Daily Update: Ronda Rousey, no opponent for Werdum, TripleMania

THE ROUND-UP

The Latest from the F4W Staff

NEWS

AUDIO

CMLL FROM ARENA MEXICO ON CHRISTMAS DAY AT 6 P.M. EASTERN TIME on the CMLL YouTube channel live

  • Astral & Shockercito vs. Pequeno Olimpico & Pierrothito
  • Drone & Johnny Idol & Star Jr. vs. Bobby Z & Vangellys & Virus
  • Stuka Jr. & Titan & Valiente vs. Gran Guerrero & Rey Bucanero & El Terrible
  • Atlantis & Marco Corleone & Volador Jr. vs. Barbaro Cavernario & Felino & Negro Casas

Raw will be live on Monday from Chicago while Smackdown will be in Madison Square Garden headlined by A.J. Styles vs. John Cena vs. Dean Ambrose in a three-way for the title.

Smackdown will be Tuesday in Chicago with three title matches announced, Styles vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Baron Corbin for the WWE title, Alexa Bliss vs. Becky Lynch for the women’s title and a four-way tag title match with The Wyatt Family vs. Usos vs Heath Slater & Rhyno vs. American Alpha, plus the television return of Cena. There will also be a Raw house show on Tuesday night in St. Louis.

FIGURE FOUR WEEKLY: 12/12/2016 The Paige/Alberto Del Rio relationship isn’t funny anymore

International Wrestling Revolution Group, or IWRG, has been one of Mexico’s top independent promotions for over two decades. Yet aside from the period where it was the Mexican home of Ultimo Dragon’s students when Toryumon was getting off the ground, the promotion rarely got much international attention… Subscribers click here to continue.

WRESTLING OBSERVER NEWSLETTER: December 26, 2016 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: WWE announces UK tournament, Urijah Faber retires, more

A look at WWE and New Japan gearing up for a changing pro wrestling landscape in 2017 with new moves and ideas planned by each side is the lead story in the new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. The story notes the WWE new moves in the U.K., the U.K. scene, the top talent there, notes on who WWE signed and why they didn’t sign the biggest names, long-term WWE plans for the market, HHH talks about WWE producing so much content and thoughts on how this changes the mentality of a lot of wrestlers in the U.K. 

New Japan is making moves to expand internationally and its owner, Takaaki Kidani, talks about what he feels are the weakness of the WWE business model and why he thinks they will be running into trouble in just a few years.

This issue examines Urijah Faber’s career and the rise of lighter weight fighters, the success of Paige VanZant as a drawing card and what that means going forward, as well as future thoughts on Michelle Waterson, Mickey Gall and the others from Saturdays’ UFC show.

WWE’s final PPV show of 2016, Roadblock End of the Line is covered. Also, there’s talk about public interest, business notes on the show, what happened in the key bouts, the booking and why things happened the way they did, along with match-by-match coverage with star ratings and poll results.

Finally, there is an update on Mick Foley, what the original plans were for him and why they changed, and why he’ll soon be taking time off.  Also, an update on Zack Ryder, a new WWE signee, a successful WWE franchise, advertised main events for this week’s television, WWE star competes in major fitness contest soon, as well as the most watched shows on the WWE Network, inside this issue.

Subscribers click here to continue.

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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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:November 29, 1999 Steve Austin’s career in doubt, WCW Mayhem review, more – Steve Austin gets bad news from doctors regarding his neck, a full review of WCW Mayhem, plus tons of news. As mentioned last week, the future of Steve Austin as an in-ring performer is in serious doubt after getting results of tests on his neck, originally injured in the August 3, 1997 Meadowlands match against Owen Hart… Subscribers click here to continue.

SUNDAY NEWS UPDATE

Bryan and I will be back tonight for Wrestling Observer Radio talking the latest news. With no major shows over the weekend, we’ll be doing a lot of answering of questions so you can send questions to the show to mailbag@wrestlingobserver.com. We’ll also be talking awards and much more.

One of the big stories, which we’ve covered, is that Ronda Rousey is doing no media for Friday’s show. There are no public workouts nor is there a midweek press conference. Amanda Nunes is also doing no media, and with Velasquez vs. Werdum out, that means almost all the media has to be carried by Dominick Cruz and Cody Garbrandt. That would be a risk under normal circumstances but given the show is on a Friday and not a Saturday, Rousey not doing media is going to hurt that much more. Essentially she’s gone from being the person most interested in how her numbers are, since she gets paid based on them, to someone who clearly doesn’t care all that much about them.

Until news broke that he was off of UFC 207, Cain Velasquez and his camp didn’t even know he was off of the show and he was still training as late as yesterday. UFC had contacted Junior Dos Santos to take the fight and Fabricio Werdum turned Dos Santos down as an opponent, so the show will proceed with ten fights.

Last night’s UFC show on FOX did 4,689,000 viewers based on the fast nationals. Those numbers were through the roof based on lack of competition. This will end up as either the second or third largest overall audience to watch a UFC television show in history, and the fight of the year candidate with Doo Ho Choi vs. Cub Swanson will rank among the most watched MMA fights in history. For a comparison, last week’s live show with Paige VanZant vs. Michelle Waterson averaged 3,178,000 viewers and it was viewed as a gigantic success. The show was a tape of four fights from 12/10 in Toronto.

In showing how much social media means, it was so dead last night regarding that show, it was unbelievable. Yet more people watched it than any episode of Raw, Smackdown, or UFC show or anything of the sort in years.

TripleMania has been announced for August 26, 2017, headlined by Dr. Wagner Jr. vs. Psycho Clown in a mask vs. mask match.

WWE

  • Here is another Linda McMahon story on her new position.
  • WWE returns to action tomorrow night with its biggest house show week of the year, kicking off with a Smackdown show in Madison Square Garden featuring the return of John Cena and the first serious match of A.J. Styles since his ankle injury.
  • A story on the worst WWE moments of the year is here. (thanks to Chris Cruise)

UFC

  • Aleksei Olynik will replace Damian Grabowski on UFC’s first show of the year on 1/15 in Phoenix, facing Viktor Petsa in a heavyweight bout.  
  • Alex Morono, coming off his win in Sacramento last week, will face Sheldon Wescott in a fight added to the 2/4 show in Houston.

MISCELLANEOUS

  • Here is a look back at the stupid Ric Flair fake heart attack angle on Nitro.
  • Ryan Spann (9-3) vs. Trevin Giles (8-0) will headline a 2/10 show in Lake Charles, LA at the Golden Nuggett Hotel for the Legacy Fighting Alliance on AXS TV.
  • CWE from Friday night in Winnipeg: Jacob Creed b Mike Mission, Bubbles McFly b Son of Stan in a lumberjack match, A.J. Sanchez b Dagrneed 2/3 falls, Wildman Firpo b Tod Bullet in a bar room brawl, Shadow Xtreme b Kevin Cannon in a kiss my ass match, Bobby Schink b JJ Sanchez in a bra and panties match, Danny Duggan b Rob Stardom in a barbed wire board match.  Next tour is 1/10 to 1/21.
  • Championship Wrestling of Arkansas debuts on 1/21 in North Little rock at the Maumelle Events Center with a fund raiser for Kaitlyn Ison, who is battling leukemia. Tim Storm & Buff Bagwell vs. Matt Riviera & Greg Anthony headlines the show, plus a guest appearance by James Beard.
  • The Rizin shows will start at 1 a.m. late Wednesday night and late Friday night Eastern time and be available.
  • DDT drew its biggest crowd at Korakuen Hall of 2016 with a show earlier today headlined by Harashima retaining the KO-D title over Shigehiro Irie.
  • The only Americans on the show were the husband and wife duo of Joey Ryan and Laura James.      
  • Lucha Xtreme TV from yesterday in Fresno Anthony Idol b Ryan Kidd, Mike Camben & Hunter Freeman b Chris Myra & Dirty Doug, Darwin Finch b Sean Black. (thanks to Jon Southerland) 

Today in Professional Wrestling History (12/25): Christmas Day cards

CONTACT INFORMATION

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