Daily Update: Google trends, UFC judging, STARDOM

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter: WrestleMania 38 weekend, Cody Rhodes returns to WWE

This Week’s Retro Observer Newsletter: February 7, 2005 Observer Newsletter: Royal Rumble review, business year in review

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Sunday News Update

  • We have two weekend shows already up. Garrett and I did a review of the week’s news and Bryan and I covered UFC, Smackdown, Rampage and New Japan Hyper Battle and the Pay Pay Dome show on last night’s show. My next show will be Monday night.
  • Horrible news earlier today regarding 49-year-old Shinjiro Otani, one of the most underrated great wrestlers of this generation. Otani faced Zero-1 world champion Takashi Sugiura at Sumo Hall earlier today in the main event. Sugiura gave Otani a German suplex into the turnbuckles and Otani was motionless. The match was stopped. The ropes were taken down and after being worked on, Otani was responsive but could not move. He was rushed to the hospital where there has been no update past he can talk but he can’t move his arms or legs. This was a harsh reminder of the dangers of pro wrestling.
  • The only thing from the past week that cracked the top 20 on Google this past week were UFC related topics last night. UFC 273 had 2.2 million searches which is along the lines of what an average PPV show nowadays does. It was slightly ahead of both days of WrestleMania combined and was the second most searched topic in the U.S. yesterday behind only Dwayne Haskins.
  • We are doing weekend polls on yesterday’s Hyper Battle from New Japan and UFC 273, so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match from each show to dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  • We are also looking for reports on these shows:
  • Zero-1 today at Sumo Hall in Tokyo
  • GCW last night in Los Angeles and tonight in San Francisco
  • New Japan tonight at the Vermont Hollywood in Los Angeles
  • Regarding last night’s UFC show, the one thing about the Petr Yan vs. Aljamain Sterling fight, which Sterling won via split decision, is that most of the criticism of the current method of judging all fall within that fight.
  • Sterling won a split decision, and he should have won as he was more dominant in the fight. Sterling won rounds two and three clearly. Yan won four and five, although was not nearly as dominant in winning those rounds. It came to round one where Sal D’Amato and Eliseo Rodriguez gave it to Sterling and Chris Lee gave it to Yan. Dana White called it a robbery and it was not that. It could have been judged either way. From media scores, 61% gave the deciding round to Sterling and 39% for Yan. However because because 28% gave one of Sterling’s winning rounds a 10-8, they gave it a draw to go with 61% for Sterling and 11% for Yan, so most had it for Sterling.
  • The key problems:
  • Sterling’s second and third should have had a method to be awarded a strong point differential than Yan’s fourth and fifth, but the reluctance of judges to give 10-8s even though the rules state if a round is dominant, and round two was totally one-sided and no judge gave a 10-8.
  • The right person won, but as someone who had it 48-48 and thought Sterling won overall, the system even using 10-8s did not had I judged the fight, reflect the person I thought should have won. The score should explain what you thought, not give you a finish that you don’t think.
  • Many thought the fight was even going into five, that Yan won five, and Sterling’s decision win was booed heavily. The problem is boxing and MMA are just about the only sports where both the participants and fans have no idea what the score is, depriving them of usage of strategy. Had Yan known he needed a finish, he would have fought round five differently. Granted, it was his mistake just looking at winning the round and being sure he’d get a decision, but if you are in any other sport, there is no mistaking what the score is.
  • Open scoring is being used in many promotions now, in Europe, Japan and in Kansas and other states, including Invicta and Combate Global. All of the scare tactics regarding why you can’t have open scoring have proven to be untrue and are still being spread even though we have plenty of real-world examples. Ultimately, in a commission governed sport, it is very difficult to make changes and even when you do, like with the rules that were supposed to lead to more 10-8 rounds, those who didn’t like change that bettered things have pretty much gotten commissions and judges to revert back to the old rules, hence no 10-8s in this fight.
  • In Khamzat Chimaev vs. Gilbert Burns, all three judges gave Chimaev rounds one and three. media scores were 94 percent for Chimaev even if I saw media members on Twitter saying the opposite. Round five was mostly Chimaev but Burns landed a hard flurry late and the best shots of the round, but Chimaev did have the edge most of the round.
  • In Mackenzie Dern vs. Tecia Torres, that would could have gone either way. Derek Clearly gave Dern rounds one and two. Chris Lee gave Dern rounds one and two. Barry Luxenberg only gave Dern round two. I had it for Torres and media scores were 63% for Torres. But it was a close fight that could have gone either way.
  • Cody Rhodes vs. The Miz has been added to tomorrow’s Raw show in Detroit Rhodes is being advertised for house shows against Seth Rollins.
  • All Japan’s Champion Carnival tournament continues tomorrow at Korakuen Hall with A block matches of Shotaro Ashino vs. T-Hawk and Jake Lee vs. Shuji Ishikawa and B block matches of Suwama vs. Takuya Nomura and Yoshitatsu vs. Kuma Arashi. Today’s show in Hamamatsu had Ishikawa over T-Hawk, Nomura over Yuma Aoyagi and Kento Miyahara went to a 30:00 draw with Suwama.
  • “TOGETHXR” a media company founded by Alex Morgan, Sue Bird and Chloe Kim sent a legal notice to Dwayne Johnson’s XFL finding the new XFL logo that the league unveiled to be too close to their logo. It should also be noted that what will be the biggest competition for the XFL when it debuts next season, the USFL, debuts this coming weekend with both NBC and FOX as backers. So that shuts down both networks likely as potential homes for the XFL.
  • Game Changer Wrestling debuts in San Francisco for a 5 p.m. show today with Minoru Suzuki vs. Mike Bailey, Bandido vs. Nick Wayne, Jordan Oliver vs. Jack Cartwheel and more.
  • Stardom Cinderella tournament results from today in Osaka:
  • Maika & Natsupoi & Mai Sakurai b Utami Hayashishita & Saya Kamitani& Lady C, Mirai & Amy Sorei b Saki Kashima & Ruaka, Mayu Iwatani & Saya Iida & Koguma & Momo Kohgo b Tam Nakano & Unagi Sayaka & Mina Shirakawa & Waka Tsukiyama, Hazuki b AZM to advance in he Cinderella tournament), Syuri d Himeka (with the draw both are eliminated from the tournament) and Momo Watanabe & Starlight Kid b Giulia & Thekla to retain the Goddesses of Stardom tag titles.