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3MARCH 4, 2019 OBSERVER NEWSLETTER: ROMAN REIGNS RETURNS TO WWE AFTER LEUKEMIA REMISSION, MORE
4BY OBSERVER STAFF | STAFF@WRESTLINGOBSERVER.COM | @WONF4W
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6Wrestling Observer Newsletter
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8PO Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228 ISSN10839593 March 4, 2019
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10 
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12Roman Reigns (Leati Joseph Anoa’i, 33), returned to WWE after four months off, which included both a battle with leukemia as well as a role in the movie “Hobbs and Shaw” on the 2/25 show in Atlanta.
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14His return was a heavy emotional scene, both for himself and the crowd at the Phillips Arena in Atlanta. He noted that he was officially in remission and was back. Later he got physical in an angle where he and Seth Rollins saved Dean Ambrose from a beating from Drew McIntyre, Bobby Lashley, Baron Corbin and Elias, where he was doing his trademark Superman punch and laid out McIntyre with a spear. Nothing was said about a first match back, but it would make sense for it to be at the 3/10 Fastlane PPV from Cleveland or at WrestleMania on 4/7 in East Rutherford, NJ, with some sort of a Shield reunion. That would make the former more likely since Rollins is scheduled to face Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania.
15
16Reigns was on Good Morning America the next day, saying that he never gets nervous, not even at WrestleMania, but he was very nervous coming out to give the speech because he said his OCD was acting up and he wanted it to be perfect. He talked about wanting to become the point person for a Foundation to raise funds regarding pediatric cancer and to use his WWE platform for that.
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18He is scheduled to be a regular on television from this point forward.
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20Reigns, the Universal champion and really the face of the company at the time, had announced he was suffering from leukemia on 10/22 on Raw in Providence, RI, after missing house shows the prior weekend with no reason given. His return interview should go down as one of the highlights of the 26-year history of the show, with the tremendous crowd response and his attempt to gracefully handle the situation.
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22There were ex-college football teammates at Georgia Tech who were aware that in around 2007 he had battled leukemia, and returned and was healthy enough to play Canadian Football months later.
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24The company was secretive in not revealing the type of leukemia he had. There are many forms, none of which are good, but some obviously not quite as bad as others. They can vary from versions where it can be treated with medicine and go into remission, although the person has to live with the risks of its return throughout the rest of their life, one of the two chronic forms, or forms that have significantly higher mortality rates.
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26His departure was the catalyst for a product overhaul, with Ambrose using it to get heat and turn heel on Seth Rollins on that very show by mocking Reigns’ leukemia, as well as babyface turns by Elias and Braun Strowman. The Ambrose turn, which was to lead to a Reigns vs. Ambrose program, as well as the Elias turn, were then dropped over the last month.
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28Reigns looked great, but that was not a surprise as photos of him in Hawaii, where he was shooting the movie where he played the brother of Hobbs, the role made famous by Dwayne Johnson in recent Fast & Furious movies showed him looking big and in great condition. The fact he was shooting the movie was also kept secret until recent weeks, when Johnson revealed that Reigns was in the movie, playing his brother, and released photos at the conclusion of the filming in Hawaii.
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30As noted there are many different forms of leukemia. Some can be treated with medicine, some need chemotherapy and radiation and others are far worse. Between the fact he was shooting the movie for several months, looked the same, and had only been gone from wrestling for four months, returning shortly after the movie wrapped up, led to what would figure to be obvious speculation about what is and isn’t legitimate. Make no mistake about it. The illness was legitimate, and his being in such great shape is entirely plausible with certain types of leukemia.
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32His recovery and return time span is consistent with both of those forms.
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34For leukemia overall, roughly 57 percent of the people who get it will live more than five years, which is a sobering and scary statistic. But that varies greatly. In some forms, the odds of living five years is minimal, and in other forms, the odds of survival are much higher, but those forms also carry with them a high risk of returning. Reigns went through this at both 22 and 33.
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36Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), which is treatable with the drug Gleevec, which was approved by the FDA in 2001, carries with a 90 percent chance of survival for more than five years, which may sound like good odds, but a 10 percent chance of death for someone at that age with a family is scary. Hairy cell leukemia (HCL), which experts have said is the best of all the bad possibilities, is a disease that hits almost exclusively adult males, is both incurable and easily treatable, with 96 percent of those being diagnosed with it surviving more than ten years. But both of those forms carry a high risk of the symptoms returning throughout life.
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38Brian Boyle of the New Jersey Devils NHL team had chronic myelogenous leukemia, cancer of the bone marrow in 2017 and only missed ten games before returning. His treatment, two pills a day on an empty stomach was mild and he suffered no side effects.
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40In 2007, Jason Blake of the Toronto Maple Leafs NHL team had the same CML form of leukemia in 2007 and didn’t even miss a game after the diagnosis and while under treatment.
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42Reigns came out and got a several minute long loud and positive ovation. It was among the longest in the history of the show, with him having tears in his eyes, slapping hands with ringside fans, mugging for selfies, hugging his family, with both his wife, mother and Ata Johnson (Dwayne’s mother and his aunt, not biological but nonetheless he grew up with her as his aunt) sitting together and giving them big embraces.
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44Fans chanted “Welcome back,” and he said that he will probably say this a lot, which he did, but “Thank you.” He said he missed the job, missed the fans, there’s no other job like this, and no other fan base like this. There was a “This is your yard” chant which he responded to by saying “This is our yard.”
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46He said that he wasn’t going to lie. In October, when he made the announcement in Providence, he said he was terrified, scared and insecure and wasn’t sure he wanted to share his secret with the world. He said he was scared because he didn’t know how the fans would react. But by the time he got home, he joked that the response was overwhelming, both from fans and people who weren’t even wrestling fans. He said that so many people were praying for him that God’s voicemail was full. He felt with that kind of strength and love, that he could do anything.
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48He said that when you are a young superstar you are taught to win titles and try to get to the top. But now, he said his main purpose is to use this platform to raise awareness and support those who are in need, just like he was. He said that in October he promised everyone that he would swing for the fences.
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50“We did better than that, y’all. We hit a home run,” and then noted his leukemia is in remission, which drew a tremendous reaction. He closed by saying, “Thank you so much, y’all. I love y’all.”
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52The segment ended with Seth Rollins’ music playing and Rollins came out to embrace him.
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54While the open to the show was great, heartwarming, it was literally seconds after the completion of the speech that the WWE sent out a mass e-mail hawking new Reigns T-shirts with a spiritual message related to his fight. There was also within minutes, a very tacky interview segment with Charly Caruso and Baron Corbin designed to heel Corbin based on the idea he felt more stressed and persecuted due to the pressure in October of being General Manager than Reigns with his situation and brought up his statements at the time to get heat on the angle.
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56As far as what is next. Nobody can predict the future and many people feel things will eventually revert to being what they were before, with Reigns as the top babyface being constantly booed on television shoots.
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58It’s uncharted water for something like this in wrestling to begin with, let alone the very unique modern fan base which is very different from those of the past. Right now it’s hard to believe that the crowd will turn on him because he’s viewed very differently and has always been a hard worker and very well respected by his peers. More likely the fans will see a different Reigns, since they’ve seen the person and not the character. One can note that while Daniel Bryan’s return was different in the sense his situation wasn’t as much of a health scare in the manner people view health scares, but a career ending scare, and within months, he went heel. But that was by choice and because he felt he had a character that would work and needed to at the time, which turned out to be the best thing for him. And when he came back, who would have thought he’d be a heel at the end of the year, and be just another babyface when he turned. So even predicting short-term in WWE is haphazard at best. He’s going to be pushed as the face of the company as long as he’s healthy either way. But my sense is the fans who did boo him are going to view him differently going forward, plus there is no Daniel Bryan or C.M. Punk that a segment of the public is behind (there is Becky Lynch, but Reigns isn’t competing for a spot with her) who they perceive him as being the corporate pick ahead of the fans pick.
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60There is a saying Vince McMahon has used in the past about turning negatives into positives, and looking back, if Reigns is going to become a strong public advocate in regard to pediatric cancer, and this is the impetus for that, this may turn out to be the best example of this to date.
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62Georges St-Pierre announced his retirement on 2/21, seeming very happy to go out on his own terms but admitting that he was retiring now because UFC wasn’t interested in making a fight between he and Khabib Nurmagomedov, which both fighters wanted.
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64St-Pierre, one of the greatest fighters and biggest drawing cards in the history of the sport, was talked about as if he was the greatest of all-time. St-Pierre himself said he considered Royce Gracie as the greatest, but noted that doesn’t mean Gracie could beat the top guys now, noting that fighters continually get better, and that the fighters of today are better than those of a few years ago, and the fighters of years from now will be better than those today. He said that’s just the natural evolution of every sport.
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66St-Pierre would have to be considered the greatest fighter ever to not fail a drug test, because of his tenure at the top and quality of his opponents. Realistically, the best fighter would be Jon Jones, because he never lost and only once was in a fight that he didn’t clearly win, but it’s hard to consider him as the greatest due to his multiple test failures. Anderson Silva would be the same, even though at his peak he was probably the most talented except for Jones.
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68Because of the combination of his longevity at the top and drawing power, no UFC fighter in history sold as many PPVs over the course of their career.
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70The other three in the discussion, who have had no drug testing issues, are Fedor Emelianenko, Demetrious Johnson and Daniel Cormier, at least among male fighters.
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72St-Pierre was interested in cutting to 155 and facing Nurmagomedov to try and become the first three-division champion in history. At this point, St-Pierre, Cormier, Conor McGregor, Randy Couture, B.J. Penn and Amanda Nunes were also two-division champions.
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74But UFC wasn’t interested, even though the fight would be intriguing based on match-ups in wrestling, grappling and striking with the two. St-Pierre and Nurmagomedov were also willing to fight at 160, so the title wouldn’t be at stake, if UFC didn’t want to give St-Pierre another chance to win and immediately vacate the title in an attempt to follow in the footsteps of Shawn Michaels.
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76St-Pierre finished a career where he fought regularly from 2002 to 2013, and came back for one last night in 2017, with a 26-2 record. He also avenged both of his career losses, beating Matt Hughes twice after losing the first time, and beating Matt Serra after losing the first time. His fight with Serra had one of the loudest crowds in UFC history and one of the greatest pure babyface vs. heel dynamic with Serra understanding and playing up his role to create the atmosphere in the UFC’s first show in Canada, which led to Canada being the company’s per-capita hotbed for PPV for the next five years.
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78His career main events sold 9.4 million PPV buys and he holds the UFC record for most wins in championship fights with 13, most career takedowns with 90 and likely the record for most consecutive rounds won with more than 30, not losing a round in seven straight title fights.
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80He scored five wins over Hall of Famers or sure-fire Hall of Famers, ten wins over UFC champions, got 16 different fighter of the year awards by different publications and 18 wins over name fighters. He was the best in the world in his weight class for seven years, and of his three title reigns, he only lost the title in the cage once, although some would argue he should have lost the welterweight title to Johny Hendricks in their 2013 fight. Almost all of his wins were in dominant form.
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82For a comparison, Emelianenko is 38-6 with 1 no contest. He has four wins over Hall of Famers or should-be Hall of Famers and seven wins over UFC champions. He had four fighter of the year awards and 15 name fighter wins. He would have also been considered the best in the world for seven years.
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84Silva, who is 34-9 with one no contest, had five wins over Hall of Fame equivalent fighters, five wins over UFC champions, five fighter of the year awards and 14 name fighter wins. He would have been considered the best in the world at his weight for seven years.
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86Jones is 23-1 with one no contest. His only loss was via disqualification in a fight he dominated that should have been stopped before the controversial DQ was called with his opponent helpless. He has three wins over Hall of Famers or should be Hall of Famers, six wins over UFC champions, five fighter of the year awards and 13 name fighter wins. He would be considered the best in the world in his weight for eight years.
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88Cormier is 22-1 with one no contest. He has four wins over Hall of Fame or should be Hall of Fame fighters, four wins over UFC champions, five Fighter of the Year awards and 12 name fighter wins.
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90Johnson is 27-3-1. He has no wins over Hall of Famers, one over a UFC champion, six fighter of the year awards and has seven name fighter wins. He would have been considered the best in the world in his weight class for six years.
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92There were several interesting moves by WWE this week when it comes to personnel, with the firing of long-time agent Arn Anderson (Marty Lunde, 60), the rehiring of Bruce Prichard, 55, and the company giving releases to both TJP (Theodore Perkins, 34) and Tye Dillinger (Ron Arneill, 38).
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94Lunde’s release has been a situation kept secretive. He had been with WWE as an agent/producer for 17 years, since shortly after the closing of World Championship Wrestling, hired by Jim Ross when Ross headed talent relations.
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96A number of people have said there was a recent incident involving an argument with he and Vince McMahon, and he was first sent home and then let go. Nobody has been clear what the details were past an issue on a recent house show and it was also said that Anderson and McMahon’s issue came on a bad day for McMahon.
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98Anderson had been on thin ice with McMahon in the past, but he was well liked by both Paul Levesque and John Cena. At one point during his tenure many years ago there was an issue with alcoholism and they put him in rehab and he came back strong from that. There was a thought that since he was Cena’s leading agent, that if Cena was still a regular and top guy that this probably wouldn’t have happened, or at least he wouldn’t have lost his job. It was noted that there have been times when he’s come out of creative meetings and talent has asked him what they are doing and when it sounds or was bad, he didn’t sugar coat it or try and sell the talent that the ideas were great, and that didn’t help his cause. There was also a dispute with McMahon some time I the past that resulted in him being sent home for a few days. But this has nothing to do with his agreeing to do Starrcast and little to do with the latter point and more about what the situation was that is being kept quiet. Those close to the situation said that Anderson who has worked consistently for a major league company in wrestling since the mid-80s when he first came to Jim Crockett Promotions, was okay with his release.
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100Cody praised Anderson, making one think AEW could be interested in him. In an interview with Pro Wrestling Sheet, he said, “I’m just shocked because the entire current top talent at WWE–Seth Rollins, John Cena, Brock, Charlotte–I mean everybody in the golden circle is an Arn guy or girl. I feel like that just blows my mind. I’ll see where the story goes. Arn Anderson is a gift to this industry. He’s not corporate. He’s a wrestler. But you cannot take wrestlers out of the wrestling business.”
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102It’s not a secret that Arn Anderson is also one of the wrestlers Cody studied heavily when patterning his own style.
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104Prichard’s role is being described as the new “right-hand-man” for Vince McMahon, which is a very interesting decision on a lot of levels. McMahon and Prichard had actually agreed to a deal in January, and Prichard has been a consultant since then, although very few were aware of this.
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106Prichard was at the Rumble weekend in Phoenix and the recent PPV in Houston.
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108When in Houston, he and Vince talked about going back full-time, and they were negotiating during the week, with talks n both 2/20 and it was finalized at a meeting on 2/22. Prichard started back full-time at Raw in Atlanta.
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110Prichard, who was fired by WWE in 2008 and during the interim had two stints with TNA and one short stint with MLW. He started with WWE in 1987. He had been talking to Vince McMahon secretly while working for Paul Boesch and Mid South Wrestling, and to his employers, McMahon was the enemy. He was looking to end up there, and was hired with Joel Watts right after Bill Watts sold Mid South/UWF to Jim Crockett Jr. At the time he attempted to recruit me to go there as well with them. Prichard, along with older brother Tom, had worked for Boesch in Houston, where they grew up, since before they were teenagers doing odd jobs and eventually taking on more responsibility, and eventually Prichard became a television announcer for Mid South.
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112He started his most famous on screen role as Brother Love in 1988, doing a regular talk show segment through 1991 where the played a spoof of a preacher character. Originally he was going to manage Undertaker, when he was called Cain the Undertaker, but that quickly got switched to Paul Bearer (Bill Moody). Prichard was fired in 1991, worked for Global Wrestling, a Dallas-based promotion after that, and was negotiating with WCW when he was brought back for his second run in 1992. He used the names The Wizard, as a heel announcer whose face was never shown, and Reo Rogers, a spoof on Dusty Rhodes, in a short-lived character and occasionally appeared as Brother Love.
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114He worked as a backstage producer the rest of his run. He was fired after an incident involving another writer, David Kapoor. It was a surprise to some he was brought back because of enemies high-up, but the feeling is Vince wanted a familiar voice on the creative end since he feels the need to shake thing up due to declines in ratings and house shows, which as noted, others explain away, but Vince still privately views house shows as a key barometer of being hot or cold with the fan base.
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116In recent years, he had gained his most exposure, perhaps of his life, and certainly since the heyday of Brother Love, with his “Something to Wrestle With” podcasts with Conrad Thompson. As of the last word, McMahon hasn’t told Prichard that he can’t do anything he had committed for, and all of his advertised live appearances will be kept. How much more they continue with live show appearances is unknown, but Thompson is going to continue doing live shows, particularly the weekend of WWE PPVs, doing dates with either Eric Bischoff or Tony Schiavone. Prichard is still doing Starrcast which is the last committed date he has a this point.
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118Prichard going back in such a key position tells a lot of things. Prichard is a smart guy when it comes to wrestling in the sense he’s been around it from childhood and was one of the key guys in creative for a long time. He’s from a different era, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing because there are a lot of positives from that era that have been forgotten. If he can get McMahon to stop overproducing the announcers and allow the talent to cut less scripted promos, and have more long-term stories that aren’t changed on a whim (for all the knocks the writers get, they are in a situation where if they lay out a good nine week program, it’ll be changed so much by week three as to be nothing close to what they envisioned) the product will improve.
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120At the same time, Prichard is a carny and a yes-man. That character worked great in hanging on while others didn’t last in the McMahon environment during his two previous tenures with the company. Since that time he’s grown up a lot and one would think the problems that caused them to get rid of him probably won’t be an issue this time around. And while there are always going to be carny aspects to the business, this business and the type of people in power are so completely different from a decade or two decades ago. Plus, this is a time when McMahon needs people challenging him because while the company is economically safe and will be making great profits no matter what due to the landscape of media rights, their weakness right now is connecting with their audience. There are so many good hires they’ve made of late, but nobody new is going to be secure enough to be challenging Vince. But now, Vince has hired the guy who is going to inherently not do so. This hire is Vince hunkering down on his beliefs and looking for someone close to him who will support every decision. Given he’s been fired by McMahon a few times, even if Prichard were to want to be a different guy today, the guy who has been hired is the guy not hired to be anything different. From a talent standpoint, it does change the dynamic. There are a lot of people there who don’t like him, and even more who know what he’s about. There are always going to be trust issues between talent and management because of the nature of the business. I feel the best environment is when those issues are as little as possible because morale is the best that way. As far as the talent goes, the majority are new and have never worked with Prichard. A few worked with him at Impact but not many. They’ll work with him but the rep is there.
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122In the end, it’s still Vince, both for the good and the bad. Paul Levesque is No. 2 to Vince and if you look at NXT, and granted the mentality is they are appealing to a more hardcore insider fan and the approach is different while the idea is WWE is there to reach the widest number of fans, but still, the continuity issues don’t reach more fans and you have them. Then again, Prichard also comes from an era where you did have more long-term planning and rarely had these continuity issues. And the issue isn’t Prichard as much as the McMahon mentality of who he hired and what Prichard represents to so many there and so many who see through him since it isn’t very hard to do that. At the same time, for the first time since the destruction of WCW, Vince may be in a war. Bruce was right with him as he was finishing off Jim Crockett Promotions, and even more important when he came back from being No. 2 t finish off WCW, even if the real story is WCW self destructed and Vince had two of the few true larger than life performers (Steve Austin and The Rock) at the same time in an era, which due to the war itself, more eyes were on wrestling than at any period in the modern era.
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124Arneill had asked for his release earlier in the week. Perkins was a company decision, which means probably a 90-day non-compete. The non-compete would end a few days before Double or Nothing. Whether AEW would have interest is another story, and whether terms of his release would allow for an appearance on that show is also unknown, but Cody has talked favorably of him from their past relationship.
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126Perkins is a very talented bell-to-bell wrestler but was not only in 205 Purgatory, but lost in that purgatory. His departure was said to be disciplinary as the company is stockpiling talent, and not looking at getting rid of almost anyone. Perkins started wrestling at 13 and debuted with New Japan right after his 18th birthday in 2002. He worked all over the world including ROH and Impact, before coming to WWE in 2016 as part of the cruiserweight tournament. When the two favorites in that tournament, Kota Ibushi and Zack Sabre Jr., turned down WWE deals, T.J. Perkins, as he was known then, was put over and became the first of this version of cruiserweight champions and the first star of 205 Live.
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128Arneill was a Canadian independent wrestler who signed a developmental deal with WWE in 2006. He used the name Sean Spears and he was one of the best guys they had in OVW at the time. He formed a tag team with Cody Runnels, at the time when they were trying to hide the fact Cody was the son of Dusty so he’d make his name on his own.
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130Spears was the more experienced better worker but you could tell from the booking that Cody was meant to be the star of the team, with the idea that young women would like him. When they did the split, Spears was the heel and they did a feud.
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132It was pretty clear at the time Arneill was ready for the main roster, but he was never really their guy and he also was a guy they probably wouldn’t have pushed much had he been brought up.
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134Eventually, in 2008, he was brought up when they had the ECW brand as Gavin Spears, and did nothing there. He was released in early 2009.
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136He returned in 2013 to NXT as Tye Dillinger. The idea at the time is he was a veteran good worker who could work with the younger talent and help them develop quicker. He was not signed with the idea of going to the main roster as was the goal with most signed for NXT, probably similar to the current role Kassius Ohno seems to have.
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138But he started getting over with the Perfect ten gimmick, more than the guys he was there to put over, most notably in a feud with Andrade Cien Almas that was designed for Almas to get over, but it was Dillinger who became a star in the program.
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140There was enough clamor from the Perfect ten deal that he was put in the 2017 Royal Rumble at No. 10, and got a gigantic pop even though the mentality at the time was that main roster fans don’t watch NXT.
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142By April he was brought up as a Smackdown regular. It was clear from the start they never saw him as somebody to put over, just a prelim guy with a cute catch phrase and it became a self-fulfilling prophesy. To be fair, past the ten hand signal, he didn’t stand out on a talent-loaded roster but it wasn’t like he was given much of a chance to do so.
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144He played the game uniquely, as talent is not encouraged to publicly say they want out, and instead go to the office. Those who have asked for their release and been turned down with the exception of Hideo Itami, who is expected to return to NOAH, which isn’t a rival of WWE and the companies even had talks of working together.
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146But Dillinger, like Jack Swagger (during a different time period) went public with his asking out last week. The immediate and obvious speculation for Dillinger is AEW, particularly with the Cody connection.
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148Cody has been praising him in all interviews. He told Wrestling Inc. “"I have a lot of respect for Tye, because that poor dude...when I got to OVW I had about three months of wrestling experience and was given a WWE contract solely because I was Dusty's son," said Cody. "They paired me with him as a tag partner and he was so technically sound and ahead of me. He never once looked at me as a nuisance as he hid my weaknesses and accentuated my strengths.”
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150"We're friends and I have a lot of love and respect for him and how he put his statement out. He thanked them for their time, but he's an artist and you can't put a dollar figure on how you play your music," stated Cody. "If that's true, then I'm happy for him and I'll loan him whatever resources I have to help him on his way because he loves the industry."
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152TJP is from Southern California and there’s a connection with the Young Bucks going way back, but they’ll have to make decisions because you need to pick and choose guys who will be of value in your storylines.
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154It’s not good for them to get the perception like so many companies of the past who have started is to sign all the ex-WWE guys out there who have name value, because that has never worked.
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156Signing a few ex-WWE guys isn’t a bad thing but they have to have the right work ethic and almost a chip on their shoulder to prove themselves or it’s probably not going to work out. That was lacking with so many who went from WWE to TNA, who treated it like“we’ve been to the show,” and their new place was secondary.
157
158New Japan this past week announced their first-ever 32-man New Japan Cup tournament, as well as announced its 47th anniversary show and sold out two joint Honor Rising shows with ROH.
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160From a unique match standpoint, a ROH vs. IWGP tag team title match with both belts at stake was announced for the 4/6 show in Madison Square Garden. This took place on the 2/23 Honor Rising show, where Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa beat Evil & Seiya Sanada to win the IWGP belts, and then the Briscoes retained the ROH belts over Juice Robinson & David Finlay. Jay Briscoe then issued the challenge for a title vs. title match in Madison Square Garden and Tanga Loa accepted.
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162This joins Jay White defending the IWGP title against the winner of the New Japan Cup as one of the two matches announced for the show. With the finals of the New Japan Cup on 3/24, most likely the complete MSG show won’t be announced until 3/25 or 3/26, although one would expect angles will be shot for the show on both the 3/15 and 3/16 ROH shows in Las Vegas, to finalize ROH bouts, and on the New Japan 3/24 final night in Nagaoka.
163
164New Japan’s next show of note is the anniversary show on 3/6 at the Ota Ward Gym in Tokyo. New Japan Pro Wrestling’s first event was on March 6, 1972, headlined by Karl Gotch pinning Antonio Inoki. It is the annual tradition to run the 3,800 seat building, which is sold out in advance, and usually with a unique main event. This year’s version is White vs. Never champion Will Ospreay with neither championship at stake. New Japan has had Ospreay protected in all finishes this year to build this match. The two had an outstanding match in ROH in the past.
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166The show is the first of 12 live events on New Japan World, all in English, during March.
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168There are two jr. title matches, and Dragon Lee returns on that show, which airs at 5 a.m. Eastern time.
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170The rest of the lineup, from the opener, is Togi Makabe & Toru Yano & Ayato Yoshida & Shota Umino & Ren Narita vs. Bad Luck Fale & Tonga & Loa & Chase Owens & Hikuleo (the returning 6-foot-8 younger brother of Tonga & Loa who has been out of action due after knee surgery), Tomohiro Ishii & Yoshi-Hashi vs. Yuji Nagata & Toa Henare, Satoshi Kojima & Tomoaki Honma & Tiger Mask & Ryusuke Taguchi & Lee vs. Minoru Suzuki& Taichi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Desperado & Taka Michinoku, Bushi & Shingo Takagi defend the IWGP jr. tag titles against Sho & Yoh, Taiji Ishimori defends the IWGP jr. title against Jushin Liger, and Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kazuchika Okada & Hirooki Goto vs. Tetsuya Naito & Evil & Sanada.
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172The New Japan Cup opens on 3/8 at Korakuen Hall at 4:30 a.m., with first round matches of Yoshi-Hashi vs. Manabu Nakanishi, Taichi vs. Honma, Robinson vs. Owens and Nagata vs. Ishii.
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174The second night of first round matches is 3/9 at the Aiichi Gym in Nagoya at 4 a.m. with the debuting Mikey Nicholls (Nick Miller in NXT who left WWE to raise his family in Australia) vs. Hikuleo, Lance Archer vs. Henare, Ospreay vs. Fale and Okada vs. Michael Elgin.
175
176The third night is 3/10 in Amagasaki at 2 a.m., with Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. ?, Tanahashi vs. Umino, Evil vs. Zack Sabre Jr., and Kota Ibushi vs. Naito.
177
178The ? against Tenzan was supposed to be David Finlay. Finlay suffered a left shoulder injury on the 2/23 Honor Rising show when he came off the top rope with a twisting elbow and landed badly on the shoulder. In the ring he told referee Todd Sinclair that the shoulder went out of its socket, like a dislocation. They went right to the finish. Reports were that they were able to pop the shoulder back in, but as of those reports, there was no update on what the injuries were. He has been pulled from the tour, but at press time they don’t know full details on the injury and when he’ll be back.
179
180The final first round show is 3/11 in Takamatsu at 6 a.m. with Makabe vs. Colt Cabana, Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Yano, Suzuki vs. Kojima and Sanada vs. Goto.
181
182On 3/13 in Okayama at 6 a.m., the Nagata/Ishii winner faces the Taichi/Honma winner and the Yoshi-Hashi/Nakanishi winner faces the Robinson/Owens winner.
183
184On 3/14 in Nara at 5:30 a.m., the Okada/Elgin winner faces the Nicholls/Hikuleo winner.
185
186On 3/16 at Korakuen Hall at 5:30 a.m., the Tanahashi/Umino winner faces the Tenzan/? winner and the Ibushi/Naito winner faces the Evil/Sabre winner.
187
188On 3/17 at Korakuen Hall at 5:30 a.m., the Makabe/Cabana winner faces the Smith/Yano winner and the Kojima/Suzuki winner faces the Sanada/Goto winner.
189
190On 3/20 in Shizuoka at 6 a.m., the winners of the two bouts on 3/13 face each other, as do the winners of the two bouts on 3/14.
191
192On 3/21 in Hamamatsu at 5 a.m., the winners of the two bouts on 3/16 face each other, as do the winners of the two bouts on 3/17.
193
194On 3/23 in Nagaoka at 5 a.m., are the semifinals, which are the winners on 3/20 against each other and the winners on 3/21 against each other.
195
196The finals are 3/24 in Nagaoka at 3 a.m.
197
198Given that White is facing the winner in Madison Square Garden, Okada is the favorite given Omega vs. Okada was originally scheduled as the MSG main event which also would have had Omega winning the title. But with the magnitude of the show, my feeling is the only possible winners are Okada, Ibushi, Naito or Tanahashi.
199
200New Japan and ROH did their joint Honor Rising shows at Korakuen Hall, drawing full houses of 1,658 on 2/22 and 1,687 paid on 2/23. The shows were easy to watch, paced well, but there was really only one super standout match, the Goto & Ospreay vs. Jeff Cobb & Dalton Castle match on the second night. Other highlights were just how good the first two bouts with Young Lions were, with Marty Scurll vs. Narita and Umino vs. Sabre, and the IWGP tag title match, the first at Korakuen Hall since 1987 as far as what we can tell and that’s also what was said on the broadcast. It’s been clear for a while, but this made it more clear how good Narita and Umino are likely to become as they are well ahead of people like Jay White, Juice Robinson, Sho and yoh at the same stages of their careers.
201
202The biggest pop was in the third match on 2/22, when Gresham and Robbie Eagles worked five minutes of solid wrestling making you think they were building a long match. Then they tagged out and Liger worked with Ishimori. Liger immediately cradled Ishimori and the place went crazy. Some of why it worked so well was Ishimori playing up how mad he was at losing, but the fact is, the pop came before his response. There’s a feeling now with the crowds wanting good matches that build to a finish, and talent wanting to do their best matches, that people learn patterns. But the best thing to make patterns in wrestling work effectively, is to occasionally break from them to keep fans alert. Liger tagging in and pinning Ishimori, an upset, with a crucifix style cradle, with no build and out of nowhere, because it varied from the pattern, was one of the best finishes of this year for its simplicity.
203
204First night results:
205
2061. Marty Scurll beat Ren Narita in 11:33 with the chicken wing. Narita is so good for his level of experience and Scurll brought that out of him by working with him like competition rather than as a young boy. The crowd even bought Narita’s near fall with a front rolling cradle off a chicken wing. ***½
207
2082. Zack Sabre Jr. beat Shota Umino in 13:56. Similar to the first match. Umino attacked Sabre’s manager, Taka Michinoku, right at the start to get it off to a hot start. The big pop when Umino getting a reverse into an armbar in the middle, though Sabre made the ropes. Umino also powered out of a guillotine, turning it into a vertical suplex. Umino was going for a fisherman suplex, but Sabre reversed into a half crab. ***3/4
209
2103. Jushin Liger & Jonathan Gresham beat Robbie Eagles & Taiji Ishimori in 5:27. Gresham’s ground game looked fantastic in with Eagles. Liger and Ishimori tagged in and went right to Liger pinning Ishimori with a crucifix, which the crowd loved since it’s been a long time since Liger had pinned one of the champions. This sets up the Ishimori vs. Liger jr. title match next week. ***½
211
2124. Juice Robinson & David Finlay & Tomoaki Honma & Toa Henare beat Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa & Mark & Jay Briscoe in 12:14. Hikuleo returned in the corner of the Tongans. They teased issues with Tonga & Loa and the Briscoes during the match. Jay accidentally kicked Tonga. Jado from the outside hit Mark with a kendo stick and Robinson pinned Mark with a schoolboy, to help set up the title match the next day. The Tongans, including Hikuleo, beat down Jay after the match until Mark made the save with a chair. ***1/4
213
2145. Togi Makabe & Toru Yano & Ryusuke Taguchi retained the Never trios titles over Colt Cabana & Cheeseburger & Delirious in 10:16. Mostly comedy stuff. The crowd really liked Taguchi. Yano gave Delirious a low blow, Makabe chopped Delirious and Yano pinned Delirious after a schoolboy. After the match, Delirious shook hands with Cabana but then laid out Cabana with a low blow. *1/2
215
2166. Will Ospreay pinned Dalton Castle to keep the Never title in 17:30. Hard hitting match. Ospreay was great, as he always is. He did a springboard forearm off the barricade on the floor and a Space flying tiger drop. He tried an Oscutter and Castle dropped him on the back of his head. Ospreay won with the spinning elbow and storm breaker. ***3/4
217
2187. Jeff Cobb pinned Hirooki Goto to keep the ROH TV title in 13:52. Another hard hitting match. This was better than the Cow Palace match. Cobb did a nice dropkick and standing moonsault Cobb got the pin with tour of the islands. ***½
219
2208. Kazuchika Okada & Hiroshi Tanahashi & Jay Lethal beat The Kingdom of Matt Taven & Vinny Marseglia & TK O’Ryan in 14:10. Tanahashi got a chipped tooth in the match on the Baba show. Okada’s left knee was all taped up. It was noted that Tanahashi has predicted that O’Ryan will be a future superstar. All three Kingdom members took turns in doing titty twisters on Tanahashi’s chest. Lethal pinned Marseglia with Lethal injection. It was a fun match but never got intense. **½
221
222 
223
224Second night results:
225
2261. Jonathan Gresham & Toa Henare beat Zack Sabre Jr. & Taka Michinoku in 12:20. Sabre and Gresham work well together. Sabre also did creative knee injury selling. Gresham made Michinoku submit to the octopus. **
227
2282. Marty Scurll beat Robbie Eagles in 8:55. Good technical stuff that the fans enjoyed. Lots of nice near falls. Scurll went for the finger breaking and Eagles got out of it. They actually booed Eagles for that. Scurll won with the crossface. ***
229
2303. Colt Cabana & Toru Yano beat Delirious & Cheeseburger in 10:09. Mostly comedy here. Cabana kicked out of Delirious’ shote. Delirious was pinned by Yano here with a cradle. *1/4
231
2324. Hirooki Goto & Will Ospreay beat Jeff Cobb & Dalton Castle in 11:45. Great match, particularly Cobb vs. Ospreay. Castle and Cobb were throwing Ospreay around early with power moves and playing one-up. Cobb nearly launched Ospreay into orbit with an overhead belly-to-belly. He also did a nip up and standing moonsault. Ospreay pinned Cobb after the spinning elbow to the back of the head and storm breaker. This was another huge win for Ospreay since the rule of thumb for decades has been top heavyweights always beat top junior heavyweights. ****
233
2345. Tetsuya Naito & Shingo Takagi beat Matt Taven & Vinny Marseglia in 11:50. Good action here, particularly when Takagi was in. Naito pinned Marseglia with Destino. After the match Naito threw ref Marty Asami out of the ring. Naito and Taven then issued challenges for a singles match, and Taven said he wanted a hair vs. hair match. ***1/4
235
2366. Jay Lethal retained the ROH title over T.K. O’Ryan in 10:52. The big story here was Lethal going for the all-time ROH title record with his 39th title defense. Lethal is one of those guys who has just been in ROH so long that people take him for granted. Solid match with a clean Lethal injection finish. Taven then hit Lethal with a belt shot after the match to build up the 3/15 ROH anniversary show PPV from Las Vegas. He claimed he was the real ROH champion, dropped the belt on the prone Lethal and told him he’d see him in Las Vegas. ***
237
2387. Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa beat Evil & Sanada in 20:26 to win the IWGP tag titles. Jado hit Sanada with a kendo stick to start the period he was being worked over. After using skull end on Tonga, Sanada went up for the moonsault but Tonga moved. Tonga also kicked out of the Magic killer. Sanada was thrown into ref Red Shoes Unno. Jado went to hit Sanada with the kendo stick but Evil got it from him. Evil & Sanada were setting up a magic killer on Jado, but Loa gave Evil a German suplex. Then Tonga & Loa did a magic killer on Evil and a 3-D on Sanada, and Loa hit a power bomb off the middle rope on Sanada and Tonga pinned him. ***3/4
239
2408. Mark & Jay Briscoe retained the ROH tag titles over Juice Robinson & David Finlay in 17:13. This was a good match but hurt by having to go right to the finish when Finlay was hurt. He was in a ton of pain at the time. Mark did the Cactus Jack elbow off the apron on Robinson and an insane twisting moonsault dive off the top rope to the floor. Robinson & Finlay did simultaneous cannonballs off the apron. There was a top rope superplex by Finlay and diving head-butt by Robinson for a near fall. Jay then used a top rope superplex on Finlay and Mark came off the top with the elbow for a near fall. Finlay came off the top with his trademark twisting elbow on Jay, landed on his shoulder and was screaming in pain. The ref alerted everyone he was hurt and Briscoe just threw Robinson out of the ring and Mark pinned Finlay with an elbow off the top rope. After the match, Jay challenged Tonga & Loa to prove who the best tag team was, belts vs. belts, in New York. Loa then accepted the challenge. ***½
241
242Jeff Jarrett and his now-dormant Global Force Entertainment company has filed a new $4.8 million lawsuit against Impact Wrestling and Anthem Entertainment in U.S. District Court in Tennessee on 2/21.
243
244The key to the case is that Impact has not returned the master tapes of the Global Force Wrestling television shows that were taped in Las Vegas at the Orleans Arena in 2016 because they claim they no longer exist.
245
246In a story first written by PW Insider, Impact claimed in a November 30, 2018, letter to Jarrett that “The 16 one-hour episodes of Global Force Wrestling Amped content sought in this question no longer exist. It was deleted in the normal course of business, long before the onset of this litigation, in order to free up storage space on Anthem Wrestling’s systems.”
247
248In the lawsuit, Jarrett placed the value of the tapes at $300,000 per episode, making the 16 episodes worth $4.8 million.
249
250It is nothing short of mind-blowing that in this day and age a company would erase 16 hours of master taped footage.
251
252Jarrett had provided Impact with the master tapes when Impact and GFW agreed to a merger which gave Jarrett points in the new Impact company, after it was purchased by Anthem Entertainment from the Carter family, and Jarrett was put in charge of creative.
253
254Jarrett was eventually sent home due to drinking issues, and went to WWE-sponsored rehab. Jarrett now works as a producer and occasional on-TV talent for WWE after being inducted into that company’s Hall of Fame. He had previously been working for Fite TV.
255
256Jarrett would have likely been able to sell the masters to WWE for usage on the WWE Network. Impact had used the tapes to fill “One Night Only” specials which were used as PPVs in the U.S. and as monthly special content to some of its international television partners.
257
258UFC legend Matt Hughes, 45, has been served with two restraining orders, one from wife Audra and another from twin brother Mark regarding domestic abuse and threats.
259
260TMZ first reported court documents that noted claims from his wife Audra which led to her filing for a restraining order in December after Matt Hughes allegedly hit her in front of their two children and her stepfather. The documents claimed that Hughes allegedly her hit when she confronted him about texting other women.
261
262Both restraining orders state Matt Hughes has to say at least 500 feet away from Audra Hughes and their children, as well as stay at least 500 feet away from Mark Hughes and his family.
263
264His wife then filed for divorce in Montgomery County, IL, this past week.
265
266In the filings, Audra Hughes claimed Matt Hughes’ alleged history of domestic violence started in late 2017, when she claimed in a petition for a protection order, that he choked her while she was in the shower when she refused to give him the keys to the truck or the code to his gun safe. Later he choked her again and smashed her head against the wall of the shower.
267
268She had repeatedly told him that he shouldn’t be driving due to the brain injury he suffered in June 2017, when he was driving his truck across railroad tracks and the truck was hit by a train, leaving him with injuries that could have been fatal.
269
270She claimed in June 2018, Matt Hughes had threatened to shoot her after she grabbed his phone and accused him of being in contact with other women. A similar situation allegedly happened this past December, which is when she filed for the protection order.
271
272His twin brother Mark, also a former Division I wrestler and MMA fighter from 1999 to 2003, who fought once in UFC, winning in 2000 but never appearing with the group again, filed for a restraining order against Matt in September.
273
274His order of protection was based on allegations that Matt got physical with Mark’s 15-year-old son who Matt claimed was driving a tractor Matt claimed was his. A week later, according to the allegations, Mark found the tractor, and is was soaked with gasoline and he believed Matt was going to destroy it.
275
276Matt Hughes responded to the allegations with an Instagram statement saying, “Since my train accident in June of 2017, my life has been changed forever. Some days have been absolute hell. The challenges and battles that I have faced have been far greater than anything I ever took on in a cage. I am not the same person since my accident, even though, everyday I continue to try to be as normal as someone with a brain injury can be. I understand that it is not fun to teach a grown man to learn to do everything all over again. I understand that I am a burden to those around me. I understand that I am an inconvenience to my family. Unfortunately, my marriage was not perfect long before the accident, but NEVER, NEVER, NEVER would I, or have I, physically hurt those who I care about most. I do not resent those who are trying to hurt me and paint me out to be a monster through these false accusations. I understand now that they are just doing what they need to do in order to rid me of their lives forever so theirs can return to normalcy. I feel awful that my accident turned their world upside-down also. To those of you who have helped me, supported me, cared for me, and prayed for me- I truly cannot thank you enough. To my supporters who defended me and never believed these untrue, disgraceful reports for a second- thank you. If there is one silver lining that this accident has revealed, it is the ability to see who my true friends are. To know who are faithful and have never given up on me even when I am at my lowest. Thank you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I do not know where I would be without you. Please keep the prayers coming. God knows I need them.”
277
278Matt Hughes was the sport’s dominant welterweight before Georges St-Pierre and one of the sport’s biggest stars when it hit television in 2005. He retired in 2013 and was given what was called a lifetime job from UFC due to his part of building the popularity and being loyal to the company at a time when better offers were coming from other organizations. He was named the Vice President of Athlete Development and Government relations.
279
280But after the Fertittas sold UFC to WME IMG (now Endeavor) in 2016, those promises were out the window and he was one of numerous executives who both in the cage and outside had helped build the company that were let go in attempts to maximize profits due to the huge amount of interest on the loans needed to purchase the company for $4 billion. Hughes and Chuck Liddell were both cut, but Forrest Griffin, who was such a hard worker, was kept on and was the key person in putting together the company’s state-of-the-art performance institute that is part of the company headquarters in Las Vegas.
281
282Hughes suffered the accident in June 2017. One person close to the situation said that Hughes’ behavior has noticeably changed and become more bizarre since the accident with family feeling he has become a danger to himself and others.
283
284This week’s update on WrestleMania is that HHH vs. Batista is obviously a done deal. HHH said in January that he was able to start training after his surgery for the torn pec although doing a match five months after that surgery would be ahead of the usual six month timetable for that surgery.
285
286The match had been planned dating back to an angle on Smackdown before HHH’s injury, but it was only finalized this past week. As noted here before, Batista had no interest in wrestling anywhere but WWE but as late as last week had not finalized a deal. Both Undertaker and HHH had been looked at as opponents.
287
288As of the weekend, Undertaker was not on the card and John Cena and Kurt Angle still were. There’s still not a lot definite for the show and this is the latest period I can ever recall where most of the show wasn’t pretty much finalized. From television, and this has not yet been confirmed, it does look like Daniel Bryan vs. Kofi Kingston will replace Bryan vs. Kevin Owens as the WWE title match on WrestleMania. Mustafa Ali, who at one point was to face Bryan at Fastlane, has not returned to action since suffering a concussion more than two weeks ago, although he was being evaluated on 2/26 and his return is expected shortly. An angle was set up on the 2/26 Smackdown show in Charlotte where Vince McMahon pulled Kingston from the match with Bryan and replaced him with Owens, citing that Owens was a higher level competitor and bigger box office draw.
289
290So they essentially did the same angle as with Becky Lynch, with the idea that Vince is taking away from the fans the match they want, with the idea that will get the face over and make the match bigger, and saving it for the bigger show. The reality is that Kingston right now is hotter than Owens, so if you’re booking what people want to see most at WrestleMania, that would be the way to go.
291
292The entire Smackdown show pushed the idea that Kingston had worked there 11 years to get his shot and it was being taken away from him. McMahon in his speech said that Owens deserved it more, with the idea of that making him a heel since Owens hasn’t even been in action since undergoing double knee surgery while Kingston has two pins on the champion. In actuality, it’s a promotion for Kingston and giving him the shot on the bigger stage. Plus, in the old booking, Kingston would have likely had to lose to Bryan to lead to Bryan vs. Owens at Mania.
293
294While it is not confirmed Bryan vs. Kingston will be at WrestleMania, everything on television leads to that conclusion. We were told that a few days before the show Vince McMahon made the decision to put Owens, who was Bryan’s Mania opponent at Fastlane instead.
295
296The one negative is that Owens, who was supposed to return as an everyman babyface, hence the videos, that were to peak in a few weeks, was rushed back and put in the position to take the title shot as a handpicked person by McMahon, and take it from the guy people wanted. Even though they affiliated him with Kingston in a tag team match to alleviate that initial response, and also had him pin Bryan in the tag match of Kingston & Owens vs. Bryan & Erick Rowan, and gave him the stone cold stunner as his new finisher, the storyline does risk Owens being treated as a heel.
297
298With the constant changes in Bryan’s opponents, he’s now lost three matches via pin on the last three episodes of Smackdown, two to Kingston (the first on 2/12 to get Kingston into the Chamber and over in the gauntlet; and then, after Bryan had pinned Kingston in the Chamber final, because Kingston got over so big and they decided to put him in the PPV main event they had him beat Bryan in a six-man on 2/19, and then when the decision was made to flip flop he and Owens, to get Owens over after a long absence, he pinned Bryan on 2/26 in a tag match). Granted, the champion getting pinned in non-title and tag situations is just basic booking, when you overdo it, you make the champion look weak and any kind of angle repeated three times faces the law of diminishing returns. Bryan had already back in December dropped a TV fall to Mustafa Ali to elevate him into title challenger level, so it’s actually been done four times, due to booking changes.
299
300The Batista/HHH storyline started back on Raw with Batista clearly positioned as the heel, beating up Ric Flair backstage in a phantom attack, and asking HHH if he’s got his attention now. I’d have positioned Batista as a face against HHH because of his success in the movies since he left, but the last time he came back as a face, the crowd booed him and he at the time wanted to be a heel so that’s probably why it wound up like this. But last time he was brought back to headline Mania as a face in a slot fans wanted Daniel Bryan in, so he was rejected and then turned heel. He’s said for years he wants one last run that would end with a match with HHH, who played such a big part in his career.
301
302There’s talk of a few multiple person matches, which gets more people in big matches but when the main event is multiple person, you probably want to limit those type of matches on the undercard, not that the main event needs protection since it’ll probably be the hottest match on the show. As far as what goes on last, that decision won’t be made until the week of the show but everyone expects it to be the Lynch match and talking about the first woman’s main event in history would seem to make it a lock, but they’ve also referred to Lesnar vs. Rollins as the main event. But clearly the focal point of the promotion of the show will be the women.
303
304For Fastlane on 3/10 in Cleveland, there were only three matches finalized and we’re one week from the show, with Bryan vs. Owens for the WWE title, Usos vs. The Miz & Shane McMahon for the tag titles, Bayley & Banks vs. Jax & Tamina for the women’s tag title and Asuka vs. Mandy Rose for the Smackdown women’s title.
305
306It sure looks like something along with lines of The Shield & Braun Strowman vs. Drew McIntyre & Bobby Lashley & Baron Corbin & Elias and a tag title situation with The Revival against some or all of the teams of Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa (the Gargano/Ciampa split angle on NXT TV airs 3/13 although it’s still weird positioning Ciampa as a face on the main roster), Ricochet & Aleister Black and Bobby Roode & Chad Gable. If Dean Ambrose leaves in April when his contract is up, this is the only shot for a full Shield reunion and that was teased when the McIntyre then-trio did the Shield power bomb on last week’s show. The other question is if a Shield reunion will cause Ambrose to have a change of heart regarding leaving. Something with A.J. Styles vs. Randy Orton is likely for one of the next two PPV shows.
307
308The 2/19 Giant Baba Memorial show (rundown in last week’s issue) was far from the best show you’ll see when it came to match quality.
309
310And usually the term nostalgia show is meant in derision, meaning older guys going through the motions. This was the epitome of a nostalgia show that some, in fact, who didn’t grow up on Giant Baba and All Japan Pro Wrestling, would not relate to. But for those that did, the show was a definite success.
311
312Many noted a big part of it was the authentic music from your 70s, 80s and 90s superstars, whether it be Antonio Inoki, the Funks (only Dory was there, Terry was offered but like The Destroyer, due to his health couldn’t travel to Japan), the Mascaras Brothers, Abdullah, Stan Hansen, Atsushi Onita and, of course, Baba. Both of Baba’s themes were played throughout including an opening music video of some of his most famous matches including clips with Gene Kiniski, Bruno Sammartino, Stan Hansen, Abdullah the Butcher, The Sheik, Johnny Valentine and others.
313
314The first few matches weren’t much. People were there just to see a lot of the older guys make appearances and the matches were kept quick. The Abdullah retirement was the second billing on the show behind Baba Memorial. Abdullah started in Japan in 1970 and was one of Baba’s biggest rivals of that decade. The feud with Abdullah & The Sheik vs. The Funks was what cemented the Funks as the super babyfaces that they were during that era, and also established the prestige of the year-end world tag team tournament that continues to this day. In a wheelchair, he was brought into the ring and business dignitaries, Japanese celebrities, and wrestling legends like Mascaras, Dos Caras, Satoru Sayama, Jun Akiyama, Keiji Muto, Seiji Sakaguchi, Hansen and Dory Funk Jr. all came out with flowers, presents and to shoot photos with him. There were also taped messages from both Minoru Suzuki and Destroyer.
315
316As far as matches, the main event was the best bout but the other match you should go out of your way to see was Naomichi Marufuji & Jinsei Shinzaki (Hakushi) vs. Dragon Gate’s Masaaki Mochizuki & Shun Skywalker. Shinzaki, in his early 50s, looked almost identical to how he looked 20 years ago and can do all his stuff. He was during the dark period of U.S. wrestling, but he’d do well as a nostalgia act on indies if he wanted to. It was a mix of generations with Skywalker being one of Dragon Gate’s real stars of the present and future mixed in with the older stars. It’s likely most of the fan base had no idea who he is but he came across like a star.
317
318There is something nostalgic about the 1975 British pop song “Sky High” by Jigsaw in Japanese culture, particularly pro wrestling. It was first used as the entrance music for Mascaras, the Mexican legend who was a gigantic favorite to children in Japan in the 70s when wrestling was on prime time network TV drawing massive ratings. Later, the theme was used to commemorate various junior heavyweight tournaments.
319
320Mascaras’ role in wrestling culture in Japan can’t be overstated, because the popularity and fascination with Lucha Libre and masks, while established for decades in Mexico, came from Mascaras’ unique moves, the twisting head scissors while standing on his head, the flying cross chops and of course the flying body press off the top rope. Every high flyer who came in the next generation, from Ultimo Dragon to Tiger Mask, all grew up on Mil Mascaras. Perhaps even more important, is that the biggest reporters of wrestling in the major Japanese magazines during the 80s and early 90s grew up as children as the leads and members of the far-reaching Mil Mascaras Fan Club.
321
322The opponents job was always to take his moves. He didn’t really like to sell much, nor lose, so a lot of wrestlers didn’t have a high opinion of him, particularly as he got older. For the people who worked with him in the early 70s, the reaction was different because he was so over and drew so big that you liked being in the ring with him and making him look good. The best cultural comparison would be in the U.S. to Hulk Hogan. While Mascaras was not the draw Hogan was, he inspired the same feeling when that music plays of taking people back to their childhood.
323
324It’s long past the 70s, but Kaz Hayashi & Nosawa, who wrestled Mascaras & Dos Caras, clearly knew their role and were thrilled by it. Caras, at 67, could do enough that really the crowd enjoyed his stuff. Mascaras, who is listed at 76, although based on a wrestling license I saw years back that listed a 1939 birthdate, that would mean really he’s 79, was covered from head-to-toe. You can train and eat healthy, but 50 plus years of a high flying style in those Mexican rings at that age, and it is what it is. There was a weird feelgood of the music and just seeing him, but at 79, him wrestling was a different issue. He did the stand on his head head scissors spot and trying other moves like the cross chop, but couldn’t get off his feet, a running clothesline that was too slow and weak. He needed to be helped to get to the top rope, but did fall off onto both Nosawa & Hayashi for the pin, and was holding his back after. He will probably never retire, but in a nearly sold out show, this would have been the place to do and the fans to do it for at the end of the match, as opposed to his last appearance in Japan being at some indie show before 1,000 or less fans.
325
326For the vast majority of Mascaras fans who would still attend a show in Tokyo, this will likely be the last time they see him. If they do a 25th anniversary Baba show, he’ll be 84 and it will be hard for it to be as good as this one was.
327
328From a wrestling standpoint, the main event was the idea of having Hiroshi Tanahashi in the same ring for the first time with All Japan’s top star, Kento Miyahara, and Big Japan’s best strong style star, Daisuke Sekimoto. Tanahashi & Yoshitatsu (who everyone knew was there to do the job) vs. Miyahara & Sekimoto was **** match. Tanahashi was clearly up for this as a big show match, and Miyahara was as well, since Tanahashi is his idol. It wasn’t going to have the intensity of a world title match, particularly with this crowd, but it was great, with all three looking like major stars of the current era. The symbolism of Miyahara holding all three old belts as opposed to his current belt wasn’t lost on anyone. With Tanahashi there, even though he’s 42 and really at the tail end of his run as a consistent main eventer with Okada as the true guy they are marketing as the face of Japanese wrestling, it was very much a happy ending show. The result didn’t matter, but going on last, it was telling the older audience who had outgrown pro wrestling that while you may not see it on television in prime time, it still exists, it’s a strong business and with Tanahashi, Miyahara and Sekimoto, the guys on top are great. It’s like you may not follow this thing you saw as a kid, but it’s in good hands and you can leave happy. And for younger fans, they got to see the guys who helped build the foundation, with Inoki there, the presence of Baba there, and just seeing so many of the 90s stars that they grew up on paying so much homage to Baba is almost like learning about the political figure or celebrity that you’ve heard of, but was before you grew up, and seeing what an impact he has that people are talking about him 20 years after his death.
329
330Dr. Wagner Jr. puts up his hair against the mask of Blue Demon Jr. in the main event of AAA’s biggest show of the year, TripleMania, on 8/3 at Arena Ciudad in Mexico City.
331
332It had been obvious for months this was the direction they were going. At last year’s show, it ended with challenges by Wagner to L.A. Park for a hair vs. mask match, but Park had a falling out with AAA almost immediately and hasn’t been back.
333
334A press conference was held on 2/27 to announce the show, and Demon and Wagner brought their sons. Demon, who is 52, had one son with him while Wagner, who is 53, had two sons with him. Demon, who will likely win since his mask is far more valuable than Wagner’s hair, which can grow back, said that his son is training to be a wrestler but isn’t ready to debut. Wagner brought his sons, who wrestle as Galeno del Mal and El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. Wagner Jr. was feuding with his son in AAA until Konnan returned as booker and put a nix to the feud.
335
336Wagner said he would go back to the all-white outfit that his father wore.
337
338It was the only match announced at the press conference, although AAA said there would be six main events, including a Copa TripleMania match. Psycho Clown, Lady Shani, El Texano Jr. and La Parka talked about wrestling on the show. Shani wanted a title match with Taya.
339
340They also announced that their first show on TV Azteca 7 did more than four million viewers, which would make it the most-watched pro wrestling television show of the year in North America. Mexico has 129 million people while the U.S. has 326 million, but TV Azteca 7 is also a far stronger outlet than the USA Network. But Raw and Smackdown also have an advantage of being in prime time. Any way you slice it, the number is far more impressive than any WWE number in years.
341
342A video of Cody was shown at the press conference, saying that AAA wrestlers would be on Double or Nothing and Cody would be coming to the AAA Rey de Reyes show, although that’s only in a few weeks so unlikely to be wrestling on he show. They didn’t mention any specific AAA names coming to the show.
343
344Another funny deal is that Cain Velasquez came up, as he did an interview and noted that Lucha Libre wasn’t real, which didn’t go over well. In Mexico, in public, even though people talk between the lines far more than ever before, people don’t outright say that Lucha Libre is fake. But Velasquez, living in the U.S., probably doesn’t know he cultural differences between what people say about WWE and AAA.
345
346Still, it was funny that Parka did the 70s response challenging Velasquez to a match, and Psycho Clown said he would show Velasquez how real it is.
347
348UFC DEBUTS IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC
349
350By Ryan Frederick
351
352The UFC debuted in the Czech Republic on 2/23 with a fight night event in Prague held on ESPN+ headlined by Jan Blachowicz and Thiago Santos in a light heavyweight bout.
353
354Both fighters had a lot of momentum heading into the fight with Blachowicz having won four straight fights, and Santos having won three straight, including two since moving up to 205 pounds, having looked like an absolute killer in those fights. There was a lot of talk that the winner could be in line for a title shot in the division, one that is really needing some fresh contenders.
355
356Santos scored the win by knocking Blachowicz out at :39 of the third round, firmly showing that he is a force in the division. It wasn't the typical Santos performance. He had been known for coming out looking to finish opponents as quickly as possible, but took a more methodical approach in this one. A lot of that might be due to this being his first 25-minute fight, and Blachowicz is an opponent you need a good pace with. They had back-and-forth first two rounds, and then Santos just found an opening with a counter left hook that dropped Blachowicz, and the killer instinct came in and he finished him on the ground.
357
358That puts Santos in an interesting position. He is likely the next challenger for the light heavyweight title, which is on the line this weekend when Jon Jones defends against Anthony Smith. A Smith win would rank as one of the biggest upsets in UFC history. Jones has stated that he wants to fight three or four times this year, so he wants to keep busy.
359
360Santos is the next logical opponent as no one else stands out as being ready. If Smith were to pull off the upset over Jones, you would think Jones gets an immediate rematch. Santos does hold a win over Smith when they both fought at 185 pounds, which occurred just over a year ago in Smith's last fight before going up to 205 pounds.
361
362The most notable thing on the show, which was really just a basic average night of fights, was the apparent retirement of heavyweight Stefan Struve.
363
364Struve, 31, has had a lot of medical issues with his heart outside of the cage, and was coming into this one having lost three straight fights. He looked like a done fighter in the first round against Marcos Rogerio de Lima, getting dropped quickly and dominated on the ground in a clear 10-8 round. The second round was very different, with Struve getting a takedown and finishing a very tired de Lima with an arm-triangle choke at the 2:21 mark.
365
366Struve was non-committal on retirement, leaving the door open despite leaving his gloves inside the Octagon. He said going out on a win and on his terms is the right way, but he still has to think about it. We all know how retirements in this sport go. If this is it, it is a great way to go out.
367
368Two long win streaks ended, seeing Michel Prazeres' eight-fight win streak stopped, and Rustam Khabilov's six-fight win streak ended. The Prazeres one was interesting as he had looked like a killer in recent fights, and he was taking on a short-notice opponent in Ismail Naurdiev, making his UFC debut. Naurdiev dominated Prazeres, who looked lost and got tired very quickly, and got the win. What was even more impressive for Naurdiev, even taking the fight on less than two weeks' notice, was that he had just fought on 2/2. Khabilov lost a decision to Diego Ferreira, and Ferreira had his best UFC performance to date.
369
370The show in Prague drew a sold-out crowd of 16,583 with a gate of $1,606,176. It was touted as the biggest MMA event ever in the Czech Republic, and the highest grossing one-day sporting event in the O2 Arena history.
371
372The show aired on ESPN+, although prelims (fights four through seven) also aired on ESPN 2 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Eastern and did 271,000 viewers. Given the time slot, lack of promotion of it being on television and the names, it wasn’t a rating that anyone was really paying attention to.
373
374Performance Of The Night bonuses went to Santos, Struve, Michal Oleksiejczuk and Dwight Grant, all earning $50,000. There was no Fight Of The Night bonus given.
375
3761. Damir Ismagulov (18-2) beat Joel Alvarez (15-2) via unanimous decision on scores of 30-27, 30-27 and 30-27 in a lightweight fight. Alvarez had an impressive win streak coming into his UFC debut but this fight was all Ismagulov. He out-landed Alvarez throughout all three rounds, clearly winning them all though the third round was closer than the rest. Real solid showing for Ismagulov. I had it 30-27 for Ismagulov.
377
3782. Diego Ferreira (15-2) beat Rustam Khabilov (23-4) via unanimous decision on scores of 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28 in a lightweight fight. This was Ferreira's best UFC performance to date. Khabilov's game is all takedowns, and he was only able to get two in this fight, and Ferreira would get right back up from them. Ferreira was better on the feet landing counters and using his jab effectively to keep Khabilov from getting in takedown range. It was Khabilov's first loss in four years, though he had only fought six times in that time frame. I had it 30-27 for Ferreira.
379
3803. Ismail Naurdiev (18-2) beat Michel Prazeres (26-3) via unanimous decision on scores of 30-26, 30-26 and 30-27 in a welterweight fight. Prazeres had been looking like a killer during his 8-fight win streak but was outclassed by an opponent making his UFC debut on two weeks' notice after having just fought on February 2. Naurdiev was lighting Prazeres up on the feet and Prazeres had no answer as he was giving up a lot of reach. Prazeres went for a lot of takedowns, only going 3-of-13, and Naurdiev would reverse them every time. Prazeres got real tired early and was eating a lot of shots in a dominant third round, where Naurdiev out-landed him 57-5. Impressive win for Naurdiev. I had it 30-26 for Naurdiev.
381
3824. Damir Hadzovic (13-4) beat Polo Reyes (8-4) in 2:03 of the second round in a lightweight fight. Hadzovic looked real good in this one. They had a close first round that Hadzovic win on the strength of takedowns as Reyes was getting the better of the fight on the feet. Second round saw Hadzovic get Reyes down and pound him away to get the finish. Reyes was down for a while after the stoppage.
383
3845. Gillian Robertson (6-3) beat Veronica Macedo (5-3) in 3:27 of the second round in a women's flyweight fight. Macedo had the advantage while they were standing as she was out-landing Robertson big in the first round with a 26-3 edge. Robertson got a takedown in the second round and there were a lot of transitions on the mat before Robertson got the back and found the rear-naked choke to get Macedo to tap.
385
3866. Chris Fishgold (18-2-1) beat Daniel Teymur (6-3) in 1:10 of the second round in a featherweight fight. Real interesting situation happened right at the beginning of the fight. Almost immediately Fishgold went for a takedown against the fence and Teymur grabbed the fence big time, as blatant and obvious as it gets. Herb Dean took a point away without warning, and it was a good call. Teymur was already in a hole and couldn't get out of it as Fishgold kept taking him down. They did have wild exchanges on the feet where both got rocked. Fishgold took Teymur down in the second and got his back for the rear-naked choke. Fishgold looked good here.
387
3887. Dwight Grant (9-2) beat Carlo Pedersoli (11-3) in 4:59 in a welterweight fight. Pedersoli kept going after takedowns, and wasn't successful on most. His only other attack was searching for head kicks. He missed one and ate a counter hook from Grant that knocked Pedersoli's mouthpiece out and dropped him and Grant finished it off with just a second left in the first round. Impressive win by Grant who showed a lot of power.
389
3908. Magomed Ankalaev (12-1) beat Klidson Abreu (14-3) via unanimous decision on scores of 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28 in a light heavyweight fight. Ankalaev busted Abreu's nose in the first round. It looked real bad. It was bleeding the rest of the fight. Not much of a fight here as Ankalaev was in complete control, but never really close to stopping Abreu. Ankalaev was just better everywhere. I had it 30-27 Ankalaev, not sure how Abreu got a round from a judge.
391
3929. Petr Yan (12-1) beat John Dodson (20-11) via unanimous decision on scores of 30-27, 30-27 and 30-27 in a bantamweight fight. This was a real test for Yan and he passed it with an impressive showing. Dodson had some crazy hair here. First round was somewhat close though Yan outlanded more. Dodson dropped Yan in the second and had him in trouble but Yan came on strong at the end. Third round was all Yan on his feet though both scored takedowns. Yan has some serious potential to be a threat at 135 pounds and this was a real good win for him. I had it 30-27 Yan. Yan called out Jimmie Rivera after the fight.
393
39410. Liz Carmouche (13-6) beat Lucie Pudilova (8-4) via unanimous decision on scores of 30-27, 29-28 and 29-28 in a women's flyweight fight. Pudilova was the hometown favorite but gave up a lot of experience to Carmouche. Carmouche really controlled the first round but suffered a big cut. Pudilova was getting the better of the striking over the final two rounds. Carmouche scored some well-timed takedowns to keep her ahead though. Pudilova had Carmouche in trouble at times over the final two rounds. I had it 29-28 Carmouche with Pudilova winning the second. Media scores had it 73% for Carmouche and 27% for Pudilova. Carmouche was wanting to fight Valentina Shevchenko for the title next.
395
39611. Michal Oleksiejczuk (13-2 1 NC) beat Gian Villante (17-11) in 1:34 in a light heavyweight fight. They were trading back-and-forth before Oleksiejczuk landed a vicious liver punch on Villante. It was one of those delayed reactions as it took a brief moment for Villante to go down, but he went out in a lot of pain and Oleksiejczuk finished him in just over 90 seconds. Good win for Oleksiejczuk as Villante is real tough to finish.
397
39812. Stefan Struve (29-11) beat Marcos Rogerio de Lima (16-6-1) in 2:21 of the second round in a heavyweight fight. Struve did nothing in the first round as he got dropped and de Lima spent the round trying to finish him on top. Dominant round that was a 10-8. Struve didn't even land a strike in the first. Second round was totally different as Struve got a takedown, worked for the arm triangle and finally got it to get de Lima to submit. Struve admitted he didn't even remember being knocked down in the first. He mentioned potential retirement post-fight but is taking time to think it over. He does go out on a high note.
399
40013. Thiago Santos (21-6) beat Jan Blachowicz (23-8) in :39 of the third round in a light heavyweight fight. Santos took a methodical approach in this one, a far cry of his usual trying to finish his opponent as quickly as possible. He still took the first two rounds as he was eating up Blachowicz with leg kicks, though the second round was close. There was just this feeling that Santos was waiting for an opening to finish Blachowicz off. He found it in the third as Santos dropped him with a counter hook as Blachowicz early and just pounded away with what had to have been more than 25 hammer fists. Herb Dean was late to stop it as he was giving Blachowicz every chance to get out but Blachowicz was done. Santos was asking for a title shot next. He is a dangerous opponent that would make for an interesting fight with Jon Jones.
401
402Honky Tonk Man (Roy Wayne Ferris, 66) was announced on 2/26 as being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame on 4/6 at the Barclays Center.
403
404Ferris had been asked in the past and turned it down because he didn’t like some of the restrictions in the contract claiming it would cost him independent money because he’d have to cancel dates. Now that he’s no longer wrestling and getting many bookings, that’s no longer a factor and he was asked again this year.
405
406Ferris, who is the first cousin of Jerry Lawler, although the two aren’t close, started wrestling in 1977, after Lawler was already the biggest star in that part of the country.
407
408He worked early in his career as Danny Condrey, the brother of Dennis. His first big-time push came when he and Larry Booker, who later became Moondog Spot, were put together as a bleached blond tag team called The Blonde Bombers, a takeoff on the name Pat Patterson & Ray Stevens used in the 60s.
409
410The Blonde Bombers headlined in Memphis with Danny Davis as their manager, and were most famous for the Tupelo concession stand brawl against Lawler & Bill Dundee. They held the Southern tag titles three times and the Mid American tag titles three times.
411
412He started doing an Elvis act as Honky Tonk Wayne Ferris in Alabama and became a headlining heel in Stampede Wrestling where he held the North American title as well as the International tag titles with Ron Starr twice and the Cuban Assassin (Angel Acevedo) once.
413
414He was brought into WWF in 1986 as Honky Tonk Man. Vince McMahon’s idea was for him to be the singing and dancing partner and best friend of Hulk Hogan, with the idea of marketing records and him being the No. 2 babyface since Vince saw him as Elvis.
415
416The idea backfired at first, as fans hated him. Vince went with the flow, and Honky proved to be a very strong heel draw as IC champion.
417
418He shockingly pinned Ricky Steamboat at the TV tapings on June 2, 1987, in Buffalo. This was not anything planned out long-term. Steamboat came to television and asked for time off because his wife was pregnant (this was son Richie who wrestled at one point in WWE developmental until a back injury ended his career).
419
420Honky Tonk Man has always told the story that it was supposed to be Butch Reed, but they couldn’t find him, and he was there, they saw him, felt Steamboat had to lose that night, so he got it.
421
422The title win got a lot of heat from fans. The IC title had always been the workers’ title so to speak. The title was still the No. 2 belt in WWE and was a big deal, as it was used to main event major market house shows. The previous champions were Pat Paterson, Ken Patera, Pedro Morales, Don Muraco, Greg Valentine, Tito Santana, Randy Savage and Ricky Steamboat, all established superstars and/or top level workers before they were champion. It had only been three months since Steamboat had won the title from Savage in what was largely viewed at the time as the greatest match since the national expansion. Aside from Morales, who was one of the greatest stars in the history of the promotion when he was champion, every champion at the time they had the belt were considered among the top workers in the business, and had great working main event style matches. And even with Morales, since most of his opponents were strong workers, the match quality was usually strong.
423
424In no way did Honky Tonk Main fit into that category.
425
426But he made it work, as he’d get great heat for proclaiming himself “The greatest Intercontinental champion of all-time.” Plus, he was a great entertainer with his singing and dancing before the matches and overall charisma. His not being good worked in his favor due to the gimmick, and he’d get heat by constantly getting disqualified or counted out to save the title.
427
428He ended up having the longest reign as champion in the belt’s history, a 454-day reign that ended on August 29, 1988, at SummerSlam in Madison Square Garden when he lost in a quick squash to Ultimate Warrior, who they were grooming as the potential future top star of the company.
429
430The record, which remains today, is because he was asked to drop the title live on NBC TV to Randy Savage, and in the dressing room, refused to drop it. They tried to talk him into it with no luck. There were suggestions of having Savage just try and beat him legit, since the belief was Savage was much tougher, but that’s not how the business operated any longer and they had no time to plan a double-cross finish. Honky agreed to lose via count out because Savage was strong in their plans.
431
432That led to a lot of plans changing as Savage ended up as WWF champion since Hulk Hogan was taking time off to do a movie, and Honky remained doing strong business so they kept it on him until wanting to crown Warrior on a major PPV show.
433
434The term greatest Intercontinental champion of all-time, meant originally as a heat-getting joke, was said so often that it became fixed into the lexicon and for years he, and not the great workers like Savage or Muraco, and the perennial champion Morales, got that billing.
435
436He and Valentine, with jet black hair, were later pushed as a top heel tag team Rhythm & Blues until he moved on to announcing and later left the company. He had a short run in WCW in 1994 when Hogan had power and they brought in a lot of ex-WWF stars, but that was a disaster. Honky’s wrestling style didn’t get over with the WCW fan base and he also refused to jobs at times. He beat Brian Pillman in a lot of prelim matches at the time, which Pillman considered a low point of his career and led to him feeling so desperate about his career that he came up with his loose cannon portrayal. Pillman was furious at being asked to lose to Honky, feeling Honky was older, not the athlete he was, plus this was WCW and Honky’s style in his mind didn’t fit and felt Honky wasn’t over. Honky’s not wanting to do jobs led to his being fired quickly.
437
438His last run in WWF came in 1997 where he did announcing and managing. He managed Billy Gunn as Rockabilly, an idea that went nowhere, although when it died, Billy Gunn was moved into his best career role in the New Age Outlaws tag team. He occasionally returned based on his IC title run for gimmick and nostalgia runs. Santino Marella, doing a comedy role as champion, created the Honk–a-meter in 2008 trying to break his record and become “the greatest Intercontinental champion of all the times.” On that year’s Cyber Sunday show, fans legitimately voted Honky ahead of Roddy Piper and Goldust for a shot at Marella’s title.
439
440Honky stayed on the independent circuit working regularly until recent years, mostly dancing and singing in doing matches that required little action. It was a limited act in the sense you couldn’t put him in programs r serious matches, but during those years he was a fun part of shows that he worked on.
441
442Even after the big Raw number the night before, Smackdown fell back to normal levels on 2/26, with a five percent drop to 2,150,000 viewers.
443
444Smackdown was seventh on cable, and beat the NBA on TNT which did 1,246,000 viewers head-to-head. The only cable show that beat Smackdown were news shows.
445
446The show did a 0.45 in 12-17 (down 16.7 percent from last week), 0.62 in 18-34 (up 10.7 percent), 0.90 in 35-49 (down 4.3 percent) and 0.88 in 50+ (down 7.4 percent).
447
448The audience was 64.1 male in 18-49 and 60.5 percent male in 12-17.
449
450Raw on 2/25, built around the Roman Reigns return, drew a 2.05 rating and 2,922,000 viewers (1.57 viewers per home), the best number the show has done since 8/20 and up five percent in both ratings and viewers from last week, which was the best number the show has done since 8/20.
451
452The show would have been expected to do a huge first hour with the Reigns interview, and the 3,167,000 viewers was the best first hour since 4/23, which was the brand shakeup show and prior to a substantial television drop in interest. Even with the Reigns return and Ric Flair 70th birthday party, the show was actually down 8.1 percent from the same show last year.
453
454One would have also expected a giant decline, and while there was a substantial first-to-third hour decline, it wasn’t so bad because of the tease throughout the show of the Flair birthday party. It was the best third hour since 9/3.
455
456After the first hour, the second hour dropped to 2,952,000 viewers and third hour was 2,648,000 viewers.
457
458Raw was third for the night on cable, but came very close to winning and the first hour was not only the highest rated hour of the night on cable, but even beat FOX head-to-head with viewers even with FOX in so many more homes.
459
460The two shows ahead were Tucker Carlson on Fox News at 2,964,000 and Rachel Maddow at 2,959,000 viewers.
461
462The Reigns return was strongest as far as gaining viewers with the teenage boy audience and the interest level was lower among older viewers. His return should boost ratings next week, and from there in theory things should remain strong with the build to WrestleMania through the superstar shake-up shows a week after WrestleMania, given the season we are in. The real test of the legs of this, the Mania season gains, and shake-ups will come when we get into the NBA playoffs.
463
464The show did a 0.69 in 12-17 (up 23.2 percent from last week), 0.80 in 18-34 (up 8.1 percent), 1.24 in 35-49 (up 5.1 percent) and 1.16 in 50+ (up 3.6 percent).
465
466The audience was 66.0 percent male in 18-49 and 66.8 percent male in 12-17, both higher male skews than has been typical for the show.
467
468Teenage boys in particular were up 25.5 percent from last week.
469
470Regarding the drop from hour one, that should also tell which audiences came in the most to see Reigns (the ones who dropped the most were the ones who came in specifically for his speech).
471
472The drops were 22.1 percent for women 18-49, 11.3 percent for men 18-49, 36.5 percent for girls 12-17 (although it should be noted that held up better than the 58.3 percent drop last week so that’s more the pattern for that age group than something specifically bad to his week) and 12.1 percent for boys 12-17.
473
474Total Bellas on 2/24 did 424,000 viewers, which to me is a great number considering they were going against the Oscars. It was pretty much identical with what they drew (426,000) on 2/17.
475
476The taped Bellator show on 2/23 in prime time on Paramount headlined by James Gallagher’s first round win over Steven Graham did 349,000 viewers.
477
478Smackdown on 2/19 did 2,269,000 viewers, up 11.6 percent and the best number the show has done in three months, since the 11/13 episode.
479
480The boost would have been likely based off interest generated from Elimination Chamber, whether it be the Kofi Kingston push or the women’s feud, combined with the newcomers who debuted.
481
482Smackdown finished ninth for the night on cable, and grew in every demo, particularly with younger viewers.
483
484The show did a 0.54 in 12-17 (up 42.1 percent from the prior week), 0.56 in 18-34 (up 24.4 percent), 0.94 in 35-49 (up 8.0 percent) and 0.95 in 50+ (up 8.0 percent).
485
486The audience was 61.7 percent male in 18-49 and 63.0 percent male in 12-17.
487
488This is the first issue of the current set. If you’ve got a (1) on your address label, it means your Observer subscription will expire in two more weeks with a single and a double issue,
489
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491
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495
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499
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501
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503
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505
506RESULTS
507
508 
509
5102/24 Montgomery, AL (WWE Raw): Tag titles: Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder b Bobby Roode & Chad Gable, Mojo Rawley b Tyler Breeze, IC title: Finn Balor b Bobby Lashley, Natalya b Alexa Bliss, Drew McIntyre b Dean Ambrose, Heath Slater & Titus O’Neil & Rhyno b Jinder Mahal & Samir & Sunil Singh, Women’s tag titles: Sasha Banks & Bayley b Ruby Riott & Liv Morgan, Street fight: Braun Strowman b Baron Corbin
511
5122/24 Greenville, SC (WWE Smackdown - 5,000): Three-way for tag titles: Usos won over Big E & Kofi Kingston and Shinsuke Nakamura & Rusev, Three-way for U.S. title: R-Truth won over Andrade and Rey Mysterio, Lacey Evans & Nikki Cross b Billie Kay & Peyton Royce, A.J. Styles & The Miz b Sheamus & Cesaro, Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson b Eric Young & Killian Dain, Jeff Hardy b Samoa Joe, Women’s title: Asuka b Charlotte Flair
513
5142/25 Atlanta, GA (WWE Raw/Main Event TV taping - 12,500): Rezar b No Way Jose, Apollo Crews b EC 3, Non-title: Aleister Black & Ricochet b Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder, Ronda Rousey & Natalya b Sarah Logan & Ruby Riott-DQ, Kurt Angle b Jinder Mahal, IC title: Finn Balor b Lio Rush, No DQ: Drew McIntyre b Dean Ambrose, Bayley b Nia Jax
515
5162/25 Savannah, GA (WWE Smackdown - 3,500): Three-way for tag titles: Usos won over Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods and Shinsuke Nakamura & Rusev, U.S. title: R-Truth b Andrade, Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson b Eric Young & Killian Dain, The Miz & A.J. Styles b Sheamus & Cesaro, Erick Rowan b Shelton Benjamin, Women’s title: Asuka b Charlotte Flair, Rey Mysterio & Jeff Hardy b Samoa Joe & Randy Orton
517
5182/26 Charlotte, NC (WWE Smackdown/205 Live TV taping - 7,700): Heavy Machinery b Primo & Epico Colon, Matt & Jeff Hardy b Sheamus & Cesaro, Three-way for U.S. title: R-Truth won over Rey Mysterio and Andrade, Ricochet & Aleister Black b Rusev & Shinsuke Nakamura, Kofi Kingston & Kevin Owens b Daniel Bryan & Erick Rowan, Tony Nese b Kalisto, Drew Gulak b Brian Kendrick, Women’s title: Asuka b Charlotte Flair
519
520CMLL: The complete show for El Homenaje a Dos Leyendas on 3/15 at Arena Mexico has Esfinge & Titan & Triton vs. El Hijo del Villano III & Polvora & Vangellys, Atomo & Gallito & Microman vs. Chamuel & Mije & Zacarias in a micros match, Diamante Azul & Soberano Jr. & Titan vs. Mephisto & Ephesto & Templario, Ultimo Guerrero & Gran Guerrero & Euforia defend the CMLL trios titles against Volador Jr. & Dragon Lee & Caristico and Angel de Oro & Niebla Roja vs. Bestia del Ring & El Terrible in a double hair vs. hair match. It is a very good show, maybe a great show on paper, but it was hurt when Penta & Fenix, who were to team with Volador in the title match, were removed from the show. No reason was given for this. They were announced for the show, and then several days later, the card listing simply didn’t have them anymore. Dragon Lee & Caristico were to team with Soberano Jr., and they moved up and Diamante Azul & Titan were added to the show. This show is usually an iPPV and also usually that is not officially announced as such until the week of the show. Rush won’t be on the show since he’s booked against Bandido the same night on the ROH PPV show, so both companies have big shows head-to-head
521
522The company also announced this week a partnership with The Crash promotion. Well, it is a good thing that so many of the companies around the country and the world are working together more. It gives fans a wider variety of potential matches. The Crush pushed it as being part of an alliance of CMLL, New Japan and ROH. El Planchitas said that AAA left Televisa because they were doubling the price the network was charging the promotion to be on, but after AAA left for TV Azteca, they offered the spot to CMLL at half the price
523
524The 2/22 show at Arena Mexico had two great bouts. The match everyone is talking about was a Titan vs Cavernario non-title singles match which went 27:00 and I gave ****½, and it’s the best Arena Mexico match in months. The match was originally scheduled as one fall ten minutes but during the week it was changed to 2/3 falls no time limit, so for whatever reason, they wanted to showcase these two. Cavernario won the first fall, which wasn’t much. The second fall was better. The third fall was the usual exchange of all the big moves, and went 15:05 of that. What really made the match was the giant reaction pop at the finish. The crowd was clearly into it and all the moves were spot on, but when it ended, it was a world title change pop for just a non-title third from the top match. Then people started throwing money into the ring, which happens all the time in Mexico, but very rarely at Arena Mexico. It turned into a big emotional moment. There was talk of bringing them back for Cavernario’s Mexican national light heavyweight title, and there’s not point in that result without doing so. In the semi, they were out to build the 3/15 hair match so Angel de Oro & Diamante Azul & Niebla Roja beat Gilbert el Boricua & Bestia del Ring & El Terrible. The Bestia team was DQ’d in the first fall and Angel de Oro, the tecnico team member, gave Terrible a low blow after he was eliminated to set up Niebla Roja’s pin. The main event saw Mistico & Caristico & Volador Jr., who are now being called The Dream Team, facing the New Dinamitas. This was a ****1/4 match with all six men shining and the Dream team all having their A games going. The show drew 9,000 fans. It’ll be interesting to see how being back on Televisa starting soon affects the Friday night attendance. Even if there isn’t a short-term jump, the positive is that it will help make the younger wrestlers into bigger stars faster
525
526The 3/1 show doesn’t look nearly as good, with Angel de Oro & Roja & Volador vs. Bestia & Terrible & Rush on top, so that’s all brawling and fouling to build 3/15, than Caristico & Diamante Azul & Valiente against the returning Ciber the Main Man & The Chris & Gilbert, plus Titan vs. Templario
527
528Super Astro Jr. took a bad fall doing a backwards head-butt off the top rope type move and his opponent moved and he landed on the mat right on his head. The promotion announced he had mild head and neck pain and a chipped tooth. He will be getting an MRI done to check for further damage
529
530After winning a non-title match on 2/25 in Puebla, Vangellys challenged Ultimo Guerrero for his CMLL heavyweight title. Fans did not react like they wanted to see that match
531
532Cavernario, the Mexican national light hevyweight champion, has challenged NWA Historic welterweight champion Volador Jr. for Volador’s title in Guadalajara.
533
534Alberto El Patron appeared at the 2/26 show in Guadalajara, but he was there to promote a Combate Americas show in that building.
535
536DRAGON GATE: Shun Skywalker is vowing to be the person who beats Pac to win the Open the Dream Gate title.
537
538ALL JAPAN: Their biggest show so far this year was 2/24 at Yokohama Bunka Gym before 2,109 fans. It was said to be the company’s best show in a long time, maybe years, because of the last three matches. They had a Masa Fuchi 45th anniversary match where Fuchi & Takao Omori beat Jun Akiyama & Mitsuo Momota (the 68-year-old son of Rikidozan) when Fuchi pinned Momota in 9:38 with a small package. Naoya Nomura pinned Dylan James in 10:48 in what was said to be a ***1/4 match. The finals of the Junior Battle of Glory tournament which took place all month saw Koji Iwamoto beat Seiki Yoshioka in 14:59 in a ****1/4 match. In an usual situation, it was the jr. champion winning the tournament which usually is to decide the next title challenger. Iwamoto’s next defense will be against Kotaro Suzuki, who did get a win over Iwamoto in the tournament and who Iwamoto has never beaten in a singles match during his career. The world tag titles saw Big Japan’s Daisuke Sekimoto & Yuji Okabayashi retain over All Japan’s Jake Lee & Ryoji Sai in 29:06 when Okabayashi pinned Lee with a splash in a ****1/4 match. The main event saw Kento Miyahara retain the Triple Crown over former champion Suwama in 32:29 with a delayed shutdown German suplex in what was said to be a ****½ match. Nomura will challenge Miyahara next for the title
539
540The blocks were announced for the Champion Carnival tournament in April. It doesn’t strike me as exciting as last year when Shingo Takagi was killing it, but there will be plenty of great stuff. The A block has Kento Miyahara, Dylan James, Gianni Valletta, Ryoji Sai, Shuji Ishikawa, Yuji Okabayashi, Zeus, Yuma Aoyagi and Kengo Mashimo. The B block has Joe Doering, Joel Redman (a former WWE developmental wrestler), Sam Adonis, Jake Lee, Naoya Nomura, Yoshitatsu, Takashi Yoshida, Daichi Hashimoto and Suwama.
541
542PRO WRESTLING NOAH: They had a big show on 2/24 at Korakuen Hall designed to build an even bigger show for 3/10 at the Yokohama Bunka Gym. The show drew 1,182 fans, which is good for NOAH for a show without a GHC title match. The main event was the GHC tag titles where Katsuhiko Nakajima & Go Shiozaki won the titles from Mohammed Yone & Quiet Storm in 19:45 when Nakajima pinned Storm with a brainbuster. After the match Eddie Edwards & Masa Kitamiya came out and challenged for the titles. In a tag match, Naomichi Marufuji & Minoru Tanaka beat GHC champion Kaito Kiyomiya & Daisuke Harada in 19:52 when Marufuji beat Kiyomiya with a keylock, which set up Marufuji for a GHC title match. There was a ten man elimination match where the losing team had to disband with the Dark Agents of Takashi Sugiura & Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue & Yoshiki Inamura & Kinya Okada beat The Hooligans of Maybach Taniguchi & Yuji Hino & Mitsuya Nagai & Kazma Sakamoto & Cody Hall in 23:52. The final four were Sugiura & Okada vs. Sakamoto & Taniguchi. Sugiura first pinned Taniguchi with a Frankensteiner, and then pinned Sakamoto after an Olympic slam. Edwards pinned Kitamiya with the Boston knee party in 8:13 and then Edwards asked Kitamiya to be his partner. Yoshinari Ogawa & Kotaro Suzuki won the jr. tag titles from Hitoshi Kumano & Hajime Ohara in 14:46 when Suzuki pinned Kumano after a Tiger driver. The top matches on 3/10 are Kiyomiya vs. Marufuji for the GHC title, Nakajima & Shiozaki vs. Edwards & Kitamiya for the tag titles, Harada vs. Minoru Tanaka for the jr. title, Ogawa & Suzuki vs. Tadasuke & Hayata for the jr. tag title and Sugiura vs. Sakamoto.
543
544NEW JAPAN: All of the New Japan wrestlers targeted for the MSG show have received their U.S. visas, so there officially will be no issues with that related to the show
545
546Hiromu Takahashi is expected to show up as a surprise on a show very soon to announce his comeback. He’s been regularly tweeting percentages that his neck has healed. They are made up numbers where it’s like 990 percent and numbers like that. What we were told some time back is that he would be returning at some pont, that was a given, and it would be this year and big deal would be made of it. He’s going to have to tone down his style. Hopefully it’s more like Bushi, who has had to tone down but is still very good, than Honma, who is very limited in what he can do. Takahashi was really on a role at the time of his injury at the Cow Palace show and due to his charisma was the most popular junior heavyweight in the company dating back to the heyday of Jushin Liger
547
548Kazuchika Okada, Tetsuya Naito and Hiroshi Tanahashi were the first three wrestlers announced for the 8/31 show at the Cooper Box Arena in London. This show is scheduled to be a PPV caliber show, and will probably have a stronger lineup then the MSG show because MSG will be a 50 percent ROH show while London is pure New Japan
549
550Executives from Bushiroad along with Sho and Yoh attended the Stardom Korakuen Hall show on 2/17
551
552Takashi Iizuka’s retirement show took place on 2/21 at Korakuen Hall before a sellout of 1,726 fans. It was built around Okada & Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Toru Yano beating Iizuka & Minoru Suzuki & Taichi in the main event. The crowd was really into it, especially for Iizuka. Announcer Shimpei Nogami returned since he’s so associated with Iizuka. Several years back, when New Japan started on iPPV and the comeback in business came, Nogami was the lead announcer for TV-Asahi and a big fan of Yuji Nagata. Under his dress shirt he always wore a Nagata T-shirt, and every month on the big show, Iizuka would attack him and tear his shirt and undershirt off. So Nogami came back, and Iizuka went after him and did the same thing. Nogami would then, like he did here, broadcast the match with no shirt but still with his tie on until he’d get a new shirt for the rest of the show. Iizuka, real name Takayuki Iizuka (who had a memorable WCW match teaming with Tatsumi Fujinami in losing to the Steiner Brothers on a Clash of Champions when Iizuka took a beating that was shocking to viewers) is 52 and had been wrestling for 34 years, almost all with New Japan. He worked two years for NOAH but that’s when New Japan sent talent there to try and help the company since he remained under contract to New Japan the entire time. Iizuka had held the tag titles a few times, but for the most part was a mid-card wrestler for most of his career, even though he had something of a shooter rep since he trained sambo in the old Soviet Union. He also did one MMA fight in 2003, losing to Suzuki, but Suzuki couldn’t finish him as he lost a decision. In 2008, Iizuka & Tenzan formed a team called Friendship Tag until Iizuka turned on Tenzan that year when they were facing Togi Makabe & Yano, who were the IWGP tag champions. When he did the turn, that’s where he took on his current mad man persona. Tenzan had been wanting to team with Iizuka one last time. But that didn’t happen since this was his last match and Iizuka never turned back. The story of the match was Tenzan trying to get Iizuka to make up with him. Several times they teased he would but then he’d attack Tenzan. The finish saw Okada, who did far more than he usually does in tag matches, hit Iizuka with a tombstone piledriver. Tenzan did a diving head-butt and then again wanted Iizuka to make up with him. When that didn’t work, Tenzan put a Friendship Tag T-shirt on Iizuka’s body and Tenzan hit a moonsault on Iizuka for the pin in 22:14. After the match, Tenzan again appealed to Iizuka to make up and finally they embraced, but then Iizuka turned on him and hit him with a chair. Suzuki-gun beat Tenzan down and held him for Iizuka to use the iron fingers from hell on him. The crowd was super hot for Iizuka all night since this really was his show, chanting his name and everything, and didn’t boo him even when he turned on Tenzan, which had gotten the biggest pop. They continued to chant his name after. This was really well done and I guess in the long run it didn’t matter, since he was retiring, but they had spent weeks building up Tenzan & Iizuka finally burying the hatchet from their 2008 break-up and in the end got a swerve ending. Taichi picked up the iron fingers at the end of the match so it’s possible they are giving that gimmick to him going forward. The show was a fun show with a hot crowd with good wrestling but no blow away matches. The semi was very good with Hiroshi Tanahashi & Will Ospreay over Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Lance Archer. The highlight was Ospreay vs. Smith, who worked together great. Smith is creeping up at near 280, after getting really cut a few months ago. I think he’s one of these guys who always has a new training goal and before it was to diet and get cut, and now it’s to get big and powerful, with the goal of hitting 300. He carries the weight well, but stylistically, it’s just unique I guess to have a 280 pound guy who is that agile, and he was doing dropkicks and nip ups like he was Don Leo Jonathan, and his power moves, and he’s such a great technician as well. Plus, he gave the smaller Ospreay a ton. I think they’d have a great Never title match but given Ospreay pinned him with the Oscutter in 12:50, that doesn’t look like the direction right now
553
554Yujiro Takahashi will be out of action the next month due to an injury
555
556Karl Fredericks, who is from the U.S. Young Lions program, had his foot in a walking boot this past week due to some sort of a severe sprain.
557
558OTHER JAPAN NOTES: Satoru Sayama is doing a Dynamite Kid Memorial show on 3/15 at Korakuen Hall and New Japan has given Davey Boy Smith Jr., who along with Bret Hart were the two people in wrestling who kept in contact with Dynamite, to do the show. The main event is Smith & Super Tiger (Yuji Sakuragi) vs. Kenso (Suzuki) & Masakatsu Funaki
559
560DDT ran 2/23 in Tokyo at Shinjuku Face before 351 fans. Kudo announced he would be wrestling through 4/17, but would need to take time off from there due to injuries. So his Shuen-Douji sable with Masahiro Takanashi and Yukio Sakaguchi has been split up. Satomura was shown on video challenging for the men’s six-man titles. The lights were turned out to play the video. When the lights were turned back on, Chihiro Hashimoto was in the ring and gave Konosuke Takeshita a German suplex. This leads to Konosuke Takeshita & Akito & Yuki Iino vs. Satomura & Dash Chisako & Chihiro Hashimoto in a men vs. women’s match for the KO-D six-man titles on 3/21. The main event had Tetsuya Endo winning a three-way over Harashima and Kazusada Higuchi where the winner has the right to challenge for any title of his choosing.
561
562HERE AND THERE: Genevieve “LuFisto” Goulet, 39, who unfortunately came into the business ten years or so too early with her attempts to be a serious and hardcore woman wrestler and work just like the men, and who continued wrestling after back injuries nearly ended her career early on and had a cancer scare, announced her retirement and canceled many of her upcoming dates due to knee problems. She said she will wrestle some dates if it’s an opponent she wants to work with or a place she’d like to work one last time. She said that she fell down the stairs and sprained her right knee, and in getting it examined they found serious damage. She was told the knee is like that of an 80-year-old and she would likely need a knee replacement by the age of 50. She had first hurt the knee in 2002 and rather than get reconstructive surgery, got scoped, took two months off and has worked for 17 years with no ACL, MCL or meniscus. When examined on 2/25, they found osteoarthritis from cartilage deterioration. She said she would never admit to being injured (this is common in wrestling which is why even some wrestlers on the WWE’s injured list will claim publicly that they aren’t hurt) because she was afraid it would be used by people to claim she wasn’t tough enough for pro wrestling because he was a woman and felt she had to do this to prove she was as tough as the men. “Courageous or stupid? Today I would say the latter. Different times, I guess.” She said she was not bitter, but heartbroken at the turn of events
563
564Terry Funk was in the news in a very weird way this past week, with an article in the Wall Street Journal regarding sale of guns. By the way, Funk corroborated to us that this story was 100 percent accurate. Michael Alan Chance Green, a cowboy at the time in his early-to-mid 30s who lived near Amarillo, somehow developed an unhealthy obsession with Funk. Funk used to see him at times outside his ranch. He would write handwritten bizarre letters warning Funk of imminent danger and put them in his mailbox when he still had the Double Cross Ranch (which he sold many years ago and now lives in a more hidden community). Funk and his wife would seen Green stalking him in front of the ranch, would tell him to leave, and he’d keep coming back. Eventually they went to the police. This was in the early and mid 2000s. It ended up in court and Green was declared mentally incompetent and committed to a state hospital. In 2016, Green bought a rifle at a North Texas gun store. Somehow the federal background check didn’t discover at the time that, because of his past, he was barred from ever buying or owning a firearm. Eventually, this mistake was uncovered and agents were dispatched to seize his rifle. The story noted thousands of cases like Green a year fall through the cracks. When agents when to Green’s home, they found the rifle, two revolvers and evidence of letters sent to major political figures like John McCain, Sarah Palin and Rick Perry. He was charged with possession of a firearm after being committed and was sent to a prison medical facility where he’s medicated with antipsychotic drugs. Funk noted that Green had at times even walked on his ranch, that he was not against people being able to buy guns, but that people like him should not be allowed to have guns, saying at the time Green drove him “F***ing nuts.” He said he was never afraid of Green for himself at the time, but was afraid for his family
565
566MLW has confirmed a two-hour live special on Bein Sports on 4/5 featuring the Battle Riot. MLW has a live show on 3/2 on Bein Sports from 9-10 p.m. from Cicero, IL. They sold out with 2,000 fans the last time in and are looking at adding more seating as they are tracking another sellout, which is a good sign because the second show in a market is often harder than the first, and Rush seemed to be the big draw on the first show and he’s not on this show, plus L.A. Park, who seemed to be the other big draw, is in with a wrestler just developing his name. They have another date in the building on 7/6. The television show live matches are Tom Lawlor defending the MLW title against Low Ki in a cage match and Pentagon Jr. & Fenix vs. Laredo Kid & Taurus. The show has a strong advance. Other matches on the show, which will air in future weeks in the time slot, are Teddy Hart & Davey Boy Smith Jr. defending the tag titles against MJF & Richard Holliday, L.A. Park vs. Mance Warner, Puma King vs. El Hijo de L.A. Park, DJZ vs. Ace Austin, Brian Pillman Jr. vs. Alex Hammerstone, Simon Gotch vs. Ace Romero, Ricky Martinez vs. Air Wolf and Gringo Loco vs. Myron Reed. The 2/16 episode of the show set a company ratings record. We don’t have the number but the show peaked at 106,000, which is a blow away number for that station. Jimmy Havoc will return shortly and likely have a title match with Lawlor. After 3/2, they will return to Cicero Stadium on 7/6. They also announced a 6/1 taping in Waukesha, WI. This replaces the planned date in Philadelphia. They aren’t returning to Philadelphia now until 12/21. They are also looking at moving the debut in Los Angeles, which was to me early 2020, to late 2019. They are also in talks with AEW about sending some of their talent to Double or Nothing
567
568PWG 200 takes place on 3/1 in Los Angeles at the Globe Theater with Trey Miguel vs. Jungle Boy vs. Jake Atlas, Laredo Kid vs. Puma King, Chuck Taylor & Baretta vs. Aussie Open (Mark Davis & Kyle Fletcher) in their PWG debut as a team, Brody King vs. Darby Allin, Jonathan Gresham vs. David Starr, Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz defend the tag titles against LAX and Penta 0M & Rey Fenix, and a main event of Jeff Cobb vs. Bandido for the PWG title
569
570Former AAA star Latin Lover (Victor Resendiz) was at the Oscars with the group from the movie “Roma.” If that movie would have won Best Picture he’d have likely been up on the stage
571
572Tammy Sytch was arrested on 2/23 and was being held as of press time at the Monmouth County Corrections Center in Freehold, NJ according to PW Insider. This stems from being pulled ov er at 6:30 p.m. in Seaside Heights, NJ and charged with driving while intoxicated, driving with an open alcohol container, consumption of alcohol in a motor vehicle and reckless driving. Sytch was also charged with failing to stop at a stop sign, driving the wrong way down a one-way street and driving with a suspended license. When pulled over they found she had not paid court costs of $1,500 in Holmdel, NJ and $1,000 in Knowlton, NJ on prior cases and had been charged with contempt of court and disobedience and resistance of court command. She also has a bench warrant out in Pennsylvania that was filed on 2/15 in Carbon County regarding revoking her probation which may be due to being behind on payments for court costs in that count. Some of this relates to various DUI charges over the years
573
574Adam Bueller, who was a death match wrestler for Midwest independent groups including IWA Mid-South and Resistance Pro Wrestling, was diagnosed as being HIV-Positive. This is actually a huge story because with the deregulation of pro wrestling by athletic commissions around the country, he had never had to take a blood test, and with that, and his competing in many bloodbath matches, it put the people he worked matches with at very serious risk. Bueller first found a growth in his armpit and was told he was suffering from Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and began a program of radiation and chemotherapy. This took him out of wrestling. But the treatment wasn’t working on his white blood cell count. After further testing, it was found out he was HIV-positive. He was also suffering from pneumonia. He noted in his entire career not only did he never have to take a blood test, but the subject of taking one never came up. Bueller claims he doesn’t know where the HIV came from but feels it may have been from being involved “with someone that I shouldn’t have” but that doctors believe he’s been HIV-Positive for years and just didn’t get any symptoms until recently. He said he had been doing death match style wrestling since 2015, said he doesn’t think he got HIV from bloody matches but also said he would never know for sure. He actually has talked about wanting to wrestle, but not in matches involving blood, with the proviso that if there is any blood by accident, they’d go right to the finish. But that would require a company comfortable with using him and opponents willing to wrestle him. But this is an issue regarding unregulated pro wrestling and the reality is, due to the nature of independent wrestling and the number of shows, I don’t think there’s any chance of the kind of athletic commission regulation of pro wrestling that did insist on blood testing and licensing like in the past eras
575
576Cobo Hall, now the Cobo Convention Center, the home spot for pro wrestling in Detroit during its most popular territorial era in the 60s and early 70s heyday of The Sheik, is getting a name change, and it’s about time. Albert Cobo, who the convention center in Detroit is named after, was the mayor of Detroit from 1950 to 1957, who died of a heart attack while in office. He was viewed sympathetically at the time, but given that he ran and won on a campaign of keeping “the Negro invasion out of the city’s white neighborhoods,” his views come across as very ugly, even more so by modern standards, and represent an ugly piece of city history
577
578DDT announced the full card for its WrestleMania weekend show in Queens, NY at La Boom on 4/4 at 8 p.m. There will be a weapons match with Sanshiro Takagi vs. Mao, a three-way tag with Harashima & Kazusada Higuchi vs. Akito & Ethan Page vs. Shigehiro Irie & Jason Kincaid, Soma Takao & Tetsuya Endo vs. Yukio Sakaguchi & Masahiro Takanashi, a Rumble match for the Ironman Heavymetalweight championship which is their 24/7 comedy belt which will include a blow up doll, Kikutaro and Colt Cabana among others, Danshoku Dino & Antonio Honda vs. Joey Ryan & Royce Isaacs, Miyu Yamashita vs. Maki Ito in a women’s match and Daisuke Sasaki vs. Konosuke Takeshita. Dino and Ryan will likely be especially lewd
579
580.The Southern California-based Empire Wrestling Federation released a statement saying they have cut ties with Ryan “Mickey” Moreno, a referee and trainer due to learning about a conviction involving a minor. According to SoCal Uncensored in a second story in just a few days involving a Southern California wrestling talent and someone underage, Moreno was working at Baker High School in Baker, CA (near San Bernardino) and was arrested on April 26, 2010, for lewd acts with a minor, sex with a minor under the age of 18 and at least ten years younger than he was. The victim was 15 and he has been a registered sex offender since 2011. The web site had found an article locally covering the 2010 arrest and noted that he was still a registered sex offender and Jake Alexander of EWF immediately contacted the site and said they immediately made the decision to cut ties with Moreno. Alexander told the web site, “I have known Mickey for years and this is a total shock. We had no indications that he ever could have done something like this.” Moreno, after her was told he could no longer be affiliated with the group, said that he had made a mistake ten years ago and had consensual sex with a minor, but that he was wrong and illegal, he never lied about it and did his time. He said he is now a different person and has worked hard to have a meaningful life. After apologizing, he got so many negative comments that he deleted his account. Fidel Bravo, the group’s champion and True Grit, the tag champions, both said they were leaving the promotion
581
582Pro Wrestling Revolution drew a near sellout of 900 fans on 2/23 in San Jose, CA, headlined by a three-way with Dragon Lee vs. Caristico vs. Rey Horus. I was told that at barely ten minutes it felt rushed
583
584AAW drew a sellout of 575 fans on 2/23 at the Logan Square Auditorium for a show where the big news was the surprise appearances of the Young Bucks (see AEW section) in the main event. Kylie Rae also retained her women’s title with a crossface over Su Yung, which leads to Rae vs. Jessicka Havok down the line. Jacob Fatu debuted and was put over strong beating Steven Wolf, destroying Connor Braxton and security. MJF beat Kimber Lee after an eye poke. DJZ pinned Australian Suicide to keep the Heritage title. Mance Warner pinned Jimmy Jacobs after a lariat, but after the match, Jacobs used a spike to bloody Warner up. They are back 3/16 in the same building with Juventud Guerrera and Psicosis, plus Kylie Rae vs. Havok, Warner vs. Jacobs, Dragon Lee vs. Myron Reed and Sami Callihan vs. Jake Something for the AAW title. AAW noted that Dezmond Xavier and Zachary Wentz have both made tremendous improvement, and attributed that to both Dragon Gate and also working with Cima and OWE, noting the same thing happened with Ricochet when he went to Dragon Gate. They are both said to be more confident and pace things better
585
586Names announced for the wXw “Amerika ist Wunderbar”’ show in New York on 4/4 are Absolute Andy, Bobby Gunns, Avalanche, Marius Al-Ani, Jurn Simmons, Alexander James, David Starr, Chris Brookes, Aussie Open, LAX, LuFisto and Shigehiro Irie. For obvious reasons, Ilja Dragunov is off the show
587
588Vaquero de Texas, a wrestler and promoter in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, passed away from a heart attack on 2/26. He had wrestled on an AAA show and another show over the weekend. He ran a local promotion called Dinastia de Texas.
589
590EUROPE: Grado (Graeme Stevely, 30) has signed on to host a television quiz show called “Test Drive” on BBC Scotland. The show started on 2/25 and will air every Monday through Thursday in the 7 p.m. time slot. He had starred in two sitcoms on BBC2 in Scotland, which was renamed BBC Scotland this past week
591
592A quick note on the Will Ospreay vs. Pac match from 2/15 in London is that the ****3/4 rating was by me and not Matt Dagneel, since I’ve been asked about it. It was one those where you’re hovering close to *****, but to me, the mindset is if I watch it and have to think about whether it’s *****, then it’s inherently ****3/4. A lot of people had it at ***** and I did have it as the second best match of the year behind Tanahashi vs. Omega. The reason they did a 30:00 draw was the politics of Dragon Gate’s main champion against a champion in New Japan. Dragon Gate wouldn’t want their champion to lose and New Japan is affiliated with RevPro so their champion isn’t going to lose to a star from another Japanese group. They’ll wrestle again at some point and it’s still top foreign stars from rival Japanese groups so the politics of the finish will still be there, but not as bad if you don’t have two different guys with belts
593
594The 16 Carat Gold tournament from 3/8 to 3/10 in Oberhausen has first round matches of Walter vs. David Starr, Avalanche vs. Jurn Simmons falls count anywhere, Shigehiro Irie vs. Chris Brookes, Rey Horus vs. Rey Fenix, Mark Davis vs. Penta 0M, Lucky Kid vs. Timothy Thatcher, Axel Deiter Jr. (Marcel Barthel) vs. Marius Al-Ani and Ilja Dragunov vs. Daisuke Sekimoto
595
596. RevPro announced a 3/3 show at the Cockpit in London with Zack Sabre Jr. vs. The A Kid, which is a rematch of their incredible ***** match in Spain last year on Kid’s home turf
597
598Meiko Satomura vs. Session Moth Martina has been added to the 3/15 OTT Scrappermania show in Dublin
599
600Progress ran on 2/24 in London at the Electric Ballroom. All three titles were at stake on the show. Walter retained the world title beating Chris Ridgeway as Ridgeway stepped up to main event level here. After the match, Atlas champion Trent Seven came out and challenged Walter to a unification match which will take place during SSS16 weekend on 5/4 to 5/6. Trent Seven retained his title earlier beating Timothy Thatcher. And Will Ospreay (appearing just one day after Tokyo) & Paul Robinson retained the tag titles over Aussie Open. Ospreay used a belt shot to lead to the pin. After the match, Mark Davis, who won last year’s Natural Progression series which gives him a shot at any title on call, said he wanted a rematch on the 3/31 show at the Electric Ballroom under TLC rules (which also has LAX vs. Chris Brookes & Jonathan Gresham in the third Progress math between those two teams) Jimmy Havoc returned doing a run-in. Millie McKenzie and Nina Samuels were the first two qualifiers for a four-way match for the women’s title. Jordan Devlin beat Travis Banks via DQ in a great match, when TK Cooper and NIWA interfered. Banks, Cooper and NIWA have formed a new South Pacific Power Trip
601
602ICW sold out its show called Square Go on 2/24 in Glasgow in advance with 1,000 fans. The big surprise was the appearance of Jeff Jarrett in what was called the Square Go match, which was an offshoot of a Royal Rumble with 30 guys. Jarrett got the biggest pop and hit Grado with a guitar shot to eliminate him. The two have been feuding in ICW rings. For Grado’s “Like a Prayer” ring entrance, they actually turned the song off and the crowd continued singing it for 20 or 30 seconds. At one point in the match, Lou King Sharp was thrown over the top rope and the crowd caught him and carried him and threw him back in the ring. Lightning threw out Joe Hendry to win, starting out in the No. 2 position and he can challenge for the ICW title at any time over the next year. Lion Heart retained the ICW title over Angelico. What was said to be match of the night was Joe Coffey keeping the Zero G title over Ilja Dragunov. Loud “Please come back” chants at Dragunov, who did a senton off the ramp into the crowd which destroyed several chairs. Kings of Catch won the tag titles over Rampage Brown & Ashton Smith and Kay Lee Ray’s women’s title defense against Toni Storm was a no contest. My gut says WWE isn’t letting any of its champions lose on show with any other promotion since there are already provisions with certain WWE U.K., talent being pushed that they can’t lose on indie shows and can’t face certain wrestlers.
603
604ROH: The company officially announced that the 4/6 show from Madison Square Garden will be a PPV show airing on television, as well as Fite TV, and both New Japan World and Honor Club live. Even though basic Honor Club membership means 50 percent off PPV shows, they are offering this show to basic Honor Club members for no additional charge
605
606Honor Club members can now access all ROH stuff on FITE TV, with VIP members being able to access PPVs with no extra charge, standard members can get PPVs at half price and get all the house show events live as well as TV archives
607
608The update on the 17th anniversary show on 3/15 in Las Vegas is Jay Lethal vs. Matt Taven for the ROH title, Bandido vs. Rush, Mark & Jay Briscoe vs. PCO & Brody King in a street fight for the tag titles, Kenny King vs. Marty Scurll, Jeff Cobb vs. Shane Taylor for the TV title, Mayu Iwatani defending the WOH title against Kelly Klein, Vinny Marseglia & T.K. O’Ryan vs. Mark Haskins & Tracy Williams and one more match. Juice Robinson and David Finlay aren’t on the shows because they are in Japan. The 3/16 TV tapings in Las Vegas have The Kingdom defending the six-man titles against Scurll & Brody King & PCO and Rush vs. Williams
609
610P.J. Black starts full-time on the 3/16 show
611
612Iwatani retained her title on the 2/24 Stardom show in Osaka over Konami with a moonsault in 15:34
613
614Rapper Mega Ran will be the host of the 3/15 PPV show from Las Vegas and will also perform his song “Going to the Garden.” Mega Ran is a big fan of wrestling and even does his own pro wrestling podcast. Historically, and I’ve seen many of them, but musical performances on pro wrestling PPVs have historically not been a good mix. WCW once paid a ton for The Oakridge Boys, who were a very hot country act and lived in Nashville at a PPV in Nashville, and I was a fan of theirs, and it was really clear the fans treated it as a very expensive to the promotion intermission. People always complain about everything except “America the Beautiful” before the show starts at Mania
615
616Jay Lethal (or whoever is ROH champion on that date) will defend the title against David Starr on 4/21 in Central Israel for the Israeli Pro Wrestling Association’s Passover Bash
617
618Congratulations to announcer Ian Riccobani on the birth of daughter Nora this past week. It’s he and his wife Sarah’s second child. IMPACT: Impact announced a second weekly airing of the show n its Twitch channel, from 6-8 p.m. Eastern as the lead-in for Raw every week, which is before the show moves each Tuesday to their streaming Global Wrestling Network
619
620During an interview with Deadline.com, Pop TV President Bradley Schwartz was asked about Impact no longer being on the schedule. The reality is that the rating declined and then when the time slot was moved, they took an even bigger hit and were down to the low 100,000 viewers per week. “We had a wrestling show every Thursday night, which by the way was one of our ten highest-rated shows on the network. They wanted to keep going, obviously. It was two hours of original content every Thursday night, 52 weeks a year that would do 400,000 to 500,000 viewers every Thursday night. We had to really start focusing on brand and expectations, and I think if you’re going to pitch yourself and tell audiences that you’re this place for premium content, Schitt’s Creek, Flack, Florida Girls, this type of stuff, then people need to know what to expect from you when they come to the channel,” Anyway, that’s clear double-talk. Impact wasn’t happy because they made very little money off the TV deal and needed a better TV deal. Unfortunately, they ended up with one far worse
621
622TV tapings are scheduled for 5/3 and 5/4 at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia and 6/6 and 6/7 in New York back at the Melrose Ballroom
623
624Josh Alexander has signed a deal and should be starting here shortly
625
626The United We Stand show will be an iPPV on Fite TV, but not a regular PPV, airing at 11 p.m. Eastern on a Thursday night from Rahway, NJ. This is the same weekend as Mania, NJPW in MSG, Takeover at the Barclays Center and a slew of iPPV events. Matches announced for the show are Pentagon Jr. & Fenix defending the tag titles against Rob Van Dam & Sabu, and Impact vs. Lucha Underground match with Johnny Impact & Brian Cage (who are feuding over the Impact title) & Moose & Eddie Edwards facing King Cuerno & Aerostar & Drago & Daga, Eli Drake vs. Tessa Blanchard plus an Ultimate X match where the winner will get a title match with Rich Swann down the line. Names thus far announced are Jake Crist, Jack Evans and Kotto Brazil. They are billing it as a rep of Impact, a rep of AAA and a rep of MLW. It’s scary because MLW now has more viewers per week on television than Impact
627
628Fallah Bahh has signed a new deal.
629
630AEW: The Young Bucks vs. Pentagon Jr. & Fenix (I believe with the affiliation with AAA they are allowed to use their AAA/LU names) is now official for the 5/25 show in Las Vegas. It was obvious both teams would be in a match but based on the Las Vegas thing, it could have been a three-way wit Best Friends. But on 2/23 in Chicago, the Young Bucks showed up at the AAW show during an LAX vs. Pentagon & Fenix vs. Myron Reed & A.R. Fox match and laid out Pentagon & Fenix with superkicks. Matt gave Pentagon a package piledriver (the same move Pentagon gave Matt in Las Vegas) and gave Fenix the Meltzer driver, which set up LAX beating them for the fall and taking the titles that Fox & Reed held. It was an elimination match so Reed & Fox were already eliminated and it was down to LAX vs. Lucha Bros when the Young Bucks showed up. Actually they did a deal where the ref was knocked down and the lights went off, and when they came back on, the Young Bucks were there. After the match they issued the challenge and Fenix accepted. The Young Bucks laid them out again with superkicks and said they know their schedule, so it was kind of a hint they’d probably show up in other cities the two are working. AAW officials told us that the pop for the Young Bucks was the largest in the history of the company, beating that of a previous surprise appearance of ACH
631
632Cody will appear at AAA’s Rey de Reyes show on 3/16 in Puebla. He won’t be wrestling due to his knee surgery but will be looking at talent and will appear in front of the crowd
633
634Cody talked to Pro Wrestling Sheet regarding TV: “When I look at Road to Double of Nothing (a video show that he’s the focus of that takes a more serious approach to building matches) or I look at BTE (a far more inside comedy weekly show they do that also builds programs and angles amidst the silliness), those are the mediums we’re heading into Double or Nothing with. And if they’re working, then we should continue something in that vein. So if we get to the situation you’re talking about, weekly TV, we want t stick with what works and we want to appeal to the fans who have put their trust in us. And a lot of the fan base have. That to me is really important. So to answer you’re question, I could see those being a big part of AEW.
635
636They announced Bea Priestley debuts on the company’s second show, which is on a date to be announced in July in a venue to be announced in Jacksonville
637
638On his podcast, Konnan said that the deal with AAA is that AEW can use anyone they want and that AAA won’t interfere with planned finishes on AEW shows. Konnan said he did think they’d give him a heads up on the finishes that would affect his guys. So in theory, Konnan right now is the booker for AAA and AroLucha, he’s part of the creative team for MLW and Impact, and now has an affiliation with AEW, as well as being a podcast host. If there’s another season of Lucha Underground, he’d probably pop up there as well. He said the AAA/Impact deal isn’t affected by all this. He also praised Tony Khan, saying he was impressed by Khan and believes the guys in charge all learned the mistakes of WCW and Impact and won’t make them
639
640On BTE this week, The Young Bucks, in their trip to Chicago to do the run-in, stopped by the Sears Center where there is a plaque on the wall outside the building commemorating the building as the home of the first All In show. They all but said that they were coming back, so it looks almost a sure thing like Sears Center as the location for the second PPV which is likely Labor Day weekend
641
642Chris Jericho read about the death of Rene Lassertesse and noted the story where he worked for Lassertesse early in his career and how Jericho noted that they never picked him up at the airport nor booked a hotel for him. Jericho said the only reason he expected it was because Lassertesse told him he would do both, he did neither, and Jericho said that he had to stay in a fleabag hotel that cost him half of his nightly pay each day
643
644Kenny Omega talked with Tokyo Sports and said about going to WWE that a lot of people dream of WrestleMania, but WrestleMania to him is the Tokyo Dome show and he’s already done that. He said WWE did have something he wanted which was wrestling A.J. Styles, but he wants to wrestle his favorite style and that would be in AEW. He said some wrestlers wrestle for money, but he does so for art. He was critical of New Japan because when he booked his show in Daytona Beach last year, he wanted women on it and New Japan wouldn’t allow that, saying that isn’t the New Japan product, and he said it’s 2019 and that he wanted men and women on the same stage. It’s one of those things where they have a way of doing things, and there is interest in New Japan in women’s wrestling, but it would be a separate company the same way there is interest in kickboxing but that’s a completely different company that Bushiroad has. But in the U.S., it is different and there’s no need to be so rigid. Omega is talking about women wrestlers from a number of different Japanese groups for AEW.
645
646UFC: In another of the strange UFC decisions, the main event on the 4/13 PPV, which will be from Atlanta (maybe Ric Flair can be there since fans Whoo! every undercard all over the world at UFC shows these days) will be Max Holloway vs. Dustin Poirier for the interim lightweight title. The champion, Khabib Nurmagomedov isn’t fighting until November, or at least that’s what he says. UFC tried to make Holloway vs. Tony Ferguson, but Dana White claimed that Ferguson turned it down and thus Poirier, who hasn’t been training and a few days ago had asked for his release on the Internet, now has a title fight. So does this mean the winner gets Nurmagomedov and Ferguson isn’t getting his long overdue title shot? Does it mean Holloway vacates the featherweight title if he wins? And then what do you do with that division? And what of Conor McGregor? And why was Holloway put in that division for a title whether it was Ferguson or Poirier, when McGregor or Donald Cerrone could have been put in that fight and you don’t hold up the featherweight division. Alexander Volkanovski looked too be ready for a featherweight title shot with his quick win over Chad Mendes, but there’s been talk of him facing Jose Aldo. That makes no sense to risk a bona fide contender against Aldo, since if Aldo wins, Holloway has already beaten him handily twice and they aren’t likely to book a third match, plus Aldo is retiring soon, so put him against someone who isn’t a rising title contender. These are the kind of messes that Joe Silva wouldn’t have fallen into because he’d be thinking exactly as above. Does Aldo vs. Volkanovski then become an interim featherweight title match, but where does Brian Ortega fit in
647
648. The biggest show of the year so far, UFC 235, takes place on 3/2 at the T Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. It opens at 6:30 p.m. with Fight Pass bouts with Polyana Viana (10-2) vs. Hannah Cifers (8-3), Gina Mazany (5-2) vs. Macy Chiasson (3-0), and Charles Byrd (10-5) vs. Edmen Shahbazyan (8-0). ESPN has four fights starting at 8 p.m. with Diego Sanchez (28-11) vs. Mickey Gall (5-1), Cody Stamann (17-2) vs. Alejandro Perez (21-6-1), Johnny Walker (16-3) vs. Misha Cirkunov (14-4) and Jeremy Stephens (28-15) vs. Zabit Magomedsharipov (16-1). The PPV at 10 p.m. has Pedro Munhoz (17-3) vs. Cody Garbrandt (11-2), Weili Zhang (18-1) vs. Tecia Torres (10-3), Robbie Lawler (28-12) vs. Ben Askren (18-0), Tyron Woodley (19-3-1) defends the welterweight title against Kamaru Usman (14-1) and Jon Jones (23-1) defends the light heavyweight title against Anthony Smith
649
650The Marlon Vera vs. Frankie Saenz fight is off the show as UFC pulled it over the belief Vera could not make weight in a healthy manner
651
652Woodley told a story this week noting that USADA testing cost him $10,000 because he missed a paid appearance in Atlanta over Super Bowl weekend. He was alerted he was being tested at midnight one night when he had an appearance. He waited at the hotel and at 1 a.m. was told the tester was stuck in traffic, so he missed his events that night. He had asked if they could test him in the morning, but was told they had to test him that night. The woman tester did tell him he could go to his scheduled event and she would go there and test him, but he told her that she wouldn’t be able to get in. USADA spokesperson Adam Woullard told MMA Fighting that they were unaware he had a paid appearance that he missed and said that athletes are supposed to keep them up to date on whereabouts and if they are aware of issues they will plan accordingly, but they had no such information when he was slotted for testing
653
654There was speculation in MMA media that when Dana White nixed the idea of Daniel Cormier vs. Francis Ngannou because he had other plans for Cormier, that he was talking Brock Lesnar. Lesnar is still in the USADA testing pool and he’s keeping his legit weight around 265 to 270, rather than near 300 like he was previously, so that would indicate interest in being able to fight rather than retiring again to avoid testing. But every time Lesnar talks about UFC, Vince McMahon offers to pay him what he’d make for a huge UFC PPV show as he doesn’t want him to go, and it’s far healthier at his age on a Lesnar schedule to do pro wrestling than fighting, plus in pro wrestling, even if he loses, because of who he is, he’s a lock to be a headliner at least for the next few years and it’s largely no risk until he reaches the point where Vince thinks he’s too old. Lesnar also turns 42 this summer so my belief is if he truly had interest in going back, he’d have taken the time off and done so, or would have to do it as soon as possible. The Saudi deal and new TV deal pretty much gives Vince enough money (not that he didn’t have it already) to give Lesnar an offer matching anything UFC would offer him
655
656Ariel Helwani said that UFC was trying to put together a Kevin Lee vs. Gregor Gillespie fight in May. 
657
658The announced payoffs for the 2/17 UFC show in Phoenix were, with the $50,000 performance bonuses for Luke Sanders, Vicente Luque, Bryan Barbarena and Kron Gracie included in totals: Emily Whitmire ($24,000); Aleksandra Albu ($12,000); Luke Sanders ($88,000); Renan Barao ($53,000); Nik Lentz ($106,000); Scott Holtzman ($33,000); Andrea Lee ($28,000); Ashlee Evans-Smith ($30,000); Manny Bermudez ($28,000); Benito Lopez ($12,000); Aljamain Sterling ($140,000); Jimmie Rivera ($68,000); Andre Fili ($74,000); Myles Jury ($36,000); Vicente Luque ($132,000); Bryan Barbarena ($85,000); Kron Gracie ($102,000); Alex Caceres ($55,000); Cynthia Calvillo ($88,000); Cortney Casey ($50,000); Paul Felder ($92,000); James Vick ($65,000); Francis Ngannou ($220,000) and Cain Velasquez ($450,000)
659
660The company announced a 4/20 show in St. Petersburg, Russia. The show will be headlined by Alexander Volkov vs. Alistair Overeem, Sergei Pavlovich vs. Marcelo Golm, Marcin Tybura vs. Shamil Abdurakhimov and Roxanne Modaferri vs. Antonina Shevchenko
661
662Mackenzie Dern, 25, a much publicized BJJ champion, announced that she was pregnant. Dern’s boyfriend is Brazilian surfer Wesley Santos. Dern is 7-0 in the strawweight division, but missed weight badly in her last fight. She said she would return to fighting after the pregnancy
663
664On the UFC local broadcast in The Netherlands for the Prague show, Germaine de Randamie, who was an analyst for the show, said UFC would be running at the Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam in September
665
666Carla Esparza vs. Livinha Souza in a strawweight bout with the first UFC champion against the former Invicta champion has been announced for a 4/27 show in Sunrise, FL
667
668Khalid Murtazaliev, who defeated C.B. Dollaway in his UFC debut on 9/15 in Moscow, was suspended for two years for testing positive for the steroid Drostanolone in an out of competition test on 10/3. He also tested positive for the same drug on 12/6, but it’s being considered as one failure since the belief is the usage prior to the first failure is what caused the second failure. Murtazaliev wasn’t tested either before the fight or on the day of the fight, as the UFC newcomer’s first drug test was on 10/3
669
670Bethe Correia vs. Irene Aldana has announced for the 5/11 UFC PPV show in Brazil. Also on that show is Talita Bernardo vs. Jessica Rose-Clark
671
672Enrique Barzola vs. Kevin Aguilar, Ray Borg vs. Liu Pingyuan, Sodiq Yusuff, Kennedy Nzechukwu vs. Paul Craig and David Branch vs. Jack Hermansson have been added to the 3/30 show in Philadelphia. Borg hasn’t fought since his loss to Demetrious Johnson in October 2017, both missing one show due to being cut by glass when Conor McGregor through a dolly through a bus window in Brooklyn, and also has had far more major concerns with health issues with his baby including brain surgery.
673
674BELLATOR: The 2/23 show in Dublin drew a loud crowd of 8,000 fans headlined by James Gallagher (8-1) beating Steven Graham (6-4) via choke in 2;31. This was one of the European series of fights Bellator is doing in its attempt to take advantage of its better television situation in the U.K. to try and surpass UFC as the leading brand by running regular live prime time shows that will air on either broadcast TV (Ch. 5) and or Sky, which is better exposure than UFC has on BT. The idea is also to sign up the top U.K. fighters to make it the lead home brand
675
676ESPN reported Bellator is looking to put together a Chael Sonnen vs. Lyoto Machida fight at light heavyweight this summer
677
678Dillon Danis, who works here, was suspended seven months (dating back to 10/6, meaning he’s okay on 5/6) and fined $7,500 for his part in the Conor McGregor/Khabib Nurmagomedov post-fight brawl. While Danis never got physical in the brawl, he had to be restrained by people several times and he was constantly verbally taunting Nurmagomedov and was using obscene gestures at Nurmagomedov and his team, which led to Nurmagomedov hopping the cage to go after Danis and the brawl started from there.
679
680OTHER MMA: With the early success of UFC on both platforms, both ESPN and ESPN+ have inked a deal with the Professional Fight League. In addition, the PFL has inked a Canadian television deal with TSN. The PFL’s ten events in 2019 will air on both ESPN 2 and ESPN Deportes, as well as ESPN+. The general format will be two hours of prelim bouts on ESPN 2 which leads to the bigger fights for three hours on ESPN+. They will air the regular season live events as well as playoffs. PFL is a tournament based competition with different weight classes where they run matches all year with point standings, and the highest point getters to into single-elimination playoffs and the final winners in each tournament get $1 million. There will be six divisions in 2019 and the six title matches for the money take place on 12/31 on ESPN 2. There will also be other video content on the various ESPN platforms. They’ve also noted a women’s 155 pound tournament to be built around two-time judo gold medalist Kayla Harrison, who is probably the biggest star in the company
681
682Ring Magazine reported that Gennady Golovkin is the latest boxing star to sign with DAZN. ESPN, DAZN and Premiere Boxing are attempting to lock down boxing’s biggest stars. What made Golovkin a favorite to go to DAZN is Canelo Alvarez, the guy he can make the most money with for a third bout (The first meeting was a draw, but Golovkin should have won, the second went to Alvarez in a closer fight but Golovkin could have won that one as well), has already signed there. The deal will be three to six fights. The first fight will be spring or early summer for $10 million. If he wins and Alvarez beats Danny Jacobs on 5/4, then Alvarez vs. Golovkin would meet again in September, a fight Golovkin will get $30 million for. Golovkin was being heavily courted by Premiere, but DAZN has reportedly given Golovkin equity in the company, which is a surprise because they’ve given nobody, not Alvarez, not Matchroom Boxing nor Bellator any equity. He would also be guaranteed rights fees for his own shows for GGG Promotions from DAZN, so the idea is the deal not only gave him big money for fights now, but helps him start up as a promoter And if DAZN makes it big, he’ll own a small piece
683
684ONE is reportedly very close to signing Vitor Belfort. It makes sense for both, as they have a lot of money and he’s a name who can be featured since ONE has little depth in the heavier divisions. On the flip side, it is notable that ONE always talks about honor and martial arts and such, is decries a lot of UFC tactics, but then goes after a guy whose entire career has been surrounded by steroid and TRT issues and whose skill went way down as soon as the TRT ban came
685
686Sage Northcutt announced his ONE debut would be against Cosmo Alexandre on 5/17 in Singapore at 185 pounds. ONE has policies regarding no weight cutting so most fighters are fighting 15 pounds above what they would do in other organizations. In theory no weight cutting makes for fighters with more energy and better fights, but the question is legislating it so others don’t abuse that system by finding a way to get and gain a competitive edge. One thing is, if they have a system that proves to work over time, everyone needs to try it, but they have to have it proven over time.
687
688WWE: PW Insider is reporting that Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium is the probable location for the 2020 WrestleMania citing it will be in Florida. Tampa was the location we’d heard was the front-runner some time back, but there was a also a lot of talk regarding Minneapolis. WWE neither confirmed nor denied the story. Historically when something like this isn’t correct they will deny and when it is but they don’t want to confirm it, that’s the response you get. I think when it comes to April, tourists will choose Tampa over Minneapolis and while Minneapolis has been in major talks for Mania for years, the city itself hasn’t been as forthcoming as far as making the level of sweet deals for WWE that the cities that have been getting the show get. WWE can get sweet deals because with Mania, you get all the other shows and tons of tourists, many of whom don’t even stay for Mania but are there for all the other activities. Raymond James Stadium would hold 61,000 for Mania, so expect about 73,000 to 75,000 announced
689
690WrestleMania Axxess will take place 4/4 to 4/8 at Brooklyn Pier 12 in Brooklyn. The sessions are 4/4 from 6-10 p.m., 4/5 from 1 to 5 p.m. and 6 to 10 p.m., 4/6 from 8 a.m. to Noon, 1-5 p.m. and 6-10 p.m., 4/7 from 8 a.m. to Noon and 8/8 from Noon to 4 p.m
691
692Matt Hardy returned on Smackdown on 2/26. Both Hardy’s signed a two year contract with WWE having a third year option on the deal, and we had reported some time back that WWE was going to pick up the option. Well, obviously at this point they would. Matt, who a few months back had feared his career was in jeopardy, had more recently said that his pelvis issues were healing up and he would be returning
693
694There were a couple of weekend injury scares, all on 2/23. At the U.K. taping, a messed up reverse huracanrana spot in a match with Noam Dar vs. Mark Andrews led to both being hurt to the point they had to stop the match on the spot. Andrews was knocked out while Dar’s knee was out. We don’t have much more on Andrews past the belief that it wasn’t serious. It sounded like a concussion but we didn’t get a diagnosis. Dar was flown back to the U.S. to be checked up on but the belief is this was the worst injury of the three, and he’s coming off being out for seven months from December 2017 to June 2018 after knee surgery. McIntyre got a scare that night in Tupelo, MS in a match with Ambrose. There was fear his knee went out from those watching (we’ve been told there was definitely a scare but it may not have been regarding the knee, but it was feared he was hurt) and he went right to the Claymore kick finish. He limped out but ended up feeling good enough shortly after and worked he next night
695
696Rollins was cleared for some physical action with his back issues but was not listed at press time for the weekend house shows
697
698Ciampa is injured although we don’t know the severity of it. It’s something he had been working through with the idea of taking care of it after the Gargano match at Takeover. But that explains why he’s wasn’t on television this week nor was he listed for the upcoming weekend NXT dates. He’s actually only worked five non-TV or major streaming shows so far ths year
699
700While it’s well-known that Vince was trying to do everything he could to get Undertaker off Starrcast, he is still advertised and on 2/14, Starrcast LLC applied for a trademark for the term “Dead Man Talking” for a talk show segment at the event. I will say that I did ask about if that name may be used for a podcast, since that has been speculated on the past few days, and did not get a direct answer
701
702There were some very interesting XFL notes in a lawsuit filed against the AAF. Darren Rovell reported on a lawsuit filed by Robert Vanech, who claimed he came up with the idea for the league, and is entitled to either 50 percent ownership or money, and wants his name as the creator to be part of AAF history. He also claimed many of the concepts the league is using were his ideas. In the lawsuit, he claimed that the original plan for the AAF was for Charlie Ebersol to start a new league, and call it the XFL. This explains Charlie Ebersol doing the XFL piece with his father and Vince McMahon for ESPN, as that love letter story that was a very romanticized view was actually done to kickoff his building a league using that name. Ebersol had meetings with both Vince McMahon and NBC, who owned the original XFL. His backers offered $50 million to buy the XFL intellectual property from McMahon and NBC, who were 50 percent owners of the 2001 league. But once they had the meeting, McMahon decided against selling and felt if somebody thought staring a spring football league now was a viable idea, with Ebersol likely saying why he wanted to, Vince figured he could do it on his own. That led Ebersol to start with a new name. As part of his lawsuit, Vanech attached a time line that he put out before the league was formed saying the process would start with the ESPN special, that they would purchase the rights to the name from Vince McMahon and NBC for $50 million, then they would try to raise $450 million in funding. Then his plan for distribution was the WWE Network, with the idea of selling the rights to the two best games a week to the WWE Network. His business plan was built around the main distribution platform that only reaches 1,116,000 U.S. homes worldwide and that is centric to wrestling fans, a large percentage of whom aren’t even football fans to begin with, with the idea they’d get paid by WWE and that a football league would increase the subscriber base. Wow. He also wanted to go to McMahon to help provide seed money for the project. He also proposed streaming PPVs of the games for $5 per game or $43 for the season. He also wanted to go to cities that didn’t have an NFL team so they could be the local pro football franchise, which the AAF did while the XFL is going into major markets and NFL markets. The good side of this is they got far superior TV deals with two games on CBS and regular games on TBS, which has full cable coverage, and the NFL Network, which is in nearly 70 million homes in the U.S. and is a station that is completely football-centric. This past weekend, which was week three of the season where you can kind of see where they are settling in, they averaged an announced 14,000 attendance per game but there’s no way of knowing how legit that number is, and were doing the Saturday night prime time game did 491,000 viewers and Sunday against the Oscars did 515,000 on NFL Network
703
704Oliver Luck did radio in D.C. this past week regarding the XFL. The only real information is that they will be announcing the TV deal shortly. He said there will be four games every weekend, and all four will be nationally televised. He hinted two would be on network television and two would be on cable stations with wide distribution. He also said that there would be a one point, a two-point and even a three-point conversion after touchdowns, and none of the conversions would be kicking
705
706They’ve also done an about face on other things. Vince’s original speech was that nobody who did stuff like kneeling during the anthem would be allowed in the league as well as nobody with a criminal record of any kind. So the guy who started the entire kneeling thing, Colin Kaepernick, is being negotiated with. They also wanted to sign quarterbacks at around $300,000 and there’s no way in the world they’re getting him for anything close to that price after the settlement he just got from the NFL, which was reported as being between $60 million and $80 million. At the first meeting, Kaepernick asked for $20 million to even consider playing and things stalled from there
707
708“Fighting with my Family” was No. 4 at the box office in its opening weekend as far as national distribution doing $7,813,113. So this is crazy. On Sunday, we were going to see it but the theater we went to said it was sold out, so we saw “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World,” which wasn’t sold out 15 minutes later and it did $55 million plus this past weekend. The movie got very strong scores from viewers and critics. The movie did about what it was expected to do
709
710For what it’s worth, at an autograph signing recently, a fan asked Reigns about Ambrose leaving the company and he said that he would take care of that. It is notable that even though Ambrose is losing his matches to McIntyre, they did an immediate face turn with the idea of reuniting The Shield, doing a 180 on the previous (and admittedly failing) Ambrose heel turn that nobody bought because the motives were so clearly forced and transparent
711
712Steve Corino has moved up from NXT, where he was running a lot of the house shows, and now working as one of the new producers on the main roster
713
714Booker T (Booker Huffman, 53) and his plan that he’s talked about for years to run for Mayor of Houston, has an issue right now in that convicted felons are not allowed to be on the ballot. Huffman has a 1987 conviction for an armed robbery. The Texas election code and an ordinance in the city of Houston are that felons are allowed to eventually re-register to vote, but that they can’t run for public office. There is a provision where Gov. Greg Abbott could pardon him and allow him to get on the ballot. There was a 2018 precedent where a convicted felon, Lewis Conway Jr., ran for the City Council in Austin. Conway had a 1993 conviction for voluntary manslaughter, but he challenged the law in court and Austin city attorneys allowed him on the ballot. Huffman’s probation ended in 1992 and has said he’s got his lawyers looking into this
715
716There have been a lot of questions regarding Howard Finkel, 68, the Hall of Fame ring announcer and longest employee of the Vince McMahon Jr. company ever since Jerry Lawler on his podcast said Finkel suffered a serious stroke. WWE has kept all information on Finkel quiet, and even friends of his didn’t know what was going on. What we do know is that Finkel, who nobody has seen since Lawler said that, has been in poor health since that time and it’s really a sad story. Finkel was also a friendly guy, was, as far as I’ve been told, the conduit in the WWF office getting the Observer from the start and he’d run off copies for most of senior management, and obviously was the greatest ring announcer of his generation, and I’d even rate him above Michael Buffer. It’s still one of those decisions that I strongly disagree with when they felt he was too old for television some 20 years ago and replaced him with Lilian Garcia, particularly when Buffer is still going strong, Jimmy Lennon Sr., was a legend doing the job into his 70s and ring announcers like Bruce Buffer become a fabric of a company and they don’t give the company an aging image, but their long tenure lends a certain aura to the big shows
717
718Ric Flair had a real 70th birthday party at an Atlanta steakhouse on 2/23 which got a decent amount of media because of the number of celebrity guests. It was a surprise party that Wendy Barlow, his wife arranged and was said to be fun and a totally unique group of people from different worlds all together at the same party. Among the names there included Charles Barkley, Evander Holyfield, Dennis Rodman, Todd Gurley, A.J. Styles, Paul Levesque (no Stephanie), Chris Jericho, Jeff Hardy, Shane McMahon, Edge, Beth Phoenix, daughter Ashley (Charlotte), Andrade, Tony Schiavone, Conrad Thompson, Brad Nessler, Ricky Steamboat, Michael Hayes, Fit Finlay and Shane Helms
719
720His wife, Wendy Barlow, when Ric was asked who should play him in the proposed Hulk Hogan movie, said Bradley Cooper, and Ric agreed with it. What’s notable is that the movie is supposed to be about the rise of Hogan from childhood to Hulkamania in the mid-and-late 90s, and really, while obviously there will be very liberal fabrications in a Hogan movie both because it’s Hogan and Hollywood, in reality a Flair character wouldn’t even be part of the movie unless the story goes into the Crockett vs. McMahon war, since Flair and Dusty Rhodes were the standard-bearer for the opposition. Flair wasn’t really a part of Hogan’s world in any significant way until 1991 when he left WCW for WWF and the two had the dream program and wasn’t marketed as the dream program except in the cities Zane Bresloff handled the advertising. They actually never wrestled each other until then, and were likely only on a few cards together. They may have been on a show or two together in Georgia during the brief period Hogan worked there as Sterling Golden (and Flair was rarely in Georgia during that period) but I don’t know if that’s the case. The only major show when both were top stars that they were both on that we know of off hand would have been July 15, 1983, in St. Louis, when both were in a tournament to crown the vacant Missouri State champion. Hogan won his first round match but went to a double count out with Crusher Jerry Blackwell, to get him out without having to lose. Flair ended up winning the tournament beating David Von Erich in the finals. Flair was based in the Carolinas, a territory Hogan never worked. By the time he was touring champion Hogan was a fixture in the AWA, where Flair never worked. Even in Japan, Flair was an All Japan guy and Hogan was a New Japan guy when both were major stars there. But Flair is probably the most enduring name because of his second life as a pop culture iconic figure from that 80s period when Hogan was exploding
721
722Nikki Bella took a WIN award for best actress in a reality series for her role in “Total Bellas.
723
724Ricochet, Ciampa and Gargano were not on any of the weekend NXT shows, but they are also Florida shows. All three besides Ciampa were still advertised for the touring NXT shows this coming weekend in Columbus, OH, Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Royal Oak, MI, and it’s been confirmed they are still going to continue working NXT house shows for the time being. They will also still be on the NXT Takeover show at the Barclays Center, with Gargano vs. Ciampa headlining, likely for the NXT title. In that case, one of them has to win unless plans change, meaning they’ll have to stay and defend the titles at least for a while. If Black & Ricochet beat the Forgotten Sons on the 3/13 NXT tapings, they’ll face War Raiders at Takeover in a tag title match
725
726The company announced five new signings for the U.K. brand, three of which had been reported, another of whom worked TV this past week and a fifth who had not been reported. Those previously reported were Ilja Rukober (Ilja Dragunov), Kay Lee Ray and Jazzy Gabert. Primate (Jay Melrose) debuted this past weekend at the tapings. In March of last year, he had said he was retiring due to a broken jaw, but returned in November. He was best known from What Culture and Defiant Wrestling. The other signee announced was Oliver Sauter, who has used the name Oliver Carter in wXw, a native of Switzerland who was at the recent German tryouts
727
728NXT tapings on 3/13 and 4/10 at Full Sail are both sold out (although it only holds 400 and always sells out) and the Brooklyn Takeover sold out immediately as well. I’m not sure how Brooklyn Takeover was able to avoid the level of scalper buys as SummerSlam had where the scalpers bought up nearly half the arena
729
730WWE actually did a YouTube video by Pat McAfee running down the fans in Lafayette, LA, for not reacting bigger the NXT guys call-ups and saying that the company is on fire with the road to WrestleMania but the fans in Lafayette had no idea that was the case. That video was so bad
731
732New U.K. tapings dates are 7/19 and 7/20 at the Plymouth Pavilions
733
734Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair and Jimmy Hart are doing a Q&A event on 3/1 at the Hard Rock in Atlantic City for $79
735
736.Former Bleacher Report and Vice writer Dave Schilling has been added to the creative team
737
738Miz and Mrs. return date for season two will be 4/2, which is the Tuesday before Mania and will air for 14 straight weeks from 10-10:30 p.m. after Smackdown. With the Smackdown lead-in, the show did a far better job of retaining the wrestling audience for an additional 30 minutes than any programming USA has put in that time slot
739
740WWE stock closed at $83.67 per share on 2/27, giving the company a market value of $6.53 billion
741
742The ten most watched shows of the past week on WWE Network were: 1. Elimination Chamber 2019; 2. NXT from 2/20; 3. Royal Rumble 2019; 4. NXT UK from 2/20; 5. The Mark Henry Story; 6. WrestleMania 31; 7. 205 Live from 2/19; 8. Arrival: Matt Riddle; 9. WWE 24: WrestleMania New Orleans; 10. WrestleMania 34
743
744Notes from the 2/25 Raw show in Atlanta. Of course the highlight was the Reigns return and the closing segment. The show drew a near sellout of 12,500 fans, way up from recent weeks. For Main Event, Rezar pinned No Way Jose in 5:30 with a uranage. Crews pinned EC 3 with a standing moonsault in 8:00. Talk about giving up on someone fast. The thing with EC 3 that is so crazy is that there was a possibility he wouldn’t make it because his wrestling isn’t at the level of those on the main roster. But this is a star presence business and he’s got star presence and is great on the mic, but was presented just like a goofy gym clod looking at the mirror and his strength, the promos, he’s had to do one on Raw and promos is how he was going to get over. Notes from the rest of the show by Bryan Alvarez with some comments by me. The show opened with the Reigns segment. Ricochet & Aleister Black beat The Revisal in 2:04. They went nuts right when they came back from commercial with a bunch of high spots and dual dives, then another immediate commercial break. Came back from commercial and Aleister was running wild. He looked great. He finally ate a DDT for the heat. This lasted for like 20 seconds, then Black hit the black mass out of nowhere for the pin. It felt rushed, likely because the first segment went so long and they had to catch up. Baron Corbin promo. Charly Caruso says when he was GM he made light of Roman's fight with leukemia and told the WWE Universe to move on, and hoped Roman would never come back to RAW. He said he never said that. She said we have footage. He said listen, it was taken out of context. He was the GM of RAW and that was very stressful. Said nobody, not even Roman, knows what he was going through. She asked if he was saying being GM was worse than leukemia. He said Roman better never run into him. Elias is interrupted by Lacey Evans, who walks down and then leaves again. Ambrose is out next. Says all this celebrating has gotten him in a festive mood, has him reminiscing about the past. Says he feels good, and thus dangerous, so he wants a rematch from last week with Drew McIntyre. But this time he wants it no-DQ. Why? He lost clean in the middle with no interference last week. Ambrose gets in the ring and does bad comedy with Elias. He wants him to play Dirty Deeds by ACDC, which of course leads to him giving Elias the dirty deeds. Rousey & Natalya beat Riott & Logan via DQ in 9:36. Broke down into a four-way and Nattie was sent outside. She yanked Ruby out and laid her out on the floor. Ronda gave Sarah the Piper's pit. Becky then hit ringside and destroyed Natalya with a crutch which caused the DQ, then went after Ronda. All the security hit ringside to break it up. Ronda kicked half their asses. Atlanta PD showed up to arrest Becky. She was resisting arrest so they finally had to carry her out. After commercial, Rousey stormed back to the ring. She demanded Vince come out right now. Stephanie comes out instead. Rousey demanded she reinstate Lynch for WrestleMania. Stephanie said I know you're upset, but reinstating Lynch is the least of her problems right now, as she's been arrested. Rousey said you and your family can drop the charges, reinstate Lynch. Stephanie said I'm not sure how any times we have to explain this, your opponent at WrestleMania is Charlotte Flair. She said Becky did this to Becky. So instead of being on the Road to WrestleMania, she's on the road to jail. Rousey said you say you always say do what's best for business, right? This is best for business, it's what I want, it's what the fans want. It's the first-ever women's event at WrestleMania, me, Charlotte, Becky. Fans chant "triple threat.” So they were able to manipulate the audience away from not wanting Flair to accepting her as part of the match. Stephanie said the answer is a hard no. Rousey said that wasn’t good enough, she demanded she puts Lynch in he match now. Stephanie said I'm your boss, you work for me. You have a bad attitude, and nobody is bigger than the WWE. Ronda says you don't control me. She says she's bled enough to be set for life, she's not her worker, she's Ronda Rousey, the RAW women's champion. Rousey said she can’t stand there while Stephanie violates the title, it means to much, so she put the title on he ground and walked off. Mahal said he's sick of hearing about Ric Flair's birthday, since he wasn’t invited, and said the party is over. He challenged anyone who was there for the birthday party to face him. Angle, who just coincidentally had his wrestling gear on, showed up. Angle beat Mahal in 2:58 with the ankle lock. He then killed laid out both Singhs with German suplexes. This was Angle's first singles win on WWE television since 2006 when he pinned the Brooklyn Brawler at an ECW TV taping. Next was A Moment of Bliss with Balor. She starts hitting on him, saying a downside is that the belt is now covering up his sexy abs. He wants to know if she's trying to make him blush. She says if you show me your abs I'll show you . Rush stopped that from happening. He says this talk show is a sham. Rush said Balor doesn't deserve the belt, Lashley does. Balor said Lashley knows where to find him. Rush said Lashley is preparing for Strowman, so Balor has to deal with him. Balor said clearly you're trying to challenge me to prove you're better than Lashley. They showed that Sting was there for Flair’s party. Sting hasn’t been on Raw since he retired. Balor beat Rush to keep the IC title in 7:27. Fun match. Rush hit an Asai moonsault, two straight dives, then went for the frog splash but Finn got the knees up. Finn sold a knee injury. Balor hit the Bloody Sunday DDT and coup de grace for the pin. This was a very different kind of match than you normally see on RAW. Tucker was backstage and ran into the Ascension. They made fun of Otis and called him fat and a pig. Tucker said not to do that, that Otis was very sensitive and didn't like being made fun of. Bushwhacker Otis showed up. Tucker told him what they said about him and Otis got more and more outraged, then finally ran them both over. Lashley screamed at Rush backstage saying he was supposed to get him a title match, and instead he took the title match and lost again. Lashley wanted to know if he can trust him and Rush said he could. Lashley vs. Strowman never got started. They started brawling before the bell, and it never rang. Braun ended up running over both guys on the outside, then they just played his music, and that was the end of that. Caruso with Seth Rollins. He promised o walk out of WrestleMania as champion, but, he says, that's secondary tonight as his brother Reigns is back. He's going to go burn it down, but just in a different way. Limo arrives with Ric Flair and Wendi. McIntyre beat Ambrose in a no DQ match in 9:17. McIntyre whipped the hell out of him with a leather belt. McIntyre gave him an overhead belly-to-belly on the outside for the heat. Ambrose hit a leap off the post elbow to the floor. Ambrose got the belt and was whipping McIntyre. Ambrose was setting up a dirty deeds on the steel steps but then Elias ran down and waffled Dean with a guitar shot from behind. Drew then hit the Claymore kick for the pin. Corbin and Lashley came down afterwards. They all beatdown Ambrose. Rollins’ music hit and he started making his way to the ring with a chair. Then they hit Reigns’ music and the place went nuts. Reigns and Rollins cleaned house with Reigns hitting Superman punch after Superman punch. Rollins did the curb stomp on Elias and Reigns speared McIntyre. They left. Ambrose was still in the ring but they looked at him and he looked back to tease the fans wanting Ambrose to return. Bayley beat Jax in 8:58. Banks sent Tamina into the steps, then Bayley hit the flying elbow off the top to pin Jax. Somehow, this finish led to WWE announcing that Nia and Tamina were getting a tag title shot at the PPV. WHAT? Everyone on the roster was on the ramp for Ric Flair's birthday party. HHH and Stephanie came out. They had a cake in the ring, balloons, the whole nine yards. HHH recapped the show. He said that Lynch getting arrested, Ronda putting down the title and even Reigns returning from a fight with leukemia, pales in comparison to Ric Flair's 70th birthday. Not sure I'd say that. Says Flair is the greatest of all time and Stephanie called him the GOAT. I thought Cena was the greatest of all-time, and HHH has also called Michaels that. Michaels comes out. Ricky Steamboat was next. Angle was next. Then Sting came out. HHH introduced us to a video package. Show had less than five minutes left with no overrun so you knew somebody was ruining the party. Video was awesome. Stephanie revealed a custom-made World Heavyweight Championship belt, made especially for Ric. HHH called out Flair. They played his music but he never came out. Backstage Batista was dragging a cameraman with him. He busts open a door, you hear pounding, and then the door opens and Batista drags Flair's body out of the dressing room. Batista says, "Hey Hunter, do I have your attention now?" HHH raced backstage so find Ric beaten down. Great ending
745
746Notes from the 2/26 Smackdown taping in Charlotte. The key thing on the show was the changing of the Fastlane main event to a match that nobody was ready for. The show drew 7,700 fans. Heavy Machinery beat the Colons in the dark match opener. The show opened with Shane & Stephanie out with Bryan for a contract signing for Bryan vs. Kingston. They first put over Kingston huge in a long video package showing his whole career, from the days he was a Jamaican (they didn’t show his promos) and the guy used to have a hell of a physique before all the injuries took their toll. The New Day came out. Kingston talked about how it took him 11 years in WWE to get this title shot. Shane and Stephanie both played babyfaces cheering on every word he said. She and Shane were together like loving brothers and sisters. I think we just have to go with the idea Stephanie’s character will have no consistency and just be doing whatever needs to be done for that week, meaning feuding with people she’s best friends with the next week. Kingston pushed how the fans made this happen, which actually is true here. Right before he was about to sign the contract, Vince’s music played. We were screaming at him to sign the legal document but he just stood there like an idiot and froze. Vince said that his job was to give the fans the best competition and the best box office, so he’s replacing Kingston and giving people someone more deserving of a title shot, Owens. Owens came to the ring and signed. Stephanie and Shane acted like they were shocked. I mean, they should be, given Vince just did this same angle after Stephanie had approved a match. Owens did a backstage interview and told Stephanie and Shane that he saw Bryan & Rowan having a smug look on their face so he wanted to team with Kingston against them. They said they’d take it under advisement, but the match ended up happening. The Hardys beat Sheamus & Cesaro in 7:59. Matt is back and in the best shape he’s been in for years as far as how he looked. But you can see the injuries have taken a toll on him and he couldn’t do a lot. It’s pretty clear he was told not to do the woken character so that’s dead, although he did try and sneak it in. Jeff did a twist of fate on Cesaro, Matt did one on Sheamus and Jeff used the swanton on Sheamus. Ricochet & Black were backstage. Lana came out, pretty much devoid of accent and made fun of them, saying they were just two opponents that Rusev would crush. R-Truth came out. He was issuing an open challenge for the U.S. title. He said he was doing it because he wanted to be just like his childhood hero, John Cena. It was noted in commentary that R-Truth was delusional since they were the same age. Actually R-Truth is six years older than Cena. Andrade came out to accept the challenge. Then Mysterio came out as well. R-Truth had a dilemma. He asked what Cena would do in this situation. Carmella said Cena would face both of them. R-Truth said Cena had a lot more guts than he does, but then agreed to face both of them. Vega tried to interfere but Carmella took her out. Mysterio and Andrade looked great when they were against each other. Mysterio did a 619 on both but when he went after Andrade, R-Truth rolled him up at 6:49. Charlotte did an interview. She claimed both Rousey and Lynch feared her. She said Lynch fears she’ll expose her for the fraud that she really is and Rousey fears she’ll have to take another beating like she did at Survivor Series. Charlotte said he feared nothing, that she will never quit and would never lay down the title belt. Ricochet & Black beat Nakamura & Rusev in 10:07. Nakamura was going for the Kinshasa but ran into a black mass by Black for the pin. Unless they botch him bad, Black, because of his entrance, quick finisher and the way he moves is going to get over great. Ditto Ricochet. He did a Fosbury flop on Rusev. It’s funny that in 2019, the Japanese and Mexican announcers know Fosbury and the WWE announcers have no clue. For those who don’t know, Fosbury was an American high jumper who created the style that Ricochet and Styles do with that type of dive who won an Olympic gold medal 51 years ago and was both a legend in the sport and a pretty big celebrity at the time. Styles did an interview and said he was in a slump. He said Smackdown was the house that A.J. Styles built. Orton was offended by that line so they’re starting a program. Kingston & Owens beat Bryan & Rowan in 16:17. Owens did a flip dive on Bryan. The action was real good with Bryan vs. Kingston. Kingston did his twisting dive to take out Rowan while Owens moved out of the way of Bryan’s running knee and hit a stunner for the pin. 205 Live had two first round matches in the eight-man tournament for a shot at Buddy Murphy’s title at WrestleMania. Tony Nese pinned Kalisto with a power bomb and running knees. Jack Gallagher was showing Humberto Carrillo his last match and telling Carrillo how he could have done more damage with a wristlock than for all his flying. He told Carrillo that Drew Gulak will show him the master class on how to wrestle. Gulak pinned Brian Kendrick in another first round match. Gulak rolled through on an O’Connor roll and used the Gu lock. Kendrick passed out rather than tapped. They announced next week’s two matches as Oney Lorcan debuting on 205 Live against Carrillo and Akira Tozawa vs. Cedric Alexander. The dark match main event saw Asuka beat Charlotte in Charlotte with the Asuka lock to keep the women’s title in just under 15:00. Very strong match particularly by WWE dark match standards. Flair getting cheered at the house shows even though she’s playing a strong heel on TV may be a surprise, but her getting cheered here couldn’t have been. The crowds never boo Asuka, they just cheer both of them
747
748Notes from the first night of the NXT UK tapings on 2/22 in Conventry. They taped in a 3,500-seat venue but with the way it was set up, they had it open for about 1,000 fans. The best stuff was said to be Travis Banks vs. Kassius Ohno and Banks vs. Jordan Devlin, as well as Dar vs. Andrews and Toni Storm vs. Jinny. The best stuff were the angles. The biggest stuff was the debut of Ilja Dragunov in a dark match and of course the Pete Dunne vs. Walter angle and announcement for Takeover. While the original U.K. contracts were $20,000 per year, there are those who are earmarked to be top guys of late who were signed for up to $125,000 since they would have been able to get that on the outside market now. It’s also said that Walter and Devlin both pushed to be allowed to continue to work for OTT in Ireland and had it as a condition of their signing. Jeff Jarrett made an appearance in the crowd on the first night. Isla Dawn pinned Killer Kelly. El Ligero beat Joseph Conners. After the match Ligero went to shake hands with him but Conners rejected it. Mike Hitchman & Primate beat Sam Stoker & Lewis Howley. Hitchman, called Wild Boar, with Primate formed what looks to be a regular team and were put over strong. Nina Samuels beat Charlie Morgan. Devlin beat Banks in the falls count anywhere match. Devlin won after a Spanish fly through a table on the floor. Wolfgang beat Flash Morgan Webster. Kenny Williams & Amir Jordan beat Saxon Hurley & Tyson T-Bone. Dar came out and said that he’s in NXT U.K. full-time. The story is they are taking him off 205 Live to use him on this brand. He ran down Andrews. Andrews then attacked Dar and laid him out. Kay Lee Ray, in her WWE debut, pinned Candy Floss. She had been one of the three top women stars of ITV World of Sport. Eddie Dennis pinned Ligero. Trent Seven & Tyler Bate came out and announced that they would be wrestling on the next show. Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel beat Sam Stoker & Lewis Howley. Ohno pinned Ashton Smith. Ohno came out and said that he was leaving NXT so the idea is he’s coming here. Given this won’t be airing for several weeks that tells you his leaving NXT is a lengthy storyline. Ohno beat down Smith after the match and Banks ran in. Dunne & Walter beat Mark & Joe Coffey. The show ended with Dunne and Walter face-to-face and Walter putting his foot on Dunne’s U.K. title belt
749
750Notes from the 2/23 UK tapings. Dragunov pinned Ashton Smith in the dark match opener with the torpedo mosque. Johnny Saint came out to open the show announcing the Dunne vs. Walter title match at NXT Takeover in Brooklyn. Tyler Bate pinned James Drake. Devlin beat Dan Moloney. Ohno then came out and read a mocking apology off his phone to Ashton Smith for attacking him after the match n the prior show. Rhea Ripley pinned Xia Brookside. Ripley did a promo saying she was the most dominant woman in NXT U.K. Then Piper Niven (Viper, making her debut after being on World of Sport), showed up and the two had a staredown and look to build what would be an obvious program. Andrews vs. Dar ended in a no contest. There was a reverse huracanrana spot and it appeared both men were injured. Dar’s knee was hurting and Andrews was knocked out and carried out. Dunne and Walter had a contract signing for their match at Takeover. Dunne said he wanted the match as bad as everyone in the building does. Kenny Williams & Amir Jordan beat Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel. Kay Lee Ray beat Isla Dawn. Joe Coffey beat Trent Seven via submission. Banks pinned Ohno. Piper Niven pinned Killer Kelly. Ripley came out and Niven told her to get into the ring. Ripley then walked off doing the Lesnar walk-off spot. Conners beat Jack Starz. The Grizzled Young Veterans (Zack Gibson & James Drake) came out and cut a promo to build for an NXT tag title defense against Jordan & Williams. The final match of the taping saw Toni Storm retain the women’s title over Jinny with Storm Zero
751
752Notes from the 2/20 NXT TV show. Great main event, which was the Gargano vs. Dream match where they taped two endings and played the ending where Dream won the North American title. The crowd was pretty dead for this show until the last seven minutes of the main event since it was a late show on the tapings. They also had issues with the Gargano/Ciampa storyline. They aired a video of Ciampa, Gargano, Black and Ricochet in WWE showing Ciampa & Gargano as a babyface team. Then, during this show, there was a quick interview segment where Ciampa, as a clear heel, was trying to get Gargano to join him while Candice LeRae wanted him to leave. So they were building toward the idea Ciampa wanted them to get together and be a heel team when earlier in the show we saw clips of them already together as a babyface team. Then, during the main event, they kept showing Ciampa, clearly a heel, watching the match. Black pinned Roderick Strong in 8:26 with black mass. Strong used a back suplex on he ring steps. It was good but not that heated. Kyle O’Reilly did a run-in but Black laid him out with black mass. Adam Cole and Bobby Fish then beat down Black until Ricochet made the save. There was a deal where they were talking about new women trainees and the only thing of note is they used the name Rachael Ellering as opposed to Rachael Evers, the name she had been using because they didn’t want people to think she was related to Paul Ellering. Now that Paul Ellering was dropped, it’s no longer an issue. Bianca Belair did an interview. She was mad because Kairi Sane and Io Shirai were such good partners for her in a trios match that they won the match. And she’s supposed to be a babyface. Even though she lost to Shayna Baszler at Takeover, she still claims to be undefeated because undefeated is a state of mind. It actually isn’t. Mia Yim pinned Xia Li with a knee to the head in 3:53. Baszler, Marina Shafir and Jessamyn Duke all attacked Yim. A lot of the younger wrestlers ran in but they all got beaten down. Baszler laid out Yim with a knee to the head. Baszler does a great job as a bully. Matt Riddle did a backstage interview saying he was going after the NXT title and the North American title. Isn’t it amazing that a year ago neither NJPW or WWE would even touch him. Dream pinned Gargano in 20:40. This was a ****1/4 match. Gargano’s wrestling was so smooth early. He was totally carrying this but the crowd was quiet. At 13:30 they started reacting and really got into it about 15:00 wit all the big moves and near falls. Dream did a Death Valley bomb off the top rope but Gargano kicked out. Dream came off the top rope to the floor but was hit with a superkick. Gargano threw him into the steps and suplexed him on the ramp. Dream came back with two Death Valley bombs and the elbow off the top rope for the pin
753
754The NXT weekend tour opened on 2/21 in Sebring, FL, before 150 fans. The Street Profits beat Adrian Jaoude & Cezar Bononi. So that heel turn on television in the middle of that match was forgotten as soon as the match ended. Reina Gonzalez pinned Lacey Lane with a lariat. Matt Riddle pinned Babatunde Aiyegbusi with a German suplex. Note that Aiyegbusi is 6-foot-9 and 360 pounds. Mohammed Fahim did an interview. Luke Menzies came out. Menzies beat him down. Jeet Rama & Kavita Davi from India beat Kona Reeves & Vanessa Borne when Devi pinned Borne after a sit out slam. Keith Lee beat Jaxson Ryker via DQ when the other Forgotten Sons interfered. They were all beating down Lee until Riddle made the save. War Raiders beat Denzel Dejournette & Eric Bugenhagen. Bugenhagen has become a big favorite on the Florida circuit doing his air guitar deal. Aliyah pinned M.J. Jenkins. Main event saw Velveteen Dream beat Menzies to retain the North American title
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7562/22 in Fort Pierce, FL, before 300 fans, opened with Reeves pinning Stacey Ervin Jr. Borne was in Reeves’ corner as they’ve been putting the two together as an act. Jessie Elaban pinned Chelsea Green with a stomp to the back. Brennan Williams pinned Eric Bugenhagen with a spin kick. Jordan Omogbehin, a 7-foot-3, 315 pound former University of South Florida and Morgan State basketball player from Nigeria (even at that size he didn’t get much playing time, averaging three minutes a game as a senior in the 2014-15 season), did an interview. He’s using the name Tomu. Jaoude & Bononi beat Dejournette & Mansoor Al-Shehail. Bugenhagen came back out playing air guitar. Matt Riddle beat Dominik Dijakovic in a great match, using an ankle lock submission. Wesley Blake & Jaxson Ryker beat The Street Profits when Blake did a missile dropkick as Ryker held one of them in the air. The crowd was into this match. Shayna Baszler beat Bianca Belair to retain the women’s title via choke submission. Baszler continued the attack until Mia Yim made the save. Main event saw War Raiders retain the tag titles over Roderick Strong & Kyle O’Reilly, even though last week on TV they did an interview saying Fish & O’Reilly are now the team and Strong was a single. The War Raiders won with a double-team powerslam
757
758The final weekend show was 2/23 in Daytona Beach before 350 fans. Riddick Moss pinned Al-Shehail. Chelsea Green beat Jessie Elaban. Brennan Williams won over Rinku Singh. Bugenhagen did an in-ring air guitar segment before Aiyegbusi came out. Aiyegbusi then pinned Humberto Carrillo. Interesting they’d have a main roster guy lose to a guy not even on NXT TV, but there’s also the gigantic size difference. Punishment Martinez & Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch beat O’Reilly & Fish & Strong. Dream retained the North American tile over Luke Menzies. Baszler & Jessamyn Duke & Marina Shafir beat Bianca Belair & Mia Yim & Xia Li. Main event saw Black pin Dijakovic and Black did his farewell.
759
760The Raw tour opened on 2/22 in Jonesboro, AR. We didn’t get a crowd for the show, but the weekend was up compared to a lot of the recent weekends. Because WrestleMania and the build is behind when it comes to peaking and it’s more the idea of Mania than a Mania card really past the women’s match, by sense that the excitement and the increased crowds and ratings are starting later in the season. 2/23 in Tupelo, MS, drew 5,000 fans. We didn’t get a crowd for 2/24 in Montgomery, A
761
762Smackdown opened on 2/23 in Columbia, SC before 4,000 fans. 2/24 in Greenville, SC drew 5,000. 2/25 in Savannah, GA drew 3,500
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764Jonesboro opened with O’Neil & Slater & Rhyno over The Singhs & Mahal. The Revival retained the tag titles over Roode & Gable. These two teams are going out there for nearly 30 minutes every night and tearing it down with the best house show matches based on reports in a long time. The Revival was looking for the opportunity to show how good they were as a team and the company is giving them that opportunity. Rawley pinned Breeze in a one-sided match. Balor pinned Lashley when Rush’s interference backfired and he cost Lashley the match. McIntyre pinned Elias with the Claymore kick, so Elias was a babyface here even after turning heels weeks ago. It was the numbers game as Crews and Ambrose both started on the road the next day so they had to wrestle each other. Natalya beat Bliss. Bayley & Banks retained the tag titles over Morgan & Riott. Bayley & Banks were really over at the house shows this weekend. Main event saw Strowman beat Corbin in a street fight after putting him through a table with a powerslam
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766Tupelo was mostly the same show. The only changes were McIntyre vs. Elias changed to McIntyre vs. Ambrose, which was the match where McIntyre tweaked his knee. Elias’ role was just to sing, go heel and have Crews come out and clean house on him without a match. The six-man with O’Neil & Rhyno & Slater vs. Mahal & Singhs started as an O’Neil vs. Singh singles match. The Singhs interfered, then Slater & Rhyno made the save and it turned into the six-man
767
768Montgomery was the same show as Tupelo
769
770Columbia was a weaker than usual crew since Bryan, Orton and Mysterio all had the weekend off which left them with an Asuka vs. Flair main event. It opened with Usos retaining the tag titles over Big E & Kingston (no Woods at the show) and Nakamura & Rusev, who are apparently now a tag team after the match they teamed on Smackdown. Joe attacked Jeff Hardy before a scheduled match. After it was cleared up by officials, Joe attacked him a second time and Hardy had to be helped out. They’ve done this at a lot of the show with the idea of teasing the fans that they aren’t getting the match and then putting the match on later in the show. R-Truth retained the U.S. tile over Andrade in a good match. Lacey Evans & Nikki Cross beat Kay & Royce in what was said to the worst match, although Cross worked very hard to make it. There was a Miz TV segment with Styles. Sheamus & Cesaro came out. This led to a tag match which got a great reaction when Styles & Miz winning with Styles pinning Sheamus with the phenomenal forearm. Gallows & Anderson beat Eric Young & Killian Dain. Wolfe wasn’t out there with them. Sanity got no reaction from the crowd. Young was pinned after the magic killer. Hardy pinned Joe after a twist of fate. Hardy has been hurting so no swanton. Also said to be the best match on the show. Asuka beat Flair with the Asuka lock in the main event. Fans expected a Lynch run-in, but she wasn’t there. She was not in the latest advertising to be there
771
772Greenville was the same show except Mysterio was added to the card. So that made the U.S. title match a three-way with R-Truth over Mysterio and Andrade. Imagine six months ago if you saw a three-way with those three and a title at stake, R-Truth would be the last person you’d expect to be champion. Asuka vs. Flair was said to be the highlight of the show, and fans were again expecting to see the Lynch run-in
773
774Savannah was mostly the same but there were a few changes with Orton, Rowan and Benjamin on the show. Same tag title match with Woods & Kingston working as the New Day team. R-Truth beat Andrade in a singles U.S. title match. Andrade was really just there to be a foil for R-Truth’s spots so he didn’t do much offense. Rowan pinned Benjamin. The crowd was dead for that match. Mysterio was moved to the main event, which was a tag match with Jeff Hardy & Mysterio over Joe & Orton. Usos, New Day and Rusev were all cheered throughout the opening match and even Nakamura got a 50/50 reaction. During the Miz TV segment, Miz announced that Reigns’ cancer had into remission. Asuka and Flair were both heavily cheered and got the two loudest reactions on the show. On this show, there was no match with Kay & Royce vs. Cross & Evans as in the other cities. Cross didn’t work and Evans was sent to Raw. So during Flair vs Asuka, they used Kay as the ring announcer and Royce as the timekeeper. Asuka vs. Flair was said to be the best match on the show. In the main event, all four were cheered with Orton being cheered more than Hardy or Mysterio. Also said to be a good match, with Mysterio hitting both with a 619 and Hardy pinning Joe after a swanton.
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