Daily Update: WM 35 press conference, Bravo, New Japan Cup

THE ROUND-UP

THE LATEST NEWS

THE LATEST AUDIO

It’s a huge weekend of events. We’re looking for reports tonight from the WWE house show in Madison Square Garden, NXT in Sebring, FL and Lucha Underground in Los Angeles to newstips@wrestlingobserver.com.

NCAA DIVISION I WRESTLING SEMIFINALS AT 8 P.M. TONIGHT ON ESPN

  • 125: Darian Cruz (Lehigh) vs. Nick Suriano (Rutgers)
  • Nathan Tomasello (Ohio State) vs. Spencer Lee (Iowa)
  • 133: Seth Gross (South Dakota State) vs. Tariq Wilson (North Carolina State)
  • Stevan Micic (Michigan) vs. Luke Pletcher (Ohio State)
  • 141: Bryce Meredith (Wyoming) vs. Joey McKenna (Ohio State)
  • Yianni Diakomihalis (Cornell) vs. Jaydin Eierman (Missouri)
  • 149: Zain Retherford (Penn State) vs. Matthew Kolodzik (Princeton)
  • Troy Heilman (North Carolina) vs. Ronald Perry (Lock Haven)
  • 157: Jason Nolf (Penn State) vs. Micah Jordan (Ohio State)
  • Hayden Hidlay (North Carolina State) vs. Alec Pantaleo (Michigan)
  • 165: Isaiah Martinez (Illinois) vs. Alex Marinelli (Iowa)
  • Vincenzo Joseph (Penn State) vs. David McFadden (Virginia Tech)
  • 174: Zahid Valencia (Arizona State) vs. Myles Amine (Michigan)
  • Daniel Lewis (Missouri) vs. Mark Hall (Penn State)
  • 184: Bo Nickal (Penn State) vs. Domenic Abounader (Michigan)
  • Zachary Zavatsky (Virginia Tech) vs. Myles Martin (Ohio State)
  • 197 – Kyle Conel (Kent State) vs. Michael Macchiavello (North Carolina State)
  • Jared Haught (Virginia Tech) vs. Ben Darmstadt (Cornell)
  • 285 – Kyle Snyder (Ohio State) vs. Jacob Kasper (Duke)
  • Amar Dhesi (Oregon State) vs. Adam Coon (Michigan)

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

  • Hirooki Goto vs. Evil for the Never Open weight title
  • Will Ospreay vs. Hiromu Takahashi for the IWGP jr. title

CMLL EL HOMENAJE A DOS LEYENDAS TONIGHT AT 10:30 P.M. EASTERN TIME TONIGHT ON IPPV

  • Audaz & Flyer & Star Jr. vs. Templario & Disturbio & Virus
  • Kaho Kobayashi & Marcela & Princesa Sugehit vs. Dalys & Seductora & Zeuxis
  • Dragon Lee & Rush & Mistico vs. Forastero & Sanson & Mascara Ano 2000
  • Atlantis & Matt Raven & Niebla Roja vs. Ultimo Guerrero & Gran Guerrero & Euforia
  • Volador Jr. & Valiente vs. El Terrible & Rey Bucanero in the finals of the tournament to crown the new CMLL tag team champions
  • Angel de Oro vs. Cuatrero in a mask vs. mask match

WORLD SERIES WRESTLING INTERNATIONAL ASSAULT LIVE AT 4:30 A.M. EASTERN EARLY SATURDAY MORNING

  • Slex vs. Brian Cage
  • Matt Riddle vs. Elliot Sexton
  • Filip Brothers & Mark Kage vs. Joey Ryan & Concrete Davidson & Brodie Marshall
  • Shazza McKenzie vs. Indi Hartwell vs. Deonna Purrazzo
  • Austin Aries vs. Marty Scurll for WSW title
  • Young Bucks vs. Mark & Jay Briscoe for WSW tag titles

On Saturday, we’re looking for reports on the WWE Raw show in Tulsa, Smackdown in Odessa, TX, NXT in Largo, FL and Lucha Underground in Los Angeles to newstips@wrestlingobserver.com.

UFC FROM THE O2 ARENA IN LONDON WITH THE FULL SHOW ON FIGHT PASS STARTING AT 1:45 P.M. EASTERN TIME SATURDAY

  • Nasrat Haqparast (155) vs. Nad Narimani (155)
  • Mark Godbeer (238) vs. Dmitriy Sosnovskiy (238)
  • Kajan Johnson (155) vs. Stevie Ray (156)
  • Magomed Ankalaev (205) vs. Paul Craig (204)
  • Hakeem Dawodu (145) vs. Danny Henry (146)
  • Oliver Enkamp (171) vs. Danny Roberts (170)
  • Charles Byrd (184) vs. John Phillips (185)
  • Leon Edwards (170) vs. Peter Sobotta (171)
  • Tom Duqesnoy (135) vs. Terrion Ware (136)
  • Jan Blachowicz (205) vs. Jimi Manuwa (205)
  • Fabricio Werdum (249) vs. Alexander Volkov (246)

NEW JAPAN FROM HAMAMATSU AT 2 A.M. LATE SATURDAY NIGHT EASTERN TIME ON NEW JAPAN WORLD

  • Seiya Sanada vs. Zack Sabre Jr. in the New Japan Cup semifinals 

Sunday has WWE Raw in Oklahoma City, Smackdown in San Angelo, TX and Lucha Underground in Los Angeles.

Raw is Monday in Dallas. Alexa Bliss vs. Asuka in a non-title match has been announced. They are advertising Brock Lesnar and Ronda Rousey again this week. Smackdown’s Monday night house show is in Cedar Park TX.

Smackdown will be on Tuesday, also in Dallas.

NEW JAPAN FROM NAGAOKA AT 2 A.M. LATE TUESDAY NIGHT EASTERN TIME ON NEW JAPAN WORLD

  • Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Sabre/Sanada winner for New Japan Cup finals  

F4W NEWSLETTER: Figure Four Weekly: Looking at the Wrestlemania 34 card

While there are a few more pieces that still need to fall into place, the card for WrestleMania 34 came closer to being finalized at Sunday night’s Fastlane pay-per-view. AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura was made official after Styles retained his WWE Championship in a six-pack challenge against Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, John Cena, Dolph Ziggler, and Baron Corbin. The SmackDown Women’s Championship match was also announced, with Asuka coming out after Charlotte Flair’s win over Ruby Riott and challenging her for WrestleMania.

WON NEWSLETTER: March 19, 2018 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: 2017 Observer Newsletter Awards

One of the biggest issues of the year is out this week: The 2017 Observer Awards, with not just the top place winners in every category but also a list of every award winner in the categories dating back to 1980.

A WrestleMania update with this past week’s changes to the card, the most complete lineup, thoughts surrounding the use of the Moolah name in the women’s Battle Royal, how things evolved on the card, changes in recent weeks, more on the Reigns vs. Lesnar plans, and more on the year’s biggest show.

Also, full review of Fast Lane, with match-by-match coverage, star ratings and poll results.

In addition, an update on Ronda Rousey missing Raw, John Cena’s next movie, Dwayne Johnson’s contract for an upcoming movie, ticket sales for New Orleans, update on the NXT Takeover show, WWE injury updates, WWE cuts, WWE returns, and the most-watched shows on WWE Network. This issue provides complete rundowns on all of this past week’s WWE and NXT arena events, with highlights and business notes on every show.

Coverage continues, taking a look at New Japan plans for its next show after March, the situation with Jeff Hardy following his recent arrest and when he was scheduled to return to TV, a look at the first week of the New Japan Cup tournament and coverage of the ROH Anniversary Show. Also, preview the NCAA Wrestling Championships, and take a look at the biggest weekend of the year for pro wrestling in Germany with the 16 Carat Gold Tournament.

This issue also delivers the weekly coverage of every major show’s ratings, with detailed notes on who is watching all the WWE shows, results from the major league events held around the world, and the major TV show rundowns.

As always, this past week’s results for every major pro wrestling event around the world are covered as well.

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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FRIDAY NEWS UPDATE

WWE had a press conference today for the announcement of next year’s WrestleMania with the big show at Metlife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ, while the Hall of Fame, NXT, Raw and Smackdown will be at the Barclays Center. Those brought in were Nikki Bella, Nia Jax, Titus O’Neil, Apollo, Alexa Bliss and Braun Strowman. Those speaking were the New Day, Stephanie McMahon, HHH, Ronda Rousey and John Cena. Rousey said she would be wrestling on the show.

Reports are that the Jon Bravo 25 minute video covering 15 WWE performers, past and present, who were clients of alleged steroid dealer Richard Rodriguez, with Rodriguez on the video, will be released somewhere around 11 p.m. tonight.

The All Japan Pro Wrestling streaming service debuts on Monday with a live show from Korakuen Hall. They will also air live the 3/25 show in Saitama with Joe Doering vs. Kento Miyahara for the Triple Crown. Both of these shows will air for free. It will start charging in April for the Champion Carnival tournament at 900 yen per month which is $8.49. It will be available on PC, smartphones and tablets.

Hiroshi Tanahashi beat Juice Robinson earlier today at Korakuen Hall to go to the finals of the New Japan Cup. He’ll meet the winner of Sunday’s Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Seiya Sanada match in Wednesday’s finals.

For tonight’s CMLL show, there are a few notes for regular viewers. The first is that because Mexico starts daylight savings time a month after the U.S., the show starts at 10:30 p.m. and not 9:30 p.m. Eastern. The other is because tonight is a major show, it is not being streamed free. It will be an iPPV show. The link is in the weekend schedule and the price is $10.

If you didn’t see it, the Will Ospreay vs. Hiromu Takahashi match on AXS tonight is one of the crazier matches of the year. A lot of people thought it was the best match but too much of the match watching it live scared me for both guys.

John Cena will be working the entire Raw tour this weekend. Randy Orton is also working the entire Smackdown tour. Brock Lesnar is scheduled for tonight in Madison Square Garden and TV on Monday, and who knows if they’re going to pull another bait-and-switch with him this week. Vince McMahon said he’d be there on Raw. Ronda Rousey is also scheduled for Raw on Monday.

WWE

  • They have a major dual branded house show tonight in Madison Square Garden, one of the biggest of the year:
    Brock Lesnar vs. Braun Strowman vs. Kane for the Universal title
    Roman Reigns & Seth Rollins & Finn Balor & Matt Hardy vs. Bray Wyatt & The Miz & Curtis Axel & Bo Dallas
    John Cena & Nikki Bella vs. Elias & Bayley
    A.J. Styles & Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn
    Alexa Bliss vs. Sasha Banks for women’s title
    Sheamus & Cesaro vs. New Day vs. Titus O’Neil & Apollo for Raw tag titles
  • Kambi has already put out odds for the star rating of the Shinsuke Nakamura vs. A.J. Styles match. They are listing it at 4.75 stars to bet the over or under on. That would be the highest star rating prediction odds for a WWE match in history. The all-time record was for the Okada-Naito Tokyo Dome match at 5.5 stars.
  • Christy St. Cloud, the backstage interviewer on NXT, had her contract recently expire and the two sides parted ways as she didn’t sign a new deal. Her departure was first reported by Squared Circle Sirens.
  • Shinsuke Nakamura’s autobiography will be released on 8/7. This is actually a combination of two books he wrote about his life in 2015, that is being translated into English.
  • John Cena will appear on Ellen a week from today.
  • Finn Balor gave boxer Mick Conlan a WWE Universal title belt replica yesterday in Madison Square Garden.

UFC

  • They officially announced a debut show in Liverpool, England on 5/27 at the Echo Arena. Darren Till will headline the show and also announced is Dan Kelly vs. Tom Breese and Elias Theodorou vs. Trevor Smith. Michael Bisping is from Liverpool and has talked about a retirement fight, perhaps on this show.

MISCELLANEOUS

  • Fresh off his recent Wrestling Observer Live interview, Robbie E has a new podcast called “Why it Ended.” 
  • For NCAA wrestling tournament updates, Mike Sempervive is doing a great job.
  • Ohio State finished today’s third session with 80.5 points, well ahead of Penn State at 67.0, Michigan at 59.5 and Iowa at 53.0. The semifinals air tonight at 8 p.m. live on ESPN. The consolation round is tomorrow morning at 11 a.m. on ESPN U. The finals tomorrow night will be on ESPN 2, not ESPN, starting at 8 p.m
  • In what may be a first, with the tournament, of the eight biggest wrestling crowds in the U.S. in 2018, seven will be for college wrestling and only one (WrestleMania) will be for pro wrestling. This week will be numbers two through seven as all six sessions will do in excess of 18,600 fans at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland. We have a preview of the competition in the current Observer. 
  • In what would be one of the two or three biggest heavyweight finals in history if it goes down, Kyle Snyder and Adam Coon both advanced and if each wins tonight, they will meet in tomorrow night’s main event. Snyder will be giving up about 50 pounds to the 6-foot-5 and 285 pound Coon. The two wrestled twice this year, with each winning once.
  • The secondary market price for entry for the 3/24 NJPW Dojo show in Los Angeles was $500 this morning but now there are zero tickets left on Stubhub. There are very few tickets and it sold out in seconds so it’s really not comparable to an arena show.
  • World Series Wrestling’s first show was today in Melbourne before a sellout of 505 fans. Said to be a great show: Slex b Matt Riddle, Marty Scurll b Chris Basso, Deonna Purrazzo NC Indi Hartwell, Young Bucks b Joey Ryan & Concrete Davidson (a local strong man) in semifinals of the tag team title tournament, Big Brodie Marshall b Mark Kage, Mark & Jay Briscoe b Filip Brothers in the other semifinal, Austin Aries b Brian Cage to keep the WSW title. Announced for a June tour were Zack Sabre Jr., Abyss and John Morrison. All of the stars got huge reactions and the title match and two tag tite semifinals were said to be great. As noted above, the second show of the tour airs late tonight/early tomorrow free. (thanks to David Roughton and Kevin Chiat)
  • Eve runs a women’s show on 3/30 in London at the Resistance Gallery in their last show before their biggest event ever on 4/14 at York Hall.
  • Paul London has been announced for a 4/29 Welterweight wrestling iPPV from Turner’s Hall in Cleveland. The show will air no FITE TV.
  • Major League Wrestling announced that Sean Mooney would be part of their WaleMania show on 4/5 at Republic NOLA in New Orleans. That will also be one of the two activities I’ll be doing that week.
  • Legacy Fighting Alliance on 4/20 from Sioux Falls, South Dakota at the Sanford Pentagon features South Dakota’s Sid Bice against Cuban Olympic wrestler Maikel Perez for the vacant flyweight title in the main event. The show will air live on AXS TV.
  • Trent Seven & Tyler Bate vs. Marcius Pitt & Damian Slater was added to the joint Progress and EPW show on 4/18 in Perth, Western Australia. Toni Storm vs. Jessica Troy was announced for the Progress PWA show on 4/23 in Sydney. (thanks to Kevin Chiat)
  • The Backbreakers Training Center in Scranton, PA tomorrow has a show at 2:30 p.m. and a post-show party for the Grand opening of the gym at 6 p.m. upstairs at the Performance Venue and Lounge.
  • Chris Masters and Taelor Hendrix headline a show on 3/24 in Petaluma, CA at the Vets Hall. 

Today in Professional Wrestling History: WCW Uncensored 1997