Daily Update: Lucha Underground returns, rumored UFC fight

  • F4W Staff
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Lucha Underground returns tonight

The Wednesday Night Wars are back with NXT vs. the returning Lucha Underground in the latter’s second season. Jeremy Peeples will have your look at episode one later tonight. Even The Rock has given the show its blessing as you’ll see in this AV Club preview piece.

UFC 196 PPV now FREE on Fox Sports 1

Due to injuries to both men in the main event, UFC will no longer be running a PPV on February 6. Originally slated to be headlined by a heavyweight title defense by Fabricio Werdum in a rematch against Cain Velasquez, the main event fight was recently changed when Velasquez decided to pull out due to an undisclosed injury. Rather than cancel the fight, the UFC offered the title shot to Stipe Miocic who recently KO’d Andrei Arlovski in 54 seconds less than a month ago on January 2, at UFC 195.

However, the Werdum vs. Miocic fight has now been completely cancelled as Werdum pulled out as well due to a number of minor injuries. This left the UFC in need of a new major match in order to put on the PPV event. With less than two weeks until the show, rather than find a replacement match, UFC 196 will now be a free show on Fox Sports 1, and the semi main event match between Johny Hendricks and Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson will now headline the show.

The rest of the card that will air live for free on Fox Sports 1 on February 6 is as follows:

  • Roy Nelson vs. Jared Rosholt
  • Ovince St. Preux vs. Raphael Cavalcante
  • Joseph Benavidez vs. Zach Makovsky
  • Josh Burkman vs. KJ Noons

The show, which looks to be rather weak on paper, is now headlined by a potential number one contenders match at welterweight. Johny Hendricks looks to rebound from his most recent loss to fatness when he missed weight badly in his scheduled bout with Tyrone Woodley. White initially said Woodley would be getting the next shot at the welterweight title, but has since rescinded, given the likely rematch between Carlos Condit and current welterweight champion Robbie Lawler.

Given the weakness of the card without the title match, it is likely this would have been one of least purchased UFC PPV shows in recent history.

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Figure Four Weekly

Figure Four Weekly 1/18/2016: Gawker’s motion to dismiss Hulk Hogan lawsuit denied
Gawker’s motion to dismiss the Hulk Hogan sex tape lawsuit is denied, plus news and notes

Wrestling Observer Newsletter

The Latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter: January 25, 2016 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: 2015 Observer Awards Issue

The 2015 Observer awards issue, the traditional biggest issue of the year,is up on the web site now.  The issue not only has the awards winners in more than 40 different categories, but all the top place winners, as well as a history with all the awards winners dating back to 1980, as well as my comments on the placing for many of the awards.

The categories are:

Lou Thesz/Ric Flair Award (Wrestler of the Year), MMA MVP, Most Outstanding Wrestler, Most Outstanding MMA Fighter, Best Box Office Draw, Feud of the Year, Tag Team of the Year, Most Improved, Best on Interviews, Most Charismatic, Best Technical Wrestler, Bruiser Brody Memorial Award (Best Brawler), Best Flying Wrestler, Most Overrated, Most Underrated, Promotion of the Year, Best Weekly TV show, Pro Wrestling Match of the Year, MMA Match of the Year, Rookie of the Year, Best Non-Wrestler, Best Television Announcer, Worst Television Announcer, Best Major Wrestling show, Worst Major Wrestling Show, Best Wrestling Maneuver, Most Disgusting Promotional Tactic, Worst Television Show, Worst Match of the Year, Worst Feud of the Year, Worst Promotion of the Year, Best Booker, Promoter of the Year, Best Gimmick, Worst Gimmick, Best Pro Wrestling Book and Best Pro Wrestling DVD

Update on the Royal Rumble and Rumble weekend, full coverage of Dominick Cruz’s UFC bantamweight title win and the records set on Sunday’s show and details on the New Japan/Jim Ross announcing deal as well as a look at how this came about and Jim Ross’ overall career.

2017 Wrestlemania, how Smackdown has affected overall ratings for the USA Network, update on A.J. Styles with WWE, WWE injury updates, Daniel Bryan update, more on Mauro Ranallo and Smackdown, Chris Jericho talks his return, new season of Total Divas, How talent is broken down in NXT, the heat on Josh from Tough Enough, new dates for Brock Lesnar, plus notes from the big NXT tour and all the shows, the NXT Florida shows, as well as the WWE shows in India and the WWE weekend domestic shows and all the business notes.

PLUS MUCH MORE! CLICK HERE FOR A FULL WRESTLING OBSERVER PREVIEW

You can also order the print Observer right now and get it delivered to your door via mail, by sending your name, address, Visa or Master Card number and an expiration date to Dave Meltzer

You can also order print issues at www.paypal.com directing funds to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

Rates are:

For the United States, it is $13 for 4 issues, $32 for 12, $61 for 24, $101 for 40 and $131 for 52. In Canada and Mexico, rates are $14.50 for 4, $35 for 12, $67 for 24, $111 for 40 and $144 or 52.  In Europe, you can get the fastest delivery and best rates by sending to moonsault@mediaplusint.com  For the rest of the world, rates are $16.50 for 4, $44 for 12, $85 for 24, $141 for 40 issues and $183 for 52.

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Click here for the most requested Wrestling Observer back issues.

Check out the latest Online Wrestling Observer BACK ISSUE: Dec 14, 1998 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: 2 biographies in the works about Jesse Ventura
NBC and ABC working on biographies on Jesse Ventura, a look at the end of year events for New Japan and All Japan, plus tons of news and notes.

WEDNESDAY NEWS UPDATE

Bryan Alvarez appeared on PodcastOne.com’s “The Ross Report” with Jim Ross.  Listen here. As I type this Bryan is recording the Lance Storm F4D and the Tom Lawler’s Filthy Four Daily edition of F4D.  Look for those two shows within an hour or two.  Not sure which order they were recorded though!  I am also very sure Dave is feverishly working on completing the Wrestling Observer Newsletter at this moment as well, so check back for this week’s edition later today!  A big Wednesday as usual for F4WOnline.com, now on to the news:

WWE/Pro Wrestling

UFC/MMA

  • Rashad Evans vs Shogun Rua is rumoured to be announced for UFC on FOX 19 in April. Should the fight happen, it would be the first time the two veterans have fought each other, although they were scheduled to fight in 2011 at UFC 128 before a knee injury to Evans forced him out of that fight. This would probably be the co-main for that show, which only has a Tony Ferguson/Khabib Nurmagomedov fight attached to it.
  • UFC today announced the signing of a guy named Adam “The Prototype” Millstead to a four fight deal. You may recall that’s the same nickname John Cena had in developmental and a look at this guy might explain why he uses that name. Millstead is 7-1 with 7 straight stoppage wins on smaller regional shows.
  • EA Sports released a trailer for the UFC Ultimate Team mode in the upcoming EA Sports UFC 2 video game. They also updated their website with a news post going over the various features in UFC Ultimate Team. The game comes out on March 15th and is available for pre-order now.
  • WSOF 27 Saturday on NBC Sports Network did 213,000 viewers for its show headlined by Luiz Firmino vs Caros Fodor and no starpower whatsoever underneath. It was their best number since August’s show headlined by Jake Shield and well above the 2015 average of 189,000 viewers.
  • ONE Championships has a show for the 2nd straight weekend coming up on Friday morning North American time, evening in Malaysia where the show is being held. The main event is Featherweight fight between Eric Kelly and Ev Ting. Interesting name on the undercard is Christian Lee, the 17 year old brother of Angela Lee, the 4-0 Strawweight who took the promotion by storm in 2015. Christian had his first pro fight in December for ONE and won with a KO in just 29 seconds.
  • Carlos Condit reveals his new driver’s license photo…taken three days after the Robbie Lawler fight.
  • We have a column up, taking a retrospective look at TUF season 1.
  • Bellator MMA runs its first show of the year Friday night in Fresno, airing as always on Spike TV. This is a “regular” show, being headlined by a welterweight fight between Paul Daley and Andy Uhrich. If Daley wins, as expected, he’d be expected to face Josh Koscheck later in the year. Other fights on the show include Chris Honeycutt v Paul Bradley, Raphael Butler v Tony Johnson Jr and Patricky “Pitbull” Freire vs Ryan Couture. We’ll have coverage of the show on the site starting at 9 pm eastern.

ON THIS DAY IN WORLD PRO WRESTLING HISTORY: Daily pro wrestling history (01/27): The Rock defeats CM Punk to win WWE World Title

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