Daily Update: Matt Taven injury, John Cena in GQ, UFC on FOX

  • F4W Staff
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UFC ON FOX 17 RAFAEL DOS ANJOS VS. DONALD CERRONE

Donald Cerrone gets a long awaited title shot tonight at UFC on FOX in Orlando against Rafael Dos Anjos.  Man has he earned it.  He is on an eight fight win streak, 4 times already this year with 2 of those fights only 2 weeks apart.  Cerrone’s last loss coming at the hands of current champ Rafael Dos Anjos by decision in 2013. Also on the card is Junior Dos Santos vs. Alistair Overeem, which should be a good one, and is a fight that has been scheduled a number of times already but always ended up canceled.  Overeem came in a lot lighter than for his last few fights and is on a two fight win streak.  With a win tonight could see him sneak into a title shot of a muddy UFC Heavyweight division.  Dos Santos has only lost to Cain Velazquez in the last 8 years and could find himself with another title shot if Werdum, someone Dos Santos previously defeated, is able to win the rematch against Cain.

Follow along with Dave Meltzer’s live coverage and results.

Fight Pass at 3:30 p.m.

Luis Henrique vs. Francis Ngannou

Hayder Hassan vs. Vicente Luque

Leon Edwards vs. Kamaru Usman

FS 1 AT 5 P.M. EASTERN

Jim Alers vs. Cole Miller

Danny Castillo vs. Nik Lentz – Castillo looked shocked that he didn’t make weight.  And he wasn’t the only one.  There were clearly issues between other scales and the one they used, even though most fighters made weight)

Tamdan McCrory vs. Josh Samman

Sarah Kaufman vs. Valentina Schevchenko

Nate Marquardt vs. C.B. Dollaway

Myles Jury vs. Charles Oliveira

FOX AT 8 P.M. EASTERN

Karollina Kowalkiewicz vs. Randa Markos 

Nate Diaz vs. Michael Johnson 

Junior Dos Santos vs. Alistair Overeem

Rafael dos Anjos vs. Donald Cerrone or the lightweight title

Saturday we’re looking for reports on the WWE show from the Forum in Los Angeles with Roman Reigns’ first title defense against Sheamus, plus Alberto Del Rio vs. Brock Lesnar for the U.S. title and Dean Ambrose vs. Kevin Owens for the IC title and from the ROH TV tapings in Philadelphia (Adam Cole vs. Michael Elgin, Moose vs. Matt Sydal vs. Jay Briscoe vs. Dalton Cantle, Adam Page vs. Mark Briscoe and Deonna Purrazzo & Hania the Huntress vs. Mandy Leon & Sumie Sakai).

Sunday will be WWE in Winnipeg with Roman Reigns vs. Sheamus for the WWE title and Dean Ambrose vs. Kevin Owens for the IC title.

Monday will be the Slammy Award edition of Raw from the Target Center in Minneapolis.

Smackdown will air live on the USA Network at 8 p.m. on Tuesday from Des Moines.  The New Day vs. Lucha Dragons for the tag team titles has been announced.

The USA Network will air Tribute to the Troops on Wednesday night at 8 p.m., a taped show from Jacksonville.

Figure Four Weekly

Figure Four Weekly 12/7/2015: McDevitt comments on concussion lawsuits
Details on Jerry McDevitt’s comments on the ongoing concussion lawsuits against WWE, Alan discusses potential candidates for 2015’s best rookie.

Wrestling Observer Newsletter

Conor McGregor winning the UFC featherweight title, the story behind UFC 194 and the path of Roman Reigns to the WWE title are the lead stories in the new double issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter with coverage of so many major shows over the past week.

We look at McGregor’s financial  goals, the business of UFC 194 and the records set, early PPV projections, what is next for McGregor, TV viewership numbers in the U.S. and Brazil, , as well as the path of McGregor to being the No. 1 male star in the promotion.  We look at Frankie Edgar as a contender, potential of UFC 200 if Ronda Rousey and Conor McGregor are booked on the same show, the last two PPV shows, Rousey vs. McGregor as draws, Luke Rockhold’s middleweight title win, looking at the Yoel Romero vs. Chris Weidman judging and the future of the middleweight division.

We also look at the path of Roman Reigns to the WWE title, the increased viewership on Raw, where the new viewers came from and how viewership differed from recent weeks.  We look at the reaction to Reigns, and the storylines that led to that reaction.

We’ve also got complete rundowns on WWE TLC, NXT Takeover, as well as all three UFC events, including match-by-match coverage, business notes, star ratings and more.

We also have a look at Mauro Ranallo’s signing with WWE, his background, how the deal came to fruition and the path from announcing pro wrestling on TV while a teenage on national television in  Canada to the WWE 30 years ago, with stops in kickboxing, MMA and boxing in between.

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

The Latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter: December 21, 2015 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Conor McGregor wins UFC Featherweight title, Roman Reigns WWE Champion

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@wrestlingobserver.com” target=”_blank”>dave@wrestlingobserver.com

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If you order by mail with a check, cash or money order (P.O. Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228), you can get $1 off in every price range.

If you are a new subscriber ordering 24 or more issues, you can get one free classic issue of your choice sent to you today.  With a 40 issue subscription, you can get two free classic issues sent to you today. We’ve got coverage of every major PPV event and world wide spectacular, every major star switching promotions, histories of companies like FMW, Rings and New Japan, retirement and obit issues of every major star who fits into those descriptions over the past 11 years, as well as our biggest issue every year, the annual awards issue, and our most controversial issue of every year, the Hall of Fame issue.

Click here for the most requested Wrestling Observer back issues.

TODAY’S DAILY UPDATE

The only thing we know about Matt Taven today is that he’s cautiously optimistic that his knee injury isn’t serious, but of course nothing is known until he gets it fully checked out.  He injured it doing a dive off the post to the floor for a spike piledriver spot at the ROH PPV on Friday night.

Big interview with John Cena in GQ Magazine where he talks a bunch of different subjects including why he spoke Chinese during his sex scene with Amy Schumer.

There are photos here of Lizmark’s funeral.  It was an open casket affair, and yes, he was buried with his mask on.

Pro Wrestling

  • Angelico and Jack Evans did an interview with PlanetaDeporte in Spain and said they had twice been approached by WWE officials to see if there was interest in signing, but they both agreed they wanted to stick with Lucha Underground for as long as it continued to exist.  They noted that they’d been approached during a PWG show.  It’s no secret that there are WWE office people who regularly attend most of the PWG shows.
  • Mark Bell posted a video of John Cena squatting 611 pounds. That’s a lot.
  • Jim Cornette joins the 6:05 Superpodcast for something very different from his usual podcast appearance. He talks to David Bixenspan and Brian Last about tape trading, Tiger Mask, changes in wrestling terminology, and much more. “Much more” includes Corny watching the crazy Titanes en el Ring video of Pibe Diez botching a dive, which you can check out synced up to the original video on YouTube.
  • Diana Hart talks to the Calgary Herald about her wrestling-themed romance novels.
  • The first announced match for PWEclipse February Frenzy Legion br. 43 Oshawa, Ontario has Jewells Malone defending her newly won PWE Flame Championship against Sassy Stephanie.
  • Titus O’Neil gives to homeless in real life.
  • Since a million people have asked, here is the video of the lucha match where the dog did an unannounced run-in and the wrestlers decided to briefly make it part of the match.
  • BUSHI beat Mascara Dorada to win the CMLL Welterweight title at Korakuen Hall Friday.
  • Smackdown did 2.33 million viewers this week, up from last week’s 2.1 million.
  • As noted on last night’s Observer Radio, Toru Yano’s two mystery partners on the January 4th Tokyo Dome event will be Mark and Jay Briscoe.  This was a special Friday night edition of the show, and Dave and Bryan will be back again tonight to cover UFC.
  • From Bryan Alvarez:  If you are an AFTER DARK RADIO fan, Sunday is the final day to contribute to our annual Whale Scout fundraiser, which has offered some great F4W-related perks including four chances to co-host the Bryan & Vinny Show which sold out immediately.  We have added a couple special AFTER DARK-related perk.  We’ve got THREE Bigfoot flasks and one –ONE — full-sized Bigfoot cast I picked up at the 2015 Sasquatch Summit in Ocean Shores.  Because it is a cast of an alleged real Bigfoot track, it is, in fact, really big (if you go to the Indiegogo page you can see exactly how big it is), and if you want it I recommend you get up there quick because once it’s gone it’s gone.  Whalescout is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization so your donation is tax-deductible, and I want to really thank everyone who has helped contribute this year.  I can’t say it was all because of Whale Scout because it wasn’t, but Whale Scout works hard on habitat restoration projects with the idea being that if they can clean up rivers and streams, salmon runs will improve, and more salmon means more food for the whales.  In the last 12 months, EIGHT baby orcas were born, which is an incredible number, and whether Whale Scout bears any responsibility or not, we would like to thank everyone who has helped the cause.  You can find the Indiegogo page here!

UFC/MMA

  • Donald Cerrone joins the Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling Podcast to talk tonight’s title fight against Rafael Dos Anjos. On his accusations that Dos Anjos is on PEDs: “I was just making iterations that maybe he is or he isn’t. Maybe he is just training real hard and is elevating and doing what he has to do but who knows. You’ve seen a lot of body types change since they put the new USDA ban into effect and they put the IV ban back on so we will see if things will be different and when you dehydrate your brain and you can’t rehydrate properly it can definitely cause a fighter to not be able to take those punches like they used to. Will he be able to go as long and as hard as he used to? I don’t know. Only time will tell.”
  • Paul Bradley vs. Chris Honeycutt, which was stopped for an accidental headbutt the first time, was rebooked for Bellator’s January 29th card in Fresno.
  • Team Alpha Male fighter and wrestling coach Lance Palmer (who lost his WSOF Featherweight Title last night) is saying that wouldn’t corner Urijah Faber against T.J. Dillashaw if they fought.
  • Joe Warren vs. Darrion Caldwell headlines the Bellator 151 show on March 15th from Thackerville, OK.

Here is today’s FULL Daily Pro Wrestling History including International history: Daily pro wrestling history (12/18): Daniel Bryan becomes WWE World Champion