Daily Update: Cyborg’s weight cut, Ryder gets surgery, Tanahashi’s music

THE ROUND-UP

The Latest from the F4W Staff

NEWS

AUDIO

For this weekend, our only poll will be the WWE Roadblock End of the Line show on Sunday.

We’re looking for reports on tonight’s WWE house show in Rochester, NY (Raw crew minus Chris Jericho, Roman Reigns vs. Kevin Owens for U.S. title main event) to newstips@wrestlingobserver.com.

NEW JAPAN WORLD PRO WRESTLING AT 8 P.M. TONIGHT – A THREE HOUR WRESTLING DONTAKU SPECIAL

  • Kushida vs. Jushin Liger for IWGP jr. title
  • Kazuchika Okada vs. Seiya Sanada
  • Hirooki Goto vs. Evil
  • Katsuyori Shibata vs. Yuji Nagata for Never Open weight title
  • Hiroshi Tanahashi & Michael Elgin & Yoshitatsu vs. Young Bucks & Kenny Omega for trios titles
  • Tetsuya Naito vs. Tomohiro Ishii for IWGP heavyweight title

        The Kushida, Okada and main event matches on this show were all great.

HOUSE OF HARDCORE AT 8 P.M. TONIGHT AT THE 2300 ARENA IN PHILADELPHIA ON FLO SLAM

  • Tommy Dreamer vs. Matt Hardy cage match
  • John Hennigan (Mundo) vs. Rey Fenix
  • Sami Callihan vs. Brian Cage
  • Tony Nese vs. Lio Rush (Nese’s last indie match)
  • Vik Dalishus & Eddie Kingston & TJ Marconi vs. Dan Barry & mystery partners

BELLATOR TONIGHT AT 9 P.M. EASTERN ON SPIKE TV

  • Cameron Else (145.2) vs. Dylan Tuke (144.6)
  • Elina Kallionidou (135.8) vs. Sinead Kavanagh (135.2)
  • Brian Moore (146) vs. Daniel Weichel (145.6)
  • Anthony Taylor (145.8) vs. James Gallagher (145.6)
  • Satoshi Ishii (236.6) vs. King Mo Lawal (213)

SHINE ON FLO SLAM AT 9 P.M. FROM YBOR CITY, FL

  • Loser of the fall leaves town: Ivelisse vs Mercedes Martinez vs. Thea Trinidad vs. ACR vs, LuFisto vs. Amber O’Neal vs  Andrew vs. Kennadi Brink
  • Vanessa Kraven vs. Su Yung Monster’s Brawl no DQ falls count anywhere
  • Jayme Jameson & Marti Belle defend tag team title against Santana Garrett & Raquel
  • Allisyn Kay (Sienna in TNA) vs. Tessa Blanchard
  • Malia Hosaka vs. Priscilla Kelly
  • Keira Hogan vs Lindsay Snow

CMLL FROM ARENA MEXICO AT 9:30 P.M. 

  • Shockercito & Stukita vs. Mercurio & Nitrito
  • Soberano & Star Jr. & Flyer vs. Okumura & Sagrado  Misterioso Jr.
  • Zeuxis & Amapola & Metalica vs. Vaquerita & Jarochita & Estrellita
  • Marco Corleone & Atlantis & Stuka Jr. vs. Rush & Pierroth & La Mascara
  • Maximo vs. Mascara Ano 2000
  • Volador Jr. & Valiente & Caristico vs. Euforia & Gran Guerrero & Ultimo Guerrero

        The women’s match and Maximo match are building to stip matches (Maximo vs. Mascara 2000 in hair vs. hair) on upcoming holiday shows.

PWG MYSTERY VORTEKZ IN RESEDA, CALIFORNIA (no way to see this unless in the building)

  • Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Marty Scurll for PWG title
  • The rest of the show is a mystery. 

NEW JAPAN AT 4:30 A.M. EASTERN / 1:30 A.M. PACIFIC LATE TONIGHT ON NEW JAPAN WORLD FROM KORAKUEN HALL

  • Ryusuke Taguchi & Yoshitatsu vs. Jushin Liger & Henare
  • Tomohiro Ishii & Gedo vs. Yujiro Takahashi & Bone Soldier
  • Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma & Juice Robinson vs. Tama Tonga & Tanga Roa & Chase Owens
  • Yuji Nagata vs. Manabu Nakanishi
  • Katsuyori Shibata & Tiger Mask vs. Hirooki Goto & Jado
  • Tetsuya Naito & Seiya Sanada & Evil & Bushi & Hiromu Takahashi vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima & Kushida & David Finlay
  • Kazuchika Okada & Yoshi-Hashi vs. Kenny Omega & Bad Luck Fale

Saturday night has Raw in Youngstown (Roman Reigns vs. Kevin Owens U.S. title), Smackdown in Peterborough ONT (Dean Ambrose vs. Bray Wyatt street fight), NXT in Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay Events Center and NXT in Tampa. We’re looking for reports on those shows to newstips@wrestlingobserver.com.

UFC SATURDAY FROM THE GOLDEN ONE CENTER IN SACRAMENTO ON FOX / FS1 AND FIGHT PASS

FIGHT PASS AT 3:30 P.M. EASTERN TIME

  • Sultan Aliev vs. Bojan Velickovic
  • Hector Sandoval vs. Fredy Serrano
  • Takeya Mizugaki vs. Eddie Wineland

FS 1 AT 5 P.M. EASTERN TIME

  • Irene Aladana vs. Leslie Smith
  • Josh Emmett vs. Scott Holtzman
  • James Moontasri vs. Alex Morono
  • Bryan Barbarena vs. Colby Covington
  • Mizuto Hirota vs. Cole Miller
  • Luis Henrique da Silva vs. Paul Craig

FOX AT 8 P.M. EASTERN TIME

  • Mike Perry vs. Alan Jouban
  • Urijah Faber vs. Brad Pickett (Faber’s retirement fight)
  • Sage Northcutt vs. Mickey Gall
  • Paige VanZant vs. Michelle Waterson

HOUSE OF HARDCORE SATURDAY NIGHT FROM JOPPA, MD ON FLO SLAM

  • Tommy Dreamer & ? vs Spirit Squad
  • John Hennigan vs. Rey Fenix
  • Brian Cage vs. Moose
  • Taya vs. Jessicka Havoc

WWE ROADBLOCK END OF THE LINE SUNDAY FROM PITTSBURGH AT 7:30 P.M. EASTERN

  • Big Cass vs Rusev (pre-show match)
  • Sami Zayn vs. Braun Strowman (10:00 time limit)
  • Rich Swann vs. Brian Kendrick vs. TJ Perkins for cruiserweight title
  • New Day vs. Cesaro & Sheamus for tag team titles
  • Seth Rollins vs. Chris Jericho
  • Sasha Banks vs. Charlotte for women’s title
  • Kevin Owens vs. Roman Reigns for Universal title

Sunday also has as WWE Smackdown house show in Barrie, ONT.

Raw will be Monday night in Columbus, OH. There is a Smackdown Monday night house show in Hamilton, ONT.

Smackdown & 205 Live will air on Tuesday night from Detroit.

FIGURE FOUR WEEKLY: 12/05/2016: More history of pro wrestling in California

As 1979 went on, additional problems started to develop for promoters in California, but especially for Roy Shire in Northern California. Both wrestlers and promoters alike were revolting in different ways, and while the former was nothing new, the latter was a bit out of the ordinary. Shire had slowly been pulling out.. Subscribers click here to continue.

WRESTLING OBSERVER NEWSLETTER: December 19, 2016 Vice article on WWE behind the scenes, Wrestlekingdom 11 card, more

A look at the inner workings of WWE and the latest change in creative is the lead story of a double-issue this week of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Also, a look at the greatest tag teams of all-time, New Japan’s Tokyo Dome show, WWE house show rules, Japanese awards, American awards and what exactly happened in incidents with Alberto Del Rio and Shad Gaspard over the past week.

The lead story covers the major Vice story on the WWE, including Shane McMahon’s attempt to get control of creative, the situation with Kevin Dunn, Paul Levesque and Stephanie McMahon, when Stephanie McMahon was in creative, insiders talk Vince McMahon’s philosophy, the firing of the No. 3 guy in creative and how it went down, and updated notes about the WWE Network, the current audience and the company’s future.

This issue has a look at the ratings John Cena drew for Saturday Night Live, an update on A.J. Styles’ ankle injury, Zack Ryder injury, Jerry Lawler talks being let go, Finn Balor’s return, WWE looking to get outside funding and why stockholders are concerned, more on the WWE Network, projections for WWE business in 20-16 and network numbers, Chris Hero and WWE update, legend to do a coaching gig with WWE, and notes on a lot of new talent signing and new talent trying out.  

Finally, this issue has coverage of UFC 206, including what’s next for the various stars of the show, business notes on the show, early PPV estimates, ratings news, plus match-by-match coverage and poll results from the show.

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. 

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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.

WON BACK ISSUE:November 22, 1999 WWF Survivor Series review, Austin neck trouble, more – In an industry with no rules, regulations or morals, there is nothing that happened this week that was out of the ordinary. And that’s sad. The big story this week should have been that the biggest star in wrestling today, has his career in jeopardy due to finding out just how badly thrashed his neck is… Subscribers click here to continue.

FRIDAY NEWS UPDATE

You’ll probably understand more about my thoughts on extreme weight cutting and Cris Cyborg Justino on Sunday at 9 a.m. ET when ESPN 2 Outside the Lines has a story on her cutting weight.

Conor McGregor was named Ireland’s Most Admired Sportsman for 2016.

For this coming weekend, Chris Jericho isn’t scheduled for the live events until Monday’s TV. Similarly both A.J. Styles and Randy Orton have the Smackdown house shows off.  Both are scheduled to appear at the tapings in Detroit on Tuesday, which would be the final WWE show until the day after Christmas.

There will be more material taped from Cameron, NC on the next two week’s of Impact, which will be mostly year-in-review shows.    

After a generation, Hiroshi Tanahashi will be retiring his entrance music tonight at Korakuen Hall. He will debut a new song at the Tokyo Dome.

WWE

  • Zack Ryder’s had reconstructive knee surgery yesterday in Birmingham, AL.
  • Ryan Phillipe will be on Smackdown this Tuesday to promote the show “Shooter” which airs after Smackdown.
  • Former WWE creative team member Kevin Eck talks why he’s stopped watching the shows. 
  • Another Linda McMahon story on why the narrative they claim about her isn’t exactly true is here.
  • Tyler Breeze promoting the weekend house show in Barrie, ONT is here.
  • Tickets for the NXT show in San Antonio over WrestleMania week are at www.nxttickets.com.

UFC

  • A documentary on Michelle Waterson called “Fight Mom,” building up tomorow’s main event against Paige VanZant.
  • Sage Northcutt was asked about Mickey Gall’s hair vs. hair challenge for tomorrow.  He very nicely declined.
  • Ken Hayashi, the man who kept MMA out of Ontario for decades, is retiring. (thanks to Sven Mascarenhas)

MISCELLANEOUS

  • The decision was made to air Nonstop Deletion on Sunday at 9 p.m. even though Challenge TV had originally finished airing TNA in that market.
  • A very interesting story on streaming services and how the pro wrestling business may change in 2017 is here.
  • The Fite APP announced Keith Evans has been hired as Senior Vice President of Events and Roy Langboard has been added as Executive Advisor of Boxing. Mike Weber, whose background includes managements stints in WCW, WWE and TNA, has been named COO and will spearhead the expansion into MMA, Boxing and pro wrestling.
  • After being out with a serious concussion, Timothy Thatcher is no longer sowing any concussion symptoms and has been cleared to start training.  He will return with matches on 1/27 and 1/28 in San Antonio, and there is a tease he’ll defend the Evolve title against Jeff Cobb on one of those shows.
  • Evolve announced that Chris Dickinson, Jaka and Jason Kincaid have all signed deals with the company.
  • Pro Wrestling Phoenix from Wednesday night in Omaha:  Darren Russell & Duke Cornell b Nathan Edwards & Clay Cooper, Robert Storm b Purple, Paul Daniels & Joey Daniels b Mad Dog McDowell & Jon West, Con Artieset b Cuco Santiago, Dalton Lee Roth b Ajax Adams, Hype Gotti b Rory Fox, Zac James & Branden Juarez b Pat Powers & Devin ?Carter
  • AAW on 12/30 in Merrionette Park, IL has Sami Callihan vs. Rey Fenix for the AAW title, AR Fox vs. ACH for the AAW Heritage title, Heidi Lovelace vs. Kimber Lee, Davey Vega & Silas Young vs. Chuck Taylor & Colt Cabana plus Pentagon Jr., Chris Hero, Drew Galloway, Matt Riddle, Michael Elgin, Jeff Cobb, Homicide, Mat Fichett, Dave Crist, Jake Crist, Dezmond Xavier and Kongo Kong.
  • AAW on 1/7 in LaSalle, IL at the Knights of Columbus with Jessicka Havok vs Taya, Davey Vega & Mat Fitchett vs. Hooligans, plus Sami Callihan, John Morrison, Michael Elgin, Rey Fenix, Colt Cabana, Arik Cannon, Silas Young, ACH and more.
  • On article on wrestlers involved in a punch out in the UK is here.
  • Tommy Dreamer talks House of Hardcore 22, his deal with FloSlam, Tony Nese’s last indy match and why the Joey Styles situation should have been handled differently. 

Today in Professional Wrestling History (12/16): Sting vs. The Black Scorpion at Starrcade

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