Daily Update: UFC 211, Adam Cole, CMLL

THE ROUND-UP

The Latest from the F4W Staff

NEWS

AUDIO

We’re looking for reports on tonight’s Raw show in Liege, Belgium and Smackdown show in Newcastle, England to newstips@wrestlingobserver.com.

We’re also looking for your thoughts on tonight’s ROH show, 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 taking polls tomorrow night on UFC 211.

NEW JAPAN WORLD PRO WRESTLING RETURNS TONIGHT AT 8 P.M. EASTERN ON AXS TV

  • Bushi vs. Kushida for IWGP jr. title
  • Evil vs. Katsuyori Shibata for Never title
  • Rocky Romero & Baretta vs. ACH & Taiji Ishimori in finals for Jr. tag team tournament

ROH WAR OF THE WORLDS PPV AT 9 P.M. EASTERN TIME FROM THE HAMMERSTEIN BALLROOM IN NEW YORK

  • Kushida vs Dalton Castle vs. Bobby Fish vs. Silas Young
  • Frankie Kazarian vs. Hangman Page
  • War Machine vs. Evil & Sanada vs. Jonathan Gresham & Chris Sabin non-title
  • Will Ospreay vs. Jay White
  • Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Adam Cole
  • Bully Ray & Mark & Jay Briscoe vs. Hirooki Goto & Rocky Romero & Baretta for ROH six-man titles
  • Young Bucks vs. Tetsuya Naito & Bushi for ROH tag titles
  • Marty Scurll vs. Matt Sydal for ROH TV title
  • Christopher Daniels vs. Cody vs. Jay Lethal for ROH title

        This show looks strong, particularly Ospreay vs. White and Scurll vs. Sydal and really almost every match looks good. Main event will be interesting in a lot of ways, from who wins, to how it follows whatever it has to follow. Tanahashi vs. Cole will also be interesting, not so much the outcome but crowd reactions and how they mesh. 

CMLL FROM ARENA MEXICO AT 9:30 P.M. EASTERN

  • Leono & Sensei vs. Artillero & El Hijo del Signo
  • Astral & Principe Diamante & Robin vs. Cancerbero & Raziel & Virus
  • Drone & Esfinge & Guerrero Maya Jr. vs. Cuatrero & Forastero & Sanson
  • Rey Cometa vs. Soberano Jr. for Mexican national welterweight title
  • Angel de Oro & Dragon Lee & Valiente vs Cavernario & Negro Casas & Mr. Niebla
  • Atlantis & Diamante Azul & Stuka Jr. vs. Pierroth & Rush & La Mascara

We’ll be looking for reports on Saturday’s Raw show in Rotterdam, Holland which is the final night of their tour, Smackdown in Stockholm, Sweden and NXT in Dade City, FL to newstips@wrestlingobserver.com.

UFC 211 FROM THE AMERICAN AIRLINE CENTER IN DALLAS

Fight Pass at 6:30 p.m.

  • Joachim Christensen (204.5) vs. Gadzhimura Anmtigulov (204)
  • Gabriel Benitez (145.5) vs. Enrique Barzola (146)
  • Jessica Aguilar (115) vs. Cortney Casey (116)

FX at 8 p.m.

  • James Vick (156) vs. Marco Polo Reyes (154)
  • Chase Sherman (250) vs. Rashad Coulter (241)
  • Chas Skelly (146) vs. Jason Knight (146)
  • Eddie Alvarez (156) vs. Dustin Poirier (156)

PPV at 10 p.m.

  • Krzysztof Jotko (185) vs. David Branch (185)
  • Frankie Edgar (145.5) vs. Yair Rodriguez (146)
  • Demian Maia (170.5) vs. Jorge Masvidal (171)
  • Joanna Jedrzejczyk (115) vs. Jessica Andrade (114.5) for women’s strawweight title
  • Stipe Miocic (246) vs. Junior Dos Santos (145) for heavyweight title

The Smackdown European tour ends on Sunday in Copenhagen, Denmark. We’re also looking for reports on Sunday from the final War of the Worlds show, (Marty Scurll vs. Kushida for TV title, Cody vs. Frankie Kazarian, Tetsuya Naito & Evil & Seiya Sanada & Bushi vs. Bully Ray & Mark & Jay Briscoe & Dalton Castle, David Starr vs. Josh Woods plus Christopher Daniels, young Bucks, Hirooki Goto, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Gedo, Will Ospreay and Jay Lethal), a TV taping in Philadelphia at the 2300 Arena.

Raw will be Monday in Newark, NJ featuring Dean Ambrose vs. The Miz for the IC title. No Braun Strowman advertised on the show. Kurt Angle is advertised to return.  There is no Monday night Smackdown house show this week.

Smackdown will be taped on Tuesday in Manchester, NH for the go-home show for the Backlash PPV.

FIGURE FOUR WEEKLY: 5/8/2017: Thinking outside the long talking segment

While it wasn’t entirely revolutionary, the two-part “Who is Roderick Strong?” series that aired on NXT television over the past couple of weeks again proved how effective WWE’s video profiles can be in getting characters over. Similar videos have aired in the past (with a series that focused on Finn Balor in NXT standing out as a highlight), but the profiles on Strong may have been the best that WWE has ever done. They made him feel like a fully formed character in a way that he never really has before.

Subscribers click here to continue.

WRESTLING OBSERVER NEWSLETTER: May 15, 2017: WWE financials breakdown, Braun Strowman injured, tons more

It’s another double issue of the Observer out this week, with more of a look at the WWE business in every category, how the Braun Strowman injury affects booking, the death of one of pro wrestling’s leading historians J Michael Kenyon, New Japan’s direction, the life of Gran Apache, UFC business, indies and the WWE ratings declines.

Look at the current WWE finances, WWE network subscriptions, television revenue, how much WWE takes in for Total Divas, comparing this year’s WrestleMania to last year when it comes to network subscription growth, how many people added and canceled subscriptions to the network in the first quarter, revenue and expenses regarding adding new events on the network, what categories is the company losing money in, and the interesting stats regarding social media users and where they are from and where the money for WWE comes from.

Read about the realities of WWE attendance, merchandise sales, ticket sales, the value of the band extension, and a chart showing where the actual profits have come from in WWE over the past five years.

Examine the Strowman situation, the next couple of PPV shows and how the planned Raw main event scene has been changed.

Check out New Japan’s big shows over the next month, including a major storyline that starts next week, the full lineups for the Best of the Super Junior shows, what shows will be in English, a rundown of the Dontaku show in Fukuoka, and more thoughts on the Long Beach shows.

There is an update on the Hardys situation, Dwayne Johnson’s first movie with a pro wrestling backdrop, Johnson for President, WWE announcing for new shows, plans for the women’s tournament and the highlights of the first U.K. shows. 

Also, look at the WWE injury updates, how ratings for other sports and their drops are comparing with WWE, a major new WWE sieging, and details on two lawsuits against WWE including one that has potential major implications for current wrestlers.

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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WON BACK ISSUE: April 17, 2000: Mike Awesome jumps ship to WCW, Russo/Bischoff era of Nitro begins, more

At press time, exactly what is going on between WCW and ECW regarding current ECW heavyweight champion Mike Awesome is apparently up in the air. In a strange series of circumstances, it appeared that Eric Bischoff and Vince Russo, in their attempt to re-create the debuting impact of Nitro in 1995 with Lex Luger’s surprising walking on the set, combined with the incident where Madusa threw the WWF womens title belt in the garbage can, since they were unable to secure any WWF talent, made a huge pitch to garner ECW’s heavyweight champion.

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FRIDAY NEWS UPDATE

Bryan and I will be back tonight with a Friday night episode of Wrestling Observer radio covering the ROH show tonight and we’ll also be taking questions for the show to mailbag@wrestlingobserver.com. We’ll also have a show tomorrow night after the UFC 211 show.

With the Jared Gordon vs. Michel Quinones fight falling through tomorrow when Gordon was hospitalized for symptoms that seemed to relate to food poisoning last night, a heavyweight fight with Rashad Coulter vs. Chase Sherman has been moved to FX (not FS 1) where the prelims will air from 8-10 p.m. tomorrow night.

It appears tonight’s CMLL show from Arena Mexico will be geoblocked. It’s been that way more often than not in recent weeks, although wasn’t last week. The Rey Cometa vs. Soberano Jr. match could be really good and will have a ton of flying. I would say to check the Luchablog twitter right around 9:30 p.m. Eastern to find out if it’s airing or they may have a back up feed.

Adam Cole said this, without really answering any questions, on Live Audio Wrestling, regarding his status. As noted many times, Cole is currently a free agent but is working tonight’s ROH PPV:

  • It’s really tough to say actually right now, what exactly I want. I will say this, since 2010 I have been contracted to Ring of Honor Wrestling so for the past seven years, I’ve been contracted to Ring of Honor and haven’t even considered the idea of going anywhere else. So, for me, this is a situation where I have had and still am having the time of my life in Ring of Honor. So for me to just take a step back and look at the landscape and decide if I want to stick around, if I want to go elsewhere and making that decision. I think it’s healthy for me, at 27 years old I’ve never gone out and seen what’s out there and checked out the possibility of seeing if I’m ready to move on or not or go somewhere else. I don’t say move up, I say move on because I think so highly of Ring of Honor but for me, as far as making the actual decision, there are multiple factors. Is it something where I want to go and I feel like I need new challenges, I mean that’s definitely a possibility. Is it a matter of sticking with a company who I’ve been a mainstay guy with for years now and helping that company continue to move forward? Just, again, having the option to think about what I would like to do is so important to me right now but at the end of the day, what I’m going to do and the decision I’m going to make will come down to me being as happy as possible because I love pro wrestling, it’s my life, I eat, sleep and breathe it and wherever I feel like I’ll be at my happiest and wherever I feel like it will be the most rewarding for me, that will be the decision that I end up making. Unfortunately, you can’t make those decisions in a couple of days. You’ve got to think about it and process what would be best for you but I’m in a very cool, very lucky scenario right now where I have the option of exploring these different areas. At the end of the day, the decision that is made will be the one that makes me the happiest.
  • I’m absolutely going to take my time. I think a lot of the time when you make, I don’t want to say rash decisions but when you make immediate decisions on what you would like to do, I feel like that can put you in a scenario where you’re second-guessing yourself. For me, I don’t want to have anything that I’m second-guessing. I want to totally make sure, this is the decision I want to make, this is where I want to go, this is what I want to do. And for me, that does take some time because, again, a lot of people think this is just some easy, okay you just make your decision and you go, it’s not. My entire life could potentially change so this is definitely something that I need to sit back and think about, talk to the people that I’m closest with and decide what is best for me, what is best for Adam Cole.

WWE

  • John Cena talks his role in the movie “The Wall” and that he’d like to play Vince McMahon in the Vince McMahon movie but feels a different actor should do so. He said he thought it was a wonderful script. Evidently he didn’t see the original script, not that it isn’t wonderful, but it’s hardly a script that the company would want out. Well, that and it wasn’t wonderful. 
  • WWE announced today a new multi-year television deal in Turkey. Both Raw and Smackdown will start airing on S-Sport with a deal that starts tomorrow. S-Sport will air a three hour WWE block with an edited two hour version of Raw starting at midnight and a one hour edited version of Smackdown at 2 a.m, both with Turkish language commentary.
  • A story on WWE music is here.

UFC

  • Gunnar Nelson (16-2-1) vs. Santiago Ponzinibbio (24-3) was announced as the main event for the 7/16 show in Glasgow, Scotland. Another fight announced for the show is Joanne Calderwood (11-2) vs. Cynthia Cavillo (5-0).

MISCELLANEOUS

  • Kenny Omega talks his upcoming match with Kazuchika Okada. 
  • Hangman Page talks Bullet Club and tonight’s PPV show.
  • A story on Marty Scurll in USA Today is here.
  • AAW on 5/25 in Berwyn, IL at the Eagles Club has Michael Elgin vs. the guy who used to be Jack Swagger, Keith Lee vs. Donovan Dijak, Lio Rush vs. Shane Strickland, Colt Cabana vs. Trevor Lee plus Sami Callihan, AR Fox, Rey Fenix, Jake Crist, Laredo Kid, Joey Janela, and more.
  • Great North Wrestling Cage Wars tomorrow night at 7:30 p.m. in Smiths Falls, ONT at the Memorial Community Centre for an all cage match show. Rene Dupree defends the Canadian title against Hannibal and Davey Boy Smith Jr. faces Jeremy Prophet.
  • Jeff Cobb vs. Hechicero headlines a Lucha Libre show in Puebla, Mexico at Arena Puebla on 6/2.
  • CMLL from Tuesday night in Guadalajara: Metatron & Star Black b Freezer & Furia Roja, Arkangel de la Muerte & Metalico & Sangre Azteca b Bengala & Flyer & Starman, Ripper & Sagrado & Virus b Blue Panther Jr. & Guerrero Maya Jr. & Soberano Jr., La Mascara & Rush & Pierroth b Marco Corleone & Titan & Valiente, Maximo Sexy b Euforia.

Today in Professional Wrestling History (5/12): Kevin Steen wins ROH World title

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