Daily Update: Backlash canceled, CM Punk, Viceland schedule

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We’re looking for reports on today’s Raw show in Moline, IL and Smackdown in Rochester, MN to newstips@wrestlingobserver.com.

We’re also doing our weekend poll for the New Japan Sengoku Lord show from yesterday, 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.

ALL JAPAN CHAMPION CARNIVAL SUNDAY IN SAPPORO ON ALLJAPAN.TV

  • Zeus vs. Yuji Okabayashi
  • Joe Doering vs. Daichi Hashimoto
  • Yoshitatsu vs. Joel Redman
  • Suwama vs. Jake Lee

LIVE WWE NETWORK SPECIAL AT 9:30 P.M. SUNDAY FROM MOLINE, IL

  • Finn Balor vs. Elias for IC title
  • Roman Reigns & Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose vs. Drew McIntyre & Bobby Lashley & Baron Corbin

Raw on Monday will be from Des Moines, IA.  Smackdown has a  house show Monday in Sioux City, IA.

ALL JAPAN CHAMPION CARNIVAL TUESDAY IN SENDAI ON ALLJAPAN.TV

  • Shuji Ishikawa vs. Dylan James
  • Kengo Mashimo vs. Gianni Valletta
  • Ryoji Sai vs. Yuji Okabayashi
  • Yoshitatsu vs. Daichi Hashimoto

Smackdown and 205 Live will be Tuesday night in Lincoln, NE.  Kofi Kingston vs. Shinsuke Nakamura is currently scheduled.

F4W NEWSLETTER: Figure Four Weekly: Ronda Rousey confirms hiatus from WWE

Part one of Ronda Rousey’s professional wrestling career officially came to an end at WrestleMania.

Nearly three months after Dave Meltzer first reported that Rousey was likely finishing up with WWE at WrestleMania 35, Rousey made things official this week. She wrote on Instagram that she was going on an “impregnation vacation” with her husband Travis Browne. ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne, who Rousey is friendly with, then reported that Rousey is taking a hiatus from WWE to start a family.

WON NEWSLETTER: April 22, 2019 Observer Newsletter: WWE Superstar shake up results, more

A rundown of the fallout of the Superstar Shakeup leads off this week’s issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. 

Go through the moves, the names, the direction, what it says about 205 Live, those coming and going, key people not brought up, couples and read a depth chart of the new rosters.

Look at the situation with Undertaker, the U.K. talk show situation and what happened, how did it happen, update on Sasha Banks situation, update on Money in the Bank PPV, update on Luke Harper, Alexander Wolfe, WWE’s relationship with Stardom, and WWE injury updates.

Also look at UFC 236, with match-by-match coverage, poll result and business notes.

Examine the Viceland documentary and the situation that led to the Montreal screwjob, including claims by Jim Cornette and Vince Russo about being the architects, from the background, and why it happened.

Also look at the career of Rich Franklin as he goes into the UFC Hall of Fame.

Read a feature on the legacy wing inductees in the WWE Hall of Fame, including major write-ups on Jim Barnett and Primo Carnera, as well as Hisashi Shinma’s role in Japanese wrestling booking history.

Run down the ratings of all the major TV shows, along with detailed demo info for the WWE shows.

As always, read the results of all the major pro wrestling events around the world over the past week. 

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SUNDAY NEWS UPDATE

Garrett Gonzalez and I did our weekend show last night covering a ton of subjects, from Chet Coppock and sports coverage, New Japan Sengoku Lord, WWE Raw & Smackdown notes, and The Viceland Von Erich doc, plus tonight we have a show with Pat Laprade talking Raw & Smackdown in Montreal, Montreal history, Andre the Giant, and both the first and the second Montreal screwjob.

At this point, regarding WWE and the June PPV, the only thing we do know is the 6/16 Backlash PPV show scheduled for San Diego has been canceled. The presumption is that it’s being pulled because of the 6/7 show in Saudi Arabia, which hasn’t been announced, but that is the date scheduled. They are selling tickets for shows that weekend in the U.S. for both the Raw and Smackdown tours. We still don’t know anything conclusively regarding the planned 6/8 Takeover show in San Jose. WWE has shows scheduled for 6/7 in Salt Lake City, 6/8 in Denver, Boise and Takeover in San Jose, and 6/9 in Oakland and Fresno.  

C.M. Punk did return to wrestling somewhat last night. Punk did a show in West Allis, WI, at a building he used to perform in often when he was starting out and it was the last show in the venue. Silas Young ran the show and Punk, covered from head to toe with a sweatsuit and a mask, ran in, hit a terribly sloppy GTS, and ran off. Because he’s lost a lot of weight, or maybe covered up, it really didn’t look like him, didn’t move like him and the GTS hardly looked like him. But it was him, evidently wanting to do something in the building. This is not a sign he wants to get back to pro wrestling, and obviously AEW would like him because I can’t see him going to WWE.

Announced for Smackdown is Kofi Kingston vs. Shinsuke Nakamura in a non-title match with Kevin Owens and Xavier Woods in Kingston’s corner. Also they are teasing as to whether Vince McMahon will fire Roman Reigns, and that there will be a Charlotte Flair vs. Becky Lynch confrontation. 

Since people have asked about the upcoming Viceland schedule:

  • Wednesday: Bruiser Brody
  • May 1: The Von Erichs (this one is must-see, Kevin Von Erich in particular was tremendous in this)
  • May 8: Gino Hernandez
  • May 15: Fabulous Moolah

Japanese woman wrestler Command Bolshoi retired after a 27 1/2 year career with a show today at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo.

WWE

  • Jon Hayes was named General Manager and coach of the XFL team in St. Louis. Hayes played 12 seasons in the NFL (1985-1996) and was tight end coach of the Cincinnati Bengals from 2003-2018.
  • Even though both were advertised, Daniel Bryan and A.J. Styles were not on the Smackdown house show last night. Drew McIntyre missed Friday but that was a transportation issue and he worked last night and will be in Moline for the live network special tonight. Samoa Joe worked last night but his match was kept short.
  • Beth Phoenix will be doing the Raw tour of Europe in early May, forming a tag team with Natalya.  
  • A story on Lacey Evans.

UFC

  • According to EIDia.es in Spain, Darren Till was arrested Thursday in Tenerife, Spain for causing damage to a hotel room and accidentally stealing a taxi cab. Till and a group with him allegedly broke furniture and emptied the fire extinguishers at a hotel they were staying at. They were kicked out. They called for a taxi, and when the driver was loading their luggage, they jumped in the taxi and drove away until the police stopped them.

MISCELLANEOUS

  • No major tracking stuff this weekend in pro wrestling or MMA. Boxing had two things in the top 20 searches for last night. The Terrence Crawford vs. Amir Khan fight had 200,000 Google searches, which is not a good sign for PPV, even though it was No. 3 yesterday. Danny Garcia had 50,000 searches for No. 17.
  • There was a Legends of Wrestling event in Detroit from last night at the Fraser, MI Hockeyland Arena. Among those there were David Penzer as announcer, Ric Flair, Bret Hart, Tito Santana, David Arquette, Ken Anderson, James Storm, Brooklyn Brawler, Jim Duggan, Nasty Boys, Rikishi and Jacob Fatu. The show itself drew more than 1,000 fans with Palmer Cruise b James Alexander, Angel Dorado & Airwolf b Brandon Gore & Rylie Jackson, Tito Santana b Drew Anderson, James Storm b JT Tapia, Ken Anderson b David Arquette, Zoey Skye b Neveah, Brooklyn Brawler b Marco Cordova, Rick Steiner b Rojit Rahu, Nasty Boys & Jacob Fatu (who stole the show) b Dirty Blondes & Drew Sipilia. (thanks to Leonard Brand and Derek Daniels)
  • Smash Wrestling on 4/27 in Toronto.
  • CWE on 4/26 in Winnipeg at the Essence Event Centre with Psicosis vs. AJ Sanchez vs. Jimmy Jacobs vs. Tony Kozina vs. TK O’Ryan vs. Kevy Cevy, plus Danny Duggan vs. Vinny Marseglia.
  • CWE results from last night in Weyburn, Saskatchewan: Danny Duggan b Robin Lekime, Norman Harass b Kevin O’Doyle, Jimmy Jacobs b Merle Graves, Psicosis & Davey O’Doyle b Martn Pain & Alex Ace, Alix Zwicker b Maddison Mles, Vinny Marseglia & TK O’Ryan b Michael Elgin & Killer Kross. They run tonight in Estevan, SK.
  • Bill Behrens at showbis@aol.com is booking appearances and matches for TJP our of Las Vegas, appearances for Missy Hyatt out of Jacksonville, Chris Michaels out of Nashville, Devon Dudley out of Orlando (or as a manager for his sons).
  • Hoosier Pro Wrestling on 5/4 in Columbus, IN at the 4-H Fairgrounds.
  • Legacy Fighting on 6/7 in Cabazon, CA at the Morngo Outood Pavilion live on AXS features Jacob Rosales (10-4) vs. Arthur Estrazulas (10-4) plus Blake Troop (8-5) vs. former Bellator star Brandon Halsey (12-5). The show will air live on AXS TV.
  • Fight Club Pro on Friday in Wolverhampton, UK: Chris Brookes & Kyle Fletcher b Frightmare & Hallowicked, Will Ospreay b Dan Moloney, Charli Evans b Gisele Shaw, Jeff Cobb b Mark Davis-DQ so Davis keeps Fight Club Pro title, Davey Vega & Mat Fitchett won four-way over LAX, Dave & Jake Crist and Jim & Lee Hunter, Sami Callihan b Rey Hours no DQ, Pentagon Jr. & Fenix b Eita & Pac. 
  • Fight Club Pro on Saturday in Wolverhampton, UK: Davey Vega & Mat Fitchett b Dave & Jake Crist, Hallowicked b Chris Brookes, Will Ospreay b Fenix, LAX b Jody Fleisch & Jonny Storm, Pac b Kyle Fletcher, Dan Moloney won over Chuck Mambo, El Phantasmo, Eita, Frightmare, Chief Deputy Dunne, Connor Mills, Jeff Cobb, Sam Callihan and Rey Hours, Mark Davis b Pentagon Jr to keep Fight Club Pro title. (thanks to Paul Sosnowski)
  • Fight Club Pro today in Wolverampton, UK: Fenix & Pentagon Jr. b LAX, Chris Brookes & Kyle Fletcher b Mat Fitchett & Davey Vega, Rey Hours b Chuck Mambo, Eita & Frightmare & Hallowicked b Dave & Jake Crist & Sami Callihan, Mark Davis kept FCP title over Dan Moloney, Pac and Will Ospreay, Fenix & Pentagon Jr,. b Chris Brookes & Kyle Fletcher to win the tag team tournament.
  • People have been going crazy about the Ospreay vs. Fenix match on Saturday. We saw the first 45 seconds or so and it was creative and excellent.
  • Stardom from earlier today in Osaka: Tam Nakano b Leo Onozaki, Hazuki d Starlight Kid, Andras Miyagi b Rebel Kel, Momo Watanabe & Bea Prietsley & AZM b Arisa Hoshiki & Saki Kashima & Saya Iida, Hana Kimura & Konami & Jungle Kyona b Kagetsu & Natsu Sumire & Natsouko Tora.
  • Stardom did a second show today in Osaka: Bea Priestley & Leo Onozaki b Starlight Kid & Saya Iida, Saki Kashima b Natsu Sumire-DQ, Hazuki & Natsuko Tora b Tam Nakano & Arisa Hoshiki, Kagetsu & Andras Miyagi b Hana Kimura & Rebel Kel, Jungle Kyona & Konami b Momo Watanabe & AZM. Bea Priestley challenged Kagetsu for the World of Stardom title. Mayu Iwatani was there but not wrestling due to knee problems. (thanks to Shannon Walsh and wrestlingwithdemons.net)

Daily Pro Wrestling History: Hogan defeats HHH to win Undisputed title

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