Daily Update: Vince returning to Raw, CMLL iPPV issues

We’re looking for reports on tonight’s WWE shows in Hartford, CT (Alberto Del Rio vs. John Cena; Dean Ambrose vs. Kevin Owens) and Chicago at the All-State Arena (Roman Reigns vs. Sheamus for WWE title, Kane vs. Bray Wyatt, New Day vs. Usos vs. Lucha Dragon for tag titles) to Dave Meltzer

Monday will be the live Raw from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn as well as a house show in Allentown.  Raw features both Vince McMahon appearing as well as the return of John Cena, as he faces Alberto Del Rio.

With the house show in Allentown, those not expected at Raw since they are billed at the house show are Kane & Dudleys & Tommy Dreamer vs. Wyatt Family, Charlotte vs. Paige for the Dias title and Dolph Ziggler vs. Tyler Breeze.

RIZIN DEBUT SHOW ON LATE MONDAY/EARLY TUESDAY FROM SAITAMA SUPER ARENA (some matches air on U.S. TV on Spike Thursday morning at 10 a.m.)

Tsuyoshi Kosaka vs. James Thompson

Carlos Toyota vs. Kiril Sidelnikov

Yuki Motoya vs. Felipe Efrain

Hiroyoa vs. Wicky Nishiura under K-1 rules

Kazuyuki Miyata vs. Hinata with alternate rounds of MMA rules and K-1 rules

A.J. Matthews (Bellator) vs. Anatoly Tokov

Hideo Tokoro (Bellator) vs. Kizaemon Saiga

Hiroyuki Takaya vs. D.J. Taiki

Valentin Moldavsky vs. Yuta Uchida – heavyweight tournament reserve fight

King Mo (Bellator) vs. Brett McDermott – first round of heavyweight tournament

Teodoras Aukstuolis vs. Bruno Cappelozza – first round of heavyweight tournament

Goran Reljic vs. Vadim Nemkov – first round of heavyweight tournament

Satoshi Ishii vs. Jiri Prochoazka – first round of heavyweight tournament

Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Shinya Aoki

WWE is also running two shows on Tuesday, with the Smackdown tapings in Washington, DC as well as a house show in Providence (John Cena vs. Alberto Del Rio for U.S. title; Rusev vs. Ryback, Kane vs. Bray Wyatt, Charlotte vs. Paige for Divas title, Dolph Ziggler vs. Tyler Breeze).

Wednesday has a WWE show in Toronto at the Ricoh Coliseum (John Cena vs. Alberto Del Rio, Dean Ambrose vs. Kevin Owens) and Baltimore (Roman Reigns vs. Sheamus, Kane vs. Bray Wyatt, Brie Bella & Alicia Fox vs. Naomi & Sasha Banks).

RIZIN FROM THE SAITAMA SUPER ARENA (some matches air on U.S. TV on Spike Thursday morning at 10 a.m.)

Rena vs. Jlena Valentino – women’s match

Heavyweight tournament semifinals

Brennan Ward (Bellator) vs. Ken Hasegawa

Takeru vs. Yang Ming in K-1 rules

Soo Chul Kim vs. Maike Linhares

Gabrielle Garcia vs. Lei’d Tapa – women’s super heavyweight match

Akebono vs. Bob Sapp – Shoot boxing rules (boxing, kicking, takedowns, no ground work or submissions)

Andy Souwer vs. Yuichiro Nagashima

Jerome LeBanner vs. Baruto (sumo star)

Kron Gracie (Rickson’s son) vs. Asen Yamamoto (age group wrestling champion, son of former women’s world champion Miyu Yamamoto)

Fedor Emelianenko vs. Jaideep Singh

Heavyweight tournament finals

Figure Four Weekly

Figure Four Weekly (12/21/15): Hulk Hogan and Nelson Frazier Lawsuit Updates
Transcript gives new insight into the FBI/Gawker dispute, plus WWE gives us a peek at what their termination notices look like in the Nelson Frazier wrongful death lawsuit.

Wrestling Observer Newsletter

A look at the Slammy Awards, business of the show, who watched the show, suggestions made for improving the awards show idea, some history of where it came from and what happened at the show including injury updates.

We also have a story about both the California commission, doctors, and reps from the Association of Boxing Commissions talking about the problem of weight cutting in MMA as well as all the medical issues involved, win/loss records of bigger vs. small fighters, belief of how many fighters go into fights dehydrated, the dangers of fighting dehydrated, new weight class suggestions, the good and the bad of adding weight classes, the discussion of splitting up the heavyweight division and the ONE organization becomes the first promotion to take drastic steps in this subject with a look at their new regulations.

We also look at the life, career and significance of Lizmark, one of the biggest stars in the history of Lucha Libre, who passed away this past week.  We have his background, how he got into wrestling, his life before wrestling, why he first wore a mask, how he got the name Lizmark, his long run as a constant singles champion or top contender, his induction into the Hall of Fame, his run in the glory days of AAA, Lizmark Jr. and why he fell out of favor in WCW due to loyalty to his father, his biggest rivals, the wrestlers who emulated him and his title history.

We look at what is next for NXT, the upcoming tour dates, reaction to Roman Reigns internally, Notes on the video game, Mauro Ranallo updates, WWE injury updates, John Cena and Dwayne Johnson news, lots of WWE U.K. date business notes, Japan TV update, Two new wrestlers making main roster debut for one tour in January and why.  We also have notes from all the weekend house shows.

PLUS MUCH MORE! CLICK HERE FOR A FULL WRESTLING OBSERVER PREVIEW

The Latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter: December 28, 2015 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: WWE Slammy Awards, MMA Weight cutting

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Check out the latest Online Wrestling Observer BACK ISSUE: November 9, 1998 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Jesse Ventura wins Minnesota Governor election, WCW trailing WWF, more
Jesse Ventura becomes the Governor of Minnesota, WCW begins trailing WWF, ECW November to Remember recap, plus tons of news.

TODAY’S DAILY UPDATE

Bryan and I will be back with Wrestling Observer radio tonight talking the latest wrestling and MMA news as well as taking your e-mail questions to mailbag@wrestlingobserver.com

As noted yesterday, Vince McMahon will return for a continuation of his angle with Roman Reigns on Raw tomorrow.  I guess they felt with a big football game, they needed Vince back. 

There was another misfire on Friday night on iPPV, this time being the CMLL show from Arena Mexico.  Based on what we were told, some people who ordered early and used a Chrome brower got in, but nobody else did.  About an hour into the show, CMLL issued a statement saying the problem was the provider’s and not theirs, and gave a YouTube link for the show.  If you ordered the show you’ll get this coming Friday’s second iPPV for half price.  The show has Negro Casas vs. Super Parka in a hair vs. hair match and Kamaitachi vs. Maximo in a hair vs. hair match.  

The movie Daddy’s Home where John Cena has a cameo is projected at doing $38.8 million in its opening weekend, No. 2 behind Star Wars at $153.5 million.  Sisters, in its second week, which Cena is also in, is at No. 4 at $13.88 million.  Concussion, which debuted Friday, is projected to do $11 million at No. 6. 

The New York Times end of year obit on Roddy Piper – This is a video of Piper’s babyface turn in Georgia Championship Wrestling.  Some great work here by Piper, Don Muraco, Ole Anderson and Gordon Solie

From probably 34 years ago, seasons greetings from Gordon Solie and the gang at Georgia Championship Wrestling.  See how many of the wrestlers you can recognize.

WWE

  • Nikki Bella on Twitter wrote that “End of January I will know my destiny…Till then..All I can do is…stay fearless.  This is in relation to the neck injury she’s been rehabbing of late.  At the end of January she’ll find out if she needs neck surgery for bulging discs in her neck.
  • Stardust, who had been out with a neck injury, returned last night at Madison Square Garden against Titus O’Neil.
  • Chris Jericho, on Twitter, when asked if he would be at WrestleMania this year, wrote, “Sadly no. Big announcement coming.”

UFC

MISCELLANEOUS

  • In Philadelphia WMCN-21 will now be airing ROH twice a week, both in the usual Saturday night at 11:30 p.m. time slow as well as a replay at 6 p.m. the next Friday (thanks to Bob Magee)
  • Sami Callihan has been hired as a trainer at the Team Vision Dojo in Orlando, working with Scott Hall and Larry Zbyszko, who both train at the school.  He will be teaching one day and one day per week.  For more info go to info@teamvisiondojo.com
  • A story on former AWA and WWF television producer Al DeRusha, a fixture in the glory days of the AWA and one of the first people behind-the-scenes that Vince raided
  • Latin Thunder talks about spending time with Nick Bockwinkel
  • In yesterday’s history, what was listed as a Red Bastien & Mario Milano IWA world title loss in San Francisco in 1967 was a fictitious match.  The IWA in that era would create fake title losses outside of Australia from time-to-time to give the impression the championships were world championships. (thank to Robert Murillo)
  • Evolve talked about a major announcement regarding Terry Funk, which was hinted at being for their shows in Central Florida over Royal Rumble weekend.
  • There will be a show in Upland, CA on 1/17 at the Grizzly Den featuring The Young Bucks, Doc Gallows & Karl Anderson, Rocky Romero and Amber Gallows.
  • Hoosier Pro Wrestling begins its 18th year of operations oN 1/9 at the 4-H Fairgrounds with TJ Kemp defending the heavyweight title against Rob Conway plus Flash Flanagan vs. Vic the Bruiser.
  • Silas Young is booked for Canadian Wrestling Elite for shows on 2/19 in Fannystelle, Manitoba, 2/20 in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, 2/21 in Edmonton/Sherwood Park; 2/23 in Calgary, 2/24 in Regina and 2/25 in Brandon.  He is now off the 2/26 show in Winnipeg and 2/27 show in Thunder Boy because he’s booked for the ROH PPV and TV taping that weekend in Las Vegas.
  • The IWF has announced shows on 1/2, 1/16 and 1/30 at the IWF Centre, in Nutley, NJ.
  • CMLL on Tuesday night in Guadalajara:  Capitan Cobra & Magica Blanca & Robin b Mr. Apolo & Cholo & Mercenario, Estrellita & Lluvia & Silueta b Dallys & Reyna Isis & Zeuxis, Escandalo & Kamaitachi & Bobby Z b Delta & Esfinge & Rey Cometa, Atlantis & Blue Panther & Volador Jr. b Gran Guerrero & Kraneo & Ripper, Marco Corleone b Ultimo Guerrero (thanks to Kris Zellner)
  • RFVideo.com is having an end of the year sale with up to 40% off selected titles.

Here is today’s FULL Daily Pro Wrestling History including International history: Daily pro wrestling history (12/27): Kevin Nash, cattle prod & bad booking end Goldberg’s unbeaten streak