Daily Update: Ed Cohen & Aya Koyama pass away, Yamamoto, Taue

THE ROUND-UP

THE LATEST NEWS

THE LATEST AUDIO

We’re looking for reports from Raw in Toronto tonight with non-Raw matches as well a reports from the Smackdown house show in Peterborough, ONT to newstips@wrestlingobserver.com.

We’re also looking for your thoughts on Saturday’s TripleMania 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.

Smackdown and 205 Live are taped Tuesday in Toronto with Charlotte Flair vs. Carmella for the women’s title and Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson vs. Sheamus & Cesaro for a tag team title shot.

The Raw crew has a Wednesday night house show at the O2 Arena in London.

F4W NEWSLETTER: Figure Four Weekly: ROH and NJPW sell out Madison Square Garden

With All In still a few weeks away, the second non-WWE pro wrestling show in the United States to sell over 10,000 tickets since the death of WCW is already official. Tickets for Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro Wrestling’s G1 Supercard at Madison Square Garden went on sale last week, with the April 6, 2019 event selling out in just a few days. Approximately 9,000 of the 15,000 tickets were sold after the first day of the HonorClub pre-sale, they were up over 12,000 after a second day of pre-sales, and they sold out shortly after being made available to the general public last Friday.

WON NEWSLETTER: August 27, 2018 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Summerslam and NXT Takeover Brooklyn reviews, more

It’s a big news and history issue of the Observer out this week. Look at the decision to make Roman Reigns Universal champion, how WWE went about doing it, the Becky Lynch situation, the future of Brock Lesnar, the business of SummerSlam, and a rundown of All In ticket sales and Madison Square Garden ticket sales for ROH that has a very interesting lesson.

There is a long story on the career of Villano III, the famous match of the year with Atlantis and go back to 2000 for the atmosphere of that unique show. 

Run down NXT Takeover Brooklyn, with business of the how, match-by-match coverage with star ratings and poll results. 

Also run down plans for the NXT Evolution top of the card, exactly where the WrestleMania main events stand, how the Mae Young Classic finals had to be changed, the U.K. women’s tournament, and more on Matt Riddle signing with WWE.

Also look at L.A. Park vs. Rush, what happened to the match, the politics behind it, the CMLL anniversary show and Impact going head-to-head in Mexico City with the anniversary show.

Examine AAA’s TripleMania show and the controversy regarding Alberto El Patron and the show.

Read about New Japan’s biggest matches for the next seven weeks, including Long Beach and King of Pro Wrestling. 

Also look back at the G-1 Climax tournament with a look at the consistency of work, the biggest matches and much more.

Read a huge history piece on Walt Harris and 1960s Northern California pro wrestling and the heyday of Roller Derby. 

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MONDAY NEWS UPDATE

Bryan and I will be back tonight with Wrestling Observer Radio talking Raw, UFC, TripleMania fallout, Ed Cohen and the rest of the wrestling and MMA news. You can send questions to the show to mailbag@wrestlingobserver.com.

In the cancer sucks department, cancer has claimed the lives of two people and impacted two other major figures in pro wrestling and MMA. Ed Cohen, who headed the event booking for WWF from when it was a regional company through its national expansion passed away over the weekend at the age of 62 due to health issues stemming from bone cancer. I’ll talk a lot more about Ed Cohen tonight but yesterday was a very sad day for my family and he was great at his job in a very similar role to the one Zane Bresloff held in WCW. Cohen, in fact, brought Bresloff into WWE and Bresloff worked for Cohen’s department through 1993. 

Aya Koyama, a pro wrestler and MMA fighter passed away this morning due to cancer at the age of 45.

Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto, one of the biggest superstars in MMA history as almost a rock star like celebrity in Japan, made it public that he is hospitalized and battling cancer.

Akira Taue, who was a part of many of the greatest tag team matches in pro wrestling history in All Japan in the 90s, and was later President of Pro Wrestling NOAH after the death of Mitsuharu Misawa, announced that he has been battling cancer since the spring and had to have his stomach removed.

We will talk a lot more about all of this on tonight’s show.

For tonight’s Raw, announced is that Roman Reigns will have a face-off with Braun Strowman. The expectation is that this will be the Hell in a Cell main event, and that Dolph Ziggler & Drew McIntyre will face Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose at the next PPV. Those were the matches WWE gave to the arena to promote. One would expect whatever the PPV direction is will be heavily pushed tonight. A.J. Styles vs. Samoa Joe for the WWE title is already on the show which takes place 9/16 in San Antonio. That is going to be a gigantic weekend for events, with Hell in a Cell, BOLA, which is the best in-ring series of shows in the U.S.most years, CMLL Anniversary show, and two New Japan major shows including the Kenny Omega vs. Tomohiro Ishii match for the IWGP title. UFC also debuts in Moscow that weekend.

For the NJPW/ROH G-1 Supercard on 4/6 in Madison Square Garden, with production doing its site survey they have added more available tickets which will go on sale on Thursday morning at Ticketmaster.

LuchaCentral.com will be airing a show on Friday night from Las Vegas at 8 p.m. Pacific time headlined by Rey Mysterio Jr.& Penta 0M & Rey Fenix vs. Juventud Guerrera & Psicosis & Super Crazy.

Highspots.com will be airing Thursday night’s AAW show from Chicago, which is sold out, live on their Highspots Video Network. The show, called Destination Chicago features Mat Fitchett & Davey Vega managed by Scarlett Bordeaux defending the AAW tag titles against David Starr & Eddie Kingston, Penta 0M & Rey Fenix vs Flamita & Bandido, Sami Callihan & Jessicka Havok vs. Jimmy Jacobs & Brody King, Trevor Lee vs. Ace Romero for the Heritage title, Dave & Jake Crist vs. Curt Stallion & Jake Something plus ACH, DJZ, Laredo Kid, Colt Cabana, Jeff Cobb, Myron Reed and more.

The family of Rondel Clark, who died last year from injuries related to weight cutting in an amateur MMA fight last year, has released a documentaryon his death and weight cutting.

I haven’t seen this, but people raved about this, which was the documentary that aired Saturday right after TripleMania.  

WWE

  • Even though Brie Bella is part of the Smackdown brand for her program with Maryse (who is expected to be back full-time in Miz’s corner at least for TV), the Bella Twins worked the Raw house show last night in Rochester, NY, teaming with Ember Moon to beat The Riott Squad.
  • Epico will return to WWE tomorrow night at the Smackdown tapings.  his also brings Primo back to television. They’ll be in a three-way with Sheamus & Cesaro and Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows as part of a three-way tournament for the tag team title shot at Hell in a Cell.
  • The final episode of the first season of Miz & Mrs. airs tomorrow night on USA.
  • WWE will be releasing a 30 years of SummerSlam DVD tomorrow. 
  • Mickie James is back at Raw tonight in Toronto. That doesn’t mean she’ll be on the show, only that she’s backstage.
  • For the Smackdown show on 9/4, there will be a three-way tag match with Usos vs. Sanity vs. Rusev & Aiden English with the winners facing tomorrow night’s winners on 9/11 for the tag title shot at Hell in a Cell.

UFC

  • The 11/24 show from Beijing, China headlined by Curtis Blaydes vs. Francis Ngannou is officially a Fight Pass exclusive. The 9/15 show from Moscow will also be a Fight Pass show. 

OTHER

  • For those in Australia, the Andre the Giant documentary that aired in the U.S. on HBO will be airing on 9/2 at 8:30 p.m. on SBS Television. (thanks to Kevin Chiat)
  • The funeral of Bay Area television personality Walt Harris, the 1960s host of National All Star Wrestling and Big Time Wrestling, and more famous as the voice of Bay Bombers Roller Derby, took place today. Almost nobody from either the wrestling or Roller Derby community were there other than former wrestling ring announcer and Derby trackside announcer Stu Ganz, and local wrestling personalities Mike Lano and Jim Davis, who both kept in touch with Harris.  
  • Great North Wrestling on Saturday night in Hawkesbury, ONT before 400 fans: Lady Yasmine b Stevie Ray McDaniel, Pretty Boy Perry b Green Phantom, Bruiser b Jebediah Tatum, Devin Nicholson b Maxime Lemire in a kickboxing exhibition, Nathan Banner b Wes Brisco to win the TV title, Hart Throbs b The Crow & Predator, Maximum Testosterone won Battle Royal to become Canadian champion. 
  • Dynamo Pro Wrestling on 9/14 in Grafton, IL at the Loading Dock Bar and Grill.
  • Jason Cade vs. Myron Reed has been added to the MLW show 9/6 in Fort Lauderdale.
  • Ross & Marshall Von Erich, John Morrison, Taya Valkyrie, MVP, Chavo Guerrero Jr., Abyss, Fallah Bahh, Rebel, Hernandez and Scott Steiner will headline the 9/8 River City Wrestling show in Selma, TX at the Retama Park Horse Race Track.
  • Justin Credible has started a podcast.
  • New releases for the week at Powerslam.tv are AML All for the Glory, IWN Live Fight for Your Fight and Bar Wrestling Some Days You Just Can’t Get Rid of a Bomb.
  • Big Time Wrestling Adrenaline on 9/22 in Salinas, CA at the Youth Center with Eli Drake, Jeff Cobb, Puma King, Reno Scum and an appearance by Greg Valentine.
  • MWO on 9/1 in Port Colborne, ONT.
  • USA Championship Wrestling TV tapings from Saturday night in Jackson, TN: Bam Bam Bundy b Matt Starr, Colton Cage b Tony White, Matt Riviera b Brandon White, Matt Riviera b Brandon White, Starr Power b Tyler Thorn & Colton Cage, Trent Taylor b Lane Bradley, Bam Bam Bundy & Thorn & Colton Cage b Star Power Trent Taylor b Big Gravy, Colton Cage b Matt Riviera, Thorn b Ring, Bundy b Starr. The show airs on Saturday nights at 10:30 p.m. on WBBJ in Jackson, TN.
  • USA Championship Wrestling from Friday night in Selmer, TN: Tyler Thorn b Blake Christian, Johnny Morton b Richard Ring, Starr Power b Tony Williams & Thorn, Matt Riviera b Brandon White, Bam Bam Bundy b Matt Starr.
  • An interview with ROH champion Sumie Sakai.
  • Contributor and friend of the site, and Bryan Alvarez’s most recent opponent, PeachMachine suffered a horrific accident in a BJJ tournament this past Saturday, having both his tibia and fibula snapped with a heel hook. The video footage is here, and is not pleasant. He has started a gofundme to help offset some of the medical expenses as he will be unable to work while he recovers. 

Daily Professional Wrestling History: WWF SummerSlam 1990

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