THE ROUND-UP

The Latest from the F4W Staff

NEWS

• UFC Fight Night 119 live results: Derek Brunson vs. Lyoto Machida
• NXT Des Moines, IA, live results: McIntyre vs. Almas vs. Cole
• WWE Main Event results: Matt Hardy makes his show debut
• NXT Sanford, FL, live results: Halloween costume rumble

AUDIO

• WOL: Triple H returns, New Japan Tokyo Dome tickets, Bullet Club, Survivor Series, more! 10/27
• Wrestling Weekly: WWE illnesses, mailbag on Memphis, much more 10/27
• B&V&G: Granny, NXT, THURSDAY NIGHT POTPOURRI! 10/27
• WOL: Everything you ever wanted to know about WWE business 10/26

We’re looking for reports from NXT in Omaha, NE and Cocoa, FL, as well as ROH in Mt. Pleasant, MI (One-night tournament with first round matches of Cody vs. Christopher Daniels, Matt Taven vs. Jay Lethal, Flip Gordon vs. Dalton Castle and Frankie Kazarian vs. Jay White) at newstips@wrestlingobserver.com.

UFC FROM SAO PAULO, BRAZIL

Fight Pass at 7 p.m. Eastern

• Marcelo Golm vs. Christian Colombo
• Deiveson Figueiredo vs. Jarred Brooks

FS2 at 8 p.m.

• Max Griffin vs. Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos
• Hacran Dias vs. Jared Gordon
• Jack Marshman vs. Antonio Carlos Jr.
• Vicente Luque vs. Niko Price

FS1 at 10 p.m.

• Marlon Vera vs. John Lineker
• Jack Hermansson vs. Thiago Santos
• Jim Miller vs. Francisco Trinaldo
• Rob Font vs. Pedro Munhoz
• Demian Maia vs. Colby Covington
• Lyoto Machida vs. Derek Brunson

NEW JAPAN FROM KORAKUEN HALL AT 5:30 A.M. EASTERN SUNDAY ON NEW JAPAN WORLD

• Juice Robinson & David Finlay vs. Yujiro Takahashi & Leo Tonga
• Toru Yano & Hirooki Goto vs. Minoru Suzuki & Takashi Iizuka
• Yoshi-Hashi & Baretta & Will Ospreay vs. Kenny Omega & Chase Owens & Marty Scurll
• Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kushida & Hirai Kawato vs. Kota Ibushi & Dragon Lee & Titan
• Kazuchika Okada & Tomohiro Ishii & Gedo & Yoh & Sho vs. Tetsuya Naito & Evil & Seiya Sanada & Bushi & Hiromu Takahashi
• Tiger Mask & Jushin Liger vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Desperado in Super juniors tag tournament
• Ryusuke Taguchi & ACH vs. Taichi & Taka Michinoku in Super juniors tag tournament

NEW JAPAN FROM KORAKUEN HALL AT 5:30 EASTERN MONDAY ON NEW JAPAN WORLD

• This show will feature both semifinals of the Super Junior tag team tournament. The rest of the show to be announced.

Raw will be Monday night in Baltimore. The crew will leave Baltimore right after Raw so there is no chance this week for a Raw invasion of Smackdown. There is also a Smackdown house show in Raleigh on Monday night.

Smackdown and 205 Live take place on Tuesday from Norfolk. Matches announced for Smackdown are Dolph Ziggler vs. Bobby Roode 2/3 falls and Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Kevin Owens both in matches to determine who gets on the Smackdown Survivor Series team.

FIGURE FOUR WEEKLY:Figure Four Weekly 10/23/2017: Recapping WWE’s unusual TLC PPV

Making the most of a bad situation, Sunday night’s TLC pay-per-view provided a fun ending for what must have been a rough week for WWE. Two wrestlers (Roman Reigns and Bray Wyatt) being pulled from a PPV due to a viral infection just days before the show is always a bad situation. But TLC being built almost solely around the in-ring reunion of The Shield made the timing especially awful. Having a mediocre PPV is forgivable in the Network era, but WWE knew that they had to give ticket holders worthy replacements.

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WRESTLING OBSERVER NEWSLETTER:October 30, 2017 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: WWE TLC reviewed, Survivor Series lineup, plus tons of news

The story behind the illnesses to WWE stars and how the plans went down for Kurt Angle and A.J. Styles to be on TLC, as well as the current Survivor Series card, ideas on huge name additions to the show, and an update on the health status of the wrestlers is the lead story in the new issue of the Wrestling Observer. 

Look at the TLC show, with match-by-match coverage, poll results and star ratings. Get the update on the health issues with the missing talent, the story behind HHH working a house show this week, the story behind Balor vs. Styles, previous Balor vs. Styles history, booking that makes no sense at all, and a look at Survivor Series plans.

This issue has an early word on what will be one of the biggest stories of the next year, which are the UFC television negotiations. Also, look at how this is also a huge story for WWE because of all the similarities but WWE talks come one year later.

Inside, there is an update with the WWE television situation as far as the proposed U.K. show, update on Ronda Rousey in WWE and where things stand, update on ideas for new WWE television shows, the WWE vs. ROH head-to-head in San Antonio heats up, Shawn Michaels challenges Johnny Gargano, Jimmy Jacobs talks his firing, lots of news about WrestleMania VIP packages, more on steroids in wrestling and health effects, an update on Nia Jax, the story behind why John Cena never went heel, WWE makes an investment, McGregor and WWE, Nikki Bella update, notes on a trainee that a lot of people are talking about, and most watched shows on the WWE Network.

Read the notes on all of the WWE and NXT events over the past week including business highlights and highlights from the shows.

There is also a feature on former Central States television announcer Bill Kersten, who passed away, as well as Stan “Big K” Kowalski, a Midwest star who passed away.

Subscribers click here to continue.

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. 

Rates in the United States are $13 for 4 issues, $32 for 12, $61 for 24, $101 for 40 and $131 for 52. In Canada and Mexico, rates are $14.50 for 4, $35 for 12, $67 for 24, $111 for 40 and $144 or 52. In Europe, you can get the fastest delivery and best rates by sending to moonsault@mediaplusint.com. For the rest of the world, rates are $16.50 for 4, $44 for 12, $85 for 24, $141 for 40 issues and $183 for 52. If you order by mail with a check, cash or money order (P.O. Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228), you can get $1 off in every price range.)

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WON BACK ISSUE: October 1, 2000 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Disappointing WCW ratings, WWF Unforgiven reviewed, more

Whatever changes in the landscape temporarily that would result from the WWF going to a lower rated network appear to have been overstated. It was thought that this would be the week for WCW to capitalize, as viewers, used to WWF on Monday nights, would switch to WCW when finding other programming on the USA Network. Even though, due to the court decision coming in late and Viacom not getting nearly the amount of publicity they had planned to hype the debut of Raw,

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SATURDAY NEWS UPDATE

WWE

• WWE announced that Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose would be defending their tag titles at the Raw-brand European tour house shows in Glasgow, Brighton, London, Minehead, and Cardiff, which are the same five shows that Triple H will be working. The main event of those events had been scheduled to be Roman Reigns, Rollins & Ambrose vs. Braun Strowman, Cesaro & Sheamus in six-man tag matches. The change would seem to indicate a shakeup to the card or that Reigns won’t be back in time for the start of the tour.
• Kurt Angle will also be making a non-wrestling appearance at the European tour show in Birmingham on November 7th.
• Angle posted a photo on Instagram of him getting new ring gear done for possible future matches.
• A new episode of “Table for Three” with Reigns, Ambrose, and Rollins will air on the WWE Network after Raw on Monday night.
• NXT’s Sarah Logan and Ray Rowe of NJPW and ROH’s War Machine team announced their engagement.
• Tony Schiavone did a “Control Center” segment hyping up the card for WWE’s Starrcade house show that will take place next month.
• The Undertaker made an out-of-character appearance as he attended the premiere of Ric Flair’s 30 for 30 in Atlanta this week. Others who were there included Michelle McCool, DDP, Fit Finlay, Michael Hayes, and Luke Gallows.
• John Cena played The Pixies’ “Where is my Mind?” on the piano to celebrate the Bellas’ YouTube channel hitting 900,000 subscribers.
• WWE looks at the top 10 invasions in WWE, WCW, and ECW history after the angle where SmackDown invaded Raw on Monday night.
• Actor Jeff Goldblum reacted to an interviewer wearing a Breezango Fashion Patrol T-shirt.

Pro Wrestling

• Don Callis denied rumors that he’s leaving NJPW’s English-language commentary team.
• NJPW’s total attendance for 2017 has eclipsed last year’s numbers with two more months remaining in the year.
• Ratings for Impact were again down on the road to Bound for Glory this week. The show was watched by an average of 231,000 viewers, down from last week’s 267,000. It went against a blowout Thursday Night Football game and didn’t face competition from the World Series.
• David Bixenspan has an article on the pro wrestling connection in the recently released JFK files.
• Jack Swagger discussed his time on the indies and a potential future in MMA.

UFC/MMA

• Duke Roufus discussed CM Punk’s next UFC fight and how Punk losing his first bout in the way he did can help him going forward.
• Raquel Pennington is out of her planned title fight against Amanda Nunes at UFC 219 in December after breaking her leg in an ATV accident.
• Colby Covington talked trash about Demian Maia and Maia’s “dad-bod” ahead of their fight tonight.
• Michael Bisping responded to Cody Garbrandt’s comments on his fight against TJ Dillashaw being the real main event of UFC 217. “Listen, I’ve never paid to watch somebody that’s the size of my leg in my life,” Bisping said. “Cody needs to spend less time plucking his eyebrows and more time living in the real world, because it ain’t the main event. Simple as that.”
• The UFC uploaded full video of their special on Georges St-Pierre’s return to the Octagon.
• Thomas Gerbasi wrote about the road Joanna Jedrzejczyk has taken to get to this point in her career.
• Jedrzejczyk vowed to choke Rose Namajunas out if she takes it to the ground when they face off.
• Kong Events has video of “An Evening with Conor McGregor” from Glasgow last month.

Today in Professional Wrestling History: WCW Halloween Havoc 1989

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