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4 
5DECEMBER 5, 2016 WRESTLING OBSERVER NEWSLETTER: WRESTLING OBSERVER HALL OF FAME WITH 4 INDUCTEES
6BY OBSERVER STAFF | STAFF@WRESTLINGOBSERVER.COM | @WONF4W
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8Wrestling Observer Newsletter
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10PO Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228
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12ISSN10839593
13
14December 5, 2016
15
16 
17
18The Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame welcomes four new members in the class of 2016, with Bryan Danielson/Daniel Bryan, Gene Okerlund and Sting being voted in, and 19th century pioneer James McLaughlin, generally considered the first American pro wrestling champion, also being added.
19
20To get into the Hall of Fame, you have to get 60 percent of the vote from various geographical regions. If a wrestler fails to get elected 15 years after being put on the ballot, they must garner 50 percent of the votes or be removed from the ballot. A person who gets less than 10 percent of the vote any year is eliminated from the ballot the next year.
21
22A wrestler is eligible for the ballot 15 years after the start of their major league career, or turns 35 and has been an active pro wrestler for at least ten years.
23
24Wrestlers are supposed to be judged based on four major criteria: positive historical influence on the business; drawing power; in-ring ability as well as longevity. A wrestler should have all of those, but if they were among the true dominant standout performers of their era in one or two of those categories, they should also be put in. But longevity, without being a major draw, worker or being a major historical figure should be seen as meaningless. For non-wrestlers, they need to be among the elite of their era in their specific profession.
25
26Danielson, 35, made it in his second year on the ballot. Clearly his retirement made the difference as people sometimes don’t vote for people whose careers are still in progress (not that many haven’t gotten in while full-time and active), particularly for someone who really only had a few years with true national spotlight. Danielson becomes the first wrestler where the majority of his career was spent on the independent scene, although he did end up as the most popular wrestler in WWE in 2014 and defied all odds in being the star of WrestleMania 30, given his size and the way he was pushed when he first started with the company.
27
28Danielson finished first among reporters, second among historians, 11th among retired wrestlers and 7th among active wrestlers.
29
30Unfortunately, it appears his career ended prematurely due to a number of concussions, and a lesion found on his brain that caused WWE to make the decision not to allow him to wrestle. He remains a key figure in the promotion as the General Manager of Smackdown and star of “Talking Smack,” where he gets about as honest as you possibly can within a storyline WWE environment.
31
32Danielson is generally considered as one of the best in-ring performers of this generation. Perhaps even more than his wrestling ability is his influence changing the genre at the top level of the WWE and to an being a pioneer to the modern independent scene. His success changed the very way WWE looks at talent, and some of the top stars today would not have even been signed by WWE based on the previous mindset of what a star looks like.
33
34He also reached the top, even though many times he was booked to fail. He became the classic example of a vocal audience rejecting company booking.
35
36Danielson was actually signed by WWF at the age of 19, but cut 18 months later when the Memphis developmental territory he was working at folded. At one point he was nearly brought to the main roster as a cruiserweight. After being cut, he still did some WWE enhancement work in that era on television. Being cut was the best thing to happen to him, because in 2001, largely at the prodding of Nick Bockwinkel, he was put over in the King of Indies tournament. Gabe Sapolsky, Doug Gentry and Rob Feinstein watched a videotape of the tournament and saw the talent and that was the impetus to form Ring of Honor in 2002, where Danielson was immediately one of the signature stars. He was also a successful junior heavyweight star in both Pro Wrestling NOAH and New Japan, and had a long run as ROH champion in 2005 and 2006, working through a series of major injuries.
37
38He signed with WWE in 2009, and was given the name Daniel Bryan,
39
40a name chosen by William Regal, who Bryan usually calls his main mentor and trainer, even though his first training and matches came with Shawn Michaels’ school and promotion right out of high school. In his first major break, as part of the Nexus angle, because he choked Justin Roberts with Roberts’ tie as part of one of the great modern WWE angles, he was fired. He was about to sign a contract
41
42WRESTLING OBSERVER
43
44 
45
46HALL OF FAME BALLOTING RESULTS
47
48 
49
50Votes needed for induction into the Hall of Fame: U.S. and Canada modern 213; U.S. and Canada historical 170; Japan 96; Mexico 81; Rest of the World 81
51
52PERFORMER	VOTES	PCT	2015
53BRYAN DANIELSON/DANIEL BRYAN	282	80%	54%
54GENE OKERLUND	237	67%	58%
55STING	234	66%	51%
56Cien Caras	78	58%	54%
57Villano III	76	56%	56%
58Pedro Morales	153	54%	----
59Blue Panther	68	50%	40%
60Mike & Ben Sharpe	79	50%	54%
61Hayabusa	78	49%	----
62Gary Hart	174	49%	49%
63Bill Apter	168	48%	52%
64Los Misioneros de la Muerte	64	47%	56%
65Jerry Jarrett	166	47%	48%
66Jimmy Hart	162	46%	36%
67Jun Akiyama	72	45%	33%
68Big Daddy	60	45%	41%
69Howard Finkel	157	44%	42%
70Karloff Lagarde	56	42%	41%
71Lord James Blears	56	42%	----
72Jim Crockett Sr.	116	41%	57%
73Cima	64	40%	23%
74Edge	141	40%	44%
75Johnny “Wrestling II” Walker	112	40%	36%
76Jackie Pallo	53	40%	40%
77L.A. Park	52	39%	29%
78Stanley Weston	109	39%	44%
79Ricki Starr	48	38%	39%
80Volk Han	61	38%	52%
81Sgt. Slaughter	129	37%	23%
82Minoru Suzuki	58	37%	36%
83Johnny Saint	49	37%	35%
84Enrique Torres	102	36%	37%
85Huracan Ramirez	49	36%	31%
86Red Bastien	99	35%	35%
87Mark Lewin	95	34%	37%
88Otto Wanz	45	34%	29%
89June Byers	94	33%	26%
90Curt Hennig	115	33%	30%
91Junkyard Dog	114	32%	29%
92Rollerball Mark Rocco	43	32%	42%
93Spyros Arion	43	32%	15%
94Don Owen	112	32%	33%
95Bearcat Wright	86	31%	----
96Yoshiaki Fujiwara	48	30%	----
97Caristico/Mistico original	40	30%	----
98Los Brazos	39	29%	33%
99Larry Matysik	81	29%	26%
100Akira Taue	45	28%	26%
101Ultimo Guerrero	38	28%	21%
102Dr. Wagner Jr.	37	27%	27%
103Blackjack Mulligan	73	26%	----
104Kiyoshi Tamura	38	24%	22%
105Von Brauners w/Saul Weingeroff	61	22%	22%
106Johnny Barend	30	22%	11%
107George Scott	73	21%	17%
108Yuji Nagata	34	21%	23%
109Tim “Mr. Wrestling” Woods	60	21%	28%
110Killer Karl Kox	59	21%	33%
111Archie “The Stomper” Gouldie	58	21%	----
112Jim Crockett Jr.	73	21%	20%
113Cowboy Bob Ellis	55	20%	24%
114Rocky Johnson	55	20%	16%
115C.M. Punk	70	20%	22%
116Ultimate Warrior	66	19%	13%
117Kendo Nagasaki	25	19%	20%
118Dave Brown	64	18%	18%
119Billy Joyce	24	18%	25%
120Randy Orton	59	17%	15%
121John Tolos	47	17%	25%
122Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima	25	16%	12%
123Pepper Gomez	43	15%	16%
124Don Fargo	37	13%	----
125Kerry Von Erich	40	13%	----
126Dick Hutton	36	13%	15%
127Vampiro	18	13%	11%
128Steve Rickard	16	12%	----
129Ed Francis	16	12%	----
130Jim Breaks	15	11%	16%
131Horst Hoffman	15	11%	24%
132Seiji Sakaguchi	16	10%	----
133Chyna	36	10%	----
134Less than 10% of the votes from the region and dropped from next year’s ballot: Brute Bernard & Skull Murphy, Domenic DeNucci, Kinji Shibuya, Ron Wright, George Gordienko, Masahiko Kimura, Fishman, Mario Milano
135
136 
137
138Dropped from next year’s ballot due to the 15 year/50% rule: Seiji Sakaguchi, Volk Han
139
140 
141
142Added to the ballot next year: A.J. Styles, Sputnik Monroe, Trish Stratus, Kota Ibushi, Bill Goldberg, Rick Martel, Tully Blanchard & Arn Anderson w/J.J. Dillon
143
144 
145
146Will be dropped after next year if not inducted or 50%: Cien Caras, Blue Panther, Villano III, Don Owen, Tim “Mr. Wrestling” Woods, Curt Hennig
147
148with New Japan, when WWE called him to return to be a mystery partner at that year’s SummerSlam show where he’d on the WWE side against the heel Nexus group. WWE at one point put him in an angle where Brie Bella tried to seduce him, with the idea the Bellas thought his being vegan wasn’t about his diet but that it meant he was a virgin. But it was just another example of a scripted romance in wrestling turning real and the two became a couple, were married and she’s expecting their first child now.
149
150Bryan’s first world title, cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase on December 18, 2011, was a last minute plan. Bryan wasn’t even scheduled to be on that show or at the building, but that afternoon, ideas were changed and they decided to make him a comedy champion. The idea was he’d be this annoying little guy in a feud with Big Show and Mark Henry, who everyone knew could crush him, but somehow he’d fluke his way to wins as they neutralized each other, and then he started believing he was really beating them. The idea was for him to be a heel, and he also mistreated A.J. Lee, his girlfriend, who the fans thought was too good for him. Or at least that’s what they were supposed to think. The idea at the time was to make Sheamus into the new superstar babyface, beating the annoying fluke champion in 18 seconds at WrestleMania. The Sheamus push was the first that backfired as fans were mad that Bryan only had an 18 second match at Mania, and turned for him against the promotion, and Sheamus failed as a face. Bryan’s popularity with the fans also sabotaged later attempts to make Batista and Roman Reigns the company’s top babyfaces.
151
152He really hit the top with the “Yes” chant, which he came up with to be an annoying heel chant from watching Diego Sanchez in UFC. But the crowd grew to love the chant and Bryan was getting the biggest reactions of anyone in wrestling in years, or at least the chant was on fire. Bryan was the company’s most popular wrestler by late 2013, but the company pegged him low on the WrestleMania card, again facing Sheamus. A series of circumstances, between the quitting of C.M. Punk and Batista not getting over as a babyface (Batista as a babyface against Randy Orton was the planned 2014 Mania main event) led to Bryan being put in a story where he’d first face HHH (who Punk was to face), and if he won, would then be put in a three-way with Batista and Orton for the championship. He was the star of that show, winning the title and coming across like the biggest star in years. While he was clearly a star, there was no evidence that he was moving numbers anywhere near the level of the chant reactions, and fans were happy to chant “Yes” when other wrestlers would get them to pick up on it.
153
154From that point, it was a series of some highs and more lows. He was married after WrestleMania, but then both his father and friend Connor Michalek died all within a few days. Michalek, a charismatic young fan who was dying of cancer, was at ringside when Danielson won the WWE title.
155
156Then he suffered a neck injury. The neck had been bad for months but he worked through it. He had surgery but it was not major and he was expected to be back in action after two or three months. But after surgery, his strength wasn’t returning.
157
158There were concerns his career was over, and there was talk of a second surgery. He found a doctor, who was able to get most, but not all, of his hand strength back and he returned to action seven months later. He won the IC title in a ladder match at the 2015 WrestleMania, but then suffered a serious concussion in the U.S., still went on the European tour and worked several days before being sent home. When Dr. Joseph Maroon found out that he had gone through convulsions years earlier, he made the call not to let him return. Danielson got doctors who fully cleared him, but WWE wouldn’t let him wrestle, and after a test in January 2016 confirmed a lesion in his brain, he was told by Vince McMahon to announce his retirement on February 8, 2016, in Seattle. At first he was against it, but went through the speech, one of the most memorable moments in the history of Raw, and suffered through depression afterwards before returning his current role.
159
160During his career, he was voted by readers of the Observer as the Most Outstanding Wrestler five straight years, from 2005 to 2009. No other wrestler in history has won that more than three times. He was the unofficial Most Outstanding Wrestler of the Decades, noteworthy since that came from matches on the independent scene. He also won Best Technical Wrestler nine times in a row, from 2005 to 2013, also a record, and the Best Technical Wrestler award is being renamed the Bryan Danielson award starting this year. His match with Takeshi Morishima on August 25, 2007, was that year’s Match of the Year. Had he not been injured, he was close to a lock to win the 2014 Thesz/Flair Wrestler of the Year Award.
161
162Okerlund, 73, was one of the classic characters of modern pro wrestling. He has been working in the industry for most of the last 42 years. He was working in advertising when he broke in working for Verne Gagne in 1974, occasionally handling interviews as the understudy for area legend Marty O’Neill. As O’Neill got older, Okerlund was his replacement. The AWA was built around classic interviews, with the likes of Nick Bockwinkel, Superstar Billy Graham, Bobby Heenan, Ray Stevens, The Crusher, Jesse Ventura, Hulk Hogan and many others. Okerlund started as a straight man, but as he grew more comfortable, would make off-the-cuff remarks at the end of the interviews with the idea the interview was over and cameras were turned off, except they weren’t, which could either be a funny comeback or something to give authenticity to what the babyface would say.
163
164Okerlund also had balanced support, finishing third among reporters, sixth among historians, eighth among former wrestles and sixth among active wrestlers.
165
166It was Ventura in the late 70s who came up with the name “Mean Gene,” and as the AWA exploded in popularity in 1981 with Hogan as its top babyface, Okerlund became a key component of the show.
167
168In 1983, when Vince McMahon went to raid the AWA of its top talent as part of the national expansion, built around Hogan, Hogan pushed for David Shults, who he was feuding with in the AWA, as well as Okerlund to come in with him.
169
170Okerlund had a ten year run in the WWF in a similar role. Okerlund’s best work was actually in the AWA, but his WWF work saw him garner far more exposure. He was so popular in the Twin Cities that in 1984, when the AWA and WWF were battling for control of the market in a very competitive wrestling war, one of the key shows to turn the masses toward the WWF side was having Hogan & Okerlund wrestle in a tag team match against George Steele & Mr. Fuji.
171
172In the 80s, when the WWF schedule was insane, and when the key to the company’s revenue were house shows, promoted on the back of market specific interviews, Okerlund would travel around the country to house shows and work with the talent in doing dozens and dozens of interviews for all the different house shows. At its peak, WWF ran as many as 1,000 shows per year, so if you figure four to six weeks of localized interviews before each event, top talent may have to do 35 or 40 different interviews per week, but Okerlund was handling perhaps six times as many. One of the reasons talent became so adept at interviews was because they had to do so many, and would have short time cues that they’d largely have to hit. You’d have to sell the match, the opponent, the storyline and the stipulation, and Okerlund had to make sure if the wrestler forgot one of the key items, that he’d close with it, plus often had to inform fans where tickets were on sale.
173
174In 1993, a decision was made, perhaps because of Okerlund’s age and perhaps because of his salary, by WWE, that they could get younger people to do the same job cheaper. He and McMahon had something of a falling out and with Hogan, who he had become close personal friends with, also leaving the promotion, McMahon went with a youth movement.
175
176Those in WWE say that McMahon had decided not to rehire him and let it appear WCW raided him. Okerlund felt that he could have stayed had he wanted to, but never asked for a new deal because WCW made a better offer. Okerlund had his second run as a national star handling the interviews when Nitro caught fire. Okerlund remained with WCW until it closed up, and in 2002 was hired by WWE where he appears on nostalgia shows and does cameos every now and then. It’s been 23 years since he left the promotion, and in that time, dozens of people have been given his job, and while Renee Young is very good, none have come close to the job he did in his heyday.
177
178Sting (Steve Borden), 57, was not a wrestling fan growing up. One of the funny stories is that he grew up in Southern California, and he said he never saw wrestling because they didn’t have wrestling on television when he grew up. Never mind that wrestling was huge on television when he was a teenager and was at one of its all-time popularity peaks in 1971 in Southern California when he would have been 12 years old. He was managing a Gold’s Gym when he was discovered by Rick Bassman, who was trying to turn big bodybuilders into wrestlers. Sting was about 275 pounds when he started as part of a tag team called Power Team USA, with Jim Hellwig, in Memphis, in 1985. He went to Mid South Wrestling where Eddie Gilbert saw him as a future star. The two were tag team champions but it was planned for Gilbert to turn on him and for him to go babyface. His natural charisma and look made him a potential star in the dying days of the UWF, which was sold in 1987 to Jim Crockett Promotions. Most of the UWF wrestlers ended up lost in the shuffle in the sale. Sting was mainly working prelims until put in a television match with Ric Flair on the first Clash of the Champions in 1988, and there has been no better example in the last 30 years of a wrestler being made a star in one night as he went to a 45 minute draw with Flair in an NWA world title match.
179
180From that first Clash of Champions, a 45 minute long match that averaged a 7.1 rating and peaked at a 7.8, he was one of the top babyfaces with WCW, and at times the top babyface, until the company folded 13 years later.
181
182He worked with every major star in the era that came through WCW. His Starrcade 97 match with Hulk Hogan drew the biggest non-WWF/WWE PPV number in history with 625,000 buys. But while a success as far as anticipation and drawing, the match wasn’t very good. In fact, just as Sting’s career was made in one night by Flair, his status as the hottest babyface in wrestling in 1997 was derailed in that one match. He needed a dynamic win, which he didn’t get, and could have used a great match, which also didn’t happen. Bill Goldberg surpassed him the next year as the top babyface star and his drawing power was killed, as was almost everyone in the company, through the disastrous booking of most of 1998 to 2000.
183
184Sting came out of it as one of the top stars in the business, a position he was still in until spinal stenosis and injuries suffered taking two power bombs into the turnbuckles against Seth Rollins in 2015 seemingly ended his career.
185
186While many remember best Sting’s from the 1990s, and it appeared is career was over when WCW folded in 2001, he had a second career from 2005 to 2013 in TNA. His Hall of Fame voting is an example of how nostalgia changes how things are viewed. Sting actually fell off the ballot with less than 10 percent of the votes shortly after WCW folded. While always pushed as one of the top stars with the promotion, the promotion wasn’t very successful with him on top, past 1997 when he wrestled one match.
187
188His TNA career, because it prolonged his career as a headliner, made him someone who got support, but never came close to going in. He was always pushed hard in TNA as a signature babyface, and even did a heel turn, although in the end it was revealed in that turn that he was really a babyface who saw through the fakeness of Hulk Hogan before anyone else did. It’s funny that 2K Sports was largely responsible for Ultimate Warrior and Bill Goldberg returning to WWE television and getting deals with the company, but is probably also responsible for making Sting a Hall of Famer. While it is possible Sting’s situation would have turned out to be the same had he not been contacted by 2K, since TNA couldn’t afford him and him coming to WWE only made sense, there are still those, including Sting, who believe the deal never would have been made had his appearances in video game advertising not gotten such a huge reaction at the arenas.
189
190Sting placed 10th among reporters, 9th among historians, 9th among
191
192TOP AMONG DIFFERENT VOTING GROUPS
193
194 
195
196REPORTERS
197
198 
199
2001. Bryan Danielson
201
2022. Big Daddy
203
2043. Gene Okerlund
205
2064. Blue Panther
207
2085. Pedro Morales
209
2106. Cien Caras
211
2127. Villano III
213
2148. Jun Akiyama
215
2169. Akira Taue
217
21810. Sting
219
22011. Cima
221
22212. Sharpe Brothers
223
22413. Howard Finkel
225
22614. Rollerball Rocco
227
22815. Jim Crockett Sr.
229
23016. Jimmy Hart
231
23217. Jerry Jarrett
233
23418. Caristico
235
23619. L.A. Park
237
23820. Edge
239
24021. Bill Apter
241
24222. Yoshiaki Fujiwara
243
24423. Hayabusa
245
24624. Johnny Saint
247
24825. Otto Wanz
249
25026. Los Brazos
251
25227. Bearcat Wright
253
25428. Junkyard Dog
255
25629. Johnny “Mr. Wrestling II” Walker
257
25830. Volk Han
259
260 
261
262HISTORIANS
263
264 
265
2661. Gary Hart
267
2682. Bryan Danielson
269
2703. Jimmy Hart
271
2724. Volk Han
273
2745. Bill Apter
275
2766. Gene Okerlund
277
2787. Enrique Torres
279
2808. Ricki Starr
281
2829. Sting
283
28410. Howard Finkel
285
28611. Don Owen
287
28812. Sharpe Brothers
289
29013. Kiyoshi Tamura
291
29214. Lord James Blears
293
29415. Cien Caras
295
29616. Ultimo Guerrero
297
29817. Blue Panther
299
30018. Edge
301
30219. Spyros Arion
303
30420. June Byers
305
30621. Stanley Weston
307
30822. Sgt. Slaughter
309
31023. Jerry Jarrett
311
31224. Killer Karl Kox
313
31425. Bearcat Wright
315
31626. George Scott
317
31827. Jun Akiyama
319
32028. Akira Taue
321
32229. Karloff Lagarde
323
32430. Billy Joyce
325
32630. L.A. Park
327
328 
329
330FORMER WRESTLERS
331
332 
333
3341. Karloff Lagarde
335
3362. Los Misioneros de la Muerte
337
3383. Hayabusa
339
3404. Lord James Blears
341
3425. Ricki Starr
343
3446. Huracan Ramirez
345
3467. Villano III
347
3488. Gene Okerlund
349
3509. Sting
351
35210. Bill Apter
353
35411. Bryan Danielson
355
35612. Gary Hart
357
35813. Curt Hennig
359
36014. Jerry Jarrett
361
36215. Larry Matysik
363
36416. Red Bastien
365
36617. Mark Lewin
367
36818. Seiji Sakaguchi
369
37019. Volk Han
371
37220. Jimmy Hart
373
37421. Don Owen
375
37622. Johnny Barend
377
37823. Kendo Nagasaki
379
38024. Jackie Pallo
381
38225. Cien Caras
383
38426. Ultimo Guerrero
385
38627. Howard Finkel
387
38828. Pedro Morales
389
39029. Jim Crockett Sr.
391
39230. Rocky Johnson
393
394 
395
396ACTIVE WRESTLERS
397
398 
399
4001. Dr. Wagner Jr.
401
4022. Cien Caras
403
4043. Sting
405
4064. L.A. Park
407
4085. Jim Crockett Sr.
409
4106. Gene Okerlund
411
4127. Bryan Danielson
413
4148. Pedro Morales
415
4169. Johnny “Mr. Wrestling II” Walker
417
41810. Hayabusa
419
42011. Sharpe Brothers
421
42212. Sgt. Slaughter
423
42413. Huracan Ramirez
425
42614. Los Misioneros de la Muerte
427
42815. Jerry Jarrett
429
43016. Von Brauners w/Saul Weingeroff
431
43217. Minoru Suzuki
433
43418. Gary Hart
435
43619. Jackie Pallo
437
43820. Johnny Saint
439
44021. Edge
441
44222. Bill Apter
443
44423. Blackjack Mulligan
445
44624. Curt Hennig
447
44825. Jimmy Hart
449
45026. Lord James Blears
451
45227. Otto Wanz
453
45428. Red Bastien
455
45629. Ultimo Guerrero
457
45830. Karloff Lagarde
459
460former wrestlers and 3rd among active wrestlers for balanced support that easily put him over the top.
461
462During his career he held the WCW title six times, the International WCW title twice, and the TNA title five times. He was voted Most Charismatic by the Observer readers in 1988 and 1992, Best Babyface in 1992 and his 1988 match with Flair at the first Clash of Champions was voted Match of the Year, and as far as a match that made a star in one night, is still the prototype of what has been tried to have been duplicated for decades, and nobody has ever been able to..
463
464Cien Caras (Carmelo Reyes) came five votes short of making it this year, as he, Villano III and Blue Panther staved off execution as they needed 50 percent to stay on the ballot after more than 15 years. Volk Han, who has always done well in the ballot, is now off the ballot due to not reaching the 50 percent threshold after 15 year on.
465
466Cien Caras placed sixth among reporters, 15th among historians, 25th among retired wrestlers and 2nd among active wrestlers. Unlike a Han, whose career looks better watching it than reading about it, Caras’ career is more impressive the other way, which is one of the notable things about balloting.
467
468Villano III (Arturo Diaz Mendoza) was in the same category. Villano III had a strong career, although unlike Caras, who remained a headliner as part of a tandem with his brothers until the end of his career (and even headlined some shows this year at 67), Villano did fade to the middle before coming back in an emotional mask vs. mask match with Atlantis in 2000 that is considered one of the greatest matches in Lucha Libre history.
469
470Pedro Morales, who has never done well previously, had a strong showing. Morales is an interesting case study because he was one of the top stars in the business from when Fred Blassie brought him to Los Angeles in the mid-60s, where he held the WWA world title and was also part of a series of championship tag teams, most notably teaming with Pepper Gomez against Ray Stevens & Pat Patterson in what was among the most memorable world tag team title programs of that era. He had a three-year run as WWWF champion, which was a mixed bag. With the exception of Superstar Billy Graham, no champion drew as consistent sellouts in Madison Square Garden as Morales. But no matter how you wish to view that, the reality was that in 1973, Vince McMahon Sr. and his son, Vincent Kennedy McMahon, went back to Bruno Sammartino and gave him what at the time was the ultimate sweetheart deal to come back. If the entire territory was doing well, that simply wouldn’t happen.
471
472Morales’ post-1973 career was not Hall of Fame-worthy, although he did have a nice early 80s run, largely nostalgia based on his championship run, where he was the No. 2 full-time babyface and IC champion in WWF.
473
474The Sharpe Brothers, who to me should be in without question given their roles in establishing pro wrestling in Japan with the Rikidozan & Masahiko Kimura vs. Sharpe Brothers program in 1954, not to mention being 19-time West Coast version of the NWA world tag team champions during a run from 1950 to 1959 where they, along with Leo Nomellini, dominated the main event scene for a decade.
475
476Hayabusa (Eiji Ezaki) garnered 49 percent in his first year on the ballot, after he passed away. His support was far stronger among wrestlers than non-wrestlers, as he was considered an inspiration to the current generation of high flyers.
477
478Jun Akiyama, who has remained a top tier worker after 24 years in the business, took a jump up from 36 percent to 46 percent. Akiyama is one of those victims of timing. For pure ability, he’s a Hall of Famer, but he was someone who when put in the focal point, never really delivered the way he needed to. He was part of some memorable matches during the end of the All Japan glory era, and with NOAH, he never fully broke through and with pro wrestling having faded so much in popularity in Japan, it’s hard for him.
479
480Jim Crockett Sr., whose longevity as a promoter and having a solid territory for so long should be enough for serious considering, fell from nearly making it last year down to 41 percent. Crockett Sr., similar to Don Owen, ran a steady territory for a long period of time. They were never considered the elite promoters or having the best promotions, and the Carolinas really exploded in popularity under his son and George Scott, but he did create the foundation and ran a successful company from 1935 until his death in 1973.
481
482Without a doubt the strangest balloting regarded Big Daddy, the U.K. star, who was at 45 percent, almost entirely based on reporters, and ironically, mostly North American reporters as opposed to those in the U.K. Daddy didn’t do well at all, in fact virtually no votes among either historians or his peers. He got some votes among active wrestlers, but not enough to crack the top 30 in that group.
483
484On the flip side, Lord James Blears, who passed away at the age of 92 earlier this year, the booker and television announcer in Hawaii after a career as a headliner in the 50s on the mainland, as well as the figurehead president of the Pacific Wrestling Federation (essentially the Japanese Jack Tunney) did some of the best numbers, actually the best outside of Japan and Mexico, among former wrestlers and well among historians, but did nothing among reporters. Blears and Ed Francis (who only garnered 12 percent of the vote, although voting ended weeks before his death) were put on the ballot for the first time this year. There is often a good result of wrestlers the year after they pass away, both sympathy reasons, or in other cases, it leads to examinations of their lives and careers.
485
486Most of the results were similar to that of last year. Sgt. Slaughter had an upward bump, while Han had a fall that he couldn’t afford. Luis Urive, the original Mistico and Sin Cara, and now Caristico was one of the most interesting candidates on this year’s ballot since it was his first year.
487
488He was on fire as a drawing card in Mexico, to the point he was the No. 1 drawing card in pro wrestling in 2006 and 2008, No. 2 in 2007 and No. 3 in 2005. That alone would make one a lock for the Hall of Fame under normal circumstances, but he flopped so badly in WWE that it became a major part of his legacy. And while he is still a main event star in Mexico, without a doubt the WWE period hurt him badly there as well. He very well could end up as the biggest drawing card in history to never make the Hall of Fame.
489
490Another notable debut was Bearcat Wright, who after studying his career, I’m convinced belongs in. Although modern history tells you Ron Simmons was the first African-American world champion, Wright held two major versions, the WWA title in California (which was one of the “big three” at the time he held it), and then the IWA title twice in Australia (when World Championship Wrestling was considered the leading promotion in the world). He also held the Boston version of the world title and once drew 30,000 fans at Comiskey Park in Chicago when challenging Buddy Rogers for the NWA title.
491
492He was also the U.S. champion in California when, since it headlined the Cow Palace, was arguably the most important non world title in the U.S. during the period he held it, and was chosen to win both the first of their kind World Battle Royals in Honolulu and at the Cow Palace.
493
494Wright’s career on top was shorter than it should have been since he wasn’t pushed during most of the 50s, when he probably should have headlined given his size, agility and legit toughness (he was an undefeated heavyweight boxer who was a legit 6-foot-7 and 270 pounds). His 60s run was clearly Hall of Fame caliber. He had significant baggage, including refusing to drop the WWA title to Edouard Carpentier, and then double-crossing Fred Blassie on a finish when he had agreed to drop it. But it’s notable that both of his world titles in Australia and both of his U.S. title runs in San Francisco came after his problems in Los Angeles, which tells you how big of a star he must have been, because that reputation would have hurt anyone who couldn’t draw money at the top in those days.
495
496Falling off the ballot next year are Seiji Sakaguchi, Volk Han, Domenic DeNucci, Kinji Shibuya, Ron Wright, George Gordienko, Masahiko Kimura, Fishman and Mario Milano.
497
498In danger of falling off next year, because they will need 50 percent to stay on, are Caras, Blue Panther, Villano III, Don Owen, Tim “Mr. Wrestling” Woods and Curt Hennig. Owen is an interesting case based on longevity and because he was very popular with wrestlers as far as being a fair payoff guy. He ran what was a steady, and at times very good territory, really until the national expansion of WWF taking his best guys and making them enhancement talent (Buddy Rose and Rip Oliver), making his promotion seem second rate to the local fans at the end of the run. Woods and Hennig have always had mild support, but never close to Hall of Fame numbers. Woods, given his heyday was so long ago, I can see having a difficult time. Hennig is very popular with a lot people who grew up watching Mr. Perfect, because he was such a talent, so he may fair better, although was only at 33 percent this year.
499
500New additions next year are A.J. Styles, whose strong last three years make him a viable candidate after he actually fell of last year with less than 10 percent even after his big year in Japan; Sputnik Monroe, based on a lot of requests, Trish Stratus, Kota Ibushi, Bill Goldberg, Rick Martel, and Tully Blanchard & Arn Anderson with manager J.J. Dillon.
501
502Monroe would not be a candidate under normal standards as far as being largely a journeyman wrestler other than one big run in the late 50s in Tennessee, but that run was important historically because he was to a large degree responsible for integration of public facilities in Memphis when he refused to wrestle at the Ellis Auditorium unless African-Americans were allowed to purchase tickets anywhere in the building. Prior to that, all public places had Jim Crow laws, where if African-Americans were to attend movies or sports events or concerts, they could only sit in the “colored” seating sections.
503
504COL. JAMES MCLAUGHLIN: James Hiram McLaughlin (June 8, 1844-September 11, 1905) was arguably the most accomplished wrestler of the collar-and-elbow style that ever lived and, along with William Muldoon, was one of the two key people to originally popularize pro wrestling in the United States.
505
506A five-time American collar-and-elbow champion, McLaughlin dominated the style at the height of its popularity in the post-Civil War period. A top wrestler for nearly twenty years, McLaughlin was the first American wrestler to wear a championship belt reflective of his status.
507
508While Muldoon ended up a more famous figure historically, it was more because he lived into his 80s and became the president of the New York State Athletic Commission, so decades later he remained in the news while McLaughlin faded into history.
509
510But McLaughlin’s career when examined away from the shadow of Muldoon shows an interesting, lucrative, dominating and brutal and violent story. If newspaper accounts from that time can be taken as accurate, and realistically, they shouldn’t, McLaughlin may have been the highest earning pro wrestler in history if you adjust for inflation. Contemporary accounts talked of many matches where Muldoon won thousands of dollars in 1870s money through side bets and wagers. Of course, those numbers could be wildly exaggerated, but even if not, McLaughlin earned an exceptional amount of money and was a dominant wrestler during a period where at least a good portion of the matches were legitimate.
511
512In that era, pro wrestling was in different forms. There were legitimate matches and there were worked matches. Newspaper coverage in the era would talk skeptically about the legitimacy of some matches and chants of “fake” did occur as far back as the 1870s, which was his prime. But a lot of the matches were real, and there were deaths and serious injuries in some of McLaughlin’s matches. A lot of the matches were also worked to swindle locals out of betting money. It would be impossible today to know what was and wasn’t legitimate about McLaughlin’s matches, but what was legitimate is he and Muldoon were the first major stars.
513
514McLaughlin was born to a Scottish father named Martin and Irish mother named Elizabeth in Oriskany, Oneida County, New York on June 8th, 1844. A large individual, McLaughlin already weighed 185 pounds in his mid-teens. As a brawny adult, he stood 6-foot-1, and weighed 215 pounds, making him much larger than most men during that time period.
515
516When not in training for a big match, McLaughlin often weighed as
517
518much as 265 pounds, which was considered borderline mammoth in the 19th century.
519
520He enrolled in the Union Army at the beginning of the American Civil War in 1861. McLaughlin was 17 at the time. He was assigned to the 26th New York Infantry upon arrival, later to be transferred to the 24th New York Cavalry. Few of McLaughlin’s exploits during the war survive to the present day, but it appears he fought competently and well. His standing rank upon the war’s end in 1865 was that of Major.
521
522After his regiment was disbanded, he was named Colonel by Michigan’s governor, an unofficial title less reflective of army rank than of the level of high esteem and respect which he was afforded by peers.
523
524Collar-and-elbow wrestling was a popular pastime among Union troops, many of whom had helped introduce the style to the United States from Ireland following immigration. The style emphasized standing wrestling, and falls were recorded when both of a wrestler’s shoulders and both hips touched the ground for a count of five.
525
526Like its two foremost cousins, catch-as-catch-can and Greco Roman
527
528wrestling, matches were generally held under best-of-three falls rules, but could also occur under a five falls format. McLaughlin in particular developed a reputation as a man to be reckoned with.
529
530McLaughlin’s first official match took place two years before the war, in Birmingham, New York in 1859. Hiram McKee, remembered as a loudmouthed Scot twice McLaughlin’s age, was the opponent. Although not fully grown, McLaughlin was close to 200 pounds, and may have outweighed McKee. The match was won by McLaughlin for $100 a side.
531
532McKee, unsatisfied with the result, dogged McLaughlin around town and demanded a rematch. This caused McLaughlin to lose his temper, and before McKee was ready, he was thrown to the ground by his younger opponent. McKee fractured a leg in the skirmish.
533
534McLaughlin’s last recorded opponent before the war was Luke Loucks, who he defeated in Oneida Castle, New York in late-1860 for another $100 a side.
535
536During his time in the Union Army, McLaughlin received coaching from an anonymous source (or possibly several anonymous sources), coaching that would prove invaluable to him in his later career. Although there is no documentation to support it, McLaughlin was credited with remaining undefeated in wrestling matches during the war. Some of his more notable opponents included Corporal Corrigan and Duval Wilcox.
537
538Following the war, McLaughlin immediately devoted his time to wrestling. His first recorded match after being discharged was a victory over Louis Ainsworth in Newark, New Jersey either on May 14, 1866 or January 1867. McLaughlin’s prize for the match was $2,000. After defeating Ainsworth, McLaughlin declared himself the collar-and-elbow champion of America, although he lacked an actual belt or emblem to show it.
539
540On September 1st, 1868 (some sources say 1867), McLaughlin suffered his first official loss to Homer Lane in Utica, New York. The loss was probably a fluke, and most people continued to recognize McLaughlin’s claim to the title over that of Lane.
541
542The crowning achievement of McLaughlin’s career was emerging victorious in a March 1870 tournament. In the tournament, believed to be completely legitimate, McLaughlin defeated Barney Smith, EP Harrington, and a score of others. He was awarded a belt with a gold buckle on the front as his prize after the conclusion of the tournament on March 30.
543
544Smith, who lost in the finals, died of cranial injuries inflicted by McLaughlin during their match, although no inquest was ever held. Accounts at the time claim that McLaughlin had the match won, but for unknown reasons, the judges and the referee kept the match going. McLaughlin, upset about them refusing to stop the match, slammed Smith hard to get the win. Newspaper accounts at the time stated Smith apparently suffered a brain injury. He was found the next morning wandering the streets of Detroit nearly nude and disoriented, and was sent to a sanitarium, where he later died. McLaughlin donated all of his tournament winnings to Smith’s widow and apologized, saying, “I forgot I was so wicked strong.”
545
546Throughout 1870 and 1871, McLaughlin defended the belt, which he agreed he would forfeit if he should ever lose, in matches against Lane, Joe Benjamin, Nathan Dorrance and C. Orr.
547
548He retired during the summer of 1871, and remained inactive for roughly four years, although he continued to claim possession of the title and was regarded as champion by local media print.
549
550On February 14, 1875, McLaughlin came out of retirement with a win in straight falls over Mike Whalen in San Francisco, California for $2,500 a side. He won an additional $15,000 in side bets, which would be about $430,000 in modern money. McLaughlin returned to his state of dormancy, and didn’t accept another match until January 4th, 1876, when he beat Benjamin again in straight falls in Detroit.
551
552During this period, a wrestler named Dutch Hogan died after a match with McLaughlin, and another, Charles Meier, ended up paralyzed. McLaughlin in newspaper accounts showed great remorse and said he was giving up the almost anything goes catch-as-catch-can style of wrestling in favor of what he called the more civilized and safer collar-and-elbow style which consisted of locking up and winning via throwing an opponent to the ground.
553
554Throughout the course of that year, McLaughlin wrestled three matches against James H. Martin. The first two bouts, on March 23 and June 29, respectively, both in Detroit, were declared draws. The third, held in New York on October 16th, ended in McLaughlin’s favor.
555
556At around this time, McLaughlin started training a protégé named Robert Wright. McLaughlin’s dominance was thought to be absolute. He had defeated more opponents in straight falls than any other wrestler, and was seemingly unaffected by years of inactivity. He enjoyed a considerable size advantage over most opponents. However, McLaughlin’s biggest weakness was that he gained weight rapidly when not in training, and struggled to shed the excess baggage. He often appeared overweight for his matches.
557
558McLaughlin wrestled Charles Murphy in December 1876. It was a seemingly routine exhibition match that became not so routine when the champion hurt his heel. The injury prevented him from raising himself by the ball of his foot. There was no way to recover in time for a match with James Owens, one of the era’s biggest stars, scheduled for December 27, 1876 in Boston. Ever the proud champion, McLaughlin entered his fray with Owens with his ankle heavily taped. The match began at 8:15 pm and continued for more than five hours, ending at almost 2 a.m. Both wrestled defensively as McLaughlin protected his injury, while Owens was fearful of coming to grips due to McLaughlin’s superior size and strength. On several occasions, the match was nearly declared a draw, but both men were convinced to keep at it in order to quell a potential riot. Owens won the match, and the title, in straight falls.
559
560The loss was said to have been McLaughlin’s second defeat in 36 official matches. It was an ironic end to one of the most iconic title runs in early sports history.
561
562McLaughlin took time off in early-1877 to heal his injury before resuming his wrestling activities. He wrestled three matches in the spring of 1877, beating John Cavanagh once and Thiebaud Bauer twice. He retired again in May 1877, spending most of 1878 on the sidelines as well. In the fall of 1878, McLaughlin was lured from retirement by John McMahon, a rugged individual and one of the top three collar-and-elbow wrestlers in the country.
563
564McMahon defeated a grossly out-of-shape McLaughlin on November 23, 1878 in Chicago. Local newspaper reports stated there was no question this was a legitimate match, which indicates that even then there was skepticism regarding other key matches of the era. McLaughlin won their next match on December 14 after managing to drop some of his bulk. A third match between the two on March 12, 1879 ended in a draw. As McMahon undoubtedly discovered, McLaughlin, even overweight, was as tenacious and rugged a competitor as could be found anywhere.
565
566On December 28, 1882, McLaughlin defeated Canadian champion Edras Lambert at the Volk Gardens in New York.
567
568McLaughlin stepped back into the ring in 1884 for what was his last recorded major run. On January 28, 1884, McLaughlin defeated HM Dufur—another top star at the timer—in Detroit to capture his third American collar-and-elbow title, and reportedly won $2,500 in the process. He was defeated by Duncan C. Ross, who doubled as a New York police officer, on March 24 in Cleveland, Ohio. The Colonel beat Ross on April 10 only to lose to Dufur on May 3. On June 6, McLaughlin regained the title from Dufur in Buffalo, New York. Dufur reclaimed the title in yet another rematch on July 30 in Boston. McLaughlin remained semi-active until 1902.
569
570The main source for this biography was an article entitled, “Champions of the World at Collar-and-Elbow Wrestling,” penned by an unknown author and originally published in April 1884. While the basic facts appear to have merit, the book is a heavily-biased and slanted piece that shows rampant favoritism in both its write up of McLaughlin and that of Dufur, two enigmas for which reliable biographical source material is difficult to come by.
571
572McLaughlin is chronicled as “a great favorite, being widely known and very popular through the great northwest. He is one of those ‘hale fellows well met,’ winning attention by his massive and handsome physique, and friends by his genial, hearty manner.”
573
574Furthermore, the author claims McLaughlin “keeps himself in splendid form, by wise and systematic exercise and training.” Such complimentary but no doubt exaggerative writing was a popular style among writers of the late 19th century, yet one is almost left with an impression that McLaughlin was standing over his shoulder telling him what to write, or at least
575
576encouraging him, in ways not at all subtle.
577
578The reality of James H McLaughlin was considerably rougher. He was a person with a considerable propensity to overeat. He spent increasingly longer periods outside of wrestling (usually earning income as a passenger train conductor), and was generally in poor shape when he came back. The article itself admits that McLaughlin was 265 pounds “natural,” a good fifty pounds heavier than his prime weight of 215. In some of his later matches, McLaughlin was described as being heavyset even when he was relatively active in the ring.
579
580As it is highly unlikely that anyone in the 19th century standing 6'1" would develop 265 pounds of muscle, the only other explanation was that the weight McLaughlin carried was largely composed of fat, and if that is so, then it’s not difficult to fathom how that fat was developed.
581
582McLaughlin was also an exceptionally ill-tempered individual, at least in the ring. He was responsible for no less than three recorded deaths during his career. The article only refers to one of these (and that, only in passing), that of Barney Smith, upon whom McLaughlin inflicted severe head trauma either by dropping him on his head or throwing him off the stage.
583
584This action was in response to the attitude of the ringside judges, who ignored McLaughlin’s continued dominance of the tournament. Smith was found stumbling alone in the rain early the next day—he was deemed insane—and died shortly after, although to McLaughlin’s credit, he demonstrated remorse in donating his match winnings to Smith’s widow (according to legend, he informed her, “I forgot I was so wicked strong”).
585
586More mysteries exist in McLaughlin’s last series of bouts in 1884. The sheer number of title changes seems odd for the sport at that time. This becomes more apparent when one considers that most wrestlers of the day needed at least 6-8 weeks of training to prepare for a big match. Evenly contested collar-and-elbow matches typically lasted an hour or more, and it was not unusual for a match between, say Dufur and McMahon, to exceed three hours.
587
588Such marathons required significant endurance, and it required dedicated training to develop and maintain that endurance. One could not train for just three weeks and expect to be ready for a shoot with as skilled a wrestler as a Dufur or a McMahon.
589
590The most probable explanation was that McLaughlin and Dufur had a private arrangement (possibly including one or two other wrestlers) to control the title lineage of the collar-and-elbow title. Although most collar-and-elbow bouts of the time period were legitimate, McLaughlin and Dufur may have agreed to put one another over on occasion to generate interest in their rematches, thus making any such matches more lucrative. If such matches were short outings of 20-30 minutes, religious preparation was not as vital.
591
592Of course, the one flaw in that logic was that in post-Civil War wrestling, the winner typically got all the proceeds (side bets and the original stake) while the loser got nothing. If the theory suggested in this paragraph was to work, it would require both men to meet privately after the match to evenly split the side bets.
593
594McLaughlin and Muldoon had two matches against each other, both in 1884. McLaughlin beat Muldoon three falls to two on November 8 in New York. On December 14, 1884, McLaughlin was defeated by Muldoon three falls to two in St. Louis. Like with Dufur, the idea that the two top guys of the era would split three-of-five fall matches sounds like an agreement ahead of time. There is a February 25, 1885 account of McLaughlin accepting a check for $250 due to a Fort Wayne, Michigan forfeiture from Charles Moth, who missed his train into town. At that point, McLaughlin disappears from the history books and Muldoon took over as the country’s biggest wrestling star, until September 2, 1892, when McLaughlin wrestled a bull to the ground in a Seattle, Washington bullring.
595
596The proceedings prompted a sportswriter for The Middletown Daily Press to quip, “Col. McLaughlin’s clothes hung in tatters and he was badly bruised and scratched, but he still holds the championship belt.”
597
598The last historical account relating to McLaughlin occurred midway through 1901, when he accompanied promoter Joe Carroll and catch wrestler Frank Gotch to fleece the prospectors of the Klondike. By this point, Muldoon had long since retired.
599
600Researchers and historians Mark Hewitt, Don Luce and Bill Taylor uncovered the 1901 tour of the Yukon territories, with Gotch wrestling under the name Frank Kennedy.
601
602Hewitt wrote in 2001 that Gotch, Caroll (who used the name Old Marsh), did what was known in that era as “the badger game.” It was one of the major pro wrestling scams of the era. Caroll would show up in a gold rush economic boom town in the Yukon and claim to be a wrestling champion of the Yukon. He would then do a series of matches, traveling with towns with Gotch and McLaughlin. McLaughlin’s name was well known from decades earlier, and they would claim he was the world collar-and-elbow champion since 1870. Gotch would claim to be Frank Kennedy of Springfield, MO, a Filipino-American war veteran who showed up in the towns prospecting for gold.
603
604This led to what was the first high-profile three-way match, where the three were in separate corners to decide the best man at the five leading styles of wrestling, Greco-Roman, catch-as-catch-can, collar-and-elbow, side-hold and Cornish style. McLaughlin beat Marsh in collar-and-elbow. Kennedy (Gotch) beat McLaughlin by pulling the big man’s jacket over his head and choking him. While McLaughlin escaped the choke, he was rolled up for the pin. Marsh beat McLaughlin in side-hold, using a hip roll to throw him. Kennedy then beat McLaughlin in Greco-Roman style throwing him with a half hammerlock.
605
606McLaughlin wrestled little after that point, and the new stars were Gotch, Tom Jenkins, Farmer Burns and Evan “Strangler” Lewis.
607
608McLaughlin passed away while on business in Fairmont, Alaska on September 11, 1905, at the age of 61.
609
610Thanks to Mike Bueckert and Karl Stern for what would be the otherwise lost information on James McLaughlin, as well as Jerry Kuntz and Tim Corvin, the author of the book “Pioneers of Professional Wrestling.”
611
612The Sports Business Journal this past week released a story which confirms information we had also received, which is that UFC has already started internal and informal discussions regarding a new television or deals.
613
614The current deal with FOX expires at the end of 2018. The deal which covers live shows on FOX and FS 1, shoulder programming, The Ultimate Fighter reality show and hype specials will pay UFC $140 million this year, $154 million next year and $168 million in 2018.
615
616Formal negotiations are not allowed to start yet, but the story said that UFC is looking for a ten-year contract for $450 million per year. For a comparison, the NHL in 2011 signed a ten-year deal with NBC for $2 billion, which works out to $200 million per year. While UFC does draw bigger ratings generally than the NHL, the NHL fills more hours because there are so many more games, and even with weak ratings, it’s a prestige sport and considered one of the big four major sports, even if a distant fourth, and is a far more popular spectator sport and corporate sponsor sport than MMA. The UFC negotiations will be interesting regarding the future of sports rights since it will be the biggest sports package up for grabs until the NHL, Major League Baseball and the PGA contracts all come due in 2021.
617
618It is the belief by WME IMG that they would be able to get that sized deal that led to the $3,995,000,000 purchase price of the company this past summer. If they get a deal in that range, they would be easily able to afford the estimated $140 million annual interest fee to service their debt, even if there was a downswing in the PPV business. It would also, for the first time, make television rights fees, particularly from the U.S. market, the key revenue driver for UFC, as it is with most major sports and is with WWE as well. UFC’s leading revenue driver remains PPV at this point.
619
620Based on the terms of the contract, no actual formal negotiations can take place for another year, and FOX has an exclusive negotiating window into 2018.
621
622The story said that the winning bidder may have more power over the PPV business, as part of the huge guarantee could be the network getting a cut of PPV revenues. This would incentivize the network to more strongly promote the biggest fights.
623
624Another aspect, which is major, of the new deal, is that UFC would be treated like regular sports instead of like WWE. Like WWE, the UFC has always insisted on maintaining control of its broadcasts, hiring the announcers, controlling the content and handling the production. The new deal would be more like an NFL deal where the network would be in complete charge of the broadcast, including cover the production costs, which actually makes the increase even more financially beneficial. In theory, that should lead to a journalistic approach to coverage and announcing, but that may end up more as theoretical.
625
626The UFC may also, like the NFL, sell rights to two or more networks as opposed to exclusivity. Because most major sports rights fees are tied up long-term, UFC’s contract is coming due at a time when they’ll be the biggest sports franchise on the market.
627
628The negative is that both Fox Sports and ESPN have been cost-cutting, rather than looking at expanding costs, due to the losses by Fox Sports and by so many cable companies moving ESPN to a paid tier which has led to a significant drop in those who have access to the station and thus, decreasing carriage fee revenues.
629
630The story noted that FOX Sports did attempt to purchase UFC when it was up for sale this year, but their bid of $3.6 billion was below the leading bids.
631
632The story also mentioned ESPN, but noted that network has had major financial belt-tightening. The key to a potential ESPN deal is whether the network would pay big money to put a dagger in Fox Sports 1, which is far behind ESPN in popularity, but is its key rival. UFC is a huge part of the FS 1 schedule year-around, being its key prime time destination event most Saturday nights. Also mentioned as a potential suitor was Turner Sports, which is said to have interest in using the product to build up Tru TV.
633
634A key part of this story is how the economics of the television industry are going to change. Younger viewers, the ones the advertisers covet the most, are watching less and less television. But UFC has more appeal with those 18-34 than most sports. Those in the industry are all talking about declining ratings, and for years the idea was that if you include DVR numbers, that many of the entertainment shows are doing as well, and even better than before, but DVR viewers are more likely to skip ads, so advertisers weren’t as concerned with those numbers. But the idea is live sports were immune to people deciding to watch via DVR. The NFL ratings this year have been of major concern because the NFL did so well last year, but the prime time shows are down this year to the point there is real concern and thought about the idea there is too much product and questions about the Thursday night game going forward.
635
636NFL ratings are still strong, and within the normal statistical variation of the past two decades, unlike, say WWE, which is at historic low numbers that would have been considered horrendous even one year ago. But the decline in prime time is significant and that may also be overexposure, since local team games on Sunday afternoons are a lot steadier and still strong but the national prime time games have taken a hit.
637
638But the news for all cable stations isn’t good as people are pulling away from cable. During the month of November, there were another 285,000 homes that dropped cable or satellite, leaving the number of U.S. homes with cable or satellite at 98,103,000. The drop in October was 862,000, which was a scary serious drop. This kind of drop also took place during football season when the hope was people would come back. With fewer homes, the key revenue drivers (the price per home that cable and satellite operators pay the stations) for the cable networks are down. ESPN had a bad November, because companies are also taking them off the basic tiers and moving them into specialty sports tiers, because of the high price charged and trying to charge lower basic tier rates to keep subscribers. ESPN lost 555,000 homes in November and ESPN 2 lost 595,000, while FS 1 lost 258,000 and NBC Sports lost 620,000.
639
640The story also said that as part of its sale of rights fees, it is willing to give one of the networks Fight Pass to run, noting Turner executives being interested in operating Fight Pass as well as the synergism between DirecTV, which AT&T, the parent company of Turner, also owns, and UFC being the leading PPV player. This would lead to heavier promotion of the UFC PPV events. But the AT&T purchase has yet to be approved by the government. NBC Sports, which was a strong bidder in 2011, could also use the programming both for network specials on Saturday nights as well as building up NBC Sports Network.
641
642What could be a major promotional war is brewing behind the scenes, and the battleground looks to be the U.K.
643
644The recent television pilot that was taped for a revival of ITV’s World of Sport is scheduled to air at the end of the month. While ITV has not officially announced a pick-up of the series, there have been moves made behind-the-scenes which indicate such a thing is strongly being considered, with the idea of a massive taping in a few months where they may do as many as ten weeks worth of shows at once, somewhat similar to how TNA has been doing.
645
646The difference between this project and TNA ends there. ITV is the No. 2 network in the U.K., and the World of Sport pilot will likely be viewed by millions of people. Keep in mind that Raw on Sky may do 150,000 viewers.
647
648While WWE has nearly three decades as the dominant pro wrestling organization in that country, and even with television being limited to a subscription channel as opposed to a major free station, they are far more popular than in the U.S. and in general, draw bigger crowds at far higher ticket prices. The idea that ratings in and of themselves are a predictor of a level of business success has always been a fallacy in pro wrestling, and even if the ITV show does 20 times the number of viewers, that doesn’t mean the wrestlers pushed on those shows will have the marketability to pull numbers at house shows or sell merchandise.
649
650However, WWE is hardly going to sit back as the business changes in 2017, whether it’s an ITV-led promotion, or a FloSlam streaming service, or even a rise in underground promotions in the U.S. that are garnering cult followings. It’s not a secret that WWE is going to be more aggressive in signing talent, whether it be it sees things in that talent, or, as some have said in the U.K. scene based on recent deals offered, just to keep talent away from potential competitors and building up smaller companies.
651
652WWE vs. ITV is already brewing behind-the-scenes. ITV has recently sent all their talent amendment to their contracts that wouldn’t allow anyone appearing on those shows to do television on major stations. Those contracts would not prevent the ITV talent from appearing for other companies, nor from appearing on iPPV or streaming services for other companies. However, the contracts would give ITV first dibs on the talent, similar to TNA. There is already talk of doing house shows if the first season is a success. If that’s the case, they would have the right to book the talent on their shows, and if the talent would have made other bookings on those dates, they would have to cancel.
653
654WWE at the same time is starting to offer unique contracts to the key U.K. wrestlers who are marketable or have some name value that don’t already have deals. The deals were described as different from anything they’ve done in the past. These are not main roster deals, nor developmental deals. Those in the U.K., and for that matter even some in WWE who are friends with talent that have been offered the deals, have termed then “competition-killer” deals. They are low dollar guarantees, the talent would stay in the U.K. and be allowed to continue to work indies, but now would have a small cushion. The key would be in locking the talent down to where they can’t go to the ITV promotion, but would also not be allowed to appear for promotions like WCPW (a group that spends big money for foreign talent and does its own Internet weekly television show and iPPV shows), or with promotions that have streaming services. The contracts would give WWE the right to approve or not approve of their indie dates.
655
656Some of the names offered deals are fairly well known in the U.K. hardcore community, while others really have no name value at all. Many had prior tryouts with WWE and they weren’t at the time interested in picking them up. A major percentage of those who tried out a few weeks ago at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow were offered these type of deals. It would enable the talent involved that is struggling to make a living in wrestling, most having other jobs, to have a little big of a cushion to pursue their wrestling, and since the dream of most is WWE since that is what they grew up on, there is that emotional leverage of a WWE offer as opposed to going with a small company with no stability or a newer company that may or may not have longevity.
657
658The WWE has already asked for everyone’s names and started to do background checks, and have told people to clean up their social media accounts, but haven’t offered the actual physical contracts yet.
659
660There are ideas hinted around, perhaps another television show featuring the contracted U.K. talent for that market only. The idea is that just being associated with a WWE product would increase the marketability of such talent on the U.K. scene.
661
662At the same time, several of the key U.K. promotions have had contact from both FloSlam and WWE regarding being part of their streaming services. The key promotions, Revolution Pro, Progress, ICW and WCPW have their own streaming service. WCPW is backed by the What Culture site and thus has strong financial backing and thus would be unlikely to sign up with either side. Revolution Pro, which has some of the hottest and best action at its big shows, and uses top American indie wrestlers as well as stars from New Japan, would have at least some international appeal as a streaming show given both the names and in time, potential due to show quality. The thing working against anyone new getting past a certain level of exposure is that with the amount of product that WWE puts out, and it being the major league group, unless it’s someone who has no interest in WWE or lives and dies with pro wrestling, there aren’t enough hours in the day for even following another strong product.
663
664At this point, neither the WWE Network nor FloSlam have reached a deal with any of the key U.K. groups. WWE did work with both Progress and Revolution Pro in qualifying matches for the Cruiserweight Classic.
665
666At the ICW show in Glasgow, the WWE contracts were major talk, and the peer group pressure was to not sign with people calling them “mark deals,” with the idea that “They don’t want you, they just don’t want anyone else to have you.”
667
668A press conference was held on 11/30 to announce the formation of the MMAAA (Mixed Marts Arts Athletes Association), which claimed it would be strategically trying to greatly increase the share of the pie UFC fighters get when it comes to revenue.
669
670Appearing at the press conference and stated as the Board of Directors were Georges St-Pierre, Tim Kennedy, T.J. Dillashaw, Cain Velasquez and Donald Cerrone. Kennedy, Velasquez and Cerrone all have UFC fights this month.
671
672The fighters are mostly CAA clients, which is a rival talent organization to WME IMG, which owns UFC.
673
674Also at the press conference was Bellator founder and former CEO Bjorn Rebney, who did most of the talking. Rebney pushed hard that this is not an attempt to form a union, and that going to court with a class-action suit would be the last option, but will be an attempt to get fighters the same tape of pay and benefits as in major sports.
675
676At the press conference, St-Pierre and Rebney stated that UFC fighters only got eight percent of the more than $600 million in company revenue. Those with access to the exact figures have informed us that in 2015, the fighters received closer to 13 to 14 percent of total revenue, which is still far to little. Rebney also pushed that the $4 billion purchase made UFC the most valuable property in sports, comparing the sale price to that of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Manchester United, but UFC is essentially the sports major league, and a fair comparison would be to compare the sale price to what the entire leagues are worth, which is far more than $4 billion.
677
678The idea is to organize the fighters and attempt collective bargaining with the goals being to get pensions for the pioneers of the sport, health coverage similar to what athletes in other sports receive (the UFC is the first fighting organization to have insurance but it is for the fighters and not as families) and for the fighters to receive 50 percent of the total revenue, a number similar to what the athletes in the NFL, MLB, NHL and NBA receive.
679
680The claim was that UFC operated on 50 percent margins, which isn’t true as last year’s profit margins were closer to 26 percent. However, WME IMG is looking at greatly reducing costs and the goal is to up those EBITDA margins to very close to 50 percent going forward, which is why there were the recent round of front office cuts.
681
682The difference in general fighter reaction toward management has changed so greatly in the last three years, and even more pronounced in the last few months. There used to be a form of unity with the idea they were all working together to build the sport and fighters were just happy to be able to be paid to fight. But the more they found out the profit margins, and even more, the $4 billion sale price the Fertittas got while they were paid a smaller percentage of revenue and UFC had amazing profits at the same time, and that changed things greatly.
683
684The fighters painted a picture that most of them, with St-Pierre being an obvious exception, go through their careers and end up with significant injuries and risk brain damage and end up with little or nothing to show for it, and many will be dealing with health issues and injuries long after their careers are over.
685
686Velasquez noted that during his career he’s already had seven surgeries (four knee operations, two shoulder operations and a back operation), and has an eighth surgery planned already that he’s holding off of until after his 12/30 fight with Fabricio Werdum. He noted them trying t get post-retirement health benefits and that it’s important for fighters to come together on that issue.
687
688A lot of people involved were questioning Rebney as the strategic adviser, noting when he ran Bellator, that the contracts weren’t fighter friendly, and the way he treated Eddie Alvarez in court when Alvarez became a free agent and then got a great offer from UFC and he tied him up to where it cost Alvarez seen figures that he’d have made as a cut off a major show.
689
690While St-Pierre, Kennedy and Velasquez are represented by CAA, Rebney noted that CAA is not backing this but that they are supportive of it because that’s what real representative agencies would do for their clients. He was also critical of WME IMG taking a $25 million management fee as part of the UFC’s annual budget.
691
692He claimed that they were going to push for a settlement that would not be just for the period going forward, but additional revenue for past wrongs in fighters not getting their fair share. He noted that this organization is only going after UFC, and that they would not be calling UFC first. They were vague about how they were going to try and accomplish this, noting they want to avoid going to court because lawyers will get a large percentage of the money, and that they are not looking to challenge the designation of fighters as independent contracts. Rebney said that the independent contractor designation would be used to subvert a union, and it would take years in court, and he claimed there was a 90 percent chance UFC would win, and they were looking to change things as soon as possible. There was an implied threat to strike to try and get the benefits they are asking for.
693
694UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier suffered a torn right adductor and inguinal hernia and may be undergoing surgery, forcing him out of his 12/10 UFC 206 main event title match with Anthony Rumble Johnson.
695
696The match will be rescheduled when Cormier is healthy, probably sometime between February and May. Johnson was offered a fight with Gegard Mousasi on the show, but turned it down, figuring it’s not worth the risk of a loss or an injury that would give Ryan Bader the shot at Cormier.
697
698Cormier told Ariel Helwani that he’s been given the option of resting it, getting platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections or having surgery. We were told that the first doctor he saw said he wouldn’t need surgery, but another doctor recommended it.
699
700The injury was the same as the one Dwayne Johnson suffered in his second match with John Cena, and the same thing Terry Funk recently underwent surgery for.
701
702Cormier said just resting could take five months to get back in the gym, and he didn’t want to wait that long. He said he’s not a fan of surgery but was told, he could start training in eight weeks if he had surgery, but even then, you’d want a good two months of camp before fighting someone the caliber of Johnson, so that puts you in March at the earliest.
703
704The injury led to UFC making a series of moves in the featherweight division. First, they stripped Conor McGregor of the championship, which was likely to happen either way since McGregor hasn’t defended the title since he won it nearly a year ago, and his next fight won’t be until May at the earliest and it will likely be a lightweight title defense. McGregor hasn’t said anything publicly regarding being stripped of the title. Dana White had said multiple times that if McGregor won two titles, that he’d have to choose one to defend. For fairness to both Jose Aldo and Holloway, who were beyond due for title shots, unless McGregor was to agree to face one or the other, at this point he did need to be stripped. But it doesn’t help title credibility when the champion is still active and was never beaten for the title, and the new champion is a guy he had beaten in 13 seconds. McGregor also was the last person to beat Holloway, and still beat Holloway via decision after tearing his ACL during the early part of the fight.
705
706Aldo, the interim champion, was made champion. The main event on 12/10 will now be Anthony Pettis vs. Max Holloway, originally the three-round semifinal, and now a five-round headliner billed for the interim championship. Given Aldo isn’t injured, the creation of the interim title is the continuation of a bad step of devaluing championships at a time when championships are meaning less and less. It’s the fear of putting on a PPV without a championship match and really without a drawing match at a time when people are skipping PPVs more than ever.
707
708Aldo had talked of retiring if he couldn’t get a fight with McGregor next, although he appears to have changed his mind and is now expected to face the Pettis vs. Holloway winner to unify the titles in 2017. The problem is that McGregor took a division that meant little, made it hot, but then left the division after beating everyone including that 13 second win. Even though Aldo is one of the greatest fighters in the sport’s history, as long as that loss hangs on his shoulders both the standing of the featherweight title and how his career is viewed will be remembered far more for that one quick loss than all of his wins.
709
710John Kavanagh, McGregor’s coach, said he thought UFC was being shortsighted in its decision.
711
712UFC 206 does have some interesting fights with Donald Cerrone vs. Matt Brown and Doo Ho Choi vs. Cub Swanson, and Tim Kennedy vs. Kevin Gastelum at middleweight.
713
714This looks to be a show that will be lucky to hit 200,000 buys given the current landscape where a lot of shows without marquee names are doing less than 250,000 buys, especially with this one sandwiched between the monster UFC 205 and Ronda Rousey’s return three weeks later. The interim title isn’t going to make a difference, and it just devalues the idea of titles, similar to pro wrestling and boxing where most championships mean nothing at the gate.
715
716Cormier’s injury comes just weeks after teammate Luke Rockhold pulled out of his main event scheduled for this past weekend against Ronaldo Jacare Souza in Melbourne, Australia. AKA is pretty much renowned for having camps that have created some of the best fighters in the sport, but Rockhold, Cain Velasquez, Cormier and Khabib Nurmagomedov, the camp’s four major stars, have all been plagued with injuries over the past couple of years. Rockhold had a knee injury going into his loss with Michael Bisping. Cormier was already training with a knee injury for the fight with Johnson.
717
718Although it was pretty much made clear a few weeks ago on Twitter, the final signing of the legal settlement between Anthem Sports and Entertainment and TNA took place on 11/28.
719
720Exact details of the settlement were not announced, but Corgan got at least the $1.8 million he had put into TNA, if not some interest and other considerations.
721
722With the deal settled, Anthem is expected to officially purchase TNA from Dixie Carter and end up with 85 percent interest in the company, with ten percent going to Aroluxe and five percent to Dixie Carter.
723
724Terms of the settlement were confidential but two key points are that Corgan did not have to sign a non-compete form, and in the press release talked about continuing in the wrestling business. In addition, while Corgan signed away any rights to sue either Anthem Sports, TNA Impact Wrestling or Impact Ventures, he did not sign away the rights to sue any specific individuals associated with those companies. Corgan, in an interview with us, noted that he fought in the settlement to keep the ability to sue certain individuals involved who he felt misled him and wronged him alive.
725
726Anthem Sports will take over running TNA, as well as being its exclusive digital streaming partner.
727
728Ed Nordholm, Anthem Executive Vice President, who has been running TNA in recent weeks, said that they respect the creative and financial contributions that Corgan has made to the company.
729
730“We can now close this chapter and look forward to making Impact Wrestling a leader in the professional wrestling world.”
731
732“I’m pleased that an agreement is now in place that allows wrestling operations to continue, for my interest from the start was to provide support, be it material or creative, to such a great roster and crew” said Corgan. “And I plan on continuing in the business side of pro wrestling. I look forward to seeing where Anthem’s leadership takes the company in 2017, and wish them the best.”
733
734Corgan said he felt that Anthem Sports were the right people to be running TNA, and if he had gotten it, it would have been an uphill battle. But he made it clear he felt he was both used and misled from the start by Dixie Carter since the beginnings of his involvement with the company.
735
736New Year’s Eve MMA in Japan is about creating matches that will garner attention, and Rizin has outdone itself, in the worst way possible.
737
738The promotion announced that on 12/31 at the Saitama Arena, that Gabrielle “Gabi” Garcia will face 52-year-old former female wrestling shooter turned politician Shinobu Kandori.
739
740Garcia has become a Rizin favorite as the muscular 6-foot-2, 244 pound fighter who fought former TNA wrestler Lei’D Tapa on New Year’s Eve and is now 3-0 in freak show style fights.
741
742In the late 80s and early 90s Kandori was one of the top female pro wrestling stars in Japan, considered the top shooter and toughest woman in the profession due to her background as a judo prodigy.
743
744In 1984, at the age of 19, Kandori placed third in the judo world championships at 145 pounds. At the time, there was no women’s judo in the Olympics, so Kandori instead signed for pro wrestling in 1986 and got great fanfare from the start.
745
746She was pushed as the top star with the LLPW organization and once, in an office-generated hit, beat up and ended the career of Jackie Sato, who was the biggest woman pro wrestling star of the 70s and had come out of retirement.
747
748When women’s MMA started in Japan in 1995, Kandori was its first star, but it was really pushed as an offshoot of pro wrestling. She had a 4-1 record in fights between 1995 and 2000, and most famous were her two bouts with 6-foot-3, 320 pound Svetlana Gundarenko, who competed in the 1992 and 1996 Olympics in the unlimited weight class and was European champion in 1992 and 1995.
749
750Today, Kandori is more famous as a politician, currently serving in the Japanese House of Councilors (equivalent to U.S. House of Representatives) with the Liberal Democratic Party.
751
752On April 2, 1993, at the Yokohama Arena, she had a match with Akira Hokuto that was among the greatest women’s pro wrestling matches in history. It was not the main event on that show, which at the time set the all-time women’s attendance record with 16,500 fans. However, the rematch, which was almost as good as the first meeting, stemming from the reaction to the first match, sold out Sumo Hall with 11,500.
753
754She split two matches with Gundarenko in MMA. It should be noted that there was suspicion regarding her win, given the ridiculous size difference and more because both were pro wrestlers, as Gundarenko worked for FMW.
755
756Gundarenko was a huge, slow and heavy Russian, while Garcia is built like Ryback or Kerry Von Erich. Kandori is listed at 5-foot-7, but is actually shorter. She’s probably giving up eight inches in height, 90 pounds in weight, and is 21 years older, although Garcia claims that Kandori will fight at 187 pounds (she looks nowhere close to that) and she’s now allowed to be more than 15 pounds heavier and thus will fight at 212, and claimed she’s at that weight now.
757
758Even though Garcia is really not that skilled, just based on some skill and sheer size and strength, she won world championships in BJJ in the superheavyweight division in 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014. She did have one failed drug test for Clomiphene, although she ended up being exonerated from it.
759
760The back story of the fight is that Kandori had just run her own card, for her 30th anniversary of her pro wrestling career, on 10/19. She promoted the show around “Female Power,” and besides including many of the legends of the glory days of women’s pro wrestling, she also booked some female rock legends, Nanase Aikawa and Keiko Terada. Even though they drew 2,500 fans, a near full house to the Tokyo Dome City Hall, the show ran heavily in debt and she and LLPW, which still exists and promoted the event, were looking to make up their losses.
761
762At the same time, Rizin had no opponent that anyone would have cared about for Garcia because there are no true female MMA fighters anywhere near her size.
763
764Garcia told MMA Fighting that she didn’t even know about the fight until moments before the press conference. She said that she was told the reasons by her boss (promoter Nobuyuki Sakakibara) and said, “I said yes because I understand my boss’ side. I believe in what he’s doing because he’s a great promoter and I’m an employee. I will enter the ring to fight whoever they put in front of me.”
765
766She said she told Sakakibara she didn’t want the fight after seeing Kandori, but Sakakibara told her about Kandori’s history in Japan and claimed Kandori has fought men before (she’s done pro wrestling matches against men, not fights, including a well-known match with Genichiro Tenryu that was the first intergender match in Japan). Because of Kandori’s name, her history and the freak show aspect, this fight was put together because of the belief it will draw ratings on New Year’s Eve, which in Japan is the most competitive night of television of the year.
767
768Garcia said that she was told she can’t be more than 15 pounds heavier than her opponent, and would have to cut to 198 pounds. But that would mean Kandori would be 183, and she isn’t nearly that big. Kandori competed in judo at 145 and was billed at 165 as a pro wrestler, but obviously at 52 she’s not going to be as big when in shape as she was in her 30s.
769
770The feeling is putting a sitting house of councilors member in a fight will garner a lot of publicity, and Kandori does have name value from the glory days of women’s wrestling and had the shooter rep from her youth.
771
772But the very idea of this fight is abhorrent.
773
774Haruka Eigen, an Executive Director with Pro Wrestling NOAH who had a 40-year career as a pro wrestler, passed away on 11/28 at the age of 70.
775
776The only details given of his death is that he went to the office that morning and left at 1:30 p.m. and seemed fine. He and a friend went to dinner and then at night, he went to the sauna in the Setagaya section of Tokyo. Eigen came from the generation of athletes where they would go to saunas. Eigen suffered a heart attack (acute myocardial infarction) while in the sauna and police officers were called and rushed him to the hospital where he passed away at 8 p.m.
777
778Eigen was past known as a cult mid-card comedy figure during the heyday of All Japan Pro Wrestling in the 90s. On almost every show, Eigen was a member of the Washington Generals in a Harlem Globetrotters type comedy-fest, on the losing end as Giant Baba, by this point long past his prime, teamed with another older legend, Rusher Kimura, and usually Mitsuo Momota, the son of Rikidozan, to face Eigen & Masa Fuchi, and a third partner, who was often Mighty Inoue. On rare occasions, they’d get to win.
779
780Eigen was best known for the “spit spot,” which he did for a decade or longer. He would do it multiple times in a match, where Kimura (and later others after Kimura retired) would bend him over the top rope, chop his chest hard, and Eigen would spit hard. Usually he’d spit into the crowd. Sometimes he would spit all over Kimura, and to get the biggest pop, on occasion he’d spit in Kimura’s open mouth.
781
782It became a cult deal where ringsiders would bring the daily newspaper to the show, and when Kimura would bend Eigen over the top rope, the first several rows would put the newspapers over their head like an umbrella.
783
784Eigen continued the spit spot until his retirement in 2006, with NOAH.
785
786Eigen’s six-man match was traditional to All Japan in the 90s, where they’d have some prelims, and then do Baba’s light comedy match right before intermission, leaving people in a good mood to go out and buy merchandise before the harder hitting matches took place.
787
788Eigen was never a major pro wrestling star, but due to his longevity, he was somebody that everyone knew, even if they weren’t wrestling fans. He garnered mainstream publicity in 2006 when he turned 60 and was winding down his career.
789
790A former sumo, Eigen’s career began in 1966 with a group called Tokyo Pro Wrestling, which was built around Antonio Inoki, Toyonobori and started the career of 1964 Olympian and future Hall of Famer Masa Saito. He hooked on with the dominant Japan Pro Wrestling promotion in 1967 after Tokyo Pro folded.
791
792He wrestled in North America in 1972 and 1973 as part of a heel Japanese tag team with Katsuji Adachi. Adachi was known at the time as Tokyo Joe (not to be confused with Joe Daigo, who was also known as Tokyo Joe). Adachi later became well known in Calgary as Mr. Hito, and trained many of the stars of Stampede Wrestling, including Bret Hart.
793
794Eigen was known as The Great Togo, which was the name of a 60s Japanese star. The pair held the NWA North American tag team title once and a Central States version of the World tag team titles twice, feuding on top with the likes of Bob Geigel & Rufus R. Jones.
795
796They worked some tag team matches in St. Louis during that period, with their biggest win coming on October 5, 1973, over Eddie Graham (likely in just to do business with Sam Muchnick, but still a surprise he’d be in this position) & Ronnie Etchison.
797
798JPW folded while Eigen was in the U.S., and he joined up with New Japan Pro Wrestling, where he worked from 1974 to 1984 and in the latter years, doubled as a house show promoter.
799
800In late 1984, when there was the big raid of New Japan by All Japan’s Giant Baba, headed by bringing in Riki Choshu, Saito, Animal Hamaguchi and Yoshiaki Yatsu, Eigen was there because he could work and also was experienced at promoting shows. But when Choshu returned to New Japan, Eigen turned down returning and stayed with All Japan. He was rewarded for his loyalty as Baba kept on the cards as long as he was alive, and he continued promoting shows as well.
801
802After the death of Baba, Eigen joined Mitsuharu Misawa is going to Pro Wrestling NOAH and served as a member of NOAH’s Board of Directors. Eigen and Kimura continued their mid-card routine, doing the spit spot seemingly forever, as NOAH usually had Kimura & Momota against Eigen and a partner, as well as in trios matches, until the retirement of Kimura in 2004. After the death of Baba in 1999, Kimura would do interviews after the match every night doing comedy talking about Eigen. As they got older, Kimura would joke about how both of them survived another tour. The match was a trademark for so long that fans didn’t even have to be told about the intermission, as they all knew it was after that match.
803
804Eigen then often worked short prelim singles and tag matches until his own retirement. By this point he had already been part of the office in NOAH and continued in that position after retirement.
805
806During his career, he only held one championship in Japan. In 1980, when the IWE promotion was on its way down, New Japan sent Shozo Kobayashi, who was a significant star, along with Eigen, a regular prelim guy, over to the promotion and they defeated Mighty Inoue & Isamu Teranishi to win the vacant IWA world tag team tag titles on June 29, 1980, at Korakuen Hall. But they lost them on July 15, 1980, in Fuji, to Inoue & Animal Hamaguchi.
807
808On May 1, 2003, as part of a festival event at the Tokyo Dome, the day before Ultimate Crush, which featured the only Kenta Kobashi vs. Masahiro Chono match, New Japan ran a small show at the Dome as a prelude and festival built around a New Japan alumni Battle Royal. Eigen was in that with other wrestlers from the 70s and 80s in New Japan including Kotetsu Yamamto, Kantaro Hoshino, Great Kabuki, Kengo Kimura, George Takano, Kuniaki Kobayashi, Osamu Kido and Masashi Aoyagi. It had been his first match in the New Japan ring in more than 18 years.
809
810NOAH announced it would honor Eigen at its next two events, the 12/2 show at Korakuen Hall and 12/3 show at Differ Ariake.
811
812All Japan Pro Wrestling attempted to relive its former glory with its biggest show of the year on 11/27 at Sumo Hall in Tokyo, a five-hour show headlined by Triple Crown champion Kento Miyahara defending against former champion Suwama.
813
814The show, which had a wide variety of talent and styles, and used talent from a number of different generations, was largely well received. The crowd was announced at 6,522, but it was clear that number was inflated and there were reports of ticket giveaways the show. But it was healthy enough that the company already announced an August 27, 2017 date for its biggest show of next year in the same building.
815
816The show was a prelude to the annual tag team tournament, which starts on 12/3 in Yume and finishes on 12/18 at Korakuen Hall.
817
8181. Takuya Nomura of Big Japan Pro Wrestling pinned All Japan’s Naoya Nomura in 8:01 after a schoolboy in a solidly worked opener.
819
8202. Kaji Tomato of K-Dojo & Kazuhiro Tamura of the Heat-Up promotion & Naoshi Sano of the Sano promotion beat All Japan’s Sushi, 90s All Japan star Tsuyoshi Kikuchi and former All Japan and NOAH mid-carder Masao Inoue in 7:39 when Tamura pinned Sushi submit to a Northern lights suplex into an armbar.
821
8223. Super Tiger of Real Japan Pro Wrestling & Ryuji Hijikata & Rey Paloma of the Dove Promotion & Diablo beat Mitsuya Nagai of Dradition, the former RINGS wrestler & former New Japan wrestler Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Takeshi Minamino & Black Tiger VII in 9:50 when Super Tiger pinned Minamino with a Tiger suplex.
823
8244. Dory Funk Jr. (75 years old) & Chavo Guerrero Sr. (who turns 68 next month) & Ultimo Dragon & Tajiri beat Great Kabuki (68 years old) & Osamu Nishimura & Yutaka Yoshie & Isami Kodaka in 12:09 when Funk pinned Nishimura with a small package. The match opened with a mist-off with Tajiri and Kabuki. Funk was the most over but he looked very old in there. Guerrero didn’t do much, but was fine.
825
8265. Ryoji Sai, the former Zero-One star, & Kengo Mashimo of K-Dojo & young DDT star Konosuke Takeshita beat All Japan’s Jake Lee & Yuma Aoyagi & Koji Iwamoto when Sai pinned Lee in 11:05.
827
8286. Jun Akiyama & Kendo Ka Shin beat Takao Omori & Manabu Soya in 8:40 when Akiyama pinned Omori after a wrist clutch exploder. Omori & Soya revived their Get Wild tag team for the first time in almost four years. This was a tag team tournament preview.
829
8307. Jiro Kuroshio of Wrestle-1 captured the Gaora TV title from All Japan’s Yohei Nakajima in 9:44.
831
8328. Keisuke Ishii of DDT captured the jr. title from Soma Takao, also from DDT, in 14:29 with a shooting star press. Ishii will next defend against Aoyagi.
833
8349. Atsushi Onita (59 years old) & Masa Fuchi (62 years old) captured the All-Asia tag team titles from Atsushi Aoki & Hikaru Sato in 14:17 when Fuchi pinned Sato after a half dozen back suplexes after Onita had blown red mist in Sato’s eyes. The story here was that Onita & Fuchi, who teamed up in the early 80s but were never able to win the All-Asia tag titles, were back together in the All Japan ring and became the 100th champions in the title that dates back to 1955. The match was dedicated to Kazuharu Sonoda (who wrestled in Texas as The Magic Dragon as the tag team partner of the Great Kabuki in the 80s), who was a contemporary of Onita & Fuchi and passed away while flying out on his honeymoon in 1987 at the age of 31.
835
83610. Zeus & The Bodyguard brought the world tag team titles back to All Japan as they defeated Strong BJ of Daisuke Sekimoto & Yuji Okabayashi in 20:40 when Zeus pinned Sekimoto after a jackhammer in a battle of powerhouses. This match had some cool stuff in it.
837
83811. Kento Miyahara pinned Suwama in 26:21 with a straitjacket German suplex to retain the Triple Crown. This turned into an excellent match, particularly the last several minutes of near falls. I didn’t see anything at this level this week. Both are these guys are very solid in everything they do and Miyahara sells great his comebacks are strong. Suwama is a hard-hitting basic wrestler that feels a strong main eventer from another generation. He does copy Jumbo Tsuruta and you can see the similar moves and offensive style, but doesn’t have Tsuruta’s charisma.
839
840After drawing 56,214 fans to Etihad Stadium last year for UFC’s debut in Melbourne, Australia, with Ronda Rousey vs. Holly Holm, the company’s return trip on 11/27 drew what was reported a second sellout of 13,721 for a U.S. gate of $1,636,888 on 11/27 (11/26 U.S. time) at Rod Laver Arena.
841
842Those are big numbers for a Fight Night event, especially considering the main event was Robert Whittaker vs. Derek Brunson, both top ten middleweights but neither with major marquee value. It should be noted that most tickets were purchased with Luke Rockhold vs. Ronaldo Jacare Souza as the main event, a fight that didn’t happen due to Rockhold suffering a knee injury. But that’s still a great showing for that main event, leaving Melbourne as one of the best UFC cities in the world.
843
844As far as ratings went, they weren’t so good. The show went head-to-head with a ton of college football, including on two networks, as well as the replay of the Andre Ward vs. Sergey Kovalev fight on HBO (the taped fight did 834,000 viewers) and Vasyl Lomanchenko vs. Nicholas Waters (the live main event did 782,000 viewers).
845
846Between that and the weak star power, the show did 686,000 viewers, the third lowest prime time number of the year, beating only the 10/1 show (John Lineker vs. John Dodson) and the 7/13 show (Lineker vs. Michael MacDonald).
847
848What’s notable is that the prelims did 654,000 viewers, which were headlined by Daniel Kelly vs. Chris Camozzi. It’s very rare when prelims do almost the same number as the main card. In fact, on the Internet on Fox Sports Go, the prelims averaged 5,239 viewers while the main card averaged 4,423.
849
850The pre-fight show did 278,000 viewers and post-fight show did 199,000 viewers.
851
852The new main event, an exciting fight which saw the Australian Whittaker nearly finished early, and then coming back to win in 4:07, tore the house down and elevated Whittaker into the top middleweight tier. Whittaker was even talked about by Chris Weidman about being his next opponent. The last two weekends has led to the former “big four” at middleweight of Rockhold, Weidman, Souza and Yoel Romero now expanded to seven with Whittaker, Gegard Mousasi and champion Michael Bisping. This leads to a number of different matchups that can be made in the upcoming title picture.
853
854The rest of the night was DecisionMania. The card opened with eight straight bouts going to the cards, the first time that has ever happened in the 23 years history of the company. Going into the main event, ten of the first 12 fights had gone to a decision, tying the all-time record for most decisions on one show. With Whittaker winning via stoppage, it ended up as the fourth show in UFC history to have ten decisions.
855
856For the third weekend in a row, there was a retirement announced, with Kyle Noke following in the footsteps of Miesha Tate and Manny Gamburyan. Noke had figured that if he lost to Omari Akhmedov, he was likely to be cut as it would be his third straight loss and he was 36 years old.
857
858Whittaker received $100,000 in bonus money, as both he and Brunson got bonuses for fight of the night, and Whittaker got a second bonus for finishing Brunson. The other $50,000 bonus went to debuting Tyson Pedro.
859
8601. Jenel Lausa (7-2) beat Zhikui Yao (2-4) on straight scores of 30-27 in a flyweight fight. The fight was all standing with Lausa taking all three rounds, including scoring a second round knockdown and he worked to finish with a guillotine.
861
8622. Marlon Vera (8-3-1) beat Ning Guangyou (5-4-1) on scores of 29-28 across the board in a featherweight fight. Very good fight. Vera won the first round and Guangyou won the second and did significant damage. But Guangyou was tired in the third and Vera took it.
863
8643. Jason Knight (15-2) beat Daniel Hooker (13-7) on scores of 29-28, 30-27 and 30-26 in a featherweight fight. Knight took the first two rounds and controlled Hooker on the ground most of the second round.
865
8664. Ben Nguyen (16-6) beat Geane Herrera (9-3) on scores of 30-27, 30-26 and 30-27 in a flyweight fight. Herrera ran across the ring and landed a flying side kick and took Nguyen down to start the fight. Nguyen came back for a first round knockdown. The fight was fast-paced and exciting. Nguyen’s speed and accuracy was too much for Herrera for most of the fight.
867
8685. Jonathan Meunier (8-1) beat Richard Walsh (9-6) on scores of 29-28, 30-27 and 30-27 in a welterweight fight. Another really good fight. Walsh was moving forward but Meunier was more effective. He landed some great knees and spinning backfists in the second round. Walsh got two takedowns in the third round, and threw punches from back position. But it was Meunier’s fight.
869
8706. Damien Brown (17-9) beat Jon Tuck (9-4) via split decision on scores of 28-29, 29-28 and 29-28. Tuck took Brown down but Brown went for a guillotine. Tuck popped out and landed hard punches. Brown got up and started landing punches, but Tuck dropped him with a straight right and got his back, and Brown was bleeding. In the second round, Brown was landing good shots and took the round. In the third round, Tuck used a body kick and Brown went down. Brown was covered in blood but landed more punches later in the round. Tuck tripped Brown as he threw a kick later in the round. The third round was close and it could have gone either way. To show how close, media scores were 54-46% in favor of Tuck.
871
8727. Daniel Kelly (12-1) beat Chris Camozzi (24-12) on scores of 29-28, 29-27 and 30-27 in a middleweight fight. Kelly is the 39-year-old four-time judo Olympian (2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012) who is one of these guys who is just a competitor and you can count on him to win the close fights, which he did here. Both landed good shots in the first round but Camozzi busted him up badly with elbows. Kelly got behind Camozzi and took him down late in the round and was working for a choke. In the second round, Kelly came back with a takedown and side control and Camozzi couldn’t get up. This was the 10-8 round, not because of damage, but Kelly was on top most of the round. In the third round, Camozzi started landing jabs. Kelly was covered in blood. Kelly clinched the fight in the last 90 seconds with a takedown and landing a lot of punches from side control. The crowd was way behind Kelly and were into his being seemingly outgunned and just willing his way to win while covered in blood.
873
8748. Danielle Taylor (8-2) beat Seo Hee Ham (16-8) on scores of 28-29, 30-27 and 30-27 in a women’s strawweight fight. The crowd didn’t like the decision here. I had Ham winning rounds one and three. Kind of a boring fight. The crowd didn’t boo them, but didn’t react much either. Taylor took over and landed a lot of punches in the third round. Even though two judges gave Taylor all three rounds, out of 18 reporter’s scores, not one gave her the first round and only three gave her the second round. Ham was ruled the winner by 83% of reporters and 85% of fans at MMA Decisions. So I think the judges messed up on this one.
875
8769. Tyson Pedro (5-0) beat Khalil Rountree (5-2) in 4:07 of a light heavyweight fight. Rountree dropped him with a punch right away, but Pedro came back and got the takedown. Pedro got a second takedown and got the choke for the finish. Pedro is not only unbeaten, but all five of his wins have been in the first round.
877
87810. Alexander Volkanovski (14-1) beat Yusuke Kasuya (9-3-2) in 2:06 of the second round in a lightweight fight. Volkanovski, from Australia, was making his debut here and looked great. Kasuya took him down, but Volkanovski got his own takedown and landed good punches and elbows from the top. Kasuya reversed back to the top and went for a leglock. Kasuya went for a leglock, and Volkanovski started landing hard punches to stop him. In the second round, Volkanovski got a takedown and landed more hard punches from the top, along with elbows until it was stopped. Volkanovski said that at 5-foot-5, he’s looking to move down all the way to bantamweight, but said he’s fought as heavy as middleweight and will do whatever UFC wants.
879
88011. Omari Akhmedov (16-4) beat Kyle Noke (22-10-1) on scorers of 29-28, 29-28 and 30-27 in a welterweight fight. Once again the judging was strange as both Barry Foley and Evan Field gave Noke the third round, but not one reporter did. I also had a 10-8 first round for Akhmedov and had him winning 30-26. The two are former training partners and friends. Akhmedov got the takedown in the first round, kept him down and landed hard shots on the ground in a pretty dominant round. Noke’s left eye and left ear were a mess. Akhmedov took him down in the second round and was landing. A stand-up was ordered even though Akhmedov was busy from the top. I have no idea why. Akhmedov also got a takedown and controlled things on the ground in the third round, although Noke landed some low kicks before the takedown.
881
88212. Andrew Holbrook (12-1) beat Jake Matthews (11-3) on scores of 29-28, 28-29 and 29-28 in a close lightweight fight. Matthews, who is 22, and one of the youngest fighters on the roster, has been looked at as a potential big star in Australia, but has now lost three of his last five fights. Holbrook won the first round with two takedowns, got his back and landing punches on the ground and working for a choke. Holbrook injured Matthews’ leg in the first round with a heel hook. It popped, but he escaped and the leg was swelling up. In the second round, Matthews got two takedowns but Holbrook worked for both a heel hook and a toe hold. This was a close round. In the third round, Holbrook was bleeding and Matthews got a takedown and got his back. The crowd thought Matthews won and booed the decision. It really could have gone either way and media scores were 63 percent for Holbrook.
883
88413. Robert Whittaker (18-4) beat Derek Brunson (16-4) in 4:07 of a middleweight fight. Brunson went for a takedown early but Whittaker landed punches. Whittaker landed an uppercut but Brunson landed two lefts and started hurting Whittaker. Whittaker fired back. Brunson was landing the harder punches and rushed to finish. Brunson tried for takedowns but couldn’t get them. As Brunson was running after him throwing wild punches and trying to finish, Whittaker countered with a left hook and now Brunson was in trouble. Whittaker landed all kinds of punches while Brunson seemed exhausted from how hard he was throwing trying to finish. The crowd was going crazy as Whittaker landed a high kick, and then an uppercut and Brunson went down and it was stopped.
885
886Smackdown on 11/29 remained above its fall average with 2,576,000 viewers, up three percent from a good number the prior week.
887
888Both Raw and Smackdown this week had increases that were unique, as they were about the same, actually very slightly down, with the younger audience, but had strong increases with viewers over the age of 50.
889
890Smackdown was ninth for the night on cable and was well ahead of the 1,651,000 viewers of the Michigan State vs. Duke college basketball game on ESPN.
891
892The show did a 0.59 in 12-17 (down 1.7 percent), 0.71 in 18-34 (down 4.1 percent), 0.87 in 35-49 (down 1.1 percent) and 1.10 in 50+ (up 8.9 percent).
893
894The audience was 61.4 percent male in 18-49 and 68.4 percent male in 12-17, so the male audience was well up when it came to under 50 viewers as well, but the female audience took a big drop under 50.
895
896Raw on 11/28 had good ratings news as the show built around the Sasha Banks title win over Charlotte did 3,107,000 viewers, actually up from the day after Survivor Series and the second highest of the fall season. And that number was drawn against a Green Bay Packers vs. Philadelphia Eagles game that did 13,062,000 viewers, one of the best numbers of the season.
897
898This is the first time you can conclusively say the expanded push of women’s wrestling has been a ratings draw.
899
900The key is that the rating held up better than most weeks in hour three, which was built around the women’s title match, so even though the show opened stronger than usual, it also maintained the audience very well, particularly Males 12-17 and 18-34 which peaked in the third hour, and women dipped only a small amount in the third hour.
901
902However, the increase was due more to older viewers, which is even more surprising since football skews older. The number was very slightly down with viewers under the age of 35, slightly up in 35-49 but the big increase was in viewers over the age of 50, which in theory would be the ones less interested in something new, but that was also the demo that fell slightly in both the second and third hours.
903
904The first hour did 3,163,000 viewers, with the second hour doing 3,130,000 viewers and the third hour doing 3,039,000 viewers. The first and second hours were slightly up from last week, but the third hour was up ten percent from last week.
905
906Raw was fourth for the night on cable, and was overall up four percent from a strong number last week.
907
908The show did a 0.78 in 12-17 (down 1.3 percent), 0.93 in 18-34 (down 6.1 percent), 1.23 in 35-49 (up 1.7 percent) and 1.23 in 50+ (up 7.9 percent).
909
910The audience was 63.3 percent male in 18-49 and 67.7 percent male in 12-17, which is no significant change from the prior week.
911
912The only show that beat this was the 10/17 show which averaged 3,130,000 viewers.
913
914Impact on 11/24 did its lowest number to date with 165,000 viewers. You can throw that out to a degree since it was Thanksgiving night and it was going to be way down, but historically TNA numbers have held up shockingly well on Thanksgiving. Before that night, TNA had only fallen under 300,000 viewers once since 5/17 and it’s roughly half of the usual average.
915
916Total Divas on 11/23 bombed with 461,000 viewers, by far the lowest audience in the history of the show. The previous record low was 560,000 on 3/29.
917
918Ultimate Fighter on 11/23 did 304,000 viewers.
919
920Lucha Underground on 11/23 did 125,000 viewers for the show built around Sexy Star vs. Johnny Mundo for the title, which is well up from the season average. The 9 p.m. replay did 70,000 viewers, which is very strong for the 9 p.m. show. When the show is a heavy action show, the replay number is usually up.
921
922The 11/19 Bellator show headlined by Michael Chandler vs. Benson Henderson averaged 671,000 viewers, which is 12 percent up including viewers who watched on DVR over the next three days. That figure is higher than most live sports to, probably because it went head-to-head with UFC. The Chandler vs. Henderson fight averaged 756,000 viewers, which is notable because it did 744,000 live meaning almost everyone watched it live. It peaked at 1,002,000 viewers.
923
924This is the second issue of the current set. With last week being a double issue, if you’ve got a (1) on your address label, your subscription expires with next week’s issue.
925
926Renewal rates for the printed Observer in the United States are $12 for four issues (which includes $4 for postage and handling), $22 for eight, $31 for 12, $40 for 16, $60 for 24, $80 for 32, $100 for 40, $130 for 52 up through $160 for 64 issues.
927
928For 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.
929
930For Europe, you can get the fastest delivery and best rates by sending to Moonsault, P.O. Box 3075, Barnet, Herts EN4 9YR, England, or by sending e-mail orders to moonsault@mediaplusint.com. Rates are £9 per set of four issues. U.K. readers ordering at least six sets can get them for £8.50 per set.
931
932For 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.
933
934You can also get the Observer on the web at www.wrestlingobserver.com for $10.99 per month for a premium membership that includes daily audio updates, Figure Four Weekly, special articles and a message board. If you are a premium member and still want hard copies of the Observer, you can get them for $8 per set in the U.S., $9 per set in Canada and $11.50 per set for the rest of the world.
935
936All subscription renewals should be sent to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, P.O. Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228. You can also renew via Visa or MasterCard by sending your name, address, phone number, Visa or MasterCard number (and include the three or four digit security code on the card) and expiration date to Dave@wrestlingobserver.com or by fax to (408)244-3402. You can also renew at www.paypal.com using dave@wrestlingobserver.com as the pay to address. For all credit card or paypal orders, please add a $1 processing fee. If there are any subscription problems, you can contact us and we will attempt to rectify them immediately, but please include with your name a full address as well a phone number you can be contacted at.
937
938All letters to the editor, reports from live shows and any other correspondence pertaining to this publication should also be sent to the above address.
939
940We also have copies of our latest book, "Tributes II," a 293-page hardcover full color book which features biographies right out of the pages of the Observer. Those featured are Wahoo McDaniel, Lou Thesz, Miss Elizabeth, Freddie Blassie, Road Warrior Hawk, Andre the Giant, Curt Hennig, Johnny Valentine, Davey Boy Smith, Terry Gordy, Owen Hart, Stu Hart, Gorilla Monsoon, The Sheik and Tim Woods. The book is available for $12.95 plus $3.50 for postage and handling in the U.S., $20 for postage and handling in Canada and $25 for postage and handling for the rest of the world.
941
942This 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.
943
944Fax 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
945
946CMLL:
947
948The 11/25 show at Arena Mexico drew just under 4,000, which is the lowest crowd in a while but the show was lackluster as far as what was offered. It was built around a four-family trios tournament won the by Casas family over the Reyes family (Dinamitas). Negro Casas with nephews Puma & Tiger first beat Blue Panther and sons Blue Panther Jr. & The Panther. Then the Reyes family of Mascara Ano 2000 and nephews Cuatrero & Sanson beat the Munoz family of Pierroth and sons Mistico & Dragon Lee, with the Casas family winning and they were supposed to get a shot at the trios titles, although that match has yet to be announced. The tournament was fun. The main event saw Ultimo Guerrero & Euforia & Niebla Roja beat Volador Jr. & Valiente & Caristico when Guerrero gave Caristico a back kick low and pinned him. The match was good, but not at the level of most of the Volador trios matches over the past few months. The 12/2 show has Atlantis & Caristico & Valiente vs. Ultimo Guerrero & Euforia & Hechicero on top, so the big program seems to be building Caristico and Ultimo, who have been rivals since Caristico hit it big as Mistico. Also Volador Jr. & Marco Corleone & Maximo Sexy vs. Mascara Ano 2000 & Cuatrero & Sanson, which continues the Macho Man Mascara Ano 2000 feud with Maximo and also put more spotlight on his nephews and future stars, plus Negro Casas vs. Angel de Oro in singles. Mascara Ano 2000 was brought back both to feud with Maximo, but also to establish his nephews as stars. The feeling is Cien Caras is too old at 67 to work regularly and Universo 2000, the youngest of the Dinamitas, suffered a stroke and is out of shape. The new Dinamitas were scheduled to be elevated next year, but they helped themselves by doing well on the CMLL bodybuilding contest on 11/23.
949
950There is talk of a year-end major show on 12/9 which would be the Caristico vs. Ultimo Guerrero singles match.
951
952Volador Jr. retained the NWA Historic welterweight title over Mephisto on 11/22 at Arena Mexico.
953
954In the annual CMLL bodybuilding contest at Arena Mexico, Killer Rock, who hasn’t started wrestling yet, won in the training class division. Sanson beat out his cousin, Forastero, to win in the beginners division. The intermediate division saw Principe Diamante win, with Dragon Rojo second and Titan third. The women’s division was won by Dallys, as expected as she’s got more of a bodybuilding background than the other women, with Sanely second and Jarochita third. Dallys isn’t young, as while her age is hidden, she does have a married daughter. The advanced division saw Valiente win, which came as no surprise, with Cuatrero finishing second and Blue Panther Jr. was third.
955
956Ringo Mendoza (Genaro Contreras), 67, is said to be in very bad health right now and there will be a benefit show too help him pay his medical bills on 12/4.
957
958ELITE:
959
960While there is nothing announced going forward, which isn’t a good sign, the Lucha Libre y Passion group on 12/16 is doing what is billed as a joint show with them in Ecatepec, using a lot of their regulars including a Caristico vs. Rey Escorpion main event for the Elite middleweight title.
961
962DRAGON GATE:
963
964Genki Horiguchi & Ryo Saito & Jimmy Kanda retained the Open the Triangle Gate titles over Masaaki Mochizuki & Don Fujii & Big R Shimizu on the 11/27 show in Nobeoka before 1,550 fans.
965
966The monthly Korakuen Hall show is 12/1 headlined by Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino & Kotoka vs. Shingo Takagi & T-Hawk & Lindaman.
967
968ALL JAPAN:
969
970What I consider really good news is that Joe Doering, 34, was at the 11/27 show at Sumo Hall and said that he will be returning to action in January. Doering was diagnosed with brain cancer on 2/25 and underwent surgery on 3/4, and was getting treatment that had weakened him after that point. But him wrestling again would indicate the biggest win of his career.
971
972PRO WRESTLING NOAH:
973
974They made it official that the 12/2 Korakuen Hall match with Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Minoru Suzuki is a loser leaves the promotion match. That would be the highest stakes match the promotion has had in a long time and kind of weird to put it in Korakuen Hall where you’re limited in how many people you can draw with it. The key matches on 12/2 are Maybach Taniguchi vs. Davey Boy Smith Jr., Lance Archer vs. Go Shiozaki, Atsushi Kotoge defending the GHC jr. title against Taichi, Naomichi Marufuji & Masa Kitamiya vs. Takashi Sugiura & Takashi Iizuka and the Nakajima vs. Suzuki match. They are also running 12/3 at Differ Ariake with Kitamiya vs. Iizuka, Nakajima & Marufuji vs. Suzuki & Sugiura and Archer & Smith defending the tag team titles against Shiozaki & Taniguchi.
975
976NEW JAPAN:
977
978Like last year, there will be joint ROH and New Japan shows at Korakuen Hall on 2/26 and 2/27 called Honor Rising Japan 2017.
979
980The story on Leland Race being Harley’s son is apparently a bullshit wrestling story.
981
982At press time, the standings in the World Tag League are: A block: 1. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima 4-1; 2. Tama Tonga & Tanga Roa and Ray Rowe & Hanson 3-1; 4. Tetsuya Naito & Rush and Yujiro Takahashi & Hangman Page 2-2; 6. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Juice Robinson and Brian Breaker & Leland Race 2-3; 8. Manabu Nakanishi & Henare 0-5. B block: 1. Hirooki Goto & Tomohiro Ishii 4-1; 2. Seiya Sanada & Evil 3-1; 3. Kazuchika Okada & Yoshi-Hashi 3-2; 4. Katsuyori Shibata & Yuji Nagata and Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma 2-2; 6. Yoshitatsu & Billy Gunn and Kenny Omega & Chase Owens 2-3; 8. Bad Luck Fale & Bone Soldier 0-4.
983
984A correction from last week. On the 11/20 show in Gunma, in the Kojima & Tenzan win over Naito & Rush, we listed it as Kojima pinning Naito with a lariat, but actually he pinned Rush with a lariat, which makes more sense the way they book the tag tourney as a star the level of Naito getting pinned would usually only be on a big show.
985
986Teruaki Kanemitsu, who has looked great given his level of experience, is out of action with a cervical spine injury.
987
988For the Fantastica Mania tour, tickets went on sale for some of the shows this past week. The 1/13 show in Osaka and 1/15 show in Kyoto both sold out instantly. For 1/14 in Ehime and 1/16 in Nagoya, there are still tickets remaining. For the three shows at Korakuen Hall, only the best seats have been put on sale to NJPW Club members, and they sold out instantly and the rest go on sale this week for shows on 1/20, 1/21 and 1/22. With mostly sellouts at Korakuen Hall and for PPV shows, the company is increasing ticket prices for those events starting with the new year.
989
99011/25 in Hiroshima before a sellout of 1,584 saw Sanada & Evil over Gunn & Yoshitatsu in 9:22 when Sanada made Yoshitatsu submit to the skull end in 9:22. Omega & Owens beat Fale & Soldier in 7:41 when Owens pinned Soldier after a package piledriver. Shibata & Nagata beat Makabe & Honma in 10:58 when Shibata pinned Honma after a penalty kick. Main event saw Okada & Yoshi-Hashi over Goto & Ishii in 18:49 when Okada pinned Ishii after a rainmaker. By most accounts this was the best match so far in the tournament. I had it at ****1/4.
991
99211/26 in Kochi before a sellout of 1,011 fans, for A block, saw Tonga & Roa beat Nakanishi & Henare in 10:18 after the double-team Guerrilla Warfare on Henare. War Machine upset Tenzan & Kojima in 8:44 when Rowe pinned Kojima after the fall out. Naito & Rush beat Race & Breaker in 12:17 when Naito pinned Race after Destino. It’s notable they are protecting Breaker in the booking even though Race has the legendary last name. Tanahashi & Robinson beat Takahashi & Page when Robinson pinned Page after Pulp Fiction in 15:59.
993
99411/27 in Imabari before a sellout of 1,017 fans saw Shibata & Nagata beat Yoshitatsu & Gunn in 11:01 when Shibata pinned Yoshitatsu with the penalty kick. Makabe & Honma beat Omega & Owens in 12:36 when Honma pinned Owens after a diving head-butt. Okada & Yoshi-Hashi beat Fale & Soldier in 12:30 when Yoshi-Hashi made Soldier submit to the butterfly (the old WAR special that Tenryu popularized). Goto & Ishii beat Sanada & Evil in 14:27 when Goto pined Evil after the GTR.
995
99611/29 in Sasebo before a sellout 989 fans saw Tenzan & Kojima beat Nakanishi & Henare in 9:50 when Kojima pinned Henare after a lariat; and Tanahashi & Robinson beat Breaker & Race in 15:12 when Robinson pinned Race after Pulp Fiction.
997
99811/30 in Sendai before 1,456 saw Goto & Ishii beat Yoshitatsu & Gunn in 12:40 when Goto pinned Yoshitatsu with the GTR; and Omega & Owens upset Okada & Yoshi-Hashi when Omega pinned Yoshi-Hashi in 17:33 with the One Winged Angel.
999
1000The company hasn’t put up the December schedule, but the finals were air live on 12/10 in Miyagi which is a Saturday (late Friday night) at 3 a.m. Eastern and midnight Pacific. This week’s tournament matches will at least all air on tape later that day on New Japan World with shows on 12/1 in Beppu (Tonga & Roa vs. Takahashi & Page, Rowe & Hanson vs. Naito & Rush: 12/2 in Yamaguchi (Shibata & Nagata vs Fale & Soldier, Makabe & Honma vs. Sanada & Evil); 12/4 in Kobe (Nakanishi & Henare vs. Naito & Rush, Rowe & Hanson vs. Breaker & Race, Tenzan & Kojima vs. Takahashi & Page, Tanahashi & Robinson vs. Tonga & Roa); 12/5 in Kyoto (Makabe & Honma vs. Fale & Soldier, Sanada & Evil vs. Omega & Owens, Okada & Yoshi-Hashi s. Yoshitatsu & Gunn, Shibata & Nagata vs. Goto & Ishii) and 12/7 I Mito (Tanahashi & Robinson vs. Nakanishi & Henare, Tenzan & Kojima vs. Breaker & Race, Rowe & Hanson vs. Takahashi & Page, Naito & Rush vs. Tonga & Roa).
1001
1002HERE AND THERE:
1003
1004Matt Sydal (Matt Korklan) is expected to be released from Japanese prison on 12/6 and to be able to return to the U.S. and resume his career at that point. Sydal was arrested in late September for possession of liquid cannabis in a hidden pipe. He was convicted of charges in mid-October and sentenced to prison.
1005
1006Ryback had preliminary negotiations this past week with Combate Americas to fight. I don’t see it getting anywhere as that group hasn’t paid big money to fighters and I can’t see Ryback fighting for anything less than big money.
1007
1008John Cozman, who wrestled primarily in Western Canada from 1985 to 2013, including for several versions of restarted Stampede Wrestling under the name Principal Richard Pound (get it, Dick Pound), passed away on 11/28 in Regina, Saskatchewan at the age of 52. He had been battling cancer for about three years. He grew up going to the Stampede Wrestling shows in Regina with his father, and became friends with Bob Leonard, who promoted the shows and was one of Stu Hart’s best friends and a close friend to many in the wrestling community. Leonard introduced him in 1984 to Archie Gouldie, who trained him. He would work as a security guard at Stampede Wrestling shows in Regina and started his career working for Grand Prix Wrestling in the Maritimes where Gouldie and Leo Burke were the headliners in 1985, using the name Danny Young, and when around, would work prelims for Stampede, mostly in Regina. He also worked for various independent promotions in Saskatchewan and Manitoba as well as working at one point in South Texas. His most notoriety came in 1999 during a revival of Stampede Wrestling that Bruce and Ross Hart was running.
1009
1010Cozman was given the heel school principal gimmick and the Richard Pound name (named after controversial IOC head Dick Pound, and also because Bruce liked the idea of a heel named Dick Pound) in 1999. He was the top heel for the promotion, leading a heel stable called The Honor Roll which was the company’s main heel faction in 1999 and 2000. He held the North American title and feuded with Bruce Hart, and even did a big match with Davey Boy Smith after he attacked a young Harry Smith. Other opponents included Sabu, Johnny Devine, Crazy Horse Eddie Mustang, Kurrgan and Rick Titan (Big Titan in FMW also known as Rick Bogner). That promotion folded in 2004 and he worked area independents through 2013, when he had to retire due to cancer, which greatly weakened him and he lost a lot of weight. He and Leonard ran a promotion in Saskatchewan called Stampede Wrestling where he feuded with Harry Smith based on the old angle. “He was well liked and respected by other boys and promoters,” said Ross Hart. “He was quiet and kept to himself, but worked intensely in the ring. He was always professional and reliable doing whatever was asked of him.
1011
1012The last remnant of the Thanksgiving weekend wrestling tradition was WrestleCade 2016 in Winston-Salem, NC, the sister city to Greensboro, which had the longest lasting Thanksgiving tradition, going from 1961 through 1987 (when they ran the Coliseum with prelim matches and then aired Starrcade from Chicago on the big screens), as well as hosting the first four Starrcades (the 1985 and 1986 shows had half the card in Atlanta and half in Greensboro with them broadcasting back-and-forth). That tradition brought out 4,000 fans, their biggest crowd yet, and one of the biggest indie crowds in years for an 11/26 show. A big part of the show was the autograph signing before the show with Ric Flair, Sting, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Ricky Steamboat and many others. The audience was mostly 80s and some 90s hardcore fans from the area who remembered the Thanksgiving tradition and were tired after the fan fest. Matt Hardy beat Ryback to retain the WrestleCade title in the main event. There was also a crazy trios match with Matt Cross (Son of Havok) & Ricochet & Shane Strickland (Killshot) beating Caleb Konley & Juventud Guerrera & Sonjay Dutt, who were managed by Sonny Onoo. This match stole the show. But you could tell this audience didn’t watch Lucha Underground as the guys got nowhere near the reaction they get at most shows, and they had to win the crowd over as opposed to the crowd thinking they were the cool thing. Ricochet and Strickland were unbelievable together but it didn’t really get over. Melissa Santos was brought in to be the guest ring announcer for that match. Kevin Sullivan was in as a manager of B.J. Whitmer, who lost to Luke Hawx. Nick Patrick was brought in to referee a match where Carlito beat Jeff Jarrett. There was a Battle Royal won by George South, that also included Big Sean Studd (John’s son, who works Virginia/Maryland indies), Randy & Bill Mulkey (an cult favorite 80s enhancement tag team in the Crockett promotion in the 80s), Gangrel, Jason Kincaid, Ricky Morton, Rockstar Spud, Shane Douglas, Blue Meanie, Lodi of WCW fame, Mr. Hughes and many other area wrestlers. There was also a throwback with the daughters of area stars with Tessa Blanchard beating Rachel Ellering, plus people like Drew Galloway, PJ Black, Gunner, Chris Masters, Eddie Edwards, Crazzy Steve, C.W. Anderson, Jack Victory and Steve Corino.
1013
1014Cody Rhodes won the GFW Gen-X title from Dutt as part of Wrestlecade, which led to promotional photos of Rhodes with Jarrett. A rematch is scheduled for 1/28 in Winston-Salem on a local indie show.
1015
1016The Crash in Tijuana ran on 11/26, built around Rey Mysterio Jr. and Jeff Hardy teaming up in the main event, and drew a sellout of 5,500 fans. Both got gigantic reactions. The big surprise were loud chants of “delete” during the main event, since TNA has no television in Tijuana and pretty much is unknown in that country. The belief is that more fans than usual came from San Diego. Mysterio Jr. & Hardy & Rey Fenix beat Jeff Cobb & Teddy Hart & Nicho in the main event. Nicho worked in his old Psicosis outfit. Fenix has a bad shoulder and this was his first match back and he didn’t do much. His shoulder was heavily taped up. Hart was again trying to steal the spotlight. Jeff slapped him and Hart sold it the first of the match. The finish saw Hart take a 619, Hardy’s swanton and then Mysterio pinned him with a splash off the top. Flamita defended the Crash cruiserweight title against Xtreme Tiger, which was a mess because Tiger’s shoulder popped out after a clothesline three minutes in. The ref first called for the match to be stopped but Tiger insisted on continuing. A security guy popped his shoulder back in. They restarted five minutes later and then Tiger did a dive. Tiger continued to work even though one arm was dangling and even took a Super Frankensteiner.
1017
1018Backstage somebody came out and told the ref to stop the match, as apparently the commission was freaking out, but Tiger kept working. The ref went to do a three count and Tiger grabbed the ropes but the ref then called the match off anyway as the commission wanted them out of there. Flamita then apologized to the fans about the match and said he would give Tiger a rematch. Torito worked as Mascarita Dorada teaming with Jack Evans (as a face) and Willie Mack over Black Tauro & Demus 3:16 & Bestia 666. That’s notable since Mack is Lucha Underground, Evans is as well, but Demus is CMLL and Tauro is Elite. It was surprising CMLL didn’t stop Demus from working, although Evans was fired from AAA even though people still associate him with the group. Sexy Star worked as Sexy Dulce and won their women’s title from Keira.
1019
1020PWG is doing its Mystery Vortex show on 12/16. The concept is that aside from the main event, which is Zack Sabre Jr. defending the title against BOLA winner Marty Scurll, no matches or talent is being announced for the show and it’s a complete surprise. Tickets are going on sale on 12/1 and will likely sell out in five minutes or less anyway, since it’s a small place and the number of people who want tickets greatly exceeds the 400 tickets available. They’ve done this before and sold out instantly the last time.
1021
1022Gringo Loco, a U.S. indie wrestler who works Lucha shows, was reported to have suffered a heart attack over the weekend. He worked the AIW show in Cleveland on 11/25, and then wrestled in Illinois the next night and then was said to have collapsed backstage. At press time he was still hospitalized and in stable condition.
1023
1024Kevin Kiley Jr. (Alex Riley), who has been pursuing acting, landed his first role as a guest star in the upcoming Netflix series “GLOW,” about the 80s women’s pro wrestling promotion.
1025
1026ROH:
1027
1028For what it’s worth, at the Wrestlecade show that Steve Corino was at, people were openly talking about him going to WWE for a coach’s job at the Performance Center after his contract expires here at the end of the year.
1029
1030Pro Wrestling Sheet reported that TNA is looking at signing The Young Bucks to a multi-year deal. What hasn’t been reported is that ROH is looking at aggressively trying to keep the key talent at the end of ths year with the philosophy of trying to make ROH a destination for talent as opposed to a stepping stone to go to WWE. The belief is the top talent will be offered good increases, and the Bucks offer, which is a two-year- offer for both TNA and New Japan offer with a significant increase over the current deal, is the big one out there. The big question mark is Adam Cole, because WWE has wanted him for years, but his deal isn’t due until April.
1031
1032The last two shows of the year take place this coming weekend with Final Battle on 12/2, which has sold out the Hammerstein Ballroom (1,800 tickets) as well as a television taping on 12/4 in Philadelphia at the 2300 Arena. The updated lineup for Final Battle is Adam Cole vs. Kyle O’Reilly for the ROH title, Marty Scurll defends the TV title in a four-way against Will Ospreay, Bobby Fish and Dragon Lee, Young Bucks vs. Mark & Jay Briscoe for the tag team titles, Lio Rush & Jay White & Kushida vs. Matt Taven & TK O’Ryan & Vinny Marseglia in the finals of the tournament for the newly-created trios titles, Jay Lethal vs. Cody R (which seems to be the name he’ll be using here although a later press release just called him Cody), Jushin Liger vs. Silas Young, Colt Cabana vs Dalton Castle and The Cabinet of Kenny King & Rhett Titus & Caprice Coleman vs. Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley & Donovan Dijak. One would figure the winner of that match will challenge for the trios titles.
1033
1034The 12/4 TV tapings will start an eight-man tournament that will go until January called The Decade of Excellence tournament. It’s for wrestlers who have started in the promotion at least ten years ago. The tournament will conclude on 1/14 in Atlanta at Center Stage, the old taping site for WCW Saturday Night. The winner of the tournament will challenge for the ROH title at the 15th anniversary show on 3/10 in Las Vegas. The first round tournament matches which all take place in Philadelphia, have Christopher Daniels vs. Mark Briscoe, Alex Shelley vs. Colt Cabana, Jushin Liger vs. Jay Lethal and Jay Briscoe vs. B.J. Whitmer. Besides the regulars, Cody R and Dragon Lee are booked for Philadelphia.
1035
1036Cody was also announced for shows on 2/3 in San Antonio and 2/4 in Dallas at Gilley’s which used to be the site where Bill Watts taped Power Pro Wrestling in the 80s.
1037
1038TNA:
1039
1040The court case where American Express has sued TNA for $269,049.50 for unpaid bills is scheduled to come to court on 11/30. TNA has not responded to the case, filed back in July. This was the case where TNA was sued, but likely never received word of it because they never filed a change of address form with the post office. American Express is asking for a default judgment. SE Scoops listed that they canceled TNA’s card for non-payment back in May. There were unpaid bills for $19,327.08 from a TNA corporate card from CFO Dean Broadhead, as well as $241,911.39 owed on the corporate card of Shane Emerson, TNA’s Director of International Content and Live Events. Also having corporate cards were Dixie Carter, Eric Barnes (who is no longer with the company), Tyson Ciesiensky (who is no longer with the company but does work for Skyway Studios, where TNA does post-production work), Serg Salinas, John Gaburick and Bob Ryder.
1041
1042UFC:
1043
1044Aljamain Sterling was pulled from the 12/9 show in Albany, NY, where he was to face Raphael Assuncao. Assuncao has also been pulled from the show as it was too late to get him a new top opponent. That was one of the key fights, some argue really the main event on a weak show that will be a Friday night show the day before the Toronto PPV show. Sterling had suffered a biceps injury after his fight with Bryan Caraway. Sterling said that he’s trying to do everything he can to get on a card as soon as possible. He said he was disappointed he isn’t on the New York show, and didn’t directly give a reason why not, other than saying the New York State Athletic Commission and UFC were looking at his health first, which would seem to indicate the commissions didn’t clear him and he understood why, and said, “I expect things to be sorted out sooner than later.
1045
1046After saying he would quit the UFC if his next fight wasn’t against Conor McGregor, Khabib Nurmagomedov has said that he would be willing to face Tony Ferguson to determine the top contender for the title, hoping to fight in March. He knocked McGregor, saying Ferguson would be a top level lightweight fight given his nine fight winning streak. Nurmagomedov said that unlike a fight with McGregor, he sees this as a real high-level lightweight fight. Ferguson has indicated being up for that fight.
1047
1048Miesha Tate was in Australia this past week working with UFC on the show. Tate is still firm on her retirement, saying, “I just knew after like the first exchange (in the 11/12 fight with Raquel Pennington) that I just didn’t want to do it anymore. So it was just kind of one of those things that I just like stuck it out but I knew I had a lot more to give and I just didn’t give it. I don’t know. It’s just one of those things. It’s kind of odd, to be honest. But yeah, just lacking a little bit of the competitive edge to want to punch people in the face. I couldn’t pull it out of myself to make this fight winnable. I planned on winning that fight and going on another title run but at the end of that I just knew.” She also gave her side of the story of the post-fight confrontation she had with Dana White. White ordered her to go to the hospital after the fight for precautionary reasons. She refused and told White that “I don’t work for you anymore and you can’t tell me what to do.” Tate said that she knew she was fine and she had an after party to go to and had friends in New York she wanted to hang out with and didn’t want to spend a few hours in the emergency room when she knew she was fine. Tate is hoping for a job with FOX as an analyst with UFC and does have a grappling match on Chael Sonnen’s 12/11 show in Portland against Jessica Eye.
1049
1050Anthony Pettis, in promoting his fight with Max Holloway, said that his goal was to go back to lightweight as there are people he wants to get his revenge on.
1051
1052The program guides being sent to cable companies that are out list Demetrious Johnson vs. Tim Elliott as the main event for the flyweight title as the main event for the 12/3 show in Las Vegas. The storyline on this season of Ultimate Fighter is a tournament with small promotion champions and the winner getting a shot at Johnson’s title. Elliott (13-6-1) faces Hiromasa Ogikubo (15-3-2) in the finals which air on 11/30 but were taped some time back. Elliott fought in UFC from 2012 to 2015 and went 2-4, although the four losses were all to top guys, Joseph Benavidez, Ali Bagautinov, Zach Makovsky and John Dodson, and Benavidez was the only one he didn’t go the distance with. Elliott then won the Titan Fighting Championship flyweight title and was one of 16 smaller organization champions invited to be on the show in a tournament to get a shot at Johnson. Both of these guys will be a huge underdog against Johnson, who goes for his 11th straight win, which would tie Royce Gracie for fourth place in UFC history behind Anderson Silva (16), Jon Jones (13) and Georges St-Pierre (12). If Johnson wins, it’ll also be his ninth title defense, trying GSP in second place, and one behind Anderson Silva’s record of 10.
1053
1054The rest of the show, from the bottom to the top, has Elvis Mutapcic (15-4-1) vs. Anthony Smith (25-12), Devin Clark (6-1) vs. Josh Stansbury (6-2), Kailin Curran (4-3) vs. Jamie Moyle (3-1), Rob Font (12-2) vs. Matt Schnell (9-2) (Schnell replaces the injured Alejandro Perez), Ryan Hall (5-1) vs. Gray Maynard (12-5-1), Alexis Davis (17-6) vs. Sara McMann (9-3), Jared Connonier (8-1) vs. Ion Cutelaba (12-2), Jorge Masvidal (30-11) vs. Jake Ellenberger (31-11), and Joseph Benavidez (24-4) vs. Henry Cejudo (10-1).
1055
1056To show the early year weakness in depth, the 1/15 show in Phoenix, which is traditionally the biggest FS 1 show of the year, coming the night of the NFL playoffs, announced its top fights and there’s little there. B.J. Penn faces Yair Rodriguez in the main event, which was announced last week, which is clearly an attempt to use Penn’s name to try and draw a rating and make Rodriguez into a star. But the rest of the top of the show has Court McGee vs. Ben Saunders, Tony Martin vs. Erik Koch, Walt Harris vs. Chase Sherman, Damian Grabowski vs. Viktor Pesta, Bojan Mihajlovic vs. Joachim Christensen, Dmitri Smoliakov vs. Cyri Asker and Devin Powell vs. Jordan Rinaldi.
1057
1058UFC got some bad publicity this past week when undercard fighter Joanne Calderwood noted that she asked for tickets to the 12/10 show in Toronto and was told she would have to pay for them. She showed a message from Ryan McCarthy stating, “Fighters on the card gets tickets and guest fighters get tickets. If a fighter is just coming, then they will need to purchase, unless Dana approves the comps.” Previously, unless an event was sold out, fighters that requested tickets would be able to get them. Calderwood noted that many fighters are broke and that she’s eating into her savings to pay to get herself better as a fighter so she can win and put on better fights, and that in recovering from a concussion, she knows it may push her next payday further back and doesn’t even know when she’ll be offered another fight. Calderwood, who is from Scotland but trains in Montreal at Tri Star, said she wanted to support some of her teammates at the Toronto show, and e-mailed UFC to get tickets. “I’m a little shocked after receiving this...to say I’m upset is an understatement.”
1059
1060Little things like this have only accentuated issues fighters have with management at a time when there are a number of groups attempting to organize them to go head-to-head with management. I can see setting a limit on how many comps an active fighter can get, but if a show isn’t sold out, it’s really not too much to comp an active roster fighter tickets.
1061
1062Wilson Reis vs. Ulka Sasaki was announced for the 1/21 show in Anaheim, which is a PPV show that still doesn’t have a hint of a main event.
1063
1064Tiago Trator will face the debuting Shane Burgos (7-0) on the 12/9 show in Albany. Burgos faces Zubaira Takhugov, who was taken off the show after a potential drug test violation.
1065
1066WWE:
1067
1068With Banks beating Charlotte to win the women’s title, it’s likely a rematch will be at the Roadblock End of the Line show on 12/18 in Pittsburgh. They had already shot an angle for Charlotte vs. Bayley at Survivor Series, and Charlotte’s win in Boston was at first to be a move in a new direction, so this would be a change of plans again. Having Ric Flair involved could easily build to Ric costing Banks the title, but that is also so predictable it would almost make Banks look bad as a babyface if they did that. The little bit of tease of Banks vs. Bayley at Raw could also lead to a three-way program, or just even Banks vs. Bayley. They also squashed Bayley for Jax and have since not followed up on that at all, and having Jax then submit at Survivor Series made no sense. Bayley needs to be protected as a character to a degree, but that more means she’s focused as her character doesn’t need to always win, and really the longer her chase to getting in the title picture and winning is the better, as there’s no story for her with a rush to the championship.
1069
1070The Smackdown TLC PPV on 12/4 in Dallas has Styles vs. Ambrose in a TLC match for the WWE title, Miz vs. Ziggler in a ladder match which is supposed to be their last meeting for the IC title, Lynch vs. Bliss in a tables match for the women’s title, Slater & Rhyno vs. Wyatt & Orton for the tag title, Corbin vs. Kalisto in a chairs match and Nikki Bella vs. Carmella in a no DQ match.
1071
1072Elimination Chamber, which will be a Raw only PPV, takes place on 2/12 at the Talking Stick Resort Arena in Phoenix. There will be a Smackdown only Fast Lane PPV on 3/5 at the BMO Harris Bank Center in Milwaukee. We got a listing of 18 PPV dates in 2017. The last number WWE publicized was 19. Because of WWE Network numbers falling even with two PPVs in recent months, meaning they are spending more money and still falling in paid subscriptions, there was very serious talk of cutting back to 16 shows in 2017, which would mean some changes in the planned schedule. The original scheduled plan was Extreme rules as a Smackdown only show and Money in the Bank (6/18) as a Smackdown only show, but the schedule and plans have changed and that may or may not affect those shows and dates. The shows and dates listed above are all confirmed as being accurate at this point with tickets going on sale this week for Phoenix and next week for Milwaukee.
1073
1074T.J. Wilson (Tyson Kidd) was on Twitter mentioning that he will not be shown at all this season on “Total Divas,” even though it’s supposed to cover the “real-life” of the cast members and his wife is a featured star. “I’ve been taken off the show by WWE. You’ll have to contact them to figure it out. You won’t see me once this season. It’s all good. Oh believe me. I don’t think they want my situation explained. I’ll leave it at that for now.” We’ve written some about this but the whole Wilson/Natalya/WWE situation is very touchy. Wilson is exceedingly lucky to be alive, and to say it’s a miracle he’s not confined to a wheelchair due to his broken neck is saying it nicely. There were a lot of issues regarding his match with Samoa Joe, including being thrown out there without any warning at the last minute and thus, no warming up nor was there hardly any communication or direction before the match, and a lot of questions about what happened after the injury as well. It’s been a real bad situation and nobody has said anything because Natalya is working there and there’s the issue with her career. But his injuries play why the decision was made to pull him from the show. The producers of the show when the season currently filmed started were given a directive by WWE, so this goes back months, not to shoot anything with him and for him not be in any scenes. It’s made things awkward since cameras were filming in his house all the time. WWE’s explanation is that he’s not on the show because he’s not on the active roster, but that’s ridiculous given how many characters on the show aren’t on the active roster. On this season’s shows, in one coming up soon, Jonathan Coyle, the husband of Eva Marie, was all over the show in one of those vacation things being filmed, and he’s not even under contract to the company (Wilson is), let alone on the active roster.
1075
1076WWE quietly dropped the Superstars show, which had been exclusive to the network. Superstars and Main Event didn’t have many viewers on the network to begin with and were never even in the top 20 watched shows, while the Cruiserweight Classic during its run was the most-watched show on the network other than the PPVs most weeks. Superstars was brought back in 2009 for WGN America, which canceled the show in 2011. They continued to tape the show, but did almost nothing with it, to fulfill international syndication deals and then put it on the network. One would think that in the countries where Superstars was part of the syndication package, that 205 Live will take its spot. From this point on, Main Event will be a secondary show taped on Monday night before Raw for the guys who don’t wrestle on Raw, like Darren Young, Dallas, O’Neil, Axel type of guys. Originally the plan was to do Main Event on Tuesday’s at 7:15 p.m. Eastern, Smackdown at 8 p.m. and follow with 205 Live at 10 p.m. The betting line is how many weeks before they’ll start taping 205 Live at 7 p.m., and airing it three hours later, because you want 30 minutes to get people in their seats before Smackdown starts on live television, and you’ll have a fresher audience for 205 Live before Smackdown than after.
1077
1078The reason Stephanie McMahon wasn’t on Raw this week was because she was a keynote speaker that day at LSC 16, a sports business conference put on by Le Sports.
1079
1080Cena got another key movie role and is listed as one of the three stars in a movie called “The Pact,” along with Leslie Mann and Ike Barinholtz. The film is about three parents, who all discover that their daughters have made a pact to lose their virginity on prom night, go out and try and find them and stop them. No word on the filming time period but that would likely take Cena out of storylines for a couple of months next year.
1081
1082When Cena returns in a few weeks, the Smackdown house show main events are all scheduled as Styles vs. Cena vs. Ambrose with Ellsworth as guest timekeeper. I believe this starts with the 12/26 Madison Square Garden show.
1083
1084Linda McMahon went with Donald Trump on 11/30 in New York. She said that they talked about business, entrepreneurs and creating jobs. When asked if she was offered a position in his administration, she said, “Stay tuned.” She has said she wasn’t interested in an ambassadorship.
1085
1086New signings have included Ariya Daivari and Mustafa Ali for the cruiserweight division. Also agreeing to terms is U.K. woman wrestler Nixon Newell, who still has to go through all the regular procedures and if all goes well, would be reporting to Orlando around April. .. Brooke Hogan on TMZ, when asked about her father denying he’s been contacted for WrestleMania and kind of knocking her for saying it, responded, saying, “How can I put it? What is a way that won’t get me in trouble? He’s capable of anything.”
1087
1088Show, who is supposed to be returning to house shows, well, actually he started back in Europe, working bodyslam matches where he puts over Strowman, is down to 396 pounds, the lightest he has been in 21 years and physically looks great. He has a personal trainer, he does a lot of bicycle riding and swimming. At his heaviest, he claimed in WWE he weighed 537, although he was really overweight once he got past 450 or so.
1089
1090Dwayne Johnson’s “Moana” opened at No. 1 this past weekend doing $56,631,401 in the U.S. for the three day weekend and $82,080,274 in the U.S. for the five-days, since it actually opened on Wednesday instead of Friday because of Thanksgiving. It was the second biggest five-day open in the history of U.S. movies over Thanksgiving (sixth if you adjust for inflation), and the third biggest Thanksgiving opening weekend in history. It was also the 33rd biggest three-day holiday weekend opening in U.S. movie history (it would be 56th adjusted for inflation).
1091
1092Kenn Doane noted that he was fired from his regular job because he had missed too many days since he’s been getting last minute calls to do Smackdown shows on Tuesday. That’s among the reasons Johnny Jeter turned down the gig. He was working as a director at a non-profit organization and let go because he had missed too many days. It was reported by Pro Wrestling Sheet that he felt it was worth it to chase his dream and attempt to get signed to a new deal, but at this point nothing has been offered to him.
1093
1094There was some interesting interplay this past week. It stemmed from the 11/22 Smackdown show in Ottawa where evidently Scott Dawson was asked if they were going to debut in the tag team turmoil match and he responded, “We’re the hottest act in tag wrestling. You think we’re going to debut in a stupid multi-team gimmick match?” This brought a response by Bully Ray, saying, “Great job. You managed to insult the entire creative team and your fellow workers in one tweet. Complete disrespect.” That was followed by producer Brian “Road Dogg” James, writing, “Keep talking like that and you won’t debut at all.” Shortly after that came some deletion of tweets and people backpedaling and claiming they were just working the fans.
1095
1096Jericho did an ESPN interview where he said his current run was the second favorite run of his career, behind only the 2008 run with Shawn Michaels. He’s noted that he’d like to say it was all planned out, but it was just a combination of the chemistry with Owens and some catch phrases that caught on. Fortunately, not all of them caught on, notably Sparklecrotch. As noted before, the plan was for him to be gone after WrestleMania, but he’s continually delayed it to the point he’ll signed three or four new three-month deals. One would think at this point he’s working through WrestleMania, because he does have commitments to Fozzy including touring during the summer of 2017. Then again, he had commitments to Fozzy in November that were delayed because of his having fun in wrestling and a decision for the band to then take 2016 off.
1097
1098WWE stock closed at press time at $18.91 per share, giving the company a market value of $1.44 billion. So it’s been up as the market itself has been rising.
1099
1100The most watched VOD shows on WWE Network this past week were: 1. Survivor Series (second week in a row); 2. NXT on 11/23; 3. Story Time episode one; 4. NXT Takeover Toronto; 5. Story time episode two; 6. Top 50 Incidents in ECW history; 7. Unreal Story of ECW (Heyman, Taz, Dudleys, & Dreamer show we wrote about last week); 8. Unfiltered with Becky Lynch; 9. TLC 2015 PPV; 10. WrestleMania 32.
1101
1102The company is in the process of purchasing the television tape library of the old Heartland Wrestling Association out of Cincinnati. The HWA was Les Thatcher’s promotion that at one point was a WWE developmental territory that did local television. When WCW was purchased, a lot of the WCW talent that they didn’t want for the main roster, mostly younger guys, were sent to Cincinnati. The Hardys, Nigel McGuinness, Charlie Haas, Bill DeMott, and a number of ex-WCW stars are featured on the shows from 2001 to 2003.
1103
1104The Usos and Naomi were off the weekend Smackdown brand house shows. That moved Breeze & Fandango into their spot against Rhyno & Slater for the tag team titles, and instead of doing a six-person tag or a tag and a title match, they went with a five-way challenge for the women’s title. It’s notable the decision not to use Eva Marie, who is off suspension, as a sixth person on tour this weekend.
1105
1106Notes from the 11/28 Raw show in Charlotte. It was the night where the local wrestlers lost, since Charlotte and Alexander are both from Charlotte. The show drew 9,000 fans thanks to a good walk-up. Raw featured a great women’s title match with Banks winning and some entertaining stuff with Jericho and Owens, and an interesting Foley and Zayn segment, a strong Heyman interview couple of brawl segments, one in the parking lot and one a total copy of the 1974 movie “The Wrestler,” scene with Dusty Rhodes & Dick Murdoch in the bar fight with Harold Sakata as a karate master. That scene was a lot better. This was such a copy that it ended with Sheamus pouring Cesaro a pint from behind the bar and they looked at each other in the identical way Rhodes & Murdoch did in that movie. The 1974 scene was a lot better, however, and way campier like Murdoch doing a running powerslam in a street fight and the heels being karate guys breaking boards and bullying patrons and pouring beer on Rhodes & Murdoch and saying wrestlers were weak until they finally snapped. The Superstars name was changed to Main Event, opening with Dallas pinning Sin Cara in a back-and-forth match. The other match taped saw the Shining Stars beat Axel & Young, who had Backlund with him although given that they aren’t pushing Young and no longer do vignettes, it doesn’t make sense why. Backlund was more over than any of the wrestlers on Main Event.
1107
1108Raw opened with Jericho & Owens in the Highlight Reel. Owens talked about how Thanksgiving in the U.S. is families pretending to like each other for a meal and then rushing to the store to trample on everyone so they can save $60 buying a flat screen TV. For some reason, I had figured Thanksgiving would be Owens’ favorite holiday. Actually they noted Canadian Thanksgiving was a month ago and how Canadians are always ahead of the curve. Owens said he was thankful for his best friend and Jericho said he was thankful for his best friend and his scarves. The scarf Jericho was wearing had anchors on it, which was explained that Jericho & Owens were the anchors of Raw. Owens said that Rollins failed so miserably last week and has failed so many times that the new term for failure is you Rollins yourself. Jericho said that people think he interfered last week wearing a Sin Cara mask, but it was actually the real Sin Cara interfering but he was wearing a Chris Jericho mask and fooled everyone because of how realistic the mask looked. They claimed Rollins was medically cleared so wouldn’t be on the show, although h showed up later.
1109
1110Reigns came out and said the two of them have great chemistry together. Jericho got mad at him saying that they weren’t there to entertain the fans or make them laugh. Reigns said he didn’t think Jericho was a joke but did think Owens as Universal champion was a joke. Owens them for the first time stumbled over his words. Reigns made fun of him but Jericho immediately noted that English was Owens’ second language, which it is, which makes his promo ability even that much more impressive. Reigns was being booed heavily here, although got more of a mixed reaction later in the show. Owens said that he didn’t need Jericho, and Jericho gave him a glare when he said it. I like the slow subtle stuff instead of the immediate over the top where you shoot the angle as opposed to the audience wanting the angle and having to wait for it, because it’s usually so much more effective the latter way. Reigns said that Owens needed Jericho’s help to keep the title last week, the week before and every week before that. Jericho was about to put Reigns on the list when Owens told Jericho to shut up. Reigns challenged Owens to a match, and if he won, he’d get a shot at the title. The way this was first pitched was that Reigns would want a title match but Owens would want a U.S. title match, and the stip would be that if Reigns won, he’d then get the Universal title match at the PPV. But they bypassed the U.S. title aspect, and it kind of made no sense for the Universal champion to challenge and lose to the U.S. champion to begin with.
1111
1112Owens agreed to the match. Jericho and Owens were backstage and Jericho was mad that Owens yelled at him to shut up. Jericho said that every time Owens needs him, he’s there for him. Owens said that Jericho thinks he’s helping him but he’s really not, because he’s made people believe that he can’t defend the title on his own. They argued and Jericho said he didn’t need Owens as an ally, partner or best friend. Owens told him he would regret saying that. Foley showed up and told Owens that he and Reigns have a match for the title. Well, it wasn’t for the title, it was for the shot at the title. Jericho told Foley that he doesn’t have to ban him from ringside because he’s over this and was leaving.
1113
1114Strowman pinned R-Truth in :37 with an Oklahoma Stampede. Goldust attacked Strowman after, although Strowman looked like he was going to attack Goldust when Goldust saw that and tried to get the jump on him. Strowman destroyed him and had him in the bearhug when Zayn came out. Zayn jumped on Strowman’s back. Strowman flipped him over and beat him down, laying him out with a turnover slam. The refs came out to stop Strowman and Foley said the segment was over. When they came back, Zayn and Foley were arguing. Zayn said that Foley was treating him like a charity case. Foley said that he knows Zayn will never quit, but in doing so, is risking serious damage to himself. Foley said that sometimes you need to save people from themselves. Zayn said he didn’t needed to be saved from Strowman, he needed to be saved from Foley and that Foley has forgotten who he really is and where he came from. Foley then said that last week, Stephanie wanted to fire Zayn because he lost to Miz, but Foley saved his job, but to punish him for losing, he had to put him in with Strowman. What about all the guys who lost in the main event, a bigger match? Foley did this impassioned promo about how the match became a massacre and he had to stop it, and told Zayn that he knows he’ll never quit, but he also said Zayn can’t beat Strowman and never will win that match. In the middle of the promo, he threw his bottom teeth on the floor. Zayn asked Foley how many times people told him that he couldn’t do something. Zayn said that Foley was his hero growing up, and he was a hero to all the fans, but he’s not looking at a hero, he’s looking at a hypocrite, and stormed off. This was a good segment but the crowd wasn’t as into it as I would have thought they’d be.
1115
1116Charlotte said that tonight she would establish her legacy of being the greatest women’s star of all-time. Nese pinned Alexander in 3:25 with a pump handle fisherman buster after Alexander knocked Gulak off the apron. Alexander was super over and people were more into this than all the cruiserweight matches on Raw so far. So they went short, and had the local guy lose. They also started an angle where Fox has the hots for Alexander. Jericho was being interviewed by Charly Caruso. Jericho said that this was a very serious situation and he’s leaving. He said he thought Owens was his best friend, but now he’s not really sure. He said if Owens doesn’t need him, then he doesn’t need Owens. His driver opened the door and accidentally knocked the list out of his hands onto the ground. Jericho called him an idiot. Just then, Rollins showed up and attacked Jericho. Rollins threw Jericho into a bicycle rack. He threw the bicycle rack into a car. He threw Jericho’s shoulder into a car. They went back-and-forth until both were on the roof of a car and Rollins dropped Jericho with a pedigree. That wasn’t pretty looking at all. It was an injury angle spot.
1117
1118Charlotte vs. Banks for the title went to a double count out in 3:09. Both were brawling outside the ring. Banks at one point threw Charlotte over the barricade and instead of into the crowd, Cole had to say “into the universe.” I wonder what decade they’ll realize what a disconnect it is when people use those buzzword terms that nobody in the world uses in real conversation. Foley came out and said that he wasn’t going to let this end as a double count out, and was bringing it back later in the show as a no DQ, no count out, falls count anywhere match. Enzo & Cass came out with two new mic’s that were the old ring announcer style mic’s from the 70s. Enzo talked about Thanksgiving and Lana seeing him naked last week. She said at the dinner table for Thanksgiving, Lana was thinking about a Certified G stuffing her turkey. Rusev got mad and gave him a blatant low kick for the DQ in :26 and told Enzo to never talk about his wife again.
1119
1120There was a backstage segment with Mark Henry where they tried to put him over as a movie star. Henry is in he movie “Incarnate,” a super natural horror movie that opens this week. Henry started talking about the movie and Aaron Eckhart, who is the star. O’Neil walked in and said that he was supposed to get that role and it would be his “Space Jam” and how Henry stole it from him. Henry went to walk away but O’Neil grabbed his wrist. Henry shoved O’Neil down. What a feud that is going to be. Swann beat Noam Dar in 3:26 with a spin kick to the head. Kendrick was on commentary. Kendrick spent most of the match burying Byron Saxton for being a quitter, and complained about how he was fired eight years ago and couldn’t feed his family. Swann did an interview after to promote their match and note that he’s beaten Kendrick twice. Kendrick kept saying that Swann never beat him when it counted.
1121
1122There was the Sheamus & Cesaro bar scene out of “The Wrestler.” The woman sitting with Sheamus in the ref dress was Tessa Blanchard. The bully guys were local extras. The guys in the bar (key ones being area independent wrestlers Zane Riley and Montana Black) made fun of Sheamus & Cesaro for losing on television last week. Sheamus & Cesaro before that complained about having to team together, what a bad idea it is for them to team and how Foley made a big mistake because they don’t get along. After the guys in the bar started trouble, they fought together to lay everyone out, threw a guy threw a wall in the bar (weird, on the other side of the wall was the same bar) and cleaned house side-by-side. Cesaro poured Sheamus a drink from behind the bar, exactly as Rhodes & Murdoch did, and then they looked at each other and smiled, exactly as Rhodes & Murdoch did. The idea behind this is now that they protected each other and fought side-by-side, they are now getting along. It would appear it’s to set up winning the titles since it was clearly to renew their push as a team. But at this point it should be after the New Day breaks the Demolition record that they’ve about so much.
1123
1124Reigns pinned Owens in 14:31 of a non-title match, to earn the title shot. There were loud dueling chants, and a lot of kids and girls screaming for Reigns here. There was a very long chinlock spot. Match was okay, but nothing special. Reigns went for a spear but ran into a knee. Then Reigns recovered and speared him kind of out of nowhere for the pin. Caruso interviewed Owens, who got mad at her for interviewing him. Owens said he lost because his mind wasn’t into the match because his best friend was taken to the hospital. He called Caruso a heartless robot. It does sometimes appear with how stiff their interviewers are that they are very pretty heartless robots. He said that Foley should have realized he wouldn’t be right and should have canceled the match, or at least given him a water bottle.
1125
1126They showed a taped Heyman interview. The gist is that he and Lesnar screwed up, they took Goldberg too lightly, thought that he was yesterday’s news and that they considered fantasy warfare gets real just a phrase. Heyman had tears down his face as he said that the first spear broke Lesnar’s ribs. He said that injuries happen and it’s part of the game, but you can’t breathe and you can’t fight with broken ribs. He said how he and Lesnar were both taking the loss hard and that it’s not a matter of history that Goldberg beat Lesnar in 1:26. He said that Lesnar will be coming for revenge on Goldberg in the Rumble, and that there will be 28 losers and one victim that night and the victim will be Lesnar. New Day came out and were throwing Booty O’s cereal all over Cole, Saxton and Graves. Saxton was liking it while Cole got mad about it. They noted it was 17 days before the Demolition record was broken. E & Woods retained the tag titles over Anderson & Gallows in 8:57. E gave Anderson a sick looking spear from the ring to the floor. Good match. Anderson used the gun stun, which was not called by the announcers. Gallows also used his Japan finisher, the Gallows pole (tree slam), also not called. Anderson went for an O’Connor roll and held the tights, but Woods reversed and held the tights for the pin. So this was the second straight heel style win for the champions.
1127
1128Banks did an interview. She yelled at Bayley about how this isn’t about her, and then noted how Charlotte had disrespected Ric Flair and how Charlotte said that Ric was dead to her, so dedicated the match to Ric Flair. The idea was to make sure Banks wasn’t booed in the match. Banks regained the title from Charlotte in 16:29. They had a great match, and I’d go **** for it. The crowd didn’t boo either one. Banks used a tope and a suplex on the floor. Charlotte used natural selection off the steps to the floor. Banks was nailing her with hard kendo stick shots which led to loud “ECW” chants. Charlotte used the figure four on the floor, but Banks broke it with kendo stick shots to the stomach. They ended up brawling to the entrance way. Charlotte then got on the announcers table, which is near the entrance on the ramp, and did a moonsault off the table on the floor. They got back to the ring. Banks threw Charlotte’s shoulder into the post and drove her back into the barricade. Charlotte also took a back body drop on the floor. Banks came off the barricade with the double knees. Banks went back to hitting Charlotte with the kendo stick. The finish saw them brawling in the stands and Banks put Charlotte in the hand rails and went her over with kind of a camel clutch or bank statement with Charlotte dropped in the hand rails and Charlotte tapped out. Banks was celebrating in the ring when Ric Flair’s music played and Ric came out, raised Banks’ hand and they hugged.
1129
1130Notes from the 11/29 TV tapings in Columbia, SC. This was the first taping with the new 205 Live cruiserweight show. That aspect wasn’t a draw at all as they drew 2,500 fans, which is the smallest crowd for a Smackdown taping since the brand split. As far as live drawing goes, Smackdown has taken a real hit since Cena left. Worse, even with telling fans there would be a dark match with Ambrose & Ziggler vs. Styles & Miz to keep them from leaving, and you could still see people walking out in the background during the cruiserweight show, and mostly during the title match. We were told it was even more evident live, and they even kept Styles and Ambrose from wrestling on Smackdown and saved them for the dark match. As noted before, it’s in everyone’s best interest to tape the cruiserweight show first with a fresh crowd. In a dark match, Ryder & Rawley beat Breeze & Fandango when Ryder pinned Breeze after the Hype Ryder.
1131
1132Smackdown opened with Renee Young presiding over the Lynch vs. Bliss contract signing. Lynch called her Lexi, which was her pre-WWE name in bodybuilding (Lexi Kaufman). Bliss said that listening to Lynch makes her want to vomit. They went at it with Lynch attacking her. Bliss came back. Lynch set up superplexing Bliss through a table, but Bliss raked her eyes and shoved her off the ropes backwards and Lynch went through the table. Ziggler & Kalisto beat Corbin & Miz via DQ in 7:32. The finish saw Ziggler superkick Miz and Kalisto then gave Miz the Salida del Sol, but Corbin then hit Kalisto with a chair for the DQ. Dasha with her robotic delivery interviewed Jordan & Gable. Then Wyatt & Orton & Harper were together with Harper saying Jordan & Gable were delusional and told Harper to send Kane back to hell. Carmella did a promo and wanted to apologize to Cena for what she’s going to do to his girlfriend. She promised to hit her so hard in her chest that her Bella Twins would be in her back, and that he’ll mess up her face so badly that Cena won’t have to worry about marrying her. Nikki came out and we had another brawl. This was the show filled with them. Carmella eventually bailed out.
1133
1134Next was the Ambrose Asylum with Ellsworth. It was pushed that Ellsworth would be getting a title match soon. Ellsworth said that while he’d like Ambrose to win and would love to wrestle him for the title, that he’s beaten Styles three times so he believes he has Styles’ number. Styles came out and said he was sick of hearing how Ellsworth being him because Ambrose interfered in every one of those matches and he’s tired of Ambrose making him out to be a joke. He dared Ellsworth to show up at the PPV. Ambrose then confronted Styles and said he was a great athlete, but championships are one in the head and Styles is way too easy. Styles attacked both Ambrose and Ellsworth. He threw Ambrose into the steps and threw the steps on him. Then he threw a ladder on Ellsworth and hit Ellsworth in the back with a chair. He finally laid out Ellsworth with a Styles clash off the ring steps and onto the floor. Ellsworth was taken out on a stretcher and put in an ambulance. Ambrose told Ellsworth that he blames himself for what happened, and Ambrose went in the ambulance with Ellsworth.
1135
1136Kane pinned Harper in 10:45 clean with a choke slam. Kane has really slowed down. They did a lot of near falls but these two just don’t click. Lynch did an interview. She said she has a back injury so that’s a storyline going into the PPV. They also announced Lynch vs. Bliss as a tables match. Wyatt & Orton beat Jordan & Gable to get the next tag title match in 15:24. This was a good match, but the crowd really wasn’t much into it. Jordan & Gable weren’t that over and the most over babyface by far was Orton, with people chanting “RKO” when he was in the ring. Jordan hot tagged in and hit a German suplex on Wyatt. The lights went out, and when they came back on, Harper was on the floor. Wyatt went for Sister Abigail, but Jordan escaped and they set up Grand Amplitude on Wyatt, but Orton hit Gable with the RKO out of nowhere. Jordan then missed a charge into the corner when Harper pulled Wyatt out of the way. Wyatt then pinned Jordan after Sister Abigail. They showed Slater & Rhyno watching the match. Styles then showed up and said that nobody cares about the tag team titles and he’s the world champion. Rhyno got in Styles’ face and Styles told him to hit the bricks. Just then Ambrose showed up and he attacked Styles and threw him into a couch and tackled him over the couch and they had a crazy wild brawl, which included Ambrose throwing Styles into a table and knocking food flying everywhere.
1137
1138The cruiserweight show followed immediately with Mauro Ranallo, Corey Graves and Austin Aries announcing, which is WWE’s best combination. They didn’t need a third person, but Aries was very good, and more importantly, if his announcing builds to him becoming a regular and he debuts with an angle at the top coming off announcing, then it makes sense. If he’s just an announcer on this show, it’s a tremendous waste since if it was me, I’d make him the heel champion and have the spectacular performers chase him in main events. They opened like Pride where they introduced the roster before the show started, as Swann, Perkins, Jack Gallagher, HoHo Lun, Gurv & Harv Sihra, Noam Dar, Nese, Gulak, Ariya Daivari, Alexander (who got the biggest reaction since he’s from the Carolinas), Lince Dorado, Akira Tozawa, Mustafa Ali, Gran Metalik and Kendrick. So they had Alexander, Metalik, Tozawa and Perkins and debuted with the Bollywood Boys and Daivari as the showcase guys. More importantly, it means that no Sin Cara, Kalisto or Neville, or for that matter Zayn, who are stars of cruiserweight size who, with Aries, should be some of the top guys on the show.
1139
1140They did a video feature introducing the Sihra Brothers. The videos were good in that they at least gave the people a chance to see people and like or dislike them. The Sihra Brothers talked about their 95-year-old blind grandfather who listens to their matches. The Sihra Brothers as faces beat Nese & Gulak in 6:59. Everyone shook hands. The match was fine but was no different from anything else you’d see on Raw or Smackdown except that the guys are smaller. Harv pinned Gulak after a double superkick. Gulak & Nese did an interview after and they need work on that. Nese complained that the ring was lumpy and the ropes were greasy and they shouldn’t be working in those conditions. They showed a Dar video and he said he was a cool cat. The first time I heard that reference to a pro wrestler was Sonny King in 1973. Kendrick did a good interview. He’s the best interview in this group in that he can tell a story. Perkins showed up and said that Kendrick still owed him a rematch. He said that if Kendrick loses, that he’ll be out of the picture for a title match so he was hoping Kendrick would win. There was a video of Gran Metalik and they said he was “coming soon.” We just saw him live in the opening ceremony. I mean, that was WCW-level stuff. Gallagher beat Daivari in 5:31 with a dropkick into the corner. I like Gallagher a lot because his style is completely different from everyone else. He did mostly old European technical style with the smooth moves, somewhat like Zabre Jr. At one point he tied Daivari up in a ball. The crowd didn’t know what to make of this. They showed Dorado video.
1141
1142Swann beat Kendrick to win the cruiserweight title in 13:22. This was a very well worked match and in the end they did get the crowd, but it was tough for them. It looked so bad seeing people leaving in droves in the background as the match was going on. Swann did a somersault off the barricade into a body block. Kendrick kept going for the captain’s hook. At one point Swann delivered a high angle back suplex and I’m surprised they allowed that high an angle bump on the back of the head in WWE given the All Japan lessons have turned people away from that type of move. Kendrick also used a sliced bread off the top rope for a near fall. Swann won clean after three spinning heel kicks. He did an interview where he thanked his mother, who isn’t here anymore. Kendrick then blamed Perkins for playing mind games with him before the match on his loss. It made sense to change the title to establish the show as meaningful in week one and Swann was the right guy for right now, but Aries is the right guy to be the guy to beat. After the show was over, Ziggler & Ambrose beat Styles & Miz when Ambrose pinned Styles after dirty deeds.
1143
1144Notes from the 11/23 NXT show. This was taped in Toronto before Takeover although due to air date, it was pretended to be after the show. Rich Swann opened against Kona Reeves, which is the new name of Noah Potjes or Noah Kekoa. The crowd was super-hot for Swann, so completely different from when he’s on Raw. They played up the size difference wince Reeves is tall. Swann did a standing flip and sta on Reeves when Sanity came out at 3:30 and the match was over and a no contest. Sanity destroyed both. Swann was given a comeback spot so he didn’t look like a complete enhancement guy. Still, this isn’t exactly what you’d want to do to a title contender six days before he’s the headliner on a new TV show. Fans were chanting “EY” at Sanity since Eric Young is from Ontario. Young cut a promo and No Way Jose came out. He wanted a match with Young. They started brawling but the bell never rang and it was never an actual match. They all beat down Jose, but Jose made a comeback until Nikki Cross dropkicked him off the top rope from behind and then they beat him down again until Young finished him with a wheelbarrow suplex into a neckbreaker. Young’s upper body is a lot smaller, and usually when you start in WWE you’re bigger.
1145
1146Paul Ellering did an interview. He said nothing. Daria Berenato was shadow boxing. Billie Kay & Peyton Royce came up to her and asked her to be their partner in the main event. She agreed. Kay & Royce talked
1147
1148about how now Berenato can sit at the cool girls table. The deal was that they made it clear they only wanted her because she was tough. Tye Dillinger did an interview. He was disappointed about losing to Bobby Roode, but unfortunately, instead of telling a good story, he was scripted to be NXT Dolph Ziggler. Basically his interview was him telling the fans he wasn’t good enough to beat top talent even though they’re behind him. Anyway, this worked wonders for Ziggler. Tommaso Ciampa & Johnny Gargano did an interview about winning the titles. They said that they loved each other. That usually means one is about to double-cross the other.
1149
1150Mickie James did an interview. She was in tears after the match with Asuka. In her case, unlike Ziggler II, she lost, but was happy and just said that in every match there’s a winner and a loser and put over how good Asuka was. They are basically making this Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate since the whole thing focused on was how Asuka refused to shake her hand after the match and that’s poor sportsmanship. Shinsuke Nakamura did a few word interview, just saying he wanted a rematch. Main event saw Ember Moon & Aliyah & Liv Morgan over Kay & Royce & Berenato in 6:11. Aliyah got a big reaction since she’s from Toronto. Morgan looked better than usual but this match wasn’t much at all. Moon tagged in and she was at a way different level from the other five. The finish had Berenato on the floor selling big. Kay & Royce basically dragged her to the apron and tagged her in. Then they walked out on her so she was left with the other three and Moon gave her the stunner off the top, which looked great, for the pin. So Berenato should be joining the face side against Kay & Royce. The show ended with them pushing that Joe vs. Nakamura for the title from Osaka would air on the show in two weeks.
1151
1152There were no NXT shows this weekend as they gave the talent Thanksgiving off.
1153
1154Thanksgiving was historically the easiest weekend to draw, but WWE gave talent both Thursday and Friday off, and both crews returned to action on Saturday.
1155
1156The Raw crew opened on 11/26 in Providence, drawing 6,000. The 11/27 show in North Charleston, SC, drew 4,000.
1157
1158The Smackdown crew opened on 11/26 in Kansas City before 3,500, which is a terrible crowd for major market on Thanksgiving weekend. 11/27 in Fayetteville drew 4,500. The 11/28 show in Florence, SC drew 1,500, so the Monday night Smackdown shows continue to not draw well.
1159
1160Providence opened with the New Day, being Big E & Woods, winning a four-way title match over Anderson & Gallows, Sheamus & Cesaro and Enzo & Cass. The finish was the double-team Midnight Hour on Anderson in 13:00. Sin Cara pinned Axel with a swanton. R-Truth & Goldust & Darren Young beat Shining Stars & O’Neil. Rollins pinned Rusev clean with the pedigree in 13:00 in the best match on the show. They did the usual Miz finish here where Lana interfered, she got booted out, Rusev was distracted, which set up the pedigree spot. That’ll probably end up being the Cass vs. Rusev finish they’ll be heading to. Rusev was in the spot because Jericho had the weekend off and most of the shows going forward will be Rollins vs. Jericho. Neville pinned Dallas with a 450 splash in 7:00. Banks & Fox & Bayley beat Charlotte & Brooke & Jax when Banks made Brooke submit to the bank statement. Emma was the guest ref but didn’t do much in the role but referee. Main event was billed as champion vs. champion with Reigns vs. Owens. However, only the U.S. title was at stake, which really makes no sense when you think about it. The explanation was that Stephanie McMahon made the ruling. Owens did a long chinlock spot, like television. Reigns won clean with the spear in 17:00.
1161
1162The show in North Charleston was the same except Jericho and Zayn joined the tour. Rollins pinned Jericho with the pedigree and Jericho did a mic work that was over big. Zayn pinned Rusev. Reigns was super popular, far more than in most cities, as he beat Owens with the spear in the main event.
1163
1164Smackdown in Kansas City opened with Ziggler over Miz in a non-title match with a superkick after Maryse was kicked out from ringside. Ryder & Rawley & Jordan & Gable & Crews beat The Vaudevillains & The Ascension & Hawkins when Konnor was pinned after the Grand Amplitude. Corbin pinned Swagger. Corbin is actually from Kansas City, so he was cheered a lot. Corbin then challenged anyone from the back. Kalisto came out and pinned Corbin in seconds. Kane pinned Wyatt in a bad match. Harper worked the tour but only did cornering of Wyatt all three nights. Slater & Rhyno beat Breeze & Fandango when Rhyno pinned Breeze after the gore to keep the titles. The Usos were advertised in all three cities. Lynch retained the women’s title in a five-way over Carmella, Nikki Bella, Bliss and Natalya when Lynch beat Bliss using the disarmer. The main event saw Styles beat Ambrose in a match where Ellsworth was timekeeper. They used chairs and a kendo stick. After Styles retained using the phenomenal forearm, he went to attack Ambrose afterwards with a kendo stick. Ellsworth ran in to stop him. Styles ended up going after Ellsworth when Ambrose saved Ellsworth. Ellsworth then hit no chin music on Styles and Ambrose finished him with Dirty Deeds.
1165
1166Fayetteville was largely the same show as was Florence. In Florence, Styles took out Ellsworth at the start of the match and Ellsworth never returned. Styles got the win throwing soda in Ambrose’s face and hit the forearm for the pin.
1167
1168
1169 
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