Daily Update: Weekend schedule, Conor-Poirier, Tavel lawsuit
October 11, 2020 | News | No Comments
DAILY UPDATE
Latest News:
Hardy & Riddle to face Miz & Morrison on WWE SmackDown
Fourteen matches announced for AEW Dark
EC3 vs. Moose set for Bound For Glory at ‘undisclosed location’
Women’s title match added to AEW Dynamite anniversary episode
Alberto Del Rio indicted on May kidnapping, sexual assault charges
Latest Audio:
WOL: Riddle, Alberto, AEW vs. NXT ratings, plus FILTHY TOM! 10/9
Wrestling Weekly: Florida is open for (wrestling) business 10/9
B&V: Bryan and Vinny review AEW and NXT head-to-head! 10/8
WOR: WON HOF ballot with Mike Tenay (Part 2) 10/8
WON NEWSLETTER: October 12, 2020 Observer Newsletter: Florida reopens, Cartwright lawsuit
A look at how WWE & AEW are handling things like the reopening of Florida, and how Texas looks to be the place MMA companies will go to as far as putting fans in buildings is the lead story in the new issue of the Observer.
We look at the current planned date and place for WrestleMania, what sports are now allowed to do as far as live events in Florida, AEW’s current plans going forward and the new regulations in Texas.
The new issue also covers:
The Samantha Tavel lawsuit against WWE, Matt Riddle, Evolve and Gabe Sapolsky. We look at the claims and look at both sides of the story and stories that have changed. We also look at the strategy of involving WWE i the case, WWE responds to the suit, and go through the time lines and how they differ and wording of the suit. We also go through the background of the case.
History of the non-relationship of NJPW and AEW. We look at how it started, why there was heat, how the ouster of Howard Meij could change things, as well as why there were so many mentions of NJPW on this past week’s AEW show. We look at what happened in January 2019 that caused issues between the two sides, the issues with how talent was handled on the way out, and what would be the first sign if relations started opening up.
WWE draft.
G-1 tournament. We go through what style of wrestlers have been helped and hurt by the current no-cheer, no-boo environment, who has been able to get a reaction, the standings, this week’s matches, plans for the rest of the year in New Japan, plus coverage with star ratings and poll results from every show.
NXT Takeover, the show background, match-by-match coverage and poll results on the show.
Updates on the sports rights fees business and where wrestling fits in, Paige’s tweet about unions, Stephanie McMahon gets major praise, new member of WWE Board of Directors, Drew McIntyre vs. Tyson Fury update, one year anniversary of Smackdown on FOX, more on John Cena’s debut in Fast & Furious, new season of Miz & Mrs. and the time slot, Angel Garza injury update, new A&E specials on pro wrestlers coming next year, more WWE injuries, WWE UK direction, wrestling placings in sports ratings and UK rating s for WWE & AEW, Jack Gallagher talks his being released, college heavyweight wants to be managed by Pual Heyman, Miz working on a new television show, WWE new developmental signings, WWE injury updates, WWE market value and the most-watched shows of the past week on the WWE Network.
This past Saturday’s UFC show.
Bushiroad’s attempt at a major Stardom show this past week.
Rundown of charting the place-winners in the key Observer awards and how it relates to the Hall of Fame.
A feature on the team of Penny Banner & Lorraine Johnson, who were known for decades as being the greatest women’s tag team in pro wrestling with the death this past week of Johnson.
What sports events did the best in viewers per home while talking about AEW setting its company record in that category this week.
Results of all the major pro wrestling events around the world over the past week.
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FRIDAY NEWS UPDATE
We’ve got the second show we did with Mike Tenay up on the site today talking about the 2020 Hall of Fame voting.
In evidence in the Samantha Tavel lawsuit against WWE, Matt Riddle, Gabe Sapolsky and Evolve, there was an email sent from Drake Wuertz, who is involved with booking extras on the show, which showed Wuertz telling Tavel she was off shows on 2/5 and 3/4 of this year saying in the email “Apparently there are some past issues I wasn’t aware of with you and one of our talent that would not make for a ideal work environment.” Tavel is claiming that is proof that WWE refused to book her after she claimed she broke up with Riddle claiming she was sexually assaulted in the past. Riddle claimed he broke up with her twice and she was harassing himself and his wife after the breakup. There is a very detailed story in the current Observer detailing the case. No doubt there will be a lot more on the case in the days to come.
According to Ariel Helwani, the UFC has offered a 1/23 date for the Conor McGregor vs. Dustin Poirier fight, but McGregor is publicly insisting the fight takes place before the end of the year, saying he’s willing to fight on 11/21 or 12/12, which are both PPV shows. Poirier has also said he would fight McGregor on either of those dates.
The G-1 tournament returns tomorrow at 4 a.m. Eastern with an A block show from Osaka with Yota Tsuji vs. Yuya Uemura, Tomohiro Ishii vs. Jeff Cobb, Jay White vs Yujiro Takahashi, Taichi vs. Will Ospreay, Kota Ibushi vs. Minoru Suzuki and Kazuchika Okada vs; Shingo Takagi. There is also a Sunday at 5 a.m. Eastern show with the B block with Tetsuya Naito vs. Evil, Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Hirooki Goto, Toru Yano vs. KENTA and Yoshi-Hashi vs Zack Sabre Jr.
Bellator will be the first MMA promotion to run in France with a show in Paris tomorrow that airs at 11:30 a.m. Eastern on CBS Sports network as well as on BBC iPlayer in the U.K.
Mads Burnell (145.6) vs. Darko Banovic (145)
Ryan Scope (160.8) vs. Alan Omer (159)
Oliver Enkamp (168.4) vs. Emmanuel Dawa (170)
Michael Venom Page (174.2) vs. Ross Houston (174.8)
Saul Rogers (145.4) vs Abri Mezhidov (146)
Cheick Koingo (245.6) vs. Tim Johnson (259.8)
The last two bouts will not air on television in the U.S., but air on Bellator’s youTube Channel at about 5 p.m. Eastern time.
UFC tomorrow from Yaz Island in Abu Dhabi for a ESPN+ show starting at 5 p.m. Eastern:
Bruno Silva (125.5) vs. Tagir Ulanbekov (126)
Tracy Cortez (136) vs. Stephanie Egger (135.5)
Giga Chikadze (146) vs. Omar Morales (145.5)
Ali Alqaisi (136) vs. Tony Kelley (136)
Joaquin Buckley (185.5) vs. Impa Kasanganay (185.5)
Chris Daukaus (227) vs. Rodrigo Nascimento (265)
K.B. Bhullar (186) vs. Tom Breese (186)
Ilia Topuira (146) vs. Yuossef Zalal (146)
Tom Aspinall (252) vs. Alan Baudot (254)
Dricu Da Pressis (186) vs. Markus Perez (186)
Ben Rothwell (265) vs. Marcin Tybura (263)
Edson Barboza (145.5) vs. Makwan Amirkhani (146)
Marlon Moraes (136) vs. Cory Sandhagen (136)
The Mexican women’s national title tournament block B is tonight from Arena Mexico on the Ticketmaster website. This week’s teams are Estrellita & Mystique, Dalys & Stephanie Vaquer, Princesa Sugehit & Sanely Jarochita & Lluvia and La Guerrera & Vaquerita. The top two bouts are Forastero vs. Euforia and Caristico & Bandido vs. Negro Casas & Gran Guerrero.
WWE
Smackdown tonight has 20 picks in the draft plus Bayley vs. Sasha Banks for the Smackdown women’s title, Kevin Owens vs. Bray Wyatt, Big E vs. Sheamus falls count anywhere and Matt Riddle & Jeff Hardy vs. The Miz & John Morrison. Riddle being on the show is notable with the lawsuit filed yesterday against both he and WWE by Samantha Tavel.
Those up for the draft tonight are Asuka, Sasha Banks, Bianca Belair, Dana Brooke, Humberto Carrillo, Elias, Angel Garza, Drew Gulak, Heavy Machinery, The Hurt Business, Mickie James, Lucha House Party, Drew McIntyre, Murphy, Rey & Dominik Mysterio, Naomi, New Day, Roman Reigns, Ricochet, Seth Rollins, Mandy Rose, Shayna Baszler & Nia Jax, Shorty G, AJ Styles and Jey Uso. Raw will pick first, third and fifth in every round and there will be five rounds of picks
Ronda Rousey in a Hot Wings eating challenge. (thanks to Grant Zwarych)
There have been a lot of people noting that today would have been the 53rd birthday of Eddy Guerrero.
UFC
The Amanda Ribas vs. Carla Esparza fight scheduled for 12/12 is now off for that date but the hope is for it to take place in early 2021. Esparza pulled out of the date and they are looking for a new opponent for Ribas.
Brian Kelleher vs. Ricky Simon at bantamweight is set for a 1/16 date. They had been scheduled recently but one of Simon’s cornermen tested positive for COVID so the fight was pulled off.
Mackenzie Dern vs. Virna Jandiroba has been added to the 12/12 show.
AEW
The movie “Cagefighter: World’s Collide” starring Jon Moxley is available for VOD viewing on Fandango Now and Vudu. Moxley stars as a pro wrestling superstar put in an MMA fight for an attempt at a big business dream match. Chuck Liddell, Jay (Christian) Reso and Luke Rockhold are also in the movie.
A horror documentary featuring Chris Jericho.
MISCELLANEOUS
A great story by Marc Raimondi about MMA, boxing and pro wrestling on the effect the pandemic has had on developing younger fighters and newer wrestling stars. (thanks to Barry Werner)
An attempt by Jeff Jarrett to get a new trial in his suit against Anthem Sports was denied by Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw in U.S. District Court in the Middle District of Tennessee. PWInsider reported that after the first case was ruled a mistrial, Crenshaw said that due to COVID and that criminal trials take precedence, he has no ability to regularly schedule jury trials.
A note for people interested in my new book, the 1997 Wrestling Observer Yearbook, if you are in Canada the best price would be ordering at amazon.ca For the U.S. market it would be at amazon.com and for the U.K. market it would be at www.WrestlingObserverBook.com
ROH’s pure tournament this weekend on TV has Jay Lethal vs. David Finlay and Fred Yehi vs. Tracy Williams in the first two quarterfinals.
FITE TV will be airing all of the shows of The Collective this weekend including AIW Thunder at 8 p.m. Eastern tonight, Game Chamber at midnight tonight and Josh Barnett’s Blood sport on Sunday.
The New York Times has a story on pressures of celebrityhood in Japan which talks about the death of Hana Kimura.
The PFL has announced the signings of Cezar Ferreira, Renen Ferreira, Sheymon Moraes, Joilton Lutterbach, Hatef Moeil, Marthin Hamlet, Sung Bin Jo and Brandon Sayles for the 2021 season.
KSW 55 takes place tomorrow from Lodz, Poland at www.KSWTV.com with Scott Ashkam (19-4) vs. Mamed Khalidov (34-7-2) for the middleweight title in the main event, plus Michal Materia (28-7) vs. Aleksander Ilic (12-3) and Damian Janikowski (4-3) vs. Andreas Gustafsson (6-0).
Mark Davis of the Aussie Open tag team has returned to Australia and his running classes at the new 3 Count Academy in Brisbane.
World Series Wrestling listed a return in 2021 which featured Marty Scurll in the listing, who is their current champion. They got a lot of backlash for mentioning Scurll, and took down the post on Twitter but left it up on Facebook (thanks to Kevin Chiat)
LFA on 10/16 in Park City, KS on UFC Fight Pass has Andre Petroski (5-0) vs. Aaron Jefferey (8-2) in a middleweight fight as the main event. The show airs at 9 p.m. next week on UFC Fight Pass.
Pro Wrestling Phoenix runs tomorrow night in Omaha, NE at the Waiting Room Lounge.
Jack Bonza, the owner of PWA based in Sydney, has announced himself for the main event of a 10/10 show. He was accused of sexually harassing fans months ago and has not publicly acknowledged it up to this point.
WAR on 11/7 in Lima, OH at the Empowered Sports Center.
A new wrestling magazine in Austria called In de Goschn will be released this month. It will be 100 pages and will focus on wrestling in Austria 80 percent and have some content on the U.S. and Lucha Libre scenes. The people behind it have journalism backgrounds writing for economy papers and magazines in the past. It will be for Austria but have some availability in Germany. (thanks to Markus Gronemann)
Expo Lucha has a virtual convention tomorrow at 1 p.m. on the Expo Lucha Facebook page. They will air a ton of matches from the past. have interviews and more
ICW No Holds Barred on 11/13 in Tampa, FL at the 81 Bay Brewing Company with Erick Stevens, Dom Garrini, Bruce Santee and more.
A trailer for the movie “The Masked Wrestler”.
Kevin Eck’s weekly ROH news column.
Daily Pro Wrestling History: Nick Bockwinkel regains AWA World title
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