Daily Update: AEW BTE announcement, Vince McMahon, UFC

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Elimination Chamber review, Undertaker to WWE Hall of Fame

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Sunday News Update

Bryan and I will be back tonight talking all of the latest wrestling news with Wrestling Observer Radio. We also did a Friday show with Garrett Gonzales talking most of the news of the week.

AEW

  • The Young Bucks on BTE tomorrow will make an event announcement. The belief is they will announce the date of the first AEW show in Southern California. FWIW, the story going around wrestling yesterday was that it would be at the Forum in Inglewood, CA. That has historically been a very tough building to draw in, as WWE drew only 8,000 with Brock Lesnar seven years ago and hasn’t run the building since. WCW packed the building in 1998 and 1999 but no wrestling has done well since and it never did well prior either.
  • Tony Khan has pushed making a major announcement, which i believed to be a significant business deal of sorts, on the Wednesday show. The last time he promised a big debut, which ended up being both Keith Lee and Jay White, it did great in the ratings as Dynamite that week was No. 1 for the night and No. 5 for the week on cable.

WWE

  • Regarding the Vince McMahon vs. Pat McAfee match at WrestleMania, the match was confirmed to be on the books for the lineup. So when McMahon goes on McAfee’s show, it is an angle to build a match. Vince is 76 years old and while he will be advertised for a match, we’re told it will be complete smoke and mirrors event. As noted many times, they have more than 20,000 tickets unsold for both nights so things like McMahon, Steve Austin and anything they can roll out with people with name value will be pushed.
  • Ivy Nile (Emily Andzulis) of NXT 2.0 got engaged this weekend.
  • We’re looking for reports from tonight’s WWE show in Rochester, NY to dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  • Notes from last night WWE house show in Youngstown, OH:
  • Shinsuke Nakamura & Rick Boogs b Sheamus & Ridge Holland when Nakamura pinned Holland after the kinshasa
  • Damien Priest b Kevin Owens via DQ in a U.S. title match for usage of a chair
  • Omos b R-Truth in a squash
  • Chad Gable & Otis kept the tag titles over The Street Profits and The Mysterios
  • Charlotte Flair kept her Smackdown title over Naomi. After the match, Sonya Deville attacked Naomi and Ronda Rousey made the save
  • Ronda Rousey b Deville very quickly by submission in a match with the armbar banned
  • Finn Balor b Apollo Crews
  • Bianca Belair won a three-way over Liv organ and Doudrop when she pinned Doudrop after the TKO. Becky Lynch was advertised as defending the title in a four-way and no announcement was made as to why she wasn’t there. 
  • Drew McIntyre & Big E & Kofi Kingston b Roman Reigns & Usos. McIntyre pinned one of the twins with a Claymore kick. Thanks to Scott Sargent.

Other Wrestling

  • Harashima & Naomi Yoshimura beat Konosuke Takeshita & Yuki Ueno to win the Ultimate Tag League tournament from DDT that ended today at Korakuen Hall Takeshita & Ueno were the A block winners and Harashima & Yoshimura won the B block.
  • DDT is running Sumo Hall on 3/20 with Takeshita vs. Tetsuya Endo for the KO-D open weight title. Harashima & Yoshimura defend the tag titles against Chris Brookes & Masahiro Takanashi. Michael Nakazawa returns form the show. Jun Akiyama has the 30th anniversary match of his famous debut match with Kenta Kobashi in 1992.
  • Matt Grimm Basso and Brodie Marshall of Australia both returned after long absences for the Riot City Wrestling show on Friday night ni Adelaide. Basso was out after being diagnosed with cancer and Marshall returned from a serious neck injury.
  • EPW from last night in Western Australia: Taylor King won over Michael Morleone, Joel Hagan and Kaz Jordan, Bruno Nitro b Twitch, Aaron Hawk b Edith Night t keep Coastal title, Jordan Bishop & Ryan Allen b Cut Throat and Casey Johns & James Martness, Marcius Pitt b Kiel Steria, Zenith & Del Cano NC Dan Moore & Jesse Lambert to keep the EPW tag titles, Cut Throat and Casey Johns & James Hartness b Zenith & Del Cano to win the EPW tag titles, Julian Ward b Damian Slater to keep the EPW title in what was said to be an excellent match. Next show is 4/9 with Gavin McGavin vs. Mickey Nicholls and Julian Ward vs. Marcius Pitt.
    Thanks to Kevin Chiat.
  • A question I don’t know the answer to that has been asked, but with Starlight Kid being 20 years old and AZM being 19, they may be the youngest total ages in a match in history that was given ****1/2.
  • ICW NHB from last night in Villa Park, IL: Eric Ryan b Akira, Satu Jinn b Madman Pondo, Mickie Knuckles b Randi West, Neil Diamond Cutter b Aero Boy, Big FN Joe b Dale Patricks,Shlak b Hoodfoot Mo Atlas, John Wayne Murdoch b Bobby Beverly, Reed Bentley kept death match tile over Tommy Vendetta, Jake Crist and Justin Kyle. Thanks to Leonard Brand.

UFC

  • Regarding last night’s UFC show, the big controversy was that all three judges (Sal D’Amato, Adelaide Byrd and Michael Bell) gave Priscila Cachoeira a 29-28 decision over Ji Yeon Kim, giving her rounds one and three. This was heavily criticized all night as being one of the worst decisions of the year. 93% of media scores had Kim winning.
  • The Glover Teixeira UFC light heavyweight title defense against Jiro Prochazka, originally set for 5/7, has been moved to June. No reason was given but Teixeira said it in an interview in Portuguese by Combate in Brazil.
  • Regarding Google searches for the week, dominated by the war in The Ukraine, Islam Makhachev was No. 6 last night with 100,000 for win quick win over Bobby Green. The only other stuff related to boxing, wrestling or MMA were Vitali Klitschko on Thursday being No, 8 with 100,000 and Nikki Bella being No. 12 on Monday with 100,000.
  • Jessica Eye pulled out of this coming Saturday’s UFC show due to an injury She was to be facing Manon Fiorot on the show.
  • Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, an MMA legend, returns to UFC for a fight with Ovince Saint Preux scheduled for 5/7.

Other MMA

  • There was a lot of controversy regarding Scott Coker on Friday night saying that Cris Cyborg would be defending her women’s featherweight title against Sinead Kavanagh. Kavanagh beat Leah McCourt on Friday in Dublin. He said the fight would probably take place in the U.S. Coker said it depends on injuries since Kavanagh hurt her left knee in the fight. Coker said he was looking at a date in the fall. The problem is Cyborg just beat Kavanagh in November in just 1:32. But they have nobody else as Cat Zingano, the next likely challenger, asked for one more fight before facing Cyborg. Coker also said he’s been in talks with the management of Kayla Harrison but said Harrison’s management are trying to drive a hard bargain.
  • Yaroslov Amosov, the Bellator welterweight champion, is staying at his home in The Ukraine defending his country,. he lives in Irpin, close to Kyiv. He is currently scheduled for a 5/13 title defense in London against MVP (as in Michael Page) but obviously that could be in jeopardy.
  • PFL awarded Jarrah Al-Silawi and Chris Mixan contracts based on Friday night’s Challengers series show in Orlando. Mixan received a developmental deal while Al-Silawi is going to be in this year’s welterweight tournament. Al-Silawi was the person picked in a fan vote, in the judges vote (Ray Lewis, Tyron Woodley and Jeremy Piven) and by the promotion as the person to get a contract into the tournament.
  • Chris Mixan b Nathan Pierce TKO 3:31 of round two
  • Carlos Leal b Korey Kuppe TKO :56 of round one
  • Dilano Taylor b Mark Martin via doctor stoppage at the end of the first round
  • Jarrah Al-Silawi b Michael Lilly via TKO 2:54 of the first round
  • Imagine winning in :56 and then not getting the contract.