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  • Daily Update: Big Show’s Rumble Spot, Rizin Fighting results

    WWE is also running two shows on Tuesday, with the Smackdown tapings in Washington, DC as well as a house show in Providence (John Cena vs. Alberto Del Rio for U.S. title; Rusev vs. Ryback, Kane vs. Bray Wyatt, Charlotte vs. Paige for Divas title, Dolph Ziggler vs. Tyler Breeze).

    Wednesday has a WWE show in Toronto at the Ricoh Coliseum (John Cena vs. Alberto Del Rio, Dean Ambrose vs. Kevin Owens) and Baltimore (Roman Reigns vs. Sheamus, Kane vs. Bray Wyatt, Brie Bella & Alicia Fox vs. Naomi & Sasha Banks).

    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)

    Fedor Emelianenko vs. Jaideep Singh

    Heavyweight tournament finals

    Figure Four Weekly

    Figure Four Weekly (12/21/15): Hulk Hogan and Nelson Frazier Lawsuit Updates
    Transcript gives new insight into the FBI/Gawker dispute, plus WWE gives us a peek at what their termination notices look like in the Nelson Frazier wrongful death lawsuit.

    Wrestling Observer Newsletter

    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.

    PLUS MUCH MORE! CLICK HERE FOR A FULL WRESTLING OBSERVER PREVIEW

    The Latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter: December 28, 2015 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: WWE Slammy Awards, MMA Weight cutting

    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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    Click here for the most requested Wrestling Observer back issues.

    Check out the latest Online Wrestling Observer BACK ISSUE: November 9, 1998 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Jesse Ventura wins Minnesota Governor election, WCW trailing WWF, more
    Jesse Ventura becomes the Governor of Minnesota, WCW begins trailing WWF, ECW November to Remember recap, plus tons of news.

    TODAY’S DAILY UPDATE

    For the record, according to WWE this morning the Big Show is NOT going to be the number-one entrant in the Royal Rumble.  Last night on Raw he made a confusing statement about being the first entrant which led to great confusion among fans and the announcers.  I would laugh if all of this all led to him actually being put in the Rumble in the number one spot.  Apparently Big Show will be shooting some segments clarifying what he apparently meant (he’s the first man to throw his hat into the ring for the Rumble).

    Sakuraba looked all 46 of his years in a one sided loss against Shinya Aoki in the main event of Rizin’s debut show. Here are the full results from the first day of Rizin Fighting Federation.  

    Ronda Rousey’s sister, Maria Burns Ortiz (who coauthored Rousey’s autobiography My Fight/Your Fight), wrote a retrospective on the rise to superstardom of her sister as part of a VICE Sports year in review series. The article includes candid family photos from the past year featuring Ronda.

    Thomas Golianopoulos has a really good article at Playboy.com about the death of Perro Aguayo Jr. and its impact on the business.

    WWE

    • Lemmy Kilmister, frontman of the band Motörhead, passed away Monday at age 70. In terms of pro wrestling, Motörhead provided entrance music for Triple H with such songs as “The Game” and “King of Kings” while also forming an apparent bond with Paul Levesque. In a story from this past summer, the band covered a Rolling Stones song on their last album at the request of Triple H. An English rock band that emerged in the 1970s, Motörhead became legendary in heavy metal and rock music. With Lemmy on lead vocals and bass guitar, they performed live at WrestleMania in both 2001 and 2005.
    • Based on the overnights (actual ratings not available until tomorrow), last nights game was the highest rated of the season with a 10.5 rating, although it peaked after Raw ended.
    • Heard the WWE Breaking Ground that aired on the WWE Network was very good.  The series wraps up with the final episode of the season next Monday after Raw.
    • Titus O’Neil is Coachman’s guest on Sportscenter tonight.

    UFC/MMA

    • The first episode of UFC 195 Embedded is up on the UFC YouTube channel.
    • M-1 Challenge lightweight champion Mansour “Tarzan” Barnaoui will make his first title defense, February 19 at Olympic Stadium, against Artiom Damkovsky at M-1 Challenge 64 in Moscow, Russia.  M-1 Challenge 64 will be streamed live from Moscow in high definition on M1Global.TV. Viewers will be able to watch the preliminary fights and main card by logging on to register at www.M1Global.TV. Fans may watch all of the action on their computers, as well as on Android and Apple smart phones and tablets.
    • We will have Sean Wheelock, head of the ABC rules committee as a guest on Thursday and we’re looking for any questions, thoughts or suggestions regarding rules and regulations of MMA in North America, rules you think should be changed, etc. to mailbag@wrestlingobserver.com

    MISC

    • A new promotion in India calling itself the Pro Wrestling League reportedly ran a stadium show in New Delhi. Basically the inaugural event featured what most would consider amateur wrestling matches except presented with the pageantry of contemporary pro wrestling or MMA. One article from The Times of India focuses on, of all things, trying to enter the stadium, while other coverage looks at the matches themselves.
    • Mike Mooneyham reflects on pro wrestlers who passed away this year in an article for The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC).
    • An article from Bloomberg related to the Concussion movie details new equipment designed to prevent concussions in contact sports. The creation of an anti-compression collar drew inspiration from woodpeckers. The article includes a quote from Chris Nowinski.
    • Newsday digs into wire service image archives to showcase some great classic black and white wrestling photos.
    • On this week’s Between the Sheets podcast, Kris Zellner and David Bixenspan are joined by Dylan Hales to go over the week that was December 22-28, 1989 including the famous of Blackjack Mulligan and Kendall Windham for passing counterfeit money, Paul Heyman’s plan to unite the major indies and remaining territories, a crazy week for the USWA, one of the worst weeks of Hulk Hogan’s life, and much more.
    • EVOLVE announced that WWN Supershow: Mercury Rising 2016 on April 2nd at the WWNLive Experience in Dallas, TX will be a Night Of Appreciation For Terry Funk. “We always strive to move the art of pro wrestling forward in the WWN Family. Sometimes the best way to do that is to pay homage to those that blazed the trail in the past. Mercury Rising 2016 will feature a ceremony honoring Mr. Funk. The legend will also be available for photos and autographs. Go to MoreThanMania.com for tickets and info.”
    • PWP runs tomorrow night, 12/30, at the Waiting Room Lounge in Omaha, NE with Michael Elgin headlining.
    • Kevin Doane talks to the Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling. On the Spirit Squad gimmick and trying to make the main roster: “Eventually The Spirit Squad started coming about and they started liking it. They flew us into one of the Carolinas and they weren’t sure about it then. So we all came up with this idea that we are going to wait in Vince’s office and when he comes in we are going to blow the air horn in his face and do a cheer. We thought you either going to get fired or it will work. We don’t want to be in developmental so he was stuck in the production meeting for quite a while so we said let’s find him and break in. So we bust into the production meeting and blow the air horn, we did a big cheer and we just kind of stopped in our position and Vince looked up and he said ‘great, you will be on RAW next week.’”

    Here is today’s FULL Daily Pro Wrestling History including International history: Daily pro wrestling history (12/29): Mankind wins the WWF World Title

  • FREE! WOL 12/29: Raw and RIZIN fallout, news and more!

    Wrestling Observer Live with Bryan Alvarez and Mike Sempervive returns today to talk all the news in wrestling and MMA including tons of thoughts on the RIZIN show with the doom of Kazushi Sakuraba, Raw from Monday, Big Show and whether or not he’s number one in the Royal Rumble, texts, calls and more! A fun show as always so check it out~!

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  • UFC cancels March 5th pay-per-view in Brazil

    The UFC has canceled its March 5th PPV show from Rio de Janeiro.

    At a UFC media conference call to promote the Anderson Silva vs. Michael Bisping fight in London, Silva said that the entire show that he was expected to headline at first, is off.  No fights had been announced for the date.

    “(It) was to have me fighting in Brazil against I don’t know who,” said Silva.  “But with this situation going on in Brazil, economically and everything, the UFC decided to abort this event for now.”

    Guilhemre Cruz in a story at MMAFighting stated that Silva’s remarks were confirmed by sources close to the promotion.

    The Bisping vs. Silva fight will main event on Fight Pass, the highest-profile match to ever do so.  UFC officials are working to boost Fight Pass sales in 2016.

  • Rizin Fighting Federation Day 1 results

    Results from the Rizin show held earlier today at the Saitama Super Arena:

    Tsuyoshi Kosaka beat James Thomspon via strikes in the second round

    Kiril Sidelnikov beat Carlos Toyota via strokes in the first round

    Felipe Efrain beat Yuki Motoya via knockout from strikes in the first round -The official result of the fight was a no contest due to Efrain missing weight.

    Hiroyo Kawabe beat Akiyo Nishiura in a K-1 rules mach via third round knockout

    Hinata Watanabe beat Kazuyuki Miyata in a mixed match.  The first round was K-1 rules and Hinata, the kickboxer, destroyed him so there was no second round under MMA rules

    Anatoly Tokov beat A.J. Matthews via knockout in the first round

    Hideo Tokoro beat Kizaemon Saiga via armbar in the first round

    Hiroyuki Takaya beat DJ Taiki via decision

    Heavyweight tournament:

    Reserve fight:  Valentin Moldavsky beat Yuta Uchida with essentially a camel clutch submission

    King Mo Lawal beat Brian McDermott via knockout in 9:10

    Toedoras Aukstuolis beat Bruno Cappelozza via knockout in 3:32

    Vadim Nemkov beat Goran Reljic via knockout in 2:58

    Jiri Prochazka beat Satoshi Ishii via knockout in 1:36

    Shinya Aoki beat Kazushi Sakuraba in a one round slaughter via strikes

    Jerome LeBanner never came to Japan, so Peter Aerts will come out of retirement to face Baruto on Thursday’s show.  Aerts has been Baruto’s trainer to get him ready for his debut making it even more weird.

    The show was said to be entertaining except the main event was sad.  The heavyweight tournament was good although from a Japanese perspective, Ishii going down so quickly wasn’t good news.

  • Brock Lesnar’s next WWE opponent announced for Houston

    Brock Lesnar’s next opponent in WWE will be Sheamus as things are advertised.

    A Lesnar vs. Sheamus match has been announced for a 1/8 house show at the Toyota Center in Houston.  It is one of two Lesnar house show appearances thus far announced for this year, with the second one being on 2/16.

    Lesnar is advertised for a Raw return on 1/11 in New Orleans, which will likely be the night that his role in the Royal Rumble show will also be announced.

    Lesnar’s contract signed in April called for more dates, including an occasional house show, than his prior two contracts.  Lesnar did two house shows, one in Tokyo and one at Madison Square Garden, that ended up as live network specials.  But his third, held on 12/19 at the Forum in Inglewood, CA, was strictly a house show match with Alberto Del Rio.

  • Sin Cara dislocated shoulder at last night’s RAW

    Jorge Arias, who works as Sin Cara in WWE, suffered a dislocated left shoulder last night in his match with Big E on Raw in Brooklyn.

    The spot, replayed multiple times saw Arias on the ring apron when E scooped his leg and pulled him off the apron and he took a bump off the apron to the floor, landing badly on the shoulder.

    The match was halted temporarily as The New Day backed off and played to the crowd while the trainer came out.  Even though it seemed clear he was hurt, even more so as the match continued, the match did in fact continue to its planned conclusion of E winning with the Big Ending, although he very much was protecting the left shoulder when he did the move.

    Arias did spots while the left arm was pretty well hanging there.

    Sin Cara on Twitter acknowledged the injury saying “Not even a dislocated shoulder could stop from performing in this great city.”

    There is no word on how long he may be out of action.  WWE officials stated that a full report is not in but the injury is not believed to be anything serious.

  • Daily pro wrestling history (12/29): Mankind wins the WWF World Title

    1937 

    St. Louis, Missouri:
    – Lou Thesz defeated Everett Marshall for the National Wrestling Association and Midwest Wrestling Association World Heavyweight Titles

    1955

    Toronto, Ontario, Canada:
    – Fritz Von Erich and Karl Von Schober defeated Whipper Billy Watson and Ilio DiPaolo for the NWA Canadian Open Tag Team Titles 

    Amarillo, Texas:
    – Bob Geigel defeated Roy Heffernan to win the NWA Southwest Heavyweight Title 

    1956

    Fresno, California:
    – Ben and Mike Sharpe defeated Enrique Torres and Ron Etchison to win the San Francisco version of the NWA World Tag Team Titles

    1960

    Toronto, Ontario, Canada:
    – Tiny Mills and Stan Kowalski defeated Whipper Billy Watson and Ilio DiPaolo for the NWA Canadian Open Tag Team Title 

    1961

    Columbus, Ohio:
    – Don Curtis defeated Karl Krauser (Karl Gotch) to win the NWA Eastern States Heavyweight Title 

    1964

    Tampa, Florida:
    – Tarzan Tyler defeated Bob Orton to win the Florida version of the NWA Southern Heavyweight Title

    1967

    Lafayette, Louisiana:
    – Bob Kelly defeated Don Carson for the NWA Tri-State Louisiana Heavyweight Title 

    1972

    Dothan, Alabama:
    – Rick Gibson defeated The Wrestling Pro for the NWA Alabama Heavyweight Title 

    Atlanta, Georgia:
    – Buddy Colt won the Georgia version of the NWA Southern Heavyweight Title by defeating Bob Armstrong 

    1973 

    San Francisco, California:
    – Moondog Mayne defeated Pat Patterson for the San Francisco version of the NWA United States Heavyweight Title 

    Chattanooga, Tennessee:
    – Don Greene and Bearcat Brown defeated The Interns (Tom Andrews and Jim Starr) to win the NWA Mid-America Tag Team Titles

    1974

    Dallas, Texas:
    – Fritz Von Erich defeated Blackjack Lanza for the WCCW American Heavyweight Title 

    Toronto, Ontario, Canada:
    – The Crusaders (Dewey Robertson and Billy Red Lyons) defeated The Love Brothers (Reginald and Hartford Love) to win the Toronto version of the NWA International Tag Team Titles 

    Memphis, Tennessee:
    – Ron Fuller won a tournament final for the vacant Mid-America version of the NWA Southern Heavyweight Title 

    1976

    Denver, Colorado:
    – Death Match: The Crusher beat Mad Dog Vachon 
    – Verne Gagne & Greg Gagne & Jim Brunzell beat Nick Bockwinkel & Blackjack Lanza & Bobby Duncum 
    – Pierre Poisson beat Larry Hennig dq 
    – Peter Maivia beat Moose Morowski 

    1985 

    East Rutherford, New Jersey:
    – At the AWA/NWA Star Wars Event; Stan Hansen defeated AWA World Heavyweight Champion Rick Martel to win the title
    – Road Warriors beat Ivan Koloff & Krusher Khrushchev dq
    – NWA Champion Ric Flair beat Dusty Rhodes dq
    – Magnum TA beat Tully Blanchard

    1986

    Birmingham, Alabama:
    – Adrian Street defeated Wendell Cooley to win the NWA Southeastern Heavyweight Title

    1990

    Tuxtla Gutierrez, Mexico:
    – Askari El Gringo defeated El Hijo del Black Shadow for the World Wrestling Association World Lightweight Title

    1991

    St. Paul, Minnesota:
    – Jerry Lynn defeated Ricky Rice to win the PWA Light Heavyweight Title 
    – Ken Patera and Baron Von Raschke defeated The Punishers (Sledge and Hammer) for the PWA Tag Team Titles

    1995

    New York City:
    – Mikey Whipwreck pinned ECW World Television and World Tag Team Champion 2 Cold Scorpio to win both titles 
    – ECW World Heavyweight Champion The Sandman pinned Raven to retain the title

    1996

    Nashville, Tennessee:
    – In a tournament final, Eddie Guerrero pinned Diamond Dallas to win the vacant WCW United States Heavyweight Championship
    – Lex Luger pinned The Giant 
    – Roddy Piper defeated WCW World Heavyweight Champion Hollywood Hulk Hogan in a non-title match

    1997

    Baltimore, Maryland:
    – Ultimo Dragon defeated WCW Cruiserweight Champion Eddie Guerrero to win the title 
    – Booker T won the WCW World Television Title from Disco Inferno

    1998

    Worcester, Massachusetts:
    – Mankind (Mick Foley) defeated The Rock to win the WWF World Title 

    1998

    Louisville, Kentucky:
    – Doug Basham defeated Rip Rogers to win the OVW Heavyweight Title

  • Josh Nason’s Punch-Out: 2015 MMA Year In Review (January-June)

    2015 was a fun and memorable year in the world of MMA which is why we need two shows to look back at everything that happened!

    In part 1 of the 2015 MMA Year in Review, Paul Fontaine of F4WOnline.com and MMADraws.com joins Josh Nason to go over the first six months of the year and the top stories from every month. Here’s just a little of what they talked about on this two-hour supershow that puts Smackdown to shame:

    – The highs of Jon Jones (downing Daniel Cormier in January) to his highs getting the worst of him with a hit and run incident that saw him be stripped of the UFC light heavyweight title

    – The shocking drug test failure by the legendary Anderson Silva

    – The pop culture rocket that was Ronda Rousey and what helped launch her into orbit

    – Brock Lesnar choosing WWE over UFC

    – Conor McGregor’s big victory in January and the July fight with Jose Aldo being postponed due to injury

    – New drug testing procedures, Kimbo vs. Ken, Reebok, and tons more. Join us for a two-hour gabfest about the first half of 2015!

    *****

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  • WOR 12/28: Raw report, Rock to WrestleMania, Coachman talks HGH, more!

    Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez & Dave Meltzer is back today to talk all the news in wrestling and MMA including the Rock returning to WrestleMania, full Raw results from Monday night leading into WrestleMania, RIZIN notes including a camel clutch finish, Jonathan Coachman on HGH and WWE, and more! A fun show as always so check it out~!

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  • WWE Allentown, PA, house show results: Kane vs Bray Wyatt

    From Emerson & Brian Witner and Guy Ironstone (of WrestlingOutsiders.com)

    Attendance was between 2,000 and 3,000

    • Dolph Ziggler pinned Tyler Breeze. After the match Dolph left the ringside area and superkicked an inflatable reindeer.
    • Curtis Axel & Damien Sandow (who are still a team, believe it or not) defeated Los Matadores. The Colons played heel in this match.
    • Fandango pinned Bo Dallas with a sit out suplex.
    • Luke Harper, Erick Rowan & Braun Strohman defeated Tommy Dreamer & Dudley Boyz when Harper pinned Dreamer with a discus lariat.

    -Intermission

    • Titus O’Neil pinned Stardust. I had to ask if they could go back to intermission instead.
    • Divas Champion Charlotte submitted Paige with the Figure Four.
    • In a No Disqualification Match, Kane pinned Bray Wyatt after a chokeslam through a table. The Wyatt’s tried to interfere, but Dreamer and the Dudleys ran in for the save.

    The show went 2 hours, 10 minutes including a 20 minute intermission.