Daily Update: WWE notes, Wrestling Toyonokuni, Alberto El Patron

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Today we’re looking for reports on WWE NXT shows in Southhaven, MS and Orlando, FL and ROH in Hopkins, MN at the Eisenhower Center (Young Bucks & Hangman Page vs. Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian & Dalton Castle, Mark & Jay Briscoe vs. Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley, Marty Scurll vs. Ken Anderson, Matt Taven vs. Adam Cole, Bully Ray vs. Silas Young, Jay Lethal vs. Beer City Bruiser, Punishment Martinez vs. Jay White, War Machine vs. Shane Taylor & Rhett Titus) at newstips@wrestlingobserver.com.

WWE PAYBACK FROM SAN JOSE AT 7:15 P.M. EASTERN TIME ON SUNDAY ON WWE NETWORK

  • Roman Reigns vs. Braun Strowman
  • Randy Orton vs. Bray Wyatt in a non-title House of Horrors match
  • Seth Rollins vs. Samoa Joe
  • Matt & Jeff Hardy vs. Sheamus & Cesaro for the tag team titles
  • Kevin Owens vs. Chris Jericho for the U.S. title
  • Neville vs. Austin Aries for the cruiserweight title
  • Bayley vs. Alexa Bliss for the women’s title
  • Miz TV with Finn Balor (pre-show)
  • Big Cass & Enzo Amore vs. Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson (pre-show)

        There are rumors of shooting an angle in the Miz TV segment to add a match to the PPV.

Raw will be Monday night in Sacramento. There will also be a SmackDown house show on Monday night in Stockton.

SmackDown and 205 Live take place on Tuesday in Fresno.

NEW JAPAN WRESTLING DONTAKU FROM THE FUKUOKA INTERNATIONAL CENTER ARENA ON WEDNESDAY MORNING AT 3:40 A.M. EASTERN TIME ON NEW JAPAN WORLD

  • Hirai Kawato & Yoshitatsu vs. Katsuya Kitamura & Tomoyuki Oka
  • Will Ospreay & Yoshi-Hashi vs. Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens
  • Tiger Mask W (Kota Ibushi) & Tiger Mask & Togi Makabe vs. Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi & Jushin Liger
  • Hirooki Goto & Toru Yano & Jado & Rocky Romero & Baretta vs Minoru Suzuki & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Desperado & Taichi & Taka Michinoku
  • Cody Rhodes vs. David Finlay
  • Juice Robinson & Kushida vs. Tetsuya Naito & Hiromu Takahashi
  • War Machine vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima vs. Tama Tonga & Tanga Roa for the IWGP tag team titles
  • Hiroshi Tanahashi & Ricochet & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Seiya Sanada & Evil & Bushi for the NEVER six-man titles
  • Tomohiro Ishii vs. Kenny Omega
  • Kazuchika Okada vs Bad Luck Fale for the IWGP heavyweight title

The Raw crew opens the European tour on Wednesday in Rome, Italy.

FIGURE FOUR WEEKLY: 4/24/2017: Jinder Mahal’s surprising WWE title shot

WWE’s booking rarely ever manages to be quite as surprising as what happened on last week’s SmackDown. Without any real build or any prior semblance of an ascent to the top of the card, Jinder Mahal became the number one contender for the WWE Championship by winning a six-pack challenge. It shouldn’t have been as surprising as it was given the wrestlers involved in that match, but it was only a week prior that Mahal was introduced to the SmackDown roster in the Superstar Shakeup by losing to Mojo Rawley and once again getting shown up by New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski.

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WRESTLING OBSERVER NEWSLETTER: May 1, 2017: Vince McMahon movie in development, Mauro Ranallo/WWE situation, more

The idea of a Vince McMahon movie is actually going to happen and we’ve got some early details on it as the lead story in the new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter; an update on the situation involving WWE and Mauro Ranallo, a look at the next two WWE PPV shows, a guy who in ten months went from an opening round loser on Ultimate Fighter to a viable title contender, a look at the Hall of Fame career of Maurice Smith and the latest from PWG.

Find out who was behind the McMahon movie and how that has changed, as well as the Ranallo situation, what happened and the repercussions and the overall situation, and look at the lineups for the next two WWE PPV shows and the main angles.

Coverage of the weekend UFC show inside.

Check out Dwayne Johnson movie news, new characters being pushed in WWE and why, interesting business dichotomy involving the Indian market, WWE looking for new stars from India, Mick Foley surgery news, A.J. Styles talks his attempting to wrestle Shawn Michaels, Shaquille O’Neal talks why his match with Big Show never happened, Injury updates, wedding update with Dean Ambrose and Renee Young, WWE wrestler leaves for Japan, new gimmicks to existing wrestlers, Shane McMahon and UFC story, WWE with a Japanese icon.

There is more on WWE releases, WWE booking, WWE stock market value, most watched shows on WWE Network, and highlights of all the major TV shows and of the arena matches over the past week.

Look at the career of Maurice Smith, what makes it noteworthy, how he molded MMA, kickboxing and pro wrestling into a long career and one of the most landmark matches in UFC history as well as twice headlining stadium shows as a pro wrestler and holding a kickboxing world title for nearly a decade.

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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. 

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.)

If you are a new subscriber ordering 24 or more issues, you can choose one free classic issue, or two free classic issues with a 40-issue subscription.

WON BACK ISSUE: April 3, 2000: Eric Bischoff and Vince Russo in charge of WCW, a look back at past Wrestlemanias, more

After seemingly swimming in an ocean of rapidly declining numbers across the board, World Championship Wrestling went to a strange pair of people as its life preservers–Eric Bischoff and Vince Russo. In a decision that had been in the works for about one month according to company sources, Brad Siegel completed the circular back-stabbing game which wound up in, not almost, but actually a pro wrestling like tag team, of the two people, former enemies, with seemingly nothing in common, bound together by their hatred for common enemies.

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SATURDAY NEWS UPDATE

WWE

  • Drew McIntyre said that he’ll be part of NXT’s UK tour in June.
  • Another new episode of “Table for Three” will air on the WWE Network after Raw on Monday. The show will feature Kurt Angle, Edge, and Christian.
  • While the company is holding tryouts in Dubai, WWE announced that they’ll be debuting a show in Arabic that features interviews and highlights. It will air on OSN Sports in the Middle East.
  • After being out of action since last November, Sawyer Fulton returned from injury at last night’s NXT house show in Venice, Florida. He didn’t wrestle in a match, though he did lay out Yanbo Wang in a segment.
  • Jim Ross honored his late wife Jan by displaying her ashes in a Pittsburgh Steelers urn.
  • Bruno Sammartino announced the Pittsburgh Steelers’ fifth round pick on the broadcast for the NFL draft. Xavier Woods also reacted to the Dallas Cowboys picking a player named Xavier Woods.
  • The San Jose Mercury News interviewed Bayley ahead of Payback taking place in her hometown on Sunday.
  • Dale Earnhardt Jr. spoke about his upcoming retirement from NASCAR in an interview with Paul Heyman.

Pro Wrestling

  • Tama Tonga ended up working NJPW’s Wrestling Toyonokuni show today despite dealing with an injury. Dave Meltzer noted in yesterday’s Daily Update that it was feared that he had suffered a ruptured bicep.
  • After Tetsuya Naito defended his Intercontinental title against Juice Robinson at Wrestling Toyonokuni, Hiroshi Tanahashi came out to challenge him. That match would seem to figure into the plans for Dominion in June.
  • Tokyo Sports has an update on Tomoaki Honma’s recovery. In the story, Honma says that he is able to walk on his own again.
  • Alberto El Patron didn’t wrestle at today’s What Culture Pro Wrestling show, which the promotion announced was due to an illness. He was scheduled to face Joe Coffey. El Patron also claimed on Twitter on Friday night that Total Divas ratings are down because Paige’s scenes are getting deleted.
  • Ratings for this week’s episode of Impact were down big, which isn’t surprising as it was going against the NFL draft and the NBA playoffs. The show averaged 255k viewers after doing 320k the week prior.
  • DDT is debuting 10-man tag team titles.
  • Joe Doering vs. Shuji Ishikawa is the finals of this year’s AJPW Champion Carnival taking place tomorrow in Fukuoka.
  • Christopher Daniels spoke to City Pages before ROH’s show in Minnesota tonight.
  • Mike Mooneyham’s latest article for the Charleston Post and Courier is focused on Haystacks Calhoun.
  • The Young Bucks appeared on this week’s edition of the Edge & Christian podcast.
  • Jack Swagger will debut for AAW on May 25th in Berwyn, Illinois.

UFC/MMA

  • Mauro Ranallo called today’s Wladimir Klitschko vs. Anthony Joshua boxing match on Showtime from Wembley Stadium, which was widely considered to be a great fight.
  • Holly Holm expressed confidence that she’s still in the UFC title mix.
  • Tito Ortiz is at peace with retiring from MMA.
  • Jake Ellenberger doesn’t plan to retire despite getting knocked out by Mike Perry last Saturday.

Today in Professional Wrestling History (4/29): Inoki vs. Flair in North Korea

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