Daily Update: Raw, Mick Foley, ROH Final Battle

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FIGURE FOUR WEEKLY: Figure Four Weekly 9/4/2017: Women’s wrestling takes another step forward with Mae Young Classic

With everything but the final now having aired, the Mae Young Classic has again challenged whether women’s wrestling occupies enough of the current WWE landscape. The matches went about as well as could be expected. There were few bad ones, a handful of standouts, and a ton of pretty good matches. The 32-competitor field showcased female wrestlers of varying skill sets — from one participant having their literal first professional match (Xia Li) to veterans finally getting their first chance in a WWE ring after lengthy careers.

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WRESTLING OBSERVER NEWSLETTER:September 11, 2017 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Jeff Jarrett takes leave of absence from GFW, PWG BOLA reviewed, more

A look at GFW, the departure of Jeff Jarrett, and where things go from here with the company is the lead story in the new issue. Look at the talks of a sale, incidents that happened, future direction, the current television situation, why the tape library isn’t going to be sold, the new creative team, the current angles, Bound for Glory plans, Alberto El Patron, the future of Jim Cornette, Bruce Prichard and others and more.

Look at the Mayweather-McGregor business; looking at PPV in the U.S. and U.K., live gate, what mistakes were made, and the state of McGregor coming out of the fight.

Check out the next two WWE PPV shows, the Cena vs. Reigns program and Enzo Amore and the cruiserweight division.

Details on the Battle of Los Angeles tournament including the Keith Lee vs. Donovan Dijak match, the future of Ricochet and Matt Riddle and how the New Japan/WWE situation fits in, and why the usual rules of wrestling and crowds don’t seem to apply in PWG.

Get an update on John Layfield leaving SmackDown, The Mae Young Classic, how the Mae Young Classic did on the WWE Network, new WWE TV deal in Canada, Hurricane Irma and WWE events, what opposing lawyer in concussion suit asked for as part of a settlement, Samoa Joe injury update, Sami Zayn update, more on the situation with Baron Corbin, Nikki Bella on Dancing with the Stars, WWE running Christmas and New Year’s live shows, injury updates, Australia tour notes, and company value. 

Full coverage of the UFC Fight Pass event from Rotterdam, Holland is in this issue.

Examine the real numbers when it comes to cord cutting, as well as how many people have access to the key stations wrestling and MMA are on.

Get details on the ratings for all the national shows over the past week, including breakdown of who was watching all of the WWE shows.

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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. 

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WON BACK ISSUE: August 14, 2000 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: WCW turmoil, Hall of Fame candidates, more

The turmoil regarding the future of World Championship Wrestling continues with what apparently is a shake-up leaving Brad Siegel backing Vince Russo in complete control of the company. At the same time, the losses continue to escalate, with July’s losses estimated at $7 million, the most, by far, of any month in the history of a company now on track to lose close to $80 million over the course of this year. The main stories going around, seem to involve the prospective merger of AOL and Time Warner, and getting the company’s losses under control.

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MONDAY NEWS UPDATE

Bryan and I will be back tonight talking Raw, Destruction in Fukushima, as well as taking your e-mail questions on wrestling and MMA that can be sent to mailbag@wrestlingobserver.com

What I believe is the first-ever singles meeting with John Cena vs. Braun Strowman, and definitely the first since Strowman got his mega-push, will be on Raw tonight with only a few hours build to combat the beginning of the NFL season. ESPN is running a doubleheader tonight, with the New Orleans Saints vs. Minnesota Vikings at 7:10 p.m. and the San Diego Chargers vs, Denver Broncos at 10:20 p.m. I would say that if there wasn’t Cena vs. Strowman and we weren’t in the middle of a weather disaster, this show would be expected to do about 2.9 million viewers, so anything above that would show the value of that match and anything below that would say they probably should have promoted the match a few days in advance.

Mick Foley tweeted that he was told his knee replacement surgery was a very successful operation.

ROH announced Final Battle will be 12/15 at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York. Tickets go on sale Wednesday to ROH Ringside members and Friday to the public. This is traditionally the company’s big show of the year.

In a surprise, WWE announced two dates in India, but with the Raw crew, on 12/7 and 12/8 at the Indira Ghandi Indoor Stadium in New Delhi. It’s a surprise since SmackDown has been built around Jinder Mahal as champion and to be the main brand in India. I would expect Mahal and the Singh Brothers on this tour.

This coming Saturday is going to be a major day with these events:

  • Gennady Golovkin vs. Canelo Alvarez in the biggest serious boxing match of 2017
  • CMLL 84th anniversary show, the oldest annual tradition in combat sports and entertainment
  • UFC in Pittsburgh for an FS1 TV shoot
  • New Japan Destruction in Hiroshima

The early stuff we’ve heard is that aside for power outages, there was not major damage to at least the homes that we know about involving wrestlers who lived in the Tampa and Orlando areas, which is where a ton of talent both WWE-wise, independently, and retired, now live. 

Nielsen’s data offices are in Tampa and there is no word on when the offices will be reopened and when the staff will be able to come to work. So there may be delays in the ratings this week.

WWE

  • Darren Young, who started back last week at house shows, is backstage at  Raw tonight. That doesn’t mean he’ll be used.
  • Ric Flair got dressed up and did a video shoot today.
  • Bovada posted the Dancing with the Stars odds:
    Nick Lachey +400
    Debbie Gibson +800
    Sasha Pieterse +800
    Lindsey Stirling +800
    Frankie Muniz +900
    Jordan Fisher +900
    Vanessa Lachey +900
    Victor Arten +1000
    Derek Fisher +1000
    Terrell Owens +1000
    Nikki Bella +1200
    Drew Scot +1200
    Barbara Corcoran +2500

UFC

  • This is what Gilbert Melendez’s leg looked like yesterday, after his fight with Jeremy Stephens.
  • Conor McGregor is being sued stemming from the bottle throwing incident at the Nate Diaz press conference. (thanks to Dennis Gorman)
  • Demetrious Johnson doesn’t know if he’s getting paid for UFC 215.
  • Due to an injury to Dmitry Sosnovskiy, Justin Ledet’s new opponent for Saturday night’s heavyweight fight on the Pittsburgh show, taking the fight on just five days notice, will be Azzuna Anyanwu.  Anyanwu came off the Dana White Tuesday Night Contenders Fight Pass show, where he beat Greg Rebello.
  • Results of the weekend UFC predictions:
    4-1:  Josh Nason, Mike Sawyer, Me
    3-2:  Mike Sempervive, Steve Juon, David Bixenspan, Front Row Brian, Tom Lawlor
    2-3:  Ryan Frederick
    1-4:  John Pollock, Paul Fontaine

MISCELLANEOUS

  • Kevin Witt noted to us that if you get AXS on DirecTV, you can record the whole season, of course, but the other feature is that because they air old shows all the time, you can also record prior seasons so you can watch matches dating back to 2013.
  • Nick Newell, the one-armed fighter born with only a stump for a left arm, but who compiled a 13-1 record in MMA before retiring in 2015, has signed a multi-fight contract with the Legacy Fighting Alliance.  No date was announced for a return. 
  • CKCW from Saturday night in Parma, OH:  The Barbarian b Shawn Phoenix, Juventud Guerrera b Robbie E, Holidead b Lei’d Tapa, Jaxon Argos & Jack Pollock b JD Smooth & Vobira. Hiram Tua b Brandon Edwards, Sonny Vice b Seth Allen.  A lot of the crew fling in from Puerto Rico couldn’t make the show dud to Hurricane Irma.  Next show is 11/11 with the Rock & Roll Express, Joey Ryan and Billy Gunn. (thanks to Jeff Gorman)
  • Crossfire Wrestling on 10/21in Welland, ONT at 1100 Niagara Street.
  • TKO results from Montreal on Saturday night:
    Alex Beaule b Chris McMullen – round two TKO
    Matar Lo b Maxime Soucy round one TKO
    David Daigneault b Alex Paul round one TKO
    James Mancini b Steve Yhap decision
    Frederik Durpas b Tyler Wilson submission round one
    Keith Lee b Eric Daigneault round one TKO
    Michael Dufort b Robert Seres round one submission
    Atsushi Fujino b Louis Jordan round two submission
    Yacine Bandoul b Leonardo  Xavier decision
    Adam Dyeczka b Ricardeau Francois round one TKO
    Strahinja Gavrilovic b Maiquel Falcao round two TKO
    Jaoa Luiz Nogueira b Alex Morgan decision
    Marc-Andre Barriault b Todd Stoute decision
            Gavrilovic I was told is someone to watch out for.  Falcao has fought in UFC, Bellator and KSW in the past.(thanks to Grant Zwarych) 
  • Pro Wrestling All Stars from Friday night in Melvindale, MI:  Buddy Hanlon b Bale Acumen, Gavin Quinn & Juntai Miller b Malcolm Monroe III & Maltese Tiger, Mano del Diablo b Kaito Kiyomiya, Jay Maynard & Dougie the Creep & Paul Bowser b Chuck Stein & Zach Main, N8 Mattson d Atlas Hytower, Zach Gowen & Gregory Iron b Mysterious Movado & Ridiculoso, Mahabali Shera b Breyer Wellington to keep heavyweight title (thanks to Leonard Brand)
  • Total Championship Wrestling from Italy is reportedly going to become the first Italy based company to run the U.K. later this week.  On 9/15 in West Drayton at St. Martin’s Primary School, there will be a TCW vs. New Force Wrestling show.  On 9/16 they are working with Conventry Pro Wrestling in Coventry at the North Point Church for a 6 P.M. show.  On 9/24 they will work with United Kingdom Pro Wrestling in Gillingham, Kent at the Medway Park Leisure Centre.
  • Bill Apter talks to Chavo Guerrero Jr. about both his father and the new GLOW show where he is the wrestling coach at
  • Here are the latest Irv Muchnick writings about Sam Muchnick after getting access to his files.

Today in Professional Wrestling History: AJ Styles wins WWE World Championship

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