The WWE has just announced today its first WWE-brand network special for the year, “Road to WrestleMania” show on Saturday, March 12, from the Ricoh Coliseum in Toronto.
Nothing has been announced for the card as of yet, but usually there is some sort of a hook for these shows.
Toronto would be the fourth WWE-brand network special thus far, with a North American exclusive PPV show added last year with an Elimination Chamber theme, as well as shows in Tokyo and Madison Square Garden built around Brock Lesnar matches.
NXT at 8:00 p.m. ET on WWE Network is a best of 2015 edition.
ROH at midnight ET/PT on COMET is also a best of 2015 edition with ACH & Matt Sydal vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Tetsuya Naito, Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Roderick Strong, A.J. Styles & The Young Bucks vs. ACH, Matt Sydal, & Cedric Alexander, and Jay Briscoe vs. Jay Lethal.
Meanwhile, WWE’s last two house shows of 2015 are tonight: Toronto is headlined by Alberto del Rio vs. John Cena, while Baltimore has a main event of Roman Reigns vs. Sheamus.
RIZIN FROM THE SAITAMA SUPER ARENA (some matches air on U.S. TV on Spike Thursday morning at 10 a.m.)
Rena vs. Jlena Valentino – women’s match
Heavyweight tournament semifinals
Brennan Ward (Bellator) vs. Ken Hasegawa
Takeru vs. Yang Ming in K-1 rules
Soo Chul Kim vs. Maike Linhares
Gabrielle Garcia vs. Lei’d Tapa – women’s super heavyweight match
Akebono vs. Bob Sapp – Shoot boxing rules (boxing, kicking, takedowns, no ground work or submissions)
Andy Souwer vs. Yuichiro Nagashima
Peter Aerts vs. Baruto (sumo star)
Kron Gracie (Rickson’s son) vs. Asen Yamamoto (age group wrestling champion, son of former women’s world champion Miyu Yamamoto)
A look at the Slammy Awards, business of the show, who watched the show, suggestions made for improving the awards show idea, some history of where it came from and what happened at the show including injury updates.
We also have a story about both the California commission, doctors, and reps from the Association of Boxing Commissions talking about the problem of weight cutting in MMA as well as all the medical issues involved, win/loss records of bigger vs. small fighters, belief of how many fighters go into fights dehydrated, the dangers of fighting dehydrated, new weight class suggestions, the good and the bad of adding weight classes, the discussion of splitting up the heavyweight division and the ONE organization becomes the first promotion to take drastic steps in this subject with a look at their new regulations.
We also look at the life, career and significance of Lizmark, one of the biggest stars in the history of Lucha Libre, who passed away this past week. We have his background, how he got into wrestling, his life before wrestling, why he first wore a mask, how he got the name Lizmark, his long run as a constant singles champion or top contender, his induction into the Hall of Fame, his run in the glory days of AAA, Lizmark Jr. and why he fell out of favor in WCW due to loyalty to his father, his biggest rivals, the wrestlers who emulated him and his title history.
We look at what is next for NXT, the upcoming tour dates, reaction to Roman Reigns internally, Notes on the video game, Mauro Ranallo updates, WWE injury updates, John Cena and Dwayne Johnson news, lots of WWE U.K. date business notes, Japan TV update, Two new wrestlers making main roster debut for one tour in January and why. We also have notes from all the weekend house shows.
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 Dave Meltzer
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The new issue of Forbes has a two-page satellite photo of properties near the CT/NY border; the McMansion being one of the ones listed. At a current value of $7 million, it’s the least expensive of the homes features.
CBS Detroit says that there are rumors about WrestleMania returning to Ford Field.
UFC/MMA
UFC cut Fabio Maldonado, Chico Camus, Ericka Almeida, Bubba Bush, Mickael Lebout, Vernon Ramos and Jumabieke Tuerxun. At one point, that list was believed to include Kevin Souza, who then said in an interview with MMAFighting.com said that he was not informed by the company that had been cut. Instead, USADA emailed him and told him that he no longer had to inform them of his whereabouts at all times because he was no longer listed as a UFC fighter. What actually happened was that he was unaware that his contract was up and it was all a miscommunication.
Fedor Emeliananko on Jaideep Singh: “I think he is quite a serious contender.”
Here are the weigh in results for Rizin Fighting which takes place on December 31st in Japan.
MISC
Our annual Prediction Show will span two days this year, tomorrow (Thursday) and Friday on Wrestling Observer Live. If you can’t listen to the show during its live airing (12 PT/3 ET on Sports Byline USA, links are up on the front page), don’t worry. Just call between 12:05/3:05 and 12:40/3:40). Everyone will get MAX two predictions for 2016, and next year will will crown a winner. Obviously, if you predict something like “WrestleMania will draw more than 18,000 fans” you will not win the grand prize. Grand prize goes to the most out-on-a-limb yet still accurate prediction (“Roman Reigns will win the title at Survivor Series over Dean Ambrose but then Sheamus will cash in and steal the belt” would be an amazing prediction if it had been made at this time last year). We will also be reading last year’s predictions over the next two days as well and crown the 2015 winner. If we are deluged with calls, we may move last year’s predictions reading to Sunday’s Observer Live. We’ll play it by ear. The numbers are up on the front page of the website. For now, no email or text message predictions, only phone calls. Have fun!
Karl Stern’s first Dragon King Dark episode will be up on the After Dark Radio website later today. Karl will be doing one new show a week, as announced on Sunday’s After Dark Radio. If you are a regular listener and interested in providing columns for the brand new website, email bryan@afterdarkradioshow.com.
ROH Winter Warrior Tour: SATURDAY, JANUARY 9TH 2016 – 7:00PM BELL TIME – NATIONAL TV TAPING. Cabarrus Events Center – 4751 NC Hwy 49 North – Concord, NC 28025. Tickets on Sale Now. ROH Tag Team Champions War Machine vs. All Night Express has been signed.
Tonight on RDS (Quebec’s version of ESPN) there will be a one-hour documentary on the Rougeau family. From Eddy Auger to his nephew Johnny and Jacques Rougeau to Jacques’ children Raymond, Jacques Jr, Armand and Joanne (who promoted here from 95-2000 for the WWF) to Jacques Jr’s sons Emile and Cedric (6 foot 7, 315 pounds) the documentary talks about all 4 generations of Rougeaus, the only ones with the McMahons to have 4 generations in wrestling. Patric Laprade says, “Other people like Gino Brito, Pierre-Carl Ouellet, announcer Marc Blondin and myself have also been interviewed for this. I have also worked in the behind-the-scenes of this documentary.”
Fedor Emelianenko clocked in at 236 pounds. Gabi Garcia and Lei’d Tapa in the women’s super heavyweight fight were more than 200 pounds. This will be the second Rizin show of the week, which takes place on New Year’s Eve at the Saitama Super Arena.
The show will air on Thursday morning at both 10 a.m. Eastern and Pacific time on Spike. Not all of the matches will air on Spike, and some matches from the Tuesday event will be on Spike.
The show is a mix of celebrity fights and names from the past with the attempt to draw mainstream viewers in Japan into MMA with unique personalities. While Emelianenko is who the show is built around in the U.S., in Japan the most interest revolves around the debut of former sumo star Baruto, the woman’s fight that includes former TNA wrestler Lei’d Tapa, the Bob Sapp vs Akebono fight and the Yamamoto wrestling family vs. Gracie Jiu Jitsu next generation battle with Asen Yamamoto, a teenage champion wrestler whose grandfather was an Olympic wrestler, whose mother was a world champion wrestler and whose uncle is Kid Yamamoto, facing Kron Gracie, the grandson of Helio Gracie and son of Rickson Gracie.
The show features five pro wrestlers in Akebono, Sapp, Tapa, Yuichiro Nagashima (the famed cross-dressing kickboxer) and Lawal.
Rena Kubota (112) vs. Jlena Valentino (112) King Mo Lawal (214) vs. Teodoras Aukstuolis (216) in the semifinals of the heavyweight tournament Jiro Prochazka (211.5) vs. Vadim Nemkov (219.5) in the semifinals of the heavyweight tournament Brennan Ward of Bellator (178) vs. Ken Hasegawa (178.5) Takeru (125.5) vs. Yang Ming (125.5) in a K-1 rules match Soo Chu Kim (134.5) vs. Maike Linhares (134.5) Gabi Garcia (216) vs. Lei’d Tapa (201) in a women’s fight Kron Gracie (144.5) vs. Asen Yamamoto (144.5) Akebono (419) vs. Bob Sapp (330.5) in a shoot boxing rules match Andy Souwer (159) vs. Yuichiro Nagashima (158) Peter Aerts (didn’t weigh in) vs. Baruto (403.5) Fedor Emelianenko (236) vs. Jaideep Singh (233) Finals of heavyweight tournament
Even going against the highest rated Monday night game of the season, Raw did well above its fall season average with the Vince McMahon show-long arrest angle.
Raw did 3.53 million viewers, placing it third for the night on cable behind the Broncos-Bengals game that did 15.81 million viewers and an episode of SportsCenter.
The angle, as expected, helped maintain the audience as there was less of an audience drop as the show went on as is typical of Raw. The return of John Cena also played a part in that.
The three hours were:
8 p.m. 3.70 million viewers 9 p.m. 3.49 million viewers 10 p.m. 3.43 million viewers
Monday was the final episode of Monday Night Football. With the exception of the 1/11 show, which goes against the college football championship game, Raw will now be free of its top competition, and ratings should rise about 10 percent from the level they have been if history is an indication.
Wrestling Observer Live with Bryan Alvarez and Mike Sempervive returns today to talk all the news in wrestling and MMA including thoughts on Tyler Breeze’s new storyline going into 2016, Kurt Angle talks WWE and leaving TNA, squash matches, babyfaces and heels in 2016, and so much more! A fun show as always so check it out~!
San Francisco, California: – Ben and Mike Sharpe won the San Francisco version of the NWA World Tag Team Title by defeating Fred Atkins and Ray Eckert
1955
Portland, Oregon: – Henry Lenz and Kurt Von Poppenheim defeated Bill Savage and Buck Weaver to win the NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Title
1966
Portland, Oregon: – Paul Jones defeated Tony Borne for the NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Title
1968
Memphis, Tennessee: – Bobby and Lee Fields defeated The Mighty Yankees (Frank Morrell and Eddie Sullivan) to win the Mid-America version of the NWA Southern Tag Team Title
1972
Detroit, Michigan: – The Sheik defeated Bobo Brazil for the Detroit version of the NWA United States Heavyweight Title
1972
Minneapolis, Minnesota: – Verne Gagne and Billy Robinson defeated Nick Bockwinkel and Ray Stevens for the AWA World Tag Team Titles – Andre Rousimoff (Andre the Giant) beat Larry Hennig – Dusty Rhodes beat Bull Bullinski – Bob Bruggers beat Blackjack Daniels – Ric Flair drew George Gadaski
1975
– Black Gordman and Goliath defeated Rock Riddle and John Tolos to win the NWA Americas Tag Team Title
1978
St. Petersburg, Florida: – Terry Funk defeated Dick Slater for the NWA Florida Southern Heavyweight Title
Kansas City, Kansas: – Dick Murdoch defeated Buck Robley to win the NWA Central States Heavyweight Title
1984
Memphis, Tennessee: – Terry Taylor defeated Eddie Gilbert to win the CWA/AWA International Heavyweight Championship
1985
Memphis, Tennessee: – Bill Dundee defeated Jerry Lawler for the AWA Southern Heavyweight Title
Birmingham, Alabama: – Tim Horner won the Southeastern version NWA United States Junior Heavyweight Title from Ken Timbs
1986
Mexico City, Mexico: – Dos Caras defeated Canek to win the UWA World Heavyweight Title
1988
Dallas, Texas: – Cactus Jack defeated Eric Embry for the World Class Light Heavyweight Title
Calgary, Alberta, Canada: – Makhan Singh (Mike Shaw) and Vokhan Singh (Gary Albright) defeated The British Bulldogs (The Dynamite Kid and Davey Boy Smith) to win the Stampede International Tag Team Titles
1989
Memphis, Tennessee: – King Cobra defeated Jerry Lawler to win the USWA Unified World Heavyweight Title
Augusta, Maine: – The Lethal Weapons (Dennis Condrey and Doug Gilbert) defeated Phil Apollo and Vic Steamboat (subbing for Eric Sbraccia) to win the International Championship Wrestling Tag Team Titles
1992
Baltimore, Maryland: – Big Van Vader defeated Ron Simmons to win the WCW World Heavyweight Title
1994
Mexico City, Mexico: Negro Casas & Hector Garza defeated Satanico & Arkangel de la Muerte to win the CMLL Torneo Gran Alternativa
2000
Galt, California: – Christopher Daniels defeated Donovan Morgan in the finals of the first-ever King of the Indies Tournament
2003
Laredo, Texas: – Rey Mysterio defeated Tajiri to win the WWE Cruiserweight Title
2003
Guangzhou, China: – Steve Williams defeated Terry Taylor to win the NWA Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Title
2007
New York City: – The Age of The Fall, (Tyler Black and Jimmy Jacobs) defeated ROH Tag Team champions, The Briscoes to win the titles – Erick Stevens pinned Roderick Strong to win the FIP championship
At Wrestle Kingdom 10, Katsuyori Shibata takes on Tomohiro Ishii for the NEVER (ALL CAPS) Openweight Championship. Why? Because shut up! That’s why! There is no backstory here. No storied rivalry. It’s just happening. And you know what? I’m not even mad. Not even a little. Usually I would be. But in this case, nope. Totally not mad. I’m unmad. And I’ll tell you why in just a minute. But first, let’s get to know these two bruisers who will no doubt beat each other senseless at the Tokyo Dome.
Similar to how the formerly white (current colour undefinable) IWGP Intercontinental belt is Shinsuke Nakamura’s plaything which he occasionally lets others have a hold of, Ishii and the NEVER title go hand in hand. Ishii has the most reigns of any NEVER Champion at 4, and the most combined days as champ. Since the conception of the title in 2012 and after Masato Tanaka’s initial run (and Tetsuya Naito’s subsequent run), the NEVER title division has been dominated by Tomohiro Ishii.
That is until the great disturbance in the force that was Togi Makabe, but that King Kong sized speedbump is in the past now. Ishii is champ and all is good once again. The other important thing to know about Ishii is that his matches are brutal. THE BRUTALEST. Stiff lariats, thudding headbutts, and all the things that make you wince when watching a wrestling match. But he’s not just a physical worker, his selling (always that darn shoulder/neck area) is second to none.
And then there’s The Wrestler, Katsuyori Shibata. If Ishii’s matches are the brutalest, Shibata’s aren’t far behind. Shibata is one of the best talents in New Japan, but also one of the most underutilised. He’s only ever held one title in New Japan: the IWGP Tag Team Championship with Hirooki Goto. His biggest singles wins usually come in the G1 tournament. Other times, he’s mostly put in tags and multi-mans.
2015 was a fairly quiet year for Shibata. After winning the tag titles at Wrestle Kingdom and losing them almost immediately, Shibata had very few singles matches and feuds. Late in 2015, it looked like he was heading towards a showdown with the excellently ingobernable Tetsuya Naito at Wrestle Kingdom 10. Shibata defeated Naito in the G1, but Naito got his revenge at Destruction in Kobe. Then, Naito and EVIL (best name ever) defeated Shibata and Goto and knocked them out of the World Tag League.
However, after pinning Ishii (for the umpteenth time) in a multi-man match on the final day of the World Tag League, he laid the NEVER title over Ishii’s carcass, signifying his intention to challenge at Wrestle Kingdom 10. It was then later announced that Hirooki Goto would be the one to face Tetsuya Naito at the Tokyo Dome.
Slightly baffling build up, but it kind of makes sense. Sort of. Shibata has beaten Ishii quite a few times in multi-man matches, so he may as well get something out of it in the form of a championship. Meanwhile, Goto has been almost equally involved in the feud with Naito and EVIL, so that match isn’t completely out of left field either. In a discussion about the match I had on social media, an interesting idea was brought up in that Shibata wins the NEVER title and feuds with Naito over it. That would be logical considering their recent history, and something I’d love to see, but it also means Ishii loses at the Tokyo Dome, and I don’t care for that at all.
When it comes to Ishii vs. Shibata, no elaborate angles or backstories are needed. These two are no frills wrestlers. They arrive. They obliterate. They leave. At Wrestle Kingdom 10, these two are going to murder (not literally) each other, or die trying. I’m not going to lie, I’ll be spending the majority of this match with my hands over my eyes, peeking at the destruction through my fingers. I love both of these wrestlers, but their style is career shortening. It’s sometimes hard to watch, but even harder to look away. When these two meet in the Kingdom of Wrestling on January 4th, they’re going to tear the roof off. We’re gonna need a bigger dome.
The Bryan & Vinny & Craig Show returns tonight for our year-end spectacular! Not only do we have the usual retro Raw and retro Nitro reviews from 19 years ago this week, but it is the FINALS OF THE 2015 F4W KARATE FIGHTERS TOURNAMENT! Bryan vs. Craig is the headliner, who gets their hand raised in end and who tucks their tail and runs? A fun show as always so check it out~!
Smackdown New Year’s Eve edition spoilers – 12/31 (taped Tuesday 12/29)
By John Athridge
The crowd is pretty full for a Smackdown. The hard camera side is basically full at least. I missed the first two matches, but I was told that Darren Young beat Curtis Axel in the dark match.
Main Event
R-Truth beat Heath Slater.
Titus O’Neil beat Adam Rose.
Jack Swagger submitted Stardust with the ankle lock in about 10 minutes. They worked awfully hard for a Main Event match.
Smackdown
Show opened by replaying the Vince arrest angle from last night. They announced the main event of Reigns and Ambrose vs. Sheamus and Owens.
New Day came out to celebrate New Year’s Eve. They said their New Year’s resolution was nothing because they are perfect. They said the people needed to change because they didn’t vote for the New Day for the Slammies. They read a list of resolutions for the people so they’d finally appreciate the New Day. Mildly funny. The Lucha Dragons came out. They argued and challenged the New Day for a match even though Sin Cara is injured. The Dragons then brought out the Dudleys for a 6 man match.
The Dudleys and Kalisto beat the New Day when Kalisto pinned Kofi. The Dudleys then put Xavier Woods through a table with “Happy New Year” spray painted on it.
During the commercials, they played New Year’s wishes from various wrestlers.
Tyler Breeze (w/Summer Rae) beat Goldust in a short match. Summer then said they had a huge New Year’s announcement. Tyler said that starting in the New Year, the two of them would be going their separate ways. But they left the crowd with one last “Gorgeous Selfie”.
Backstage, Bo Dallas was giving out New Year’s Re-Bo-lutions (including telling Curtis Axel to start wearing deodorant). He ran into Dolph Ziggler. After a few insults back and forth, they announced a match between them later.
Braun Strowman and Luke Harper (w/Erick Rowan) beat the Usos. Strowman got the submission after some quick interference from Rowan.
They announced John Cena’s return to Smackdown for next week.
Alicia Fox and Brie Bella beat Tamina and Naomi when Brie pinned Naomi after a couple of minutes.
They announced that there will be a house show in DC on Sunday March, 27th. Thought we were getting the go home Raw before Wrestlemania here, but apparently not.
Dolph Ziggler beat Bo Dallas with a superkick after selling for a few minutes. Not much else to it.
Reigns came out to a decent reaction, but nothing spectacular. Ambrose seemed to get louder cheers.
Reigns and Ambrose beat Sheamus and Kevin Owens by DQ when Owens pulled Reigns out of the ring and crotched him on the ring post after about 10 minutes. Owens and Sheamus beat down Reigns and then Ambrose. Owens was about to powerbomb Ambrose through the announce table when Reigns recovered to give them both Superman punches. Reigns and Ambrose then posed on the announce table. Got a decent reaction, but not much of a main event.
Key Takeaway: TakeOver: Respect draws near as we follow several NXT personalities as they prepare for the big event. The focus on TakeOver adds some much-needed urgency to the show.
Recap: As with the past few episodes, this edition of Breaking Ground wasn’t focused on one or two competitors, but the episode’s focus on the road to TakeOver: Respect helped make up for it.
Bayley visits Natalya at “Night of Champions” and picks her brain a bit about the upcoming Iron Man match. Natalya reassures her that she’s the right person to lead the way for the young NXT female locker room as champion. Later, Bayley shoots promos for the match and gets a bit choked up as she discusses the importance and historical nature of the bout, which they emphasize is the first time females have main-evented a live WWE special. When she arrives at Full Sail for the event, Bayley seems a bit relieved that the day has arrived – she mentions how she’s been constantly running around preparing and promoting the event (and while she does this in voice-over, she is constantly shaking hands with different people at the arena backstage who greet her) that she’s a bit wired at this point. In a cool moment in this episode, Bayley gets a chance to play with her own action figure as Mattel comes to do facial scans of other NXT stars.
Nia Jax is getting ready for her TV debut (which was taped after TakeOver, but appears in this episode because of narratives). Her mom has flown in and helps her prepare. Nia has no idea what to do for her entrance. Her mom advises her not to over-analyze her entrance and just enjoy the moment when she walks out there. Her mom mentions what she has already overcome, and Nia tells the story of getting in an accident with a drunk driver in August 2014 (with The Rock’s mom with her in the car). In a funny moment, Rhyno and Baron Corbin joke around with her about being nervous about her debut, sharing horror stories of their past debuts. (Rhyno came out during the commercial break because he thought the generic rock music was his entrance music, advising her to “remember her music.”) She likes her new gear. Her debut happens, the crowd reacts well to her. She tears up discussing how much it all meant to her having her mom there. (Weirdly, she has a talk with her mom outside the venue wearing her more recent gear with the cool shoulder-pads.)
Sami Zayn begins doing conditioning in-ring with Tye Dillinger. He goes through a series of holds while a trainer assesses him. He notes afterwards it’s unclear if he’s going up to the main roster or not, as it wasn’t clear to him if his Montreal match with John Cena was a full call-up or a one-off.
In a strange quirk, last week’s cliffhanger with Dana Brooke getting injured is not really followed up on. They establish that she was hurt and injured some muscle in-between her pectoral and her shoulder, but she decided to work through it as the trainers felt whatever damage had been done wouldn’t get worse. She does get choked up a bit chatting with Jason Jordan prior to Takeover, but she gets to make her TakeOver debut with Asuka regardless.
In lesser news: Tino Sabbatelli gets video feedback from Adam Pearce and Matt Bloom, and does extra work in the ring at the Performance Center with the hopes of working his way back up from the beginners class to the touring roster. Tyler Breeze and his girlfriend adopt a stray dog that followed him to the Performance Center. Jason Jordan and Chad Gable order custom track suits for their TakeOver match, but they don’t arrive in time.
And the beginning of “TakeOver: Respect” is this episode’s big cliffhanger, as we’ll follow up on that event in next week’s season finale.
Final Thoughts: A fairly strong episode of Breaking Ground, if only because of the focus on TakeOver and the time it spent with personalities like Bayley, Nia Jax and Sami Zayn who the show has spent time with and given reasons for viewers to care about.
