Q0EfQHLf

1Wrestling Observer Newsletter
2
3PO Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228 ISSN10839593 November 12, 2018
4
5 
6
7WWE CROWN JEWEL POLL RESULTS
8
9Thumbs up 8 (04.3%)
10
11Thumbs down 163 (88.6%)
12
13In the middle 13 (07.1%)
14
15 
16
17BEST MATCH POLL
18
19A.J. Styles vs. Samoa Joe 73
20
21Dolph Ziggler vs. Seth Rollins 49
22
23Michaels & HHH vs. Undertaker & Kane 26
24
25Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Rusev 12
26
27 
28
29WORST MATCH POLL
30
31Shane McMahon vs. Dolph Ziggler 89
32
33Brock Lesnar vs. Braun Strowman 48
34
35Michaels & HHH vs. Undertaker & Kane 28
36
37 
38
39NJPW POWER STRUGGLE POLL RESULTS
40
41Thumbs up 110 (88.7%)
42
43Thumbs down 0 (00.0%)
44
45In the middle 14 (11.3%)
46
47 
48
49BEST MATCH POLL
50
51Tomohiro Ishii vs. Minoru Suzuki 82
52
53Tetsuya Naito vs. Zack Sabre Jr. 25
54
55Chris Jericho vs. Evil 16
56
57 
58
59WORST MATCH POLL
60
61Hirooki Goto vs. Taichi 50
62
63Okada & Baretta vs. White & Fale 29
64
65Taguchi & ACH & Henare & Sabin vs. Volador Jr. & Soberano Jr.&
66
67Liger & Tiger Mask 19
68
69Tonga & Loa & Eagles vs. Makabe & Kushida & Honma
70
7113
72
73 
74
75UFC 230 POLL RESULTS
76
77Thumbs up 124 (100.0%)
78
79Thumbs down 0 (00.0%)
80
81In the middle 0 (00.0%)
82
83 
84
85BEST MATCH POLL
86
87Ronaldo Jacare Souza vs. Chris Weidman 68
88
89Matt Frevola vs. Lando Vannata 25
90
91Sheymon Moraes vs. Julio Arce 19
92
93Jared Cannonier vs. David Branch 10
94
95 
96
97WORST MATCH POLL
98
99Karl Roberson vs. Jack Marshman 25
100
101Daniel Cormier vs. Derrick Lewis 23
102
103Marcos Rogerio de Lima vs.;Adam Wieczorek 13
104
105Based on e-mails and phone calls to the Observer as of Tuesday, 11/6.
106
107 
108
109Crown Jewel, the most controversial show in WWE history, came and went this past weekend.
110
111WWE presented a show featuring the return of both Hulk Hogan as a performer and Shawn Michaels as a wrestler, and even though it got more mainstream talk for going to Saudi Arabia in the wake of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the show itself had remarkably little interest considering those two items.
112
113It was a bad show overall, featuring a lackluster World Cup, a three minute Universal title match that was one-sided, and a long DX vs. Brothers of Destruction tag team match that fell apart quickly when HHH suffered a torn right pectoral muscle.
114
115Besides the HHH injury, the main stories in the ring were Brock Lesnar winning the Universal title in a one-sided squash match over Braun Strowman, and Shane McMahon, who wasn’t even in the World Cup tournament, winning it.
116
117Outside the ring the company’s reputation took somewhat of a hit, but not bad enough that any sponsors pulled out. The stock price dropped significantly, but some of that was a reaction to the third quarter results showing significant drops in house show attendance, merchandise sales, television ratings and licensing revenue and revenues being below Wall Street expectations. And in the end, the stock price will eventually balance back to where it should be, and it was likely priced high to begin with. The fact is, pulling out of the Saudi Arabia deal long-term would have hurt them financially, which in the long run would affect the stock price in a negative way, even if it would have helped their company’s reputation at least short-term.
118
119With sponsors not caring, there was no true economic hit past some subscribers canceling the WWE Network, and the number is likely not statistically significant and won’t be known until January. There were clearly fans upset, as all mentions of the show on television were met with boos, but ratings for Raw were almost exactly what would have been expected coming out of the show and Smackdown ratings had to be considered surprisingly strong given it came on election night and they retained almost their entire audience.
120
121Still, it was the first WWE major show in history where they never announced the country it was taking place in. All references to Saudi Arabia were removed from television after the Khashoggi murder. Even on the show itself, the words Saudi Arabia were never mentioned, although Riyadh, the city it took place, was mentioned once. Prince Mohammed Bin Salman was never mentioned. WWE did no propaganda work for the government, which seemed to mean the Saudi government cut them some slack on the deal knowing the situation. Wrestlers weren’t constantly telling people what a wonderful country it was or how progressive its leaders were.
122
123There were still those like JBL, Randy Orton and Ronda Rousey trying to push the idea that WWE coming to the country will lead to change, when this was nothing more than a business deal that was too good to turn down for people whose sole motivation is money above basic human rights and even selling out their own women’s empowerment marketing for the cash. Obviously nobody in the company is allowed to say that, and there was nobody saying anything negative, although John Cena, for whatever reason, and Daniel Bryan, for reasons gone into last week, by their actions clearly didn’t approve since nether went.
124
125WWE did bring a woman on this tour, unlike the first time, announcer Renee Young. The company didn’t push too hard about it being a breakthrough, although Michael Cole and Young did do an interview in the U.K. afterwards talking about how Young being there gave hope to women in the country.
126
127We all know that there will be a story some day within the ten years when women are allowed to wrestle, and WWE will claim credit for changing the culture. The fact TNA beat them by years in having women’s matches in the Middle East hasn’t stopped them from touting that they broke through in that regard years ago. I have no idea why Saudi Arabia doesn’t allow the women to perform, since women have performed at other events already, whether they be sports or entertainment.
128
129The reality is, the most effective way to lead to change is what happened in South Africa to combat apartheid, which was people refusing to come to the country, or what the IOC did in Saudi Arabia itself in forcing the country to have women on their Olympic team if they wanted to have a men’s team, which forced the beginnings of women competing in sports in at least the private school level and increasing club sports for women.
130
131Young was allowed to announce at ringside with her head completely exposed, although her body was completely covered up. You could see her in he background in shots, but they did no stand-ups with her. They did no propaganda, but kept showing crowd shots of children (which was embarrassing in one instance because they showed some kids who all of a sudden started shoving and fighting before they cut away), including young girls, and adult women in the crowd, even thought the latter were completely covered up except for their faces showing.
132
133But unlike the first show, in which the announcing was embarrassing, this show was low-keyed as far as politics went. It was just a show that had little in the way of good matches.
134
135But it had a lot in the way of news.
136
137HHH suffered a torn pec and had surgery on 11/6 in Birmingham. HHH took what is generally known as a Harley Race bump over the top rope to the floor, a move that was a routine part of her repertoire for much of his career. It’s obvious that HHH trains hard and eats well, and he looks to have dropped considerable weight in the last year which is good when you get older. But he’s 49 and still carrying a good deal of muscle mass and at that age, the muscle mass works against you when trying to perform athletically. He’s also had a history of muscle tears. It’s hard to say where his wrestling is at this point. Up until this past year, his stuff was mostly good.
138
139His WrestleMania match was great. His match with Cena at the Greatest Royal Rumble was okay, but nothing memorable. The Undertaker match in Australia was bad, but Undertaker was out of shape and they went way too long. In this match, he was injured right away and still tried to do as much as he could while basically working with only the left side of his body working. It’s a double-edged sword here. By the rules of pro wrestling old generation, he gutted it out and didn’t call for the match to end early while injured. That’s not a surprise considering he continued to work and do the finish of a match with a torn quad 17 years ago in one of the greatest matches in Raw history (Chris Benoit & Chris Jericho vs. Steve Austin & HHH in San Jose). There’s no questioning his toughness, nor his dedication to the business, and to his conditioning and cosmetic look.
140
141At the same time, the new business is about protecting people who are injured. As the leader of the younger group of wrestlers, the idea is that those watching him have to think that no matter how bad you are hurt, you continue the match. And in many cases, that’s a mentality most athletes will have, but not the mentality you want to teach going forward when there is a serious injury. Just as an example, we don’t know if Tegan Nox trying to continue after blowing out her knee on a dive added to the knee injury she suffered because she refused to not continue. Calling a halt to a match is infinitely smarter for everyone concerned than adding months to recovery time by making a bad injury worse, even though it goes against the old school mentality of the industry.
142
143Generally speaking, after surgery to repair a torn pec, the recovery time is close to six months. John Cena came back in half the time, but he’s not human. HHH’s recovery time from his many injuries has been more normal. Six months puts it past WrestleMania, which was slated to have HHH vs, Batista as one of the top matches.
144
145Story No. 2 involved Lesnar. Lesnar’s latest short-term contract was to expire with Crown Jewel. Roman Reigns was planned to win the three-way match over Lesnar and Braun Strowman, presumably pinning Lesnar, and Lesnar was to leave for UFC.
146
147In probably the first of several major changes after Vince McMahon found out that Reigns was suffering from leukemia, he backed up the Brinks truck and signed Lesnar to a new deal and made the decision for him to beat Strowman in Saudi Arabia and regain the title.
148
149It is believed that deal went down around 10/18. Terms of the deal have been kept secret. What is known is that this is another short-term deal. The deal does go through WrestleMania. How often Lesnar will be working on the new deal is unknown. He will be at Survivor Series facing A.J. Styles. He won’t be at TLC. It is not clear if he will be at Royal Rumble, but given they are doing a stadium show, he will probably be, and he has a planned match at WrestleMania. There is a significant angle that is supposed to be part of his storyline going forward. The deal includes wrestlers other than Strowman. Seth Rollins did mention his name on Raw. Drew McIntyre is clearly being groomed for a top run.
150
151The deal also allows him to work UFC. UFC wants him on the 3/2 show in Las Vegas against Daniel Cormier. Is that advisable to work the Rumble in what would be the middle of a training camp? There is a clear risk of an injury, including a concussion, in a UFC fight that would be five weeks before Mania, where his match, just by the fact of his paycheck, would have to be considered one of the biggest events on the show.
152
153While most saw Lesnar vs. Strowman, a match that consisted of Baron Corbin hitting Strowman with a belt shot and Lesnar giving Strowman five F-5s before pinning him as a shocking squash match that took the monster aura from Strowman, that was not its design.
154
155The idea, which the announcers failed to get over, was that it wasn’t Lesnar destroying him, but Lesnar giving an already knocked out Strowman one F-5 after another, including one over the top rope to the floor, and Strowman kept kicking out. The idea was to get you to want to see the rematch where Lesnar would finally get these hands.
156
157The World Cup came down to The Miz from Smackdown against Dolph Ziggler from Raw. It was in many ways booked backwards. The idea is who from Raw is low enough on the pecking order that they could be squashed by Shane McMahon in a few minutes and it doesn’t matter that much. Of Ziggler, Bobby Lashley, Rollins and Kurt Angle, the only one viable was Ziggler.
158
159Miz and Ziggler went at it before the match and in jumping off the apron, Miz started selling his left knee (later it was said he injured his left ankle, but this was all storyline). Of the four on the Smackdown side, Miz, Randy Orton, Rey Mysterio and Jeff Hardy, Miz was the only one they’d portraying that way as babyfaces aren’t allowed to show that kind of weakness and they’d never put Orton in that position.
160
161So Miz was hurt and Shane took his place and also won quickly.
162
163Unlike with Lesnar, this storyline has been long planned. It was meant to lead to a Shane McMahon heel turn, at least in its original form.
164
165Hulk Hogan returned on the show. He was billed as host, and give a cliche-filled promo to open. He was received positively. In a sense it was smart to bring him back. For one, he’s probably someone the Prince would have wanted to see since he was a fan of a previous generation of WWE wrestlers. For another, any controversy over Hogan appearing was minute compared to doing the show itself. At the same time, from a fan perspective, it was kind of sad to see Hogan and Michaels return and have it really not be any kind of a big deal. I mean, it was big for Michaels’ bank account for sure, and Hogan was desperate for the spotlight. But there was very little interest in the show even with the media pub.
166
167Google searches only totaled 100,000, which was the same as Evolution, which is the level of a UFC on FOX show or a somewhat major Bellator show, and well below a usual “B” WWE PPV show that would easily double or triple that figure. For a comparison, UFC 230 the next day did one million searches, and that was only an average level of interest UFC PPV show.
168
169Michaels was fine. To his credit, he was in great shape for being 53 years old. He moved okay. He worked slowly. He didn’t have the zip in his legs and step that he used to have, and in that sense, was well behind Ricky Steamboat, who was much older, when Steamboat made his return for a series of matches. He was not close to the level of others at 53 such as Genichiro Tenryu, Nick Bockwinkel (well, 52 when he retired), Terry Funk, Gran Hamada and really many others, but they also didn’t take years off. But he wasn’t bad either. He did basic stuff, and did a Ray Stevens flip into the turnbuckles and a nip up. He ended up hurt when he did a moonsault off the top rope to the floor, and somewhat, with both Undertaker and Kane there, he fell between them and landed face first on the floor. He ended up with a small cut over his left eye and his nose bleeding, but pretty much held the match together.
170
171He gave the indication after that was it, but unlike his 2010 match with Undertaker, which was an incredible way to go out, this was anything but. So he could want to come back so his last match would be more memorable.
172
173Afterwards he said, “Obviously this whole day has been anxious, nerves and everything else. Once I got in there, though, with everybody, it was fun, it was comfortable. You know, I don’t know, I felt a few things, get a little warm, and you forget just how tough this is on your body. I’ll be feeling it for the next several days. It will be a very good reminder of why I didn’t do it for eight years and why I’m not going to do it again, if I can possibly help it. We are going back to our regular life, boys, It was a lot of fun to do but I’m glad it’s over, too.”
174
175The show drew a sellout of 16,000 fans at King Saud University Stadium in Riyadh. Most tickets were priced at the equivalent of $6.50 U.S. and old out instantly.
176
177Before the show started, there were cue cards displayed on the screen attempting to get fans to chant “Thank you Roman” with the idea it would be taped and shown for whatever reason. But they never spliced that into the show so they probably had other reasons for it. Fans were chanting “We Want Lana” during the Rusev match, so the fans who were there didn’t seem to know there was a cultural barrier involved with women performing.
178
179You could tell from viewing the show from the chants that there was a percentage of fans who were WWE fans there. But most people were just there for an event. It felt like a show where maybe one-quarter of the crowd were reacting like wrestling fans and the rest didn’t really understand what they were seeing. The crowd heavily booed the U.S. national anthem when it was played before the show started. The fans were also mad about Cena and Bryan, with “Cena sucks” chants during the Lashley vs. Rollins match. Bryan was heavily booed, so at least the percentage who were fans felt slighted that he didn’t come, as he was shown during a video package to build up A.J. Styles vs. Samoa Joe.
180
181They saw Lesnar as a much bigger star than Strowman. The New Day’s ring entrance got a big reaction, but instead of saying the city they were in, just “Crown Jewel.”
182
183Next on the agenda is the Survivor Series on 11/17 from the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
184
185It will be built around a Raw vs. Smackdown theme with the battles of champions with no titles at stake.
186
187The two big matches are Lesnar vs. Styles in a Universal champion vs. WWE champion match, and Ronda Rousey vs. Becky Lynch in a battle of the Raw women’s champion and the Smackdown champion.
188
189Lesnar vs. Styles is a rematch of a great match the two had last year, which Lesnar won. Normally that would make you think, to make things even, that Styles would win. I could see them doing the Lesnar vs. Eddy Guerrero storyline where Strowman (or someone else that Lesnar is to face later) costs Lesnar the match as a way for Styles to win, because I can’t see him being beaten head-up because that weakens the win by whoever Vince wants to carry the brand, who gets coronated by beating Lesnar.
190
191Similarly, Rousey vs. Lynch could go either way. Rousey hasn’t lost, but they’re already going with new heel Nia Jax vs. Rousey in December, and Jax already cut a promo about how Rousey is representing the brand and such. They also have U.S. champion vs. IC champion match with Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Seth Rollins. In the battle of tag champs, it’s new tag champs AOP vs. The Bar (Sheamus & Cesaro & Big Show).
192
193There is also Buddy Murphy vs. Mustafa Ali for the cruiserweight title, and three traditional Survivor Series five on five elimination matches with brand vs. brand.
194
195There is a men’s match where Team Raw, with Baron Corbin as the outside captain, consisting of Drew McIntyre & Dolph Ziggler & Braun Strowman and two others, faces Team Smackdown of Miz & Bryan & Rey Mysterio & Samoa Joe & Shane McMahon.
196
197There is the women’s match where Team Raw, with Alexa Bliss as outside captain, faces Team Smackdown, with Paige as outside captain consisting of Charlotte Flair & Asuka & Carmella & Naomi & Sonya Deville.
198
199There will also be a five tag team vs. five tag team match.
200
201As far as filling the slots, Team Raw singles best bets would be Lashley, Finn Balor, Elias or Dean Ambrose for the final two spots.
202
203For Team Raw’s tag teams, you’ve got Bobby Roode & Chad Gable, The Lucha House Party, The Ascension, Rhyno & Heath Slater, The B Team and The Revival, so five of those six.
204
205For Smackdown tag teams you’ve got three open slots plus Usos a captains and New Day. Other teams available are Sanity, The Colons and Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson. They could add a makeshift team in the spot of the Colons.
206
207The Raw women’s team is filled with possibilities. Nia Jax, Bayley. Ember Moon and Sasha Banks would be the favorites. Mickie James from a storyline standpoint with Alexa Bliss as captain and possibly Alicia Fox would be there, perhaps Ruby Riott or Tamina since she’s started to be focused on as a monster.
208
2091. Shinsuke Nakamura pinned Rusev in 9:33 to retain the U.S. title. This was a pre-show match that wasn’t advertised until the day of the show. Lots of “Rusev Day” chants. Nakamura did a long front facelock. Rusev did a cool spinning heel kick on his comeback and a high kick for a near fall. The crowd was into this by the end. Rusev had the accolade on in the middle of the ring and Nakamura escaped. Nakamura delivered a head-butt to the groin and the Kinshasa for the pin. ***
210
211Hogan came out and got a good reaction, but nothing like he’d have gotten in the U.S., although there was also no risk of booing as there could be in the U.S., but probably wouldn’t be. He did his cliches. He’s now 65 and still bigger than he should be for his own health at that age. He didn’t tear his shirt off.
212
2131. Rey Mysterio pinned Randy Orton in the first round of the World Cup tournament in 5:25. Not much to it other than a perfectly timed spot where Mysterio came off the top rope into an Orton dropkick. Mysterio rolled him up for the pin. After the match, Orton gave Mysterio and RKO, threw him to the floor and dropped his chest on the Saudi Arabian announcers table. The idea is that Orton hurt Mysterio and Mysterio had to come back for another match. **
214
2152. The Miz pinned Jeff Hardy in a World Cup match in 6:56. Hardy walked the barricade and came off with a clothesline to the floor. The finish saw Miz turn an attempt at a twist of fate into a skull crushing finale. **1/4
216
2173. Seth Rollins pinned Bobby Lashley in a World Cup match in 5:25. Rollins hit two topes. Lashley went for a spear but Rollins leapfrogged him and Lashley ran into the corner. Rollins used a curb stomp for the pin. Rollins ended up with a bloody mouth out of this. **
218
2194. Dolph Ziggler pinned Kurt Angle in a World Cup match in 8:15. Angle used several German suplexes. Angle had the ankle lock on forever, really way too long for it to make sense, particularly since Ziggler wasn’t selling it the next match. Ziggler escaped, Angle charged and went into the post and Ziggler got the zig zag for the pin. **½
220
2215. Sheamus & Cesaro retained the Smackdown tag titles over Big E & Kofi Kingston in 10:28. Big Show and Xavier Woods were at ringside. Cesaro monkey flipped Kingston, who landed on his feet. Kingston did a nice dropkick. Show was choking Kingston. Kingston sold until E’s hot tag with his three belly-to-belly suplexes. E set up the big ending on Sheamus but Show gave E a short right which stunned him and Sheamus did a weak looking brogue kick for the pin. **3/4
222
2236. The Miz pinned Rey Mysterio in a World Cup semifinal match in 11:07. Mysterio was selling that his ribs were hurt in the Orton match. He did a slide into a splash on the floor but was back selling the ribs. Miz worked over his body with an abdominal stretch. Mysterio kicked out of the skull crushing finale. Mysterio hit the 619 and followed with a frog splash but Miz got his knees up and cradled him for the pin. ***
224
2257. Dolph Ziggler pinned Seth Rollins in a World Cup semifinal in 13:05. Drew McIntyre was at ringside. Rollins got in McIntyre’s face and dared him to punch him and get Ziggler disqualified. Ziggler hit a DDT and began working over the neck. They traded near falls doing all the cradle reversal spots that this crowd didn’t care about. Rollins hit a knee for a near fall and the punched McIntyre. Rollins monkey flipped Ziggler over the top rope. Rollins used a superplex and Ziggler used a zig zag for near falls. The finish saw Rollins hit a tope on McIntyre. Rollins went to the top rope and McIntyre threw him off and Ziggler hit the superkick for the pin. This was the best match on the show. ***½
226
2278. A.J. Styles pinned Samoa Joe to keep the WWE title in 11:09. They came out hard hitting like they were in a different company from everyone else. Styles hit a moonsault block off the apron. Joe hit a tope knocking Styles into the table. Something was going on in the crowd as nobody was paying attention to the match. I don’t know if it was a fight or what but they hurt them match. Really, the match was great except it felt like it went way short for the style they were working. Styles did a moonsault into a reverse DDT for a near fall. Styles used a calf crusher and Joe made the ropes. Styles went for an O’Connor role and Joe got a choke. Styles used a Pele kick and phenomenal forearm for the pin. ***1/4
228
2299. Brock Lesnar pinned Braun Strowman in 3:15 to win the vacant Universal title. Before the bell, Baron Corbin hit Strowman with a belt shot. Lesnar then immediately hit the F-5, but Strowman kicked out. Strowman kicked out of two more F-5s. Then Lesnar gave Strowman an F-5 over the top rope. It was clear when Strowman was walking down the ramp that his knees were hurting and a guy that size being thrown over the top rope and landing o his knees and chest is not a good thing. They teased Strowman being counted out but he got in at nine. Lesnar hit his fifth F-5 and got the pin. People couldn’t believe Strowman was cleanly pinned that fast. *
230
23110. Shane McMahon replaced The Miz and pinned Dolph Ziggler to win the World Cup in 2:28. Miz and Ziggler fought before the mach started. In the brawl, Miz jumped off the apron and started selling his knee. The crowd was dead and didn’t care about any of this. The referee ruled Miz couldn’t continue and was about to award the match to Ziggler. Shane McMahon was there and kept protesting the stoppage and then said he’d take Miz’s place. Shane, at 48, is way way more muscular than he was in his 20s and 30s. Corbin tripped Shane at the start of the match and Ziggler hit a zig zag but Shane kicked out. Shane monkey flipped Ziggler into the corner and hit the coast-to-coast dropkick for the pin. *
232
23311. Shawn Michaels & HHH beat Undertaker & Kane in 27:48. The crowd was into this for the star power more than anything else on the show, but them match itself was bad. They were all much slower than everyone else. Sometimes slow is good because you make everything mean more and let it register, but this felt more like an Old Timer’s match where they are slow due to age. Michaels did the Ray Stevens flip and got caught hanging upside down in the corner. HHH took the Race bump and tore his pec. Undertaker was beating on Michaels for along time. Undertaker did his old school ropewalk with Michaels. HHH & Michaels gave Kane a double suplex and Michaels did the elbow off the top rope for a near fall. Michaels went for the superkick but Kane choke slammed him. Undertaker gave Michaels snake eyes and a running kick. Michaels hit the superkick on Undertaker, who sat up. Kane choke slammed HHH through a table. Kane’s mask and wig fell off in the middle of them ach. Michaels did a moonsault off the top rope on both of them and they didn’t catch him and he crashed on the floor. Undertaker had the gogoplata on HHH but Michaels superkicked Kane, who fell on Undertaker, which broke up the move. Michaels eye raked Kane and superkicked Undertaker and Kane, leading to HHH doing a terrible looking pedigree on Kane for the pin. *3/4
234
235UFC and ESPN announced its schedule for the first quarter of 2019 with some notable decisions early on trying to drive viewers to ESPN+, and live events on 11 weekends in a row.
236
237The UFC is finishing up on FOX in December, with the FS 1 main show being on 12/1 from Adelaide, Australia, headlined by Junior Dos Santos vs. Tai Tuivasa. There will be a PPV on 12/8 from Toronto with title matches of Max Holloway defending the featherweight title against Brian Ortega, and Valentina Shevchenko faces Joanna Jedrzejczyk for the vacant women’s flyweight title. The last FOX show in 12/15 headlined by Kevin Lee vs. Al Iaquinta. And the seven-plus year era ends on 12/29, with UFC 232 from Las Vegas, with Jon Jones vs. Alexander Gustafsson for the light heavyweight title which they will strip next month from Daniel Cormier, and Cris Cyborg Justino vs. Amanda Nunes for the women’s featherweight title, with prelims on FS 1.
238
239They are looking for a big gate out of that show, since Jones and Cyborg are two of the company’s biggest draws and are on the same show. They are scaling from $140 to $1,255 for tickets.
240
241The first ESPN show will be 1/19 from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The marketing is that the 6-8 p.m. fights that would have formerly been on UFC Fight Pass, will be on ESPN+. Then four prelim matches will air live on both ESPN and ESPN Deportes. So they will be putting four secondary fights on in prime time on a Saturday on ESPN, and the six main card fights will be back on ESPN+.
242
243The idea is to debut with a loaded show, and it’s not so much about ratings themselves, since they will only be airing secondary fights on television. It’s more about having UFC on ESPN Saturday night prime time, probably with some decent name fights, and hoping the first time on the station with heavy promotion draws an audience. But the idea is more to convert that audience, both the UFC hardcore audience and the ESPN Saturday night audience, and to convert them quickly to ESPN+ buyers, which at $4.99 per month, is priced significantly lower than most of the competition services with the idea the vast number of sports fans will make up the difference,
244
245Unlike the major sports on ESPN, football, basketball and baseball, where they are under long-term television contracts, it is the sports like MMA and boxing that they are looking at to drive paying consumers. In many ways, this is the next act in the circle of life. There was no MMA in other eras, but when television was created, it was pro wrestling and boxing that were keys in the early years, as they were camera friendly and easy to produce cheaply. They ran their course after a few years, but with the advent the UHF stations, smaller stations catering to a smaller niche, regional wrestling and taped syndicated boxing, as well as Roller Derby/Games were among the staples. Then came cable, and again, niche sports that can draw an audience, and both wrestling and boxing were staples, although boxing ran its course and moved to premium cable, which never touched pro wrestling because it was considered low-rent. But both thrived on PPV. Now with streaming, while WWE and UFC basically got into the game early, at the exact same time, they took different paths. And today, the deal is people see gold down the road in streaming, largely based on the success of Netflix, and are paying greatly above what economically today makes any sense, for boxing and MMA, but as of yet, not for wrestling, which the key companies in the U.S. market (WWE, New Japan, ROH and Impact) all have their own streaming services, meaning they are earning current market value for their product as opposed to multiple times over like the top MMA and boxing promotions are getting. Of course, that doesn’t keep the wrestling groups out, as WWE has made a deal with Facebook Watch and is open to others, and every one of the other companies would convert in a heartbeat if a DAZN or ESPN came to them with the kind of sweetheart deals they’ve come to everyone else with. If anything, with strong secondary wrestling gaining in popularity, it’s almost a surprise nobody has, but then again, the failure of Flo Slam and limited U.S. subscribers to everything but the WWE Network is the warning sign of value that isn’t there for boxing, or at least wasn’t until the pathetic numbers DAZN got for Anthony Joshua. But UFC also showed you can do it both ways, as they are giving up live Fight Pass product because instead of dealing direct to consumers with their own service, the original beauty of the streaming idea, they can get more money from the middle man, ESPN, greatly overpaying based on current value than they could from their own direct-to-consumer service. Again, if you go back five years and think where this will be, that makes no sense as the entire beauty of streaming yourself instead of PPV is you cut out the middle-man. Now, unlike with PPV, it’s back to wanting rich billionaires to overpay you as the key to wealth.
246
247Obviously, you only make a first impression once, and the idea would be to load up on 1/19, hold it in New York for maximum publicity, and have ESPN promote the hell out of it and see how many people sitting in front of their TV sets go, sure, I’ll pay $5, really that’s nothing, to see the good fights tonight and still get a month of viewing with UFC every weekend. The only fight confirmed for that show at this time is Paige VanZant vs. Rachael Ostovich, which is your classic “hot woman” fight. They were looking at a Paulo Costa vs. Yoel Romero fight but Costa was injured this past week so that’s not happening.
248
249There will be a 1/26 PPV show at the Honda Center in Anaheim. This is going head-to-head with a Bellator show at the Forum, also in Los Angeles, which is the Fedor Emelianenko vs. Ryan Bader heavyweight tournament final, as well as the just-announced Aaron Pico vs. Henry Corrales (16-3 fighter who was won four in a row in Bellator but lost to Patricio Pitbull Freire, Pico’s destination opponent, in 2016).
250
251On 1/26, the two hour prelims will air on ESPN before the PPV fight. This will be a PPV that will be heavily pushed on ESPN which usually makes a difference, but it all depends on what is on the card. At one point this was hoped for as the Brock Lesnar vs. Daniel Cormier fight. Instead, it looks like a normal show as the guys who look to be open for that date who are champions are Tyron Woodley, Khabib Nurmagomedov, T.J. Dillashaw, Henry Cejudo, and Rose Namajunas, with Dillashaw vs. Cejudo in a battle of champions one match they are trying to put together. Another fight being worked on for the show is Dominick Cruz vs. John Lineker.
252
253Combate, which is UFC’s broadcast partner in Brazil reported that UFC would be dropping the flyweight division, which has been talked about for a few years, so Dillashaw vs. Cejudo would be for the bantamweight title, not flyweight. Jose Torres, a flyweight who lost to Alex Perez in his last fight on 8/4 in Los Angeles, said that when he was cut this week he was told that UFC was dropping the division and that not all flyweights would be retained and moved to bantamweight. Jarred Brooks, who defeated Roberto Sanchez in his last fight on 9/8, was also cut this week.
254
255There has been internal talk of dropping the division for a few years, and this may be why UFC was so willing to part with Demetrious Johnson, since basically he was the entire legacy and history of the division and if he was to beat Cejudo and be back as champion, they would have a harder time dropping it with one of the most-established champions out there setting records and being called pound-for-pound best at the helm. The reality of championships in combat sports is that the more you have, the less they mean for business. But if you are promoting a fair sport, the more divisions you have in at least ten pound increments, the fairer the sport is, because 15-20 pound increments make the sport less fair to people whose natural weight falls at a bad number.
256
257It is not clear whether Fight Pass and ESPN+ will both be airing the early prelims other than Fight Pass is scheduled, and ESPN would air the prelims on television. Ben Askren’s debut against Robbie Lawler is scheduled for the show. Lawler is a bad style mach-up for Askren, plus the whole deal with Askren is his talking, and he won’t go after Lawler verbally. James Vick vs. Paul Felder and Francisco Trinaldo vs. Islam Makhachev have also been announced for that show.
258
259After that will be a 2/2 show from Brazil where the entire card from will air on ESPN+.
260
261On 2/9 will be a PPV show, coming back in two weeks after the previous one, from Australia, headlined by Robert Whittaker vs. Kelvin Gastelum for the middleweight title. This feels like too fast of a turnaround to do any kind of PPV business, especially with that main event. The two hour prelims once again are scheduled for ESPN.
262
263On 2/17, they will run the first Sunday night show on ESPN from Phoenix. The early prelims will air on ESPN+, but this will be the first five straight hour show on ESPN, from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m.
264
265They will come back six days later, on 2/23 with a full six plus hour show on ESPN+.
266
267What is supposed to be the biggest event of the first quarter, on 3/2 from Las Vegas, which would be the target date for Lesnar vs. Cormier, and if it doesn’t happen then, well, it’s probably not happening. Barring injury, that’s Cormier’s target retirement fight with either Lesnar, Jon Jones or Stipe Miocic.
268
269The company will then run three straight Saturdays with ESPN+ complete six plus hour shows, with dates on 3/9, 3/16 (which will be from the O2 Arena in London) and 3/23. The final first quarter show will have at least the main card on ESPN, taking place on 3/30.
270
271UFC Fight Pass will continue to air the early prelims as well, just as it has done since its origination. But for those who got Fight Pass mostly for that, and not for the features, the fight library or the non-UFC MMA and kickboxing events, they could get that content on ESPN+ going forward, and ESPN+ because of having more main caliber shows and exclusives would be a priority with those fans.
272
273WrestleKingdom’s top of the card is pretty much announced or strongly hinted at with the Power Struggle show completed.
274
275Power Struggle went as expected, with the right results and angles to build what was looking to be the Tokyo Dome direction. The only thing that had to be changed was the injury to Will Ospreay took him out of the Never title picture, where it looks like he was going to beat Taichi to set up a singles match with Kota Ibushi.
276
277Depending on his healing process, that would probably end up taking place sometime next year.
278
279The announced top of the Tokyo Dome card is Kenny Omega vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi for the IWGP title, Chris Jericho vs. Tetsuya Naito for the IC title, Kazuchika Okada vs. Jay White, Kushida vs. Taiji Ishimori for the IWGP jr. title and Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Desperado defend the IWGP jr. tag titles against both tournament winners Sho & Yoh and Bushi & Shingo Takagi.
280
281Jericho is doing an angle where he has turned down the Naito match and claims that just because New Japan announced the match, that doesn’t mean it’s happening. It’s obvious this is part of his story process, and he also did not appear at the press conference where the match was announced, after turning down Naito’s challenge during the Power Struggle show.
282
283Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa will likely defend the heavyweight tag team titles against the winners of the annual tournament that starts on 11/17 in Kanagawa, with the final night of block competition being 12/7 in Akita. The top two point-getters meet in the championship match on 12/9 in Iwate.
284
285It will be a 14 team single block tournament meaning each team will have 13 matches. It’s far weaker than the past because Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kenny Omega, Kota Ibushi, Jay White, Cody, Chris Jericho, Young Bucks, Tetsuya Naito and Hirooki Goto are not in the tournament. From a logic standpoint, it makes sense because they all have other bouts at WrestleKingdom aide from The Young Bucks. Logic would have them in the tournament based on old-school booking as former tag champs looking for the Dome title match, but the reality is they’ve made it clear they won’t do full tours because it doesn’t make sense to them based on what they are paid, and so they actually weren’t asked and it was reported here months ago they wouldn’t be in.
286
287The 14 teams are David Finlay & Juice Robinson, Shota Umino & Ayato Yoshida, Jeff Cobb & Michael Elgin, Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi, Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Minoru Suzuki & Takashi Iizuka, Togi Makabe & Toa Henare (at one point the hope was Makabe & Tomoaki Honma but Honma isn’t ready for this yet), Baretta &Chuckie T, Hangman Page & Yujiro Takahashi, Zack Sabre Jr. & Taichi, Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr., Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii, Seiya Sanada & Evil and champions Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa.
288
289Looking at that list, Sanada & Evil have to be the favorite, with really Archer & Smith and Cobb & Elgin as other possibilities. A Suzuki & Sabre team would have been co-favorites but they decided to split them into two teams where you have Iizuka or Taichi there to drop falls.
290
291Some of the shows will only air taped tournament matches, but there will be full live shows on New Japan World on 11/17, 11/18, 11/25, 11/29, 11/30, 12/2, 12/6, 12/7 and the finals on 12/9. There will be English language commentary on 11/17, 11/18, 12/6, 12/7 and 12/9. The 11/18 show will air free for non-subscribers.
292
293The other big story is that starting with the 11/29 show at Korakuen Hall, Tanahashi & Okada will be teaming up regularly. It’ll mostly be Tanahashi Okada & Kushida vs. White & Bad Luck Fale & Ishimori, or eight man tags adding Rocky Romero on the Okada team and Gedo on the White team.
294
295The tour opens 11/17 in Kanagawa with tournament bouts of Finlay & Robinson vs. Umino & Yoshida (who will likely lose all or all but one of their bouts but also be a highlight team almost every show), Kojima & Tenzan vs. Nakanishi & Nagata, Baretta & Chuckie vs Page & Takahashi and Tonga & Loa vs. Makabe & Henare.
296
297The 11/18 Korakuen Hall show has Suzuki & Iizuka vs. Smith & Archer, Ishii & Yano vs. Taichi & Sabre and Cobb & Elgin vs. Evil & Sanada.
298
299The biggest arena show is 11/25 at the Aiichi Gym in Nagoya with Umino & Yoshida vs. Takahashi & Page, Nakanishi & Nagata vs. Yano & Ishii, Kojima & Tenzan vs. Cobb & Elgin, Makabe & Henare vs. Finlay & Robinson, Tonga & Loa vs.; Suzuki &Iizuka, Baretta & Chuckie vs. Suzuki& Iizuka and Sanada & Evil vs. Sabre & Taichi.
300
301The tournament spots are likely to be decided on 12/7 in Akita with Tenzan & Kojima vs. Suzuki & Iizuka, Nakanishi & Nagata vs. Yoshida & Umino, Robinson & Finley vs. Chuckie & Baretta, Elgin & Cobb vs. Page & Takahashi, Sanada & Evil vs. Smith & Archer, Makabe & Henare vs. Sabre & Taichi and Yano & Ishii vs. Tonga & Loa.
302
303There have been teases of Goto vs. Ibushi for the Never title. I’d suspect Cody defending the U.S. title at the Dome, but that can’t be announced until after the ROH show in Toronto this weekend. I always figured Cody’s wins over Robinson were part of a long story set up for Robinson to finally beat him but we’ll see. A lot depends on whether Cody will be with New Japan in 2019, as if he isn’t going to be, obviously he would have to lose the title. If he will be, there’s no rush to get to that destination.
304
305Power Struggle on 11/3 at Osaka at the Edion Arena drew a sellout of 5,441 paid, selling out a few weeks in advance. So that was a good sign since the show was really built around Jericho vs. Evil.
306
307The Edion Arena is usually New Japan’s hottest building, but watching the show, the crowd seemed dead. What we were told is that the crowd was actually on fire in almost every match, with the only match lacking heat being the Goto vs. Taichi match. There was a sound mixing issue so it didn’t come across like that. Because of that, the match ratings here are likely unfair on the low end. That’s also likely affecting the poll results, because those there live called it a super show to attend, but while watching it, the second half of the show made it good for sure, but it felt below normal New Japan big show standards, and the guys who usually carry the shows on top like Okada, Tanahashi, Omega and Ibushi were in underneath matches that were more about confronting their Dome opponents (aside from Ibushi) and protecting themselves. Tanahashi in particular looked like he was hurting and Omega has been working on a broken rib since August and being low on the card in a short match meant it was about shooting the angle.
308
309Sho & Yoh won the Super Juniors tag team tournament in a three-way over Bushi & Takagi and Desperado & Kanemaru. All three teams finished the round-robin, which ended on 11/1, with 5-2 records and each was 1-1 against the other two in head-to-head competition. It’s the first time I can recall a three-way in a New Japan tournament final.
310
311On the 11/1 show in Shizuoka before a sellout of 1,518 fans, Sho & Yoh tied for first beating Kushida & Chris Sabin with the 3-K on Sabin in 15:18.
312
313The rest of the tournament saw Kushida & Sabin, Ryusuke Taguchi & ACH and Kushida & Bushi tie for third with 3-4 records. The other two teams tied for second with 2-5 records, which were Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask and Soberano Jr. & Volador Jr.
314
3151. Ryusuke Taguchi & Chris Sabin & Toa Henare & ACH beat Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask & Volador Jr. & Soberano Jr. in 6:10. This was all action but terribly rushed. Lots of rugby-based comedy with Team Taguchi. Chuckie T on commentary noted that ACH outweighs him by 30 pounds and he’s a heavyweight and ACH is a junior heavyweight. I don’t think you’re supposed to say that. Soberano slipped on the ropes, which he’s done a few times this tour, but then did a great corkscrew crossbody on Taguchi. ACH and Taguchi sandwiched Soberano with a hip attack for the pin. **1/4
316
3172. Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa & Robbie Eagles beat Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma & Kushida in 7:39. Taiji Ishimori (on crutches due to an ankle injury) and Jado were at ringside. Honma still clearly has balance issues. Jado from the outside hit Honma with a kendo stick. There was a big pop when Honma used the kokeshi. Cool spot where Kushida blocked Tonga’s gun stun and put him in the hoverboard lock. Jado jumped on the apron so Kushida let go of the move to go after Jado. Ishimori broke his crutch on Kushida and Tonga pinned him after a gunstun. Ishimori then threw away his crutch and posed holding the IWGP jr. belt. Makabe ran in with a chair to clean house. **
318
3193. Kazuchika Okada & Baretta beat Jay White & Bad Luck Fale in 4:32. Not much of a match, quick with a surprise outcome. Okada and White brawled outside the ring. Okada gave him a draping DDT on the floor. Fale went for the grenade on Baretta, who reversed and pinned Fale with a sunset flip. White and Okada had a post-match pull-apart. They continued to fight and White challenged him to a singles match. Okada wanted it right there. White looked like he was coming back to the ring, but instead got to the gate, closed it and then walked to the back, punching a few trainees on the way. *1/4
320
3214. Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi beat Hiroshi Tanahashi & David Finlay in 9:47. They worked like this was a prelim match for the most part, but they are all so talented it was good. Really, the most impressive guy here who did the most was Finlay. Tanahashi and Omega came out hard but Ibushi and Finlay were the ones who looked great early. Omega did a pescado on Tanahashi. Omega did some great knee selling. He had Tanahashi up for the One Winged Angel but Tanahashi escaped and used the twist and shout. Ibushi and Tanahashi went back-and-forth. Tanahashi ran into a knee by Omega and high kick by Ibushi at the same time. Then Finlay was pinned after the Golden Trigger. Omega and Tanahashi faced off after the match. ***1/4
322
3235. Sho & Yoh won the tag team tournament in a three-way over Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Desperado and Bushi & Shingo Takagi in 15:55. Desperado did a tope con giro on Bushi & Takagi. Very good match with lots of near falls and saves. Takagi and Sho traded power moves. Sho kicked out of Takagi’s pumping bomber. Sho & Yoh did the 3K on Takagi but Kanemaru pulled the ref out of the ring as Sho had Tanaka pinned. Desperado hit Sho with a belt shot when the ref was distracted, but Sho kicked out of the pin. Sho also kicked out of an Olympic slam by Desperado. Sho ended up pinning Desperado with the shock arrow package piledriver. ***3/4
324
3256. Hirooki Goto pinned Taichi to win the Never Open weight title in 15:02. Right before the bell, Taichi gave Goto a back suplex and Goto sold it like he was knocked out. Taichi went to cover him, and lifted him up at two. So the idea is that Taichi had the match won but his arrogance cost him. He threw Goto out of the ring and Goto got in at 19 and Taichi went for another pin, but this time Goto kicked out. Still, the crowd was dead for all this. Goto finally made a comeback at 5:45 with a spin kick and a back suplex. Taichi used a low blow and Gedo clutch for the pin, the finish of the match where he won the title, but Goto kicked out. The crowd was chanting for Taichi at this point. He used a last ride power bomb and Goto kicked out again. Taichi came into the ring with the belt and shoved down ref Marty Asami. Goto then hit the ushigoroshi, the shoten kai and GTR for the pin. **
326
3277. Tomohiro Ishii pinned Minoru Suzuki in 19:21 to retain the British heavyweight title. Kevin Kelly put this over as the feud of the year. This was exactly what you’d expect, non-stop hard hitting, intense and gripping. People were calling this a match of the year and it probably was, but the crowd micing hurt this one a lot. Still, the match was fantastic even without the crowd noise. The elbow trades were sick. It was ridiculously hard hitting with both doing the rubber leg dance and not going down. They paced this point in a way where every elbow meant something and when Suzuki finally knocked him down it was a huge pop. The underrated aspect of these two is their fight IQ, in the sense that the story they tell is that this is a real fight and they react like two tough guys who can take ridiculous punishment in a real fight, and are barely human, but at some point become human. People who dismiss it as just guys hitting each other hard or it lacking selling (the spots that lacked the selling were there to both get a surprise pop and to build the spots where there was selling to make the selling that was much impactful), storyline or psychology miss that it has all three in abundance, just in a non-traditional way that works every time out. Suzuki hit the penalty kick on Ishii, who didn’t sell it. Suzuki kicked him hard in the back and Ishii didn’t sell that one either. Suzuki got a choke and Ishii flipped out and stomped him in the head. They traded hard slaps and Suzuki tried a choke but Ishii hit the brainbuster Suzuki was bleeding from the mouth. Suzuki hit a dropkick out of nowhere and at 50 years old, he still has one of the best dropkicks in the world. Suzuki dropped Ishii with one elbow. Ishii came back with a last rites for a near fall. Ishii used a head-butt to the jaw and sliding lariat for a near fall. After more slaps, Suzuki got a choke but Ishii escaped, hit an enzuigiri, a lariat, another lariat and the brainbuster for the pin. Ishii, after winning, didn’t even grab his belt and just stormed off after the match. Suzuki sold it like he was devastated and his legs were gone. But he refused help from the seconds and stumbled around and did a rubber leg walk all the way to the back, which was a great way to sell the match. ****½
328
3298. Tetsuya Naito pinned Zack Sabre Jr. in 20:12. Sabre had beaten Naito in all of their singles matches this year, so for Naito to get his Tokyo Dome IC title match, he had to wi this match. This was Sabre doing all his great submissions and stretching moves on the ground. Sabre is a guy who doesn’t get his due as one of the best workers in the business, because he has his own style, his consistent match quality is at the top, his bouts always get over because he’s unique and he’s able to have incredible matches with a safer yet more realistic style than almost anyone who is even close to his level. Sabre worked the left arm and right knee. He used a half crab, a heel hook, an STF, and the rings of Saturn. Sabre used a cobra twist and threw elbows. Naito went for an enzuigiri and Sabre caught him in mid-air with an ankle lock. Sabre kicked out of a destino and used the European clutch, a move he beat Naito with, for a near fall. The story is that Naito had given him enough of a beating that he couldn’t get the full bridge. Naito finally hit Sabre’s own Zack driver and the destino for the pin. ****1/4
330
3319. Chris Jericho defeated Evil to keep the IC title in 21:40. Jericho came out with a black mask, and underneath it a white mask. Evil attacked him and tried to power bomb Jericho on a table but Jericho backdropped him. Jericho DDT’d him on the announcers table and blew his nose on a New Japan banner. When Jericho hit the lionsault for a near fall, the people popped for it. Jericho had huge bruising on the left side of his back. Evil did his spot where he put a chair over Jericho’s head and took another chair and did the baseball bat swing hitting the chair around the neck. Evil teased a superplex off the table through a table, but instead used a uranage through the table that Jericho took on his hip. A few fans tried to get a “This is awesome” chant going. Jericho got the Walls of Jericho on but Evil made the ropes. Jericho missed a lionsault and Evil hit darkness falls for a near fall. Jericho used a front rolling cradle for a near fall. Evil blocked a codebreaker and there was a double lariat spot and both were down. Jericho hit the codebreaker but Evil kicked out. Evil hit It’s Evil, the STO for a near fall. Evil went for darkness falls but Jericho turned it into a huracanrana, a boston crab and the lion tamer and Evil struggled before tapping out. Jericho put the lion tamer after the match until Naito made the save. Naito then issued a challenge for the title. ****
332
333Guadalupe Robeldo Garcia, better known as Jose “El Gran” Lothario, one of the biggest stars in the history of Texas wrestling, passed away on 11/6 at the age of 83.
334
335Lothario was a major star in every territory he worked in during the 60s and 70s after first making his name in Mexico, and first captured the Occidente heavyweight championship in 1954.
336
337He first came to the U.S. as The Great Lothario, or sometimes El Gran Lothario, in 1957, working in Texas, and was a top star by 1959, when he held the West Coast version of the NWA world tag team championships with both Leo Nomellini and Ramon Torres, in battling the Sharpe Brothers.
338
339He held championships in the U.S. consistently from 1959 to 1982, and was best known in South Texas where he was the top full-time babyface for most of the 70s. Often called “Supersock” Lothario for his boxing, and being a specialist in the tape fist match as well as the Mexican death match, he was to South Texas what Fritz Von Erich was to North Texas.
340
341During the 70s, the Texas office was largely controlled by Von Erich, who ran Dallas, Fort Worth and spot shows in that area. But most of the crew worked every Wednesday night in San Antonio, Thursday in Corpus Christi and Friday in Houston, which was the best drawing and best paying city on the circuit. Von Erich was the top star as perennial American heavyweight champion in Dallas and Fort Worth, but rarely worked the Southern cities, which were run by Joe Blanchard and Paul Boesch.
342
343Lothario was generally the top babyface in those cities, and during the 70s, Lothario and Wahoo McDaniel were the top babyfaces in Houston, with Lothario as the fixture weekly star. Lothario also would be the regular partner of Mil Mascaras, who was a huge attraction from Mexican movies and Los Angeles television, in the big matches against Black Gordman & Great Goliath, who generally drew the biggest crowds for their special events.
344
345During the 60s, Lothario was best known in California and Florida, but became a full-time regular in Texas, settling down there in 1971. He was a frequent opponent during that era of world champions like Dory Funk Jr., Jack Brisco, Terry Funk and Harley Race.
346
347Dusty Rhodes, in his autobiography, called Lothario one of the greatest babyface workers of all-time.
348
349On a national basis, he was better known as the trainer of Shawn Michaels. Michaels grew up in San Antonio and began watching wrestling when Lothario was the top babyface. Lothario was winding down his career in 1984,when Michaels was 18 and started training with him. Lothario got him his first job later that year as a prelim wrestler in Mid South Wrestling.
350
351In 1996, Lothario was brought in as the babyface manager of Michaels and had a brief feud with Jim Cornette, which saw him come out of an 11-year retirement for a series of matches with Cornette in his old stomping grounds, as well as PPV matches, and a few Michaels & Lothario vs. Vader & Cornette matches.
352
353He had major programs with the likes of Dusty Rhodes & Dick Murdoch in Florida, Johnny Valentine, Boris Malenko, Superstar Billy Graham, Gran Markus and Gino Hernandez.
354
355Lothario vs. Hernandez was one of the best-remembered feuds of the 70s as they started off with the aging Lothario endorsing and teaming with Hernandez, who was 23 years younger. The storyline involved the fact that Lothario & Luis Hernandez, the stepfather who raised Gino Hernandez (who never met his alleged real father, Charles Wolfe, a Houston police officer), were a tag team. Luis Hernandez passed away in 1972 of a heart attack while on a tour of Japan and the idea was that Lothario had become like a father figure who got him started in pro wrestling. This made the turn on Lothario into such a hot program, which included Lothario beating Hernandez in a hair vs. hair match in Houston in 1978.
356
357Michaels hired Lothario to run his wrestling school in San Antonio, but the two ended up having a falling out at that time.
358
359Daniel Cormier completely dominated Derrick Lewis with his wrestling game, finishing him in the second round to become the first fighter in UFC history to not just hold two championships at the same time but also defend them.
360
361It was a fight that probably shouldn’t have happened at this time. Cormier, the UFC’s light heavyweight and heavyweight champion, had a hand and wrist injury, but was seemingly confident enough of his big advantage in skill that he could take the big payoff to save a Madison Square Garden show that wasn’t selling tickets and didn’t have a main event.
362
363Lewis was fighting only four weeks after beating Alexander Volkov in a come-from-behind knockout win of a fight he had taken a beating in and was nearly stopped. When the fight was over, he was put on medical suspension that would go past the 11/3 Madison Square Garden date, when the Nevada commission changed the date on his suspension when UFC attempted to put together the short-notice fight.
364
365Cormier, who fought for years at 205 pounds, was 251.2 pounds for this fight and hardly looked in his best shape. But Lewis showed nothing in the way of takedown defense, and Cormier got him on the ground at will and controlled him there. Still, Lewis landed some powerful shots early in the second round before being taken down, showing he was dangerous, even if not in Cormier’s league overall.
366
367One of the big questions surrounding the show was if Brock Lesnar would be there for a post-fight angle, like he was in July. Lesnar, had he chose to, could have returned from Saudi Arabia and been in New York the morning of the fight. But he made the decision not to come which was not a sure thing until the last minute. Dana White had teased that he expected him to be there.
368
369The other big fight saw Ronaldo Jacare Souza knock out Chris Weidman in the third round in a fight where the winner was likely to get a middleweight title shot at the winner of the upcoming Robert Whittaker vs. Kelvin Gastelum fight.
370
371The show drew 17,011 fans paying $2,841,718.68, which would seem to indicate a lot of people got free tickets given the pricing structure.
372
373The early estimate are 250,000 buys on PPV, a number that shows that even though Lewis got over with a great finish and funny interview on a show that did 2.4 million buys four weeks earlier, that people didn’t take him seriously as someone who could beat Cormier.
374
375There are other reasons involved. It’s very difficult to draw a big number four weeks after the biggest show in history, and there was huge football competition, including an Alabama vs. Louisiana State game on CBS that drew 11,543,000 viewers, making it the most-watched college football game of the season.
376
377Still, if the attraction is strong enough, it’ll draw.
378
379The ratings for the prelims were the first sign of trouble, as the show averaged 635,000 viewers on FS 1, the lowest number for PPV prelims since September 9, 2017. It was the lowest of the eight FS 1 prelims this year, but did beat two prelims that were moved to FX.
380
381The prelims peaked at 808,000 viewers for the Jordan Rinaldi win over Jason Knight.
382
383Besides Alabama vs. LSU, there was also college football head-to-head on ABC, ESPN, FOX and ESPN 2.
384
385The prefight show did 205,000 viewers and postfight show did 188,000 viewers, always it was delayed on FS 1 until the completion of the USC vs. Oregon State football game.
386
387The $50,000 performance bonuses went to Jarred Cannonier, who scored an upset knockout win over David Branch, Israel Adesanya, who had an impressive win over Derek Brunson, and Weidman and Souza for best fight.
388
3891. Marcos Rogerio de Lima (16-5-1) beat Adam Wieczorek (10-2) on straight 30-27 scores in a heavyweight fight. Both had first round takedown with de Lima doing the most damage from the top. The second round was slow. De Lima got a third round takedown and got mount. De Lima had two more takedowns in the round.
390
3912. Shane Burgos (11-1) beat Kurt Holobaugh (17-6, 1 no contest) in 2:11 in a featherweight fight. Holobaugh knocked Burgos down but as he went to follow up, Burgos got the armbar for the submission.
392
3933. Matt Frevola (6-1-1) drew Lando Vanatta (9-3-2) on scores of 29-28 for Frevola and 28-28, and 28-28 in a lightweight fight. The judges had Frevola winning rounds one and three, and two judges gave Vannata a 10-8 second round. Media scores were 61 percent for Frevola, 22 percent for Vanatta and 17percent had it even. Vannata got a first round knockdown but Frevola worked for a guillotine and was in mount as the round ended. Lots of action in the round. The second round was also wild with Vanatta getting another knockdown. Both men had takedown in the third round but Frevola landed the best punches.
394
3954. Lyman Good (20-4, 1 no contest) beat Ben Saunders (22-11-2) in 1:32 in a welterweight fight. They were in a clinch and Saunders was throwing knees while Good was landing uppercuts. Good was the one who put Saunders down and finished him.
396
3975. Sheymon Moraes (11-2) beat Julio Arce (19-5, 1 no contest) via split decision on scores of 29-28, 28-29 and 30-26. Media scores were 58 percent for Moraes, 37 percent for Arce and five percent even. Another exciting fight. A notable stat is that Arce had previously fought in both boxing and kickboxing fights in Madison Square Garden. Moraes got a first round knockdown and landed big punches on the ground. Arce got to his feet and then got Moraes’ back and was working for a choke for the last minute of the round. Morales landed an elbow and Arce was bleeding like crazy. Both were swinging with blood everywhere. This ended up as one of the bloodies fights in recent memory because it was pouring out. Moraes got another knockdown late in he round. Arce came back in the third round and outlanded Moraes.
398
3996. Sijara Eubanks (5-2) beat Roxanne Modaferri (22-16) on straight 30-27 scores in a women’s flyweight fight. Eubanks was just too athletic for Modaferri. She was too strong, too fast and too smooth in her standup. Eubanks was landing punches and got two first round takedowns. Eubanks scored a second round knockdown with a head kick. Modaferri came back to get a takedown late in the round. Modaferri did better in the third round as Eubanks got tired, but Eubanks was able to take her down and control her later in the round.
400
4017. Jordan Rinaldi (14-6) beat Jason Knight (20-6) on scores of 30-27, 30-25 and 30-26 in a featherweight fight. Rinaldi took the first round with two takedowns and ground and pound. Rinaldi got a takedown in the second round and worked for a choke and a Kimura. Rinaldi nearly got the choke. In the third round, Rinaldi was on his back but used a Kimura to sweep to the top and had his back.
402
4038. Israel Adesanya (15-0) beat Derek Brunson (18-7) at 4:51 of a middleweight fight. This was a great performance by Adesayna. Brunson kept going for takedowns and Adesanya blocked them. Adesanya landed a good head kick. Adesanya hurt Bruno with a knee and dropped him three times before it was stopped.
404
4059. Karl Roberson (7-1) beat Jack Marshman (22-8) on scores of 30-26, 30-26 and 30-27 in a middleweight fight. Roberson won the first round landing a lot of body kicks. In the second round, both were swinging but Roberson got a takedown and moved to side control and kept it until the end of he round. In the third round, Roberson landed punches, got another takedown, moved to side control and later mount and controlled things.
406
40710. Jared Cannonier (11-4) beat David Branch (22-5) at :29 of the second round in a middleweight fight. Cannonier started as a bulky heavyweight and now is a ripped middleweight. Think Cedric Alexander. Branch got three first round takedowns, but he was getting tired by the end of the round. At the start of the second round, Cannonier landed a low kick, then dropped Branch with a right and landed punches on the ground until it was stopped.
408
40911. Ronaldo Jacare Souza (26-6, 1 no contest) beat Chris Weidman (14-4) at 2:46 of the third round in a middleweight fight. This was a great fight. Weidman hurt him with a right. Souza came back and was working the body, which paid off later. Both went back-and-forth in the second round. Each landed strong shots. Souza was bleeding from the nose abut came back with good uppercuts to the body. Weidman came back with body shots. Weidman took Souza down late but Souza got backup. It looked like it was even going into the third round. Both traded shots and Souza was getting the better punches in. Weidman landed a knee and punches. Weidman was taking control but Souza came back with punches and finally dropped Weidman with a right to the temple. Souza immediately backed off. Weidman fell from the punch and his head hit the cage. Ref Dan Miragliotta didn’t stop it, but he should have as Weidman was way too foggy. Souza didn’t want to hit Weidman again but had to go back and threw some shots with little on them on the ground because he knew Weidman was out and didn’t want to damage him badly.
410
41112. Daniel Cormier (22-1, 1 no contest) beat Derrick Lewis (21-6, 1 no contest) at 2:14 of the second round. Both got a lot of cheers coming out. Cormier was clearly the star of the show when he came out. Cormier took him down right away. After all the action in the previous two fights, some fans were quick to boo it going to the ground. Cormier was dropping elbows, got Lewis’ back and threw punches. Lewis got up, but Cormier took him back down and got his back and landed more punches on the ground. Lewis landed some had shots to start round two until Cormier took him down. Lewis got up but Cormier took him down, moved to side control, got his back and finished him this time with a choke.
412
413Chris Jericho’s Rockin Rager Cruise, an event that took three years between the idea and the actual debut, got almost universally great reports.
414
415The idea dates back to 2015, when Jericho and his band Fozzy played the KISS cruise, and he thought the idea would translate to wrestling fans, and really his own fans. While drawing primarily wrestling fans, and the matches were clearly the biggest events, the cruise included three Fozzy concerts, numerous podcasts with different hosts, DDP doing his DDPY (don’t call it DDP Yoga anymore) in front of the pool (workouts that had hundreds of people), Karaoke with Pat Patterson, comedy shows, a paranormal show, trivia contests, autograph signings and pictures, and lots of pro wrestling matches involving ROH and Impact, as well as a separate deal to get Kenny Omega.
416
417It was a very expensive production, between the ship, the talent, and the idea of doing wrestling matches on the ship, something they had to hire engineers to work on to make sure the ring would be steady in case there were big waves or a storm would happen. Nobody had ever done that before that we are aware of. As it turned out, the weather was favorable but you had to prepare for the worst-case scenario.
418
419Jericho partnered with Sixth Man, who handled much of the expense, well into seven figures. Sixth Man has experience with Norwegian and other cruise lines promoting cruises with KISS, Lynrd Skynyrd and other rock bands. It took two years to convince them it was viable, and it was a seven figure expense by the company to put it together. Jericho himself was responsible for the wrestling talent, which was largely a deal with ROH, who provided 24 wrestlers to him, and separate deals with others including Impact and Omega.
420
421He noted that even with the sellout, that he considered the first year a loss-leader. He may lose some money on it, or break even, but the idea is to create a franchise, with the idea that the people who were on the cruise having such a great time would want to do it again, and those who weren’t there that saw either the comments, photos or watched the iPPV, thinking that they would want to be part of it next year, and it would become an annual thing.
422
423Jericho noted that he didn’t want this to become like the Bruise Cruise, which WCW did in the 90s, or Wrestle Vessel, which WWF did in the past. One of the difference is he wanted live matches, but also wanted concerts and comedy shows and more than just having the chance to go on a cruise liner with wrestlers. He said that a lot of people didn’t understand that the price of the cabin covered everything, all the shows, the food was no extra cost, autographs and photos were free as were all the shows. They had multiple things going on at the same time, with the idea that if you weren’t a wrestling fan, there were plenty of activities that would be fun, so get people who may be fans but if their boyfriends or girlfriends weren’t, they’d have plenty of activities and it would be a good time.
424
425The actual numbers for the Jericho Cruise were 1,013 sold cabins and 2,270 total attendance. Cabins ranged from about $2,000 to $8,000 and that didn’t include alcohol, although I believe you could either order by the drink or pay something like $71 per day and get unlimited alcohol. All the food was taken care of and there was no extra cost for things like autographs and such.
426
427There was I believe one wedding officiated by Jericho and another couple, Dave & Nanette McCormick, who met in 1989 through the readers page of this publication through tape trading with each other, renewed their vows on the ship officiated by Matt Massie (Papa Buck).
428
429Right now there is no date planned for the next version but Jericho hopes Sixth Man sees the potential in it. He noted that the sales were very different from most cruises, which either succeed or fail based on sales in the first week or two. This cruise sold some early, then had its ups and downs. One of the keys was that the Sea of Honor tournament promised wrestling matches, but nothing in specific. While originally Jericho felt between his concerts and everything else that there was no way he’d be able to wrestle, when sales slowed he decided to do a tag match where he would face The Young Bucks. He had contracted Omega to do one match. The Young Bucks came up with the idea to instead do a six-man tag where they teamed up, using the tag line “Is it the Bucks of Jericho or Y2 Jackson.” The idea was to play off the Jericho vs. Omega Tokyo Dome match and do Alpha Club vs. Bullet Club, so Omega & Cody & Marty Scurll ended up as the opponents.
430
431The positives in that they continued to have steady sales, finally selling out just days before the launch.
432
433The idea was also to go out there and have fun house show matches, but when the decision was made to stream it as a taped PPV show, most of the guys, notably the Briscoes, Flip Gordon and the guys in the six-man, decided to flip the switch and present PPV quality matches.
434
435The two hour 20 minute iPPV presentation was fast moving, had a cool vibe and atmosphere, and some of the wrestling was easy comedy, but a lot was very intense. While every match was taped, ROH made the decision that aside from Jericho and Omega, since it was their talent, they didn’t want other talent on the show. Impact would have been okay, but with the PPV about the Sea of Honor tournament and the six-man main event, there wasn’t the time for any Impact matches.
436
437So a lot of things, notably the Jay Lethal vs. Johnny Impact champion vs. champion challenge (which right now is going nowhere), and interpromotional matches like Scurll vs. Sami Callihan and Bucks vs. LAX (the latter which people said was the best of the cruise) probably aren’t going t be able to be released. Jericho thinks that’s fine as well, as for future events, people know that they’ll get PPV quality matches, but also strong matches that are exclusive only to cruise-goers.
438
439Jericho benefitted because the Young Bucks, Cody, Omega and himself are all very hot as characters to more fans than non-WWE wrestlers have been in the U.S. in a long time. Whether that would be the case in a year or 18 months is a question because of how the business is in flux.
440
441The iPPV show aired the final eight of the Sea of Honor tournament and the main event.
442
443In first round matches that didn’t air, Dalton Castle beat Matt Taven, Christopher Daniels beat Delirious (who was in charge of most of the booking), 0Scurll beat Rhett Titus, Flip Gordon beat Silas Young, Mark Briscoe beat Will Ferrara, Hangman Page beat Frankie Kazarian, Cheeseburger upset Beer City Bruiser and Jay Briscoe beat Kenny King.
444
445The show started off with complete comedy, and matches very much ran the gamut from there.
446
4471. Ashley Remington pinned Christopher Daniels in 7:12. The story here is that Dalton Castle suffered a concussion and was replaced by Smooth Sailing Ashley Remington, which was the character Castle played in CHIKARA. The fans played along chanting “That’s not Dalton” and “Let’s Go Ashley.” Not much wrestling here, more comedy. Remington advanced winning with an inside cradle. *1/2
448
4492. Flip Gordon pinned Marty Scurll in 11:13. They hugged before the match, but Scurll used a uranage as soon as the bell rang to double-cross Gordon. Both delivered hard chops. Lots of big moves back-and-forth. They traded near falls and Scurll used a power bomb and jackknife cradle, only to have Gordon reverse into a cradle of his own for the pin. ***½
450
4513. Jay Briscoe pinned Cheeseburger in 6:33. Briscoe told Cheeseburger to just take the forfeit loss before the match, saying that nobody wants to see Cheeseburger die on this boat. A few people tried to start a “Yes we do” chant but it didn’t get going. Cheeseburger kicked out of a Death Valley bomb and did a long camel clutch. Briscoe was very aggressive here, winning with the Jay driller. **
452
4534. Mark Briscoe pinned Hangman Page in 10:25. They traded chops early. Fans chanted “that was weak” at Page’s chops. They did a spot where one would slam the other, who would pop up. Each time they sold it a little more. Briscoe came off the ropes into a kick and fans chanted “that was weak.” Both guys acted amused. Then a bird showed up and stole the spotlight from the match. They worked hard at the end and it turned into a good match. Mark sidestepped a buckshot lariat and won with a cradle. ***
454
4555. Flip Gordon pinned Dalton Castle in 9:34. I guess Castle’s concussion got better because he was no longer Ashley Remington. This was a lot of comedy. Castle said he had a bad sunburn and asked Gordon not to make it worse. So Castle was overselling everything he touched. Gordon won with a small package out of nowhere to reach the finals. *1/2
456
4576. Jay Briscoe pinned Mark Briscoe in 10:47. This match was probably better live because hard hitting matches always are. It was intense. Mark hit the elbow off the top rope right away. Jay threw a chair at Mark’s head and also hit him with a beer can. Mark threw Jay into a chair set up in the corner. They were kicking the hell out of each other. Then they went to near falls. Mark was on the top rope and Jay threw a chair at his face and then hit the Jay driller. ***3/4
458
4597. Flip Gordon pinned Jay Briscoe to win the tournament in 10:53. Both guys were great here. Jay carried it with his hardcore aggressiveness and believability and Gordon did the cool moves. Gordon did a 450 and Briscoe got his knees up and got a near fall. Gordon did a springboard dropkick. Briscoe did a great dropkick. Gordon kicked out of the Jay driller. Gordon won clean with a springboard kick to the head and an F-5. The win sets up an upcoming Jay Lethal vs. Gordon ROH title match. ****
460
4618. Kenny Omega & Marty Scurll & Cody beat Young Bucks & Chris Jericho in 23:18. Jericho & Young Bucks had matching gear and Jericho reverted back to his mid-90s babyface rock & roll tag team character. Even though older and you wouldn’t think that would be a good fit since that’s fast-paced Young Bucks tag style, he more than kept up. Not to mention, his right eye was messed up as he took a fall the first night of the cruise. The minute the six guys were in the ring, fans were chanting “Vince can’t touch this.” There was some early comedy stuff but by the end this was equivalent to a Young Bucks major show type of match, except with less in the way of dives. Jericho said that with all the money they spent on matching gear they probably should team together somewhere again. Jericho & Bucks did a triple pescado. They built up an nearly Jericho vs. Omega spot. What was also notable is that even though this was an ROH production, that Impact execs Don Callis (dressed up like Captain Stubing of the “Love Boat”) and Scott D’Amore did the announcing for this match. There was a spot where Jericho got Scurll in the Walls of Jericho while the Bucks got Omega & Cody in tandem sharpshooters. Omega and Cody then both grabbed one of Scurll’s hands so that he couldn’t tap before they saved him. Omega sent Jericho to the floor with a Frankensteiner. The Bucks were superkicking everyone building to a triple superkick on Omega. The Bucks hit Omega with the Indy taker and Jericho used the Walls of Jericho on Omega, then hit a codebreaker on Scurll. Cody hit the crossroads on Jericho. Omega gave both Young Bucks huracanranas at the same time and then hit a reverse huracanrana on Matt. Jericho put Omega in the Walls of Jericho and moved to the lion tamer. The ref was distracted and Scurll broke it hitting Omega with his umbrella. They set up the Meltzer driver on Omega, but Cody pulled Nick off the top rope. Omega tried the One Winged Angel on Matt, but his back gave out from the lion tamer spot. But he came back and later hit the One Winged Angel on Matt for the pin. What was interesting is that neither in his introduction nor in commentary did they acknowledge Omega as the IWGP champion, even though they constantly referred to Lethal as ROH champion. Jericho and Omega had words when it was over and they teased another singles match. ****½
462
463Dragon Gate ran the day after New Japan at the Edion Arena with The Gate of Destiny 2018 show, drawing 3,150 fans.
464
465Dragon Gate has been running one of its biggest events of the year in November at the arena dating back to 2006, and using the Gate of Destiny name since 2007. This way, by a significant margin, the smallest crowd as they had sold out the building from 2006 to 2016 before falling a little short last year.
466
467We were told that a lot of Dragon Gate fans that used to make the trip from other parts of the country were content to watch on their streaming service and it was said they don’t have enough people to make the streaming service a success, but they do have enough for it to hurt the big show business, which has fallen this year.
468
469The reports were that the show was really good, with some North American interest due to the “International dream match” with Pac (Neville) facing Flamita.
470
471The smaller crowds at the big shows clearly show the effect of losing Cima in particular, as well as T-Hawk and the other guys who left the promotion to form the Oriental Wrestling Entertainment group in Shanghai.
472
473There is also an issue with Cima gone, and with much of the top talent being older, that they have to create new younger stars. Ben K, who has only been wrestling for two years, was a prime example of this and he was pushed into the Open the Dream Gate title match against Masato Yoshino in the main event.
474
475With the promotion having started in 1999, next year is the 20th anniversary and they are looking at having a lot of big events to commemorate that.
476
4771. K-Ness & Problem Dragon beat Hollywood Stalker Ichikawa & Shachihoko Boy in 3:59 when K-Ness pinned Shachihoko Boy.
478
4792. Ryo Saito & Don Fujii & Gamma beat Punch Tominaga & Yasshi & Hyo Watanabe in 8:30 when Gamma pinned Watanabe with a sky twister press. It was a big surprise Gamma using the move since he previously would save it only for his biggest matches.
480
4813. Eita & Yasushi Kanda & Kazma Sakamoto & Daga beat Kagetora & Yosuke Santa Maria & U-T & Kota Minoura in 8:22 when Eita pinned Minoura with a superkick.
482
4834. Kzy & Susumu Yokosuka & Genki Horiguchi (Natural Vibes) retained the Open the Triangle Gate titles in a three-way elimination match over Naruki Doi & Jason Lee & Kaito Ishida and Masaaki Mochizuki & Shun Skywalker & Yuki Yoshioka. Mochizuki, Skywalker and Yoshioka were out first when Ishida pinned Yoshioka in 15:15 with a Tiger suplex. KZY then pinned Ishikawa in 18:58. Natural Vibes set the all-time record with their fifth successful title defense. This was described as a great match, with Ishida being a real standout. He’s had a lot of pressure on him of late since he’s fairly inexperienced but pushed faster because of people who hae left the promotion. He’s been shaky at times but had a great performance here. Skywalker and Yoshioka, the other two younger guys, also looked good. After the match, Saito & Fujii & Gamma came out and issued a challenge for a title match which takes place on 11/18 in Nobeoka.
484
4855. Pac pinned Flamita in 17:45 with the red arrow. This match had a number of great moves, but for those who expected a Dragon Gate style dream match, they were disappointed. The match was slower as Pac was trying to get himself over as a heel. That’s one of the things veterans do on shows where you know everyone is doing the past paced move after move style, is to slow down and try and make things matter. But then the specialized audience who comes here didn’t get the match they expected. The win set Pac up for a title shot at Masato Yoshino’s title on 12/4 at Korakuen Hall.
486
4876. Dragon Kid retained the Open the Brave Gate title over Bandido in 11:17 using the Dragonrana. Eita came out to issue a title challenge after the match. This match was said to be great and exactly what the fans wanted from the previous match. Bandido did a ton of cool offense.
488
4897. Yamato & BxB Hulk beat Big R Shimizu & Takashi Yoshida in 14:12 to retain the Open the Twin Gate titles when Yamato pinned Yoshida with a Frankensteiner. This match was also hot. People weren’t that into Shimizu and Yoshida but it had a good reaction because the fans loved Yamato & Hulk.
490
4918. Masato Yoshino retained the Open the Dream Gate title beating Ben K in 25:07 with Sol Nasciente. It was said to be Yoshino’s best title defense. Ben K looked great as a challenger. Yoshino’s years of working such a hard style are starting to slow him down, but he’s still considered the company’s best working babyface. But Ben K came out of it like a star, delivering such a great main event on a big show with that little experience on top.
492
493In what I would consider a positive surprise, Smackdown on 11/6, for a taped show going against election coverage, did almost identical numbers as the week before, doing 2,088,000 viewers (down 0.6 percent). I thought for sure it would fall under two million. The lack of gain last week after the World Series ended and lack of decline this week show that Smackdown these days has a steady and unique audience that will seem to watch no matter what.
494
495However, with all the election coverage, Smackdown fell to 24th place for the night on cable. However, all but one show that beat Smackdown was related to election coverage.
496
497The show did a 0.42 in 12-17 (same as last week), 0.48 in 18-34 (down 7.7 percent from last week) 0.88 in 35-49 (up 4.8 percent) and 0.87 in 50+ (down 7.4 percent).
498
499The audience was 61.8 percent male in 18-49 and 48.4 percent male in 12-17.
500
501Raw on 11/5 with a taped show and against a stronger football game than the prior week only dropped one percent, which to me shows live vs. tape when it comes to Raw is still not a statistically significant issue at all.
502
503Both this 11/5 and 10/29 came after PPV shows that had lower than usual general public interest, even though both shows also got far more media attention than most PPV shows.
504
505Raw averaged 2,435,000 viewers. It was in 11th place among cable shows for the night, but once again, beat everything that wasn’t football or news related.
506
507The big story was that the second hour was much stronger than the week before, but there was a huge third hour drop of 13 percent overall. Also unique, although this has been happening more-and-more, it was males tuning out and not females.
508
509The third hour was built around Kurt Angle vs. Baron Corbin for the captain position on the Raw team at Survivor Series, although later in the show the match changed to Angle vs. Drew McIntyre.
510
511In the second-to-third hour drop, the decline was ten percent in woman 18-49, 15 percent in men 18-49, girls 12-17 stayed even and boys 12-17 dropped 22 percent. The over-50 audience dropped ten percent.
512
513The first hour did 2,641,000 viewers. The second hour did 2,501,000 viewers. The third hour was the second lowest hour in the modern history of Raw with 2,181,000 viewers, beating only the third hour of the 10/1 show that did 2,081,000 viewers.
514
515The show did a 0.56 in 12-17 (up 5.7 percent from last week), 0.63 in 18-34 (down 8.8 percent), 1.05 in 35-49 (down 2.8 percent) and 0.95 in 50+ (down 1.0 percent).
516
517The audience was 63.9 percent male in 18-49 and 63.9 percent male in 12-17, so overall men were way up but also left early and women were way down but were more likely to stick with it.
518
519Impact on 11/1 did 105,000 viewers, up a little from 98,000 the week before.
520
521For Halloween night on 10/31, Total Divas on E! did 385,000 viewers, slightly lower than the 390,000 from the week before but given it was Halloween night, a slight decrease is a win.
522
523Ultimate Fighter on 10/31 actually increased over last week, doing 147,000 viewers, up from 128,000.
524
525Lucha Underground on 10/31 did 62,000 viewers, down from 80,000 the week before.
526
527This is the first issue of the current set. If you’ve got a (1) on your address label it means your subscription expires in two weeks with a single and a double issue.
528
529Renewal 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.
530
531For 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.
532
533For the U.K. only, 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.
534
535For Europe outside the U.K. and 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.
536
537You 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.
538
539All 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.
540
541All letters to the editor, reports from live shows and any other correspondence pertaining to this publication should also be sent to the above address.
542
543This 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.
544
545Fax 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
546
547CMLL: Cavernario defeated Atlantis on his 25th birthday to win the Mexican national light heavyweight title on 11/6 in Guadalajara. Atlantis, who really shouldn’t be doing long singles matches these days, as he never fully recovered from his knee injury in 2017, had held the title since beating Mephisto on August 24, 2015 in Puebla. With 1,170 days as champion, he had just last week broken the all-time longest title reign for a belt that dates back to 1942. The previous record was 1,164 days held by Raul Mata, who was a star in California in the 70s and a hell of a talent as the pioneer of the Frankensteiner (Mata rola). Mata held the title from 1969 to 1972. It was fitting because not only was it Cavernario’s birthday, but he trained and started his career at Arena Coliseo in Guadalajara, and that was all pushed in the buildup. Even though Atlantis is a living legend in Mexico, and fans are always sympathetic to legends in their 50s, the crowd was very behind Cavernario in this match
548
549The 11/2 Arena Mexico show ended up being an iPPV. The first anyone heard about it was the night before when the people who do the CMLL iPPV shows sent out an e-mail blast to people who had previously purchased a show. So one day notice on a PPV. From a number of accounts, this was one of the best shows of the year as every match ended up being good. But the iPPV didn’t have the audio for the first match. Then for the next hour, the video was a disaster going in and out. It wasn’t working until halfway through the semi-final. The micros had a strong match with Atomo & Gaillito & Microman beating Chamuel & Mije & Periko Zacarias. The match got over big and the six continue to improve rather than relying on the easy comedy spots. Rey Hechicero & Rey Bucanero & El Terrible won two straight falls over Angel de Oro & Audaz & Stuka Jr. Atlantis & El Hijo de L.A. Park & Mistico won over Cavernario & Mephisto & Ephesto. Sanson retained the Rey del Inframundo title (which is defended once a year during Halloween week) beating last week’s Cibernetico winner Templario in what was said to have been a really good match. Templario looked great with the idea he’s on the verge of taking the next step and Sanson is going to be a main event staple here for decades if he doesn’t go to WWE. Main event saw L.A. Park & Michael Elgin & Diamante Azul win over Penta 0M & King Phoenix (Rey Fenix) & Ultimo Guerrero. Azul didn’t look good, but the Elgin vs. Phoenix stuff said to be really strong as was the Penta vs. Ultimo stuff. Using the outside stars, the micros and the holiday theme led to one of the company’s biggest crowds of the year with 14,000 fans. Refunds for the iPPV weren’t offered and CMLL has still said nothing about the problems
550
551They announced the annual Leyenda de Plata tournament on 11/16 and it’s usually a two week long tournament so it’ll probably continue on 11/23. That is a tournament that is supposed to honor El Santo, except it no longer does since CMLL and El Hijo del Santo are on the outs. The 11/23 show will also honor Mascara Ano 2000
552
553The 11/9 show is headlined by Caristico & Phoenix (who won’t be there and I’m surprised he’s mentioned since he’s been booked in Poughkeepsie, NY against Kenny Omega on that date for months, although CMLL must be unaware) & Volador Jr. face Cavernario & Rush & El Terrible in the main event, plus Diamante Azul & Mistico & Valiente vs. Ultimo Guerrero & Gran Guerrero & Euforia, as well as Soberano Jr. vs. Forastero
554
555The 11/6 Arena Mexico show drew 5,000 fans, which is big for a Tuesday, for the final of the three Dia de Muertos (Day of the Dead) shows. The big match was Cuatrero retaining the CMLL middleweight title over Titan in a match called ****1/4 to ****½. They also did a trios match where Niebla Roja and Rey Bucanero came out of it challenging each other to a hair vs. hair match
556
557Fuerza Guerrera will return on the 11/12 show in Puebla in the semifinal which is something of a legends match without saying so by name as they have Atlantis & Blue Panther & Negro Casas (officially on the tecnico side for this match only) vs. Guerrera & Mephisto & Ephesto
558
559On the 11/4 Arena Mexico card, the lights went out during the main event and ended up coming back on, but the third fall of the main event was wrestled in the dark
560
561There were reports that a hair vs. hair match at Arena San Juan for the FILLM promotion with Ultimo Guerrero vs. Corsario Negro Jr., where obviously Guerrero won, was among the year’s best matches in Mexico City. Both men bled, which they don’t do anymore at Arena Mexico.
562
563AAA: Similar to WWE, AAA has reached a deal with Facebook Live for a weekly two-hour Wednesday night show. The show debuted on 10/31, and in typical fashion here, it was announced at the last minute. It will be a show with four singles matches in some sort of a tournament, with the finals airing on 12/19. They tape at a restaurant. The first week saw Vanilla beat Hiedra in a slow match. Pagano pinned Taurus. Psycho Clown pinned Murder Clown after code red. Main event saw Pentagon Jr. beat Puma King with a package piledriver. The show is two hours in length with some decently long gaps between the matches. It’s at www.facebook.com/luchalibreaaa
564
565Juventud Guerrera is gone. He said he was unhappy with how he was being used and wanted to be booked stronger, and talked about how he wanted the heavyweight title. We were told that he did what Juventud Guerrera always does
566
567A correction from last week. We wrote at a recent taping that Halloween and Miedo Extremo attacked Pagano. It was actually Miedo Extremo and Ciclope. Now Halloween and Ciclope were the same guy, but this Ciclope is believed to be the Ciclope from the DTU group who is a different guy.
568
569THE CRASH: The company ran its anniversary show on 11/3 in Tijuana, drawing 4,500 fans. The show featured a ton of multiple person matches for championships. In the opener, it was an all action young guys match which included the referee doing a dive. The cruiserweight title match that went on second was according to our reports, the best match on the show with Xperia winning the title over Torito Negro in a match that also included Baby Star, Tiago and Rayo Star. Lots of great athleticism and at a high pace. Rayo Star may have injured his leg on a dive that went into the crowd, but still lost to a top rope Spanish fly by Xperia. Torito Negro had to be helped to the back as well. Not sure multiple guys being hurt is a good thing. Templario from CMLL looked good but his three-way with Oraculo and Extasis, won by Oraculo, was not good. Douglas James was supposed to be in the match but he also was injured. Mecha Wolf 450 won another strong match over Shane Strickland, Austin Theory and Rey Horus. Strickland and Horus worked great together. Mecha Wolf was originally in the tag title match but moved to this match because Jacob Fatu wasn’t there. Wolf pinned Strickland after a suspended penalty kick. The women’s title match saw Tessa Blanchard retain over Keira Hogan, Lluvia and Lady Flammer. The match was said to be a mess. Hogan didn’t get the Lucha Libre and Lluvia and Flammer aren’t that good. Blanchard carried it. She got a big pop coming out so they see her as a star here. She pinned Hogan. Christi Jaynes then came out to challenge Blanchard for the title. In an elimination match for the vacant tag titles, Penta 0M & Rey Fenix won over Reno Scum and the New Generation Dinamitas of Sanson & Cuatrero from CMLL. Match was said to be great. Adam Thornstowe, who suffered a torn biceps right when Reno Scum was getting started with Impact in April 2017, tore the other biceps in this match. So it looks like he’ll be out of action for several months. The Dinamitas beat Reno Scum in the first fall and it turned into the Lucha Brothers vs. Dinamitas with hard chops. Penta used the package piledriver on Cuatrero for the pin. The crowd was really into it. Crash then gave Penta & Fenix plaques for being the modern wrestlers who best represent Lucha Libre all over the world. They brought their parents, wives and kids to the show and they all got in the ring and played a video package of them from the start of their careers as opening match guys. They aired no AAA footage. This is notable because Crash had previously advertised Fenix and continued to do so even when they knew he wouldn’t be there for another show, and Fenix had said he would never work there again. Then on this show Crash gave him a lifetime achievement award with he and his brothers’ family in attendance. Then, for the heavyweight title that was vacated when Rey Mysterio Jr. went to WWE without returning to drop it, Willie Mack won a four-way over Barbaro Cavernario, Michael Elgin and Mesias. Good action, but short. Mack and Cavernario did some comedy. Elgin and Mesias did good big man stuff. Mack pinned Elgin after a stunner, which made the most sense since Mack works more for this group than the other three. People weren’t ready for the finish, plus, with the previous bout being an elimination match, fans thought this was one as well. Bestia 666 beat Garza Jr. in the hair match main event. Very good match. Garza hasn’t been working much, as he’s trying to heal his shoulder so he can hopefully get another shot at WWE and pass medicals. Garza got some bottles, broke them and cut up Bestia with the jagged edges. The crowd was super into the blood. Bestia made Garza bleed. They used chairs and tons of near falls before Bestia used an armbar. They sold he was working over Garza’s bad shoulder so Garza tapped out. Crowd was very hot for the finish. The two then claimed they were part of the best faction in Mexico. Garza then asked Bestia to cut his pony tail, and he did.
570
571DRAGON GATE: They ran Korakuen Hall on 11/6 and sold out with 1,665 fans, so they are the only group besides New Japan regularly selling the place out now. The main event was a four-corners trios match where the team of Pac (Neville) & Big R Shimizu & Ben K won over Kzy & Susumu Yokosuka & Genki Horiguchi, Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino & Jason Lee and Yamato & BxB Hulk& Flamita. Flamita pinned Horiguchi to eliminate that team. Shimizu pinned Hulk with a shot put slam to leave Shimizu’s team vs. Lee’s team, and Pac pinning Lee with the black arrow (the move called the red arrow in WWE) I 38:08. They used debuted a new wrestler called Dragon Dia, who teamed with Dragon Kid to lose to Eita & Yasushi Kanda. They held a Don Fujii homecoming show on 10/28 in Mie before 855 fans. Fujii worked the main event teaming with veterans Masaaki Mochizuki & Magnitude Kishiwada to beat Ben K & Yasushi Kanda & Keisuke Okuda. Okuda is a DDT wrestler who also has an 0-2 MMA record. Fujii got the pin with the Gedo clutch on Kanda in 13:15.
572
573ALL JAPAN: They ran the Lucha Fiesta tour this past week, which is notable for lack of Mexican talent. The foreigners used were Sam Adonis, who is Corey Graves’ brother and was a CMLL star, but he’s from Pittsburgh, as the top foreign star, Ultimo Panda, who is Lucha Underground’s Vinny Massaro who is from Northern California, Dylan James, an All Japan regular, Super Crazy, who is a legit lucha star from the 90s, Super Ciudadano, who I don’t know, and Diamante. Ultimo Dragon put this together. The 11/3 show at Korakuen Hall did 1,370 fans, which is a good crowd by modern standards for an All Japan show without major title matches or anything. They did have a TV title match with Tajiri defending against Crazy to reprise their old ECW feud, which went to a double pin draw in 14:46. The main event was Ultimo Dragon & Super Ciudadano & Mr. Pachuca over Adonis (who was pushed as the top foreign star) & Diamante & James
574
575On 11/5 in Nagoya, Ultimo Dragon retained his Pro Wrestling Revolution (The Northern California based lucha promotion run by Gabe Ramirez) title pinning Adonis with la magistral.
576
577NEW JAPAN: The first group of names announced for the Giant Baba Memorial show on 2/19 at Sumo Hall are Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kento Miyahara, Naomichi Marufuji, Jun Akiyama, Daisuke Sekimoto, Great Kojika (Now 76, the last guy standing of the guys who started their careers in the 60s in the JWA when Baba first became a headliner), Takao Omori, Taichi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru and Tomoaki Honma
578
579Tetsuya Naito in an interview with Tokyo Sports said that he received an offer from WWE after the Dominion show in June. If you’re looking for a time-line, that would be the show that when Chris Jericho told Vince McMahon he was doing it, McMahon then called him back and claimed the Prince of Saudi Arabia had asked for Rusev to take Jericho’s place in the casket match with Undertaker and pulled him from the match (which was no big deal in the big picture since Jericho got the same $100,000 pay for doing the Rumble). Naito said, “I didn’t even give it thought. This New Japan ring is already the world’s No. 1 stage. The fans know this. That’s why I think we should focus on our home crowd before looking international.” Naito would be one of the three (at least) Japanese top guys feelers have been sent to. The other two that we’re aware of didn’t turn the offers down without thought although one would be a huge surprise and the other would be a great worker who I didn’t see flourishing in the WWE system, but also probably wouldn’t have any reservations about moving to the U.S. like many of the Japanese might
580
581Due to a contractual issue, Jim Ross will be off the AXS show from 12/31 to 3/31, which means the Tokyo Dome show. The basic gist is that in 2017, when WWE was doing everything to try and circumvent the ITV launch of World of Sport, WWE made Ross a huge offer to return and do special events. Because Ross was already under contract to AXS until the end of 2017, that was part of the deal that he would be able to honor the existing contract, so you had a guy working for the two leading companies in the world, which were enemies, in the same U.S. market, at the same time. WWE ended up not using Ross on television but did use him for the Mae Young Classic and the U.K. tournament in 2017, and he was announced as the host of the U.K. show, which was long delayed. This year they ended up not using him for either the Mae Young Classic or the U.K. show, and another notable sign was that he wasn’t invited to the 1,000th episode of Smackdown, while Jerry Lawler was. However, WWE, and Vince McMahon personally, gave Ross the okay to sign for 2018 to continue with New Japan on AXS so he was able to sign a one-year deal. As noted earlier, things changed when Ross was offered the spot as analyst for Quintet, Kazushi Sakuraba’s submission tournament on UFC Fight Pass, and WWE would not allow him to do it. Then, likely having to do with the MSG sellout, WWE wouldn’t allow him to sign a new deal with AXS. His WWE contract expires on 3/31. Right now the belief is that he will then sign a new deal with AXS when he’s legally able to as a free agent, although it’s always possible WWE will make a big offer to try and keep him from doing so. But right now the belief is that he will be done with WWE at the end of his two-year deal. He has already gone with the idea he’s writing his second book in 2019 with Paul O’Brien
582
583Just for a clarification on this since it comes up from time-to-time. In Japan, and this goes for most of the companies, as well as for Mexico, with most of the companies, championships can change hands via DQ or count out. The title not changing hands via DQ was unique to the U.S. and it started on March 22, 1955 after the world title dispute where Leo Nomellini beat Lou Thesz via DQ at the Cow Palace in San Francisco to end Thesz’s 936 match undefeated streak. The idea behind it was that with Nomellini being one of the biggest stars at the time in the NFL, that it would create a big issue and with communication being what it was, that for a little bit of time they could not only book Thesz as world champion but also book Nomellini as champion. Nomellini defended the NWA world title from that period through late May, mostly in Northern California, but also in Texas, Indiana and Tennessee. At the end of May, Sam Muchnick ruled that the world title could not change hands if there was a disqualification in the deciding fall. Decades earlier, Henri DeGlane beat Strangler Lewis in Montreal in a double-cross finish when the Montreal ref DQ’d Lewis and DeGlane got the world title, but this was before the National Wrestling Alliance days. What’s notable was during that period, Thesz all defended in Texas and Salt Lake City. The double-dipping ended in late May when Thesz returned to Northern California as champion, but he never worked with Nomellini who was the big star. Muchnick, who always wanted ultimate credibility of the championship, then booked Thesz to beat Nomellini on July 15, 1955, in St. Louis, which some have called a unification match, but it was not billed as such at the time, only the rematch of the controversial San Francisco match. At some point, and I’m not sure where this started but it was the case during Bruno Sammartino’s first run in the 60s, the WWWF had it that a title could only change hands via pin or submission. This allowed WWWF to have Sammartino regularly losing via DQ, count out or blood stoppage to build to no DQ matches, no stopping for cuts or blood matches, cage matches or Texas death matches. Other promotions frequently used count outs and blood stoppages, but no DQ’s, for title changes through the 70s. In the 80s, as WWF became the big group, all the old WWWF rules were put in place in most of North America and many places in the world copied them. The other difference was also that most places had 20 counts outside the ring (which Japan still has) while WWF would have ten counts because they liked to book fluky count out wins whereas other places wanted longer counts so if they did a count out win it would be more dramatic as opposed to out of nowhere. What’s notable is Revolution Pro, which is pretty much a New Japan affiliate, uses the WWE rules for titles. But in New Japan, the titles can change via DQ or count out, even though they never did it. Years ago I suggested to TNA about having the rule that the title could change via DQ or count out, thus you couldn’t do the cheap hitting the ref finishes or title saving DQ finishes or walk-outs with the idea the rules aren’t so stupid and outdated. The other part was that while titles could change hands that way, you’d never ever actually do it. So they had that rule for years, and then they forgot, and did a title saving DQ finish on a show and their fans reminded them they had that rule, so then they just dropped the rule. Kevin Kelly noted that he never brings up that count out rule in commentary because there’s no point, because it makes the psychology of the babyface challenger throwing the dead heel challenger in the ring rather than take the count out title win look stupid and it makes no sense
584
585Don Callis will be returning as an announcer during at least once during the tag tournament before the Tokyo Dome show. That was announced during Power Struggle
586
587Flash magazine reported that Taka Michinoku has been having an affair for the past eight years. While such a thing would mean nothing in the U.S., Japan is a different culture. In Japan such things are frowned on if they become public, and if it’s a Japanese wrestler. If it’s an American, nobody would care. Michinoku has already publicly apologized.
588
589OTHER JAPAN NOTES: Takeshi Morishima, 40, who at one point was thought to be one of the biggest stars of the current generation, but never reached that status for a number of reasons having to do with health and injuries, was arrested this past week. Morishima, who retired due to both health issues and physical condition issues in 2015, was arrested for allegedly attacking a taxi driver at 11:30 p.m. on 11/4 in the Kabukicho section of Tokyo. The driver, whose name is not known, was reported as seriously injured with cheekbone injuries after Morishima refused to pay an 18,000 yen ($159) fare and allegedly punched him in the face. Morishima was originally to make a comeback on 10/15 after three years out, but due to battling sepsis and undergoing surgery, his return was delayed until early 2019. This story ended up making mainstream news, including being covered on the TV-Asahi evening newscast. The belief is because Japan is so much about honor, that this story will prevent him from coming back to wrestling any time soon. Morishima at one point was being groomed to be the top star at NOAH, a 300 plus pounder who could move like a Terry Gordy (who he greatly resembled). To give him credibility, they sent him to ROH to become champion there and he had a tremendous series of matches with Bryan Danielson, including the 2007 Match of the Year award winner. Tokyo Sports ran a piece on Morishima saying that he had been living a sad life since his retirement, with stories that he was working as a live-in employee at a restaurant and that some days he didn’t even change his clothes, and was drinking heavily. It was noted that he was not drinking on the night of his arrest. It said that in the Shinjuku and Yotsuya sections of Tokyo he was frequently seen bumming money off fans or wrestlers and many businesses in the area didn’t want him around their premises. He would act like a star, show up in bars in a taxi and try to get the patrons in the bar to pay the taxi charges, and claimed he once did the same thing at an independent show where he showed up with a 500 yen taxi charge (less than $6) and tried to get a younger wrestler on the show to pay it
590
591Momo Watanabe & Utami Hayashishita captured Stardom’s tag team tournament beating Bea Priestley & Chardonnay in the finals on 11/4 in Fukuoka when Hayashishita made Chardonnay submit to a backbreaker. The finals drew 330 fans. Prior to the finals, Priestley & Chardonnay ended up with eight points to win the red block beating Session Moth Martina & Natsu Sumire when Priestley pinned Martina after the curb stomp. In the red block, Kagetsu & Hazuki Kagetsu could have tied, but they lost next to Konami & AZM. Then Jungle Kyona & Natsuko Tora also could have tied with a win, but they did a double knockout so that put them out of the running. In the blue block, Watanabe & Hayashishita beat Hana Kimura & Mary Apache to move to eight points. Mayu Iwatani & Saki Kashima were at six points, so they’d have hit eight with a win over Starlight Kid & Natsumi, but Kid & Natsumi held them for 15:00 to a draw
592
593Maki Ito won a Royal Rumble style match on the 11/4 Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling show to set up a match withy Miyu Yamashita for the Princess of Princess championship in the main event of their 1/4 show at Korakuen Hall. TJPW always does an afternoon shw at Korakuen Hall right before New Japan’s Tokyo Dome show (Korakuen Hall and the Tokyo Dome are in the same complex and almost right next to each other; All Japan women always ran that date and it was a deal where you’d see a major women’s show at Noon and then rush to the Dome)
594
595Dezmond Xavier, Zachary Wentz and Trey Miguel are coming to DDT for its 11/25 show at Korakuen Hall to face Kudo & Shunme Katsumata & Kazusada Higuchi. Xavier & Wentz had been working with Dragon Gate. The show also features former Dragon Gate legend Cima & Lindaman vs. Harashima & Kazuki Hirata. Maki Ito has an intergender match with Konosuke Takeshita for Ito’s hardcore 24/7 title, and Daisuke Sasaki defends the KO-D title in the main event against Masahiro Takanashi, who won the fans voting for a title shot.
596
597HERE AND THERE: With the two-hour Ultima Lucha show airing on 11/7 as the end of season four, everything with Lucha Underground on El Rey is in a holding pattern. El Rey this past week named Mauricio Rios as its new Vice President of programming and acquisitions, replaces Dan Kozlowski, who was the guy who made the call to continue to keep Lucha Underground around. After the third season, when some of the original investors opted out, El Rey funded them but they had to tape in a short period of time and with a much lower budget. The feeling is that the show would continue with the smaller budget as long as El Rey wanted it, and with Kozlowski, it was thought to be safe. Now with a new person in charge, nobody knows what is happening. In what sounds positive, El Rey under Rios plans to double the amount of original programming hours. Rios comes from the director or programming and scheduling for Telemundo’s Unvierso channel, and had also worked for NBCUniversal, Fox Latin America and had worked on Comcast/NBC t provide guidance for programming of channels in Latin America, South Korea, Israel and Canada
598
599Danny Sammartino, one of the twin sons of Bruno Sammartino, passed away on 11/6. Sammartino was 50. He was hospitalized for more than a month and in ICU with intense back pain. He had been up and walking for the past two weeks and was to be transferred to a rehab center and was scheduled for open heart surgery in December. He collapsed and doctors tried to revive him for two-and-a-half hours. According to family friend Chris Cruise, Sammartino had a very kind heart and loved wrestling as much as his father did, which was a lot. Sammartino had worked as a barber for decades and he opened up his own shop in North Hills, PA called “The Barber’s Edge,” in 2012, which had a sports memorabilia theme
600
601The Northeast Wrestling show on 11/9 in Poughkeepsie headlined by Kenny Omega vs. Rey Fenix, had a nearly $100,000 advance more than a week out, which would be one of the best gates for an independent show in history, and easily the biggest ever at the Mid Hudson Civic Center, a regular WWE stop since the beginning of time. The show will air live on the Highspots streaming service. Other top matches on the show are Brad Hollister defending the NEW title against PCO, Penta 0M vs. Darby Allin, Jack Swagger vs. Rob Van Dam, Jerry Lawler vs. Brian Anthony no DQ, plus a ladder match and appearances by Mick Foley, Scott Hall, and more
602
603Add Dragon Gate to the list of promotions running WrestleMania week in New York. They’ll be part of WrestleCon and have a show at the Hilton, which Midtown, which is the WrestleCon headquarters
604
605MLW has maybe he deepest show in its history for the 11/8 tapings at Cicero Stadium in the Chicago area, with Pentagon Jr. & Fenix (since they work with AAA they are allowed to use the Pentagon name) defending their tag titles against L.A. Park & El Hijo de L.A. Park, managed by Salina de la Renta, Low Ki vs. Shane Strickland for their world title, Tom Lawlor vs. Sammy Guevara in a street fight, Rush (as in the CMLL star) vs. Sammy Guevara, Tommy Dreamer vs. Brian Pillman Jr., PCO vs. Brody King no DQ, Joey Ryan & Swoggle vs; The Dirty Blondes, Teddy Hart vs. Jason Cade, Ace Romero vs. Marko Stunt, MJF vs. Puma King, a Simon Gotch $10,000 challenge, Trey Miguel vs. Kotto Brazil and Ace Austin vs. Myron Reed
606
607Bryan Alvarez, my broadcast partner, did an angle with Marko Stunt with Black Label Pro Wrestling in Crown Point, IN on 11/3. The two had a singles match with both chopping the hell out of each other to the point each man’s chest was destroyed. The match was said to be brutal between the two, with Alvarez winning with a superkick. Stunt went to shake hands with him after, but Alvarez gave him another kick and chop and was punching him on the ground. Alvarez then issued a challenge for a show on 4/5, which is WrestleMania week, in Jersey City, NJ on the Black Label Pro show for that week, where he would team with Tom Lawlor against Stunt and any partner he could get. Since Lawlor is an MMA fighter, the situation calls for someone either thought of like a badass or a legit fighter to make it work. There were people trying to get Shinya Aoki, the Japanese MMA superstar, in the match but the belief was that politically won’t work since Aoki is already booked for Mania weekend with DDT and the belief was would only be allowed to work for DDT and WWN shows
608
609Vanessa Kraven, who was in the Mae Young Classic and was one of the taller and bigger women wrestlers in North America, had surgery on a broken leg on 11/2 after an injury on 10/27. She’s out for the rest of the year
610
611Evolve this coming weekend runs in Livonia, MI, on 11/9, with Fabian Aichner vs. Kassius Ohno for the Evolve title, The Street Profits defend the Evolve tag titles against JD Drake & Anthony Henry, Allysin Kay vs. Shotzi Blackheart for the Shine title, DJZ vs. Mustafa Ali, AR Fox vs. Austin Theory, Harlem Bravado vs. Jason Kincaid vs. Josh Briggs vs. Leon Ruff and more. They run 11/10 in Oak Lawn, IL, with Street Profits vs.; Fox & Ruff, Drake vs Theory vs. Harlem Bravado for the WWN title, Ali vs. Darby Allin, Ohno vs. Shane Strickland, Aichner vs. Henry, and more
612
613WrestleCon announced a 4/5 show at 11 a.m. with a USA vs. The World theme. That isn’t the WrestleCon Supershow
614
615 
616
617EUROPE: The fact we’ve heard nothing about World of Sport or another set of tapings at this point I don’t consider as good news. Logic would say if the product was working with synergy, that you’d have a second season on the air by January to promote the house show tour directly, and to do that, you’d probably have to announce a taping imminently. Also, the advances for the house show tour have not been good. If the idea was to see if touring would draw well and merchandise deals would make it good for ITV, as owners, to keep it going, probably in a weaker time slot, then this news isn’t good either. The tour dates are 1/18 to 2/3. The 1/20 show in Bornemouth was canceled this week. The 1/27 show in Aberdeen, Scotland was moved from a 5,000 seat arena, the Exhibition and Conference Centre, to the Beach Ballroom, which only holds 1,000.
618
619ROH: The Final Battle card for 12/14 at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York looks to be Jay Lethal vs. Cody for the ROH title, Jeff Cobb vs. Hangman Page for the TV title, a ladder match for the tag titles with Frankie Kazarian & Scorpio Sky defending against The Young Bucks and the Briscoes, Jonathan Gresham vs. Zack Sabre Jr. in a submission match, Christopher Daniels vs. Marty Scurll, Matt Taven vs. Dalton Castle, Bully Ray vs. Flip Gordon and a four-way match for the Women of Honor title with Sumie Sakai defending. Madison Rayne will be one of the other three. It’s interesting because the last PPV ended with the idea of Lethal vs. Taven as the big program for Final Battle. So either Cody is leaving and putting Lethal over on the way out, and he is a free agent right now, or they do a Vince McMahon surprise and make a deal in the end. Still, the Kingdom (Taven & Vinny Marseglia & TK O’Ryan) won the six-man titles from the Young Bucks & Cody on 11/4 in Columbus, OH
620
621The subject of ROH was brought up at the third quarter Sinclair investors call. CEO Chris Ripley was asked about spending on the promotion and said, “Beyond tennis, we really haven’t spent significant dollars on content, and Ring of Honor, I think, we bought it for a couple hundred thousand dollars. And we think that’s an unpolished gem that ultimately should be something in the same light as WWE. We actually sold out Madison Square Gardens for an event next year in 11 minutes. So, we know that that brand has potential. It’s just, it hasn’t, we haven’t quite found the right dials to turn yet. But we keep increasing the grass roots support on it and it has just a very very loyal and avid fan base which is what you really need to explode the brand.” That’s very interesting because the key players people bought tickets expecting for that MSG sellout are seemingly playing out their contracts right now and ROH being owned by Sinclair is still in more of a drivers seat with established TV and an established organization and a larger company backing them than New Japan. New Japan are their business partners anyway, and any third party other than WWE. “Being the Elite” seems to indicate those guys are not expecting to end up in WWE next year. If the goal is to grow it like WWE you can’t lose the most over talent and also have to get more aggressive as far as expanding all facets both on the talent and office side
622
623We don’t have anything as far as details of the Pittsburgh tapings but the taping was designed to build the aforementioned matches and give them all storylines. The Pittsburgh show drew 750 fans and Survival of the Fittest in Columbus, OH, drew 700. The crowds were hot and they were near full, but these same buildings had been doing sellouts previously
624
625Rush from CMLL won’t be at Final Battle, but will debut on 12/16 at the TV tapings in Philadelphia
626
627They have four shows over the next week that will feature New Japan talent and air live on Honor Club. There is an 11/7 show in Lewiston, ME that has already taken place by the time you read this. The 11/8 show in Lowell, MA is at 7:30 p.m. Eastern has Jay Lethal & Jonathan Gresham vs Kushida & Chris Sabin vs. Young Bucks vs. T.K. O’Ryan & Vinny Marseglia, Tetsuya Naito vs. Hangman Page, Jay Briscoe vs. Scorpio Sky, Jeff Cobb vs. Christopher Daniels (non-title), Bully Ray & Silas Young vs. Evil & Sanada, Cody vs. Mark Briscoe non-title, Frankie Kazarian vs. Flip Gordon, Bushi vs. Matt Taven and Beer City Bruiser & Brian Milonas vs. Juice Robinson & Dalton Castle. 11/9 in Buffalo at 7:30 p.m. Eastern has Lethal vs. Sabin non-title, Kushida vs. Gresham vs. Gordon vs. Bushi non-title, Page & Cody vs. Briscoes vs.; Baretta & Chuckie T, Young Bucks vs. Naito & Sanada, Cobb vs. Evil non-title, Young vs. Robinson, O’Ryan vs. Castle and The Boys vs. Taven & Marseglia. 11/11 in Toronto at 7 p.m. at the Mattamy Athletic Centre (the old location of the Maple Leaf Gardens) has Lethal vs. Kenny King for the ROH title, Cody vs. Baretta for the U.S. title, Kazarian & Scorpio Sky vs. Evil Uno & Stu Grayson, the Super Smash Brothers, for the ROH tag titles and Bushi & Naito vs. Robinson & Castle. Unlike in the past when New Japan would send far more top stars and these events would all sell out, none of the events are sold out at press time. Buffalo is expected to come close or sell out and Lowell and Toronto should do decently well, while Lewiston is disappointing as far as the advance goes
628
629Being the Elite this week was all about the Jericho cruise. Jericho posed with the cast members and said that even though we hate each other on TV, we’re really good friends in real life, which came off like a spoof of Stephanie McMahon’s saying how she’s just plays a villain on television. The Young Bucks noted that with bringing their families (wives, kids and parents) that they purchased 15 plane tickets to get there and this would be a “red” (money losing) trip for them. They made an announcement on the Cruise that Young Bucks and Omega are no longer the only members of the Elite, but that Cody, Marty Scurll and Hangman Page are as well, which stems from them no longer being Bullet Club. The show ended with a skit where a guy (Kazarian) dressed up as HHH with a leather jacket, spitting water and holding a sledge hammer showed up to haunt Cody in his dream
630
631Scurll won the Survival of the Fittest tournament on the 11/4 show in Columbus, OH, which sets him up for a future ROH title match. Keep in mind that unlike the rest of the Elite group, Scurll is here for much of 2019. They opened with six qualifying matches for the finals. Daniels pinned Beer City Bruiser with the best moonsault ever. Page won a three-way over Colin Delaney and Castle with the rites of passage on Delaney. Castle is still really hurting, with his back and thigh all wrapped up and he’s working in a T-shirt. Gresham beat debuting Tracy Williams via submission. Guerrero Maya Jr. won over Gordon and Andrew Everett when Maya pinned Everett with a double arm shoulderbreaker. Bully Ray came out and Gordon went after him with a dive to the floor where Bully punched him on the way down and Gordon took a terrible bump. PJ Black pinned Luchasaurus after Luchasaurus missed a shooting star press. Scurll beat Young and Stuka Jr. when he pinned Stuka after the graduation. Then came non-tournament matches. Madison Rayne pinned Dr. Britt Baker with a kick to the chest to get into the four-way at Final Battle. The Kingdom beat Young Bucks & Cody in the six man tag title match with two referees. Both refs were down. O’Ryan beat the Bucks & Cody with baseball bats and used rockstar supernova on Cody. A woman in a ref shirt all hidden ran down to make the count, stopped at two, then took off her baseball cap and showed he was Brandi Rhodes and flipped the Kingdom off. After a series of superkicks, Cody used crossroads on O’Ryan and Brandi counted the fall to apparently retain the title as Cody’s music played. Then Paul Turner and Todd Sinclair, the original refs started talking and it was announced that Brandi is not a referee. Taven went after Cody, and in doing so, knocked out Brandi. Cody went to help his wife and Taven laid out Cody, who had Brandi in his arms so Brandi took another bump. The other two laid out Matt Jackson with the House of a Thousand Horses for the pin. In the battle of champions, singles champ Lethal & TV champ Cobb beat tag champs Kazarian & Scorpio Sky. The Briscoes came out and Jay threw a chair to hit Sky in the head of the head and knocked him out. Cobb then hit the tour of the islands on Kazarian for the pin. The six-way with Daniels, Page, Gresham, Maya Jr., Black and Scurll first saw Black pin Maya after a power bomb and jackknife cradle. Page pinned Gresham with the Rites of passage. Scurll pinned Black. Daniels pinned Page with the STO and best moonsault ever. Scurll then quickly hit the graduation to pin Daniels
632
633The first night of the Global Wars tour was 11/7 in Lewiston, ME. Ryan Nova pinned Anthony Green with a running knee in 4:30. Green got a good reaction because he’s an area independent wrestler. Gordon pinned Eli Isom in 8:01 after a TKO in a good action-packed match. Kazarian & Scorpio Sky won a non-title match over Beer City Bruiser & Brian Milonas in 8:45 when Milonas was pinned after a double-team power bomb off the middle rope. Both teams toasted each other and drank beer together after the mach. The crowd was int it from pre-match promos and SCU kept the match moving well. Kazarian did a HHH pose with his arms out and spit beer in the air because Kazarian played HHH in ths week’s Being the Elite show when HHH was stalking Cody. Cobb pinned Cheeseburger in a non-title match in 6:23 after tour of the islands. Crowd was into both guys. The Kingdom won a non-title match over Dalton Castle & The Boys in 9:19 in a mostly comedy match. One of the Boys put on a Freddy Kruger shirt and acted like he had a claw for a hand. The crowd was into it. Briscoes beat Page & Cody in 16:30 when Jay used a Jay driller and Mark followed with the elbow off the top on Page. Three minutes into the match the power went out. The crowd tired to keep the ring lit using their phones. The lights came on a few minutes later. Best match of the shw with good heat and good near falls. Juice Robinson pinned Daniels in 12:10 after pulp friction. Good match. Daniels raised Robinson’s hand after the match. Bully Ray & Young beat Young Bucks in 16:30 when Young pinned Matt after two TKOs. Bully Ray yelled at the crowd for heat. The power went out again during this match near the finish which hurt the momentum of the match. Solid match but the crowd was stunned the Bucks lost. Tetsuya Naito & Evil & Sanada & Bushi beat Lethal & Gresham & Chris Sabin & Kushida in 16:40 when Naito pinned Gresham after a destino. Lots of action and very good match. Naito and Cody were seen as the biggest stars
634
635Madison Rayne did an interview with a CBS Sports affiliate about WWE and saying everything was positive from her standpoint from her tryout and doing the Mae Young Classic and it was exciting for her so many years into her career to have been able to wrestle in WWE. She said that when she decided what company would be best for her, she felt ROH, but also made it clear that it wasn’t like WWE offered her something and she turned it down. She said she was up-front about living in Columbus, OH, and that she wouldn’t move from there. She has a home, a husband (Josh Matthews) and she’s a mother and she wasn’t willing to move to Orlando, and unless you’re the very rare exception, you have to move to Orlando and be a regular at the Performance Center to get a start in WWE. She noted that being a mother and a wife was far more important to her. She said she made it clear at the start and never wanted any gray area of misinterpretation and that she was not willing to relocate for that job and that probably settled whether or not she would have been offered a contract.
636
637IMPACT: One thing notable when Impact moved to 10 p.m. on Pop was that The Fight Network in Canada also moved its time back. The Fight Network bought Impact in the first place because it was its second highest rated programming behind UFC, as a way to keep it alive. But there must have been something in the contract with Pop that didn’t allow the show to air anywhere in the world before it aired on Pop, because otherwise it makes no sense for The Fight Network to move its key owned property out of a good time slot
638
639They announced a WrestleMania week show working with Amazing Red’s House of Glory promotion on 4/4 called Culture Clash that will stream live on Twitch
640
641They are taping 11/11 to 11/13 in Las Vegas at Sam’s Town, which ROH used to run and draw 800 to 900 fans. ROH would sell it out for PPV shows but the second day ROH usually didn’t, and Impact is doing a Sunday through Tuesday set of tapings. They are pushing the tapings locally around Johnny Impact being on the current season of Survivor and that Kevin Kross is from Las Vegas and works as a bodyguard for well known celebrities
642
643Nobody at this point seems to know what this means, but on the 11/1 Impact TV show, there was an Arolucha TV commercial and it read “Arolucha: Coming in 2019.” People seemed to think it being on Pop TV meant that Arolucha debuts on the station next year, but the commercial never specifically stated it was coming to Pop
644
645Anthem, the parent company of Impact, filed a motion on 11/1 attempting to dismiss the lawsuit filed by Jeff Jarrett in Tennessee against the company over the usage of the Global Wrestling Federation tapes by Anthem for both One Night Only PPVs and in other forms. One of their arguments is that Tennessee courts should have no jurisdiction over a company that is based in Canada and does all its business out of Canada. They also said that when Jeff Jarrett was brought back, he signed a non-disclosure agreement that any disagreements between the sides would have to be tried in New York, not Tennessee. They also claimed that it was Jarrett, as Chief Creative Officer, who made the decision to use the content that he’s now suing the company over using and that the company made no profits from usage of the tapes. They said that Jarrett had negotiated a deal where Global Wrestling Federation would merge with Anthem Sports, and with the merger Jarrett would get a major power position with a large salary, and that part of the deal also included Jarrett getting an ownership piece of Anthem and his wife, Karen, getting a job. Part of the deal was that Anthem would attempt to monetize the GWF tapes that Jarrett had produced in Las Vegas years earlier but had never been able to sell. Anthem claimed they did voicovers and post-production work to get the tapes in shape for broadcast and they also packaged the content for DVD release and to sell it on-line. As part of the merger they also started up a streaming service called the Global Wrestling Network. They said that the merger didn’t work out, Jarrett was terminated in October, 2017, and the usage of the Global Wrestling Federation Amped content did not turn a profit. They noted that all the PPVs but one using the Global content came when Jarrett was with the company and the one that came after had already been scheduled when Jarrett was still working for the company.
646
647UFC: Javier Mendez did an interview with Submission Radio about both Khabib Nurmagomedov and Cain Velasquez. He said that the fight he’s been hearing about for Nurmagomedov in a boxing match with Floyd Mayweather and not an MMA fight with GSP. While Nurmagomedov would have little or no chance against Mayweather in boxing, and the reverse would also be true, he said e would be fine because this is prize fighting. When asked if he’d rather Nurmagomedov faced GSP or Mayweather, he said Mayweather, because there’s a big difference between a $10 million payoff and a $100 million payoff. Tony Ferguson’s name never came up. As far as Velasquez goes, he said Velasquez has been ready to fight for a year but he and UFC haven’t seen eye-to-eye on money. He also said he knows that UFC has been shopping the idea of selling his contract. I could see Bellator interested, but not sure how open their checkbook is, and even more ONE, with all its cash on hand I can see even more
648
649Nurmagomedov has one fight left on his contract, which is notable with the different companies right now that are throwing crazy money at people
650
651Sage Northcutt, whose UFC contract expired with his last fight in July, is expected at a ONE press conference on 11/9, so that would hint at him having gotten a big offer there. Right now when the money is new is the time to get the best offers and people shouldn’t sleep on it, because this may not last forever. But right now for money reasons, it is infinitely better financially to be a fairly marketable MMA fighter than a pro wrestler at the same level
652
653This week’s show is the 25th anniversary card from Denver’s Pepsi Center on 11/10. The first UFC show in history was November 12, 1993 in Denver at McNichols Arena (an arena that was demolished in 2000 so they couldn’t go back there), and the live event promoter was Zane Bresloff, in secret, since he was still working for WWF and they didn’t know it. But it’s not a special show at all, just a regular Saturday night TV card. That’s the positive of WWE over UFC, as WWE’s 25th anniversary of Raw was promoted for weeks, stars were brought back, and it did its biggest rating in years. Now, I’m not advocating two buildings or a crappy show with bad vignettes, but a 25th anniversary really does come once in a lifetime and I don’t think this will even get one million viewers. The show opens with Fight Pass at 6:30 p.m. Eastern with Mark De La Rosa (10-1) vs.; Jordan Espinosa (13-5), Eric Shelton (11-5) vs. Joseph Morales (9-1) and Davi Ramos (8-2) vs. John Gunther (5-0). The rest of the show is on FS 1 starting at 8 p.m. with Devonte Smith (8-1) vs. Julian Erosa (22-5), Thiago Moises (11-2) vs. Beneil Dariush (14-4-1), Chas Skelly (17-3) vs.; Bobby Moffett (13-3), Ashley Yoder (5-4) vs. Amanda Bobby Cooper (3-4), Mike Trizano (7-0) vs. Luis Pena (3-0), Hannah Cifers (8-2) vs. Maycee Barber (5-0), Germaine de Randamie (7-3) vs. Raquel Pennington (9-6), Mike Perry (12-3) vs. Donald Cerrone (33-11) and headlined by Chan Sung Jung, the Korean Zombie (14-4) vs. Yair Rodriguez (10-2). The Joseph Benavidez vs. Ray Borg fight fell through due to medical issues involving Borg
654
655Chad Mendes vs. Alexander Volkanovski, which is a very significant fight, has been added to 12/29 in Las Vegas. This is a real test for both of them since Volkanovski has looked great since coming to UFC but this is by far his toughest opponent and he’s relied on his takedowns. Mendes is a great wrestler who has been among the top title contenders for years
656
657Charles Oliveira vs. Jim Miller has been added to the 12/15 show in Milwaukee. Miller submitted Oliveira in 2010 in Montreal when Oliveira was 21 years old and 14-0 and just starting his UFC career while Miller was 27 and a top lightweight star. Now Oliveira is 29 and Miller is 35 and has lost four of his last five
658
659Gilbert Melendez pulled out of his 11/30 fight in Las Vegas against Arnold Allen due to injury. Replacing him will be Rick Glenn, who is 21-5-1, and is coming off a win over Dennis Bermudez
660
661Geoff Neal vs. Belal Muhammad was the first official match announced for the 1/19 show in Brooklyn, which is the first show under the ESPN deal.
662
663OTHER MMA: Sharice Davids, 38, a former MMA fighter, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Democrat representing Kansas. She is the second former MMA fighter in the House of Representatives with the other being Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma. Davids, is also a Native American, and openly gay and was a heavy underdog I he race. She fought professionally in 2013 and 2014, going 1-1, and tried out for The Ultimate Fighter for the season where they were doing the original strawweight title tournament that Carla Esparza won. She submitted Nina Ansaroff, a current UFC fighter, in the tryout
664
665The ONE promotion has invested $50 million of its recent funding to launch ONE eSports, working with Dentsu, Razer and the Singtel Group. They are looking to create the largest Asian eSports Championship Series using live event broadcasts, documentaries, reality shows, weekly magazine shows, highlights and videoblogs. Demetrious Johnson, who is a big gamer, will be the public face of the new company as its Chief Brand Ambassador. ONE’s latest acquisition is Miesha Tate, 32, who will be a Vice President and move full-time to Singapore in early 2019.
666
667WWE: Rollins this past week said this about Reigns’ battle: “It threw everything up in the air. It’s hard to go a day without thinking about him and how he’s doing and hoping he’s doing alright. I’m fighting the urge to check in on him like a brother every two hours, but he’s a strong dude, and I know that he’s in a good place mentally as well as physically. He’s in good health for the most part. I think he’s going to be able to fight this pretty strong. We’re just getting through it while we can. Obviously, it’s going to be easier as time goes by, but certainly the last couple weeks have been, and the last week especially, have been a roller coaster of emotions. Lots of ups and downs.
668
669Reigns is advertised for the ACE Comic Con in Phoenix 1/11 to 1/13
670
671Reigns is just starting treatment for his leukemia and we’re told any discussions regarding a time frame for a potential return is a long way off
672
673Fightful.com reported that starting with the 11/12 show, that Raw will end at 11 p.m. with no more overrun. Really, a three hour show hardly needed the extra five to 15 minutes. This decision came after the second lowest watched third hour in the modern history of the show. In theory, this may help the overall rating slightly (most weeks maybe one one-hundredth of a ratings point) because the third hour is the lowest rated hour of the show almost every week. But sometimes the overrun goes up, because some fans know to tune out in the third hour and comeback at 11 p.m. for the show closing angle, plus you get the people who tune in for the show that is up next and kind of double-dip. Historically, the overrun would be the highest rated part of the show, but that’s no longer the case. If the people who tuned back in at 11 learn to tune in at 10:50 for the climax then it may slightly help
674
675WWE finalized a deal for the WWC tape library according to PW Insider. It’s not known how much content was saved, but WWC started in 1973 and most major names from the 70s and 80s worked there. They’ve done lots of highlights shows over the years so they’ve definitely saved a lot of the footage. It was a heavy blood promotion. While most of the show were done in Spanish, they did have an English language television show at times. These negotiations have been going on for years and they were working on a deal dating back to at least 2014, where Carlos Colon being put in the WWE Hall of Fame was considered a prelude to the deal, since Colon was the biggest star in the history of the promotion. WWC has limped along and still exists, but it’s been many years since it was any kind of a significant force in wrestling. The company already has possession of all the tapes, but there is some question how much was lost or destroyed in the recent hurricane and how much was saved since before the late 80s many promoters didn’t bother saving tapes because few thought there was any value to them
676
677Roderick Strong (Chris Lindsay, 35) and Marina Shafir, 30, were married on 11/7 in Orlando. The two have been engaged since December 2015 and have a son, Troy, who is 18 months old. I believe they first met when Shayna Baszler, Rousey, Jessamyn Duke and Shafir went to a PWG show together when Strong was champion of the promotion. Rousey left after Raw to attend the wedding
678
679Reelz on 11/1 aired a one-hour special called “Hulk & Linda Hogan: Irreconcilable Differences” about their divorce. The story was very much skewed to Linda as the babyface of the story, although did admit to her faults of drinking heavily and being paranoid, and making up that Hulk had a homosexual affair (she had claimed it was with his long-time friend Ed Leslie/Brutus Beefcake but then recanted the story). He was portrayed as someone who cheated on her during his heyday but she turned a blind eye to it, and it was portrayed that the marriage was in bad shape before the reality show, but the reality show killed it. Linda got about 70 percent of the assets in the divorce settlement. There were people on the set who shot the reality show as the talking heads. They pushed the idea that when the reality show came out, that Linda, not Terry, ended up as the star. I didn’t watch the show regularly but I always found that he was the star, and that it was pretty clear Brooke was the one being pushed to be the star, and after the show ended due to the divorce, it was Brooke who got the short-lived spinoff and not Hulk or Linda. It was exactly what you’d expect, with the heavy focus on Hogan’s cheating on Linda with Brooke’s best friend and of course the Heath Clem Cole sex tapes. Two funny things were in the editing. There was one talking head who said Hulk was 6-foot-4, and 15 minutes later he was 6-foot-8, the latter being his worked pro wrestling height. At another point it was talked about how during the show all he tabloids reported how what was portrayed on TV was fake and that the marriage was troubled while on TV it was portrayed differently, and then a few minutes later it was said how they hid heir marriage troubles completely during the show and the tabloids had no clue and brought up that it showed how Hulk and Linda were far better actors than they were given credit for since they were able to fool everyone. But it did say how in the 80s, Hogan in real life was completely different from the character he portrayed. It also pushed that pro wrestling was this insignificant business that wasn’t very popular until Hogan came in and that he and Vince McMahon were responsible for changing that. They portrayed it as that it was Hogan’s appearance in Rocky III that made him a star, and while that certainly didn’t hurt, he’d have been the same level of star with or without that movie cameo since he was already on fire in the AWA before the movie came out, and was a superstar in Japan years before the movie. Hulk did not come off well, especially with the Rolling Stone interview where he talked about how he could totally understand what O.J. Simpson did when talking about his own problems with his wife
680
681WWE informed the SAP Center in San Jose that the main event for the TLC show on 12/16 has been changed from Strowman vs. McIntyre to Strowman vs. Corbin. It’s really been great for the fans that they don’t have to rely on getting fans to individually purchase PPV shows and there’s no longer much of an economic incentive to present lineups that need to draw every month
682
683The NXT women’s title match at the 11/17 Takeover show will be the third straight Shayna Baszler vs. Kairi Sane bout, this time being a two out of three fall match
684
685Vega is off the current European tour due to taking a bad bump and suffering a possible concussion when Jax threw her over the top rope and Tamina caught her during her Battle Royal elimination at the Evolution show. She is back training although she was pulled from touring
686
687The 11/15 NXT house show in San Jose at San Jose State has been changed to a television taping. The production crew didn’t even know about the taping until they read it on the Internet and this was announced ten days in advance. It looks like they will be taping two weeks, for 11/21 and 11/28. There is a Full Sail taping on 11/28 which would be for the month of December. San Jose usually does 2,000 to 2,500 for NXT house shows so it’s one of their better markets so a TV taping should draw even better, even on a Thursday
688
689The company held tryouts from 11/4 to 11/7 in Cologne, Germany, at the Motorworld Arena, which looks to be to build a roster for the proposed NXT Germany promotion. They brought in 44 wrestlers, seven of which were sent home early after the second day. ProSieben Maxx, the WWE’s German television partner, were there taping some stuff. Among the names at the tryout were Ilja Rukober, 25 (Ilja Dragunov, the wXw star who got over like crazy at the PWG Battle of Los Angeles and has had some of the best matches in the world in recent years with Walter, he was born in Russia and lives in Germany and one of the hottest stars in Europe. Rukober’s career nearly ended five years ago when he suffered a fractured skull at a WWE tryout), Camille Grignon, 25 (French wrestler, third generation woman wrestler, eight-year pro, works as a trapeze artist at a circus school); Amale Dib (Amale Winchester from France, six-year- pro); Raffael Grodzielik, 33 (a Germany’s strongest man contest winner in 2017 and 2018, similar size as Braun Strowman, 6-foot-6 and 375 pounds known as the German Godzilla, tried football in NFL Europe and passed his bar exams in Germany), Jurn Sijtzema, 27 (Jurn Simmons, from Holland, 6-foot-2 and 250 pounds, great charisma, speaks English very well, five year pro, very good worker, former wXw champion, good at promos and acting and recently got his head shaved in a hair match with David Starr), Edwidge Taboullet, 20 (wrestles as Mila Smidt from France, a former gymnast and freestyle wrestler); Aaron Mpembele, 23 (wrestles as A-Buck from France, 6-foot-7 and 230 pounds); Georges Khoukaz, 25, (Syrian wrestler who lives in Germany and works for the German Wrestling Federation); Emil Sitoci, 33 (17 year pro from Holland who is a television producer and show developer for the television production company Endemol, something of a celebrity in The Netherlands for being on several reality shows, great physique, mother was a pro wrestler, trained gymnastics in his youth and one of the better workers in Europe, and also a strong promo); Metehan Kocabasoglu, 25 (Lucky Kid, German 10-year-veteran and one of the best young workers in Germany, good charisma in the ring and on interviews and a wXw regular); wXw Shotgun champion Marius Al-Ani, 27 (5-foot-9, 200 pounds, good physique and look, smooth worker and a good athlete who appeared on the German Ninja Warriors TV show); Francis Rohr (Francis Kaspin), current wXw tag champion, coaches at the wXw school and former track athlete); Jan Kronenberg, 27 (Jay Skillet from Germany, the other half of the tag team titles, eight year pro, had back issues in the past that took him out of action for three years but has been fine the past two years, trainer at the wXw school, good technical wrestler); Vesna Busic-Chaer, 35 from Croatia (Wesna, 20 year veteran who is married to Ahmed Chaer, a GWF owner, has children so has cut back on wrestling but at 5-foot-9 and 185 pounds is a good large woman character); Christopher Oketch, 28 (a bodybuilder and powerlifter from Kenya who is 6-foot 3); Gilney Artak, 29 (German pro kickboxer with a 3-0 record, soccer referee, competed in the German version of Broken Skull Challenge); Josef Fuksa (6-foot 9 ½ and 320 pounds, an offensive lineman for the Swarco Raiders football team that plus in Innsbruck, Austria and an actor in the medieval drama series “Knightfall”); Alexander Jaksic, 23 (LX Ken, a Canadian who moved to Munich and started training in Canada in 2017 with Santino Marella and now trains with Alex Wright, good look and good physique), Martn Pain, 27 (a backward wrestler from Vienna); wXw women’s champion Melanie Otter, 31 (Melanie Gray, 12 year pro, good heel), Marie Gabert, 36 (Alpha Female Jazzy Gabert, 17-year-pro who was offered a WWE contract coming off last year’s Mae Young Classic tournament but it was then rescinded due to medicals due to neck damage. She’s since had surgery and has come back. 6-foot-1, 200 pounds, has fought MMA including in Rizin); German wrestler Georges Khoukaz and others that we don’t know of; Oliver Sauter (Oliver Carter from Switzerland); Szalay Istvan, 27 (Dover, who wrestles out of Hungary but has worked Revolution Pro and wXw in recent years); Senza Volho, 24, (Vincent French from France who is a small wrestler at 155 pounds who does a masked Luchador gimmick, wrestles regularly in France and Germany and a smooth high flyer); and Celia Sabroui (Delia from France). Marcel Barthel and Fabian Aichner are there helping coach. Aichner is from Italy but he speaks German as his native language since he grew up in an Austrian section of Italy
690
691. Tickets for the 11/20 Smackdown tapings at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, the last of four straight nights running the building (NXT, Survivor Series, Raw and Smackdown) must be moving slowly since the building sent out a deal to regular ticket holders that for $75 they can get tickets for an 11/8 Los Angeles Kings vs. Minnesota Wild hockey game, and with that they can get a ticket for the Smackdown tapings as well
692
693David Otunga, 38, took first place in the classic physique division of the NPC (National Physique Committee) Illinois championships this past week. Classic physique is different from bodybuilding in the sense it’s more along the lines of a Frank Zane look or a Lee Labrada look as opposed to a Phil Heath or Ronnie Coleman look, or I guess for a wrestling perspective a John Morrison look vs. a Scott Steiner or Brian Cage (who did compete regularly although I believe he’s retired from competition these days) look. The regular division emphasizes huge size and cuts, and classic is more about small waist and big shoulders. There seems to be a trend of sorts here with Matt Morgan and Daga competing in bodybuilding in recent weeks. Daga was also in the classic physique department, which probably fits better for a pro wrestler since with today’s style, all that bulk like the 80s guys had works against you
694
695An update on the Starrcade show on 11/24 in Cincinnati has Rollins vs. Ambrose in a street fight for the IC title, Strowman vs. Ziggler & McIntyre, Styles vs. Joe in a cage match for the WWE title, Lynch vs. Flair in a cage match for the Smackdown tag titles, Nakamura vs. Mysterio for the U.S. title, Bar vs. New Day for the Smackdown tag titles, plus an Elias concert with Ric Flair
696
697Gran Metalik and his wife had their third child, a girl, Dayana Sofia, over the weekend
698
699The current European tour ends with Raw on 11/10 in Rome, and then flying into Kansas City for the 11/12 Raw show. Lesnar and Stephanie McMahon are both on the go-home show for Survivor Series. Stephanie will be there to address Shane winning the World Cup tournament. The Smackdown crew’s last show in 11/11 in Glasgow and they return for TV on 11/13 in St. Louis. St. Louis next week will have battles for first place in Mixed Match Challenge. On the Raw side, Lashley & James and Strowman & Moon are both 3-0 and they meet this week. The rest of the Raw standings are Balor & Bayley at 2-2 and Roode & Natalya & Mahal & Fox at 0-3. On the Smackdown side, it’s Miz & Asuka and Styles & Charlotte both at 3-0 and meeting this coming week. Miz & Asuka have never lost in two seasons. Styles & Charlotte had to be the favorites on the Smackdown side as the champion and the most pushed woman until the last few weeks. Jimmy Uso & Naomi are 0-2 and Rusev & Lana and R-Truth & Carmella are 0-3. When you look at how standings are identical and both teams in first meet in the same week, it kind of tells you that much of the booking was meant to go in the same pattern for both brands, with two strong teams, one mid-level team and two bottom teams
700
701The ten most-watched shows on the WWE Network this past week were: 1. Crown Jewel; 2. Evolution; 3. NXT from 10/31; 4. Crown Jewel Kickoff show; 5. NXT U.K. episode three from 10/31; 6. NXT U.K. episode four from 10/31; 7. House Hardy Halloween; 8. Mixed Match Challenge from 10/30 (released 11/1); 9. Super Show-down from Australia; 10. 205 Live from 10/31. So 205 Live continues to perform the weakest of the live shows, still even behind the U.K. NXT tapes from months ago that air outside of prime time. The only other thing notable is that the 1990 Survivor Series show was 11th for the week
702
703The stock closed on 11/7 at $75.28 per share being part of a big rally the day after the election. They were down to $73 the day before. This gives the company at $5.874 billion market value. The market has been climbing this week but WWE has been flat. Jim Cramer on CNBC’s Mad Money was positive on the stock stating it has a great streaming subscription service as the key. Well, clearly he’s not following that closely since the stock price is completely based on television rights fees these days and streaming numbers are not rising at the pace expected.
704
705Notes from the 11/5 Raw tapings in Manchester, England. The show was pretty much dead. They humiliated Angle in the main event against McIntyre and I have no idea why. The idea was to put McIntyre over as a killer, but the theme of the match was more how pathetic and washed up Angle was displayed as since McIntyre would feed him his leg and Angle couldn’t take him down, more than McIntyre being so great for beating Angle, it was more how bad Angle was portrayed. The match was all McIntyre making fun of him, humiliating him and beating him with a combination of an Angle slam and ankle lock submission. It felt like it killed any future stuff with Angle in the ring to be taken seriously and God knows they’d have never portrayed any of their other similarly-aged legends like this. The idea was to put McIntyre over strong as a title contender, but they could have accomplished that more effectively by having Angle look good, have him on the ropes, but eventually him beating a “great” Kurt Angle clean as opposed to beating a washed-up version that didn’t feel like it even helped him. A lot of the matches went too long. The other big angle, which was the Jax heel turn for her program with Rousey, and aligning herself with Tamina, got almost no reaction. Really the only things noteworthy in a positive way were Rollins being great in a handicap match where he lost the tag titles by himself to AOP, and Rousey once again did the best interview on the show, because she’s one of the few who is allowed to focus on real life and she is getting more and more comfortable cutting that kind of promo. The other story was the crowd, which aside from being quiet, and U.K. fans have great reps everywhere for being crowds that help the matches more than anywhere, was the size of the crowd. It’s been that way this entire tour, and comes off the weak quarter. Really, when it comes to the U.S. and U.K. scene, even non-WWE, you can really see softness. Some of the U.K. promoters and U.S. indie promoters have noted that shows that should have sold out ahead of time are starting to struggle. ROH was on fire, by ROH standards, through April, and you can see more and more softness in their numbers. That will be notable if with the lineup out and it being a strong one if it sells out ahead of time. But here, they had 10,000 fans, which is great for a Raw today, but Manchester has almost always been a sellout city for Raw and people entering the arena were stunned when three-quarters of the upper deck was tarped off. The show started with Main Event with Breeze pinning Rawley with a crossbody off the top in a short match. The Revival beat Roode & Gable. Roode was over big. Gable sold most of the way and ended up losing to the shatter machine. The crowd booed whenever clips from Crown Jewel were shown. Raw opened with Corbin out. The entire Raw roster was on the stage. He said that Shane McMahon had stolen the title of Best in the World from Raw but that situation would be addressed next week. Corbin announced he had chosen himself as captain of the Raw team at Survivor Series, and had picked Ziggler, McIntyre and Strowman on the team. He noted that Strowman was mad at him for what happened at Crown Jewel but needed to take it as a learning experience. He announced Bliss as the women’s captain and that she would be putting together a team. Angle came out and said that he wanted to be captain of the Raw team and that he wanted to challenge Corbin to a match and if he won, he’d be captain, and also be on the team. Corbin had no interest. Angle called him a human embarrassment for Raw. Somehow this led to Corbin accepting a match that ended up being changed later. They were about to start the first match when Strowman came out. He destroyed the security team including delivering a great looking front kick. As he was beating up security, Corbin was able to run away. Strowman then took off after him, decked Mahal. All the heels attacked Strowman. Strowman got past them and started running after Corbin. Something happened with Strowman which may be a knee injury but unlike in the past where he moved really good for a guy of his size, he couldn’t move here and they booked several segments of him chasing people. Until his injury heals, they should avoid this at all costs because it’s never to your advantage to have a wrestler who can’t run, have to run, because it makes them look very unathletic. Natalya came out and said she was wearing her dad’s sunglasses to the ring to bring her luck and then said she was dedicating the match to her Dad. She obviously never heard the story of when her uncle, Davey Boy Smith, dedicated a match in Manchester to his sister, who was dying of cancer in 1997. Short story for those who don’t know, and this was in the era of localized interviews, but Smith’s sister had cancer and he was told he was going to beat Shawn Michaels in a match in Manchester on a U.K. PPV show to keep his European title, so he dedicated the match to her. Well, plans changed and when he got to Manchester, he was told Michaels was going over (this was a very heated deal because Michaels had a few months earlier refused to work with anyone from the Hart family and had been bragging about how he wasn’t doing any jobs, and the loss to Smith was told to a lot of talent, and even to us before the match, as proof Michaels would do business. Then at the show, they told Smith there had been a change of plans, and it would be great for Michaels to win the title to build up a rematch in 1998 where he’d win it back in the U.K. As you could imagine, he was furious. That, more than anything, led to him quitting the promotion a few months later and going to WCW. And that also was a decision he would later regret that he did. Natalya & Bayley & Banks went to a no contest with The Riott Squad in 17:15. This was good early, but it went too long and the crowd got tired. Natalya had the sharpshooter on Logan. Riott then took the Neidhart sunglasses and broke them. Natalya started crying about it being her dad’s gift to her. The match just ended. The crowd booed this to a small degree but you could tell it was more groan heat than real heat. To make an angle like that work, you need to have her with the glasses for weeks to establish them as her good-luck charm. It was too quick to do the angle, plus coming so quickly after using the Reigns situation in storylines, this stuff becomes groaning heat. Strowman was looking for Corbin. He ended up in the bathroom looking for him. He saw a guy in a stall and kicked down the door, but it wasn’t Corbin and the guy ran away. Well, that’s what writing a show for the audience of one (the term the writers use, the one being Vince as opposed to the millions of viewers),and you’re going to get the bathroom stuff that Vince likes. WWE writer Ryan Ward was the guy found in the bathroom stall. Crews pinned Mahal in 2:21 with a press-slam and standing moonsault. Crews didn’t get the full lockout. Mahal’s right shoulder may be hurting because his punches were thrown like a guy with no shoulder rotation and looked bad. They are pushing Crews now as “Raw’s highlight reel” so the idea is that he’s going to be pushed around doing cool spots. Rollins came out with the tag title belts, as in both of them, so Ambrose must have left one somewhere, and the IC belt. Rollins talked about Lesnar in his promo and said that after all the years of Reigns chasing Lesnar, that Corbin helped Lesnar get the title right back and how that was a slap in the face to Reigns. Rollins was about to vacate the tag titles since he said he couldn’t defend both titles at the same time. Corbin then said not only can you defend both belts, but you’re defending the tag title now against AOP. AOP won the belts in 9:47. Rollins had no time to get a new partner. This was the best match on the show. Rollins sold early but made a good comeback with a tope on Rezar and a second tope on both of them. He remained on offense until Maverick distracted him, but he came back from there as Rezar came off the top rope into a superkick and Rollins got a near fall with a frog splash on Rezar. AOP used a double-team neckbreaker on him for the clean pin. Ambrose then came out and said, “You want to know why I did what I did?” Rollins asked why and Ambrose laid him out with Dirty deeds and left. Cole asked Renee Young what was the deal since they acknowledge she’s married to Ambrose. She said that he’s not talking to her about it and she can’t talk about that situation. Corbin was backstage with Charly Caruso. Caruso noted that he’s been running from Strowman all night. He said he wasn’t running at all, and if Strowman wants a match, he’s there, but Strowman wants to hurt him. She asked if he’s not running, why did he set up a studio in the storage room. Corbin immediately freaked out because Caruso said that they were in the storage room. Strowman showed up immediately and was beating up security again while Corbin ran off. Ziggler did an interview and said he was the best in the world. He said it wasn’t fair because Shane McMahon threw McIntyre out, and then Miz weakened him by attacking him from behind. Elias came out, and he got one of the biggest reactions on the show. Fans were singing “Walk with Elias” at him. Elias talked about how if he got to play a song, Oasis would reunite. Oasis is from Manchester. Ziggler made fun of him. Elias pinned Ziggler in 14:21. The match was kind of boring early. The crowd loved Elias doing his thing, but didn’t care that much about his wrestling. The match got sloppy in spots and went too long. Finally Ziggler hit the Zig Zag but Elias got his foot on the ropes. The crowd popped pretty big for that and Elias after one kick, hit drift away for the pin. Angle did an interview about his match with Corbin. Rousey came out. This was another strong performance. The gist is that she praised Lynch, because ripping on her too much would lead to a backlash on her, particularly since Lynch is from Ireland. She said that when Lynch was in school, she’d be woken up by her mom who would be trying to break her arm. When Lynch was in clown college, she was in the Olympics. When Lynch was a stewardess, she had the most dominant title reign in MMA history. She told Lynch to bring her best because she wants a challenge, and said you may be “The Man” (Lynch is claiming to be “the Man” because she beat Charlotte Flair) but “I’m the baddest bitch on the planet.” Jax came out. Jax was all smiles and said that she knows Rousey won’t let Raw down and after Rousey beats Lynch, she’ll be waiting for her. Given the turn and everything, plus the fact WWE loves to kill of winning streaks for no reason, and in this case, there would be a reason, I could see Jax costing Rousey the match. Either way, they are going to push the idea that with Jax having Tamina by her side, that it’s two much bigger women that Rousey has to deal with to keep her title. They pushed their relationship with Girl Up, whose motto is for equality of women worldwide. And they do this days after they went to Saudi Arabia. Jax pinned Moon in 4:56. Bad match. The crowd was dead and it just wasn’t smooth at all. Jax won clean with a Samoan drop. Tamina came out and had a stare-down with Jax. Tamina then gave Moon a Samoan drop. It looked like Jax was mad, or even intimidated, as the announcers asked why Jax wasn’t helping her friend Moon. But then Jax told Tamina to turn Moon over. Tamina put Moon in a Boston crab and Jax started dropping elbows on her. As noted, the crowd reaction was almost quiet indifference when they hugged. Balor did an interview about his program with Lashley. Corbin said he had an emergency appointment, had to leave the building and that Angle would face McIntyre. As he was leaving, Strowman showed up and he jumped in the car. Strowman tried to give chase but this skit was the one where his running looked the worst. Lio Rush told Lashley to go out and pose. Lashley started doing bodybuilding poses. He’s got a great body but you can see he isn’t comfortable or charismatic at all at the bodybuilding posing aspect of that game. Rush told him to show his best pose and he bent over to show his ass at the crowd. Rush said he was just trying to show the crowd his glutes and his hamstrings. Lashley pinned Balor in 6:29. Balor wanted to dive but Rush tripped him and Lashley took over. Even with Balor and being in the U.K., the crowd was pretty dead. The finish saw Balor go after Rush, which allowed Lashley to drive Balor’s back into the barricade. Lashley threw him in the ring and used the turn over dominator for the pin. McIntyre came out and did a stared-down with Lashley. Obviously McIntyre’s push is more intense and this was clearly a tease at an eventual face turn. Perhaps he’s the pick for the Reigns spot. Rush got Lashley to walk away. McIntyre teased a face turn helping up Balor, but then McIntyre laid out Balor with a Claymore kick. McIntyre beat Angle in the main event in 14:36. This was mostly McIntyre. It was sad to watch. There wasn’t much in the way of crowd reaction even though they pushed it as Angle’s first match on Raw in 12 years. When it was over, they pushed like this could be the end for Angle. Unless Angle is going heel and this performance is his motivation to turn, this mach was hard to make sense of. McIntyre would have gotten over more beating an Angle portrayed as strong than an Angle portrayed as feeble and done. In the end it was McIntyre humiliating him by blocking takedowns, and directly calling Angle an embarrassment to his family. It was only because McIntyre was making fun of him so much that Angle was able to get the ankle lock on, but McIntyre broke that up as well. Then McIntyre used the Olympic slam and ankle lock and Angle tapped out
706
707Notes from the 11/6 Smackdown tapings in Manchester. This was a much better show than the night before. Smackdown never dragged, had a good show-long storyline with Miz and Bryan building their team and good matches with Mysterio vs. Almas and New Day vs. Usos. The show drew 4,500 fans, which was considered pretty bad. I guess because it’s the priority and they wanted more time for editing, they taped Smackdown first, then Mixed Match Challenge and then 205 Live, meaning the audience was completely burned out for the latter show. They kept the crowd by announcing a Bryan & Styles vs. Orton & Miz main event, and all four didn’t wrestle on Smackdown. Smackdown opened with Paige out. She introduced Shane. Shane was booed and you heard no cheers, but then when they switched to crowd shots, you saw most people not reacting and a few people clapping. Those at ringside were definitely chapping for him. Shane was completely acting like a face but when showing the clips from Saudi Arabia the announcers were treating him like a heel. Fans were chanting C.M. Punk, since Punk would call himself the Best in the World. Shane posed with the trophy and then said that he really wasn’t the best in the world. He just saw the situation and didn’t want Smackdown to lose to Raw and he reacted instinctively. Fans booed him again. He then called out Bryan as the captain for Team Smackdown at Survivor Series. Bryan said that Shane deserved a round of applause for acknowledging he’s not the best in the world. Miz then came out and said he thinks Shane is the best in the world, but he won two grueling matches to reach the finals so he deserves two-third possession of the trophy, like he gets it for 20 days each month or Shane can live in his spare bedroom with it. Miz was cheered for saying this. Shane said that if he didn’t wrestle and win, Miz would have been fired for losing. But he said that Miz winning the two matches made him deserve to be co-captain. And fans cheered that as well. Backstage, Miz and Bryan were yelling at each other. They couldn’t get along and both thought it was a dumb idea for them to have to work together. Shane said it made sense because he doesn’t want people comfortable, and that Miz and Bryan make each other uncomfortable. He said they had to pick three members. Miz picked Shane. Bryan said he agreed, because nobody had more on the line in the match than Shane and nobody cares more about it. Miz was so happy he said he’d give Bryan he next pick. Bryan thanked Miz and then felt all weird. Usos beat Big E & Kingston in a match to determine which teams captains the Smackdown team in a battle of tag teams. This match was very good. E did the big ending on Jey but Jimmy saved. E missed a tackle and flew to the floor. Kingston came off the top rope diving to the floor and twisting so he landed back first instead of front first. That looks too scary to do a dive without looking where you are going. Kingston used the trouble in paradise on Jimmy but he kicked out. Kingston tried a Frankensteiner off the top rope, but Jimmy blocked it and did a power bomb off the middle ropes on Kingston. Jimmy then pinned Kingston with a splash off the top rope in 16:07. The Usos, as captains, then picked New Day as the first member of their team. All five shook hands. Miz was on the phone with the idea he was trying to get on all the big talk shows to promote “Marine 6.” The joke is that none of the major talk show hosts wanted him on but they all wanted Lynch on. It was pretty clear they’ve changed their minds on Lynch who was a face on this show. Bryan picked Mysterio for their team. Miz said that a few years ago that would have made sense and Mysterio is a future Hall of Famer, but he’s done nothing since his return. Bryan noted that since his return he’s beaten Nakamura, Orton and Miz. Miz said that was a fluke win, just like Bryan’s win over him in Melbourne. But Miz agreed that if Mysterio looked good in his match with Almas, he could be on the team. Bryan then said for the final spot, each should pick one guy. Then Miz’s guy would wrestle Bryan’s go for the final spot. Both agreed and Miz acted like it was freaking him out that he agreed with Bryan on the decision. Lynch came out to a huge ovation and was the most popular performer on the brand, so really the most popular performer on Raw and Smackdown at the Manchester tapings were both women (Rousey on Raw). She did a great babyface promo for the brand. She said that Rousey hasn’t been tested yet. She said that winning comes so easily to Rousey, while she’s had to pick herself up through adversity after adversity and after things go down. She noted that the jobs she took that Rousey brought up such as going to clown college and being a stewardess where to buy her way into pro wrestling, because unlike Rousey, she wasn’t handpicked “like you but here I am.” Lynch said that she doesn’t care if Rousey is the baddest bitch on the planet, because “I’m going to make you mine.” Lynch challenged anyone to come out. Sanity came out to their music so there was a tease of a male vs. female match, but then Nikki Cross came off representing Sanity. Nikki kept telling Lynch “Let’s play” over and over again. Cross got good offense in early. Lynch won clean with the dis arm her in 5:35. Miz was shooting a photo of himself when Bryan interrupted,. Bryan said he was choosing Jeff Hardy for the final slot and Miz chose Joe. Nakamura did an interview talking about his match with Rollins and saying he represents the United States of Nakamerica and would hit Rollins with a knee to the face. Mysterio beat Almas in 8:20. This was ***½, great for the time they allotted. Mysterio’s neck was all taped up. He’s also working too many days in a row. I think he’s working too many dates of late. Obviously WWE wants him in the ring as much as possible. The reality is that in the long run WWE booking him for more dates now will lead to him working fewer dates overall. The reason he’s so healthy now was because he picked and chose his dates and never did matches nightly. Going regularly, it’s a lock the injuries will come that will put him out of action for long periods so the risk/reward of booking him two straight weeks is inviting problems. Almas did double knees in the corner twice, and did a double moonsault but Mysterio got his knees up. Mysterio did a huracanrana on the floor into the apron. He slid out of the ring into a tornado DDT on the floor. He won with a springboard huracanrana, a 619 and a springboard splash. After the match, Orton came out and hit Mysterio with an RKO. Backstage, Bryan accused Miz of setting that up and telling Orton to do that. Miz said that Orton gave him an RKO and he avoids taking with Orton at all cost. Miz said that Mysterio did look impressive before the RKO and that Mysterio was on the team. Miz said he wanted Bryan to be a team player and not get upset when Joe beats Hardy and makes the team even though Joe choked Bryan out last week. Miz told Bryan that if Joe wins he should be the bigger man. Then Miz laughed about calling Bryan the bigger man. Paige came out to pick the women’s team of Carmella, Naomi, Deville, Asuka and Charlotte. They all came out except Charlotte. Rose came out instead and asked Paige why she chose Deville over her since she threw Deville out in the Battle Royal. She ran down everyone, saying Asuka was yesterday’s news and asked Naomi about her husband Jimmy. Naomi attacked Rose. Paige said Rose isn’t getting Charlotte’s spot. Rose and Naomi turned into a pull-apart and Deville in particular was mad at Rose buying her. Joe beat Hardy via choke in 9:26. Miz had a funny line to Bryan about picking Joe for the team when Bryan said that Joe isn’t a good team player, while Hardy has won the tag team title seven times showing he’s a good team player. Miz said he picked Joe because “I can’t be the only submission expert ont the team.” That line was great. Hardy used a jawbreaker, twist of fate and went for the swanton, but Joe got his knees up and choked Hardy out. After the match, Joe was taunting Bryan. Bryan attacked Joe and put Joe in the yes lock. Miz pulled Bryan off. Bryan then attacked Miz. Shane came out and tried to pull Bryan off but Bryan gave Shane a judo throw and stormed off. This at least looked like a hint of a slow-build for Bryan vs. Shane again. Mixed Match Challenge saw Lashley & Mickie James over Balor & Bayley in 8:09 when Bayley hit the belly-to-belly on Rush but turned around into James hitting a DDT on her for the pin. Bayley was way more over than she’s been in a long time with fans singing to her like they did in her NXT and early WWE days. She seemed so happy to be getting that kind of response and was cheerleading the fans. Lashley started posing and tried to get Balor to pose. When Balor finally did, Lashley attacked him. Balor went for a dive at one point, but Rush tripped him. Balor went after Rush, and went up for the coup de grace, but Lashley shoved Balor off the top rope. That’s when Bayley hit the move on Rush. The other match saw Jimmy Uso & Naomi beat R-Truth & Carmella in 5:00. This really wasn’t a match. R-Truth & Carmella did a long version of their ring entrance. The crowd was into it big even though they did the same entrance on Smackdown. Then there was a rap battle with the four. Then everyone had a dance break. We were 4:00 in before they started any pretense of wrestling. Carmella did a twisting head scissors but Naomi ended up kicking her in the head and pinning her almost immediately. 205 Live had little heat or crowd reactions. Lince Dorado & Kalisto beat Kanellis & TJP. TJP pulled off Dorado’s mask but he was wearing a second mask underneath and Dorado pinned him. Rush won a squash over a guy whose name was never announced. Buddy Murphy pinned Mark Andrews with Murphy’s law in a non-title main event. The dark match saw Styles & Bryan over Miz & Orton in less than 3:00. Miz worked really hard to get booed before the match but the crowd did nothing but cheer him. They treated him like he was a superstar babyface. He started calling the crowd sweathogs. Styles and Bryan were laughing outside the ring while this was going on. After the match, Styles said that he will always remember winning the WWE title last November in Manchester
708
709The first weekend NXT show was 11/1 in West Palm Beach, FL, which drew 750 fans for a more loaded show than usually happens in Florida. The War Raiders opened beating Adrian Jaoude & Cezar Bononi. Matt Riddle pinned Luke Menzies. Bianca Belair pinned Taynara Conti. Velveteen Dream beat Kona Reeves. Roderick Strong & Kyle O’Reilly retained the tag titles over the Street Profits. Ricochet pinned Adam Cole to keep the North American title. Marina Shafir & Jessamyn Duke beat Dakota Kai & Kairi Sane. Those poor women having to follow Ricochet vs Cole because of the new doctrine of a women’s match as the semi-final as a general rule on house shows. Main event saw Tommaso Ciampa retained the NXT title pinning Aleister Black. 
710
71111/2 in Fort Pierce, FL, drew 300 fans. Luis Martinez, the former Punishment Martinez in ROH, made his debut and was pinned by Nick Miller. Martinez had Miller up for the choke slam backbreaker, but was distracted by Shane Thorne and Miller slammed and beat him. Mia Yim & Lacey Lane beat Aliyah & Vanessa Borne when Yim got the win with eat defeat. Babatunde Aiyegbusi pinned Dan Matha with a slam. Lars Sullivan pinned EC 3 after a freak accident. Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch beat Raul Mendoza & Humberto Carrillo in a great match. Keith Lee pinned Kassius Ohno in a match where the two guys did a lot of Lucha spots. Lee won using the super nova. Rhea Ripley pinned Nikki Cross to retain the U.K. title with a pump handle slam. The main event saw Heavy Machinery & Stacey Ervin Jr. Beat the Forgotten Sons of Wesley Blake & Jaxson Ryker & Steve Cutler when Machinery used the trash compactor
712
713The final weekend show was 11/3 in Coral Gables, FL, before 500 fans. Montez Ford pinned Jaoude. Angelo Dawkins was in Ford’s corner and Cezar Bononi was in Jaoude’s corner. Dominik Dijakovic beat Rinku Singh. Bianca Belair & Lacey Evans beat Taynara Conti & Candice LeRae. Matt Riddle pinned Luke Menzies. War Raiders & Aleister Black beat Cole & O’Reilly & Bobby Fish (in his second match back since knee surgery). Ricochet retained the North American title over Kona Reeves. Shafir & Duke beat Kairi Sane & Dakota Kai. Main event saw Ciampa retain the NXT title over Velveteen Dream. Ciampa vs. Dream and the six-man tag said to be the best matches
714
715Raw opened on 11/3 in Madrid, Spain before 6,500 fans. This was way down as they’ve usually done around 10,500 in that same arena which was a full house. 11/4 in Barcelona drew 5,600 fans, which was also way down from what they had been doing in the past. 11/6 in Leeds drew 3,500, which is also way down from what they’ve been doing. 11/7 in Cologne, Germany drew 4,500
716
717The Smackdown tour opened on 11/3 in Cardiff, Wales, before a sellout of 3,500 fans. 11/4 in Aberdeen, Scotland, drew 4,500. 11/5 in Birmingham drew 6,000. People who had purchased upper deck tickets in Birmingham were moved down. Birmingham usually does close to 10,000 for house shows
718
719Madrid opened with Fernando Costilla and Alfredo Duro, the announcers for the television show that airs in Spain, coming out. Balor pinned Lashley with a roll-up. Rollins did a promo talking about a match with Ambrose later. Elias came out. Not sure the context, but Barcelona was brought up by Bliss who also said that Madrid sucked and the fans booed, and they did bring up Saudi Arabia which got easy heat. The Riott Squad, Fox and Bliss came out to interrupt. The idea was that they would all sing “Knocking on Heaven’s Door” but the women sang badly on purpose. This led to Jax & Banks & Bayley and Brooke coming out and it turned into an eight-man tag. Bliss was announced as part of the match, but she stood on the floor and did nothing physically since she wasn’t been cleared. The faces won the eight-man when Jax pinned Riott after a Samoan drop. Bayley was really popular. The B Team beat The Revival. The crowd was hot for this match, which speaks well since they haven’t been featured much on TV of late. Strowman beat McIntyre & Ziggler in a handicap match when he pinned Ziggler after a powerslam. Lots of negative chants directed at Lesnar during this match. McIntyre carried Ziggler to the back after the match. AOP & Mahal beat Crews & Slater & Rhyno with the super collider on Slater. Crowd was really into Crews due to his athletic ability. Rousey beat Nikki Bella to keep the women’s title with an armbar. Rousey was super popular. Rollins came to the ring and demanded an explanation from Ambrose. Corbin came out and ordered the two in an IC title match but then said he had no idea where Ambrose was so it ended up with Rollins defending against Corbin. Rollins kicked out of the Deep Six and won with the curb stomp. Ambrose came out after the match and laid out Rollins. He went for Dirty Deeds on a chair but Balor made the save. Then much of the locker room came out including Matt Hardy and Chad Gable, who didn’t work the undercard. Strowman made a big save at the end
720
721Barcelona was mostly the same show. Rousey’s match was short. She came out with an FC Barcelona shirt on and got a gigantic reaction. The main event segment was a little different. Ambrose attacked Rollins. With Rollins laid out, Corbin came out and booked himself in an IC title match. Corbin was DQ’d for a chair shot. Then Corbin ordered it restarted as a no DQ match. Then Corbin called out all the heels and they all helped him beat down Rollins. Then all the faces came out for the save, led by Matt Hardy. They were cleaning house when Ziggler & McIntyre came out, but Strowman helped the faces. Corbin then went for a belt shot, but Rollins moved and hit the curb stomp for the win
722
723. Leeds was a unique show. With Lashley, James, Balor and Bayley all in Manchester for Mixed Match Challenge, Rousey having gone home after TV and Jax and Logan not on the show, they ended up doing a very different style house show. They had 13 matches, many of them short. It was said to be entertaining. Elias came out to a big reaction and he was playing when the Riott, Tamina and Morgan came out. This led to Banks & Brooke & Moon over Riott & Tamina & Morgan when Banks made Morgan submit to the bank statement. Zack Gibson beat El Ligero with the Shankley Gates submission. Usually you put the faces over on European house shows but clearly Gibson is slotted higher than Ligero even though Ligero is from Leeds. No Way Jose & Breeze beat Rawley & Hawkins, who was in his first match back since hernia surgery at the end of August. Evidently they felt they needed to catch up on his losing steak. Jose pinned him with a pop up punch. Hawkins then said he was going to end his streak tonight and demanded another match. Ryder came out and hit the Rough Ryder and pinned him in three seconds. Hawkins still wouldn’t leave and demanded one more match. O’Neill was out next and he pinned Hawkins in seconds with Clash of the Titus, so he got three losses in one night. Over the last two months while recovering from the surgery, Hawkins has been getting some training to be a producer. AOP retained the tag titles over Roode & Gable in a good mach. Rollins beat Ambrose via DQ in an IC title match. Ambrose used a low blow for the DQ. B Team won a three-way over Slater &Rhyno and The Ascension. Axel pinned Viktor with the fisherman supelx. Nikki Bella beat Natalya. Weird that you put the heel over on a European house show, but it just goes to show what they think each one’s star power is. Bliss was guest ring announcer. Natalya had the sharpshooter on when Bliss distracted the ref and Nikki won. Nikki said that Rousey (who was never advertised in the first place) didn’t want to come to a place like Leeds. Elias pinned Mahal quickly with drift away. What was billed as the main event saw Strowman win a handicap match over McIntyre & Ziggler in 15:00 when he powerslammed Ziggler. After the match Corbin came out. Corbin hit Strowman with a chair, ordered a three-on-one match with no DQ. The heels triple-teamed Strowman and McIntyre pinned him after the Claymore kick. The show was seemingly over with everyone going backstage. Corbin came out and he demanded a singles match with no DQ against Strowman Strowman was gone by this point and he ordered the ref to count Strowman out. Strowman then came back out and immediately hit the powerslam on Corbin to win
724
725They did mostly the same show in Cologne as the night before. The only major difference was Slater & Rhyno weren’t on the card and a few matches were combined for an eight-man tag with the B Team & Jose & Breeze over Ascension
726
727& Rawley & Hawkins, ending when Axel pinned Hawkins with the fisherman suplex. This led to Hawkins then losing matches to both Ryder and then O’Neil in seconds
728
729Cardiff opened with Orton pinning Hardy, when he countered a twist of fate and hit the RKO for the pin. Usos beat Primo & Epico Colon. Most people probably don’t even remember that the Colons are still on the roster. Mark Andrews pinned Wild Boar Mike Hitchman in a very entertaining match. Andrews is from Cardiff, and he’s a great wrestler, but the crowd didn’t react to him big since he’s not a big TV star. The Iconics came out for a promo and talked about their big win at Super Show-down in Australia. This led to Asuka & Naomi beating The Iconics with the Asuka lock on Kay. None of the four got much of a reaction. Nakamura retained the U.S. title in a three-way over Mysterio and Almas. Said to be easily the best match on the show. Almas at one point went for a 619 and then refused to do it. It was mostly Mysterio vs. Almas and they were great. Mysterio finally hit the 619 and the springboard splash off the top rope. But the crowd didn’t really react to Almas. Nakamura then hit the Kinshasa on Mysterio and pinned Almas. Bryan pinned Miz. It was about 7:00 before the match started, with Miz stalling and calling the fans fat Cardiff sweathogs. He continued to copy late 80s Rick Rude. Bryan attacked him and then said the Cardiff crowd was lovely and beautiful. Bryan kicked out of the skull crushing finale and won with a running knee. Bryan was the most popular guy on the show. Rusev & Lana beat R-Truth &Carmella. The R-Truth & Carmella ring entrance, which is very entertaining, was longer than the match. Rusev & Lana got a big pop. Carmella, R-Truth and Lana all danced. Rusev refused for a long time. When he finally agreed to dance, he started doing the splits and R-Truth snuck up from behind and tried a roll-up. He kicked out and Rusev ended up pinning R-Truth with a roll-up in a short match. Lana and Carmella fought briefly but never wrestled during the match. Well, nobody did, the only two moves used were R-Truth’s roll-up and Rusev’s roll-up. Sheamus & Cesaro, without Show in their corner, retained the tag titles over Big E & Kingston. Kingston did a dive onto Cesaro and then Big E turned around into a Brogue kick and was pinned. Lynch beat Flair in a short match. The crowd cheered Lynch heavily and booed Charlotte. Styles beat Joe to keep the WWE title in a no DQ match. No DQ allowed them to use kendo sticks. Sheamus & Cesaro came out and helped Joe beat down Styles. The crowd chanted that they wanted tables. The Usos made the save and Usos and Sheamus & Cesaro brawled to the back. Joe missed a charge and went through a table and Styles used the phenomenal forearm to win what was called a great match. Everyone seemed tired since most flew in straight from Saudi Arabia and guys like Orton and Cesaro who are usually crisp with everything seemed a step or two off
730
731Aberdeen was mostly the same show. There were a few changes. Bryan beat Miz to open the show. Miz complained about being screwed out of the World Cup win. Miz was selling the knee injury. Usos beat Colons when Jimmy pinned Primo. Rusev beat Almas with the accolade. Sheamus & Cesaro beat Big E & Kingston when Cesaro pinned E with a roll-up. Asuka & Naomi beat Kay & Royce and Lana & Carmella in a three-way. Asuka beat Kay with the Asuka lock. Lots of dancing by Carmella, Lana, Asuka and Naomi. Mysterio & Jeff Hardy beat Orton & Nakamura when Mysterio pinned Nakamura after a 619 and splash. Mark Andrews & Trent Seven beat Joe & Mark Coffey when Andrews pinned Joe after a moonsault. Lynch retained over Flair with a roll-up. Styles again beat Joe with the phenomenal forearm
732
733Birmingham had the same Sheamus & Cesaro over E & Kingston match. Usually on tour the New Day members will all evenly split with one night being E & Kingston, the next being E & Woods and the next being Woods & Kingston but this tour has been all E & Kingston. Could be protecting Woods. Usos vs. Colons was a 20 second squash as the Colons jumped them and Usos did the superkicks and splash finish. Bryan beat Miz via submission with the Yes lock. Same Asuka & Naomi over Kay & Royce match with Asuka over Royce with the Asuka lock. Jeff Hardy & Mysterio beat Nakamura & Orton with Mysterio over Nakamura with the 619 and splash. Andrews & Seven beat the Coffeys. Nobody cared about these guys when they came out, but they worked hard and won the audience over. Seven used a burning hammer to win. It was said they were working at a different level from everyone else on the show as far as speed and hard hitting. Lynch beat Flair in a basic match between the two Flair tried a moonsault, Lynch got her knees up and then pinned Flair clean. Styles beat Joe in the same no DQ match they’ve been doing. Sheamus & Cesaro came out to help Joe, but the Usos made the save and brawled to the back with them.