Daily Update: All In, new NJPW president, UFC 224

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THE LATEST NEWS

THE LATEST AUDIO

We’re looking for your thoughts on UFC 224, so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to dave@wrestlingobserver.com.

We’re looking for reports on today’s WWE shows in Malaga, Spain and Prague, as well as the ROH TV tapings in Chicago to newstips@wrestlingobserver.com.

ROH has a TV taping at the Odeum Expo Center with a TV taping that includes Tetsuya Naito & Hiromu Takahashi & Bushi & Seiya Sanada & Evil vs. Cody & Marty Scurll & Young Bucks & Adam Page, Mark & Jay Briscoe vs. Sho & Yoh for ROH tag titles, Silas Young vs. Austin Aries for ROH TV title, Sumie Sakai vs. Jenny Rose for Women of Honor title, Jay Lethal vs. Chuckie T, Kelly Klein vs. Deonna Purrazzo, Jonathan Gresham vs. Flip Gordon, Tenille Dashwood vs. Karen Q and The Dawgs vs. Jushin Liger & Cheeseburger.

Monday will be the Raw show from London at the O2 Arena. The show will be taped a few hours before it airs. Seth Rollins defends the IC title against Kevin Owens on the show. Smackdown has a house show Monday in Budapest, Hungary.

Tuesday will be Smackdown and 205 Live taped in London at the O2 Arena. Announced is a celebration for Carmella as well as New Day vs. Sheamus & Cesaro where the winning team picks one guy to enter Money in the Bank, and the U.K. contracted talent will be on the 205 Live show. 

There will also be a Tuesday Raw house show in Brighton, England.

NEW JAPAN LION’S GATE SHOW FROM SHINJUKU FACE AT 6 A.M. EASTERN TIME ON NEW JAPAN WORLD

  • Yota Tsuji vs. Yuya Uemura
  • Manabu Nakanishi vs. Tomoyuki Oka
  • Hiro Saito & Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Ren Narita & Ryusuke Taguchi
  • Daisuke Sekimoto vs. Shota Umino
  • Yuji Nagata vs. Ayato Yoshida

Wednesday will be a Raw show in Geneva, Switzerland and Smackdown house show in Liverpool, England.

F4W NEWSLETTER: Figure Four Weekly: Recapping Backlash 2018

At best, Backlash 2018 was going to be a largely meaningless show that was overshadowed by more important events on the WWE calendar. Surrounded by WrestleMania 34 and the fallout from the company’s biggest event of the year, the Superstar Shakeup, and the Greatest Royal Rumble, Backlash should have been an afterthought. Instead, it will be remembered as one of the worst WWE shows of at least the last few years.

WON NEWSLETTER: May 13, 2018 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Details on the UFC/ESPN deal, more

This is a big business issue of the Observer as we update all aspects of WWE business and look at the most important business deal in years, the UFC’s new deal with ESPN.

Look at the ramifications from all perspectives of the UFC deal, what is good, what may not be so good, how this affects the schedule, Fight Pass, making stars, and the financial structure of the organization. Also, look at the key aspects of the deal and what it means for WWE as well when it comes to future negotiations, as well as the value of both products.

This issue runs down every aspect of the WWE business and how it’s doing. Look at the long game for WWE business, the things to look through when WWE gives its presentations, what is now being hidden in the financial reports, why the stock looks overvalued but really isn’t, the unique questions nobody is bringing up about the network numbers, the value of WrestleMania to the network, as well as house show business, television ratings, merchandise and licensing and the dichotomy of areas that are growing and those slowly declining. 

Full coverage of Backlash, the Brock Lesnar title reign, Money in the Bank and other business notes plus match-by-match coverage with star ratings and poll results, and coverage of both New Japan Dontaku shows with match-by-match coverage, star ratings and poll results, the Okada records, Okada vs. Omega, Dominion and the Best of the Super Juniors tournament.

ORDERING INFO: Order the print Wrestling Observer right now and get it delivered via mail, by sending your name, address, Visa or Master Card number and an expiration date to Dave Meltzer, or by using PayPal directing funds to Dave@WrestlingObserver.com. 

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If you are a new subscriber ordering 24 or more issues, you can choose one free classic issue or two free classic issues with a 40-issue subscription.

SUNDAY NEWS UPDATE

Even with all kinds of ticket snafus due to the overload of demand, tickets for All In sold out in about 30 minutes today. For all the talk about scalpers, at last check on Stubhub there were less than 200 tickets available. For a comparison, for SummerSlam, with 13,600 tickets put on sale, there are currently 4,400 on the secondary market. 

The key to the All In announcement prior to tickets going on sale is that there was no mention of C.M. Punk, and with the show sold out, they did so without Punk, Daniel Bryan or anyone really past Kenny Omega and Kazuchika Okada, Cody, The Young Bucks and really those were the keys to the show. 

Harold Meij of The Netherlands today became the first foreign president in the history of New Japan Pro Wrestling. He speaks both English and Japanese fluently. He was Senior Vice President of Coca Cola Japan and was President and CEO of Takara Tomy, being one of the first foreign presidents of a major Japanese company. We’ll have more on this is the next issue but this is very much a shock for a Japanese major wrestling company to have a foreign president.

For the weekend Google searches, UFC 224 was No. 3 with 200,000. That’s a very low number but this was expected to do a very low number so it’s not a surprise. Lomachenko was No. 6 yesterday with 200,000. Mackenzie Dern was the second highest rated individual for the weekend with 50,000. Nothing related to Bellator or All In was mainstream enough to crack the charts at this point.

The Vasilly Lomachenko vs. Jorge Linares fight on ESPN last night did an 0.8 rating on the overnights with a 1.0 for the main event. While all numbers aren’t out, it was expected to easily beat the UFC prelims and Bellator number and ESPN is already pushing it was the highest rated fight on cable television from any combat sport so far this year based on early numbers.

For what it’s worth last night on the Raquel Pennington corner, both Pennington and Tecia Torres said that they felt the corner did the right thing in getting her to come out for the fifth round when she told them she had enough.

After his loss last night, King Mo said he was moving to middleweight from heavyweight.

WWE

  • Nia Jax is off the Raw tour because she’s doing appearances this week for the company in New York, so her missing shows isn’t injury related.

MISCELLANEOUS

  • The angle with Hangman Page last night in Royal Oak, MI is because he’s really banged up. He was actually injured significantly when he did that match with Kenny Omega last week.
  • Wrestling Go G-Olympic Games from Friday night in Sydney: Gatt won gold medal Rumble, SnadChad & Unsocial Jordan b Brad Alexander & Will Keidis, John Whalen b Jason Dewhurst, Ultimo Dragon b Jack Bonza. (thanks to Kevin Chiat)
  • Wrestling Go G-Olympic Game ran Saturday night in Sydney as well: Juan Direction won over El Grande Q, Dazza de Parke Tomas, Paris DeSilva b Jude London, Nikki Van Blair & Jason Dewhusrt b Alex Irvine & Scotty Haim, Cave Man Ugg NC Josh Gatt, Mick Moretti b Lochy Hendricks, Azalea b Jessica Troy, Ultimo Dragon b Bee Boy.
  • Warrior Wrestling from Friday night in Chicago Heights, IL: Matt Knicks & Pat Monix b Robbie E & Stevie Fierce, El Hijo del Fantasma b El Hijo de Dos Caras, Chelsea Green b Deonna Purrazzo, Tessa Blanchard b Santana Garrett, James Ellsworth b Hornswoggle with Frank the Clown as referee, Penta 0M won three-way over DJZ and Matt Sydal, Space Monkey & Shane Sabre b Mark Wheeler & Kobe Durst, Nick Aldis b Sam Adonis to keep the NWA title, Brian Cage b Eddie Edwards (tore the house down), Alberto El Patron b Jack Swagger in a no DQ match. Ricardo Rodriguez was in Alberto’s corner. Adonis was in Swagger’s corner. Alberto won with the armbar. Alberto then cut an anti-WWE promo about them going to Saudi Arabia. I thought he made up with them. (thanks to Jake Koch)
  • Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling on 5/19 in East Carondelet, IL at the Community Center has a 59th anniversary of Wrestling at the Chase show plus a Bruiser Brody Memorial Battle Royal. Barbara Goodish (Brody’s widow) and David Schultz will both be making appearances.
  • Lion’s Pride on 5/19 in Navasota, TX at the Grimes County Expo Center has Mike Dell vs Danny Ramons with Shane Douglas as referee, Lance Hoyt (Archer) & Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Big Daddy Yum Yum & Nobe Bryant, Billy Gunn vs. Johnny Swole hair vs. hair, Wilcox & Mayweather vs. Brent McKenzie & Franco D’Angelo, plus Gangrel, Rikishi and Snitsky.
  • Great North Wrestling from last night in Brockville, ONT: The Bruiser b Genesis, Wes Brisco b Nathan Banner-DQ, Hannibal b Max Testosterone, Lady Yasmine b Bea Bellatores, Leigh Brusey b John Maloney in a sumo match, PCO won three-way over Ad Hutchinson and Jeremy Prophet. Haku was denied being allowed to cross the Canadian border and missed the show. Chelsea Green had a flight canceled and missed the show but will be appearing for the promotion instead on 8/4 in Hawkesbury, ONT. They run 5/25 in Pembroke, ONT with Hannibal vs. PCO for the Canadian title plus Tony Atlas appears.
  • CZW from last night in Voorhees, NJ before 175 fans: Frankie Pichard b Smiley, Trey Miguel & Myron Reed b Isiah Kassidy & Marq Queen, Jason Cade b Brandon Kirk, Kit Osbourne b Mitch Vallen in a tournament of death qualifier, Dezmond Xavier b Rich Swann (best match on the show, Swann put over guys he said were future stars like Xavier, Miguel, Reed and Zachary Wentz), Josh Briggs b KC Navarro, Mance Warner won over Conor Braxton, Dan O’Hare and Stockade in a doors, ladders and chairs match, Zachary Wentz won over Wheeler Yuta, John Silver and Alex Reynolds. Many of the top stars were overseas with IPW like Joe Gacy, MJF, The Rep, David Starr and others. Jimmy Rave was a surprise and said he would be back wrestling here. BLK JEEZ also returned. (thanks to Bob Magee and Chris Shelton)
  • The next show is the Tournament of Death show on 6/9 in Berlin, NJ at Tansbor Dek Hockey.
  • Wrestling for Charity from last night in Porterville, CA: Ju Dizz b Richie Slade (Jimmy Rave was in as manager), Lazarus b James Von Eerie, Hip Hop Harry & Mantiz Lee b Extreme Phantom & Danny Rocket, Jake Atlas b B-Minus, Drake Frost & Alexander Bernard b Sunami & Kadin Anthony, Katarina Leigh b Tab Jackson, Julio Pedroza b Grizzly Kai Jack (Clayton Jack from NXT). (thanks to Jon Southerland)
  • Eve’s 8th anniversary show from London yesterday: Millie McKenzie b Killer Kelly, Charlie Morgan b Charlie Evans, Kasey Owens b Nina Samuels, Jamie Hayter b Zoe Lucas, Toni Storm b Bea Priestley, Rhia O’Reilly & Livvii Grace b Jetta & Erin Angel. (thanks to Jake Koch)
  • Ultimo Dragon and Sonny Onoo will be appearing for Harley Race’s WLW promotion on 6/2 at the Race Wrestling Arena in Troy, MO.
  • A story on Larry Matysik and his career.
  • Elliot Sexton’s Trophy Life show about dealing with the consequences of acting like a jerk to everyone on his trip back to Australia.
  • Danielle Moniet (Summer Rae) has her first independent match going up against Arya Reign in BCW’s Women’s title tournament on May 25th in Melbourne. 
  • Bill DeMott speaks at schools against drunk driving after the tragic death of his daughter.

Daily Professional Wrestling History: Rick Martel wins AWA World title

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