1917 

Omaha, Nebraska:
– Earl Caddock defeated Joe Stecher by forfeit to win the World Heavyweight Title (Stecher lost the first fall and refused to wrestle the second fall)

1943

St. Joseph, Missouri:
– World Champion Wild Bill Longson beat Ronnie Etchison 
– Vic Holbrook beat Jack Hader 
– Sailor Fred Blassie beat Carlos Rodriquez 
– Cowboy Luttrall drew Jack Nasworthy

1953

Cleveland, Ohio:
– Buddy Rogers defeated Antonino Rocca to win the Ohio version of the Boston AWA World Heavyweight Title

1960 

Indianapolis, Indiana:
– Ray and Roy Shire defeated Dick Afflis and Gene Kiniski to win the Chicago/Indianapolis NWA World Tag Team Titles

1963 

Nashville, Tennessee:
– Gino and Tony Calza defeated The Medics (Tony Gonzales and Donald Lortie) to win the Mid-America NWA Southern Tag Team Titles

1965

Denver, Colorado:
– AWA Tag Team Champions Larry Hennig & Harley Race beat The Crusher & Verne Gagne

1966

Minneapolis:
– Verne Gagne beat Larry Hennig
– Crusher beat Chris Tolos by DQ
– Harley Race beat Dale Lewis
– Ernie Ladd beat Moose Cholak
– Reggie Parks drew Chris Markoff
– The Alaskan beat Bob Morgan

1969 

Los Angeles, California:
– Black Gordman defeated Alfonso Dantés for the vacant NWA Beat the Champ TV Title 

1976 

St. Louis, Missouri:
– Dick the Bruiser defeated Blackjack Lanza
– Gene Kiniski defeated Bob Backlund
– Harley Race draw Pat O’Connor in a non-title 30-minute match
– Wilbur Snyder and Ray Candy defeated Chuck O’Connor and Ox Baker 
– Betty Niccoli defeated Joyce Grable
– Lord Alfred Hayes defeated Guy Mitchell
– Tank Patton defeated Paul Christy

Mexico, City, Mexico:
– Fishman defeated Blue Demon to win the NWA World Welterweight Title

1978

Charlotte, North Carolina:
– Ric Flair defeated Mr. Wrestling to win the NWA United States Heavyweight Title 

Mexico City, Mexico:
– Perro Aguayo defeated Ringo Mendoza for the NWA World Middleweight Title 

1979

Memphis, Tennessee:
– Tony Charles won an elimination match
– Jimmy Golden & Ron Slinker beat Tommy Gilbert & Buzz Sawyer
– Southern Tag Champs Bill Dundee & Robert Fuller beat The Assassins via DQ
– Austin Idol & The Mongolian Stomper beat Jerry Lawler & Toru Tanaka in a no DQ match

1981

Kansas City, Kansas:
– Bob Brown and Terry Taylor defeated The Kelly Twins (Mike and Pat) for the NWA Central States Tag Team Titles

Portland, Oregon:
– Buddy Rose defeated Jay Youngblood to win the NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Title

1984

Memphis, Tennessee:
– The Super Gladiator drew Jesse Ortega
– Brickhouse Brown beat Ric McCord
– Tiger Mark & Harley Davidson beat King Konga & The Angel
– Jim Niedhart beat Art Crews
– Ox Baker beat Scott Shannon
– Southern Tag Champs Tommy Rich & Eddie Gilbert beat Koko Ware & Norvell Austin in a Texas death match
– Austin Idol beat Rick Rude via DQ in a strap match
– Southern Champ Jerry Lawler beat Randy Savage in a loser receives ten lashes match to win the Mid-America Title

1987 

– Jim Crockett Promotions purchased Bill Watts’ Universal Wrestling Federation

1988

Caguas, Puerto Rico:
– Carlos Colón won the WWC Universal Heavyweight Title by defeating Hercules Ayala

1990

Okayama, Japan:
– Kenta Kobashi and Tiger Mask (Mitsuharu Misawa) defeated The Can-Am Express (Doug Furnas and Dan Kroffat (Philip LaFon)) for the AJPW All Asia Tag Team Titles 

1992

Knoxville, Tennessee:
– The Junkyard Dog pinned Richard Morton
– WCW US Tag Team Champion Greg Valentine & Mike Graham defeated Marcus Alexander Bagwell & Tom Zenk
– Ron Simmons pinned Cactus Jack
– Nikita Koloff pinned Diamond Dallas Page
– Dustin Rhodes & Barry Windham defeated WCW TV Champion Steve Austin & Larry Zbyszko in a bunkhouse match
– Rick & Scott Steiner defeated WCW Tag Team Champions Arn Anderson & Bobby Eaton via disqualification
– WCW World Champion Sting pinned Big Van Vader
– WCW US Champion Rick Rude defeated Ricky Steamboat via disqualification

Paintsville, Kentucky:
– Bobby Blaze pinned Mike Sampson
– Tom Horner defeated Stan Lane via disqualification
– Kevin Sullivan pinned Brian Lee
– SMW Heavyweight Champion Tracy Smothers pinned the Dirty White Boy
– Ricky Morton & Tim Horner defeated Stan Lane & Bobby Eaton in a streetfight

1993

Manhattan, Kansas:
– Joey Maggs defeated the Russian Brute
– Maxx Payne defeated Johnny Gunn
– The Barbarian defeated Wrecking Crew Rage
– Van Hammer defeated Vinnie Vegas
– 2 Cold Scorpio & Cactus Jack defeated WCW World Champion Big Van Vader & WCW TV Champion Paul Orndorff 
– WCW/NWA Tag Team Champions Steve Austin & Brian Pillman defeated Ricky Steamboat & Shane Douglas

1994

Morristown, Tennessee:
– Mike Furnas defeated the Hornet
– Timothy Well & Steven Dunn defeated Tracy Smothers & Bobby Blaze
– SMW Heavyweight Champion the Dirty White Boy defeated Prince Kharis
– Bob Armstrong defeated Jim Cornette in a lumberjack match
– SMW Tag Team Champions Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson defeated Chris Candido & Brian Lee via disqualification

Kansas City, Kansas:
– Arn Anderson defeated Bobby Eaton
– WCW US Champion Steve Austin defeated Brian Pillman
– Kevin & Dave Sullivan defeated WCW Tag Team Champions the Nasty Boys in a non-title match
– Ricky Steamboat defeated WCW International World Champion Rick Rude via disqualification
– Sting defeated WCW TV Champion Lord Steven Regal in a non-title match
– WCW World Champion Ric Flair defeated Vader via disqualification 

1995

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania:
– T. Rantula defeated Cactus Jack for the Steel City Wrestling Heavyweight Title 

2003

Louisville, Kentucky:
– Doug Basham won the OVW Heavyweight Title by defeating Nick Dinsmore 

2004 

Quarryville, Pennsylvania:
– Minoru Fujita and Ikuto Hidaka defeated Josh Daniels and Matt Striker to win the Premier Wrestling Federation Universal Tag Team Titles

Milwaukee, Wisconsin:
– Zach Gowen and Silas Young defeated Jason Dukes and Skull Krusher for the Mid-America Wrestling Tag Team Titles
– Justin Kage defeated Austin Aries to win the NWA Midwest X Division Title 

IWA April Bloodshowers: Oolitic, Indiana:
– In a 30-minute Iron Man match, B.J. Whitmer (with Jim Fannin) defeated IWA Mid-South Heavyweight Champion Jerry Lynn, 2-1, to win the title

2005 

Newark, Delaware:
– Petey Williams defeated Puma to win the Super 8 Tournament 

2009

ROH Collision: Chicago, Illinois:
– Claudio Castagnoli defeated Kevin Steen
– Necro Butcher & Jerry Lynn defeated The Age of the Fall’s Delirious and Brodie Lee
– Tyler Black defeated Jimmy Jacobs, Austin Aries and Bryan Danielson
– ROH champ Nigel McGuinness defeated El Generico

2011 

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania:
– Adam Cole won the Combat Zone Wrestling Best of 2011 tournament

Premier Boxing Champions held their second show on Friday, March 7th on Spike at the Citizens Bank Arena in Ontario, California. It was Premier’s debut on Spike as part of what Spike is billing as Friday Night Lights Out, with the theme of holding combat sports events nearly every Friday night that include Premier, Glory Kickboxing, and Bellator MMA.

Premier’s debut on Spike featured three fights, headlined by Andre Berto (30-3, 23 KO’s) stopping Josesito Lopez (33-7, 19 KO’s) in the sixth round at welterweight. Lopez was ahead on all three cards until he was dropped twice by Berto in the sixth, with referee Raul Caiz Jr immediately calling the fight after Lopez was dropped a second time without giving Lopez another ten count. It was a controversial finish, especially with the live audience as Lopez was clearly ahead and was the hometown favourite. Berto was booed heavily both during his entrance and post-fight interview.

Also on the card, Chris Arreola (36-4, 31 KO’s) beat Curtis Harper (12-4, 8 KO’s) at heavyweight in a close eight-round fight via decision on scores of 76-75, 78-73, and 77-74. The fight was much closer than the scores indicated, as many of the middle rounds could have been judged either way. Arreola scored a stunning knockdown in the first and looked to be close to finishing the fight, but Harper held on, making it close until he started to gas near the end.

In the opening match, Shawn Porter (25-1-1, 16 KO’s) knocked out Erick Bone (pronounced “Bo-Nay”) (16-2, 8 KO’s) at 2:30 of the fifth round at welterweight. Bone went into the fight on one days’ notice, replacing Robert Garcia who backed out due to illness. Bone fared well the first few rounds, but was overmatched and not in fight shape and was eventually knocked out by Porter. Bone flew in from New York on Thursday night when it became clear that Garcia wasn’t going to try and make weight.

Premier Boxing is, of course, the new promotion run by boxing agent Al Haymon. Premier held their first card on NBC on March 7th, the first time NBC had aired boxing in prime time since 1985. It looks like Premier is planning on running one show a month on Spike as part Spike’s combat sports themed Fridays. In addition to the monthly Spike shows, in 2015 the promotion has twenty events planned to be split between NBC and NBC Sports and perhaps somewhere around twenty events total planned for CBS and CBS Sports, too.

One of the most noticeable aspects of Premier’s debut on NBC was the lavish production values put into the show. On Spike, there seemed to be little drop in quality in production, if any drop at all. The massive entrance stage with the video wall returned. Fighters walked down to the ring alone. Premier brought back the 360-degree camera and the Hans Zimmer score and used headband cameras on some of the corner men as a gimmick to show replays from unique angles between rounds. Referee Jack Reiss also wore the headband camera during the first fight between Porter and Bone.

The commentary team was completely different compared to NBC, though. The Spike commentary team was clearly aimed at a much younger audience. The team featured Scott Hanson from the NFL Network, Jimmy Smith from Bellator, and Antonio Tarver. Commentary was good. The show was hosted by Dana Jacobson of CBS Sports and co-hosted by Thomas “Hitman” Hearns. Jacobson’s role was basically to introduce the show during the opening, explaining to the audience that this wasn’t our father’s boxing. Later she had a couple of segments with Hearns discussing the upcoming Mayweather-Pacquiao fight. Jacobson was fine and stands out as one of the few female broadcasters in combat sports, but Hearns was completely incoherent to almost comical effect. I can’t imagine that he’ll be brought back.

Unlike the NBC broadcast, the Spike show featured no commercials for Mayweather-Pacquiao, even though it was discussed throughout the broadcast. Spike, however, ran many commercials for both Glory and Bellator, frequently advertising Joe Warren’s upcoming title defense later in the month, as well as the signing of Kimbo Slice. Michael Chandler, Liam McGeary, and Tito Ortiz were shown in the audience.

From watching the show I feel like the deal Haymon has worked out with Spike may be different than the deals worked with NBC and CBS, although that’s speculation. Premier’s primary sponsor is Corona and they had the same ads throughout the show as they did on NBC. But the rest of the commercials were the same types of commercials normally run during other Spike broadcasts. There was even a Metro PCS commercial with a cameo by Ronda Rousey that aired a number of times.

“We obviously never talk about financial details but I will say that we are both heavily invested in this,” said Spike President Kevin Kay in an interview with Bloody Elbow. “Al is putting up a great deal and we are putting a lot into it as well and we are very excited. We plan on having boxing for years to come on Spike.”

The show started at 9pm ET and ran until 11:15pm ET, which was the window that was scheduled on Spike. The main event between Berto and Lopez, however, didn’t start until around 10:30pm ET and was booked for twelve rounds and there was a reasonable expectation that fight would go the distance, which might have carried the broadcast past 11:15. Spike had fifteen minutes of Cops scheduled from 11:15 to 11:30pm ET.

Berto, Porter, and to a lesser degree Arreola and Harper all got over as stars. Berto got over in similar to Broner as the obvious villain. Jimmy Smith even referred to Berto as “playing the heel” during the broadcast. Berto, Porter, and Arreola are three fighters who have been near the top and faced some top fighters, but have never won that one big fight to get them over as top stars. Comparing the lineup for the debut on Spike to the lineup for the debut on NBC, it is clear that the Spike show features more action fighters and less highly-ranked skilled fighters. It worked, because the show went three-for-three when it came to holding exciting matches.

The question is what kind of ratings Premier Boxing draws on Spike, whether the hype will carry over from the successful debut on NBC, and what kind of role Premier Boxing on Spike plays if Haymon is able to sign a pay deal with one of the major networks and moves away from the time buy business model.

Recent broadcasts of Glory and Bellator on Spike have done well. The latest Bellator show took place on February 27th and was one of their major tent pole quarterly shows with Liam McGeary beating Emanuel Newton to win the Light-Heavyweight title. It drew an average viewership of 872,000 and peaked at 1,200,000 viewers. Bellator’s three events in 2015 have averaged 734,667 viewers. Bellator’s final nine events of 2014, including the mega show with Tito Ortiz beating Stephan Bonnar in November that drew an average of 1.4 million viewers, averaged 815,000 viewers combined.

Glory drew a record rating for Glory 19 on February 6th, headlined by Rico Verhoeven retaining the Heavyweight title by stopping Errol Zimmerman. The show drew 542,000 viewers on average and peaked at 825,000 viewers. The record rating was an increase of nearly fifty percent from Glory’s previous event in November, which drew an average of 352,000 viewers.

With Bellator averaging over 700,000 viewers for its 2015 events and Glory drawing over 500,000 viewers for its sole event, one would expect with the hype that Premier Boxing brings from its successful debut last weekend that that ratings for its debut on Spike should be at least as good what Bellator draws, if not much better. It was a good night for Premier to debut on Spike, as ESPN wasn’t running Friday Night Fights this week. Showtime did have a ShoBox card on Friday night, though, which features lesser known prospects. Spike ran shoulder programming on March 6th to hype Premier’s debut.

It will be interesting in to see how the age demographic for Premier’s debut on Spike breaks down. The debut on NBC drew an average of 3.4 million viewers and peaked at 4.2 million. It did a 1.08 rating in 18-49, but had an average viewer age of 52 with the show’s viewership skewing to older males. Spike is clearly going after a different demographic compared to Premier on NBC, with the younger broadcast team and the typical Spike ads for video games, energy drinks, and clothing. Whether the 18-34 demo agrees that Premier on Spike is not their father’s boxing remains to be seen.

“My goal is to try to give boxing exposure to younger viewers. I think that’s Spike’s place in this, because we have a large audience of 18 to 34 year olds that love combat sports,” Kay told Bloody Elbow. “If we can bring them to the table I think that’s what’s going to help secure boxing’s future. Because right now, we all know this, it’s an old sport. If we can bring 18 to 34 year olds to boxing that’s what’s going to secure the future of boxing because otherwise everyone is going to age out and that’s not going to be great for the sport.”

The hype that this is a boxing show for a younger generation is mainly window dressing. It’s still boxing like any other kind of boxing once the bell rings. It’s interesting that so many boxing promoters are trying to grab the attention of the 18-34 males right now, as that demo seems to prove elusive to the boxing industry. Another example is Jay-Z’s Roc Nation promotion, which debuted in January and, like Premier on Spike, was also promoted as being modernized boxing aimed at a younger, casual fan.

“We have actually been encouraged by Al [Haymon] and his team to ‘Spike it’,” Kay told MMA Fighting this week. “We go after different audiences. CBS is going to be weekend day times. They do things their way. NBC is prime time is almost quarterly – they haven’t fully released their schedule yet – those prime time events. And they’ll be doing some weekend day time as well. We have exclusively Friday nights once a month.”

“You go back to when we put the WWE as the lead in to The Ultimate Fighter. Everybody said, ‘Wrestling fans will never watch mixed martial arts.’ My thing was like, there’s 6 million people watching the WWE at the time. If I only get 20 percent of them, I’ll be a happy guy. I think we did better than that,” said Kay.

“I don’t know that’s there’s a tremendous crossover. Boxing tends to be older. It has been older for a long time. Mixed martial arts tends to be younger. I think we have the potential to draw new fans to each sport and I hope that we can do that,” continued Kay. “I think when you look at boxing and you see those numbers they put up on NBC, there’s a hugely strong boxing audience out there. If I can bring that to Spike – and particularly among the Latino community, among the African-American community – those would be so additive to the audience we already have, it would make me very happy. I think that would expand our audience base.”

Jeremy Wall can be contacted at jeremywall1984 at gmail dot com and followed on Twitter @jeremydalewall.

by David Bixenspan | [email protected] | Follow @davidbix

TV tonight:

The 10 day showcase of each UFC weight class on Fox Sports 1 continues with a night of welterweight-themed programming:

7:00 p.m. ET – New episode of UFC Ultimate Insider (UFC’s magazine style show) revolving around Tyron Woodley, Johny Hendricks, Carlos Condit, & Rory MacDonald.

7:30 p.m. ET – Rerun of UFC Main Event (full fight preceded by footage from the Countdown special) featuring Nick Diaz vs. B.J. Penn from UFC 137.

8:00 p.m. ET – New episode of UFC Main Event featuring Robbie Lawler vs. Matt Brown from UFC on Fox 12 last July.

9:00 p.m. ET – Rerun of UFC Fight Flashback (documentary style presentation of an edited version of the fight) featuring Johny Hendricks vs. Robbie Lawler I from March 2014 for the vacant title.

9:30 p.m. ET – New episode of UFC Main Event featuring Johny Hendricks vs. Robbie Lawler II from December.

10:30 p.m. ET – New episode of UFC Fight Flashback featuring Georges St. Pierre vs. Johnny Hendricks from 2012.

****

The newest issue of Figure Four Weekly is up on the site for subscribers (subscribe here) with a look at the current state of wrestling content piracy in light of recent developments like Tommy Dreamer’s Facebook post and the arrest of WWE/UFC show capper “Sir Paul,” as well as early notes on the death of Perro Aguayo Jr. 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. 

**** 

We’ve got a jam packed issue of news this week in the Observer, with the fallout of UFC 185 and the two title changes, The New Japan Cup and where the booking is going, the build toward Invasion Attack, more comments on the Bill DeMott situation in WWE, more on Rampage Jackson’s Bellator contract and Scott Coker, under oath, goes through what happened in negotiations and why Bellator is suing, , plus we’ve got features on Larry Zbyszko and Tatsumi Fujinami and the WWE Hall of Fame, New Japan attempts to rebuild NOAH with a storyline that has gotten mainstream ink and the bus accident and problems leading to the Rey de Reyes show.

The latest issue of the observer Mar. 23, 2015 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Two upset title changes at UFC 185, New Japan Cup, Bill DeMott notes, Bellator/Rampage injunction update, detailed WWE HOF notes

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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 lead story looks at Bill DeMott’s tenure as head trainer for WWE developmental.  We look at how he got started as a trainer, We look at the history of the WWE developmental program, why it was a surprise at first that DeMott was made head trainer, more on the complaints regarding DeMott, the claimed language used and how this relates to what pro wrestling was.  We look at injury issues in developmental, why cameras were put on all practices, if there was a feeling DeMott was a time bomb, and why WWE handled this the way it did.

We look at other firings in WWE caused by outside pressure, including the departure of Hulk Hogan in 1992.  We look at different things said  by different former WWE performers regarding DeMott and this situation.  We also look at talent development itself.

We up date Brock Lesnar’s contract situation and negotiations, his timing, how things that have taken place work in his favor.   We also update WrestleMania.

We look at the unique Rampage Jackson Bellator contract, where he said they breached, notes on the Bellator PPV, his guaranteed fight money and bonuses.

We also look at Connor Michalek and the WWE Hall of Fame, WWE signs book deal, Notes on this year’s SummerSlam as well as the 2016 version, Daniel Bryan talks his return, the Rumble and his Mania match, current WWE value, Pat Patterson talks career to Chris Jericho, Patterson talks the first WrestleMania and Royal Rumble creation, John Cena honored, rundown of NXT shows and activities in Ohio, as well as a look at the WWE house shows and business notes from the past week.

We also look at the attempt with the Premier Boxing Championships to take boxing mainstream, and look at the debut show on NBC.  We compare the ratings and the difference in audience makeup to that of UFC.  We look at the PBC plans for 2015, and how they compare to what Vince McMahon did in 1984 and what the UFC did in 2005.  We look at upcoming events, what the goal is, decisions, talent pay and overall economics related to the show.

We update the New Japan Cup, with the next iPPV lineup, early notes on the Invasion Attack show along with coverage of the first two events.

We also look at PWG, its changes, what has happened regarding some ROH talent, as well as a look at their last show.

We also have complete win-loss records of all TNA talent in 2014.

We also look at WWE business for January in several categories, including live attendance and television ratings.

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:

–CMLL lineup for its first major show of the year

–What CMLL is doing for fans who watch Dos Leyendas at the movie theaters

–Tournament final to crown new NWA light heavyweight champion

–Finals of the incredible partners tournament

–Update on Alberto Del Rio injury

–AAA iPPV show this week ad notes on how to order

–A look at AAA’s TV tapings this past week in Mexico City

–A look at the debut of Brian Cage in AAA

–Keiji Muto loses W-1 title belt and a look at the singles and tag titles in the promotion, plus the cruiserweight tournament

–A look at this week’s Dragon Gate iPPV show

–Early notes on the next major Dragon Gate shows

–Notes on the 2015 Champion Carnival tournament

–First real big test of the new NOAH booking

–Notes on future of New Japan World

–New Japan stars headed to U.K.

–Shoot tournament to crown a pro wrestling world champion starts in April

–Special perks for Observer readers over WrestleMania weekend

–Tons of notes on activities and shows over Mania weekend

–Update on the first New Japan PPV, how it did, as well as an update on the future of Global Force Wrestling

–Notes on Northeast Wrestling doing an indie show that did more than 2,000 fans

–A look at Tommy Dreamer’s House of Hardcore show

–Notes on the wXw 16 Carat Gold tournament

–Major Lucha Libre stars headed to he U.K.

–70s star resurfaces after winning battle over cancer and wrestles his first match in 24 years

–Another former UFC fighter now training for pro wrestling

–Notes on the next ROH PPV show

–Notes on the ROH shows with New Japan

–More on the Samoa Joe vs. Jay Briscoe ROH title match

–The biggest threat to ROH right now

–Lineups for this week’s ROH house shows

–Matt Sydal injury notes

–A look at the next month of ROH television

–Changes in TNA television

–TNA tag team title notes

–Wrestler to debut this week with TNA

–New TNA TV contract

–Notes on this week’s UFC show 

–Thoughts on the new Johny Hendricks

–UFC to have a four hour live show on FOX

–New UFC fights

–Pay records for the last Invicta show

–More on PPV potential of Rousey vs. Cyborg

–More on Burt Watson quitting UFC

–Watson talks about his departure

–A look at UFC’s debut in The Philippines

–Next Bellator lineup featuring former star from Japan

–Renzo Gracie pleads guilty to assault charges

–Jason Miller arrested again

–Former UFC fighter tracks down robber

–Next Ben Askren fight

–Chael Sonnen returns to combat

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)
 
*March 14, 2005 (the 50 biggest money players in the history of WWF and a look at their Hall of Fame)
 
*May 9, 2005 (the life and times of Chris Candido)
 
*June 20, 2005 (The full story behind Paul Heyman and the death of ECW, as well as coverage of One Night Stand, Hardcore Homecoming and behind the scenes of both shows)
 
*July 18, 2005 (death of Shinya Hashimoto and his records with a look at the fall of New Japan, the Matt Hardy angle, tons of WWE firings, Cornette firing in detail as well as problems of a WWE developmental territory in our biggest news issue of the year which is a double-sized issue and would be $6 on its own and $7 overseas)
 
*August 24, 2005 (2005 Hall of Fame issue with career profiles of Paul Heyman, HHH and Freebirds plus debut of MMA Hall of Fame)
 
*September 12, 2005 (History of Mid South Wrestling)
 
*October 10, 2005 (Life and Times of the Ultimate Warrior)
 
*November 21, 2005 (Life and Times of Eddy Guerrero and Crusher, double issue $6 on its own and $7 overseas)
 
*December 5, 2005 (The Eddy Guerrero special issue, double issue $6 on its own, $7 overseas)
 
*January 9, 2006 (The life and times of Superstar Billy Graham, plus New Year’s Eve 2005 coverage)
 
*January 16, 2006 (2005 Awards double issue, $6 or $7 overseas)
 
*April 3, 2006 (Story of Ann Calvello and the history of Roller Derby–many called this the best issue of the Observer ever)
 
*April 10, 2006 (Behind the scenes at the 2006 Wrestlemania/Hall of Fame week)
 
*July 24, 2006 (The History of the Von Erichs and World Class Championship Wrestling–the most unreal story ever in wrestling)
 
*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)
 
*October 9, 2006 (A look back nine years later at the life and legacy of Brian Pillman with tons of inside information about what made him tick as his real objectives)
 
*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)
 
*March 5, 2007 (WWE begins plans that will change the business)
 
*March 12, 2007 (Life and Times of Mike Awesome)
 
*March 19, 2007 (Life and Times of Ernie Ladd)
 
*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)
 
*November 12, 2007 (Life and times of Fabulous Moolah and history of U.S. women’s wrestling) .
 
*December 31, 2007 (History of Ric Flair and the heyday of wrestling at the Greensboro Coliseum)
 
*January 21, 2008 (2007 Awards issue, double issue $7 on its own, $8 overseas)
 
*March 17, 2008 (Life and times of Johnny Weaver)
 
*March 24, 2008 (Life and times of Gary Hart)
 
*April 10, 2008 (Farewell to Ric Flair; My thoughts, Shawn Michaels talks of Flair’s meaning to him; Hall of Fame; Wrestlemania double issue, $7 on its own, $8 overseas)
 
*August 11, 2008 (Ric Flair leaves WWE; Updated history of pro wrestlers and MMA fighters who went to the Olympics)
 
* September 8, 2008 (2008 Hall of Fame double issue, $7 on its own, $8 overseas; part one of Killer Kowalski bio)
 
* September 15, 2008 (Life and Times of Evan Tanner)
 
* September 22, 2008 (The amazing career of Killer Kowalski, one of our most in-depth bios)
 
You can also order any of these issues on their own for $4 in North America or $5 overseas.
 
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

Check out our WWE RAW TV Report by Rob McCarron from last night.
Wrestling Observer Radio 3/24: Perro Aguayo Jr., final Raw before WrestleMania, Smackdown tapings, tons of questions! with Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez.
More from the site check out today’s Wrestling Observer Live with Bryan Alvarez and Mike Sempervive as they talk to Gabe Sapolsky.  Wrestling Observer Live 3/24: Gabe Sapolsky talks heyday of indy wrestling, Mania weekend events, plus Raw go-home show
Stephanie McMahon did a relatively extensive (for her) interview with Fast Company that went up today. It centers around her role as Chief Brand Officer: The reasoning for when and where she is or isn’t in character, WWE’s social media presence, WWE Network, etc. Lots of buzzwords, industry terms, impressive-sounding numbers, etc. here. At the very least, she comes off well-prepared, probably more so than usual.
Last night, Jeff Jarrett and Global Force Wrestling announced some kind of GFW events for “this Summer” in Las Vegas. No talent announced, nothing about it being a TV taping (though one would think that if the shows are in Las Vegas, it’s to get a site fee to subsidize TV tapings and/or have easy access to tourists to fill out the audience), no specific date(s) listed, etc.
Chuck Mindenhall has a fantastic article at MMAFighting about Jason Thacker, the first fighter eliminated from the first season of The Ultimate Fighter who subsequently fell off the face of the Earth, at least when it comes to MMA. Especially worth reading if you’re into reality TV production aspect of the story, as he famously had no verifiable MMA fights going into the show and admits here that he did indeed make it up, misrepresenting his Muay Thai record on small local cards as a MMA record.
Off-site Dave Meltzer content from the last few days:

Discussing the death of Perro Aguayo Jr. on The Christopher Gabriel Program in Fresno.

Kurt Angle has no regrets when it comes to not doing MMA.

Fortunes changed for five at UFC Fight Night: Maia vs. LaFlare.

Myself and Dylan Hales have started a new podcast, The Trade Marks, covering various topics related to intellectual property in pro wrestling. In the first episode, we discuss the arrest of WWE/UFC torrent capper/uploader “Sir Paul,” the probable secret WWE lawsuit against various John Does this week to allow them to seize bootleg merchandise within a five mile radius of WrestleMania as they have in previous years, and the recent strong anti-piracy push on the indie scene.
WWE Network is now available (a day early) to Telus Optic TV subscribers in Canada if you call into their call center.
Dory Funk Jr’s nex !BANG! TV Taping is this Saturday, March 28th, “!BANG! A MANIA” at !BANG! TV Sound Stage in Ocala, Florida. Showtime is 7:00pm – Doors Open at 6:15pm. The Main Event will be the Dory Funk Sr. Memorial Battle Royal.
Some today in history notes for March 24th:

George Wagner, the original Gorgeous George, was born 100 years ago today in 1915. If you’re interested in learning more about him than just the surface stuff that’s well-known, John Capouya’s biography of George is fantastic, a must-read for fans of wrestling history.

Jumbo Tsuruta made his pro wrestling debut 42 years ago today in 1973 in the west Texas territory owned by the Funk family. Before Owen Hart, Juventud Guerrera, or Kurt Angle were considered among the elite rookies in wrestling history, Jumbo set the bar, quickly becoming one of the best wrestlers in the world, a class he was in until contracting Hepatitis B in 1992. To check out just how good he as as a rookie, watch his oldest videotaped match, a NWA title shot against Jack Brisco in AJPW from January 30, 1974.

WrestleMania VII was 24 years ago in 1991, and its probably best known for Ultimate Warrior “retiring” Randy Savage in the co-main event, which Warrior felt was at least equal to the Sgt. Slaughter vs. Hulk Hogan main event in helping draw the crowd/PPV audience (and he’s probably right). His payoff at this show was one of the items centrral to the demand letter he sent Vince McMahon a few months later.

WCW Uncensored ’96 was 18 years ago in 1996. The second-annual Uncensored, it was simultaneously much better than the infamous first show (thanks to Konnan vs. Eddy Guerrero and Steven Regal vs. Fit Finlay) while having a much more memorable low point: (the 8 on 2 Doomsday Cage Match main event where Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage beat The Alliance to End Hulkamania (basically the Dungeon of Doom and the Four Horsemen assisted by Tiny “Zeus” Lister as Z-Gangsta and Jeep Swenson as The Ultimate Solution) on their own.

TOMORROW’S WWE NETWORK SCHEDULE
12:00 AM ET
WRESTLEMANIA REWIND Relive the historic final match of the WrestleMania IV tournament where Randy Savage took on the ‘Million Dollar Man’.

1:00 AM ET
WWE COUNTDOWN Counting down the Top Ten Most Memorable Superstar Debuts ever in WWE History, as voted by the WWE Universe.

2:00 AM ET
TUESDAY NIGHT TITANS Vince McMahon hosts Tuesday Night Titans with Lord Alfred Hayes. Guests include Bruno Sammartino, Roddy Piper, Bob Orton, and Ivan Putski.

3:00 AM ET
TUESDAY NIGHT TITANS Vince McMahon hosts Tuesday Night Titans with Lord Alfred Hayes. Guests include Rocky Johnson, Johnny Valiant, and Brutus Beefcake.

4:00 AM ET
PRIME TIME WRESTLING Join Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby ‘The Brain’ Heenan for Prime Time Wrestling featuring Hulk Hogan, Greg ‘The Hammer’ Valentine, and many more.

5:30 AM ET
WWE QUICK HITS WWE Quick Hits 4 brings you some of the most unique, entertaining, and sometimes outrageous clips, unearthed from the depths of WWE Network!

6:00 AM ET
MONDAY NIGHT WAR Backstage politics, corporate mergers, and questionable decisions would doom sports entertainment’s former powerhouse.

7:00 AM ET
WRESTLEMANIA REWIND Relive the historic final match of the WrestleMania IV tournament where Randy Savage took on the ‘Million Dollar Man’.

8:00 AM ET
WWE COUNTDOWN Counting down the Top Ten Most Memorable Superstar Debuts ever in WWE History, as voted by the WWE Universe.

9:00 AM ET
MONDAY NIGHT WAR Backstage politics, corporate mergers, and questionable decisions would doom sports entertainment’s former powerhouse.

10:00 AM ET
WRESTLEMANIA REWIND Relive the historic final match of the WrestleMania IV tournament where Randy Savage took on the ‘Million Dollar Man’.

11:00 AM ET
WWE COUNTDOWN Counting down the Top Ten Most Memorable Superstar Debuts ever in WWE History, as voted by the WWE Universe.

12:00 PM ET
MONDAY NIGHT WAR Backstage politics, corporate mergers, and questionable decisions would doom sports entertainment’s former powerhouse.

1:00 PM ET
WRESTLEMANIA REWIND Relive the historic final match of the WrestleMania IV tournament where Randy Savage took on the ‘Million Dollar Man’.

2:00 PM ET
WWE COUNTDOWN Counting down the Top Ten Most Memorable Superstar Debuts ever in WWE History, as voted by the WWE Universe.

3:00 PM ET
LEGENDS HOUSE The WWE Legends play a game of ‘How well do you know your roommates?’ Then the group receives a visit from Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels.

4:00 PM ET
LEGENDS HOUSE The Legends prepare for a roast of Roddy Piper. The group gets together for dinner, but lingering tensions threaten to disrupt the occasion.

5:00 PM ET
TOTAL DIVAS Eva Marie and Summer Rae battle outside the ring after being paired together; Ariane takes it too far when trying to become famous.

6:00 PM ET
WWE BEYOND THE RING Rey Mysterio: The Biggest Little Man showcases some of the high-flying Superstar’s most memorable moments and matches!

8:00 PM ET
WWE NXT The future is here. Witness the entertainers, the leading men and women, the Superstars of tomorrow – this is NXT!

9:00 PM ET
LEGENDS HOUSE The Legends prepare for a roast of Roddy Piper. The group gets together for dinner, but lingering tensions threaten to disrupt the occasion.

10:00 PM ET
TOTAL DIVAS Eva Marie and Summer Rae battle outside the ring after being paired together; Ariane takes it too far when trying to become famous.

11:00 PM ET
WWE NXT The future is here. Witness the entertainers, the leading men and women, the Superstars of tomorrow – this is NXT!

“Furious 7” last night did an estimated $67.3 million in business last night and estimates are now that the movie will do between $135 million and $150 million for its opening weekend, which would be one of the ten biggest movie opens of all-time.

The open is up 74% at the same point as Fast 6.

Dwayne Johnson and Ronda Rousey are among the ensemble cast for the movie.

Notes from today’s show:

– John Cena opened the show and talked about his win over Bad News Barrett.  He again put over the London crowd and explained the rules of a Russian chain match.  The two men will be chained together and to win, you have to touch all four corners.  Cena said that he may not be in that match because he’s going to defend the title several more times before the 26th.  He issued his open challenge.  Tyson Kidd & Cesaro came out.  Daniel Bryan also came out.  So instead of Cena defending as advertised, it wound up as a tag match for the main event.

– Bray Wyatt b R-Truth quickly with Sister Abigail

– Roman Reigns did a backstage interview.

– The Miz did an interview and said Mizdow got lucky and Mizdow is nothing without him.  Bad News Barrett came out and said we’re not in Hollywood, we’re in London and the people didn’t come to see a pretend movie star.

– Bad News Barrett b The Miz quickly.

– Renee Young interviewed Mizdow.  Miz interrupted and said Mizdow winning on Raw was a fluke and told Mizdow to stop stealing from his brand.  So they ended up setting up a match for Raw where the winner gets the Miz brand.  Summer Rae is now a face and slapped Miz.

– Neville b Sheamus via DQ.  Sheamus made fun of Neville’s height before the match.  Sheamus was DQ’d for slamming him on the desk.  He kept beating on him until Dolph Ziggler made the save.  They challenged each other and Sheamus vs. Ziggler in a loser kisses the winners ass match was added to the PPV.

– Kofi Kingston & Big E b Los Matadores

– Rosa Mendes was depressed after Fandango wouldn’t talk to her but Adam Rose wanted to talk to her.

– Big Show came out and cut a promo on Reigns.  Show said he could have finished Reigns on Monday but decided not to do it, and instead wants a last man standing match at the PPV.

– Cameron won three-way over Alicia Fox and Natalya

– Fandango b Adam Rose. Rosa tried to cost Fandango the match but it didn’t happen.  The crowd all did the Fandangoing after the match.

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– Bray Wyatt did an interview

– Intercontinental Champion Daniel Bryan & U.S. Champion John Cena b WWE Tag Team Champions Cesaro & Tyson Kidd in a non-title match.  Several fans hit the ring and started doing spots before the match until security took them out.  One gave another a rock bottom.  Cena worked most of the way until Bryan hot tagged in and used the Yes lock on Kidd for the submission.

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The mayor of the medieval Tuscan hill town of San Gimignano says the Unesco world heritage site is being neglected by Italy’s central government after a 65ft stretch of its surrounding 13th century walls collapsed without warning following heavy rainfall.

San Gimignano, described sometimes as a ‘medieval Manhattan’ with its cluster of 13 soaring towers built by the rival Guelph and Ghibelline dynasties, is a popular stop for British tourists in easy reach of Siena.  As many as three million tourists from around the world visit each year.

Giacomo Bassi, the mayor, is furious that central government, because of cuts on local councils, will not allow him to spend some of the millions of reserves in the municipal bank account for upkeep of its monuments.

Repairs had been started recently on other stretches of the walls around San Gimignano that were considered more at risk of erosion. But a recent spate of wet weather undermined foundations in an unexpected area setting off the collapse on Tuesday afternoon of a section of 20 ft walls, local officials said.

"It is absurd that the Council of San Gimignano has 8 million (euros) in the bank and cannot spend them," the mayor,  who is also president of the Italian Association of Unesco world heritage sites, told la Repubblica newspaper. “This is a disaster.”

Firefighters used sniffer dogs to search the tumbled masonry but determined nobody was hurt – though the walls overlooked a new walkway around the town built recently for €1.2 million.

Mr Bassi sees the incident as symptomatic of wider neglect of small Unesco heritage towns by authorities in Rome. In 2014 there was a public outcry after a strip of wall around the nearby Etruscan town of Volterra collapsed.

"Our city is a universal heritage, everyone ought to help preserve it," the mayor said, "not just the 7,000 inhabitants of San Gimignano."

In Rome the Ministry of Cultural Heritage Secretary General Carla Di Francesco said officials had contacted San Gimignano’s council “to draw up as soon as possible a project for recovery and restoration of the walls". A private building company began securing the area on Wednesday morning and the Archaeological Superintendant for archaeology and fine arts for Siena, Arezzo and Grossetto was monitoring the situation, officials said.

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However the mayor says the Rome project for the town is "superficial" and expressions of concern in the capital are insufficient. “I launch an appeal because we are living through a national emergency, there must be action," he said.

“We mayors of these little, fragile jewels, can’t be left on our own.”

By [email protected]”>Dave Meltzer

We’re looking for your thoughts on both tonight’s Extreme Rules show, as well as last night’s UFC 186, so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to [email protected]”>[email protected]

Tonight is WWE Extreme Rules from Chicago at 7:30 p.m. Eastern time

*Seth Rollins vs. Randy Orton cage match for the WWE title with the RKO banned:  The two got strong reviews for their main events in Europe and Rollins on PPV never disappoints.  Most likely the finish will involve Kane as the guardian of the cage door, and that Rollins will retain the title.  Still, a cage match where the finish involves outside interference makes Orton look dumb for suggesting it unless he wins. 

*John Cena vs. Rusev chain match for the U.S. title – With the rules that you have to touch all four corners rather than score a pin, this enables them to book a match without the loser doing a job.  Usually these kind of finishes are done in matches Cena loses.  But this could go the other way since they have worked to protect Rusev from losing on big shows via pin.  The chain may be a hindrance to the match as opposed to a benefit, but Cena is still a good big show wrestler.

*Daniel Bryan vs. Bad News Barrett for the IC title – This match is still being advertised even though it may not happen.  Most expect it won’t.  This would be a great time to debut Finn Balor out of nowhere and have him pin Barrett for the vacant title.  But that probably won’t happen.  However, Neville in that position is more likely.

*Roman Reigns vs. Big Show last man standing – Most WWE last man standing matches are good.  Reigns should win here.

*Dolph Ziggler vs. Sheamus kiss my arse match – I can see Sheamus getting his hand raised, but Ziggler kissing his ass is a tough visual, so don’t be surprised at post-match shenanigans.

*Dean Ambrose vs. Luke Harper street fight – This should be one of the best matches on the show.  Ambrose should win, and Harper has been put at the level of the guy who puts over the top faces when you need a good match.

*Nikki Bella vs. Naomi for Divas title – The Bellas phantom babyface turn continues.  The story here is more how much time they get, and where they are positioned on the show.

*Tyson Kidd & Cesaro vs. New Day for tag titles (pre-show match at 7:30 p.m.) – These teams tore it up in multiple team matches in Europe.  This should be one of the better matches on the show.

        On paper, this one looks good.  The only questions are the finishes and where the new programs go from  here.  We’ll have live coverage on the site starting at about 7:30 p.m.  

Raw will be live on Monday from Green Bay.

Smackdown and Main Event will be taped Tuesday from Moline, IL.

New Japan World at 4 a.m. Eastern Wednesday morning from Kumamoto, Japan

Sho Tanaka & Yohei Komatsu & Jay White vs. Rocky Romero & Trent Baretta & Gedo

Satoshi Kojima & Captain New Japan vs. Yujiro Takahashi & Cody Hall

Yuji Nagata & Tiger Mask & Mascara Dorada vs. Manabu Nakanishi & Ryusuke Taguchi & Kushida

Steve Anthony vs. Jushin Liger for NWA jr. title

Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Big Daddy Yum Yum for NWA heavyweight title

Tetsuya Naito & Tomoaki Honma & Alex Shelley vs. Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows & Kenny Omega

Kazuchika Okada & Yoshi-Hashi vs. Bad Luck Fale & Tama Tonga

Hiroshi Tanahashi & Hirooki Goto & Katsuyori Shibata vs. Shinsuke Nakamura & Kazushi Sakuraba & Toru Yano

Tomohiro Ishii vs. Togi Makabe for Never Open weight championship

 
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The newest issue of Figure Four Weekly is up on the site for subscribers (subscribe here) with the most extensive look at Doug and Tommy Gilbert’s lawsuit against WWE and ESPN that you’ll find anywhere, with lots of details about WWE’s history with lawsuits over video royalties, which past cases are or aren’t relevant to this one what people often misunderstand about the Jesse Ventura lawsuit, when WWE actually started paying every wrestler royaltis, and much more. Plus, as always, we have  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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We’ve got full coverage of the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony from two weeks ago along with a lot of backstage stories, truth vs. fiction on the stories told, as our lead story in the new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.  We also have a ton of notes on ROH and the New Japan tour, Lucha Underground’s future and what it needs, TNA and Destination America along with notes on Taz, the Briscoes, Daniel Bryan, the latest lawsuits against WWE and UFC and a look at WWE & TNA business for February.

The latest Wrestling Observer:  April 20, 2015 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: WWF Hall of Fame feature, latest WWE concussion lawsuit, UFC Poland debut

Website subscriptions, which include access to both current and older newsletters as well as every audio show in the history of the site as low as $9.99 per month!

You can also order the print Observer right now and get it delivered to your door via mail, by sending your name, address, Visa or Master Card number and an expiration date to [email protected]”>[email protected]

You can also order at www.paypal.com directing funds to [email protected] 
 
Rates are:
 
For the United States, it is $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 [email protected]  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.
 
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.

Our lead story updates the Daniel Bryan situation and the strange lack of information out on the subject, as well as runs down every match on the show and where WWE goes from here.

We also look at UFC’s PPV this week being off the Dish Network.

We’ve got an update on Lucha Underground, including the end of the TV season, what talent and fans were told about the future of the company, the public reason for the hiatus, what’s the real question going forward, its prospects, where the promotion stands right now for the future and what it needs, plus a full rundown of Ultima Lucha, the last two episodes of the season and what angles to look for the next season.

We’ve got a look at the career of Takeshi Morishima, with his title history, awards won, how he got started in pro wrestling, who he was compared to, why he never reached his potential, why he got the ROH title, his matches with Bryan Danielson, his outstanding 2007 year, what went wrong when he got his big push.  We also look at his early career, his WWE tryout and what happened there, a well as some of his biggest matches.

We look at the legal situation involving Rampage Jackson and how things changed this past week.

We’ve got a look at UFC’s attempt to run in New York, going through both the legislature and the court system to be able to run in December at Madison Square Garden.  We look at the crazy hypocrisy in New York laws, the real story behind them, the Culinary unions latest attempt to keep UFC out of New York, and UFC’s latest move in going to court.

We also look at Saturday’s show in Newark, NJ, who came out of it as stars, ratings info and other business notes plus match-by-match coverage.

We’ve got a long feature on the Tennessee legend, Ron Wright, who passed away this past week.  We look at the legendary Ron Wright vs. Whitey Caldwell feud and some of the most famous matches, why Wright considered wrestling only a hobby, as well as his being shot at and his plane being blown up and other craziness of being perhaps the greatest heel ever in the backwoods towns in Tennessee and Kentucky.  We look at his career from his amateur days as a teenager, the irony of the Caldwell feud, how he and Caldwell got into pro wrestling at first, plus comments from Les Thatcher, Jim Cornette and others.

We also look at his unique way of drawing blood, how he got his first pro wrestling break, the business that he and Caldwell did in the 60s, why he usually stayed in his home territory, and his own thoughts about his career.

We also look at the next season of Tough Enough, the change in Seth Rollins’ finisher, update on the business of Furious 7, More on the Russ McCullough lawsuit against WWE, Shawn Michaels talks the time he wanted to go to WCW and WWE asks him to be on next year’s WrestleMania, plus why he’s not interested in working in creative  and his thoughts on who should be on top.

We also look at John Cena, Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns on top as draws, schedule of NXT tapings for the next year as well as a look at a number of not yet announced WWE overseas tours.

We also have notes on WWE movies, WWE stars who want a reality show about their lives, Barrett talks why he dropped weight, contract notes from lawsuits against WWE, the Gilberts lawsuit against WWE, Batista talks a potential return, Samoa Joe note, NXT dates outside Florida, Jey Uso update, what creative is told about the women characters and what is says about why people don’t care about the WWE Divas, ROH star blasts WWE stereotypes, NXT weekend shows and notes on the last week of the WWE European tour with business notes and highlights of all the house shows.

We also look at this year’s Cauliflower Alley Club banquet, looking at the history of the organization, who was there, the appearance of Nick Bockwinkel, highlights of speeches from the honorees, Jake Roberts’ complaint about indie shows, Jushin Liger defending his NWA jr. title, Gerald Brisco talking Brock Lesnar and Jack Brisco and much more.

We also look at Jeff Jarrett’s Global Force Wrestling as the first shows are announced, and look at what the company needs to be viable.

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:

–Notes on the death of 80s star El Verdugo

–Latest from Arena Mexico

–Changes in CMLL weekly schedule

–Top indie vs. top CMLL star note

–More on AAA’s World Cup show this coming month

–Perro Aguayo Jr. situation remains in the news with a major press conference featuring a Congressman and many sports stars

–Dragon Gate announces huge show with three title bouts and a huge stipulation match

–Wrestler runs for the senate in Japan this week

–Update on Champion Carnival tournament

–Update on NOAH tag team tournament

–Notes on next New Japan big show

–Notes on New Japan newcomer

–Notes on current New Japan tour

–One of the major companies from the 90s returns and its history

–Promoter announces that a current UFC star will come in and challenge for their pro wrestling world title

–Biggest woman’s star ever and best drawing barbed wire match wrestler ever team up

–Lance Russell tribute in Evansville with Jerry Lawler

–Oldest living wresting personalities

–Sad update on former UFC & New Japan star Brian Johnston

–Dreamer gets TV deal

–Bill Apter writes autobiography

–New book coming on history of women’s wrestling

–Promotion folding

–Same person wins major pro wrestling title and pro boxing match within hours

–Another wrestling history book on the way

–Who is the only guy to be in Broken Skull Challenge, Tough Enough and Ultimate Fighter

–Nearly two hour match on Mexico show

–New Japan and ROH tour and lineups

–Notes on Taz leaving TNA

–Notes on Sanada laving TNA

–More on people’s pay being behind in TNA

–Funny story about TNA television in Canada

–Latest on TNA television

–More litigation involving Wanderlei Silva and the Nevada commission and how the ruling could hurt regulation of he sport

–More on the UFC July schedule

–Notes on the new season of Ultimate Fighter

–Background of the Dan Lambert-Glenn Robinson feud

–Two major MMA shows this weekend

–Dana White blasts AKA Gym and AKA responds

–Bill in Nevada to increase tax on live boxing and MMA

–Anderson Silva issues challenge for fight

–New UFC fights

–New Bellator fights

–Something to think about regarding Pacquiao-Mayweather and how big it really is

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)
 
*March 14, 2005 (the 50 biggest money players in the history of WWF and a look at their Hall of Fame)
 
*May 9, 2005 (the life and times of Chris Candido)
 
*June 20, 2005 (The full story behind Paul Heyman and the death of ECW, as well as coverage of One Night Stand, Hardcore Homecoming and behind the scenes of both shows)
 
*July 18, 2005 (death of Shinya Hashimoto and his records with a look at the fall of New Japan, the Matt Hardy angle, tons of WWE firings, Cornette firing in detail as well as problems of a WWE developmental territory in our biggest news issue of the year which is a double-sized issue and would be $6 on its own and $7 overseas)
 
*August 24, 2005 (2005 Hall of Fame issue with career profiles of Paul Heyman, HHH and Freebirds plus debut of MMA Hall of Fame)
 
*September 12, 2005 (History of Mid South Wrestling)
 
*October 10, 2005 (Life and Times of the Ultimate Warrior)
 
*November 21, 2005 (Life and Times of Eddy Guerrero and Crusher, double issue $6 on its own and $7 overseas)
 
*December 5, 2005 (The Eddy Guerrero special issue, double issue $6 on its own, $7 overseas)
 
*January 9, 2006 (The life and times of Superstar Billy Graham, plus New Year’s Eve 2005 coverage)
 
*January 16, 2006 (2005 Awards double issue, $6 or $7 overseas)
 
*April 3, 2006 (Story of Ann Calvello and the history of Roller Derby–many called this the best issue of the Observer ever)
 
*April 10, 2006 (Behind the scenes at the 2006 Wrestlemania/Hall of Fame week)
 
*July 24, 2006 (The History of the Von Erichs and World Class Championship Wrestling–the most unreal story ever in wrestling)
 
*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)
 
*October 9, 2006 (A look back nine years later at the life and legacy of Brian Pillman with tons of inside information about what made him tick as his real objectives)
 
*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)
 
*March 5, 2007 (WWE begins plans that will change the business)
 
*March 12, 2007 (Life and Times of Mike Awesome)
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*March 19, 2007 (Life and Times of Ernie Ladd)
 
*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)
 
*November 12, 2007 (Life and times of Fabulous Moolah and history of U.S. women’s wrestling) .
 
*December 31, 2007 (History of Ric Flair and the heyday of wrestling at the Greensboro Coliseum)
 
*January 21, 2008 (2007 Awards issue, double issue $7 on its own, $8 overseas)
 
*March 17, 2008 (Life and times of Johnny Weaver)
 
*March 24, 2008 (Life and times of Gary Hart)
 
*April 10, 2008 (Farewell to Ric Flair; My thoughts, Shawn Michaels talks of Flair’s meaning to him; Hall of Fame; Wrestlemania double issue, $7 on its own, $8 overseas)
 
*August 11, 2008 (Ric Flair leaves WWE; Updated history of pro wrestlers and MMA fighters who went to the Olympics)
 
* September 8, 2008 (2008 Hall of Fame double issue, $7 on its own, $8 overseas; part one of Killer Kowalski bio)
 
* September 15, 2008 (Life and Times of Evan Tanner)
 
* September 22, 2008 (The amazing career of Killer Kowalski, one of our most in-depth bios)
 
You can also order any of these issues on their own for $4 in North America or $5 overseas.
 
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.

SUNDAY’S NEWS UPDATE

With two PPVs this weekend, Bryan and I have two shows.  Up on the site is a show covering both last night’s UFC and all the latest news from WWE, TNA, previewing tonight’s show, Ronda Rousey, Bill Goldberg and more with Tom Lawlor joining up again.  We’re going to try and have Lawlor on as much as possible after UFC events going forward and some pro wrestling events as well.  Bryan and I will be back late tonight with Extreme Rules coverage.

–Regarding the story we talked about of Tito Ortiz spending $257,000 on two tickets to the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight, apparently it was something he did that was misinterpreted.  He didn’t buy tickets to the fight, but was in shock anyone would spend that kind of money buying tickets to the fight.

C.M. Punk was at the C2E2 convention today in Chicago for the announcement that he will be writing a new series of comic books for Marvel for “Drax the Destroyer.”  He also did a Q&A. Among the highlights:

*Told Jason David Frank, the Power Ranger dude, “Shut the f*** up” when it was brought up Frank’s continual challenges to him for an MMA fight.  It’s a grandstand deal because they are in far different weight divisions so there is no chance of it happening.

*He doubted that his debut would be in Chicago, feeling that would put too much pressure on him.  That surprised me, because I figured Chicago or Las Vegas would be the two most likely cities.

*When asked his favorite action star, he said A.J. Lee, saying she’s a little ass kicker.

*He said he will fight when his coaches feel he is ready to fight.

What’s the over/under on Punk chants during the show tonight?

FS 1 will be airing UFC Tonight episodes Monday through Friday next week for 30 minutes.  Dana White will be the guest on Monday.  Cain Velasquez will be on Tuesday.  Rashad Evans will be on Wednesday.  Ronda Rousey will be on Thursday and Cris Cyborg will be on Friday.  The fact they have Cyborg as a special guest should tell you a lot.

Conor McGregor’s reality show “Notorious”  airs on FS 1 tonight at 12:30 a.m. Eastern time and will continue with new episodes nightly through Friday. 

Glenn “Kane” Jacobs turned 48 today.

Today is also the one-year anniversary of the death of Conor Michalek.

As far as Google searches go for yesterday, Wladimir Klitschko was no. 5 at 100,000 behind Nepal, Freddie Gray, Cecily Strong and NASCAR.  UFC 186 was No. 9 with 20,000, which is the lowest number I can ever recall for a UFC PPV show.

The judge who gave one round to Fabio Maldonado over Rampage Jackson was Luc Lefebvre, who gave Maldonado round two.

Furious 7 was no. 1 at the box office for the fourth straight weekend, estimated at doing $18,26 million, beating Paul Blart: Mal Cop 2 at $15.5 million.

Jim Ross wrote that he’s looking at doing a show on 8/19 at the Washington, DC Improv, but it is not definite yet.  He’s probably do that as part of an East Coast swing since he’s already booked at the Gramercy Theater in New York on 8/22, the day before SummerSlam.  Ross noted that his 30 minute set before Mick Foley’s one hour show that they did on Friday night at Full Sail University in Winter Park, FL, would not be televised, at least this week.  My impression is that it won’t be televised at all.  Foley’s show will air on Wednesday night on the WWE Network.

Maryland Championship Wrestling from Friday night in Glen Burne, MD drew 1,300 fans for a show headlined by Ric Flair.  Ll Green & Rick Powers b Drake Carter & Shaun Cannon, Drifty Money & Eric Chapel b Fed Up, Chuck Lennox & David Starr & Bo Nekoda b Brandon Scott & Lance Anoa’i & Fenix Fury, Sexy Steve & Jimmy Stars b Napalm & Solo, Buff Bagwell (unadvertised surprise) b Ken Dixon, Pat Bring b Sai Gon, Shane Strickland (Killshot in Lucha Underground) b Trevor Lee, Brian Cage b Cedirc Alexander, The Bruiser won three-way to keep the MCW tie over King McBride and Drolix.  Next show is 5/2 in Waldorf, MD at the Unique Sports Academy with Jerry Lawler and Rikishi.

Matt Hardy spoofs Go Fund Me fund raisers, saying that the original idea for them, which was good, has been perverted

Preston City Wrestling on Friday in Preston, England:  Juventud Guerrera won over Ryan Smile, Pete Dunne, Damiian Dunne, El Ligero and Charlie Garrett, Matt Taven & Michael Bennett b Martin Kirby & Joey Hayes, Dave Mastiff b Ashton Smith, Rob Van Dam b Bubblegum, Sha Samuels b Noam Dar, Zak & Roy Knight b Robbie Dynamite & Dean Allmark, Dave Rayne b Chris Masters in a blindfold match, T-Bone & Rampage Brown b Jeff Jarrett & Lionheart.  Jeff & Karen Jarrett and Eric Bischoff all turned on Lionheart in the main event.  Jarrett was wearing Bullet Club gear

The Saturday afternoon show:  Dave Mastiff b Noam Dar, Sha Samuels b Ashton Smith, El Ligero b Juventud Guerrera, Sabu b Pete Dunne, Roy & Zak Knight b Ryan Smile & Damien Dunne, Bubblegum b Lionheart, Chris Masters b Charlie Garrett, Joey Hayes & Martin Kirby & Rampage Brown & T-Bone b Jim & Lee Hunter & Matt Taven & Michael Bennett

Last night’s show:  The Hunter Brothers b Ryan Smile & Damien Dunne, Sha Samuels b Charlie Garrett, El Ligero b Pete Dunne, Joey Hayes & Martin Kirby & April Davids b Matt Taven & Michael Bennett & Maria Kanellis, Dean Allmark b Juventud Guerrera, Ashton Smith b Iestyn Rees, Rob Van Dam b Noam Dar, Lionheart & Dave Mastiff & Dave Rayne & Zak Knight & Roy Knight b Jeff Jarrett & Chris Masters & Bubblegum & T-Bone & Rampage Brown.

Announces for future shows in Preston is 6/5 headlined by A.J. Styles vs. Lionheart.  Styles accidentally broke Lionheart’s neck with the Styles clash and Lionheart made a big thing about how Styles should stop doing the move in articles and writings and Styles wasn’t happy he did it publicly rather than just contacted him.  So they are turning that into an angle.  7/11 they have an outdoor show with Team 3-D, Velvet Sky, Rockstar Spud and Ken Anderson.  8/7 they have Drew Galloway, Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish coming (thanks to Jan Buxton)

Barrons’ this week has a big article on the WWE saying they like the company but feel the stock has a long way to fall because the subscriptions to the WWE network aren’t near the projected targets and that many people drop subscriptions (thanks to Dave Katz)

Texas is considering dropping all random drug testing of high school athletes for steroids.  The state has spent $9 million testing 63,000 athletes over the last eight years.  The state has cut funding of the program every year and there are signs it’ll be dropped completely. (thanks to Lou Pickney)

UFC is opening a 46,000 square foot UFC Gym in La Mirada, CA at 14920 La Mirada Blvd.  It will be the fifth UFC gym in Southern California.  There are 125 nationally including  11 major ones.

AXS is co-promoting an MMA show called RFA vs. Legacy Superfights that airs on 5/8 at 10 p.m..  The show will feature four fighters from the RFA vs. four fighters from Legacy Fights.  Burt Watson will be doing his old UFC role and running backstage and pumping up the fighters before the fights, and a big part of the show will be showing Watson in action.  The main event has RFA flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja (15-2) vs. Legacy champion Damacio Page (19-9), plus RFA bantamweight champion Luke Sanders (9-0) defends against Terrion Ware (13-3) while the Legacy lightweight championship will be at stake with Dave Burrow (13-5) vs. Mike Bronzoulis (17-8) battling for the vacant title.  Former UFC fighter Yuri Villefort faces Adam Townsend.

Rock Star Pro Wrestling has an iPPV on Friday night in Dayton, OH at the Rockstar Pro Arena headlined by Shane Douglas vs. Dustin Rayz.

A.J. Styles vs. Jimmy Rave headlines on 5/8 for ProSouth Wrestling in Piedmont, AL at 627 Southern Ave.

Former wrestler New Jack was the special guest on The Special Without Brett Davis comedy show on TV in New York.

Grand Slam Wrestling on 5/9 in Moosic, PA at the Moosic Youth Center.

Southern Illinois Championship Wrestling from last night in East Carondelet, IL:  Sean Vincent b Daniel Gunner, Jim Hoffarth & Paloma Starr DDQ Ax Allwardt & Lucy Mendez, Daniel Eads b Curtis Wylde, Ken Kasa & Chris Hargas b Chaz Wesson & Keith Smith Jr., Little Kato b Bobby Dean, Red River Jack b Bull Bronson-COR, Flash Flanagan b Gary Jackson to win the Classic title (thanks to Patrick Brandmeyer)

Infinity Pro Wrestling on 5/30 in Bloomington, IN at the National Guard Armory.

L.A. Park, Pirata Morgan, Negro Navarro, Brazo de Oro, El Matematico and Blue Panther appear 5/17 in El Monte, CA at Florentine Gardens.

There was a big festival in Orlando at the WJRR Earth Day birthday celebration with 15,000 people that included a ton of wrestling using area wrestlers and outside the area wrestlers like Jody Kristofferson, Santana Garrett, Lince Dorado, Chasyn Race, Rhett Giddins, Crazy Mary Dobson, Mad Man Pondo and a ton of others.

Remix Pro Wrestling from last night in Marietta, OH:  Viper b Bulldozer, Chris Lerusso over Onyx, Adien Veil and Aaron Draven, Sassy Stephie & LuFisto & Veda Scott went to a draw, Jason Gory & Matt Conard & Ron Mathis b Chance Prophet & Young Bucks, Jock Samson b Marion Fontaine-DQ, Athena b Mickie James, A.J. Styles b Facade.  I saw a photo and it looked like they had a really big crowd for this.

Mark Henry working toward helping youth fitness in Austin, TX

A story on Bill Murdoch, who write Jack Brisco’s autobiography and works endlessly for charities in the Asheville, NC region
 

ON THIS DAY IN PRO WRESTLING HISTORY INTERNATIONAL (thanks to Graeme Cameron)

1971 – Mick McManus beat Vic Faulkner in Nottingham to win the European middleweight title

1985 – Osamu Kido won the round-robin UWF tournament with a 6-1 record

1986 – Genichiro Tenryu beat Ted DiBiase in Tokyo in the tournament final for the vacant United National title

1994 – Los Payasos beat Cien Caras & Mascara Ano 2000 & Universo 2000 to win the vacant Mexican national trios titles in a tournament final in Aguascalientes

1998 – Kyoko Inoue beat Lioness Asuka in Tokyo to win the TWWF title 

2003 – Jonny Storm beat Chris Hamrick in Sudbury, UK to win the FWA All-England title

2004 – Negro Casas beat Emilio Charles Jr. in Puebla to win the CMLL middleweight title

2013 – Averno beat Mistico in Mexico City to win the vacant Mexican national welterweight title.  This is the current Mistico, not the one who became the first Sin Cara

 
TODAY’S PRO WRESTLING VIDEOS (thanks to Thomas Rude)

WWE

The JBL & Renee Show (Episode 126)

4/23/15 Top 10 WWE Smackdown Moments

4/20/15 WWE RAW “Slam Of The Week”

4/23/15 WWE RAW “Slam Of The Week”

4/25/15 WWE Top Ten:  Extreme Street Fight Moments

INDY TV SHOWS

Monster Factory TV (Episode 5)

4/25/15 NWA Smoky Mountain Wrestling TV

Powerbomb Championship Wrestling TV (Episode 22)

West Virginia Championship Wrestling TV (Episode 222)

4/24/15 Future Stars Of Wrestling “High Octane”

Imperial Wrestling Entertainment “BattleZone” TV (Episode 8)

MISC. STUFF

The Candice & Joey Show (Episode 108)

4/24/15 CHIKARA Event Center

TNA

What Happened After Eric Young Snapped?  Who Left On A Stretcher

TOMORROW’S WWE NETWORK SCHEDULE (thanks to Bert Duckwall)

2:00 AM ET
TOUGH ENOUGH The remaining contestants’ agility is tested when they are tasked with serving lunch to a busy crowd at a 50’s diner while on roller skates.

3:00 AM ET
WWE NXT Alex Riley looks to finally silence Kevin Owens in a heated rematch!

4:00 AM ET
WWE SUPERSTARS This week, WWE Tag Team Champions Cesaro and Tyson Kidd take on Los Matadores. Plus, Bad News Barrett battles Jack Swagger.

5:00 AM ET
OLD SCHOOL Old school WWE card features Andre The Giant and Hillbilly Jim vs Big John Studd and King Kong Bundy. The Hart Foundation and more.

6:00 AM ET
WWE EXTREME RULES 2015 On the night WWE goes extreme, Seth Rollins defends the WWE World Heavyweight Championship against Randy Orton inside a Steel Cage and more!

9:00 AM ET
WWE EXTREME RULES 2015 On the night WWE goes extreme, Seth Rollins defends the WWE World Heavyweight Championship against Randy Orton inside a Steel Cage and more!

12:00 PM ET
WWE EXTREME RULES 2015 On the night WWE goes extreme, Seth Rollins defends the WWE World Heavyweight Championship against Randy Orton inside a Steel Cage and more!

3:00 PM ET
WWE EXTREME RULES 2015 On the night WWE goes extreme, Seth Rollins defends the WWE World Heavyweight Championship against Randy Orton inside a Steel Cage and more!

6:00 PM ET
TOUGH ENOUGH The remaining contestants’ agility is tested when they are tasked with serving lunch to a busy crowd at a 50’s diner while on roller skates.

7:00 PM ET
FIRST LOOK: ALWAYS BELIEVE A First Look to watch exclusive content from WWE Home Video’s latest release, Ultimate Warrior: Always Believe!

7:30 PM ET
RAW PRE-SHOW From WWE Studios in Stamford Connecticut. Scott Stanford, David Otunga and Corey Graves cover all the events leading up to Monday Night Raw.

8:00 PM ET
MONDAY NIGHT WAR Mick Foley’s unorthodox style makes him an unlikely success story and a unique weapon for WWE in their war with WCW.

9:00 PM ET
WWE COUNTDOWN Counting down the Top Craziest Ladder Matches ever in WWE History, as voted by the WWE Universe.

10:00 PM ET
TOTAL DIVAS Nikki plans a future without boyfriend John Cena. Eva’s life is turned upside down when she must decide between family and her husband.

11:06 PM ET
WWE NETWORK EXCLUSIVE The action continues with exclusive interviews, matches and fallout LIVE from Monday Night Raw.

11:11 PM ET
TOUGH ENOUGH WWE Superstar Rey Mysterio and former NBA star John Salley are on hand to offer advice about teamwork to the dwindling group.<

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Donald Trump has erupted with fury at the news that the FBI raided the office of his personal lawyer and seized documents relating to a payment he made to a porn star.

Michael Cohen, the US president’s long-serving personal lawyer, has previously admitted paying $130,000 (£95,000) to porn star Stormy Daniels, who claims she had an affair with Mr Trump.

Mr Trump said the FBI “broke into” Mr Cohen’s New York offices, and described it repeatedly as “a disgrace”.

Federal prosecutors obtained the search warrant to search Mr Cohen’s office after receiving a referral from the special counsel Robert Mueller, who is tasked with heading up the Russia investigation.

The search is not believed to be connected to the Russia probe, but is thought to have resulted from information Mr Mueller uncovered.

Mr Trump added: “It’s a disgrace. It’s frankly a real disgrace. It’s an attack on our country, and what we all stand for.

"This is a pure and simple witch hunt."

Attorney–client privilege is dead!

Click Here: All Blacks Rugby Jersey— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 10, 2018

A TOTAL WITCH HUNT!!!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 10, 2018

He also described Mr Mueller’s team as “the most conflicted group of people I have ever seen,” wrongly stating that they were “almost all Democrats” and lashed out once again at his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, for recusing himself from the Russian investigation.

Asked why he did not simply fire Mr Mueller, he said: “I think it’s really a sad situation. Many people have said you should fire him. They found nothing.”

On Tuesday morning Mr Trump tweeted: "Attorney-client privilege is dead!"

Mr Cohen’s lawyers called Monday’s search "completely inappropriate and unnecessary".

Mr Cohen’s payment to Stormy Daniels – real name Stephanie Clifford – has come under scrutiny after it emerged it was made just weeks before the 2016 election.

An election watchdog group complained about the payment, arguing it could be classed as an undisclosed campaign contribution, something Mr Cohen denies.

The lawyer has refused to say what the money was for but the White House has repeatedly said Mr Trump "vehemently denies" having sex with Daniels.

Last week Mr Trump said he was unaware of the payment to Daniels.

The payment to Daniels forms just a part of the investigation by FBI officers on Monday, a source told the New York Times.

Federal agents are also believed to have seized emails, tax documents and business records – including communications between Mr Trump and Mr Cohen.

“Today the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York executed a series of search warrants and seized the privileged communications between my client, Michael Cohen, and his clients,” said Stephen Ryan, his lawyer.

“I have been advised by federal prosecutors that the New York action is, in part, a referral by the Office of Special Counsel, Robert Mueller.”

Mr Ryan told the New York Times his client has cooperated with authorities and turned over thousands of documents to congressional investigators looking into Russian election meddling

By Josh Nason, WrestlingObserver.com

The Big News: 

Finn Balor defeated Kevin Owens for the NXT title, Brock Lesnar successfully made his house show return, and Chris Jericho and Neville had a great show opener.

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Show Recap:

– A short video package starts us out highlighting that this is Brock Lesnar’s first match since Wrestlemania and the Kevin Owens vs. Finn Balor NXT title match later on.

– Michael Cole and Byron Saxton are the announce team. Show is airing live from Sumo Hall in Tokyo with a typical house show set with no ramp.

Chris Jericho def. Neville by submission 

Cole and Saxton talk a little about the history of the building with combat sports and Jericho’s past in Japan where he got the name ‘Lionheart’. Saxton even talks about Neville’s history with Dragon Gate which helped bring him to this point. The match was fairly even early until Jericho got the advantage off a back and forth exchange with both guys teasing and preventing jumps to the inside. Jericho eventually hit the second rope dropkick to Neville on the apron. He had a few heel mannerisms, but both guys were loved by the crowd.

Jericho went for a top rope superplex which Neville blocked for a flapjack. Neville stayed on the top and went for the Red Arrow, but Jericho moved so Neville landed on his feet. He went for a hunacarana which was blocked for the Walls of Jericho. Neville fought and fought and made it to the ropes for the clean break. 

Neville with a jumping, twisting dive over the top to Jericho on the outside. Neville tossed him back in and hit a top rope clothesline and a standing shooting star press for a near fall. Jericho nailed Neville with a uppercut and hit the Lionsault for two. Neville got the advantage back and launched himself into a Codebreaker. 

Neville hit two superkicks and went for the Red Arrow, but Jericho put his knees up. He applied the Liontamer for the tap. The match went nearly twenty minutes and was fantastic. I really enjoyed it.

– Brock “Tucked In T-Shirt” Lesnar is shown walking into the building, making his first appearance in Japan for WWE in more than 12 years. We st

– I gotta say that this whole house show on TV feel is very refreshing outside the constant reminders that #BeastInTheEast is trending no. 1 in the world on Twitter. I watch to get away from the real world, but I get it. 

– After RAW this Monday, we get a live ‘The Legendary Stories Of Dusty Rhodes’. Sounds good to me.

WWE Divas Champion Nikki Bella defeated Paige & Tamina in a triple threat for the title.

Cole references a past women’s title change in Japan by Bull “Nakona” before Saxton corrects him. Tamina and Page went at it for a bit until Bella got back in the fray and the two teamed up to get Tamina out of there. They were certainly trying to up the aggression level with lots of women’s tennis-esque grunting.

The big spot of the match was a Tamnia powerbomb of Bella as she was superplexing Paige off the top rope. As Paige and Bella were setting it up, you could hear them talking. Ugh. Paige applied the PTO but Tamina superkicked her and hit a Samoan drop on Bella to break it up. She missed a Superfly splash attempt and Bella hit a running forearm for the pin and win.

I don’t watch a ton of, ahem, Divas matches but this wasn’t that bad. Not much of a story, but it was fun for what it was. 

Brock Lesnar vs. Kofi Kingston

It took them 36 minutes to mention Lesnar’s opponent for tonight. As Lesnar was walking out, they showed Seth Rollins and The Authority’s attack on him from several weeks ago, but his knee isn’t wrapped. Kingston was trying to avoid Lesnar, but once “The Beast” got his hands on him, it was bad news. Kingston got a lot of offense on Lesnar, but none of it worked. He avoided one belly-to-back suplex (flipped out of it), but was unsuccessful in avoiding three others. Lots of stalking around led to an F5 and the pin and win.

As Lesnar was leaving the ring, he looked at Kingston and came back in the ring for another belly-to-back and F5. This brought out Xavier Woods and Big E from the back and they both got F-5’ed for their trouble. 

As a youngster, I used to faithfully watch WWF Superstars of Wrestling Saturdays at noon on WPXT Fox 51 and saw a lot of squashes just like this. I was more than happy to watch another one today. 

Kevin Owens was seen in the back prepping for his match with Finn Balor. That match is next, preceded by a good video package highlighting the backstory.

Finn Balor pinned NXT Champion Kevin Owens to win the title

As expected, Balor is in full warpaint, complete with Japanese writing on the back. Hideo Itami is shown sitting in the crowd as Owens enters in full heel mode. Tons of treamers come into the ring as we get the announcements of both guys as do two ladies who hand giant bouquets to both guys. Owens tosses the flowers in the aisle. Streamers (and tradition!) on WWE TV? This is something else. Cole even talked about how Balor lives in a dojo, that Balor used to go by the name Prince Devitt, and the IWGP titles he won. 

Balor started out the match quick, teasing the Coup De Grace in the first 10 seconds. Action spilled to the outside where Balor hit a running dropkick to Owens who was sitting in a chair by the barricade. As Owens reclaimed the advantage later on, he played to the crowd big-time and they gave him what he was looking for: boos. The champion dominated most of the action midway through the match, teasing a running knee into a bracing Balor and locking on a rear chinlock instead. He said, “I hate this country and everyone in it.” Heel!

As Balor was rallying, Owens stopped him and hit the Five Moves Of Doom, but fell short of hitting the Attitude Adjustment. Both guys hit all of their signature moves late in the match including Owens’ cannonball flip in the corner and package powerbomb. Balor hit the Sling Blade adn went to the top to finish Owens, but the champ made it to his feet to prevent it. Owens got kicked and laid out which led to the Coup De Grace….but we only got two. This match must continue!

Balor attempted a top rope superplex which Owens blocked, eventually hitting a second rope rolling senton which got two. Owens went for the senton bomb, but Balor got the knees up and got Owens in a Dragon suplex for two. Owens with a straight jacket suplex for two. Balor hit a big clothesline and dropkick into the corner to Owens, setting up again for the Coup De Grace. He hit it and this time, Owens didn’t kick out. Balor with the pin and win and is your new NXT Champion.

Cole put over Balor’s history in Japan huge post-match. This was a really fun match with great sequences that you would expect from these two, especially the near falls. Tatsumi Fujinami walked out from the back and attacked Balor post-match, demanding a title match at SummerSlam. Alright, that didn’t happen but Fujinami did come out and raise Balor’s hand. Owens was still in the ring looking pissed and refused to shake Balor’s hand.

My apologies if I erred in correctly naming the moves above, by the way. Just go watch the match already!

And with 37 minutes to go, I fear we are now in the sports entertainment portion of the show.

– We get footage of Friday’s Fujinami ceremony on Tokyo with Itami. 

U.S. Champion John Cena & Dolph Ziggler def. King Barrett & Kane 

Despite my apathy, the fans were into everything. You know, I got into it too. This was typical house show fare with all the guys playing to the crowd and not having to rush through things. When Cena was in there with Kane, it was power vs. power and Cena was actually psyching himself up to go in there and face him. 

Cena was in there most of the match, getting abused by Kane and Barrett. Cena hit an A.A. on Barrett after powering out of a side chinlock, but Barrett tagged Kane. However, Cena got blocked by Kane on hitting an A.A. on him, building to what would eventully happen later in the match. Kane hit his top rope clothesline which led to another rear chinlock on Cena. Lots of rest holds in this one.

Ziggler finally got the hot tag and ran wild on Barrett, but a big boot from Barrett stopped that cold. Barrett and Kane worked over Ziggler for a bit until Ziggler eventually got the hot tag. Until we got to that point, there was a lot of good stuff including a big Kane powerbomb. I guess it was the jaded, worn out WWE fan in me, but I was amazed at how much the fans were into this match. I also haven’t been to a house show event in nearly four years, so perhaps I shouldn’t be that surprised. I also liked the subtleties of Barrett holding Ziggler’s arm after tagging Kane so Ziggler couldn’t get away. Tag team wrestling!

Ziggler got out of a Kane chokeslam attempt and hit a jumping DDT to get the hot tag to Cena while Kane tagged Barrett. Five Moves of Doom on Kane, Ziggler superkick to A.A. on the legal man Barrett for the pin and win for Team Good Guys. Fun match!

****
As a fan of watching the old NESN Boston Garden and MSG Network house shows, I loved this show. Two hours on a Saturday morning full of fun matches and mostly devoid of bad promos and typical RAW b.s.? I’ll take it. Even Cole and Saxton were good and were supposedly trending on Twitter at one point. Cole had his ‘working shoes’, getting in references to WrestleFest during the show’s final tag match. 

Final recommendation: watch the entire show. I guarantee you’ll have fun in doing so. And in the end, isn’t that what this is all supposed to be about?