Daily Update: Raw 25 media, Impact ratings, UFC 220

By Joseph Currier
Published: 20 Jan 2018, 17:36

THE ROUND-UP

THE LATEST NEWS

THE LATEST AUDIO

We are looking for reports from these shows:

WWE Raw in State College, PA
WWE Smackdown in Florence, SC
ROH TV tapings in Nashville (Dalton Castle vs. Punishment Martinez for ROH title, Young Bucks & Adam Page vs. Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian & Scorpio Sky for trios titles, Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley vs. Baretta & Chuckie T for tag titles, Cody vs. Matt Taven, Shane Taylor vs. Marty Scurll, Jay Lethal vs. Flip Gordon, Madison Rayne vs. Mandy Leon, Brandi Rhodes vs. Karen Q)
WWE 205 Live in Lowell, MA (Matt Hardy vs. Bray Wyatt)
WWE NXT in Sebring FL
Revolution Pro from York Hall in London (Tyler Bate & Trent Seven vs. Minoru Suzuki & Zack Sabre Jr. for British tag team titles, Seiya Sanada & Evil vs. Mark Davis & Kyle Fletcher, Will Ospreay vs. Mark Andrews, Ryan Smile vs. Adam Brooks, Jinny vs. Millie McKenzie vs. Bea Priestley for women’s title, Kurtis Chapman vs. Rob Lias and CCK vs. Josh Bodom & Zack Gibson)

UFC 220 FROM THE TD GARDEN IN BOSTON

Fight Pass at 7 p.m. Eastern

Islam Makhachev (156) vs. Gleison Tibau (155)
Enrique Barzola (145.5) vs. Matt Bessette (146)

FS1 at 8 p.m.

Julio Arce (146) vs. Dan Ige (145.5)
Dustin Ortiz (125.5) vs. Alexandre Pantoja (126)
Abdul Razak Alhassan (170) vs. Sabah Houmasi (171)
Kyle Bochniak (146) vs. Brandon Davis (146)

PPV at 10 p.m.

Thomas Almeida (135.5) vs. Rob Font (136)
Francimar Barroso (205) vs. Gian Villante (206)
Shane Burgos (146) vs. Calvin Kattar (145.2)
Daniel Cormier (205) vs. Volkan Oezdemir (205) for the light heavyweight title
Stipe Miocic (246) vs. Francis Ngannou (263) for the heavyweight title

BELLATOR MMA FROM THE FORUM IN LOS ANGELES ON PARAMOUNT NETWORK AND CMT AT 9 P.M. EASTERN

Henry Corrales (145.8) vs. Georgi Karakhanyan (145)
Shane Krutchen (146) vs. Aaron Pico (145.2)
Michael Chandler (156) vs. Goiti Yamauchi (155.9)
Douglas Lima (169.3) vs. Rory MacDonald (169) for Bellator welterweight title
Rampage Jackson (253) vs. Chael Sonnen (222) in heavyweight Grand Prix

NEW JAPAN FANTASTICA MANIA FROM TOKYO KORAKUEN HALL AT 4:30 A.M. EASTERN EARLY SUNDAY MORNING

Drone & Star Jr. vs. Puma & Disturbio
Soberano Jr. & Fuego & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Okumura & Sho & Yoh
Satoshi Kojima & Atlantis & Kushida & Hirai Kawato vs. Rush & Tetsuya Naito & Hiromu Takahashi & Bushi
Angel de Oro & Niebla Roja vs. Ultimo Guerrero & Gran Guerrero in brothers tag team tournament
Mistico & Dragon Lee vs. Sanson & Cuatrero in brothers tag team tournament
Volador Jr. vs. Cavernario for NWA Historic welterweight title

We’re looking for reports on Sunday from these shows:

WWE Raw in Binghamton, NY
WWE Smackdown in Greeneville, NC
WWE 205 Live in Poughkeepsie, NY (Matt Hardy vs. Bray Wyatt)

NEW JAPAN FANTASTICA MANIA FROM TOKYO KORAKUEN HALL AT 4:30 A.M. EASTERN EARLY MONDAY MORNING

Ryusuke Taguchi & Fuego vs. Puma & Disturbio
Star Jr. & Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask & Kushida vs. Okumura & Rocky Romero & Sho & Yoh
Third place match in brothers tag team tournament
Atlantis & Hirai Kawato vs. Cavernario & Gedo
Volador Jr. & Soberano Jr. & Drone vs. Tetsuya Naito & Hiromu Takahashi & Bushi
Satoshi Kojima vs. Rush
Brothers tag team tournament championship match

Raw is Monday night from both the Barclays Center and the Manhattan Center for the 25th Raw with a giant list of former stars, Smackdown stars, and pretty much everyone being there with Roman Reigns vs. The Miz for the IC title as the main event.

Smackdown, Mixed Match Challenge and 205 Live will be taped in Washington, DC on Tuesday. Big E & Carmella vs. The Miz & Asuka is the mixed match challenge match.

F4W NEWSLETTER: Figure Four Weekly 1//15/2018: Looking at WWE’s latest Performance Center class

While it’s hard to predict whether someone will or won’t have success on the main roster, the class that’s scheduled to report to the WWE Performance Center this week includes some potentially game-changing talent. Ricochet, Candice LeRae, War Machine (Ray Rowe & Hanson), Kavita Devi, Kacy Catanzaro, Rinku Singh, Shadia Bseiso, Nasser Alruwayeh, Nicolai Salchow, and Saurav Gurjar have been reported as the latest names to sign with WWE.

WON NEWSLETTER: January 22, 2018 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Paige’s in-ring career with WWE over, Reigns steroid allegations, more

A look at the career of Paige and the injuries that appeared to end it is one of the lead stories in the new issue of the Wrestling Observer. Read about her career, the movie on her life that is forthcoming, how the movie affected the last few years, details of the injury, how this compares to Bryan Danielson, how the movie got started, her life before WWE and her role in the changes in the WWE women’s division.

Look at the situation with Conor McGregor, as well as a huge show UFC is looking at doing in the fall.

Read comments on the Roman Reigns allegations and the WWE background on how different allegations have been handled.

There are changes in plans of the rumble show, an update on a lot of talent talking with WWE, many coming into WWE, history of why Bobby Lashley left WWE, former TNA star talks wanting to move to WWE, Jey Uso’s DWI arrest, notes on a lot of new talent starting at the Performance Center, Cena projects on Nickelodeon, who is coming in for 25th Raw, who isn’t coming to the 25th Raw and why, and a complete scheduled for Mixed Match Challenge.

Check out how house show plans changed with the Samoa Joe injury, WWE injury notes, WWE signs new giant, UFC star’s name talked about for WWE, Cena and Rock move notes, WWE stock price value and most-watched shows for the week on the WWE Network. Look at the WWE and NXT arena events over the past week with results, highlights and business notes.

Look at the head-to-head battle with UFC and Bellator this week, the hoped for stardom of Francis Ngannou, Sonnen vs. Rampage, Cormier vs. Oezdemir and more.

Read about the UFC show in St. Louis and the most emotional moment in UFC television history. Plus, look at the unique nature of how the television audience changed and why the ratings were so high.

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.

Rates in the United States are $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. 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 choose one free classic issue, or two free classic issues with a 40-issue subscription.

WON BACK ISSUE: January 1, 2001 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Candidates for Wrestler of the Year, Sakuraba defeats another Gracie, more

For a year that, with the exception of the success of the WWF, was hardly a banner year for the business, there is actually no shortage of candidates for Wrestler of the Year. The Observer awards balloting results will be announced here in two weeks, but before hand, I wanted to run down a list of the top qualifiers with my own comments on them.

SATURDAY NEWS UPDATE

WWE

In an interview with The Mirror ahead of Raw 25, Stephanie McMahon explained why she and the wrestlers in the ring broke character during the announcement of the women’s Royal Rumble: “We were chastised by some fans because we broke character and I told the women earlier in the day — they knew I was coming out but they didn’t know what I was going to say — I told them react naturally, don’t feel like you have to be in character, it’s okay for you to react however you want to react, to whatever I’m going to say. We all broke character that night. We had this very real moment with each other and with the audience, because again, our audience is such a huge part of making this happen.”
Rolling Stone spoke to Triple H about Raw 25 and having to get right back to work on Tuesday morning.
WWE re-did the Ruthless Aggression era Raw intro video with today’s wrestlers.
Dustin Rhodes tweeted about being part of the history of Raw: “23 of the 25 yrs of Raw, I have spent as #Goldust. You’ve laughed, you’ve cried, you’ve hated and come to adore me. Very thankful that I still have a place in your hearts!”
Alexa Bliss and Nia Jax will be appearing on Steve Harvey’s talk show on Monday.
Sasha Banks called herself the greatest women’s wrestler ever when being interviewed by TalkSport. While that’s bound to generate controversy, the quote came when she was talking about Bayley having her number in their rivalry. Banks also told Sky Sports that she’d love to see WWE introduce women’s Tag Team titles.
David Bixenspan’s latest piece for Deadspin focuses on the early days of Raw and how it was different than the television that WWE had produced up until that point.
WWE uploaded a video where Ricochet talks about joining the Performance Center. Candice LeRae and Johnny Gargano also discussed Candice signing with the company.
Joey Ryan posted video of LeRae’s farewell send-off at Bar Wrestling earlier this week.
Ray Rowe had his final indie match last night, facing Keith Lee for AIW in Cleveland.
ESPN has an article on Drew Gulak, him being part of the cruiserweight division, and working with Enzo Amore.
Jim Ross announced that he’s fulfilled his contractual commitments to PodcastOne and wrote that he’ll be partnering with a new podcast company soon.
Dave Bautista was the guest on Friday’s episode of the Edge & Christian podcast.

Pro Wrestling

Impact was back up over 300,000 viewers for this week’s episode. The show averaged 309,000 viewers, up from last week’s 276,000 and in line with what it did the prior week. Ratings for Impact have generally been up since the end of football season.
Impact tweeted out a survey asking viewers their opinion of this week’s show.
Cody Rhodes wrote that he recently had a positive conversation with an interested party about doing a multi-day separate convention for their All In show.
Meiko Satomura has been announced for Fight Club PRO’s three Dream Tag Team Invitational shows on March 30th-April 1st. She’ll be appearing as a singles wrestler and won’t be in the tag tournament.
Minoru Suzuki & Zack Sabre Jr. won the Revolution Pro Wrestling Tag Team titles from Tyler Bate & Trent Seven in London today.
Toni Storm won the wXw Women’s Championship in Germany.
NJPW revealed the poster for March’s New Japan Cup. In addition to champions Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kenny Omega, and Hirooki Goto, Tetsuya Naito, SANADA, EVIL, Minoru Suzuki, Tomohiro Ishii, and Togi Makabe are featured.
PWG’s next show will be called “Neon Knights” and will take place on February 16th.
Indie wrestler Mike Parrow appeared on Good Morning Britain to share his story of coming out.

UFC/MMA

The UFC uploaded episode five and six of Embedded ahead of tonight’s PPV.
Volkan Oezdemir thinks Daniel Cormier will be motivated and the best version of himself tonight after losing to Jon Jones in his last fight.
Cormier got a good luck message from the “other” Jon Jones who has the @JonJones Twitter handle.
Cormier reiterated that he’s planning to retire when he’s 40 years old.
Francis Ngannou doubts that Stipe Miocic will get an immediate rematch if he loses the heavyweight title due to the number of contenders who are waiting for a shot.
Chael Sonnen said he’s more attached to the business numbers of Bellator 192 now that his fight is headlining the show.

Today in Professional Wrestling History: Triple H wins 2002 Royal Rumble

WRESTLING OBSERVER / F4W – WRESTLEMANIA 34 in NEW ORLEANS

Here we go again! It’s back to New Orleans for Wrestlemania 34 and a huge weekend of spectacular professional wrestling related fun and wackiness. EdinSanAntonio Productions along with the Wrestling Observer / Figure Four Empire~! is proud to present the annual Wrestlemania weekend trip details. This huge weekend includes a number of website “members only” events. Below are the two events currently scheduled. Click here for full event details.

WOR Podcast Taping:Purchase TICKETS for the Wrestling Observer Radio LIVE MAILBAG~!

WHAT: Wrestling Observer Radio LIVE Podcast Recording with Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez
WHEN: Friday, April 6th, 2018 – 9:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. (Doors open at 8:45 a.m. for VIP ticket holders and at 9:15 a.m. for general admission)
WHERE: The Bourbon Room, Royal St. Charles Hotel in downtown New Orleans; 135 St. Charles Ave., New Orleans, LA 70130

WO/F4W Brunch:Purchase TICKETS for the Wrestling Oberver BRUNCH~!

WHAT: All you care to eat brunch buffet on the morning of Wrestlemania
WHEN: Sunday, April 8th, 2018 – T11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
WHERE: The Court of Two Sisters restaurant in downtown New Orleans; 613 Royal St., New Orleans, LA 70130

CONTACT INFORMATION

Poll opinions: dave@wrestlingobserver.com
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