Daily Update: Mirko Cro Cop retires, WWE weekend notes, Kanemoto

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F4W NEWSLETTER: Figure Four Weekly: Main roster arrivals and WWE departures

Last week was a period of arrivals and departures for WWE.

Without much advance warning, Ricochet, Aleister Black, Johnny Gargano, and Tommaso Ciampa all debuted on Raw last Monday. After news of them being backstage was reported online, WWE tweeted out pictures of them to hype that they were at the show. Triple H then opened Raw and confirmed that they would be debuting later in the night. Ricochet made a save for Finn Balor and teamed with him to defeat Bobby Lashley & Lio Rush, Black defeated Elias, and Gargano & Ciampa got a win against Raw Tag Team Champions The Revival in a non-title match.

WON NEWSLETTER: March 4, 2019 Observer Newsletter: Roman Reigns returns to WWE after leukemia remission

Roman Reigns (Leati Joseph Anoa’i, 33), returned to WWE after four months off, which included both a battle with leukemia as well as a role in the movie “Hobbs and Shaw” on the 2/25 show in Atlanta.

Georges St-Pierre announced his retirement on 2/21, seeming very happy to go out on his own terms but admitting that he was retiring now because UFC wasn’t interested in making a fight between him and Khabib Nurmagomedov.

New Japan this past week announced their first-ever 32-man New Japan Cup tournament, as well as announced its 47th anniversary show and sold out two joint Honor Rising shows with ROH.

Jeff Jarrett and his now-dormant Global Force Entertainment Company have filed a new $4.8 million lawsuit against Impact Wrestling and Anthem Entertainment in U.S. District Court in Tennessee on 2/21.

This week’s update on WrestleMania is that HHH vs. Batista is obviously a done deal.

The UFC debuted in the Czech Republic on 2/23 with a fight night event in Prague held on ESPN+ headlined by Jan Blachowicz and Thiago Santos in a light heavyweight bout.

Honky Tonk Man (Roy Wayne Ferris, 66) was announced on 2/26 as being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame on 4/6 at the Barclays Center. Ferris had been asked in the past and turned it down because he didn’t like some of the restrictions in the contract claiming it would cost him independent money because he’d have to cancel dates.

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FRIDAY NEWS UPDATE

by Bryan Rose, Joseph Currier and Dave Meltzer

WWE

  • As currently advertised, Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins and Ronda Rousey are only scheduled for television in Philadelphia on Monday and not any of the weekend Raw brand house shows. Daniel Bryan and Randy Orton are working the entire weekend with the SmackDown crew.  Becky Lynch is not advertised but that doesn’t mean anything since she’s “suspended,” but she is being advertised anyway for TV in Wilkes-Barre. The Miz is not advertised for Minneapolis on Saturday, but he is for Syracuse on Sunday. Rey Mysterio and Kevin Owens are only advertised for television on Tuesday.
  • WWE This Week has behind-the-scenes footage of Reigns on the set of the Nickelodeon show ‘Cousin for Life’.
  • In celebration of the WWE Network’s fifth birthday, WWE uploaded NXT UK TakeOver: Blackpool to their YouTube account.
  • Seth Rollins has opened a coffee shop in Davenport, Iowa.

Pro Wrestling

  • Koji Kanemoto was arrested today in Kobe for assaulting his wife. According to the translation, Kanemoto stated that she suspected him of cheating, and when she went to look at his phone he hit her with his hand. Tokyo Sports reported that there is no record of prior incidents of domestic violence.
  • A Crockett Cup qualifying match will take place on the ROH TV tapings the night after the 17th Anniversary show.
  • The next Triple Crown title defense will take place at 3/19 in Korakuen Hall as Kento Miyahara will defend against Naoya Nomura.
  • All Japan will also hold a tournament to crown new All Asia tag team champions on 3/21. The teams are Jake Lee & Koji Iwawoto, Masaya Takahashi & Takayuki Ueki, Takao Omori & Black Menso~re and Daichi Hashimoto & Hideyoshi Kamitani.
  • Tampa Bay Times has an article on Chris Jericho buying a $3.255 million home on Lake Keystone.
  • Priscilla Kelly on Twitter mentioned that she is now a free agent. She most recently was under contract to WWN.
  • Caleb Konley also announced that he’s a free agent: “Today I’m officially a free agent. For 3 years I’ve had the opportunity to wrestle on national TV Work on 4 continents & be ZNAs resident orphan child. I owe all of that to @IMPACTWRESTLING I want to thank everyone who has supported me. I look forward to what ever comes next”

UFC/MMA

  • Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ Filipovic announced today on Croatian television that he is retiring from MMA after suffering a stroke following a win over Roy Nelson last month at Bellator 2016. He apparently just came out of the hospital today after having bleeding in his brain. He told ESPN that he can never take punches to the head again.
  • Colby Covington is not letting things go after being stripped of the interim welterweight title. He found and confronted Dana White who was playing blackjack at the Palms and later found what he said was Dana’s car. He also crashed Kamaru Usman’s open workout.
  • Max Holloway, Dustin Poirier, Kelvin Gastelum, and Israel Adesanya took part in a press conference for UFC 236 today, which is taking place on April 13.
  • Walt Harris has been suspended for four months by the CSAC for a positive drug test. His win over Andrei Arlovski at UFC 232 has been overturned to a no contest.
  • In a press release, UFC announced a broadcast partnership with the BBC that will have their BBC Radio 5 and BBC Sport Online stations carry live commentary on four UFC events this year.
  • Paige VanZant on Twitter: “Well…. I fractured my arm again. So there’s that.”
  • Peter Yan has signed a new UFC deal.
  • Here are UFC 235 Open Workout highlights.
  • Episode 5 of UFC 235 Embedded is now up.

Daily Pro Wrestling History: Daily Pro Wrestling History (03/01): ROH 15th Anniversary Show

Ed in San Antonio presents the WRESTLEMANIAWeekend Events (more to be added):

  • Sunday, April 6th, at 12:00 pm: Lunch (all you can eat) at Churrascaria Plataforma ($90 per person), located at 316 W. 49th street in Manhattan. Purchase tickets here~!
  • Luxury Bus to MetLife Stadium for Wrestlemania: We will depart from the Hilton Midtown (site of Wrestlecon) located at 1335 Avenue of the Americas. Departure time is 4:00 pm and will return from MetLife approximately 30 mins after the event. Times are subject to change, and cost $67.00 per person for the round trip. Purchase tickets here~!

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