Daily Update: UFC on ABC, Jungle Boy, weekend schedule

Daily Update

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter: 

  • Among the highlights:
  • Match and performer of the week
  • How Stephanie McMahon went from leaving the company to CEO in a few weeks
  • Who they say put her in charge
  • Update on the Vince McMahon story
  • The departure of John Laurinaitis
  • Talent on Laurinaitis and Bruce Prichard
  • Settling the Oliver Luck lawsuit
  • Law firms looking into WWE and what to look for in that story
  • Preview of Forbidden Door
  • Forbidden Door ticket demand
  • Comparisons with a WCW show and how that show did
  • Upcoming WWE PPV and injury news
  • A look back at the 20 year history of Impact Wrestling
  • Business notes on Slammiversary
  • The crossover among WWE and AEW fans to those who ordered Slammiversary
  • Why this year’s G1 tournament looks very different from the past
  • Full coverage of Triplemania including business notes
  • UFC coverage for this week’s show
  • A look at the late Tim White and his memories of his time with Andre the Giant
  • A look at the career of the late Dave Hebner
  • Ratings for all the shows as well as how the segments did
  • Stardom PPV card this week
  • Last week’s major All Japan show
  • The last matches of Keiji Muto
  • Yet another thing negatively impacts New Japan financially
  • This past week’s NJPW shows and the next and return of Kushida
  • Upcoming US dates and lineups
  • AEW champion working on big New Japan show in July
  • Update on the health of Jim Duggan
  • More on Ric Flair retirement match
  • Japanese star writes English language book
  • Daughter of 90s star debuts
  • A look at Will Ospreay vs. Nick Wayne
  • Impact TV notes
  • More on Blood & Guts
  • Ticket sales for AEW & WWE shows coming up
  • Story behind what was supposed to happen in the Hardy match
  • More AEW injuries
  • Streaming numbers
  • Dana White talks about Nate Diaz
  • Lots of new UFC fights
  • John Cena’s drawing power
  • NXT UK taping note
  • Weekend house show reports
  • Streaming numbers
  • International ratings notes

This Week’s Retro Observer Newsletter:

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Friday News Update

  • Garrett and I will be doing a show tomorrow morning talking about the news of the week and then Sunday I’ll be back with Bryan talking Forbidden Door.
  • ABC announced today that the prelims before UFC 276 on 7/2 from 8-10 p.m. air live on ABC, the first time MMA has ever aired in prime time on ABC. Among the fights on ABC are Donald Cerrone vs. Jim Miller.
  • Add Jungle Boy to the lengthy injury list for AEW.
  • Countdown to Forbidden Door airs at 11 p.m. tonight on TNT right after Rampage.
  • Our only weekend poll will be Forbidden Door on Sunday, 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 looking for reports from these weekend WWE shows
  • Smackdown tonight in Austin, TX (dark matches)
  • NXT tonight in Jacksonville, FL
  • House show Saturday in Amarillo, TX
  • House show Saturday in Abilene, TX
  • NXT Saturday in Venice, FL
  • House show Sunday in Odessa,TX
  • House show Sunday in Hidaglo, TX
  • We’re looking for results, finishes and highlights of the show to dave@wrestlingobserver.com
  • Smackdown tonight:
  • Gunther vs. Ricochet for IC title
  • Sami Zayn vs. Shinsuke Nakamura MITB qualifier
  • Tamina (replacing Aliyah) vs. Shotzi MITB qualifier
  • Rampage tonight
  • Andrade vs. Rey Fenix
  • Serena Deeb & Mercedes Martinez vs. Sierra & Laynie Luck
  • Hook vs. The DKC
  • Cash Wheeler vs. Jeff Cobb
  • Forbidden Door odds from BetOnline:
  • Jon Moxley -250
  • Hiroshi Tanahashi +170
  • Thunder Rosa -500
  • Toni Storm +300
  • Miro -130
  • Malakai Black+175
  • Pac +400
  • Will Ospreay -1000
  • Orange Cassidy +550
  • Jay White -200
  • Kazuchika Okada +250
  • Adam Page +500
  • Adam Cole +700
  • FTR -300
  • Rocky Romero & Trent Baretta +300
  • Jeff Cobb & Great O’Khan +400
  • Jericho & Suzuki & Guevara -300
  • Umino & Kingston & Yuta +200
  • Bucks & Phantasmo & Hikuleo -150
  • Sting & Allin & Takagi & Hiromu Takahashi +110
  • Max Caster & Gunn Club -200
  • LA Dojo team +150
  • Mystery guy -180
  • Zack Sabre Jr. +140
  • Kambi also allows you to bet on the star ratings for the matches. They are expecting a fantastic show based on these predictions that you can get over or under on
  • Caster & Gunn Club vs. LA Dojo ***1/2
  • Rosa vs. Storm ****
  • Jericho’s team vs. Kingston’s team ****1/4
  • Ospreay vs. Cassidy ****1/4
  • Miro vs. Connors vs. Black vs. Pac ****1/2
  • Bucks & Hikuleo & Phantasmo vs. Sting & Allin & Takagi & Hiromu Takahashi ****1/2
  • FTR vs. Cobb & O’Khan vs. Roppongi Vice ****1/2
  • Okada vs. White vs. Cole vs. Page ****3/4
  • Tanahashi vs. Moxley ****3/4
  • Sabre vs. ? ****3/4
  • (thanks to David Taylor)
  • Bellator tonight goes head-to-head with Smackdown and Rampage airing at 9 p.m. on Showtime
  • Kassius Kayen (169.75) vs. Brennan Ward (171)
  • Enrique Barzola (135) vs. Magomed Magomedov (135) in the bantamweight Grand Prix tournament
  • Leandro Higo (134.75) vs. Danny Sabatello (134.75) in the bantamweight Grand Prix tournament
  • Gegard Mousasi (185) vs. Johnny Eblen (185) for the middleweight title
  • Mousasi weighed 209 yesterday afternoon and weighed 185 this morning.
  • PFL tonight on ESPN also goes head-to-head with Smackdown and Rampage
  • Denis Goltsov (244.2) vs. Maurice Greene (241.4)
  • Bubba Jenkins (145.8) vs. Reinaldo Ekson (145.2)
  • Ante Delija (245.8) vs. Shelton Graves (265.6)
  • Chris Wade (145.6) vs. Kyla Bochniak (145.8)
  • Renan Ferreira (261.2) vs. Klidson Abreuu (258)
  • Anthony Pettis (155.4) vs. Stevie Ray (155.6)
  • Bruno Cappelozza (237.2) vs. Matheus Scheffel (254)
  • UFC tomorrow:
  • ESPN 2 at 7 p.m. Eastern
  • Vanessa Demopoulos (115.5) vs. Jinh Yu Frey (115.5)
  • Brian Kelleher (135.5) vs. Mario Bautista (135.5)
  • JP Buys (126) vs. Cody Durden (126)
  • Raulian Paiva (136) vs. Sergey Morozov (136)
  • Shaylian Nuerdanbieke (146) vs. TJ Brown (145.5)
  • Carlos Ulberg (204.5) vs. Tafon Nchukwi (206)
  • ESPN at 10 p.m.
  • Chris Curtis (185.5) vs. Rodolfo Vieira (185)
  • Nathan Maness (135) vs. Umar Nurmagomedov (136)
  • Thiago Moises (155.5) vs. Christos Giagos (156)
  • Josh Parisian (265.5) vs. Alan B Boudot (253)
  • Neil Magny (171) vs. Shavkat Rakhmonov (170.5)
  • Arman Tsarukyan (156) vs. Mateusz Gamrot (156)

WWE

Other Notes

  • Yesterday on the AP’s “This Day in Sports,” which never touches wrestling, it had
  • 1939 – Former football great Bronko Nagurski beats Lou Thesz to win the National Wrestling Association world heavyweight title at the Coliseum in Houston. Thesz was largely considered the greatest wrestler of all-time. Houston Mayor Holcome reportedly presents Bronko with a $10,000 diamond studded belt. At the time of the title change, Nagurski was one of the all-time legends in the NFL and still active. He gave up football as NWA champion although he did make a comeback in the NFL years later.
  • AAW on 7/15 at 115 Bourbon Street in Merrionette Park, IL has Mat Fitchett defending the AAW title against the winners of Manders vs Fred Yehi earlie in the show. Christi Jaynes defends the women’s title against Heather Reckless. Ace Perry & Alex Hammerstone defend the tag titles against ACH & Jah-C.
  • If you use the code NFC30 you can get half price tickets to tonight’s PFL show in Atlanta as well as for the 7/1 show.
  • Defy on Saturday night in Seattle at Washington Hall with Christopher Daniels defending the Defy interim title against Lee Moriarty, Nick Wayne vs. Dante Martin, and Bollywood Boyz defend the tag team titles against Miles Deville & Sebastian Wolfe plus Trey Miguel vs. Daniel Garcia as well as Davey Richards.
  • LFA announced a 7/15 show billed as Team Rio de Janeiro vs. Team Sao Paulo with a main event of Italo Gomes (11-2) vs. Wellington Prado (12-2). It airs on UFC Fight Pass.
  • The LFA also announced a show on 7/29 at the Commerce Casino & Hotel in Commerce CA billed as Northern California vs. Southern California. It airs on UFC Fight Pass. The main event is Chase Gibson (11-5) vs. Hyder Amil (6-0) at featherweight.
  • Invicta on 7/20 airs on AXS, Fight Network and YouTube from Denver with Taniesha Tennant (4-1) defending the bantamweight title against Olga Rubin (7-2) Boxing champ Melissa Oddessa Parker faces kickboxer Isis Verbeek.
  • Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson wrestle their last match as a team at the Evansville, IN Coliseum against The Rejects for GCW on 7/3.
  • An injury to Julia Budd has pulled her out of her 7/1 fight with Kayla Harrison in the PFL. This would have been Harrison’s biggest fight to date, facing a former Bellator champion. Kaitlin Young, who dates back to the Gina Carano days on CBS, will be the replacement.
  • Gillian Robertson vs. Melissa Gatto has been added to the 9/17 UFC show.
  • Irene Aldana vs. Macy Chiasson has been added to the 9/10 UFC show.
  • ISPW tonight in Butler, NJ at the St. Anthony of Padua Gym has Danny Morrison defending the ISPW title against Tommy Dreamer, Bull James vs. Afa Jr. for the Tri-State title, Gabby Ortiz vs. Vicious Vicki for the women’s’ title in an I quit match plus Richard Holliday, HC Loc, al Sincere and others.