Daily Update: Crown Jewel, Super Show-Down, UFC 229

THE ROUND-UP

THE LATEST NEWS

THE LATEST AUDIO

We’re looking for reports from the NXT show in St. Petersburg, FL to newstips@wrestlingobserver.com.

UFC 229 ON SATURDAY FROM THE T MOBILE ARENA IN LAS VEGAS

Fight Pass at 6:30 p.m. Eastern

  • Ryan LaFlare vs. Tony Martin
  • Gray Maynard vs. Nik Lentz
  • Yana Kunitskaya vs. Lina Lansberg

Prelims on FS1 at 8 p.m. Eastern

  • Alan Patrick vs. Scott Holtzman
  • Tonya Evinger vs. Aspen Ladd
  • Jalin Turner vs. Vicente Luque
  • Sergio Pettis vs. Jussier Formiga

PPV at 10 p.m. Eastern

  • Michelle Waterson vs. Felice Herrig
  • Alexander Volkov vs. Derrick Lewis
  • Ovince Saint Preux vs. Dominic Reyes
  • Anthony Pettis vs. Tony Ferguson
  • Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Conor McGregor for lightweight title

NEW JAPAN KING OF PRO WRESTLING AT 4 A.M. EASTERN MONDAY MORNING ON NEW JAPAN WORLD

  • Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Desperado vs. Tiger Mask & Jushin Liger for IWGP jr. tag titles
  • Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma vs. Juice Robinson & Toa Henare
  • Young Bucks & Hangman Page & Chase Owens vs. Bad Luck Fale & Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa & Taiji Ishimori
  • Tomohiro Ishii & Hirooki Goto & Will Ospreay vs. Minoru Suzuki & Taichi & Takashi Iizuka
  • Kazuchika Okada & Toru Yano & Sho & Yoh vs. Tetsuya Naito & Seiya Sanada & Bushi & ?
  • Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Evil
  • Kushida vs Marty Scurll for IWGP jr. title
  • Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Jay White for Tokyo Dome IWGP title shot
  • Kenny Omega vs. Kota Ibushi vs. Cody for IWGP heavyweight title

Raw will be Monday in Chicago. There will also be a Smackdown house show Monday night in Louisville.

Smackdown, 205 Live and Mixed Match Challenge are taped Tuesday in Indianapolis. Announced for Mixed Match Challenge are A.J. Styles & Charlotte Flair vs. R-Truth & Carmella and Braun Strowman & Ember Moon vs. Finn Balor & Bayley.

F4W NEWSLETTER: Figure Four Weekly: Liv Morgan, Brie Bella, and the dangers of wrestling

What should have been a fairly innocuous six-woman tag match on last Monday’s Raw ended with Liv Morgan having suffered a concussion and with a social media controversy that has yet to fully die down. The Riott Squad faced The Bellas & Natalya on last week’s Raw as part of the build to Ruby Riott, Morgan & Sarah Logan vs. Ronda Rousey & The Bellas at Super Show-Down in Melbourne, Australia. 

WON NEWSLETTER: October 8, 2018 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Massive UFC 229 expectations, plus tons of news

Headed up with a major history piece on the 30-year history of Ted Turner’s involvement with pro wrestling and coverage of a week of so many major events, it’s a double issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter this week.

Preview UFC 229 and why it is expected to be the biggest non-boxing PPV in history. Look at projections, some real numbers, some comparisons, and why Dana White says it wasn’t in Madison Square Garden.

The big story looks at Ted Turner and how he first got connected to pro wrestling in 1972, the role of Ray & Ann Gunkel, the wrestling war in Georgia that led to the two hour Saturday night block, the roles of Jim Barnett and Ole Anderson, and the first-ever Omni sellout.

Also look at the decision made by UFC and USADA to no longer announce drug test failures and why it wasn’t well thought out, as well as the reputation of USADA taking such a hit and the sad ironies of this.

Look at WWE Super Show-Down, ticket sales and ramifications.

Read the update on the 1,000th episode of Smackdown, WWE plans for NXT and ideas that have been talked about, major execs selling WWE stock.

Look at the big questions facing Bellator as they try and build their brand, as well as surprising notes of the Bellator brand vs U.S. pro wrestling companies and Saturday’s show in particular.

This issue has full coverage of ROH’s Death Before Dishonor with match-by-match coverage, business notes, polls and star ratings for the show.

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. 

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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.

SATURDAY NEWS UPDATE

WWE

  • Crown Jewel, WWE’s return to Saudi Arabia on Friday, November 2, is now listed as taking place at King Saud University Stadium in Riyadh. It was originally announced as being held at the city’s larger King Fahd International Stadium. The show will air live on the WWE Network.
  • Triple H & Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker & Kane hasn’t been officially announced for Crown Jewel yet, but that was clearly the direction coming out of Super Show-Down. A no disqualification stipulation was added to this morning’s Triple H vs. Undertaker match, with Michaels and Kane getting involved throughout. After Triple H won with the help of Michaels, there was a post-match angle where Undertaker and Kane attacked Triple H and Michaels. Triple H, Michaels, Undertaker, and Kane were raising each other’s arms, then Undertaker laid out Triple H with a Tombstone and Michaels was chokeslammed through the announce table.
  • There was one title change at Super Show-Down, with Buddy Murphy defeating Cedric Alexander to win the Cruiserweight Championship in his hometown of Melbourne, Australia.
  • Becky Lynch cut a post-show promo on Charlotte Flair ahead of their Women’s Championship rematch on Tuesday’s SmackDown. Charlotte defeated Lynch by DQ this morning. Lynch hit Charlotte with the title belt when Charlotte had her in the Figure Eight.
  • In their promo after the event, Peyton Royce and Billie Kay got emotional when reflecting on their families getting to watch them wrestle.
  • Before Super Show-Down, Triple H did an interview with Manny Tsigas of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. He was asked about intergender wrestling and said that women don’t need a man to be in the ring with them to be successful or have a great match. Triple H spoke about men facing women: “It’s just shock value. You don’t need it. I think when it’s done right, I do believe that there’s an exciting moment when it can happen, but I don’t think that needs to be the standard.”
  • Jim Ross appeared on Fox’s college football pre-game show this morning.
  • Jerry Lawler told TMZ that he received hate mail on social media for attending Donald Trump’s rally in Tennessee where Trump mocked Christine Blasey Ford. Lawler claimed that he wasn’t going there to see the president, he was going to see a fellow WWE Hall of Famer.

Pro Wrestling

UFC/MMA

Daily Professional Wrestling History: WWE Battleground 2013

For all Observer readers that are planning to attend UFC 231 on December 8 in Toronto and stay overnight, Grant Zwarych, who sells Observer back issues for us, has arranged a great deal at the Holiday Inn Express at 111 Lombard Street in Toronto. The hotel is a short walk to Scotia Bank Arena, the Distillery District and St Lawrence Market. The rate includes breakfast for 2. The hotel also has one of the lesser expensive parking charges. Rate is available for both Friday & Saturday night.

Readers need to call the hotel directly at 416-367-5555 or can send an email to whg4104sc@whg.com and ask to book under the UFC 231 group block December 7-9, 2018. Please be advised due to high volume of calls to the hotel some unanswered calls will automatically transfer to central reservation and the agent will not have access to the group block.

A room with a King bed is $170.00 (sgl/dbl occupancy, maximum 2 people per room), a room with 2 Queen beds is $175.00 (sgl/dbl occupancy, $10 for each additional person up to maximum 4 people in the room) plus applicable taxes. There is a stricter cancellation policy due to the great rate being offered. Readers must book by November 7 and cannot cancel after November 8 without a one night room & tax cancellation policy. If you have your tickets and know you are definitely going, this is a fantastic deal.

CONTACT INFORMATION