THE ROUND-UP
THE LATEST NEWS
Impact Wrestling scores biggest viewership since July
NXT Ocala & Columbus live results: Mahabali Shera debuts
Impact Wrestling results: Eddie Edwards vs. Sami Callihan
Brock Lesnar still scheduled for WWE house show this weekend
THE LATEST AUDIO
WOL: Sonjay Dutt interview plus news on WWE and FOX, Brock Lesnar, more! 3/2
Wrestling Weekly: Rousey, Lesnar, another way to do Cena vs. AJ 3/2
B&V&G: Granny, NXT, THURSDAY NIGHT POTPOURRI! 3/1
We’re looking for reports on tonight’s Raw show in Kalamazoo, MI, Lucha Underground tapings in Los Angeles and NXT in Cleveland and Gainesville, FL to [email protected].
This week we will be doing polls on the UFC show tomorrow night and Tuesday’s New Japan Anniversary show.
NEW JAPAN WORLD PRO WRESTLING TONIGHT ON AXS TV AT 8 P.M.
Young Bucks vs. Yoh & Sho for IWGP jr. tag titles
Kazuchika Okada & Will Ospreay & Hirooki Goto & Yoshi-Hashi & Gedo vs. Tetsuya Naito & Evil & Bushi & Seiya Sanada & Hiromu Takahashi
BELLATOR MMA TONIGHT FROM THACKERVILLE, OKLAHOMA ON PARAMOUNT AT 9 P.M. EASTERN TIME
Juan Archuleta (144.5) vs. William Joplin (144.9)
Kristina Williams (125.2) vs. Emily Ducote (124.5)
Joe Warren (135.8) vs. Joe Taimanglo (135.8)
Darrion Caldwell (134.7) vs. Leandro Higo (134.2) for bantamweight title
LEGACY FIGHTING ALLIANCE TONIGHT FROM PRIOR LAKE, MINNESOTA AND THE MYSTIC LAKE CASINO AT 9 P.M. EASTERN ON AXS TV
Tim Hiley vs. Willie Whitehead
Nick Ammerman vs Bobby Lee
Kelly Kobold vs.?
John DeVall vs. Nate Jennerman
Jordan Griffin vs. Darrick Minner
Trey Ogden vs. Travis Perzynski
Robert Watley vs. Brandon Jenkins for lightweight title
CMLL TONIGHT AT ARENA MEXICO AT 9:30 P.M. EASTERN
Shockercito & Ultimo Dragoncito vs. Mercurio & Pequeno Nitro
Blue Panther Jr. & Fuego & The Panther vs. Puma & Tiger & Virus
Esfinge & Titan & Triton vs. Felino & Shocker & Negro Casas
CMLL tag team title tournament Block A: Caristico & Volador Jr., Dragon Lee & Mistico, Ultimo Guerrero & Gran Guerrero, Sanson & Forastero, Atlantis & Soberano Jr., Euforia & Kraneo, Pierroth & Rush and Hechicero & Mascara Ano 2000
Angel de Oro & Marco Corleone & Niebla Roja vs. Cuatrero & Mephisto & Ephesto
Saturday we’re looking for reports on Raw in Chicago at the United Center with Brock Lesnar and John Cena, Smackdown in Moline, IL, ROH in New York, Lucha Underground in Los Angeles, Northeast Wrestling in Waterbury,CT, Impact/Border City Wrestling in Windsor, ONT, and NXT in Royal Oak, MI and Englewood, FL to [email protected].
UFC 222 PPV FROM THE T-MOBILE ARENA IN LAS VEGAS
Fight Pass at 6:30 p.m. Eastern
Jordan Johnson (206) vs. Adam Milstead (205)
Bryan Caraway (135.5) vs. Cody Stamann (135.75)
Zak Ottow (171) vs. Mike Pyle (170)\
FS 1 at 8 p.m.
C.B. Dollaway (185.5) vs. Hector Lombard (185.5)
John Dodson (134.5) vs. Pedro Munhoz (135)
Beneil Dariush (156) vs. Alexander Hernandez (155)
Mackenzie Dern (116) vs. Ashley Yoder (115.5)
PPV at 10 p.m.
Ketlen Vieira (136) vs. Cat Zingano (135.5)
Andrei Arlovski (247.5) vs. Stefan Struve (266)
Sean O’Malley (136) vs. Andre Soukhamthatth (135.25)
Frankie Edgar (146) vs Brian Ortega (145.5)
Cris Cyborg (144.75) vs. Yana Kunitskaya (144) for women’s featherweight title
ROH MANHATTAN MAYHEM ON SATURDAY NIGHT AT 8 P.M. AT THE HONOR CLUB STREAMING SERVICE
Silas Young & Beer City Bruiser & Brian Milonas vs. Kenny King and fans choice partners
Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley vs. Chuckie T & ? vs. Mark & Jay Briscoe vs. Leon St-Giovanni & Shaheem Ali vs. TK O’Ryan & Vinny Marseglia. This will be a four corners match as one of these teams won’t be in the match as they will be in the opener
Soberano Jr. vs. Punishment Martinez
Tenille Dashwood & Deonna Purrazzo vs. Sumie Sakai & Jenny Rose
Flip Gordon vs. Cody
Dalton Castle & Volador Jr. vs. Jay Lethal & Ultimo Guerrero
Young Bucks & Adam Page & Marty Scurll vs. Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian & Scorpio Sky & Shane Taylor
Sunday has Raw in Rockford, IL, Smackdown in Cedar Rapids, IA, NXT in Indianapolis and Impact/Destiny Wrestling in Mississauga, ONT.
Raw is Monday in Milwaukee with Nia Jax vs. Asuka. There is also a Smackdown house show in Lacrosse, WI.
NEW JAPAN 46TH ANNIVERSARY SHOW ON TUESDAY AT 5 A.M. EASTERN TIME ON NEW JAPAN WORLD
Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask & Kushida & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Yuji Nagata & Ren Narita & Tomoyuki Oka & Shota Umino & Tetsuhiro Yagi
Katsuya Kitamura vs. Manabu Nakanishi
Juice Robinson & David Finlay & Toa Henare vs. Hirooki Goto & Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano
Sho & Yoh vs. Hiromu Takahashi & Bushi vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Desperado for IWGP jr. tag titles
Seiya Sanada vs. Yoshi-Hashi
Tetsuya Naito vs. Taichi
Minoru Suzuki vs. Togi Makabe for IC title
Kazuchika Okada vs. Will Ospreay non-title
Smackdown, 205 Live and Mixed Match Challenge takes place Tuesday in Green Bay, with Carmella vs. Becky Lynch, Jimmy Uso & Naomi vs. Braun Strowman & Alexa Bliss and cruiserweight title tournament matches with Buddy Murphy vs. Mustafa Ali and Drew Gulak vs. Mark Andrews.
F4W NEWSLETTER: Figure Four Weekly: Recapping Elimination Chamber and the Reigns-Strowman decision
What had been expected for nearly a year became official on Sunday night as Brock Lesnar defending the Universal Championship against Roman Reigns was announced for WrestleMania 34. Reigns defeated Braun Strowman, Seth Rollins, Finn Balor, John Cena, Elias, and The Miz in the main event of the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view to set up him challenging Lesnar at WrestleMania. The match came down to Reigns and Strowman, with Reigns finally putting him down with two spears.
WON NEWSLETTER: March 5, 2018 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Elimination Chamber review, Jon Jones hearing
An updated look at WrestleMania, explaining the booking of Braun Strowman, the Brock Lesnar angle and plans for John Cena and Ronda Rousey are all in the headline story of this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Look at the story behind the Reigns promo, the goal of the promo, what is and isn’t reality about Lesnar, when Lesnar returns, Lesnar’s talks with UFC and his decision making right now and a reality check when we look back three years ago.
Also look at the John Cena interview, Undertaker, Rey Mysterio Jr., how the Rousey angle has gone so far, what the TV ratings said about Rousey’s debut, women’s title plans, as well as the rest of the WrestleMania and Fast Lane show.
Check out the Strowman situation for WrestleMania, flaws in the Elimination Chamber booking as well as full coverage of the show, with match-by-match rundowns with star ratings and poll results on the show.
Find out about Jon Jones’ hearing before the California State Athletic Commission and what it means, as well as the completely befuddling remarks made prior to the hearing.
Look at what may be a WWE drug scandal with the tease of 15 names being involved including one who purchased $140,000 worth of substances. Read the claims out there and teases of what else will be released. Find out about the realities of drug testing and the changing pro wrestling business from when the death rate was so high.
Look at what talent WWE is interested in, WWE signing a deal to do events in Saudi Arabia, lots of news regarding the concussion lawsuits filed against WWE, what happened in a deposition that went badly for the plaintiff in one of those suits, more on Ronda Rousey training, Chris Jericho’s 2018 schedule, why Apollo Crews’ last name was dropped and the Dusty Rhodes tag team tournament.
Examine the secondary market in New Orleans for WWE events, update on a deal to bring WWE into a 100,000 seat stadium this fall, Ric Flair becoming a celebrity in Latin America, UFC talent at WWE event and why they weren’t identified, Bianca Belair injury update, WWE headed to Japan and the most-watched shows on WWE.
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WON BACK ISSUE: February 12, 2001 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Debut of the XFL, Stan Hansen retires, more
With fan and media reaction after its debut all across the board and a huge buzz leading to a monstrous television rating, the only way to review the debut of the XFL over the weekend is this. Despite what sports people may think and even hardcore fans of sports may think, the majority of people attend sporting events as well as wrestling events based on quality of hype. They enjoy themselves based on quality of atmosphere of the show, and going home happy (either the babyface prevailing at the end or the home team prevailing).
FRIDAY NEWS UPDATE
For the WWE weekend house shows, it’s the usual crew on most shows. John Cena will be working Saturday night in Chicago, Sunday in Rockford and Raw on Monday in Milwaukee. Brock Lesnar is working Saturday in Chicago in a Universal title defense against Kane. Randy Orton is working all of the Smackdown events this week. Ronda Rousey is not advertised for any shows this week.
Everyone made weight and there were no issues thus far regarding weight cutting for tomorrow’s UFC show. These days, the idea that nothing bad happened is a major story.
Everyone at UFC was shocked by the news of the death of Bruce Connall, the lead producer of UFC events for more than a decade. I’m certain this will be addressed on tomorrow night’s show.
Impact is taping a One Night Only PPV show tomorrow night in Windsor, ONT at St.Clair College with Trevor Lee vs. Petey Williams vs. Matt Sydal, Eli Drake vs. Cody Deaner, Joe Doering vs. Moose, A-1 & Allie vs Braxton Sutter & KC Spinelli plus Alberto El Patron is scheduled. They are also taping a Sunday show in Mississauga, ONT for Twitch (airing 3/9) with Austin Aries vs. Matt Sydal vs. Kongo Kong, Alberto El Patron vs Moose, Trevor Lee vs. Josh Alexander and Allie vs. KC Spinelli.
Because they are moving to a larger building, there are some tickets that will be released for the 3/23 PWG show in Los Angeles.
WWE
Survivor Series travel packages are available Monday.
Brian Flinn was promoted from his job as Executive Vice President of Marketing & Communications to Chief Marketing and Communications Officer. He will now oversee all marketing and corporate communication functions including global marketing, WWE network marketing, creative services, special events, publicity, medal relations and corporate communications and report directly to Co-President Michelle Wilson. He has been with WWE since 2012.
L’Equipe, the leading French sports TV station announced that starting on 3/10, a one-hour edited version of Raw will be at 10 a.m. Saturday mornings and there will be a replay on Saturday night.
George Barrios, the WWE Co-President, will be participating in a presentation on Tuesday at the Deutsche Bank Media Telecom and Business Services Conference in Florida.
Jon Huber (Luke Harper) talks to the Asbury Park Press on his role in the new film “Mohawk” for the Asbury Park Press’ pop culture podcast Fan Theory. He had some really interesting insight into how being a member of the Wyatt Family helped him in his acting debut.
Bayley talks Ronda Rousey in WWE. (thanks to Mike Kuzmuk)
UFC
Azunna Anyanwu was given a one-year suspension by USADA for a positive test for the diuretic Furosemide from an out-of-competition test on 10/18. He will be eligible to fight again on October 18, 2018.
MISCELLANEOUS
WrestleCon announced that due to the demand, there will be a second Steve Austin signing at WrestleCon on 4/7 and tickets will go on sale at 3:16 p.m. on Monday.
There are only 100 tickets left for the 4/6 WrestleCon Supershow with Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi vs. Chuck Taylor & ?, Tomohiro Ishii vs. Jeff Cobb and Joey Janela vs. Penta 0M.
Ricky Steamboat will be doing an autograph signing at Pro Wrestling Tees in Chicago on 4/14 from Noon to 2 p.m.
House of Hardcore runs 6/1 in Napanee, ONT.
wXw on 2/25 in Bielefeld, Germany: Mike Bailey won three-way over Jay Skillet and Julian Pace, Marius Al-Ani b Francis Kaplan and Veit Muller, Absolute Andy b Tyler Colton, Alexander James & Jurn Simmons b Dirty Dragan & Emil Sitoci, John Klinger b Bobby Gunns, Melanie Gray won three-way over Killer Kelly and Veda Scott to become top contender for the women’s title, Timothy Thatcher & Walter b Ivan Kiel & Lucky Kid, Marius Al-Ani b Mike Bailey to earn a shot in the 16 Carat Gold tournament. (thanks to Markus Gronemann)
The 16 Carat Gold tournament is from 3/8 to 3/11 with seven shows over four days. The 3/10 and 3/11 shows are sold out and 3/9 has about 70 tickets left, so there will be 800 to 1,000 fans all three nights. There will be a 3/8 warm-up show at the wrestling school in Essen, Germany with Mark Haskins vs. Mike Bailey and Walter vs. Jonah Rock. The 3/9 show in Oberhausen has Julian Nero vs Ivan Kiev vs. Emil Sitoci vs. Julian Pace in an alternates match, and first round matches with Absolute andy vs. Marius Al-Ani, Matt Sydal vs. Lucky Kid, Jonah Rock vs. Timothy Thatcher, Da Mack vs. Matt Riddle, Chris Brookes vs Alexander James, Avalanche vs. Keith Lee, Travis Banks vs. Mark Haskins and Jurn Simmons vs. David Starr in a last man standing match. There is also a 3/9 midnight event at Hotel Haus Union where they will air some of the funniest moments from their archives. On 3/10 at 10:30 a.m. is a show in Oberhausen at Zentrum Altenberg. On 3/10 at 1 p.m. is the annual UWFI style Ambition show with a one-night eight man tournament with first round bouts of Alexander James vs. Thatcher, Rock vs. Bailey, Bobby Gunns vs. Rafa and Heddi Karaoui vs. David Starr. There is also a 3:30 p.m. show, while the 7 p.m. show has Klinger vs. Walter for the wXw title, Toni Storm vs. Melanie Gray for the women’s title, Gunn vs. Bailey for the Shotgun title and second round tournament matches. The semifinals and finals are 3/11 at 5 p.m.
wXw is running 3/24 in London before a Progress show with Walter vs. Travis Banks, Bobby Gunns vs. TK Cooper and Killer Kelly vs. Millie McKenzie. Announced for the 5/5 show in Oberhausen are Tenille Dashwood, Billy Gunn, Jay Lethal, Joey Mercury, Christopher Daniels and Rich Swann.
The Nasty Boys are wrestling in Germany this weekend for the German Wrestling Alliance.
Three German groups are co-promoting shows on 4/21 and 4/22 with Marty Scurll, Ken Anderson, Raven, Rene Dupree, Chris Masters and Gangrel.
Shine on 3/10 in Queens, NY has LuFisto vs. Mercedes Martinez for the Shine title, Priscilla Kelly vs. Candy Cartwright, Vanessa Kraven vs. Dementia D’Rose in anything goes and more.
CHIKARA Pro on 3/17 in Philadelphia at the Wrestle Factory.
CHIKARA’s King of Trios will run 8/31 to 9/2 in Easton, PA. The first team entered is Fred Rosser (Darren Young) & P.J. Black & Michael Tarver.
The 3/4 Stardom show is sold out.
Rise on 5/12 in Pittsburgh has Tessa Blanchard vs. Britt Baker.
Today in Professional Wrestling History: Austin & Pillman win WCW Tag Team titles
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