SAT UPDATE: Stephen Amell video, NXT Kids, Floyd Mayweather on Ronda Rousey

By F4W Staff
Published: 15 Aug 2015, 22:06

by David Bixenspan | davidbix@wrestlingobserver.com | Follow @davidbix

Tonight:

The last day of NJPW’s 25th annual G1 Climax airs live on NJPW World at 2:00 a.m. from Ryogoku Sumo Hall in Tokyo, Japan:

Jushin Liger & Yohei Komatsu & Sho Tanaka vs. Ryusuke Taguchi & Mascara Dorada & David Finlay
Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima & Captain New Japan vs. Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi & Jay White
Yoshi-Hashi vs. Michael Elgin
Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii & Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi & Tama Tonga
Tomoaki Honma & Tetsuya Naito & Togi Makabe vs. Hirooki Goto & Katsuyori Shibata & Kota Ibushi
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Titles: The Young Bucks (c) vs. reDRagon
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title: Kushida (c) vs. Ricochet
Kazuchika Okada & Michael Bennett & Matt Taven vs. A.J. Styles & Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Shinsuke Nakamura for the G-1 Climax and a shot at the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at Wrestle Kingdom.

Evolve has an iPPV tonight at 6:00 p.m. ET live on WWNLive.com from La Boom in Woodside, NY:

Timothy Thatcher vs. Zack Sabre Jr. for the Evolve title
Johnny Gargano vs. Ethan Page
Rich Swann vs. Drew Gulak
Chris Hero vs. Mike Bailey
Trent Baretta vs. Rey Hours
Biff Busick vs. Tracy Williams

WWE has three shows tonight: Sioux Falls, SD (Roman Reigns vs. Bray Wyatt), Detroit, Michigan (Seth Rollins vs. Dean Ambrose for WWE title, Kevin Owens vs. Cesaro plus Chris Jericho), and Coral Springs, FL (NXT).

Evolve has an iPPV tonight at 8:00 p.m. ET live on WWNLive.com from the Sportatorium in Deer Park, NY:

Timothy Thatcher vs. Biff Busick
Chris Hero vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
Trent Baretta vs. Caleb Konley
Johnny Gargano vs. TBA
Ethan Page vs. Rich Swann
Drew Gulak & Tracy Williams vs. Mike Bailey & Rey Hours

WWE has two shows on Sunday: Fargo, ND (Roman Reigns vs. Bray Wyatt) and Bemidji, MN (Seth Rollins vs. Dean Ambrose for WWE title, Kevin Owens vs Cesaro).

The go-home Raw for SummerSlam is this Monday night at the Target Center in Minneapolis. John Cena, Brock Lesnar, Undertaker and literally everyone else will be there.

SmackDown and Main Event will be taped Tuesday night in Green Bay, WI.

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The new issue of Figure Four Weekly is now up for subscribers (subscribe to th site here and get access to Figure Four, the Observer, tons of audio, and more) featuring a chat with Konnan about the state of AAA heading into TripleMania XXIII. We discuss the company’s improvements in production, advantages over WWE and differences in philosophy, how to listen to fans, and much more. Plus, as always, we have all of the usual reviews and international news, including Dr. Lucha’s TripleMania preview.

Last week’s FREEFigure Four Weekly is still up with a look at the crazy story of why Gawker thinks the FBI may have helped Hulk Hogan cover up his racist and homophobic comments. A judge has ordered the FBI to turn over the records of their investigation, and what Gawker is saying in court about what has and hasn’t been turned over paints a very interesting picture.

Also, now available for the first time on Kindle (meaning Kindle devices and anything with the Kindle app) is Fall Guys, the seminal 1937 book that has been described as being like the 1930s version of the Wrestling Observer. It was surprisingly not on Kindle already, so we put together a nice version with a full table of contents w/ chapter marks, proper formatting on everything, etc. Right now it’s available from the American, Canadian, and Australian Amazon/Kindle stores OR you can also buy it from anywhere in the world on PayHip, who will provide you with both Kindle and ePub (every other e-reader) format files, and you can either sideload them to your device or have them email it to your Kindle.

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A look at the WWE shows next week in Brooklyn is the lead story in the new issue of the Wrestling Observer. We also have full coverage of the G-1 Climax tournament and how it all builds for the Tokyo Dome and the fall season, as well as coverage of all the G-1 matches this past week. We also have a look at the Teamsters attempting to unionize UFC fighters, the UFC’s letter sent to fighters and morale issues. We also have a look at the AAA TripleMania PPV show, UFC ratings increases, the brawl at the WSOF show, UFC suing Wanderlei Silva and Layla retiring.

The issue is on the site right now at August 17, 2015 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Summerslam build, Unions courting UFC fighters

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We look at the WWE events in Brooklyn with three straight full houses and look historically at the only other promotion that has been able to do it historically and the record, as well as updates on the NXT and SummerSlam shows and more details on the NXT card as well as the probable main event stipulation and ticket demand.

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We look at TripleMania, all the problems with the show, what happened with the Spanish language broadcast, mistakes made in booking, how the card had to change from its original plans, the letter AAA sent out after, the retirements and Hall of Fame ceremony, plus match-by-match coverage with star ratings.

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We also look at the brawl at the WSOF show with The Diaz Brothers and Khabib Nurmagomedov, as well as the problems in the Jake Shields vs. Rousimar Palhares fight.

We’ve also got notes on the retirement of Layla from WWE and highlights of her career.

We also look at the lawsuit WWE has filed against Wanderlei Silva for alleging the company fixes fights.

We look at the CMLL Anniversary show, an injury to the best older wrestler in the business, a New Japan star comes to Mexico and a rundown on the main events the past two weeks at Arena Mexico.

We also look at another Rey Mysterio match, as well as the next major Dragon Gate show lineup and highlights from the past week.

We also look at New Japan stars heading to NOAH.

We also look at the beginning of talks for an international group to return to PPV, as well as a look at the Fire Festival, one of Genichiro Tenryu’s last matches and a set up for an angle with one of the biggest stars of the 80s vs. one of the biggest stars of the 90s.

We’ve got notes on the funeral of Roddy Piper, more on the Hulk Hogan tapes story, Hogan’s first public appearance, two Roddy Piper moves that haven’t come out, one of the biggest stars of the last ten years suffering a major health issue, a former star gets his number retired, a U.K. star returns after cancer, a retirement that probably isn’t a retirement, a Japanese promotion running in October in California, a wrestler having his first match in 20 years, the second oldest living wrestler and his background, big shows in Puerto Rico and news no two different wrestling Halls of Fame.

We also have an update on the status of Lucha Underground, what changes have to be made, the audience watching the show, what to look out for, notes on the contracts the performers have, update on Vampiro and coverage of both weeks of Ultima Lucha.

We also look at the ROH show in Brooklyn, TNA Hall of fame ceremony, and upcoming TNA house shows.

We also look at McGregor vs. Aldo, a big show vs. normal show, Las Vegas vs. Cowboys Stadium, Rousey vs. Cyborg update, Lawler vs. McGregor, UFC financials, how much it costs them every year just in interest on their bond, what kind of profits they are making, lots of ratings into, Rousey business notes, the Aldo drug testing fiasco, Overeem vs. Dos Santos, Punk vs. Pendred, fighter already talking about coming out of retirement, and lots of new UFC fights.

We also have notes on Josh Thomson and Bellator, Bellator’s next major show, Josh Koscheck blasts UFC and more Bellator fights.

We have an update on Chris Leben after his arrest, new WSOF shows, a crime fighter returns to MMA and notes on weight cutting.

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Saturday Daily Update

Stephen Amell has a Facebook video about his weightlifting injury. He doesn’t exactly look good, but he seems upbeat enough that it doesn’t seem like his SummerSlam match is in jeopardy.
In case you missed it, a WWE production freelancer posted the pilot for “NXT Kids” on his Vimeo channel (which doubled as his portfolio) last month and it was discovered this week. No idea if he meant for his channel to be private or what, but there are now no videos on it. The show was a cross between Saturday Morning Slam (with original matches shot recently, as Jessie McKay was on the show) and NXT with actual children joining Corey Graves on commentary and conducting interviews. It was really well-done and fun to watch, but WWE is agressively pulling any mirrors of it on YouTube. Hopefully this didn’t get in that production guy in too much trouble.
Floyd Mayweather has nothing but positivity for Ronda Rousey. Well, it’s not like he has any other options publicly at this point.
NJPW G1 Climax Tournament 8-15 live results: Okada vs. Nakamura; B block winner to be decided
Lineup for tonight’s Sumo Hall card and G-1 finals
On this day in pro wrestling history: IWGP champ wins G-1 in 1995, Orton beats Benoit
UFC put up Frank Mir vs. Tim Sylvia as a free fight to hype UFC 191. This is the famous fight where, thanks to wearing a steel cup (yes, really), Mir broke Sylvia’s forearm with an armbar to win the UFC Heavyweight Championship.
WWE Battleground 2015 comes out on DVD this Tuesday for whichever of you still buy WWE pay-per-view shows on DVD. The newest compilation release is Best of WCW Monday Nitro Vol. 3, which came out on DVD and Blu-Ray this past Tuesday. The next release is Monday Night War Vol. 2: Know Your Role, which comes out on DVD and Blu-Ray on September 8th.
Global Force Wrestling house show report 8-14 Winston-Salem
Great North Wreslting results from Agust 14th 2015 at the Brockville Memorial Centre before nearly 1000 fans: The Honky Tonk Man, Jeremy Prophet, Grapecrusher and Bryan Briggs with Jinxie beat Steve Levac, Soa Amin, Sexy Eddy and High Roller Rosenbury in an 8 man elimination match with Honky Tonk Man and Jeremy Prophet as the final survivors, The Black Dragon Defeated Patrick Shenzy, Harley Davison Beat JC Mason, Hannibal defeated the Giant Darko to retain the GNW Canadian Championship when guest referee WWE Hall of Famer Road Warrior Animal made the pin. Pan Am Games gold medalist Dori Yeats defeated Aniko Potoczky, Jessika Black Defeated Stacy Thibault, Kid Canuck defeated Pepper Jack, Freak Nation defeated Pereston Perry and Majic Mario, Myzery Barbarian defeated Shooter Storm.
GFW will be in Harrisburg, PA at Metro Bank Park (Harrisburg Senators/Double A affiliate/Washington Nationals) on Aug. 28: Dirty Money v Pat Buck, Kevin Matthews v Pepper Parks, Kimber Lee v Cherry Bomb, Brian Myers (formerly Curt Hawkins) v Chris Mordetzky (formerly Chris Masters), BLK Jeez v Sonjay Dutt, The Bullet Club v Seiya Sanada and Ali Akbar. Meet and Greet before the show (starts at 5:30pm) with Kevin Nash; $40 VIP tickets include meet and greet.
CROSSFIRE Wrestling August 22nd in Ridgeville Ontario, 4pm at Bissell’s Hideaway 205 Metler Road: World heavyweight champion Jeremy Elliot defends against winner of 10 man battle royal, Women’s World champion THE ANTI DIVA KAITLIN DIEMOND vs Skylar Rose, THE ITALIANO’S W/ GARY GAMBINO vs THE ROCHESTER WRECKING CREW, RAGE vs MATTICK, and The Night Train – Justin Sane will now be facing Tomer Shalom.