Daily Update: UFC 215 fallout, NJPW in Fukushima, PROGRESS

THE ROUND-UP

The Latest from the F4W Staff

NEWS

AUDIO

We’re looking for your thoughts on UFC 215 in Edmonton and the New Japan Destruction in Fukushima, 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.

Raw will be Monday night in Anaheim at the Honda Center. Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman return for the show.

There is a major Tuesday night taping in Las Vegas on Tuesday night. For Smackdown, there will be an Usos vs. New Day street fight for the tag titles, Natalya vs. Naomi for the Women’s title and A.J. Styles vs. Tye Dillinger for the U.S. title.  After that will be the Shayna Baszler vs. Kairi Sane Mae Young Classic title, followed by 205 Live with TJP vs. Rich Swann.

NXT is scheduled for a television taping on Wednesday night at Full Sail University in Winter Park, FL, although for obvious reasons related to the Hurricane Irma, there is a backup plan in place.

FIGURE FOUR WEEKLY: Figure Four Weekly 9/4/2017: Women’s wrestling takes another step forward with Mae Young Classic

With everything but the final now having aired, the Mae Young Classic has again challenged whether women’s wrestling occupies enough of the current WWE landscape. The matches went about as well as could be expected. There were few bad ones, a handful of standouts, and a ton of pretty good matches. The 32-competitor field showcased female wrestlers of varying skill sets — from one participant having their literal first professional match (Xia Li) to veterans finally getting their first chance in a WWE ring after lengthy careers.

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WRESTLING OBSERVER NEWSLETTER:September 11, 2017 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Jeff Jarrett takes leave of absence from GFW, PWG BOLA reviewed, more

A look at GFW, the departure of Jeff Jarrett, and where things go from here with the company is the lead story in the new issue. Look at the talks of a sale, incidents that happened, future direction, the current television situation, why the tape library isn’t going to be sold, the new creative team, the current angles, Bound for Glory plans, Alberto El Patron, the future of Jim Cornette, Bruce Prichard and others and more.

Look at the Mayweather-McGregor business; looking at PPV in the U.S. and U.K., live gate, what mistakes were made, and the state of McGregor coming out of the fight.

Check out the next two WWE PPV shows, the Cena vs. Reigns program and Enzo Amore and the cruiserweight division.

Details on the Battle of Los Angeles tournament including the Keith Lee vs. Donovan Dijak match, the future of Ricochet and Matt Riddle and how the New Japan/WWE situation fits in, and why the usual rules of wrestling and crowds don’t seem to apply in PWG.

Get an update on John Layfield leaving Smackdown, The Mae Young Classic, how the Mae Young Classic did on the WWE Network, new WWE TV deal in Canada, Hurricane Irma and WWE events, what opposing lawyer in concussion suit asked for as part of a settlement, Samoa Joe injury update, Sami Zayn update, more on the situation with Baron Corbin, Nikki Bella on Dancing with the Stars, WWE running Christmas and New Year’s live shows, injury updates, Australia tour notes, and company value. 

Full coverage of the UFC Fight Pass event from Rotterdam, Holland is in this issue.

Examine the real numbers when it comes to cord cutting, as well as how many people have access to the key stations wrestling and MMA are on.

Get details on the ratings for all the national shows over the past week, including breakdown of who was watching all of the WWE shows.

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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: August 14, 2000 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: WCW turmoil, Hall of Fame candidates, more

The turmoil regarding the future of World Championship Wrestling continues with what apparently is a shake-up leaving Brad Siegel backing Vince Russo in complete control of the company. At the same time, the losses continue to escalate, with July’s losses estimated at $7 million, the most, by far, of any month in the history of a company now on track to lose close to $80 million over the course of this year. The main stories going around, seem to involve the prospective merger of AOL and Time Warner, and getting the company’s losses under control.

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SUNDAY NEWS UPDATE

Best wishes to everyone in Florida. A ton of pro wrestlers live in the Tampa and Orlando areas, for reasons having to do with the weather, and it being kind of the place to be. We haven’t heard much other than Matt Sydal’s backyard is apparently nothing but water. 

Our weekend show covering last night’s UFC and the Mae Young Classic is up on the site already.

All three judges last night had the Amanda Nunes vs. Valentina Shevchenko fight at 38-38 going into the fifth round. I’ll have a story up later today on MMAFighting.com regarding the decision, but really nobody has gotten upset about it past Shevchenko because everyone realizes it could have gone either way. The killer of a rematch is that the live crowd hated the fight and the PPV numbers probably aren’t going to be good.

UFC 215 got 200,000 searches on Google, the lowest for any PPV show in a long time. Every show this year was in the 500,000 range except Jones vs. Cormier, which did 2.8 million. Given the lack of interest in the main event and coming two weeks after Mayweather vs. McGregor, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if this does the lowest numbers since UFC got television in 2005.

UFC said that several hundred people asked for refunds over the Demetrious Johnson vs. Ray Borg main event being canceled, however the interest in the market was such that in the last 48 hours, for every refund asked for, UFC was able to turn it around and get someone to buy the ticket.

Progress Wrestling announced that on September 30th, 2018, they will be running a show at SSE Wembley in London.

The response to today’s NJPW show in Fukushima was very negative, by far the worst of any major show for the company this year.

WWE

  • Just to clear up the Jinder Mahal thing from last night. Mahal was not going to be in Arjan Singh Bhullar’s corner as was first reported. That was misinterpreted. Mahal and Bhullar are friends, and he was going to attend the show, but he felt with his different properties in Florida, that he couldn’t afford to leave this weekend.
  • A.J. Styles appeared unadvertised at the NWA Wildside reunion show in Cornelia, GA. Styles was a regular for the promotion early in his career.
  • Daddy’s Home 2, which includes John Cena, will be released on 11/10 in the U.S. and 11/23 in Australia. (thanks to James Stanios)
  • Glen Jacobs (Kane) will be doing an appearance regarding his running for Mayor of Knox County on 9/21 at 6 p.m. at Chilhowie Park, which used to be a regular Knoxville wrestling venue. Among those who will be campaigning for him that day are Arn Anderson, Ricky Morton and Tom Prichard.  

UFC

  • Referee Kyle Cardinal, who let the Rick Glenn vs. Gavin Tucker fight go far too long, was pulled from the rest of the show. Dana White, after the fight, wrote, “Look at that poor kids face!!! The ref needs his ass whooped!!!!” 
  • During last night’s show when they put up fighters and celebrities commenting on the Nunes vs. Shevchenko decision, one of the people was Hurricane Helms, who is a big fight fan.

MISCELLANEOUS

  • Congratulations to Gary Mehaffy, who does interviews for this site, whose wife had a baby boy on 9/9.   
  • On last night’s show, when asked about the Ray Leonard vs. Donny Lalonde boxing match that WWF promoted. They actually promoted a second boxing match with as 40-year-old Leonard vs. Hector Camacho in 1997, about eight years after the first one. Vince McMahon hasn’t promoted a boxing event since.
  • Congratulations to Rockstar Spud and Renee Michelle, who announced their engagement on Friday.
  • WrestleCircus from yesterday in Austin, TX:
    Britt Baker came out with the tag titles and said she was told she could pick a partner to replace Adam Cole. She said Adam Cole wasn’t replaceable and vacated the titles, but said she plans on leaving with the Sideshow and women’s titles held by Tessa Blanchard
    Ricky Stars & Aaron Solow b Scorpio Sky & Kevin Condron to win vacant tag team titles
    Laurel Van Ness b Joey Ryan. It started out as Ryan vs. Chelsea Green, but Green fell on Ryan’s dick, they gave an X sign and she was carried to the back. Then she came back wearing the wedding dress as Laurel Van Ness. Delilah Doom was supposed to be in the match as Green’s partner, but she had travel issues related to Hurricane Irma.
    Tessa Blanchard b Britt Baker. Fans tossed money in the ring after the match. 
    Sami Guevera b Jay White after a 630 splash. (thanks to Jake Koch)
    Rich Bocchini did the broadcasting from his home in Orlando because he wasn’t able to get to Austin. 
    They announced the one-year anniversary show on 10/21 with Shane Strickland defending their title against Brian Cage.
  • MLW’s 10/5 show in Orlando announced that Jamie Iovine will be a backstage correspondent and collaborator. Iovine was the DJ at WaleMania shows, has performed at clubs around the world and was later a backstage producer for WWE.
  • Jerry Lawler did a double-shot yesterday, working a match in Dyresburg, TN against Matt Riviera, and then headed to Jackson, TN for a match with Carlito. I wonder if he’s the oldest wrestler to do that kind of a double-shot. He was asked about it and said he didn’t think he had done a double-shot since the territory days, so that’s coming back 20 plus years. In two weeks, Lawler and Terry Funk will be opposing each other in a six-man tag team match.. 
  • Welterweight wrestling live on 10/22 in Cleveland on FITE TV with the first names announced being Ace Perry, Ryan Kidd and Ace Austin.
  • ONE announced a 9/16 show at the Jakarta Convention Center in Jakarta, Indonesia.
  • Superstar Steve Fender will be graduating in December with a degree in Biological Engineering.
  • CZW from last night in Voorhees, NJ: Dave & Jake Crist b Ugly Ducklings, Sami Callihan b Jimmy Lloyd, Shane Strickland b Jason Cade to keep CZW title, Mr. Claxton b Matt Tremont, The Rep b Private Party in the Chris Cash Memorial ladder match, John Silver b David Starr, Masada b Zachary Wentz, Maxwell Jacob Friedman b Ace Romero to keep the TV title, Alex Colon b Danny Havoc in Havoc’s retirement match in a match with light tubes, glass panels, carpet strips of nails and a cactus. This was their final show at Flyers Skate Zone. They announced a 10/14 show in Sewell, NJ at the Rastelli Kids Complex. (thanks to Bob Magee)
  • GOUGE from last night in Raleigh, NC: Moose Czerwinski b Waylon Maze, Seymour Snott & Popo the Klown b Curtis Cash & Devon Worthy, Roni Nicole b Jinx Hunter, Jimmy Jack Funk Jr b Mickey Gambino.  Next show is 10/7 in Raleigh, NC at the Nicklepoint Brewery.
  • World League Wrestling from last night in Troy, MO at the Harley Race Wrestling Arena:  Superstar Steve Fender won Battle Royal, Flavio Gusto b Ace Hawkins-COR, Jayden Fenix b Karim Brigante, Kyle Roberts b Superstar Steve Fender, Leland Race d Jon Webb 4-4 in a 30:00 Iron man match. (thanks to Patrick Brandmeyer)
  • Universal Championship Wrestling on 9/16 in Owesboro,KY with MVP vs. James Storm, Jeff Jarrett & Chris Michaels vs. Shaun & Shayne Maddox, Al Snow vs. Chase Stevens and EC 3 vs Scott Sexton.
  • UPW from last night in Rochester, NY: Cheech b Coconut Jones, Jay Freddie b HC Loc, Defiance won over Wrestling Liberation Front, Board of Directors and Wrecking U in a four-way tag title match, Gregory Iron b Ethan Page, Mattick b Eddie Kingston, Nick Ando b Jason Savior, The Faculty b Colin Delaney & Ryan Cassidy, Eric Rosecroft won seven way, Mattick won over Cheeck, Jay Freddie and Gregory Iron to win the Upstate 8 tournament. (thanks to Todd Brantley)
  • Jersey All Pro Wrestling announced a 10/21 show in Rahway, NJ at the Rec Center with Keith Lee vs. Blk Jeez, Jonathan Gresham vs. Archadia, Matt Riddle vs. Kyle the Beast, LuFisto vs. Gabby Ortiz vs. Penelope Ford vs. Katred, TJ Marconi vs. Joe Gacy and more.
  • An interview with Terry Funk.
  • Frank Carr is looking to do a consensus ratings system of wrestlers.
  • Sam Adonis talks the Mexico earthquake on KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh.

Today in Professional Wrestling History: Harley Race defeats Giant Baba to win NWA World title

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