Daily Update: Greatest Royal Rumble tickets, Konnan, Matt Serra

THE ROUND-UP

THE LATEST NEWS

THE LATEST AUDIO

We’ll be doing polls this weekend for the Impact Redemption show on Sunday 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.

We’re looking for reports on today’s Smackdown show in Chattanooga and NXT show in Johnstown, PA to newstips@wrestlingobserver.com.

IMPACT REDEMPTION PPV FROM ORLANDO AT 8 P.M. EASTERN

  • Drago vs. Aerostar
  • Sami Callihan & Dave & Jake Crist vs. Tommy Dreamer & Moose & Eddie Edwards in a Hardcore match
  • Brian Cage vs. DJZ vs. Taiji Ishimori vs. El Hijo del Fantasma vs. Trevor Lee
  • Allie vs. Su Yung for Knockouts title
  • Matt Sydal vs. Petey Williams for X title
  • LAX vs. Eli Drake & Scott Steiner for Impact tag titles
  • Austin Aries vs. Pentagon Jr. & Fenix for Impact title

NEW JAPAN FROM KORAKUEN HALL ON MONDAY AT 5:30 A.M. EASTERN ON NEW JAPAN WORLD

  • Ren Narita vs. Yota Tsuji
  • Yuji Nagata & Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Manabu Nakanishi vs. Tomoyuki Oka & Shota Umino & Tetsuhiro Yagi
  • Rocky Romero & Sho & Yoh vs. Takashi Iizuka & Taka Michinoku & Taichi
  • Togi Makabe & Michael Elgin & Juice Robinson & Toa Henare & Kushida vs. Hirooki Goto & Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano & Yoshi-Hashi & Will Ospreay
  • Hiroshi Tanahashi & David Finlay & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Kazuchika Okada & Jay White & Gedo
  • Tetsuya Naito & Evil & Sanada  vs. Minoru Suzuki & Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr.
  • Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Desperado vs. Bushi & Hiromu Takahashi for IWGP jr. tag titles

Raw will be Monday in St. Louis as the go-home Raw for the Greatest Royal Rumble show. Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman are both scheduled for the show. There is also a Smackdown house show on Monday night in Bowling Green, KY.

NEW JAPAN FROM KORAKUEN HALL ON TUESDAY AT 5:30 A.M. EASTERN ON NEW JAPAN WORLD

  • Tetsuhiro Yagi vs. Ren Narita
  • Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Shota Umino vs. Yuji Nagata & Tomoyuki Oka
  • Rocky Romero & Sho & Yoh vs. Takashi Iizuka & Taichi & Taka Michinoku
  • Togi Makabe & Michael Elgin & Toa Henare & Kushida vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano & Yoshi-Hashi & Will Ospreay
  • Tetsuya Naito & Evil & Sanada & Bushi & Hiromu Takahashi vs. Minoru Suzuki & Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Desperado
  • Hiroshi Tanahashi & Juice Robinson & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Kazuchika Okada & Hirooki Goto & Gedo
  • Jay White vs. David Finlay for U.S. title

Smackdown will be Tuesday in Louisville, KY. There will be a gauntlet match of the cruiserweights for the Friday night title shot at Cedric Alexander.

​F4W NEWSLETTER: Figure Four Weekly: Looking ahead to the Greatest Royal Rumble

With WrestleMania 34 just barely in the rearview mirror, WWE’s second stadium show of the month is already under two weeks away. The Greatest Royal Rumble will take place at King Abdullah Sports City Stadium in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Friday, April 27th and air live on the WWE Network at noon Eastern time. The card already has seven matches confirmed: a 50-man Royal Rumble, Brock Lesnar defending the Universal Championship against Roman Reigns in a steel cage, John Cena vs. Triple H, The Undertaker vs. Chris Jericho in a casket match, Intercontinental Champion Seth Rollins defending against The Miz, Finn Balor, and Samoa Joe in a ladder match, The Usos challenging for The Bludgeon Brothers’ SmackDown Tag Team titles, and a match to decide the new Raw Tag Team Champions. The WWE, United States, and Cruiserweight Championships will also be on the line.

WON NEWSLETTER: April 24, 2018 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: The death of Bruno Sammartino

A look back at the life and career of Bruno Sammartino is the focus of the new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. This is the most in-depth look at both his life inside and outside the ring, talking his career, his biggest matches, his conflicts with Vince McMahon and his father, the Phil Donahue show, his biggest feuds, how he got started, his weightlifting and the amazing story of his life as a child in Italy, and growing up to be one of the strongest men in the world.

Read about Sammartino’s appeal, his health issues, his family, the amazing story of his mother, why he refused to let Hollywood studios do a movie on his life, his learning to lift weights, his high school yearbook and goals, what he did out of high school, notes on two of his most famous early matches, how he first got noticed in Pittsburgh and got NFL and wrestling offers. 

Have a brief look at the career of Paul Jones, who also passed away this past week.

The break down of both Raw and Smackdown after the Superstar shakeup, looking at the depth charts, what categories are strong, what categories are weak and what changes can be made, all inside this issue.

Read the update on the Greatest Royal Rumble show and the ethical questions the show has brought up.

Look at the John Cena/Nikki Bella story, Ronda Rousey and Daniel Bryan working house shows, Bobby Lashley news, Chris Jericho talks New Japan, Jericho vs. Undertaker prior matches, Cena and Rock movie box office, Next week’s WWE TV, beers named after two different wrestling legends, NXT big show lineups, and the name change of a WWE wrestler.

There is also an update on the UFC television contract talks.

Plus, this issue has the weekly coverage of all the ratings of the major shows, detailed notes on who is watching all the WWE shows, results from the major league events held around the world, the major TV show rundowns, and the results of all the major pro wrestling events around the world over the past week. 

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SUNDAY NEWS UPDATE

Bryan and I will be back with Wrestling Observer radio covering the Redemption show from Impact as well as taking your e-mail questions to mailbag@wrestlingobserver.com.

All tickets for the Greatest Royal Rumble are gone. Tickets were priced very inexpensively and there were a ton of comps out to friends of the officials who brought the show in.

Konnan’s return to AAA came in a video shown at Friday night’s TV tapings in Tijuana where he was shown for a brief moment. There is a new outsider stable that did a run-in at the end of the show of Juventud Guerrera, Teddy Hart and Kevin Kross (who had left the promotion). I haven’t seen it, but I was told the opener on the show was incredible.

Matt Serra was announced last night as the new inductee in the UFC Hall of Fame. The ceremony will take place on 7/5 at The Pearl Theater at the Palms Hotel in Las Vegas. We talked about Serra’s career and why he’s in on last night’s show.

There has been a lot of good writing in the last few days on Bruno Sammartino: Deadspin.com, bostongardenbalcony.com, and foxnews.com. Here’s the funeral homes’ listing as well.

This is an old documentary on the life of Sammartino, he still kept up kayfabe about his own matches and his career since they used a lot of tape from the 70s here.

This is an interview with Sammartino when he felt a lot of the people in the industry were gutless for standing by and not taking a stand while so many were dying.

WWE

  • It’s neck-and-neck, but A Quiet Place looks to have surpassed Rampage for the top spot at the box office this weekend. A Quiet Place is estimated at $22 million and Rampage at $21 million for second. Blockers with John Cena is expected to finish No. 7 at $6.985 million.
  • Cleveland Cavaliers announcer Jon Horton (who used to do wrestling as Craig Johnson many years ago) sent us this: The Miz helped us out here at the Cavs with a goose pimple inducing video that gets the crowd pumped here. Wanted to share it with you!

UFC

  • The 5/19 UFC show in Santiago, Chile lost its top two fights. Santiago Ponzinibbio suffered a hand injury so he’s out of his main event with Kamaru Usman.  Ponzinibbio was booked as the local star, although he’s actually from Argentina. Usman told Ariel Helwani he won’t fight a replacement unless it’s somebody who is ranked. The Mauricio Shogun Rua vs. Volkan Oezdemir fight is also off because of issues with Oezdemir being charged with felony battery and he can’t leave the country.

MISCELLANEOUS

  • A Legends of Wrestling show that featured Ric Flair, Sting, Ricky Steamboat, Mick Foley, Eric Bischoff, Ted DiBiase, Jimmy Hart and The Nasty Boys drew about 3,000 fans last night in Fraser, MI: Brandon Gore & Kai Creed b Andrew Anderson & James Tapia, Airwolf b Hakim Zane, Palmer Cruise b James Alexander, Jesse Belle Smothers b KC Spinelli, Aaron Orion b Marco Cordova, Billy Gunn b Garrett Bischoff, Brooklyn Brawler b Phil Atlas, Dakota Darsow b Deimos, Nasty Boys b Wes Brisco & Mike Knox. Steamboat managed Darsow. Eric Bischoff managed Garrett Bischoff. When Eric interfered, Mick Foley made the save and gave Bischoff the Mr. Socko treatment. DiBiase gave Cruise a replica Million Dollar belt.
  • Progress and Melbourne City Wrestling sold out for a joint show with about 800 fans in Melbourne on Friday night: Slex won three-way over Trent Seven and Lochie Hendricks, Alex Payne b Jimmy Havoc in a no DQ match, Toni Storm b Kelly Anne, Dowie James b Tyler Bate via submission, Pete Dunne b Mike Burr, Syd Parker & Caveman Ugg b Cousin Ali & Jake Andrewartha to keep the tag titles, Travis Banks won three-way elimination over Eliot Sexton and JXT to keep the Progress title in what was said to be a **** match. Andrewartha was an Olympian in judo. (thanks to Dave Roughton and Kevin Chiat).  
  • Progress and Melbourne City Wrestling on Saturday in Melbourne: Tyler Bate & Trent Seven b Mitch Waterman & NIck Bury, Locky Hendricks b Mike Burr, Toni Storm b Avary, Jimmy Havoc b Fun Time Phil, Pete Dunne b Slex, JXT won Ballroom Brawl (like a Rumble), Kelly Anne b Indi Hartwell, Gino Gambino b Dowie James to win the Melbourne City Wrestling title. Gambino turned heel in the match. They announced a 7/21 show in Melbourne at the Thornbury Theater featuring Tenille Dashwood.  This show wasn’t sold out but it was a good crowd.
  • Melbourne City Wrestling is opening up their own wrestling school, called the MCW Academy.
  • World Series Wrestling has announced Slex, Robbie Eagles, Syd Parker, Erika Reid, Shazza McKenzie and Chris Basso for their June tour. A match with Slex vs. Zack Sabre Jr. takes place on the 6/22 show.  
  • In the Thrusday listing of Bruno Sammartino videos, it incorrectly lists a Sammartino vs. Fred Blassie match from Los Angeles. It was actaully from the Northeast.
  • Dave Bautista will be on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Tuesday promoting the next Avengers movie. He’ll also be on Steve Harvey on Thursday.
  • NFC on 4/47 in Kennesaw, GA at the Electric Cowboy with Amir Dadovic vs. Michael Hazzard in a Muay Thai fight as the main event. They also run an all BJJ show on 6/9 at Center Stage in Atlanta.
  • IWA Mid South from Thursday night: Nevaeh won three-way over Delilah Doom and Christi Jaynes, Kikyo b Dementia D’Rose, Shotzi Blackheart won three-way over Hudson Envy and Facebrooke, Allie Kay won three-way over Ruby Raze and Amazing Maria, Kikyo b Nevaeh, Shotzi Blackheart b Allie Kat, Rain b Shazza McKenzie, Shotzi Blackheart b Kikyo to win women’s title in tournament final. (thanks to Jake Koch)
  • The Santino Brothers have a show on 5/18 in South Gate, CA at the American Legion Hall with Brody King, Delilah Doom, Eli Everfly, Tyler Bateman, Ruby Raze, Jake Atlas, Douglas James and more.
  • Northeast Wrestling from Friday night in Waterbury, CT: Kasey Catal b Karen Q, Chris Battle b Bull Dredd, Sam Adonis b Jake Manning, Rey Fenix b Christian Casanova, Wrecking Ball Legursky & Brian Milonas b Brad Hollister & Josh Briggs, Brian Anthony & The Graysons b Ron Zombie & Adrenaline Rush, Flip Gordon b Penta 0M to keep the NEW title. (thanks to Nick Mahmood)
  • Northeast Wrestling from last night in Bethany, CT: RJ Rude & Zane Bernardo b Mike Gamble & Dexter Loux, Flip Gordon b Wrecking Ball Legursky, Robbie E & Cam Zagami kept tag titles over Adrenaline Rush, Brian Anthony b Jake Manning, Chris Battle b Sam Adonis, Ron Zombie b Hale Collins-DQ, Penelope Ford b Jawsolyn, Christian Casanova b Buddy Costa, Josh Briggs b Brian Milonas.
  • Rise announced a 10/19 show in Berwyn, IL, before the Shimmer shows that weekend which are 10/20 and 10/21.
  • Stardom from yesterday in Osaka: Ruaka b Leo Onozaki, Natsu Sumire & Nao Yamaguchi b Candy Floss & Shiki Shibusawa, Bea Priestley & Chardonnay b Mary Apache & Natsumi, Kagetsu & Hana Kimura & Hazuki b Jungle Kyona & Natsuko Tora & Kaori Yonheyama, Mayu Iwatani & Starlight Kid & Saki Kashiam b Momo Watanabe & AZM &* Konami, Io Shirai b Session Moth Martina to keep the title.
  • Stardom’s Sundy afternoon show in Osaka: AZM won three-way over Nao Yamaguchi and Ruaka, Starlight Kid & Mary Apache & Natsumi b Kaori Yoneyama & Candy Floss & Leo Onozaki, Hazuki & Session Moth Martina b Jungle Kyona & Natsuko Tora, Io Shirai & Momo  Watanabe & Konami b Mayu Iwatani & Shiki Shibusawa & Saki Kashima, Kagetsu & Hana Kimura b Bea Priestley & Chardonnay to keep the tag titles.
  • Best of the West Wrestling has announced TV tapings on 5/19 in Merced, CA at the American Legion Post, 6/9 in Fresno at Fresno City College, 7/15 in Hanford at the Civic Center Auditorium and they have a live iPPV show on 8/25 in Santa Cruz at the Veterans Memorial Building at 846 Front St., on Fite TV.
  • Lions Pride Sports from last night in College Station, TX: Jerry Lawler & Mike Dell b Braysin Scott & Johnny Swole, Alexander Hammerstone b Max Castellanos, Big Daddy Yum Yum & Nobe Bryant b Brent McKenzie & Franco D’Angelo, Danny Romans won four-way ladder match over Cam Cole, T-Ray and Terrale Tempo. (thanks to Steve Fullhart)
  • Eve has a War Games match on 5/5 in London with Laura DiMatteo & Emi Sakura & Addy Starr & Rhia O’Reilly vs. Blue Nikita & Charlie Evans & Jamie Hayter & Jayla Dark
  • RVD talks marijuana usage.
  • Ric Flair with a recent promo for the legend show in Fraser, Michigan. It’s recent because he talks about just being on The Tonight Show and now he’s coming to Detroit (Fraser).

Daily Professional Wrestling History: Dreamer wins and loses ECW title at CyberSlam 2000

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