Daily Update: Bobby Lashley, Madcap Moss, Nikki Bella

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter: 2021 Awards issue, Cody and Brandi Rhodes leave AEW

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Monday News Update

  • Bryan and I will be back tonight talking Raw, New Japan, AEW and the rest of the latest news with Wrestling Observer Radio. You can also send questions to the show to mailbag@wrestlingobserver.com
  • With today being President’s Day, it’s a holiday weekend so ratings will be delayed. The Friday ratings will be out tomorrow. Raw ratings will be out Wednesday. Everything should be caught up on Thursday.

WWE

  • Little is announced for Raw tonight in Columbia, SC with the first show where the main goal is the promotion of WrestleMania. Brock Lesnar was advertised for tonight’s show. It returns to the USA Network and coming off the PPV is expected to do one of the bigger numbers of the year as historically the post-February PPV show does well. The only announced match is Riddle & Randy Orton vs. Seth Rollins & Kevin Owens. If Rollins & Owens win, then next week’s tag title match will be a three-way with Chad Gable & Otis vs. Rollins & Owens vs. Riddle & Orton.
  • Bobby Lashley is currently in Birmingham, AL getting his shoulder checked out. He’s been injured since the match with Brock Lesnar which is why they did the Chamber match the way they did, with full knowledge he couldn’t wrestle.
  • Madcap Moss woke up okay after that terrible bump from the reverse Alabama slam in the Drew McIntyre match, but was still going to be checked out.
  • Raw will be taped 4/18 in Buffalo, NY.
  • New Day & Drew McIntyre vs. Roman Reigns & The Usos, Becky Lynch vs. Liv Morgan vs. Doudrop vs. Bianca Belair, Charlotte Flair vs. Naomi, plus Ronda Rousey appearing are scheduled for the weekend house shows on Saturday in Youngstown, OH and Sunday in Rochester, NY. McIntyre must be doing a lot better because originally he wasn’t going to wrestle on house shows until April, only at TV’s.
  • America’s Got Talent Extreme, where Nikki Bella will be a judge, debuts tonight head-to-head with Raw at 8 p.m. on NBC. The show will replay after NXT tomorrow night on the USA Network.

AEW

  • Dark Elevation tonight:
  • The Bunny vs. Kaitland Alexis
  • 2.0 & Daniel Garcia & Austin & Colten Gunn vs. Dean Alexander & Chico Adams & Ariel Levy & Dominic Garrini & Kevin Ku
  • AQA & Skye Blue & Kiera Hogan vs. Emi Sakura & Nyla Rose & Leyla Hirsch
  • Lance Archer vs. Joey O’Reilly
  • Tay Conti & Anna Jay & Red Velvet vs. Freya & Arie Alexander & Angelica Risk
  • Andrade & Private Party & Butcher & Blade vs. Chandler Hopkins & Carlie Bravo & Baron Black & Jameson Ryan & Shawn Dean
  • Ruby Soho vs. Haley J
  • Jay Lethal & Lee Johnson & Frankie Kazarian & Matt Sydal & Brock Anderson vs Peter Avalon & JD Drake & Cezar Bononi & Luther & Serpentico
  • Among the teams in the tag team Battle Royal for a PPV title shot (it will be a three-way with a Battle Royal this week and a Casino Battle Royal next week, both winners challenging Jungle Boy & Luchasaurus) are Young Bucks, Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly, Santana & Ortiz, FTR, 2.0, John Silver & Alex Reynolds, Private Party, Colten & Austin Gunn, Butcher & Blade and Chuck Taylor & Trent Beretta.

Other Wrestling

  • Katsuhiko Nakajima defends the GHC title against Kazuyuki Fujita on Wednesday in Nagoya. They did an angle where Nakajima poured a beer over the head of Fujita at a press conference earlier today. Fujita basically no sold it.
  • All Japan runs Korakuen Hall on Wednesday with Kento Miyahara defending the Triple Crown against Big Japan’s Abdullah Kobayashi plus Suwama & Shotaro Ashino defend the tag titles against Koji Doi & Kuma Arashi.
  • Prestige Wrestling from last night in Portland, OR before a sellout of 1,000 fans: Ethan HD b Nicki Wayne, Cody Chhun & Guillermo Rosas won tag team invitational over Ricky Gibson & Eddie Pearl, Malcolm Flex & Levi Cooper and Jaiden & Alex Zayne to become the first tag team champions, Funnybone b Warhorse, Alex Shelley won three-way over champion Tom Lawlor and Dalton Castle to win the Prestige title, Drexl b Taya Valkyrie in an unsanctioned anything goes match when when a masked woman (Athena) interfered, Sonico won four-way over Jaiden, Titus Alexander and Calvin Tankman, Dark Sheik & MV Young b Allie Katch & Effy, Malakai Black b Davey Richards. After the match the lights went out and when they came on, Brody King was in the ring and gave Richards a piledriver. They return 4/15 with Athena vs Valkyrie, Black returning plus Charlie Haas.
  • Sanctuary Fight Club from Saturday night in Hamtramck, MI: Dickie Brunson b James Alexander, Mysterious Movado won four-way over Krimson, Kyler Coleman and Joe Demaro, Jody Threat b Sam Beale, Ren Jones DDQ Jason Hotch, Karam b Silas Young to become Trash Zone champion (thanks to Leonard Brand).
  • Nick Wayne vs. Shane Strickland headlines for Defy on Saturday night at Washington Hall, plus Jonah vs. Schaff, Christopher Daniels defends the interim title against Clark Connors and the Bollywood Boyz defend the tag titles.
  • Laredo Kid vs. Dragon Lee will be part of Expo Lucha in June at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia.
  • Northeast Wrestling on 3/27 in Waterbury, CT features the Hardy vs. Nzo & Cass (W. Morrissey) at Crosby High School. Juice Robinson is also on the show. The Hardys also have dates on 4/23 in Danbury, CT and 4/30 in Belle Vernon, PA for NEW.
  • West Coast indie wrestlers Ruby Raze and Bad Dude Tito will compete on the show Wipeout, that airs tomorrow night on TBS. John Cena is one of the hosts of the show.

UFC

  • Tyson Fury today said that he will face Francis Ngannou in a boxing match next February or March and also claimed the UFC champion vs. boxing champion billing would break all PPV records. Ngannou would be stripped of the title by that point because to do it he’d have to leave UFC. It’s an easy payday for Fury either way unless he got hit early.
  • Sam Hughes vs. Istela Nunes is confirmed for the 4/16 show.
  • Nick Maximov vs.Andre Petroski was added to the 5/14 show.

Bellator

  • MMA Fighting has reported Paul Daley’s retirement fight on the 5/13 Bellator show at SSE Wembley in London will be against Andrey Koreshkov. Koreschkov finished Chance Rencountre on Saturday in 38 seconds with a spin kick that broke five of Rencountre’s ribs and punctured his lung.