TUES. UPDATE: 30th anniversary of WrestleMania, CM Punk on other wrestlers wanting to do MMA. Ask Chael Anything, Andre the Giant museum exhibit, and more

By F4W Staff
Published: 31 Mar 2015, 18:26

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

TV tonight:

The premiere of the UFC 178 episode of UFC Reloaded airs at 8:00 p.m. ET on Fox Sports 1. This is the excellent pay-per-view from September with the loaded undercard of Cat Zingano vs. Amanda Nunes, Tim Kennedy vs. Yoel Romero in the “Stoolgate” fight, Conor McGregor vs. Dustin Poirier, and Donald Cerrone vs. Eddie Alvarez supporting the Demetrious Johnson vs. Chris Cariaso match for the UFC Flyweight Title on top. This was also the card with Dominick Cruz vs. Takeya Mizugaki as the featured prelim, but it’s been a long time since they included prelims on the Reloaded shows, even if there’s room, so it seems unlikely that the fight was included in this edit of the card.

Saturday’s World Series of Fighting 19 card from Saturday night is being reaired tonight at 9:00 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Network, which is notable because the Justin Gaethje vs. Luis Palomino main event has been getting a good bit of Fight of the Year hype in the last few days

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The newest issue of Figure Four Weekly is up on the site for subscribers (subscribe here) with an extensive Perro Aguayo Jr. bio by Dr. Lucha Steve Sims, a look at the economic impact of WrestleMania, and all of the usual reviews and international news.

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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One of the year’s biggest issues of the Observer is out this week, looking at WrestleMania, plus an extensive look at the life and death of Perro Aguayo Jr., the Brock Lesnar decision in depth, a look at the build to WrestleMania, Kevin Nash biography and more.

The new issue of the Observer: Mar. 30, 2015 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Perro Aguayo Jr. bio & AAA’s nightmare week, Brock Lesnar re-signs with WWE, WrestleMania weekend preview

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The Wrestling Observer ranges weekly from 35,000 to 50,000 words covering pro wrestling and MMA internationally. Each issue has coverage and analysis of all the major news, plus every issue breaks major news stories before the Internet sties and has the most complete look at the pro wrestling and MMA business anywhere, plus history pieces available nowhere else.

The new issue of the Observer: Mar. 30, 2015 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Perro Aguayo Jr. bio & AAA’s nightmare week, Brock Lesnar re-signs with WWE, WrestleMania weekend preview

You can also order at www.paypal.com directing funds to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

Rates are:

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.

The tragic death of Perro Aguayo Jr. is looked at in the current issue. We look at his first match, the family, the famous T-shirt, his career title history, the night of his death, exactly what happened in the match, with comments from the doctor, the commission, what happened at the hospital, the coverage,, the public reaction, and a look at his career and his biggest matches, as well as the Mistico vs. Aguayo boom period, the Perros Del Mal promotion, the cancer story, Hector Garza and the return to AAA.

We also look at Brock Lesnar’s WWE deal including details of his new contract, details of UFC’s offer, why he said he made the choice he did, why WWE was so adamant about him signing on Monday and how did the impasse get broken, plus tons of comments by Lesnar from ESPN and about his offers, as well as the reaction from Dana White, and how that affects WWE booking.

We also have a look at WrestleMania and all of the events taking place during the week.

We also have notes on Dwayne Johnson and him answering about a Brock Lesnar bout, can such a bout set the all-time WWE attendance record, Roman Reigns talks a match with The Rock and his thoughts on it, the WWE’s new tie-in with NBC Universal and promotional ideas and more WrestleMania news.

We also look at the Tapout deal with WWE, Kevin Owens in NXT, a fifth generation McMahon in pro wrestling, what is planned after WrestleMania, does Bill Goldberg want to wrestle in WWE and the answer may surprise you, Dolph Ziggler talks his fate, Chael Sonnen and WWE, Smackdown sound changing, as well as business notes from the last week an highlights of all the weekend live events.

We also have an article on the career of Kevin Nash, including where the name Diesel came from, how he got into WWF, how he started in WCW, the masters Blasters, Oz, the status of WCW when Nash first started and Jim Herd, the move to WWF, his rise to the to and title run, the NWO, his money, his WWF return, his injuries and his legacy.

We also look at this year’s NCAA Division I wrestling tournament, including the record attendance, ratings and the major highlights.

We also look at the latest UFC show, including the controversial referee call and the possible end to Josh Koscheck.

We’ve got coverage of the return of Rey Mysterio and AAA’s Rey de Reyes show.

The Observer is the world’s most detailed weekly pro wrestling publication, in its 32nd year of publication, and is read by the biggest names in the pro wrestling, industry, MMA industry, sports world and on Wall Street.

We also have our regular features such as the most complete look at ratings, plus results of the major house show events each week in pro wrestling and MMA, and complete inside rundowns of all the TV shows.

Also in this week’s issue:

–A look at CMLL”s Dos Leyendas show

–A booking decision that may have to be changed as far as a major stipulation loser for reasons probably never involved before in a decision in history

–What happened to the TNA/Wrestle-1 tie up

–Two All Japan title changes

–Pro Wrestling NOAH tag team tournament details

–New Americans coming to NOAH

–Update on Invasion Attack this year

–Notes on what is coming up on New Japan World

–Angle for Styles vs. Ibushi

–Notes on New Japan title matches and a look at the company’s two big shows this week

–Yoji Anjo retirement show and what he’s most known for

–Fujinami vs. Funaki teacher vs. student match

–Samoa Joe talks his past and future

–Business notes on Alberto El Patron

–More on Jeff Jarrett opening up a promotion

–Jim Duggan honored

–Inaccuracies in Foxcatcher movie

–Latest from Puerto Rico

–Son of major 80s star makes debut

–Lots of notes on upcoming angles on Lucha Underground

–Kurt Angle contract notes

–Angle talks Brock Lesnar

–Notes on Jeremy Borash starting on the Howard Stern show

–TNA injury and contract signing updates

–Details behind the Rousey vs. Correia fight

–Why the fight is so interesting

–UFC injury notes

–More on UFC coming to New York

–Fine and suspension of Hector Lombard

–UFC’s crazy week for Fight week

–Injuries to both Anthony Pettis and Rafael dos Anjos after their fight

–New Invicta show

–Reality show on a major show in UFC starts airing

–Lots of new UFC fights under consideration

–Update on Bellator’s Shamrock vs. Kimbo fight

–The incredible money behind Mayweather vs. Pacquiao

–Bill Goldberg talks his next project as well as why he turned down a kickboxing match with Alberto El Patron

If you are a new subscriber ordering 24 or more issues, you can get one free classic issue of your choice sent to you today. With a 40 issue subscription, you can get two free classic issues sent to you today.

New subscribers ordering 24 or 40 issues have to let us know what major stories of the past 11 years you are most interested in and we’ll send the issue with the best coverage of that story. We’ve got coverage of every major PPV event and world wide spectacular, every major star switching promotions, histories of companies like FMW, Rings and New Japan, retirement and obit issues of every major star who fits into those descriptions over the past 11 years, as well as our biggest issue every year, the annual awards issue, and our most controversial issue of every year, the Hall of Fame issue.

Our most requested issues in our history are:

*November 17, 1997 (full details of everything leading to the most famous wrestling match finish of modern times at the Survivor Series plus a history of in-ring double-crosses)

*December 21, 1998 (the complete Vince McMahon-Bret Hart conversation right before the Survivor Series match so you’ll know exactly what was said–the conversation played in edited form both on the inaugural broadcast of Confidential as well as in Wrestling with Shadows, but everything that was said between the two about the match that was going to take place that same night)

*August 1, 1994 (the most detailed coverage anywhere of the Vince McMahon steroid trial, an issue praised in numerous newspaper article and Sex, Lies and Headlocks)

*March 26, 2001 (death of WCW and history of pro wrestling on the Turner networks)a

*October 22, 2001 (why the adult audience has left pro wrestling in such great numbers and what needed to have been done to save them)

*July 8, 1991 (Ric Flair leaves WCW as world champion/Zahorian steroid trial)

*February 8, 1993 (the life and times of Andre the Giant)

*May 13, 2002 (the life story of the most incredible pro wrestling career ever, a look at Lou Thesz, in one of the largest issues of our history)

*January 27, 2003 (part one of the two-part series covering the career and life of The Sheik)

*February 3, 2003 (Part two on The Sheik including thoughts from people who worked with him and where he stands historically)

*March 24, 2003 (history of the WWWF title, inside behind the Sammartino, Backlund and Backlund era)

*April 21, 2003 (history of WWF continues with the expansion nationally, the death of the regional territories and the rise of Hulk Hogan)

*May 12, 2003 (The life and death of Elizabeth and the rise of fall of Lex Luger)

*June 9, 2003 (Part 1 of history of WWF vs. WCW wars and what many say was the greatest year in U.S. wrestling; plus a look at Fred Blassie)

*June 16, 2003 (Freddie Blassie through the eyes of his biggest rivals and friends)

*July 28, 2003 (Part 2 of the history of the WWF vs. WCW war and the plans to make new superstars in the early 90s, what happened, and the night where the three biggest wrestling companies in the world combined for a joint show and what happened)

*August 25, 2003 (2003 Hall of Fame issue with huge profiles on the controversial career of Shawn Michaels, Chris Benoit as well as historical features on Earl Caddock and Francisco Flores)

*September 22, 2003 (Part 3 of the history of the WWF vs WCW war with the seeds that caused the collapse of the industry in the 90s, Zahorian trial, Gulf War controversy, Flair leaves WCW while holding world title and much more)

*October 27, 2003 (The fascinating life of Stu Hart plus the story of Road Warrior Hawk)

*January 19, 2004 (2003 Awards issue)

*February 2, 2004 (History of Toronto wrestling, Jack Tunney life story, Royal Rumble and Battle Royal history)

*February 23, 2004 (History of Guerrero family with Eddy’s win over Brock Lesnar)

*March 1, 2004 (History of WWF continues with the period that brought the company down in early 1992, the mistakes, the real stories and how the business changed)

*March 8, 2004 (History of Wrestlemania, its greatest matches and best and worst shows as voted both by wrestlers and non-wrestlers and Wrestlemania history books)

*July 5, 2004 (A look behind the scenes and Ric Flair’s book and his background with Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan)

*July 12, 2004 (A look at more on Ric Flair’s book and his comments on Bruno Sammartino, Bret Hart and Mick Foley)

*August 16, 2004 (History of the Olympians in pro wrestling)

*August 23, 2004 (2004 Hall of Fame issue and biggest issue of the year with huge profiles on Kazushi Sakuraba, Undertaker, Bob Backlund, Masahiro Chono, Ultimo Dragon, Kurt Angle and Tarzan Lopez–this counts as one issue if you are asking for a free issue, but ordered separately, due to size, is $6 in North America and $7 overseas)

*October 4, 2004 (the life and times of Big Bossman; as well as details of the life and times of one of the most influential men world wide in pro wrestling history, Jim Barnett)

*November 15, 2004 (the full story of what happened between Kurt Angle and Daniel Puder, plus coverage of the most important week in the history of TNA)

*January 24, 2005 (2004 Awards issue, Rock and WWE part company)

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*September 4, 2006 (The Rise and Fall of Kurt Angle; 2006 Hall of Fame inductions of Eddie Guerrero, Paul Bowser, Masakatsu Funaki, Aja Kong and Hiroshi Hase including tons of wrestling history around the world from the 20s through the 60s, the evolution of working to not working in Japan, and a look at Guerrero in hindsight, double issue $6 or $7 overseas)

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*November 15, 2006 (History of WCW part one, Eric Bischoff’s book and how the industry was changed forever)

*November 20, 2006 (History of WCW part two, Why Jim Ross left WCW, How Bischoff changed the company, signing of Hulk Hogan, Beginning of Nitro, Jesse Ventura, Brian Pillman, Chris Jericho and signing Wrestlemania planned celebrity away)

*November 27, 2006 (History of WCW part three, When Bischoff challenged McMahon to fight; Truth and fiction around Bret Hart signing with WCW and why it didn’t click)

*December 6, 2006 (details behind Pride’s offers to sell promotion and Part four of History of WCW part four, Hogan-Goldberg match and why there was no rematch, WCW loses NBC network deal in 1999 and the real reasons the company fell apart)

*January 22, 2007 (2006 Awards issue, double issue $7 on its own, $8 overseas)

*February 14, 2007 (Life and Times of Bam Bigelow)

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*April 4, 2007 (Life and Times of Badnews Allen Coage–which many are calling one of the best issues in history)

*July 2, 2007 (Part one of the Benoit double murder-suicide)

*July 5, 2007 (Part two of the Benoit double murder-suicide)

*July 10, 2007 (Part three of the Benoit double murder-suicide)

*July 19, 2007 (Part four of the Benoit double murder-suicide)

*July 23, 2007 (Part five of Benoit double murder-suicide)

*July 25, 2007 (Part six of Benoit double murder-suicide)

*August 15, 2007 (The legend of the God of Japanese wrestling and his influence on MMA, Karl Gotch)

*October 15 (2007 Hall of Fame double issue, $7 on its own, $8 overseas including inductions of The Rock, Tom Packs and the original Strangler Lewis)

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*March 17, 2008 (Life and times of Johnny Weaver)

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We now have available personally autographed copies of Tributes II, our latest book, as well as a DVD that comes with it talking more about the subjects in the book. The book covers the life stories of Lou Thesz, Wahoo McDaniel, Elizabeth, Fred Blassie, Road Warrior Hawk, Andre the Giant, Curt Hennig, Johnny Valentine, Davey Boy Smith, Terry Gordy, Owen Hart, Stu Hart, Gorilla Monsoon, The Sheik and Tim Woods..

To get all of those biographies as back issues of the Observer would be a $60 value today. This is a collection of some of the best Observer articles of the past several years in a hardcover, full-color format that is 239 pages. There is also a foreword by Bret Hart. The book price is $12.95 plus $3.50 for shipping costs in the U.S., $20 for shipping costs to Canada and $25 for shipping costs outside North America. You can order the book the same way you order the newsletter.

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Tuesday Daily Update

Please send all SmackDown/Main Event spoiler reports for tonight’s taping in Fresno to newstips@wrestlingobserver.com. Thanks!
UFC 189: World Tour Press Conference – Dublin, Conor grabs the belt!
While WWE tends to commemerate the 10th annual, 20th annual, 25th annual, 30th annual, etc. iteration of WrestleMania and sometimes other events as milestones (and mislabels them as anniversaries), today is the actual anniversary of the first WrestleMania at Madison Square Garden. Best known as a closed circuit television event drawing about 400,000 fans, it did air on pay-per-view on a very small number of cable systems, with WWE telling Broadcasting Magazine in 1986 that it drew a 10% buyrate among the homes that had the capability of ordering it.
That wasn’t the only thing that went down that weekend:

The night before was the most famous part of WrestleMania publicity storm, Hulk Hogan and Mr. T hosting Saturday Night Live. What’s not remembered is that they were late replacement hosts who barely appeared in sketches, as original host Steve Landesberg fell ill too late for Hogan and T to be written into anything, though he recovered in time to do a mid-show monologue. The one sketch anyone remembers is Hogan and T as themselves on “Fernando’s Hideaway,” which can be seen on Yahoo Screen.

Also on Saturday the 30th, the last WWF-controlled episode of World Championship Wrestling/Georgia Championship Wrestling aired in the Saturday at 6:05 p.m. time slot, as the company had sold their contract to Jim Crockett Promotions effective the following week. To make sure they kept the slot through WrestleMania, Vince McMahon finally caved to Ted Turner and did studio wrestling at Techwood Drive in Atlanta for all of March. Meanwhile, earlier that day, Crockett had taken over Ole Anderson’s Championship Wrestling from Georgia show, with Tony Schiavone replacing Gordon Solie and JCP talent winning squashes.

Eve Torres announced on Instagram that she’s expecting her first child in September with husband Rener Gracie. Mazel tov!
Damon Martin at Fox Sports talked to CM Punk for a new article that came out over the weekend. The main theme, presumably stemming from Brock Lesnar’s take on The Decision, is if other wrestlers have had the same desire to go into MMA. To quote Punk in the article: “There’s a lot of guys in pro wrestling that just kind of have this MMA fantasy and they never act on it. I’m acting on it. I don’t want to be one of those guys who sits there and goes, ‘I could have done that or I should have done that.’ I can, so I’m doing it.“
The New York Post covered WWE stock dropping 14.7%. One “long-time observer” told them that “They’re training fans to subscribe only to those events they really want to see. There’s no penalty for ending a subscription and then picking it up again.”
There have been a couple UFC fight announcements of note. At UFC 189, the July 11th card headlined by Robbie Lawler vs. Rory MacDonald and Jose Aldo vs. Conor McGregor, Dennis Bermudez will fight Jeremy Stephens. They’re coming off losses to Ricardo Lamas (fighting Chad Mendes this Saturday afternoon) and Charles Oliveira, respectively. The following Wedndesday in San Diego on a Fox Sports 1 card, Tony Ferguson (coming off a first round domination of Gleison Tibau) will fight Josh Thomson (whose last fight was a close split decision loss to Bobby Green). This is Ferguson’s toughest test to date and is a really, really good fight on paper.in the UFC’s most stacked weight class.
Meanwhile, Bellator has rescheduled Eduardo Danta vs. Mike Richman, which is likely going to determine who gets the first shot at new Bantamweight Champion Marcos Galvao, for May 15th.
Chael Sonnen did an impromptu “Ask Me Anything” session on Reddit last night. The most newsworthy note is probably his repeated insistence that Jon Jones vs. Anthony Johnson won’t happen, but he wouldn’t elaborate as to why. He also commented on his guilty plea to money laundering charges: “To start, I was Guilty…The frusteration was that I was only looked at becuase I had just won a Public Election. I was charged with a crime that outside the moveis, I had never even heard of. If you read the definition of the crime, and you look at the way my office performed, we were guilty. Period.“
2K Sports is releasing a new paid downloadable content pack for WWE 2K15 today called “Path of the Warrior,” which features some of The Ultimate Warrior’s most memorable matches, like his WrestleMania wins over Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage and his squash of the Honky Tonk man to win his first Intercontinental Championship.
NBC issued a press release announcing that for the Premier Boxing Champions card on April 11th (a week from Saturday night) from Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn, New York, Bob Costas will work with Marv Albert and Al Michaels on the same broadcast for the first time ever, as he will be presenting a special feature on the history of boxing in New York.
Kind of obvious, yes, but the WWE Archivist tweeted a photo of Seth Rollins’ Money in the Bank briefcase heading back to Connecticut in the overhead compartment on his flight home nome. Now that Rollins cashed it in, it’s heading to the warehouse.
The Rankin Museum of American Heritage in Ellerbe, NC, the town where Andre the Giant lived late in his life, is opening an Andre exhibit on Tuesday, May 19th at 7 p.m local time, andYourDailyJournal.com has a story about the display. The article includes some nice photos including one of the drawing Bret Hart did of the top wrestlers who came through the WWF in the mid to late ’80s to give to Andre as a farewell gift at WrestleMania 6.
KARE TV did a story about “Sodbuster” Kenny Jay’s annual Histiocytosis Association Benefit, which is coming up this Saturday, which features autograph signings from a number of Minneota-area wrestlers including AWA legends.
Awful Announcing took a look at ESPN doing so much WWE coverage during and coming out of WrestleMania week.
Family Wrestling Entertainment announced the cancellation of their April 16th-18th series of upstate New York shows adding that their October 10th show (presumably in Brooklyn) is their only 2015 card still scheduled and could be their last.