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5OCTOBER 12, 2015 WRESTLING OBSERVER NEWSLETTER: DANIEL BRYAN'S PRO WRESTLING FUTURE, UFC 192, WWE AT MSG
6BY OBSERVER STAFF | STAFF@WRESTINGOBSERVER.COM | @WONF4W
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9Wrestling Observer Newsletter
10PO Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228 ISSN10839593	October 12, 2015
11
12UFC 192 POLL RESULTS
13
14Thumbs up	142 (94.0%)
15
16Thumbs down	0 (00.0%)
17
18In the middle	9 (06.0%)
19
20BEST MATCH POLL
21
22Daniel Cormier vs. Alexander Gustafsson	150
23
24WORST MATCH POLL
25
26Joseph Benavidez vs. Ali Bagautinov	68
27
28Ruslan Magomedov vs. Shawn Jordan	28
29
30Ryan Bader vs. Rashad Evans	10
31
32WWE IN MADISON SQUARE GARDEN
33
34Thumbs up	82 (53.2%)
35
36Thumbs down	19 (12.3%)
37
38In the middle	53 (34.4%)
39
40BEST MATCH POLL
41
42John Cena vs. Seth Rollins	87
43
44Kevin Owens vs. Chris Jericho	29
45
46Brock Lesnar vs. Big Show	8
47
48WORST MATCH POLL
49
50Team Bellas vs. Team PCB	72
51
52Neville vs. Stardust	27
53
54Dudleys vs. New Day	16
55
56John Cena vs. Seth Rollins	8
57
58TNA BOUND FOR GLORY
59
60Thumbs up	13 (32.5%)
61
62Thumbs down	13 (32.5%)
63
64In the middle	14 (35.0%)
65
66BEST MATCH POLL
67
68Edwards & Richards vs. Lee & Meyers	19
69
70Ultimate X	9
71
72Matt Hardy vs. EC 3 vs. Drew Galloway	8
73
74WORST MATCH POLL
75
76Gauntlet match	35
77
78Based on phone calls and e-mails to the Observer as of Tuesday, 10/6.
79
80The future of Bryan Danielson as a pro wrestler is now seemingly down to a third party, a neurologist to break the deadlock between his own doctor, who has cleared him for everything, and Dr. Joseph Maroon, the head of medical for WWE, who believes he shouldn’t wrestle again.
81
82Danielson, 34, as far as number of concussions, is probably way past a number that would end a career in most sports. But he’s not at this point suffering any major side effects from them, but that stuff often doesn’t start showing up for decades and there’s no predictor of it. Plus, Danielson is not a heavy drinker, or a drinker at all, which some doctors seem to feel exacerbates the long-term effects of the concussions.
83
84“One neurologist who specializes in concussions, who was the neurologist for the Super Bowl last year, cleared me with no limitations,” said Danielson in an IGN.com interview while promoting the WWE’s new video game. “All my testing came back excellent. But the WWE’s medical doctor (Maroon) is skeptical, because of my history of concussions and that sort of thing. So they will not clear me. So now, we have two doctors, one saying no, one saying yes. They’re going to send me to a third doctor at some point in the near future and that doctor will decide my fate.”
85
86His situation has been at this deadlock for months. He is fully past the symptoms from a concussion suffered right after WrestleMania, the date of which, and details of which have been kept fuzzy because WWE is so cautious due to the lawsuit out against them on the concussion issue. They are going to err on the side of caution because it’s one thing to say when it comes to wrestlers from the past that the company didn’t know better regarding long-term effects of concussions, which is true to a degree. It was always known that taking a lot of hard punches to the head could cause brain damage later in life, but the Verne Gagne/Nick Bockwinkel/Red Bastien generation didn’t really know that a long career of pro wrestling could have those ramifications. It’s quite another if a wrestler diagnosed with a significant number of concussions in this day and age, returns, with the company is aware of past damage, and then suffers bad effects in a few decades. There is no argument that the company wouldn’t have been fully aware of the dangers of concussions. As much as fans want to see him wrestle, it’s probably not a smart risk for the company to make.
87
88But Danielson wants to continue. He said that if things aren’t settled with him and WWE, he’s open to working indies. The reality is that he’s got several years left on his contract, and WWE is not going to release him to work anywhere where there is a threat he can be a key player in the U.S. marketplace.
89
90He in specific said he’s gotten into Lucha Libre, and in particular talked of main eventing a CMLL anniversary show in a mask vs. hair match.
91
92It has been largely believed that Danielson would go to New Japan at the conclusion of his WWE contract if they wouldn’t let him wrestle and he still wanted to. When Danielson was fired by WWE in 2010, he had just about completed a deal with New Japan to come in as a regular when WWE called him to return to be the mystery partner on the WWE team against the Nexus team at that year’s SummerSlam.
93
94But he is also open minded to the idea of not wrestling if a third doctor rules against it.
95
96“The WWE doctor, Joe Maroon (is) amazing and highly respected in the concussion field, and if they send me to a third neurologist who’s also highly respected in the concussion field and they say literally no, well, then, is it really smart to go against two doctors? I get all fired up, and then I’m like, maybe that’s not the best thing for me and my family going forward.”
97
98Danielson said if his career was over, he would be interested in announcing.
99
100The light heavyweight division has been, since its inception as the middleweight division in 1997, the most consistently high drawing class in UFC.
101
102From its first champion Frank Shamrock, through Tito Ortiz, Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell, it was the UFC’s best drawing division until the era of Brock Lesnar and Georges St-Pierre.
103
104But with the ghost of Jon Jones haunting it, even when the division produces one of its greatest title fights in history, there was a feeling that it was still a battle for second place.
105
106Daniel Cormier retained his title in the main event of UFC 192 on 10/3 in Houston at the Toyota Center in a nail-biting five round decision win over Alexander Gustafsson. From watching, it appeared the fight was even going into the last round, and it was on two of the three judges scorecards. While Cormier was clearly winning the fifth round, it was close enough that one significant blow at any time could have changed the outcome.
107
108Cormier won a split decision on scores of 48-47, 47-48 and 49-46. Judge Sal D’Amato gave rounds one, three and five to Cormier. Judge Kerry Hately gave Cormier rounds one, three, four and five. Judge Derek Cleary gave Cormier only rounds one and five. We had Cormier winning rounds one (a clear win), four (which could have gone either way) and five. A media polling had 88 percent going for Cormier, with 6% even and 6% for Gustafsson. 53% had it 48-47 for Cormier and 24% had it 49-46 for Cormier.
109
110As it turned out, it was round three which was the difference maker and that’s very much questionable. Cormier was controlling that round until Gustafsson landed a hard knee late, but that hurt Cormier, and he was in trouble the rest of the round. It was probably the most significant blow of the fight and the most danger either fighter was in.
111
112The fight broke the all-time light heavyweight record with 260 significant strikes, breaking the mark of 244 set by the Jon Jones vs. Gustafsson fight. It was the second most of any title fight in UFC history, trailing only the 308 in the UFC 171 fight with Johny Hendricks vs. Robbie Lawler.
113
114Cormier had the edge, outlanding Gustafsson in every round except the fourth, with a 14-5 edge in round one (mostly fought with Cormier on the ground), 28-27 in round two, 36-33 in round three and 31-18 in round five. Gustafsson had a 37-31 edge in round four.
115
116But to the public, the fight didn’t appear to catch on. It shows the difference between trying to compare a fighting sport with team sports in analogies. When Michael Jordan left the NBA while still the best player in the league, and the Houston Rockets won the championship that year, nobody said they really weren’t the best team because the Jordan-led Bulls were better than them the year before (and ended up being better again when Jordan came back). But with Cormier vs. Gustafsson, as well as the battle for the top contender spot where Ryan Bader beat Rashad Evans, all four were fighters Jones beat. Gustafsson was the only one of the four who even fought him that close. As great as the fight was, the reaction when it was over is people saw one of the year’s best fights, and that Jones would beat either of them.
117
118Jones will get a title shot as soon as he is reinstated and asks for it. Right now, there is no indication from anyone when that will be. Cormier said he will fight Jones anywhere, and won’t retire until he has two more fights with Jones, but he will not fight him on the proposed 4/23 date in Madison Square Garden. Cormier felt that Jones would be booed everywhere because of being Jon Jones and the recent hit-and-run case, but that wouldn’t be the case in Madison Square Garden.
119
120At 36, the reality is that Cormier’s legacy in the sport won’t be the Strikeforce tournament, or winning and defending this title. In his case, it won’t be about belts as far as how he’s viewed, even though he said that in finally winning a world championship, which eluded him in wrestling, he would be able to retire satisfied. To the public, he will be a guy who held the title when the real champion was out, the modern day Jimmie Ellis. Between the age of each man and how the first fight went, he will be a heavy underdog if that fight happens. And the longer it takes to happen, the closer to Jones to his prime and the more Cormier is out of his. But if Cormier can beat Jones, his career will be viewed completely different.
121
122If Jones doesn’t get the shot, Cormier’s likely opponent would be Bader. But that’s a fight that won’t draw. But the only other option would be if Glover Teixeira (another fighter Jones beat handily) beats Patrick Cummins on 11/7 in Brazil in an impressive fashion, and Teixeira gets the shot. Teixeira holds a first round knockout over Bader, and while Bader beat Evans, Evans was very clearly not the same fighter at 36 and coming off two years out of action after two knee surgeries. Evans was slower and lacked his former explosiveness and it wasn’t much of a fight.
123
124That was somewhat the theme of the main card, as Joseph Benavidez at flyweight and Julianna Pena at women’s bantamweight figured to be potential title contenders with wins. Benavidez did beat Ali Bagautinov, but it was a boring fight and left nobody clamoring for him to face Demetrious Johnson. But he still may get the shot just on default, because if Henry Cejudo doesn’t beat Jussier Formiga on 11/21 in Monterrey, Mexico, Benavidez would seem to be the only possible contender. But Johnson has beaten him twice, and even though Benavidez has never lost to anyone but Johnson or Dominick Cruz (twice each), it’s a fight that would be hard to sell.
125
126Pena won a decision over Jessica Eye in a fairly good fight, but it wasn’t impressive enough to make people clamor for her to fight Ronda Rousey. Rousey and Pena had issues during the filming of Ultimate Fighter in 2013 so there was a back story had Pena rolled through Eye.
127
128For Gustafsson, he lost to Jones in a fight he likely would have won if he hadn’t been hit with a spinning elbow in the fourth round. In this fight, he could have won had he been more aggressive. He let Cormier dictate the fight and even though the fight was fought on his battleground, standing, for the last four rounds, Cormier was busier and landed more. Plus, when Cormier would start landing, Gustafsson would back off, and constantly moving backwards and even at times almost running away, which costs one in a judged fight. There was no reason he should have lost a stand-up fight to Cormier, as he had a huge edge in height, reach, and had been doing stand-up from childhood while Cormier had never done any real striking until the age of 30. Plus, Gustafsson is 28 and Cormier is 36. But in the fifth round, when both were exhausted, this was the classic case of Cormier wanting it that much more. But you can’t count Gustafsson out as a contender given how close he came here and how he’s the only one to almost beat Jones.
129
130The semifinal, a Johny Hendricks vs. Tyron Woodley fight that would have likely determined the opponent of the upcoming Robbie Lawler vs. Carlos Condit welterweight title fight, fell apart.
131
132Hendricks ended up hospitalized due to passing a kidney stone and an intestinal blockage two nights before the fight, while weight cutting.
133
134Dana White immediately said that Hendricks was going to have to move to middleweight, a weight division where the guys are far bigger than he is. White also said Woodley(who was paid at least his show money) would get the next title shot. Later he backed away a little on Woodley getting the shot, saying it was a long ways away, and things could happen, and seemed interested in trying to have Woodley fight again first.
135
136Hendricks really only had himself to blame, double so, since he has the experience. Hendricks let himself get way out of shape, probably 220 pounds, after surgery to repair a torn biceps, an injury he suffered just before his first win over Robbie Lawler that he fought with. He rushed the comeback, and had a difficult weight cut. He didn’t appear to be the same fighter in the second fight, which he lost a decision by dropping the fifth round.
137
138Seemingly learning, he never let his weight get above 195 before the Matt Brown fight. He ended up in better condition and won the fight.
139
140However, his camp said he showed up at between 205 and 210 pounds when camp started, and thus had to concentrate on losing a lot more weight in camp. The rapid weight loss almost surely led to his medical issues with his body shutting down.
141
142As it turned out, the biggest story aside from the main event was the debut of Sage Northcutt. Northcutt, at 19 years and seven months, became the youngest fighter ever to win a UFC fight with a 57 second destruction of Francisco Trevino.
143
144Northcutt, 6-0 with six stoppages, had garnered attention on smaller shows with his knockouts and even more, his looks. Northcutt looked like a cross of Zack Morris from “Saved by the Bell” with the physique of a young Kevin Von Erich (his father was a high level bodybuilder and he started martial arts training very young) and the hand speed of a young Vitor Belfort.
145
146He won, and then did a series of flips in the ring, bringing in comparisons to the youthful Georges St-Pierre. Right now Northcutt is very much the male version of Paige VanZant, a fighter who clearly has marketability based on looks. Given his age, it’s probably best not to book him like a usual UFC fighter, as in UFC, there isn’t nearly the level of protection and padding records like a similar prospect would get in boxing. Whether he can take a punch, or how he deals with a top wrestler, or how he holds up in a real fight against top level guys are unanswered questions and it’s way too early to talk about where he’ll end up. In many ways, a guy like him is far more suited for pro wrestling given his look and the fact he can be protected (although his interviews are awful, that said, the crowd popped for everything he said and there was a very clear Kerry Von Erich vibe to him and Kerry Von Erich was a huge drawing card before the drugs ruined him while being a weak interview). In UFC, the promotion can only do so much for you, and while a guy like this will be taken care of better than most, he still has to be able to beat real guys to survive at the top level.
147
148The show drew 14,626 fans, which was not a sellout, and a gate of $1,859,000. Very early PPV indicators and numbers didn’t look impressive, even though this was a deeper than usual show. Even with Cormier working hard in promotion and UFC producing a great video package (although the main promotional piece, focusing on the height difference between the two wasn’t compelling), it didn’t have the buzz that the last several shows, other than UFC 191 with Demetrious Johnson vs. John Dodson, which barely broke the 100,000 mark in buys, had.
149
150The prelims did 749,000 viewers, a number hurt by going against major college football games on ABC, FOX, ESPN and ESPN 2. Football alone represented 20 percent of the prime time viewership that night. It was also hurt that the two hour prelim show contained less than 24 minutes of actual fighting in the five bouts (the Northcutt bout that originally was aired on Fight Pass was replayed on FS 1 to make sure the larger TV audience saw him). It was 22 percent below the 2015 average, but was up 40 percent from the 536,000 that the October 2014 PPV did (the second Jose Aldo vs. Chad Mendes show). The peak was 883,000 viewers for the Albert Tumenov vs. Alan Jouban fight.
151
152The prefight show (which only lasted ten minutes because football went long) did 569,000 viewers. The postfight show did 254,000 viewers. The weigh-ins did 55,000 viewers.
153
154The bonuses of $50,000 went to Cormier and Gustafsson for best fight, and to Tumenov and Adriano Martins for best performances.
155
1561. Derrick Lewis (13-4, 1 no contest) beat Viktor Pesta (10-2) at 1:15 of the third round in a heavyweight fight. Pesta controlled the first round and much of the second on the ground with five takedowns and ground control. But late in the second round Lewis started landing hard shots. Pesta went for a desperation takedown, and Lewis ended up on top and was landing hard punches and elbows. Pesta was in a lot of trouble when the round ended. When the third round started, Pesta hadn’t recovered. He went for another desperation takedown, but Lewis landed on top, got to full mount and threw punches until it was stopped.
157
1582. Sergio Pettis (13-2) beat Chris Cariaso (17-8) on scores of 29-27, 29-27 and 29-28 in a flyweight fight. Pettis was quicker and won the first two rounds, including some 10-8s in the first, where Pettis scored a knockdown and was landing punches and elbows on the ground and had Cariaso in trouble. Pettis went for a guillotine in the third round. When Cariaso escaped, he was on top and stayed there most of the round. Cariaso also worked for a heel hook late. Cariaso took that round but Pettis easily won the first two.
159
1603. Sage Northcutt (6-0) beat Francisco Trevino (12-2) in :57 in a lightweight fight. Trevino got off balance from Northcutt’s aggression and was taken down, but Northcutt destroyed him with punches on the ground. It was a really amazing debut because Northcutt was so instantly over with the crowd even before the fight started. His hand speed and how aggressive he was in going for the finish was eye opening. He did several backflips after the fight as well. Very few unknowns have ever made such a huge impression in their UFC debut, and it was very reminiscent to 19-year-old Vitor Belfort in 1997.
161
1624. Rosa Namajunas (4-2) beat Angela Hill (2-2) at 2:47 in a women’s strawweight fight. Quick win for Namajunas, who got the takedown, side control and got her back and got the choke, which Hill passed out from.
163
1645. Adriano Martins (28-7) beat Islam Makhachev (12-1) in 1:46 of a lightweight fight. Makhachev landed a big punch early, but Martins landed a right hook, and Makhachev collapsed from it.
165
1666. Albert Tumenov (16-2) beat Alan Jouban (12-4) in 2:55 of a welterweight fight. Tumenov looked like a killer out there, very much like a prime Mirko Cro Cop. He scored first with a big slam and landed punches. When Jouban got up, Tumenov knocked him down with punches. He worked body shots. Jouban kicked him in the groin and when the fight started Tumenov took him apart with a left high kick, a series of punches and a left to the jaw that knocked him out.
167
1687. Yair Rodriguez (7-1) beat Daniel Hooker (13-6) on scores of 30-27, 30-27 and 30-26 in a featherweight fight. Rodriguez is an entertaining fighter who if he has a little more success will probably be pushed as a flagship fighter for the Mexicana and Mexican-American markets. He got a decently big reaction coming out. Good back-and-forth first round. Rodriguez got two takedowns in the first round and did a young Jushin Liger koppo kick to end the round. In the second round, Rodriguez pulled guard and reversed to the top. He landed all kinds of kicks for most of the round including a great spin kick to the body. Hooker got a takedown in the third round. Both threw elbows, Hooker from the top and Rodriguez from the bottom. Hooker was bleeding from above the right eye from one of the elbows. Rodriguez thought he broke his foot in the first round. It was badly swollen but X-rays didn’t indicate a break.
169
1708. Julianna Pena (8-2) beat Jessica Eye (11-4, 1 no contest) on straight 29-27 scores in a women’s bantamweight fight. Pena got two takedowns in the first round, landed elbows and got Eye’s back. In the second round, Eye got a takedown and worked the body, and got Pena’s back. She went for a head-and-arm choke, but Pena escaped. While on her back, Eye threw a knee to Pena’s head, which is very much illegal and unlike the groin kicks and eye pokes prevalent, you couldn’t very well dismiss this as an accident. The ref docked Eye one point, which is unusual to do for a first offense, but it was blatant. The ref then blew it since Pena was on top at the time of the foul, but when the fight started, he had them start from the standup instead of putting Pena on top. Eye won the second round but it was 9-9 with the foul call. Pena took Eye down to start the third round. Eye worked for a triangle. Pena got her back but Eye got out of trouble and Eye even tried a move that looked like the Sakuraba New Japan ankle choke. Pena tried for a guillotine late. This was a good fight, especially the final round.
171
1729. Joseph Benavidez (23-4) beat Ali Bagautinov (13-4) on scores of 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28 in a flyweight fight. Benavidez got the better of the first round standup, but was cut near the left eye. The first round was close enough that it could have gone either way. Not a lot of action and fans were booing it. Benavidez clearly took over in the second round, including a hard left that was the best punch of the fight. He worked the body and head with punches. Bagautinov did get a back suplex. Fans booed the end of the round again. The third round saw more booing. Bagautinov got a takedown in the round but Benavidez was in control of the standup. The crowd booed Benavidez heavily in his post-match and Benavidez got mad at the crowd, saying how hard it is to put away a fighter of Bagautinov’s caliber.
173
17410. Ruslam Magomedov (14-1) beat Shawn Jordan (18-7) on scores of 30-27, 29-28 and 30-27 in a heavyweight fight. Another boring fight. The story is Magomedov was far more skilled, but he didn’t have the power to hurt Jordan. Jordan had the power, but couldn’t land, and it went that way for three rounds. Jordan got a takedown in the first round but it was mostly Magomedov landing. Crowd booed the end of the round. Jordan between rounds told his corner he thought his rib was broken. Magomedov was landing and Jordan was failing on takedown attempts in the second round. Third round saw Magomedov land great kicks throughout the round, to the body and head, but Jordan survived them all.
175
17611. Ryan Bader (21-4) beat Rashad Evans (24-4-1) on straight 30-27 scores in a light heavyweight fight. Bader largely dominated all three rounds. The first round was all standing and Evans got little in. The second round saw Bader use some body kicks and also got a takedown and got Evans’ back. Bader got a second takedown and landed body kicks. Evans’ eye was badly swollen. In the third round, Bader continued to land. Evans went for a takedown but couldn’t get it, and at that point he needed a finish. Bader got another takedown in the third. The real story of the fight was how ineffective Evans looked. It seemed like more than just ring rust, but looked like a guy who had made a career on speed and athletic ability, and with the age and knee surgeries, both were gone.
177
17812. Daniel Cormier (17-1) beat Alexander Gustafsson (16-4) on scores of 48-47, 47-48 and 49-46 to retain the UFC light heavyweight title. They were trading low kicks until Cormier picked Gustafsson up and dropped him with a twisting slam. Cormier moved to side control and landed body punches. Gustafsson got up late in the round but Cormier was landing more. Gustafsson started landing at the start of the second round and cut Cormier. Gustafsson took Cormier down which wasn’t supposed to happen. Cormier landed uppercuts from the clinch, which was his go-to move the entire fight. Gustafsson landed jabs and Cormier landed some good punches late in the round, until Gustafsson got his second takedown. Cormier was back in control during round three. He worked trying Gustafsson up in clinches and threw uppercuts. Gustafsson was bleeding. Gustafsson landed a hard knee late and Cormier was hurt and put down. Cormier got back up at the end but was wobbled. By the fourth round, Cormier’s face was beaten up and Gustafsson had both eyes bruised up. Gustafsson was landing a lot of body kicks but Cormier was landing punches. Close round. Gustafsson got off first in the fifth round with jabs and a big right. Both were landing. Cormier started to take control and Gustafsson was moving backwards and even running away, which was a bad idea in the fifth round of a close fight. Cormier clearly won the round. Both were exhausted and just trying to gut out the final round. Cormier heavily praised Gustafsson when it was over. It was the worst beating Cormier had taken, as Gustafsson actually hurt him worse than Jones did. Cormier said Gustafsson brought something out of him that he didn’t know that he had and he thanked him for it.
179
180WWE did another network exclusive special, built around Brock Lesnar, as well as the first nationally broadcast show in Madison Square Garden since a 2012 Raw and Smackdown taping.
181
182Madison Square Garden was considered the main arena for the company from the 50s, when Vincent James McMahon got promotional control of the world’s most famous arena. This continued through the territorial phase of the promotion until long after those days had ended. But the costs associated with taping have led the company to run its tapings in the market at the old Izod Center in East Rutherford, NJ, before it was closed down, and more recently at the newer Barclays Center in Brooklyn, or even the Prudential Center in Newark. But even so, Madison Square Garden of late has remained the company’s best drawing house show arena in North America, usually drawing in excess of 14,000 fans.
183
184Because an Internet streaming show is not a television broadcast, the costs are different and a show like this made more financial sense. Plus, the WWE was coming off great success with a July show from Sumo Hall in Tokyo, built around Lesnar, which, aside from the monthly PPV shows, was the most-watched show in WWE Network history. That show aired on a holiday in a terrible time slot. This show aired in prime time, which, even on a Saturday night with tons of sports competition, it had far more promotion on television, and should have easily beaten the Tokyo show.
185
186Lesnar hadn’t wrestled in Madison Square Garden in more than 11 years, since his infamous match with Bill Goldberg, with Steve Austin as referee, at WrestleMania XX on March 14, 2004. The MSG fans turned on both men, knowing it was each man’s final match with the promotion. Lesnar had already asked out of a seven-year contract. Goldberg had a one-year deal that was expiring and he had no interest in renewing.
187
188The wrestling up and down the show was good, but it was fairly uneventful as far as storylines went. It was weird in a lot of ways. On television, they built this not quite like a PPV, but like something bigger than anything except a PPV. The weird thing is the show was pushed around Lesnar, who did a 4:00 match, and the other match pushed was The New Day vs. Dudleys for the tag title, also a rushed match that had an identical finish as Night of Champions, the previous network special. Never pushed on television was the main event, a cage match with John Cena beating Seth Rollins to retain the U.S. title. The unadvertised match on television (a few days before the show WWE did advertise this match in a press release), which featured the world champion against the face of the company, was the only match given time.
189
190I’m not sure why with a live show that they rushed everyone in a manner they wouldn’t have done for a house show, with most of the guys except Cena and Rollins getting about half the time for their matches that they would get for a normal house show. It’s one thing if the show was running long, but it ended at 10:23 p.m.
191
192The show was legitimately sold out. They announced 19,224, which is clearly a fake number. The WWE internal numbers listed capacity with the set up at 12,709, but they ended up using a much smaller stage than would be normally used for a big show. It looked closer to 16,000, and WWE’s usual exaggeration for arena numbers is 3,000, and may end up being the biggest pro wrestling crowd in North American crowd this year outside of WrestleMania.
193
194Lesnar beat Big Show in a short match which wasn’t really a match, but more a collection of high impact throws. Show choke slammed Lesnar three times to start, and then Lesnar German suplexed Show a few times. He lost Show the first time he tried the F-5, but it was clear it was a botch because he went right back to it after another suplex and pinned him. He gave him his most impressive suplex, an overhead belly-to-belly, as well as another F-5 after the match. The match was good for what it was, in the sense the goal was making Lesnar took like a monster and that’s exactly what it did. It was a set-up match for Undertaker more than a climactic PPV match, even though billed as the main event.
195
196Quality-wise, it was like a New Japan house show, except with more rushed matches and maybe ten times as many fans. The crowd shots looked great, very much getting the feeling like a big show in Mexico.
197
198Lesnar came across as the biggest star of the show, and the crowd was into three matches strong, with Cena vs. Rollins and the IC title match with Kevin Owens vs. Chris Jericho.
199
200Jericho came out before his match and announced it was the 25th anniversary of his pro debut, saying his first match was October 3, 1990 (actually October 2) in Ponoka, Alberta, at the Moose Hall, a ten minute “broadway” (draw) with Lance Storm. Storm was at ringside and introduced and got a nice reaction. Jericho also pointed out Don Callis, formerly The Jackal in WWF and Cyrus the Virus in ECW, at ringside, and Dr. Luther, Lenny St. Clair, who was an FMW star in the 90s, who had a great act and was one of the most underrated wrestlers of that decade. Jericho worked with all of them early in his career and they were the guys he wanted around for his 25th anniversary weekend.
201
202Jericho also talked about how his father, Ted Irvine, who was known as the Babyfaced Assassin, before Josh Barnett, was on the New York Rangers from 1970 to 1975, playing in the same arena. Ted Irvine was a legit star, named one of the 100 greatest players in Rangers history. Irvine was especially well known as being one of the name players on the 1972 team that lost to the Boston Bruins in the Stanley Cup finals.
203
204While Jericho grew up in Winnipeg, where his father lived before and after his NHL days, he was actually born in New York and grew up there until the age of about four or five and attended hockey games in MSG as a young child, so it meant a lot to him that his 25th anniversary show would be in the building, not just because it’s MSG which is a big deal to everyone to begin with, but for personal reasons.
205
206Jericho was a total babyface on the show. He showed no signs of the heel tease at the Night of Champions show, that has since not been followed up on.
207
2081. Zack Ryder pinned Bo Dallas. This was a dark match. The original plan was to show the entire card starting at 7:30 p.m., but that was changed maybe a week out to start at 8 p.m. so the first two matches weren’t on the special. Ryder won with the Rough Ryder.
209
2102. Mark Henry pinned Brad Maddox. Henry won with the world’s strongest slam in less than one minute. Henry did a few power moves and that was it, as Maddox had no offense.
211
2123. Randy Orton & Dolph Ziggler beat Sheamus & Rusev in 8:39. A basic good match. The heels worked over Ziggler until he hot tagged. Ziggler superkicked Rusev off the apron and Sheamus attacked Orton from behind. Ziggler then superkicked Sheamus into an RKO by Orton. After the match, Rusev yelled at Sheamus for losing, calling him a “Stupid Non-American.” Rusev said he could have beaten both of them himself. He told Sheamus that he was as useless as Lana. Sheamus then laid out Rusev with a Brogue kick. ***
213
214Kane was backstage on crutches.
215
2164. Neville pinned Stardust in 7:25. A rushed version of their usual house show match, ending with Neville winning cleanly with the red arrow. I don’t think it’s possible for Neville to have a bad match, but this program hasn’t done much for him, because Stardust has been given no booking credibility. This wasn’t bad at all, but it had the last interest and felt like a place-holder between matches with stars. **3/4
217
218Paul Heyman did a promo putting over Madison Square Garden. He said Madison Square Garden will be suplex city later.
219
2205. The Bellas & Alicia Fox beat Paige & Charlotte & Becky Lynch in 8:25. Really weird that Paige would be teaming with Charlotte & Lynch, given the last few weeks of television, although the dissension was the key storyline of the match. The crowd chanted, “We Want Sasha.” Charlotte had Nikki beat with the figure eight when Paige tagged herself in. Charlotte started yelling at Paige for doing so. Paige worked for a minute or so, went to tag out, but both Charlotte and Lynch jumped off the apron to turn the tables on her. Nikki then pinned Paige with the rack attack. Paige complained after the match about her teammates doing that to her, and said she was their best friend. **1/4
221
2226. Kevin Owens pinned Chris Jericho in 8:09 to retain the IC title. JBL in announcing kept pushing that Jericho was going after a record 10th title win. A hot match but with the limited time, they were going into big moves quickly. Jericho went for the lionsault and Owens got his knees up. Owens went for a swanton but Jericho got his knees up. Jericho finally hit the codebreaker but Owens got his hand on the ropes. Owens hit a superkick and went for the pop up power bomb. Jericho reversed it into a huracanrana and put Owens in the Walls of Jericho. But Owens won with an eye poke and small package. With the benefit of hindsight and the show ending seven minutes early (and given it’s a live show on their network, hitting a prescribed time cue didn’t even need to be an issue), this match could have been the best thing on the show had they been given twice as long. ***1/4
223
2247. The Dudleys beat Big E & Kofi Kingston via DQ in 6:37 of a WWE tag title match. The New Day came out and Xavier Woods complained about being put through a table and led chants of “Save the tables.” The Dudleys hit the 3-D on Kingston, when Woods interfered for the DQ. Just so uncreative to repeat an identical screw job finish from the previous big show, and also to do such a short match when this match was so heavily promoted coming in. The New Day beat them down after the match and went to put Devon through a table, but Bubba threw Kingston off the top rope and threw Big E out of the ring. Woods tried to escape, but he was caught and put through a table. **½
225
2268. Brock Lesnar pinned Big Show in 4:08. Very simple match with Show with the three choke slams and Lesnar kicked out and started hitting German suplexes. After losing Show because of his size, Lesnar got Show up and hit the F-5 for the pin. He left, and then came back in. Show went to punch him but Lesnar hit an overhead belly-to-belly suplex. Lesnar then hit a second F-5. Lesnar left Show laying. When Show finally got up, ring announcer Eden Stiles tried to get a sympathy face reaction for Show as a babyface, which made no sense, given Lesnar is the most popular guy in the promotion right now and was a total babyface here. The crowd still booed Show even when they did the tricks to make him cheered. It’s now a running joke about Show going from face to heel on every single show, but it’s created a situation where nobody has any emotional investment in his character. Even though really short for the advertised main event, given the Lesnar character and Show’s role to put him over like a monster to get ready for Undertaker, this match was what it should have been. **½
227
2289. John Cena pinned Seth Rollins in 22:42 to retain the U.S. title in a cage match. Excellent match, although not as good as their two previous PPV matches. Rollins was rubbing Cena’s face into the cage. Cena tried the Attitude Adjustment but Rollins grabbed the cage to block it. Cena sidestepped Rollins coming off the ropes and put him in the STF. Both were climbing and Rollins hit Cena with the cage door for a near fall. Cena catapulted him into the corner but Rollins grabbed the cage and started climbing. Cena climbed up after him and threw him down. Cena was over the top but Rollins pulled him back over. Rollins used a superplex and then a falcon arrow for a near fall. Rollins climbed over but Cena came after and grabbed Rollins by the hair and pulled him back in. Both were throwing punches on the top of the cage. Cena came off the top into a tornado DDT for a near fall. Rollins slammed the door on Cena’s head and again tried to climb out and Cena brought him back in. Cena tried the Attitude Adjustment, but Rollins landed on his feet. Rollins hit two superkicks for near falls. Cena came back with the STF in the middle but Rollins reversed it into a crossface. Cena got up but Rollins used a low blow and started climbing again. Demon Kane came out, no longer needing crutches. Rollins was on the top of the cage and could have climbed over. The idea was that he wouldn’t climb down because Kane was there ready to kill him if he did. The problem is, Kane wasn’t in position so he had to stay on the cage and wait for Kane to get there, which was awkward. So instead, Rollins went for a splash off the cage. Cena moved, hit the Attitude Adjustment and got the pin. After the match Kane got in the cage and laid Rollins out with a choke slam and a tombstone piledriver. ****
229
230It’s been sad of late watching TNA, particularly when you compare the feel of the product from the beginning of the year when they taped in the U.K.
231
232It shows how much momentum and crowd enthusiasm means. While ratings did not increase during the weeks of hot television, they have steadily decreased since with the deader crowds at multiple day tapings in the same location in Orlando.
233
234The company held what is traditionally its biggest show of the year, Bound for Glory, on 10/4 at the Carrabus Arena in Concord, NC. It was billed from Charlotte, although it was really about 30 miles away. It was the climax of a long-term storyline where Matt Hardy had been chasing champion Ethan Carter III for months, and always losing. Hardy wasn’t even added to the match until a backstage segment told of the stipulations of a match taped months ago, where the advertised EC III vs. Drew Galloway match turned into a three-way. For storyline purposes of keeping EC III’s gimmick alive of never having been pinned or submitted in TNA, Hardy pinned Galloway to take the title.
235
236But as it turned out, that wasn’t the case either.
237
238The storyline is that EC 3 went to court, claiming that Jeff Hardy (who was the referee in the match and hit EC 3 with two chair shots leading to the finish), conspired with his brother to end his title reign. He claimed that Dixie Carter’s personal feelings (she and EC 3 had become adversaries) caused her to allow Matt Hardy into the title match, and then appointed a disgruntled former EC 3 employee, Jeff, as referee.
239
240They claimed that he got an injunction against Hardy appearing as champion. As the story went, it would be months before there would be a hearing, so Hardy, for the good of the company and the good of the business, relinquished the title. TNA would then announce on television this week the status of the title.
241
242At the last set of tapings, in what was originally told to spectators that it was a tournament that would air on various One Night Only shows, they filmed a series of matches that will be for the championship. There will probably be a lot of backstage segments shot to fulfill the next several weeks of television and back up the tournament. What’s notable is this tournament was taped from 7/22 to 7/26, so a lot of the talent that will be in the tournament is no longer with the promotion.
243
244Among those who will be back on TV include Austin Aries, James Storm (whose blow-off just aired this past week), Bram and Crimson. Bobby Roode, Abyss, Robbie E, Matt Hardy and Bobby Lashley all appeared to be doing well.
245
246It was announced the tournament would be done similar to the World Cup in soccer, with 32 wrestlers divided into eight groups of four wrestlers. Winners get three points, losers zero, and a draw means each person gets one. A block would normally mean everyone wrestles everyone, which would 48 matches.
247
248The TNA press release reads that the top two point getters in each block advance to the final 16. They will be a single elimination tournament from that point. The tournament will make up most of the television for the next two months.
249
250Perhaps Matt Hardy, being from Cameron, NC, about 85 miles away, cutting hot interviews for five or six weeks about going for the title would have sold tickets locally and created more interest in this show. TNA’s policy of not promoting the matches and stipulations of its PPV cards until the last week or two has been a failure from the beginning, and one they never have learned from. Hardy cut a great promo for the match. Unfortunately it was on this show right before the match, as opposed to weeks ago.
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252If you watched every week of television, and were into it the Hardy chase, the show had a strong conclusion. But you could tell most in the arena hadn’t been following the television and it came across as three hours of matches that most didn’t know much about. Plus, for the fans into the Hardys chase, the way the storyline ended was a slap in the face to everyone who bought the show.
253
254While it makes the title and company look bad with the idea a guy wins the title on the big show of the year and it means nothing, it was a way to get out of a bad situation that comes from taping so far ahead. They couldn’t very well tape television in July in this day and age and have someone wearing a title belt that wasn’t going to win it until October. There are other ways around it, but this was the one they chose.
255
256The show drew 1,800 fans, a great number by TNA standards, but much of that was paper. They were even inviting people to come in free as the show was going on. The lack of crowd interest hurt a lot of the matches. Aside from a gauntlet match that was among the worst matches on a major show this year, the wrestling was fine, but nothing stood out.
257
258There was a scare in the first match. Tigre Uno, who still had the X title on TV’s already taped, thus had to keep his title, suffered a separated shoulder while doing a 450 off the top rope to the floor on DJ Zema Ion in a four-way Ultimate X match that also included Manik and Andrew Everett. If it was a regular match, he could have gutted it out and scored a quick pin.
259
260Here, he had to climb to the top of the cable and move to the center of the overhang, grab the belt and come down with it. He got to the top, and instead of using his hands like usual to work his way to the center, he wrapped his legs around the cable and using more legs than arms, was able to move to the center, kick Everett off the cable and grab the belt. Several officials stood under the cable to help him down rather than the normal letting go and falling into the ring holding the belt.
261
262Reports are that he’ll only be out of action a few weeks.
263
264A. Shawn Schultz pinned John Skyler in the dark match. These are two area wrestlers. Schultz had worked on the house show loop. Both work for the local PWX promotion that runs the arena and helped promote the show.
265
2661. Tigre Uno retained the X title in a four-way Ultimate X match over Manik, Andrew Everett and DJ Zema Ion in 9:07. This was the high flying spotfest it was designed to be. Everett did a springboard double missile dropkick. Ion jumped off Uno’s back and dove over the top on Manik. Uno then did a twisting corkscrew dive over the top. Everett followed with a springboard shooting star dive on everyone. The rest of the match was a lot of climbing and being knocked off the cables. Everett did a 630 senton on Manik. Fans were behind Everett, who is from North Carolina and regularly works local shows in the area. The finish saw Everett on the cables and knocking Manik off. Uno then got to the top and worked his way to the center holding the cables with his leg and kicked Everett off the cables. He took a wild bump off the cables into the ring on his back and Uno grabbed the belt for the win. This had the best reaction of any match on the show. After the match, Gregory Shane Helms, who has worked for several months as an agent for TNA, and is from the area, came out. He confronted Uno, who must be about five-feet tall because Helms looked like he was an overweight Kevin Nash next to him. They said that Helms was the longest reigning cruiserweight champion in the history of wrestling. Fans expected Helms to attack Uno, but instead, they shook hands. In theory, this would mean Helms is going to start a series of matches with Uno, but it’s TNA, so who knows. ***½
267
2682. Tyrus won a Gauntlet for the Gold Rumble gauntlet over Ken Anderson, Jessie Godderz, Eli Drake, Al Snow, Aiden O’Shea (formerly Jeff Bradley), Robbie E, Mahabili Shera, Chris Melendez, Tommy Dreamer, Abyss and The Pope in 24:33. It wasn’t all dreadful, but that was probably the best word to describe the match as a whole. It was supposed to be like a Royal Rumble, with guys coming in every two minutes, except they came in whenever. At first, as with TNA rules in these kinds of matches, when it came down to two, they do a match with regular rules. However, Josh Matthews said here that when they came down to the last two, the rules had been changed and it was pinfall, submission or over the top rope. The winner would become the No. 1 contender for the TNA title. Although in the post-match segment, they acted like it would be that the winner could challenge for any title, as when Tyrus won, EC 3 came out and talked about them challenging for the tag team title. It started with Anderson vs. Godderz. Drake came in at 2:09. Snow came in at 3:47. He’s now dating a bodybuilder. If he was 30, and could move like he did at 30, and had this body, Vince would have seen him in a totally different light. O’Shea came in at 4:53. Robbie E was in at 7:27. Snow threw Drake out at 8:50. Shera came in at 9:05. He was so awful. This was where the match turned into a joke. Shera decked everyone with the worst punches you’ll ever see, making John Cena look like Jerry Lawler. Then he started doing his dance, the Shera Shake. On TNA TV, they say it’s the craze that is sweeping the nation. Then everyone stopped selling and got up and did his dance with him, except O’Shea was the last holdout. He’s doing this gimmick where he’s an Irish brawler, a cross between The Crusher and Brad Pickett, basically the last guy who would do this. So he did it, but then went heel as he stopped dancing to attack Shera. At 10:46, Shera clotheslined O’Shea over the top. Tyrus entered at 11:07. Melendez was in at 12:41. Tyrus then played monster from here. He clotheslined Snow out at 13:59. He clotheslined Melendez out at 14:02. Tyrus eliminated Shera at 14:21. Dreamer entered at 14:33. Dreamer was wearing polka dots as a tribute to Dusty Rhodes, who was one of his favorite wrestlers growing up. It’s so weird that these guys do this when Rhodes himself said in one of his last tweets before his death that he was sick of pictures of him dancing with the polka dots and that it was one year and three months (actually a little longer than that) of a 50 year career. Dreamer was not only emulating Rhodes’ trademark flip, flop and fly and other spots, but also emulating his physique. Still, Dreamer always gets a pop because people see him as a real star from when wrestling was cool, with loud “ECW” chants and he got one of the biggest reactions on the show and easily the biggest in this match. He’s really slowed down, though. In his tribute to old wrestler spots, he did a diamond cutter to Robbie E. Abyss arrived at 16:23. He laid everyone out until he and Tyrus were the only ones standing. They just stood there. Then, from the announcers desk, Pope, dressed in nice clothes, jumped into the ring and said he was entering at 17:16. This also got a big easy pop using the copying WWE announcer entering the Rumble spot. Pope came in, and the two big guys, Tyrus and Abyss, looked at him. He got scared, jumped over the top and eliminated himself at 18:02. That was so awful. Two tower of doom spots were set up which the crowd popped for. Tyrus clotheslined Abyss out at 20:03. Godderz used a huracanrana to flip Robbie out at 21:15. Anderson threw Dreamer out in 21:41. Godderz pressed Anderson overhead, but Anderson landed on his feet, hit the mic check and threw Godderz out in 22:12. This left Tyrus vs. Anderson as the final two. Anderson did the forward fireman’s carry on Tyrus for a near fall, followed by a swanton. But Tyrus pinned him with a spike. EC 3 came out and congratulated him. They hugged. EC 3 brought up how now they can go after the tag titles since Tyrus is a little big to challenge for the X title and we know he’s not challenging for the TNA title. Tyrus said how he did this on his own, and he’s not challenging for the tag title, the X title, the Knockouts title (thank God for that) or the King of the Mountain title. He said that he’s done EC 3 all kinds of favors, but now wants his shot at the TNA title. DUD
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2703. Eddie Edwards & Davey Richards retained the tag titles beating Trevor Lee & Brian Myers in 13:50. Real good. Edwards was worked over early, came back with a huracanrana on both and hot tagged Richards. They got heat on him. The Wolves did a double tope spot. They went to a series of near falls. The finish saw Richards use a superplex off the top rope on Lee, and then he and Edwards used the Chasing the Dragon brainbuster kick to the head finish on Lee and Richards pinned him. ***½
271
2724. Bobby Roode pinned Bobby Lashley in 14:10 to retain the King of the Mountain title. They laid out your PPV main event style match where you kick out of the other guys’ big move, and then you do the other guys’ big move. It’s the attempt to do the classic match and there was nothing wrong with it but the crowd was so dead they weren’t buying it. Part of it was no face vs. heel dynamic. So few watch the show now so I’m not sure people know Roode is a face, because they seemed confused how to react. Lashley has been a face a little longer when viewership was higher. Josh Matthews talked about how Lashley is 276 pounds, which would be sort of silly because you can see he’s nowhere close, but even more because the guy fights heavyweight (meaning no drastic weight cut), and was under 240 last time, and was only slightly lighter than he is now. Cool spot where Roode came off the top with a blockbuster, but Lashley caught him and gave him a Stampede and then speared him. Roode kicked out. Roode used the Roode bomb and Lashley kicked out. They traded submission attempts. Lashley gave Roode his own Roode bomb for a near fall. So it was Roode’s turn and he speared Lashley, who kicked out. The finish saw Lashley slam Roode off the top, but miss a spear. Roode went for the Roode bomb, Lashley escaped and put on a Kimura, but Roode escaped and hit the Roode bomb for the pin. It actually reads pretty good, and from a technical standpoint, it was, but the audience wasn’t into it. **3/4
273
274They showed a video clip of Earl Hebner being inducted into the Hall of Fame the night before in Salem, VA. They showed maybe 20 seconds from there. Billy Corgan came out and aired video highlights of Hebner’s career. Of course they had no video of the Crockett and WWF days but did use some still photos. In the video, they claimed Earl Hebner was a household name and called him the greatest referee in the history of wrestling. They had a lot of people talk about how much they liked him and how funny he was, and his son Brian gave him a great testimonial about what a great dad he was. He came out to the ring and got a very nice reaction. He seemed really happy with this.
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2765. Gail Kim pinned Awesome Kong to retain the Knockouts title in 9:59. Kong’s back is so messed up she couldn’t do a thing, so it made this match real tough, and the dead crowd for it didn’t help. They tried to get around it by doing chain wrestling on the ground, but huge people doing really slow chain wrestling almost never gets over and it didn’t here. Kong used a splash off the middle rope and Kim kicked out. That just felt wrong when a huge woman comes off the middle rope on someone half her size and she still kicks out. Kong went for a chair but Chef Robert Irvine, Kim’s husband, who has been part of TNA storylines in the past, grabbed the chair from Kong from his seat in the front row. Earl Hebner started yelling at Irvine about interfering. He started yelling at Hebner to do his job. So while Irvine and Hebner are yelling at each other, Kong gave Kim the implant buster (Angel’s wings) onto a bunch of chairs on the floor. Great job Irvine did protecting his wife, but luckily for him, she kicked out, or else he’s on the couch for the next week. There was no pop for her kicking out either. Kong tried a power bomb, it was reversed into a huracanrana and Kong kicked out. Kim kicked out of a spinning backfist, and then won with eat defeat and a small package. *
277
2786. Kurt Angle beat Eric Young in 13:06. Angle got a big reaction, like the people see him as a legit star compared to everyone else. They were chanting his name. So Christy Hemme announced this was a no DQ match. Then Angle grabbed the mic and said that he had just talked to Dixie Carter backstage, and we’re not going to have a wrestling match, we’re going to have a no DQ match. They probably should have alerted Hemme not to spoil his promo. They went a few minutes and Young hit a piledriver. Angle sold it like he was injured. A doctor and EMTs and Pat Kenney all came out. The doctor then stopped the match and ruled Angle unable to continue. But the bell never rang. They were carrying Angle backstage and he was holding his neck. Then Young attacked Kenney, gave a low blow to the doctor and threw him into the ring steps. He decked Brian Stiffler (who was helping Angle to the back). He attacked Angle. Angle told him the match was over. He didn’t care. He went after Angle’s neck. Young hit Angle with a chair shot to the head. He held back enough that this wasn’t a bad deal. He set up a piledriver on the floor. Angle powered out and used a German suplex on the floor. Angle started making a comeback with three German suplexes and an Olympic slam, but Young kicked out. Young came back and threw Angle into the post twice and used the elbow off the top. He turned Angle over and gave him an elbow off the top to the back of the head as well, but Angle kicked out. Young crotched Angle on the top rope twice and went for a piledriver off the middle rope, but Angle escaped. Young went for a sunset flip power bomb off the top rope but Angle rolled him into the ankle lock. Young made the ropes, but it was pointed out this was no DQ, which means no rope breaks. Angle pulled Young to the center and he tapped out. So Angle won the match that was stopped and he lost nine minutes earlier. The match told a story, but the doctor stopping it and the bell not ringing part was really stupid. The lack of crowd reaction hurt it. Also, the live crowd had no idea what was going on with the injury angle part of the match since they couldn’t hear that the match had been stopped, so the whole idea of what they were doing didn’t get over live. ***
279
2807. Matt Hardy won the TNA title in a three-way over champion Ethan Carter III and Drew Galloway in 19:59. Jeff Hardy was referee. He painted his face like it was a striped referee shirt. They showed Matt’s baby son and his wife at ringside. Matt made it clear his father was there as well. Jeff threw Tyrus out at the start of the match. Galloway did a running flip dive aiming for both but EC 3 moved and it took out Matt. Galloway used white noise on EC 3 on the stairs. Galloway and EC 3 were both laid out and Matt used a moonsault on both at the same time for a near fall. EC 3 threw Matt into Jeff. Matt had EC 3 pinned after a side effect but Jeff was down. Galloway used a future shock DDT on Matt, but EC 3 threw Galloway out and tried to steal the pin, but Matt kicked out. EC 3 put Galloway on a table outside the ring. EC 3 then suplexed Matt from the ring out of the ring onto Galloway and the table broke. Fans popped big for the broken table. EC 3 went for his one percenter on Matt, but Galloway recovered and clotheslined EC 3 to break it up. At another point, Galloway was in the tree of woe position while EC 3 and Matt were fighting on the ropes. Galloway did a sit up and German superplexed both into the ring. Everyone started chopping each other. EC 3 gave both Galloway and Hardy the one percenter but they both kicked out. EC 3 had a bloody mouth. EC 3 at this point decided he was going to save his title via DQ. Except it had already been made clear this was a no DQ match as well. So he kicked Galloway low and told Jeff to DQ him. Jeff refused. EC 3 grabbed a chair. Jeff took the chair away. EC 3 then told Jeff to hit Matt. Given that the whole storyline is that Jeff hates EC 3 and quit working for him, that made no sense. It was like they were doing the deal that since what doesn’t make sense happens in TNA, that they should tease something that doesn’t make sense. Maybe that’s why nobody cares. Jeff didn’t hit Matt with the chair. EC 3 slapped Jeff in the face. Jeff hit EC 3 in the chest and back with a chair. Matt then used the twist of fate on EC 3. Galloway used a running kick on EC 3 and Matt then hit Galloway with the twist of fate and pinned Galloway to win the title. So EC 3 survived a chair from Jeff, Matt & Drew’s finish, and was never pinned while he lost the title because Galloway was pinned. The show ended with the Hardy family celebration including his wife, his baby son and his father. The crowd wasn’t into the post-match like the local guy had just won the world title, but it was more than anything else and it was clear the Hardys and Angle were the stars live. EC 3 was leaving and started yelling at Dixie Carter and John Gaburick. He threw Gaburick over a table and they cut back to Matt celebrating. ***
281
282Conor McGregor had been chiding Urijah Faber for months, dating back to when the current season of The Ultimate Fighter started being taped, saying that T.J. Dillashaw, Team Alpha Male’s lone champion, who Faber thought was his friend and who he recruited into the sport, was a “backstabbing snake in the grass.”
283
284Most figured it was just McGregor saying things to get a rise out of Faber and for controversy. But McGregor turned out to be prophetic when Globo in Brazil reported on 10/5 that Dillashaw was leaving Team Alpha Male and doing his training with Duane Ludwig in Denver.
285
286Ludwig and Dillashaw were known to be close, and Dillashaw trained with both camps prior to his last fight with Renan Barao. Ludwig and Faber had a major falling out. It at first was portrayed as cordial, because Ludwig wanted to open up his own gym in Denver. But it later became a lot worse, with Ludwig saying that nobody but Dillashaw from the camp trained hard enough to be world champion. Faber two weeks ago on the MMA Hour said Ludwig was a bully and trying to break down his former team and gave a laundry list of problems, mostly money related, and saying Ludwig refused to work with any women (Paige VanZant is one of the star fighters on the team), and telling one female fighter that she was terrible and should quit. Faber also claimed that African-American members of the team had complained to him about things Ludwig had said. He also brought up an issue with a UFC executive who Ludwig tried to get free tickets from for a show. The tickets didn’t go through. If it’s a big show where tickets are selling well, it is very difficult to get free tickets, even for celebrity guests at times. I know of instances where celebrities were turned away requesting free tickets. Other shows that aren’t as big, it’s not as big an issue. He said Ludwig confronted the executive in front of his wife and put his hands on the guy. The guy called Faber to say that if he was to report this, Ludwig wouldn’t be allowed to coach at UFC shows. He said he had to tell Ludwig he was on the verge of being banned by UFC as a coach and that you can’t bully people or try to intimidate people. Faber said he talked the executive out of reporting the incident and instead got Ludwig to apologize.
287
288Dillashaw told MMA Fighting that for his fight with Dominick Cruz on 1/17, he will be doing all his training in Colorado. He said the members of Team Alpha Male were like brothers and it’s not the end of him being with the team, but would be training for his next fight exclusively with the Elevation Fight Team. Ludwig isn’t part of that team, but being in Denver, he will be coaching Dillashaw.
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290Faber first met Dillashaw when he was a high school wrestler, a small-town wrestler from Bret Harte High School in Angels Camp, who placed second in the state as a senior. Dillashaw went to Cal State Fullerton on a full scholarship and went to the NCAA tournament three times, but never placed. Faber recruited him out of college to join his team and he started training with the team in 2009. He had four pro fights before he got on the fall season of 2011 Ultimate Fighter, where he lost in the finals to John Dodson. He scored one of the biggest title win upsets in UFC history when he defeated Barao for the bantamweight title on May 24, 2014, in Las Vegas as an 8-to-1 underdog. He has since retained the title twice, most recently headlining the 7/25 FOX show in Chicago where he stopped Barao in the fourth round of a one-sided fight.
291
292When Dillashaw won the title, there was immediate talk of a Dillashaw vs. Faber fight, because Faber was the most marketable contender in the division. Faber made it clear he wouldn’t consider such a fight, and Dillashaw said he didn’t want it either.
293
294Two pro wrestling Hall of Famers were in the news this past week in Japan regarding politics.
295
296Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (equivalent to a U.S. President) officially announced on 10/7 that Hiroshi Hase, 54, has been added as a new member of his cabinet. Hase was named the new Minister of Education and Science. The cabinet appointments got mainstream publicity not only in Japan, but were covered by major media around the world. In announcing the new appointments, Abe talked about having to strengthen Japan’s economy, which is in rough shape.
297
298While Hase, whose position is not economy based, did not get the most publicity of the five new appointments, there were headlines about Japan’s cabinet adding a pro wrestler and a former female news anchor.
299
300Hase will replace Hakubun Shimomura, who was ordered to resign when the public turned on his idea to bid for the 2020 Olympics for Tokyo and building a new stadium due to the costs.
301
302Hase represented Japan as a wrestler in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, although he didn’t place. He was expected to take a job as a College Professor after his amateur wrestling career ended, but instead signed with New Japan Pro Wrestling. He actually started his career in Puerto Rico and Calgary, gaining his first attention with a great series of matches with Owen Hart. When he returned to Japan, he was made an instant star, winning the IWGP junior heavyweight title in his first match.
303
304Hase was a solid star with New Japan. He was really the guy just under the big three of Keiji Muto, Shinya Hashimoto and Masahiro Chono, as New Japan grew to be the most successful promotion in the world during the early-and-mid 90s when American wrestling was at its all-time low point. He never won the IWGP title, but did win the WCW International title (the title that came from being the NWA world title but had to change its name when the NWA board and WCW had a falling out) and he and Kensuke Sasaki were one of the best tag teams of that era.
305
306But he was more valuable behind-the-scenes, as Riki Choshu’s assistant, and had incredible respect among the wrestlers, both as a worker and behind the scenes. He was one of the best in the world inside the ring, with a smooth style and was best respected for his ability to carry people and make people. His role was to put over the guys who were being groomed for the top, and make them look great, including some who really weren’t very good. He also was involved in training a number of Russian legitimate athletes from wrestling and judo who came to New Japan during that period, most notably Salman Hashimikov and Victor Zangiev (who the character in the Street Fighter game Zangief was modeled after).
307
308He had a falling out with New Japan largely over recruiting a college wrestling champion, Hiromitsu Gompei, who died while in a training session with Sasaki, and the company would not give Hase a good answer as to what happened. His career in wrestling as a full-timer was already over since he had won election to the House of Councilors from Ishikawa, where he was considered a popular local sports hero.
309
310He switched allegiances to All Japan. He wrestled a few times a year and later was the figurehead president of the Pacific Wrestling Federation, which was considered the governing body over the various All Japan championships. He was also a key player in arranging the sale of the promotion from Motoko Baba, the widow of founder Giant Baba, to a group which put Keiji Muto in charge. That didn’t turn out well because the company went way down under Muto, but it kept the company alive because Motoko Baba was independently wealthy and after 30 years, wanted to no longer have to run a wrestling company.
311
312Hase has served in Japanese Parliament most of the time since 1995 (he lost one election in the past 20 years but has been in otherwise the entire period), which was when he stopped wrestling as a full-timer, although he continued to wrestle from time-to-time while in office, with his final match coming in 2006.
313
314In a correction from last week’s story on Atsushi Onita running for Mayor. He is actually running for Mayor of Sodeguara, which is a 60,000 population city that is a suburb of Chiba, not for Mayor of Chiba itself.
315
316After the disaster that was TripleMania, AAA rebounded with a strong Heroes Inmortales show on 10/4.
317
318The annual event honors Antonio Pena, the founder of the promotion, whose sister, brother-in-law and nephew have kept the company alive since his death. The show was reported as sold out with 10,000 fans, in the hometown of Alberto El Patron. Alberto headlined, defending his AAA Mega heavyweight title against Johnny Mundo. With the stage it looked like considerably less than that, although it was clearly packed.
319
320The show was broadcast on iPPV and had minimal problems live, but several attempts to watch it on delay had plenty of issues with the stream dying. To show the difference in how badly that first show hurt, just from our own standpoint, we got 100 responses to TripleMania which was helped by airing on regular PPV. We received 50 responses to the CMLL Anniversary show on iPPV (which, scary enough, is more than TNA’s biggest show of the year on regular PPV), but we only got eight responses to this (all thumbs up), even with a feud built off American TV as the main event. Granted, iPPV is a tougher sell, but that really shows how much damage was done by the first show among the most hardcore fan base.
321
322The show established Myzteziz as a lone wolf, not a face, nor a heel, but still feuding with Rey Mysterio Jr. El Hijo del Fantasma is the new leader of La Sociedad, which continues to feud with Alberto El Patron and Rey Mysterio Jr. on top. The main event saw Alberto retain his AAA Mega title beating Johnny Mundo via DQ for a guitar shot. But the heels then attacked Mundo and Mysterio saved him. Myzteziz attacked Mysterio and then the heels nailed Myzteziz with a guitar shot. Eventually Mysterio and Alberto cleaned house and Alberto thanked his home town fans.
323
324The show opened with a Myzteziz promo. He came out slapping hands with fans and hugging babies, then cut a promo on Mysterio as well as La Sociedad. He said he doesn’t need help winning matches like Pentagon Jr. and El Hijo del Fantasma. The crowd cheered him more than booed him at first. He wasn’t nearly as over as in the past, but a lot of the crowd clearly didn’t know he’d turned either.
325
3261. Taya Valkyrie retained her Reina de Reinas (Queen of Queens) title over Goya Kong, La Hiedra, Lady Shani and Lady Maravilla in 10:14. The last two women were surprises. Maravilla has been training in Mexico City under Gran Apache. Shani debuted with the promotion two weeks earlier. Lots of dives late and the match was said to be good. Taya used a Northern lights suplex and double foot stomp on Hiedra to win.
327
3282. Jack Evans & Angelico won the AAA tag team titles in a three-way over champions Joe Lider & Pentagon Jr. and Daga & Steve Pain in 14:04. Lider, Pentagon and Daga are all members of Los Perros Del Mal. Lots of big dives. Angelico did his running flip dive over the post. Angelico had Daga on his shoulders and Evans moonsaulted off Daga in that position over the top to the floor on Pentagon. Lider brought out thumbtacks. Daga and Angelico were brawling on the stage when Myzteziz superkicked Angelico. Myzteziz then attacked Pentagon. Evans pinned Pain with a bridging backslide. After, Lider & Pentagon argued with Evans & Angelico. Nonstop big moves and said to be a very good match.
329
3303. Brian Cage & Mesias beat Drago & Fenix in 13:27. This was power heels against flying faces. Drago did a corkscrew dive and then stepped to the second rope with a double corkscrew. Fenix went for a springboard Frankensteiner off the top rope but Mesias caught him and power bombed him at the same time Cage was taking out Drago. Mesias pulled off Fenix’s mask after the match. Also said to be good.
331
332Next was a ceremony to honor Pena. The crowd chanted “Tono,” his nickname. His sister, Marisela was nearly in tears.
333
3344. Surprise wrestler Taurus won the Antonio Pena Cup over Cibernetico, La Parka, Blue Demon Jr., Averno, El Hijo de Pirata Morgan, Electroshock, Aero Star, Chessman and Nino Hamburguesa in 12:10. This match was under Royal Rumble style rules. It was all about getting over Taurus as a new star, as he eliminated Parka to win, and also eliminated Aero Star, Morgan, Hamburguesa, Demon Jr. and Cibernetico. After Taurus dumped Demon and Cibernetico together, it came down to him, Chessman, Parka and Averno. Parka threw out Chessman and Averno. Parka and Taurus went 24 seconds as the last two before Taurus won. The crowd was shocked because they had no idea who the guy was, and he didn’t play face or heel. The match itself wasn’t much, but it was all about an attempt to make a new star in one match. This may have a Lucha Underground connection because during the first season there was a photo of a Dario Cueto notebook with names of wrestlers and one of the names was Taurus, and there had been rumors of a Taurus character coming in.
335
3365. Myzteziz & El Hijo del Fantasma & El Texano Jr. beat Rey Mysterio Jr. & Psycho Clown & Garza Jr. in 18:31. Garza Jr. was the babyface surprise partner. He is the former El Hijo de Ninja, from the Ninja Brothers team, in Monterrey, which everyone there knows are part of the Garza family. Konnan and Mysterio saw him on an overseas tour and raved about how great he was. He’s a big star on the Monterrey circuit because he’s been on mainstream television and a reality show, not to mention the Garza family is big in that city. Outside of that market, he’s not known at all. The crowd got into him since he worked like his uncle Hector. Of course they beat him clean even though the heel team didn’t get along and that was the key to the storyline. Myzteziz didn’t get along with his partners. Mysterio was presented flowers and Myzteziz destroyed them. Much of the match was Myzteziz avoiding face Mysterio after he turned on him at TripleMania. The faces did a triple dive. Garza did a moonsault to the floor. Myzteziz pinned Garza clean with a backstabber and a swanton. Myzteziz was a complete heel when this was over.
337
3386. Alberto El Patron beat Johnny Mundo via DQ in 14:00 to retain the AAA Mega heavyweight title. This was said to be not nearly as good as their Ultima Lucha match. Cage was in Mundo’s corner and Psycho Clown was in Alberto’s corner. Alberto hit a tope early. They ended up in the crowd with Mundo throwing chips at him. Mundo threw water in Alberto’s eyes. He put Alberto through a table. Lots of near falls. Ref Maya was knocked down by Alberto. This brought out heel ref El Hijo del Tirantes. Alberto got Mundo in the armbar, but Mundo refused to submit. Cage gave Mundo a guitar and Mundo hit Alberto in the head with it right in front of the ref. The crowd was furious. Mundo covered him, Tirantes counted one, stopped the count, and then DQ’d Mundo for the guitar shot. Cage & Mundo then beat down Alberto & Psycho. Mysterio ran in and hit a double 619 on Cage and Mundo. Myzteziz then attacked Mysterio. Myzteziz took Mysterio’s mask off. The top heels in La Sociedad hit the ring, and surprised everyone by attacking Myzteziz. Fantasma told Myzteziz he should have joined them when he had the chance. Cibernetico then hit Myzteziz over the head with a guitar. Mundo then issued another challenge to Alberto. Alberto and Mysterio finally got up and cleared the ring. The show ended with Alberto doing a pro-Mexico promo.
339
340Here’s a rundown on the business for August for WWE & TNA.
341
342For the month, WWE averaged 5,167 paid per domestic house show. Keep in mind that these figures do not include the NXT shows, the PPV or a show in San Juan which WWE considers domestic but we don’t. That’s up 4.3% from last year’s 4,953. It does include SummerSlam and Raw from New York and there was some momentum this year in the build to SummerSlam.
343
344The 2013 number was 4,725, 2012 was 5,634 and 2011 was 4,474, so August based on recent historical levels was still fine.
345
346This is broken down for regular house shows, based on what was advertised. John Cena had a broken nose and many shows sold on his name that he didn’t wrestle on took place.
347
348For main events that were advertised more than twice in the month: Seth Rollins vs. Dean Ambrose averaged 3,700. Roman Reigns vs. Bray Wyatt averaged 4,900. Cena vs. Seth Rollins (coming off the broken nose) averaged 5,500. Total Cena main events averaged 5,200. Rollins main events averaged 4,900. Ambrose main events averaged 3,700. Kevin Owens main events averaged 4,800. Reigns and Wyatt main events averaged 4,900. So in August there was no major individual difference maker past Cena being one to a small degree. For a comparison, last year Cena on top (with Kane no less) he averaged 6,975, while Reigns averaged in the mid-4,000 range, so at that time there was a huge difference.
349
350Raw in August averaged a 2.71 rating and 3.79 million viewers. The rating is down 8.4% and audience down 8.0% from last year’s 2.96 rating and 4.12 million viewers. This was against some preseason football, which doesn’t affect Raw nearly as much as the regular season. The 2013 number was a 3.06 rating and 4.20 million viewers, and 2012 was a 3.07 rating and 4.37 million viewers.
351
352Smackdown in August averaged a 1.65 rating and 2.21 million viewers. That’s down 12.2% in ratings and 15.6% in viewers from the 1.88 rating and 2.62 million viewers last year. Keep in mind that we are always comparing ratings on Friday, a night that far less people watch television, with Thursday this year so it’s really worse than it seems. The 2013 number was a 1.90 rating and 2.60 million viewers, and 2012 was a 1.89 rating and 2.67 million viewers.
353
354WWE shipped 129,000 DVDs in August, down 17.3% from the 156,000 the previous year. The 2013 number was 184,000 and 2012 was 301,000.
355
356Since December of 2014, the most shipped WWE DVDs have been WrestleMania 31 at 109,000; Slam City at 101,000; Attitude Era Volume 2 at 66,000; Rock vs. Cena Once in a Lifetime at 65,000; and Macho Man: The Randy Savage Story, at 62,000. For a comparison, the Savage DVD outsold last year’s Shawn Michaels DVD, but Ultimate Warrior beat both. WrestleMania shipments were down 24.8% from last year’s 145,000, which is probably a combination of a video business decline and less people wanting it because of the network.
357
358The big positive is that web merchandise orders continue to be way up due to mobile traffic, with them averaging 1,452 orders per day, up 61.3% from 900 last year. While not a major revenue category, this has been one of major growth categories annually, with them averaging 613 orders per day in 2013 and 548 in 2012.
359
360Impact averaged 300,000 viewers for the 9 p.m. show and 60,000 for the midnight replay. Last year in August averaged 1.14 million viewers for the one show on Spike. One-show to one-show drop was 71.4% and two-shows-to-one drop was 68.4%. The penetration drop is only 40%.
361
362Raw on 10/5 did in the same ballpark as the past five weeks, with a 2.34 rating and 3.37 million viewers (1.51 viewers per home). The number was slightly up from the 18-year non-holiday low of a 2.32 rating and 3.32 million viewers the previous week.
363
364The Seattle Seahawks vs. Detroit Lions game head-to-head did 14.40 million viewers, which was up from the past two weeks. So you almost have to call it a victory based on the last month trends. But they were pushing pretty hard that Brock Lesnar would be on, and they were coming off a somewhat promoted big show. Although there was nothing on that Madison Square Garden show that was going to lead to a ratings increase.
365
366The 8 p.m. hour did 3.47 million viewers, the 9 p.m hour did 3.49 million viewers and the 10 p.m. hour did 3.17 million viewers. It is a good sign that they increased in hour two against football, because hour one had the first 15 minutes go unopposed.
367
368An airing of UFC 184 (Ronda Rousey vs. Cat Zingano) on FS 1 on 10/2 did 433,000 viewers, making it the third most-watched prime time sports show that night behind baseball on ESPN and college football on ESPN 2.
369
370Smackdown on 10/1 did a 1.57 rating and 2.13 million viewers (1.45 viewers per home) head to head with the Baltimore Ravens vs. Pittsburgh Steelers game (well, mostly head-to-head) that did 19.43 million viewers on CBS and another 3.61 million viewers on the NFL Network. Smackdown was 10th for the night on cable.
371
372TNA on 9/30 did 275,000 viewers for the 9 p.m. show and 69,000 viewers for the midnight show. For the first airing, it was the fourth lowest since the move to Destination America. If you add the numbers up for both airings, it would be the third lowest, ahead of only 7/1 and 9/16.
373
374ROH on 9/30 did 127,000 viewers for a show headlined by Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Adam Cole, which was the second lowest since they were down to one airing.
375
376Ultimate Fighter on 9/30 did 538,000 viewers. Thus far, this season, with Conor McGregor and Urijah Faber as coaches, is doing the best ratings since the Ronda Rousey vs. Miesha Tate season two years ago. Like that season, it’s also doing big DVR numbers. For the 9/23 episode, there were 235,000 viewers between Thursday and Saturday of the original airing on DVR. For the first three episodes, there was a 50% increase in audience when you add in those who watched it over the next three days on DVR. The show was second in its time slot in the sports category behind a Giants vs. Dodgers game on ESPN that did 674,000 viewers. The Ultimate Fighter post-show on the FS 1 sports news did 131,000 viewers. UFC Tonight that night did 123,000 viewers.
377
378Episode three of Ultimate Fighter was broadcast on FOX on 9/27 outside of prime time and it did 2,016,000 viewers, although that’s misleading because aired adjacent to NFL games.
379
380This is the second issue of the current set. That means if you’ve got a (1) on your address label, your subscription will expire with next week’s issue. There was a computer glitch last week where everyone’s number had not been taken down from the week before, so last week’s number was a mistake.
381
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383
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389
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393
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395
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399
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401
402
403RESULTS
4049/29 Mexico City Arena Mexico (CMLL): Artillero & Super Comando b Flyer & Robin, Okumura & Sangre Azteca & Virus b Oro Jr. & Star Jr. & Triton, Estrellita & Marcela & Princesa Sugei b Amapola & Dallys & Zeuxis, Titan b Kamaitachi, El Terrible & Luciferno & Rey Hechicero b Guerrero Maya Jr. & Stuka Jr. & Valiente, Ephesto & Mephisto & Ultimo Guerrero b Dragon Lee & Maximo & La Sombra
405
40610/1 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (Dradition - 893): Rionne Fujiawara b Nobuyuki Kurashima, Mineo Fujita b Amigo Suzuki, (Sho) Funaki b Leona (Fujinami), Ryota Hama won three-way over Hiro Saito and Bear Fukuda, Alexander Otsuka & Super Tiger b Mitsuya Nagai & Tatsuhito Takaiwa, Yoshihiro Takayama & Nosawa & Buffalo b Leona & Masakatsu Funaki & Hideki Suzuki
407
40810/2 Trenton, NJ (WWE): Neville b Stardust, Tag titles: Big E & Xavier Woods b Dudleys, Mark Henry b Bo Dallas, Dolph Ziggler b Rusev, Sheamus b Cesaro, IC title: Kevin Owens b Chris Jericho, Paige referee: Charlotte & Becky Lynch b Bella Twins, U.S. title: John Cena b Seth Rollins
409
41010/2 Mexico City Arena Mexico (CMLL - 3,500): Demus 3:16 & Pequeno Violencia b Mini Fantasy & Shockercito, Kraneo & Olimpico & Ripper b Blue Panther & Blue Panther Jr. & The Panther, Ultimo Guerrero b Rey Bucanero, Barbaro Cavernario b Dragon Rojo, Luciferno b Dragon Lee, Shocker b Angel de Oro, Ultimo Guerrero b Barbaro Cavernario, Shocker b Dragon Lee, Ultimo Guerrero b Shocker, Brazo de Plata & Maximo & La Mascara b Euforia & Felino & Mr. Niebla, Atlantis & Super Parka & Volador Jr. b Marco Corleone & Rush & La Sombra
411
41210/2 Nashville (WWE NXT - 1,300): Enzo Amore & Big Cass b Chad Gable & Jason Jordan, Bull Dempsey b Elias Sampson, Three-way for women’s title: Bayley won over Alexa Bliss and Emma, Samoa Joe b Baron Corbin, Apollo Crews b Tye Dillinger, Eva Marie b Carmella, Tag titles: Aiden English & Simon Gotch b Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder, NXT title: Finn Balor b Tyler Breeze
413
41410/2 London York Hall (Revolution Pro Wrestling/New Japan Pro Wrestling - 1,200 sellout): Sha Samuels & James Castle b Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima, Martin Kirby b ACH, Shinsuke Nakamura b Big Damo, Jushin Liger & Hiroshi Tanahashi b Gedo & Kazuchika Okada, Kyle O’Reilly b Kushida, Tetsuya Naito b Mark Haskins, Josh Bodom b Jimmy Havoc, RPW title: A.J. Styles won three-way over Will Ospreay and Marty Scurll
415
41610/2 Beckley, WV (TNA - 250): Chance Prophet b Shawn Shultz, Ken Anderson b Jessie Godderz, Tag titles: Eddie Edwards & Davey Richards b Trevor Lee & Andrew Everett, Knockouts title: Gail Kim b ?, Matt Hardy b Eric Young, King of the Mountain title: Bobby Roode b Eli Drake, TNA title: Ethan Carter III b Drew Galloway
417
41810/2 Tijuana (The Crash - 6,000 sellout ): Jr. Title: Star Dragon b Mirage-COR, Star Boy & Tony Casanova & Zarco b Angel Metalico & Dinamic Black & Super Nova, X title: Fenix won four-way over Seiya Sanada, Matt Cross (Son of Havoc) and Angelico, Cibernetico & Taya Valkyrie & Black Mamba b Psycho Clown & Ruby Raze & Pimpinela Escarlata, Cruiserweight title: Bestia 666 b Pentagon Jr. To win title, Alberto El Patron & Rey Mysterio Jr. & Rey Horus b Daga & Extreme Tiger & El Hijo del Fantasma
419
42010/3 Bangor, ME (WWE - 3,000): Cesaro b The Miz, Fandango b Heath Slater, Braun Strowman b Jack Swagger, Sin Cara & Kalisto won three-way over Los Matadores and The Ascension, Natalya b Sasha Banks, Dean Ambrose b Luke Harper, R-Truth b Adam Rose, Ryback b King Barrett, Street fight: Roman Reigns b Bray Wyatt
421
42210/3 Reading, England (Revolution Pro Wrestling/New Japan Pro Wrestling - 850): Tetsuya Naito won three-way over Kushida and Martin Kirby, Lord Gideon Grey b Gedo, Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan b Joel Redman & Mark Haskins, Shinsuke Nakamura b Marty Scurll, Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows b Sha Samuels & James Castle-DQ, Kazuchika Okada b Will Ospreay, Hiroshi Tanahashi b Big Damo, RPW title: A.J. Styles b Jushin Liger
423
42410/3 Louisville Louder than Life Festival (WWE NXT aft. Show - 300 sellout/free show): Enzo Amore & Colin Cassady b Jason Jordan & Chad Gable, Bull Dempsey b Elias Sampson, Emma b Eva Marie, Samoa Joe b Baron Corbin
425
42610/3 Louisville Louder than Life Festival (WWE NXT eve. Show - 300 sellout/free show): Apollo Crews b Tye Dillinger, Women’s title: Bayley b Alexa Bliss, Tag titles: Aiden English & Simon Gotch b Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder, NXT title: Finn Balor b Tyler Breeze
427
42810/3 Salem, VA (TNA - 450): Shawn Schultz b Eric Adams, Ken Anderson b Tyrus, Knockouts title: Gail Kim b Awesome Kong-DQ, King of the Mountain title: Bobby Roode b Eli Drake, Kurt Angle b Eric Young, Tag titles: Eddie Edwards & Davey Richards b Jessie Godderz & Andrew Everett, TNA title: Ethan Carter III won over Matt Hardy and Drew Galloway
429
43010/3 Fukuoka (Dragon Gate - 1,200): Masato Yoshino & T-Hawk b Genki Horiguchi & Jimmy Kanda, Akira Tozawa b Takehiro Yamamura, Naruki Doi & Mondai Ryu b Masaaki Mochizuki & Lindaman, Cima & Flamita b BxB Hulk & Kzy, Jimmy Susumu & Jimmy K-Ness & Ryo Saito b Shingo Takagi & Yamato & Kotoka
431
43210/3 Osaka (Dradition - 529): Orochi & Kuuga b Katsumi Oribe & Ra-pid, Masanobu Kurisu b Tadanobu Fujisawa, Billy Ken Kid b Leona (Fujinami), Hiro Saito & Alexander Otsuka b Mitsuya Nagai & Bear Fukuda, Daisuke Sekimoto b The Bodyguard, Leona & Masakatsu Funaki & (Sho) Funaki b Yoshihiro Takayama & Nosawa & Black Tiger
433
43410/4 Worcester, MA (WWE - 3,800): Neville b Stardust, Zack Ryder b Brad Maddox, Tag titles: Xavier Woods & Kofi Kingston b Dudleys, Three-way for IC title: Kevin Owens won over Dolph Ziggler and Rusev, Randy Orton b Sheamus, Mark Henry b Bo Dallas, Paige & Charlotte & Becky Lynch b Bella Twins & Alicia Fox, Street fight for U.S. title: John Cena b Seth Rollins
435
43610/4 Portland, ME (WWE - 2,000): Cesaro b The Miz, Fandango b Heath Slater, Braun Strowman b Jack Swagger, Sin Cara & Kalisto won three-way over The Ascension and Los Matadores, Natalya b Sasha Banks, R-Truth b Adam Rose, Dean Ambrose Luke Harper, No DQ: Roman Reigns b Bray Wyatt
437
43810/4 Louisville (WWE NXT aft. Show - 250/free show): Apollo Crews b Elias Sampson, Eva Marie b Alexa Bliss, Tag titles: Aiden English & Simon Gotch b Jason Jordan & Chad Gable, Samoa Joe b Tyler Breeze
439
44010/4 Louisville (WWE NXT eve. Show - 300 sellout/free show): Enzo Amore & Colin Cassady b Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder, Bull Dempsey b Tye Dillinger, Women’s title: Bayley b Emma, NXT title: Finn Balor b Baron Corbin
441
44210/4 Fukuoka (Dragon Gate - 1,800 sellout): Lindaman & Kaito Ishida b Shachihoko Boy & Punch Tominaga, Mondai Ryu & Kotoka b Gamma & Takehiro Yamamura, Dragon Kid & Big R Shimizu & Flamita b Jimmy Kanda & Naoki Tanizaki & Draztick Boy, Ryo Saito & Genki Horiguchi b Cima & Eita, Masato Yoshino & Akira Tozawa & T-Hawk b BxB Hulk & Masaaki Mochizuki & Kzy, Open the Twin Gate title: Naruki Doi & Yamato b Jimmy Susumu & Jimmy K-Ness, Open the Dream Gate title: Shingo Takagi b Don Fujii
443
44410/4 Nagoya (Pro Wrestling NOAH - 1,200): Genba Hirayanagi & Captain NOAH b Mitsuhiro Kitamiya & Shiro Tomoyose, Maybach Taniguchi & Hajime Ohara b Yoshinari Ogawa & Quiet Storm, Akitoshi Saito & Shiro Koshinaka b Yoshihiro Takayama & Takuma Sano, Katsuhiko Nakajima & Hitoshi Kumano b Yuji Nagata & Sho Tanaka, Taiji Ishimori b Kenou, Naomichi Marufuji & Takashi Sugiura & Mohammed Yone b Minoru Suzuki & Takashi Iizuka & Taichi, GHC jr. tag titles: Daisuke Harada & Atsushi Kotoge b Taka Michinoku & Desperado to win titles
445
44610/4 Mexico City Arena Mexico (CMLL - 2,500): Apocalipsis & Cholo b Bengala & Leono, Demus 3:16 & Mercurio & Nitrito b Astral & Stukita & Ultimo Dragoncito, Blue Panther Jr. & The Panther & Rey Cometa b Puma King & Tiger & Virus, Angel de Oro b Rey Hechicero, Brazo de Plata & Stuka Jr. & Titan b Felino & Niebla Roja & Bobby Zavala, El Terrible & Negro Casas & Mr. Niebla b Marco Corleone & Maximo & Valiente
447
44810/4 Tokyo (All Japan - 800): Masao Inoue b Naoya Nomura, Takao Omori & Yuma Aoyagi b Jake Lee & Hikaru Sato, Kazushi Miyamoto b Yohei Nakajima, Zeus b Kotaro Suzuki, Suwama & Atsushi Aoki DCOR Taru & Yasshi, Go Shiozaki & Kento Miyahara b Jun Akiyama & Yoshinobu Kanemaru
449
45010/4 Fukuoka (Dradition - 680): Hitamura Sasaki b Batten Burabura, Mentai Kid & Sagantora b Genkai & Naoki Sakurajima, Alexander Otsuka & Leona b Daisuke Sekimoto & Bear Fukuda, Hiro Saito & Masakatsu Funaki b Mazada & Fujita, Leona & (Sho) Funaki & Ryota Chikuzen b Mitsuya Nagai & The Bodyguard & Asosan
451
45210/5 Boston (WWE Raw/Superstars TV tapings - 11,000): Cesaro b Adam Rose, Titus O’Neil & Darren Young b The Ascension, Roman Reigns & Dean Ambrose & Randy Orton b Bray Wyatt & Luke Harper & Braun Strowman, Non-title: Kevin Owens b Sin Cara, Dudleys b Seth Rollins & Kane-DQ, Sasha Banks & Naomi & Tamina b Bella Twins & Alicia Fox, U.S. title: John Cena b Big E
453
45410/6 Philadelphia (WWE Smackdown/Main Event TV tapings): Naomi b Paige, Kevin Owens b Jimmy Uso, Big E b Dolph Ziggler, Charlotte & Becky Lynch & Natalya b Bella Twins & Alicia Fox, Ryback b Rusev, King Barrett b Neville, Randy Orton & Roman Reigns b Bray Wyatt & Braun Strowman-DQ
455
456
457CMLL
458Ultimo Guerrero won the first block of the Universal Champion of Champions tournament that took place on 10/2 at Arena Mexico. It’s the annual three-week tournament where all the various champions are involved. Guerrero first beat longtime partner Rey Bucanero, then beat Barbaro Cavernario, and beat Shocker to win the block. Shocker had beaten Angel de Oro and Dragon Lee. The main event on the show saw Atlantis & Super Parka & Volador Jr. beat La Sombra & Marco Corleone & Rush in two straight falls. Los Ingobernables were DQ’d in the first fall for beating up Atlantis, and in the second fall, Atlantis pinned Sombra after a low blow. The crowd heat and attendance was back to usual levels after several hot crowds building up to the Anniversary show and the show itself. Even with the tournament, they only drew 3,500 fans. As is usually the case, the matches were all rushed in the tournament, all but one going five minutes or less. The show didn’t air on Claro Sports and we’re not clear as to why. It was listed as being Geo blocked. There is no word whether this week’s show will or won’t air.
459
460The B block of the tournament runs on the 10/9 Arena Mexico show, with Atlantis, Mephisto, Mistico, Volador Jr., Negro Casas, Maximo, Valiente and Ephesto. Atlantis, Mistico and Volador Jr. are the favorites. The winner of that tournament faces Guerrero on 10/16. The tournament seems like it’s something for Guerrero to do, since his rivalry with Thunder fell apart because Thunder has been injured and not wrestling, and he was expecting a big feud with Dr. Wagner Jr., and that never materialized either. Mascara & Sombra & Rush are in the main event against Angel de Oro & Super Parka & Brazo de Plata. A big surprise is the debut of Heddi Karaoui, an MMA fighter from France who has been in Mexico for years as a wrestler doing indies and had been working with El Hijo del Santo’s Todos x Todos group. He’s been a rudo everywhere but is being brought in on the tecnico side. It’s also notable because there is a rule that you can’t work for CMLL unless you’ve gone through their own different established training programs, and he’s never done that.
461
462El Terrible pinned CMLL heavyweight champion Maximo in the deciding fall of the 10/4 main event at Arena Mexico, and then challenged him for the title. But on the 10/11 show, both were on opposite sides of a trios match.
463
464All Elite has changed its name to Lucha Libre Elite, and runs Arena Mexico on 10/25. They drew a huge crowd earlier this year based on bringing L.A. Park and Dr. Wagner Jr. in, but the impression we have is that part of the deal to book Arena Mexico (which CMLL owns) is that they can’t be brought in.
465
466CMLL is going to have Halloween themed shows on 10/30 and 11/1 at Arena Mexico, where they dress up the arena to look like a haunted house, which has drawn well in the past. On one of those shows they’ll have Shockercito vs. Demus 3:16 in a minis hair match.
467
468The 10/12 show in Puebla is bigger than usual as they will have Volador Jr. defending his NWA historic welterweight title against Mephisto (Mephisto pinned him in the third fall of a trios match on 10/5) and Lestat vs. Molotov in a mask vs. mask match, also stemming off a brawl on 10/5.
469
470Niebla Roja has left the promotion for a few months. He’s headed to work indies in Texas and Arizona.
471
472Diamante Azul is back with his family in France. He has an open door to return.
473
474The company’s annual bodybuilding contest was announced for 11/25 at Arena Mexico, and it will air live on Youtube.
475
476
477AAA
478The Crash promotion in Tijuana on 10/2 drew a sellout of 6,000 fans largely having Rey Mysterio Jr., who is the local hero, and Alberto El Patron together in the main event, teaming with local star Rey Horus (the good version of the old El Hijo de Rey Misterio) against El Hijo del Fantasma & Extreme Tiger (replacing Brian Cage) & Daga on top. This was Mysterio Jr.’s first match at the Auditorio in Tijuana since the death of Perro Aguayo Jr. in that building. He was super over. They also had Psycho Clown, Pentagon Jr., Cibernetico and other stars underneath, as well as a unique Crash X Division title match with Fenix winning over Seiya Sanada (who is now an independent wrestler in the U.S. having a hard time trying to make his name), Matt Cross (Son of Havoc from Lucha Underground) and Angelico.
479
480The zz inc. concert promotion is running shows in major arenas around Mysterio Jr., dates announced are 11/7 in Veracruz and 11/21 in Queretaro. Those are the shows they were trying to bring in top American talent for, and thus far have announced Alberto, Dr. Wagner Jr., Johnny Mundo, Low Ki, Brodus Clay, Willie Mack, Psicosis and Seiya Sanada along with AAA guys in Veracruz. Queretaro has announced Alberto, Drew Galloway, Mundo, Moose, MVP, Blue Demon Jr. and Myzteziz.
481
482
483DRAGON GATE
484Shingo Takagi retained the Open the Dream Gate title beating Don Fujii in 24:39 in the main event of the 10/4 show at Hakata Star Lanes in Fukuoka. The show drew a sellout of 1,800 fans. Before the match, Takagi cut a promo on Fujii for being old and fat, saying that Dragon Gate is the modern cutting edge pro wrestling and a fat 45-year-old has no place. Fujii said he felt 20 and he and his fat body would end up with the title. But after the match, Takagi put him over saying he fought well for an old man, but said that he doesn’t want to hear anymore talk about Fujii and the title. Masaaki Mochizuki, the other old man in the promotion, then came out and challenged Takagi. While not announced, this match could take place on a big show they have on 11/1 at the Edion Arena (formerly Bodymaker Colosseum) in Osaka. Naruki Doi & Yamato retained the Open the Twin Gate tag titles beating Jimmy Susumu & Jimmy K-Ness, who won the recent Summer Adventure tag team tournament, when Yamato beat K-Ness with Galleria in 21:24. After the match, Dragon Kid & Flamita came out for a challenge. Doi made fun of Dragon Kid always being hurt, saying that Dragon Kid would probably hurt himself doing his ring entrance and would need to take time off again, and that he should just retire. Doi said that he was a fair man, and that if Flamita could challenge him in Japanese, he’d give him the shot, laughing because everyone knows Flamita doesn’t know Japanese. Of course, you can figure exactly what happened next. That match takes place on 10/17. Flamita has joined the Dia Hearts group even though his last match with the promotion is scheduled on 11/1. He starts with AAA later in November and there is at least discussion of him going to Lucha Underground for the new season.
485
486The 10/8 Korakuen Hall show had all the regular seats sold out two weeks in advance, although they will be selling standing room at the door.
487
488
489ALL JAPAN
490Go Shiozaki did his final match with the promotion on 10/4 in Tokyo, and, surprisingly, he went over as he and Kento Miyahara beat Jun Akiyama & Yoshinobu Kanemaru when Miyahara pinned Kanemaru. They had played up the idea that Miyahara was mad at Shiozaki for leaving the promotion, since the two were world tag team champions and it cost Miyahara his title, but nothing was done with the idea there was heat between the two. Taru and Yasshi also worked the show. They’ve only worked a few shows since Taru was fired years ago for the backstage beating on Nobukazu Hirai, which ended his career and left him in real bad shape physically and ended up a major black eye to the promotion at the time.
491
492
493PRO WRESTLING NOAH
494The Suzuki-gun domination of all the titles was broken up on the 10/4 show in Nagoya as NOAH’s Daisuke Harada & Atsushi Kotoge finally broke the lock beating Taka Michinoku & Desperado to win the GHC jr. tag titles. That’s smart booking in the sense when NOAH starts its needed comeback, they first win the least important belts, to build it as slow as possible before they finally get to the key tag title held by the Killer Elite Squad and the GHC title held by Minoru Suzuki. Harada pinned Michinoku in 24:09 with a German suplex in a bout where the NOAH team sold most of the way and worked like they were inevitably going to lose until making the comeback. They may have had their hand forced because it was then announced that Desperado is out of action for at least the next tour due to a neck injury. The show drew a nearly full house of 1,200 fans to the Congress Theater. It also featured a retirement ceremony for Masashi Aoyagi, 58, who actually had his last match on 4/30. He didn’t wrestle on the show. He came out and gave a speech, crying, and thanked everyone for the support and said he was sorry he couldn’t wrestle. They brought in Shiro Koshinaka and Takuma Sano for a retirement match where Akitoshi Saito & Koshinaka beat Takayama & Sano. They also had a special New Japan vs. NOAH match where Katsuhiko Nakajima & Hitoshi Kumano beat Yuji Nagata & Sho Tanaka when Nakajima pinned Tanaka after a brainbuster.
495
496The next tour opens 10/16 at Korakuen Hall, the annual Global League tournament, which ends on 11/8. The A block has Takashi Sugiura, Naomichi Marufuji, Masato Tanaka, Chris Hero, Quiet Storm, Lance Archer, Davey Boy Smith Jr., and Satoshi Kojima. The B block has Suzuki, Shelton Benjamin, Takashi Iizuka, Mohammed Yone, Maybach Taniguchi, Nakajima, Mitsuhiro Kitamiya and Colt Cabana. It looks like it’s a lock Suzuki goes to the finals. I figure Suzuki beats everyone since he hasn’t lost all year and his streak is worth something, and then Sugiura or Marufuji beats him to win in the finals. Opening night has Benjamin vs. Cabana, Suzuki vs. Kitamiya, Hero vs. Storm, Tanaka vs. Kojima and Marufuji vs. Sugiura. The biggest shows are 10/24 in Fukuoka (Archer vs. Marufuji, Smith Jr. vs. Tanaka, Suzuki vs. Nakajima), 10/25 in Fukuoka (Sugiura vs. Kojima, Archer vs. Hero, Suzuki vs. Taniguchi), 10/26 in Hiroshima (Hero vs. Tanaka, Smith vs. Kojima) and 11/2 in Osaka (Marufuji vs. Kojima, Archer vs. Sugiura, Suzuki vs. Benjamin).
497
498
499NEW JAPAN
500Jeff Jarrett has expressed interest in promoting Wrestle Kingdom this year but there is no deal in place and the slowdown in talks is more on the New Japan side. The slowdown may be due to wanting to work with ROH and do more events as there has been at least some interest from the ROH side in promoting New Japan PPV events. All things being equal, the advantage of the Jarrett side is that they did an incredible job with social media in promoting the show and made it a success, beating all reasonable expectations. The ROH side has the advantage of having the television vehicle to promote the show.
501
502New Japan is bringing Kevin Kelly and Matt Striker in for the 10/12 King of Pro Wrestling show to do live English language commentary direct from Sumo Hall. The show starts at 3 a.m. Eastern time early Monday morning. It’s an experiment to see if this ups subs. If they were looking at upping subs, they really should have gone with Jim Ross, because he did such a strong job with selling the Wrestle Kingdom show and is the only one who would make a difference in opening people up to the product because he can get mainstream media and has the biggest platform to promote it. Then again, Ross wouldn’t be nearly as beneficial on a one week notice. It’s weird that New Japan just started promoting this since Kelly indicated that he made the deal some time back. Kelly and Striker are fine for those who want commentary in English, but neither are guys that anyone will sample the product just to see, and clearly, people did that with Ross on 1/4. Just from an overall marketing effort in North America, Ross would be a strong ally because of his ability to garner media and the recognition factor if New Japan wants to expand its business worldwide in a meaningful way. He’s also the best when it comes to basic storytelling and getting over participants in a great main event match. Mauro Ranallo, because he does the show weekly, would be the best by far at announcing New Japan due to his product familiarity and ridiculous work ethic in research and making it part of the story. He’s head and shoulders above any announcers doing pro wrestling now. Plus it just makes sense to go with Ranallo & Josh Barnett if you’re not going with Ross, because it’s the U.S. New Japan crew. But it’s a weird dynamic because the AXS deal was through TV-Asahi, not New Japan, so even though they are the English language television announce team for New Japan in the U.S., they were never hired by New Japan. Kelly would have made sense if it’s part of a deal with ROH. The really strange thing is that neither Ranallo nor Ross were ever approached, but it’s another example of New Japan really having no understanding of the U.S. marketplace. ROH has nothing to do with this project, although they are working with New Japan on other projects. Kelly will be fine. Striker is just so hit and miss. Then again, he’s probably got something to prove now to wipe the stench of that AAA show off. Kelly, on his podcast, said he never approached New Japan about the job, and was surprised it was offered to him. He said that anyone who thinks he got the job for economic reasons, as in being cheaper than Ross or Ranallo is probably wrong because he said he got a very generous offer to do the show. He said he’s studying up and will talk with the American wrestlers on the show and ask them what he needs to get across in their matches and said he liked Juice Robinson from what he saw on a recent card he watched, and said he was also impressed with Jay White and David Finlay. He said the job isn’t that hard because New Japan has very straight-forward booking, all about who wins and where it goes and his job is to call the moves and ask questions of his color man and let the action speak for themselves. He said the hard part of announcing is putting over bad matches. On the 10/12 show, that probably isn’t going to be an issue.
503
504Akira Maeda will be making a guest appearance at the King of Pro Wrestling show. No word on why he will be there.
505
506This show, headlined by Kazuchika Okada vs. A.J. Styles for the IWGP title, Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Tetsuya Naito for the Tokyo Dome IWGP title challenge, Togi Makabe vs. Tomohiro Ishii for the Never title, Kenny Omega vs. Matt Sydal for the IWGP jr. title and Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly vs. Baretta & Rocky Romero for the jr. tag title, will be an interesting test to see how much the company has cooled off for a big show in Tokyo. As noted, tickets for the 11/15 Tenryu retirement show were moving at a much faster clip than for this one. We’ve already seen a lot of the Korakuen Hall shows this year not sell out, which used to be automatic.
507
508Many of their top guys worked on 10/2 in London at York Hall in a joint show with Revolution Pro Wrestling, which drew a sellout of 1,200 fans. A.J. Styles, who is the current Revolution Pro champion, retained his title in a three-way over Will Ospreay and Marty Scurll, who both looked great at the PWG Battle of Los Angeles tournament against each other. Tetsuya Naito pinned Mark Haskins. Kyle O’Reilly beat Kushida via submission which is surprising. O’Reilly & Bobby Fish just beat Kushida & Alex Shelley last week, although it evens things up since Kushida beat O’Reilly to win the Best of the Super Junior tournament this year. I was told this match wasn’t quite as good as the first one, which was one of this year’s best matches. But it was still said to be really great. I was told the Styles match was also great. In a pure New Japan match, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Jushin Liger beat Gedo & Kazuchika Okada. There was a lot of Tanahashi vs. Okada and it was said to be good with the fans getting a kick out of seeing a pure New Japan match. Shinsuke Nakamura beat area wrestler Big Damo. Nakamura did a coast to coast. They had Damo beat Tomohiro Ishii earlier this year and get in a lot of offense from Nakamura and Tanahashi.
509
510ACH from ROH lost to local wrestler Martin Kirby. In a surprise, Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan not only worked the opener, but put over Sha Samuels & James Castle in doing so. Tenzan couldn’t do much. The live crowd wasn’t much into Kojima & Tenzan, but they really liked Tanahashi and Okada, and they treated Nakamura like he was the biggest star and Liger got the second biggest reaction behind him.
511
512The second show in Reading, England, drew 850 fans, which was just about full, in a new market. It was said to be not as good as the night before as the crowd wasn’t as hot, but people were raving about the Okada vs. Ospreay match, which ended when Okada hit the rainmaker. Even in losing, it felt like they were pushing Ospreay as the big local star being groomed for a title shot at Styles. The main event saw Styles beat Liger to retain his title. Tanahashi beat Damo. Okada beat Ospreay. Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows, who worked in Germany the night before, beat Samuels & Castle via DQ, so the promotion was going out of its way to protect the local tag team. Nakamura pinned Scurll. Nakamura looked tired after such a physical match with Damo the night before, but he still made Scurll look excellent and worked great spots around Scurll working on Nakamura’s fingers. Kojima & Tenzan beat Joel Redman (a former NXT tag champion with Neville) & Mark Haskins. Lord Gideon Gray pinned Gedo. The opener was a three-way as Naito beat Kushida and Kirby.
513
514
515OTHER JAPAN NOTES
516Added to the 11/15 Sumo Hall show for Genichiro Tenryu’s retirement is Shiro Koshinaka & Arashi vs. Taiyo Kea & Yuto Aishima and Great Kabuki & Kai & Maiga vs. Great Kojika & Jun Kasai & Toru Sugiura.
517
518Tenryu worked one of his final matches on 10/4 in Ichinoseki for the Freedom’s promotion, teaming with Jun Kasai, in the main event, losing to Takashi Sasaki & Yuko Miyamoto.
519
520Masakatsu Funaki teamed with Shoichi Funaki on the 10/3 Dradition show in Osaka. Shoichi Funaki, the former WWE performer who had a long run with the company, is just known as Funaki. They were in a trios main event teaming with Leona (son of Tatsumi Fujinami, who was originally to be their partner except he had recent hip surgery) to beat Yoshihiro Takayama & Nosawa & Black Tiger. Dradition billed its shows this past week, starting with a 10/1 event at Korakuen Hall that drew 893 fans, as the Tatsumi Fujinami Hall of Fame series to commemorate his being put in the WWE Hall of Fame.
521
522
523HERE AND THERE
524As noted before, there is at least one, and possibly more, major television investigative pieces being worked on regarding the Jimmy Snuka case. There was talk this past week about a cable piece, but we’re told the major piece scheduled is far beyond just a cable news piece. The case is moving directly to trial without a preliminary hearing. No trial date has been set. Snuka’s defense team agreed to forgo the hearing as long as he was granted access to all the Grand Jury testimony, which prosecutors agreed to. As part of the agreement, all testimony that hasn’t already been released is being kept sealed until trial. Robert Kirwan, Snuka’s attorney, said the death of Argentino was an unfortunate accident, but not a murder. Kirwan said that Snuka is coming off surgery to remove 75 percent of his stomach as well as his lymph nodes due to cancer, and will be starting chemotherapy, and perhaps radiation treatments, as soon as he’s physically able. Kirwan said the entire case is based on hearsay testimony and said if the preliminary hearing had taken place as scheduled on 10/7, it would have been a sham.
525
526Eve Torres Gracie, 31, the former WWE performer who retired and married Rener Gracie, gave birth to their first son on 9/28, Raeven Gracie (pronounced Heaven).
527
528The impression I have is the next PWG show will be the second weekend of December. There is talk of two shows in one weekend on 12/11 and 12/12, and talent has started to be contacted for those dates.
529
530An update on Sean Waltman. As of this weekend, he still had major swelling from his tearing his right pec and biceps doing an indie match the week before. Waltman went to clothesline a guy after a hot tag, aiming for his upper chest as always but the guy was out of position, Waltman nailed his head in the hard part of the head and knew immediately that the pec and biceps were blown. He got horrible bruising and swelling pretty quickly after that and was diagnosed with the tears. He will know this week if he’s going to have surgery. He’s pretty adamant about not missing an upcoming U.K. tour. Waltman also had hair replacement surgery as he made a deal with a company where he’d get the surgery and be paid for it as a celebrity endorser similar to deals guys like Jimmy Hart and Chavo Guerrero Jr. had.
531
532Bruno Sammartino turned 80 on 10/6. He’s been doing a lot better since surgery. He’s coming back off back surgery after suffering a fall when his leg gave out due to back problems, which he first noticed while in San Jose at WrestleMania. The leg isn’t back to full strength, but he’s still walking several miles several days per week.
533
534Judge Pamela Campbell has said that during the Hogan trial against Gawker that the tape will be played for the jury, but the media and all those in the court room will have to leave the room when the tape is played.
535
536Bill Bowman, a longtime Southern wrestler, best known for his tag team with Joe Turner, passed away on 10/6. Bowman & Turner, who were billed as half brothers, worked as Bill & Joe Sky in the 60s, mostly for Nick Gulas’ huge territory at the time, as well as lower on the cards in Florida and Georgia. Their best runs were working as The Masked Interns in 1968 in Gulf Coast Championship Wrestling and 1970 for Gulas. They held the Southern tag titles for Gulas in 1969 as the Sky Brothers twice, and then two more times in 1970 under the masks as The Interns. The Interns were one of the top heel tag teams of that era, but Bowman & Turner were not the most famous version of the team, but they may have been the first using the name. The Interns are usually traced back to Billy Garrett & Dick Dunn in 1966. But they, and later Garrett & Jim Starr, used the name The Medics first, until late 1968. Later Garrett & Jim Starr (Jerry Hester), and finally Tom Andrews (Thomas Anderson) & Jim Starr, managed by Dr. Ken Ramey, became the most famous version of The Interns. That was a hot 70s heel act that held numerous world tag team titles. Bowman & Turner were The Masked Interns, managed by Dr. Jerry Graham, in 1968 as Gulf Coast tag team champions six months before Garrett & Starr won the Florida tag team titles, and hooked up with Ramey, and The Masked Interns exploded as one of the hottest tag teams of the era. They held the Gulf Coast tag team titles four times, before they lost their masks to Dick Dunn & Don Carson, and then went to work for Nick Gulas as The Sky Brothers. He was also the answer to an interesting trivia question. Bowman & Turner were working for Georgia Championship Wrestling in 1972, when almost the entire promotion walked out right before the biggest show of the year on Thanksgiving night. The story was a front page headline in the local papers as Ann Gunkel, whose husband Ray was running Georgia until his death a few months earlier, had been squeezed out of the promotion. They essentially folded the ABC Booking Office and started a new company, called Georgia Championship Wrestling, without her. She then got backing and started All South Wrestling, and through her connection with Ted Turner, got television on WTCG. With the exception of Bob Armstrong and Darrell Cochran, the entire GCW roster quit after a meeting to show support to Gunkel. The first television match of All South Wrestling was Bill Bowman vs. Wayne Cowan (now Zeb Colter). Bowman, born July 1, 1933, was 82 years old, and was living in Pensacola. He had started wrestling in 1958 and wrestled regularly through 1976, when he was working for Gulas. He grew up in Mobile. His father was the manager of the YMCA in Mobile, where the wrestlers trained when they were in town. Bowman trained with them, and after serving a stint in the Marines, he was broken into wrestling by Charlie Carr. Bowman actually started promoting his own shows first against the NWA promotion run by Buddy Fuller, the father of Robert & Ron Fuller. They drew so well that Fuller came to them and hired both he and Turner as referees and used some of his wrestlers on his cards as a deal where they would stop promoting against him, and then sent Bowman to Louisiana. He used the name Bill Sky, after the Skyland neighborhood in Mobile. In the early 60s, when he came back home to see his family in Mobile, he met with Turner, and they formed The Sky Brothers tag team that went to Tennessee and started their long tag team run. After he retired from wrestling, he worked as a sales manager at an Atlanta car dealership. Eventually he and his wife Ann moved to Pensacola, where they managed several rental properties. Michael Norris, an area historian, said Bowman was one of his closest friends, and noted that he had never been the same after the death of his wife in 2006. He remained close with people in wrestling as he was on the Gulf Coast Wrestlers Reunion committee.
537
538Northeast Wrestling was looking at an 11/13 20th anniversary show and looking to do Rey Mysterio vs. Jeff Hardy as the main event but Hardy isn’t going to be ready. They wanted Mysterio vs. Ricochet in a singles match, but Ricochet had to pull out of the show due to Lucha Underground commitments. The NEW show is in Waterbury, Ct and Wilby High School and announced are Mysterio, The Hardys, Velvet Sky, Bret Hart and Bobby Lashley (one week after his next Bellator fight).
539
540wXw ran its annual tag team tournament from 10/2 to 10/4 in Oberhausen, Germany, using its regulars along with both sets of New Japan tag champions, Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows and Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly. The tournament was won by Big Daddy Walter & Zack Sabre Jr., known as the wX2 dream team. On 10/2, Anderson & Gallows beat Les Artists in their first round match but lost to Walter & Sabre Jr. When Walter pinned Anderson after a power bomb. There was a comedy spot where Anderson told Sabre to stop doing all his cool mat wrestling because “I don’t know how to do this shit.” On 10/3, Fish & O’Reilly won their first round match over ACH & Tommaso Ciampa in 15:10 when Ciampa was pinned after chasing the dragon. They won a second match over Tommy End & Michael Dante when they pinned Dante with chasing the dragon in 13:44. On 10/4, O’Reilly & Fish went to the finals beating Axel Dieter Jr. & Da Mack. The Americans were playing subtle heels. O’Reilly hit Dieter Jr. with a low blow for the pin. Walter & Sabre won their semifinal over Chris Brookes & Jonathan Gresham. A.J. Styles pinned End in 18:51 with the Styles clash in what was said to be a ****+ match. Karsten Beck, the company’s champion retained over ACH. In the finals, Walter & Sabre beat Fish & O’Reilly in 18:36 when Sabre beat O’Reilly with a Jim Breaks special submission (a double shoulderlock) after kicks to the head.
541
542On 10/4 they announced the 2016 16 Carat Gold tournament would be 3/11 to 3/11 in Oberhausen. They announced David Starr of CZW would be full-time from 1/30 to 3/13, that Donovan Dijak of ROH would be full-time from 1/16 to 2/6 and that Timothy Thatcher would be there as a wrestler and trainer from 2/6 to 3/13. Christian Michael Jakobi of the promotion had a funny line when asked about their working agreement with GFW. He said there was no agreement and that “We’ve been looking at baseball stadiums in Europe, but found none small enough to house the crowd that GFW draws.”
543
544Rey Mysterio Jr. won the Destiny World title (the group Santino Marella promotes out of his gym) on 10/3 in Mississauaga, ONT, over P.J. Black in a three-way that also included Ricochet.
545
546A correction from last week. Bill Carr of Team Tremendous’ return after a broken foot took place on 9/26 in Providence when he and Dan Barry faced Andrew Everett & Trevor Lee for Beyond Wrestling. The match we listed last week was his second match back. Also, on the note on Frank Iadevaia, we listed Homicide as having started his career at Jersey All Pro, which we meant as one of the places he first started working. He had wrestled for a few years before that but that was where he got a break.
547
548Also in the mention of Black Angus Campbell in the note on the death of Al Friend last week, we wrote Black Angus (Ian) Campbell. Black Angus Campbell, who was a Central States star who was billed from Scotland, and Ian Campbell, a major star on the U.K. scene who was from Scotland, were two different people. Black Angus Campbell’s real name was Frank Hoy, and also wrestled as Rasputin and Wild Angus. He was a U.K. wrestler who came to Japan, and then like a lot of the U.K. stars, was hired by Stampede Wrestling in the late 60s and worked a number of territories in North America through 1978, when he returned to the U.K. His son was Lord Steven Casey (Steven Hoy), who worked in Europe early in his career and came to the U.S. in the 80s and worked for Jim Crockett Promotions, New Japan, Mid South and World Class in the 80s before returning to the U.K. and finishing his career in the 90s. Ian Campbell was a bigger star in Europe. He was also from Scotland and a British heavyweight champion in the era of Billy Robinson, Billy Joyce and Geoff Portz. He wrestled in North America in the 50s in many of the same places as Black Angus Campbell, including Stampede, the Central States and St. Louis before returning to the U.K. as a major star. The two looked a lot alike although Ian was a lot older than Angus, and in the wrestling magazines I saw references to “Black Angus (Ian) Campbell” like that so obviously people thought they were the same guy.
549
550Hector Picasso Martinez, who wrestles under the name Guerrero Negro Jr., a former CMLL wrestler, was the victim of a drive-by shooting on 10/5 in Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico. He was shot at six times by a passing motorist and hit twice. He was with his girlfriend, who drove him immediately to the hospital. He was listed in stable condition at press time.
551
552
553LUCHA UNDERGROUND
554Reports are that the first shows of the new season will be taped on 11/13 and 11/14 in Boyle Heights. There will be several sets of tapings done in both November and December with the new season will start airing in January.
555
556
557ROH
558They are off until shows on 10/23 in Kalamazoo, which will be a television taping, and 10/24 in Dayton.
559
560
561TNA
562It will be interesting to see what airs on Impact starting this week, if they do any footage from the weekend house shows to make things current while also using the old matches taped for other shows to fill time.
563
564The company teased two surprises this week that were unbelievable after the fact. The first, pushed on social media hard and they even pushed it on television was a major announcement Dixie Carter would be making on 10/5. Some talent even thought it was the announcement of a new TV deal as hard as it was pushed when it was first teased. When, on TV, they pushed that Carter was making the announcement with Mahabili Shera, the feeling was they would be announcing the TV tapings in India from 11/29 to 12/5, since talent was already told about those dates. But it wasn’t even that, and I’m guessing that it probably was supposed to be that but Sony SIX, the television station that is bringing TNA in for the tapings, didn’t want it released yet. So they were left with the announcement that John Gaburick, Shera, Ethan Carter III and Rebel would be going to India for a promotional tour from 10/19 to 10/22. They are going to different cities and will make “a key announcement about TNA in the region,” which is likely the announcement of the TV tapings. The delay for two weeks has to be because the Indian partners wanted the announcement when the talent was in town. They are also claiming that Gaburick and Shera will be there scouting for talent.
565
566The tapings are a deal where Sony SIX is financing it as part of the deal to push Shera. While it’s possible they could go to India and try and sell tickets to matches, that usually doesn’t work in that country and most events there except for cricket are sponsors buying events and using the events to sponsor products because selling tickets to most things doesn’t work well. When Jeff Jarrett did Ring Ka King, all tickets were free. When the Super Fight League (which Lashley fought for) ran in India, they tried to sell tickets and it was very difficult so by the end it was just letting people in for free, but obviously that strategy didn’t work either since the promotion is no longer around. Many years ago WWE ran a tour there with the idea there are so many people watching on TV that they would draw, and they didn’t draw well and have never gone back.
567
568The other was the Bound for Glory secret third announcer. This was mostly Pope’s doing, saying there would be a secret third announcer on the show who had never done a broadcast before. There ended up not being a third announcer. The payoff is supposed to be that it was a Pope action figure that he brought to the desk.
569
570Jeff Hardy released an X-ray of his knee on social media showing he had a torn PCL. That injury was from the dirt bike accident months ago and isn’t a new injury. However the PCL has been really slow in healing and he’s had to postpone his return to the ring, which is now not scheduled for at least several more months. Scheduled matches on indie shows (since he had no scheduled matches in TNA) have been changed to just appearances.
571
572They ran two house shows before Bound for Glory. The 10/2 show in Beckley, WV drew about 250 people. Beckley used to be one of TNA’s best drawing markets, doing 1,000 to 2,000 per show, when they used Beau James as the local promoter and it’s always been a good wrestling city. Chance Prophet beat Shawn Shultz in the opener. Ken Anderson pinned Jessie Godderz. Eddie Edwards & Davey Richards kept the tag titles beating Trevor Lee & Andrew Everett. Gail Kim retained the Knockouts title. Not sure who she wrestled as nobody could understand her name when announced. Matt Hardy pinned Eric Young when Young was distracted by Kurt Angle. Bobby Roode retained the King of the Mountain title pinning Eli Drake. Main event saw Ethan Carter III retaining the TNA title over Drew Galloway due to outside interference from Tyrus. After the match, the Hardys made the save and along with Galloway, ended the show putting EC 3 through a table.
573
574The 10/3 show in Salem, VA, drew 450 fans, but that show was also heavily papered. TNA wanted Lee on this show, but he turned it down to work an indie show in Gibsonville, NC, citing he figured he would have more fun. Shawn Shultz pinned Eric Adams with a tornado DDT in 4:00 in what was billed as a Gut Check match. Anderson pinned Tyrus in 7:20. Anderson started making fun of Tyrus, doing his old Brodus Clay dancing and called him the Funkasaurus. Tyrus bullied the ref and the finish saw Anderson hit Tyrus with a low blow right in front of the ref, who then fast counted Tyrus. Kim beat Awesome Kong via DQ when Kong choke slammed the ref. Two straight matches with ref’s involved in the finish on a show honoring Earl Hebner seems a bit much. Solid match. Next was the Hebner Hall of Fame induction. Billy Corgan was there for the presentation, as was Jeremy Borash, Brian Hebner and the entire TNA locker room. They told the fans live that this would be shown on Bound for Glory. If that was the case, I’m not sure why they didn’t just do it at Bound for Glory. They were pushing it like Hebner was from right down the road from Richmond, where the Hebners are from, but Salem is actually 190 miles away. Both talked about his career and Dusty Rhodes. Roode again pinned Drake with the Roode bomb in 15:00 in what was said to have been the best match on the show. Hebner was the referee and Roode and Hebner shared a beer together after the match. Angle, in his first match back since surgery to remove a tumor in his neck, coming off a short return after knee surgery, pinned Young clean with an Olympic slam in 7:00 of a good match. A lot of people started leaving at this point so it was clear many came just to see Angle. Edwards & Richards beat Godderz & Everett in 12:30 of a great match. Main event was a PPV preview with EC 3 over Matt Hardy and Galloway. Tyrus was at ringside. Jeff Hardy then came out with a chair. Tyrus pulled the ref out of the ring as Matt Hardy had it won. EC 3 ended up getting the pin in 10:20 after hitting Hardy with a belt shot. EC 3 and Tyrus were beating down Matt and Galloway after until Jeff made the save with a chair shot. They put EC 3 on a table and Galloway came off the top rope with a swanton on him, but the table didn’t break. They did it a second time, this time with Matt coming off the top rope with a splash, and he put EC 3 through a table to end the show.
575
576The 9/30 show was the last actually taped episode of Impact until the tapings in India from 11/29 to 12/5. For now we’ll be getting random matches taped for other things put together to fill the two-hour time slot. The last episode was built around the storyline that Ethan Carter III was feuding with Aunt Dixie, and that Drew Galloway was her chosen one. Then Dixie said that if Galloway & Matt Hardy beat EC 3 & Tyrus in the TV main event, that Hardy would be added to Bound for Glory. It created an interesting dynamic where Galloway, in trying to win, would lower his own chances of taking the title because Matt was added. The finish saw Matt (who wasn’t legal) hit Tyrus with a twist of fate, and Galloway pinned him with a running kick in 12:47 so Galloway himself scored the win to get Hardy into the match. The Carter feud was because EC 3 refused to help save the family’s company in the war with GFW. EC 3 claimed she disowned him and that he told her from the start not to trust Jeff Jarrett. He was also mad at her from making Galloway the franchise guy and not him. They did the James Storm blow-off in a singles match with Mahabili Shera. The match was really bad. Worse, they booked it to go 7:26 and it was clear by the 2:00 mark just how green Shera is. But they have to put him over politically because he’s a key part of the India TV deal. It was a no DQ match to try and cover for him, but it didn’t work. Storm slammed Shera on two chairs and brought in a table. Storm spit beer in ref Earl Hebner’s eyes but Shera speared Storm but no ref to count the pin. Storm hit Shera with a cowbell and gave him the eye of the Storm (the whirley bird) through a table, but Shera kicked out. Storm then broke a beer bottle on the post and looked like he was going to use it. Abyss and Manik came out in theory to help Storm, but turned on him. Abyss gave Storm a black hole slam, Manik used a frog splash and Shera used the sky high power bomb. It was pushed that this was the end of The Revolution. Storm came back to finish up and this was at least when it was taped done because it was his final appearance with the company after his contract expired. As much as happened, the crowd wasn’t much into this. It was the final taping in the same building after more than a week straight and it was a small burned out crowd, making the product feel even colder. Bobby Roode did a babyface promo pushing the idea that the King of the Mountain belt represented the passion, dedication and love of the sport of pro wrestling. Wait a minute, this is the belt created as the champion of the pure wrestling of a goofy reverse ladder match. But Roode did a good job with the material he was given. He did a total babyface promo, and issued an open challenge. Bobby Lashley came out. You know what it so goofy funny, is that for whatever reason, in TNA, he is only named Lashley. You know, he’s a guy who doesn’t have a first name. Does anyone realize how fake awkward that comes across in real life? Plus, when he’s on Bellator TV, they don’t follow the TNA guidelines and he has a first name. Plus, when he became a star on WWE TV, he had a first name. What exactly is the motive for this? Because Bill Goldberg didn’t have a first name at times when he got over 17 years ago? Lashley said he came to TNA to collect as many titles as he can, and that the two have had some incredible matches this year (they had some real good matches earlier in the year, honest) and he asked for one more time. The idea was for Lashley to pause and get the crowd to chant, “One more time,” which a few people did. Roode said it would be an honor and they shook hands. Maybe Roode called have called this the ring of honor. Taryn Terrell wanted the rest of The Doll House to get rid of Velvet Sky. They had already injured Angelina Love, who has been pregnant for a while but these tapings were done even farther back. Trevor Lee won a three-way over Tommaso Ciampa and DJ Zema Ion in 4:14 when Lee pinned Ion with a twisting powerslam. Good action but the crowd didn’t care and when you look at the times given to the matches on this show and the quality, this time stands out as really short considering all three are solid, and really Lee is really good. The Doll House, consisting of Marti Bell & Jade & Rebel, won a three-on-two over Velvet Sky & Madison Rayne in 6:17. Another bad match. In inside banter, The Pope (as in the former Elijah Burke, not the real Pope) started talking about how hot Rayne was and he’d like to date her. In real life, Rayne is Josh Matthews’ wife. Match went way too long and was bad. Rebel threw powder in Rayne’s eyes and Bell pinned her. Eric Young was screaming like a madman and saying that he’s afraid of nobody. Gail Kim said her match with Awesome Kong is about proving who is the best Knockouts champion ever. She talked about how people would look back on who won in the history books. They won’t. Young was back, claiming that last week when Chris Melendez beat him, he had help from 30 people and that nobody is good enough to beat him. Robbie E told him to “Shut the hell up.” Why didn’t he just say “If ya smell” since it was an obvious ripoff of a WWE star catch phrase? Robbie attacked Young. Young gave him a low blow. Melendez ran in for the save. Young tried to hit Melendez with a chair, but he missed. Melendez got the chair and Young bailed out. Ken Anderson then came out. He was mad because in his promo, Young called himself “God.” Anderson must be real mad at Ric Flair. So Anderson beat Young back into the ring where Robbie gave him a boom drop, Melendez gave him a stunner and Anderson gave him a mic check. I know having a guy laid out by three undercard guys is exactly how I’d be building a heel getting ready to face Kurt Angle on the biggest PPV of the year. Matt Hardy and Galloway were in a room discussing strategy. Hardy told him he wants to be champion and needs to be champion, and he’s making his quest a reality at Bound for Glory. Galloway said that the wrestling business throws you curve balls and the mark of a champion is how one deals with it. Galloway said that Hardy deserved the world title but this is his dream. They agreed to work together to win the tag match and at the PPV, the best man will win. Young was screaming like a maniac saying that it’s not fair that everyone is ganging up on him. Dixie Carter promised him at Bound for Glory he only has to worry about one man, Angle. He freaked out, thinking he had injured Angle and he wasn’t coming back. Then they did the tag match main event. After the match was over and it was a three-way, Dixie Carter announced Jeff Hardy as the referee for that match.
577
578
579UFC
580The UFC had another ruling against them in the lawsuit filed by Jon Fitch, Nate Quarry, Cung Le, etc. In a hearing on 9/30, the judge ruled that the fighters had the right to get Zuffa records of all financials, meaning they can get fighter pay records, PPV buy records, all the TV deals worldwide, all the venue contracts, all the sponsor contracts, all the merchandise contracts, so this is going to get very interesting. UFC in its defense in attempting to get the case thrown out claimed it has several competitors, listing Invicta (more of a partner given they are on Fight Pass), Titan FC (also on Fight Pass), as well as Resurrection Fighting Alliance (a promotion on AXS that is more of a feeder promotion, and Bellator, which is its one legitimate competition right now.
581
582Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige talked about Ronda Rousey for the lead role as Captain Marvel in a movie of the same name. Rousey had mentioned she’d love to do it in an AMA chat. Casting for the movie has not yet started. Feige said they haven’t started to script it but compared it to signing the unknown in movies Dave Bautista to play “Drax,” noting that Bautista ended up being an amazing, clever and witty comedic actor.
583
584Rousey this month is the first woman ever on the cover of Men’s Fitness magazine and on 10/7 becomes the first woman athlete ever to anchor ESPN SportsCentre as part of her promotional work for the Holly Holm fight.
585
586UFC put together a remarkable video for that fight that debuted at the end of UFC 192, showing a young Rousey (played by her little sister) and a young Holm starting training in judo and boxing leading to this fight.
587
588The subject of Wanderlei Silva’s suspension in Nevada goes before the Nevada commission on its next hearings, on 10/29. Silva was suspended for life by Nevada for basically running away from a drug test. The commission said that they wanted to send a message to everyone that doing so it not acceptable. Silva then went to court, and Nevada district judge Kerry Early said the lifetime ban, unprecedented, especially for a first offense, was “arbitrary and capriccios” and ordered them to come up with new punishment. This is actually part of a legal game as Silva is attempting to sue based on the idea he shouldn’t have been tested because he was not a licensed fighter, even though UFC was advertising Silva vs. Chael Sonnen at the time of the test, and Silva appeared at a press conference promoting the fight. But the court wouldn’t rule on whether they had the right to punish him. They only threw out the lifetime ban. Once they issue new punishment, Silva is going to go to the Nevada Supreme Court claiming they had no jurisdiction over him in the first place because he wasn’t licensed. It would set a bad precedent if a commission can’t drug test fighters who are scheduled to fight in the state who aren’t licensed, because it encourages not getting a license until the last minute. If such a ruling is made, Nevada should inform boxing promoters that they can’t advertise or promote any match to be held in the state if the fighter doesn’t have an active license.
589
590There is actually a break in the schedule as the next show isn’t until 10/24, a show in Dublin that is a Fight Pass exclusive. The next TV event is 11/7 from Brazil. The week after that is the Melbourne show with Rousey and Joanna Jedrzejczyk. UFC is concentrating most of its promotional muscle on that show, pushing that it will draw the largest crowd in UFC history. Tickets are not sold out at this point.
591
592Michael Bisping had to pull out of the 11/15 show in Melbourne, Australia, where he was to face Robert Whittaker, due to needing elbow surgery.
593
594C.M. Punk’s debut has been delayed due to a shoulder injury. His coach, Duke Roufus, told ESPN that Punk injured his shoulder during a wrestling scramble and will be seeing a doctor on 10/14 to get an evaluation. “He was doing great before that,” said Roufus. “His progress has been good. He’s got a great attitude and he’s a hard worker. He got a place in Milwaukee where he lives all week when he’s here training, so he’s in it to win it.” Roufus said that right now Punk is 50 percent ready. He estimated Punk would be ready to fight in six to ten months, and said the injury moves the timetable back a month and he’d like to see him debut at UFC 200 on 7/9. We do know that Dana White has talked with at least one person about being his opponent.
595
596Tom Wright said that UFC is looking at doing three shows in Canada and two in the Australia/New Zealand market next year. He said Toronto and Calgary would be two cities that will get shows next year, and a third show will be in Eastern Canada, perhaps Halifax or somewhere around there, saying probably two TV shows and one PPV show.
597
598B.J. Penn was on UFC Tonight, and talked strongly about coming out of retirement. He cut a promo on Mike Dolce, who handled his weight cut to 145 where he got blitzed by Frankie Edgar. Penn, 36, who admitted that he hasn’t been in the gym since that fight, said that he’s tired of what Dolce has been saying about him, so he wants Dolce’s fighter, Nik Lentz. He also said he’d like a fight with Conor McGregor, thinking it would do gigantic business. If Penn could convince the public he’s the old Penn, which will be difficult, perhaps there would be big box office with McGregor. But Penn didn’t look competitive with Edgar the last time, and really looked like a guy who should retire.
599
600Anthony Pettis has said that if Donald Cerrone beats Rafael dos Anjos on 12/19 for the lightweight title, and he beats Eddie Alvarez on 1/17 in Boston, that he still would rather face dos Anjos than Cerrone. He really wants to avenge the loss to dos Anjos, more than win the championship back.
601
602While the deal is not completed, it looks right now like the Fabricio Werdum vs. Cain Velasquez heavyweight title rematch will take place on a March PPV that would be at a 42,000-seat domed stadium in Brazil. The plan seems to be for Arena de Baixada, which would be UFC’s debut in Curatiba, Brazil, and likely load the show up with area fighters, as well as Anderson Silva, whose suspension would be over by that time. Silva had already talked about fighting Michael Bisping in Brazil in March. Velasquez was told that he would likely be fighting Werdum in March, and Werdum told Guilherme Cruz that the stadium in Curatiba was the planned location. He said he had pushed for a stadium in Porto Alegre, but that stadium didn’t have a roof and UFC doesn’t really like doing outdoor shows.
603
604James Elliott, who had been the UFC’s Content Director in the Europe, Middle East and Asia region, was promoted to Vice President and General Manager of that region, working under Chief Global Brand Officer Garry Cook. His key job is to put together European dates and get broadcast deals. Elliott was credited with helping get UFC several European TV deals including the BT Sports deal in the U.K., as well as PICK in the U.K., and a deal with All-Russia State Television. Elliott replaces David Allen as running that region. Allen left the company in June. Elliott told MMAFighting.com that they are looking at Holland, The Czech Republic and Russia for shows next year. He also said they are close to closing a television deal in South Africa.
605
606After his win over Roy Nelson, Josh Barnett is up in the air about fighting again. Ariel Helwani reported that Barnett is healthy and could fight again at any time, but that he’s entertaining movie offers that pay better than fighting. At least that’s the way he’s playing it.
607
608Rampage Jackson on the MMA Hour said he thinks he’s fought his last fight. Right now Bellator has an injunction that prevents him from fighting due to their contract with him. He said they’ve offered a settlement but he didn’t like the terms.
609
610Matt Mitrione vs. Travis Browne and Tim Boetsch vs. Ed Herman have been added as top fights on the 1/17 FS 1 show from Boston, which is headlined by T.J. Dillashaw vs. Dominick Cruz for the bantamweight title, and comes right after the NFL playoffs.
611
612Carla Esparza said after shoulder surgery two months ago, that she’s about five months away from being ready to fight again.
613
614USADA released a list of all tests it has done in its first three months of working with UFC on its program. The most tested athlete was Ronda Rousey, who was drug tested five times. Interestingly, Cris Cyborg (who fights for Invicta but is under a UFC contract) has been tested twice. Tested four times so far are Thiago Alves, Bethe Correia and Antonio Bigfoot Silva. Many haven’t been tested once. Multiple drug test failures Josh Barnett and Vitor Belfort were each tested once, so prior failures doesn’t seem to be one of the reasons people would be targeted frequently.
615
616The UFC, in its lawsuit, noted that it has paid a $25,000 non-refundable deposit to get the 4/23 date at Madison Square Garden.
617
618The Josh Barnett vs. Roy Nelson show on 9/26 did 170,000 viewers on TSN in Canada, which is a very good number. The difference is that in Canada, all the college football doesn’t have the same effect as in the U.S.
619
620Seo Hee Ham vs. Cortney Casey has been added to the 11/28 show in Seoul, South Korea, a women’s strawweight fight.
621
622
623BELLATOR
624Due to a rib injury in training to challenger Eduardo Dantas, the main event of the next show on 10/23 from the Mohegan Sun Casino, is off. Dantas was scheduled to challenge Marcos Galvao for the bantamweight title. Brandon Halsey vs. Rafael Carvalho for the vacant middleweight title moves to the main event position.
625
626
627OTHER MMA
628The official announcement of the new attempt to revive a Pride like promotion in Japan will be on 10/8 in Tokyo at a press conference. Nobuyuki Sakakibara, who ran Pride during its heyday and was voted Promoter of the Year in the 2003 and 2004 awards, will head the new venture and Fedor Emelianenko has signed a two-fight deal with the group, which is said to have significant foreign backing. At press time, they had confirmed the Observer report of the Saitama Super Arena as the location of the 12/31 show, but claimed the $2.5 million per fight figure for Emelianenko wasn’t accurate. That figure had already been reported in Japan. It’s expected that some matches, including Fedor’s opponent, will be announced at the press conference along with the name of the promotion, its rules and things like that. MMA Fighting reported that Emelianenko would face an unknown fighter, Jaideep Singh, a kickboxer with a 40-10 record in that sport, but his last kickboxing win was in 2011. He’s had one MMA fight, a victory over an unknown fighter, in 2013. The report was that there would be three shows with the new promotion, with events on 12/29, 12/30 and 12/31, and that the 12/29 main event would feature Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Shinya Aoki. Aoki is 32, and is the current lightweight champion of One Championships. He’s on an eight fight winning streak since his 2012 loss to Eddie Alvarez in Bellator. Sakuraba is 46, hasn’t fought in MMA since 2011, and hasn’t won since 2009 nor beaten a significant fighter since 2006. I could sense when Sakuraba was in San Jose with Fedor and Sakakibara in town, that he was going to be part of the new promotion, and that was not a good feeling, because he has no business fighting with all the punishment he’s taken, let alone against a full-time regular fighter, even given a little bit of a size difference.
629
630The debut show will air on tape delay in the U.S. on Spike, edited down to about three hours.
631
632Tito Ortiz in an interview with Submission Radio said that he couldn’t fight Fedor because he needs minor surgery.
633
634Monte Cox, one of the best known agents in MMA pleaded guilty to filing a false tax return. Prosecutors in Bettendorf, IA, said that they found a significant number of checks from his MMA ventures between 2007 and 2010 which showed he under reported his income over that four year period by $1.1 million. He is facing up to three years in prison and $100,000 in fines, as well as owing the government $370,000 in back taxes. His sentencing is scheduled for 2/24.
635
636
637WWE
638Cena is taking time off after Hell in a Cell. We don’t know details at this point but right now Hell in a Cell is the last show he’s advertised on until December. WWE has confirmed Cena being pulled from the European tour for personal reasons. We were only told it was not an injury situation and something that he asked for a few months ago, but with communication issues, he was still being advertised everywhere until the past week. He’s not scheduled for the 10/26 Raw in San Diego (the day after Hell in a Cell) and for anything until December. He is being advertised for the post-Christmas house show run, but when it comes to WWE and advertising of talent even for a week ahead, let alone months ahead, it doesn’t necessarily mean anything.
639
640With Cena out, Flair was added as Guest General Manager on the tour. Bryan for one day was being advertised for several dates on the tour but then he was pulled.
641
642Right now for Europe, one tour has Rollins vs. Kane (replacing Cena) in the world title match, Cesaro vs. Show, Ziggler vs. Rusev, New Day vs. Dudleys for the tag title and Paige & Lynch & Charlotte vs. Bellas & Fox. That was the Cena tour and Flair will be doing those dates as the make-good because Cena vs. Rollins is being replaced by Rollins vs. Kane. Lana is being billed as returning although I doubt she’ll be allowed to do anything significant physically. Finn Balor is also on that tour, along with Sheamus, Axel, Miz, R-Truth and Dallas.
643
644The other tour has Reigns & Orton & Ambrose vs. The Wyatt Family and Owens vs. Ryback for the IC title, Neville vs. Stardust, The Ascension vs. Lucha Dragons, Natalya & Bayley vs. Team Bad, plus Swagger, Barrett, Sandow and Slater.
645
646Very interesting that WWE, before the current European tour, announced a four-day tour of Germany in February. Usually the European tours are April and November so this is likely an added one, plus they are doing the NXT tour in December, so they are increasing European dates going forward.
647
648WrestleMania tickets will go on sale on 11/6 at 10 a.m. Eastern time. Tickets will be priced from a low of $18 with $2,360 for the first eight rows of ringside and $1,180 fo the rest of ringside.
649
650Hell in a Cell for 10/25 in Los Angeles is not yet sold out, but very close. The confirmed double main events are Undertaker vs. Lesnar and Reigns vs. Wyatt in Hell in a Cell matches, Rollins vs. Kane for the WWE title, New Day vs. Dudleys for the tag titles (no longer a tables match) and Charlotte vs. Nikki for the Divas title (at this point not announced as a three-way with Paige). Other programs being worked on TV are still Owens vs. Ryback over the IC title and Stardust vs. Neville vs. Barrett. The only hint regarding Cena would be Ziggler after the errant superkick Ziggler hit Cena with on Raw.
651
652The Paige situation is interesting. She did that big promo on Raw and Smackdown, and instead of being the third person in the title match as was first planned, she’s not announced for the match and losing everywhere. There was an incident that came out on video where she used the F word to answer a fan question, and Scott Armstrong was there listening and made it clear that language was not about to be used. But the video got out anyway. However, we’ve been told she is not being punished for that and there are still plans with her stemming from the promo.
653
654Regarding Cesaro, they appear to have broken his fan base. While “Cesaro section” signs were in Boston, there were very few of them. He still gets good reactions, but it’s definitely way down from a month ago.
655
656HHH did a conference call to promote the Takeover show. He said some of the NXT shows in the U.K. have sold out, specifically mentioning the Wembley Arena show. Now I know that most buildings were set up with smaller capacities, so not sure if these are complete building sellouts or 3,000-seat set-ups sellouts. He said that the Louder than Life Festival shows this past weekend in Louisville were a good experience for talent. They were working in front of a fan base that was about one-third NXT fans and the rest curious concert goers who didn’t know the product. Some of the stuff they do that works to their hardcore audience based on familiarity didn’t work here, and they had to get over to an audience where the majority had no idea who they were, so it took them out of their comfort zone. It wasn’t as if it wasn’t a good audience, or receptive, just different. He particularly put over giving the women a chance to main event in a 30 minute match. He talked about how the NXT crowd in Brooklyn was different from the SummerSlam crowd the next day and didn’t know how much of a crossover there was. He said that NXT was like punk rock or heavy metal and WWE was like pop music, and that he knows the NXT fan base and what they want. The goal of the main roster is to appeal to a wider audience and he wants to learn what the crossover is. He wants more NXT touring going forward, to do more music festivals and more international next year. He was asked about who has taken over from Dusty Rhodes as promo coach and said it isn’t one person, but mentioned Regal. He said it’s a mix between guests and is looking to find the right person. He said, when asked about Liger, that he’s met with New Japan (the deal with Liger) and he will see what comes out of it. Regarding women in WWE, he put over Sara Amato and Natalya for helping the women, and used the Ronda Rousey and U.S. women’s soccer team as buzz words. He put over the Banks vs. Bayley match in Brooklyn as being one of the best matches he’s seen and talked about the Revolution. He said how some wrestlers just want to learn to perform while some want to learn about all aspects of the business. When asked about Finn Balor going to the TNA offices this past weekend and doing a crotch chop, he said Balor asked him first if he could tweet it and he said he didn’t care and said anyone who got mad takes things too seriously. In an interesting note, he said that for this weeks’ match, they were debating whether to call Banks vs. Bayley an Iron Man match or an Iron Woman match, and said it was Amy Dumas who ended up convincing them go to with Iron Man because she said Iron Woman is too demeaning. Dumas has been working as a producer for WWE television since Tough Enough ended. I absolutely don’t understand that thinking, because I think Iron Woman puts over the women as equals while Iron Man constitutes they are women performing in a men’s business, but either way, it’s hardly a major issue. He was asked if Vince was hard to sell on the idea of Bayley vs. Banks as a main event. He noted he has the final say in NXT, but he told Vince about it and Vince had no problems with it. Seriously, why would Vince have a problem with it? It’s not a show designed to draw a big crowd and it’s selling out and drawing its audience no matter what. He did say Vince has a different way of presenting women. He said Vince could overrule him on NXT, but doesn’t and claimed Vince told him he can’t wait to see the match. He put over Asuka, saying she has innate charisma and talked about how Hideo Itami struggled and compared it to college football players coming to the NFL because they have to adjust. Regarding the women’s curtain call after the Bayley vs. Banks match, he said he tries to look at things like a fan, and do what is real and what fans would like to see, and liked capturing the emotion. He said Vince loved it and thought it was great touch, and that they were selling emotion which was real and fans now more than ever get that. When asked about Evolve as a feeder system, he said he liked what Gabe Sapolsky and Evolve were doing and sees them as a feeder system and supports them. He said the talent that came through Evolve or ROH speak highly of Sapolsky and he’d definitely send talent to Evolve if there was something they needed to work on that he could help. He said they were one of the sounder promotions out there as far as telling stories and handling the product and put over that a lot of their talent came through there (Ambrose, Bryan, Rollins, Kalisto, Harper and Neville all worked Evolve/Dragon Gate USA prior to WWE), and said they were an important part of the business. He said if they wanted someone to get further training and had no room for them, he would send them to Sapolsky. That pretty much says there is at least something strongly on the table, and Matt Riddle is the example of a guy WWE is interested in but not yet ready to commit to. Evolve is essentially the place where he can prove he’s a good student and won’t be a problem. He was asked if Crews could be the first black WWE champion within the next three years and gave the answer you would expect, including pointing out Rock and Booker T were black.
657
658The promotions department has been told that Dwayne Johnson and the company are having serious talks about doing something before the end of the year. That’s why the WWE switched Johnson’s listing from alumni to current roster last week.
659
660Undertaker is open for working more dates this year than in the past several, although at this point he’s booked in Mexico, but not Europe, even though Europe needs more depth. It would probably only be rare dates. He’s in better shape physically because he’s fully healed from his surgeries and injuries. He’s working Mexico and there may be shows here and there he works before WrestleMania similar to that. As of right now, there is no talk at all in the direction of an Undertaker vs. Sting match at that show.
661
662Ric Flair did a podcast interview with Hulk Hogan this past week. It hasn’t aired yet. The two are pretty close friends. Flair was one of the people told at one point that they want him to steer clear of Hogan when the Hogan racist remarks story first broke. WWE was aware over the weekend Flair was going to be taping a show with him.
663
664Jericho has signed a deal for his fourth book, tentatively titled, “No is a four letter word,” that will be out at the end of 2016.
665
666There was another event to help save the Mid South Coliseum in Memphis held on 10/4, headed by Jerry Lawler wrestling two local heels, a man and woman, in a handicap match. With other more modern buildings in the area, there has been a movement to tear down the Coliseum, which was the Monday night home to Memphis wrestling from the 70s to the 90s.
667
668Orton is scheduled to get married on 11/14 in Las Vegas. It would be his second marriage.
669
670The video game will be released at the end of the month. There are strong hopes for it after the major success of last year’s game, which was the strongest in a few years. The key selling points are the 120 character roster, the biggest ever, and it has been listed as one of the top five most anticipated new games on IGN for the last few months, which is considered a positive sign.
671
672Zeb Colter is still under WWE contract but is listed out as out of action due to recovering from surgery.
673
674Former NWA and current Evolve wrestler Anthony Nese worked the 9/28 Raw tapings as the stunt man tech guy that Wyatt threw onto Reigns in their post-match brawl.
675
676Dwayne Johnson has a new endorsement deal with Ford, and will be appearing in national commercials with the company starting on 10/12. He’ll be playing Dwayne Johnson, the mechanic with the idea of promoting that you should service your vehicles at your local Ford dealership. There will be a theme of “The Specialists,” which will be how the mechanics are pushed, and will be used for all kinds of commercials in television, radio, Internet and social media with a variety of commercials in a multi-year contract.
677
678WWE has also signed a deal with Pez to have Undertaker, Rock and Cena Pez dispensers.
679
680There was a press release for the next season of Total Divas. The cast members will be the Bellas, Natalya, Eva Marie in her quest to win over the skeptical wrestling fans, Paige, Mendes who is expecting, Fox and Mandy (Amanda Saccomanno from Total Divas). They announced this season, currently being filmed, would air in early 2016. While the ratings for this season were way down, like a lot of reality shows, it did really big when you figure in DVR viewership.
681
682James Storm has had talks regarding a player/coach type of role in NXT.
683
684The company did a 12-woman tryout camp this past week. This was mostly women who had never done pro wrestling before, including those who had sent in audition tapes to Tough Enough, made the final day but were cut before the first episode. The most notable tryout was Liz Gorman, 28, who was a Lingerie Football League all-star in 2010 and 2011. Summer Rae was a star in that league, and actually their most heavily marketed player, before she was signed by WWE.
685
686WWE attorney Jerry McDevitt said in noting the 9/28 issue where the judge denied the WWE’s request to get the name of other potential clients who had signed retainer agreements with Konstantine Kyros (who is the lawyer behind the concussion lawsuit), saying that based on a misunderstanding, the judge denied the WWE’s motion as being moot because in the new amended lawsuit in the Russ McCullough case, there were no John Doe’s named as plaintiffs. She said she was inclined to rule in favor of WWE on the motion until she saw that. McDevitt then argued that the issue wasn’t that Kyros was suing in the names of unidentified John Doe’s, but that they wanted the names of anyone Kyros had as a client that hadn’t come forward who had a signed retainer with him that had not performed with the company for three years. On 10/2, the judge issued a new order saying she understood the motion that they were asking for, and that she would make a decision on it at some point in the future. There is talk that Kyros will be amending the lawsuits filed by the widow of Nelson Frazier and the former girlfriend of Matt Osborne.
687
688When Heyman was asked by Sports Illustrated if he really believed there was no chance of an Austin vs. Lesnar match at WrestleMania, Heyman said, “Oh, I believe it after the phone calls Steve and I received after the podcast (where Austin cut that promo). Absolutely.” That’s the furious call both got from Vince McMahon who thought they were going into business for themselves to put together a match that he couldn’t possibly equal as a main event, and didn’t want anyone thinking in that direction.
689
690Patrick Clark from Tough Enough was reportedly either signed or there is something going on. One promoter who had bookings with him was told he’s now out because he’s signed and scheduled to report to Orlando on 10/19. WWE didn’t confirm his signing, but also didn’t deny it.
691
692There will be another Sting DVD called, “Sting: Into the Light,” that will be released on 10/12.
693
694Barbie Blank (formerly Kelly Kelly) was negative on WWE in an interview with Channel Guide Mag. She talked about how the lead-in for her show Wags on E! is Total Divas, but said, “WWE hasn’t been very supportive, so that’s kind of upsetting. I gave them so many years. We’re on the same network. We are right after Total Divas. They just haven’t given any support whatsoever. They support when guys do other things outside of the business, like The Rock and Steve Austin. They support them fully. For me, it’s like, really, we didn’t have a falling out. I left on good terms. Now that I’m doing this on my own, and I’m on the same network, you could be more supporting. So that has been upsetting. But people I used to work with and a lot of the wrestlers watch it, so that’s great to have their support. Maryse (Mizanin) came on this season, so that was cool.” In reality, WWE only pushes outside projects with people they have under contract, or at times with someone like Johnson where they can maybe ride his coattails.
695
696In an interesting note, last week in Germany, Smackdown had more viewers than Raw by a 320,000 to 260,000 margin. Even more important is that in Germany, the most important thing is the 14-to-49 demo and the share number and Smackdown did a 2.8 in that demo and Raw did a 1.5.
697
698Riley started back training this past week after knee surgery from a few months ago.
699
700In a Philadelphia radio interview, Scott Hall noted that he has a WWE Legends contract at home and ready to sign and that he’s very thankful he’s getting another chance to work for the company.
701
702Mendes is being brought to TV each week. Her official role is that she’s the web site correspondent for Smackdown, which allows her to have a role if they are using her pregnancy for “Total Divas,” since she can’t wrestle. There’s an obvious joke there.
703
704The stock closed at press time at $17.97 per share, leaving the company market value at $1.36 billion. It was well up after bottoming out last week, just as the market rose this past week.
705
706There was a web site tease of the return of The Bunny. There was a Rose interview on the web site where in the background you could see The Bunny. The Bunny was usually, but not always, played by Justin Gabriel, before the character was dropped.
707
708Notes from the 10/5 Raw in Boston. Another long show. They announced a sellout of 14,108 but there were roughly 1,000 seats tarped and the real number was 11,000. The WWE rule of thumb (violated on occasion of late) is to not announce a sellout unless it’s legit (as opposed to the 80s rule of thumb where every show was a sellout and hanging from the rafters). But when they get negative press, or business is starting to go down and word gets out, they change from that rule. Lots of chants for Punk and Banks during the show, more Banks, although when Banks finally came out, she got a good reaction, not great, and the crowd died on her match.
709
710For Superstars, Cesaro pinned Rose with a 36 rep giant swing and the sharpshooter. Rose came out and said that this must be the lowest point of Cesaro’s career, because he’s wrestling Adam Rose on Superstars. Unreal he actually said that. Prime Time Players beat The Ascension when O’Neil got the pin.
711
712Raw opened with Lesnar and Heyman out. The fans cheered them like crazy, except briefly booing when they talked about Lesnar breaking the streak. He was pushing Hell in a Cell. The decision was clearly to ignore that there was a prior Hell in a Cell match on PPV between the two (Lesnar won it in 2003). Heyman said Hell in a Cell is Undertaker’s match, but WrestleMania was Undertaker’s event. He said Undertaker spent a year thinking about revenge but tapped out, and then said he doesn’t ever recall Lesnar having to revert to using a low blow. He plugged the Austin podcast. He promised this would be the last time Lesnar fights Undertaker and that one or the other would be the winner of this war, and the other will not walk out of the cell. That’s not a prediction, it’s a spoiler. Show came out and said that he came close to beating Lesnar in Madison Square Garden, and offered a handshake. So the idea is Show is a face here. Lesnar just walked past him. Show called Lesnar arrogant and said he hoped Undertaker beats him again. Lesnar came back in and hit Show with an overhead belly-to-belly suplex and laid him out with another F-5. They had announced Rollins & Show vs. Dudleys, so in that match Show was to be a heel, but now Show was injured by Lesnar from taking the same moves that he was fine from two days earlier. So Rollins needed a partner. It’s real impressive to see Lesnar throw Show around, so it was a smart idea to have it on television where the big audience can see it.
713
714Rollins was backstage with Stephanie and said he wanted the match called off. He said that he can’t be expected to face the Dudleys by himself. Stephanie was tired of hearing him complain, and said, “You’re the man, figure it out.”
715
716Reigns & Ambrose & Orton beat Wyatt & Harper & Strowman in 15:53. Good match, really the best thing on the show. Strowman is being protected. I can’t say he’s getting over, but he’s not looking as bad as he did at the start. JBL compared him with Bill Kazmaier and Jeep Swenson, who were two of the worst pro wrestlers of their era. Well, he did say Strowman had more athletic ability than they did. The big thing is Strowman takes all these moves and stays on his feet. The finish saw Orton hit the RKO on Harper, and then Reigns followed with a spear on Harper for the pin. Reigns then said he was going to end his issues with Wyatt at Hell in a Cell.
717
718Sheamus pinned Neville in :32. Barrett came out for commentary. Neville attacked Sheamus before the match for calling him a leprechaun. Barrett distracted Neville and Sheamus used the Brogue kick for the pin. That’s pretty much the same way Daniel Bryan started catching fire, although I hardly think this was booked with that thought in mind.
719
720Kane did an interview. He was off crutches from Saturday and in a walking boot. He said he would be Rollins’ partner against the Dudleys. Rollins was out and told Kane that he was no Tom Brady, even though they both have deflated balls. Cute line. Kane gave a speech about looking at yourself in the mirror and being able to live with it, saying he doesn’t think Rollins can live with his reflection. Stephanie came out and said she was tired of all Rollins’ annoying complaining. She said that everyone knows Rollins was the one who sent the anonymous e-mail complaint about Kane last week. Rollins denied it but she just told him to save it, and that the evaluation blew up in his face. Well, so it was Seth’s fault the ratings were so bad, except in the Cormier household where they are back watching weekly specifically for Rollins. Not only that, but Stephanie stuck up for Tom Brady, because he’s a team player that will lead the Patriots to the Super Bowl. Stephanie is a Patriots fan. So weird to see her out there to get the easy babyface pop. She announced that Kane would team with Rollins against the Dudleys tonight, and that Monster Kane (she meant Demon Kane but it’s all the same) would face Rollins for the title at Hell in a Cell, but if Kane loses, then Corporate Kane loses his job as Director of Operations. That’s one week after he got a review that said he was a model employee doing great at his job.
721
722Rollins was now backstage complaining to HHH. Every year there are lessons to learn about what fans will tune in and what they will buy, as well as what they won’t. The world champion who always loses, is totally overexposed and always complains, may not be the best model to emulate. HHH told him that Kane’s got one bad leg, he’s deranged and he’s after your title, and at first glance it appears Kane has you where he wants you. But there’s an old saying, do unto others before they do unto you. That was the golden rule in the 60s adapted by Ray Stevens.
723
724Natalya beat Paige in 6:04 with a sharpshooter in the middle. Good match.
725
726Ryback did a backstage interview. This wasn’t his first, but whoever scripts him needs to be banned from writing any verbiage. It was pretty awful.
727
728Owens pinned Sin Cara in 2:34 with the power bomb. This was sad to watch because Kalisto was at ringside yelling at people to chant “Lucha,” and nobody did. After the match, Owens attacked Kalisto and set up giving him the power bomb on the floor, but Ryback ran in for the save, and Owens ran off.
729
730Stephanie was on the phone when The New Day started acting all happy and she got mad at them for interrupting her phone call. So she made them all look like job guys and backed them down. Woods was about to play the trombone when Stephanie said that if she hears that trombone, it’ll be worse than suplex city. Then she announced a New Day vs. Dudleys title match at Hell in a Cell with no stipulations.
731
732Next was Cena and Reigns in the ring with women who survived breast cancer as they start their month of promoting the Susan G. Komen Foundation. Punk went off on this on Twitter during the show, saying the Komen Foundation was a scam and telling people to read the writing of Paul Lazenby. Lazenby is a former wrestler, MMA fighter and current Hollywood stunt man. His wife, Marianna Komlos, was a former bodybuilder who was a WWE female performer as Marianna and Mrs. Cleavage in 1999, who died of breast cancer in 2005. He’s written extensively about breast cancer charities and not in glowing terms about SGK. They are controversial but in most charity ratings of how much of the money goes to corporate and how much is truly used for the cause, they rate better than most, but far from the best. Anyway, they are excellent at publicizing themselves, which is not a bad thing in and of itself, and make a good team with WWE because it’s a disease that everyone knows someone who has had it, but it’s also one where the survival rate is pretty high. People look at these things in two ways, either blindly defending it because it comes across so well if you don’t think about motives, or are critical of it because they see it as transparent P.R. The former group argues that since it does some good that the second part, whether true or not, is irrelevant. I just see it as something wrestling has always done, and it’s motives are the same as the motives always were, which are a little of both. It was notable that Reigns and Cena were the point men, whereas before it was only Cena. This made it very clear Reigns is still the guy they are picking for the spot.
733
734Dudleys beat Kane & Rollins via DQ in 13:24. Kane was selling the leg early. His leg was giving him so much trouble that Rollins told him to tag out and stay out of the ring. The match was supposed to be part of the big story of the story and building the PPV main, but it didn’t have much heat. The doctor wanted to take Kane to the back. Rollins freaked out, knowing that means Demon Kane is coming back. So he handcuffed Kane to the post. That really came off clever. But Kane ended up knocked off the apron and the handcuffs broke. So Kane was taken to the back injured. On his way out, he turned and smiled. The idea is that they’re not insulting our intelligence like trying to pretend Kane has a split personality, but it’s very clear he’s got a well constructed plan to get back at Rollins and the fake dual personality is part of it. There was a hilarious spot near the end. Bubba told Devon to “Get the table.” Devon then went to the wrong side of the ring, where there was no table. Fortunately, Bubba was thinking on his feet, saw it, and got the table himself. Rollins got the table away and used a sliding kick into the table on both of them. The ref then DQ’d Rollins for using the table as a weapon. Demon Kane out. He was actually limping a little. It was just enough to where it wasn’t a no sell. However, the Dudleys laid out Kane with the 3-D. Rollins left the ring. But he came back out and got the table. Then Kane recovered, but Rollins hit an enzuigiri. Rollins went to the top, but as he came off, Kane caught him in mid-air and choke slammed him through the table.
735
736They aired a pre-tape from earlier in the day outside the arena with Team Bella and Team BAD. The crowd watching the clip popped for Banks, who is originally from Boston. Banks took Nikki’s baseball cap and flung it.
737
738Banks & Naomi & Tamina beat Bellas & Fox in 11:45. Banks got to do a promo. There were people cheering her but it was not as overwhelming as I’d have figured in her hometown. She said she put the Boss in Boston. The Bellas & Fox came out. Nikki said that Banks was like the Red Sox, overrated. Then she said that she’s like the Yankees, who are going all the way. The announcers then put over how Banks vs Bayley will be the first time a WWE special was ever headlined by a women’s match. It actually is the first major WWE show that I can recall headlined by a woman’s match. Some will point to a few Raw main events with women, but they were never advertised ahead of time as the main event (and in most of those cases they ended the show with men’s dark matches with the main eventers). Wendi Richter may have done a few main events in 1984 when Vince McMahon was trying to promote her like Dana White did with Ronda Rousey except it totally failed. I think she got a few house shows on top, against the wishes of most, and they bombed and that was it. However, the very first WWF national television special was, in fact, headlined by a women’s match, Richter vs. Moolah on MTV. The crowd died on this match even with Banks in it. Banks made Fox submit to the bank statement.
739
740Charlotte did a promo about her match with Nikki. It had that feeling like reading from a bad script thing about it, talking about how this is her chance to prove beating Nikki wasn’t a fluke and the title is where it belongs.
741
742Summer Rae came out. She showed a video tribute to “Ru Ru.” The basic storyline here is that Rusev is still hot for Lana. Summer is hot for Ziggler. But Rusev & Summer pretend to be hot for each other but we know better. So Summer got down on one knee, pulled out a ring, and proposed to him. He said “Yes.” But then he said not right now, and that he isn’t going to marry her until he first wins the WWE title. She wasn’t happy with that answer. By the way, Catherine Joy Perry, who is Lana, posed with a new photo showing what appeared to be an engagement ring on her finger. But she uses social media to work angles as well.
743
744Cena was going to defend the title. They played Ziggler’s music, but he never came out. Instead, the New Day dragged him out like they had beaten him up. So it turned into Cena vs. Big E for the U.S. title. Big E did an overhead belly-to-belly on Cena and they really don’t need to be risking Cena on moves like that. In the replay, you saw just how close Cena came to landing on his head, and he’s already had one neck surgery. Big E also did the tackle to the floor spot with him. The crowd was dead for this match as well, and that’s Cena in Boston after doing the hometown promo talking about his brother and father in the front row and growing up a few exits down the highway from the Gardens. The finish saw E try to hit Cena with the trombone, but Charles Robinson took it away and Cena used the Attitude Adjustment on him for the pin in 9:53. The three of them all attacked Cena after the match. Ziggler made the save, until he accidentally superkicked Cena, which hints of a Cena vs. Ziggler match and with Cena leaving in three weeks, they would have to get to it quickly. E laid out Ziggler with a clothesline and they beat him down as well. The Dudleys came in for the save. But they got beaten down as well with Kingston doing two Trouble in Paradise kicks on Bubba. Then they laid out Devon with a double-team big ending, and the show went off the air with the four babyfaces down and The New Day up.
745
746The advertised main event of Wyatt & Harper & Rollins vs. Cena & Reigns & Ambrose didn’t take place. After the show ended, The New Day was celebrating but Cena & Ziggler & Dudleys made a comeback and cleaned house. Big E and Kingston took off. Ziggler gave Woods a superkick and then Cena laid him out with the Attitude Adjustment. The Dudleys then put him through a table with the 3-D. Cena then thanked the crowd and told them he was headed to Kowloon’s for a scorpion bowl. Kowloon’s is a well-known Chinese restaurant that a lot of the wrestlers go to after shows in the Boston area.
747
748Notes from the 10/6 Smackdown tapings in Philadelphia. It was a half crew as not only was Cena not there, but an entire crew wasn’t there because they had left for Saudi Arabia. WWE has three shows in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia from 10/8 to 10/10 with Cena vs. Rollins on top, plus Jericho, Show, Ambrose, Kane, Sheamus, Cesaro, Harper, Miz, Swagger and Lucha Dragons among those. None of the women are on the tour due to the customs in that part of the world about women and clothing.
749
750Main Event opened with Owens claiming that he should be voted Superstar of the Year for everything he’s done, being NXT champion, IC champion and beating Cena once out of 100 matches and beating Jericho. He was yelling at Byron Saxton, when Jimmy Uso and him started arguing, which set them up for a match. Naomi pinned Paige. Owens pinned Jimmy Uso after kicking out of the Samoan drop and winning with the pop up power bomb.
751
752Smackdown opened with New Day out. They showed a replay of them laying everyone out at the end of Raw. They talked about dominating everyone. They talked about how the Philadelphia Eagles suck. Ziggler came out and said that they cost him his shot at the U.S. title and he challenged Big E. Then the Dudleys came out and said they would make sure it was a fair match.
753
754Big E pinned Ziggler due to interference from Kingston. The Dudleys, Woods & Kingston were all at ringside. Woods & Kingston tried to interfere and the Dudleys stopped them at first.
755
756Charlotte & Lynch & Naomi beat The Bellas & Fox.
757
758Ryback pinned Rusev. Owens was doing commentary on this match.
759
760Wyatt & Strowman did an interview talking about their main event match with Orton & Reigns.
761
762Barrett pinned Neville with the bull hammer.
763
764Stardust cut a promo talking about Neville.
765
766Orton & Reigns beat Wyatt & Strowman via DQ in the main event. Fans were really into Orton. Wyatt hit Reigns with a foreign object for the DQ. The New Day attacked Reigns after the match until the Dudleys made the save, and they ended up putting Woods through a table once again.
767
768Notes from the 9/30 NXT TV show. This was the go-home show for the Takeover show. It opened with Kyle Edwards, who I remember as wrestling and MMA announcer Arda Ocal from Canada, in studio talking about the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Tournament in something inserted into the show. They showed a house show where Jason Jordan & Chad Gable beat The Hype Bros, Zack Ryder & Mojo Rawley when Gable pinned Ryder. It was announced that with the win, they face Baron Corbin & Rhyno in the semifinals. The semifinals and finals are both on the Takeover show, which has been lengthened to two-and-a-half hours since they are now doing three tournament matches plus a 30:00 Iron Woman main event. They also showed a clip of Dash Wilder & Scott Dawson beating The Vaudevillains, and announced Wilder & Dawson facing the winner of the next match on the show, which was actually taped a month back.
769
770Finn Balor & Samoa Joe beat Enzo Amore & Colin Cassady in 4:16. It was fast moving and the crowd was into it. Enzo did a tope on Joe at the same time Balor dove on Cassady. They did the rocket launcher on Joe, but Joe from the bottom picked Enzo up and put him on the top rope. Balor tagged in and Joe delivered the muscle buster, followed by Balor using the double foot stomp off the top for the pin.
771
772Backstage they had an interview with Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa. They said they were disappointed they didn’t do better in the tag team tournament. Tyler Breeze showed up and Ciampa noted how he was friends with Apollo Crews, knowing him from the indie scene. Breeze said that any friend of Crews is an enemy of his. This led to Breeze and Ciampa challenging for a match.
773
774They showed a video of Asuka. They are doing a good job so far of making her seem special. They again pushed the idea that she was the biggest signing in the history of NXT. She’s got the attractive badass thing going which is probably the right dynamic. How important the language barrier ends up being and her ability to fit her own work style into WWE style, the crowd and just WWE being WWE will probably determine how she does. She’s not young, and this is a negative for someone in developmental.
775
776Crews pinned Gargano in 4:06 with a press slam and standing moonsault. Match was solid. Gargano looked good in what he was allowed to show.
777
778Regal was in his office with Dana Brooke and Emma. Regal was mad at them for embarrassing him during the introduction of Asuka. He announced Brooke vs. Asuka for Takeover. Brooke was laughing about it talking about how she and Emma ran Asuka out of the ring last week with her tail tucked between her legs. They caller her a “High Heena.” Regal than pulled open a file on his computer to show Brooke and Emma a video of Asuka. It was that reaction where the heel starts cocky and then sees something they don’t like and gets scared. Emma looked and said, “Good luck,” and walked out on her. I thought this was pretty effective because they didn’t show us the video so it lets your imagination think what of Asuka is so scary to get them to freak. But it was ruined. After a Nia Jax video, they showed us the video that Brooke saw. It was Asuka punching and kicking a heavy bag. She didn’t even look all that impressive in doing so. Everyone has seen boxers and MMA fighters at some point do that in clips so much smoother so it ended up being a major letdown.
779
780Brooke & Emma beat Peyton Royce & Billie Kay in 6:46. They are now pushing Emma based around her showing off her ass, which is the opposite of her old character. The crowd quieted down for this. The match wasn’t good. Emma tripped Royce and Brooke pinned Royce after a falcon arrow after putting Royce on her shoulders, and then turning to face the hard camera.
781
782Jordan & Gable were out for an interview. Jordan now wants to be known as J.J. Jordan. Wilder and Dawson came out and they argued. Wilder & Dawson blamed Jordan & Gable for them losing the eight-man tag match at the Brooklyn show. Wilder & Dawson said that they don’t think Jordan & Gable can get past Rhyno & Corbin. They teased the idea that these two teams would meet in the finals, which I’m thinking will be a red herring.
783
784Breeze pinned Ciampa in 7:47. An interesting note here is that Ciampa on the indie scene isn’t considered a small guy at all. Breeze in WWE is considered really small. But Breeze is actually noticeably bigger than Ciampa. There was a light dueling chant. From a wrestling standpoint, these two were well above everything else on the show. Ciampa did a good job in his role and was given a lot of offense. From watching this, you would think that they have some interest in him. Breeze pinned him at the end with the killswitch, although the announcers never called the move.
785
786Rhyno and Corbin cut a promo about the tournament and facing Jordan & Gable.
787
788There was no TV main event. The final segment was a very well done long video building Bayley vs. Banks. They showed Bayley with her mom, clips from the Brooklyn match, clips of them hugging after the Brooklyn match and backstage. Then they showed both training by running sprints, lifting, running the ropes with Bayley talking about upping her cardio and such because of the Iron Man match. They made the match seem like a real big deal. It’s like they do everything right to make the NXT women’s title seem important and on the WWE level, they do the opposite and try and make the title seem important but the fans still aren’t invested in it.
789
790NXT’s first house show of the weekend was 10/2 in Nashville, drawing 1,300, a little more than ROH usually draws in the market. James Storm was said in a number of reports to have been at the show, although Storm claimed he wasn’t there, which several at the show said when he showed a photo of himself at a local club saying that’s where he was, he had the same shirt on that he wore when he was in the arena. Enzo & Cass beat Chad Gable & Jason Jordan with the rocket launcher. Bull Dempsey pinned Elias Sampson with a sitting splash off the top. Bayley won a three-way over Emma and Alexa Bliss doing the Belly-to-Bayley on both of them and pinning Bliss. Samoa Joe beat Baron Corbin with the choke. Apollo Crews pinned Tye Dillinger with a standing moonsault. Eva Marie beat Carmella in a weird finish. Eva kicked her in the back of the head and knocked her silly. Ref Drake Weurtz gave the “X” symbol and they stopped the match to check on Carmella. Carmella got up on her own but seemed shaken up. Carmella didn’t work the rest of the weekend so that pretty much indicates the injury was significant. The Vaudevillains retained the tag titles over Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder in a very good match. Main event saw Finn Balor over Tyler Breeze with the double foot stomp off the top to retain the NXT title. Balor came across as a different level of performer than everyone else on the show and they had the best match. Balor was doing crotch chops and the audience was eating it up.
791
792The next two nights the NXT crew was part of the Louder than Life music and food festival in Louisville. They did four shows, two each on 10/3 and 10/4, in a 300-seat setup which was free. Three of the shows were full, in some cases there were people watching the big screens from outside the tent where the show took place in. They did basic safe matches with a lot of comedy to kill time, because they did four match shows that went 90 minutes, and with the exception of Enzo & Cass doing their routine, there wasn’t any mic work. They had to work longer than usual in front of a crowd that wasn’t really there to see them and wasn’t hot, just concert goers dropping in. Maybe 100 fans at each session were actual NXT fans. They were taping all the shows and everyone worked for the hard camera instead of the full audience. They’ll probably be producing a video feature on this.
793
794On the first day, Bayley retained over Bliss with the Belly-to-Bayley. Balor over Breeze was the main event again. Second day highlights were Joe over Breeze, Vaudevillains keeping tag titles over Gable & Jordan, Bayley pinning Emma to keep the Women’s title with the Belly-to-Bayley and Balor over Corbin for the NXT title. Eva Marie beat Bliss in a match that was described as basic and not bad at all, with the non-fans reacting to Eva more than Bliss. Bayley and Emma did a comedy spot where they fought over donuts from a donut truck, but that didn’t get over like most of the comedy did.
795
796Right now the plan is for more of a focus going forward on Jordan & Gable.
797
798The actual attendance for the 9/18 Montreal house show was 5,000 total in attendance, a number which includes the comps. That’s pretty bad for such a strong historical market.
799
800The Cena tour opened on 10/2 in Trenton, NJ. Madison Square Garden was the sellout of 12,700 the next night. And the final house show of that tour was 10/4 in Worcester, MA, which drew 3,800, which is a bad showing in that market.
801
802The Reigns tour opened on 10/3 in Bangor, ME before 3,000 fans. 10/4 in Portland, ME, drew 2,000.
803
804Trenton was similar to the MSG show. Neville pinned Stardust. The New Day, being Woods & E, beat The Dudleys to keep the tag titles. Dallas came out and did an open challenge. Henry then came out and squashed him. Ziggler beat Rusev with the Zig Zag after distraction from Summer Rae. Sheamus pinned Cesaro. Owens pinned Jericho to retain the IC title. Charlotte & Lynch beat the Bellas in a match where Paige was the guest ref. Fox was in the Bellas’ corner. Main event saw Cena beat Rollins to retain the U.S. title in a similar match to what they’ve been doing at the house shows.
805
806Worcester was mostly the same. They added Ryder pinning Maddox with a Rough Ryder. Maddox with blond hair did a promo telling everyone who he was since most people didn’t know. The New Day, this time being Kingston & Woods, beat The Dudley. The finish saw Big E trip Bubba from the outside, leading to his being pinned. New Day got a huge babyface reaction. But once the match started, with New Day doing heel spots, the crowd went for the Dudleys. After the match, the Dudleys put Woods through a table. With no Jericho, the IC title match ended up being Owens retaining over Rusev and Ziggler in a three-way. They had the best match on the show. It was mostly Ziggler being double-teamed until Rusev and Owens started going at it. Ziggler hit the Zig Zag on Rusev but Owens superkicked Ziggler and pinned Rusev to win. Orton pinned Sheamus with the RKO. Henry pinned Dallas with the World’s Strongest Slam in seconds. Dallas then said he wasn’t ready and it was a fluke. Show then came out, wearing clothes, smiling and slapping hands with the crowd as he came to the ring. He immediately knocked Dallas out, and then went back and slapped hands with the crowd all the way back. They did the same six-woman as in MSG with the exact same scenario with Paige walking out on Charlotte & Lynch against the Bellas & Fox. However, since this was a regular house show where the faces go over, Charlotte’s team still won short-handed. Cena vs. Rollins was a street fight for the U.S. title. Corporate Kane, on crutches, announced it had been changed to a street fight. Crowd was super hot and they had a great match. Demon Kane came out for the finish and distracted Rollins and Cena put Rollins through a table with the Attitude Adjustment.
807
808Bangor was a weak lineup with most of the key guys working MSG. Still put on a good show. People who bought cheap seats were upgraded with the small crowd. Cesaro pinned Miz with a giant swing and neutralizer in 11:00. Fandango pinned Slater in about 2:00 with a roll-up which was the first move of the match. They stalled until Slater “accidentally” tripped and then Fandango pinned him right away. They played a video package to distract people from Strowman being put under the ring. Usually they do this well but here it wasn’t because we’re told everyone saw it happening and it came across goofy. Strowman beat Swagger with the head-and-arm choke. They gave Strowman more ring time here, about four minutes, which is exactly what they need to be doing at the house shows. Really he should be doing 7-10 minutes and gradually building. The matches may struggle but if they want the guy to have legs as a star, they are going to have to give him time in the ring to learn at these events. Lucha Dragons won a three-way over The Ascension and Los Matadores. Torito didn’t come out and then he ran in for the finish and helped the Lucha Dragons beat Los Matadores. Torito celebrated after with the Lucha Dragons. Kalisto was the star of the match. Not sure why this angle on TV crawled to a halt when it should have been done weeks ago. Natalya beat Banks with the sharpshooter. Said to be one of the best matches on the show and Natalya may have gotten the biggest babyface reaction of anyone on the show. They gave them 10:00 and they really got over. Tamina was in Banks’ corner but not Naomi. Ambrose pinned Harper with Dirty Deeds in a great match. R-Truth pinned Rose with an ax kick. They did a dance contest and then went to the finish pretty quick. Ryback pinned Barrett after the shell shock. Main event saw Reigns beat Wyatt in the street fight main event in about 20:00. Wyatt cut his left hand badly when Reigns nailed him with a kendo stick shot to the head and his hand was in the way. The hand was bleeding really bad. Jamie Noble and the medics came out and bandaged it up. It was still bleeding and they bandaged it up more. Wyatt was also bleeding from the head but that wasn’t as significant. The match was stopped. Noble at one point told the ref to have Reigns hit a power bomb and pin him right away. Wyatt was not happy with that and not happy they stopped the match, which is the wrestler mentality. But when they restarted the match, they felt Wyatt was okay and worked it to the proper finish with them going through tables, Strowman doing a run-in and Ambrose making the save. Ambrose and Reigns knocked Strowman out of the ring with a double tackle and then Reigns ended up getting the pin with a spear.
809
810Portland was the same show as Bangor. The finish of Reigns vs. Wyatt was a power bomb through a table for the pin instead of a spear, but same deal with Strowman and Ambrose both interfering.
811
812
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