Daily Update: Cody, Starrcast, WWE weekend notes

DAILY UPDATE

Latest News

Latest Audio

We’re looking for reports on today’s WWE UK tapings in Glasgow, Scotland, the Raw house show in St. Louis and NXT in Jacksonville to newstips@wrestlingobserver.com

This weekend we’ll be doing one poll, for the New Japan Sengoku Lord show tomorrow, 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” target=”_blank”>dave@wrestlingobserver.com

NEW JAPAN WORLD PRO WRESTLING ON AXS TV AT 8 P.M.  EASTERN TONIGHT

  • Will Ospreay vs. Jeff Cobb Never title vs. ROH TV title both titles at stake 
  • Taiji Ishimori vs. Dragon Lee vs. Bandido for IWGP jr. title
  • Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa vs. PCO & Brody King vs. Mark & Jay Briscoe vs. Evil & Sanada for IWGP and ROH tag titles
  • Jay Lethal vs. Matt Taven vs. Marty Scurll ladder match for ROH title

CMLL LIVE FROM ARENA MEXICO AT 9:30 P.M. EASTERN TONIGHT

  • Arkalis & Halcon Suriano Jr. vs. Coyote & Grako
  • Tae Honma & Princesa Sugehit & Kaho Kobayashi vs. Amapola & Dalys & Reyna Isis
  • Rey Cometa vs. Kawato San
  • Angel de Oro & Caristico & Atlantis Jr. vs. El Hijo del Villano III & Rey Bucanero & Sanson 
  • Block B one night parejas increibles tournament (rivals form tag teams):  Ultimo Guerrero & Volador Jr., Niebla Roja & El Terrible, Mistico & Cuatrero, Rush & Vangellys, Atlantis & Negro Casas, Valiente & Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr. & Hechicero, Audaz & Templario

IMPACT ON PURSUIT TV AT 10 P..M. EASTERN TONIGHT

  • Moose vs. Dezmond Xavier
  • Tommy Dreamer vs. Mad Man Fulton
  • Taya Valkyrie vs. Madison Rayne
  • Pentagon Jr. & Fenix vs. Eddie Edwards & Eli Drake

NEW JAPAN SENGOKU LORD AT 5 A.M. EASTERN SATURDAY MORNING FROM NAGOYA ON NEW JAPAN WORLD

  • Shota Umino & Ren Narita vs. Yota Tsuji & Yuya Uemura
  • Yuji Nagata & Satoshi Kojima & Tomoaki Honma & Toa Henare & Jushin Liger vs. Minoru Suzuki & Taichi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Desperado & Taka Michinoku
  • Togi Makabe & Toru Yano & Dragon Lee vs Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa & Taiji Ishimori
  • Mikey Nicholls vs, Chase Owens
  • Hirooki Goto & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Jay White & Hikuleo
  • Kazuchika Okada & Tomohiro Ishii & Yoshi-Hashi & Sho & Yoh vs. Tetsuya Naito & Evil & Sanada & Bushi & Shingo Takagi
  • Juice Robinson vs. Bad Luck Fale for U.S. title
  • Kota Ibushi vs. Zack Sabre Jr. for IC title

ALL JAPAN CHAMPION CARNIVAL SATURDAY IN SAPPORO ON ALLJAPAN.TV

  • Dylan James vs. Yuji Okabayashi
  • Kento Miyahara vs. Gianni Valletta
  • Daichi Hashimoto vs. Naoya Nomura
  • Sam Adonis vs. Yoshitatsu
  • Suwama vs. Joel Redman 

UFC FROM SAINT PETERSBURG, RUSSIA AT 10 A.M. EASTERN

ESPN 2 and ESPN Deportes at 10 a.m. Eastern

  • Magomed Mustafaev (154.5) vs,. Rafael Fiziev (155)
  • Gadzhimurad Antigulov (204.5) vs. Michal Oleksiejczuk (206)
  • Marcin Tybura (249) vs. Shamil Abdurakhimov (258)
  • Alexander Yakovlev (155) vs. Alex DaSilva (156)
  • Sultan Aliev (170) vs. Keita Nakamura (171)
  • Movsar Evloev (146) vs. Seung Woo Choi (145)

ESPN+ at 1 p.m. Eastern

  • Krzyztof Jotko (185) vs. Alen Amedovski (186)
  • Roxanne Modafferi (125) vs. Antonina Shevchenko (125)
  • Ivan Shtyrkov (206) vs. Devin Clark (204.5)
  • Sergey Pavlovich (254) vs,. Marcelo Golm (250)
  • Islam Makhachev (155) vs. Arman Tsarukyan (155)
  • Alistair Overeem (245) vs. Aleksei Oleinik (237)

We’re looking for reports tomorrow from the Raw house show Saturday night in Springfield, IL, Smackdown in Madison, WI, NXT UK tapings in Glasgow and NXT in Tampa to newstips@wrestlingobserver.com

MLW FUSION ON SATURDAY NIGHT ON BEINSPORTS

  • Sami Callihan vs. Mance Warner
  • Pentagon Jr. & Fenix vs. Air Wolf & Rey Hours
  • Josef Samael vs. Ace Romero
  • Puma King vs. Gringo Loco

ALL JAPAN CHAMPION CARNIVAL SUNDAY IN SAPPORO ON ALLJAPAN.TV

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

Sunday has Raw in Moline, IL and Smackdown in Rochester, MN.

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

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. 

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@wrestlingobserver.com or by going to www.paypal.com directing funds to dave@wrestlingobserver.com.

Rates in the United States are $14.50 for 4 issues, $35.50 for 12, $70 for 24, $116 for 40 and $149.50 for 52.

In Canada and Mexico, the rates are $16 for 4, $27 for 8, $38.50 for 12, $76 for 24, $126 for 40 and $162.50 for 52.

For the rest of the world, rates are $18 for 4, $48.50 for 12, $93 for 24, $155 for 40 and $201.50 for 52.

If you order by  mail with a check, cash or money order to P.O. Box 1228, Campbell,CA  95009-1228, you can get $1 off in every price range.

FRIDAY NEWS UPDATE

For this weekend, it will be the previous Raw crew from last week that is working the Friday through Sunday shows with Roman Reigns and The Shield as the top stars.  Becky Lynch will be on the Raw crew on Friday night in St. Louis, and then, based on advertising, switches to the Smackdown crew for Madison, WI, and Rochester, MN.  Lynch is actually advertised on Monday in both Des Moines for Raw and Sioux City for Smackdown, but I’d bet on her being at Raw.  A.J. Styles is working the Smackdown shows in Madison and Rochester.  On Monday, things switch as they’re using the new Raw crew headed by Styles, while Reigns headlines the Smackdown show in Sioux City.  Of the part-timers, Daniel Bryan and Randy Orton are advertised for the Smackdown tour although Bryan has been out of action since Mania for undisclosed reasons.  Kevin Owens is also scheduled for the Smackdown tour while The Miz and Rey Mysterio are not listed for Smackdown house shows.  Nikki Cross is scheduled for Raw on Monday as far as being there.  Presumably an angle to get Samoa Joe on Raw will take place on Monday.

For St. Louis tonight, they are pushing The Shield vs. Lashley & McIntyre & Corbin, Balor vs. Elias IC title and Lynch vs. Ruby Riott Raw women’s title. The Smackdown road shows are listing Kofi Kingston vs. Randy Orton for the WWE title, Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair for the Smackdown women’s title and Andrade vs. Kevin Owens.

Alexander Wolfe didn’t wrestle at the NXT UK tapings today but was backstage. He is believed to debut tomorrow with a big push in this division.

Cody will announce his opponent at Double or Nothing at 7 p.m. Eastern tomorrow.

There will be a Starrcast announcement this coming week that will blow some people’s socks off.  Some won’t care, but those that do, will care a lot. 

WWE

  • John Cena hosted the Ellen Degeneres show today. While on the show, Jenna Dewan said she was a wrestling fan and watched WrestleMania
  • The WWE Network will be doing a live special on Sunday at 9:30 p.m. Eastern from Moline, IL with Finn Balor vs. Elias for the IC title and The Shield’s farewell 
  • Braun Strowman will throw out the first pitch on Sunday at the Milwaukee Brewers game at Miller Park.
  • An interview with Seth Rollins building Sunday’s show in Moline is at (thanks to Mike Kuzmuk)

UFC

  • Guilherme Cruz of MMA Fighting reported these new UFC dates:
    8/10 in Montevideo, Uruguay
    9/7 in Abu Dhabi, possibly headlined by Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Dustin Poirier for the lightweight title
    11/16 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
  • Luke Rockhold on Submission Radio, talking about a fight with Jon Jones: “I think Jon is just looking for anything that can get traction. Jon is in a dead pool up there. There’s not a lot of fish in the pond, so I think he’s just struggling, he’s trying to pick off these easy fights. He’s trying to make people relevant like Anthony Smith. I don’t know. He’s trying to pick off style match-ups. So, that’s my belief.”

MISCELLANEOUS

  • A new video covering the Nick Aldis vs. Marty Scurll NWA title match.
  • Firas Zahabi said the only reason Jon Fitch is on a winning streak now is due to steroids.
  • Artem Lobov, the former UFC fighter and training partner of Conor McGregor, will face Paulie Malignaggi in a Bare Knuckle FC bout on 6/22 in New Hampshire according to promoter David Feldman.
  • Legacy Fighting Alliance on 5/10 from West Valley City, UT at the Maverik Center headlined by former UFC fighter Josh Burkman (28-17) vs. William Macario (9-4).  This will air on AXS TV live.
  • Legacy Fighting Alliance on 5/31 from Prior Lake, MN at the Mystic Lake Casino Hotel with two-time NCAA Division II wrestling champion Raufeon Stot (11-1) vs. Guastavo Erak (21-4-1) in  the main event.  The show airs live on AXS TV.
  • Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling on 5/25 will have the Bruiser Brody and Larry Matysik Memorial Show at the East Carondelet, IL Community Center.
  • RISE on 6/30 at the Logan Square Auditorium in Chicago at 5 p.m. local time on FITE TV.
  • Defy Super 8XGP will be a two night tournament on 7/26 and 7/27 in Seattle.  Joey Janela will be there for both shows.  Admission is limited to those 21 and older.
  • Ignite Wrestling on 5/18 in Vero Beach, FL with Aaron Epic, Caleb Konley, and more.
  • CWE from last night in Regina, Saskatchewan:  Killer Kross b Norman Harass, AJ Sanchez & Kevin O’Doyle won four-way over Robin Lekmie & Martn Pain, Alax Ace & Big Chief and Jacob Creed & Marcellus Prime, Maddison Miles b Alix Zwicker, Shaun Moore won six-way over Psicosis, Michael Elgin, Jimmy Jacobs, Jeff Tyler and Mike McSugar, Vinny Marseglia & TK O’Ryan b Bull Bodnar & Thryllin Dylan, Danny Duggan NC King Kash
  • Welterweight Wrestling announced they would be coming to Indianapolis in June. 

Daily Pro Wrestling History: Road Warriors win the finals of the 1986 Crocket Cup

CONTACT INFORMATION