Daily Update: Raw, G1, anniversary of Bruiser Brody’s death

THE ROUND-UP

The Latest from the F4W Staff

NEWS

AUDIO

We’re looking for your thoughts on the first day of G-1, so please leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to dave@wrestlingobserver.com.

We’re also looking for reports from Nashville tonight with the Main Event and dark matches and anything else no evident from the live show, as well as last night’s Smackdown show in Tallahassee, FL and tonight’s Smackdown show in Columbus, GA to newstips@wrestlingobserver.com.

For Raw, the Kurt Angle mystery is supposed to be solved on Monday night plus Samoa Joe vs. Roman Reigns for the SummerSlam title match is on the show. No Brock Lesnar this week. There is also a Smackdown house show tonight in Columbus, GA. John Cena will be on that Smackdown show.

Tuesday has the go-home Smackdown show from Birmingham, AL plus 205 Live. Announced is that they will be bringing the Punjabi Prison to TV, plus Drew Gulak vs. Mustafa Ali in a 2/3 fall match and Jack Gallagher vs. Brain Kendrick are scheduled.

FIGURE FOUR WEEKLY: Figure Four Weekly 7/10/2017: What’s next for Samoa Joe?

While the question of whether that was actually a double-turn with Roman Reigns and Braun Strowman was the most interesting question coming out of Great Balls of Fire, the biggest long-term issue may be what’s next for Samoa Joe after his main event with Brock Lesnar. Lesnar vs. Joe offered few surprises, mostly delivering on what everyone thought it would be. Joe was a credible threat to Lesnar (despite having to cheat to get most of his offense) before losing in about six minutes. The match felt like the big fight that it was built up to be and Joe more than held his own.

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WRESTLING OBSERVER NEWSLETTER: July 10, 2017 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: NJPW in Long Beach reviewed, TNA becomes GFW, tons of news

New Japan’s expansion into the U.S. with the shows over the weekend in Long Beach is the lead story in the new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

Look through the business of the show, the positives, the negatives, the complaints about using ex-WWE talent, the U.S. title tournament, views on the U.S. title, as well as the New Japan plans for early 2018 in the U.S.

Read about examples as to why the early success may not lead to long-term success, indications of how well the show did, where the show was the strongest, which wrestlers had the most mainstream interest on the show, the Omega vs. Rhodes dynamic, and all the controversy regarding the announcing is covered. Plus, there is match-by-match coverage with star ratings and poll results of both the shows.

Check out Impact’s rebranding to GFW, the good and the bad of the Slammiversary show, the interesting politics involved, the debut of DeAngelo Williams as well as match-by-match coverage with star ratings and poll results.

This issue talks the WWE security breach reported by Forbes, MSG notes, ideas for big events in 2018 in WWE, new TV show idea, Iron men of 2017 plus who never wins and who never loses, lots of updates on the Mae Young Classic, why Randy Orton will be out for a couple of weeks, experiences of a woman on the WWE writing team, plus the most-watched shows on the WWE Network this past week, WWE company market value, and notes on all the WWE and NXT arena events the past week with highlights and business notes.

Also inside, notes on the pending case against Jim Breaks, the death of his ex-girlfriend, and the details of the case, and notes on the career of Vic Faulkner of the Royal Brothers tag team, who passed away this past week.

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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: June 19, 2000 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Goldberg turns heel at Great American Bash, All Japan changes, more

In a week where the entire landscape of the pro wrestling industry is expected to change, the first tree to fall, All Japan Pro Wrestling, at least in the form it has been for the past 28 years, is no more.Tokyo Sports confirmed on 6/12 that the long-rumored split talked about in this publication had started with Mitsuharu Misawa, the President and top star of the company, resigning on 5/28. The news was kept quiet by all parties until the end of the tour and they were hoping to keep it quiet for several more days in an attempt to present a smoother public transition.

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MONDAY NEWS UPDATE

Bryan and I will be back tonight talking Raw, G-1, Bruiser Brody and the rest of the news as well as taking your questions to mailbag@wrestlingobserver.com.

Expect a big rating for Raw tonight with the reveal of the Kurt Angle storyline. Angle will also be doing an interview on the WWE Network as soon as Raw is over to continue that storyline that is supposedly going to threaten both his career and his family. There are all kinds of things speculated, either a love interest or an illegitimate child (remember Hornswoggle McMahon?) storyline. The most prevalent rumor is Dixie Carter, since she appeared in the Angle WWE 24 special, or Stephanie McMahon, which I think is unlikely but it would make sense to build a match with HHH. 

Also scheduled for tonight is Matt & Jeff Hardy vs. The Revival, and there is expected to be an angle to set up a Bayley vs. Sasha Banks match next week on Raw with the winner getting Alexa Bliss at SummerSlam. So that’s the third version at least of the women’s title match for this cycle. The show will open with Dean Ambrose doing an interview, setting up the Ambrose & Seth Rollins tag team against Miz & Curtis Axel & Bo Dallas, which is also to be pushed for next week more likely than this week.

The G-1 tournament will continue on Thursday at 5:30 a.m. Eastern time from Korakuen Hall. That show has Kenny Omega vs. Minoru Suzuki, Kazuchika Okada vs. Toru Yano, Evil vs. Sanada, Michael Elgin vs. Tama Tonga and Juice Robinson vs. Satoshi Kojima. They did some teasing of some of those matches on today’s show in Sapporo. Results are up, but people have been raving about today’s first night of G-1.

Today is the 29th anniversary of the death of Bruiser Brody. The High Spots video is narrated by his wife, Barbara Goodish, and has comments from a ton of different people in wrestling on him. I’m in it as well. It brought back a lot of memories. I haven’t had a chance to see the whole thing, but I did see at least some of it.

The Knight family promotion announced that they have stripped Alberto El Patron of their title, but then the father, Ricky Knight, said that it was a mutual decision for the best interest of the promotion and that “despite differences between myself and Alberto personally, as a pro, the man was impeccable and raised the profile of WAW by a huge amount.” (thanks to Stephan Lyon)

WWE

  • Mojo Rawley had his 31st birthday today. Happy birthday to him.
  • John Cena was on The Today show today. He worked in Lexington last night, went to New York, and works today in Columbus, GA. He was on the show with his mother, and we were told she killed it on the show and Cena came across great with how nice he was to his mother and how the live audience loved him.
  • Bob Armstrong was at the WWE house show over the weekend in Pensacola. His sons, Brian and Scott work for WWE.
  • Mickie James will be shooting a music video at 9 a.m. tomorrow morning at Piranhas in Nashville. Fans are invited to be extras in the shooting of the video.

UFC

  • The company sent out a press release today confirming that Eddie Alvarez and Justin Gaethje will coach the next season of The Ultimate Fighter reality show. The season has already started filming. The season will be built around a tournament to crown the first UFC women’s flyweight championship. 

MISCELLANEOUS

  • We went into more detail on this on the show, but evidently the reason behind stripping Taya of her title without letting her know was part of a deal to bring Sexy Star back to AAA, as Sexy Star showed up as a surprise at AAA’s tapings in Monterrey and won an elimination match for the Reina de Reinas title that Taya had until it was recently stripped from her for reasons that made no sense.
  • Jim Axelrod and CBS News traveled with Beau James and Daniel Richards this past week for a segment that is expected to air tonight on the CBS Evening News. They taped a match from Friday night in Hazard, KY with Kyle Maggard vs. Daniel Richards with one wearing a Hillary Clinton shirt and one wearing a Trump shirt with the stips that the loser had to wear the winners shirt for one month. Richards lost had has to wear a Trump shirt for the next month.
  • John Lister has an ITV World of Sport listing embedded video of all the matches he could find on YouTube. The earliest is from 1970 but naturally the later years are closer to complete.
  • While this has nothing to do with wrestling, ESPN is doing a documentary on the late George Best at 8 p.m. Eastern on Thursday night. I knew George Best a little in a previous lifetime, actually when I was in college and he was living in San Jose and played for the Earthquakes.
  • CWE on 8/12 in Regina, SK with Tyler Colton, managed by Nikita Koloff, vs. Big Chief, plus Jonathan Gresham vs. Silas Young, Kelly Klein vs. Jordynne Grace and Mahabali Shera vs. Jacob Creed.
  • Absolute Intense Wrestling Friday night in Cleveland at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel featuring an appearance by Arn Anderson, plus Tim Donst vs. Tracy Williams vs. Josh Prohibition vs. Louis Lyndon for the AIW title, Shayna Baszler vs. Mia Yim for the AIW women’s title, DJZ, Laredo Kid, Joey Janela, Tom Lawlor vs. Eddie Kingston, Ethan Page vs. Shawn Schutlz, Swoggle vs. Britt Baker and more. 
  • Cody Pfister, a former UFC fighter, was arrested at 1 a.m. on Saturday night and charged with assault causing bodily injury to a family member for an alleged incident that look place on 6/5. He was released after paying $5,000 bond and appeared at an MMA show he promoted on Saturday night in Amarillo at the Azteca Music Hall.
  • Nerds Clothing and Masked Republic have announced a deal to market T-shirts with the first shirt of the new deal, for Penta 0M, being released this week at the San Diego Comic Con. Nerds Clothing has released a line of WWE shirts at Hot Topic stores. 
  • GFW released that Taiji Ishimori would be appearing at the 8/17 Destination X Impact show which is an almost-live show. The Observer had already released that info earlier in the week. They hinted at more NOAH talent on that show and the subsequent TV tapings but didn’t release any other names.
  • NWL announced shows on 8/4 in Joplin, MO, 8/5 in Kansas City, 8/11 in St. Joseph, 8/18 in Overland Park, KS, 8/26 in St. Peter, MO, 9/2 in Kansas City, 9/8 in Topeka, 9/15 in Overland Park, KS, 9/22 in Springfield, MO and 9/23 in St. Peter, MO.
  • Matt Tremont vs. Tank on 7/22 in Cornelia,GA for Anarchy Wrestling.
  • Nelson Swegglar, who headed WWF TV operations during the national expansion period, doing the job Kevin Dunn now does, has left Combate Americas. He had been there since the first live TV broadcast.
  • Wrestling Revolver and Rockstar Pro Wrestling on 8/4 in Dayton at the Rockstar Pro Arena featuring Simon Grimm (Simon Gotch in WWE) vs. Ethan Page, Shane Strickland vs. MJF, AR Fox vs. Matt Tremont and Rey Fenix vs. Jeremiah, plus Sami Callihan,Dezmond Xavier, Jessicka Havok, Jake Crist and more.
  • IWA on 7/22 in St. Albans, WV at the Action S;ports Complex with Gregory Iron.

Today in Pro Wrestling History: CM Punk wins WWE title at Money in the Bank 2011

F4W Online / Wrestling Observer Vegas Convention Event Info

August 17-21; All times are TBA; Full information on the group Facebook page; Activities subject to change

For ticketing information go to https://f4wvegas.brownpapertickets.com/

  • Thursday: Meet at the High Roller for Bowling at the Link; Party at Carnival Court at Hurrah’s
  • Friday: Kiss Mini Golf tournament at the Rio; Dinner at Texas de Brazil; Suite party (location TBA)
  • Saturday: Burgers with Granny for lunch; Future Stars of Wrestling show featuring Stephan Bonnar & Phil Baron, and co-main events: 3-way match with Leva Bates vs. Mia Yim vs. Hudson Envy, and “Filthy” Tom Lawlor vs. Thomas Santell (f.k.a. Antonio “The Promise” Thomas); NXT viewing party at the Sci-Fi Center
  • Sunday: SUPER CHINA BUFFET DAY at the Wicked Spoon Buffet at 1pm; SummerSlam viewing party at the Sci-Fi Center
  • Monday: Goodbye lunch at Chen Chen at NY NY
  • All website members will also receive a 15% discount on any purchases from the Las Vegas Fight Shop for the entirety of the convention

Texas de Brazil, Wicked Spoon, NXT and Summer Slam will all be sign up and pre-paid events, prices and collection begin in mid July~!

Pro Wrestling Tees is now carrying our latest line of F4W shirts. Support the Empire~! Grab yours today!

CONTACT INFORMATION

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