More Saturday news notes: Backstage from TNA, Sonnen and Barnett wrestle today, Kobashi at NOAH big show tonight and Nagata also expected as mystery partner; WWE Network schedule
By Dave Meltzer
dave@wrestlingobserver.com”>dave@wrestlingobserver.com
We’re looking for reports on these shows tonight:
*TNA TV tapings in Orlando with a couple of shows being taped. Both TNA and NXT are both running in Orlando tonight.
*There is a Metamoris (grappling) iPPV on Saturday at 6 p.m. Eastern time at www.metamoris.com from a secret location (I’m not making this up) with no fans attending somewhere in Southern California. It’s believed this will be from the Black House Gym.
Josh Barnett vs. Ryron Gracie
Chael Sonnen vs. Renato Babalu Sobral
Joe Lauzon vs. Dustin Danis
Xande Ribiero vs. Keenan Cornelius
Roberto Satoshi vs. Clark Gracie
Jeff Monson vs. mystery opponent
*WWE in Louisville, KY (John Cena, Dean Ambrose, Ryback, Rusev, Bad News Barrett, New Day, Tyson Kidd, Cesaro and Luke Harper)
*WWE in Charleston, WV (Randy Orton, Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Dolph Ziggler, Kane, Bray Wyatt) and NXT in Orlando.
*The U.S. Open finals in freestyle wrestling will air at 10 p.m. Eastern on Saturday night on Universal Sports live, and then will air tape delayed on Wednesday night at 10:30 p.m. on NBC Sports Network. Universal Sports is Ch. 625 on DirecTV, but a lot of people won’t get that channel.
We’ll be looking for reports on Sunday from TNA in Orlando, WWE in Lexington, KY (John Cena, Dean Ambrose, Ryback, Rusev, Bad News Barrett, New Day, Tyson Kidd, Cesaro and Luke Harper) and Wheeling, WV (Randy Orton, Roman Reigns,Seth Rollins, Dolph Ziggler, Kane and Bray Wyatt.
Monday is the live Raw from Cincinnati which is the go-home Raw for Payback, so they are going to have to put a card together, plus TNA finishes its tapings in Orlando.
Tuesday has the first night of the ROH/New Japan tour in Philadelphia. There is no live broadcast of his event.
Delirious vs. Gedo
Jay Lethal vs. Takaaki Watanabe
Roderick Strong vs. Kushida
Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian vs. Michael Bennett & Matt Taven vs. Young Bucks (ROH tag champ vs. IWGP heavyweight tag champs vs. IWGP jr. tag champs)
Tetsuya Naito vs. Michael Elgin
Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Jushin Liger
A.J. Styles vs. ? (Adam Cole at last word was doubtful for the show due to his shoulder not recovering as fast as hoped for)
Mark & Jay Briscoe vs Shinsuke Nakamura & Kazuchika Okada
Smackdown and Main Event will be taped on Tuesday in Evansville, IN. No John Cena or Randy Orton announced for that show.
Wednesday is the second night for ROH/New Japan in Philadelphia. There is no live broadcast of this event.
Michael Elgin vs. Kushida
Adam Page vs. Takaaki Watanabe
Roderick Strong vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
Tetsuya Naito vs. Kyle O’Reilly
Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian vs. Kazuchika Okada & Gedo
Jay Lethal vs. Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Mark Briscoe vs. Jushin Liger
A.J. Styles & Young Bucks vs. Matt Taven & Michael Bennett & ? (also scheduled as Adam Cole)
–At Rupp Arena in Lexington, the marquee is listing John Cena and Daniel Bryan as the stars appearing for tomorrow’s show even though Bryan will not be there.
–Argos from AAA was backstage at the TNA show yesterday. As best we can tell, Argenis wasn’t there. It’s possible he’s there but when we asked the only one people saw was Argos. Chris Hero was there but he was just visiting friends and not booked to wrestle this week.
–NOAH runs tonight (Sunday night in Japan) in Yokohama and two new things have been added.
*Kenta Kobashi will be at ringside for the Minoru Suzuki GHC title defense against Naomichi Marufuji to keep from Suzuki using outside interference to retain the title.
*Maybach Taniguchi announced he has a new partner to go after Suzuki-gun, and tag champs Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr. They are calling the newcomer Blue Mask. Yuji Nagata is Blue Justice in New Japan and photos of blue mask from behind make it appear it will be Nagata.
Lineup is
Suzuki vs Marufuji for the GHC title
Killer Elite Squad vs. Masato Tanaka & Takashi Sugiura for GHC tag titles
Taniguchi & Blue Mask vs. Shelton Benjamin & Brian Breaker
Taichi vs. Atsushi Kotoge for jr. title
Taka Michinoku & Desperado vs. Yoshinari Ogawa & Zack Sabre Jr. for jr. tag title
Mohammed Yone & Taiji Ishimori & Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Mikey Nicholls & Shane Haste & Quiet Storm
Kenou & Hajime Ohara vs. Akitoshi Saito & Captain NOAH
TOMORROW’S WWE NETWORK SCHEDULE (thanks to Bert Duckwall)
12:30 AM ET
WWE 24 In this edition of WWE 24, we reveal the personal story of this rising star, his family and his memorable experience at Wrestlemania 31.
1:00 AM ET
THIS WEEK IN WWE Get caught up on all the highlights from Raw and SmackDown with This Week in WWE.
1:30 AM ET
CULTURE SHOCK WITH COREY GRAVES Corey Graves experiences a culture shock at the 2015 Star Wars Celebration, getting caught up in the hype for Star Wars: The Force Awakens!
1:40 AM ET
WWE UNFILTERED WITH RENEE YOUNG Host Renee Young chats with Reese Witherspoon and Sofia Vergara, stars of the new movie, Hot Pursuit, as well as director, Anne Fletcher!
2:00 AM ET
TOTAL DIVAS Brie and Bryan’s wrestling careers are in jeopardy, and Brie’s attempt to save their future puts Nikki in a tough spot with John
3:00 AM ET
TOUGH ENOUGH Former Tough Enough winner and John Morrison help contestants stay focused on a treacherous ropes course that gives Eric serious trouble.
4:00 AM ET
MONDAY NIGHT WAR Bill Goldberg rises from relative obscurity to become WCW’s most dominant homegrown talent.
5:00 AM ET
WWE COUNTDOWN From the Texas Rattle Snake to Teddy Long, this episode will take a look at the top ten personalities ever to hold the title of GM.
6:00 AM ET
WWE SUPERSTARS This week, we have a huge tag team match up when the Lucha Dragons take on Los Matadores. Plus, Luke Harper battles Jack Swagger.
7:00 AM ET
WWE NXT Two weeks before Takeover: Unstoppable, Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch sign the contract to make their Women’s Title match official.
8:00 AM ET
TOUGH ENOUGH Former Tough Enough winner and John Morrison help contestants stay focused on a treacherous ropes course that gives Eric serious trouble.
9:00 AM ET
WWE COUNTDOWN From the Texas Rattle Snake to Teddy Long, this episode will take a look at the top ten personalities ever to hold the title of GM.
10:00 AM ET
TOTAL DIVAS Brie and Bryan’s wrestling careers are in jeopardy, and Brie’s attempt to save their future puts Nikki in a tough spot with John
11:00 AM ET
THIS WEEK IN WWE Get caught up on all the highlights from Raw and SmackDown with This Week in WWE.
11:30 AM ET
WWE BEYOND THE RING The Best of Clash of the Champions, hosted by Dusty Rhodes, highlights some of the greatest matches in the event’s ten-year history!
1:00 PM ET
TOUGH ENOUGH Former Tough Enough winner and John Morrison help contestants stay focused on a treacherous ropes course that gives Eric serious trouble.
2:00 PM ET
MONDAY NIGHT WAR Bill Goldberg rises from relative obscurity to become WCW’s most dominant homegrown talent.
3:00 PM ET
WWE PAYBACK 2014 Payback…it’s what’s best for business! Don’t miss WWE Payback, Sunday, June 1, at 8PM ET/5PM PT, live on WWE Network.
6:00 PM ET
WWE 24 In this edition of WWE 24, we reveal the personal story of this rising star, his family and his memorable experience at Wrestlemania 31.
6:30 PM ET
THIS WEEK IN WWE Get caught up on all the highlights from Raw and SmackDown with This Week in WWE.
7:00 PM ET
WWE NXT Two weeks before Takeover: Unstoppable, Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch sign the contract to make their Women’s Title match official.
8:00 PM ET
WWE PAYBACK 2014 Payback…it’s what’s best for business! Don’t miss WWE Payback, Sunday, June 1, at 8PM ET/5PM PT, live on WWE Network.
11:00 PM ET
WWE PAYBACK 2014 Payback…it’s what’s best for business! Don’t miss WWE Payback, Sunday, June 1, at 8PM ET/5PM PT, live on WWE Network.