Daily Update: Mustafa Ali, WWE notes, Bret Hart at Starrcast

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F4W NEWSLETTER: Figure Four Weekly: Seth Rollins, Becky Lynch win Royal Rumbles

For the second straight year, WWE went with two fan-pleasing choices as their Royal Rumble winners. WWE followed up on Shinsuke Nakamura and Asuka’s wins from last year by having Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch win their respective Rumble matches on Sunday night. The results were entirely predictable, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t the right choices. While there are other stories that WWE can tell, top babyfaces beginning their road to WrestleMania by winning the Royal Rumble will pretty much always work. 

WON NEWSLETTER: January 28, 2019 Observer Newsletter: Future of Ronda Rousey, Royal Rumble preview, more

A quick note that the format of this issue is different due to the fact I messed up my left hand in a bicycle crash on 1/24 making typing extremely difficult.

This issue has complete Royal Rumble and NXT results with eliminations, stats, and facts, plus Dave’s comments. It also includes star ratings, NXT awards, and notes on the post show angle.

Roman Reigns is going to be in the Rock’s new movie. There were some photos of Roman Reigns last week from where he’s been filming the new sequel of the Fast and the Furious franchise, which had been kept kind of quiet. Reigns is playing Rock’s character Hobbs’ brother…

AEW released a short video with Cody Rhodes talking about signing Jungle Boy and the announcement that on February 7th, there is a Ticket Announcement Party at the MGM from Las Vegas. Brandi teased announcing more women at that event. There is a lot of talent expected at that event. CIMA is likely going to be there…

NJPW is very confident that it will not be an issue by the time the MSG G1 Supercard show comes up, with it being several months away…

From reports of the Dallas, TX Road to G1 Supercard show, Shibata’s students, Clark Connors, Karl Fredericks, and Alex Coughlin are all seemed as really good in the technical aspect, with all their basics down, as they’re being trained with the Japanese New Japan Dojo mentality. Shibata, who is the lead trainer in the US Dojo, has interpreters with him at all time during training…

Matt Sydal’s contract with Impact Wrestling ended January 1st. He should be ready in a couple of months from a minor knee surgery he got last week…

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WEDNESDAY NEWS UPDATE

WWE

  • Mustafa Ali’s eye was badly swollen after his match against Randy Orton on last night’s SmackDown. Despite that, Ali made another appearance at the end of the show and was involved in the brawl between the WWE Championship Elimination Chamber match competitors.
  • Daniel Bryan tweeted about returning to his home state of Washington for the SmackDown: “February 8, 2016 I was forced to retire in my home state of Washington, told I’d never wrestle again. Feb 5, 2019, almost three years to the day, I return home as WWE Champion. #FightForYourDreams”
  • Noam Dar vs. Tony Nese in a no DQ match is set for next Tuesday’s 205 Live. Nese had been “suspended indefinitely” after an angle where he attacked Dar in the parking lot, but there was a segment on last night’s 205 Live where Dar convinced Drake Maverick to make the match.
  • Fox Entertainment CEO Charlie Collier said about Fox sports networks having other WWE programming: “The Fox sports networks, FS1, and others, will have some other wrestling — not live SmackDown, not Raw, but other ties to the WWE world.” FS1 having a weekly WWE studio show had been reported last May.
  • The final episode of WWE’s “ARRIVAL” video series on Matt Riddle has been uploaded. WWE also posted an epilogue to the series with Riddle FaceTiming his family after making his TakeOver debut.
  • Triple H told The National about WWE’s plans for future Performance Centers: “I can tell you there will be a Performance Center in India. There will be a Performance Center in the Middle East. There will, more than likely, be a Performance Center in Latin America. We will be replicating this process around the globe, all over.”
  • NXT’s Instagram account noted that Kendo Kashin was guest coaching at the WWE Performance Center today.
  • Mike Quackenbush also tweeted: “Not 100% sure, but if ‘living your best life’ isn’t doing European wrestling throws with @DrewGulak and then watching Max Moon matches on the big screen in the Performance Center alongside @WWEDrakeWuertz … then I don’t know what is.”
  • WWE has re-uploaded Halftime Heat 2019 to their YouTube account.
  • WWE Network News reported that Ernie Ladd vs. Magnum TA (Houston, 1984), Ron Simmons vs. Bad News Allen (Championship Wrestling from Florida, 1986), and Brock Lesnar & Shelton Benjamin vs. Mark Henry & Mr. Black (OVW, 2000) will be tomorrow’s additions to the Network’s Hidden Gems section.
  • The XFL will reveal its first head coach/general manager in Dallas, Texas tomorrow at 1 p.m. Central time. Pro Football Talk reported that it’s expected that former Oklahoma Sooners coach Bob Stoops will become the coach/GM of the XFL’s Dallas team.
  • Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson spoke to the Hollywood Reporter about “Fighting with My Family.”
  • Citi Field in New York City will be hosting a WWE Day on the afternoon of April 6 (the day before WrestleMania 35) as part of the Mets’ game against the Washington Nationals.

Pro Wrestling

UFC/MMA

Daily Pro Wrestling History: Harley Race defeats Terry Funk to win NWA title

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~!

CONTACT INFORMATION