Daily Update: Snuka’s trial delayed; Jim Ross returning to commentary?
We’re looking for reports on tonight’s WWE show in New Delhi, India, NXT in Green Bay, NXT in Cocoa Beach, FL, Five Star Wrestling in Liverpool and ROH in Indianapolis (Briscoes & War Machine vs. Young Bucks & All Night Express, Roderick Strong vs. Curry Man for TV title, Alex Shelley vs. Adam Cole, Frankie Kazarian & Chris Sabin vs. Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly, Moose vs. Silas Young, Will Ferrara vs. Dalton Castle) as well as yesterday’s NXT show in Winter Haven and Five Star Wrestling show in Sheffield, England to Dave Meltzer
NEW JAPAN WORLD PRO WRESTLING RETURNS TONIGHT AT 9 P.M. ON AXS TV
The show consists of first round matches from the 2015 New Japan Cup
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Toru Yano
Kazuchika Okada vs. Bad Luck Fale
Kota Ibushi vs. Doc Gallows
Tetsuya Naito vs. Karl Anderson
CMLL FROM ARENA MEXICO LIVE AT 9:30 P.M. AT WWW.CLAROSPORTS.COM
Rush vs. Caristico (first-time ever singles match)
Dragon Rojo Jr. & Polvora & Thunder vs. Gran Guerrero & Euforia & Niebla Roja
RESURRECTION FIGHTING ALLIANCE TONIGHT ON AXS TV AT 10 P.M. EASTERN FROM BROOMFIELD, CO
Andrew Tenneson (142.8) vs. Cory Sandhagen (145.4)
Tyler Milner (169.6) vs. Brain Carmozzi (170.4)
Zac Riley (136) vs. Hugo Viana (135.6)
Jeremy Kimball (209.4) vs. Cody Mumma (205.6)
John Poppie (186) vs. Adam Stroup (185.4)
Benjamin Smith (169.8) vs. Bojan Velickovic (169.4) for the welterweight title
We’ll be looking for reports on Saturday from WWE shows in New Delhi, India and Charleston, WV (Dean Ambrose vs. Kevin Owens, Alberto Del Rio vs. Kalisto, Tommy Dreamer & Dudleys vs. Wyatt Family), NXT in Chicago (both the afternoon and evening show) and Fort Pierce, FL and ROH in Collinsville, IL (ACH & Alex Shelley vs. Young Bucks, Briscoes vs. Silas Young & Beer City Bruiser, War Machine vs. Frankie Kazarian & Chris Sabin for tag titles, Roderick Strong vs. ? for TV title, Moose vs. Adam Cole, Delirious vs. Dalton Castle, Michael Elgin vs. Adam Page, Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly vs. Rhett Titus & Kenny King).
INVICTA FROM THE HANGAR AT THE ORANGE COUNTY FAIR IN COSTA MESA, CA ON UFC FIGHT PASS AT 9 P.M. EASTERN
Megan Anderson vs. Amber Leibrock
Amanda Bell vs. Ediane Gomes
Mizuki Inoue vs. Lacey Schuckman
Angela Hill vs. Alida Gray
Amber Brown vs. Shino VanHoose
Raquel Pa’aluhi vs. Colleen Schneider
Livia Renata Souza vs. DeAnna Bennett for the strawweight title
Cris Cyborg Justino vs. Daria Ibragimova for the featherweight title
NEW JAPAN FANTASTICA MANIA DAY ONE ON SUNDAY IN KOCHI (not on New Japan World)
Kushida & Stuka Jr. vs. Sho Tanaka & Yohei Komatsu
The Panther & Guerrero Maya Jr. vs. Bobby Z & Okumura
Fuego & Titan vs. Yoshi-Hashi & Barbaro Cavernario
Jay White & Dragon Lee vs. Virus & Hechicero
Juice Robinson & Mascara Dorada & Atlantis vs. Bushi & Evil & Tetsuya Naito
Volador Jr. & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Shinsuke Nakamura & Mephisto
Hiroshi Tanahashi & Mistico & Jushin Liger vs. Kazuchika Okada & Ultimo Guerrero & Gedo
Sunday has WWE in Canton, OH (Dean Ambrose vs. Kevin Owens, Alberto Del Rio vs. Kalisto, Tommy Dreamer & Dudleys vs. Wyatt Family).
UFC FROM THE T.D GARDEN IN BOSTON
Fight Pass at 6 p.m. Eastern
Francimar Barroso vs. Elvis Mutapcic
Rob Font vs. Joey Gomez
Kyle Bochniak vs. Charles Rosa
Ilir Latifi vs. Sean O’Connell
Daron Cruickshank vs. Paul Felder
FS 1 at 8 p.m.
Maximo Blanco vs. Luke Sanders
Tim Boetsch vs. Ed Herman
Mehdi Baghdad vs. Chris Wade
Patrick Cote vs. Ben Saunders
Ross Pearson vs. Francisco Trinaldo
Travis Browne vs. Matt Mitrione
Eddie Alvarez vs. Anthony Pettis
T.J. Dillashaw vs. Dominick Cruz for the bantamweight title
Raw will be live on Monday night in Columbus, OH. Brock Lesnar will be appearing on the show.
NEW JAPAN FANTASTICA MANIA DAY TWO ON TUESDAY IN KYOTO (not on New Japan World)
Ryusuke Taguchi & Fuego vs. Yohei Komatsu & Sho Tanaka
The Panther vs. Okumura
Guerrero Maya Jr. vs. Bobby Z
Dragon Lee & Jushin Liger & David Finlay & Titan vs. Barbaro Cavernario & Yoshi-Hashi & Virus & Hechicero
Stuka Jr. & Mascara Dorada & Atlantis vs. Tetsuya Naito & Evil & Bushi
Mistico & Kushida vs. Ultimo Guerrero & Gedo
Hiroshi Tanahashi & Volador Jr. & Juice Robinson vs. Shinsuke Nakamura & Kazuchika Okada & Mephisto
Smackdown and Main Event will be taped on Tuesday night in Dayton, OH.
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Figure Four Weekly
Figure Four Weekly 1/4/2016: More on Gawker motioning to dismiss Hulk Hogan lawsuit
More information on Gawker’s motion to dismiss Hulk Hogan’s sex tape lawsuit, tons more.
Wrestling Observer Newsletter
The Latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter: January 18, 2016 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: NJPW strips Nakamura, Sting to HOF
An update on Shinsuke Nakamura, WWE and New Japan Pro Wrestling is the lead story of the new issue of the Wrestling Observer. His departure, not losing the IC title in the ring, the decision making surrounding it, Nakamura’s final matches in Japan and his start in the U.S., New Japan’s next two PPV shows, and the future of the IC title.
Nick Diaz’s updated suspension, Diaz vs. Robbie Lawler, and the welterweight division title situation. UFC 197 through 200 with talk about what is next for Ronda Rousey, Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier, MMA in New York, what huge publicity coup UFC had that fell apart, is UFC too confident about high ticket prices, and a number of future main events. The plans for C.M. Punk’s debut.
Lots of WrestleMania updates, including what is on the books and other key matches. We’ve got more on John Cena’s surgery, updates on a number of WWE injuries, a look at the first Smackdown on USA, more on brain injuries to fighters and wrestlers, Notes on the next NXT tapings, new WWE camps, double standards, Linda McMahon update, NXT weekend, and football background of two NXT stars.
Rundowns of all the WWE & NXT house shows over the weekend and business notes. Updates on Royal Rumble.
A feature on Sting and his career, from growing up through Memphis, through WCW and TNA and his final run in WWE. How he got started, his first break, the Ric Flair match that made him a star, when he was originally going to win the NWA title and why it was delayed, what happened when he was champion, the Hogan vs. Sting disaster, how he ended up in TNA.
Full coverage of TNA’s tapings and PPV, contract issues, the Matt Hardy situation and what is the short-term future for television.
Yoel Romero and his potential test failure and how this changes the middleweight division. Romero’s background, fighter reactions to his test failure.
The future of the AAA Mega championship and the current plans for Guerra de Titanes, the first major show of 2016 in AAA.
PLUS MUCH MORE! CLICK HERE FOR A FULL WRESTLING OBSERVER PREVIEW
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Check out the latest Online Wrestling Observer BACK ISSUE: November 23, 1998 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: WWF Survivor Series review, Rock becomes Corporate Champion
A full review of WWF Survivor Series with The Rock becoming the Corporate Champion, more WCW woes, plus tons of news.
FRIDAY NEWS UPDATE
On the MSL & Kevin Sullivan show on MLW Radio it was reported that Jim Ross is the new host of New Japan World Pro Wrestling Returns. At this time there is no finalized deal. The sides have talked for some time and it seems an obvious move for both if they can reach terms. Mauro Ranallo will be hosting the shows through late February. So, the new announce team, almost certainly including Josh Barnett, would start at that point.
Today’s New York Post reported on Comcast systems pulling Spike, CMT and Pop to higher priced digital tiers. Although Pop will lose some clearances, they are gaining a substantial amount with other new deals in play. As you can imagine, Viacom, which owns Spike and CMT, is not happy about this.
The New York Post also reported that UFC owners Lorenzo & Frank Fertitta are selling their Fertitta Entertainment management company to Red Rock Resorts (a Fertitta family owned chain of casinos) for $460 million. Red Rock Resorts is expected to do an IPO. Frank Fertitta runs both Fertitta Entertainment management and Red Rock Resorts. Both brothers will get $113 million individually while another $159 million from the sale will go to their kids.
Jimmy Snuka’s murder trial has been postponed pending a decision on Snuka’s competency to stand trial.
WWE Hall of Fame tickets sold out immediately today, right after they went on sale to the public. There are likely to be tickets available later after production is set up.
WWE
- The company has a job listing out for a new Senior Vice President of Human Resources, who will report directly to Vince McMahon.
- Big Show appeared last night on Lip Sync Battle on Spike TV as part of Olivia Munn’s entourage performing Taylor Swift’s Bad Blood. (thanks to Grant Zwarych)
- A story on Stuart Tomlinson who is Hugo Knox in WWE
- Orlando confirms WrestleMania bid for 2017.
UFC/MMA
- Matt Mitrione’s fight with Travis Browne on Sunday is the final fight of his contract. He said that if Browne smokes him, or he doesn’t get the money he wants, he could easily walk away and get a job in fire fighting.
- The annual Fighters Only MMA awards show takes place on 2/5 in Las Vegas at The Venetian Theater. The show will be taped for FS 2 and FSN.
- UFC will have a press conference at 2 p.m. Eastern time (11 a.m. local time) on Wednesday at the MGM Grand Studios in Las Vegas for UFC 197, on 3/5. Appearing will be Dana White, Rafael dos Anjos, Conor McGregor, Miesha Tate and Holly Holm. The event is free and open to the public.
- Miesha Tate will appear tonight on Inside MMA at about 12:30 a.m. Eastern time to talk about her upcoming fight with Holly Holm. Also on the show will be Cris Cyborg Justino.
- Alessio Sakara vs. Brian Rogers is the first fight announced for Bellator’s debut show in Italy on 4/16. Melvin Manhoef will also be on that show fighting in a kickboxing match. The show will be a co-promotion of Bellator on Italy-based Oktagon Kickboxing. A.J. McKee will be fighting in an MMA fight and Kevin Ross (who last I heard was Gina Carano’s boyfriend) will be fighting in a kickboxing match.
MISCELLANEOUS
- WWNLive.com announced today a deal with the Flipps app for their iPPV shows to be available on smart TV’s without additional software, plug-ins or wires. They have already done PPVs with New Japan, TNA and ROH. The first show on the deal will be 1/22 and will be airing all three nights of their Evolve tag team title tournament that weekend, as well as the 1/29 Shine (all-women’s show).
- Johnny Mundo, Carlito, Sonjay Dutt and Chris Masters headline a crew that will appear at a show at a 43,000 seat stadium Al-Khartoum in The Sudan called Sudan Power Wrestling on 3/11. (thanks to Liam Core)
- As expected, there will be a Kurt Angle vs. Drew Galloway match on the TNA U.K. tour, scheduled on 1/29 in Manchester.
- Matches announced for the 1/23 ROH show in Duluth, GA at the Infinite Energy Center: Rhett Titus & Kenny King vs. Cheeseburger & Moose, Corey Hollis vs. Dalton Castle, Adam Page vs. Frankie Kazarian vs. Will Ferrara vs. Silas Young vs. Caprice Coleman vs. Jay Briscoe, Mark Briscoe vs. Cedric Alexander, Adam Cole vs. Stevie Richards, Roderick Strong vs. Nick Jackson for TV title, Jay Lethal vs. Matt Jackson for ROH title, War Machine vs. Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows for ROH tag titles
- NWA Smoky Mountain Wrestling tomorrow night in Kingsport, TN at the Civic Auditorium.
- The annual Bay Area Battle Royal put on by Big Time Wrestling will be on 1/22 at the Newark, CA Pavilion at 7:30 p.m. featuring JR Kratos and Joey Ryan.
- Lucha Toronto on 1/24 in Scarborough, ONT at 3107 Danforth Ave. with Octagoncito vs. Espantito, plus Vampiro, L.A. Park, Pantera, El Hijo del Pantera and Lince Dorado.
- Empire State Wrestling tomorrow night in North Tonawanda, NY at the St. Johnsburg Fire Hall featuring Curt Hawkins, Cody Deaner, Kevin Bennett and more.
- Pro Wrestling Phoenix tomorrow night in Council Bluffs, IA at the National Guard Armory headlined by Bob Holly.
ON THIS DAY IN WORLD PRO WRESTLING HISTORY: Daily pro wrestling history 1/15: Rey Mysterio wins WCW Cruiserweight Title