Daily Update: Rey Mysterio, Raw tonight, Canelo Alvarez

THE ROUND-UP

THE LATEST NEWS

THE LATEST AUDIO

We’re looking for reports from tonight’s Raw in Milwaukee for dark matches, Main Event matches and anything else not on the live show, tonight’s Smackdown show in LaCrosse, WI, as well as the weekend Impact shows in Windsor, ONT and Mississauga, ONT and the Friday and Saturday Lucha Underground shows to newstips@wrestlingobserver.com.

We’re also looking for your thoughts on UFC 222, 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.

NEW JAPAN 46TH ANNIVERSARY SHOW ON TUESDAY AT 5 A.M. EASTERN TIME ON NEW JAPAN WORLD

  • Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask & Kushida & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Yuji Nagata & Ren Narita & Tomoyuki Oka & Shota Umino & Tetsuhiro Yagi
  • Katsuya Kitamura vs. Manabu Nakanishi
  • Juice Robinson & David Finlay & Toa Henare vs. Hirooki Goto & Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano
  • Sho & Yoh vs. Hiromu Takahashi & Bushi vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Desperado for IWGP jr. tag titles
  • Seiya Sanada vs. Yoshi-Hashi
  • Tetsuya Naito vs. Taichi
  • Minoru Suzuki vs. Togi Makabe for IC title
  • Kazuchika Okada vs. Will Ospreay non-title

NXT will be taped on Wednesday night at Full Sail University in Orlando.

Smackdown, 205 Live and Mixed Match Challenge takes place Tuesday in Green Bay, with Carmella vs. Becky Lynch, Jimmy Uso & Naomi vs. Braun Strowman & Alexa Bliss and cruiserweight title tournament matches with Buddy Murphy vs. Mustafa Ali and Drew Gulak vs. Mark Andrews.

​F4W NEWSLETTER: Figure Four Weekly: Recapping Elimination Chamber and the Reigns-Strowman decision

What had been expected for nearly a year became official on Sunday night as Brock Lesnar defending the Universal Championship against Roman Reigns was announced for WrestleMania 34. Reigns defeated Braun Strowman, Seth Rollins, Finn Balor, John Cena, Elias, and The Miz in the main event of the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view to set up him challenging Lesnar at WrestleMania. The match came down to Reigns and Strowman, with Reigns finally putting him down with two spears.

WON NEWSLETTER: March 5, 2018 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Elimination Chamber review, Jon Jones hearing

An updated look at WrestleMania, explaining the booking of Braun Strowman, the Brock Lesnar angle and plans for John Cena and Ronda Rousey are all in the headline story of this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

Look at the story behind the Reigns promo, the goal of the promo, what is and isn’t reality about Lesnar, when Lesnar returns, Lesnar’s talks with UFC and his decision making right now and a reality check when we look back three years ago.

Also look at the John Cena interview, Undertaker, Rey Mysterio Jr., how the Rousey angle has gone so far, what the TV ratings said about Rousey’s debut, women’s title plans, as well as the rest of the WrestleMania and Fast Lane show.

Check out the Strowman situation for WrestleMania, flaws in the Elimination Chamber booking as well as full coverage of the show, with match-by-match rundowns with star ratings and poll results on the show.

Find out about Jon Jones’ hearing before the California State Athletic Commission and what it means, as well as the completely befuddling remarks made prior to the hearing.

Look at what may be a WWE drug scandal with the tease of 15 names being involved including one who purchased $140,000 worth of substances. Read the claims out there and teases of what else will be released. Find out about the realities of drug testing and the changing pro wrestling business from when the death rate was so high.

Look at what talent WWE is interested in, WWE signing a deal to do events in Saudi Arabia, lots of news regarding the concussion lawsuits filed against WWE, what happened in a deposition that went badly for the plaintiff in one of those suits, more on Ronda Rousey training, Chris Jericho’s 2018 schedule, why Apollo Crews’ last name was dropped and the Dusty Rhodes tag team tournament.

Examine the secondary market in New Orleans for WWE events, update on a deal to bring WWE into a 100,000 seat stadium this fall, Ric Flair becoming a celebrity in Latin America, UFC talent at WWE event and why they weren’t identified, Bianca Belair injury update, WWE headed to Japan and the most-watched shows on WWE.

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: February 12, 2001 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Debut of the XFL, Stan Hansen retires, more

With fan and media reaction after its debut all across the board and a huge buzz leading to a monstrous television rating, the only way to review the debut of the XFL over the weekend is this. Despite what sports people may think and even hardcore fans of sports may think, the majority of people attend sporting events as well as wrestling events based on quality of hype. They enjoy themselves based on quality of atmosphere of the show, and going home happy (either the babyface prevailing at the end or the home team prevailing). 

MONDAY NEWS UPDATE

Bryan and I will be back tonight talking all of the latest news as well as Raw for Wrestling Observer Radio. You can send questions for tonight’s show to mailbag@wrestlingobserver.com.

Just to clarify a lot of questions and things that may have been reported, but Rey Mysterio Jr. did not have any meetings with WWE this past week nor is he under contract with them. He is in the process of negotiating with them and I would expect a meeting, either in person or by phone, to take place in a short period of time. 

Asuka vs. Nia Jax and Braun Strowman vs. Elias (in a “Symphony of Destruction match) are the advertised matches for tonight’s Raw show. Ronda Rousey is on the show. Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar were not scheduled, but are scheduled for next week’s show.

Regarding the boxing news of Canelo Alvarez testing positive for low levels of Clenbuterol, a PED, and the claim that the levels are consistent with tainted meat in Mexico, that’s a very legit reason. In many drug tested sports, they’ve found trace levels of Clenbuterol in competitors from China and Mexico due to the meat. Alvarez said that he will move his training to the U.S. and agree to be tested constantly ahead of the 5/5 rematch with Gennady Golovkin.

AXS.com announced that NXT’s second War Games match will be on 11/17 as part of the Takeover show in Los Angeles at the Staples Center. The announcement being made eight months ahead of time is because tickets for the show are already on sale. It’s part of four straight nights in the building with Takeover, Survivor Series, Raw and Smackdown.

WWE

  • WWE announced a deal with Snickers to be the presenting partner for WrestleMania. Snickers will be involved in promoting WrestleMania Axxess, and a WWE.com series and YouTube series leading up to Mania.
  • WWE announced that they will be running both Raw and Smackdown out of Montreal on 4/30 and 5/1 at the Bell Centre. They are advertising (and most likely these matches won’t happen) Roman Reigns & Braun Strowman & Seth Rollins vs. The Miz & Sheamus & Cesaro as the Raw main event and A.J. Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn as the Smackdown main event in a WWE title match.
  • NXT is taping Wednesday night at Full Sail University. If Bobby Fish can’t defend the tag titles in New Orleans with his knee injury, they’ll likely announce the changes in the tag title match. Among the possibilities suggested are that the Dusty Rhodes tag team tournament will crown the new champions, or have the winners of the tournament face Kyle O’Reilly & Adam Cole to determine the new champions.
  • R&B group Chloe x Halle will perform America the Beautiful at WrestleMania this year.
  • A story on Pat McAfee’s being part of yesterday’s NXT show in Indianapolis.
  • A story on Braun Strowman.

UFC

  • Sean O’Malley was on the MMA Hour earlier today and said that the injury in his fight with Andre Soukhamthath was re-aggravating a previous fracture. He said he’s had a history of foot injuries and he couldn’t feel his foot at all. He said he had ligament tears and he’d have been better off if it was broken. He said he’s on crutches and can’t put any pressure on the foot right now.
  • Conor McGregor’s new Burger King ad.

MISCELLANEOUS

  • Want to make mention of a great piece of writing by Dave Doyle of MMA Fighting. This isn’t an MMA story, although there are MMA references, and there are a lot of pro wrestling references from the 90s as well as one to Chris Jericho’s autobiography. Doyle has been an Observer reader dating back at least 25 years and actually learned about UFC from the Observer at first after reading coverage of UFC 1. I’ve probably read this story about five times in the last day and Sports Illustrated also put it over as far as the writing goes.
  • Revolution Pro Wrestling results from Sunday in London at the Cockpit: Legion of Lords b Never Say Die, Adam Brooks b Dan Magee, Zack Gibson & Josh Bodom b Team WhiteWolf, Kurtis Chapman b No Fun Dunne, CCK b Aussie Open, David Starr b Jody Fleisch, Phantasmo b Zack Sabre Jr. in a non-title match, Zack Sabre Jr. b Phantasmo in a British heavyweight title match. (thanks to Ben Hart)
  • Northeast Wrestling runs its arena in Bethany, CT on 3/18 using Darby Allin for the first time. The main event will be Flip Gordon vs. Joey Mercury coming off the match where Gordon got his head busted and needed stitches. They also run 4/20 and 4/21 in Waterbury, CT and Bethany, CT with Penta 0M & Rey Fenix.
  • Pro Wrestling Phoenix on 3/7 in Omaha at the Waiting Room Lounge.
  • As he’s done for years, Jim Duggan was in Des Moines this past weekend for the Iowa Variety telethon. (thanks to Brian Henke)
  • Saturday’s return of Badr Hari on the Glory show in Holland did 247,000 viewers on Ziggo Sport, which I was told sounded like a letdown after all the hype. (thanks to Henk Mulder)
  • Acclaim Pro Wrestling on 3/31 in Ottawa at the Dom Polski Hall.
  • Jake Roberts will be doing a voiceover role in Richard Chandler’s horror movie “Parts Unknown.” Chandler does low budget B horror movies the likes of which used to air on USA’s Up All Night and Cinemax. (thanks to Jake Koch)
  • Lions Pride will crown its first champion on 3/10 at The Rumble in Rockdale at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Rockdale, TX. There will be two rumble matches to start the show and the winners will be in a no DQ main event to decide the champion. Among those appearing are Vordell Walker, Mike Dell, Austin Theory, Parrow and Big Daddy Yum Yum.

Today in Professional Wrestling History: 

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