Daily Update: Raw tonight, Kane, NJPW Cow Palace tickets

THE ROUND-UP

THE LATEST NEWS

THE LATEST AUDIO

We’re looking for reports from the ROH shows in West Palm Beach and Lakeland over the weekend as well as from Raw tonight with the dark matches or Main Event matches to newstips@wrestlingobserver.com as well as reports from the Smackdown house show in Ottawa.

We’re looking for your thoughts on New Japan Hi No Kuni so you can 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 still looking for reports on the weekend ROH shows in West Palm Beach and Lakeland to newstips@wrestlingobserver.com.

WWE returns to North America with Raw in Montreal. Neither John Cena, Ronda Rousey nor Brock Lesnar are advertised for the show. There is also a Smackdown brand house show in Ottawa, ONT, and it will be Daniel Bryan’s first house show back. Randy Orton and Jeff Hardy are not advertised for either Smackdown show this week.

Smackdown and 205 Live will be Tuesday night in Montreal.

​F4W NEWSLETTER: Figure Four Weekly: Winners and losers of the superstar shakeup

While both shows retained some of their core pieces, the rosters for Raw and SmackDown have been transformed since WrestleMania. The days after WWE’s biggest show of the year saw Bobby Lashley, The Authors of Pain, Ember Moon, and No Way Jose join Raw, while Peyton Royce and Billie Kay debuted on SmackDown and Paige was announced as the show’s new general manager. And that was just the prelude to this year’s Superstar Shakeup, which saw dozens of wrestlers switch brands.

WON NEWSLETTER: April 30, 2018 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: The story of Bruno Sammartino continued

The new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter has more about the life and death of Bruno Sammartino, as well as Motoko Baba’s death, the Greatest Royal Rumble and news out of the Impact tapings, PWG shows and UFC shows.

The lead story goes in depth about the last several months of Sammartino, the nature of his death, his funeral, what was good and bad about the WWE documentary, what was going to be left out because it had to be, as well as details of how Sammartino and WWE got back together in 2012 and 2013 after nearly 25 years of being apart.

Also look at why Motoko Baba may have been the most influential woman in the history of the pro wrestling industry. Read about the heyday of All Japan Pro Wrestling, just who Giant Baba was and his level of popularity and respect, and how the Baba’s first met.

Read about the different controversies regarding WWE doing the show in Saudi Arabia this week, the ticket situation, the promotion of Saudi Arabia by WWE, the ethical issues particularly when pushing the women’s revolution theme, as well as looking at both the Saudi Arabia and the Backlash shows.

There is also more on John Cena and Nikki Bella, WWE gets a restraining order against a crazy fan, Reigns talks next year’s WrestleMania, updates on Dwayne Johnson and John Cena in the movie business, reaction to the death of Bruno Sammartino in WWE, as well as the most watched shows for the past week on the WWE Network.

This issue covers the last two UFC events with the business notes on both of the shows, including notes on streaming viewership, pay records and more.

Read the run down of the PWG All-Star weekend with match-by-match coverage with star ratings, thoughts on the talent involved, the farewell to Reseda of the Young Bucks, more on the situation with Keith Lee, and where things go from here.

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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MONDAY NEWS UPDATE

Bryan and I will be back tonight talking Raw and the latest wrestling and MMA news. You can also send in questions for tonight’s show to mailbag@wrestlingobserver.com.

In yesterday’s update we mentioned that John Cena, Brock Lesnar and Ronda Rousey weren’t advertised for tonight’s show. In the listing of names on the WWE site none were on, but the local market advertising by Evenko has been pushing Rousey being there, but not the other two. The names pushed in the local ads for tonight are Braun Strowman, Kevin Owens, Rousey, Roman Reigns, Kurt Angle, Finn Balor, Matt Hardy, Bobby Roode, Nia Jax, Seth Rollins and Sasha Banks as the key stars on Raw, and for tomorrow, also in Montreal, it’s Samoa Joe, Charlotte Flair, Daniel Bryan, A.J. Styles, Naomi, The Miz, New Day, Usos, Becky Lynch and Shinsuke Nakamura.

They are advertising Reigns & Strowman & Rollins vs. Owens & Sami Zayn & Jinder Mahal for tonight’s main event. Whether that happens or not is anyone’s guess. For tomorrow they are advertising Styles vs. Nakamura for the WWE title and Carmella vs. Charlotte Flair for the women’s title. Again, who knows if either will take place.

If there are some mistakes in the ring tonight, keep in mind that several of the performers flew more than 12 hours straight from Saudi Arabia to New York, and because of a flight change, many then drove from New York to Montreal.  

Kane is backstage in Montreal, which is a surprise since his Mayoral primary in Knox County is tomorrow. Kane is running for the Republican nomination against county commissioners Brad Anders and Bob Thomas. Jacobs was knocking on doors in the community over the weekend which is why he didn’t go to Saudi Arabia.

Tickets for the 7/7 New Japan show at the Cow Palace in San Francisco go on sale tomorrow at 10 a.m. Pacific time. Between the 10,000 seats that will be put on sale, and higher ticket prices, and no show announced, I don’t sense an automatic sellout this time.  It would be an amazing story if they even come close.

41 years ago today, Superstar Billy Graham beat Bruno Sammartino in Baltimore to end Sammartino’s second and final run as WWE champion.

WWE

MISCELLANEOUS

  • Stardom ran its Cinderella tournament earlier today at Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Mary Apache & Starlight Kid & Natsumi & Nao Yamaguchi & Hanan b Natsuko Tora & Shiki Shibusawa & AZM & Leo Onozaki & Ruaka, Momo Watanabe b Konami, Saki Kashima b Candy Floss, Bea Priestley b Session Moth Martina, Brandi Rhodes b Natsu Sumire, Hazuki b Hana Kimura via over the top rope, Mayu Iwatani b Tam Nakano, Io Shirai b Chardonnnay, Jungle Kyona b Kagetsu, Bea Priestley b Hazuki, Mayu Iwatani b Saki Kashima, Io Shirai b Brandi Rhodes, Momo Watanabe b Jungle Kyona via over the top rope elimination, Io Shirai d Mayu Iwatani over 10:00, both eliminated, Momo Watanabe b Bea Priestley to win tournament. (thanks to Aaron Craig and Jake Koch)
  • ICW Barramania before 1,200 fans from yesterday: Mark Coffey won vacant Zero G title over Andy Wild, Aaron Echo, Jordan Devlin, DCT and Rampage Brown, Wolfgang b Tor Attenhagen in a chain match, Chris Renfrew b Joe Hendry in a comedy falls count anywhere match that started 70 days ago, Jester & Sha b The Purge, Kings of Catch and Rory Coyle & Screwface to keep tag titles, Jackie Polo b Lionheart in what was called ICW’s best mach this year, Stevie Boy b Kenny Williams in a ladder match, Bram & Iestyn Rees b James Storm & Ravie Davie when Storm turned on Davie and hit him with a beer bottle, Viper b Kasey to win the women’s title, Stevie Boy cashed in his contract to win what turned into a three-way over ICW champ BT Gunn and Mikey Whiplash to win the title in a match with a ton of weapons. Walter was announced for a show in July and Fear and Loathing, their biggest show of the year, was announced for 12/2 at the Hydro in Glasgow.
  • There is a book about the Hogan Gawker case talked about here.
  • There is a mainstream article in Australia on Toni Storm. (thanks to Greg Delaney)
  • People have been raving about this Io Shirai vs. Meiko Satomura match.
  • Premier Promotions in the U.K. noted that on Saturday night on a show in Lancing, Sussex, Ayesha Raymond, who was in the Mae Young Classic last year, entered a Rumble making her the first women to do so in the 31-year-history of the promotion. After winning her match, her manage, Dean Ayass asked why the Rumble only had men in it and that this isn’t Saudi Arabia and declared she would be in the match. She threw out three people before being eliminated.
  • IPW from Sunday in Rochester, Kent: Maverick Mayhew b Kip Sabian to win the Z-Force title, Jeff Cobb b Luke Dragon Phoenix, Filthy Club b The Collective, Anti Fun Police and Sid Scala & Cara Noir to keep IPW tag titles, Xia Brookside d Tenille Dashwood (double pin) so Brookside kept the IPW women’s title, Kip Sabin won 30 man Rumble entering at No. 1, to earn a shot at the IPW title, All-England champ Mark Haskins b IPW champ Austin Aries in an excellent main event.
  • IWA in Sydney on Saturday before more than 200 fans including standing room: Paris De Silva & DeCano b Will Kiedis & Brad Alexander, Adam Abbas b Lynx Lewis Jr., (Abbas was trained by Lance Storm), Mick Moretti b Jackson Kelly-DQ to keep the Trans-Tasman title, Mat Rogers b Head Hunter Deams, Jax Jordan b Kai Drake, Jonah Rock b Chris Abbott to keep the IWA title. Gino Gambino will be on the June show. (thanks to Kirk Beattie)
  • MLW announced an angle for Thursday’s TV tapings in Orlando called the Simon Gotch Prize Fight. Team Filthy, which is the group of Tom Lawlor from this site along with Seth Petruzelli and Simon Gotch, said that anyone with superb athletic ability can challenge Gotch and if they last five minutes without being pinned or submitted they win a large sum of cash. This is a throwback to the old days of the carnival wrestlers. The main event of the show is Shane Strickland vs. Pentagon Jr. for the MLW title.
  • United Wrestling Coalition on 5/12 in Wrightstown, NJ at Kelly’s Banquet Hall.
  • Action Wrestling from Saturday night in Tyrone, GA before 175 fans: Joey Lynch b AC Mack, Arik Royal b Michael Spencer, Adrian Hawkins won scramble match, Billy Buck b Cam Cafrter, Matt Sells NC Big Bite Martinez, Fred Yehi b Cain Justice, Gunner Miller b Dominic Garrini. Next show is 6/29.
  • Jake Koch sent in a correction for yesterday on the Sabotage Wrestling show as Baby D & Phoebe b Rob Love & Myka. 
  • PCW Ultra announced that Ricky Steamboat will be on its 5/4 iPPV show as the referee for a light heavyweight title match with Shane Strickland vs. Douglas James.
  • A story on Shark Boy.

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