Daily Update: Angle joins WWE HOF, more on Snuka’s death, WWE Network

THE ROUND-UP

The Lastest from the F4W Staff

NEWS

AUDIO

Raw is tonight in Little Rock with the return of Brock Lesnar, who is going to be a regular character from now until WrestleMania. Bill Goldberg is not scheduled for tonight’s show. We’re looking for reports as far as dark matches, Main Event matches and anything else that doesn’t air live to newstips@wrestlingobserver.com.

We’re also looking for your reports on these shows:

  • WWE Saturday night in Wichita
  • ROH Saturday night in Atlanta
  • WWE Sunday in Jackson, MS

We’re also looking for your thoughts on both days of the WWE U.K. tournament, so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle for each show along with a best and worst match from each show todave@wrestlingobserver.com

Smackdown and 205 Live will be taped on Tuesday in Memphis featuring Becky Lynch vs. Alexa Bliss in a cage match for the women’s title plus the return of Jerry Lawler. There will also be a music video with WWE stars for a song by Sophia Grace. Grace did a cameo on Smackdown a few weeks ago with Nikki Bella on the show.

FIGURE FOUR WEEKLY: 1/9/2017 Chris Hero’s unlikely road back to WWE

Chris Hero returned to NXT as Kassius Ohno last week after a little over three years away from WWE developmental. All that happened in between is that he became arguably the best professional wrestler in the world. It’s not that Hero didn’t enter developmental in 2012 as an excellent performer. He was a genuine independent wrestling star even then, having worked for Ring of Honor, Pro Wrestling NOAH, and seemingly everywhere else across the globe… Subscribers click here to continue.

WRESTLING OBSERVER NEWSLETTER: January 16, 2017 The conundrum of Kenny Omega, 2016 in retrospect, more

A look at the lessons learned of what worked and didn’t work in 2016, and each major company’s prospects for 2017 is the biggest story in the new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Next, check out the situation with Kenny Omega, look at the updated plans for WrestleMania, plans for the 2018 WrestleMania and the Mark Hunt lawsuit against Brock Lesnar and the UFC.

Comparisons of the UFC and WWE business in 2016 and how each company looks going into next year, plus a look at the lessons regarding television ratings of MMA, loading up PPV shows, why GSP isn’t fighting, what’s on the horizon in 2017 for future UFC fights and some experimental ideas for UFC and FOX, all in this issue.

Have a look at the positives and negatives of WWE going into 2017 including how the women’s and cruiserweight divisions are doing. Find out what big star returns, how NXT has changed the WWE business, the good and the bad of using top stars in NXT, as well as both UFC and WWE struggling with creating a long-term fan base.

The plight of the independent scene, the future of ROH and TNA, how New Japan and AXS can work together to build a stronger product, the role of Flo Slam in the 2017 wrestling world, and the lessons of Bellator’s ratings regarding who does and doesn’t move numbers, inside this issue.

Read a big story on Kenny Omega coming out of Wrestle Kingdom 11, including John Cena’s reaction, Omega’s and Okada talk about their match, the new top program in New Japan and why Omega is in such a unique position right now.

An update on the WrestleMania card as things stand including what talked about match is off, and what matches are official, and also look at why WrestleMania in 2018 is coming to New Orleans and the schedule of events, can be read.

Finally, take a look at the ticket demand and sales for Royal Rumble and NXT in San Antonio, the NXT Takeover lineup, more on the WWE Hall of Fame, the remarketing of XFL nostalgia, the return of Chris Hero to WWE and a new John Cena movie. 

Click here for full preview.

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WON BACK ISSUE: December 19, 1999 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: WWF Armageddon review, more – The one thing I can say for WWF Armageddon is, it was a weird show. When it was over, I couldn’t say that I liked or disliked it, and based on the response here, a lot of people has similar reactions. Some of the undercard wrestling was decent. Nothing was particularly good. A few matches were pretty bad. But that’s to be expected both from the line-up, which didn’t promise on paper one good match, and from the WWF PPV undercards in general… Subscribers click here to continue.

MONDAY NEWS UPDATE

Bryan and I will be back for our third straight night of coverage, talking Raw and all the rest of the news. You can send e-mail questions for tonight’s show to mailbag@wrestlingobserver.com.

Kurt Angle will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame and this will be announced on Raw tonight. So that is his official return to the company that has been speculated on. 

WWE Hall of Fame tickets go on sale with a pre-sale moved to Wednesday and public on sale to Friday. This was the third time in recent weeks they’ve changed the date.

Most media outlets covered the Jimmy Snuka death, noting both key things, his popularity in pro wrestling in the 80s in WWF and the Nancy Argentino case. Snuka was also one of the plaintiffs in the concussions lawsuit against WWE. Most stories focused on Tweets sent by name wrestlers. The cause of death has not come out but he was suffering from cancer and some serious infections and had been moved to hospice care in Florida on 12/17. I would expect something on Raw tonight as WWE did a ten bell salute yesterday at its house show in Jackson, MS. As noted, there was no mention of Snuka on its live broadcast from Blackpool, England.

For tonight’s Raw, this is the first week with no football so in theory the rating should be way up. It’s it’s above 3.3 million, that would be good but any number at 3.3 million or less would be normal for what should be expected. Under 3.2 million would be bad. There is significant competition with the Warriors vs. Cavs, the rematch of the NBA championship, going head-to-head against most of the show, on TNT. Next Monday is supposed to be a loaded show as the Rumble go-home Raw so that’ll be the real test as far as how much of the audience is coming back.

It was quite sad seeing B.J. Penn go out the way he did last night in the main event with Yair Rodriguez. That’s the cycle of life in real combat sports, that if you don’t recognize when it’s time to get out, the ending is usually not pretty. There were a ton of people watching sports yesterday, with the Packers-Cowboys game based on prelim numbers doing 48,520,000 viewers, which is more than the seventh game of either the World Series or NBA playoffs did. It was the best overnight rating for a divisional playoff game in more than 20 years. That wasn’t the game that went against UFC, as they went against the Chiefs-Steelers game, which looks to have done more than 37 million viewers. Fox was promoting the UFC show during the Packers game, so that should help, but with a head-to-head game, that’s tough, specially with the lack of marquee stars on last night’s show.

WWE

  • Regarding questions I’m getting asked a lot, all of the wrestlers who appeared in the WWE tournament have been signed. They are also able to work U.K. independent dates until or unless WWE starts running a full-time circuit.
  • The WWE sent out an e-mail blast to former network subscribers and others on their mailing list offering them three free months of the WWE Network starting today. The promotion is that they would get Royal Rumble, Fast Lane and WrestleMania for free.
  • There will almost surely be something on Martin Luther King on Raw, since Vince McMahon legitimately is a big MLK fan. 
  • The movie Shawn Michaels is in, “The Education of Gavin Stone,” comes out Friday and will be getting a major release. 
  • A contract signing with Shinsuke Nakamura and Bobby Roode will be on Wednesday’s NXT show, plus Roderick Strong wrestles Steve Cutler on the show.
  • The movie “Countdown,” a WWE Studios release with Dolph Ziggler as the star and Kane as a costar has been added to Netflix.
  • Another WWE movie, called “Surf’s Up 2,” will be released on DVD tomorrow which features anime with a number of major stars incluiding Vince McMahon.
  • The movie “The Wall,” which John Cena is one of the stars in, will be test marketed this month before its 3/10 release.
  • WWE on 3/10 has a Raw house show at the KeyBank Center in Buffalo, the same site UFC just announced a PPV in. There will be a presale starting tomorrow at 10 a.m. through Thursday at 11 p.m. with the code WWEKBC. 
  • Moana was No. 3 at the box office in Australia this past weekend. It was No. 12 in the U.S. (thanks to James Stanios)
  • A John Cena Make a Wish story is here.

UFC

  • Floyd Mayweather burns Dana White.
  • The situation last night where Joe Lauzon got a decision win over Marcin Held, and then said that he didn’t deserve it and Held clearly won (it was overwhelming among both media and fans that Held won that fight) was not the first time a winner outright said he lost. In 2010, when Rampage Jackson won a decision over Lyoto Machida, he went to the press conference and said he thought he had lost the fight.
  • Me picking Lauzon before the fight means I backdoored into a 5-0 record last night in picks:
    5-0: Myself, David Bixenspan and Mike Sawyer
    4-1: Paul Fontaine, John Pollock, Mike Sempervive, Ryan Frederick, Steve Juon
    3-2: Josh Nason, Frontrow Brian

MISCELLANEOUS

  • Evolve and FloSlam have signed Keith Lee and he will be leaving ROH for a better financial offer than ROH put on the table. He’s expected to get a major push in Evolve as one of their signature stars. Shane Taylor is remaining with ROH.
  • There are a number of shows to watch out for this coming week with no PPV event from WWE and no shows from UFC, including three Fantastica Mania shows from Korakuen Hall on New Japan World, a 1/21 Revolution Pro show in London with Katsuyori Shibata vs. Matt Riddle for the British heavyweight title as the main event, and Bellator runs at The Forum in Los Angeles with Tito Ortiz vs. Chael Sonnen.
  • As of this morning, there were only 64 tickets left for the Revolution Pro show.
  • Progress Wrestling ran a show on Saturday and Finn Balor was at the show, as was Tommy End. Balor did a game of musical chairs. End lost to Jimmy Havoc. Rockstar Spud from TNA also returned on the show which featured Matt Riddle winning the Atlas championship from Rampage Brown.
  • Kevin Eck did a video for a show coming up for MCW where his Ecktourage will face the Hardys, doing a Hardy spoof. The idea was for it to be so bad it’s good and you can judge if they succeeded.
  • This week’s pro wrestling quiz is here.
  • A story on The Pope from TNA helping feed the needy in his home of Jacksonville is here. (thanks to Mike Kuzmuk)
  • Politco.com has another story connecting Donald Trump to pro wrestling. (thanks to Chris Cruise)
  • AAW on Friday night in Merrionette Park, IL at 115 Bourbon Street has Dave & Jake Crist vs. Eddie Kingston & Homicide in a cage match, Andrew Everett & Jack Evans vs. Davey Vega & Mat Fitchett in a tag team title match, Mercedes Martinez vs. Angelina Love, Drew Galloway vs. Silas Young, Abyss vs. Colt Cabana plus Sami Callihan, ACH, Moose, Matt Sydal, Brian Cage, AR Fox, Davey Richards, Rey Fenix, Dezmond Xavier and DJZ.
  • AAW also announced these matches for 2/4 in LaSalle, IL at the Knights of Columbus with ACH vs. Trevor Lee, Dave & Jake Crist vs Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz, Jessicka Havok & Allysin Kay vs. Candice LeRae & Samantha Heights plus Sami Callihan and AR Fox.
  • Glory kickboxing has a big show at LA Live in Los Angeles on Friday night. They also have a 2/24 show in Chicago with a light heavyweight title match with Artem Vakhitov vs Saulo Cavalari.
  • An evening with Shane Douglas was announced for 2/17 in Toronto at Cherry Cola’s Cabaret at 200 Bathurst Street. This will be a talk show and a Q&A session. You have to be 19 or older to attend and must bring ID. Seats are $25 in advance and $35 at the door and it is limited to 75 people attending.
  • Pro Wrestling Eclipse from yesterday in Oshawa, ONT: Carter Mason b John Atlas, Randy Reign b Rip Impact, Tony Cage d Shelton Jean, Johnny Devine NC Buck Gunderson, Cody Deaner won Rumble style Battle Royal. (thanks to Steven Ashe)
  • ICW from yesterday in Glasgow, Scotland. Wolfgang is this group’s champion but obviously he wasn’t at the show, nor was regular headliner Trent Seven. DCT b Davey Blace, James Scott b Christopher Saynt, Charlie Sterling b Chris Ridgeway, Iestyn Rees b Jackie Polo, Joe Hendry b Lionheart, Kasey won over Martina, Debbie Sharpe and Samil Jayne, Joe Coffey b Wild Boar, Andy Wild NC Lewis Girvan (Wild tapped out while pinning Girvan at the same time), Kenny Williams won three-way over Aaron Echo and Zack Gibson, Stevie Boy b Chris Renfrew.
  • United Wrestling Coalition on 1/28 in Wrightstown, NJ at Kelly’s Banquet Hall.
  • The NHL’s Florida Panthers announced Pro Wrestling Night on 2/9 for their home game with the Los Angeles Kings. Appearing will be Tommy Dreamer, Christian and Ricky Steamboat. There will be an autograph session with the wrestlers. You can get tickets using the code WRESTLING

Today in Professional Wrestling History (1/16): AJ Styles wins the TNA X Division title

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