Daily Update: Hiroshi Tanahashi, Wrestle Kingdom odds, Fedor

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F4W NEWSLETTER: Recapping WWE TLC 2019 Joseph Currier gives his thoughts on WWE’s final PPV of the decade.

WWE’s final pay-per-view of the decade took place on Sunday night and exemplified some of the changes we’ve seen over the past 10 years.

TLC 2019 was very much a B-level PPV in the WWE Network era. Not only were the top men’s and women’s singles titles from each brand not defended, there were no singles titles on the line at all. Seth Rollins vs. Kevin Owens and AJ Styles vs. Randy Orton seemed like they were being built up as non-title matches that would help anchor the card, but they didn’t end up getting added. The show even ended with an angle instead of a match. After Asuka & Kairi Sane’s tables, ladders, and chairs match against Becky Lynch & Charlotte Flair, a locker room brawl that featured Roman Reigns and Baron Corbin continued. The image that closed the show was Reigns spearing Corbin from an elevated area onto a pile of bodies. It felt like the ending of an episode of Raw or SmackDown instead of a major event.

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WON NEWSLETTER: December 30, 2019 Observer Newsletter: 2019 in review, more

A look at the industry as a whole as we end 2019 and go into 2020 is the lead story of the new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.  We go into the birth of AEW and its numbers thus far, the situation with Impact, ROH, New Japan in the U.S., value of AXS to New Japan, UFC moving to streaming PPV and the key to a value in this not talked about, why the big companies are falling upwards, Bellator numbers, AEW’s interest level peak and PPV demand, the change over the last two years in the non-WWE U.S. business, NXT business, shows with strong advances, ideas for AEW, NXT skewing older, the Wednesday night wars, attempts to make new stars, live viewing on Wednesday and where all the other shows with weekly TV stand at this point.

The issue also covers: 

A feature on the career of Mr. Niebla, his death, his troubles, and his biggest matches.

Live event business and how things changed from 2018 to 2019, looking at numbers of big shows, and average attendance for the different groups.

Royal Rumble show and ticket demand.

WWE injuries, a new football league with a name awfully close to XFL, a look at names at WWE tryouts, new events over WrestleMania week, current WWE market value and the most-watched shows on the WWE Network.

WrestleKingdom shows, the controversy over the women’s match on the card, why the match won’t air on New Japan World, the lineups, the main selling points, and the angles on the final show with full coverage of New Japan’s last event of the year.

UFC show in South Korea, the Korean Zombie, with match-by-match coverage.

Career of Rene Goulet, with his highlights, how he faded out, his bitterness over being let go by WWE, his career title history and highlights.

Biggest kickboxing match in years, and the back story that drew one of the largest television ratings for sports ever in Holland.  We look at The Baddest vs. The King and what happened.

This past week’s PWG show, including notes showing how the business is changing.

Full coverage of all the WWE and AEW television shows from the past week.

Ratings of all the major shows, the key demos and quarters for AEW and WWE, what happened head-to-head and what can be learned from them.

Results of all the major pro wrestling events around the world over the past week. 

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@wrestlingobserver.com or by going to www.paypal.com directing funds to dave@wrestlingobserver.com.

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SUNDAY NEWS UPDATE

Our weekend show is up here. On a side note, we are still in the process of getting our video site issues resolved so please bear with us in the meantime.

New Japan is pushing that Hiroshi Tanahashi will get a shot at the AEW title if he beats Chris Jericho on 1/5 at the Tokyo Dome. That’s a long way from a few months ago when nobody in New Japan was allowed to publicly acknowledge AEW’s existence.

Fedor Emelianenko qualified what he said last night saying that last night was part of his retirement tour but he was not retiring after the fight. That was a really pitiful performance by Rampage Jackson in that fight.

For those voting for match of the year, the David Starr vs. Jordan Devlin match that you should see can be found here.

Kambi has a ton of Wrestling Observer odds up.  

WrestleKingdom odds:

1/4

  • Liger’s team -400 vs. Sano’s team +250
  • Evil’s team -182 vs. Suzuki’s team +125
  • Fale’s team -192 vs/ Goto’s team +130
  • Tonga & Loa -143 vs. Robinson & Finlay +100
  • Archer  +125 vs. Moxley -182
  • Takahashi -300 vs. Ospreay +220
  • Naito -400 vs. White +300
  • Ibushi -130 vs. Okada +100

1/5

  • Liger’s team -143 vs. Lee’s team +100
  • Ishimori & Phantasmo +125 vs. Sho & Yoh -182
  • Sabre -111 vs. Sanada -125
  • KENTA +100 vs. Goto -143
  • Tanahashi -130 vs. Jericho +100

UFC

  • A story on Daniel Cormier coaching at Gilroy High, just outside of San Jose.
  • Mizuki Inoue vs. Tecia Torres has been announced for the 3/28 show in Columbus, OH.  

MISCELLANEOUS

  • AAW from last night in Merrionette Park, IL:  Myron Reed won six-way over Air Wolf, Colt Cabana, Clayton Gainz, Ace Austin and Josh Briggs, Kimber Lee b Hyan, Killer Kross b Matt Justice, Good Brother #3 b Jimmy Jacobs in a dog collar match, Kris Statlander b Jessicka Havok, Jake Something & Curt Stallion b David Starr & Eddie Kingston, Hakim Zane b Paco to win the Heritage title, Mat Fitchett & Davey Vega b Sami Callihan & Jake Crist to retain the tag titles, Mance Warner b Josh Alexander to win AAW title when Jacob Fatu no-showed without calling ahead.  This is the second time in recent months Fatu has missed an AAW show (thanks to Case Lowe)
  • Big Japan Pro Wrestling has had a really bad flu strain. Those who are out of action and will miss the 1/2 show at Korakuen Half are Abdullah Kobayashi, Ryuji Ito, Ryota Hama, Orca Uto, Yuki Ishikawa, Masaki Morihiro, Kota Sekifuda and referees Mac Takeds and Ryohei Nakatani.
  • CZW will start on PPV with a taped show called CZW’s Bloodiest Wars with DJ Hyde & Masada vs. Atsushi Onita & Matt Tremont and Mance Warner & Rickey Shane Page.
  • Mike Bailey is out of the next DDT tour. He said it was due to Fed Ex losing his visa paperwork in the mail and the replacement documents won’t arrive in time. Bailey & Mao were going to challenge Soma Takao & Daisuke Sasaki for the KO-D tag titles. Takao & Sasaki instead are defending against Keisuke Ishii & Kazuki Hirata.  Bailey was to face HARASHIMA for the DDT Extreme title. HARASHIMA will now defend against the DDT seal mascot on 1/12. (thanks to Patrick Tobin)
  • Bill Apter interviews The Nasty Boys.
  • Mike Mooneyham story on Randy Colley (thanks to Chris Cruise)

Daily Pro Wrestling History: Mick Foley wins his first WWF World title

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