Daily Update: Battleground odds, UFC ratings, G1 standings

THE ROUND-UP

The Latest from the F4W Staff

NEWS

AUDIO

We’re looking for your thoughts on tonight’s Battleground show, 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 also looking for reports on last night’s Smackdown brand house show in Wildwood, NJ and tonight’s Raw brand house show in Salisbury, MD to newstips@wrestlingobserver.com.

WWE BATTLEGROUND AT 7:30 P.M. EASTERN TIME ON THE WWE NETWORK

  • Jinder Mahal vs. Randy Orton for the WWE title in a Punjabi Prison match — A note is that smart money may not be in for this show, but there has been a lot of movement today. They’ve been bouncing back-and-forth across the board. Orton is right now the -140 favorite after Mahal had been the favorite all week. It’s the most promoted match but not sure how good it will be.
  • John Cena vs. Rusev in a flag match — These two usually work hard. Cena is a -1200 favorite and there is at least some thought this leads to A.J. Styles vs. John Cena, at SummerSlam, except…
  • A.J. Styles vs. Kevin Owens for the U.S.title — Owens is a -350 favorite to regain his title. Styles had been favored all week since they’ve already teased Styles matches against Cena and Nakamura, and thus, it doesn’t make a lot of sense for him to lose. Most feel this will be the match of the night.
  • Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Baron Corbin — Corbin is a -900 favorite after Nakamura had been favored all week. Nakamura and Corbin worked well in their short tag team match on Tuesday. I didn’t think much of this match when it was first announced but they’ve gotten more interest with the final show.
  • The Usos vs. New Day for the tag titles — The Usos are -825 favorites to retain the titles. That’s a little bit of a surprise since they just did the match where the Usos retained.
  • Charlotte Flair vs. Tamina vs. Lana vs. Becky Lynch vs. Natalya in an elimination match for a title shot — It will be interesting to see how much time they are given because you need four falls and doing that in less than 14 minutes comes across as a rush job. The last odds we have are Charlotte at -320 as the favorite, Lynch at +4500, Lana at +5500, Natalya at +260 and Tamina at +7000. Notable is that last night, there was a big betting spree on Natalya to the point that two places took this match off the books, and when the put it back on, Natalya was the favorite. Since then there was heavy betting on Charlotte.
  • Sami Zayn vs. Mike Kanellis — Kanellis, who won the first match on TV on Tuesday, is listed at a -1350 favorite.
  • Tye Dillinger vs. Aiden English (pre-show match) — Dillinger is a -1200 favorite as it probably should be. 
  • Reveal of who has been attacking Breezango.

        On paper it feels like just a show. Styles vs. Owens can’t help but be very good. Cena vs. Rusev should be good and the tag title match as far as what happened was very strong last month, but had a bad finish. Orton vs. Mahal have the handicap of a double cage that may be difficult for them. Nakamura vs. Corbin should be good but that’s not a sure thing. The women will move fast and do a lot, and that depends on the crowd. No Sami Zayn match should ever be bad.

Raw will be Monday in Washington, DC. Matches announced are Finn Balor vs. Elias Samson in a no DQ match, Bayley vs. Sasha Banks for a women’s title shot, Dean Ambrose & Seth Rollins vs. The Miz & Curtis Axel & Bo Dallas 2 vs. 3. There is also a Smackdown brand house show in Newark, DE.

NEW JAPAN G-1 CLIMAX TOURNAMENT DAY SIX FROM FUKUSHIMA BIG PALETTE ON TUESDAY AT 5:30 EASTERN TIME ON NEW JAPAN WORLD

  • Togi Makabe & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Kota Ibushi & Shota Umino
  • Tomoyuki Oka & Katsuya Kitamura vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Yoshi-Hashi
  • Yuji Nagata & Hirai Kawato vs. Tetsuya Naito & Hiromu Takahashi
  • Zack Sabre Jr. & Taichi & Desperado vs. Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens
  • Hiroshi Tanahashi & David Finlay vs. Hirooki Goto & Jado
  • Satoshi Kojima vs. Michael Elgin
  • Tama Tonga vs. Evil
  • Minoru Suzuki vs. Juice Robinson
  • Kenny Omega vs. Toru Yano
  • Kazuchika Okada vs. Seiya Sanada

Smackdown and 205 Live will be Tuesday from Richmond, VA. Announced is Rich Swann & ? vs. TJP & ?

FIGURE FOUR WEEKLY: Figure Four Weekly 7/17/2017: Mayweather vs. McGregor hype fails to meet expectations

While the superfight between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor was bound to endlessly be compared to something out of WWE, the grandiose four-show world tour of press conferences to promote it felt more like a parody of pro wrestling. They made stops in Los Angeles, Toronto, Brooklyn, and London in an attempt to get the hype for their boxing match seen in as many relevant media markets as possible.

Subscribers click here to continue.

WRESTLING OBSERVER NEWSLETTER: July 24, 2017 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Brock Lesnar UFC return rumors, WWE Battleground preview, more

What exactly is going on with Brock Lesnar is the lead story in the new issue of the Wrestling Observer.

Look at Lesnar rumors as far as UFC goes, what is and isn’t reality, what steps he has to take before he can be in a match and why he won’t be fighting in UFC any time soon. Look at the UFC and WWE schedules and how murky certain things are, Lesnar’s WWE contract, how this is similar to 2015, as well as looking at potential Lesnar opponents in UFC. Find out how this plays into WWE bookings, with thoughts on SummerSlam, and the booking of SummerSlam and Battleground.

Check out the G-1 Climax tournament, run down the first night, New Japan’s business, the matches coming up this week along with match-by-match coverage and star ratings from Sapporo.

Examine Kurt Angle’s new angle with Jason Jordan, and look at the story, how it doesn’t fit into the original story, fan reaction and long-term potential.

Go in-depth into the Mae Young Classic, the Ronda Rousey involvement, Shayna Baszler push, behind-the-scenes, reactions to it and match-by-match coverage.

Look at a promotion that claims it has gotten $100 million in investment money to start competing on a worldwide basis.

Find out about the cancellation of the weekly version of Talking Smack. Look at the show, what worked, what didn’t work, why it’s continuing in a limited form, and the idea that WWE forgot to tell the hosts the show was being canceled. There is also an update of the latest PPV numbers.

Find out about the Shane McMahon helicopter crash, an update on the negotiations for the Hardys to get the broken gimmick, Bruno Sammartino being honored, Stephanie McMahon being honored, Jinder Mahal talks India market, UFC fighter and WWE star doing their own angle, TV station that aired WWE closes its doors, notes on an upcoming WWE movie release, WWE scouting, upcoming Raw house show lineups, plus the most-watched network shows over the past week and a look at every WWE and NXT arena event over the past week with highlights and business notes.

Subscribers click here to continue.

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. 

Rates in the United States are $13 for 4 issues, $32 for 12, $61 for 24, $101 for 40 and $131 for 52. In Canada and Mexico, rates are $14.50 for 4, $35 for 12, $67 for 24, $111 for 40 and $144 or 52. In Europe, you can get the fastest delivery and best rates by sending to moonsault@mediaplusint.com. For the rest of the world, rates are $16.50 for 4, $44 for 12, $85 for 24, $141 for 40 issues and $183 for 52. If you order by mail with a check, cash or money order (P.O. Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228), you can get $1 off in every price range.)

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.

WON BACK ISSUE: June 26, 2000 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Birth of NOAH, Vince Russo quits WCW, tons of news

Mitsuharu Misawa announced officially the formation of his new promotion, Nippon TV officially announced cancellation of the All Japan television show and Toshiaki Kawada talked about attempting to go to New Japan were highlights of the aftermath of the All Japan split. Misawa held his press conference on 6/16 at Diffa Ariake, the new building in the Ariake suburb of Tokyo, which was built specifically for pro wrestling to replace Korakuen Hall as the small show mecca in the Tokyo area and which, ironically enough, has its first show on 7/1 booked by the All Japan promotion.

Subscribers click here to continue.

SUNDAY NEWS UPDATE

Bryan I will be back tonight covering Battleground. You can also send questions for tonight’s show to mailbag@wrestlingobserver.com.

Ratings for last night’s UFC on FOX averaged 1.64 million viewers from 8-10 p.m. on the overnights, the lowest of the 26 FOX specials to date. That’s a huge disappointment and down greatly from last July. Chris Weidman was No. 12 yesterday with 50,000. You’d hope for 100,000 at the least for a FOX show, but the rating tells you that there wasn’t a lot of interest in the show.

The Waterloo-based Dan Gable Museum had its Tragos/Thesz Hall of Fame induction ceremony last night honoring Scott Williams, Stan Hansen, Paul Orndorff, Dusty Rhodes and Magnum T.A. We’ll have a big write-up on it in the new issue, but Chad Gable and Jason Jordan were there from WWE and Gable got to meet Dan Gable, his idol, who had noted in the past being flattered about his name being used by an ex-Olympic wrestler.

After today’s show in Machida, here are the A block G-1 standings:

  • Hiroshi Tanahashi 2-1
  • Tetsuya Naito 2-1
  • Kota Ibushi 2-1
  • Zack Sabre Jr. 2-1
  • Bad Luck Fale 2-1
  • Hirooki Goto 2-1
  • Tomohiro Ishii 1-2
  • Togi Makabe 1-2
  • Yoshi-Hashi 1-2
  • Yuji Nagata 0-3

The Daniel Cormier/Jon Jones interview last night with Cormier in San Jose and Jones in Albuquerque was notable for two things. The first is that people noted that Cormier looked a little heavy for a guy who has to make 205 in six days. Cormier barely made weight in his last fight with Anthony Johnson. The other is that Jones wasn’t joking around at all or hardly poking at Cormier. He just looked bad, and then when the interview was over, he stormed off.

For tonight’s WWE show, they don’t expect to sell out, and did heavy discounting of tickets the last two weeks,but do expect in the range of 12,000 to 13,000 legit, which would mean an announced figure of 15,000 to 16,000.

CJ Watson is the most-searched for term on the Internet so far today with more than 200,000 searches. That’s because Conor McGregor wore a CJ Watson jersey as a shot at Floyd Mayweather and got into a social media feud with Draymond Green.

WWE

  • I talk Chris Benoit with Chris Jericho in an interview that we’ve gotten an amazing amount of positive feedback for.
  • Rob Schamberger, who does a lot of art work for WWE has signed a deal with Mattel to use his drawings for action figures and the like.
  • Finn Balor may have gotten banged up on Friday night’s show in Fayetteville as he was wearing kinesio tape on his surgically repaired shoulder at last night’s house show in Hampton. 
  • An interview with Justin Roberts about his book, the biggest misconception about the role of ring announcer in WWE, what it’s like working for Vince McMahon and Kevin Dunn, the “suggestion box” backstage that was actually a paper shredder, his WWE release and more.
  • More on Bruno Sammartino from the story we had last week and his trip to Italy. (thanks to Mike Kuzmuk and Chris Cruise) 
  • Odds at Kambi to bet on what you think will have the highest star ratings from tonight’s show in Wednesday’s Observer:
    Kevin Owens vs.A.J. Styles -900
    John Cena vs. Rusev +250
    Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Baron Corbin +250
    Women’s five-way +500
    New Day vs. Usos +500
    Sami Zayn vs. Mike Kanellis +1000
    Randy Orton vs. Jinder Mahal +2000
    Any other match +2000
    There are also over-under ratings  in the sense you can bet on if matches will do over or under the guidelines. (thanks to David Taylor)

UFC

  • UFC last night announced these fights for 9/16 in Pittsburgh:
    Luke Rockhold vs. David Branch
    Anthony Smith vs. Hector Lombard
    Krzysztof Jotko vs. Uriah Hall
    Kamaru Usman vs. Sergio Moraes
    Gilbert Burns vs. Jason Saggo
    Anthony Hamilton vs. Daniel Spitz
    Justin Ledet vs. Dmitri Smolakov
  • The Jones vs. Cormier Countdown show has its first airing on FS 1 at 7 p.m. Eastern and 4 p.m.Pacific time tomorrow night. 
  • Results from last night’s UFC predictions:
    4-1:  John Pollock, me and Paul Fontaine
    3-2:  Josh Nason, Steve Juon, Ryan Frederick, David Bixenspan
    2-3:  Mike Sempervive, Mike Sawyer, Frontrow Brian, Tom Lawlor

MISCELLANEOUS

  • John Morrison will have a role in the upcoming Syfy movie “Sharknado 5: Global Swarming.” Kurt Angle, Seth Rollins and Chris Jericho have been in previous Sharknado movies. It debuts on 8/6.
  • I Believe in Wrestling from Friday night in Orlando: Chasyn Rance b Carlos Gabriel, Deon James b Mike Austin, Chico Adams & Faris Hakeem & Jason Dugan b CT Brown & Andrew Merlin & Mante, Jerrelle Clark b Axx Clover, Mike Parrow & Amber Nova b Tyranus & Kaci Lennox, Josh Hess b Jonny Vandal, Aaron Epic b Daniel Drennan. Next show is 8/11 at the Team Vision Dojo.
  • NWL Kansas City from last night: Blaine Meeks NC Thor Theriot, Hans Ruger b Ken Dharma in a kendo stick on a pole match, Dak Draper b Martin Casaus (Marty the Moth in Lucha Underground) to keep the Kansas City title, Michael Strider & Scott Slade b Anthony Gutierrez & Gil Rogers, Jeremy Wyatt b Jack Foster, Ray Briggs & Flex Zebra b Niles Plonk & Red Cloud, Leonell Howlett b Luke Holliday, Jet Royal won three-way over Mat Fitchett and Fuego del Sol. (thanks to Brian Hops)
  • Pro Wrestling Eclipse on 7/29 at the Oshawa Legion.
  • A story on former U.K. star Adrian Street.
  • Mike Mooneyham talks Cheerleader Melissa.

Today in Pro Wrestling History: Great American Bash 1989

F4W Online / Wrestling Observer Vegas Convention Event Info

August 17-21; All times are TBA; Full information on the group Facebook page; Activities subject to change

For ticketing information go to https://f4wvegas.brownpapertickets.com/

  • Thursday: Meet at the High Roller for Bowling at the Link; Party at Carnival Court at Hurrah’s
  • Friday: Kiss Mini Golf tournament at the Rio; Dinner at Texas de Brazil; Suite party (location TBA)
  • Saturday: Burgers with Granny for lunch; Future Stars of Wrestling show featuring Stephan Bonnar & Phil Baron, and co-main events: 3-way match with Leva Bates vs. Mia Yim vs. Hudson Envy, and “Filthy” Tom Lawlor vs. Thomas Santell (f.k.a. Antonio “The Promise” Thomas); NXT viewing party at the Sci-Fi Center
  • Sunday: SUPER CHINA BUFFET DAY at the Wicked Spoon Buffet at 1pm; SummerSlam viewing party at the Sci-Fi Center
  • Monday: Goodbye lunch at Chen Chen at NY NY
  • All website members will also receive a 15% discount on any purchases from the Las Vegas Fight Shop for the entirety of the convention

Texas de Brazil, Wicked Spoon, NXT and Summer Slam will all be sign up and pre-paid events, prices and collection begin in mid July~!

Pro Wrestling Tees is now carrying our latest line of F4W shirts. Support the Empire~! Grab yours today!

CONTACT INFORMATION

​