Daily Update: Emma injury, Guardians of the Galaxy, Cow Palace

THE ROUND-UP

The Latest from the F4W Staff

NEWS

AUDIO

We’re looking for reports on today’s ROH War of the Worlds Day One show in Toronto (Kenny Omega & Young Bucks vs. Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian & Hitoshi Tanahashi, Jay Lethal vs. Kushida, Cody vs. Will Ospreay, Matt Taven & Vinny Marseglia vs. Tetsuya Naito & Bushi, Hirooki Goto vs. Shane Taylor, Gedo & Rocky Romero & Baretta vs. Dalton Castle & The Boys, Bully Ray vs. Punishment Martinez vs. Hangman Page, Mark & Jay Briscoe vs Seiya Sanada & Evil vs. Silas Young & Beer City Bruiser, Caprice Coleman & Rhett Titus vs. Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley) and today’s WWE show in Coruna, Spain (Randy Orton vs. A.J. Styles vs. Jinder Mahal) to newstips@wrestlingobserver.com.

Raw will be Monday night from the O2 Arena in London featuring a tag team turmoil match. Smackdown will be running in Bornemouth, England.

Tuesday has Smackdown and 205 Live being taped at the O2 Arena in London and Raw will be in Lille, Frame.

Wednesday has a Raw house show in Zurich, Switzerland, and a Smackdown has show in Brighton, UK.

FIGURE FOUR WEEKLY: 5/1/2017: The rise of Braun Strowman

It was somewhat fitting that Braun Strowman’s win against Roman Reigns in the main event of Payback came after the conclusion of a dreadful House of Horrors match between Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton. At the very least, it was a reminder of how far Strowman has come since splitting from the Wyatt Family last July. He has seamlessly transitioned out of the group and gradually become the most compelling character on Raw in less than a year.

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WRESTLING OBSERVER NEWSLETTER: May 8, 2017: WWE Payback review, WWE financials, plus tons of news

A brief look at the WWE financials for the first quarter, basically looking at why the profit margin was so far down this quarter, where the added spending came in, a look at the house show business in WWE and NXT, what categories are losing money in WWE, and what are increasing the most is the lead story in this week’s Observer.

Also, look at the major WWE storylines, the next few PPV shows, what WWE match result changed four times in 30 hours before the PPV, behind the House of Horrors segment, plus match-by-match coverage of Payback with star ratings and poll results.

Notes on the New Japan booking coming out of Dontaku and likely matches for Dominion, one of the company’s biggest events of the year, plus Dontaku coverage, in this issue.

The biggest junior heavyweight tournament in probably a decade is coming up. Check out some of the big matches that will be part of it, with the announcement of the bracketing of this year’s Super Junior tournament and the web site schedule.

There is an update on the ITV television project and why the tapings were postponed, plus the key thing going on behind-the-scenes.

News on Brock Lesnar going forward in WWE, his latest plans and title matches expected, more on Fate of the Furious and its box office, update on the Hardy broken gimmick in WWE, a new WWE movie with Michaels, Hogan talks Vince McMahon, indie champion gets WWE tryout his week, and the most watched WWE Network shows this past week, in this issue.

Read about the WWE & NXT shows this past week including both the Raw and Smackdown tour openers in Europe

Boxing fans, check out the highlights of the Joshua vs. Klitschko fight, the amazing U.K. business numbers, as well as whether heavyweight boxing is back big in the U.S. because of the fight or not.

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WON BACK ISSUE: April 10, 2000: Wrestlemania 16 reviewed, NBC buys into the XFL, more

Wrestlemania XVI, the first Wrestlemania that seemed to take on almost Super Bowl or Final Four level proportions as an American institution, turned out like many Super Bowls, with a flat crowd, a been there, done that main event finish ending a disappointing match, and with the exception of a ladder match, which was an amazing stunt show, it was probably not as good as an average episode of Raw. The show ended with Hunter Hearst Helmsley retaining the title when Vince McMahon, instead of Mick Foley, was the one to make the heel turn screwing The Rock at the end.

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SUNDAY NEWS UPDATE

Bryan and I will be back tonight for our weekend Wrestling Observer radio show, covering weekend news including preparing for a big week, WWE UK tour, Wrestling Dontaku, UK tapings, and a lot more subjects.

You can send questions to the show to mailbag@wrestlingobserver.com. We’ll also talk the 33rd anniversary of the Ric Flair vs. Kerry Von Erich Texas Stadium match.

There was pretty substantial interest in yesterday’s Canelo Alvarez vs. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. show as it did 3 million Google searches. It was No. 2 for the weekend behind the Kentucky Derby at 6 million. They borrowed from wrestling the way they did an angle where Gennady Golovkin came out and they immediately announced that Alvarez would be fighting him next on 9/16. Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times reported it would be held at either the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, where last night’s fight took place, AT&T Stadium in Dallas, or Madison Square Garden.

Emma was injured at today’s house show in Liverpool, England. Banks did the double knee spot and covered Emma, who was supposed to kick out, but didn’t. The ref counted to three and then waved off the call. The other four women in the match (Bayley, Banks & Mickie James vs. Alexa Bliss, Emma & Nia Jax) brawled and realizing Emma was hurt, Banks went to pin her again and the ref counted three again. She left under her own power holding her arm and shoulder. We don’t have anymore updates regarding her condition since the injury just happened a few hours ago.

Guardians of the Galaxy 2 was projected to take in an estimated $145.05 million this weekend, so that’s above most projections, and was easily No. 1. Fate of the Furious was a very distant No. 2 at $8.53 million.

Will have a story on it in the issue, but the return to the Cow Palace by All Pro Wrestling last night was a big success, drawing in the range of 2,500 to 3,000 fans. Cody Rhodes beat Joey Ryan in a cage match main event with both Candice LeRae and Brandi Rhodes getting involved. The show stealer was a four-way where Jeff Cobb won their Universal title over champion Luster the Legend, John Morrison and Brian Cage. 

WWE

  • The company has announced dates on 11/10 in Milan, Italy, 11/11 in Padova, Italy and 11/12 in Florence, Italy.
  • Sheamus was on the official Liverpool Football Club channel talking about today’s Liverpool game with Southampton. Sheamus is a big Liverpool fan. He mostly talked about his fandom of the team but did plug upcoming WWE dates. (thanks to Tony Garvey)

MISCELLANEOUS

  • There will be a Memphis Hall of Fame ceremony on 5/13 at Jerry Lawler’s restaurant at 159 Beale that Randy Hales runs. There will be introduction of Lawler, Bill Dundee, Jimmy Hart, Jim Cornette, Bobby Eaton, The Gilbert Family, Koko B. Ware and Jerry Calhoun, as well as a meet and greet, with Brandon Baxter as the MC.
  • Sinclair Broadcasting is now said to be close to finalizing the deal to buy Tribune Media. Reports are that Sinclair would pay $45 per share for the stock, above Friday’s closing price of $40.29, which would give Tribune media a $3.5 billion value. It was said that the deal, which would be expected to include ROH getting on television in major markets like New York, Chicago and Miami, could close as early as tomorrow. It was also noted it could still fall apart as well.
  • Another of those very important stories about the future of television can be read here. (thanks to Chris Cruise)
  • The Jack Evans seizure and stretcher job in Tijuana on Friday night was an angle. He’s fine. He did a good enough job that it was major talk most of the day Saturday. 
  • House of Hardcore on 5/19 in St. James, NY at the Sports Arena headlined by Tommy Dreamer vs. Cody Rhodes.
  • Empire Wrestling Federation from last night in Covina, CA: Dicky Mayer b Misterioso, Super Beetle b Anthony Idol to win American title, Hate b Beat Downs & Hard Knocks-DQ to win tag title, Awesome Kong & Zaida b Raze & Marissa, The Friar won Great Goliath Memorial Battle Royal, Fidel Bravo b Adrian Quest in a Gladiator death match, Andy Brown b Scorpio Sky to keep EWF title. They had a Hall of Fame ceremony for Vizzion, Jeff Walton and Awesome Kong. In a trivia note, Walton invented the Roman Gladiator death match as the only thing more severe than a regular Texas death match. It was used in both Southern and Northern California a little but never really picked up nationally. (thanks to Scott Walton)
  • On Fox 2 in Detroit, Lee Thomas hosts a local movie review show and talked about “Guardians of the Galaxy 2.” Adam Graham, the Detroit News movie critic praised Dave Bautista and said he’s proof that The Rock isn’t the only ex-pro wrestler who will turn into a box office star, and said he stole just about every scene he was in. But he gave the movie a thumbs down, saying it was too long and felt out of ideas by the end. Graham is a big fan and mentioned on the show that he took off work to go to Orlando for WrestleMania.
  • A Mid Atlantic wrestling fan expo in Richmond, VA was canceled. According to Jerry Wiseman, two major sponsors pulled out at the last minute and that was combined with disappointing ticket sales. Refunds will be processed this week.
  • Dynamo Pro Wrestling from last night in St. Louis: Jake Parnell b Brandon Espinosa, Mauler McDarby b CJ Shine, Makaze b Frodo Meyer, Adrian Surge b Brandon Aarons-DQ, Jake Parnell b El Drinko, CJ Shine & Frodo Meyer b Makaze & Mauler McDarby, Justin D’Air b Ozzie Gallagher, Brandon Aarons b Adrian Surge in a no DQ match. (thanks to Patrick Brandmeyer)
  • Hoosier Pro Wrestling from last night in Columbus, IN before 185 fans: Kenny Cage won three-way over Kid Thunder and Shawn Kemp, Omega & Tank b Daniel Winchester & Buck Sexton, Cousin Cotter b Drax O’Brien-DQ, Shawna Reed b Ruby Jordan, Abraham Muhammad b Coleio, TJ Kemp b Dave Da Rave, TVZ b Axemen-DQ, Flash Flanagan b Vic the Bruiser-DQ. Next show is 6/3. (thanks to Jerry Wilson)
  • A quick video of the first ever pro wrestling show in Japan in 1951 that NHK put up.

Today in Professional Wrestling History (5/7): Flair vs. Steamboat at WrestleWar 1989

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