tBFBTqxK

1Your Account  |   Logout
2HOME
3DECEMBER 30, 2019 OBSERVER NEWSLETTER: 2019 IN REVIEW, MORE
4BY OBSERVER STAFF | STAFF@WRESTLINGOBSERVER.COM | @WONF4W
5TWITTERFACEBOOKGOOGLE+
6Wrestling Observer Newsletter
7
8PO Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228 ISSN10839593 December 30, 2019
9
10 
11
12The year 2019 opened, literally at the stroke of midnight, with the announcement by The Young Bucks, Cody and Adam Page of All Elite Wrestling.
13
14One year later, there have been more industry changes than in any year in decades.
15
16That announcement was made with all four standing outside the Tokyo Dome Hotel, with the Dome itself looming in the background. The hope at the time was that AEW and New Japan would work together and they would continue to work the big shows in Japan, and when they started on television, they would have access to New Japan stars, similar to the product mix that made the original All In such a big success.
17
18That didn’t happen, and things have not gotten better, even though Chris Jericho and Jon Moxley are working the Tokyo Dome this coming week.
19
20If you said one year later that AEW would average 5,701 tickets paid per event, and average roughly 100,000 buys on three PPV shows, two of which would take place before television, one would be hard pressed to believe that.
21
22If that included that the television would be viewed by between 1.2 million and 1.45 million viewers weekly, it would be viewed as an unbelievable success.
23
24But while all those things have happened, AEW still ends the year with a lot of questions.
25
26AEW would open the year signing Jericho and Kenny Omega, and then adding Moxley, who showed up to lay both of those two out at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
27
28A weekly two-hour live television show was announced on TNT, followed by WWE and USA Network putting on their own NXT show head-to-head and the Wednesday Night Wars started.
29
30Through it all, WWE was setting record lows for Raw, and Smackdown was headed to network television. But with its new television deals, even though its popularity and live attendance fell greatly, and even network numbers declined, WWE’s network deals made it, by far, the most profitable it has ever been in history. But the warning signs of the declines led to bullishness over the future to start fading, and the stock, expected to top $100 per share, fell to barely half that and seems to have steadied and just over $60.
31
32Impact Wrestling nearly faded to black on the Pursuit Channel, often doing around 10,000 viewers weekly, before its parent company, Anthem Sports, purchased AXS TV and put Impact in a Tuesday night slot, meaning every night but Thursday and Sunday had a national show, and Sunday was PPV night, with Monday being Raw, Tuesday being Impact, AEW Dark and NWA Powerr, Wednesday being AEW and NXT, Friday being Smackdown and ROH and Saturday being MLW.
33
34ROH had its biggest show, by far, in history in April at Madison Square Garden, but questionable booking saw the company come out of it with its lowest level of popularity in many years. But some of that was inevitable. ROH’s place in wrestling was where you go to get the best actual matches, or be the WWE alternative. Instead, the talent level fell and the New Japan relationship fell apart, moving them from a solid No. 2 in 2018 to a dwindling No. 4. Everyone knew the loss of its key draws from 2018 would hurt, but the reality was it hurt far worse than anyone expected.
35
36New Japan suffered similar losses of stars, but largely held its own. New Japan World numbers stabilize. Will Ospreay and Robbie Eagles led to streaming growth in the U.K. and Australia. But with Anthem owning AXS, their U.S. television, which still exists, stopped being promoted after mid-November, they haven’t aired a new episode.
37
38Perhaps the biggest sign regarding New Japan and U.S. television came this week when AXS quietly listed its 1/4 programming. As expected, even though the 1/4 Tokyo Dome shows were often the most-watched New Japan shows of the year and the show two years ago built around Kenny Omega vs. Chris Jericho is believed to have been the most-watched episode of wrestling ever on the station, they are not airing the show, even though 1/4 is a Saturday, the regular New Japan night. Instead, they are airing a music show from 8-9 p.m. followed by an Impact Wrestling repeat from 9-11 p.m.
39
40New Japan has enough of a foothold and social media and New Japan World were probably as valuable or more in New Japan’s ticket selling for live events over the past year, but it’s undeniable that most of the new fans made by New Japan the past several years came from AXS TV. I can only say when I’ve met people in real life who bring up New Japan, every time they say they started watching it on AXS, so while short-term this won’t be a gigantic loss, over time AXS seemingly throwing in the towel is a big deal.
41
42UFC also had a massive change. Suddenly, out of nowhere, they announced a deal where ESPN purchased the broadcast rights to their PPV shows for a number said to be equivalent of what UFC had been earning in recent years. Given those years were built around Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey, and UFC PPV business was expected to fall hard this year, that guarantee alleviated any issues of weak PPVs and pretty much guaranteed them $500 million per year from ESPN alone.
43
44Essentially television PPV, which had been the key revenue stream for wrestling from 1987 until the advent of the WWE Network, and had carried the top end of the boxing and UFC industries, faded greatly. There is still some boxing, and AEW that carries it, but WWE lowered the perception of the value of seeing a major show which has hurt the other companies on PPV. In boxing, DAZN’s signing of Canelo Alvarez took the biggest draw out of that marketplace. ROH, Impact, NWA, MLW, Bare Knuckle Fights, Combate Americas and AAA also tried, none made a dent.
45
46UFC’s move was the closest to the mortal wound. UFC was in talks for new PPV deals for this year and very close. Essentially it came down to points. Because all the promotions needed the cable industry, the usual standard was that the cable industry and any middle men would take 50 to 60 percent of the revenue and the promotion would get the rest. UFC, years ago, saw the idea that through the Internet, you could do a show worldwide, not have to worry about making deals in different countries, and figured the revenue potential when you figure in the populations of places like China and India, would be limitless. Of course, all business prognostications like that end up out of whack because people in China and India won’t buy PPV shows. But the key is that if UFC could do it on its own, it would keep 100 percent of that revenue as opposed to splitting it.
47
48But as much as UFC pushed its streaming service for PPVs, the number of buys hovered between 15 and 20 percent, meaning they simply couldn’t move off television.
49
50The cable industry, recognizing that UFC needed them, even after losing boxing and WWE numbers dwindling because the network so greatly undercut them, still played hardball. They ended up losing nearly $100 million per year in haggling over a few percentage points.
51
52ESPN, looking to establish their own streaming PPV business, greatly overpaid from a business sense to purchase the UFC PPV business in complete in the U.S., with the proviso it couldn’t air on PPV. If you looked at the price paid and revenue generated, it looks like a foolish deal, but in the long run, that may not be the case.
53
54ESPN has kept the numbers secret. The only thing we know is that early shows did less than half of what they would have done on television, and the first Jon Jones fight did well. The belief is Nate Diaz vs. Jorge Masvidal also did well. But for UFC, instead of struggling with a so-so or even weak PPV year, they got Rousey/McGregor prime money without having to pay either Rousey or McGregor. And for ESPN, the point is that, depending on the nature of the order, they paid UFC in the range of $200 million, but depending on the nature or the order, get anywhere from 70 percent to in most cases 100 percent of the revenue.
55
56In 2020, increasing the price to $65 per show. The idea is that when you continue to have big fights, such as the upcoming McGregor vs. Donald Cerrone or Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Tony Ferguson, a lot of the fans who simply didn’t want the hassle of learning how to order will break down. And once they do it once, since it really isn’t that difficult, they’ll become regulars. ESPN only has to average between 250,000 and 300,000 buys per show for the deal to be profitable. In the long run, those numbers are hardly astronomical.
57
58Indeed, an accurate description for UFC, WWE and Bellator is that all fell upwards. UFC, moving so many shows to ESPN+, and PPVs streaming, as well as significantly less television, had less people watching. But with the money guaranteed, had more revenue and profits. WWE saw Raw continue to decline, while Smackdown, moved to FOX, has become the most-watched show and they’ve added NXT. But interest in PPV shows has declined significantly, and live events are struggling, even with less single brand shows and more super shows.
59
60Bellator’s ratings went down hard, from a 443,000 per show average to 325,000, although some of that is misleading given since September 2018, the biggest events that would have done the highest ratings were moved to DAZN. But with the DAZN money, Bellator will gross significantly more money than either AEW or New Japan Pro Wrestling. However, if the deal isn’t renewed in the fall of 2021, Bellator would be in trouble.
61
62When it comes to pro wrestling, there were people who were saying that with WWE going to FOX and AEW on TNT, that a boom period was coming.
63
64If it is, there are no signs at all of it right now.
65
66If anything, the biggest story is just how much the landscape has changed as has the value of television.
67
68AEW’s peak demand came before television, the day tickets went on sale for the All Out show in Chicago and there were 74,500 people in line (62,500 non-duplicated individual orders) within the first 30 minutes tickets went on sale. This was months before television started. In many ways, the ticket demand for the first two PPVs of the year before TV, but not the third, after TV, told the biggest story of the year of the value of television.
69
70The first show had the advantage of being the first show. The MGM Grand, which got the show only because the original tenant, the larger T Mobile Arena had a slim chance of being needed that night for a Las Vegas Golden Knights playoff game, was described by the building as having among the highest ticket demands the building had seen in recent years.
71
72"I would say this probably ranks with an unbelievable Conor McGregor-like card for UFC," said Sid Greenfeig, the MGM’s Vice President of Arena Booking to ESPN. "It compares to a Mayweather-type fight in Vegas. I would say it compares to announcing something like, say, Taylor Swift or Justin Bieber or the Eagles or a Madonna-type show. You’re a-plus talent announcement. That was how quickly the tickets went. It was very pleasantly surprising."
73
74The second PPV, a return to the site of All In, at the Sears Center, was even more impressive. According to those in the ticket industry, the demand for All Out shocked everyone. With virtually no scalper activity, the demand exceeded every pro wrestling event ever held in the U.S. The demand was at the same level as the 2011 Georges St-Pierre vs. Jake Shields fight at Rogers Stadium in Toronto.
75
76But the third event, after television, drew 8,200 fans in Baltimore, and granted, that was coming barely a month after being in the market for the first television show in D.C., which did sell out instantly, although the Chicago success led to huge scalper buys for the first three TV shows, two of which did not do well on the secondary market. Scalpers pulled out of AEW ever since, and thus missed on the immediate sellout for the 2/29 show in Chicago.
77
78The reality is the early numbers weren’t going to be maintained. By 2017 standards, where 1,500 tickets for a non-WWE show was considered a giant success and topping 3,000 was something hit nationwide maybe once or twice a year, that tells you just how quickly things have changed on the non-WWE front..
79
80Since getting on television, live event ticket sales have been pretty steady, with every show but one topping 4,000, but nothing like the scalper-fueled first three weeks of Dynamite tapings that sold out Washington, D.C., Boston and Philadelphia on the first day.
81
82The company got some good news as the 2/29 Revolution PPV at the Wintrust Arena in Chicago (likely set up for about 8,000 fans) sold out in 52 minutes with virtually no scalper action. There were only 464 tickets on the secondary market at press time and tickets are going at well above double face value.
83
84However, a number of other shows, including Atlanta at the State Farm Arena, were also put on sale on 12/20 and those shows aren’t doing nearly so well. NXT has decreased significantly in ticket sales since getting on television. The Smackdown brand house shows haven’t gone up, although Smackdown tapings are up, but that’s more because of a move from Tuesday to Friday, which is a much better night to sell live event tickets.
85
86Still, in the fourth quarter, WWE had only three sold out events in arenas (they do sell out 400 seats every Wednesday night at Full Sail University for the NXT tapings), the first Smackdown in Los Angeles, Survivor Series in Chicago and a taping in Fayetteville, NC. AEW also had three, tapings in Washington, DC, Boston and Philadelphia.
87
88For the most part, everyone’s advances for the new year aren’t good, aside from WWE for the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania, and AEW for the Revolution show.
89
90It appears that television has led to product overexposure. The economics, with business depending upon rights fees and not selling PPVs or live tickets, it’s a very different dynamic from when overexposure badly hurt pro wrestling, boxing and Roller Derby in the 50s.
91
92But it’s still a situation where decreasing the number of fans while increasing revenue at some point has to catch up. But that could be years from now.
93
94WWE will be set business records for revenue and profit next year. As will UFC.
95
96The rest of the industry is a question. There are signs Japan has peaked as the second level promotions are declining. New Japan is steady in its home country and hopes to run far more in the U.S., but it’s a virtual lock it won’t come close to 2019 numbers because they don’t have a sold out Madison Square Garden show to base the year around. After large growth every year dating back to 2011, the last quarter for New Japan no longer showed major growth.
97
98AEW did not end the year on a high note, with the last show ending with an angle where the Dark Order beat down most of the babyfaces that was crapped on by the fans live and turned into a comedy meme when a YouTube clip of punches on Dustin Rhodes by one of the masked guys surfaced. But they have a loaded up show for 1/1 in Jacksonville.
99
100The Dark Order, originally the former Super Smash Brothers tag team of Stu Grayson, a very underrated talent, and Evil Uno, never really clicked with the fan base. Improvements have been made. Uno’s ring gear has gotten better. The vignettes of people depressed with losing in life being recruited the join have been creative. But the closing skit, between the amateurish feel of the creepers and the beatdown coming after losses during the show by Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks that epitomize complaints, have left AEW with questions.
101
102AEW dominated the Wednesday ratings, often doing double NXT in the key 18-49 demo. The gap live has steadily closed to where NXT won live in that demo on 12/18 for the first time.
103
104The key to the turnaround was November booking, where WWE put all the focus on building key NXT stars like Adam Cole, Shayna Baszler and Rhea Ripley. Cole beat Daniel Bryan in a television match, didn’t lose to Seth Rollins and beat Pete Dunne in a great match at Survivor Series. Ripley didn’t lose to Becky Lynch, the top woman star in the company, won at War Games by beating Baszler and then led NXT to winning the women’s Survivor Series match. Baszler won the battle of women’s champions over Lynch and Bayley.
105
106NXT, while providing solid television, was regularly below 700,000 viewers and at a 55 year old median, was the oldest skewing major wrestling show on television, while AEW, winning every week, was both the youngest and the show where more people watched together than any other, as well as a not so great stat of being the show more people watch via DVR than any other wrestling show.
107
108And while those stats were still the same on 12/18, the gap has narrowed. AEW hasn’t actually lost viewers, and has actually gained, but its younger audience is more and more watching via DVR, and many are now watching NXT live first.
109
110Thus far, in 12 weeks, AEW won the first seven pretty much across the board. Week eight and nine saw NXT win overall and AEW in the key demo. Week ten saw AEW win close and strongly win in the demos. Week 11 was either an NXT win by 400 viewers, or, going head-to-head, a small AEW win, but again winning in the 18-49 demo.
111
112But the key story has been, more than who wins and loses, the decline in AEW viewership, particularly in 18-49, as far as live, while the huge numbers they garner on DVR.
113
114NXT, which has always dominated in over 50 viewers, took the lead on a show when WWE sent many of its biggest stars, including Becky Lynch in. Even then, it didn’t win in 18-49.
115
116But the WWE’s hard push of the brand has led to NXT growth, including in 18-49. This appears to have led to AEW declines, although it’s not as much that as people not watching live as much. That matters, because at the end of the day, AEW’s value is in delivering live viewers 18-49. Going from an extremely healthy weekly figure of above 0.4, making them a hot commodity, particularly at a bargain price for TNT. But an 0.25 on 12/18, a number hurt by NXT putting on a Takeover level show and impeachment hearings, plus the bad ending leaves questions.
117
118The question is, what if anything, is wrong and what is the way to fix it.
119
120Every show has issues. NXT is tighter and has had fewer production gaffes, but is still less lively, and has nobody who can touch Chris Jericho as a performer. What they have done well is long-term building of new stars.
121
122The perfect case in point was Ripley, pushed from the start, having never lost a match except once in a tag situation. While her going for the title was actually closer than expected against AEW’s tag title match, in late October, the idea of the Young Bucks and Ripley both challenging head-to-head going in favor live of Ripley would be unheard of.
123
124AEW has attempted to make a lot of new stars, perhaps too many at once. Their issue is they have too much talent for two hours of television. Yet at the same time, because of long matches with some women in particular who aren’t ready for prime time, it feels like they don’t have enough talent. That’s because they never use all their talent. There is a real question regarding what the audience wants as far as non-wrestling. AEW has attempted to be every thing for every fan, and in doing so, means it gets many fans mad.
125
126NXT is actually the more serious sports oriented product and that is what many expected AEW to be. AEW easily has the best promos, and the most athletic in-ring. But NXT has, more than any show, been able to deliver more of a realism feel more of the time. While nothing can touch AEW’s key moments, notably the drama and post-match of Cody vs. Dustin, or Cody’s promo for the Jericho match, or even the craziness of the Young Bucks vs. Pentagon & Fenix TLC match, it’s been tempered by certain storylines that feel inspired by Lucha Underground, which failed, or WWE, which is what they needed to be the opposite of. Great matches and nothing else isn’t the answer, because if it was, New Japan on AXS would have been the biggest wrestling show in the country. Endless interviews aren’t the answer. So it’s about a balance.
127
128In trying to peak for quarterly PPVs, AEW doesn’t have enough of an immediate destination. When WWF or WCW were doing quarterly PPVs, the major markets were getting monthly house shows promoted off television locally. AEW showed on 12/18 that a well built destination Takeover level show which doesn’t diminish Takeover itself because that’s months away, can garner a lot of swing viewers, even younger ones who previously had little interest in NXT.
129
130The point is, there was always a destination within a month, and then a new destination after that. A three or four weeks of build and a big show cycle feels like the right pace. That was one of the missing ingredients in Lucha Underground, which had state-of-the-art action, and perhaps the sci-fi element turned off more than it turned on (over time something turned people off that show). But AEW has it going so much slower with big shows every three months.
131
132To alleviate that, AEW should build a destination television event every month and use the weeks in between to build that event, giving that show a major name and trying to run in a major market that week. There can be smaller television angles, like the Chris Jericho/Jungle Boy thing where part one was made for television and perhaps the rematch could be on a weekly show, but perhaps a third meeting should be a full month build for a destination show where you have the top guys in title bouts, but not the major PPV matches that will be teased for a few months and then hit hard.
133
134Another thing they need to do is have most of their stars present on Dynamite every week. On 12/18, the notable missing people were MJF and Jon Moxley. MJF should have been there needling Cody. Moxley in this case should not have been there given the story peaking for 1/1 pretty much demands he not be there. But that’s a rarity.
135
136They need to go with the main guys and book them as main guys. They don’t need to wrestle on TV every week. In fact, guys like Moxley, Jericho, MJF, Cody and Kenny Omega should be talking more and wrestling less, building their matches, on either a PPV show or a destination show. When they wrestle on television, it should be considered something special and always be promoted on the prior week’s show with interviews or angles. I wouldn’t say the same for the tag team division. AEW’s tag team division is the best in the industry, but to take it to where it needs to go, the championship should only be on a team that can be argued and pushed viably as the best tag team in the world.
137
138The issue with Omega this past week was not the loss in the tag match, because that furthered a long-term story, but the backstage beatdown and end of show beatdown left him looking like a secondary star. The interviews should be short, but direct, some developing of personality and most talking the next destination match.
139
140Matches with the women as a general rule should be shorter on television. There are exceptions and there should be no hard and fast rules on anything, whether it be match lengths or matchmaking or match order. They have done short matches with Nyla Rose and Awesome Kong. They can go longer on PPV and if there is a title match on television or a match deserving of more time. The top tier workers are timed just about right.
141
142The rankings at this point are a weird non-issue. So much is talked about on it, but then during the matches, using the rankings to tell stories and build title matches doesn’t really exist. If they did away with them, it wouldn’t make a difference in ratings. But, if used to enhance stories, they can be a positive. Instead, they are there, but it feels like they are there just because they are, not because it adds a dimension.
143
144The challenge across the board is to make new stars. Creation of importance in wins and losses enable people accepting new stars with as little as one win at the right time. But it’s also about promo time and constant exposure in a positive manner. If guys are only on TV every few weeks, they can be a star if they’ve got what Ric Flair had, but since we don’t have many Ric Flair’s that isn’t going to work. Plus, the top guys are also needed to boost ratings and create a higher quality feel to the show.
145
146Still, even the first few months have shown realities. Both groups have put together generally strong and often great shows. Both groups have declined in live viewership for the most part while doing so. Television hasn’t seemed to help either group sell tickets and in the case of NXT, clearly hasn’t helped.
147
148Still, and it’s still early, the live Wednesday night audience hasn’t grown, as it was 1.7 million on 10/16, the week that should have been the leveling out point, and 1.545 million on 12/11 (12/18 has the presidential debate excuse). NXT has gained from week three, going from 0.20 to 0.24 in 18-49 and 712,000, getting as low as 580,000 before the feud with the main brands led to the turnaround, to where 778,000 was the last number for a “normal” show on 12/11. AEW has gone from 1,014,000 to 778,000 in a normal week and 0.44 to 0.28, and most notably, with declines most weeks. The latter drop being the most concerning because if that number leveled off, it would be one thing, but that hasn’t been the case.
149
150For 2020, the key story is this. If AEW stays at its current level, it’s okay. If the live numbers decline, there is a level of 18-49 where there can be a problem. In television, every show has a shelf life, but sports can last forever. With the heavy DVR viewing, AEW’s fan base is not treating it as much like a live sport, but a lot of that is also due to the age of the audience, which has generally been younger than any sport except perhaps soccer.
151
152The difference between the Monday Night Wars of the past and this is that there are not the free agents or legends who can still go who can be brought in as a surprise. And while there will be some movement next year when contracts are up, it won’t be surprising either. Plus, if somebody like Marty Scurll, or even The Revival, show up on AEW television, they will get a huge reaction and will be fresh new stars, but whether they will turn teenagers and young adults who watch as a pattern whenever they feel like it later, to going live, that’s hard to believe they will be that level of difference makers.
153
154With long-term contracts on both sides, you’re not likely to see talent movement at the top level for a long time to come, unlike in the late 90s with shorter contract windows and a lot of older wrestlers not working full-time but still being big enough names to be big players. The last 20 years have not been good when it comes to creating genuine stars, and thus, there’s not the seemingly endless number of names that could be brought back as there were in the late 90s, due to all the stars made during the 80s. And with true top guys barely existing, and contracts of those guys being higher than ever, the economics are completely different.
155
156But with all this, it’s tier three, which is MLW, Impact, NWA, ROH and New Japan that are going to have a tough year in the U.S. market.
157
158For all the talk of AEW’s declining live numbers, NWA has had great critical approval and its numbers have declined greatly simply because of the overload of product.
159
160Impact has strong backers and is the safest it has been probably in its history, but also the lowest on the food chain it has been. NWA is tough because with no paying television, the number of fans willing to buy a PPV for a tier three company being the lowest in history, it’s hard to find a working economic model. ROH is all about Sinclair’s decision-making process on whether to keep it as weekly syndicated programming or not. New Japan in the U.S. is going to struggle running so many events in the market, but they also present live shows at a level that the other companies can only come close to on their best nights. But it’s great hype and great stars, not great shows, that are the difference maker. Unless New Japan does major arena signature events here, it’ll just be a company drawing 500 to 2,000 fans in small buildings and selling a lot of merchandise per head. MLW had great growth this past year, but it seems to have hit a ceiling, plus almost any star they make is going to be getting offers from multiple places that pay better to leave.
161
162Mr. Niebla, a wrestler that CMLL groomed from his start with them more than two decades ago to be one of the major stars of this generation, but never quite reached that level due to his problems with drinking, passed away on 12/23 due to a blood infection.
163
164Born Efren Tiburcio Marquez on February 22, 1973, he was 46 at the time of his death and his legacy included holding CMLL’s world heavyweight, world tag team and world trios titles.
165
166There will always be a strong speculation that it was his problems with alcohol that weakened his body so badly that he was unable to survive the blood infection. His being ill was well publicized, and originally the assumption was it was alcohol related, as he lived on a regular cycle of being suspended and then being forgiven.
167
168After an incident in 2015 on the New Japan Fantastica Mania tour, many thought that because his drinking embarrassed CMLL as he had to be pulled from the tour, that this time it would be it. But he was back again after a suspension and the belief was there was nothing he could do that would permanently end his tenure with the company.
169
170At different times in his career he was penciled in to headline anniversary shows in mask vs. mask matches with Atlantis and Dr. Wagner Jr., but neither match ever happened.
171
172After a while, even though he was always used near the top of the shows, he was no longer trusted to be put in a key position. But CMLL would use him, and it was only when things got out of control, such as passing out during matches, which happened many times, that he would be given time outs. If the same thing happened on smaller shows, people would cover for him.
173
174Niebla spoke openly in recent years regarding his issues, but he could never put them in the past.
175
176Over the last week, there had been reports he would have to retire soon due to knee and other joint problems from 29 years in the ring and not taking care of himself.
177
178Tiburcio started wrestling at the age of 17, debuting on November 11, 1990 as Chamaco Audaz. Over the next few years he used names like El Pupilo, El Marquez, Shadow 2000, Chico Veloz and Batman. He became Mr. Niebla right after his 19th birthday and used the name for the rest of his career.
179
180He held the Distrito Federal welterweight and tag team titles when he first started in CMLL. His first real push on a national level came in 1997, when he formed a babyface trio with Atlantis & Lizmark. On April 29, 1997, they defeated Emilio Charles Jr. & El Satanico & Rey Bucanero to win the CMLL trios titles at Arena Mexico. Then, on January 23, 1998, he and Shocker won the CMLL tag team titles from Charles Jr. & Dr. Wagner Jr.
181
182But a serious injury in October 1998 caused him to vacate both titles. CMLL brought in someone else to be Mr. Niebla while Tiburcio was injured, and when he was ready to return, they started a feud. The feud ended with a mask vs. mask match for the rights to the Mr. Niebla name on August 20, 1999, at Arena Mexico. Tiburcio won, and the impostor was revealed as Miguel Guzman, believed to be no relation to the former Texas wrestling legend of the same name (and brother of El Santo). Guzman continued working as Mr. Mexico.
183
184On September 24, 1999, at the 66th anniversary show, the two leading feuds at the time, Atlantis vs. Villano III and Niebla vs. Shocker were put together. They had a tag team match with the feuding wrestlers and the winners would then have a mask vs. mask match later that night. Niebla & Shocker beat Atlantis & Villano III. Niebla then beat Shocker in the main event to unmask him in front of 15,000 fans.
185
186Niebla & Olimpico & Safari won the Mexican national trios titles from Blue Panther & Fuerza Guerrera & El Signo on March 30, 2001 at Arena Mexico before a sellout of 18,000 fans. He held the title until teaming with Atlantis & Black Warrior to win the CMLL trios titles from Wagner Jr. & Guerrera & Panther on June 16, 2002 at Arena Mexico. The next week, his trio lost the Mexican national titles on June 23, 2002, dropping them to Satanico & Mephisto & Averno.
187
188His trio lost the CMLL tag titles on March 31, 2003, to Wagner Jr. & Universo 2000 & Black Tiger (Silver King).
189
190His biggest title win was April 18, 2003, when Niebla beat Universo 2000 to win the CMLL heavyweight title. He held the title until October 12, 2004, when he lost it back to Universo 2000.
191
192He was first fired in the summer of 2006, and went to AAA the next year. AAA turned him rudo, putting him in Los Vipers, and largely turned his career around. The team split up, with Abismo Negro going tecnico to feud with Niebla.
193
194The feud was expected to head to a TripleMania mask vs. mask match, but got derailed by substance abuse, but this time it came from Abismo Negro.
195
196The plan was still to build a mask vs. mask match down the line, but Niebla, likely to lose, jumped back to CMLL.
197
198Niebla’s act usually got over well live, more comedy oriented. But for all the obvious reasons, CMLL would use him, put him in a lot of main events, but never build major programs around him.
199
200In recent years, when he wasn’t suspended, Niebla formed a regular trio called La Pestia Negra, as a rudo. There were a number of versions of the trio over the years, but the most well-known and successful was Niebla & Negro Casas & Felino. On February 18, 2014, they defeated Rush & Titan & La Mascara to win the Mexican national trios titles.
201
202He won a number of major tournaments over the year, including the Salvador Lutteroth Memorial singles tournament on March 20, 1998, where he defeated then-world heavyweight champion Universo 2000 in the first round, Atlantis in the semis and Black Warrior in the finals.
203
204In 2000, he teamed with Ultimo Guerrero & Rey Bucanero to win the
205
206MR. NIEBLA
207
208 
209
210CAREER TITLE HISTORY
211
212 
213
214CMLL WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT: def. Universo 2000 April 18, 2003 Mexico City; lost to Universo 2000 October 12, 2004, Mexico City
215
216 
217
218CMLL WORLD TAG TEAM: w/Shocker def Emilio Charles Jr. & Dr. Wagner Jr. January 23, 1998 Mexico City; Titles vacated October 1998 due to Niebla injury
219
220 
221
222CMLL WORLD TRIOS: w/Atlantis & Lizmark def. Emilio Charles Jr & Rey Bucanero & El Satanico April 29, 1997 Mexico City; Titles vacated October 1998 due to Niebla injury; w/Atlantis & Black Warrior def. Blue Panther & Fuerza Guerrera & Dr. Wagner Jr. June 16, 2002 Mexico City; lost to Black Tiger (Silver King) & Dr. Wagner Jr. & Fuerza Guerrera February 21, 2003
223
224 
225
226MEXICAN NATIONAL TRIOS: w/Olimpico & Safari def Blue Panther & Fuerza Guerrera & El Signo March 30, 2001 Mexico City; lost to Averno & Mephisto & El Satanico June 23, 2002 Guadalajara; w/Felino & Negro Casas def. Rush & El Terrible & La Mascara February 18, 2014 Mexico City; lost to Atlantis & Delta & Guerrero Maya April 26, 2015
227
228Carnival Increibles tournament.
229
230On July 25, 2011, he won the Leyenda de Azul tournament, beating Atlantis in the finals.
231
232In 2012, he and Atlantis won the three-week long Parejas increibles tournament, where a top tecnico and top rudo would form a tag team.
233
234In 2014, he and Barbaro Cavernario won the Gran Alternative tournament, which was the event that catapulted Cavernario into stardom. Niebla himself got his first break 18 years earlier in that same tournament, where he and Hector Garza went to the finals, but lost to Emilio Charles Jr. & Rey Bucanero, in the tournament that pretty much made Niebla and Bucanero into young stars.
235
236His issues that were long known became an international story in 2015, when he disappeared after the third night of the Fantastica Mania tour in January. He was found passed out in his hotel room after missing a show, and rushed to the hospital for three days. New Japan made CMLL pay for the hospital bills and finally CMLL fired him a few weeks later.
237
238But he was back less than three months later. On August 28, 2018, Niebla was in such bad shape that he fell off the ropes during his ring entrance. Volador Jr. was so fed up he just unmasked Niebla to get disqualified to end the match and walked out. The commission announced that they were indefinitely suspending his wrestling license. CMLL brought him back on March 12, 2019, and told him if he worked drunk again that he would be fired.
239
240The combination of it being a bad year at the gate for WWE and a good one for UFC meant that this was the first year in history that UFC had more shows than WWE that topped 10,000 in live attendance.
241
242Not only that, but it was nearly by double, as UFC did so in 32 of its 42 shows while WWE only topped that figure 18 times according to Matt Farmer’s records, although the 12/26 Madison Square Garden show should end the year with 19.
243
244Although this is very much a misleading stat, it is also the first time probably going back 36 years that a U.S.-based pro wrestling promotion averaged more in live attendance than WWE. AEW averaged 6,200 fans and 5,701 paid per show this year. Because of running fewer dates, AEW had the highest average of any promotion in the world. Obviously that is misleading because WWE and CMLL ran so many more dates and if you just took the average of each Raw over the course of the year you would beat that number, and the average Friday night at Arena Mexico would beat that given 6,000 fans there is considered a weak Friday.
245
246WWE averaged 5,000 per show over the first nine months but will probably finish the year closer to 4,600 to 4,700. The last time a promotion would have had a higher average than WWE in the U.S. that ran ten or more shows would have probably been the St. Louis Wrestling Club in 1983.
247
248As far as most shows with 10,000 fans, I don’t know how far back you would go, but I wonder if ever since MSG was always drawing big since probably 1969 or 1970 and you had Boston and other markets, but CMLL had 18 shows this year that topped 10,000 fans, all at Arena Mexico, the first time I think any company had in the same range as WWE in a long time. It’s possible in the mid-90s that AAA, who was real hot 93-94, or New Japan, which was really hot 95-96, had more when WWF was down, but for sure hasn’t happened since 1997 as even when WCW was winning the ratings WWF ran more house shows and averaged bigger numbers.
249
250Besides WWE, the only other company since 1984 to top a 5,701 per year paid average would be WCW in 1998 when it averaged 8,029. However, WCW never beat WWF in average live attendance even when winning the ratings. The closest year, and best year overall for industry popularity since the mid-80s would have been in 1998. WWF averaged 10,006 per event in 1998.
251
252The closest since 1984 anyone came in the U.S. was 1997 when WWF averaged 5,826 and WCW averaged 5,472.
253
254For those who think this is the worst period for WWE attendance, that’s not close to the case. The worst year was 1994 at 2,880 average when wrestling was really in its dark ages. WCW that year averaged 1,620.
255
256Over the past year, New Japan averaged 2,698 paid per event. Its U.S. average was roughly the same as their world average, at 2,648 per event. But that’s also misleading as if you take MSG out of the New Japan U.S. number, it falls to around 1,500. That still puts New Japan as easily the No. 3 pro wrestling promotion in the U.S. and I don’t see that changing. But New Japan in 2020 will have troubles because of high ticket prices, not announcing lineups until late and running more shows. The other issue is what happens with television. AXS has totally stopped promoting the show and hasn’t even advertised a big Tokyo Dome show after the station did some of its best ratings the last few years with those shows. New Japan was the only promotion to grow annually in TV numbers while everyone else fell, but the station is now owned by the same company that owns a promotion that is battling for that same No. 3 slot. Ultimately New Japan’s television future in the U.S. is a very big story for next year.
257
258Because of the Madison Square Garden show, ROH finished 2019 with 45,479 attendance and a 1,082 per show average. It was the company’s third best year of its history.
259
260The 2017 year drew 46,457 and 1,106 fans per show, and 2018 drew 49,840 and 1,215 per show.
261
262However, if you take MSG out, the average falls to 707, the lowest in many years, and that is more of a true indicator. The way things are going, they will be lucky to do more than 500 per next year.
263
264Given MSG was a seven figure gate, which is the only seven-figure gate ever in the U.S. by a company other than WWE in history (WCW’s record gate was just over $900,000 and AEW has yet to do a $1 million gate), the ticket gross for ROH was surely the largest of any year in its history. That is unique because at the same time they are in their worst shape when it comes to popularity since the early years of the company.
265
266Major League Wrestling had by far its biggest year, averaging 1,457 per event on 11 shows, for about 16,032 total according to figures compiled by Lavie Morgolan from Observer research.
267
268Like with AEW being higher than WWE, while WWE is clearly No. 1, because of running fewer dates and most of the dates being TV or PPV, MLW runs nothing but televison tapings. But in this day and age, for what I’d call a tier three promotion to do that well is impressive.
269
270The 2020 Royal Rumble show on 1/25 at Minute Maid Park, the home of the Houston Astros is starting to take shape after the television this weekend.
271
272With both a men and a women’s Royal Rumble, with both having to be booked for around one hour, it doesn’t leave time for a lot of other matches.
273
274On the 12/27 Smackdown in Detroit there is a three-way with Daniel
275
276Bryan vs. The Miz vs. King Corbin, where the winner gets The Fiend version of Bray Wyatt in a Universal title match. Bryan would have to be the favorite since the original booking for TLC was Bryan getting a title match, and then the decision was made to let the story play out, save it for the Rumble and use Miz to fill the open slot. Miz was pretty much squashed by the Bray Wyatt version, and while he’s talking strong about family and such, it would be a surprise after how the last match was booked that Miz ends up in the slot. Corbin vs. Fiend would make no sense right now of the three options.
277
278Brock Lesnar’s next match will be on the show. We haven’t been told outright it is a WWE title match, but the other option is the Rumble and WWE hasn’t put the champ in the Rumble in years, plus it makes no sense with the Rumble being for the Mania title shot.
279
280There is no obvious opponent for Lesnar at this point for either the Rumble or Mania. Usually you can tell by this time. Because nobody is obvious for those spot, there were rumors this past week of Cain Velasquez (who is in the Rumble as of right now) and Tyson Fury as Lesnar’s WrestleMania opponents popped up. The only thing we’ve been able to confirm is Lesnar will be on Mania barring injury, and neither Fury nor Velasquez will be the opponent.
281
282There are also a lot of rumblings regarding Edge this past week, who was also dismissed as a potential Lesnar opponent. It is known that Edge (Adam Copeland, 46) who retired due to neck problems from all his ladder matches and spinal stenosis, with his final match the day after WrestleMania in 2011, did attempt to get cleared. On Twitter, he denied rumors that he had been cleared. We have no confirmation either way, and based on his own track record would be inclined to believe the story. The problem is that so much talent in the last few years on social media has outright denied things that are true, and end up being true, in situations involving returns that you have to keep the idea open.
283
284If it’s not a surprise outsider, and if it’s not Edge, it’s hard to say who would be left as Bill Goldberg (who Paul Heyman is a fan of) has been done on the Mania stage, Undertaker at this stage of the game is a bad idea and Shawn Michaels indicating he never wants to wrestle again. Right now they are giving big pushes to Drew McIntyre, Erick Rowan and Aleister Black on television. We do know McMahon is heavily behind a Rowan push. The mentality in the past has also been the Rumble is the draw, which it is, so you don’t necessarily need a super challenger and you have just feed someone to Lesnar for Mania. McIntyre has been groomed for a top position ever since he was brought to the main roster, but like everyone, had his stops and stars and a few injuries slowing down his momentum. Lesnar and Samoa Joe had a great dynamic, but right now it looks like Joe will be involved in a program with the AOP & Seth Rollins. Rollins maybe as likely as anyone, since he’s pushed repeatedly how he has two wins over Lesnar, and with Lesnar gone, has been promoted as the top male star on the Raw brand.
285
286Confirmed for Rumble is the Becky Lynch vs. Asuka Raw women’s title match, as the one-year anniversary of Asuka beating Lynch clean with the Asuka lock. At the time, the idea was for Lynch to win the title at Mania and set up Asuka as a challenger. That was all forgotten, as things often are here. But as we noted, the idea was to revive that months back.
287
288Two other possible matches are bouts originally set for TLC, which were pushed on this past week’s Smackdown show, Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Braun Strowman for the IC title and Bayley vs. Lacey Evans for the Smackdown women’s title.
289
290Neither is confirmed for the Rumble but the latter would seem probable, because when Bayley vs. Evans was moved off TLC, we were told it was to hold the match off until January and they have continued angles in that direction. Angles for Nakamura vs. Strowman have just started, delayed since Strowman wasn’t cleared due to injuries until this past week.
291
292Ticket demand for the show is mixed. The live event is set up for 36,000, although no doubt they’ll announce closer to 46,000. There are about 3,000 tickets left, so 33,000 total and probably more than 30,000 paid still has to be considered very good. But the secondary market demand is nothing special and well below years in the past, with a get in price of $38.94, which is low for the No 2 show of the year, and there are tons of scalper tickets out.
293
294For World’s Collide the night before at the Toyota Center in Houston, an Undisputed Era (Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly & Adam Cole & Roderick Strong) vs. Imperium (Walter & Marcel Barthel & Fabian Aichner & Alexander
295
296Wolfe) match has been announced.
297
298New Japan Pro Wrestling’s biggest first five weeks of the year in modern history commences with WrestleKingdom expanding to two days at the Tokyo Dome.
299
300The period also includes the annual Fantastica Mania tour with CMLL from 1/10 to 1/20, a Southeastern U.S. tour from 1/24 to 2/1, and three more major events in Japan, two New Beginning shows in Sapporo on 2/1 and 2/2 at the Hokkaido Sports Center, and New Beginning in Osaka on 2/9 at Osaka Jo Hall, which in running that building has to be a Dominion level event and will likely feature a defense of the double champion who comes out of the Tokyo Dome.
301
302The 1/4 show has added a women’s match for the first time at a New Japan Tokyo Dome show since 2002. With Bushiroad purchasing Stardom, the idea was to put the stars they want to build around before the largest audience of wrestling fans possible.
303
304The match, Mayu Iwatani & Arisa Hoshiki vs. Hana Kimura & Giulia will open the show at 4 p.m. local time (which is 2 a.m. Eastern time and 11 p.m. Pacific time late Friday night).
305
306The match was filled with political issues and even controversy, as New Japan has largely a younger and newer fan base that wasn’t around in 2002, and women’s wrestling has not been part of the presentation.
307
308As of press time, the match will not air on New Japan World. The deal was put together at the end of November after cutting through a lot of red tape, and kept quiet until the official announcement on Christmas Day. The Stardom side had wanted it, obviously. At first they were told no way, and then, because of the pressure from above, notably Bushiroad President Takaaki Kidani, there was talk of a women’s match on the January 4, 2021 show.
309
310But Kidani then pushed for it this year. Some in New Japan were negative, noting the idea that in Japan, men’s wrestling and women’s wrestling are separate products with different fan bases. Those who attend New Japan big shows aren’t there to watch women’s wrestling and the announcement was met negatively by the New Japan fans.
311
312In addition, there is the broadcasting issue with New Japan aligned with TV-Asahi, and they are co-owners of New Japan World, and Stardom has just started on Tokyo MX and BS Nippon TV, a rival network.
313
314Because of that, putting it on the show means for the first time New Japan can’t show a Dome match on its streaming service. At this point the match may be released at a later date on Stardom World, but that is not a sure thing due to those same issues, since this is a TV-Asahi show.
315
316As soon as the announcement was made, New Japan fans, particularly women fans, were very vocal in their opinions negatively toward this. The negativity was so strong that it may be difficult for this to happen again. Right now the word is that this will happen, but don’t expect to see Stardom matches on New Japan shows much going forward. There were also long-time Stardom fans, and some of the women, upset that Giulia just started and she’s already in the showcase match. Tam Nakano and Momo Watanabe publicly complained about not being in the match.
317
318But the unfortunate mentality in Japan every bit as much as in the U.S. is that a woman being able to wrestle well is nice and good, but their looks are more important, with the idea of growing the brand, even though if you do go back historically, the biggest drawing women in Japanese wrestling history were not the most conventionally pretty, and as much as Mimi Hagiwara, Takako Inoue and Kazue Nagahori had the look, it was Jackie Sato, Maki Ueda, Lioness Asuka and Chigusa Nagayo who were the biggest babyface idols. But it’s also a very different period and the way those women got over on highly rated network shows by singing and fighting and having top ten songs can’t be duplicated today.
319
320After the Stardom match, the rest of the 11 match show, in order, has Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma & Yota Tsuji & Yuya Uemura vs. Toa Henare & Karl Fredericks & Clark Connors & Alex Coughlin, Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi vs. Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Jushin Liger & Tatsumi Fujinami & Great Sasuke & Tiger Mask (with El Samurai in the corner) vs. Ryusuke Taguchi & Shinjiro Otani & Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Naoki Sano (with Kuniaki Kobayashi in the corner), Evil & Sanada & Shingo Takagi & Bushi vs. Minoru Suzuki & Zack Sabre Jr. & Taichi & Desperado, Hirooki Goto & Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano & Yoshi-Hashi vs. KENTA & Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens, Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa defend the IWGP tag team titles against tournament winners David Finlay & Juice Robinson, Lance Archer defends the U.S. title against Jon Moxley in a Texas Death match (match can only be won by knockout or submission), Will Ospreay vs. Hiromu Takahashi for the IWGP jr. title, Jay White vs. Tetsuya Naito for the IC title and Kazuchika Okada vs. Kota Ibushi for the IWGP title.
321
322The 1/5 show, which starts at 2 p.m. local time, which is midnight Eastern and 9 p.m. Pacific on Saturday night, has a gauntlet series of matches with Taguchi & Makabe & Yano defending the Never trios titles against teams of Ishii & Yoshi-Hashi & Robbie Eagles, Evil & Takagi & Bushi, Taichi & Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru and Fale & Yujiro Takahashi & Owens. From there, it is Liger’s retirement match teaming with Sano against Ryu Lee (Dragon Lee) & Hiromu Takahashi, El Phantasmo & Taiji Ishimori defend the IWGP jr. tag titles against tournament winners Sho & Yoh, Sabre Jr. defends the British heavyweight title against Sanada, the 1/4 U.S. champion defends against Robinson, KENTA defends the Never openweight title against Goto, the 1/4 losers of the IWGP and IC title matches then face off with the winner getting an IWGP/IC dual title match in February, Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Chris Jericho and the 1/4 winners of the IWGP and IC title matches meet to crown the first person to hold both of the major belts simultaneously.
323
324The shows look strong with Ospreay vs. Takahashi and Okada vs. Ibushi matches on the first night expected to be match of the year level, Naito vs. White is a major big match show, Archer vs. Moxley looks like a great brawl and the eight-mans are there to build title matches on the second night.
325
326The second night is still the bigger show. The crowning of the double champion has been built for nearly a year, when Naito started talking about it. Still, it’s Liger’s last match, and regardless of how good it will or won’t be (which largely depends on how little Sano is involved because Liger in with Lee and Takahashi will be great) and you can argue Liger as the greatest junior heavyweight wrestler of all-time, and certainly among the best workers who ever lived, and he can still go at 55. Tanahashi vs. Jericho is a first-ever meeting of two of the biggest stars of the last 15 years, any mix and match combo of the 1/4 main bouts should be outstanding, KENTA vs. Goto has been built for months and should involve Katsuyori Shibata in Goto’s corner. Sabre vs. Sanada have always had outstanding matches and this is their biggest one.
327
328Both Dome shows will likely last almost exactly five hours, which does mean they will have to pick and choose who gets time and some guys will be rushed. On 1/4, you have to figure the top four matches will get their time and the other matches will be short. For 1/5, stuff may be short other than the last two matches which both seemingly have to get 25 minutes or more.
329
330New Japan finished out its year on 12/21 with a sold out Korakuen Hall crowd of 1,727 paid for Liger’s 472nd and final match in the building. Most of Liger’s farewells, notably his last U.S. match (San Jose) and last match in his hometown (Hiroshima) were not what they should have been and he was just in a prelim. Here, he was put in the main event as part of a dream trio with Tanahashi & Ibushi, very much the concept of the greatest wrestler of the previous generation, the greatest wrestler of the current generation and the greatest wrestler of the next generation as a special team. Even so, and Liger did get to shine, his real farewell is 1/5 at the Tokyo Dome with the ceremony on 1/6 at New Year’s Dash.
331
332Here he got to shine, they even teased him pinning Okada, but they book generally long-term and Okada doesn’t lose just to give fans a quick pop, it’s only done for a major purpose.
333
334The show also shot the final angles for the Dome and was essentially their version of the Mania go-home Raw. It was mostly about building most of the key matches, although Liger’s last match, in the main event position, was strong, even if he was there to put Okada over in the end, while an Ishii & Ospreay vs. Hiromu Takahashi & Evil match was one of the year’s best tag bouts.
335
3361. Ryusuke Taguchi & Tomoaki Honma & Yota Tsuji beat Togi Makabe & Tiger Mask & Yuya Uemura in 10:14. Uemura, who lost the fall, got to shine early before being pinned by Taguchi after a Dodon. ***1/4
337
3382. Robbie Eagles & Sho & Yoh beat El Phantasmo & Taiji Ishimori & Gedo via DQ in 9:47. Sho attacked Phantasmo right away and they were all brawling in the stands. Sho & Yoh & Eagles all did dives. Eagles did a 450 on Ishimori’s knee and then put him in the Ron Miller special, but Phantasmo pulled ref Kenta Sato out of the ring. Phantasmo hit Eagles with a belt shot for a rare DQ. This was all to set up the Dome match. Phantasmo went to hit Yoh with a belt shot but he moved and Phantasmo hit Ishimori. Yoh grabbed the belt and teased hitting Phantasmo with it, but threw the belt down and instead Sho & Yoh hit the 3K on Phantasmo and then they took their tournament trophies that they won and that Phantasmo & Ishimori had stolen back. **
339
3403. Bushi pinned Zack Sabre Jr. in 5:11 in a non-title match. It’ll be interesting to see where this is going. It was scheduled as Sanada & Bushi vs. Sabre & Taichi, but Sanada had a head injury from the night before. Taichi was in Sabre’s corner under a mask as The Masked Black Horse, since the mask had a horse’s mane on it. Black Horse interfered a few times. Kevin Kelly was screaming it was Taichi. Bushi hit Black Horse with a tope and did a sick draping DDT on the apron. Great finish with Bushi winning clean with the Bushi roll. Black Horse attacked ref Sato and beat him up while Sabre attacked Tsuji. Sabre did a great job of making this loss seem like a huge deal, the exact opposite of how it’s usually played in the U.S. It ended with Black Horse going up to Kevin Kelly and introducing himself as “Black Horse,” like he’d just met Kelly for the first time. **½
341
3424. KENTA & Bad Luck Fale & Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa beat Juice Robinson & David Finlay & Hirooki Goto & Toa Henare in 8:27. Goto and KENTA were pretty intense. KENTA pinned Henare with the GTS. Henare keeps losing but he continues to look good. After the match, KENTA took out Goto with a GTS, Tonga took out Finlay with a gunstun and Loa took out Robinson with apeshit. Tonga & Loa then hit Robinson & Finlay with belt shots. **1/4
343
3445. Will Ospreay & Tomohiro Ishii beat Evil & Hiromu Takahashi in 13:24. Just super, because Ospreay vs. Hiromu was fast-paced and incredible, while Ishii vs. Evil was every bit as good if not better with the intense striking exchanges. Ospreay did a huracanrana on the floor and springboard forearm off the barricade. Takahashi power bombed Ospreay. The crowd went nuts for an Ishii vs. Evil exchange. There’s little doubt Ospreay vs. Takahashi will be fantastic. Takahashi is the same as he was other than he hasn’t done any really crazy spots, and that’s for the better. And he also may be saving those and this was all about solid wrestling and exchanges. Ospreay is doing less big moves but making them mean more. Ospreay used a space flying tiger drop on Takahashi. This left Ishii vs. Evil, and they exchanged moves until Ishii pinned Evil after a brainbuster. ****½
345
3466. Tetsuya Naito & Shingo Takagi beat Jay White & Chase Owens in 16:12. Naito and White were the focus, but the bigger message is that Takagi should get a big push this year and he’d be my pick for New Japan Cup. He’s got the charisma, the fire and he’s as good as any wrestler on the planet and perhaps the universe if Kris Statlander is the best alien wrestler because he’s way above her level. It picked up when Takagi tagged in. Naito and White did a lot more than they usually would at a house show and Owens vs. Takagi was great. Takagi pinned Owens with Last of the Dragon. Naito attacked White after the match and threw him into ringside chairs and then sat down in a chair and taunted him. ***½
347
3487. Kazuchika Okada & Yoshi-Hashi & Rocky Romero beat Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kota Ibushi & Jushin Liger in 14:52. The idea of the Liger & Tanahashi & Ibushi team is it was the best wrestler of the previous generation, the best wrestler today, and the best wrestler of the next generation. Liger came out with a black costume. There was early cheerleading on who the crowd would cheer more with Okada vs. Ibushi. It was mixed. You’d think Ibushi would have a big edge and it was only slight. Liger was the most over. The one thing about him is he did so much stuff when he was young, yet now, at 55, while clearly nowhere near what he was, there are very very few guys at 55 ever that have been at his level. He was in here with the best in the world and at no point slowed the match down and added to it. Another interesting note as the year ended is that Okada has lost three matches all year, and all had meaning, White at the Tokyo Dome to set up Okada winning the rematch in Madison Square Garden, Sanada at the last second in the G-1 tournament to set up the King of Pro Wrestling main event, and Ibushi in the G-1 block finals, to set up the Tokyo Dome main event. That’s how you book a legend. He doesn’t go undefeated, but he never loses without good reason. Ibushi nailed Okada with a head kick. Ibushi used the Okada style dropkick on him. Liger made his last hot tag ever in the building and they did a stretch where they teased he could pin Okada, which because of how rare it was and the circumstances, really told a story here. He used a top rope superplex, a Toyota roll and a Liger bomb. Yoshi-Hashi made a less second diving save to break up that pin. Tanahashi and Ibushi did pescados on Yoshi-Hashi and Romero. Liger went for the brainbuster on Okada, who reversed into a spinning tombstone and hit the rainmaker for the pin. The post-match was your well-booked go-home angle. Liger was helped to the back. Okada and Ibushi were left in the ring with Okada holding up the belt and Ibushi holding up the G-1 briefcase. Then snow came from the ceiling which is the traditional end, the Dome main eventers in the ring with the snow and Tokyo Dome music playing. White then attacked both of them. Naito ran in and attacked White. Gedo hit Naito in the back with a chair. White gave Naito and Ibushi Saito suplexes. Gedo hit Okada who no sold it and laid out Gedo. White gave Okada a Saito suplex. White went for the bladerunner on Okada. Okada escaped and hit the dropkick and knocked White out of the ring. The show ended with Okada saying that when you’re talking about double gold belts, being a legend, and making history, he is the best there is. ****
349
350UFC in South Korea
351
352By Ryan Frederick
353
354In the last UFC fight of the decade, arguably the most exciting fighter of the decade put on a career-best performance that could catapult him into a title fight.
355
356“'The Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung finished future Hall Of Famer Frankie Edgar in 3:18 in the main event of the 12/21 UFC event in Busan, South Korea, the final UFC event of 2019. It was the first time in over eleven years Jung had fought in his home country.
357
358Jung got a huge reaction coming out and was completely dominant over Edgar. He dropped Edgar twice in the fight with the same combination and was pounding away as he flattened Edgar out looking for the finish. Edgar, who is super tough, was given every opportunity to keep fighting by referee Marc Goddard. While he got out of trouble the first time, after he was dropped the second time by Jung, Goddard stepped in to stop the fight.
359
360Edgar was taking this fight on short notice after Jung's original opponent, Brian Ortega, had to pull out after suffering a torn ACL during training camp. Edgar was preparing for a move to 135 pounds in January, but jumped at the chance to fight Jung when Ortega was forced out as it was a fight Edgar has always wanted, and the two were originally scheduled to fight each other in November 2018. Edgar still plans on making the move down to bantamweight.
361
362Jung has now won two straight fights and would be 4-0 since his return had he not been knocked out in the last second by Yair Rodriguez. He is also one of the most popular fighters at 145 pounds and has established himself as a very good television draw. Edgar is a tough fighter to finish as this was only the second time Edgar has been finished, and only the third time Edgar has lost a non-title bout. Edgar is one of those guys who if you beat him, a title shot should be coming.
363
364Jung called out new UFC Featherweight Champion Alexander Volkanovski after the fight, saying, "I want Volkanovski!", to a huge response from the crowd. Jung did say he was going to have surgery on his eyes after the fight as he has been seeing double lately. Volkanovski underwent surgery earlier in the week to repair a broken hand suffered in his title win over Max Holloway.
365
366When it comes to who challenges Volkanovski next, Holloway getting an immediate rematch looks to be the plan and is really the right call. However, if Holloway decides to take time away to the point where Volkanovski defends the title in the meantime, Jung is the fight to make. It is a fight fans will want to see, and with Jung's popularity and his current stretch, you shouldn't risk putting him in a situation where he could lose a title eliminator fight.
367
368Jung has a strong resume when it comes to Most Exciting Fighter Of The Decade. He only fought ten times during the decade as injuries and mandatory military service in his home country kept him away from fighting from August 2013 until February 2017, and he had other long stretches of inactivity due to recovering from said injuries.
369
370During the decade, Jung was involved in two fights named Fight Of The Year. He's fought eight times in the UFC, and he has eight post-fight bonuses, which are the most in the UFC's featherweight division. His fight against Leonard Garcia in the WEC in April 2010 is one of the all-time great fights in the sport and was a big reason that WEC pay-per-view was a success as a lot of fans bought that show late after that fight was televised on the prelims. All of his UFC fights have ended in a stoppage. He has four first-round knockout wins, one of them coming in seven seconds, and he was the first man to win by a Twister submission in the UFC. Other than the last-second loss to Rodriguez in a fight he was going to win, Jung's only other UFC loss came to Jose Aldo in a title fight where Jung blew out his shoulder.
371
372As far as pure action goes, the only other guy currently on Jung's level where you know to tune in right away because the fight is going to be crazy right away might be Justin Gaethje. Other fighters you could throw in the mix for the most-exciting fighter this decade would be Robbie Lawler, Tony Ferguson, Conor McGregor, Donald Cerrone, Max Holloway and a laundry list of others.
373
374That was the highlight of a card filled with many fighters from South Korea as this was only the second time the UFC has run in the country. It was also in front of one of the better UFC crowds of the year as the fans went crazy for all of the Korean fighters and were hot during several of the fights.
375
376One of those fighters was Doo Ho Choi, “The Korean Superboy,” , fighting for the first time in almost two years. Choi did lose to Charles Jourdain in an exciting fight, and it might be the last time he fights for a while. Choi has been waiting to serve his mandatory military service in South Korea, and it is expected to start sometime soon. While he has been waiting to start serving, he has been unable to leave the country, which led to inactivity in his fighting career as he had to wait until the UFC ran an event in the country before he could fight. Choi also suffered a broken arm during the fight and has already undergone surgery.
377
378There were two fights on the card that had potential future title shot ramifications involved in them. In the light heavyweight co-main event, Volkan Oezdemir scored a razor-thin decision win over Aleksandar Rakic. Rakic was gaining momentum at 205 pounds and an impressive win could have put him in the conversation, but Oezdemir halted that momentum with the win.
379
380In a flyweight fight, Alexandre Pantoja finished Matt Schnell in the first round of an exciting fight. With the flyweight title now vacated by Henry Cejudo, Pantoja could get the first shot at the new champion, which will be decided in a fight between Joseph Benavidez and Deiveson Figuiredo on 2/29 in Norfolk, Virginia.
381
382The show at the Sajik Arena in Busan drew a crowd of 10,651 fans. No gate was announced.
383
384The main card streamed on live on ESPN+, airing from 5 AM to 8 AM eastern time. The prelims did air live on ESPN from 2 AM to 5 AM eastern time, which meant they started at 11 PM on Friday on the west coast. It wasn't a highly-rated prelims as there was no reported number and it wasn't in the top 150 shows on the day Saturday. Nothing on the show showed up in the top twenty on Google Searches.
385
386The $50,000 bonuses went to Charles Jourdain and Doo Ho Choi for Fight Of The Night, while the bonuses for Performance Of The Night went to Chan Sung Jung and Alexandre Pantoja.
3871. Alateng Heili (14-7-1) beat Ryan Benoit (10-6) via split decision on scores of 28-29, 29-28 and 29-28 in a bantamweight fight. Benoit was fighting for the first time in over two years. Benoit was landing hard body kicks in the first and was ahead on the striking throughout the first, though Heili landed a hard right late that almost dropped him. Benoit was landing body kicks early in the second before Heili turned it on by landing some good punches. He had Benoit retreating and busted his nose open, and then Heili rocked Benoit late in the second. Heili went to the takedowns in the third and scored on three of them and landed more on the feet. They both traded in a late flurry and the last round was close. I had it 29-28 for Heili giving him the final two rounds. Media scores were 100% for Heili. This was a good fight.
3882. Amanda Lemos (7-1-1) beat Miranda Granger (7-1) in 3:43 in a women's strawweight fight. Granger was taking this fight on short notice and both were dropping down to 115 pounds. Lemos got an early trip takedown and was controlling from the top. Granger was looking for an arm and then a leg but eventually gave up her back. Lemos then grabbed a tight squeeze around the jaw of Granger and Granger went limp and out cold. This was an excellent submission by Lemos.
3893. Raoni Barcelos (15-1) beat Said Nurmagomedov (13-2) via unanimous decision on scores of 30-27, 29-28 and 29-28 in a bantamweight fight. Nurmagomedov was coming out with spinning stuff early on, both kicks and back fists. Barcelos was landing some punches and kicks but Nurmagomedov was doing good with the jab. Barcelos was landing leg kicks early in the second that were having an effect. Barcelos was able to get the back in a scramble and was working for a choke at the end of the second. Nurmagomedov was landing kicks early in the third and was doing well until Barcelos got a takedown and was working for a choke though he was unable to secure it. I had it 29-28 for Barcelos giving him the second and third rounds. Media scores were 100% for Barcelos.
3904. Alexandre Pantoja (22-4) beat Matt Schnell (14-5) in 4:17 in a flyweight fight. They were trading huge punches early in a wild exchange. Pantoja was rocking Schnell early but then Schnell rocked him. Pantoja was able to get a takedown and landed some good punches from the top but they got up. Pantoja then face-planted Schnell with a big right hand and finished him off with a few more punches. This was a great fight while it lasted. Pantoja may get the next title shot with this performance.
3915. Omar Morales (9-0) beat Dong Hyun Ma (16-11-3) via unanimous decision on scores of 30-27, 30-26 and 29-28 in a lightweight fight. Ma got a big reaction being for first Korean on the card. They traded early and Morales got a takedown. Ma was trying hard for a kimura from the bottom but Morales defended it and scored some late ground-and-pound in the first. Both were being patient in the second and landing a little but Morales landed more and did more damage with some body kicks. Morales was landing combos in the third and dropped Ma with a spinning heel kick right to the jaw. Morales got on top and spent almost all of the final minutes of the fight on the top. I had it 30-27 for Morales and all media scores had the fight for him.
3926. Seung Woo Choi (8-3) beat Suman Mokhtarian (8-2) via unanimous decision on scores of 29-26, 29-26 and 29-25 in a featherweight fight. They traded early and Choi made Mokhtarian stumble with a high kick. They clinched and Choi was landing elbows and lots of knees. He got the position taken away and a point deducted after grabbing the fence several times. Choi landed late. He came out strong in the second round and landed a huge flurry that had Mokhtarian covering up. Choi almost ended it as Mokhtarian fell to the mat but he got on top and ended the round with some big ground-and-pound. They traded in the third and Mokhtarian had Choi rocked. He went to capitalize but tried an ill-fated takedown and Choi reversed to side control and stayed on top for the rest of the fight and was landing some big elbows. I had the fight 29-26 for Choi with the point deduction, giving him a 10-8 second round. All media scores were for Choi.
3937. Ciryl Gane (6-0) beat Tanner Boser (17-6-1) via unanimous decision on scores of 30-26, 30-26 and 30-26 in a heavyweight fight. Gane is a physically imposing heavyweight. He was so much quicker than Boser in there. Gane was landing all sorts of punches and kicks and knees while switching stances in the first. The second was more of the same with the volume turned up. Boser was cut open under his right eye. Boser did land some punches and kicks. Gane was landing a lot of knees to the body in the third and had Boser rocked but Boser showed lots of toughness in making it to the end of the 15 minutes but Gane was dominant this entire fight. I had it 30-27 for Gane but the third could have been scored a 10-8. All media scores were for Gane. Gane was impressive.
3948. Kyung Ho Kang (17-8 1 NC) beat Liu Pingyuan (15-6) via split decision on scores of 28-29, 29-28 and 30-27 in a bantamweight fight. Kang got an early takedown in the first and spent the rest of the round on top but Pingyuan was staying very active on the bottom. Pingyuan threatened with a guillotine but they got up only for Kang to get another takedown. Kang landed just one significant strike in the first and Pingyuan was way more active. Kang started the second round with a big head kick and got a takedown. He was way more active in the second as he applied maximum pressure from the top. Pingyuan was attacking early in the third and defended a takedown from Kang. Pingyuan tried a takedown but stumbled to his back and Kang ended up on top. Pingyuan was throwing lots of elbows from the bottom and opened a nasty cut on Kang and kept landing sharp elbows as the fight ended. I had it 29-28 for Kang giving him the first two rounds. 100% of the media scores were for Kang.
3959. Jun Yong Park (11-4) beat Marc-Andre Barriault (11-4) via unanimous decision on scores of 29-28, 29-28 and 30-27 in a middleweight fight. Park was landing more strikes in the first and got a takedown and was in control for the majority of the first. He landed an uppercut for a lot of the first. Park scored three more takedowns in the second and was landing some good counter punches while Barriault was applying pressure and landing leg kicks. Park got another takedown in the third and landed more but Barriault was applying more pressure and did land a lot of leg kicks. The third was close. I had it 29-28 for Park giving him the first two rounds and he definitely won the fight. All media scores were for Park.
39610. Da-un Jung (13-2) beat Mike Rodriguez (10-4 1 NC) in 1:04 in a light heavyweight fight. Rodriguez was throwing kicks early. Jung dropped Rodriguez with a hard right hand and finished it off with follow-up punches on the ground.
39711. Charles Jourdain (10-2) beat Doo Ho Choi (15-4) in 4:32 in the second round in a featherweight fight. Choi hadn't fought since January 2018. He's getting ready for his mandatory military service in South Korea and hasn't been able to leave the country so he couldn't fight until they ran an event there. Both were firing away with heavy punches early. They both landed hard punches and Jourdain's nose was busted up. Choi knocked Jourdain down but Jourdain recovered and knocked Choi down before the end of the first. They were trading body kicks early in the first before they started trading hands. Choi was stalking Jourdain around the Octagon but Jourdain was landing. Jourdain then knocked Choi down with a left hand and the fight was stopped. This was a fun fight and good win for Jourdain. Choi will likely start his military service soon so it will be at least two years before he fights again.
39812. Volkan Oezdemir (17-4) beat Aleksandar Rakic (12-2) via split decision on scores of 28-29, 29-28 and 29-28 in a light heavyweight fight. These guys were moving very fast and throwing heavy punches. Rakic landed with slightly more volume in the first and was mixing his punches and kicks and really attacking the body. Oezdemir did land a good amount of leg kicks. Oezdemir was landing good leg kicks in the second and Rakic was landing body kicks and some sharp elbows. Oezdemir did land late but the second round was one of those that could have gone either way as it was razor-thin close. The third round was even on the striking as they were both swinging for the fences. Rakic used a lot of energy trying takedowns and Oezdemir was defending them and landing some hard punches. The third round was close as well. The fight overall was close and could have gone either way. I had it 29-28 for Rakic giving him the first two rounds. Media scores were 13% for Oezdemir and 87% for Rakic. This was a big win for Oezdemir as Rakic had a lot of momentum coming into the fight.
39913. Chan Sung Jung (17-5) beat Frankie Edgar (23-8-1) in 3:18 in a featherweight fight. Jung got a huge reaction coming out. Edgar was mixing his kicks and punches early and Jung had to defend a takedown. Jung dropped Edgar with a combo and was pounding away as he flattened Edgar out a couple of times. Marc Goddard was warning Edgar to defend and he was covering up and Goddard was giving him a lot of chances to go on. Jung was landing lots of punches but Edgar was able to escape to his feet. Jung then dropped him again with the same combo and the fight was stopped. This was an incredible performance from Jung and people should watch this performance.
400
401Rene Goulet
402
403By Patric Laprade
404
405At a time when information travels quickly, too quickly sometimes,
406
407the death of former wrestler René Goulet brought us back to a time when the world was smaller, and the news was traveling much slower.
408
409Indeed, on 12/11, we heard the news that he had passed away, on 5/25, unbelievable, but true.
410
411Although some reports gave the credit to the Cauliflower Alley Club, the fact is that it's a Tweet from the Book Pro Wrestlers account at around 1:30 p.m., citing Barry Rose, a superfan from Florida who organized wrestling conventions in the past years, that broke the news. Indeed, Rose had talked to someone and they were talking about recent wrestlers’ deaths and that person mentioned Rene Goulet. Since he had not heard of it, Rose checked online and found the funeral home’s website where it stated that Goulet died on 5/25. The CAC reported it around 90 minutes after that Tweet was out.
412
413Over the years, I have often spoken to Goulet on the phone, mainly on his birthday or when a major death occurred. An inveterate golfer, he often told me that he always tried to play lower than his age, which I found quite amusing. We spoke in French, but sometimes it was easier to speak to him in English. He had kept a strong accent, but had lived in the United States for 50 years.
414
415So I called his home, telling myself that in the worst-case scenario, his wife Pierrette would answer me, but no one answered. I then realized that for at least 18 months, if not two years, I had not been able to talk to him. I was calling, it wasn't answering, I was leaving a message and I had no return phone calls. Among other things, I wanted to talk to him more in depth about André the Giant.
416
417I then called Greg Oliver, who also spoke to Goulet from time to time. He had seen the Tweet go but didn't know any more.
418
419So I did some research online to finally find the website of a funeral home where his death was indicated, the same website that Barry Rose found online. It was the right name, the right date of birth, the right city and the right name for his wife. It was Goulet. And he did die last May, at the age of 86.
420
421It's hard to explain. Bertrand Hébert and I met him in 2013 just outside Charlotte, in Indian Trail, North Carolina, where he had lived for more than 25 years. He seemed bitter to us about the WWE, or rather, to have been left out of the company in 1997 when he was a road agent for the company. The impression seemed to be shared by his wife. Those feelings were confirmed to me by people who knew him. At the time, the business wasn’t going well (it was just before it would turn around) and WWF had to let go a few road agents, as they didn’t need that many. So Goulet, Jim Meyers (George Steele) and Joe Scarpa (Chief Jay Strongbow) were terminated. Tony Garea as well, but he was kept around in other capacity. Gerald Brisco was the one who had the task to tell Goulet about the bad news.
422
423In fact, the key people in WWE, who usually know when something like that happen, didn’t know. Patterson and Brisco heard about it at the same time as everybody else. Goulet kept in touch of what was happening in the wrestling world. He was reading the news on SLAM! Wrestling regularly. But he had not kept in touch with his former colleagues and never participated in conventions bringing together former wrestlers. Goulet didn’t do much traveling after he was let go. He went on a few occasions to the CAC, was honored in Waterloo, Iowa, but in 2013, even though there was a big convention 30 minutes from where he lived, he wasn’t there. I was told that he had stopped going to WWE shows in Charlotte, where he would usually go to talk to Pat Patterson and some other guys.
424
425He had not talked to Patterson in many years. Rick Martel is one of the few to have spoken to him in recent years. Both are from Quebec City and Goulet knew Martel’s family for a longtime as he was wrestling Martel’s uncle, Bob Casino (real name Real Chouinard) in Quebec back in the early 1960s. Did the family simply decide not to publicize it? Was it Goulet's will? It was also the will of Jacques Rougeau Sr. before the family made him understand that this could not happen in his case. We will probably never have those questions answered, although an educated guess would be that the family didn’t want the news to break out. WWE has still not talked about it on their website or on social media. When I asked them about it, I didn’t get an answer.
426
427Born Robert Bédard on July 12, 1932 in Quebec City, he had played hockey, had played boxing and amateur wrestling in his youth. He finally began to wrestle professionally at the age of 24. Scheduled against Maurice Vachon on February 24, 1956 at La Tour in Quebec City, and wrestling under his real name, he wrestled Gerard Dugas since Vachon couldn’t leave Montreal that day because of the weather.
428
429The local newspaper was very complimentary of Bedard, writing he showed power and strength and knew how to counter Dugas’ attacks. He was put over in his first pro match, to the delight of the crowd at La Tour. Larry Moquin was even quoted saying that Bedard would have a long career.
430
431Trained by Lucien Sansfacon, a former wrestler who wrestled in the 1930s and 1940s, he then toured the province, wrestling more often than not under the name Robert or Bob Bédard. But he was not wrestling often and the money was not there. Towards the end of 1962 and 1963, things were slowly improving for him. In Eddie Quinn's late days as promoter, in November 1962, he had worked against NWA champion Buddy Rogers and in January 1963, against Killer Kowalski.
432
433But it was really on July 31, 1963 that his life would change.
434
435That evening, he was wrestling Maurice Vachon on a card by a new promoter, wrestling legend Yvon Robert, at the Paul Sauvé Centre in Montreal. Vachon had asked him why he wasn't trying his luck in the United States. Goulet had explained to him that he did not speak any English. Vachon then told him that he would call promoter Wally Karbo in Minneapolis and that there would be no problems. Goulet finally called and Vachon had kept his word.
436
437"I told my wife that if it didn't work out after six months, we would come back and do something else in my life. I've lived in the United States ever since," Goulet said.
438
439He became René Goulet upon his arrival in the AWA. Promoter Verne Gagne (Karbo's business partner) was inspired by the popular French-Canadian singer Robert Goulet. Goulet wrestled for the AWA for ten years. After the AWA, he wrestled all over the United States, in cities such as Omaha, Amarillo and San Francisco. From San Francisco, he went to Portland for Don Owen on the recommendation of Pat Patterson, where he held the Pacific Northwest tag team title with Pepper Martin & Shag Thomas. When he and Martin were champions, they had two matches with world tag team champions Patterson & Ray Stevens, losing one in Portland, and going to a 60:00 draw in the other in Seattle. During the early part of 1966 he also had shots at Patterson & Stevens’ titles, once at the Cow Palace with Jim Hady as his partner, and also in Honolulu with Bill Watts as his partner. That's when he became an American citizen. Then, he went to Florida, Dallas and New York.
440
441On December 6, 1971 in New York, he won the most important title of his career. Teaming with Karl Gotch, they became the second WWWF tag team champions, defeating Luke Graham and another Quebecer, Tarzan Tyler. But their reign was short-lived, when Gotch went to work in Japan and Vince Sr didn't like that he didn't ask him.
442
443Before leaving WWWF, Goulet wrestled for Grand Prix Wrestling in Montreal. Indeed, at the first Grand Prix show at the Montreal Forum on December 15, 1971, Goulet was the one chosen to lose to Don Leo Jonathan, who was making a return to Quebec after several years. The Vachons had asked him to come and help them, as the company began to prepare for the rivalry between Jonathan and the Jean Ferré. Johnny Rougeau, who was at war with Grand Prix Wrestling, then called Vince McMahon Sr. to complain that he was sending guys to his competition. McMahon replied that he did not know.
444
445But Goulet owed everything to Maurice and nothing was going to make him miss this event.
446
447After Gotch's departure, Goulet continued his journey to Nashville, Los Angeles, Australia, Hawaii, Japan and Oklahoma. It was also in the early 1970s that Goulet wrestled in Germany under the name Buddy Rogers Jr. simply because the promoter thought he looked like him with his blond hair.
448
449Then in 1974, he became Sergeant Jacques Goulet, playing the role0 of a French legionnaire. It was Dick the Bruiser's idea. He teamed up with Don Fargo and then Zarnoff Leboeuf, in the team called the French Legionaries. Subsequently, following a call from George Scott, he wrestled in Charlotte, North Carolina, followed by California with Alexis Smirnoff. Smirnoff, also known as Michel Dubois, also teamed up with Goulet in Mid-Atlantic territory. Together, they competed in the final of a tournament for the NWA Mid-Atlantic tag team titles,
450
451RENE “SGT. JACQUES” GOULET
452
453 
454
455CAREER TITLE HISTORY
456
457 
458
459WWWF TAG TEAM: w/Karl Gotch def. Luke Graham & Tarzan Tyler December 6, 1971 New York; lost to King Curtis Iaukea & Baron Mikel Scicluna February 1, 1972 Philadelphia
460
461 
462
463NWA SOUTHERN HEAVYWEIGHT: def. Great Mephisto (Frankie Cain) December 7, 1970 Orlando; lost to Hiro Matsuda January 26, 1971 Tampa; def. Hiro Matsuda February 9, 1971 Tampa; lost to The Grappler (Johnny Walker) March 23, 1971 Tampa; def. Sweet Brown Sugar (Skip Young) April 21, 1981 Tampa; lost to Sweet Brown Sugar May 8, 1981 Orlando
464
465 
466
467NWA GEORGIA TAG TEAM: w/Ole Anderson def. Tommy Rich & Tony Atlas December 13, 1977 Macon; lost to Mr. Wrestling II (Johnny Walker) & Tony Atlas February 7,1978 Macon
468
469 
470
471WORLD WRESTLING ASSOCIATION TAG TEAM: w/Sgt. Don Fargo def. Wilbur Snyder & Pepper Gomez September 21, 1974 Indianapolis; Fargo left territory and was replaced by Sgt. Zarnoff LeBeouff April 1975; lost to Dick the Bruiser & The Crusher September 20, 1975 Indianapolis
472
473 
474
475PACIFIC NORTHWEST TAG TEAM: w/Pepper Martin def. Tony Borne & Professor Hiro (George Kahumia/Taro Myaki) June 1, 1966; lost to Mr. Fuji & Haru Sasaki July 25, 1966 Medford, OR; w/Shag Thomas def. Mr. Fuji & Haru Sasaki October 6, 1966 Salem, OR; lost to Tony Borne & Mr. Fuji October 25, 1966 Eugene, OR
476
477 
478
4791981 NEW JAPAN MSG TAG TEAM TOURNAMENT - w/Andre the Giant def. Antonio Inoki & Tatsumi Fujinami in finals
480
481 
482
4831982 NEW JAPAN MSG TAG TEAM TOURNAMENT - w/Andre the Giant (5th place)
484
485 
486
487TRAGOS/THESZ HALL OF FAME - 2010
488
489losing to Tim Woods and Dino Bravo in April 1977.
490
491 
492
493Goulet and Smirnoff teamed up for two years in this territory. Goulet also worked in Atlanta and eventually called his friend André the Giant to return to New York in the late 1970s. He then fought for New Japan, winning the Tag League tournament with André. He then left for Florida, returned to the Carolinas and the AWA, before returning for good to the WWF in September 1983.
494
495It was then, following a blocked artery, that he ended his career as a full-time wrestler and began as a road agent.
496
497From 1984 until the early 1990s, Pat Patterson, Vince McMahon's right-hand man, had two right-hand man himself at his side, two Quebecers, Goulet and Terry Garvin.
498
499"We were running the shows. We were producing the matches. I could wrestle in the first match, I'd change, I'd watch the show, I'd take the box office report. We helped start the company. We're the ones who put this together," Goulet said.
500
501Although his wrestling career was now secondary, Goulet still wrestled nearly 400 times between 1983 and 1987, when he set foot in a ring for the last time, at the age of 55, in legends battle royal organized by Patterson.
502
503He worked behind the scenes until 1997. It was common in the 1980s and 1990s to see Goulet on television, separating a fight, for example. But in 1997, Gerry Brisco called him to tell him he was let go.
504
505In retrospect, Goulet's career is filled with firsts. He was the first person to beat Ric Flair (in Flair’s second pro match, after Flair drew with George Gadaski in his debut). He was part of the first WWF match on the USA Network against Tito Santana. He was the first or one of the first matches of several young wrestlers such as The Iron Sheik, Jim Brunzell, Greg Gagne and Ken Patera. He was also the host of Café René during the Tuesday Night Titans produced by WWF in the early 1980s, a segment of interviews taken up in the 2000s by René Duprée.
506
507Given the circumstances, the cause of his death is not known. On the other hand, on the funeral home website, it is stated that donations can be sent to an association that raises funds for Alzheimer's. It is therefore likely that he had the disease. I remember that in my last conversation with him, I found him different and what he was telling me, made little or less sense. It had left me perplexed.
508
509Goulet is the fourth major former Quebec wrestler to die in 2019 after Michel Dubois, Jacques Rougeau Sr. and Fernand Fréchette.
510
511He is survived by his wife Pierrette and daughter Johanne.
512
513The biggest kickboxing match, perhaps since the fall of the K-1 promotion in Japan, was the 12/21 fight between Glory world heavyweight champion Rico Verhoeven of The Netherlands against his leading rival, Badr Hari of Morocco.
514
515From a business standpoint, the broadcast ended up being the second largest audience in the history of The Netherlands to ever watch a live sports event.
516
517The bout, which aired in the U.S. on UFC Fight Pass, was an amazing live spectacle, with the sold out GelreDeom in Arnheim, Netherlands with 31,000 fans coming across similarly to some of the big Anthony Joshua title fights in the U.K.
518
519The build and interviews were extremely well done, really showing how to create the conflict and personalities to make for the type of fight atmosphere that everyone wants but rarely actually happens.
520
521Kickboxing is a frustration in the sense that both boxing and MMA have huge followings in the U.S., but kickboxing never took off. In Japan, kickboxing was huge during the K-1 era from the mid-90s through about 2010, and while it still exists, nobody has been able to revive it since.
522
523Hari, 35, came along at the end of that era, and lost in the K-1 Grand Prix finals in 2008 to Remy Bonjasky and 2009 to Semmy Schiltt, both superstars of that era. He had a memorable loss in that era to Alistair Overeem in 2008, and won a rematch with him in 2009.
524
525Verhoeven, the champion, 30, came later. At 6-foot-5 and 261 pounds fighting weight, with his look and physique, he looks like Vince McMahon’s dream face of a company. Yet, he’s real, and he’s never broken through in much of the world.
526
527There was a cool element in the ring introduction that pro wrestling and/or MMA could copy that gave the bout even more of a larger-than-life feel.
528
529Hari, 6-foot-6 and 245 pounds, is kind of a Jimmy Connors/John McEnroe type athlete, a heel for the most part, but in real life, far more so with a track record that makes Jon Jones look like an angel. He’s been praised by the King of Morocco as one of the country’s sports heroes, while having a lengthy history of assault charges. His track record includes allegations of beating up bouncers at clubs, driving his car into the leg of a pedestrian, assaulting an ex-girlfriend and destroying her property, assaulting the stepbrother of an ex-girlfriend, breaking the nose, ankle and eye socket of a millionaire at a dance event.
530
531He had spent time behind bars but now, at 35, with a family and no publicized incidents since 2012, and he’s become a popular fighter. Even in Holland, he seemed to be every bit as popular as Verhoeven to the electric crowd.
532
533The two fought on December 10, 2016, with Verhoeven winning when Hari broke his arm at 1:22 of the second round. Hari has only fought once since then, a win over Hesdey Gerges that was overturned when both fighters tested positive for PEDs.
534
535Hari came into the fight with a 106-13 record and 92 knockouts.
536
537Verhoeven, 55-10 with 16 knockouts, has only lost once since 2012 and captured Glory’s world heavyweight title after winning a tournament in on October 12, 2013, at the Sears Center in Chicago. He’s only lost once since then had has 17 wins in a row.
538
539“The Baddest vs. The King: Three years in the making,” unfortunately ended up similar to the first fight. Hari, who has a propensity for first round knockouts, scored a knockdown in the first round. Verhoeven put him down with a low kick right at the end of the round, but it was more of a trip. In Glory, they announce the scores after every round and have five judges, instead of three, both improvements in how this is done compared to what is done in the U.S.
540
541Hari got five 10-8 scores. Open scoring, so fans and fighters can see what the score rather than play the guesswork game as in U.S. boxing and MMA, has been used previously in Japan. American commissions, ignoring other sports and the rest of the world, have never been open to changing it. I was once at a commission meeting in Nevada where it was brought up, and it wasn’t considered and dismissed immediately without even a trial.
542
543Verhoeven took the second round 10-9 across the board. Verhoeven clearly won although Hari did hurt him once. Hari was also tiring.
544
545In round three, Hari landed a beautiful left high kick and Verhoeven went down. He was hurt worse on this than the first knockout.
546
547And then, like in a movie, Hari went to finish Verhoeven with a spin kick. But it was Hari who went down, screaming and cursing. He couldn’t get up. In a replay, he was throwing a left kick and it appeared in pivoting on his right leg, it went out. But as he continued to curse, it was an injury to his left leg, apparently either a torn calf or broken bone above his ankle. He couldn’t get up and Verhoeven retained in :59 of the third round.
548
549The main event did 3.5 million viewers in a country with a population of 17.2 million. At the time the main event was on the air late Saturday night, there were 6.6 million people in the country watching television, meaning more than half of all viewers were watching the fight.
550
551The number was five times larger than their 2016 fight.
552
553What’s also notable is that when the show started, the kickboxing matches were only in sixth place in the live television viewing standings. For a show to slowly climb from sixth place to second place, as it was during the semifinal, to then draw a 53 share a half hour later, is amazing.
554
555And then door was left wide open for a rematch when Hari heals up.
556
557Pro Wrestling Guerrilla closed out its year on 12/20 with the culmination of a more than one year storyline as Bandido beat Jeff Cobb to become the first Mexican to ever win the PWG title.
558
559However, due to the date and other aspects, this was said by many to be a rare off night. The show didn’t sell out, which is either the first or second PWG show not to sell out since Ronda Rousey started coming, which dates back to around 2014 or so when it started getting more national attention.
560
561I can only recall maybe two or three shows in that period not sold out well in advance, and but a few sold out within ten minutes of tickets being put on sale.
562
563So many of the regulars are going to Japan and didn’t want to fly to Los Angeles so close to Japan or others traveling for the holidays. It was a bad date, but the reality is PWG has a hard time because they have to find open dates for the key talent as well as when the Globe Theater isn’t booked already.
564
565There are also aspects of the inevitable situation with the indies with AEW signing so many guys up, and WWE wanting anyone who has any potential ASAP. So they are basically having guys under contract to ROH or Impact, a few indie guys on the way up, Australians, David Starr and others. Months ago when I was at AAW, they gave me a total long-term on why the great indie promotions would struggle, as they were able to build to high prices by getting so much strong talent. Now it’s not available as much and you may find guys to replace them, but they aren’t as good so the show quality is tough, then will have to lower prices.
566
567Fenix missed the show due to transportation issues. His flight out of Mexico City was delayed for so long that by the time he got to Tijuana, where he landed, then crossed the border, and would hit traffic to Los Angeles, he wouldn’t have made it. He tried and they tried and that’s why it wasn’t announced until late.
568
569We were told it was not a classic PWG show, but every match was good. The David Starr matches were said to be great, playing heel against JD Drake who made a good impression in his debut, and then, replacing Fenix, having a great mat wrestling bout with Jonathan Gresham.
570
571Notes from Jeff Rosenfeld:
572
5731. Orange Cassidy vs. Tony Deppen - fun opening match. The story was Tony Deppen was going to get Orange Cassidy to actually wrestle and cut him off at the pass every time Orange Cassidy tried to do one of his trademark spots. This was the most I’ve ever seen Orange Cassidy do actual wrestling with actual dives and quick wrestling (with his hands out of his pockets). The finish was both Deppen and Cassidy spit orange juice at each other, and Deepen blinded accidentally rolled up the referee while Cassidy counted the pin. Deppen thinking he won had his guard down and Cassidy pinned him. It was a fun match and my friend who had never been to a wrestling show before said this was his favorite match of the night.
574
5752. Mick Moretti vs. Prince DeSilva - the match was cold at the start with even a few heckles but warmed up over the course of the match. They did a whole lot in the match and moved the crowd to get behind DeSilva. They did a comedy spot which was almost a beat-for-beat redo of the Gentleman Jervis-Orange Cassidy sleep sequence. Moretti won after catching DeSilva out of a shooting star press and getting him in a unique submission I’ve never seen, a head sand leg scissors. After the match there was a brief “please come back” chant that quickly died.
576
5773. David Starr beat JD Drake - this was a really great match with Starr playing heel and Drake as the everyman face. This was a great version of a classic wrestling match with some modern flourishes (like Drake with a moonsault). Starr worked over Drake’s legs and Drake did a great job of selling. The finish was a low blow by Starr followed by a lariat and pin. This was a surprisingly great match and the crowd chanted for Drake to come back.
578
5794. Blake Christian beat Jake Atlas with a springboard version of his twisting dive. This was a relatively short match but fast paced and exciting throughout. They worked well together and did a variety of dives. Atlas twice tried the LGB-DDT but Christian dodged it both times. Atlas was almost as over as he was a BOLA though there was heat among a few fans for him leaving for WWE as this was his farewell.
580
5815. Aramis and Rey Horus beat tag champs Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz in a high flying match where Xavier and Wentz did a lot to get heel heat throughout the match. While the match was exciting with some cool spots and dives, you could tell that they held back a bit so that in the rematch (which should be for the tag team titles) they could turn it up a notch. Aramis rolled up Wentz for the win.
582
5836. Jonathan Gresham beat David Starr via knockout (same submission he beat him with in the finals of BOLA). This was another great match with lots of great mat wrestling and cool submission sequences; check out the link to the photography to see some of them. After Gresham won, Starr attacked him. Given that Starr was a last minute replacement for Fenix, it’s pretty impressive how quickly they put together such a good match.
584
5857. Bandido beat Jeff Cobb to win the PWG title. The finals had a lot of heat with most of the crowd backing Bandido. Cobb did a bunch of subtle heel stuff in the match like grabbing Bandido by the hair. The match was a lot of fun, but at times Cobb seemed a little slow to keep up with Bandido’s style. Bandido hit his springboard German suplex twice during the match (and Cobb fought it off once). He also hit his top rope fall-away moonsault slam, which was impressive given Cobb’s size. Bandido won with his 21 plex.
586
587A few notes again about the month of January. We will be skipping two weeks of the Observer this month.
588
589There will be no issue this week because I’m going to Japan for several shows. If you are in Japan, I’ve got a talk show at Toudoukhan’s wrestling shop in Tokyo at 11 a.m. on 1/4, which is seven minutes by train from the Tokyo Dome so it’ll be over with plenty of time to eat and get to the show which starts at 4 p.m. Fumi Saito will also be there so if you have any kinds of questions on Japanese wrestling history, he’s got the memory and the knowledge of everything. Even if you are not attending this, if you are going to Japan, Toudoukhan’s is a must if you are a wrestling fan. It’s the biggest pro wrestling shop in the world and has everything you can imagine including programs and magazines from Japan and the U.S. dating back to the 1950s birth of Japanese pro wrestling, wrestling records (you know, the old vinyl stuff that the stars cut in the 70s and 80s when it was on prime time network TV and they were major celebrities), tapes, old championship belts on display, old ring gear from the biggest stars, and it also covers MMA. To me, it is the ultimate pro wrestling museum. One of the things with the show is you can probably find stuff and Fumi and I would probably be able to tell back stories about it.
590
591We will do something for web site subscribers next week with an update of the history of New Japan at the Tokyo Dome issue from last year, adding in some of the shows that weren’t on 1/4, including the Antonio Inoki retirement show and the Keiji Muto vs. Nobuhiko Takada first match and Kensuke Sasaki vs. Toshiaki Kawada first match, as it was the rematches on 1/4 those years. There will be an issue the following week but it will probably be delayed a few days.
592
593I’m also on the Chris Jericho cruise from 1/20 to 1/24 as Bryan Alvarez and I will be doing shows daily during that week, but I won’t be able to do an issue. From there, I don’t anticipate anything else for the rest of the year that would change the weekly schedule.
594
595Raw on 12/23 broke the previous week’s modern non-holiday ratings low by ten percent.
596
597The combination of a taped show one week earlier and a strong Green Bay Packers vs. Minnesota Vikings game that did 13,566,000 viewers left Raw with 1,835,000 viewers (a higher than usual 1.39 viewers per home) and 678,000 in 18-49.
598
599The number broke the all-time holiday low of 2,050,000 set the previous week. Raw was 12th for the night on cable overall, but beat everything that wasn’t either news or NFL related except for the Holiday Baking Championships on the Food Network that did 1,857,000 viewers. In 18-49, it lost to NFL related programming on ESPN and one episode of Love & Hip Hop Hollywood on VH-1.
600
601The number was up from the same week last year, but last year’s show was on Christmas Eve, which did 1,775,000 viewers. That was the only modern Raw show in history to finish lower than this, as this show actually was lower than the New Years Eve show that did 1,985,000 viewers.
602
603The 12/23 date historically shouldn’t be classified as a bad day to draw numbers. The last time 12/23 fell on a Monday was six years ago, in 2013. On that night, Raw did 3.80 million viewers, which was what it was doing every week during football season. The NFL did 13.23 million viewers had-to-head which was considered a good number, so essentially over six years, the NFL has stayed the same and Raw is less than half of what it was.
604
605But the night did hurt somewhat since overall television watching was down 6.9 percent, but that’s also because most of television including all the networks were all reruns so the competition was far less than usual.
606
607The high point of the show was 1,969,000 viewers was the end of Bobby Lashley vs. Cedric Alexander, the second R-Truth vs. Akira Tozawa segment in New York and Drew McIntyre vs. Zack Ryder. The low point at 1,618,000 was Rusev vs. No Way Jose.
608
609In the segment-by-segment, The Kevin Owens/Mojo Rawley interview to set up the show opened at 1,958,0000 viewers. Owens vs. Rawley gained 6,000 viewers. Bobby Lashley vs. Cedric Alexander gained and Drew McIntyre vs. Zack Ryder gained 3,000 viewers. The Becky Lynch/Asuka interview segment and Aleister Black squash lost 87,000 viewers. The Buddy Murphy squash and Ricochet vs. Tony Nese gained 20,000 viewers. Charlotte Flair vs. Chelsea Green lost 25,000 viewers. The Randy Orton & Viking Raiders vs. A.J. Styles & Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson match lost 127,000 viewers. The Erick Rowan squash lost 100,000 viewers. Rusev vs. No Way Jose lost 32,000 viewers. And Rey Mysterio vs. Seth Rollins and the closing angle with Samoa Joe vs. AOP gained 108,000 viewers and closed at 1,726,000 viewers.
610
611The first-to-third hour drop wasn’t as pronounced as many weeks. Women 18-49 fell 22.2 percent, men 18-49 fell 10.4 percent, teenage girls fell 23.0 percent and teenage boys grew 17.0 percent while over 50 fell 11.8 percent
612
613The show did a 0.25 in 12-17 (down 37.5 percent from last week), 0.31 in 18-34 (down 26.2 percent from last week), 0.73 in 35-49 (down 6.4 percent) and 0.88 in 50+ (down 8.3 percent).
614
615The audience was 61.0 percent male in 18-49 and 42.6 percent male in 12-17. So male viewers were way down across the board, but especially among teenagers where they dropped 51.7 percent from last week.
616
617Smackdown on 12/20 drew a 1.49 rating and 2,395,000 viewers (1.34 viewers per home) and an 0.7 in the 18-49 demo. The rating was up 2.1 percent and the audience was up 2.8 percent from the prior week.
618
619The gain was likely due to all the other networks airing repeat programming with the exception of NBC in the second hour. Smackdown was the highest rated show of the night in 18-49, but even against rerun programming, FOX was last in total viewers among the four networks. Smackdown won in 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54, tied CBS for first in women 18-49 was way ahead in men 18-49 and was last in 50+.
620
621This is the first week Smackdown beat what FOX had in the time slot a year ago. Last year FOX had all reruns which averaged 2,213,000 viewers and an 0.5 in 18-49.
622
623The show did a 1.1 in New York, 0.9 in Los Angeles, 1.3 in Chicago, 1.1 in Philadelphia, 2.2 in Dallas, 0.9 in San Francisco, 1.9 in Washington, DC, 1.8 in Houston and 1.7 in Atlanta.
624
625Based on the major markets, the quarters went like this. The second quarter with Mandy Rose giving Otis a ham and Heavy Machinery vs. Revival street fight lost 10.3 percent of the total audience and 7.0 percent in 18-49. The finish of Machinery vs. Revival, Otis & Rose backstage again, Revival promo and Elias out gained 2.3 percent overall and 8,0 percent in 18-49. Carmella vs. Sonya Deville gained 0.8 percent overall but lost 5.7 percent in 18-49. New Day vs. Shinsuke Nakamura & Cesaro and post-match angle lost 2.2 percent overall and 8.5 percent in 18-49. Bayley vs. Dana Brooke lost 4.6 percent overall and 5.3 percent in 18-49. Sasha Banks vs. Lacey Evans lost 10.4 percent overall and 8.5 percent in 18-49. It was the show low point in both categories. The main event with Daniel Bryan & The Miz vs. King Corbin & Dolph Ziggler gained 17.0 percent overall 23.1 percent in 18-49.
626
627Bellator on 12/20 from Hawaii, the show scheduled to be headlined by Josh Barnett vs. Ronny Markes, but ended up losing its main event, did 228,000 viewers. It was the second lowest number Bellator has done on Paramount/Spike in prime time, with the record low being 202,000 for a taped show on 10/12 from Milan, Italy.
628
629This is the second issue of the current set. If you’ve got a (1) on your address label, your subscription expires with the next issue which comes out in two weeks because of my trip to Japan.
630
631Renewal rates for the printed Observer in the United States are $13.50 for four issues (which includes $4 for postage and handling), $25 for eight, $35.50 for 12, $46 for 16, $69 for 24, $92 for 32, $115 for 40, $149.50 for 52 up through $184 for 64 issues.
632
633For Canada and Mexico, the rates are $15 for four issues (which includes $6 for postage and handling), $27 for eight, $38.50 for 12, $50 for 16, $75 or 24, $100 for 32, $125 for 40 issues, $162.50 for 52 and $200 for 64.
634
635For the rest of the world, the rates are $17 for four issues (which includes $9 for postage and handling), $33 for eight, $47.50 for 12, $62 for 16, $77.50 for 20, $93 for 24, $108.50 for 28, $155 for 40 issues and $201.50 for 52 issues.
636
637You can also get the Observer on the web at www.wrestlingobserver.com for $11.99 per month or $119.99 per year for a premium membership that includes daily audio updates, Figure Four Weekly, special articles and a message board. If you are a premium member and still want hard copies of the Observer, you can get them for $9.50 per set in the U.S., $10.50 per set in Canada and $13 per set for the rest of the world.
638
639All subscription renewals should be sent to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, P.O. Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228. You can also renew via Visa or MasterCard by sending your name, address, phone number, Visa or MasterCard number (and include the three or four digit security code on the card) and expiration date to Dave@wrestlingobserver.com or by fax to (408)244-3402. You can also renew at www.paypal.com using dave@wrestlingobserver.com as the pay to address. For all credit card or paypal orders, please add a $1 processing fee. If there are any subscription problems, you can contact us and we will attempt to rectify them immediately, but please include with your name a full address as well a phone number you can be contacted at.
640
641All letters to the editor, reports from live shows and any other correspondence pertaining to this publication should also be sent to the above address.
642
643This publication is copyright material and no portion of the Observer may be reprinted without the expressed consent of publisher/writer Dave Meltzer. The Observer is also produced by Derek Sabato.
644
645Fax messages can be sent to the Observer 24 hours a day at (408) 244-3402. Phone messages can be left 24 hours a day at (408) 244-2455. E-mails can be sent to Dave@wrestlingobserver.com
646
647CMLL: The 12/20 Arena Mexico show saw Diamante Azul replace Bandido in the main event, teaming with Caristico & Volador Jr. to face Ultimo Guerrero & Negro Casas & Gilbert El Boricua. There were several changes as Bandido worked PWG, and to their credit, they did announce Azul later in the week although it’s bad schedule making to assume you have an international star with bookings all over just because ROH is down that week. Guerrero & Casas were moved up in the spot of Forastero & Cuatrero for whatever reason. Cuatrero & Forastero worked the semi, teaming with Felino, to beat Titan & Valiante & Angel de Oro. The other big match was a single where Templario beat Audaz. Was told that match was good
648
649The 12/27 show has Caristico & Bandido & Volador Jr. vs. Cuatrero & Forastero & Gilbert, plus Angel de Oro & Titan & Valiente vs. Cavernario & Felino & Casas, and Audaz & Flyer & Star Jr. vs. El Hijo de Villano III & Templario & Polvora
650
651A correction on Dragon Rojo, when reporting his knee injury return as late 2020, it’s actually late January of 2020
652
653Electrico retained the Mexican national lightweight title over Halcon Suriano Jr. on 12/22 at Arena Mexico.
654
655AAA: Konnan said he would have preferred Sin Cara stay with a name close to that, saying that’s the name most will know him as and while he personally knows the name Cinta de Oro and his history in Ciudad Juarez (Konnan worked Ciudad Juarez regularly with Eddy Guerrero very early in his career, long before AAA), he doesn’t think people will know Cinta de Oro is the former Sin Cara and that his value will decrease
656
657The company announced half of its 2019 awards this past week. Dave the Clown won Rudo of the Year. Pentagon Jr. & Fenix won tag team of the year. Villano III Jr. & Lady Maravilla won mixed tag team of the year. Los Poders del Norte (Tito Santana & Mocho Cota Jr. & Carta Brava Jr.) were named trios of he year. Mr. Iguana was named newcomer of the year. This was based on fan web site voting, which probably isn’t the best method.
658
659THE CRASH: The first show of the year will be 1/18 in Tijuana with the top bouts being Flamita & Oraculo vs. T-Hawk & Lindaman, a four-way with Mesias vs. Angelico vs. Cima vs. Ryu (Dragon) Lee and Mecha Wolf 450 & Bestia 666 & Damian 666 vs. Negro Navarro & Los Traumas.
660
661DRAGON GATE: Masato Yoshino, 39, announced he would be retiring at some point in 2020. Yoshino suffered both a broken back and herniated disc in his neck in an early 2017 injury and the latter injury was expected to keep him out of action for one year, if it didn’t end his career. He came back in three months and continued to work the same style. He’s had lingering effects from it including numbness in his arm. Doctors told him if he worked fewer dates and changed his style he could wrestle for several more yeas but he said that if he couldn’t live up to the level of what he’s done, he wouldn’t want to wrestle
662
663Since BxB Hulk and Yamato are now feuding, the Open the Twin Gate tag title that they just won is vacant. There will be a tournament for the title that takes place on 1/11 in Kyoto, 1/12 in Osaka and finishes 1/15 at Korakuen Hall. All three of those shows will air live on the Dragon Gate Network
664
665The whole promotion is now based on a three-way program with the Dragon Gate trained regulars on one side, the older stars from the Toryumon days, and the third group being R.E.D., a heel faction feuding with both. The last three shows of the year, in Kobe, Nagoya and Kyoto all had increased crowds and the crowds were very into the new feuds. The 12/22 show in Nagoya had one of the biggest non-major show crowds of the year. Kento Kobune made his pro debut and he is from Nagoya and that also helped draw the crowd of 1,890 fans. Toryumon of Ultimo Dragon & Masato Yoshino & Dragon Kid & Susumu Yokosuka over R.E.D. of Eita & BxB Hulk & Kaito Ishida & Hyo in the main event when Ultimo pinned Hyo.
666
667ALL JAPAN: Gerard Di Triolo of Voices of Wrestling sent us All Japan business notes for the year. Even with running more at Korakuen Hall, its big show venue, 21 times this year instead of 16, attendance dropped slightly this year from 85,392 fans in 133 shows (642 per show) to 82,010 on 132 shows (621 per show) this year. Korakuen Hall, running more often, dropped from a 1,410 average to 1,341, but the bad news is that f you take out the sellout for the Atsuki Aoki Memorial show, the second half of the year only averaged 1,158 at Korakuen Hall, meaning the decline has gotten worse and they had a July show that was their first time since 2016 drawing less than 1,000 at Korakuen Hall.
668
669PRO WRESTLING NOAH:  In a great sign, the 1/4 show at Korakuen Hall, an evening show that goes head-to-head with the Tokyo Dome show about 100 yards away, has already sold out. NOAH virtually never sells out Korakuen Hall, let alone with a competing pro wrestling show next door that will have 40,000 fans. The 1/5 show isn’t sold out, but that also has an 11:30 a.m. start time. The problem is that when New Japan’s second Dome show started at 3 p.m., there would be no problem going to both. But with New Japan moving the start time to 2 p.m., it’s tougher. In the 90s, we used to go to the All Japan women’s show at Noon and then to the Dome at 3 p.m. on 1/4 as a tradition, but even though AJW always ended at 2:30 p.m., if we weren’t press, because of the lines to get in, we would have had to leave early. I remember going to those shows and having people leave before the main event started because they had New Japan tickets and knew the lines to get in would be long
670
671NOAH runs 12/27 at Korakuen Hall with Takashi Sugiura & Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Kazuyuki Fujita & Hideki Suzuki in the main event so it’s the shooter battle. Sugiura was a high level amateur wrestler and judoka before he started pro wrestling. Naomichi Marufuji will work as a Luchador using the name Dr. Marufuji Jr., to face El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr, plus Hajime Ohara’s 15th anniversary match has him teaming with Ultimo Dragon & Shiro Koshinaka against Nosawa & Mazada & Fujita
672
673The 1/4 sold out Korakuen Hall show has Kaito Kiyomiya vs. Go Shiozaki for the GHC title, Sugiura vs. Masa Kitamiya for the National title, Hayata vs. Yoshinari Ogawa for the GHC jr. title and Kotaro Suzuki & Atsushi Kotoge vs. Haoh & Nioh for the jr. tag title, plus Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Michael Elgin, Marufuji & Minoru Tanaka vs. Doug Williams (hey, wasn’t he retired) & Chris Ridgeway and more. It’s really too bad this show wasn’t in the afternoon because I think a lot of people going to the Dome would love to see it
674
675They are doing the annual jr. tournament from 1/10 to 1/30, with the finals at Korakuen Hall. There are going to be four blocks, each with four competitors. On the final night, the A block winner faces the B block winner, and the C block winner faces the D block winner. Then the two winners of those bouts face off in the main event. The A block has Hayata, Ogawa, Nosawa and Junta Miyawaki. The B block has Kotaro Suzuki, Tadasuke, Haoh and a mystery guy. The C block has Atsushi Kotoge, Yo-Hey, Ohara and Hitoshi Kumano. The D block has Daisuke Harada, Ridgeway, Minoru Tanaka and Nioh
676
677NEW JAPAN: Bushiroad released its financial report for the months of August through October. They have rearranged their businesses in two categories, Digital IP and live event IP. New Japan and the kickboxing promotion fall into the live event IP group. I guess New Japan World would be digital. Stardom doesn’t really have an effect since that will start during the next quarterly report. Bushiroad also promotes concerts and has theaters as part of their live event business. They did $21 million in the quarter from live events, up 29.3 percent from last year, but the growth was mostly on the concert side. The quarterly profit from live events was $4 million, up 27.5% from last year, but no doubt that’s a lot concerts as well. The New Japan and kickboxing business numbers were similar to that of last year. Live events were slightly up due to the increase in ticket sales for G-1 overall. But merchandise business declined, which was due to the loss of the guys who went to AEW and drove Bullet Club merch sales. They said their expectations for the next year are unchanged. Harold Meij’s salary was listed at $212,000 per year from his work on the Bushiroad board of directors and $851,000 from his work as New Japan President or $1,063,000 total. Some talent was surprised. Unlike in the U.S. where heads of companies make the most, in the Japanese wrestling business, the wrestling stars always make the most and Meij making more than most of the main event talent is surprising in their culture, but wouldn’t be in our culture. It shouldn’t be a surprise given Meij’s background in business, as New Japan is small potatoes compared to President of Tomy Toys, which is a far bigger company than WWE, or SVP of Coca Cola Japan
678
679The return of Hiromu Takahashi on 12/19 was really great. He was fantastic, and ridiculously charismatic. It was Will Ospreay & Robbie Eagles vs. Hiromu & Bushi and I’d got ****1/4 and can just imagine the Dome match if this was the preview. The most impressive thing was watching his sprint ability in spots. There’s long match cardio and there’s sprint cardio, the difference between a quarter-miler and a 10,000 meter guy. You can’t tell the latter in a tag match but the stuff he and Ospreay were doing with long high spots and not stopping without catching a breath at a level you rarely see was blow away. And that in his first match in 17 months. He’s said he’s not toning it down and hopefully he is smartly but he was working top ten in the world level in his first match back
680
681The 12/20 Korakuen Hall show, the second night of the three, drew a sellout 1,712 fans. Okada & Yoshi-Hashi & Ospreay & Eagles won the main event over Naito & Evil & Hiromu Takahashi & Bushi when Ospreay pinned Bushi withe the Storm breaker in 17:43. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Ibushi beat White & Owens when Tanahashi pinned Owens with the high fly flow. The most notable result was Sanada & Takagi over Sabre Jr. & Taichi in 12:06 when Sanada got a pin on his WrestleKingdom opponent Sabre with the O’Connor rol
682
683. In promoting the match with Chris Jericho, Tanahashi said that a win over Jericho would open the door for him to challenge for the AEW title.
684
685Tanahashi and Yuji Nagata signed new contracts this past week
686
687The New Japan bodybuilding contest, with the idea it would be like the annual CMLL contest, was, in fact, nothing close to the same thing. The idea came from Tanahashi, with the idea of having everyone get into their best shape two weeks before the Tokyo Dome show. And it worked for Tanahashi, who was moving better this past weekend than he has in a long time. But it was just people cutting up and getting into shape and doing some poses, not a competition. Most were in their ring gear, so Tanahashi was in long tights and even had the sleeve over his left arm where he tore the biceps. Guys like Tanahashi, Toa Henare most notably and Yuya Uemura dropped weight and looked better. Ryusuke Taguchi entered as more of a joke but looked the same. Pieter (Yujiro Takahashi’s big show second who at least at one point if not still was Bad Luck Fale’s girlfriend) posed from behind wearing a thong panty. Kota Ibushi was in his regular ring gear looking like the same Kota Ibushi you’d see every night, and would have easily taken third. One wonders if he seriously did this rather than just trained however he left on that day and eat however he felt, how he could transform himself differently, but it doesn’t seem to matter to him and it’s no big deal. The top two, as expected, were the two who have actually competed at this, Taiji Ishimori and Sho. Ishimori, who wore long tights, has won bodybuilding contests in the past and looked like a bodybuilder. Sho has competed in fitness contests where bodybuilding is part of it. There was no way from the photos to say who should have won, given Ishimori in long tights, but they were easy 1-2.
688
689OTHER JAPAN NOTES: Kagetsu, 27, who held the World of Stardom title in the early part of the year announced her retirement on Christmas Day. This came after losing a power struggle and also ties into the retirement of Hazuki. Kagetsu, born Yukari Ishino, quit high school after ninth grade to become a wrestler with the Sendai Girls promotion and debuted at 15 and was a full-timer at 16. She left Sendai Girls in 2015 and joined Stardom as a regular in 2016. She held a number of titles, the biggest being the World of Stardom title, which she won on June 9, 2018, from Toni Storm, and held it until May 4, 2019 when she lost to Bea Priestley. Her last match in Stardom will be on 1/26 in her home city of Osaka, and she will be promoting a retirement show on her own on 2/24 in Osaka. Hazuki retired with her last match on 12/24 at Korakuen Hall. Kagetsu was in charge of training all the women and Hazuki was her best student, and then became her most trusted ally. In a sense, Hazuki, because of that, also had significant locker room power. Kagetsu’s management style was compared to that of Bill Watts, and that doesn’t fly in today’s world. She was fining people when they were late and taking away their personal time. Management stepped in once and told her not to do that. But she continued to do the same thing. Most of the women came to management to protest Kagetsu being in charge. A vote was held and Kagetsu was voted out as the head trainer and locker room boss. With her out of power, both Kagetsu and Hazuki lost interest in the company. Hazuki decided to retire, basically feeling that wrestling in Madison Square Garden in April was a goal and she had achieved that. But that also explains Kagetsu constantly badmouthing the new owners since the Bushiroad purchase was announced, which led to her announcing her retirement, putting a positive spin on it by saying Stardom is in good hands with Mayu Iwatani in charge. For the public, Kagetsu said her retirement had nothing to do with Hazuki, and that Hazuki’s retirement may have been due to more difficult times than pleasant ones
690
691Stardom ran its big show on 12/24 at Korakuen Hall, drawing 1,334 fans. Bushiroad president Takaaki Kidani came out at the start of the show to talk about Bushiroad now owning the company and plans to grow it. Hana Kimura, who as we noted, is one of the people they are focusing on along with Giulia to push as mainstream stars based on their looks, slapped Kidani. Momo Watanabe & Utami Hayashishita & AZM retained the Artists of Stardom trios belts over Tam Nakano & Starlight Kid & Saki Kashima in 11:52 when Watanabe pinned Kashima after the peach sunrise. Natsuko Tora pinned Hazuki after a leg drop off the top rope in Hazuki’s retirement match. They did the usual retirement sendoff celebration. Giulia drew Kimura over 15:00. Arisa Hoshiki retained the World of Stardom title over Konami in 16:24. Hoshiki will next defend against Hayashishita on 1/19 at Korakuen Hall. Mayu Iwatani pinned Kagetsu to retain the World of Stardom title in 22:17 after a moonsault. Watanabe will face Iwatani next, which should be a great bout
692
693The company held its Christmas banquet and awards with Mayu Iwatani winning MVP, Hoshiki vs. Nakano on 6/16 at Korakuen Hall was named match of the year, Jungle Kyona & Konami were named tag team of the year, Oedo Tai was best unit, AZM was named best technical, Kimura got the fighting spirit award and Hoshiki got the outstanding performance award.
694
695HERE AND THERE: The NWA’s Hard Times PPV on 1/24 at the GPB Studios in Atlanta sold out in three hours, although that was only about 250 tickets. They still had tickets left for tapings on 1/25 and 1/26
696
697Tim Storm did one of the best babyface promos of the year on this week’s TV show, talking about not retiring and still having something left to prove
698
699Larry Oliver Sr., better known as Rip “The Crippler” Oliver, 67,was in was in critical condition in a hospital in Florida. No other details are available. Oliver wrestled from 1976 to 1991. He was a solid worker who hit it big in the Pacific Northwest where he hold the all-time record in that part of the country for title reigns, with 12 Pacific Northwest heavyweight title reigns and 16 tag team reigns between 1980 and 1991, when he was based in the area most of the time and was usually a headliner. He was Pacific Northwest Wrestler of the Year in 1982, 1983,1984 and 1986. He was top heel, and later a top babyface as the leader of the heel group “The Clan,” where he supplanted Buddy Rose as the area’s lead heel. Like with Rose, his aura was hurt when he went to WWF, and was used as basically a name worker who put people over on television. After doing regular jobs and even squashes so often on WWF television, when he came back to Oregon, he never had the same level of drawing power
700
701The new RetroMania video game, that will be out in 2020, announced Ian Riccobani and Colt Cabana as the announcers according to an article by Jeremy Peeples at Hardcore Gamer. The new game will be available for PC, Switch, Xbox 1 and PS 4 systems
702
703Dwayne Johnson, after purchasing an ownership stake in Salt & Straw, a Pacific Northwest ice cream chain based in Portland, OR, talked about his ties to the area, noting that one of the million places he lived as a kid (since his father went from territory-to-territory) was Vancouver, WA, across the border from Portland, and said he practically grew up in the Portland Sports Arena. He also noted that his uncle Siva (presumably Siva Afi but I don’t have that confirmed) married Kathy Peterson, the daughter of Portland Wrestling sponsors Tom and Gloria Peterson
704
705“Jumanji”: The Next Level,” grossed $26,505,147 in week two in the U.S., and as of 12/23 the U.S. gross was $103,316,512. The total worldwide gross was $313,742,368. It was a distant second to the latest Star Wars movie this week
706
707Marty Scurll and Flip Gordon will be working for Northeast Wrestling on 1/25 in Waterbury, CT. Gordon was booked through ROH in the sense that Joe Koff and Michael Lombardi have a good relationship and ROH considers NEW like PWG in the sense they can use their exclusive talent if they work through them. Scurll was booked as a free agent since he’s no longer under contract and hadn’t signed a new deal at the time the booking was made. At the 12/21 show in Bethany, CT, promoter Michael Lombardi announced that ROH wrestlers will now be able to work for NEW. TK O’Ryan from ROH was on he show. He admitted to his concussion issues, saying he had three of them in 2019, but vowed to return to the ring in 2020
708
709The John Wall Street sports business newsletter and Sports illustrated named our Twitter account a one of the 100 most important Twitter accounts to follow on sports business for 2019. It was the only one listed regarding pro wrestling
710
711Jim Cornette filed a lawsuit against William J. Molnar, the owner of The Indy Connection store in Brownsville, PA, and pro wrestler Brandon Graver (G-Raver) who were both producing and selling a T-shirt with his likeness that read “F*** Jim Cornette.”
712
713EUROPE: L.A. Park will debut for RevPro on the 2/4 show at York Hall in London
714
715The next major wXw show is 1/18 in Oberhausen, Germany, with Bobby Gunns & Norman Harras & The Pretty Bastards (Maggo & Prince Ahura) against Avalanche & David Starr & Julian Pace Leon van Gasteren under War Games rules, Jurn Simmons vs. Alexander James in a barbed wire cage match and Jay Skillet vs. Absolute Andy for the Shotgun title
716
717Puma King and Alexander James will be in the 16 Carat Gold tournament in March
718
719Marcel Barthel worked 12/20 and 12/21 shows for the European Wrestling Promotions, using his old ring name of Axel Deiter Jr., including against promoter Christian Eckstein, who helped train him. Eckstein, 47, announced his retirement after losing, after a 28 year career. Barthel pretty much had to work as Dieter since the first night he worked was the Axel Deiter Memorial Cup, honoring his late father.
720
721MLW: Barrington Hughes was released from his deal
722
723There are clearly getting to be issues with MLW and Impact when Impact pulled David Sahadi from working their 1/11 show in Dallas, since they are doing a show in the same market the next day
724
725The current Dallas show on 1/11 has Mance Warner vs. Jimmy Havoc in a no rope barbed wire match, Tom Lawlor vs. Ross Von Erich, Alexander Hammerstone vs. Aerostar for the National open weight title, Davey Boy Smith Jr vs. Simon Gotch in a no rope break match, Savio Vega vs. Richard Holliday and MJF vs. Marshall Von Erich. If MJF wins, he and Richard Holliday get a tag title shot at the Von Erichs, but if Von Erich wins, he can’t get a tag title shot as long as the Von Erichs are champions. Former Rookie of the Year Erick Stevens also debuts on the show
726
727Killer Kross debuts on the 2/1 show in Philadelphia, which has already announced Jacob Fatu defending the MLW title against Cima in the main event
728
729Interviewer Alica Atout has signed a multi-year deal.
730
731ROH: An interesting note is that Marty Scurll was announced for the main event of the 1/12 show in Concord, NC. No word if that means he’s staying with ROH, which we were told gave him a great offer. The match announced as the main event is a battle of factions with La Faccion Ingobernable of Rush & Dragon Lee & Kenny King vs. Villain Enterprises of Scurll & Body King & PCO
732
733An angle started on 12/15 with Bully Ray putting Maria Manic through a table in storyline was because she put Angelina Love through a table in the 2300 Arena, and evidently the idea is he’s the only one allowed to do it in that arena
734
735Matt Taven underwent successful surgery on his right ankle this past week
736
737T.K. O’Ryan, who has been out of action for months due to lingering issues from a concussion, said that he wasn’t sure he would ever be able to wrestle again, but said if he does, it would be in ROH
738
739There seems to be talks of bringing back Shane Taylor. Taylor was at one point going to not be offered a new deal, and his loss to Dragon Lee was his farewell at the time, but Kevin Eck’s column on the ROH web site teased a return
740
741Lee as TV champion looks to be appearing as a regular here as well as in New Japan. That makes appearing in AAA politically difficult. Lee will be defending the title on 1/11 in Atlanta
742
743There were also teases of more appearances for Crowbar (Chris Ford) who made his debut on the 12/15 show.
744
745AEW: Matt Jackson suffered a stinger in the tag title match on the 12/18 show but will be wrestling on the 1/1 show in Jacksonville. The key things on that show will be Jon Moxley answering Chris Jericho on joining The Inner Circle, MJF and Cody continuing their angle, Cody vs. Darby Allin, Riho vs. Kris Statlander for the women’s title and Young Bucks & Kenny Omega vs Pentagon Jr. & Fenix & Pac in a match that should be ridiculous. As of a week out they were 953 tickets shy of capacity, so with post-Christmas week they should be close so sold out
746
747They also announced Cody & Dustin Rhodes vs. Pentagon & Fenix for 1/8 in Southhaven, MS. That show isn’t selling as well as they aren’t selling upper deck in half the building and of the seats they are selling there are about 2,400 tickets out
748
7491/15 in Coral Gables, FL is about 750 tickets shy of capacity, so it also should be close to sold out
750
751The New York market debut will be 3/25 in Newark, NJ. Obviously Madison Square Garden would have been the choice but that didn’t happen. It couldn’t have on that night due to a Knicks game and really there were very few open Wednesdays for much of the first part of the year. For me, I’d rather make an MSG debut on a Saturday for a PPV but in that building, those dates are very limited, plus AEW doesn’t want to do a PPV against a big boxing or UFC show. I know this sounds silly because the NJPW/ROH show sold out instantly, but MSG itself sees wrestling as WWE and everyone else must be way behind WWE since they are the market leader. When WWE barely sold out 12,000 tickets for the first Raw in more than a decade and then didn’t come close to selling out Smackdown, there was a belief that live wrestling is cold and if WWE can’t sell out (and the 12/26 show, traditionally the company’s biggest house show of the year isn’t close to selling out), that nobody else could. That also came after the AAA show had to be moved to the Hulu Theater. My thought is AEW’s market debut would definitely sell out on a Saturday night for a PPV, but not as sure for a Wednesday, but it would still do well
752
753AEW has taken a hold on a May date in Ontario, CA at the Toyota Arena
754
755The Young Bucks pulled off Twitter on 12/20, just after them thanking the fans for the sellout in Chicago. I think they wanted a break over Christmas but time will tell. Them pulling off over Christmas was what it was, but the timing wasn’t the best because it came after a down week where the show’s ending was heavily criticized. Their father said, “Thanks for all the love we are getting from everyone wondering about Matt and Nick. They are fine and just need a well-deserved break from the toxicity on here. They are the most sweetest most genuine guys ever. They don’t deserve the hate they get. Love you all.” Matt later noted the break was permanent, saying, “First off, I acknowledge how ridiculous it is that I even need to talk about this, but it’s clearly a distraction. My brother and I decided to leave Twitter permanently a few days ago. We realized it took precious time away from our families, who’ve already sacrificed enough time as it is. Also, we’ve noticed how it seems to stifle our creativity. Lastly, after taking numerous breaks this past year from Twitter, we found it to be healing to our mental health, so getting off completely was the next step. This will not change how we interact with our amazing fans, as we’ll continue to put out our best content online. Never be afraid to say hello to us, whether it’s on social media or in person. Thanks so much for the support. We love you all very much. Happy holidays.” The bottom 1% of twitter is a cesspool that reflects badly on wrestling fans, but people have to realize it really is the bottom 1%. It may actually be less then 1% as when writing, between likes and positive comments, I went back and had 1,000 either likes or positive comments on Twitter when looking and zero negative. Granted, I’ve muted and blocked a lot of the systematic trolls and earlier in the day there were some negatives and they do exist daily, but as compared to the overall populace, you think it’s high but it’s actually not when you put a percentage on it. Plus, they say only five percent of the people who read your Twitter stuff ever post so it is very valuable and not really that negative, but there are a very tiny percentage of negative people who can make it really bad, and celebrities get it the worst but it’s kind of a given you have to use it. If you just learn to either laugh it off, or use the negative comments as a excuse to educate people with facts and block people quickly (and I’m very forgiving and do it too slowly on the guise that maybe some want to learn but the negative ones, usually they are afraid of learning) then it’s valuable. To me, in the position those guys are in, marketing a product, it’s a must even if they only use it to promote products or on-sales or send thank you messages and ignore it the rest of the time. That said, Twitter has had its positives and negatives regarding AEW. I don’t believe it would possibly exist without Twitter nor would the business have been even close to as successful without it. Some of the negativity has been harmful in other ways. If it played even a tiny aspect is the key guys wanting to prove they weren’t going to let others into the top and book themselves to lose more than they probably should have, then that would be a negative. I don’t know that to be the case
756
757Cody, who has applied for ownership of the name Dusty Rhodes, said that he gave WWE his blessing to use his father’s name for the upcoming NXT tag team tournament
758
759The other social media issues are the Tony Khan giving Shawn Spears a stunner at the end of the 12/18 live show in Corpus Christi. It was bound to get a negative reaction but it really was much to do about nothing. But it did play into the stigma people want to have that the AEW business is his vanity project and it only exists because he wants hang around with wrestlers. The story behind it was Khan was out there to thank the crowd as they end the live show. Usually he’s not out there but sometimes he is, and this being the last show of the year, he was. Then all the guys in the ring gave Spears stunners. Then they pushed ref Aubrey Edwards to do it. I would suspect she had mixed feelings since she does realize she has unique popularity at the live shows but also feels as a ref that shouldn’t be the case so when I’ve seen her live it’s very clear she tries to acknowledge and very much downplay the reactions. But because she’s so over with the live audience, it’s easy heat for a match for the heels to play off her and they are the veterans and she’s a rookie. Anyway, with the crowd cheering, she had to do the stunner on Spears as well or get booed and come across like a party-pooper. None of this was being taped so why not. At this pont, apparently Nick Jackson asked Khan if he wanted to give Spears a stunner and he said no, but then Spears fed him and the crowd started cheering big for him to do it. So he was in a position where he was damned either way, and did it. Spears did note it was his idea. The idea was to just to something fun with Joey Janela dressing as Santa Claus and doing a white claw bath since it was Steve Austin’s 55th birthday
760
761The third and most embarrassing clip was a close-up of the Dark Order brawl showing a guy under a mask throwing punches on the ground that missed Dustin Rhodes badly. I mean, the masked guy was punching the ground. Granted bad punches that miss happen all the time (think Ronda Rousey and Ruby Riott months back which was way way worse) but it became a Twitter talking point and Randy Orton jumped on it writing “He apparently is a seasoned vet and is used to live tv and just assumed that the camera to his left was the one with that red dot thingy on it for those horrendous f**king punches #workonyourpunchkid” “Or quit the business cuz you’re the drizzling sh**s .. or you can come to the top company and I’ll teach you one of the most important aspects of our biz. Throwing a f**king (punch). Hey, the first half was fair game as the video was embarrassingly bad. Orton making it a WWE vs. AEW thing was silly given botched spots happen in both companies all the time and Orton’s lecture was bad given his selling comically bad punches that missed badly by Shane McMahon that popped up everywhere
762
763On BTE this past week, The Young Bucks were at a Christmas party at Matt’s house. Matt was all annoyed and miserable about losing the tag title match on 12/18. SCU was all celebrating. Then they stood up and Frankie Kazarian and Scorpio Sky were wearing their tag title belts. Matt lost it with the idea they’d rubbed it in in his house and kicked them out. They left but Daniels stayed. Daniels acted like he was oblivious to everything and just kept eating until Matt kicked him out. Daniels said that he hasn’t even been on TV and then went to leave saying Dana’s (Matt’s wife) cooking isn’t that good. Matt said it wasn’t her cooking and it was catered from Cracker Barrel and then speared Daniels in the living room and started throwing punches that missed Daniels by about a foot, identical to the video that got out. SCU stayed outside in the cold until Dana let them back in and Daniels asked if she had a steak because he’s got a black eye (from all the punches that missed badly). They ended up making up. Nick said that they just should have booked themselves to win the title. Daniels then brought in some food and slipped and it fell on the floor, with the idea he botched another move. Nick noted that his flu is gone. They’ve put out a Justin Roberts t-shirt making fun of how he announces the word “John” from WWE and John Cena. In a skit with Michael Nakazawa, he announced John Stamos, Jon Lovitz and Elton John but then was shown a photo of John Cena to introduce and pretended not to know who it was. Nakazawa asked how hard it could be to pronounce John correctly. Adam Page was drinking and was wasted looking to apologize for giving Kenny Omega the buckshot lariat. By the time he found Omega he sat down on the couch next to him and passed out. Kris Statlander, who is an alien, asked Chuck Taylor & Trent to take her to their leader, and then Orange Cassidy showed up and he touched her nose like E.T. and they left together. John Silver has second thoughts about joining the Dark Order but Alex Reynolds was gung ho. It ended with a mystery new guy in Dark Order washing blood off his hands
764
765Kevin Nash pulled out of the Chris Jericho cruise next month. He wrote and said it was due to a movie role he just got. Legitimately, Nash got a part in an Alec Baldwin movie that filmed at the same time. Lots of people jumped to the idea this was a cover story because Nash is good friends with Paul Levesque. I’m certain at this stage of the game WWE wouldn’t have wanted Nash on that boat, but in this case, that’s not the reason he’s not going
766
767 
768
769UFC: According to Dana White, UFC 246 headlined by Conor McGregor vs. Donald Cerrone on 1/18 sold out the first day tickets were put on sale with a $10 million gate, one of the largest in the history of the company
770
771Henry Cejudo made the call to relinquish his flyweight title and concentrate on his bantamweight title. Joseph Benavidez will now face Deiveson Figuiredo for the title on the 2/29 show in Norfolk. This may not be the most tactical move, since Cejudo, based on his size, is more suited for flyweight, especially when you have guys like Petr Yan at bantamweight these days. It should be noted that Cejudo saved the flyweight division, as the plan was for T.J. Dillashaw to beat Cejudo and then drop the flyweight title, but Cejudo won that fight and UFC dropped its plan to drop the division. When Cejudo decided to vacate the title, UFC could have again chosen to drop the division but there was so much negativity toward the plan the last time
772
773Jon Jones is talking again about moving to heavyweight to challenge Stipe Miocic
774
775ESPN listed the Jorge Masvidal knockout of Ben Askren as the No. 5 sports highlight clip of 2019
776
777The actual numbers for the 12/14 show in Las Vegas with the three title fights headlined by Kamaru Usman vs. Colby Covington was 12,119 paid, 15,155 total and a gate of $4,041,119
778
779Doo Ho Choi underwent surgery for a broken arm suffered on the 12/21 show
780
781Robert Whittaker vs. Jared Cannonier, Drakkar Close vs. Beneil Dariush and Neil Magny vs. Li Jingliang have been added to the 3/7 PPV show in Las Vegas. Cannonier being booked for Whittaker means Israel Adesanya’s title defense has to be with Yoel Romero, despite Romero losing his previous two bouts and being 42 years old. Reality is that Romero does mean more than Cannonier as an opponent
782
783Khalid Taha has been suspended for one year for testing positive for the Diuretic/masking agent furosimide in an in-competition test taken in conjunction with UFC 243 on 10/7 in Melbourne, Australia. Taha defeated Bruno Silva, a result that has to be overturned (the local athletic commission has to rule on that but one would think that’s inevitable). Taha, who missed weight, won the fight via submission. He can return on October 7, 2020
784
785Alex Oliveira vs. Mickey Gall and Felicia Spencer vs. Zarah Fairn have been added to the 2/29 show in Norfolk
786
787John Dodson vs. Nathaniel Wood will be on the 2/15 show in Rio Rancho, NM. Casey Kenney vs. Merab Dvalishvili has also been added to that show
788
789Angela Hill will replace Brianna Van Buren in a fight against Hannah Cifers on the 1/25 show in Raleigh
790
791Rachael Ostovich vs. Shana Dodson, Jimmy Crute vs. Michal Oleksiejczuk, Ben Sosoli vs. Marcos Rogerio de Lima, Magomed Mustafaev vs. Brad Riddell and Jake Matthews vs. Emil Meek have been added to the 2/23 show in Auckland, New Zealand
792
793Sean O’Malley vs. Jose Quinonez has been added to the 2/8 show in Houston
794
795Ronaldo Jacare Souza returns to middleweight on the 4/18 show in Brooklyn to face Uriah Hall
796
797Danny Roberts vs. Nicolas Dalby has been added to the 3/21 show in London
798
799Elizeu Zaleski vs. Alexey Kunchenko has been added to the 3/14 show in Brazil.
800
801BELLATOR: Bellator announced the signing of Liz Carmouche to multi-year contract. This creates a situation where she’s on a collision course with Ilima-lei Macfarlane, which is notable because they are best friends and training partners. Also, Macfarlane is one of the most marketable fighters in the promotion and I’m not sure Carmouche is. Plus, I’d favor Carmouche in the fight as he’s fought much tougher competition and is more experienced. So it’ll be interesting if they make that fight. Macfarlane has made it clear she wants that fight
802
803One of the company’s biggest events of the year comes up this week, with the 12/29 show from the Saitama Super Arena in Japan. It’s an early show in Japan, as the main cards has to start Sunday at Noon for a 10 p.m. Saturday night Eastern time slot on 12/28 on Paramount. The television card has Goiti Yamauchi (24-4) of Bellator vs. Daron Cruickshank (22-12, 1 no contest) of Rizin; Ilara Joanne (9-4) of Bellator vs.; Kana Watanabe (8-0-1) of Rizin; Lorenz Larkin (21-7,1 no contest) of Bellator vs. K-Taro Nakamura (35-10-2, 1 no contest) of Rizin; Michael Venom Page (16-1) of Bellator vs. Shinsho Anzai (11-3) of Rizin; Michael Chandler (19-5) vs. Sidney Outlaw (14-3) and the main event of Fedor Emelianenko (38-6, 1 no contest) vs. Rampage Jackson (38-13)
804
805They ran two weekend shows in Honolulu at the Neil Blaisdell Center. The 12/20 show, called Salute to the Troops, had all the cutaways like last year and similar to what WWE does in its similar shows. The show itself was marred by Josh Barnett getting sick the day of the fight. The Hawaii State Boxing Commission saw how bad off he was and canceled the fight with Ronny Markes. There is talk of that fight being moved to the 1/25 show at the Forum in Los Angeles, which is the same show as Cris Cyborg challenging Julia Budd for the featherweight title and the featherweight Grand Prix fight with Adam Borics vs. Darrion Caldwell which is very interesting. Aaron Pico returns on that show, facing Daniel Casey (7-3). It goes head-to-head with the UFC show in Raleigh. Bellator that night will be on DAZN and UFC will be on ESPN+, while WWE Network will have the NXT vs. NXT Worlds Collide show head-to-head on WWE Network
806
807So 12/20 ended up with former UFC pushed star Erik Perez (19-7) being knocked out in 54 seconds by Toby Misech (12-7) in what probably wasn’t expected to happen. A battle of women’s flyweight title contenders saw Alejandra Lara (9-3) beat Veta Arteaga (5-3) via straight 30-26 scores. Macfarlane beat Lara in 2018 via submission and beat Arteaga in April via blood stoppage in a fight Arteaga was winning until she took an elbow to the forehead on the ground that split her open badly in round three in San Jose
808
809The big weekend show was 12/21 in Honolulu built again around Macfarlane. She did another great ring entrance. It wasn’t as emotional as the one last year, but she still came across like a huge superstar in that setting. The crowd was electric but what was noticeably different is the crowd reactions and screaming sounded more like a rock concert than a fight, and the audience showed far more women, including teenage girls, and it wasn’t quite the Crush Gals sound but was very much the Kerry Von Erich sound. I’ve never heard that in an MMA fight. The fight was easy to watch because the crowd was so alive but was in no ways remarkable other than that. Macfarlane (11-0) won every round easily to retain her title over Kate Jackson (11-4-1) on 50-45, 50-44 and 50-44 scores. Macfarlane’s standup game was very much improved, like night-and-day, compared to her last fight in April. This was easily her most impressive win but people talking about her as no. 2 in the world I think are premature. My feeling is the top UFC fighters in her weight division would give her fits, but a fight with Carmouche would really answer that question. But if she was in UFC and could hold a title, she’d be a huge superstar. The real deal in the semi was A.J. McKee (16-0) beating Derek Campos (20-9) via submission with an arm triangle at 1:08 of the third round to advance to the final four of the featherweight Grand Prix.
810
811OTHER MMA: German Figueroa, 44 who was a major star during the last boom period of pro wrestling in Puerto Rico, will make his MMA debut on the Combate Americas show on 1/25 in San Juan. It’s being billed as the first nationally televised MMA show from Puerto Rico since 1995. Billed as 6-foot-4 and 280 pounds, Figueroa will face John Calloway, who has an 0-3 record. Apolo started wrestling in 1999 and due to his size, was a top star during the IWA vs. WWC promotional feud period. He was an eight-time IWA world champion and three-time WWC Universal champion. He’s also well known for getting married on IWA television to Havana, who was a valet-like woman wrestler who was a big star at the time. He also pleaded guilty to a domestic abuse charge regarding her in 2007. He had four different stints with TNA between 2002 and 2006, including holding the tag team title with D-Lo Brown. He signed with WWE in 2007, but was released after a few months. He also has a son, Apolo Jr., who wrestles independently in the U.S.
812
813WWE: Reigns will be doing a match as part of FOX’s New Year’s Eve show. They are advertising a WWE match with Roman Reigns. Maria Menounos and Rob Gronkowski are hosts, and both are big fans. As noted here, Menounos has been training for pro wrestling of late so maybe she’ll be doing something wrestling related on that show. Menounos teased the idea of doing something with wrestling, thanking Sean Waltman, Rikishi (who has a Southern California wrestling school) and Deville (who worked for Menounos and that affiliation got her on Tough Enough which led to her WWE signing) for the ring training
814
815Fandango (Curtis Hussey, 38) suffered an elbow injury on the 12/11 NXT show in the match with the Singhs. You could see him holding his elbow by the end of the match. He underwent what is known as Tommy John surgery, named after the famous baseball player. Technically it’s reconstructive surgery of the ulnar collateral ligament. He could be back in about six months, as that’s the timetable for most athletes. Baseball pitchers, who get the surgery frequently, are usually out more like 12 to 15 months because they have to regain the strength to throw hard, which a wrestler doesn’t have to do
816
817Vince McMahon probably wishes he trademarked Xtreme Football League along with XFL, to avoid marketplace confusion, as people wanted to do women’s football have trademarked the term Extreme Football League. Essentially this will be the new name for what was the Legends Football League, which was a woman’s league filled with women with implants playing football in essentially low cut bikini tops and skimpy bikini bottoms with quarter-shirts that make sure to not cover the breasts but allow shoulder pads. This came from the Lingerie Football League, which former WWE performer Summer Rae was once the poster girl in. I believe Kamille in NWA also played in this league more recently. The league is claiming and this sounds familiar to be a new era in women’s empowerment. Yes, thank God women can play football as long as the uniforms are bikinis. I always figured women’s empowerment means something else. The story is that the women in the league will get small ownership stakes. The league will be a seven-on-seven indoor league playing in major arenas and play from 4/11 to 9/12. Besides the XFL, which starts in February, there will also be a new league called Major League Football
818
819Steve Austin is in a music video from Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny for the song “Quien tu eres?” Big Bunny is the rapper who had Ric Flair in a video a few years ago. He grew up in the 90s watching WWF wrestling and also has made references to WWF in his songs
820
821Bliss did a pilot for a podcast as part of the WWE podcasting network
822
823Sunil Singh and his wife had their first child this past week
824
825Some notes on the WWE tryouts a few weeks back. While there are some independent wrestlers, you can see with guys they are back to focusing on big guys, with a lot of college football players. While their track record with the big football players hasn’t been the best, the reality is they are loaded with smaller guys who can work and the independents will continue to turn these guys out. On the women’s side, there are some models but the focus, unlike years ago, is on higher level legitimate athletes including legitimate top tier track, basketball and volleyball players as well as the MMA and kickboxer types. I think the success of Bianca Belair as a home grown star is now the feeling is those type of people can do well at this. Before it was always about looks first, the ability to pose in bikinis and hopefully some athletic background to go with it
826
827Paul Levesque was on the Corey Graves podcast about NXT U.K. and then it led to the discussion of the different U.K. companies that have gone out of business over the past year. He said that yes, some companies will go away, but a lot of times those were promotions that used rings that weren’t safe, that paid talent very little and were only booking talent because they had a buzz. He said those companies didn’t care about the talent and that WWE wants to work with promotions that help cultivate talent and encourage talent to better themselves
828
829The reality is WWE is working with companies that have basically agreed to work with WWE and give WWE the rights to purchase those companies if they desire to do so down the line
830
831Besides Arissa LeBrock as mentioned two weeks ago, others at the last WWE tryout included Zack Carpinello, who was in the gossip pages at the same time as his tryout with the word he had gotten back together with J-Woww of Jersey Shore fame. Carpinello was on the show as her boyfriend, but then the two broke up after an episode aired that showed him hitting on Angelina Pivarnick, of the show. But how they are back together. Also at the tryout was Will Brooks, the former Bellator lightweight champion, in 2014 and 2015, who beat Michael Chandler twice, but vacated the title in 2017 and then went to UFC where he was 1-3. He fought in the PFL tournament for $1 million in 2018 but didn’t make the finals. Brooks called the camp “one of the hardest things I’ve done in my life.” Steven and brother Tome Filiposki from Australia, better known as Steve & Tome Filip, are known independent stars in that country. They had impressed New Japan officials so much after the Southern Showdown card that they were invited to become Young Lions and move to Tokyo, and New Japan has a rep for not training a lot of guys, but the ones they do take in, the track record of success is very high. The number of people who get NJPW offers like that and turn them down is very small. They were expected to go but then turned down the offer because their childhood dream was WWE. We’re told Stevie has outstanding potential and has a chance to be a big star as he’s acrobatic in the Will Ospreay way but needs more ring time and polish. Khashayar Mizaei, better known as King Khash, a 20-year old Iranian native who wrestles independently out of Washington and has worked for Zero-1 in Japan as well as works for Defy and ECCW and once was in a squash on a WWE television show in 2016 at 17; Others include: Anthony Henry, a regular pushed star with Evolve; Brandon & Brent Tate, known as The Tate Twins, who are identical twins who wrestled as The Boys with Dalton Castle in ROH; Michael Evans, 26, who is 6-foot-5 and 247 pounds and was on season one of Dwayne Johnson’s Titan Games TV show; Stephen Gerard, the Midwest independent wrestler known as Stephen Wolf; Nicholas Harmon, who works as Nick Cutler; Gary Jones, who works as Ganon Jones Jr; Lauren Jones, who wrestles indies as Palmer Cruise and did a 205 Live squash once for Brian Kendrick; Irene Janjic, a protégé of Lance Storm who has wrestled for Stardom and Sendai Girls in Japan; Rebeca Janjigian, the independent woman wrestler better known as Christi Jaynes; Kara Lazauskas, who also competed on Titan Games; Pierre Bouquiaux, a 6-foot-8, 265 pound bodybuilder from Belgium who competed in the past two years in amateur competitions in Luxemburg and Portugal, although didn’t place top five in either contest; Jessie Bush, a referee out of Wisconsin; Anthony Catena of Florida of Chaotic Wrestling; Nigel Cawthorn, 25, a 6-foot-5, 295 pound starting defensive lineman at Hampton University who started most games during his junior and senior years and was heavyweight state champion in high school in Virginia in 2012, where at one point he was ranked No. 10 in the nation; Michael Crandle, who played defensive end for Robert Morris University and has wrestled independently as Duke Davis; Steve Felger from Florida, who has been used as a referee on a number of Gabe Sapolsky WWN shows; Clifford Fortune, a 270-pound former defensive lineman at Norfolk State University who is also a powerlifter; Khambrell Gomez, who was listed at 6-foot-4 ½ and 304 pounds as a lineman for Adams State University who holds the national record in the shot put and discus for Belize. He competed in football and track at Pasadena City College in California; Miles Grooms, 27, listed at 6-foot-3 and 250 pounds, who played college football at Hampton University and was a first-team All-MEAC defensive lineman; Christopher Heyward III, a 354-pounder who wrestled as Calvin Tankman; Matthew Knotts, a 300-pounder who trained under Billy Gunn and the Dudleys; Ariel Levy, an independent wrestler from Chile; Pingi Moli, 30, a 6-foot-4, 280 pound former football player at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas who has since worked as a stuntman in Hollywood best known for being in the movie Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw; Olumide Ogunnake, a 250-pound bodybuilder from Cleveland; Roman Rozell, 35, a former Green Beret who wrestled at Arizona State; Victoria Andreola of New Jersey, who does independents in the New Jersey area as Vicious Vicki; Jennifer Cantu, 23, an Olympic weightlifter from Mexico who competed at 139 pounds in the Junior World championships; Chanice Chase-Taylor, 26, who went to the Olympics in 2016 as a hurdler for Canada and was an All-American in track in several events for Louisiana State; Lauren Dodds, 21, a competition bikini fitness competitor from Qatar; Christine Hartman, who was an honorable mention on the All-American team as a setter in volleyball for the University of Kentucky; Anriel Howard, 22, a 5-foot-11 forward who holds the Texas A&M career record for most rebounds and set an NCAA tournament record with 27 rebounds in one game, who also ran track and was the 24th pick in the WNBA draft and played early season games before being cut; Alexandra Mozelski, 25, a bodybuilder who has worked as Alyx Sky in indies; Lainey Nations an MMA fighter with a 4-1 record as an amateur; Rachael O’Leary, who has competed in Muay Thai and kickboxing; Ebony Payne, a firefighter; Jessica Roden, a model who has trained for pro wrestling in Southern California; Elaine Simon, 32, a Florida independent wrestler who has used the name Layne Rosario and Derby Doll and Aja Smith, who works as Aja Perera
832
833There will be a new member of the Raw announcing team for the 12/30 show as 12/23 was Joe’s last show
834
835Jason Jordan noted that there will be a new addition to his family, a girl, Ava Rose Everhart, due in June. Kurt Angle then, seriously, acted like he was going to be become a grandfather
836
837WWN’s WrestleMania week activities will include two shows on 4/2, which is the Thursday before Mania. The shows are called Accelerate at noon and 4 p.m. at the Bryan Glazer Jewish Community Center, which is the building that was formerly known as the Fort Homer Hesterly Armory, the home of Tuesday night wrestling in Tampa in the 60s, 70s and into the 80s. During the 70s in particular the Tuesday shows in that building could match any arena in the country for quality. The shows will combine talent from NXT, NXT UK, Evolve, Progress and wXw. Progress also runs 4/2 at 8 p.m. in the same building and there is a WWN Supershow at 11:55 p.m. On 4/3, Evolve runs at Noon, and Shimmer at 4 p.m., and on 4/4, Evolve run at Noon and wXw at 4 p.m
838
839There are still rumblings of Los Angeles for the 2021 Mania. As noted before, the city wants is in 2021 to get ready for the Super Bowl in 2022. WWE wants it in 2022 so they can announce an attendance figure larger than the Super Bowl in the same stadium, whether real or not
840
841The stock closed on 12/24 at $64.92 per share giving the company a $5.10 billion market value, or about the same as last week
842
843The most-watched shows of the past week on the WWE Network were: 1. WWE 365: Seth Rollins; 2. TLC PPV; 3. NXT from 12/19; 4. Broken Skull Sessions with Bill Goldberg; 5. Table for 3 with D-Lo Brown, Mark Henry and The Godfather; 6. 2019 Survivor Series; 7. Broken Skull Sessions with Undertaker
844
845Notes from the 12/20 tapings at the Barclays Center. Hot crowd for an easier to watch show than usual. They drew 10,000 fans, which is very healthy by modern standards for any show, even in New York. They taped Smackdown and then taped matches for NXT. Lince Dorado pinned Gulak in the dark match opener. Smackdown opened with Bryan out. Fans were chanting for him loudly. He said his daughter saw him with his new look and cried and was all scared. He said that all she knew was Daniel Bryan, The Brand. He said his daughter didn’t recognize him the way he looked, but he recognized himself. Yeah, he was 2005 Bryan Danielson, and given it’s 14 years later he should be happy he doesn’t look that much different. He said he saw the guy who never main evented WrestleMania, and was never handed a damn thing. He said that was the man who kicked Wyatt’s ass and called out Wyatt. Miz came out. He said that Wyatt violated his family and put scary puppets in his two-year-old daughter’s crib. Miz said he was going take the one thing Wyatt cherishes the most, his Universal title. Corbin came out and said that Bryan’s daughter was scared because his daddy looks like baby Yoda. Corbin said that Bryan’s brand is a failure. Corbin continues to get good heat. They really tried to push his win over Reigns to make it mean something. Well, they do have to set up rematches. Corbin said that both Bryan and Miz have failed at being WWE Superstars and also failed at being fathers. Bryan & Miz were about to attack Corbin when Ziggler attacked them from behind and superkicked Miz. Corbin did the end of days on Bryan. This set up a tag team main event. Heavy Machinery was backstage. Rose showed up and noted that she had drawn Otis for a Christmas gift. She gave him a ham, which he can never get enough of. She even kissed him. So he’s in love. Luckily it’s not Heyman’s show because she’d be turning on him so fast it isn’t funny. Then again, aren’t we all expecting she’s using him to begin with. . Otis, in his infinite wisdom, brought out the ham as he was going to wrestle and put it on the announcers table. You knew this wasn’t ending well. Heavy Machinery beat The Revival in 12:06 in a Miracle on 34th street fight. Among the unique spots were Dawson using a fire extinguisher on Otis. Both put Otis’ through a table. Wilder opened up a present and it was a bowling ball. So he rolled it at Tucker’s crotch. Wilder may be a great wrestler and has a nice short uppercut in real life, but his bowling on a wrestling entrance ramp isn’t the best. He veered far left and totally missed the crotch. Tucker sold it anyway. Hopefully Orton didn’t see this or he’d have to go to Wilder’s face and tell him to enroll in the PBA school. Wilder threw a Christmas tree in the ring. Dawson threw Otis’ ham on the floor. Wilder hit Otis with a kendo stick dressed up to look like a candy cane. Otis did a fallaway into the three. Otis brought in Legos and slammed Dawson into the Legos. Otis did a fallaway slam on both. Otis got a big reaction for that. Machinery won with the compactor on Dawson. After the match, Otis was backstage and apologized to Rose and said he blew it my bringing the ham to the ring. She said it was alright and hugged him. Then she got all grossed out because her dress was covered in sweat. I mean, she initiated the hug with a 350 pound guy who was just in a wrestling match. That one’s definitely on her. The Revival cut a promo. They said they were wrestlers, not sports entertainers, and shouldn’t be in matches like Miracle on 34th street bouts or ladder matches. Elias came out and sang a song making fun of them and said it would be best if you two just went away. Hey, they are traditionalist and burying people on their way out is a time honored tradition. Strowman was in the back. Zayn was his Secret Santa and asked him what he wanted as a present this year. Strowman got mad at him and then Cesaro and Nakamura came out as back-up. He said he wanted an IC title match. Zayn said it was a great idea but that they couldn’t do it since Cesaro & Nakamura were already booked tonight against New Day. Carmella beat Deville in 1:37 with the cone of silence. Sheamus did another interview about how everyone has gotten soft. New Day beat Nakamura & Cesaro in 12:06. Kingston did a twisting dive to the floor on Cesaro. Zayn distracted to allow for the heels to take over. There was a comeback that included E throwing Kingston over the top onto both. Cesaro did a long giant swing on Kingston. Kingston ended up pinning Cesaro with an inside cradle. I was surprised in this instance to see the champions go over in the non-title, but as it turned out this wasn’t the program, the program is Nakamura vs. Strowman for the IC title. Nakamura, Zayn and Cesaro beat down the New Day after and Strowman made the save. He had Nakamura up for the powerslam but Zayn pulled Nakamura to safety. Miz and Bryan were backstage. They are doing the Odd Couple gimmick and it pretty much worked. Miz thanked Bryan for saving him at Survivor Series from Wyatt smashing his head to bits with the mallet. Bryan said that “I didn’t do it for you, I did it for me.” Each made it clear they didn’t like the other, which turned into a little kid argument over who hated who more. Finally Miz said that Wyatt is his. After he got beat so quickly and decisively in the match where he was protecting his family, the Miz talking about his grudge with Wyatt doesn’t come across well in the sense nobody is going to buy him in this mach based on the last ne. Bayley pinned Dana Brooke in 4:12 with her headlock DDT move. Brooke’s wrestling has noticeably improved. This was fine. Bayley and Banks were running down Brooke after the match when Evans ran in and they ran off. They are trying to get over that they are afraid of Evans’ punch because it’s in their head after she hit Banks with it. The announcers were not getting that over, though. Evans challenged Banks to a match so she could make her a legit loser. They showed Evans’ husband and daughter in the front row. The daughter played a big part making all kinds of nasty faces at Banks while Banks was beating up her mom right in front of her. She couldn’t have been better at her role but showing Evans with a husband and daughter on television was a very interesting strategy. Evans and Banks went to a double count out in 4:09. The only thing memorable was all the faces Evans’ daughter made while Banks was beating down her mom right in front of her. I hope the daughter is a really great actress and not that, at her age, they used her and focused on her real facial reactions seeing somebody beat on her mom. Not knowing for sure made me very uncomfortable, but hopefully she was just great in her role. Bryan & Miz beat Corbin & Ziggler in 10:29. Bryan & Miz worked together well past once Miz tagging himself in. In the first minute or so they built to a spot where both Bryan & Miz did yes kicks on Corbin & Ziggler which got over well. Miz used the skull crushing finale on Corbin but Ziggler saved. The finish was Miz with the figure four on Ziggler while Bryan hit Corbin with the busaiku knee and Ziggler tapped out. It ended with Miz, Bryan and Corbin in the ring, them noting they will be in a three-way on 12/27 for the title shot in Detroit and the thunder storm and lights flickering and The Fiend laughing. They taped three matches after for NXT. Isaiah Scott beat Jack Gallagher. Dominik Dijakovic beat Bronson Reed. Keith Lee & Lio Rush beat Tony Nese & Damien Priest.
846
847Notes from the 12/23 Raw show. It was a basic show. There were a lot of squashes and it was heavily focused on a Samoa Joe angle with AOP. What was good about this is it felt organic, in the sense they’ve been shooting this angle for a couple of weeks but the way it was done, just subtle remarks in commentary, you wouldn’t have known it until it happened. Well, except for this week the news was out ahead of time, so you would have. But if you weren’t following it was very well constructed, particularly with Rollins playing like he’s a misunderstood babyface while whispering just loudly enough to catch it that he ordered the AOP to jump Joe. The other main item on the show was the build for the Lashley/Lana wedding. It felt like there was some sound sweetening on the show because it didn’t come across as dead as last week, even though those live said the second show was far more dead. Owens came out to start the show saying he had a lot of say about a lot of people. We still have no idea what it is since Rawley showed up. Owens said that Rawley talked about his MBA (legit) and joked that MBA sounds like something that smart people have. Owens noted they have a no DQ match next, rather than the usual where they would issue challenges for the match here. Rawley called Owens “Pretty Boy,” which would be the first time he’s been called that since he made it to U.S. television. Owens pinned Rawley in 6:25. Rawley hit Owens with a chair shot as Owens set up a table. Rawley slammed Owens off the top rope through four chairs but Owens kicked out. Owens got the win with a stunner and a power bomb through a table. I’m not sure about the idea of essentially squash opening matches being weapons matches, not that it matters in the big picture. Owens then issued a challenge to Rollins and AOP to come out. He challenged three guys, saying that he knows they are going to jump him backstage, so he’d rather they did it in front of these people so they can enjoy it. That’s weird but not wrong of a face acting like his getting beaten up will make fans enjoy the show. He went so far as to say he wasn’t leaving until they came out. So they came out. Rollins offered his hand for a handshake. Rollins said the beef was squashed. Owens then superkicked him and AOP and Rollins beat him down. Owens made a comeback but was beaten down again and Rollins finished him with a curb stomp. Owens was bleeding which was interesting because the ref didn’t put on gloves, so either the blood wasn’t real or the ref didn’t notice. Joe, in setting up the later angle, said that he was a bad bad man, and his father is a bad bad man. But AOP were thugs. Joe said with guys like that you have to strike first and let one story be told. And f you let them control the story it’ll get really dark. R-Truth was in New York singing Christmas Carols. He was looking for the Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson tree. He had a message to come there but it was written in Japanese. The idea is he thought the tree in Rockerfeller Center was the Dwayne Johnson tree. Anyway, Tozawa showed up with ref John Cone and Tozawa cradled him to win the 24/7 title. This was a show-long theme. Lashley beat Alexander in 10:18. Good match. Alexander is one of those really good workers who can’t get a break. He did a moonsault block off the apron. In the middle of the match, it just stopped as Lana cut a promo. She told Alexander that they need to turn it into a Greco-Roman wrestling match because Lashley can’t be all bruised up for the wedding photos. Vic Joseph asked Lawler about wedding advice and Lawler said that he shouldn’t give any because he’s had three weddings and no anniversaries. That’s actually not true. Well, the three weddings part is true. The match started again and Alexander did a tope, a tope con giro and a neurolizer kick. But Lashley won after a choke slam and a spear. Charly Caruso was talking to Rollins. Rollins said that he was out there forgiving Owens, but Owens kicked him in the face. He asked why Owens was picking a fight with him every week. Given Owens’ track record in these fights he’s picking, that does bring up a good point. Tozawa had the 24/7 belt in New York and sat down. R-Truth came. Tozawa saw him and knocked some guy’s food from a food vending truck on the ground, and Tozawa blamed R-Truth and he and Cone ran off. McIntyre pinned Ryder in 2:08 with the Claymore kick. Hawkins came in the ring to check on Ryder. You knew that was trouble. McIntyre threw Hawkins out of the ring and hit Ryder with a future shock DDT. Hawkins came back in but McIntyre cut him off with a head-butt, Claymore kick and a nip up. McIntyre said beating them up was fun. He said if you ask Hawkins & Ryder, they would say it’s fun. They were laid out like they couldn’t speak. He said to ask them, and said he’d speak for them, and he claimed that if they could talk they would say how McIntyre was as wise as he is jacked. McIntyre said 2020 would be his year. Lynch came out and said that she does her best when she takes things into her own hands. She said she was the face of the company and because of marketing reasons, the company has been trying to protect her. She said she needs to fight Asuka next and said Asuka is the only woman to beat the man fair-and-square. She said that the man has to come around and collect on that debt. Asuka & Sane came out. Sane had an umbrella with her. I guess she thought it might rain indoors. Asuka is so smooth on promos in Japanese that even if you don’t understand a word she says, you know she’s good. She’s got the delivery of a Japanese Dream Machine. Then she spoke English and called herself Asuka two belts. Lynch told her to name the time and place. She forgot to do so, or maybe wasn’t scripted to. Lynch then spoke to her in Japanese. Black pinned Deonn Rossman with black mass in :39. Rossman was a student at the Black & Brave Wrestling Academy, which is the school Rollins and Marek Brave have in Davenport, IA. Murphy then pinned Joeasa with a V trigger and Murphy’s law in :32. Black came out and offered Murphy his hand. Murphy laughed at him and
848
849shoulder bumped him on the way out. Black then laid out Murphy with black mass. This leads to a match between the two of them on 12/30 in Detroit. The announcers pushed how their TLC match stole the show, which is notable because rarely when undercard guys have a good PPV match do they ever get much credit for it on television. Mysterio did a promo on Rollins. He said he thinks Rollins is one of the best wrestlers of this time and noted it would be the first time they would wrestle. He said he knows it’s not Rollins vs. Mysterio, it’s Mysterio vs. Rollins & AOP. Ricochet pinned Tony Nese in 2:31 with the recoil, or codebreaker. Flair beat Chelsea Green in 4:04. They had a video pushing Green. The idea was clearly that this wasn’t supposed to be a squash like the other matches, and the idea is Flair beat someone. Green was given way more offense then people getting squashed get. For her, it was kind of a tryout type match. Joe put her over as well. Flair won with the figure eight. We went back to New York where Santa Claus stopped Tozawa and R-Truth from fighting. He made them fist bump. Santa then told R-Truth to go to his sleigh for a present. Santa then hit Tozawa with his gift bag and pinned him to win the title. So for a very brief period of time, Santa was the champion. I didn’t expect he could last long as champion since it’s 24/7 and he’d be getting jumped by every kid wanting to take the title who watches WWE. Okay, in this day and age that isn’t that much, but still. There was another Liv Morgan video. The message is that she’s not typical. Styles & Gallows & Anderson beat Orton & Viking Raiders in 11:00. Orton sold the knee, which was taped up, from an “injury” last week. Orton did a great job here selling. Orton finally hit the RKO on Anderson, tried to hit it on Gallows but the knee went out and Styles ht the phenomenal forearm on him for the pin. He continued to sell the knee after the match. Orton really made this match. We went back to New York where Santa was running away from R-Truth, Tozawa and ref Cone. He jumped in a horse-drawn carnage wanting to go to the North poll. For as long as he’s been around, he should know that one of those horse-drawn carriages in New York will not get you to the North Pole. Tozawa, R-Truth and Cone got in another horse-drawn carriage. Santa realized his horse wasn’t going fast enough so he got off the carriage and started running. Tozawa, Cone and R-Truth kept chasing. The comedy was that R-Truth thought the horse was a reindeer. Rowan was talking to the thing in the box like it was a baby. Or maybe a puppy that he thinks is like a baby if he has no kids of his own. The Street Profits got their air time. Montez Ford was mad that he never got a wedding invitation for Lashley & Lana’s wedding. Dawkins said he didn’t care and he just wanted to go to the bachelor party. Rowan pinned Travis Horn in 2:21. Horn had a bunch of candy canes stuck in the back of his trunk and gave one to Rowan as a gift. Like, what good is a candy cane stuck in some guy’s ass? Horn then pulled out more candy canes. He went to give a candy cane to whatever is in the box. Rowan attacked him and gave him two claw slams and that was a wrap. Back to New York, Santa was running but he was getting tired. He can go around the world in one night and can’t find a means of transportation in downtown New York. He tripped over some steps and R-Truth pinned him. Cone then said it was cold and he was tired of running around New York and he’s going home. He lives in Kansas City. Hopefully he can find a better way home than Santa. So he was gone. Santa told both that they were getting coal in their stockings. R-Truth said he doesn’t want Michael Cole. Anyway, with the ref gone, R-Truth and Tozawa called a truce for the rest of the night and R-Truth asked Tozawa to take him to the big apple. Rusev did an interview. He said he was screwed at TLC, that he is upset, and that he is going to do something about it. He said he’s not upset about Lana getting married. He said that will be the greatest day of his life. The worst punishment he could give Lashley is have her marry Lana. Rusev then pinned No Way Jose in :35 with the matchka kick. Rusev then did a spinaroonie in the ring when it was over. He started dancing with Jose’s konga line. Two of the women kissed him. He started strutting like was Ric Flair. At least he’s not still after Lana because that was death, but dancing with the konga line doesn’t scream headliner either. Mysterio retained the U.S. title over Rollins via DQ in 7:55. Mysterio did a sliding sunset flip into the barricade. This was all good stuff but they didn’t have time to do much other than cool moves. AOP attacked Mysterio. Joe said he would call AOP savages but it would be an insult to savages. Maybe he should call them Poffos, if that is their real name. The AOP kept beating down Mysterio and cleared out the announcers table. Lawler and Vic Joseph left but Joe stayed there. Joe wouldn’t move. They threw Mysterio into a Christmas tree instead. They told Joe to move. Joe said that if he gets up it’s both of your asses. He did get up but it ended being his ass, but this came off well. Rollins tried to pull them away from Joe. Rollins said he was sorry doing the show-long deal where he’s really the babyface being misunderstood. Then Rollins whispered to them to finish him, and thy attacked Joe. Rollins gave Mysterio a curb stomp. AOP gave Joe a double-team spinebuster through the announces table as the show ended.
850
851
852 
853wrestling news
854wrestling newsHOME   |   AUDIO ARCHIVE   |   NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE    |   SUBSCRIBE    |   THE BOARD   |    ABOUT US  |   CONTACT
855Need technical or billing help?:
856
857Open a Helpdesk ticket