Daily Update: Joanna Jedrzejczyk, Conor-Khabib, Mae Young Classic

THE ROUND-UP

THE LATEST NEWS

THE LATEST AUDIO

F4W NEWSLETTER: Figure Four Weekly: Liv Morgan, Brie Bella, and the dangers of wrestling

What should have been a fairly innocuous six-woman tag match on last Monday’s Raw ended with Liv Morgan having suffered a concussion and with a social media controversy that has yet to fully die down. The Riott Squad faced The Bellas & Natalya on last week’s Raw as part of the build to Ruby Riott, Morgan & Sarah Logan vs. Ronda Rousey & The Bellas at Super Show-Down in Melbourne, Australia. 

WON NEWSLETTER: October 1, 2018 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: NJPW Destruction in Kobe, tons of news

The names on the 2018 Hall of Fame ballot and thoughts on who are favorite, who may get eliminated after this year, newcomers to the ballot and more is one of the lead stories in the new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. 

Look at the New Japan Long Beach show, as well as early thoughts on King of Pro Wrestling and Wrestle Kingdom and the Tanahashi vs. Okada match, the Gedo turn on Okada and post-show angle with full coverage of Destruction in Kobe.

Read about the Liv Morgan injury, what went wrong to lead to the injury and what went wrong after the injury. 

Also look at the WWE stock and if it’s ventured past logical boundaries, WWE profits so far this year and comparing to other entertainment companies, more on the lawsuit against WWE, Shawn Michaels wrestling again, Sasha Banks update, next MSG show, and a Big Show update.

There are also notes on the NXT tapings as well as from all the WWE & NXT arena events from the past week with results, business notes and other reactions.

Look at UFC fighter Abdul Razak Alhassan, who is being charged with two counts of sexual assault and the details behind the charges.

Read full coverage of UFC’s show this past weekend in Sao Paulo, Brazil, business notes, retirements and a major record set.

This issue has coverage of one of Dragon Gate’s biggest shows of the year and the changes in the company.

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 Meltzer, or by using PayPal directing funds to Dave@WrestlingObserver.com. 

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WEDNESDAY NEWS UPDATE

WWE

  • The second round of the Mae Young Classic begins on the WWE Network at 9 p.m. Eastern time tonight. Meiko Satomura vs. Mercedes Martinez, Kacy Catanzaro vs. Rhea Ripley, Toni Storm vs. Hiroyo Matsumoto, and Taynara Conti vs. Lacey Lane are airing this week.
  • Charlotte Flair praised NXT’s Bianca Belair during an interview with GiveMeSport: “She is the future. She’s a real stud.”
  • The Mirror also interviewed Charlotte ahead of Evolution.
  • While appearing on Busted Open Radio, Shinsuke Nakamura responded to a question about potentially facing AJ Styles again: “I think I can do more.. I feel like I finally got used to the WWE style. Maybe next time, if I wrestle AJ, I can create more than before.”
  • Sports Illustrated and TV Insider have interviews with Goldberg to promote season two of “Forged in Fire: Knife or Death.”
  • Former Seattle SuperSonics players Brent Barry and Detlef Schrempf responded to the segment from Raw where Elias and Kevin Owens joked about the Sonics leaving the city. Barry tweeted: “Um…@Dschrempf we have a problem…” Schrempf responded: “Yes we do Bones! Do we have to challenge the boys to a wrestling match or 3pt shoot out?”
  • Pete Dunne has reached 500 days as WWE United Kingdom Champion.

Pro Wrestling

UFC/MMA

  • After her flyweight title fight against Valentina Shevchenko at UFC 231 was canceled and Shevchenko vs. Sijara Eubanks was made the main event of UFC 230 at Madison Square Garden, Joanna Jedrzejczyk released a statement on Instagram. The following is a portion of it: “Me pulling out of fight? Never! Here is the truth. Yesterday I was informed that my fight had been cancelled. Unfortunately, I received this news from journalists, I was very shocked. I feel angry and sad. The already signed contract on the 8th of December was ignored. They were trying to persuade me into taking the fight in November, at the same time depriving me of a chance to properly prepare for the fight during the camp. Valentina is a challenging opponents, and my goal was (and actually still is) to prepare for this fight as best I can, and to eventually become the UFC flyweight champion. I treat every opponent and fight serious and with respect. I could fight in NY if I was interested only in money. Due to respect for other fighters and myself, I rejected the offer made by the UFC to change the date of the fight, as my main goal is to be at my best form during the fight, and in order to do that, I have to do my job from start to finish.” Jedrzejczyk added that she understands the decision the UFC made to save the MSG event. She vowed to become a champion in two weight classes sooner or later.
  • Dana White told ESPN’s Brett Okamoto that Saturday’s UFC 229 (headlined by Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Conor McGregor) is trending towards close to three million pay-per-view buys.
  • Okamoto spoke to former opponents of McGregor and Nurmagomedov for an ESPN.com article.
  • Anthony Pettis thinks McGregor will defeat Nurmagomedov by knockout.
  • Tony Ferguson spoke to the media about returning to the Octagon at Saturday’s PPV. “It’s been five months since my injury. It took a long f*cking time for me to be here. They took my belt, they took a bunch of zeroes from my paycheck. How do you think I f*cking feel? It’s all fun and games, right?” Ferguson said. “I’m the f*cking champ. See this gold right here. I didn’t lose my belt. They took it from me. The one thing they didn’t take is my smile. So after my surgery, I made a conscious decision to not want anybody else’s help that didn’t want to help me. So yeah, I’ve got a little chip on my shoulder. It’s still there. It f*cking weighs a lot. But in this whole entire process, I gained so much more than you guys would ever imagine.”
  • The UFC uploaded the third episode of Embedded for Saturday’s show and the Bad Blood special for the Nurmagomedov vs. McGregor main event.
  • Dan Hardy interviewed Dana White, Nurmagomedov, and Ferguson for BT Sport.
  • After McGregor expressed interest in facing him in the future, Anderson Silva wrote that it would be a great honor to test himself against McGregor and said he’d fight him when and wherever he wants.
  • Leslie Smith has officially appealed the National Labor Relations Board’s dismissal of her complaint against the UFC.
  • Darren Till confirmed that he’s moving up to the middleweight division.

Daily Professional Wrestling History: WWE Hell in a Cell 2010

For Observer readers that are planning to attend UFC 231 on December 8 in Toronto and stay overnight, Grant Zwarych, who sells Observer back issues for us, has arranged a great deal at the Holiday Inn Express at 111 Lombard Street in Toronto. The hotel is a short walk to Scotia Bank Arena, the Distillery District and St Lawrence Market. The rate includes breakfast for 2. The hotel also has one of the lesser expensive parking charges. Rate is available for both Friday & Saturday night.

Readers need to call the hotel directly at 416-367-5555 or can send an email to whg4104sc@whg.com and ask to book under the UFC 231 group block Dec. 7-9, 2018. Please be advised due to high volume of calls to the hotel some unanswered calls will automatically transfer to central reservation and the agent will not have access to the group block.

A room with a King bed is $170.00 (sgl/dbl occupancy, maximum 2 people per room), a room with 2 Queen beds is $175.00 (sgl/dbl occupancy, $10 for each additional person up to maximum 4 people in the room) plus applicable taxes. There is a stricter cancellation policy due to the rate being offered. Readers must book by November 7 and cannot cancel after November 8 without a one night room & tax cancellation policy.

CONTACT INFORMATION