Daily Update: Starrcast, Ric Flair, weekend notes

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We’re looking for reports tonight from the WWE show in Edmonton and NXT in Venice, FL to newstips@wrestlingobserver.com

We’re also looking for your thoughts on tonight’s ROH 17th anniversary PPV, 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

EVOLVE TONIGHT AT 8 P.M. EASTERN FROM MELROSE, MA MEMORIAL HALL AT www.wwnlive.com

  • JD Drake & Anthony Henry vs. AR Fox & Leon Ruff
  • Josh Briggs vs Darby Allin
  • Austin Theory vs. John Silver for Evolve title
  • Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford defend ROH tag titles against two members of The Unwanted
  • Velveteen Dream vs. Orange Cassidy non-title

NEW JAPAN WORLD PRO WRESTLING TONIGHT AT 8 P.M. ON AXS TV FOR A TWO HOUR SPECIAL FROM THE ANNIVERSARY SHOW

  • Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kazuchika Okada & Hirooki Goto vs. Tetsuya Naito & Evil & Sanada
  • Shingo Takagi & Bushi vs. Sho & Yoh for IWGP jr. tag titles
  • Taiji Ishimori vs. Jushin Liger for IWGP jr. title
  • Jay White vs. Will Ospreay

ROH 17TH ANNIVERSARY PPV SHOW ON FITE TV, HONOR CLUB AND REGULAR PPV AT 9 P.M. EASTERN TONIGHT FROM SAM’S TOWN CASINO IN LAS VEGAS

  • Jonathan Gresham vs. Silas Young
  • Mark Haskins & Tracy Williams vs. TK O’Ryan & Vinnie Marseglia
  • Mayu Iwatani vs. Kelly Klein for WOH title
  • Jeff Cobb vs  Shane Taylor for TV title
  • Kenny King vs. Marty Scurll
  • Bandido vs. Rush
  • Mark & Jay Briscoe vs. PCO & Brody King for ROH tag titles
  • Jay Lethal vs. Matt Taven for ROH title

CMLL EL HOMENAJE A DOS LEYENDAS AT ARENA MEXICO TONIGHT AT 10:30 P.M. EASTERN

  • Esfinge & Audaz & Triton vs. El Hijo de Villano III & Polvora & Vangellys
  • Microman & Atomo & Gallito vs. Chamuel & Mije & Perico Zakarias
  • Titan & Diamante Azul & Soberano Jr vs. Negro Casas & Gilbert el Boricua (Mil Muertes) & Cavernario
  • Ultimo Guerrero & Gran Guerrero & Euforia vs. Caristico & Dragon Lee & Volador Jr for CMLL trios titles
  • Angel de Oro & Niebla Roja vs. El Terrible & Bestia del Ring double hair vs. hair match

NEW JAPAN CUP SATURDAY (LATE TONIGHT) AT 4:30 A.M. EASTERN AT KORAKUEN HALL ON NEW JAPAN WORLD

  • Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Ryusuke Taguchi
  • Kota Ibushi vs. Zack Sabre Jr.

We’re looking for reports on Saturday from the Raw house show in Milwaukee, WI, Smackdown in Dubuque, IA, NXT in Ocala, FL, ROH TV tapings at Sam’s Town in Las Vegas (The Kingdom vs. Brody King & Marty Scurll & PCO for  six-man titles, Briscoes vs  Jeff Cobb & Willie Mack, Rush vs. Mark Haskins, Bandido vs. PJ Black, Kenny King vs Tracy Williams, Dalton Castle & The Boys vs. Alex Coughlin & Karl Fredericks & Clark Conners and OTT ScapperMania in Dublin (Angelico & Rey Hours vs. Aussie Open vs. Besties in the World vs. The Lads from the Flats, Darren Kearney & LJ Cleary & Nathan Martin vs. Charlie Sterling & Sha Samuels & Zack Gibson, David Starr vs. Dan Barry, Session Moth Martina vs. Meiko Satomura, Jushin Liger vs. Scotty Davis, Raven Creed defends the women’s title against Debbie Keitel, and Walter defends the OTT title against Jordan Devlin) to newstips@wrestlingobserver.com

UFC ON ESPN+ WITH THE FULL SHOW ON THE STREAMING SERVICE FROM THE O2 ARENA IN LONDON AT 1  P.M. EASTERN

  • Mike Grundy (145) vs. Nad Narimani (145.5)
  • Priscila Coachoeira (125) vs. Molly McCann (126)
  • Danny Henry (146) vs. Dan Ige (146)
  • Tom Breese (186) vs. Ian Heinisch (186)
  • Nicolae Negumereanu (204) vs. Saparabeg Safarov (205)
  • Marc Diakiese (155) vs. Joe Duffy (155)
  • Arnold Allen (145) vs. Jordan Rinaldi (145)
  • Jack Marshman (188) vs. John Phillips (185)
  • Danny Roberts (170) vs. Claudio Silva (170)
  • Jose Quinonez (135.5) vs. Nathaniel Wood (135.5)
  • Volkan Oezdemir (205) vs. Dominick Reyes (206)
  • Leon Edwards (170) vs. Gunnar Nelson (170.5)
  • Darren Till (171) vs. Jorge Masvidal (171)

*Marshamn was fined 20 percent of his purse for missing weight

EVOLVE ON SATURDAY AT 6 P.M. EASTERN FROM CLUB LA BOOM IN WOODSIDE, NY AT www.wwnlive.com

  • Priscilla Kelly vs. Brandi Lauren
  • Harlem Bravado vs. John Silver
  • Leon Ruff vs. Curt Stallion
  • AR Fox vs. Josh Briggs
  • Darby Allin vs. Anthony Henry
  • JD Drake vs. Austin Theory for WWN title
  • Velveteen Dream & The Street Profits vs. Shane Strickland & Eddie Kingston & Joe Gacy

AAA REY DE REYES ON SATURDAY AT 10 P.M. EASTERN FROM THE ACROPOLIS IN PUEBLA ON THE AAA TWITCH CHANNEL

  • Nino Hamburguesa & Big Mami vs. Villano III Jr. & Lady Maravilla for AAA mixed tag titles
  • Lady Shani vs. Hiedra vs. Keyra vs. Chika Tormenta for Reina de Reinas title
  • Taya Valkyrie & Daga & Joe Lider vs. Mocho Cota Jr. & Carta Brava Jr. & Tito Santana
  • Pagano & Drago & Puma King vs. Averno & Chessman & Super Fly
  • Rey de Reyes tournament:  Laredo Kid, El Hijo del Vikingo, Jack Evans, Sammy Guevara, Australian Suicide, Taurus, Golden Magic, Aerostar and Myzteziz Jr.
  • Psycho Clown & Maximo & Mamba vs.  Jeff Jarrett & Killer Kross & La Mascara
  • Rey Escorpion & El Texano  Jr. vs. Pentagon Jr. & Fenix for AAA tag titles

NEW JAPAN CUP SUNDAY (LATE SATURDAY) AT 4:30 A.M. EASTERN AT KORAKUEN HALL ON NEW JAPAN WORLD

  • Colt Cabana vs. Toru Yano
  • Minoru Suzuki vs. Sanada

PRO WRESTLING NOAH HAS A LIVE SHOW ON YOUTUBE ON SUNDAY FROM HAKATA STAR LANES IN FUKUOKA

  • Naomichi Marufuji vs. Yoshinari Ogawa
  • Takashi Sugiura vs. Go Shiozaki
  • Kaito Kiyomiya & Kenou vs. Quiet Storm &*Mohammed Yone

Sunday has Raw in Green Bay and Smackdown in Peoria.

NEW JAPAN CUP WEDNESDAY AT SHIZUOKA AT 5 A.M. EASTERN ON NEW JAPAN WORLD

  • Tomohiro Ishii vs. Yoshi-Hashi
  • Will Ospreay vs. Kazuchika Okada

F4W NEWSLETTER: Figure Four Weekly: WWE’s road to Ronda Rousey vs. Charlotte vs. Becky Lynch

Though the road getting here was as convoluted as possible, WWE has finally confirmed Ronda Rousey vs. Charlotte Flair vs. Becky Lynch for WrestleMania 35.

Storyline suspensions, injuries, and even an “arrest” for Lynch, the McMahons getting involved and Vince replacing Lynch with Charlotte, Charlotte fully turning heel and Rousey turning against the crowd, and dozens of tweets all led to Lynch facing Charlotte at Fastlane. The stipulation was that if Lynch won, the Raw Women’s Championship match at WrestleMania would officially become a triple threat.

WON NEWSLETTER: March 18, 2019 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: 2018 Observer Newsletter Awards

One of the two biggest issues of the year, the awards issue, is out right now.

The awards issue contains not only the award winners, but also top placeholders in every category and an all-time history of award winners dating back to 1980.

Have a look at the career and life of Dick “The Destroyer” Beyer, from football to college wrestling to TV stardom in Japan to teaching school. It’s really an amazing story of one of the first Americans to become a TV celebrity in Japan and the greatest American masked wrestler of all-time.

Read full coverage of the road to WrestleMania with most of the card as well as full coverage of Fastlane with a match-by-match rundown with star ratings, poll results and business notes.

Look at SummerSlam tickets, WWE creative, Bruce Prichard, Jeff Jarrett, AEW vs. WWE, Takeover Brooklyn’s complete card, newcomers to WWE this week, Dwayne Johnson award, Harlem Heat Hall of Fame notes, WrestleMania 2020 week updates, new WWE hire, WWE ticket sales, WWE stock price, most watched shows of the past week no the WWE Network plus notes from all the weekend house shows with results, angles and business.

This issue has updated coverage of the New Japan Cup, with this week’s shows, a rundown of every match so far in the tournament and an updated look at the brackets.

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@wrestlingobserver.com or by going to www.paypal.com directing funds to dave@wrestlingobserver.com.

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If you order by  mail with a check, cash or money order to P.O. Box 1228, Campbell,CA  95009-1228, you can get $1 off in every price range.

FRIDAY NEWS UPDATE

— Garrett Gonzalez and I will be back tonight after the ROH show talking the PPV, New Japan Cup, Observer awards, El Homenaje a Dos Leyendas and much more.  Bryan and I will be back for our weekend show on Saturday night.

— Starrcast was announced for Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas from 5/23 to 5/26

— For this weekend, on the Raw tour, no Roman Reigns or Seth Rollins at any of the house shows as of the schedule.  Reigns, Rollins and Brock Lesnar are all listed for Raw in Chicago on Monday.  Dave Bautista isn’t advertised anywhere.  Ronda Rousey is not listed for tonight’s in Edmonton, but she is listed for Saturday in Milwaukee and Sunday in Green Bay. 

–On the Smackdown side, Randy Orton is working the weekend but Daniel Bryan, Rey Mysterio and The Miz are not advertised for any of the house shows.  Charlotte Flair vs. Becky Lynch is likely for all the house shows.  Bryan and Mysterio are scheduled for TV on Tuesday in Indianapolis.

— The advertised top matches on Raw shows are Braun Strowman vs. Baron Corbin no DQ, Sasha Banks & Bayley vs. Nia Jax & Tamina and Dean Ambrose vs. Drew McIntyre.  Ronda Rousey vs. Ruby Riott will be on the shows Rousey is appearing on.  Smackdown is advertising A.J. Styles vs. Randy Orton and Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair.

— Arnold Beardon, the husband of UFC’s Rachael  Ostovich, has pleaded no contest no charges of assaulting his wife.  He is expected to be sentenced to probation.  Judge Trisha Morikawa told Beardon, who is also an MMA fighter, that he will be able to void jail time if he does well in a domestic violence intervention program.  Beardon had originally been arrested on charges of second-degree attempted murder, which was later downgraded to second-degree assault.  Beardon said he entered the plea to spare his family from a legal battle.

— Cody will be appearing on AAA’s Rey de Reyes show tomorrow.  He is not expected to wrestle on the show due to recovering from knee surgery, but will do something.

— SummerSlam on 8/11 in Toronto is already sold out with 14,000 tickets out.

— Here are some nominees for the Synopsis Sports Media Awards which will be announced on 4/25 in New York:

  • Awareness Campaign for a Social Good Initiative – WWE & Make a Wish’s Wishes Take Muscle Campaign
  • Brand Activation at Live Events – WWE’s Conor’s Cure Superstars of Tomorrow Campaign
  • Digital Executive – Jayar Donlan (WWE)
  • Documentary Series – ESPN 30 for 30
  • Documentary Special/TV Movie – Bipolar Rock N Roller (Showtime)
  • League of the Year for a Breakthrough Sport – PFL
  • Live coverage of a national sporting event – All Access: Wilder vs. Fury
  • National Marketing campaign – Wilder vs. Fury (Showtime)
  • Social Media Excellence  – Wilder vs. Fury
  • Best OTT service – DAZN, FloSports, WWE Network
  • Social Good TV special – 6/4 Raw announcing Special Olympics partnership
  • Best 30 second commercial – Bipolar Rock N Roller commercial (Showtime)
  • Best national tune- in promotion – Wilder vs Fury music video, Jumbotron
  • Best Use of Snapchat  – Wilder vs Fury

PFL???? 

— AXS has a two-hour World Pro Wrestling special tonight at 8 p.m. Eastern with New Japan’s 47th anniversary show.

— CMLL has its No. 2 show of the year tonight at Arena Mexico.  There has been no announcement of it as an iPPV, but we don’t know if it’s streaming live either.  It’s really not that great of a show, not unlike most weeks.  There’s a double hair vs. hair match but it doesn’t look like the action will be great on paper.  The trios title match will be awesome, but they have a basic similar awesome pairing like that most weeks.

WWE

  • Charles Barkley on ESPN last night mentioned Ric Flair having surgery today. It isn’t currently known what type of surgery it is.
  • For Raw on Monday, Kurt Angle will announce his WrestleMania opponent, Seth Rollins vs. Drew McIntyre, Ronda Rousey vs. Dana Brooke for the women’s title and Finn Balor & mystery partner vs. Bobby Lashley & Lio Rush.
  • Kambi already has the star ratings up early for WrestleMania.  You can pick over/unders at these levels:
    Styles vs. Orton ****
    Rousey vs. Lynch vs. Flair ****1/4
    Miz vs. Shane ***1/4
    HHH vs. Batista ***3/4
    Lesnar vs. Rollins ****1/4
  • Also you can bet on the winner of match of the night
    Bryan vs. Kingston +250
    Rousey vs. Flair vs. Lynch +250
    Lesnar vs. Rollins +250
    Styles vs. Orton +350
    Reigns vs. McIntyre +350
    Cruiserweight title +400
    HHH vs. Batista +950
    Shane vs. Miz +2000
  • Finn Balor will be talking boxer MickConland to the ring on Sunday’s show at the Hulu Center. 

UFC

  • Cristina Ferguson made this statement about her husband, Tony Ferguson, who she filed for a restraining order on: “Tony Ferguson is a good husband and good father to our son.  The current legal proceedings are a part of a process to ensure that Tony will receive the help necessary to continue being the best possible, as well as to pursue his passion and career as a UFC champion fighter.  All positive well wishes are sincerely appreciated and I hope our privacy will be respected.”

MISCELLANEOUS

  • New Japan announced New Japan Matsuri stage events at Japan Village in Brooklyn at 934 3rd Ave. on 4/4.  Appearing will be Jushin Liger at Noon, Toru Yano at 2p.m., Tetsuya Naito & Bushi at 5 p.m. and Hiroshi Tanahashi at 7 p.m. 
  • Evolve is only 30 tickets shy of a sellout for its show tomorow in Queens.  It’s the best advance they’ve had, likely in some part due to Velveteen Dream wrestling on the show.
  • Bryan Alvarez vs. Orange Cassidy was announced for the 4/5 Black Label Pro show in Jersey City, NJ at White Eagle Hall. 
  • Legacy Fighting on 3/22 from Dallas, TX at the Bomb Factory on AXS is headlined by Casey Kenney (10-1-1) vs. Vince Cachero (6-0) for the interim flyweight title.
  • Another Legacy Fighting show on AXS will be 4/26 from the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, SD.  Harvey Park (11-2) faces Demarques Jackson (10-2) for the interim lightweight title.
  • Rise will have a live PPV on 3/29 in Chicago headlined by a no ropes submission match with Mercedes Martinez defending her title against Kyle Rae, Raven’s Ash & Dust defend the tag titles against Jessicka Havok & Nevaeh, plus a 30 woman Battle Royal, and Gail Kim, Allie and Session Moth Martina are appearing.
  • MLW announced the signing of Jordan Oliver, who will appear on the 4/4 show at the Melrose Ballroom against Kotto Brazil.

Daily Pro Wrestling History: WCW Uncensored 1998

Ed in San Antonio presents the WRESTLEMANIAWeekend Events (more to be added):

  • Saturday, April 6th, at 12:00 pm: Lunch (all you can eat) at Churrascaria Plataforma ($90 per person), located at 316 W. 49th street in Manhattan. Purchase tickets here~!
  • Luxury Bus to MetLife Stadium for Wrestlemania: We will depart from the Hilton Midtown (site of Wrestlecon) located at 1335 Avenue of the Americas. Departure time is 4:00 pm and will return from MetLife approximately 30 mins after the event. Times are subject to change, and cost $67.00 per person for the round trip. Purchase tickets here~!

CONTACT INFORMATION