Daily Update: UFC 251 weigh-ins, Drew McIntyre, NJPW

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WON NEWSLETTER: July 13, 2020 Observer Newsletter: COVID-19 effects on wrestling/MMA, more

COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc through wrestling/MMA plus tons of news.

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FRIDAY NEWS UPDATE

Garrett Gonzalez and I will be doing a show tonight with Dr .Alex Patel talking about opening up of sports, pro wrestling, how the different companies have handled live shows and more. 

We’re doing three weekend polls, for both New Japan shows in Osaka as well as for UFC 251. Thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to dave@wrestlingobserver.com.

UFC 251 weigh-in results for tomorrow’s show:

  • Prelims on ESPN and ESPN+ at 6 p.m. Eastern
  • Davey Grant (136) vs. Martin Day (136)
  • Karol Rosa (136) vs. Vanessa Melo (141)
  • Raulin Paiva (129) vs. Zhalgas Zhumagulov (126)
  • Marcin Tybura (252) vs. Maxim Grishin (223)
  • Leonardo Santos (156) vs. Roman Bogatov (155.5)
  • Makwan Amirkhani (146) vs. Danny Henry (146)
  • Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos (171) vs. Muslim Salikhov (171)
  • Volkan Oezdemir (205.5) vs. Jiri Prochazka (205)

PPV at 10 p.m. on ESPN+ PPV

  • Amanda Ribas (126) vs. Paige VanZant (126)
  • Jessica Andrade (115) vs. Rose Namajunas (116)
  • Petr Yan (135) vs. Jose Aldo (135) for bantamweight title
  • Alexander Volkanovski (145) vs. Max Holloway (145) for featherweight title
  • Kamaru Usman (170) vs. Jorge Masvidal (170) for welterweight title

Melo and Paiva both missed weight and will be fined.

New Japan from Osaka Jo Hall at 4 a.m. Eastern and 1 a.m. Pacific tonight:

  • Tomoaki Honma & Togi Makabe vs.; Yuya Uemura & Yota Tsuji
  • Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Hirooki Goto & Gabriel Kidd
  • Master Wato (Hirai Kawato) vs. Douki
  • Sanada & Bushi vs. Yujiro Takahashi & Taiji Ishimori
  • Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kota Ibushi & Yuji Nagata & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Minoru Suzuki & Zack Sabre Jr. & Taichi & Desperado
  • Tomohiro Ishii & Sho & Toru Yano vs. Tetsuya Naito & Shingo Takagi & Hiromu Takahashi
  • Kazuchika Okada vs. Evil for the New Japan Cup championship

New Japan then at 2 a.m. Eastern late Saturday night or about an hour after UFC ends:

  • Naito vs. Okada-Evil winner for IWGP and IC titles
  • Tanahashi & Ibushi vs. Sabre & Taichi for IWGP tag titles
  • Takagi vs. Sho for Never open weight title

Lion’s Gate Collision on New Japan World at 10 p.m. Eastern tonight

  • TJP vs. Danny Limelight
  • Rust Taylor vs. DKC

Baseball in Japan started today allowing 5,000 fans at the games. They had been playing with no fans.  The plan is to allow stadiums at 50 percent capacity on 8/1, depending on how well COVID-19 is contained. Japan lists about 1,000 deaths total as compared to more than 130,000 in the U.S.

MLW on Saturday on Bein Sports will have an episode from 17 years ago with Vampiro vs. Christopher Daniels, L.A. Park vs. Jerry Lynn and Taiyo Kea vs. Malice. The show was taped in Philadelphia at the 2300 Arena.    

WWE

  • Smackdown tonight is a big test as far as whether last week’s rating was a fluke due to the holiday weekend. The prevailing belief is that last week’s record low was a holiday rating and that it shouldn’t be taken seriously. In fact, AEW with competition, beat Smackdown without competition and available on a far stronger station in 25+ million more homes in both 18-34 men and women this past week. Scheduled for the show is New Day defending the tag titles against Cesaro & Shinsuke Nakamura, Bayley & Sasha Banks vs. Nikki Cross & Alexa Bliss non-title and Miz TV with Jeff Hardy. They will also replay the Braun Strowman vs. Bray Wyatt match for the Money in the Bank show. 205 Live has Santos Escobar vs. Oney Lorcan and Tehuti Miles vs. Mansoor. This was all taped on 7/2.
  • Cannonball on USA debuted to 770,000 viewers and a 0.20 in 18-49 last night.
  • Drew McIntyre spoke with TalkSPORT and noted that he had to convince Heath Slater to do Monday’s show.  He said Slater was a little bit against doing it and he called him to convince him to do it.;
  • The movie “Money Plane”  which stars Adam Copeland (Edge), Denise Richards and Kelsy Grammar will be released on various digital platforms today. 
  • The WWE Network will debut R-Truth’s game show on Tuesday.  It will be WWE stars answering questions and completing tasks over videoconferencing.

UFC

  • Frankie Saenz vs. Jonathan Martinez has been added to the 8/1 show in Las Vegas. 
  • Khamzat Chimaev (6-0) replaces Darko Todorovic, who tested positive for COVID-19, in facing John Phillips (22-9, 1 no contest) for Wednesday’s UFC show. 
  • Also on 7/15, a fight with Jorge Gonzalez (16-4) vs. Kenneth Bergh (8-0) has been added to the show.
  • Malcolm Gordon vs. Amir Albzi was added to 7/18 in replacement of Tagir Ulanbekov vs. Oleksandr Doskalchuk.  Ulanbekov withdrew due to the death of coach Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov and Dosakalchuk withdrew for medical reasons.
  • Niklas Stolze vs. Ramazan Emeev has been added to 7/25. Stolza replaces Shavkat Rakhmonov, who pulled out due to injury.
  • Emily Whitmire vs. Plyana Viana has been added to the 8/29 show according to Combate.

AEW

  • TSN in Canada on Wednesday didn’t do any picture-in-picture when TNT did. (thanks to Jeff Zinger)

MISCELLANEOUS

  • ROH News from Kevin Eck.
  • Keith Elliot Greenberg’s book “Too Sweet:  Inside the Indie Wrestling Revolution is scheduled for a 9/1 release. 
  • KSW returns tomorrow with Norman Parke (28-6-1) vs. Mateusz Gamnrot (15-0) for the lightweight title. Gamrot won a close decision before 58,000 fans and a rematch in Dublin ended in a no contest. Parke is interim champion while Gamrot holds both the featherweight and lightweight titles. The show will be from a studio in Warsaw, Poland and air on www.KSWTV.com
  • Two years after its publication, “NITRO: The Incredible Rise and Inevitable Collapse of Ted Turner’s WCW” is available on audible books.
  • Combate Americas has announced Desiree “Dirty Dez” Yanez (5-2) vs. Criszaida Adames (2-0) for an 8/28 show at their new home location in a Miami studio.  This will air live on Univision and AXS as well as Televisa Ch. 5 in Mexico. The main event will determine their first flyweight champion with Juan Puerta (18-6) vs. David Duran (8-6).
  • NFC returns to action on 7/18 at 4 p.m. in Conyers, GA outside at Falcons Fury Harley Davidson.  There will be temperature checks and social distancing in place for fans.  There will be both MMA and boxing matches.
  •  Innovate Wrestling on 8/8 in Kingsport, TN at the Civic Auditorium with Jordan Kage defending his U.S. title against three opponents that must first win undercard matches to qualify.
  • The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation has canceled tomorrow’s scheduled Fight Night Live boxing show that was scheduled as a PPV citing a rise in COVID-19 cases in the state. The show was to take place in Houston.
  • The National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, OK will be reopening on Monday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. following safety guidelines.
  • Pro Wrestling Phoenix has its first show back, its 15th anniversary card on 7/30 in Omaha, NE at the Waiting Room Lounge.  Masks are required and tables will be spaced out.
  • CWE tonight in Winnipeg at Rookies Sports Bar at 8 p.m.with a Lethal Lottery show.  Matches will be drawn and nobody knows who will face who, and then there will be a random draw of all the winners continuing in a tag team elimination series of matches.

Daily Pro Wrestling History: Great American Bash 1988

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