Daily Update: Okada vs. Ospreay on AXS, Rock & Rampage, Alberto

THE ROUND-UP

THE LATEST NEWS

THE LATEST AUDIO

NEW JAPAN WORLD PRO WRESTLING ON AXS TV TONIGHT AT 8 P.M. EASTERN

  • Tetsuya Naito vs. Taichi
  • Kazuchika Okada vs. Will Ospreay

BELLATOR TONIGHT AT 9 P.M. EASTERN FROM ST. CHARLES, MO ON THE PARAMOUNT NETWORK

  • Joaquin Buckley (168.3) vs. Logan Storley (170.6)
  • Baby Slice (159.8) vs. Devon Brock (160)
  • A.J. McKee (145.8) vs. Justin Lawrence (145.8)
  • Michael Chandler (155.3) vs. Brandon Girtz (156)

CMLL FROM ARENA MEXICO AT 9:30 P.M. EASTERN TIME

  • Flyer & Oro Jr. vs. Espanto Jr. & Templario
  • Lady Maravilla & Marcela & Princesa Sugehit vs. Amapola & Dalys & Seductora
  • Esfinge & Titan & Triton vs. Johnny Idol & Kawato San & Okumura
  • Negro Casas vs. Soberano Jr.
  • Volador Jr. & Valiente & Caristico vs. Ultimo Guerrero & Euforia & Mephisto
  • Atlantis & Diamante Azul & Kraneo vs. Rush & Bestia del Ring & El Terrible

We’re looking for reports from Saturday’s ROH show in Pittsburgh (Mark & Jay Briscoe vs. Young Bucks for tag titles, Silas Young vs. Flip Gordon for TV title, Christohper Daniels & Frankie Kazarian & Scorpio Sky vs. Cody & Marty Scurll & Adam Page for six-man titles, Dalton Castle & The Boys vs. Matt Taven & Vinny Marseglia & TK O’Ryan) to newstips@wrestlingobserver.com. This airs live on Honor Club.

ALL JAPAN CHAMPION CARNIVAL AT 5 A.M. EASTERN SATURDAY MORNING FROM  HIROSHIMA ON THE ALL JAPAN STREAMING SERVICE

  • Zeus vs. Yutaka Yoshie
  • Naoya Nomura vs. Yuji Hino
  • Shingo Takagi vs. The Bodyguard
  • Kento Miyahara vs. Ryoji Sai

NEW JAPAN FROM KORAKUEN HALL AT 5:30 A.M. EASTERN TIME SATURDAY MORNING ON NEW JAPAN WORLD

  • Ren Narita vs. Yota Tsuji
  • Yuji Nagata vs. Shota Umino
  • Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Jushin Liger & Tetsuhiro Yagi vs. Manabu Nakanishi & Ryusuke Taguchi & Tomoyuki Oka
  • Rocky Romero & Sho & Yoh vs. Takashi Iizuka & Taichi & Taka Michinoku
  • Togi Makabe & Toa Henare vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano
  • Michael Elgin & Juice Robinson & David Finlay & Kushida vs. Hirooki Goto & Jay White & Will Ospreay & Yoshi-Hashi
  • Elimination match: Tetsuya Naito & Evil & Seiya Sanada & Bushi & Hiromu Takahashi vs. Minoru Suzuki & Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Desperado

KSW ON IPPV SATURDAY AT 1 P.M. EASTERN TIME

  • Michal Andryszak (249.5) vs. Phil DeFries (265) for vacant heavyweight title
  • Damian Janikowski (185.2) vs. Yannick Bahati  (185.2)
  • Roberto Soldic (169.2) vs. Dricus de Plessis (168.7) for the welterweight title

UFC ON FOX FROM GLENDALE, AZ AT THE GILA RIVER ARENA

Fight Pass at 3:30 p.m. Eastern time

  • Patrick Williams vs. Luke Sanders
  • Alejandro Perez vs. Matthew Lopez
  • Adam Wieczorek vs. Arjan Bhullar
  • Yushin Okami vs. Dhiego Lima
  • Lauren Mueller vs. Shana Dobson
  • Dan Moret vs. Gilbert Burns 

FOX at 6 p.m. Eastern time

  • Brad Tavares vs. Krzysztof Jotko
  • Wilson Reis vs. John Moraga
  • Muslim Salikhov vs. Ricky Rainey
  • Antonio Carlos Jr. vs. Tim Boetsch
  • Cortney Casey vs. Michelle Waterson
  • Israel Adesanya vs. Marvin Vettori
  • Carlos Condit vs. Alex Oliveira
  • Dustin Poirier vs. Justin Gaethje

We’re looking for reports from Sunday’s ROH show in Columbus, OH (Dalton Castle vs. Marty Scurll vs. Punishment Martinez vs. Beer City Bruiser, Cody vs. Matt Taven first blood match, Jay Lethal vs. Jonathan Gresham, Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian & Scorpio Sky & Shane Taylor vs. Bullet Club & Flip Gordon, Silas Young vs. Cheeseburger for the TV title and Coast 2 Coast vs. The Dawgs. This airs live on Honor Club.

ALL JAPAN CHAMPION CARNIVAL AT 3 A.M. EASTERN SATURDAY NIGHT/SUNDAY MORNING FROM FUKUOKA ON THE ALL JAPAN STREAMING SERVICE

  • Jun Akiyama vs. Suwama
  • Shingo Takagi vs. Yuji Hino
  • Joe Doering vs. Ryoji Sai
  • Kento Miyahara vs. Shuji Ishikawa

ALL JAPAN CHAMPION CARNIVAL AT 5:30 A.M. EASTERN MONDAY MORNING FROM KAGOSHIMA ON THE ALL JAPAN STREAMING SERVICE

  • Yoshitatsu vs. Dylan James
  • Yutaka Yoshie vs. Kai
  • Kento Miyahara vs. The Bodyguard
  • Shuji Ishikawa vs. Naoya Nomura

Raw will be Monday in Hartford. The show will have another Ronda Rousey/Stephanie McMahon segment, plus The Revival vs. Matt Hardy & Bray Wyatt with the winning team getting a match with Sheamus & Cesaro in Saudi Arabia for the vacant tag team titles and Bayley vs. Sasha Banks. It will be day one of the Superstar shakeup as well.

Smackdown and 205 Live will be taped on Tuesday in Providence. It will be day two of the Superstar shakeup plus Hideo Itami & Akira Tozawa vs. Lince Dorado & Gran Metalik in a tornado match.

    ​F4W NEWSLETTER: Figure Four Weekly: Seven thoughts from Wrestlemania 34

    With a card that was still strong on in-ring action, Sunday’s WrestleMania 34 ended up being one of the weirdest events that WWE has ever produced. The show seemed destined to become one of the best in WrestleMania history, starting off with two very good matches and peaking with Ronda Rousey & Kurt Angle vs. Stephanie McMahon & Triple H blowing away all expectations. The Undertaker answered John Cena’s challenge shortly after that, squashing him in under three minutes. And Daniel Bryan returned to the Superdome and made his in-ring return in what was a great moment.

    WON NEWSLETTER: April 16, 2018 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Historic Wrestlemania 34 weekend reviewed, more

    This issue contains complete coverage of WrestleMania, NXT Takeover, ROH Supercard of Honor and UFC 223, with match-by-match coverage, poll results and star ratings.

    Look at WWE’s future direction after WrestleMania, exactly how everything went down with the decision to change the finish and have Brock Lesnar win and the current Lesnar contract, his UFC talks and more. Look at why this will be going down the same way very shortly.

    Have a look at who did and didn’t know about Reigns losing, what the script said, what and when the referee was told, what happened backstage after the match, why Lesnar gets special privileges and what happens next with the title.

    Read why Cena vs. Undertaker went down the way they did, the return of Chris Jericho, update on Rey Mysterio’s contract, and what is next for the Greatest Royal Rumble and Backlash shows.

    Check out the WWE Network numbers and what we can learn from them, and WWE’s business projections for the year and for the next quarter. Find out the viewing patterns on the network and how much it was up per person and what that means, plus an update on network plans.

    Read about the live business in New Orleans and what it really was the last time compared to what was announced.

    This issue has full details on what happened with Conor McGregor, as well as all the different things that went into Khabib Nurmagomedov facing Al Iaquinta. Look at Floyd Mayweather in MMA, what is next for McGregor, what happened with McGregor that hasn’t gotten out yet, and the story behind the New York not calling it a title match.

    Check out the coverage of Impact vs. Lucha Underground, Progress, Revolution Pro, House of Hardcore, Evolve, the Super Shows and all the major activities in New Orleans over WrestleMania week.

    Read more on the death of Johnny Valiant, the end, at least for now, of Being the Elite, why WWE is back in the U.K. game and where the ITV project stands.

    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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    FRIDAY NEWS UPDATE

    The Kazuchika Okada vs. Will Ospreay match from the New Japan anniversary show will be airing tonight on AXS at 8 p.m.

    Also, based on styles, don’t sleep on tonight’s Bellator main event of Michael Chandler vs. Brandon Girtz, and especially tomorrow night’s UFC main event of Justin Gaethje vs. Dustin Poirier. Gaethje has match of the year candidates almost every time out.

    “Rampage,” the latest movie starring Dwayne Johnson, debuts tonight. Johnson plays a funny action hero with partner George the Gorilla. There is a lot of graphic violence and I’m told it may not be for younger children.

    Dwayne Johnson and BET have reached a deal on a six-episode documentary series called “Finding Justice” about heroes, leaders and advocates in African-American communities across America who fight to uncover injustices.  

    Weiss Wrestling Promotions is putting some of the footage they have joint rights to on sale. The new owners will have the rights to sell the footage of license its usage. In some cases, some royalties, based on the original contract, will have to be paid to the original promoter. The matches they are putting for sale are Killer Kowalski vs. Luis Martinez, Verne Gagne vs. Mad Dog Vachon from the Montreal Forum and others.

    Alberto El Patron is claiming he missed the Impact show on Friday and his autograph session due to family issues. Obviously the company doesn’t believe that since he is no longer with Impact.

    WWE

    • This may not happen, but the name that has been mentioned to me by a few people that they are debating bringing up imminently is Velveteen Dream. There are differing schools of thought on it.
    • Tickets must not be doing so well for Raw on Monday as we heard there is a buy one and get three ticket offer out in the market. 
    • For Raw on Monday, the tease is that Ronda Rousey will face repercussions for what she did to Stephanie McMahon.   
    • All the Rusev stuff is storyline.
    • Jim Ross tweeted that he’s been diagnosed with a fractured vertebrae that he got in September.
    • DK Publishing announced the release of WWE Raw The First 25 Years that will come out on 5/15.
    • A Raw event was announced for 12/6 at Luna Park in Buenos Aries, Argentina.
    • Tickets are now on sale for both the 6/16 Takeover Chicago show, the next Takeover event, and the 6/18 and 6/19 NXT shows at Royal Albert Hall in London.

    UFC

    • Michelle Waterson talks Conor McGregor, Ronda Rousey in WWE, weight cutting, and her fight this Saturday.
    • Khalil Rountree vs. Gokhan Saki was announced for the 7/7 UFC PPV show in Las Vegas. Sakl is one of the best kickboxers in the world.
    • Manny Bermudez vs. Davey Grant has been added to the 5/27 show in Liverpool. 

    MISCELLANEOUS

    •  AAW tonight in Merrionette Park, IL at 115 Bourbon Street has Rey Fenix vs. ACH for the AAW title, Penta 0M vs. Teddy Hart, David Starr & Trevor Lee & Jeff Cobb vs. Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz & Keith Lee, MJF vs. Ace Romero, Joey Janela vs. Eddie Kingston, Davey Vega & Mat Fitchett vs. Dave & Jake Crist for the AAW tag titles, and Jessicka Havok & Su Yung vs. Tenille Dashwood & Hudson Envy.
    • Combate Americas runs tonight at Midnight Eastern and Pacific time on Univision from Los Angeles with a main event of John Castaneda (16-3) vs. Jose Alday (1-03).  Castaneda was to face Marc Gomez, but his pre-fight examination showed he had a detached retina and he was not allowed to fight. Five-division women’s boxing champion Amanda Serrano makes her MMA debut against Corina Herrera (3-4).
    • Bar Wrestling from last night in Baldwin Park, CA: Tessa Blanchard b Scorpio Sky, Taya Valkyie b Katarina Leigh, Brian Cage b Douglas James, Joey Ryan & Eli Drake & Kevin Martenson b Brody King & Braxton Sutter & Andy Williams, Kris Wolf b Allie, Peter Avalon & Ray Rosas won four-way over Eli Everfly & Delilah Doom, Lance Lude & Rob Killjoy and Tessa Blanchard & Indi Hartwell, Jeff Cobb b Moose. They had their usual sellout crowd. (thanks to Jake Koch) 
    • Impact will be doing a One Night Only taping on 6/3 in Mississauga, ONT at the Dan Kolov Arena. Penta 0M has been announced.
    • IPW UK is running a women’s show on 4/27 in Caterbury, England called GRL with Xia Brookside vs. Kay Lee Ray.
    • Empire State Wrestling on 4/28 in Albion, NY at the Orleans Country 4-H Fairgrounds with Gangrel, Colin Delaney and Braxton Sutter.
    • KSW runs 6/9 in Gdansk, Poland with Mariusz Pudzianowski, the company’s big draw, facing Karl Bedorf in a heavyweight fight. This will be a huge drawing fight in Poland.
    • Jim Cornette and IDW Limited are doing a 60 page graphic novel together with Cornette stories. There will be a Kickstarter fundraiser that starts on 4/17 to 5/10 for “Jim Cornette Presents: Behind the Curtain – Real Pro Wrestling Stories.”
    • MCW on Saturday night at the Hollywood Volunteer Fire Department in Hollywood, MD with a meet and greet that features Ted DiBiase, Angelina Love, Joey Mercury and others.
    • Al Snow, Bully Ray and Velvet Sky were announced for the House of Hardcore tour of Australia in July.
    • CZW on Saturday night in Voorhees, NJ at Colossal Sports at the Coliseum with Best of the Best. This is a one-night tournament with first round matches of Matt Riddle vs. Wheeler Yuta vs. Curt Stallion, Tessa Blanchard vs. David Starr vs. Peter Avalon, Joe Gacy vs. Joey Janela vs. Brandon Kirk and Myron Reed vs. Trey Miguel vs Zachary Wentz. Rickey Shane Page defends the heavyweight title against Maxwell Jacob Friedman in the main event.
    • Pro Wrestling Revolver on 5/5 in West Des Moines, IA at he Val Air Ballroom with Penta 0M vs. Jimmy Jacobs, Tommy Dreamer vs. Jake Manning in a hardcore match plus Sami Callihan, Dave & Jake Crist and Shane Strickland.
    • Australasian Wrestling Federation runs 5/17 in Sydney, 5/18 in Melbourne, 5/19 in Adelaide and 5/20 in Brisbane with Dalton Castle, Jay Lethal, Cima, Ryback, T-Hawk and Suicide. Castle and Ryback aren’t working the 5/20 show.
    • Toni Storm vs. Avary was announced for Melbourne City Wrestling on 4/21 at the Ballroom Brawl show. (thanks to Kevin Chiat)
    • NFC MMA on 4/27 in Kennesaw,GA at the Electric Cowboy.
    • Tickets for the next MLW TV tapings on 5/3 at Gilt Nightclub in Orlando went on sale this morning at www.MLWtickets.com. Those announced are Pentagon Jr, Rey Fenix, MVP, Barrington Hughes, MJF, Salina de la Renta and The Dirty Blondes.
    • Zelo Pro Wrestling on 4/20 in Milwaukee at the Turner Hall Ballroom has Kylie Rae vs. Tessa Blanchard, Delilah Doom vs. Britt Baker vs. Chelsea Green vs. Miranda Alize, Colt Cabana vs. Robbie E and Austin Aries (returning home) vs. Bryce Benjamin vs. Isaias Velasquez.
    • Heroes and Legends Wrestling on 4/21 in Fort Wayne, IN at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum has a meet and greet with Gene Okerlund, Tito Santana, James Ellsworth, Bob Orton Jr., Tatanka, Slick, Koko B. Ware, One Man Gang, Mark Henry, Greg Valentine, David Schultz and the Crist Brothers plus Kongo Kong vs. Tatanka, Jimmy Jacobs vs. Sugar Dunkerton, Sami Callihan vs. Jake Omen, Veda Scott vs. Amazing Maria and Ellsworth vs. Nick Cutler.
    • Dynamo Pro Wrestling on 4/21 in St. Louis at the Concordia-Turners’s Gymnasium.
    • ElkMania on 4/28 in Beverly, MA as a fund raiser for the animals at the Northeast Animal Shelter.
    • Legacy Fighting on AXS TV on 5/25 from the Bomb Factory in Dallas headlined by a featherweight title match with Kevin Aguilar (13-1) vs. Thanh Le (8-1) and Damon Jackson (14-2-1) vs. Jeremy Spoon (23-1).
    • Legacy Fighting also run on 6/1 in Prior Lake, MN at the Mystic Lake Center’s Minnetonka Ballroom on AXS TV. Thiago Moises (9-2) faces Jeff Peterson (9-4) in a lightweight bout and the co-feature, also at lightweight, has Killys Mota (10-) vs. Bobby Lee (8-1).
    • Miranda Salinas from the Mae Young Classic is taking bookings through Bill Behrens at showbis@aol.com. She is based in Houston. Other new names are Tessa Blanchard, who will be based soon in San Antonio in May, and JTG, based in Los Angeles.  .
    • There will be filming for a documentary on Justin Credible’s attempt to beat his demons as part of a Capitol Wrestling show on 5/20 in New Britain, CT at the VFW Hall. 
    • Superkick’d on 4/20 in Toronto at the Great Hall.
    • Matt Farmer talks promoting independent wrestling.
    • Chuck Liddell and Bas Rutten sign as Karate Combat Ambassadors.
    • A story on the Bare Knuckle boxing show in Wyoming with Ricco Rodriguez and Joe Riggs.
    • Dave Dutra is interviewed on Alternative Wrestling Radio.

    Daily Professional Wrestling History: ECW arrives on PPV with Barely Legal 1997

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