning of his death. He said Brian complained about how bad conditions were and that the things Jerry was told about how he would be treated weren’t happening. He said they were only allowed 15 minutes to talk. He said that at 2 p.m. that day, his fiancé got a phone call saying that Brian and another inmate had gotten into a fight, that Brian had acted like a fool, and was being stitched up to close a cut. Jerry said that he was later told by witnesses that the account of what they were told was not how it went down. He said that night he was told Brian had hung himself. He said that based on everything they’ve heard and people they’ve spoken to that this doesn’t add up
766
767In Saudi Arabia, they said WWE would be coming back in November, while George Barrios at the investors call said it would be an annual thing. The date that had been agreed on originally, at least the Saudi Arabian government believed and we’ve also heard this date is 11/2, the Friday immediately after the Evolution PPV Doing the show would be a lot more controversial this time because of the situation with Canada and Saudi Arabia, but the U.S. stayed out of that conflict and I haven’t heard of U.S. companies not doing business there. Interesting how that date is just five days after the all-women’s PPV, although WWE has claimed that one has nothing to do with the other. And the reality is, the women’s show is going to be a bigger deal from a publicity standpoint in October for the company than doing a regular PPV show, whether they do or don’t go to Saudi Arabia. It’ll also lessen criticism about doing the show if Saudi Arabia doesn’t allow the women to perform
768
769Announced thus far for the 10/6 Melbourne Cricket Grounds show in Australia on PPV is Undertaker vs. HHH, Cena & Lashley vs. Owens & Elias, The Shield in a six-man tag and Bryan vs. Miz with the winner getting a WWE title match
770
771As noted here last week, both Matt Hardy and Jordan have been learning the production side while they are out with injuries. There is nothing certain about either of their futures but neither will be wrestling for a while. Reby Hardy noted this past week that Matt’s contract is up in March
772
773Jon Robinson, who has a WWE authorized book on WrestleMania, noted in an interview with WrestlingInc.com that the original plans for the show were for an Ambrose vs. Rollins match and Angle vs. Jordan match, before Ambrose got hurt and obviously it became Rollins vs. Jordan, and then that fell through when Jordan was hurt. He also noted the Usos pushed for a TLC match with New Day, and Owens pushed for a match with Vince at one point
774
775There were commercials for the new U.K. show on the WWE Network, but no start date was given. It’s still not clear what the broadcast plans are, but with a commercial on the network, one would think the network would be a component. The idea was for television in the U.K., whether Sky or otherwise, but it could still air on Sky and WWE Network, whether WWE Network gets it on a delay, or even the idea of it being geoblocked on the network in the U.K. to protect the local broadcaster, although I’m not aware of, outside of India where the TV deal includes the PPVs so the network doesn’t air the PPVs until a delay period, WWE Network doing any geoblocking. It could be a network exclusive if they can’t get a TV deal
776
777Mile 22, the movie that Rousey had a role in, came out this past weekend and was No. 3 at the box office with $13,710,825. The number was considered below expectations. Rousey’s role was cut back and it became more a Mark Wahlberg movie, when originally she was supposed to have equal billing. But the reviews of her work were fine
778
779In the photo pushing ticket sales for Evolution, it was Charlotte and not Rousey put in the front and center position, with Rousey and Bliss flanking her
780
781There is at least talk of Heyman being kept as a television performer. In a sense, he’s too good not to be. There has always been talk of Heyman and Rousey to be put together if Lesnar leaves, and actually it was something discussed before Lesnar extended his contract. I don’t think it’s time for Rousey to be a heel, and for a lot of reason, who knows when it will be the time. Plus if Rousey is going to work with Stephanie again, it’s hard to see where Heyman would fit in
782
783With Cena having been gone for so long, Reigns has overtaken him for the No. 1 spot in merchandise sales. It’s weird how news like this will make people so upset and then go into denial. There’s a reason they’re still strong on him as the company’s centerpiece despite crowd reactions. Really, there was a time when Cena was getting booed out of every television taping and his merch sales were through the roof, and he was outdrawing everyone on house shows by a substantial margin, and that point was probably when Vince McMahon stopped paying attention to top faces getting booed. Cena missed his first SummerSlam this weekend as he’s in China doing a movie with Jackie Chan
784
785While the Horsewoman vs. Horsewoman idea has been talked about for Survivor Series, there is a very viable thought process than it is asking a lot for Jessamyn Duke and Marina Sharif to be ready at that level in three months even though we continue to hear strong reports on their progress. Obviously them being put together as a group in NXT was not by accident and would indicate the idea is still on the to do list
786
787A note that I missed on last week’s Smackdown is that Orton was watching from the back of the building while the Nakamura vs. Jeff Hardy post-match thing played out. I had written that he wasn’t in the angle, and while he never came out, he was still part of it
788
789Jericho said on his podcast that some time back, when Rollins was IC champion, he pitched to Vince the idea of a New Japan IC champ vs. IC champ match at SummerSlam to Vince. He suggested a DQ finish where the next challenger for Rollins would attack him. Of course this would still require New Japan approval and I don’t think they’d have done it, plus New Japan belts change hands via DQ but they could make it a no contest with a minor tweak so that wouldn’t be an issue. He said he never heard back from Vince on the idea. I don’t sense, even with a recognizable name, that’s a direction Vince would want to go. Honestly, he shouldn’t because why put another group that runs the U.S. and has TV and their title on your TV. Back in the 90s during the Jim Herd reign, Herd pitched Vince on the idea of a WWF vs. WCW PPV, thinking it could do record business, and it would, and even gave Vince control of all the finishes. But this was when WCW was down, and Vince didn’t do it, nor did anyone expect that he would
790
791Co-President George Barrios sold another 90,685 shares of his stock on 8/20 for $7,336,417. He still owns stock worth $38.78 million
792
793WWE has extended its television deal in Australia with 9GO!, an over-the-air station that airs a one hour edited version of Raw at 11:15 p.m. every Thursday night and a one hour edited version of Smackdown at 11:15 p.m. every Friday night
794
795Paul “Big Show” Wight was named Special Olympics Global Ambassador
796
797WWE filmed a Table for 3 with wives of Orton, Angle and Matt Hardy (Reby Hardy)
798
799The Barclays Center this past week donated $10,000 for Connor’s Cure
800
801On the 8/27 Smackdown house show in Peterborough, ONT, the same night as Raw in Toronto (both Raw and Smackdown are being taped at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto this coming week), Roode, who is from Peterborough, will be working the house show for Smackdown instead of television for a match with Rawley. Nothing was announced for Raw, but Smackdown has Gallows & Anderson vs. Sheamus & Cesaro with the winners becoming top contenders for the tag titles and Charlotte vs. Carmella for the women’s title
802
803The stock closed up this week as on 8/21 it was at $80.92 per share giving the company a $6.31 billion market value
804
805SummerSlam weekend brought very interesting notes on network viewing. The top ten shows were: 1. SummerSlam; 2. SummerSlam pre-show; 3. NXT Takeover Brooklyn; 4. Story Time episode one of season three; 5. NXT Takeover Brooklyn pre-show; 6. WWE Chronicle: Samoa Joe; 7. NXT Takeover in Spanish; 8. SummerSlam in German; 9. Table for 3 with Matt Hardy, Woods and Ryder; 10. Photo Shoot: Ric Flair and Charlotte. Key notes are that the 8/15 NXT TV show was 12th and the 8/14 205 Live show was 17th
806
807Notes from the 8/20 Raw tapings in Brooklyn. With the Rousey/Stephanie angle and the Shield being back together, it made for a newsworthy show. They also took Angle off as General Manager and Stephanie placed him on a vacation and put Corbin in the role. Just what Raw needs is more heel authority figures. Angle is scheduled to come back at some point and also do some wrestling. They announced more than 13,000 in the building. The paid was 12,000. The big thing is that Lesnar was advertised for the show for months, and still being advertised in front of the fans the night before at SummerSlam. Lesnar actually went home after SummerSlam because WWE couldn’t come up with an idea after SummerSlam that would make sense. For Main Event, Jose pinned Mike Kanellis with a pop up punch. Match was a little sloppy. Rawley pinned Rhyno in a match were the finish looked sloppy. Crowd was cold for this one. Raw opened with Reigns out. People booed him like crazy. They chanted “You still suck” at him. Reigns said he was going to be a fighting champion and wanted to defend against Balor, after Balor’s big win the night before. He noted Balor lost his title due to injury and not in a match. Fans popped for him offering Balor the shot. Balor came out and accepted and said he was taking the title back tonight. They shook hands. Corbin came out and said it was unprofessional and a breach of contract what happened last night. He said he thought he was wrestling Balor and not The Demon, and with all the lights and smoke he couldn’t hear or see. He said he never heard the bell ring so as far as he’s concerned, the match never happened. But he wanted Balor in a match tonight. Reigns got the easy glory spot for making fun of Corbin which got him a pop and caused the crowd to drop their hatred of him. Angle came out and said that he makes the matches, nor Corbin, and said Reigns vs. Corbin for the title would main event. He said Corbin would have a match next. Lashley beat Corbin in 12:37 of a boring match. Coachman talked about how both guys move like they are 6-foot-1 and 220 pounds, like they could be on 205 Live. Graves noted that it’s called 205 Live, and if what Coachman said made sense, it would be 220 Live. The match was sloppy in spots. Fans changed boring. Lashley was bleeding from the nose. Lashley won with a dominator turned over into a twisting slam for the pin. Heyman was backstage with Angle. He said that Lesnar wanted a rematch. Angle said it will be a long time before he gets one now that they have a champion who actually shows up for work. Heyman said he agreed and so they wanted the rematch at Hell in a Cell. Angle said that Lesnar has the contractual right to a rematch but not to decide when, and said it would be a cold day in hell before he’d give Lesnar a shot. There was a video package building up the Undertaker vs. HHH match on 10/6 in Australia. Riott & Morgan & Logan beat Bayley & Banks & Moon in 10:08. There was a spot where Bayley & Banks both did crossbodys off the apron and Moon followed with a tope on Logan. She landed short and it looked scary but she was okay. Moon also did a tornado DDT off the apron into a suplex on the floor on Morgan. Coachman claimed that move hurt Moon as much as it did Morgan. Riott pinned Banks with the Riott kick to win. HHH came out. He said that NXT blew the roof off the place and SummerSlam took it to another level. Well, he was halfway honest. He was a total babyface and did a great promo, talking mostly about his End of an Era Hell in a Cell match with Undertaker at WrestleMania with Michaels as referee in 2012. He said that after that, Michaels was gone, the streak would end (fans booed that) and he became an executive. He put over Paul Dainty, who was the local Australia promoter, saying that Dainty made the deal with Vince and Vince asked him to face Undertaker and he turned it down because he wanted the WrestleMania match to be their last match. He said the era had ended. He said he believed that era was something special. Fans chanted “You still got it.” But he said he agreed to it later and in Australia the era is back and said it would be Undertaker vs. The Game one last time. Ambrose pinned Ziggler in 9:48. Rollins and McIntyre were in the respective corners. Rollins and McIntyre brawled outside and then Rollins hit McIntyre with a tope and Ambrose hit Dirty Deeds for the pin. The finish was good. Strowman was backstage and gave a speech about how when he cashes it in, it’ll be to the guy’s face. He then wished Balor good luck. Elias came out. Hawkins interrupted him and noted he had lost 218 straight matches but he’s ending the streak here because he’s from New York. Elias first turned the match down, but later accepted. Elias pinned Hawkins with drift away in 1:33. Backstage, Brooke was flirting with Crews and when O’Neil showed up, they both pretended to be talking business. Brooke said she’s found a weakness in the Authors of Pain. Yeah, they can’t do interviews and someone in a genius move decided the guy in the act who could was too old to be on television. Anyway, the match took place and Brooke’s analytics were faulty because there were no interviews to be found. AOP won with the last chapter on Crews in 5:02. The match was booked more competitive than AOP tag matches have been thus far. Stephanie came out with all the women on the roster except Rousey on the floor. She started plugging the Evolution PPV and then started playing bad guy on TV claiming without her, Rousey wouldn’t be in WWE. She said Rousey was her protégé and then Rousey came out. The crowd chanted pretty loudly for her. Stephanie said they when people chant “Ronda Rousey” what that she sees it as a success and like chanting “Steph.” Rousey told all the women to get into the ring and not stay on the floor. The Bellas were there. Rousey put over Natalya, calling her the cornerstone of the division. She said that if it wasn’t for Bayley’s match with Banks in Brooklyn, this movement may have never gotten off the ground. She said that she’s not Lesnar, and she will be a fighting champion. Stephanie then said that all Rousey does is try and break people’s arms, and she talked about how she broke Bliss’ arm (Bliss’ arm was in a sling) and that she would do it to all the women on the roster. Rousey said that she’s not there to break arms except for those who deserve it. She then gave Stephanie a judo throw and put her in an armbar until the heels broke it up and dragged Stephanie to safety. Dallas & Axel were out. They said that they never won a match had never won a match as a tag team until one letter, B, changed everything. They said the B stands for Brooklyn for an easy pop. Dawson pinned Dallas in 2:26 with an implant DDT. The fans did the wave during this match. Axel then issued a challenge to Wilder for a match. That was weird because somebody got their signals crossed since that match had already been announced. Wilder pinned Axel in 2:14 when he put Axel in the Gori especial and fell backwards on him for the pin. Then, the new babyfaces, not caring about their losses, noted that they were still the tag team champions, which is what heels are supposed to say after they lose in this manner. Maybe that’s why they so often don’t get the desired reaction. This promotion is so bad at booking babyfaces, and even worse when they get over anyway and then they take it as a challenge to keep them down. Reigns did an interview and said that Balor deserves the shot, but that he’s going to beat him and send him to the back of the line. He said Strowman could try and cash in but it’s his yard. Angle was backstage checking on Stephanie, who was receiving medical attention. Stephanie yelled at Angle, blaming it all on him. He said he wasn’t even out there. She said he should have been out there and he’s making to many mistakes. She told Angle he needs an indefinite vacation and in his absence is making Corbin the interim General Manager. For what it’s worth, Angle is being advertised on Raw shows in early October, but WWE false advertises all the time so that may not mean a thing. The only thing we know is that this was not meant as a blow-off for Angle’s character and he is scheduled to be back and do some wrestling. Reigns pinned Balor to retain the Universal title in 19:38. The crowd did not crap on this as they wanted Balor to win the title more than protest Reigns as champion. That said, the crowd was paying more attention to a fight in the stands as well as a fan gaining audience attention before being kicked out. Balor did a flip dive early an you could see fans at ringside looking in the stands and not in the ring. Still, when Balor made a comeback, it got a good reaction. The crowd ended up hot after some near falls including Balor using the GTR for a near fall. The crowd popped early big to the move. They traded their trademark moves. Reigns went for a spear but he ran into Balor’s knee. Strowman came out. Reigns was distracted and Balor hit another sling blade, followed by a Woo dropkick. But Balor missed the coup de grace and Reigns pinned him with a spear. Strowman then kicked Reigns and called for his title match to begin. He kept saying he didn’t need short cuts and would win it face-to-face, but then went for the cash in when Reigns was tired. Still, the crowd went nuts for this. But then Rollins & Ambrose came out in their old Shield gear and all three beat up Strowman. Keep in mind they are being put together as faces but did so attacking the most popular guy on Smackdown three-on-one. The bell never rang saw the match never got started. They beat down Strowman until he made a comeback, but Reigns cut him off with a spear on the floor. They did The Shield triple power bomb spot through a table on Strowman to end the show
808
809Notes from the 8/21 Smackdown tapings at the Barclays Center. They drew 9,500 fans, but most stayed through 205 Live to see a less than 2:00 Bryan vs. Joe main event. The most noteworthy things were the tag title change and the Lynch interview. Asuka beat Rose with the Asuka lock in the dark match. Smackdown opened with Miz out. He did the fake crying routine and acted like he was retiring. It wasn’t done in a way where anyone bought it, but people did chant “Yes” when he talked about retiring, which basically meant they saw through it. Then he announced he was retiring from ever facing Bryan again. He said that 100 Bryan punches don’t amount to one of his punches, which was a clever line. He tried to get the fans to chant “Miz & Mrs.” when he was plugging his show. They probably would have but Bryan came out and kept calling him a coward. Fans chanted “You’re a coward” at Miz. Miz told Bryan he’d never get a chance to go against him again, which clearly didn’t last long since they had not one but two PPV matches announced between the two of them that night. Bryan made fun of him wearing makeup and called him a wannabe Hollywood star cosplaying as a pro wrestler. Wow, they allowed him to use the term pro wrestler. Maryse called him Daniel Bella. That did lead to a light “Daniel Bella” chant. Brie Bella sprinted down the ramp and into the ring and started throwing punches at Miz. Bryan clotheslined Miz over the top and they announced the mixed tag match. Backstage, Miz & Maryse yelled at Paige. Miz said Paige was a worse GM than Bryan. Paige said the mixed tag match is still on and it will be awesome. Orton beat Jeff Hardy via DQ in 7:06. Hardy hit the twist of fate but due to being banged up from the right before, was slow climbing up for the swanton. Orton got up and scooped his leg to crotch him. Orton stuck his ginger in Hardy’s earring hole and pulled his ear. Somehow that wasn’t a DQ but Hardy kicking him low in response was. After the match, Hardy rammed him into the post, drove him through the barricade, hit him with two chair shots to the back and jumped off a large case with a swanton that put Orton through the announcers table. Renee Young interviewed Sheamus & Cesaro. They wanted the winners of the tag title match tonight. Gallows & Anderson came out and they wanted the winners, so that sets up a match for next week. Royce beat Naomi in 3:30 with a fisherman suplex. The match was sloppy. Naomi posted Kay but then got attacked as she came back into the ring. Looks like Naomi and someone will have a program with the Iconics. New Day did a promo. The idea is Big E’s ribs were injured and all taped up. At the same time he was eating Chinese spare ribs. They tried to do a promo with Kingston & Woods talking about his ribs and Big E offering them ribs. Basically this was to explain E not being in the match. Lynch did a promo that was hilarious. She was cheered like crazy, bigger than anyone on the show, just like at SummerSlam. Then she turned on the crowd saying she doesn’t want them, they just jumped on board, all the heel stuff. They got quiet. Then they cheered her even louder for the rest of the promo. Charlotte came out and was booed. They did a big pull-apart brawl. Rusev & Lana beat Almas & Vega in the immediate 50/50 booking in 7:26. Lots of timing issues with Rusev and Almas. There was some with Vega and Lana, but not as bad. The finish saw Almas get a chair but English ran down and pulled it away from him. Rusev then hit the kick and got the submission on Almas with the accolade. So the deal is that finally English’s running in helped Rusev & Lana win. Rusev was happy with the win but Lana was clearly still mad at English, so this is clearly still going until they split if it was last year’s wrestling, or all go to therapy together in this year’s wrestling and then it builds to nothing. Renee Young was with Styles. Styles said that Joe crossed a line that a real man doesn’t cross. Styles said he broke a promise (the one where he wouldn’t lose his cool at SummerSlam) but has a new promise, the next time Joe mentions his family he’s going to rip his heart out. Joe attacked Styles from behind, choked him out and made a reference to Styles wanting to tuck in his daughter tonight except Daddy’s gone night night. I think based on the promise, Styles now has to rip Joe’s heart out. I’m not sure how they can do that and maintain a PG rating. Joe was tremendous here. Really, Joe has been tremendous through this entire thing. Now that I think about it, Joe is tremendous on interviews in every program he’s been given promo time in for the last year. Carmella was backstage. R-Truth once again wanted a title match by pinning Carmella. This goofiness works. It led to Paige giving Carmella a match with Charlotte next week for the title. Main event saw Kingston & Woods beat Harper & Rowan to win the tag titles in 15:18 in a no DQ match. Of course with the injury to Rowan, they had to change the titles. This was really good. They brought in a ladder. Harper did a tope on both of them. Kingston DDT’d Harper on a chair. Rowan was protected as he didn’t take bumps or anything. Kingston kicked out of a double team power bomb. The finish saw Woods give Harper an elbow drop off the top rope through a table for the pin. 205 Live opened with Wale out as announcer. He was only there for the first match. Dar pinned TJP with a flying kick to the jaw in 8:59. TJP said he wanted to win fast so he could go out in he best city in the U.S., and then said he meant get back home to Los Angeles. TJP and Wale did some stuff together where TJP acted like they were friends but Wale cheered for Dar. Wale would mess up his name on purpose and call him BJT. TJP worked over Dar’s knees but Dar came back to win with a flying kick to the jaw. Gulak wanted a rematch for the title. Maverick then said that he would have to earn the shot so turned him down. Tozawa vs. Colin Delaney was next but Kendrick and Gallagher came out and attacked both guys. Gulak came out and said that until he gets his title shot, there will be no peace in 205 Live. He said Alexander was scared to give him a rematch. He challenged Alexander to come out right now. So he did. Maverick and security tried to block him from getting to the ring. When Alexander broke free and ran to the ring, Gulak, Gallagher and Kendrick ran off. Fans were into this enough to chant “Let them fight.” Dorado & Metalik beat Murphy & Nese in 17:19 in a tornado match. This was a **** match and easily the best match from either taping. It was so good that the crowd actually got into it. Metalik was on fire in particular. Metalik & Dorado did
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811simultaneous top rope Asai moonsaults to the floor. Metalik did a flip dive but Murphy & Nese caught him and power bombed him into the barricade. They worked on Dorado’s left hand which was legit injured a few weeks ago. Metalik did all kinds of cool rope walk spots. Dorado did a missile dropkick on both guys at the same time. All kinds of big moves . Dorado went for a crossbody off the apron and crashed on the floor. Metalik did a ropewalk huracanrana outside the ring on Nese, who fell into Murphy. Metalik pinned Murphy to win with a Toyota roll. Bryan beat Joe via DQ in less than 2:00 in the dark match main event. Miz interfered when Bryan had Joe in the yes lock. Styles made the save and they did a lengthy brawl until the faces took over with Styles hitting Joe with the phenomenal forearm and Bryan using the running knee on Miz
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813The first NXT weekend show was 8/16 in Lowell, MA before 1,500 fans. Oney Lorcan returned after getting his orbital bone broken and teamed with Danny Burch to lose to the War Raiders. The crowd was heavily into Lorcan and Hanson since both came from the New England indie scene. Hard hitting match. Bianca Belair beat the debuting Deonna Purrazzo. There were definitely communication issues and Belair was off in some spots. Crowd was so-so. Belair won with a torture rack into a facebuster. Lars Sullivan pinned Zack Gibson. Sullivan was a monster babyface here, winning with the freak accident. Adam Cole retained the North American title over EC 3. Crowd was really hot. Cole won with an eye rake, a superkick and a shining wizard to the back of the head. Kyle O’Reilly & Roderick Strong retained the tag titles over Trent Seven & Tyler Bate. Hard hitting with chops vs. European uppercuts. Bate did the combination airplane spin and giant swing spot that always gets over huge. Really high level match. Pete Dunne retained the U.K. title over Velveteen Dream. Great match with Dunne winning with the bitter end. The crowd chanted for Dream after the match. Dakota Kai & Kairi Sane beat Lacey Evans & Shayna Baszler. Main event saw Tommaso Ciampa retain the NXT title over Dominick Dijakovic, who also came from the New England indies
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815The other weekend house show for NXT was 8/17 in Asbury Park, before 2,000 fans. War Raiders beat Lorcan & Burch. Gibson came out and did a promo about how the U.K. gave the U.S. its language, its music and real football. Fans started chanting “USA” at him. He challenged anyone in the back. Dijakovic came out. But they started slow and lost the crowd and Gibson won in 4:00 so it wasn’t bad but it could have been much better. Purrazzo, who is from the area and had a big local star pop, teamed with Kai to beat Belair & Evans. Fans were chanting “cut your hair” at Belair. Belair and Evans kept screwing up as partners. Purrazzo made Evans tap. Gargano beat Sullivan via DQ. Sullivan cut a promo that he was in a bad mood. Sullivan was beating him up in the corner for a DQ which was a flat finish. Most of the crowd was behind Gargano but there were “Johnny sucks” chants. Sullivan laid out Gargano after the match with the break accident. Ciampa came out and talked about the match the next night and started counting to ten. At the count of nine, Gargano got up and superkicked him and said he would win the title the next night. Cole beat EC 3 to keep the North American title. Fans cheered both guys. Cole won clean with the last shot. Baszler beat Sane to keep the title. It was sloppy early. There were you f***ed up chants but the crowd mostly was nice but was also quiet. By the end of the match they had the crowd into it. They traded a lot of punches and played it out even. Baszler won with a choke. The main event saw Dunne keep the U.K. title over Dream. The fans cheered both guys. They saw Dunne as a real superstar and Dream as one as well. With the ref knocked out, Gibson laid out Dunne but Dunne kicked out of Dream’s attempted pin. Bate & Seven came out and chased Gibson out. Dunne then pinned Dream with the bitter end
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817The only main roster house show of the week was the Smackdown show on 8/20 in Atlantic City. Usos & Dillinger beat Sheamus & Cesaro & Benjamin with Cesaro was pinned after a triple superkick. Anderson pinned Harper with a roll-up. That was a surprise finish since Harper & Rowan haven’t dropped a fall since the Bludgeon Brothers started, and Karl Anderson isn’t exactly high on the protection list. I guess the mentality is that since it wasn’t a tag title match with Rowan injured, that they would just put the face over. Asuka & Naomi & Lana beat Rose & Deville & Vega when Asuka used the Asuka lock on Rose. New Day beat Sanity in a six-man tag when Young was pinned by Woods after the midnight hour. Nakamura retained the U.S. title in a three-way over Hardy and Orton. Orton hit the RKO on Hardy and then Nakamura hit the Kinshasa on Orton and then pinned Hardy. That’s notable because normally you’d have the face (Hardy) have the heel (Orton) beat for the apparent title change when you do the predictable and usual WWE stealing the pin for the heel in a three-way finish. Charlotte Flair beat Carmella with the figure eight to retain the title. Lynch attacked Flair after the match and beat her down. She cut a heel promo, and Charlotte made the babyface comeback to run her off. Styles retained the WWE title over Joe in the main event with the phenomenal forearm.