Daily Update: Will Ospreay, ROH in Chicago, G1

THE ROUND-UP

The Latest from the F4W Staff

NEWS

AUDIO

We’re doing a poll on the New Japan show late tonight/early tomorrow in Osaka, 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 also looking for reports tonight on the WWE Raw show in Halifax, the NXT show in Ocala, FL, and the GFW show in St. James, NY (Bobby Lashley & EC 3 & Eli Drake vs. Moose & John Hennigan & James Storm, Allie vs Sienna vs Taya, Low Ki vs.?  vs. Drago, KM vs. Braxton Sutter, LAX vs. Mario Bokara & Fallah Bah, Sonjay Dutt vs. Trevor Lee.

NEW JAPAN WORLD PRO WRESTLING ON AXS TV AT 8 P.M. EASTERN TONIGHT

  • Katsuyori Shibata vs. Evil
  • Kenny Omega vs. Tetsuya Naito

LEGACY FIGHTING ALLIANCE ON AXS TV AT 9 P.M. EASTERN TONIGHT

  • Jarrod Card (16-8-1) vs. Kyle Driscoll (76-2)
  • Daryl Wilson (6-1) vs. Derrick Adkins (9-4)
  • Chauncey Foxworth (6-4) vs. Braden Smith (8-1)
  • Tyler Shinn (8-3) vs. Chris Kelades (9-3)
  • Branden Allen (7-2) vs. Chris Harris (9-1)
  • Kevin Aguilar (12-1) vs. Justin Rader (7-2) for the LFA featherweight title. 

CMLL FROM ARENA MEXICO AT 9:30 P.M. EASTERN

  • Fuego & Pegasso & Drone vs. Virus & Sagrado & Disturbio
  • Microman & Gallito vs. Perico Zakarias & Mije
  • Rey Cometa & Soberano Jr. & The Panther vs. Sanson & Cuatrero & Forastero
  • Marco Corleone & Angel de Oro & Diamante Azul vs. Rush & Pierroth & Hechicero
  • Caristico & Volador Jr. & Niebla Roja vs. Ultimo Guerrero & Gran Guerrero & Euforia
  • Blue Panther vs. Sam Adonis hair vs. hair match

We’re looking for reports on Saturday from WWE Raw in St. John, New Brunswick, Smackdown in Montreal, NXT in Largo, FL and GFW in Staten Island, NY (Bobby Lashley & EC 3 & Low Ki vs. John Hennigan & James Storm & ?, LAX vs. Sonjay Dutt & Drago for the tag team titles, Sienna vs. Taya vs. Allie, Trevor Lee vs. Mario Bokara).

NEW JAPAN G-1 CLIMAX TOURNAMENT AT 4 A.M. EASTERN SATURDAY MORNING (1 A.M. TONIGHT PACIFIC TIME) FROM THE EDION ARENA IN OSAKA

  • Katsuya Kitamura vs. Chase Owens
  • Yuji Nagata & Tomoyuki Oka & Shota Umino vs. Zack Sabre Jr. & Taichi & Desperado
  • Togi Makabe & Tiger Mask & Hirai Kawato vs. Tetsuya Naito & Bushi & Hiromu Takahashi
  • Hirooki Goto & Jado vs. Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi
  • Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kota Ibushi & David Finlay vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Yoshi-Hashi & Gedo
  • Toru Yano vs. Tama Tonga
  • Satoshi Kojima vs. Seiya Sanada
  • Michael Elgin vs. Minoru Suzuki
  • Kenny Omega vs. Juice Robinson
  • Kazuchika Okada vs. Evil

UFC FROM ARENA CIUDAD IN MEXICO CITY ON SATURDAY

Fight Pass at 7 p.m. Eastern

  • Jordan Rinaldi vs. Alvaro Herrera
  • Joseph Morales vs. Roberto Sanchez

FS 1 at 8 p.m. Eastern

  • Jose Quinonez vs. Diego Rivas
  • Rani Yahya vs. Henry Briones
  • Dustin Ortiz vs. Hector Sandoval
  • Bradley Scott vs. Jack Hermansson
  • Alejandro Perez vs. Andre Soukhamthath
  • Sam Alvey vs. Rashad Evans
  • Humberto Bandenay vs. Martin Bravo
  • Alan Jouban vs. Niko Price
  • Alexa Grasso vs. Randa Markos
  • Sergio Pettis vs. Brandon Moreno

NEW JAPAN G-1 CLIMAX TOURNAMENT AT 3 A.M. EASTERN (MIDNIGHT PACIFIC) FROM ACT CITY HAMAMATSU

  • Michael Elgin & Hirai Kawato vs. Evil & Hiromu Takahashi
  • Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Tama Tonga & Yujiro Takahashi
  • Juice Robinson & David Finlay vs. Toru Yano & Jado
  • Kenny Omega & Chase Owens vs. Seiya Sanada & Bushi
  • Kazuchika Okada & Gedo vs. Minoru Suzuki & Desperado
  • Yuji Nagata vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
  • Kota Ibushi vs. Yoshi-Hashi
  • Hirooki Goto vs. Bad Luck Fale
  • Togi Makabe vs. Tetsuya Naito
  • Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Tomohiro Ishii

Sunday has WWE Raw in London, Ontario and Smackdown in Ottawa, ONT.

Monday has Raw in Toronto at the Air Canada Centre. Smackdown has a house show in Kingston, Ontario.

NEW JAPAN G-1 CLIMAX TOURNAMENT AT 5:30 A.M. EASTERN TUESDAY MORNING FROM YOKOHAMA BUNKA GYM

  • Tomoyuki Oka vs. Chase Owens
  • Yuji Nagata & Katsuya Kitamura vs. Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi
  • Togi Makabe & Kota Ibushi & Hirai Kawato vs. Hirooki Goto & Yoshi-Hashi & Gedo
  • Tomohiro Ishii & Jado vs. Zack Sabre Jr. & Desperado
  • Hiroshi Tanahashi & Ryusuke Taguchi & David Finlay vs. Tetsuya Naito & Bushi & Hiromu Takahashi
  • Satoshi Kojima vs. Tama Tonga
  • Juice Robinson vs. Toru Yano
  • Michael Elgin vs. Evil
  • Kenny Omega vs. Seiya Sanada
  • Kazuchika Okada vs. Minoru Suzuki

Tuesday has Smackdown tapings also in Toronto at the Air Canada Centre. Naomi vs. Carmella in a non-title match has been announced. For 205 Live, they’ve announced TJP vs. Rich Swann.

FIGURE FOUR WEEKLY: Figure Four Weekly 7/31/2017: Brock Lesnar vs. Jon Jones inches closer to reality

On the heels of Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor, another unlikely combat sports event seems to have become a genuine possibility. Jon Jones challenged Brock Lesnar to return to the Octagon after regaining the UFC light heavyweight title against Daniel Cormier last Saturday night. “Brock Lesnar,” Jones said. “If you want to know what it feels like to get your ass kicked by a guy who weighs 40 pounds less than you, meet me in the Octagon.”

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WRESTLING OBSERVER NEWSLETTER: August 7, 2017 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: WWE second quarter earnings, UFC 214, more

A look at the WWE business notes for quarter two is among the top stories of the new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Also look at the deja vu of Jon Jones, in-depth on G-1, Io Shirai, the negotiations for Broken Hardys and much more.

Look at what aspects of WWE business right now are the most valuable and how they compare to last year, the state of the company, the future of TV or streaming rights fees, Facebook and Netflix heads talk about content like WWE, the drop in U.K. ratings, the WWE network numbers and what it says, the recent WWE cost cutting measures, as well as the state of live show attendance and real WrestleMania number.

Go in depth as UFC tries to remake Jon Jones as a big star, the Daniel Cormier fight, the story behind it, the potential of a Brock Lesnar fight and where it stands and when it can happen, the similarities between this Jon Jones and the other one, a look at UFC 214, Tyron Woodley’s complaints, Dana White buries him, the realities of being a pro athlete in a sport where fans decide the stars, Cris Cyborg gets a title, all the business notes as well as match-by-match coverage and how much everyone made in their fights.

An update on the G-1 Climax tournament with the MVP race, the standings, the schedule, business notes and coverage of all the tournament matches of the past week, is in this issue.

Also there is an update on the SummerSlam card, who was being groomed for a top spot at the end of the year, the ticket demand for SummerSlam and NXT Takeover, the Bayley injury, a match that won’t be happening at SummerSlam, and much more regarding the show.

Look at Royal Rumble tickets, John Cena getting his biggest Hollywood break, update on Cena’s pro wrestling appearances including his first PPV after SummerSlam, everything you want to know about the fight over the Broken Universe gimmick, Chris Jericho in TMZ, Jericho in WWE, and Jericho’s music.

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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: July 10, 2000 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: WWF signs Brock Lesnar, future of ECW, more

With the WWF television situation being straightened out, now all eyes are on the future of ECW, both as far as national television and the company’s survival itself. ECW was officially canceled, as expected, by TNN effective with the show airing on 9/22. This date appears to preclude any chance of USA Network having ECW ready to go on the air the Monday after WWF leaves (which is believed to be the first week of September, although nobody has been able to confirm an official date), in an attempt to have a wrestling show ready to keep at least a small part of the huge audience that by habit tunes to USA in that time slot.

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FRIDAY NEWS UPDATE

For the WWE weekend house shows, John Cena and Randy Orton are off all of the Smackdown shows this weekend but both are scheduled for the Tuesday TV show in Toronto. The entire Raw crew is scheduled but Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman are only scheduled for Toronto on Monday night.

Will Ospreay announced earlier today at a show in Sydney, Australia for the PWA promotion (run by woman star Madison Eagles), after he won their heavyweight championship from Robbie Eagles, that he was moving to Australia in the near future and would be back working for PWA and the other independent promotions in the area. Ospreay said he feels he can help the Australian independent scene grow while the U.K. scene doesn’t need him top be there. Ospreay told us later today that he might be moving there as his base, but that is he committed to New Japan and ROH either way.

Ospreay’s match earlier today went 25 minutes with lots of near falls, stiff forearms, chops and kicks, brawling into the crowd and great high flying. It as described as the hottest crowd for an independent match in the Sydney area in anyone’s memory. He also said that Kazuchika Okada should come there for a show. (thanks to Lewis Bourke, Angus Bray and Thomas Bershstein)

ROH tickets for the 10/15 show in Chicago with Kenny Omega went on sale today. In just a few hours, the company has already broken its all time ticket sales record for the market and it’s a lock to be one of the two biggest crowds in company history. 

Evil worked today’s New Japan house show in Ehime. He appeared knocked out in the Kenny Omega match but we were told yesterday that he was fine. New Japan does have a concussion protocol. The match was short and he didn’t take any major bumps at all, although he’s in the main event tonight against Kazuchika Okada, which is his biggest match of the tournament and Osaka main events are high profile,.

The Tuesday night G-1 show in Yokohama is the last show of the tour before the Friday-Saturday-Sunday run at Sumo Hall which is the A block finals, the B block finals and the championship match. Coming to Japan for the final three nights are Tanga Roa, War Machine, Ricochet, Cody, Hangman Page and The Young Bucks. After today’s A block matches, Togi Makabe is mathematically eliminated from making it to the finals. The current standings are:

  • Hiroshi Tanahashi 5-2
  • Tetsuya Naito 5-2
  • Bad Luck Fale 4-3
  • Kota Ibushi 4-3
  • Hirooki Goto 4-3
  • Tomohiro Ishii 4-3
  • Zack Sabre Jr. 4-3
  • Togi Makabe 3-4
  • Yoshi-Hashi 2-5
  • Yuji Nagata 0-7

WWE

  • Sports Illustrated reported that WWE had no interest in signing Rey Mysterio due to not wanting to work with his management team, which would mean Konnan. Mysterio has been talking with both GFW and WWE and we had reported GFW was more likely.
  • HoHo Lun was announced today by WWE as having been released by his own request due to personal reasons. The release actually took place earlier in the week but WWE officially announced it today.
  • A funny Royal Rumble spoof video has been going around. (thanks to Dennis Gorman)

UFC

  • Darren Till vs. Bojan Velickovic and Felipe Silva were announced for the 9/2 show in Rotterdam, Holland.
  • Christian Colombo vs Carlos Felipe has been added to the 10/28 show in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

MISCELLANEOUS

  • Tonight’s Arena Mexico card is the most loaded in a while. Sam Adonis, who has gotten a lot of mainstream press in Mexico for his pro-Trump gimmick, has a hair vs. hair match against Blue Panther. Adonis, the brother of Corey Graves, has gotten great crowd reactions in his feud with Panther and we’ll see tonight how that translates into big match ticket sales. This is by far the biggest match of Adonis’ career. Adonis in an interview this week described the match as a battle between an idol of Mexican wrestling facing Blue Panther.
  • Even though Eddie Edwards was advertised for the GFW weekend house shows, I believe he was pulled due to the angle that played on the Impact TV show yesterday.
  • An independent show on 8/18 at the NYC Arena in Jamaica, Queens, is headlined by former MMA stars Stephan Bonnar vs. Matt Riddle. Bonnar is also wrestling the next night in Las Vegas for Future Stars of Wrestling.
  • Just to clarify something, Brandi Rhodes asked for her release from Impact, which is why she was in ROH last weekend. She was filming a non-wrestling related television show gig that she had gotten on her own and GFW wanted a percentage from it which led to her asking for her release.
  • Jessie Godderz appeared today on “The Young and the Restless” soap opera.
  • The lawsuit filed by 50s and 60s star Billy Two Rivers against rock star Van Morrison that we wrote about in the Observer this week was settled in principle this week. His attorney, Michael Graif, told the Canadian Press that Billy is happy to have gotten a quick settlement without further litigation. A photo of Two Rivers was used without his permission for the Morrison album “Roll with the Punches,” that is scheduled to be released on 9/22. A new album cover is now on Morrison’s Facebook page with two boxers punching each other instead of Two Rivers wrestling.
  • This is not really a pro wrestling story, but it does relate to pro wrestlers in later years, an interview with Jim Plunkett of San Jose, a Heisman Trophy winning quarterback who was an NFL superstar
  • There is a combined MMA and boxing show on 8/24 at The Hangar at the Orange County Fair and Events Center in California.
  • National Wrasslin League TV now airs in Joplin, MO on KSN Ch. 16 at midnight on Saturday nights.
  • Big Time Wrestling in Salem, VA tomorrow night at the Hayley Toyota Stadium. Among those appearing at the show for promoter Tony Hunter are Ric Flair, Ricky Steamboat, Scott Steiner, Sabu, Ricky Morton, Jimmy Valiant and George South.
  • Great North Wrestling on 8/5 at the Earl Armstrong Arena in Ottawa features Sid Vicious and Kickboxer trilogy movie star Alan Moussi, as well as PCO (Pierre Carl Oulett), Hannibal and Wes Brisco.
  • Canadian Wrestling Elite in Yorktown, Saskatchewan from last night: Danny Duggan & Mercenary b Kute Kody & Tasty Travis, Tony Kozina b Jonathan Gresham to keep his Canadian jr. heavyweight title, Kelly Klein b Jordynne Grace, Tyler Colton b Jacob Creed, Big Chief & Kaz karter & Ethan Price & Kenji Brea b Phil Atlas & Kaito Kiyomiya & Alex Anthony & Canadian Cougar, Shane Sabre b Silas Young.
  • CWA Abbymania on 9/16 in Hot Springs, AR at the Convention Center has Tim Storm defending the NWA heavyweight title against Jerry Lawler, plus Chavo Guerrero Jr appearing.
  • The Fight Network will be broadcasting more than 12 hours of live MMA this weekend. They will air the UFC prelims on Saturday night live, Legacy Fighting tonight, ONE tomorrow morning at 8:30 a.m. Eastern and M-1 Challenge tomorrow at 2 p.m. Eastern before UFC. 

Today in Pro Wrestling History: Lex Luger wins WCW title from Hollywood Hogan

F4W Online / Wrestling Observer Vegas Convention Event Info

August 17-21; All times are TBA; Full information on the group Facebook page; Activities subject to change

For ticketing information go to https://f4wvegas.brownpapertickets.com/

  • Thursday: Meet at the High Roller for Bowling at the Link; Party at Carnival Court at Hurrah’s
  • Friday: Kiss Mini Golf tournament at the Rio; Dinner at Texas de Brazil; Suite party (location TBA)
  • Saturday: Future Stars of Wrestling show featuring Disco Inferno, Stephan Bonnar, Phil Baron, Shotzi Blackheart, and co-main events: 3-way match with Leva Bates vs. Mia Yim vs. Hudson Envy, and “Filthy” Tom Lawlor vs. Thomas Santell (f.k.a. Antonio “The Promise” Thomas); NXT viewing party at the Sci-Fi Center
  • Sunday: SUPER CHINA BUFFET DAY at the Wicked Spoon Buffet at 1pm; SummerSlam viewing party at the Sci-Fi Center
  • Monday: Goodbye lunch at Chen Chen at NY NY
  • All website members will also receive a 15% discount on any purchases from the Las Vegas Fight Shop for the entirety of the convention

Texas de Brazil, Wicked Spoon, NXT and Summer Slam will all be sign up and pre-paid events, prices and collection begin in mid July~!

Pro Wrestling Tees is now carrying our latest line of F4W shirts. Support the Empire~! Grab yours today!

CONTACT INFORMATION

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