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2HOMERADIO ARCHIVENEWSLETTER ARCHIVETHE BOARDNEWSUFC NEWSWWE NEWSJAPAN NEWSROH NEWSTNA NEWSMEXICO NEWSINDIE NEWS
3MAY 8, 2018 WRESTLING OBSERVER NEWSLETTER: FALLOUT FROM THE GREATEST ROYAL RUMBLE
4BY OBSERVER STAFF | STAFF@WRESTLINGOBSERVER.COM | @WONF4W
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6Wrestling Observer Newsletter
7
8PO Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228 ISSN10839593 May 7, 2018
9
10 
11
12WWE GREATEST ROYAL RUMBLE
13
14Thumbs up 40 (20.5%)
15
16Thumbs down 106 (54.4%)
17
18In the middle 49 (25.1%)
19
20 
21
22BEST MATCH POLL
23
24IC title ladder match 101
25
26A.J. Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura 45
27
28Royal Rumble 32
29
30 
31
32WORST MATCH POLL
33
34Jeff Hardy vs. Jinder Mahal 68
35
36Harper & Rowan vs. Usos 36
37
38Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns 32
39
40Undertaker vs. Rusev 24
41
42Wyatt & Matt Hardy vs. Sheamus & Cesaro 14
43
44Royal Rumble 13
45
46 
47
48NEW JAPAN HI NO KUNI
49
50Thumbs up 15 (26.3%)
51
52Thumbs down 8 (14.0%)
53
54In the middle 34 (59.6%)
55
56 
57
58BEST MATCH POLL
59
60Evil & Sanada vs. Archer & Smith Jr. 28
61
62Tetsuya Naito vs. Minoru Suzuki 25
63
64 
65
66WORST MATCH POLL
67
68Liger & Tiger Mask & Taguchi & Finlay vs.
69
70Sho & Yoh & Romero & White 30
71
72Bushi vs. Desperado 21
73
74Based on phone calls and e-mails to the Observer as of Tuesday, 5/1.
75
76 
77
78The most controversial event WWE has ever put on, essentially a paid propaganda piece by the Saudi Arabian government called the Greatest Royal Rumble, took place on 4/27.
79
80It was like no other show in pro wrestling history, as even the closest comparison, a 1995 New Japan show in Pyongyang, North Korea didn’t feature weeks of promotion praising the country and the commentary for the show wasn’t largely praising the forward thinking of the rulers of the country. One can certainly criticize both events or the ruling parties in both countries, let alone the ground rules involved in both shows. But any real comparison ends when comparing the promotion and the commentary of the two events. Both events used pro wrestling to gain publicity for the country and send a message, but only one of the shows featured constant commentary praising the rulers of the country.
81
82There were different controversies. The one that got the most attention of wrestling fans seemed to be running a show without any women’s matches.
83
84That isn’t to say it isn’t a significant issue. WWE proclaims itself as a champion for women’s empowerment. Just days after the event, WWE jumped on the TeamSheis movement in encouraging women to participate in sports past the age of 13, while they had just participated n an event that banned not just their women performers, but all of their women, from having any involvement.
85
86It wasn’t just Ronda Rousey and Charlotte Flair not being booked on a show, but it was Renee Young not being allowed to do backstage interviews, and Stephanie McMahon and Michelle Wilson not being on the trip nor invited to the lavish dinner the night before hosted by Turki Al Sheikh, the Chairman of the Saudi Arabian General Authority of Sport, which brought the company in, with other top stars and family members like Vince McMahon, Brock Lesnar (but not Paul Heyman), Undertaker, Paul Levesque, Shane McMahon, Kurt Angle, Braun Strowman, Mark Henry and Great Khali.
87
88Levesque, before the show, defended it by saying, “I understand people are questioning it, but you have to understand that every culture is different and just because you don’t agree with a certain aspect of it, it doesn’t mean it’s not a relevant culture. You can’t dictate to a country or a religion about how they handle things, but having said that, WWE is at the forefront of a women’s evolution in the world and what you can’t do is affect change anywhere by staying away from it. While, right now, women are not competing in the event, we have had discussions about that and we believe and hope that in the next few years, they will be. That is a significant cultural shift in Saudi Arabia. The country is in the middle of a shift in how it is dealing with that–the position is changing, and rights are changing, as are the way women are handled and treated in society. We think that’s a great thing and we’re excited to be at the forefront of that change.”
89
90First off, whatever changes are in the midst of happening, or will happen, are not going to be because WWE comes and pushes change. If that change does happen, WWE will take credit for it, but that’s a different issue, so there is future public relations value in this, but they are pawns in this game being paid to be used, and not the ones pressuring for social reform.
91
92They’ve already shown that as they have promoted like crazy the Sasha Banks vs. Alexa Bliss match in Abu Dhabi in December as some sort of a cultural groundbreaking event (even though the reality was in 2010 TNA had already had a women’s tag team match on a show in that country and WWE ran 11 shows in Abu Dhabi between those dates without any women’s matches). They’ve pushed the very light chant of “This is hope” during that match by a few fans for all it was worth and then some, in their own business presentations about being in the forefront of a women’s revolution.
93
94If anything, what speeds up changes is when large business use their economic influence on governments by not participating that pressures changes. And quite frankly, WWE is hardly a significant enough business to exert that kind of pressure either, so that would make no difference.
95
96Women are getting more rights in Saudi Arabia. They have just been allowed the right to vote and the right to drive over the past year. They were able to attend this show when not being able to attend previous WWE events, nor any sports or entertainment events of this type until the ban was lifted for recent soccer games.
97
98There is some dispute as to actually what was allowed. From readers in the country, some have said, and this is backed up by media reports on the show, that women were only allowed to attend as part of families with a male family chaperone, and not on their own. That has been disputed by some. There was segregated seating, as single men were limited to where they could sit.
99
100But there are two separate issues. One is doing the show, which quite frankly, is one that is a Johnny Come Lately issue. WWE has been running shows all over the world, and like with boxing and MMA, some countries pay for them to come. WWE has run nine shows since 2014 in Saudi Arabia, none with women, and it was only because this show was promoted as a major event that there was any questioning that.
101
102WWE stars praised Abu Dhabi when the country bought and paid for shows in recent years, although nothing at the level of this past week. For years they’ve run those shows without women performers, because that is the custom. It was notable at the time when Abu Dhabi had banned WWE from bringing its women, that UFC, which had a ten percent ownership stake purchased by the Abu Dhabi government for $175 million, was able to bring its women, the ring girls (this was in both 2010 and early 2014) both back in as part of their presentation, and they dressed far more skimpily than WWE performers. In 2010, they did not promote women’s fights. In 2014, they did, but many shows didn’t have them, nor did this one.
103
104Details aren’t known as to why Abu Dhabi allowed ring card girls dressed in their usual attire back in 2010, and allowed Impact to feature women wrestlers in 2010, but WWE didn’t bring women performers, and made them dress differently when they did, until the end of 2017.
105
106Obviously UFC was stronger in backing up the traditional complete show than WWE was in discussions about doing a show. And at the time, while WWE had women performers, they didn’t until recent years promote them as heavily, nor promote themselves as heavily for giving them more of a spotlight, which is why this became a hotter issue this time out.
107
108But many sports come to these countries. But if the NBA or NFL or anyone else had a game in Saudi Arabia, there would likely be some controversy to having the event, but they would be excoriated for turning it into a week-long propaganda piece for this specific government.
109
110I’m not exactly sure why people think treating women as second-class citizens is somehow different from having specific laws and customs that treat minorities as such, because if you substitute people from minority groups or from certain ethnicities in place of women, and said they would not be allowed to perform, or even attend without a chaperone, the reaction would be to find this far more difficult to defend.
111
112After they left the country, the local authorities publicly threw WWE under the bus. During the broadcast of the show and on the screens in the stadium, they played a commercial for Backlash. It was the one played all over the world to promote the show with the performers lip syncing music, and it showed Carmella and Sasha Banks in their usual wrestling attire.
113
114When the scene of Carmella in the tight Baywatch one-piece bathing suit aired, there was a legitimate and significant pop from the males in the crowd. Keep in mind that days earlier, the progressive government had just shut down a health club because a video played in it showing a woman working out on a treadmill in what we would call workout clothes. Those fans had likely never seen Carmella nor would they have knowledge of WWE female performers because they are all edited off the television broadcasts in that country.
115
116The live television coverage of the event immediately went dark at that point.
117
118The next morning, the General Sport Authority released a statement: “The General Sport Authority would like to apologize to the viewers and attendees of last night’s WWE event that took place in Jeddah, over the incident scene involving women that appeared as an ad before a segment. It would like to confirm its total disapproval of this, in the shadow of its commitment to eliminate anything that goes against the communities values. The authority has made sure to ban showing of any segment that involves women wrestling or any scenes related to it, and stipulated that to WWE. The authority also disapproved any promotional material with pictures or videos showing women in an indecent way, and emphasized on a commitment to this rule. And it’s a commitment that the authority will be continuously vigilant about (another translation of this said “commit to forever”) throughout all its different activities and events.”
119
120That didn’t sound all that promising for the idea that WWE is influencing them to change down the line.
121
122WWE wouldn’t respond to that, and really couldn’t. While the amount has not been made clear, this is a huge dollar amount for WWE to put itself in this position. The presentation of the event itself was said to be far more profitable for the company than WrestleMania was this year, which is why they used a number of stars that weren’t even used on WrestleMania.
123
124The plan is to do another show in Riyadh in November. They have a ten-year deal with Saudi Arabia that is worth a huge amount of money for multiple major shows each year. They aren’t about to respond and risk that kind of money in the deal. And they aren’t going to be the ones to make demands on the people paying them that kind of money to bring about change.
125
126Vince McMahon has a saying he’s told to those in his inner circle when questioned about why he deals with certain people, and it’s that to run this business, sometimes you have to eat shit. With the money involved, even being thrown under the bus by the hosts, and making the idea you are involved in precipitating change a mockery, sometimes you just have to take it.
127
128While WWE was talking about progression in the country, the reality was very different. From April 17 to April 19, 2014, Sami Zayn, a Canadian who comes from Syrian heritage, wrestled in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia for three straight nights. At the time, he wasn’t even a main roster member because they wanted to use him as a Middle Eastern star. In 2018, he was not allowed to wrestle in the same country. Folks, that is not progress. That is going backwards.
129
130The Zayn situation was kept secret before and during the show. He himself had known about it for about a week, as he was told he was doing an injury angle on the 4/23 Raw show to explain him not being on the show as advertised. He was not told why he wasn’t on the show. To the best of our knowledge and based on what he’s said to others privately, he still hasn’t been told and has claimed he has no explanation. There was a directive that nobody could speak on that issue until after the show, to avoid controversy that the company had now also been told a performer couldn’t come because of his ethnicity. All the announcers and others were given a handbook of sorts with all kinds of rules, mostly of customs and things to avoid doing (such as never blow off a handshake to anyone because they will take it as an insult and you don’t want to insult the wrong person), and one of the directives was to never mention anything about Zayn, and obviously not a word was said on the broadcast about the women either.
131
132Every culture is different. There is the argument that when going into someone else’s country, you have to respect their culture. That goes for the WWE in every country they perform in.
133
134There was a famous pro wrestling story from around 1968 involving Billy Robinson and Peter Maivia, which led to a famous fight. Maivia, who was Samoan, would eat with his hands. Robinson, from a different culture, found that barbaric and disgusting, and given his aggressive nature, wasn’t quiet about it either. But there was nothing inherently wrong. What was disgusting to Robinson was perfectly normal to Maivia.
135
136Discrimination, whether it be based on sex, sexual persuasion or race in laws does not fit into that category.
137
138If WWE had worked out a deal where Renee Young or Dasha Fuentes would be allowed to work backstage, to do their jobs and have it not part of the television show in that country, that’s a baby step. It’s still wrong, but it would be a step. That didn’t happen.
139
140It appeared WWE tried to throw its female performers a bone by putting them in the main event segment on both the 4/23 Raw and the 5/1 Smackdown show. Some tried to argue that the company should have put on an all-women’s show over the weekend. To me, that was silly. If WWE ran a country that wouldn’t allow anyone of European ancestry or Japanese ancestry or African-American ancestry to perform, that is the equivalent. If they agreed to those terms and didn’t bring them to a show, but then did an all-European or all-Japanese or all African-American house show over the weekend, that doesn’t make it better and actually in some ways makes it feel even worse.
141
142There was a story that was going around that WWE would be paying all the women performers for the show even though they weren’t allowed to be on it. This was culled from something said on a podcast by Jerry Lawler, and PW Insider reported they had it independently confirmed.
143
144The only thing we know is that none of the women performers knew anything about this and the word going around is that it was denied when asked about. It would make for a good public relations move to do so, but given how WWE likes to promote those types of things, the fact the company itself hasn’t patted itself on the back for doing so also seems to indicate it hasn’t been done. In fairness, whatever bonus money, if there is any, that anyone was to get for working the show would be in checks that haven’t come out yet anyway. The only ones who would know what they were being paid for the show would be the characters with the unique contracts, or no contracts, like Undertaker, Lesnar, Khali, Chris Jericho and Rey Mysterio types. WWE traditionally pays based on the gate, but the gate itself was minimal, since most of the tickets sold were $2.67 to $5.34, and who even knows how much was legitimately paid, given the $80 seats up close were all given to friends of the ruling party. WWE likely saw none of it, only the money based on a ten-year contract.
145
146Some people have attempted to defend the treatment of women, and even worse, of gays, in Saudi Arabia based on the fact that in the past, the U.S. has had tons of racial discrimination. And that’s true, but a horrible defense. The irony is the defenses being used, the women are happy there how they are treated, you can’t force your rules on others, were the same arguments used by slave owners when the North was trying to ban slavery before the Civil War. And they were used in the 50s and 60s by people who were trying to defend the rights of colleges to not admit African-American students, Jim Crow laws and segregated public facilities. That was the ugly part of this story, the same ugly defenses, “they (insert group being discriminated against) are happy this way. They want it this way. You can’t push your values on us.” There were slave owners that were likely kind-hearted people who treated them well, and slaves who were happy with their lot in life working for those owners who didn’t want anything to change because it was the life they knew. That is not a defense in the least for allowing slavery to continue.
147
148It’s not WWE’s job to push change unless they feel for moral reasons that they need to. Morality has never been a strong suit, or even a below average suit, in all but a few wrestling companies historically. And they can make a statement if they want to. They could refuse to do shows unless all of their athletes are allowed to perform, and not just the ones born with the right sex and whose ancestors didn’t come from the wrong country. I’m not advocating they do this. That is up to them. If you have a value structure and believe they shouldn’t, you certainly have the right to that opinion. But when you cross the line from not standing up for change to praising people and doing propaganda for people who are propagating similar values as the ugliness of our country 60 years ago, that’s a different line. Luckily for WWE, by flying under the radar and being wrestling, they are the one major sort of sports entity that can take the money, do the bidding of these people, and for the most part, not be held accountable for it.
149
150When UFC did its shows in Abu Dhabi, the announcers called the shows just like any other. When the WWE does television in the U.K., aside from some silly cultural things that phone booths on the stage and certain scripted interviews, they don’t use the time as an propaganda piece for the logical government.
151
152For whatever reason, probably my just hearing the story at the same time this was going on, but a story about Bruno Sammartino fits into this discussion.
153
154In 1961, Sammartino had befriended an African-American bodybuilder turned wrestler named Art Thomas, who was already a big drawing card in the Midwest as Sailor Art Thomas. They often teamed, and since both liked to train, traveled together. Sammartino was already a name wrestler in the Northeast and a legitimate star, but not the level of star he would be in a few years.
155
156They went together to what was Sammartino’s favorite restaurant. When they came in, the people at the restaurant, who knew him by name, said, “Bruno, we don’t serve” and followed with a word not worth repeating. At first Sammartino thought they couldn’t be serious. This was 1961 and this wasn’t the South. Sammartino responded that he didn’t think that joke was particularly funny. Then he was told it wasn’t a joke. But, since he was Sammartino’s friend, and they liked him, Sammartino could order him a meal and bring it to him in the car. Sammartino left. He never went back. Ever.
157
158You could argue baby steps. They were willing to cook the meal. And the fact is, a few years later, they obviously would have served Thomas. That’s not that they progressed, it’s that if they didn’t, they wouldn’t have been able to stay in business.
159
160This is not exactly the same thing. If that restaurant would have offered Sammartino money to do a television commercial, not about their food, and he clearly loved the food, but about how wonderful and progressive the management of the restaurant was, and he took it, that would be the same thing. “Look, things are getting better. Baby steps.”
161
162I have no idea what a struggling Sammartino would have done in 1961 under those circumstances. If you asked him later, which nobody did, I’m pretty sure I know what he’d say. But decisions are different when you are broke and need the money and when you aren’t. As far as what a non-struggling Sammartino would have done in 1971 or 1981, I’m pretty much certain of that answer.
163
164The Greatest Royal Rumble was, a spectacle like no show this year with the exception of WrestleMania.
165
166From a wrestling standpoint, it was a mixed bag. The crowd, said to be between 47,000 and 50,000 fans (WWE released no number) were loud enough. They didn’t react to certain sequences, like certain square-offs that would have gotten big reactions to a European or North American audience. They were also less into most submissions, although did react to some. But overall, they were a good reacting crowd, especially since the show went five hours and was outdoors.
167
168Brock Lesnar retained the Universal title in a cage match over Roman Reigns. The idea was that Reigns would spear Lesnar through a gimmicked part of the cage and they would tumble to the floor with Lesnar landing first. The idea was that Reigns should have won, but didn’t, a finish that protects the babyface and could lead to a rematch.
169
170Reigns was still opting for yet another rematch on Raw after the match. This program feels like it should have been done at WrestleMania. Dragging it on is just making Reigns come across worse, unless the idea is for him to win and then immediately do a heel turn.
171
172The finish was supposed to be controversial, but Lesnar was supposed to win. When it was over, the announcers called it as it was their expectation, that Reigns tackled Lesnar but Lesnar won because his feet hit the ground first. However, when it was clear Lesnar’s feet didn’t hit the ground first, the next explanation was that Lesnar’s body hit the ground first. Except in Battle Royals and cage matches, bodies hitting the ground has never counted, it’s always been both feet hitting the ground. So the reason finally morphed into the ref blew the call.
173
174Similar to a Royal Rumble where the Rock was supposed to have his feet not hit the floor and win, when left with Big Show, except his feet did hit the floor, they went with the planned winner. The usual WWE rules are the ref is supposed to call it as a shoot, and if there’s a screw-up, well, the finish changes. Obviously in a high profile title match, that rule would be out the window.
175
176Eventually they had ref Chad Patton send out a tweet three days later saying that he blew the call since Reigns’ feet actually did hit first.
177
178Braun Strowman, the other possibility to beat Lesnar, won the 50 man Rumble match, and also set a record for most eliminations. On Raw, he never spoke at all about going after the title.
179
180But for now, they have to get through Backlash, a PPV that Lesnar isn't booked on.
181
182WORLD’S GREATEST ROYAL RUMBLE SCORECARD
183Number in	Number out	Total time	Elim by
1841. Daniel Bryan	48	76:06	Cass
1852. Dolph Ziggler	12	21:44	Angle
1863. Sin Cara	1	1:18	Ziggler
1874. Curtis Axel	2	2:00	Henry
1885. Mark Henry	5	3:27	Bryan/Ziggler
1896. Mike Kanellis	3	:02	Henry
1907. Hiroki Sumi	4	:46	Henry
1918. Viktor	6	:51	Bryan
1929. Kofi Kingston	14	16:34	Elias
19310. Tony Nese	9	7:13	Kingston/Woods
19411. Dash Wilder	7	1:26	Bryan/Hornswoggle
19512. Hornswoggle	8	1:00	Nese
19613. Primo Colon	11	5:10	Angle
19714. Xavier Woods	15	9:56	Elias
19815. Bo Dallas	10	1:34	Angle
19916. Kurt Angle	16	7:59	Elias
20017. Scott Dawson	19	11:44	Roode
20118. Goldust	18	10:04	Roode
20219. Konnor	13	2:25	Elias
20320. Elias	41	34:04	Lashley
20421. Luke Gallows	20	9:16	Mysterio
20522. Rhyno	25	16:22	Strong
20623. Drew Gulak	17	1:47	Knight
20724. Tucker Knight	23	10:08	Big E
20825. Bobby Roode	29	17:44	Corbin
20926. Fandango	21	3:42	Rawley
21027. Chad Gable	24	8:17	Crews
21128. Rey Mysterio	37	20:25	Corbin
21229. Mojo Rawley	27	8:52	Orton
21330. Tyler Breeze	22	:16	Rawley
21431. Big E	33	13:59	Strowman
21532. Karl Anderson	26	4:25	Orton
21633. Apollo Crews	28	3:26	Orton
21734. Roderick Strong	30	3:59	Corbin
21835. Randy Orton	39	10:58	Elias
21936. Heath Slater	34	7:38	Strowman
22037. Babatunde	31	5:53	Strowman
22138. Baron Corbin	38	7:08	Orton
22239. Titus O’Neil	35	4:42	Strowman
22340. Dan Matha	32	2:01	Strowman
22441. Braun Strowman	WINNER	22:14	 
22542. Tye Dillinger	36	:29	Strowman
22643. Curt Hawkins	40	:20	Strowman
22744. Bobby Lashley	45	14:38	Strowman
22845. Great Khali	42	:31	Strowman/Lashley
22946. Kevin Owens	47	10:43	Strowman
23047. Shane McMahon	44	8:07	Strowman
23148. Shelton Benjamin	43	4:23	Jericho
23249. Big Cass	49	7:23	Strowman
23350. Chris Jericho	46	3:18	Strowman
234Multiple eliminations: Braun Strowman 13, Elias 5, Randy Orton 4, Baron Corbin 3, Daniel Bryan 3, Mark Henry 3, Kurt Angle 3, Dolph Ziggler 2, Bobby Roode 2, Mojo Rawley 2, Bobby Lashley 2
235 
236
237ROYAL RUMBLE RECORDS:
238
239 
240
241*The 77:17 minute long match is likely the longest match in WWE history. If you consider the gauntlet match on the 2/19 Raw as one match it was 106:55, which would be the longest, but that was really a series of matches. There was an August 22, 1964, match in Madison Square Garden with Bruno Sammartino vs. Waldo Von Erich for the WWWF title that is listed as being an 81:00 draw, ending with the 11 p.m. curfew that they had at the time. But they routinely exaggerated times for long matches in that era and more than likely this match was actually longer. There is no record of a legitimate time for that match.
242
243*Braun Strowman set the record for most eliminations in a match with 13. The old record was held by Roman Reigns in 2014 with 12.
244
245*Daniel Bryan’s 76:06 in broke the all-time record for time in the Rumble match and probably time in any match, depending on the length of the Sammartino vs. Von Erich match. The old Royal Rumble record was held by Rey Mysterio in 2006 at 62:12.
246
247*Chris Jericho extended his record for most cumulative career time in the Royal Rumble, now at 5:01:30. Rey Mysterio moved to third place with 3:49:50. Randy Orton moved to sixth place at 3:12:38.
248
249*Mike Kanellis at :02 tied Warlord and Sheamus for second place for shortest time in, with Santino Marella in 2009 holding the record at :01.
250
251*Randy Orton moved to ninth place in career eliminations with 26. Braun Strowman is now in 11th place with 24, even though he’s only been in three Rumbles.
252
253*Chris Jericho, Kofi Kingston and Dolph Ziggler all moved into a tie for fifth place for most Royal Rumble matches with 11
254
255It’s not even clear when Lesnar’s next show will be, although the best bet is the 6/17 Money in the Bank show from Chicago. Currently Lesnar isn’t under contract for SummerSlam, although that could always change.
256
257 
258
259At this point, if Lesnar doesn’t put himself into the USADA testing pool, he wouldn’t be able to fight in UFC for the November show in Madison Square Garden. The expectation was for Lesnar to face the winner of the 7/7 fight with Stipe Miocic vs. Daniel Cormier, in a heavyweight title match, on 12/29 in Las Vegas. The key is that if he is not in the testing pool by 6/29, the entire Lesnar to UFC stuff seems like a bluff worked to get a better contract from WWE. It’s not like this game hasn’t been played multiple times before, including this year. If he is fighting on 12/29, it makes no sense for him to not take any singular big paydays for wrestling at least through the end of August. There’s no reason not to sign a singular event deal for SummerSlam. If he can get out of WWE doing only one job, that would have to be the title loss. You’d think from a WWE standpoint you’d want two, the title loss, and one more to either pay back Reigns (if he’s losing to someone else) or to give a career boost of credibility to someone else (presumably Strowman, if he is giving the title to Reigns).
260
261There was a lot surrounding the event. Some wrestlers were brought in early to do public appearances and spread the word about how great things were. There were people working on setting up the stadium for weeks, which led to people in the company being furious at this being called “a glorified house show,” when it was anything but.
262
263Most flew in anywhere from 15 to 20 hours, more with layovers, were at the gorgeous host hotel and ate great food, and then went to work, and then flew home.
264
265If some stuff seemed weird, like the appearance out of nowhere of Sumi Hiroki, a recently retired large sumo, it’s because it was.
266
267The people who brought WWE in were clearly not up to speed on wrestling. They asked for certain names to be brought in, like Undertaker, Yokozuna and Ultimate Warrior. There was a request to bring in the announcers with the crown and the black hat, which explains the original announcement that Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler would be calling the show. But WWE changed that late in the game to having Ross and Lawler do the pregame show with Booker T, and go with Michael Cole, Corey Graves and Byron Saxton doing the play-by-play. The announcers were in a no-win situation, and it was probably the poorest announcing performance in recent memory. It was clear all three were afraid to say something wrong and nobody felt comfortable. They had a few interesting moments between the weird title match finish that they were trying to explain and giving one different explanation after another, and the crazy Titus O’Neil Rumble entrance where he accidentally tripped when he was running down the ramp and his foot caught the mat on the floor, and he fell forward and slid on his belly and ended up under the ring.
268
269Graves seemed to have some remorse or second thoughts. He made a few cryptic comments that seemed like he was having issues with what had happened. There was already heat on him over those remarks before he posted “A drink to remember that no matter how bad WE think we have it, at least our women have rights and we all have freedom of expression.”
270
271In actuality, the funny thing is, perhaps one of the most striking differences between this show and the North Korea show it was compared with was freedom of expression. It was no secret coming back from North Korea what a lot of the Americans felt, and the descriptions of doing that show were actually spookier than this show. But this show was far more offensive in presentation because there was no subtly about what it was. But it was made very clear that nobody was allowed to publicly say anything. It was noted to us that his feelings were understandable but that his statements should have only been made privately. There were also people noting that he’s more replaceable than he thinks he is. I received a number of private messages that ranged from it was what it was and it wasn’t so bad and the food was really great, to some frustrated about it and making clear everyone knew saying anything about such a big deal would not be taken well. Graves was the only one to even make a read-between-the-lines remark.
272
273While not confirmed, although this was the assumption within the company among those who were told about the Yokozuna and Warrior comment and the bringing in of a huge sumo, that getting a big sumo was because they couldn’t give the people paying for the show Yokozuna, so they’d bring in a sumo as the closest thing.
274
275Signs were confiscated by authorities leading into the show.
276
277A second somewhat controversial situation was a Saudi Arabia vs. Iran angle where Ariya Daivari, and older brother Shawn, came out to the most heat of the show waving the Iranian flag. In the ring were four men who were billed as being Saudi Arabian trainees who eventually ran off the Iranians. Three were, while the fourth, the one with the largest speaking role, was a California wrestler of Saudi descent, Mansoor Al-Shehail, who wrestles independently under the name Manny Faberino.
278
279There were a lot of people in Saudi Arabia mad that an Iranian flag was being waved at an event in the country. I would presume this angle was cleared ahead of time because I can’t believe it wouldn’t be, but it was significantly criticized in local media but I don’t believe the government itself said anything.
280
281Ariya Daivari ended up getting death threats and wrote, “During an appearance this past Friday, I portrayed a fictional character and played the role of the antagonist, no different than what other actors would do in a movie or TV show. That character does not reflect my personal viewers and I apologize to anyone that may have been offended by the skit. I have an incredible amount of respect for the great people of Iran and I am very proud of my Iranian heritage.”
282
283As far as questions regarding others besides Sami Zayn who weren’t there. Big Show suffered a setback in his training about three weeks ago and wasn’t ready, even for light Battle Royal duty. Drew McIntyre’s main roster call-up was decided upon so late in the game that it was too late for him to get a visa to appear. That also tells you how far back they must have decided upon Tucker Knight, Babatunde Aiyegbusi and Dan Matha to be on the show.
284
285There is a feeling by Vince McMahon that in foreign countries and with the media and non-wrestling fans, they are in awe of great size. This goes to media events where they will trot out the biggest guys ahead of the biggest stars, and foreign markets. So those were three big guys, along with bringing back people like Great Khali and Mark Henry.
286
287They also used Roderick Strong from NXT, whose work was the most crisp of anyone in the Rumble, particularly when he squared off with Daniel Bryan. Bryan entered at No. 1 and ended up in the final three along with Strowman and Big Cass. He was eliminated by Cass to help build up their singles match at Backlash, after lasting 76:06, which is likely the longest any wrestler has ever worked in a one WWE show or match.
288
289Hiroki Sumi, who debuted and may never come back, and was quickly eliminated by Mark Henry, is a 28 year old sumo who is 6-foot-4 and usually competed at about 430 pounds (in one 2013 tournament he weighed in at 442 pounds). His sumo name was Hishofuji Hiroki. He competed in sumo from 2005 and retired in January 2017 with a 234-197 record.
290
291In the end, there was only one title change, an obvious one since Bray Wyatt & Matt Hardy had to win the vacant Raw tag team titles, beating Sheamus & Cesaro, who were Smackdown bound.
292
293The 50 man Rumble was the longest Rumble in history, and could be considered the longest match in WWE history, lasting 77:17.
294
295The second major singles title match saw WWE champion A.J. Styles go to a double count out with Shinsuke Nakamura. This actual match itself was slightly better than their WrestleMania match, but the finish ended it on a flat note. This leads to a no DQ match at Backlash, which would be all well and good except the finish wasn’t a DQ.
296
297The show-stealing match was a ladder match for the IC title with Seth Rollins winning over Samoa Joe, The Miz and Finn Balor. Balor was climbing the ladder when Rollins springboarded the ropes onto a high step of the ladder and grabbed the belt. In pulling down the belt, a metal part of the belt accidentally nailed Balor in the eye and he was bleeding badly.
298
299Backlash, on 5/6 at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ, has Reigns vs. Samoa Joe, Styles defending the WWE title against Nakamura in a no DQ match, Bryan vs. Cass, Strowman & Bobby Lashley vs. Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn, Seth Rollins vs. The Miz for the IC title, Jeff Hardy vs. Randy Orton for the U.S. title, Nia Jax vs. Alexa Bliss for the Raw women’s title and Carmella vs. Charlotte Flair for the Smackdown women’s title. Not announced, but an angle was shot for Cedric Alexander vs. Buddy Murphy for the cruiserweight title, which could be added late.
300
3011. John Cena pinned HHH in 15:44. This was a basic match between the two. It was kind of slow. The crowd knew both guys and reacted well, but the match really had no intensity. A big move was Cena coming off the top, HHH stepping back, and catching him with a power bomb. There was a lot of punch trading, which got a good reaction. HHH kicked out of an Attitude Adjustment. Cena’s right arm was all bruised up. Cena kicked out of a Pedigree. Cena used the STF a few times and this crowd was not into submissions. Cena hit a second Attitude Adjustment, then did a slingshot into the corner and hit a third one for the pin. Cena cut a promo putting over the country, and then noted that “Regardless of what’s going on in my universe (presumably acknowledging his breakup with Nikki Bella), I wasn’t going to miss this for anything in the world.” **3/4
302
3032. Cedric Alexander retained the cruiserweight title over Kalisto in 10:12. Both had their working shoes on here. Kalisto did a springboard off the middle rope, jumping over the top rope with a flip dive. It was funny in a bad way watching these guys work hard and the VIP’s at ringside were just walking around with their backs to the ring paying no attention o these guys. Alexander did a running flip dive and as perfectly timed a high dropkick as you’ll see. Kalisto did a Spanish fly off the top rope for a near fall. Kalisto escaped a lumber check, went for the Salida del Sol, but Alexander reversed into a lumbar check for the pin. ***½
304
3053. Matt Hardy & Bray Wyatt beat Sheamus & Cesaro for the vacant Raw tag team titles in 8:50. The worked over Hardy to set up Wyatt’s hot tag. The heels took control and did a double-team white noise on Wyatt but Hardy saved. Sheamus was about to do the brogue kick on Wyatt, but Wyatt did the crab walk and Sheamus froze. Sheamus then missed the brogue kick. Wyatt hit Sister Abigail on Sheamus and then they did a double-team twist of fate on him for te pin. **
306
3074. Jeff Hardy pinned Jinder Mahal to retain the U.S. title in 6:09. This was bad. The low light was Hardy going for a whisper in the wind and completely missing, and Mahal then selling it. The announcers then made it worse, by first calling it like he hit it, then for their own credibility, Corey Graves admitted that it missed and tried to explain perhaps it was the wind that put Mahal down. Sunil Singh interfered and Mahal went for the Khallas and tried to use the trunks. Hardy escaped and hit the twist of fate and swanton. ½*
308
309Chris Jericho did an interview with Mike Rome, claiming he was really Tom Phillips and lying about it. He then did the list to zero reaction. This was because in the stadium, they weren’t watching this because it was prayer time. Daniel Bryan also did a promo and put over Saudi Arabia.
310
3115. Luke Harper & Erick Rowan beat the Usos to retain the Smackdown tag titles in 5:08. This was all action but they were given no time. Rowan and Harper missed charges and both went over the top rope. Jimmy hot tagged and did a running dive on Harper, and then a second one on the other side of the ring on Rowan. The Usos did double superkicks on both and Jey did a splash off the top on Harper, who kicked out. The finish saw Harper & Rowan do a double-team power bomb on Jimmy and Harper pinned him. **
312
3136. Seth Rollins retained the IC title in a ladder match over Samoa Joe, The Miz and Finn Balor in 14:32. Great match. Rollins opened with a dive on Balor and another on Miz. Miz and Rollins drove a ladder into Joe. Balor did a running flip dive. Rollins and Balor were climbing and Joe and Miz pushed over the ladder. Joe almost got killed when the ladder tipped over. Joe slammed Balor on the ladder. By the end of this match, Balor was all bruised up. The spot was supposed to be something different but the ladder in the corner fell down so Joe had to improvise and did so without wasting even a split second. Most wrestlers would have to pause and think of what to do while Joe just reacted like he’s in a match and not following a set up series of moves. Joe hip tossed Rollins into the ladder. There was a tower of doom spot as Rollins went to superplex Balor and Joe got underneath and power bombed Rollins as he threw Balor. Miz hit the Skull crushing finale on Joe. Balor did the coup de grace on Miz while Miz was laying on the ladder. Miz rolled to the floor. Balor was climbing but Joe pulled him off with a choke. Balor escaped the choke and hit a double foot stomp on Joe. Balor went up climbing. Rollins did a springboard onto the ladder and just beat Balor in getting the belt. Balor was bleeding badly from the right eye when Rollins pulled down the belt and one of the metal plates hit Balor in the eye. ***3/4
314
315They showed clips of the WWE tryouts held that week. No women were allowed in that as well. Originally the best guy in the tryout was to be added to the Rumble. But it worked out better here. They had four guys, named Nassar, Hussein, Monsoor (this was the U.S. independent wrestler) and Fisal. Fisal got a big reaction because he was from Jeddah. The Daivari Brothers came out waving the Iranian flag to super heat. Ariya pushed Monsoor, who shoved him back. Fisal kicked Shawn in the head. Nassar body slammed Shawn. Hussein threw Shawn over the top rope. Vince McMahon himself used to say that you would never exploit a current war in a storyline, but he violated that himself in 1991, and did this as well. But it did get the loudest reaction of the show.
316
3177. A.J. Styles double count out Shinsuke Nakamura to retain the WWE title in 14:27. These guys were working at a higher level than their WrestleMania match, although nowhere close to their Tokyo Dome match. The negative was the crowd was paying no attention to this match. They were doing the wave. They were reacting to things in the crowd. You could see people at ringside paying no attention, and granted there was that to a degree in most of the matches but it was more noticeable here than the crowd reaction had nothing to do with what was going on in the ring. Nakamura did a kneedrop on the apron. Nakamura set up the Kinshasa, but when he ran in, Styles sidestepped him and cradled him. Styles got the calf crusher and Nakamura made the ropes. This got a better reaction than any of the submissions earlier in the show. Nakamura hit an enzuigiri and went for an armbar. Styles escaped with a Pele kick. Styles went for the phenomenal forearm but Nakamura moved and distracted the ref. Nakamura hit Styles with a low blow but Styles got his foot on the ropes. Nakamura went for the Kinshasa but Styles nailed him with a flying forearm. Nakamura rolled to the floor. Styles tackled him over the announcers table and both were counted out. The finish was just a way to get out of the match and a double count out doesn’t even build a no DQ so you can’t say the finish was necessary for the direction of the program. They brawled after the match and Styles hit Nakamura with a chair and did a plancha into a forearm on the floor. ***1/4
318
3198. Undertaker beat Rusev in a casket match in 9:37. The crowd was really into Undertaker when he came out. Undertaker was decent here. Basically he was good enough to get by, but not good enough to have anything more than an average match. He did a leg drop on the apron and tried to put Rusev in the casket but Aiden English blocked Undertaker from closing the casket. Undertaker went after English. The heat was killed when it was clear Undertaker couldn’t chase English. Rusev got him from behind and put him in the accolade. Undertaker got up out of it. They traded punches and Undertaker choke slammed him and threw Rusev into the casket. Undertaker then gave English a choke slam and a tombstone piledriver. Rusev just laid their motionless for far too long after one choke slam. It was silly. Undertaker rolled English into the casket as well and shut the lid for the win. **
320
3219. Brock Lesnar beat Roman Reigns to retain the Universal title in a cage match in 9:14. This was a continuation of their WrestleMania match of big moves. The only difference is this crowd wasn’t bound and determined to hate and ruin the match like the New Orleans crowd. But this crowd didn’t care about them that much either. There’s a thing today where fans who often don’t get it complain about finishes being used too often in matches that get incredible reactions. What works works and anyone who tells you rules about doing wrestling that are strict and have no variation doesn’t know wrestling, because every crowd is different and every day is different and the business constantly changes. That said, these two have greatly overdone their finishes because these matches of only doing the big moves over-and-over has led to no reaction to the moves. Reigns got a flat reaction coming out. Not heavy boos or cheers. Kind of more apathy which is exactly what you don’t want. Lesnar came out and hit four German suplexes and an F-5 for a near fall. Reigns hit two Superman punches. Lesnar was climbing and Reigns power bombed him off the corner. Reigns then hit three spears and lesnar kicked out. Reigns went to escape and Paul Heyman slammed the cage door on his head. Lesnar hit an F-5 and Reigns kicked out again. Heyman threw a chair into the cage. Reign s hit another spear and Lesnar kicked out. Reigns hit Lesnar with four chair shots, hit the Superman punch and then speared Lesnar through the cage and they both hit the floor. The bell rang and it was ruled Lesnar won because his feet hit the floor first, even though it was clear his feet never hit the floor and Reigns had one leg that did. Then Reigns other foot did. Then the announcers tried to make sense of this, and talked in circles. *
322
3231. Braun Strowman won the 50 man Royal Rumble in 77:17. The match opened with Daniel Bryan vs. Dolph Ziggler. Sin Cara entered at 1:49. Ziggler clotheslined Sin Cara over the top to make him the first guy out. Curtis Axel entered at 3:49. Mark Henry entered at 5:29. Henry head-butted Axel who went over the top rope. Mike Kanellis, who looked in his best shape since coming to WWE, got in at 6:44, and Henry clotheslined him over the top at 6:46. Hiroki Sumi came in at 8:07. He was in sumo garb except with shorts on. Henry and Sumi squared off with the idea you’re seeing two monsters, but nobody reacted to it. Henry threw him out quickly. Ziggler & Bryan then both threw out Henry. Viktor entered at 9:26. Bryan gave Viktor a pump handle and Viktor went over the top rope to be eliminated. This left Bryan and Ziggler in the ring until Kofi Kingston entered at 10:50. Tony Nese was in at 12:07 and Dash Wilder at 13:08 so they were starting to rush guys in. Hornswoggle came to the ring and pulled Wilder at 14:36 out even though Hornswoggle himself hadn’t entered. Then Hornswoggle entered at 14:42. Hornswoggle gave Kingston a Samoan drop. Nese gave Hornswoggle the running knee in the corner and Hornswoggle went over the top and out. Primo Colon was in at 16:14. He slipped off the ropes. Xavier Woods was in at 17:28. Colon backdropped Kingston on to Woods’s shoulders. They were both on the apron trying to keep from being eliminated with Kingston still on Woods’ shoulders. They got in the ring and Kingston and Woods started to dance. Nese was dancing with them and Kingston& Woods threw out Nese. Bo Dallas was in at 19:20 and Kurt Angle at 21:04. Angle was German suplexing everyone. Angle is like Terry Funk in his 50s. He walks to the ring and he can barely walk and then he steps through the ropes and suddenly he’s fine and throwing people everywhere and moving around. Angle threw out Dallas and Colon. He then gave Ziggler a belly-to-belly over the top rope. Scott Dawson came in at 22:35. Goldust, Konnor and Elias were the next three in. Elias then threw out Konnor, Kingston and Woods. Luke Gallows was in at 28:08. Bryan and Angle went at it. This would have been huge in the U.S. but to this crowd it was no big deal and they didn’t react. Elias threw out Angle. They could have played this up on TV but never acknowledged it. Rhyno was in at 29:40 and Drew Gulak followed at 30:49, and then Tucker Knight at 32:00. Michael Cole was putting over Knight big since he wasn’t a main roster guy. He said that Knight at 117 wins in high school and something like 80 in college. The college number at the D-1 level is impressive, and the high school thing is good, but tons of guys have that. Knight threw out Gulak. Knight was picked because he’s a big tall guy, even though his partner is heavier and more charismatic, but not a tall guy. Bobby Roode came in at 33:30. Roode dropkicked Goldust over the top. Roode monkey flipped Dawson. The idea is he would monkey flip Dawson over the top. But they weren’t positioned or Dawson didn’t fly far enough. It didn’t look good, but what made it worse was Graves saying that Dawson eliminated himself. Fandango was in at 33:46 and Chad Gable followed at 35:55. Rey Mysterio was in at 37:10. Mysterio flipped Gallows out of the ring with a head scissors. Mojo Rawley entered at 38:25 and he clotheslined Fandango over the top. Tyler Breeze came out and entered at 39:48,. Breeze jumped into Fandango’s arms and Rawley shoved them both off the apron to the floor. Big E entered at 41:33. He handed Knight some pancakes. Then he eliminated Knight. Karl Anderson entered at 42:47. Mysterio hit a 619 on Roode. Apollo Crews entered at 43:57 and threw out Gable. Roderick Strong entered at 45:19. He went wild hitting a dropkick on Elias, a backbreaker on Mysterio, a stomach block on Big E and a knee that knocked Rhyno over the top. Strong was as impressive as anyone in the match. He was blistering Bryan’s chest with hard chops. Randy Orton entered at 46:47 to a big reaction. Crews went for a moonsault on Orton but Orton caught him with an RKO. Usually Orton has impeccable timing at doing this. This was the time where it wasn’t the case. Orton then threw out Anderson, , Rawley and Crews. Heath Slater entered at 47:24. Babatunde entered at 49:18. Babatunde Aiyegbusi is 6-foot-9 and 375 pounds. Baron Corbin entered at 50:31. Corbin threw out Roode and then Strong. Next was the Titus O’Neil entrance. After he slid under the ring and they replayed it over and over, and will probably talk about it every week for a long time, he got in at 52:15. Dan Matha entered at 53:16. Matha’s is a tall competition bodybuilder, but now in a drug tested environment he doesn’t look like a bodybuilder any longer. Braun Strowman entered at 55:13 and took over the match. He threw out Babatunde right away. Babatunde was a few inches taller than Strowman but Babatunde doesn’t have a good body and works with a shirt on which will sour him as a monster in Vince’s eyes. He’s more a bigger Brodus Clay, if that as he’s very green, than the next Strowman at this point. Strowman threw out Matha, Big E and Slater. Dillinger entered next. O’Neil then threw out O’Neil and Dillinger. Mysterio hit a 619 on Strowman into an RKO by Orton and a springboard Thesz press by Mysterio. Corbin then punched Mysterio over the top. Mysterio was moving great here. Orton clotheslined Corbin over the top. Elias then threw out Orton seconds later. At this point, only Strowman and Elias were in. Curt Hawkins was next in. He came to the ring and decided to leave before being eliminated. Strowman ran out of the ring, grabbed him, threw him into the ring at 58:55 and then quickly clotheslined him right out. Well, that was the idea as the clothesline mostly missed but Hawkins went over the top anyway. Something happened in the building. It went quiet and you could see people not paying attention to the ring. I figured it was beach balls but then figured they what the penalties probably are for something like that and figured nobody would figure it was worth it. Bobby Lashley was next in at 60:32. They gave him fireworks for his introduction and he was the only one in the match to get that. So somebody likes him. Maybe a guy in the Saudi government saw the WrestleMania and thought he was buddies with Trump. Lashley threw out Elias. Lashley squared off with Strowman but again no real pop. Bryan then started dropkicking everyone in the corner. His chest was unreal beat up. Great Khali was in at 63:46. He was chopping everyone. Everyone was selling him big, even Strowman and Lashley. Kevin Owens was in at 64:42. Shane McMahon was in at 66:16. Fans were into Shane vs. Strowman. But then Shane and Strowman beat up on Owens. Shelton Benjamin was in at 68:10. Everyone then attacked Strowman to eliminate him. Big Cass entered at 69:57. Shane did a coast-to-coast dropkick on Strowman. Chris Jericho entered at 71:58. Jericho hit a codebreaker and eliminated Benjamin. Jericho went after Owens which was played up from their feud from last year. Owens was tapping, but that doesn’t count here. Lashley went to pick Cass up for his delayed suplex. Something went wrong, either Cass didn’t go up right or Lashley lost him and Cass went down. Lashley went to pick him up a second time, and lost him again, but this time when he dropped him it was right on his head like a brainbuster. Cass just laid there and probably was just selling for a while because when he did get up, the wasn’t glassy eyed and seemed fine. Shane went to the top rope and Strowman threw him off the top rope and Shane flew onto the announcers table for the crazy bump of the match. Shane is 48 years old and if he keeps wrestling and keeps doing stuff like this he’s going to get hurt pretty bad. Strowman then followed throwing out Lashley and then Jericho, and then Owens, the latter at the 75:25 mark. This left Bryan, Strowman and Cass. Cass threw out Bryan at 76:06. Cass threw some clotheslines at Strowman but Strowman came back and threw a running tackle that put Cass over the top rope to end the match. The Saudi leaders and Vince McMahon presented Strowman with a trophy and a belt for winning. This was far from the greatest Rumble ever and it didn’t feel like as much time had been put into it from an idea standpoint as the usual Rumbles. It was more predictable and had fewer special moments, but it was a long match that didn’t have the level of slow spots that many Rumbles have. But you can really see who they’ve got plans for and who they don’t because of who went out fast and who got do to the eliminations. ***1/4
324
325Reality somewhat hit New Japan Pro Wrestling as the tickets for the 7/7 show at the Cow Palace in San Francisco not only didn’t sell out immediately, but had a disappointing first day with about 3,300 tickets sold.
326
327With the immediate sellout of the second Long Beach show in a 4,700-seat arena, the idea of moving to a 10,000-seat set up in a new market made sense. But New Japan’s popularity in the U.S. is mostly a Hardcore traveling fan base, and coming back in three months without anything announced as far as something special or even any names, was going to be difficult. There was also no local advertising that I’m aware of, or at least that I saw, which isn’t necessarily a negative because for the prior shows none was necessary with the immediate sellouts. The first doubleheader of shows sold out immediately since it was the first shows in the market. The second show, even coming two weeks before WrestleMania, was nine months later, and specifically advertised all the big names ahead of time.
328
329There was also a Ticketmaster snafu early on where the best seats weren’t available for those who clicked on immediately, but then were available later on. A number of people were able to pull up ringside seats, but then when trying to finalize the orders, got an error message and had to start from scratch and then were unable to get any ringside tickets. I was able to pull up fifth row ringside tickets 70 minutes after they went on sale, even though ticket maps earlier showed the entire floor almost sold out within minutes. While no numbers are available, most of the sections have plenty of tickets available. Some of it may have been a huge increase in prices over the previous shows but a lot is probably the idea that the people who attended Long Beach and WrestleMania week were probably not ready for another wrestling trip. Going head-to-head with UFC’s biggest show of the year didn’t help. There were also 1,000 good seats not put on sale because they were being held back for New Japan Fan Club members in Japan.
330
331San Francisco does have a significant Japanese community but my experience has been that Japanese who have come to the U.S. are not as into the nostalgia of seeing their home flavor of pro wrestling as Mexicans who move to the U.S. are. I never saw an influx of Japanese fans at local events when a star from Japan was brought in, as compared to an influx of American hardcore fans, so while there is probably some benefit to a strong advertising campaign in the Japanese community, it’s not going to be a big difference maker. If there is a killer main event for the IWGP title or a strong match for the IC title, because of how loaded Dominion has to be, it’ll be difficult for it to be announced until after 6/11. And at that point, it’s much harder to draw traveling fans. There may be a few matches announced before that date, but they need an IWGP title defense for a building as large as the Cow Palace, so it means the main event isn’t being announced until after Dominion.
332
333While the seat map would indicate a large portion of the building sold out on the cheaper ticket end, those seats were not put on sale. As of the next morning after tickets went on sale, there were 189 floor tickets still left, and only a few non-ringside sections were sold out. There were about 900 tickets left on the lower level and the top level is largely unsold. In another era, this many tickets sold on the first day for an event two months away with not one name announced would be considered good. But today, and after the success of the first two shows, it’s a disappointment. This is also an era where most people buy tickets on the first day, and even more for a traveling show as compared to a local market show.
334
335New Japan finishes up their tour with two Dontaku shows on 5/3 and 5/4 at the Fukuoka International Center Arena. Fukuoka is usually the toughest crowd when it comes to major cities, and the usual big May show is being split in two.
336
337The 5/4 show, headlined by Kazuchika Okada going for his record 12th IWGP heavyweight title defense in a single reign, against previous record holder Hiroshi Tanahashi, is sold out. The first night is not, and it is a risk to go with Kenny Omega vs. Hangman Page with no title at stake as a big show main event. In the ring, as their first singles meeting, it sounded good on paper, but Page has a groin injury and was very limited this weekend with ROH. We don’t know the severity of it, so they’ve actually got a few handicaps going into the match.
338
339The entire Okada reign, which started nearly two years ago, was built for this climactic match. Okada vs. Tanahashi from 2012 to 2016 ranks with the greatest in-ring programs in pro wrestling, with the changing of the guard from it being Tanahashi as the face of the company to Okada, even if Tetsuya Naito is probably the biggest draw. The two have split their career singles matches, and the last meeting, in the semifinals of the 2016 G-1 tournament, was a 30:00 draw. They have yet to have a singles match that wasn’t excellent, and have had two matches of the year winners, in 2013 and 2016. Only two other match-up has won matches of the year honors in two different years, which was Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Kenta Kobashi, which won in 1998, 1999 and 2003, and Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker in 2009 and 2010.
340
341The actual reason Naito didn’t win the title at the Tokyo Dome was because they wanted to build to this match, which is why it’s so strange it’s here rather than in Osaka for Dominion on 6/11, which is one of the company’s big three events of the year. But with two shows booked in Fukuoka this year, they couldn’t run that without an IWGP title match so that’s how it fell.
342
343Both shows start at 4 a.m. Eastern time on Thursday and Friday morning.
344
345The Thursday card is Yota Tsuji & Shota Umino vs. Chase Owens & Yujiro Takahashi, Ren Narita & Tomoyuki Oka & Yuji Nagata vs. Tiger Mask & Jushin Liger & Ryusuke Taguchi, Sho & Yoh & Rocky Romero vs. Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Takashi Iizuka, Juice Robinson & David Finlay & Togi Makabe & Michael Elgin & Toa Henare vs. Hirooki Goto & Jay White & Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano & Yoshi-Hashi, Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa & Bad Luck Fale defending the Never six man titles against Young Bucks & Marty Scurll, Tetsuya Naito & Evil & Seiya Sanada & Hiromu Takahashi & Bushi vs. Minoru Suzuki & Zack Sabre Jr. & Taichi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Desperado, Tanahashi & Kushida vs. Okada & Will Ospreay, Kota Ibushi vs. Cody and Omega vs. Page.
346
347The Friday card is Liger & Tiger Mask & Taguchi vs. Yuya Uemaru & Narita & Umino, Nagata & Oka vs. Owens & Yujiro Takahashi, Sho & Yoh & Romero vs. Iizuka & Taichi & Michinoku, Makabe & Henare vs. Ishii & Yano, Robinson & Finlay & Elgin vs. Goto & White & Yoshi-Hashi, Naito & Evil & Sanada & Bushi & Hiromu Takahashi vs. Suzuki & Smith Jr. & Archer & Kanemaru & Desperado, Tonga & Loa & Fale & Omega & Ibushi vs. Young Bucks & Cody & Page & Scurll, Kushida vs. Ospreay for the IWGP jr. title and Okada vs. Tanahashi.
348
349PW Insider reported that Chris Jericho would be at one of the two shows to shoot an angle. They reported it would be for Dominion. If that is the case, it’s being kept secret, but at this point it would make far more sense to shoot the angle for the Cow Palace show than for Dominion. We do know that Jericho was contemplating working Dominion as a follow-up for the Tokyo Dome and the angle shot with Tetsuya Naito on 1/5 was originally to either be for Long Beach, which there was no need for since the show sold out instantly, or for Dominion. Jericho has later claimed that he would no longer be working for New Japan because things didn’t work out, but Jericho always tries to keep his comings and goings a secret until he at least shoots the angle.
350
351New Japan Chairman Naoki Sugabyashi talked about the business implications of the two shows this past week. He said that for the company, Tokyo, Osaka and Fukuoka are the key markets in Japan. He said when it comes to Fukuoka, when it comes to drawing power and earnings potential, the company is rivaling its glory period with the Three Musketeers (the mid-90s heyday with Keiji Muto, Shinya Hashimoto and Masahiro Chono as the top stars) era, perhaps even beating it. He said that if they were to sellout both shows (the second show sold out well in advance) there would be real discussion regarding trying the Fukuoka Dome. New Japan has run six shows at the Fukuoka Dome, all the first week of May, in 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997, 2000 and 2001.
352
353When it was brought up that Naito’s goal was for New Japan to run six Dome shows a year, which would be Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, Nagoya, Sapporo and Seibu, Sugabayashi said, “I think you can tell him that we could really run in the Fukuoka Dome or Osaka Dome any time.”
354
355Naito defeated Suzuki to win the IC title on this week’s biggest show, Wrestle Hi No Kuni on 4/29 in at the Gran Messe in Kumamoto.
356
357The show was a disappointment. Everything was fine but nothing clicked at a big level. Some of it was the crowd. They did an advanced sellout of 3,435 fans with Naito going for the title. The crowd was very into the match when it started. They tried to work it similarly to the Okada vs. Suzuki match last February that was a classic match as part of Okada’s run of different style super matches. But it felt lethargic. I think one issue is that Suzuki would do long knee submissions and Naito wouldn’t tap. For whatever reason, the crowd or what, Okada would give you the story of incredible guts fighting to keep the belt. In this match, the story felt more like Suzuki’s big moves weren’t working. It’s one thing when you milk a figure four, which was a classic move of the past but it’s not like an armbar or knee submission or choke that people sense as a real finisher in an MMA-educated fan base. I think the two keys were that Suzuki had a choke on forever, way too long, and Naito never went out, and Naito won with one destino, and if just felt like Suzuki hadn’t taken nearly enough damage for it to be a finish. The match was booked to go 40:00, although they ended it at 30:42 and it was a smart move because it just felt long as opposed to building. There were some great striking exchanges late, and Naito busted up Suzuki’s nose and that visual worked to enhance the match late. The one thing Suzuki losing the title does set up is Okada vs. Suzuki, which has been teased for several months and feels like the most likely Dominion main event. This is just conjecture, but I sense Omega being put on top in a single on the first night of Fukuoka as a way to build an Okada vs. Omega match for the Cow Palace, because they need something at that level to fill a building of that size, and they’ve kept away from that match for a year. Plus, Okada told me specifically he wanted to face Omega in the U.S. this year.
358
359The undercard was the usual fare. Too many of the finishes came too quick and without any real build, so felt flat. There’s the argument over short matches for education and hitting finishers and it’s over to get finishers over and sacrificing a big match at times for this purpose. But this was an entire show, and at no point did the finishes come across like education, and more like they were rushing through to give the main event a ton of time and not do too long of a show. It felt like a house show and not a big show, and really, the Korakuen Hall and Hiroshima shows in the last few weeks were better.
360
361It was really built around two matches, with the other being Evil & Sanada retaining the IWGP tag titles against Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr. This match had a story that usually works big. Archer & Smith did a double team killer bomb on Sanada off the apron, putting him through a thick table. This meant Evil had to fend for himself for several minutes against both big guys. But the crowd never sensed urgency and it didn’t get over as good as it should have.
362
3631. Yuji Nagata & Ren Narita beat Shota Umino & Tomoyuki Oka in 9:41. This was a good opener. Nagata and Umino did a nice exchange early and even better late. Narita and Umino have great dropkicks. It’s fun watching these guys because you pretty much know you’re seeing guys who will be major stars in a few years. Nagata beat Umino after an exploder and the Nagata lock crossface. **3/4
364
3652. Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask & Ryusuke Taguchi & David Finlay beat Sho & Yoh & Rocky Romero & Jay White in 7:18. This was just too fast. Romero went after Tiger Mask’s mask. Sho & Yoh barely got in. Nobody was ready for the finish when Finlay hit the stunner for Romero and got the three count. *3/4
366
3673. Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii beat Togi Makabe & Toa Henare in 7:56. Another match that felt rushed. Yano did his usual taking off the padding in one corner. They had to work hard for a response but did get it. Ishii pinned Henare after a lariat and brainbuster. The problem is after the war Ishii had with Henare last week, this just felt too quick to beat Henare, who came off like a star on the rise last week and just an underneath guy who takes the fall here. **
368
3694. Zack Sabre Jr. & Taka Michinoku & Takashi Iizuka & Taichi beat Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi & Chase Owens & Yujiro Takahashi in 8:51. Just way too short for this talent. Omega & Ibushi did their double middle rope moonsault to the floor and the spot where both do leapfrogs. Sabre made Owens submit to the octopus on the ground with no real build to it. **½
370
3715. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Michael Elgin & Kushida & Juice Robinson beat Kazuchika Okada & Hirooki Goto & Will Ospreay & Yoshi-Hashi in 10:13. Chaos looked like the walking wounded with Goto & Yoshi-Hashi & Ospreay all taped up around their necks and Goto & Yoshi-Hashi also with their shoulders taped up. The focus was Tanahashi vs. Okada. It was good but even with the match and post-match angle, I wasn’t left with the feeling I can’t wait to see the match. A big spot was Okada teasing a tombstone on the ramp, but Tanahashi escaped and used a sling blade on the ramp. Ospreay vs. Kushida was good including Ospreay getting Kushida up in the Bruno Sammartino backbreaker and giving him a spinning slam from there which was really cool. Tanahashi pinned Yoshi-Hashi with the high fly flow. They did some things post-match. Taichi hit Goto with the mic stand but most of it was Okada vs. Tanahashi. Okada had left while Tanahashi’s was still out there talking to fans. Okada blew past and even ran over a photographer to get at Tanahashi. They did a pull-apart brawl, including breaking free. It was good, but far from great. They ended up in the ring and each tried a tombstone piledriver on the other, neither could get it, and then Gedo pulled Okada away. ***
372
3736. Bushi beat Desperado via DQ in 9:58. This was working on being the best match. Bushi did a plancha into a huracanrana. Desperado went after Bushi’s mask. Not much heat. Bushi did a cool looking walking top rope huracanrana. Bushi hit a Canadian Destroyer and a codebreaker when Yoshinobu Kanemaru interfered for the DQ. Hiromu Takahashi made the save, to directly lead to their singles match. **½
374
3757. Hiromu Takahashi pinned Yoshinobu Kanemaru in 11:28. It started fast coming off the previous match. Takahashi did a running dropkick off the apron, but missed a second one and Kanemaru took over. Desperado interfered early,. This was also a good match but while the idea of the finish made sense and it was executed fine, it didn’t really get over. Kanemaru threw ref Marty Asami into Bushi, who was on the apron. So with the ref down, Desperado and Kanemaru were beating down Takahashi. Desperado held him for Kanemaru to blow the whiskey in his eyes, but Takahashi moved and it got in Desperado’s eyes. Bushi then ran in and blew green mist in Kanemaru’s eyes and Takahashi hit the time bomb for the pin. ***
376
3778. Seiya Sanada & Evil retained the IWGP tag titles over Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr. in 17:58. This told a story and had time. Archer choke slammed Sanada on the apron and then Archer & Smith did the killer bomb on him off the apron through a desk. That looked no fun to take. They beat on Evil for several minutes. There were a couple of miscommunication spots with Smith and Archer in this match, so something is being teased. Archer gave Evil a fallaway on the floor and also exposed a turnbuckle and rammed Evil into it three times. They also whipped his back into the metal and Smith powerslammed him off the middle rope for a near fall. They continued to beat hi down until setting up the killer bomb, but instead of doing it, they switched and hit Evil with a magic killer, which Sanada & Evil have taken as one of their moves since Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson left. Evil kicked out and people did react to that. Then they went for the killer bomb, but Sanada saved with a springboard dropkick. Sanada & Evil hit the magic killer on Smith, but Archer pulled the ref out of the ring. Archer threw in a chair. Evil put the chair around Smith’s neck and did the baseball bat swing with another chair onto him. Sanada hit a plancha on Archer and in the ring, Evil used the STO, everything is evil, on Smith for the pin. ***1/4
378
3799. Tetsuya Naito beat Minoru Suzuki to win the IC title in 30:42. The crowd was into it early. Really they were psyched for this as a big match. Suzuki worked him over early. He did three penalty kicks that didn’t look nearly as good as when others do them and the crowd didn’t buy the near fall. Ref Red Shoes Unno was shoved down and Suzuki used a heel hook over the ropes until Unno got up. Suzuki used a kneebar and a figure four before Naito made the ropes. Naito came back briefly, but Suzuki blocked destino and grabbed a heel hook and then a kneebar and the choke. The choke was ridiculously long for Naito not to go out. They did some big striking exchanges with Suzuki bleeding from the nose in a very graphic and realistic spot. Naito hit the brainbuster and destino and got the win. Naito was limping, selling all the submissions, after the match, in his post-match promo and going to the back. ***
380
381Glenn “Kane” Jacobs, 50, appears to have won the Republican nomination for Mayor of Knox County, which covers Knoxville, TN, his home area.
382
383In a three-way race, Jacobs picked up 14,633 votes and Brad Anders picked up 14,616, making it just a 17 vote margin. Bob Thomas, a third candidate, finished with 11,296 votes.
384
385There are still 43 provisional ballots that were not counted that have to be ruled whether they are valid.
386
387The winner of the race will go into the election in November against Democratic candidate Linda Haney. It is a foregone conclusion that Jacobs will win that race since it’s almost impossible for a Democrat to win an election in East Tennessee and Haney is little-known and won’t have any strong funding behind her.
388
389According to one Knox County political insider who was very familiar with the race, Jacobs’ win was a big surprise to many. He’s lived in the area for a long time but has only lived in Knox Country for four years. He’s largely quiet, although locally is known for doing charity work for the Children’s Hospital and starting an anti-bullying campaign.
390
391He’s still been low profile until recently. He owns both an insurance company and a real estate firm, juggling that with his pro wrestling commitments. Other than the small percentage of voters who are wrestling fans, which is really a tiny number, both of his opponents were better known than he was.
392
393Anders was on the County Commission for a decade, including a period as chairman, was very pro big business and development and has the support of the big money people in the area. Thomas was a country commissioner who was well known as a popular DJ on the biggest radio station in the market, WIVK, and once owned the local minor league hockey team, and was a writer for the Lizzie Maguire TV show which his son was a co-star in, was in the movie “Friday Night Lights” and managed Kenny Chesney. They both raised more money and outspent Jacobs, and at first Jacobs was dismissed as a joke candidate because of being Kane the pro wrestler.
394
395Jacobs didn’t shy away from his pro wrestling past. He had brought in Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Ricky Morton, Tom Prichard, Daniel Bryan, Matt Hardy, Goldust (one of his real-life best friends), Chris Jericho, Undertaker, Mick Foley and Big Show to promote his campaign. Morton and Prichard live in the county and Prichard’s wife works for Jacobs’ insurance company. Jacobs and other volunteers, including Prichard, went from door-to-door to homes to campaign.
396
397Given the closeness of the race and the number of door-to-door homes he and his volunteers visited, that was clearly the key to his victory.
398
399In the past, Kane had been vocal as a Libertarian including campaigning for Libertarian candidates years ago. He downplayed that here, running as a conservative values Republican. He deleted his Libertarian blogs that would have gotten him heavily criticized. One columnist in a local newspaper criticized him for appearing on the Alex Jones Libertarian radio show and quoted his writings for Libertarian websites, and he did promote an endorsement for Sen. Rand Paul in the early part of the campaign.
400
401Jacobs in his campaign criticized Anders for not ruling out a tax increase if elected and attacked Thomas, who was under an ethics investigation for accepting a $500 gift card at a charitable golf tournament from an ambulance company seeking a county contract. Anders ran one television ad about his two opponents, saying one guy is a wrestler and one guy is a DJ. But other than that, it was a very civil campaign, and neither candidate directly attacked Jacobs.
402
403Jacobs was the only candidate to do no television advertising, but he sent out far more direct mail pieces and had yard signs all over town.
404
405Jacobs wasn’t the only wrestler to win a Republican primary in East Tennessee on 5/1.
406
407Timothy Horner, 58, who wrestled as “White Lightning” Tim Horner regularly from 1980 to 1999, and on occasion up until a few years back on indies, won the race for the Republican nomination for Hamblen County Commission in the 13th district although that was only 454 votes to his opponent, Stancil Ford’s 309 votes.
408
409B block winner Naomichi Marufuji of Pro Wrestling NOAH captured All Japan’s Champion Carnival tournament on 4/30 with a win over A block winner, Triple Crown champion Kento Miyahara.
410
411The dream match pitting one of NOAH’s biggest stars against All Japan’s top star in their first-ever singles match highlighted a tournament that got very strong reviews with reports being that it was the best wrestling held anywhere over the last several weeks.
412
413The final match saw Marufuji score the pin in 24:50 using the poleshift emerald flowsion, similar to the emerald flowsion move popularized by his mentor, Mitsuharu Misawa. I’d rate the match ****1/4, as it wasn’t the caliber of Marufuji’s matches with Kazuchika Okada or Miyahara’s best matches of last year, but it was still excellent. Marufuji is still one of the best at knowing when to do things, and Miyahara’s glassy-eyed selling draws people into a big match.
414
415In both winning the tournament and beating the champion in the finals, it puts Marufuji in a unique position as he’s going to be fighting for both the Triple Crown and the GHC heavyweight title in the same week.
416
417The Miyahara vs. Marufuji title match will headline the 5/24 show at Korakuen Hall. Marufuji will then challenge Takashi Sugiura for NOAH’s GHC title on 5/29.
418
419The tournament drew 11,823 fans on 15 shows (788 average) this year as compared to 7,729 fans on 11 shows (708 average) for last year’s Carnival.
420
421With Miyahara as the Triple Crown champion and the guy All Japan is building around, there was a booking logic in protecting him and winning his block but the natural booking is for someone other than the champion to win the tournament, and lose to the tournament winner at some point, to create a new contender.
422
423Marufuji said he came to All Japan with two goals, both of which he accomplished, which was beating Jun Akiyama in their dream match in the tournament (I haven’t seen it but the match got rave reviews) and winning the tournament. He also invited Miyahara to come to NOAH.
424
425It will be interesting if the two groups try and work together in building a champion vs. champion program. There are issues based on tradition in Japan where the world champion of a group isn’t supposed to lose to someone from another group. With titles meaning far less and both All Japan and NOAH titles not really considered as world titles the way titles were in the past, it’s really less of an issue but such a thing is still hard to do past a two-match series where they split, or one 60 minute match.
426
427In some ways, particularly match quality, All Japan has taken center stage from New Japan in Japan. While New Japan only sold out one of its four Korakuen Hall dates this month, All Japan finished the tournament with sellouts of 1,568 on 4/25 for the B block finals, 1,605 on 4/29 for the A block finals and 1,647 for the championship show headlined by Miyahara vs. Marufuji.
428
429A number of matches were raved about, all pretty much getting consensus numbers of **** or more, were Miyahara vs. Yuji Hino and Shuji Ishikawa vs. Shingo Takagi on 4/29, and the Marufuji vs. Jun Akiyama B block final on 4/25. Others given high praise were Miyahara vs. Hino on 4/29, Miyahara vs. Takagi in day one, Miyahara vs. Ishikawa and Takagi vs. Hino on 4/15, Ishikawa vs. Nomura on 4/16 and Joe Doering vs. Miyahara on 4/22.
430
431Marufuji had won the B block on 4/25 at Korakuen Hall.
432
433Joe Doering, Shingo Takagi, Miyahara and Yuji Hino all went into the final A block show in Korakuen Hall with 4-2 records.
434
435It went to the familiar pattern in Japan where top stars blow it on the last day. Doering was pinned in 4:28 by Naoya Nomura with a jackknife cradle to eliminate him. Takagi, from Dragon Gate, was eliminated by being pinned by Ishikawa with a giant slam in 18:37. This left Miyahara vs. Hino, with the winner taking the block. Miyahara scored the pin in 19:32 with a German suplex.
436
437The final A block standings were: 1. Miyahara 5-2; 2. Hino, Doering, Ishikawa and Takagi 4-3; 6. Ryoji Sai 3-4; 7. Nomura and The Bodyguard 2-5.
438
439Andres Reyes, better known as Universo 2000, the longest-reigning major promotion pro wrestling world heavyweight champion of the last quarter century, passed away on 5/1 at the age of 55.
440
441Word had gotten out last week that Reyes was in poor health. He had already suffered heart attacks in both 2016 and 2017.
442
443While his three reigns with the CMLL heavyweight title totaled seven full years with the title, he was far better known for being the youngest brother of the famed Los Hermanos Dinamita, one of the most famous trios in Lucha Libre history.
444
445The Dinamitas, sometimes called the Dynamite Brothers, were the regular main event heel trio during the early years of AAA, when the promotion was on fire, feuding with babyfaces like Konnan, Perro Aguayo, Lizmark, Octagon and El Hijo del Santo.
446
447The Dinamitas were originally a tag team. Carmelo Reyes, better known as Cien Caras, was the older brother. He was a singles star in the 1970s, as one of the few heel heavyweights with good size in Mexico, so often wrestled the likes of Mil Mascaras and Canek. He joined forces with his brother, Jesus, known as Mascara Ano 2000, in 1981.
448
449Universo 2000 came along when the brothers wanted to form a trio, since trios wrestling was in vogue. Universo came into pro wrestling as a headliner because of his older brothers, but in the early years, they were considered the two stars of the team.
450
451In 1992, when longtime CMLL booker Antonio Pena quit to form AAA, the Dinamitas, who were then the Mexican national trios champions, were brought in to headline. This had a dual purpose. The obvious one is that Pena’s top babyfaces would have regular opponents who were established as the top main event heel trio in Mexico, since the two older brothers by this point were genuine superstars. The other is that because the Mexican national belts were not owned by promotions, but defended independently and sanctioned by the athletic commissions, when Pena brought over the champs, that gave him control of historic championships.
452
453Feeling that he needed to give Universo some credibility, on the third AAA TV taping, Pena had him beat Mascara Sagrada, who had jumped while holding the Mexican national light heavyweight title, and he had a singles feud over the title with Lizmark, which established him as a singles star.
454
455In that period, and really for most of his career, Universo had a reputation for always potatoing people with his punches, but being such a nice guy outside the ring that people just accepted it and nobody tried to get receipts on him or got outwardly mad about it.
456
457His two older brothers had already lost their masks, Cien in a famous 1990 match to Rayo de Jalisco Jr., at Arena Mexico, and Mascara in a hair vs. mask match with Aguayo at the first TripleMania show in 1993. At one point Pena considered having him drop his mask to Love Machine in 1995, but Love Machine passed away in 1994.
458
459In 1996, the brothers returned to CMLL and pushed Universo as the singles star since he was the youngest.
460
461In September of 1997, after Steele (Sean Morley), the world heavyweight champion, left to join the WWE, where he became Val Venis, the title was vacated.
462
463The title was put up in a three-way match with Rayo de Jalisco Jr., Cien Caras and Universo on October 17, 1997, at Arena Mexico. Universo was the surprise winner and held the title for nearly one year, losing to Rayo on September 13, 1998, in Guadalajara.
464
465He won the title back on December 10, 1999, at Arena Mexico, starting his most famous run, lasting more than three years, until losing to Mr. Niebla on April 18, 2003. He later had another nearly three year reign, beating Niebla on October 12, 2004, until losing to Dos Caras Jr. (Alberto el Patron) on July 8, 2007, at Arena Mexico.
466
467But what put him over the top as a top star and heel draw was his feud with Aguayo. On March 30, 2001, Universo put up his mask against the hair of Aguayo, in what was Aguayo’s retirement match, so everyone expected Aguayo to win. Universo was looking for revenge since Aguayo had unmasked his brother. Universo won, with a piledriver variation called the black spike.
468
469In perhaps his most famous match, on September 17, 2004, at the sold out 71st anniversary show, it was a four-way mask match with Canek, Universo, Rayo and Dr. Wagner Jr., which ended with Wagner and Rayo winning and Canek and Universo as the last two. Universo hit Canek with his black spike, but it was ruled a DQ and he was forced to unmask.
470
471He also headlined the next anniversary show on September 16, 2005, drawing another sellout as he beat Hector Garza in a hair vs. hair match. His real blow-off as a top heel came when Perro Aguayo Jr., with help from his father, beat Universo for his hair on March 17, 2006.
472
473He continued to headline for several years, losing his hair a second time to Marco Corleone on March 30, 2007 (he had beaten Corleone for his hair on December 15, 2006) rand then dropping his heavyweight title for the last time a little over three months later.
474
475He continued to wrestle on independent shows and did CMLL legends shows teaming with his brothers as late as 2016, including a show on September 16 at Arena Mexico where they headlined against Canek & Dos Caras & Rayo de Jalisco Jr. in a legends match which drew 16,000 fans, but the fans were completely quiet watching it because it was that bad.
476
477In what was a surprise, on 5/1 at Arena Mexico, Universo 2000 Jr., his son, worked his match. Although a rudo, the crowd was heavily behind him for showing up. The match, where he teamed with Puma & Tiger against Blue Panther & Blue Panther Jr. & Drone, was said to be emotional and very good, and Universo scored both pins in the first and third fall to win for his team. After the match, the entire roster came out to honor him as he was in the ring crying.
478
479Niebla, in particular, was broken up because Universo helped him out when he started and also put him over for the CMLL heavyweight title in what was a huge career breakthrough for Niebla. One of the biggest moments of Niebla’s early career was when he and Shocker beat Cien Caras & Universo clean at Arena Mexico in a tag team title match when at the time it was unheard of for the Dinamitas to lose to people that much lower on the shows than they were.
480
481There was also a ceremony in Guadalajara for Universo where his son, Forastero, and nephews, Sanson & Cuatrero, were in the main event, although they lost to the Munoz family of Mistico & Rush & Bestia del Ring.
482
483April 27 is a key day in the history of mixed martial arts, because it is the 25th anniversary of the first actual breakthrough in the creation of the UFC.
484
485Art Davie had come up with the concept of trying to figure out who the best fighter in the world. The idea was to put fighters from several different disciplines in an almost-no-rules environment. But by that time, he had been turned down by just about everyone in cable television and pay-per-view for his concept of “War of the Worlds.”
486
487But on April 27, 1993, shortly after he pitched the idea to Semaphore Entertainment Group, a pay-per-view producer, he got a fax from Campbell McLaren, the Vice President of Original Programming. For the first time somebody he had contacted didn’t slam the door in his face.
488
489“I am definitely interested in pursuing this event as a Pay-Per–View television show.” wrote McLaren. “I think there is tremendous potential in the War of the Worlds and am anxious to begin working with you and Rorion (Gracie).”
490
491It is somewhat fitting that it was April 27, 2018, 25 years to the day, when UFC announced Davie to be inducted into their Hall of Fame. Listed as a contributor, Davie will join Matt Serra, who was announced on Saturday, in being honored at the ceremony on July 5 at the Pearl Arena at the Palms Hotel in Las Vegas.
492
493There will still be a modern era fighter and a fight to be announced in upcoming weeks that will round out the 2018 class.
494
495For Davie, his brainchild for what turned into UFC started in a skirmish on the beach, nearly 30 years earlier.
496
497It was July 13, 1964. Davie, who had been boxing, was in a discussion with the friend of a friend, a highly-ranked high school wrestler. The discussion turned into what would happen in a fight between a boxer and a wrestler. Davie, not knowing anything about fighting but boxing, and feeling, like most did at the time, that boxing was a real fight, figured he’d land his punches as the wrestler shot for the takedown.
498
499Instead, the wrestler ducked his punch, took him down, and submitted him quickly.
500
501“I got my ass kicked by a wrestler,” he remembered.
502
503“I got educated that there was more than meets the eye to fighting.”
504
505Fast forward a quarter-century, Davie read an article in Playboy magazine about Rorion Gracie, and the exploits of the Gracie family in Brazilian Vale Tudo events. He found out where Gracie was located and became a student of his. Then he pitched Rorion on the idea of War of the Worlds.
506
507He also studied the idea of mixed fighting, in particular Pankration, the earliest known mixed fighting event in the original Olympics in Greece, as well as the Brazilian events in the 20th century, real fights that had taken place in Japan, and the Gene LeBell vs. Milo Savage judo vs. boxing mixed match in 1963.
508
509Davie, a flamboyant car salesman who grew up in New York, but was living in Southern California, felt, once McLaren opened the door for him, he knew how to pitch the real decision maker at SEG, Bob Meyrowitz.
510
511“I sold Bob Meyrowitz on the idea he’d become the Don King of the franchise,” he remembered about the early meetings.
512
513The original owners, Davie, Rorion Gracie and Meyrowitz all had different ideas. For Davie, he was looking at creating a sports franchise. Meyrowitz was looking to create a steady pay-per-view property. Gracie was looking to use the platform to extol the virtues of Gracie Jiu Jitsu, with the concept that a normal-sized man can subdue men much larger based on the techniques he was teaching at his academy.
514
515Rorion’s father, Helio Gracie, was the first Gracie Jiu Jitsu star, who would do mixed matches in the 1930s in Brazil. After he got older, the family star was Carlson Gracie, Rorion’s uncle. In the 1980s, the star was Rickson Gracie, who like Rorion, had migrated to Southern California where he was teaching Jiu Jitsu.
516
517Davie had figured the Gracie’s would send Rickson Gracie to the tournament, as he was an experienced no rules fighter, having won a number of high-profile fights in Brazil. Rickson claimed to have a 400-0 record, although that was mostly made up of claims of gym sparring sessions, but there was more than ample evidence of his ability.
518
519Rorion and Rickson were at odds, since Rickson had taken some students from Rorion and was teaching in his garage. Instead, Rorion chose his younger brother, Royce, who, like Rorion, had learned from his father from childhood, but had never fought a sanctioned fight under those rules.
520
521Royce, in Rorion’s mind, was better for marketing purposes. Rickson was a muscular powerhouse at the time, and he looked like people thought a fighter should look like. Royce was tall and thin, about 6-foot-1 and less than 180 pounds.
522
523“He looked like a choir boy,” said Davie.
524
525The idea is that people would see Royce, who didn’t look at all like people perceived a badass street fighter would look, dispatching these men 50 to 100 pounds heavier than he was, and he’d point to his technique. It would be the greatest commercial that an average person would relate to, thinking they may never have the power of a Rickson Gracie, but they could envision that if Royce Gracie could beat people much bigger due to technique, perhaps they could learn that technique themselves.
526
527Davie and Rorion worked together in getting funding and creating a business which Davie tried to sell the concept of to television people.
528
529Still, Davie knew there was an Achilles heel of Jiu Jitsu. He had seen a tape of Rickson Gracie grappling with Mark Schultz, a retired Olympic wrestling gold medalist.
530
531While Rorion Gracie was looking at this as a way to create a superstar in Royce, and thus build up Gracie Jiu Jitsu, Davie said he was looking to create a sports franchise and for fighters to beat Gracie, and felt he could see the future.
532
533“I saw Rickson Gracie rolling with Mark Schultz from Utah,” he said. “It took Rickson 20 or 30 minutes to get Mark’s arm. When I saw that video, I was in a quest to get wrestlers. I wanted to bring in Alexander Karelin.”
534
535Karelin was the gold medalist in Greco-Roman wrestling as a super heavyweight in the previous two Olympics, and was still in his prime as the most feared wrestler on the planet. He was generally considered the greatest Greco-Roman wrestler of all-time.
536
537“ I went to the Koslowski Brothers (two American Olympic Greco-Roman wrestlers) about getting Karelin,” Davie said.
538
539Davie noted that when Rorion heard he was trying to get Karelin, at that point he was going to replace Royce with Rickson.
540
541Davie said there was a meeting with the family members and Rickson asked for $1 million, while Helio, his father, scolded him and said that “When I fought, it wasn’t about money.”
542
543“When I told Rorion I wanted to get Karelin, I found at that point that Rorion knew that I was an adversary.”
544
545While some would see the tape of Rickson tapping out Schultz as an affirmation of the Gracie technique, Davie saw it as even the best of the Gracies, with all that experience, had trouble for 20 minutes with a wrestler who knew nothing but wrestling. He figured that once the wrestlers learned some ground defensive technique against submissions, the future would be the top tier wrestlers dominating.
546
547After months of negotiations, the first War of the Worlds was scheduled for pay-per-view on Halloween night of 1993 from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
548
549But before it could take place, the name was changed to the Ultimate Fighting Championship and the first event took place on November 12, 1993, in Denver. Colorado became the place to go because the state at the time had no athletic commission. It had also already allowed the Sabaki Challenge tournament, a mixed styles stand-up fighting tournament.
550
551While the first green light non-rejection letter came on April 27, the actual deal between Davie and Meyrowitz wasn’t signed until just hours before the first show, as both sides were trying to push each other for more favorable terms for future shows.
552
553Meyrowitz at first figured they would fight in a boxing ring.
554
555“Rorion and I were adamant it couldn’t be in a boxing ring,” Davie said.
556
557While most expected a night of crazy punches and flashy kicks, a real-life fantasy version of martial arts movies, the public was shocked at the domination of the ground fighters.
558
559Davie was in charge of putting together the brackets for the first eight-man tournament. He noted that he wanted a boxer and a sumo in the first tournament.
560
561He changed his mind several times, but the key decisions were that the Gracies really wanted the boxer (Art Jimmerson) first, because the public thought boxers were the best fighters. But Davie considered putting Royce against a sumo first and putting Jimmerson against Kevin Rosier, a much bigger but out-of-shape former kickboxing champion.
562
563Most putting the show together figured there were two people with the best chance of winning the tournament.
564
565The first was Royce Gracie. His family had experience with the rules and the belief was that submission ground fighters would win.
566
567The other was Ken Shamrock, a pro wrestler of some notoriety in Japan. Shamrock had studied submissions from pro wrestling shooters in Japan and had done two real fights, winning both via submission quickly, under a slightly different set of rules.
568
569“It was pretty much what I expected it would be,” said Davie.
570
571Davie bracketed it wanting, if they were to win their first round match, for Gracie to face Shamrock in the semifinals. His idea was to, if possible, put a grappler vs. striker in the finals. That ended up happening with Gracie beating kickboxer Gerard Gordeau in the finals.
572
573“I didn’t care who won the event,” said Davie. “I thought Shamrock might pull it off, but was determined that Shamrock and Gracie wouldn’t end up in the finals. I wanted a striker vs. grappler as the final bout in UFC 1.”
574
575Eventually Semaphore bought out Davie and Rorion Gracie, and hired Davie as matchmaker, a position he held for several years. His tenure in UFC ended when, as his non-compete period was running out, Semaphore found out he was looking at starting a rival promotion, and he was let go.
576
577“We all had different agendas, and then we were exposed by the media and the politicians and it got pretty hairy.”
578
579After UFC, he worked with K-1, the kickboxing promotion from Japan. He at one point turned against his creation at a time when UFC was nearly legislated out of existence with commissions refusing to sanction it and pay-per-view companies pulling out of carrying the shows. By this time he was trying to market K-1 kickboxing in the U.S., and wrote a public letter after the death of an American fighter on a show in Russia, noting he was the guy who created it, and in fact, it was a brutal sport that shouldn’t be sanctioned.
580
581The first UFC event did 86,592 buys on pay-per-view, a number that made no sense for an event that had no television promotion to get over characters and storylines. Even crazier, by the time they got to the fifth event, headlined by the two biggest stars of the early events, Royce Gracie and Shamrock, they did 282,000 buys. They seemed off to the races, but political opposition nearly finished UFC before it came close to its potential.
582
583The WWE Hall of Fame ceremony took place on 4/6 at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans.
584
585The show got mixed reviews. I know people who loved it, love the emotion and others, including those internally, who felt it went too long, with a lot of complaints about Hillbilly Jim going an hour and so many people leaving before the Goldberg induction which was the main event. It went so long that during Mark Henry's induction, a lot of talent started leaving. By the time Bill Goldberg came out for the main event induction, the floor, which was the WWE group, was almost empty.
586
587The event drew 8,000 people. With the rise in importance of NXT and all the independent shows, the Hall of Fame has lost some of its luster when for years it was the second biggest event, and even until recently, the third biggest, of the WWE Mania weekend.
588
589This year continued the trend of the Legacy section of the Hall of Fame. Essentially this is for people who have passed away and are from another era. The idea is that they probably deserve it but wouldn't be marketable to the current audience.
590
591It's probably best for all concerned not to deeply examine inductees into the Hall of Fame as far as worthiness because I don't think WWE does itself when making calls. It is simply what Vince McMahon, or whoever works with him, wants. Some years those close to him get what they want, such as Pat Patterson getting Mad Dog Vachon (who helped him greatly at the start of his career, although Vachon is very much a legit pro wrestling Hall of Famer) in, and another year got Ray Stevens (his longtime tag team partner) in the year they were in Santa Clara, which made perfect sense since he was the biggest star the area ever had, until the decision was made, for whatever reason, to take him off the list. Gerald Brisco and Jim Ross for years have tried to get Danny Hodge in, but it has never happened, and Hodge is now in his 80s.
592
593I think the idea of the Legacy wing is for those who have passed way, since thus far nobody living has been put in. So guys like Hodge, or The Destroyer, who are clearly Hall of Famers but not known to the current audience, are not in.
594
595Then there's the question as to why somebody like Gorgeous George from another era was put in (at the time it was a prelude to WWE doing a movie about his life, as they purchased the rights, but then ended up not doing the movie) while Lord Al Hayes was put in the legacy wing this year, even though he is known to modern post-1984 fans. But attempting to make heads or tails out of the selections is a futile exercise.
596
597The names this year were Hayes, Stan Stasiak, Boris Malenko, Dara Singh, El Santo, Cora Combs, Jim Londos, Rufus R. Jones and Sputnik Monroe.
598
599Singh, Santo and Londos were cultural icons in different parts of the world. Singh would be considered the most famous pro wrestler ever in India, and he was also a well-known movie star in the country. All three would have been much bigger in their time frame and culture than either people like Hulk Hogan and Steve Austin were in theirs. One could argue that because Londos came before television, that Hogan and Austin were bigger in the U.S., but Londos was huge in the U.S., the biggest drawing card in terms on longevity ever, but even bigger in Greece. Londos set numerous box office records and for years was the dominant drawing card in the U.S.
600
601Santo was similar, actually one of the most popular people in all of Mexican culture both as a campy movie star and as the biggest pro wrestling star within Mexico of all-time. In fact, it would be almost impossible for any pro wrestler going forward to be as popular in their country as Santo was in Mexico just because wrestling itself will never culturally be at that level on a national basis, and with the movie connection.
602
603One can argue that Londos was the biggest drawing card in pro wrestling history. With television and more major arenas, modern stars drew more people and larger crowds, particularly in the Hulk Hogan and Steve Austin eras. But Londos, probably more than anyone else in history (Hogan would be the other candidate) drew more fans above what the normal shows would do without him, for a longer period of time, than anyone in history.
604
605Londos was the biggest drawing card in the world for 13 years and a top ten draw for 21 years, both records. Hogan and Bruno Sammartino were No. 1 in eight different years, and Bill Longson and Lou Thesz were No. 1 in seven different years. Londos probably should have been part of the original legacy wing in 2016, but I don't think any of the true historians were contacted by WWE.
606
607I heard some rumblings about Hayes in the Legacy wing and not the regular wing, but it is what it is. Hayes was a star wrestler in the U.K. He was actually quite old when he came to the U.S. and his knees were bad. He moved to being a heel manager, but to modern fans was best known as a comical, older television personality in the era of Gorilla Monsoon and Gene Okerlund. He was somewhat the butt of some jokes at times and also co-hosted TNT with Vince McMahon, a wacky wrestling talk/variety show in the 80s.
608
609Stasiak (George Stepich) was a star in a lot of places in the 60s and 70s as a big guy for the era, billed as 6-foot-4 and 270 pounds and as the master of the heart punch. He was from Quebec, best known in Oregon, where he settled and was one of the top stars for Don Owen. He headlined everywhere he worked during his prime and had several runs in the WWWF. What he's now most remembered for was being the transition champion in 1973.
610
611When Bruno Sammartino agreed to return as a regular and be WWWF champion, Stasiak was chosen as the transition champion, beating Pedro Morales on December 1, 1973, in Philadelphia, and losing to Sammartino on December 10, 1973, in Madison Square Garden. Many describe the pop of Sammartino's second title win as among the biggest ever. Stasiak was pushed as one of Morales' biggest rival, as the master of the heart punch.
612
613Boris Malenko (Larry Simon) was a top Russian heel who was one of the best remembered heels in the history of Championship Wrestling from Florida. His son, Dean, works for WWE after a long career as a wrestler, so that may have helped as well.
614
615The rule of every WWE induction class is that there has to be a woman and there has to be someone of color. Combs and Rufus R. Jones fit those criteria. Just as in many WWE classes, there are those who go in from that categories that aren't stars of the level that usually go in, you could say the same about Combs and Jones.
616
617Combs (Cora Svonsteckik) did have a long career, and was previously inducted into the Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame, which has a similar category of having to pick a woman star every year, which may have been where her name came from. I can't find any record of her working for the McMahons, and if she did work for Moolah, it wouldn't have been for long since she was more an independent who worked in Tennessee and some other territories that didn't book women from Moolah. Her daughter Debbie wrestled. Combs started in 1949 and wrestled regularly into the 80s and some even in the 90s before she passed away in 2015.
618
619Jones (Rufus Lloyd) was a star wrestler in a lot of places, usually as a colorful but limited babyface, "The Freight Train." He played a stereotypical role. While not well known at the time, he was also the father of Slick, an 80s WWF manager. Jones worked all over the world, but settled in Kansas City and worked there much of the last part of his career.
620
621Monroe (Roscoe Brumbaugh, born Roscoe Merrick) is now remembered by historians for his role in changing social mores in wrestling in the late 1950s.
622
623He was a white wrestler who hung around in black parts of town and became exceedingly popular with that community. During his late 50s feud with Billy Wicks, Memphis was still practicing Jim Crow laws, meaning separate but unequal, different schools for blacks and whites, different drinking fountains, different restaurants often.
624
625When Monroe was starting to draw well, especially among blacks, the black section of the Ellis Auditorium would be sold out, but the white section wouldn't. Since he was working on top for a percentage of the gate, he made a fuss that his fans willing to pay to get in were getting turned away even though there were plenty of empty seats. He pulled a power play, supposedly, saying he wouldn't wrestle in Memphis unless all sections were open to both blacks and whites.
626
627In reality, the promoter, Roy Welch, wanted it that way to begin with, but used Monroe because whites were offended by a change to cultural norms and he didn't want the heat. Once blacks and whites were able to sit together at wrestling shows without incident, that started the breakdown in all parts of society. Among some in that generation, Monroe was a cultural hero to the black community in Memphis.
628
629Some have supported him for the Observer Hall of Fame based on this, even though he didn't have anything resembling a career as far as star power on a national basis or even a regional drawing basis aside from that one relatively short run in Memphis where he would otherwise be considered.
630
631While it's been noted Monroe was really working with the promotion that was looking to maximize income, within the black community in Memphis that was never known at the time.
632
633The Professional Fighters League (PFL), a promotion talked about for some time, made its formal announcement of its 2018 season this past week amidst all kinds of questions regarding its business plan.
634
635The PFL will be running six different 12-man tournaments starting on 6/7 with a show on NBC Sports Network from the Madison Square Garden Theater and ending with a New Year’s Eve show that is scheduled to feature six matches, all tournament finals, and with each winner getting what is being reported as $1 million, although there is some talk that there is some creativity as opposed to hard cash when it comes to that figure.
636
637The problem with more than $10 million total talent budget in prize money alone for tournament placings, is obvious. Tournaments sound great on paper, but in fight sports, whether they be boxing or MMA, they have never worked out well. There are too many injuries and pull-outs that always seem to ruin them. Plus, exactly how will they be able to make financial success out of that level of revenue outlay?
638
639Granted, one-night kickboxing tournaments were huge in Japan at one point but Bellator tried eight man tournaments as its format using mostly little known and unknown talent. In its wake were huge money losses and very few stars created in the end.
640
641The breakdown besides the first prize, is that the loser in the tournament final will get $200,000, the losers of the semifinals will get $100,000 each and the remainder of the fighters in the tournament will each get $50,000.
642
643PFL will be running on Thursday nights on NBC Sports Network, avoiding Bellator, UFC, boxing and WWE. Besides the live show, there will be 30 minute pre and post-match shows on Facebook.
644
645Announced for the broadcast team are Randy Couture, Bas Rutten, Yves Edwards, Caroline Pierce and Todd Harris. Harris will do the play-by-play, Couture and Edwards will do the analysis, Rutten will handle interviews and Pierce will be doing interviews on Facebook Watch.
646
647The first show will feature first round matches in both the featherweight and heavyweight tournaments.
648
649After the 6/7 show, there will be live shows on 6/21 at the Chicago Theater, 7/5 in Washington, DC at the SWU Smith Center, 7/19 and 8/2 at the Nassau Coliseum and 8/1 and 8/30 in Atlantic City at the Ocean Resort Casino.
650
651The playoff dates will not be on Thursdays, and the cities haven’t been announced, but shows are scheduled on 10/5, 10/13 and 10/20, with the winners on those nights going to the New Year’s Eve finals.
652
653The first night will have first round featherweight and heavyweight fights, with a number of former UFC and Bellator names on the show, including Mike Kyle, Shawn Jordan, Nick Rossborough, Jared Rosholt, Steven Siler, Caio Alencar, Josh Copeland, Jack May and a main event of Marcos Galvao vs. Nazareno Malegarie.
654
655There are no huge signature stars in the promotion even with the $1 million prize being offered to the tournament winners.
656
657Kayla Harrison, 27, who won Olympic gold medals in judo in 2012 and 2016 and was a longtime training partner of Ronda Rousey, will make her debut on the 6/21 show in Chicago. She will compete at 145 pounds and was told that the PFL will have a tournament at that weight class in 2019. Really, expecting anything long-term with the flawed business plan is risky. Harrison has moved to Coconut Creek, FL, to train with Dan Lambert’s American Top Team, noting it allows her to train with Amanda Nunes and Joanna Jedrzejczyk.
658
659In the featherweight division, the best known names are Marcos Galvao, Andre Harrison, Bekbulat Magomedov, Malegarie, Siler and former World Series of Fighting champion and All-American wrestler Lance Palmer.
660
661The lightweight division includes former Bellator champion Will Brooks, as well as Luiz Firminho, Brian Foster, Jason High, Rashid Magomedov, Ramsey Nijem, Chris Wade and Thiago Tavares.
662
663The welterweight division includes Paul Bradley, Jake Shields (the biggest name on the roster), Rick Story, Bojan Velickovic and Joao Zeferino.
664
665The middleweight division includes Eddie Gordon, John Howard, Andre Lobato and Danillo Villefort.
666
667The light heavyweight division includes Brandon Halsey, Vinny Magalhaes, Ronny Markes, Sean O’Connell, Smealinho Rama and Dan Spohn.
668
669The heavyweight division includes Caio Alencar, Francimar Barroso, Josh Copeland, Jake Heun, Shawn Jordan, Mike Kyle, Jack May, Jared Rosholt and Nick Rossborough.
670
671This is an update on the coverage levels of the stations that carry pro wrestling and MMA as of 5/1, and also the decline by percentage over the course of the past 365 days.
672
673There are two schools of thought I’ve noticed in the TV world, those who claim cable is dying and others who claim the story is overblown and compare the decline to the melting of the polar caps, in the sense there is tiny erosion every year. These stats seem to lend credence to the latter point. There is decline but it’s so slow that there’s no reason to panic. To me at this point, a decline of one or two percent per year is something, but to be expected. A decline of more than that is noteworthy, so we’ll look at the stations here:
674
675Bein Sport is in 21,977,000 (down 2.7 percent); CMT at 73,220,000 (down 1.2 percent); E! At 88,779,000 (down 0.4 percent), El Rey at 43,976,000 (down 1.1 percent); ESPN at 86,263,000 (down 0.8 percent); FS 1 at 83,491,000 (down 0.1 percent); FS 2 at 57,613,000 (up 16.0 percent); HBO at 35,510,000 (up 3.5 percent); NBC Sports Network at 83,683,000 (down 0.2 percent); Paramount at 81,301,000 (down 1.5 percent); Pop at 67,547,000 (down 4.8 percent); Showtime at 27,927,000 (down 1.7 percent); USA at 90,784,000 (down 0.6 percent).
676
677There is a decline. It’s very slow. Of all the stations that broadcast wrestling and MMA, only Bein and Pop are declining at a significant rate, although Paramount’s numbers aren’t good. If there is something to take out of this, it is that Impact is actually, comparatively speaking, doing better than it seems by its increase in viewers over last year at the same time the station itself is down significantly in penetration.
678
679For a comparison, at this rate, for the USA Network to be in the same amount of homes as they were in the Attitude Era, it will get there in about the year 2042. Given how much technology and business will change between now and then, this story isn’t as big as people are making it out to be.
680
681AXS doesn’t have a listing but the number was about 54,000,000 homes and has been steady over the past year.
682
683Smackdown on 5/1 did 2,436,000 viewers, a drop of 4.4 percent from the prior week.
684
685Once again, this is more about the NBA playoffs than anything, as the game head-to-head with Smackdown did 5,587,000 viewers.
686
687It was the least-watched episode of the show since 10/31, but that shouldn’t even count due to Halloween. So it’s really the least-watched since 10/3, which went against a Yankees playoff game. But it is still up compared to the 2,300,000 the show did the same week last year against the same round of the playoffs.
688
689Smackdown was fifth for the night on cable, and did beat the Washington vs. Pittsburgh Stanley Cup playoff game that did 1,712,000 viewers.
690
691The show did a 0.55 in 12-17 (down 5.2 percent), 0.63 in 18-34 (up 8.6 percent), 0.91 in 35-49 (down 10.8 percent) and 1.00 in 50+ (down 2.9 percent).
692
693The audience was much lower male than usual, with 56.9 percent of the 18-49 viewers being male and 53.1 percent of the 12-17 viewers being male.
694
695To show what that means, in the 18-49 demo, this week was down 15.2 percent in males and but up 17.2 percent with women in the same age group.
696
697Raw on 4/30 did a 2.13 rating and 3,055,000 viewers, with the rating up 2.4 percent but viewers down 1.2 percent due to a decrease in viewers per home to 1.57.
698
699It’s most likely that if there was going to be a bump from the Greatest Royal Rumble, it was negated because the NBA playoffs head-to-head did 4,689,000 viewers.
700
701It was the usual pattern as far as total viewers went, with a ten percent drop from hour two-to-three. Most notable is that who stopped watching in hour three was different from usual. It’s usually women across the board that drop in hour three, as well as those over 50, with teenage boys and men staying even or slightly dropping.
702
703The drop was 7.7 percent in woman 18-49, 10.1 percent in men 18-49, a six percent increase in teenage girls, an 11 percent increase in teenage boys and a 9.8 percent decrease in those over 50. So whatever it was about hour three turned off men at a higher rate than usual, and increased teenagers at a much higher rate than usual.
704
705The first hour did 3,136,000 viewers. The second hour did 3,184,000 viewers. The third hour did 2,878,000 viewers.
706
707The show did a 0.69 in 12-17 (down 5.5 percent from last week), 0.87 in 18-34 (up 16.0 percent from last week), 1.29 in 35-49 (down 4.4 percent) and 1.18 in 50+ (up 2.6 percent).
708
709Bellator on 4/28 did 581,000 viewers on Paramount and 169,000 viewers on CMT for a combined 750,000 for the show headlined by Fedor Emelianenko vs. Frank Mir. Given it was nearly double what the prior show did, it isn’t that bad, but I wouldn’t call anything under 800,000 for Fedor vs. Mir as good.
710
711Impact on 4/26 did 308,000 viewers for the show after Redemption, which is a disappointment given the shows after PPV usually get an upwards bump and this was down 17 percent from the prior week. It was probably hurt going against the NFL Draft.
712
713The second week of the new season of Ultimate Fighter on 4/25 did 185,000 viewers.
714
715Smackdown on 4/24 did a 1.78 rating and 2,549,000 viewers which was 1.56 viewers per home.
716
717This is the first issue of the current set. As a double issue, it means if you’ve got a (1) on your address label, it means your current subscription expires in two more weeks.
718
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720
721For 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.
722
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724
725For the rest of the world, the rates are $15.50 for four issues (which includes $9 for postage and handling), $30 for eight, $43 for 12, $56 for 16, $70 for 20, $84 for 24, $98 for 28, $140 for 40 issues and $182 for 52 issues.
726
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728
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730
731All letters to the editor, reports from live shows and any other correspondence pertaining to this publication should also be sent to the above address.
732
733This 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.
734
735Fax 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
736
737RESULTS
738
739 
740
7414/19 Cape Town, South Africa (WWE Raw): Seth Rollins & Finn Balor b Bo Dallas & Curtis Axel, Cruiserweight title: Cedric Alexander b Drew Gulak, Matt Hardy & Bray Wyatt b Sheamus & Cesaro, Asuka won three-way over Bayley and Sasha Banks, Braun Strowman b Elias, Titus O’Neil & Apollo Crews b Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson, Women’s title: Nia Jax b Mandy Rose, Roman Reigns b Samoa Joe
742
7434/19 Washington, DC (WWE NXT - 1,500): Oney Lorcan b Chad Lail-DQ, Oney Lorcan & Montez Ford & Angelo Dawkins b Chad Lail & Wesley Blake & Steve Cutler, Nikki Cross & Candice LeRae b Bianca Belair & Lacey Evans, Ricochet b Velveteen Dream, Tommaso Ciampa b Kassius Ohno, EC 3 b No Way Jose, Women’s title: Shayna Baszler b Kairi Sane, NXT title: Aleister Black b Andrade Cien Almas
744
7454/19 Sanford, FL (WWE NXT - 250): Reina Gonzalez b Kacy Catanzaro, Lio Rush b Kona Reeves, Dakota Kai & Steffanie Newell b Aliyah & Kavita Davi, Lars Sullivan b Fabian Aichner, Cezar Bononi & Adrian Jaoude & Taynara Conti b Boa & Rocky & Xia Lu, Ember Moon b Vanessa Borne, Authors of Pain b Nick Miller & Shane Thorne
746
7474/19 Osaka (New Japan - 1,289 sellout): Tomoyuki Oka b Yuya Uemura, Shota Umino d Tetsuhiro Yagi, Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Tiger Mask & Ryusuke Taguchi b Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi & Ren Narita, Rocky Romero & Sho & Yoh b Takashi Iizuka & Taka Michinoku & Taichi-DQ, Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano & Yoshi-Hashi b Togi Makabe & Michael Elgin & Toa Henare, Minoru Suzuki & Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Desperado b Tetsuya Naito & Evil & Seiya Sanada & Hiromu Takahashi, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Juice Robinson & David Finlay & Kushida & Kazuchika Okada & Hirooki Goto & Jay White & Will Ospreay
748
7494/20 Pretoria, South Africa (WWE Raw - 6,000 sellout): Matt Hardy & Bray Wyatt b Sheamus & Cesaro, Cruiserweight title: Cedric Alexander b Drew Gulak, Asuka won three-way over Bayley and Sasha Banks, Braun Strowman b Samoa Joe, Titus O’Neil & Apollo Crews b Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows, Women’s title: Nia Jax b Sonya Deville, Roman Reigns & Seth Rollins & Finn Balor b Elias & Curtis Axel & Bo Dallas
750
7514/20 Bethlehem, PA (WWE NXT - 700): No Way Jose b Chad Lail, Bianca Belair b Candice LeRae, EC 3 b Kassius Ohno, Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford b Steve Cutler & Wesley Blake, Kairi Sane & Nikki Cross b Shayna Baszler & Lacey Evans, Tommaso Ciampa b Oney Lorcan, Ricochet & Aleister Black b Andrade Cien Almas & Velveteen Dream
752
7534/20 Jacksonville, FL (WWE NXT - 350): Raul Mendoza b Jeet Rama, Steffanie Newell b Vanessa Borne, Tino Sabbatelli b Mars Wang, Nick Miller & Shane Thorne b Brennan Williams & Christopher Dijak, Adrian Jaoude & Cezar Bononi b Big Boa & Rocky, Dakota Kai b Taynara Conti, Roderick Strong b Lio Rush
754
7554/20 Mexico City Arena Mexico (CMLL - 5,000): Espanto Jr & Yago b Astral & Oro Jr., Puma & Templario & Tiger b Blue Panther Jr. & Pegasso & The Panther, Amapola & Dalys & Seductora b Kaho Kobayashi & Marcela & Princesa Sugehit, Caristico b Dragon Lee, Negro Casas & Ultimo Guerrero & Cavernario b Angel de Oro & Niebla Roja & Volador Jr., Atlantis & Diamante Azul & Kraneo b Rush & El Terrible & Bestia del Ring-DQ
756
7574/20 Tijuana, BC (AAA TV tapings - 4,500 sellout): Arakangel Divino & Black Destiny & Genio del Aire b Black Danger & Mirage & Ultimo Maldito, Ashley & Estrella Divina & Faby Apache b Big Mami & Mamba & Pimpinela Escarlata, Lanzelot won four-way over El Hijo del Vikingo, Mascara de Bronce and Dinastia, Tag titles: El Texano Jr. & Rey Escorpion b Aerostar & Drago, TLC match: Pagano won over La Parka, Dark Cuervo, Joe Rider, El Hijo del Fantasma, Parka Negra, Dark Scoria, Histeria, Psicosis and Teddy Hart, Averno & Chessman & Super Fly b La Mascara & Maximo & Psycho Clown, AAA heavyweight title: Dr. Wagner Jr. b Hernandez
758
7594/20 Osaka (All Japan - 512): Koji Iwamoto b Yusuke Okada, Jun Akiyama & Takao Omori & Yutaka Yoshie b Kai & Dylan James & Atsushi Maruyama, Ryoji Sai b Naoya Nomura, Joe Doering b Shingo Takagi, Suwama & Shuji Ishikawa & Hikaru Sato b Kento Miyahara & Yoshitatsu & Billyken Kid, The Bodyguard b Yuji Hino, Zeus b Naomichi Marufuji
760
7614/20 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (Dradition - 1,500 sellout): Super Tiger & Tsubakichi Sanshu b Nobuyuki Kurashima & Ryuta Hasumi, Leona won three-way over Rionne Fujiwara and Mitsuhiro Yoshida, Takuma Sano & Mitsuya Nagai b Go Shiozaki & Hayata, The Cobra & Hiro Saito b Black Tiger & Kenso, Yoshiaki Fujiwara b Shiro Koshinaka-DQ, Bob Backlund & Riki Choshu & Tatsumi Fujinami b Tajiri & Jinsei Shinzaki & Kazma Sakamoto
762
7634/21 Johannesburg, South Africa (WWE Raw - 13,000 sellout): Seth Rollins & Finn Balor b Sheamus & Cesaro, Cruiserweight title: Cedric Alexander b Drew Gulak, Asuka won three-way over Bayley and Sasha Banks, Matt Hardy & Bray Wyatt b Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson, Titus O’Neil & Apollo Crews b Bo Dallas & Curtis Axel, Women’s title: Nia Jax b Mandy Rose, Roman Reigns & Braun Strowman b Samoa Joe & Elias
764
7654/21 Johnson City, TN (WWE Smackdown - 3,500): Three-way for tag titles: Luke Harper & Erick Rowan won over Big E & Kofi Kingston and Usos, Sin Cara b Shelton Benjamin, Naomi b Lana, Randy Orton & Jeff Hardy b Aiden English & Rusev, Big Cass b Tye Dillinger, Three-way for women’s title: Carmella won over Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch, WWE title: A.J. Styles b Shinsuke Nakamura-DQ
766
7674/21 Bel Air, MD (WWE NXT - 1,000): Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford & Oney Lorcan b Wesley Blake & Steve Cutler & Chad Lail, Lacey Evans & Bianca Belair b Candice LeRae & Kairi Sane, EC 3 b No Way Jose, Tommaso Ciampa b Kassius Ohno, Ricochet b Velveteen Dream, Women’s title: Shayna Baszler b Nikki Cross, NXT title: Aleister Black b Andrade Cien Almas
768
7694/21 Fort Pierce, FL (WWE NXT - 450): Brennan Williams & Christopher Dijak b Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel, Kona Reeves b Mars Wang, Reina Gonzalez b Rhea Ripley, Alexander Wolfe & Killian Dain b Cezar Bononi & Adrian Jaoude, Dakota Kai & Steffanie Newell b Peyton Royce & Billie Kay, Tino Sabbatelli b Raul Mendoza, Roderick Strong b Lio Rush
770
7714/21 Osaka (Dradition - 2,473): Toru b Kinron, Takaku Fuke b Nobuyuki Kurashima, Leona b Yuto Kikuchi, Koji Kanemoto & Minoru Tanaka b Super Delfin & Black Tiger, Shiro Koshinaka & The Cobra b Mitsuya Nagai & Akira, Riki Choshu & Tatsumi Fujinami & Masakatsu Funaki b Bob Backlund & Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Hiro Saito
772
7734/21 Hiroshima (Dragon Gate - 600): Kzy & Genki Horiguchi & Susumu Yokosuka b Yamato & Yosuke Santa Maria & U-T, Takashi Yoshida b Kaito Ishida, Masaaki Mochizuki & Ryo Saito b Dragon Kid & Gamma, Big R Shimizu & Shachihoko Boy b Don Fujii & Kagetora, Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino & Jason Lee & Ben K b T-Hawk & Eita & Lindaman & Yasushi Kanda
774
7754/22 Chattanooga, TN (WWE Smackdown - 2,500): Three-way for tag titles: Luke Harper & Erick Rowan won over Big E & Xavier Woods and Usos, Sin Cara b Shelton Benjamin, Naomi b Lana, Randy Orton & Jeff Hardy b Rusev & Aiden English, Big Cass b Tye Dillinger, Three-way for women’s title: Carmella won over Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch, WWE title: A.J. Styles b Shinsuke Nakamura-DQ
776
7774/22 Johnstown, PA (WWE NXT - 800): No Way Jose b Chad Lail, Candice LeRae b Bianca Belair, EC 3 b Kassius Ohno, Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford b Steve Cutler & Wesley Blake, Nikki Cross & Kairi Sane b Shayna Baszler & Lacey Evans, Tommaso Ciampa b Oney Lorcan, Aleister Black & Ricochet b Andrade Cien Almas & Velveteen Dream
778
7794/22 Oarai (New Japan - 1,151 sellout): Shota Umino b Yota Tsuji, Rocky Romero b Yuya Uemura, Tiger Mask & Ryusuke Taguchi & Toa Henare b Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi & Ren Narita, Sho & Yoh b Takashi Iizuka & Taichi-DQ, Hirooki Goto & Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano & Yoshi-Hashi b Juice Robinson & Togi Makabe & Michael Elgin & Tomoyuki Oka, Tetsuya Naito & Evil & Seiya Sanada & Bushi & Hiromu Takahashi b Minoru Suzuki & Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Will Ospreay, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Hiroyoshi Tenzan & David Finlay & Kushida b Kazuchika Okada & Jay White & Will Ospreay & Gedo
780
7814/22 Nagoya (All Japan - 1,003 sellout): Michio Kageuyama b Yusuke Okada, Atsushi Aoki & Hikaru Sato b Takao Omori & Yohei Nakajima, Naoya Nomura & Yutaka Yoshie & Dylan James & Koji Iwamoto b Jun Akiyama & Zeus & The Bodyguard & Atsushi Maruyama, Ryoji Sai b Shuji Ishikawa, Naomichi Marufuji b Kai, Yoshitatsu b Suwama, Joe Doering b Kento Miyahara
782
7834/22 Fukuoka (Dragon Gate - 1,550 sellout): Genki Horiguchi & Punch Tominaga b Don Fujii & K-Ness, Kagetora b Problem Dragon, Kaito Ishida & Shun Skywalker & Yuki Yoshioka b U-T & Hyo Watanabe & Oji Shiiba, BxB Hulk & Yosuke Santa Maria b Dragon Kid & Gamma, Big R Shimizu & Ben K & Jason Lee b T-Hawk & Eita & Takashi Yoshida, Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino b Susumu Yokosuka & Kzy, Yamato & Shingo Takagi & Ryo Saito b Masaaki Mochizuki & Lindaman & Yasushi Kanda
784
7854/22 Mexico City Arena Mexico (CMLL): Camorra & Inquisidor b Leono & Robin, Fantasy & Shockercito & Stukita b Mercurio & Pequeno Nitro & Pequeno Olimpico, Audaz & Guerrero Maya Jr. & Stuka Jr. b Kawato San & Misterioso Jr. & Okumura, Titan b Triton, Mistico & Caristico & Valiente b Gran Guerrero & Hechicero & El Terrible, Mexican national trios titles: Cuatrero & Forastero & Sanson b Angel de Oro & Niebla Roja & Soberano Jr.
786
7874/23 St. Louis (WWE Raw/Main Event TV tapings - 12,000): Zack Ryder b Mike Kanellis, Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder b Heath Slater & Rhyno, Elias b Bobby Roode, Dolph Ziggler & Drew McIntyre b Titus O’Neil & Apollo Crews, Chad Gable b Jinder Mahal, Bobby Lashley & Braun Strowman b Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn, Finn Balor & Seth Rollins b Curtis Axel & Bo Dallas, Ruby Riott & Liv Morgan & Sarah Logan & Alexa Bliss & Mickie James b Nia Jax & Natalya & Ember Moon & Sasha Banks & Bayley-DQ
788
7894/23 Bowling Green, KY (WWE Smackdown - 4,000): Three-way for tag titles: Luke Harper & Erick Rowan won three-way over Usos and Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods, Sin Cara b Shelton Benjamin, Naomi b Lana, Randy Orton & Jeff Hardy b Rusev & Aiden English, Big Cass b Tye Dillinger, Three-way for women’s title: Carmella won over Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch, WWE title: A.J. Styles b Shinsuke Nakamura-DQ
790
7914/23 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (New Japan - 1,562): Yota Tsuji d Yuya Uemaru, Yuji Nagata & Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Manabu Nakanishi b Tomoyuki Oka & Shota Umino & Ren Narita, Rocky Romero & Sho & Yoh b Takashi Iizuka & Taka Michinoku & Taichi-DQ, Hirooki Goto & Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano & Yoshi-Hashi & Will Ospreay b Togi Makabe & Michael Elgin & Juice Robinson & Toa Henare & Kushida, Hiroshi Tanahashi & David Finlay & Ryusuke Taguchi b Kazuchika Okada & Jay White & Gedo, Minoru Suzuki & Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr. b Tetsuya Naito & Evil & Seiya Sanada, IWGP Jr. Tag titles: Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Desperado b Hiromu Takahashi & Bushi
792
7934/23 Orlando (Impact TV tapings): Rohit Raju b Suicide, Tag titles: Scott Steiner & Eli Drake b Ortiz & Santana, Knockouts title: Allie b Taya Valkyrie, Brian Cage b Trevor Lee, Moose b Braxton Sutter, X title: Matt Sydal b Taiji Ishimori, DJZ & Andrew Everett & Dezmond Xavier b Drago & Aerostar & El Hijo del Fantasma, Dave & Jake Crist b Fallah Bahh & KM, Impact title: Pentagon Jr. b Eli Drake
794
7954/23 Hiroshima (Dragon Gate - 800): Eita & Shingo Takagi b Dragon Kid & Gamma, Susumu Yokosuka & Hyo Watanabe b Don Fujii & Yuki Yoshioka, Kzy & Genki Horiguchi b Kagetora & Ben K, Lindaman & Yasushi Kanda b Masaaki Mochizuki & Punch Tominaga, Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino & Jason Lee & Big R Shimizu b Yamato & BxB Hulk & Yosuke Santa Maria & U-T
796
7974/24 Louisville, KY (WWE Smackdown/205 Live TV tapings - 7,000): Big E & Kofi Kingston b Sheamus & Cesaro, Billie Kay & Peyton Royce b Asuka & Becky Lynch, Jimmy Uso b Erick Rowan, Shelton Benjamin b Randy Orton, Shinsuke Nakamura & Aiden English & Rusev b A.J. Styles & Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows, Mustafa Ali b TJP, Drew Gulak b Mustafa Ali, Drew Gulak b Tony Nese, Kalisto b Tony Nese, U.S. title: Jeff Hardy b The Miz
798
7994/24 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (New Japan - 1,428): Yuji Nagata & Jushin Liger & Tomoyuki Oka b Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Shota Umino & Ren Narita, Takashi Iizuka & Taichi & Taka Michinoku b Sho & Yoh & Rocky Romero-DQ, Togi Makabe & Michael Elgin & Kushida b Toru Yano & Yoshi-Hashi & Will Ospreay, Tomohiro Ishii b Toa Henare, Minoru Suzuki & Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Desperado b Tetsuya Naito & Evil & Seiya Sanada & Bushi & Hiromu Takahashi, Kazuchika Okada & Hirooki Goto & Gedo b Hiroshi Tanahashi & Juice Robinson & Ryusuke Taguchi, U.S. title: Jay White b David Finlay
800
8014/24 Orlando (Impact TV tapings): Fallah Bahh b Rohit Raju, Impact title vs. Grand championship: Pentagon Jr. DCOR Austin Aries, Impact title vs. Grand championship: Pentagon Jr. DCOR Austin Aries, Impact title vs. Grand championship: Austin Aries b Pentagon Jr. to win Impact title, El Hijo del Fantasma won four-way over Aerostar, Drago and Taiji Ishimori, DJZ & Andrew Everett b Ortiz & Santana, Keira Hogan b Taya Valkyrie-DQ, Kongo Kong b Grado, Last Rites match for Knockouts title: Su Yung b Allie to win title, Dave & Jake Crist b Aerostar & Drago-DQ, Trevor Lee & Caleb Konley b Ortiz & Santana, Tag titles: DJZ & Andrew Everett b Scott Steiner & Eli Drake to win titles, Grado b Rohit Raju, Tessa Blanchard b Keira Hogan, Pentagon Jr. & El Hijo del Fantasma b Matt Sydal & Austin Aries
802
8034/24 Mexico City Arena Mexico (CMLL): Pequeno Nitro & Pequeno Olimpico b Acero & Angelito, Cancerbero & Nitro & Raziel b Magnus & Oro Jr. & Pequeno Diamante, The Panther d Fuego, Dragon Rojo Jr. & Polvora & Templario b Audaz & Guerrero Maya Jr. & Rey Cometa, Hechicero & Bestia del Ring & El Terrible b Ephesto & Luciferno & Mascara Ano 2000, Caristico & Valiente & Volador Jr. b Euforia & Gran Guerrero & Mephisto
804
8054/25 Orlando (Impact TV tapings): Petey Williams b Jake Crist, Ortiz & Santana b Trevor Lee & Caleb Konley, Taya Valkyrie b Rebel Brian Cage b Dezmond Xavier, Madison Rayne b Tessa Blanchard, Trevor Lee & Caleb Konley b KM & Fallah Bahh, Katarina Leigh b Scarlett Bordeaux, Brian Cage b Rohit Raju, Tag titles: Andrew Everett & DJZ b Drago & Aerostar, Moose b Kongo Kong, Eli Drake b Scott Steiner, X title: Matt Sydal b El Hijo del Fantasma, Grado b Rohit Raju
806
8074/25 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (All Japan - 1,568 sellout): Shuji Ishikawa & Atsushi Aoki & Hikaru Sato & Yusuke Okada b Takao Omori & Masa Fuchi & Osamu Nishimura & Ishinriki, Ryoji Sai & Yuji Hino & Tajiri & Atsushi Maruyama b Kento Miyahara & Joe Doering & Koji Iwamoto & Yohei Nakajima, Shingo Takagi b Naoya Nomura, Yutaka Yoshie b Yoshitatsu, Kai b Zeus, Dylan James b Suwama, Naomichi Marufuji b Jun Akiyama
808
8094/26 Orlando (WWE NXT - 400): Ricochet b Kassius Ohno, Reina Gonzalez b Jessie Elaban, Mars Wang & Rocky & Big Boa b Chad Lail & Steve Cutler & Wesley Blake, Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford b Cezar Bononi & Adrian Jaoude, Tommaso Ciampa b Danny Burch, Adam Cole & Kyle O’Reilly b Shane Thorne & Nick Miller, Dakota Kai won three-way over Vanessa Borne and Bianca Belair, NXT title: Aleister Black b Christopher Dijak
810
8114/26 Kakogawa (New Japan - 1,051): Ren Narita b Yota Tsuji, Shota Umino b Yuya Uemura, Yuji Nagata & Tiger Mask b Tomoyuki Oka & Shota Umino, Rocky Romero & Sho & Yoh b Takashi Iizuka & Taka Michinoku & Taichi-DQ, Jay White & Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano & Yoshi-Hashi b Togi Makabe & Michael Elgin & David Finlay & Toa Henare, Minoru Suzuki & Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Desperado b Tetsuya Naito & Evil & Seiya Sanada & Bushi & Hiromu Takahashi, Kazuchika Okada & Hirooki Goto & Will Ospreay & Gedo b Hiroshi Tanahashi & Juice Robinson & Kushida & Ryusuke Taguchi
812
8134/26 Orlando (Impact TV tapings): Grado b Caleb Konley, El Hijo del Fantasma b Jake Crist, Tag titles: Ortiz & Santana b Andrew Everett & DJZ to win titles, Scott Steiner b KM, Madison Rayne b Taya Valkyrie, X title: Matt Sydal b Brian Cage-COR, Dezmond Xavier b Petey Williams, Tessa Blanchard b Keira Hogan, Pentagon Jr. & El Hijo del Fantasma b Dave & Jake Crist, Non-title: Su Yung b Diamante, Eli Drake b Fallah Bahh
814
8154/27 Gainesville, FL (WWE NXT - 350): Raul Mendoza b Kona Reeves, Lacey Evans b Jessie Elaban, War Raiders b Marcel Barthel & Fabian Aichner, Lars Sullivan b Kyle O’Reilly, Velveteen Dream b Christopher Dijak, Ricochet b Buddy Murphy, Dakota Kai & Steffanie Newell b Vanessa Borne & Reina Gonzalez, NXT title: Aleister Black b Tino Sabbatelli
816
8174/27 Hiroshima (New Japan - 2,003 sellout): Ren Narita b Yuya Uemaru, Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask & Ryusuke Taguchi b Yuji Nagata & Tomoyuki Oka & Shota Umino, Rocky Romero & Sho & Yoh b Takashi Iizuka & Taka Michinoku & Taichi, Togi Makabe & Michael Elgin & David Finlay & Toa Henare b Jay White & Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano & Yoshi-Hashi, Tetsuya Naito & Evil & Seiya Sanada & Bushi & Hiromu Takahashi b Minoru Suzuki & Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Never Open weight title: Hirooki Goto b Juice Robinson, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kushida b Kazuchika Okada & Will Ospreay
818
8194/27 Mexico City Arena Mexico (CMLL - 6,000): Drone & Audaz & Triton b Okumura & Tiger & Virus, Soberano Jr. & Stuka Jr. & Titan b Cuatrero & Forastero & Sanso, Hair vs. hair: Princesa Sugehit b Seductora, El Terrible & Rey Bucanero & Hechicero b Angel de Oro & Diamante Azul & Niebla Roja, Kraneo b Rush, Atlantis & Mistico & Volador Jr. b Ultimo Guerrero & Negro Casas & Cavernario
820
8214/27 West Palm Beach, FL (ROH - 700): Jay Lethal b Scorpio Sky, Josh Woods b Shane Taylor, Deonna Purrazzo b Kelly Klein, Marty Scurll b Kenny King, Young Bucks & Adam Page b Vinny Marseglia & TK O’Ryan & Matt Taven, Shaheem Ali & LSG won four-way over Silas Young & Beer City Bruiser, Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian and Rhett Titus & Will Ferrara, Cody b Punishment Martinez, ROH title: Dalton Castle b Flip Gordon, Tag titles: Mark & Jay Briscoe b Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley
822
8234/28 Largo, FL (WWE NXT - 400): Jeet Rama b Fabian Aichner, Kairi Sane b Taynara Conti, War Raiders b Adrian Jaoude & Cezar Bononi, Kassius Ohno b Oney Lorcan, Otis Dozovic & Montez Ford b Nick Miller & Shane Thorne, EC 3 b Christopher Dijak, Women’s title: Shayna Baszler b Steffanie Newell, Velveteen Dream b Tino Sabbatelli
824
8254/28 Lakeland, FL (ROH - 700): Rhett Titus & Will Ferrara b David Mercury & ?, Shaheem Ali & LSG b Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley, Cheeseburger b Serpentico-DQ, Matt Taven won four-way over Josh Woods, Beer City Bruiser and Kenny King, Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian b Vinny Marseglia & TK O’Ryan, Flip Gordon b Scorpio Sky, Deonna Purrazzo b Ava Storie, Jay Lethal b Shane Taylor, Elimination match: Cody & Marty Scurll & Young Bucks b Dalton Castle & Mark & Jay Briscoe & Silas Young
826
8274/28 Skip (Pro Wrestling NOAH - 216 sellout): Hitoshi Kumano b Junta Miyawaki, Mohammed Yone & Quiet Storm b Maybach Taniguchi & Masao Inoue, Hi69 & Minoru Tanaka & Yoshinari Ogawa b Daisuke Harada & Tadasuke & Yo-Hey, Kaito Kiyomiya b Cody Hall, Katsuhiko Nakajima & Masa Kitamiya b Go Shiozaki & Hayata, Naomichi Marufuji & Atsushi Kotoge & Hajime Ohara b Takashi Sugiura & Kenou & Akitoshi Saito
828
8294/28 Matsubara (Dragon Gate - 600): Punch Tominga b Oji Shiiba, Masato Yoshino & Jason Lee b Dragon Kid & Gamma, Masaaki Mochizuki & BxB Hulk b Don Fujii & Genki Horiguchi, BxB Hulk b Hollywood Stalker Ichikawa, Masaaki Mochizuki b Hollywood Stalker Ichikawa, Don Fujii b Hollywood Stalker Ichikawa, Yamato & Yosuke Santa Maria b Ryo Saito & Hiroaki Moriya, Kzy & Susumu Yokosuka b Yasushi Kanda & Takashi Yoshida, Eita & Lindaman & Shingo Takagi b Naruki Doi & Big R Shimizu & Ben K
830
8314/29 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (All Japan - 1,605 sellout): Atsushi Aoki & Yusuke Okada b Koji Iwamoto & Ishinriki, Masa Fuchi & Osamu Nishimura & Yoshitatsu b Takao Omori & Atsushi Maruyama & Tajiri, Jun Akiyama & Suwama & Zeus & Hikaru Sato b Yutaka Yoshie & Dylan James & Kai & Yohei Nakajima, The Bodyguard b Ryoji Sai, Naoya Nomura b Joe Doering, Shuji Ishikawa b Shingo Takagi, Kento Miyahara b Yuji Hino
832
8334/29 Mexico City Arena Mexico (CMLL - 6,000): Fantasy & Ultimo Dragoncito b Pequeno Olimpico & Pequeno Violencia, Cancerbero & Disturbio & Raziel b Flyer & Magnus & Star Jr., Vaquerita & Marcela & Princesa Sugehit b Dalys & Seductora & Zeuxis-DQ, Angel & Chamuel & Gallito & Mije b Atomo & Guapito & Microman & Zacarias, Microcman won Cibernetico over Chamuel, Gallito, Mije, Angel, Zacarias, Atomo and Guapito, Ephesto & Mephisto & Luciferno b Niebla Roja & Stuka Jr. & Titan, Diamante Azul & Mistico & Volador Jr. b Euforia & Gran Guerrero & Ultimo Guerrero
834
8354/29 Niigata (Pro Wrestling NOAH - 1,200): Maybach Taniguchi b Junta Miyawaki, Hayata & Yo-Hey b Yoshinari Ogawa & Hajime Ohara, Naomichi Marufuji & Mohammed Yone & Quiet Storm b Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue & Hitoshi Kumano, Kenso b Mitsuya Nagai, Kenou b Cody Hall, Daisuke Harada & Tadasuke b Hi69 & Minoru Tanaka, GHC tag titles: Go Shiozaki & Kaito Kiyomiya b Katsuhiko Nakajima & Masa Kitamiya to win titles, GHC title: Takashi Sugiura b Atsushi Kotoge
836
8374/29 Kagawa (Dragon Gate - 466): Eita & Lindaman & Yasushi Kanda b Problem Dragon & Kaito Ishida & K-Ness, Don Fujii b Yuki Yoshioka, Kzy & Susumu Yokosuka b Naruki Doi & Shun Skywalker, Masaaki Mochizuki & Yosuke Santa Maria b Dragon Kid & Ryo Saito, Masato Yoshino & Jason Lee & Ben K b Yamato & U-T & BxB Hulk
838
8394/30 Montreal (WWE Raw/Main Event TV tapings - 13,500): Lince Dorado & Gran Metalik b Jack Gallagher & Brian Kendrick, Tyler Breeze & Fandango b Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder, Elias b Bobby Roode, Authors of Pain b John Paul & Francois, Ruby Riott b Sasha Banks, Roman Reigns & Braun Strowman & Bobby Lashley b Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn & Jinder Mahal, No Way Jose b Baron Corbin, Natalya b Mickie James, IC title: Seth Rollins b Finn Balor
840
8414/30 Ottawa, ONT (WWE Smackdown - 4,200): Asuka & Naomi & Becky Lynch b Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville & Lana, Big Cass b Tye Dillinger, Four-way for tag titles: Luke Harper & Erick Rowan won over Rusev & Aiden English, Usos and Big E & Kofi Kingston, Shelton Benjamin b Sin Cara, Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson b Sheamus & Cesaro, Women’s title: Charlotte Flair b Carmella-DQ, A.J. Styles & Jeff Hardy b Samoa Joe & Shinsuke Nakamura
842
8434/30 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (All Japan - 1,647 sellout): Takao Omori & Yutaka Yoshie b Masa Fuchi & Osamu Nishimura, Elimination match: Koji Iwamoto & Yohei Nakajima & Atsushi Maruyama b Atsushi Aoki & Hikaru Sato & Yusuke Okada, Suwama & Shuji Ishikawa b Naoya Nomura & Yoshitatsu, Tajiri & Kai b Ryoji Sai & Dylan James, Jun Akiyama & Joe Doering & Yuji Hino b Zeus & The Bodyguard & Shingo Takagi, Champion Carnival final: Naomichi Marufuji b Kento Miyahara
844
8454/30 Aira (New Japan - 2,639 sellout): Yuji Nagata & Ren Narita b Tomoyuki Oka & Yota Tsuji, Rocky Romero & Sho & Yoh b Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask & Shota Umino, Takashi Iizuka & Taichi b Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens, Michael Elgin & Juice Robinson & David Finlay & Toa Henare b Hirooki Goto & Jay White & Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano, Tetsuya Naito & Evil & Seiya Sanada & Bushi & Hiromu Takahashi b Minoru Suzuki & Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Desperado, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Togi Makabe & Kushida & Ryusuke Taguchi b Kazuchika Okada & Yoshi-Hashi & Will Ospreay & Gedo, Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi b Zack Sabre Jr. & Taka Michinoku
846
8474/30 Fukui (Dragon Gate - 600): Yuki Yoshioka b Oji Shiiba, Masato Yoshino & Jason Lee & Ben K b Dragon Kid & Gamma & Kaito Ishida, Susumu Yokosuka b Hyo Watanabe, Don Fujii & Ryo Saito b Masaaki Mochizuki & Shun Skywalker, Naruki Doi & Big R Shimizu b Kzy & Kagetora, Yamato & BxB Hulk & Yosuke Santa Maria b Eita & Takashi Yoshida & Lindaman
848
8495/1 Montreal (WWE Smackdown/205 Live TV tapings - 8,900): Usos b Rusev & Aiden English, Jeff Hardy & Randy Orton b The Miz & Shelton Benjamin, Xavier Woods b Sheamus, Asuka & Charlotte Flair & Becky Lynch b Peyton Royce & Billie Kay & Carmella, Jack Gallagher & Brian Kendrick b Hideo Itami & Akira Tozawa, Buddy Murphy b Liam Louie, Drew Gulak b Kalisto, Daniel Bryan b Shinsuke Nakamura-DQ
850
8515/1 Oita (New Japan - 1,246 sellout): Tomoyuki Oka & Shota Umino b Yuji Nagata & Yuya Uemaru, Rocky Romero & Sho & Yoh b Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask & Ren Narita, Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr. b Chase Owens & Yujiro Takahashi, Hirooki Goto & Jay White & Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano b Michael Elgin & Juice Robinson & David Finlay & Toa Henare, Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi b Takashi Iizuka & Taichi, Minoru Suzuki & Zack Sabre Jr. & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Desperado & Taka Michinoku b Tetsuya Naito & Evil & Seiya Sanada & Bushi & Hiromu Takahashi, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Togi Makabe & Kushida & Ryusuke Taguchi b Kazuchika Okada & Yoshi-Hashi & Will Ospreay & Gedo
852
8535/1 Mexico City Arena Mexico (CMLL - 4,000): Bengala & Leono b Grako & Principe Odin Jr., Angelito & Shockercito & Stukita b Pequeno Nitro & Pequeno Olimpico & Pequeno Universo 2000, Puma & Tiger & Universo 2000 Jr. b Blue Panther Jr. & Drone & The Panther, Dragon Rojo Jr. & Okumura & Polvora b Rey Cometa & Stuka Jr. & Titan, Mexican national welterweight title: Soberano Jr. b Magia Blanca, Caristico & Diamante Azul & Niebla Roja b Mr. Niebla & Ultimo Guerrero & Rey Bucanero
854
855CMLL: Jorge Huaracha Lopez, best known as As Charro, passed away on 4/28 at the age of 68. As Charro had a reputation in the 70s for being a great worker, but injuries caught up with him in the 80s. He had a couple of memorable matches late in his career, as he lost his mask in the main event of the September 18, 1987, CMLL Anniversary show at Arena Mexico to Mogur and lost his hair in a hair vs. mask match on February 24, 1989, to Konnan, in Tijuana. He had a reputation that wouldn’t go over today. Even at the end of his career when his body was beaten up, he had so much legitimate wrestling skill from his amateur training that he’d legitimately outwrestle them in matches, put them in holds they couldn’t get out of and what today would be called taking liberties and be considered a bully or unprofessional. But in those days it was just considered part of working with a veteran who could really wrestle and it wasn’t at all viewed negatively. One wrestler who worked with him and is still active, noted upon his death how much wrestling has changed, both for the good and the bad. But said guys like As Charro were real tough men, not boys and you really don’t have guys like him around in modern wrestling. No cause of death was released. Physically he had paid the price for being a great bumper on those hard rings in the 70s and had slowed down in the 80s. He was an amateur wrestler growing up, and wasn’t a fan of pro wrestling. But he would work out with the pro wrestlers as a young boy, and they taught him pro wrestling while he’d teach them amateur wrestling. He was only 15 when he started, in 1964, under the name Apache Lopez. Later he became the masked wrestler Yuma II, and after that, Barba Roja. Valente Lopez, the editor of Lucha Libre magazine, who was super influential in the business (he had created the Mil Mascaras character years earlier) gave him the new name and ring gear to be As Charro, which means Charro Ace. He wrestled a wild style in the 70s which led to a lot of injuries. He was described as the Mick Foley of 1970s Mexico, not close to Foley’s level of star power, but in his taking so many risks. He had a big match at Plaza Mexico on October 11, 1975, where he and Gallo Tapado won a double mask vs. mask match with Chicano Power and Sangre Fria, which would have been a major match because all four were significant stars at the time. He did so well in that match that CMLL brought him in as a star in early 1976. The Mogur feud in 1987 was big, although the anniversary mask vs. mask match failed to sell out, doing 12,680 fans. The basic story behind it was that in 1987, Salvador Lutteroth, who ran EMLL (now CMLL) passed away, and Chavo Lutteroth hired Antonio Pena to book the promotion. Chavo Lutteroth’s idea for the 1987 big show was to create a junior version of the Pareja Atomicos (the original team, arguably the most famous tag team in Lucha history was El Santo & Gori Guerrero, so the idea was to put El Hijo del Santo with Eddy Guerrero). The idea was also to give a push to Mogur, who was a soccer player who was of nearly national team level who got into wrestling. Chavo Lutteroth felt that it was too early for Mogur to beat a big name and win his mask. As Charro was working for the promotion and had already told them he was going to wind down his career due to injuries, so he got the nod to lose the mask match. He was limited by then and it got worse over the next few years and retired due to injuries in 1993. He became a chiropractor in Mexico City, but in recent years had been bound to a wheelchair. Thanks to Steve Sims and Fredo Esparza of Lucha World for his career info
856
857The 4/27 show at Arena Mexico was the 62nd anniversary of pro wrestling at the building, Really, except for a mid-card women’s hair vs. hair match, it was just a typical Friday night, with regular ticket prices and nothing except the anniversary of the building tag. And the labeling and women’s match didn’t mean all that much since the crowd was 6,000,which is roughly the usual Friday night crowd. The story of Arena Mexico is unique as it’s the only arena of its size with its story. Wrestling was run in Arena Coliseo in Mexico City, which the Lutteroth family (the EMLL promotion) built and opened it up on April 2, 1943, as their home base. But wrestling, with stars like El Santo and Blue Demon, had gotten so popular they were selling that arena, which in its original conformation, held closer to 8,000, far too often and turning too many people away. That arena still exists but has been refurbished and currently holds 5,500 fans. That arena is still used for weekly Saturday night shows. In particular, the promotion realized in the 1952 El Santo vs. Black Shadow mask match, that they were turning away ridiculous numbers of people for their big matches, so they themselves built a bigger building for Mexico. Arena Mexico opened on April 27, 1956, drawing a sellout of 17,678 fans (although all reports at the time listed the attendance at 25,000) for a match with Santo & Medico Asesino vs. Demon & Rolando Vera. It’s virtually a lock that no building in history has drawn as many fans to it for pro wrestling as Arena Mexico, which has been the showcase arena for 62 years and runs multiple shows per week. This week had a fast main event where Atlantis & Mistico & Volador Jr. beat Ultimo Guerrero & Negro Casas & Cavernario which went less than 10:00 for three rushed falls. Kraneo beat Rush in a singles match, with Rush losing the first fall via DQ, and the second fall when Kraneo gave him a low blow and pinned him with a splash off the top. Princesa Sugehit beat Seductora in the women’s hair vs. hair match in about 20:00 with a Michinoku driver. They did draw a larger than usual crowd as Mistico was heavily booed every time he tags in, which means that the older hardcore fans who now only attend the big events came for this one
858
859The 5/4 Arena Mexico show is built around the A block of the Gran Alternativa tournament, with the star and newcomer teams. It’s a three-week tournament. The first week has Atlantis & Magia Blanca, Volador Jr. & Flyer, Mistico & Electrico, Angel de Oro & Robin, El Terrible & El Hijo del Signo, Mephisto & Yago, Ephesto & Maquivelo and Hechicero & Espanto Jr. They also have a Rush vs. Ultimo Guerrero match and Blue Panther & Kraneo & Valiente vs. Cuatrero & Forastero & Sanson
860
861The major Arena Mexico Kids day show on 4/29 built around the Micros as a special attraction. They did a Cibernetico match withe the micros, won by Microman, who is the star of the group, and the match was heavily praised. They also drew about 6,000 fans which is way above what Sundays usually draw, but it’s not like when the micros debuted last year and nearly packed the place. After the match they had a security guy carry him around in his arms so children in the audience could touch him and hand money into his cup. He won with a double moonsault, first off the bottom rope and then the middle, which looked crazy given how tiny he is
862
863Because 4/30 was Kids Day, which is traditionally the biggest day of the year for wrestling, with tons of shows all over the country, the CMLL show on 4/30 in Puebla with the minis drew about 5,000 fans. They did an angle on that card to set up Volador Jr. & Valiente defending the CMLL tag title against the unique team of Ultimo Guerrero & Caristico on 5/7 in Puebla
864
865The 5/1 show at Arena Mexico did 4,000 fans, double the usual Tuesday night house, with Soberano Jr. beating Magia Blanca to keep the Mexican national welterweight title in what I was told was a **** match. It was the best Blanca has looked, Soberano did a great job of carrying him and fans threw money.
866
867AAA: Konnan did publicly say that he’s back with AAA as booker and television writer. He was in charge at the last tapings in Tijuana and Vampiro was still there running the Gorilla position. His return is one of those things that happens when you have two sides who may have hated each other a year ago, but now each needs the other. AAA’s booking had been horrendous the past several months. Konnan has a falling out with The Crash, and as much as people make up and time heals all wounds, Konnan will likely never be back in CMLL, let alone actually in an office position. AAA is already pushing Sammy Guevara and Darby Allin as coming in, either on or before Verano de Escandalo
868
869Other names that haven’t been announced but are being talked about are DJZ and Rich Swann
870
871Verano de Escandalo was announced for 6/3 at the Plaza de Toros (bullring) Monumental in Monterrey with a lot of holes in the show given a lot of people have yet to debut. The main event will be Dr. Wagner Jr. defending the AAA Mega heavyweight title against Rey Mysterio Jr. and a surprise third person. Psycho Clown & El Hijo del Fantasma face a surprise tag team. Averno & Chessman & Super Fly face Mocho Cota Jr. & Tito Santana & Carta Brava Jr. where the loser of the fall loses his hair. Pagano & La Mascara & Maximo face Juventud Guerrera & El Texano Jr. & a surprise third man. Drago vs. Sammy Guevara vs. Aerostar vs. Australian Suicide vs. a surprise wrestler with the winner getting a shot at the heavyweight title down the line and two more matches yet to be announced. One of the surprise wrestlers will be Allin
872
873They are doing a storyline where the MAD group, the new heels coming in, doing the latest NWO remake, were responsible for all the production screw-ups at last week’s show in Tijuana. Well, it makes for a good cover.
874
875DRAGON GATE: A correction regarding Cima from last week. While he is now working full-time with the Shanghai, China-based Oriental Wrestling Entertainment promotion and lead trainer, he still has an affiliation with Dragon Gate. Oriental Wrestling Entertainment is a group with a lot of wrestlers that were converted Shaolin Kung Fu guys, as one of the OWE owners is a former director of the Shaolin Kung Fu PR firm and has highlighted Shaolin Kung Fu in his movies. Dragon Gate and OWE have a relationship. Dragon Gate has sent wrestlers to China for the first few OWE shows that have been live streamed in that country. But Cima hasn’t quit Dragon Gate, and is scheduled for the 5/4 show in Kobe although he’ll be off the Dead or Alive show and won’t be in the King of Gate tournament and his main focus in helping build the new promotion
876
877On the 4/28 show in Matsubara, they announced perennial cult favorite job guy Hollywood Stalker Ichikawa would have three matches, against BxB Hulk, Masaaki Mochizuki and Don Fujii. Well, he lost to Hulk in nine seconds with a head kick. Then he lost to Mochizuki with a head kick in 12 seconds. He lasted longer with Fujii, losing in 2:55 when he tried for a German suplex, but collapsed with Fujii on top of him.
878
879ALL JAPAN: Jake Lee and Yuma Aoyagi will be returning soon from injuries. Aoyagi, who was being pushed as the company’s rising star before getting hurt, will be 6/5
880
881On the 4/30 show, Atsushi Maruyama was in a six-man elimination match, teaming with Yohei Nakajima & Koji Iwamoto against jr. champ Atsushi Aoki & Hikaru Sato & Yosuke Okada. Maruyama and Aoki were the last two and Maruyama pinned him, to set up a jr. title match. Okada suffered an ankle injury in that match and is now out of action
882
883Kazuki Ebina, a rookie who just started on 4/7, quit the company on 4/20. Takao Omori, one of the company directors, said that Ebina wasn’t 100 percent mentally into being disciplined enough for the type of work everyone has to put forth while on tour
884
885Ryoji Sai & Dylan James will be defending the World tag titles on a 6/3 show in Kobe against Tajiri & Kai. The main event will be the Masakatsu Funaki 33rd anniversary match with Funaki & Suwama & Hikaru Sato vs. Jun Akiyama & Kendo Kashin & Black Tiger VII.
886
887PRO WRESTLING NOAH: The big show of the month was 4/29 in Niigata before 1,200 fans. Takashi Sugiura retained the GHC heavyweight title beating Atsushi Kotoge in 23:07 after an Olympic slam. After the match, Naomichi Marufuji came out to issue the next challenge, and that match will be on 5/29 at Korakuen Hall. There was also a GHC tag team title match where Go Shiozaki & Kaito Kiyomiya won the titles from Katsuhiko Nakajima & Masa Kitamiya in 23:15 when Kiyomiya pinned Kitamiya after a small package. Nakajima & Kitamiya attacked the new champions after the match. The 5/29 show will be a rematch between the two teams. The jr. tag titles will also be up on 5/29 as champions Hi69 & Minoru Tanaka defend against Daisuke Harada & Tadasuke.
888
889NEW JAPAN: There will be a 6/29 show in Daytona Beach, which isn’t a full New Japan show, but will be New Japan branded with a number of New Japan wrestlers. It’s part of the CEO gaming convention which Kenny Omega is a big part of and he and Alex Jebailey of CEO are the promoters of the show and are financing it as part of the convention. They are charging $20 to $100 for tickets and still putting together the final details on the show but it will be a five match main card, set for about two hours, aimed at people in town for the convention. There will also be one dark match. Because both Revolution Pro and ROH are running that weekend, a lot of the key talent already had commitments, but Omega & Ibushi will be there along with Jeff Cobb, Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa, Chase Owens, Rocky Romero, Sho, Yoh, Ryusuke Taguchi, Dragon Lee, Hiromu Takahashi and Juice Robinson. Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii and the key members of Suzuki-gun are in the U.K. that weekend. The ring will be in the area of the fighting game community tournament and the announcers for the show will come from the fighting game world and not the pro wrestling world.
890
891.New Japan has signed a deal with J One FR, a Viacom owned cable channel in France for a weekly Saturday at 8:30 p.m. time slot with an 11:30 p.m. replay, starting on 5/5. The channel they are on in France is a small cable channel dedicated to Japanese culture, such as anime, and is part of MTV Networks Europe. They will start by airing matches from WrestleKingdom, so about four months behind. They will be the only wrestling outside of WWE on television in the country
892
893The best match in my opinion of the week here was the Hirooki Goto vs. Juice Robinson match on the 4/27 show in Hiroshima for the Never Open weight title, before a sellout of 2,003 fans at the smaller Green Arena. It was a simple match with basic moves, hard shots, clotheslines, suplexes, really nothing out of the ordinary but the story of Robinson going for the title got over. They really made you want to see the title change, and the crowd reacted in a very special way to where watching it, it felt like this was the time to change the title. Robinson has already lost on several big singles matches and has gotten over to where it’s time to give him that added push. But that wasn’t in the direction, as Goto won in 26:36 with the GTR in a **** match. After the match, Michael Elgin came out to challenge Goto, as did Taichi. It appeared they may do a three-way, and I hope that’s not the case because one of the reasons they’ve been able to rebuild their singles titles after a long period where people didn’t care was doing straight singles and almost all clean finishes. It could also end up being two different people getting title shots over the next several weeks. The main event was a bout to set up the final show main events for the tour, with Tanahashi & Kushida beating Okada & Will Ospreay in 18:15 when Tanahashi pinned Ospreay with the high fly flow, which was also significantly better than anything at Hi No Kuni
894
895Business has been strong this tour with the exception of Korakuen Hall, which they are running too often in a city used to the best and clearly fans see the main events as not must-sees. Plus it was hurt because All Japan’s Champion Carnival has been presenting much bigger matches this month in the building
896
897Speaking of running too often at Korakuen Hall, during the Best of the Super Juniors tournament, which runs from 5/18 to 6/4, they have Korakuen Hall dates on 5/18, 5/19, 5/22, 6/3 and 6/4, all of which will be live on New Japan World. Those are the only live shows listed for the tournament but last year on non-live shows, the tournament matches aired a few hours later on the service
898
899A house show on 4/30 in Aira City drew a sellout of 2,639 with nothing special on the show, headlined by the Golden Lovers beating Zack Sabre Jr. & Taka Michinoku when they used the Golden Trigger to pin Michinoku in 17:24.
900
901OTHER JAPAN NOTES: Toshiaki Kawada produced a show on 4/26 at Shinkiba in Tokyo before a full house of 298 fans. Kawada, Naomichi Marufuji, Tamon Honda and referee Kyohei Wada took part in a ceremony for Motoko Baba. All the wrestlers on the show came to ringside for it. Kawada and Marufuji did a talk show with the audience. They talked about Kawada’s winning the Champion Carnival tournament (he won in 1994 and 1997) and how Marufuji was headed to the finals. Marufuji talked about starting in All Japan 20 years ago. Marufuji asked Kawada to come back for one more match on 9/1, which is Marufuji’s 20th anniversary show. Kawada didn’t say yes or no. Kawada said he would be doing another show on 7/8. The main event on the show saw Go Shiozaki & Kaito Kiyomiya & Kazusada Higuchi (from DDT) beating veterans Shiro Koshinaka & Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Tamon Honda when Shiozaki pinned Honda, his former teacher, with a lariat
902
903DDT ran on 4/29 at Korakuen Hall and drew 1,279 fans. Shigehiro Irie beat Konosuke Takeshita in 18:17 to win the KO-D open weight title. Irie left the promotion for a few months and returned doing an anti-DDT heel angle and ended the more than one year title run. The Korakuen Hall crowd was going crazy for the ending of the match and I was told this was a **** match. Harashima also won the Extreme title beating Yuko Miyamoto. Usually that title is for extreme rules matches but Miyamoto wanted to prove he could beat Harashima, his former tag team partner, in a normal match, and it didn’t happen. Harashima faces Kudo next on 5/18. Also in DDT, Kota Umeda won a tournament on their show on Abema TV to determine a new star that the company would get behind. Kazuki Hirata and Sanshiro Takagi both loses matches that would exile them from Japan, but on the 4/30 show, they were back under masks as the supposed Mexican team of Hiratimo Dragon & Takatimo Dragon
904
905Jason Kincaid from WWN just debuted in DDT
906
907The Stardom Cinderella tournament took place on 4/30 at Korakuen Hall, with Momo Watanabe beating Bea Priestley in the finals in a really good match. Priestly performed above expectations based on reports we got and Watanabe is Stardom’s breakthrough star this year. It ended up being the championship match because Io Shirai and Mayu Iwatani went to a 10:00 draw, meaning both were eliminated. It was a fast paced show since all matches had 10:00 time limits except the final match. Watanabe will get a shot at Shirai’s title at a future date. Priestly beat Session Moth Martina and Hazuki to reach the finals. Watanabe beat Konami and Jungle Kyona. Brandi Rhodes made her Japanese debut, and got a first round win over Natsu Sumire. Rhodes is very inexperienced compared to the women who come here and at 34, is starting out in Japan much older as well. It was real tough in her matches because of that. She lost to Shirai in the second round.
908
909HERE AND THERE: Tony Schiavone signed a multi-year deal with MLW to be their television announcer
910
911What may be the final PWG show ever in Reseda is on 5/25, with Walter vs. Sammy Guevara for the PWG title, Keith Lee vs. Adam Brooks, Bandido vs. Robbie Eagles, Matt Riddle vs. David Starr, Timothy Thatcher vs. Jonah Rock, Rey Horus vs. Jake Atlas and Tyler Bateman vs. Trevor Lee. It’s being billed as “Bask in my Glory,” and the farewell to Keith Lee, which I guess tells you everything you aren’t supposed to know about Lee and WWE. Lee is expected to start with NXT in Orlando shortly. Even though this is probably the weakest show I can recall from a star power standpoint and tickets prices have increased greatly over the past year because of demand, this show sold out instantly. There had been some talk when the lineup came out that the show wouldn’t sell out at all given the ticket prices. They’ve also announced a 7/13 show at the Globe Theater in Los Angeles, and the Battle of Los Angeles tournament will take place 9/14 to 9/16, also at the Globe Theater
912
913Bryan Alvarez and I are doing a live podcast and Q&A session on 7/7 before the New Japan show at the Cow Palace. It will take place at the Westin at the San Francisco Airport with a pre-show meet and greet at 9:45 a.m. and the live show starting at 11 a.m. Tickets are available at brownpapertickets.com
914
915Arolucha will have a show on 6/17 in Nashville at the Fairgrounds, the site of their first taping. They are promoting it as “Rey Mysterio & Arolucha present.” This is not a TV taping, although they are planning on taping television this summer. This doesn’t mean Mysterio won’t go to WWE, but he has bookings for the next few months and my impression was that if they make a deal, and the feeling is positive on that, it would probably start late summer rather than now. Negotiations with Mysterio and WWE are still going on but there is no deal and Paul Levesque was so busy in Saudi Arabia doing countless things that they never talked contract there but probably will when Levesque’s schedule gives him the time. I’d rate it as more than likely they’ll make a deal but it’s not as simple as most since Mysterio can make big money for minimal dates outside WWE and he doesn’t want to work a full schedule. Mysterio this week is filming a national TV ad in Mexico for ice pops
916
917The situation with Harry Smith (Davey Boy Smith Jr.) and Aurelian Smith Jr. (Jake Roberts) was settled between them after a phone conversation between the two on 4/28. At WrestleCon, Harry had approached Scott Hall about an Internet tweet where Hall ran down his father. Hall then apologized for it. Then he went to Roberts and wanted him to apologize for things he said about his father on a podcast with Roddy Piper. Roberts refused, saying it was the truth. Smith asked him to step outside to talk more about it not in front of fans and Roberts wouldn’t, and then Smith threw coffee on Roberts. Roberts’ daughter then got furious and actually pulled Smith’s watch off and Smith walked away, she called the police and he filed charges. Bret Hart was at an autograph signing with Roberts on 4/28 and pretty much mediated the deal and set up them talking to each other and Roberts agreed to drop all charges and both apologized to the other for their behavior. Roberts said he understood everyone and talked about how his father was also in the business and Smith agreed he would write a public apology because he wanted it to be public that they spoke and settled everything. Smith then wrote: “I’d like to announce publicly and officially that I spoke with Jake Roberts on the phone today and we squashed heat we have for what happened at the WrestleCon event. I apologized and said I would apologize publicly as Jake agreed he would be dropping any charges pressed against me. I’m a man of my word, and I’d like to say sorry to any fans that I stressed with this situation also. I wish Jake all the best and glad that we squashed this heat. I actually had spoken to Roddy Piper before he passed away about the podcast Jake and he did. I’m certainly glad we worked things out, as Roddy died not long after.” Technically the case was still open in New Orleans but Roberts said he was dropping it and the New Orleans Police didn’t appear interested in it to any degree since Smith’s lawyer gave him his number from the start to cooperate and nobody had even called since a case of a wrestler throwing coffee on another wrestler isn’t exactly a high priority
918
919Gil Arrelano, the owner of Gil’s Gym in Los Angeles, which was where most of the people in the Los Angeles Lucha Libre scene over the past few decades got their start, passed away on 4/28. He had been in hospice care and he actually passed away at about the same time a benefit show was going on for him. He had an auto garage and opened up part of it to put in a ring in 1970 and opened it up for wrestlers to train. He was one of the key people in setting up the local area independent Lucha Libre scene and he wrestled as Falcon de Oro, who was one of the top stars. He also wrestled in Mexico and South America during his career
920
921Things continue to not be going well for Leon “Vader” White. He wrote that on 4/27, he felt a sharp pain in his right hip and chest and got up, blacked out, fell forward and was knocked out on landing. He injured his chest and right hip, was in terrible pain, and was taken back to the hospital
922
923Hulk Hogan is being inducted into the Boys & Girls Club Hall of Fame on 5/2 in a ceremony in San Diego. He’s among club alumni including Terrell Davis, Shaun White, Matt Bonner and others being inducted this year. Hogan claimed that he rode his bicycle five miles every day to attend the Interbay Club of Tampa Bay and played baseball, and learned to swim and dive. I don’t hope that Hogan’s statements are the death penalty for him as far as being in the public eye, but it does make me uncomfortable for the Boys & Girls club to overlook them when it comes to a Hall of Fame induction
924
925Dylan “Hornswoggle” Postl is writing an autobiography for ECW Press called, “Life is Short–And So Am I.” He’s working with Ross Owen Williams, who co-wrote the Bob Holly autobiography which is one of the better books of its type, and really along with Bret Hart’s, the best book when it comes to that 90s WWF era
926
927David Lagana, who is William Corgan’s key assistant in running the NWA, was on Sean Waltman’s podcast and said that when Tim Storm was NWA champion, one of the promoters offered him more than $10,000 to double-cross Corgan and drop the NWA title
928
929SoCal Pro Wrestling owner and promoter Jeff Dino was married on 4/29 in Oceanside, CA in a wedding that included a lot of area independent wrestlers. During the wedding the bride and groom received a surprise video speech by John Cena
930
931Brian Pillman Jr., who has been working indies, suffered a torn PCL and is on crutches
932
933Regarding the question that has been asked of us a lot since the Andre story, and that was if Andre ever lost to Jerry Lawler via count out. The back story is that in 1977, there was a story in one of the Weston wrestling magazines, which were the magazines Bill Apter did where they made up stories and interviews. They had photos of a match with Andre vs. Jerry Lawler, and their story was “The Night Andre the Giant lost to a midget,” with the idea he lost to Lawler. A few months later, at the annual NWA convention (Vince McMahon Sr. was an NWA member), McMahon gave a speech about people ruining the business and in particular wrestling magazines with stories like that. Vince booked Andre and they always pushed Andre was undefeated (he wasn’t), and the Weston wrestling magazines always played up people like Andre, Bruno Sammartino, Dusty Rhodes and Mil Mascaras as larger-than-life. So even when Andre lost to The Sheik, they didn’t cover it, nor would Vince have been happy about it. But were just doing a creative story with the idea of a fluke count out loss, not like he got beat, but Vince was furious at both Lawler and Bill Apter. The count out win actually never happened. The match in question was on April 5, 1977, at the Louisville Gardens. Jim Cornette sent in the photos. Andre sold to a degree for Lawler, who was the lead heel in the territory at the time. Lawler mostly bumped like crazy for Andre, but Andre did sell when Lawler raked the eyes, or hit him with a loaded elbow pad. Andre never actually took a bump for Lawler in he match. Andre did a big-time atomic drop and Lawler jumped as high as he could to sell it. Andre then used his big splash finisher, but before the ref counted three, Phil Hickerson and Dennis Condrey, who was the area’s top heel team at the time, made the save for Lawler, so Andre won via DQ. All three heels were beating on Andre until Rocky Johnson made the save. The crowd was 5,000, and a normal weekly Louisville crowd at that time was 4,000. There was an even funnier story a week later on the April 12, 1977 show, headlined by Lawler defending the Southern title against Johnson. A fan hit the ring during the match and Lawler saw hit as as the fan charged, Lawler kicked him in the chin and knocked him out. Police then came. The punch line of all this is that the man was out on parole for a previous murder and armed robbery, and ended up getting his parole revoked because he tried to attack Lawler
934
935Marc Kopani, 36, the first pro wrestler I’m aware of ever banned by a U.S. network, did his first match in 13 years on an indie show on 4/28. Kopani worked as Muhammad Hassan in WWE, as a lead heel and WWE did a mock terrorism angle on a Tuesday coming off some terrorist executions, and then there was a terrorist attack the next day, before Smackdown aired. The angle was edited out of the U.K. broadcast and should have been edited out of the U.S. broadcast, but some people didn’t listen to advice and decided it would be okay for the U.S. UPN, which aired the show, got so many complaints that they ended telling WWE that they would no longer allow Kopani to be on their network, and because of that, WWE dropped the character. He ended up trying acting and hadn’t wrestled since
936
937Rich Swann is back on the 5/12 CZW show, to face Dezmond Xavier. He got a good reaction in CZW last time out after quitting thinking his career was over because WWE cut him and with what happened to Michael Elgin when he worked in the U.S. But the reaction for him was different
938
939Arda Ocal, who now works for the MSG Network covering hockey, and worked as announcer Kyle Edwards with WWE, was married over the weekend.
940
941EUROPE: The Progress Strong Style 16 tournament takes place 5/5 to 5/7 at the Alexandra Palace in London, a 2,000 plus seat building with a loaded talent lineup. The first round matches on 5/5 are Chris Brookes vs. Kassius Ohno, Tyler Bate vs. Jordan Devlin, Pete Dunne vs. Doug Williams, Joey Janela vs. Grizzled Young Veterans, Angelico vs. Mark Andrews, Keith Lee vs. Flash Morgan Webster, Chuck Mambo vs. Zack Sabre Jr., and TK Cooper vs. David Starr
942
943Kazuchika Okada and Tomohiro Ishii are booked on 6/30 in Milton Keyes and 7/1 in Manchester for Revolution Pro
944
945ICW’s biggest event of the year, Fear & Loathing, will take place in December instead of mid-November. The original date was the same as Survivor Series and since WWE has some financial ties here, they didn’t want the big show head-to-head
946
947STV, which is the ITV licensee in Scotland, broadcasted a feature on George Kidd, generally considered Scotland’s greatest wrestler, on 4/30. It was part of a weekly show called “The People’s History Now,” a national documentary series that focuses on people from Scotland who have significant historical importance. A number of people were interviewed, including his son, George Kidd Jr., ICW promoter Mark Dallas, ICW wrestler Chris Renfrew, Scotland’s leading wrestling historian Bradley Craig and Fiona Skillen, the sports historian for Caledonian University in Glasgow. The piece talked about how Kidd’s family was worried leading into their father’s 1976 retirement match against Steve Logan since he went into the match with broken ribs suffered in a match with Mark Rocco. Kidd won his first version of the world lightweight title in 1949, and by 1951, was considered pretty much the undisputed champion, winning every significant version of the title (the U.S. and Japan didn’t have lightweight wrestling in any significant role and while Mexico did, the lightest weight class they recognized a world champion in was welterweight). He retired as champion and was the first wrestler induced into Scotland’s National Hall of Fame, in 2015.
948
949ROH: Sinclair Broadcast Group will be selling 23 television stations to stay within the 39 percent of market penetration for television stations rule with te acquisition of Tribune Media stations. When the Tribune deal is completed, Sinclair would own 215 stations in 102 markets. Sinclair will pick up a number of key Tribune stations, notably KTLA in Los Angeles and WPIX in New York. While not certain, the belief is when the merger goes through, that ROH will start airing on those stations, which would be a huge boost in exposure. Among the stations that they are looking at selling would be stations in Seattle, Salt Lake City, Oklahoma City, Houston, Dallas, St. Louis, Cleveland San Diego, Denver and Miami. Sinclair is hoping to sell those stations but retain the operations of those stations as FCC rules regarding ownership allows for that sleight of hand
950
951Adam Page suffered a groin injury last week and was very limited in what he could do this weekend. On the 4/27 show in West Palm Beach, he was in a six-man tag with the Young Bucks against The Kingdom, so they were able to protect him. He was supposed to have a singles match on 4/28 in Lakeland against Punishment Martinez but Martinez jumped him during the ring entrance, hit him with a chair and choke slammed him through a table. They canceled the match. The plans were to start a feud with the two even before the injury so from a storyline standpoint it worked out
952
953All In tickets go on sale on 5/13. It’ll be interesting how the first day goes. They also haven’t announced any matches, although they will be announcing a few matches that day, but have announced a lot of names and it felt like there was far more buzz for this show than the New Japan Cow Palace show
954
955Flip Gordon finished up his military service on 5/1. He had enlisted in the Army six years ago, at the age of 20. He also thanked the army for working with him to allow him to start his career in wrestling
956
957They are off this week and start back with the annual War of the Worlds tour from 5/9 to 5/13, and then the UK tour from 5/24 to 5/27 before the return to the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York on 6/3
958
959Dalton Castle defends the ROH title against Matt Taven on the 5/9 show in Lowell, MA which also includes Young Bucks vs. Bushi & Hiromu Takahashi, Cody & Page & Marty Scurll vs. Rocky Romero & Sho & Yoh and Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian & Scorpio Sky vs. Jay White & Jay Lethal & Chuckie T
960
961The Jay White U.S. title defense in ROH will be on the 5/11 show in Toronto against Punishment Martinez. The two had an ROH feud when White was a regular, and Martinez beat White in a street fight in their last meeting in Las Vegas. Cody vs. Jushin Liger is also on that show. Liger is one of Cody’s favorite childhood wrestlers. Also added is Daniels & Kazarian & Scorpio Sky vs. Romero & Sho & Yoh
962
963For the tour, as of about a week ago, Toronto (about 1,500) and Royal Oak (about 1,000) were sold out, while Chicago had sold 1,500 tickets (below the almost 2,500 they drew when they announced nothing but Kenny Omega) and Lowell, MA has sold 1,500 in a building they are setting up for about 2,000
964
965The Royal Oak show has added Cody vs. Hiromu Takahashi and Page vs. Punishment Martinez
966
967The Chicago show has added Young vs. Austin Aries for the TV title
968
969Sumie Sakai, Brandi Rhodes, Kelly Klein and Tenille Dashwood will be on the 5/24 to 5/27 U.K. tour along with Hiroshi Tanahashi, Toru Yano, Seiya Sanada, Evil, Dalton Castle, Silas Young, The Briscoes, The Young Bucks, Cody, Lethal, Page, Bully Ray, The Kingdom, Martinez, Kenny King and Shane Taylor
970
971Dorian Roldan of AAA was wanting to open up relations with ROH, but since ROH works with CMLL and New Japan, nothing came of it. Impact also has interest in working with ROH and an Impact vs. ROH feud done correctly would work. Years ago, ROH got great mileage working a feud with CZW, and Impact has television and is much higher profile. Plus, it’s easy to get ROH fans to hate Impact, and vice versa. But at this point there’s nothing serious in that direction
972
973Both West Palm Beach and Lakeland failed to sell out this week, each doing about 700 sold. Ever since the peak show at Mania, they’ve been down from the level they’ve been at for most of the past year
974
9754/27 in West Palm Beach opened with Jay Lethal beating Scorpio Sky. Josh Woods beat Shane Taylor. Deonna Purrazzo beat Kelly Klein. Marty Scurll beat Kenny King. The Young Bucks & Page beat Matt Taven & TK O’Ryan & Vinny Marseglia. Coast 2 Coast, the team of Shaheem Ali & LSG, are getting a push now and won a four-way over Silas Young & Beer City Bruiser, Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian and The Dawgs (Rhett Titus & Will Ferrara). Cody pinned Martinez. Castle retained the ROH title over Flip Gordon. Main event saw the Briscoes beat Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley to keep the tag titles
976
9774/28 in Lakeland opened with The Dawgs over David Mercury and another wrestler whose name we didn’t get. They were both new students of Lethal. In a surprise, Coast 2 Coast continued their big weekend beating Sabin & Shelley when Ali pinned Sabin after a roll-up. Cheeseburger beat Serpentico via DQ due to interference by Bully Ray. Cheeseburger was about to hit the shotei when Bully laid him out with a low blow. People can say what they want about Bully Ray but when I watch him as a heel, he’s one of the smartest heels of this generation in the sense he does stuff to piss you off. Like he’s three times the size of Cheeseburger, but rather than lay him out every week with a cool power move, which im time could make him a face, he resorts to that and knows how to use his WWE Hall of Fame status as a heel in ROH. Taven won over Woods, Bruiser and King when he pinned Woods with his feet on the ropes. Daniels & Kazarian beat Marseglia & O’Ryan. Gordon pinned Scorpio Sky with a stunner. Bully Ray then attacked Gordon from behind and gave him a low blow, so it looks like the serious program is Bully vs. Gordon. Gordon has some of the tools to be a big star because of his athletic ability. It’ll be interesting to see if Bully can bring out what he’s still needing to improve on. Purrazzo beat Ava Storie with a Fujiwara armbar. Klein attacked Purrazzo after the match. Martinez attacked Page and left him laying. Lethal came out and said that tomorrow was his birthday (he turned 33 on 4/29). He said he had a special guest to help celebrate his birthday and brought out Lanny Poffo. Poffo thanked Lethal for doing so much to keep the memory of Randy Savage alive. From what I understood, Savage loved Lethal’s imitations of him (Ric Flair did as well) and Lethal has used the Savage elbow as a key move in all of his big matches. Poffo gave Lethal a pair of Randy Savage sunglasses as a birthday present. Lethal took them and asked that Poffo recite a poem about Savage. Shane Taylor came out to interrupt. When Taylor came out, he asked why Kamala came out since he wasn’t invited. Lethal, with Poffo in he corner, beat Taylor with the Savage elbow. The main event was the champions (ROH champion Castle, tag champs Briscoes & TV champion Silas Young) vs. Bullet Club of Young Bucks & Cody & Scurll in the annual elimination match. Usually this match is champions vs. top contenders elimination match, although Bucks are the top contenders for the tag titles and Cody & Scurll would be top contenders for the singles titles, but t wasn’t pushed that way here. Jay Briscoe was DQ’d first, and then out were Matt Jackson, Mark Briscoe and Nick Jackson leaving Cody & Scurll vs. Young & Castle. Scurll eliminated Young with a chicken wing. Castle then used the bangarang to pin Scurll. Cody then beat Castle with a crucifix which should set up Cody getting a title shot. Cody and Scurll had problems as the last two and teased going at it, but hugged at the end.
978
979IMPACT: LAX regained the tag titles over Andrew Everett & DJZ on the 4/26 tapings in Orlando
980
981After the end of the tapings on 4/26, the stuff made clear for Slammiversary on 7/22 in Toronto was Austin Aries defending the Impact title against the winner of a match with Moose vs. Eli Drake that hasn’t been taped, and a Knockouts title match with Su Yung, the new champion, facing Madison Rayne
982
983The next tapings will be 6/1 and 6/2 in Windsor, ONT. The plan going forward is to tape more frequently so they don’t have these shows that are three months old anymore. The Windsor tapings will be the final shows building up Slammiversary. They’ll tape TV in Toronto after Slammiversary but not for as many days as they’ve been doing
984
985That great video promo on last week’s PPV that we had talked about, building up the next show in Toronto was done by Kevin Sullivan in just a few hours
986
987The guys in charge of the creative end right now are Sonjay Dutt, Don Callis, Scott D’Amore and Jimmy Jacobs. They are also all agenting matches along with Abyss, Tommy Dreamer and Konnan
988
989The actual name of Su Yung’s group is the Undead Bridesmaids
990
991I was told that the match with El Hijo del Fantasma & Aerostar & Drago vs. Dezmond Xavier & DJZ & Andrew Everett that will air on the 5/3 episode of Impact is worth going out of your way to see
992
993Backstage but not used at the tapings included Rich Swann, who was there every day, and Zachary Wentz. Not sure why Swann wasn’t used although obviously there is fear about him being a hot button issue. I’m pretty much certain that’s the reason Michael Elgin also has never been brought in since he’s not working for ROH and Callis has seen him get over and have great matches in Japan
994
995Rey Fenix did the PPV but didn’t do the tapings because he had to return to Mexico City on 4/23 for visa issues, but with all the issues with slow-ups and such with the new presidential regime, he wasn’t able to clear things up until after the tapings were over. There were ideas for him to work several tag matches with Pentagon as his partner that would have likely been great bouts
996
997As far as Austin Aries’ belt collector situation, he dropped his IPW UK world title on 4/29 in Kent, England to Mark Haskins
998
999Their twitch channel will have a live broadcast on 5/5 of the Pro Wrestling Revolver show promoted by Sami Callihan which features Pentagon Jr. vs. Jimmy Jacobs, Tommy Dreamer vs. Jake Manning, Callihan & Crist Brothers vs. Matt Sydal & Zachary Wentz & Dezmond Xavier, Eli Drake vs. Clayton Gainz, Taya Valkyrie vs. Jessicka Havok and Jason Cade vs. Shane Strickland
1000
1001They are also doing a weekly Twitch show hosted by Anthony Carelli (Santino Marella) talking both pro wrestling and MMA
1002
1003Notes from the 4/25 TV tapings. Petey Williams beat Jake Crist in a match taped for Xplosion. There was a Facts of Life interview segment with Eli Drake. He talked about how he took care of a big problem when he got rid of Scott Steiner. He then listed the five biggest dummies on Impact as the fans of Impact, Austin Aries, Impact management, the fans of Impact (again) and Moose. This led to the announcement that the 7/22 PPV main event would be Aries defending the Impact title against the winner of Drake vs. Moose. Moose came out and talked about how Drake has lost all of his title belts. Drake jumped Moose from behind and laid him out. Ortiz & Santana ended their losing streak beating Trevor Lee & Caleb Konley. Eddie Kingston joined up with LAX in this match. Taya Valkyrie beat the returning Rebel. After the match, Valkyrie introduced Madison Rayne as the newest member of Taya’s Kingdom. Brian Cage beat Dezmond Xavier. They are doing a storyline where Cage is going after Matt Sydal’s X title. So I guess they are back to not having a weight limit for that title. Rayne pinned Tessa Blanchard. Lee & Konley beat KM & Fallah Bahh when Bahh hit KM with a Samoan drop by accident. KM turned on Bahh and called him a loser. In a match for Xplosion, Katarina Leigh beat Scarlett Bordeaux. Cage beat Rohit Raju. Sydal came out and did an interview and said that Cage has strength but he also sees inner weakness in him. Sydal said he could eliminate that weakness and all Cage has to do is give up his X title shot. Z & E (DJZ & Andrew Everett) retained the tag titles over Drago & Aerostar. Aerostar was injured in the match and needed help getting to the back. They stopped the taping and were very concerned. He just had the wind badly knocked out of him. Moose beat Kongo Kong. Eli Drake beat Scott Steiner. Matt Sydal beat El Hijo del Fantasma to retain the X title. The last match taped for Xplosion with Grado beating Raju
1004
1005Notes from the 4/26 tapings. This was the final day of the tapings. It opened with Grado pinning Konley for Xplosion. Grado had Katarina Leigh in his corner to counteract Trevor Lee in Konley’s corner. Fantasma pinned Jake Crist. Then Dave & Jake beat up on Fantasma. Fantasma started making his own comeback when Callihan hit Fantasma with a baseball bat. They went after Fantasma’s mask when the lights went out. When they came on, Pentagon was in the ring and made the save. The next match was supposed to be Edwards vs. Grado. Edwards went crazy, attacking Grado with a kendo stick. He then threatened to hit Katarina Leigh as well. Edwards basically said he wanted to kill Callihan. Dreamer came out to calm him down and tell him he’s out of control. He asked Dreamer why he keeps trying to stop him from finishing Callihan. Dreamer told him it was time to move on and how he needs to talk to his wife and said that Edwards and his wife haven’t spoken in a week. Edwards asked Dreamer how he knows that. Dreamer knocked down Edwards and Edwards hit Dreamer with his kendo stick. Ortiz & Santana, with Kingston in their corner, beat Everett & DJZ to win the tag titles when Ortiz pinned Everett. KM came out and said he tried to help Bahh. KM talked about how he was bigger than the company and that they should rename the company Kmpact Wrestling. Bahh came out with a piece of paper that it read that KM needs to be less of a bully and grow up and told him he needed to fight a standby wrestler. KM thought he was going to face Richard Justice, whose gimmick is that of a stand by wrestler, but instead he faced Steiner. Steiner beat him with the Steiner recliner. Rayne pinned Valkyrie with the Rayne drop. Rayne then challenged Su Yung at Slammiversary for the Knockouts title. Sydal beat Cage via count out in an X title match. Kongo Kong and Jimmy Jacobs distracted Cage. Kong threw Cage into the ring steps and he was counted out, for his first loss in Impact. Sydal & Kong are now both managed by Jacobs. Xavier pinned Williams. Apparently this was a great match. Both shook hands after the match. Tessa Blanchard beat Keira Hogan with a full nelson facebuster onto a chair. Pentagon & Fantasma beat the Crist Brothers when Pentagon pinned Jake after a Penta driver. Pentagon came back and broke Jake’s arm, and then Callihan hit Pentagon with a baseball bat. Callihan went to unmask Pentagon but Fantasma saved him. In a match for Xplosion, Diamante returned and lost to Su Yung. Fans chanted “Welcome back” for her. Diamante messed up on a tope spot. Drake beat Bahh in another match for Xplosion using a springboard moonsault. Drake did a promo after sand said he’d give Bahh cheesecake. Bahh went to eat it and Drake shoved it in his face. Bahh made a comeback and ran Drake off.
1006
1007UFC: Ariel Helwani reported that Nate Diaz is in serious talks about returning on the 8/4 PPV show from the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The article stated that it would be a top-five opponent, but that neither Conor McGregor nor champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, since the idea is for them to fight each other if possible, are likely to be the opponents. With Tony Ferguson injured, that would leave Eddie Alvarez, Dustin Poirier and Kevin Lee as leading candidates, but there has also been talk of Alvarez vs. Poirier for the main event in Calgary a week earlier. It will be very interesting to see what type of drawing power Diaz has against someone other than Conor McGregor
1008
1009Leslie Smith filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board on 5/2 alleging she was let go for engaging in a protected activity (trying to spearhead a union). Smith had contacted fighters asking them to sign authorization cards regarding a union, and was protesting the classification of fighters as independent contractors rather than employees. Smith was told the day before the 4/21 show in Atlantic City that UFC was not interested in offering her a new contract. She had won her last two fights, and the fight before that was against Cris Cyborg that she was doing UFC a favor in taking because nobody else wanted it. Smith was ranked No. 9 in the bantamweight division at the time of her firing and had one of the highest strikes per minute ratios in the company, and was generally considered one of the more exciting fighters to watch. Lucas Middlebrook, who wrote the filing, claimed that with the termination of Smith, UFC has delivered an unlawful message to the remainder of the fighters about forming or joining a union and UFC has cultivated a climate of fear
1010
1011Demian Maia is being talked with to replace the injured Santiago Ponzinibbio, and face Kamaru Usman in the main event for a 5/19 show in Santiago, Chile
1012
1013The main event for the 7/6 show in Las Vegas, which is the night before the PPV, and the show that will include the current season’s TUF finals, will be Brad Tavares vs. Israel Adesanya. That’s an interesting fight since Adesanya is someone the insiders have been watching because of his movement on his feet and has a 13-0 record, while Tavares has won four in a row and is a solid fighter in the middleweight division. Barb Honchak vs. Roxanna Modaferri and the UFC debut of Julian Marquez (who made a big impression on the Dana White Tuesday Night Contenders show) vs. Alessio DiChirico have also been announced
1014
1015Ray Borg had to withdraw from his fight on the Chile show with Brandon Moreno because he hasn’t been able to train with his infant child battling Hydrocephalus and undergoing two brain operations in Denver this past week. This was the third time Borg vs. Moreno had been put together. They were originally to fight in February, but Moreno was injured. Then they were to fight on the 4/7 show in Brooklyn, but Borg got a sliver of glass in his eye when Conor McGregor threw a dolly through the window of the van he was sitting in, so the fight was canceled. Alexandre Pantoja has replaced Borg. Pantoja and Moreno fought once before, in 2016 on The Ultimate Fighter reality show, with Pantoja winning
1016
1017 
1018
1019Fighters on the 6/9 show in Chicago have all been warned that the Illinois commission has different rules on marijuana as USADA and other commissions. Illinois has no tolerance for marijuana so anyone testing positive for marijuana between now and the show would be suspended by the commission. The UFC sent a letter to fighters on the show recommending to them to stop usage now unless they have a medical prescription for use from a physician and if that prescription is approved by the commission. They also were told that any trace of marijuana in tests will be considered a positive, as opposed to the 150 ng/mL level (which is a Nick Diaz-like level) level that USADA considers a positive. In addition, even with a medical prescription, anything above 150 ng/mL would result in a suspension, but those with a prescription would be allowed a positive test under that limit
1020
1021Jose Aldo vs. Jeremy Stephens, Joanna Jedrzejczyk vs. Tecia Torres, Alexis Davis vs. Katlyn Chookagian, Randa Markos vs. Nina Ansaroff, Dustin Ortiz vs. Mathieus Nicolau, Ion Cutelaba vs. Gadzhimurad Antigulov, Hakeem Dawodu vs. Austin Arnett, Alex Morono vs. Jordan Mein, John Makdessi vs. Ross Pearson and Islam Makhachev vs. Kajan Johnson have all been announced for the next FOX special on 7/28, from the Scotia Saddledome in Calgary. Aldo vs. Stephens is pegged as the No. 2 fight and they are looking for a main event. Bouts that have been discussed for that spot are Eddie Alvarez vs. Dustin Poirier or Nicco Montano defending the new women’s flyweight title against Valentina Shevchenko. Shevchenko noted that she signed a bout agreement for a title match three months ago and Montano hadn’t. Montano noted that she just had surgery to get her tonsils and adenoids removed this past week and it’ll be a few weeks before she can even start back training
1022
1023Aldo said he did consider retiring after the second loss to Max Holloway, but after meeting with his coaches and talking it out, he decided to continue his career
1024
1025 The Gunnar Nelson vs. Neil Magny match set for 5/27 in Liverpool is out as Nelson suffered a knee injury and underwent minor surgery on 5/30. He’ll be out of action two to three months
1026
1027The Anthony Pettis vs. Michael Chiesa fight that was scheduled for 4/7 in Brooklyn but canceled when Chiesa was injured when he was cut up by glass in the Conor McGregor dolly incident has been reset for the 7/7 PPV show in Las Vegas, which is turning into a loaded show. Also added to that show is Derek Brunson vs. Antonio Carlos Jr
1028
1029Blagoi Ivanov, who was the WSOF heavyweight champion and has a 16-1,1 no contest record, makes his UFC debut in the main event of the 7/14 FS 1 show in Boise, ID when he faces Junior Dos Santos. Dos Santos returns after his six month suspension for testing positive due to what USADA found evidence was a tainted supplement. Ivanov is best known for beating Fedor Emelianenko, when he was still considered unbeatable, in 2008, in the semifinals of the sambo world championships and pretty much dominated him in that match. His only loss was to current ranked UFC heavyweight Alexander Volkov
1030
1031William Pegg, who filed suit against Conor McGregor after being hit with an energy drink that McGregor threw at Nate Diaz in that can throwing fight before UFC 202, has had his case moved to Federal Court. Pegg, who worked security, is asking for medical bills at $3,065.96 and $225,000 in punitive damages. McGregor’s lawyers have responded saying he isn’t liable for any medical bills and that they went to fire action against Pegg for filing a frivolous lawsuit. Pegg filed suit one year ago claiming negligence and battery when he was hit with an opened beverage can, saying the can hit him in the back. He filed a new suit on 3/20 claiming that McGregor benefitted from the press conference because it helped increase the PPV numbers and thus McGregor’s cut was higher. McGregor’s side moved the case from state court in Nevada to Federal Court. Pegg is trying to get it moved back to state court
1032
1033Twitter comeback of the month: Dustin Poirier said that he wanted a title shot. Al Iaquinta then wrote back, “Get on the same card as the 155 pound title fight, make sure it’s near your hometown, bide your time for someone to pull out, maintain good credit, get Conor coked up and have him throw a dolly through a bus the day before.
1034
1035Stefan Struve vs. Marcin Tybura and Jeremy Kimball vs. Darko Stosic has been added to the 7/22 show in Hamburg, Germany. Stosic will debut with a 12-1 record and is the training partner of Mirko Cro Cop, including winning his last eight
1036
1037Leonardo Santos suffered a hand injury and is out of his 6/1 fight with Nik Lentz in Utica, NY. David Teymur will be the replacement.
1038
1039BELLATOR: The 4/28 show in Chicago at the Allstate Arena drew 9,315 fans for a gate of $890,000, which was the second biggest gate in the history of Bellator, behind only the Madison Square Garden show. Given they did it with what was really a one-match show, and from the crowd reaction, it shows that even after all this time, Fedor Emelianenko is still a big deal, at least in the Chicago market. The place went nuts when he came out for his fight with Frank Mir. The announcers all treated him with reverence pushing him as the greatest of all-time. As far as the heavyweight division goes, while I believe the top modern heavyweights are far above what Emelianenko was because the sport has evolved at such a fast pace, you have to be judged on your era. Emelianenko was the dominant guy for longer than anyone since, so does deserve his label. They promoted this hard as a dream match from when Emelianenko was Pride champion and Mir was UFC champion. That was 13 to 14 years ago. Emelianenko (37-5, 1 no contest) won an action filled 48 seconds over Mir (18-12). Mir was 261 and looked slow but also was big and strong. He knocked Emelianenko down. Both guys were just throwing wildly and it was just a matter of who landed big first and it was Emelianenko, who caught Mir with an uppercut and Mir went flat and was pounded out on the ground. This sets up Emelianenko vs. Chael Sonnen in the tournament semifinals. The other semifinal is Matt Mitrione against the winner of the 5/12 fight in San Jose with Ryan Bader vs. King Mo Lawal. This really is anyone’s tournament. The TV show was a fun watch with explosive finishes. Dillon Danis (1-0), who is one of the best grapplers in the world and came in with fanfare, submitted Kyle Walker (2-5) in 1:34 with a toe hold. Danis is also the grappling training partner of Conor McGregor. Neiman Gracie (8-0) beat Javier Torres (10-4, 1 no contest) with an arm triangle choke in 3:18 of the second round. Rafael Lovato Jr. (8-0) beat Gerald Harris (25-6), who came out of retirement for this as a late replacement, in 1:11 with an armbar. Emmanual Sanchez (17-3) beat Sam Sicilia (16-9) with an arm triangle choke in 3:52. The presentation of the show was strong, with Sonnen at the announcing desk, talking about his next opponent and a lot of breaking it down, and John McCarthy does a great job as a combination color commentator, analyst and in-ring interviewer. To their credit, they kept pushing Fedor as the greatest of all-time, and when he won in 48 seconds, it came off well for the show. McCarthy noted that if this was in their primes he’d pick Fedor, but today he thought the size would be a factor. Sonnen pushed that speed is the key and Fedor was much faster, but also said he would rather face Fedor because his camp can game plan him while with Mir, he just felt Mir was just way too strong and it would be tougher. The thing with Fedor is that he can get knocked out by a good technical boxer because he’s wild, or by a hard hitter, but Sonnen is neither of those and Sonnen will have to outwrestle a heavyweight. So Fedor should be favored to reach the finals
1040
1041Bellator announced that the winner of the 5/25 fight with Mirko Cro Cop vs. Roy Nelson will become the first alternate in the current heavyweight title tournament.
1042
1043OTHER MMA: This is the first time since 2002 that Las Vegas will be without a major boxing match over Cinco de Mayo weekend because of the postponement of what was to be the biggest fight of the year, Canelo Alvarez vs Gennady Golovkin. The fight was moved back because Alvarez tested positive for Clenbuterol and the Nevada commission was going to suspend him for six months, which they did, and they had already moved the fight. I’m very strong on the PED issue, but this entire situation was more because members of the commission weren’t educated enough on the subject. USADA, which governs the drug testing and punishment in a number of Olympic sports, as well as UFC, has routinely not suspended athletes if they are from China or Mexico and have eaten the meat and show up with trace amounts of Clenbuterol, because the meat in those countries is contaminated. Alvarez was training in Guadalajara, had small amounts of Clenbuterol in two tests, taken a few days apart, While it can’t be proven that he didn’t take it for performance enhancing purposes in training well before those two tests (I don’t know the date he was tested prior to that clean), the odds are, given he was in Mexico, that wasn’t the case. The general rule is that you are responsible for what is in your body, but that’s more for people who take supplements recklessly and not because you ate meat as part of regular meals. Besides, USADA has set the precedent in this situation. Part of the issue is the media, with some exceptions because there have been a few good articles that do understand the situation, saw it as Alvarez failed not one, but two drug tests and he’s high profile and a big star and Nevada has to take some action. More recently, Nevada had him take a hair follicle test which was to give a better indication as to whether he had taken Clenbuterol itself, and the results came in negative, but the suspension was already there and the fight was moved. The fight is still expected to take place after Alvarez’s suspension is lifted in August. The other negative is that with the suspension, to the public, Alvarez is considered a steroid cheater, and you never know with top level athletes at that level because they will have ways to beat tests, but based on evidence that we have, he doesn’t deserve that stigma
1044
1045The arrest of Alexis Vila on second degree murder charges noted last week stems from a 2011 murder plot. Vila and Ariel Gandulla are alleged to have been involved in the kidnapping and murder of a man who was having an affair with the wife of one of Vila’s friends. The two men are charged with conspiracy to commit murder, second-degree murder and kidnapping. According to a police report provided to MMAFighting.com, Gandulla and Roberto Isaac are alleged to have kidnapped 43-year-old Camilo Salazar on June 1, 2011. They believed Salazar was having an affair with Jenny Marin, the wife of Vila’s friend Manny Marin, who owned, co-founded and was the Vice President of Presidente Supermarkets grocery store chain in Miami, which has nearly 30 South Florida locations. Marin and Pedro Rodriguez started together owning grocery stores in New York, and then in 1990, opened up the Presidente chain in South Florida and also ran Extra supermarkets in New Jersey. Before Manny and Jenny Marin were married, Jenny Marin was the girlfriend of Salazar. He had caught his wife with Salazar at a café a few months earlier, grabbed her and forced her into his car, but she escaped and took a taxi to a friend’s house. Apparently Manny Marin later wanted to fight Salazar, and demanded they settle it like men. Salazar left and went to drive off, with Marin banging on his car window. Salazar and Jenny Marin continued to see each other secretly, while Manny and Jenny Marin went on a yacht vacation to Bimini and she noted that he was constantly on the phone. When they got back from vacation, which was June 1, 2011, he left the boat and rushed off and met an employee and left. Three days later, in the morning, he left the house, which she figured he was going to work, but he never came back and his passport was gone. He did call her once from an overseas number. He has also been in contact with his older children who he calls occasionally and has sent packages to, which are postmarked from Spain. An employee of Marin’s, Antonio Hernandez, said that he drove his boss to the Palm Beach airport and he was taking a flight to France. Salazar’s body was found buried on the side of the road in Miami-Dade County that night, with his hands bound and his body partially burnt. The autopsy concluded that Salazar received multiple blunt force injuries to the head, a slit throat and had his penis area set on fire. Cell phone records show that Marin, Isaac, Gandulla and Vila were in contact with each other all day on June 1. Vila was in Las Vegas on the day, but the police believe he was a link between the other three. Gandulla’s fingerprints were found on Salazar’s car. Marin flew to Europe a few days after the murder and has never returned, leaving behind his wife and two children. His son has been running the business for the last seven years. The belief is that Marin is now living in Spain. Vila and Gandulla were friends and training partners and Gandulla was in Vila’s corner for many of his fights. Vila and Martin were friends dating back to 1993, when both lived in Cuba. Marin helped get Vila to the U.S. after he had defected from Cuba to Puerto Rico, and hired Vila at his supermarket and helped him open a wrestling studio. Vila started fighting with Bellator three months after Salazar was killed. Gandulla was also a fighter, and in 2007, was the challenger in a WEC light heavyweight title match against Doug “Rhino” Marshall
1046
1047Combate Americas claimed that they had 4 million viewers for their 4/13 show when it aired in Mexico on Azteca 7
1048
1049Gerald Ray Strebendt, 39, a former UFC fighter is accused of sexually abusing a girl he coached in a Eugene, OR martial arts gym. He was booked on 4/25 into Lance County Jail and charged with second-degree sexual abuse. Strebendt fought from 2001 to 2008. WWE: The WWE stock call is scheduled for 5/3. The market expectations are in the range of $191 million in revenue for the first quarter and $10 million in profits. Of late, the WWE has been beating market expectations most of the time
1050
1051For people who have asked about the big October show in Australia that was supposed to be announced a few weeks ago, I don’t have anything new on it. WWE haven’t answered any questions when asked about the show. They did briefly announce the show on Raw after it got reported in a number of places. At that time the story was the big announcement would be made in early April in Mania week.
1052
1053. Sean Waltman reported on his podcast that WWE tried to get Shawn Michaels out of retirement for the Greatest Royal Rumble. Waltman said that Michaels, who hasn’t wrestled since 2010, immediately turned it down, saying he had a prior commitment with his family
1054
1055Batista was on the Chad Dukes radio show and they talked more in depth about his original offer to team with Rousey at WrestleMania against HHH & Stephanie. The original idea was Dwayne Johnson, but he has schedule and insurance issues with doing matches. Then it was Batista, but they ended up going with Angle with the idea of pushing two Olympians as a team. Batista said when he was asked, he said he’d be willing to do the match, but wanted to come out of it with a tease for a singles match with HHH that would be on WrestleMania in 2019. They agreed to it. Batista said he’d come back a few times over the next year to eventually set the match up. He said that he then texted HHH to tell him how excited he was about the possibilities for the program, and said then he never heard anything from anyone, and then found out Angle was in the spot. “I want to end my career the right way. I’m faithful and loyal to the WWE. I’m proud of being from there and I want to do good business with them, but they don’t make it easy.” He said that if nothing happens with WWE over the next year, that he will then officially retire
1056
1057Batista had a significant role as Drax the Destroyer in “Avengers: Infinity War” which opened over the weekend and set all-time records for the biggest grossing opening weekend at $257,698,183 in the U.S. and $640,521,291 worldwide. That’s an amazing stat because it means about 23 million Americans went to the theater to see the movie this past weekend alone. Three movies starring former WWE stars were in the top eight with “Rampage” (Dwayne Johnson) at No. 4 for $7,205,315 and $78,030,872 after three weeks in the U.S. and $335.1 million total worldwide and “Blockers” at No. 8 at $2,563,325 with $53,246,750 after four weeks in the U.S. and $75.4 million total worldwide
1058
1059Cena has landed a starring role in the movie “The Jansen Directive” that Universal and Dwayne Johnson’s Seven Bucks Entertainment is producing. It’s from a Robert Ludlum novel
1060
1061“Fighting with My Family,” the movie Johnson is producing with MGM, has been moved from a 9/14 open to March 1, 2019. This is the movie on Paige, which likely is part of the reason that when Paige kept getting into trouble, or now that she can’t wrestle, she’s remaining as a visible part of the television product.
1062
1063Bryan is now going full-time on the road. The Smackdown house shows at this point are going to be Styles vs. Joe vs. Nakamura for the title, Bryan vs. Miz and Jeff Hardy vs. Rusev for the U.S. title
1064
1065The current plans for the WWE Network will be to add the last 104 episodes of Mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling that they have up in May. The plan is to add 78 episodes of Mid South Wrestling in June and 50 episodes of WCW Saturday Night in July
1066
1067WWE is donating 20 percent of the Balor LGBTQ rainbow shirts that Balor has to GLADD. GLADD is helping promote their shirt. The timing is notable but there’s probably a coincidence in that
1068
1069Jordan should be cleared to return in a few weeks. He was hoping after his neck surgery for a herniated disc to get back for Mania, but that was ruled out pretty quickly
1070
1071Nita Strauss, the guitar player for Alice Cooper, talked in detail about how she ended up playing Nakamura’s entrance music at WrestleMania. Her boyfriend, who is from New Orleans, was a huge wrestling fan in the 90s but had stopped watching a decade ago. She knew nothing whatsoever about wrestling, to the point she didn’t even know Dwayne Johnson was a pro wrestler. Her boyfriend heard that Sting was coming back for his match with HHH at Mania and because Sting was one of his favorite wrestlers, he ordered the WWE Network to see the 2015 WrestleMania show. So he watched the show, and noted he knew nobody at all on the card, knew nobody in the ladder match opener, and she watched it and didn’t get it at all. Then he explained all the reasons he liked wrestling and they watched the Monday Night Wars documentary on the WWE Network, and by the end, she liked wrestling and started watching old footage and became a fan of Rey Mysterio, Rob Van Dam and the Luchadors in WCW from the 90s. Now she’s a big fan of 205 Live in particular. Then they started watching current wrestling and she loved Nakamura’s entrance music. So he said, “You’re going to play Nakamura’s entrance music at WrestleMania.” So he called everyone he knew to set up it. He talked to people who had connections, talked to WWE, and they never heard back from anyone. So one week before Mania, she was doing a show and he filmed her playing Nakamura’s music and sent the tape in. Two day later they were called, so this is five days before the show. So they were told to keep it quiet so they went back to New Orleans and didn’t even tell his parents that she was playing at Mania, but they went to NXT and missed a family function which his mother wasn’t happy about. Most of the people backstage didn’t know her, but Big Show did and loudly put her over to everyone, saying she was the best female guitar player in the world and maybe the best guitar player in the world, so a lot of the guys came up to her. There was no rehearsal of the entrance. She went up to Nakamura to talk to him about it, and they hadn’t even told Nakamura about it. All they told us earlier in the day was to watch Nakamura’s entrance
1072
1073Showtime officially announced the Mauro Ranallo documentary premiering on 5/25 at 9 p.m. Eastern & Pacific times. The documentary is called “Bipolar Rock & Roller” and will be done that week Because May is Mental Health Awareness Month.” I saw the trailer which included a teenage Ranallo as a heel manager for Al Tomko’s All-Star Wrestling promotion in Vancouver. It’s largely about his daily battles with mental health issues and the idea of him overcoming them to announce on the two biggest combat sports events of all-time, the McGregor vs. Mayweather and Mayweather vs. Pacquiao PPV shows.
1074
1075. Samoa Joe is still scheduled to appear on the Raw tour rather than the Smackdown tour of Europe, mostly working with Reigns. Different cities have different lineups but the main lineup for the first week of the tour has Reigns vs. Joe, Rollins vs. Balor vs. Roode vs. Mahal for the IC title, Jax vs. Bayley vs. Banks vs. Bliss for the women’s title, Strowman vs. Corbin, Matt Hardy & Wyatt vs. Owens & Zayn for the tag titles, Lashley vs. Elias, O’Neil & Crews vs. Ziggler & McIntyre, Moon & Natalya vs. Riott Squad in a 2 on 3 and Breeze & Fandango & The Ascension & Jose vs. Revival & Authors of Pain (so they are currently slotted on the heel side) & Hawkins. Rousey vs. James will be in singles matches later in the tour
1076
1077While this is not a surprise, there was supposed to be a complete separation between WWE and Vince McMahon’s Alpha Entertainment (the parent company for the proposed XFL). However, WWE Senior Vice President of Special Events John Saboor called key people in Orlando about the possibility of Orlando getting an XFL team. Orlando had one of the better drawing XFL teams in 2001. There was a famous story on week one where they didn’t sell any seats in the upper deck of the Citrus Bowl in week one, but packed the lower deck, and then publicly announced a sellout, and were heavily criticized for claiming a sellout with a half-filled stadium
1078
1079WWE is now marketing kids vitamins that will be on sale at Harmon Stores as well as at Bed, Bath and Beyond
1080
1081Danny Burch, who wrestled indies as Martin Stone, and was the last of the NXT regulars who was non-contracted, has been inked to a contract which means he’ll no longer be working U.K. and Florida indies
1082
1083WWE stock closed on 5/1 at $39.77 per share, and it topped $40 during the week. The company now has a market value of $3.068 billion
1084
1085The top-ten most watched shows on the WWE Network for the past week were: 1. Greatest Royal Rumble; 2. 2018 Royal Rumble; 3. NXT on 4/25; 4. Something Else to Wrestle With (episode two of the talk show with Bruce Prichard & Conrad Thompson) on 4/25; 5. 205 Live from 4/24; 6. WrestleMania 2018; 7. 2008 Royal Rumble; 8. Something Else to Wrestle with on 4/18; 9. NXT from 4/18; 10. NXT Takeover New Orleans. The only thing notable is that the Greatest Royal Rumble pre-show didn’t crack the top ten, or even the top 20. With such a long show and no matches on the pre-show, people didn’t tune in early. The Bruno Sammartino documentary in week two was in 13th place
1086
1087Notes from the 4/30 Raw show in Montreal. They had one of the hottest crowds for Raw in recent memory, and they gave them a great Rollins vs. Balor main event and easy to watch show overall. The crowd was 13,500,or a little shy of a sellout. The advance was in the 10,000 range but this show got more mainstream publicity than any Raw in months, because Montreal is more open historically to pro wrestling being mainstream dating back to the 50s if not earlier. Owens was all over the media including a front page story in Le Journal, which still reaches 3 million people, and on a morning TV talk show that reaches 500,000. Another difference is that for the first time in something like 18 years, WWE has French language television in Quebec which opens up wrestling to a lot larger audience base. Given all that, it is amazing, considering he was the most over guy on the show, that they picked him, and not Mahal, to lose in the six-man tag. It was also the first time Montreal hosted television since 2015. It didn’t drag in hour three because there is always the intrigue of what Ronda Rousey will do, although I don’t think she should be a weekly TV character. She felt less special on this show than ever before. It’s part of a build to a story but even if she can’t wrestle, she should be booked like a top person as opposed to going from the real main event to the public of WrestleMania to being just a woman on the show every week. The Baron Corbin vs. No Way Jose thing late felt better than most of the third hour throwaway segments because they are both new characters on the show. The enhancement team that lost to Authors of Pain were the local independent team of 3.0, Scott Parker & Shane “Big Magic” Matthews, who were billed as Jean Paul and Francois. They billed themselves as local, but Jean Paul, on purpose, spoke such bad French, that they were meant to be heels that the crowd would cheer them getting squashed. They worked as enhancement talent on the NXT portion of the Dallas Takeover show. Local independent wrestles Mathieu St. Jacques & Thomas Dubois (the regular tag team of TDT) along with Xandra Bale and Sassy Stephie were among those on the Conga line. Sebastien Deziel, a Jacques Rougeau trainee was one of the guys playing medical personnel in the Bobby Roode injury angle, who had gotten a WWE tryout. Lince Dorado & Gran Metalik beat Jack Gallagher & Brian Kendrick when Metalik pinned Gallagher. Crowd was super hot for this match. Tyler Breeze & Fandango beat The Revival when Breeze pinned Dawson with the unprettier. Both early matches were action packed with some comedy and babyfaces going over. The show opened talking about the Rumble and how Reigns feet hit the floor first. They showed the tweet of Chad Patton apologizing for blowing the call and Angle doing the same. Wrestling writes its own rules, but in real life the idea you don’t use instant replays (although that kills booking crutches for a lot of cheap heel wins) seems to dated. Reigns came out and the people booed him like crazy. This was one of the most negative reactions he’s had in a long time, with loud “Roman sucks” chants. Reigns didn’t look happy at all at the reaction. He said that he should be champion, and the people hated him even worse. He said he knows he beat Lesnar, so that’s why he won’t lose faith in himself even though everyone seems to have lost faith in him. He brought up that he was there but once again, Lesnar wasn’t. Joe, who was working in Ottawa, showed up with a taped promo on the screen saying that he predicted Reigns would lose to Lesnar, and he did. Joe said at Backlash he would put Reigns’ career to sleep. Mahal came out and said that he can’t stand people who make excuses for their shortcomings. So of course, as a true heel, he started making excuses for his loss of the U.S. title to Jeff Hardy. He said that Hardy cheated but you would never see him complaining. He said that Reigns lost fair and square to Lesnar. Fans booed him a lot as well. Then Zayn came out. They went crazy for him, with the announcers immediately explaining Zayn came from Laval, which is 15 minutes away. Zayn claimed he had vertigo from Lashley and that’s why he didn’t go to Saudi Arabia. He challenged Reigns to a match. Owens then came out and got an even bigger reaction than Zayn. They noted he was from Marieville, which was a half hour away. This led to a disagreement between Cole and Coachman over how far away Marieville was from the Bell Centre. For the record, Cole was right. Owens spoke in French. He said that he knows Zayn can beat Reigns, but the crowd wanted to see him against Reigns. He then polled the crowd. Nobody wanted to see Mahal. Zayn got a big reaction but Owens got the biggest reaction. Reigns decked Owens. Zayn & Mahal attacked Reigns and Owens joined in. Lashley ran in for the save. Lashley was booed coming out and they all beat him down. Strowman then came out to clean house. Strowman was largely cheered. He was cheered like crazy when he went after Mahal. He was cheered far more than booed when he ran over Owens and Zayn, but there were boos. He then pressed Sunil Singh and threw him over the top rope onto Owens, Zayn and Mahal and Strowman got loud cheers when it was over. Elias did an interview and talked about how he was reaching a new level of fame that nobody can comprehend. He sang about Roode. Some day he’s going to be a huge face because the crowd wants to like him and he has to insult them directly to get booed. Elias beat Roode again in 11:50. Elias worked over the throat and theoretically rammed Roode’s throat into the metal turnbuckle. Roode was on the floor unable to breath and got medical attention and the match ended. Elias announced himself as the winner. The problem is they showed a couple of replays, and in one of them, it was clear that Roode’s throat never came near the steel and it was his chest that hit it. That just killed everything. Authors of Pain beat Jean Paul & Francois in 1:03 when Akam pinned Jean Paul after the last chapter. Some of you may remember that HHH’s WCW name was Jean Paul Levesque. The AOP was set up as faces since they got easy heat when Jean Paul came out and spoke French so badly on purpose. The AOP did an interview after. They probably could have used Ellering. Rollins came out and got a ridiculously loud reaction. I was told nobody expected it to be as big as it was. The crowd was chanting “You deserve it.” His reaction was on par with Owens & Zayn and bigger than Strowman. He started talking about Lesnar and said he wants to be a real champion, not like Lesnar. He said Lesnar wasn’t even the legitimate champion. He then put over Reigns. The crowd then booed him. They should realize that you just can’t put over Reigns and make it work with the crowd. He said Reigns was the real champion, love him or hate him, it’s a fact. Balor came out and talked about how close to came to winning the title in Saudi Arabia. He said hats off to Rollins, and Rollins beat him in that match but wanted a title match on this show. Rollins said he had a title match with Miz late in the week, but asked the crowd if they wanted him to defend against Balor. The crowd went nuts again. Axel and Dallas came out to Miz’s music. They asked Balor & Rollins to join with them again and they could form the Four Horsemen. That was funny. Of course they were turned down. Axel & Dallas first left, but then went on the attack. Rollins superkicked Dallas and Balor gave Axel a sling blade and Rollins clotheslined him over the top rope. But then Balor laid out Rollins with the GTR. Riott beat Banks in 12:30. Banks did a promo saying that she hasn’t heard from Bayley all week. The big thing is Riott had the Riott Squad out while Banks had nobody. Then again, how many times has Banks already turned on Bayley? Banks said she wanted Bayley at ringside because the riott Squad was wanting to take over, and with Bayley not there, Banks said apparently she was okay with it. Banks decked Logan once when she tried to interfere. Riott did a great looking fall back senton off the middle rope. Banks got Riott in the bank statement. Logan distracted the ref and Morgan broke it up. After that was sorted out and Banks hit the double knees on Morgan, she got back in the ring and Riott used the Riott kick for the pin. Bliss did another mock anti-bullying message saying how Jax and her went to Disneyland and Jax made fun of her for not being tall enough to ride the rides, not even the cup ride. O’Neil talked about his pratfall. First he tried to say it was all part of a plan, but then admitted he just fell. Corbin came out, so they’re doing something in that direction. Matt Hardy did an interview. They showed photos of big moments in U.S. history with photos of Hardy & Wyatt put into the photos, such as a Revolutionary war photo, the ending of World War II and the moon landing. Reigns & Strowman & Lashley beat Owens & Zayn & Mahal in 20:53. Coachman bragged about predicting Strowman to win the Rumble. Cole said that was going out on a limb. So the crowd loved Strowman, Owens and Zayn. They didn’t care about Lashley, disliked Mahal a lot and hated Reigns. They got heat on Lashley and then Reigns, with everything set up for Mahal’s hot tag at the end. He ran over Owens and they cheered him. He threw Owens into the barricade but Strowman missed a charge and went into the post. Lashley got booed giving Zayn an overhead suplex. Reigns hit Mahal with a spear. Strowman powerslammed Owens for the win. I’m at a loss on this one. The PPV match is Strowman & Lashley vs. Owens & Zayn, so why would Mahal not get pinned? Corbin did a promo. He said that O’Neil had two left feet and made a career of looking stupid and being played as the fool. Jose pinned Corbin in 2:39. Corbin threw Jose into the post. O’Neil walked rather than ran down to the ring. Crews wiped off the mat with the idea that it was to make sure O’Neil didn’t trip and fall. Then O’Neil tried to get in the ring and lost his balance and fell down. Corbin was distracted and Jose pinned him with a roll-up. O’Neil then said he lost his balance on purpose. They teased the idea of Jose joining Titus Worldwide. Natalya pinned Mickie James in 3:04 with a small package. Rousey was in Natalya’s corner. Bliss tried to interfere and Rousey chased her away. Bliss was running away when Jax came out. Jax went after her but Bliss ran into the stands and escaped. Jax then got in the ring and did a staredown to Rousey and Natalya. They teased someone going after Jax. But instead, Rousey and Natalya grabbed Jax’s arm and all three raised their hands. McIntyre & Ziggler did a short promo. McIntyre is doing a character where he says all the other wrestlers are soft and complacent. Rollins pinned Balor in 15:22 to keep the IC title. Rollins did a tope. He tried a second one but Balor kicked him in the head. A big spot in this ****1/4 match was Rollins doing a top rope superplex and was going to roll into a Falcon arrow, but instead it was Balor who rolled with it and dropped Rollins with a falcon arrow. The crowd reacted big to that. They traded big moves until Balor used a sling blade and Rollins used a superkick. Rollins then got the pin with the curb stomp in 15:22. After the show was over, Rollins and Balor shook hands and the crowd gave them a standing ovation. Rollins talked about the crazy schedule they’d had over the past month and thanked the fans
1088
1089Notes from the 5/1 Smackdown tapings in Montreal. The second night drew 8,900 fans. The crowd was higher than most because when tickets were put on sale, Zayn and Owens, the two biggest draws in the market, were advertised for this show. There were also specials where if you bought Raw tickets, you could get Smackdown tickets discounted. Also, a lot of people who originally bought Smackdown tickets for Owens and Zayn, then later purchased Raw tickets which is why Raw sold so many tickets late. In the opening dark match, the Usos beat Rusev & English with a splash off the top onto English. Lots of “We Want Lana” chants during the match. Smackdown opened with Paige, saying that Shane wasn’t there and that the Styles vs. Nakamura match at Backlash would be no DQ. Miz came out and the fans chanted for Maryse. He got a great reaction. He said that after no-showing last week that Bryan is permanently banned from Miz TV. He called out Jeff Hardy and they announced the Hardy vs. Orton U.S. title match and billed it as their first singles match in ten years. Miz also called out Orton in the interview and tried to get them to turn on each other. Orton said he and Hardy were cool. Miz tried to get Orton mad over bringing up he was only ranked No. 9 in the top ten. Orton said he didn’t care. He also said that Hardy cost Orton his match last week with Benjamin. Hardy said that was Sunil Singh. Orton just said he was taking the title back on Sunday and Hardy told him to try. Benjamin came out and said that Orton doesn’t deserve the title shot because he beat Orton last week. Orton attacked Benjamin and Miz attacked Orton. Hardy helped out Orton and hit whisper in the wind on Miz. Hardy & Orton beat Benjamin & Miz in 12:07. Solid good match. Orton did a back suplex on Miz on the table and a dropkick on Benjamin, which, even at his age, is one of the best in wrestling. He hit Benjamin with the RKO and then Hardy pinned Benjamin after a swanton. After the match Orton hit Hardy with an RKO out of nowhere and Orton got some boos for that. The Iconics were backstage with Renee Young. Royce was making fun of Young trying to do a Canadian accent. Young said that’s not even Canadian and it sounds more like Minnesota. Royce said Minnesota and Canada were the same thing and told Young to leave. Then they interviewed Carmella. Carmella said that the Iconics beat Asuka and she beat Charlotte so as a trio they were pretty much unbeatable. The announcers said that Bryan wasn’t there and was ruled unable to compete because his chest was beaten so Raw at the Rumble and they were afraid of an infection. They showed a taped interview where Bryan said that he worked the entire Rumble and didn’t get tired, so he felt good, but that he wasn’t able to throw out Strowman, but nobody else could either. Later in the show but not on the air, they announced to the crowd that Bryan was there and would wrestle Nakamura in the dark match to keep people from leaving early. Sheamus & Cesaro were walking and talking backstage and ran into the New Day. This led to some challenges. Big E wanted to face Sheamus, but Sheamus instead said he wanted to face Woods. The idea was that Sheamus was trying to pick on the weakest member of the team. English & Rusev were backstage. English said he had written new words for the Rusev Day song. Lana was wearing a “Rusev Day” shirt. She said to Rusev that something was holding him back. He said how could that be the case when every day there is a holiday named after him. This seemed to be a tease for Lana saying English was holding him back and putting Lana & Rusev back together again. If they make that move, it’ll benefit both of them because Lana was going nowhere as a bad wrestler and can be a star as Rusev’s manager. Cass came out and tried to play the arrogant New Yorker. He said that people in New York think they’re better than people anywhere else because they are. He said he knows he’s better than Bryan, and said Bryan was small and weak. He said this wouldn’t be a five-star match, but a five second match. This is notable because Vince McMahon for decades had banned the term five star match from television. He called out Bryan, with the idea that everyone knew Bryan “wasn’t there” since it had been explained (and in the arena because Bryan actually was there doing the dark match, off the air they announced to the live crowd that Bryan had just arrived) and this tiny person came out with a wig and a fake beard with the idea he was Bryan. The guy kept giving Cass low kicks and Cass just ignored them and continued his program. Cass then kicked the little guy in the head and was beating him down. Styles came out with Renee Young. Young noted that Nakamura wanted an apology from Styles for attacking him after the match. Styles said that Nakamura ruined WrestleMania for him, Nakamura ruined his TV match with Bryan and then attacked his friend (Karl Anderson). He called Nakamura a coward. Joe came out and said he was going to prove that Reigns was a failure and after he beats Reigns, he’s coming for Styles’ title. Nakamura’s music played so everyone looked for him in the entrance, but instead, he came from the other side of the arena and gave Styles another low blow. He then teased hitting Styles with a Kinshasa, but walked past him like he wasn’t going to do it. Then he did it. Lynch was mad about losing last week. Asuka gave her a pep talks out of The Avengers to psych her up. Woods pinned Sheamus with an inside cradle in 7:33. Woods did a flip dive early. Cesaro threw Big E into the post. Cesaro was strutting around like Ric Flair. Woods chased him and Sheamus threw Woods into the barricade, but Woods came back to win. So they are starting a Sheamus & Cesaro vs. New Day program. Rose & Deville were backstage and started insulting Lynch and laughing at her. Rose & Deville were backstage with Paige. They asked Paige which one of us are getting it, meaning getting the title shot at Carmella. Paige said Rose was getting it. Rose talked about her title shot but Paige said she didn’t mean a title shot, but meant a match with Lynch next week on Smackdown. Rose & Deville said they thought they were getting special treatment since they were friends of Paige and all part of Absolution. Paige said that Absolution was dead. Charlotte & Lynch & Asuka beat Kay & Royce & Carmella in 13:31 in what appeared to be another attempt on compensation based of the Greatest Royal Rumble with a see, we’re putting women in the Raw and Smackdown main events. Charlotte worked like it was a big-time main event, including a top rope moonsault to the floor on Carmella and Kay. They worked hard but it was very clear in this match that Kay & Royce are way behind the other women inside the ring, even more than I thought. Their personalities come across strong but the match had a lot of missed stuff. The crowd was really into this. The finish saw Asuka beat Royce with the Asuka lock. 205 Live opened with Kendrick & Gallagher beating Itami & Tozawa in 8:07. Tozawa did a tope on both. Tozawa was on the top rope for a senton but at the same time Itami came off the ropes and the shaking of the ropes caused Tozawa to lose his balance and get crotched. Gallagher pinned Tozawa with a head-butt. After the match, Itami yelled at Tozawa and blamed him for losing and then shoved him down and walked off. It was clear Itami was going heel. Gulak did an interview and said that Kalisto squandered his opportunity at the title in Saudi Arabia and said Kalisto barely squeaked by him. Gulak is pushing the line that he’s the best submission specialist in WWE and vowed he’s make Kalisto tap in the main event. Buddy Murphy pinned Liam Louie in 1:47. They showed Murphy weighing in at 204 pounds so he’s back allowed on the show. They never explained Goldust never weighing in when he was a regular. Murphy is playing strong heel for a program with Alexander. Fans were chanting “Let’s go jobber.” Murphy came him a few power bombs and basically pulled Louie up rather than pin him. The ref then stopped it ruling Louie couldn’t intelligently defend himself. Alexander came out and he and Murphy went after each other until Murphy ran off. Alexander did an interview and said if Murphy wanted a title shot, he knew where to find him. Before the show, WWE was promoting on social media the return of a cruiserweight star which was done because they thought people would think either Enzo or Neville, but it turned out to be Murphy, who had never left the promotion. Gulak beat Kalisto in 12:44. It didn’t get much crowd reaction early, although it was Montreal and better than most cruiserweight bouts. Even so, late in the match there was a “This is awesome” chant that was pretty loud. Good match. Kalisto did a corkscrew dive to the floor but Gulak stepped back so Kalisto landed on Gulak’s knee. Gulak went for the mask. Kalisto did a plancha into an armdrag on the floor. He also did a tijera off the apron and a springboard flip dive. While some complain about flying, this match had no reaction early and was technically very good. It wasn’t until the springboard flip dive, which was the third dive of the match by Kalisto, where the crowd woke up. The finish saw Kalisto come off the top rope for a moonsault block, but Gulak turned it into the dragon sleeper, the Gu lock, for the submission. The dark match main event was the first Bryan vs. Nakamura singles match in WWE. It’s been a match that both guys have been wanting since they were roommates early in their careers when both trained at the Inoki dojo in Los Angeles. This was a basic match, a little better than most dark matches and certainly with a lot better crowd response. The crowd chanted “Oui, Oui,” which is yes in French at Bryan during the match and especially when he stated doing the yes kicks at the finish. Nakamura was DQ’d in 7:12 for a low blow
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1091Notes from the 4/25 NXT show. It opened with Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly, Bobby Fish and Roderick Strong out. Fish is off crutches but has a big brace on his knee. During the promo Fish talked about how they were dripping in championship gold. Strong said that for once he did something for himself and not for others. Fans cheered him when he said that. Even though they are heels, they were cheered like big stars by the crowd, especially Cole who has a real unique star charisma. Strong gave his explanation for turning on Pete Dunne, saying that he could have won the tag team titles with Dunne, but said that sooner or later, Dunne was going to turn on him so he did it first. He said that these guys are different as they’ll take a bullet for each other. He said in the middle of the match he had an epiphany, which was why fight alone when he could fight together and take over NXT. Cole said that he would defend his North American title next against Oney Lorcan. He told the other three to go to the back because he didn’t need their help against Lorcan, and pretty much was laughing at Lorcan. Cole beat Lorcan in 5:50. Cole’s ribs were all taped up from the ladder match. But Strong and O’Reilly came out and Strong gave Lorcan a back suplex on the apron and Cole pinned him after a running knee to the back of the head. All three beat down Lorcan until Danny Burch made the save. But Cole laid out Burch with a superkick. There was a video of Bianca Belair. Her nickname is the EST of NXT. They pushed that she was both the fastest and strongest woman in NXT. She’s the best athlete of the women there. They’ve been having mixed results in taking these high-class athletes and trying to make them wrestlers but I think Belair is going to make it. They announced her against Candice LeRae next week. Heavy Machinery beat Riddick Moss & Tino Sabbatelli in 4:01. This was the break-up. Moss accidentally knocked Sabbatelli out of the ring. Moss later went for a tag, but Sabbatelli refused to tag him and walked out. Moss was then pinned by the compactor, which is a double-team world’s strongest slam with Otis Dozovic slamming and Tucker Knight jumping on his back. Heavy Machinery than challenged the War Raiders to a match. They did a video package to show Shayna Baszler’s title challengers, showing Nikki Cross, Aliyah and Kairi Sane. Aliyah said that she wished she had a famous best friend she could ride the coattails of. Sane said she knew the secret to beat Baszler. Dakota Kai did an interview. Her deal is that she’s been traumatized by Baszler. She didn’t want to talk and acted like she was afraid to say anything. Baszler then confronted her and said that Kai came halfway across the world to chase her dreams, but that a women’s division run by Baszler is her worst nightmare. They did another video of Baszler’s challengers focusing on Lacey Evans, Vanessa Borne and LeRae. They also announced TM 61 vs. Street Profits and Dunne vs. Strong for next week’s show. Johnny Gargano came out for a title match with Aleister Black. But Tommaso Ciampa attacked Gargano. Gargano made a comeback until Ciampa hit him with a low blow. Ciampa, partially because he’s playing off Gargano and partially because he exudes this ice cold persona, is a great heel and this is the best feud in wrestling right now. Fans were chanting “You tapped out” at Ciampa. Ciampa laid out Gargano with a running knee with his metal brace. He then gave him an emerald flowsion off the stage and through two tables. They played it up like Gargano was badly hurt. The reason Gargano didn’t wrestle on the shows a couple of weeks ago was that this had been taped, even though it was yet to air, to play up the injury as legit. That’s a new one since in the past they’ve had injuries that didn’t matter until they played on TV, and even at times had injuries for TV storylines that they ignored at the house shows. They brought out LeRae to sell the Gargano injury as legit. They took him out on a stretcher and put him in an ambulance. In the parking lot as he and LeRae were going into the ambulance, Ciampa was standing on top of one of the WWE production trucks and waved goodbye to him which was really a hell of a scene. Ohno was back there wearing a Larry Sweeney T-shirt that was barely visible. Black then came into the ring for his title match against nobody. Sanity, without Nikki Cross, came out. Eric Young did an interview that I’m not sure made much sense. Black then responded asking him if he was looking for this, pointing to the belt, and said, “let’s do it.” The problem is after the Gargano angle, the crowd was dead. Really the show should have ended with Ciampa waving at Gargano. The match was okay but it came across as dead. Black won with a perfectly timed black mass in 8:50. Black then hit the black mass on Alexander Wolfe and Killian Dain to end the show, which was the Sanity blow-off
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1093With the Saudi Arabia show, there were no weekend house shows aside from the NXT Florida tour and a Smackdown Monday night show in Ottawa
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10954/26 in Orlando, which went head-to-head in the city with the Impact tapings, they drew the usual house show crowd of 400, which shows Impact and NXT draw completely different audiences locally. Because of that, they did a more loaded show than usual. Ricochet pinned Kassius Ohno in the opener. Ohno used his side to control most of the match until Ricochet came back and won. The two hugged after them match. Velveteen Dream came out and stood on a ladder and cut a prom on Ricochet calling him Flippy McFlipperson and ran down his style of wrestling. Reina Gonzalez pinned Jessie Elaban in a match with a huge size difference. The Chinese trio of Mars Wang & Rocky & Big Boa beat Chad Lail & Wesley Blake & Steve Cutler. After the
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1097match, the American heels beat down the babyfaces. Tino Sabbatelli cut a promo and talked about how rich he is. He was a second round NFL draft choice who played six years in the league, so he made a lot of money at least for those years. He said he’s the only true elite athlete in NXT. I hope that doesn’t mean he’s about to feud with Tony Nese. The Street Profits beat Eh Nois, which is the name the Brazilian team of Cezar Bononi & Adrian Jaoude are going by. Taynara Conti was in their corner. Tommaso Ciampa pinned Danny Burch. Ciampa got super. heat. People were chanting “Johnny Wrestling” and “You tapped out” at him. He won with a move similar to the lumbar check. After the match, to get heat, he put Burch in the Gargano escape. Adam Cole & Kyle O’Reilly beat TM 61. The crowd was totally behind Cole & O’Reilly. Even as a heel, Cole is really one of the most popular guys in NXT and would be right at the top with very little effort put in that direction. But it’s way too early to split them up. Dakota Kai won a three-way over Vanessa Borne and Bianca Belair. The winner of this match was to get a title shot at Shayna Baszler in Daytona Beach this coming weekend. Even though those are different markets, this is more teaching the talent the old ways of territorial wrestling of working to build matches. Baszler and Kai had a confrontation after the match. Main event saw Aleister Black pin Christopher Dijak with black mass. After the match, Sabbatelli came out and challenged Black for a title match the next night in Gainesville
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10994/27 in Gainesville drew 350 fans. Raul Mendoza pinned Kona Reeves. Lacey Evans pinned Jessie Elaban. The War Raiders beat Marcel Barthel & Fabian Aichner. Lars Sullivan pinned O’Reilly with the freak accident. Dream pinned Dijak. Ricochet pinned Buddy Murphy. It’s notable that Murphy is the only 205 Live guy who still works NXT. Steffanie Newell & Kai beat Borne & Gonzalez. Newell & Kai are being pushed as a regular tag team. Main event saw Black pin Sabbatelli to keep the title with black mass
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1101The final weekend show was 4/28 in Largo before 400 fans. Jeet Rama pinned Fabian Aichner. Rama got a good reaction and chants. Kavita Davi was in Rama’s corner and kept Marcel Barthel from interfering. Kairi Sane beat Taynara Conti with a bridging cross-legged Boston crab, which is called the Ikari. Sane was working with a broken finger, which may be why she didn’t do her elbow drop. But they are trying to save her by not doing the elbow at the small house shows. Cezar Bononi & Adrian Jaoude were in Conti’s corner and they refused to leave the ring. They invited anyone to try and make them leave. The War Raiders came out and they won in quick fashion. Ohno pinned Oney Lorcan in a very good match using a rolling elbow. Otis Dozovic & Montez Ford beat TM 61. Very entertaining and the Dozovic & Ford team were over like crazy. TM 61 now are heels at the house shows without a turn. Dozovic said that Tucker Knight wasn’t there because he was on a plane coming back from the Greatest Royal Rumble. Dozovic said that he had someone in he back who looks just like him as his partner. Ford came out. The two probably couldn’t look more different. TM 61 beat on Ford to set up Dozovic’s hot tag. EC 3 beat Dijak. So-so match. EC 3 got some heat based on his ability to exude arrogance. EC 3 did a lot of bump taking for Dijak, who controlled the match until EC 3 came back to win with the TKO, which they are calling the one percenter, different from his old TNA one percenter. Baszler retained the women’s title beating Newell in their first-ever meeting. Good match and Baszler was performing at a level higher than usual. Baszler attacked Newell’s surgically repaired knee. Newell did a huracanrana on the apron that threw Baszler to the floor. Baszler came back and won via choke. Main event saw Dream beat Sabbatelli. Sabbatelli hurt his left arm or shoulder, possibly a separated shoulder. They rushed to the finish from there, which was Dream winning with the elbow off the top rope
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1103The Ottawa Smackdown show on 4/30 did 4,200 fans. Bryan was there but didn’t wrestle on the show and instead did an interview segment with Miz that turned physical. Naomi & Lynch & Asuka beat Rose & Deville & Lana when Asuka made Rose submit to the Asuka lock. The wrestling wasn’t smooth at all in this match but the crowd liked it. Cass pinned Dillinger in a squash. Cass got a lot of heat and fans were chanting for Enzo of all things. Harper & Rowan retained in a four-way over Usos, Big E & Kingston and Rusev & English. Harper & Rowan sat in the entrance way for the early part of the match. In a first man pinned situation, that doesn’t seem to make sense because you could lose the title by just being not there to break up pins. Rusev was the most over guy. Benjamin pinned Sin Cara. Miz called out Bryan and said that they should bury the hatchet. He said the fans don’t want to see Bryan punch him. So Bryan punched him and gave him the yes kicks until Miz bailed out. The fans seemingly wanted to see that. Gallows & Anderson beat Sheamus & Cesaro in the best actual match on the show. Cesaro was pinned. Charlotte beat Carmella via DQ in a women’s title match. Lots of stalling by Carmella. Styles & Jeff Hardy beat Joe & Nakamura. Jeff got the biggest reaction of four. Joe had the choke on Hardy, who dropped down like a stunner to break it and Styles hit Joe with the phenomenal forearm for the pin. The match story was Nakamura avoiding Styles.
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