Daily Update: Weekend shows, Rollerball Rocco, WWE Payback

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WON NEWSLETTER: August 3, 2020 Observer Newsletter: WWE has most profitable quarter ever

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FRIDAY NEWS UPDATE

It’s a relatively quiet weekend. The biggest events are Smackdown tonight, the Yuji Nagata vs. Minoru Suzuki NJPW match that took place earlier today, and a UFC show on ESPN+ tomorrow.

Want to mention the death of Mark Hussey aka Rollerball Rocco, who was a pioneer of the modern hard hitting fast-paced style of wrestling. Many consider Rocco as the best U.K. wrestler of the late 70s and early 80s, with his career peak coming as the original Black Tiger in New Japan feuding with the original Tiger Mask.  He had classic matches with the likes of Sammy Lee (Satoru Sayama), Dynamite Kid, Tatsumi Fujinami, Marty Jones and Jushin Liger as Flying Fuji Yamada.  He was one of the greats of his time, and because his style was faster than the prior generation, even though his stuff was more hard hitting, he was tabbed by older veterans as not knowing how to work, lacking psychology, not realistic, all the same stuff that every prior generation says about the people who change the style.

Garrett Gonzalez, who I do shows with, is getting married tomorrow. Good luck Garrett and Khrsytal. We will be back doing a show next week talking about one of the best wrestling books ever written, Jonathan Snowden’s bio of Ken Shamrock. 

PWInsider reported that Judge Waverly D,.Crenshaw Jr., has declared a mistrial in Jeff Jarrett & Global Force Wrestling’s lawsuit against Anthem Entertainment (Impact Wrestling) for usage of GFW footage. There will be a conference on 9/11 to set up a second trial.

Smackdown tonight:

  • Bayley vs. Nikki Cross for the Smackdown women’s title
  • A.J. Styles vs. Gran Metalik for the IC title
  • Naomi vs. Lacey.Evans

UFC on ESPN+ starting at 6 p.m. Eastern tomorrow

  • Chris Gutierrez (135.5) vs. Cody Durden (135.5)
  • Jamall Emmers (146) vs. Vincent Cachero (145)
  • Nathan Maness (144.5) vs. Johnny Munoz (145.5)
  • Ed Herman (206) vs. Gerald Meerschaert (204.5)
  • Frankie Saenz (136) vs. Jonathan Martinez (140.5)
  • Kevin Holland (184) vs. Trevin Giles (185)
  • Lando Vannata (155.5) vs. Bobby Green (156)
  • Vicente Luque (170.5) vs. Randy Brown (170.5)
  • Joanne Calderwood (126) vs. Jennifer Maia (124.5)
  • Derek Brunson (186) vs. Edmn Shahbazyan (185.5)

Some notes. Martinez missed weight by 4.5 pounds. Ray Borg, who was to face Maness, pulled out at the last minute and is being replaced by Johnny Munoz. Pro wrestler Eric Spicely vs. Markus Perez was canceled. Spicely said that this was his first weight cut since starting antidepressants due to head trauma from the Deron Winn fight, and said things went horribly wrong in the cut and he’s off the show. Cachero was a last minute replacement for Timur Valiev.

Eric Bischoff was part of the Chris Jericho/Orange Cassidy segment that was taped yesterday for next week’s Dynamite show.   

WWE

  • SummerSlam 2019 is scheduled to air on FS1 on 8/11, which was headlined by Brock Lesnar vs. Seth Rollins, Kofi Kingston vs Randy Orton, Kevin Owens vs. Shane McMahon and Becky Lynch vs. Natalya. 
  • Mauro Ranallo will be announcing tomorrow on the Showtime boxing card from the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, CT.  Ranallo will be live at the event. 
  • The movie “Jungle Cruise” starring Dwayne Johnson has been moved back to a July 30, 2021 opening.
  • A racial profiling story which involves a friend of Titus O’Neil (thanks to Chris Cruise)

UFC

  • Related to the confrontation between Dan Hardy and Herb Dean this past Saturday, Dana White said that anyone who works for UFC that approaches a referee or a judge or any official will be fired.
  • Dana White’s Contenders Series will air live every Tuesday at 8 p.m. on ESPN+. from the Apex Arena in Las Vegas.  This season will be a ten-week series. The show has spawned the careers of Sean O’Malley, Edmen Shahbazyan, Dan Ige, Maycee Barber and others.  Tuesday’s bouts are:
    Ty Flores vs. Dustin Jacoby
    Uros Medic vs. Mikey Gonzalez
    Luis Rodiriguez vs. Jerome Rivera
    Jordan Leavitt vs. Luke Flores

AEW

  • Cody Rhodes and QT Marshall have announced a wrestling camp  starting on 9/21 with 25 male and female wrestlers doing a three-month training course at their gym in Norcross,GA. They will focus on in-ring wrestling, customized workout and fitness programs, nutrition training and training in makeup on camera, pro wrestling history and the business of pro wrestling. The plan is to do new classes every three months, open to men and women.  All students will be tested for COVID-19.
  • Kenny Omega and Michael Nakazawa are doing a zoom conference for students at Tokai University, the college Nakazawa graduated on August 8 from 12:30 to 1:50 p.m. Japanese time. They are doing an on-line seminar on the wrestling industry.
  • Jack Evans, who has been in Mexico, returned this past week to the tapings for a match on Dark against QT Marshall, who also returned from battling COVID-19 at the tapings this past week.  The Dark main event will be Butcher & Blade vs. Private Party.

MISCELLANEOUS

  • WWE will be doing PPV shows on both 8/23 and 8/30, with SummerSlam, followed by a card set up by angles at SummerSlam called Payback.  This will be the first time since 1991 that WWE has done PPVs in successive weekends.
  • New Japan will announce tonight at 10 p.m. Eastern its plans for a new weekly Friday night series that begins a week from tonight on New Japan World.
  • Roddy Piper passed away five years ago today. 
  • Glory, having been financially restructured, returns with shows on 10/2 and 10/3 in The Netherlands.  10/2 features a four-man middleweight tournament with the winner getting a shot at Alex Periera’s middleweight title later on.  10/3 has welterweight champion Cedric Doumbe defending his title.  Both shows will be limited to attendance of 200 people.
  • ROH Fresh Friday tonight has Eddie Edwards vs. Austin Aries, Davey Richards vs Roderick Strong, Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli vs Mark & Jay Briscoe, Alex Shelley vs.Spanky, Nigel McGuinness vs. Samoa Joe, Homicide vs. Bryan Danielson, Mick Foley vs. Vordell Walker vs. Samoa Joe vs.Ebessan Jack vs. Austin Aries and Allison Danger vs. Daizee Haze vs. Lacey vs. Traci Brooks.  The show airs on Honor Club.
  • ROH TV this week will be Joe Hendry matches.
  • Kevin Eck’s ROH news report for the week.
  • MLW on BeIn Sports tomorrow at 10 p.m and on YouTube at 6:05 p.m. is a 2003 show with
    Shocker vs. L.A. Park
    Super Crazy vs. Fuego Guerrero
    Sabu vs. Taiyo Kea
  • CWE runs on 8/13 in Calgary with Johnny Devine vs. Travis Cole  
  • A number of the top wrestlers with Phillipine Wrestling Revolution, including Jake De Leon, Chris Panzer (their champion) and top manager Mr. Sy have left the company (thanks to Kevin Chiat)
  • Pro Wrestling Phoenix from last night in Omaha, NE:  Con Artiest b Purple, Nicky Scent b Jon West, Chris Havius b Logan Ocean, Tim Boston & Seto Kobara NC Jack Darling & Uncle Ricky & Donnie Peppercricket, Lars Metzger b Mack Riggs, Paul Daniels & Joey Daniels b Pat Powers & Tony Cortez, Duke Cornell b Moonshine Russell, Con Artiest  b Duke Cornell.  Next show is 8/27 at the Waiting Room Lounge in Omaha,.

An article on the documentary “You Can’t Kill David Arquette”. (thanks to Lee Wall)

Daily Pro Wrestling History: WWF WrestleFest 1988

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